#4600 Clear And Present Daisy

Summary

TBTL – Episode #4600: "Clear And Present Daisy" (November 18, 2025)

Hosts: Luke Burbank & Andrew Walsh

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Episode Overview

This episode of TBTL features Luke reporting live from Washington, D.C., musing on life in the nation's capital amidst heavy security, and riffing with Andrew about cat massage videos, anxious pets, and the struggle between corporate customer service policies and human nature. The pair also detour into current events, from Seattle’s new mayor and the White House’s security lockdown, to Target’s new forced-smiling policy, and a tequila labeling lawsuit against Costco. Listener communications about video games and the art of Thanksgiving (Joan Didion style) also make an appearance. Throughout, Luke and Andrew maintain their classic warm, rambling, and irreverent TBTL tone.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Cat Massage, Pet Personalities, and Listener Nostalgia (00:06–12:16)

• Opening Soundbite: A vintage instructional video from Mary Jean Ballner on "cat massage" sets a whimsical tone.
  • “Cat massage is the easiest way to produce a cat’s smile and is a reliable source for cat giggles. Listen closely for cat giggles.” – Mary Jean Ballner, [00:06]
• Listener Reference: Andrew credits a listener for resurrecting this deep-cut TBTL gem.
• Pet Talk:
  • Andrew suspects his cat, Bingo, is only affectionate for the sake of Andrew’s office chair, not Andrew himself, and shares a recurring, comically vexing scenario: Bingo sneakily tickles his exposed foot in the early morning, seemingly for Andrew’s reaction.
    • “I think he just... He's like, oh, let's push the button and watch the big guy freak out.” – Andrew, [06:39]
  • Luke relates with stories about Bubbles, a neurotic, easily startled cat, who is becoming marginally more tolerant with age.
    • "It's like she's never had a relaxed moment in her life that I can. And I was like, I mean, I guess they make gummies for animals, right?" – Luke, [09:23]
  • Both reflect on cat personalities and regrets over not engaging more with former pets, tying into human relationships.
    • "I don't regret broad swaths of my behavior... Although I do look back at all of the times Theo would want to sit on my lap... and now I would kill to have that cat begging for some snuggles now." – Andrew, [10:17]

2. Life in D.C.: Security Theater, Authority, and Dislocation (12:16–20:36)

• Luke's D.C. Observations:
  • He loves the city's vibrancy and restaurant scene, but is frustrated by what feels like an aggressive “police state”—constant security presence, roadblocks, and officials unable to explain closures.
    • “Everywhere you go, there are, like, barriers that are set up... and no one has any idea why they're doing any of it. It feels extremely... Feels really like a police state.” – Luke, [14:08]
  • Andrew shares a friend's experience of random police authority in China as a parallel story, leading to ruminations on perceptions vs. lived reality abroad.
    • “I was shocked at how actually cool China looked. The worse America gets, the more I think, well, what are other options?” – Luke, [16:39]
  • They lampoon politicians' ongoing authoritarian tendencies and the absurdity of diplomatic “security.”

3. National & Local Politics: Seattle’s New Mayor, Perception vs. Reality (20:36–25:08)

• Andrew’s Civic Reflections:
  • Talks about the ascendancy of Seattle’s new mayor, Katie Wilson, from a quiet campaign to a national target for being painted as a “communist.”
    • “We can't just run our city. And anyway, that's... I don't know if it's related to what you were just talking about, but that's where my brain went.” – Andrew, [24:50]
• Media Hysteria & Family Politics:
  • Both hosts lament the way national media instantly shape family members’ beliefs, especially via Fox News.

4. D.C. Anecdotes: Real Men, National Guard, and Security Choreography (25:08–32:32)

• Elevator Encounter:
  • Luke relays a comical encounter with an Anthony Fauci lookalike who declares, "Now you're a real man," after learning Luke is braving a morning run in freezing temperatures.
    • “He looks over and goes, are you going running? And I go, yeah. He goes, now you're a real man.” – Luke, [27:53]
  • Luke is forced to defend his jogger’s minimal clothing, invokes the “dress for the second mile” rule, and later admits it was far too cold.
• Security Overkill:
  • More observations on how security and the presence of the National Guard dominate public spaces, leading to musings about the politics and perceptions of those serving.

5. Customer Service: Target’s "Smile More" Policy (45:08–59:52)

• Corporate Mandates:
  • Target and Starbucks are both seeking to juice their sales: Target by mandating employees smile at customers when within 10 feet (“10-4 Policy”), and Starbucks with exclusive drinks at in-Target locations.
    • “Of the many things that Target has been trying to do to boost business, they've apparently told their employees to smile more at the shoppers so as to create a better shopping experience.” – Luke, [50:36]
    • "The new policy requires employees who are within 10ft of customers to smile, make eye contact, wave, and use friendly, approachable and welcoming body language. Then if staff members are within 4ft of customers, they must personally greet the guests, smile, and initiate a warm, helpful interaction." – Andrew, [54:44]
• Host Reactions:
  • Both hosts are squicked out by the artificiality and corporate disconnect behind such policies, acknowledging that it’s technically legal, but likely demoralizing and ineffective at a large scale.
    • "If you're gonna be the place that's known for having extremely friendly, helpful employees, that's gotta be day one.” – Luke, [57:02]
    • "There are places where their whole shtick is we're really helpful... What's hard is... humongous national chain... And now all of a sudden it's like, if you're within 10ft, do this." – Luke, [57:50]
  • Luke notes the misguided use of the term “Minnesota nice” in a Bloomberg article about this policy.

6. Costco’s Tequila Lawsuit: Class Actions & Truth in Labeling (60:35–65:23)

• Headline: Costco faces a class-action lawsuit for allegedly mislabeling Kirkland tequila as "100% agave."
  • "The suit... claims Costco violated the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organization... and various state laws, including the Washington State Consumer Protection Act." – Luke, [61:39]
• Analysis:
  • Hosts speculate that this is likely lawyer-driven rather than “organic” grassroots activism, but Andrew notes there’s merit if the product doesn’t match the label.
  • Hangover "proof" is discussed as humorous legal grounds.
    • "If I could bring a lawsuit based on some of the hangovers I've had in my life.... I want to sue. I want justice." – Luke, [65:04]

7. Listener Feedback: Baldur’s Gate 3 and the World of D&D Video Games (65:42–72:38)

• Voicemail Highlight:
  • Carolyn in Encinitas asks if Andrew is playing "Baldur’s Gate 3," effusively recommending it for being like D&D minus the tedium.
    • “Go Balderdash. Love you guys. Have a great afternoon.” – Carolyn, [65:50]
• Andrew’s Gaming Adventure:
  • Confirms BG3 was the game in question; details his curiosity about D&D as a kid but shyness about the roleplay element, leading him to BG3 as an adult.
    • “It was so impenetrable to me at first. ...But I had no idea what I was doing. Like, literally no idea.” – Andrew, [67:12–72:24]
  • Laments complexity but credits friend Libby for coaching (“Just call Libby, everyone”), and admits he’s finally hooked after repeated attempts.
    • “You [Luke] would hate it. Every piece of this.” – Andrew, [72:24]
  • Luke expresses interest to discuss video games and the film “Her” on the next episode.

8. Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “Your cat doesn’t want petting anymore. Your cat wants a massage.” – Mary Jean Ballner, [00:06]
• “Dirty monkey. Not ok, but dirty monkey dance.” – Luke, [01:53]
• “It's a police state right now... But that’s all right, though. TBTL will be unaffected by whatever is going on outside here in DC.” – Luke, [02:53]
• “Are you going running? Now you’re a real man.” – Elevator Stranger, [27:53]
• “I just realized, you know what? I could just memorize the answers… That’s what studying is.” – Luke, [59:52]
• “Ace is the place with the helpful hardware folks. And when you walk into an Ace, they are helpful.” – Luke, [57:18]
• “If you’re within 10ft of customers, smile, make eye contact, wave... If you’re within 4ft, initiate a warm, helpful interaction.” – Andrew (about Target policy), [54:44]
• “If I could bring a lawsuit based on some of the hangovers I’ve had in my life. ...I want to sue. I want justice.” – Luke, [65:04]

9. Recurring Tone & Language

True to TBTL’s style, the hosts’ tone is a blend of self-deprecating, observational, tangential, and wry, peppered with inside jokes, listener shout-outs, and earnest asides on topics serious (political repression, mental health, corporate culture) and frivolous (cat behaviors, running attire, video game confusion).

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Notable Segment Timestamps

• 00:06: Cat massage opening clip from Mary Jean Ballner
• 02:01: Official show intro (“the show that just might be too beautiful to live”)
• 04:10: Listener Mike resurrected the cat massage tape
• 12:16: Luke’s D.C. impressions: lively city, “uniquely designed to make me angry”
• 20:36: Andrew on Seattle’s new “communist” mayor and absurd campaign narratives
• 27:53: “Now you’re a real man,” elevator anecdote in D.C.
• 50:36: Target “smile more” policy, Starbucks/Target partnership news
• 54:44: Andrew details the “10-4” smiling policy at Target
• 60:35: Costco tequila/RICO lawsuit
• 65:42: Listener voicemail about Baldur’s Gate 3
• 67:12: Andrew’s foray into BG3 and his struggle with D&D video game complexity

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Conclusion

Episode #4600 of TBTL is classic in its blend of the trivial and the trenchant. Luke and Andrew move smoothly from meditations on anxious cats and the nature of smiling in retail, to sober reflections on living in a modern security-laden D.C. while never losing their signature blend of warmth, humor, and improvisational tangents. Listeners get a feeling for real life in America’s capital, the dysfunctions of corporate America, and the escapism of video games all in one delightfully sprawling conversation.

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Power Out.

Transcript

[Mary Jean Ballner]

Hello and welcome to the amazing world of cat massage. My name is Mary Jean Ballner and this is my wonderful cat champion. In this videotape, you'll learn that your cat doesn't want petting anymore. Your cat wants a massage. And we'll be able to show you how based on my book, Cat massage. So continue watching and you'll learn to bring on power purring and mega meow moments. When to cat massage whenever computer keyboards on the couch. Cat massage makes TV commercials bearable. And of course, on the bed. Our best massage techniques were developed here. Cat massage is the easiest way to produce a cat's smile and is a reliable source for cat giggles. Listen closely for cat giggles. Sometimes cat will approach you for massage. You know what that's like, he's rubbing up against you. Or he'll simply give you a look that says massage time tbtm.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, you know, if we knock down that wall, it would really open the place up. You know, clean up the blood, maybe add some French doors, maybe ping pong table right there. You know, I'm just ripping. I don't know if it's video or.

[Luke Burbank]

What, but it's so unfair to after something like this to blame people in.

[Andrew Walsh]

The backseat or say they deserved it.

[Carolyn]

Beads, Bees, Beads.

[Luke Burbank]

Beads. Mmm. Ah, gazpacho soup just burned my lips.

[Andrew Walsh]

The gazpacho?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it's been sitting out. It warmed up.

[Andrew Walsh]

It warmed up so much that it burned your lip.

[Luke Burbank]

Let me explain something to you.

[Andrew Walsh]

If you're expecting something ice cold and you bring it up to your lips.

[Luke Burbank]

And it's room temp, it's going to feel like your mouth's on fire. It's gonna feel like your body's on fire.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I see.

[Luke Burbank]

Dirty monkey. Not ok, but dirty monkey dance.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let's get to the jokes.

[Luke Burbank]

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

[Andrew Walsh]

This song goes out to all the.

[Luke Burbank]

Coffee lovers of the world. My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. They just want you to be normal. And clearly you're not. Coming to you once again from the dmv, the District of Columbia, our nation's capital, where, let's see here. Yeah, a lot of. Lot of police presence, a lot of security, a lot of. A lot of roads being blocked off. This morning went on my little jog and I wanted to go over to the White House and see what's become of the east ballroom. And, well, it was a waste of time to do that. I mean, in the most literal sense, it's a police state right now. It doesn't help that I think the Saudi prince is like a half a block from where I am right now, being lauded by our current president. So it's a security situation. That's all right, though. Episode 4600 In a collector series, let the fun begin of TBTL will be unaffected by whatever is going on outside here in dc. And we've got a great show for you. Actually. Target and Starbucks are both apparently kind of facing some economic headwinds, and the Target folks are trying to fix it by telling their employees to smile more.

[Andrew Walsh]

Can you hear my smile?

[Luke Burbank]

Which I have kind of mixed feelings about, honestly. So we can delve into that. Also, speaking of retailers, Costco is in trouble for putting stuff in their tequila that is not tequila. You scare me. You're an alcoholic. And it's against the law what they are doing, according to the class action lawsuit that is being brought against them. So we'll talk about that too, time permitting. We will always permit time for this guy, though. He is the longest running cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He's been dealing with something this week, but he's been handling it very bravely. Honestly. He's about at his limit. I happen to know a guy who's at his limit. His name happens to be Andrew Walsh, and he joins me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good morning, Luke. And shout out to listener Mike, who resurrected the cat massage tape that we heard at the beginning of the show. So listener Matt sent me that video, which, by the way, we only played a minute of. It's three minutes of pure gold. There's nothing that you would want to cut out of that. It killed me to end it where we had to end that. But you were obsessed with this tape way, way, way back in the radio days of tbtl, long before I was part of this ship. And I think Mike just stumbled on it recently and said, yep, I guess I'm a new listener at only five plus years, because I didn't realize the history behind that. But yeah, that's some classic. I hadn't heard that in so long.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it's like an instructional video for how to massage your cat, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Well, she wrote a book. It's a promo video for her book, Cat Massage, I believe. Yeah. And so maybe we can play some more of it later.

[Luke Burbank]

But how much cat massage would Bingo tolerate? A lot to vary.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I'll be honest with you. I've watched the video. I don't see a lot of difference between cat massage and cat petting that you're already doing. She tries to like, sort of differentiate there, with which I understand it's a cat eat cat world out there in publishing, so you got to do what you got to do to get your book on the shelf. But like, it seems like cat petting to me. Although while we're here, there is something I wanted to get off my chest regarding my relationship with Bingo, which generally is very positive, as you well know. And it maintains.

[Luke Burbank]

I've seen it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Positivity. Love that guy. And Genevieve's been gone lately. Yesterday, he was just obsessed with me. He just. Well, I also think he's obsessed with my chair. When I was out of town, I think he spent basically the entire time sleeping in my chair and here at my desk. And so you could say, oh, because he missed you. But no, I think what it is is when I'm in the chair and he's acting lovey towards me, he really just wants me out of the chair. He likes the chair, not me. But that's not even what's irritating me. What's irritating me is something that's been going on since he was a kitten and he's started to do it again, which is once a night, usually very early in the morning, once I've been asleep for a while and I no longer have control over what my limbs are doing in bed. When one of my feet is exposed, he just walks into the room and knows he doesn't do this on any other part of my body. He doesn't tap my face or my arm. He just comes in the room when I'm dead asleep and just tickles my foot. Just one stroke down the middle of one of my feet.

[Luke Burbank]

I hate that he brings a feather. Honestly. He's using tools.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's weird.

[Luke Burbank]

We need to tell the researchers.

[Andrew Walsh]

It is. It really is clearly learned behavior, though, because if he were to tap me somewhere else, he would just wake me up. But what he does is because I'm ticklish. He taps the bottom of my foot and I jump out of my God dang skin. And so he knows it. He's like, oh, it's. It's 6:00am or 5:00am or whatever it is. It's time to get the big, you know, reaction out of Andrew. And so he just like. And he's not hungry. He's not like. He's not like begging for food or anything in the morning. I think he just. He's like oh, let's push the button and watch the big guy freak out.

[Luke Burbank]

I was hoping you were gonna say that. Like, you. Then it integrates into your dream.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I'm not dreaming anymore. I'm wide awake.

[Luke Burbank]

You're having a dream of being tickled, and it's just like a funny, you know, a funny little moment for, you know, it actually wakes you up and then. But he's not doing it because he's trying to get anything from you. It's just. He's bored and it's funny.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

When the. When the big guy has a strong.

[Andrew Walsh]

Reaction, I think I jump, like, probably an inch off the bed. Like, I just. I jump out of my sleep. So, yeah, it's. And again, I just know that he.

[Luke Burbank]

He.

[Andrew Walsh]

He has learned reactions, right? Like, he's. He's not doing anything else except for the thing that is going to get me to jump. So anyway, not a huge fan of that. He did do that last night or this morning. I don't know what time Bubbles is.

[Luke Burbank]

Would not tolerate very much cat massage. Although I do think she's getting a little bit more. Like when, you know, I'm visiting Earth, when I'm getting my supervised visits with her at Becca's place, I have noticed that it used to be. So I always. I'll pick her up. I'm always very excited to see her and everything, but I'd pick her up and then I would, like, be patting her tummy or something, and I'd get about five seconds of that max before she started to squirm. And I kind of intentionally. I play into it a little bit. Like, I'd kind of throw her over my shoulder, like, all right. I kind of. I hold her in a way. Like, I know she's going to be annoyed no matter what, so I don't even try to not annoy her. It's almost like a big brother kind of razzing his little brother or something. So I pick her up. I'll kind of pat her on the tummy. She'll kind of go. Or maybe sometimes she sounds like this. And then. So that used to. I used to get about five seconds before she freaked out. Now I'm getting about 30 seconds. So she's a little bit older, and maybe. What is she, like, maybe four years old now or something? And she. So I don't know if she's just. She's certainly not mellowing out because as I commented to Becca the other day, she is a highly anxious individual. That cat. Like, it's. You know, she's lived with Becca for a long time now, and she's lived in that apartment for a long time. And you'd think she would be kind of used to the rhythms and the. Just the goings ons there. But, like, I was doing the show from there the other day because I'd been in Portland doing that little TV appearance, and I forget what happened. Some, like, not particularly loud sound happened, and that cat went sprinting across the room, like, you know, like as if, you know, it was. It's her life was flashing in front of her very eyes or something. So it's like she's never had a relaxed moment in her life that I can. And I was like, I mean, I guess they make gummies for animals, right? Isn't that a thing now?

[Andrew Walsh]

It seems like that would be really hard to chew.

[Luke Burbank]

You know what I mean? Like, don't they make, like, anti anxiety? I'm not gonna look. I'm not gonna put her on meds. Honestly, I don't even think I have the parental rights to put her on meds anymore. I think that'd be more Becca's call than mine. But, like, I just had this realization with her that she is on edge at all times. I mean, unless she's sleeping, but she's just never like. That's one of the things I'm. I'm envious of your relationship with Bingo. And also I'm envious on behalf of Bubbles for how Bingo's brain is, because Bingo seems to be pretty happy most of the time and pretty not an.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. I mean, we've had now three cats, Genevieve and I, as a couple, and Bingo has that personality. And the other two had very different personalities. You know, Professor Bananas was incredibly anxious. I don't know if she'd go running at a loud noise. Well, for most of her life, if there was a knock at the front door, she'd go running and hide somewhere and. And then Theodore, who was a big guy, he. He had his own anxieties as well. He was, like, super sweet with us and super cuddly. In fact, I think I've said this to you on the show. Like, I'm not somebody who goes through my life. I have regrets over things I've said or embarrassing moments, whatever, But I don't, like, kind of regret broad swaths of my behavior or what have you. Although I do look back at all of the times Theo would want to sit on my lap, and I was like, no, I'm playing whatever that card game was. I used to play on my boop boop. You know, like, I'm always like, hearthstone. I'm like, I'm playing Hearthstone. I did. Just how many times a day did I kick that cat? Not kick him with my feet, but, you know, like, kick him off my lap because I had something more important to do. And now I would kill to have that cat that, you know, begging for some. For some snuggles now.

[Luke Burbank]

So anyway, I try to remember with my parents.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right. Actually, yeah. I mean, with all relations.

[Luke Burbank]

True story.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, true story.

[Luke Burbank]

I really, like. I love them, but. But, you know, sometimes I'm like, there's gonna be a time when I'm gonna really, really, really want to have these days with them. So let's have one right now.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So anyway, so, you know, Bingo, we've lucked out with his personal. He's really chill. But I would also say this like you're talking about your relationship with. With Bubbles. I mean, it sounds like you just have the reverse of what Bingo and I have. I mean, in each situation, you got one chill dude and one uptight dude. In this case, Bingo's the chill dude, and I'm the one who goes running around the house and hiding when somebody knocks on the door. Like, that's not. Even if I hear a knock on the door, I'm probably hiding, you know, So I understand it.

[Luke Burbank]

I've seen you play with a foil ball, a crinkled up thing of foil, for hours.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, it's fun.

[Luke Burbank]

It's hours you never tire of.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you for that again, by the way. I appreciate it. Ye.

[Luke Burbank]

Hey, by the way, a couple things. One, I. I was out this morning in D.C. kind of doing a little exploring and. And going to see what it looked like over there at the White House with the. What happened with half of it torn down now. And I just had the realization. First of all, I actually really love D.C. as a city. I think it's a very interesting place. And there's this sense that, like, you know, important stuff is happening here, you know, whether it's happening the way that I want it to or not. I think it just. There's an energy here that I really like. I think also because I live in, like, the middle of nowhere now, and there are, like, zero good restaurants that I can walk to. The fact that, like, last night, I just. I didn't even know where I was going. I just walked out of the hotel to find something to eat, and it was a Monday night, and there were 30 options within a three block radius of the hotel. I just like being in an area that has stuff which would raise the question, why did you buy a house in the middle of nowhere? But. So I really like the city of D.C. but I also realized today that it is also almost like, uniquely designed to make me angry because everywhere you go, there are police, there are Secret Service, there are National Guard people. And while I was going up to Pennsylvania Avenue to see what was doing with the White House and it's just all blocked off for no reason that they can tell you about, the Secret Service person I asked, is, is this all day? She said, I don't know. I said, do you know what this is related to? No, I just got here, actually. And then it's just like a bunch of people just making. Just following rules that someone else has told them. You know, my least favorite thing, which is following rules that I don't feel like have a very legit explanation. And it's just everywhere you go, particularly in the area I'm in, because I'm right by the White House and right by the National Mall and all that, everywhere you go, there are, like, barriers that are set up. There are like multiple law enforcement vehicles. There are people with AK47s or whatever those kinds of guns are, and they're all just doing something that they were told to do by somebody who was told to do it by somebody else. By somebody else, by somebody else. And no one has any idea why they're doing any of it. It feels extremely. Feels really like a police state.

[Andrew Walsh]

That reminds me of a story that a friend of ours told me recently. This is a mutual friend. I'm going to leave his name out of it only because in case I get details of the story wrong, I don't want to put it on him, but he travels a lot, and he was China, and he was on a jog in China, and I don't remember what city, but he's like, yeah, you know, there was one time I was just jogging and it was completely empty street, but there was a soldier with a gun. And the soldier said, you're not jogging here. Just turn around. He said, yes, sir. And he just, like, turned around. He's like, I'm not picking a fight with that guy. And it's just like, you want to talk about completely random because I don't think he was near any kind of government building or anything. I think it was just sort of like, you want to talk about a police state? And he was like, yeah, okay, I don't run here. I run somewhere else.

[Luke Burbank]

And yet. And yet, Andrew, that same person. I was on Instagram.

[Andrew Walsh]

You figured out who I was. Leaving enough breadcrumbs there.

[Luke Burbank]

Yep, that's right. And yet that person. The photographs from being in China that that person was putting on Instagram were. Again, I don't want to elide what are the real human rights violations of the Chinese government. I don't want to sort of sound like I'm joking about that or whistling past that graveyard, but I was like, why does every. I had texted our friend and I said, why does every photograph from China make it look like the most amazing place I've ever seen? He goes, it is. I was like, are we moving there? Like, it's weird because we think of. And I am, as you can tell, by no means a China scholar. And I am not trying to minimize the. The real issues, but I guess because I've never been to China and because I think of it as this kind of. I still think of it as like Tiananmen Square or something. And it's just kind of like this incredibly oppressive place, this oppressive communist place or something, it somehow blows my mind when I see, oh, no, wait, no, they have malls and they have restaurants and they have. You know, they have, like, all kinds of stuff going on. People are living their lives right now. You know, again, it's obviously a lot going on. It wouldn't be good to be a Uyghur if you're in China. Wouldn't be good to be somebody who is in any way expressing political dissent. Wouldn't be good to be our friend jogging down that street that one day with the guy with the gun. But I was shocked at how actually cool China looked. The worst America gets. The more I think, well, what are other options?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, what I like is Dave Chappelle can say whatever he wants there. He has more freedom of speech in China than he does here in the United States. I understand.

[Luke Burbank]

Dude, it was crazy this morning because they do have everything closed down around the White House, I think, because. Is it. I think it's been. It's a msm, right? Or what's this? You know, the. The Saudi prince is here again. It's very. It's a very strange thing to have that happening about a half a block from where I am, from where I was trying to jog, because I finished my jog up, and then I come back to the hotel and then I stop by. They have this, like, lounge, you know, that you can scan in if you are at the whatever level of Bon voyage here. It's so great, by the way, because all I really need at a hotel, I need access to bottled water for free, a couple of Diet Pepsis, some coffee in the morning, an apple. Like, they have, like, they just have, like, a healthy amount of snacks there. It's all free. It saves you so much money. Because mostly what I am at the hotel is I'm thirsty. I want some bottled water. I want a couple cups of coffee in the morning, and maybe I'll have an apple later or something. Like, it's great. But I go into that lounge room, and they just have cnn. I enter the room to get my coffee, and I just hear someone talking. And there's a lot of, like, business people with their laptops open on zooms and stuff in this, you know, kind of lounge area. And somebody's just talking. And I'm like, that person is the most annoying. Their cadence is so annoying. I can't believe they're having this meeting and they're just blasting everyone with their annoying voice. And I realize, oh, it's cnn. It's just Trump talking. Like, the TV was on at a kind of a medium volume. I didn't realize that the volume was on the tv. So what I was hearing was the current president of the United States of America lauding this, you know, I would say extremely evil person. And so it's weird to be, like, in the hotel lounge watching on TV a thing that's happening a half a block away from me indoors that I'm not even allowed to jog near. And then when you went down on Constitution Avenue, some guy had a huge. He had, like, a box truck, but somehow the sides of it were, like, digital signage. And he just had. And this was his. What I realized was this guy was parked where he was because it was as close as he could get to the White House legally. And he just had this Digital sign said, Mr. Bonesaw is in town.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, wow.

[Luke Burbank]

And then I know it's dark, but.

[Andrew Walsh]

But, yeah, no, I mean, dark, but verified wasn't. I mean, Trump was basically defending the prince, saying, ah, he didn't know anything about it. His only his. The only through line is he aligns himself with evil. Like, it doesn't even, you know, anybody he pardons. It doesn't even matter about their actual, like, political leanings. It's just like, oh, are you evil? Then you're on my side.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Hey, is Gargamel from the Smurfs?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's.

[Luke Burbank]

Is he still doing time? Because I'd like to see what I can do for him.

[Andrew Walsh]

How has the Onion not done that yet? Trump lauds, Gargamel says, hell of a job. But I think I cut you off, though. You were going with something, I think, with that.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, just. I don't know. Just it's. It's strange. It's a strange experience for me, I guess, considering my normal life and where I normally live. I'm so out of the loop to be. By happenstance, I'm not here doing any stories about the politics of this place, but just to be like, right where that meeting is happening and then also where the people are trying to protest that meeting, but they can't get close to the building, by the way, which is half torn down because of why. So this guy's just out on Constitution Avenue with this big digital truck just parked there as long, for as long as he can until the Secret Service shows up and gets him out of there. You know, it's like, I don't know, it's somewhere. It's certainly not China, and I don't want to say it's China, but it certainly isn't the America that I remember from 20 years ago. Regardless of who was actually in the White House, Democrat or Republican, it feels. Speech feels very repressed here right now to me compared to, compared to certainly my time living in D.C. and also compared to just again, my knowing of how, what the vibe is here. It feels again, we're not quite at China yet, but it's closer to that than I'd like it to be.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I have something that I want to say, but I don't know if I can articulate it. And that's why I'm saying this to ramp up to it. I was having some thoughts yesterday about my fair city here in Seattle. And of course, Katie Wilson was elected mayor. And it was on election night. When you're first counting the first round of ballots, it didn't look like she was going to win. She was way down in the count. And Bruce Harrell, the incumbent, had just poured so much money into the campaign, it seemed a bit like a fait accompli. But with more and more ballots being counted throughout the days, including mine, by the way. I'm one of those people. People were complaining about my type of voting, like literally dropping, walking to one of the ballot boxes and dropping it in the ballot box on the day of, as opposed to mailing it weeks in advance, which I have the option of doing. But you never know. Honestly, you never know what's change in the last few Weeks of an election. I like having the extra time. But anyway, so she's elected and I'm very proud of that and I'm incredibly happy about that. And I was bummed when it looked like maybe she wasn't going to win. But she is somebody who has not held public office before. I think she's gonna do a great job and I truly believe that we don't have to get into her politics of it. But it was such a quiet race here when you had everything going on with Mamdani out in New York and the nation's attention was on that and people saying, you know him, you know, proudly saying that he's a socialist. And here Katie Wilson has been sort of painted with that brush and she didn't back away from it. But she also says, I don't go around calling myself a socialist. You can call me whatever you want. I'm, you know, I'm for the, the working class and, and all of those things. She didn't shy away from it. But she's also not a grandstander. You know what I mean? I'm not trying to say Mamadani was, but there was just no grandstanding at all. Very campaign.

[Luke Burbank]

Prior history. Doing rap songs.

[Andrew Walsh]

Not that I know of. Oh, man, whatever.

[Luke Burbank]

They're not bad. By the way, I have to say, the Mom Donnie song that I've heard, it's not the worst song.

[Andrew Walsh]

There's a guy named. I'm forgetting his first name, but he used to write a blog, a music blog called Passion of the Weiss. And I was following that like 20 years ago. I think he was even on one of my radio shows at one point. And he's in la and I think we've had a couple of interactions. But anyway, it was a pretty well read, hip hop focused, you know, MP3 blog or whatever. And he still sort of maintained that brand. And I must follow him on Blue sky now or something because he. The day after the election, he went back and found an email from 2011 that an unknown Mamdani had sent him saying, hey, any chance you would give this a spin on your blog or however.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh my God, that's amazing.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was really. It was really cute and really cool. But all of that is to say, so I'm really glad that the election turned out the way it is. But now suddenly, not only the nation's attention, but the President' attention is. Is on her and he's calling her a communist and he's trying to get the World Cup. There are six games in the World Cup. And so. And it's. It literally feels like I was like, oh, good. You know, that. That's cool. Katie Wilson, she's a very down to earth person. I know people who know her, you know, like, it just sort of had this, like, small. I didn't think about this way before yesterday, but it just sort of felt like, yeah, we're Seattle. We elected who we want to run our little city, you know, and then it was like the eye of Sauron turned on us. And then yesterday, I'm just like, oh, she doesn't just have to figure out transportation and homelessness and all of the issues that are really important to us.

[Luke Burbank]

Easy stuff. Easy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right. Like, yeah, the things that are just like. But also is now thrust into this national conversation where she's, you know, illogically and inaccurately being described as an evil communist by the President of the United States. Which means, and I'm sorry, this is always a trigger for me, but that means all of my family, all my lovely family that I was just visiting probably think now that I am, I am under the service of an evil communist mayor here because everybody just believes whatever is on Fox News. And you're just like, man, it's a real. It's a real bummer that we can't just run our city. And anyway, that's, that's the. I didn't really want to get into all of that. I don't know if it's related to what you were just talking about. That's. But that's where my brain went.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, this morning when I was down at the kind of the, the National Reflecting Pool, you know, the thing that's in front of the Lincoln Memorial. And then I went around this little loop and I came by. I guess it's. It's like, it's one of the. I don't know if it's the Vietnam Memorial or if it's the.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was a.

[Luke Burbank]

It looked like it was a sort of a memorial for, you know, for veterans and people who died at war or whatever. And there's no one around. It's pretty early in the morning and there's just three National Guard guys just standing there doing that thing that, like. I don't know if football players invented this move or not, but it's the I have nowhere to put my hands, so I'm holding onto the interior of my shoulder pads move.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

You ever see a quarterback doing that on the sideline? It's like, they don't give you pockets and your Football uniform.

[Andrew Walsh]

I wish I had known to do that because I used to hang on to my feet. Face mask because I didn't know what to do with my hands. And my mom said, oh yeah, I can see you on the sidelines. I said, how do you know which one is me? They give me a different number every game. And she says, because you're always playing with your face mask. Like.

[Luke Burbank]

Anyway, now the move I feel like is hold on to the, the. The sort of, you know, collar part, the collar plate of your. Of your shoulder pads. And these guys were all doing that with whatever, you know, battle rap.

[Andrew Walsh]

They're wearing their tactical vests.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, you know, it's like. But they didn't seem like bad dudes. How would I know? I was huffing and puffing as I went past. Actually, what's kind of funny, I was in the elevator and this. I get in the elevator. It's one of these elevators that you don't get to. You tell it when you're in the lobby, what floor you want to go to. And then after that it's just some real like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory shit. Like it's just gonna do what it's gonna do. Have you been in those elevators before?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, it's been a while, but it was. This is a long time ago, Luke. But the last one that I remember, or maybe it was the first one I encountered, was when you and I were at some sort of a public radio conference that I was excited to be at, but I had just had tongue surgery. Do you remember that? Were we in Chicago maybe? And I remember we're in kind of a fancy hotel because I was finally at. Maybe it was a PRPD thing, but also I had just had that tongue surgery which they told me was not going to be a big deal. And I just remember being in our hotel room or one of our hotel rooms and trying to do the podcast and not being able to barely talk. Anyway, that hotel had one of those things and I thought it was very exciting and confusing.

[Luke Burbank]

They're exciting, but they're. For some reason that they stress me out. It feels like the self driving cars of elevators. And like, I don't know, there's something about not having any. Like, it's just you. You get, you get into the elevator, it's just a blank. It's just too. It's like a Ken doll. There's just two blank walls with nothing happening on them. And you just have to trust that it remembers where it's supposed to be taking you, which of course it does. But I get in the elevator to go down, and I'm in my, like, kind of running clothes, and the guy next to me, he looks over and he goes, are you going running? And I go, yeah. He goes, now you're a real man. And I was like, okay, that's a really interesting statement in this elevator.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, that is really interesting. What was that?

[Luke Burbank]

Kind of.

[Andrew Walsh]

Can you describe this person without getting into stereotypes?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, he looks exactly like Anthony Fauci. He might have been Anthony Fauci. I don't know.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, that's.

[Luke Burbank]

That's.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now that's a real man. I mean, in a certain way. Haven't you been sort of waiting your whole life to hear that?

[Luke Burbank]

I have. And then I finally heard it, and it was kind of disorienting, honestly.

[Andrew Walsh]

You went to. You went to push the elevator button to get out, and there was nothing. You're just flushing the Ken doll.

[Luke Burbank]

But I was like, oh. And I didn't. I thought he just meant cuz, like, I'm going on a run or something. And I said. I said, yeah, I got a little time to kill because I. My company is. This is how I describe what we do. Andrew. My company is based on the West Coast.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay. I like that.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. I didn't know what to say. I was just trying to say, yeah, I got a little time to kill before basically you and I dial up, so I'm gonna go out there or something. And he goes like, well, have you checked the temperature? And I was like, oh, r nar. I was like, no. And he goes, yeah, it's like 32 degrees.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that's what this is all about.

[Luke Burbank]

That's what you're talking about. But then I had to, like, kind of dig in my heels and act like I knew what was going. Act like I'm a responsible person who actually checks the weather before they go out on their jog. Because I was in a T shirt and shorts. And I said to him, this is a. This is an old aphorism from running. I said, well, you got to dress for the second mile by this time. By the way, there's more people in the elevator. We're getting hop ons. So now there's overhearing me confidently saying, because you dress for the second mile is like, you're gonna be sweaty by the time you're in mile two. So, like, if you overdress so that you're feeling good in mile one, you're gonna be wearing too much clothing in mile two and three or Whatever. So I said, well, yeah, you gotta dress for mile two. And I was like, Mr. Cool Guy. And then I got outside and I was like, ah, damn, it is way too cold for this outfit.

[Andrew Walsh]

Did you just continue on though?

[Luke Burbank]

I did, but it was like I thought my hands were gonna fall off by the end. So all that is to say I'm just like running past these National Guard guys and mostly just focusing on trying to keep some blood circulation going to my hands. And like they're just sitting around shooting the shit. I mean, they didn't seem. Again, they're just. They probably, you know, who knows what they do in wherever they're from. I mean, these are probably, you know, probably welders in North Carolina or something. I don't know, like, you know, and they're just. Now they're just here and they're protecting the city from crime at Antifa. But they're just standing, three of them, by the way. At what cost in front of this war memorial where there's nobody else except me at this hour of the morning. And I guess my thought was I wonder what these guys politics was coming into this. And I wonder if this has in any way impacted how they think about some of this stuff. You were talking about people that, you know, who hear that Katie Wilson is a communist and so then that just becomes what their truth is.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's an assumption, by the way. I'll make that clear. I haven't had any conversations about this.

[Luke Burbank]

But just the way that people tend to look for to have their priors confirmed, just generally, I'm not talking about people, you know, just in the world we tend to look for our priors being confirmed. And if we, you know, if there's a news source that we tend to go to and it tells us something, we tend to believe it. And I'm just, you know, I mean, I don't know these guys exact life, but I. Being in the National Guard, I would say probably sort of increases the chances that they may have more conservative political persuasion than I do. Not everyone in the National Guard, but certainly I think if you took a thousand National Guard members and a thousand former public radio journalists, you'd find a certain kind of politics in one group versus the other. But like. So I wonder what these guys thought they were getting into. I wonder to what degree they thought that D.C. was a lawless hellscape that they were being deployed in to protect. And I wonder how they feel about it now and what they're telling their families. Like what are they saying to their wives at night from the hotel room about how their day was and will this in some way, if they have the experience of hearing one story about D.C. and then coming up and experiencing that story to be clearly untrue. I wonder if that is some kind of a small crack in the, the levy that is their faith in the, in the voices that they listen to that were telling them D.C. is a, is a hellhole.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, you hope so. You hope so. I, I told you. Well, I don't want to get too much into it, but like I, I've always held out a certain amount of hope that people would sort of see what's going on around us and be like, oh, wow, like this is, this is beyond anything that is normal. But that doesn't seem to be reaching people that I was hoping that it would reach.

[Luke Burbank]

Sure. But that's because they're not being. Yeah, they're not commanded to go to where the hell is. And then they have to look at. That's what we should do. Make everyone that believes all the things that are pretty hard to really prove. If we could just, instead of giving everyone $2,000 stimmy checks off of the tariffs, which by the way, is not going to happen. Oh, that's such a fascinating like, sorry, I'm not trying to get so political today on the show, but there's something about staring at the White House from your hotel room that kind of puts you in the state of mind. Like instead of those stimmy checks of $2,000, which will never happen anyway, probably send it. Send everyone a free travel voucher to the place that they think. Send everyone to the ice facility in Portland South Waterfront, who thinks that Portland is a lawless, overrun place that needs National Guard. And I bet you that experience would actually change some hearts and minds.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now this is changing the topic drastically, but I just saw something that came across my transom via Blue sky that is literally the perfect Luke Burbank article. Now I'm going to send this to you if you don't see it already. And I think that we should maybe reserve that. I don't know what our plans are for recording a Thanksgiving show, but maybe this is a good Thanksgiving topic for us. Listen to this from the New York Times. The author Joan Didion embraced Thanksgiving and she staged it the same way. She conjured her essays, novel screenplays and memoirs with almost military mustering of planning and ambition. The headline, How Joan Didion Did Thanksgiving. Luke Burbank. Is there a more. I mean, can we throw a Fran Leibowitz in there to make it more into your, into, into your style.

[Luke Burbank]

Andrew. I saw the link this morning and I said, I'm gonna savor this.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I'm, I'm, I'm a West coast operation. So I'm just sitting in there.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm gonna savor this article because I'm so. And I send it to Becca. She's, by the way, the photo. She's standing.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, at a stove. There's a big Le Creuset pot.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. And those canisters in the background, I'm.

[Luke Burbank]

Drooling over these canisters. I want to crawl inside this photo and I want to be at Joan Didion and Gregory Dunn's home for Thanksgiving. Was it something like, I think it said, like pages and pages of notes or something?

[Andrew Walsh]

I only read to you what I am seeing in front of me now, but now I'm seeing the. I was going to describe. I didn't know you had seen this. I was going to describe the photo to you as well. This must be, I'm guessing from the 70s or maybe late 60s maybe. But yeah, that Le Creuset. But then also all of these like perfect canisters with. Oh, my God. That has all of her, like, you know, flour and, and seasoning and everything in it all across her countertop, which, by the way, it's pretty humble little countertop too, but still has that like sort of era appropriate pink tile with red highlights. I love this kind of kitchen and bathroom, too.

[Luke Burbank]

I know. I love it. Let's absolutely roll that out for the Thanksgiving show. And but we do have some other top stories today that I do want to get to. So let's do this. Let's thank some donors and then let's talk. Let's talk smiles at Target.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you, baby.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, let's do that. Donor. Thanks. This is a list of folks who are donating their money to TBTL every month. And that is how we get paychecks. You and me and John Sklaroff. That's how this thing can happen five days a week. I'm in this slightly unique position in this hotel room, Andrew, because along with all the other D.C. stuff that I've mentioned that I can kind of see, I can also just see right into an office building. I think it might be the Kaiser Family Foundation. And so what I'm looking at is kind of like that classic sort of cross section of multiple floors of an office building. It's actually a very beautiful newly built office building. But all of the offices have These big, huge floor to ceiling windows. And I'm just looking at all of these work lives unfolding in all of these different offices kind of separately.

[Andrew Walsh]

I love that.

[Luke Burbank]

It's a fun thing to look at. And again, it seems like, honestly, a pretty nice place to work. Like, very tasteful furniture. Everybody seems happy to be there. And yet I'm very glad that this can be our job. I'm very glad that I am not going through a spreadsheet in an office right now, as is the job of many people, because, well, thanks to folks like Nate Valderas, who's in Shoreline, Washington now. Did you. Have you called Nate, Bruce?

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm not sure. I do want to point out that I am literally looking at a spreadsheet right now. Ironically, I am too.

[Luke Burbank]

You know what, Andrew? I'm looking at a spreadsheet.

[Andrew Walsh]

Spreadsheet. And that is literally what I really get right now. So no shame to spreadsheets. So, yeah. So Nate's pronouncer. So in the system, he's officially listed as a Nathan. But then in the pronouncer in parentheses, it says Nate. But Andrew calls me Bruce. I don't know why. Maybe I might have confused him with Batman at one time and I thought he was Bruce Wayne. I'm not exactly sure what that's in reference to, but. Bruce, thank you for the donation. Yes, appreciate it.

[Luke Burbank]

I'll call you Almighty.

[Andrew Walsh]

Call you whatever you want.

[Luke Burbank]

Appreciate you. Also thanks to Wolfgang Weber in San Francisco, California. Each year when we thank Wolfgang, I wonder aloud if if Wolfgang is going with the. If he's going with the. The W sound or the V sound. Is he going Vim vendors or Wim Wenders? One wonders if he's going Wimwenders.

[Andrew Walsh]

Vun wonders if his name is Bruce.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, that's right. So I'm going with the. More like you could say Americanized version of it and saying, thank you very much, Wolfgang. Thanks also to Kay Constantino of Canfield, Ohio.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, thank you, K. I'm looking up Canfield. I feel like I maybe is that.

[Luke Burbank]

Nearby your old stomps?

[Andrew Walsh]

Geez. It seems like it was some. It seems like a place that we would travel to for maybe some sort of special school event from time to time.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I thought maybe like the. The barbecue shows when you'd bring out the Andy man.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, no, that doesn't seem like Canfield to me. But it's.

[Luke Burbank]

Somebody is flying a drone pretty close to the White House. That thing's gonna get shot down, man.

[Andrew Walsh]

Whoa.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I'm Watching a drone, just like, you know, kind of a. It's not like, you know, it's not weaponized or anything. It's just the kind that you could probably buy it, you know, best buy or something. But it's. Yeah, it's hovering. I'm thinking way too close to the airspace. Want it to be.

[Andrew Walsh]

I said, whoa. For a personal reason that we don't have to get into you saying drone. I'm not even going to. Trust me, I'm not even going to get into it. But I was just like, oh, yeah, what was that thing I was watching about that crazy drone yesterday? And then I was like, oh, damn, that was a dream that you just uncovered that I had last night. I think maybe before bingo tickled my feet. But the woe from me was. Was about me remembering that dream, which was very unprofessional. Having said, you said this looks like sort of a cheap drone up there. So there. You don't think there's a chance that it is the security? Because I would guess that White House security uses drones as part of their security.

[Luke Burbank]

You know what, That's a good point. I guess if it doesn't get shot down, maybe that's the more likely explanation. It's. I mean, I don't know how much, like, if it's cheap or not. It looks from here like the kind that our CBS crews use. And my understanding of that is that those are, you know, I don't know, thousand bucks or something. But. But yeah, the fact that it's. The fact that it's still up there makes me think that it's probably not that it is authorized. And maybe that is. Yeah, maybe they're using that. That's. That's. Maybe that's a Secret Service. I don't know. It was also weird today just talking to Secret Service people. I don't. That doesn't happen perched high above the mighty Columbia river either. Like, when I was talking to the Secret Service person who had no idea why Pennsylvania Avenue was closed and couldn't give me any information, just said, well, I just got here. I don't know if it's all day or just a little bit or whatever. And I just thought, like, again, no. No particular shade on this person. But I thought, I wonder if you thought this is what the Secret Service was going to be like, you know, like, I wonder if this was because I think most. If I was going to the Secret Service, I'm imagining being Clint Eastwood in that movie where he runs on the edge of the car and Then has a couple of threesomes, actually. Wait, that's the mule and he rode. Remember Clint Eastwood? Remember Clint Eastwood was in that movie where he's like a Secret Service guy. And I feel like I didn't even see the movie. But what I can tell you is he probably takes a bullet for the President.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And I'm trying to remember that's not the. Play the something Daisy for me. Right. Or play Misty.

[Luke Burbank]

No, play Misty for me is where he's a jazz DJ in Monterey, California.

[Andrew Walsh]

The fact that I said play Daisy for me is going to drive me crazy. I don't know where I got that from.

[Luke Burbank]

But yeah, Driving Miss Daisy.

[Andrew Walsh]

It is not clear and present danger.

[Luke Burbank]

That it's clear and present Daisy.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's clear and clear and present Daisy. That's obviously the, the Han Solo present danger is Harrison. Harrison Ford. Right. It's like home. Han Solo. Yeah, that's part of the. The Jack Ryan Clancy. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I do know what you're talking about. I feel like it was a 90s movie.

[Luke Burbank]

In the line of fire.

[Andrew Walsh]

In the Line of Fire. I'm quite sure that's it. Am I right? That it's 90s or was it before? Before.

[Luke Burbank]

It feels 90s to me or late 90s. I mean and. But I just feel like I haven't seen the movie. But if you asked me to describe it, it's. The entire movie is a slow motion scene of Clint Eastwood running on the corner of the. Whatever they call the Air Force One car. I don't think they call it Air Force One car, by the way. I think they call it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Don't they technically call it the Force? Oh, I don't know. I've never heard that.

[Luke Burbank]

I think that the name for the car that the President travels in is called the Beast.

[Andrew Walsh]

Really?

[Luke Burbank]

I don't like that. I don't either. And I think that might believe it or not, but I think it predates this President because it sounds like something that this President would want to name, maybe his car. But I feel like. Yeah, that. That clear. Whatever. In the line of Fire. I didn't see it, but I promise you there's a critical scene where Clint Eastwood as a, you know, even at that time, what 74 year old secret service agent has to take a bullet for the President?

[Andrew Walsh]

In the line of Daisy. In the line of Daisy I believe is the name.

[Luke Burbank]

In the line of Daisy. That's right. With Morgan Freeman and April Bingham of Seattle, Washington, who we're also thanking today. Thank you, April.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thanks, April.

[Luke Burbank]

And then we're returning to the Buckeye State. Andrew. We are Fort Ohio. Scott Hartley. Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Scott Hartley, thank you very much. You know, you mentioned buckeyes. Do you ever. I think I've asked you this before. I can't remember the answer. I'm going to a little kind of holiday party in, I think, early December. And I've been thinking about things I want to make for it. And I was thinking, somebody. Somebody said, hey, you can bring some appetizers. But I was also thinking maybe a dessert. And I was thinking about making buckeyes. Do you remember those desserts that are mostly. They look like the little nuts that are buckeyes or horse chestnuts or whatever, but they're mostly peanut butter with chocolate on the outside with, like, a little peanut butter eye so that it sort of looks.

[Luke Burbank]

First of all. That sounds delicious. Yeah, I didn't grow up with those, but I think I kind of know what you're talking about. And I would say definitely, yeah, those are good.

[Andrew Walsh]

But anyway. But, Scott, thank you. I didn't mean to steal your spotlight.

[Luke Burbank]

Scott Jarvis Hartley of Oxford, Ohio. And then I saw this clip on TikTok the other day, and it was a woman in her 20s, I think, I want to say, but she had used some kind of crazy filter that just kind of, like, moved with her face and head, and it made her, like, look like she was really bald and kind of her features were sort of distorted. And the, like, writing on the screen was like, if you're at any single man in his 30s house, and she's just pretending to be a guy in his 30s, trying to tell her about, I think you should leave. And I felt very. That felt, like, personally hurtful because it's exactly what I do to anyone who comes over to my house.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let me explain something to you.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, exactly. I feel like your body's on fire. Thanks to Linda Mills in Anacortes, Washington.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, thank you, Linda. Yeah. You're a big fan of Anacortes. I don't know if I've had the pleasure.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I would absolutely live in Anacortes if I could figure out a way to work it with my schedule and stuff, because it's a little bit out there. But man, oh, man, is Anacortes ever a lovely little spot. Maybe too close to the casino for me. That might be dangerous territory out there. They've got a wonderful casino right as you pull into town. But then there's a lot else to love about Anacortes as well, like the fact that Linda Mills is there. So thank you, Linda, and thank you to all of our donors for making TBTL possible. We absolutely could not do this without you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hello, and welcome to Top Story.

[Luke Burbank]

I was reading this article in CNN the other day that was sort of the headline said, Target and Starbucks are both looking for a turnaround. They're teaming up on an exclusive new drink. So I was like, I don't really know if this is. There's going to be enough here for us to talk about on the show, which, by the way, is probably quite stunning for the listeners to hear that I think there are things that there is not enough there for us to talk about on the show, considering the stuff that I'll spend 20 to 30 minutes on talking about with you. But, I mean, ostensibly the story is that Target's having trouble because there's been a lot of protest around them eliminating their DEI programs and things. And also the fact that a lot of the stuff that's for sale at Target is. Is kind of, you know, it's. What do you call it, elective purchasing. It's that cute soap dish that would be nice to have in your bathroom, but also you have a soap dish in your bathroom. And when people are feeling more financially strapped, those are the things they stop buying. That's the theory behind what's going wrong at Target for them financially. And then Starbucks is just, I guess, I don't know. Well, they're having, you know, they're just. I guess they're having trouble with some strikes and things that are happening there. As far as their labor force looking to unionize, by the way, I'm not saying that the unionizers are wrong there. I'm just saying that's seen as a financial challenge for Starbucks right now. But they have, like, every Target pretty much has a Starbucks in it, which I didn't even. I just thought it was all the targets I've been to. It didn't occur to me that, like, oh, of course, this is a. This is a nationwide thing. This is something that they've got. So. And they found that when Starbucks launches, like, an exclusive drink, people go crazy for it, which I want to be careful because we recently got. We had a list. Didn't somebody leave us a list of, like, worst Starbucks things or something?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, but it was somebody who enjoys Starbucks. But the five worst experiences you can potentially have in a Starbucks, including, like.

[Luke Burbank]

Which is why I want to be careful. I don't want to, like, I go to Starbucks when I'm traveling, and if, you know, I don't Want to roll the dice on whatever the coffee scene is where I'm at, I will absolutely hit up a Starbucks. So I'm not. I ain't too good for Starbucks. But it does seem like, you know, they've. I'm. I will put it this way. I am surprised at the level of enthusiasm when Starbucks rolls out a thing that's like, you know, their version of the McRib, the limited time offer, and people are lining up for it. I'm always a little surprised by that, but apparently it works. So now they're to try to raise the fortunes of both companies. They've announced this frozen peppermint hot chocolate drink. But you can only get at a Starbucks that's in a Target. You can only get it at the combination Taco Bell, Pizza Hut.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's funny you should use that as an example, because I was trying. I was just racking my brain right now. I'm like, I don't usually go in. I'm very much like you. I'm not like, oh, I got to get in line to get this special seasonal, what have you. Right. Like, that's kind of. Not only do I not do that, I'm sort of anti. That. I just like, I don't have waiting in lines and all the other things that I have with my early onset grumpiness, which I don't even think it's early onset anymore. Now I've earned it at this point. It used to be early onset, but I have another Shredded Wheat grumpy my whole life. Oh, that's right. I really. I shocked you with that yesterday. Who? Phyllis said that you let out like an oh, no. As if I told you I'd been diagnosed.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, like you didn't have long to live.

[Andrew Walsh]

What I told you I've been move. I moved off of Grape Nuts into Shredded Wheat, and now they're just trying to keep me comfortable. But what I was going to say was, I was thinking I'm not really into that, except for. And I don't. I still don't think I've tried it. But there was something that I was thinking about recently, and I think it's the special kind of Mountain Dew that they only have Taco Bell and I never go to. Yeah. Is that Taco Bell or kfc? I think it.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, you know what?

[Andrew Walsh]

Taco Bell has Baja Blast. KFC had one for a while that was like a. It's like Golden Dew or something like that, which you got to be careful about. It's not called Golden Dew, but it was. But each of those sort of sounded tempting to me. I'm like, ooh, but I never go to Taco Bell. I feel like there was another one that maybe rang my bell, at least intellectually, but I still haven't checked it. Have you ever had a. Have you ever had a Baja Blast? Could it get me through the door of a Taco Bell?

[Luke Burbank]

No, but I really should actually give it a try because, you know, why not Live Moss? It's funny because my TikTok feed for maybe not a week, but a few days just converted into this woman whose whole thing is explaining how to basically order fast food. But the vegan version, it's just like, it's like all of these hacks for like, here's what you do. You go to, you go to Taco Bell and you order the this. But then you get it fresco style, which I guess means no, none of the like dairy or something, which by the way, that would appeal to you potentially. And the sour cream and stuff. And honestly, by the end, and it's like, it's. It's a total five easy pieces kind of a thing, right? Where it's like you go to Taco Bell, you order the. This thing, you hold all of this stuff, you add the. All of this other stuff, and then pretty soon you've got this like burrito that's totally vegan and really good. And it's like $4. And I was like, well, it's actually. This is kind of compelling content for me. But would you be really surprised to hear that in the Target press release on this, they said that the frappuccino based drink is positioned to be the perfect companion for holiday shopping runs.

[Andrew Walsh]

I am shocked.

[Luke Burbank]

You sitting down?

[Andrew Walsh]

Did they. Is that peer reviewed? Like, how did they. How did they arrive at that conc. That scientific conclusion that it's the perfect.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it wasn't just in Jama.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's another drink. They're also selling the Santa Jama.

[Luke Burbank]

I believe the thing though, that really forget the specialty drink, the thing that I did not know about this. I got the sense in talking to you about this off air the other day that maybe this was a bigger story than I realized. But they just mentioned in passing in this CNN article. By the way, credit to Jordan valinsky [e-mail] that of the many things that Target has been trying to do to boost business, they've apparently told their employees to smile more at the shoppers so as to create a better shopping experience. And you know, right when I saw that line I was like, oh, you've got to be kidding me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, how dare you?

[Luke Burbank]

And then I thought about it longer and I thought, well, I don't know. I mean, on the other hand, it is a workplace and it is nice when people, when you're at a store and people are generally friendly, like, this immediately calls to mind for me, this sort of like, really gross thing of men traditionally telling women to smile more, which I'm not a supporter of. But on the other hand, it's like, if employees are being told, hey, can you be friendlier to the customers? Does that fall within, in your mind, within the acceptable thing for bosses to say to the people that do work there to get their pay?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I'm trying to think if I were running, let's say that I started my own business. Let's say it was a podcast, like.

[Luke Burbank]

A West coast operation.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let's say it was a West coast podcasting business.

[Luke Burbank]

Now, but what if you're at your limit?

[Andrew Walsh]

I am at my limit. So I want to be specific here and say if I was starting my own company that had sort of. My employees were outward facing. Is that the right word? Like actually interacting with the public? So let's just say that I started a little coffee shop and pastry shop, and also it turned into a pizza.

[Luke Burbank]

Shop specializing in Buckeyes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right now I'm just trying to steal Barry's. All of Barry's entrepreneurial spirit. But for real, let's just say it's like a coffee shop or something like that. And I have maybe two or three baristas who work. And if one of my employees was outwardly what I considered rude in some way, even if it was standoffish or just like barely looking up from their phone, you know, provided a coffee, the very bare minimum of what the job requires. Yes. Makes a coffee. Yes. Sets it down in front of the customer, but is essentially like, rude. I would definitely have some policies in place, and I don't know if there are legal barriers to what you can and cannot sort of say or put into place. I would definitely, though, try to put into place some sort of policy. And I would certainly talk to that employee and just say, hey, what we're doing here, it's kind of. It's not just about coffee, you know, it is about the customer experience. And we need to make sure that the customer experience is good in here. And so please, you know, and then. And if people are good at that, then they're going to go further in the company. You know, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I do think that the corporateness of this is what's so gross. And yeah, while this was just a quick throwaway line in the article that you read, I noticed it linked to other articles which I couldn't get to because they were behind paywalls. But I did a little, I just did a very simple. Is that what it was? I guess Bloomberg's behind a paywall. I didn't realize that. I thought it was Wall Street Journal or something. But anyway. But there are articles written just about this policy as a headline in and of itself. In fact, that's what got me on that Fox News video yesterday where he turned to his panel of experts, which was four baseball hat bros and one guy wearing sunglasses inside to talk about their opinions about this. But anyway, it turns out the policy is something called the 104 policy that target is, you know, rolling out. And it's just some, there's something so.

[Luke Burbank]

Corporate as in 104 good buddy.

[Andrew Walsh]

As in 104 good buddy. Here it is. The new policy requires employees who are within 10ft of customers to smile, make eye contact, wave, and use friendly, approachable and welcoming body language. Then if staff members are within 4ft of customers, they must personally greet the guests, smile, and initiate a warm, helpful interaction. Target said. And there's just something about that that is just like, what are you doing? And you also like, you know, employees.

[Luke Burbank]

Will be outfitted with tape measures, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. I mean, it's just so weird and corporate and so disconnected from the reality of things. And again, like, I think that if I'm a manager of a Target, like, I would kind of hope that my employees and I would try to encourage my employees to be as, you know, I mean, listen, I, I'm an old man. I complain about customer service. Remember when I was going to the.

[Luke Burbank]

Best of them, with the best of.

[Andrew Walsh]

Them, I can shout at clouds. Like I, I had that Home Depot near my house and I think that things have changed there and it actually has changed my desire to go into that store. I used to literally pass up the Home Depot that is slightly closer to me and I would go to the Lowe's that was maybe what, a quarter of a mile down the street on the left hand side, slightly harder to get to because it was taking a left across three lanes of Aurora traffic. But I would do it because if I looked lost at Lowe's, somebody would be like, can I help you with something? Or I could find somebody to help me. And when I was in the Home Depot, I Just knew that there were just like kind of a bunch of zombie looking people and no offense to generally people who work at Home Depot zombies but. Or zombies but in this particular Home Depot for a while there, they were just like, they looked like they actively did not want to help you. Like they were put out if you ask them a question. And it just like looked just. I mean, Genevieve had a story about like, just like almost negative helpfulness in a couple of things that she tried to get done there. Like, that's not good business. So I guess I'm saying that I do think that managers and people who run companies can have an expectation that if you're interacting with the public, you should try to do so in a way that is helpful. But also when you hear about this corporate policy of 10, 4 where you're saying, and you have people who are working for this giant company, probably not making that much money, also a company that drives smaller companies out of business or whatever, it's just like none of it can be, none of it can be talked about in a vacuum, I feel like.

[Luke Burbank]

And also I feel like if you're gonna be the place that's known for having extremely friendly, helpful employees, that's gotta be day one. Like, I mean, literally, Ace is the place with the helpful hardware folks. And when you walk into an Ace, they are helpful.

[Andrew Walsh]

They certainly are.

[Luke Burbank]

It's part like, it's obviously been from the early days of the company. And granted, you know, Target is a much larger operation than Ace Hardware, but still it's like, like there are places where their whole thing, their whole shtick is we're really helpful.

[Andrew Walsh]

Chick Fil A, that's got to be like a big one too, right? Yeah, but that was a really big one. And of course they have their own baggage. But Chick Fil A, to this day, and I think you want to talk about a day one policy is like, their whole thing is like we are super serving our customers with a smile.

[Luke Burbank]

And that's where you, you've like, if that had always been Target's thing from day one, then I think you could maintain that. But what's really hard is to have a gigantic, humongous national chain that just has people that are working there. And some of them are probably really friendly and some of them are probably a little more maybe introverted and just want to get their job done. And now all of a sudden it's like, if you're within 10ft, do this. If you're within 4ft, do this. I can tell you this even Though I do think it is technically. It strikes me that technically, Target does have the right to say this to their employees. Hey, it's the new company policy. But I would be pissed if I worked there and I got that memo. I would not. It would not make me feel great about the work environment that it's being directed to me down to the level of, like, how many feet I am from people. Also, I have to say to the Bloomberg piece that I tried to click through to that I also couldn't get to because it's behind a paywall. I could just. I could only read the. I guess, like, the first line before it kind of grayed it out for me. And it was basically like, Target is. Let me see. Let me get back. Oh, come on. Let me. Let me see the first line, baby. Bloomberg, don't hold out on me. It basically said something like, target is bringing Minnesota Nice to the rest of the country or something. I thought, is that what we mean? No, no, that's not what Minnesota Nice means. Like, Minnesota Nice. And listen, that's a hot zip for us. That's probably outside of Seattle, where we have the main number of listeners. So I'm not trying to. No shade to our friends in Minnesota, but, like, I don't think that Minnesota Nice is offered as a positive.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, it's not.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, this person writing this Bloomberg thing really missed the memo on what Minnesota Nice.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that is. That's so cringy, boy. Yeah, this Bloomberg thing. I also. Did they adjust something so you can't even see the first line anymore? Cause I swear I saw something like that, too.

[Luke Burbank]

I've got this. I could see it for a minute. And now that I've gone back to the page, there's some giant banner blocking that area. But you know what? Too late. I already saw it. Yeah, you can't take it out of my brain.

[Andrew Walsh]

Take it out of my brain.

[Luke Burbank]

It's in there. I remember. I remember being a kid one time and trying to get ready for a test and thinking, you know what I could do? I could just memorize the answers. Because I used to always try to figure out ways to cheat. Like, I'd make a little cheat code for myself or something. And then one time, I had the bright idea of just like, no, no. Store the information in your brain where they can't see it. And then when you read the question, you just write in the answer that you've remembered from before. And then at some point realized, I believe that's what study.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm writing it on. The backs of my eyelids with my brain?

[Luke Burbank]

Pretty much, yeah. I was just like, well, where can I write this where they won't find it? Well, I guess if it's inside my brain, they really won't be able to find it.

[Andrew Walsh]

And that's how I became smart.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, right. Costco is in trouble for selling their Kirkland brand tequila, or at least their potentially in trouble for listing it as 100% agave, even though there are now some customer groups, some people that are saying it's not 100% agave. In fact, there's up to 40% of non agave alcohol in the Kirkland signature blanco tequila, which is labeled as 100% agave. I did not realize. I kind of knew there was. You know, this is one of those, what, like, designated place protected. You know, there's like. Like champagne and stuff. You know, there's certain things that you sort of can't. There are a lot of rules around what you can call champagne and what you can call tequila, I guess. And there's a lot of rules about how much non agave, which is like a cactus, right? That's basically what the agave plant is, I think.

[Andrew Walsh]

So. I don't know much about it, but that's what I always picture. Yeah, it's. It's a desert plant. I don't know if it's a cactus, but it's a desert plant.

[Luke Burbank]

But apparently so. This suit, brought as a putative class action, claims Costco violated the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organization. They're bringing a RICO charge on this and various state laws, including the Washington State Consumer Protection Act. The litigation follows January protests by Mexican agave farmers who claim that some distilleries were cutting their tequilas with cane and corn alcohols, according to a report on mezcalistas.com a mezcal focused trades organization. Basically, the. The argument here, the allegation is that, is that, yeah, Costco was saying that this tequila was 100 agave and that it's not, and that even the other ones that they didn't say were 100 agave had so many other stuff, so much other stuff in them that wasn't tequila that you can't even call it tequila legally. I definitely think this has to be. Now it's a class action lawsuit. So there are basically a couple of people who have signed on to this who are saying that I wouldn't have bought this tequila if I had known that it wasn't 100% agave. But it feels to me like 100%. The agave producers of Mexico have hired a law firm in the US and then that law firm has gone out and somehow like, like, solicited somebody who will agree to say that they bought this tequila under the impression it was 100% agave, and it wasn't. I can't imagine this being something that just a random person who bought Kirkland brand tequila, brought the tequila home, tasted it, thought, that ain't agave, then had it tested at a laboratory, then reached out to an attorney who agreed to take the case.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, probably like the. The. The RICO thing is over my head. I don't understand that. That seems really intense. But, like, from a labeling standpoint, like, if there is, like, a specific. My problem is I can't kind of keep sort. I can't sort of sort in my head. What is the law in Mexico regarding, like, labeling, and how does that law apply to what's going on here in the United States? But it does sound like there's a law in the United States that says, listen, if it's not, you know, it can't be labeled as pure tequila or pure agave tequila or whatever. If it's like this percentage, if it's like, you know, less than 51%. And I sort of feel like that's a legit. I feel like that's a legit lawsuit on behalf of the farmers and on behalf of the people who are buying that product. I mean, I guess the one sort of argument is like, well, when we're talking about the way things taste, could it be the proof is in the pudding? You know, like, well, I enjoyed this, and so it has more corn mashing or whatever. I actually happened to read this over the weekend, and I have not reread it, so. So as I'm discussing it, I can feel that, like, oh, yeah, I felt like I didn't have to read this one today, but maybe I should have reread it. But anyway, I sort of understand it from a perspective of just like, well, I bought this thing that the label. Because of the rules of these labels, I believe to be one thing, and they sold me some cheaper version of it. I'm actually on board with that. I guess it does sort of get into the like, well, but did you enjoy it? And then did you taste that there was more corn in there than agave? And if so, well, I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

You want to talk about pudding proof? One of the things I mentioned in the article is that the idea about the pure agave tequila, which doesn't have any other mixers in it is that you would not have as much of a hangover.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

There's less impurity.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's interesting.

[Luke Burbank]

And that is something. If I could bring a lawsuit based on some of the hangovers I've had in my life. Listen, we don't need a class action. My personal experience constitutes a class action. We're talking about hundreds, if not thousands of events of this happening. I want to sue. I want justice.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, liver V. Patron. Yeah, I believe that set a lot of precedence. Here. I go once again with the email. Every week, I hope that it's from a female. Oh, man. It's not from a female.

[Luke Burbank]

All right. Emails or vmails?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. I got this voicemail from Carolyn.

[Luke Burbank]

Andrew.

[Carolyn]

This is Carolyn and Encinitas, and I just finished listening to yesterday's show and I got so excited at the very beginning when you were talking about this video game that you're playing that is kind of like Dungeons and Dragons. And I'm hoping It's Baldur's Gate 3. I call it Balderdash and I play it with my son and we've been playing it for well over a year. And I think D and D is so incredibly boring and slow and forever taking. But Balderdash is amazing and I am so excited and I'm hoping that that's what you were talking about and that you are going to share your joy about that game with us as the listeners, because I find it incredible and I love it and I. I play it couch co op style with my son. We're side by side and holy shit, I love it. And he's a huge D and D fan, but this game anyway, so hopefully that's what you were talking about. Go Balderdash. Love you guys. Have a great afternoon. Bye.

[Andrew Walsh]

This was a voicemail I got a couple of weeks ago when I happened to mention that on the show, it is Baldur's Gate 3 is the game that I downloaded the other day.

[Luke Burbank]

It is the game.

[Andrew Walsh]

It is. And I was surprised how many emails I got about this. I wouldn't usually just play a voicemail at the end of the show that is about a video game that I'm playing. But, you know, I'm almost wondering, maybe we can talk about this more on tomorrow's show because we're kind of getting near the end of the show. But, yeah, I did download this game. I just had always been curious, like, literally my whole life I've been curious about Dungeons and Dragons. I never Played it before. I realized as an adult, the actual playing of Dungeons and Dragons does not appeal to me because it's so performative in a certain way. Like, I'd have to sit around with a group of friends, we would make up stories and your care. You know, there's like kind of just this performative aspect of it that seems really cool to me for people who are into that, but that I would be very shy to do. And so I realized, oh, that's not for me, but I'm like. But I always wanted just to know what it's like. So isn't there a video game? And I was picturing, like, a very simple video game. Like, that would almost be like, literally you would have virtual dice that you would roll, you know, and that. That maybe you would even type in, like, maybe you'd create your own stories or something. But I was picturing something very like 1990s ish. And several times I've had this thought and I would Google it and then give up. And then I was googling it again the other day. I don't know what prompted it, maybe about a month ago. And I was like, is there a D and D video game that follows the rules of D and D? And that could kind of teach me about that world a little bit? And I kept seeing this game, Baldur's Gate 3, pop up. And the thing is, my friend Libby has been trying to get me to play Baldur's Gate 3 for a long time now. She is obsessed with it. And this is, you know, Libby, a mutual friend of ours. And Libby is an incredibly smart person, but she's also somebody who is way into gaming. Her whole life, she's been a big gamer and is into, like, kind of fantasy, I think, stories and stuff, as well as other things. And so Baldur's Gate three is her jam. But I always just dismissed it as like, no, no, no, Libby, I'm not your level of. Of gamer and nerdery and all that stuff. Like, it's not. I'm not this big fantasy guy, generally speaking. And I just. It felt like everything she said about that game, I'm like, that sounds like a game that is way over my head. And. But then the Internet. The Internet's telling me to download it. Libby's telling me to download it. So I text her. I'm like, this is the game you've been talking about, right? Like, is it actually D and D? She's like, yes, this is. This is dnd. It's complicated. But, like, you should download it. I'm like, all right. So I downloaded onto my computer. I'm like, this seems like a. More of a computer game to me because it's going to be more strategy based as opposed to, like sitting down behind my Xbox and like, playing a football game or something. So anyway, I downloaded. I'm like, okay, this thing will download in about, you know, 10 minutes or whatever, and then I'll. I'll be playing my game. I think it was a Friday night. It took over an hour for the game to just download onto my computer. And I have fiber optic Internet that's super fast. Like, I was like a half hour, and I'm like, what am I downloading? She's like, buckle up. And so it's this incredibly immersive, incredibly high graphic game that does come down to the rolls of dice, basically, or a die that maybe I can tell you about more. But like, I. Yeah, it was so. It was so impenetrable to me at first. And I played it a couple of times. Couldn't figure it out. I'm too impatient. Like, I don't want to read about it or watch videos. I just want to play. It took me an hour to download this thing. I just want to play it. But I had no idea what I was doing. Like, literally no idea. And then I put it down for my trip to Ohio. And then I realized I'm never going to pick that up again unless I, like, make a point of it. So on Sunday night, I called Libby. I didn't even, like, text her first. I just called her. And in this day and age, when you call somebody, you don't text first. You have to say by. You have to start by saying, nothing's wrong. This isn't an emergency. I'm not in jail.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, absolutely. You actually do that very kindly to me when we have a call out of the blue, which is weird because we work together.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. You and I. I'm kind of surprised I do that for you, because I feel like you would know.

[Luke Burbank]

We do have reasons to talk throughout the day.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Yeah. But I do try to do that for other people. Or I'll text and just say, hey, I'm going to give you a call in a few minutes, but it's not an emergency. You know, don't pick up if you don't have time. So anyway, I didn't even do that. I just called her. I'm just like, we got to talk about. We got to talk about Baldur's Gate 3. And she's like, yes, let's talk. And so she kind of like answered some questions for me and also just sort of told me, like, like just some very basic things that I needed to like, kind of figure out. That then led me. It's so complicated that you can't even Google things about it because you didn't understand the language of the game. You know what I mean? It's both a video game format that I'm not used to, and I have none of the vocabulary for D and D. And so coming in, like just totally green on both of those was difficult. And those are the emails that I got from some people saying, were you able to get into Baldur's Gate 3? Is that what you're talking about? Because I can't figure it out. And I gotta say with a little bit of patience, a little bit, Just call Libby. I'll just give out Libby's phone number actually, and everybody should just call Libby and she can give him a pep talk, which is mostly what she gave me. And then I spent a huge amount of time last night. I think I finally broke through last night and I've like restarted the game like three or four times, each time kind of learning more about my journey. And now I. I'm kind of into it.

[Luke Burbank]

You would hate it.

[Andrew Walsh]

You would hate it so much. You would hate it.

[Luke Burbank]

Every piece of this. You know, let's talk about this on tomorrow. I do have questions and.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sorry, I told you we'd talk about it tomorrow and then I went on for 10 minutes. But I've set up tomorrow's conversation.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, exactly. So that's what we should do. We should talk about it on Tomorrow's episode of TBT, which is a mere 24 hours away. So I know that it'll be here before we know it. In the meantime, that brings us to the end of today's program. Thank you everyone for listening. We will be back here tomorrow. That movie, her, has got me thinking about video games. This is what I want to talk about with you tomorrow a little bit. So, yeah, we'll get into it. In the meantime, have a great Tuesday, everybody. Take care of yourselves and please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to all. Power out.