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- [00:01]
Luke Burbank
Did you do anything in the bathroom? Nothing. I was putting some yeet bag on and then I was giving my phone. So you put.
- [00:12]
Andrew Walsh
What'd you put on? Yep.
- [00:13]
Luke Burbank
Bag on.
- [00:14]
Andrew Walsh
Oh. Whose was that? It was my Yapek. Oh, it was?
- [00:20]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. Did you ask anybody if you could put it on? I asked myself.
- [00:26]
Andrew Walsh
So whose lipstick is that?
- [00:28]
Luke Burbank
Mine.
- [00:29]
Andrew Walsh
You bought it? Yeah. Where'd you buy it at my Lipik?
- [00:33]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, I buy it from Homey Depot.
- [00:37]
Andrew Walsh
Tbtl.
- [00:43]
Luke Burbank
Doggy butt, doggy butt. Doggy, doggy, doggy butt, doggy butt, doggy.
- [00:49]
Andrew Walsh
Butt, doggy, doggy, doggy butt.
- [00:52]
Luke Burbank
Is there, and I'm just guessing here.
- [00:54]
Andrew Walsh
Some kind of medication that you maybe need a lot of and have taken none of or maybe too much of today?
- [00:59]
Luke Burbank
I consider myself to be an absolutely dead center, normal, average American.
- [01:05]
Andrew Walsh
Just so happens I am on a first name basis with some of the most influential, some of the most powerful people in this business.
- [01:16]
Luke Burbank
So.
- [01:19]
Andrew Walsh
Get Chuck Wolvery on the phone. Hey, you either get it or you don't. And I don't. But I am so excited to be a part of it.
- [01:27]
Luke Burbank
I could really use a win here. Well, all right. Hello, good morning and welcome everyone, to a Wednesday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live.
- [01:40]
Andrew Walsh
A beautifully wrapped, glossy, sweet smelling show.
- [01:45]
Luke Burbank
My name is Luke Burbank. I'm your host.
- [01:47]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, God. Oh, God.
- [01:49]
Luke Burbank
I'm running. Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio perched high above the mighty Columbia, where we are looking at an absolutely spectacular February day.
- [02:02]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, Ma Pa.
- [02:03]
Luke Burbank
It's just beautiful. Blue skies, calm rivers out there in the mighty Colombia. I'm watching a logging project. What's happening across the river from me over on the Oregon side of things? I've never actually. Well, I guess I've just never lived across a river from where a large scale logging project was happening. They do this crazy thing, I think, where they've got like a zip line that is spanning between these two enormous hills. So that the guys who are in the logging, like machines can get to the machines. Because you can't really like drive up there. It's totally rugged. I'm just watching these guys go back and forth in this little like gondola thing that's like that they've got strung up on this cable. And it makes me really feel like I missed Mike. I mean, I don't know if I would be good at logging. I don't know how I feel about the environmental impact of it, but I would love to be part of this gondola project. It looks really fun. Anyway, this is gonna be really fun. I'm happy that I get to be a podcaster and bring you episode 4656 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. Which is what we're here to do today. Hey, you know, super bowl is on Sunday and Seahawks fans and Patriots fans, they can't agree on much. But there is one thing that they apparently do agree on.
- [03:28]
Andrew Walsh
What the hell is even that?
- [03:31]
Luke Burbank
We'll tell you what that is. Also, I have, I think I've officially decided on my plan of what apparel I will be wearing during the super bowl on Sunday. I feel cute today.
- [03:41]
Andrew Walsh
Look at my outfit.
- [03:43]
Luke Burbank
So we'll talk about all that and we'll talk to this guy. He's the longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. Something else you may or may not know about him.
- [03:53]
Andrew Walsh
In an age of uniformity, he's quite.
- [03:55]
Luke Burbank
The opposite, an authentic subversive. He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.
- [04:00]
Andrew Walsh
Good morning, Luke. I went to the TVTL PO Box yesterday. Oh, check in the box.
- [04:07]
Luke Burbank
What's in the box?
- [04:07]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, we got some. We got some postcards here from our friend Cassie, who joined us on the show last week. Says, greetings from a Palouse country road. I almost said county road. It's very nice picture of a road cutting through some fields. But I also received the world's saddest three panel cartoon comic strip from our pal Stephanie there in Portland. You know Stephanie, August.
- [04:38]
Luke Burbank
Did Stephanie draw this or just locate it?
- [04:41]
Andrew Walsh
Just clipped it for some reason. Here, I'll read you the note. So it came in this little note. That's cute. It's like a little. It's like a little popsicle shaped. Yeah, I see that card. And it says Andrew. I must confess, I'm a bit of a hoarder. I decided to go through some old newspaper bits that had recipes in comics. That had recipes in comics. I made a delicious pork stir fry in a not so good cauliflower soup. I found these comics and felt the need to share. I will admit I'm only sending the Sally fourth cartoon to share my confusion. This seems very depressing and not funny at all. I am not familiar with this comic strip, so I don't know if they're. I sure am unfunny. I guess not much here to say. August is in a very clingy stage and is obsessed with the movie Cars. I'm very sick of watching it. You know, I did not babysit a lot in my life, but I did babysit our friend's kids right around the time Cars had come out on dvd. Luke and the kids were obsessed with it. And so that's the only kids movie that I watch as an adult many, many times for those kids. So I understand that. But let me describe this. So tell me what you know about Sally fourth.
- [05:51]
Luke Burbank
Well, Andrew, a couple of things. One, it did not occur to me until you just were reading that that message from Stephanie that, that it never. That it had never occurred to me in my life that Sally Forth is not just the name of the person, Sally, and then her last name is Fourth, but that it's the idea of going out into the world to Sally Forth.
- [06:12]
Andrew Walsh
I just got that too. As you were saying.
- [06:14]
Luke Burbank
That was so lost on me as like a 10 year old reading the Seattle Times.
- [06:18]
Andrew Walsh
Because there's. Because here's the problem. Here's the problem. And I've been thinking about this a lot lately as a sort of new fan of the oh geez, Kathy comics. Kathy and Sluggo, you know. But the what? No, no, see, this is my problem.
- [06:36]
Luke Burbank
Kathy and Sluggo.
- [06:37]
Andrew Walsh
No, not Kathy. See, this is exactly what my problem is. What in the world is going on with my brain right now? I literally just bought a book. Luke, I'm having an absolute freak out here.
- [06:52]
Luke Burbank
Okay, hold on.
- [06:53]
Andrew Walsh
Just Nancy, Nancy, not Kathy. But this is my point. There is this long standing comic called Nancy that had been around since the 1930s. And then Kathy comes around probably in the 70s or 80s, I'm guessing, and confuses the marketplace and confuses soft headed podcasters like me. Did you see what just happened? And I've been reading Nancy now for the past year or two, really enjoying it. Even bought Nancy and Slugo's Guide to Life based on some recommendations by listeners. And I've been really enjoying the Nancy lifestyle. But do you see what just happened to me? I couldn't recall her name because Kathy slipped in there first. And once Kathy is in there, I can't think of the word Nancy. Ack. And I ack. I should have just said ack. And that's what you have, Sally fourth. And don't you also have a Mary Worth? And aren't they both. You have Mary Worth comics.
- [07:42]
Luke Burbank
Yes, you have Mary worth. You have Sally fourth. You have apartment 3G. Those were. That was the holy trinity of unfunny comics when I was a kid. You have Crankshaft.
- [07:55]
Andrew Walsh
That was supposed to be funny.
- [07:56]
Luke Burbank
A little bit funnier.
- [07:57]
Andrew Walsh
A Little bit funnier. That was supposed to be funny. It was supposed to be wry and kind of dry. I think sardonic.
- [08:02]
Luke Burbank
And by the way, adding to the confusion around Nancy and Sluggo, to me, is that I always cause Nancy. That was way before my time. But then you had little Lulu, who was kind of Nancy esque, kind of a like, you know, a little young girl of the same age, but who's always getting up to hijinks. And so, and my mom was kind.
- [08:23]
Andrew Walsh
Of like into Little Lulu, also originated in the 30s, so contemporaries, I would say.
- [08:30]
Luke Burbank
So I would always confuse this Nancy character with little Lulu. I think when this came up a couple months ago on the show, I, I started singing the Little Lulu song, and then I realized, oh, that doesn't hold up. Oh, I vaguely remember they were trying to rhyme something with Lulu. And they said, though you're wild as any Zulu.
- [08:46]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, right, I do.
- [08:47]
Luke Burbank
And just as hard to tame Little Lulu. I love you, Lou, just the same. And I was like, oh, man.
- [08:53]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, that doesn't hold up. No.
- [08:56]
Luke Burbank
But anyway, but so with. Back to Sally forth, if we can. I know that I've talked about this extensively and repeatedly on the show, but I did have a weird era of my, of my elementary school years, which is I, I don't remember if it was my third grade or fourth grade, but it was one of those grades, and I was in a. I was in Mrs. Wharton's combined third, fourth, and fifth grade class. So the idea was if you were, you know, if you were like, maybe pretty smart at math and you were in third grade, you could work ahead on your math, you could be in the fifth grade math. Or if you maybe were struggling with something, you could kind of be, you could be working at whatever pace suited you between the grades of third, fourth, and fifth.
- [09:38]
Andrew Walsh
So all the save money on teachers. That's the important thing.
- [09:41]
Luke Burbank
Critically, I mean, you want to know how old I am? Andrew Mrs. Wharton told us kids she was very close to retirement. In fact, I might have kind of helped really sort of like, tip her over to, like, I can't do this anymore. Because that was a very, very bad. That's the menace vibes, real slingshot in the back pocket kind of energy. She used to tell us stories of how she would ride a horse to school in Nebraska, where she was from, because it was when she was going to school, they hadn't invented cars. I had a teacher. Her educational experience, her pedagogy, if you will, predated cars.
- [10:22]
Andrew Walsh
I find it hard to believe that they hadn't invented cars. They just weren't cars hadn't taken over every aspect of transportation. Right. Well, because I'm reading a book now that takes place in the 1950s, and it takes place in a culture where people are still riding horses around because it's a very rural area of the kind.
- [10:39]
Luke Burbank
But do this math. Do this math with me, bub. Okay, it's 1984. She's 70 years old. She was born in 1914.
- [10:50]
Andrew Walsh
Right. So, but.
- [10:51]
Luke Burbank
So there probably were cars.
- [10:52]
Andrew Walsh
She's not taking a horse around. Probably.
- [10:56]
Luke Burbank
You know, maybe there were cars, but it was not the. It didn't seem to be common where she was, if you know what I mean? So maybe she wasn't before the invitation. Also, the thing about the invention of cars is also kind of. It's actually a weird. It's a weird kind of historical data point, right? Because, like, there were cars before Henry Ford. He just was the person who sort of seemed to figure out the, you know, the way to create the assembly line and mass produce them. And there were also electric cars. Have we talked about this? Like the. There was a car expo in New York City. Again, I'm saying before even the Model T, where half the cars were electric. There was this fork in the road, as it were, where we could have had electric cars, but the combustion engine won out for whatever reason. We think of electric cars as EVs, as being very modern, and they are. But also, it was not always a sort of a fait accompli that we were going to have to go with the combustion engine. It just kind of. It sort of won out at VHS over the Betamax.
- [11:59]
Andrew Walsh
It probably was. That was probably cheaper or more convenient or more, you know, a more expedited way of making cars at the time. But then once. Once the oil companies became an oil industry, then it kind of. They did not want to release their grip, I'm assuming.
- [12:16]
Luke Burbank
But I had this one year of school where all I did was read the newspaper in the back of the room because it was a kind of a somewhat loosey goosey class. Again, the idea was that you kind of could follow your own passions, but also you need to get your assignments done and stuff. But there was a. It was a little bit. There was a little bit of latitude for the students. And the way that I decided to exercise that was to come into class each day to not sit at my desk, but to sit at this, like, work table in the back of the room and to read the Seattle Times more or less cover to Cover. Maybe I let. Maybe I skipped over the business section or something, but that very much included the comics page. So I was reading all of these comics and also never knew what the hell the purpose of Sally Forth was because it was one of those unfunny comics to me. Okay, so back to the world status.
- [13:03]
Andrew Walsh
But now that we're here for a second. Yes, because I wouldn't be able to tell you anything about Sally fourth, except for this comic that I'm holding here. But I also couldn't tell you anything about Mary Worth. Like, do you have anything in your memory that would even distinguish these two sort of adult, unfunny comics? Because I think Mary Worth was unfunny as well.
- [13:22]
Luke Burbank
Right. If you woke me up out of a sleep, I would say Mary Worth represented the crushing loneliness of an unmarried woman of a certain age.
- [13:29]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, really? Okay, now, I don't know if that's.
- [13:31]
Luke Burbank
Even really the plot, but my memory of it as a kid is Meri Worth in my mind, equaled. And again, I'm not saying this is how we should think about the world. I'm saying this is how I thought of Mary Worth. Being a woman, I guess you could say, of a certain age maybe. By the way, I could be combining mary worth and apartment 3G, which I know nothing about.
- [13:52]
Andrew Walsh
But I want to, I want to take a stab at Mary Worth myself. But I have no idea if I'm right because. Okay, all right, everybody, let's calm down.
- [14:03]
Luke Burbank
You know, I'm confusing apartment 3G and Mary Worth, by the way.
- [14:06]
Andrew Walsh
Okay, Mary Worth. I'm picturing a woman. I thought it was about a woman who was like a journalist or some sort of an investigator, some sort of a. Some sort of a kind of important person or like somebody who had a. But, but, but like you said, I picture her in her probably 40s or 50s, not like, not a coming of age and not like new in the, in the workforce. So have we looked it up yet what actually is Mary?
- [14:31]
Luke Burbank
I've got a ton of info now.
- [14:32]
Andrew Walsh
What do we know?
- [14:33]
Luke Burbank
Well, do I want to start with mary worth or apartment 3G?
- [14:36]
Andrew Walsh
I want to start with Mary Worth.
- [14:37]
Luke Burbank
Mary Worth is an American newspaper comic. Is, by the way, Andrew is an American newspaper comic strip that has had an eight decade run. It was created by Alan Saunders. It's. It's actually associated with an older comic strip, Apple Mary, sometimes subtitled Meriworth's Family. It was a. It's. Let's see here. I just want to get to the, the plot. Let's see, it centers on an old woman who's. Who sold apples on the streets and offered humble common sense.
- [15:07]
Andrew Walsh
That's what I said. A real go getter.
- [15:10]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. Actually, I might have been a little bit more accurate than I thought.
- [15:13]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [15:15]
Luke Burbank
Though usually called Apple Mary, the character's full name is given as Mary Worth. Apple Mary ran until. Da da da. Let's see here. King Features began syndicating Mary Worth in 1987. There's significant evidence that the two comic strips share an unbroken narrator. Just so. Yeah, so I guess it was one of those kind of, you know, it was not intended to be as much funny as it was maybe insightful or inspirational of this, you know, of this woman, Apple Mary, AKA Mary Worth, who was doling out, you know, life lessons or something. But then you Skip to apartment 3G.
- [15:52]
Andrew Walsh
Can I just, Can I get a little bit closer to Mary Worth? Because that Wikipedia page, it gets into. This is the problem with Wikipedia. Sometimes it gives you too much information and you're just like, yeah, but what's it about? What's it about?
- [16:03]
Luke Burbank
Backstory of each. Whatever.
- [16:05]
Andrew Walsh
So here it is on TV tropes that gets to it a little bit more. Mary Worth is a soap opera style comic strip. The title character is a recent widow who moves to a condominium complex in California where just about everybody seems to have some sort of problem.
- [16:20]
Luke Burbank
I mean, how freaking.
- [16:21]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, go ahead.
- [16:22]
Luke Burbank
Spot on. Was I when I said, you wake me up of a dead sleep. And Mary Worth is the crushing loneliness of a person living in a. Like, that's almost exactly what they're describing there. In a way.
- [16:32]
Andrew Walsh
I'm trying to figure out if she's lonely or if she's just like sort of getting into other and helping other people with their problems. It hasn't explicitly said that in most of the strips. One of the. I'm not saying you're wrong. I just don't know. In most of the strips, one of the quote, young people in the neighborhood is troubled by a problem such as drug abuse, alcoholism, infidelity or teen pregnancy, which Mary takes it upon herself to fix. Though she is the title character and the catalyst for most of the strips dramatic plots, Mary herself doesn't appear all that frequently. Rather she is setting up. She is set up as a framing device to get each plot rolling, usually through her counsel. So anyway, so that's in. So that's interesting. That's not what I thought, but I guess it was taking on the. The serious issues of the day.
- [17:12]
Luke Burbank
I would love to see the Mary Worth take on drug addiction circa 1959. Like, what kind of reefer madness were they buying into? Like, what was happening? Okay, so then apartment 3G is an American newspaper soap opera comic strip about a trio of career women who share an apartment in Manhattan. And they say that it was. It was a ref. Or it was sort of inspired by Mary Worth. The strip situations and characters were influenced by the soap opera strip Mary Worth.
- [17:47]
Andrew Walsh
Look at that.
- [17:49]
Luke Burbank
Okay, so there was a little kind of, I don't know, spiritual connective tissue there.
- [17:54]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. See, I don't think it's funny because it almost sounds like what I was describing with Mary Worth. It sounds like I'm confusing with apartment 3G. But the thing is, I don't think I knew about apartment 3G. Like, I don't. I don't have any. I hadn't before you read that sentence. I had no sense of what apartment 3G was at all. Which now leaves us this question.
- [18:11]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, Luke, why can't we grow the audience?
- [18:14]
Andrew Walsh
Why can't we grow the young?
- [18:16]
Luke Burbank
Is it possible?
- [18:17]
Andrew Walsh
Why are young people not flocking with tv?
- [18:19]
Luke Burbank
These modern, forward looking conversations about King United Syndicate comics of the 1940s, is it exactly. Blowing up the youth demo?
- [18:29]
Andrew Walsh
So what can you tell me about the comic strip that I hold in my hand right now? A perfectly clipped little comic strip, by the way, called Sally Forth. What do we want to call this?
- [18:39]
Luke Burbank
What do we do? Well, again, it was in the. What I think I know about Sally Forth was. I know, I feel like Sally, in my mind, Sally Forth had black hair and was kind of a go getter. Sally Forth was Sallying Forth. Those are the kind of broad strokes memory of Sally Forth.
- [18:57]
Andrew Walsh
Okay. And we're gonna look up the overall sort of vibe and plot of Sally Forth in a moment. But first I'm gonna read to you what's going on in this three panel cartoon. And here's my question for listener Stephanie, who is totally responsible for this beginning of the show. By the way, we've got Stephanie wishing.
- [19:17]
Luke Burbank
She was watching Cars with August right now.
- [19:19]
Andrew Walsh
So Stephanie or the rest of the audience is like, certainly. They're like, get me lightning McQueen, please. So Stephanie says, you know, I was a bit of a hoarder, so I was going through some things and I found some recipes and some comic strips. I'm assuming that Stephanie clipped these herself. And by the way, I would like to say again, very well done, very neatly clipped out of a newspaper. And I'm seeing that one of them is copyright 2017. So I want to know why Stephanie in the first place was clipping Bizarro? Take it from The Tinkersons and Sally 4th comics in the mid-2010s. I don't know.
- [19:59]
Luke Burbank
I never liked Bizarro.
- [20:00]
Andrew Walsh
Bizarro. Let's see. Which one is that here? Oh, yeah. Okay. This is actually very, very relevant to our times. There's a man in his boxer shorts and T shirt sitting on a doctor's table. And the doctor says, the good news is your cholesterol is down. And the patient says, what's the bad news? And the doctor says, pretty much everything else in the whole world. That's the Bizarro comic strip.
- [20:24]
Luke Burbank
That's the Bizarro one. That's not the Sally 4th that you.
- [20:26]
Andrew Walsh
Have yet to read us the Sally.
- [20:27]
Luke Burbank
4Th baby shoes never used.
- [20:30]
Andrew Walsh
Do you understand the concept of sweeping the quarter hour, Luke?
- [20:33]
Luke Burbank
I am all boy.
- [20:34]
Andrew Walsh
I am holding onto this Sally fourth.
- [20:37]
Luke Burbank
We swept it right under the rug.
- [20:39]
Andrew Walsh
We really did. We swept it right off a cliff and out the door. Okay, good. We're 20 minutes in, which means we've already had our first commercial break. We've kept people around and they're like.
- [20:49]
Luke Burbank
What is in all about that quarter hour maintenance?
- [20:52]
Andrew Walsh
What is in that three panel comic that Andrew claims to be the saddest three panel comic he's ever read? We see a woman who I am guessing is, I don't know, maybe middle age with a woman who I'm guessing is her daughter. I'm guessing that this is Sally Forth and her daughter. The woman has dark hair. The younger girl who I'm going to say is maybe about 13 years old or a teenager somewhere in that range with blonde. Ha. And they're clearly in a hospital. And the frame is the same for each shot. And it's. They're outside a hospital door. And in the first frame you see the mom and daughter presumably walking into the hospital. When I say hospital door, I mean they're in a hospital, they're outside a room. Right. They're going to visit somebody.
- [21:37]
Luke Burbank
Gotcha.
- [21:38]
Andrew Walsh
And the mom is saying as they walk into the room, are you sure you're ready to see grandpa, sweetie? And the daughter says, no, but I need to. I need to look back on this and know that I said my, you know. The next panel is the same shot of the door. You don't see the mom and daughter anymore because they're presumably inside talking to the grandfather. And then the third panel is we just see the young woman, the 13 year old or whatever, leaving the room with her Face in her hands, sobbing. And her mom, who's still in the room with her dad, I guess, says he knows you were here, sweetie. And the woman is saying. Or the girl is saying through her tears. Okay. Wow. Were you able to follow that? Okay.
- [22:31]
Luke Burbank
Yeah.
- [22:32]
Andrew Walsh
Can you picture it?
- [22:33]
Luke Burbank
I can. I mean, I have a lot of questions. A. Why did Stephanie clip this?
- [22:39]
Andrew Walsh
Yes.
- [22:39]
Luke Burbank
Why was it mailed to you? And why did we just talk about it for 22 minutes?
- [22:42]
Andrew Walsh
What is that? What is the drop? My question is why. Why would it. Why would anybody do that?
- [22:48]
Luke Burbank
Just why? Like, I mean, I guess. I guess what it is is this. This. We're going to call it a. I go back and forth if it's comic strip or cartoon, because I guess comic would be in a strip. Okay, so comic strip. I guess if this comic strip sees itself as a sort of a soap opera or at least a plot, you know, a sort of like continuing plot line around characters and also something that. Not there to be funny. It's there to reflect the human experience. I guess that's what they're looking to do. It seems to me to be a tough place to try to deal with those major themes.
- [23:29]
Andrew Walsh
You mean next to Crankshaft?
- [23:31]
Luke Burbank
I mean next to Crankshaft and B.C. and just below, above Dagwood and Blondie.
- [23:38]
Andrew Walsh
Right.
- [23:39]
Luke Burbank
Or, you know, like, now here's the thing. If you look at the work of like Dan Clows. Is that how you say his name? No. Who's the guy that does? I'm, you know, the guy that did Ghost World and stuff. Clowey.
- [23:51]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, I. I know what you're talking about, but I don't know that.
- [23:53]
Luke Burbank
There are certainly, like. There are some. There are. There are graphic novelists, there are graphic artists who write and create incredibly moving stuff where they're using, you know, they're using that format to, to talk about all kinds of themes of loneliness and, and. And, you know, just all the things that go on in the human experience. And in fact, I think a graphic novel can be an incredible way to.
- [24:15]
Andrew Walsh
Experience that Art Spiegelman jumps to mind. That seems like from your. From when you would have been maybe reading that kind of stuff or.
- [24:23]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, like what? R. Crumb or Terry Zwigoff or something.
- [24:29]
Andrew Walsh
But like Megan Kelso.
- [24:31]
Luke Burbank
Precisely. I mean, I should have started with Megan Kelso, but like. So there is definitely a way for this to be a really interesting way to, to. To. To get into these topics like grief and like, you know, but to me it's the, like putting it in the funnies It's. It's because, like, if I go and I get a book, if I go get Underworld, I go to my local. My local Ghost, my local Underworld, and I. And I pick up a copy. Ghost World. Excuse me, is there also one called Underworld?
- [24:58]
Andrew Walsh
There's a novel by Dom Underworld.
- [25:04]
Luke Burbank
It would have been such a different book if Dom DeLuise wrote it.
- [25:08]
Andrew Walsh
I feel double B, by the way, when I know.
- [25:12]
Luke Burbank
I remember that from yesterday. I remember that from yesterday. But all that is to say, I don't want to, because I know we have a lot of listeners who are fans of graphic novels and even people like Megan who make them. I'm not. My point isn't to try to be insulting towards the form. I'm saying that's for Sally Forth, for the people, the creators of Sally Forth, to pop that right into my. My Thursday morning experience of opening up the Seattle Times or whatever newspaper and reading through and seeing that. I mean, I don't know, maybe that spoke to somebody. It seems like a pretty heavy message to try to slip into an otherwise normal day as opposed to, I went to buy an actual graphic novel from this person that I'm gonna sit down with and read and be ready for a certain kind of experience with, if that makes any sense.
- [25:55]
Andrew Walsh
I think it's interesting also that both two out of three of the comics that Stephanie clipped took place in hospitals or doctor's offices. I don't know what's going on there. The funny thing about that is I think Stephanie clipped that Sally fourth, because it was so unbelievably unfunny that she just wanted to keep it as evidence. And it is unfunny, but in a certain way, as I was describing it, I brought it up because it was like, wow, this is, like you say, really heavy just to open up on a Wednesday and see it in the newspaper next to Blondie. But honestly, as I was describing it, it actually kind of was moving. So I was like, well, I guess maybe. I mean, that's the thing. And who am I? I think the thing is, you buy a graphic novel and it's called a graphic novel. I actually think I've probably read a few more graphic novels than you in my time. And obviously they cover all kinds of stuff.
- [26:42]
Luke Burbank
You mean. Because I'm only able to mention the most famous graphic novel of our generation. And then I also called it Underworld. Is that why you think you read more than I did? Terry Zweigoff directed Ghost World. He is not himself a graphic novelist.
- [26:55]
Andrew Walsh
Just to be clear and the reason I brought up Spiegelman, because I. He wrote mouse, which I kind of figured you would have as an NPR producer back in the day.
- [27:02]
Luke Burbank
I liked that.
- [27:02]
Andrew Walsh
Okay, but you know what I'm talking.
- [27:04]
Luke Burbank
I do know what it is. I never got it.
- [27:06]
Andrew Walsh
Holocaust and told through the. Told through mice.
- [27:09]
Luke Burbank
I mean, I guess.
- [27:09]
Andrew Walsh
But it's a very. But it's a very serious. You know, it's a very, very serious. Yeah, the art form covers very, very serious things and does it really. Well, I actually think it's really set up to cover serious stuff. Well, but the fact that we called the page in the newspaper, or used to when there were newspapers, the funny pages, and then you have this a. A teenager sobbing as she leaves a room because she feels like she wasn't able to properly say goodbye to her. Yeah. The apparently dying grandfather is just like, wow. Okay, now. Now what do you got for me? Family circus, right?
- [27:43]
Luke Burbank
Oh, I see we now know where what that kid's whole day looked like, because there's a little broken line going all around the yard and over the swing and back around. Oh, Billy, what have you gotten up to today?
- [27:57]
Andrew Walsh
That's right. Thank you, baby.
- [28:09]
Luke Burbank
All right, let's thank some donors. These incredible folks are sending in a donation to TBTL voluntarily. They don't have to do it. They've chosen to do it. And it's how this thing can happen. This is 100% listener supported podcasting. Andrew, as you and John know, we're set to have. I'm set to have a conversation with some folks. It's kind of TBTL related about some future projects that we're excited about. And every time I get ready to try to explain to somebody who has no prior knowledge of this show how it works, I'm reminded of how absolutely amazing it is that it has worked. It's a. It's a. It's a slightly ludicrous thing to try to explain to someone. Well, we've been doing it for almost 20 years, and here's how. Because people who like it, who don't have to donate money are like, yeah, but I will. And then it's three people's job.
- [29:00]
Andrew Walsh
And then do they ask, yeah, but what do you talk about? And that's when you get into the Sally fourth conversation.
- [29:06]
Luke Burbank
I actually, you know who I'm about to talk to. I think that might be right up their alley.
- [29:10]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, that's a really good boy.
- [29:12]
Luke Burbank
I actually think this might be a real good proof of concept for the folks that I'm going to be Interacting with.
- [29:17]
Andrew Walsh
Give me an example of what you talk about on your show. Well, we like to do about a 25 minute break.
- [29:21]
Luke Burbank
Long time on apartment 3G and how it relates to what is Mary Worth up? Well, I'll tell you, we're here thanks to Kirsten and Daniel Carr who are in Sagatuck, Michigan.
- [29:38]
Andrew Walsh
Really nice job there. If not getting it right, certainly saying it with confidence. Do you know if you're right? I'm just curious.
- [29:44]
Luke Burbank
I mean, I couldn't imagine that it's Sagatak.
- [29:47]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [29:47]
Luke Burbank
Do you think it's gotta be Saga Tuck?
- [29:49]
Andrew Walsh
I was looking at that and I was sort of like trying to figure it out. I didn't even, I, I didn't even get as far as you did in my process on that. I was trying to figure could it be a soft G? And I don't think there is any way it could be a soft G like Sarja Tuck. But no, that's. I think I swore.
- [30:04]
Luke Burbank
Should we call it the Tim Hortons?
- [30:06]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. In Michigan.
- [30:07]
Luke Burbank
Saugatuck. I was trying to find if there's a pronunciation. Wow. This looks like an amazing place. The greater Saugatuck area.
- [30:16]
Andrew Walsh
I'm picturing my life. Beautiful outdoors.
- [30:19]
Luke Burbank
Oh my gosh. Welcome to the art coast of Michigan.
- [30:21]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, wow.
- [30:22]
Luke Burbank
Saugatuck, Douglas and Fenville. Three distinct towns that beat with one welcoming heart. From award winning beaches and scenic waterways to a thriving art scene and a world renowned culinary landscape, this is a one of a kind place where people long to stay for a getaway. Rich in both recreation and relaxation. Explore the art coast and discover your ultimate escape.
- [30:45]
Andrew Walsh
Look at this. And you could just get on a boat, cross right over Lake Michigan and end up in Milwaukee.
- [30:50]
Luke Burbank
Amazing. Incredible. You know, Becca and I were talking about maybe this summer doing a road trip and trying to end up at like maybe Mackinac Island. A place that I've always been fascinated by ever since I learned how to pronounce it a year ago. It's not Mackinac island, it's Mackinac.
- [31:06]
Andrew Walsh
I'll never remember.
- [31:08]
Luke Burbank
And. Or is it Mackinac, not Mackinac. It's whatever.
- [31:13]
Andrew Walsh
I think it's.
- [31:13]
Luke Burbank
It's Mackinac, not Mackinac.
- [31:15]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [31:15]
Luke Burbank
Ever since five seconds ago when I learned how to. When I re remembered how to pronounce it. We're talking about maybe doing a road trip because, you know, Michigan, I'll say. I mean, Michigan has some of the most picturesque and lovely towns and highways and byways and waterways of America. And I Haven't spent enough time there. My main time there was two trips. One for the super bowl when the Seahawks lost, and then the second when I was flown into Midland, Michigan, home of the DOW Chemical Corporation to fill in for Peter Sagal at the last minute on like a. Not so much. Wait, wait, don't tell me. But like a sort of an event where it was sort of like. Wait, wait, light but minus the game. It was just Mo Rocca, P.J. o' Rourke, and then me filling in.
- [32:00]
Andrew Walsh
For Peter as a. Just sort of a donor event or something.
- [32:04]
Luke Burbank
You know, it was in the Midland, like Arts Center. So Midland is an interesting town too because again, it's where the DOW Chemical Company is founded. Because there were some kind of. The. Whoever Dow was had figured out that he could make some kind of useful chemical. I forget what exactly he started with, but he needed a certain kind of like. I don't know if it was a mineral or a particular kind of. There was something that there was a lot of it in, in this area of Midland, Michigan. And I feel like it had to do with like, I don't know, like ponds. There were like a lot of ponds or something that had this thing that he wanted. So he goes out there to Midland and he founds it. And so what you have in Midland, Michigan is a kind of a medium sized American town that has a tremendous amount of resources in it because of this very successful company. So they got like an amazing minor league baseball stadium. They've got this great arts center. And the arts center was kind of doing basically like, hey, if you like. Wait, wait, don't tell me. Come to this thing where you'll hear Peter Sagal in conversation with Morocca and PJ o', Rourke. Except Peter couldn't make it. So they called me the day before and I remember.
- [33:08]
Andrew Walsh
Flu, I assume.
- [33:09]
Luke Burbank
I always.
- [33:10]
Andrew Walsh
With that guy. God, wild man.
- [33:12]
Luke Burbank
Don't take a meeting with him after two because it is. He's not going to remember it. That's apparently what they say about Rudy Giuliani, right? You know that.
- [33:19]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, no, I didn't know.
- [33:20]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. The word from his various handlers was like, yeah, no meetings after two or he won't remember it.
- [33:25]
Andrew Walsh
Oh my goodness.
- [33:26]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. But I know I've. I've literally played this as content on tbtl. They recorded it and I used it because this was back in the bad old days when I think it was just me maybe doing the show. And I was like, well, I'll go to Michigan, I'll do this. But I'M gonna also need to use it as part of the show. But what I said, I'm very proud of this joke, and I've repeated it here on the program many times. I came out to this, I don't know, 3,000 person auditorium that's like, all excited to see Peter Sagal and Mo Rocca and PJ o'. Rourke. And instead they're like, and here for Peter Sagal, it's a guy you've never heard of. And I said, this is kind of. To the crowd. I said, this is kind of a bucket list event for me, because one of my items on my bucket list is to see 3,000 people disappointed at the same time. Which I thought was a pretty good spoof, honestly.
- [34:12]
Andrew Walsh
Did you win them over with that? They.
- [34:14]
Luke Burbank
They tolerated me pretty good. They tolerated me. Anyway, all that is to say I. I haven't explored Michigan sufficiently. And when I look at this kind of arts coast of Saugatuck and Douglas and the other place, I'm like, man, that looks great.
- [34:26]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Michigan is like the heart of the art of the, of the middle part of the country. I guess it really is. You think of the. So many.
- [34:34]
Luke Burbank
Grand Rapids has got that big. That big, you know. What's the, what's the name of the big art. The yearly art event in Grand Rapids that's literally one of the greatest art fairs in America.
- [34:44]
Andrew Walsh
Are you sure that's Grand Rapids? I. My brain. I'm still reeling from my Nancy and Sluggo brain fart earlier, but I think.
- [34:54]
Luke Burbank
I know the prize art prize.
- [34:57]
Andrew Walsh
That's Grand Rapids.
- [34:58]
Luke Burbank
Grand Rapids, Michigan.
- [34:59]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, okay. Where is. Where is the University of Michigan?
- [35:03]
Luke Burbank
That's in Ann Arbor.
- [35:04]
Andrew Walsh
Ann Arbor. And don't they have a very vibrant arts scene as well?
- [35:08]
Luke Burbank
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
- [35:09]
Andrew Walsh
They have a big arts festival, too. That's what I was thinking of.
- [35:11]
Luke Burbank
I mean, you can't turn around without.
- [35:13]
Andrew Walsh
Bopping into where I own.
- [35:17]
Luke Burbank
You were breaking hearts way back in the day.
- [35:19]
Andrew Walsh
I'm still weeping for my departure.
- [35:20]
Luke Burbank
They've never recovered.
- [35:21]
Andrew Walsh
Nope.
- [35:22]
Luke Burbank
They've never recovered. Thanks also today to David Johnson, who's in Federal Way, Washington. Another place that I haven't explored sufficiently.
- [35:30]
Andrew Walsh
True.
- [35:30]
Luke Burbank
Me too, but plan to.
- [35:32]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. Thank you, David. Appreciate that.
- [35:34]
Luke Burbank
Thanks, David. Thanks to Colleen Burns, who's in Mystic, Connecticut. Mystic, Connecticut. I've never heard of the place, but it sounds mystical.
- [35:44]
Andrew Walsh
Is Colleen.
- [35:45]
Luke Burbank
Is that where they did the pizza?
- [35:47]
Andrew Walsh
I think that's where they did the pizza. I got a. I told you I went to the post office yesterday. I have some comics I want to share with you later on in the show. But one of the things that I learned was some of our LPs were returned. You know, when we ship out thank you gifts, sometimes people move or they're on vacation and they don't check their mailbox or something. And so things get shipped back to us. And so we had several records that bounce back to us. One of them was from Connecticut. And I don't. I don't know. I don't think it was.
- [36:16]
Luke Burbank
I hope it wasn't Colleen's, but. Andrew.
- [36:19]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. What do you know?
- [36:20]
Luke Burbank
I am on the website for Mystic, Connecticut, and I say this, you know, with peace and love. Move over, Saugatuck. Mystic, Connecticut is also unbelievably beautiful.
- [36:32]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I'm not surprised to hear that.
- [36:34]
Luke Burbank
Unbelievably beautiful. It's. It's a village and census designated place in Groton in Stonington, Connecticut. It was a significant Connecticut seaport with more than 600 ships built over 135 years starting in the 1700s. And my God, does that ever look unbelievably beautiful and relaxing. A place to while away a summer afternoon eating some chowder. I don't know if that's how they say it in Connecticut. That's more of a. That's more of a Massachusetts thing. But still. Thanks, Colleen. Thanks to Randy Grover, who's in Bellevue, Washington.
- [37:06]
Andrew Walsh
Hey, that's another beautiful place. All beautiful places.
- [37:09]
Luke Burbank
Another place to while away the hours at Din Tai Fung, if you're lucky, Sitting next to Steve Ballmer, as I once was. Oh, right.
- [37:16]
Andrew Walsh
Was he loud, which was crazy.
- [37:17]
Luke Burbank
I think CBS has greenlit me doing a story about Din Tai. Andrew.
- [37:21]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, they're gonna say about Steve Ballmer.
- [37:23]
Luke Burbank
About Steve Ballmer?
- [37:24]
Andrew Walsh
No. Look out, Pablo. Luke's on the case.
- [37:28]
Luke Burbank
I know, right? I'm a little late to the game. Just me Citing Pablo Torres reporting on Steve Ballmer.
- [37:33]
Andrew Walsh
It'd be amazing if Ballmer just sat down for an interview with you. With me, at this stage. Yeah.
- [37:39]
Luke Burbank
But no, I'm. I'm actually pretty excited about it because do you know that Din Typhung, which. Which you know, we talked about a lot on the show, it is, per location, the most profitable restaurant chain in America.
- [37:52]
Andrew Walsh
That makes sense.
- [37:53]
Luke Burbank
An average location of Din Tai Fung is more profitable than any other type of restaurant chain in America. Again, based on location numbers and yeah, mostly I just wanted to have an excuse to eat dumplings and not feel bad about it because it's for work.
- [38:09]
Andrew Walsh
Did you include or see or Hear reference to the fact that there's some popular TV show now, popular with the young people that Genevieve was watching. I'm never gonna be able to know what the show is, but I believe it's a show. You know what?
- [38:26]
Luke Burbank
I might know the show be, Sweetie in it.
- [38:28]
Andrew Walsh
I don't think so. I don't know. I haven't seen it.
- [38:30]
Luke Burbank
It's not Euphoria.
- [38:31]
Andrew Walsh
No. I think it is a show called I Love la. I could be wrong about that. Watch this.
- [38:37]
Luke Burbank
No, because I knew it was going to be highlighting the worst elements of LA culture and young life. And you know who that's been confirmed by? My daughter, who is so young that she's going to start getting AARP mailings in eight years.
- [38:51]
Andrew Walsh
Well, Genevieve says there's a scene where somebody from LA is visiting. I believe either an old friend or maybe a romantic interest. I'm not exactly sure back in New York. And what they bring, and it might be a transplant from. From LA to New York or something. And so they bring him Din Tai Fung. And Genevieve said it was very sweet, but she said the one mistake they made, she felt, was that they kind of hit the hammer on the head a little bit too hard by like, kind of saying Din Tai. She said they have that such classic packaging with that very recognizable dintai bag. She felt like the character should have not said it, just shown it. And it could have been show, don't tell. So were you familiar with that? And is that making its way into your piece?
- [39:34]
Luke Burbank
It might now. I did not know that.
- [39:36]
Andrew Walsh
So that gives me what I can.
- [39:37]
Luke Burbank
Write today's show off as research.
- [39:39]
Andrew Walsh
Nice.
- [39:39]
Luke Burbank
Absolutely. Yes, definitely. Yeah. I mean, you. You would. I'm with you on that. Like, you probably don't have to say the name of the place if you're bringing that over and the person knows.
- [39:50]
Andrew Walsh
They know. Yes.
- [39:51]
Luke Burbank
I will say that when I have been to the Din Tai in Times Square, and I do.
- [39:56]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, there is one in New York now.
- [39:58]
Luke Burbank
Oh, yeah, there's one in Times Square now. I mean, not directly across from the Winter Garden, but.
- [40:02]
Andrew Walsh
Oh. So.
- [40:03]
Luke Burbank
Oh, so they brought it from Los Angeles. I thought they just went to the Times Square.
- [40:07]
Andrew Walsh
I thought my. Keep in mind, this is like a show that Genevieve watched, then told me about while we were, like, driving to the dry.
- [40:14]
Luke Burbank
Three career women are living in an apartment.
- [40:16]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, right.
- [40:16]
Luke Burbank
A friend visits.
- [40:17]
Andrew Walsh
But it was my understanding that it was like somebody was missing LA culture on the East Coast. Maybe it wasn't New York, but I.
- [40:24]
Luke Burbank
Thought they must have written it before they knew if it's in fact New York, they must have written it before dentite because it's, it's really brand new, this.
- [40:32]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, is it? Okay, maybe that's the funny. Okay.
- [40:35]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, but I do I, you know, first of all, you know how, you know how uppity I get when I'm at Din Tai, about like when they ask you, have you dined with us before? It's like I'm like, you don't understand. My whole personality is liking this restaurant, okay? And so I get that way. Imagine I'm in New York and they're asking me, Andrew, can you, can you imagine? Because like, to me it feels like a very. Well, it's a Taiwan based restaurant. But then its first expansion into the US was into like the sort of Altadena area actually, where I was taken by an ex of mine and converted to the, to the gospel of Din Tai. So I, in a very not annoying kind of way of being in the world, feel tremendously possessive of the whole Din Thai experience. And then to be at this brand new sparkling one in Times Square where they're like, have you dined here before? It's like I was eating here when your mom and dad weren't even thinking about creating you. Please.
- [41:31]
Andrew Walsh
Is this you imagining yourself in that dentai or have you been to that one?
- [41:35]
Luke Burbank
I've been to that dental.
- [41:36]
Andrew Walsh
You've gone to the New York one?
- [41:37]
Luke Burbank
Yes. I have a whole non meat order that I can do, which is admittedly not as fun. But I get the string beans that I love. I get a fried rice. They do have a veggie dumpling, which it's too much mushroom. But what I do is, to me, it's really all about this sauce kind of concoction that I like to make, which is the rice vinegar, it's the soy sauce. And then it's just massive amounts of that chili oil. And if I get enough of that going and I dip the veggie dumpling in, kind of does it sort of scratches the itch for me.
- [42:13]
Andrew Walsh
But it's the. But I understand. Like I'm somebody who likes mushrooms. I'm not, I'm not like some huge mushroom person. I'm not huge on portobello or whatever, but you know, like, I generally like mushrooms in various stages of cooking or I'll even eat them raw on a. Not charcuterie. Geez Louise, I can't, I can't do the rest of the show. Can you just do the show? What do you call crudite? I Couldn't think of the word crudite. Oh, sure.
- [42:38]
Luke Burbank
Crudite. Or as I thought it was called crudite.
- [42:41]
Andrew Walsh
Crudite, Exactly.
- [42:42]
Luke Burbank
I thought it was crudite until five, maybe less than five years ago. I had seen the word. It was one of those things where I've heard the word crudite. I've seen a word I thought was crude. Dite. I've never put it together that what I was hearing people say was a reference to that.
- [42:59]
Andrew Walsh
Anyway, it didn't. I didn't even need to go there. My point is, I like mushrooms raw. I'll eat them. But I fully understand somebody who says, they just don't work for me. And I feel like that sort of ties in maybe with my feeling towards bananas or something. It's just like. It's definitely a textural thing with mushrooms, right? Like, there's nothing like that.
- [43:18]
Luke Burbank
Well, yeah. And flavor in the particular. What? The Din Tai. The din tai, I don't know if it's growing anymore, but with a healthy number of people that don't eat meat or don't eat pork necessarily, which is what's in what I would say are the best of the din Tai fung dumplings, you would think it would. I don't know, it would kind of make sense for them to make something like. Here's my point. I think you could actually do a very convincing dupe of the pork xiaolongbao from din Tai. And the reason is because it's kind of in the realm of mystery meat. You know what I mean? It's a little sort of, like, ball. It's like a little meatball of this pork stuff that then has got this soup which uses, I think, aspic maybe, to kind of, like, solidified until it steams, and then it liquefies. But, like, I think, because, in fact, you know what? I tried to make these once, and I did an incredibly crude, like, I tried to make a vegetarian version, I think, when I lived in Bellingham, and it was. They were, like, terrible, and yet they kind of worked. Like, when I made the whole concoction, my little dipping sauce, I was like, okay, this is 30% of what I'm going for. Now. Imagine, like, the greatest dumpling mines of our time. I've seen the greatest dumpling mines of our time. Anderson. Driven mad.
- [44:30]
Andrew Walsh
Driven madreas.
- [44:31]
Luke Burbank
Like, what my point is, like, what you need is you need, like, something that has a ton of umami, like, you know, better than bullion. You need something that's kind of like, almost like A bite of meat. But again, it could be like, the further, like a steak is the most impossible. It's the most difficult thing to reproduce as a vegetarian option because we know what a steak, what the texture is, what it tastes like. It's all the meat thing. A fake pepperoni is pretty easy to fake. Or like a fake chicken nugget is pretty easy to fake.
- [44:57]
Andrew Walsh
That's very processed. Or ground beef.
- [45:01]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, totally. The more processed, the easier it is to fake it. So, like, I feel like the din Thai people could make something that doesn't actually have real meat in it, but just like, is almost indistinguishable from the real meat option. But instead they've decided to go to this, like, bean curd, bok choy, shiitake mushroom, wood ear mushroom situation. And they also make them green. And they don't.
- [45:24]
Andrew Walsh
They.
- [45:25]
Luke Burbank
They don't look exactly like the soup dumpling. And that, to me is. Is. Is a bit. Maybe I'll talk to the owners when I do my story.
- [45:32]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, yeah, that's right. If you're doing a story, you can be the change you want to see in the dumpling.
- [45:36]
Luke Burbank
That's all I'm saying. That's all Jonathan Levine of Hillsboro, Oregon is saying. Hey, Jonathan, home of the Hillsboro hops.
- [45:44]
Andrew Walsh
I have been to Hillsborough before, and it's another beautiful community.
- [45:48]
Luke Burbank
Can I. Would it be a violation of your HIPAA rights if I asked why? What were you doing in Hillsborough, Oregon? Just visiting.
- [45:53]
Andrew Walsh
I was having new teeth and.
- [45:57]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, and they look great, by the way. You look exactly like Jelly Roll.
- [46:03]
Andrew Walsh
I got. Those are my Hillsborough teeth.
- [46:07]
Luke Burbank
How do we feel about JSN's? JSN?
- [46:10]
Andrew Walsh
I don't think I know where you're going with this.
- [46:12]
Luke Burbank
Well, you know, JSN has veneers.
- [46:14]
Andrew Walsh
No, I didn't. I don't follow. I don't think. And it's weird because closely.
- [46:17]
Luke Burbank
Well, I didn't really notice either. But then I saw like a, you know, a dentist, like a teeth expert on TikTok, and she was talking about them and she was. What she was pointing out was that JSN's teeth looked phenomenal before he got the caps, before he got veneers like his. Because there's, you know, there's before and afters and side by sides and things like that. And she was going, gosh, his teeth were really nice before. Wonder what was going through his mind when he decided to veneer them. But, I mean, to each their own. I think Jelly Roll is currently the. Maybe the Most glaring example of somebody who went too far with the.
- [46:50]
Andrew Walsh
With the.
- [46:51]
Luke Burbank
With the veneers. He looks.
- [46:53]
Andrew Walsh
He's been restrained in his other choices of.
- [46:56]
Luke Burbank
Well, traditional. Yeah, I told you that when I was at. I was in Nashville and I was doing some sort of event there, like a corporate event I got hired to do. It was a. Speaking of law enforcement conferences, Andrew. There was literally a law enforcement. It was like. I was like jail guards. It was like. It was like basically the, like, carceral. The like carceral industrial complexes, like jamboree was at the. Was at the Exposition center in Nashville at the same time that I was at this other thing in a different ballroom.
- [47:29]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, my God. They have. They have prisoners dressed up in, like, white and black, classic striped prisoners. I mean, dunk tank.
- [47:36]
Luke Burbank
Just short of that, my friend, because I had to walk through a lot of this bullshit to get to the one I was kind of going to, which was like a software thing. And. And it's. Yeah, it's everybody. It was like all of the people that are involved in the sort of US prison system and all the people that are profiteering off of it, Andrew. It's a good bunch of people. And. And Jelly Roll, there was a sign because Jelly Roll famously did some time like Jelly Roll was before his music career took off. He was a sort, I guess, a petty criminal. And he did. Did a little bit of time. So. But now he's, you know, he's been redeemed and was there to talk. He was there to make sure he was cashing some checks from the prison people.
- [48:18]
Andrew Walsh
That's. So, yeah, I was wondering. Well, like, his role there is to what, on the face of it, talk about the experience of somebody who has been imprisoned. Is it.
- [48:29]
Luke Burbank
I mean, I didn't go back to.
- [48:30]
Andrew Walsh
Veneers, but is the veneer here, the idea. The idea that he's supposed to be, like, giving a perspective that these folks wouldn't otherwise have.
- [48:40]
Luke Burbank
I wasn't invited to the speech because I did not have a lanyard for that conference. I had a lanyard for the conference I was working at. But my guess is, yeah, something like that. I don't. It wasn't a concert as far as I understood. I don't think Jelly Roll was performing. I think he was there to just. And I have, you know, look, I had seen some clips right, when he was sort of emerging as a, I guess, music star, where he would apparently go to, you know, jails and prisons and talk to people who were incarcerated. And I think they were probably Honestly, pretty hyped about that. Like, and, and to the degree that he was going around telling people like, this doesn't have to define your life. The fact that you're in prison right now or incarcerated at the county level, like, I think that's a great message. And I'm not trying to, like, neg him on that. I'm feeling a little less than enthused because of the fact that after he won a Grammy, they asked him how he felt about what was going on with ice. And he said, I just got a cell phone four months ago. I don't watch the news. Which I felt like was a kind of a cop out. That's why I'm a little bit. That's why I'm currently a little. A little whatever about old Jelly Roll.
- [49:41]
Andrew Walsh
I will tell you this right in that he's right in that. In that kind of narrow area of fame where he could easily ostracize either side. He could. He could easily, with one wrong comment, probably chop his income in half, right? Or at least that's what's going through his head in that moment.
- [49:59]
Luke Burbank
That's exactly what the line he's trying to walk. And of course, my hope would be that he would just learn how to live with half of the income that he's making. And to just say, particularly as somebody. And I know these aren't exactly related topics, but, like, if he's somebody who has been in the prison or jail system of this country, he has to understand the inherent unfairness of it all. And I know that's not the exact same thing as what ICE is doing, but they're all kind of wrapped up in the same ball of bullshit. And you would really hope that somebody who'd been in there would. Would then spend the rest of their life, but particularly if they end up with a charmed life like he did, pushing back against this system that is so obviously rigged and so obviously unfair to so many people and so obviously not about rehabilitation. It's totally punitive, obviously. So my hope would be that he'd be like, I got out of there and now I'm rich beyond my wildest dreams. So now this is my chance to blow the whistle on, like, this terrible thing as opposed to thinking, like, how do I not alienate? I'm going to use this on air. What somebody called my. Somebody called Ice the gravy seals. He doesn't want to alienate the gravy seals who might listen to his records. And so he's going to go, I just got A phone four months ago.
- [51:13]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. I don't know what's going on in the country. Sure you don't.
- [51:16]
Luke Burbank
Meanwhile, let's talk about Zoran Mamdani appointing somebody and who's in charge of. I guess, is it the. Is it the. It would have to be New York City, because he's not, you know, he's the mayor of New York. He's not the governor, but I guess the new commissioner, the person in charge of the prisons or the jails in New York City is a person who's previously incarcerated. And I think that's one of the coolest fricking things I've ever heard. Like, what a smart way in my mind to run something like that is to have somebody who's been through it from the other side, who probably knows the good and the bad of what sort of works and doesn't work from an interesting perspective, is obviously not currently someone who's performing criminal behavior. We leave that for the president, by the way. But, like, what a cool thing. I think that's you. Should I almost. I would say in order to be in charge of any major prison system, you should have had to do some time there.
- [52:09]
Andrew Walsh
I was thinking that Mamdani was going to be our final donor of the day. I got so excited there for a second, but, well, we gotta reach out.
- [52:17]
Luke Burbank
Here's our connection. You know, friend of the show and friend of Livewire, Hari Kondabolu is like. Has been friends with Mamdani for years because they both went to Bowdoin College. And when Mamdani's mom reached out to Hurry and said, my son, who's younger than Hurry, is considering going to Bowden, would you kind of give him the, like, the download on it? So they became friends, like, many years ago and have been friends throughout. So if I can get Hurry to reach out to Zoran, who is right now doing God's work, which is trying to get bidets installed in Gracie Mansion and appointing formerly incarcerated people to run the incarcerations up. If we can get him. Take a break from that. To donate to tbtl. I think. I think it could happen.
- [53:00]
Andrew Walsh
Do I need to. Do I need to clip the Sally fourth part and send it, or do.
- [53:05]
Luke Burbank
Do you think I clip it out of the show? Honestly, I'd. I'd.
- [53:08]
Andrew Walsh
I would for.
- [53:09]
Luke Burbank
Because Saran is like a young cool guy. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know if that's gonna. We need to actually re record one where we're talking about, like, I don't know. What's where we're talking about Jimmy Neutron. I think that's more skateboarding and Jimmy Neutron.
- [53:22]
Andrew Walsh
That's what he's talking about. That's young. That's young.
- [53:25]
Luke Burbank
Exactly. That's what Carissa Carpenter of Denver, Colorado turns to the show for. Thank you, Carissa.
- [53:31]
Andrew Walsh
We appreciate you.
- [53:32]
Luke Burbank
Thank you to all of our donors. We could not do TBTL this young, hip show without you.
- [53:43]
Andrew Walsh
Hello, and welcome to Top Story.
- [53:47]
Luke Burbank
Andrew, you wanted to take a guess at what I was alluding to during the top of the show about our first top story here, which is related to the upcoming super bowl and the Seahawks fans and the Patriots fans apparently agreeing on at least one thing about this game. And you wanted to guess what that thing is.
- [54:09]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [54:10]
Luke Burbank
What do you think that thing might be?
- [54:11]
Andrew Walsh
I don't want to put you on the spot here, production wise, but I don't think this story was in the show sheet. So you said it during the intro and during the soundcheck, and you played a little drop. I thought it was funny. I don't know if you still have it there. You said, there's one thing they can both agree on.
- [54:27]
Luke Burbank
Yeah.
- [54:27]
Andrew Walsh
And then I said, what the hell is even that?
- [54:29]
Luke Burbank
Or were you thinking this one was, I feel cute today.
- [54:31]
Andrew Walsh
Look at my outfit. I was thinking of that, what the hell is even that? Which I don't know the origin of it. And I was one. I was like, what could that story be? And then I remembered I did see a headline today or yesterday that had to do with certain bill, but it's a serious topic about certain billboards that are going up in San Francisco around digital Bill. Does this involve digital billboards in any way? No. Well, then I'm not even gonna bring up my story. Cause screw it. What is the actual story?
- [55:01]
Luke Burbank
This is a. This is a Seattle Times piece from Sofia Vascelli, Fanatics apparel company under fire for, quote, ruining Super Bowl 60 fan jerseys. Fanatics, one of the country's largest sports merchandise distribution and the NFL's exclusive supplier of Nike fan products, is under fire for its Super Bowl 60 apparel ahead of Sunday's title game between the Seahawks and Patriots. So basically, these are the official super bowl jersey. You know what I mean? It's not. This is not like the regular jersey. This is not the color Rush or whatever. It's like fan Graphics has the exclusive contract to create the super bowl jersey for the Seahawks and for the Patriots. Now, I don't think this is even what the teams are going to wear. It's so like the Ways that this, the way that the. This sort of idea of even what a jersey is has been so. It's been sliced so thinly and then distributed in so many directions so as to maximize the profitability of all of it. I don't even know exactly what this means when they call this the official Super Bowl 60 jersey, other than this is the official one that this company is allowed to sell, that is created by Nike and people. This is somebody. Oh, Dove Kleinman, who's an NFL reporter, says this is on like whatever X or something. Trending Seahawks and Patriots fans are pissed at fanatics and Michael Rubin for ruining Super Bowl NFL jerseys, making them extremely cheap and low quality. Imagine paying $160 for this garbage. And you look at the jerseys and they are totally just like, like, first of all, they're. They're super cheapo looking. They are not. If you were paying $160 for a jersey, Andrew, you would probably expect that, like the stitching on the numbers and the all, like, it'd be two pieces of fabric. You'd have the jersey itself and then you'd have the numbers and the name or whatever all kind of stitched on by machine. This would be. There'd be some. What's the word I'm looking for?
- [57:06]
Andrew Walsh
I don't know the word you're looking for.
- [57:08]
Luke Burbank
Texture between the writing and the thing. This is just a straight up like cheap ass looking jersey with the letters and things just screen printed onto there. Just like something.
- [57:20]
Andrew Walsh
This looks like an oversight. I'm looking at this now. It looks. I kind of just rewind for one second. I don't know if you know this, but I do have a sports jersey, which is interesting because I'm not like a.
- [57:29]
Luke Burbank
Is it your Bernie?
- [57:30]
Andrew Walsh
Cozy. But yeah, Genevieve got me like a Bernie Kosar jersey, but like an official Browns Bernie Kosar jersey. Maybe she got it for me 15 years ago. But like it's really good quality. Right. It's stiff. Like the letters that are sewn on are like obviously a separate material that is sewn on there. The name, each letter is sewn on. Like it's.
- [57:52]
Luke Burbank
Imagine the person, the craftsman person who. Although it's probably a machine, but still.
- [57:56]
Andrew Walsh
Probably a machine, but still it's like it's all stitched on there. Yeah, but the thing I wanted to say though was I'm guessing that that cost. Did you say $60? I'm guessing 160. Oh, 160. Yes. That's more the market for these things. I was like, 60 does seem really cheap. You know, anything that just even has an NFL logo on it would be start at $60, right? So, yeah, $160. That's what you're buying. They're just selling these look like floppy night shirts. Like floppy night shirts. And some of the patches that are like, I guess ironed on are in different places just sloppily thrown on there.
- [58:33]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, it's so underwhelming. Again at $160. So fan graphics responded. I'm sorry, Fanatics responded. They said, NFL fans, we've seen your jersey feedback and we take it very seriously. They wrote, we've let Patriots and Seahawks fans down with product availability. We own that. But there's anything. Is there anything more annoying in the parlance of our time than we own that? We're going to own that, guys. We're just going to own.
- [59:01]
Andrew Walsh
But what does it. It's especially annoying if it doesn't mean.
- [59:05]
Luke Burbank
Anything other than exactly nothing except hey guys, we're going to own that and we're sorry.
- [59:09]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [59:09]
Luke Burbank
Is what they're saying. So it. It's. Fanatics attributed the unmet demand to the Seahawks and Patriots matchup specifically. Quote, both teams went from missing the playoffs last season to being in the super bowl, an incredibly rare occurrence that led to these two fan bases near buying nearly 400% more jerseys since Thanksgiving versus last year. So I think what fanatics is trying to say is we ran out of good jerseys or something, or we weren't like, I don't know what this means because, like, are they saying we didn't expect these teams to be in the super bowl, so we did. Like, what did they have? Like, did they have 100,000 Kansas City Chiefs jerseys already stitched up, ready to go?
- [59:54]
Andrew Walsh
Right.
- [59:55]
Luke Burbank
Like, I don't even.
- [59:56]
Andrew Walsh
But.
- [59:56]
Luke Burbank
But again, presumably they don't make any of the jersey till they know the two teams that are in the Super Bowl. So I don't understand what their argument here is other than it seems like they're saying we didn't see this coming and because of that we had to make the jerseys really shitty.
- [60:12]
Andrew Walsh
Somewhere in another part, in an impoverished part of the world, there's gonna be a bunch of people wearing amazingly made Rams jerseys.
- [60:19]
Luke Burbank
And you know what? Those folks deserve it. Honestly, I'm just hoping that, like, you know, there's some guy somewhere, he's wearing a Matthew Stafford jersey and it's lovingly hand stitched with, with all the right stuff on there. But. But yeah, I'm, you know me, I'm not a big I'm not a big Jersey guy, generally speaking, but I do, I do think I know. I don't know exactly because it's on the way here, Andrew. It is not arrived, but it is on the way and I will know when it shows up and I will show you. I do think I know what I'm wearing on Sunday, if it turns out okay. And that is a sweatshirt from Etsy that I bought. Bought myself one and I bought Becca one and it is of. It's like Seahawks colors and it is an Etsy sweatshirt of a bear, like a little teddy bear wearing like a Seahawks letterman jacket and he's holding a pennant that is Seahawks colors and it says Seattle. It's. I think it's gonna be adorbs. I'm gonna send you a picture of it here. And this I think is. Now here's the reason that I'm saying I might wear it is because the sizes that I was looking for are like, like, you know, it was impossible for me to really know if I was buying the right size for either myself or Becca. So I like, I bought myself like a. An XL or something. But there's like one is like girlfriend cut, which means I think made for women's style of wearing a sweatshirt. And then one's like oversized and one's like boyfriend. Like it's a whole bunch of different categories and I don't really know what I'm ordering so it could show up.
- [61:58]
Andrew Walsh
I have an on the market cut sweatshirt shirt.
- [62:02]
Luke Burbank
I'm sending you an email of this, by the way. Tell me if you don't think this is not the most adorable little thing you've ever seen. But like, this I think is maybe for me the sweet spot. Again, I don't know how if it's going to be way too big or way too small or not fit correctly or be the. Wasn't very expensive, by the way. I think it was like 25 bucks for the sweatshirt, which is also kind of. That's as much as I paid for a fake gun, by the way, that never showed up.
- [62:28]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, I was wondering that thing, you.
- [62:31]
Luke Burbank
Know, I've never heard back from.
- [62:33]
Andrew Walsh
The thing of Chekhov's gun is you see it in the first act and it goes off in the last act. And I've been waiting for this freaking Burbank's gun to come back. Maybe that Burbank's gun, you mentioned it in the first act and it never comes back into play.
- [62:46]
Luke Burbank
But isn't that more. But isn't that more fitting with TBTL Our version of the Gun is that you never hear about it in the third act. You hear about it four years later when a different play is being staged at the theater.
- [62:58]
Andrew Walsh
Right. So it just never showed up, huh?
- [63:00]
Luke Burbank
It never showed up.
- [63:02]
Andrew Walsh
Can you tell me again how much you paid for it? Or did you.
- [63:04]
Luke Burbank
25.
- [63:05]
Andrew Walsh
Okay. Yeah. So it wasn't. It wasn't that great.
- [63:08]
Luke Burbank
I mean, that should have been my first. What I've learned is if I'm gonna ever buy anything from Tick Tock, it needs to be through what is called the Tick Tock Shop. Because that thing is, I've bought a few doodads and gee gaws through there, and that's all been fine. They've shown up. They've been as advertised. But anything that you try to buy through TikTok, that's not going through the actual TikTok Shop, don't even bother, because that thing is. That's never showing up at your house. That is, as Walt would say, some Chinese bullshit.
- [63:39]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, this is very cute. The little sweatshirt that you got.
- [63:42]
Luke Burbank
Isn't that kind of cute?
- [63:42]
Andrew Walsh
I think that the show picks. Everybody can see it. But I need to talk to you about something here, Luke, that I don't think you care about much, as certainly as much as I do. And some friends of ours, like. Like Ders and our buddy Nick Jarin, I almost wish I could, like, right now, just get one of them on the show to talk about this with me, because they are, you know, pretty obsessed with sports uniforms. In fact, before there was that.
- [64:07]
Luke Burbank
Jarn's whole thing, right?
- [64:09]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, well, and I remember. I mean, what, 15 years ago, but probably when we were all watching games together and you were still in Seattle, I remember those two would in the room watching the game and just going off on all this, like, Jersey ephemera, and it's just like. And they have such strong opinions, and for a long time, Veeves and I were really trying to get them to do a podcast together. And then Uni Watch came along and sort of. And now everybody's got a podcast about everything, and everybody talks about uniforms. But all of that is to say I have. I'm a little distressed about some uniform news. It starts off sounding like good news, but let me back up here for a second and tell you something about my beloved Seattle mayor. You know, I like the Mariners, right? Like, there's no doubt about that. You know, that I like them as a baseball.
- [64:54]
Luke Burbank
You're a verified Mariner liker.
- [64:56]
Andrew Walsh
Thank you. I don't love their uniforms. In most cases, they have. You know, I don't like that Pacific. I call it like a teal color, but I think they call it Pacific action blue or some bullshit like that or what, you know, whatever. It's not action blue, but, you know, whatever. That kind of like teal color. Is that the uniform that the Mariners wear? I really dislike that. I. I think they've sort of put that in the back burner a bit. Their white uniforms are fine. I don't really love the S with the compass. Like, I just don't love a lot of the imagery around. Around it and, you know, that's fine. But they have one that I sort of like, which is kind of controversial. A lot of people are not with me on it, but the, the New City Connect uniforms that they rolled out about three seasons ago and they only wear them on Friday nights during home games. And those are the ones. A lot of people don't like that. It mixes black pants with like dark blue shirts. Puts people off. I kind of like it. That was the first time I noticed the stitching thing that you're talking about because I'm pretty sure I remember when we were discussing those new uniforms on this very podcast, you were like, it doesn't look like they're sewn on. It looks like they're kind of like, you know, like pressed on numbers. And I think you're right about that.
- [66:09]
Luke Burbank
I think that is sewn on. No, I think pressed on. Yeah, that's Tim Robinson joke. You think that's just pushed. You think this is slicked back?
- [66:19]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, I didn't know what you were doing there. But anyway, I think you were right about that and that was something I hadn't noticed. But generally speaking, I kind of like those uniforms. They don't offend me. Everybody can have their own opinions, but the one thing that was universally agreed upon, and I'm serious, I had this conversation with so many strangers at bars and just random fans, whatever. Everybody loves the Sunday cream colored uniforms. They're very, very simple. I don't know if they. Yeah, they usually have the names on the back, I believe, but they're this. The Mariners only wore them Sunday afternoon home games. This cream colored jersey, it's what most fans are wearing. I don't think it's a throwback. I mean, I think it's just their. Their cream colored one. Right. I think you're maybe seeing some new news that I'm getting to here because I could be wrong about that. But all I know is the Mariners Sunday afternoon uniforms at home were universally beloved and the favorite of the fans. Recently there has been news that the Mariners are adding a new uniform to the rotation. And these are throwback negro league uniforms from Seattle's team that was called the Steelheads. And it has this real blocky sort of letters and very, very simple design. And they're going to be using those uniforms too now this year. And I would like to say those uniforms look awesome. I love the throwback steel head look. It's really cool and it's a great way to kind of acknowledge that part of baseball history. But they're replacing the Sunday uniforms with this new uniform. They could have replaced any other uniform with their Steelhead uniforms. They're getting rid of what has just like it's been. The one thing Mariners fans agree on, the one thing Mariners fans agree on are that the Sunday unis were always the best and now they're replacing them with these new also cool uniforms. But they're getting rid of the other good ones. Like, why don't you make those the Saturday uniforms or something else? I don't know where. Do whatever you want with them, but don't get rid of my cream colored unis.
- [68:19]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, I'm seeing this on Instagram. Rip to the Sunday creams.
- [68:23]
Andrew Walsh
Are people bemoaning?
- [68:24]
Luke Burbank
People are not happy.
- [68:25]
Andrew Walsh
See, I haven't seen any reaction. I only read the article and so I've been sort of. You know how like sometimes you're like upset about something and you need your people, you need to hear other people complaining about it. And I hadn't done that dive yet and I hadn't talked to my buds about it, but I just can't believe that they're replacing the best uniforms they have. And again, this is nothing against the steelhead uniforms. I actually think they're really cool. I would get one of those if I were a jersey wearer. I really love that font and you know, I'm a font guy, but I just can't believe they're getting rid of the fan favorite.
- [68:56]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, yeah, I do like these. I mean, this is. It's so funny because, you know, I am so. Only because on our text chain on the criminals, by the way, on the subject of the criminals, I have figured out out a solution, but it's not a solution. But I figured out I was doing something extreme that was unnecessary, which is like I was keeping ders blocked like 2,4 sev, 7 days a week, like during football season when all I really need to do is just block him when the game starts. And then just, like, unblock him when the game's over. That's all. Or maybe give it an hour for.
- [69:29]
Andrew Walsh
People who don't know, because you're trying to protect yourself from a lot of the negative sort of shit posting that.
- [69:35]
Luke Burbank
He posts to sort of keep himself sane. More mad. And then I get into with him, and I don't think it makes anyone's experience on the text chain better. But the problem is, first of all, Andy is he's got a lot of good information on the Mariners and the Seahawks. He's almost always, when I have him unblocked, he's the first one into the chat with, like, oh, we just picked this guy up, or this just happened. But because I've just like, I'm acting like I've been acting like I sort.
- [69:58]
Andrew Walsh
Of had the Brendan Donovan scoop the other day.
- [70:00]
Luke Burbank
Well, I can't know that because I had him blocked. So all I saw was yours. But I don't know for a fact if he wasn't. No, but my point is, I've been acting as if blocking and unblocking Andy is something where I need to, like, get a Sherpa and climb to the top of a mountain and seek a wise man's counsel and then, like, do some incredible, like, process to block him and unblock him. It takes five seconds. All I do is go to the contact and unblock him. And then part of my getting hyped up for the game day, part of my, like, putting on my eye black, pulling on my teddy bear sweatshirt, I could make getting ready for the game. Part of the ritual is, and now we block Ders again. And then we just unblock him, you know, a while after the game or even just wait until he does one thing in there that makes me mad, then block him. Fine.
- [70:48]
Andrew Walsh
But, like, and then send us screen caps of you blocking him, which is.
- [70:52]
Luke Burbank
It's been so silly that I've been leaving him blocked on, like, a Tuesday when he's not, you know, he's not a problem in for me in the text chain on those days.
- [71:00]
Andrew Walsh
In fact, he's a great source of information.
- [71:02]
Luke Burbank
He is. He's. I mean, that's the thing. If he can, when he's not in a triggered state, he is a very, very smart sports knower and has a lot of interesting takes and is very, very read in on things, much more so than I am. Like, that's why I was asking you the other day if this Donovan thing was good or just because you already had Donovan memes. My level of Awareness.
- [71:21]
Andrew Walsh
No, Brendan Donovan watch has been a thing.
- [71:24]
Luke Burbank
So I'm so. So this is. I mean, and I guess the point is that it was like when that Donovan conversation was going on in the text chain and I was like, not sure because I'm also only seeing like your response to something Ders did or David's or whomever is John Goodwin's. And I'm like, well, wait a minute. Why don't I just unblock him and just. I'll just block him on game day and then I'll just unblock him on non game day.
- [71:43]
Andrew Walsh
Let me ask you a question about blocking, because I've never blocked anybody before. If you unblock, do you see the stuff that you missed when that person was blocked? Does it repopulate? No, it's just missing time.
- [71:55]
Luke Burbank
But the other problem is it's just missing time. And then the other problem is under the new iOS, what it's doing all the time is asking me if I want to leave the conversation of the fun loving criminals. And the reason is it says you have, in this case, Andy, is you have Ders blocked. He can still see your messages. Do you want to leave this conversation?
- [72:18]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, I see.
- [72:19]
Luke Burbank
Like it thinks it's being helpful to me, but what it means is at all times, along with like a weird ass picture of John Ryan that I can't see the texts with.
- [72:26]
Andrew Walsh
Is that gone now, though? That's gone.
- [72:28]
Luke Burbank
That's gone now. That's gone. It's also constantly giving me what's effectively like an error message. It's constantly asking me if I want to leave the chat because I have Ders blocked, but Ders can see me.
- [72:37]
Andrew Walsh
Uhhuh. So it's like I just want to.
- [72:38]
Luke Burbank
It's another annoyance. It's just too much. It's just a bunch of visual noise when I'm trying to just get in there and talk about George Holani. Hero game.
- [72:46]
Andrew Walsh
So I wanted to ask you, while we're talking about baseball and pop culture and you mentioned bidets before, you talked about Mamdani wanting to add bidets to the mansion there. The governor. I'm sorry, the mayor's mansion. Did you see also, and I thought it. Oh, okay. So it's the White Sox now they are going to add a bidet to the clubhouse because of Murakamba.
- [73:10]
Luke Burbank
They're a Japanese pitcher. I saw a headline somebody sent to. Somebody sent me an email in my. In my TBTL account. I only saw the subject line, but it seemed to be that there was a pitcher who was requesting bidets or something.
- [73:22]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, they signed a Japanese pitcher who was confused why there were no bidets. So it looks like they will be installing bidets. Yes. Into the. And I'm sort of scared. I had seen this bouncing around and so I'm sort of scanning the story now. Like I said, I was mistaken. I thought it was. I thought it was the Dodgers because I thought they're the only team that's allowed to sign people. But no, apparently it's the White Sox.
- [73:44]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, I mean, you know me. We don't have to. We don't have to relitigate this. But definitely, I think the more bidets, the more better in the major league ballparks in. I mean, man, Andrew, the story that built TBTL when I had my bathroom accident in the Kingdom. Can you imagine if there would have been a bidet in that stall for me? I mean, there was a lot that.
- [74:06]
Andrew Walsh
The bidet couldn't pose.
- [74:07]
Luke Burbank
We were in a situation, but it would have been better than nothing.
- [74:10]
Andrew Walsh
It's not a detachable hose unless you pull hard enough. Yes, 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.
- [74:25]
Luke Burbank
All right, Emails, v. Mails, voice memos. Voice memos.
- [74:32]
Andrew Walsh
If you want to call us, by the way, and leave a voicemail on our voicemail line. The phone number is area code 206-414-8285. That spells 206-414-TBTL. But you can also email us. You can email me andrewbtl.net and include a little voice memo. And that is what our friend Cheryl in Corvallis. I actually grabbed this. I'm pretty sure this is Cheryl in Corvallis. I grabbed this a while ago and I didn't label it, but I believe it is in reference to. Remember the other day when I was talking about the pop song that everybody is talking about by Far East Movement called like a G6? Everybody's talking about it. They're talking about that. They're talking about Stanley Ford fourth. They're talking about apartment 3G. Well, I believe that that is what inspired this voice memo, which I have not heard yet. Hey, Luke and Andrew, it's Sherrilyn Corvallis.
- [75:22]
Luke Burbank
Nice.
- [75:22]
Andrew Walsh
I was listening to an episode from a few days ago. I'm a little bit of a time bandit right now. And I heard Andrew's joke referencing the Far East Movement song fly like a G6. And it took me back to hearing that song somehow pop into our algorithm while On a road trip in Seattle. And the kids a few years ago, not being able to understand what a G6 was. What is a G6? Is that a car?
- [75:54]
Luke Burbank
You know, I always assumed. I think I was wrong about this. I think I always assumed a G6 was a kind of a private jet, like a Gulf Stream or something. That would make sense.
- [76:06]
Andrew Walsh
But also.
- [76:08]
Luke Burbank
But also, I don't know. Again, I'm terrible.
- [76:11]
Andrew Walsh
No, you're right. You're right. A G6 most commonly refers to the luxurious Gulfstream G650. Yes, so. You're absolutely right. So, okay, Cheryl, count me amongst your children. They started singing along and they said, fly like a cheat stick. So every time I hear that song now, I no longer sing G6. It is absolutely and always will be Fly like a cheese stick. Anyway, hope you have a great day. Power out. I'm worried that.
- [76:44]
Luke Burbank
So much better. I like it. So. Yeah, because like, that's a more fun, weird song than just a.
- [76:49]
Andrew Walsh
Like a.
- [76:50]
Luke Burbank
Hey, guess what? I got a private plane and I'm flying like a G6. Like, first of all, I am hungry. I would like a cheese stick right now. In all seriousness, and I think that's.
- [77:01]
Andrew Walsh
When you say that. When you say you would like a cheese stick right now. Can you tell. Tell me more about cheese stick. What is that? What do you mean? Are you talking about like a deep fried situation at a. I'm talking about a red Rob.
- [77:11]
Luke Burbank
I'm talking about a very specific cheese stick. A red robin cheese stick, which is where I learned. And I know this is not your thing, right. Melt.
- [77:18]
Andrew Walsh
No, no, I do like that. That's why I do that one. Because I wanted to make sure you didn't mean one of those gross little cold cheese sticks that is like people.
- [77:25]
Luke Burbank
String cheese off of it.
- [77:26]
Andrew Walsh
And I always gag when I see that.
- [77:28]
Luke Burbank
I like that one too, by the way. When I was a kid, called that string cheese, because you could, like, pull it apart and it would be stringy. I feel like I. I don't think that the. The youth of America are. Are stringing their cheese as much anymore, which, I don't know, maybe that's a good thing. We thought it was like the coolest thing ever. I mean, we had three channels, Andrew. We had nothing else to do except string our cheese when I was a kid. We're very excited about that. But no, when I say cheese stick, I mean a really specific one too. I mean, the first time I ever had a cheese stick in my life like that is, you know, a deep fried Mozzarella cheese stick thing was at Red Robin, probably the Red Robin on Eastlake, Rest in Power. And that's always been my very favorite kind. And now there's all kinds of different cheese sticks. You can order them everywhere. Every pizza place has them, but they generally don't. They're all a little different than, to me, the first one that I ever had. The first kind that I ever had is still the best kind and just happens to be whatever Cisco Ass food supply company Red Robin buys from. You know what I mean? It's not like they're. It's not like it's superior. It's just the one that started my love affair with the cheese stick. And so that, to me, is the highest. That's. That's the most elite cheese stick is the one that you get from a Red Robin.
- [78:40]
Andrew Walsh
You know, as somebody, as you said, you're like, oh, this doesn't sound like something you would eat. But, you know, my rules, my seven rules for dating. My cheese stick gets very, very complicated. Like, what do I. But basically, if you remember that I, I eat pizza because basically you're talking about a melted mozzarella situation with marinara sauce or pizza sauce on it or something like that is what a cheese stick is. And so by that same, I don't know, transitive property. Yes, Cheesitive property. I also like mozzarella sticks, and I even will keep them in the freezer sometimes, you know, and then like on a Friday night maybe, I think this last Friday, I heated up a. What do you call a Stouffer French bread pizza alongside some of those cheese sticks. So I. I do. I do like those a lot. And I don't know if I'd be able to pass a blind taste test between a Red Robin one and a TGI Fridays one. Although bad example, because I think TGI Fridays, I think theirs are flat, right? Theirs are, like, flat and rectangular.
- [79:41]
Luke Burbank
I've got. I'm on the Red Robin website right now.
- [79:44]
Andrew Walsh
Are we going to go meet? What is between you and me? Let's meet at the.
- [79:47]
Luke Burbank
Oh, I'll meet you at a Red Robin. Like Olympia.
- [79:50]
Andrew Walsh
I could do that. Because I think they might be cutting power here this afternoon, so I need to get out of Dodge anyway.
- [79:55]
Luke Burbank
Well, listen, hold on. I got to put on my soothing sound. I need a minute here because I'm on the Red Robin website, and it looks like they have turned their back on the very fundamentals of their business model, which is to say the kind of cheese sticks that I like because they appear to now have switched to something they're calling cheesy mozzarella twists.
- [80:18]
Andrew Walsh
I swear that's what they. Wait, you've already had this freak out. You can't have this freak out again. You had this freak out at Red.
- [80:25]
Luke Burbank
Rock when we went there with John.
- [80:26]
Andrew Walsh
My first time at Red Rock.
- [80:27]
Luke Burbank
First of all, you're not in charge of how many freak outs I'm allowed to have.
- [80:30]
Andrew Walsh
You don't know how my body processes soup. No, it's all coming back to me because I remember liking them, but you being disappointed because it was my first time ever in a Red Robin and you really wanted to recreate all of your favorite Red Robin experiences for me and John. It might have been John's first time, too. I can't recall. And I'm pretty sure that you had a little bit of a breakdown.
- [80:53]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, I'm sure I had this. Listen, this is. I forgot about freak out number one. So this is all new to me. Freak out number two. But, like, I can't believe that they did that. I'll say it again. I can't believe that they. Because that's like. Like the kinds of cheese sticks that they made. Addie and I used to go there when she was little. We would get. For some reason, I was in a big, like, I was in, like. Well, I'd either get a blue cheeseburger or maybe something called the super salad combo. Not to be confused with what's the place in Party Down. Not to be confused with super crackers.
- [81:25]
Andrew Walsh
Is that it? Super crackers.
- [81:27]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, super crackers. And we would split a half order of cheese sticks because I was oftentimes writing a check literally that I didn't have the money in my bank account to cash. Like, I'd write a check and then I would hope that something was going to work out for me before the Red Robin company submitted the check to their bank. And those were the cheese sticks that I loved. And now I'm looking at cheesy mozzarella twists, which I'm sure they did some kind of market research and decided that that was actually more appealing to people. Who knows? Maybe it is.
- [81:58]
Andrew Walsh
But can you tell me about the kind that you had before they became, well, twists?
- [82:04]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, they were. They weren't twisted. They were like. What I remember about them is that they were kind of a little bit fatter than some of the other cheese stick products out there. You've got the. You've got a certain kind of cheese stick that's maybe, let's say roughly the. The Size of a large French fry. Right? Like a french fry that's maybe a little bit wider than a typical French fry. But then you've also got them. These ones were like, like weirdly large. Like they were, they were. There was. They were kind of abnormally large. And then the breading they were in was, was not flaky. It was a kind of a uniformed. Imagine like a, a helmet of hair that someone had hairsprayed down a lot. That was what it felt like. It wasn't like. It wasn't like these ones. I'm looking at these cheesy mozzarella twists. Panko breaded fried mozzarella.
- [82:49]
Andrew Walsh
There is a lighter breading. Now I know the kind you're talking about. And that's kind of the kind that I buy at the, the in the freezer section of my local grocer. Kind of. They're like, I think describing them as like kind of a, a thicker french fry or pencil shaped or something. I want.
- [83:03]
Luke Burbank
I found a picture of the old mozzarella.
- [83:05]
Andrew Walsh
I think I just did too. And I'm looking at it very close.
- [83:08]
Luke Burbank
Two things of marinara in the picture. Is that what you're seeing?
- [83:11]
Andrew Walsh
Let me see what I'm looking at here. I. I'm looking. It's. Oh, no, I'm sorry. I was looking at a jalapeno cheese stick from Red Robin.
- [83:19]
Luke Burbank
Look up Red Robin mozzarella sticks recipe and they've included a photo of the old school mozzarella sticks which.
- [83:28]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's your classic. Now here's where you remember when I was telling you merely moments ago, although it feels like a lifetime.
- [83:36]
Luke Burbank
I've already forgotten it. Andrew.
- [83:37]
Andrew Walsh
I know.
- [83:37]
Luke Burbank
You met me.
- [83:38]
Andrew Walsh
I know. Goldfish. Goldfish, darling. I have too, and rightfully so. I. I'm pretty. I'm pretty. I'm not feeling great about today's show. I'll be honest with you. I really got. You forgot. I gotta do that thing. I mean, ever since my Nancy and Sluggo brain fart at the beginning of the show, I have just been struggling to keep up. Couldn't remember. Crudite, crudeite, as I say. Anyway, my rant about the uniforms and the Mariners uniforms. I told you that I was having trouble with this because I was angry, but I hadn't found my people yet. I hadn't found the other people who were bleeding online along with me. Yeah. So I want to provide that service to you right now. I am on a Reddit post that was posted on the official Red Robin subreddit Two years ago.
- [84:26]
Luke Burbank
Okay.
- [84:27]
Andrew Walsh
The headline and only commentary from the original poster was, Red Robin totally blew it by replacing the cheese sticks with completely hollow cheese twists. Now, I want to read to you the first two comments that posted immediately.
- [84:41]
Luke Burbank
Can I ask you one quick point of clarification?
- [84:43]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. It is Buch Lurbank who posted this.
- [84:46]
Luke Burbank
I was wondering, what's the name of the person who. What's the name of the user who posted the initial complaint?
- [84:54]
Andrew Walsh
Mr. Balzac.
- [84:59]
Luke Burbank
That's so much better than I even could have dreamed.
- [85:03]
Andrew Walsh
Probably saved the show. All right, okay, sorry.
- [85:07]
Luke Burbank
Continue.
- [85:07]
Andrew Walsh
So then this is Dill911 writes.
- [85:11]
Luke Burbank
Wow.
- [85:12]
Andrew Walsh
100% agree.
- [85:14]
Luke Burbank
Marinara sauce can't melt this steel.
- [85:18]
Andrew Walsh
All right. 100%. It might be Dill 91 1. Dill 91 was a joke. 100% agree. So effing disappointing. And I'm editing this, by the way, for radio. I've been going there for years and it's been my favorite item. And they've replaced it with something that tastes like low quality cheese sticks you get at some fast food place. I can't believe they got rid of them. They've gone downhill considerably lately. I'm going to skip ahead to this next person whose username I can't even. I can't even tell what it spells. But they wrote, I am disgusted. We took our family out for dinner. We order the mozzarella sticks and we get this twisty pos. What in the world? And then burgers tastes like really low quality meat, no sauce. The fries were all undercooked. Chicken tenders were more like chicken tendons. It was just bad. Bad. I'll never go back. After like 30 years. You effed up Red Robin. Letting them know on all platforms too. They are.
- [86:21]
Luke Burbank
By the way, I believe that person's name is a mom in wa.
- [86:26]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, that's a mom in Washington. Interesting. Boy, you are.
- [86:29]
Luke Burbank
You're.
- [86:30]
Andrew Walsh
You're following along with me.
- [86:32]
Luke Burbank
I just got here.
- [86:33]
Andrew Walsh
I'm looking to see, like, what else? Something must have changed with Reddit. One of my favorite things is when somebody posts a comment like that, click on their profile and see what else they've posted on. But they've been. A lot More and more people are choosing to make everything private now, which I guess means if you're after we.
- [86:49]
Luke Burbank
Roasted that woman who. Who went off about the Hudson news in like, whatever airport that was that we. Everything else that she was posting was so, like, negative too.
- [86:58]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Can we talk about this for a split second? Let's move away from. I Think we're just Badlands in it now, right? I think I've been badlands in it from the get go today and I'll pause if you need. Thank you.
- [87:10]
Luke Burbank
I do need to do this. The Badlands. The Badlands. Ah, Ma M N wa.
- [87:26]
Andrew Walsh
So going back to that conversation, we have to reset it a little bit because it was like a year ago, it was in the Arizona airport and I saw what would usually be described as a hut Hudson News, but it was sort of, I don't know, it was a little bit different.
- [87:39]
Luke Burbank
It was a little crossroads or something.
- [87:42]
Andrew Walsh
And I can't remember what it was called, but let's just say it was like Crossroads by Hudson and it was just sort of like, I guess it was like an elevated Hudson News. Right. And so we thought, oh, this must be the direction they're going in or something along those lines that there are going to be a bunch of Crossroads by Hudson. One thing that I noticed in one of my recent travels, probably I'm guessing to la, but I'm not exactly sure. It seems like what Hudson News is doing is they're making a whole bunch of different little offshoot brands because I think it might have been the Vegas airport. It wasn't Crossroads, but it was something else that sort of just vaguely nodded to local culture and then said by Hudson. So I'm wondering if all the Hudson Newses or a majority of them are going to be like kind of these elevated Hudson Newses, but they're all going to have different names based on where they are. Have you noticed this as somebody who flies way more than me?
- [88:35]
Luke Burbank
No, I'm usually just walking around with my headphones and listening to, you know, this sound and kind of keeping my eyes down. But I could see that now. What we ended up doing though, I think I was just googling around trying to get eyes on this place you were describing. And in the course of that I think I went to their website and then the first review of it was so irrationally angry about the person at the, whatever they call this Hudson Crossroads or Crossroads by Hudson, not like smiling or something when they like, like checked this person out. And then I think from there we went to see, because it was on Yelp, I believe this was the Yelp review of a lifetime, as we say. And then I think we went to this person's other Yelp reviews and they were all just kind of, they honestly were a little a mom and wa to me. And by that I mean like to go back to this Reddit review of Red Robin. I am also, as we've now learned multiple times, I'm very bummed about them switching the cheese sticks. I find it hard to believe that literally every item of food that was brought out to this person and her family was awful. Like, I have a feeling that, like, this is a person who is. If we could see their other reviews, I bet you that they would be a person who goes more towards anger than. Yeah, happiness. For whatever reason, whatever they're dealing with. And it's like, you know, it would be nice to know because then I would know whether to believe them or not. If someone's entire profile is leaving pretty angry reviews, then I'm not going to take their angry review as seriously. And again, the idea that we like the burgers were horrible. There was no sauce. The fries were undercooked, the tendies were tendons. All of it was awful. And that she's letting them know on.
- [90:13]
Andrew Walsh
All platforms right now. Here's. Give them both barrels.
- [90:18]
Luke Burbank
We've got. What we've got is a person in a mom and wa who's cursing the darkness. Then we've got a torchlighter in user larnar23 larnar this is much more where I would go with this and in fact, where my mind went already. Andrew. I keep reaching out to them in hopes that they'll bring them back. Does anyone know their food distributor? I'm sure there's a way to buy the previous ones in bulk. That is. That's problem solving.
- [90:44]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, you figure out answers.
- [90:47]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, you figure out, okay, who was the. Cause, like, they weren't, you know, the Red Robin mascot wasn't hand breading the cheese sticks in the back of the restaurant. They're just buying this from some restaurant, you know, food supply company. These just happen to be the style of the cheese sticks that that food supply company was making or, you know, sourcing. Figure out where those cheese sticks are, get yourself a deep freeze, buy yourself a few boxes of them and you could be, you, you could be home, home cooking your mozzarella sticks. Just like, just like mom used to make them at the Red Robin.
- [91:20]
Andrew Walsh
Even though I said I because I wasn't expecting anything different because I had never been to a Red Robin before. I remember generally liking the cheese twists. I remember very much liking the whole sauce situation. Situation. Just the, the. What do you call the thing that the painter uses? Like the palette? Is that a palette? Yeah, it was like. Yeah, like that. Only a bunch of different sauces were on. And I loved that. But I understand you Know, change is hard and. But the thing that, that speaks to me a little bit with one of these complainers, these Yelp complainers is this idea that it just feels cheaper to them. And that is one thing that goes back to what we were saying about the uniforms with these so called super bowl jerseys or whatever.
- [92:05]
Luke Burbank
Everything just feels like trinklation, the insidification of everything.
- [92:08]
Andrew Walsh
It's in shittification and it's not because everybody's tightening their belts. They're getting richer. They capital they in quotes, they're getting richer but everything else is getting initiatified.
- [92:21]
Luke Burbank
Yes, 100%. It's not as simple as well, what are these companies supposed to do? Because there are still at the. Whether it's the, the airlines, whether it's the, the shareholders of whatever company, there is very often some small group people at the top of this whatever, you know, sort of venture capital project or what's the other one, I can never remember the exact name for it, but basically those kind of companies that, that will buy up, you know, a company and then just like strip out all the assets like they did. Basically. A private equity. Yeah, like a private equity company. Yeah. The, the things are getting worse for us than normal people because somebody somewhere is getting richer. They're getting richer to a degree that they can't even spend the money that they're getting off of, making things slightly worse for us. There are occasionally market forces where a company can't stay in business, but it's most of the time it's not because the big company is going to go out of business because the big company has to continually produce more profits year over year. And something's got to give. Now listen, I have amazing news out of this Reddit feed. Somebody called Char Yard says my brother said US Food carries the identical cheese sticks that Red Robin used to serve. I'm going to try them today. They're called Golden Crisp Battered Mozzarella Cheese sticks. Item number 7370166. Then somebody called Rumog checks in. Sir, you are a king, a gentleman and a scholar. After multiple failed attempts trying to find a replacement for these, I searched based on your post and your brother is 100% right. They're McCain Golden Crisp battered Mozzarella sticks and they taste exactly like the Red Robin ones and other places that used to have these. Especially if you deep fry and reuse the same oil, the taste really dials in. What a pro tip.
- [94:08]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, that's getting, that's very, very.
- [94:11]
Luke Burbank
It's like if you hire, if you hire a kind of checked out 15 year old with acne to reuse. We have to create the exact, exact, exact same environment of that red robin kitchen. Andrew, we need a kid who doesn't want to be there.
- [94:25]
Andrew Walsh
Right.
- [94:26]
Luke Burbank
We need, we need to reuse the same oil.
- [94:29]
Andrew Walsh
I'm going to wear a hair net.
- [94:31]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. Or not.
- [94:32]
Andrew Walsh
Or not.
- [94:33]
Luke Burbank
Even though you're supposed to.
- [94:34]
Andrew Walsh
I am sending you via text message the ugliest looking link I've ever done seen. I don't know why it's so long and weird looking but it links to the frozen. I'm just kind of curious what your takeaway is going to be based on the packaging of this. I'm sending you a link to the type of frozen food section cheese sticks that I get at the grocery store. Now keep in mind when I get these, I'm not trying to recreate anything and I'm certainly not trying to recreate a restaurant experience.
- [95:03]
Luke Burbank
Yes.
- [95:04]
Andrew Walsh
But generally speaking, like these are the same shape and kind of size as the kind that I think used to miss. I'm wondering if this even gets close to scratching that itch for you. They're well farm rich I believe is the brand.
- [95:17]
Luke Burbank
I'm looking at them, just an awful font. I know these style of mozzarella sticks and you know, honestly, any port in the storm, I would eat these. If I was at your house and it was freezer feast, I would absolutely eat these and I would enjoy them. Them.
- [95:34]
Andrew Walsh
I've had them before. Yeah. What do you see?
- [95:35]
Luke Burbank
Well, here's what, here's, here's what it comes down to the consistency of the cheese for some reason these ones because I'm now, I'm now I'm on the foodservicedirect.com website. I've got eyes on this McCain. I can buy a case of these for 115.
- [95:53]
Andrew Walsh
How many are in a case? Three.
- [95:55]
Luke Burbank
Let's see.
- [95:55]
Andrew Walsh
Three sticks.
- [95:56]
Luke Burbank
Three sticks, that's right. It, the, the, it's hard to explain the difference but as a person who orders cheese sticks a lot when I'm out, like the ones that you're showing me, the farm rich ones are very similar to ones that I'll get at a bar sometimes or a place like that.
- [96:10]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [96:10]
Luke Burbank
And they're again, they're always yummy. There's nothing wrong with these cheese sticks except they're not the ones I'm going for. And it has to do with the way that the cheese inside of the breading is responding. I think because the outer breading is slightly Different. It's. It's like the. It's almost like. It's really hard to describe, but the red robin cheese sticks, when they would come out piping hot, you didn't get a huge cheese pull off of them. You know what I mean? The cheese wasn't like ooey gooey molten. It was almost like this sounds kind of gross, but it was. It was still fairly solid in there. It was warmed up, but it wasn't like this thing where you take a bite of it and then the cheese is just spilling out. It's melting everywhere. You're trying to corral it. There was something about the consistency of the cheese in the red robin one that. Because that's the first one I had, that's what I prefer, if that makes any sense.
- [96:57]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. And going back to the insciatification of everything, one thing that I've noticed, and keep in mind, this is coming from a guy who's already got a very fraught weird relationship with cheese anyway and doesn't eat a whole bunch of different kinds of cheeses, etc. But I like melted mozzarella, especially with breading and marinara sauce. So, you know, what's to go? What could go wrong there? Except I've noticed. Oh, and also every now and then at a restaurant, if it comes. If a. Like a burger. I don't get burgers all that often, but if it comes with Swiss, like, let's say it's like a mushroom Swiss burger. But yeah, okay, I'll just get the Swiss. It'll keep the mushrooms on there. And as long as it's fully melted, my thing is I don't want to see the corners. In other words, it needs to be so melted that it's just like a melted cheese. It's not like I can see that it was a slice of cheese that's only partially melted. So those are my rules. But one thing I've noticed is more and more of the cheese in these situations. Cheese sticks and appetizers, and then maybe as a topping on a sandwich, it's being more and more replaced with almost a cheese goo that is almost like a.
- [98:00]
Luke Burbank
Yes.
- [98:00]
Andrew Walsh
Like, what was the stuff that was sold in cans when we were a kid? Cheez whiz. It all feels like it's almost like a white cheese whizzy. And as somebody who already does not really feel comfortable messing around with cheese, and you're sitting in a bar and you're like, you bite into a cheese stick and it's more like filled with white cheese whiz yes. That is awful.
- [98:18]
Luke Burbank
Yes, exactly. Well, Andrew, we're gonna need to wrap things up here because I am receiving a message from. Remember the people that I alluded to earlier who I used to have a chat with?
- [98:29]
Andrew Walsh
Yes, the Sally. Fourth people.
- [98:30]
Luke Burbank
I was the Sally. They're sallying forth and going, hey, can you join the meeting that I did not realize was supposed to be happening 11 minutes ago? Go.
- [98:38]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, geez Louise, let's get out of here. That's an important meeting.
- [98:41]
Luke Burbank
But. But, yeah, I'll give you and John a full. A full response in maybe later today or. Or at some point in the near future, but I'm gonna go ahead and.
- [98:51]
Andrew Walsh
Yep, go ahead.
- [98:51]
Luke Burbank
I'm gonna bow out here gracefully, or not so gracefully. And. And thank you, everyone, for listening. That's gonna bring us to the end of today's show, but we will be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio, so join us for that. In the meantime, everybody, have a great Wednesday. Take care of yourselves, and please remember, no mountain too tall, and good luck to all.
- [99:13]
Andrew Walsh
I will be ordering a bowl of soup as an appetizer, not a cup. Chuck, I know people say, I'll fill up, but you have no idea how.
- [99:22]
Luke Burbank
My body processes soup.
- [99:25]
Andrew Walsh
Power out.