#4664 I'm Not A Buzzball, I Just Glug A Lot

Summary

TBTL #4664: "I'm Not A Buzzball, I Just Glug A Lot"

Date: February 16, 2026
Hosts: Luke Burbank & Andrew Walsh

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Episode Overview

In this Presidents Day episode, Luke and Andrew take listeners through a winding and hilarious conversation covering everything from AI-generated voices and podcasting ethics, to Presidents Day confusion, NBA All-Star nostalgia, beach house trespassing dog dramas, and the allure (or dubiousness) of Buzzball Biggies. As always, their banter is interspersed with cultural references, self-deprecation, and loving ribbing. The highlight: a discussion about their friend David Greene's real-life lawsuit over an AI imitation of his voice, and a blow-by-blow recounting of Luke being denied pool access at a hotel overtaken by Nike's Jordan brand, ending up at a Guy Fieri airport restaurant where he encounters a hyper-quotable server.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Presidents Day: What (and Who) Are We Actually Celebrating?

• Luke and Andrew open by querying the actual point of Presidents Day, whether it honors all presidents or only Washington and Lincoln ([09:06]).
  • Andrew: "Is it still now? Is it for those two still? Or in combining them, did they also sort of mission creep us out into celebrating all presidents?" ([09:36])
  • Luke reads Google's AI summary: "The holiday honors the first president, George Washington, but it’s expanded to celebrate all US Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln..." ([10:00])
• They joke about who deserves to be on their Mount Rushmore—not necessarily actual presidents.
  • Luke: "Eminem, The Beastie Boys... Barry, Barry Hussein Obama." ([03:06])

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NBA All-Star Game & Sporting Nostalgia

• Luke and Andrew reminisce about when the All-Star game was exciting, and how Obama once commented on the loss of competitive spirit ([03:45], [04:11]).
  • Luke: "When the Sonics left Seattle, a part of me died and I just have slowly lost interest in the NBA..." ([05:41])
• Dunk contest nostalgia: Luke fondly remembers 80s participants like Dominique Wilkins and Michael "Air" Jordan ([07:35]).
  • Luke: "To me, the dunk contest stopped when it stopped being Dominique Wilkins, the human highlight reel, and Michael Air Jordan." ([07:53])
• Discussion about how classic events or music often don't line up with the younger generation’s “classics” ([08:11]).

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Valentine’s Day Weekend: Beach Escapades and Dog Drama

• Luke recounts a trip to Rockaway Beach, Oregon for Valentine's, staying in an Airbnb with Becca and the dog, Gigi ([10:38]).
• Grocery Store Adventures: Amused by the local “Center Market” with its massive “Buzzball Biggies” display ([11:20]).
  • Luke: "My sense of it was it’s this little round thing that you could, kind of like, bring around with you or whatever, almost that the utility of it was that it was highly portable... The giant one to me completely and totally, like, moves away from the core competency of the buzz ball." ([13:23])
  • Andrew: "I just remember literally standing there with Genevieve... contemplating the universe and buzzball Biggie's place therein." ([12:32])
• Dog Goes Rogue: Gigi escapes and trespasses into a “No Trespassing” yard ([17:20]).
  • Luke: "She just always stays like 5ft out of your reach... She senses a slight shift in the energy." ([17:20], [17:27])
  • Funny moment: Luke’s anxiety about being confronted by the actual homeowner ([18:00]).
  • The woman inside kindly understands the situation, diffusing what could have been tense ([19:24], [19:29]).

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President's Day, Dog Parks, and Leash-Related Peer Pressure

• A discussion about leash etiquette on beaches and the social dynamics of on-leash vs. off-leash dog owners ([22:15]).
  • Andrew: "Not like, hey, I'm cool. I would be with a leashless dog if I could. You mean cool in that you're non-judgmental." ([23:08])
• Gigi’s stealthiness and ability to slip through gates, plus the recurring challenge of catching a loose dog ([24:47], [27:30]).

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The “Buzzball” & Convenience Store Culture

• Further riffing on the allure and absurdity of “Buzzball Biggies” and similar novelty alcoholic drinks ([11:59], [13:23]).
  • Luke: "I'm not a buzzball. I just glug a lot." ([12:23])
  • Andrew: “Twisted tea is a gateway drink, Andrew.” ([14:27])
• Recounting a friend bringing a “Buzzball Biggie” to a picnic as a party statement ([14:49]).

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QFC Grocery Store Encounters: Generations and Buying Advice

• Andrew shares his saga: Increasingly weird and meaningful encounters at his local QFC, including running into his phlebotomist ([28:08]).
• A young man asks Andrew for beer advice, not (it turns out) a shoulder tap ([29:52]).
  • Andrew: “‘Hey, I’m new to drinking. Do you have any kind of advice on, like, what to get?’ And I'm like. Immediately... ‘Oh, this ends with this kid asking me if I will buy him beer.’” ([30:36])

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Home Renovations: Bowling Alley Wood & Rat Residue

• Andrew updates on renovations in his home, including incorporating reclaimed bowling alley flooring for a unique basement touch ([40:45]).
  • Andrew: "We can use the bowling alley floors to kind of box off this new storage area where we’re going to have these built-in closets..." ([41:44])
• The family contractor dynamic, physical challenge of moving wood slabs, and bonding over house projects ([41:59]).
• Discovery of rat droppings during demo, but not any “carcasses yet. I think that fell to a different carcass,” a wry Pavement reference ([46:19]).

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Top Story: The David Greene AI Voice Lawsuit

[Key Segment: 47:19-57:42]

• Story Origin: Luke shares an article from the Washington Post about David Greene, a friend and former NPR host, suing Google for allegedly using his voice as the basis for an AI podcast tool ([47:19]).
  • Luke: “My voice, like, it’s the most important part of who I am. Google says these allegations are baseless... The sound of the male voice... is based on a paid professional actor.” ([50:16])
• The legal complexities: external analyses indicate a 60% similarity, considered “very high” in legal/technical terms ([51:08]).
• Audio Comparisons:
  • Luke plays both real and AI-generated “David Greene” clips ([52:42–54:53]).
    • Andrew: “It starts out not sounding like him, and then it starts to sound a lot like him... But the interesting thing is it’s not just the voice, but it’s the way of speaking as well.” ([53:30])
• Mike Pesca’s Take: The problem is not only the imitation but associating Greene’s voice with “AI slop.” ([52:28])
  • Luke: “[Pesca says] they’re making his voice the voice of a really crummy AI slop... not just that they’re using a voice that sounds like his, but that they’re making that voice do like an annoying thing on the Internet.” ([52:28])
• The broader issue: what’s required to legally claim voice misappropriation? Not as difficult as one might think ([56:24]).
• Greene clarifies he’s not “anti-AI,” just upset they didn’t ask permission ([57:21]):
  • Luke quoting Greene: "I'm not some crazy anti-AI activist," he says. "It's just been a very weird experience." ([57:38])

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Guy Fieri Restaurant & The Hyper-Quoting Server

[Key Segment: 58:11–74:58]

• Luke’s effort to enjoy the rooftop pool at his LA hotel is thwarted by a private Nike Jordan Brand event, leading to an unexpected lunch at the Burbank Airport Guy Fieri restaurant ([59:16]).
• Donkey Sauce Wonders: Both hosts try to determine what exactly “donkey sauce” is (spoiler: a garlic aioli) ([65:04],[70:01]).
• Memorable Moment: Luke’s encounter with an over-the-top, inspirational-quote-dispensing server ([66:16–69:00]).
  • Luke (server quote): "I love the light because it shows me the way, but I enjoy the darkness because it will bring me the stars." ([67:08])
  • Andrew researches: Quote found online by Og Mandino, not a spontaneous original ([72:57]).
  • Luke: "I think that actually shows more forethought than just... I'm gonna little Dicky something off the dome." ([74:16])

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Notable Quotes

• Luke (on the generational shift in pop culture):
  "It's like hearing a band on the classic rock station... that is old enough to be a classic rock band, but you didn't hear it when they hit the scene." ([08:11])

• Andrew (on off-leash dog peer pressure):
  "I didn't want people to think... we were judging them because we had to have Gigi very much on the leash after that." ([22:34])

• Luke (on the Buzzball mystique):
  "I'm not a Buzzball, I just glug a lot." ([12:23])

• Andrew (on giving beer advice):
  "This kid says, ‘Hey, I’m new to drinking.’ Which is honestly how he opened... I really thought this was going to end with him asking if I’ll buy him beer." ([30:36])

• Luke (on the AI voice suit):
  "They're making his voice the voice of a really crummy AI slop... not just that they're using a voice that sounds like his, but that they're making that voice do like an annoying thing on the Internet." ([52:28])

• Luke (on survival after being denied hotel pool access):
  "I just get into the elevator and... like a dog that had eaten an entire frozen lasagna. I just look down at the ground." ([64:03])

• Luke (server's quote at Guy Fieri restaurant):
  "I love the light because it will show me the way, but I love the darkness because it will show me the stars." ([67:08])

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Timestamps of Highlighted Segments

• Presidents Day and Mount Rushmore riff: [03:06]–[10:17]
• All-Star Game & NBA nostalgia: [04:11]–[08:47]
• Valentine's beach trip & dog chase story: [10:38]–[24:56]
• Buzzball Biggies discussion: [11:59]–[15:55]
• Loose dog at grocery store: [25:27]–[27:47]
• QFC store oddities & beer advice to youth: [28:02]–[34:13]
• Basement remodel with bowling alley flooring: [40:45]–[46:19]
• Top Story: David Greene AI lawsuit: [47:19]–[57:42]
• Guy Fieri restaurant and server’s inspirational quotes: [65:04]–[74:58]

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Tone & Style

The conversation remains casual, humor-laden, and self-aware—true to TBTL's signature banter. Both hosts are open about their foibles, displaying a warmth for their friends and a bemusement with the world's absurdities. Their storytelling is rich in detail and digression, punctuated by witty asides and affectionate mockery.

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Transcript

[Luke]

You call that a knife? This is a knife.

[Andrew]

That's not a knife. That's a spoon.

[Luke]

All right, all right, you win. I see you've played Knifey Spoony before.

[Andrew]

TBT Ell, please understand that nothing personal is intended here against anybody. I don't hate these artists.

[Luke]

I'm not trying to say that God.

[Andrew]

Hates them, and I'm certainly not trying to get you to hate them.

[Luke]

Ah, it's funny. It's not like a regular HAHA sitcom. There's no laugh track, there's no audience.

[Andrew]

Very stylized. It's about a bunch of guys in Seattle. Targets.

[Luke]

Targets.

[Andrew]

Don't bully me, all right? I can't take it. I was cyberbullied within an inch of my life last night.

[Luke]

Watch out for that first step.

[Andrew]

It's a doozy.

[Luke]

Well, all right. Hello, good morning and welcome, everyone, to a Monday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. These are the best Cajun chicken niblets I've ever had. My name's Luke. I'm your host.

[Andrew]

I don't know who that is, and.

[Luke]

I don't care to find out. Coming to you from the Madrona Hill Studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia on this February 16th. It's President's Day.

[Andrew]

I'm the president of rap music, and I need to work with you right away.

[Luke]

A lot of podcasts would honor the presidents by not. Actually, it might be honoring the presidents if we didn't do the show, but that's not how we choose to honor the idea. Idea of the presidency. I don't know. We're here even though it's a holiday.

[Andrew]

I'm not even supposed to be here today.

[Luke]

And it's episode 4664 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. Story in the Washington Post about a pal of mine, public radio legend David Green, and the fact that he is suing Google because the. The sort of pilot podcast AI Voice sounds a whole lot like him. And he's saying they stole his voice and how dare you. There was an exciting little tidbit at the end of the story, which is that the Washington Post called up our friend Mike Pesca, another podcasting luminary, to have him listen to the sound and to decide if they ripped off David or not. I will tell you what he said, and we'll play the sound for you so you can decide for yourself here on this President's Day. Got two ears and they're tuned to the listening station. This guy has. Last time I checked, he's got two ears and they're always tuned to the TBTL station. He is the longest running cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships.

[Andrew]

Louis, what is that? What is.

[Luke]

I'm like, I don't know.

[Andrew]

What is it?

[Luke]

He's an Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew]

I've got an earth. I don't know if I can play today. I've got an ear.

[Luke]

We gotta get that graphic for you where you kind of Sam Darnold to the camera and it just says ear.

[Andrew]

It says out indefinitely.

[Luke]

Ear.

[Andrew]

Who would you. In honor of. I know that this is a cliche thing to do, but in honor of President's Day, who would be on your Mount Rushmore of presidents?

[Luke]

Eminem, The Beastie Boys. The Beastie Boys.

[Andrew]

Do they count as one or three? Three heads.

[Luke]

Well, I mean, this is the least interesting answer of all time, but Barry, Barry Hussein Obama. Did you see him at the All Star Game?

[Andrew]

No, I didn't. Tell me.

[Luke]

Coolly catching, like he was sitting on the sideline with Michelle, like, you know, courtside, because, you know, they're Michelle and Barack. And the ball during the ulcer game bounced over to him and he very coolly just snatched the ball, tossed it back to the official. No fuss, no muss. It's just like everything the man does is. Is unbelievably cool.

[Andrew]

It's amazing.

[Luke]

I would have voted for him three times.

[Andrew]

It's amazing that this is where the conversation went today because there's, first of all, so much I actually want to talk to you about, about your weekend and my weekend to a lesser extent. But I was thinking about Barry so much this week, and it has nothing to do with world events, but I kept on hearing that the All Star Game was happening yesterday. And I know the activities were happening all week. Now, you know, I know nothing about the N. All I know is, nor.

[Luke]

Do I, honestly, at this point.

[Andrew]

Well, but, you know, you understand, you could probably point out a basketball in a lineup. I would not be able to even do that. I'd be like, I don't know, is it that one? And be like, no, that's a volleyball. But I know that there is a sort of ongoing cultural conversation about the state of the All Star Game. And it used to be something that the players were excited about and the fans would be excited about because of all the activities in the game itself and that it's been sort of diluted over time. And a lot of players don't even want to do it anymore. And I always think, and I don't know if this has been from, this tape was from last year or two years ago and I can't find it on the fly, but Obama had a chance to sit down with an NBA player on some, I don't know, podcast maybe he was a guest on their podcast and he was like, I know I sound like an old man here, but you guys used to care. You guys used to care. And it was so funny just to hear him, not as a president, but just as an older statesman of NBA fandom being angry and having the opportunity to confront a basketball player saying like, bring back the spirit of the NBA All Star Game. And I was thinking about that all day yesterday.

[Luke]

Yeah, I have heard the same discourse. I, I also heard some discourse maybe last night where just some person on like TikTok or something was saying they did it, they figured it out, it was a good game or something. I don't know what they changed about.

[Andrew]

The rules or the good.

[Luke]

I don't know what they did to raise the stakes. One person who, I can't even give you their exact name, who they seem like kind of a sports knower, seemed to think that it went okay. So that's the, that's the insight I can offer on this whole thing. I just, you know, when the, when the Sonics left Seattle, a part of me died and I just have slowly lost interest in the NBA. I'm guessing it will come back when, if and when the Sonics come back to Seattle. But that's also meant not following the All Star Game, which even in the, like, there was a very good All Star Game, which I think I referenced I don't know, a year ago and I think I got many of the details wrong. But when I was a little kid, I remember that Tom Chambers, Seattle Supersonic Tom Chambers was a last minute alternate to play in the All Star Game. And if I remember right, I believe that All Star Game was actually played in Seattle at. I think it was just called the arena. In the time it was before they called it Key Arena. I think it was just called the Arena. And I was a big Tom Chambers fan. And if I remember right, Tom Chambers ended up being the MVP of that game. He hit two free throws, he had a great game even though he was an alternate on the team and he was the mvp. And that to me was like winning the NBA championship in my nine year old mind. But that's probably the last All Star Game that I could tell you anything about now, the dunk contest, that's a different story. Because I was obsessed with the dunk contest, you know, in the. In the 80s and a little bit into the 90s. And I saw something online the other day that just absolutely broke my heart, which was. It was a person much younger than me going like, do you remember the dunk contest from 10 years ago? It was epic, and no one will ever forget it. And I did not recognize the names of the players who were dunking it up. To me, the dunk contest stopped when it stopped being Dominique Wilkins, the human highlight reel, and Michael Air Jordan. Like that. And a little Kenny Skywalker in there. A little. Maybe a side of Mugsy Bogues actually. Could Mugsy Bogues dunk? I don't think he could dunk.

[Andrew]

He was Whitey Bulger's boys, right?

[Luke]

He was no neck Larry. Mugsy Bogs and Whitey Bulger, they pulled off that bank job. Yeah.

[Andrew]

And they won, didn't they?

[Luke]

Collectively, Somerville.

[Andrew]

And they collectively did win the dunk contest one year. I don't know. I got it.

[Luke]

Well, it was. There was three Bulgers in a trench. A spud web is what I was thinking of. Spudweb was a. A man of short stature for playing in the NBA, but he could dunk, and it was quite fun to watch him dunk. But anyway, all that is to say, like, the fact that I didn't even recognize the names of the guys that were in what a different generation thinks of as the greatest dunk.

[Andrew]

The classic.

[Luke]

Yeah, the classic, exactly. That's really the word. It's like. Here's what it's like. It's like hearing a band on the classic rock station.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

That is old enough to be a classic rock band, but you didn't hear it when they hit the scene, because that is what the march of time.

[Andrew]

Because you were. Because not only does it not time wise seem like classic to you, you weren't even really paying attention to that segment of pop culture at the time.

[Luke]

I missed first and second wave of this band.

[Andrew]

Nothing here. How about this for an old guy take. Nothing can be referred to as a classic if it happened in the 2000s.

[Luke]

Thank you.

[Andrew]

President's Day, what are we.

[Luke]

I'm sure this comes up every year when we do the show on President's Day, but are we celebrating specific presidents? Are we celebrating the idea that we have a presidency? Because I feel like this is not a great year for that. Like, what do we. Like, what's the underlying thing of this.

[Andrew]

Here'S I don't, you know, I don't know that I have a better handle on this than you do, but maybe you could Google while I tell you what my guess is, or my understanding.

[Luke]

I'm clearing the screen of a goat man in Utah because that was the last thing I was looking at in here.

[Andrew]

It'll clear your cash, too. My understanding is we used to have a we used to celebrate George Washington's birthday and then we used to celebrate Abraham Lincoln's birthday as separate national holidays, I think. And then at some point, they combined the two and made it like whatever this Monday in February is.

[Luke]

And you spot on, my friend.

[Andrew]

But is it still now? Is it for those two still? Or in combining them, did they also sort of mission creep us out into celebrating all presidents?

[Luke]

I'm going to read the AI overview, and every word I read makes David Green weaker. So I'm going to try to be, be careful. Economical with this President's Day. It started out the the holiday honors the first president, George Washington, but it's expanded to celebrate all US Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday is also in February.

[Andrew]

Okay. All right. So there you go. We're pretty close on there. But I how about, you know, all.

[Luke]

But about five U.S. presidents? How about all but most U.S. presidents, right?

[Andrew]

Yes. Let's see. Who are we leaving off? Who is our, who is actually who's on our Mount Rushmore of presidents that we don't want on Mount Rushmore. Let's here Andrew Jackson, Donald J. Trump. Moving. Hey, let's talk about a holiday that we do celebrate and acknowledge or at least one of us does. Valentine's Day. You had some big Valentine's Day plans. How did that all go? You went to the coast?

[Luke]

We did. We went down to Rockaway beach down on the Oregon coast and stayed in a little Airbnb. And we brought the dog, Gigi. And it was really, really fun. We got lucky with the weather on Saturday. It was, it wasn't like super sunny, but it wasn't raining actively. So we got out there and did a little beach walk, went down to the little local restaurant. There was very cute. All of the, the servers, the restaurant were wearing Valentine's colors. They gave Becca a rose. I was like, hey, easy, easy, sleazy. We went to a grocery store that.

[Andrew]

Was, Now I'm listening.

[Luke]

Extremely underwhelming. They have this thing called, like, Center Market. I think this is kind of a Oregon thing, but maybe especially along the Oregon coast. Becca was well familiar with it. It was all new to Me and I was on the phone going like, where's there? Because we were going to make dinner at the Airbnb and I was googling where is there a grocery store? And there was this thing, center market. And she goes, no, no, that's like a plaid pantry. And I said, yes, but there is a center market that advertises food and smokes. And then one block away there's a center market that advertises smoke grocery. So I was like, I think that one's going to have more stuff. And it did, Andrew, because what they had was really big buzz balls.

[Andrew]

Oh, nice. Those. Yeah, mega buzz. I know, I know. Those things. They're not even mega. They have a funnier name. I'm going to look it up.

[Luke]

I swear to God. If you wanted to waterboard me, I could save you time, bring out whatever that like white Russian looking mega buzz ball is.

[Andrew]

Buzzball biggies.

[Luke]

That's what they call buzz ball.

[Andrew]

Biggie one time I wasn't like, sorry to cut you off.

[Luke]

I'm not a buzzball. I just glug a lot.

[Andrew]

Okay, now we are. We're done for the day.

[Luke]

That's how I honor Abraham Lincoln.

[Andrew]

Anyway, I remember being in Bartel drugstore before they all, you know, kind of again, kind of like the brand got diluted and they sold them all. I don't even know if they exist anymore really. But there was a time there where those stores were kind of a clash of not high and low cult. They were a little bit nicer than your average plaid pantry or something. You know, they were a drugstore. They had nicer things there or whatever. But then they also, in the middle of an aisle had this huge display of buzzball biggies. And I just remember, I think it was the day after New Year's Eve or something and beams and I, I believe just stood there for a while contemplating the universe and buzzball Biggie's place therein.

[Luke]

Well, I have not, I don't think think I've had a buzzball. Although the, the likelihood is if I had a buzzball, I was blacked out.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

You know what I mean? Like the time that I would think that sounds like a good idea would be a time that I'm not making short term memories. So I don't have any memory of drinking a buzzball. But my sense of it was it's this little round thing that you could kind of like bring around with you or whatever almost that the utility of it was that it was highly portable and it was this kind of Fun little, you know, baseball sized thingy. The giant one to me completely and totally like moves away from the core competency of the buzz ball. Now you're just carrying like a jug of, of malt liquor that's been brought down to its most basic elements and then added into like some nightmare concoction.

[Andrew]

Well, I would like to say this. When I see them in the store, they were, they. I just remember literally standing there with Genevieve. There was something about a display that looked like somewhat like. I can't explain it, but it was like otherwise seemed like a respectable display in the drugstore. All these buzzball biggies, but. And I don't see like how they would fit into my life either. Especially the biggies. But I don't know if you even know about it.

[Luke]

Twisted tea is a gateway drink, Andrew.

[Andrew]

No, no kidding. Well, that's the thing. Also by the buzz ball, even the round version, it's not convenient. Like a skinny can of red bulb would be or flash could fit in your pocket.

[Luke]

Yeah, like, yeah, it's. You're right. Even the, even the, the, the small one is also kind of. Who's going to carry around? What are you going to juggle them? Are you carrying around three baseballs?

[Andrew]

But I will say that when I, when we were at. I don't even know if you know about this or if maybe you knew about it and slipped your mind. I still have never tried a buzzball or a buzzball biggie, but. And I didn't think they were for me. But when we were having the picnic in Wisconsin, our friend Lisa showed up with a buzzball biggie and popped it right in the freezer. I don't think we ever cracked in.

[Luke]

Better remove Lisa.

[Andrew]

But I gotta say, and this is in all seriousness, when I saw that at like an event that I was attending, it felt like, oh, it's that kind of a party. Like it inspired something in me. And even though we didn't end up cracking that buzzball biggie, it seriously, I think just by its presence had a bit of its intended effect on me. Cause I was like, it's sending a message. Was. And seeing Lisa roll up with that was honestly one of the coolest things. So I guess I can't, I don't know can I live in both worlds?

[Luke]

Andrew, I have drunken. The buzz balls that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Luke]

Forgive me. They were delicious. So sweet and so enormous. So anyway, we got a couple buzz balls. No, we went to this. We went to the Grocery store, which was a kind of a weird scene. There was a loose dog in there who was nice. Thankfully nobody. Gigi was with me. Gigi was not loose. Yeah, Gigi was on a leash. We tried to go no leash on the beach. And it was great for about five minutes. And we were both commenting like, oh, isn't she doing well? And then like a friggin gazelle, she ran up. You know, it's the kind of beach where there's like all these private homes that are along the kind of the beach and they have, you know, bluffs and things. There's a lot of like no trespassing kind of signs going on, like you cannot leave the beach through our yard kind of deal. And she just like gazelled her ass up into the yard of someone who had a very prominent no trespassing sign. And she does this move where she can sense energetically if you're trying to get close enough to her. Like she has much like bubbles. She. She's not. Does not respond to a lot of the things that other animals would have, like saying, hey, I got a treat for you, or come over here, hey, Gigi, you know, sing songy voice. She doesn't care about any of that. And in fact, if she senses that you're trying to get close enough to her where you could kind of secure her collar or something, she just always stays like 5ft out of your reach.

[Andrew]

And she can. She has some instinct to know when it's like, hey, we're just over here to play, or we're trying to get. We're trying to trap you into.

[Luke]

She senses a slight shift in the. In the energy. So she gazelles up into these people's yard and I'm like, God damn it. Like, so now we got to go up there. And now it's like we have no choice but to trespass. And it's. I'm hoping that it's one of those, like, fancy beach houses that the people who own it are so rich they don't even go to the beach house.

[Andrew]

You know what I mean?

[Luke]

Which would be great for us because then we could trespass in their yard and also would allow me to judge them because like, how much money do you need? You have a beach house and you don't even go to it. What's wrong with you? So we're trespassing in the yard and I'm like, thank goodness there's nobody in the house. This is cool. So I'm sending Becca because I feel like it's less threatening to have a lady in a sleeping bag coat looking for the dog as opposed to me. So I'm standing kind of down, kind of in this little pathway up into the no trespassing area. And Gigi is doing laps. And Becca's. It's very sort of comical, actually, because Becca's going around the house and. And at some point I see this lady who's in this sunroom. I didn't realize she was there. She has a blanket over her lap. She stands up and walks to the window. Like there was someone very much there and there was someone in the house doing the kind of relaxation that could be very interrupted by what we were doing. It's not like they're having a big chill in there. And it's like a bunch of grownups and. And they're playing, you know, Heard it Through the Grapevine. That is on the soundtrack, I believe, of the big chill. And they're having like a fun time. And we're just people their age who are just kind of like, hey, we gotta get our dog. It's like a woman, maybe by herself with a blanket over her lap, who now has. Now sees me kind of next to her yard. And I was like, what is the international sign for. I'm so sorry. My mother in law's dog is in your yard. And I'm trying to get her out. And I just kind of said, like, I kind of waved and I was like, I tried to make the shape of a dog with my hands.

[Andrew]

Like, it's a dog.

[Luke]

There's a dog.

[Andrew]

And we're looking for it.

[Luke]

And the amazing thing is, it worked. Her face lit up.

[Andrew]

Really?

[Luke]

She understood that I was saying, we're looking. It probably happens, you know, not infrequently.

[Andrew]

Right.

[Luke]

I was like, we're trying to get this dog. And then luckily, at about that moment, Gigi came back to me and for whatever reason, got confused enough to come stand close enough where I could grab her by the collar.

[Andrew]

Now let me ask you to get Becca back.

[Luke]

Yeah, she was on the far side of the house.

[Andrew]

Sorry.

[Luke]

And I was yelling. I was like. Because now that we had the dog, I was like, we gotta get out of this yard.

[Andrew]

And now you're making the shape of a woman with your hands, which is real. There's also a woman that's loose and you're, you know, a little bit.

[Luke]

Her shape is. It's not usually wearing a coat that's a sleeping bag. So her shape is different.

[Andrew]

You're not doing the. The Betty Boop curves with Your hands?

[Luke]

No, not with that sleeping bag coat on.

[Andrew]

I'm gonna ask you a question so I could. I could totally have this wrong, but I think of Becca as more of a rule rule follower. Maybe in life. Or am I wrong about that? I mean, certainly compared to you. I guess everybody, most are followers compared to you.

[Luke]

Yes, she is a. She is a rule follower compared to me. But it's not like. First of all, she was way less worried about the trespassing than I was.

[Andrew]

Okay. Because I was wondering about the. The off leash thing, because I wonder if this was something where you had to.

[Luke]

Maybe it was her idea.

[Andrew]

It was. Okay. See, this is really interesting, I thought. Cause it would be a very different dynamic because this is her mom's dog, right? Yes. And so it would be. And I could just imagine her usually going on walks with the leash or whatever. And then she's on the beach with you, and it's Valentine's Day, and you're just like, hey, we can probably let Gigi off the leash. Right? I could just see you maybe instigating that a little bit and then her going along with it. But no, no, no. She was the. She was the one with the idea here.

[Luke]

I was thinking about it, but I did not want to be. I did not want to suggest it. And I did not want to be responsible for a situation exactly like this.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

You know what I mean? And. And so I did not suggest it. She suggested it. And again, we took the leash off. And the thing about Gigi is she's totally non aggressive. She's not really interested in other dogs. She's not aggressive towards anyone or anything. So I wasn't worried about her being off the leash in terms of like, you know, going and getting into trouble with. With people on the beach. Like, Rudy would, you know, jump on people and stuff. Every time I'd have Rudy off leash, it was like I was stressing the whole time about, like, what is Rudy gonna do? I wasn't worried about Gigi vis a vis other people and dogs. I was worried about her just not ever coming back to us.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I would be terrified.

[Luke]

And, well, we had done a trial run a few weeks ago. We took her to an off leash dog park, actually, at Revolution hall in Portland, which is a converted high school. And they've got this big grassy area that people bring their dogs. And we brought her there and it was like this. Should we take her off the leash? What's going to happen? And she was cool about it. So that was our sort of, you know, that was our trial run.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

But anyway, we got her back. We got her on the leash. The thing was, I then spent the rest of the weekend when we would see other people who had their dogs off leash. I had to try to, like, let them know that I am cool and chill and I do agree with these dogs being off leash, but we just can't have this dog off leash because she sucks.

[Andrew]

No, she does not. You take that.

[Luke]

I didn't want people to think. I was very worried that people who had their dogs off leash were going to think that we were judging them because we had to have Gigi very much on the leash after that.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Luke]

Yeah. Because I've been on the other side of that many times where it's like, you know, Rudy is running a moke and there's somebody who's being good and following the rules and they have their dog on a leash on the beach. Please don't at me people who feel strongly about this topic. But, but. So I've been judged by a lot of people who have their dog on a leash and they're doing the right thing and I'm doing the wrong thing. Now that the roles were reversed, I wanted everyone to know that I am cool and I'm cool with whatever goes.

[Andrew]

I see. Not like, hey, I'm cool. I would be with a leashless dog if I could. You mean cool in that you're non judgmental. Like, hey, man, totally non judgmental thing. I see a dog.

[Luke]

I mean, unless you have a dog that's got real documented behavioral issues. But like, a dog running on the beach after a tennis ball is one of the most joyous things you could ever observe. And I want it to happen for as many dogs as possible. And there were a lot of them out there and they were having a great old time. So I didn't want to. I didn't want anyone to think that I was not down with that because I was, in fact, very down with that for them.

[Andrew]

And did you say that the woman that you sort of interrupted actually kind of smiled? And that's really nice because even if it happens a lot, you could see her being annoyed that, like, here we go again, with people not following the rules, then it becomes my problem.

[Luke]

I mean, I was so nervous to go up that little pathway because I knew there was going to be a no trespassing sign. And I knew that our only option for getting Gigi back was to trespass. I was really stressed about it.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I believe it. And another. Were you calling Gigi kind of loudly. So it was very clear what you were doing in there too. Like, people don't go around just saying, gigi, Gigi. Unless, you know, yes, they're struggling. Yes.

[Luke]

We were trying to demonstrate that there. But again, we didn't even know for the first, like, five minutes that there was someone in the house.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

So we were kind of just like trying to get the dog and get out of. There was this other funny thing which was like, she's so. The dog is so slender that, like, I thought, oh, good, she's trapped in this yard because I'm blocking the pathway to the beach. And then if you were to look past the house, there's a little walkway and then there's a gate that's locked. She went between the metal of the gate.

[Andrew]

Mm.

[Luke]

Like so. And that's how she came back eventually to me. Like, Beck was walking around trying to find her. And then she just kind of like comes and just like. Like an apparition. She just goes through the gate and comes back to me.

[Andrew]

So, you know, I feel like you're done with this story, but I'm not. Another thing that I'm thinking about here is in my head. This woman is like sitting and reading a magazine or something. Probably sun porch. But she also may just be. It is 20, 26. She's probably reading on her phone. And a house like this probably has cameras all over the place. And you get little. I'm just so old fashioned in the way I think about the world. Probably. She probably got little notifications that there were people in the yard and was probably watching little videos. Guys clearly looking for a dog by the time you saw her.

[Luke]

You know what? I didn't even think about that. That is possible. It wasn't like a. I don't know. This doesn't matter to the camera question, because you can put a look. My house was built in the 1930s and I have cameras on it, but it was not like a brand. Like, it was a kind of an older cottage. It kind of had a homey feel. The no trespassing sign was kind of handmade. I don't know what that means about cameras. They probably still had cameras, but I didn't even think about that. So she knew. She did not seem perturbed. She understood what was going on. And we got out of there and everything was a. Okay. We go to the grocery store and there is a loose dog at one point back there. And Gigi did not like it in the grocery store. She was very overstimulated. So we go outside, me and her, and when I'm coming back, this couple comes out and the dog leaves with them. And I think it's their dog or something. And they're like, is this your dog? And I'm like, no. Is it yours? They go, no. I'm like, shit. So I have to go catch the loose dog and get the loose dog back into the grocery store for whomever it belongs to in the store. Because otherwise the dog was just going to be, you know, Mia.

[Andrew]

If the dog belongs in the store, maybe the dog is just out.

[Luke]

You know, I never even thought about on a runabout.

[Andrew]

So what happened?

[Luke]

The dog. You know what? No. By the way, nobody fessed up to owning the dog in the store, so maybe the dog. I think you're right. I think the dog got into the store.

[Andrew]

They finally got the dog out of.

[Luke]

The store, and I brought him back in. You brought him back in? I brought him right back in.

[Andrew]

Wait a second. So you.

[Luke]

So I assumed the dog belonged to somebody in the store who was just a very careless owner, but you're right. The more logical explanation of that would probably be the dog was roaming around the neighborhood, someone opened the door to the store, the dog went in, smelled food.

[Andrew]

Did it have a little knapsack? Did it have a little. What do you call the thing?

[Luke]

A bindle?

[Andrew]

It had a little bindle over itself.

[Luke]

The dog was running. It was running away from home.

[Andrew]

Yes. Have a little suitcase that said New Orleans or bust. So. But wait a second, though. So you. So. So you're outside with Gigi, kind of keeping Gigi calm, and then this dog goes running out. You keep Gigi on the leash? Or tie her up somewhere. You keep her on the leash.

[Luke]

I've got her on one hand on the leash. My goodness.

[Andrew]

And then you find this other dog.

[Luke]

He didn't go far.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Luke]

I don't know the gender. I don't want to misgender the dog. No, didn't go that far.

[Andrew]

But the dog has a collar on. So you grab the collar.

[Luke]

Dog is a sweetie, too.

[Andrew]

Okay, that's really sweet.

[Luke]

Wasn't a scary dog or anything.

[Andrew]

And then you bring the dog back into the grocery store, and then you.

[Luke]

Thinking, I'm a hero.

[Andrew]

What do you say? Something like, anybody, Is this anybody's dog? You bring it in, you let it go, and then you go back outside.

[Luke]

I returned it to its homeland, AKA the produce section. The very, very sad produce section of this gas station.

[Andrew]

Can I tell you about something that happened to me in the grocery store. Maybe at the same exact time this was happening to you. Now I'm in my regular grocery store, the QFC on Holman Road where you.

[Luke]

Were trying to leave the QFC and someone kept bringing you back in.

[Andrew]

They really did.

[Luke]

Like, who's. Who's.

[Andrew]

Andrew is this. They're like this. This guy belongs in the grocery store. Don't. He's running around chasing cars in the parking lot. Well, I do feel like my qfc, it's my experiences there are getting. I wouldn't say weird, but more interesting. First of all, I keep seeing my phlebotomist there. I've now seen my photograph twice. I took a creep shot one time to send to you and my friend Anna, because that's an old film, right?

[Luke]

The phlebotomist always shops twice.

[Andrew]

Yes. And so. And then the one day I told you I saw my phlebotomist there for the first time. And he's a guy that I had a bit of a history with because he's not a very good phlebotomist. And I was so. I was so, like, a little bit rattled by seeing him. And then moments later, like within a few seconds, that woman came up to me and asked me to help her pay for her groceries. Remember I told you this story? And I gave her some cash and then moved on. And then. And so. Okay, so that happened last week. I want to say now, this Friday or Saturday, I am in the same grocery store. I'm in the beer section now. And I am looking for my beer. And for what it's worth, I'm gonna get like a six pack of lightish generic beer, like Coors Light or something. And then I was gonna get like a Lucy or two. Like a loose can of like Bodhisattva or something. It's like a little treat. But I didn't want a whole six pack. It doesn't matter. But that's just kind of where I am. And as I'm reaching in to get the kind of nicer beer, right, The IPA or whatever, the. The can of it, this young person comes up to me, and I felt like he was maybe high school age. I wasn't exactly sure. Seems very young and says, hey, did.

[Luke]

He shoulder tap you?

[Andrew]

I thought that's where things were going. But first of all, I'm really terrible at judging people's ages. But he comes up to me, he's a young person, like I said, and he's just like, hey, I'm new to drinking. Do you have any Kind of advice on, like, what to get. And I'm like. Immediately, I'm just like, oh, this ends with this kid asking me if I will buy him beer. But there's also no harm in me answering this question. Like, you know, it's kind of like when I play around with the scammers on my phone. I'm like, I know what my line is. And it's like, you know, not clicking certain links or whatever, giving out personal information. This kid says, hey, I'm new to drinking. Which is honestly how he opened.

[Luke]

That's a great open.

[Andrew]

It really was. And I.

[Luke]

This is something you learn in sales and other things. You make the person the hero. You can make someone the hero. They are more likely to go along with whatever is happening.

[Andrew]

He did.

[Luke]

He. He.

[Andrew]

He looked at me and he said, this man is an expert in drinking. But anyway, so I'm like, well, I don't know. Like, what do you. And I'm relatively friendly, but also like. I'm just like, yeah, well, I don't know. Like, what do you like? It's like, well, I don't know. And I'm like, I don't know. And I gestured to the can of Bodhisattva, that ipa, an orange can in my cart, and I'm like, well, I like this stuff, but it's a specific kind of taste for IPAs. He's like, oh, yeah. I think he said, my dad drinks that. So that's, like, all my dad drinks. I'm like, okay, well, then you probably know a little bit. I'm like, this is more of a heavier kind of situation. It's a heavier beer. I don't know if that's really what you're into or something. You might want to look at something lighter. Then he starts saying, well, you know, I. Like, I've been to, like, there's. I think it's a Japanese beer. And I couldn't remember what's the Japanese beer that's served in all sushi restaurants?

[Luke]

Oh, sake. Sapporo.

[Andrew]

Sapporo is what I was thinking of, but couldn't quite get there. But I'm like, oh, yeah, like in a sushi restaurant. He's like, yeah, yeah, I really like that stuff. I'm like, oh, I don't know. I'm like, you know, the lighter stuff is gonna be a little bit more on that end. And then I'm walking that way anyway to get my light beer. And so it's weird. It's both weird that this is happening, but also the kid isn't saying anything weird. And I'm just trying to keep it as like, this is. The conversation we're having right now is advice on beer that I would have with anybody who seems to be of age. And if any question about exchanging any kind of money for beer or me buying beer for anything, like, obviously I'm out at that point. But I'm also not my. I'm not acting like somebody whose hackles are up or who is being suspicious, trying to be helpful but not engage too much. And then I'm like, yeah, I'm grabbing my light beer and maybe this conversation goes on for two minutes or may, you know, maybe around then. And then I'm just like, well, good luck, nice chatting with you. And he's like, yeah, thanks. And then I saw him later, like, kind of, he had chosen his beer. But then I think I saw him run back and swap it out one last time. And I assume I never saw him actually getting the beer, but I.

[Luke]

What do you mean you saw him in the pasta aisle asking someone, I'm new to spaghetti sauce. What kind of spaghetti sauce do you like?

[Andrew]

What shaped noodle would dance?

[Luke]

Oh, yeah, my dad. My dad only eats Rao.

[Andrew]

Right, exactly. So I don't know, what do you make of it? Do you think that was a kid that was. That was maybe leading up to ask me to buy beer and then just like decided not to? Or was that just one of these earnest youth that I hear about who was just like, honestly looking to go, you know, he might have just turned 21 and was just like, didn't know what beer to buy?

[Luke]

I. Well, the fact that you saw him with beer later tells me that he is old enough to buy it or has a convincing enough McLovin.

[Andrew]

Well, no, I saw him in the store with the beer. I never saw him on the other side of.

[Luke]

Right. But I mean, to me, the act of carrying the beer around the store, unless he was gonna try to pull some other move at the register where he gives it then to an older person, I'm going to assume because he was carrying the beer around that he is 21 years old. And the fact that he never asked you. This is the thing. Ultimately, Andrew, this is a compliment to you and let me explain why. You are a very. You are a very nice, friendly person in the world. And my feeling is if he was going to try to ask a favor, he wouldn't have known that you were going to demure. You're going to say, sorry, man, I can't help you with that, but you were. You're not going to send a mean vibe to him where he immediately shut down the plan to ask, could you buy me this beer? Because you are a nice person in the world. So I think if that was ever the plan, he would have asked you.

[Andrew]

Yeah, he would have gotten there because we were pretty, you know, like I said, we were standing there in the aisle.

[Luke]

You were opening beers, you were doing.

[Andrew]

We were trying them. I got these. I gave them a keg stand. I gave him, I gave him a flight of beers. We did a little tasting. The people at QFC at a certain point did ask us both to leave. So anyway, yeah, anyway, it was a strange thing. Like, I was like, this has got to be another, like, people keep approaching me in this grocery store. This has got to be another thing. Right. But I don't think it was a thing. I think he was just honestly looking for drinking advice. Which you would think I'd be better at.

[Luke]

Well, you know, I'm. People, you know, would ask me about like cocktails or a whiskey or whatever. And I would just always say, for someone who has consumed as much alcohol as I have have in my life, I do not have any great tips and tricks. I'm not, you know, I couldn't tell you about the, the problem. Like, Becca was trying to buy for some friends of ours. It was somebody's birthday and she wanted to buy him a nice bottle of, of like some kind of a whiskey thing or a bourbon. I was like, I don't.

[Andrew]

It's like, get a buzz ball, Biggie.

[Luke]

I was like, yeah, get three buzz balls. And so, you know, I mean, I'm with you. Like, I. For, for somebody who's had as much alcohol in their life as I have, I don't have very sophisticated taste or very good advice on, on this or that. I was just going to say as a side. I don't want to sound like a prude, but I always find it mildly interesting when they are doing samples of alcohol in the store, whether it's the Trader Joe's or the, you know, the regular grocery store. Now I, you know, for most adult sized people who are allowed to drink, you know, a tiny taste of wine is not going to put your bac into a dangerous range. And yet for some reason it just strikes me as like, all right, we're, we're trusting people to not go, to not get weird Z's on this.

[Andrew]

Oh, because people drove to the grocery store, you mean?

[Luke]

Well, either they drove to the grocery store or just. I Don't know. It's like, here's the thing. I've never. I've never eaten a pierogi. And then just thought, like, I gotta have another one, another one, another one, another one. And then blacked out on pierogies. I have done that on alcohol. Like, I feel like alcohol.

[Andrew]

I've done it. Pierogies.

[Luke]

Alcohol is its own category that there is, for a lot of us, a lot of impulse control issues around that we don't have around. Let's just say. Again, I'm going to pick a bad example. Little smokies. I'm trying to think of the things that are typically being sauteed up in that little, you know, hot plate thing with the samples. And yeah, I'm not judging anyone because, again, most people probably have a less complicated relationship with alcohol than I do. But every time I walk through the store and they're like, hey, do you want some? I'm like, are you kidding me right now?

[Andrew]

Because some people have a more complicated relationship with pierogies than you do, though. So that is. Everybody's got their own journey.

[Luke]

Yes. Well, we had a lovely Valentine's, and then Sunday, it. It was really, like, beautifully sunny on the beach, and we took a nice long walk and. And, yeah, it was just. It was an absolutely lovely. Then we drove back. We took kind of the circuitous route home. So we went up to Cannon beach and had a little lunch there and just walked around and. And it was just. It was a really, really nice weekend. So. So, yeah, that was great. I'm guessing that you kept things closer to home as you were unloading bowling alleys in your house.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I had a really nice weekend too, but it wasn't anything special. We didn't travel or anything, but it was just kind of a nice weekend. I ended up. This is kind of unrelated, but we had a whole bunch of people signed up to volunteer on Sunday. So I actually just sort of took the day off from my volunteer gig. Just dropped off some coffee, which kind of just gave me like a few free. Sunday, on the occasion that I'm taking off that volunteer gig, usually I'm. I have something to fill it in, you know what I mean? It's. Oh, because I'm doing this thing or I'm going to this game or I'm going to watch this football game or what have you. And this time I was kind of like, oh, okay, freebie. So Vivs and I kind of wandered around Ballard a little bit, which was very nice. Went back to the spatula Store. I was very proud. I went to the spatula store there. What's the.

[Luke]

Is that that kitchen store?

[Andrew]

Yeah, like Ballard.

[Luke]

Ballard Avenue.

[Andrew]

Culinary Essentials.

[Luke]

I think I have never entered that store without buying something.

[Andrew]

It's beautiful. Yeah. You can't. I mean, it's so hard not to buy everything in there. But then Genevieve was sort of. This is a little bit fraught. You know, we need to get her on the show anyway, because she's all mad about what her sign is, and she's. She's now like.

[Luke]

Like zodiac sign.

[Andrew]

Yeah. It came up the other day, and she's like, she. Because she's, you know, she's a March baby, so that makes her a Pisces. Right. And then she finally read what Pisces means or something, and she was, like, really angry because she's like, I'm not a Pisces. And now she's just going around saying she's an Aries, which she's not. But she will tell you she is.

[Luke]

I absolutely support this. If people can change their legal name.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

Can't they? Which is a real thing. Can't they change their astrology? Which is not a real thing.

[Andrew]

Which is not a real thing. And also, you should know, neither one of us believe in it. But it just galled her when it came up in conversation the other day, and she looked it up. She's like, this is not me. And so then she was having a cabin weekend with some friends, and one of the. One of the people there does do charts. And so I think Genevieve is getting her chart done or something via email by this woman. So I told her she can come on the show and talk about this whole situation. And I know a lot of listeners have already been writing in to say, you know, the universe is changing and shifting. So it could be that the charts don't match up with our traditional signs or what have you.

[Luke]

But tell me about this bowling alley that you were unloading. That's so freaking cool.

[Andrew]

So on Saturday, we spent the day or a chunk of the afternoon unloading. Literally probably the heaviest thing I've ever helped lift in my life. I mean, these things were so heavy. We're getting our basement redone, like this kind of kitchenette area, and there was this area kind of that wasn't really originally part of the plan. We knew it maybe could be, but when the workers knocked a wall out, we realized, oh, there's a lot more space in this one part of the basement than we thought, and it could be good for some storage. And so they actually even moved the hot water heater back a little bit yesterday to make some more room for this or last week, I should say. And then the plan is to kind of build walls around this area, which I just assumed would be like, sheetrock and, you know, plaster and whatever walls are made of these days. Clearly, I'm not a golfer, but, you know, that's. I just pictured, like, you know, we'll Sheetrock the walls or whatever. But I guess it's both cheaper and apparently maybe more interesting if we were to use wood, because he's, like, getting in these corners building in this particular, like, little cubby Sheetrock. He's like, it's gonna be so much more work. And we're going to the second use stores to look for, like, you're gonna.

[Luke]

Have to fur that out, Andrew. It's too much furring. So you have to create something that the Sheetrock can adhere to, and that's a bunch of blocking and furring. It's a major.

[Andrew]

Is that where you wear a tail while you. While you build it? That's furring.

[Luke]

You scritch and you.

[Andrew]

Did he scritch or did he?

[Luke]

Yes.

[Andrew]

Anyway, so at first, like, when we were first again, we're kind of just like, making these decisions on the fly as our guy is sor. Tearing things apart and seeing what our options are. And the original plan was to maybe use butcher block, maybe even a butcher block backsplash, which I was a little bit questioning. We're still. We're going to see how it all plays out because we don't want too much wood in the basement. It could be overdone, but he was at a second use store, and he starts sending. I don't know, on like, Thursday night or Friday night or something, he starts sending Genevieve and I these photos of, like, reclaimed pieces of bowling alley floors, you know, from the actual bowling alleys and some gym floors as well. And we realize, okay, well, we can use the bowling alley floors to kind of box off this new storage area where we're going to have these built in closets. But I kind of finish them down so they look kind of nice, but also maybe leave a little bit of the signals that it was bowling alley wood to begin with, sort of.

[Luke]

So I'm definitely.

[Andrew]

I'm very. And it's incredibly thick. And also the way it came was it came with all these bolts in it, some of which had to be like. He took this angle grinder and was, like, zipping them off. And then. And we were all Working on it together. His son showed up. This is our main contractor. His son showed up. Who helps him with stuff. His teenage son, I want to say, maybe a little bit older than that. I'm not sure. And then at one point, all four of us are just working in the driveway. The contractor's wife rolled by at one point just to see if anybody needed lunch. It was family day in the driveway. While we're lifting these, we're guessing like 300 pound or more slabs off of this trailer that he rented our garage. Right now I'm worried that the garage is going to tip over under the weight of these things leaning up against the wall. It is so damn heavy. But it's kind fun. Like, we had a little work day in the driveway and it's exciting to be able to, you know, like, I'm. I don't know much about this stuff and I'm in no shape to be that much help, but like, it was just nice to all work on this together. It's pretty cool day, to be honest with you.

[Luke]

So are you gonna rip them down? Is he gonna rip them down and kind of into the size he needs and then his vivs or is he gonna like refinish them or kind of get them all glossy so they're bowling alley ish again?

[Andrew]

Well, so they. They are. They already have that gloss. I think we want to be. I think it kind of depends. I think we want some contrast between the shelves and the walls themselves. That's kind of a big thing for me. So I think that we should have the walls of this little cubby area probably finished a little bit more. So it looks kind of respectable and doesn't have that super shiny bowling alley look, where the shelves themselves can be sort of the accent there, you know, the shelves will also be made of it. And I sort of feel like maybe the shelves can be the pieces that really say bowling alley, where the other pieces are maybe just a little bit more finished and fine. That's my idea for it. But like I say, he's very much into like, well, let's get it in there. Let me cut these and like, kind of see how it works. And he's being. He's very detail oriented. Like, so far, I was telling you before the show, this process has been, like, really fun and exciting. I'm kind of purposely not saying, like, kind of too many details about this company only because, like, it's like, I mean, everything so far has been really. It's been an interesting process. I've loved working with this guy, I think every member of his family has been here to meet Bingo at some point. Now it's just like, hey, have you met Bingo the cat? He refers to Bingo as his best friend. So it's been really fun, but it's like reading a book. I don't know if it's good or not until I get to the last page of it.

[Luke]

You know what I mean?

[Andrew]

And so that's why I'm kind of not mentioning too much about the place, because I just wanted to see the project to the end. But it's been, it has been unlike any experience I've had before. It's very interesting. And again to kind of like, I feel like you're. I could be wrong about this. You have a lot of ideas obviously in the, in the renovation of your house, but you sort of. Would you say it's fair? And this might actually not be fair as I start to set this up, that your dad is sort of like kind of a point person on all of, or at least was at some point in the project, like, like the point person on like how things could get done, or like kind of the work person who can sort of see the big vision of like, well, we need this person in here to do this or that, or is that more you? And I'm not giving you enough credit, that's more me.

[Luke]

I'm sort of. I mean, we're kind of done now mostly, but at the time I was functioning as what you would call the general contractor. So which, you know, most big projects, if it's a really big project, oftentimes you'll hire a general contractor because their thing is really to kind of be the traffic director of the whole thing. To make sure that the Sheetrock guys are in on this week so that the painters can come in on that week and the tile guys. And when you have a bunch of trades, when you have a bunch of people that are doing different parts of it now, mostly it's just been me and my dad. And so mostly I've been a general contractor just supervising one person, which is my 71 year old father. But there have been some people, you know, we had a tile guy in here and electrical and stuff. And in those cases, I brought those people.

[Andrew]

I see. Okay, cool. So anyway, this has all been brand new to me and I didn't know exactly what it's going to be like. And the fellow we're working with is. He's a real character and we all seem to get along really well. And so I Don't know. It's been fun like so far with all the demo. It's just been demo, you know, which is also interesting. Like we did, we opened up another part of the wall and we saw all the rat shit. All the rat shit where that solved.

[Luke]

The mystery of what that smell was, sort of.

[Andrew]

We didn't find the. Any carcasses yet. I think that fell to a different carcass. But that's a pavement thing, right?

[Luke]

Yes.

[Andrew]

There's this song. Well, never mind. I don't have to get into it. There's this line in a song that I'm obsessed with that always makes me think of you because it's a little tribute to pavement. But anyway, we did not see any carcasses, but there was this one area where it was sealed up and now it's an open space kind of in the storage area. And you can shine your light back there and just see like so, so, so much little pebbles. I'm assuming rat. I don't know, maybe mouse. But I'm rat. I don't know. Some sort of rodents were getting in and out. So once they tear further into that area, I'm hoping that they'll be in a position where they maybe can like, if they find an actual, you know, point of egress for these animals, maybe seal it up. I don't know how far their services extend. Hello and welcome to Top Story.

[Luke]

Top Story today was submitted by associate producer Phyllis Fletcher early this morning. Phyllis must have come early to send us this Washington Post story.

[Andrew]

Or last night. Yeah. Oh, okay.

[Luke]

Yeah, I was, I was not on my email last night. I was though very early this morning. I was weird. It's like a holiday. Although we dialed up at the normal time, so I guess it, it should. I. I had it in my mind that I wanted to sleep in this morning for some reason. Like I wanted to treat myself to it being President's Day. And then I woke up like six in the morning.

[Andrew]

Well, that's what I was going to say because you know me, I'll. I'll always sleep as late as possible. I'll sleep until noon if given my druthers. And then as I was getting ready today, I was thinking, well, like, oh, I still have to get up to do TBTL today, but you know, 10 o' clock is a very, you know, is a great time for me. But I was sort of thinking like, oh, for you this is still probably feels late in the day. This doesn't feel like a holiday to you, but you've Lost the ability to sleep in. Right.

[Luke]

I assume I, to a degree, yes. I think that, well, on Sunday I slept in until like 8:15, which was. Felt pretty late for me. And yeah, it's like I did not see this coming for me because I really do love sleeping. The other thing is I oftentimes go to bed absurdly early. Like I'll go to bed at 8 o' clock and then I'll like, I'll wake up at 9 or something or I'll kind of like come back to. And then I'll send Becca a text saying goodnight so she doesn't know that I was going to bed at 8 because I like feel there's something that's like undiagnosed depression or something.

[Andrew]

But then you fall back asleep. See, that's my worry about going to bed early.

[Luke]

Well, yeah, I can really, I can really, really saw some logs, man. So I can go to sleep at 8 and get up, but then again I will wake up naturally at 5:30 at that point because, you know, you're talking. That's eight and a half hours of sleep.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

So anyway, all that is to say I got to this email early this morning and it was from our friend Phyllis Fletcher and it's actually from the Washington Post. Headline Radio host David Green says Google's AI podcast tool stole his voice. So David Green was one of the hosts of Morning Edition. He's a buddy of mine. The only thing I can say bad about this guy is he's a little too into the Pittsburgh Steelers for my liking. But that's just, you know, that's a personal problem between him and Mike Tomlin that he needs to, he needs to address. But no, David and I were really good friends back in the day at npr. We would, would go out and have drinks and do karaoke and like he was a super sweet guy. His wife Rosie is just amazing. Love the guy. And people apparently kept emailing him saying like, oh, congratulations on being the voice of this, this Google program, which is, it's called Notebook lm. It's described, oh, by the way, this is Will Aramis writing in the post. This is a. Notebook LM is Google's buzzy artificial intelligence tool that spins up podcasts on demand. So he's getting emails from people saying like, oh, this is so cool that they used your voice for this thing, David. And he was like, they did. And so he listened to it and then he had some lawyers listen to it. And he is now suing Google for basically using his voice without his permission. He said to the Washington Post, my voice, like, it's the most important part of who I am. Google says these allegations are baseless. The sound of the male Voice in Notebook LM's Audio Overviews is based on a paid professional actor that Google hired. I didn't know about this. There is this weird kind of. I don't know what you would call it, Andrew. Like, not a ratio, but his. What they basically did was David's attorneys, by the way, the, the, the. I think it's this. Is this his firm? No. Maybe it's Google's firm. Somebody's using Boyes, Shiller and Flexner. I don't know if that's David Boies, the famous David Boyes.

[Andrew]

Oh, wow.

[Luke]

Who was part of the Clinton impeachment. He's one of the more. It could just be someone related to him or an unrelated Boyes. But anyway, they're in the mix. They hired David Green's attorneys, hired an outside agency to listen to his voice and the fake voice to try to decide if they think, in fact, that this is ripping him off. And they came up with, let me try to find this here. And there was a data point. They basically said it's like a 60% chance that this AI voice is based on David Green, which doesn't sound very high to me, but it's actually based on how they like how they rank this stuff. It's actually considered to be very high. Like if it's over zero, I guess it's considered to be a pretty decent likelihood. So anyway, they hired an outside firm to basically say, look, yeah, we think this sounds like David. And then my favorite part of the entire article was that our buddy Mike Pesca makes an appearance at the end of the article, weighing in on it. And Mike, as he often does, has a very sage take on the whole thing. He's basically saying it's not only that they're ripping David Green's voice off, but it's. They're making his voice the voice of a really crummy AI Slope. You know what I mean? It's not just that they're. That they're using a voice that sounds a lot like his voice. It's that they're then making that voice do like an annoying thing on the Internet.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

Which is one of these AI slop, quote unquote podcasts where it's just kind of AI ing up, you know, text to speech and calling it a podcast. But probably not in a very intentional way. Nothing like what we do here.

[Andrew]

No.

[Luke]

On this show?

[Andrew]

Not at all.

[Luke]

So here is the actual audio files. This is the real David Green. I want to get your. I'm gonna get your take on this, Andrew. This is the real David Green. I believe this is him. He hosts the show Left, Right and Center, which comes out of kcrw.

[Andrew]

Is that what he's doing there?

[Luke]

Looking broadly at this. Is this an arc that has been developing in Washington or something? Is there something about the Trump era that. That has made this a distinctly different feel when it comes to Capitol Hill? So that is the real David Green, and this is the AI program that he says sounds like him.

[Andrew]

So looking bigger picture, is this just.

[Luke]

You know, the latest step in a long polarization trend, or is there something really different about the Trump era, something that makes Capitol Hill feel distinct right now? What do you think?

[Andrew]

Wow. So it does.

[Luke]

It starts out not sounding like him, and then it starts to sound a lot like him.

[Andrew]

Because in my read, because it's more than just, yeah, it sounds a lot like him, I think. But the interesting thing is it's not just the voice, but it's the way of speaking as well. You got to kind of take those together, right? It's like the pauses, the rhythm of the question, like, it's very clear. And I was a little bit. Were those the exact same quote or just kind of similar parts of conversation?

[Luke]

I think similar. I'll play them both again, but do.

[Andrew]

You mind if I ask, and I don't know if the article gets into this, but did they create these. Did the Washington Post, for this story, use the program to create these moments that sound specifically like moments of real interviews with David Green? Or is this literally from their podcast? In other words, I don't know the answer. Okay, all right. Did that make sense? So you understand my question? Okay, yes.

[Luke]

So here is the. This is the real David Green again. And looking broadly at this, is this an arc that has been developing in Washington or something? Is there something about the Trump era that. That has made this a distinctly different feel when it comes to Capitol Hill? Okay, and here's AI so looking bigger picture, is this just, you know, the latest step in a long polarization trend, or is there something really different about.

[Andrew]

The Trump era, something that makes Capitol.

[Luke]

Hill feel distinct right now? So it's kind of adjacent to what David was saying.

[Andrew]

Yeah, yeah.

[Luke]

In the first one, it gives you a sense. Google said that they hired a paid actor who was known for being able to impersonate David Green. So, you know, yeah, sure.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

They're clear on this.

[Andrew]

We hired David Green impersonator.

[Luke]

No, we hired the top David Green impersonator that we should find to do this. It's. There's also. Apparently so not everybody agrees that this is is our friend David Green. Online users have ventured numerous guesses as to who the AI podcasters voices most resemble. Several have named David Green. But others have mentioned former tech podcaster Leo laporte.

[Andrew]

I don't know.

[Luke]

Remember Shout Out Leo laporte.

[Andrew]

Oh, no, that's. I don't think I know Leo. Okay.

[Luke]

Oh, dude, he was a legend. I think he still. Then he got in trouble. He was like a. He was a tech guy who was on lots of radio stations and lots of TV things and had this whole thing going. In fact, he was one of the kind of, I think early streamers. Like he sort of figured out that he could do this, you know, tech advice show that people would call in. And I think he was one of the first people to really monetize. He was making a crapload of money and because on his show he would share his screen. If I remember right, he was having an extramarital affair and it somehow was popping up in the screen that Leo Laporte was sharing on his like, YouTube show.

[Andrew]

And this was early on, right? Yeah, this was an early example of this. Now that you say that. I do. I think I know the name through that story.

[Luke]

Yeah. Some people thought it sounded like Dax shepherd, but I don't think it sounds like Dax Shepard. I think it sounds more like David.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

Than it does. There's also again, this article is kind of long and I printed it out as I'm want to do, but then I didn't highlight anything as I'm also want to not do because there was something in here in the legalese that basically said that it came down to what David's lawyers have to prove. And my sense of it is I'm just kind of doing this from memory now. It's, it's, it's kind of interesting. They don't have to prove proof. It's weird. The burden of proof for them is not as much as you would think, basically. You know what I mean? They don't have to like uncover some emails through discovery where the Microsoft or excuse me, the Google people are going like, we gotta, you know, rip off David Green's voice. It's just, it's some other thing where basically they think that they can meet the, the legal threshold for this to actually, I guess, you know, sue them and I don't know, get Money or something. It doesn't say anything in the article about how much he's asking for either. I think he's just suing them. Maybe that's part of damages if they're found guilty on that.

[Andrew]

Oh, I wonder. Also, it seems like the real goal here would not to necessarily get money, but to stop it from happening. That.

[Luke]

And you know what? Actually, that is something David says in the. At the end of the article. Basically just says, like, you know, he says Green says he isn't lobbying for new laws that would risk chilling innovation. He just thinks Google should have asked his permission before releasing a product based on a voice that he believes is essentially his. I'm not some crazy anti AI activist. He says, it's just been a very weird experience.

[Andrew]

I've noticed more and more. This is like the third quote I have heard from somebody in the past week or so where they're saying, no, no, we're not against AI. We just weren't using it in this case. Like, the one I'm thinking of is, did you clock at all the Guy Fieri commercial during the Super Bowl? Did you know about that? Just like, I'm a normal guy and he's like, they make him up. Like they get rid of all of his flashy look, all of the signature.

[Luke]

Very uncanny and unsettling to see.

[Andrew]

Weird. Yeah.

[Luke]

See him as just a guy, right? That's the concept.

[Andrew]

That's the concept. Yeah. And there was a teaser video for it where they showed like clippers coming near his head and then they flashed to him as like, normal Guy Fieri or just a guy or whatever they called him. And when we saw the teaser, I'm like, oh, they used AI to like kind of.

[Luke]

Oh, that's how they unfier him.

[Andrew]

I was convinced of that. I was really convinced of that. And then the actual commercial ran during the super bowl. And then I was poking around a little bit and I found a statement from the company that said AI was not used in this process. It was, you know, we used, you know, practical effects and makeup and some, you know, would it be cgi? Like, we used effects. We used post processing effects, but not AI. And there is a difference there. But the. But the statement went on to say explicitly, like, we are not against the use of AI. Wow. We're not against it in this case. We didn't happen to use it, but they were like bending over backwards. Not to make the AI community angry.

[Luke]

I didn't even tell you this, but I spent my first ever afternoon in a guy Fieri restaurant last week.

[Andrew]

Oh, Thursday.

[Luke]

Because my hotel, remember I was raving about that hotel in la. I was, yeah. And I still, the people that work there are great. They did not make this decision. But I was very disappointed on Thursday. I had this nice little two hour window after we'd done our TBTL stuff and before my flight and I need to do some computer work and they have a great rooftop pool at this hotel. And it was a sunny day on Thursday in la. I was all excited to go sit up there and break out my laptop and do a little concur work and catch some vitamin D. And I get into the elevator and this very muscle bound guy goes, do you have a wristband? And I'm like, no. By the way, again, it's 2 in the afternoon. I go, no. And he goes, are you part of the Jordan event? And I said no. He goes, pools closed, restaurants closed. It's like what? And he was like, yeah, it's a private event. And I thought, well that's weird because they didn't give us a discount on the hotel room.

[Andrew]

Right? Yeah. And also, is he really being this short with you?

[Luke]

He was, I listen, to be fair, he wasn't, he wasn't. I'm making him sound slightly more brusque than he was. But what he also was not was like grasping that it was kind of weird to me that as a patron of the hotel, I was being just told flatly, I can't use some of the hotel's facilities that are part of the cost of staying at the hotel. So I, I, he goes, so I was gonna go to the roof. And he goes, what floor do you want? I go, I guess the first floor. So he hits the first floor, I go down. Then I'm like, I'm gonna go get some lunch. There's a little restaurant, bar in the kind of lobby area of this hotel. I go over there, I asked somebody, are you guys doing lunch? And they were like, no, it's closed for the Jordan people. Because I forgot that that last weekend was the NBA All Star game in la. And so the specifically, not just Nike, but the Jordan brand took over the entire hotel to be adjacent to where the All Star game was or whatever. And so it was just like millions of influencers walking around in complete head to toe Nike gear, carrying big shopping bags that had shoe boxes in them of like exclusive Jordan drop. So and so's were getting. And I was kind of over all of it, honestly. Yeah. Because again I felt like that was really rude. I did try to sneak in Andrew.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

And it didn't work.

[Andrew]

What kind of shoes were you wearing?

[Luke]

Ironically? Adidas. Yeah, True story.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

Ironically, I was wearing my Rod Lavers and I did have some Nikes with me. I just wasn't wearing them in that moment. But so I basically, I like, I go downstairs, I walk around, I find out that they're not gonna, like, let me get something at the restaurant bar, because that's also for Jordan people only. So now I'm like, I'm gonna go back upstairs. I put on my sunglasses because I thought it made me look cooler or something. It made me look like a person who would. Would be allowed to be there.

[Andrew]

Were they. The sunglasses with the camera?

[Luke]

They were not. They were not. I can send you a picture of this. I literally took a picture of myself trying to. Trying to analyze in the hotel mirror, does this look like a guy who you're gonna stop from going to a Jordan party at a rooftop pool? And. And so I get in the elevator, and I'm in a different elevator, so I'm not in the room with the security guard. And I go upstairs, and the elevator opens, and there is a guy who I can tell is kind of at a. Like a sort of a podium thing, whatever. He's checking people in. But I just walk in with my sunglasses on, just like, I belong here. I should be here. And I walk right past him. And I think, what. What really killed me, what really. What really foiled my plan, was that it hadn't really started yet. If it was in full swing, I think I might have been able to get away with it.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

But I was kind of the only person. And I kept. So I walk into the restaurant, and I can see people are kind of like, huh, this guy doesn't look Jordany, despite the sunglasses. Ironically, by the way, Andrew, these sunglasses are from the Nike employee store in Beaverton. Okay, See, so, I mean, that should have gotten me some kind of a cool guy status, Nike status. But anyway, I get through the restaurant. I can tell the energy is. People are trying to clock me, but nobody. Nobody's stepped up to say anything to me. Also, by the way, because this is now my life. Everyone who works there is 20 years younger than me. So nobody wants to be the person who steps up and kind of says, like, out of here, dude. And then finally, I get around to almost where the pool is, and the guy kind of steps right out in front of me, goes, are you here as part of the Jordan event? And then I play dumb. I go, no, Is there a Jordan event? And he goes, yeah. And I go, so the pool is closed? He goes, yeah. I go, the restaurant is closed? He goes, yeah, it's all closed for a private event.

[Andrew]

I was like, okay.

[Luke]

So then I go, I slink back to the elevators, and I hit you.

[Andrew]

Down one single tear, like.

[Luke]

And then it formed into the jump man. And I was like, you're not gonna let a guy who can cry the Jumpman logo. So then I go back to the elevator, and now this time, it's the elevator with the security guy in it who already told me I'm not supposed to be here.

[Andrew]

Yeah, you have. No. You have.

[Luke]

And I just, like. I get in, like, I was like a dog that had eaten an entire frozen lasagna. I just get into the elevator, and I just look down at the ground.

[Andrew]

And just spray diarrhea all over the place.

[Luke]

Yeah. So anyway, I was kind. But. So what happened was I now had this. And I learned. I learned this term from you, Andrew. I had sort of a. What is it? Donut. You don't like a donut of time. You do, like, probably a real donut occasionally. What do you call it when you've got kind of a. An awkward amount, maybe?

[Andrew]

I say a hole in the day sort of.

[Luke]

Hole in the day.

[Andrew]

Yeah, something like that. I don't love holes.

[Luke]

I. So I was, you know, I. This is, like, perfect. I'm going to sit out by the pool for an hour and a half. I'll jump in the lift. I'll go to Burbank Airport. It'll be fine. Well, I'm leaving the hotel now, and I don't. I'm not going to go to some other place. So I just go to the Burbank airport and I go through security, which there's like, zero secure. I mean, there's zero line. It's super fast. I love the Burbank airport, for the record, but I go through security. I'm like, where are the restaurants? They go. They got the guy Fieri one. And, like, I swear every item on the menu had something called donkey sauce on it.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Which I think I've heard about maybe through you. Right. Is that. I really feel like.

[Luke]

I don't think I knew. I think if I knew there was something called donkey sauce, I would have brought it up.

[Andrew]

Really?

[Luke]

On this show.

[Andrew]

Oh. Because I've. I've.

[Luke]

Oh, I forgot it. That's also very possible.

[Andrew]

I guess the. I. I can't imagine hearing it from anybody but you.

[Luke]

Camaro, Kev. I think Could. It seems like it could be in Camaro. Kev's wheelhouse.

[Andrew]

Yeah. I mean, do they go in for that? I don't know.

[Luke]

I just mean.

[Andrew]

I don't watch.

[Luke]

I could see them being in Vegas and going to the, like, you know, the diners, driving in dives thing here.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Do we know what donkey sauce is? It's probably something that most of America knows. And you and I are just, I'm.

[Luke]

Guessing, like a thousand island.

[Andrew]

Whenever anybody's got a special sauce, that's what it is. Right. And some sort of Russian dressing. Thousand.

[Luke]

I had. Yeah, basically, like a Russian dressing, something of that sort. I. I did not get one of the smash burgers with donkey sauce on it, but I did also have the. The sweetest but most kind of extra server. He was one of those. He was probably in his mid-20s. He's one of those guys that literally, like, when he walks in, he said something to me, like, you look spectacular today. And you're. I hope you're having an absolutely blessed moment and we need to nourish you. I'm going to get you set up. Like, it was so much.

[Andrew]

I couldn't handle that feel.

[Luke]

And then I noticed that he was. As he was checking everybody out, he would give them a quote. I actually videotaped him giving me my quote. Let's see if I can just. If I can play this even just, like, through my phone into the microphone. This was the guy. This was the person I should say. It would be amazing if his name was also Guy, if everybody had to change their name to Guy and they had to change their sign to Pisces. Just a guy to work at this place. This is him giving me my parting message at the Guy Fieri restaurant. All right, so the quote is, I love the light because it shows me the way, but I enjoy the darkness because it will bring me the stars. I. I love the light because it will show me the way, but I love the darkness because it will show me the stars. That was my.

[Andrew]

So, okay.

[Luke]

That was my. My adios from the Guy Fieri restaurant.

[Andrew]

Okay. Okay. We gotta get outta here. But this is.

[Luke]

I had a feeling today was gonna end up being an outrageous.

[Andrew]

We gotta get out of here. It's a holiday for Genevieve, So Genevieve's home. When Genevieve is home on holiday, it feels like a holiday to me. So I feel like I should go. You should go get breakfast or something. Maybe we'll go to this place. No, I could never handle this kind of energy. So you are seeing this person this person who is your server. Right. Not just host, server, my server. And you already kind of catching this energy off of him. And then you're seeing as he's, like, sort of, you know, people are paying their checks at the table or something. You're clocking that he's giving them these quotes. And so you're ready to do. Is this a surreptitious recording? Do you.

[Luke]

No, no.

[Andrew]

I told him, okay.

[Luke]

I was like, I got to get this on tape.

[Andrew]

Okay. Because how does he. So then he approaches you and he says, okay, well, thanks. I hope everything was great. I hope you're nourished and blessed or whatever the hell. And he gives you the little thing, and you're giving him a 22% tip or whatever you're giving them. And then. And then. And then he says, okay, now is the part where I give you a quote. How does he, like, ramp up to it? Is this is something I do with all my customers or what I heard.

[Luke]

Him say to the guy next to me, who, by the way, by my. From what I was able to tell, spoke essentially zero English, which added a real spin to their interactions.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

Because our guy was really. He was really delivering a lot of flair and a lot of energy, and I think he was kind of going over the head of the guy that was sitting next to me. But anyway, I heard him say to the guy sitting next to me, I always, like. I always make up a poem or I give you a quote to after your bill. So I heard this already. So I don't know if he repeated it to me, but when he came over, I said, oh, I got to videotape this. And he said, oh, okay, okay. And that's when he gave me.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Luke]

But my thing was different than his thing. He doesn't give the same.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

Doesn't give the same little bromide to each person. He mixes it up.

[Andrew]

Real bromide.

[Luke]

Right. Putting the bro and bromide.

[Andrew]

So maybe that's.

[Luke]

I buy. For the record, I did not hate this energy. I mean, it would be. It would have been a lot under certain circumstances, but in the moment, it did not bother me as much as you might have thought.

[Andrew]

Yeah, yeah, I get my. I just have a real gag reflex when it comes to, like. Like, cringe, sort of. And that kind of like, we're gonna. What did he say? Not nurture you, but we're gonna. Whatever.

[Luke]

I mean, I'm paraphrasing, but it was something about, like. And then it was also the thing where, like, I ordered, like, a Salad and a grilled cheese sandwich. I guess I could have gotten donkey sauce on the grill. I didn't want to risk it with the donkey sauce, if I'm being honest. But it was like I ordered what I. What I ordered, and it was like. His response was like, I had just solved the Da Vinci Code of ordering. Like, he couldn't believe what a good order I had just done.

[Andrew]

Okay, that's fine. I like a good Attaboy. By the way.

[Luke]

Huge.

[Andrew]

You can buy famous donkey sauce in a bottle itself. It's like a garlic aioli. It says basically straight up, says on the bottle, donkey sauce, garlic aioli. Now, the interesting thing about this is I'm in Flavortown sauces.com. so what else does Flavortownsauces.com have?

[Luke]

I'm on Flavortownsauces.org with David Green. Yes, exactly.

[Andrew]

All right.

[Luke]

Anyway, so that was my experience within the Guy Fieri Fieri verse. But I will. This is where I have to say this, because otherwise we're going to get emails even on a president's Day. Yes. We know that Guy Fieri is by all accounts an absolutely solid human being and great to the people he works with and who work for him. And that's all really good. I am. I am. I am sort of. I would say I'm generally neutral on Guy Fieri. I would say this. I definitely don't think me roasting him is me being funny or original at this point. There was definitely a time when that was my go to, and that time has passed.

[Andrew]

There is a roasted garlic sauce you can get as well. Yeah, no, and this isn't something like that I want to take away. I don't think I'd be able to hand. No matter what kind of restaurant it is, I'm not able to handle those kinds of conversations where there's even the glancing reference to my energy or you.

[Luke]

Know what I mean?

[Andrew]

Like, whatever that is, no matter what the setting is, that would not be for me. But I'm not trying to take away anybody's flavor towns. Go to it.

[Luke]

And he definitely. I will say this, too. He was the only server who did this. This was completely his freelance. It wasn't like the training was, yeah, every time somebody comes in, you got to give them this spiel. This was all. This was all his invention.

[Andrew]

Yeah, no good.

[Luke]

And I kind of wondered a little bit for her, the thought that I had was, what is it like to be one of the normal servers at the Guy Fieri place in Burbank?

[Andrew]

How do they feel about their colleague, you mean?

[Luke]

Yeah, because it's like it's. I was there for 15 minutes and again, I didn't mind it, but I was not pulling a double. I was not pulling a five hour shift. And I'm kind of cheek to jowl with this guy who's doing this to every one of his tables. I wonder if that would start to kind of wear me down as a fellow employee more so than as a customer.

[Andrew]

And you get a sense of how many of these quotes does he have? Does he have like 25? And just. Is it like my story?

[Luke]

And he's got four of them, pulled them.

[Andrew]

How many times have you, have you heard the same ones over and over? Is he making them up? I mean, there is something about. So he did. That was my other question, which I think is pretty self evident. But he. That was just off the dome, right?

[Luke]

I was off the dome, but I don't know, his dome also invented it or he's got like a, you know, like a sort of a, a recipe box with 3 by 5 cards with different quotes in it that he goes through, you know, in between tables just to kind of remind himself, I don't know if he's making these up, if they're originals. I gotta be honest with you. And again, it sounds like I'm being less than nice to this guy. I really appreciated this guy's enthusiasm, but it did seem like maybe he was making these up.

[Andrew]

Well, here's one I typed in. I like the light because it shows me the way, but I like the dark. And I just wanted to see if the Internet would finish that for me. And yes, this is posted 6 years ago on Reddit, which is. I think Reddit's getting great SEO these days. It's like often the first result. I will love the light, for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars. All right, well, there you go. I don't know how to pronounce it. The first name is O, G, but it's not, you know, it's not O, period. G, period. So it's OG or OG man Dino. And I'm looking at who that is. An American writer. I see.

[Luke]

So I'm, I'm trying to think if I'm more or less impressed. I think I'm more impressed. Am I more impressed that he actually took the time to like learn a bunch of these kind of inspirational things versus he's just making them up? Which is more impressive if these are originals? If he actually took the Time to do some research.

[Andrew]

He's remembering them. I mean, that's something.

[Luke]

It feels a little. To me, it feels. It feels more impressive. It feels like more preparation for him to, like, have this thought. I'm gonna really brighten the experience of some customers. I'm gonna. I'm gonna learn some kind of inspirational quote. So I've got them right at the tip of my brain. And then he went to the Internet or whatever and he learned them. I think that actually shows more forethought than just. Just. I'm gonna. I'm gonna little dicky something off the dome.

[Andrew]

Right. But it also is like. And. But the thing is, it's just reeks of quoteoftheday.com or whatever, where you can. Yeah. Just reeks of donkey sauce.

[Luke]

That's part of why I didn't get it, because it had garlic in it. I was like, I'm not gonna be rocking my neighbors on this flight with some kind of garlic aioli breath.

[Andrew]

And it was. But anyway, Og. It is pronounced Og because the guys. This writer's name is Augustine Mandino ii, not Junior, but the second, for some reason. And he's an American writer. He wrote the best selling book, the Greatest Salesman in the World. And so he's just like one of those guys who's kind of like, probably got. He's probably a quote machine. Right. His whole thing in life is. I felt like I started the closing.

[Luke]

He's one of the seven sharks you beat in heaven.

[Andrew]

Right, Right. The Greatest Salesman in the World is a book written by Og Mandino that serves as a guide to philosophy of salesmanship and. And success. Telling the story of Hafid, a poor camel boy who achieves a life of abundance. So anyway, I. I just certainly in.

[Luke]

First published in 1968, reissued in 1983. I wonder how this holds up.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Yeah, me too. Very interesting.

[Luke]

Very interesting, dude.

[Andrew]

Yes, exactly. So I do think it's probably good.

[Luke]

That he's writing about somebody in the Middle East.

[Andrew]

No, I mean, that's a good sign.

[Luke]

Probably guessing that. I'm guessing that there's no way that goes a little bit sideways.

[Andrew]

No. I don't understand how it even could possibly. All right.

[Luke]

Young camel herder is traveling to Flavortown. But he's almost out of donkey.

[Andrew]

He's out of donkey. We know that.

[Luke]

Yeah, he is.

[Andrew]

We know that.

[Luke]

All right, that's gonna do it, everybody. There's your President's Day show.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke]

And it was a fun one, actually. Thank you for listening. Thanks for being part of tbtl. We are going to be right back here tomorrow with another one of these little episodes. So please if you can join us for that. In the meantime, have a great Monday. I hope you are getting to take some time off and relax and are enjoying this Monday. In the meantime, we'll see you tomorrow. Please remember, no mountain too tall and.

[Andrew]

Good luck to all. Power out.