#4686 Doodle, Where's My Car

Summary

TBTL #4686: "Doodle, Where’s My Car" (March 18, 2026)

Hosts: Luke Burbank & Andrew Walsh
Main Theme: Navigating the world’s big and small issues—from the history of doodles (the dog kind) and pet ownership anxieties, to the social hierarchy at dog parks, Little League drama, and deep dives into baseball’s cultural meaning.

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Episode Overview

This fun and thoughtful Wednesday edition takes listeners on a meandering yet engaging journey with Luke and Andrew. The duo riff on “designer” doodle dogs, pet-parent neuroses, dog park politics, and the new Oxford word “gigil” (cute aggression). The show’s latter half is a rich tapestry of baseball talk: from fantasy teams (hello, Junior Sluggers!) to serious reflection on representation in baseball, local Mariners lore, behind-the-scenes announcer trivia, and even thoughts on the impact of protest signs on freeway overpasses. As ever, it's all delivered with their trademark wit, warmth, and some delightfully unfiltered asides.

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Key Segments & Takeaways

1. Opening Banter: Retail Skits, Membership Clubs, and 80s Music

• [00:00–01:30] The episode opens with a classic, loosely-scripted bit at a fictional check-out counter, poking fun at upcharges, commitments, and email sign-ups.
  • Memorable quote:
    A (Luke): “I won’t be talked into any extended warranty ... nor will I be punching in my email address.” [00:11]
• Quick riff on Columbia House Music Club (“various artists of the 80s”—not so much a club, more a business model).

2. Weather Talk & TBTL Little League Update

• [01:45–03:50] Luke gives a hyperlocal update (Madrona Hill, mighty Columbia, weather whiplash). Spring means the return of the TBTL Junior Sluggers Little League, and the latest “Junior Sluggers report” from Coach Ben.
• [03:50–04:50] Introduction of Andrew in “quiet mode” to avoid scaring Bingo the cat, leading to a brief, comic exchange about “arousing” vs. “saltpeter” (potassium nitrate) and how childhood misunderstandings shape adult vocabularies.
  • Quote:
    A (Luke): “It’s oddly conspiratorial and arousing ... I need to go into the anti-arousal zone.” [04:15] B (Andrew): “You thought you were actually salting your Peter?” [06:29]

3. The Social/Genetic Drama of Doodles

• [07:15–15:46] Luke recaps a New Yorker article on the “rise of the doodle” (designer crossbreeds, like labradoodles and goldendoodles), describing how these poodle-mixes went from “unwanted mutts” to white-hot commodity and ultimately, social pariahs in the AKC world.
  • Branding genius: “Let’s just put out a press release that says, we’ve invented a new dog and we’ll call it the Labradoodle.” [08:27]
• The purebred dog world’s animosity toward doodles (“just say no to doodles” signs at shows, protests from poodle purists).
• Explains F1 doodles (first-generation, less predictable hybrids) vs. later, more standardized generations.
• Dog Park Hierarchy:
  The most-respected owners are those who adopt “problem” dogs or those with visible issues (e.g., three-legged rescues), while doodle owners are at the bottom: “...the lowest status people at the dog park are the doodle people.” [15:40]

4. Pet Ownership and Anxieties

• [15:46–19:05] Andrew’s detailed, pre-dog worries: glow-in-the-dark collars, high-viz vests, logistics of pet boarding after a late-night return ("...I don't even have a dog, and I'm already sad about this."). [18:02]
• Luke’s response: "All the more reason to never leave your house." [18:51]
• [19:05–22:56] Talk of local dog park geography (North Acres, Magnuson, Bitter Lake). Bitter Lake is “where I was baptized... in those very waters.” [21:28]
• The mutual anxieties about animal personality mirroring owner’s nature, with Andrew voicing real concern that his anxiety is contagious.

5. The New Word: “Gigil” (Cute Aggression)

• [23:53–26:03] Luke introduces “gigil,” a new addition to the OED—an “intense urge to squeeze something due to overwhelming cuteness." [25:13]
  • Quote:
    A (Luke): “I gigil when I see these labradoodle puppies.”
• Andrew riffs: “It sounds like a giggling eagle, to be honest with you.” [25:26]
• Both discuss the universality (and weirdness) of feeling cuteness so intensely it becomes aggression.

6. Dazzling Donors & Listener Shoutouts

• [27:02–56:09] Time to thank the supporters! Each donor gets a moment:
  • Ryan Hoenick: Moved from D.C. to Seattle. “I turned 40 this year, which feels like something.” [32:12] Looking to meet other TBTL fans (“tens”). [32:34]
  • Aaron Nelson: Celebrated “ambush nuptials” atop Smith Tower—an epic, 8-minute, surprise wedding.
  • Listeners are integrated into the community—recommendations for local meetups, supporting each others’ projects (Magpie Mouse earrings), sharing drops and soundbites.
• [35:40–38:48] Segue into public recognition stories and the fine line between being “famous” and “familiar” in Seattle.

7. Little League Update – TBTL Junior Sluggers

• [58:13–72:33] Full rundown from Coach Ben:
  • Returning players:
    • Fox (“Danger Fox,” aiming for a home run + backflip)
    • Tommy (“T-bone,” improvement arc)
    • Nico, Armani (lightning fast leadoff hitter), Atlas (“Slappy,” “elite dugout vibes”), Ollie
  • New recruits: Crosby (“Shohei Ohtani style two-way threat”), Amos (solid pop, slick glove), Victor (mystery wild card), Nehemiah (“Nemo,” veteran), Zaya (pitcher/hitter/first baseman).
  • Coach Ben’s conclusion: “Will these Junior Sluggers develop into a finely tuned baseball machine or will the first few practices mostly consist of kids throwing their gloves in the air, running the bases in the wrong direction, and asking if it’s snack time yet? Only time and my coaching abilities will tell.” [69:46]
• Considering a TBTL Day At The Ballpark for the community.

8. Mariners Broadcasting & Baseball Deep Dive

• [72:57–101:11] Discussion of Rick Rizzs’ swan song season, local Mariners broadcasting history, speculation about the new TV/radio lineup.
  • Andrew, on Rick Rizzs: “[He’ll] tell a story like this... I said, ‘are you nervous out there?’ He said, ‘no.’ Oh, and that’s a third strike and we close out the second inning.”
• Laughs about the quirks of local sports personalities, Jay Buhner’s “chaos agent” vibe, and the cultural institution that is Seattle baseball.
• [81:23–88:11] Race & Representation in Baseball
  • Andrew nervously, thoughtfully explores an online conversation (retweeted by ex-Mariners announcer Dave Sims) about African American representation in baseball—as distinct from other “players of color” often hailing from outside the U.S. (e.g., Dominican Republic).
  • Luke: “When a lot of the players... are sort of playing for teams from the countries where they were born, you realize that baseball has a lot of white guys... and not a ton of American black players.” [84:56]

9. Political and Social Observations

• [43:05–51:16] Praise for the older folks displaying political protest signs atop I-5 overpasses as a sort of “community wind in the sails,” whether or not it changes minds.
  • Luke: “I always feel slightly better about the world... for me, that’s kind of important—because I go through... sometimes I feel like all is lost and then sometimes I feel like all is not lost.” [48:34]
• Conversation about why sometimes activism is for encouragement/community vs. literal persuasion.

10. Miscellany & Memorable Quotes

• [104:28–106:36] Seattle Times headlines (“Legendary folk singer-songwriter books Chateau Ste. Michelle”—with a giant pic of Bob Dylan—cueing clickbaity journalism debate and a shoutout to the Pope's real-life condemnation of clickbait.
• [27:16] Podcast financial model: “We have just had this amazing luck of the listeners... deciding voluntarily to send money in so this thing can keep going. It’s an amazing little system.” – Luke

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Memorable Quotes

• Andrew (pet anxiety): “What if we fly in from vacation and it’s 10:30 at night and we can’t say hello to the dog until the morning? How depressing will that be? ...I don’t even have a dog, and I’m already sad about this.” [18:02]
• Luke (on ‘gigil’): “It’s the intense urge to squeeze something due to overwhelming cuteness... like when I see my niece Gemma, I fully gigil.” [25:13]
• Luke (on protest signs): “It puts some wind in my sails... I always feel slightly better about the world...” [48:34]
• Andrew (reflecting on baseball & race): “That conversation about specifically African American representation in baseball finally clicked for me after having a little seed of a question mark in the back of my brain for a long time.” [84:30]
• Coach Ben (on Little League): “Will these Junior Sluggers develop into a finely tuned baseball machine, or will the first few practices mostly consist of kids throwing their gloves in the air, running the bases in the wrong direction, and asking if it’s snack time yet?” [69:46]

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Timestamps for Critical Segments

• Intro/Early Banter: 00:00–01:30
• Weather & Little League Update: 01:45–03:50
• Saltpeter, Childhood Misconceptions: 04:15–06:36
• Doodle Dog History: 07:15–15:46
• Dog Park Hierarchies: 15:46–22:10
• “Gigil” (Cute Aggression): 23:53–26:03
• Dazzling Donor Segment: 27:02–56:09
• Pet Anxiety/Boarding: 15:46–19:05
• Mariners Radio & Baseball Deep Dive: 72:57–101:11
• Race and Baseball Authenticity: 81:23–88:11

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Episode Tone & Flow

As always, TBTL walks the line between self-deprecating comedy and insightful cultural commentary. The rapport between Luke and Andrew is warm, nerdy, and humane; they freely blend bits, heartfelt honesty, and the day’s meaningful digressions into a tapestry that’s as inviting for longtime “tens” as new listeners. The tone is candid and, at times, hilariously winding, but always rooted in curiosity and community.

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Power out.

Transcript

[A]

Hey, did you find everything you were looking for today? Yes, I did, Kevin.

[B]

Great. Now, will this be cash or card?

[A]

I will not be paying for anything today.

[B]

Got it. No charge.

[A]

Now, will you be wanting the extended warranty coverage? I won't be talked into any extended warranty.

[B]

Got it.

[A]

Now, if you just punch in your email, nor will I be punching in my email address. I won't be talked into any kind of Best Buy membership card or. Or charge card. Right, but we really do need your email to keep you up to date about promotional or for the Geek Squad. Geek Squad. Not a problem at all.

[B]

Okay, TBTL.

[A]

I say.

[B]

I say wait up, dog.

[A]

Let the fun begin. That's a tuna, bro. This comes out to all the coffee

[B]

lovers of the world.

[A]

Beware of things that cost $1.99. Those are the membership dues for this club that I joined, the Columbia House Music Club.

[B]

Turns out that wasn't really even a club. It was just a business for making money.

[A]

Although it is how I found my favorite band. Various artists of the 80s. Whatcha listening to?

[B]

College music. Ever heard it?

[A]

What is this guy trying to do? Is this supposed to be what Bozo's thinking or saying? What guy is Bozo? Bozo did it.

[B]

Bozo did what?

[A]

Bozo did the dub. How'd it go?

[B]

Well, he's gonna acknowledge me on Instagram,

[A]

so guess you could say it was one of the best conversations of my entire life.

[B]

Please clap.

[A]

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

[B]

Is it too early to get a fish sandwich?

[A]

My name's Luke Burbank.

[B]

I'm your host.

[A]

If you want to talk, I've got two ears, and they're tuned to the listening station, coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio, perched high ab the mighty Columbia, where it is. Boy, that river is at its limit. I know a river that is at its limit. All the rainfall of late. The water is high, but the weather is. It's tolerable today. We've been whipsawing between 70 degrees on Monday and then torrential rain. And now we're just somewhere in the middle, just kind of gray skies, flat river, and episode 4000, 685 in a

[B]

collector series, Let the Fun begin, which

[A]

is where we've landed today. Hey, spring is just a few days away, and that means the TBTL Junior Sluggers are back. Kids and fantasy. We've gotten our first dispatch of the season from Coach Ben. He's calling it the Junior Sluggers report the ides of March edition. So we will read through what we think the prospects are for our little league baseball team that that we are the sponsors of there in the. I think it's the Parkside League of Portland, Oregon. Speaking of fantasy, I had a fantasy yesterday of actually getting to one of our top stories. Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the kind of famous Crichton leprechaun story that went so viral, as they say on YouTube.

[B]

To me it looked like a leprechaun to me.

[A]

Of course we got to yapping and chopping it up and absolutely did not get to the story. And the reason it was relevant because yesterday was St Patrick's Day. Did you know today is the 20 year and one day anniversary of the Crichton leprechaun story? So depending on how it goes, maybe we'll. We'll get to that today or we could talk about it tomorrow on the 20 year and two day anniversary. Who knows? I do know that we are gonna check in with this guy. He is the longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships.

[B]

Who the hell is that?

[A]

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

[B]

Hey, good morning, Luke. I hope it's okay if I do the show like this.

[A]

Are you saving your voice for something?

[B]

Bingo is still in the room and if I talk really loudly, he'll bolt. So I think I want to just keep my priorities straight here at the beginning of the show. But this is good, right? This is good. Sounds comforting.

[A]

It's oddly conspiratorial and arousing. Yeah, no, no, it's stirring some sort of feelings in me and I haven't really worked through what they are.

[B]

I mean, I'm more now confounded knowing that it's not usually arousing when you introduce me on the show. I thought that was always saltpeter. Ooh.

[A]

It's what I think about sometimes when I need to. I need to go into the anti arousal zone.

[B]

Can I. I need to ask you a pre question before I ask you a question.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

If I ask you what salt Peter is, is this going to take the conversation into a place I don't want it to go? Yes, but I don't want to know.

[A]

I think that saltpeter. I'm just reading now from an AI overview. AI overview would never do us dirty. And it would never say something like

[B]

a blurs day later.

[A]

Yeah, right. That's Thursday. Right. And today's Wednesday?

[B]

Yes. Yes.

[A]

Oh, I thought you said we have blurs.

[B]

No, I'm sorry. What I meant was I said look up a blurs day later. I meant that because that's one of the best examples of AI just telling people what blurs day means. When.

[A]

Exactly. Too bad they're late.

[B]

Too bad they're late. Exactly.

[A]

So saltpeter, chemically known as potassium nitrate. It's a white crystalline salt, historically used as a key ingredient in gunpowder, fertilizers and food preservatives as a strong oxidizer. It's used in fireworks, rocket pro propellants and smoke bombs. It's also found in specialized toothpaste for sensitivity. But high ingestion can cause health issues like dizziness and abdominal pain. So for some reason in my brain, maybe I'm, I don't know where I thought I had heard that. I thought I had heard at some point that like, maybe it's because it has Peter in the name. Saltpeter, I thought was associated with curbing a certain kind of arousal, an urge, male arousal or just like, I don't know, maybe you put it, maybe if you put it in the ground, you know, salting the earth, stuff doesn't grow there. Maybe I was thinking of salting the earth so nothing grows. And then Peter, occasionally a term used for a male appendage, and I in my own mind combined those two things to be something that they're not, which is, I thought, I really thought if you threw that on your junk, you would not be able to.

[B]

You think, you thought you were actually Rigidity. I mean, I'm just going to say it because we're dancing around it. You thought you were actually salting your Peter?

[A]

I think I, I must have in my mind created that non existent connection

[B]

probably when you were still a kid and these things just sort of were floating around and you're putting them together, you're creating your own context for things. And then it never came.

[A]

A Chemistry magazine. What was I reading about salt, Peter?

[B]

I, I, well, you know, salting the earth is a very biblical thing. We know that there was a lot of kind of biblical language around you, both of us growing up, but I think you especially. And then I don't know where you got the Peter thing, but I can sort. Like if you already have one idea in your head, then you hear about saltpeter. Anyway, I'm trying to give you some clearance here. I'm trying to give you some coverage.

[A]

Speaking of words, I just learned about a relatively new word today. I was reading this John Seabrook piece in the New Yorker about the rise of the doodle. By the way, you and Genevieve should absolutely. I mean, this isn't going to impact you on the dog journey because I don't think you're going for a quote unquote designer dog or one of these real unique or expensive breeds. But it's a fascinating article about the history of dog breeding and about the. The rise of. Of all kinds of doodles. But how doodles are very looked down upon in the, like, Westminster AKC world because they're technically a mutt. They're two kinds of dogs. They're not a purebred.

[B]

But because when you say a doodle, it's always something plus poodle. Right? A doodle is so far a generic kind of umbrella term for anything that is bred with a poodle.

[A]

Goes into the history of where at least he does call it a shaggy dog tail. So it's. I mean, but it does appear to be the official story on the first doodle. And it was a guy in Australia who worked with an organization that I think was raising service dogs. And there was a woman in Hawaii who wanted a service dog, but her husband was allergic to the fur of the typical service dogs of the era, which I think were maybe golden retrievers and maybe labs. And so he got the idea to cross breed one of the. I guess it would have been maybe the lab with a poodle, because poodles have hair, not fur. And so he kind of had. So these dogs had a litter and he sent off some of the hair samples. And the woman's husband did not have an allergic reaction. And thus the doodle was born. But they couldn't. They could not get anyone to take the other doodles. They sent the one to Hawaii and then they had these other ones and nobody wanted them because they weren't purebred. Nobody. They were not at the time. You know, they're thinking, well, I want a purebred golden retriever service dog or something. And so they were kind of not popular. And as the story goes, he said to somebody at the organization, let's just put out a press release that says, we've invented a new dog and we'll call it the Labradoodle. And people were like, and again, I'm quoting from John Seabrook's piece, and is it a cookie? Is it a dog? And then people just went for it.

[B]

Branding, my friend. That's like my favorite. My. What is my favorite? You know, do you remember the other day I was trying to find childhood photos for you. But I couldn't remember what blogging platform I had used to create Tumblr Family blog. It turned out it was Tumblr. Well, I'm actually the proud owner of two Tumblrs, Luke. Same login. But one of them is. Just has a bunch of family photos that I had scanned in that I shared with my family a long time ago. And the other one is a very rarely updated music video blog on Tumblr. And I started this, I, you know, at least 15 years ago now. I mean, I remember doing it in my first apartment in Seattle. So that was 2009 or something. I think it goes back earlier than that. But when I was listening to a lot of new music and hanging out on a lot of, like, MP3 blogs, which were a thing back in the day, I was also taking my favorite videos, old and new, and just posting them without any comment to a Tumblr,

[A]

which was so music video. So these were bands had filmed music videos to go with their songs?

[B]

Yeah, just, you know, regular, just music videos. I had an Elton John music video up there alongside a lot of, you know, current indie rock of the. Of the early to mid 2000s. You know, all of that. And every now and then I'll go to Wild Hair and I'll see a video, because I still see a fair number of music videos. They come in through press releases and what have you. And a lot of people don't realize, oh, there's still a lot of really cool music videos being made. Anyway, I don't update it all that often. Here's where I'm going with it. The title of that blog, which is really just a blog for me at this point, is called if youf have Nothing to say. There's bingo. The title of that blog. The title of that blog was that. That I named my own music blog was a line that I learned on. On the media. And I think Bob Garfield back in the day said this during one of the episodes, which was an old advertising slogan, which is, if you have nothing to say than sing it. And that's the name of my blog. And I don't know if you had heard that before as well, but I love that phrase. And I sort of feel like that was a really, really, really long way of me saying that's what they did with the Golden Doodle.

[A]

They definitely did some. Some. Some very effective branding. And suddenly everybody wanted a Goldendoodle and then a Labradoodle. I believe it might have been a Labradoodle originally.

[B]

Oh, so golden. Yeah.

[A]

And then a. And then a cock, a doodle. And then, you know, and he goes through, in the article, he goes through the list of everything that has been now crossbred with a poodle. And there's Great Dane crosses with poodles. The other thing is there's.

[B]

Can I interrupt for one second, please? If a labradoodle is Labradoodle, a goldendoodle, I always thought that was just a yellow lab with. Because my brother in law is a goldendoodle, I think. Isn't that a lab too?

[A]

A golden doodle is a golden retriever.

[B]

Oh, golden retriever. Oh, look at me. What a dingus. Of course it's right there in the name.

[A]

But, but the. There's also F1 Doodle, which is so an F1 Doodle is one that can run incredibly fast. Like as fast as a car that Brad Pitt would drive. No, F1 is like first generation. So if you took a poodle and a. Let's just go with yellow lab and you. And they had litter, those would be considered F1 doodles. Those are. Those, those are. That's kind of like that's the first generation of them. Now if you took a couple of. If you took those doodles, those puppies, and you bred them with other doodles and you weren't very careful with all this genetic testing and this, that and the other, you would then get a second generation that would be even less predictable about what their characteristics would be. In other words, what they're breeding for with the doodles is like, you want something that has hair and not fur. You want something that doesn't shed, but that has the intelligence of a poodle, but doesn't have some of the kind of high strung nature of a poodle, which is where the yellow lab comes in. We all remember Rudy, who didn't have one even iota of anxiety in her head because she doesn't have one iota of a brain cell. So you're trying to get what are considered the optimal characteristics, but there's just the. How actually imprecise it is is kind of crazy. So, like, these F1 doodles, they're kind of a crapshoot in a way because they're just. You're just actually legitimately crossing these two kinds of dogs. Whereas you get down the line and you get some of these, some of these, you know, breeders that get super scientific with it and they're genetic testing the dogs and they're. And then eventually you get sort of like the quote unquote perfect doodle. But then you go to these dog shows and you have the poodle people who have signs that they've put up that said just say no to doodles. They love standard poodles and they feel like the doodleification is a, is bastardizing, is diluting. And so they'll do this stuff where they'll grow their poodle's hair out so that it looks like a doodle. Because one of the things people like about certain doodles is they have maybe long kind of funny hair. Like a, like a, like a, yeah, like a golden doodle or like a, one of these ones that'll kind of have long hair. That's kind of fun. I almost look like a Muppet sometimes. So these people who have standard poodles will grow the poodle's fur out and they will literally be like, look, poodles can have funny hair too. Like you don't have to get a doodle if you're, if you're in this for some funny Muppet hair looking thing. May I introduce you to the standard poodle? Anyway, all of this, Andrew is, and again, I really do think that you, you and Vivs would get a kick out of this article. It's just kind of a check in on the state of the American dog kind of situation and something that I would have never thought of, which he's also ranking. John Seabrook is the hierarchy of people at the dog park. And the highest, the highest status people are people who have adopted a dog that's clearly got issues. So if your dog is, you know, the, like, the less, the less obviously desirable your dog might seem. You know, maybe it's a breed that some people are sketched out by or it's got three legs or whatever that you're the highest status at the dog park because you've done the most selfless thing. I'm putting a lot of this kind of in quotes. But then the lowest status people at the dog park are the doodle people.

[B]

I'm already thinking about. I don't, I don't think there's probably, probably a dog park near us that I can think of off the top of my head or. Well, I'm sure I will get a million emails about that now. I'm not picturing myself. I mean, who knows? But when we do eventually get a dog, which is soon now I believe, or at least we're going to start the process very soon, I see myself going on walks certainly. And it's funny how my brain has already leaped to Well, I guess I gotta. This is a little bit like you, sort of, except you'd be looking at more designer Y things. But I was already thinking like, well, I gotta get one of those. At least a collar for the dog that glows up at night because like, it's dark. I keep on passing people on my little side street here and we don't. It's not super well lit. And so it's really helpful for me as a driver to see somebody walking their dog if their dog has some sort of reflective thing on them or one of those glow sticks around his neck or something. I've been thinking maybe I need to get myself a high visibility vest of some sort already. And I'm already thinking about that stuff. We don't even have a dog, did I?

[A]

You're focusing on the fun part though.

[B]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

Pedestrian safety.

[B]

Yeah, the pedestrian safety. I. I had a thought. This is, I think maybe on an upcoming episode of Spotless. So sorry for scooping us, Hannah Brooks Olson, but I was telling Hannah we were talking about packing and unpacking for trips. I enjoy unpacking more, she enjoys packing more. But one of the things I talked about is like, even on a fun trip, it's so nice to come home. And one of the things I love about coming home is saying hello to my animals, to my pets, right? And right now we have one animal, Bingo. And Bingo will miss us. This is a very social cat. And so when we do finally come home, it'll be very clear that he is a cat who missed us and want be around us. And it's a very sweet thing. Although I feel bad for making him miss us. But I, I had this. Again, just want to be very, very clear here. I do not have a dog. I do not know when we're going to get a dog. I have no idea who or what that dog will be. I can't even picture the dog yet.

[A]

You've never even seen a dog.

[B]

I don't even know what a dog is. You mentioned something about three or four legs. I didn't know you had options.

[A]

Yes, four legs is extra.

[B]

I had this deep, sad feeling in talking with Hannah. So I was like, well, what if I. If we have a dog and we have to board the dog somewhere if we go on vacation, or maybe the dog has to go live with a friend or a family member or something, but we can't get the dog until the next morning if we have a late night flight. This is the specifics. I was thinking, what if we fly in we're getting home from vacation and it's 10:30 at night and we can't even say hello to the dog until the morning. How depressing will that be? It's like I don't even have a dog. And I'm already pretty sad about this,

[A]

about a very specific logistical issue which

[B]

you literally may never. And you may never have to say because it has to be specifically about, well, we've gotten home late and it's too late to pick up the dog from wherever the dog is staying.

[A]

All the more reason to never leave your house.

[B]

Yeah, right. Exactly.

[A]

You'll never find yourself in this predicament.

[B]

Exactly. I mean, maybe I'll luck out and the dog will just hate me, will just despise me. So I'll. I'll enjoy those.

[A]

Silver lining alert.

[B]

Exactly. Those extra few minutes without the damn dog.

[A]

Okay, I'm doing recon on by. We're getting back to my new favorite word, by the way. But as I read in the John Seabrook piece, but I'm doing a little recon on off leash areas. And you've got an off leash area in North Acres park, which is actually where my high school soccer team used to have its practices. So that would, that would be a little bit north of Northgate. So not, you know, not right around the corner from you, but like not super duper far and on your side of the freeway. So your side of i5, but a little bit north of Northgate, that's North Acres Park. That's an off leash park there. If you wanted to get really adventurous, depending on what your dog's inclination are, you could head over. This would be more like a car ride potentially to the Magnuson park off leash area, which also includes water access. It's pretty fun in the summertime because you just have tons of dogs going in the water there. It's like a dog beach.

[B]

Well, Magnuson, that's the one that's all the way over. That's as far east as you can get before you start crossing the lake. Right. Isn't that Magnuson?

[A]

Yes, correct.

[B]

Okay. Yeah.

[A]

So I said it would be a car trip.

[B]

Yeah, that's a bit.

[A]

Are you already making decisions for this dog's water life? What if this dog loves nothing more than swimming? You wouldn't drive it to Magnuson?

[B]

No, he's going to be standing in the bathtub most of the time he's home. Or she. No, no. I just want to make sure that I was right about what Magnussen was, because I thought you were Talking about my neighborhood. That's pretty far. My neighborhood.

[A]

I'm just giving you North Acres is the closest. And I said Magnuson would be a car ride. But we do a lot for these dogs when we love them and they. And I'm already assuming this dog is going to be like a Navy seal. It's going to be amphibious. It's going to love land, sea and air. There's also Golden Gardens, which is in Ballard, also pretty far from you, but a beautiful place to watch the sunset, let the dog run around.

[B]

Well, I have a, I have a quite. I mean, this is a much lower. This isn't as sexy as Golden Gardens or Magnussen, but coincidentally there's been a park that I've been wanting to ask you about that I don't know much about. And I'm wondering if this plays into your North Seattle youth. And I am looking. It does have some water access. Nothing spectacular like those two places. But what do you know about. And I'm looking it up now. I guess it's called Bitter Lake park or Bitter Lake Playfield. I pass that like almost every day now.

[A]

Well, remember that found audio of the teacher that we loved that was at

[B]

the Bitter Lake Community Center. So that's, that's where the Bitter Lake community.

[A]

Bitter Lake is where I was baptized.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

The very.

[B]

In these waters.

[A]

Oh, in those very waters.

[B]

So the Bitter Lake tennis courts, pickleball. So yeah, I'm looking and I'm looking at this and it looks like it, you know, butts up against Bitter Lake, which is a small, little inner urban lake. But can you, can you throw a dog in there?

[A]

I bet. I bet you you could. I mean, I don't know if. Here's the thing, I don't think that strictly speaking, there's an off leash area there, so you would be in slight violation of the rules. But I also think that if your dog was pretty chill and you went down there and you weren't right next to like say a bunch of people that were trying to sunbathe. I don't think anybody would holler at you if you threw a tennis ball in the water and the dog did a little, you know, jumped out in there and did a little swim, potentially,

[B]

the idea of me having a chill dog, honestly, that is the thing. One of the reasons why I have spent my whole life kind of not getting a dog is because I do worry about a dog that, you know, feeds off of my anxiety. I find it hard to. But no joke with children as well like that. It's obviously not a single reason I didn't want to have kids. But I was also kind of like, I don't know if I want to do this to a kid.

[A]

But also, Andrew, there is. It could run the other direction. I mean, you know, I'm not proposing you need a quote unquote therapy dog, but there is. You know, people do talk about their dog's nature impacting their kind of emotional state. Maybe you'll get a dog. I mean, think about Bingo. Bingo is a world class chill cat. And I mean, in a way, do you think that Bingo maybe emotionally regulates you a little bit?

[B]

No, I don't think so. I enjoy my time with him. But you are right. Like, I did believe because Theo was a very loving cat with us, incredibly loving, even more snuggly than Bingo, but had like, about five years into his life had like some sort of a mental breakdown. And then he suddenly, like, got really weird around some strangers and then like, and kids and stuff. And it really bummed me out. It was hard to find. It was kind of hard to coordinate cat sitting and stuff. And so it was like. And then, and then bananas came. I mean, she came to us as a pretty high anxiety cat anyway. But I did start to believe that maybe I was breaking these animals with my own anxiety.

[A]

I.

[B]

But I haven't broken Bingo yet. So that. That take.

[A]

Yeah, you have turned him off to podcasting.

[B]

He doesn't like podcasting.

[A]

Oh, this is anxiety related.

[B]

He doesn't like cheese anymore either, which makes me very proud. Genevieve used to give him little tiny pieces of cheese as a treat. And apparently he's his father's side. He's turning his nose up. I've never been so proud.

[A]

Okay, so this is the word that I learned this morning that I absolutely love. It is a new addition recently, in the last maybe year or so to the Oxford English Dictionary. And this is the sound. So John Seabrook and his wife, the writer of this New Yorker piece, he lists this whole history of his dog ownership in his life, starting from when he was a kid. And, you know, at some point he and his wife, you know, who had their own family and everything, they had had a dog they really loved who lived to be 16, but then, you know, encountered health problems and needed to be euthanized. And they were really shaken up by that. And so it was kind of a long time before particularly his wife was ready to get another dog in the home environment. And then one day she just said, oh, there's these. They're selling labradoodles they're listing Labradoodles in the paper. Should we go take a look? And so they go to take a look. And he said the Oxford English Dictionary recently added a word. It's called giggle. And giggle is the intense urge to squeeze something due to overwhelming cuteness. Often termed cute aggression, or another definition for intense irresistible urge to squeeze or pinch something, such as a baby or a puppy. Because of the overwhelming cuteness, he said that he fully giggled when he saw these labratoodle puppies. Of course they end up getting one, I think giggle. The onomatopoeia of that, the feeling of just like. Like when I see my niece Gemma, which I will be hopefully in a week or so when we're up in Seattle, like, giggle is I think, a really good word. I think it really. It sounds like what it's describing.

[B]

Giggle. Oh, I think it sounds like a giggling eagle, to be honest with you. That's what I think of first. And those are very common. And I felt like we needed a name for that. But yeah, I don't know. Obviously I'd never heard that phrase before. But I do remember discussion about that kind of sensation or that phenomenon. But it goes back a long ways and I'm trying to think if it was even sort of quasi fetishized on the Internet. I mean, I assume it was. I guess what isn't? But I sort of feel like I remember some conversation or energy around that. Around that phenomenon years ago.

[A]

I do. I kind of have a vague memory of the same thing, of just like cuteness overload or something, or people almost this, like the line between like thinking something so cute, but then almost like an aggression around how much you kind of like the thing.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This word giggle feels new to me, to my awareness, to my.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

But again, I. I forget things as soon as I've learned them. So we may have done an entire episode.

[B]

No, no, to be clear, I'm not saying that I've never heard that word before, either, certainly. But I do remember just sort of that conversation around that kind of thing. And. Well, now I'm going to go a step too far. I almost felt like there were certain. I thought there were some sort of like plushies or something that were made almost in response to that. But now I feel like I'm making shit up. I think I'm making shit up.

[A]

We was hoping for some razzle dazzle. Razzle dazzle. That's right, man. Razzle dazzle.

[B]

On your mark. On your mark.

[A]

Get set, get set.

[B]

Now, ready? Ready, Go.

[A]

Everybody. Razzle dazzle. All right, let's thank some dazzling donors. When I see these names of these folks who are donating to TBTL and making this possible, I giggle.

[B]

Andrew.

[A]

That's the response. I want to hug him, I want to pinch him and I just giggle.

[B]

You giggle and I giggle. Yeah, because I'm just like, oh, I love these guys.

[A]

Was he giggling or was he giggling? Of course, this is a 100% listener supported operation. Without the donations to TBTL, there would be no TBTL. We are not been listening to a lot of other podcasts of late lately, I should say say. And kind of actually was talking about this with Becca the other day about the. Because she was saying how she's also a fair. She does a lot of books on tape, but she also listens to a number of different podcasts and she was saying how just like the one of two things seems to happen to her with the shows she likes. Either they have an overwhelming amount of ads or it seems like every single episode is behind a paywall.

[B]

Like.

[A]

Like, you know, there's a few free shows, but then a lot of it is like subscriber only. And then she'll be like, it'll be a month. And there are like no episodes that I have access to unless I'm paying for the show. And I was saying, yeah, we somehow exist in this weird in between world where there is no paywall. Anyone can listen to any episode of TBTL for free. We have just had this amazing luck of the listeners that have the ability to deciding voluntarily to send money in so that this thing can keep going. It's about. It's an amazing little system that is somehow working all these years later. And it's thanks to folks like Ryan Hoenick of Redmond, Washington. Of course we know Ryan as our friend in the D.C. area, I guess specifically Alexandria, Virginia. Although Ryan's out in the PNW now. He says, I'm writing from Seattle, where I moved this summer to be with my girlfriend, future fiance, tbd. Congrats, Ryan. Ryan, this is a surprise. I mean, this is either either this is not a surprise or Ryan's fiance is in no danger of hearing tbt. Yeah, it's one of two things.

[B]

Yeah. Or they've just. I mean, there is a thing, right? And you're engaged to be engaged. So maybe it's an ongoing conversation, but they're not ready to kind of like. Because there maybe there are certain things that go on specifically with engagement.

[A]

I mean, you know, I'VE never had

[B]

engagement in my life and I host three podcasts, so.

[A]

Well, you know what? Life is long, Andrew. Keep. Keep at it. Because of that. Ryan says because of that. I think he's referring to the move. I'm about four months behind on episodes, so I'm currently living in two parallel worlds. In the TBTL timeline, the Mariners have just suffered a crushing Game seven World Series loss. I think Ryan means alcs. Yep, but almost the same difference. And Luke and the city are reeling. Okay, so that's the those are the episodes of TBTL that Ryan is listening to in real life. This is as Ryan is writing this dazzling donor message, the Seahawks are hours away from facing the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Luke, good luck on whatever bets you've got going. Thanks, Ryan. They went well.

[B]

They're not bets, they're investments.

[A]

They're short term as a family. I keep telling Becca so that's so so as Ryan was writing this dazzling donor message, it was Super Bowl Sunday. But as he's listening to tbtl, it was Mariners Monday. Side note, Andrew, I am fully siding with you on. Wow, this feels like it was ripped from the headlines of today. I'm fully siding with you on the pet sitting situation. I just opened the TBTL Greatest Hits and I love the COVID art.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

So Ryan had received the vinyl album that we put out this year, and I believe that was maybe a conversation about how you and Genevieve were doing higher touch dog sitting than you were expecting.

[B]

Yes. And it ended up being a pretty bummer bummer situation.

[A]

Yes. Don't. I'm glad it hasn't dampened your enthusiasm, though, for future dog caretaking ownership.

[B]

I'm not sure it does dampen my enthusiasm, which I've always been skeptical of doing this anyway. It does dampen my enthusiasm for watching other people's dogs for real. And that's something that I've always been so uncomfortable with.

[A]

Are you guys on cat sitting duty right now? Because.

[B]

No, I don't.

[A]

I got a message from a friend of ours who's in Tokyo. Yeah, right now.

[B]

We would often usually be looking at after their cats, but for some reason we're not. And I don't know why. I didn't even know that they were leaving for Tokyo until like a week ago or something like that. So maybe because our trips are maybe going to overlap or something. I don't know.

[A]

I just thought it was going to be an opportunity for you to get your hands on some sweet, sweet McDonald's breakfast.

[B]

Oh, yeah, no kidding. And sweet part of and on some sweet, sweet kitty cat action. They have a great cat.

[A]

Ryan says after 17 years in D.C. i'm still adjusting to Seattle and would love to meet some local tens. Luke, Andrew and John. I hope we finally meet at a Seattle event. I turned 40 this year, which feels like something. Happy birthday, Ryan. Yeah, Ryan. The good news is Seattle is a target rich environment for tens. It's pretty much, I would say our hot zip, our hottest zip. So I would say get in touch via Facebook and things like that and, and see if the folks want to meet up because there's a, there's a good number of tens in the Seattle area. Here's a quick self plug. Ryan says I help organizations build more inclusive workplaces. Here's the website, it's ryanhoenick.com. so Ryan is R Y a N and then Hoenick is H O N I C k dot com. Check it out if that fits your goals. Thanks for the consistency and the community power out from Ryan. Well, Ryan, welcome to the Pacific Northwest and I'm sure that I will see you soon somewhere in the Seattle area. And you know the rule, if you see us, you have to identify yourself.

[B]

That's.

[A]

I mean, I know what Ryan looks like. I've seen Ryan on Zoom. I've. I know I've seen Ryan in real life. But even so, Ryan, just remind me if I, if you see me, say something because, you know, something I'm very nervous about is just acting a fool like I sometimes do around somebody who's, you know, what's been happening to me. This sounds like some kind of a, I don't want to say humble brag or whatever. I've been getting recognized more frequently for CBS stuff of late than I would ever expect because it's like I'm so like. We're editing a piece this week that's gonna go up this Sunday about that artist in la. He's passed, but his show, his name is Robert Therian. I've been talking about his art a lot on the show and I'm watching some of the, what we call the radio cut today. And the radio cut is basically just for timing. It doesn't have all of the editing of putting in pretty pictures and moving images. It's just kind of so we know how long the story is. And it's basically it's the parts where I'm talking and the parts where the interview subjects are talking that's kind of it. And there's a lot of like sections where it's a blank black screen where stuff will be added later. There's like two blips of my face in the entire story, which, by the way, I'm fine with. But it's shocking to me. When I was getting on the plane the other day and this very nice couple I could see, the woman kind of clocked me in an unusual way. This is I was coming back from Chicago and then eventually her husband turned on and said, so, yep, it's you. And I said, oh, yeah, it's me from what? And they went, CBS Sunday morning. And I was like, wow, I'm.

[B]

That's such a weird way. Somebody did that to you at that ball game years ago, 20 years ago. Less than that. I don't know when you and I reference it a lot. I referenced it recently, so I think you know what I'm talking about. But again, we were still working at Cairo at the time and doing tbtl, and you and I were sitting in the stands of a baseball game and a guy, like, was a little bit gruff in front of us. It was during that phase where it was like big, burly guys like that were trying to shed a few pounds. So he was drinking wine at the ball game. It was like one of that low carb era, if that puts it in, if that dates it for you, where a bunch of like, with a bunch of like, bros at ball games were all drinking white wine and he like turns around and, and he says something like, equally as sort of gruffly awkward as opposed to being like, oh, hey, I think I know you. Just like, yeah, I know you. Or something like that. It's always like an interesting. Yeah. I don't know if it's usually guys who do it that way, but it sort of seems like it's a. All right, I'm going to begrudgingly admit that you're a famous person.

[A]

Yeah. This guy. I may have made it sound a little harsher than it was, but mostly it was when people. Again, doesn't happen all the time. But. But when people say like, oh, are you who I think you are? Or something, I get very. First of all, I don't know if they're talking about TBTL or if they're talking about CBS or maybe Livewire. But so I never want to quite admit to it because also, you know, there's nothing more embarrassing than misunderstanding what someone is proposing or saying and having it be like, no, you were the guy who was also on the shuttle from the hotel. Are you who I think you are? I sure am. I'm on cbs No, I mean, were you on the Hilton shuttle with us getting to the airport?

[B]

Well, there are people that I've spotted in, like, kind of, as Genevieve would say in the wild, like around town. And I'm like, oh my God. Oh my God, it's that person. And then I'm like, who is that person? I realize, oh, that's the person who runs like the self checkout at Whole Foods in my old phlebotomist. That's my Phlebotomist. Right. Like so you, by the way, you could have that reaction.

[A]

Great name for a sitcom. That's my Phlebotomist.

[B]

That's my Phlebotomist. That's also the last line of every episode.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. Everyone's like, how are they going to get to that last line? That's my Phlebotomist.

[B]

Should that be the show title or do we still like doodle, where's my car? I'm sneaking that in. I didn't tell you that I wrote

[A]

that down, but now that you've said it canon, I like doodle verse by car.

[B]

I was honestly thinking, like, we could remake that movie with dogs and call a doodle, where's my car? But I don't know, I'm not a fan.

[A]

Kutcher might be the labradoodle of.

[B]

Yeah, that is a good point.

[A]

Think about it.

[B]

This is actually working out.

[A]

He's low shedding. He's, he's, he's, you know, he's as smart as a poodle, but he doesn't have as much anxiety.

[B]

He's very good tempered, well tempered.

[A]

Like, I mean, could you, could you be anything else if you were Ashton Kutcher like you want to talk about? And again, you know, seems like he's been a pretty good guy in his life. You know, generally speaking, he seems like he lived a pretty fulfilling life. But man, you're like, you're corn fed, Iowa boy. You get hired to be a model, I think, like, you know, right out of high school or something, you then, you then find yourself on that 70s show, which is, you know, the sitcom that's starring, by the way, our boy Kurtwood Smith as the dad.

[B]

And you meet the love of your life. Right? Are they still together?

[A]

Yes. Mila Kunis.

[B]

That's great. I love a long lasting Hollywood relationship.

[A]

Well, now here's the thing though. He met Mila Kunis, but then they were not together immediately. He did, in fact, I think, have a long term relationship with Demi Moore. I think the Mila Kunis thing Was like, later in, like, a little, you know, later in life. A little bit later in his life. I think that they sort of, you know. But they have been. Yeah, they've. They have a family together. They. They are together. I think they're. Who knows? I don't know anything about their personal life, but all indications are they're. They're quite in love. And then he just has had this kind of, it would seem, at least publicly, very, very charmed life of. Of. Of having success in television and movies and just kind of getting to be Ashton Kutcher your whole life. Doesn't seem like a bad gig.

[B]

Did he host some sort of a prankery show?

[A]

Punk'd.

[B]

Punk'd. He did host Punk'd.

[A]

He was the Punked guy.

[B]

Yes, he was. That's right.

[A]

What I. This is. The content that I'm interested in, by the way, is occasionally on, like, TikTok or something, I'll see people talking about the show Punked and what I. And they'll talk about, like, certain celebrities, but they'll be vague about it. But they'll talk about certain celebrities who were so out of pocket, so unhinged when they were being punked, that they couldn't even use the footage.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

Because the basic premise was you take a famous person, you put them in kind of a crazy situation. The valet says they lost the car or something.

[B]

You know, I forgot it was focused on famous people, honestly, which actually I like, that's punching.

[A]

At least. That's punching up in a way. You know what I mean? It wasn't like you're just messing with a poor. Like a. Your average person who's just trying to, like, get through life. And now all of a sudden you've done. That's that, like, that, like, what would you do? Show that. That was really popular for a while with the guy John Quinones, I think was on abc. So they'd be like, somebody's in a restaurant, and then, like, somebody comes in who's, like, an actor. The whole place is rigged up with cameras. And somebody comes in and, like, I don't know, puts their baby down in the car seat. And then, like, who knows? Starts, like, making out with a stranger at the bar, and the baby's just sitting there in the car seat or whatever. And then it's like regular people are put kind of on the horns of a moral dilemma. Like, what would you do?

[B]

I've never heard of this.

[A]

And they film the people, and then the people are trying to decide, what do I do in this scenario or whatever the thing about punk was, it's just like, it's just Malcolm in the Middle. It's. It's Frankie Munoz being told that the valet lost his car or something, you know.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

So it's like, at least it's somebody who's kind of high status, who's just being messed with in a. In a way that's not too threatening. But sometimes you'll see some of the producers and other people who worked on the show talking about basically like, oh, there was, you know, certain people were like, came so unglued that we couldn't even use the footage or they killed the footage or whatever. And those are the, Those are the episodes I want to watch the Lost tapes.

[B]

Yeah. Because think about it like, anybody might. Let's just continue with this example of a misplaced car in the valet service. Like any person you take, you know, you take 10 people, you put them in that situation, there's going to be a percentage of people who lose their shit and are super rude about it and are going to act in ways that they wouldn't want public. And you're going to have different people handling it different ways. You're going to have me. I'm just going to curl up into a little ball and cry and wish that my dog was home from boarding.

[A]

But I'm not going to be home now until 9:30. No, the boarding place is already closed for tonight.

[B]

That's right. Oh no, I got more things to worry about. But anyway. Yeah, but that's interesting if you assume that a famous person might be even more used to just having everything go their way. Right. And then talking down to people. That show, I don't think I realized because I'm not into cranky anchor y stuff. Like, I don't think I ever watched any of that show. Any of that show. I've been using this stuff called Salt Peter. But anyway, you know what I mean? So it would seem like. Yeah, that would, that seems like you would have a lot of damaging material, frankly, now that I think about it.

[A]

Well, here is, here's what I'm wondering too. I wonder if. Because this was before the era of smartphone cameras, at least, you know, everyone was. Not everybody was carrying a camera in their pocket the way we do now. And I wonder if. How that affects behavior. My guess would be that that would actually push behavior in a worse direction, theoretically. Because nowadays if you're a celebrity and you're, you're. You're fixing to have a meltdown, you're Finna have a meltdown. You also, if you're smart, you run it through, as they say in recovery. You run the tape and you think, God, if I do this in this Delta Sky Lounge, people are gonna videotape it on their phones. I wonder if celebrity behavior was worse in the days of Punk'd because it was less likely that somebody was gonna document it. Except in this particular case where literally the whole thing is rigged up with cameras.

[B]

Release the tapes. I wanna see em.

[A]

That's all I'm. That' I'm saying I saw somebody. You know who. You know my freaking heroes are right now. Andrew. And then we'll get to our.

[B]

The dazzling donors.

[A]

Well, yes, of course, yes, but, but second place to them are. And I think this is so interesting. I'm. This is. I don't have exact data behind this or, or sort of demographic data, but when I'm dry, I spend a lot of time driving on Interstate 5 now because where I live in Southern Washington and Becca's down in Portland and Livewire's down in Portland, et cetera. I drive i5 and I see a lot of days older folks pulling. I just saw this the other day. I saw these older folks that were pulling wagons with stuff and not even wagons, but you know, those kind of more modern wagons that are like fabric now that you kind of soft shell. And I thought, well, why are these, these older folks pulling those. Those soft shell wagons up that kind of of ramp to where. And then I realized, oh, they're going to join their friends who are on these overpasses putting up all kinds of signs about no kings and about. I thought of it because somebody had put turn the transcripts into trials.

[B]

And I was like, hell yes. Yeah.

[A]

And I mean the whole like, listen, we did not come here today to talk about Epstein. But you know, I. There's something about it that's, there's. That makes one of us. Bingo came here to talk about it. That's why Bingo.

[B]

He's out out.

[A]

Has. Has. Has left the show because we, we never get to the Epstein stuff. But no, like, I. Listen, there's. It's a very complicated issue because it is both an awful, terrible thing that happened to folks. It's also something that was weaponized by the right for a long time. It's also something that, you know, there's just like. It's, it is. If you would have said three years ago that I was going to be. I was going to be chuffed to see a sign that says said turn the transcripts into trials. I don't know if that, if I would have said that seems like a world I'm going to be living. And putting all of that aside, I just freaking love these people. And. And again, they, in my experience, are mostly people that their politics seem to align with mine based on what they're putting up. But they're on all these overpasses on i5, there'll be like three of them. It'll just be like a random Tuesday and I'm beeping my horn like a maniac, trying to like give. Send them like some kind of sonic doppelgangerific energy of like, thank you for being up there with your sign that you made. And then like tied to the. It seems like for some reason. And again, you know, occasionally I'll see someone where it's more MAGA coded. They've got like American flag things going and stuff. But it seems to be for whatever reason, in my experience, the freeway overpass, the pedestrian overpass thing, maybe because it's pedestrian and bicycle coded. There's a couple of them that I go under that are like designed just for bikes. You can't drive a car on them. So they're for walking or bikes to get across i5 maybe because these are the people that tend to use that on their bike or on their walk. But this seems to be where us libs are turning out right now to try to say something. And I love it.

[B]

Yeah, around the country too. Like, I don't know why this is or even what subreddit I am subscribed to that I see this a lot, but I'll just see a lot of posts that just say like, it might say Chicago, Illinois, but it'll usually say something like, you know, like a suburb or something that I. That I don't know about. You know, it'll be just. It'll just say, you know, New Brunswick, Indiana or whatever. And it'll just be a photo of like, you know, five people up on. Up on a highway bridge. And I always think like, there's always a tiny part of me that just thinks like, does this. How much of this does it take to change one mind, to change one even instant reaction, to plant a seed in a single mind or in society. And that makes it sound like I'm. And I actually regret how this is coming out of my mouth as I'm saying it because it sounds like I'm talking against what you're saying. And I like that it's life affirming. And I like that people are Doing things, don't get me wrong. But it's hard also for me not to always think, huh? Like, if I see somebody on the highway and they have like a blue lives matter and a MAGA sign flying, they're not changing my perspective at all. I'm immediately dismissing them. You know what I mean? And so I wonder how much of that back and forth matters, but I'm always glad to see it again. I'm never like, oh, you fools, what are you doing? I just sincerely wonder, like, because eventually then you get to big, large scale protests, which we've also been seeing, and then that eventually will get some news coverage. Probably not on the news networks where it needs to be covered the most, but you know what I mean, like, there is a voice of the people. It's just interesting to think about where it begins and, you know, what effect it can have at a small scale like that.

[A]

Yeah, I guess I don't even think of it as moving the needle for, for public support or for actual votes. To me it is. It's two things. One, it puts some wind in my sails. Like, it's like it's somebody saying to. I always feel slightly better about the world and slightly more invigorated from seeing that. And I'm guessing that that maybe is the case for however many vehicles on i5 over the course of those two hours are driven by people who hold my same political beliefs.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

So it's an, I think it's an encouragement to, to people that think the way we do. And I think it's an engagement factor for the people who are pulling those wagons up to that, up to that overpass thing, which is, it's, it's allowing them to feel like they're making their voice heard in some way, which is also, I think, valuable. Yeah. I would be really, really surprised. I'd be surprised if it, if it changes anybody's mind who's driving down the road and already has their fixed political belief. But it sure makes me feel like all is not lost. And I think that's, for me, kind of important because I go through depending on what the last article I read was or the last podcast I listened to, or the last thing that was done in Washington D.C. i sometimes feel like all is lost and then, and then sometimes I feel like all is not lost. And so that's, that's. That to me is, I think. I don't know if that's how those people are thinking, but that's certainly how it works for me.

[B]

Yeah. And again I expect I agree with everything you said, but I also feel like specifically to take a moment to consider, like for me to always look at that situation and think, how are you making a change? That's a very, that's a very specific and what's the word I'm looking for, binary way of looking at this very specific, let's say phenomenon or activity. And you're right, it's maybe not like, hey, I'm going to go out there and me spending two hours on this bridge with these like minded people who feel how I feel and want to see change in the world, am I going to measure this by how many minds I change? That's not why you're out there. You're out there because things feel really bad and you're doing what you can in your power to react to it in some sort of a positive way. And you know what I mean. I talk on this show about some things that Genevieve and I do, like nutshell shopping in certain places or whatever. I know that that's not making any difference in the long term. I'm not actually hampering Jeff Bezos's bottom line, you know, like he's gonna be fine without my purchase of wart remover on Amazon or whatever. What a weird place to go with that. But, but it's something that I'm doing because it feels like, well, I just don't want to be complicit. You know what I mean? And it's a private thing. And you're absolutely right for me to kind of remember that there are other reasons to, to, to speak out.

[A]

Yeah. Maestro, on your mark.

[B]

On your mark. Get set now. Ready? You were trying hard not to throw me a curveball.

[A]

Well, yeah, that's why. Because I feel bad because it's like. And again, I'm always impressed because I'm going on and on about this and that and, and, and just kind of like some stem winder. Then I randomly. Just when the spirit movement is maestro.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You're supposed to, to like remember that we're even in the donor segment even though it's been 20 minutes.

[B]

There's a good dog park that has water. Maestro.

[A]

Uh huh.

[B]

Then throw it at me like that. Throw it at me like that. See if I can stay on my toes.

[A]

Yeah. North Acres. Boy, that was. I don't need to go down that road. That was an interesting place for our soccer team to practice, let me just put it that way. It was a very active park amongst people, men who were looking to meet other men.

[B]

Oh, I remember a long, long time ago. You referring to a park like that.

[A]

Yeah, it was where our soccer practice was, but it also happened to be a huge cruising site back in the.

[B]

Back in the 90s. Pre Internet. Right.

[A]

Pre Internet days. And it was. Yeah, it was. There was some overlap of. Let's just say, some. Some messaging that was occasionally written in the bathroom at the park directed towards us, the soccer players.

[B]

Some come here to sit and think bank. Other. Well, never mind. Go ahead.

[A]

Yes. Paid my dime broke. So there's something. Here I sit brokenhearted. Paid my diamond only farted. That was about a pay toilet. That was not written in the North Acres thing. That would have been pretty charmingly.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

Look who it is. It's our second dazzling donor today. It's Aaron Nelson. Aaron says it's like Karen, but without the K. Aaron Nelson, who's in. In Seattle, Washington.

[B]

Hey, Aaron.

[A]

Aaron says, ahoy hoy. Another year of being dazzled by my favorite podcast. I can't even explain how much I appreciate you business boys and the tens. What you do is so important. Now. Shout out to my 11, Jared. We finally put a ring on it on December 30th atop Smith Tower, ambush nuptials in eight minutes. Okay, I'm gonna try to understand this. So December 30th atop Smith Tower, Ambush nuptials in eight minutes. So.

[B]

So I'm gonna look up ambush nuptials, but it sounds like it's maybe one of those things where like a sneak wedding. A sneak wedding. Because you probably otherwise wouldn't be able to get married on top of Smith Tower, which is a famous building here in Seattle.

[A]

Yeah. It wasn't Smith Tower where we once did that event for Uber.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. It was where their offices were at the time.

[A]

I don't. We weren't at the tippy top. I think we were in. In their offices. But it sounds like an Aaron. If I'm wrong, please correct me. It sounds like Aaron and Jared basically threw a sneak wedding.

[B]

Love this.

[A]

Atop Smith Tower, which I think is such a cool idea.

[B]

So nobody, you know, you can just look, hey, you could do it anywhere. I'm going to take a tour of this thing. And like, let's say three of you are going to do it. But what they don't know. What they don't know. This week on Punked. What they don't know is that one person is the officiant. The other two are getting their or getting the knot tied.

[A]

And what I love about this is by definition, it cuts out 80% of what is stressful about a wedding, which is the, like, you know, the invitations, the who's getting invited, who isn't, the seating, the food. There's just like a million logistical things around. Again, as a person who's been married frequently and planned weddings that I haven't even participated in, like, like, this is just like, they're just the one. You trade a bunch of stresses for one. Will we be arrested?

[B]

Yes, that's right.

[A]

That's, you know, that's the. So it's kind of a trade off,

[B]

which you were worried about at your wedding as well. And it was in an ambush. Hey, I want to mention though, there is sort of a. There's sort of a Luke Burbankian tie in here because I wanted to look at what the Internet's saying about ambush weddings. And I'm looking at a piece here in the Philadelphia magazine and it sort of seems like ambush weddings are sort of another term, or at least people are conflating it with the idea of a surprise wedding, which you did a whole piece on because it links to that New York Times story that we talked about many years ago now called the surprise wedding. Back in 2014, when guests arrived at what they told was Rebecca Garcia and Andrew Spiegel's engagement party, they found the space decorated for a wedding instead.

[A]

Yes, that was my introduction to Geauga County.

[B]

That's right up there in Northeast Ohio.

[A]

Exactly. Aaron says, I can't think of anyone else I would want to be going through this wacky world with. As you say, no matter what, we are going to have fun. And we do shout out to the best 10 friendo and just a genuinely good human. Krista G. Hey, you the best. And of course, I can't Forget my other 10 friendos, Sarah of Magpie Mouse fame. If you haven't treated yourself to a pair of her earrings, you won't stop. I can't.

[B]

Oh, that's great.

[A]

And show who is having an experience of a lifetime traveling. Could you play my favorite drop? It's the one of the little boy stumbling over his words. Have you ever had. You ever. Do you have that one?

[B]

Yeah. By the way, I'm sorry that I didn't have it ready right away, but I can have it in literally two seconds here.

[A]

We love that one. I, by the way, Aaron also says, I just love that one. We've all been there. Power out. Peace and love. Peace and love. No mountain too tall. And good luck. This clip, this, this drop is. I wonder what I mean. I'VE actually seen the video of it. I wonder what the larger context is of. Of. Of what this kid was exactly doing when he was. He was being interviewed for some reason, and I feel like he's sitting in front of a backdrop.

[B]

Doesn't it feel like almost like a

[A]

school picture backdrop or something?

[B]

Literally what I was gonna say, yeah, it felt like a Sears sort of like kind of studio backdrop or something like that. But let's listen to the whole thing. Have you ever had a dream that you had? You do. You could do so

[A]

you want him

[B]

to do you so much you could do anything. Honestly, I have been less articulate on this show in recent memory.

[A]

I wonder how old that kid is now and how their podcast is going. Well, Aaron, thank you so much and congratulations to you and Jared on the ambush wedding and all of that. And thank you for supporting the show. We absolutely could not do this without you. Andrew, that theme music, the Junior Sluggers theme, long because I looped it tells the listeners and you that baseball's back, baby. Our little league team that we sponsor, the TBTL Junior Sluggers, I don't think that's their real name. In fact, I don't even know what their real name is yet this year, but I will continue to refer to them as the Junior Sluggers, have started practicing again and are getting ready for another season in the Parkside Little League of Portland, Oregon.

[B]

Will they consider names if I threw out the Dragon Slayers, would they consider. They love that. I think dragons.

[A]

Nothing these kids love more. I, you know, me, I'm a traditionalist. I like a good, I don't know, the Giants, the, the somethings. I mean, all these are all like. They're all the. They're all like the Yu Gi.

[B]

Oh, fire throwers and stuff.

[A]

You know, it's all the crocodiles that shoot flames from their mouths.

[B]

Yeah, I do worry if there was a team that named themselves the Dragons and then we were the Dragon Slayers. That could be.

[A]

That's a little violent.

[B]

Rough. Yeah, exactly.

[A]

We have an update from Coach Ben. He says it's time for spring baseball in Portland, Oregon, which means the rain is falling sideways and the fields are 90% mud. And every coach is staring at three different weather apps, hoping one of them will say the magic words. Light drizzle. Totally fine for baseball for long time. 10 Some of our players should be familiar names returning from previous years. This is the rundown of. This is basically who we have coming back, Andrew, and who we picked up in the off season. Okay, so here Are the returning players from last season. Fox, AKA Danger Fox, spent the offseason focusing on gymnastics. He has set a goal for himself of hitting a home run and then back flipping as he gets to home. Play late. Clearly they have fairly lax rules about celebrating in the Parkside Little League.

[B]

Apparently. Apparently. Apparently. WBC over there, the Savannah Bananas really are having their effect on the world.

[A]

Yes, we've got Tommy, AKA T bone. Tommy made some big strides during the fall season and is looking to build on that momentum this spring. By the way, this is news to me that there was a fall season.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

A few references in coach Ben. I don't know. It couldn't have been a full fledged season because we didn't write a check for that one. I don't know if they play like inside or they just go to the batting cages or what, but.

[B]

Well, how many of these players did play in the wbc, by the way? Also because I'm a little bit worried

[A]

about the all played for the Netherlands.

[B]

Okay. Interesting.

[A]

Nico turned a huge corner this year with hitting in the fall. I expect Nico to be one of the heavies in our lineup this year. And then look who it is. It's our buddy Armani. Armani, maybe. Maybe one of the smaller players in the league, but he is by far the fastest. This kid is an absolute lightning bolt. Armani is penciled in as our leadoff hitter. I saw Armani's speed firsthand last season. There was, I believe Armani legged out an infield hit, but then there was some kind of a dicey call where they think. They said he went out of the baseline or something. They called him out and it was.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it was tough because last year, you know, it was basically the coaches were the umps.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

So it's like when you've got like the other team's coach making a kind of a dicey call.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's hard to not take it personal.

[B]

Yeah. And you want to be a. You want to be an example to the kids and not like you. You want to stand up for what's right. But also remember that it's a game.

[A]

I was thinking, I mean, coach Ben's amazing at that, by the way. The guy's got an absolute amazing handle on that exact energy.

[B]

Exactly. He would have shaken Randy's hand end. Let's just put it that way. I was thinking about that last night. Like, not to get back into that whole thing, but, like, this is another thing we even talk about. Like when we talk. There are so many Times that like professional sports players, even in a way that is in sometimes too cloying and annoying, are talking about how like, you know, we do these things because we want to be an example for young people. Like just. I will just never get over not like a team rule that we don't shake the other team's hands, even though these are like, like our brothers from our teams back home. Like, that is just such a. I'll just never get over that. And honestly, Cal Raleigh's reputation will be forever tarnished in my mind over the dumbest thing. Over the dumbest thing.

[A]

It's not like he wasn't betting on baseball. He wasn't, you know, I don't know, sort of caught doing something untoward. It's like the dumbest. It's like it's, it's, it is so, it's so not worth it for whatever weird code that you were, that you were upholding in your mind of, of competition and of, you know, I don't know what he was doing, but like you said, Armani would never do that. Atlas would never do that. AKA Slappy.

[B]

Oh man. Atlas already has a really great name, but then also has a great nickname. I would settle for either one of those.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. And here's the, here's the, the explanation on Atlas's nickname. Atlas, the team joker returns. One year older, one year stronger, and one year sassier. Atlas is a solid player, but more importantly, he brings elite dugout vibes, which is an advanced saber metric that baseball analytics people still refuse to properly measure.

[B]

Real Geno Torres.

[A]

Precisely. Good vibes only coming from Slappy. And then rounding out the returning players is Ali. Now, during fall ball, Ollie put all the pieces together and started making solid contact. This spring we'll be building on that momentum and hopefully turning Ollie into a full blown hitting machine.

[B]

Is that O L L I E Ollie?

[A]

It is. It is a great name.

[B]

I've never met Ollie before.

[A]

Solid names up and down.

[B]

Actually, that's true. I've met an, I know an Oliver, but I never called him Ollie. That's great.

[A]

All right. To this core group, we've added some new players to the junior sluggers, Crosby. During skill assessments, Crosby showed some serious power and a great arm. Is this our Shohei Ohtani style two way threat? I'm not saying yes, but I'm also not saying yes. Good one, Amos. Amos also showed both solid pop at the plate and a slick glove in the field during assessments. He's going to be a big asset for this team. Boy, I remember we called them tryouts. Oh, that's funny. I wonder if they don't call them tryouts anymore.

[B]

What is the new name?

[A]

Assessments. That's what coach Ben is calling them.

[B]

Maybe sometimes we just change the words on things, but I'm never very clear about why one is better than the other.

[A]

Assessment also sounds pretty judgy.

[B]

It sounds worse to me.

[A]

I have assessed you to not have a strong throwing arm.

[B]

At least the other one has try in it. Trying is a good word.

[A]

Dude, I was so stressed. I remember trying out for North Central Little League League. Showing up at Lower Woodland, by the way. Another place with off leash. If you ever find yourself over that way over at Lower Woodland Park.

[B]

If I ever just want to let my junior sluggers just run around. Yeah, yeah, I would.

[A]

Yeah, let them in the water, throw a tennis ball for him. But I remember showing up for those tryouts and they put you through a bunch of like, you know, skills assessments. They hit you some ground balls, they throw some, pop some fly balls up, throw you some pitches. I just remember like, just really, really wanting to demonstrate my, my, my, my abilities. I think that was around the same time when the Fred McGriff the Crime Dog, the Fred McGriff Skills videos were in circulation.

[B]

McGrath. Wait, what do you.

[A]

His name was Fred McGriff, but they jokingly called him the Crime Dog because McGriff sounded like McGruff.

[B]

Oh, okay. I don't know anything about this world, okay? I mean, I know about the dog world.

[A]

Actually, I think it was Tom Amansky's. I think what it was was Tom Amansky's baseball skills videos.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And I think maybe the celebrity endorser was Fred McGriff, but it was just like a bunch of kids in like Florida or Arizona doing a bunch of baseball drills, you know, grounders and getting behind the ball and all these like technical things you were supposed to learn. And I remember trying to really channel my Tom Amansky baseball skills when trying out for North Central.

[B]

Sounds like a lot of pressure. What happens if you don't make it? Like you get nothing or you're just on a.

[A]

No, I don't think. I think every kid gets on a team. But here's the deal. It's about drafting pick. So the kids, all of the coaches are there and then I believe that they. So it's sort of like the combine and then the coaches, you know, it's like drafting a, any kind of a league. The coaches are going to, are going to draft the players that they think will Help their team and, you know, certain teams. Like, I was this sounds. Boy, I'm really in humble brag mode today. I think, weirdly enough, I was a kind of a high draft pick for some reason. I guess it went okay, but the reason. So I was, like, picked, you know, maybe in the top few kids, but the team that got to pick me was an expansion team, Domino's Pizza. So we were very bad. We. We were a lousy team because we didn't have, like. We weren't bringing people back from previous seasons. We were a newly formed team, the Domino's Pizza team. And therefore they had a high draft pick which they wasted on old burbs. All right.

[B]

Real Jared Kelman.

[A]

You know, I was somewhere in between. I think I was. You know, I think on our team, I was kind of okay, but that's because we were not a very good team. But I. I was. I wasn't quite a Kelnick. I was more like. Let me think. Who would be a better example? Who is a Mariner that we had high hopes for? Who didn't, like, fully disappoint?

[B]

That's a really good question.

[A]

Didn't, like, Didn't. Didn't, like, fully exceed all expectations, just kind of.

[B]

Because I can think of the ones. Obviously you can think of the ones that. That burned out, you know, the. The Kelnicks, the kid Ackley, the.

[A]

The Dustin Smokes.

[B]

Dustin Smoke. You know, like, those names or Justin Smoke and Dustin Ackley. Is that right?

[A]

Dustin Ackley and those guys kind of

[B]

came up around the same time.

[A]

Justin's the Dustin.

[B]

Yeah, but I don't know, like, was Seeger. Seeger came up with the team.

[A]

Seeger's a perfect example. You're.

[B]

You're a. You're a Seeger.

[A]

I mean, you're a k. They call me the Seeger. I've been seeking low and hi. That's always been out of my range. And it still is. I apologize to Victor. Who's our next name on the list? I'm sorry I led you in with that singing. Victor is Coach Ben's wild card. He wasn't able to attend the skills assessments, so I don't have much intel on him yet. Historically, this is exactly how some of my best draft picks have started. So I'm feeling optimistic. That's always kind of fun. You know, Victor is a. Victor is a true wild card. We don't know what to expect from Victor. But that means. That also means Victor might have, like, enormous upside that we. That we don't even know about yet.

[B]

Well, I know all I need to know. Their name is Victor.

[A]

Yeah, Victory. Exactly. I mean, their name is not Second place, right? Their name is not. We tried. Their name is Victor. Then we've got Nehemiah, AKA Nemo. Nemo is one of our squad's most seasoned players, bringing a dark depth of veteran experience. This guy has team leader written all over him. And then rounding out the list is Zaya. Now, I've coached Zaya in the fall where he showed big promise as a pitcher, hitter and first baseman. Now, I'm not a baseball expert, Andrew, but those seem like vital positions. Sure, we're getting all of those from Zaya. He's another player who can make things happen on both sides of the ball. Here's how coach Ben wraps things up. He says, will these junior sluggers develop into a finely tuned baseball machine or will the first few practices mostly consist of kids throwing their gloves in the air, running the bases in the wrong direction and asking if it's snack time yet? Only time and my coaching abilities will tell. Either way, we're excited to get the season underway. There will be big hits. Hits, great plays, dramatic dugout snack negotiations, and hopefully a lot of kids discovering that baseball is one of the best games ever invented. And if Fox actually does pull off that home plate backflip, you'll be the first podcast audience to hear about it. Coach Ben out.

[B]

Nice. Well, thank you, coach.

[A]

Stuff from Coach Ben. You know something that Becca and Coach Ben, because they work together, were suggesting that I thought was a pretty good idea, Andrew, is we might need to have to do like a TBTL day at the old ball game. You know what I mean? We might want to get some tens together and, and go watch a sluggers game.

[B]

That'd be a lot of fun. You know, this is our, is this our third season with the junior sluggers?

[A]

I remember right.

[B]

I think it's our third season and I think when it first, when we first got involved, I think we wanted to just be very careful not to, you know, we were rejected by another league, you know, my home league, your home league. So I think we realized that, oh well, some parents might be a little bit just cautious about like what is this podcast that I was going to say these two childless men. That's not, that's not true. You are, you are a child full man. But you know what I mean? Like these two middle aged men are like, who have no connection to this baseball club or supporting. Like I could just see people being like, I don't know what's up with these guys, but you know what? But now I think they know what's up with these guys. We are awesome and our listeners are awesome. Love to do that. Yeah.

[A]

I think that there's been a. You know, Becca and I went to a game last year and it was really fun and it was the exact right amount of awareness of what a TBTL is, which was some awareness, but not, you know, not like, I don't know, you know, I wouldn't have been mad if people carried me on their shoulders like some kind of triumphant king of baseball management of baseball sponsorship. That didn't happen either. It was.

[B]

I mean, you even wore your C3PO outfit that day. Oh, I see.

[A]

You're kind of going Yubnub with.

[B]

I was going Yubnub.

[A]

I don't know. I don't know what I was thinking, but I'll take a Yubnub.

[B]

I mean, you showed up dressed as an Android, just waiting for that moment that never came. It got real hot in there, if I understand it correctly.

[A]

It kind of did. I regretted it almost immediately, me. But the point is that, yeah, I think we have gotten to the point with the parents getting used to the fact that the kids are wearing jerseys that say tbtl.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that, you know, this show is. Or I should say the team is sponsored by a podcast. That could be a fun thing this spring on a nice day to just go watch a game and to invite some tens out. Also, I, you know, I trust the tens to be cool and be supportive. And I think Ben, even Coach Bennett even mentioned, like, some special. Maybe they could do some TBTL themed snacks at the Snack Shack.

[B]

That'd be fun.

[A]

Yeah, that could be some fun community building. Maybe we'll. We'll talk about that in our next.

[B]

Just let TB meeting. Yeah. Just let the, you know, the team know or let me know, like, what they're where. Where they'll be putting me up and how we're paying for my expenses and everything to get down there for. Because I should probably spend the week down there. I'm thinking probably. Right. Yeah.

[A]

Yes. The entire budget that we've provided for the team will then be. Will be reinvested in Andrew lodging.

[B]

Well, I want. Well, I want to do Radio Row, obviously. So you want to get down there early for that. Of course. Because got to get the scene. You know, you can talk to the players before.

[A]

So then. So then during the broadcast, you can say, well, I was talking to Armani earlier today and, you know, you got to have those anecdotes.

[B]

I listen he's retiring and I am hearing. I have been enjoying.

[A]

It's his swan song.

[B]

I have been hearing so many. One, I'm not joking. I've been listening to a lot of Mariners podcasts and stuff.

[A]

You're talking about Rico Rizz.

[B]

And I've been hearing a lot of great stories about Rick Riz because. Because he has announced that this will be his final year. And as somebody who I have kind of as a human being, I've always thought very well of Rick Riz. And I met him briefly once just as a fan, and I bumped into him at the stadium. He was exactly who you would think he would be. And I just think he's a very good, solid man. But I would be lying if I said I haven't sometimes complained about certain things he does on the air. I wouldn't even say that this is a complaint, though. It is just astounding to me that he will tell a story like this. Now, what I want, I wish I were better at doing fake radio calls because I can't call a fake game while I do this. But while he's like, you know, kind of calling balls and strikes or whatever you would call what he's doing, he's calling the game. He would say, like, yeah, well, I was talking to Armani in the clubhouse before the game. Great kids, kid. Great kid. And I, I said to him, well, are you, are you nervous? Are you, Are you nervous up there when you get at the plate and you're. You're facing down a pitcher like this? He said, no. Oh, and that's a third strike and we close out the second inning like, that's it. Like the end of the story will just be no power out guy. He just is just kind of like, oh, so you had a really boring conversation is what you're saying, and you wonder about again.

[A]

And this is going to come up a lot this season. I haven't even mentioned on air that Becca and I are going to opening day. Andrew.

[B]

Yeah, well, I'll be in. I'll be in paradise.

[A]

So, yeah, I'll be in the paradise called. What do they call it now? T. Mobile Park.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Most expensive tickets I've ever purchased to any event in my life. But I don't know. We were going to be in Seattle and I just thought it would be really fun and I got excited about it and I've been kind of grifting off the Mariners for years of our friend Greg and other people. I guess I could have reached out to Greg. All that felt a little. It's been a while, a little moochy of me. But yeah, we're going to actually be there for opening day. But all that is to say, as the Mariners launch into the real season and as this guy, for people that don't know the long, long, long time announcer of the team now, Rick Riz, who is kind of the. What's funny, because I was going to say he was the sidekick to Dave Niehaus, but, like, how long ago did Dave Niehaus pass away? He's been the old guard and the exclusive old guard for what, 10 years or something more?

[B]

I think more than that, right?

[A]

Like 15 years. Like, I think of. I think of Rick Riz as the, as the, the sorcerer's apprentice who just got to sit in the main seat like a season ago.

[B]

I mean, are you thinking since Niehaus retired? Because I'm looking up when he retired.

[A]

When did Dave Niehaus retire?

[B]

Let's see here. It's.

[A]

Look, 2001.

[B]

Well, it looks like 2010, maybe. Could I be right about that? Oh, no, He. Dave Niehaus passed away in 2010. I'm. I'm looking.

[A]

He probably would have retired a couple of years.

[B]

I think a couple of years before.

[A]

There wasn't a long time between. But definitely.

[B]

No, there was right up until 2010, I guess he was still game.

[A]

So, yeah, okay, so 15 years, 16 years, whatever it is that, that Rick Riz has been the primary guy and kind of the institutional memory of the, of the team. And again, we love him. But this is, I think, a fairly typical thing as one of these baseball announcers kind of moves into the late stages of their career. It's just they become a little, you know, maybe a little less sharp, a little less whatever. But then, of course, you also love them because you've been, you know, in Rick Riz's case, like, except for he left the team for like two years to call the Tigers. I remember as a kid, so it was Rick Riz and Dave Niehaus. That was the thing. And then Rick Riz left to go call the Tigers for like one or two seasons and then came back to the Mariners, but for basically 49 years old. For 40, let's say 43, 44 years of my life, this guy has been in some way associated with listening to these baseball games for me. So I do love him. But also he is a little bit. He's. He does, he does create opportunities to give him a bit of a. Of a A bit of a ribbing, including his stories. I just imagine being one of these players and you just see Rick Riz coming your way and he's on his way to have the world's most boring conversation with you so that later on in the booth he can say, yeah, I was talking to Julio earlier today.

[B]

Yeah, right.

[A]

You know, and I asked him about that wbc, you know, if that was that, what a thrill that must have been for him. And he said it was.

[B]

And he said it was. And that one's just outside.

[A]

And that's a deep drive from Castellano.

[B]

I have something on my mind that I want to say, but it just feels like it's something that I'm not going to be able to articulate very well. And it's about race. And I'm the last person who should be having this conversation.

[A]

Hold, let me just, let me level set here if I can. It's that time.

[B]

There are so many things about this I don't even want to say when

[A]

Andrew discusses race

[B]

from a very uncomfortable position. So Dave Sims.

[A]

I'm providing an off ramp for right now.

[B]

Okay. Yeah, exactly. Not for me, though, unfortunately. So Dave Sims is another. Was another longtime Mariners broadcaster. Now he's doing radio for the Yankees. And I always really liked him, like sort of his online presence. I've never met him personally, but same deal on the radio. Like, there are certain things I loved about him. Some of my favorite calls were by Dave Sims, but also some of my biggest eye rolls of broadcast moments were listening to him as well. So sort of a mixed bag. I would assume that that's true with almost any broadcaster, especially when you listen to these folks day in and day out throughout six months of the year. Okay, so. But I loved Dave online. I don't. I think I followed him on Instagram back in the day. And he would, he would talk about Ray, he's a black man, and he would talk about race in society a lot and stuff. And he was, I don't know, just like a really strong voice that I really appreciated that you might not guess he would, he would want to maybe have some of those conversations given his on air Persona, you know, because he's, you know, that, that job is very good, get along, go along or whatever. And I'm not saying that he was out there saying really controversial things, but he was, you know, he used his platform to talk about race in sports, about. From his perspective as a black man who's probably. How old would you say he is, too? He's Older than us, right Dave?

[A]

Oh, yeah, well, older maybe. Yeah, I would say maybe even early 70s.

[B]

So anyway, I just always kind of appreciate his perspective on that and him using that platform also, by the way, not a black man, a white man I'm about to talk about here. Also. I'm so proud of Ken Jennings, man. He is just loud and proud about his beliefs on Blue Sky. When you remember that he's like hosting a show that is, you would think that the producers of Jeopardy. Would just want him to be like kind of as careful and just down the middle as possible given who his audience is. And he's like, he's speaking out on issues that are, that are important and about terrible things we're seeing.

[A]

Not to get, not to get bogged down in that. But yeah, he is really done something with the hosting job of that show where once he sort of was established as the primary host and it wasn't like, you know, constantly in danger of them, you know, putting someone else in or whatever. Really started to become more and more public about his feelings on things. And I think less and less worried about like, you know, Alex Trebek was not a guy who was really going to be probably super public about his, his thoughts on politics and things. But yeah, the idea that he's reshaping what the voice of the host of that show is allowed to be, I think is really, really cool.

[B]

Exactly. So and the fact that he's apparently, you know, not either if he's receiving any backlash to that, he's ignoring it or he's not from his bosses. And I appreciate that all around.

[A]

Well, I think. Cause the show is really thriving under him. So I think he's kind of got this like he's got a little capital that he's spending on putting his real thoughts on the world. Yeah.

[B]

And that's really super important these days. And not enough people are so to go to the awkward conversation I want to have with you. So, Dave Sims in some post. This goes back years now and I've said this before on the show that sometimes the things that I remember the most from my youth sometimes are things that I just didn't understand. And I think because of that my brain chewed on it for so long that I remember it more like maybe a quasi dirty scene from a movie or something like that seemed like an adult phrase, not even in a blue way, but just something that didn't make sense to you as a kid. You realize, oh, the reason I remember these moments is because my brain was confused. And so it Landed on there and chewed on that for a while. And similarly, I just remember, I'm going to say, I don't know, five years ago or something, there was some sort of conversation going on about black men in baseball. Like specifically like African American men in baseball. And I didn't fully even understand what the conversation was, but Dave Sims was saying, this is why that sort of, that specific representation is important in baseball, while other people were saying, well, you have all kinds of people of color in baseball and you have men that you describe as black men from the Dominican Republic playing. And he was sort of saying why there's a difference between that and having African American representation in baseball. And I don't remember the ins and outs of it. I remember sort of scrolling and thinking, that's sort of interesting. I don't think I fully understand this kind of debate, or let's just even call it a conversation. I was like, I don't think I fully understand this conversation. And I moved on and I scrolled and I watched a jib jab or something like that, right? But somewhere in the back of my brain, I think I've just been kind of chewing on that because I still just never really. Not that I've spent a lot of time thinking about it, but every now and then something will remind me of that post. And again, not with any nuclear knowledge, myself or insight or anything, but then watching this World Baseball Classic, I've been thinking about Dave Sims and that conversation so much. And I'm not even applying any kind of judgment or attributes here or anything, but when you then see how the teams break down, when you see the American player, I'm sorry, the players who play for MLB teams scatter throughout the world to play for all of their home country teams. And I want to be very clear here, not exclusively, but then when you look at the US Team and it's predominantly white, you're like. And then you see. And there's been a lot of conversation about like kind of the culture of the different teams, sometimes how that reflects the country's, but also how it reflects their country's relationship to baseball. And then compared to this very stern, militaristic thing, that has been a big conversation that the U.S. team went with this year, but also looking at that team, and again, I want to make it clear it was not a exclusively white team. I don't think that. I don't know Aaron Judd, his background, but I don't know if he would describe himself as white. But my point was he would just look he would not. Right. He comes from.

[A]

He's a mixed race and adopted by a white family.

[B]

Yeah. And so. But all of that is just to say, but you look at that team and you're like, oh, now I do. Sort of. Suddenly that conversation about Africa, specifically African American representation in baseball, clicked for me after, like just having a little seed of a question mark in the back of my brain for a long time. Did that make sense? And how badly did I drive away the listenership and how badly did I drive away my co host?

[A]

You didn't drive me away, buddy. But also I'm financially obligated to be here. That is true. Yeah. Well, here's what I think. Here's what I kind of think I'm hearing you say, which is when, essentially when a lot of the players in baseball who are non white in Major League Baseball, when the Julio Rodriguez's of the world and the Eugenio Suarez's of the world, et cetera, are sort of playing for teams from the countries where they were born, you realize that baseball has a lot of white guys in it and they have pretty bad takes and does not have a ton of American black players. And you and John were going back and forth last night. You and John Sklar for. Were really teeing off on Team usa like, just like it's an unlikable team, et cetera, et cetera. Basically, like, because, you know, they had this Navy SEAL in the locker room for God knows what reason. And it's, you know, it's Clayton Kershaw, who we know has bad takes and like.

[B]

And just for the record, isn't. It's not even a. It's not a niche take when you. I've been sort of thinking about this. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I do want to just kind of say something. When you and I first started having this conversation like a week or two ago, and I started to say, you know what?

[A]

We.

[B]

Why is it that when the US Talks about US Values, it's always about the military? That was not a big conversation in the public space about the wbc. That was just this weird sort of small little notion that I was picking up on when you and I were talking about if we're rooting for the US or not, then I gotta give us a little bit of credit. We were way ahead of the curve because that ended up being the dominating conversation. I mean, even the New York Times today, like, I'm not just talking about my liberal friends on Blue Sky. Like, the thing was the US Was very, very Military forward and had this very, like I said, reserved sort of we don't shake the other team's hand sort of regimented thing. It really, I mean whether you think that's good or bad, that was very from the team. Like we are going for this, we are representing the military and we are approaching this game militaristically.

[A]

Yes, I think what, what kind of, what you're saying is Dave Sims's contention was yes, Major League Baseball has a lot of non white players but it, but the number of, and promoting the flourishing of black American players in Major League Baseball matters because it's not strictly a number about how many people of color are playing somebody who is from Japan playing in the majors. Their lived experience and the cultural impact of that is different than jazz. Chisholm.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And so, and so and, and, and that that comment from Dave Sims becomes even more the importance of that, if you will. Or, or at least the starkness of what he's saying becomes even more clear when a lot of the players of color who happen to be from other countries go play for their home countries and you're left with friggin Clayton ass Kershaw and, and, and, and Cal Raleigh not shaking hands and a bunch of like if they could have coordinated a stealth bomber flyover on the first pitch they would have, you know, which is typically speaking a really white, really kind of corn fed, kind of, you know, sort of rural energy that is, you know, not, let's just say my favorite energy.

[B]

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So I actually miss Dave Sims a little bit more than I thought I would and I for me, I mean the broadcast booth this year is going to be so different anyway because actually

[A]

since we're deep in the badlands, who even is, I mean, come on. Because there was also unfortunately the you know, the shakeup where when they got rid of root sports, some of those folks, you know, were not going to be brought along. Like what are we looking at for like the baseball side is going to be. Are they going to do the same switch off where it's kind of like, you know, the broadcast teams will switch between radio and TV throughout the game as far as you know.

[B]

I, well, first of all I do want to point out one thing that Tomorrow is the 20 year and 2 day anniversary of the Cross Crichton leprechaun. I don't know if that's something that we might want to discuss on the show.

[A]

It's something that I celebrate

[B]

because that might be something we want to bring up tomorrow or, or even the Day for inter.

[A]

Sure. Or next week.

[B]

But anyway, I don't know Luke, and honestly I'm waiting to see. I will tell you this.

[A]

We have, we have Aaron Goldsmith.

[B]

We know that it's Aaron Goldsmith and we know that we have Gary Hill Jr. Because I've been hearing him on all the games and he's been, I've been listening to this podcast, this Mariners podcast, very much on the reg lately and I heard an interview with him the other day and so I know that. But I have not heard anything from Angie Mentink and she was so good in the booth last year. I haven't heard anybody reference her. And so when they blew up Root Sports at the end of last season, I thought that Angie was staying with the broadcast team as they sort of reformed under like whatever our local affiliate of the MLBcast booth is going to be. Whatever. Like I'm not, you know, we'll just see as far as like radio, my guess is I think if I were to guess you're going to have Gary and Rick doing all the radio and Goldsmith and I don't know, question mark on tv. Who would Goldsmith be with? I mean if we haven't heard men take.

[A]

Well, yeah, I'm hoping that. I'm trying to, I'm trying to read Angie Mentink's Wikipedia page right now to see if it, if it indicates something. As far, let's see, in 2025 she became a full time color commentator for the Mariners broadcast. This marked the first time the Mariners hiring a woman serving in a full time color commentator role. It doesn't say what 2026 is. You'd also hope, I mean a. Angie is just really good at the job and has a crazy amount of insight. Also you would just hope that as the Mariners, an entity that just prints money like owning a major sports franchise is just a, it's a. First of all, it's a license to be part of a monopoly that only increases in value. And it's just how much money do you want to make this year? Do you want to make $100 million or do you want to only make $80 million? You would hope that in all of that as they go through these machinations with their broadcast that they will would see some value in if they're going through. We have eight broadcasters and we're trying to decide who we're keeping. Maybe also give a nod towards. It's important to have a woman as

[B]

part of this but also a woman

[A]

who's good at the job.

[B]

And also though and this is what I just want to make clear for people who are unfamiliar with this crew. Like, yes, that is a consideration you should make. But also in this case, you don't even need to because she is so good at it.

[A]

Exactly. It's not a DEI hire.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

But it's also not the worst thing. Like, if you're going, is it going to be Brad Adam or is it going to be. And got to love Brad Adam and also my old mensch, Tom Glasgow, who literally allowed me to shadow him for a whole summer while I was working at Bumpy's Fruit and Yogurt. But like, yeah, it's not a DEI hire, but it also wouldn't be the worst thing for people to hear.

[B]

But. And also it does occur to me though, like, she does have amazing insight that I enjoy. But I guess maybe part of the. It's like you don't give her special treatment because she's a woman. But. But she is better at her job because she is somebody who played as a woman and also is raising two boys who play baseball. You know, she just has a. She's very, very smart on the topic, but because of the life that she lives as a woman, it's more interesting. And I do have some answers for you. Maybe you do too. It looks like we're in good shape here.

[A]

TVTL breaking news. I'm on MLB.com as am I.

[B]

Are you looking at the same page?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

This is good. This is really good.

[A]

I mean, yeah. So the broadcasters, of course we've got Rico Riz. He's. He's top line. He's first on the call sheet. Then we got Aaron Goldsmith. By the way, I got some intel that he's just an absolute awesome guy off air because I told you this in text message. I am now apparently best friends with a guy named Jason Benetti, who's the, the, he's the TV guy for the Detroit Tigers, but he's also the new voice of Sunday Night Baseball. So he's the main, he's the main play by play guy for the TV NBC is bringing. By the way, this is actually really cool and this might be enough because we're just fully in the badlands now.

[B]

Who cares?

[A]

We're in the baseball badlands. You know, one thing I've talked about, Andrew, about your relationship with baseball versus mine over the last few years and maybe because you do fantasy baseball and stuff is you, You, I think have more interest in baseball games that don't involve the Mariners than I do.

[B]

That just started I think last year for me, a little bit, and then this WBC has really kicked that into overdrive.

[A]

But, like, I don't, I'm generally not somebody who's going to put on a game of two teams that I'm not following. But I will tell you this, with NFL football, I will absolutely watch Sunday Night Football. If I'm home and it's a Sunday night, I don't care who the teams are. It's appointment television for me, or at least it's television that I'll get totally sucked into. And I'm kind of thinking Sunday Night Baseball might be that again for me. I remember the days of Johnny Miller and Joe Morgan calling Sunday Night Baseball and just loving that as a kid. And so I could absolutely see having that be part of my, you know, maybe it's a nice summer Sunday. I'm, I'm barbecuing up. I'm, I'm. I'm just enjoying the nice weather and kind of got a little bit of Monday on the mind. But, but, but in a summary way. And I've got Sunday Night Baseball on. And now I'm again, close, very personal friends with this guy, Jason Benetti, because he was the not my job guest on Weight Wait. And he was there in person. He was awesome. And he has invited us, Andrew, to go to a Mariners. If the Detroit Tigers come through town to come and watch a Mariners game and come visit the booth, that'd be amazing. Insane, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, the last time we were in a booth, it was at spring training and we were being reprimanded for drinking alcohol.

[B]

I was one time when the Royals came to town, I got to poke my head into the actual remote broadcast studio where you have like the, the two, like rows of people all behind equipment and computers and everything. Like the actual broadcast crew, you know what I'm talking about? Not the, not the announcers who are up in the booth, but like on the ground. They set up like, like, not RVs, but you know what I'm talking about, like some sort of mobile studios where every now and then they'll put a camera in there and you'll see like a lot, you know, two rows of five tech people. I got to stick my head into one of those one time when they were visiting, when the rows were visiting. That was quite, quite amazing. I will say this about Sunday Night baseball. I actually, last season was the first time that I sort of started to get into a rhythm with that as well. For me, it was mostly radio, but like, on Sundays, I would get home from my volunteer gig. Always get home around 5 o' clock anyway, when the Sunday night baseball is starting and I turn on the radio and then I'd start grilling and you know, be outside drinking a beer, grilling, listening to Sunday night baseball. I'm excited to welcome you into this club, but I'm telling you, you better like Yankees and Red Sox because you are going to be hearing a lot of Yankees, Red Sox and there will never be a series between those two that don't end up on Sunday night baseball.

[A]

Although the first, the maiden voyage of Sunday night baseball will be coming from your T Mobile park. It will be your Seattle Mariners against formerly your Cleveland Guardians.

[B]

That's what I hear.

[A]

At least getting a little early love for this whole thing.

[B]

And I think I've heard that maybe game two of our season is already I'm a subscriber now, so it doesn't hurt as bad. But I could be wrong. But I think game two of the season is an Apple exclusive. I'm not joking.

[A]

So it begins.

[B]

But I don't know if you're looking at the same exact page I am, but we have all of the answers. Rick and Gary Hill are on radio

[A]

and then you have Angie Mentink coming back.

[B]

Angie is going to be joining a

[A]

Goldsmith as well with and Hyphen will be there.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

That's who we were forgetting was Ryan Roland Smith, which like, you know, I mean, I don't know. I'm hoping that. I am hoping. I mean Australians are warm people. Both warm and direct. Like, I guess I like that we're the one team that has an Aussie calling our games. But, but like it, the, the accent has never, it's never not noticeable to my ear, which is, you know, accentist of me. But like, you know what I mean? Like, I'm not saying he's doing a bad job, but it's also hard for me to not hear the accent all the time. It just feels, I mean, again, I need to just get real about the fact that this is the world that we live in and that all kinds of different people. What like, let me tell you this. If it was somebody who had played in Japan or played in MLB but was from Japan and they were helping, they were the color commentator, I certainly wouldn't be talking about their accent. So why is it, why is it that I'm giving Hyphen trouble on this? But maybe this will be the season that Hyphen and I finally connect hearts during the season and I'm stoked about him then Jay Buhner. I mean, I don't know. Tell him the bone sent you.

[B]

I feel like he on this list is. He's as an.

[A]

He's on the list. I'm looking at.

[B]

Oh yeah, me too. I always like they, they bring him in from like when they're in because he lives in Texas. Right. So he'll often. If they're on the road in Texas, he'll be in the broadcast booth. He is a chaos agent. Like, you just need a little bit of him. Like a little bit of.

[A]

That's exactly right. Like he just comes in and just like just says a bunch of wild stuff that everyone's just kind of like he just hot potatoes everybody and then. And then he's gone.

[B]

Yeah. Like, and him and Angie had some really strange vibes because they were doing a lot of games together. And I don't want to actually. I have no idea what Angie would say about this. This was all fan speculation. But you know, he just comes in and he is like kind of gruff. I don't think he ever means ill. But there were some times where she would sort of just like kind of clam up a little bit. You'd just be like, what is going on with these guys? And maybe that's just fan anti shipping. I don't know what was going on, but there was a couple of moments where I was kind of like, this is too much Jay. This is been too many days of Jay in a row.

[A]

Like, bring him in goes a long way. Yeah, it's like, it's like sesame oil. It's just. You just need a. Just a tiny droplet. Don't do. I'm talking to myself here.

[B]

You do you.

[A]

You like. I love the taste of sesame oil in Asian food. So sometimes I want to put two, like two globs in. Two globs is too many. We've also got Dave Valley. Of course, Brad Adam is still listed. And then a guy that I did not realize was working for the team and was broadcasting in Spanish. I didn't know we have a whole Spanish language broadcast. Steve Gauche. Steve Gauche is in his fourth season as Spanish play by Andrew. I'm about to give you way more detail about our Spanish language play by play guy than you asked for or expected. Today, Steve Gauche is in his fourth season as a Spanish play by play voice of the Mariner broadcast team. As a current salsa music producer and band leader, Steve passionately shares his unique skill set with the broadcast team. Born in Manhattan, New York and Raised in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, Gauche has been a resident of Washington State since 1987. We're not done. In addition to being a broadcaster, Gauche previously served in the United States army at Fort Lewis. In 2013, he joined the Seattle Seahawks Spanish Broadcast Team with ESPN Deportes Radio as an on air analyst, commentator and engineer. He's currently working as a licensed real estate broker at Washington State State and is continuing to pursue his career in music performance and production with Salsa Records. He's currently living in Linwood, Washington with his wife Zulma and his two children, Zulma and Jesse.

[B]

That's.

[A]

That's a lot on Steve.

[B]

I love.

[A]

That is a lot on Steve. Steve will sell you a house. Steve will. Steve will. And while you're driving to the house, he will play his salsa music in on the CD player in the car. And he. But he needs to get the showing over with because he is on his way to call the Mariners game in Espanol. I love it.

[B]

Speaking of Spanish language, do you know what? I I'm just remembering this now. They have not been playing as many spring training games on the radio. Like people have been writing to me, well, you can stream it here and there. And I'm like, I know that there are places to stream spring training games, but I'm just sort of talking about in the past and I'm not even complaining about it. You just turn on this time of year. You would just turn on 710 ESPN at any time of day and you'd be in the middle of a spring training game and just sort of like set a tone for me. And it's not like that anymore. And that's fine. They're doing the regular programming or whatever. It's really a complaint. But I did happen to catch one earlier in the spring training season. And you know, they're bringing people up to the booth to interview them, especially like kind of later in the games. And I heard one that was so interesting, Luke, because it was so casual and chill. But it was this guy who works for the Mariners PR team, but he's also the guy who does a lot of the interpreting for Spanish language players. And he just sounded like a. I don't know his name. I was looking for it here. I don't, I don't know if I got the right guy in front of me me here. But he's like, well, first of all, everybody is young to me these days and so this just sort of struck me as like sort of how kind of young he was. And Even was telling the story about how when he first got the job, he showed up on December 31st or something, not even thinking that it was. That it was New Year's Eve and he couldn't get into his hotel because nobody was at the desk. It was just like there. And it just sounded like the exploits of somebody who's entering their first job. It's just like. And he's just like so laid back and. And it was so interesting. He just seemed like such a. He was like. It's interesting first of all to hear the announcers when they sort of introduce somebody from behind the scenes that they clearly work with all the time. But we don't know who these people are, but they play a really critical role. And hearing him talk about his relationship with the players, but again, not in any kind of a high handed or high minded way, just in a very chill way. I fell in love with this kid. I sound like Rick Riz.

[A]

I was just waiting for the power out on that. But then I realized in Rizian fashion. Hey, by the way, JP Crawford getting good information on the shoulder. By the way.

[B]

Oh yeah, he's went down to see that doctor, huh?

[A]

Yeah. And that. Yeah, all I saw was the headline in the paper as we were talking that just said good news for his shoulder. So yeah, I also saw. This is an all timer. I was actually going to tell you about this tomorrow, but I'll just. We can, maybe we can wrap things up today. This is not baseball related, but this is such a classic Seattle Times move. So it's like this is the. Right now the COVID of the Seattle. The digital front page of the Seattle Times. Legendary folk singer songwriter books, Chateau St. Michel, shows they love. And it's just like a huge picture of Bob Dylan above. But whoever wrote the headline is trying to write the headline to not tell us it's Bob Dylan. But whoever is trying to get more clicks at. The Seattle Times has a gigantic picture of Bob Dylan. So you've got, you got this huge photo of what is obviously Bob Dylan and then below it, them trying to be coy. Legendary folk singer songwriter is coming to Chateau St. Michel.

[B]

This, I saw that right as the show was beginning. I was going to ask you if you're going to try to go. It's funny.

[A]

Absolutely not. I saw him 15. I saw him back when Dave Niehaus was calling Mariners games and he absolutely sucked on ice.

[B]

It's funny. I'm on the Seattle Times website right now and I see that headline, but it's just Pushed up in the left hand corner without a photo. So. And I would have. If I didn't know the answer, I would have to click on it. I think that is such bullshit. The way that Seattle Times have been writing.

[A]

It's been replaced by Dick's drive in Faces.

[B]

Class action. Yeah, you're on that now, too.

[A]

But before that, it was a giant picture of Bob Dylan with an unnecessarily coy headline below it, which is like, you guys need to figure this out. You need to. Let's all row in the same direction on this.

[B]

Did you see that? The Pope. Actually, I sent you this link a while back, and it didn't end up being a top story, which I was kind of bummed about, but I think I'd forgotten about it over the weekend. But the Pope actually issued a declaration about how clickbaity headlines like this in journalism is bad for journalism. Like this guy. I'm not even joking. And the reason.

[A]

Pope baseball.

[B]

Pope baseball, yes. And the reason I stumbled on it was because the Guardian, which is, you know, I actually have a lot of respect for the Guardian. They had the best headline for that story. And this was a real thing. This wasn't like Clickhole or whatever it said, you won't believe what the Pope has to say about clickbaity headlines or you won't believe what journalistic practice the Pope wants to eliminate or something like that. They basically kind of trolled him by

[A]

doing the headline in the style of the thing he's trying to.

[B]

But in that case, it was funny. Yeah.

[A]

What's next for the Pope? TV commercials are louder than the show we're watching, right?

[B]

Yeah. Good call. This is the.

[A]

I can get into this. This is the kind of Pope I want to. The guy who, like. Guy who's actually focusing on some kitchen table issues for me. I know misleading headlines or like intentionally opaque headlines and other such things that annoy me.

[B]

How about this? Okay, so I actually found the piece I was talking about. This is from October of last year. This is from the Guardian. And again, I like the Guardian. I think they're just having fun here, which I appreciate. You won't believe what degrading practice the Pope just condemned. And then the sub headline is communication must be freed from clickbait and misguided thinking. Head of Catholic Church. Church tells journalists. And I actually subscribe, but I can't log in right now, I don't think. But wait, no, here I am.

[A]

You're suffering a real Lukenzian situation here.

[B]

No, I'm actually I am in. But yeah, let's see here. The Pope mentioned that he's a proactive supporter of journalism as a public good that we should all protect. Communication must be freed from misguided thinking that corrupts it from unfair competition and, and the practice of so called clickbait, he said on Thursday. So, like, my God, this guy's out cooling the cool Pope.

[A]

I'm telling you, every time I hear him speak English, a little shiver goes through me of like, it's the coolest fricking thing. Again, I'm not Catholic. I don't, you know, that's not a, you know, a religion or like a particular, like, worldview that I hold particularly dear one way or the other.

[B]

It's a space you play.

[A]

Saying that's not a, you know. But, but the. When the Pope just breaks into like south side Chicago English, it's, it's hella relatable to be it literally. And he, you know, again, he's certainly compared to the administration that we're existing under in this country. You know, he's a veritable lib compared to them and is, and is pushing back on, you know, a lot of things that we're doing that are, that are inhumane. Like, he's really, it's really kind of got my vote.

[B]

Well, so there was a lot of Team Italy games in the World Baseball Classic. I'm not going to bring up the WBC anymore after today, so we'll be done with it. But this is my last reference of it. But the. Watching the Italian team, as we talked about last week on the show, was just so incredibly fun. But one of the stupid announcers during one of the games said something like, oh, you know, the Pope is loving this, or something talking about Team Italy. But it raised a question for me. I'm like, wait a second, is the Pope rooting for Team Italy or the Pope's American? The Pope would, you know, if we're

[A]

going by spotted at a White Sox game. Right, Exactly.

[B]

I mean, he could be just rooting for all kinds of his favorite players across the championship the way I think I mostly was. But like, if anything, like, he would be rooting for Team USA if he's going to be, like, loyal to, like, he's not. But, I mean, it's like he works out of the, what is it, the Vatican? The Holy See, they call. Call it. But like, you know, it's like when he's working from home, he's probably rooting for Team usa. I don't know, does he Presumably. Does he wfa.

[A]

That's what. That's what I would assume. I don't think just because. Yeah, his office is in Italy. That doesn't make him like a. Although, could have. I mean, could a just Pope not root for the Pasquatch?

[B]

I know. I love that you're on board with that.

[A]

That. That transcends. That transcends national borders. Religion.

[B]

Welcome aboard the Pasquatch train, Luke.

[A]

No, you've. I'm fully. I've been baptized and I've. I've seen the light. So, anyway.

[B]

All right, well, let's get out of here.

[A]

That was a fun. That was a fun 40 minutes for you and me. That was fun.

[B]

Yeah. And we gave the people an hour and nine minutes before that.

[A]

So one for. It's like one hour for them, one hour for us.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

I think that we.

[B]

Take a nap.

[A]

All right, guess who. What? We're done with TBTL today. But guess also. What. We're going to do another one of these tomorrow. I'm not. Not saying we're going to do one tomorrow. We'll be back here with more imaginary radio. So we will hopefully see all of you for that. In the meantime, everybody, have a great Wednesday. Stay safe. Go, junior Sluggers. And please remember, no mountain Too tall.

[B]

And good luck to all.

[A]

Power out.