#4758 The Erling Bird Gets The Worm

Summary

TBTL #4758: "The Erling Bird Gets The Worm"

Date: June 26, 2026
Hosts: Luke Burbank & Andrew Walsh
Guest: John Sklaroff & Simeon (Frog expert/listener)

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Episode Overview

This lively Friday episode of TBTL springs from "25-year-old film reviews” to the looming Valley City, Ohio frog-jumping contest, as Luke, Andrew, and returning guest John Sklaroff (TBTL employee #1) delight in their trademark blend of goofy banter, pop culture tangents, and earnest listener engagement. Notable topics include World Cup soccer fandom (and fearsome Norwegian fan culture), deeply personal Tweety Bird T-shirt trauma, Supergirl film discourse, the ongoing saga of naming their contest frog, and an extended, hilarious, and surprisingly educational conversation with listener Simeon—a bona fide "citizen scientist" and frog expert.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Friday Vibes & Opening Banter

• Clubbing, Video Games, and "Not Like Other Girls": The gang jokes about social invitations, low blood pressure, and avoiding clubbing—a bit setting the goofy tone.
• Weekly Rituals: It's Friday; Rebecca Black is referenced, and Luke introduces the show from the rainy Madrona Hill Studio, warmly acknowledging studio helpers Gigi and DJ.
  • [02:01] Luke: "Let the fun begin."

Fig Newtons Debate & Listener Feedback

• Fig Newton Overload: John is still working through a lifetime supply of Fig Newtons sent by a listener.
• Listener Mary’s Rant: Mary, dubbed "the queen of rants and raves," delivers an epic takedown of Fig Newtons, claiming they almost made her hate figs entirely.
  • [03:31] Mary (quoted by John): "Nabisco managed to befoul one of the best fruits on the planet by making the so-called cookie somehow slimy and dry at the same time. Shame on everyone involved."

Pop Culture Tangent: Supergirl & Comic Book Adaptations

• Supergirl Movie Reviews: John recently saw "Supergirl"; Andrew notes woman-led superhero movies get harsher criticism. They discuss adaptation choices from the graphic novel "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow."
  • Polyamorous Comic Book Reading: Andrew proudly admits, “Listen, in marriage, monogamous. In comic books? I’m polyamorous.” [06:05]
• Lobo & Jason Momoa: Discussion of Lobo's character, played by Jason Momoa, and comic fandom nostalgia.

T-Shirt Choices and Parental Disappointment

• Tweety Bird Trauma: John recounts a childhood episode where he happily picked a Tweety Bird T-shirt, only to later sense a tinge of paternal disappointment—serving as a humorously poignant tangent.
• Luke “Fashion of Jermaine Dupri” Callback: Luke teases that wearing Tweety Bird was ahead of its time, referencing hip-hop fashion. [11:04]

Weekend Plans: Chainsaws, Car Repairs, and Poodle Parties — [11:39 to 17:51]

• Andrew: Eager to use his new "chainsaw on a stick" for hedge trimming, while also navigating car trouble and the confusing etiquette of switching mechanics (“Like changing barbers or therapists”).
• Luke: Hosting Becca’s brother Scott (and a third standard poodle) after Scott’s DJ gig—promising a poodle-laden hangout and more World Cup viewing.

Main Topic: World Cup Soccer & Norwegian Fandom — [18:19 to 26:11]

• Erling Haaland & Norway: Luke is both fascinated and intimidated by Norway’s World Cup team and their imposing Viking striker, Erling Haaland.
  • Norwegian Fan Celebration: The Norwegian fans’ synchronized “rowing” chant is described as “something out of Game of Thrones,” both awesome and terrifying.
  • [19:15] Luke: “He is like some sort of Norse God... He is not from this planet.”
• World Cup Rankings: Andrew lists the current ESPN favorites (“France, Argentina, Spain...” with the US at #11).

Sports Gambling, US vs “Turkey A” — [23:26 to 25:26]

• Luke’s Betting Saga: Luke bets on underdog Turkey A and wins in a dramatic last-minute twist (“Turkey A wins the match... giving me even more dollarinis.”).
• Lesson in Human Motivation: Reflects on knowing when to cash out, drawing parallels to “the Brady Anderson effect” in baseball.

Frog Jumping Contest: Name That Frog! — [26:11 to 48:28]

Frog Naming Suggestions—A Collaborative Listener Challenge

• Listener Submissions: The hosts and John review a hilariously creative, pun-filled list of frog-name suggestions, many based on sports, TBTL lore, and pop culture:
  • “Big Jumper,” “Cal Frawley,” “Rosie the Ribiter,” “Froggy McFrogface,” “Spark Plug,” “J.P. Crawdad,” “Hop Tua,” “Greg Hopovich,” “Jackie Jorp Jump,” “Cindy Leaper,” “Toad the Damp Sprocket,” “Tangent the Frog,” among many others.
• Interlaced Mariners’ Melancholy: Debates swirl about Cal Raleigh’s baseball slump and whether PED accusations are fair. The hosts get semi-serious but always circle back to comedy (e.g., "The only thing they can do... is seven minutes in heaven or something.”)
• Name Front-runners: “Mr. Frog Dabelina,” “Rosie the Ribiter,” and “Jackie Jorp Jump” emerge as favorites.
  • [47:13] John: “Jackie Jorp Jump is I think my favorite... and also just ties in with TBTL lore.”

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Frog Science and the Art of Frog-Jumping — [48:28 to 69:17]

Special Guest: Listener Simeon, Frog Watch USA Volunteer

TBTL brings on actual citizen scientist (and listener) Simeon who:

• Explains Frog Watch: Volunteers log frog calls (by species) as citizen science, submitting acoustic data for researchers.
• Demonstrates Deep Frog Knowledge:
  • Clarifies difference between frogs and toads ("it's kind of like tomato being fruit or vegetable").
  • Offers frog call ID tips, e.g., bullfrogs “croak,” green frogs sound like “a timpani drum” or “bowstring.”
  • Describes “spade foot” as an endangered, shovel-footed frog type.
• Hands-On Frog Tips: Advises humane treatment for contest frogs ("spritz them, don’t set in water, and bring back to original location").
• Honest about Frog Anxiety: Acknowledges that most frogs don’t like large water bodies ("They’re the most delicious piece of meat in the river.”)

Frog Call Quiz Hilarity

• Failed Audio Tech Woes: Audio frog calls fail over cell phone, leading to Luke providing impressions of frogs for Simeon to identify (successfully!).
• Memorable Quote:
  • [59:08] Simeon: “They're only called green frogs if they're from the green frog region of France...”
• Bullfrogs vs Green Frogs: For sheer jumping performance, “bullfrogs or green frogs” are the best bet.

Frog Facts & Culture

• Frogs as Prey: Yes, bass and catfish love to eat frogs.
• Frog Handling 101: Frogs do well in terraria for a short contest duration. Return them to where found to prevent disease/invasive spread.

Teacherly Clarity

• Listener Praise: Luke notes how clearly Simeon explains things—“well suited to that job” as a multilingual teacher.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• [06:05] Andrew: "Listen, in marriage, monogamous. In comic books? I'm polyamorous."
• [03:31] Mary (read by John): "I was literally in my 60s before I figured out that figs are delicious. Somehow Nabisco managed to befoul one of the best fruits on the planet."
• [19:15] Luke (Erling Haaland): "He is like some sort of Norse God... he does not appear to be [from this planet]."
• [11:04] Luke (Tweety Bird fashion): "Why is my son the one inspiring the fashion of Jermaine Dupri many years from now?"
• [59:08] Simeon: “They're only called green frogs if they're from the green frog region of France...”
• [66:14] Luke (on Simeon's teaching): "You have a really, really clear, concise way of explaining this stuff. You're well suited to that job."
• [47:13] John (frog name): "Jackie Jorp Jump is, I think, my favorite."
• [66:05] Simeon: “I'm a multilingual teacher, what they used to call an ESL teacher. I did most of my career teaching abroad, but I'm back home in the Midwest now.”

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Important Timestamps

• [02:01] Luke sets the tone: "Let the fun begin."
• [03:31] Mary’s Fig Newton rant.
• [11:04] Luke’s Tweety Bird/Jermaine Dupri comparison.
• [18:19] Story of Norway's intimidating World Cup fans.
• [23:26] Luke gambles on "Turkey A" in the World Cup.
• [26:11 – 48:28] Massive, laugh-out-loud frog name brainstorming session.
• [48:28 – 69:17] Simeon’s educational segment: frog biology, frog calls, and contest frog handling.
• [47:13] “Jackie Jorp Jump” emerges as a top frog name contender.
• [59:08] Simeon's “green frog region of France” quip.
• [66:14] Praise for Simeon's teaching.

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Tone & Style

TBTL’s tone is loose, friendly, self-effacing, and frequently digressive—gleefully “goofing their way through the world.” In this episode, they're at their participatory, listener-driven best, alternating between comedic self-analysis, earnest curiosity, and classic TBTL running gags. The addition of Simeon as a listener-expert is both informative and playfully on-brand.

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Summary Takeaways

• The frog naming contest is in full comedic swing—listener engagement is high, and the hosts are delighting in wordplay.
• Increasing frog-knowledge ensures the Valley City frog will be well cared for and competitively trained.
• World Cup talk brings sports anxiety and European fan envy—Luke is awed and slightly terrified by Norway and Erling Haaland.
• TBTL’s community ethos is on display: listeners, old and new, are welcomed in as experts and co-conspirators.
• Frog-sounds quiz not only brings laughs but highlights the technical fragility—and improvisational spirit—of live podcasting.

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Keep the frog name ideas coming! As always, no mountain too tall...
[70:47] John: "And good luck to all!"
[70:55] Simeon: “Power out.”

Transcript

[Andrew]

A group of acquaintances of mine invited

[John]

me to go clubbing with them this weekend, and I said, no, I don't particularly like clubbing.

[Luke Burbank]

I instead like to spend my weekends

[Andrew]

inside playing video games. And one of them said, oh, you're

[John]

not like other girls. Like, yeah, I'm not like other girls.

[Andrew]

I got low blood pressure and low blood sugar.

[John]

All right? I got hit with two God chuckles right there.

[Andrew]

If I go clubbing, I don't come back.

[John]

It's much like Jaws.

[Andrew]

Guess what day it is. Guess what day it is.

[Simeon]

It's Friday, Friday Gotta get down on Friday Everybody's looking forward to the weekend.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I've read everything on your syllabus

[Andrew]

and how do I put this delicately? It's all stupid garbage.

[Luke Burbank]

First of all, a podcast takes a

[Simeon]

lot of work, okay?

[Luke Burbank]

You have to organize the guests, you have to do a Google calendar, and you build a following. It takes a long.

[Andrew]

And I've been working on it for a while.

[John]

If I told you once, I've told

[Luke Burbank]

you a thousand times, I love you.

[John]

With him out of the way, I

[Luke Burbank]

think we're just gonna be 360 spins and slam dunk pointers. Well, all right. Hello, good morning and welcome, everyone, to a Friday edition of TBT all, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. Oh, yeah. My name's Luke Burbank. I'm your host.

[Simeon]

I don't know who that is, and I don't care to find out.

[Luke Burbank]

Coming to you from the Madrona Hill Studio, perched high ab of the mighty Columbia, where it is a rainy Friday. So we've got Gigi and DJ here in the studio helping out with the show. DJ was doing a little script supervision before the program, and I think things are really actually looking pretty good today. It's nice to get another set of eyes on this thing out here at the Madrona Hill Studio as we've made it. Folks, to episode 4758 in a collector

[John]

series, Let the fun begin.

[Luke Burbank]

I've been watching the World cup with great interest and I will tell you, there is a team in the World cup and also a fan base for the team in the World cup that I find, frankly, terrifying.

[Simeon]

I am petrified.

[John]

Petrified with this story.

[Luke Burbank]

I will elaborate coming up. Also, we are still going through some of these suggested names, some of them humorous names for the frog that we are going to be entering in the Valley City, Ohio frog jump contest.

[Simeon]

How funny is that?

[Andrew]

That's pretty funny.

[Luke Burbank]

As part of the TVtlethon 17 Jumping for Joy, which is gonna be July 13th through 17th. And in fact, we've got a listener, Simeon, who spends a lot of time thinking about and studying frogs.

[Simeon]

Those scientists better check their hypotenuses, dude.

[Luke Burbank]

He's going to tell us everything we need to know about what kind of frog we should be looking for and how to take care of them and all of that stuff that's coming up a little later on in the show. First though, we gotta say hello to this dude. Longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. Yes, he's been doing the show for a long time. But no, that doesn't mean that he's inflexible or can't change. In fact, his new name is Targets.

[Simeon]

Targets.

[Luke Burbank]

And he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[John]

Good morning. Luke just horfed down some Fig Newtons. It's the the last thing I eat at night and the first thing I eat in the morning. Now that I have a lifetime supply of shelf.

[Luke Burbank]

Are you making progress on that big old giant box of Fig Newtons that was mailed to you by. Was it Maggie in Swarthmore?

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[John]

I'm turning into a Fig Newton. Listen to this. Listen to this note that I got out of the blue unrequested from our dear friend Mary, the queen of the rants and raves at the Seattle time. Mary wrote to me out of the blue yesterday. I'm time baddening, so this is late, but it's important. Luke is correct about the fig. God damned Newtons. Not only are they a waste of our Earth's resources, the most disgusting of so called cookies, their foul reach is worse. I for my whole life assumed figs were the devil's spawn because of fig Newtons. I was literally in my 60s before I figured out that figs are delicious. Somehow Nabisco managed to befoul one of the best fruits on the planet by making the so called cookie somehow slimy and dry at the same time. Shame on everyone involved.

[Luke Burbank]

Mary, now that's how you get published in the Seattle Times. Rants and raves.

[Simeon]

I am at her knee.

[John]

I am a tutor. Teach me, Mary. Teach me.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, absolutely. Oh, and look who it is. It's our dear friend, TBTL employee numero uno, Mr. John Sklaroff, who is. Let's see here.

[Simeon]

Look back.

[John]

Whoa.

[Luke Burbank]

Hold on now. Wait just a few minutes. Wait, wait, wait.

[John]

Look who's back. There it is.

[Luke Burbank]

He's here once again joining us on this Friday. Hi, John.

[Andrew]

Hey, guys.

[John]

How's it Going pretty good.

[Luke Burbank]

You're fresh off of seeing Supergirl last night.

[Andrew]

I did mention I saw last night. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. It's getting some mixed reviews.

[Luke Burbank]

Can I tell you something a little embarrassing? And I think anything. I think I'm going through stuff. I got choked up watching the trailer for Supergirl.

[John]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And that's like knowing that it's getting mixed reviews and knowing that the dog is very clearly cgi.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And that still kind of got me like her and her dog again. I. I don't know what's going. I need to see a doctor.

[Andrew]

But I should say mixed reviews because I think anytime there's a woman led movie, especially in the superhero genre. Yes.

[John]

You're skeptical.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Me personally. Yeah. No, there's like a swath of the country, I think that just immediately goes to like, this is bad. Even before the movie comes out. I think the biggest criticism I kind of mentioned starting to mention briefly, there's this book that's been adapted from Supergirl, Woman of Tomorrow, and I actually picked this up. I have not yet read it because I didn't want my feelings about the movie to be influenced by the.

[Luke Burbank]

That is a dc.

[Andrew]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Comic. I didn't realize that you play both sides of the field.

[Andrew]

I go both ways when it comes to my. My comic book, Whatever is good.

[Luke Burbank]

A Marvel man and the Marvel.

[Andrew]

Listen in marriage, monogamous. In comic books. On polyamorous.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. You're in a polycule.

[John]

Polycule.

[Andrew]

Yeah, Whatever. Whatever is entertaining and good. And this by all counts, this book was really, really well loved and regarded. And I. One of the big criticisms of the movie is it's an adaptation of the book, but they make some significant changes to the adaptation, which happens all the time when books of any kind are adapted. And so I think people are just kind of like, also frustrated by that. But I thought it was a good movie. Millie Alcott, who plays Supergirl's awesome Jason Momoa. Jason. So he's one of the ones that's

[Luke Burbank]

not finally putting him in a movie. That's nice.

[Andrew]

Okay. But the thing about Momoa is you

[John]

have baggage with Momoa. Luke. Don't bring that into the show.

[Luke Burbank]

I forgot about that.

[Andrew]

Actually, there's Momoa, like the character he plays, Lobo, who is a character I've been familiar with. Like, it is Jason Momoa. Like, he's a. He's.

[John]

Wait, he plays Lobo?

[Andrew]

Yes.

[John]

The crazy. I didn't know that was a dc.

[Andrew]

You know Lobo.

[John]

Yeah. From way back in the day. He's kind of crazy, right? I didn't know that was a D.C. comic. I thought it was. Was like some alter indie comic.

[Andrew]

No, he's an intergalactic bounty hunter who rides a motorcycle through space and, like, chews on cigars and, like, is very burly and corny and, like a drunk. I'm like, oh, like, he's playing himself in makeup, basically.

[Luke Burbank]

So he takes. He takes elements of all three of our personalities.

[John]

Yes.

[Andrew]

Right.

[John]

I'm the cigar. Wait, no character. I remember Lobo being like that. Boy, I haven't heard that name in so long. But I did not grow up like a comic book geek. Although I just always love the ideas. I love the idea behind them, and I love people who are into them. I just never really got into it. I had very. I had a few graphic novels here and there or what have you. But I do remember at some point, I don't remember, like, what stage of my life this was. Somebody was like, oh, man. It's like it was Lobo and one other character that was just like, oh, this is not your Superman comics. This is the badass stuff. This is the crazy drunk stuff. And I remember, like, there was, like, edgy. Yeah, that Lobo.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Let me know when they finally do an adaptation of Gru the Wanderer. Okay.

[Andrew]

Is that.

[Luke Burbank]

That was the comic that I was really into.

[John]

Is that a Christian Despicable Me?

[Luke Burbank]

No, that's. That's. What's the name of the guy? Despicable Me? What's the groove career that he's grew?

[Andrew]

Also, that's what the joke. That's what the dumb joke was.

[Luke Burbank]

Gru was this, like, kind of sort of dopey fantasy comic book character. I'm reading this off the Internet now, created by Sergio Aragones. And I remember walking to the comic book shop up in Greenwood, actually, by kind of where that Taproot Theater is. Andrew, I don't know if you're familiar with.

[John]

I don't think so.

[Luke Burbank]

Or where the. Anyway, there's a. There's used to be a big Fred Meyer up there as well. But there was a comic book shop across the street, and I went in there with some kids that knew from comics, and I was already so behind the curve. Like, they already had, you know, all of these different comics, and they were collecting them and stuff. And so I didn't know where to start, but I just thought that Gru looked funny because he kind of had a sword and he was kind of dopey. So I think I bought a couple of Gru comics As far as my. As far as my comic book collecting went. But I did enjoy those.

[John]

I like that move. That was like when my grandparents were, like, kind of, I guess, babysitting both me and my sister and two of my cousins. And this is like they lived out of state or something. The cousins did. We didn't get to see them all that often. It was a very, very sui. Generous moment in our upbringing, this. This outing. And I think they took us to some. We all got to pick out T shirts, but I think it was, like, all Looney Tune T shirts or whatever. And, like, the other boys got, like, Tasmanian Devil and something else, like, kind of badass. And I got the Tweety Bird shirt, and I was just like, you know,

[Luke Burbank]

I like Tweety Bird.

[John]

And I think everybody's a little bit like, what's with this?

[Luke Burbank]

I think that's actually more badass. I think that that would be more fashionable circa now for you to be wearing a Tweety Bird T shirt than, say, a Tasmanian Devil T shirt.

[John]

That's one of those stories. And this is not. This is not the M.O. on my dad. This is not how, like, he ra or anything. He's not a machismo kind of guy, and he's not a guy who ever made me feel shame for who I was. But I do feel like I had a little. It was a little glimpse into. I feel like we came back with our shirts and we were showing them all off, and I either overheard my dad talking about it later or I saw his eyes sort of die a little bit when he saw that his son chose the Tweety Birch. I think I overheard him talking about it later, and. And I was like, oh, my God. And it didn't even. It was like. I feel like there's some sort of biblical equivalent to this. Like, I didn't real. Let's keep it in the Looney Tunes universe. It was like I was running out off of a cliff, but I didn't know I was off of a cliff. I thought everything was good until I heard somebody say, yeah, but why did my boy get the Tweety Bird shirt? Why is he always the guy who's bringing home the Tweety Bird shirt? And then I looked down. The cliff wasn't there anymore. And then I started falling.

[Luke Burbank]

Why is my son the one inspiring the fashion of Jermaine Dupree many years

[John]

from now, often seen in a giant

[Andrew]

Tweety Bird T shirt?

[John]

Really? Well, no, no. Now that I'm, you know, well.

[Andrew]

And.

[John]

Well, now that I'm a strong, self confident man that you guys all know. I love the fact that I brought home that Tweety Bird shirt and I wish I still had it.

[Luke Burbank]

I want to talk to you guys for a quick moment about. Well, actually, you know what? Before we get to soccer, Andrew, do you happen to have, I don't know, some sort of sonic indication that maybe we're going to ask about our plans in the next couple of days?

[John]

You mean like for the dazzling donors

[Luke Burbank]

or like earlier in the show than that? More like weekends of mine.

[Andrew]

Invited.

[John]

What happened? I actually hit it like 30 seconds ago. I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

The biggest one I've ever had. Big weekend.

[John]

Luke Burbank.

[Andrew]

Yes.

[John]

Am I cueing this music because you have big weekend plans or you want to know mine? Because I'm happy to start with yours. All right, well, my big weekend plans, there's various things going on, but the thing that I am focused on right now, it's a little. Little something I like to call chainsaw on a stick. I got myself a chainsaw on a stick. I haven't even unboxed that baby yet. It's been a very busy week. But I stayed up late last night working on the newsletter, getting that all done. So that as soon as we are done recording here today, I'm gonna go outside, I'm gonna rev that baby up. I think I need to put some oil or something in it first. It might involve a trip to Lowe's first. I plan on chopping the hell out of my back hedges until I get a phone call from the garage that is currently working on our car. And at some point, I think I'm gonna have to interrupt my work to go find myself, find a way to get to Ballard to go pick up the broken car.

[Luke Burbank]

So you went with the dealership?

[John]

No, we went with this other garage that's around the corner that I got a really good vibe from. From. But they are. They're still expensive and they will only replace all four fuel injectors. They say we won't do just one, but I really like the vibe of them. And they seemed very cool when I was dropping off the car. And it's right around the corner, actually. This. I'm not trying to hijack the segment, but actually it's a. When I texted the dealership, I told them some. I sent the text to Genevieve just so she knew, and I was like, I didn't say we're taking it to another garage. I said something. I lied. And it was one of those Things where. And Genevieve later was like, why did you lie to them? And I was like, I don't know. But I, like, told them. I'm like, hey, listen, you know. Cause our car was left at the dealership overnight. I never checked back in with them, which is not really my thing. And then midday yesterday, when I realized, okay, we can take it to this other garage that luckily had a couple of other appointments fall through at the last minute, I wrote to the dealership and said, hey, we can't really afford this right now. We don't know what we're gonna do. So I'm gonna pick up the car and limp it to my friend's gar a while.

[Luke Burbank]

And Genevieve's like, I would have done the exact same thing.

[John]

Why did you take. Really? I thought you'd be more like Genevieve. Why didn't you just let them know that, like, you don't appreciate how expensive

[Luke Burbank]

it is somehow it would feel to me like I was rejecting them that feel like they don't need to know that I'm just taking it to a slightly more affordable garage. I want to. I want to, you know, sort of protect their feelings for some reason.

[Andrew]

It's like when you change barbers or

[John]

therapists or something, where it's like, yeah,

[Andrew]

I'm going to take a break from now from getting your haircut. Yeah, Just for, like a few decades.

[John]

We'll figure it out.

[Andrew]

And then, like, you immediately book with another person.

[John]

Yeah, totally.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm going for a Tom Hanks in Castaway kind of look, by the way. One to four years.

[John]

I did have to go to. I went to Rudy's for the first time on, I guess yesterday or the day before, because I'd been going to this local barber who, like, you just never know what you're going to get with them. I really like them, and it doesn't really matter with me. Like, I don't have to look good. I'm unfamiliar with that feeling. So for me, it doesn't really matter. He goes, sometimes I get a good haircut. Sometimes it's too short, but it grows out. But because I have this book event on Monday, I did not trust that. So I went to Rudy's, and it is way more expensive. But you can. You can definitely. I trust them more. And I came out. I mean, how do I look? You guys tell me. I mean, I mean, you were probably talking about it, right?

[Andrew]

Throwing bird shirt for Monday. And you're set to go.

[Luke Burbank]

You look like a guy who should be in conversation regarding a cross country

[John]

Automobile Race with Eric Ma. What is it? It's brick and mortar. Brick and mortar books, Redmond, Washington. Let's see here. It'll be Monday at 6:30. I'm actually. The truth of the matter is, and I know that I'm now slipping into next week plans, I have finished the book and it's really good. So that makes me feel better. Now that I'm really into this book, I feel slightly less nervous about talking with Eric about it in front of a group of people. It's still not exactly probably the thing I'm most comfortable with that kind of scenario, but luck. Luckily I'm legitimately enthused and excited about this book.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it sounds really awesome. Really fascinating.

[John]

Yeah, I'm gonna get it in your hands. Okay. What's going on with you, Luke?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, well, for one thing I gotta find a new place to cut my hair because I've been going to this one place in town which I thought was kind of a little bit more elevated than just say one of the great clips. In fact, there was really nothing even wrong with great clips. Although I didn't really see. I didn't see myself getting my haircut at the Great Clips in the Fred Meyer in Longview, Washington in my late 40s and 50s. I didn't see that for my life. And so maybe it was more just what I felt like it said about me. Also they sometimes would have a really long wait list, a long line. So I found this other place that's a little bit more boutique and everybody there I think is, you know, very well trained. But man, I got the worst haircut from them the last time. Just. And it's this. It's a person who I get my haircut, have had my haircut from plenty of times and she just for whatever reason. Well, just kind of.

[John]

Wasn't that the day of the tragedy though?

[Luke Burbank]

It was. That might have. I mean not even joking. There was kind of a lot going

[John]

on but what I was thinking for real.

[Luke Burbank]

So I've just been growing and I've been going full cast away with it. But I've got to figure something out that is not my big weekend plan. I am going to have. Becca's brother Scott is going to be in the area tomorrow because he is doing. He along with. He owns like multiple companies. But one of the other things he does is he's a DJ for events and parties and get togethers and he's deejaying something not too far from here. So I believe the plan is for him after his Gig to come over here. He's bringing a third poodle. That's right. There are gonna be three standard poodles here tomorrow night. And we're gonna hang out and just do a little. A little hangout time, hang out with the dogs, maybe have a cold beverage and. And, and just see where the night takes us.

[John]

Do the dogs like air horns? I'm assuming if he's a dj, he's like kind of blowing an air horn all the time. Is that what it's gonna sound like?

[Luke Burbank]

They're pretty unaffected by that, I have to tell you. They.

[John]

Well, you don't have.

[Luke Burbank]

No, they're tired from their walk today.

[John]

That's not a professional air horn, though. I assume that he's coming in with a real one.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, he's got every kind of. He's got every sound effect in the book. Tell you what. So that's happening on. On Saturday. I will probably also be watching some of the World cup soccer as it goes. I've been getting really into it this year, but I wanted to tell you guys about this. Let me actually just officially designate this as a Top Story.

[John]

Hello and welcome to Top Story.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, we're all about formatting on this program without that sonic ID structure. There is a soccer team in the World cup from Norway, and they are really good. And they have a guy who plays for them named Erling Holland, who is, I would say, I don't know, six, six, chiseled out of granite, blonde, long hair, faster than he should be for that size, like unbelievably imposing Viking man, who is, by the way, seems like a really sweet dude. He's always smiling out there on the pitch, but he's also absolutely menacing with his physicality.

[John]

Oh, my gosh. I'm looking at his face. Looks like he's the villain of a Van Damme movie or something.

[Luke Burbank]

And I almost feel bad bringing this up because he seems to actually be a fairly sweet individual. Sure, it is not his fault that he is not from this planet, but he does not appear to be. And I see him like some poor, normal sized soccer defender trying to impede him from getting to the goal as he's just taking three steps and covering the entire field. He is just. He is like some sort of Norse God. So that's imposing and slightly scary. But here's the thing. I don't know if this is really going to play over the podcast, but there is a celebration that the fans from Norway do when they score a goal and they say, row, row, row. And Everyone in the crowd, it's a sea of red. As they say row. I'm talking about the fans. They mimic that they're rowing.

[John]

Love that.

[Simeon]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Unless you're the other team or the other fans. It is like something out of, like, Game of Thrones when an army shows up at Winterfell that has you real scared. I'm just gonna play this off of Reddit. I don't know if this is really gonna convey what I'm saying, but this is the Norwegian fans doing this rock. Someone's beating a drum. I'm talking about thousands and thousands of people rowing in their seats. This is literally makes me nervous, even just.

[John]

Has it occurred to you just to start rooting for this team instead?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, the thing is, I love the nation of Norway and this guy Holland actually seems like a sweetheart, but we still must stop them. This is terrifying behavior I pretty sure

[Andrew]

I saw on social media and I can't verify I've been looking for. Holland has very good politics, I think he said he's been critical of some of the nonsense that's been happening here, I believe. But also to the Viking thing. Luke, they also. I saw a tick tock. They are like. I just looked. It looks like they're playing in Boston or Foxborough. But the fans have been going through New York City, too. It's like, yeah, they're here, they're traveling, and they've been doing the rowing thing on the subways and in Times Square. So there's like all these videos of all these Norwegian fans all around New York City, like, doing this whole rowing thing. And I thought that was pretty awesome.

[Luke Burbank]

Can we go back to the Vuvuzelas?

[Andrew]

This is way better.

[Luke Burbank]

This is so. This is so intimidating. I don't think any other team will be able to beat these guys with their fans doing this scary rowing thing in the audience.

[John]

It's too much. This question is coming from a man who has not been following the ins and outs of this at all. So keep that in mind as you answer it. But, like, is there a. Are they favored? Is there a country or a team that is favored to win it all, or is there a handful of teams?

[Luke Burbank]

I have a sense Argentina is considered really good. John, you might know more about this than I do.

[Andrew]

No, sorry. This is outside my.

[Luke Burbank]

So I couldn't tell you. I don't know if Norway's in, you know, one of the favorites to potentially get to the finals. I know that they seem to win the games that I saw them playing pretty handily, and this guy Erling Holland is just like, I think he has, he has some insane stat. Like he's averaging more than one goal for every World cup game he's ever played in or something. Like he's just, just putting up insane numbers. And John, I guess I'm not even surprised to hear that he might have good politics because again, the people of Norway seem to be a wonderful, I would say sort of community minded group of people, you know, generally speaking. And like, I'm not shocked to hear that, that he has good politics and is a good guy. But I mean, it should be. I don't, I just don't think it's fair for him to be literally twice as tall as some of the other players, but then also twice as fast.

[Andrew]

So you want to hear the power rankings according to ESPN right now? So from 1 to like 10, we'll say, right, it's France, Argentina, Spain, England, Germany, Brazil, the Netherlands, Portugal, Norway, Morocco. The US is 11th, then Japan, Mexico, Colombia and the Ivory Coast.

[John]

Okay, so those are the power.

[Luke Burbank]

The US is pretty far down there. I didn't, I didn't know if, because we won our first couple games, it meant we were kind of good. But I will say.

[John]

But there are a lot of teams though. I mean, 11 out of how many?

[Andrew]

16.

[John]

Oh, oh, never mind.

[Luke Burbank]

That are left. They're moving on.

[John]

Right, right, right.

[Andrew]

I guess that must be the knockout.

[John]

Okay, knockout round.

[Luke Burbank]

I want to say that I was really kind of proud of myself last night. I was watching the USA versus Turkey A. We're saying Turkey A now. I believe that was what was officially on the screen and everything. Formerly we would have maybe called it Turkey, but I think we're going with the way that somebody from Turkey maybe would pronounce it. And the US Was already going to move on. They did not need to win this match. It was, you know, they've already locked this up and they were still a huge favorite against Turkey. And I thought, I don't know, you got one team that doesn't need to win, you got another team that's playing for pride, that's on the world stage in this way that's going to have a lot to really prove. And so I slid a couple of, couple of dollarinis on old Turkey A. And then they went up, they were leading two to one. And this is the point where I could have retracted my dollarinis with a little excess, with a little profit made.

[John]

And we should say we're calling them Dollarinis because we're pronouncing it the way people in Turkey would.

[Luke Burbank]

And I did that classic thing that I keep doing, which is the same happened to me. The same thing. I was watching Jordan and Algeria play the other night. Same thing. I'm just always putting a little dollarini on whatever team seems to have no chance based on the betting odds. And then that team seems to jump out to a one nil lead and suddenly I'm being rewarded in real time. But then I don't take my minimal profit and run. I try to let it ride. And then usually the team that's favored comes storming back and all of the pundits are correct. Well, in this case, I turned the game off because the US had tied it two to two. There was like one minute left of the extra time. The game was over, it was going to end in a draw. Turned it off, went about my business when I looked down on my phone, and my goodness gracious, Turkey A wins the match with, like no time left in the match, kicks the ball into the goal, therefore giving me even more dollarinis.

[John]

Nice.

[Luke Burbank]

So I felt like that was a study in human motivation. I was. I said, you know, do we think that the. The US Is going to play their absolute hardest? And I guess they didn't.

[John]

Yeah, I had heard some rumblings like there was a kind of a question about whether or not they were going to sit to their good players for this game anyway. Did they?

[Luke Burbank]

I think they did. I think they sat a lot of the. I don't think they played pulisic because,

[John]

like, why risk injury if they don't need to win this game.

[Luke Burbank]

Precisely. And that was another reason I was surprised that they were so heavily favored because I thought, again, they're playing all their backups. They're just kind of going to be sort of phoning it in. But go Turkey, I'm thinking. I don't know if they're still in the tournament or not, but thanks. Thanks, folks. Appreciate y'. All. And yes, Fear Norway. They are a very, very fearful team. Although they do have good politics.

[John]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

John, we have brought you here once again to ask you about the. Well, the process of people suggesting ideas for the frog's name. We are going to be entering a frog in the Valley City, Ohio frog jumping contest when we do the TBTL a thon in Ohio. And people have been sending in ideas for frog names. We're kind of saying we're gonna have to really see this frog before we decide what its name is. But we can take lots of suggestions. We had some pretty good ones Last week, have there been more rolling in?

[Andrew]

Yeah, actually, we got way more people. I think after maybe getting inspired by other listeners or thinking about more, we got way more week two than we have week one. I'm gonna start with the obvious one, because somebody last. Last week there was Julio Frog Regress, and it sparked this conversation between the three of us about, like, are there other Mariners that, like, would be better for that? And as the one Yankee fan, you happy came up. But as the one Yankee fan, I will say I'm very disappointed in you two Mariners fans for not getting the one that like seven people sent in the big jumper.

[John]

Oh, that's pretty good.

[Andrew]

That's pretty good.

[John]

It kind of makes me sad now, though.

[Andrew]

I know.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I know.

[Andrew]

Sure.

[Luke Burbank]

Do we think. Andrew, I had a terrible, terrible intrusive thought yesterday. Is there a chance Cal Raleigh was

[John]

juicing interesting last season? Yeah. I mean, John says yes. Is this scuttlebug? I had not. I mean, maybe we're in our bubble. I had not heard rumors or anything.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, he. I don't know what. I don't know what that even looks like, you know, because again, he was. I don't know if it's. If there's a certain body type that tends to emerge from, you know, using PEDs or not. I don't. I don't know. He never.

[John]

He.

[Luke Burbank]

Cal Raleigh seemed too mellow to be doing PEDs, but what he seems to be going through this season is the drop off in productivity that seems to often follow someone who was on a lot of something that they should not be on or not enough of something they should still be on.

[Andrew]

The Brady Anderson effect.

[Luke Burbank]

The Brady Anderson effect.

[Andrew]

The Andrew for you, Andrew, and other people that might not be big fans or know. Back in the 90s, the Orioles had a guy named Brady Anderson whose career high home runs was like 14, and then one year he hit 50, and then he never hit more than like 15 again. So it was like this real.

[John]

I'm not listening.

[Luke Burbank]

Here's one thing I'm hearing.

[John]

Yeah, here's the one thing I'm hearing

[Luke Burbank]

about using Cal of anything here. I'm just. I'm troubled by the, The, The. The absolute cliff. Not unlike Andrew when you heard his dad shit talking, that Tweety Bird shirt. The absolute cliff that Cal Raleigh has gone off this year is just. I mean, I understand slow starts, but something is up.

[John]

But the only thing. And maybe, maybe PEDs affect this type of thing too. But the thing that I've been hearing, people who know More about baseball than me. Saying about him is, it's his timing. It's not his strength. And I think of. I, I mean, I could be wrong. You guys both know ball way better than I do. But let me just.

[Luke Burbank]

That's not true.

[John]

Let me just say this, and then you guys can tell me if this doesn't really add up.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, John does not know ball better than you,

[John]

but I, I, you know, that helps if you're connecting the right way, but then you're getting the extra oomph to get it out of the yard. And it's sort of bond. And everybody was saying that, like, his timing is off. And when. When Cal was on his rehab assignment and he was down in AAA and he was just raking down there, he got like, five home runs in three games or whatever. And they brought it up. Everybody was talking about his time, and just like, he's. He's down there and his timing seems back. He came up here. He had a little bit of a better start since he's been back up and then has just fallen off again. But I don't know. Do you think that peds would apply to that? It's not like he's hitting the ball into ground out.

[Luke Burbank]

So, yeah, you know, and again, I, I really don't have any, like, evidence or even rumors to that effect. I just had this, like, again, intrusive thought that, like, could that be what, the explanation?

[John]

No, I don't. The explanation is. I mean, it seems pretty damn obvious to me. He should have shook Randy's hand. It all. I'm. I'm. I'm. I. I'm not even joking. You can tell because it's not funny. Like, I just think that he just messed up all the goodwill and, like, that's why he makes me sad on several levels now because he's. I could maybe, like, I just hated that Team USA so much. They were so toxic. He was toxic. Their whole, like, we are. We are in battle with these other world teams, and the other world teams are like, isn't this fun that we all get to play a game together? And then they're like, no, we will go to war with you. And I am Cal Raleigh, and I do not shake your hand. And then he sucks. And that's what happened. He should have shook Randy's hand. The only thing they can do. I think somebody said this on Blue sky, and I believe I already repeated on the show, but they need to, like, do seven minutes in heaven or something like that. They need to, like, they need to fully make.

[Luke Burbank]

Not what I expected you to say.

[John]

And that is what's going to reverse this little curse. That's what I believe.

[Luke Burbank]

So it sounds like we are maybe not going with Big Jumper unless Cal Raleigh has an unbelievable what next few weeks of the season or however soon we'll be out there in Valley City. Unless Cal Raleigh does something that doesn't make his very name bring us sadness as Mariners fans. Probably not going to be a Big Jumper. But good suggestion.

[Andrew]

Good. And also adjacent to or similar to Big Jumper. Somebody wrote Cal Frawley.

[Luke Burbank]

But okay, we're moving Cal Frog.

[Andrew]

Cal Frogly. We can move on for that. Let's see some other ones here. This one. Okay, so I think you actually mentioned your friend Luke. Larry.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, Larry Asher, our friend from the School of Visual Concepts.

[Andrew]

Larry sent over and I think even wrote in in the email like obligatory classic name which is Froggy McFrog face.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew]

I always get a chuckle out of that.

[Luke Burbank]

Like I know voting that one down.

[Andrew]

Sure, that's fine.

[Luke Burbank]

Sorry Larry, it's your right to be wrong

[John]

bumper sticker for right radio station.

[Luke Burbank]

You're absolutely within your rights to be that wrong.

[John]

Okay.

[Andrew]

I appreciate it, Larry. I know you have Mr. Ribbits or rivets last week Andrew somebody, somebody wrote in and said maybe a few people if it's a female frog. Although I guess it doesn't really matter. It could be Rosie the Ribiter.

[John]

Yes, somebody sent that to me and I had that written down here. That is first of all I was saying Mr. Ribbitz and it turns out that's already some sort of cartoon character or something. And as, as we're being sued by

[Luke Burbank]

enough cartoon companies right now, Andrew, we really are.

[John]

We should tell the listeners pull down

[Luke Burbank]

a Beetle Bailey Beetle Bailey image because King syndicates was coming for us.

[John]

This is a true story. I use a Beetle Bailey one panel of a Beetle Bailey cartoon randomly on a show. Pick what a and a half ago. And today John got an email with a cease and desist in saying that we owe them money. But anyway we'll deal.

[Andrew]

The entirety of the thon proceeds will be paying off our debts to the syndicate.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't, I don't know if we got it from a few people but I know that listener Ryan was one of the Rosie the Riveter suggest.

[John]

I love that.

[Andrew]

So shout out to Ryan was one of them. Yep, there's a few folks.

[Luke Burbank]

Solid, solid names.

[John]

You guys think? No Kings protests were actually about the King syndicate and because of their heavy handed efforts to pull Images off our website. Now I'm. Now I'm on board

[Andrew]

here. I'll run through some of these other ones. Oh, our friend Taylor down in Kansas City, big Royals fan, sent in a couple, and she had some really great explanation about, like, the. The motivation. I don't have the email from me, so forgive me, Taylor, but slingshot or spark plug? Which I thought those are both pretty fun.

[John]

Cool. I do like. Oh, I see.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. So not so much like a pun or wordplay, but just.

[Andrew]

No, but just like, in the interest

[Luke Burbank]

of like, a frog, that's to jump really far.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I thought that was.

[John]

I really like spark plug.

[Andrew]

Yeah, Spark plug was cool. Spark plug was really cool. Here's some other kind of. Just like, other kind of. This one. Somebody recently came up. Show our friend Nigel Mayor. The.

[John]

The.

[Andrew]

What's a formal title for mayor, Esquire or not?

[Luke Burbank]

His Honor.

[Andrew]

His honor. His honor. Thank you. That's his honor. Nigel sent in Hop Tua, which I said, if the thon was last summer, if the thom was last summer, it would have been Hop Tua. Like, I just feel like it's a year.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't think Andrew would stand for it, but that's pretty great.

[Andrew]

Yeah, just like a year late, though.

[Luke Burbank]

Nigel, I see you.

[John]

I see what you did there. Hop Tua. I stand for the flag. I kneel for the cross, and I sit for that name.

[Andrew]

And I sit for hopped.

[Luke Burbank]

Cover your ears like that.

[John]

And I cover my ears for hop two. Exactly.

[Andrew]

So I really like that one. Okay. Another Mariner is related, not frog specific, but aquatic.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew]

J.P. crawdad.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[John]

Oh, interesting. I like.

[Andrew]

That was from. That's from listener. Levi sent that in. Let's see what else we got here. We got. Okay, so here's a few from Adrian in New York. Just. I did a list of like. Like, not, like. I don't think show specific, like, references, although one maybe, but Walton Froggins.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, that's pretty good.

[Andrew]

That there's. There's more. There's Bully Frog Thorton.

[John]

Oh, you would say that to Tom Petty.

[Andrew]

Yeah, exactly. In light of the recent NBA finals in. In honor of Greg Popovich. Greg Hopovich.

[John]

Oh, wow.

[Luke Burbank]

I like that, too.

[Andrew]

Frog Odenkirk.

[Luke Burbank]

That took me a moment.

[John]

He's just, like, the angriest frog out there.

[Andrew]

God damn it. Mary Hoppins. Jackie Jorp Jump.

[Luke Burbank]

Sing them White Girls.

[John]

Oh, I like Jackie Jorp Jump. That's good. I don't know if you're keeping a list of the ones that are the faves, but, like, Sort of like. Yeah, let's flag that.

[Luke Burbank]

That's flag.

[Andrew]

Jackie Jorpchop.

[John]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And Valley City is gonna know what we're talking about. We don'.

[John]

That. Generally speaking, nobody in Valley City is going to know what we're talking about for a full week.

[Andrew]

Lemon from Cleveland. No. Her boyfriend Sudeikis characters.

[John]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Fleet of the clergy. And then. Let's see. I'm trying. There's, like, I said a whole bunch.

[Luke Burbank]

Now let me ask this. Would it just be Jorp Jump, or could it be Jackie Jorp jump or Jackie Jorp's jump?

[John]

I think that was the.

[Luke Burbank]

That's my preference.

[Andrew]

If you feel like that listener Adam, who I think wrote in the other day or sent a message. I. I thought it was Adam Ox. I think you guys said Oaks, but Adam.

[John]

Okay.

[Andrew]

Wrote in and gave Kermit Tyler, which was this whole historical reference that was like.

[Luke Burbank]

Kermit Tyler.

[Andrew]

Yeah, it was a. There was a historical reference, and it's in the email.

[John]

I'm sorry, Millard Fillmore's vice president.

[Andrew]

Is that.

[John]

I don't know.

[Andrew]

It sounds like it's something to do with. It's something to do with, like, Pearl

[Luke Burbank]

Harbor, Mallard film or another cartoon that's suing.

[Simeon]

Yeah.

[John]

Let me use that as a show pick today, Adam.

[Andrew]

Adam gave me the history of it, and it sounded cool. I'm not gonna pull it up right now, though. Sorry. And. But the other one Adam sent in basketball related. Spud Web, which I thought was pretty good. Web feet jumps really high.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Although that is Spud Web's name. It's the only issue there. I feel like.

[Andrew]

You think we get cease and desist from Spud Web.

[Luke Burbank]

We got to make it a little more. I had a Spud Web poster, by the way, of him dunking because he won the dunk contest in the 80s as an Atlanta Hawk, I believe.

[Andrew]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he did. And my. My cousin had a poster with him and George Meson standing next to. It's pretty.

[Luke Burbank]

You seen those pictures of George Mirzon holding a can of Pepsi?

[Andrew]

It's like a little.

[Luke Burbank]

Like a little, basically.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Right. Let's see, let's see. Let me get some other ones here. Hop Story from the Pondcast was one that Leah sent in.

[Luke Burbank]

Hop Story from the podcast.

[Andrew]

Yep.

[Luke Burbank]

Andrew, you know George Mirzon from the Billy Crystal movie My Giant? That's the record.

[John]

I've never seen that movie. I still don't know who he is. I've never seen that movie either. But okay.

[Andrew]

7 foot 7, played for the Washington Bullets.

[John]

And he. How is his acting in my Giant?

[Luke Burbank]

About his person?

[John]

Larger than life.

[Luke Burbank]

Boy, the Bullets really had a thing going with extremely tall players because they had Manute Bowl. They had Manute back in the day. They had George mirrors on.

[John]

You know what's funny is Billy Crystal is shorter than him. And they seem to emphasize that in a lot of the kind of publicity photos and maybe even in some of the scenes. I don't know if they actually. I don't know if that actually reaches the big screen, that aspect of it, but they seem to have some fun with that.

[Andrew]

It's actually all trick photography. So they look the same size.

[Luke Burbank]

But interestingly enough, that's not the movie where Billy Crystal plays an NBA referee. A basketball referee. I believe that's what. Something in Paris.

[Andrew]

One night in Paris.

[Luke Burbank]

One night in Paris. I believe he's a NBA ref. Does Meg Ryan fall?

[Simeon]

Who?

[Luke Burbank]

Somebody.

[Andrew]

I don't think it's Meg Ryan.

[Luke Burbank]

It's a rom com. But he's an NBA ref, I believe.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And at one point he gets.

[Luke Burbank]

Forget Paris. Forget.

[Andrew]

Forget Paris. They break up him and the. And the. The lead actor. So I have to look something. Kill me. And he's in a bad mood and he ends up throwing Kareem Abdul Jabbar out of a game. And it was Kareem's like. Oh, Farewell tour was like one of his last games. And it's like a whole thing of him fighting with Kareem, another famously very tall person.

[Luke Burbank]

That's right. Deborah Winger.

[John]

Deborah Winger. And is there. I feel like this is another movie that my dad has been highly recommending to me for the past several years. Is he playing a recovering alcoholic in this? Or is that a different Billy Crystal

[Luke Burbank]

movie that I could not.

[John]

Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

But I do. I saw this movie when it came out, and I actually really liked it. But I was in a big Billy Crystal phase in the 80s and 90s.

[John]

Mr. Saturday night.

[Andrew]

How could you not be?

[Luke Burbank]

I was City Slickers 1 through 3. Legend of Curly's Gold.

[Andrew]

That's good stuff. All right, here's a. I'll give you a couple more. How's the sound? We got a few more. These are more from Levi, who sent in a whole bunch. Okay, so he had the JP Crawdad. He also gave us Cameron Croak.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew]

Charles Crokin.

[Luke Burbank]

Is that a Charles Grodin reference?

[Andrew]

Maybe.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew]

Cindy Leaper.

[John]

Oh, I kind of like that.

[Luke Burbank]

Like a Cindy Lauper.

[Andrew]

Levi. And also listener. Daniel sent in Dave Leggers. Like Eggers.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, like Dave Eggers.

[Andrew]

Leggers.

[Luke Burbank]

Work of Heartbreaking genius or whatever.

[Andrew]

The Rockford File. Or Flies. Excuse me? The Rockford Flies.

[Luke Burbank]

The Rockford Flies. That's kind of the thing that the frog eats.

[Andrew]

Yeah, yeah. Well, just listen. This is brainstorming.

[Luke Burbank]

No bad ideas. I'm just trying to. I'm just, you know, I'm just trying to talk these out here.

[Andrew]

Yeah, yeah. The Silent Springer.

[John]

Wow. Dark. All right.

[Luke Burbank]

Paging Rachel Carson.

[John]

What. What about Jerry?

[Andrew]

DDT for Ooh, Ooh. Jerry Springer. Well, if we just named it. Jerry. Jerry. Jerry.

[Luke Burbank]

Also an Ohio native, by the way, so it's regionally appropriate. One time mayor of Cincinnati.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I think. Oh, here's. This one's a little. It's a little dark, but in the sense.

[Luke Burbank]

So darker than Silent Spring.

[Andrew]

Well, it's. It's frog Wa. But like, wa. Like wa for Washington, I think. Or foie gras, but spelled with a wa for Washington. But like, I feel like, I don't know. Talk about eating animal parts. Specific animal. I don't know. I just felt like that was a little.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, probably. I'm gonna put that right below big jumper.

[Andrew]

Okay. Okay.

[John]

But above Froggy McFrog face.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah. Everything's above Froggy McFarlane.

[Andrew]

No, that's towards the top, in my view. I feel like we got a couple more. Okay, so. Hi, Cheryl. This is Cheryl in Corvallis. Forgive me, I missed D.O. bellina. Mr. Bellina.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, Mr. Bob. Is that a Mr. Dabolina reference?

[Andrew]

Maybe.

[Luke Burbank]

But where's the frog?

[Andrew]

Mr. Dobalina. I might be mispronouncing something.

[John]

Mr. Dabolina. Mr. Bob.

[Luke Burbank]

Dabelina. Mr. Bob.

[Andrew]

And say in parentheses, Mr. Frog Dabelina.

[Luke Burbank]

Ah, there you go.

[John]

Frog Dabelina.

[Luke Burbank]

Mr. Dabelina. Mr. Frog Dabelina. Mr.— Dabelina. Mr. Frog dabelina. Hey, Mr. Dabelina.

[John]

Mr.—

[Luke Burbank]

Frog Dabelina. It's actually kind of fun to say. Serious.

[John]

I like that. Flag it.

[Andrew]

I don't think I know that one.

[Luke Burbank]

You really make me sick with your fraudulent behavior.

[John]

Who is that? That's not tribe, is it?

[Andrew]

Isn't that Del?

[Luke Burbank]

Is that Del the funky homo sapien?

[John]

Is it? I'm gonna look that up. What else do we have on the list?

[Luke Burbank]

I'm gonna look that up.

[John]

I'm gonna look up those lyrics.

[Andrew]

Here's a couple. Here's a couple more. This is from Haley in Arizona. Sent in Toad the Damp Sprocket.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, that's pretty good. I'm into that.

[Andrew]

Haley also sent in a couple more. Frog and toad are friends like the children's book.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, did I go off on that whole story on the show recently about Frog and Toad and the TikTok that I saw about it with. But an absolutely lovely. I mean, everybody loves those books and those stories. But the actual real lived experience of the guy who wrote the books.

[Andrew]

Right. You said go off. I thought you were about to say something real negative. I'm like, I'm pretty sure it's a good story.

[Luke Burbank]

No, I think I was getting emotional.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

It's not just the Supergirl trailer that makes me cry. It's also talking about the life story of the guy who wrote Frog and Toad.

[John]

Luke, I hate to sharpshoot you, but you said it was Del the Funky Homo Sapien. It's actually Del the Funky Homo sapiens. Boy, I was stupid, but I know. I feel like I'm always embarrassing you on the show. No. Good poll. I did not know that that was him. I know this so song, but I didn't remember that that was him.

[Luke Burbank]

He's also somebody's cousin. I remember somebody who was like maybe more famous in hip hop at the time. Like it was like Ice Cube's cousin or something. But anyway, that's Cheryl. I just want to say you're right.

[John]

Ice Cube, according to AI. Unless AI is learning this information from us, talking it back out, I apologize,

[Andrew]

Cheryl, again, for mispronouncing and reading the wrong.

[Luke Burbank]

We got there.

[Andrew]

All right, so here's a couple. There's a couple more names. Haley also said Santos El Hopper. I don't know if that's a specific reference.

[Luke Burbank]

Santos L. Hopper. Who would that be? Santos L. Hopper. Maybe just like a fun name for the Frog.

[Andrew]

Yeah, or a mashup of Sam L. Jackson and Dennis Hopper. I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

Or George Santos George.

[Andrew]

No, a Kai bashing.

[John]

That one.

[Andrew]

And then we got a couple from our friend Hollywood Mike, who which, by the way, shout out to Mike, was in the Twin Cities visiting family. And he and I got a beer the other night. It was good to hang out and meet person. Really cool.

[John]

I think I got a selfie of you guys. I don't know.

[Andrew]

He did send you because we were at. The place we're at was called Ted's. And so you want like Teddy's as close as you can get. All right, then. So Mike sends in dumbass like Don

[Luke Burbank]

D. Oh, Dom Bass.

[John]

That's a long ago reference. God, that's like more than 10 years ago, right? Somebody left you a note on your car, they call you a Dom Bass.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah, they didn't like how I had parked and they left I think a post it note. I think they were trying to write dumbass, but they didn't know how to spell it. And it was Donbass. Almost like the Donbass, the region of Ukraine.

[Andrew]

So Mike sent in that one. And then also I like this one. Tangent the frog.

[Luke Burbank]

Tangent the frog.

[Andrew]

Just always going on tangents.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, that could be a mascot for us. Tangent the frog.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I think. Oh, and then the only other one here, I think from this week I didn't mention so far. There's a couple. There's two more. There's two more. If we got time for two more. Listener Corinne, who I think is down in Alabama. Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Listener hot air balloon.

[Andrew]

Wrote in the mighty amphibian Amphibitan.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, I like that. I like working in the tens.

[Andrew]

That was a good one.

[Luke Burbank]

That's a TBTL listener that can go in the water and the land.

[John]

That's right.

[Andrew]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

But they cannot regulate their blood temperature by themselves. That's a lie on a rock.

[John]

Kind of a problem with a lot of our listeners.

[Andrew]

And then listener Seth sent in Frog Boglog. Like.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, like Bobla.

[Andrew]

Yeah, Frog.

[Luke Burbank]

How do you say that, Andrew? Bob Loblaw Bob, blah, blah.

[John]

Yeah, I think it's because. Because he has a law blog too, right? It's Bob's Law Block.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm kind of sad that that character was wasted on Scott Bay who then turned out to kind of be a kind of a turd.

[John]

But I think it was because of the Fonzie connection. Right. Because you had Henry Winkler, so they had to bring in. I think that show was genius. And it's kind of it's casting in that way.

[Andrew]

And also what's his face was the narrator Howard. Ron Howard was the narrator. Even more connections.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, well, those are all really good, actually. That's not true. They're not all really good. But it was fun to hear them and some of them were really good. And I'm not going to say which is which, but. But no, that was great. Thank you everyone who sent them in. Keep them coming because yeah, we can there. We can't have too many ideas. I feel like for me right now, I don't know, Mr. Frog Dobbin is pretty good. But then what was the other one?

[John]

I like Rosie the Riveter a lot.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh yeah, Rosie the Riveter.

[Simeon]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

That's Jackie Chorp Chump.

[John]

And that one, Jackie Jorp Jump is I think my favorite all, I mean,

[Luke Burbank]

and also just ties in with TBTL lore.

[John]

Do you remember who sent that one in? Yeah, that was kudos to them because that is.

[Andrew]

I think that's Adrian in New York City.

[John]

I didn't work. Thanks, Adrian. I didn't think anything could beat Rosie the Riveter. To me, I was. Somebody had emailed me that earlier this week, and I was delighted by that. But, man, Jackie Jorp jump is great.

[Luke Burbank]

But keep them coming. We have not officially closed the the list on these.

[Andrew]

Send them to me. John Jon at tbtl. Not don't, don't text or email Andrew.

[John]

He will delete it immediately and curse you.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, so we're getting maybe a little closer to a name for the frog, but we're not getting any closer to understanding the animal that is the frog, the amphibian that is the frog. Because, Andrews, you've already established you're a little squeamish. I didn't grow up. I mean, I did grow up by Green Lake, and probably if I would have had more like, I don't know, know, Huck fin tendencies, maybe I could have been, you know, catching frogs there. I wasn't growing up. So I don't have a ton of experience. John, do you have any experience with frogs yourself?

[Andrew]

I. We had a family cabin in the Catskill Mountains that my grandfather and my great uncles built back in the day. And so I was very fortunate my youth to go there. And we would go on, like, nature hikes and find, like, tadpoles and frogs and toads and stuff like that. But, like, I was, like, capturing them was never really.

[Luke Burbank]

Of the three of us, you have the most experience?

[Andrew]

It's very non. A lot, but yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, thankfully we got this email from our friend Simeon, who said, I recently moved to Dayton, Ohio from Indianapolis, and I am a trained volunteer for Frog Watch usa, a citizen scientist network which monitors wetlands to collect data about local frogs and toads during peak breeding season for use by researchers and conservation agencies. And so we thought we would give Simeon a call to get some of his expertise on all things frog.

[Simeon]

Hui Hui.

[Luke Burbank]

And Simeon is joining us right now from what, Somewhere in Illinois.

[Simeon]

Baba Buoy Ahoy Hoi. Yeah,

[Luke Burbank]

well played.

[John]

Thanks for coming.

[Luke Burbank]

You're pulled over on the side of the road in Illinois.

[Simeon]

Well, I'm at a Loves Travel stop by kind of dog park.

[Luke Burbank]

Nice. And you're also the person, if I understand it, who left us a voicemail that we used to start the show recently, how you had the distinct honor and privilege to be the first person to use a freshly Cleaned restroom at a local park.

[Simeon]

Yo, that state park, it was, it was Ohio State park. And I, yeah, the chrome was glistening like, like Mr. Clean's bald head. So nice.

[John]

How early do you have to get to a state park bathroom to be the first one to use it?

[Simeon]

It 9ish or 9 or 9:30. And you could tell like the, the park maintenance people were, were mowing the lawn then you could tell it was like the, the cleaning buckets were outside and they were now running the weed eaters. So. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Were you, were you at that state park because of your Frog Watch USA duties?

[Simeon]

No, I was just having a swim. I was just going for a swim at the beach. I've told you too much, there's no beach there.

[Luke Burbank]

How did you get involved with, how did you get involved with something called Frog Watch usa?

[Simeon]

I, I, I like, I've done other, like volunteering with, you know, different habitat restoration stuff and some. I, I like nature. I like fishing and kayaking and stuff. So I was moving to a new community. I've recently moved to Dayton. I was googling around for stuff and I don't know, somehow the Internet rabbit hole knew, knew what I liked and, and I found that.

[Luke Burbank]

And so are you doing, when you're doing Frog Watch USA stuff, you're going out and like counting the frogs. What are you guys actually doing out there in the field?

[Simeon]

Okay, so it's, it's a citizen science project a lot like kind of like ebird or the Christmas bird count. It's, it's people all around the country who have joined the network and are doing things just in their backyard or ponds at their local pond park. And what you'll do is you'll, you'll go out around the evening time, about half an hour before two and half hour after sunset, and you will listen for five minutes at a time. So you spend two minutes just with no sounds, just like kind of acclimating your ears. And then for exactly three minutes, you listen very closely and know exactly which species of frogs you hear calling during that three minutes and then record them on a, on a data sheet and then submit the, that data to the, to the organization that's.

[Luke Burbank]

So have you become an expert on frog sounds?

[Simeon]

Well, what I found out is you need to go to exactly one evening training to be the biggest expert on frogs that anybody knows so much that you get on a national podcast.

[John]

I'm sorry, you mean international?

[Simeon]

International, yeah.

[John]

Okay. Just want to that up for you a little bit there.

[Simeon]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Because Andrew, I know you have Some frog sounds that you were. You were going to see, Simeon, if we were going to maybe play some frog sounds and see if you wanted to give your best guess as to what frogs we were playing for you.

[John]

Yeah. You made a huge mistake by telling me that you can sometimes identify the actual different species of frogs. Because I'm guessing that wherever you are, like, there's only about how many different frog species sounds are you currently familiar with.

[Simeon]

Oof. Okay, so you've got the. Hey, finally something that's good for an audio medium. Yeah, we don't usually do that on the show.

[Luke Burbank]

First time for everything.

[John]

Wow. Are we getting burned?

[Simeon]

Okay, so sorry, you've got a. The. The basic. So bullfrogs. We're going to talk a lot about bullfrogs today. Give your basic croak, right? Your. Your CRO. That. You hear that? That's a bullfrog. Then you got your green frogs, which do kind of more of a. A like maybe a bow string or like a, A timpany drum being struck just once. But then you get into all the ones that go like. And those are the tricky ones because they all have different, you know, different pitches. Some of them have more or less raspiness. Like, some of them will be real crisp, while others kind of sound like they're being blown through a kazoo with like maybe a loose paper hopper or something. And then they have also longer and shorter periods. So, like green, sorry, tree frogs will maybe do like just one of maybe 5ish seconds or so. But a toad might go. Might go more like 20 seconds. I'll spare us all that.

[John]

Okay, so a toad. That's right. We've tried to figure this out on the show. A toad is a kind of frog.

[Simeon]

So there's two meanings of frogs. Kind of like a tomato is a fruit or vegetable thing. There's the common usage of frog and then the scientific usage of frog. Scientifically, frogs refer to the whole species, which includes toads. Okay, but then, but then within that family of. And that order of animals, there's actually three. There's the frogs, which have slimier skin and spend more of their time in water. There's the toads that, that have bumpier skin and, you know, hibernate in mud out of the water and are a little more terrestrial. There's also something called the spade foot, which is a bit endangered and is kind of between a frog and toad and has so called. Because its back foot is a little different, it has an extra claw for hole digging.

[John]

Okay, that's really? That's all really interesting. No joke. Like, this is fascinating. We had the right listener on for this, so. Oh, were you going to jump in?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I was just going to ask. So then you're, like, listening very carefully for these sounds, and then you're taking notes. And do you, like, basically bring the data back to someone and say, this is how many bullfrog noises I heard. And then they try to come up with a sense of, like, how many frogs are out there?

[Simeon]

Right. Well, it's much, much like, again, if any listeners are familiar with other more common citizen science apps, there's a special ebird and Christmas bird count is a big example. Example of this. Right. So it's people all over the country uploading their. Their data to a database. And then whenever, you know, conservation organizations or university researchers and so on want to conduct, want to have access to data, they turn to those databases and use them to determine, you know, migration patterns or, you know, shifts in native habitat and so on.

[John]

Cool. Well, I want to play some frog sounds for you and see if you can identify them. And I just want to remind the listening audience that you are on a telephone. You're on a cellular telephone as you are pulled over along the side of the road somewhere in Indiana. So if you don't recognize these. Illinois or Illinois. I mean, they both start with I's. Can you give me a break? It's the Homo sapien, Luke. Okay, so here is the first sound I'm going to play for you. Try to identify this. We're going to hopefully start in your wheelhouse. I got eight hours of that. I can play the whole thing for you, or you do want to jump in. Do you know what that is?

[Simeon]

I can't hear anything.

[John]

You were not able to hear that. Interesting.

[Simeon]

I was not able to hear that.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, John, it's on you.

[John]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

You're the senior frog expert among the three of us.

[Andrew]

I believe that's a cheat cheetah.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes.

[John]

This is the cheetah as it stalks its prey. So I'm sorry that you can't hear that. You know, we did a little test before the show. Maybe there's something about the sound of frogs that the cell service is sort of cutting out. But that was the bullfrog. For the listeners who did hear that,

[Luke Burbank]

that is not what I thought it was gonna sound like. Honestly, that.

[John]

And let me. I almost said this when you were introducing Simeon, but I didn't want to interrupt. But like, for me, that right there, in fact, I'll keep This playing underneath me a little bit here. This is my experience with frogs because this is the sound along with crickets and generally speaking, the summer country air. This is what I went to bed to every night. And it makes me so nostalgic because we had a little pond in our backyard, and there's a reason why Valley City is the frog jump capital. There are tons and tons and tons of frogs in Valley City, and I would just go to bed every night to the chorus of frogs in our backyard and just the various backyards. And it is so comforting to me. I really, really missed that.

[Andrew]

Are you going to start playing that at night when you go to bed? Like a white noise?

[John]

It's not a bad idea. It's not a bad idea. I'm going to play another one here and assuming. I don't know if this will come through any better, I kind of doubt it.

[Simeon]

The low tones of that one.

[John]

Yeah, maybe it was the low tones.

[Luke Burbank]

If not, I'll do an impression of the sound that Andrew plays and then we'll see if you can get it from that.

[John]

Simeon, I love this. Okay, here, try this.

[Simeon]

I'm sorry. No, I don't hear anything.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, here's what it sounds like. Simeon.

[John]

This is good.

[Simeon]

Or that. Were the. Were the. They were that close together?

[John]

Yeah, pretty much, yeah.

[Simeon]

Did they sound more like wood or more like. Like, did they sound more woody or more kind of almost like. Like a Bow street strain?

[John]

They had, like, woody to me. They had floral notes and almost like a.

[Luke Burbank]

Please. This is already complicated.

[Simeon]

I think that. So, yeah, they're only called. They're only called green frogs if they're from the green frog region of France. But I think.

[John]

No, you know what? This was actually amazing. That was a green frog. That was amazing. That was the green frog. Luke heard it. That imitated it over the line. All right, Just to be clear, though,

[Andrew]

this is really groundbreaking radio, by the way.

[Luke Burbank]

You're ending the week strong.

[John]

Can you hear this?

[Simeon]

I can.

[John]

You can hear that. So why is it that you can hear Pearl Jam but not the sound of frogs?

[Luke Burbank]

That is interesting.

[John]

If I put you out in a field somewhere and we played Temple of the Dog, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, would you be able to, like, sort of tell them apart and then send a report into Akron in.

[Simeon]

I don't think any agency is trying to conserve those sounds.

[John]

Jeez Louise. All right, well, I feel like I

[Luke Burbank]

almost want to quit while we're ahead with the frog sounds, cuz. That was so awesome.

[John]

That was really awesome. I'm really?

[Luke Burbank]

And try and do another one.

[John]

You know what, maybe we can save these sounds here. I'm going to do. I'm going to do one here. I'll do one more here.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah. Oh, okay, sure.

[John]

Do you recognize that cartoon frog?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. He just played the sound of a

[Simeon]

cartoon frog saying not cuckoo for Cocoa Puff.

[John]

He.

[Simeon]

He wants to eat some circular shaped cereal.

[John]

Yes, that's right. Smacks, I believe. Right? Dig him. Was it like dig him the frog or something like that?

[Luke Burbank]

And what were those called? Honey. Honey.

[John]

Honey smacks, I want to say. Like it's smacks of honey.

[Luke Burbank]

Honey smacks. Yeah. And he was like a cool frog, right?

[John]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Do you wear like a letterman's jacket or something like that?

[John]

That sounds about right. And maybe a ball cap or something like that. Well, I'm sorry that the audio thing didn't work, but maybe like later on we can get you back on the line.

[Luke Burbank]

I got a pretty major W on my green impression.

[John]

I'm really impressed with that.

[Luke Burbank]

And by the way, full Mark Simeon, because you actually did the hard work.

[Simeon]

You.

[Luke Burbank]

You guessed it based on my impression. Can I ask you a couple of other quick frog related questions? One being, do you know anything about, like, I don't know what kind of options we're going to have, but the, you know, this is a frog jump contest in Valley City, Ohio. Is there a particular kind of frog that is known for its jumping skills? And again, I guess this would also involve you understanding the local frogs of Valley City, Ohio. But I mean, what should we be looking for in a frog?

[Simeon]

100%. So if you're looking at the big old jumpers, you've got kind of, kind of three, but honestly, two species. So there, there's your bullfrog. That's the famous biggest and strongest one.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Simeon]

The green frog is also pretty good. And then the leopard frog. Although leopard frogs maybe a little bit smaller body than the green frogs. So we're looking for a bullfrog or a green frog. Bullfrogs are your best chance of finding a big one. So you want the biggest, thickest one, but you want it to be athletic. We don't want one with a big old fat tummy because that one's either really old or possibly pregnant. So it's not going to be athletic or in the mood for doing sports. So we probably a bullfrog. However, I'd guess this. If you find both a bullfrog and a green frog of similar size and athleticism, I think the green frog will be jumping farther but it's a little bit less of a guarantee that you're gonna find such a big, honking green frog.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, and my other question is, and I don't know if in. When you're doing frog watch stuff, you ever end up actually, actually handling any of the frogs or if you just maybe growing up ever went and got a frog. But how do we, you know, we want to get this frog very humanely. We want to keep them in a terrarium where they've got everything they need. I think we're going to try to really leave them alone. But, like, how do we kind of deal with the frog with, well, minimally bugging it? We don't want to mess with this frog any more than we have to. And we are, of course, going to take the frog back to where we found it and, you know, reintegrate it into its life when we're done with this. What's your advice on that topic?

[Simeon]

Sure. Well, the main piece of advice you said already is, is the back to where we found it part. So, I mean, I've, I'm a school teacher and, and we have, we sometimes have a frog as a class pet and, and then the biologists, of course, that work with them keep them a lot. They're perfectly happy in terrariums. I mean, if anything, they're not going to be eaten by an eagle or a bass. You know, just common sense stuff. Keep them spritzed. If you're keeping them for more than 24 hours, that's what we do with the shop or something and get some mealworms.

[Luke Burbank]

So you're saying that they actually seem pretty, pretty comfortable in the terrarium. You know, like they're not super freaked out to be in there as long as they're being kind of well taken care of and not messed with too much.

[Simeon]

Yeah, no, I don't think. No, I have not noticed any signs of froggy distress. In fact, they're quite. Once they realize that they're not in danger, you'll kind of see them. They're curious, they'll look at you. You can kind of see that they've got a. They're interested with what's going on and know that they're in a, a safe place. I think that's great. Yeah.

[John]

You said something. I'm sorry.

[Simeon]

Yeah. Don't, don't, don't, don't keep them. A couple tips. Don't, don't keep them in, like, water that they have to swim in. We see them swimming, but that's not their. They Want to be on dry land. So give them a trail with some puddles, spritz them, miss some, and then. Yeah. Make sure to bring them back to where you found them if you release them. Because. Because if you release them into different bodies of water, it can be. It really lowers their chances of survival. They're confused. They don't know the turf. And also, it can be a vector for disease transmission or even invasive species spread. If you, if you'd like to come

[Luke Burbank]

across counties, I am personally delivering this frog back to the exact place we got it from. And I will stay the night to make sure that little sleeping bag, he's not scared.

[John]

Hey, this is not a good wrap them up question, and I apologize for it, but you said something in passing that I found very interesting. Did you say that a frog could be eaten by a bass? The fish bass, B A S S. Yeah.

[Simeon]

Yeah, for sure. Their frogs are lots of bass, catfish. Yeah. I mean, they're, they're a great prey. This is why. So this, this ties back into where to find the bullfrogs and green frogs. Most frogs do not actually live in permanent bodies of water. If we might see them occasionally in a lake or a river. But that frog does not want to be there and is trying to get away because it is the most delicious piece of meat floating down the river. They mostly live in the, in the puddles and the, the vernal pools in the wetlands adjacent to bodies of water. The exception being bullfrogs who do live in. In ponds that last year round. So if we're looking for the biggest front frog, then we can look at kind of, you know, golf course ponds or little, little retention ponds or something. But most frogs. Yeah. Do not want to be in the river because everybody thinks they're delicious.

[John]

Oh, wow. Wow. I didn't know that fish could. Because I. I don't know, just about maybe body shape and size and stuff. I couldn't picture a fish eating a frog, but that's interesting.

[Luke Burbank]

Simeon, what, what, what grade do you teach or what subject do you teach?

[Simeon]

I'm a multilingual teacher, what they used to call an ESL teacher. I did most of my career. Speaking of international listeners, I did most of my career teaching abroad, but I'm back home in the Midwest now.

[Luke Burbank]

That's awesome. You have a really, really clear, concise way of explaining this stuff. You're well suited to that job.

[Simeon]

Thank you.

[Andrew]

I especially like the part where you roasted Luke and Andrew for good. What makes for good content on the show.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it Took us a while to bounce back from that, but I think we, I think we got there eventually.

[Simeon]

Did I brutally pod mog you within an interview?

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, wait a minute.

[John]

That's exactly what happened.

[Luke Burbank]

Brutally. That's. I'm starting to hear a frog nickname.

[John]

Somebody suggests podvicular frog Vicula.

[Luke Burbank]

No, but I'm talking about brutally frogmogged us.

[John]

Simeon, this has been really great, man. I think we, we're in some way or another, like, let's stay in touch. Okay. We need to check in with you. I think especially maybe once we're in Valley City. I'd like to maybe get you to maybe weigh in on what's going on with us and our pet friend frog.

[Simeon]

A hundred percent. Yeah. And I would invite anybody listening. I think, I don't know if I'm on the Stens page. I don't use Facebook a lot, but if that, if they see me around on social media or have follow up questions about frog watch or, or I don't know, just, just Midwest related TVto stuff, they can feel free to give my email or phone number, whatever, where

[Luke Burbank]

the cleanest bathrooms are.

[Simeon]

That I won't give that information away. That information taking to my grave.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. And I, again, I don't know your schedule, Simeon, but you know, we will be in Ohio on that Sunday for the frog jump. So maybe we'll see a sea out there at the frog jump if you can make it.

[Simeon]

Yeah, I'm a, I'm a. I'm a. I'm a school teacher on summer holiday who's also recently divorced, so I have got nothing on my calendar. Man, I am. I am wide open.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, if you want to start a support group with me for handsome divorcees, we can do that too in Ohio. Wait, is it. Am I a divorce if I'm a feller or. Or is that, does that usually apply to the woman?

[Andrew]

It sounds genderless.

[Simeon]

Yeah, no, actually, in this case, the women are the divorcees and the men are the divorce estresses.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[John]

And then it's amazing that I was apologizing for a last question that didn't seem like a good wrap em up, you know, Here we are now.

[Andrew]

Here we are.

[Luke Burbank]

I make no apologies. Hey, Simeon. Thank you so much.

[John]

That's right.

[Luke Burbank]

We'll see you in Ohio.

[Simeon]

All right, thanks.

[Luke Burbank]

So that was Simeon. Simeon really knows his frogs.

[John]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

That was when for a moment when I was like, you know, this is a volunteer position and something he's doing to kind of get to know the area. I was like, well, we'll See how. How deep the knowledge goes. No, that guy really knows what he's talking about.

[John]

And you're absolutely right about the. About his ability to kind of. Let me put it this way, if I understand it, you are really good at explaining things, especially in the biology realm.

[Simeon]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

You can tell that he's a person who stood in front of a bunch of young minds and explained things so those young minds could grasp it, which is, I think, about where we sort of test out, too on the show. So it's perfect for us.

[Andrew]

I'm so blown away that, Luke, you had to translate from the sounds. And then to me and God, that was. That was genuinely awesome.

[John]

Why do you think that he could hear the Pearl Jam but not the frogs? I think that the phone systems are too smart these days. I think they're filtering out stuff that they think is extraneous noise.

[Luke Burbank]

We also missed the ultimate test because he couldn't hear the frog sounds, but he could hear the music of Eddie Vedder. But we didn't play for him was the WB theme song, which is a frog singing, hello, my baby, hello, my dog. That's what I should have done instead of smashing. That's the ultimate test.

[Andrew]

Well, getting back on the line, we'll

[Luke Burbank]

try it next time when we have him on.

[John]

Absolutely. Well, that was a lot of fun, guys.

[Luke Burbank]

That was fun.

[John]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm getting very excited about. About Ohio. This is going to be. This is going to be super great. So, yeah, I can't wait. All right, I guess that's going to do it for today's episode and bring us to the end of our broadcast week. Thanks, everybody, for spending all this time with us. We're going to be back here on Monday with more imaginary radio for all of you. In the meantime, have a great weekend, everybody. Stay safe. John, thanks for being here, as always.

[John]

Yeah, glad.

[Luke Burbank]

Appreciate you.

[Andrew]

Please send those frog suggestions my way.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, John Jo N tbtl.net Andrew, thank you as always. Good luck with your pulsa. Now, be careful out there. We need you to have both hands for Ohio.

[John]

Do we?

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah.

[Andrew]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah, we do.

[John]

We do.

[Luke Burbank]

So anyway, good luck with that. We'll hear about that on Monday, I'm sure. And we'll have lots of other stuff to report on as well, so we'll see you then. In the meantime, take care of yourselves and please remember, no mountain too tall.

[John]

And good luck to all.

[Simeon]

Power out.