Beantown Podcast - Your Ultimate Guide to Serbia (09192025 Beantown Podcast)

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Quinn comes to you LIVE to discuss Nikolai Tesla, 50/50 raffles, and lesser known benefits of asbestos

Hey, what's going on? It's Quinn David Furness. Welcome to my show. Quinn David Furness presents the Beantown podcast for Friday, September 19th, 2025, season eight of Quinn David Furness presents the Beantown podcast. Is that right? Season eight, is that where we landed? Started in 18, so this is, it's been almost about to hit eight years.

the eighth year. Yeah, that's right. I feel like we haven't referenced to season eight all that much lately, but that's okay. I don't like to wear belts. That eight is just like a big old zero with a belt on it, right? El Cintourone. And I gotta tell you, belts, maybe this wasn't gonna be our hot take of the week, but let's make this our hot take of the week. We're jumping into the hot take, one minute into the show. Belts are the worst accessory

because, and I don't know, let's put a a user pull out there to see if you agree or disagree with this take. Email us, Beantown Podcasts at Yahoo.com. We'll put the poll up on Twitter at Beantowncast. I understand belts and they're necessary. I understand their usage. I'm not a dummy. I have to wear belts with my jeans because otherwise they're too loose.

They fall down. But here's my take. With a belt, it's like it's either loose enough to wear, it doesn't fully do its job, but it's comfortable, or it's tight enough to where it's doing its job, but it tightens your hips. This has always been my thing. I hate when my hips are too tight, tightened by a belt, and then it, like, maybe this is just my sciatica, but it screams, eventually it screams down into your, like, lower legs and you get, I'm trying to think, like, I get, I get some calf pain, but it's really, like, the hip,

down into like the top of my glutes. I mean, so like right next to the hips. If you, if I have to go too long wearing a belt, you constantly have to be like, okay, if I'm walking, let's have this baby be tight because I'm moving around. We can't have any slippage from the pants. But then like when you get situated, maybe this is just wearing a belt 101. I don't know, but I've always felt this way. And I don't think you've ever really gotten the chance to tell you all 400 episodes in here. I don't, you know what? I keep mentioning 400. I think this one might actually be 400. We're at like somewhere between 399 and 401 in terms of all time Beantown podcast episodes. I should have checked it before I got in here. I did not. We're just, you know, 400, it's,

it's fun. 300, we actually did a whole special where Gerard Butler did not call in. 500 will definitely do a big thing. That will come in like early season or like late, you know, like mid, mid to late season 10. Is that how that works? Like a little bit less than two years from now, I think. but yeah with the belt back to finish that hot take it's like you got to tighten it when you walk and then when you like get sitting down it can't be that tight the tightness level has to be different when you sit down so you're like fumbling around and readjusting that's actually why they take a sip from this diet coke and Trader Joe's Scotch which doesn't sound that great already and then the coke is on its last legs it was the last

It was the dregs. Is that what, D-R-E-G-G-S? Is that how you spelled drags? I don't know. Tough word to say. The last drags of a two-liter of Diet Coke that I purchased this time last week. So full like eight days ago, seven days, whatever, whatever that is. Got my cheap chicken bucket, which I think we talked about last week. But so it's a little bit, I wouldn't characterize it as flat. If it was completely flat, I wouldn't have had it. But it is like the last day of this Diet Coke where you can get away with it. And so when you add in the whiskey, it kind of, you know, adds to a little, the flatness. It kind of flattens out. And we got some ice in there, so you water it down a little bit. So it's, we're going to make it work because we are resourceful here and we make everything work. But it wasn't, it's not our best drink. I do have some October fests. And he even splurged and got the Trader Joe's brand double IPA.

I had to stock up because my wife is in Serbia for 10 days, which we'll get to in a minute here. But to finish the belt story, I actually wear, and I don't know where this ever originally came from, but it was like the belt we had growing up. Not that there was just one belt among my brothers and I, but I think like my brother, my brothers had it for a time and then I ended up taking it with me to college or something. It's like the only belt I wear for everyday usage, which is pretty much just when I wear jeans. But it's not a traditional, you know, loop it around and you got holes in you're at the end of the belt right and you stick the little metal pin through it and that's that's a regular belt this is just one long strip of fabric with a two little what do you call

that there those aren't like carabiners are they but like the little metal loops and you do some like advanced physics f equals m a type stuff and you can tighten it that way the reason i wear that it's like it's like a green fabric the reason i wear that is because that's the easiest one to adjust so if I'm walking, I can tighten it up. Like when I walk to, I always walk to class when I teach on Thursday nights and take the train back. And it's like a two, two and three quarters mile walk. It takes me about 45 minutes or so. But you need those, you need those jeans to be tight. But then when you sit down at the back of class, when my co-teacher takes over, you can't have that tightness. So if you got the belt with the loops,

What are you supposed to do? You're just going to be uncomfortable, uncomfy, because you either got to go down a whole loop, but then it's just like your way out of your depth there. Or you can just fidget around with the little metal loops at the front a little bit, and you're good to go. Anyways, let's move on past the belt talk. Six minutes of hot take belt talk. I do want to let you know I am the costume designer, creator and host of this program. Quinn David First presents a meeting podcast. And we are one of the 112th ranked, or we are the 112th ranked comedy podcast in the Great Islamic Republic of, Thank you, Lahore. Thank you, Islamabad. Thank you, Karachi, for gracing us with your ears, with your attention. And we do have a listener email that we're going to get to in a minute here. This is a good time to share my other hot take. This one isn't quite as spicy, and I've probably

said it on the show before. And it's largely just going to show ignorance more than anything else. But my second hot take of the week here is that the 50-50 raffle is just such a misleading name. It's one of those things where, like, I don't know how many people out there actually feel the same way that I feel. And this is more of like I always thought it was one way as a kid. And I've just, even though it makes pretty perfect sense to me now, what 50-50 means. My hot take is that, or it's boring out of the fact that when I was a kid and I saw the 50-50 raffle at a ball game or wherever, I was like, oh, you've got a 50% chance of winning. It's pretty cool. Like, 50-50 could go either way.

it's like the the Joseph Gordon Levitt movie was that called 50-50 was it 2020 2020 would be like a as a Diane Sawyer news program on ABC wasn't it? It was 50-50 was that the name of the movie was that the one where he has cancer

there's two movies that I'm conflating here I think 50-50 is the name of it right 50-50 film to cap yeah it is to cap the I've never seen it to cap the thought I think 50-50

needs a rebrand because it actually means if you win the raffle you've got like a one and gajillion chance then 50% of the proceeds 50% of the collection goes to you and 50% goes to some dumb charity like the United Way or something which I should mention thank you to state run trumpified media now we're still going to be doing our annual telethon every February but now instead of you know investing in the local neighborhood the United Way of metro Chicago we are actually going to be donating all funds this year and all upcoming telethons in perpetuity to the Trump re-election fund, which I think is kind of exciting because we'll be able to do it, you know, build it up a couple years to get to that 2028 election, which is still seemingly or impossibly

over three years away. But I think the cool thing is like, we'll do the 2028 election. Trump will rig it and cheat and win. And then after that, we'll never even need an election again. I think a lot of people are missing the forest for the trees on this one. All the voting day stuff, all the political ads and commercials. Imagine just being given a not-fascist government. They're not fascist. They're very kind. They're definitely not racist.

They're definitely not militant. They're definitely telling the truth. How great is it to have a government? You just don't even have to think about it. You don't have to worry about it. especially if you are white and straight man who who's got it better than us right what did j jay mccarthy say on monday night football in the huddle to his teammates is there any place you'd rather be raising money for the trump reelection fund uh that's what i wanted to say that's our second hot take i did that to

about five percent as well as john stewart did on his daily show monologue from last night if you haven't watched it go check it out. First thing I turned on when I woke up this morning. Okay, to clear the air here, not really clear the air, but just to learn something, I think my wife actually really likes this film. We should say, listen to discretion, advise when we are, when you're listening to this program, number one, we'll occasionally some language number two, the podcast, objectively terrible.

So I'm not going to go down a rabbit hole here, but 50-50 is a 20, 2011 film starting Joseph Gordon Levitt, Seth Rogan, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Angelica Houston. The film was loosely inspired by the, let's see, the directors, the writer's own experience with cancer. And so what's the plot, though? What actually happens? I think I would like this movie because it was a, you know, it's like a Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg, you know, the guys behind the studio and Superbad and a lot of Seth Rogan projects that you know him from. In fact, Seth and Evan are the names of Jonah Hill and Michael Serr's characters, I believe, and Super Bad. Let's see. I don't, I kind of want to know, like, what happens in this, in this movie

without reading through the whole plot, but I can't really, maybe like a dark comedy is what we're dealing with here. The reason I was confused for a second, there's also a movie, is it called 21, where, like, the kid has to enter a poker tournament to pay for his, college tuition or something like that and i thought 2020 was like well before that movie but turns out the film 21 yeah this is what i'm thinking it came out three years earlier than that if anyone's ever seen 21 let us know you could see how i would get 50 50 and 21 confused because if you divide 50 by 50 you get close to 21 it's a american oh it's a heist drama film inspired by the story of the MIT Blackjack Team

as told him Bringing Down the House a best-selling 2003 book by Ben Mesrick. The film stars Jim Sturgis, who I don't really know anything about. He's an English actor. He was in Cloud Atlas. I never saw that. Kevin Spacey, Lawrence Fishburn,

Kate Bosworth, a bunch of no-names. She was in Remember the Titans. Reviews were mixed, and it was a box office success, and was the number one film in the U.S. and Canada during its first and second weekends of release. I thought the whole thing with 21 was like, and granted, this is based off of seeing one trailer back in 2008 when I was 13 years old.

So 17 years ago, I thought, and until the present day, I thought 21 is what it's called, is like the kid had to, like, enter a high-stakes poker tournament to pay for college or something. But apparently it's a heist film. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess the audience listening to this program is less familiar with 21 than 50-50. I was going to read the plot, but it's too long. Well, let's do it anyways.

You know what? Heads up, the next 60 to 90 seconds are going to involve Quinn reading directly from Wikipedia page, and we're going to learn something. Maybe you've always, maybe you're like me and you've always wondered what the plot of the 2008 film, 21, I was going to say 20-20. It's not. It's 50-50 is a movie. 21 is a movie. 2020 ABC and David Muir, probably. Tough name to say. M-U-I-R. I'm going to read it. We're going to learn what it is and then we're going to move on to Maple's Minute. Okay? If you don't like it, that's okay. Ben Campbell, a mathematics major at MIT, is accepted into Harvard Med School but cannot afford the $300,000 tuition. So at least like the premise I was on, he applies for the prestigious Robinson's scholarship, which would cover the entire cost. Despite having an MCAT score of 44 and high grades, he faces, by the way, that's one away from a top score, 45. And high grades, he faces fierce competition and is told by the director that the scholarship will only go to whichever student dazzles him. I, you know what, if you've ever been dazzled by the Beantown podcast, please email us because I feel

like, I, you know, I personally like to frolic and play the, can we say, Eskimos, only in song, the Eskimo way. That's how we don't get canceled. But I don't know if I frequently dazzle you all. I would love to dazzle. I got to tell you what, I was teaching my class last night about academic success. And we were talking about metacognition and thinking about thinking. And they're a bright class. And it wasn't like a bad lesson or anything like that. But I don't think I really dazzled them. Maybe next week for Academic Success Part 2, I need to really break free from the syllabus and do something to dazzle them. Platform shoes, assless chaps, ventriloquist act, I don't know.

Email us your ideas for how you would be dazzled if you were an 18-year-old freshman in a three-hour class, night class. Back at MIT, Professor Mickey Rosa challenges Ben with the Monty Hall problem, which he solves. and I've heard about that before. It's a brain teaser in the form of a probability puzzle or on a new page here. Based nominally on the American television show, Let's Make a Deal. Oh, this is a classic, like, probability puzzle, like brain teaser.

And I feel like every time I read about the Monty Hall problem, I don't get it at first and then eventually I'm convinced, but then I forget what it is. So just to reiterate, if you ever watch Let's Make a Deal, you will understand the premise pretty well. Essentially, so here reading right from the source, suppose you're on a game show and you're given the choice of three doors. Behind one door is a car behind the other's goats. So one door, two goats. You pick a door, say number one, and the host who knows what's behind the door, I think that's a key piece, opens another door,

say number three, which has a goat. So you picked door number one. The host knows where the car is he shows you door number three it's a goat it's always going to be a goat by the way the first one he opens he then says to you do you want to pick door number two is it to your advantage to switch your choice and the response is that the contestant should switch to the other door by standard assumptions the switching strategy has a two-thirds probability of winning the car while the strategy of keeping the initial choice has only a one-third probability But when the player makes their first choice, there's a two-thirds chance that the car is behind one of the doors not chosen. This probability does not change after the host reveals a goat.

When the host provides info about the two unchosen doors, revealing that one of them does not have a car behind, and the two-thirds chance of the car being behind one of the unchosen doors, rests on the unchosen and unrevealed door, as opposed to the one-third chance of the car being behind the door the contestant chose initially. It just keeps going like this. and I have talked myself into a spiral. I don't understand the Monty Hall. Trick, if you will. I feel tricked as it currently stands,

but this is live air. You wouldn't expect me to understand probability brain teasers. I'll also give myself a little bit of grace, if I may. I took statistics, like, freshman, you know, statistics 101 levels type stuff, basic stats. my at the community college going into my senior year of college but my teacher was like this russian grad student this like very tall skinny redheaded lady she she couldn't have been older than 23 24 and a very thick accent and i don't know if it was her first class she'd ever taught or what

but just like clearly had not um she wasn't dazzling us let's just put it that way and i really had teach myself and it just was not. It was one of those things kind of like AP physics where it just never clicked. After all these years, it just never clicked. Okay, let's continue on. All right. Okay, let's restart this paragraph. Back at MIT, Professor Mickey Rosa, if you're just tuning in, Quinn reads the plot of the 2008 Heist Film 21. Monti, excuse me, challenges Ben with the Monty Hall problem, which he solves. After looking at Ben's 97% score on his latest non-linear equations test, Mickey invites Ben to join the MIT Blackjack team consisting of Felsoon's Choi Fisher, that's two people, Jill

and Keanu. Using card counting and covert signaling, they increase their probability of winning at casinos, leading them to earn a substantial profit. Quick sidebar, here's my question. I understand why casinos ban card counting and look closely for it because they're a business and they're trying to make money, right? If you think it's like the goal is for people to show up and play and have fair play and win, like no, that's not the purpose of this thing. The purpose is to make money as a business. It's kind of like the Chicago Bulls, for example.

The purpose of the Chicago Bulls is not to win an NBA championship. it's to sell ticket seats and make money. There are a lot of sports teams out there where the purpose is twofold. It's to win a championship and make money. But the Bulls are a great example, post-Jordan of like, and I guess really more so like post-2012, 2014, where it's like you can't convince me that they are making moves as a front office to intentionally try to win a title.

They're not. They're trying to win with that while keeping their costs low, well, win enough to be. be the number nine seat every year, all keeping their costs low. And they're very comfortable doing that. So it kind of, it really takes the innocence out of things because as a kid, you're like, oh, yeah, all teams are equally trying to win. And if you go to a casino, like, may the best man win. No, it's, it's a business. They're trying to make money. It's all about the money. But that being said, is card counting legal in like a college tournament or something

where you're not like trying to win at a casino, like make money for the casino, if you understand what I'm saying? Because in that case, it should be like gloves off, like use your best strategy. I always thought it was a little strange that card counting just broadly was not legal because it's, to me, it's just like an aspect of the game that you can be good at or bad at. So that's always a thought I've had personally.

There's an episode of Malcolm in the middle where Frankie Munes and Brian Cranston go to the casino and I think they get busted eventually, but not before they have some serious coinage to their name. Okay. Using card counting, they increase their probability of winning at casinos, leading them to earn substantial profits. Over many weekends, the team has flown to Las Vegas, and Ben comes to enjoy his luxurious life as a high roller,

which if you're curious, high roller has a hyperlink. It's got its own Wikipedia article, which we do not have time to dig into. The team is impressed by Ben's skill, but Fisher becomes jealous and fights him while drunk. all been there, guys, leading Mickey to expel him. Cole Williams, the head of security at Planet Hollywood, has been monitoring the team and begins to focus on Ben. Uh-oh. Ben's devotion to Blackjack causes him to neglect his role in an engineering competition, been there, which

exchanges him from his friends. During the next trip to Vegas, he's emotionally distracted and fails to walk away from the table while signaled, causing him to lose $200,000. Mickey is angered and quits the team demanding Ben repay the $200 grand. Ben and three of the students decide they'll continue to play blackjack without Mickey, but they are caught by Williams, whom Mickey tipped off. Williams beats up Ben and warns him not to return. He also reveals his own personal history with Mickey once a successful card counter who got Williams fired after winning over a million dollars in one night at his casino while he was away to his father's funeral. A lot going on here. We got three paragraphs left. Ben learns he's ineligible for graduation because a course

taught by an associate of Mickey's, his market is incomplete. With Mickey's influence, the professor initially gives Ben a passing grade throughout the year without him having to work or even show up to class. That one didn't land for me. I don't know what that was about. His winnings are stolen from his dorm room. Get this guy a bank account. Suspecting Mickey, Ben converts with his teammates, and they persuade Mickey to make a final

trip to Vegas before the casinos installed biometric software. Oh, Jesus. The team puts on disguises, ooh, and returns to Planet Hollywood, winning six. $640,000 before Williams spots them. It's got to be the little, like, you know, nose with the mustache and the glasses. That's got to be what they wore. Mickey flees with a bag of chips who realizes he's been set up when he discovers that the bag is full of chocolate coins. Oh, and I'm getting hungry. It's revealed that Ben and Williams, but not Ben Williams, made a deal to lure Mickey to Vegas so that Williams could capture him. William's men take Mickey and

Cole explains he's going to get in contact with a friend of his with the IRS about Mickey's untext winnings. In exchange, Williams commits to allowing Ben to keep his winnings for that day, but later double-crosses him as he's leaving. A lot of double-crossing. Taking the bag of chips at gunpoint. Now, was it the chocolate chips or real chips? When Ben protests, Williams explains he needs retirement funds, whereas intelligent people like Ben will always find a way to succeed. Last paragraph, Ben's longtime friends with whom he has reconciled Miles and Cam also turned out to be quite good at card counting while working with Choi and Keanu during Mickey's capture and as such the six-person team make a lot of money,

despite Williams' robbery of Ben and Mickey's chips. The film ends with Ben recounting the tale to the dazzled and dumbfounded scholarship director. So it's kind of a cliffhanger, sort of set us up for a sequel, which I assume will be called 22, but still in production hell, it sounds like. That's the plot of 21.

Jim Sturgis is the main character, Ben Campbell, Kate Bosworth as Jill Taylor, Kevin Spacey as Mickey Rosa, Lawrence Fishburn as Cole Williams, that's the security guy. And it's got Josh Gad in it too. And someone named Jack Gilpin, who's the father of actress Betty Gilpin, who I've heard of but don't know anything about. Apparently she's from Glow, that wrestling show with Franco's wife,

community, Allison Bree, and Nurse Jackie, which was what, the Sopranos. lady edie falco gilpin what a fun name gil p i n uh maples minute this week is brought to you by our good friends at home pride oregon guys i have been on a lot of reddit first time home buyer posts not actively seeking they just the algorithm has been feeding it to me and i am seeing all sorts of you know we're getting close enough to halloween i think it could say this ghoulish greetings mold coming from the ceiling, people complaining about asbestos, which I had to look up this week because there's one of those things I saw on. I was like, what? I don't actually know what

this is. What the heck is asbestos? A.S. B.E.S. T.O.S. There's, you know, buildings like the auditorium theater here in downtown Chicago that were built on floating logs. You know, these are all things that could happen with your home if you're not careful. People were really given it to D.R. Horton, which is a home builder. They create like, like, you know, new builds, essentially, communities of homes. And people were saying, yeah, they are cheap, cheap, cheap, China, China, China. And you know what, if you're buying a home, especially if you're a first-time home buyer, you guys, you got to go with an expert in the home inspection industry who knows what

they're looking for, whether it's asbestos on level ground. Someone was just talking about needing the pipes and their septic to be replaced, and they got quoted for $60,000. You do not want to get, are you ready for this? You do not want to get saddled with those bills. So go with a home inspector who, let me tell you this. Not only is he going to, you know, kind of nuts and bolts, get you the stuff you need to know.

But if you think the home inspection business was boring or a monolith, get ready to be dazzled. Because my dad, Steve, 541, 410, 0316, owner and operator, of home prior to Oregon. He'll catch those HVAC issues. He'll inspect your ducks. He'll, uh, you know, he'll get up on the roof. Up on the roof.

Do do, do, do do do do do do. He'll sing James Taylor for you, although that's originally what a Carol King song. But they were banging. So the, you know, in between the fluids, the song ideas got meshed around, if you will. Um, uh, uh, where was I going? Oh, he'll dazzle you up, up, up on the roof. I, my dad can play the guitar, by the way. If you ask, you throw in an extra $5, maybe a generous tip, he might bring a guitar, sing up on the roof, on the roof while he's finding issues with your chimney and telling you, do not buy this home. HomePriot organ at gmail.com. Home pride organ inspection,

perfection. Maple's minute this week, we are, we haven't even really gotten into this yet, my lovely wife isn't she lovely isn't she wonderful isn't she pretty 30 years old I can't believe what God is done through us he's giving life to one isn't she lovely being from love is in Serbia for like nine nights, 10 days, something like that, left yesterday afternoon, arrived very late. Was it last night? No, my, dude, my timeline is all messed up. I did sleep last night for like four or five hours, but my day has frankly felt like it's been going on for like 36 hours.

I can't imagine what my wife is feeling because she didn't sleep on the plane ride from Chicago to Amsterdam. But that got me thinking, and we'll talk Serbia in a minute here. We'll learn all about Serbia. But that got me thinking, Maple's Minute, you know, Bachelor lifestyle, just the two of us, although she's a lady. Just the two of us. We can make it if we try.

Just the two of us. Just the two of us. Maple, you like Grover Washington, buddy? Yeah. He's nice. Oh, he's nice. You know, I have my things that I do as a bachelor, my things, if you will. Like, you know, George Costanza eating a block of cheese.

cheese and his boxers. I'm in my boxers right now. It's still kind of warm. It's like low 80s here in Chicago, so it's warranted. But other thing, you know, drinking some, some scotch, definitely. Eating a pizza, I'm planning to order a pizza tomorrow from across the street here at Tartoritesis. And, I mean, what else? I'd be, like, just lying in bed, watching John Stewart, you know, just random stuff like that. I'm going to watch, I've never seen the movie sneakie. sneakers. Robert Redford, rest in peace. I want to watch sneakers this weekend at some point. So that got me thinking, you know, for Maple's Minute, what are the things that Maple would like to do? If she was, you know, home alone for 10 days and got that chance to just kind of really kick her feet up.

Well, the first thing she would do is just go absolutely clinically insane from her separation anxiety. I don't really have updates to share on that. Not in like a covert way, just like not a lot of like good progress or bad progress. We did 30 minutes today. After a two-mile walk and Trazadone, I thought I had like the golden ticket of getting her tired. And like she, she started to get anxious earlier than like the other days when she wasn't as tired. This dog is extremely unpredictable. So we tried to tough it out. And we did. Like we got to 30 minutes. There's like some light, whimpering, stiff body language, not stuff you really like to see. but after having had maple for over a year it's just at a certain point it's like what are you

what concessions are you going to make what are you going to tolerate they think if we do become first time home pie home home pride organ first time home buyers it's not really going to matter that much to anyone if maple's separation anxiety is not completely cured because if she wants to bark it out in the middle of suburbs not a big deal but when you can't got neighbors above, below, your starboard, your port all over the place. Can't really get away with it as much. So I wouldn't say it's like spurring me to buy a home more quickly. But it's a thought that's in the back of my head because it's really fun to like go out with your wife and like have a dinner date or something. So to not really be able to

I've done that for the last 13 months is not my favorite aspect of my 30s. if I can be candid, right, Maple? But this wasn't meant to be a hate on Maple segment. This is Maple's Minute. Other things she would do, definitely the block of cheese, the George Costanza block of cheese. In fact, she's so lucky I fed her dinner right before we started recording at 6 p.m. right now.

I gave her some shredded cheddar cheese on top of her, on top of her kibble with chicken stock. Kibble, chicken, stock, and cheddar cheese. What a feast. Definitely watch Bluey. Marathon. She'd get one of those, you know, Roku or 2B TV channels or whatever

that just plays the stream 24-7. So Maple would turn on the blueie. And then probably, like, throw darts at a picture of a golden retriever. Although I will say this. We went to the dog park

earlier today this afternoon, and it was pretty sparsely attended. There were maybe six other dogs there the entire time we were there which was about 15 minutes and there was a golden retriever that just that looked exactly like my in-law's golden retriever excuse me shout out bailey and uh this dog happened to be very calm and uh slow paste and maple and and this dog did some sniff sniffs they got along just fine maple just does not she does not appreciate the art of loud cacophonous atmospheres or big old barking so i don't know those are some things maple

would like to do definitely unlimited pup cups you know you open up the freezer and it's just lined with you know single-use plastic pup cups that would definitely be high on her list and i think she would like to just i don't know create like a lamb fort you know people in your kids you make pillow forts out of bed sheets and pillows. Maple will just do that with her lambs. Doesn't need any sheets. Just lambs. She's got, I don't know what she's up to, like, eight lambs, something like that.

Maybe that's aggressive, like five or six lambs. But this second most recent one from my sister-in-law, shout out Miss Mandy, this one is bigger than her. And I'm not, it's not even, that's not even hyperbole. this lamb is legitimately larger than her before maple maple got a haircut a fresh shave a close shave wallace and grommet uh was that the second one is that a close shave or is that the third one no the wrong trousers with uh feathers mcgraw

do not let me get into a wallets and grommet rabbit hole i'm not going to but it's uh walls and grommet like a what is it like a nice day out or something where they go to the moon everyone knows the mood is made of cheese wednesday day it'll grom it and then the second one is the wrong trousers iconic feathers mcgraw and now the third one is a close shave with the sheep the who i always thought were the serta sheep are the serta sheep which i feel like you don't even really see serta advertising anymore but you know 20 years ago the sirta sheep were like a mainstay of, you know, television advertising, I feel like.

But I felt like the Serta sheep and the sheep from Wallace and Grommet 3 were nearly identical, at least in their animation styles. So I always wondered if Serta and Wallace and Gromit existed in the same universe. I don't think it's not one of those sort of high stakes things. It's more just things you think about as a kid. But that was Wallace and Grammar Clotheshave. No, Maple got a close shave on Tuesday. day. Is that right? I can't even remember. My, my, I, I, you know, there's like the,

the Tim Robinson, uh, what is it? Is it the sketch with Iowa DeBiri where he's wearing the, the, the, like, 3D glasses. I can't remember, or like the, um, the, the, the, the, the Oculus, whatever that's called, VR is what I'm looking for. Is that the, uh, sketch where he's like, I'm all crossed up. That's how I feel about my days this week. And I'm not usually that type of person. I'm usually locked in with like, what day of the week it is. what time it is, what day of the month it is, I'm crossed up right now. Like, I know it's Friday. But my Thursday and Friday have felt like one long day. And I think Maple's haircut was just on Tuesday. But part of me, I'm looking at my calendar. That's right. That's when it was. Tuesday

the 16th, my half birthday. But part of me, and I can't explain this, part of me is like, oh yeah, that was like two weeks ago. Maple, I'm all crossed up. let's let's end maples minute there because i'm all crossed up what do you want me to say i think there was something else i wanted to get to but i'm not going to uh let's do a couple other things here let's talk about Serbia a little bit and then we got a listener email and then we'll finish up with a trivia question that could take a little bit of time uh to reveal the answer because i'm going to play along with you it's not like a sparkle quiz or anything although it probably is. In fact, well, I, before I forget, let me just search this and see if I can come up with a

quiz. Yeah, there it is. Okay, I've got it saved. I hadn't even thought to, well, no, that's, see, okay, we're going to explain it when I get there. It's a geography quiz, and what I just looked up on Sporkel included a visual map. And I just, I didn't. I didn't. want the visual map because then it's too easy. I'll explain all of it, you know, when we get there in 15 minutes, give or take. But as I mentioned, my wife, lovely Rachel, we're not going to sing Stevie Wonder anymore, I promise. Although I've been listening to some more Stevie Wonder this week, just adding it to the algorithm on YouTube a little bit more. Not like discovering deep cuts, but just, I mean, he's got, so he's got so many bangers. I had a, you know, Stevie Wonder

greatest hits like double album from the library that I put on my MP3 player when I was a kid and just some like some songs that come to mind that you're probably very aware of but maybe you haven't listened to them in a while I mean skeletons especially if you're a diehard fan that's the song that the like limo driver is listening to like the whole movie he's just like sitting there outside or in like the basement of Nakatomi plaza or something to the parking garage listening to skeletons while there's like explosions happening around him and he's just like locked in. I was about to sing skeletons,

and then I remember that I promised everyone I was not going to sing Stevie Wonder, so you just have to go listen to these for yourself. Evil, great song, evil. And then, I mean, this is as much of a banger as bangerous gay, a bogey woman. Oh, and then Master Blaster Jammin.

That's a good one, too. My wife's in Serbia. She's there for a shoot, shooting some spices. There's some talent as well, some kids. And I don't really have much. I don't have a thesis here, but it just got me thinking, like, what do we actually know about this place, Serbia? When I was, we'll kind of see what we can do off the dome, and then we'll probably have to do

a Google search of Serbia as well, see what is of interest there. But when I was a kid, it was Yugoslavia, right? And that was a country until, I don't know what, like late 90s, like 1990s, like 1990. something like that. I probably like don't actually remember as a kid being like, oh yeah, Yugoslavia, there's a country. My consciousness probably starts after that. But I will say, I distinctly remember, I don't know if this was from like FIFA 97 or something,

but Macedonia, which is now North Macedonia, but at the time, 30 years ago, it was F-Y-R-O Macedonia, Federated Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. You don't really see the F-Y-R-O in any capacity anymore, but that was fun. But that's that, that's, that's, that's Macedonia, now North Macedonia, not, not Serbia. So then, of course, it, you know, Yugoslavia breaks apart and you get Serbia and Montenegro. That's, when I was a kid, that was the hot ticket. You had to be from Serbia and Montenegro. And then, what was it, like 20 years ago or something, they, they pull the plug on the,

and the conjunction. Conjunction, junction, what's your function? And you get Serbia and you get Montenegro. And if you don't know, and this will maybe help with the trivia question in a little bit. But Serbia is more inland, like to the east, and Montenegro is smaller, but to the west and on the Mediterranean Sea. I don't know what is that, the Adriatic Sea or something like that, but it's on it. and so you get that split if you're curious there's another one right next to him bosnia and herzegovina they're still together i feel like you largely hear about bosnia like you hear oh yeah this person was bosnian or they're from serajevo what right was that uh that anne frank knockoff

Vlata's diary. Don't get me started on Anne Frank copycats. Zlata. No, I'm sure she's lovely. Isn't she lovely? So, yeah, Bosnia, but you don't really hear about Hertzegovina's. What's the capital of Herzegovina? I don't know.

Don't know. Not sure. So Serbia, the capital is Belgrade. It's kind of in the middle of the country. We talked about it a little bit last week. It came up in the trivia question as one of the four European capital cities on the Danube River. Boom, boom, boom, bum, bum, bum, bum. Along with, what else did we decide?

Budapest, Vienna. and what was the fourth one? Anyone? Was it Bratislava? Actually, I was just talking to my students last night about learning retention and now I can't even retain anything. But I got it. It was Bratislava, which is the capital of Slovakia. Does that sound right? I need a mnemonic to keep Slovakia and Slovenia straight. Slovakia is more kind of that inland, you know, basically I think of it as like Hungary or Poland, Chechia, kind of the same thing. Slovenia is more your, you're like sexy, you know, Croatia, Italy, Mediterranean coast kind of

deal, which we'll get to in a second with their trivia question. That's, that's not really a mnemonic. That's more of like a vibe thing. So Serbia, it's, you know, they got that cool flag. It's got the shield on it, right? Not Michael Chichlis, but like an actual military shield. And you got Belgrade, the capital. Rachel's staying close to the Nikolai Tesla museum. The airport is named after Tesla. If you're curious, Nikolai Tesla, he was Serbian. And he did all the coils and the electricity. And now he's got his car company. Well, he's been dead for like 100 years. But here's a mini bonus trivia question for you just off the dome what singer portrayed nikolai tesla in the what's his name not james fenimore cooper oh who's the guy who directed batman

not danie elfman chrisfer nolan the chrisfer nolan filmed the prestige which was what like 2006, something like that. What singer, I guess you can call him an actor, rest in peace, by the way. It's not Robert Redford, but he portrayed Nikolai Tesla in the film The Prestige. I don't really remember why he's in that movie. I think it has something to do with,

like, they're trying to figure out Christian Bale's tricks or something. What is that movie? You got Hugh Jackman and then Christian Bale. and Christian Bill actually has a twin the whole time you're like trying to figure out how he does it at the end it's just like he has a twin Michael Kane he's of course he's explaining the tricks

at the end of the at the end of the picture I cannot do a cockney accent my apologies early Scarley Johansen between uh those those were kind of like her first two big things right not the first ones but the first two things that I really remember Scarjo from are the prestige and the Justin Timberlake

music video for cry me a river which is like eight minutes long and she cheats on him cry me a realta you know this was back this was back when scarjo was like like early scarjo she was like 20 years old and she's like mega sex symbol kind of like i don't know kind of in like a jesska alba vein but at the same time it felt more it was way more like pure it felt like and less insidious than i don't know like a city swine maybe that's just a political thing but um those were the days how did we get oh the prestige oh but of course the answer to the the question is that david bowie played nikolai tesla in the prestige and what happens

at the end does hugh jackman die he gets like trapped does hugh jackman have a twin too and one of them dies is that how it goes i can't remember I know Christian Bale has a twin. I don't think Hugh Jackman has a twin. But does Hugh Jackman die at the end of the prestige? Does he drown? Like, during his trick? I'm trying to remember how that goes. I can't remember. Do they both have twins? It's been a hot minute since I watched that movie. We'll put it on the list. I mean, I still want to watch sneakers with Robert Redford first. But I would watch the prestige. We should do a Christopher Nolan podcast. Power Ranking episode at some point. What is he up to? About 10. He has one, like his first film, I don't think I've ever seen. I don't recall what it's called.

But then he had, we'll see how many I can get off the time I had here. And then I promise we'll come back to Serbia briefly. He did a remake was, I think this was his second or third film with what, insomnia, right? Robin Williams and Al Pacino and Hillary Swank. Great film. ever seen insomnia. Really good one. I think it's originally like a Swedish film. And then he like his breakthrough, I feel was Memento with Guy Pearce and Joe Pantagliano, however you say his name, which I've seen, I feel like people out there, there are,

as far as the like Christopher Nolan fans go, they're much bigger on Memento than I am. And it's not because I dislike it. I just like am too confused by it. And then after Memento, that's when he had, was it, Prestige next? I'm not even, I'm not even trying to, like, quiz myself. I'm just trying to see how many I can get, not necessarily in order. And then I think after that, unless I missed something, he goes, Batman. So he goes, Batman begins, Dark Night, Dark Night Rises. I don't think there was any interruption to that.

I think he did three straight. So Dark Night Rises was like, I was a senior in high school, and then next he goes interstellar, I believe, is next after that. Or no, I'm missing one. Sorry, Inception. That was in there somewhere. That was when I was in like middle school. So he must have done, was Inception after the Dark Night? You know what? I wasn't trying to get all quizzical on this in particular, but I will look it up. But to finish my thoughts before I look at the filmography of Christopher Nolan. So I think we've done a pretty good job. It goes like more or less Batman begins, then Dark Night, then Inception, then Dark Night rises. I think that's how it went.

And then Interstellar. And then after Interstellar, was it Dunkirk? I try to remember because Interstellar, I was like a sophomore in college. I feel like just timeline-wise, there might be a film I'm missing that falls between Interstellar and Dunkirk. We'll find out in a second. And then it's Tenet, right? Which I wanted to like so bad. because I like I can tolerate John David Washington he's not my favorite but I you know Denzel he got a respect but I actually like Robert Pattinson quite a bit I watched 10 at once and I couldn't hear a single thing that was being said because of the stupid audio mixing and I just never went back to it don't have an interest

in it so sorry and then what's the most he he just made one right Christopher Nolan just made a movie like, oh, Oppenheimer. I think, let's see how we did. Okay, so we'll pull it up Christopher Nolan filmography to see what we got and what we maybe have missed. Christopher Nolan, okay, just show me the filmography. Here we go. Okay, so the first one is, I think we did pretty well on this.

The first one is following, which is the one I, alluded to but I don't I don't know much about it and it says first film was from 1998 and I don't even know anyone in the cast so I don't feel that bad about it excuse me oh I got these mixed up then he goes memento memento was second and then he went insomnia for some reason in my head I thought insomnia was second still a great movie even though it's not second then after that then he goes Batman be i i mixed this up too i thought it went prestige then Batman but it goes Batman begins then the prestige then i think we were cooking after this dark night inception dark night rises interstellar dunkirk tenant Oppenheimer and he's got the odyssey coming out in 2026 so really it was

it was a little bit shaky at the beginning we mixed up one or two things but then starting with the dark night uh so his last what seven films whatever that is we were cooking with gas uh that's essentially our serbia preview that's really what you need to know about serbia let's head to wikipedia to see if there's anything else really fascinating here there's its borders uh disputed territory of kosovo so kosovo is an independent country now although from what i can gather Serbia is still claiming it does the u.s have any territories that we are claiming but like they're trying to do their own thing. I feel I'm almost out of Diet Coke and Scotch, by the way. We're going to need a beer.

I feel like Puerto Rico is the closest thing we have to that, but when we went to Puerto Rico, the sense I got was like, they just wanted to be a state. They loved being part of the U.S. Maybe not loved in this current administration, although when we went, it was not the current administration. But I think they like the funding that comes from being part of the U.S. I think they just want statehood. Serbia's capital of Belgrade is also the largest city in the country. We know that. Its government is a unitary parliamentary republic.

How about those Unitarian Universalists? I used to play, gosh, this will take me back. I used to sub at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Rock River Valley. and they used to have their services at the old Stephen Mack, was that his name? It's what, like, McHenry County is named after, I assume. I actually have no idea if that's true or not. But it was like, because there's a Macktown, right? That's a thing in Rockton, Illinois.

By the way, that's it for our Serbia preview. If you're curious, I was going to list the currency because the population, 6.6 million people. The calling code is plus 381. the currency is the Serbian dinar, and the internet, TLD, whatever that means, is in Cyrillic. So I don't know why Wikipedia is listing stuff in Cyrillic now. I'm not a computer scientist. Mactown, right, for all my northern Illinoisers out there, that's that thing in Rockton, Illinois. Anyways, Mactown, it's like one of those, nothing comes up when you Google it.

Maybe I'm way off, I don't know. but it was one of those like not uh not you not renaissance fair right this isn't like 1600 this is like westward hoe lewis and clark early 19th century or no maybe more like early 18th century before the u.s was even a thing like fur trappers right when you think of a fur trapper that's what we're talking about here not like colonial more like on the great frontier trading pelts is what you would do at a place like macktown and having squirrel soup and butternut squash um but i used to play for this church and the unitarians are very kind people let's just let's just put it that way like i don't know exactly all the things they believe in they were always kind of not in a negative way just from like

my own research i didn't like ask people about this but they seemed kind of wishy-washy on jesus it was like do they actually is jesus like a big deal for them or you're just kind of like part of the plan they seemed much more from my experience with the unitary universalist much more into just being like one with nature very peaceful i would i would describe them as a pacifist population our drink is officially gone which is your signal that this show is going to end soon but we would just uh you know we met in a an old schoolhouse the Stephen Mack Schoolhouse on the fringe of Rockton, Illinois, just south of the Rock River. And I subbed for a very kind, older lady with the biggest glasses you ever see and think

Harry Carrey named Nancy Esterl, E-S-T-E-R-L. I think I got connected with her from my high school piano teacher. And this wasn't an every week thing. I think in total I probably subbed for them maybe five times, five, six times. Their pastor was gay. He wasn't like out there talking about it in the sermon or anything like that. It was just like one of those, I want to be careful here with how I say this. One of those people who carries themselves in a way that is oftentimes associated with gay culture.

Can I say that? I don't remember Stephen Talbot Lewis, was that his name? Talbot Lewis was definitely his, I don't know if it was like a middle name and a last name or if he had like a husband or something. If you Google Talbot Lewis, you get Albert Edward Lewis. Why was he known as Talbot Lewis?

Now this guy was like a, I wanted to say ecclesiastical preacher, but I don't think that's what ecclesiastical actually means. I just wanted to say it. Was that his name? No, I can't figure out what it was. not important. I subbed for this church a couple of times. They were very kind, friendly people and probably my greatest accomplishment or achievement as a church pianist, a career which lasted,

I don't know, five years, give or take, was I had two jobs in Rockton on the same day. It was like a real gigging professional musician playing my normal Sunday morning at Open Arms Lutheran Church, which was just like a two-year project in total. for the church based out of the storefront in downtown Rockton next to the pizza place on Black Hawk Ave, which is the main drag, the drags of Rockton, Illinois. Actually, a cute little downtown. I feel like I didn't really appreciate it that much when I was a kid, but as they get older, it's like, yeah, it's kind of quaint. It's kind of nice. But I played for open arms my senior year of high school, and they were very kind to me.

And then, but I had one Sunday where I, I played my regular open arms service and then rushed over to the United Unitarian congregation, like half an hour later, because they were legitimately like, you know, on the same street. You didn't have to turn to get there. They're like a mile away. You just cross the river and then you were there. I want to say this. I'm a big fan of beauty and nature. If there's anyone out there. In the northern Illinois area, listening to this still, if you want a great sunset, you go to Rockton, Illinois as you're heading south, out of downtown, onto, what does that turn into Highway 251 or whatever it is? You cross the Rock River on, I think it's Black Hawk Road, and you look, obviously, to the west as the sunsets. I used to, because I used to, we used to have our, like, choir practice Sunday nights there up and rocked in it. Either going or coming, I can't remember. I would occasionally catch a beautiful sunset out there. And, you know, every once in a while, just you have those, like, core memories or moments in a variety of, you know, walks or parts of your life. But for this one, this was more of like a peaceful nature thing.

Maybe it's because I just made like 30 bucks from rehearsal and I was living large. but caught that sunset looking west across the rock river as it flowed west and then eventually northwards into Wisconsin. But it's just very beautiful, very peaceful, very tranquil, and I appreciate that. That was our Serbia preview. We do have a listener email. I don't have a lot of comments. It's not like a particularly funny email, but we don't get a lot of action in the Beantown podcast at yahoo.com inbox. So I did just want to read it. And then we got our trivia a question and then we're going to wrap things up here because I got a P. I need a beer and it's it's almost supper time, frankly. Here it is. This is from Eric, E-R-I-C-K, adding that that extra K

there, kind of cool. Guajardo, G-U-A-J-A-R-D-O, Eric Guajardo. Hey Quinn, first name, bases. And by the way, his email I haven't even looked at. It's Eric at Capital Department.com but it's D.E.P.T. So, she's kind of shortened things. He's efficient. Hey, Quinn, I tuned in, this is how you know it's AI. Just right in front of the first sentence. You got to fact check this stuff.

Hey, Quinn, I tuned into your latest episode and your live take on Sabrina Carpenter's only fans, plus the Elite 4 Pokemon Showdown cracked me up. So that was like three episodes ago. So Eric, you know, in classic old school 670, the score Chicago sports radio fashion. Who you crappin? That was not my latest episode.

Last week we were talking about First Amendment infringement. No mention of Sabrina Carpenter. Maybe Pokemon. I don't know. Did I spend a six-minute YouTube video this morning listening to Lavender Town on repeat,

the music that plays when you enter the town on Pokemon? Maybe. But I didn't talk about it last week and then on a podcast. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Boom, bum. Boom. If you're curious, Lavender Town, if you're not a Pokemon head, ever so briefly, it's the, it's the, there's not a lot going on there in the town. There's like a couple houses. And then the big deal is the Pokemon Tower, which is like the Pokemon graveyard. And all the Pokemon you find in there are ghosts. So it's kind of morbid when you think about it more. As a kid, it's kind of like, you think about it, but it doesn't really wash or like, it does wash over you, but you don't absorb it. Now is a, as a, as, as, as, you you know, 30, 25 years later, it's kind of like, not fucked up, but just like, this is kind of

poignant. Continuing on here, the way you tie those threads together is a true Bean Town classic. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. As someone who appreciates wild mashups, just like Glee, right, when they combined Metallica enter Sandman with, I don't know, Stevie Wonder, isn't she lovely? I don't think they did that. As someone who appreciates wild mashups, I think your listeners,

would really get a kick. Here's where the email goes sideways. A kick out of hearing from Sharon Samjit Singh. It doesn't go sideways because she's Pakistani. I love Pakistan. She might be Indian. I don't know. South Bangladesian, Nepalese,

probably the four major players here. It's M-A-S-A-S-A-S-I-N-G-H. Okay, let's power through this because the rest of it is not. really funny. It's just a plug. And I don't want to get a lot of free plugs here. But Sharon is the technology woman of the year. That's from Tech Rochester 2020. Five years ago, talk about washed. And I'm sorry, Sharon, if you're actually a really nice person in real life, I apologize. But like, why am I getting this email? And a recognized leader in health tech

with years spent steering startups and driving big capital projects. She heads health care originals. Doesn't not sound real. I'm sorry. Where she's pioneered a virtual respiratory care platform called Nightingale, built for folks with asthma and COPD, which affects almost 50 million Americans, HCO, that's healthcare originals, ADAMM wearable, plus telemedicine add-ons, sound almost as futuristic as those rare Pokemon. I don't, was anyone out there playing or watching Pokemon, you know, when it came out, what, what were we at, 28 years ago? Was anyone thinking like, oh man, these Pokemon are really futuristic. No, they were just like animals like in the real world. So why are you saying

Pokemon are futuristic? You think we're going to like develop the genome sequencing to bring these Pokemon to life, Jurassic Park style? You think I'm going to find some Cleeferry sperm in amber? Probably not. Whether tackling real world health through tech or wrangling epic contract negotiations, Sharon brings a unique energy. and wit. Her experience translating cutting-edge innovations into real change and a better quality of life for so many would vibe with the absurdist humor and offbeat brilliance your podcast is famous for. We'd love to see Sharon bring her story to Beantown, best Eric Gua Hardo. And to that, I say, Sharon, if you're real, if you're not, I haven't even like Googled

her. I think I'm going to cut out the middleman. Like, sorry, Eric, you're fucked. I'm going to email Sharon off to the side. We'll see if she's as witty. confident in her approach to telemedic as Eric claims she is. And as she is, we'll bring her on. I will legitimately email her as soon as this show wraps to be like, hey, Eric emailed me. Fuck him. You want to come on? No, no gratuities. Like, I'm not making money off of this. But you want to come on. I will gab with you about C-O-P-D for as long as you want. And if you're witty and hilarious, maybe we'll have a, I was going to say permanent co-ho. but my permanent co-host is over in Serbia right now.

And my other permanent tri-host is down on the floor licking something. They're not looking. She's drinking water right now. So, Sharon, you can be the fourth if you want. But Eric, you're screwed, buddy. I don't know how else to say it to you. I don't really know surface level what Sharon's knowledge of real-world health tech and contract negotiations has to do with the Beantown podcast,

legitimate query, no idea what you're talking about, Eric. But I will give anyone a chance. Chances are find a new equation. Chances rolled away from me. Chances are more than expectations. The possibility.

Five for fighting. Probably the first time we were saying five for fighting on the Beantown podcast. I'm 16 for a moment. Cut in between 10 and 20 and I'm just singing. Count of the years of my life. All right. Trivia question this week came up with Serbia because I had to go to the maps to confirm. Hey, Serbia, that thing doesn't border the Mediterranean Sea, does it?

right? That's more of a Montenegro thing, and I was confirmed in that. So my trivia question, I mentioned it might be long. We'll try to go as quickly as I can because I've really got to pee at this point. The question is ever so simply, name all the questions that border the Mediterranean sea. Excuse me. And I did not look this up beforehand, but as I, or I'm going to kind of go through at first and see how many I can get. Sporkel says there's 22, and then I'll use the map on Sporkel just to double check, and we can all come to a confident conclusion together. I'm a fan of clockwise, starting from the Strait of Gibraltar, but you can do it however you would like. So as I'm going through, again, I'm not revealing the answers. I'm playing along with you at home.

I'm trying to come up with what I can, what seems accurate and relevant to me, and we'll see how many of the 22 we can get. And as I skip over something or miss something, you can shout at your AirPods or however you're listening. And you know what? We're going to get there eventually. So for me, it starts with Spain. I don't think UK counts in this. They control Gibraltar. That would be a stupid technicality. We'll see. Spain, France, Monaco, and then Italy. and then you've got to go all the way down, whoop. We'll get to the islands in a second here. And then from Italy, this is where I probably lose some confidence.

Does it go, is Slovenia in there? We'll guess Slovenia for now. That's five. And then what, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, does that sound right? What do we think about? Does North Macedonia touch? I don't know. Maybe. This isn't going to be exact. We'll reveal the answers when we get there. Maybe North Macedonia, who knows, Greece, Turkey. Did we skip Bulgaria? Or does that not touch? Probably doesn't touch. Greece to Turkey. Then we get into the Middle East. So we go Turkey. I lost track of count on my fingers. So we're just going to vibe it out the rest of the way and then see. We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll.

finish with the Sporkel quiz to see what we missed or did not miss. After Turkey, it's got to be, what, Syria, and then I don't think Jordan makes it to the Mediterranean Sea? Maybe it does. Maybe Jordan, maybe not. It might. It could. We'll find out. Lebanon, if you couldn't tell already, if this was like a legit trivia question in bar trivia, I'd be screwed. I'm way out of my depth. Lebanon, Israel. What are we doing with the Palestine? That's more inland, right? That's not even like on the sea, so we don't have to worry about it. I think that's what we're going with. So Israel, then Egypt, Sinai Peninsula, Suez Canal. And then across the top of Europe, it goes, what, Egypt, and then what do we do? Libya, Tunisia. Tunisia.

Algeria, Morocco. Is that how the top of Africa goes? And then you finish up with the islands, right? So what nations do you have in the Mediterranean Sea? Is it there's just two of them? Is it Malta and Cyprus? Is there anything else? Right? Islands like Sicily and Corsica and Sardinia and Crete, those are all, those are not independent nations. So that's generally my guess. You can let us know over, email or tweet at us how you did as well let me pull up the i don't even need sporkel let's just go to the google maps and see exactly what we're what we're looking at here a scroll over to europe here so starting the way i started again gibraltar who knows if you want to count it it gets controlled by the british but fuck them you know sorry pakistan pakistan might want me to say

fuck the british they probably don't like them that much with the whole colonialism thing So we go Spain, and then we go France, Monaco, Italy. We're doing well so far. Then the big wraparound. And I'm just going to cash in on those two islands right now. I'm almost certain there's, that's it as far as the islands go, right? We said Malta and we said Cyprus. There's no other like nation states in the Mediterranean.

We said Slovenia, right? We got that. That's good. Then Croatia. Oh, I think I missed Bosnia and Herzegov. It kind of slips in there, doesn't it? Yeah, we definitely missed that one. We did get Montenegro, Albania. North Macedonia, we pondered about, and North Macedonia is a firm no. It's actually completely blocked by Albania. So it goes Montenegro to Albania, to Greece, and then I was right. Greece blocks

Bulgaria, and then you go Greece to Turkey, and then you go down and Syria, then Lebanon, and Jordan is blocked. we were curious about that. Jordan is barely blocked by Israel. It doesn't look like the whole Palestine thing's going to factor in here, but it's unclear. And then it should be pretty much smooth sailing from there. We go Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and our two islands, which I think we nailed, which were Cyprus and Malta. I think the big significant miss was we excluded Bosnia and Herzegovina. And I think I was probably fairly hopeful that that North Macedonia did border it, but it didn't. But Bosnia-Herzegovina, I think, was the one out of those that we did not mention.

We mentioned it 45 minutes ago, but we did not actually get to it in this effort. So close, I'd say close, but no cigar. I mean, in reality, it was like 90% of a cigar, but we were wrong. Let us know how you did email us. That's what I had for you on today's program. I appreciate everyone tuning in a little bit of a long installment today, but we had a lot to get to. And we had to recap an entire heist poker blackjack thriller film.

And then when that happens, that's going to extend your runtime. That's what we have for you. More Bachelor lifestyle, me and Maple coming at you next weekend. But for all of us at the Bean Town podcast, I hope everyone is staying safe. I hope you are staying sane. My name is Quinn David Furness. Let's go ahead and cue up our outro music here. If the play button will work, Jesus Christ.

And with that in mind, we'll check in on you guys next week. Bye bye, everyone. And I'm going to be able to be. Thank you.