Dear Hank & John - 175: Burn It All!!!!

Episode Date: February 4, 2019

What should I put in my journal? Should I sign a card for someone I don't know? What do I do when strangers tell me my shoes are untied? And more! If you're in need of dubious advice, email us at [e-mail]! Join us for monthly livestreams and an exclusive weekly podcast at patreon.com/dearhankandjohn.

Hello and welcome to Dear Hank and John! Yours up for a Think of it Dear John and Hank. It's a comedy podcast where two brothers answer your questions, give you the dewey's advice and bring you all the week's news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon. John! Yes! What was your earliest childhood memory? Oh, I mean, if I offer it up, then it won't belong to me anymore. It will belong to all of the people who are listening right now.

And also, I know you're just trying to get to some kind of punchline. Well, in any case, mine was getting my first pair of glasses. Do you remember doing that, John? I do. Cause I just just like everything before that's a blur. Do you remember the place where we got our first glasses from eventually fell into a sinkhole in Orlando, Florida? Yeah, I mean, that's in, given enough time, that will happen to everything in Orlando,

Florida. It's just, it's just limestone pockets underneath. There's no actual land. Yeah, the weird thing about it was that having your optometrist office fall into a sinkhole and disappear Wasn't even that unusual in our childhood. Yeah, I think actually the weirdest part of that was that also a Porsche dealership fell into the same sinkhole at the same time. Yes, and yes, and it turned out there was a bunch of cocaine And some of the porches and they found it when they were pulling them out So it was like a big story.

God, I love Orlando so much. Cocaine. Just like a single full of cocaine, it's like the most Orlando story of all time. Porch full of cocaine falls into sinkhole might be like peak Orlando. And then it's just in there with a bunch of children's glasses. For extra creep. All right, let's answer some questions from our listeners. This first question comes from Ali who writes, Dear John and Hank, I got this adult coloring book I've been using for about a year and a half

now and almost all the pages have been colored in. What should I do once I finish it? Like, it feels wrong to just toss it out when I've spent so much time coloring all the different pages. But if I just put it on my bookshelf, it'll only take up space and I'll probably never look at it again. So what do I do with a completed coloring book? Not a cat. Ali. Oh. Oh, Ali cat, I got it. My first, like, the first thing I thought of when you said adult coloring book is not, I think, what you are coloring. That is correct, yeah, I think,

well, who knows? That's not for us to judge. The point is, what do you do with it? And the answer is you have a ritual burning. Probably a ritual burning. Yeah, you invite all your friends over and you talk about the year and a half that coloring this book was helpful to you and now it is over and then you have a ritual burning

of the coloring book and it's very cleansing. I am a huge believer in letting go, Hank, letting go of things said the person who owns 3,400 books. Don't burn the books, John. I do puzzles a lot and I really love doing puzzles and I always have this feeling after I finish the puzzle. They're like, I can't just pull it apart, like you put the last piece in and it's like done and then you just tear it apart and put it back in the box, I can't do it.

It has to sit there for two days, two two weeks before it finally dismantled the puzzle, which I will, of course, inevitably do. Like I'm not gonna keep the puzzle put together forever. I remember when we were kids, our parents had this Muppets puzzle the day had somehow glued all the pieces together to celebrate having finished it,

and it was like a huge part of our childhood looking at this Muppets poster all the time. And I have all these childhood memories of looking at this Muppets poster all the time. And I have all these childhood memories of looking at that Muppets puzzle, not least because a couple of pieces fell out over the years, like a couple of pieces weren't glued in that well, so it was never like a quite a completed Muppets puzzle

that was hanging on the wall. As time went on, because it was so humid in Orlando, Florida, more and more pieces kept falling off until it was like, really sort of a disturbing looking thing that was on the wall. Yeah. Well, one of the really good things about growing up in Florida

is that you're constantly made aware that nature will take back everything you have taken from it. Yes, I mean, that puzzle I imagine now is contained entirely within an ecosystem. It is just every individual piece has been turned into a blade of grass or moss or mold or something. Yeah, I just think it's so important in life

to find ways to let go of stuff, like even stuff that we've worked hard on. Sometimes you just have to let it go, like nothing lasts forever. And if you can't get that through your skull, you're sort of hosed. Well, then also, like, I think that when I put together a puzzle, like my ultimate goal of doing the puzzle isn't to have a completed puzzle, it's to do the puzzle. So, like, the puzzle has served its purpose the moment it is complete.

The thing that I'm hanging on to is like, the idea that that isn't the goal of the puzzle, that there is some other eventual goal of the puzzle, and that maybe is something that like has its hooks in my brain, but it's not a real thing. The goal of the puzzle is to do it, and the moment it's done, it has served its purpose, and that purpose is ended, and I need to take it apart

and put it back in the box. Al, I'm gonna recommend that you put it on your bookshelf now that I've thought about it more. I mean, you might wanna look at it later. No, let it go, let it go. It's fire! It served its purpose. You did a thing, it was beautiful and good,

and it's over. This next question comes from Emily, who writes, Dear John and Hank, I work as and good, and it's over. This next question comes from Emily, who writes, Do your chantern hank, I work as a ticket seller for my school district. I get to sit around for about three to nine hours at a time dealing with angry parents, trying to get into sporting events.

Well, it seems like you like your job, Emily. It seems great. In our district, senior citizens are free. How do you ask someone if they're old enough to qualify for the senior discount? The last time I asked, are you 65 or older? I almost got whacked with a cane. Thanks for the advice, Emily.

I mean, don't ever ask that question. Oh, I don't agree, Hank. I think you should, Emily, if you ask me if I was 65 or over. You have a sign that says it, and then it's up to them to bring it up. You don't ask. Yeah, I agree.

You don't ask if, like, you don't ask unless they're suspiciously young and they're claiming to be over 65. Then maybe you're like, I'm sorry, but the over 65 discount only applies to people over 65 and they'll be like, oh, I am over 65, but I'm so flattered that you didn't think I was. And he'll be like, I can't believe that we're having this fight because you're trying to save three bucks on a high school basketball game, you 47 year old man. It's got a fake ID, saying he's super old. So he can get a buck off a movie tickets.

I want to get a fake ID that says I'm 65. I just have it be like somebody else, like maybe take an old driver's license from dad. I look plausibly like dad. And just be like, no, yeah. Just turn 65, the big 65, it's been, whoo, I mean, it just goes by so fast. Especially 40 to 65.

If you could plausibly fake it, you got a career just in it being like, look at me, I'm 65 years old. I've been using this product. It's my special ground up coloring book paste that I've been delivered to me by Ali. It's just coloring book, ground up with just various colloids, milky substances that I then rub on my face

is extremely expensive and look at, but look at me though. Look at me. I look at you 40 years old. I don't look at day over 42. To answer your question Emily, I think you put up a sign and I don't think you ask anybody. And if people try to sneak into the basketball game

pretending that they're over 65 when they're not, they're going to have to deal with the consequences of that in eternity. Right. Yes. And I do not feel like it is either your responsibility or something that you care about if somebody is attempting to break into the basketball game without without payment. So, no, honestly, whatever gets you through the day because it doesn't seem like you love this job. And I, I don't think like maximizing revenue is that important.

I think you should just do what makes the day manageable. This next question comes from Josh who asks, Steerhank and John, I recently started my journal. A format starts off with a list of the day's activities followed by my favorite moment of that day. That's nice. That leaves like a third of the page empty. What should I put in the rest of the page,

pumpkins and penguins, Josh? At a burnet. Tared up, ripped pieces. Josh, have you considered burning your journal? No. I'll tell you what I would put in there. I wouldn't put in a list of like ongoing resentments. Like, like, are you a stark, are kill list? Yeah. Yeah. Just so I

don't forget about it. I don't want to forget about the people who have wronged me. Or the other thing I might put on there is like a list of all the things I worried about before going to sleep. Like a catalog of, this is bad, the 100 or 200 things that rifle through my head during the hour that I'm trying to fall asleep, the people I may have wronged, the activities I haven't finished, the responsibilities I've shirked, et cetera.

Josh, for an actual piece of advice, here's what I, if I had the kind of dedication to this that you seem to have, I would draw a little picture in that, well, bottom third, and I'd try to maybe draw like the same picture every day for a week and see if I do it differently or maybe I'll give you a prompt. It's Santa Claus dinosaur. So you're going to draw Santa Claus dinosaur every day for a week and see all the different ways that that prompt takes you.

And then the week after that, I want you to do like a rabbit smoking a pipe and I wanna see that. And like show me a different rabbit smoking pipes. And maybe you can, I'm not saying they're gonna be good. It's not about being good. Just like your journal isn't about like writing beautiful prose is just like, hey, I'm gonna throw this at Future Me, who's gonna read through these things maybe someday and be like, what was I doing in

January 2019? Oh yeah, that really super stoned rabbit I drew. Oh, I didn't think it was that kind of pipe. Well, you know, on day seven, you got to mix it up. All right, well, yeah, I've actually been reading a diary recently, Dawn Powell's diary. She's this great writer. And it is really interesting to read someone's diary. It feels incredibly invasive,

even though Dawn Powell has been dead for quite a while, and at the end of her life said that she wanted her diaries to be published. It still feels like, wow, I can't believe that I am allowed to read these things about a stranger. Uh, so try to include that kind of, that kind of the juicy stuff. That's my advice. I guess. Last third of the page is just what had the juiciest stuff of the day. Right. Yeah, just like at the bottom third be like,

I think this is what the, you know, people of 70 years from now will want to read about my day. I definitely think that you should assume that no one's going to read your diary because otherwise that's too much pressure. All right, Hank, this next question comes from Kay who writes, do you try to hang a few weeks weeks ago I matched with someone on a dating app. And after chatting for a bit we decided to go on a date,

but shortly thereafter I got sick and when I told him, he told me to get back to him if I wanted to go out once I felt better. Well, it's been several weeks and it turns out I have mono, which is why I felt so terrible this whole time. And I'll be better soon and no longer contagious. And I want to let him know so he doesn't forget about me. But I'm worried that the connotations of the disease will leave a bad impression.

OK, because it's the kissing disease. OK, I am not familiar with these connotations of mono. I have always understood it to be just a really bad viral illness that sometimes attacks your spleen, but apparently it has sexually transmitted vibes. Yeah, I will say that I got mono in high school completely without any fun way of contracting it. I contracted it and the normal someone spat into the air and it landed on my tongue way. Yeah, like you can get the common cold from making out,

but you can also get it from, you know, putting your hand on a gas pump, or at least that's where I assume I got it from. I assume now that I get every disease from my child coughing directly into my nose. Oh God, I mean, is there a better way to ensure that every, yeah, anyway. Yeah, I was, is there a better way to ensure that every, yeah, anyway, yeah, the doctor recently and the doctor was like,

has your kid been sick? And I'm like, he's too. That's all he is. He's sick. And she's like, yeah, never mind. I'm sorry. I asked that question. Obviously he's been sick. Yeah. Yeah. No, both our kids are home from school today. And I just, I feel bad for them But I have to confess that I also feel so bad for me If you told them that like I'm so sorry you're sick, but also little sympathy for me Why why will no one think of dear old dad? I don't feel great and yet I have to take care of you and do this podcast with my brother.

Sorry, back to Kay's question. Should I tell him that I have mono or should I keep it vague and risk him not believing me? Should I just pack my bags and move away? Kay, just tell me of mono. If this guy freaks out about you having mono, he's the worst. Also, if you're like, I'm getting better, but I'm not gonna tell you what was wrong with me, that's weirder, and now I'm nervous. Like I'm worried for you, I'm worried for your family,

I don't, yeah. I wanna know the specifics. No, you just say, listen, I had mono, I'm feeling better, the doctor says I'm no longer contagious. And then you tell them exactly in grave detail, exactly how you got the disease. You're like, I licked a gas station pump. It was a mistake I made.

No, or tell them that you got the disease from kissing someone who cares. Yeah. Good God. Look, I'm on Tinder. I kiss people sometimes. Exactly. Like, it shouldn't be that big of a surprise. Yeah, good God look I'm on Tinder. I kiss people sometimes Exactly like it shouldn't be that big of a surprise. Oh

Man, okay, I'm sorry about 2019 dating it seems very stressful and difficult, but I think By the way, K had a great name specific sign off which was every contagious kiss begins with. That's great. That's great. I had mono and high school experience. Do you want to hear how this experience started for me, John? Yeah, sure. I woke up and I didn't, wasn't feeling great and I went into my bathroom where I discovered that there was vomit in the sink and pee in the bathtub. And I was like, how did this happen?

This is very weird and upsetting. And then I realized that I had like no one else was in the house and I had fever dreamed up into the bathroom and puked in the sink and peed in the bathtub. So I went back to bed. Wow. Wow.

I was that sick. It's not fun. I had whipping, I had whipping coffee in college, which I also don't recommend. No. And the main symptom of it, I guess this is the Hank and John illness special,

which I'm excited about. But the main symptom of it was that I would start coughing and then in between the coughs, I would make this whipping sound like, and that I would start coughing and then in between the coughs, I would make this whooping sound like, and then I would barf. Oh. That's really bad. Like I just start coughing and I'd be like,

oh man, this only ends one way with the whooping sound for like four whoops and then barfing. Vaccinate your kids. This next question comes from Justin, who asks, dear, Hank and John. The department I work in at my company is large enough that I don't know everyone in my department. Sometimes when someone's going through a tough time,

such as the loss of a family member, the administrative assistant will get a sympathy card and make it available for people to sign. I make sure to sign it if the person in need of sympathy is someone I know, but what should I do if it's someone I don't know? Should I still sign the card? If so, what should I write in it? This just in.

It's good, Justin. That's good. You should sign the card and write nothing. Sign the card and write nothing. Possibly say, sorry, for your loss, this just in. Don't do not use the name specific sign off in a sympathy card, Justin. It's a good name specific sign off, but like any name specific sign off, there's a time and a place, and it's not just after somebody's cat died. Yes. Yeah, just sign your name, probably just sign your name. Yeah, the reason you just sign your name

is that what people really wanna feel, at least in my experience, in that moment, is they wanna feel a broad network of support, they want to feel the thoughts and prayers and love of lots of people, including strangers, and just seeing a lot of names and a lot of different pen colors is helpful, at least in my experience.

So, even if you don't know the person, I still think it's worthwhile to sign the card. I trust your opinions on these things so much more than I trust my own. So I'm glad to have you there to tell me these things. Well, I am a failed hospital chaplain, Hank, so I'm something of an expert. This next question comes from Katherine,

who writes, a lot of the times when I walk with my friends, my shoelaces come undone, and then a stranger will tell me that my shoelaces are undone, and I find this extremely frustrating, because the shoe is on my foot, and I can feel my own shoe slowly becoming loose. I'm not an idiot, bad at tying my shoes, Catherine. What the?

There's no question, but I thought it was interesting. I added it to the question. It went on for a while. Okay. It's just a situation that I'm so familiar with and I don't know what to do. So I have, here's how I've solved this problem. I no longer have shoe tying ability. I have, I don't know what it's called,

a toggle that slides out and then it's tightens that way and then you let go of a button and it holds itself in a place. Right. I think I know what you mean, but you have done a poor job of describing it. The worst possible way, I'm sure it's called something. So I have one of those, that tightens issues, but before I had that, one, I feel like there's something wrong with the way that I tie shoes because they come untied all the time, or

there's something wrong with people, how I tie shoes because they come untied all the time, or there's something wrong with people how people do shoe laces or something. And two, why are you telling me, do you think I'm gonna die? Do you think I'm gonna die? Because my shoe is untied. Like my shoe will fall off and I will step on it and get tetanus and block jaw

and just never be able to drink again. What? No, I don't think it's that specific concern. I think the concern is that you're gonna trip on your shoes, and you're going to fall and break your hip, and then never quite fully recover. I think that's the fear that strangers are feeling when they tell you that your shoes are untied.

How long? I think that fear is about them. Oh, people. Not about places. I've been on both sides of this problem. Like I've both been Catherine and I've been the person who says to Catherine, I can't believe you're getting on an escalator

with your shoes untied, for instance. I think it comes from a good place, but it does put the person with untied shoes in an incredibly uncomfortable position because in all likelihood, they were already aware of their untied shoe situation and they're just not in a place right now where they can easily tie their shoes but they will be soon and they've got a plan and they don't need you interrupting the plan with your comments on it.

Yep. However, none of this is necessary because as we've actually discussed previously on the pod there is a way to tie your shoes that does not involve double knotting, but does prevent them from ever becoming untied until and unless you want them to be untied. You can go to patreon.com slash deerhankinjohn to see a link to a video on this topic. This next question comes from Susanna who asks deer, who bunk and jubin. The startup I worked for had to lay people off today. Well, this take took a direction from funny names to little job loss. I'm sorry. It was not entirely unexpected as we were warned that we were having some issues. But we were not warned of the

scope or decision making process that went into who and how many would be let go. Fortunately, I've still got a job. But a few of the co-workers that I've worked really closely with and become, you know, generally good friends with were laid off and I'm still feeling wholly wrecked. How do I deal with this survivor's guilt? What do I say to my now ex-co-workers? Do I say anything? How do I return to work like normal and get anything done?

You do be as advice is greatly appreciated. Oh, Susanna. Yeah, this is really hard because we're told by the social order A that so much of our own self-worth is wrapped up in what we do for a job and B that work is like a family. And here at StartupX, we're not like a regular company. We're a family. And that's why you work here 16 hours a day, six days a week because it's a family. And we're all in this together. And then there inevitably comes a day when you find out,

it's not a family, it's a company. Yeah. And should be treated like that. That isn't to say that the people, your coworkers, can't and shouldn't be important parts of your life's important friends, but I think that if that is the case, then that relationship should extend outside of the boundaries of work and also outside of the time

when you work together in the same place. And it's completely normal to maintain friendships with people that you met at work after that like that particular relationship is over. And probably those people would really appreciate feeling like they aren't going to be like left out of like a social system that they were also depending on because they're being left out of this economic system that they were also depending on because they're being left out of this economic system that they were depending on and would love it if you would reach out and continue to be friends with them and continue to do social good things with them or start doing more social things with

another you know you're not going to have this other relationship and you want to maintain something and keep that relationship alive. As for how to deal with the survivor's guilt of the whole situation, and not knowing how these decisions got made, that's a real bummer and is kind of indicative of probably a crisis that the company is going through right now. It's terrible and really the only thing you could do is say, this is the vagaries of the universe

and I'm going to attempt to continue doing the work that I find valuable and that is hopefully adding value to the world and not try to analyze exactly how all these decisions got made. Yeah, I mean, on a deep level, it's not about you, although that's not something that humans are particularly good at comprehending. Yeah, but that's terrible. And it's something that's happened to some of my friends recently too.

All of which reminds me that today's podcast is brought to you by Complexly Complexly. Support our YouTube channels. Lots of our employees listen to this podcast, John. We're doing fine. We're not in trouble. Not yet. There's two, there's two schools that thought in the world of business. The Hant Green School, we're not in trouble and the John Green School, we're not in trouble yet. Well, if you do want to support us on Patreon, that money does go to support SciShow and Crash Course and the other educational things that we do online. This podcast is also brought to you by John Green's Crushed Coloring Book Face Paste. It'll make you look 25 years younger. You'll only look a day over 40. Today's podcast is also brought to you by a sinkhole full of

porches full of cocaine. A sinkhole full of porches full of cocaine. Come for the sinkhole. Stay for the porches full of cocaine. God bless it. And finally this podcast is brought to you by a rabbit smoking a pipe. A rabbit smoking a pipe. You just gotta draw them every day for the rest of your life to see

to see what happens. All right, Hank, we got another question this one comes from Mabel who writes, Dear John and Hank, is it appropriate to gift secondhand books? I have some books that I've read and loved, but we'll probably never read again, and my friend's birthday is coming up, so instead of buying a second copy of the book, could I just give the one I already have, or is that weird and unacceptable? Many thanks, Mabel. Mabel. Mabel. I have had friends do this a bunch, and a thing that I really appreciate, I have one friend who does this particularly. Almost always gives a second hand book on a birthday or anniversary or something, and

she will write on the inside of the cover a little information about why she thinks I like the book, and then sign it. And then I'll be like, whenever I look at that book, I'm like, oh yeah, she sent me this book, and this is what she thought about it, and it gave me a little something to go on. And it's almost like sort of half-card, half-present, which I really like. Yeah, don't tell my publisher that I said this, because of course, with my business person hat on, I believe that you should only buy my books in hardcover,

and that you should buy a new copy for each time you wanna read one. But in some words, you book seven times and I've purchased it seven times. Perfect, wonderful. I think secondhand books are almost a better present than new books because you feel the love in them. You know, and also because it's a very particular, it's a particular copy. It's not just any copy of a book. It's this person you know is copy of that book.

And I don't know, I've always thought it was really cool and it's something that I do. And I love it when people give me books that they've read and enjoyed and thought that I would enjoy. And I also love those little notes that people write, Hank, although I will say, if you write one of those notes,

it becomes very hard to make it a third-hand gift. A little bit. Yeah, I mean, you can take it to the book exchange place. That if you have one of those, that'll probably take it. Alright, Hank, we got another question. This one comes from Cassie who writes, Dear John and Hank, inspired by John, I've decided to delete all my social media apps and only check certain websites once a week on my laptop. So far, instead of having a positive impact on my mental health, I just lay in bed for hours staring out the window in replace of staring at a screen, feeling almost worse because my thoughts spirals have no distraction.

What healthier habits can I create to replace my phone at least while I'm adjusting? My thoughts are stars I can't fathom into constellations, but at least I'm Cassiopeia. That's very good Cassiopeia. You got it, you got there. I read, read, watch. Yeah, I probably would just watch Northern exposure over just the whole thing from the beginning. If I had some extra time,

it's really what I've been hankering for lately. What a weird show to pick as the show that you would devote yourself to. Like, Northern Exposure was a fine television program, but it's not like the Sipranos or something, it's not a classic. It is absolutely a classic! Okay. It's like the Sip sopranos with no murder. Everybody's okay. So nothing like the sopranos.

Everybody's fine. They're all nice people. It is a show about nice people who are nice to each other and have funny, sweet things happen. It is the definition of harmless. That's how I would define Northern exposure. Perhaps the most harmless television program ever made. I hope so. I hope I don't go all out to the again and be like, oh, this is deeply problematic.

You never know. But Cassie, I know what you mean here, which is that one of the things that we use social media for is distraction, distracting us from boredom, from dullness, and also from like sort of way down deep pains that we need on some level to distract ourselves from. I do think that it takes a while to find anything as compelling as constantly updating feeds

are. That's why they've become such a huge part of our lives. But I do think it's worth the effort, at least in my experience. So yeah, you can't just stare out the window. That's going to make you feel really, really sad. I would encourage you to either go out there to the stuff that's on the other side of the window and explore that physical space.

It's like VR, but it's so real. Like you feel everything. And even the smallest touches of like rain or wind on your hand feel like actual wind or rain. And then the other thing I would say is, yeah, watch stuff, read stuff, call a friend, try to find ways to engage with the world because that's what you're replacing and if you try to replace that only with staring out the window, it's never going to work.

That's a great point. John, before we get to the news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon, which is differently from last week, bad and good in a different way. Oh, God, I'm so happy. Oh my God. Sorry, what are we talking about? We flipped places. We flipped places, but I did want to talk

to some of the responses to things. So Emily has a response. I was listening to the new episode of the pod today and you kept bringing up crashing that prom and I wanted to tell you that because of you crashing our prom in 2015, we got in trouble for being too rowdy, which is wild, because why would they make it a Gatsby themed party if they didn't want us to be rowdy? Emily, I am sorry that you got in trouble as a result of me crashing your prom.

I will say that y'all were a little bit rowdy. Like, I thought that I could just calmly crash a prom with my best friend and our spouses like a normal 39 year old crashing a prom. And I felt that you guys were a little rowdy or then was absolutely necessary. So I don't want to put it on you, Emily, but maybe next time think twice about how you react to some guy crashing your problem

Also, we got a lot of emails that were like this one from Miriam dear John and Hank in a recent episode You talk quite a bit about Peeps so here is my question What are peeps? Is it an American thing? Please enlighten me, Miriam, PS, what is Arbor Day, or is it Harbor Day? Hahaha. Yeah, it's a day where we all go to the harbor, and we just sort of look out over the harbor,

and we think, that's nice. Well, it's not that much crazier than what Arbor Day actually is, which is a day when we all look at trees and think that's nice. Arbor Day, the day on America where we're like, trees are good. Yeah, it's basically the day in American life. I never thought about how weird that is. When we're like, oh God, sorry, trees about everything we've done to you over the last 500 years. And the trees are like, yeah, no, it's good.

It's, we're fine. Peeps are the opposite of trees. I think it's the narrowest way to define them. A peep is a marshmallow that's covered in sugar. Now, I know you're saying, Miriam, isn't a marshmallow just made of sugar? Yes. Yep.

That's the end of the story. I can't explain anything more. It's also there in the shape of small chickens. Oh, or other things depending on the holiday, which brings me to this email from Haley, who wrote, dear John and Hank, my name is Haley and I worked with peeps and designed their seasonal changeovers between 2016 and 2018.

That's amazing. There are no Arbor Day peeps and designed their seasonal changeovers between 2016 and 2018. That's amazing. There are no arbor day peeps yet, but there are peeps for Valentine's Day Easter, summer Halloween and Christmas. Also, Perhanks odd phone caller ID Quaker Town Veterinary Clinic, that was another one of our clients, and I'm wondering if someone swapped the meta text by accident, weird. Now, look. That is very weird. That is very weird.

And you say here that that's probably neither interesting or helpful to you. It isn't helpful, but it's very interesting that when I called peeps on the phone, I got another one of your clients. That is not in any way related to peeps. It is very interesting, but anyway, if you ever have a veterinary need in Quaker Town, please call Quaker Town Veterinary Clinic.

Absolutely. And if you're ever looking for some sugar coated and sugar peeps are the way to go. Hank, yeah. AFC Wimbledon played West Ham United in the fourth round of the FA Cup. I know. The furthest AFC Wimbledon had ever made it in the FA Cup. West Ham, a team in the Premier League, a team perhaps most famous for being

the only soccer team mentioned by name in the Harry Potter books. West Ham united a team so big that even in a world of quidditch, people care about it. A team that I think is currently like ninth in the Premier League. Some 80 spots above us, where we are currently rooted to the basement of League 1, almost certain to be relegated. That West Ham came to Kingsmeadow in the fourth round of the FA Cup, and we won the game for two in what has to be one of the biggest

upsets in the history of AFC Wimbledon moving on to the fifth round of the FA Cup. Unbelievable scenes. I mean, I watched the whole thing on television, ESPN plus and I couldn't believe it. Wimbledon were up three-nil at one point. Yeah. And then I brought my children down to show them the game. You texted me, you said, Hank, this is, this is like, there's still a lot of time in the game left,

but I'm very excited. And then I started watching. I'm trying to edit a video, and I get very nervous, very nervous, certainly. Yeah. Because they went from three zero up to three two. And that I'm thinking, well, of course, this is going to end.

I should never have tweeted that. Well, and that's usually how it goes in these FA Cup ties, when the David faces the Goliath, is that even when you do score, they end up winning because they've got more fitness and they can bring on incredible players, as substitutes, et cetera. But in this game, what happened is that when it got to three,

two, and I told my kids they had to leave because I didn't want them to see me like this. Wimbledon started to play with more confidence instead of less. And then there was a goal. A beautiful goal. It was gorgeous. And it was Toby Civic. He's nineteen years old it was his first goal for a fc winbillard and he's a product of the winbillard in academy like

well nightingale i mean it's just it's an incredible story and winbillard in our moving on to the fifth round of the f a cup for the first time uh... since reforming in two thousand two i mean it it this is crazy we we can't win a game in League One and we, we just beat West Ham. And now, in the fifth round, we're going to be playing Millwall, another relatively famous English club, although not in the Premier League. In fact, there, I think, in 19th place currently in the

championship. So I'm sure they're looking at this game. But by our right, if you can beat West Ham, you can beat well at Millwall. I know. And I'm sure sure they're looking at this game. But by our life, it can be West Ham. You can be well at Millwall. I know. And I'm sure Millwall is looking at this game thinking that's an easy win. But I have to say, I'm looking at that game and thinking, I mean, the chances are a lot better than if we were playing Manchester City. Obviously, it'd be great to play Manchester City from a financial perspective, like to, you know to have all of that revenue from all the ticket sales and everything, but I mean, we have a chance who can help a dream. That is the wonderful thing about football and life

is that you can't help but dream. I, oh, God, it was so beautiful. I wept, I cried and cried and cried. It's been such a hard year for Wimbledon. And it's just incredible. A good news in the midst of the darkness. I also watched the highlights of the game. And after that 88-minute goal,

in the last seven minutes of the game, there were two extremely good chances for West Ham that by all rights both should have been goals and would have been a tie game. And during overage time. And I was just like, oh God, I'm God, I wasn't watching that. Yeah, it was, it was a stressful, it was a stressful watch. Like a man who saves that kid and goal. He looks like he's 12. He is 12. I mean, yeah, the goalkeeper who's currently

playing for Wimblebin is on loan from Bournemouth and I believe he's 17 or 18. So yeah, he is a kid. We've got a very young group right now and that's what the manager Wally down says he wants. He says he wants players who are young and hungry and I mean, I don't think we're gonna be able to stay up obviously, but wow, what a great day for Wimbledon fans everywhere.

And I should add really quickly since we're talking about this, that if you want to be part of this story, if you want to own part of AFC Wimbledon, it's only 25 pounds a year, which is like 30 bucks and dropping. That's a Brexit joke. It has never been so inexpensive for Americans to join the Don's Trust as it is today. And you can be a part owner of AFC Wimbledon and support their story, just Google the Don's Trust,

and become an owner of this incredible special club, and get to live the dream with them. I got it. It was so amazing. It was so wonderful. I'm making a video about it, actually, of course, on vlog brothers, because I was reminded watching that game of the reason I became a sports fan in the first place and it's just There is no pure

Emotion that I've ever experienced and what I'm really after in life I think is like that that purity of experience the like so many emotions are complicated and hard to sort through and experiences are good news and bad news at the same time. And then you just occasionally you just need pure great news. And like I get that from sports, I get it from landing landers on Mars. I just I'm always looking for that feeling.

Yeah. So great news Hank. What is the news from Mars? Also great? No. It's not ultimately we haven't talked about opportunity in a while Rover been on the surface of Mars now for over 15 years and it so basically I'm ready to give up hope. But NASA on Friday started to send a new set of commands

to the rover with the idea that possibly it has started up, but due to problems with the clock or with some other like internal systems, like wasn't reaching out to NASA, wasn't listening correctly. Nothing has come back. So they're sort of like chasing down, like maybe this thing has turned on

and it just isn't functioning quite properly, but what appears to be the case is that we're now entering into like the, we're going to soon be entering into Martian winter for where opportunity is, and then it will get very cold and darker. entering into Martian winter for where opportunity is. And then it will get very cold and darker. And if that happens, like, it's just, it's over for this little guy,

because this is just not enough light. And it's gonna be way too cold for any of its systems to come back on. So it looks like it happened. It looks like last June when that dust storm hit, it just was too dark for too long for opportunity to stay warm enough to start back up after it started getting electricity running through its solar panels again. And Stephen Squires, the principal investigator for the mission, says, to be taken out by one

of the most ferocious storms on Mars in decades, that is an honorable death. Oh, that's really quite beautiful. Oh, man, it is honor. I mean, it must be so difficult for all the people who've worked on that mission for the last 15 plus years. It's just, yeah. But also what a great story of what humans can do when we work together. And so, yeah, like everything's gonna die,

but what a life it had. Yeah, 15 years, way longer than ever thought and lots of great science got done. And now we are still on the surface of Mars with curiosity and are gonna go again in 2020. And it's a fascinating place, and we'll just keep learning more. Well Hank, here's to curiosity.

Long may it rain, both as, you know, like a rover and as an emotional state. Ha ha ha. John, thank you for potting with me. It was a pleasure. I had a really good time. This podcast is edited by Nicholas Jenkins.

It's produced by Rosiana Halls-Rohassen-Chaird and Gibson. Our head of community and communications is Victoria Bonjorno. If you want to email us your questions, please do that. You can do it at HankinJohn at gmail.com. So, the will have stuff to talk about. The music you're hearing now and the beginning of the podcast is by the great Gunnarola and as they say in our hometown. Don't get to be awesome. and as they say in our hometown, don't get to be awesome.