The Morning Stream - TMS 2223: Alexa-cution

Episode Date: December 30, 2021

Happy Birthday, Christ, Nice to Meet You. Tristan sleeps in. Oops All Meth Berries! Appalled by Paul Paul. 50 shades of Bad. No One Cares About Year One. The Three Kings gave Jesus Gold, Incense, and Street Drugs. so many Wongs, it must be right. Here's Bernie's Hole. Retained Their Puffy Nature. If you recognize these Hallmark movie titles, your name might be Kim. Still waiting for that Best Decade. Some YouTubey A-Hole! Speaking of Covid. Different Shades of Villain You Can Get. Wendi is snowed in! Read This with Amy and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coming up on TMS, happy birthday, Christ, it's nice to meet you. Tristan sleeps in. Oops, all meth berries. Appalled by Paul Paul. 50 shades of bad. No one cares about year one. The Three Kings gave Jesus gold, incense, and street drugs. So many Wongs, it must be right.

Here's Bernie's hole. Retain their puffy nature. If you recognize these Hallmark movie titles, your name might be Kim. Still waiting for that best decade. Some YouTubey a-hole. Speaking of COVID. Different shades of villain you can get. Wendy is snowed in.

Read this with Amy and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. I think all this mumbo-jumbo is beside the point. The point seems to be what's wrong with drinking? My mission in life is to save all of mankind. The Morning Stream. I'm the captain now. Good morning and welcome to TMS. It's the morning stream for Thursday, December 30th, 2021.

I'm Scott Johnson, and he's Brian Ibit. Hello. Hello. Hello, full show today. I'll be here for the whole thing, Scott. I'm going to stick around, I think, for the whole thing. All right. I think we threw a few people off because the intro of the show yesterday had Randy

reading alternate titles. So I think everybody thought, oh, is it the whole episode just Randy on a phone or whatever? It's really funny, actually. Yeah, they come in, they hear Randy. the beginning and then oh brian's here what yeah very odd but uh yeah i assume everything went well your little i was just fine this was a grandmother visit that we had to schedule i can't remember if i talked about this on the show yesterday exactly why i was going but this was a visit to a grandmother's house that is an hour and a half away that could only be scheduled yesterday

because of um tristan and his girlfriend's schedules so they have you know they both work um in the retail and entertainment industry here, and because of that, their weekends are usually screwed up, and they couldn't get the time off because it's Christmas season, that sort of thing. So, yeah, he said, hey, meet us at my mom's house at 9.30, and we'll still take two cars, but you guys can follow us up there. Get to my mom's house? No sign of the kid.

Uh-oh. Text him? No response. Call him, no answer. Oh, no. Well, like, all right. Well, we're going to head up. Just head on up there.

Is he sleeping? They slept. They fell asleep, slept in. The whole reason we scheduled it for this day, making you get up early, or you start early, making Randy get up early while he's on vacation, making Brian Dunaway change his plans to do it early. And they completely slept through their alarm,

made it up there three hours late. Perfect. Perfect. Three hours late. Perfect. Try when you want them. I had to play dad. I was like, you know, your mother took today off from work

because this was the day that you had scheduled to go up there. Yeah. Yeah. It was all on them too, right? This is their whole plan. It was their thing. A whole reason we did yesterday. Like, you know, short show.

The whole Randy thing. Like, my internet problems, I don't think they had anything to do with that. But still, I'm going to blame that on them too. They could have been resolved by nine. For all we know at nine o'clock, those all cleared up. went away for all we know. Exactly. Yes, for all we know, exactly. But they made it up there. We had a great time.

We played some code names, which Grandma Carol loved. She's amazing. For a 92-year-old woman, she is spry alert. She'd be out there playing golf right now without a cart if she had her way, because she is a three times a week golfer, one time a week swimmer. And if I could be half that energetic when I'm 92. then I think he'll be doing all right. Oh, I'll even take a third of that energetic.

If I could be half that energetic now, I'd be fine. I was going to say, get me stoked about golfing now, and you'd be really doing something. Well, that's awesome. And she, this is like your holiday time with her, right? This is our holiday time. Yeah, we weren't able to go up and see her earlier, and she's had COVID.

She's, you know, been sick. She's still walking around with an oxygen tube. but that thing does not even stop her. Like, she is running around the house. It's, like, wrapped around her legs and stuff. And she's, like, running around, like, oh, let me get this for you. Oh, hey, would you like some of this pie? Let me get some pie.

And she's going over and getting pie. Meanwhile, this oxygen house is, like, tangled around her legs. It's like connected to the central machine in her house. And she's just all over the place. That's great. She's ready for our weird future where we're just dangling with wires. She is. She's all set with stuff.

That's awesome. Very cool. I was going to, I heard something funny, speaking of COVID. Something funny at the doctor this morning. So I went to the doctor at 8 o'clock, 830. Got there early and they did me early, which is great because I got back in time and all is well here for the show. And new girl doing my arm. She was fond. Really, is Zoe De Chanel? No. Yeah. Yeah. Singer, actor.

I guess her name's Jess. Jess. Sorry, Jess. Jess. Jess. Jess. Jess. Anyway, so she's very nice. She did a good job. but it's just a I'm doing my six-month draw thing and just it's normal nothing to worry about anyone at home anyway so they're doing that and uh something came up with COVID she goes so how did you how were how was family stuff and you know everyone in this doctor's office is all fully masked and you're expected to be as well and and I said oh well we canceled two big family hoo-haz because uh you know COVID and

Omicron and all that we're just trying to limit the issue she goes yeah we have like two employees here went to small gatherings and still ended up getting a big spread of COVID in their families and now aren't here today and all this kind of stuff. So she was just kind of going back and forth. And she says, you know, one of my biggest frustrations is people who say, well, it doesn't seem to matter now if you're vaccinated or not, you're still going to get COVID. And she says, that's like saying, me and Serena Williams can both play tennis, which I thought was a pretty good it's a good way to say it, right? You get vaccinated, you might be a little better.

You might be a little more Serena Williams than you are just average tennis person of the club. Yes. You're going to get the grand, you're going to feel the grand slam of COVID unless you get vaccinated, in which case it might be just a little tap over the net. Yeah, it was a nice, it was a nice metaphor that I might use it. It is. Yeah.

That's pretty great. Anyway. Yes. So there's that. Anyway. Anyway, you and Randy, like right after I hopped off, you continued, you your recommendals with the power of the dog. I, before I left said,

love that, you know, I didn't, without spoiling your movie, I said, oh, my God, that's such a great movie. And I'm going to second it. Such a great movie. That's so good. So good.

I thought about so many times since then. It's just so good. Yeah, we, it's the kind of movie. I was actually worried if Kim would even like it because it's just, it's just heady and not, I don't know.

She's not necessarily, she doesn't like depressing stories or stories that, you know, are kind of about struggle or whatever. Sure. Sure. And she'd love. it and I think it's really on the backs of these like amazing performances and also

even the trailer doesn't do it justice because you you think you've got a villain right but it's yeah I'm even at the end I'm not sure who the villain is like at the end it's not even a typical villain of course but there's kind of multiple there's different shades of villain you know that's I think that's what makes a really good uh a long lasting film like that is all right usual suspects maybe not as clear Kaiser Soze, pretty bad guy. Don't give me wrong. He is a bad guy.

But, I mean, you're kind of rooting for Gabriel Burns' character, but he's kind of a bad guy too. You know, they've all shot people. And the one time Stephen Baldwin was good at something. I mean, you know, he was kind of a bad guy. Yeah, he played a douche. Turns out he is a real douche.

But yeah. But you're kind of rooting for those guys, even though they're bad guys. And I think that that's what makes a sign of a really good, a film that's going to stay with you for a long time is those different shades of bad. Yeah, shades of gray, shades of bad, shades of bad be a good name for a movie. Shades of 50 shades of bad. Yeah, which is pretty much 50 shades of gray. It's pretty bad. 50 ways that show is bad. All right, we've got a quick email I want to read here. Correction. We like corrections. I don't mind them. Send them in. Like, it's not a problem. If you think we said something stupid or we need to be

corrected, I have no problem reading your email. Like this one from Kirk, aka Centrofuse in the chat. He's not in there today, I don't think. At least I haven't seen him. Dear Boots and Scoots, I think that means I have diarrhea. Is that what that means? You've got the scoots. Okay.

I wondered about that. All right. Diarrere. It's just an excuse to play that. As the Wise Band Alkaline Trio once said, quote, I've got a big effing bone to pick with you, my darling. You know that song? I don't know that song.

I don't know that song. But I like it. All right. Well, so that's how he starts the email. I like the lyric. Says, Scott, your 21st day of your 21st year of your 21st century has an egregious error. And I'm honestly a little surprised Brian didn't pick up on it when you said it. So he's going after you as well.

I guess so. Fine. F you. He said. Brian's got the ultimate solution. F you move on. Let's be done. Exactly.

Yes. So he says, now obviously you have the 21st day correct. Well, thanks. I appreciate that. You also have the 21st century correct, even though we are in the 2000s and not the 2100s. However, much like with a century, a year is also going to be one higher because the year 2000 existed. So, 2021 is the 22nd year. I mean, he's right.

He's totally right. Okay. So let's talk about this because the first year of the 22nd century, no, wait, 21st, see, the 21st century. See, the 21st century wouldn't be, ah, this is where it all gets kind of screwy. First year of 21st century should be 2001, right? That's what he said, basically. Right, okay.

So, yeah, so 2000, so really it would be the 20th year, right? Because you're counting one. So, no, it'd be the 20, still be the 21st. If you're counting on your hands, one, two, three, four, five, right? Yeah, yeah. 2006 would be, it would be the fifth year. Okay, I see what he's saying. Yeah, you see what he's saying.

But here's my, here's my counter to what he's saying. Because I get it, like his math is correct. However, that isn't the point. The point is the visual, and I'm a very visual person. The point is the visual of the 12-21-21. Not that it's the 21st year of the, I said it wrong and I regret that. But what I'm looking at is the ones and the two's in their arrangement. That's what matters to me.

Yes, yes. And that doesn't care about your math. That's just a visual representation. Yeah. No, he's absolutely right. Yep, Kirk, well done. That is one of those. It's so dumb that we couldn't have foreseen back in zero.

That would be the first year and said, let's just start all counting with zero. Yeah, we really should have. Everything should start with zero. When people say, when I count to three, you better be in your bed. Zero, one, like that. Exactly. Yes. why not on the count of three everybody run zero one or when you count down three two one zero i can see that

let's change yeah let's change i mean 2001 is the first year of this century right because that year not 2000 even though 2000 you know or it's the first year of the millennium or 21st year of the monium too yeah but it's the start zero you count one right it's the start of that first year so when 2000 hits we are now entering the first year of the next year of the next year of the new decade the new century the new whatever yeah right he's right that is true but but but what is not true is the emphasis here the emphasis is on the pattern of it not the accuracy of the of whether or not it's the first day 10 day and he's and he's not arguing by the way uh scandal he's not arguing about the century he's saying correct yes this is the 21st century right um he's saying that he's saying that

this would not be the 21st year of the 21st century. Correct. We now, as of two days from now, wait, I'm sorry. Yeah, two days from now, we will be beginning. Well, no, no, no, wait, wait. Now I'm questioning this again. Wouldn't 2001 be the first year of the 21st century? Oh, wait a minute, you're right.

So 2000 would have been, no. You don't count 2000 as the first year of the 20th century. Well, one, from that... One was the first year of the first century. From January 1st of last year until January 1st next week, or in two days, that's a year of time passing. So that is the first year of the 21st century, right? I'm sorry, of the first year of 2020 of 20, of the 2020s, for example. If we're just doing, let's just do decades to make it simple.

So you'd say the first year of the 2020s is 2000, when? 2000 ended oh wait no no that's not right no you can't do that like you know when this ended that became the first year you're right you're right you're right yeah no the first year of because the first year of the first century right was year one that means that every century begins with the one right so right uh 19001 2001 2001 21001 are all going to be the first years of their respective centuries. So this is the 21st year of the 21st century. I figured out why this is confusing. I figured out why this is even at all a thing. It's because our brains are trained. If we put four apples in front of us,

we go one, two, three, four, and we don't count the zero space before it. We count the numbers. But when we do years, we count the zeros. And it's weird. Which we shouldn't. Yeah, it's weird. Because we didn't count that first year. If somebody back then would have said, by the way, I was Starting from here, zero. Happy birthday Christ, good to meet you. Happy birthday Christ, nice to meet you. Enjoy those useless gifts from the Magi there. You won't be able to use any of that shit.

We're starting the century now, as opposed to when you're from now, we're going to start a century. Okay. So now that's interesting because you brought up another thing I want to touch on. The mur that he gets, do you know what myr is? I found out what... It's embalming fluid. What are they doing? Yeah. What baby?

What's it like, what's it you do with gold? Like, oh, cool. Baby, I can spend this where? Yeah. I mean, at least the... Oh, no, you know, it's mer, not... Yeah, mer is the embalming fluid, right? Yes.

Whereas, frankincense is a... It's a... It's a scent, yeah, scent powder. Like, incense, basically. Incense, there you go. That makes sense to me, because the parents can use it. The gold makes sense to me because the parents can spend it. the embalming fluid makes no sense to me unless that dude's saying well originally herod wanted me to come kill you but i'm not going to do it so i guess keep the stuff anyway like it's weird yeah it's really what you maybe smoked it don't they don't they use embalming fluid as a drug so these days like isn't that they uh i don't know is that a thing yeah okay wait hold on embalming fluid fluid drug let's see what we got here uh blind as a drug addiction blog um

Oh, the answer is yes. Yeah. Second spin in rehab, this guy, medicate. PCB basically is... Yeah, look at that. Stuff gets you messed up for real, dog, he says. If you're addicted, there's also people getting high on nutmeg,

but whatever, I'm not looking at that. Embalming fluid. Cleo points out, they also give a sleeping newborn a drum solo. Damn, you're absolutely right. Little drummer boy. What the heck are you doing, little drummer boy? Maybe come back tomorrow morning when we're all awake.

Yeah, but isn't that one? That one's made up for the song, right? Oh, right, because all the rest of this is factual. Well, I mean, there probably were, I don't know what the history is. I'd have to look it up. There's probably a way to track whether they actually went and saw a kid or not and brought shit, right? Yes. But if you're going to tell me the drummer boy was there, we're going to, I'm going to have words with those people.

So what you do is it is like PCP. You're right. They say they soak it in the, so you soak a stick. Let's see, hold on. This is fascinating stuff. I like that. Yeah, this is really interesting. Okay, here it is. Oh, a cigarette. All right. So you take a cigarette and oftentimes it's a marijuana cigarette, but it can be straight up tobacco. You dip it into the solution. It's soaked it in balbing fluid and light it. You have to dry it out in a freezer first, and then you can smoke it. The result is known as a fry or a fry stick or death stick, not because it kills you, but because it's usually you. used for dead people. Yeah. And then he can buy these on a street corner for about 20 bucks.

So, Brian. So Brian, if you, yeah, you want to go get a fry stick? She's, that's so close to when I was in Ireland looking for bumper fry or whatever it was called. Like, I'm so glad somebody didn't just hand me a PCP-laced marijuana cigarette. Right. You never know what you're going to get. A frozen, frozen, dried-out PCP blunt.

Yeah. Well, now I've learned something because I just thought it was. weird they'd bring that but maybe back then it wasn't stigmatized it was just a you know a drug yeah to help the kid with his colic or whatever you know maybe that would it anyway anyway let's move on yeah so let you know if you if you want to further clarify the 21st century or the 21st year of the 21st century that's that's where i have that's where i am questioning this like it does feel like if we did the math correct and one is the first year of the first century then 2021 would be the 21st year of the 21st century.

That's right. There you go. You've done it. Like Brian's theories on time travel, his actual time explanation is also solid. Please don't start this again. All right. Let's move on. You want to talk more about in the time, Jeannie? Let's talk about maggots. All right. Let's talk about maggots. It's your fault, Jeannie.

We're moving on to maggots. Here you go. Jeff Sire, old pal Bronco, from up north in Canada. Oh, wait, I got to do the thing. Kaneda! All right. So he's up there in Canada there. and he wrote this email. He says, Scott and Brian, regarding Monday's trivia question on maggot therapy.

And this is one of your, that you asked me and Brian, me and done away. This is the squirm, morning squirm. Appropriately a morning squirm question. Very squirmy. Yeah, we got more feedback on that episode

than we have in a long time because I guess a lot of people got grossed out by everything that we thought. Oh, it was, yeah. Oh, really? Like a lot of people, it's good. You get all that email.

That nobody sends me an email, even though I'm the one who finds and sources those questions. Yeah, it was him. You're the one. what did it. It's him what done it. So I don't know why I got all of it. You allowed him to come on the show, Scott. It's your fault?

I think what happens is you'll say something maybe kind of gross. And then I'll ride that horse and I'll ride it into the ground, you know, and make it worse. This stack right here of cards, right here, this stack right here, questions that I won't ask as part of the morning swim. Look at all these questions. And now what is that from? What is this from? What is this from? This is where I stole the questions and I can't tell you until I've used it up the whole box. Oh, all right.

Because otherwise, you know. Yeah, I don't want you to give it away. That's good idea. Yeah, exactly. All right, back to this. He says, I had a friend in the army that had this done to him. So he had a friend with maggot therapy. Okay.

He was on his jungle warfare course in French Guiana with the French Foreign Legion and got hacked in the back of his elbow with a machete or his Randy would say, machete. Machete. Machete. I moved machete. Wounds in a jungle environment get infected almost immediately. That sounds true to me. The Legion medics said it would need to be evacuated, or he would need to be evacuated, or he could try a, quote, jungle remedy, unquote.

He opted to stay. They took maggots and put them in a dressing in the wound, of the wound, rather. Apparently, maggots will only eat dead flesh, and he said in about a day, the maggots had very quickly removed all the infected tissue. He found out after this that it is highly effective treatment for infectious wounds, despite the maximum gross out level. On the downside, the scar at left was massive, he says. Oh, yeah, I'll bet.

Wow. So that would be, so to stop the infection makes perfect sense. To stop the infection and minimize scarring, sounds like maybe it's not the best solution. If you're, you know, near a hospital or something, maybe you do that. A side effect, though, this guy can now stand on a slice of pizza and tell you what flavor it is. Yeah, no problem. He's all good. Oh, speaking of things that go on pizza,

Do you think his sergeant, by the way, he said, Get on your feet, maggots! And this guy, like, you know. I hope he did. He's Canadian, though. Canadians, they're too nice. Yeah, they just say, oh, hey, if you don't mind, hey, we're going to go run a couple laps, eh?

Oh, hey, hey, maggots, eh? If you could get a, sorry to weak you up. But if you could get on your feet, eh, that'd be great. They're just too nice. This reminds me, though, pizza toppings. So Kim made a, she bought me a big basket of, mushrooms, because I love mushrooms on everything. Just a huge fan.

I know not everybody's bag is mushrooms, but I love them. Are you doing the fresh raw mushrooms on a pizza? Yes, so she did those on salads, pizzas, and other stuff. But last night, she was worried that we'd had this basket a little too long, even though I think mushrooms kind of just last, but I don't know. Maybe they have a date. Oh, no, they do not. I don't know.

I eat them so fast. They're never around long enough for me to tell if they would last. but she made the most incredible. And I mean like, I was moaning while I was eating it. That sounds weird. But I was moaning. You don't even have to work hard for that one at all, Jamie. That one was handed on a plate.

Merry, Happy New Year. Yeah, happy New Year, Jamie. Well done. It's, uh, she put mushroom, she made a homemade cream of mushroom soup for the base. She used, um, uh, oatmeal instead of, like, cream. Yeah, good. She used a little bit of sour cream just to kind of, you know, give it a little thicker kind of deal. And then all of these fresh mushrooms, I thought I was going to die.

It was so good. That sounds like that. That's a good use for raw fresh mushrooms. I will argue that pizza is not. And when I worked for Pizza Hotline in Wheatridge back in 1990, yeah, 1990 to 91 or 89 to 90, I was working there for a year or so I was dating the daughter of the owners, the Kleinfelters.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the Kleinfelters. The Kleinfelters, yeah. The Kleinfelters. I'm familiar. So, you know, sometimes it would basically just be, like, two of us working there at a time. Sometimes I'd be making the pizza,

or sometimes I'd be making and delivering or whatever. But for a while, so we'd get the big can of pickled mushrooms and use that for the pizza. Drain it out. We'd have it in a little container. container, the pepperoni, the sausage, dip our hand into those mushrooms, those little slimy little mushrooms, all over the pizza, cheese it up, put in the oven, blah, blah, blah. People loved it.

Yeah. The owner said, you know, we've been thinking about trying to do fresh mushrooms. And so they went to the store, got a big bushel of fresh mushrooms. We sliced them all up. We put them in that container. We put a little plastic over to keep them fresh. And we'd make pizza with it. people complained

people you know we're so our customers were so bitchy about it like the the mushrooms

when you do that on pizza they dry up and they turn into little little jerkeys yeah they do mushrooms don't do

that you're right they do yeah and they also don't keep as well so if you're they don't keep as well

they just they really just dry up and they kind of soak up a lot of the the good cheese grease

and that sort of thing that you don't want them to deal. So we had to go back and it was a lesson in you try to do something fresh for people and look at what you get. I must be some kind of psycho because I will eat mushrooms in any form on anything, including. Now, did Kim saute? We did not saute the mushrooms before we put them on the pizza and that will soften them up and make them a nice, you know, basically give them a nice little holding onto the juice base to put on a pizza. Yeah, she covered it in some kind

vinegar thing, oil thing? I'm probably saying it wrong. So she didn't cook the mushrooms, but she soaked them in something? She soaked them in something. And then on the pizza, they were cooked, but they retained their, their puffy nature.

It worked out. They didn't turn it in a little shrew up. Yeah. We were lazy. We didn't want to do any of that crap. But I could eat at any given minute now. You could walk up to me with a big fresh, like, Shataki mushroom or something,

and I would just go to town on that thing. I love them. Love them. So anyway, I'm hoping she can maybe make a recipe out of it because it was stunningly good. There's still some of the fridge. I'm going to have that for lunch today. It was so freaking good. And she's like, are you sure you like it this much?

I'm just over there going, oh, make me stop. I'm going to eat this whole bowl, get this whole pan out of here because I'm going to eat it. I'm going to eat the whole thing. Yes, I do like stuffed mushrooms, Verovina. I'll eat those too. Yeah. I'll eat anything. Hey, Katsumi says, if the mushrooms are under the cheese, the fresh ones are fine on pizzas.

No, you think so, but no. Those things, they don't soften. and they absorb all of the juice around them. They still turn into, like, jerky. Yeah, a little hard, little jerky things. That's exactly what we did. Like, the cheese goes on top of everything. This ain't no silly.

Chicago thin crust, you know, alternative to their deep dish where they do the cheese underneath the toppings, which is crazy. You put the cheese over the toppings. Yeah, it's, Brian's right, first of all. Second of all, they're good on everything. And I want to steak with sauteed mushrooms now. That's what I want next.

Oh, yeah. Love Sotom. Damn it. Oh, it sounds so good. Okay. Thank you, Jeff. Canada never lets us down. We appreciate the information about the maggots.

Also, I'm glad your friend is, though, scarred, that he's well. Okay. We didn't do the news yesterday. We'd do it today. Here you go. Let's do it today. Why not? That sound means it's time for the news, and it's brought to you by.

My TMS patron John Meadows says this. We have a video game review site, podcast, YouTube, Twitch, well, everything, L-O-L-L. We've been doing this almost eight years. You can find all the info here. www. The Gamers Lounge, separated by hyphins.com. That's the dash gamers-lounge.com.

Nice. Don't forget your hyphins. Don't forget your hyphins. Yes. All right. Let's get into it. There's an actor speaking to Canada once again. Here. Kaneda! I'm required by law to do that.

There's a Canadian actor who works in Vancouver. who has been in 27 of those dumb Hallmark Christmas movies that my wife loves. Wow, 27. She recognized him, too, when I pointed him out. He usually plays a character named Kenny, or maybe it's as Kenny. Maybe he plays, maybe that he's credited as Kenny. I think he always plays a character named Kenny. Yeah, I think that's it.

I think that's what it is as well. Fans of the romantic comedy genre may know the 27 dresses, that sort of crap. but anyway oh and so I guess this guy's in it let's see fans of the character serves as bride made it it 27 times no that's not it Vancouver actor Nelson Wong

all right he can relate to that number he is a claim to fame is that he's in 27 roles in hallmark movies Wong's hallmark ties started when he played Kenny Kwan that's why they have the 27 dresses connection yeah I was like we're in 27

roles that's just they're really reaching for it by using that aren't they really are yeah kind of annoyed now. That's also a Canadian website. What's wrong with you guys up there? Let's see. Macgates do their HTML. There you go. His first shot was in 2005. It was in some mystery movie called Third Man Out for director Ron

Oliver. If none of these names are familiar, it's because they're Hallmark movies. If none of these names sound appealing, that's because they're Hallmark movies. When Oliver started directing for Hallmark, you made sure to find a place for Wong, as often as a character named Ken. Kenny, quote, as Ron started to work for Hallmark, Kenny started to working for Hallmark. He's just grown into a thing.

The fans seem to respond to it. And 27 movies later, here we are, says Wong, laughing. That's his laugh. Uh-huh. I made that up. Wong moved to Vancouver when he was around six years old from New Zealand is where he's from. He's been acting since 99s. He's also appeared in video games like Far Cry 4 and TV shows like Arrow and Riverdale.

I bet I've seen this guy in Arrow then. Nelson Wong, yeah, looking at a photo of him. Boy, always the friend, right? Never gets to be the headliner, just... He's, uh, and it's, you know, it's okay. It's, uh, whatever, he's the John Ratsenberger of, of, uh, Hallmark. You know, you got,

Pixar has Ratsenberger. Uh, Hallmark has this Wong guy, uh, literally the MCU has... Yesterday you were arguing the MCU had Wong. Yeah, they've got their own wrong, just a different Wong, you know. The Wongs are taking over the rights. So well done. Everybody involved. Let's move over to this story about, oh, this is great.

You ever find a bunch of drugs and don't know where they came from? Do you ever do that? Yeah, all the time. I found some bulbing fluid under this manger once. Yeah, well. Just left behind. Here's a worse one. A mom found crystal meth worth $120,609 in a cereal box.

as she made breakfast for her kids. That's a pretty big surprise. I remember when I found nothing but marshmallow pieces in my lucky chest. That's right. Does the box say, oops, crystal meth? This is a little more weird than that, because how did those drugs get in there? But anyway, if mother of four children was shocked beyond belief,

after discovering she received more than what she was expecting out of a $6 box of cereal, Hasim Nazir, age 25, was preparing cereal for her two young kids when she says, wait, she said four kids earlier, didn't it? Yeah, it did. Mother of four children. And then it says her two kids. Which should not be hyphenated, by the way. You don't hyphenate a mother of four

children hyphenating mother of four. Yeah, she also only fed two of her children, which is weird. Anyway, she discovered a plastic bag filled with white crystals in a packet of golden morn maze and soya protein flakes. Ugh, well, there's your mistake buying that

garbage. I would say so. Also, the smugglers probably thought this has got to be the safest place we can hide this crystal meth because nobody buys this yeah who buys soya protein flakes nobody like the malto meal alternative fruit loops bags that are down below that nobody ever seems to touch oh those things they're not good we used to try to get those when we were like super early married and had a baby and we'd try them and they were not good probably be these'll be cheaper they'll never know the difference and my god these things taste like plastic yeah they're real bad um hey speaking of the 90s here's a question for you

Yes. I was having a conversation with Garrett about this on Twitter, and I wanted to ask you, if I had to carve out one decade, in the traditional form of 90 to 2000 or 2000 to 10, or, you know, a proper number decade. So we're going to say 90, right, 90 to 99 would be a decade. There's your decade, yeah. I'm sorry, yeah, 99. Do you have a decade that you think was your best? Like, my best, I think the 90s, 90 to 99, was my favorite decade of all that. So, define your best.

Like, because I really enjoyed the 80s. Well, the 80s were great, but I wasn't at my happiest because I was a teenager. There we go. Okay, right. So that's the difference, right? Like, going and being able to re-experiencing all those movies over again and hearing all that great new music and that sort of thing. Yeah. But you're saying, like, at your best.

At your best, your happiest, your most content, your most optimistic about the. the world, this sort of stuff. For me, it was absolutely the 90s. I don't know why. I had a couple crappy years in the 90s. I don't know if I'd want to experience those again. Yeah, see, it all depends, right? Like if you had a couple of poop of years,

I might say 2010, except I had some crappy years in there. But I also had some really amazing stuff happen in that decade. Yeah. I mean, you know, you got, you got, uh, I just don't have a single complaint about the 90s. I think the 90s. I think I'd redo the, you know, the 90s would be at my best kind of thing. You know why?

I think it is because we're in our 20s. You know, thinking about it, I had some crappier years in the 80s. Yeah, let's go 90s. Yeah, 90s is good. 90s is good, man. Yeah. It's just a great time to be alive.

I don't know what it was. Some great about that decade. All right, well, then we agree. Where the hell was I? So she found this thing in there, right? Now, it wasn't the whole box. She didn't like open it and go, oh, the entire bag is meth,

which is kind of what I thought this would be. Yeah, yeah. It's just a bag that was stuffed in the bag. but the headline likes you to feel like it's more than that. Right. Well, I mean, when you hear $120,000 worth of crystal meth, do you think cereal box-sized amount? Like, you don't know how much that is unless you're a pro.

I guess I don't know enough about street prices for meth to know. But General Mills has been in trouble this year more than just for this. They got a severe backlash after their hit product, Cinnamon Toes Crunch, came with shrimp tails. Didn't that turn out to be crap, though? That turned out to be a lie or something? Um, yeah, didn't it like the, the guy was, uh, had staged it just as a joke. He's a comedian, online comedian or something and basically did that.

Yeah, or some YouTubey a-hole, something like that. And then they, the reason they were, the reason it was controversial is they reacted with, well, we think that's accumulated sugar that's just formed into the shape, what looks like shrimp. So they were basically trying to, but what they should have just said is you made it up. That's not what that is. Yeah, there's no. That's what you did. I mean, somebody could have been eating their red lobster leftovers at work at the cinnamon toast crunch post factory assembly line and accidentally just threw their shells in there.

That's a story that sounds like it's five years old, but it happened this year. It's also a story. I was thinking about Bernie Sanders and his gloves in the chair. Yeah. That feels a hundred years ago. That was this year. You mean, hold on. Yeah, you got something there, right?

he's chat everyone at home Brian has left the microphone space he is he's on his way to pick up an item okay here he comes here we go this exact thing that I 3D printed the day before yesterday oh look at that look at him there

this is like some of the best 3D print look how like you can you probably can't tell but like his glasses are separate like they're not you know they're just a thin glasses line separated from his head and stuff You didn't have to 3D print the glasses separate.

They just were part of it. No, this is all one print right here. I even had to, you know, we were talking about the hole to wash out with alcohol, like on your Batman and stuff. Yeah, yeah. There's Bernie's hole. That's perfect. That's perfect. Perfect place for Bernie's hole.

Right down there, my 2% butt. My 2% butt with a 4% hole. So this guy's getting ready to be painted and he'll just sit on my screen. or sit on my shelf or somewhere like, we'll basically just sit, you know, wherever I put them. Yeah, this is the year we almost had a, we had a coup attempt. Yes, it is. Yeah, that was this year that we're in still. We had an insurrection.

Uh-huh. Yeah, that was a great time. What a wonderful time that was. I'm telling you the 90s, we had no insurrections in the 90s, none. I know. Are we going to see something on the anniversary of that, by the way? Are we going to see something on the January, or we'll see something January 6th? I don't know.

I know one pedophile won't be there. she's going to jail you guys or wait did she so jizzlane or whatever her name is she got she got five what is it I mean that should be part of her sentence by the way is you'll you're going to get the jail time or the prison time we're also from now on going to be calling you jizz lane yeah jizz lane wait didn't she so she got four of the five counts the fifth seemed kind of redundant so I'm not surprised it sounded like the other ones carrying a minor over state lines or whatever it was but um but he's uh Or she's, yeah, she's busted. She'll probably appeal. But my guess is she'll be in prison. And there she can get out her sketchbook and draw her cellmates.

Yeah, exactly. Draw her cellmates sketching her. Like her French. Or looking sketchy at her. Yeah, which is what she did. Anyway, I hope the sixth is very peaceful this year. And if not, I'll just keep dreaming of the 90s again because the 90s were great. And I'm not saying because of who was in charge.

That's not what I mean. I'm just saying I had a really nice, peaceful time in the 90s. It was great. And I was afforded that because I was a white young guy. You know, I understand people, there were people that struggled in the 90s. Columbine happened in the 90s. Some awful terrorist attacks around the world happened in the 90s. All sorts of terrible wars.

I know. Don't send me your emails. I know. I'm just talking about my personal zone of contentment at the time was all right. It was okay. All right, moving on. Uh, anyway, that lady doesn't get that money, by the way. That meth has to be turned into the authorities.

Aw, she doesn't get to keep any of that. Can I keep a little bit of the crystal meth just in case? Just a little bit. Uh, here's a story about your A word, your echo, you know, your Amazon echo over there. Yeah, yeah. That's nice of you. Like, it's like calling her Amazon asshole or something like that, right? Because you say the A word.

Yeah, Ahole. Tell me what time it is. Um, anyway, she, uh, told a 10-year-old girl to touch a live plug. like an electrical plug with a penny. This is a real story. Check this out. Amazon has updated its A-word voice assistant after it challenged a 10-year-old girl to touch a coin to the prongs of a half-inserted plug. So like imagine the plug going in, you got the two prongs.

Encouraged her to touch the penny to the prongs. Jeez. Yeah, I'm curious. This is, I'm curious about how this came about. This is effed up. It's pretty weird. So the suggestion came after the girl asked A word for a challenge to do, is the quote. And the voice said,

Plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet and then touch a penny to the exposed prongs, said the smart speaker. Yeah. Amazon said they fixed the air as soon as Amazon became aware of it. How do you are not aware of it before this? God. Some chucklehead. It's reading, it reads Wikipedia articles and it doesn't like vet them before it reads them, right? Oh, maybe that's it.

Maybe it was, like, pulled from some... And this is pulled from TikTok, Scott. Oh, yes, your favorite app, TikTok now? It's rearing its ugly head at us and killing all of our children. Not on my algorithm. My for you page is nothing but dogs and kids. Not on my watch. Let's see.

They fix the air. The girl's mother, Kristen Levita, live in Lovita Loca, described the incident on Twitter. She said they were doing some physical challenges like laying down and rolling over, holding a shoe on your foot from a physical education teacher in YouTube earlier, bad weather outside. She just wanted another one when the echo speaker suggested partaking in the challenge that it had found on the web. So, Brian, you're absolutely right.

That's what it did. The dangerous activity known as the Penny Challenge. Oh, my Lord, began circulating on TikTok and other social media websites about a year ago. You're like a prophet over there who didn't read ahead on the article. Oh, you did? I missed that part entire. When I pasted it, I had no idea. So, all right, let's do a little test.

Let's mute our microphones to say the A word. Okay. And let's ask her to give us a challenge. Because I'm curious as to what we get. We'll do them one at a time. You do yours first. Oh, yeah. Okay, I'll do mine first.

All right. Give me a challenge to do. All I hear is. All right. Did you hear any of that? No, we couldn't hear it. But what does say? So it's, all you need is a balloon.

Fill the balloon and see how long you can keep it up in the air. Let me know if you want me to start a timer. Wow. Okay. Let's see how dumb I can get it to be. I need to turn my, I need to turn my echo up. Apparently, it's a little low. It's a little low. All right. Here we go. Hold on. Give me a challenge to do. All right. She wants me to get a lemon, cut it into wedges for four people, and then have them bite into the lemon and see who makes...

The goal is to try not to make any face at all by biting into your sour lemon. Okay. That's the challenge. That's it. I think this is a dangerous thing I think Amazon is now checking all of their challenges to make sure Let's see who can be quiet the longest He's going to come up at some point

Eichora said It's the dead air challenge Yeah you guys can't hear it Because we do this on purpose We turn it down so we're not bugging shows That's why we do it for you We do it for you All right

It's not for us for you Didn't see a bitching When I was showing my Bernie Which none of the none of the audio listeners are going to get. They're not going to see my Bernie. No, they're not going to see your...

Show on my Bernie. I pulled down my pants and showed my Bernie. Your Bernie's butthole. All right. Let's move on here. Oh, I guess the reason that this one was a challenge metals conduct electricity

and inserting them into live electrical cause shocks, fires, and other damage. Well, yeah. Yeah. What is the original challenge of doing it? Right, exactly. What was the challenge to do? See how long you can hold the penny,

TikTok teens? Let's see. The outcome of this someone could get hurt. Yeah, we know that. I'm trying to read the... Okay. If anyone can find a video of somebody

trying this, we're all adults here. I just want to see what happens. An extra five bucks if you can find Aaron Paul. Or not Aaron Paul. Aaron Paul's the actor. Yeah, we like... Logan Paul's the good Paul. The good Paul.

Logan Paul. The bad Paul's. Yeah, Logan Paul. Extra five bucks if you can find Logan Paul doing this. Or, conversely, if you can make Logan Paul do this. Actually, everybody's, that's, yes, sign me up for making him to it. Someone, there's a controversy right now with Logan Paul. I guess he melted down a crap ton of game boys and made a piece of furniture out of it,

and people are mad because it's a bunch of, like, vintage game boys just melted and ruined so he could have a table or some shit. Interesting. So people are all mad. That's probably the least, that's the least offensive thing he's ever done. Yeah. I mean, you know, if you wanted those vintage games. vintage game boys, you should have bought them before he did, right?

I mean... I agree. What's his brother's name? Like, Larry Paul? That's why I couldn't remember all the Paul brothers. It's Logan Paul and... Jake Paul. Jake Paul.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, they're both part of our modern nightmare. Paul Paul. Paul. I wish it was Paul. I would love a name like Paul, Paul. That's great. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

All right. Anyway, don't do that is the answer. Okay. Yeah. Final story, we'll make this one quick. McDonald's in China confirms it is testing exercise bikes in their stores. Okay. They saved me.

I'm going to just put in a word here for China. Oh, I thought McDonald's saved you. Well, McDonald's in China. When I was there, I was eating the weirdest food, dog tongues and stuff I didn't want and all sorts of stuff. And that's all anybody would feed me at these factory visits. And it was awful. I was like losing weight. I couldn't eat some of the food there.

in southern China. Hong Kong was fine. It was wonderful in Hong Kong. Amazing food. Southern China, I could not find something that was at all anything I wanted until we found a McDonald's in Shenzhen. And it saved me. It was amazing. It was like a spiritual experience. That hamburger, that bit, that Big Mac I got was the greatest Big Mac I'd ever had.

And the nuggets. I was so good, Brian. I can't even, I seriously, I can't even describe how good it was, given the circumstances. I'm sure. No, I can relate. I know. Like that first Freddy's I had after the colonoscopy, the full day of not eating was probably the best Freddy's, best hamburger I've ever. Yeah, best food you'll ever put in your mouth is kind of what that was. Well, anyway, they're going to start doing this. It's pretty weird. They are not only rolling out new co-branded meals, it's also extending its creative thinking to hardware and the idea of stationary bike seats. So you'd be sitting there eating and going, you know, riding your hoo-ha. doing it. That seems it seems like there are a lot of things McDonald's could do before they do this.

Well, in China, I mean, maybe in China they've fixed all their problems. Maybe they're okay over there. Okay, is that the deal? I don't know. There's nothing left for us to do. I guess let's put an exercise bike. Maybe their McRib has actual, like, rib meat. How long before somebody chokes to death on one of their exercise bikes because they're trying to eat a quarter pounder while they're riding an exercise bike? Right. I don't know that they're heavy breathing and accidentally inhale some of their, uh, some of their secret sauce. And they, that's not a euphemism. No.

What happened to you this weekend? Oh, I inhaled some of that secret sauce. It inhaled some secret sauce. Oh, it was a bad night. It was in a box of vegan oat orzo flakes or whatever they were earlier. Orzo flakes. Was that what it was? I don't think that was it.

No, it was something. Orzo flakes. It was like some kind of flax. fake Star Trek alien food. Anyway. Orzo's real, man. Orzo is a real thing. Is that a real thing?

I don't know what an Orzo is. It's a real pasta. Is it? Orzo pasta. I do know that. I did know that. Yeah. Orzo.

What am I thinking? I guess I just hadn't heard it in the context. Orzo is real to me. It's real to me. Oh yeah. Like baked lemon chicken, orzo pasta. Yeah. I've eaten that.

I've eaten that. You're thinking he's like played by René Aboriginoa on a special. special brother's episode of Yeah, Odo and Orzo. The adventures of Odo and Orzo. They finally get out of space and get matching buckets on Earth. All right.

That's it for your news. We're going to take a break when we come back. Read this with Amy. Yeah, that's right. Book recommendations. I'm in the middle of reading a book, which I might also mention. But making a list of what she brings us as well. I'm in the middle of doing a podcast, so yeah, you do you. Okay. I'll keep reading. You keep

podcasting and we'll start 2022 with a bang. So that'll happen here in a minute, but before we do that, oh, Wendy, sorry everybody, Wendy is gone again this week. She's stuck in a cabin with like no, it's basically lo-fi is the best I can put it. Oh, please tell me she's stuck there with an oasis cover band. No? Oh, that would be great, but no. It's just her, her husband and her four, three, four kids, three kids, four kids.

And they're all just, uh, is there one internet blip away from no connection. So we couldn't do it. at the moment. But she'll be back next week. All right, Brian, play a song. That's what I'm saying. I will play a song. This is by a Barcelona artist who goes by the band named P. P. Shadow. It's really, I think it's a guy,

right? It's a guy named C.P. Fletcher who performs under the name A Permanent Shadow. And he's got a great website A Permanent Shadow.com. His first foray, before he formed his own band, was as a front man, leading a Lou Reed cover band

called The Magic and the Lost Orchestra. uh he's a big fan of lou reed he really likes uh lu reed egie pop david bowie that whole um kind of new york uh london underground kind of kind of sound i would argue that the song i'm about to play which is called beautiful people um also reminds me a little bit of um men without hats information society that kind of 80s style that that i really like anyway let's see what you guys think of it here is a permanent shadow and the song beautiful people you live your life by a different set of rules the beautiful people you got yourself

a shiny box of tools the beautiful people sometimes bigger sometimes smaller always better to turn on the light you're going to see your face I'm going to earn

Right in the letter When the beauty's gone what's left in your head Because you never grew up in a single Ben Strolling through the sunshine town, the beautiful people, good she sheds and steady sheds and a sturdy through the sunshine town, the beautiful people, good cheese, shades and a sturdy frown, The beautiful people, the mortals we cease to exist The beautiful people, it's a total eclipse When the beauty's gone, was left in your head

Baby, baby, baby Because you never grew up like your mama said Oh, baby, baby When the beauty's gone, what you've got to be Oh, baby, baby Just an old repeat on an endless TV It's all just a backdrop The close-up is you

Feeding the flames Being with Celestia light It's you again You need again The mortals we cease to exist It's a tote to the cliffs You eat

You need the beautiful people Ready art papa bada papava Barabapa You eat the beautiful people You eat the beautiful You eat the beautiful people Parapapa, Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa

He eats the beautiful people Para-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-a-ha He eats the beautiful people Bada-p-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba Eat the beautiful people Bada-papa-ba Bada-pba Bada-Baa-Bah.

Using my bat devices to destroy property and frightening people isn't what makes me tough. It's believing in myself. Batman's right! So you want to start your own video production company? Why not? We did. The morning stream, there's nothing wrong with the food.

All right, we're back. There is nothing wrong with the food. Or that song. Tell me about it again. Who was that? You bet. The song is called Beautiful People, performed by Barcelona artist, A Permanent Shadow from the brand new album,

humdrum. Is that Barcelona? Everyone always tells me. Barcelona. Barcelona. I feel like when I say that, I'm saying it wrong, but I think that's right. Right. Barcelona.

There's a whole lot of, we could probably do a whole list of words that when you say them, they sound on. The Ciudad, Barcelona. Oh, my lord. See, it just feels like you're lispy, but I know you're not. You're doing it right. I'm not. This is true. Yeah.

All right. Amy's getting in here. Oh, I got to do red. I always forget it's red fragel knot. Amy. Here we go. There we go. All right. So get ready, everybody. We're going to have some fun. We're going to learn some things and we're going to read some books. So here's this. That's right. We got Amy with us. Red Fragger on the chat. She comes here on Thursdays is the plan. That's our new permanent slot for Amy where she recommends books to read and all sorts of genres and reasons and why. Hello, Amy. Welcome back. Oh, thank you very much for having me. Can you guys hear me? Yeah, we totally can. You sound great.

you said you said really by the way if i disappear for a minute or two during this segment don't worry it's just me talking to the fence guy oh right the fence guy's coming you guys that's how brian fences all his illegal materials he fences right i'm fencing a box of uh orzo and crystal meth flakes oh fantastic we all should be doing that um well amy it's good to have you here uh i know you've brought us something fresh hot and new but you've also brought a sound file and so how do you want me to do this you want to play this now you want to set this up like you tell me what you want to i want to i want to I want to real quick tell a story. I sent you a picture, and we can share that with the chat,

because I just wanted to tell you guys about my favorite present that I got for Christmas. Oh, wow. Oh, look at this. Okay. And those of you who follow me on TikTok will recognize the heads of these creatures as my dogs. Yeah. And so my niece had these pictures made of my dogs, and they look like stormtroopers. They're amazing.

My gosh. I just cackled at it. It was so much fun. are these like, are these like, so these are, I've seen these dogs on your TikTok account, so this is even weird for me to see these dogs in this forum, but I love this. This is amazing. What a great gift. Look, you guys, look how cute. Now, if you're listening at home, you can't see it. But these are like, you know, the stormtroopers with dog heads. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that at all. No. There's way worse things in life than

being a doghead on a stormtrooper body. All right, well, that's very cool. Thank you for sharing. Anyway, so, yeah, just a little, little fun thing to, you know, also I have COVID. Oh, no. I don't want that. Are you all right? Are you feeling okay? Yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine.

We went and got tested as like a, you know, kind of a precautionary thing because one of my son's cousins who we went to go visit a week or so ago tested positive. So we all got tested just as a be safe, better safe than sorry thing. And so, yep, they all came back negative, but I'm positive. Oh, man, that sucks. Just me. All right. Well, I hope, you know, the vaxes do their job and make it less than it would be and that you have plenty of books to read if you need to convalesce at all.

That's what I hope. Exactly. Yeah, so far so good. Vaccine and booster seem to be doing their job. I feel like Omicron may get us all one day. It's just that version of this virus. Maybe a little less harsh, but way too many people are going to get it. Vax or not.

Oh, no. Yep. That's kind of why. wanted to mention it was I was like I am I am one of the more careful people that I know and you know we're all vaccinated and boosted and all of that stuff and yet here we are I have it so be careful out there guys keep wearing your masks and the one or two dinguses that hear that and go see people who get vax get it too so why why even get faxed just remember my serena Williams thing that my doctor told me and you'll all understand okay that's right okay so moving on

moving on. So yeah, so let's go ahead and we can play the clip I sent you, kind of do this like a like a recommendal. Go ahead and play that clip. All right, here we go. Clip playing. I'm doing it now. Am I? Yes, I am. Here it is. Aldenzyne was a popular song in World War I. Versions of it were sung in trenches, not just by British soldiers, but by French and German and Austrian ones as well. And the song even played a small role in one of the strangest and most beautiful moments in world history, the Christmas truce of 1914. On Christmas Eve that year, in part of the war's Western Front in what is now Belgium, around 100,000 British and German soldiers emerged from their trenches and met each other

in the so-called no-man's land between their front lines. One 19-year-old British soldier wrote his mother. Yesterday, the British and Germans met and shook hands in the ground between the trenches and exchanged souvenirs. Marvelous, isn't it? A German soldier remembered that a British soldier, quote, brought a soccer ball from their trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued. How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. Elsewhere on the front, Captain Sir Edward Hulse recalled a Christmas sing-along that, quote, ended up with Ald Lang Zine, which we all, English, Scots, Irish, Prussians, Wootenburgers, etc., joined in. It was absolutely astounding, and if I had seen it on cinematograph film, I should have sworn it was faked. Oh, wow. I remember hearing about that story, but I hadn't heard that much detail about it.

I just heard it was like, ah, two guys started singing Silent Night, and they all just, joined in and then that was the end of it and they killed each other after or whatever but there's more to more to that story clearly yeah yeah um so that was a clip from that was actually a clip from the podcast that inspired the book that i'm recommending which is the anthropocene reviewed by john green um and this is a great book for anybody who you know doesn't have time to read like an entire novel cover to cover it's not at all like linear you can pick a thing and go oh, I'm interested to hear about scratch and sniff stickers or Old Lanzine or, you know, the Staphylococcus virus, whatever. Right.

He wrote a series of essays reviewing a human-centered planet on a five-star scale. And they're all these, you know, very lyrically beautiful written essays that all sort of relate back to his own personal experience as well. so a lot of it is very autobiographical. But I shared the clip because I'm kind of, I find it to be hit or miss with authors who read their own audio books. Oh, yeah, man. I don't know if anyone's ever heard like Stephen King read one of his own books, but you kind of want to kill yourself.

It's horrible. It's bad. Right, right. Yeah. I mean, so especially I find fiction writers with the exception of Neil Gaiman. If you get a Neil Gaiman audio book, it's fantastic. Yeah. Um, but, uh, mostly fiction writers, they're great at writing it, but they're not so great at performing it. Um, I think part of that is because fiction, you know, you have to, you have to have different voices for each of the characters and things like that. And that's where, you know, acting actually comes in. Um, whereas with something like this, where it's nonfiction and especially if it's autobiographical like this, the author is the best person to do the reading, um, because they're just telling, um, because they're just telling,

telling you their story and this is this is a fantastic version of that so there is there is an audiobook version of Anthropocene reviewed it's also available on Kindle it's available you know in in whatever format you want it and I just thought it was it was a great little recommendation a little veer off into some nonfiction um like I say this is a great book for you know if you need to go take a long poop you know you can read one of those essays real quick just it's one it's it's one of those kind of books um you can just pick it up flip to whatever page and and read something random so yeah and he had the bit about all bling zine and so i thought oh this is great for the little you know new year's eve eve show yeah no i was gonna say it's perfectly

timed it's like the uh christmas is over but it still has kind of a you know christmas vibe to it and we're about to hit the new year holiday so yeah it's perfect for this sort of thing i didn't preview the audio but i really enjoyed it i'm gonna i'm gonna have to check this out brian you missed it but you were you were off doing fence things how was fence things. Everything good? You're right? It's the weirdest thing. So I have my screen to the left of me that shows my front, right? The front

front door. Not my front. That'd be weird. And so I see his truck pull up. I see him getting out of his truck and start making his way to the front door. I race upstairs to see if I can catch him before he rings the doorbell. Yeah. He's not at the step. He's not on the sidewalk. I

put my shoes on. I walk outside. I go around his truck. I don't I don't see him. I go around to the side where the fence is that he's going to be fixing. He's not there either. I come back and he's driving off. That's weird. My hope is that he went into the back of his, because it was a van, right, as opposed to like a pickup. It was a van. I'm hoping he went into the back of his van, realized he forgot something that he needs, and then got back up front to drive to like Ace Hardware to get something. Because he never rang the door, but he never even came up to the door. so what if he went from well if he never rang the door bill but he wouldn't have had a time to do that and you would have noticed while you were out

if you guys would spot places oh for sure for sure like he he was not anywhere where I could see him when I went outside and circled his van so he must have been in the back of the van okay so it wasn't like a Jack Tripper moment where there was just confusion and he went on his way or whatever

yeah okay picturing the permit man from the money pit you know like the guy He's like, all right, you duck fart. I'm leaving and never coming back. Exactly. Did he yell duck fart? Because that's amazing. I don't remember that.

He did not yell duck fart. Well, the guy had money pit dead. Oh, the guy in Money Pit did, but this guy did not. All right. This guy didn't. It's unfortunate. Well, all right. I very much like that recommendation.

I was going to tell you guys, too, I started reading. What did I start reading? My brain just went dead. Oh, I'm reading the Stormlight Archive from Brandon Sanderson. Oh, when I say his name, I'm required to play a thing. Hold on. Where is it? Here we go.

Utah Connection. A dude was born and raised here. Still lives here. Anyway, he's mostly known for finishing up Robert Jordan's work on the Wheel of Time series and some of his other books. He's got some sci-fi and some other things. Another fantasy series whose name always escapes me. But anyway, the Stormlight Archive is in book one.

I've been hearing for years that I'm stupid for not reading this. That it's the everyone's favorite fantasy novels ever. Why aren't you reading this? Oh my gosh, Scott. We'd love this. blah, blah, blah. And so I finally did, and I am completely hooked on that book. It's really, really good.

And I wanted to make one other suggestion. There's a lot of highfalut and fantasy talk in it, okay? So here's what you do. You got, you know, vans over at the house or something. So he's making noise in the room with Kim. TV's on, playing some bluey episode. Carter's got her music on, you know, like distractions are happening. Sure, yeah.

And I can't go outside because it's freaking 13 degrees. So what I did for my book time is I use my iPad, and it's just on the Kindle app, and I crank up the sound of thunder and lightning, just, you know, ambient noise so that I'm blocking out everybody else. But man, that helps me zone in. I can't do audiobooks because I get distracted, no matter who's reading it, no matter how good they are, even Neil Gaiman. I listen to those guys, and I just go, oh, this is really good, this is really good. Hey, did I do that one thing? And before I know it, I'm thinking of something else. And you've missed like two paragraphs of them talking.

Yeah, or I've read it and didn't retain it. So I'm like, all right, if I can. But if I read, like words off a page, it's never been an issue. Always retain everything. And man, that book has got me by the Snuggie. It is so good right now. That's cool. Because we always know that, you know, every good book starts with it was a dark and stormy night.

So you're just creating that dark and stormy night with your audio. That's too good. Also, I'm pretty sure the opening scene might have had some rain involved. I don't think about it. Nice. Anyway, sorry, my little side show there of what I'm reading. Brian, are you reading anything right now? I'm still in the middle of the invention of a sound by Chuck Polonic.

I'm a big Chuck Polonic fan, so I try to pick up everything he writes. Did you get to the part where he invents the sound, or are we still, you're not there yet? I have, yes, as a matter of fact. Yes, it's about a sound. It's about a folie artist. Nice. Nice. Is it really?

Yes. Yes. Oh, that's amazing. All right. I can tell you what this Foley artist does to get the, the screams that he uses for his horror movies or she uses for her horror movies. Yeah. Because it's unsavory. So, Amy, are you a fan?

Are you a Polonic fan? Do you like his work? You know, I've never read any polonic, but I'm, like, I am fascinated by Foley stuff because, you know, having done voice acting and stuff like that, like, I love, I love the way, you know, like, bones breaking is like celery cracking. and stuff like that. I always love the creative stuff they come up with for Foley artists. So that is really cool. There's an amazing TikTok channel. I wish I could tell your name because I don't really pay attention to

usernames on there. But I have one that I follow where she's a full-time foliarist and she just films all her work. So she'll be in that. She's got a special room, great big room and a projection system that's showing a movie on the wall and scenes she has to do work for. And then she's just got all these tools and like machinery. and junk and, you know, sand and shoes and just stuff all over the place.

And she's timing it and syncing it. And then she's got a computer right there where she's like, you know, putting in notes about where she's doing it and when and or whatever. I assume there's some sort of workflow with that. But it's fascinating how much more folly work is being done than you think. Like, you know what's happening when I get punched or when arm breaks or, you know, yes, that's fully. But just two dudes walking in a hallway is 90% follywork.

Like there's so much sound work being done after the fact. And this lady just makes videos of herself doing it. It's fascinating stuff. It's really cool. Also, Carter asked me the other day, I think it was Carter. Yeah, we were talking about an animation that she might be doing for her portfolio. And I told her that she should tell Amy when she's ready if she needs any female voices, she's got to get Amy on board. Because Amy could be great.

I would totally do that. That would be awesome. Yeah, we'll get a post-COVID Amy on there is what we'll do. I bought some of Carter's stickers to give to my daughter as a stocking stuffer this year. And she freaked out and loved them, by the way. Oh, that's great. Happy to hear that. Her stuff's pretty good.

Brian, what were you going to say? Oh, I was saying, just as I was running upstairs to catch the fencing guy who still hasn't come back, I heard you were saying you had COVID. I'm so sorry to hear that. Yeah, like I say, so far there's really not any symptoms. Like my limbs feel a little heavy and I'm a little tired, but I have no fever, no nothing. And so I'm, I'm hoping the vaccine just keeps doing its job and I'll be fine. Yeah, you know.

Soon you'll be playing tennis like Serena Williams. There you go. Is that how it works? Does that how works? Yeah, that's the entire metaphor right there. Well, this is great. I love reading and I love hearing about books I've never heard of and my list just gets longer. If you guys out there like, I don't remember anything, well, tell them again the name of what you're reading, where you got it.

Also that podcast, that sort of stuff, so people can remember and write this stuff down. Yep. So the name of the book and the podcast is The Anthropocene Reviewed. I'll put the name in the chat and also on the Discord because it's a long, complicated to spell name. But it's the Anthropocene reviewed by John Green. And yes, it is the John Green from the fault in our stars and paper towns and all that stuff. Same guy. Just not, this is nonfiction. It's not, you know, teen romance-y things. Yeah, that's... Oh, that I'm out. Brian only wants teen-romancey things. The fault in our stars was a real... I found that to be a bit of a tear-jurker in the movie form. I didn't expect to be emotionally moved by it, but it got me.

Yeah. Even though I knew I was being manipulated a little bit, you know? Some movies, they kind of know what they're doing when they're doing that to you, but it's still got me. Awesome. Check that out. Of course, Red Fraggle on everything. So check that out as well. Follower on Twitter.

You probably put these up on Twitter, right? You've been doing that? I do. I do put them up on Twitter. And, yeah. All right. And it's just Red Fragel on Twitter, right? No, actually, I am not Red Fragel on Twitter.

I am Amy Robinson, V.O. I'm currently trying to find a version of Red Fraggle that is not taken that makes sense. Because Red Fraggle 3 is currently taken. Jerks. And it's just somebody squatting on it. They're not even using it. I hate the squatters. It's annoying.

I hear it's done away, actually. Probably talking about it. He does that a lot. actually. I'm not saying you should check with him, but he does squat names. He really does he really? Yeah, the other day I was trying to set one up for the new retro thing we're doing, the

retro game show on Mondays. And I'm like, oh, I want it to match email and everything else, but I can't find it. Oh, well, I'll choose this one. He goes, oh, sorry, I held that for us. He had it. He totally got it. Well, that's good. All right. I mean, it was good. There's a happy ending, but it's because he squatted it and I didn't know about it.

So I went through all this rigumeral to get the other one. But anyway, well, good luck that and it's always good to have you on amy and uh here's us wishing you a happy happy new year year and bye uh all right by the way i've got that added so now uh her book is also on quicktms dot l i oh very nice i love that that you're making that yeah we'll figure out a way to to either link it from frogpants dot com slash tms or um it totally link it or maybe a way to embed it maybe or something I don't know. Yeah, that would be better to embed it. So it's just, you know, feels like it's part of...

Yeah, that'd be really cool. Um, yeah, we'll figure it out. But I love that all those kinds of things will have a place. It's very cool. You know, only took us 11 years. It's fine. Right, exactly. Yeah.

Um, I'm going to play a sound that I thought was weird before we leave today. And I just want you to enjoy it. Uh, this is... Did I make this sound? Is that what this is? No, it's a... No, this is a... So I've been, as you know, watching Kirby enthusiasm and catching up.

Oh, yeah. On the new season, I'm, like, three away from the end. Oh, good. And the one where he was going to the chiropractor and the chiropractor doctor played by, what's his name? I forgot his name. Oh, yes. It's Jonah Hill. Jonah Hill.

No, not Jonah Hill. The guy that reminds me at Jonah Hill. Shoot. Yes. Like, does the voice of the snowman and frozen. Yes, right. No, yes. Do you get that guy confused with him.

A lot of voice work. Everyone loves him. He was in that train. thing last year. Josh Gad. Thank you, Dan Kine 64. As soon as you know that I do the same thing. Him and Jonah Hill, I mix up all the time. Yeah. Anyway, two funny, you know, slightly heavy, funny guys. Right? All right. Anyway. So he's on that episode and at one point he pulls, he says something in the, in the waiting room and the sound was so weird that I just had to share it. Okay. So here it is. Is that weird?

I mean, he always does a lot of like, nah, like me, that sort of thing. But here it is more, here's it in more context. How's business here? So he's just, but I could not get it out of my head. I love it. It's one of my favorite new sounds. All right. That's it.

We've done the show, as you can tell. And Brian, I know this is true, but you got to tell me when's Coverville today? It is happening today at 1 p.m. Mountain Time. I'm at Twitch.tv slash coverville. This is it, folks. Look, last week we started the top 40 countdown of 40 best covers of 2021. Today, we finish it. Today, it's getting finished.

It's getting hell or high water. It's going to get completed. So, it is the top 20 covers of 2021, as voted on by me. And, boy, will you be surprised at what landed on number 11? That's like one of those, it's clickbait. Right? Yeah. I like it. You baited me with click. Or no, you clicked me with bait. I don't know. I clicked you with bait. Oh. You baited me. What? Uh. Anyway. Anyway, so that'll be today, at 1 p.m. Mountain time, Twitch.tv.tv slash Coverville. Very cool. Also, a quick reminder. A couple of

big end of year things still happening content-wise before the holiday. On core tonight, that's tonight at 5 o'clock p.m. We start that show live. You want to catch it on the podcast. That's fine. That's the big video game show. the Frog Pants Network, we are doing the best of the year. So basically, it will come down to this. It won't be the definitive best games of the year. It will be the best games that we played this year. It's an important distinction, because we don't play everything, right? No, no.

But the best of we played, you don't have time to play everything. Yeah, and John's list will be Final Fantasy 14, Final Fantasy 14, and Final Fantasy 14. What about the Amazon, New World? Amazon New World. He didn't play that. He didn't... Oh, no, I guess he played it and hated it immediately and didn't play it again. So he was very hardcore Final Fantasy this year.

And as a lot of people were, but he did play more than that. We'll get to all that. But, you know, it was a year of Forza and a freaking Halo had a big splash and a bunch of big games, small games, stuff in the middle. Come find out what we like the most tonight on Core at 5 p.m. And then the instance tomorrow, a bit of a flip of that, the inverse of that. We're going to talk about what big grindy. stuff is coming in 2020 and why you should care. So that's happening

with me, Joss, and Garrett, tomorrow morning at its usual time. I believe 10.30 is when we start. And then finally, FilmSack this weekend. Matrix Resurrections. Brand new hotness is what we're hearing.

And we finish out our full run of the Matrix with the latest, which just landed on HBO Max, which is where we'll be watching it. So check out FilmSack this weekend. Matrix Resurrection. That'll go up on Saturday. No, wait, Sunday. We're recording Sunday, right?

We're recording Sunday because there's no way I'm going to be alert Saturday morning. I can't promise anything, Scott. Yeah, drinky, drinky, major pinky. That's what's going to happen there. Well, they'll need a lot of drinky, drinky to take the major pinky. I don't know what your Saturday nights look like. Saturday nights look like. the same all right uh and then tomorrow we will be at uh dc streamathon on twitch so twitch dot tv

slash dc streamathon uh for the hour i can remember the 130 to 230 hour is that right or yes i believe it's that's a full hour 130 to 230 mountain time we'll be doing it live it'll be like a tms pm but but we're making it available to everybody so when it goes on feeds and things you'll all get it it'll be a part of their big uh charity run this year we're really excited to be a part of that and really highly recommend checking out them all day because they've got a full 24-hour run Tom Merritt's on this on this thing some guys from the diamond club are on there I don't know if Justin and Schwitt are I'm not sure but a whole bunch of people you know and love will be participating all for good causes and we're excited for those guys like their seventh year

of doing this so very cool and follow us on Twitter we'll let you know when things go live and stuff like that all right that's it I do want to take a couple of patrons who bellied up to the bar and helped us out. Big thanks to Ben B, Michael Schuring, and Sam Jordan, different variations of the Deal Me In and Grade A levels. Thank you guys so much for your support.

If you want daily content that you can't get any other way, if you want a free show on the weekends, if you want stuff sent to you in the mail and every show you ever get to be ad-free, hey, why don't you sign up today at patreon.com slash TMS? Why not? Why not now?

Why not? If not now, when? When? If not who? No, if not you, then who? Make it a New Year's resolution to finally pay for all the content that we've been giving you all this time. Finally give us a dollar for 16 episodes of content every month. Do that.

So go check it out. It's patreon.com.com slash TMS, frogpants.com slash TMS for everything else. That's going to do it. I guess this is our final episode. this is our final real episode of the year right this is like you know tomorrow's i don't know i don't know what we're doing we're going to we're going to ask uh our echoes to give us challenges and then we're going to complete those challenges for one hour that's our plan yeah i have not made any how i probably ought to think about this like we're we doing yeah special like i don't know

what we're doing yeah i don't know what we're going to do but brian and i will talk some sort of trivia thing needs to be some sort of game something i like games you guys in chat like games. Maybe you could call in. I think I can do something. I can put something together. So we'll let you know tomorrow. Hey, that's it, but we got to go with a song. You got a song for our final real show of the year? I do. And so first I'm going to give you the request that we played yesterday, the lead-in, because, you know, Sylvie wrote in requested something, and I want to read her thing. So yesterday we played that cover of the Goo Goo Goo Dolls called Name with the file called 01 underscore name dash 1-unknown file slash M4A or whatever was.

Sylvie said, Dear Sofa and Bench, this ethereal, beautiful cover caught me off guard. I knew the lyrics immediately, but could not remember the original artist. The synth wave treatment of this song really transformed it, almost kicked myself after I looked it up and found out it was the Goo Goo Dolls. Thanks for all you do. Can you play the soundbite of the man screaming after a car horn? Oh, yeah? Let's see.

Horn. Oh, where did I put? I know I kept this out because I had to. This is too good. Is this it? Do dogs? Nope, that's that lady. Hold on.

No. No. No, it's Tom Merritt. Diabita. No. All right. Well, maybe I don't have it handy. I'll find it.

Keep talking. I'm going to find it. I'm going to find it. Okay. All right. Sounds good. Let's get to this one. Bologna Ninja, our friend Bologna Ninja wrote in and said,

Hey, Scott and Brian, no personal reason to request this, but we're at Lank. just released it, and I thought it would be great to have it on the show. It's a cover of a Spark song that will be on the Blu-ray release of the Netflix documentary, The Sparks Brothers. Surprising that I haven't recommended this because I loved it. I'm a huge, huge Sparks fan, and I went and saw that documentary. I think it was the first thing I saw in theaters.

No, New Mutants was the first thing I saw in theaters after the pandemic or during the pandemic, but this was the second. And I loved it. I haven't watched it yet again on Netflix. but I highly recommend it. I think I'd forgotten you'd seen it and I sent you a screenshot going, dude, you know this was on here? And you're like, yeah, I recommended it like a year ago.

Yeah, I talked about it. I didn't recommend a little bit. You will watch this thing. You'll be blown away by all the musicians and creators and celebrities and people you know who are huge secret sparks fans. Like the whole beginning is like, oh, yeah, I love sparks. da-da-da-da. Oh, hey, this is a great song by Sparks. Or sooner or later,

everybody talks about Sparks. So, check it out. It's cool. Sparks Brothers on Netflix. Nice. It includes this song. Weird Liancovic performed this in one take. It is, this town ain't big enough for the both of us by Sparks.

Also been covered by folks like Faith No More and Justin Hawkins of the Darkness. Also big Sparks fans right there. Here is, Weirdao Yankovic, and this town ain't big enough for both of us all right i found the honk i think so i'm going to play that real quick here here's the honk it no wrong one no that's not it oh that's so close damn it how about this one no no there it is yay i've got i need to make better i got to do better descriptions on these on an emoji on that one or something i don't know what you have to do to label

that i don't either that's that one should not be so hard to find all right uh that's it Thank you all for listening. Enjoy this song. We'll see you Friday. Please come to that live thing. And all the other shows and cool stuff that are happening because what else are going to do? All right. That'll do it.

We'll see you then. I don't know. I mean, . . . . .

. . . . . . . .

I'm gonna be the I'm gonnae'n't I'm gonna'n't but I'm gonna'n't I'm gonna be I'm gonna'n't and I'm and I'm

the I'm gonna be I'ma'n't I'ma'n't I don't know. B. B. I mean,

I'm . . . . . . .

. . . I'm gonnae. I'm gonnae. And... ...andahe ...and...

...and... ...and... ...the... ...their... ...and... ...the... This show is part of the Frog Pants Network. Frog Pants Network.

Get more shows like this at frogpants.com. Peaceful and quiet, perfect for boating.