The Morning Stream - TMS 2756: Resting Stern Face

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

Maximize my Craps. Laser tagging in the basement. Aiming for german sounding things. Emotional support tablet. Cutthroat Left, Right, and Center. The Playdate Sacrifice. Doin' a thing with Dunaway. Weiner Weiner Oscar Meyer. Beethoven's Hyundai Sonata. I'm looking at you, FiveOf13! Tapping on the Nub. Unbelievable Meat Guy. Enjoy it OR ELSE! Addle up those point. Did we lose you?... Oh, you're back... Wait, are you back?... Did we lose you?... with Stephen and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now that we've boxed up all the stuff we got under the tree and already returned it to Costco, maybe take just a couple of those bucks and N-20204 in style at patreon.com slash TMS today. Coming up on the morning stream, maximize my craps. Laser tagging in the basement. Aiming for a German sounding thing. Emotional support tablet. Cutthroat left right and center. The play date sacrifice.

Doing a thing with Dunaway. Weiner, Wiener, Oscar Meyer. Beethoven's Hyundai Sonata. I'm looking at you five of 13. Tapping on the nub. Unbelievable meat guy. Enjoy it. Or else!

Addle up those points. Did we lose you? Oh, you're back. Wait, are you back? Did we lose you? With Stephen and more on this episode of the morning stream. Gentlemen, I regret to inform you that the state Supreme Court has determined that forcing cadets to cross the Eliminator is a barbaric and malicious practice. Tom Hall's baby.

The Morning Stream. Don't eat that. It's Pluto. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to TMS. It is the morning stream for Monday, December 30th, 2024. Still. Oh, still 24. Two more days. Two more days. It's Eve Eve tonight, today, right? That's right, yes. For all those who celebrate the day before the day before New Year's. That's right. So this is the, Bobby was saying that today is the semi-penultimate. But no, this is the penultimate day, right?

Tomorrow is the last day. So this is the- Penultimate is always the one before your last day. Before the last, right? No, or do I have that wrong still? Well, if you're saying before, if you're saying before the first, right? Yeah, exactly. If it's before the last, then it is penultimate today.

Brian's right. The penultimate day of, of 2024. Yeah, take that, science boy. Take that. Well, no, I think you meant yesterday was the semi-penol. I have to go back, but... Oh, and to penultimate. Yes.

Antipanultimate. Wait, what was semi-penultimate then? I don't know. Someone's got a semi. Let me know how that goes for you. I was just waiting for that. Well, you knew it was coming. I knew it was coming.

Hey, oh, I didn't mean to do that, actually. that part was an accident uh it's got and brian here we're doing a show we're back uh christmas week was off as you all noticed probably thank you for letting us do that and uh we're we're back i hope brian do you have a nice christmas was a lovely time for you it was very nice yes uh time with the family we did uh my grandmother in brush uh did a visit for her on christmas eve she just turned a hundred on the 21st and And she, you know, again, I think I said this before when we went to her birthday party in the early part of the month. If this is what 100 looks like, I'm fine with it.

Bring it on. She's running around. She's talking to people. She's playing golf. She's, you know, doing all that stuff. Just shy or just younger than Carter who just passed away. But she's same year, I guess, right? Was that, I guess, 1924?

That makes sense. It's 100 years. That's pretty wild, though. Think of everything you've seen in a hundred years, how much, how different everything is from when you were. Let's say you were, you're getting your first memories at like five or six, let's say. That 95 years span of change is, it must be mind-boggling for somebody like her, just crazy. It's got to be. And she, and she rolls with it. I still had to help her with some stuff on her computer. Like, that is the other thing that I do when I go up to her house is I do a little tech support. because we had this slide show that I put together for her party and she's like now how do I get all those photos on my computer so I can view them which you know is a valid you know it's not a even for a tech person they'd be like well where are those stored how can I get my hands on what player are they in all that sort of thing not a crazy question at all I don't exactly and she's Windows so I basically just had to use the built-in photos app in in Windows 11 or 10 or whatever she's on, and then just loaded all those in and said, all right, here's a brand new album. It's got all these photos in it.

And when you want to view it as a slideshow, you click this little play button. And she's like, oh, perfect. Thank you. Nice. Yeah, she sounds like she's with it, man. Do you like a cookie? Hey, it's better than sticky, hard candy that's been in a bowl for 12 years. She never offers that garbage. No, it's always like, it is decent, like chocolate chip, big fat, soft

chocolate chip cookies and and rice crispy bars and all sorts speaking of which this was the downfall of my holiday week oh no really I ate poorly I just didn't make a lot of smart decisions but it's Christmas

sure yeah exactly what are you gonna do you show up to a party somebody's got a thing and speaking of which I went to this party this is crazy so this is a work party I don't want to name names because I just don't want it to be weird because it's possible somebody's listening but so it was a it was an office party that my wife was helping run

because she helps this person do stuff. So she catered it and did all the food and everything. Oh, nice. And it was nice. It was this really nice guy's house who's, let's just say he's in the construction business. And let me tell you where there's a lot of money, the construction business.

They make a lot of cash. Yeah, they do. At least it's clear to me now that they do. But part of it was this party. So we go to this party, a bunch of like really important people at the company are there. and the new the company itself is actually relatively new and the people involved you know just sort of took it over and they're just getting started so they got big plans and it's all very exciting and all that I get to go because they everyone has a plus one and Kim's going to this party so I'm like sweet I'm going to go to this party so we go there and it is a nice you know as as freelancers as podcasters who don't really work for a company we own our own companies yeah getting to go to a company Christmas party is a nice it is it's a nice it's a nice

perk. One of my clients invites me to his all the time. And it's every year. And it's like, ah, this is the one thing that I do miss from working the company is the company Christmas party getting together. If we were all in the same state, we'd all have a thing. You know, we do it in Vegas, but it's not quite the same. But Christmas parties, you're right. It's like a, there's an art to it. There's a, there's a feeling to it that you can't replicate. There's also a bunch of downsides to it. I used to, I love, hated Christmas parties of the company I was at before I went on my own. There was great stuff about it and just stupid stuff about it and drunk people losing their minds and great moments like it's just a weird mixed bag well this thing

was just a relatively small amount of people i think it was like 17 18 people and the guy owned the house and his wife and then we only had one person who was there without anybody everybody else had a significant other so that's why i think it was 17 it's an odd number so we're all eating chilling food was great uh the guy that did the meat was an unbelievable meat guy just oh my gosh was insane meat really like smoked smoked or barbecued or grilled or something all that stuff chicken beef pork all of it was so good so anyway we're sitting around they have this massive kitchen again a lot of builder money obviously on display here just this big old house and and not by old i mean four years old it's a it's a new house so we're in there and we're doing our thing

and at the end of this thing and this is part of the reason i want to tell the stories i want to see if you have any tricks on this because you're a guy i can come to and say hey brian i want to really maximize my craps time in Vegas, and you'll have some answers for me. Oh, now I see the initialisms. Okay, now I know exactly what you're talking about. Right. So we sit down at this table and the owner of the company, the co-owner, says, all right, we're going to play left, right and center. Everybody's played this game, some form of this game. Usually, right. Yeah, exactly. So he goes around the table and he says,

five quarters to everybody. So everybody gets five quarters. I think it was five. And you have them in front of you. And he throws a 20 in the middle. as a pot right and we're like a 20 it's fine whether it's a good time and that's kind of where i thought it would max out that in the quarters you throw in the middle and then you have these three dice one says uh or the the three dice that you roll could either come up l for left r for right c for center or a dot meaning you keep your quarters right so if you rolled them and you got an l an r and a dot that meant i keep a quarter or i keep you know i only i only have to give away two one to left one to right one to right or if it's all centers i get three quarters out in the

center or whatever it ends up being you have to do it then you go in these rounds and tell somebody is the only person left with one or more quarters and nobody else has anything then that person gets the pot simple game nothing crazy about it played it before so we sit down and we start doing this and we do one round and everyone's still in and then i see this co-owner toss a hundred dollar bill in the middle just throws it in wow just like really grease in the pot yeah and i went oh my gosh, we're only on round one and we're already doing this. So he sweetens the pot with 100, goes around again.

I'm thinking that's it. We're never going to see more money in this. Another 100. Goes around again, another 100. Some people are out, but also it can change hands. So you're out, but now you're back in because someone left it a quarter to you or right at a quarter to you. So you're back in.

So it's not like people are out out out until they're totally out. By the time of this thing is done, the pot is 600 bucks. and and there's a hundred there's an extra hundred in a box of chocolates they got me as the plus one to the party no way really okay so i start to realize i could walk out of here with seven hundred dollars tonight and i'm just kidding and i'm just hanging on this feels like a price is right or monte hall's going to step out and say something yeah it feels like someone's going to say this is all a joke and you're not really getting this money we just did this to make you laugh or it's fake money or something like that. And as I start to realize, and I pull one of the hundreds and I just kind of look at it and put

it back. I'm like, that's real. And the guy next to me is like, yeah, dude, oh my gosh. And so now everyone's serious. Now they're like, I'm going to win this game. And they're blowing. Cutthroat left right and center. Yeah. And they're blowing on the dice and doing like superstitious bullshit to make the luck happen. These are people that would never do that normally. I would never do that. I don't believe in that kind of thing. But you know what? I was going, oh, come on baby. shaking it and everything and uh ended up losing to this girl who got all 600 at all plus she had the other hundred in her box of chocolate so she walked out with seven hundred dollars a other plus one yeah and her husband that she's with who works for the company got a whole other bonus so i think

they left that place with like two grand or more jeez i know nice everybody got a hundred at least they all these fancy backpacks with the big company logo on them with really expensive uh wow these things these jetty cups oh yeah on each side they got one in each side of the backpack so these aren't these aren't cheap on their own even oh i'm i'll show the logo of the company it's on the back but oh anyway it is it was just wild i'm not used to being around that kind of cash you know no kidding yeah and uh i asked the owner i said um i said what do you how do you like account for this i'm just curious from a guy runs his own company who has to deal tax stuff all the time you mean tax wise at the end of the

the year how do you i mean this is this is actually how you solve your tax problems is by spending a lot at the end of the year on something like that yeah normally like my accountant will call me right around now well about a week ago and say scott you need to buy hardware to offset this number right or you need to do this to you know it's all stupid but i but i but i understand that part of it and so i said is that what this is like you just this is a way for you to dump that money he says actually we just counted all as miles and i went Miles. Miles.

Like as in, you would pay somebody for their. Like your airline miles? No, like in like that guy drove a lot this month. So he's getting miles pay like for gas. Yeah, yeah, like reimbursement. Okay. And I said, but that's not what this is. He goes, oh, I know.

I'm like, all right, you guys do you. You do be your business the way you do your business. It's totally fine. But I'm curious, Brian. Is there a way to maximize, to min-max your experience with left-right center is at Pure Luck? is there's no way to... It was a craps player

and someone who has had learned the game of craps and figure out exactly which bets will get you the biggest payout which have the least amount of risk for the best amount of reward. I can tell you that the best way to win

is to not play left right center and to play crap. I was afraid this was the answer. Yeah. I mean, it's all, that's all random. I don't think there's any that is such a purely based on roll of the dice, like completely random. You don't have a, like at least with

craps, yeah, the dice are random, but you still, you can put your money in places where you may not get a massive payout, but you'll get enough of a payout that if that hits two out of every three times, or even one out of every three times, you'll nearly break even.

Whereas there are other bets, it's like, yeah, I mean, I'm throwing my money away on a super long shot but who knows i might get something for it but um that's wild i i figured that was true i just thought while i was in the middle of it i was like i wish brian was here i could ask him if this there's a way there's somebody to do it's no i'm afraid no huh the only way to do it is you show up the weighted dice that's the only way yeah there you go exactly or uh um or somehow uh do something with the money so that you know you swap out a real hundred dollar bill for the fake one or something like that yeah

Yeah. Well, it was cool, though. It was fun. And we had a great time. The food was great. Oh, and this guy has a gigantic basement that is unfinished. And you'd think, well, these are rich people. They should finish their basement. They haven't finished it for this reason. Four years ago when they bought the house, he decided to go down there. And with these huge canvas artificial walls hanging from the ceiling, he created a laser tag maze in there. Oh, really? Yeah. So he's built his own laser. tag maze in the basement like basically movable he can change that layout anytime he wants kind of thing yeah and he's got he has this music system down there that just play songs about stuff like hit him with your best shot nern it yeah so basically he set up a jillians or a daven buster kind of yeah it's real stupid in that way but it was fun because there's no lights except the guns have a flashlight on the front of them this is not old school 80s like backpack shit in the chest thing these just these consents when you're getting hit

because of no oh really so nothing even on your chest so it's the gun the gun registers whether or not you get yeah the gun each other's guns they have a reload thing they run out of ammo they have a shotgun mode they were expensive clearly these look like really expensive guns and they all worked like just as advertised and you could change the color of your lights so that you were on a team and you could even play a game like uh infection where i don't know if you've ever done this in a first person shooter or something but if you if you're on the white team and you're going up against the blue team and if you shoot a blue team person, their light turns white. Now they are on your team and turn on everybody else. And the thing, the guns know this

somehow. It was absolutely wild. We're down there getting all sweaty, pitch black. I mean, it's probably an OSHA violation about 50,000 times down there, which is ironic because there are a bunch of builders who have to think about safety standards all the time. Of course. Yeah, of course. You know, it's their own, it doesn't matter when it's your own deal. Yeah. Super fun though. I had a great time and found out the guy the guy that lives there is a graduate of my same high school so we had a lot of talk about there and he was all sad that they had torn it down and blah blah blah anyway it was a good time uh also i uh i went to a barns and noble and i want to know if what you would do in my situation so i was in there this is just yesterday as in a barns and noble helping get some stuff from gift certificates for the for the littles for the kids and dillon and tay met us there and they brought phoebe van with them and it was me Kim Carter was with us so that was the whole group and it was a new one of these

I don't have you seen the new like the new barns and nobles no they're nice in there holy shit really yeah real up just up their game on like on on on not saying well let's just write out our existing properties until Amazon swallows us whole

yeah they're actually making a making a fight of it I like going to a bookstore I mean I know you do too really enjoy one yeah but even and even Barnes & Noble I like Independent ones, of course I like, that sort of Whatever Oh my God, went to

The greatest Record store, used record store I know you like those Those are cool Yeah, like you walk in And you smell not just the cardboard From the albums

But incense That either is being burned in the store or just stuck to the psychedelic albums. Yeah, yeah Or their last guy that was in there Left a little stank If you know what I mean

Right easily could have been I bought I didn't put it in there I need to put the record holder back up But I did pick up Steely Dan's Greatest hits Oh good Because it's just

It is just their stuff from 72 to 78 So it's like The best stuff This is This is the best best of Oh yeah I agree That's their era

Well that's awesome So it was like that We go into this Barnes & Noble It's a little like that The smell is almost overwhelming with like books and and covers and the smell of new paint because it's new and apparently they're opening like 16 more like they're growing i don't know what's going on at barns and noble but apparently things are okay uh good yeah i think that's good so we're in there walking around doing our thing

and i get to the they have a huge area for comic books like always in science fiction all that and they have a giant manga section and i make a joke out loud that and my kids are there and they're to stupid jokes like this, and I go, do you think I'm supposed to go and browse this aisle from right to left? Oh. You know, like, because the books are all right to left. It's a fun little book. Right to left.

Yeah, and I say it out loud. And as I say it, I turn and I see a lady who works there. Stern looking woman. Just stern face. And she's probably stern all the time, but she looks at me and just... I was going to ask you if that was her... Her default. Her only, her default face, yeah.

She had resting stern face. Resting stern face. RSF, I guess, is what you'd say. But I turned to look at her. As I say it, it just happened to turn on to her. She's looking stern at me, stares at me for a hot second. It felt like an eternity.

And then rolls her eyes and walks the other way. No smile, no smirk, nothing. She seemed very annoyed with my dumb joke. Oh, well, you know what? It's sad for her. um she missed out she she missed out yeah i just found a map of like where barns and nobles new stores are nothing yet in colorado but here's i'll give you uh put this in our discord so you can see it but this is this is um oh yeah there we're 24 brand new store openings and um yeah this is exactly what

i was i think they had this on the wall or something like this oh did they really yeah they were really pushing it but the one so that that one in utah is the draper store freaking beautiful in there And they also remodeled another one, and they're going with this new look. I can't even really describe it, except it's got kind of an old school feeling to. You know, not that it was bad, but it was just like standard. You'd go in there, and it felt like a Barnes & Noble, and everything was kind of sectioned off and carpeted and this and that. This is a lot more like, I don't know, like old world style. I can't even explain it.

The shelves are just different. It's really, really nice. So, yeah, I hope Colorado gets to one because it's really neat. yeah i found the ones that says stores on track to open before 2025 so in addition to the um the american fork or no you went to the is it just salt lake or is it uh draper but i don't know if they call it that it might just be salt lake i'm not sure because there's there's one coming to murray or maybe just open in murray utah park city utah's getting one like this long list not a single colorado in it what the heck man yeah i don't think it means we're reading and you're not though i don't think that i don't think that'll think that's what's it means no i think this is getting one so maybe you know maybe while we're there in april yeah a quick trip out to the barns you know what i think it might mean it might mean they go there's such a huge kid section now like it's gigantic and utah has a lot of children yeah we lead we lead the nation and kids under 18 or whatever it is so it's possible it's like just a i don't know you

strike gold here when it's kids i don't know maybe yeah it's a good that's good had a great time Hey, quick note that play date is tomorrow. Tomorrow's New Year's Eve and you'd say, well, aren't you just taking it off? No. No. We're sacrificing our, not sacrificing. We're coming in the morning at 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. to have a play date.

We're going to play a bunch of jackbox games. I'm going to try to find some 2024 drawful trivia. Yeah. Because you can download these codes. So I'm going to try that. Druffle words or drawful subjects. Yeah, it's like a play pack that someone made. And I have tons of them in like video games.

movies and pop culture, but I'm going to try to see if I can find something that's like, hey, it's a new year. So what the last year have? And I haven't found anything yet. I'm going to try for that. If not, whatever, we're still going to have fun. But we're going to play. And this is for everybody. So anybody wants to come, hang out, play a bunch of games, frogpants.tv, tomorrow 9 a.m., normal TMS time for those that come up live. If you don't usually come to the show live and you have the day off, we'd love to have you here. So swing by, hang out with us, and let's play some games tomorrow. Yes. Very good. And yes, you can play without a Discord.

microphone. It helps if you have a microphone. You can join us in the audio. But you can certainly play all these games without talking. You can chat in chat and say stuff. Yeah, exactly. You're just just like in the living room where you're deciding to be quiet. It's the same thing. So you can totally do it. All right. Well, that is awesome. Can't wait for that. That'll be tomorrow. And then the rest of the week, so the way it'll work just for having your heads. Wednesday, no show. It's New Year's day. We take that off. Thursday, we will be back. I don't know about Wendy. I've got to find out. but I think she'll be here. And then Friday, TMS, patron, the only TMS Friday.

That'll happen Friday. So kind of a normal week with the exception of a play date and the day off on the years. And then the new year, new years. Back to normal. Everything normal. Everything normal. Yeah. You know, we got the film, the competition coming up, the TMS Film Fest.

Yeah, 30-second film fest. Yeah. No entries yet. That's all right. People are still working on their stuff. Get your stuff together, folks. 30-second film fest. Yep.

the origin, the fake origin of a TMS meme. That's right. And the whole thing with rules and everything is up at frogpance.com slash film fest. Cool. Super easy. All right. Let's get to some done-of-way time.

We missed him lately. Yeah, we did. I guess we had him. Well, it's been a week for everybody, I guess. Yeah. I mean, we had him yesterday for FilmSack, but for TMS, yeah, it's been a while. Yeah, it's been a bit. So we're going to add him to this here call.

We're going to pull up the game. We're going to have some competition. it's going to be fun you're all here for it we're here for it that's right if you do like it or not if you don't enjoy it you're out of the family wow wow wow

wow wow wow wow wow look who it is it's Brian Dunaway joining us for the Monday half-asses hi Brian how are you oh hi Scott and Brian hey what's going on brother how you doing? I just tried to you know

it's just that weird part of the year where it's like not quite over which you can't really start the new stuff. So I'm just kind of, you know, hanging out, doing the thing, do as much as I can, but I'm doing too much. You're working today? Yeah, brother. Yeah?

Are you keeping it real? Oh, I'm keeping it real. Okay. Well, who am I right now? I don't even know. I don't know who you are. I have no idea. But I do know this.

Brian's got some rules. We got some potential winners. We got all kinds of fun stuff lined up. So, hey, Brian, but why don't you explain how this? works. All that stuff is correct. Welcome to the morning. Halfass is a trivia game where I'm actually going to be giving the two of you the answers. I'm going to give Scott and Brian a category and six possible answers. Three of which are correct and three of which like a pair of extra feet underneath your gurney are incorrect. Depending on how confident they feel with the category, they can provide one, two or three guesses. But if any of those guesses are wrong, they get zero points for that round. Get one right, gets you a point. Two right. Gets you three points. Three right. Gets you five points total. We're going to add all up those. Add all up those points. We're going to add all those points up at the end of the game, see who's got the most. Oh, look, you know, butter and jelly sandwiches. That's right.

We're going to give the prize to someone that is not you, someone that I've picked an assigned to you. Scott, you're going to be playing for Travis in North Carolina. Nice. Just north of Brian there. Just north of Brian, you're going to be playing for Kean in Toronto, Ontario. Just right above South Carolina. Just, oh. Yeah.

Well, well, quite a ways above, but still above. Everybody's north of you. You'll need a passport. Yeah, you'll need a passport to get there, at least for now. All right, let's get to your question number one. We're movie guys. Let's start with movies. Which of these were Oscar winners for Best Picture?

Your choices are, Mrs. Miniver, the graduate. I put the... The wrong syllable. um the graduate north by northwest apocalypse now dances with wolves and around the world in 80 days three of these got oscars three of them did not okay so they won is the thing not nominated that's important Oscar winners for best picture winner winner winner Oscar dinner Oscar dinner I know one for a hundred percent it's the next two that I'm a little on edge what's the one you're 100 percent I'm not going to tell you I'm not going to say um All right. I know what I'm, you got a strategy. Okay.

All right. Well, you both centered on dances with wolves, and that is the 100% one that you both know. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Dancing with Wolves won in 1990 for the best picture. Brian, you also selected Apocalypse Now from 1979. That did not win the best picture. The other ones were Mrs. Miniver and around the world in 80 days.

Oh, Scott was what I won. Smart. I thought the two. tricky ones there would have been for a second I had North by Northwest because I thought it was one of the possible like not in your head ones but graduate and Apocalypse now seem like locks

right like they should have won like they should have won yeah those are the pulp fictions and the and the Shawshank redemptions of their year I think a little bit yeah for sure all right well Scott one point you can win this whole job Scott let's go to question number two see if you can hold on to that we all know

our classical music how about sonatas by Beethoven, which of these are real sonatas by Beethoven, the Concord Sonata, the Waldstein Sonata, the Sonata, the Sonata, the Moonlight Sonata, the Hyundai Sonata, and the Black Masked Sonata. You tried not to laugh while saying it. I love it. I also tried to get through it really fast. Yeah, you're going to make it so people go, wait, what?

I was like, hold on. The Sonata and, yeah. I think I know. I think I know I think I don't I think I don't I think I don't I think I don't I think I don't I think I don't guess I didn't all right let's see you guys both locked in on the moonlight sonata of course that's the that was the gimmee in this round Scott you also went for the Concord Sonata that is not shit oh damn the Waldstein or Steen and the sonata pathetic or the other two real ones The Hyundai Sonata is a car. The Black Massan sonata is a Scriabian. I don't know what that is. You compare something that I do not know to something also I do not know.

There you go. All right. Excellent. You know what annoyed me about this one is I was aiming for German sounding things because he's Beethoven famously a German composer, right? So I thought Concord sound of God of German. Because Pathetique sounds French and is French. it is french yep yeah so waltstein

waltstein definitely very very uh very austrian austrian composer not a german composer is that the the pathetic sonata is that what this is it seems like it would be right pathaic pathetic yeah that's how I would translate that

let's get two question with three look at this you guys are going to this last question tied but you're both artists you guys know your your art your colors sure which of these are shades of red Chartreuse, Carmen, Argent, Echru, Carnelian, and Sinopia. Oh, my Lord.

Shades of Red, which I think was a movie. Wasn't there a movie called Shades of Red? I know that Super Snooper, Super Fuzz, was weak when he saw the color red. I think Bruce Willis also, in that dirty movie he did, had a problem when he saw the color red. I don't remember. What the heck was that movie? like uh he showed his wean in that movie oh really i'm into that not really i'm not really into it so people know he didn't die hard no he didn't die hard no he did not died soft what the heck was

that movie anyway all right so which of these are shades of red all right i'm gonna say this one and i'm gonna say i'm gonna say i'm gonna say these three. There you go. I've chosen three. Hey, Dunoway, I've chosen three. It was chosen three. Brian locked in long before he did that. So as far as the strategy

goes, damn it doesn't mean. All right, I only locked him with one then. Yeah, yeah. That's it. I core, the color of night. That was the one with, uh, yeah, where Bruce Willis freaked out when he saw the color red and it was all. Oh, yeah. And in the pool, he had a, his swimming pool. That's right. Oh, yeah.

I remember that. All right. All right. well you guys went with different ones uh scott you went with carmine or carmen carmin is a shade of red nice nice nice so there's a guaranteed point for you now brian went for two and if he got both of these correct shit doubtful i was just shooting fish and just pium pium all right uh Brian you went with carnelian which i think is red it is red it is it's like meat yeah carne carnellian yeah yeah the other one i wasn't sure about for some reason. I was like, is this right? Yeah, you went with Chartreuse. And no, Chartreuse is a yellow green. Accru is like a beige, grayish brown, and argent is a silver. And it's funny because I always thought, when I did this question myself

beforehand, I said, oh, well, argent is totally red. And I don't know where I got that, but I always connected the color or the argent with red. You want to see how you, you want to see how you effed with my mind a little bit, though, Brian? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you just said what they were. but because our wrong answers are purple or because Brian's, sorry, Brian, selections are purple and mine are orange, none of this, none of this felt right. It all felt my brain is weird. It's like when you see that thing that's, you know, read these colors or say the color that each word is and it's a different word for the color. Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's true. It's tank color.

What the hell's going on? Right, exactly. Well, good job, Scott. You won this one. Just two points is all you needed. And you did. Congratulations. Which means that.

Travis Morton in North Carolina, you are getting a copy of Pago Forest Tower Defense and Degrees of Separation, which is a Kevin Bacon game, I believe. So, congratulations. But Brian, I'm sorry, not Brian. Well, your, your person was Kean, and he's going away with a copy of Alchemist Adventure, which is a sense. Oh, that's good. Is it? This is the first time in a long time I have not heard of any of these games. I usually know half of them, yeah.

I don't know what any of these are at this time. So you're all winners to me until you play them and find out if they're good or not. Congratulations. Well done, everybody involved. Hey, Brian Dunaway, great hearing your voice again on TMS. Excited to have you back. Yeah, I missed you guys last week. We're back.

We're doing it. Yeah. We had a great film site, though. Just the time to take Wednesday off. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, no Wednesday. But a reminder. Yeah, it was really good.

I was ending the year on a killer movie like that. It was awesome. Love that. Go check it out if you haven't, FilmSack.com. Play retro will be this Friday at 1.30 Mountain Time. And Dunaway, tell the fine people what they can look forward to in the retro world. Sure enough. We're playing Eternal Champions.

How big was it, the 24 Meg, Carter, whatever it was on. Oh, wow. It was something huge. It was a 24 Meg. It was something like that. It was like 100 Meg. Wasn't it 100 Meg? I thought it was.

No? We're going to find out. I'm still doing research. This is just day one for me on the Eternal Champions. But it was on that and it was on the CD and it was a planned third one for the Sega Saturn. It never happened. I'm super excited about talking about it, though. If you guys never played Eternal Champions, Eternal Champions was their attempt at Sega to rival something like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat and all of that.

And it was Sega like, we can do that. We can make a game like that. We can have a time traveler sucking people from different times and get a caveman who does martial arts. Yeah. So that's how you get your battlers. They're all different time zone. Yeah. Yeah.

So like the moment before they died, he yanked them out and said, let's go fight. Yeah, go fight. For some reason, you have, like, a giant fish hook, grappling hook with this dude from the 20s. Oh, the Atlantis? I mean, that's totally Aquaman's, like, arm hook, hand hook thing. Yeah, that guy, the fish guy's fine. But look, see, he's got a little hook in his pants, this guy in the suit. Oh, yeah.

It's really weird. He's got those are handcuffs, aren't they? Oh, they're right. You know what? Those are handcuffs. My brain was like, when you think about it, Annie, are you okay. Are you okay, Annie? When you think about it, handcuffs are kind of like hooks.

Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, they are. They're huts for your hands, for your wrists. I just remember at the time being way into this happening, and I bought it immediately and spent too much money. It was like a $70 cartridge when I bought it. Stupid, stupid, stupid, but we'll talk about it. You've been hit by, you've been struck by a 16-bid criminal. I can hear the chip tune music even now.

Dono-way, it's been a pleasure, and we can't wait to see again in one Earth week. Can't wait. Bye now. Kiss our butts. I got them. Got him. One last one before the year ends. I got him. I don't like my chances in 2025, but I got them for now.

You got him now. We got time for a couple of quick news stories, so let's do those. Here we go. Where is it? It's the news, and it's brought to you by. Guess who's back? Back again. Why, it's our own 9 of 12, and she's streaming as part of the Diamond Club Diamond Group

streamathon this year, and you can find all you need to know and donate at Extra Life at DCStreamathon.org slash 9 of 12. Go put that whole thing in there and see Ember's really cool little portrait and bio and all that stuff. Help kids hang with September.

Two great things. What else could you ask for for 2024? I agree. Get in there, help her out. It's all part of their streamathon. They're helping the Extra Life Network like always. And she's awesome, as you know.

Oh, show. So support her today. I'm worried. We might not get to see see them at Vegas this year. They might not make it. Oh, no. Yeah. I didn't know that.

Unemployment still rearing its ugly head. So, hoping that changes and they can still make it out. If not, then we've got to find some other person who can attempt to fill her shoes and organizing the karaoke thing. Yeah. How is that even possible? I don't know. I don't know. How do you even have Vegas without 9 of 12?

Exactly. I don't know how it's possible even to do it. All right. Five of 13. We're looking. at you buddy right uh i hope they make it that would be great i hope so too uh here's your story father of five nine of twelve father of five uh uh dies it's a little darker darker new story today after a bear he was hunting fell on him from a tree so the bear didn't even attack him just fell off the tree and killed him yeah that's funny did he but did he shoot the bear and it fell on him or it doesn't look like. It looks like the bear just

was in the tree and fell on him. Just fell on him. He was trying to get him, trying to shoot him. And that's why I don't feel that bad. When we mess with nature this way and it goes bad, people want everyone to feel really bad, but I'm telling you part of the risk is A, that you're

going to die and B, that nature wins. I don't know what to tell you. If this is what you do, well then this is these them's the brakes. I don't know. Exactly. Live by the hunt, die by the hunt, I guess. Yeah. But But anyway, Virginia hunter has died from injuries he suffered when a bear that he and others were tracking, fell from a tree and landed on him. According to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources or the VDWR.

Ooh. Venereal disease, which direction. As you say, that does not begin well, the VDWR. You never want VD in there. No. The Virginia Department of everything has a problem. You know what I mean? Right.

It was alerted to a hunting accident at around 9.50 a.m. on December 9th. This was about 130 kilometers southwest of the state capital in Richmond. I love that the National Post is using kilometers and not miles. He's using kilometers, yeah. Good for you guys. You pushed that. Let's do it. Let's keep going.

2025, the year we moved to metric, that'd be amazing. Sure. I don't see that. No. There'd be some opposition in certain places, I think. America first. Forget it. That's a British first.

Wait a minute. How do we get... Wait a minute. That's a European thing. We should just measure it by beaver pelts. Anyway, it says here, the preliminary investigation found that Lester Clayton Harvey Jr. I'm sorry, but that's the most hunter-ass name I've ever heard of my life.

It also feels like it's a third of you, too, but maybe not. Lester Clayton Harvey Jr. He was part of a group of hunters who followed a bear until it climbed up to a tree to escape them, as you would, because it's a freaking bear in the nature, and you shouldn't be shooting bears. Hey, boo-boo, I'm just going to climb up this. Weak branch. Watch out, yogi. Ask your uncle, I guess.

Right, yeah. I realize how old that sounds now. Anyway, 58-year-old was transported to the VCU Medical Center in Richmond in serious but stable condition. However, he succumbed to his injuries and passed away on the 13th. Department said they're not seeking to file charges related in the incident, according to the obituary. I don't need to know about all that. Self-employed contractor and avid outdoorsman. This guy was described as shooting bears.

It's what you do. A friend to all and never met a stranger, but apparently, not a friend of bears. No, no, not of the bears, not those, not, maybe the Idaho Bears. Yeah, exactly. Passenger blasted for bringing emotional support Great Dane on an airplane. And I quote, as you do. I quote, this shit is getting out of hand, unquote. The side of this rough rider gave a frightened attendant pause.

They spelled it like P-A-W-S chat room. I think you should all be upset about this, not just Brian and I. Yahoo.com, and it's not even a Huff-Poe. No. Huff-Po's supposed to have all the dumb, you know, stupid stuff they say. And her scowl is now breeding contempt online. Emotional support. Her scowl?

Okay, I'm trying to understand. Why would a dog scowls? I don't get it. Oh, is that come from the, no, I think it's the, um, the Because look at the way it's written The sight of this rough rider gave a flight attendant's paws And her scowl

Is now breeding contempt online Breeding I get Yeah Scow? Dogs don't scowl They just have No I think it elicits the The flight attendant scowl I should say growl

Or yeah I don't know Something better than this is dumb Emotional support pets come in all shape, sizes and species But when a gigantic Great Dane accompanied its owner into a small jet for a recent flight. One cabin crew member grimaced and made it clear that the canine wouldn't

wouldn't be receiving much puppy love while flying the friendly skies. You know, this article really makes me want to die. Oh, stop. Yeah. Here's the thing. Oh, it stepped on the lady's foot. That's why it hurt her.

Oh, gotcha. Because they're a big, heavy dog. They are. Yeah, it's like, it's frigid Marmaduke. She brought Marmaduke on a plane. But they're such great. Ask your uncle. Yeah, no kidding.

Oh my gosh. At least they made that movie, right? Some kids know what it is. Yeah, right. But I love Great Danes. They're the sweetest animals ever. They don't want to hurt a fly. But I'm also going to just say, I think as a emotional support animal, totally for it, it's fine.

I think picking a Great Dane is going, whether or not they should give you heat, it's going to cause trouble when you take that thing on a plane. It just is. It's too big. Yeah. It's too big. if that thing gets diarrhea, what are you going to do? That's where you go. Yeah, I mean, if you've got a small little, you know, chow or something, you can deal with it.

Right, right. I'm thinking more about, like, the leg room because you're, you don't have to buy a seat for a Shih Tzu. No. You know, it's like, it's going to sit on the floor by your feet and curl up and, you know, not take up any space. Probably even easily fit in the little carrier underneath the seat in front of you. But this dog is going to need, like, it's. If you're sitting next to this person, they've got a Great Dane, you're giving up some, like, major legroom for sure. Or at the very least, you're giving up massive aisle space.

Like, it's going to have to be in the aisles space. No, they won't, they wouldn't let this thing. That's a, that's a safety issue. They would not let this, the Great Dane just sit in the aisle. Yeah, so how does it even fit in there? They'd have to buy two seats or something. Like, the Great Dains are monstrous. I think the person who's bringing on the plane probably has to, like, bunch up her body on the seat, like, pull her legs

onto the seat and then have the dog stand. I don't know. I don't know either. They're so big. They're like small horses. They're that big. So I don't know how they did it.

All I'm saying is, again, I'm sure this is the sweetest animal. I'm sure it's been trained to be a great emotional support animal. But that thing is, if it's standing in the aisle and there's a guy sitting across from it, his head is lower than the back of that freaking dog. That's how tall they are. I just don't think.

I don't know. I'm not saying don't. I'm just saying think about it. Yeah, he's used. There's a photo, I skipped over, but there's a photo. Oh, is there? When he's in the, he did get his own seat. So I guess she must have bought a seat for him or was sitting in a place that there wasn't somebody in the seat next to her.

But the dog is like way above. The dog could hit its head on the overhead bins is what's going on there. Look at how big it is. And I want to lay with it. I want to get on a couch and never leave with it. I understand. But I just don't know if, as a polite society, if we should be bringing small horses on planes. That's all of them.

Exactly. All right, we're going to take a break. Yeah, I think emotional support animal, as long as it can fit in the same carry-on bag shaped little tester thing. Yeah, Brian, let's look at it this way. Here you go. You're allowed to bring an iPad or a small tablet device on a plane, right? Like, it can be as big as that, and you're good. Yeah.

No problem. You might have to run it through the scanner. You might have to do other things in security, but otherwise, files, you just have it in there. It's great. They welcome that. But if you walked in there with a 55 to 60 inch television and said, this is my emotional support tablet, and I have to work this way, you wouldn't be allowed to have that in there. Yeah, exactly. I mean, they do say, right, like you can bring a personal device, you know, your work laptop or whatever. And there's some big ass freaking laptops on there with like open folding screens and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. You

shouldn't be able to bring a curved 60-inch gaming screen in there. Right. So I'm just, I know people get touchy because it's their pets. I get it. I understand there's a different emotional attachment to that and not objects, but I don't know. It's too much. We're going to take a break.

When we come back, Stephen Schlecker will join us. It'll be also his last segment of the year. And he's got kind of a bit of a countdown, kind of a coolest stuff of the year deal. I love this, yeah. Yeah, excited about this. So get your nerd on. He's coming in right after this song, Brian Brown. What'd you bring?

Brought something brand new from the Rum Jacks. They've got a brand new album that they're going to be releasing on February 7th of next year, via 4-4 Records. This was produced by Pete Steinkoff from Beach Slang and the Menzers and Brian Fallon. This is one of the two new tracks. This one you're just going to love. It's called An Irish Goodbye on St. Valentine's Day. How appropriate. This thing's got some jig in it.

Love it. Here are the Rum Jacks. There's a place where these broken souls go, we couldn't figure it out, so you left me here alone. And I'm the radio, a 21-year-old sings a song he didn't write about his own True love What can I say If you won't let me

What can I say? It's no surprise In Irish Goodbye Arnold Say he fell in Valentine's Day I hope it's not the last time that you leave me here behind Our riding's like a tangles tensor that can never find its rhyme No lusty, Romeo, no tragedy, nor story told

We know my sensibilities until I want red hearts go cold And on this holiday, I want you walk away The February wind is snapping on the lonesome bay And no, St. Valentine They'll use their holy shrine To sell the songs and roll So they'll shove him down our throats What can I say

If you won't let me What can I say It's no surprising Irish Goodbye Arnold Save Valentine's Day And I was waiting for the buses, but the buses never showed. So instead I started walking down that car for a second road. And I found an empty seat under a broken neon side.

And the bar was for the lonely ghosts without no Valentine's I drank until I stood and swore I never love again And I don't blame you not one bit for walking when you're dead And I'm standing here in freezing raining you're already home And I only showed up to this place so I wouldn't die alone And I wish goodbye, yeah On old say Valentine's Day In Irish goodbye again

Honol say Valentine's Day What can I say if you won't let me You walked out the door again What can I say? It's no surprise In Irish goodbye Arnold say Valentine's Day Those are you can't tell me what to do.

You can't tell me what to do. Oh, gotcha. From Only Bird is in the building or something? No, it's from the, so the Barbie cartoons that were very popular for a few years there, there are 3D animated kids cartoons. Apparently, he played the bad guy in those. Gotcha. I just found this somewhere and went, well, he sure squeals a lot in this.

Let's go ahead and make a little combo there. Thanks to Carter for that. Anyway, hey, Brian, tell me about this song one more time. Yeah, that's a song called An Irish Goodbye on St. Valentine's Day. It is just one of all the songs that you'll get on the brand new album called Dead Anthems. From the Rum Jacks. That album comes out February 7th via 4-4 Records. Go check it out.

Pre-order it today. Available now, soon. Then. Not now. Then. Available then. That song is available now. The rest of them available soon.

Soon. Then. And now welcome Stephen to the show. He's a huge freaking nerd. Dollar-dollar bills, y'all. Yeah, it's true. He's a huge freaking nerd. And he's here to join us like he does so many Mondays.

Hello, Stephen. Welcome back to the show. Oh, we don't hear him. He's muted. Some sort of mutation going on there. Mutified, mutisinal. Mutisolary. Yeah, so muted that even he can't hear himself.

He can't hear us either. He can't hear us. We can't hear you either. Well, let's see what that's about. I don't think that's us. That would be a him thing. Yeah. Let's see here.

Check your deal. Push your stuff. You're mic in your headphones, and he can't hear me suggest any of that. Nope. Nope. What you say to him is not being heard. And it will be repelled from our ears. That's right.

Well, let's... We can hear him. Can you hear us? I can hear you. Oh, good. What was that about? That was weird. I can hear you fine.

Yeah. Yeah, it's stupid. Yeah. Computers, man. What are they even good at? What are they for anymore? I know. Yeah, we'll give you a proper intro.

I don't think computers have a few. Oh, you're saying a little weird. Is that we lose you again? Oh, I think we lost them. Oh, now you're back. Yeah, yeah. It just got copy there for a second. Yeah, yeah.

I think you're good now. Say something so I can hear you. All right. Hello, Scott. Hello, Brian. It is so good to be here. It is good to have you. Yeah, it's great to have you.

I have a feeling we may have some massive lag, but we'll find out shortly. A little lag, but we'll take it. Yeah. We'll take you in, but yeah, whatever that thing was happening one time. Remember that? That was dumb. God, I hate computers. Computers are dumb. Well, let's try this, see how it goes.

And then worst case, I guess we could have you on your phone if we had to. That would work. That's true. We've done that before. That's fine. Well, let's see how this goes. Let's talk about Stephen and his top five comic stories of the year. And let's start with number five because Marvel did a thing. They canceled all the X-Men.

How does that feel? I know. Oh, man. That's okay. They got better. Yeah, are they, so you're telling me they weren't seriously killing the entire run of all X-Men comics. No, but it makes a good jar. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, so what actually happened there and what do we have now as a result? Yeah, so the, what is it, the Kenosha era of the X-Men came to an end, this big long arc where all the X-Men were jiving and grooving together. And that story came to an end, and so they were like, okay, so what happens post-Kinosha or Genosha, I forget what the name is. And so they're like, okay, well, we'll just relaunch everybody with a new number one. And of course, you know, by June, everybody's got new number ones. And we're, I think, four or five issues in for most of the X-Men titles. And they actually are doing really well. A lot of people are really digging the new stuff.

Gail Simone is writing one of the X-Men titles. People really dig that. There's Sentinel Comics on the way. There was a new Timeslide series with cable that launches this week, January 1st. So, yeah, plenty of X-Men. don't everybody freak out plenty of X-Men just waiting for you at your comic bookstore and so Janosha just for the uninformed it was like it's like their little secret city they made so they could all live there in peace and not deal with

normie anybody if anybody died they would be instantly brought back to life with all their memories so yeah are you uh I mean is this is this a sign that they're now like well I guess we're just hanging out with real people again I mean that's just our life now is that yeah that's that's basically the thing there's some there's some anti-mutant backlash that's going on like Professor X one of the big creators of this everybody get along

project is now on the run so there will be a six issue art kicking off in February or March where Professor X is being hunted by other X-Men. Oh, wow. To atone for his crime. And this is walking around wearing the helmet X. Right, the

Cerebro helmet. Yes. This dude here, yeah. So if you haven't seen that, that's, you can never really tasing. He's like daft punk. You really don't know how old he is or anything in there. He's just like... And he wears a Marvel logo on his crotch, too. Yeah, he does.

Marvel at my crotch. My ex-bag. I mean, Marvel at my crotch. That's a pretty small. That's a pretty small Marvel logo. It is, yeah. That's true. Well, anyway, that's exciting.

I didn't know this had happened, except you told us in May and I forgot. So, yeah. I forgot to. It happens. Yeah, it happens. Yeah. That's awesome.

So do you, do you recommend any of the newer books? Yeah, I think people can pick and choose. You know, you have different, you know, if you want to have, you've got the Sentinels, which is like, what if the X-Men are working for the government and a wet works kind of thing. If you want your X-Force team, you've got that. If you want teenage mutants, you've got NYX.

If you want following a particular character, you've got Wolverine and Cable and Phoenix and, you know, all of those. So it's not like you can, it's not like you're going to be hurting for comics. Yeah. And they do this. quite a bit. You know, that's my one negative about Marvel is

that if Brian Ibit is writing a series on, I don't know, Brian's favorite character is Spider-Man. Spider-Man, of course. Everyone knows that. Modoc! Oh, sorry. So Brian writes a 12-issue run of Spider-Man, and when

Brian's first issue comes out, they're going to say, it's a new volume, it's a new number one, and then when it gets to issue 12, then they're going to say, well, that's the end of Brian Ibbott's run. Now it's Scott's Johnson's turn to take on Spider-Man, So an all new era of Spider-Man begins now, and either everything has been reset to the way it was before Brian started writing, or they will assume that people understand what has gone before. It's like Marvel has just decided that we're never going to beat D.C. in high numbers of issues, because they're always going to be ahead of us.

So let's go the exact opposite way and just create a whole crap ton of number ones. Yeah, but here's the other thing, right, because Marvel likes to play both sides. So the old timers, they have a legacy number on every cover. So even though it may be Brian Ibbett writes Spider-Man number two, right underneath that, it'll be legacy number like 9-76. Oh, geez. Well, that's not confusing at all. At least that makes it easy for you don't know where to put it in your comic, your lung box, right? Yeah, that's a good point.

I guess if you're a collector, this is a helpful thing to have. Yeah, it's about the only positive I could make from that. It's irritating everything else about it. Well, in terms of, you mentioned Phoenix, let's talk about Gene Gray and the news that we got back in what was this. I don't remember when this was. Oh, yeah, this is all part of all the. It was part of that, yeah. The new relaunches and everything.

But yeah, if people are into Phoenix or like I said, NYX or X-Force, those titles are all available. How about the return? This happened in May. The return of EC Comics. That was a big deal. Yeah, so EC Comics is a big, you know, kind of a big milestone in comic book history because during the big witch hunts in the 1950s

they really targeted with Frederick Wortham's you know Tense and Plague book that comic books were bad that comic books cause kids to go crazy and commit crimes and homosexuality and all this stuff and so when the

government brought comic book publishers up on the stand to testify um you know Wortham got up there and just bombed and just had just a for everything that the government was doing. And of course, the other comic book publishers

had all said, well, we kind of already agreed that we would create our own guidelines so that the government wouldn't regulate us. And so they wrote these guidelines, specifically a lot of them targeting EC Comics horror lines, because that's what everybody

was up in arms against. And it essentially forced EC Comics to go out of business. The only surviving comics out of EC Comics was a little comic called Mad Magazine. And so Vault of Horror and the Cryptkeeper and all of these

all of these comics and characters just basically went away ironically or unironically by the 1970s, a lot of horror comics are back in print, but not the scary stuff from EC until Only Press this last year decided that they

would bring back the EC imprint, bring back the type of horror tales that were told back in the day for modern audiences, of course. And they've had a really good run of that. For Oni Press, you know, an indie publisher, a small publisher,

they've been doing really well with their EC Comics line. And I think they've got like four or five different titles currently in their EC line, and I think they'll have a few more in 2025. Their titles, the names of these are amazing. Epitaphs from the Abyss. That's one of their new ones. That's their new anthology.

Love that. Yeah. Cruel Universe is another newer one. But there's really sticking with that vibe, right? The the old school vibe of everything and the fonts and the and the the types of covers that you would expect love it love it love it love it and it's got a variety of of artists and writers on board that are really good writers and artists like i think on the epithets from the abyss uh garth inus is one of the creators on that series oh that's pretty good that's a good get having him in there let me ask you this is uh why why only press that surprises me that it's such a well i guess i shouldn't

think of them as small anymore. They're kind of a big deal, right? No, they're kind of a big deal. They've got the Rick and Morty comics come out from Oni Press. They've done really, really well. I think they've been around for like 25 years. So, you know, they have a track record of small independent comics. They've got licensed comics that they have done. And I think maybe it was, they were one of the few, if only companies that were interested in doing this. And everyone else was just like, yeah, sure, do whatever you want. We've got our own horror comics. So, you know, Every comic publisher right now has some kind of a gruesome comic book line that is perfect for a horror fan out there. And I think all of that really started with Image Comics and The Walking Dead kind of re bringing back some of that classic horror monster stuff from, you know, 20 plus years ago.

Yeah, great way of bringing it all back, I suppose. DC Comics, their compact comics have a ride. This happened in June. And that was well received. People like that, right? this thing has gone over like a syrup on pancakes well that's good uh you were you were talking you know there's been a lot of discussion in the last couple of weeks about how do we get kids to read comics and the answer is kids are reading comics my two kids have never picked up a floppy comic of dc or

marvel or or any of that stuff and yet they read more comics than i do they read from a young age, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dogman, Captain Underpants, High-Loh, they've now transitioned into all the manga comics that are out there. And they've read those two extremes to where, you know, if Netflix launches a new anime series, I'm like, have you guys seen this? They're like, oh, yeah, we read the manga already. So kids are reading comics. And Scott, when you went to your Barnes & Noble experience and cracking dad jokes in front

of grumpy old ladies, you know, you have to, you have to say, well, what is it about the size of a manga comic, published by Viz Media and others, Kodansha is another publisher of manga here in the U.S., what is one of the things that sets those things apart? Well, number one, they have a long shelf life. Number two, they are of a smaller size. And so when D.C. relaunched this compact series, they're basically making them the size of those manga comics that you're seeing on the shelves.

Now, the art is reduced, the lettering is reduced. So some of us olds might have a problem reading. really tiny word balloons like the watchman in a nine-panel grid might be really hard to read for the olds, but the youngs have been scooping that stuff up so much so that DC has launched a second wave, maybe even

a third wave, of Comcat packed comics, and these are just basically trade paperbacks of some of their greatest stories, but if you can walk down the manga aisle and you see Hunter X Hunter right next to Huntress, or you go down and you're seeing whatever Bayblade or whatever the

B word is, and you see a Batman right next do it, you're probably going to pick that one up too and read it. Yeah, I like that a lot and also some of these collections, like Batman Hush is one of my all-time freaking favorite runs of anything. Watch them is an easy pick, of course. Wonder Woman Earth 1, great run.

This is great. I didn't know I guess I didn't fully form in my head what this meant. It really was just a format adjustment for a market they weren't penetrating, and it sounds like it worked. So that's great. Yeah, because now all of those books

Barnes and Noble is going to have no problem taking those in. Comic bookstores, I don't know what their reaction has been to this because they already sell full-size trade paperbacks. They sell floppies, but they're also having this issue of how do we bring the youngs in? It's like, well, put some Pokemon cards in your rack or, you know, get some younger reader, bring more manga in, and you will bring those kids in. And I think DC is just saying, hey, we can get these into bookstores

a lot easier than our floppies or our trades. Well, there you have it. There's also this note about the superhero trademark struck down. This happened September, so not too long ago. Yeah, late September. You can keep calling things superheroes. Yep. Yep, you can do it without a problem because both superhero as one word and super hyphen heroes were both a shared trademark by Marvel and DC.

This was from something from the 1960s that was then transferred over to, dual sharing by the companies, which is fairly rare. but then there was a small publisher in the UK that wanted to have like superhero babies or something like that and DC sent a cease and desist saying no you can't do it and they're like well why not you guys haven't been protecting your trademark for all these years so they went to court DC didn't show up and so the judge is like yeah we're striking down the trademark on both of these so feel free to use superhero super hyphen heroes in any of your any of your podcast titles your book titles whatever and you won't

have to worry about Marvel and D.C. coming after you. Interesting. I didn't know D.C. just was a no-show at that thing. Yeah, that was the weirdest thing about that. And I did a whole interview with the lawyer of this case. Yeah. And he was like, and I was like, well, why didn't, you know, you got all these cease and desist and you were going to court and everything? What happened? And he's like, they didn't show up. Wild. Wild. And it may just, yeah, so you can listen to that over on the major spoilers podcast from September of, uh, of 2024. All right. Check that out. And then finally. James Gunn, Superman, got a trailer, most viewed trailer and comic book trailer history.

Wow. Also, the biggest viewed trailer, I think it's only behind a Star Wars thing or two. Like, it's like second or third all time or something like that, or it's on track to you. I can't remember what the current status is. It's amazing. I mean, it's well deserved. It's a great trailer. Yeah, it's a good time.

It brings the feels, and of course there's a bunch of people who are being angry at this. I think you have a bunch of the Zach Snyder bros that are just like, oh, bring back Zach Snyder. Then you have a bunch of disingenuous people who are just angry to be angry. And then there are people who I don't think have ever read a comic book because Nathan Phileon comes out as Guy Gardner. Nathan Phillyen comes out as Guy Gardner. And I was like, those are the dumbest haircut I've ever seen us. That's comic accurate.

That is the comic accurate haircut. But these are the same people who had never heard of Guardians of the Galaxy and could not deal with a tree and a raccoon. You know what I mean? Before they see the movie, they're just like, what is this in this trailer? A raccoon that talks? That's stupid. It's like, all right, you big bunch of dumb shits, wait for it to come out, maybe then watch the movie, you'll be fine. Like, I have no, I've, so is there a negative patience number? Because that's what I have right now for these people. I'm stoked about this. I can't wait to see how it all works out. If it's great, one, great for us. If it's bad,

well, we'll learn our lesson. But either way, uh, it looks great. I think crypto's amazing. I think that they finally made a Clark Kent who looks very different than super Yeah, yes, believably, yeah, believably fooling people around him into who he is. I think it's great. Yeah, I'm shocked how well that looks, even though it's a broccoli head haircut, but whatever. I will not be surprised if that haircut becomes super popular. In fact, I've got a 13-year-old. Again.

Yeah, I have a 13-year-old who is going to go get a hairstyle this week and a K-pop style. and it won't surprise me if he's got that Superman do, or the Clark Kent do, by the end of the week. Well, I can't wait to find out how that all goes. Well, there you go. Look at kind of the bigger stuff of the year from major spoilers. And always a segment that I love doing on the show, regardless of your computer. It doesn't matter. I know.

Stupid computer. That's fine. This is the year of your best computer year ever, Stephen. I can just feel it. I hope it is, Scott. I really can. We wish you nothing but a great new year. And I'd look forward to the next time you're on, which will be 2025.

Yeah. You got anything fun planned for New Year? You can do anything cool? No, we're just keeping things cool over at major spoilers.com. We've got a couple of podcasts that'll come out later this week. But if you enjoyed this top five, I would ask that people go check out our top five podcast where every other week we share our top five whatever's in a list. It could be movies, could be songs, could be comic books, cartoon characters.

It's a totally random spin-the-wheel kind of topic, but it's always a lot of fun. you can find it at any podcast outlet wherever we're fine podcasts are sold that's right i love it podcast outlet that's just like two steps away from like a podcast concern podcast outlet yeah yeah yeah yeah i'd go there you kidding me keith and the girl whatever man uh all right dude stay out of trouble we'll see you soon uh all right excellent love talking to stephen even when his computer's poopie poop poopie um have a recommendation for people if you're in the salt lake area and you are craving some of the best pizza you'll ever have in your life we went to a place called oak wood fire kitchen i think

there are two of these in town now it is a local thing though freaking stupidly good food i was blown away by this food the even the appetizers we got a a lotte uh bread dip thing for a for a what you call it a appetizer appetizer unbelievable So good. Just blew my freaking mind. The pizza is insane. And I got this sandwich thing that was like a specialty sandwich. It was basically kind of flat bread with a bunch of pizza type stuff in it.

But it was it wasn't just pizza. It wasn't like a pizza sandwich. It was more than that. I didn't even know how to describe it. Unbelievably good. And the prices were all right. So I'm just saying if you're in town, go to Oakwood Fire Kitchen. It was so freaking good.

Service was great. Like thick crust, thin crust? Thin kind of I wouldn't say medium crust closer to thin than medium but still

not quite like thin thin crust but very authentic they have this honey glazed pepperoni thing they do that is just oh my gosh

knock my freaking socks off we were blown away we didn't expect it to be as good as it was and it was so good so I can't recommend it enough there's a location in Draper and one in

I forgot what the other one is somewhere in Salt Lake go get it oak wood fire kitchen if you're here in the in the uh state oak wood fire kitchen oak wood fire kitchen also today noon monday show me carter together uh father daughter doing it making it happen all right so that'll be today at noon check it out frogpans dot tv if you want to watch it live and check out the podcast later at frogpans dot com slash monday all things for this show can be found at frogpans dot com slash tms bryan you got anything else before we go got nothing else uh you quick, quick movie recommendations, saw Sonic 3,

binged the first two, and then went to the theater while Tina was going to a cancer group dinner thing, went to the theater solo, had a great time. A little kid, boy, toddler next to me in the seat. Could not sit still, though. Like, had the whole run of the seat. It was jumping up and down and had a great time. You know, whatever.

He enjoyed the movie, I enjoyed the movie. Sonic 3, very, very funny. Well, that's great. A very funny visual gag that they do in there for people who grew up in the Sega, the Sega world. It sounded like from your posts I read that you are a Sega, you've now a Sonic fan of the movies. I know a Sonic fan, a fan of the Sonic movies.

Yeah, the first two is still streaming, go watch them. There's enough in there to please adults, you know, the jokes that go over the kid's heads really funny. And then the stuff they do, the little bit of fourth wall breaking that's great in the third one. It's a really good time. All three movies are a good time. And what's his face?

Ben Schwartz makes a great Sonic. It was a great voice. Nice. Nice. Well, yeah, I liked it too. I like the first two quite a bit. They're surprisingly good for what they are. Yeah, yeah.

So I will have to see three. Maybe I'll take the boy or something like that. All right. That's going to do it for us. Brian, let's play a song and get out of here. What do you got? Yeah, I've got a song in my heart. This one's going out to Scooby Dad, aka Bob Decker.

He says, hey, scone and biscuit, it's my 70th trip around El Sol. Jeez. And after last year's 69 birthday sung, my 69th birthday song was great, got tons of fun and people laughing for the 69th birthday. A little hint to what you played. Mr. Sandman was the number one song when I was born, so I'm sure you can find a great cover of it. Can I get an Mmm, Sausage, adore the program, nevertheless? Oh, my gosh. Yes, let's do this one.

Sausage. At least two other extra seconds, right? At least. At least. There's definitely, definitely gotten longer. And the rate, yes, just to quickly answer his question, he says, Sonic movie better than Mario movie? Yes. Oh, really?

Really? Okay. There you go. You heard it from Brian. I thought the Super Mario movie was fine, but I think all three Sonic movies, they, they, like, the jokes in them definitely hit land better for me than the Mario ones. Cool. Yeah, I think

I need to see three. I don't know, I'm torn on that. They're just very different movies. Like an Idriselva, man. Right. Plus the whole, like Mario versus Sonic thing never ends, even today.

We're comparing their movies now. It's a Pepsi Coke. I mean, you can like them both. Yeah, you got everything. Get it all. Anyway, all right, let's get this song for Bob Decker. The version I'm picking is

from a great cover album from 1998 that might fool you from the title. You might think you're just getting a collection. of songs from the 50s and 60s. But no, you're not. You're getting covers. The album is called Oldies but Goodies. It's a compilation.

And it features a band called Gob. Yeah, punk rockers Gob. Haven't heard that name in like 15, 20 years. With their cover of Mr. Sandman. Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream. Make him the cutest that I've ever seen.

Give him to live like Producing clover, then tell him that there's lonesome Nights are over. Dement, I'm so alone. Don't have nobody to call my own. Please turn on your magic beat. Mr. Saman, bring me a dream. Mr. Salmon, bring me a dream.

Make him the cutest that I've ever seen. Give him a word that I'm not a robot. I'm not a robber, they tell him that it's both the nights are all at Sandman. I'm so alone. Don't have nobody to call my own. Please turn on your magic dream. Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream. Enter Saman.

Uh-uh. Bring me a nightmare, give him a pair of eyes with a frightening gleam. Give him a beard and empty beard. empty beer cans, and long wavy hair like Pat the Wolf's Man. Mr. Sadman, someone's a dread, someone who's creepy and after my head, so please turn on your magic beams. Mr. Sadman, bring us, please, please, please, Mr. Sadman, bring us a dream. Those pants,

made for froggin. If you know what I mean. I actually don't. Frogpants.com. He reads everything.