The Morning Stream - TMS 2765: Bad Pitt

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

Misty liquid. Oops I Leaked It Again! Schrodinger's Rabbit. Eminem's Mom's Spaghetti. Hallmark Parking Space. All the right clicking. The Johnsons are Streakers. Just a Couple of Blokes. The birdiest bird. We didn't kill Eddie Rabbit. Ol' stretchy face from Brazil. ALF Apologists. Lot of letters after your name. Like a Hooters' waitress. Original Knees With Wendi and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They say you should never punch a beehive. We hear a TMS agree. They also say you support content creators whenever you can. We hear a TMS agree with that as well. So head to patreon.com slash TMS today and do that very thing, minus the B stuff. Coming up on the morning stream, Misty Liquid. Oops, I leaked it again. Schrodinger's rabbit.

Eminem's mom's spaghetti. Hallmark parking space. All the right clicking. The Johnsons are streakers. Just a couple of blokes. The birdiest bird. We didn't kill Eddie Rabbit. Old stretchy face from Brazil.

Alf Apologists. Lots of letters after your name. Like a Hooters waitress. Original Nees with Wendy and more on this episode of the Morning Stream. When you're feeling bored or blue, watch out for the munchies. They find ways of making you munch when you're not hungry. Watch out for the munchies. Another nutritional message from the ABC Television Network.

The morning stream, I must break you. Hello, everybody. Welcome to TMS. It's the morning stream for Thursday, January 16th, 2025. I'm Scott Johnson. That's Brian Abbott. Hello, happy Thursday to you. We're on the downslope of the week. Yeah, this is where things start to really go downhill, folks. Wendy comes in here, gives us a bunch of advice we probably won't follow. That's right. Yeah, apparently we had homework last week from Wendy that I forgot about.

Oh, shit, no. Because it looks like we have a new thing anyway. We have a new... We do, but I'm trying to prepare myself for the follow-up. What the heck was it? I don't remember. and Amy apparently has a response to to last week's Wendy thing that might be I'm assuming Amy there's something that we should read before well she sent he did the homework okay yeah I don't yeah we have we have an email that may or may not be from her that is this email so I think we're I think we're covered okay Wendy sent that to me anyway so yeah she'll be here that'll be fun learn some things like what we were supposed to doing that we forgot?

I mean, it wasn't the pinch-the-ear breathing sleep stuff, was it? Or was it? No, but it was something where I could report on how well that's been working. I've been coming up with new lists in my head because the rubbing my ear doesn't work because it's so dry in Colorado. It's like sandpaper. You know, it basically I just hear when I rub my ear. This wakes you up more.

Yeah. But I've been like, all right, let's see. Beatles songs, let's start with A. How many Beatles songs can I come up with? It begin with A. Across the universe. Yeah. And I love her and then move on to B and then Dada-da-da-da.

And then C and da-da-da-da. So you're doing bands. That's interesting. Yeah, we're doing music-related things. Basically, as long as I'm not coming up with a story, that's the thing, right? Yeah. Sometimes when I do the words, like, you know, here's the. all the B words. I make stories. I start coming up with stories in my head and that's not

what we want. Right. Like, all right, how many words can I come up with, uh, for the begin with the letter F, uh, freelance, uh, failing, uh, forever. Yeah. And before, you know it, you've told you, you've made a story and you can't get it out of your head. Right. Exactly. Yeah. I think it depends on who you are, but for me, numbers are better. Uh, so counting actually helps me or counting down from certain numbers kind of like they have you do when you're at the hospital you're getting put out for something right right it's like a the sheep thing also screens off i've been reading instead of popping open a simpson's episode yeah don't so is that helping you is that improving me yeah it's definitely helping and changing my environment so not reading in bed

reading over on the couch and then when i start getting tired go to bed because you don't want to teach yourself that the bed is a place to be awake okay well if this is what she follows up on I have been doing similar things, so we'll both have good answers. Good, very good. Yeah, excellent. We're on the same page in case she launches at us with some idea we forgot about. I don't remember everything that she said. I don't either.

I'm sure we'll be fine. A couple quick things. We got a note here to start things off from liquid mist. Ooh, kind of liquid mist. That's a reminder for me to turn on my... Liquid mist better or is misty liquid? Which would you prefer? Oh, liquid mist for sure.

Liquid mist humidifies the air, and it was a good reminder for me to turn on my humidifier. It's 21% humidity in this office, which means that if I move a little bit and then touch something, it shorts it out. Oh, man, you get all shocking in there. Jeez. Yeah, exactly. So try to keep things up in the 27 to 30% range. That's a great idea. It's good for your computer stuff, too. It is. It absolutely is, yeah. I think I might, misty liquid implies like water in this, in the cold. I want the liquid to be misty.

I want the mist to be liquidy. Yeah. I think you're, I think that's right. I'm going to, I'm voting your, I vote for your candidate. Cool. Anyway, wrote in and said the following. It says, hey, Snoop and big boy. Was wondering if you had heard the M&N songs that got leaked.

If not, how do you feel about music leaks in general? Songs that were recorded, but the artists never intended. them to be released. Thanks, Liquid Miss. P.S., can we test the ship's phasers? Yes, we can in a moment, but first, let's answer your question. Yeah, that's a good, I have not heard the Eminem songs that leaked. I need to, I need to hear that. I am not in favor of music leaks. That feels, even if it's like a favorite band of mine, I feel like this is not the way that the band intended for me to, for my first experience with this song to be. Prince, this was a big thing with Prince and why

there were some releases that his estate came out with after he had passed away that the fans were like, I don't think this is doing anything to improve his legacy. So, yeah, I

am not in favor of, I'm not in favor of music leaks. I'm not in favor of like if a script gets leaked ahead of time because it never you know, there's so many things that happened to a script even while something is getting shot that you want to see the you want to see what the director has in mind and not what um nobody wants to see my first draft of anything i don't want to see the first draft of something christopher nolan is putting together or or i might want to see it after the fact but i don't want to see it ahead of it yeah yeah like i might want to i might even buy such a thing in in retrospect but i don't want to get it first you know like if he has an interstellar script that he just started penning on a piece of a piece of a napkin somewhere. That would be cool to see. That'd be awesome, but I don't need it first.

Give me interstellar first and then say, now let's look at the humble roots of the story. Whether you started it in a bar somewhere in England, you know, that's interesting. That's why I'm so torn on the post-John Lennon Beatles stuff, where they took his vocals and added their own stuff. Like, if he, I don't think John would have approved. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy would be like, oh yeah, just take my vocals and go ahead and put whatever you want to see if you can get that electric light orchestra guy to uh jefflin he'll help so wait so hold on no so we're talking about two very well we're talking about a distinction that's important to mention anyway which is a posthumous leak versus the guy's still around kind of leak so yeah but it's still it still falls under the this is something that the

artist never intended to release or didn't intend to release in that form well in that case it's a hundred percent true if they're dead right because we don't have we can't ask them we have no I do what they're going to say. We can never get their permission. Right. But in Eminem's case, he may go, nah, I don't care. That's true. Mom spaghetti, you know, he'll just say. He may not care. But I'm not,

and I don't know what his attitude on this particularly, because I didn't know about it until we got this email. Yeah. But I kind of feel the same, and I kind of feel this way across the board. I don't care if it's like video game leaks. I don't care if it's like, like any of that stuff. I just, nobody asked for it. It just feels clandestine and somebody's cheating, you know?

Even if it's, even if it is 100% completed, it's in the format that the person wants to release it, but they wanted to do something when they release it to kind of set it up or give it some fanfare or some, their own presentation, all of a sudden you're taking away their power and giving it to somebody who was able to hack into Universal or something, right? Yeah, yeah. What's the, you know, that's, I assume it's usually on the inside, right? Somebody inside's doing it. Possibly, yeah. Yeah, probably more than more than not. Almost always in the game side, if something's leaked in gaming, it's almost always some employee who either screws up or did it on purpose or is disgruntled. There's always something like that. Or, you know, there's rumor that with these changes over at meta, that somebody internally tried to leak a bunch of stuff and then got stopped right at the last second.

There was some story floating around about this. So those things are usually, it's never like, oh, oops. It's out there It doesn't happen that way It's usually either somebody being a jerk Or somebody trying to capitalize on it And I don't like it either way So there's our answer

Don't do that There you go That's a good question though Liquidness thank you for that Yeah I wonder if No let's test the ship's phasers Yeah let's do that I promise Let's test the ship's phasers

It's important to know too Like Tupac in his case I think all his stuff All his lost tracks and all that stuff I think that was all approved by his family's whatever. So there are cases where if they had some sort of tacit pre-approval

or somebody said before they died, yeah, you can always do whatever you want with my music or, you know, it's up to you guys with the foundation or whatever. I mean, I think that stuff's fine. It's just, you know, when you're doing it without someone's permission, I don't like that at all. I hate that.

Yeah, they released the Prince thing. And this is one I'm kind of torn on because I'm really glad to have heard it. I don't know if he would have wanted me to hear it. They released the original demo versions he did of songs that he wrote for other people, like Manic Monday, nothing compares to you, The Glamorous Life by Sheila E. There's a few like that. I think something he wrote for the time.

And they released those, and I'm wondering if, all right, is this a money grab or, you know, Prince had all this time to release his version of Manic Monday? Why didn't he do it? Maybe he didn't want to take something away from the Bengals version or something. Sure. I blamed Morris Day. He did it. It's Morris Day.

Yeah. He had no time. So he did it. He'd be doing the bird. Have you heard? Yeah, that was really good. That was as birdie as I'd ever seen anybody do. This was bird.

Yeah, exactly. Very good bird. Everybody had you heard. That's about a new dance. And it's called the bird. That's right. Well, thank you Liquid Mist. I'm sure if those tracks from Eminem are meant to be heard.

We'll hear them at some point. but I'm not seeking him out. Anyway, yeah. There's a, before we even get off the, I don't know why I wanted to just keep talking about Prince on the time, but there's I don't know if it's still going on, but if you get a chance

while you're in Vegas for TMS Vegas, there's a really good Prince impersonator show called Purple Rain, R-E-I-G-N, Purple Rain. And the dude who does it does an incredible impersonation of Prince and two-thirds of the way through the show, he disappears in the back

for what you think is going to be a costume change and he comes back out or you don't realize it's him because he looks so different but he comes back out as Morris Day and they do a couple time songs and it's a complete transformation and then the guy goes back and closes out as Prince with with Purple Rain. It was incredible. It was a really, really good show. I'm a bad fan for the time. I don't know. I couldn't tell you any of their songs. There's two songs you know by the time. I know I've heard of it, but I don't know the names. bird uh the bird and um oh now just the sexy people what is that other time song that was like they had like two hits right like two koreas jungle love thank you zander

jr o yo yo yeah i know that girl i want to know you know you know you durner nirr jungle love yeah that one i remember yeah a couple of two hit wonders the time and then what was the girl's name on the drums what was her deal uh she well shili was on the drums, but I don't know if she, did she do drums for the time? Okay, that was a was-not-was, was the dinosaur. Walk the dinosaur. Yeah. Was-N-N-O-N-W-N-W-N-W-N-W-N. I can't remember.

I just remember there was a lady standing and doing drums a lot. Yeah, and it could have been, oh, it could have been Apollonia. Yeah. Shealy-E was a percussionist. Was Apollonia percussionist as well? I don't remember. That whole, that whole thing, outside of Prince, I just didn't get it. Like his whole entourage and, Wendy and Lisa, and, oh, Wendy and Lisa were great. I saw Apollonia. Oh, no, I'm sorry. I saw Sheila E. tour with one, when one of

Ringo stars, All-Star bands came through Denver, what a freaking awesome lineup. We had Colin Hay from Men at Work. We had Paul Carrick from Squeeze, Mike and Mechanics, you know, solo career, one of my favorite singers of all time. Sheila E. John Waite from the babies and from missing you. You know, the song from the 80s, no matter what my friends say. Who else? It was like

a truly an all-star band. It was just so, so great. Is that just a one-off they did? There was a tour, a one-off tour that they did, yeah. They do an album or anything? No, he never does. It's like every year he would back in the day with peace and love,

he would assemble a group of artists. and then do a, do a U.S. tour, or maybe even a world tour, probably did the UK as well. And then that would be it for that, All-Star Band. And then he'd come around the next year with a different All-Star Band. So it wasn't like Traveling Wilburys or something like that where they had like that. No, no, it was always a different lineup. And the way it would always be like half Ringo and Beatles songs and then half songs by each of those other artists.

So you got The Glamorous Life, you got Missing You, You Got Land Down U. You got land down under and who can it be now? You got tempted and how long and the living years from Paul Carrick. I mean, God, what a great show. That's pretty awesome. Yeah, what a cool show. That's a great one to have under your belt. Yeah, for sure.

Very cool. We got one here from Kelly, LC, we'll say, I don't want to give their full name. It looks like it would be easy to find them if you wanted to find them. Yeah. it's a recommend for us says hello long time listener since the beginning just wanted to recommend a show I stumbled on to on prime it's called on call looks like the creator of law and order developed it it was really well written and the story is well done for an eight episode 30 minute show also 30 minute episodes interesting um I was tired of cop shows but this one is different and a good watch keep up the fun and silly show I enjoy it every day getting ready for work says Kelly oh I heard about this this is um uh I don't Belisario's daughter,

Troyan. Let's see. What's it called again? The call, or on call? On call, yeah. Why did I think this was British? I thought this was, this is a Dick Wolf joint?

No, it's not. Dick Wolf, who did? Oh, yeah, Dick Wolf. It is Dick Wolf. So it is Law and Order to get a Dick Wolf. Yeah, yeah. Let's see here. Exactly the producer,

and it looks like it's created by his son, Elliot Wolf. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. I like that. Review well. Let's see. Yeah, pretty well. Eric LaSalle. Look at that from ER and... Yeah, dude. Sergeant Lassman. Coming to America. Yeah. Lori Loughlin.

Are we okay to like Lori Loflin again? What was her deal? I don't remember. She was involved in the college scandal, wasn't she or no? Yeah, she was involved in the college. Oh, she's married to Lundergard, Macy, William H. Macy. No, no, no. No, that's the other. That's the other one who got Oh

Huffman, Felicity Huffman. She was another one that was... Gotcha. I don't remember her being... I didn't know Lori Loftham was involved. I had no idea. Yeah. She's in a lot of my wife's Christmas things.

Yes, she is. She has a standing... She has a parking spot with her name at the Hallmark Channel filming area. Yeah. I would see this. This looks great.

On call. Looks really good. Yeah. Episodes. Let's see here. they are they say how long they are are they really 30 minutes a piece

30 minutes that's so weird for a drama like a cop drama it is for a Dick Wolf thing for sure yeah all right well there we go it is the first series

from Dick Wolf to be set in half hour formats with the running time being 24 minutes so even 30 minutes knowing it's gonna be streaming 30 minutes based on typical commercial

I guess if it's on prime prime you know we've kept all the the uh uh the commercial interruptions on prime i don't get any of those i paid i paid the two bucks yeah it's only two bucks i was like i i yeah i hate that they're making me do it because i pay for prime every year and it shouldn't be another two dollars for no ads like i hate it i want to pee all over bezos and his people for it but i'm like two bucks it's just not even worth fighting i'm just going to yeah yeah yeah watch saturn three yesterday and uh

Saturday 3 will be brought to you with limited commercial interruptions. Wonderful. So this is only four hours of content. That's crazy. Yeah. All right. They're going to watch it. I have what do you call it?

I queued it on my prime watching list. Oh, good. Yes. Cued it. Thank you, Kelly. That's awesome. Got another message. This one about music.

Speaking of music, Alex from Savannah wrote in about the taxpayers and said this. Just checking in on the January 14th, shoe. He said shoe, not show. I assume you meant to And it's not a typo I'm sure, yep You guys played a song From the Taxpayers

I thought that that sounded familiar On my next podcast That played the Sawbones And the Taxpayers Are the group that plays The Sawbones theme song Oh, very cool Timing was perfect

Perfect, keep up the great work So that was nice timing Nice Yeah, I apologize That I called them The Tax Collectors I think during the back announced So

Still a pretty good Name for a band though It is the taxpayers, yeah Yeah, you got it wrong But it's a great name for it I gave somebody else out there a really good idea for the name of their band. Yeah, that's cool.

So we like it when happy circumstances happen where we match something other people are doing unless it's the death of a celebrity everyone loves. We don't like that when that happens. Exactly. All right? Yeah, did you, what was it? It was we were talking about, I love a rainy night, Eddie Rabbit song.

Yeah. And Eddie Rabbit has already, you know, long passed away, so we didn't kill him. But then there was some show I was watching where they did a cover of that song. Oh, right. You sent me a text right when it happened. I sent you a link and I'm like, yeah, look at this.

They're all of a sudden covering I love a rainy night and the weird timing. Yeah, just scroll back to our messages and find it. It's before the Sheridan thing. Where is it? Is it way back? Oh, here. Oh, here it is. You were at the Mammoth game.

Oh, right. Yes, they had a live country band at the Mammoth game and they covered I love a rainy night. Let's see. I'm going to pull that. I got way more excited about that than anybody else because of. Well, let me play it outside here. I don't know why. Weird format or something.

But, yeah, that was crazy because we had just talked about that, dude. Yeah. Do you think when Eddie Rabbit died, that meant somebody was pregnant when he died? Do you get it? Do you get the reference? Oh, Eddie Rabbit, right, because they used to kill rabbits to find out if you were pregnant or not. Yep. Yep, I get it.

It's good. It's good. Do you know the only reason I know that is a thing? The only reason. I've never heard it anywhere else. else. I only know it from a MASH episode where Margaret, Margaret thought she was pregnant. They killed

Radar's rabbit to find out or something. Right. That's the only reason I know that. No, I knew it from soap. We both learned it from 70s TV. It was soap Diana Canova said, she was

telling somebody that she was pregnant. They're like, are you sure? And she goes, The rabbit died. Do you think that show's worth Watching now if you could find it. Soap? Yeah. Do you think that holds up at all?

Do you think it's just like... I don't know. I mean, God, there was such a great cast. Billy Crystal breakout role for him. Mona from... Mona. The boss. What's her face?

Old stretchy face from Brazil. I can't remember her name, though. Yes. Anyway, she passed also. You got Ted Wass from Blossom. You got... Big name. There's so many people who started that.

that in that series and then went on to huge things after that but do you think it's good now like yeah i don't know i don't know i feel like like you remember when i watched the golden girls and i was like yeah this isn't for me it has that same yeah that feel like that that um that because i think the same producers as a matter of fact oh yeah benson right we wouldn't have had benson benson benson was a spin off of soap yeah benson was their butler or whatever whatever the hell it was going on there. Correct, yeah. And he was so sarcastic on that thing

and didn't carry a lot of that sarcasm, sarcasm over to his own show. I don't know if it holds up. I actually have the DVDs. Somebody, I think maybe I got a good deal and bought the DVDs for the entire series. I just remember as a kid. One of the season finale cliffhangers was,

well, I can't remember a character in his name, but she wasn't Eunice. She was Eunice's sister. had a baby and she tucked the baby in and left the room and then all of a sudden everything in the room starts flying around like a tornado like you know the baby was possessed and they had to begin all season with an exorcism for uh for the baby oh my gosh dude but it was but as a kid whatever year that thing came out um it freaked the crap out of me like i was so freaked out yeah that's what happens when you're young and impressionable right

Yeah. I had a lot of things do that to me back then. Just someone in the chat just told us Bob Eukert died. 90-year-old Mr. Baseball passed away today. Oh, yeah? Yeah, you got a switch announcement and Bob Eukert died. I think there's a little bit of some connection. No, just kidding.

There's no connection there. He was a cool guy, though. He was in those major league movies. He was like the commentator. Yeah, like a little cameo, played himself in those. Yeah, or he was the, I think he was the play-by-play. guy up in the up in the um what do you call it to play by play booth whatever they call it up there the sport the caster sportscaster booth yeah that thing yeah um yeah if you want to if you want to

show the clip i have the clip on uh in our discord if you want to show the clip that freaked me out by the way we absolutely can just one moment here they get it all cued up here you go folks this was their season finale. I think season two season finale. She steps out of the room and then lights go off. And then this gave me freaking nightmares.

Oh yeah, Benson comes back in for some reason. Ujibuji, bojee, bojee, bojee. It was to show that he was he's a, he's like babies. He's a soft. Yeah. All right, we'll continue here. And you get that nice little comedy bit right there.

And then they're like, oh, what the heck is? What the F is going on? What, dude? to be freaking chills. Weird. Do they show this kid? No, they never show the kid. All right.

They don't show the kid possessed or anything. Let me ask you a question. I have a theory now because you've told me before possession movies freak you out. They do, yeah. That's where it came from. It has to out. Is this the source of that?

It must be the source. It's got to be 100%. And why I still watching that clip 40 years later, whatever it's been, still gives me the freaking chills. I think part of it must be because it's just such a tonal change. It's such a bait and switch, man. It's like, oh, it's so cute.

They're talking to the baby. And oh, Benson ran back in and what the hell is the baby doing now? That's a weird thing to do. Yeah. I don't know why you'd do that in your sitcom. Yeah, I know, but it was so good. It was, you know, I mean, for everybody else. For everybody that wasn't me.

It was really good. Did they resolve anything the next season? Oh, yeah. The next season began with them. Them, you know, again, it was like, for a while it was when people weren't paying attention, the baby would do stuff. And then they would catch it. And then she realized, again, I can't remember Diana Kanova's name. But, yeah, they brought in Father Tim, who was the dude from MASH who goes choppers when it wasn't, you know, when it wasn't,

Radar. I guess Radar was the one always said choppers. This guy was the... Oh, you mean that goes... Incoming wounded. Rap-a-b-b-bhap. Yeah, he also was like, tonight's movie is going to be blah, blah, blah. And then our mess hall is going to serve

shit. Go ahead and eat the shit. You're our mess hall. I've had a river of liver and an ocean of fish. Right. So, yeah, the father, the priest that they brought in who was in love with Diana Kanova was the guy who performed the

exorcism, which I think is why they explained it is why the baby was possessed to kind of get back at her for doing it with a clergy man or something. Okay, so the bottom line, though, is they exercise this baby the next year? It's the baby the next year, yeah.

That sounds so shark jumpy to me. It wasn't. Oh, I don't think it was. I don't know if I can pinpoint a shark jump moment for the show. I feel like it was always, even when Bert Campbell got taken by aliens

I feel like it was still a really good show it was like damn dude anything they could have done they really I think that they really established yeah I mean it was a parody of soap operas so they really could do anything and get away with it

and not have it feel short time yeah that's a good point I didn't even think of that yeah of course that's the whole premise of the damn thing exactly that's why you have a possession although they don't do they don't that scene you just saw

not a very comedic possession a very freaking creepy possession no they don't lean there's no comedy at all really there's no comedy in that yeah i mean there's comedy now just from a time enough time has passed for it's just kind of weird but exactly but thank you eric ferris karen yes corin who's karen karen karen campbell was the character diana can't remember the mother of the possessed baby got it well little did she know i blame benson he went out there and screwed it up made it worse It was sad when Robert Guillaume left that show, for sure. Oh, he was great. And he would become Rafiki one day, I believe.

Yeah, he was the monkey. Let's not get that one. Let's not get that going. Brian, you've got a change and schedule for your Denver meetup. Why don't you tell folks what changed? So we have been planning to have a Denver tadpool meetup at this place called Game Train USA, where you play board games and it feels like you're on a train. We've been planning on it for about a month and a half.

And then the weather decided, hey, we're going to have 96 hours with a high temperature of 10 and a ton of snow over the weekend. We're going to postpone the Denver Tadpool meetup to a not warmer, but just a less frigid time. Makes perfect sense to do that. I would do that too. Yeah, exactly. We will absolutely postpone that to another time. All right. So watch for that.

Reschedule coming. Brian will let everybody know. Also, I wanted to share something I found. You know, the other day, we are all a little bit set back, myself included, that I didn't know what Alth stood for. I thought, oh yeah, yeah. I thought, well, I must be the only person in the world. Turns out, we got a viewer on YouTube who's just like me. There's one more.

Okay, good. Obscurely clear says, I was today years old when I learned that Alf, or I'm sorry, I learned about that alf meaning, feel like that one mind-blown gif. I'm with you obscurely clear I didn't see it coming me and you baby just me and you right for him I mean maybe somebody else did

but I for whatever reason I initially thought that that show was no I guess it was in the credit or the opening thing right where it just said Alf and then

no I guess not I was think of it like ET asterist the extraterrestrial like to explain what ET stood for kind of

oh did they do I don't think they well as far as I know maybe they did not in the credits yeah I don't know where it but I also wasn't the kind of, I wasn't an Alf viewer the way Dunaway was. That guy was there every day.

Every time I saw two episodes of Alf. Yeah, Alf was a later. I saw more episodes of Alf than I did. I saw two more episodes of Alf than I did the Dukes of Hazard, if that's anything. Yeah, I already had a hard enough time with that era's regular straight-faced sitcom, laugh track comedies with three cameras and bad filming. You introduce a freaking fuzzy puppet-like thing from outer space. I check out the minute I heard about it.

So I know there are Alf fans, and I know you guys are Legion, and I get it, but it ain't for me. Never was. Yeah. All right. Let's get to some news. We've got some news stories before my sister comes barreling in here to check how we did this week. Let's play some news as intros. Brian, it's time for the news brought to you by.

Brought to you by the Coverville Etsy store. What? How else are you going to get quality 3D printed stuff? If those khyber crystals ain't going to make their own holders, check it out today at Etsy.com slash shop slash coverville 3D. I actually had a commission project for a listener. Oh, nice. This right here, a little desktop device, will hold his vapes that have kind of a rounded bottom to them. And they always fall over and fall off his desk and break.

And so he said, hey, could you design me just a little stand for my desk to keep them all in? four vapes at once that's a lot of vapes he's got a lot of vapes i don't know if he's like multiple flavors multiple uh uh strengths i don't know i don't understand it but uh there you go lord lord got the measurements of the vapes and um uh and uh design this for him nice even put a thing up front if you wanted to have a logo up there or or whatever it will it'll smell like blueberry happiness before you know it totally will it'll smell like licky charms yeah it's gonna smell yeah kids kids are into it uh not that he's a kid i don't know how old he is no i don't know how old he's let's get to this story rebel scum in the chat room oh he's in the he's actually oh is he here

cool he gets a look at his uh thing yeah look at that sneak pre sneak preview love it fantastic a man was awake and conscious when his face caught fire during surgery according to a loss oh god yeah fire fire fire a family of an organ man who suffered from severe burns after his face caught fire during surgery is suing the hospital for $900,000. In December of 2022, John Michael Murdoch, H-52, is undergoing a procedure as part of his treatment for squamous cell carcinoma. I never say the first part of that right, but it's basically getting rid of a cancer mole.

Or in this case, cancer of the tongue. What a terrible place to get cancer. Jeez. Oh, yeah, yeah. I know it's majorly enhanced if you're a, if you chew the tobacco. So don't be chewing that there, tobacco, folks. Yeah. Anyway, he checked into an Oregon Health and Science University Hospital for a tracheotomy to have a breathing tube inserted into his throat.

Part of the preparation for that surgery involved his face being swabbed with isopropyl alcohol for sterilization. That's normal. But when the alcohol wasn't given enough time to dry, his face caught on fire when it came in contact with a surgical tool that emitted a spark. Jeez. Woof. No kidding. Oh, my God. Horrendous.

That would suck. Anyway, he lived for more than six months after the incident, but he finally succumbed to the cancer that they were trying to treat in June of 2023. While the burns caused by the surgical fire were not cited as the cause of death, lawsuit said that Murdoch suffered greatly and lived with the disfiguring scars and other traumatic wounds to his face that never fully healed before he died. Lawsuit, according to the report of the Oregonian, stated that Murdoch was awake and conscious during the fire. I say, go for it.

Get your 900 grand. good lord yeah that sucks i wish he was around to enjoy right at least uh yeah yeah assuming they win i don't know how this stuff goes but you know i'm related to somebody who had a major case in oregon from a fatal gun shooting and it took forever but they finally got their their settlement good good and the lawyers took a lot of it oh geez that's kim's sister she made she did all right but she still the whole thing man whatever when people screw up in big high places and then you try you got to try to get some kind of what's the word justice out of them it's not great it's not easy no no there's another one one of every five job postings that's actually fake that's a little

depressing yeah according to this study according to news a new analysis of the hiring platform greenhouse never heard of it don't know what that is i assume it's like uh what's another one of like a LinkedIn kind of thing or I guess that's less of a job posting platform but more of a I mean you get you get job things on there but um it's like now fiverr's like yeah fiverr's more like commissions at com I think there's something yeah monster monster there we go that's the one oh yeah they're headhunters basically a monster right yeah yeah well anyway one of five jobs posted last quarter was a ghost job I used to think I wanted one of those in high school, if you know what I'm saying.

Greenhouse found that on average, between 18 and 22% of jobs posting online would classify as ghost jobs, meaning that one was published online, but no hiring activity was ever conducted for it. In some industries, as many as one in three listings are ghost jobs. The data showed the construction industry had the largest average ghost job rate of all the industries, with 38% of jobs being classified as ghost jobs. Art industry came in second place with 34. and legal jobs in third place with 29%.

It's a weird combo of those three. Yeah, it really is. Like, not really a pattern. No. Construction, art, and legal. Yeah. I'm assuming that these are, I mean, they're posted by the companies and they're just like, you know, oh, we posted, we hired internal, we forgot to take that down,

or we decided to go another way with it, or we decided to, hire a freelancer to do it or something. Well, it's more nefarious than you think. Companies post these for a variety of reasons. Some of those may be correct, but most of the time it's to show that they are growing and actively hiring when they are not doing well. It's to give this impression that everything's going great.

And a lot of times you see this from like public companies because they're trying to convince shareholders. Everything's fine. We did layoffs last quarter. But look at us now. We're doing hiring, but they never intend to hire anybody, which is pretty lame. I know, I don't like it.

I don't like it. It says they even pass over great candidates, even if they don't have an open role. Survey from resume, resume, resume, resume, Resume Builder in 2024 revealed that 39% of hiring managers said their company posted a fake job listing in the past year, among those who did. Approximately 26% posted one to three fake job listings,

19% posted 5 and 19% did another 19% posted 10. 11% posted 50, 10% posted 25, and 13% of these companies posted 75 or more fake job listings in the last year. Jeez. Dude, it's crazy. That's slimy. That's really slimy. It's hell, hell of slimy.

I don't like it, not one bit. I mean, it doesn't really. And you go on to one of these jobs. You get hired for one of the ones that's real. And then you find out, oh, yeah, no, the other, all the other job postings we had were fake so we could project growth and we're shutting down. Sorry, you waste all that time. Yeah, lame.

I don't like it. I don't like it. I'd also kind of get it. I get that they would do it. I wouldn't want to do it, but I get why a company who is maybe trying to just portray that everything's great would do it. But I don't know. Freaking business. It's slimy.

Slimy. Business is slimy. This story I love. I don't know why. I feel kind of bad for the person. kind of but not so bad not really bad i feel like they should have known better but anyway a a fake a fake a fake brad pitt scammer conned a victim out of a fortune 830,000 euros lady in france got sucked sucked in by this so brad pitt or at least his online persona is again

in the headlines as he got another scammer claiming to be the fight club star well you're really reaching back the seven years in Tibet star yeah let's go all all the way back to 97 for this one, has successfully conned over $830,000 euros out of this woman in France. The almost unbelievable story began in February 2023 when Anne age 53, aren't they always, who is an interior designer set up an Instagram page

to share snaps from her trip to the Alps with friends, which Alps? Because now we know there are a bunch of them. Yeah, was she on the moon or was she in New Zealand or the third one? Yeah, it was the third one. I don't remember. It was like Borneo or some shit.

something like that, yeah. I don't remember. Let's see here. Here it is. Curious message popped up in her inbox of the app. The lady claiming to be the mother of Brad Pitt, Jane Edipitt, had messaged Ann and said, My son needs a woman like you.

I mean, look, people try to scam people all the time. I just got this one on Blue Sky from a DM. Let me tell you this one. This is pretty great. Let's see if he's replied, actually. As of yesterday, things were going pretty good. I think he knows I'm on to him now. All right.

So he comes in. His name's Michael Laswell. He's some rando name. Hi, Scott. I hope you're doing well. I'm from Mark Hamill's management. We deeply appreciate your support, especially as he hits one million followers here on Blue Sky.

Thank you and wishing you all the best. So I thought, this is a little fishy. Let's play around a little bit. So I set a thumbs up emoji. That probably queued him into thinking sweet, potential victim. So he wrote back on the hook. Yeah. He goes, I'm connecting with those who engage with his posts.

How long have you been following Mark's content here on Blue Sky? I said, since he moved over here, he says, that's all right, with an exclamation point. Then he says, sounds like you've been familiar with Mark's work for a while now. May I ask where you're from? All right. So now it's obvious. Yep, yeah. So I said, I went on our TMS Discord and said, I'm, you know, should I keep bringing this guy along?

And Tanner suggests I tell him I'm from Mark Illinois, like I'm a Mark, but I'm from an actual place. Oh, funny. Okay, good. And it's an actual city with an, so I said, I'm from, Mark, Illinois. Yeah, I said I'm from Mark, Illinois. And then I sent him a Wikipedia link to the city and a map of it. Crickets since then. I think I may have overshone my cards a little bit, you know. Mark Hamel loves, he loves animals.

Do you have any pets? What was the name of your first pet? Yeah. And then where do you use that as a secret question? Right, exactly. Thanks, everybody. Anyway, Mark Amel's mother's name was Jackson. What was your mom's maiden name?

Exactly. I don't know how these people fall for this stuff. And honestly, here I'll show some pictures of this Brad Pitt. These are obviously not Brad Pitt. I mean, it's him. Yeah, but they're bad. They're bad. They're really bad.

There's a rampant number of Liam Neeson. There's like a Liam Nees. I guess because maybe he's got a voice that works really well for faking with AI but there's like a you know a rampant number of fake Liam Neeson scammers out there

well Beverly I really wish you I have a certain set of skills I'd love to use on you Beverly I just don't know when people don't just stop what you're doing and go wait a minute is this sound even a little fishy

the chances are it's very fishy So don't, I don't know, I don't know. I don't want to judge too harshly, but I just feel like people should know. Chances are, folks, if you're hearing from Scott or me on something, it's really us. And that's why we're happy to be at that level that we are and not the like the Neeson, Pitt, Clooney levels of people pretending to be us and taking advantage of that sort of thing. It's like, no, I'm happy to wall away in semi-obscurity. Oh, yeah. I can go to the mall.

I can never be used as a scammer. I go to the mall. I got like a one and 200 chance anyone there. I'll even know who I am. It's great. Yeah. That's the way to live. Well, anyway, she thought he had taken all these photos for her.

I mean, it's very sad. It's sad that she fell for it. But good Lord, I think at some point your children need to take away your internet. Feels like it. Mother, I take away your internet. Oh, they said in France. All right. we're going to take a break when we come back my sister will arrive and what will she tell us well

you'll have to tune in to find out she is a therapist that means you're all here to get some help let's get some help uh brian help us play a song first before we go yes oh what a great name for a song we've got for you today it's uh breakfast schmecfest oh my lord i love it this is by a band called the thirsty curses um they uh this is an album produced by john agnello a power pop band from Raleigh, North Carolina. If you like Dinosaur Jr. or the replacements, kind of that harder-edged power pop stuff, you're going to really like this. This is a trio, like I said, from North Carolina. Thirsty Curses. Their forthcoming fifth album comes out. I don't see a date, but it's going to be called Music is a scam. Sweet. John Agnello, by the way, was the producer for Dinosaur Jr. Kurt Vile and Screaming Trees. So a good pedigree right there. Here are the Thirsty Curses of the first single from that album. It's called Breakfast, Schmeckfest.

Survival's more than just a key to instantless frustration. 409, turpentine, on all ejaculate. torn between the wants and abs, the future and the past, to be celebrating back to Medicare, Mexican flags, and periscuous relations. All I ever wanted was to come in corporate murder call and bomb threats to Walmart, eat my breakfast in the morning, it serves hot and with my friends,

but we're still a tad bear hung over with each day that passes. Boy, I'm getting older We've got a blast to make grud any sound Guess what I've got a spot in the sit on the ground That I steal from the day, They taught me so much After my breakfast I will eat my high lunch

Nip-day talks Nip-day talk shows, cabinclient wardroves, Late-night fun with a vibrating dillow. Taste the new day, forget the old way, direct TV, chocolate snacks and cocaine, cut up for all my friends, because we're still a tad bit hung over with each day that passes, oh boy, I'm getting older. We've got a bliss and great a new sound, guess what I've got to spot it and to sit it on the ground, and I steal from the dead man who taught me so much after my breath will start wailing my arms. We've got a place to make rid of this sound.

Guess when I've got a spot here to sit on the ground. And I steal from the dead man. It taught me so much. After my breakfast, I will eat much. Mellow Yellow or Mountain Dew? Hmm. Einy, meeny, mani-mo. One potato, two, three, potato, four, paper, rock, scissors.

Why use all that mathematical analytical analysis? I'll just pick the one I like the best. They got it. They got it. And we've returned. Who was that one more time? Sure, that is the thirsty curses in their brand new song, Breakfast, Schmecfest from their upcoming album. Music is a scam.

Yeah, man. Yeah. All right. Let's get Wendy in. Whoops. I'm a start of the core room. Don't do that. That would be bad.

Yeah, Raven in our chat room said that Blondechell is going to be in the Twin Cities soon. The song we played yesterday, T&A, what a great song, but man, she needs to break up with that guy. I agree. The song, the lyrics. But Blanchelle is touring and is going to be in the Twin Cities. So go check out Blondshell. Nice. Maybe even Wendy could go.

She wants to go. She should, too. Maybe that's where she is right now because she's not answering. Yeah, she hung up. I think she kind of hung up on me, so let's see what that means. Oh, maybe she's on the phone. somebody or something. Sometimes this happens. Actually, right now, I can't even

get it to a ring. Why? All the right clicking's doing nothing. Why? All the right clicking. I'm doing all the right clicking. I really am doing all the right clicking. I think I may have discovered a bug in here. Hold on.

You need a sec? I'll ask her. Put your hands up. Put your hands up. Zip. Zip. Okay, let's try it again. still let me right click what the heck Discord Oh here we go While you're doing that I'll tease tomorrow

We're gonna have some Trivia on TMS AM or TMS Friday and a movie review For a movie I'm seeing tonight Oh very nice Nice I'm excited to see what you're here what you got Plus we have Monica don't forget Oh we have Monica and we're going to be talking about the substance

Yeah which is the weirdest damn thing I've seen this year So we'll see what she thinks All right now Wendy is here Oh hell no it's windy Dunford, my sister, joining us as she does each and every week from the Twin Cities. It's nice to have you here. How are you? I'm good.

I'm good. I think that's so funny. The intro. You like that? I got all kinds of clips to you, so I can find just about anything. Like, I have, you wouldn't believe how many pages of Wendy clips I have. I have so many. You could make a Wendy AI for weeks that she's not here, and nobody would have so much audio from Wendy.

Yeah. You should do. that. I have you trained. My advice is any good. I have you trained on this thing. You want to hear it? Here, check this up. Oh, great.

You did do this. Yeah, I did this a while ago. Let's have Wendy say something. So, hi, I am Wendy and I like chicken. All right, we'll just do something simple. All right. So now let's go choose Wendy the voice. Oh, wait.

Did I get rid? No, I still have you. Here we go. All right. Generate speech and you'll hear it right here. Here we go. this will be quick at least I think it will

here we go it's thinking it's thinking hi I am Wendy and I like chicken there you go with you you like that how you like that I did not like that at all too too too close like too yeah

Brian's it's Brian's doesn't sound quite right I think I sound okay but Tom Merritt sounds too excited like I've done this with a few folks and yeah Kim's you were you I think you were the best when we when i heard these before i think wendy's years come out years came out the

best yeah uh like let's think of something when wendy would actually say like um here's a let me give you a link to a book on amazon yeah try here do your amazon book homework okay so let's see how that sounds i think that'll be an easy one for it here do your amazon book homework there you go is this sound like homework yeah homework uh well anyway there's slide there's sliders to make you sound more insane I wanted, but we'll leave it there. I'm slower and high. That's my favorite localization. Well, anyway, it is nice to see it or have you here, though.

I feel like I'm going to see her in March, and that'll be fun because it's always just fun to see your siblings who you don't get to see very often. Yeah, and then we're going to see her a month later. Everybody who comes to TMS Vegas, hopefully, is going to see her. You are coming, right? I am coming. You guys gave me adequate time to find tickets. That's right.

I'm happy. Thank you for that. No problem. You're also going to, you were talking about trying to organize a pickleball tournament, which I think could be interesting, given the hotel we're in. Oh, yeah, they're all about the pickleball. Yeah, the trick is just finding out what time to wedge it in there. So we'll see what happens. But it's exciting.

I'm excited. Yeah. And there's like maybe no one who likes it. It'll just be me out there running around. Oh, I think people love the pickle ball. It's crazy right here. Do they love the pickleball? I have never played it, but I would so.

Sign up for that. Okay. So, Brian, tell me this. Can you play ping pong? I can play ping pong, yeah. Okay. Can you move a little bit more than when you're playing ping pong than you can play? I can move a little bit more than my way.

Perfect. All right. You got your original knees. You'll be fine. So we at least have two people in the tournament, folks. Two people. Two people. Yep.

I'll get in. Make it three. Awesome. Well, it's good to have you here. Was there a follow up before we get to our email? We think there might have been about like how we're doing our nighttime habits and all that. Can you remind us what we were supposed to do? I mean, I will tell you that I've been rubbing, I rubbed my ear and my hands are so dry because it's Colorado that it sounds like sandpaper on aluminum foil.

But when I do the, like, I started with the, here's a word, now take each letter, come up with all words for that letter that work. And then when I feel like I ran out of those, I switch to, all right, Beatles, what songs can I come up to begin with A? All right, what begins with B, what begins with C. And that helps also, like painting with my colors. Okay, perfect. Personalizing it. And did you fall asleep? I did, yeah.

Okay, there we go. I fell asleep before I got to come together. Oh, ooh, before C. That's impressive. Nice. Okay. Love it. Did you experience it like the light switch where it just like, and boom?

Or was it drowsy to sleepy? Okay. No, it was instantaneous. Like I was thinking, oh, yeah, what letter was I on last night? It was like, oh, I just started C. And then lights out. I know, I love it. It's great.

It is very great. Yeah, so Brian, way to go. Okay. So that's a good follow-up. How about you, Scott? I did the same thing or attempted to. The ear thing does work for me. It chills me out.

And I don't hear a bunch of weird sound. It just works. Or chills me out. Makes me relax. It doesn't put me to sleep, but it makes me relax. So I do that before bed. That was nice as a way to just sort of prep. I have been reading and doing other things before.

bed but not in bed doing it out on the couch in the living room or something like that get tired when i'm when it's bed it's bed right uh so that's helped a lot i think that alone has helped a lot like that's been the major thing changing your environment and and not teaching yourself that reading in bed that bed is good for reading too yeah and waking then i had a friend with a big health scare this week and that night it was hard for me to sleep so i was kind of obsessing about what we could do for them and how they're doing and all this and so i could not go to sleep that night. So I tried the letter thing. And

the problem with the letter thing is my brain wants to, Brian and I talked about before, my brain wants to construct a story out of the words. So I'll sit there going I'll say, I'll come on, bees. Beelzebub, the devil came in with a stick and poked the guy in the eye. Like I'm making up stuff. In the

bottom, with Elsa begins with B. Yeah, it's like all these things and they were distracting me and not helping me sleep. They were just creating stories that were keeping me up. So I stopped doing that and instead just started counting down from things. So like starting at 25 and counting down. And that worked really well because I'd get to maybe 18, 17 and then I'd forget when I ended. So, so I think kind of similar thing, but for whatever reason, numbers don't

create new story opportunities in my head whereas words do. Yeah. And everyone's a little bit different. And yeah, so personalization. That's the lesson. Good job. So it was good. I think I had a better overall week of sleep than I've had in a while. Has everyone hear that? Let's all just to be excited. That is amazing results. My recommendation to you is to put that in an email and send it out to folks so that they have a way of learning about it themselves.

Yeah. I might have done that. Yeah. Except your brother who forgot to click the right link. Other than that, you'll be fine. Well, anyway. So I sent another email out this morning. So if you two did not get it, that means.

you did not, you're not on the right way. I haven't checked my email. I did not check my email this morning. Oh, look at you too. Making good psychological decisions not to look at email. I definitely have to do it later. I can't do it right away. That's actually good.

Yeah, we waste a lot of our energy in the morning on small little tasks like email. If I can help people with their sort of like managing their energy a little better, or productivity really is to never check email if you can. in the morning. But a lot of people's jobs require it. I got the one on January 1st. I did not get one today. Same. That means you didn't re-sign up, you too. Oh. We have to re-sign up.

I'm going to manually add you. Oh, I didn't know we had to re-sign up. I thought we just were in. Yeah. Well, because you were in the Russian emails here with this. Listen to me. You guys were in the original group that I gave permission to, like, I'm not going to talk to you again. I'm trying to respect your email if you want to subscribe to do you guys just don't read you explain that no literally neither of you no you're right you know there's a lesson in this we we live in a society now where nobody wants to read a giant paragraph we just go scan it scan it scan it what's it say is there

money in this no okay forget it like we're just not we don't have that attention span anymore and so you're right your original email said this is not I don't want to spam you so if you want in just go ahead and click and I just never did it's the last email you'll receive from our previous system and we'd love to keep you in the loop dot dot dot okay you highlighted it and I still went in one side out the other same this explains what is happening it was too distracted by all the acronyms or initialisms after your name yeah I was trying to come up with you do a lot of letters yeah there you have it's to impress you does it work it works it totally works okay fantastic so I only have one one letter after my name and it's F right a bit F

Yeah. Well, all right. So I'll do that today. But so these are going to come weekly. Did I hear that right? Do you say that? What's coming week? These emails.

Oh, well, yeah. I mean, we have the first inaugural round of this, the health and P.E. course is going to start February 3rd. So I will, while that's happening, probably leave people alone for the most part. So you may not get emails once a month, but there will be a lot of free stuff. My goal is to also have just like a ton of free stuff on there. So if you never buy a thing, you can still like have some really good tools. Like this sleep stuff, I'm telling you, like, I don't want to brag, but it freaking works.

And you guys just proved it. Like it's really helpful. And I'm not going to hold back that kind of stuff. The stuff I, you know, my team really offers is like the support to do and make the changes. It's one thing to read about it. I mean, isn't that your experience? You're like, I can read. I can find any information.

But how do I implement it into my life usually requires some accountability, another person talking to you, you know? It's why therapy online only works a little bit, self-diagnosing and do it yourself because you really kind of need, you know, the social aspect. So, but I'm going to do a lot of free stuff. So I'll send emails out for that. So sign up if you just, you know, it's going to be infrequent enough. I promise I'm not going to bother everyone forever. But, you know, this is the push before February 3rd. So that's the deadline.

All right. Go to know better you at K-N-O-W-Better-U-Letter-U.com. All right, everybody? And you, yeah, and I have a live webinar next Wednesday at 2 o'clock central time. And so you can just, on the main website, you can just sign up right there if you want to join and hear. You're going to hear more about what this stuff is, but I'm going to do a lot of things that go deep. You know, you just spend 2 o'clock with me on a Wednesday. Doesn't that sound fun?

Yeah, bringing that webinar term back, too, I like it. Webinar. I know. I've wanted a different word, but it just keeps changing it and all this stuff to webinars. I'm like, I'm not going to fight it. It's fine. Seminar on the web. Yeah, we'll just call it. Seminar. Web. Web snar. Well, that's great. Let's get today's email. We got an email. You shortened this up a bit and kept it anonymous, which I'm only saying that because I think the author had said, hey, it's okay if you say my name, but you told me to keep it anonymous. So I'm going to keep it that way. and I'm going to read it. This is a little bit truncated from what it was, but not too much. The gist is here. Here's how it goes. I've been feeling stuck in a cycle when it comes to friendships and I don't know how to break free. Outside of my immediate family, I don't really have any meaningful connections, no one to lean on when things are tough or even to share good news with. It's lonely and I don't understand why it feels so hard to find genuine reciprocal friendships. Friendships or friendship has always been a struggle for me. Growing up, I was often told, sorry, I was often, the odd one out, the punching bag in social groups, or the friend people kept around to make themselves feel better. In college, I found my voice, but lacked communication skills to use it effectively, leaving me labeled as difficult or, quote-unquote, crazy. Over the years, I have had fleeting relationships that seem promising, but always turned into one-sided relationships,

where I was the only one giving support and advice while getting little in return. The losses I've experienced have only deepened this sense of isolation. My sister was my truest, friend until she was tragically taken for me and when that happened everyone i thought cared about me disappeared as well since then i've struggled to find friendships that aren't built on me giving emotional labor to others uh i tried to be that friend i wish i had kind supportive and reliable but it feels or sorry but it feels like my cup is empty now i'm tired of being the one people turn to only when they need only when there's a crisis and i'm left wondering why doesn't anyone want to be my friend just for the joy of it i don't uh

understand why my efforts to connect seem to fall flat. I'm a good person. I know that much. And I'm exhausted from the feeling or from feeling like to tag along a friend that nobody wants around. I've tried reading and reflecting on what to do differently, but I'm still stuck in this pattern. Longing for belonging, but unsure how to find it.

All right. So there's your message. I'll bet this is relatable to a number of human beings listening to this right now. For sure. Yeah. So let's help them out. want to do. Yeah, let's start with a couple things to understand that are pretty global and then we'll break it down to what this person can do individually. But they are global factors. They

really, really are. And so I like this framing, and I should give credit to who wrote it, but I couldn't find it this morning. But it's this idea that there really are like three levels of relationship or socialization or like intimacy that happened. And we have our Our closest, nearest and dearest, right? That's going to be family, people you live with, maybe next door neighbors, close friends that are just in that little closer circle. Then your middle tier is going to be, you know, the guy at the store you see a couple times a month. It's going to be parents of kids at school. It's going to be that, you know, your banker, anyone you're just going to interact with in real life that is perfect.

free, it's friendly, it's fine. It's, you know, kind of all that middle ground. And especially if you have kids and you're in school systems, that's really a lot of people in that group come from that space or your job. It can be, that makes sense, right? And then we've had the third level, and that is the global level. That is the online realm for the most part where you're not seeing people face to face. And it's even like one-sided passive stuff. Like you can have the, hey, I played a video game with this guy that lives across the world, and that's in your third tier, but it also is like famous people. They're in your third tier. Or Facebook friends and Facebook friends, right? They're really, you know, they're out there. Okay. So we have these

three levels. And I think what's happened over time, and you guys are old, so you remember these days, where your first level and your second level were kind of all you had. And, the bigger level might be like I read the news a couple times and there were some things happening in the world. It didn't have a massive influence on you or take up a ton of your time. And then maybe early internet days, you're expanding that and that was pretty exciting, right? And, you know, you talk to anyone who is around for the beginning of the internet. They will just talk about how lovely it was, right? Like how nice and everyone was just making widgets and cute.

You know, like there's a nostalgia for those early days because it was not that many people and it hadn't. you know, then what it does. Okay. So, but how this has evolved for many, many people is that that first circle is, has gotten smaller. Maybe people have less siblings or smaller families or they have, they move around and maybe aren't as connected to like the, the close friends live somewhere else or whatever, right? So you're, who I live with, more and more people live alone. Like there's a lot of sort of public human behaviors happening that are affecting the smallness of that first round or, you know, level. Then the second level, and this is what has gotten interesting, and you can all relate to this, this second level has gotten very threatening because of the third level.

So the third level is I'm going to go to my silo, hear the news that resonates with me, pay attention to the sources that I think are true. I'm going to have, you know, my echo chamber is both there and the other team that we hate is also there. And so we're going to just keep building this entire almost social construct from an internal perspective. We are developing our thoughts, our feelings, our attitudes, the way we believe about somebody in that third tier from hanging out a lot of time in that third tier without no one's selling us our. you know, our deli slices at the counter. They are people that we will never meet likely, right? And they have it, we've gone to, they have this huge influence, right?

So we have this small, intimate level, the very loud and divisive and find your own sort of tribe and, you know, the fighting deal on the third level. And then what happens in our second tier? This is just the say hello, open the door for someone. We have started to sort of distrust. that tier because the third tier has told us you never know who those people are.

And it just dwarfs the second tier. There's so, there's so many people in the third tier that it just over overshadows the second tier. Yeah. And second tier is boring. Shall we be just clear? It's boring. And if you have like a fist fight out of Costco in front of you, it's a big deal. Because your life might not be full of Costco violence, right? But online, you can find your Costco violence, and any second if that's what you're into, right? And you're more likely to tell your third tier that you witness the fist fight at Costco than your second time. And add to the everything is not safe in the second tier, right?

Right. Right. And what happens to the human brain is that we get, we get dopamine in like really fast, effective high doses with the third tier and with some of our behaviors, right? For example, getting up in the middle of the night to watch the symptoms. I've heard someone that has done that in the past, right? You can't imagine who that was, yeah. That is fast dopamine, which wakes you up, by the way, but also does not, it's not doing your brain any favors. It's not, think of it as like non-nutrative fun.

Like, ooh, right? And then slow dopamine is, I'm going to wander through this flea market and chat with the owner of this stall. and I'm going to just have a little human connection or we're going to find something we both are interested in or I'm going to give someone a compliment or I'm going to hold a door. I'm going to work through an issue at my kids' school with the teacher. Like those are slow dopamine deliveries, right? Going on a walk in my neighborhood with my dog, slow delivery.

And so that is, it's hard for that to beat out the quick pace of getting, you know, eating all the stuff that is so tasty but pretty bad for us, right? Okay, so we have this in balance now where it was always sort of the other way, and then the balance is sort of flipped, so we don't necessarily trust the second tier. And then our most intimate tier is shrinking a lot due to people just don't want to go do stuff. Like they might have if they were bored, right? They're not bored because the third tier is so fun. And so, like, okay, I'll meet you for dinner.

I'd just rather stay in. Right. We all feel that way sometimes. You get tired. You don't want to do it. But the slow dopamine, what it means is we just aren't accessing that as much. And that is, so our brain is pretty wired to either have a really good time or it's real life is pretty boring.

And sometimes for some of my clients, really hard to live. So escaping to the third tier is just really pleasant. Okay. So let's go to the email for a second. So does that make sense real quick, my three tier model? Any questions on that? Yeah, I get it. The fact, it kind of helps me.

explain why I'm so tired at the end of the day and don't want to do anything with anyone because the third tier wore me out. And I don't want to do, I don't want to do any flesh and blood tearing. Right. So what it means is you're not expending the little energy that it would take to do that, but you're also not getting the slow, steady reward of that, which is building relationships that are around you. In fact, when we look at well-being research, you know, some of the main questions often revolve around, do you have someone you can call in the night to help you? And when a huge portion of populations, and this is worldwide, they've done this research, are saying, I have no one to call.

We're in trouble, right? That means our most intimate sphere or our even local second sphere isn't very strong because we're spending so much time in that third, that third area. And that third area really plays havoc on sort of our loyalty. and the rules, like, it's a whole social ecosystem that is really different from these other ones, right? And so it's exhausting and then we come home and we don't want to do the thing that, you know, so I've been using this term with some of my clients of like, how do we chase slow dopamine? Because you don't have to chase the third tier fast dopamine. It will come to you.

You'll find it. Yeah. In fact, we have to block it, right? But how can you actually make the effort, to be in nature, to interact with animals, to talk to random strangers, to read, to do slow work, you know, it's going to take some effort, I think. Because our brains aren't built for this. Right. The timing on this is really funny, because my stepmom sent me an article yesterday from the Atlantic about this slow change that the world is having to antisocial and more internal. what's the introverted behavior where they were basically at a restaurant and they noticed

it used to be a really bustling restaurant and they went back there and the place was relatively empty but there were like nine to go bags on the counter and each person came in look for their name grabbed their bag and walked out did not interact with the bartender did not interact with the host stand nothing just came in got their bag and left and and they see this is portending a, a very isolated future. Yes, and that is exactly, and what's interesting, and I've lived in a couple places where there's very quiet, introverted white culture, and then a robust immigrant culture next to it. And so, like, for example, there's an Indian restaurant really close to my house that is

the most freaking delicious Indian street food you've ever had. And they have nothing but takeout bags on the counter. So many, like they're overrun, but every seat is full with someone from India. Oh, interesting. Yeah. And so they'll, you know, I'm often the only white girl in that place. Right. The, the quote unquote, white.

The gathering culture. Yeah. Yeah. And then the whites are just want to take it home and watch Squid games. Watch TV. Yeah. And part of that is, of course, not being the dominant culture, right? You want to be with your people and you want to.

want to eat the food and the smells and the sound is in the language. And it was very similar in Sweden. Swedes were like, just go home and have tacos by yourself on Friday. And, you know, the Somali community and the Eritrean and Ethiopian communities were like, we need to stand around in the street and talk. That's what we do. And so trying to find space to do that because it's inherent in the way they would thrive. And so watching that, you realize like, okay, both are appealing, but one is,

easy. Does that make sense? Like one is easy to order the food, have it brought to you and scroll through your shows until you fall asleep on the couch and get up. But what you didn't get in that is some of the really core neurochemical help that your brain offers because we are social creatures. Now, it doesn't mean everyone should go be an extrovert. It does mean everyone, introverts are not anti-people. They just maybe need more recovery time or they need. Or they they don't get as much out of large groups or whatever. That's all good, but they do need people. So to the e-mailer, there is this, this small intimate circle is the one they are talking about

their concern, right? That they lost their sister, right? How difficult is that to be when you're one of your closest connections? And then now you're in grief. And then people are really pretty crappy at helping someone who's in grief unless they've been there themselves. And so you feel really isolated. And it sounds like there's a history here of struggling to have relationships be equal and even.

And it's sort of that mutually beneficial thing. And I love this line and I want this for everybody. Why doesn't anyone want to be my friend just for the joy of it? And I know this person. You guys know this person. It is a joy to know this person. But why is that not coming across, coming across? And I think what we have historically with lots of different people,

is, and that's the reason I didn't want to say the name. A, because I think it's super universal, and I don't want you all thinking you know the answer to the question, because it is, hey, we all have our own experience gaining and losing and managing friendships from our childhood on. Some of us, this comes pretty easily, others, it's really difficult. Sometimes you just don't know, like you can't find someone who drives with you. And this is why that third tier is so strong, right?

you can find anyone that can jive with you, but you can also find your, you know, enemies there too. And so it serves this wonderful purpose, but it does mean we aren't maybe getting some of the biological and the help from just having a larger or more robust smaller group. It doesn't have to be huge numbers. It just needs to be someone you can call in the night, right?

Or that you have someone to talk to or that it feels beneficial mutually. beneficial. Yeah. Any thoughts and then I want to dig into that. Is it equal? So my local tribe, the people that, you know, let's just for example sake, say it's, let's say it's 20 people that I would, those people you could call in the night or shoot,

I'm stuck somewhere who can come get me, you know, like those kinds of relationships. That was severely slashed during the pandemic, mostly from a little. bit from just everyone had to isolate themselves that was some of it but most of it came out of oh did you hear what he said or i can't believe he would do that i guess it takes a hard thing like this to see his real cut you know like there was a lot of that going on and that whittled down to a much smaller list i think we thankfully have a great list still but there are some people on that that aren't on that list anymore that are would be shocking to me 10 years ago if you'd ask me and said who do you think's going to be on the list i was oh he'll definitely stay on that

list. No, not at all. And you can see the interplay of your third tier and your first tier. Yeah. Right. And that's one of the most difficult things. You see someone's rant on Facebook and I'm supposed to trust you to walk my dog or take care of my kid if there's an emergency. And I just saw you hate super hard. Like, what? Yeah. And that to your face problem, you know, that most people would not be doing. I find it fascinating that like online threat situation like that there's nothing that ever happens

on this planet Earth where someone is not threatening someone's death. All the time. It is, it is weird. And I don't, I would like a profile and I'm guessing it spends major differences. Like this is not like one kind of person does this. I think it's a lot of people get,

riled just enough and it goes there um and that you know i'm i'm working on my theory i'll get back to you on that one i've flushed it i've fleshed it out but it is a bizarre behavior um i think connected to you being isolated enough and you you know maybe go say that to someone's face and then you have your fight in costco see yeah if you saw that one you might get that uh you know the big international award you've been, you know, due all these years. Yeah, I've been really trying to get. Uh-huh. Totally.

Okay. Let's talk about this really quick about how the inequality in friendship, I think, is, is, I'm going to speak to this. And this is going to be neutral. It's not about this person specifically, but I would say this with anyone who has struggled historically in friendships with this inequality thing. You know, what I would first look at was what trained you. to give more than you received, right?

Where did you learn that? And one of the common things women will experience or folks who have a lot of estrogen. Estrogen is very much the hormone of care for others. Pay attention to what they need. Don't let that baby die. You know, it's a very lookout for other kind of hormone. And men have it too, right?

They just don't have enough. Anyway, and that's why as women get older and they are losing estrogen, they stop giving a crap and they're like, whatever, you know, like there's a lot less maybe only for their grandchildren. But that is this interesting like, hey, so I'm naturally going to care about other people and how they're doing. But someone has taught me or modeled that the inequality of that is fine. And maybe my role is even to do more.

And then we get desperate, too. We want friendships or connections. We're willing to give more than we get back to stay connected. Right. But you can see through the history here, it really backfires on you. It really doesn't, it doesn't serve you. And so this craving for real connection actually is this equality thing. Now, nobody's perfect.

Some people will be needier than others. And you kind of know that. Like, well, I know if I'm going to dinner with Mary Lou, I'm going to have to listen to her talk the whole time about it. Oh, Mary Lou. She's always trouble, man. It's always Mary Lou, by the way. Right.

We need to delve into that. You need to talk about the Mary Lou in your past because I think there is one. And I have this struggle with, I'm just so I'm a professional listener. So I'm going to ask all sorts of questions. You're going to, I mean, I could be, I'm like a Hooters waitress when it comes to emotional communication. That's what I always say. What's your sister like? Oh, she's like a Hooters waitress.

And then I end there. She's like a Hooters waitress. Do not use. that vocalization against me, please. Anyway, but it really is like the, like, I am going to, I am genuinely curious and I'm going to ask you, and then I'll get you crying. Like, I've met someone once at a kid, one of my kids' functions. I knew about her mom's leg recovery and some of their dynamic within a half hour. And the lady goes, why am I talking about this? I'm like, oh, I'm sorry. I bring that out of you. I just know how to pull on a thread. And most people really just really

just need someone to listen, right? But you know what that means in my friendships? I have to be careful or I won't have anyone who is mutual, right? Because I'm just going to do all the chitty chat for them and make them feel like, oh, I'm valid. You'll just always be, yeah, you'll always be the one listening instead of the one talking or having your own, you know, giving the other direction. And when you do it seven, eight hours a day and it's not about you, it's just muscle memory,

right? And so I have a couple friends that are so good at forcing me. They're like, no, no, no, no, stop changing the subject. How do you actually feel about that? And I'm like, oh, my gosh, I don't know. Is this what it's like to be listened to? Like they're drilling into the, make this real and make this equal. And I'm so grateful for them.

And I never asked them to do that. They just have that sense. And they know I struggle with it, right? And so it's such a gift. But I also recognize, all right, well, this friendship's more equal. These friendships, I'm a little more the therapist, and that's okay. But when I need to call someone than I, you know who I'm not calling? Not the one who I know every detail about their entire lives.

Because they maybe haven't asked me a single question. That has happened. And these are real life friends that you're like, okay. And so we're tearing within our own intimate circle as well. But if we spend no time in that second tier and no time extending ourselves outside of, you know, what's comfortable, we can't grow it or it can't be perfect, right? I can't go, hey, I want friends who are only going to ask me questions. Well, that's not going to work, right? It needs to be some back and forth and it needs to be some practice.

And then sometimes this other thing I would ask the emailer is, can we go back to, is there trauma around here that's sort of causing some of the reactivity? in friendships. Like, we can sometimes be really, I don't know if you've met someone, you're like, oh, they're needy. Oh, all the time. Or they come across as like, they could care less what you think. And you're like, no, wait, does that person want to be my friend? And they're like, no, I do.

Yeah. So it goes, it has the whole spectrum, right? And some of that might come from childhood experiences of trying to make friends and having bad experiences and or getting bullied or having these other, am I social? accepted and lovable and then I'm bringing that into my adult interactions and then really the biggest sort of blanket over all of this is this is so ubiquitous now it's not just you and I think often people have just thought well this is just me seems like all the popular kids are having a great time you know it it's no no popular kids are having a great time anymore like everyone they're

pretending it's a struggle it's a struggle I mean that's interesting so So I even have some people that are couples, right, like married couples who are in, they are tiered within the couple, meaning one of them, like if one, if one, how do I put this? If I was drowning, I know which one I would rather have on the shore looking after me. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So that's, that makes it even weirder, right? Because a lot of times, especially when you're older, when you're in your teens and

your 20s, maybe you can, you can freewheel it a lot. But when you're starting to feel like a third wheel and you eventually get married and everything, it starts to all come down to couples in that tier. It does. Yeah, it does. It's rarely just some dude or lady. When you have small kids, it becomes couples with kids for a little while, too. Yeah. And divorce is, this is one of the things that's so violent, I would say, about divorce.

It's so hard. It's socially. Things just blint. Yeah. Which member of the couple do you get custody of when there's a split? Yeah. Yeah. Kim and I talk about this all the time.

It's like we're essentially we're empty nesters, even though, you know, one of them's still nesting here. But we, we have talked about this change a lot and how drastic it really is. You don't really know until you get there. And when you get there, you realize this is the moment where you, where the rubber meets the road on your relationship was all of that. Like when you initially get married, you got all kinds of great stuff like you're super hot for each other. And, you know, there's that whole aspect of it. and everything else. And then later on, it's like, well, it's all for the kids, kids, kids, kids,

focus, focus, focus. And then they go. And then you're like, all right, now, are we still cool? Are we still a thing? Like cohesive and longevity based and all those things. And we had this conversation once because we, it's not that we weren't sure. We were just like, what are we supposed to feel like now? Is this supposed to be, what is this?

And it was a weird exploration of like trying to figure out where our heads should be. and it turns out they're right where we wanted them to be and everything's great, but we don't, you know, we, we see a lot of our friends going through this now where they get to the age, their kids age out and they move out or whatever. And now they're getting divorced or they're separating or they're not talking to each other or they're only staying together for taxes or whatever. Or they got Lucy and Ricky beds where they're all separate and stuff. It blows my particular mind, but I imagine at the very least people discover that moment where they have to think about it a little bit and like, you know, re-evaluate where they are and know that it's no longer at the fulcrum of child rearing. It's this other thing, you know. Right. And I think I've shared this before the three marriages. Everyone gets a three, three marriages, three like relationships. And sometimes it's the same person through all three. And sometimes there's divorcing and switching of partners, you know, I'm talking mainly monogamy here, is that, you know, you have the pre-era you were talking about and then you have the kids era and then you have the

retirement era and each one you have to redo the relationship in some way you have to recommit to you have to do the things that will keep you close and I think you know as as people are struggling with relationship development and and you know maybe pairing off at all or or finding like their crew that they can be close to and and need it's it's really tricky to navigate when I think you also have a collective, um, a collective anxiety maybe going on a little bit, um, some more. So I mean, I know like the real me, I am pretty open about. Like I don't, you know, you can ask me any questions. People just don't. But if you can ask me any questions, then I'll tell you, um, for the most part. But I have over the last, you know, many years,

whatever, 2016 that changed the time, space continuum, where you're like, is it safe to be you? Am I going to get attacked or, you know, and if you have any bullying history, I mean, this has to be the scariest world in the world, right? Because it, you're already sort of predisposed to maybe, I got to hide the real me. I need to be careful. And then at any moment, you're going to say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, be on the wrong team and it can be pretty frightening. And so when you're interacting with anyone, as you're

trying to build your friendships, you may have to be considering that they're in this situation as well. And some people are good at this and some people are not. And a lot of people's dance cards feel they feel like they're full. You're like, okay, well, no room there. And it's tricky. And when you're partnered and that person is, you're everything. And that's partly why marriages are so strained and relationships are so strained is you have to be everything to this one person back in the day you had like the rotary club or something right like where did people go where they were like hey I get other needs met here now it's so often this partner has to be your financial stability your social life your fun and laugh and spontaneous but steady

I mean it's a lot to put on one person and so there's there's even a little more strain on some of those relationships. So you're just seeing that play out, Scott. Yeah. And it's funny because the pandemic limited my list, but it strengthened my core ones. Yeah. Like, Kim and I couldn't be closer right now.

Like, it's just there's not even, I don't know, I just can't even imagine life any different with anything else or anybody else or any other situation. Like it comes with new anxieties like, oh, she better not ever get sick. and, you know, her sister's all going through their stuff and everything. And I'm just like, oh, please, don't let that be her. And, you know, so it's amplified all of that.

But that, I can tell you that the pandemic in particular, which, you know, we'll be studying for decades as far as its impact on society. And hopefully not other ones that come in the meantime, who knows. But that had a bonding experience for the two of us. And I know for a lot of people, it was the opposite. of that, so I don't want to be insensitive to that. But it's interesting to try to understand what the mechanics of that are. Like, why did it bond? Why did we bond? And I think it was partly because we realized at the end of it all, it doesn't matter how big our lists are. At the end of it all, it really is me and you, babe. You know what I mean? Like, we are

hit. We are the two that are going to get it done for us. And that's it. And so if we can rely on that, then the tendrils can branch out. We can find other support. We can do all the other things we have to do. But this just needs to be as solid as humanly possible. And it was a relief to feel at the time that it already was. We weren't like going, oh, we've got so much to work on. We didn't have that moment. And I'm really glad. And I know that people did. And I'm not trying to diminish their, I don't want to, I'm not trying to tout this. I'm just saying this is the way it was. And it was about the only comforting thing. When on the other end of it, I'm, you know, people are showing their true selves and they're dropping like flies as far as relationships go.

Yeah. So let me put it this way really quick. To explain what you're saying and you're on the lucky end of that and others on the unlucky end, but the pandemic particularly put, it was putting pressure on every system. And it was the catalyst to make something crack further if it was already cracking. And if it was solid, it just made it a little more. solid like it things like that do that trials do that you know bounce with cancer do that whatever it will it doesn't mean it's easy obviously it's pressure right and it's hard and and so that can be

and that's like bonding with a buddy right like you need experiences to bond we don't want you all to have near-death experiences or almost die of a influenza but you need experiences to connect so that you have a stories to tell you know our brains we love our stories We need stories to tell. We need memories to have. We need chats. We need space. We need a third place, which I could talk about all day, how we have diminished the third places,

the physical third places in our lives. And so our social lives, that second tier really struggles because we do not have the bowling alley we all go to anymore. We don't have the clubs that you belong to because we're not bored. We are having a great time watching the best TV that's ever been made by ourselves with maybe one person. And so you really do need to force yourself out of the, you know, out into your second tier and find a way to do something cool in your own community. This is why I'm always telling clients to volunteer to get yourself around a cause you care a ton about and then you are obligated to get your butt out of your house to go do that

thing or get yourself a dog and it makes you, that dog makes you walk every day and you meet other dog owners or, you know, one big one, I think is sort of figuring out how to just gather a little more. And it may be that you make something ritualistic, like we do this once a month or you, you know, you kind of build those things into life. Those are really, really helpful. And then here's here's one thing a client of mine did that I loved. She moved to Boston, knew nobody was feeling pretty lonely and like, I don't even know how to start to create friendships here. So she got on some local meetup thread or Reddit or something and just said, hey, is there anyone who doesn't want to leave their house, wants to wear pajamas, read books

and pet cats, but is willing to meet me at a coffee shop and talk about and put a book. And within an hour, 50 responses. People are like, yes, me, please. I love cats and I don't want to leave my house, but I need to leave my house. So she started a book club in Boston with not Not all 50 came, but it was something like eight strangers who now meet a coffee shop and talk about books. And they're, I don't know if you guys know this, but there are coffee shops with cats in them, and you could just pet cats. So they went to a cat coffee shop.

There's a whole video, there's a video game. Someone's been trying to get me to buy called Cat Cafe, where you manage your own cat cafe. Of course, see? I assume that means there's real ones around there. They are real. They are very real. So, you know, my advice to this person is look around your first tier and see if there's

any shoring up you need to do, right? And, and, you know, work with what you've already got, right? So there's a friend you maybe, you really click, but you haven't connected in a while, reconnect. And then move to your physical second tier, the one where you share life space with and see if there is not an organization that already exists that you can participate in. The more servicey, the better, because people are going to bond with hard stuff. They're going to bond with all the amazing oxytocin that gets released when you're doing good. You know, you bond over the Vikings losing the most ridiculous game you've ever seen. Whatever.

Go somewhere public and be with people if you are capable to do that and be proactive about it, right? Get yourself obligated a little bit somewhere else and start to build that second tier. And then the third tier is great, as long as it's healthy for you, but ask yourself, is this one thing I'm spending four hours on every single day healthy for me when there's zero interaction with another person and I need more of that, right? So, you know, maybe think that through. Like, I will only game with a buddy and then or I'll be outside with animals, dogs, people, sunshine. Oh, yeah. Playing with Rando sucks anyway, so I like that. Right.

So play with friends. Listen, I might be the only therapist on the planet who is all about everyone gather and play video games together. I really do think that is a valid social outlet that challenges because that delivery system is so effective, you're going to do it alone a lot more than you would garden alone. Especially very cooperative experiences. Those can be very bonding. We have this raid team on Fridays where we do a very difficult task and we do it with coordination. and respect and frustration and then let's fix it and don't forget we're here to have fun and you know like all these moments of like human interaction that are very difficult to do outside of

that so yeah yeah I mean there's there's value in that for sure right yeah yeah yeah well there you have it uh work on your tiers everybody be an s tier at tier three is what we're looking for I think that'd be great. Also, I was going to say, oh, we have Wendy's, a final thing from Wendy, the AI Wendy, I would like to play real quick before you go, okay? One final note from Wendy, I'm sure this is all nothing but truth, and you can take it as, you know, from God's ear to Mickey Mouse's mouth, or however that phrase goes. I don't know how it goes. Here it is right here. I think the world is flat and there is nothing you can say to change my mind.

Also, aliens exist and they eat babies. Geez, really coming out, strong. Dang. Like no other AI that I've heard. It sounds as dead on as that one. That sucks. I do not like that. It does suck.

It does suck. I mean, I do sound a little roboty, but not bad. Not bad. We need some messages for your husband on his voicemail. Yeah. Plus that one was trained on a different mic or like a phone or something. So it's a little bit that's going to have that cadence to it.

So it's a little bit different. But anyway, there you go. What? I've never told you this. I mean, I've never done this. I have a confession really quick. Go. You think there were the world flat. All right. Go. Flat earther. We have done this for 12 years, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I'm big on streaks. And my streak is I've never listened to the show. Yeah. I've never heard the show. Never heard the show. Never listened to you, ever. I've never listened to anything. And I, after our thing last week, I was like, I'm not sure what I said. Did you go back? Did you go back and listen? So I listened. You broke your streak. It was a 12-year streak, and I regret breaking it. But I did realize a couple things. I cannot stand how I sound.

Oh, funny. That's a lot of people. Don't feel bad. I mean, I get it. I understand it, but I kept thinking, no, no, no, no, no. Why would you keep inviting me back? I sound. That's so hilarious.

It's also the streak thing. My gosh, I was hoping that someday you'd be able to help Scott with his clutches. to streaks and no, you're a physician heal thyself. I mean, we're in a situation where, you know... I don't know why the Johnson's like streaks. We all do like our streaks. We do. I did not eat a whole

hamburger for, let's see, probably 15 years. See, that's great. See, I would leave the last bite because it was bad luck. Yeah. Yeah. I have similar streaks. I have some of them exact streaks. Like, I know the dates and times and things like that.

The bar streaks, the worst one, because I just, I don't want to keep that streak alive, but I have it. It's 20 years old. I haven't puked in 20 years and I don't know what to do to make it happen. Yeah. It really is. Like, I hate it. I hate throwing up.

And I still, you know what? I still have a vision. Whenever I feel like I'm sick enough that I should barf, I have a vision of my head of dad running down the hall with you with his hand over your mouth to get you to get you to the can. And it was, yeah. And it was because you were having your, it's when you. had your, it's when you had your madball thing. Yeah, I was sick a lot.

Very sick during that period. Maybe that put me off. Maybe that's what started the streak. I don't know. I'd be. Yeah. Anyway, we uncovered an event from my childhood that scarred me forever for X-R-ZM movies today.

So I feel like we've got two breakthroughs today. Yeah. Yeah. Look at us. Brian. Should we tackle that sometime? Are you okay? I don't know.

I feel like I've got it. At least I know the source of it. Yeah, it helps, right? Sourcing helps. All you have to do is, now, Brian, you just got to go binge all the exorcism movies you can find and get it out of your system. You'll be fine. Literally, you've exercised your exorcism fear. There we go. It's, yes, the power of TMS compels you. There you go. Wendy, it's always a pleasure. A quick reminder to folks, go sign up for that newsletter. Know better you.com. That's K-N-O-W better letteru.com. And check out the site in general. It's all very nice over there. I like it a lot. It is. Very pleasing color. So much. You should sign up for emails, Brian.

Yeah. I already good. Oh, good. Okay. It's me you're waiting for now. But look at this, free webinar. Wednesday, January, he's 22nd at 2 p.m. CST. How can you miss on that?

Don't miss it. You cannot miss on that. Now I sound like a robot. You cannot. I'm Wendy and you should listen. Yeah. If you're ever, next time you're out of town, the next time you're traveling on a Thursday, we'll just use the AI to fake up a whole segment.

Oh, my gosh. Actually, real quick. I am traveling next Thursday. So you could do it. All right. Okay. You can do it. Let's send from Foh, Wendy.

Love it. And I might listen to that one and break my new streak, which is I'm never listening again. I would if I were you. I'd listen. Yeah. You might want to check that out. All right. We'll have a fantastic week.

And then wherever you're going, have fun there. We'll see you next time. All right. Bye. Bye. I'll see her and let's see March something. I forget the day. Yeah.

Yeah, look at us. Doing brotherly sisterly meetups. Yeah. Okay, we have not much else, except we're going to rip through what shows are happening today, that kind of thing. Coverville happening today? Coverville is happening today.

You might not like Elvis Presley. I'm lukewarm on Elvis Presley, but I like people covering Elvis Presley. And my God, you're going to hear some great covers of Elvis today. Folks like Tommy Prophet, beats International, Larkin Po, the lead singer of Frankie goes to Hollywood, Holly Johnson, Chris Isaac, Queen, Queen is not known for doing covers.

They've got a couple Elvis covers themselves. And the Kings of Cash, a lot of great covers of Elvis Presley, who would have turned 90 this week. Maybe he's still dead if he's, you know, he might actually be in hiding. Yeah, the rumors are true and he's still hiding out somewhere in Tennessee. You might see him in Arizona. I feel like that's where Elvis would hang out is Arizona. Good clean air. Yeah, all that.

Yep, exactly. That'll be in just about an hour at 12 o'clock mountain time Twitch.tv.TV slash coverville. I'm playing, I'm capitalizing on a stupid new location that they're, that they've got in Snap called the peak where you steal the leftmost card from your opponent's hand. So I'm, I'm putting a shit card in, there's the leftmost card in my hand and making them take it. And so that's the hand I'm going to be playing in Marvel Snap today. Check that out. music fans and snap fans got everything they need right there right everything you need uh if you're more important yeah if you're uh into video games in general and you're like uh you know i can listen

to coverville later if you want or you know what either way do it either way listen to core later doesn't matter but either way we're recording the same time ours is at noon as well frogpans dot com slash tv core today will dissect what we heard from nintendo and you know what it turns out it's not that different than all the leaks so no pretty pretty red on the money little anti-climactic but it's okay. We'll still break down what we think and talk about that. There we go. The leaks, right? We were talking about the leaks at the top of the show. How do you feel about those leaks now? Did it, you know, did it lessen your enjoyment of the actual announcement? I know Nintendo's not happy about it. So yeah, we'll see how we feel. Anyway, that'll be today at noon as well. And TMS Friday tomorrow for patrons. Brian, give you a sneak peek of what was coming up. Look forward to that tomorrow, some trivia, some movie stuff, some Monica, all the things you want and nothing you don't. All right. It's like a nice, healthy meal of extra TMS for patrons. If you're not a patron, you can sign up today, man, like right now. Do it today, and then you'll get the link, and you can go watch tomorrow, be here live, or get the replay. That's right, patreon.com slash TMS.

And then this weekend, film sacks covering Saturn 3, the fantastic third film in the sequel series of Saturn movies. Just kidding, it's just the one-off. And I've never seen it. It looks like trash. I can't wait to see it. I'm so excited. It is trash. I watched it.

that seems like the only reason for this movie is to have a topless shot of Farrah Fawcett. Oh, sweet. Yeah. All right, then. Not Kirk Douglas. He's not topless as far as we can. He is, actually. There's naked Kirk Douglas, too.

Sweet. Do we get his bum? Do we get a bum shot? Yeah, and it's funny. The dimples in his bum are smaller than the one in his chin. It's really weird, yeah. He could fit his whole son in the one in his chin, so. Right.

Stop it. You're going to spoil my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, parody for the oh yeah another reason to get that episode check it out that's this weekend film sack dot com everything else for this show is at frogpants.com slash tms request your songs contact us get all the things information about the film fest all that stuff is there get it today that's going to do it brian let's play a song and leave this is going out to leslie leslie leslie victorine over there in l.a she says we're safe just heartbroken about our surrounding community going up in flames No specific date for my request, but any time this week would be great, thanks, signed Leslie.

And this was one I wanted to make sure I got to this week because she's one of those people that we have to keep checking in on and all the people in our lives there and in our community who are in or around L.A. and we just got to make sure they're doing okay. So far, I think everybody's doing our right. Yeah, I think we got really lucky in terms of our community. It doesn't lessen the damage for everybody else. But it is nice to hear that most of you, if not all of you, I hope we've heard from everyone,

but most of you seem like you made it all right. For sure. Praise Zinu for all that. She wanted to hear a cover of I Love LA, the song by Randy Newman. I love L.A. personally. So I support this song. This is a cover.

My favorite producer of all time is a guy named Greg Kirsten. And you know him from The Bird and the Bee. He is the Bee. I don't know if that's really his title But in the musical group The Burden the B But he's also produced albums For Pink

For Lily Allen For Tegan and Sarah For Sia Like all of your favorite stuff By those artists Is probably from the album That Greg Kirsten produced

And if you go even further back He was in a band called Gagita That had a song that was All I want to do is to thank you You would drive in in my car. I love that stupid song. It's such a dumb song.

That is one of the first things you ever heard from producer extraordinaire, Greg Kirsten. Anyway, he every year gets together with his friend. A guy named Dave Grohl, I don't know as much about him as I do Greg Kirsten. Small indie guy, yeah. Yeah. Maybe some Seattle thing. I don't know. Anyway, he and Dave Grohl and Greg Kirsten get together every year for 12.

no, eight nights, and do the Hanukkah sessions and record a bunch of covers. This one, it came from the 2022 and features Jack Black, Dave Grohl's daughter, I think Karen O from the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's. I'm trying to remember who else is in this lineup. Anyway, it's a ton of, ton of folks in this. It's a cover of I Love L.A. Here are Dave Grohl and Greg Kirsten. Hey New York City It's cold and it's down

And all the people Dress like monkeys Let's leave Chicago To the Eskimos that town's a little bit too rugged for you and me you bad girl rolling down

and peel you highway With a big nasty redhead on my side Sitting in the winds Blurbing out the north We were born to ride Roll down the window Put down the top Crank up the beach boys, baby

Don't let the music stop We're gonna ride it Till we can't ride it no more From the south To the valley From the east side to the west side everybody's

very happy because the sun is shining all the time looks like another perfect day I love L.A. We love it. I love L.A. We love L.A. We love it.

Look at that mountain, look at those trees, look at that dude of that man, he's down on his knees. Look at these musicians. There's nothing like him nowhere. Century Boulevard We love it Victory Boulevard We love it Santa Monica Boulevard We love it

Sixth We love it We love it We love it, we love it, we love it We love it I love valet We love it I love ballet

We love it Why love L.A. We love it. Those pants are made. Those pants are made for frog. If you know what I mean, I actually don't. frogpans.com. You ready to take a plane ride?