Wonderful! - Wonderful! 350: Too Many Bells to Edit Out

Episode Date: November 13, 2024

Griffin's favorite dangerous football feat! Rachel's favorite change-forward poet! Music: “Money Won’t Pay” by bo en and Augustus – https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoya First Nations Development Institute: https://www.firstnations.org/

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hello, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is Wonderful. Wonderful is a podcast that we do every week. in that show we do, that thing we do, we talk about things we like that is good and that we are into. And I'm pretty explicitly laying out the terms, the terms of service here because there's few,

I would say, like fewer things that are good that we are into now. Yeah, we've never done an episode in our whole run, like man, everything sucks. And we, I think we take some pride in that. Of like, there's nothing wonderful and we've given up. This episode will've given up.

Will be no different. But please understand that in preparing for our lightweight heartfelt freewheeling, footloose fancy free podcast where we talk about like, damn, pop tarts are good. It is tough to feel great about that in the climate, in this current post-election climate. We're not gonna heart-buy it.

We're not gonna get sad, sacked, dour. I'm feeling, I don't know, angry and somewhat, I don't know, energized, I suppose. I don't have a lot of energy, but I feel ready to get radical for a lot of better term. But yeah, it's a weird time. And so hopefully we won't talk about it anymore and we can focus on talking about things

that we couldn't like or- And if you're going to maintain your strength, you're going to have to find some moments of brightness, I guess, and hopefully this could be that for you. I'm gonna start with a small wonder. I'm gonna say my family and my coworkers and Aabria Iyengar, we were all together on election night.

We had to perform shows this week. We were on tour, it's Friday as we record this. So we had shows Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night. And it was, I mean, Tuesday night was just really, really one of the most anxious I think I've ever been in my life. And then Wednesday was like, well, we have to do a show again now, but now we're all just really bummed out.

And that was true on Thursday too. But like, I don't know. It was very nice to be around my family and my coworkers. Well, your other family. My other family, yes. I wasn't around this family sadly. I wished so desperately that I had been. And yeah, it was just, it was, I don't know,

it helped boost the spirits a little bit. I adore everyone that we work with and that I'm related to and it was nice to have them be there and to do silly stuff with them on stage. Yeah, I was gonna say similarly, I got a bunch of really kind texts from my late friends and stuff with them on stage. I was gonna say similarly, I got a bunch of really kind texts from my ladies just all over the country.

Like people I've known since I was 12 and then people that I just have known in the past couple of years. And it was really nice to have that community, particularly because you were away. And I like woke up and I was like, oh, it's just me and I've got to take care of these boys. And yeah, and I will just say like that, that is always kind of a nice thing about awful things

is that you will get support from the people that really care about you and it's like a good reminder. Yeah, for sure. Okay, now we'll stop talking about it. Now we'll stop harping on it. On to Cheetos. We're not gonna stop talking about it, but like, I don't know, I refuse to let it,

I don't know, turn this whole podcast into a fucking- We're not gonna change the show. This is our happy place. That is true. I wanna talk about football. Are you ready for some football? Sort of. I don't know why it came out that like atonal.

That's like, it's like doing a crazy Lydian scale harmony. Are you ready for some football? He was like doing a crazy Lydian scale harmony. Are you ready for some football? Maybe that is how he originally, you know how people were like say lines in different ways? Maybe that was the first draft. Then maybe, I would like to see the original. Are you ready? I don't follow football fucking at all.

I used to watch Packers like a billion years ago. And you did, you've done fantasy football. It's been maybe five or six years since I've engaged in fantasy football. While I was doing it, it was mostly to ameliorate my father because he really wanted to play fantasy football, but now I can't even fake it. I don't really watch football at all anymore.

However, this past Sunday, on November 3rd, the Philadelphia Eagles were hosting the Jacksonville Jaguars. By the numbers, the Eagles are the superior team. Their record's like five and two versus the Jaguars, two and six. They're bigger, better, faster, stronger, right? They did end up winning the game. So it's the second quarter, Eagles are up by seven. They need six yards to make a third down conversion.

I wanna reinforce before I get into this that the football play I'm going to describe is one, sick as fuck, and two, it was not, this play wasn't crazy consequential. This is not like Hail Mary with zero seconds on the clock running in for a touchdown to win the Super Bowl. Not like that. This is like a third down conversion of a little 14 yard pass midfield, like just a pretty normal football event. However, what makes it wild is the running back who,

and what he did out on that football field. It's one of the wildest things I've ever seen in any kind of athletic event. And someone showed me this clip backstage, I think last night at our last show in Milwaukee. And I just haven't stopped thinking about it since. I wanna show you that clip. Please do, because I wanna show you that clip. Please do.

Because I don't know football words and so I really will need to watch it. What? He just jumped over a man. He did the normal football thing where he kind of like- He did a couple normal football things. Faked out and shifted- And then he didn't just jump over a man.

And then he jumped over a man. He jumped over the man backwards. He jumped over the man backwards. What? How? How did he know he'd be able to do that? How did he know? There's a lot of questions.

And how did he know the man was there? I'm going to describe her friends at home. First of all, this running back is 27 year old Saquon Barkley, S-A-Q-U-O-N. If you just search that name, you'll see this play. Because for. First of all, this running back is 27 year old Saquon Barkley, S-A-Q-U-O-N. If you just search that name, you'll see this play. Because fucking everyone is talking about it. If you don't wanna watch the video,

I will describe what happens. This running back, Saquon Barkley for the Eagles, catches this lateral pass. He's got this defender right on top of him. He jukes him, he gets out of the way. Just a little side step. Just a basic, that's like you press B in Madden and it does this little swoop.

Then a second big defender comes towards him and he does this slick little spin out of harm's way. A little swoop, whoop, little twist-a-roo. He gets out of the way. And then a third player for the Jaguars takes a diving tackle at him. It looks like Saquon Barkley is gonna do another spin on him but instead he just turns his back to him

and jumps into the air, spread eagle over the man, thereby probably posterizing him in one of the most brutal ways I've ever seen. He lands on his feet and then he immediately gets fucking creamed by like five other Jaguars players, but he gets the first down and- And they go on to lose.

No, they go on to win. The Eagles go on to win that game. It is, it's the fucking wildest bit of movement. It's like someone is playing, is controlling him in Madden and really just like jamming, like putting in cheat codes and jamming in these like commands that no one else knows about. The thing since we have started like watching hockey

and really following it game to game, you know, you get to learn what each player's little thing is, like their particular strength that sets them apart that probably got them to where they are now. And the fact that he was like, hey, I'm a good jumper, now would be a good time for me to do my jumping. He did an interview the day after this game took place and he talked about sort of where his mind was at.

He said basically like he spun that one defender, he was just gonna spin again, but he got halfway and he thought like he's gonna go low so I could probably jump over him. And he did it. The timing, the situational awareness required to know when to jump backwards over a man

you're not looking at. It like would be in a Broadway musical and you'd be like, wow, that must've been hard. It is wild. And so like the reactions to this play were instantaneously amazing. Right in the moment, there's lots of clips from the sidelines of the Eagles players,

all reacting after this happens, like they just saw a spaceship land in the middle of the field. The commentators on just about every broadcast carrying this game were just like stupefied in the moment. And for good reason, cause like the amount of stuff to catch a pass, juke a tackle, spin out of a tackle and then leap backwards over a giant man,

you can't see in the span of four seconds is like it boggles, it boggles the mind, the agility required, the athleticism, the presence of mind and intuition and instinct. They name that move after him. And then in the future, if anybody jumps over another man. So jumping over another player is not like crazy uncommon, right?

Because it is not that wild for a defender to go for like a tackle at the legs to like really take them down. And so, you know, usually you get like a traditional, what's called a hurdle. You don't get one, a spread eagle backwards hurdle over a player. I don't know that lots of players are going

to be attempting this because like most of the reaction was like, holy shit. Travis Kelce came out and was like, I don't want people to try to do that because jumping, like getting off the ground in football is dangerous because especially with like, if he had missed time this a little bit and those five big men had collided with him while he was in mid-air, that could have spelled disaster.

To his credit in this interview, Saquon Barkley said that he was never going to attempt this feat ever again. His exact quote was, "'I ain't trying to do that again, to be honest with you.'" Which is, even while he said in this interview that the NFL drug tested him after the game, which is kind of bonkers. Whoa, I didn't know that was a thing. I didn't know that the NFL drug tested him after the game, which is kind of bonkers.

Whoa, I didn't know that was a thing. I didn't know that the NFL was, like obviously they gotta check the players sometimes. I didn't know it was like a, your jump just then was so crazy. At the same time, I don't know what kind of performance enhancing drug is going to let you know, like give you extra sensory linebacker perception.

It's gotta be the limitless pill. But even then, I don't know the limitless pill gives you ESP. Yeah. It is. I've had friends that have done the limitless pill, but me personally, I would not. I would never.

Anyway, I am not a football guy. I am an unprecedented feats of athleticism, Sky. And this was without a doubt one of those. I've watched it like a dozen times that it still blows my mind. Not enough to make me wanna keep watching football, but it is fun to be part of a football moment. That's true.

Especially when as accessible and instantly entertaining as watching a man jump over another man backwards. So yeah, that is Saquon Barkley's incredible hurdle and go watch it, even if you don't give a shit about sports. It's pretty rad to see someone do it. Can I steal you away? Yes. Okay. Yes. Are you ready?

Yes. I am going to take you back to the poetry corner. Okay. I feel like we've been there a lot lately, but it's like, you know, it's a cozy spot and the seats are still warm. So let's. There is a bit of sprawl, I've noticed.

The poetry corner is sort of bleeding beyond its boundaries into, there's like a poetry credenza now. And what is a credenza? It's like a little cabinet or something. Okay, just checking. And then there's like the, it's gotten into a couple of the couches in Ottomans.

It's sort of absorbing the whole. The poetry sun porch. The poetry veranda. What did we talk about? The poetry dragon is what we talked about recently. That was the scale at which we were going to rate future poems. Dragon scale, yeah, wasn't it?

Like it gets a scale. You get a dragon scale from the poetry dragon. Anyway. Because it goes, calling like one of the scramble dudes. from the Poetry Dragon if you had. Anyway. P she has done a lot with her 88 years. She has written 17 novels. Jesus. 20 volumes of poetry, a memoir,

and she has been the recipient of four honorary doctorates. Jesus Christ. So she currently lives in Massachusetts in a house that she designed. She has said, every time I published a book, I added a room, I stopped when I had enough rooms. But she's had a really incredible life and she's written a lot of incredible poems.

So I was excited to bring her. Yeah. So she grew up in Detroit and was the first in her family to bring her. Yeah. So she grew up in Detroit and was the first in her family to attend college. And then she went to University of Michigan. And then immediately after she graduated college, she got married and moved to France, but then got divorced when she was 23

and lived in Chicago supporting herself, working part-time jobs. The France of America. And trying to get published. And so she was writing at the time fiction and poetry. And in 1968, the same year her first book of poetry was published, her first novel was accepted for publication.

Jesus. Just like, man, when it rains, it pours. Yeah, I guess so. This is kind of incredible. She very much has stayed connected to her upbringing in Detroit, and she is very active politically. She was involved in the Students for a Democratic Society

in the 60s, has really invested in climate change and the working class and feminism. And her poetry is another one, it's another one of those things where it is, it very much is connected to where she came from and also very plain spoken in a way that is very accessible. And so I wanted to read one of her poems that I found particularly inspiring.

It was published in her poetry collection that came out in 1982 that was called Circles on Water. And the poem is called To Be of Use. The people I love the best jump into work head first without dallying in the shadows and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight. They seem to become natives of that element, the black sleek heads of seals bouncing like half-submerged balls. I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart, who pull like water buffalo with massive patience, who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,

who do what has to be done again and again. I want to be with people who submerge in the task, who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along, who are not parlor generals and field deserters, but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out. The work of the world is common as mud. Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust,

but the thing worth doing well done has a shape that satisfies clean and evident. Greek amphoras for wine or oil, hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums, but you know they were made to be used. The pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real. Fuck yes. Isn't that great?

That last line hits so good. I know, I know. She has another poem that's really good that I considered reading that talks about for the young who want to, that is about just the process of becoming an artist or a writer and how challenging it is. But I thought this poem to be of use

was particularly inspirational for me right now. This idea that the work is the thing and that it is always kind of the quality that we, I feel like, respect the most. And it's just kind of a reminder that like, it is not glamorous, but it is a very important thing. Well, yeah, and to focus on the like existence and even abundance of opportunity to help

is, I don't know, an angle that is kind of like easy to forget when you are in the depths of despair. And I think this poem had a really beautiful way of addressing that. For the young who want to is another poem that does that. Maybe I'll just read. A little mini, a fun size? This is a poetry corner fun size Rachel break.

Okay, here I'll just read a couple stanzas from it. Work is what you have done after the play is produced and the audience claps. Before that, friends keep asking when you are planning to go out and get a job. Which I really loved. I would encourage you if you are somebody trying to do something creative to read that poem.

But she gave an interview in 2017 to Penn. They asked her what is the responsibility of the writer. And she said, the same as any other citizen, to pay attention to what's happening, to recognize myself as an agent in history, and to fight against what I think is wrong and for what I feel should happen. I use my writing, my body, my time,

what money I can spare, my willingness to take risks, to try to change what needs changing. That's lovely. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I was really, I think the Poetry Corner does really feel like a safe space for me. Yeah, of course.

I find myself, and I think a lot of people do this, I mean, you'll see a lot of this on the internet, of people trying to find the poem or the best quote, because it's comforting to think somebody else has thought about this and they've come up with a really great thing to say about it. And I felt like she really did that for me. I love that Ethan Hawke thing.

I don't know what the fuck it's from, but it's like an interview where he's talking about the importance of art, and you hear that, and you're like, oh fuck, this is gonna that Ethan Hawke thing. I don't know what the fuck it's from, but it's like an interview where he's talking about the importance of art and you hear that and you're like, oh fuck, it's gonna be Ethan Hawke just talking about how important Hollywood is. But his point is like, no one needs art until like you get your heart broken or you lose something and you don't have any way of expressing that

or finding any way to relate to the rest of the world and having a, I don't know, thoughtful version of that. So yeah, I mean, I think the poetry corner, if there is a consistent thread throughout it, a lot of it is stuff that speaks to your personal experience. Yeah, and what kind of I need in that moment. Yeah, sure. So yeah, that's Marge, that's Marge Piercy.

She has 20 books of poetry. So hopefully you'll be able to find one. Yeah. And she's got a lot of work published online and I would just really encourage you to check it out. Obviously very accomplished and incredibly talented. That was very beautiful. But do you think she could leap eight feet

in the air backwards? Is this a new part of Wonderful? Yeah. Where we decide who had the most impressive topic? No, I mean, I'm just, we both brought people this time and my guy can jump super high in the air and like jump over backwards. I don't think, well, especially at 88,

I don't think that she would be able to do that. Maybe in her youth, we don't know. I don't know about my guys' poetry, but I can look into it and update next week. Do you wanna know what our friends at home are talking about? Yes. Abigail says, my small wonder this week

is buying something so far in advance that you surprised yourself with it. This happens fairly often for me as someone with ADHD, but I surprised myself with front row tickets to your show in Indianapolis and spent the whole night reeling. Thank you very much Abigail. That's nice. That's lovely.

I'm so glad that you guys publish live shows because that used to be one of my favorite things and still is to like go see you perform and watch the show. And I just feel like I would really miss that if I didn't at least get to listen to the recording. So I'm grateful for that. I didn't mean to include this as a like.

See, Rachel? And this is what it's like to soak in the live McElroy experience. Rather, I so heavily relate with, like I will pre-order the new teenage engineering synth fucking six months before it comes out and then it'll show up in the mail and I'll be like, holy shit, yeah.

It's such a thrill. It's such a thrill that sometimes when I get a package in the mail that I'm not expecting, my heart immediately starts racing like, ooh, is this some gadget or gizmo that I pre-ordered months ago? And then most of the time starts racing like, ooh, is this some gadget or gizmo that I pre-ordered months ago? And then most of the time it's like, no, it's your, it's. It's a funny sweater that you're gonna wear in a video.

Yeah, or some sort of special nutrient vitamin. Max says, hi, Rachel and Griffin, my small wonder is vitamin gummies. I love that almost any supplement you can think of comes in gummy form. I'm much more likely to take my vitamins every day when I know that I can start my day with a handful of healthy fruit snacks.

Bathroom candy. Bathroom candy we're obviously very familiar with. I am excited we finally found a brand of candy vitamin that our kids are into. Yeah, we should really stockpile those just in case they become more difficult to find. They're basically sour gummy worms. Yeah.

Yeah. So I don't harbor any, obviously there's better ways to get vitamins in these kids' bodies. A lot of times Big Son will be like, you forgot to give me my vitamin this morning. That's true. He's being very thoughtful,

but really it's just because he wants to eat a candy. He's very sensitive to flavors he doesn't enjoy and textures he doesn't enjoy. And so, I don't know, one time he ate a chewable Flintstones vitamin and got sick from the grittiness of it, I guess. And so we tried a few that all bounced off. I'm happy that we're finally getting some.

Can I confess something to you? Last night, so you were gone and I decided I was gonna make pizza, which is kind of hit or miss. I ate it for lunch, it was good as hell. Okay. It's kind of hit or miss with Henry, and very specifically, I bought a different kind of dough

than I usually do, and a different kind of cheese. So I was like, Henry, would you eat pizza tonight if I made it? And he said, well, you never put enough sauce on it. And I was like, whoa, that's something I can change. And he was like, okay. And as it's cooking in the oven, I'm kind of looking at it and I'm realizing

it looks a little different than it normally does. That's the ball game. And it's like still very hot as I take it out. And I think he's gonna have to wait another 10 minutes for this to cool. And I was like, I just can't deal with it. No, I know. So I walked into the living room and I was like,

hey, it's still really hot and not ready to eat. Do you wanna just have chicken nuggets? And he was like, yeah, okay. I was like, I just stepped away. I was like, I know what he is going to say. Why don't I just get ahead of it? I try my best. You don't go out of town that often,

but when you do and I'm watching them, I try my best to keep the train on the track, but I also have no fucking hesitance or guilt about just saying like, fuck it, we're doing chicken nuggets tonight. I'm not even gonna try it. I know. Thank you all so much for listening.

Genuinely thank you all so much. This show means a lot to us and it remains a lovely, contemplative exercise to try and think of one thing a week that I can talk about that I am enthusiastic about. And that you haven't already talked about. Yeah, man, we've been doing this show a long ass time. Anyway, thank you to Bowen and Augustus

for the use of our theme song, Money Won't Pay. Find a link to that in the episode description. Thank you to Maximum Fun for having us on the network. Go to MaximumFun.org, check out all the great shows we got popping over there. And you're done with tours for the year. I'm done with tours, no more touring. We got some merch over in the merch store.

I think we have some candle night stuff coming pretty soon. I don't know if by the time this comes out, we will, I don't know, those details will be public. So if not, don't tell anyone that I just said that. But if so, check out our website, McElroy.family, and see if there's anything on there about it. That's gonna do it. Thank you all so much.

Hang in there, and we will be back next week, rain or shine, unless like we get sick or the internet gets weird, the internet's acting weird, the wifi is like being so crazy. So there's lots of reasons why we may actually not be back next Wednesday, but like I would say 96% chance. What if we ended every episode with that? I'm reading this actually off. This is our boilerplate sort of covering our ass.

We'll probably have another episode, but we might not, but we're planning on it. We'll be here with bells on, and it'll be un-listenable because of the bells. Because of the bells. There'll be too many bells to edit out, so look forward to it, and we'll see you next week. Bye. Bye. Bye 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も 前も