Wonderful! - Wonderful! 373: Another Group of Guys to Disappoint Me

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Rachel's favorite dreampop bops! Griffin's favorite marine life domestic behavior!Music: “Money Won’t Pay” by bo en and Augustus – https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoyaNational Immigration Project: https://nipnlg.org/

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hello, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is wonderful. Welcome to a wonderful show where we talk about things that's good that we are into. And we don't usually start out the show like this, but we do have sort of a big like kind of update to the general list of things that we like that's good that we're into.

And hockey is off of that particular list. You mentioned it on your Mcquarie family clubhouse too. Yes, so ever present in my mind has the bad feelings that hockey has instilled in us been. The blues, it's just such a cinematic story. Sure. And I think last time we had a cinematic story, we won the Stanley Cup.

Yeah, that was a cool movie. That was a cool screenplay. So it was hard not to get your hopes up when it's game seven and- Against the number one ranked Winnipeg Jets. And the Blues over and over again in St. Louis demonstrated they were the superior team. And then whenever they get to Winnipeg-

They also were the superior team in game seven where they were up by two goals with two minutes left and then they came back and they scored a goal and then they scored another goal with 2.2 seconds left. I felt like a real idiot because we're watching the game and Griffin and I had both been on different journeys over the weekend. True, spiritual.

So we were like catching up and I'm like casually talking to him about what's going on with all of our friends that I got to see and he's like, why to him about what's going on with all of our friends that I got to see. And he's like, why are you not more stressed out? I doubled over in anxiety for the entire game. Because it was three one in the third period. And it's like, this is gonna be great.

They're gonna have this amazing underdog victory. And I just kind of felt, I don't know, not confident, but not freaked out. And then I was like, you know what? I'll start to get nervous when it's three, two. And like a minute later. It was three, two and then with seconds left, it was three, three and then they won.

Double overtime, which double overtime in the playoffs means you had a full 20 minute overtime and now you are going into your next 20 minute overtime. So it's like the equivalent of like four full periods of hockey. It was genuinely the saddest sports has ever made me. And I was not, obviously the Blues have had highs and lows. I'm not totally unknowledgeable about this sort of emotional

impact of sports, but this was the saddest sports has ever made me. And it made me question whether this whole enterprise was worth it at all. It's just, it's the story, right? Like I realized for me, what was most upsetting was that I was really enjoying the story of this season. Which was a like, they got rid of a coach, they got a new coach,

they completely turned their game around, they won like 13 games in a row or something. I mean, they just had this incredible end of the season. And we had two and a half periods of watching very sad Winnipeg Jets fans. Which I don't typically sort of engage in that level of schadenfreude, but I was very much enjoying it.

And I think I spoke that aloud and that was probably the moment that- Both of us, honestly, it came down to both of us. So Blues Nation, we apologize. We fucked this up for us. The Blues also fucked it up in having the absolute most abysmal empty net record of any team in the league, not doing themselves any favors, but yeah.

Yeah, it got this season, it got so that when the other team would pull their goalie, instead of feeling optimistic about like, we're close to the end and now there's no go-tender in the net, I started to feel like, uh-oh. We did, I guess, give out a lot of exciting feelings to fans of other teams

who scored in their sort of empty net attempts against us. Like the Blues used to do that, and that always felt really great when they would get, you know, they would be in the empty net, and then they would get their goal, and they would tie it up and win or whatever with these incredible comebacks. And so we did get, I mean, that's a night

that those Winnipeg Jets fans will never forget. And so I am glad that we have provided that to them, I suppose. And that was the thing, like, Blues couldn't beat Winnipeg in Winnipeg, all playoffs, because so loud, so exuberant. They're so loud. And this game had been going so well

because they had been losing, everybody was quiet. And then when they tied it up, like miraculously, it just felt like, well, this is, I mean, Winnipeg's gonna be super loud now. If we had been in St. Louis, probably would've won it. So listen, we know there's some folks out there who maybe are tired of hearing us talk about hockey. One, good news, we're done definitely for the season,

and I might be done for good. I do not know that I could subject myself to this again. I was talking about it this morning. We are in Washington, DC. The Washington Capitals did make the second round. They're still very good. So I'm trying to decide if I have room in my heart to watch the local team.

I mean, they still got TJ Oshie. I gotta, I gotta learn. I don't know, I gotta learn. He was injured. I gotta learn about these fucking guys, man. Yeah, I don't know, I gotta learn. He was injured. I gotta learn about these fucking guys, man. Yeah, I don't know, man. I have to learn about a whole different group of guys? I know there are people that like multiple sports teams

in the same genre of sport at the same time. I don't know how you do it. Am I just gonna find another group of guys to disappoint me? I gotta stop allowing myself to be disappointed by guys. I'm fucking drawing the line right here. Anyway, do you have any small wonders? Cause this fucking definitely isn't one.

This is a big un-wonder. I'm gonna say that right now I feel like the part of a performing trio, which is kind of a fun feeling for me. And then I am in between your fan and your plant. And I feel like the three of us are really gonna bring. You can do your own podcast together. We're gonna bring a lot of good energy to this podcast. Yeah, one of you creates the oxygen.

Wait, can I? Be gentle. There have been a few leaves on, you can move the mic over to the plant if you wanna really do some incredible foley work. Was that not enough? You don't think that'll pick up? I don't think that's gonna pick up.

Okay. It was very quiet. Make it talk. Those are some waxy leaves, huh? Those are some plant leaves. That's my- My small wonder is watching my wife fondle a money tree. I don't have a, I had a kick ass Caesar salad from Wegmans yesterday and it helped dull the pain of sports.

I like a pre-made Caesar salad. I've talked about, we've done a big wonder of Caesar salad. You could talk about the trip. Going to see the Huntington, we went to Huntington to help out me and Small Son and Big Son. Took a boys road trip to Huntington for the weekend to attend and help out with the Harmony House Renaissance

Fair, which went to benefit Harmony House, an organization that helps people experiencing homelessness in Huntington, where that is a big problem. And we've worked with them on a bunch of stuff. We support them during candle nights and raise money for them there. And it was a real whirlwind trip,

a six hour drive down, six hour drive back with two kids. It was a little stressful. But two nights. For two nights. But the event was amazing. We had so many people come out and raise money for such an amazing cause.

And I've only been to one Renaissance fair before, and it's really just a kick-ass. It's a kick-ass environment for myself and for the kids who, you know, they love seeing all the little handmade stuff and watching people fence and seeing a horse. It's like a wonderful little world. Our boys are pretty good travelers, I would say. Yeah. and seeing a horse is like a wonderful little world.

Our boys are pretty good travelers, I would say. Yeah. Particularly like when you get to the destination. Sure. In that they are just kind of delighted to be wherever they are most of the time. It's just the getting there and the getting back. Especially if there's a little donkey you can pet.

That's great. Oh, there was a little donkey. There was a little donkey. He pet. That's great. Oh, there was a little donkey. There was a little donkey. He would just sort of yell sometimes, which scared them, but then made them laugh. It's fun. Not in like distress, just like in the way that donkeys do sometimes.

I also support the work of Harmony House. I had just made previous plans to see a bunch of my friends in Texas. Yes, absolutely. So that's where I was. Yeah, no, I mean, no one's judging you. I'm glad that you did that. I didn't want people to think of that

I had taken a stand against this worthy cause. Yeah. And decided to stay home alone. Rachel is weirdly anti-Harmony House. I don't understand why she is this way. You go first this week. What- I do.

Would you like to talk to us here in the wonderful audience? I'm a member now. When I'm not doing my thing, I'm a part of the audience. So let me sit over here with them. The chairs on this side are so much more uncomfortable. You know, you don't have to vamp. This time could be edited out.

Babe, you know that I do this. I wanna talk about a musical artist this week, Sea Lemon. Frickin' Rachel McElroy, coming up out of the boneyard again with some certified jammers that I had never even heard of before and now I'm gonna be hearing a lot cause I fucking liked what you sent me. Yeah, I thought maybe you would. Sea Lemon fits into a genre I didn't know existed

but is the perfect label and that is dream pop. Dream pop? Yeah. That's interesting. How would one define that? Well, here's the thing. So I looked up, because I was trying to kind of understand what dream pop was, and I felt like I had a hunch

because Sea Lemon Sound is so like specific to a lot of the kind of music we like. And so I typed in, is soccer mommy dream pop? And yes. Yes, okay, interesting. I guess I considered that sort of indie rock, but. Yeah, kind of like shoegazy, I don't know, like this kind of time period of music.

The influences cited include like air, which is another good example. Sure, yeah. I mean, dreamy, it just feels like the right word, man. It absolutely does. I know. Once we play some, dear listener, you'll get the vibe. I found Sea Lemon because I was doing what I do sometimes,

which is I will go to a variety of music websites and I will see what they are recommending because I have no other way. Like I don't use Spotify. I don't have cool friends that are- I mean, even if you did, your Spotify recommend it. That platform is not useful to me in finding new music unless it is Kirby music with lyrics

that people have added to it, which is our traditional genre we listen to in the car with the boys. Gosh, the way Henry shouts out those song titles. Yeah. Like they make any sense at all. What is the one that he's- Mistaline Ruler Without a Crown, I think,

or Mistaline Crown Without a Ruler, I believe is the name of it. I mean, it's a Kirby soundtrack game title. So it's Sufjan Stevens-esque in its verbose-ness. So anyway, so I did kind of what I do for Poetry Corner, which is I start looking around at like artists I know I like, I kind of do what Spotify does for you, honestly.

I'm like, oh, I like this one. What's somebody that's related or like has just put out work. And so anyway, that's how I found Sea Lemon. I'm imagining you like at the music mill with a music churn, like doing the work, doing the analog work you need to do to find what you need. I was thinking more like, I'm like at a forge. Yes.

Like it's very warm and I'm sweating and I'm like, Oh. Going through music. All right. Maybe you got a big leather apron on. Is that what you wanted? A set of tongs. That's what you wanted when I created this scenario?

Yeah. You dip a broadsword in like a big tank of water and it hisses dramatically. The music sword. And then you hand me the sword, you say, this is, and it has like a cool name, like Wolfbane, something cool like that. That's cool.

Okay. That started erotic, but then it turned more fantastical. Hard to be wondering if it was still erotic for you. It's hard to separate. Yeah, I know. Okay, so Sea Lemon is Natalie Lu. She is somebody that is currently located in Seattle. And what is coming up is her first album, actually.

What has happened previously in 2022, she released a five track EP called Close Up. And then it says different things on YouTube. It says June 13th, but everywhere else it says May 30th. So like later this month. Okay. Her first full album is coming out called Diving for a Prize. And so the song that I wanna play is dramatic.

Well, what's it, I get that the vibe in telling me. The name of the song I would like to play is dramatic. A Bazinga, gotcha. So interesting thing about Sea Lemon. A couple sticks and sew it up the core. Breathe into your heart. I can tell you I'm so in love. So, interesting thing about Sea Lemon. The song that I didn't end up playing, but also selected as possible to play was Crystals. I mean, we should play that one too.

We should do two songs. Oh, we're gonna do two ones? I think so. If I had known that you were not gonna do the other one, I definitely would have picked Crystals to play. Did you recognize? Fuck yeah, I recognized the guest on that track. Yeah, so seven months ago on YouTube, Crystals was released and it includes a collaboration

with Death Cab for Cutie Frontman, Ben Givard. Been a while since I've heard Mr. Gibbard on a track. So, so excited. When I heard his dulcet tones sneaking in there in that second verse, I was just absolutely vibing. Should we go ahead and play? Let's just play, like why tease it? Why not just like drop some of that good stuff?

All right, here's a little bit of crystals. way I don't wanna face this anymore. I'm not your boy. Okay, so I'm not sure how she met Ben Gibbard. Seattle, just like was in Seattle. Possibly. If you are out in Seattle and you do music for long enough, like a week and a half, two weeks, you're gonna collab with Ben Gibb.

I will say that also her album was produced by Andy Park, who did Death Cab for Cutie as well. So that may have been where the introduction was created. Is Death Cab dream pop? I don't know. And I don't know how to find out. So I read a little bit from an article that's called it shoe gaze but with pop structures.

Songs have a knack to be earwormy when you least expect it, embedding themselves in the listener's psyche. That might be a little bit of an overreach, but I do appreciate the shoeegaze with pop structures. I listened to that Crystal song a single time and I do have its chorus kind of like stuck in my head. So I do think that that is, and I feel like,

I don't know, the best kind of like Death Cab songs were sort of similar. I know that I'm probably making too much of an attachment there just because they both have been gibbered up in them, but yeah, really, really catchy. just because they both have been gibbered up in them, but yeah, really, really catchy. So the story of Sea Lemon is that she was in New York City

and then moved all the way across the country and says, quote, I really found music as a solace during the pandemic while I was isolating in the gloomy Pacific Northwest with nothing else to do. I practiced my songwriting, took mixing classes, et cetera. So in that way, I'm so grateful I made the decision to move back to the Pacific Northwest. So she started there in Washington state,

moved to New York, came back, really took off from there. Yeah, I mean, who would she have collabed with in New York City? Oh, there's like nobody there. There's no one. There's, nobody there. I'm always saying this, there's just no music scene here in our nation's artistic capital.

She also collaborated with a band called American Football? Yeah. Okay, I have never heard of this band. I can't remember any of their songs off the top of my head, but I've definitely heard them before. Okay. Yeah, again, like the dream pop genre seems like right up my alley, but I still feel like I am just beginning to explore.

It strikes me as one of those things that if we looked at a list, a roster of dream pop bands, there would be a lot of familiar names on there that we just did not really know how to classify particularly. I mean, give me a steady beat and a fuzzy guitar riff going at like 90 BPM and we are made in the shade. There is a suggestion that she has also been inspired by Beach House and The Cure, which I appreciated.

Like there's something that feels kind of like 80s-ish about Dream Pop to me. Don't really know what it is, but hearing The Cure felt right to me. Beach House definitely, definitely, definitely hit for me. I feel like that is a, I don't know, Rosetta Stone that I return to a lot when I hear this kind of. Shoe Gaze sounds, I love that term,

except for how pejorative it sounds. Because I feel like it's used to describe a sort of, you know, annoying aesthetic in film, but in music, it feels a bit more descriptive of like tempo and vibe in a way that is maybe not as explicitly like bad. Yeah, I will say my instinct is to not use labels like this, but I recognize it may mean more to our listeners

than it does to us. Sure, yeah. I'm just trying to be helpful. We should say shoegaze, parentheses, complimentary. Just so people know. We start doing that with every bit of compliment we offer. This is a thing, I don't know when it started because I'm not especially plugged in to online, but people expressly stating the intent and tone

of a thing that they say as like complimentary or pejorative or whatever, which I find extremely useful, absolutely. That's helpful. That's very helpful. Natalie has said of her music, part of the reason that she turns to Beach House and the Cure is she says that she likes music

that, quote, toes the line between sorrow and happiness into a gray area of somewhere in the middle. It's a kind of sentiment I love to feel and write about when it comes to my music. Beautiful. And like Seattle seems like the place to do that man. Got to all that fricking rain. Just the whole energy of like being kind of lovely,

but also kind of depressing. Yeah. Just feels like, like just right. I mean, there was a time period, I never have cared about a record label or anything like that, but I remember getting so into so many bands that were on, I think it was Sub Pop or Barsuk,

one of those, and just going through their catalog and just checking out every band that was on that record label and being like, yeah, those are all really, really good bands that all live in the same city. There's gotta be some reason behind it. Yeah. Yeah, I kind of wanted to bring Sea Lemon

because I don't really go in for atmospheric music, typically. Like if I am working on something, I still like to have, you know, something like melodic. Yeah. And this is kind of like fits right in that sweet spot for me of like, like I could have this on. It's easy listening.

Yeah. Well, I'm doing anything. Easy listening parentheses, complimentary. Complimentary, yeah. It like, it like sets a vibe that feels very cozy for me and I enjoy that. For sure. I'm definitely going to be listening to more of this band. Okay. But not right now. Complimentary, yeah. It like sets a vibe that feels very cozy for me and I enjoy that.

For sure, I'm definitely going to be listening to more of this band. Okay. But not right now because we're recording a podcast and I would like to steal you away. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. For my segment this week, it has been a while since I have brought any marine life content to this show. I'm excited to do that. Oh, I should also say sea lemon is like a yellow

phosphorescent slug. Oh, cool. In the Pacific Northwest. That's so funny. That's where sea lemon comes from. That's crazy. The fish I'm talking about today is not native to the Pacific Northwest.

As far as I know, specifically, I would love to talk about damselfish and specifically the behavior of damselfish of coral gardening. Oh. So damselfish live, there's lots of different parts of the world where they live.

Can you tell me what they look like? Big sorta, I mean, kind of, there's lots of different species. There's like a bright orange damselfish that I did look up the name of and now can't remember. There's lots of different types. I mean, they just kinda look like a fish. Kind of the like aesthetic ideal

of what you think of as a fish. Sort of football sized, just fish shaped fish. Just your fish. Colorful sometimes. Colorful sometimes, sometimes spotted, sometimes they are tropical subtropical sort of coral dwellers. So naturally they do have a bit of panache to them.

Oh, and they're little guys. Sometimes, I mean, I guess it depends on what you mean by little guys. They are- They're not like my sunfish. No, I guess that's if you compare something to a sunfish. It's not as big as a sunfish. They are occasionally like aquarium, exotic aquarium fish. But anyway, they live in coral reefs.

And I found for whatever reason, a few different TikToks about them organically this week about damselfish and their gardening habits. One, I guess went viral and then got picked up by a million different content farms, as is the way of things on social media. But I learned so many fascinating facts about these little fish because they keep these little gardens

on the seaafloor, and they are extremely territorial about their little agricultural operations. They raise like seaweed and algae on these little plots that they fiercely protect for their like main food source. And I just, I love that, but the behavior that they exhibit while keeping these little gardens

is really, really fascinating. They don't just like adopt these little plots of land where they grow seaweed and swim around it and protect it. Like they actually go to great lengths to maintain the yield of their little farms. How do you, so fish don't have arms or legs. Thank you so much for clearing that up for me. I didn't have arms or legs. Thank you so much for clearing that up for me. I didn't have that in, I didn't include that in my notes

to say to our listeners just because I figured that they would know that. When I think of tending an area, I think that you are doing things to manipulate the space. Sure. How are they manipulating the space? Well, allow me to tell you about the longfin damselfish. Oh, okay.

This specific species found off the shores of Belize. And the longfin damselfish is believed to have formed a really wild symbiotic relationship with a breed of planktonic shrimp called the mycid shrimp. And mycid shrimp poop fertilizer for seaweed and algae. Uh, and it's a really effective fertilizer. So damselfish, uh, the, the longfin damselfish will keep these algae farms and they will allow mycid shrimp to live in their little gardens. And then they will work tirelessly to protect these little tiny, tiny, tiny shrimp

from predators. Mised shrimp are not typically found organically in swarms out in the open ocean, except for in these damselfish gardens. So chill a spot, so chill a hang zone, and safe and comfortable an environment these damselfish create for these little plankton shrimp that they are able to grow and flourish

in these little compounds because of the relative safety and comfort that these damselfish provide. It's like they have a little gated community to set up for them. What is especially wild is that damselfish, in addition to seaweed and algae, they also, their diet also consists of plankton

and small invertebrates like the mycid shrimp. But they don't eat these guys because they know that they can fertilize their little algae farms. And they effectively keep these little planktonic shrimp as pets, pets that they could eat if they would like to, but they don't because it's good for their algae. What an amazing, almost like tribal instinct

that they must pass down to their later generations. Because I have to imagine a fish is born with the instinct to- That's food, that's food, that's food. And the older fish must be like, nope, not that one. Nope, not that food. That is food. But if you let it chill and you take really good care of it, your algae operation is going to absolutely explode, rather.

So across the different sort of like damselfish populations around the globe, the most common predator to their gardens that they keep are sea urchins. Because sea urchins can invade a reef in like enormous quantities and consume all of the seaweed, not just the leaves, which like there are lots of fish that'll swim up and try and gobble up a leaf, but like roots and all just destroy, turn these gardens into these barren wastelands. So they are the number one sort of pest of the damselfish.

And so damselfish will swim up to an urchin, brave the spines of the urchin, just kind of grab one by the spine with its mouth, and swim it away from their garden and drop it. A lot of the time, when they remove their sea urchins from their garden, they will actually drop it in another damselfish's garden. Not just to sort of sabotage, but to hope that like, hey, maybe you'll enjoy this garden so much that you will not return

and you will not come back to my garden. Damselfish are incredibly territorial, so this doesn't usually go down so swell. However, and it's not the most, like, craziest thing about this, there's a lot of video evidence and anecdotal evidence to support the fact that Damselfish have actually developed a symbiotic relationship

with human divers who collect sea urchins for culinary purposes. It is not uncommon for a damselfish to come right up to a diver and lead them to their garden where humans will then go through and effectively clean out all of the sea urchins there. The damselfish get the sea urchins out of their space and the urchin divers find a trustworthy, like easy source of sea urchins. They're like little street vendors,

like selling hot dogs, like in the ocean, just like, hey, hey, you there, you want one of these? They are, it's really, really astonishing when you see these videos of damselfish just swimming up like, hey, come with me. And then they lead them to, sure enough, a garden where there are dozens and dozens of sea urchins

that have moved in that the fish alone could not hope to possibly clean out themselves. That's kind of amazing. There's also lots of videos of more generous divers cracking open a sea urchin for nearby damselfish or any other fish to then swim over and gobble up, I guess, out of the kindness of their own hearts. Like, hey, thanks for the tip.

Here's a little bit of sea urchin for you to devour. I say that's generous, I guess. It's generous for the damselfish, less so for the sea urchin. This is not, this relationship between urchins and damselfish isn't like completely black and white good marine life versus bad marine life because sea urchins can be helpful to coral

by eating the algae that kind of grows on it. Because if that algae grows unchecked, it will begin to compete for nutrients and nourishment with the coral and it will stunt coral growth. There is, I forget where, somewhere in the Caribbean, there is this long-spined sea urchin population that got wiped out in the 1980s by some plague that marine biologists struggled to understand.

And their efforts to like grow those populations again were thwarted by this particular breed of damselfish, the three spotted damselfish whose predators were over hunted, over fished. And so this three spotted damselfish blew up and just like would not let this sea urchin population recover. But also sea urchins can breed and multiply really, really, really quickly and then overpopulate coral reefs and actually begin to damage those coral reefs. So like all things in nature, it's a question of balance. I just think it is just wonderful.

I love an industrious animal. Yeah. And I think it's easy to say like, oh, this animal exhibits behavior that reminds me of certain human behaviors. I love an industrious animal. Yeah. And I think it's easy to say like, oh, this animal exhibits behavior that reminds me of certain human behaviors. And I think that that's so charming. But this is like, there's so much best practices

put into place by these species of fish. It suggests like a purpose, you know? I think sometimes particularly with fish, it's easy to think that they're just kind of aimless. They're just kind of moving around without direction and that there's not a lot going on. Not these guys. But in this example, it's so clear

that they have identified a trade and a reason for existence and just like a real passion. I love that. And I love the divers just having these little fish bros. And those fish bros might have their own shrimp pets. It's so great. The ocean is so great.

I like you reminding me about the ocean because I'm gonna be honest, I'm somebody that grew up in the middle of the country with no access to ocean. Unlike me, Beach Bum, Griffin McElroy. You were definitely significantly closer than me. I mean, I guess, if you go up to anyone in Huntington and say how close are you to a beach,

they're not gonna say particularly close. But I do, I mean, it all started with Ethersie. Like I found out like, hey, there's a lot of really cool shit down there. Yeah, you just, you don't learn a lot about the ocean growing up. And it's nice to have a little reminder there's a lot of really cool shit down there. Yeah, you just, you don't learn a lot about the ocean growing up. And it's nice to have a little reminder there's a lot going on down there.

A lot of really interesting politics and castle intrigue happening. Do you wanna know what our friends at home are talking about? Yes. Julia says, when you realize a bug bite that's been bothering you for a while, doesn't itch anymore.

I got my first mosquito bite of the season last week in a really annoying place today. However, I realized that it wasn't there anymore. It's not something I actively think about once they're gone, so I've decided to share this small but welcome to wonder. Huh, that makes me wonder if a bug bite, can you still see it and it just doesn't itch anymore? Wow.

Because I feel like they stop itching when they disappear, but maybe there's this brief window. Where it's there. Where it's there. Where it's there but it doesn't itch. I don't know why your mind jumped to that. I've never, well, I've just never really tracked the experience of a bug bite departing. Yeah. And now I'm curious about it.

You never don't know what you got till it's gone. Or you do know what you got. And then I guess in Julie's case, when it's gone, it's a reason to celebrate and write in to your favorite podcast. Not a great song though. No, not as catchy. Edward says, my wife loves to save the paper bags

we get at farmer's markets or Brahms and stash them under the kitchen sink. I assume Brahms is a grocery store chain. I always forget that they're under there until I've sold the random Funko pop or toddler toys slash clothes on Facebook marketplace. And it always feels nice to deliver the buyer's new treasures in a solid and sturdy paper bag.

I'm so glad that somebody has found a use for bags under the sink. I feel like my instinct is always to put them there as if I were to use them again, and then what ends up happening is whenever we move, I end up pulling out. A lot of paper bags. Just a whole under the sinks worth of bags

that I have never found a purpose for. And I tell you, we used to be, I mean, I remember growing up and we had a bread box and behind the bread box is where our mom would store all the paper bags and it would accordion out to the point where we're talking about like two and a half good feet of just straight up paper bags piled in behind the bread box that would inevitably, you know,

we would have to get rid of when it got too crazy. But I feel like tote bags have really, really cornered the market. I know, now I have a closet full of tote bags that I don't use. That is true. I mean, we do use them sometimes. We do use them, particularly for travel.

But yeah, I've got a lot of bags in this house. I love a good paper bag. Hey, thank you so much for listening. Thank you to Bo-Ann and Augustus for these for our theme song, Money Won't Pay. You can find a link to that in the episode description. We got some new merch up in the merch store, including, I'm very excited about this,

a collaboration we've done with Good Store Tea. It is the flaming, not poisoning, raging tea of doom, a spicy caffeine-free tea. We have some heading here. So I'm very, very excited. You know me, I'm kind of a tea guy. We're real tea people. We've got a Plato's Rave 1000-piece puzzle

designed by Danielle Myjo Birch. Myjo Birch underscore art on Instagram, as well as some other stuff. That's all over at MacquarieMerch.com. And 10% of all merch proceeds this month will be donated to the Center for Reproductive Rights. We also have some Bim Bam and Taz live shows coming up. Tickets are on sale now for shows in Michigan,

Minnesota, and Ohio. We have some new dates coming soon. All the Taz shows are gonna be Taz versus. We're also going to be at Origins Game Fair in Columbus and DragonCon in Atlanta. Go to bit.ly slash Macroi Tours for ticket links and more information. Thank you so much for listening.

We hope you'll join us again next week. We'll be in higher spirits. I mean, we're definitely not talking about sports ever again, but we'll be in higher spirits. We're gonna get really into like nerd shit now, I think. Oh, wow. Did you make that decision for us? Because I'm kind of a cool person. I'm finally gonna give in to those sweet siren,

I'll surrender myself finally to nerd culture. Really, really, and you know I've been on the fence for a long time. Well, let me know how it is when you get there because I'm over here in Cool Kid Town. I know, and I'll be sad to leave you. I'll be sad to leave you. I like Cool Kid Town.

It's so cool over here. What is it like being a Cool Kid? What do Cool Kids do? Skateboards. All right. And... Perfect. Acai bowls. That's, thanks for listening. Bye. And... Asaibos.

That's... thanks for Hey! Marimo Hey! Wake no Hey! Marimo Hey! Wake no Hey! Marimo Hey!

Hey! Hey! Maximum Fun A workaround network of artist-owned shows. Supported directly by you.