Wonderful! - Wonderful! 396: Make a Notification to Enjoy Childlike Wonder

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

Griffin's favorite beachside structure that is also a metaphor! Rachel's favorite non-fire-starting decorations!Music: “Money Won’t Pay” by bo en and Augustus – https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoyaNative American Aid: https://nativepartnership.org/naa/

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hi, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is wonderful. Welcome to Wonderful. It is a podcast where we talk about things we like that's good that we are into. And iTunes doesn't know where to slot us. us in general information. Yeah, I'm curious about that, actually.

Romance sometimes. Because sometimes if the hosts are in love, they'll put it in romance. Even though, like, we don't always talk about that kind of stuff. It's like in the background and a lot of the reviews talk about it. But like, I don't know. Do you think this is a romantic show? iTunes seems to think so. Is there really a romance category?

Tim Cook seems to think so when he hands selected us for the romance category. I don't even think it's called iTunes. anymore. Yeah, Apple Podcasts. I should really, been doing this long enough. I think I should probably learn how some of this stuff works. Yeah, well, I feel like you all make it a point not to know too much about what people think about what you do. That's right, right on the button, right on the money. That's a young man's game. It is actually. It is, it's extremely a young man's game, a young man with thick and hearty nerves that have not been frayed by decades of exposure to the internet.

When we used to do Rose Buddies, I would really enjoy, because there was like a reality show podcast category. Yes. And we would. We did all right. We were competitive. We hung, man. Because, you know, there's only so many podcasts talking about The Bachelor.

And it was a hot topic for a while when that show, you know, was at its peak. But now Now they don't know where to put us We're fucking wild cards Typically breaking any news here We're the Joker, aren't we? We are tastemakers We are the Joker

I feel like you stepped You walked right over that Like the wild card in the deck But also like this agent of chaos Oh yeah What's a chaotic thing we've done recently? I don't know We did a whole episode

About whether or not we wanted to fuck Halloween candy That seemed like pretty that seemed a little bit on the chaotic side. I never agreed to that. You did actually explicitly agree to that. Don't make me out to seem like some sort of monster. It wasn't like you sat me down and said, Rachel, here's what I want to do. I want to do an episode where we talk about which Halloween candies are fuckable.

Yeah, sure. If we had had that conversation, I probably would have said no. But you told me, smash your pass was like a hot thing that the kids were talking about on TikTok. And so I was like, okay, well, I want to be relevant. I don't think, if we were to explicitly play that way, using the most literal definition of the terminology, I don't think there is a single Halloween candy that is, you know, now it's getting gross. Well, it depends how you want to get down. Circus peanuts. If you want to get down a certain way, they do make extra long tootsie rolls.

I wish you all could see the face. my wife is it's a sort of um spanky from the little rascals like a little shrug like i don't know yeah um do you have any small wonders i've got one if you want me to start so you can have a little bit of time i've talked about physical asia um it's still hitting so fucking right you guys it's still going so hard it's our olympics it is it is how the olympics should be from now on Um, I do, I do agree with that, uh, my biggest gripe with the Olympics, so many people. So many people. How am I supposed to get connected to all of these different people? Uh, and they don't all stand around and watch each other the whole time. They do not do that and talk about how my God, guys, just to really hone in for this small wonder. I want to just say the shit people say on physical Asia to one another in support of not only their own teammates, but like, their competitors as well. Yeah.

We were watching an episode yesterday where they were doing like a fun, like not for elimination, just a kind of fun challenge to see who can jump the highest. Yeah. Who can jump? And one dude who's like a parkour athlete from Australia was talking to one of the Korean competitors who actually won his season of Physical 100 and did a bunch of big high jumps in that season. And this guy says in this gorgeous Australian. accent, I love watching you jump, bro.

Fucking great. There's one part. And described it as, quote, floaty. Floody. There's one bit where there's like a duo challenge. And on the Korean team, there's like this huge weightlifter dude. And then this much smaller woman who I think is a wrestler. And he's feeling like really self-conscious.

Like, I don't know if I can handle this. And she just looks up at him and says, you're the strongest man under heaven. Oh, God. Jesus Christ, it sent a chill up my spine. It's so fucking good. Strongest man under heaven. That is as far as I can tell a title, like a tournament title that one can earn in the Korean weightlifting circuit. If that were in the poetry corner, like we would talk about that line for a few minutes because it is remarkable.

The earnestness, the face she gave him. Yeah. I immediately started to develop sort of like fan fiction romance between these two actual human being athletes. Just because of the delivery of this line. And that may have been a translation. No, I'm pretty sure. Did she say it in English? No, it was a translation.

She was referring, I think, to the title that he possessed, but also like, come on, so good. Good fucking hang this show. Great fucking hang this show. Really, really, really good stuff. Challenges go a little long, but now that they've eliminated some of the teams, it's really good. there was just a four-challenge relay race style thing that was fucking incredible must-see TV. Good stuff. Yeah.

Surely that was enough time. The problem is that sometimes we get so fired up talking about the other person in small. Well, I'm listening, right? Like the thing about being in a duo on a romance podcast, does you have to listen. Yes. So I was listening. I wasn't thinking about my own thing. No, why would you?

Now my ears are open, though. And they're hungry. You know what I really enjoyed? What? You all, you and your brothers on Macquarie Family Clubhouse brought back Master Jeff for a second year. And I watched that and I enjoyed it so much. Yes. I feel like the categories that you all impose.

So the pairings are random between Jeff's. Yes. And then the category is seemingly random too. And so when you are facing Jeffs off against each other, you are. focusing on that category as how you choose the best. Which is how you get huge upsets. Like Jeff Bukovinsky, our friend from Huntington, who had a really, really impressive run this year. Yeah, because his categories were like most approachable.

Most fun last name. Like really, really good stuff. Yeah. I really enjoyed that. Well, thank you, babe. Yeah, the season finale is coming up next week, next Tuesday. And I'll say it's the most high concept thing we've ever done. Yeah, I've been seeing some of the art that McKay is working on.

I'm very nervous and excited for that. So tune in next Tuesday. It's the Macroy family YouTube channel. Check that shit out. I love when you guys get high concepts. Oh, man, this is about as high as it gets. I go first this week. I don't even have my phone out or anything.

I'm just enjoying shooting the shit with my wife. Okay, here we go. You ready? Lighthouses. You paused and took a drink after you said that. like I was going to need a few minutes. No, I was just thirsty. I have a sore throat and I was thirsty and I thought you might give me like a little

like lighthouses. You know, okay, here's the thing. Tell me how far back your relationship with lighthouses goes. I have almost no relationship with lighthouses. Yeah, no, I have, it's not like I grew up by the seaside with the, you know, a trusty beacon shining into my bedroom, flashing periodically into my bedroom window, nothing like that. I guess I am struggling to find a feeling about lighthouses. I mean, I think they look neat.

I am talking, I guess, sort of about the icon of a lighthouse. The symbolism, the metaphor of light and actual real-ass lighthouses that are out there. I just think they're neat. I'm always kind of stoked to see one in real life. It doesn't happen that often. Sometimes when you're at, like, on a beach trip, you'll, like, you know, be driving home or something and see a lighthouse. Holy shit. That's awesome. Tybee Island notably has a lighthouse.

Tiber Island has a lighthouse. There was some, I think, down in Port-Port-A or one of those Texas beaches, South Padre maybe. I just, I also think they are hugely represented in a lot of, a lot of media, a lot of horror media. And I'll circle back on that later. I just think as a symbol, they are really, really cool and interesting. and I think there's something really human about having sort of a fascination with lighthouses and the way that they kind of came about because it's just a tall building with a light on top of it and you kind of you kind of get it like that's nice.

But somebody's got to be in there, right? No, most lighthouses are automated these days. They have been switched over to an automated system. That's what was powerful for me was thinking about like that lighthouse has like a tiny person that not necessarily Wow, that's interesting. But when you're far away, you imagine a tiny person that lives there, just like you're around. Yeah. And is always, like, in charge of, like, making sure ships don't crash.

It is a time-honored profession that I also want to talk about because that is also super interesting. So, lighthouses, y'all know, they serve as little warning beacons for ships. And I guess, low-flying planes to say, like, hey, there's some land coming up. So get ready for that. humans sort of backed into the invention of the lighthouse originally the kind of idea was they would light you know huge bonfires on the tops of hills at night mostly though less as a warning and more as like a navigational beacon to like help sailors find land not to say like hey sailors land ho fucking slow your roll or else you're going to crash upon the rocks and be lost to

to Poseidon's fury. They eventually, humans realize like, hey, if we put these big fires up on, you know, some raised platforms, you'd be able to see it from further away. And then you can kind of probably walk through the steps of Sidmeier's civilization that get you eventually to proper lighthouses. Ptolemy the second Philadelphus oversaw the construction of the lighthouse of Alexandria during his reign in Egypt in the third century BC. the lighthouse of Alexandria, it was roughly 100 meters tall.

It was the tallest man-made structure on the planet for centuries for a very long time. I wonder how they decided on the height. Like there must have been some kind of equation of like from this far away, it needs to be this tall to have the impact that we want it to have. I think when you make one that big that long ago, it's really just for flexing. And I mean, flex they did. It's one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

It did finally get knocked out of the running by an earthquake, a series of earthquakes, but the final one in 1303 AD really put the lighthouse of Alexandria right on its ass. But it was the third longest lasting wonder of the ancient world, so good on you. Obviously, the pyramid's still rep in the set, and I forget what the other one is. In the 18th century, AD, transatlantic trade started to really pop off, and lighthouse construction popped off in turn. and that's kind of when lighthouses stopped being these navigational beacons like, hey, there's land over here and instead became warnings of like, hey, there's land over here because people had figured out way, way, way, way easier ways to navigate than to look for a big fire way off in the distance.

That's where you get your, I don't know, sextants and astrolabes and stuff like that. I don't know if an astrolabe is actually a nautical navigation tool. I can't join you right now. No, you gave me a face. You give me a face sometimes when I realize, like, I am asking for help with something that you do not, like, possess. My instinct when you do things like that is to grab my phone, but then I think, like, no, I can just sit here.

Yeah, no. And I appreciate it. The body language, honestly, lets me know exactly what I need to know very quickly. One of the very most famous lighthouse architects was named Robert Stevenson. He's a Scottish, a Scottish fella, who engineered a bunch of innovations for C, washed lighthouses, which is the term for lighthouses that are not like on a peninsula or in any way connected to the mainland, but are out at sea, like way out at sea. That must be why Robert Lewis Stevenson threw that middle name in there. Maybe to really separate himself from the

famous lighthouse architect. Robert Stevenson's most famous lighthouse is the Bell Rock Lighthouse, which is off the coast of Angus, Scotland. It is 11 miles offshore and a hundred 115 feet tall and it hasn't needed any major structural work done to it in over 200 years 11 miles off shore fucking crazy right really sticks out there how do you do how do you do that it was built in oh i don't have the year that it was built but you know over 200 years ago how the fuck do you do that build a build a huge lighthouse on a relatively small rock 11 miles from shore is yeah because i mean here's the thing i know about ocean is that it erodes everything, you know, everything over time. So how do you build something and you think like this one's going to stick around them? There's certain like construction

techniques that specifically Robert Stevenson kind of spearheaded. Yeah. There's a certain type of rock like a compressed lime or something like that. I forget the exact name of it that proves like more absorbent and I guess less sort of erosion vulnerable than other stones. I I don't know. I don't know. And if I knew that shit, I would be a lighthouse engineer. And I'm, I simply am not. But Robert Stevenson was, and apparently a pretty fucking good one, because he made a bunch of lighthouses. A bunch of them are still kicking. That one, the Bell Rock Lighthouse is automated at this point. But can you imagine working that 11 miles from shore? Crazy. I remember reading a fact about the Bell Rock Lighthouse that you could see it like 35 miles inland. Like it's a huge fucking thing. I have never wanted a painting of something more. And that is the lighthouse keeper walking that 11 miles out to the lighthouse. Maybe like at dawn, you know. Yeah, probably not walking, though. Just a nice silhouette. Well, you know, I mean, in my painting, he's walking. On the water? Is it Jesus Christ? well there has to be a path from the shore to the lighthouse right this is what i'm saying my love

this is a sea a sea wash lighthouse there was a small rocky outcropping 11 miles from short that's what i'm saying how do you get all that stuff out there i assume there was like a path no no no no no this is fully fully fully surrounded by water 11 miles at least in every direction well except unless it is christ you know then it's like a bunch of different symbols all at once and i think art critics are going to see that and be like it seems like you're maybe biting a lot of a lot of flavor here. So lighthouse keepers are, in the past they were traditionally maintained by like families. It was a job passed down by families who, you know, lived in these coastal towns traditionally close to the lighthouses. Lighthouses were kept by lighthouse keepers

or lightkeepers or wikis because they would have to trim the wick of the lighthouse, you know, quite frequently, and I very, very much like that term. In the U.S., wikis were part of the United States Lighthouse Service, which got folded into the Coast Guard in 1939. So I don't know how much of the Coast Guard now is dedicated to the upkeep of our lighthouses, but I can't imagine someone else kind of took that role on. It seems like it makes sense for the Coast Guard to have it. That's what the lighthouses do. They guard, well, they guard you from the coast by warning you, hey, there's coast up ahead. Keep an eye out. Yeah, it's hard to imagine what kind of training and what the path would be to that career at this point. Yes, there isn't a lot of work in that

department at this point. Almost all of them, I mean, almost a majority of lighthouses that have been in service just simply aren't anymore like the light doesn't go the built the towers are still there and that's cool the ones that are still running are almost all like fully automated because like that is an incredibly hard and isolating yeah and I have to imagine pretty psychologically treacherous gig which brings me to my next point which is that lighthouses for that reason and a few others have been a staple in horror stories and films because of the isolation that they require of the people that keep them and also the kind of dread that they that they represent as warning symbols and you think about being out there in the middle of a dark and stormy night like it

doesn't get much scarier on a dark and stormy night than when you're a lighthouse keeper 11 miles from shore and so that's that is why it has been such an icon in horror there was obviously the lighthouse, which was the, I think Robert Eggers is the director of the guy made The Witch. I actually haven't seen that movie, but I really want to. It's got Robert Pattinson and Willem Defoe as two lighthouse keepers that slowly just kind of go mad. Wow.

Yeah, no. The clips and trailers I've seen make it look pretty like they're putting on a real, putting on a real performance. But then there's also like Shutter Island, annihilation, the fog. Uzumaki is one of my favorite Junji Ito stories, which is very. lighthouse focused. There's a game franchise called Bioshock that is very lighthouse heavy.

So when I say like lighthouses are iconic, I don't mean like in a popular kind of way, but more in like they represent a lot of different ideas and themes and oftentimes those ideas kind of conflict with each other. They are both a, you know, birdhouse in your soul, like this little

lighthouse themed nightlight that keeps you feeling safe, right? That's what the song is about. I think. That's a blue canary. No, it's a blue canary. It says something about a lighthouse. Doesn't he?

There is a lighthouse? There's something about a lighthouse in the song. Anyway, I'm mixing up way too much shit right now. But you see a lighthouse and you think, like, that's cool. And you have to imagine it brings some comfort to, you know, old sailors who see it. And they're like, oh, we're almost home. Or, hey, look out. That thing is, but it also represents, like, kind of this creepy towering sentinel overlooking the scene.

I find that really, really interesting, the way that it represents a lot of different things in a lot of different stories and, you know, throughout history. And there are not that many in operation now because, you know, we have Google Maps and shit. Like there's way easier ways to know where the land is. And so they are not as necessary anymore. But I still think they are, they are a very neat relic of our past. Yeah, there's something. It's like the, you know, the idea. of like somebody that lives in like a clock tower or you know like somebody that has this job that

is very high up in a very confined space yeah um and the kind of the like the the quiet uh responsibility of that yeah it's yeah it's yeah i have to imagine would would would be get kind of annoying after a minute don't you think the light would get a little annoying just like kind of going around and around it's like chill man when we turn on party lights for for our kids at night to dance to. After like 30 minutes of that, I'm like, I have a headache. I can't imagine that being my life and house and job and career and family legacy. Well, you know, Lighthouse families, hit us up. Hit us up. If you are a lighthouse family, I deeply, truly want to hear your story.

Wonderful podcast.com. Hit us up. Can I steal you away? Yes. Great. All right, my topic this week. Yes. This is the closest we've ever gotten, I think, to overlap. Oh, shit. My topic this week is also about a kind of light.

Okay. But it is a Christmas light. A Christmas light? Yes. Just one? Well, Christmas lights, plural. Okay. But I'm just saying in the category of light, this is...

No, yeah. I mean, it's definitely... If we're talking about a lighthouse... It's a high up light. And I'm talking about a Christmas light. We're both talking about lights. Yeah, for sure. We're both talking about lights, you know.

Absolutely. So. No, for sure. We're getting there. You seem like you're, you seem very defensive right now, which is strange because I'm not attacking. I'm saying that I have been waiting the whole time we've been doing this show for this remarkable moment of synergy where we both bring either the same or very closely the same topic without talking about it. Yeah. And I would say this is closer than maybe we've ever been.

Okay. I think you're, I think you are right. this is the closest we've been. I feel like the longer we do the show, the less likely it's going to become that we're good. Since we're having to really reach out there and really think about stuff we're into outside of our immediate reach. Well, here's the thing. We spend every day together and have overlapping interests.

It seems likely it's going to happen at some point. Yeah. So Christmas lights, I, yeah, hell yeah. Really, really excited about it. The thing I like specifically is when you. you are in a like a city or community and they put them out on the street yeah you know you start seeing the trees and or like landposts or whatever and that's when like the spirit really gets me yeah for sure kind of the the seasonal like splendor of it i really uh we also have a neighbor

that every year puts up kind of the same like light situation on their like landscape area it's really inspiring and as soon as that thing like automatically like clips on at night i'm like we're here We're here. It's holiday time, maybe. I do, we don't really live in a part of D.C. where, like, the streets are decorated for the holidays. And maybe D.C., maybe that's not like a big city thing. But in Huntington, very, very much so, Fourth Avenue, they would, like, decorate the entire street with lights and shit.

I think if you get out, like, closer to kind of the more traffic areas, they do. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, I bet. I mean, not in our, like, you know, neighborhood. No. but I know what you're talking about. Austin used to do that on, do you remember, like, Oh, for sure.

Sixth Street and then I think Second Street also. Man, I hope D.C. brings back that thing at the Nationals Barthard. I looked at Enchant. It's not coming this year either. God dang it, guys. They used to do a thing where the nationals played. It's in, like, Los Angeles and Vegas. Yeah.

For whatever reason, it has not come back. They would fill this entire baseball field with Christmas lights and this huge, like, Christmas light maze and display and ice skating, and it was so great. And stop doing it. bummer okay yeah anyway so i was like what how did that how did that start christmas lights christmas lights yeah yeah because right um back in the old and olden days it was like candles on a tree that's like a yule deal right well so here's what i found so 1841 queen victoria's husband albert um put up this like christmas tree and kind of introduce the world to this idea of a christmas tree

kind of saying like this is an important thing that we're going to do as royal people and then everybody was like all right like let's get to it i always assumed that the christmas tree started as a yule like a you know a yule tradition that you know when christmas was kind of like oh we'll take some of that oh thank you very much i think what like popularized it is what i'm talking about this idea that everybody is like decorating specifically for christmas and a very specific way. Dig it. In the U.S. President Franklin Pierce put one up at the White House in 1856. Who? Franklin Pierce. President, Franklin Pierce, never heard of him? No. Literally not once in my life. This is a Mandela Effect thing. I've never heard this man's name before. 1856. I mean, it would make sense that maybe you hadn't. Was he like one of like, where was he? Like 20, 21 somewhere in there? I don't know, bro. I mean, there's just like a huge chunk in the middle where I'm like, no fucking. way. I would say between... I think about him around like Martin Van Buren times, but I'm not 100%.

No him. If they've been included in a they might be Giants song, again, to circle back to the Giants for the second time this episode. You do not have to Google which president. No, I'm looking up Franklin Beers. Can I tell you something? Oh, I forgot his name until you just said it again. He's the 14th president. Okay. Serving from 1853 to 1857. Okay, cool. Yeah. So, yeah. Often regarded as one of the worst. U.S. history. Yikes. Y' oh.

Dang, pal. Get him. Okay. Because Lincoln was 16, right? And so he must have, 14, he must have really been responsible for some of the Civil War stuff. Probably, maybe.

You heard it here first. I don't know anything. I always get really nervous. I don't know anything. When you ask me any follow-up questions. Yeah, no, I know. Particularly when it's about, like our nation's history, which you know I'm not strong on.

It's not that I don't know this stuff. I did at some point. I just made the choice to not keep learning about this stuff. I got to look up Martin Van Buren and see if I was right about it. Martin Van Buren was eighth president. So pretty far before. Yeah. Okay.

Christmas trees. So by the 1870s fresh cut trees were being sold at Washington Square Park and ornaments at Macy's like the, the, That time was when people started saying, like, I want one of those. Yeah, sure. 1882, a person in New York City named Edward Hibbard Johnson hired Thomas Edison, then a 24-year-old inventor as a consultant for the Automatic Telegraph Company. Edison made a great impression.

I bet. And left to start his own company. And Edward Hibbert Johnson followed him. when Edison patented a light bulb in 1880, Johnson and others invested a total of 35,000 to form the Edison lamp company to sell the bulbs. Okay. And he was like, what if it was way smaller? And there were a thousand of them.

Mm-hmm. Okay, so back to the candles on the Christmas tree being obviously a fire hazard. at the Edison shop where they're selling these lamps and bulbs, this Johnson Fellow decided to set up a tree by the street window and hand-wired 80 red, white, and blue light bulbs and strung them together around it. So that was the first design, and it was hugely patriotic, it sounds like. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, other people may have done this,

although it's pretty unlikely. Light bulbs were pretty expensive back then, and electricity was not super common. Right. But he had the sense to call a reporter. Come look at my tree with these lights on it. Yeah. And then the reporter, like, wrote a story in the Detroit Post and Tribune

describing and saying, quote, one can hardly imagine anything prettier. This became an annual tradition for him. And he also went bigger. So by 1884, he had gone from 80 bulbs to 120 on the street. They must have been big ass bulbs too, right? Oh, for sure, for sure. So a string of 16 kind of flame-shaped bulbs that were kind of the size of shot glasses sold for $12, which is about $350 in today's money.

Nice, dude. So I can't imagine everybody was, like, running out the door. I also have to imagine that even phosphorescent and glassing cases, they may have been probably still pretty dangerous. Oh, yeah, for sure. I bet the heat that shit gave off was substantial. Yeah, my mom has a lot of stories about, like, her childhood, them using these, like, old Christmas lights and how just dangerous it was and how no child was allowed to go anywhere near it. Yeah, beautiful. Love it.

But by 1914, a 16-foot string cost $1.75. So, you know, you waited around for a little while. And then by the 1930s, colored bulbs and cones were everywhere. This is it. No matter what time period it is, if you just, if you're, if you wait, if you're not an early adopter, it's going to work out for you better. I know. I know.

It's like TVs, right? Yeah. And computers and everything. I would have been one of those suckers buying this fucking $350 turbo bulbs. I love gadgets and gizmos. You know I would have been up on it. And to celebrate my patriotic spirit and Christmas spirit too. Damn.

They would have snookered me but good. I know. So I was kind of curious. I was like, why does it make me feel so good to see these things? Yeah. Like is there some kind of psychology behind it? And obviously there's like the nostalgia. the connection to like pleasant memories like from your past but there was a study in the journal

of environmental psychology um that found that people who decorate for christmas early report an increase in happiness uh some of the reasons are that um the glow of christmas lights especially in dark winter months has been shown to boost the brain's production of happiness chemicals such as serotonin which makes sense right when everything gets gray and cold like a nice light. Oh, for sure. No, I definitely get it. And that does, it does hit right. I have to wonder how much sort of tail leading the dog there is of like, if you're the type of person who can get it together enough to decorate your Christmas stuff early, maybe you also have a preponderance for happiness that some of the rest of us might lack. Yeah. Or you are so hungry for it because you

need it so badly. That's another, yep, that's a possibility too. I got to admit, I'm feeling that way a little bit this year of like,

maybe we should go real early because I feel like I could use that boost. Another thing I saw in this article was that the twinkle of Christmas lights can spark a sense of childlike wonder, which has been shown to reduce stress and increase relaxation.

That sounds like it was written by the Christmas tree lights company. Yeah. That one sounds like that one song from Spirited where they talk about... Yeah, I was just thinking about that where they're like trying to push Christmas trees. We're bringing back Christmas. God dang, I love that fucking movie, man. I'm so stoked for it to come back.

But yeah, no, I will say like if you go, for example, like downtown and it's like all like prettied up with these lights, it does kind of allow you to look at something differently. Yeah. And kind of be like surprised and delighted. which is like a nice feeling when you are used to seeing things be a certain way. I also really like when you have a bunch of little lights, especially when they're kind of like obfuscated a bit by the branches of the tree,

you get like that like weird sort of corona effect around them. Yeah. That is like, I don't know. I love, I am not this kind of person at all, but like when they really go hard around like each branch, oh, it's incredible. Yeah. Hey, do you want to know what our friends at home are talking about? Yes. Nicole says, My Small Wonder is a living billboard.

I live in Massachusetts. Wait, yes, M.A. is Massachusetts. I needed a second. There's a lot of M1s. True. I live in Massachusetts, and local ice cream brand friendlies has a billboard made out of trimmed shrubs. I've seen Bush and Rock billboards showcasing companies, municipalities, and football teams. In an era where advertising is inescapable, these billboards are far less flashy, but far more pleasing to look at.

And Nicole also sent a picture. Can I see the picture? Yes. I don't have it pulled up. Do you want me to talk about Franklin Pierce for a while while you look for it? Absolutely not. Here it is. Oh, that's great.

So I would think of that as kind of like topiary a little bit. I was thinking like a traditional billboard you would see on a highway except it was covered in plants. And that was hard for me to figure out how that would work. This is very much like when you go to, you know, Magic Kingdom and there's like all that stuff, you know, etched into the. into the hedge and what have you. I always do really like that a lot. Kings Island did that shit up a whole bunch, and I always found it very charming.

Misty says, My Small Wonder is the Spot the Station app. It pops up a notification on my husband's phone when the International Space Station is in our area. We step outside and watch it pass overhead together and marvel at how far space exploration has come in our lifetime. Oh, wow. This one hit me wild because it sounded familiar to me,

but also mind-blowing at the same time. so is the idea that like your the app says like hey get out the telescope you can't just see it with your naked eye i'm assuming you might be able to it's it doesn't seem like it would be there like a blinking light or something how would you know no yeah there's probably blinking lights on it i mean i know that it's further away than an airplane but i'm picturing something similar closer than the moon you got me thanks to bowen and augustus for these four themes song, Money Won't Pay. You can find a link to that in our episode description. Thank you to Maximum Fun for having us on the network. It is an honor and there are so many amazing shows on this network that you should go and listen to and let them enrich your life and support them in turn. We have a very special live show coming up in December. It's December 6th in our hometown of Huntington, West Virginia. I say, are my hometown

of Huntington, West Virginia. Yeah, but this time when you say we have a live show coming up, that includes me. Yeah, it's going to be, so traditionally, Camel Nights has been sort of a Bim Bam focused thing. This is going to be a lot more kind of like, I don't know, McRoy Family Clubhouse style. I'm picturing like a real old timey

like, like feel good hour of family activities. Although it's probably more than an hour, huh? It'll be more than an hour almost certainly, yeah. It's packed to the seams. And it's going to be live and in person for the first time in a really, really long time at the Keith Albee in Huntington, West Virginia.

On December 6th, you can get tickets over at bit.ly slash candlelight to 2025. There's also virtual streaming tickets. I believe on December 19th, the video on demand will be available. You'll be able to watch it there. It really is like, I mean, obviously it's a holiday tradition for. us because we make the thing but like I don't know sharing that with everyone and having that be like part of a holiday part of the tapestry of holiday tradition like is truly a very very touching and special thing for us and and it's going to be great oh and all the proceeds go to benefit harmony

house which is an amazing organization we've worked with a lot in in huntington they work to end homelessness by providing housing and different support systems and they are a really, really great group that needs help now more than ever. So, again, bit.ly slash candle nights 2025 for tickets to that show. We got some merch in the merch store. Oh, shit. You know who's bad? The final Pam.

Yeah. I found the hard drive in my office closet from, it was called 2019 PC dump, and she was on there, and all the other data on the hard drive had been destroyed. It was just my fallout four save. And so to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Final Pam's creation on Monster Factory, me and Justin have made a new mini-series of Final Pam episodes. Yeah, the first one is up as of this recording. The second, I believe, may also be up.

Oh, yeah, by the time this comes out. So that's over at our YouTube channel, the Macroy family on YouTube. Check it totally out. We got merch too. Some Pam-themed merch as well over at Macquarmerch.com. Very fun. That's it. Thank you so much for listening.

We'll be back with the new episode next week. so we'll see you then set your set a reminder you always forget you all not you the listener you always forget it um make a notification to uh enjoy childlike wonder make a notification to enjoy childlike wonder today Hey, working on money won't Hey, working on money won't Yeah, working on

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