Wonderful! - Wonderful! Ep. 22: A Mouthful of Secrets

Episode Date: February 14, 2018

Rachel's favorite symbolic tiger! Griffin's favorite Olympic event! Rachel's favorite romantic origin story! Griffin's favorite adventures! Music: "Money Won't Pay" by bo en and Augustus - https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoya MaxFunDrive ends on March 29, 2024! Support our show now by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join.

🎵 Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hello, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is Wonderful. Why did I just sound so low energy? Should we take it again? I'm feeling very psyched out of my mind right now, actually. Really, Jai's.

I just, the past few episodes we've been able to record when our son wasn't sleeping. Oh, that's why I forgot why I was low energy. And then you said that and I was like, oh, yeah. And I'm just acutely aware of our proximity to him right now. No, it's great. Being a parent is great. And we love our son very much. It's very much an energy sieve, kind of.

It's just like a big pot that we pour the energy into. I'm speaking to my muted tone specifically. But I am psyched. Is there a way that we can get that energy across without yelling? Because that's sort of been my go-to move being a podcaster for the last decade. Yeah, that's true. You do a lot of yelling. You do some clapping.

I do a lot of clapping. So we could do like, is there an equivalent of an emoji? I guess that is how poets do it. We could punch the microphone. That could be fun. So we could tell like a funny joke and be like, whoop, there it is. I didn't punch it very hard. Actually, that's the hardest I can punch, which I'm sure our listeners are happy about

because otherwise it would have sounded bad. Hey Griffin, guess what? What's that? It's Valentine's Day. It is V-Day and we're all very excited about the love and the candy and the maybe kissing today. Who knows? Yeah. About the love and the candy and the maybe kissing today. Who knows? Yeah, I mean, really every other day.

You can still kiss, but, you know, think twice. I just think twice. Yeah, you don't know what's in there. In the mouth? Yeah, the mouth is a little secret cave, isn't it? A little cave of secrets. What's in there? A genie's lamp?

Maybe. I don't want to kiss that. Get that weird secrets. What's in there? A genie's lamp? Maybe. I don't want to kiss that. Get that weird metal taste in my mouth. Who knows where that's been? Before we started recording, I told Griffin, hey, let's tighten up the intro a little bit. Well, you know, this is like a minute and a half. This is good. Anyway, what's our first thing?

You like that? Now, how tight is that? Tight as my sealed lips full of who knows what. Jelly beans, maybe. Should I start with my sweet thing or my regular thing? So we have weirdly almost a themed episode for you all, except it's like a box of nerds with two flavors in it, because I think we're going to do... Let's start with our Olympics things.

Okay. My Olympics thing is the tiger mascot of this year's Olympic, Suho Rang. Suho Rang. This is specific. Obviously, this is a specific to Pyeongchang mascot, right? They change this out every year. Yeah. And the thing that's unique, especially unique this year, I don't know if you've noticed in the awards ceremony, but they're not giving out flowers. the awards ceremony, but they're not giving out flowers. This sucks. Yes. No, the tiger is amazing.

But the fact that there's actually now a huge delay between the medal ceremony and the events in conclusion. Oh, that's not even what I'm talking about. Right. I didn't mean to say that it sucks. Suhurang is beautiful and golden and pure. Yes. I just wish they would give them the medals like right then. But the tiger is great.

And I love the tiger. Here's what I'll tell you that's neat about the tiger. It's full of gold medals. So usually they give out flowers. Right. This year, in order to reduce their environmental footprint, they're giving out little tiger guys. Well, what's the tiger guys made out of? Good.

Old flowers. Good question, Andy Rooney. So the reason I like it, you may want to look this up i discovered it uh because there's footage of this mascot that has a very large head i'm watching it right now independent of you telling me about it uh the mascot has a very large tiger head and there's great footage online of it getting stuck in the door and the tiger assistant having to push it through the door. The tiger assistant, which is the most amazing job. Yeah, I was actually in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Oh, what did you do? Well, I pushed a tiger's big, big head. You need to understand you are speaking my language. This is absolutely my jam. Any footage of mascots having, I will call it benignign non-dangerous trouble is my shit there is some sort of event that either nintendo or the pokemon company puts on at like a theme park or something like that where they have a bunch of dancing pikachu come out to music and there's this incredible video of one of the pikachu close to the front of the cluster um falling over which

is not good but they immediately start to get back up. But immediately two men rush on stage who work for like the company and they scoop up Pikachu by the armpits and just race it off stage while the other Pikachu just keep on dancing. It's so good. This video is fucking incredible. This tiger just can't get it together. So just to tell you a little bit about the tiger, cause I don't,

I don't want to make light of Suho ring. Even though that is a very funny video it's a very good it's not it's just funny it's pure so suho in korean means protection and rang uh which according to the official olympics website has a double meaning so rang comes from the middle letter of horangi which is the Korean word for tiger, and also the last letter of a traditional folk song of the Gyeongwon province where the games are being held. That's a very good, they really split the uprights with this name, it sounds like. By the way, sorry, probably for butchering the pronunciation.

No, I'm sorry. The tiger is still seen as a symbol of economic strength representing the urban and aggressively successful modern south korean economy as asian society has put suing is a very good little tiger he's a good tiger can you remember any of the other mascots oh geez there was so she had a bear i think and then there was the year where it was the ski pole. Yeah. Wait, is that real? Called Poli. Now, hold on.

And weirdly, that was for the Summer Olympics. Yeah. It was like a promotional effort to get you psyched for the next Winter Olympics. And then the Summer Olympics, there was... Well, there was the year they just had Wilson from Castaway. Yeah. And it actually come out eight years prior. But, you know, you know how the Olympics work.

Like, they plan these things out so far in advance that, you know, Castaway featuring Tom Hanks was still at the tip of everyone's mouth. Yeah. And then there was the year two where it was Glovey. I think we're actually getting a little close to one that actually might have existed. Can I look at a list of Olympic mascots real quick? Yeah, please. Just to see if there's any good ones. I'm trying to come up with them, and it is just not funny.

There were multiple animals for Sochi 2014. London had, I believe, some sort of alien monster named Windlock. Turin 2006 is just like a snowball in an ice cube, I believe, and that's very cool. What's the best one, though? Probably Atlanta 1996. I remember this motherfucker. He had his own Super Nintendo video game. His name was Izzy.

You remember this dude? Well, that's not a very good picture of Izzy. I don't know what I'm looking at. I don't know. There is a good picture of Izzy. Do you remember this dude? Do you remember this dude do you remember this dude i remember this dude still like what is he though yeah i think he's i mean he's carrying the olympic torch and that's all you need to know about him he's got big shoes

on and he's blue and he's just a lot of good stuff going on there thank you izzy thank you internet for reminding me of izzy's existence. Yeah, so obviously plenty of great things to talk about with the Olympics. I chose the mascot. It's a very good mascot. I want to talk about, and please don't turn off the episode immediately, I want to talk about curling. And I want to talk about it in a purely unironic way, because I think it's a really cool sport.

But I think that a lot of people, I think it's kind of cool sport but i think that a lot of people i think it's kind of like weirdly positioned as kind of a gag for a lot of folks right because every other sport in the winter olympics involves dope jumps and hot stunts and cool nights also like the peak physical condition curling required okay but um i think curling is a really really cool game and i think it's a really dope addition to the olympic roster we just watched the luge the women's single luge finals and it was like i need to come down after that those women were going extremely fast down a very dangerous hill 75 miles an hour i'd like to watch some people slide stones across 150 feet of ice that sounds really good to me my goal here is to talk about curling for five minutes.

And by the end of it, maybe you will be interested in curling, listener at home. And Rachel, I think you think curling is interesting, but I don't think you are as bought in as I am. I'm into it. I would love to participate in it. It looks like a fun thing to play. It does look fucking fun. It's also arguably the most inaccessible sport imaginable.

Just behind like high lie. I don't know how I go play curling. If I wanted to curl, I would not know sport imaginable. Just behind like Highline. I don't know how I go play curling. If I wanted to curl, I would not know where to go. I don't think so. So I'm going to skip over all this shit about the history of the game. So like you look at curling and here's all you need to know. Everybody's shooting their stones through these 40 pound granite stones down the ice. It's 150 feet long towards a target, which is called the the house which i think is 12 feet in the in in diameter and the point of the game is to get your stones closest to the center of the target

a little bullseye it's like a little bullseye it's four concentric rings and each stone that you have closer to the center of that target uh then your opponent's closest stone you get one point each the zones aren't worth multiple points it's just each stone you have closer than your opponent's closest stone you get one point each the zones aren't worth multiple points it's just each stone you have closer than your opponent's stone is one point each so like if you have two stones two inches away and then your opponent has one three inches away those two stones each get you a point that's all it is it's kind of like bocce it's a lot like bocce it's a lot like um i mean it's a lot like a lot of games like shuffleboard or table shuffleboard um there there there are a lot of sort of similarities between all of these games, except this one takes place on a football field of ice. And so it's a game all about positioning, right?

You want to throw your stones, get it closer to the center than your opponent, while also like knocking your opponent's stones away and placing defensive stones that they can't necessarily get to. And of course, to aid in that goal, you have sweepers. Typically, a team, a curling team is four people, one person who shoots the stone down the ice, one and then two sweepers who have their little brooms and their special, usually Teflon-heeled shoes that they heely down the ice in, making a path. And whenever they sweep the ice, all they're doing is sort of smoothing it out a bit which reduces the spin that is on the the uh the stone which they can use to like curve around and get around defensive stones and stuff but it also makes it go a little bit faster or rather it slows its just wait it it keeps it from slowing

down as fast you can get a little bit of extra distance by sweeping if there's a little tiny zamboni that does that rink where the curling happens. Yeah, there is. I watched a whole video about getting – so this sport is, like, huge in Canada. And so I watched, like, a Canadian – I watched an episode of How It's Made about how curling stones are made. And then I watched one about how to set up your own curling rink at home. It was cost prohibitive. But so, yeah, you have two sweepers.

And then you have, like, one person kind of calling of calling out like when to sweep and stuff like that. And that sweeping, like it may look silly and you may wonder, like, are they really making that big a difference? But really, you know, 150 or so feet away on the exact right millimeter from the exact right angle with the exact right momentum that's going to bump that stone where you need it to go. And sometimes you're trying to bump that stone into another stone on its exact right millimeter at its exact right angle. Like when you start factoring in double shots and chain shots, like it's bonkers how much

math goes into this. And that's why the sweepers are there to kind of help make these adjustments. Obviously, if you touch the stone, you throw it out. I'm going to ask a question that you probably don't know the answer to, but do they take turns? Does a team take turns? Like I'm going to toss it down the ice

and then next you're going to toss it down the ice? I don't know. I don't know. Because I actually focused on, and what I really wanted to talk about was mixed doubles, which a new uh sport in the olympics this year that is so dope and i think actually a really fun thing to watch even if you don't give a shit about curling um so i don't i don't know about that but the teams do take turns shooting first uh and whoever scored last shoots first um and that is designed to give the player who didn't score the team that didn't

score last the last shot. And they call that the hammer because you think about it like you spend however many throws getting the field set up. And then really that last stone is the one that can decide it all because you get one good throw, you can change the whole field and get your stone closer to the center. It doesn't matter if your opponent has like all of their stones on the ice, you get yours in there in the middle, and they don't get anything and you get the point um there's a lot of like other mechanics and stuff like that that i i won't necessarily go into what i do want to talk about is mixed doubles curling it's going on right now i'm talking about uh i've watched a couple games now of the hamilton siblings there's a brother and sister in this mixed doubles uh event for the usa and they're doing pretty dope. I haven't, I'm not all caught up,

so please don't spoil it if you know whether or not they lost. Say what it is, though. Here's how it works. Instead of a team of four, it's just a team of two. And instead of having these specialized roles, you have to do everything. So if you are the shooter,

you will have to then immediately stand up, grab a fucking broom, and get to work. That's really cool. Another cool thing is that in mixed doubles, each team gets five stones in each end, which is what they call a round, as opposed to eight, I believe, in a regular game. And also each game lasts eight ends and not 10.

So we're talking about 40 stones thrown per team instead of 80. So it is half the length, is very very good the coolest thing about it is before each round uh each team already has one stone placed on the field the team that shoots first has one kind of in the center of the ice playing like defensively and then the team that throws last the team with the hammer has one uh on the target like right uh right behind the middle of the target and so the the team that shoots first typically there's a lot of things about curling that is is kind of boring in uh and it used to be much more boring because there used to be a lot of rules uh they rather they have enacted new rules that are like you can't just play defensively

the whole game because games lasted forever and nobody ever scored and it was extremely boring now the team that shoots first they have like stuff on the field they have to they're worried about that first shot that you take can't just be like well i'm gonna maybe put it right it's like well i need to get it right where i need it to go each team also has a power play one per game where they can move the stones kind of to the side oh interesting this is all stuff exclusive to this new mode and And so basically the... What was the defense thing I saw? Remember we were watching and it seemed like the other team could like, once it passed a certain point, they could... Yeah, once it passes, I believe what's called the T-line in the house at the end where the target is, you can then all your opponents can sweep to try to make your stones go a little bit further.

Yeah, I thought that was cool. Yeah, it's cool. Like there's a lot of really cool stuff. But anyway, all this to say, like like i think it's just a really interesting game it's often it's not often called this but it has been called like the chess on ice because i think there's actually a lot that goes on and you see this play out anytime you watch a game and again these mixed doubles games are really really fun to watch where you're not just throwing your stone down the ice trying to knock one of your opponent's stones out of the way and getting your stones closer

to the center. You also, on top of all that stuff, have to prevent yourself on the very next turn from getting knocked away and letting your opponent... It's all about creating these advantageous, defensible positions. And that is so interesting to me, because then there are things that factor in. There's a term called freezing, where you try to throw your stone and have it land literally an eyelash away from another stone. And if you do that, you think about it like physics wise, stone hits that stone, it's just going to transfer all that kinetic energy into the stone it's up against, and it won't move. So you do that, you freeze it, and it doesn't move when you hit it. There's like so much to this game that is like really really cool and it takes you just one game to like learn how it all works and

then it is like it's like weirdly an olympic sport that does move in slow motion but it doesn't reduce like the tension of it at all um yeah i just think it's really i think it's really cool and i think it's exciting too at times, watching somebody on their very last hammer knock four of their opponent's stones away and save the round and save the game. It's really, really exciting. That's curling. Go watch it.

Yeah. I don't know. It might be over at this point. I don't know. Hey, can I steal you right away? Oh, I came up with a stinger this week. You want to hear it? Yes, please.

This is the transition they use in home improvement when they're changing. Yes. I loved. Are you? We've been married for a while. Yeah. Are you open to criticism? Because I have none.

It was perfect. Oh, jeez, Griffin. It was really good. How about this Jumbotron? It is for Jack, and it's from Hannah, who says, Hey, Bug, it's Han. Probably Han. Let me start over.

Hey, Bug, it's Han. I got one. That is so choice to me uh happy late slash early valentine's day how about fucking square on it how about right on the nose of the day of cupid's great day valentine's day see i'm gonna i'm getting oh you're hype again i'm getting a little hype it's just like people doubted our ability to just thread the needle on this one. Did they? Did they doubt it? There will definitely be a person

next week like, happy right on Valentine's Day. Oops, no. Anyway, happy early slash late Valentine's Day. Happy anniversary-ish and congrats on finishing college. I can't wait to see what adventures the next chapter brings. If I'm away in Mexico when you get this, know that I really miss you and wish I was there for all these big days. I love you a lot.

Break your leg at your solo show. And that was meant for today, Valentine's Day, the loving and kissing day. So, bazinga. You really celebrate us doing a very basic administrative task well yeah uh this message is for maize and it's from mg who says happy anniversary slash 17th bunny this time last year we were thousands of miles apart but today i'm so lucky i get to see you every day you're so sweet kind and you have a cute butt you are quite honestly the funniest person i've ever met and you make this life such a joy yes we can get a rabbit love

your sweet bun p.s what that dick do wow it's really in there it took a tonal shift there at the end a little bit because there's a lot of sort of rabbit talk, a lot of sort of, I guess they did sort of set us up with the cute butt line, which seemed innocuous enough, but really, little did we know, it was laying the groundwork for a great sort of dick shout out there. I think it's the tone in which you approach that message. I think if you had approached it really like from the very beginning, knowing you were going to say what that dick do. Yeah, it was actually sent in by m9 channel on i'm hal loveland i'm danielle ratford i am michael eagle and we are the hosts of tights and fights maximum funds newest podcast dedicated to all things wrestling we'll be talking about sasha banks the women's Revolution, Sasha Banks, the brand split, and Sasha Banks' wigs. And we'll also be talking about wrestler fashion.

Some wrestlers wear too many clothes. Some wrestlers don't wear enough clothes at all. And I'll be doing impressions of all your favorite wrestlers. New episodes Thursdays on Maximum Fun or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, yeah. Dig it. Dice and Bites. Podcast. Dice and Bites.

Can you tell me your second thing? Yeah. Okay, so this is the part of the show where I'm going to get uncomfortable. This is the Valentine's part. So I told Griffin we should each do a thing that we're excited about that is Oh, I already had the idea. That is intimate to us. I mean, I definitely already had this one in the quiver. Because Rachel

and I, wow. Because Griffin and I are a partnership, I let him know that this was something I was planning. Because then I would have been like, my favorite Pokemon is Ditto, because he's all the Pokemon, technically. I'd be like, here's five minutes on why I love Griffin.

Yeah. I mean, you can also appreciate Ditto. He's all the Pokemon, if you think about it. He can transform into any Pokemon. I don't know anything you're saying right now. I mean, Ditto, as something that can replicate is something i know because back in the day the ditto machine used to be like the copy machine you familiar uh no okay it's a little before your time okay they're a little purple like carbon sheets that would

okay so that's our episode it was the d Ditto Machine and then the Pokemon Ditto. Those were our last two. Now let's talk about our love. Okay. So this is going to be hard to do without sounding like a little egotistical. So I'm going to do my best. Great.

So I've mentioned this before if you've been following our show for a while that Griffin and I, when we first started getting to know each other, we had a lot of email correspondence. Are you going to read our private emails? No. Okay.

But it's the thing I wanted to talk about this week. Oh, okay. I would say about once a year I go back and I read these. And I do that because I would say about a month into our emails, we started to really kind of ask each other probing questions. I think maybe we should set it up a little bit. Because I don't know actually how much we've talked about this. But Rachel and I met when I was in town for South by Southwest when I was living in Chicago with kind of plans that I might move down here. And then we met and I was like, I should move down here.

And then we met and I was like, I should move down here. And then we started just emailing each other because we kind of hit it off and then continued to email for the next, what, like four months until I moved down here. And we basically just started dating immediately. So, yeah, we emailed. We started at the end of March and continued all the way up until July when Griffin moved here. And the first like half dozen emails were just quizzes from Cosmo and 17 magazine. I took your lead on that one. Cause you mentioned like,

Oh, I'm into quizzes. And I was like, I don't think that's what I said. You said like, I'm a real quiz head. I'm pretty sure. Um,

we were talking on Facebook chat. It was after my birthday and I came home, um, from drinks with friends, just a little buzzy. And I just sent Griffin a little Facebook chat and we started chatting. It can happen, folks. With a one right poke and you could have a podcast with your significant other one day. Well, this is what I noticed. So at a certain point, mainly me, transitioned our emails into like more probing

questions. So the first question I asked was, what are your favorite or what are your five fantasy guests at a dinner party? Oh, boy. Living or dead? How many of these have been proven to be sort of problematic scoundrels in the last couple of years? I wonder. Man, I don't remember all of them, but I think most of them are still pretty good. Okay. I think you- Bo Bice was on the list. Bo Bice was not on the list. And I'm sorry for referencing Bo Bice again. And so what I realized is what we were doing was we were kind of doing our podcast. Because a lot of the stuff we asked each other, then I asked you, name one book, one movie, one song, and one one person in one place

that shaped who you are today that's literally our podcast yeah uh and then i think i can what were they the questions um one book i was definitely reading heartbreaking work of staggered genius at the time one movie groundhog day cast Okay. One song. Glory from Rent. One person. Bobice. Bobice. And one place. Bobice's house.

My favorite hang spot. No, we don't need to get into all the private deets. Give us something. Let us keep something. I just, I wanted to read out some of these questions because I think they're really good when you're getting to know somebody. Yeah. So list out five different careers you considered when you were growing up. Name three.

Did I drop on you that I was thinking of becoming a youth minister back then? Yes, you did. Whoa, that's a heavy one to sort of. Yeah. I was a man of the cloth until I wasn't. And then here's a kind of a cute little turn here. So I said, name three to five character traits that really annoy you. Uh-oh.

And then you wrote me an email that was just like, here are all the things I hate. And then because you're Griffin McElroy, you turned it back on me and said, name three to five character traits in people that really delight you. He was like, that was kind of a bummer to write. So I was like, oh, this guy is so positive. He's just so positive all the time. Okay, here's one that I really put some time into. Okay. Pick the songs that you would choose for the following five situations.

One, you're super angry and going on an angry walk to feel angry. I got to know what I put for that one because it's got to be bad. I think it was actually LCD sound system. Oh, okay. It was just like a jam. You're getting ready to go to a party that promises free jello shots and dancing and you want to get hype. I definitely said shots. Just say it was 2000.

No, Griffin, you didn't. But it wasn't shots. Let's take it to the tapes, Mo. Just while you look, here's the other thing. So this is a little trap I laid for Griffin. You have a partner over and you want things to take a romantic turn. Oh, Jesus. And he was like, there is no good way I can answer that.

You're driving through your hometown feeling nostalgic and you're having a party and you're queuing up the last song of the night. Okay. So I actually have the answers. a party and you're queuing up the last song of the night okay so i actually have the answers it's a angry song was losing my edge by lcd sound system uh getting ready to go party it was play your part part one by girl talk okay now we're talking uh you have a lady over and you want things to take a moment baby it was from the morning by Nick Drake. Oh, boy. You're driving through a hometown feeling nostalgic. I put Blue Fish by Gary Jules.

That's a good one. And then you're having a party and you're queuing up the last song of the night. Of course, Send Me on My Way by Rested Root. So those are really good questions. That's a good question. Griffin responded with his own five songs. You're driving with the windows down. You're about to give a big presentation at work. You need to get psyched. You're about bossy by Khalees.

Oh my God, that song's so fun. Yeah. Something rad just happened and you're doing a brief celebration dance. You're feeling homesick. One headlight by the wallflowers. Okay, so here's the thing with one headlight. When I was a teen, I had the earliest curfew of any of my friends. And so often I would be leaving my friend's house before anybody else. And I would have the radio on, on my drive home thinking about all the things I was missing. So one headlight was a good one. And then you're kicking off or returning home from a long road trip yeah so these were so good like i feel like i i you i think you return to these a little bit

more frequently than i do although i've reread this whole thread many times and they really were like what what is so like great to me about like looking back on these is this air of we got to keep this innocuous but now that we are married and we look back it was so not like these things uh are maybe i worry to some people listening to this it may sound like a little cringy because there is like this thing that we are doing that's kind of dancing around just just being direct and kind of you know flirting in the more traditional sense here's the thing we only like we met and spent maybe three or four days together. So it felt inappropriate to act as if we had some kind of romance brewing. Well, I mean, not that that's the case for everybody, but for us, that was the case.

Yeah, like, we were always in a group of friends. We didn't have many conversations, like, one-on-one. So it just kind of felt like, well, I really genuinely want to know more about this person. I can't confidently say that, you know, we're supposed to be together at this point. But then I found out that your favorite song was One Head Light by the Wallflowers. This is my favorite song. It says right here. It's my favorite song of all time.

I listen to it every moment of every day. And I have a big wallflowers fathead hanging on every room of my house well griffin nothing lasts forever i really recommend i know that most relationships now don't lend themselves to correspondence like this uh but it was a really great way to get to know griffin and get excited about him before he moved here and it kind of i don't know it propelled us forward so that when he moved here, I already knew like kind of who he was and we were able to just kind of be excited about each other. Yeah, not necessarily what my favorite songs were, but like I think in reading the things

that you wrote to me, I learned a lot more important shit about you than like what your favorite food is. lot more important shit about you than like Griffin was always very sincere and very funny. And I think really tried to, I don't know, keep his correspondence with me, like interesting. And so I knew when I met him, like there weren't as many pitfalls because I kind of felt like I knew how his brain worked a little bit. I was uncomfortable about the idea of reading these at first, but we reading these but you know talking about them i know because they were extremely vulnerable yeah um but it was nice to hear you talk about um my favorite thing is traveling with rachel um so like this is again like this this is personal, but like, I'm generally a pretty anxious person sometimes to like a, like paralytic degree where I just don't want to mess with it a lot of the time.

It's so weird to me when you say that. And I realize that about you now, but that is not the impression I got from you. When I met you? Yeah yeah i was trying to impress you with all the cool music that i liked um and i'm also like i i have never been uh up to a certain point like particularly adventurous right uh that said since i met rachel like one of my biggest interests one of my like biggest calling it a passion sounds like so shitty um like middle-aged revelation oh my passion is traveling but like i really really do love traveling it's something that i think about and like want to do uh all the time which i think deserves like no small amount of praise for rachel because it used to be something that i actively like did not want to do was kind of scared of

doing. So like, a little bit of history, Rachel, I have been lucky enough to take some pretty cool trips. We've gone to Mexico together a couple times. We've gone to we went to Japan on our honeymoon, which is the best two weeks of my life, not even close. We got to go to Hong Kong, and have gone on a bunch of different sort of adventures across this great nation of ours while mostly while doing like tours and stuff like that. And it's during those trips that I have acquired, like all of the best memories I have of my life, like most of my favorite memories from my life, obviously having Henry ranks up there pretty good.

Um, and the time I won the big football game with the big touchdown in high school. Um, our listeners maybe don't know. Yeah. So it was the night of the big game. Homecoming sort of a Jack.

Well, I used to be, he's a real humble. No, wait, hold on. Wait, I wasn't.

And that's why it was so wild when I caught the big touchdown. Yeah. The big kickoff return. I caught the pass. Did you have like a nickname when you were playing on the football team? Touchdown Tim. Tim. Touchdown Tim.

Touch. Touchdown. Was there not? Gridiron Griffin might have been good, but they just what they said, touchdown Tim. And it stuck. No. Okay. Okay. No, okay. Like, seriously, like, we, one time we went to a beach in Mexico and, like, stayed at, like, a nice place directly, walk up to the beach and did absolutely nothing in this,

like, idyllic paradise for a whole week. That was pretty sick. We went to Tokyo and spent, spent like a few days there and just got lost and ate some of the best food i've ever eaten in my whole life and then we went to hakone and kyoto and just like uh went to some of the most beautiful places i've ever seen on earth and then we just got to walk around hong kong for hours and hours and hours just going in every place that sort of piqued our interest that would have been cool if you'd gone with anybody that's not true no no no i would not have gone that's the point i'm trying to get across like this was not something i i this wasn't not only

was this not an interest it was a fear of mine because i just i i I, I didn't, I didn't, I was worried about everything that could go wrong if I travel, right? Because traveling is like laborious. There's certain elements to it that are, that make it not really for everybody. And it wasn't for me. And being with you has made me a more adventurous person in general. And in like preparing for this, like I couldn't really put my finger on why that is. But I think it's that like you kind of made me realize how like good things in the world can be. And that sort of appetite to find those things kind of took took shape. And it made me kind of actively want to get out there and and find them. kind of actively want to get out there and and find them um and it fortunately like you are also very into traveling because i think there's a lot of people out there who wouldn't sort of be into that and for a few years there we kind of like fostered that in each other i think that's so interesting to me because when i think about who is the person with the greater appetite for like new experiences it's you like in head, that's who you are.

So it's interesting to me to hear you say that I've motivated that in you because I feel like my personality tends to be more cautious. But you didn't know me before you knew me. I'm being 100% serious. I lived with Travis for a year in Batavia, Ohio. And I made some good friends in Cincinnati, essentially, and had a good time. But I also didn't leave the house for a week at a time. I didn't do anything. Yeah, I think back on that year, and I can't really and I hope that you listening at home

do not take this to mean that like, I judge that year of my life or I judge people who are not adventurous or because of whatever they have, you know, going on, like can't be. That is not what I'm saying. I am just saying that like you this was like a facet of my personality that changed and then became a very important person, facet of my first personality. And then only existed because like you, you, I, we met.

Um, and the best thing about it is that like, it's not that I've just gotten to have all these cool experiences. It's that we've got to have them like together. And that like my favorite memories from my time on this earth are, like, ours. And I think that that is bigger than, like, just traveling. Whatever it is, like, that is such, I think, an important part of a relationship. And knowing that, like, one day we will get to travel with Henry and make those memories with all three of us is so, like, that's it, right?

Like, that's what the hope is for, for family, I think. And like, I'm, I'm just really excited that we already got to have that sort of experience together and know like how cool it's going to be when we get Henry up in it. See, I thought, I thought this was gonna take a different turn. I thought you're gonna be like, you're a good travel buddy, because you don't take a super long time to get ready. No. Would that have been romantic? No. No, but it would also, I mean, it would be a nice thing.

It is true. You get ready very, very, very quickly. It's pretty sick. But like, that's not, you know, that Amy. Yeah. No, I think I, I appreciate you saying that right before Griffin and I started dating, I went to Paris to visit my friend. And I remember emailing Griffin. We were exchanging emails about that and saying like, hey, I'm going I went to Paris to visit my friend. And I remember emailing Griffin,

we were exchanging emails about that and saying like, Hey, I'm going to fly to Paris to see this friend I haven't seen in four years and stay with her for a week. And it probably made me sound like super adventurous, but that was, that was the first time I'd ever done like done that, like flown somewhere solo. Um, and first time I'd ever been to france uh and before i met griffin literally i'd just been to canada and that's great no judgment france and italy that's still a lot i'd never left the country when i met yeah anyway that's my anyway yeah no that's i i also very much like traveling with you because you're um you're like super fun to travel with you're like maybe the most excitable person i know which is a wonderful thing when you're doing something

new thank you do you want to hear what our friends at home have to say in the home version of our podcast yes natalie says something i think is wonderful is line dancing i recently moved to arizona for graduate school and was introduced to line dancing from my midwestern friend for her birthday this week we went to a line dancing class that was utterly delightful. There's something so satisfying about starting a song, not knowing a single step, and by the end, being able to stomp and twirl along in sync with everyone on the dance floor. Because the moves are so simple and because everyone is doing it with you, it's hard to feel self-conscious about your dancing ability.

I have never done that, and I would like to. Let's do it. Well, we did it at our friend's wedding. Yeah, and it was not a good experience for me. It was bad for me also. It was Copperhead Road, which I think is a more advanced. Well, we kind of self-taught, and that was the problem for me. Yes.

Also, I had a fever, and so my step, it was not so good. Well, and then Griffin turned around and realized that everybody was following him. It was the worst moment of my life. Hope says, I just wanted to share a wonderful phenomenon at my high school. In a Facebook group containing every girl in the junior and senior classes, more and more often girls are posting pictures of themselves in their prom dresses, announcing that they've found the one. What started as a petty thing to make sure that people weren't buying the same dresses has turned into a love fest between the girls, with each post having hundreds of commenters complimenting their beautiful classmate, which I think is a wonderful display of positivity between classmates in the common search for the perfect gown. That's so ideal. It's so ideal.

This is kind of the thing. Where's that Netflix show? Not the one about, like, teens being awful to each other. Yeah, people always talk about how social media is the worst thing that ever happened to teens. And it is. Yeah, and largely it is, but this is actually nice. This is nice. We found the one good example.

And finally, Emily says, I'd like to submit electric heating pads and blankets. This is almost like a legal brief, and I'm very into it. I submit for the pleasure of the court. I think that's legal speak. Heating pads and blankets, anything that can bring my room from zero to cozy in under a minute is wonderful in my book, and I'm very grateful to live in a time where this technology is readily available. That latter part cracks me up, because it's such a great thing to be grateful for. There are you know like telekinetic robots that elon musk and

also heating pads i think have been around for like maybe 34 years but we can still be grateful for them is what me and emily are saying yeah it's good to look at a heating pad and say i'm so glad that you exist little heating pad big dog update did you see the video of the big dog that has the handle on it so it can open doors? Oh, wow. It's terrifying. This arm sticks out of its mouth and it grabs a door handle and pulls it open so another big dog can run through the door.

That's terrifying. It's good, though, because where are they going? Big dog. You don't fall over still. That whole video, neither of these big digs. Big digs? Thanks for listening to Wonderful. Thanks to Bowen and Augustus

for these for our theme song, Money Won't Pay. Forgot which podcast I was doing there for a second. Money Won't Pay. You can find a link to that in the episode description. And, oh, Maximum Fun. Maximum Fun has so many new good shows.

Like what? Prove it. Inside Pop is a good one. Oh, yeah. Minority Corner is a good one. Oh, yeah. Gosh, what else? Who Shot You is a good one.

Oh, yeah. And those are all pretty new. And there are many, many more. Check them out at MaximumFun.org. All right. Anything else? Happy Valentine's Day. If it's a rough one for you, us maybe talking about our love for 20 minutes probably didn't help that very much.

Yeah, you know what I used to do in the, I don't know, approximate three decades where I didn't have this love? What's that? Celebrate my friends on Valentine's Day. That's really cool. Your friends and family, you know? Yeah, just celebrate love for whatever you love. Any love in your life. Got a good pet?

Got a good pet. Give it extra pets today. Yeah. Give it a snug. Give it a treat. Got a good heating blanket? Got a good heating blanket got a good heating blanket that actually sounds very very good um yeah just take care of yourself today do something nice for yourself today dale agent dale cooper says you should do one nice thing for yourself every day

one little surprise keep that in mind take that home with you and maybe keep that surprise in your in your mouth because it's a little lockbox. That's how we should end this episode. Go at it all back around. So I'm going to close my mouth and you're going to tell me what is inside of it. But I'm going to bend down under the table and I'm going to put something in it. And you have to guess. Okay.

Oh, God. He's really going to do it. Okay. It's not an amiibo because he's got a tight seal. Oh, come on. A plastic bag? It's just cellophane. Oh, come on. A plastic bag? It's just cellophane. Bye, everybody. Oh. Money won't pay. Work it off. Money won't pay.

Work it off. Money won't pay. Work it off. Work it off. Work it off. MaximumFun.org Comedy and culture. Artist owned. Listener supported. Following the news is hard and it sucks.

How do you know which stories are important? Which sources do you trust in this post-truth world of reactionary journalism? I'm Brent Black. And I'm Travis McElroy. And we host a podcast called Trends Like These. We cover trending news stories. We debunk misleading clickbait headlines. And we always try to throw in a little bit of good news.

In our quest for truth. So join us every week on MaximumFun.org or wherever podcasts are found.