00:00:08 Speaker 1: And I invited you here. I thought I made myself perfectly clear. When you're a guest in my home, you gotta come to me empty. And I said, no, guests, you're o presences, presents, and I already had too much stuff. So how did you dare to surbey me? 00:00:47 Speaker 2: Welcome to I said, no gifts. The only podcast that respects you as a person. I'm Bridger Wine girl. We're in the backyard. We're in the backyard more and more, and it's always so lovely. I will say. Last night I entered the backyard after dark and saw an animal kind of dash across the yard. So I went back in the house. And this morning the results of what that animal was doing were revealed. A bird had been absolutely ripped to shreds, the most brutal act of nature I have ever seen. And I hate to bring that up, but I guess I need to bring it up because it happened to me. And I want to burden you with my little, my gory morning. But let's move beyond the death of a bird, and let's talk to our guests. I think our guest is fantastic. It's Adam Conover. Adam, thank you so much. 00:01:45 Speaker 3: For having me. 00:01:46 Speaker 4: Bridget welcome to I said, no gifts. I'm so happy to have you here. 00:01:48 Speaker 5: I'm really thrilled to be in your backyard. What kind of bird was destroyed? 00:01:53 Speaker 4: You wanted to alta state? 00:01:54 Speaker 3: I'm sorry, it's impossible to say. 00:01:57 Speaker 2: I'm not exaggerating when this was the goal thing I've ever seen. Wow, if this had happened to a human being, none of us would ever leave our houses again. 00:02:07 Speaker 4: It would dominate the news cycle. 00:02:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. 00:02:10 Speaker 2: I don't know what the predator's goal even was with the bird, because it didn't look like the bird had been eaten. 00:02:16 Speaker 5: Yeah, I can tell you what it was. I'm an avid birdwatcher. First of all, I don't know what kind of bird it was, Okay, but I can tell you what killed the bird? 00:02:23 Speaker 3: What a cat? 00:02:25 Speaker 4: You think it was a cat? Yeah? 00:02:26 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's cats. It's cats. Are you know instinctive hunters? They hunt for sport, not just because they're hungry. And people have outdoor cats, and when they do, those cats kill birds every day they spend when they're outside, they spend their entire time hunting and killing birds, which is bad because, first of all, you know, the cats shouldn't be outside. 00:02:48 Speaker 3: To begin with, cats have terrible. 00:02:49 Speaker 5: Lives when they live outside, they get maimed and et cetera. It's very bad for them. They're also an invasive species. They're not native to this area, and they kill outdoor. Cats kill a total of two billion songbirds every year in just the United States. 00:03:04 Speaker 4: I believe how many songbirds are there in total? 00:03:08 Speaker 3: A lot, but less all the time. 00:03:09 Speaker 5: In fact, over the last forty years or so, North America has lost a third of all of its birds. 00:03:15 Speaker 3: Did you know this? 00:03:16 Speaker 5: Two cats in two things in general to habitat laws or climate change, but the fact that we introduced a bird predator that now lives in the country to the tune of tens of millions of cats, which we actually keep alive by Oh, look at a portotle cat has put some milk for him, right, we're actually keeping alive this predator that shouldn't be here. 00:03:38 Speaker 3: Is terrible, you know, So that's what killed the cat? One hundred percent? 00:03:43 Speaker 2: You really think so? I assumed it was a raccoon. Do raccoons ever rip birds to shreds? 00:03:48 Speaker 3: I don't believe so. 00:03:49 Speaker 5: Mean, I'm not an expert in raccoons or the other fauna. Of Los Angeles. But most of them are trash eaters. Raccoons, possoms, skunks, They all go for your garbage, you. 00:04:01 Speaker 3: Know right now, some of them might they would. 00:04:04 Speaker 5: I wouldn't say they would never eat a bird, but I but birds are fast and those are all pretty slow. 00:04:08 Speaker 2: Yeah, raccoons are kind of tottering around, tottering a word uttering. 00:04:12 Speaker 5: Yeah, they're toddling, toddling. They're drunk, is what they are. 00:04:16 Speaker 2: There are two neighborhood cats who I adore. I love seeing them, but now I'm it's kind of, you know, our next door situation. It's like I thought he was so nice, he was so quiet, always just kind of wandering around. 00:04:29 Speaker 4: And now, so that may be what happened. 00:04:32 Speaker 3: It is, I guarantee you one hundred percent. 00:04:34 Speaker 4: Bird and listener. 00:04:39 Speaker 3: Decapitated. Yes, where was its head nearby? 00:04:42 Speaker 2: It was all over the place. I had to pick it up with a shovel and I had to look away. I actually had to look away. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. And the poor listener is just like I wanted to. I wanted something nice. Do you know what I think happened? We're recording on July fifth currently last night, the fireworks right never ending. I think they may have driven the local wildlife to insane. It could be because this was a This was depraved. This wasn't just like a Sylvester the cat swallowing a bird. This was something else. 00:05:15 Speaker 4: This was cult like. 00:05:16 Speaker 3: They were driven to viciousness. 00:05:19 Speaker 4: Yes, it very well could be. 00:05:20 Speaker 5: I mean, what could the effect be of all of that smoke in the air and the sounds right? Any sensitive animals, you know, but this is what this is what cats do. 00:05:29 Speaker 4: Do you own cats? 00:05:30 Speaker 3: No? No, need tell not a fan. 00:05:32 Speaker 2: Well, but I could imagine you being a responsible indoor cat owner. 00:05:36 Speaker 3: I have no problem with indoor cats. 00:05:37 Speaker 5: Absolutely no cats should ever be outdoors, nor should we be supporting the living of cats outdoors in any way. I'm sorry it's come in with a strong take, but I do have it. We can talk about something else if you like. 00:05:50 Speaker 4: I'm happy to talk about this. 00:05:51 Speaker 2: It's fascinating to me because I as much as I love our two neighborhood cats, I'm worried about them constantly. 00:05:56 Speaker 4: They're going to get hit by a car. 00:05:58 Speaker 2: Yeah, they're obviously, They're a danger to our birds, and they make me nervous I feel like I'm going to run one of them over and then I'm going to live with the guilt. 00:06:06 Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely you are. 00:06:08 Speaker 5: And and by the way, the cat is, when they're outside, they inevitably like start losing eyes, you know what I mean, they lose limbs instead. 00:06:14 Speaker 4: Of fights, yeah, spreading disease, yeah. 00:06:17 Speaker 5: Exactly, they spread feline AIDS and all these other diseases. Right, And but there's this weird problem. Okay, let me just get to the root of the issue. 00:06:26 Speaker 3: Okay. 00:06:27 Speaker 5: So with all other animals, when there's an infestation of an animal that shouldn't be living in a place where the animals are miserable and also it's hurting the place, we send animal control and we deal with it in a way that is hopefully humane but takes care of the problem. Right, With cats, we don't socially allow that to happen because people love the cats. 00:06:47 Speaker 3: And they say so when there's a cat colony. 00:06:48 Speaker 5: And I used to live in New York and there were I lived in a block where there were there was you know, fifty cats in my backyard, you know, and this is a thing that simply should be dealt with, you know, right, right, But people love cats, and they say. 00:07:00 Speaker 3: No, it's it's just we little kiddie. 00:07:02 Speaker 5: No, no, we need to help them and bring out food for them and stuff like that. And so there will be a social movement to like save a colony of miserable cats that's killing birds. The cats are sick, they're dying, they're spreading disease, you know what I mean. And like our love for the animal, which is a wonderful thing about people, that we love the animals so much, gets in the way of us actually caring for the animal's welfare and all of the other the rest of the environment. 00:07:28 Speaker 4: Problems for the animals. Yeah, let me ask you though. 00:07:31 Speaker 2: In New York. I mean, obviously rats are also a problem. That's a theme on this podcast. 00:07:36 Speaker 5: But uh so, no one does that for rats, right, No one says, hey, there's there's we found out there's one hundred rats under this building. No one's like, no, no, we can't do anything about the rats. 00:07:46 Speaker 3: No, we need to put out cheese for them. No one does that. 00:07:48 Speaker 2: Well, I don't know, there's a there's somebody for everybody. 00:07:52 Speaker 5: Sure, And rats make wonderful pets, you know, if you domestic, if you if you have them, you raise if you can't raise them. And so certainly there are probably some rat lovers out there, but not nearly as many. 00:08:01 Speaker 2: But I mean, so this cat colony that you were living near in New York, were they helping fix the rat problem? 00:08:07 Speaker 3: Though I don't. 00:08:09 Speaker 5: I mean, I think that they will catch rats, but they won't eradicate an amount of rats. You know, this was we didn't have a problem with an infestation of rats in the area. We did have a problem with an infestation of cats. 00:08:23 Speaker 4: Saying you had all these cats but no rats. 00:08:26 Speaker 5: Right, But I but I actually would And now my own bias is showing I prefer the right to the cats. 00:08:32 Speaker 4: Wow. Oh, you've revealed a horrible truth. 00:08:36 Speaker 5: The rats are smaller, they live in crawls bass. 00:08:40 Speaker 3: You don't see them as all. 00:08:41 Speaker 2: They chew through your walls. They have revolting tales. H Adam, Adam, Adam. What I'm hearing here is devastating. Now, as far as other invasive species in Los Angeles, what do you think of Is the the apossum invasive or is that. 00:09:00 Speaker 3: I don't know. 00:09:00 Speaker 5: Actually I'm not sure if the possum is invasive, that's a. 00:09:04 Speaker 2: Really good question for me. I don't need it. Yeah, I don't need it. I don't need to see it. Yeah, I don't need to see it run over. I don't need to see it on top of my fence. 00:09:12 Speaker 3: It is invasive. 00:09:14 Speaker 4: You believe. 00:09:15 Speaker 5: You looked it up and it's an invasive species in Los Angeles to Los Angeles. 00:09:21 Speaker 3: I don't know. 00:09:21 Speaker 5: I mean, how does that happen? Sometimes these things happen. Here's here's an interesting fact about on vasis. And again, Avid birdwatcher, you know there's there's parakeets around Los Angeles. 00:09:30 Speaker 2: I mean I was, I was bookmarking in my brain. I need you to get into this as soon as possible. 00:09:35 Speaker 3: Believe they're called red crowned parakeets. I'm not sure. 00:09:39 Speaker 5: I don't remember the exact species, but there's a particular species of parakeet, slash parrot, which lives. 00:09:43 Speaker 3: There's a lot of in Pasadena. 00:09:45 Speaker 5: Even where I live in Los Felies, you'll see them flying around squawk. 00:09:48 Speaker 4: I have them fly over the green ones, right. 00:09:50 Speaker 5: Yeah, they're green exactly, and there I think there are a lot of fun people like them. What's interesting is this is actually Los Angeles is the place where there are most of them in the. 00:10:00 Speaker 3: World the largest concentration of the parakeet. 00:10:02 Speaker 5: They come from Mexico, but in Mexico they're actually endangered because of habitat loss and et cetera in their home range. And they are now more populous in Los Angeles than they were in their original location in Mexico. And they only the reason they are here is because of released pets. 00:10:19 Speaker 4: Okay, so yeah, the origin store. 00:10:21 Speaker 2: I've been told about these parrots flying around to Los Angeles and you could you might know the answer to this is that there was in the thirties a pet store. 00:10:30 Speaker 4: I mean, just saying this out loud, I'm like, this is not true. 00:10:34 Speaker 2: A pet store caught fire and these parakeets were released and have Now. 00:10:40 Speaker 5: I don't think anything needs to catch fire. I mean, it's very possible. So look without looking at without me understanding the actual history of this, right, The truth about most stories like this is there's usually a grain of truth to them. So my guess would this is just off the top of my head, right, probably there was a pet store. Probably a pet store did catch fire. 00:10:59 Speaker 3: Unlike that. 00:11:00 Speaker 5: That is the only reason that we have these parents, because people just like release birds. 00:11:04 Speaker 4: You know, right, if you're tired of the pet or escaped or what have you. 00:11:08 Speaker 5: Look, fundamentally, humans when they bring animals from one place to another, that animal will usually just become feral and get loose, right. 00:11:19 Speaker 3: And it's odd. 00:11:20 Speaker 5: Here's the interesting thing. I just want to go back to cats for one second, though, because we do this with cats in the United States. We do not have this problem with dogs. 00:11:26 Speaker 3: Right. 00:11:26 Speaker 4: You go to many countries there are dos all over. 00:11:29 Speaker 3: Them, exactly, and that's the original form of the dog. 00:11:31 Speaker 4: Right. 00:11:31 Speaker 5: When you go to another country and you know, I've been to India, this is the case. You go to place in the Caribbean, there'll be dogs that are just wandering around. They eat trash, right, that's what dogs were like. Dogs are wolves that said, oh, here's a form source of food. We can just hang around and eat the food. Right, And then they get closer and closer, And we didn't domesticate them. 00:11:49 Speaker 3: They just they're like pigeons. 00:11:51 Speaker 5: They like found an opportunity to get free food by hanging around humans. 00:11:55 Speaker 4: Settlem just got trapped. 00:11:57 Speaker 5: But in the United States, remember, like when I was a kid, I used to see like like comic strips or like TV shows from the fifties where there'd be a dog catcher, remember, like there'd be. 00:12:07 Speaker 4: So oh no, I mean maybe my favorite job title. 00:12:11 Speaker 3: Right exactly. 00:12:12 Speaker 5: But I remember thinking, wait, I don't see any dog catchers in real life. And that's because in America we got rid of all the wild feral dogs, right, We controlled the problem. Yeah, you know, and it's better for the dogs, it's better for us. And we refuse to do this with cats. 00:12:27 Speaker 4: Interesting. I mean, I will. 00:12:28 Speaker 3: Round them all up in a big net. That's what we should do. 00:12:32 Speaker 2: We love the big net to catch the animals. I will say, growing up, we did, and I think it was just animal control. But there was a local person. Her son went to school elementary school with me, and he was absolutely terrible Brian, but his mom was the local dog catcher and we would call her the dog catcher and she would go around catching dogs. Yeah, but she must have been animal control, I think, yeah, that's what we call him. 00:12:57 Speaker 4: All control fell under the t. 00:12:58 Speaker 2: Dog catcher was probably just more to say, yeah, but I do. I mean, I feel like we do need to get dog catchers back on the government payroll. I agree, just to say they still exist. Yeah, it's a very charming. 00:13:12 Speaker 5: And we need to say they're dog and cat catchers. That's what they also need to catch cats. 00:13:17 Speaker 2: But cats are too sly, they're too smart, and they refuse to be caught, while dogs will you know, they'll go after well, actually the cats are going after those fish skeletons. 00:13:27 Speaker 4: I don't think the dogs are going after them. 00:13:29 Speaker 5: There's this thing that they do now, also called and I'm sorry to go so deep. 00:13:33 Speaker 4: On this, I'm happy to go. 00:13:34 Speaker 5: Whenever I talk about this, people bring this up to me because they say, Adam, what about trap neuter release? 00:13:38 Speaker 3: Have you heard about trap neuterle? 00:13:39 Speaker 4: Oh? Oh, interest. 00:13:40 Speaker 5: So this is what they This is the bargain that some animal control departments have made with the cat lovers. They say, instead of trapping the cats and then you know, humanly putting down a miserable animal, or you know, just sort of keeping it inside for a while until it passes away. 00:13:55 Speaker 3: People say, no, the cat must live outside. 00:13:57 Speaker 5: What they do is they trap the cat, they neuter it so that it can no longer reproduce, and then they release it again to continue to live a miserable, horrible life on the street and kill birds. 00:14:09 Speaker 3: And people will say that this is a solution. 00:14:11 Speaker 5: Unfortunately it is not because it is first of all, so expensive. Think about this, not only trap the cat, then do major surgery on the cat. Let this is a feral cat that hates you, that's trying to kill you every moment you have it, do major surgery to it, and then release it right back to go be a monster. 00:14:28 Speaker 4: In the community, not rehabilitated in any way. 00:14:31 Speaker 3: No, just release it again. 00:14:32 Speaker 5: So first of all, this is very expensive to do, but second of all, it doesn't actually work to control cat populations. Like when when they have tested this, the cat populated, the idea is, okay, if we stop them from breeding, of course we'll have eventually the colony will die out. 00:14:48 Speaker 3: I think it's just so. 00:14:50 Speaker 5: I think it just takes so long to do, and there's so much effort involved. Like if you've got literally two hundred cats and you're like, we need to trap and neuter and release two hundred cats, it like is unworkable compared to just getting a big net you know, hands and uh and and again being being humane, but also you know, nipping a problem in the. 00:15:10 Speaker 2: Right kind of using a bucket to like empty out the Titanic. Essentially, the water is just going to keep flowing in. Yes, okay, So what's your alternative? 00:15:19 Speaker 4: Then? Just catch? Catch catch. 00:15:22 Speaker 2: You've come here with a lot of problems, a lot of complaints, but I'm not hearing a lot of solutions. 00:15:27 Speaker 5: Yeah, I am a person when it comes to animals. Now, now see, now you've now you've drawn me into controversy. 00:15:37 Speaker 4: Well that was the entire plan. 00:15:38 Speaker 3: And I walked myself right into that. 00:15:40 Speaker 4: This isn't gonna be the only controversy. 00:15:42 Speaker 5: People are gonna dislike me for saying this, and I apologize, but my feeling is with animals, even when we love them very much, there comes a time when the best thing to do for an animal is to humanely put the animal down. 00:15:55 Speaker 4: Oh wow, that is controversy. 00:15:56 Speaker 2: That's that's what I like to hear that you don't you don't like, must like to hear. 00:16:01 Speaker 5: You could keep you could perhaps keep the cat inside, you know, keep it in a keep it in a contained area, and keep it. That's fine with me too, if you wish to do this. I'm not like against no kill shelters like that's that's a wonderful thing to do. Sure, but I think if you really want to reduce. I take a practical approach to it when it comes to animals. If you want to reduce the amount of total misery that animals are being suffered, sometimes the best way to do that is to say, instead of letting these cats stay outside and breed forever and and create more misery for themselves and for other animals, let's just if we just put down ten cats, we won't be dealing with a thousand cats, you know, that are that are unfortunately suffering on the streets. 00:16:38 Speaker 3: That's my view, And if people want to argue with me, they can, But. 00:16:41 Speaker 5: That is and I and I respect people who view who feel otherwise. 00:16:44 Speaker 2: Of course, of course, and listener, I don't know what your opinion is, but I'm on your side with this one. 00:16:49 Speaker 4: I I'm not going. 00:16:50 Speaker 3: To say, actually, don't be mad at me. 00:16:56 Speaker 2: No, Look that I mean that does feel like a realistic, practical approach to a problem. I have no answers. I'm letting the cats run wild through the neighborhood. I'm supporting them. You know, I'm very wishy washy, and I'm probably part of the problem with everything. So but I mean, look, we got at least kind of a solution. But we've got to talk about another big problem, another huge issue for me personally, and the listener is probably sweating just thinking about it right now. You agreed to be on this podcast. I can't remember when. It doesn't matter. 00:17:32 Speaker 4: I was an illusion. 00:17:33 Speaker 2: It could have been twenty seconds ago, for all I know. The podcast is called I said no Gifts, and I thought Adam is fantastic. He'll come on. I'm sure he'll do some sort of deep dive into something. I didn't realize it was going to be about, you know, my neighborhood cats. I thought we'll have a good time. You were aware that the podcast was called I said no gifts. I made clear with on at least our producer, that Adam knew, you know we I felt like everything was above board. So I was a little surprised when you sauntered into my backyard looking proud as a I don't know. I don't know what proud is something holding what is clearly up gift. 00:18:17 Speaker 5: I just you know, look, I was a little bit scattered today, and you know, my publicists arranged this and I didn't know know I wasn't really gonna go do Bridgers podcast. 00:18:31 Speaker 3: I knew you. 00:18:32 Speaker 5: Of course I don't look at the everyone's got a funny name for their podcast. 00:18:35 Speaker 3: I don't really look sure. 00:18:36 Speaker 5: But I was, however, raised with manners, so I of course brought a gift because I was coming to your home and felt that it was, you know, incumbent upon me. And then only when I was in the lift on the way here did I look at the invite and see the name of the podcast and say, oh, I worry, I've committed a faux pas. 00:18:57 Speaker 3: But then also I don't know you, I don't know your background. 00:18:59 Speaker 5: In some cultures, when someone says please know, that's the invitation for you to actually say no, I insist. Interesting, so in that case, I was like, I'll instead of just giving my gift to the lift driver, which I was like, you know what, I think this might be a situation where I said I brought a gift. No please, no gifts, No, I insist. And then that's the polite little dance that we do. 00:19:21 Speaker 2: Okay, So it looks like you've kind of just washed yourself of all blame. You obviously pay a publicist to just be a target for you, which just fine. Everybody does their own thing, and this idea of giving a lift driver a random gift is an interesting new thing. 00:19:37 Speaker 3: And they need the money. 00:19:39 Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly not. 00:19:40 Speaker 2: They're working for companies who are not quite fair to who they are. We might get into that later, but uh, right now, should I open this gift on the podcast? 00:19:52 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there's no reason not to. I would be delighted if you would. 00:20:13 Speaker 2: Okay, So it's in kind of a kind of a bag I'm familiar with, a blue, kind of thick fabric with a ribbon. 00:20:22 Speaker 4: And we're gonna why. 00:20:22 Speaker 3: Are you familiar with this bag? 00:20:23 Speaker 2: I've seen this bag delivered to me. Other gifts have come in this bag. 00:20:28 Speaker 5: Yeah, well I'll I'll tell you where the bag came from. 00:20:31 Speaker 4: Do you want to know? 00:20:33 Speaker 5: This is a regifted bag. It didn't come with the gifts inside. But you know, I was raised by thrifty folk, and so I was raised to reuse packaging, and so this was a gift that came This is this is Amazon. 00:20:47 Speaker 4: This is an Amazon bag. 00:20:49 Speaker 5: Yeah, that came from my father gave me a gift for Christmas. And he does a thing which I don't do, but he orders things directed on Amazon and clicks gift raft, which, in Amazon's case, they put it in a bag. 00:20:59 Speaker 2: Comes in the kind of hearty thick What did your dad give you in this bag? 00:21:03 Speaker 4: What was the indust. 00:21:04 Speaker 2: Remember your father's heart is breaking. Dad, just two days before Christmas? 00:21:13 Speaker 5: He does ever, he just gets a whole lot of Amazon Prime stuff. Panics at one am. 00:21:17 Speaker 4: Right, Okay, Well, let's see what's happening in here. 00:21:20 Speaker 2: Right now, I'm gonna we're undoing the ribbon, We're opening, we're opening reaching. 00:21:28 Speaker 4: Okay and okay, so what's what is? 00:21:32 Speaker 3: There's a little inter there's just open the open that. 00:21:35 Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a plastic bag that doesn't indicate what we're looking at yet. 00:21:40 Speaker 3: So that's all you need? 00:21:42 Speaker 2: Fine, Okay, So now it's uh, there's no English on this box? Whatsoever? I have absolutely no idea. Well, there's a little image on the front that looks like maybe water is sprang out. 00:21:55 Speaker 4: Of it or something. 00:21:56 Speaker 3: Yeah, do you recognize this name on the Toto totes? You recognize that brand? 00:22:00 Speaker 4: Recognize this as a band? 00:22:03 Speaker 3: Sure, there's a band Toto. 00:22:04 Speaker 2: Yeah, but I have to assume I've seen Toto before as a brand. 00:22:08 Speaker 5: Yeah, you might have seen it on us on an appliance that's in many people's homes. You might have seen it on a toilet specifically, is a toilet brand? Does that help you all figure out what this is? 00:22:18 Speaker 4: Is this some sort of beday. 00:22:20 Speaker 5: Yes, this is a this is a travel be day travel badet. 00:22:25 Speaker 4: Yeah, I've never heard of a travel but day. 00:22:27 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's an electric travel beday. 00:22:29 Speaker 5: It can be charged and uh, you bring it in your purse or whatever bag you may have, right and you you see on the side here it's got a little picture of uh travel if you're traveling. Yeah, someone someone with a with a rollerboard and so they're on a plane, or this might be useful. There's some one of the wheelchair if you if you're a wheelchair user, might be useful a day in that case. Or someone with a baby. You could spray that on your baby's butt. And uh, it's sort of like retracts and you know, it's got a little button there. 00:23:01 Speaker 3: And I'm actually not sure how you charge it. 00:23:03 Speaker 4: But well, I mean we'll find out, I suppose. 00:23:06 Speaker 2: So you can kind of just throw this in your carry on, whip it out on the plane. 00:23:10 Speaker 5: Yeah, if you see someone going to the airplane bathroom with one of those, now you know what it is. 00:23:17 Speaker 2: If I see somebody going to the airplane bathroom holding this. I'm moving seats. How did this come into your life? Okay, this is as well a regift? 00:23:29 Speaker 3: Is that? Okay? 00:23:30 Speaker 2: Absolutely to the state. No one has ever regifted on this podcast. This is a first. 00:23:35 Speaker 3: This is that's unbelievable. I don't believe that at all. 00:23:39 Speaker 4: Believe what you want to believe. 00:23:40 Speaker 3: Well, this was not a gift for me. 00:23:41 Speaker 5: Actually, I went to my girlfriend and I were shopping for new toilets okay, and we went to the Toto showroom. So Toto famously makes very high quality toilets okay, and then they also make bidet attachments for the toilets, like toilet seats that you sit on. And you know, we have a our home has very poor quality toilets in it. And I said, you know what, let's go to the Toto showroom to see the toilets. 00:24:06 Speaker 3: Now. 00:24:07 Speaker 5: The interesting thing about the Toto showroom it's in West Hollywood, Okay, And uh, there's only one guy who works there. So when we got there, we had made an appointment, and we got there in his clothes and he texted us, I'm fifteen minutes away. Just wait out front and so we're waiting for this guy to come and he unlocks the door and we go in and they have a hole. They have all the Toto toilets all arrayed in a line. But before you go, when we called him make the appointment, he was like, okay, you know we don't sell the toilets here, right, And I was like, yeah, no, I looked it up on the internet before I made this appointment. I'm aware you don't sell the toilets at the total showroom. This place is strictly it's not a Toto dealership. To go to a separate dealership. This is just a show Yeah, this is just a showroom. 00:24:49 Speaker 4: The parking lot. 00:24:50 Speaker 3: Yeah, this is just to This is just to demonstrate the toilets to you. 00:24:54 Speaker 5: And so we went to this place so that we could see the entire range of tot to Ti in the showroom. They probably have about twenty toilets, okay. And there's different combinations of like there's the base toilet, there's the actual ceramic part of the bowl, and then there's the the washlet attachment which is the part that sprays water of your buttot the seat and the day part. And so we went in order to look at all the different models and sort of say which one we want, and then later we haven't done this yet because we got lazy, but later we'll call a bathroom, you know, installer toilet. Hey, we want a Toto model XD one three five with this attachment, right, But you go to this place. So for mostly we went because it's funny. I was very tickled by the idea. 00:25:43 Speaker 2: I've only ever really heard of a piano showroom. Yeah, so I'm picturing that but with toilets. 00:25:48 Speaker 5: Yes, And it's but since you can't buy them, it's really more of a toilet museum. And you can also go see by the way, they have some toilets in there that are like twenty thousand dollars. 00:25:57 Speaker 4: What's happening with a twenty thousand dollars toilet? 00:25:59 Speaker 5: Well, it's mostly very It looks like an egg and there's no tank, like the tank's in the wall, okay, And you walk up to it and the seed opens automatically and it plays a little song. And that's basically it. I honestly don't know the other one. The cheaper ones do that too. It's just this one is if you're so rich that you're like well, I might as well get the more most expensive one, right. 00:26:24 Speaker 4: You know it looks like an egg. It looks like an egg. 00:26:27 Speaker 5: Yeah, Like imagine an egg length wise attached the side of your wall, and then the top of the egg goes up and you can poop in it. 00:26:34 Speaker 3: That's the most expensive toilet. 00:26:36 Speaker 5: And by the way, the guy, the man who showed us the toilets, was like, there's no reason to get this. 00:26:42 Speaker 3: Don't he said, The people who buy this are crazy. 00:26:46 Speaker 4: Of course. 00:26:47 Speaker 2: I mean when you say a twenty thousand dollars toilet, I just pictured the person like five years into the future and they've lost everything and they're looking at that toilet thinking if only I had not made choices like buying a twenty thousand dollars toilet. 00:27:00 Speaker 3: They're like, this is all I have left is the twenty thousand dollars. Can I fence the toilet? What do I do? I mean, it's it's a real problem. 00:27:07 Speaker 5: No, this is the toilet that like Jeff Bezos buys, where He's like, you know, sometimes in your life you'll have a situation where you're like, which which one should I get. I'll just get the most expensive one. The most expensive one is ten bucks. 00:27:17 Speaker 4: Why say it must be better? 00:27:18 Speaker 3: It must be better. I'll just get that one. So if you've got a billion dollars, you might do that. 00:27:21 Speaker 5: But I don't want the two thousand dollars toilet or the twenty thousand dollars toilet. 00:27:26 Speaker 4: Only. 00:27:26 Speaker 5: I only got I only got three toys. Some my how's get three the twenty thousand dollars ones? You know what's the be deal? 00:27:31 Speaker 2: I'm Jeff Bezos, right, But I feel like even at that level now, the assistants are buying the toilets, and the assistant never feels empowered enough to buy the twenty thousand dollars toilet. 00:27:39 Speaker 3: Probably not. 00:27:40 Speaker 2: So I'm trying to imagine the person that has that much money who is still doing their own toilet shopping. 00:27:45 Speaker 4: That person is a rare p. 00:27:47 Speaker 3: People don't go to the showroom. 00:27:48 Speaker 5: You're right, Bezos doesn't go to the show the show room in West Hollywood. 00:27:51 Speaker 3: No, he's not going. 00:27:52 Speaker 2: We're talking about a toilet enthusiast at that point. 00:27:55 Speaker 3: So so let me tell you. 00:27:56 Speaker 5: The reason I got this travel today was because we were The guy was late by fifteen minutes. 00:28:02 Speaker 3: At the end, he was like, tell you what, let me do something for you. 00:28:07 Speaker 5: I got here's two Toto travel bidets, and he was like, these are one hundred dollars value each, is what he told me. 00:28:16 Speaker 3: I was like, all right, thank you, sir. 00:28:18 Speaker 4: It will ruin you socially, but it is one hundred dollars value. 00:28:22 Speaker 5: Yeah, well, don't take it to your friend's party, but I'm gonna use it. 00:28:25 Speaker 3: Do you have a bidet? No, okay, Luckily I came prepared. 00:28:28 Speaker 4: I've got one in my purse. 00:28:30 Speaker 3: I mean, we could probably you spray some one in the eye with this, but this was. 00:28:33 Speaker 2: Like at least for a water fight or something. This feels like or a self defense. It's got a couple settings. 00:28:39 Speaker 5: One is three Japanese character, the other one is five Japanese character, and maybe that means like five feet. 00:28:44 Speaker 3: Maybe it's sprays five feet. 00:28:45 Speaker 2: Somebody comes at you on the city bus and suddenly they're getting a face full of water, wandering down a dark alley, this kind of thing. 00:28:53 Speaker 3: Do you think you'll use this gift? I hope that's a. 00:28:56 Speaker 2: Very personal question, and I don't think that. I think this is just gonna have to be one of those things that we never quite know. I will say that I'll continue to own it. Okay, And uh, maybe at some point I something happens in my brain and I'm like, time to experiment. Will I be traveling with the Bidayuh, maybe I need to go on a vacation where I've got to be a clean as a whistle at all times. 00:29:24 Speaker 4: The B day comes along. 00:29:25 Speaker 5: If you're really backpacking, you know through and you're getting. 00:29:31 Speaker 3: And then you really you know, you're in another country and you're not adjusted to the food yet. 00:29:35 Speaker 5: That off the rappens because you're just it's a different kind of dietary environment and you're like, oh, it's gonna be a really bad one. 00:29:42 Speaker 3: You might be really happy you had this right. 00:29:44 Speaker 2: So maybe it's a thing that I never even open. Well, I'll open the box so I can demonstrate on Instagram or whatever, But maybe it goes back in the box and then gets thrown into my lug, my luggage whenever I go somewhere, just in case. 00:29:56 Speaker 5: Well, you want to learn to use this before the trip, that's true, but you don't want to know how to charge. 00:30:00 Speaker 3: You don't want to be in the airplane bathroom covered in. 00:30:03 Speaker 4: Your own filth calling the pilot to help me trying. 00:30:06 Speaker 3: To figure out how do you get this thing to work? 00:30:09 Speaker 4: You want to know, people hear me screaming and. 00:30:12 Speaker 2: Crying and just begging anyone with an airshot to get this thing going for me. Yeah, so maybe I do need to just sit home one Monday, quiet Monday night and teach myself how to use the travel but day. Yeah, kind of become an expert, and then I can be the person on the plane when I hear somebody else struggling, I can say, I can knock and say I know I've been through this. I can walk you through it, bend over. But we'll see what happens. I'm still curious about this appointment only toilet showroom. 00:30:42 Speaker 4: Yeah, so you go there? 00:30:43 Speaker 2: Are you sitting on the toilets as the salesman is what is the actual experience there? 00:30:49 Speaker 1: You? 00:30:50 Speaker 5: I mean he shows you the models and the different prices most of the toilets. In fact, none of the ones in the actual showroom are hooked up to plumbing. Okay, but you can see the features. Friends, and some of them have an autolifting lid, right, and they say Bridger, they don't. They play a little song. They play a little song, and they and and you can see specifically, for instance, one of the things that some of the toilets have multiple flush amounts. 00:31:17 Speaker 3: They've got a pee flush. 00:31:19 Speaker 2: Oh, I'm always soaking whenever I see one of these toilets. There's always two buttons, and I never know which one to. 00:31:24 Speaker 3: Push once for pee, ones for poop. 00:31:26 Speaker 2: But it doesn't it's the toilet is always so subtle about it. 00:31:29 Speaker 5: One water droplet or two water drop right, and you're like, it's a little difficult. But so you can see, for instance, that kind of toilet has a different bowl shape, and you can see what that looks like, and you can sit on them. You can test out the butt heating feature. But then in the actual bathroom of the showroom, they have one of the twenty thousand dollars toilets and us, yes, I did, because we were there for forty five minutes. 00:31:49 Speaker 3: I had to peet. I had to pee when I came here. I'm gonna pee again before I leave. I pee a lot. 00:31:53 Speaker 4: So I encourage peeing and I encourage drinking. 00:31:56 Speaker 2: We've got to say hydrated, and we've got to stay pless. Yeah, you got to empty the bladder. We don't want UTIs listener if you need to pee, take a minute, go to the bathroom. You don't want too much urine in your body at any time. Okay, So you did go use the twenty thousand dollars toilet? Did it feel like a twenty thousand dollars toilet? 00:32:15 Speaker 5: It was not worth the money? Okay, I can't believe I bought it. It wasn't worth the money. 00:32:20 Speaker 4: What toilet did you end up settling on? 00:32:22 Speaker 3: There was one. 00:32:23 Speaker 5: I mean, I don't remember the model number, but they have sort of as it's a very mid middle of the range. Toto toilets are kind of nice and they're sort of small. They're very esthetic. The white toilet, the white toilet, although they do have a they have a number of colors. They've got like pure white, they've got bone, they've got cream, then they've got a black toilet. 00:32:43 Speaker 2: Toilet's always a mystery, you know that something's going on in that person's life. 00:32:46 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's like, first of all, you've got to have a very specific decore in your home to have a black toilet match, and secondly. 00:32:53 Speaker 4: Have a beach cottage. 00:32:55 Speaker 3: Really, I would say Alvira Mistress of the dark. 00:33:00 Speaker 2: Black toilet, No kind of a New England beachy or oh wow, you know, I think that's a black toilet for sure. 00:33:08 Speaker 5: Okay, I was thinking sort of like decadent Los Angeles bachelor pad. 00:33:15 Speaker 4: No, you know, for a rug on the floor. 00:33:18 Speaker 2: The main purchasers of black toilets are grandmothers, really, you know, quiet types. 00:33:24 Speaker 4: Who just like some tea and a good book. 00:33:26 Speaker 5: I think you would think that it's interesting that they're normally white, because you would think that, well, you'd want a dark colored toilet so that you don't see what happens. But then maybe that's why you do want a white toilet, so that you can see doesn't know one it's clean, I mean build up, Yeah, you don't see the build up. 00:33:41 Speaker 4: A black toilet's an absolutely filthy object. 00:33:43 Speaker 5: Yeah, you're right, because because no one ever takes a toilet brush to it, you always look at you go, yeah, it's fine. 00:33:48 Speaker 2: Right, And no one who owns a black toilet, I mean the person's life is absolutely out of control. 00:33:55 Speaker 4: There. 00:33:55 Speaker 2: Every surface of their home is filthy. Let's just be honest. They live basically in a filthy night club. Yeah, the decision to buy a black toilet, I mean, I support, you know, we're not going to toilet shame. But I don't know that anyone should buy a black toilet. 00:34:09 Speaker 3: My parents in their house have and they they didn't install this. 00:34:12 Speaker 5: It's just there. But there's a gray toilet. It's sad, it's really it's really toilet. Yeah, oh interesting, it's really strange gray, like yeah, like a smoky gray. 00:34:25 Speaker 3: It's really weird. 00:34:27 Speaker 5: And I get I don't know the people who owned the home before then, they've moved into this place a few years ago, but uh, it's a it's got their their home has a lot of weird accessories that was installed. But I think kind of an eccentric person, and so I guess he wanted he wanted a gray toilet. 00:34:44 Speaker 2: I don't want to tell you now, what do you think I've heard? This might be another thing that might just be a complete myth. But people who like go to Canada to buy toilets, is that a real thing where it's never of this the water pressure like I guess they're like within the United States water pressure and toy it's as regulated. And so if you go to Canada or whatever, you can get a toilet that really rips and roars. 00:35:05 Speaker 5: Well in I mean, I hope people aren't doing this here in Los Angeles than in California. More broadly, we have, you know, limits on the amount of water that can be flushed, right, and I believe it's limited in LA to something like one point three gallons, but a standard toilet might have one gallon. And these Toto toilets, they have some that'll flush with zero point eight gallons, which is a benefit if you are wanting to save water when you pee, you're not wanting to do if it's yellow leaded mellow, right, so you can you can save water that way, whereas an old fashioned toilet might use like three gallons of water on a flush. And like, we can't be having waterfall in conditions of drought, right, So, uh, there are limits, and I would imagine now how are those enforced. They're enforcement the home is built. Probably you can't sell toilets in California that have flushes over a certain amounts. So yes, I suppose someone could get it a foreign toilet, illegal toilet, but I I there's the thing is there's no benefit to this. Because they've improved toilet technologies, they don't need as much water. 00:36:11 Speaker 4: It's a more efficient toilet. 00:36:13 Speaker 5: Yeah, and it's still flushing, so there's no there's no reason to I'm. 00:36:19 Speaker 2: Not thinking about like an industrial type toilet you would see in a public space, but those do always seem like they're yeah, more powerful. 00:36:26 Speaker 4: So maybe that's the sort of toilet we're talking about. 00:36:28 Speaker 5: Well, those were in those were typically installed much earlier, oh like a public school or whatever. Right, Like that's a toilet that was probably installed in like the sixties. 00:36:36 Speaker 4: Big lever on it. 00:36:37 Speaker 5: Yeah, right, that has it's like forcing the water through the whirlpool. 00:36:42 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:36:43 Speaker 4: Interesting. 00:36:43 Speaker 2: So, yeah, the illegal toilet trade, I'm not quite sure if that's you want it. Imagine driving to Canada and that's the purpose of your vacation. I mean, like a twelve hour we I mean probably eighteen hour drive and you're thinking about a toilet the entire time. 00:37:00 Speaker 5: Efficient appliances are nothing but a boon for society in every way. They save you money, they save the environment, you know, like dishwashers have. 00:37:07 Speaker 3: Gotten much better washing machines all the time. You know. 00:37:10 Speaker 2: Interest Now, this is not really so much an appliance, but I've recently become an electric toothbrush owner. 00:37:15 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, me too. 00:37:16 Speaker 4: What's your feeling on it. 00:37:18 Speaker 3: I love electric. I love my electric toothbrush. 00:37:20 Speaker 5: I got one because I was I realized, you know, the the whole point is the timing that when it times, it times you on the quadrants and that's much better. And I was like, I'm getting older, I need to take care of my teeth. 00:37:33 Speaker 4: Right and gums and gums. 00:37:36 Speaker 5: And I did good. I have in the last couple of years. I now have a whole I floss, I do my teeth. It takes like ten minutes. I literally put on a podcast, so because first I got do my my flossing and then my toothbrushing. 00:37:49 Speaker 3: But so I do like a basic electric toothbrush. 00:37:52 Speaker 5: The electorcoth brushes have gotten out of control with They've got bluetooth and things. 00:37:56 Speaker 4: What is the bluetooth doing? 00:37:57 Speaker 3: Does nothing? 00:37:59 Speaker 5: It connects to an app on your phone that analyzes how well you brush your teeth and sends data back to Big Tooth. 00:38:06 Speaker 2: They're gonna sell that and your teeth are now in danger, yeah, your teeth privacy. 00:38:12 Speaker 5: And my dentist tried to scam me into buying one of these because I went to the dentist. And I had to stop going to this dentist because I realized this dentist was upselling me. This was a fancy dentist in Larchmont area. And I started going to this dentist because my girlfriend was having really bad dental problems and with a particular cavity that kept the feeling kept falling out, and she went to Dentisffter Dentists, and finally this dentist fixed it. And we're like, okay, this guy, this guy is great. We'll both make the schlep out to Larchmont to go. But this is a fancy dentist place you in large They do cosmetic dentistry and stuff like that, and so we but we have been going there for a couple of years and then suddenly we go and we we sit there and me and Lisa, my girlfriend, both go on the same day. We have a pointless one after another, and so I go and I sit down and they have a new dental hygienist, and the dental hygienis previously when they had done the dental hygiene for me, they're like, all right, yeah, we blasted yourself. Okay, we cleaned it all out and then all your teeth look good, no problem. This time, I go down I go there, I said, the dental hygienists. New lady had not seen her before at this office. And she says, oh, no, your teeth. Oh there's you have big gaps. You have big um what is it, like big fissures, like like your gums. 00:39:23 Speaker 3: They go really deep. Your gums are receding. 00:39:25 Speaker 5: And that's because it's really dirty there and you need a deep clean. 00:39:29 Speaker 3: You have to have a deep clean, and we need. 00:39:30 Speaker 5: To inject like like antibiotics or something like deep into your teeth or some kind of it was like an anti viral or something. It was like an extra thing that was extra money. And she like frightened me. She's like, we need to get on this right now or you're gonna lose all your teeth. And then she said, are you using an electric toothbrush? And I was like, well, I was thinking about it, but I don't you know, I haven't bought one yet. And they said, she said, okay, she does all this shit to my teeth. And then she says, okay, you need to use this electric toothbrush. And then she takes an electric toothbrush and puts it in my hand. You're going to buy this. And then leaves, and so while I'm sitting there, I look up the electric toothbrush on the wire cutter, and the wirecutter says, this is a two hundred and. 00:40:09 Speaker 3: Fifty dollars electric toothbrush. There's no reason to own this. 00:40:12 Speaker 5: It has no advantages over a thirty dollars electric tooth rush at all. So just get the thirty dollars one. And she comes back and I say, hey, so I'm not going to get this because the thirty dollars one is just good, and she says, no, no, no, no, this is the one we recommend. 00:40:27 Speaker 3: And I say no. 00:40:29 Speaker 5: I say no, captive, I'm a captive. I'm sitting there with with a with a you know, a sheet on me. I'm tied up, I'm in the chair, my legs are higher than my. 00:40:38 Speaker 4: Head, there's no escape, there's nowhere for. 00:40:41 Speaker 3: Me to even put it. 00:40:42 Speaker 5: I'm like, I won't be taking this, and I just sort of like toss it off to the side of the floor like just I'm sorry, I won't be getting this. So she all right, and then I get up and I leave and I go to the front and the receptionist behind says, so, I heard you're getting an electric toothbrush today, and I said, no, I'm not many electric toothbrush. And then they charge me, you know, they they charge my insurance and then they say, okay, it's gonna be an extra hundred dollars for your you know, for all the treatments here today. It's like, all right, fine, I pay this, and then I'm leaving, and my girlfriend says to me, She's like she was waiting for me, but as I'm leaving, she's like upset. She's like, the dental the hygienis told me that my teeth are She got the same speech, Yeah, that my teeth are in really bad shape, and that I needed to get this injection of like antibacterial stuff, like a deep clean and and I was like, she said the same thing to me, and we we last came here six months ago. 00:41:39 Speaker 3: They didn't tell us this shit. So I'm like, you know what happened. 00:41:43 Speaker 5: They got a new dental hygienist who told the dentists tell you what, I'm gonna turn the whole business around. I'm gonna let I've looked at your numbers. You're not doing well enough. Let me tell you something I'll bring in my system. Here's what I do. I tell them their teeth are falling out of their heads, they need the special injection, they need the deep clean. 00:41:58 Speaker 3: I sell them a toothbrush. 00:42:00 Speaker 5: Increase your revenue, And they said hired, and they started telling people this and and I literally was like, I still liked the dentist himself. 00:42:08 Speaker 3: I think he's a good dentist. But I was like, I can't go here anymore. 00:42:11 Speaker 4: I hired kind of a scam artist. 00:42:13 Speaker 5: I don't trust them anymore because if I what happens, I go in next time and they say now that I now that they've broken the bond of trust because they've told me. And by the way, I started going to a new dentist. And the new dentist when I went to them, they're like, yeah, your teeth look good. Yeah, no, have you been flawssing good? You're doing fine, see you in six months. So I'm like, I can't go to this old dentist because I don't trust them, right, And what if I go in and they say you need dental surgery or you need a cavity, I'm not going to believe them that I need it to be done. They've been lying to me, and so I can't have this with a dentist. And then here's the last part. Okay, so first of all, this is if your experience has anything like mine, you can question your dentist a little. And I don't tell people to question their their medical professionals. 00:42:55 Speaker 3: But this is the case in which I think. 00:42:57 Speaker 4: Is healthy skepticism, just a pinch or ask around. 00:43:01 Speaker 5: But then I realized they sent me. After I got back, they sent me another bill. 00:43:05 Speaker 3: For one hundred dollars. 00:43:06 Speaker 4: What was this for? 00:43:07 Speaker 3: This? This is what they did. 00:43:09 Speaker 5: Every time I would go in and I would get their treatments, and then they would say, okay, we're going to charge your insurance and then here's the code. Pay seventy to one hundred dollars, right, And then I would get home and they would say, you know, a month later, i'd get a bill and they would say, okay, well we got this much from your insurance, but your insurance didn't pay us the last hundred dollars, so you owso one hundred dollars. 00:43:27 Speaker 3: And I used to pay it every single. 00:43:29 Speaker 4: Time, right, just without thinking, yeah, this. 00:43:31 Speaker 5: Time because I decided, fuck this place, they're up charging. I was selling me on everything. I'm not going to go there anymore, I replied, and I said, I won't be paying this because you already charged my insurance and that's how much it's worth, like I don't know you any more money, right, And they just never replied, and I realized, I realized the whole time, this is just this is just a dental office that has realized if they just ask people for one hundred dollars, they'll usually pay it. 00:43:55 Speaker 4: That is chilling, they'll usually pay it. 00:43:57 Speaker 5: But like, because the way it works is the way it works with medical billing in America's horrible health system is that the medical provider basically makes up numbers right for how much the services cost. The insurer then says, I'm sorry, that's not how much this costs. This is how much we're going to pay you, and they haggle, they negotiate with the insurer. In this case, this dentist is making a choice to say, hey, our made up number you still owe us, that you still low us the extra hundred dollars. 00:44:23 Speaker 3: But like under what rules I owed them? 00:44:25 Speaker 4: I wasn't part of this negotiating. 00:44:27 Speaker 5: I paid them a copay right as what I was required to by my insurance plan. I wanted to, Like, if they're if they don't want to take my insurance right and want to make me pay out of pocket, they can insist. But they weren't doing that. They were just you know, offering me a bill, sending me a bill. So I realized, like, this is just a thing that people need to know about healthcare in America. 00:44:46 Speaker 3: Fucking haggle with them just when you get a. 00:44:48 Speaker 4: Billy day, Okay, I'm happy to say no. 00:44:52 Speaker 5: Yeah, and you might end Look, if it's a really serious thing, unlike a shitty dentist, you're never going to see again. 00:44:57 Speaker 3: You might not win the negotiation. 00:44:59 Speaker 5: But like if if you just take the step of arguing with them, and this is the main this is the main thing people say when you go to the hospital, if you get a bill from the hospital, you have to ask them for an itemized bill. Because once you do that, that's them knowing, Okay, this person's smart and we have to at least give them a real bill. And then you can look at the bill and the number will come back. If you just ask for an itemized bill, it'll come down. If you just ask for that. 00:45:21 Speaker 4: Wow, that's fascinating, it is. 00:45:24 Speaker 5: But then beyond that, you can haggle with them and say, I'm I'm not paying this, I can't pay this. 00:45:29 Speaker 3: You know what sort of financial assistance do you offer? 00:45:31 Speaker 5: There are people called medical Billing Advocates who you can find if you, for instance, live in California, you can look up California Medical Billing Advocates and these are organizations that will help you negotiate with a hospital by just being a sort of you know, you're representative who knows how it. 00:45:49 Speaker 3: Works better than you do. 00:45:51 Speaker 4: Some of the books, some. 00:45:52 Speaker 3: Of them are nonprofits. 00:45:54 Speaker 4: Service. 00:45:55 Speaker 5: It is a great service. It's really important. More people need to take advantage of it. So that's my horrible story about you simply asking me if I use an electric truth brush led to that entire story. 00:46:05 Speaker 4: I mean, And now just a mild counterpoint. 00:46:09 Speaker 2: You went to the this dentist, had a fine time, went six months later, had this horrible time. Is there any chance in the in between you ate a lot of Halloween candy? I'm not ruling that out. 00:46:22 Speaker 5: I don't eat much candy, to be honest. I eat ice cream, but not so much candy and ice cream. You know, you don't need that offense sound as bad for you. 00:46:28 Speaker 4: Okay, well I'll decide on. 00:46:33 Speaker 3: My teeth got worse again. I went to another dentist later. 00:46:37 Speaker 4: I love it. 00:46:37 Speaker 2: I love a dental hygienist. Usually when pushed, I will side with the hygienist. So, not knowing this person and obviously admiring their salesmanship and kind of their bravado. 00:46:52 Speaker 4: I'm not going to pick a side here. 00:46:54 Speaker 2: I'm happy for you and your journey away from this person who made you uncomfortable. 00:46:58 Speaker 3: But I think that she elitch Aliekh try to take my money for me. 00:47:04 Speaker 2: I mean, I've recently and this is probably the most boring story in the world, but I recently had a hygienist experience. I had made a playlist of songs which uh probably a ten am on a let's say a Wednesday morning. I decided to label it vanishing Hygienist. Two hours later, I get a call from my dentist about my appointment that day, and they said, unfortunately, we have to cancel. The hygienist isn't coming in. Did I will that hygienis into coming in? 00:47:33 Speaker 3: Why did you call a playlist vanishing hygienis? 00:47:35 Speaker 2: It kind of had this kind of a sleepy feel, and I kind of like almost fading out. 00:47:39 Speaker 4: I started thinking, oh maybe like. 00:47:41 Speaker 6: Just like as an artistic combint and it kind of felt kind of dreamy and uh like you had almost been administered something by a hygienist and they were fading away. 00:47:53 Speaker 2: Wow, and so but then two hours later my hygienis actually vanishes. 00:47:57 Speaker 4: What do how the hours later you make this playlist? How do we explain? 00:48:01 Speaker 5: I mean, I think you I think you have the gift of sight. Think I think you maybe have you know, I think you're a psychic? 00:48:11 Speaker 3: Could be, could be, we don't know. Is there any other explanation? 00:48:16 Speaker 5: I mean, the other explanation is random chance, and that coincidence has happened in everybody's lives as a non statistical certainty, everyone will experience some coincidences in their lives that are seem almost impossible because of how many things happened to you. Eventually you will experience a crazy coincidence. Could be that, or it could be. 00:48:33 Speaker 3: That you have ESP. 00:48:35 Speaker 2: I tend to lean towards ESP. Okay, and we'll just let the listener, of course decide. Yeah, this has been very contentious for both of us and my hygienist, and so I mean the hygienist did end up coming the next day, I went to the dental appointment and told me that they had had COVID. Oh, so the whole experience was I have a lot of dental Last year was a year of dental hell for me. 00:48:59 Speaker 3: This year, I'm so sorry. 00:49:01 Speaker 2: You know, the dentist is a tricky medical procedure. You never quite know what. 00:49:05 Speaker 4: You're gonna get. 00:49:06 Speaker 2: Yeah, we love our dentists, but as you've demonstrated, some dentists are not to be trusted. Some hygienists, unfortunately apparently can't be trusted. Although I do side with you hygienists. I I hopefully you. 00:49:21 Speaker 4: Have a union. I'm happy to speak. 00:49:23 Speaker 2: I'm happy to come in and meet with you people and talk through this. But okay, I have my electric bidet which could probably also as a water pick, so. 00:49:36 Speaker 5: Only of you only use it for that purpose the first time. Use it as a bidet. Don't then try to repurpose later as a water pick. It would be my advice. 00:49:45 Speaker 2: Look, I'm not going to be told what to do with my electric I'm sorry, it's yours, it's my life, it's my bidet and we'll see what happens. 00:49:54 Speaker 3: Once it passes from my hands into yours. You can use it whatever you want. 00:49:57 Speaker 2: I've been given this kind of sacred power, and we'll see what I do with it. We'll see how responsible I am. But I think it's time to play a game. 00:50:05 Speaker 3: Oh, let's play a game. 00:50:06 Speaker 2: Let's play a game called Gift for a Curse. I need a number between one and ten from you. 00:50:10 Speaker 3: Nine, Okay. 00:50:11 Speaker 2: I have to do some light calculating to get our game pieces. In the meantime, you can recommend something, you can promote something, you have the mic, Oh, whatever you want. 00:50:18 Speaker 5: Well, I hope folks will check out. My new show on Netflix is called The G Word. It's an educational comedy show about the government and how it affects our lives, both good and bad. 00:50:29 Speaker 3: It's very funny and weird. 00:50:31 Speaker 5: I do a bunch of crazy shit, like fly into a hurricane with the Air Force's Hurricane Hunters, and I go to a meat processing plant to see how meat is inspected by the USDA, and former President Obama is in it. And we highlight a lot of crazy shit. And if you have liked any of my weird irritating facts that I've delivered to you on this podcast today. 00:50:54 Speaker 3: You might enjoy that show. It's called The g Word. It's on Netflix now. 00:50:57 Speaker 5: And I also do a podcast in my own called Actually, where I interview a different amazing expert from around the world of human knowledge. 00:51:05 Speaker 6: Every single episode that podcast is called Factually, how does Obama smell? 00:51:11 Speaker 3: Scentseless? 00:51:12 Speaker 4: Senseless? 00:51:12 Speaker 5: That makes sense, ab absolutely no sense. A dog would not even notice if you. 00:51:17 Speaker 2: Entry, like a new iPhone or something that makes That actually makes perfect sense to me. I don't even know why I asked. I knew the answer before I asked it. Okay, this is how we play Gift or a Curse. I'm gonna name three things. Okay, You're gonna tell me if there are a gift or a curse and why, and then I'm going to tell you if you're right or wrong, because there are correct answers here. Okay, okay. Number one These are all listeners suggestions. The first one is from someone named Mackenzie. Gift or a curse sitting and talking at the table after you've already paid your bill. 00:51:48 Speaker 3: Oh, curse at a restaurant, I assume. 00:51:50 Speaker 4: Yes, probably not a hospital. 00:51:53 Speaker 5: I I I believe it's a curse. You First off, if you want to sit and talk longer, you can. That's where you order coffee or dessert. There's a right part of the restaurant for this. First of all, it's a curse for the people who work at the restaurant. They need to turn those tables over. You're interfering with their ability to make a living at the restaurant. 00:52:14 Speaker 3: Now, there's there's a grace period. 00:52:16 Speaker 5: Sure, you know there's like ten, three or four hours, but also you know you've already been sitting at this restaurant for like ninety minutes at this point. If you want to keep hanging out, get up and go for a walk, go get ice cream. 00:52:28 Speaker 2: You know That's what I think. So it's a curse perfect of course. I mean, I mean not only for those reasons. And as a former waiter, I know that pain very well. It's like, get out of here. The money, the exchange is over, and I need to get those dishes off the table. 00:52:42 Speaker 4: I need to get this moving. 00:52:44 Speaker 2: Also, as a diner, I'm so nervous after we've paid the money and the meal is over. Yeah, ten minutes, I'm happy to sit there, but I'm so anxious to exit the restaurant. At that point, I feel like I'm now an intruder in other people's space. I'm it's an absolute curse if you enjoy the company of these people. 00:53:06 Speaker 5: Yeah, the last thing is you're also ruining the social script. We all know we're at the restaurant. We know what the next step is. The bill came, you paid the bill, and then eventually, you know, you got a little grace perier. Then someone says, well shall we and then you all get up and you go, someone uses the bathroom. 00:53:23 Speaker 3: There's like a whole script here. 00:53:24 Speaker 5: If you don't do this, if you unilaterally decide I like something and talking after the bill is coming, you're putting everyone at the table with you in an awkward position of going like why why is nobody why is nobody standing up? 00:53:35 Speaker 2: Part of me, I'm no longer fully engaged in the conversation. I'm so nervous. I can't quite dial into the conversation. I'm waiting to get out. 00:53:45 Speaker 3: I don't even like dessert at restaurants. 00:53:47 Speaker 4: I don't either, I like to eat a dessert in another look. 00:53:50 Speaker 3: Exactly, shake my hands, exactly right. 00:53:53 Speaker 5: Because the desserts and restaurants are almost always terrible because they're not These are an afterthought. These are not dessert kitchens. Yes, what are they going to give you? Molten lava cake? Crembrew let, We've had it. It's not that good. Neither of those are that good? Sorbet fine, whatever they have it they bought. They bought it in bulk in the back and sitting in the freezer, Like, what the fuck? 00:54:14 Speaker 3: Go walk and go get ice cream. Yes, I've got a bunch on this podcast. 00:54:20 Speaker 4: Well it's a delicious thing to eat. 00:54:21 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:54:22 Speaker 2: Yeah, and it mixes up the evening. You've already enjoyed the space. I don't need to extend the restaurant experience. I already had the main thing. Yeah, I don't know. And also I know I'm going to be spending money elsewhere, but when we're multiplying the money on the current ticket, it's too much. Yeah, I'm like, let's go spend money on another location. 00:54:39 Speaker 5: Yeah, or go to a bar if you prefer. I don't anymore, but you know, when I did it, it's like, that's a very nice. 00:54:45 Speaker 2: Right, there's a nice little chat spot. Okay, Well you've gotten one out of one excellent number two. This is from someone named g K. Those are some mysterious initials give to a curse. 00:54:56 Speaker 5: Trial subscriptions, trial subscriptions, just anything in general. 00:55:02 Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know. Trial subscription agazine. 00:55:05 Speaker 3: They're a curse. 00:55:06 Speaker 5: They're designed to suck you in and you know, get you now. Look, there's a very rare type of trial subscription which I'm fine with, and that's trial subscription that does not ask for any payment information. 00:55:17 Speaker 3: Oh but that's very rare. 00:55:19 Speaker 5: Most of them will ask you for your credit card because all they're doing is they're just gonna charge you. You know, they're gonna charge you once later. It's a way for them to get your credit card information. You're not gonna remember to unsubscribe, and even if you did, it's like a lot of work. A lot of places will make you, like call them on the phone. There's no way to unsubscribe on the website. You have to call them on the phone and then they say, why do you want to unsubscribe? 00:55:43 Speaker 3: Right? 00:55:43 Speaker 5: You have to have a whole fucking conversation with them. So it's not that I've never taken advantage of a trial subscription. Certainly there's been a couple instances where I'm like, yes, okay, I'm uh it gets helps get me over the hump. I was thinking about subscribing, but you know what, it's just a trial, et cetera. 00:55:59 Speaker 3: But this is this is not a. 00:56:01 Speaker 2: Freebie, right, oh adam, They're a gift. It's absolutely a gift. Of course, have to be very careful. You have to be very careful. But it's a challenge to the subscriber. You're you're about to get a week of free something, but you have to you have to rise to the challenge. You have to set a reminder on your phone. You have to send yourself an email that you leave unopened until you've canceled the subscription. We've all got to do the trial subscriptions, but we've got to be better about canceling. But also there is kind of a little bit of a thrill, a little bit of danger to thinking, oh I might be charged seven to ninety nine in a month. 00:56:37 Speaker 3: There's the se I disagree with you fundamentally. 00:56:40 Speaker 5: I think that I don't think it should be on the individual, because I think trial subscriptions are taking advantage of a flaw in human psychology that we are born with that can never escape, which is that we are bad thinking about the future and about remembering to do these things. And and so what they're trying to set up is just a system by which money can be silently siphoned away out of our account. Why is every Why is literally every single service turning into a subscription everything? 00:57:07 Speaker 2: We will eventually be renting every single object in our lives. 00:57:10 Speaker 5: And that's because that what it does is it removes for the seller the pain point of you having to give them money. When you when you have to decide to give them money, I don't want to. But if you just make the decision, I'm to send it for a trial membership is not costing me anything. Now, then when the money starts coming out of your account, you don't even notice. And so this is like saying, you know, slot machines at the casino, that's on you to figure out when to stop doing it. No, these are designed to be addictive, right, designed to steal money from you and trick you by exploiting human psychology. And that's what the trial subscriptions do too. 00:57:44 Speaker 2: Now. 00:57:44 Speaker 5: I don't think either of them should be like illegal, but they are shitty interesting. 00:57:50 Speaker 2: I mean, look beautifully argued, not getting the point. We've got to be careful with the trial subscriptions. Of course, we have to write to the Challenge to rip these corporations off. Sign up for it and then just cancel immediately. A lot of these will just then allow you to have the full week free of charge. But you've got to outsmart the system. And uh so for those reasons. A gift, an absolute gift, a perfect gift. So you've gotten one out of two. You've got a final chance here, Mariah. Mariah has written in gift or a curse leaf blowers. 00:58:23 Speaker 3: Oh, these are a curse. 00:58:25 Speaker 5: Oh you won't possibly, you're not going to sit here and claim to me that a leaf. 00:58:31 Speaker 3: Blower is a gift. 00:58:33 Speaker 5: Well, we'll see you've fallen into such a trap now if that's what you think. So first of all, let's just all agree that leaves do not need to be blown. We have these things called rakes. They work great, and leave blowing the leaf. This doesn't solve your problem. A leaf is still around, is going to blow right back to where it was. If you were, now, for instance, to suck a leaf a leaf vacuum. 00:58:57 Speaker 3: That would remove the leaf. If you're really worried about of the leaves. 00:59:00 Speaker 5: But also leaf blowers are the noisiest thing ever made, and they do They're noisier than a lawnmower, and they do less. Here you are in Highland Parker. I'm sure that many an afternoon has been ruined for you on a weekend by a leaf blower. And here's the kapper. 00:59:16 Speaker 3: Ready. Are you ready for this? I'm ready. 00:59:19 Speaker 5: The engine that is used by leaf blowers. It's a small, single cylinder engine. It's one of the most inefficient engines that is used in any combustion device. 00:59:29 Speaker 3: They burn gasoline. 00:59:31 Speaker 5: They take gasoline, and they burn it in such an inefficient way that they create an incredible amount of greenhouse gases and pollutants when it's completely unnecessary for them to do so. 00:59:40 Speaker 3: Again, to do this thing that nobody really needs to have done. 00:59:44 Speaker 5: And so there's actually I think pretty soon California should be passing a law that will ban the sale of new ones, because there are actually now electric leaf blowers that should work just as well. 00:59:56 Speaker 3: And I don't really have a problem with this is electricity. 01:00:00 Speaker 2: But I'll be traveling to Canada to get their leaf flowers. I need a toilet and a leaf blower. I'll be back in thirty eight hours. 01:00:06 Speaker 3: Gasoline powered leaf blowers are a cursed ever. 01:00:09 Speaker 5: They ruin everything for everybody, and they're unnecessary and uh and a lot of them are very old because they you know, people people keep using them for a. 01:00:18 Speaker 3: Yeah, and people also don't like Look, ninety percent. 01:00:21 Speaker 5: Of the time a leaf blower is not being used by a person who actually owns the home says I want my leaves to be blown, right. They're instead being used by this person as some rich fuck Right. They've just hired some landscaper maintenance person to come by, and that person is just doing it because I don't give a shit. 01:00:41 Speaker 3: I don't live here. 01:00:42 Speaker 5: I don't care about the noise. You know, this is just like part of what I do. And so this is being done senselessly. If we were to literally confiscate every gasoline powered leaf blower in the state of California, first of all, no one would notice for a month except for the people who are, you know, doing the work. Sure be compensating, making sure they don't lose any income. 01:01:02 Speaker 3: But I don't blame the worker. I blame the I blame the machine. 01:01:06 Speaker 5: But first of all, our lives would be no worse if we weren't blowing these leaves around, And secondly, we would all be breathing much cleaner and we would have much more. 01:01:14 Speaker 3: RESTful Sunday afternoons. 01:01:17 Speaker 5: Or we could just relax in our backyards and listen to a little music on the bluetooth speaker and not have it be overpowered by why are we allowing this in the first place? This is my absolutely a curse. I defy you to argue that it's a gift. 01:01:34 Speaker 2: Adam, You're not gonna have any pushback from me. I hate, of course, I hate. 01:01:40 Speaker 4: I can't. 01:01:41 Speaker 2: In what way could I honestly stand up for a leaf blower? I mean, I do like the idea of an electric leaf blower, like a sleek, silent thing that's blowing things around my yard. I haven't seen one. I'm not aware of how I would even procure one. Or a leaf sucker. That's an interesting A giant vacuum shop back, yeah, a shop back, but then you're cleaning it out. Get the rake, get a ray, get the pile of leaves. Then you get the fun of the fall old fashioned. 01:02:07 Speaker 3: Fox, and we'll come around and jump in the leaf pile. 01:02:10 Speaker 4: Right, you get to own a rake. 01:02:12 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an interesting looking object that can kind of fall over you while you're like going through the garage. I absolutely despise the sound, the smell, the concept. 01:02:24 Speaker 3: I thought you're hearing. 01:02:25 Speaker 2: We're hearing a plane, which is probably quieter than a leaf blower. So I mean, I do feel slightly bad kind of talking about leaf blowers in this way. And none have interrupted this podcast yet. We've had a fire truck, we've had an ambulance, we've had multiple helicopters and a plane, and we're throwing all of this shame on the leaf blower. But that's because it's a horrible object. It's a curse. You got two out of three, not bad. Thank you excellently played. 01:02:49 Speaker 3: Thank you. 01:02:50 Speaker 2: It's time for the final segment of the podcast. I said no emails. People are writing into I said no gifts at gmail dot com. 01:02:57 Speaker 4: Desperate. 01:02:58 Speaker 2: Every one of my listeners is a sprint kind of They're just scratching at me to get answers, and so I do it politely. I get into it. They have problems, will help me answer a question, Yeah, of course, Okay, so this says did I said they're writing into I said, no gift at gmail dot com. It doesn't matter. Hello, Bridger and Guest. I have been placed on the Wellness Month committee for my company. I am responsible for coming up with a company wide gift to give everyone. The gift should be relatively affordable, since we're buying like fifty of them, and of course something everyone would like a gift universally beloved. Last year, everyone got a Yetti tumbler. Help, what should I get every single person in my company this year? Your help would be greatly appreciated, sincerely, CK. Oh interesting that we've had a GK and a CK. We've got these initials happening all over the podcast at this point. Okay, so this person needs fifty things for the Wellness Month committee. I don't know what wellness month even. 01:03:55 Speaker 3: Is, So does it need to be a wellness yeah? 01:03:59 Speaker 2: I mean the example given a Yetti tumbler, which I guess keeps you hydrated. 01:04:04 Speaker 4: Yeah, but not explicitly helpful thing. 01:04:07 Speaker 2: So I mean, right off the bat, cigarettes that's on the table. Everybody gets fifty dollars worth of cigarettes? 01:04:14 Speaker 4: What is that a pack? 01:04:16 Speaker 2: I don't know how much a cigarette costs at this point, so that's one thing. That cart that's a carton. Okay, so there you go. See k wrap those up and give them out if you need something a little more helpful. 01:04:28 Speaker 5: What to we give them, Well, first of all, I'm a big fan and what I try to get people in my own life a lot. Now, I'm a big fan of food gifts because food gifts are everybody loves them, you know, if you get the right food and they don't go to waste. So I have you know, water containers are one that you might think is popular, But I have so many Swag water containers. I mean now jeans, I have Swell bottles. I have so many of them, and I already have one that I use every day. 01:04:58 Speaker 2: Yeah, you kind of get used to Yeah, and you don't need to branch out. 01:05:02 Speaker 5: Yeah, And so I think that that can end up creating a lot of waste. Like Yetti tumblers, those are nice. Yetti is like sort of a high end company, and so those are probably and I'm thinking Tumblr, they're probably talking about one of those like large coffee tumblers. 01:05:15 Speaker 2: Right, I'm picturing everyone at this company driving to work in the morning with the coffee and they're Yetti tumbler and they're happy. 01:05:21 Speaker 3: But I've but. 01:05:21 Speaker 5: I've received myself two or three coffee tumblers, and I'm like, I use a thermos, like I use it Japanese dojarushi thermos. I'm really into Japanese we got. It's a it's a really nice sort of it's got like a clasp, but it never spills. You can like throw it up in the air and it won't spill. It keeps everything hot or cold forever. It's really great for my commute. I'm a bus and train commuter, so it's really good for that. 01:05:48 Speaker 4: And what did it cost? 01:05:49 Speaker 5: These things are costs like twenty bucks, But so the kind that's more of a car cup is not useful to me, the kind you might have in a car next. So so anything like that's an object everybuying for fifty people, You're some of that's going to go to waste, right, and. 01:06:05 Speaker 4: So somebody's not going to be happy with their gift. 01:06:08 Speaker 5: But if you can find a good if you can find a good food gift that everyone will like, so it can't be booze. 01:06:15 Speaker 4: Right because people don't an allergen. 01:06:19 Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean you you might want to avoid wheat, but For instance, something that might be nice would be, uh, some nice dark chocolate if there's a dark chocolate gift box. 01:06:28 Speaker 3: Everybody loves chocolate. 01:06:29 Speaker 5: If they don't they know someone else who loves chocolate, that chocolate is getting eaten no matter what by somebody. 01:06:35 Speaker 3: Yeah, by some wilderhood dog. Yeah. 01:06:38 Speaker 5: Another one that I like to get people is there's a there's a pineapple company called Maui Gold. But so these are these are like gold Maui Gold. These are like special pineapples. And it's like forty dollars to get a pineapple ship to somebody, which was expensive. It's a single pineapple, but it's like supposedly I've ever actually had one, but everyone I've gotten one for says that's the best pineapple I've ever had. 01:06:56 Speaker 3: And it's so it's it creates delight in someone. 01:06:59 Speaker 5: It's a great gift to give someone who you might have a business relationship with, and you want to get this something around the holidays, but you don't want to think too much about I'm give them a pineapple. 01:07:06 Speaker 2: Pineapple is a beautiful kind of almost retro gift to get exactly anyway, I'm don Draper opening it in my office and. 01:07:12 Speaker 5: Exactly, and it takes the place of say a bottle of wine. But I don't Again, I don't drink, so I don't get people bottles of wine because I'm attuned to the fact that not everybody drinks. 01:07:20 Speaker 3: So there's that. 01:07:21 Speaker 5: Here's my other suggestion, in addition to a food gift is there are companies that will sell you charity gift cards. And so these are gift cards that you can use to you know, you give someone a gift, a charity gift card for fifty dollars, then they go on the website and then they choose where the fifty dollars goes, right, so you know they can And there's a company called tis Best TI s b E s T dot org, tis best dot org right, and they will send you I believe you can do like a bulk order. If you want to get fifty fifty dollars gift cards, you can do that, or you can do it via email and say I want to email people the gift cards and then they receive the gift card. They go online and they enter the code, just like for an Amazon gift card, but they do it on that website and they can choose you know, among like a couple hundred different charities which they wanted. 01:08:10 Speaker 3: To go to. 01:08:10 Speaker 4: That so lovely gift. 01:08:11 Speaker 5: That's really nice because I them choose the charity. And here's now let's go a little cynical. I believe you as the company might get a rite off. 01:08:20 Speaker 2: Okay, yeah we go here, we go dodging taxes. 01:08:25 Speaker 5: But it's really good to uh, it's if the gesture is more important than the gift itself. And you want to give people. You know, some people might say, ah, fuck you, I wanted something real. 01:08:36 Speaker 4: I can foresee that happening. 01:08:37 Speaker 3: But also a lot of people. I'm someone when I get a gift, I say, I don't need this crap. Don't give me shit to throw away. 01:08:43 Speaker 5: So the charity gift card, the charity gift card disposes of the social obligation while allowing you to do something that everyone will think is a good thing to do. 01:08:50 Speaker 2: That's a beautiful gift. And now how about a haircut. Fifty you bring in a barber haircut. It's a decent haircut. Some of your coworkers, that may be a worse haircut for a lot of them. It might be a better haircut. You bring in and suddenly everyone in the company is looking brand new. Yeah, and there's also you know, they see this person setting up, They're like, oh, they got us massage. 01:09:13 Speaker 4: It's great. 01:09:14 Speaker 2: And then suddenly everyone is forced to get a fifty dollars haircut, which is not a bad haircut. Again, that's more than I'll pay on a haircut, but I'm sure for a lot of people less than. So you're gonna have an interesting looking new group of co workers. Some will be like, I got the worst haircut of my life. I fel like I am a new person and it's going to create a new dynamic within the company that will make Wellness Month so excited. 01:09:35 Speaker 5: I think that's great, and that's much funny than any of my suggestions. 01:09:38 Speaker 2: Well, THEK has gotten so many I mean, from cigarettes to charities to haircuts. 01:09:45 Speaker 4: This company is in for the right of its life. 01:09:47 Speaker 3: I think SOK. 01:09:49 Speaker 4: Take that information, do with it what you will. 01:09:52 Speaker 3: I THINKK stands for cookie King. 01:09:54 Speaker 4: Cookie king. 01:09:57 Speaker 2: The cookie king is written in his majesty, is trying to get his company something. He's been giving away cookies and he's finally got to do something else. Cookie King, Cookie King, Take the information and enjoy. Adam I now am the owner of an electric bidet. Yeah, I never knew, never thought of what happened to me, But here we are. 01:10:24 Speaker 4: I'm a new person. 01:10:25 Speaker 2: This could really change my life in a variety of ways. 01:10:29 Speaker 3: Yeah. 01:10:30 Speaker 4: I've had a wonderful time with you. 01:10:32 Speaker 2: It's been so educational, it's been delightful and listener, you've had the perfect time. I won't hear anything else about it. You've had such a great time listening to the podcast today. I'm sorry to start it out with a little gore, but we're all adults, well maybe we're all ages. We're all learning, we're all trying, and hopefully my bird story will do something for you, and hopefully you can forget it and move on with your day and we'll talk to you soon. This is the end of the podcast. I love you, goodbye. I said No Gifts is an exactly right production. It's produced by our dear friend Analise Nelson and it's beautifully mixed by John Bradley. The theme song, of course, could only come from miracle worker Amy Mann. You must follow the show on Instagram at I said No Gifts, I don't want to hear any excuses. That's where you get to see pictures of all these gorgeous gifts I'm getting. And don't you want to see pictures of the gifts? 01:11:36 Speaker 3: The lie invit? Did you hear? 01:11:40 Speaker 1: Thought a man myself perfectly clear. When you're a guess, Tom, you gotta come to me empty, And I said, no guests, your presences, presence in iad you had too much stuff. 01:12:02 Speaker 4: So how do you dare to surbey me?