Speaker 1: Pushkin.
Speaker 2: Hey, how are you?
Speaker 1: I'm okay? How are you?
Speaker 3: I I'm okay, I'm okay.
Speaker 4: I find you one of our room money.
Speaker 1: So you heard the news?
Speaker 3: Did you?
Speaker 1: Did you read the tweet that I sent you?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: Actually I haven't.
Speaker 3: I've been working all day and I haven't had a
Speaker 3: chance to bet.
Speaker 1: I can I read you the tweet from the Heavyweight
Speaker 1: account that we put out. Yeah, okay, it's a Heavyweight
Speaker 1: as it exists under Spotify will be ending after this season.
Speaker 1: We're so proud of everything we've made and we're hoping
Speaker 1: the show finds a new home in the future. Till then,
Speaker 1: stay tuned, stay subscribed, and thank you all so much
Speaker 1: for your love and support. Oh no, things are going
Speaker 1: to be okay. You know what, because it's it's it's
Speaker 1: show business. You know that song from Bugs Bunny Overtures,
Speaker 1: Turn the Lights, you know that song? This is it
Speaker 1: the night of Nights. No more rehoising and nicing up parts.
Speaker 1: We know every part by heart. It's about going on
Speaker 1: with the show.
Speaker 2: How are you going to go on with the show.
Speaker 1: We're going to try to find a new place for it.
Speaker 1: You know, we have an obligation to our listeners. Why
Speaker 1: does that make you laugh? I have an obligation to
Speaker 1: my listeners. Wait, let's let's just sit here together and
Speaker 1: think about all the laughter through the years.
Speaker 2: You're can I hang up?
Speaker 1: Can I hang up now?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: And you know what I'm gonna be okay, and you
Speaker 1: know you're gonna be okay. We're going to keep on
Speaker 1: doing this. I wanted to go to it.
Speaker 6: This is my this is my I'm signing off.
Speaker 1: I don't think you are. I don't believe it. I
Speaker 1: think you love doing this, am I right? Just admit
Speaker 1: it and I'll let you go.
Speaker 3: Goodbye?
Speaker 1: Hey, Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, thank you for these past eight years.
Speaker 2: Oh sure, off milking it.
Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight Today's episode, Harry.
Speaker 1: Right after the break, our story begins with two people,
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd or is it Todd and Ted in
Speaker 1: the plaid shirt. You are Ted, Yes, and you're Todd.
Speaker 1: That's great, okay, Hi, nice to meet you. Both Ted
Speaker 1: and Todd are identical twins, but not the Mary Kate
Speaker 1: Nashley cutie pitituiti type. They're more the slappy, happy, punchy,
Speaker 1: grumpy type.
Speaker 3: If you hit me, one more time.
Speaker 1: Case in point. That was the sound of Ted reacting
Speaker 1: to Todd, who, for no apparent reason, just whacked his
Speaker 1: brother in the arm. Is that a part of the
Speaker 1: way that you guys communicate?
Speaker 3: Yeah, uh huh.
Speaker 1: But if I'm not here, I mean, you don't punch
Speaker 1: each other?
Speaker 3: Right? Not anymore? No, not anymore? No.
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd are in their sixties. They both have
Speaker 1: long white hair and the stoic, deadpan affect of hitmen
Speaker 1: in a Cormac McCarthy novel. They grew up in South Dakota,
Speaker 1: surrounded by literal cowboys. Before the interview, they asked if
Speaker 1: there'd be cigarette breaks. They both smoke Pall Mall's, drink
Speaker 1: Keystone Lights, and they both work as contractors. They tell
Speaker 1: me they can't go into a home depot together without
Speaker 1: being asked the same asinine question, are you guys twins?
Speaker 1: In response, Ted and Todd stare back blankly. But the
Speaker 1: story Ted and Todd are here to tell isn't actually
Speaker 1: about their twinship. It's about their younger brother, Scott, who
Speaker 1: died in two thousand. Do you want to start off
Speaker 1: by maybe talking to me a little bit about Scott?
Speaker 7: Well, just here's a little brother, and that's about it.
Speaker 1: To spare you twenty odd minutes of coaxing and cajoling,
Speaker 1: I'll fast forward a bit to let you know that
Speaker 1: Scott was a year younger than Ted and Todd. He
Speaker 1: was the baby of the family and they often ended
Speaker 1: up taking care of him as older brothers. Ted and
Speaker 1: Todd were measured and steady. Scott, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: was fun and colorful.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, yeah, real bright personality. I mean he was
Speaker 7: just definitely his own individual for sure. Yeah, he got
Speaker 7: all the personality.
Speaker 1: In school, Scott attracted attention, and not all of it good.
Speaker 1: This because, in addition to his big personality, Scott was gay.
Speaker 1: From a pretty young age, he was a target for bullying.
Speaker 1: But Ted and Todd always kept an eye out.
Speaker 8: You couldn't go after our little brother because then you're
Speaker 8: gonna have to deal with that both of us. So
Speaker 8: one offense you're going to have three events. It's not
Speaker 8: because we liked it. We were protecting our family.
Speaker 1: In spite of the haters, Scott remained a force to
Speaker 1: be reckoned with As a teenager. He once got into
Speaker 1: their dad's Lincoln Continental in the middle of the night
Speaker 1: and drove it almost one thousand miles across state lines
Speaker 1: at fifteen.
Speaker 8: I mean that tells you how independent that he really was. Yeahad.
Speaker 1: While Ted and Todd got married and settled down, Scott
Speaker 1: maintained his impish spontaneity, doing things like buying Ted and
Speaker 1: Todd's kids the candy they weren't allowed, or once, having
Speaker 1: promised his seven year old nephew a trip to the
Speaker 1: circus and then breaking his leg, made sure they could
Speaker 1: still go by teaching his nephew how to pump the clutch.
Speaker 1: Scott led a nomadic life. Every so often, Ted and
Speaker 1: Todd would get a phone call. Scott was in Roanoke, Virginia,
Speaker 1: living with friends. Scott was in Nebraska going to mortician school.
Speaker 1: Scott had crashed his car in the desert outside of Phoenix.
Speaker 1: But no matter where he went, and no matter how
Speaker 1: old he got, if Scott was in trouble, Ted and
Speaker 1: Todd's phones would ring. So one day in the fall
Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty six, when Todd received a call from
Speaker 1: Scott at three am, he wasn't all that surprised.
Speaker 7: He wanted me to come down and get him now,
Speaker 7: which was not unusual.
Speaker 1: Scott told Todd. He was in the hospital. When Todd
Speaker 1: got there, he was directed to a special ward.
Speaker 7: And pretty obvious something was wrong. And I walked in
Speaker 7: and there must have been six other beds in there.
Speaker 7: Probably he was the youngest, and at that point he
Speaker 7: would have been in his early twenties, and everybody had
Speaker 7: gowns and masks and gloves and shields, and I mean,
Speaker 7: it was really bizarre, what is happening? And they said
Speaker 7: you weren't aware your brother's diagnosis. And then that's when
Speaker 7: they said, your brother has AIDS.
Speaker 1: Scott wanted to get out of the hospital as quickly
Speaker 1: as possible, so Todd just put him in the car
Speaker 1: and drove him home. Never did they talk about AIDS
Speaker 1: or what it meant. They didn't talk much at all.
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd would call to check on Scott as
Speaker 1: often as they could. They'd ask if he was going
Speaker 1: to the doctor taking his meds? Are you taking care
Speaker 1: of it? They'd say, yeah, he'd say, And for the
Speaker 1: next few years, this is how it went until the
Speaker 1: day Harry arrived. Todd was on the phone checking in
Speaker 1: on Scott like usual. When he first heard her voice, this.
Speaker 7: Say in the background, It's like what is that.
Speaker 1: That was Harriet aka Harry, a red and green parrot,
Speaker 1: a three foot long macau to be exact. Ted and Todd,
Speaker 1: of course had questions, questions like what the hell are
Speaker 1: you thinking? Scott had always loved unusual pets as a kid,
Speaker 1: He kept a squirrel in the house and even a bat,
Speaker 1: But there was something particularly worrying about adopting a parrot.
Speaker 1: It's longevity.
Speaker 3: You have this disease.
Speaker 8: We don't know how long you're going to live, and
Speaker 8: you buy an analyst is going to last eighty five
Speaker 8: to one hundred years.
Speaker 1: Even for a healthy adult, such a purchase would mean
Speaker 1: a commitment that lasts into old age. In Scott's case,
Speaker 1: it felt like an act of denial.
Speaker 3: What Scott did was what Scott always does.
Speaker 7: Just I'm gonna do what i'm gonna do, and I
Speaker 7: like it and I want it, and that's how it's
Speaker 7: going to be, and it's gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: And so Harry was suddenly a fact of their family's life.
Speaker 1: Wherever Scott went, there was Harry, and in time she
Speaker 1: won Ted and Todd over with her rowdy antics and
Speaker 1: foul mouth turns of phrase.
Speaker 7: You son of a bit, Scott come here, you know
Speaker 7: what's for dinner.
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd had five kids between them, all of
Speaker 1: whom adored their cool uncle and his crazy bird. They
Speaker 1: would take road trips together. Harry glued to Scott's shoulder.
Speaker 1: When they went to get dinner and left Harry in
Speaker 1: the hotel room, she'd scream, Scott, you fuck her. Annoyed
Speaker 1: to be left out of the fun. Harry was loyal
Speaker 1: to Scott and protective too. She'd nibble at the shunt
Speaker 1: in Scott's chest like it was a splinter that needed removal.
Speaker 1: As time went on, it became increasingly clear that Scott's
Speaker 1: diagnosis was taking a toll. One day, when Ted and
Speaker 1: Todd called to check in, something felt off.
Speaker 7: He just devoided personality, just like, wait, whoa, whoa, I
Speaker 7: want to talk to you. He goes, I'm just I'm
Speaker 7: not feeling Todd.
Speaker 8: And the last time I talked to him, he just said,
Speaker 8: I said, what's going on with you? And he said
Speaker 8: I'm done.
Speaker 1: A few days later, Scott died. He was thirty eight
Speaker 1: years old. Ted and Todd rushed out to California. Their mom,
Speaker 1: who'd been living with Scott, was devastated.
Speaker 7: Because obviously she lost her son and her babe, her
Speaker 7: youngest at that and then you've got Harry that was
Speaker 7: making my little brother's voice and you know, would call
Speaker 7: mom mom.
Speaker 1: Harry grew unmoored, getting aggressive with their mother and anyone
Speaker 1: else who tried to handle her. The only people who
Speaker 1: she'd let touch her, the only ones she felt safe with,
Speaker 1: were the ones who most resembled Scott, that is, Scott's brothers.
Speaker 3: She was fine with Ted and I.
Speaker 7: When we would get there, she would just cock her
Speaker 7: head and look as she say Scott.
Speaker 1: In those moments, it felt like Ted, Todd, and Harry
Speaker 1: all shared some understanding. That word Scott was like a
Speaker 1: secret handshake. Before his death, Scott told Ted and Todd
Speaker 1: he wanted to leave Harry to Todd's eldest son, who
Speaker 1: was in junior high at the time, but Todd knew
Speaker 1: that keeping her just wasn't realistic.
Speaker 7: I had to tell my son, no, it just it
Speaker 7: wouldn't be fair to Harry, It wouldn't be fair to you,
Speaker 7: because tonam a caw. I don't think people fully understand.
Speaker 7: I mean, they get angry, they can be destructive. You know,
Speaker 7: if you ever see their claws or their beak. You
Speaker 7: don't want any party business. End of those that she
Speaker 7: was chewing into the ceiling, into the attic. I mean,
Speaker 7: they're a wild animal.
Speaker 1: And so they approached Harry's longtime glomer for help finding
Speaker 1: her a home. She offered to bring Harry to a
Speaker 1: nearby bird sanctuary or was it a pet store? Ted
Speaker 1: and Todd were so overwhelmed by Scott's death that they
Speaker 1: can't quite remember which they do remember though, the day
Speaker 1: of her departure, how their kids watched in tears as Harry,
Speaker 1: their beloved uncle's beloved pet, was taken away. Do you
Speaker 1: remember how Harry seemed to understand what was happening, How
Speaker 1: she howled.
Speaker 8: Her wings were everywhere, and she was and she was
Speaker 8: yelling at us. It was just it was panemonium. It
Speaker 8: was heartbreaking.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: Tough at this point. Ted and Todd haven't seen Harry
Speaker 1: in over twenty years. But they do know one thing.
Speaker 3: This bird could still be out there.
Speaker 1: And so Ted and Todd have come to me with
Speaker 1: these questions, is she still out there? And if so,
Speaker 1: did they do the right thing in giving her up?
Speaker 1: Why do you think you're you're looking for for Harry?
Speaker 8: Now, we always took care of our little brother, and
Speaker 8: that's the one thing we didn't take care of.
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd had taken care of their brothers since
Speaker 1: they were children. Making sure Harry was provided for was
Speaker 1: the last things got needed from them and it's the
Speaker 1: only thing they couldn't do. Ted, do you feel guilt?
Speaker 3: How about it?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: Can you say more about that? No, it's difficult to
Speaker 1: talk about Yeah it is, yeah, okay, So knowing that,
Speaker 1: knowing that Harry was okay, what would that What would
Speaker 1: that bring to you?
Speaker 8: We'd just be happy to know she's fine. And emotionally,
Speaker 8: I don't really deal with that.
Speaker 9: There's a part of them that doesn't want to talk
Speaker 9: about it at all.
Speaker 1: This is Hannah, Ted's daughter in law. Because Ted and
Speaker 1: Todd are such a closed book, she's offered to help
Speaker 1: translate them for me. Hannah tells me that through Harry,
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd can broach a subject they wouldn't otherwise
Speaker 1: know how to approach, and doing that might allow them
Speaker 1: to forgive themselves.
Speaker 9: So it's almost like they can talk about Harry in
Speaker 9: a way that's easier than talking about Scott.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like a surrogate. I think there's just
Speaker 2: a lot of pain in the death of their brother.
Speaker 9: Like, what I heard from Chase is that the one
Speaker 9: time that they've seen their dad's craze when their brother died.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is Chase, Ted's son and Hannah's husband.
Speaker 3: They had no control over it.
Speaker 10: I'm sure they couldn't make him take his mediciner, do
Speaker 10: the thing he was supposed to do as far as
Speaker 10: getting rest or going to the doctors, and like they
Speaker 10: couldn't go beat up aids.
Speaker 1: When it came to their brother's death. Actions finally failed them.
Speaker 1: In actions, Hannah and Chase say, are the language Ted
Speaker 1: and Todd have for showing how they feel. Hannah says
Speaker 1: she can always tell when Ted and Todd have stopped
Speaker 1: by because some drywall will be sanded down, or she'll
Speaker 1: notice a fresh coat of paint.
Speaker 9: They also always unplug my toaster because they don't want
Speaker 9: to catch fire.
Speaker 1: Oh, I can always tell them.
Speaker 9: They've been here because the toasters, they're always sort of
Speaker 9: taking care of you. You just choked to your house
Speaker 9: and realize, oh, they've been here, and they's like taking care.
Speaker 2: Of some stuff.
Speaker 1: Cowboy style.
Speaker 2: Yeah, cowboy style, that's exactly it.
Speaker 1: Hannah and Chase worry though that in cowboy style too,
Speaker 1: they suffer in silence.
Speaker 9: Because I love them. I hope for them that if
Speaker 9: we found Harry it could they could heal more from
Speaker 9: Scott's death.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it would just be nice to know that
Speaker 1: she's doing.
Speaker 11: Good, like she's like with people who'd let her cuss
Speaker 11: and do whatever she wants.
Speaker 1: Kind of like an outlaw.
Speaker 7: Yeah, live in the life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's exactly it.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I'm going to do my best here.
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to find Harry. That would be good, Okay.
Speaker 1: Armed with an old photograph of Harry, I set out
Speaker 1: on my search. Since Ted and Todd don't quite remember
Speaker 1: exactly where they surrendered Harry, I begin my quest to
Speaker 1: find this bird of Paradise by phoning. Birds in Paradise
Speaker 1: is a pet store in southern California, not far from
Speaker 1: where Scott lived. The owner, Lorie, has had the store
Speaker 1: for decades and is an active member of the Southern
Speaker 1: California parrot community. If anyone would know how to find Harry,
Speaker 1: it seems like it would be Lori, So I explained
Speaker 1: to her the project to find a bright red toddler
Speaker 1: sized parrot named Harry who curses like a French sailor.
Speaker 5: It's completely impossible.
Speaker 1: But like, isn't the Macaw community in the area small
Speaker 1: enough that people would maybe through word of mouth, be
Speaker 1: able to find Uh.
Speaker 12: Now, there's thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of
Speaker 12: Macaus in.
Speaker 1: The world, and it turns out it's difficult to tell
Speaker 1: one Macaw from another, even for an expert like Laurie.
Speaker 5: And you don't know if you know, something has happened
Speaker 5: to the bird, if it's been rehomed again.
Speaker 1: Is there is there any resources that that you can recommend?
Speaker 5: I mean, that's what the Internet's about.
Speaker 1: Do a Google search to explain to Laurie that that's
Speaker 1: what the problem is. I have nothing to Google search for.
Speaker 1: But Laurie is insistent it's just common sense. She says,
Speaker 1: with the Internet, you can simply Google search for whatever
Speaker 1: it is that you should be Google searching for.
Speaker 5: With the Internet nowadays, it does make things a lot easier.
Speaker 5: I mean, say I met a man and I was
Speaker 5: possibly interested him. First thing I would do if I'd
Speaker 5: do a search on him?
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, I'll put it this way.
Speaker 5: I met a man at Disneyland, a few months ago
Speaker 5: and seemed like a really nice guy and gave me
Speaker 5: a business card. He was a police officer, okay, And
Speaker 5: I found out that police officer is married, oh my,
Speaker 5: and so let him know that I knew he was married,
Speaker 5: and I thought it was what he was doing. And
Speaker 5: I never spoke to him again.
Speaker 1: But you told him that you confronted him. Good for you.
Speaker 5: That's the kind of person I am.
Speaker 1: I tell Laurie that while I respect her slew thing,
Speaker 1: her take no prisoner's style and the Internet as a whole,
Speaker 1: I don't know that any of this will help Ted
Speaker 1: and Todd. So Laurie offers one last glimmer of hope
Speaker 1: they'll find out.
Speaker 5: When they die one day and go to heaven if
Speaker 5: anything happened to that bird.
Speaker 1: That's beautiful. In the end, I do turn to the Internet,
Speaker 1: using it like it's nineteen ninety five all over again.
Speaker 1: And I just got an AOL complimentary cd ram in
Speaker 1: the mail. I joined Facebook groups like the Parrot Posse
Speaker 1: and Lost and found cockatiels and other bird companions. I
Speaker 1: even bookmark a site called the Big List of National
Speaker 1: and International Bird Clubs, but that all yields nothing. So
Speaker 1: as if it's eighteen ninety five all over again. Ahoy HOI.
Speaker 1: I turned to the telephone.
Speaker 4: Thank you for calling Annie's mobile bird for me hi.
Speaker 11: Yah and miss scale brad bird choice parent the landing's
Speaker 11: on parrot sectuary gives the permanent home.
Speaker 7: I only have one.
Speaker 1: Macau is it read by any chance?
Speaker 7: No blue and gold?
Speaker 1: Of everyone I speak with, nobody has seen any trace
Speaker 1: of Harry, and nobody believes I'll ever be able to
Speaker 1: find her. To what do I owe the pleasure of
Speaker 1: this invitation? But then one day my producer, Mona puts
Speaker 1: a meeting on my calendar.
Speaker 2: As you know, we've been trying to find this parrot.
Speaker 1: Oh I know Harry, I do know that, and.
Speaker 11: I've been casting a whiter and whiter net because I
Speaker 11: feel like the feedback we've been getting is that like
Speaker 11: it's just like a shot in the dark.
Speaker 1: That's a very generous appraisal of what we've been getting,
Speaker 1: because to me, it feels like it's been more like, no,
Speaker 1: this is insane. You are not going to find this bird.
Speaker 1: Stop trying to find this bird.
Speaker 10: Sure.
Speaker 1: Mona explains that she's been poking around on pet databases and.
Speaker 11: I found some other parrots who kind of like had
Speaker 11: some our stories and looked old. And there was this one.
Speaker 11: What it came from?
Speaker 3: This?
Speaker 1: What makes a pair of look old? I think you
Speaker 1: can tell you're getting too deep?
Speaker 2: They look grizzled.
Speaker 1: Should I be concerned? Okay, do with me, Mona tells
Speaker 1: me her deep dive turned up a sanctuary we haven't
Speaker 1: tried yet.
Speaker 2: It's called Oasis.
Speaker 1: On the Oasis website, each of the hundreds of birds
Speaker 1: they house has its own profile page. Mona looked through
Speaker 1: every single one.
Speaker 2: And that is when I found this.
Speaker 6: Oh man, uh god, wow, I I don't know what
Speaker 6: to say.
Speaker 1: So this is a red macaw named Harry.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Look at the right wing.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 1: Oh, and look at the rings around the eye. Oh no,
Speaker 1: even the beak is similarly. Oh, this is compelling. This
Speaker 1: Harry looks identical to the photo of Harry that Ted
Speaker 1: and Todd sent me. So you have not called the
Speaker 1: Oasis sanctuary yet, I have not.
Speaker 2: I was thinking maybe now.
Speaker 1: The Oasis Sanctuary. This is Janet Trumbull, director of the Oasis.
Speaker 1: I mean, with great excitement, I explained my quest and
Speaker 1: his macaw was also named Harry. And so we begin
Speaker 1: comparing Harry's the Harry who lives at the oasis, Janet
Speaker 1: tells me arrived there as a Harry.
Speaker 5: Yep, he even says his name Harry.
Speaker 2: Really yeah, so I know when we walk up to Harry, he.
Speaker 1: Always says, hi, Harry. Janet refers to Harry as a
Speaker 1: he because she's done a DNA test. She says that
Speaker 1: otherwise it's nearly impossible to determine a parent's biological sex,
Speaker 1: so it would be understandable if Scott thought Harry or her.
Speaker 1: I asked Janet, what else she can tell me about Harry.
Speaker 12: So he came to us from California.
Speaker 1: Oh, not just California, Janet says, but southern California, an
Speaker 1: hour and a half away from Yucca Valley, where Scott
Speaker 1: had lived. It seems Harry was taken in by a
Speaker 1: family with young children who teased and harassed him. In
Speaker 1: their care, he grew increasingly aggressive, and so they had
Speaker 1: no choice but to surrender him to a woman in
Speaker 1: the area who fostered difficult birds. Eventually she brought Harry
Speaker 1: to the Oasis.
Speaker 12: She guessed his age at twenty two. I don't know
Speaker 12: how okay, okay, he arrived in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Our Harry hatched in the late nineties, so twenty two
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty lines up perfectly. Janet, that would be it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Well this is very unexpected.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's kind of cool.
Speaker 1: We found a macaw whose name is Harry, who's the
Speaker 1: right age and who's from the right place. So I
Speaker 1: get back in touch with Ted, Todd and the rest
Speaker 1: of the family. Hi High High, Hi, Hello, it's nice
Speaker 1: to see you all. I tell them about everything I've
Speaker 1: been up to over the last few months, the sanctuaries
Speaker 1: and bird groomers, the pet stores, Lori's, Disneyland, Jigglow, and
Speaker 1: finally I show them the photo of the Harry who
Speaker 1: lives at Janet Sanctuary in Arizona. Do you believe that
Speaker 1: this is Harry? Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that's Harry. Yeah, that's firstly I thought.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Ted and Todd are convinced this is Harry, But
Speaker 1: as a freshly minted bird journalist, I can't yet make
Speaker 1: the call. As Laurie told me, individual macaus are nearly
Speaker 1: impossible for people to identify. They all look the same. Birds,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, can tell humans apart just fine,
Speaker 1: So to truly confirm that this Harry is our Harry,
Speaker 1: we need to know whether he recognizes Ted and Todd.
Speaker 1: And for that there's really only one thing to do.
Speaker 1: I guess what I'm winding up to here is I've
Speaker 1: Google mapped the Bird Sanctuary oasis from this studio. It's
Speaker 1: a fourteen hour road trip. I'm not suggesting that you
Speaker 1: leave right now and we hit the road like Muppet
Speaker 1: movie style, but which you want to go there? Yeah,
Speaker 1: jure Chase? Is this Ted and Todd When they're excited,
Speaker 1: You're getting like pinata happiness here.
Speaker 3: I think with these two.
Speaker 8: It's hotter in hell in Arizona in July.
Speaker 1: But yeah, after the break, eight hundred miles to see
Speaker 1: about a bird, all right, we're here. Ultimately there was
Speaker 1: no road trip. Instead, the family decided to fly to Arizona.
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd said it was the first time they've
Speaker 1: flown in nearly three decades. The last had been for
Speaker 1: their father's funeral. Ted and Todd, Chase, Hannah, Todd's daughter Jessica,
Speaker 1: and two grandkids all meet me in a Tucson Walmart
Speaker 1: parking lot, and.
Speaker 9: Then Ted and Todd jumped out because they We're anxious
Speaker 9: to gather KRD smoke.
Speaker 1: Where are they smoking?
Speaker 2: Where by the propine takes?
Speaker 1: Are you serious? By the pro paine takes? Hannah, as
Speaker 1: it turns out, is serious. I find Ted and Todd
Speaker 1: sucking down Paul Maul's indeed beside the propane tanks, which
Speaker 1: thankfully are empty.
Speaker 3: Ah humid, it's humid.
Speaker 1: As people pass by, they can't help staring a little
Speaker 1: too long at the two identical men, tall and slim
Speaker 1: with long white hair. For Ted and Todd, who shy
Speaker 1: away from the limelight in all of its forms, who
Speaker 1: hate to be the focus of attention, To be so
Speaker 1: notable must be a special kind of hell. The Rubbernecker's rubberneck.
Speaker 1: While Ted and Todd flashed identical expressions on their identical faces,
Speaker 1: a look of complete blankness. Cigarettes smoked, We all pile
Speaker 1: into Ted and Todd's suv. From here, the Oasis and
Speaker 1: Harry are about forty five minutes away.
Speaker 12: Hi, nice to meet you, Ty Todd.
Speaker 1: Janet greets us at the entrance of the sanctuary.
Speaker 2: All right, well, let's go ahead and go inside.
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking the Oasis is home to twenty two
Speaker 1: separate aviaries housing hundreds of tropical birds, almost all of which,
Speaker 1: amazingly Janet knows by name.
Speaker 12: Bubbles that he's a Patagonian conyer.
Speaker 1: There's Cosmo, Tutsi, Molly, Sammy, Toby, and Modene. There's Oscar,
Speaker 1: a blue and gold macaw who Janet tells us recently
Speaker 1: lost her mate, and Congo and Timmy, a pair of
Speaker 1: African grays. There are two green wings, Tango and Cash,
Speaker 1: named for the Sylvester Stallone Kurt Russell film about two
Speaker 1: minus smashed lapd officers. But while that Tango and Cash
Speaker 1: enjoy shooting off firearms and punching people in the face,
Speaker 1: this Tango and Cash enjoy eating honeydew and philbirds. Somewhere
Speaker 1: among all these birds is Harry. I was just.
Speaker 12: Saying, when you guys pulled up, Harry was screaming.
Speaker 1: Do you think there is a chance that Harry will
Speaker 1: recognize these guys.
Speaker 2: It's very possible.
Speaker 12: It's hard to say, and because he's not a cuddly bird,
Speaker 12: you know, I'll have to kind of read his body language.
Speaker 1: As we get closer to Harry's enclosure, we suddenly hear
Speaker 1: kill Harry, Harry, Hi.
Speaker 12: Harry, Yes, Hi Harry, And there he is shuffling around
Speaker 12: on a tree branch.
Speaker 1: Throughout this whole quest, with all the phone calls and
Speaker 1: Internet searching, I'd forgotten how beautiful these birds are. Harry's
Speaker 1: feathers are so vivid, he makes the world around him
Speaker 1: seem black and white. Harry looks like Saturday Morning cartoons,
Speaker 1: ten thousand crayons, a sunset, and a room full of gogains,
Speaker 1: all set on fire. Looking at him, it makes sense
Speaker 1: that the most colorful brother, which choose a most colorful pet,
Speaker 1: but seated right beside Harry, almost wing to wing, is
Speaker 1: another very similar looking bird. It turns out that this
Speaker 1: is Harry's mate, Valentina. Harry met Valentina eight years ago
Speaker 1: at the Refuge for Difficult Birds. They came to the
Speaker 1: Oasis together, and Janet says, Harry and Valentina are inseparable.
Speaker 12: Yep, They're always like that, right together, and you can
Speaker 12: see he's being very protective of her. They have bonded,
Speaker 12: very strong bonds, so we won't ever separate those two.
Speaker 1: Harry sidles up to Valentina, and as he draws closer,
Speaker 1: I can see that that while Harry is indeed beautiful,
Speaker 1: his feathers are ruffled and patchy, and his tail is shredded.
Speaker 1: Janet says the loss of feathers is something he's done
Speaker 1: to himself. It's a behavior called plucking.
Speaker 12: It's very common for parrots in captivity to pluck.
Speaker 3: She says.
Speaker 1: Plucking can start when birds are stressed or frustrated or grieving.
Speaker 12: They do definitely grieve, Yeah, because their bonds are very deep.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's hard to tell how Janet's words are affecting Ted
Speaker 1: and Todd, but I suspect it might be adding to
Speaker 1: their guilt, exacerbating their own tendency to pluck. That the
Speaker 1: many should haves and could haves.
Speaker 4: Talk to him.
Speaker 1: He remembers, you we all step back and allow Ted
Speaker 1: and Todd's space to approach. All eyes are on them,
Speaker 1: and with all the self consciousness of two self conscious
Speaker 1: men who must address a bird before a crowd of
Speaker 1: family and near strangers.
Speaker 10: They begin, Hi, Harry, Hello, Harry, how are you see Yah?
Speaker 2: She's responding.
Speaker 1: Harry's body language shifts. He leans towards Ted and Todd.
Speaker 1: See how he's sitting forward. It's okay, look at ams
Speaker 1: just looking at him?
Speaker 3: You're okay?
Speaker 2: So I see some recognition there.
Speaker 1: It looks like we found our bird. Harry starts to
Speaker 1: come closer, but Valentina reaches forward with her beak and
Speaker 1: tugs on his feathers.
Speaker 12: It looks like Valentina's keeps pulling him back, is what
Speaker 12: I'm seeing. Like he does want to engage, but then
Speaker 12: she says no and gives him a little little nip.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she looks like, you get upset it.
Speaker 7: We can leave you alone, we can let you be buddy.
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd are reluctant to be a nuisance. They
Speaker 1: decide to leave the enclosure, and we all file out
Speaker 1: behind them. At last, Ted and Todd have found Harry,
Speaker 1: and although worse for where, he's okay. Still Ted and
Speaker 1: Todd don't seem satisfied.
Speaker 7: I think I just felt like, you know, you're.
Speaker 3: It's just disappointing.
Speaker 1: It's like they were hoping for something more, something closer
Speaker 1: to forgiveness. But what does forgiveness from a bird even?
Speaker 3: Look like? Let's go ahead and get out of here. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I hate everybody watching. I hated everybody watching.
Speaker 4: Well shall we go on?
Speaker 1: Half heartedly? Ted and Todd acquiesce and Janet continues the tour.
Speaker 1: She shows us the monk parakeets who look nothing like
Speaker 1: Tony Shaloub.
Speaker 12: Smaller species Kanyer's Quakers.
Speaker 1: She shows us the lovebirds, of whom I consider asking
Speaker 1: Janet if she's ever caught making whoopie bloodbirds can be
Speaker 1: extremely aggressive, but reconsider, and she shows us a rose
Speaker 1: breasted cockatoo, the Samantha Jones of the aviary Good bad
Speaker 1: men a love. While I'm having the time of my
Speaker 1: life watching Nature's drones all throughout the tour, Ted and
Speaker 1: Todd LaGG behind. It's only while engrossed by a parrot
Speaker 1: named Lady Gray and her ability to repeat the word cracker.
Speaker 1: Did you hear that?
Speaker 4: Cracker?
Speaker 1: Cracker, that I look around and see that Ted and
Speaker 1: Todd have disappeared. It's only later on, when reviewing the
Speaker 1: tape that I realized where they disappeared too.
Speaker 3: Oh, welcome to see Harry one last time? Yeah about
Speaker 3: the hord? Mmm without the hord.
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd had doubled back to see Harry without
Speaker 1: the horde.
Speaker 7: Hi, guys, Hello Harry, Hi Harry.
Speaker 3: Where does go friend? Though he's.
Speaker 1: This time? When Ted and Todd show up, just the
Speaker 1: two of them, Valentina stands back and Harry makes his
Speaker 1: way down the branch. He seems to feel safe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Ted and Todd seemed to feel safe too. Without
Speaker 1: the expectant eyes of the group upon them, they can
Speaker 1: finally ask the question they really want to ask, that
Speaker 1: they've flown across the country for.
Speaker 3: Do you remember Scott? You remember Scott?
Speaker 13: To that.
Speaker 3: He's watching.
Speaker 1: Harry doesn't respond, but then Todd has an idea.
Speaker 7: Harry, son of a bitch.
Speaker 1: He starts cursing like a constipated French sailor.
Speaker 7: God damn it, Harry, God damn it, Harry. Come here, Harry,
Speaker 7: Come here.
Speaker 1: Harry takes a couple more Leary steps down his branch.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sound like Scott.
Speaker 1: It sounded like Scott, says Ted. Now at this point,
Speaker 1: I've listened back to this tape hundreds of times. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what I hear. It does kind of sound
Speaker 1: like he's saying Scott, sort of. But I guess it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what I hear. What matters is what Ted
Speaker 1: and Todd hear. And it seems like they hear forgiveness.
Speaker 7: I'm glad you're okay, Hey, leave them alone?
Speaker 3: Yeah, probably.
Speaker 7: Bye, Harry, say bye.
Speaker 3: Bye.
Speaker 1: The two near identical men wave goodbye to the two
Speaker 1: near identical birds.
Speaker 3: I'm glad he's going all right. Yeah, that's.
Speaker 1: And with that, Ted and Todd go back to the group,
Speaker 1: and Harry and Valentina go back to living that outlaw life.
Speaker 1: In the end, Harry has something neither Ted nor Todd
Speaker 1: nor any human could have given him. He's paired in
Speaker 1: this world with one of his own. Of all people,
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd should be able to appreciate that. And
Speaker 1: so with this last deed for their brother Don, there's
Speaker 1: only one last deed to do.
Speaker 7: Do you have a sagarette with you? Let's go back
Speaker 7: over here. They're gonna give us so much of ship
Speaker 7: about it. I don't know to deal with these shirts,
Speaker 7: no fucking hockets, No this, honey, mad youre always go everything.
Speaker 7: I gotta mature in the market.
Speaker 13: That the furnitures returning.
Speaker 4: To its goodwill home. Now that the last month's rent
Speaker 4: is scheme with the damage to pros, take this moment
Speaker 4: to do so, if we meant it, if we talk
Speaker 4: were felt around for five from things Good.
Speaker 1: Accidentally, this episode of Heavyweight was produced by Phoebe Flanagan,
Speaker 1: Mohemy mcgouger, and me Jonathan Goldstein. Our Senior producer is
Speaker 1: Khaleila holt Our, Supervising Producer is Stevie Lane. Special thanks
Speaker 1: to mime O'Donnell, Lauren Silverman and Catherine Brewer. And special
Speaker 1: thanks as always to the one and only Jackie Cohen.
Speaker 1: Editorial guidance from Emily Condon. Bobby Lord mixed the episode
Speaker 1: with original music by Christine Fellows, John K. Sampson, Blue
Speaker 1: Dot Sessions, and Bobby Lord. Additional music credits can be
Speaker 1: found on our website Gimbletmedia dot com slash Heavyweight. Our
Speaker 1: theme song is by The Weaker Thans courtesy of Epitaph Records.
Speaker 1: Follow us on Twitter at Heavyweight or on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Heavyweight Podcast, and we have a new email address, Heavyweightshow
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. As you may have heard, this
Speaker 1: is our last episode as a show with Spotify. It's
Speaker 1: been eight years. I can't believe it, but we're looking
Speaker 1: for a new home and I have a feeling we're
Speaker 1: going to be back soon. So please stay tuned, stay subscribed,
Speaker 1: and truly thank you for all the great years. Play
Speaker 1: us out.
Speaker 13: Weaker Thans sign in an empty.
Speaker 4: So take a minute.
Speaker 13: Sadaze by ninety million long Lean Miles, watch a shadow
Speaker 13: across you.
Speaker 4: We don't live here anymore.
Speaker 7: The entirely shocked of the scene it ever airs. If
Speaker 7: what if this scene ever airs? Oh yeah, I wouldn't
Speaker 7: think so.