Aug 21 Check-In: Transcript
There should be a theme park based on day-drinking in a dive bar.
Magda Pecsenye (00:30):
Okay, what are we talking about in this thing? I gotta jump off in 45 minutes for Hungarian. So we're time-delineated.
Doug French (00:37):
We'll be done well before that. I want you to be done before the boys arrive.
Magda:
Okay?
Doug:
So they're gonna stop by your house.
Magda (00:43):
All right. That’s good.
Doug (00:43):
And he has to check out this purple Tacoma, which he seems fixated on.
Magda (00:48):
Well yeah, because he is asking for more than the Blue Book is of the purple Tacoma.
Doug (00:54):
Right. But the real issue is it's a stick.
Magda (00:57):
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. That's an issue for people like you who can't drive stick. It's not at all an issue for people like me who’ve been driving stick since we were 16.
Doug (01:04):
Uh, screw you, lady. I can drive a stick left-handed. Can you drive a stick left-handed?
Magda (01:08):
I live in the United States of America. Why would I drive a stick left-handed?
Doug (01:14):
Because you gotta have a skill set, man. What if you are sent over to Tokyo on a moment's notice and you have to drive somewhere on the interstate?
Magda (01:20):
Ok, you can’t drive a stick right-handed.
Doug (01:22):
I could, but I really don't want to have to.
Magda (01:25):
<Laugh>. Okay, so let's look at the statistical likelihood of a person who lives in the state of Michigan needing to drive a stick left-handed versus needing to drive a stick right-handed.
Doug (01:39):
Frankly, in the 12 years I've lived in Michigan, both of those have been zero. <Laugh>.
Magda (01:43):
<Laugh>. All right, well I'll just remind you that back when we were married and my mom had a stick, you couldn't borrow her car.
Doug (01:51):
Not losing a lot of sleep over that.
Magda (01:53):
Well, you know. It was 20 years ago, so.
Doug (01:57):
The main thing is I can't shift in and help drive west with Robert,
Magda (02:02):
You could learn to drive a stick. Unless you feel like at your advanced age you're too old to learn to drive stick.
Doug (02:11):
Oh, wow. Okay. Shots fired.
Magda (02:12):
Besides, driving stick on the highway.
Doug (02:15):
It's just getting to fifth gear and just sit. Yeah, I get it.
Magda (02:17):
Yeah, exactly.
Doug (02:17):
Frankly, I don't wanna grind the gears on the car that he just took possession of.
Magda (02:22):
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. I get it.
Doug (02:23):
I mean, yeah, if I got back into practice, I could do it. I mean I have 48 very jam-packed hours before we leave.
Magda (02:30):
Yeah, I hear it.
Doug (02:31):
And his plan is to go 16 hours the first day.
Magda (02:35):
<Laugh> He's 21 and he's invincible.
Doug (02:38):
He arrived last night. He looks like a total thirst trap.
Magda (02:42):
<Laugh>. He does. He looks like if Johnny Depp was the good kind of crazy instead of the horrible reprehensible kind of crazy.
Doug (02:54):
At least he seems averse to permanent tattoos for the moment.
Magda (02:58):
<Laugh> I don't have a problem with tattoos. I just think that Johnny Depp is a genuinely horrible person. And I think that our child has a little bit of that chaos energy, but his is a little, like, good chaos energy. His is like sort of impish.
Doug (03:13):
I mean, I don't know him. I will say I've seen the work he does going to children's hospitals dressed as Jack Sparrow and delighting people for hours on end. I mean hours.
Magda (03:23):
You know what, I've seen a whole lot of videos of cops playing basketball and dancing, too. And that doesn't tell me anything except that they like being in front of the camera.
Doug (03:36):
What you should should consider just pump the brakes on the hyperbole. You're a very binary person in terms of your judgment. You are either all in or all out on somebody. And I'm saying I'm willing to believe that he's not a completely reprehensible person. I think people are complex.
Magda (03:51):
I mean like that's completely fair. You have the right to think what you think, but I wouldn't ever want to be in a room with a closed door with him.
Doug (04:03):
That's perfectly fair, too. Yeah. If that's probably there is less chance that that'll happen to you, then I'll have to drive a stick. <Laugh>
Magda (04:13):
Yeah, it's true. Well, I mean, I would go out of my way and do almost anything I needed to, to never be within visual distance of Johnny Depp.
Doug (04:25):
So imagine what would you do if you were riding in Pirates of the Caribbean? 'Cause he famously just basically sat in the ride for I don't know how many hours, because as of now they've updated the ride to have an animatronic Jack Sparrow at the end.
Magda (04:39):
What ride are you talking about?
Doug (04:41):
Pirates of the Caribbean.
Magda (04:43):
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, okay. You're talking about like a rollercoaster kind of ride. All right.
Doug (04:48):
I’m talking about the boat ride. Have you been there? You've been there.
Magda (04:52):
I've never been to Disney World. I'm not a Disney person.
Doug (04:55):
I guess I must've taken them after we split up then because wow. Okay. There is a ride called Pirates of the Caribbean.
Magda (04:59):
There is a ride at Disney World based on Pirates of the Caribbean, just as there are other rides at Disney World based on other Disney movies, correct?
Doug (05:08):
No, no, no, no. The ride pre-exists the movie. They made the movie based on the ride and then updated the ride to reflect the movie.
Magda (05:17):
God bless capitalism. My God. And why is Cedar Point not in on this action? Cedar Point has some amazing rollercoasters that could be turned into movies.
Doug (05:25):
If Cedar Point had a movie studio attached, there might be a whole different thing going.
Magda (05:31):
Well, there you go. That's true. Can you get Dippin Dots at Disney World?
Doug (05:36):
You know what? I don't remember. I'm gonna say yes.
Magda (05:39):
<Laugh>. Right? They're probably, like, location-agnostic. The Dippin Dots people will sell their wares into any public attraction that wants to sell them.
Doug (05:49):
70% certainty you can get Dippin Dots at Disney World.
Magda (05:52):
70% certainty.
Doug (05:55):
But the point is, they updated the ride, so toward the end of the ride, they put in an animatronic Jack Sparrow who says, “Hello, I hope you enjoyed the ride,” whatever. And then, you know, there had been like five or six Pirates movies. And so as they got more popular, they had to work out more ways to promote them and why not promote at the theme park? So Johnny Depp did a lot of marketing appearing as Jack Sparrow at the end of the ride. People were in the ride and all of a sudden the real Johnny Depp was sitting there in the throne where the normal animatronic Johnny Depp sits and actually engaging with the crowd and causing delight and whatever else. You have never been to Disney World, so if you were in that ride and then saw actual Johnny Depp waiting to say hello to you, you would probably think, “Wow, that's so sad. Johnny Depp now works at Disney World” <laugh>.
Magda (06:45):
No, I would, I mean, I don't imagine a time in which I go to Disney World unless there's a grandchild of mine involved, right? If I saw actual Johnny Depp in reality and he was close to me, I would make myself as invisible as possible immediately. And then I would just very calmly get out of the situation, so I wasn't in the same space that he was and he did not notice me and I would just get out.
Doug (07:15):
Right? Because you'd be in a boat, you know, Pirates of the Caribbean, the ride is everybody who rides it is in a boat.
Magda (07:22):
Okay. Is this one of those boats that goes woo-OOO, woo-OOOO? (makes the sound of something swinging back and forth)
Doug (07:25):
No, no, no. It's just like, it's a lazy river boat. You just kind of go around in a big
Magda (07:31):
I’ll never ever, ever be on one of those rocking boats because those make me vomit immediately.
Doug (07:38):
Right. You're not gonna go to Disney World ever just because I mean, it's got, it's the triple threat of bad for you. Right? Crowds, heat, DeSantis.
Magda (07:49):
Desantis hasn't always been one of my top three. So I would say, like, before when I didn't go to Disney World, it was because crowds, heat, and like enforced whimsicality.
Doug:
<laugh>.
Magda:
But right. Because the thing about it is like, in theory I could like it because I love false environments. I'm fascinated by them. Like I'm really fascinated by casinos. Totally love those. Really fascinated by, like, trade show floors at conventions. I love those. You know, where the social rules are different, where the norms are different. I'm not into whimsy, it's just not my thing. <Laugh>
If there was like a New York City Lower East Side bar theme park that was, like, enforced sarcasm. Right. Like the rides would be like, you're just on a bar stool drinking a beer and there's like this gentle motion and you just have to keep your beer from sloshing. That's the ride I could go on.
Doug (08:51):
So Rivington Street: The Musical.
Magda (08:55):
Right? Exactly. Those years that I lived in New York City, those were my favorite 4ths of July ever. Like 4th of July is my least favorite holiday, and it's just because it's in July and so much of it is outside. I loved it when I lived in New York City, you just go into a dark bar with air conditioning and drink beer in the middle of the day. “U S A! U S A!” right? Like it's great.
Doug (09:18):
And I I can see that catching on.
Magda (09:20):
Right? Exactly. And so now I'm moving to the suburbs. I don't know <laugh>, I do not know what to say to you. Like, Detroit has been fantastic for me, too, because there is a whole load of people here who have perfectly good yards that they could sit outside in, but they still choose to go to the bar and sit inside in the middle of the day on 4th of July.
Doug (09:38):
Well also it's like, you know, 4th of July isn't a day anymore, it's a week and people just bring their fireworks and shoot 'em off all week. Unless a town specifically in acts an ordinance saying, yeah, you gotta stop that.
Magda (09:51):
Right.
Doug (09:51):
And one thing also, if you didn't get Friday Flames this week, please check your spam folder because we did use the SS word in it. Not the “shit” but the other one. <Laugh>.
Magda (10:01):
Yeah. Well, so you know, YouTubers write that they spell it S E G G S.
Doug (10:06):
There you go. Yeah. Maybe I should have done that, too.
Magda (10:09):
So here's the funny thing. The transcript service I use does not transcribe curse words. Because I go through and edit all of them before we post them. And I'll be like, “What the heck?”
Doug (10:20):
This AI sucks now, but you never know.
Magda (10:23):
What the heck? And then I go back and listen to the thing and it was just like one of us said “shit” or “fuck” or something like that. And the transcription service just doesn't even, it's not even like a poorly-spelled word. It's just, there's nothing there.
Doug (10:36):
They just, yeah, they just opt out entirely. Yeah.
Magda (10:38):
It's so bizarre. And there's no setting I can change on it. Like, I can make it so that you either leave in or take out the filler words like “ums” and “uhs” and stuff like that. I haven't found a setting to have it for actual adult speech.
Doug (10:53):
Well, that's the service we provide to our hearing-impaired subscribers. <Laugh>,
Magda (10:57):
Right? It's putting in all the, everything. Well, you know what, actually a friend of mine who is deaf was, she posted something about some other deaf person was saying that they were really upset that the subtitles often didn't include the curse words. And they thought it was because the people running the subtitles were trying to quote/unquote “protect” the deaf listeners or like infantilize them. And I was like, oh no, no. I don't think it is an actual human being making that choice. I think it's somebody who didn't want the text to get censored. Like the, you know, the censoring software is not good enough to get the actual transcribed spoken part, but it can read the transcription and you'll get dinged. Like you your video will get censored if it has those words in it, much like our Friday Flames got censored.
Doug (11:56):
Listeners, you should know, we are not gonna have a Friday Flames this week. We'll have the podcast with Stewart Reynolds on Wednesday, but then there'll be no Friday Flames. And then we will check in on Monday after Magda's back in Massachusetts and I'm back from Colorado <laugh>.
Magda (12:13):
That's gonna be exciting. <Laugh>.
Doug (12:16):
And I still think I'll take like five showers and it'll still be remnants of the trip left.
Magda (12:21):
Yeah, I think so.
Doug (12:23):
I have time today to put together a 15 minute podcast. So we're already at 27 minutes.
Magda (12:27):
Okay. Separate it out,
Doug (12:29):
This is our fate. We cannot say we're gonna talk for 15 minutes and then stop. Yeah. It's just not part of our DNA.
Magda (12:35):
It doesn’t work. I don't even know, man.
Doug (12:38):
This is Robert's quote by the way. He says, “so far this century's pretty mid.”
Magda (12:42):
Mid? Is mid better than based?
Doug (12:45):
No. Based is good. Mid is like … “meh.”
Magda (12:49):
No cap?
Doug (12:50):
No cap. <Laugh>.