We had two notable deaths recently, and Pat Sajak announced his retirement. We have a fat twins update, and some guy set a new record for the most time spent underwater. Al Pacino—at the ripe old age of 83—is set to become a father. Chris tells us about his trip to D.C. and whether he observed proper airplane etiquette. And finally, we talk Maisel, Succession, Suits and Jury Duty.
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We had two notable deaths recently, and Pat Sajak announced his retirement. We have a fat twins update, and some guy set a new record for the most time spent underwater. Al Pacino—at the ripe old age of 83—is set to become a father. Chris tells us about his trip to D.C. and whether he observed proper airplane etiquette. And finally, we talk Maisel, Succession, Suits and Jury Duty.
1. Topics
2. Additional Resources
3. Merchandise/Support the Show
4. Contact Us/Follow Us/Rate/Subscribe
New episodes every week!
Listen, rate, follow, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts!
Follow us:
5. Credits
Subpar Talks Theme Music: Get Airy! by Sergei Chetvertnykh: SergeQuadrado | Pixabay
Subpar Talks transition music: Jingle Clean Guitar Funky and Rock Style by Shiden Beats Music: ShidenBeatsMusic | Pixabay
This week two notable deaths, a retirement, some more Guinness Records, and Chris survives his DC trip. Welcome to Subpar Talks. Hey everybody. Welcome to Subpar Talks where we have conversations about everything. I'm Jeff.
Chris:And I'm Chris.
Jeff:Thank you again for joining us and at this point, as always, we are gonna talk about our standard disclaimer. Listener discretion is advised. We like to curse from time to time, maybe a lot depending on the episode. And depending on the episode, we will touch on some mature subject matter. And so if that is not your thing, then perhaps this podcast is not for you. But for everybody else, settle in because here we go with this week's topics. OK, so we had two, I would call them notable deaths this week. One was Ted Kozinski, a k a, the Unibomber.
Chris:I'd kind of forgotten all about him.
Jeff:I had too. So that was, so when did he, he got arrested in the nineties, right? Is that when that was?
Chris:I think it was early nineties. Yeah.
Jeff:OK. How much do you know about the Unibomber? I don't know just a lot.
Chris:I don't know a lot either. Did, didn't he live in Montana? Is that where he was?
Jeff:Yeah, so I watched, uh, there was a documentary on, uh, I think it ran on Discovery originally or something, and it was like a five part thing. So I learned some stuff from that. He was basically, he thought technology was ruining the world and he wrote this gigantic manifesto and he would bomb people. I don't remember why he got the term Unibomber. I don't remember that. But they couldn't find out who he was. They searched for him. He started that back in the 1970s and it ran all the way up through the nineties and I don't remember how many people he killed and injured a a lot more. But they had a, like, there was a manhunt for him, but that, that famous drawing of it, of that, you know, the hood and the glasses and Yeah. And they finally found him. I don't remember exactly how that whole thing went down, but yeah, there was an award out for him. I remember a dj, I remember a DJ in Dallas. You know, there was an award. For Ted Kozinski and oh, this is what happened. His brother alerted the authorities that he knew he was involved or he might be involved or whatever. And so hiss brother was gonna be, uh, was gonna be eligible for the award, and his brother said he was gonna disperse that award to the victims. And I remember the DJ said, how likely are they to open up a piece of mail that has Kazinski for the return address? That's awesome. No kidding. I think I'll pass. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, yeah, he finally croaked. He was 81.
Chris:Yeah. I just haven't given him a lot of thought in a long time. So 80 ones, that means he was just in his. Well, about 50 when they caught him.
Jeff:Yeah. It was one of those things where you read the rantings of somebody and you can agree with some of it. Like, OK, he's got a point there, but then mm-hmm. They take it to the absolute extreme, which is, OK, we're gonna kill some people because of this. Like, what the fuck? Yeah,
Chris:man. It's frustrating that, that there are a lot of people that are fanatics in that way that do have good points. Yeah. It's not that, you know, some of their messaging may be on point. It's just how in the world do you go from, this needs to change. I'm upset about this, something needs to be done, whatever, to, I'm just gonna start blowing people up. That seems like, I mean, you got attention for sure. Yeah, but it's all negative attention. So who's gonna take that? Cause seriously after that? Right. That's unfortunate because yeah, there's a lot of people that, that might have good things to say. They just do it completely wrong.
Jeff:And we had another death, pat Robertson, did you hear about this? Oh yeah, the televangelist. Yeah. So he started the 700 club. Which I always came across that when I was a kid, it looked like the most boring shit ever. Like, oh my God, I don't wanna watch that.
Chris:Run alongside little house on the prayers.
Jeff:That's your nightmare. Those two shows back to back.
Chris:Yeah. Followed by 60 Minutes.
Jeff:Pat Robertson. He, uh, So, yeah, that was his whole thing, 700 club. And he of course, got involved in politics. He actually ran for president in the eighties, I think 88. He was trying to get the Republican nomination, but he was always at the forefront of politics because he would say the most outlandish shit. Mm-hmm. And so I dug up some crazy Pat Robertson quotes that I would like to share. And, uh, fuck. What a nut job. So here we go. OK, so this is from, uh, live about, or live about.com, stupid Pat Robertson quotes, and they have it counting down. I'm not gonna go through all of these, but here's one. So he was wanting some vacancies on the Supreme Court, right? So they could overturn Roe versus Wade and whatever else, so, mm-hmm. He said on his show, Lord, give us righteous judges who will not try to legislate and dominate this society. Take control. Lord, we ask for additional vacancies on the court. So he's wanting God to strike some Supreme Court justices down to, to provide some vacancies. Hold, do the right
Chris:thing. Just wipe'em
Jeff:out like you used to. Right? Here's another one, quote. Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews. So liberal America is now doing to the Evangelical Christians. It is no different. It is the same thing. It's happening all over again. It's the Democratic Congress, the liberal based media, and the homosexuals who wanna destroy the Christians wholesale abuse and discrimination, and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history. Wow. What the fuck? Yeah. More terrible than anything. Yes. Than than the extermination of the Jews. Yes. Right. My god. That's amazing. Um, oh, I remember this. So Disney World had a, back then it was called Gay Day. I think they would just say Pride Day today, or something along those lines. But of course he couldn't handle that and lost his shit. He said, I would warn Orlando that you're right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you. This is not a message of hate. This is a message of redemption, but a condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It'll bring about terrorist bombs, it'll bring earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor.
Chris:Yeah. If the other ones didn't get you, yeah. The meteor sure will. Right.
That's
Jeff:awesome. Here's, I remember this quote. The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.
Chris:Killed their children.
Jeff:Yeah.
Chris:I'm not really sure where that factors in. Or the witchcraft.
Jeff:Or the witchcraft. I was gonna say, yeah. That's crazy. Holy shit. Now I didn't grow up in, I mean, a religious household. Yes. And I've talked about this before. Not, not the nut job stuff that he's saying, but I heard this growing up in the church, and you probably heard this kind of stuff too, but I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man. Your husband Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period. Mm-hmm.
Chris:Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. That's the way God intended
Jeff:it, right? Right. Absolutely. Holy shit. I don't know he, what he was talking about here. Uh, but he was unhappy with the State Department, so whatever was going on there. Um, foggy Bottom is a neighborhood in DC mm-hmm. And he said, quote, maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on foggy bottom to shake things. Shake things up. Just one of those tiny nukes. That sounds like a
Chris:Trumpism right there. I mean, can't we just put a small
Jeff:one out there? Yeah. You know? Yeah.
Chris:We don't want it to get to anybody else.
Jeff:But just a small thing, there's a long ass quote here about the hurricane that hit Haiti back in, uh, 2010. Mm-hmm. And I'm not gonna read this whole thing, but basically he said the Haitians made a pact with the devil a long time ago. And so that's why their country is in such turmoil all the time. Well, of
Chris:course that's what, that's, that's his historical reference then to say that about Disney World and Orlando. Right. It's like, look what happened to the Haitians.
Jeff:Yeah. Wonder if they've had a meteor yet.
Chris:It's coming.
Jeff:And then, uh, on the 700 club, there was a woman who called in and, uh, her husband had cheated on her. So this was his, his good advice for Harry. Quote. Like it or not, males have a tendency to wonder a little bit. What you wanna do is make a home so wonderful that he doesn't want to wonder. Well,
Chris:that's, that's good advice.
Jeff:It's your goddamn fault lady. Yep. Uh, and then, OK, I'll end with this one and. He's not the one who said this, but he total, he says in response to this quote, I totally concur. This was after nine 11 and another, another one of these assholes, Jerry Falwell, you remember him too, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. He said in response to nine 11. Quote, I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the A C L U people for the American Way, all of them have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say, you helped this happen. And Pat Robertson was asked about that and said, well, I totally concur. So there you go. All right. There you go. Pat Robertson. You will not be missed, at least not by me. No, except for entertainment purposes. The problem with this is like he's infecting millions of people's minds and then they turn around and vote based on the bullshit that comes out of his mouth. That's the problem I have with it. Like you can believe whatever you wanna believe, but when you start, you know, injecting yourself into politics, get the fuck out. There was other Pat News. You got other Pat News, what happened?
Chris:Yeah. It's a little happier note than that is. I mean, it's not happy, but it's not a death is that Pat Sak is retiring from Wheel of Fortune.
Jeff:How long has he been there? Long time.
Chris:It's, so it's going to be his 41st season when he retires. So he is gonna do this next season. He's done it for, for 40 years
Jeff:now. So early eighties is when he started? Yeah, I think
Chris:it was 83, 82 I
Jeff:think. Is that when Vanna started too? I
Chris:think so. Did they start at the same time? I don't know. And that brought up another question that I, I read the articles and don't have the answer to is, is she sticking around? I mean, what's that gonna be like if she's there and he's not? And then there was a question of who would take over
Jeff:for him. How old is he and how old is she?
Chris:I know she's in her, she's gotta be in her mid
Jeff:sixties. Jesus Christ. Really?
Chris:Yeah. They've gotta be around the same
Jeff:age. Pat Sajak. God damn. I didn't know this. He is 76.
Chris:Oh my gosh. Holy shit. I didn't know that. Well, I guess cause I
Jeff:don't watch Wheel of Fortune. I picture him and I think he's gotta be like mid fifties, but I, I knew he is older than that, but I didn't think 76.
Chris:Well, he's clearly had work done and he does so he doesn't look 76. I had no idea though.
Jeff:Fuck me. Vanna White is 66.
Chris:66. OK, well 76. And you've been doing this for 40 years? Yeah, I think it's time to
Jeff:hang it up. They should have hung it up a long time ago. And Vanna White, so I don't, I don't watch Wheel of Fortune at my parents would watch it occasionally. My grandmother would watch it religiously. So I have been exposed to it. I know the general premise.
Chris:Exposed to it. Yeah.
Jeff:But, uh, she would, they used to have it where she would actually turn the letter. Right. She would turn the thing and now she just touches it. She's useless. You don't even need anybody to do that. Just have the thing, the letter appear. So, That was exactly
Chris:what I thought when they started lighting it up like that. Like, OK, so she doesn't need to be there. I mean, that was totally different when she actually needed to turn it. Yeah,
Jeff:but she's, she's useless. Yeah. You know, she was in Playboy back in the eighties.
Chris:I did hear that. Yeah. I'm surprised she was able to stay on Wheel of Fortune.
Jeff:Yeah, I am too. So I think she had done it before. She was like, anybody knew who she was and I, for whatever reason, they didn't publish it. But now she's on Wheel of Fortune, like one of the biggest game shows. And so I think they were like, yeah, we're gonna publish these and make a ton of money, which they probably did. Mm-hmm. So anyway. Do you watch any game shows?
Chris:No, I mean, I used to watch Wheel of Fortune a fair amount, and again, it's not so much that I turned it on, I was exposed to it. Right. Yeah. It was, you know, somebody else has got it on and I would get into it. It's a, I think it's a good game show as game shows go. Yeah. But yeah, I'm just, I'm just not one to sit down and wanna watch something like that.
Jeff:Well, we, we did have YouTube tv, but it just got like I, we didn't watch that much. I'll get a during football season, but other than that, we weren't watching anything on it except Jeopardy. I would record Jeopardy and watch that. I love watching Jeopardy. That's a
Chris:good one too. Yeah,
Jeff:but it doesn't justify paying 60 something dollars a month right now, back in the day. I think everybody, I don't know if kids do this now, but I, I know this will resonate with you and everybody in our generation, but you stay home during the day. You, you're sick or you play hooky or whatever and the price is right's coming on. I would watch that.
Chris:Absolutely. Yeah. The price is right's a
Jeff:big one, but I haven't watched that in years.
Chris:No, and I was thinking about that, talking about Pat Saja is how long Bob Barker was on there. Damn. Holy hell. Yeah. He was on there forever. And you know, we talked about him many episodes ago. He's still alive. Jesus. He had his 99th birthday. Jesus. Oh my God. God. Yeah. His birthday is the same as mine, but I swear he, he was 99. I was, I was wondering if he's gonna make it to a hundred.
Jeff:Could Bob Barker spin the wheel completely around right now?
Chris:No. He'd be one of those people that just barely does anything and falls down.
Jeff:You know, you get booed if you don't spin it all the way around. So yeah, maybe you'd get booed. Yeah, I always wanted to do that. I'll never get a chance, cause I'd never make it on the show, but I wonder how hard is it to spin that thing around? It
Chris:couldn't be that hard. No, I mean, it just couldn't.
Jeff:I wouldn't think so. You've got
Chris:smaller people that go on. Women versus men. I mean, it can't be that difficult or you're gonna have a ton of people that can't spin it
Jeff:around. I always wanted to see, but somebody get thrown under it like they get caught or clothes get caught in one of the pegs.
Chris:Imagine that gets edited
Jeff:out. Well, that's unfortunate. Yeah, that would bring in more viewers,
Chris:but seeing them fall down, that's a good plus already.
Jeff:I do know this. They have male models now on there. It's not just women. I don't wanna see that. I don't either. That's unfortunate. That was one of the bonuses when I was watching it as a kid, is like, hey, right, look at the models. And especially if they're advertising a hot tub or a boat or whatever, and they're in a bikini or at least a swimsuit. Yeah, buddy. Exactly.
Chris:Now that's a little ironic, you know, and I guess I never really thought about that because back in the day when all of that was happening, who's your biggest viewer? Women? Why didn't they have the male models back then?
Jeff:I don't know. Maybe they were pretending gay people didn't exist. Gay people aren't watching this. They don't wanna see men. So maybe that's who they're trying to reach. But
Chris:the women who are typically the ones watching it at home during the day would've wanted to see the men. True. And now you've got more men home than you used to, which would be the ones wanting to see the women.
Jeff:Something's missing. Well, most of'em. Yeah. Something is missing. Well, I
Chris:don't know. Yeah, most of'em.
Jeff:So last week we talked about, uh, some weird Guinness records. Yes. And I brought up the fattest twins. We both remarked how we remember the fattest twins. Like we remember that from when we were kids. You'd see the fat twins on the motorcycle, and I'm reading about the Fat Twins last week, and I'm like, there's no way this could be the same set of twins. This has to be another set of fat twins because there's 700 something pounds, 700 something pound person cannot mount a motorcycle, but I'm wrong. It is the same people. So, really? Yeah, they went by the name McGuire Twins, but their names were actually Mc McCreary, uh, which I think I mentioned last week, but they went by the McGuire twins. So yeah, that's them. Nobody's broken their record. They've been, uh, well one of them died the, so last week I said whatever I was reading from. Said they both died of heart failure, but according to Wikipedia, one of them died in a motorcycle accident, uh,
Chris:right after the picture was taken.
Jeff:Yep. Just bounced along the faith. Uh, and then the other one died of heart failure, so I don't know whoever you believe, but yeah, so nobody's broken their record. They're still the fattest twins. They holy hell, they both weighed 200 pounds by age 10 and 600 pounds by age 16. Oh my gosh. So it says they had rubella, which is German measles, when they were four years old, and that caused problems with their pituitary gland. Mm-hmm. I guess it just went nuts, I guess. Couldn't regulate their weight. Holy hell.
Chris:Thank goodness we got a
Jeff:vaccine for that. Yeah, no joke. They dropped outta high school and moved to Texas where they had jobs in livestock branding. Everything's bigger.
Chris:Yeah, the cows are like, cows are like, come on over. Are you one of us? I know. To win the herd.
Jeff:Anyway, there's your fattest twins update.
Chris:So speaking of Guinness Records, I came across a new Guinness record this week. Was a guy who's lived underwater for a hundred days. What
Jeff:the fuck?
Chris:Yeah. So, and he broke the earlier record. That was 77 days. Now why does anyone want to do that at all?
Jeff:How, how, OK. I have some questions. How does that, obviously he's not holding his breath, right? So he's got a, a tank, a scuba tank. Yeah. Like how does that
Chris:work? Yeah. So I was reading through trying to find out some of the hows and it didn't explain it, it was more about that it was a scientific experiment to see what the effects of, and he was only 22, the feet or meters? I think it was feet. OK. 22 feet underwater. Um, but they're trying to, Determine the effects of pressure on the body for extended periods of time, and one of the things that happened was he shrunk by, it was either a half inch or an inch. Shrinkage. Just that. Yeah. Yeah. They didn't talk about that,
Jeff:that that might have gone away completely. So it might have what
Chris:happened, just inverted. But yeah, they were talking about that. Then it said something about, That he was at this underground hotel. Well, I thought that meant he was inside something, but then he wouldn't have been subject to the pressure. So I don't know what was at this underground hotel. Like it didn't say. How did he eat? How did he go to the bathroom? I, I, I don't, oh man. I don't understand some of those things, but, Then the other thing that that just crossed my mind is how is your skin not just peeling off your body
Jeff:at that point? Well, I was thinking about that, like think how pruny his, his fingers
Chris:were. Yeah. I mean, you sit in a bathtub for 45 minutes in a, you're all
Jeff:shriveled up in a tepid pool of your own fils. Yeah. Well, I hope he had something to shit in and piss in. Like he wasn't just doing it in the water.
No,
Chris:that's nasty. Yeah,
Jeff:it's gross. So was the point of this to just for him to set the world record or was there some scientific something or other? I think
Chris:that more of the point was the scientific aspect of it. So it did say, I don't know what he teaches, but he is a, a college professor and it said that he continued teaching his courses while he was underwater.
Jeff:I have even more questions now. How I know.
Chris:I know I had all these questions and the article didn't answer the questions. It, it focused more on the why and not the how. And I wasn't even that satisfied with the why. Like, OK, that was that kind of experiment. But, so
Jeff:I was thinking before like he's just sitting in, like he's in a chair that's weighted down in water. So he was actually in the water. He wasn't in some enclosed thing under the water. He was actually in the water with a scuba tank and whatever else.
Chris:That was the picture that they showed that, yeah, he had a, he had a tank on the water with a, you know, the whole apparatus on his face.
Jeff:Apparatus.
Chris:Yeah. And now I'm thinking, how did he sleep? How do you sleep?
Jeff:I don't
Chris:know. Saying that about this underwater hotel thing. I don't know. Then like, could he go in and come back out of the thing? But then how would you do that without water getting into like, you can't get in and out of something without water going into whatever you're coming in and out of. I don't
Jeff:know. Yeah. That's crazy. That's bizarre. How old would you say is too old to become a father? Uh, a
Chris:lot younger than me.
Jeff:At what age should men just stop having kids?
Chris:Man, I don't know. I'll tell you one thing that's always been. Something I think about though is I think that the guy should be of an age where it's reasonable that they're still gonna be around as that kid grows
Jeff:up. Right. The reason I ask is Al Pacino is about to be a father. I'm assuming that I, I'm assuming he already has kids, but he is about to become a father. Al Pacino is 83 years old. Holy shit. And he's about to become, I. A dad again. What the hell? See, I don't
Chris:get that. I have no idea. Yeah. Why? I mean, first of all, I can't imagine, what do you want out of that? I mean, you can't want to be up in the middle of the night taking care of the kid, doing all this kind of stuff. Oh my God, no. And, and what are the chances that he's gonna live? You know, for that kid to even grow up like that, something about it just seems selfish. But then I think, what are you doing for
Jeff:yourself either? And Robert De Niro is 79, he just had a kid, I just don't get it. Now. Getting up in the middle of the night, I mean, I can't imagine they're gonna be doing that because they have more money than they know what to do with. So they could hire whoever. So you're not gonna have to be involved like most fathers are gonna have to be, or supposed to be, but still like, what the hell? Right. I don't know. I just don't understand that. I
Chris:don't either. Yeah. And saying that like they're gonna have help to take care of them. Absolutely. I'm sure they would. But then it's like, what's left after that? I mean, as, as painful as the, you know, Middle of the night stuff and extremely early mornings and all of that kind of stuff. As painful as it is. Mm-hmm. That's part of that bonding time too, and you add that bonding time for building something going into the future and they,
Jeff:right. They don't have much of a future. No, there's not a future.
Chris:So it just goes back to, what are you doing this for? I don't even see, I. I don't even see the selfish part of it. Really. Like what are you doing for yourself? And as a grandkid, not enough. They could have great
Jeff:grandkids. I know this fact will blow your mind, and maybe you've heard this, but John Tyler's the president, John Tyler Uhhuh, his grandson is still alive. Really? Yeah. So John Tyler. Wow. Was super old. I think it was his second wife or whatever. He was super old when he had a kid. And then that kid grew up and was super old when he had a kid. And John Tyler's last living grandson right now is like 90 something years old. We're talking about somebody that was president back in the 18, whenever he was president in 1840s. Wow. I just, when I heard that, that's crazy. I was like, it is crazy. When I heard that, I was like, wait, what? How does that work? But yeah, that's nuts. Yeah. But anyway, I, I can't imagine becoming a father at that age, but hey, to each his own. Well,
Chris:you know, it's just like, Ever since having kids and, and going through all of that, and now I'm, you know, 14 and, and nearly 20 years past. Mm-hmm. Having them as a baby, it's like, I just can't imagine starting that over. And, and I am well below 83. Let's just put that out there. I just can't imagine starting that over like, how could I be tens of years beyond what I am and then go, oh yeah, that sounds like a good idea.
Jeff:We had other big news this week. Donald Trump for the second time was indicted. Yep.
Chris:But the
Jeff:first time federally. Yeah. So he's hitting a lot of firsts. First time former president's been indicted. Now first one to be indicted, uh, under federal charges. And you know what? They might not be done because he's still under investigation for his role in January 6th, and yeah, and he's under investigation. There's a grand jury in Georgia of whether he interfered with. That state trying to influence the election results there illegally. I had, uh, my students asking about this, could he still run for president? And the answer is yes, he can still run for president. But here's the ironic thing, if he's convicted, he couldn't vote because he'd be a felon. And he'd be in prison, but he could still as sure as shit run the country. Like how fucked up is that?
Chris:Wait, he could be OK running. Yes. But you could be elected while you're in prison.
Jeff:Yeah, because there's no law against it and there's nothing in the constitution against it. So he could run for president from inside of a prison cell. And God knows he'll get votes and yeah, he could actually win. And then what the hell? And
Chris:then what the hell exactly.
Jeff:We're gonna have cabinet meetings inside the prison cell. How does that work? Oh my gosh. Yeah. I know you talk about fucked up, but yeah, we'll see what happens.
Chris:Well, and none of the Republicans can get on the same page now because you've got house Republicans that are trying to support him and Senate Republicans that are distancing themselves and saying, the Trump era is over. We need to move on. Turn the page, all of that. Yeah. They said they want a candidate who actually win cuz they don't think that he could win the general election. Yeah. Well, I'm not so
Jeff:sure. I I'm not either. I'm, I'm done Like in 2016, I didn't think he could win either. Yeah. So I wouldn't put it past that to happen again. Like honestly, nothing at all in American politics will surprise me at this point. No.
Chris:Speaking of politics, we talked about this on prior episode that I was going to Washington, DC Oh yeah. And, It was a really good trip. It was crazy packed in, like we talked about. Um, schedule was just back to back to back of everything, but I did, I got to see some things that I have seen before, but maybe not seen up close. Like I've driven, driven by memorials and things like that, but hadn't actually gotten out and gone up to them. All of that. And then I got also got to see plenty of things that I've never seen before. So, It was a good experience overall for, for that. But I'll tell you, and, and you know, just coming off of this political conversation here, there were some things that I, that I saw experienced witnessed there that really made me kind of sad in a way. Mm-hmm. At, you know, that where we are today is not what was envisioned. It's just not the, the political infighting. And there's so much talk in the past and in the founding documents and all of that about the people, the people, the people, you know. Yeah. It's a government for the people, by the people of the people and all that. And now it's like, we know corporations are running things. We know it's all about money. Mm-hmm. Um, how much voice do the people really have? All of those types of things. The, even in the campaigns, it's all about money, you know? Yeah. Who can outspend the other person? Yeah. And none of that stuff would've used, would have mattered in the past. And it is just, it's frustrating to see those kinds of things and know the kind of vision that there was. And yes, things have changed a lot, but they have changed so much. But I don't even think they were what was intended
Jeff:anymore. I think money and, and politics. I like if I could boil down one thing that I would wanna change how, how things work, it would be that, because so many other problems stem from that, but it's the influence of money. If we could wipe out campaign commercials and the influence of interest groups, Just have candidates run like equal airtime. Mm-hmm. You know, they're not allowed to run the ads. More like what, what you see in European countries as far as campaigns go. That would be my preference, but it'll never happen because the Supreme Court has said, you know, freedom of speech corporations have the right to influence. Uh, you know, Canada's just like people do, which. I think it's shit, but that's what they've said. Yeah. I had a question the other day from a student. I don't remember exactly what the question was, but I was talking about the constitution, the formation of it and all that. And somebody mentioned, uh, like Thomas Jefferson and I said, I think honestly, like if Thomas Jefferson were like just to appear. Right now. I think he'd be shocked. I think a lot of'em would be shocked like, y'all are still doing this. Y'all are still under the same constitution that we wrote 200 whatever years ago. You're still doing this? Oh yeah. I think they'd be really surprised. Like, holy hell, we didn't expect that it would last that long. Figured you would've moved on to something else. Yeah. Yeah. Evolved. So anyway, yeah. Evolved. Yeah. Instead of devolving.
Chris:That's a good point. I mean, that's, that's something that we have heard, heard more of in the recent past is like how much we hold the constitution, how much we hold it up as this supreme document and everything's gotta be done based on it, as opposed to, Hey, should we reinvent it? Yeah. You know? Yeah. Reimagine certain
Jeff:things and, and this shows you how deadlocked we are. The political infl infighting, as you said, I'm pretty sure we've gone the longest in our country's history now without putting an amendment in the Constitution. The 27th Amendment, I'm pretty sure it was. I know it was either 92 or 93, and so what, that's 30 years ago. I don't think we've gone 30 years except this point, uh, without putting an amendment in the Constitution. It is just, it's really hard to do. But as divided as we are now, like there's no way it would happen. Yeah. And forget about writing a new constitution. Holy hell. That wouldn't happen. Couldn't happen. No way.
Chris:No, no. And you're right. Just getting an amendment in there would be, I mean, it's, it's difficult anyway. Yeah. When you consider the numbers that you have to get, But right to, to imagine getting those kinds of numbers now in this environment. Mm-hmm. I can't imagine something like that happening.
Jeff:No way. So you had a good trip. It was packed though. Packed in? It was packed,
Chris:but it was a good trip. Yeah, I would say one of a couple of things that really stood out to me. Um, you know, I like seeing several of the memorials and like I said, I've seen some of them before. A couple of things that I had not done before that I really enjoyed. I have to use that word carefully cuz this isn't one that you enjoy, but you understand. Mm-hmm. Was the Holocaust Museum.
Jeff:Oh, OK. See I haven't been
Chris:there. It, it was really well done. It could have spent many more hours there. We had a couple of hours and so I spent quite a lot of time at the beginning. And then kind of rushed through, you know, I spent a lot of time up to invading Poland and then the
Jeff:war was over. Right. You didn't make out with anybody at the Holocaust scene? I did not. Did you?
Chris:No. I got pissed off at
Jeff:some people. Well, yeah, that's inevitable.
Chris:Seriously, man, you go in a place like that and they are so. Just not self-aware. They'll stand. Right. I thought up next to what they're trying to, I thought you're
talking
Jeff:about Nazis, you're pissed off at the Nazis. Well that
Chris:too. Yeah.
Jeff:But also, uh, fellow Americans. Yeah, I get that too, correct? Mm-hmm. Yeah. They're standing
Chris:right up next to what they're trying to read, like. Put some glasses on and scoot back because I can't see. Right. But yeah, the, the way they had it laid out, the, the audio video, you know, all of the, I mean, they had like actual Nazi uniforms, stuff like that. Mm-hmm. It was interesting to see, but, but the way they told the story of the buildup was honestly frightening. It was just frightening because I think I said this on here before, that there was a guy that came to our junior high. Back then who had been in a concentration camp, had the, the tattoo mm-hmm. On his arm. And his repeating comment was, it could happen again. And that was the thing that kept going through my head in, in watching and looking at it, at it all. Is, it could happen again, you know? Yeah. It's going into the mindset of someone who is, is putting forth these thoughts and then the mob mentality and all of that kind of stuff and Yep. Anyway, uh, that was, it was kind of fascinating to see all that. And the other thing that I would say after saying that, you know, we kind of put the, the Constitution and, and all those documents on a pedestal was actually going in the national archives and seeing. The Declaration of Independence Constitution, bill of Rights. Yeah. That was really cool to actually see the original documents. Mm-hmm. I mean there since, I don't know what, you know, third, fourth grade, whenever you first really start talking about that stuff. Right. And it's just kind of this document, oh yeah, this happened so long ago. And then you spend your life hearing about it and then you go like, Holy shit. That's the actual thing right there. Yeah. That's very cool.
Jeff:So you did the Holocaust Museum. Did you do another museum or did you didn't have a chance?
Chris:We went in a couple of Smithsonians. We went in the Museum of Natural History and American History. Oh, OK.
Jeff:Didn't
Chris:spend a whole lot of time in either one. Definitely would've liked to have spent more time in there. That actually reminds me in the American History Museum, one of the things I saw that was so cool had no, I no idea that it was, there was the flag that was flown in the war of 1812 that inspired the Star-Spangled Banner.
Jeff:Oh, OK. I probably saw that, but I don't remember. But
Chris:yeah, that's cool when you, when you first go in, it's, it's back in its own little kind of alcove kind of thing. Mm-hmm. But laid out, you know, completely laid out, kind of a darkened looking room. But, oh man, that was cool. Um, let's see, museums. I think that was a Holocaust and the two Smithsonians. Mm-hmm. It did go to Ford's theater where Lincoln was shot.
Jeff:Yeah. You
Chris:survived. No. Yeah, I made it out. That was, again, I don't know the right words for it. It, it was, uh, Cool. Mm-hmm. It, it was, it was neat to see because there again, that's just something you hear about from the time you're a little kid. Yeah. You know, Lincoln was shot, he was shot in a theater. It's like, holy shit, this is the actual theater that is literally where he was sitting. You hear about John Wilkes booth jumping off the balcony onto the stage. That's where he did it. That's
Jeff:pretty cool. That's amazing. Is that, so is it just a museum now or do they, do they still have plays there or
Chris:They do, yeah. Oh, OK. It is a working theater. Yeah. I, I asked them that and they said that, um, they had just wrapped up a production of something the prior week, and there's a, a building across the street. And it's actually connected to, what is the name of that place? Something House is where Lincoln died. So they took him out of the theater into the house, across the street, right?
Jeff:Yeah. I can't remember the name of it, but I know what you're talking
Chris:about. Yeah. But anyway, it's a building that's connected to that and it is a, like a, a theater company. Where they get, you know, actors, rehearsals, all that kind of business. But then they do actually put on the plays in the theater. But yeah, very interesting to see all that. Also. Well, he did go to Mount Vernon. I guess you'd kind of call that a museum too. Yeah, it is now. So you got to see the room where George Washington died. Mm-hmm. Well, and just the fact that he lived there, you know, there was a mirror on the wall. That they said was an original mirror and it certainly looked like it. You know, you can just tell the Yeah. Antique ness of it. Mm-hmm. And I said, George Washington looked at himself in that mirror.
Jeff:Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. Isn't that cool? Yeah, it's amazing. It is. And he is buried there. Did you see his grave? It's a big old eight. Yeah. Saw the grave.
Chris:Yeah. So that was something I thought about is. If we go, we as people, since this is not just Americans or I don't guess, but we as people will go find old tombs and think about like Egyptian tombs and mm-hmm. We'll dig them up. You know, we opened their tombs. Ooh, what's in here? What did you, how did you bury your dead? What do you have? Right. But for somebody like George Washington, this is like, you know, walled off a fence. It's guarded. Mm-hmm. Nobody touches any, like, what if I just wanted to go, because it's not below ground. Yeah. You know, he's, he's in a, a coffin thing that's above ground. Yeah. Like, does anybody just wanna open it up? Why don't we have his skeleton in the Smithsonian? Like here he is.
Jeff:Here's George. I know. You know, he was tall. He was like six two. That was something. Was he really back then? Yeah. So he was pretty intimidating from what I've read. But hell, Lincoln was six four and then he had that big ass hat on his head. Yeah. Maybe I'm about six, eight. Yeah. Look like a gorilla walking around. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's cool. There's so much history there and I always, I always have this feeling when I go to the east coast anywhere, it's like, holy hell, you're talking about stuff 17 hundreds depending on where you are in, on the East Coast, 16 hundreds. Mm-hmm. And then here in Texas, Ooh, 1870 something. I know it's nothing. Right? Wow.
Chris:Yeah. Well, and then you go over to Europe. Oh, I know. And even our stuff doesn't mean anything. I know. They're like 200 years. Yeah.
Jeff:That's laughable. So we talked about some Reddit threads, and I think we'll get into those in more detail in another episode, but I remember seeing one where people were asking British citizens, what do you learn in school about the American Revolution? And it was basically not much or nothing at all. It was like, When you own half the world, it's just not that big of a deal. So they don't really focus on it at all. It's just one of things that happened. They just lost, lost one and moved on. Yeah, just moved on. Yeah. We'll still, uh, exploit the African people and whoever else. Right. For our own personal gain. Wow, that's
Chris:really funny to think about it from their perspective. Yeah. I have thought about that. Like what do they think about the fact that we celebrate July 4th, for example. Mm-hmm. Fireworks and all that kind of stuff. It's like we kicked your ass.
Jeff:Yeah, I know. Yeah. So that's cool. Did you observe, uh, airplane etiquette on your flight there and back?
Chris:I did. I can't say so much for some other people. I did see a guy that took his
Jeff:shoes off. OK. I was gonna ask if you saw any bare feet. Not
Chris:bear. He did have socks. So there's that. OK. Uh, yeah, that's at least good. I did have a middle seat for one, one of those times and the person on one side of me did not get the memo that the arm rest was mine.
Jeff:Oh, right. Well, should have arm wrestled before it. So we, uh, my wife and I just finished watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. I know you finished that. Yeah. Were you happy with the way things wrapped up? I was. I thought they
Chris:did a really good job. I did too. I really didn't know where it was headed. You know, earlier in the season they were showing some of the flash forwards and, OK, what's gonna happen here? But yeah, I thought they did a, a great job with wrapping it up.
Jeff:It's a really, really good series, but I don't, I have not enjoyed a series like that in a long time. Like I'm sad to see it go. I'm happy that they ended the way that they did. And it was only four seasons, right? It was only four seasons. I mean, four, yeah. Four seasons wasn't, was it? I think so. I can't remember if it was four or five. Might be. Yeah. It wasn't. But anyway, they, they went out on a high note for sure. They didn't, I don't feel like it dragged on. No, not at all. And man, the characters, uh, they're all, they all are so good. And I mean, whether you like'em or find'em annoying, they all did a really good job. Yeah. But they did. The parents, she's great. Of course. Yeah. The parents. Yeah,
Chris:her parents, his parents. That's just like, uh, you can, you can kind of hear, uh, George or, uh, Frank and Estelle. Sounds like the two nut jobs
Jeff:talking. I know it. I know it. And her dad, whatever that guy's name is, God, he needs to win some kind of award for his performance in that. Yeah, he's good. I'm sorry that it's gone, but as I said, they, they did a really good job wrapping everything up.
Chris:I always wanted to see more of him. He is probably he, he is definitely one of my favorites
Jeff:on there. Yeah, definitely. And, uh, she, uh, what is her? The actress's name that plays Maisel? I can't think of her name. Um, Rachel, that's right. Uh, sort of B Bras. Yeah, bras. Brosnahan. Is that it? Bras Bra. Is that it? I, that sounds right. She was so good in that.
Chris:Very interesting to see her as herself. You see her on a talk show or something? You can see how much acting has gone into her character.
Jeff:Yes. Yeah. It really makes you have more respect for the craft of acting when you see somebody who's just totally unlike what they're playing on screen.
Chris:Yes. Yeah. No, she did. She did a a really great job herself.
Jeff:Absolutely. Have you started watching the final season of succession? No,
Chris:I need to do that. Cause I know the final episode aired.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah. So it's all done. I started watching the final season and there are very few series that, well, I, I guess, I don't know if this is the right term, but I'm an evangelist for like, I will tell other people, you need to watch this, like you have to watch this series. Mm-hmm. And I was harping on my wife, like, we gotta, you need to watch succession, you're gonna like it. It's like it's mad men level type, good drama stuff. It's funny. Yeah. And so I finally convinced her, so I bailed on the final season. I was like three or four episodes in. And so now we've started watching that. So it'll be a while till we're done, but we're almost done with season one. But yeah, it's so good.
Chris:Yeah. How many seasons have there been? I
Jeff:can't remember. I think it's four. So maybe I was thinking of that with Maisel, now that you mentioned it. I think Maisel's five and succession's four.
Chris:Is this last one? The fourth? Yeah. Yeah, I think that's right. OK. Yeah. Well you can probably catch up pretty soon then, but yeah, I need to pick that up. I've been watching, we mentioned this before, I've been watching Suits. Oh yeah. Yeah, it's, it's really good. You would like that. You would like it for sure. Because it's a, it's a legal show. Right. But yeah, it's great.
Jeff:Is that, what is that on?
Chris:Is it on Uh, very entertaining. It is on Prime Video. OK. Peacock. It's about to come on Netflix though. OK. Um, some, sometime in June it's gonna be on
Jeff:Netflix. I'll put that on my list. Speaking of prime videos, so, uh, we just started watching this. We're about halfway done. It's a show called Jury Duty. Have you heard about it? No. So it's this, uh, documentary style where they're filming a case and they're talking to the jury and it's totally fake, except one of the jurors thinks everything is real. So that's
Chris:right. I did see
Jeff:that all this shit is happening, and of course he thinks it's all real. And, uh, yeah, it's really good. It's funny, like it is, it is good. So I recommend that it's eight episodes and they're all like half an hour each, so it's easy to just binge watch. OK. I
Chris:gotta check that out. So it's it different jurors every time or is
Jeff:it No, it's just one. It's one case. So yeah, it's the same jurors. OK. Yeah. All right. There you go. That is our content for this week. If you like this kind of stuff, then this is your type of podcast, and you should absolutely, without a doubt, positively follow us on whatever platform you listen to podcasts on, because that way you're gonna get new episodes delivered to you automatically every Tuesday when they drop. You never even have to do anything. They'll fall right in your lap. And while you are there, go ahead and rate us. We would be really, really grateful if you'd give us five stars and while you're there, go ahead and type something. It doesn't matter what you type, but the way these apps work is if you type something there, it makes it easier for people to discover this show. We have a website that is Subpar Talks dot com. You can go there and check us out there. You can. Find out about me, about Chris. You can email us, you can leave us a voicemail. If you wanna leave suggestions for topics we should cover on future episodes, go ahead and do that as well. We are on social media on Twitter. We are at Subpar Talks on Facebook. We are Subpar Talks. If you wanna follow our personal Twitter accounts, you can do that as well on there. I am at@independentjeff
Chris:and I am at Chris Bradford tx.
Jeff:And we have other social media links on our website. You can check that out. And last, but never, ever least, please share Subpar Talks with your friends, family, colleagues. Put it on social media. Get the word out about this show because the more people we have listening to this, that makes it easier on us to get this content to you each. Every single week and you have any final thoughts, questions, concerns, parting shots at Ted Kazinski or Pat Robertson? I got
Chris:all kinds of concerns. Go. Go to DC If you haven't been to dc, go to dc. It's a
Jeff:great trip. It is a really good trip. Trip. And, uh, ideally. Most people can't do this, but at least a week in DC to be able to see stuff. But even then there's, there's always gonna be more. But yeah, it's good and it's always educational. You always learn something. Absolutely. Just causely of the nature of it. Yep. Alright. Right. That is another episode wrap and we will be back next week. Until then, so long.