A note about next week and about Spiderman͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ 

Hey there, Friendos! Happy Friday! It’s me, Andrew, from TBTL. I hope this email finds you well. 

Image of Angele Lansbury in the bathtub with big block text that reads "HOW YOUR EMAIL FINDS ME"

I’m not just writing to you today to share homemade Angela Lansbury memes, though. I have some important news for you regarding next week’s edition of this newsletter. 

Namely, there won’t be one.

Don’t worry, the newsletter is not sunsetting. This is just a temporary pause in production as I will be recovering from hand and wrist surgery next week, and I won’t be able to type. 

If you are a regular listener of the pod, this news will not be a surprise to you. However, if you’re behind in your listening, you might be saying right now, “ANDREW! You’re getting wrist surgery? Does this mean what I think it means? That you’re finally getting that operation where they put Spiderman web devices into your wrists so that you can shoot Spiderman webs all over the place and run around downtown Seattle acting like Spiderman???”

Well, yes and no. Yes, I will be getting the Spiderman web devices, but no, that’s not the whole story. While the doctors are poking around in there, they are also going to take care of some tendonitis and carpal tunnel issues I’ve been having. After all, this Spiderman won’t be any good to anyone if his wrists are sore all the time. 

Crude drawing of spiderman saying "My wrist hurts"

The timing of all of this might be perfect, though. Because after today’s newsletter, I will be out of new Ten of the Week submissions to share with you! I don't want to tell you what to do with your free time, but maybe you can use next Friday’s reprieve to fill-out your own TOTW form, and then you can be a podcast newsletter superstar in weeks to come! 

Thanks, everyone! I hope you have a wonderful weekend (or two). Luke and I will talk to you Monday!

-- Andrew

Hey Dummies

YouTube still image of Luke sitting on a blue couch petting a black standard poodle standing next to him on the floor

Ten Of The Week

Photo of Listener Kelly holding a long haired cat up near her face for a photo

What’s your name and where do you live? 

Kelly Welch. Sherwood, OR.

When did you start listening to TBTL? How did you find the show?

Back in the olden days, there was a promo for TBTL on The Splendid Table - I had been living alone (for the first time) for close to a year after ending my engagement, and the promo said something about the podcast feeling like you were in a room with a couple of your good friends and you just were along for the ride. I mean, later hearing that TBTL's mission was to cure global loneliness, that seemed so apt for what I was seeking, and I found it. The first episode I heard was "That's a Tuna, Bro" so it would have been late September 2015, I believe.

How would your friends describe you?

My oldest best friend: "I'd generally go with homo sapiens."

My new(er) bestie: "Very intelligent, serious, but you can also unwind and have fun or be goofy, mature, confident, passionate about your hobbies and beautiful!"

What was your favorite cereal when you were a kid?Is it still your fav? 

We never got the good stuff when I was a kid because my mom hates sugar and salt and joy and fun. When I would get good cereal, I would go overboard on it. My absolute favorite is Cinnamon Toast Crunch (formerly with 1% milk, now with vanilla soy milk), but in my older, more decrepit, fiber-requiring body, things like granola are quite enjoyable too.

What food do you love to eat the most of?

Anything carb-y and savory. One of my favorite snacks is toasted sourdough bread, sprinkled with salt and nutritional yeast (nooch), and drizzled with olive oil. I love pasta, too, especially with some vegan butter and vegan cheese (maybe also with some nooch). If it didn't completely wreck my mouth, salt & vinegar chips would be up there, too. One time I ate so many the inside of my lips started peeling off and I didn't immediately connect the two and almost called my doctor.

What’s the best or worst nickname you ever had?

In addition to being a no-fun-nelly, my mom also didn't do the "test your child's name for cruel rhyming potential in the schoolyard" so I got Smelly Belch for a few years there.

If you could play one song on TBTL, what would it be?

Get Your Complex On by Charmparticles

What’s a special skill that you have?

I have been involved in competitive debate since I was 16, and after spending multiple years competing in high school and college, I transitioned to coaching, had a nervous breakdown, and then came back to part-time coaching about a year ago and it's been amazing, fulfilling, and healed a lot of my previous resentments related to the activity (e.g. it was bad at being very inclusive when I was the age of my students, and having an emotionally intelligent coach was a rarity). And every once in a while I join a practice round and "let them" beat me.*

*they whoop me, I am rusty

What’s a skill you *wish* you had?

Anything to do with music, like playing the piano! I never learned to read music, despite taking guitar in HS where the teacher would not let us use tab, and being in choir for years. I just went "oh uh that's a higher note and that's a lower note, couldn't tell you what the note IS" and sang by ear. I bought a Pandemic Ukulele so if anyone wants a ukulele, uh, "for sale, pandemic ukulele, lightly used."

If you were driving down the street and you saw Luke and Andrew on the sidewalk, what would you yell at them as you drove past?

"Is it too early to get a fish sandwich?!"

(Side note, I was in the audience when Luke did his Darcelle's MC-ing appearance, and other MCs had asked audience questions, but Luke DIDN'T, and if he had asked the crowd for audiences I would be asking him exactly that.)

Can other Tens find you on social media?

I am @bloodlesscoup on Instagram where you can direct all ukulele-related inquiries, and see photos of my manicures mostly. You can also search me by name on FB and I'll see you around the sTens group, my dudes.


This Week On TBTL

GIF of Scully on the X-Files saying "the internet is not good for you"

#4249 I’m Here To Believe You
Monday, July 15
Luke has a new friend joining him in the studio today, and Andrew is jealous. Meanwhile, Andrew is planning on bringing a baseball to his doctor's appointment today. And the two of them celebrate the life and legacy of Richard Simmons. 

#4250 Hurner And Tooch
Tuesday, July 16
Andrew saw a surgeon, a phlebotomist, a physician’s assistant and the world’s most negative appointment scheduler in the past 24 hours, and he has some stories. (Or maybe just one long one.) 

#4251 A Lazy River Of Gen-X Content
Wednesday, July 17
Luke and Andrew return to their favorite source of content -- the Seattle Times’ Rant & Rave column -- and question one Seattleite’s experience at a TSA checkpoint. They also discuss the rapid decline of the neck tie, and, of course, Al Frankin’s 30-year-old impressions of Paul Simon and Paul Tsongas. 

#4252 Dangerously Close To The Discourse
Thursday, July 18
Luke and Andrew discuss Albuquerque, Statue-of-Liberty plays, ice cream, lemons, dog fostering, social media, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and, of course, Blursdays. (They’ll get to Top Stories tomorrow.) 

#4253 Tansy Division
Friday, July 19
Luke is trying to be a good neighbor, but he’s starting to regret it. And he opens up about the time he was falsely accused of stealing from a fancy restaurant. Meanwhile, Andrew has finally  found the 30-year-old TV news story about a Clint Eastwood CD-Rom that he’s been looking for.

Music For Your Weekend

Cartoon gif of The Archies (Archie and Veronica I think) dancing

Soyons Sauvages by Ariane Zita

I’m All F****d Up by This Is Lorelei 

Coast by Kim Deal

Too Beautiful To Live, P.O. Box 33687, Seattle, WA 98133, United States

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