50 cent wing stump speech

Collin is needed. Brandon has opinions on fuzzy sticks. A Farewell to Arms gets even more intense.

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

podcast, 50 cent, wing stump speech, training employees, poop scooping, book chapters, Edison book, video games, Treasure Mountain, DOS emulator, PlayStation games, Super Bowl snacks, World War One, retreat, soldiers' morale, retreat, lieutenant, deference, chaos, rain, planes, column, soldiers, farmhouse, looting, order, Italy, sergeants, wine, wellness day

SPEAKERS

Collin, Brandon

Collin  00:00

Music. Welcome to Oh brother, a podcast where we try to figure it all out with your hosts, Brandon and Collin on this week's show, 50 cent wing stump speech, ahoy.

00:19

Ah, that's

00:20

starts. Ah, yeah.

Brandon  00:39

We the I already hear listeners is he says, he says to me, he says, Hey, can we do a different day? Because I'll be less busy. Surprise, he's

Collin  00:51

always busy. It didn't help. It didn't help that yesterday. So I am, I'm in town. I'm supposed to be training some new employees. Everything is supposed to be hunky dory. Everything's going fine, right? Employees are great. I'm just like, Okay, I just need, like, four days to get all of this done, just over the weekend, and then into the week, and everything's gonna be fine. And hold on,

01:21

I sneeze. Okay,

Collin  01:24

everything's gonna be fine. It'll be great. I just need a couple of consecutive days to train people and just everybody. It's gonna be okay. And then, of course, some people in my other service area are like, You know what we need? We need to we're going to request the one service that only Collin does. What's that service? People? Poop, scooping. Yes, scooping. None of my employees want to do this shocking, and so I'm the only one that will do it. And so I like I finished up training yesterday afternoon, raced back home, did poop scooping at 7am this morning, raced back down here to do a day of training. Completely forgot I had to do an interview for another podcast, like racing over to do and then I'm like, relaxed, and I'm all, I'm all ready to be okay. And then I panic because I think I didn't read enough of the chapters for our book today. And so I'm freaking out trying to read panic. And then I find my message to myself That's like, don't only worry about reading for chapter. And I'm like, oh well anyway,

Brandon  02:41

in fact, I was explaining to Susan why you sent this message, and I was like, because all the other weeks so far, we've read six. This week is less, so I understand. It makes sense to me why you would have thought that right? Like, yes,

Collin  02:56

but I should have caught the book break, but I didn't. Here I am

Brandon  03:01

once, okay, ah, so, because this was, this was the first half of Bucha, yes, Bob, tune in later this. Oh, the one. What

Collin  03:09

are you talking about? But I did anyway, so, but I find I have water with ice in it should be fine. Should be fine. I am. I have been busy. I I, I did ask the librarian for an extension on my book on Edison, because I am not done with that, but that's fine because they gave an extension of a month, so I'll have

03:41

it done by then. All right,

Collin  03:45

I did have, it's a long one. It's one of those where I was like, how many pages a day do I have to read in order to finish this? And I was like, 87 pages a day. And I was like, that's not going to happen. That's not feasible.

03:59

Really. I anyway,

Collin  04:00

yeah, I don't next, so that was fine. That was fine. But anyway, so I got extension on that. I played, I played some video games this week, Brandon, what? Who did this? Guy? I did, I did Treasure Mountain. I look, I downloaded Treasure Mountain, and I played, I played this game.

04:34

I made, Oh, you want

Collin  04:36

to talk about so you can go to my abandonware.com and you can play either by downloading it and running a DOS emulator or cheater here, just play in the browser.

Brandon  04:50

Okay, yeah, I think I don't think I need a DOS emulator in my life.

Collin  04:56

So a little too much now playing in the browser. You don't get all the like the F row doesn't work the best, and sometimes it does get hung up. Also sometimes it plays really fast because it's because modern software and modern hardware is faster. So So you actually start and it's like, if this is running too fast, pass this key combo, and we'll just make it run slower, slower, which is fantastic. And I did ask dad. I was like, Dad, do you remember this? And he was like, what? So I pulled it up, and as soon as he heard the music, he was like, Oh my gosh. And he has no idea why this was installed on a school computer. He does not know, but he does remember doing it, but has no recollection of how that actually was manifested, where it came

05:46

from at all. No,

Collin  05:48

he has no idea, actually, since you're there somewhere in my room, down there,

Brandon  05:59

under my desk, there is, is there the CD? The CD box is in there. And I don't know what's in it, but the CD box is over there. Do you want

Collin  06:08

to, do you want to keep, keep the show going? Yeah, that's

Brandon  06:10

fine. So you can, I can't remember. It's under the desk, on the desk where it is, I don't know. It might be in the closet. He left already. Anyway, it could be a treasure trove of unknown excitement, right, possibly

Collin  06:28

missed, possibly Dark Forces Other than that, I don't know what it could be. Uh, maybe, uh, stray encyclopedia, Britannica CD. Those are my bets. I don't, Oh, what, what? There was another, okay, rebel star wars, Rebel Assault. These are the banks. These are what I'm guessing is in here,

Brandon  07:10

because I don't know if Treasure Mountain had a CD, it would have had to, because it was too late

Collin  07:19

To be a floppy disk, I bet. Okay, I'm back.

Brandon  07:22

I've got to put on my headphones here. Hold on. I've been rambling more, more about what I think is in the box. Oh, okay, is it in there? Do you find it

Collin  07:29

now? So it was not underneath your desk. It was in the closet, closet. Okay,

Brandon  07:35

I said that right after I think you left the table. So listeners, you got me on this one. Okay, I did say, or maybe in the closet. Oh, wait, I think he's gone.

Collin  07:45

So yes, I did find your vandal CD and some drop kick Murphy's underneath the desk.

07:49

But, oh, nice. Yeah, there you go. So I have

Collin  07:52

a everyone's favorite color of beige. Everyone

Brandon  07:56

loves vandalism, right? By the way. Shout out, peace through vandalism. Piece of that good stuff. Okay,

Collin  08:04

I have this. It's everyone's favorite color of beige from the Oh yeah, computer era. It's a memory CD folder that everyone had to have to keep in memory. Yes. Now this, I'm gonna look through here the first one. Do you know what the first one is

Brandon  08:24

here? No, I did also make a list out loud here to myself, I'm pretty sure, at least my guess is for what's in here.

Collin  08:33

Missed Dark Forces, encyclopedia, Britannica,

Brandon  08:39

97 maybe. And the, I can't even remember the others, another Star Wars game that I just said literally two minutes ago.

Collin  08:50

Rebels was, yeah, okay. Now,

08:54

two rebels, two, two, right.

Collin  08:57

Interestingly, none of those are in here. What those go, Okay, those were actually in the side drawer of the computer desk. The reason, yes, the reason I know this is because there handed them to me, literally yesterday, and said, Can you play these on your computer? To which I said, No, but so, but then they'll be thinking, put them in that box. Okay. Well, box, though, it's two full because, oh, it isn't really, yes, it is filled with PlayStation games, including,

09:33

why are there PlayStation games in the box? What has happened

Collin  09:36

here? Supercross, 2000 is in here. Oh, okay, Toy

Brandon  09:41

Story two, these are PS One games, by the way. Listeners, oh, yes, sorry.

Collin  09:46

Gundam battle. Assault two, I think that's Aaron's. I'm pretty sure that's not mine. Okay, you know what else is, is Aaron's in here? Um, SpongeBob, Squarespace,

Brandon  09:57

super sponge. That is definitely Aaron's. Is okay, a

Collin  10:01

game that I personally really enjoyed, Twisted Metal. Two, oh, Twisted Metal two, of course, I only played it using the cheat code to get the Oh for the stupid tank thing, the tank thing. That's the only way to play that game. All right.

Brandon  10:13

So listeners, here go. My main in Twisted Metal. Two, Specter, Specter, Specter. That was my friend, my friend, my best friend. He always liked to play Mr. Grimm, Mr. Right, the motorcycle one, yeah, that's a good one. I saw sometimes outback. I think that was the other one. Aaron

Collin  10:36

liked Warthog. I know he was a warthog guy. Oh yeah, I never really understood Axel. That was a weird one. Yeah, weird Twisted Metal lore. I don't recall what that is. Yeah, I did play as road kill, quite a lot.

Brandon  10:53

Oh, wow, yeah, road kill, that's the one I'm thinking, yeah,

Collin  10:57

very interesting one or two players. So, yeah, that's a good game. Um, yeah. Other one is A Bug's Life.

11:05

Oh yeah, we gotta

Collin  11:08

fly. I'm not doing well at that one. Also, another one of errands. Here is the Digimon digital monsters rumble arena. Here's one of Brandon's the cool borders. Three, oh, yeah, but yep, yes.

Brandon  11:25

So the rest of my games go. I think Aaron took some of my games, actually. I think she has them.

Collin  11:30

May have absconded. Then we get Gran Turismo. Two, there you

11:37

go. Best PlayStation game ever.

Collin  11:41

Two, yeah. Too. Yeah, I played that game so much.

11:44

There's driver in there.

Collin  11:45

By driver is right behind this one driver, I remember this one. Yeah, criminal underworld, uh, driving, Destruction Derby, yes, oh, the creators of Destruction Derby, yeah, against

Brandon  11:59

rocks. I was playing the other day. I was playing so I, as you get, as you could see, listeners, I do have a portrait for racing games, right? And I was playing Forza five, right? And on one of the there's like, you can do these, like, creator missions to, like, get points and stuff. So I was doing that. And it was one, it was like, you had to drive, like, a really far distance without damaging the car at all. And I was like, driver trained me for this. I'm ready now. Because the hardest missions in driver you had to deliver, like a stolen car across the map, and you could not damage the car. Yeah, on thing. And it was, like, it was so I as a I remember it being super hard. Those were the hardest missions. The whole rest of the game was like a piece game. Those missions

Collin  12:53

were terrible, yeah, because you had to be gentle. You could have to go carefully.

Brandon  12:57

You had to, it was like a time limit and or being chased by things like, yeah, yeah, I

Collin  13:02

do remember that. Then there is Madden 98 in here. Okay, there's a Final Fantasy Tactics, and I don't remember what the purpose of this game was. Do you remember this? Be honest with you, I don't really remember either? Yeah, it's just like a Final

Brandon  13:21

Fantasy game, but it's the one where it's one of the you can have, like, there's a lot of like classes and like jobs, right? It's one of those, like, type of it's one of those type RPGs where you have like, classes and jobs, and then once you, like, go down a certain tree, then that opens up like, new classes for your characters to play. Oh, but you

Collin  13:42

also you could command multiples. It was very much more like, yeah,

13:45

yeah. Like, it's like, a

Collin  13:47

it's like,

Brandon  13:50

yeah, you have different characters, and you can, like, position them on the field, right, yeah, that's

Collin  13:54

right, that's right. It's a little tricky, okay. And then, and then we end with a game that I personally loved as well, of Star Wars masters,

Brandon  14:04

oh yeah, terrace, Rossi, yes, that's a fighting game. That is the

Collin  14:10

one on one fighting game. Yes, you go where you can use a lightsaber, 3d fighting at its best, literally hundreds of possible moves. That is, that's, I think

14:21

that's, that's cool, that's false. No,

Collin  14:25

that's, it's what it says it, right here, fighting, okay, Tekken, this

Brandon  14:32

game is not right, I will say it's

Collin  14:37

hundreds of moves, maybe over the like, 15 characters, right? But like, I also forgot hundreds. There's definitely

Brandon  14:46

some missing games there. Either Aaron took a whole bunch or had vanished.

Collin  14:51

I think maybe there's some also underneath the desk. After this, I also forgot, by the way, how they had to say. Okay, how many memory blocks on a memory card? Oh

Brandon  15:03

yeah, these took up. Oh yeah, right. PS, one memory card? No, yes. Fun times, yeah.

Collin  15:09

And Madden. I love Madden. It's like two to 15. Good luck, people. Good luck. Nobody has room for that. Yeah, because I had too many

15:18

cars, too much. Gran Turismo, ran turismo

Collin  15:21

four to 15 blocks. Yeah, this was also during the time where they were changing up the controllers

Brandon  15:28

and stuff too. So, yeah, this was, like the Dual Shock controller was like new vibration function

15:34

capable. Is, what did it have? The old, the

Brandon  15:37

original PlayStation game controller didn't have the dual joystick. Yeah, yeah. Like, dual joysticks was insane. This was, like, a rev, literally, a revolutionary,

15:54

like, invention here,

Collin  15:56

like, yeah, Sony really knocked it out of the park with that. With that so, yeah, no, no floppy disks. Unfortunately, this is most unfortunate, and I even like looking there's a thing, ah, no, no, actually, scratch that into next drawer. Okay, the only, the only floppy that I found from 1991 okay, this game, lemmings. Anyone LEMs floppy disk, literally, oh, right here. It's right here people. Oh, that's a treasure.

16:41

Get rid of that. That's gonna go

Collin  16:43

and that's gonna go to Museum. But, yeah, I said that

Speaker 2  16:47

safe, bro, it's in a little metal, safe, actually. Oh, the little, okay, yeah, I got your metal thing.

Collin  16:55

I I remember the it was black, the Treasure Mountain was blue. I do remember that one I did play through. I played through Treasure Mountain a couple times. It was just as magical and as frustrating as I remember of even now I'm like, wait, if this is a circle, which way on the circle is the stinkin square bush with berries on it, dang it. Let me walk in a circle frantically, and then go, yeah. So yeah. And then the whole thing about collecting treasures, where it's like you could only collect treasures on the things that were half the clue. Do you remember this?

Brandon  17:42

So the how the game works at all.

Collin  17:45

Okay, so you ran, you go, you walk around the mountain. You have nets. You catch the the elves with with with scrolls in their hands, and they give you a word like frog and feet and Fret all start with the same letter. Pick the word below that starts with a similar letter, or like rhyming things like that. If you did it right, you get a clue. Okay? And you have to collect three clues to know which item to throw your coin down in front of to get a key. Okay. Okay, so no, okay. And then the key takes you up to the next level, and then you repeat until you get, like, Yeah, three levels up, and then you treasure, and then the king looks at you and whatever, I don't, I didn't play this to the end. I don't have that kind of time, but I did. But I really, I remember that if you get half the clues, like, it's a like, square bushes, but it was square, small square bushes. You could go around and throw your coin in front of other square bushes to try and find the other treasure on that level. And you wanted to collect all the treasure from all the levels multiple times and, like, put it in your thing, whatever, and then you get a crown at the end. That's what this was, that's, that's what that was, Treasure Mountain. And it was about reading and very basic math, like, is all this was about reading comprehension. Fantastic. So then, all right, then nice. I says to myself, self. What's the other DOS game that you remember playing as a kid? So I also doubt Dark Forces? Obviously, no, nope. I also downloaded and played, oh, Indianapolis, Indianapolis, 500

19:36

Oh, my God.

Collin  19:41

Terrible. Terrible game. I still cannot make a turn using the arrow keys. This is

19:54

we had the joystick hooked up to that. I think,

Collin  19:57

I think later turn up that you could use. The joystick. But originally it was based off of just the the arrow keys on a keep on a number pad. So it was 824, and five, oh yeah, the middle one was break, or whatever, or three and five, four was break. And I, I really tried to go around this little times I had the cool. This is the one that had the cool. If you ran to the wall too many times your tire would explode. Like, do you remember that? Yeah,

Brandon  20:30

that was three different cars, and I there was allegedly differences between them. Oh, yeah, but they were just different colors. I think they're like, Yeah, well, I think one of them was, I think, no, I think there were, like, one of them was, like, faster. Maybe they had different stats. And now, did the stats actually affect how they drove? Don't Recall, but I think they did have like, different stats. Like, you know how cart games like hat, like Mario Kart has, like, oh, this has like, acceleration and, but the speed is lower, right? It's like, I think it was like that, right? And yes, yes.

Collin  21:05

So I played that for a little while, and it was fantastic. And I just did qualifying. I didn't really try and do too much with that. Fair, and then that's intense. Yes, that was another one that I played for a while, and I was very frustrated by this. And then I said to myself, self, what's the other one that I remember playing very poorly as well, like very and this is actually one that we have talked about on this show. I went and played the 1984 Castle adventure game. Oh yeah. This is the one that we're talking about that was on the little IBM, the IBM, yeah, with, like the red screen, folding it with the fold of keyboard and yes, yeah, yes, yes. And what I love about this one is this was yet another one where this was from the early days of software, the castle adventures on the five inch floppy, right floppy. Oh, yeah, and it was considered shareware. Now, many of our listeners may be going, Oh, was it? Yes, they may going, how did you get shareware back in the 80s? And let me tell you, you got it through the mail or a friend, like you didn't, you didn't pay for this stuff. Um, somebody had to give this to you. And then there was always some information for where, if you wanted to, you could send a check to the person who made it and say, like, thank you.

Brandon  22:32

Yeah, yeah. Because I think Dad got it from somebody at like, work, right? Yes, his one of his old job, yes, right. I think that's where some of that stuff came from, right? They just like shared the floppy disks, right? Because that's

Collin  22:47

yeah. The opening screen says You are encouraged to share this program with other users on the conditions that the program is not distributed in modified form, if you are using this program and finding it enjoyable or a value, and your contribution of $10 suggested will be greatly appreciated, and it gives you the name and address of the person that you can mail it to. Yo, that's crazy. Yeah. So, so Kevin Kevin bales, in Atlanta, Georgia, with a phone number here. Shout

Brandon  23:17

Out Kevin bales, I can shout your info. Shout out to Kevin bales, core childhood memory. You're yes, you're the man. Yes, good job. I I played this a lot. Oh,

Collin  23:32

anyway, I just clicked the button. I played this. I still am very bad at this, even with equipped, with an equipped sword, the snake still kills me. It'll

Brandon  23:44

do that. Ogre is rough. I remember

Collin  23:48

Yes, because apparently I asked. I was reading the help instructions, and it was like, Oh yeah, if you have a sword, just run into the enemy and you will kill them. And I will tell you, that's not quite how that's not how any of this works? Yeah, so I did a big trip down memory lane with these games, and thoroughly I enjoyed it. Very nice.

Brandon  24:14

Well, I was doing some thinking today, and I was buying some equipment for science projects, right? And, uh, one thing that I discovered was that

Collin  24:28

pipe cleaners have lost their name,

Brandon  24:34

right? When I purchased them at the store, they were in a container, like a package that said fuzzy sticks

Collin  24:47

because somebody owned a patent on pipeline. I think

Brandon  24:50

what's happened is they no longer have a job. They don't clean pipes any longer only. Craft items, right? Nobody like the number of people that buy pipe cleaners to clean a pipe

Collin  25:10

is negligible, right? That's good point. So the pipe cleaner industry no longer

Brandon  25:20

is using its original audience, right? They are delegated, not delegated, but they have switched

Collin  25:25

lanes, and they are purely craft based materials, right? Kind of like popsicle sticks. They're craft sticks, right? We buy so, like

25:37

they I was just like, bro,

25:39

what do

Brandon  25:40

you mean fuzzy sticks? Get out of here. This is all Second of all, this is a terrible rebrand, this awful name, no, this is not catchy at all, like, oh, a fuzzy stick. What? No, don't call it that. Nobody. That's terrible. Get out Yeah, that's bad. So it is bad. It is quite bad. And so I had this realization today, right? Or the other day, the other realization that I had, okay, this is just tangentially related, um,

Collin  26:12

do you know I like, I this is a fact that I have, that I know, but, like,

Brandon  26:21

forgot. And then it comes back every once in a while, and every time I re remember this or relearn it, it's shocking to me,

Collin  26:31

speaking of things that don't match. Okay, do you know the circus song? The like? You know the song? Do you know what the name? Do? You know what the name of that song is? No. Do you know what it's called? Do you know the title of that song? No. Entry of the gladiators. Enter the what entry

Brandon  26:56

of the gladiators? The

Collin  27:04

that song, the right name clowns come out of the circus car. Yes, right, like zady, weird circus injuries are the name is entry of the gladiators. What? What? I don't understand. The least matching thing. That's right, that is bizarre. It's Yes, is it? Did he was it from something else?

Brandon  27:43

I don't know. I don't know. I didn't do too much deep dive into this. I just re remembered today because I was, it was a very long term events occurred in which I was humming that song, and then I was like, oh, yeah, doesn't this song have, like, a really weird name? That was a match. And then I had to re look it up again. I was like, ah,

28:01

it does Yes.

Brandon  28:05

Then and then that led me down a really long train of thought in a conversation with Susan about Ridley Scott and how Russell closed, actually secretly now that gladiator two, he wasn't in Gladiator two, because I hear it sucks, and I don't know why Ridley Scott is the only director who keeps like he thinks that like the 2000

Collin  28:28

like epic movie

Brandon  28:30

is a thing that people want to have back, and they nobody wants that. Ridley Scott, okay, you tried. You tried several times, right? You did. Larry, too. You do the other one, the other fight. I don't remember what it's called, like the King movie. Matt Damon did that one. Nobody liked that one. Either you did Robin Hood. Nobody liked that. Stop it. Stop with the epic movie. Nobody wants the big, epic Lawrence of Arabia, stuff, Gladiator. We had kingdom of heaven. We kind of had Alexander. That movie was kind of the and then everyone was like, You know what? No, no, we're good, right? Yeah, once we got Lord of the Rings, we're like, oh, okay, actually, this is all we want. We don't need anything else. Stop

Collin  29:12

it well. And he's, I mean, people have liked his alien movies kind of, yeah. But he

29:16

also, like, he keeps trying to do this, like, epic,

Collin  29:19

you know, like, old school, like, big epic movies, right? Again, Gladiator two people, like, Gladiator one,

29:30

I consider it like an epic,

Collin  29:32

right? Well, he also did Napoleon, right? Was that? Oh yeah,

29:34

and everyone was kind of like me,

Collin  29:37

yeah, no, I really that didn't get a wide release, but, yeah, no, but he still did that, right? And so that's very master and Commandery. Yeah, again,

Brandon  29:47

Master and Commander was kind of another one. It's kind of like that, but like, people were kind of like, okay, that movie is like, okay, but it's boring, right? It's too long, okay? It's too long. Nobody wants movies that are this long.

Speaker 2  30:04

Well, maybe you don't, but that's because I want

Brandon  30:08

movies that are long but interesting. The last duel he did the last duel, nobody cared about that

Collin  30:12

movie you want to interesting. Long movies are fine, but,

Brandon  30:16

yeah, but it has to be good. It can't be long just because it's long, right? That's not how this works. I how this works, right? So read this guy, calm down. Um, last thing I want to talk about here before we dive into our Oh yeah, stuff here, I

Collin  30:38

this is even topical kind of right? Here we go. Boom in our themes, of our food themes, right? I found a list of most popular Super Bowl snacks, right? Super Bowl is coming soon. By the time this episode comes out, it will just been over, so go sports ball anyway. Man, those teams really played what? You know? They played, yeah, they did play woo thing. Remember that thing? They did that, man,

Brandon  31:14

so yeah, and now this again, we are we two of the least qualified humans to talk about Super Bowl? Yes, I'm putting myself in that category, because I don't watch football. I know. Put it like that. Here's where I'm coming from. I used to watch Super Bowl sometimes with my friends who just, like, hang out, eat snacks, as you do, and that was kind of it. Of course, there's like, tangentially, watch football because of, like, my grandma, and it was like a casual fan. I watch every once in a while, it's important to know that I have lived the majority of my life in Missouri, and I despise the Kansas City Chiefs with a passion, right? I've never liked him. This is not a new phenomenon. I want to I don't want everyone to know this is not a new The only time I the last time I watched a Kansas City Chiefs game on purpose, right? Was when Joe Montana played for the Kansas City Chiefs. Okay? I want you to think about that. No, that was the last time. That was only because I liked Joe Montana well. And it was Joe, yeah, he's Joe Montana, right? Yeah. And so obviously, he came to the Chiefs for a couple years right right before I retired. It's like, like they do. So I watched them a little bit then,

Collin  32:26

because Joe Montana, but that was it, right? So anyway, that's where I stand on football. But I do

Brandon  32:34

like snacks, right? And so I wanted your take on this map, because it's a little distressing. Oh, no, right? When I think you could come through that shared with you, hold on. Could you actually click on it? I don't know if I said right, mine,

Collin  32:48

mine has not come through, but I am in a bad self service. Oh, okay, hold on. Oh, it didn't link the thing. What the heck, bro. What in the world? What's happening? Anyway? Like, let me see if I can get this again here. But I just wanted you to look at this and see, oh, wait, there we go. There we go. This is a Newsweek article. So, yeah, Newsweek, so

Brandon  33:23

who knows? Who knows where they actually came up with this survey, right? Um, part of it is based on, like, Google search data. So

Collin  33:32

take this with a grain of salt, but Right? Some of these make sense as snacks. Some of these are weird snacks, right? Like, like my just for example, Wyoming, what are you doing? Snacking on Funeral Potatoes? What on earth? Yeah, I would recommend not doing that. What? Why we Funeral Potatoes? Them in Utah? Yeah, and it's in Utah. Yeah, I'm very okay. I'm very I'm also very interested. How? How many states is this? Literally, one? Oh yeah, it's a ton. I don't know, 233, 33 states. The number one snack is Buffalo Chicken dip. Yeah, a thing I have never had, yeah, not I've had it before. I have a friend who, when she lived here, she would make a lot he was really good, right? But, like,

34:59

he's. Is a week like, when I think about a snack

Collin  35:03

is a dip? Like, what you want, right? Dip? Dip is fine. I'm more concerned about the snack that's considered for the entire west coast.

Brandon  35:15

Potato. Like, what kind of snack is that? Not even Idaho. Idaho is on the buffalo chicken. Like, what the heck? Oh no, right. Like, what I mean doing also, what is wrong with Oklahoma and Arkansas and Mississippi? Like, Oh yeah, the snack that we just casually munch on is fried fried green tomatoes. Like, that's a weird that's a weird snack. So like this, this is one of those things where, like, I read this and I just question Who wrote this and why, and where do they come with information, because it doesn't seem real that people are just, like, hanging out. Like, yes. Do people order fried green tomatoes? Like, restaurants as, like, a side? Yeah, are are you eating it? You said, like a bowl of them on the table, just like chowing down on fried green tomatoes like

Collin  36:08

that. No, are they? Yeah, right in Are we really bringing this to a potluck dinner or, you know, lunch snack thing? Yeah, um, it's weird, like, Louisiana being all fancy with crawfish auffae,

Brandon  36:23

like, okay, that's just, I think that's just like, every weekend in Louisiana, right? Like, yes, I just feel like that's a normal, like, they don't even care about Super they're just like, Yeah, we just want to eat some crawfish. A to fame, like, whatever. Okay.

Collin  36:36

Who cares about sports? Yeah? What do you stop asking bro? Yeah, yeah. And then Alaska's got deviled eggs. Okay, that's reasonable. So far. That's kind of the only snack. I mean garlic knots. Garlic knots that, okay, I will actually say Colorado, as far as snack goes, not bad.

36:54

But think about baked

Brandon  36:56

ziti kind of snack is ad bro, right? Just like lunch, like, dry lunch, like,

Collin  37:04

in North Dakota up there with their no flow soup. Like, okay, yeah, I don't know what that is. It's like, is it like dumplings? Oh, is it the dumpling one? Yeah, the kind of dumpling.

Brandon  37:14

It's kind of weird. It's very German. Uh oh, that's fair tracks. And then I love

37:22

Texas hot dogs.

Collin  37:25

Texas and then and then Arizona is Sonoran Hot Dogs.

Brandon  37:29

In fairness, Sonoran Hot Dogs are dope. They're great. Well, I do love them. I do love Sonoran Hot Dog. I'm very

Collin  37:39

excited about New Mexico's SOPA PIAs, do really good. A good SOPA PIAs, yeah, the the funeral potatoes in Wyoming and Utah are highly concerning. That's really weird, yes. And I just, I cannot believe, I just, I just cannot, I refuse to believe this, that 33 or whatever numbers here, yeah, count, because I don't, did I count Rhode Island? I don't, who knows. It's so small. Sorry, Delaware, like Yeah, 33 said a large number of states, buffalo, chicken dip, not just like a dip in general. But don't understand, yeah? Now again, another hot take from me. Okay, just in general, I think buffalo wings the most overrated food in recent times, right?

Brandon  38:36

It's so overrated, like, if you even want to attempt to, like, eat them, like they're so overrated and people like them so much that they're just like, oh yeah, this, like six buffalo wings is like $12 like, no, no, no, no, get out. This is supposed to be like the cheap food nobody wants. What do you mean? It cost this much

Collin  39:04

money, the price inflation on buffalo wings is absurd. Is really bad. It's gotten really bad. It's absurd. I will right? Like,

Brandon  39:13

I think it is insane, right? Also, I don't know who you're joking with your boneless wings. Kate, those are called chicken nuggets, chicken, and you cannot convince me otherwise, right? So you just need to stop, right? Yeah, local, local restaurant here, right? This is the, uh, yeah, eight, 8p this is why I don't like them, right? So this is a six piece combo, so like with drink and, I guess, french fries, but a six piece wing combo, $14

Collin  39:54

get who's going here? What are you doing? Like, eight wings? Or $10 that's who wants eight wings, that's right? That's too much, too

Brandon  40:07

much, just too much. You used to be able to get them at, like, again, back in my baby, like, 10 years ago, this was not a thing, right? They were much cheaper. You could order like, it was very free. We had a local place that did like 50 cent wings. That's what I was saying. 50 Cent wings is what. So me and my friends used to go get like, 20 wings at like the place, you know, yeah, and just hang out. And so this, this is the appropriate amount, particularly, okay, I don't know who decided that the cast off part that nobody wants is the Bougie chicken item that costs more than chicken breast for some reason, just because somebody in Buffalo New York was like, hey, what if I put some hot sauce on.

Collin  40:55

If I was from Buffalo New York, I would be mad. I'd be mad. I'm mad for you, Buffalo New York that people have absconded with your dish, right? They have taken this and turned it into something it was never meant to be, right? They've ruined it and your name is attached to it, right? I feel bad for Buffalo for this. They didn't ask for this, okay? And yet, here they are getting dragged down. They're bad in their name, drug through the mud,

Brandon  41:29

right with overpriced chicken and boneless buffalo wings are not a real thing. Those are called Chicken Nuggets with hot sauce on them. Stop lying to people. No. Stop lying. Recall both the swings. Boneless wings are chicken nuggets. You You cannot convince me otherwise. Just eat chicken nuggets. If you want them. It's fine. Don't call them

41:55

chicken Don't chicken nuggets. Okay, yeah. But

Brandon  41:59

because they're boneless wings. They charge you more exactly wing.

Collin  42:05

What? Get out.

Brandon  42:09

It just makes sense. No, it doesn't make sense. Doesn't make sense. I am, yeah, I Yeah. If you're gonna get them, just get bones and yeah, but maybe don't get them if they're gonna charge you over $10 for eight week. Look, bring them 50 cent wings. This is the reform we really want. Okay, this is part of my presidential nomination always.

Collin  42:35

Okay. This is my running platform. I you know what you'll be. I have a lot of other stuff on my platform, but this, I don't think, is important. I mean, with 50 cent wings, what else do you need? Seriously? I mean, do you have you seen the platforms other people have run on? And true one like, you're fine, yeah. Bring it. Bring it.

Brandon  42:59

Okay. I have a lot of other things. We'll talk about that later at some point, but right now, 5010 wings, that's on the dock, right? Speech, yeah, we've got to make this some sort of like national dish, right? We're gonna price cap it so you can't be, can't be doing ridiculous stuff. Anyway, before I go off on a big tangent about how the wings It drives me

Collin  43:25

crazy. Get back here.

Brandon  43:27

Okay, current, another segue, Okay, final segue where we'll bring it back to on topic, right for

Collin  43:38

the book here. But I do have

43:43

a world war one death metal band of the week. Oh now,

Collin  43:46

oh yeah,

Brandon  43:49

oh yes. So good. This week we have French band from north, right from not this is ft 17, named after, of course, the French World War One tank. The French World War 110 is ft 17, right. Ka Blam, there we go. Now, do I have a lot of information on this band? No, because they are from France, and all their songs are in French, so that is a bit of a helpful problem. Is a little not helpful. Okay, okay, I did listen to one. Right? This is Hold on. Let me re translate the band camp page here. This is all ein EIN, 1914,

Collin  44:53

okay, pretty good. This is,

Brandon  44:59

like it's. So it's sort of, again, this is very like Prague metal inspired, because it's like the whole album is like a story of a French teacher who, like, was in the army. I don't know if this is like real or not, but like, the story of the album is like a French teacher Monsanto, who was in World War, like, got drafted, or whatever, into the war. And in a part of the album, they're like fighting the Germans. And that's it, right? So EIN is the department in the north of France. It's one of the departments, and I guess, I'm assuming that's where either the fighting, I imagine that's where the fighting was, because it's kind of like Northwest France. So that's very like frontline e right? But, uh, it's pretty good. It's very like, it's a lot. I like it because it's a lot more like, groovy, right? It's a lot. It's like, again, it's a slower it's not like traditional death metal. It's like melodic Black Death Metal, kind of not really black metal. I wouldn't say black metal is in this middle. It's like melodic death metal, which is fine. So it's like, much more melodic. It's much more like groove centered,

Collin  46:23

right? They are singing a French so, like,

Brandon  46:30

that's cool, but yeah, French isn't good enough to be able to understand the lyrics of,

Collin  46:37

you know, of a Okay,

Brandon  46:39

the feeling death metal song about World War One, but, right? It was pretty good. So I enjoy, I listen to that, and it's like, it's like an EP. So it was like nine songs. So I got the people, so it was all right. It was pretty good. That is the French as the World War One, apparently, right? International genres here, right, all over the place. Had you for Ukraine and Germany, France, right? Where will we be next week? I don't know. Don't know. Nervous. I

Collin  47:10

found them in the in metal archives.com, yes, okay, okay, yes, I have again information

Brandon  47:19

not, oh, there's not a ton, right? Because if you Google ft 17, you do just get articles about the tank, yes, yes, which you could also read those. That's fine. Or for those listeners who

Collin  47:33

are interested, you can email them at ft 17, contact@gmail.com

47:38

done guys, tell me, come on.

Collin  47:42

Why? Just why? Why? Good to hear

47:45

from your vibe. Explain to me that I may feature you in World War One metal album of the

Collin  47:58

week. Like, what like

Brandon  47:59

the heck are you talking about? Like, don't worry. It's a thing I'm doing. It's fine. Why am I doing it? I don't really know. I don't have an off ramp. Help please. Yeah, I don't have an off ramp, luckily, racing towards the end of this book. So I probably only have to do it a couple more weeks, which is fine not to say I did not enjoy ft 17. I did like them, right? So, but, right. Okay, the lotteries, they're added to the show notes. There you go. Official, right. Where will be this week, though, is back in Italy with our boy, no boy, right back to the front. That's where we're gonna be. Oh yes, to the front, right. Uh, yeah. So 25

Collin  48:55

right, yes, yeah. So, oh man, I feel like 25 is, this is, I think, one of the longest chapters we've had, like period, I guess it's quite long.

Brandon  49:18

And so I think, by Hemingway standards, that means that we have some gravitas here. I think this is kind of important, right? Like, oh, we get to that, we get back to the front, right? And he's just back. It's the same place, pretty much, that they were before, right? So in all this time,

Collin  49:40

all this has happened, right? He comes back. And I think, right? Like,

Brandon  49:49

for a long time, you know, at the beginning, we got the sense that nothing has really changed at all. Yep, for years, right? It's just been the same thing forever.

Collin  50:01

Now, possibly because he's been away and come back, right? He's been

Brandon  50:09

away for longer than he because he's taken leave before, right, but it wasn't for this long, right? So he's been gone, he's been living it up, right, been hanging out with Catherine and

Collin  50:21

convalescing, right? And all stuff. And now he comes back, and the mood is not good,

Brandon  50:31

right? We get the vibe that it's everybody is done, right? Like this. It's not

Collin  50:39

it's different. Something is different. And he sets the scene my we first get that feel when he says he looked at the country right. The mulberry trees were bare, the fields were brown. There were wet dead leaves on the road from the rows of bare trees and men working on the road like everything is just wet. And that, by the way, spoiler alert, is a theme that is throughout all of these chapters. Things are wet, things are muddy. Rains are bare, things are brown, things are it's like, you really get that sense of, like, now there's a sense of of heaviness and of messiness, right? Of that what he's coming back into. And you're right, everybody is done,

51:25

yeah, it's, it's, it's rough.

Brandon  51:27

So he, he meets some people, right? He sees the people. He just sort of, it's weird because he just sort of walks in and is like, All right, hey, what's up? Where do I go? Right? And, you know, and he just sort of slowly revealed that, like, oh yeah, blah, blah, blah, this is not doing great. Oh, and then sees Rinaldi. Rinaldi looks even more tired than normal, because he's just been busy doctoring everybody up

Collin  51:52

right. They've been working him right. All he does is surgeries after surgery. And you get the sense that he is, you know, you know, from his point of view, from a Bernal these point of view, right? He's, he's burned out because he's, he's getting patients. He's fixing them up. They're sending them back to the front. They're probably

Brandon  52:13

coming back to him again, right? Like, what's the point of his job? Right? He's just fixing these kids up to send them back to the front so they could get wounded again or just die well, like, what the heck? And they're just like, working him all the time, because the offensive has just been going and going and going. And he's just like,

Collin  52:35

well, and he would feel the brunt of it in the way, like you said, of the worse this goes, the more he has on his plate, right? Yeah, back. He's the backstop in a lot of cases of keeping these people back up, getting them back up on their feet, and he's not it's been unrelenting for him, just as much as it's been grueling for the frontline soldiers. Yeah, and I think that's another instance of how this kind of, I don't like, melancholy, sanctuary, kind of fake lifestyle that they had at the beginning of the book is now, like, no, it's, it's literally your doorstep. Like, yeah, it's now. It is impacting everything that you had experienced before.

Brandon  53:20

Yes, and like, we see that it at dinner time, right? Oh my gosh. So dinner time, this really comes to the fore, because, you know, we get this, he's like, Oh, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna put my stuff back up and I'm gonna go. He just, like, kind of goes back to his old spot. But like, everything is different. It like, doesn't fit, right? So when we come to dinner,

Collin  53:43

right? It it's really bad because, you know, it's like,

Brandon  53:53

we just get the sense of like, it's not like it was, like in Rinaldi is drunk and he's trying to make it like it was. But he keeps trying to joke. And they're like, the priest is there. He's trying to, like, razz the priest. And it's

Collin  54:05

just like, it's just not to say it's not working, right? He's trying to, like, convince

Brandon  54:11

himself, oh, if I can be happy, I want to make Frederico happy. I want to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I want it to be like it was, because now it's worse and terrible, and I wanted to be like it

Collin  54:21

was before, but it can't be, oh, yeah, right, we can't go back,

Brandon  54:25

you know, like, it's, it's rough. This is a rough scene, right? This dinner time thing, it's, it's kind of ugly, yeah?

Collin  54:36

Well, you can see he's really cracking. Here is, yeah, like, he has these tests where he kind of flies off at certain things about just how done he is right, and how he's he's really not, not okay. And the major is also not doing well here. And he's like, like, he's like. He's also at several points and here just being, like, shaking his head, like, just stop. Like, no, this isn't good, because Rinaldi is getting really worked up. And this is just, you can feel

Brandon  55:10

how tense all of this is, yeah, and then, like, we get this really, you know, the part that, like, he's like, where he's like, there he is. Gone over to be with the priest. When all he said, where are all the good old priest baiters? Where is caviar? Where is Burundi? Where is Cesar?

Collin  55:33

Right? We, we don't get an answer for where they are, right? So, like,

Brandon  55:41

Yeah, where are they? Where are these? Where are your friends, right? Like, yeah, you know, like, Oh, where are they? Oh, dear.

55:56

So, oh well, yeah,

Collin  55:57

because at the beginning, as the major is coming in. He even says, well, Frederico here, he says, hey. He says, I missed the noise of the mess. I said, the major said, yes, it's quiet and and I really took that to mean that our boy here was saying, like, I missed the liveliness, and I'm ready for that. And the major is saying, No, it's quiet. Saying, Yeah, you're you're not going to get that. You're not and it's again this, he's coming back in, going, it's going to be just the same as it was, right? Because nothing ever changes. And yeah, now we get that in. Tying that into what Rinaldi is saying is he's going, Yeah, where is this guy? Where is this guy? And then, oh, we don't, we don't have that, right? We don't have that anymore. Yeah, that's just right here. We

56:47

don't get an answer, but we can infer they're

Collin  56:50

gone, yeah, right there, which is, is rough, rough times, right? So this chapter is very heavy, right? It's very, it's very rough, right? That's, that's a tough one, yeah, we can just see how different it is.

Brandon  57:11

So, yeah, that's, that's kind of where that one ends. So the next chapter is basically a continuation of that, and it's just kind of like

Collin  57:18

him and the priest talking a little bit alone, right? Oh, right, yeah, yeah.

Brandon  57:25

You know, he's just kind of filling him in on why he's like, it's been, it's been a terrible summer, said the priest. He was sure of himself now that when I had gone away, you can't believe how it has been, except that you have been here and you know how it can be. Many people have realized the war this summer. Many people have realized the war this summer, right? So, again, this is almost year four. Probably right, I think. So, yeah, we've, we've just realized it. It's boom. What will happen? I stroke the blanket with my hand, I don't know, but I don't think it can go on much longer. Yeah, right, they will stop fighting. Who both sides? I hope so you don't believe it. I don't believe both stops. Will stop fighting at once. I suppose not. It's too much to expect, but when I see the changes in men, I do not think it can go on. Yeah, who won the fighting this summer? Oh yeah. No one, right, no one, no one. It just keeps happening. And, you know, it's just the priest is even like, oh boy. I see this. I see the changes in the people. I see that it's not good, right? Right? It has to stop, because there's no way that people can continue this for much longer, because it's so bad, it's so awful, right? They're realizing,

Collin  58:53

like, no matter what we do, nothing is getting better, right? Like, yeah and, yeah and, and the priest is trying to hold out some hope here, but, but, you know, but then, as he's talking with Frederico, the priest, you know, keep saying a couple times, like, now, you discourage me, right? You, you this isn't, this isn't good. Yeah, right? Like, um, yeah, he's trying to hold on, but it's not, it's not going well, right? So, yeah, that's, yeah, short and sweet, poignant. But

59:33

man, is it well, because they

Collin  59:35

talk, start talking about a lot of, like, where, like, how are they going to feel any other way, right? Like, but because we are beaten. And the interesting point here is, many of the soldiers have always felt this way. It's not because they were beaten. They were beaten to start with. They were beaten when they took them from the farms and put them in the army. And it's like, yeah, you're not dealing with a really like, raw. Ha, like super moralized, you know, an energized group of people here you you force them away and into this to fight for something that they don't even believe in. Of course, the moment that and when things get tough, because it's war, right? When it gets bad, of course, they're going to get demoralized because there was nothing there to push that forward when you know to see them through. Yeah, so it's pretty rough,

1:00:31

yeah, 27

Brandon  1:00:35

right. Start, start talking about, get some strategic here, right? So we're kind of talking about, it's about time to like, it's not going well,

Collin  1:00:50

and we got to start. We're going to retreat, right? We're leaving, we're leaving the line, right? That's kind of the crux of this chapter. And this is, like, a big

Brandon  1:01:02

change, right? This chapter we get, again, we're getting, yeah, some, some pretty drastic changing here, right? Um, yeah, it's pretty crazy. Like, this one was, there

Collin  1:01:14

is this one? Yeah, the lead up to this, it's all about, again, I like how he's a driver, so he's talking about a lot of the roads and where things are and how they're related to that. And it's a lot of this chapter starts with a lot of like, they were supposed to attack, but we didn't believe that we were supposed to attack. We also did not believe that. It's a lot of a lot of just again, we're starting to see a lot of disorganization here, really, like, up until now, we didn't see that level of stuff, because it was kind of can it was far off. But now we're seeing no how close it is at hand, how there's so much, you know, people so unsure about things happening, and nobody really knows what's going on, and nobody believes what's going to happen.

Brandon  1:02:01

Yeah, and so there, he's talking with Gino, right? For a lot of this opening part, this soldier guy, and they're, they're talking about, you know, the line and fighting in the mountains, and how it's kind of weird. And, you know, why would you not want to fight on a plane? Because you can't hold a mountain because you just go around you, right? It makes sense. But he was like, You know what? What were you going to do if you had a mountain frontier? I asked. I had not worked that out yet, I said, but we both laughed, and they started talking about this. They said they would, they used to, they would let them down into the plane and whip them there. Yes, Gino said, but those were Frenchmen, and you can work out military problems clearly when you are fighting in someone else's country, right? So he there again, referring to the Austrian campaign of Napoleon, right about how Napoleon just came out of the mountains and let the Austrians follow him, and then, like, beat him up on the ground. But he says, when, when it is not your own country, you can use it. You cannot use it. So scientifically, right? So it's easy to fight in somebody else's country, it's much more difficult to fight in your own country, yes, right? Because the French will be like, oh, we'll retreat and we'll lose these villages. The Italians don't want to lose their villages, villages. Yeah, right, yeah. He said he did, also say he did make the joke, like, oh, the Russians did to trap Napoleon. He's like, yes, but they have plenty of country, right? He tried to retreat to trap Napoleon, Italy. You would find yourself in British, which I'm assuming, is in the south of Italy, right? Yeah. So yes, there's a lot. You just just retreat the whole way and just run out of right? If you retreat in on the Eastern Front of Russia, you just, like, there's nothing there, right? So by design, right? This is what, this is why they did that. But like, he's like, if you retreat in Italy, you just run out of Italy really quick, right? Yeah, it's not that big. Like, well, and then

Collin  1:04:04

he gets more into discussion of of the lack of food that's really around. So again, you're starting to see this more. Yeah, there's really, for some reason, there's not a lot of food around, and they can't quite figure out. I mean, Frederico, I think, says that some people are selling this somewhere along the lines. Oh, yes, yeah, there's some, there's some scalping going off here when it's not making it all the way, yeah, because

Brandon  1:04:28

he says, yeah, yeah. They give them Italian and the front lines as much as they can. But the ones in the back are very short, right? They've eaten all the Austrian potatoes and chestnuts from the woods. They ought to feed them better. We're big eaters. I am sure there is plenty of food. It is very bad for soldiers to be short of food. And I like Frederick's response here, because he says, Don't you think this makes a difference? And Frederick says, yes, it can't win a war, but it can lose one. Oh, yeah, right, yeah. So our supply. Line is, is gone wrong, right? There are some problems here with our supply chain. Like, it's, it's gone down, right? It's, it's, it's all bad, like, so there's some bad things happening here, and they can't get enough stuff right. So that was, that was a little rough there. And then this next paragraph, though, when they're talking about this, right? We, we won't talk about losing. There's enough talk about losing. What has been done this summer cannot have been done in vain. That's what Gino says. But he's he kind of goes on this big, long paragraph here, and he talks about how I was embarrassed by words like sacred, glorious sacrifice and the expression in vain, right? We had all heard them, sometimes standing in the rain, almost out of earshot, so that only shouted words came through, and had read them on proclamations and were slapped on Bill posters over the Proclamations. Not for long, I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory, and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago, if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it. Yeah, so there is no right abstract words such as glory, honor, courage or hollow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the names of regiments and dates. Yeah,

Collin  1:06:37

yeah. I for first, yeah, I had actually highlighted all of that on mine as well. The imagery here going back to the sacrifices like stockyards in Chicago, if nothing but bury the meat like, literally, the meat of war that the humans ground up in the machines, the mechanics of war. For what end he's saying. It's like all the slaughterhouses of Chicago slaughtered all of the cows and all the pigs and everything, and then just turned the next day and buried it over. It was pointless and meaningless and waste and a waste, right? Of all of that effort and all of that, yeah, all that,

Brandon  1:07:22

yeah, like that, it, yeah, it was bad, right? Yeah, I don't Yeah, there's a This reminded me. This whole paragraph reminds me of a poem, right? Are you familiar? I don't know if you know about this is a Wilfred Owen,

Collin  1:07:39

right? He died in 1918 right? He's a World War soldier, yeah, and he wrote this poem called Dulce et de COVID best, right? Because it's about just like how terrible the war is, right?

Brandon  1:08:03

And so we'll link in the thing. I don't want to read it for everybody. It says the what do you want me to read? The whole thing? It's kind of long, but like the last line of this poem, is two children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie. They'll say anti Corona, right? Propatrimori, right? It it's the old lies. It is. It is fitting and right to die for your country. Yeah, right. And he's talking about this poem is basically his experience, like

Collin  1:08:33

there's nothing honorable about what we're doing. This is a lie. This is awful. There's no glory here. Well, it's Yeah, and he takes that, and I like how he he contrasts this with honor, courage or hallow. He said, You know, when he says that they were obscene, besides the concrete names of villages, numbers of roads like these were obscene compared to the actual like devastation that was taking place, right? The reality was, you can see all these nice platitudes, put all these nice billboards on things and all these posters, but it doesn't mean anything, because the actual real world is being destroyed here, and that the names of regiments, the numbers of regiments, have more honor and glory than just these, these words and platitudes that get thrown around, yeah,

Brandon  1:09:33

but glory has nothing right, like it's nothing compared to the name of the village that's gone. Yeah, the name of the people that live there, the names of things that no longer exist, right?

Collin  1:09:47

That's not glory, right? Like, that's, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, this, that was a real like, that was a that chapter that,

Brandon  1:09:59

so I. It made me stop. And I stopped and read that poem when I was reading this. So I forwarded it. You can put the show notes. Yes, I have that all right, but yeah. So anyway, we're in this downturn, okay, and so we're it stormed all that day, by the way, yes, of course, right again, if you need Hemingway to beat you over the head with how it's going, just listen to his descriptions of the weather. Yes, enjoy quite.

Collin  1:10:24

Collin is on to something here. Oh my gosh.

Brandon  1:10:33

So we get right when daylight came, the storm was still blowing, but the snow had stopped. It had melted as it felt at the wet ground, and now it was raining again. Oh my gosh, right. The bombardment started to the south, below the long wooden ridge where the Austrian guns were concentrated. We expected a bombardment, but it did not come. So they're they're breaking camp, right? They are basically getting ready to leave, so they're gonna forfeit this and they're gonna leave. So they're trying to get all figure out the event plan, right? Well and

Collin  1:11:12

well, except, sorry, I have to say, there's this back and forth with one of the majors, right? And it's very confused, because there was the word from the division, and he's like, Yeah, but we're the Army Corps, so what's happening here? And then he says, like, like, oh, look, you need to just get your orders right here. And then he said, like, are we going to retreat? No, we're not going to retreat. He says, just in case, we do retreat. What do I actually do? What will it take? Yeah, cars, hospital equipment, all right, I said the next line is the next night the retreat started.

Brandon  1:11:45

Yeah? Because he's like, I didn't, I've never been part of a retreat before. What do I do? Yes, but we also have this, like, other interesting sense that happens here, because, right, they they're talking about retreating, and they're talking about, like, what's happening? They're trying to figure out what the Austrians had broken through the 27th corps up towards corato. And he says it's the Germans that are attacking. One of the medical officers said the word Germans was something to be frightened of. We did not want to have anything to do with the Germans, right? So we've got this, like, before, we're like, it's kind of almost like the Austrians, whatever. It's fine. They're like, Oh no, the Germans are attacking you. Like, nope, nope, nope. Don't want anything new that that's bad. We know that's bad. We've heard about what's the French have been doing? Okay, we're done, because they're not. And after that, we heard about, we're done. We're out of here, yes, well, and after that, the guy just comes back, and he even says, well, at this brigade, they say the line is to be held. They say it actually hasn't been broken through badly, and that we will hold a line across the mountains. And he keeps reinforcing, like we this, we are to hold. We are to hold. And then, no, it's, it's bad, right? Yeah. So we're, we're out right? The retreat was orderly, wet and sullen in the night, going slowly along the crowded roads. We passed troops marching under the rain, guns, horses, pulling wagons, mules, motor trucks, all moving away from the front. There was more or there was no more disorder than in the advance, than in an advance right, like it's just like

Collin  1:13:22

so they stop at the hospital, right? And they're kind of, like, getting everything passed and sorted out. Um,

Brandon  1:13:33

yeah. So now we're, now, we're in the retreat, right? And it's there. They've stopped. They get back to the thing, and they're, they kind of are, like, fixing up the they're loading up all the stuff from the house,

Collin  1:13:46

the house that he was saying at previously, right? They make it back there, yeah,

Brandon  1:13:51

yeah, they make it back there. And so they stop. And he's like, What are we doing? He's like, Nah, we're gonna, we're gonna stop. We're gonna, you know, service the car, right? And then we'll sleep for about three hours, and then, and then we'll keep going right. But this is very, again, this is very like, this part is just it sort of like, tells you about what year you're in, because they have to be like, Oh yeah, we've got to stop, change the oil, check the differential, fix the car, and then we'll then we'll go, right? These are like, kind of super old, barely hanging together, like army trucks, right? So I'd say so, so yeah, they stop in there just like, All right, we'll sleep. We'll hang out, and then we'll leave. So they kind of rummage around and they look for any they argue about where they're gonna sleep, and he's like, You should sleep here in the majors room. He's like, now I'm gonna go. Gonna go to my old room, right? I'm gonna go up there. It's fine. They rummage around. Look for you know, is there any food? Oh, they left some wine. Of course they did. Oh, yeah, Ed had any wine in his book, and if you

Collin  1:14:58

waited, Yeah, hello. Say. He said. I like a retreat better than in advance. On a retreat, we drink Barbera, and then yeah, like, yeah, we drink now too. Yeah, tomorrow we drink right? Let's Yeah. It's like, we get

Brandon  1:15:08

to drink the good stuff, because we can't leave it behind, leaving behind for the Austrians. So we're gonna take it

Collin  1:15:13

with us well. And here they keep talking about, oh, we have to get to Udine, right, or whatever. This is, like, Yeah, this is, this starts coming up, okay, we know where we're going. That's the place where we're going to be, I guess, safe right from this. So this is where we have to get to this place. And they're all, like, celebratory. And I think biscuits speaks to the earlier conversation about how they were all beaten. Like, these guys are static, that they're retreating, right? They don't be fighting. They're done, yeah? Like, Yeah, forget the Austrians. We're out of here. Yeah, if we give up and stop, of course, they'll just, they'll just leave us alone, right? So what this is, all we wanted all along was to retreat, thankfully, right? It's finally here. They're talking about drinking champagne, and this is a celebration for them, almost,

Brandon  1:15:56

yeah. So they're, they're getting ready to go. They take their little nap. You know? He's like, Yeah, I'm not gonna sleep in my dream. I'm going to my old room. So let's go outside. It was raining. Just remember him in bernal's room. He's looking out the window and just kind of thinking about it, right? They go down. He goes downstairs. He does sleep for a little bit, and they go down. They have some spaghetti

Collin  1:16:28

with onion, and they kind of just hang out. And they're like, Okay, well, let's go. They're like, well, this, this some, you know, this is a better town where we currently are than where we're going. And he's like, I don't know, I've just been through there. He's like, it's not much of a place. So

Brandon  1:16:48

also, we kind of like this place. They've spent so much time here. They have like, a, you know, they're like, nostalgic for this house, yes, and this area, like, this was the good place to be. It

Collin  1:17:01

was, it was comfortable for them. And it's also this, like, they did have it really good. It was really nice. And now not only are they having to leave all this behind, but they're having to go to an even, like, worse. I know they haven't, he hasn't been there, but like, we're going to a worse place now, like, that's where we're retreating to, yeah,

Brandon  1:17:17

okay, yes, that's worse, right? Yeah, he does ask him to get his he's got a locker, basically, get that out of thing. And he does. There's also, again, with this weird thing, he's like, Oh, who are you gonna ride with? And he's like, Well, I'll ride with,

Collin  1:17:33

uh, ammo, and then piano, and

Brandon  1:17:35

then with you. And he's like, I'm afraid I'll go to sleep. And he's like, Okay, I'll ride with you. And then hello, and then ammo. He's like, Ah, yes, this is the best way. This is the best way, right? I'm tired. I'm talking. We've been doing all stuff we work. I'm tired. He's

Collin  1:17:52

like, Well, and these throughout this whole time. Let's not forget, was he, did he get, did he become a lieutenant with

1:18:00

the paper Lieutenant the whole time,

Collin  1:18:01

okay, right, okay, right. But they're, they're all calling him that. I feel like, are they calling him that more now than in the beginning, early, beginning, of the book, or did I

Brandon  1:18:12

just not page? I mean, it feels like now because, like, well, now he's the one in charge, like the majors. Yeah, right. So they're all, they're like, deferring to him, like, they have been calling him that the whole time, but like, this is the first time they've actually, like, they've been they just talk to him like that. That's just what they call him, right? They're just like, hey, Lieutenant, right? But like, this is the first time we've really, they're really deferring to him for orders, right? Because before, it's just been like banter and like, whatever and blah blah. But now they're in this chapter. They're talking to them a lot because they they want to be told what to do, right? We need really. They're kind of like, Oh yeah, it's fun time. But they also want reassurance, right? I apologize to all our Italian listeners for butchering your language.

1:18:58

They like it. No,

1:19:02

no. I can't speak a ton.

Collin  1:19:04

They don't even it's yeah, this is the best it's gonna get. I think that is the difference here. If there's a lot more deference here, they really are, like, it's not in a joking or jovial way. It really is, like, a Yeah, like, like, what is going on? What are we going to do. They are looking to him to answer these questions, yeah. So they pull out goodbye house

Brandon  1:19:30

and immediately into the slog of the retreat, right? Like, oh, it's a big right. There were many trucks to some cars going through on other streets, converging on the main road. When we're out past the tanneries on the main road, the troops, the motor trucks, the horse drawn carts and the guns, we're in one wide, slow moving column, right? Because it's not just the army that's retreating. It's. The Town, yeah, right. It's everyone. They're all leaving by the same road, yep, which is not great, but as we can see, right, the column did not move. Right? He, like, gets out, walks up, looks around and like, he sees up for like, about a mile, and nobody's moving.

Collin  1:20:21

So they just like,

1:20:24

sleep in the car. He's like, go to sleep.

Collin  1:20:29

Yeah, yep. And they're just, they're just waiting again, this whole, like, there's a there's this breakdown of order. This is, yeah, I mean, it doesn't describe the scene as chaos, but fundamentally, we know this isn't good. We know it. And again, again, with this, with the with the rain, with the mud, with the everything is just like a slog to get going and to do something with, like it's just nothing is going they do mention it at some point of a

Brandon  1:21:01

little bit later, but he talks about how, like, the rain is bad, but the clouds are good because the planes can't fly. Yeah, right, right. So, like, he knows it's bad, right, but it it could be worse. Like, I don't remember where that is, but he talks about how it's good that it's still raining because the planes can't come out and fly. Oh, yeah, it's a little bit later, but yeah, so the rain should stop the planes from coming over and get to work on that column that it would all be over, right? Like, if the planes come, oh no, right? But we've got this it's disordered, right? We only get their perspective, but you could definitely tell it's disordered because they take their little nap, and then he kind of like, they start moving, they stop again. He goes to check on the trucks, and there's like, other random people in the trucks, yeah, he's fighting like, there's some girls and the stuff that they've picked up, there's some girls, and there's other random soldiers. And he's like, Oh, they got lost, so they asked they could ride. That's okay, right? He's like, Yeah,

Collin  1:22:11

it's fine. Whatever. Okay, yeah, yeah. Like, okay. And now, okay, we get to a part where I was like, what is happening right now? But he gets to this where he's saying, maybe she was lying, thinking about me, blow Blow ye Western wind. And I thought, Where is that from? Did you look this up? No, okay,

Brandon  1:22:35

weird though. Like he's like, I was just like, What is going on? So this is what he says, loopy.

Collin  1:22:43

He says, blow, blow. You Western wind. Well, it blew. And it wasn't the small rain, but the big rain down that rain. It rained all night. You knew it rained down that rain. Look at it. Christ, that my love were in my arms. And I bet again, he's just going on. He's saying, like he kind of goes a little nuts. Here, good night, Catherine, I hope you sleep well, but too comfortable. He starts having her part of the conversation, yeah, dreaming, right? He wakes up and his guy's like, you were talking in English, and he's like, oh, sorry, but yeah, I I looked this quote up because I was like, this is weird. This is, this is a fake quote. Yeah, yes. I think this comes from a Shakespeare play, that it comes from a play as you like it. And the full quotation is, blow, blow. Thou winter wind. Thou art so unkind as man's ingratitude. Thy tooth is not so keen, because thou art not seen, although my breath be rude, and it's this, this whole part, apparently, part of the play, is about human betrayal in gratitude, this physical, biting attack of the weather, of the winter wind, and this, this kind of disillusionment of what's happening around of kind of how it's this, you know, fresh outward frustration of even the wind right right now is is biting and fighting me in this, and it's, yeah, kind of this, this cold, like brutality that's out there. Um, that's blowing hard on him, and he feels it coming even more so now that he's here. Ooh, I like it very nice.

Brandon  1:24:36

Yeah, yeah. And so again, we wake up. More peasants have joined the column, right? And then this is back to the parts talking about with the planes, right? So they're, oh, man, was falling so heavily now that I thought it might clear, right? And so they, they kind of are looking. They're like, basically, he's like, All right, look, we know where we have to go. Oh, right. We keep. We're not going to get there on this road,

Collin  1:25:03

so we need to strike out and get

Brandon  1:25:09

to try to find another route, right? Because sticking with the column is not going to be good. So he's like, we got to go somewhere else. So they just, he kind of talks about like, I know I've driven these roads before, but I've never really paid attention to the crossroads, so I want to find a side road to take a cross country, right? I knew there were many side roads, but did not want one that would lead to nothing. I could not remember them, because we had always passed them bowling along in the car on the main road, and they all looked so much alike, uh huh, where Tony's like, well, I don't want to take this risk and get to like a dead end. That would suck. But I while we don't need to stay on this road because we're never gonna make it anywhere. Yeah? So he's, his heart's going back and saying, like, Hey guys, you ready? Also, do you have people in here that can push? Yeah, that's funny. He's like, hey, because we might need we're gonna get stuck. And so, you know, we need to make sure you have people that can push. He's like, he's like, we got to get rid of the girls. He's like, no, no, no, it's fine. It was like, all right. But get somebody that can push right to push right, they won't be very useful. I said you ought to have someone that could push, pick up, somebody with a wide back to push right. It's ridiculous. Gosh. So they just they go on the side road, right? They do, standing on the step, and looking up, I could see padding his car, pulling out on the little side road and starting up at his car showing through the hedge of bear branches. So they go up there, they lead to a little farmhouse. And they're kind of like, Ah, crap. Okay. It keeps going, though, right? They're like, okay, the road keeps going right? Because it's kind of up on a hill. So they can see the line. They can see the main road where the retreat was passing. They kind of started looking through the house. They found a little farmhouse. They started to take a break there and have some lunch. There's these two other sergeants there who he doesn't really trust him. He doesn't really like them, those other guys that were in the car, two sergeants, right? Yeah, they like going through the house. He's like, Where's your friend? He's like, Oh, he's in the bathroom. He's like, right? Because he came out with a clock in his hand. He's like, put it back. Yeah, he looked at me, I went to the house and came back without the clock. He's like, trying to loot this stuff. He's like, bro, stop it. We're no. He's like, take the food. Okay, stop, right?

Collin  1:27:59

This is going, you're sick, you're seriously, you're looting. And, like, they're looting from their own people at this point. Yeah, right. Like, like, like, we have to remember that here they're, they're in Italy. Yeah, they're in Italy. These are Italians. These are Italians. And this is just, like, the, the how you have this? Well, there are no rules, right? And how some people immediately take advantage of that, and how it is interesting that Frederico could have cared less about anything going on, and he was so nonchalant and so non plused about the war, he didn't care. But like, he's upholding like this there, there are some, like, there's decorum to be had, right? And, and he does that throughout, like, the the two girls in the truck, right? There's a conversation about that, that he's like, okay, like, stay safe. And then, like this, put the clock back. Like, we're not animals here. Like, come on, yeah. And it is interesting how he's still holding order, and he's still keeping this together right as far as, like, getting to the goal and problem solving and keeping this moving ahead, even though, like at the beginning of the book, we he didn't have a care or reason to really do much more effort than anybody

Brandon  1:29:20

else, yeah, but he's really taking charge here, right? You know, partially because of his rank and partially because he has a reason to want to get heck out of here, you know, like, right? So he's just kind of changed a little bit here. But, yeah, they, they, I did also, like, uh, they're like, Oh yeah, we've got cheese and wine and apples. He's like, Ah, yes, a good breakfast, yeah. And they're, you know, the sergeants are all grumpy. They're like, we should go, blah blah. And he's like, we will in the most Italian way ever. The Bonello is like, yeah, we will go, it's fine. And don't worry, the Army. Army travels on its stomach. I said, What? After sergeant, it's better to eat. Just eat. Just Shush, right? Yes, but time is precious. I believe they've eaten already, right? The sergeants looked at him. They hated the lot of us. Yeah, they're really, that's a fun time. Like, they can walk, yeah, but yeah. So they're, they're getting ready to get, like, all right, well, fine, we'll pack up. We'll get ready to go. Um, bonelo comes out carrying some giant jug of wine. And he's like, we can't bring the jug. It's too big. He's like, give me the canteens. I'll fill

Collin  1:30:44

it up. And then he says it out. And then,

Brandon  1:30:50

yes, I love this. This part again, after this whole thing, he's like, he filled the canteens, and some of the wine ran out of the stones in the courtyard. He picked up the jug and put it just inside the door. The Austrians can find it without breaking the door down.

1:31:10

He's like, Yeah, see, it's

Collin  1:31:12

fine, yeah, it's fine, yep, yep, but yeah. So

Brandon  1:31:18

then he they just get back and it goes. And he said, I look back at the two cars coming and the farmhouse. It was a fine, low, solid stone house, and the ironwork of the well was very good ahead of us. The road was narrow and muddy, and there was a high edge on either side behind. The cars were following close.

Collin  1:31:39

Even this gives a sense of full retreat mode, full retreat also literally being hedged in right of like, there's, yeah, there's only one way, and we have to take this way, right? He and I really, it doesn't really go into much of like, how claustrophobic this was, or how we struggled, or blah, blah. It's just just very simply, like we have one path where we can't go back right cars falling closely behind, can't turn left or right hedge on either side. Forward is all that we have to do. It's this. It's a little bit of this. We're driving, literally driving the cars. But like, it's pushing. We're being pushed forward into the next thing, whether we really want to go there or not. Kind of this fate of like, this is the way you have to choose. So,

Brandon  1:32:37

yep, couple more chapters of book. Three, I think we're it's a race to the end, right?

Collin  1:32:47

Yes, yeah, we did peek

Brandon  1:32:49

ahead at the things because, like, book four, I think, is just five chapters, yeah, and then book five is the same or less, just that. 29 is a race to the end Book Three. Book Three is just Yeah, yeah. We've got four more chapters. Four more chapters left here, yep. And then I think book four is just five, and then book five is Yeah. Five is similar, yeah or six. So remember 123, yeah, five or six, whatever, right? It's only four, either way, not Yeah, always Ailsa for I remember a short, I can't

Collin  1:33:23

remember. So boom, race into the finish. What the heck we are? We are, indeed, I don't, I don't know me interesting. So, yeah, it's definitely gonna be that, right? So

Brandon  1:33:41

in closing, right? A poem of my own, little haiku time, right? I won't read other people's poems too much on this one, but I have one today. Here we go, summarizing my weekend absence, avalanche. Silence echoes through the halls. Seats await return. Oh yeah, because you had a, you had

Collin  1:34:17

a wellness Day House, everybody else, everybody,

Brandon  1:34:21

yeah, yeah, the first day, back today. So, okay, you go,

Collin  1:34:28

hopefully, hopefully the there was a higher percentage of people that were there than

Brandon  1:34:32

not, yeah, yeah. That, yeah, definitely. At least in my in the sixth grade, there was more people. So, okay, good, right, I don't know about the rest of them, but we did okay today. It's experience. Who knows if they came back and got sick again? But we're good, okay.

Speaker 2  1:34:51

Well, hopefully that can continue. Well, Good, glad, yeah, on the way up. Boom, there you go. Okay,

Collin  1:34:58

you. I love it. Okay, well, we'll in there, and we will, we'll keep chugging along here, and I won't, I don't know. I don't think I'm gonna play any more DOS games, but we'll see what happens. We'll see what

1:35:11

happens. I mean, you ever know? Never say never. Okay, whatever you do.

Collin  1:35:19

We will see what happens. And we will try the same day next week. All right, okay, I'll try and not be running to sit down. That's right.

Brandon  1:35:29

Yeah, I've done that before, too. Okay, dear. One time I got here, sat down and, like, started ahoying away, and then I was I texted Susan. Was like, Um, can you please bring me my water from the kitchen.

Speaker 2  1:35:43

Please help. I love it. Okay, well, we'll do this again. All Right, okay, Love you. Love you. Bye, bye.