A Geek History of Time - Episode 48 - Conan and Reagan Part II

Episode Date: March 28, 2020

I said good day sir. You don't ever plan anything around the Eagles because the Eagles represent the grace of God. You heathen bastards. One of vanilla nabish name. Well you know works are people too. I'm thinking of that one called they got taken out with one punch. So he's got a wall, a gall, a gall, and a wall. Every time you mention the Eagles, I think done Henley.

Ha ha ha ha! [♪ Music playing in background, music ends, and the music ends. [♪ Music playing in backgroundlock, I'm a world history teacher and an English teacher one-fifth of my day here in northern California and the father of a now little over two year old boy who I was very proud to see that earlier this afternoon when I got home he picked up the wooden toy sword that we got for him at a Scottish festival earlier this school year and he did a very good job half-sorting as he came at me and got me in the calf with it nice and laughed and as a lapsed fencer, I was deeply, deeply proud. In that moment.

Who are you, sir? I'm Damien Harmony. I'm a Latin teacher and part-time history teacher on occasion here in Northern California as well. Father of two, a 10-year-old who, in our last game, he was invisible and stole the sword out of it, scabbard from the Big Bad Evil guy who was attacking my daughter, who's seven and a half, and the weapons that the dude had were amazing, and my son stole it and hid it,

and was over the moon at the fact that he succeeded at that. No kidding. In the final battle. That is some A plus problem solving. Yes. My seven. It's a wizardly solution to this normally a fighter problem. Yes.

So as a graduate of fighter college myself, I appreciate that out of the box thinking. And a seven and a half year old who has developed a love of the game mortal combat. It's awesome. I have many concerns. Oh, no, I'm worried about it. So I taught her that the best part is that,

like you can switch styles, right? So this Mortal Kombat deception, it's from a while back. I think it's back when Xbox was still Xbox. Oh, geez. Yeah, and I mean, I was still teaching at a charter school. So this is a wide... Prior to, yeah. This is, yeah, a few...

The dark times. administrations ago. Yeah. And she really liked, because she was holding up a stick and I was like, oh, that's a Joe stick. That's not a quarter staff. And she said, well, what's that? And I said, oh, it's like what this character is Joe stick. That's not, that's not a quarter staff. And she said, well, what's that?

And I said, oh, it's like what this character is. Who's that? I'm like, oh, let's go check them out. And I showed her Bo Right Show. And then I was like, look, if you switch through his styles, you'll see he does Sumo and Drunken Fist. And she's like, oh, like the Jackie Chan movie. I think that's right.

And then she, and then. I know you're an atheist, but I gotta say, you're doing God's work. So that works. That's why God made atheists. All right. Yeah, well true So yeah, but yeah, that's that's that's a thing of an atheist would do in your place and then do that yeah, yeah so But yeah, so she was really digging the the multiple styles and she's really getting into into that as a game Very cool. So yeah, it's it's fun exploring

Video games with my kids. Yeah, I don't know the right age. I was five when I saw Conan the barbarian. So you're you're I don't know the right age to show my kids Conan. I'm I'm not yet. I'm having knowing your kids to the extent I know, having met your kids a few times. I'm going to say, I think Julia, well obviously, Julia is the more percusious of the two of them. But I still don't think I'd show it to her first. But I think and we're gonna talk about it might be this episode might be the next one, but the themes of the movie, you might want to wait a little while. I would agree. Yeah, I'd say at least adolescence. Yeah, at least. Wow, okay. You know,, yeah, but I'm we're both children of the 80s and 90s and so So we watched up we watched so early way too early. Yeah, so as soon as it could get

Gotten from the rental store. Yeah, we end up seeing we wound up having it. Yeah, so but so Speaking of Conan speaking of Conan last episode last episode we were of course talking about You know the roots of the character right how the character was so popular why why Conan is the creation of his Of Howard's that that has lasted so long compared to you know sailor Steve Costigan who like nobody, if I mention that I'm as a low-key, Robert E. Howard nerd. Sure. I know that name. Not because I've read,

I haven't read any of those stories, but I know that name because I know about Howard and his work. If I mention that name to anybody who's not a deep geek, oh yeah. They have no idea who the hell I'm talking about. Yeah, I couldn't at all. Say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, they think of Brigitte Nielsen with a mullet, you know, in the 80s movie. Yes.

And like, no, I'm talking about the Robert E. Howard character, who you looked up, who the mercenary, who the historical figure was the inspirator, and it's important that we note that. Yeah, it's Roxelana, the Ruthanian harem girl who married an Ottoman Sultan. Salamon the Magnificent. Yes.

She married him. So apparently she was a badass. Yes. Yes. So getting back to talking about Conan and the character and Howard, we were talking about why this character had the appeal that he did. We were talking about how, you know, the frizzettic covers, if you just look at the covers of those books, that Conan, that visual Conan embodies strength.

He embodies this masculine ideal. Right. He's a superhero figure. He is a Superman. And he is, again, my thesis, he's the id to the Super Eager represented by Superman, right, from roughly the same time period. Both of them being these figures of escapism, both of them being these figures of wish fulfillment. Right. But one of them is deadly do right of the Mounties with superpowerspowers and the other one is a cynical bloody. I cannot emphasize enough the bloody, a self-sword and burglar, you know. Right. I mean, you look at him from a moral angle and they are, they

could not be more opposite, but it's not that Conan is evil, Conan is simply a moral. Let me simply a moral. Let me ask you this. His code of honor has nothing to do with his code of honor is based around strength. You know, look, you have this thing. You're not using this thing, but you want to hold onto it. I need that thing so I can pay for food. And so I'm faster than you are, and I think I'm more cunning than you are. Right. So I'm gonna take it. Let me ask you this. Okay.

The author for Conan, Howard. Yeah. Born and raised on the frontier in Texas. Yes. Uh, had a father who was a, in some ways, a schemer. Yeah. Um, deeply devoted to his mother, as you said. Yep.

Living in a place that is quite frankly hyper racist at that time. Yes. Um, and that's immensely. Yeah, and it's just baked into the culture there. Yeah. Okay. Then you have the guys who created Superman. Yeah. Hyper-urban. Hyper-urban. Themselves. Themselves, Minority.

Yeah, Jewish. Themselves, Immigrants. Themselves, Immigrants. One of whom whose father was killed in a robbery. Yes. Hence the bulletproof man. Yeah. Um, you have a cultural difference there. You have a regional difference there. You have a religious difference there. You have Superman who sticks to the 10 commandments, whatever they are for Superman. Yeah. Um, and you have this other guy who is a moral, which is essentially the 10 commandments of West Texas. Yeah. What? You can do it? Oh, you can have it. Like, it's that.

So, am I off in this analysis? Not at all. Okay. Not at all. I'm about to get into it. Oh, cool. Sorry, distil. No, no, no, no, no, because the thing is, um, the code, howards Conan stories.

Mm-hmm. At the end of it all, and he wrote to, I'm about to use the literary present tense, but we're talking about letters, so I shouldn't, but he wrote to Lovecraft, remember in the Lovecraft circle. And this is where we need to talk about there, I talked about them having this dramatically different paradigm of like how the universe worked.

Right. Um, and Howard believed in barbarian virtue and civilization being a decadent corrupting force. Oh, wow, that's so opposite of, yeah. Yeah, utterly, utterly reversed from, from, I'm forgetting their names, the creators of Superman, Segal and Schuster. Yes. You Schuster was in there, but I couldn't remember.

And I wanted to say Simon and Schuster, but that one was wrong. But Segal and Schuster were urbanites, like New York, or like can't get more urban. The very civilization that this guy distains. The this guy distains. And what's interesting is Lovecraft was also in the Northeast, although Massachusetts. And he was.

Oh, that makes sense too. And he was a kind of blue blood descendant of pilgrim families. Okay. And his whole outlook was, man is by nature by nature desperately desperately chaotic and violent and unpredictable And it is only civilization that prevents us all from destroying everything that's so pilgrim Oh, it is it is it is so immensely purited. Yeah, so desperately desperately Calvinist Yes, it's so good. It's fucking hurts.

Like, oh my God, yeah. And so the funny thing is, I mean, these guys genuinely were, you know, ride or die best friends who had never met in real life, but they had this intense bond over the craft of writing and the stuff they were creating. Oh, wow. And they had a diametrically opposed view of the nature of humanity and the basic role of civilization.

And so the thing is, you know, you gotta look at where it is they're coming from. Like I said, Lovecraft is in the Northeast in this Puritan stronghold, where all of the culture was the forest is evil. Right. The forest is chaotic. The beat back the devil.

The beat back the devil. The beat back the devil. You got a carm civilization out of the benign wilderness. Protestant is hell. Desperately Protestant. And like you said, Calvinist Protestant. Yeah, like we don't think the other Protestants are sufficiently Protestant.

Right, church. The Church of England does a new Babylon. Yes, yeah. They're too warm and fuzzy. They're too warm and fuzzy. And they're actually. We're gonna leave so we can cut off each other's hands. Yes, and they play instruments in church.

And that's just decadent. Right, right? Like, yeah. What? Yeah. Yeah. And so that's where, that that's the the cultural background that Lovecraft is coming from. So you've got the and then and then and then on the other end in literally,

I mean essentially the other the other end of the country. Yeah. The asset. Yeah. You have. You have you have Howard and Howard believed that civilization, like I said, was a decadent corrupting force because he was in cross planes when the oil boom hit. Right. The town's population mushroomed overnight. It, like I remember the statistics it it it it exploded and So what what happened in cross planes was it became crowded it became busy it became impersonal and

A whole bunch of soft-handed business types right showed up to make money off of the labor of Roughnecks and the blue collar frontier types that had been there before and who showed up to do all the labor that was involved in getting the crewed out of the ground. So you've got the literary equivalent of a priest or rabbi and a minister. Pretty much, yeah. With these three guys. With this love truck. With this triad we created. Yeah. If I had thought more about the in versus super ego, in versus Superman thing, I just spent more time looking at

Seagal and Schuster, but that's perfect. Yeah. You know, you're totally correct. Oh, wow. Okay. And actually, now that we have that figured out,

here's what I'm gonna say, in terms of the writers, Seagal and Schuster are ego. or Ego, Lovecraft is Super Ego and Howard is all in all the time. And so to a reader in the 1930s, this distrust of civilizations could easily be mapped onto a distrust of corporations, investors, banks, to a reader in the 70s, this could really easily be mapped onto a distrust of foreigners, oil cartels, and the Soviet menace. Oh, I thought you were going to say corporations,

travel street banks. True. You know, it all just got around. But more media. Yes, yes, yes. You know, and then Howard also saw violence as being a critical part of life. Mm hmm. For him, violence was an inextricable vital force. Mm hmm. The struggle involved in violence gave life meaning and gave it value to him. Well, even the very act of oil, Derek, you are stabbing the earth in the ground. So it pleads. Yeah. And then you live off of that blood. Yeah, that is, yeah.

Yeah. He saw violence as a primal thrill and a defining aspect of masculine virtue. And now we get back to what I would have mentioned briefly talking about Hemingway. Hemingway, having been forced to be girlified by his mother longer than was normal for the time period

Had had this and it was normal for the time period. It was it was normal for the time period, but his mother Overdid it sure and and so he Had this reaction of having to be he put this immense pressure on himself to be the character that we know having way to be, and then he started getting old and his body started falling apart and he couldn't be that anymore, and he was also depressed in an alcoholic.

Right. And that led to him taking his life. And I mean, there's grist for the mill there to talk about Howard, also having these really profound ideas about masculinity and all this, and having this very, very fierce but brittle kind of front. And then when he suffered this incredible shock of finding out that his mother, who was the emotional center of his life, was just was never going to wake up. You know, that was the trigger that, that, that to him ending his own life. And so how are talking about this, this, these ideas about violence? He, he was a boxer.

This is where he got the inspiration for Sailor Steve Costigan was he was a boxer. He is a amateur boxer. And he wrote to Lovecraft, I've got a long quote here from a letter he wrote to Lovecraft about a boxing match he'd fought in. A bare knuckle boxing match. Oh Jesus. Yeah, like, like, let's talk about toxic masculinity for a second.

Yeah. So this is him writing to Lovecraft. Looking back over a none too lengthy and prosaic life, I can easily pick out what seemed and still seems the peak of my life to date. That is the point at which I derived the highest thrills, a word which my limited vocabulary causes me to overwork. When I look for the peak of my exaltation,

I find it on a sweltering breathless midnight when I fought a black-haired tiger of an Oklahoma drifter in an abandoned ice vault, in a stifling atmosphere laden with tobacco smoke and the reek of sweat and rot gut whiskey and blood, with a gang of cursing blast-feming oil-field roughnecks for an audience. Even now, the memory of that battle stirs the sluggish blood in my fat-laden tissues. There was nothing about it calculated to advance art, science, or anything else. It was a bloody, brutal, merciless brawl. We fought for fully an hour, until neither of us could fight for any longer, and we reeled against each other, gasping,

incoherent curses through battered lips. There was not even an excuse for it. We were fighting not because there was a quarrel between us, but simply to see who was the best man. Yet I repeat that I get more pleasure, more real pleasure out of remembering that fight than I could possibly get out of contemplating the greatest work of art ever accomplished or seeing the greatest drama ever enacted or hearing the greatest song ever sung. Robert E. Howard writing the HP Lovecraft September 22nd, 1932.

Okay, I got to say, everything that you just read sounds exactly like the futurist manifesto. I don't know, have you read that? I haven't. But I know the points. Yeah. The artist talks about he's driving a car and it's 1910, right? Yeah. And he's laying out. That's free world or one. Yeah. One killed him a lot. Yeah, exactly. As you pointed out every time with futurism come up. Yeah. But he, and oh, there's a wonderful story about futurism in a cartoon that my kids and I watched. Okay. Yeah. But he's laying out on a car at night and he decides to go speeding. And I assume speeding is like 25 miles an hour because it's 1910.

1910, it might be as high as 40. Okay. But okay. But he goes speeding. He falls into a, and he talks about like the, the smoke stacks that are, um, snakes are coming down to kiss from the clouds. Oh, well, yeah. And he talks about how, you know, he's, he lays, he lays very, um, and he crashes into a pit, a, a, a drainage pit and industrial waste drainage pit. and he climbs out and he talks about how the pipes on the car are these wonderful things that course power through it and how like after he gets out of the crash he just feels so fucking good. And adrenaline is a hell of a drug.

And he's just covered in sewage and and raw waste. You know, and he talks about how there's nothing so beautiful as this car and he's like, you dare compare the Shonstilize with it or whatever thing it was. And he says, you know, we should destroy all the museums, we should do all this. And so it's this, you know, this comparison of this great art, nothing compared to this machine that represents the future. Right, and he says, we sing the virtue of the Fistikuf, he even says, and stuff like that. So I mean, Howard must have been jerking off to that. I'm sure, if you ever read futurism or if you say if you ever jerked off.

Yeah. You know, it's actually a standing question whether or not he did. He was in- He was a little in-selly, to be honest. No, he had, he had, he dated. Oh, he did? No, he did. Yeah, there's actually, I have only seen bits of it,

but there's a movie made that was a biopic of him that was about the like year and a half that he was in a relationship with a woman. And about their, the tempestuous nature of that relationship because of his being hung up on his mother and him being the outsized kind of character that he was. So, going so far, to say, in-sell might be a bit nice. Okay, too much. But he was prudish. Okay. He had quite the appetite for, well, actually, prudish might be the wrong word. He had some hang-ups. Okay. Be a better way to put it and yeah Oh, so just real quick. Yeah, the futurist man of the best. Oh The several articles like article one through ten

article ten we want to demolish museums and libraries fight morality feminism and all opportunists and utilitarian cowardice fight morality, feminism, and all opportunists and utilitarian cowardice. Wow. They say that. In Article 9, they define war as being a necessary thing for like the health of the spirit, and the purification that war allows helps idealism. And they talk about the hygienic properties of glorification of war, which absolutely takes you direct line to fascism. Oh, yeah.

And it was a man named Marinetti. That was what it was. Of course it was a guy named... Of course it was an Italian. Yeah, very much so. Yeah. So, yeah. So, yeah.

So, the lipo Tomaso Marinetti. For a variety of reasons, it kind of had to be an Italian. Italian or a Spaniard. Yeah, yeah. So anyway. Anyway, going. So the violence in those stories is cathartic, is an immensely cathartic for the reader,

especially tied to Howard's energetic prose, which I've already quoted. And it creates an outlet for the reader's latent frustrations in times like the 30s and the 70s. It held a really potent appeal. Okay. Now, I'm glad that you brought up futurism. Okay.

Because- Most people- There are. Yeah, most people. To be fair- Fairness context. Yeah, to be fair, they're usually saying, like, sir, this is a pizza. So-

That's good. You know. That's nice, nice twist on that meme is a pizza. That's good. That's nice nice. Thank you. I like that. So but but there is there is a really powerful Darwinist underpinning all this. Darwinist or eugenicist? Um.

Or like are we talking like Herbert Spencer type shit? I'm not, I don't think it's Herbert Spencer, but it is Darwinist. It is struggle. It is... Okay. Finnist organism. Okay.

You know, it is... Nature, red, and tooth and claw. Nature, nature, that's brilliant. Yes. Yes, Tennyson's description. It is the nature of man, is just as red as the nature of everything else. Okay, gotcha.

And it revels in the, in the id, you know, these stories are wrapped up in, in many of the later ones. And this is a funny note, the early, the early published stories, not the ones that happen early in Conan's life but the ones that are they're the published earlier there are not very many female characters it's all very you know Conan fighting with other dudes right you know getting hired by other dudes you know all all of all of the major characters with the exception of the Frost Giants daughter. I assume she's a MacGuffin. Basically. Yeah. Who nearly gets them killed.

It's actually, it's a wonder for a very short, very violent fantasy story. It's really good. Okay. Yeah. So anyway, but he, the early't don't involve a lot of that the later stories you start seeing there's always some you know Bucsum live sure you know girl yeah you know woman and the reason for that is because if your story got featured on the cover of the magazine

you got paid a bonus and one of the surest ways to get your story on the cover of the magazine was have a girl in it that could be put on the cover of the magazine nearly naked. HP Lovecraft was approved and we know from his correspondence and his complaints to the editors of Weird Tales and much of other things. He used to pull the cover, he used to take the covers off of his copies of Weird Tales because he was scandalized by the cheesecake. Now of course printing standards in the 30s were different than they are now and they got away with some stuff that you wouldn't see on a mainstream science fiction magazine

anymore. But yeah, he was just like, Lovecraft might have been an insult. Okay. I mean, without the misogyny, I don't think he was necessarily like hateful of women. Right. I'm sure there's more educated Lovecraft scholar who would probably tell me, oh yeah, no, he was total misogynist because he was a complete racist. Like, arguably he was more racist than Howard.

And they were both really racist. The depiction of essentially Africans in the Conan stories is it does not age well. It is a product of its time. It is a product of its time. Which was a really racist time. Which was a really racist time in all the worst ways. And lovecraft also foreigners, especially lovecraft really had yellow peril really badly anybody from the Orient was automatically shifty and weird interesting, okay? but but yeah and

There's there's actually there's I guess you'd call it a meme now somebody actually had a post on on Twitter Talking about lovecraft and they said know, it really ruined things for me when I found out how racist Lovecraft was. Ask me the name of Lovecraft, Cat. I dare you. Ask me what Lovecraft named his cat. Yeah, I remember. For the audience at home,

I'm not gonna tell you what he named his cat, but his cat was black. Lovecraft was a racist in the 30s. Yeah, do the math. So So there's there's there's there are underpinnings of all of this that are that do sync up with Futurist ideas about about struggle, but like you said in the last episode This wasn't just a

far right or far left thing. It was everybody had this idea about vitality. Everybody was was into this Darwinist. That's the reason I say Darwinist. Because it was this idea that struggle is and vitality and especially masculine vitality. and vitality, and especially masculine vitality, was this virtue in and of itself. And so the central theme of Howard's stuff is this idea that barbarism and the frontier and wildness and man in his natural state is virile and vital and active and thus virtuous, you know, by that math. Right, right. And then, and then on the other side, when you bring in civilization, you bring in all these tools that allow weaker people to get one over on you and get dominion through money and through

institutional power. And like the church of set in Stigia, in the Conan stories, is this edifice that allows the cult who are all weak people. The book people who were able to, and who control everybody with, you know, hypnotism and mesmerism and sorcery and, you know, feminine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, like, there's a real Yin Yang. Yeah. So, I, Yin, in this case, being westernized into

Dark Seaval as opposed to the Eastern, which is just, no, no, it's the receptive force. It's, you know, shadowed light, you know. I would like to break in for just a second, because Caesar wrote in the Gallic Wars. He's attacking Celtic peoples. Yes. Commerians. Yep. Commerians, I never figured out which one is right.

So, well, in the movie they called him Samarion, but they spell with C. Yeah. That's weird. But anyway, Cesar Zatagamann, and the very first book, all of Gauls divided into three parts. You've got the middle part, which is the Gals, or is the Gauls, in their language they call themselves the Celts. To the north of them, you have this group of people, the Bell Guy. Yeah.

And they are the... I don't think he calls him barbarians in that particular book, but he calls them like the strongest and the best at fighting because they're the furthest away from our civilization. And therefore, they don't have access to the things that effeminate the mind like we do with our culture. He says that about Roman culture. And he, Well, you know, we have, we, we, we civilized people, civilized people in quotes, have,

have, have all these conveniences and all these luxuries and that makes us soft. Right. Well, Caesar's writing about that. And I mean, this, this is a theme. I mean, he's writing about 2000 plus years ago this this is a theme. I mean he's writing about 2000 plus years ago, but what's interesting? I mean setting them up as the people he's gonna whoop their ass in a way Yeah, but and they're always fighting against each other Yeah, and if they're not fighting against each other than fighting against their neighbors like he brings that up But what I find interesting is that there's this word it's weird to us in Latin

Yeah, and it means it translates very poorly into English. A lot of people are like, oh, it means virtue. I'm like, no, it doesn't. Because our idea of virtue is very different than the Roman idea of virtue. It means... We stole the word. Yeah.

And then we made it different stuff. We made it into something different. Yeah. Which we do with every word. It means manliness, but it's all the good things of manliness, but the best part of it, the noun itself is a feminine word. Mind blown. It's just weird. Yeah, you know, it really is a lot of words that are gatherings of

men though are feminine words. The word for legion, legio, feminine. The word for battle line, aquease, feminine, I believe I could, I might be wrong on that one. I'll look it up in a bit. The word for a band of fighters, feminine. A lot of your words that have to do with organizing men in some way are feminine words. You think that it comes down to a subconscious idea of organization being... Could be. Could be groupings of people, I don't know. I don't know. But most of the words they have to do with the mob and stuff like that.

Multi-tooled, you know. A tourerba, all of these words, feminine. Weird. Yeah. That is really strange. So, it's also, I think worth noting here, that, unfortunately, because of the racist subtext of Howard's work, it has been fully co-opted in some cases by racists. Oh, I bet. There is a theory of the settlement of North America that like nobody with a scientific background gives it any

credence. It's it's Pinesky fairy story bullshit. But there is there is this this theory and I don't remember the name of it off the top of my head and I unfortunately didn't have time to research it while I was looking this up. But it posits that early proto-celtic crossed from Proto-Europe to North America. And this theory refers to them as coming from Sumeria, they name this proto not quite Celtic, but white people, land, cause that's the important thing to them. Yeah, the whites were the first.

Never mind the fact that whiteness itself is like an artificial construct of the 18th century, 18th century. No, no, but white people were here first. Right. Like, we have all the data. Like, there is a mountain of evidence that like, no, you're completely wrong.

But who cares? Right. You know, for the sake of our myth and our fragile white identity, we gotta make sure that we were first at everything. Right. You know, never mind the fact that, I mean, let's be honest, we run the world and we've done a shitty job of it. Like, that's not enough for you.

Yeah. I mean, speaking as a middle-aged cis-hat white guy, like really? Like, what more do you fucking need? Yeah, your mediocrity is. Your mediocrity is staggering. Speaking of wrong. Yeah.

That's good. Yeah, medium talent. I keep going back to that. But so anyway. Wow, Rome is the Chevy Chase of the engine world. Of the engine world, I'm really it, you know? Well, no, Pony. Well, no, you'd say it, yeah.

I think that holds water. But, you know, and so there is, as a fan of his work as somebody who Like you say sinks into the page any time I'm open up what he's written There there are those moments where you know you're running to that jarring like oh Right, oh that oh Bobby, here's the ugly side of masculinity. Oh Bobby. Yeah. Oh Bobby. No, yeah Why did you we're all having such a good time. We were all having a good time. Yeah. And, and so now,

I'm going to take a hard right turn. Okay. Because we have to talk about Ronald Reagan for a second. Oh, that's a hard right turn. Yeah. Yeah. See what I did there. Yeah, do. Now, because now we're talking about the zitgeist, because we've gotten, we've taken Conan from his birth in the 30s, through the 70s, and why it is that folks in the 70s and the 30s were eager to read these stories. Uh-huh. So now we're getting close to actually talking about the movie. Okay. And so now we're going to talk about Ronnie Reagan. And I'm not going to lavish as much time on Reagan's biographies I did on Howard because it's less important to my thesis, but it's important to know a few basics. He was born in Illinois in 1911.

Yes. He graduated college in 1932, worked as a radio announcer for the Chicago Cubs. Not quite. Worked as a fake announcer for Chicago Cubs. Yes, he made up the play by play based on the summaries he was getting over the barrier. Yes. Now, while working for the Cubs... I bring that up because he regularly fakes shit.

Oh, yeah. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Miss represents what he actually does. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So speaking of his bakery, me putting it that way was me engaging in shorthand.

Sure, sure. The source, you know, but anyway. I've got a hard on for Reagan or against him really hate you have a hate on yes You have a hate Boater cannot stand there a I do I have a honer yeah and And so I'm going to keep interjecting. Oh, I know I know I'm ready for it. Yeah, so He while working for the Cubs organization. and came out to california in nineteen thirty seven he got a contract with Warner brothers

convinced them that he should follow the cubs to cattalena island because that's where they had spring training yeah he convinced them that well because i do the play by play for you which nobody checked his facts there as as people are want to do with him. He was, he was so cute. Yes, he was. Yes, he was. Yeah.

Because of that, he got to go out to LA because he knew that he wanted to go into Hollywood. It was not him falling over backward. It was, this is my goal. Yeah. And this is how I'm going to do it. Oh, yeah. And he got the cubs to pay for it.

Well, yeah. Yeah. Well, if you can, yeah. So, yeah, he's contracted to Warner Brothers. yeah. So so yeah, he's his contracted to Warner Brothers. Yeah, this is true. So in 39 he was in dark victory with Betty Davis. Yes. In 1940, he was in Santa Fe trail with Harold Flynn. Mm-hmm. Gonna come back to that. Yep. And in 42 he gained wide attention for the role he played in King's Row, where he was a double amputee, and one of his most notable lines was Where's the Rest of Me, which he used as the title of one of his memoirs later on.

And now I say 42, and those of you who have been listening to the podcast for a while are no enough about history to go, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way invalidated him for serving overseas. He got called up for active reserve duty by the Army. Later that year in 42. And worked for the military doing training films, war bonds, drives, and propaganda films. So he becomes the face of a movement that he's not really a part of. Interesting thing, I have this book and I still have it. And I plan on letting my kids read it.

It's called the Look It Up Book of US Presidents. I may have mentioned it in a previous video. In that, it talks about when you first got glasses about how the world suddenly seemed clear to him. Because literally, and I don't have eyesight problems. So it's a privilege that I've got that I'm, yeah. He thought the world was fuzzy. For those of you listening at home, I've got that I'm, yeah. He thought the world was fuzzy.

For those of you listening at home, I've just taken my glasses off. Yeah, and I have no idea what you can see or can't see, but to Reagan, it was everything was fuzzy and he put on the glasses and he was amazed at how sharp the world was. That's what is told to me in that book that is written for kids. None of it about the bullshit and the fuckery that he did while he was in Hollywood. No. None of it about the bullshit and the the fuckery that he did while he was in Hollywood. None of it. No, no. So, he became president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947.

He served six terms in the second president. He helped secure residuals for actors when TV episodes were run. That he did. He did. He did the same for film actors when movies got adapted to TV. And he was always a staunch anti-communist. He testified before the House on American Activities, House on American Activities Committee about SAG, where they were asking about it.

He said, well, yeah, I think there are members who know trying to push the organization in a direction and we're trying to And here's all the names. Yes, he did He was an informant for the FBI Indeed what I found interesting about it was in doing my research because I knew Mm-hmm kind of that But he was conflicted about it. He didn't he didn't like the way the FBI was going about trying to have them do that Right, and he was like are they are they gonna deputize all of us to do this for him like I mean is this is this like our second job like how you know and No, Ron only you care that much to do it. Yeah

So he was a Democrat. Mm-hmm. It's the 1950s, he touted FDR as a personal hero at one point. Partly because of how he grew up. His family needed public assistance. Yes. And Warner Brothers actually wound up dissuading him from participating in an anti-nuclear rally. At one point. And he got hired by a general electric. Yes. To give motivational speeches to factory workers. Yes. And in that job, he was heavily influenced by the guy that was doing a lot of his, was feeding him the information to do a lot of his writing. Uh-huh.

It was like I'm an executive by the name of Lemuel Bullwear. Now, is this the time at which he was like recording entire albums about how communism's terrible Like literally you could put put on a B side of His speech of how communism was terrible. It might be a little bit later. Okay. It might be a little bit later um But he he got he got hired by this guy by by G.E. to do this and he was traveling all over the country giving hundreds of speeches a year to gatherings of GE workers. At Bullwear, who was giving him the inspiration for what he was writing and what he was saying, was a free market anti-union low taxes limited government conservative. And so Reagan had always

been an anti-communist. Right. The speeches that he gave were not overtly anti-union, they were not overtly like he never, he never advocated directly for, we need to cut taxes on corporate interests in these speeches. But they always carry a pro, you gotta cooperate with management, we're all looking at for you. This is in the interest of your freedom as a worker. You know, I mean, the insidious kind of shit that we get from everybody who's always trying to say,

well, you know, what is the word you need? Yeah, right to work. You have a right to be free about whether or not you want to stay in this job or not. You shouldn't be bound by, you know, have an opportunity. Yeah, like, like, fuck off. Yeah.

But, you know, and so this clearly fed into his thinking. And I mean, at some point, if we could find a geek-wadd tied into something we can talk about, his weird psychology and how he turned into the patron saint of modern conservatism, but suffice to say, he quit working for GE in order to go into politics. Right. And he's famous for having said I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the party left me. He's full of horse shit for saying it because that's not how it went. His ideological drift is really clear.

Yep. In 1961, he spoke out against Medicare saying in recording for the AMA that it would mean the end of freedom in America, calling it socialism and saying, one of these days, you and I are gonna spend our sunset here, telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. And like fuck you. Yeah. But anyway, I mean, of course, we're speaking about this now

as you know, two generations later, having grown up with it being the background of our political life. And enabling people to still engage in this beautiful thing called capitalism that he loved so much. So desperately much. Yes.

Speaking of capitalism, let's just chill something. Yeah. Hello, Geek Timers. This is producer George, interrupting this podcast to let you know that we have space available. This space could be used to promote your product, book, event, group, even wish a special someone happy birthday. If you're interested in using this space, please contact us on Twitter via private message at Geek History Time. that deep history time.

And we're back. Yep. So after having sufficiently shilled, by the way, if you have anything, and I really do mean anything, that you would like us to push for you, to pitch, we are happy to do it. You can contact me at at ehblaloc on Twitter. You can also contact me at at ehblaloc on Instagram,

if you like. And you can get both of us at once by reaching out to us on Twitter at Geek History Time. Yes. Damien, if they want to make a separate piece with you, they would reach you at At the Harmony on both Twitter and on Instagram. So if you're interested at all in buying some space to Shell what you need Please do because renewal fees cost cost something and and I mean we've been entertaining you for Nearly 50 episodes now. Yeah get get on there

You know, frankly, it's criminal that you haven't kicked in You start working for NPR Like holy cow tragedy of the commons much So and you know where else in a podcast? You're gonna hear a couple of nerds like us and I mean like nerds like us use a term like tragedy of the commons and people talking about Conan the barbarian that's that you know just saying you you've been getting it for free yeah can I buy the cap yeah something something some analogy like that so anyway talking about how Reagan yeah was like swung hard right far right. Yes, he spoke out against food stamps

Jesus Christ. He spoke out against the Peace Corps. Of course. He got against racing the minimum wage Join the NRA and became a lifetime member. Mm-hmm. Now I am gonna add one caveat Okay, this was before the NRA went batshit crazy. So this is when they were advocating for gun control because black people had guns Well, no, he's the one who had advocated for that. I'm going to get into that when I talk about it. Okay. I'm going to get into it. Okay.

Go for it. No, but this was when the NRA was like, you know, you need to have training and we advocate for licensing at one state level and, you know, hunters or people. But, you know, I say all of this, but then he stuck around. And after Wayne Luppie or took over the organization and it went completely bug-fuck crazy. Yes. So, okay.

Dad, if you're listening, I'm sorry, but I gotta call him like I see him. But also congratulations on how to use the iPhone to push that purple icon to look up your son's podcast. Well, yeah, that's, yeah, true. You know, yeah. All right. So he supported gold water, Reagan did. Yes.

I don't think my dad did. But Reagan did, sported gold water in 64. Yes. And his speaking on gold waters behalf catapulted his political recognition nationwide. Yeah. Right at the same time that goldwater was falling because Goldwater was... What is nuts? Strategically inept too, because he talked in West Virginia

about cutting social security to a bunch of old people. Oh yeah, he talked. He kept going to the groups that he's targeting to cutting and then he's like, I'm gonna talk to you about it. Yeah, like, read a rude dude. Yeah. And then of course, he was advocating for using tactical nuclear weapons and Vietnam.

Right. Like, yeah. With China right there? With the Soviet Union? Just past China? See, this is why that LBJ commercial? Yeah. Yeah.

Wasn't, to me, yes, it's overblown and oh my god, that's tacky. But I could see why they said what they said. Oh, at the time? Yes. Oh, yeah, no, that was that was literally. That's what gold water is for a moment while the bell's turned to water in, you know, realistic terror because holy shit that could happen.

Yeah. And so he ran for governor of California, Reagan did not go water. Right. In 66 promising to and I quote, I, like, I got to take, I got to take about, there's two of them. Yeah. Short ones promising to and I quote, put the welfare buns back to work. Yes.

And quote, clean up the mess at Berkeley. Yes. Okay. Okay. Are you going to talk about the mess at Berkeley? No, I'm definitely, you fill in. There was a part of UC Berkeley that they kind of just left, basically they got like a building code enforcement and they get to build on it,

but then I think funds dried up or something. And so the land just essentially went fallout and people would drop a shit off. Now I know the story, you're going to be a part. Yeah. And so the people, like of Berkeley, were like, well, let's make it a park for ourselves. And so they did. And then you see Berkeley sued that.

And then they put up fencing around it. And it became an issue where the cops came out, armed and shit, to stop the people from using a park that they themselves had created on land that wasn't theirs. But it was, you see, Berkeley Berkeley's therefore it was kind of taxpayers. And he's like over at Elmer City. Yeah, we're going to destroy that. And so that was the message Berkeley. Now putting the welfare freaks back to work. He made a speech where he said, and I'm gonna, yeah, bumps, bumps, sorry.

Point out. Yeah. Pajorative term for, you know,, bumps, bumps. Sorry. Yeah, pejorative term for you know the unemployed right Everybody financially right in tough straits, but he made a speech where he said I saw this this young man with hair down to his shoulders or something to that effect and he said that You know they take care of you from birth to 18 and then again from, I think it's like 65 on, right? He said, so you only got to worry about this many years of making any money. And he's like making fun of the math of that, right?

Because then the system will take care of you at both ends. And he says, so you got a man who talks like Tarzan, smells like Cheetah and dresses like Jane Everybody fucking loved it. Oh my god. They loved it. Wow. Yeah, that's when he's running for governor. Yeah And then as governor. Oh Because that shit got him elected. Yep. In 1967 he beat Jerry Brown's dad by the way Edmund Brown. Yeah, and yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. As governor, now I'm a second amendment guy.

As much as I think the NRA is a batchit loony organization, I am a second amendment guy. And this pisses me off. See, I'm a third amendment guy. Okay, so this isnes me off. See, I'm a third amendment guy. Okay. So, this isn't my issue. Yeah, okay. He signed legislation in 1967. Uh-huh.

That eliminated a law that allowed for open carry in California. But why was he doing that? Because Huey Newton and the Black Panthers had been exercising their second amendment rights in the face of systemic police violence against their community. Over 80% of the police force in Oakland was white and they were way over patrolling black neighborhoods. Yeah.

And so the Panthers basically said, you know what? If you're going to come around here and act like you can shoot us with impunity, understand we are going to exercise our rights as citizens and that might not go for you the way you think. And so that was terrifying and scary and unlike, you know, responsible law-abiding gunners. We can't have them walking around doing that because, you know, they're black. They're not white people. Yeah, and so he, he is the one. Yep. The postboy Sape of the NRA and modern conservatism

is the one who eliminated open-carrying California because racism. Yes. Fuck that noise. Mm-hmm. Anyway, moving on. He ran the Republican primaries for President in 76. Challenging Ford.

And he lost by a margin I found remarkable. Yeah. Being in a incumbent really helps. So really helps. And then in 1980, he ran again and now we're back to my thesis. And he beat Bush, by the way. Yes. In the famous, I'm paying for this microphone speech.

Yeah. And then co-opted Bush to get the moderate wing of the party back under his wing. That's right. Bush was the moderate. Bush was the moderate. We're talking about Bush senior. Right.

But, okay, Bush senior had previously been the head of CIA. Yeah Bush senior had previously been a party aparatic. Yeah, I mean I was gonna say he worked his way up through the party. And the two of them had a compassion off by the way about people seeking asylum from Mexico. They both were like trying to run run to the compassion. Try to look more over-hearted. Oh yeah, no, this is back when the Republican Party was rightist, but not bug-fuck-crazy fascist. Right. You know, I mean, yeah, they were, they were, they were latent low-key racist, not like

overtly white supremacist, like our current president and one of his closest advisors are now. Yes. So anyway, in 1980, as the election is going on, the country is in really bad psychic shape. Yeah. Stagflation, low growth rate combined with high inflation rates left millions of Americans frustrated and anxious financially. And way more male deer than we'd ever seen before just standing still.

Yes, yes. Jesus. Good day. What's a time mark on that one? Uh, 55 minutes in. Jesus. Yeah. You're slipping. So in, in, in 80 itself, uh, the country was in recession.

With negative 0.3 percent growth. Yeah. 12.5% inflation. Yes. Which, if you don't know about inflation figures, you're like, well, 12.5% I don't know. That's huge. It's enormous. That's, that's muggly. That's everything going up by an eighth.

Yeah. That's nuts. That's horrible. And 7% unemployment. American embassy employees were being held hostage in Iran, deeply traumatic situation for the nation since power and ability on the world stage. That had started in November 7 of 79.

We'd seen the fall of Saigon only five years earlier. Right. In April of 75, the epilogue to a divisive, ugly, demoralizing war, which we had unequivocably lost. Right. Like there was no arguing about we, we, we, I assume we got blood white. I assume since you're talking about Reagan, you're going to talk about Grenada. Actually, it doesn't come up. Oh, interesting. Because it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's in disgrace which we've discussed because he got caught with his pants down. He got caught doing crimes telling other people to do crimes. Telling other people to do crimes. Covering up the crime. Covering up the crime. Like at every level. Yeah. He was so guilty and there was like no way he could get out from under it. Well because the Republican Party went to him and said, hey, we need to do governance

and you're bad for the party now. So we need to do to do to do so that we can get back to doing governance. We're running to doing our job, right? Which is running in the country. Yeah, so he, as we discussed in your episode about possession movies, that left public trusted government at a historic low. Yes. There was the oil crisis in 79. There was the three-mile island incident also in 79. Oh wow, yeah, that's right. Salt happened in 79 because we thought we had a missile gap and the Russians were gonna win the Third World War if it ever happened. We boycotted the 80 Olympics, because the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan,

leaving the Soviets to make an unprecedented metal hall to no answer from our own athletes. Right. National morale was a desperately low-edb, is what I'm trying to get across. Yeah. We were, for the first time since the end of World War II, we were feeling powerless and threatened,

and the threats were nebulous and sorceress, and the world was dark, and there was all of this stuff happening, and for an individual citizen on the street, an individual 30-year-old guy who was unemployed or whose job was threatened because the Japanese were coming. All of this stuff, there were these forces that were vague and you couldn't put your finger on them but they left you insecure and as a country. You needed a win. You needed a win. Yeah. As a country we felt powerless. Right. You know, also in 1980, Han Solo gets stuck in carbonite. Yeah.

Frozen. Yeah. Unable to move impotent. Impotent. Frozen in pain. Powerless in pain. Luke loses his hand. Yeah.

The dark side is winning. Yeah. The rebels are scattered. Yeah. I never, it never occurred to me how a 1980s how 1980 that movie was. Oh, yeah, and how you pointed out yeah pattern on the wallpaper. Yeah, we hope that's what it is. Yeah, might be an episode. Yeah, because we have at this point it has to be. Yeah, it kind of does. Yeah, so and and the sad part about this is Carter to the blame. He also got to talk about attacked by a swamp rabbit.

Well, yes, he didn't look very strong. That didn't help, but largely undeserved. True. I mean, so much of this was like, I'm trying to put out so many fires at once. Right. That someone else forces the drove all of this. We're not anything he was responsible for. And yet he took responsibility. Yeah. yeah I want to say that again because the buck stopped there he took responsibility

and so his administration had managed to get a handle on all the resources that were that were lashing at our confidence oh and backing up just a hair with speaking of swap rabbits. It's a very aggressive hair. A very aggressive hair. But he couldn't fight it off. Like, as an adult now, I admire him deeply. Yeah. But like, dude, could catch a break. No, he really couldn't.

Yeah. So anyway. And here's the thing, he was very dovish. Oh, intensely. And he, despite being an aviary veteran. Right. Like, maybe because he was an aviary veteran. Well, probably because he was an aviary veteran, but he was. Yeah, he still is.

But he made peace between Israel and Egypt. Egypt. He did that. He was up for 48 hours before the inauguration of Reagan Specifically because he was trying to get the troops home or not troops the the hostage free Only you know to find out that you know the Reagan people had made a deal But back through yeah, okay, who who had connections with the CIA and a

through. Yeah, okay. Who who had connections with the CIA and the oil companies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay. I guess yes. Fine. Yes. So undercut by wow, imagine if like, you know, someone were to do that and it came out at real time, we'd have to try them for a reason. One would think. One would think. Yeah. Or even after the fact you ought to try them for a reason. Yeah. So, but he was dovish. And I think the fact that he was, because what was it, not a single bullet fired, not a single bomb dropped under his presidency.

Yeah, during the four years he was at a loss. There's a four-year gap of killing brown people in the world because of Carter. That peacefulness didn't sit well when everyone is really anxious and upset. Everybody's anxious and upset. A scared man's picture of courage does not look like that. A brave man's picture of peace does. And that's not what we were yeah and I think

um this is we've wow yeah so now is probably a good time this might be nice this I've been waiting for a magnum opus yeah so it's funny that it's about this and not something Tolkien related but here we are. This just caught me by the, by the four lock. And when you do until we got it all out. But so now that we've, now that we've paused here, sure, what do you have right now? Or do you, where do you want to hold off on anything until? No, I think I can, I can definitely, I see where the,

the pieces are falling into place. Yeah, I see it because we haven't even started talking about the fucking movie. I know, but Reagan is an avatar from masculinity in all of the worst possible ways. Um, and he is a moral. He is a... He didn't portray himself that way, but he was. Yeah, but so he, well he pretended to be everything yeah well he is a

moral he is it an opportunist um... and he uh... he's not graceful dude broke his leg like in six different places doing a stunt uh... but which is you know what cool man like i i i broke my nose way too many times for it to be accidental it seems So I'm kind of starting to think you like take a chance to be sir. Just saying I don't I don't

But Reagan is this avatar for I'm gonna say fragile fragile masculinity With our with our with our time site. Yes, yeah, we, and at the time, he didn't present that at all. He looked tough cowboy, and all this stuff. Oh, yeah. And so I think it's interesting. That's, that's why I tagged Santa Fe trail. Yeah, and I think it's interesting that,

and that he's in there with Earl Flynn of all people. But I think it's interesting that, and Daddy's in there with Earl Flynn of all people. But I think it's interesting that. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. I think there is a certain poetry to that. But I do think it's interesting that Reagan is the president at a time where John Millius steps

onto the floor as a director where all of her stone steps on the floor as a screenwriter where Arnold Schwarzenegger. Oh damn it. Sorry. I grew up with this fucking movie. Yeah, I know. I know. Yeah. Arnold Schwarzenegger. universe right where where you have all of this appearance of hypermasculinity when in fact It's it's not it's it's one dimensional at best and and all the pieces are lining up for these these one dimensional characters So I just I I'm enjoying the ride in getting there and I'm starting to see what's coming that here that yeah, so Yeah, um you reading anything different from last time? Nope, still Dune.

Okay, still trying to find, like this thesis leapt out at me, fully on like a thinner from the head of Zeus. Dune is giving me a little bit of trouble because it's a central part of the science fiction canon. And because of that, it's been analyzed backward forward left, right center, and trying to find an original toehold

to get on it is proving tough. But I know that there's so much going on there that I need to find some way to say something about it. And yeah. My two newest purchases of Order of the Stick just came in. And some, I haven't started them, but they're the last two installments. I don't know if they're the final installments,

but they're the most recent two installments. I am literally years behind on this. When you return my wrestling comic book, I will let you borrow my oats. Okay. But I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens with Durkan. I'm a little tired of Belcar.

He's fairly one dimensional. Durkan has taken on, yeah, but he is funny. Durkan has taken on an incredible Story arc and that's really fun to read so I'm looking forward to that and I think I might actually kick the first volume over to my daughter All right, cuz she loves her some D&D, and I think she'll get the jokes. I think so so by the way Yeah, no actually no everything's been canceled never mind I was gonna say I was gonna plug a show that I'm gonna be on.

And, yeah, no. No, nevermind. No. So, if you're listening to this and you're getting ready to go to the capital punishment at the punch line, it's no longer on May 22nd, it's on April 26th. Okay, so hopefully by then everything will have cleared up. Things crossed, you can help. Yeah, but right now it's scheduled for April 26th. Okay, so hopefully by then everything will have cleared up.

Yeah, but right now it's scheduled for April 26th. So please buy tickets and help me keep the lights on here and it'll be a good Christmas. All right. So, well for Geek History of Time, I'm Damian Harmony. And I'm Ed Blaylock and until next time, keep rolling 20s. head blade lock and until next time keep rolling 20s.