TAGQ (That's A Good Question)

Scuba Climbing

Ben Johnston & Scott Johnston Episode 34

The hosts explore personal growth through physical challenges and reflect on how our true selves emerge in moments of pressure or difficulty. This thoughtful conversation weaves between childhood memories, adventure stories, and philosophical musings about identity and risk-taking.

• Discussing the tendency to resist pain medication and whether suffering has value
• Reflecting on being labeled a "sad clown" and how our personas evolve over time
• Comparing safety cultures between rock climbers and skateboarders
• Rock climbing as therapy - revealing character when faced with physical challenges
• Sharing a scuba diving adventure at the Great Barrier Reef, including getting separated underwater
• Exploring the term "corndog" as both nostalgic fair food and a skateboarder's prank
• Reminiscing about childhood state fair experiences and the simple joys of treats and games

We hope you enjoyed this wandering conversation. Let us know what physical activities have helped you discover something new about yourself!


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Ben:

There it is. What was that? You had to like get up to get your recording device.

Scott:

No, I needed to get my drug of choice.

Ben:

Oh, and what is it this morning?

Scott:

The usual Caffeine.

Ben:

Caffeine the usual. Yeah, that's my usual too, At least these days. You know, growing up I had Tylenol and Motrin, but I've been really resistant to using it as an adult, and it wasn't this past weekend. This past weekend, I feel like, was the first time I was at the grocery store and I said you know what? I could really use some ibuprofen. My headache wasn't bad or anything. I think it's because I'm nicer to myself than I used to be.

Scott:

You're willing to take some pain alleviation medicine.

Ben:

Yeah, yeah. I don't know why I have that tendency to say no, you'll just suffer through this. It's got to be good for you, right To just suffer, it's just a good faith right it. The spartan side of you, yes direct descendant of the, the living 300. That's who it is for me, yeah that's right.

Scott:

Maybe dna testing could prove that.

Ben:

But well, 23 and me could never do that, because they don't actually prove shit really. They can tell you how neanderthal you are, but beyond that not really. No, I'm joking, you can get good information out of it, but when it, whenever they do, the whole, the whole ancestry thing is complete bullshit. Because it's like I, and it depends on whether you're white or not. I think it depends on what race you are. Am I using the correct term here? I'm not entirely sure, but whiteness is just so like oh I'm French, oh I'm German or I'm Norwegian. It's like, bro, europe has been colonized and recolonized and then colonized and again so many different times that your German heritage is probably actually English and Russian and everything in between, and it's just.

Scott:

Words.

Ben:

It's fine to label this. Okay, this is a verbal medium.

Scott:

You have to use your words. This is a verbal medium. You have to use your words.

Ben:

I can use sounds. Okay, I'm using sounds. That's what I've learned. I recently listened to our first episode and then a more recent episode and it's so fascinating I've never it's. It's kind of like take looking yourself in the mirror where, like it's like if you could transform yourself back three years ago and then look yourself in the mirror and then snap your fingers, it's like okay, there I am. Now. It's like Whoa, wow, that's different. Wow. I mean obviously similarities and some weeks are different than others and you know changes week to week, but what was different? I felt like a uh, well, I was working at the would be institute in that first episode. Yeah, so I was caretaker for the weekend and I remember where I was sitting too, and so I was also kind of like put back into that headspace and I was in the house of someone that no longer lived there. He had moved by this point. No, actually he was still the caretaker caretaker was on vacation.

Scott:

Yeah, he's taking the week off or something.

Ben:

Yeah and he was getting ready to retire and move away. It's like he it's kind of funny he's getting ready to retire from living alone in the woods and so he could go flown in the woods somewhere else, I don't. Yeah, anyway, just goes to show that it's not all. It's cracked up to be being the caretaker of a beautiful retreat center. Anyways, I've shared too much already.

Ben:

Um, and he always thought of me as a sad clown. That was the image in his brain of me. Like, we had a lot of different conversations. You know he was. I still want to. He lives he lives over on the Olympic peninsula now, and he's a while ago. He offered to like let me stay there and just hang out for a minute. I always really liked him and, uh, we got along well. Um, I never really wanted to be a sad clown, though, and I definitely resonated with what he meant, but I was like I don't like that about myself. There are parts of it that I do and I like lean into this character, but also like how do I be less of a sad clown? And I felt like it's point being that during the episode, I'm like sad clown energy here, big time, sad clown energy, yeah I would say that it also could be just your physiognomy how do you say that word physiognomy?

Scott:

yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, you kind of have the face of red skeleton. Who's the was the dominant sad multimedia media, media feature media star. When I was growing up I was this guy.

Ben:

Yeah, he's your age.

Scott:

Yeah, yeah, you just could map into comedian.

Ben:

This is the guy that used to open for Jerry Seinfeld whenever Jerry Seinfeld would come to Seattle. Red skeleton would know this caretaker person that I have this, uh, direct relationship with the caretaker at the would-be institute. He used to open for jerry seinfeld whenever jerry would go to seattle. He was a professional juggler back in the day, um, and more or less kind of just like a hype man, you know, a comedian, a showman, which is well part of why he kind of just like a hype man, you know a comedian, a showman, which is part of why he thought of me as a sad clown because he was, you know, a modern clown himself.

Scott:

Literally.

Ben:

Yeah, so I'm sure there were media images all the time. He was such an artist just like through and through, yeah, big time performer. And he saw that in me too. He knew that I wanted to have more stage presence. I knew that I wanted to be more of a performer and just thought about he thought a lot about characters that I would be well suited for. He was doing like a I can't remember if it was a movie or if he was like designing a show but he, he told me on multiple occasions and like the last time I saw him too like I got a place, I got a place for you in my show. So just let me know, you know, let me know.

Scott:

And I was always like I don't know if I want to lean in more to the sad clown energy.

Ben:

That's just not a character, yeah, but I think that's what he had me pegged, as he's the kind of person that would find this podcast and listen to it too, if you're out there, thomas you could send him out. I apologize if I'm crossing boundaries. I used your. I won't boundaries, I used your vibe. I won't, never, I won't, I won't say if I use your real name.

Scott:

It could be. It could be Tom yeah.

Ben:

I don't know. Is that kosher? I don't know.

Scott:

I think you can Refer to people. I Nobody's going to listen to this podcast and then go like research that guy and like do anything but be a fan of his, you know.

Ben:

True, they're not going to go on the internet and look at his art, just like comments comment all over Facebook. I don't even know if he had an internet presence. I don't think he does. But yeah, that was me listening to the that first podcast, lincoln Perry. That's one of the more recent ones, but I mean, it's also differences having caffeine this is podcast drugged, number number 34.

Scott:

We we get a badge when we make it to 50. You know a little little attab boy badge from yeah, from who?

Ben:

Nice? What about Apple? Does Apple give us anything? Spotify?

Scott:

There's. Yeah, they have their own accounting. I don't pay.

Ben:

They're they're. They're less about the rewards from, from the endogenous milestones. They're more about the exogenous milestones. The endogenous meaning like oh, we did it, it came from us, we produced 50. The exogenous would be like oh my God, a million people listen to us. Yeah, out there, I don't know, I don't, whatever, I just I just learned that word in in in grad school. Wow.

Scott:

Yeah, I have to ask you about that, but my main motivation is I like it, if I like the podcast, that's kind of what matters to me, yeah.

Ben:

That was my main motivation for a while. And then I, you know, started doing the Sad Clown Act and just trying to get a fan base going, yeah. So you know, goals change. Going for that million listener mark at this point? Yeah, no, I just oh, a million.

Scott:

Yeah, we blew past that a long time ago, didn't you know?

Ben:

Wow, you've been withholding that from me. That's probably fair.

Ben:

No kind of at the stage of my life where I might become an egomaniac. People keep right, people, people keep complimenting me. Yeah, yeah, no, I just need, I just need a couple of people to listen. I just need my dad to talk to, I don't need anyone to listen, all right, but I was telling a friend recently it's also just a fun conversation starter to to be like, oh yeah, I have a pod.

Ben:

Like people always ask me you know, what kind of podcasts do you listen to? I'm like I don't listen to any podcasts, but but I, I make one. They're like what. I'm like, yeah, with my dad, you know, and they're like what? Like, what's it about? I'm like nothing. It's like what's it, what's it called? That's, that's a good question. And like I want to listen, I want, I'm like sure, yeah, like here it is. Um, they're always fascinated and I, but I was talking to this friend recently about it and I was telling her that a really big part of it's just I've really just enjoyed the process of practicing being like oh, how can I? Maybe we've talked about this before, maybe not on the podcast the good practice and storytelling, good practice in articulating.

Scott:

And listening. I'm the like Andy Richter, sitting on the couch and ah well, andy richter's, he's so clever too though. So you're the conan sitting over there like going off on something which is good for me, because that's so, not if I don't.

Ben:

I don't know how many people listen to this podcast like in regular life, but I would say most friends think of me as the complete opposite. It's like he's so quiet, he's so reserved and it gives me that chance to just like a lot, of, a lot of muscles that I get to work here. That, I think, will serve, that serve me well well, um, I've got a.

Scott:

I've got a question and I don't mean to override your pre-aired question, but in good question, words or less, explain to me why rock climbing is is saner than, uh, skateboarding on ramps in 1000 words or less.

Ben:

Yeah, okay, I'll have to set up a word count machine right now. One sec, I'm gonna have to google it. Yeah, I'll wait for this.

Scott:

Get a chrome extension, okay, just yeah, I could count in real time. Why not? We should have a little ticker going off and quit when we hit so many words. Good sound effects there, because I was listening to this podcast. That was um, who's the guy you know? Um, if you're happy in the summer, the ceiling's gonna go away happy in the summer.

Ben:

Ceiling's gonna go away. I'd be in the summer really no, no Tone, I don't know.

Scott:

He's a judge on the Voice. You know he's had the Anyway. Or Ralph Williams, yeah, ralph Williams, and he has a podcast where he was interviewing Tony Hawk. He and some other guys are interviewing Tony Hawk. It's just like, oh, what a sport. Where Broken bones is Is just part of Anybody really achieving anything In that sport and it's like Okay, I want to ask Ben, let him tell me that rock climbing Is saner Than I wouldn't say it's any. Okay, I want to ask Ben, let him tell me that rock climbing is saner than?

Ben:

Yeah, I wouldn't say it's any saner. I would say that the question is more of it's it's. It's different. Obviously. I feel like the goals are different. Well, no, they're not really. I, you don't you? You, in rock climbing, there are way fewer injuries, but there are probably way more deaths. So not really. I'm sorry. I don't know if I can put your concerns to rest, because people I mean people do break bones and get injured rock climbing. I think it happens all the time.

Ben:

But in skateboarding that's kind of to be expected as you learn, because you're, in order for you to get better, you got to keep pushing yourself right when you fall skateboarding doing and you keep pushing yourself, you're, you're like falling down stairs, yeah, and or from, like you know, four feet up in the air when you're flying at 20 miles an hour and you're going to break bones and I feel like that's just to be expected. Like I think any proficient skater is going to have lots of stories of just gnarly injuries. I mean, there was a whole show on MTV that like what was it? I think it was called Scarred. I can't remember what.

Ben:

I think that's what it was, and if you've ever seen the Saw movies, it kind of had the same vibe, kind of same cinematography as the Saw movies. But it's like these are real people's lives and they're just like doing these reenactments of these horrible skateboarding injuries and just extreme sports. They're like showing off their scars and it's just like people just going on and on for 20 minutes about like Not for me, yeah, not for most people.

Scott:

I mean the movies I don't even watch Saw or Jackass or any of that. Yeah, yeah, saw or jackass or any of that, yeah, yeah. And also just to lead into, like I was rock climbing and that's jackass is a whole other story.

Ben:

I was thinking about that a lot recently where I was just like, oh my god, um, for any listener that doesn't know about jackass, it's exactly what it sounds like. Just a bunch of people get together and act like complete and utter jackasses and just do the stunts. They just. The creativity and imagination behind the show is all about them thinking of the craziest stunts to pull. So get four people in a shopping cart, push it down a major san francisco hill, that sort of thing, and I think everyone in that show has probably broken bones, probably more than a hundred times, and I don't think anyone has died from the show. They're mostly the kind of people that die from other things, that famous artists die from overdoses, painkillers and all that anyways.

Ben:

Rock climbing, yeah. So rock climbing when you fall you're attached to a rope in 99.99 of circumstances. I mean there's also bouldering, which usually you get crash pads so like you climb up, but usually not more than like 20 feet up, feet up. I've never done bouldering outside. Every time I've gone outside to go rock climbing, I've done rope climbing.

Ben:

There's different kinds of rope climbing. The stuff that I've done is all top rope, which is much. It's not necessarily. I mean it is safer than lead climbing. But lead climbing is you're like you have the someone is belaying you, so someone's down below and you're harnessed in.

Ben:

But as you climb up you have to continuously clip the rope into new bolts and anchor points along the way.

Ben:

So so if you're, if you're, if you're clipped into one bolt and anchor points along the way, so so if you're, if you're, if you're clipped into one bolt and you got another 10 feet to climb up before clipping into the next one, that means if you go nine feet up, you have a whole, um, you have a whole nine feet to fall, which means that you're there's nine feet of slack in the rope, which means you're actually going to fall like 18 feet more because there's going to be all that time for your belay person to like figure out how to catch you and it can get really, it gets technically a lot more, uh, complicated, and so that's in the kind of climbing that I would do. That's where the actual injuries and stuff would come in. That wouldn't mean me dying, it would be because it's like I'm so close to that next bolt and I fuck up and then so much of it is learning how to fall, similar with skateboarding.

Scott:

Wouldn't it be like you're kind of just running down the rock at that moment? You know you're free falling?

Ben:

oh, depending on the angle of the rock, yeah, most, but most rocks are straight up, uh, yeah a lot of times they're overhung, so they're actually even more than vertical, if that makes any sense.

Ben:

I don't know how to describe this to the listener, but imagine a rock. That's more than vertical, and whatever you're thinking of, that's perfect, just, that's exactly right. More than vertical. I don't know what image is in your hand. I'm so curious. Write in a, draw a picture, send it to me. 347, 19th avenue. See, all right, I'll stop, not that that you know how to find me. I'll make a cup of coffee if you show up, and so.

Ben:

But and then there are the crazy people that do free soloing, which is just climbing up and up and up and up and up and without anything, and I don't know statistics of it, but I imagine that's how a lot of people die. There's also trad climbing short for traditional climbing, and I don't actually really know how that works. But you're putting in your own bolts, heavy stuff, as you go you're, you're putting in gear into the wall that's temporary, and then locking yourself into that and it's like how on earth is that like? You're putting it into these little cracks and you're trusting that if you fall, the rope is going to get onto that and then save you, and that stuff really interests me, but I am, I'm not. I'm if I were to ever do that, and I don't necessarily plan on it, it's just fascinating you mean that what you're doing is fixed routes that are put in with tools.

Ben:

They've already been put in with tools, so they're like these really really beefy bolts all the way up and then when you get to the top there's an even beefier anchor. That's up there, uh yeah, and so so far the only kind of climbing I've done is top roping, but I'm gonna be learning how to do lead lead climbing soon, and with top roping, when you fall, like your belay person down below has a pretty tight hold on you the whole time. So if I fall, I'm just like, oh, it's kind of silly. Like you're like, oh my god, I'm falling, and then all that happens, you just like, well, you like fall back, like you just lean back. It's like as if you were like right sitting forward on a couch and then just, oh, yeah, I mean it's scary because you're still anywhere between five to a hundred feet up on a sheer rock face. But yeah, so is it more sane than skateboarding? No, and it, but it depends on you know how proficient you get and how extreme you get with it all. But the thing I will. Well, maybe it is more sane.

Ben:

My argument for why it's more sane is because rock climbers love safety. They're so. They're always saying like climbing is a dangerous sport. We could die, we could die. They're always like remember, this is incredibly dangerous. People die all the time doing this sport, and so they're just like more tapped in. And maybe I'll start a beef with skaters. I don't know, but it seems like they're way more tapped in. Well, I think maybe that's a point of pride for skaters is that it's like yeah, we know this is dangerous, like fuck it. It like there's, there's no safety mechanism here. You know, it's just like we're. It's complete and utter freedom. Whereas rock climbers are like do you have the right gear? Are you are you? Are you clipping incorrectly? Do you have your spine to the climb? It's just every like just getting out to the wall.

Scott:

If you're not in love with the process of all this gear that keeps you alive, then you're not really like in with the culture of climbing so if you were going to go in a private plane with a skateboarder versus a rock climber, you'd probably rather get in that private plane with a rock climber as the pilot unless you're just trying to go for pure adrenaline Depends on what your goals are.

Ben:

Tell me what your objectives are.

Scott:

You know it depends Well there's also, but you get excitement from doing this right. It's like, oh wow, I'm up here in this scary place and you get adrenaline right. That's the thrill of it.

Ben:

Yeah, yeah it is. I think rock climbing also, and skateboarding is this way too. I think any sport is any hobby. Really well, maybe I can't say that about any hobby, but a lot of it is like personal development and like finding like, how, how do you show up when you get to that wall? And you get to that really, really hard spot, like how do you show up when you're stuck 50 feet up a wall and your body and brain is just saying, like I can't do this, like I'm, I'm finished, like I can't.

Ben:

A lot comes to the surface. You know, the my, the friends I go with we often say that like this rock is therapy and it totally, totally is. It's like the last route I did this past weekend. It was just it completely stumped me. I think I'm such a strong person. It's like, yeah, like I'm eating, like I'm eating white, other white belts for breakfast at jujitsu, you know. And then I get to this rock wall and it's like I'm so strong. It's like look at myself in the mirror, look at this, and then it's like Jesus Christ, like this strength has nothing to do with this Ben, like stay humble bro. Then. Like stay humble bro, but. And like it's also, you know, it's nature being like your approach needs to change a little bit. It's not that you can't do this, it's just that there's some, there's some growth here. And pay attention to how, how you're showing up and what you can tweak. And, yeah, to take you, into that chapter.

Scott:

I had that experience. Uh, once you might be able to guess what it was. Um, you know the thing where you like, okay, I'm panicking, but I still have to go ahead and breathe and and do the activity. It's like that separation of uh, you know, still mindful thought while you realize your body is doing the panic thing. Yeah, you know, when it was, it was my first uh, wait, wait, wait.

Ben:

It was your first time making uh, fried corn dogs no interest stuff. Okay, I'm sorry to take away from the moment I'm sorry, you were on the sponsor, by the way, corn dogs get to that later.

Scott:

You were on the boat at the time is the first open open water dive in the great barrier reef oh yeah wow, everyone else in the, everyone else taking this open water certification had spent the previous week with that instructor in a pool but I I had done my week of uh of pool instruction in california, back in california, with completely different crew, so I didn't know what his approach was and everything and uh yeah, right, and it's not true.

Ben:

Divers are intense, they're kind of like milit it's.

Scott:

It's kind of militaristic in a way, you know yeah, it got to be like okay, take your mask off and then clear it exercise. Uh, I just like misunderstood something and it was a moment of like oh, panic, I have to go four feet up to the surface now, yeah, without your mask on, well, with my mask half flooded, I mean, I just because you couldn't get it all the way cleared, yeah.

Ben:

I don't know what I remember but it's like a situation where you really gotta be present and you gotta like roll with.

Scott:

You gotta still act with the fear oh no, this goes by so fast when we're when, when we're getting it. Now we're 10 minutes left. We have a 10 minute countdown.

Ben:

I don't know if you knew this listener, but there's only 10 minutes left in your podcast, so cherish these moments. There's no, you know, you don't have a timer on your little podcast app or anything.

Scott:

And well, we had better have our sponsor. I think this is like the cue to make.

Ben:

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, people know that's coming. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I dropped it.

Scott:

So it's corn dogs.

Ben:

But yeah, but I but I'm still on this uh scuba diving story, though for one, I forgot that you had to do all that training before we got out there and yeah, I'm proud of you, dad I'm glad I did it it was pretty amazing to be able to knock that thing off my bucket list that I had since I was eight years old, and then to have you there and we got to go on that one dive together.

Ben:

Got to go on that one dive, yeah, one where I disappeared that, yeah, we were so ready to. Just that was, oh boy, we're just driving. There's three of us, I know, like happy crew, just like seeing all the most beautiful fish in the world, the striking diversity of any ecosystem underwater, and then we keep on swimming along and then we turn around, make sure our buddies are still there. It's like, are you seeing what I'm seeing? And it's like, oh, hold on, there's only two of us now. Wait a minute. There's pretty good visibility. We can see 40 feet around us. I mean, there's places like he could have gone. I guess there's coral.

Ben:

Did he look down, looking off to the side, going to these caves? Is he looking for eels? What, what, what is happening? I thought I. I just looked. I don't know how long did we look for, like solid, like four or five minutes, I don't know. I don't know. But it's not. You know and the the rule is that you lose a buddy. It's like you go to the surface and then everyone. Then you're at the top of the water and you can just see much better. So me and our me and our other buddy uh, her name wasn't Helgo, I can't remember what her name was, but she was like Danish or something. Yeah, she was so sweet, um, and we decided like, okay, well, we're going up to the surface and we look right up and you're just like you had gotten your buoyancy so fucked up that you floated all the way to the surface.

Scott:

I didn't have enough weight to die.

Ben:

I can't even imagine what it was like as it was happening for you. You were just like no wait, come back. We're just swimming along, chilling just like wow, like dream come true great barrier reef. And you're just slowly floating above us like wait, wait, wait and I had no idea until I thought like what's that?

Scott:

I feel like waves lapping on my back.

Ben:

It's like oh my, I'm at the surface, cause when you're at the coral reef you're so shallow. Yeah yeah, we really weren't that deep.

Scott:

And you could do those reefs with a snorkel.

Ben:

I mean I couldn't. If I had a snorkel, I would have gotten 2% of what I would have gotten.

Ben:

Yeah, it's nice to float around down there and be able to sink down 30 feet below the boat at night and sit there for 20 minutes and just watch the shark circle, like that's. That's not snorkeling. To be able to go on a night dive and go 30 feet down and go through the go through like outcroppings of coral and then to have sea turtles just like come within two inches of your face and just like act like you're another fixture on the reef. It's just there's. Snorkeling is nowhere even. Yeah, nowhere, even close. Yeah, I just felt like I was like meditating in an alien world. Yeah, yeah, but I mean, I can only speak for myself though you know me I was.

Ben:

I was exhausted by my training dives and then I won free dive and I was like oh, you're like, I snorkeled, I scuba dived at the great barrier reef.

Scott:

You know how many people say that I was unsure of my ability to like out. After that. I could not get enough. That's why I didn't go on that night dive. Yeah, it's entirely fair. I'm glad we did it and I'm glad we could talk about it. Yeah.

Ben:

Our sponsor is Corn Dogs. Corn Dogs, corn Dogs. I was going on a long walk yesterday, feeling kind of sick, feeling kind of tired, and I walked by a skate park of all places and I, just I was in a good mood. You know, when you're in a good mood and you're just like walking around the city and just anything people do, it just makes you smile. And one skater was behind his other friends and he just came right up behind him and just kneed him right in the butt, just like.

Ben:

And then both of them, just like, started laughing at the same time and I'm just like ah, this is what I love about skateboarders. It's like he just got kneed so hard like in the butthole and he is just stoked about it. And then he turns around, he's like bro, what is that called? Again? What is that he's like? Is that like a reverse corndog dude? And then they're just like, they're laughing. His friend that need him isn't even saying anything. He's just like giggling. He's like corndog man, you're bringing the corndog back, dude. It's so funny. So yeah, the, the, the.

Ben:

The act of kneeing your friend in the ass is a corndog, but for some reason he got it reversed and thought it was a reverse corndog and so I'm walking by hearing this whole conversation. He's like giggling and he's like yo, don't you have to like knee me in the balls for it to be a corndog? And i's like don't you have to knee me in the balls for it to be a corn dog? I'm like no, that's just. I should have said no, dude, that's just getting kneed in the balls. No, you got a corn dog, don't worry, you got corn dog. It's all good. I put a smile on my face. Thank you, corn dogs. I will not do that to anyone anytime soon.

Scott:

I was thinking you were going to say you went by a you know a food vendor on the street afterwards and then had a corn dog.

Ben:

No, no, no. Went to a drive-in the other day. Friend got two corn dogs. I was really, I really wanted to ask for a bite. I really wanted a little bit of the batter, more than anything. It's like that's kind of what I test corn dogs off of, but I did not. Yeah, it was actually just two days ago, so corn dogs are also on the mind in that way.

Scott:

Yeah, to me, corn dogs are the, you know, favorite food that we could get at the state fair as a kid yeah, the one thing that you know. Our parents would allow us to buy one thing on a day that we went to the state fair. My dad didn't live by the rules. He could like go get a footlong hot dog later, as we're walking.

Ben:

Yeah, he could do whatever the hell he wanted.

Scott:

He only got twice what we got.

Ben:

You could buy one food item, so does this mean you had to choose between lemonade and a corn dog? Well, I don't think we got that. What about non-food items? What about a t-shirt? Oh no, oh, no, oh my God.

Scott:

no, I mean when we were rebellious teenagers and we could go on our own. You could go play games on the Midway and, like my brother, brought home a lot of ashtrays that he won, you know, throwing coins into games on the Midway.

Ben:

Ashtrays he won ashtrays.

Scott:

Yes, they were a commodity back in the day.

Ben:

Yeah, he would trade them in for pipes. Smoke weed. He's smoking weed, I don't know Is a fair going child, just like when Peter smoked weed at the Grateful Dead concert.

Scott:

Probably not, I don't know. Yeah, but yeah, corn dogs, cool looking ashtrays and corn dogs, your favorite, my favorite fair food.

Ben:

Corn dogs, scott Johnson's favorite fair food, and what skaters do to each other on Monday afternoons.

Scott:

I brought home, you know, like a box of a dozen corn dogs from let's let him in. What I brought home, a dozen Costco corn dogs, and everyone just gives me such negative feedback. So I want to say when was this? When was this.

Ben:

I want to say when was this? When was?

Scott:

this. I don't know when you were seven, maybe.

Ben:

Yeah, well didn't I eat them? Yeah, yeah, I microwaved them. They did weird things in the microwave, yeah, but that's okay. They still taste good. Some friends never wanted to eat them. They're sad.

Scott:

You like them.

Ben:

So Never wanted to eat them. I'm sad you like them, so it goes. I mean they weren't as good as Hot Pockets. Were not as good as Hot Pockets.

Scott:

All right? Yeah Well, if we're going to sponsor something, we're supposed to build it up, not tear it down.

Ben:

Well, corndogs will be okay. They're kind of a staple at this point.

Scott:

No, no, no, no. This sponsor is going to end the whole podcast.

Ben:

So that will simplify.

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