don’t tickle your straight jacket!

Brandon has a new quest. Collin has a new rabbit hole. Pip…has new expectations!

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

PROVIDED BY OTTER.AI

Collin Funkhouser  00:04

Collin, welcome to Oh brother, a podcast where we try to figure it all out with your hosts, Brandon and Collin on this week's show, don't tickle your straight jacket. Ahoy. Ahoy. Good. How are you? We are well, we have survived our deluge of water.

Brandon  00:28

We had a slight sprinkle.

Collin Funkhouser  00:30

Yeah, we got six inches of rain.

Brandon  00:32

Well, it's supposed to rain here in about 30 minutes, so I'll let you know. Yeah, so if Yeah,

00:45

they go, Oh, well, it keeps moving back. Thunderstorms possible after 11,

Brandon  00:52

we were out earlier. They just kind of get

Speaker 1  00:55

some dinner. It was sort of sprinkling about Yes, right? So that was yes.

Collin Funkhouser  01:02

We our neighbors, our neighbors moved. They moved across town, and so they are dead to us. But before they left, they said,

Brandon  01:13

in laws, is that your in laws?

Collin Funkhouser  01:19

Other neighbors? Oh,

Brandon  01:21

okay, dang, all your neighbors are there, fleeing the neighborhood.

Collin Funkhouser  01:25

I think, I think this says more about us than I'd really want to get my Yeah,

Brandon  01:29

all of your neighbors are leaving.

Collin Funkhouser  01:34

So anyway, there's a problem, not me, obviously. But before they left as a parting gift. They were like, Hey, we are not taking our patio furniture. Do you want it? And I said, yes, absolutely, I do. And so, yeah, of course. So we have this, like, really great patio furniture set outside now, and we, like, we sat outside, we ate dinner at it tonight. It was fantastic, and it started to rain, so we came inside, but we had the opportunity to be outside on to get rained on because of our patio furniture. So we are very happy by this. This made me very excited. Oh, yes, okay, seats and such. There you go, yes.

Brandon  02:23

There we go. Our dinner was we had, we were gonna, so we had the classic plan here, where we were gonna go eat at this restaurant that we've been meaning to eat at for a long time, right? It's new. It's open, like it's some point. It's not even, I don't know, I don't know, I don't even know if it's a year old yet, right? But it's one of those things where we're like, oh, we'll go. We'll go.

02:44

We keep forgetting to go, right? So we were gonna go. They closed early today, probably for the Easter weekend, right? Yes.

Brandon  03:00

But or it could have been that there's the first, like, food truck day thing was tonight, also downtown, right? And so we were gonna go there. But then, like, it's so early in the year that, like, nothing was there. We're like, oh, oh. And we were gonna eat so, like, we were like,

03:21

God, dang it. So now what?

Brandon  03:25

So then we went to, there's another new restaurant that we went to ate at last weekend with some of our friends. And so we went there and got takeout, right? It's like a I've been led to believe that it is similar to some sort of like Chipotle, Chipotle situation total, yeah, it's like that, I guess. According to a person that has been to Chipotle, who's not me, it's kind of like that, right? It's very good, okay, yeah. But so we went, got that set, and they came home, but it was a very like, it's one of the like, our original plan fell through.

04:07

Okay? Now what?

Collin Funkhouser  04:11

Oh, no, shifting gears a little bit.

Brandon  04:16

That's true, that's true. We did. We did give ourselves a new quest, right? Because we had, we did realize that there are several restaurants in town that we have never eaten at, right? So our new quest is to eat at every restaurant in town at least once. We're going to account. We're going to grandfather it all the ones we eat at, normal, I think good, and we're not going to count. We're not gonna count fast food, right? Like McDonald's doesn't count, yeah, is it chain restaurant? So we're making a list here. This is our new side quest. Is, uh, we're gonna make sure that we attempt to eat at every restaurant in town, just so we can say that we have eaten. I think it's good. Is. For a town that's not that big, right? We there are several like, you know, I've never actually been in that place. I don't know what it is,

Collin Funkhouser  05:08

yeah, no, I think this is, this is fantastic news. I think more people should do this, because there's just, you find so many interesting things that I think are like and are surprising to you, potentially, yeah, potentially, potentially, but

Brandon  05:29

potentially, right? And we're gonna count, we're gonna count some of the little food trucks that are like, always in the same spot, right? There's a couple of those that we're gonna add. There's one new one, and then there's like, one that we just found out what it is, like, it's at the gas station. It's always at the gas station, right? But there's like, no sign. There's just a dude, there's like, a truck thing, and then a dude outside with a massive grill, nice. And it's just, like, I don't what is there's like no sign

Collin Funkhouser  06:03

exactly what you need. Oh, you

Brandon  06:05

know, it's good though, right? There's no, there's, there's no sign there at all. So, yes, so that's kind of funny, but we're gonna throw that one on the list, right? Other exploring things we did today. By the way, the Asian grocery

06:25

store has moved to a

Brandon  06:26

much larger building, so we went and checked that out today. They, like, just moved a couple weeks ago, and so they were in this, like, little tiny, like shed. It was like, that's like, the only way that I could describe this, right? It's not big at all. The old building was so they're in a much larger building. However, the much larger building brings me to an interesting point I want to bring up with you, right, yes, about what happens when a building is built for a like a purpose? Yes, and then the original occupant leaves, right? So the building that the Asian market now occupies used to be a bank, right? Like,

07:21

no, yes. Amazing, yeah, it's

Brandon  07:25

like, and so I want to know, like, what's like? What like in between? It was just like another store for a while, right? There was like something, and

07:37

there was, like, a t shirt place, I don't

Brandon  07:39

know, whatever, but, like, there it's been a couple other things, but it was not too long ago, maybe six years, seven years. Maybe it was a bank, right? And so like, in the back there's definitely, that's the part where the drive through used to be. And so like, the back of the building, there's these, like weird spaces on the top where they just sort of like chopped off the awning, and you can see where there was stuff. So it's just very weird.

Collin Funkhouser  08:15

Do they what are they doing? What are they doing with

Speaker 2  08:16

the vault? This is what I don't know, right? Where is that? Yes, right, what's, what

Collin Funkhouser  08:23

is spices? Are they putting in their hair?

Brandon  08:25

Yeah, exactly. Is it still there? Did the bank like take it apart when they left? I don't know. Is there a vault in the back room of this place somewhere,

Collin Funkhouser  08:40

that's what or did they turn it into, like a little private dining area, depending how big this oh, well, they I'm not

Brandon  08:47

cool enough to go back and see it. Maybe there was a curtain. Just saying, was a curtain over there. I don't know what was behind the curtain, right? And a weird, mysterious, locked cabinet full of unidentifiable things. I don't know what they right? There's always the exciting part of the Asian bridge tour. You know what most of these things are. And then there's a couple things like, What the heck is that I don't I don't know what this is. That's crazy.

Collin Funkhouser  09:19

Did I tell you one of the banks are there are hot commodities for a certain burgeoning sector of the economy in Missouri.

09:32

Is it the speakeasy? No, no, it's the

Brandon  09:37

the marijuana store. Yes, because they have a vault?

Collin Funkhouser  09:41

Yes, because they can't bank with any Yeah, so they need their own vault.

Brandon  09:46

And I find this almost like, almost like, this is an industry that needs to be federally

Collin Funkhouser  09:50

regulated, almost weird. It's hard to know weird, really.

Brandon  09:55

I also read a thing right about. This industry specifically and about this might be mild conspiracy, but the one of the reasons a lot of state legislatures are dialing back their like the availability of this substance is because alcohol sales are plummeting.

Collin Funkhouser  10:22

Yeah, anymore? No, yeah. They got to replace this stream of revenue.

Brandon  10:29

And so they're like, Oh no, all of my lobbyist friends and all of my income that's driven by this. What shall we do? I know, pass regulation against the competing product. Wait. That would never happen. Never, wait.

Collin Funkhouser  10:45

No, no. Nobody would. Nobody would come in and and purposefully block out this at all. That would be ridiculous. That's true.

Brandon  10:54

Speaking of conspiracies, Collin, the your favorite section of the internet, the Flat Earthers, yes, they are in peril currently.

Collin Funkhouser  11:09

Oh, man, oh, they're freaking out so hard I love

Brandon  11:13

it makes me happy, right, right? Like, after years and years and years of being like, well, if it's so easy to the moon, if the moon's real, why don't we go back? Finally, NASA was like, Hey, we're going back. And they're like, What? What? No, wait a minute. No, no, no, you can't, because Moon's not real. And I watched a thing about them, some of them watching the launch of the Artemis two rocket the other Oh no. Oh the COPE is so bad. It's so bad, right? It's, oh my gosh. It's unbelievable.

Collin Funkhouser  11:49

The things are coming to people's mouths, like, what?

Brandon  11:53

That's not even, it's not even words you're saying right now, right? It's like, oh my god. Why didn't they? They need to show like the burden of proof is, like, apparently on NASA, right? Like they're talking about, like it's a known fact, and so they're like, well, it's clearly nobody in that rocket, because they didn't have a split screen. Where are the drone shots? You would think that NASA would have drone shot, just because every show on television overuses the drone shot. NASA doesn't need a drone shot, and plus the rocket would blast by the drones in about two seconds. Okay, oh, there's gone all right. And you have to keep the airspace clear

12:32

of the launch area, of the

Brandon  12:34

launch area, and they're like, why aren't they? Why aren't they showing the inside? We know

12:39

there's no proof that there's anybody even in there, like,

12:43

oh my gosh, oh yeah. And so

Brandon  12:44

today I can't, I haven't seen yet, but today, when the NASA released all the brand

12:49

new photos, oh man, oh boy. They're beautiful, by the way. They're amazing. They're they're really great.

Collin Funkhouser  12:57

An old boy, very cool. It's very exciting to watch this, and I'm sure it is wonderful. I you know, I should get on Reddit, I think, and kind of follow along with some of the conversations. Just help my put myself to ease

Collin Funkhouser  13:22

this. Actually brings up something that I learned this week. Have you heard of Project Corona from the 1950s

Brandon  13:36

so this, this is, like, it's one of those things, like, there's like a faint like, this sounds familiar, but I can't, I can't. I don't know why that sounds well, maybe, maybe not.

13:49

I don't know. Well, I

Collin Funkhouser  13:51

was listening to this, like, history of whatever, whatever history is, the most

13:54

interesting man in the world. I don't know.

Collin Funkhouser  13:57

No, no interesting man here. But no, so, okay, picture this you two spy plane, yes, shot get shot down. People, yes, panic, because now they're like, well, Hot dang, we can't get any more secret photos of of Russia at this point, because now, because now we don't have because

14:27

we spy plane are not

Collin Funkhouser  14:29

shot down. We thought they had the capabilities of this. And weirdly, something like four months later, top government officials start getting new photos over Russia. And this was declassified, I think, 1015, years ago, of like, what this actually happened? Because it turned out that in 19. In 59 they started to do test flights for satellite imagery. And hey,

Brandon  15:12

so this also would have been so this is post YouTube shoot down also post Sputnik. Yes, so they, because I do know that once Sputnik went up, everybody in the government went, oh no.

Collin Funkhouser  15:27

So they were shoot launching these as part of the space race. Of like, Hey, we're just testing things out there. No worries. We're just testing things out there. But how so they're launching these stuff up a year before the YouTube actually goes down. They're testing this entire thing. YouTube gets shot down in 1960 something. I forget, but whatever like they get shot down and these photos come out. Well, here's the thing, this satellite program ran through all of the 60s into the 70s. And what this is, this. This is, how did they get the photos back? You may be asking, because this was they went to. This was developed by the same camera company that made the camera in YouTube, which was Polaroid at the time. This is a canister that was jettisoned from space. Oh, nice. Okay, ready for this now? Okay, canister jettisons from space. Then the satellite would decay in orbit, right? And then it

16:34

would go crazy, fall back,

Collin Funkhouser  16:35

okay, burn up. They didn't care about that. They were jettisoned from space in this the first flight. It was, it broke all these records. It was the first flight that had that could change, that could jettison, that jettisoned a portions of a craft that could control part of its flight and change direction in its descent and canister flying towards Earth Brandon. How do you think they got this?

Brandon  17:06

Let's see. It would make sense if it had like a slow descent and then there was, like a parachute landing thing. But that's not wacky enough for the 1950s 1960s orbital program. So I don't know, Collin, how did they

Collin Funkhouser  17:26

know you were you're really good at this. Imagine, so they do need to descend. So this was also the first re entry of objects, yeah, and all this stuff, like broke all the records, and it was for spying on Russia. No, imagine this as is everything falling to Earth, but you can't let this fall anywhere. And what if it goes into a place where you don't want it? No. Brad Brent, you have to catch this early.

17:53

Yeah. You do, right, yeah.

Collin Funkhouser  17:56

So imagine, oh, I don't know, a c1 30 or c1 19 with a giant grappling hook behind it, perfect that it would fly out and it would grab these things in, crazy, reel them in, and they would develop this. And here's the absolute crazy part from space in the late 1950s early 1960s using, again, can't using film, they were able to get resolutions of seven meters.

18:36

Dang. Holy cow,

18:38

yes, yes.

Collin Funkhouser  18:40

That's pretty nice. By 19, by the late, by the early 70s, they were down to less than a two meter resolution.

18:51

Wow. Holy cow.

Collin Funkhouser  18:53

In the first crazy in the first flight of these things up in space, they covered more of the USSR at the time than all of the u2 spy planes had previously in the first one.

Speaker 2  19:10

Holy cow, it's crazy. Yeah, this,

Brandon  19:15

this reminds me of the sky hook thing. Yes, right. That's what I was trying to think. I was like, what is I was, frankly Googling, tried these keywords, like trying to remember what that's called, but it reminds me of the Skyhook, right? When they're just like, they have this big thing that floats up and the plane

Collin Funkhouser  19:37

just goes, that's exactly what is happening here, and what I just sent to you, and I'll include the show notes, is the CIA actually declassified this and released some of the actual images from the program. It is so crazy. Easy. And there's a YouTube video here. And, like, beautiful. This is, this was wild. And so I've done nothing but just read and look and like, take a

20:10

look at all fair, fair.

Brandon  20:14

What else? This is exactly the rabbit hook that you're supposed to rabbit holes. Rabbit Hole. You're supposed to fall down here. That that's crazy, watching it pull behind this, like, this recovery thing is so weird.

Collin Funkhouser  20:29

Like, that's crazy. I know just had this giant lasso. Yeah, if you look at that, that's a that airplane that's on there is, it has a lasso behind it, and that parachute is supposed to come in and just flip right in that thing, yeah. And they changed and adapted these hooks over time and stuff and made them easier to catch, but that aircraft had to fly over that in order to catch it.

Brandon  20:54

And then, yeah, that's the weird part. Like, yeah, you kind of it's like, that's what it's it's weird looking at this, but, like, yeah, that you fly just over top of it and then snag the lines right? And it just, like, then reel it in the door. That's so wacky, right? Like, just catching it right out of the air.

Collin Funkhouser  21:17

I love this. I love this so much. And then the other part about this is, let's say it missed. Okay, it missed. Obviously, you can't have and they purposely try to do the control of these things, descent, to go over water a because, you know, they were doing test, test flights out there all the time. Couldn't track things anyways, on radar, also in this canister. It had a salt plug and plug, yes. So if it sat in water for more than, like, 24 or 48 hours, that would dissolve and the thing would sink to the bottom of the ocean. Yeah, and in, yeah, and they were, they were like the most

22:05

Cold War thing of all time, I know,

Collin Funkhouser  22:11

and I think it's really important that we understand something here. These weren't just like a satellite here or a satellite there. Over the course of six years from 1963 to 1969 they did one, almost did 100 recoveries. Yeah, okay, that's crazy. They're just shooting them up. That was just for a six year period. They did six recoveries in 1960 alone.

Brandon  22:37

That's absolutely nuts. Holy cow, yeah, this.

Collin Funkhouser  22:41

So this is, I'm like, deep diving into this. Artemis is shooting off. I'm just like, Oh my gosh. Like, I'm so, so ready. So I and what's wild is that it's like, this is what was going on in the 50s. Like, this is 1950s technology brought all the way up to 1972 and that's the last we know that's been declassified. What on earth are they doing?

Brandon  23:08

It stopped in 1972

Collin Funkhouser  23:10

allegedly, allegedly, right? No, obviously this is still going on and with just wild holy cow, yeah, it's so crazy. That's all I that. That was just, that was my that was my

23:34

week. That's pretty

Brandon  23:37

important week, pretty good. I, also, I have discovered something. I had to go buy something this week, right? For a thing that did it in my class, right? And I discovered, perhaps the one item that has not changed price in like 25 years, because I bought one of these things in Oh God, like in the 90s, right? And I do not currently possess this anymore, and so I needed to replace it for a project that I was doing at school, right? So I go to Walmart, I look it up. They have one, and the price is still, like, $5 right? What? So I may have discovered the one. Now I don't know if the quality is as good as the one that I used to have. It feels a little

Collin Funkhouser  24:43

bit weird, but still,

Brandon  24:47

the cost is still need $5 Collin. I bought a flint magnesium striker thing, and I was shocked to discover that. Right? This item is approximately the same price that I

25:03

paid for the same thing.

Collin Funkhouser  25:05

Not where I was headed with that in my brain,

Brandon  25:07

I know I was trying to really build up. So what I did, right? What I did was we were reading hatchet, okay, my RTI class, my reading class, okay. And so in order to understand the struggles of Brian Right, attempting to survive alone in the wilderness, we went outside and started a fire.

Brandon  25:35

Yes, as one does, yes, this is wilderness survival of Mr. Funkhouser. We hit fire start in class. We just to see if it would work, right? So they all tried it, right? And they all practiced it, and we're going to talk when we come back just about like, hey, that took us, like 12 of us, like, 20 some minutes to accomplish this, right? So Brian's by himself

Collin Funkhouser  25:59

in less than ideal conditions, right?

Brandon  26:02

Yeah. So just think about that, but yeah. So that's why I may have lit a fire. We went outside, but we did collect some detritus and attempt to light a fire using the flint and steel thing, because that's what Brian has in the book. He has a hatch. We did. I didn't bring a real hatchet, I just had a simple strike. So they go boom and and discovered the one item that changed price at all

Collin Funkhouser  26:34

does again, not at all what I was

Brandon  26:36

expecting, super niche,

Collin Funkhouser  26:41

but I think really appropriate. I'm happy to hear that. I'm happy to hear that there's still a need and drive for that. So true.

Brandon  26:49

I will say my product review here is that the little flint striker bit feels softer than I remember it being right. So I don't know what it's made out of, but it feels like it would wear down faster than the one that I used to have, because the one that I used to have, I could hit it with a steel file and it would just like shower sparks off of it, right? This one I hit with a file, and like nothing happened. So I don't know what the thing is, but like,

27:22

it eventually worked. So, like,

Brandon  27:24

Okay, I don't know the formula here is different, but, uh, it was a little bit strange.

Collin Funkhouser  27:32

Yeah, I wonder what they're I wonder what they are making those things.

Brandon  27:34

I don't know. I don't know. I threw away the packaging so I don't, didn't look at it, but was, it feels weird. Feels like a softer didn't feel like it's hard of a thing when I did it, it's very strange. But it did work. We did start a very tiny fire.

Collin Funkhouser  27:50

I typed in has the quality of Flint changed into Google, just to see, because sometimes

Brandon  27:58

it tell you about water quality.

Collin Funkhouser  27:59

It said, yes, the water quality in Flint, Michigan has significantly changed. That's good. Well, they

Brandon  28:05

haven't changed for the better. Or has it gotten even worse? Is there even more lead in it?

Collin Funkhouser  28:09

It does say improved since 2014

Brandon  28:12

Hey, there we go. The one thing that's improved since 2014 the Flint water.

Collin Funkhouser  28:22

There we go. People tell me we're not in big progress, dang,

Collin Funkhouser  28:33

oh my gosh, this, this week, has just felt like a fugue state. We went to a Cardinals baseball game in the middle of the week, oh yes, for a night game,

Brandon  28:52

which was a choice. What happened was because wanted to see the lights. Yeah, we'll see all the favorite architectural structures

Collin Funkhouser  29:03

so beautiful, I'm it's goodness those the buildings are so pretty. And here's the interesting part, we're walking around, of course, like we're gonna drive there. Then we had dinner, and then we walked over to the stadium, and because it was a night game, we did splurge just a little bit so that I could get the hotel that is across the street from the stadium. Oh, oh, wow, okay. Because I was like, I am not like, driving around downtown St Louis at 1030 at night. I'm not interested in that. We just right, like nothing, like we're walking around. And I had this thought of it is, it is 57 degrees outside. It is five. Is four o'clock, five o'clock in the afternoon when we're walking. It is sunny. It's beautiful out here Brandon, there was, there was nobody, nobody downtown. Like, really, yeah, I saw, like, there are a few people by the by the arch, sure, right, yeah, yeah, but, but that's pretty usual. There are cars driving. There's nobody on the streets. Like, and the, what's, what's what's funny is later I saw a comment by the New York Mets broadcasters who were there, who they were like, Hey, does he remember those bombs we used to talk about when we were growing up, where it would atomize all the people but leave the building standing. I feel like that's what happened in downtown St Louis. And I was

Brandon  30:37

like, wow. What thing I felt, speaking of the Cold War, we got

Collin Funkhouser  30:44

that, I felt that I was like, yes, absolutely, those bombs scare the chickens out of me, and I was walking into place, like was right there. So this is, I don't know it was wild, like we're just walking around and, okay, again, I'm being a bit superfluous here. Yes, did I see people walking? Yes, was it what I anticipated to see walking around in, like, the downtown hub, heart of the city? No, like, it

Brandon  31:12

was empty. Was it only like nine people? Yeah, it was right.

Collin Funkhouser  31:17

There was a lawyer, there was some unhoused individuals, and then somebody walking a dog. And I'm like, This is it? And then, of course, like around the arch, sure, like more people there, but nothing wild. It's surreal. That is weird. It was, yeah, I didn't like it. I don't like it at all. I wasn't okay. But we did that. We watched the game, stayed up. Stay up to the end, got to see a home run. It was fun. Just went down some stairs, walked across the hall, over the street, and, like, went into our rooms and just did the night disappeared. I did have a thought while we were checking in, of, like, do I really want to be across from the from that place? But they're like, they're no one's gonna stick around. They're all going to leave.

Brandon  32:02

Yeah, the lights are gonna go off. Yeah, the game, you say, if you said, especially since you stayed to the end, right? Like, yes, you left it, like, the sixth inning, right?

32:11

Then, you know, whatever. But like, if you wait till the game's over, like, yeah, everyone else is going like, there's not gonna be any more

Collin Funkhouser  32:19

noise, absolutely. So it was just like, and everyone slept, fantastic. It was great. I'm like, man. And because what happened was last year, we attended the last game of the season. And because nobody's attending games anymore and they're not very good, they were like, Hey, thank you so much for attending the last game of the season. Because of that, we will give you an equal number of free tickets for next year that you bought for this game, so you will please come back and use them again. Hey. Like, absolutely look a bad and that investment turned out pretty good. We went and and redeemed those because you're like, well, it's gonna be nice. It's not gonna be super hot, it might be a little rainy, but it was like it was just the perfect night to be out there. So that that, like Tuesday night into Wednesday trip to St Louis completely threw off my my week. And I have, I have lost all track and connection to what time actually is, because everything is just like, it's not real anyway. So my, my week has been very, like, very fluid. I mean, that's

Brandon  33:31

I get that, because this is our spring break kind of sort of week, right? So, like, but we went to that again. I don't, I don't like, they decided that our spring break was good. They were going to do it like Thanksgiving break, right? We went to school Monday and Tuesday, and then we're off Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Oh, right, which is a weird thing to do, just like in the middle of, you know, it's like Easter, but like,

Collin Funkhouser  34:05

what I don't know, yeah, no, that's very weird.

Brandon  34:10

It's very weird. Honestly, I would have preferred Thursday, Friday,

34:16

Monday, right? I really feel like that would be good. But, you know, whatever, like,

Brandon  34:24

that's just me. I'm always like, actually like it this way instead. But, yeah, it's, it's a weird thing to do. So last week was, or I guess this week, because it's only Friday, right? I mean, yeah, it was, it was very difficult and strange to, like, try to, like, figure out what to do with my Two Day, which is why I started fire outside. Yeah, that's fine. It was on a concrete slab, by the way, and I dumped a bunch of water on it to put it out, just so you know.

Collin Funkhouser  34:54

And I'm sure you let be responsible, let people know ahead of time.

Brandon  34:59

Ah. Uh, it's fine. Anyway, I

Collin Funkhouser  35:02

buddy, everybody knew, yeah.

Brandon  35:05

I mean, it was just a little bit of a fire. It wasn't even, like, a big fire. I didn't even like, it wasn't sustained. It was only on for like, a few minutes.

Collin Funkhouser  35:13

It's fine. Only on for, yeah, well, because

Brandon  35:17

we didn't get like, we didn't collect, like, we didn't collect, like, we only collected, like, kindling, right?

Speaker 1  35:23

Sure. And so we just burned it for a little bit, and then I dumped a gallon of water on it. And if I'm right with you,

Collin Funkhouser  35:29

I think everything was done according to

Brandon  35:30

spec, yeah, protocol, it's fine. But again, that's why I did that on Tuesday. Because I was like, What the heck else am I gonna do on Tuesday? We had to finish our presentations for social studies and, like, we're not gonna read anything for my reading class, because we're gonna be off for five days, and I didn't wanna start my last session science, so we had to do some other random Science Review, things like,

Collin Funkhouser  35:53

burned people,

35:55

Yeah?

Speaker 1  35:56

Suddenly, yeah. So we alighted a small fight.

Brandon  36:05

It's very nice. Well, I did, however, have enough time, yes, just barely squeaking it out of the wire. Ah, I do have a

36:13

sixth grade quote for you, perfect

Brandon  36:16

out of nowhere, right? This one is very bizarre, as only this child could possibly give it to you.

Collin Funkhouser  36:30

But are you ready? I am ready. I'm sitting down

Brandon  36:33

things that's good. You're gonna need it for this one. Collin, yes, don't tickle your straight jacket.

Collin Funkhouser  36:41

I Okay, right? I wasn't, I don't know this

Brandon  36:56

is one of those, like, I believe this was a misheard thing. Oh, right. And then she just said it later, like, as a sentence, right? Like, see, and I don't know what, because I was talking to this one girl, and she had, like, she just got, she's, she's been going back and forth to orthodox because she, they're, like, she just got braces, right? And so she was we were talking. I don't even remember what she said, but she was talking about her braces, right, okay, and the other girl was like, walking by us, and she goes, you say, tickle your straight jacket. We both turned and looked at her, went, what? But no, what. So that was a whole weird thing. And then so just later, she was in my RTI group. She came and she was sitting down. She was like, Ah, don't tickle your straight Jackie,

Collin Funkhouser  37:59

you know what? Yeah, absolutely, you gotta just lean into it. Just own it, right?

Brandon  38:02

Yeah, so she did lean right into it. It's great. But, like,

Collin Funkhouser  38:06

that's amazing.

Brandon  38:07

That one, really, I, I was like, what?

Collin Funkhouser  38:14

How? But no, seriously, how could you I don't, I don't I don't really

38:20

want to think about the logistics of trying to accomplish that sentence.

Brandon  38:32

Right? Make a lot of sense, right? Speaking of difficult logistics and things not making sense, let's talk about PIP here. Vast approach. In the end, we only have two chapters left. Yeah, thank goodness, where the book was just going to stop, right? Yeah. And I'm just assuming

Collin Funkhouser  38:52

you I had not read this as of yesterday, and you had said, get ready, because it's weird. And I was like, I'm like, Now, see here, sir, I have, I have read some weird chapters, and a lot of this book has not made any sense. And then I read these chapters and went, why? Yeah. Like, what the heck? Why was any of this necessary?

Brandon  39:17

Like, I don't know, right? Again, again, I, I think, right? I just, I don't know, right? I was thinking about this and about the why, right, and then it did. I did remember, right, who? Who is our narrator? Right? Our narrator is Pip, right? Yeah, Pip is telling this story. To what end he's telling this story. I don't really know. I don't know why he is reciting the tale of his life to us,

39:51

but he is right.

Brandon  39:53

So this is, again, our favorite genre of book, Collin, the secret memoir. I. Where we have the thing, and we can talk about this a little bit next week too. But like, I like the unreliability of PIP as a narrator is something that I was thinking about this week, right? Sure, about, like, sometimes in these chapters when it's just, like, why the heck is that happening? Like, Pip doesn't know either. He's just, it's just happening to him, and he's telling you about

Collin Funkhouser  40:24

it, because that's all, yeah, and he's not digging deep into

Brandon  40:31

any sometimes he's not digging at all. He's just relaying to you what happened, yes, right? And so he's not expounding upon why. He's not giving the other side of the story. He's not, like, looking for more details. But I was thinking about this whenever he was rescued from the lion kiln, whenever Herbert and star top, who just disappeared again, was there, like, weren't needed? Yeah. I mean, like, we just get this, like, random thing. And like, he doesn't really explain, like, anything about it, but that's just because he's the one telling the story, and he has no idea. Yeah, right, he talked to Herbert a little bit about it, but, like, we don't get the full other side of the events, because Herbert just summarized him for PIP, and then PIP is just taking that information and telling you, right? So we know that PIP isn't

41:29

the like the

Brandon  41:32

very world wise as a person, right? He has a lot of shortcomings, and I think part of some of the things about this book, they're like, What the heck is going on? Is because PIP is telling us the story, right? Yeah, it's the way that the narration is being delivered. And it's just, it's just PIP telling you, and there is no like pontificating about the why. There is some wistful there's a lot of, like, wistful talk and like, like, romanticizing events. But again, I think that's just because it's PIP doing the talking right, and he's wishing for things to be a certain way, and he wants them to come off that way, and then he's not giving you the full details of events all the time, because he only has the little bit that he saw, right? So I was thinking about that this week, and that does make a lot more of the book make a lot more sense, right? Whether I am putting that on old Charles here, or if he intended that, I don't know. But like, that is kind of some other thing that I'm getting is he's like, Pip is kind of not a reliable narrator.

Collin Funkhouser  42:52

Yeah, you know, I think it's a good, at least a good way to a good lens to be reading it, because you're right, then you do have, I don't want to say like an excuse for PIP, but you almost do have an excuse.

Brandon  43:08

It imperatively makes more sense.

Collin Funkhouser  43:10

Like this was never meant to make sense. This was meant to relay information in such a way that, I mean, it does make it very relatable, because we are left going, wait, what? Why? What? Why? Huh, what. Yeah, and,

Brandon  43:29

and I, I don't know, I think I kind of forget that every once in a while, but here, in one of these chapters, I don't remember which one it is, he makes a mention of that like he is writing this, and he only has a little bit more to write before this story is done. Yes, right? Yeah, he, he says that somewhere. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's right. Pip is our narrator. And it also makes sense then from this point too, that it he's now in his mid 20s, at some point, right? Or early 20s. I don't remember. Again, our timeline is confusing. But again, that's why our timeline is confusing, is because he's like, I'm assuming he is several years away from this when he's writing, yeah. So maybe we'll get like, in the last next two chapters. Maybe we'll get like, a and we'll do some looking up about, like, what? We'll look at the timeline again and be like, where, how old is he now? Like, how far Was he having to look back? So, like, in the beginning, right? Whenever he was, you know, seven, and he was doing all this stuff, right? How far away is narrator, Pip talking about that, right? Because if he's like, 30 by the end of this book, right, that's a long time to be, like, reaching back and

44:48

like thinking about stuff, you know, I

Brandon  44:50

mean, so some of that, like, oh, anyway, like, kind of makes more sense from that narrative lens. At least, made me. Me come to terms with some of the faults I have in this book a little bit, right? This is not quite as I'm not quite as forgiving of this as I was of pony, right? Because by the last chapter of that, I was like, Ah, okay, this makes all perfect sense. I get it now.

Collin Funkhouser  45:18

It's all coming together.

Brandon  45:20

It's all perfect sense, right? But the SE, se Hinton made it very clear that that's what was happening. I don't think Charles is doing that necessarily for us, but she made it very like, Yes, this is what's going on. And then you look back at the book and go,

Speaker 2  45:39

Oh, okay, I get

Brandon  45:42

it now. It makes more sense. So I kind of had a similar

45:47

feeling right,

Brandon  45:51

just this week as I was reading it, and I came across that sentence, wherever it was, whichever chapter that, Oh, yeah. PIP is writing this. He is telling us this story again. To what end is he telling us this story? Have no idea.

Collin Funkhouser  46:07

Yeah, what lesson?

Brandon  46:09

Who is his audience, right? Who is Pip's audience? Right? Like, I don't know.

Collin Funkhouser  46:15

Yeah, right. Maybe, I'm sure we'll, we'll find out here, as he's telling he says in that is How I Met Your Mother, or something like that.

Brandon  46:23

Well, I mean, at least, like in these chapters too, you get a little bit more sense of the we'll get more into this, a little bit like, a little bit more of the commentary about the time makes a little bit more sense too, right? Like about him and his opinions on in the way that he sees the world and how the world sees him, like, when he has money versus when he doesn't have money, like, what is okay when you have money? What's not okay when you don't have money? Like, we get sort of that critique here, a little bit, right, especially in chapter 56 right, when he gets like, sick or whatever, like, that shows back up. So I just remind me talk about that, where you get there too, because that'll be but first we have 55 which, again, this chapter is wacky, and we just take a massive turn in the middle.

Collin Funkhouser  47:23

We just have to. We are just along for the ride here.

Brandon  47:27

But again, if PIP is just relaying you this story at some point in the future, this is kind of how somebody would tell

47:35

the events, right?

Brandon  47:36

Like, Oh no, we're sad, right? We're at court, okay? And he's saddened because your man's is ill and he's not doing well, and Mr. Jaggers has to come, and we're trying to get him, you know, through the justice thing. And we know we're sad that we don't have any portable property, very sad, because, also we like again, this, this part made me angry a little bit, because it's not that PIP like, he's not like, super sad that it's gone, right? He's never like, I mean, he is like, Oh, I don't know what I'm gonna do now, but he's not like, Oh, dang, I really screwed up. But you know what? I mean, he's not like, but he does kind of come off like, Oh, if I still had it, it'd be okay, yeah, right. Whereas before, he was, like, totally against the idea of taking this man's money because he's like, some kind of villain. But then after he, like, talked to him twice, and then he sat in a room hiding for like a month, then now Pip's like, oh, I would accept it now, because I know him like he's done, Brother, what are you actually?

Collin Funkhouser  49:01

Yeah, I've been totally cool with that extra money, right?

Brandon  49:06

Yeah? Like he's not offended by it anymore, yes, which annoys me, okay?

49:14

Because he's not, like,

Brandon  49:19

I can't tell. I mean, it's just, like, silly. Like, he has no principle on this, like, whole thing, right? He's like, mad at first, because he's like, Oh, I can't believe such a

Speaker 1  49:28

hoodlum would try to give me their money. And now he's like, hey, you know, I'm so poor that, like, yeah, I would have taken it.

Collin Funkhouser  49:36

What I wouldn't have give, give for some hoodlum to give me some money, yeah?

Brandon  49:40

Like he, it's just it kind of made me grumpy that like, he still hasn't really changed in that regard, right? He's still just kind of shallow and vapid in that aspect. At least it comes across that way to me as I was reading this. I don't know about you, but like, like he, at least, is nicer, and he's like, I'm. Stay with you and I, you know, not

50:03

gonna go and blah, blah, blah, like,

Collin Funkhouser  50:05

well, you're, you know, there is that, that aspect of of him, where he is. I don't know how to say this. He is, in some sense, he feels duty bound to Magwitch here, but to what sense that is based out of his guilt for having us not adored him previously, versus some actual sense of of duty to Him, to serve Him, to be with him when, when he didn't want to be with him all the time before, I don't know, and it is kind of hard to tease out between what's going on here, because you don't get the sense that, like he doesn't, you know, have a love for him, or at least, it doesn't come across like that at all. It's pure. It sounds purely a Yeah? Well, I still feel guilty about this, and I know that's kind of what I got out of this. Is more of a racked with guilt and present thing,

Brandon  51:18

yeah, because now he's like, in court, it's not going well, obviously, right? Like, boom. Like, he's not gonna beat this case. You know, even if Mr. Jaggers is on the case, right, he's not really beating this one.

Collin Funkhouser  51:33

He does get Jaggers on the case for sure, which is good, but Jaggers can't perform all the miracles.

Brandon  51:42

Yeah, yeah. We also have this, like, Herbert's back, right? And he's like, Hey, I, I know that you're having a bad time, but I have to, like, go, because I'm my partner. Thing is Collin and I'm going over here, and he does offer PIP a job. Yes, he's like, Hey, um, I was wondering, like, I know that you're in a bad way now, and you now don't have any expectations, and you had no stuff. But whenever I start this business off, which PIP has helped him start off, we still know that. Though he's like, we're gonna need a clerk. And he's like,

Speaker 1  52:26

you know? He's like, it's bad though. I mean, he could be. He's like, no, no, it's fine that I appreciate it. That's cool. He's like, What

Brandon  52:35

about Clara? Remember, Clara doesn't like me. Remember that? And he's like, actually, we talked, and she's come around on you. So, like, you know you could even live with us for a while. And he's like, Oh, that's cool.

Collin Funkhouser  52:48

A big change earlier. Yeah, little shocked, yeah, right.

Brandon  52:55

And he's like, I'll have to think about it. And he's like, Well, how long? He's like, you know how you know, is it, like, six months? He's like, no, no. Like two. He's Oh, okay, I can deal with that. It's fine, yeah? Oh. He's like, I got some stuff I got to deal with. Who knows what that actually means? But He's like, he's like, Yeah, dear Clara is fine. And then, you know, old dad's on the last leg, and so, you know, being from there, and then we'll be good to go.

Collin Funkhouser  53:29

Oh, but she shouldn't be around for much longer. And, yeah, breed.

Brandon  53:34

So we get that, we have the door open for he can actually, like a potential occupation for him to pursue, right? He can do a thing, yeah, right. He can go with, he still be with Herbert, who's the only one of the only good influences in his whole entire life. And maybe that would be good for him, right? So leaving that door open, okay, pit a pin there, okay, because on the stairs, I encountered wimick, which I do like this sentence, though, right, who was coming down after an unsuccessful application of his knuckles to my door.

Collin Funkhouser  54:18

Gotcha. Yeah? Do um, yeah. So, so weird, because he's like, Hey, what do you think of my meaning to take a holiday on Monday, Mr. Pip like, you haven't taken a break in 1212, months? He's like, no, 12 more, 12 years, actually, like, yeah.

Brandon  54:40

So yeah, this, this is the most bizarre. I have no idea why he did it this way. It does evasion Asians, like, Oh yeah, you know, blah blah. And he's talking about the case a little bit, and he's like, blah blah. And then he's like, Yeah, what about the holiday? He's like, Oh yeah. He's like. How about you? You want to go on a walk with me? And he's like, sure. Right from say, you know, eight to 12. And he's like, okay, I guess I don't have anything else to do. So on Monday,

Collin Funkhouser  55:19

well, I know you're busy with things, so I'm not gonna take up all of your time. Of your time. So yeah, just like, eight to noon, let's just go for, you know, a walk. You know, we

Brandon  55:27

just on Monday, the day I'm taking off of work, go with a walk with me. He's like, Okay, fine. So here go. This turn of events is so wacky, right? Wacky wimick here, right? Who is the only, I would say, whim is another positive influence in pips life. We've talked about this for like his, his other friend with me, right? So he goes there, and he's like, Oh, yes, this also, I was distressed by the sentence. There were two glasses of rum and milk prepared and two biscuits. I'm sorry, what last

Collin Funkhouser  56:03

one does. Why were you set out on your walk?

56:07

What? No, ass. What is this?

Collin Funkhouser  56:11

No, those very upsetting I'm sorry we are doing what

Brandon  56:15

we're doing. What? When we had fortasized fortified ourself with rum and milk and biscuits. We were going out for that walk with that training preparation on us, right? And he just like, also, we make like, oh, just gonna grab this fishing rod. It's like, we're not going fishing. It's like, no, but I like to walk with one.

Collin Funkhouser  56:43

Okay, okay. Also a weird statement, to walk with my fishing rod. Now,

Brandon  56:50

I don't know if he's doing this to throw PIP off the scent or this does sound like something that women could just do, right? All right, gonna stroll around with a fishing rod like

Collin Funkhouser  57:01

what? Never know.

Brandon  57:04

And he's like, as we're walking, he's like, wow, hello, here's a church. There was nothing very surprising in that. But again, I was rather surprised when he said, as if he were an animated and brilliant idea, let's go in. Let's which is weird, just go to church. I mean, this is kind of like I'm imagining, you know, saying, like, oh, walking through parts of London being like, Oh, wow, look at church. That's kind of like driving around in southern Missouri, like, wow. A church, yeah, duh, every other corner, fine.

Collin Funkhouser  57:39

Obviously, what? Yeah. He's like,

Brandon  57:41

Oh, let's go in, right? And he's just like, Oh, look at there a pair of some gloves. Let's put them on. What? Weird? And so there's white, there's white gloves, right? And they put them on. And then, why? Why? Lo and behold, it's Miss skiffins, hey, Pip, we should just have a wedding.

Collin Funkhouser  58:08

He looked Yeah. Pip looks over. He sees the age enter a side door, escorting a lady who just goes, hello here, Miss skiffins, literally, this is listeners may think that Brandon is being just short change, no, that's a direct quote. Was literally the quote, hello, here's Miss skiffins. Let's have a wedding. That's that's all we get.

Brandon  58:30

Oh, I don't know the cultural significance of the white gloves for Victorian wedding attire, but I think maybe it's part of formal apparel. I don't really know, but they all put them on. The aged is struggling with his gloves. They have to, like, brace him on a pillar to, like, get him on there. He's really fighting them. Clergyman just happens to show up as well. I Well, right? Like he's even, like, keeping up this trade to himself, because he's not even really talking to anybody.

Collin Funkhouser  59:10

He's, like, a ring, yeah, he's really just laying into this age is not paying attention. He can't hear what's because he can't hear well, because he

Brandon  59:23

can't hear, messes up his part a little bit, right? Yeah, and he's supposed to say, who giveth the woman? And he's like, right?

Collin Funkhouser  59:30

It's when Nick has a yell over this, and the clergyman is very displeased by this, and what is going on and not happy by this

Brandon  59:43

good yes. And so then they just get married, and then they go outside and have a breakfast, like some little picnic on the grounds, right? The breakfast had been ordered. And they just, I do, I do, like the right? It was completely done, however, and when we were going out of church, wimick took the cover off the front and put his white gloves in it and put the cover on again, Mrs. Wimick, more heedful of the future, put her white gloves in her pocket and assumed her green back to normal.

Collin Funkhouser  1:00:25

Yes, we are.

Brandon  1:00:28

And now also, the only other thing is any different about this is now Mrs. Wemmick no longer unwound wimex arm when he adapted itself to her figure. So now he's putting his arm around her, and she's like, okay,

Collin Funkhouser  1:00:45

it's fine. Now, yep, we're just here. We're here. This was, I was not expecting any of this chapter at all, especially the hard whiplash from

Brandon  1:00:59

Yeah, it's a hard turn right from the beginning, yes, right when we're doing the thing with maggot, he's sick, he's in jail, blah blah, we're talking to Herbie about our future. Here's women. We're gonna do something just bizarre, just, you know, I did like, the end part though, where he's like, he's like, now I do say Mr. Pip This is altogether a Walmart Walworth sentiment, please. He's like, I understand not to be mentioned in Little Britain, when MC nodded after what you let out the other day, Mr. Jaggers may as well know of it. He might think my brain was softening or something of the kind.

Speaker 1  1:01:40

So he is not mad at Pitt for his Collin him out in the middle of the office about all the stuff he does at home when he is arguing with Jaggers, right? He's over. Apparently he's over that because he's the best thing is done. So yes, they moved on. It's fine. Everything's fine. But, like, again, hard turn.

Brandon  1:02:01

Like crazy. Then 56 back again, right back to the he lay in person very

Speaker 1  1:02:13

ill during the whole interval between his committal for trial and the coming round of the sessions. Right?

Brandon  1:02:18

So mag, which is not doing good.

Speaker 1  1:02:22

Very bad. His trial did not go well, and basically

Brandon  1:02:28

he is going to be sentenced to death, done, done. Right? That's what I got out of this. This was a little hard to read, because there was a lot of like I was suffering from whiplash from the other chapter, and this part kind of prattles on and on and on and on and on again. Not a bunch

Collin Funkhouser  1:02:49

of stuff. Some insight here, obviously, obviously. But PIP is concerned with how Magwitch is to be treated. Is being treated, and he's been assured by several people involved that no mag, which is they're treating him gently. Yeah, in this and like everybody's telling him this, even other prisoners are saying no, yes, they're treating him well.

Brandon  1:03:14

Yeah, he's accepted it basically, yeah, right, yeah, mag, that's what I meant when I said he I meant me, which, right? Because he says later, he's like, My Lord, I've received my sentence of death from the Almighty, but I bow

1:03:27

to yours, right?

Brandon  1:03:28

So, like, he's just like, I know it is what it is. Basically, he's like, Well, I'm gonna die either way. So like, whatever. Like, he kind of doesn't care at this point, like he's just come to terms with after the accident, and after all this stuff, he's not escaping everything's gone wrong. He's really, really injured. He doesn't see himself making

1:03:49

out of this and stuff. He's just like, oh, well,

Collin Funkhouser  1:03:54

you know, and this is more of the acceptance that he was getting that we were getting a picture too, when he was in the boat as well. Yeah, right. Like this is more of his. And there is, there was a description of him that was read before the court, before sentencing, where it kind of it, you can tell it is Pip, trying to remember what the court had said about Magwitch, because it's kind of said in, like, the third part, third party sometimes, yeah, description. But basically, you get this idea that Magwitch was kind of a, kind of like, was a firecracker and was energetic and resolute and would fight against things when his passions were so stirred and that that ultimately, as we, as they mentioned, like, that's what was his undoing, of his returning, and his inability to Lilo, because he was, like, torn. He's like, ready to go, and we don't see that part. Of maggot at all. He's not fighting against, he's not scheming his next thing. He's not, yeah, he's just sort

Brandon  1:05:05

of accepted what's going on here, right?

Collin Funkhouser  1:05:06

Yeah. He's just going, Okay, you're right. Like, I, this is where, this is where I am, right now, yeah.

Brandon  1:05:16

So, yeah. So we do that, and then he does, right. Like, basically, we say goodbye to him. Pip says goodbye to him. He like dies in the cell, though he's from his illness, right? That like,

Collin Funkhouser  1:05:33

what's happening here, but not before. What does PIP tell him?

Brandon  1:05:39

Oh, tells him about Estella? Yeah, of course, because we got to bring her, I haven't talked about her. Yeah, wild. Tell her that, right?

Collin Funkhouser  1:05:47

Wait, is that this one?

Brandon  1:05:49

Yeah, I must tell you now at last, yeah, you understand what I say. You had a child once whom you loved and lost. She lived and found powerful friends. She is living now. She's a lady and very

Speaker 1  1:06:03

beautiful, and I love her, yeah, yeah. And then with that,

Brandon  1:06:11

language dies. I don't know if he's like, happy about this, but like, he, like, sort of he, he like, kisses Pip's hand, and then when it once, it like, lays back down, he's basically dead.

Collin Funkhouser  1:06:29

So yeah, and, and people are are genuinely being kind in this moment, because, oh, yeah, I'm supposed to have, like, a lot of so much allotted time. Yeah. And the warden

1:06:39

says you can just stay until, he's

Collin Funkhouser  1:06:42

like, and, and part of me goes, I, I guess there is a bit more of a changed heart in PIP at this moment, because he's writing and petitioning all sorts of people. Yeah, get Magwitch off like he's even writing letters to the crown. He's, he's, he's not doing anything for himself during this moment. He's only concerned with Magwitch and and his character, like he's writing these letters of Magwitch, his character, and why he came back, and why he was doing this stuff. And he's basically saying, for my sake, right? He came to give me a life, and he gave up his instead. Like, I don't know what he wrote, but like, you know that that's part of this, because that's exactly what happened. Came back knowing full well he was a dead man if he returned. And yet he did, and and he had supplied him all these things and stuff. And so this is, this is pips attempt to plead. Obviously, that doesn't go anywhere, because Magwitch dies before those but there was, yeah, there was this statement of he was saying, as he's writing all this stuff, he says, in this unreasonable restlessness and pain of mind, I would roam the streets of an evening and wandering by those very offices and houses where I had left those petitions to this present hour, because he's obviously writing this in real time. He's saying, yeah, the weary Western streets of London on a cold, dusty spring night with their ranges of stern Shut up mansions and their long rows of lamps are melancholy to me from this association, because I love that these, these, these Stern, shut up mansions. Of these are people who had influence, who could have done something, and yet they did.

Brandon  1:08:28

Yeah, I think it's this is some more that social commentary where it's kind of like the the houses are shut to all the ills of the outside. Yes, right, not just this one, but like everything, every injustice that's happening, every bad thing that's happening in the whole city, all the destitute and the downtrodden, the houses are shut

1:08:55

to all of them. Yeah, right.

Brandon  1:08:57

There they're closed. The windows are latched, latched tight, right, so they don't have to see the suffering that's on the outside, right? That's kind of what I was getting. This is always made me think about the scene in A Christmas Carol with the The Ghost of Christmas Present when they with the children, the ignorance and want, right from the that was not in the muffin one, but like, yeah, he, like, opens his robes and he has the two kids clinging to his legs, right? He's like, these are the real children of man, right? These are the real this is what men create. Is this? Right?

1:09:34

Like, this, this kind of made me think about that part. Yeah, it does.

Collin Funkhouser  1:09:39

This is, this is the result of the society right and their their priorities, and who have been left out of that yes, and so it's in that context that the warden is showing kindness, that the other prisoners are showing kindness. And. And here, you know, Pip is showing, like, there's, it's just a completely different world over, yeah.

Brandon  1:10:08

I mean, yeah, it's like, it's like, these people, though, exist in the same world as Pip, right? Yes. And those, those people of the same class, in the same station, in the same like, social rung, are showing kindness to each other, right? But the kindness from the rungs above, there is no kindness coming down, yeah,

Speaker 1  1:10:27

the ladder, right? Only there's nothing coming down.

Brandon  1:10:31

There's nothing they're not even aware because they're shut Shut

Speaker 2  1:10:35

up, you know, not looking out at it.

Brandon  1:10:41

Yeah? And then, and then again, another turn. Reno here, right? Chapter, 57 right? He goes home. He's like, Well, I gotta move out. I guess he's seriously in debt, right? Here's bills in the window, and he didn't have any money, and I began to be seriously alarmed by the stage of my affairs. And then he said, I rather, I ought rather to write that I should have been alarmed if I had the energy and concentration enough to help me to the clear perception of any truth beyond the fact that I was falling very ill, right? So he's very sick, right? Stress maybe, right, just like of all of this situation, right? He's been like, just like a disaster for a week or two, right? He's been having it rough. And this is one of those things where he's, it's just catching up. Every little thing is caught up to him now. And he's, he's, he's taken a fever, I can imagine, right? He just lays around on the sofa. And then this part is kind of, it. He's like, he's very feverish, right? He's like, there. There came one night which appeared of great duration, in which teen with anxiety and horror, and when in the morning, I tried to sit up in my bed and think of it, I found I could not do so, whether I really had been down in the Garden Court in the dead of night, groping about for the boat that I supposed to be there, whether I had, two or three times come to myself on the staircase with great terror, not knowing how I got out of bed, whether I had found myself lighting the lamp, possessed by this idea that he was coming up the stairs and that the lights were blown out, whether I had been inextricably harassed by the distracted talking, laughing and groaning of someone, and had half suspected those sounds to be of my own making, whether there had been closed iron furnace in the dark corner of the room and a voice had called out over and over again that Miss Habersham was consuming within it, these were things that I tried to settle with myself and get into some order as I lay in my bed that morning,

Collin Funkhouser  1:13:08

what PIP brother? PIP is real bad people,

Brandon  1:13:14

and he's like all of these like things happen over the past several weeks all together, just like, crashing in on him. His brain is trying to, like, dig and he says, but the vapor of a lime kiln would have come between me and them, disordering them all, yeah. And it was through that vapor, at last, that I saw two men looking at me right, like, it come in, and he's like, What? They're like, well, you have a lot of debt and you shall probably be arrested. And he's like, Oh,

1:13:50

well, dang. Had

Collin Funkhouser  1:13:53

kind of hoped rather not, yeah. Well, yeah. And then what does he say? Then, like, he's prized.

Brandon  1:14:01

I would come with you if I could, but indeed, I am quite unable.

1:14:07

If you do it, take me from here. I think I shall die, by the way.

Collin Funkhouser  1:14:11

And they, they kind of like, like, are like, Oh, well, dang it, okay. Guess we'll right.

Brandon  1:14:21

Yeah, that I had a fever and was avoided, that I had suffered greatly, and I often lost my reason, and that these time seemed indeterminable, and I confounded impossible existences with my own identity, like, this is what. This is why they left in there, right? And so again, right? Where he's just, he's like, hallucinating badly. There's all kinds of things happening. And then he says, After I turned I began to notice that all the while there's, like, people seeing people in the house, yes, right? And he says, all their feature. Has changed to Joe. He's like whoever came about me still settled down to Joe. I opened my eyes in the night, and I saw in the great chair at the bedside Joe, Joe, and I opened my eyes in the day, and sitting in the window seat smoking his pipe in the shaded open window. Still, I saw Joe. I asked for a cool drink, and a dear hand that gave it to me was Joe. I sank back in my pillow after drinking, and the face that looked so hopefully and tenderly upon me was the face of Joe. At last one day, I took courage and said, Is it Joe? Is it Joe? And yes, turns out and

1:15:40

low and low. It's Joe, right.

Collin Funkhouser  1:15:45

Like, okay.

Brandon  1:15:50

He was not, in fact, loosening. Joe was there. No Joe was there. Somehow, he's heard about PIP falling ill, and has come to London.

Collin Funkhouser  1:15:59

Look after okay, this I will say I'm like, I am going, there's a lot of information here that we'll just never know. Oh yes, how this all came to be over the course of all of Joe's discourse with PIP Joe, turns out, like knows everything, tries not to say that he knows it, or how he knows it, or anything like that. Like Joe is just like, 100% knows exactly what's going on and knows all the backstory and but, but yet And yet, like isn't pushing or prying for pips side of things,

Brandon  1:16:45

yeah, and he just sits there and he's just helping him out, right? There you go. It's yeah, it's very weird. He's also learned to write, apparently, because he writes a little note here, I love the

Collin Funkhouser  1:16:58

description of this, how he's like, gripping the desk with one

1:17:02

hand very carefully.

Collin Funkhouser  1:17:04

He's got his hand, he's got his leg propped behind him.

Brandon  1:17:07

Yeah, it's like, everything's like, locked in.

Collin Funkhouser  1:17:11

It's, it's so great. It's so great. And he's basically, he's basically writing to Biddy to say, Yeah,

1:17:21

tell her how it how

Collin Funkhouser  1:17:22

things are going, and there's what transpires now, is what you were talking about earlier. And I don't know if I'm jumping the gun here, but this, like, like, Pip notices over this recovery that how well he is doing changes how Joe interacts with him, yeah?

Brandon  1:17:50

Because Joe, like, basically, when PIP is, like, really out of it, right? He needs Joe, yeah, right. And so Joe was there for him. But as he slowly gets better, right, Joe knows that PIP doesn't need him anymore, and so he starts backing off.

Collin Funkhouser  1:18:10

And right? He catches this even with the kind of language that he's using, yeah, like

1:18:15

how he's talking, right? Yeah, yeah.

Collin Funkhouser  1:18:17

And that's of of it's, it's all Pip. And, you know, what's he called a buddy, or, like,

Speaker 1  1:18:24

what's he calling him? I don't remember, yeah, but, like, old chap,

Collin Funkhouser  1:18:28

yes, okay, sure, whatever. And then, and then there's this sirs and, like, yeah, coming in with his strength and, and, I guess this is the again, this, this class system of what is appropriate and not appropriate to to treat your your betters here, of as Pip fully recovers, given his supposed and perceived stature, which we find out later, Joe treats him accordingly, yeah.

Brandon  1:19:06

So yeah. Joe also fills him in on all the deets, right? Miss Havisham is not dead, but like living is, yeah, she ain't living, right? You? Yeah, so it's not she took pretty ill, so she's not doing great. I guess she's dead, right? She ain't living, I don't know. And then there's

Collin Funkhouser  1:19:30

discussion about, yeah, what happened?

Brandon  1:19:32

Like, property, yeah, who got what? You know, like, Matthew got some again, knows all this for some reason, right? Whatever we have also, Orlick has been arrested because he broke into pumblechook's house and tried to steal a

1:19:49

bunch of stuff and eat his food and just be a jerk.

Collin Funkhouser  1:19:56

Well, at least, at least he got something. And coming to him, you know

Brandon  1:20:02

that's true. This we know where he is, right? We're closed the door on that, right? And then, yeah, we get more of this Joe and thing. Here we have where we're when PIP notices him doing that. He like, he like, kind of plays like, Oh no, Joe, I actually can't walk by myself. Would you please help maybe lean on you for a little bit, like, when they're walking around outside. And so, right? So this is very weird. There's another bit of an interesting conversation here about, like, where he's talking about, like, you know, he's like, You remember how I used to try to come between you and your sister, right? And then she would take it out on me. I was like, Well, no, I'm trying to be here for you now too. But blah, blah, blah, like, it's very weird.

Brandon  1:21:01

I don't really know he's just kind of like talking about this like, he's like, we are friends. He's like, we are we do have a connection. But like, you know, I help you when you need it, and you blah blah

Collin Funkhouser  1:21:16

in this discussion that Joe is trying to talk about was basically like, I don't know if this was a it almost seemed as though he was asking forgiveness from PIP for not intervening more.

Brandon  1:21:33

Maybe, maybe that's what they're talking about.

Collin Funkhouser  1:21:35

Yeah, I see that too, because otherwise it's like, I could, I could then see it as a, oh, just like, That's how good of friends we are. Because we, like, I've always been there for you. I'll always be there for you. Like, is that? Is that what he's trying to say here? Because I don't know.

Brandon  1:21:59

Well, that's kind of what PIP is taking at it, because, like, after this, that's when they go on their little walk thing, and then they come back, and PIP is like, he wants to tell Joe these things, right? He wants to tell him that he's exactly what the situation is. But he like, Joe cuts him off earlier with part of this talk, right? And so he's like, I resolved tomorrow to speak with Joe about this. I would lay aside this last vestures of reserve. I would tell him what I had in my thoughts and why I had not decided to go out to Herbert, and he's going to tell him all this stuff. He's just going to come clean, tell him everything. And he wakes up in the morning,

Collin Funkhouser  1:22:53

and he's rather proud of himself because he's up early, right? Yeah, doesn't

Speaker 1  1:22:58

need all this stuff. Gets all changed, and he's gonna go tell Joe, and he goes out there, and Joe's gone, yep,

Brandon  1:23:07

right? And so Joe left him a note on the table, right? Not wishful to intrude. I have departed for you are well again, dear Pip, and we'll do better without. PS ever, the best of friends ever.

Collin Funkhouser  1:23:25

This is something he said 100 times, oh yeah, this entire

Brandon  1:23:30

Yeah, yeah. Not only that, there is a receipt for the cancelation

Collin Funkhouser  1:23:37

of Pip's debt, of that he was going, that he was on

Brandon  1:23:40

which I had been arrested, right? Right? Joe paid the money, and he's done. It was kind of a lot of money too. It was like 100 some dollars, which was, as we've learned, is a lot of money in 1850 So, yeah, and he kind of thinks again for a minute. He's like, what? You know, there's nothing left. I'm gonna go back home. I'm gonna follow Joe to the forge. I'm gonna tell to Biddy, to Biddy Brian, I'm gonna tell her this stuff, right? I'm gonna confound. I'm just gonna lay it all out. He's come up with all this stuff. He's gonna say, Oh yeah,

Collin Funkhouser  1:24:27

because he said the purpose, because he said what he said Secondly, which had begun as vague, something lingering in my thoughts and had formed into a settled purpose. The purpose was that I would go to Biddy, that I would show her how humbled and repentant I came back that I would tell her how I had lost all I once hoped for, that I would remind her of our old confidences in my first unhappy time. And he goes on to say, like this, He's rehearsing what he's going to tell Eddie. And basically he's like, if you'll still have me, I like, we should be together. Yeah, that's what we're gonna

Speaker 1  1:24:58

do, yeah, even though. Did he never wanted to be with PIP, really Island, maybe for like two seconds, like when they were like 12, and then she was like, nah,

Brandon  1:25:06

this guy's a loser, right? But then again, such was my purpose. After three days more of recovery, I went down to the old place to put in, put it in execution, and how I spent or sped in it all is all I

1:25:26

have left to tell. So

Brandon  1:25:29

we'll see if that even happens. We'll see if he he has a long history of saying words like saying things like, I'm gonna go do this, and then never doing it. He's done that with Joe and bitty about nine times this whole thing, right? I'm gonna go back, I'm gonna go back, I'm gonna go back, I'm gonna see you. I'm gonna do this. Never does.

Speaker 1  1:25:51

So, yeah, we'll see almost done with this book.

Collin Funkhouser  1:26:00

Almost done, yep, and so yep at this at this point, what are pips expectations?

Brandon  1:26:15

He doesn't have anything right? We're like, There is none you know. So, like, I don't know he needs to really, like, he's at this point where he has to do something for himself, right? He can. He's got like, two choices, right? Really, I guess three, but he can go crawling back to Joe and try to live there, right? Because he has nothing now, right? He has literally nothing. But also Joe just cleared his debt, and so he's like, literally at zero. He's blank, right? So after all of this, he's at this blank spot. So he could go back home and try to live there and do something there, or he can go with Herbert, right? Or, I guess he could come up with a random secret third plan just out of nowhere. But really, those are his two things, right? But I think that PIP is realizing that he can't rely on other people all the time, like he has to do something right. And so that makes me think that he's gonna go with Herbert, because he'll actually be doing something right. He's gonna

1:27:54

go work for Herbert, right?

Brandon  1:27:57

He's not gonna live with him. He's not gonna, like, get handouts from Herbert. He's gonna go Herbert offering a job. Yep, right. I think he has never really had right. And so I feel like Pip's expectation is to actually try to make something of himself right, and stop relying on other people. Stop hoping that other people will just give him stuff for free, for nothing.

Collin Funkhouser  1:28:21

Because even, even going back to Joe, it would be, he would be handed the and yeah and the hand, yeah, the hammer to do the Forge like that is there for him, yeah, if he wants to pick it up and take it, and I have a sneaking suspicion. I'm like, oh, oh no. Is he gonna try? Is he gonna get left something with Haversham, where she left in the house, and he's gonna start open a brewery, or something like, surely, not in

Brandon  1:28:49

two chapters, right? That would be in, I mean, I wouldn't. This book is insane. The amount of, like, just jumping

Collin Funkhouser  1:28:55

that happens. We're gonna cover a decade in about four sentences, where he's gonna be, we probably will, probably will be, like, a after much work,

Brandon  1:29:02

yeah, 10 years later, that's what's gonna do. It's gonna be the SpongeBob, right? Like, 10 years later, like, that's gonna be in this book, right?

1:29:11

Yeah? But I feel like,

Brandon  1:29:16

I don't know. I just feel like it makes sense for PIP to not go back and see Joe right, like or live there, right? Will he ever go see them again? Who knows? Probably not, with how he operates, but like, I feel like that's his expectations. He has to be the one to do something right and point his ship in a direction and try to go for it. I feel at

Collin Funkhouser  1:29:47

least he will go and talk to bitty,

1:29:51

maybe. But

Collin Funkhouser  1:29:52

seems to be of a singular mind around this concept, at least. But beyond that, yeah. Yeah, all right. Like, you're right,

1:30:01

I don't she should tell him no.

Brandon  1:30:03

Because, why would she? Why should? She should definitely tell him go away. Kick rocks, or it's gonna be like, the thing where he like goes, right? He like goes, and he's like, gonna knock on the door, and he like, sees some kids running in the yard, and he's like, Oh no, right? And it, like, turns around and leaves, right, without saying anything. You know what I mean, like, like, that trope, right?

Speaker 1  1:30:32

Like, yep, could be that exactly. So, so I don't know if he'll actually, I don't think he'll actually speak to Biddy, just, that's just me, but I don't know. But, yeah, I

Brandon  1:30:44

don't really know what his expectations are like he's but he's back at zero. We're right back where we were. We did all of this stuff, and now we're right back at where we were when he was, like, 10, right? Yes, nothing he has. He can literally do anything. Now we do know that, like societally, not literally anything, right? There's constraints on him because he's not part of the established class anymore, right? He can't just do things willy nilly because he's not the upper crust. He has no means. He has no portable property, as they say,

Collin Funkhouser  1:31:23

well, and so we see this beautiful symmetry to this. It's interesting how, even with like the Magwitch failed escape, we were getting language about the marshes. Things were like back home. He's more things about like, reminding him of home. Now he is literally back, as you said, to his exact same starting point, back to square one, right, just between five and 20 years removed, for this and go and now go. Now we have to, it's almost go. Have to try and understand what, what were, what was, where was PIP headed, before the Miss Haversham introduction, yeah, you know. And what might that mean for him now? Well, that's that's kind of think

Brandon  1:32:23

like so before the Miss haverish administration, we were headed for the forge, right? Because that's all he knew, right? He he had that he knew Joe, he knew the forge. That was just his station, and that's what he was going to do, right? But now he does know some more people, like, three more so like, this makes me think that he'll go with Herbert, right? Because he was once offered the forge and he turned it down, yeah, right, because he thought he could do bigger and better things on his own or with other people, right? And now he's been offered this job with Herbert, and he has nothing else, so like, I think he'll go with it right, whereas before he had the opportunity, and he spurned it, now he has an opportunity, and he's going to take it, right? That that seems to make sense to me, right? Just like, like you said, if, if PIP is going to have any character

Collin Funkhouser  1:33:34

development at all, at all,

Brandon  1:33:36

there's going to be any character growth anywhere, right? I feel like this, is it, right? Like, I just think that would make sense to me if we book in this with the with going through with it this time, right? We didn't go through with it the first time, and then we had 400 pages of in the middle, right? And now, when we're presented with opportunity again, we should go for it. Yeah, it's just my thought, right? It's just what I think, right? We still don't, I don't know what in the we're gonna have to have some sort of scene with a Stella, because we summoned her again. We've mentioned her name, and so she'll have to show up somewhere, in what capacity, I don't know, unless it's gonna be one of those, like, I saw her at the park with her kid, right? It's gonna be like that. We're like, you know, something like that, right? I don't know if they'll actually have, I don't know if they'll speak, right, or they may just, like, see, like, they see each other, like, again, after, like, the 10 years later, thing. And they like, see each other, and he's just like,

Speaker 1  1:35:03

hey, how's it going? And then they leave, right? She's like, what's her, What's this? Yeah, so, or she's, could be have a completely different husband, right? She's left Bentley, and she's got some new person I don't know. I bet she'll have a kid. I bet she'll have a kid at this point, right? Yeah, cuz that'll be like a thing about, like, the cycle, what's what's still his kid gonna be like, is she gonna ruin her own kid? Yes, or does that kid have a chance, right? That's the real question, right? That's Yes, yes.

Collin Funkhouser  1:35:45

So that's that's where we leave ourselves, people, that's how we go into the final two chapters of this, which I don't know. I have no idea.

Brandon  1:36:00

Yes, that's true. No clue whatsoever

Speaker 2  1:36:05

about this. I don't

Brandon  1:36:08

know, but you know, that's just how memoirs are. I guess they just tell what happened through a limited perspective, where you don't get all the facts. Joe Friday would be so upset.

Speaker 1  1:36:21

Oh, no, there you go. Boom, oh, we do have Collin.

Brandon  1:36:26

What do we have here? Here's a haiku.

Speaker 2  1:36:28

Oh, lovely. There you go. Okay, to leave off right. Here we go.

Speaker 1  1:36:39

Red glow falls upon a waiting bed. Eyes watch in anticipation.

Collin Funkhouser  1:36:55

Yes, absolutely, yes. I was like, What is going is this like a sunset? What are we talking about here? What is going on? And I was like, oh, it's, yeah,

Brandon  1:37:11

you go, dang it. I'm, like, the Prodigy in the mid 90s. I am the fire starter. Collin, I did let them take turns, and I'll try to do it too. By the way, I didn't just

Collin Funkhouser  1:37:23

do this all by myself. I didn't think so you mentioned you mentioned that everyone tried. I think, I think if I

1:37:28

did it, I meant to you,

Collin Funkhouser  1:37:30

I didn't. I thought you, yeah, I wouldn't think you just gather around. Look, yeah, I

Brandon  1:37:38

didn't make them gather materials, though. But again, because we're all working together better than Brian, because

1:37:48

he's just be true,

Collin Funkhouser  1:37:51

I like that. That is one of my favorites, my favorite haikus. I like that a lot,

Brandon  1:37:58

double plus, here we go. Tune in next week for the finale of Great Expectations, right? Yeah, the long awaited by us finale for sure, just in time for us to start thinking about a summer book. Collin, I know

Collin Funkhouser  1:38:15

Megan was like, Are you guys gonna have time to do? And I'm like, Yeah, it's fine. That's fine, right?

1:38:22

Yeah, it's okay. Yeah, get one. It's fine.

Collin Funkhouser  1:38:27

Yes, we will end with much, much anticipation and expectations for house will end. Oh, indeed.

1:38:34

I don't know if I have any expectations,

Collin Funkhouser  1:38:36

but we'll see I have none ruined, but we will. We'll wrap it up next week and see what happens. All right, boom, okay, very good. Love you. Love you. You.