Episode 42 - False Alarm, Broken Alarm
/Lock up your bikes and put on your scrubs, because we're nothing this week if not alarmists as we bring in the following issues!
-Craigslist
-Getting Medically Jerked Around
-Turnpikes
-Cultural spoilers
It's been mentioned more than once; "the wierd part of YouTube", but did you know that within the vast reaches of the internet there are even seedier places? Ancient places, where false promises are traded like folk tales on the wind, which smells of unbathed men in trench coats and cat urine. One such place, where e-roughians, iScoundrels and other ne-er-do-wells congregate is Craigslist. Craigslist is where you go to investigate the possibility of hooking up with a stranger, only to end up with all of the diseases and none of the pleasure. Craigslist is where you attempt to buy or sell an item and somehow wind up in possession of a dead body. Craigslist is, simply put, a place where no one can be trusted, everything is a trap, and the only thing you're going to get reliably is jerked around. And speaking of getting jerked around . . .
I've talked about medical stuff quite a bit, here of late, but I suppose it's fair to draw from the wellspring of my personal life, even if it is a bit monotone sometimes. But, the medical profession has a way of keeping your life spicy. And by "spicy", I mean infuriating and chaotic, because it's impossible to go to a doctor with a simple request. Getting what you need from any medical professional is kind of like finding the plot to an episode of The Simpsons; you start out in one spot, and by the second commercial break, you've spun out of control into a cyclone of nonsequitirs and nonsense that, to some, may seem whimsical, but when you're the one bouncing from appointment to appointment, it looses its lustre really quickly. I'd almost be willing to pay more (that is, let my insurance pay more) if it would allow me to circumvent the ping pong of referrals. Kindof like an interstate bypass around a congested city, but with a toll. Yeah, that'd make sense, but roads with tolls, on the other hand . . .
If there's one thing that outsiders can't stand, but insiders love, it's a good ol' fashioned Old Boys Club. You know, the kind where you scratch my back, and I scratch yours. The kind where I'm a government official, and if you'll give me kickbacks, I'll let you run your little project with ethics as questionable as your evil little heart desires. Welcome to Tab's favorite Oklahoma turnpike. But, really, I can't say I'm surprised. We can't just have something like a road get built on time and on budget. That's not how the world works. Instead, you start a company to build a road and you milk the voters who gave it the greenlight. Then you milk their kids. Then their grandkids. Then their great grandkids. You milk everyone until the end of time, or until your scheme is put to an end. But that kind of thing takes time. It takes generations, sometimes, for the opinion of the populace to turn against you. Culture is a thing that can sometimes change swiftly and sometimes slowly. Ideas, called "memes", can permeate culture virally now, so that any idea or fact can be promulgated unavoidably. And speaking of unavoidable facts . . .
It's not often that you get to experience something old through fresh eyes. Take me, for example. I've been watching Star Wars since I was a kid. My brother and cousin were fanatics, and I was bombarded with every available Star Wars fact all day, every day. And that was in the 80's. Now imagine trying to experience that First Time feeling of A New Hope forty years after it was released. Enter my gorgeous wife, Aunt Buck, who had never actually gotten around to watching the original trilogy. Suddenly, through her, I had the opportunity to share in her first time experience. But, sadly, some facts are SO memetic and ubiquitous that even she had not avoided them. "No . . . I am your father." And so, before we were out of the first act, what is arguably THE biggest spoiler in Star Wars was already tainting the experience of a movie that it didn't even touch. Many YouTubers and podcasters will give a half-hearted spoiler warning for an old movie; "Hey, if you haven't seen this movie . . it's been out for forty years, so you have no excuse". Except when you do. For instance, I have never watched the movie Soylent Green, but I already know about Moses staggering out of the Ark screaming "SOYLENT GREEN IS A GMO!"
Lots of great voicemails this week, from such fan favorites as Andy and Sage, but some other familiar voices, too. Whose car is going on a journey to the center of the earth? You'll have to listen to this week's episode to find out!
