Latest / The Treehouse Show Podcast / Twist to The Left or Right? | Monday 12.23.24
Transcript
- 0:26Speaker 1: It is time to leave your worries outside and laugh
- 0:31Speaker 1: with us inside the treehouse. It is our Christmas Show,
- 0:38Speaker 1: our last live show of the year. The rest of
- 0:42Speaker 1: the show will be full of merriment and best up
- 0:45Speaker 1: and just FYI that's u is truly that. It's some really,
- 0:50Speaker 1: really really good stuff. Every single segment you will enjoy
- 0:54Speaker 1: because it's best of.
- 0:59Speaker 2: Yes, ray, it's best of it, and we don't have
- 1:05Speaker 2: to pull you know, sixty days a year worth of it.
- 1:14Speaker 1: Some days is ninety actually, to be honest, when it
- 1:19Speaker 1: hits sixty, we're like, just if it will go live tired,
- 1:24Speaker 1: There were a couple of times where we looked around,
- 1:25Speaker 1: We're like, we're out of best of We just we're
- 1:27Speaker 1: just gonna do the show anyway. Today is Monday, December
- 1:32Speaker 1: twenty third, twenty twenty four, the day before Christmas Eve,
- 1:35Speaker 1: which is the day before Christmas. That makes this our
- 1:40Speaker 1: last live show of the year, and thus making it
- 1:44Speaker 1: our holiday show or Christmas show. If you're so worried
- 1:47Speaker 1: about Christmas getting canceled, we have a lot in store
- 1:51Speaker 1: for you today, including the heist of Saint Nick. You
- 1:59Speaker 1: do not want to miss this two part story inside
- 2:02Speaker 1: the Treehouse, the true story about the Heist of Saint Nicholas.
- 2:10Speaker 1: But first, this might be the last Christmas that you
- 2:19Speaker 1: can buy stocking stuffers and mom stuffers at CVS. That's
- 2:24Speaker 1: because the Texas State legislature, I'm sorry, that's because the
- 2:27Speaker 1: Texas State legislator wants to ban sex toys from family
- 2:32Speaker 1: friendly retailers like CVS, Walmart, and Target, which leaves some
- 2:37Speaker 1: of us to say, I didn't realize CVS, Walmart and
- 2:41Speaker 1: Target had sex toys, but apparently they do.
- 2:45Speaker 2: We talked about, we talked about that that CVS has
- 2:50Speaker 2: sells vibrators and things.
- 2:55Speaker 1: That's that's an aisle. I don't think I've I've typically
- 2:57Speaker 1: go down. Usually when I go to CVS, it's you know,
- 3:01Speaker 1: for some toothpaste and celsius or maybe some ibuprofen.
- 3:08Speaker 3: I didn't know they had a vibrator.
- 3:10Speaker 1: I'll either.
- 3:12Speaker 2: We actually, I think it was at the live show
- 3:14Speaker 2: we did in Arlington we talked about I was quite
- 3:17Speaker 2: stunned that they had adult toys and CVS.
- 3:23Speaker 4: But yeah, but I know they have the like the
- 3:28Speaker 4: like the Trojans.
- 3:32Speaker 1: Now these are like full on you'd find a New
- 3:34Speaker 1: Fine Arts type stuff.
- 3:35Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh, Okay, Yeah.
- 3:38Speaker 1: This new bill is proposed by incoming Republican Texas state
- 3:42Speaker 1: representative and former PTA Vice President Hillary Hickland. The bill
- 3:47Speaker 1: would limit the sale of such items to sex shops
- 3:50Speaker 1: and strip clubs only.
- 3:53Speaker 3: Strip clubs.
- 3:55Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think you want those at strip clubs.
- 3:58Speaker 1: I don't think you're allowed to have those.
- 4:04Speaker 2: I guess that's a new income stream for strip clubs.
- 4:08Speaker 1: That's not the only stream at the club.
- 4:12Speaker 3: Change the lap dance game.
- 4:14Speaker 1: Really sure, I don't think this representative realizes the hole,
- 4:17Speaker 1: the loophole that she's opening by saying that. But anyway,
- 4:22Speaker 1: and our great state, the lone Star state, we do
- 4:25Speaker 1: have a bit of a history when it comes to
- 4:27Speaker 1: limiting or even banning sex toys. In nineteen seventy three,
- 4:32Speaker 1: then state legislators passed a law banning the sale of
- 4:35Speaker 1: sex toys anywhere in Texas. That was updated and softened
- 4:39Speaker 1: in two thousand and three to allow their sale, but
- 4:43Speaker 1: made it a crime to own six or more devices.
- 4:46Speaker 1: But in two thousand and eight that law was declared
- 4:49Speaker 1: unconstitutional and thus pulled out. There has been some pushback
- 4:54Speaker 1: to this bill. State Senator Nathan Johnson slammed the potential
- 4:58Speaker 1: law as a quote grotesque display of misplaced priorities, and
- 5:02Speaker 1: a newly elected Republican district attorney, Sarah Stogner was critical
- 5:07Speaker 1: of the idea on social media. Responding to a tweet
- 5:10Speaker 1: from Hickland, she wrote on X, I see you're still
- 5:13Speaker 1: obsessed with dildo's. Perhaps you should buy one and try.
- 5:16Speaker 1: It might make you feel less uptight. That, by the way,
- 5:21Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure is true, especially because of who said it.
- 5:25Speaker 1: Because if that name Sarah Stagner sounds familiar to you,
- 5:29Speaker 1: it's because she first shot to fame on the back
- 5:32Speaker 1: of a pump jack in a viral TikTok she made
- 5:34Speaker 1: while running for a spot on the Railroad Commission. Jesus,
- 5:38Speaker 1: this story has more layers than an orgy. Texas politics
- 5:44Speaker 1: is fun, man, mm hm. We usually stay out of it,
- 5:48Speaker 1: but when it's.
- 5:49Speaker 5: This juicy, literally, yeah, you would really hope the legislature
- 5:59Speaker 5: as better things to do than this stupid ass bill.
- 6:03Speaker 1: I'm a firm believer. By the way, I swear I
- 6:06Speaker 1: should have done like an over under on puns in
- 6:08Speaker 1: this segment. But I am a firm believer, and government
- 6:12Speaker 1: can do two things at once, like if you're doing
- 6:15Speaker 1: one thing and you get outraged they're not doing this
- 6:17Speaker 1: other thing. I believe government can or at least has
- 6:20Speaker 1: the ability to do two things at once. They don't typically,
- 6:23Speaker 1: but they at least could if they really really wanted to.
- 6:26Speaker 1: So I get the argument on the whole priorities thing.
- 6:30Speaker 1: So I sort of look at it as you can
- 6:33Speaker 1: have this type of sort of a pet bill or
- 6:37Speaker 1: project or cause as long as you get the really
- 6:40Speaker 1: big stuff taken care of.
- 6:42Speaker 2: Yeah, which they won't. I mean, in mind you, this
- 6:44Speaker 2: is a body that meets once every other year, so
- 6:49Speaker 2: that those eighteen months off are If this, you know,
- 6:53Speaker 2: is newly elected, please tell me you ran on something
- 6:56Speaker 2: more profound.
- 6:57Speaker 1: You know she's running this this Sarah, I'm not Sarah.
- 7:01Speaker 1: Hillary Hickland ran and was elected on a big part
- 7:05Speaker 1: of her platform was the protection of children, reforming schools
- 7:11Speaker 1: and public schools and how they're funded, protecting the border,
- 7:18Speaker 1: the standard Republican stuff. So that was how she got elected.
- 7:22Speaker 1: And this is one of those things that's I guess
- 7:24Speaker 1: near and dear to her heart because I checked out
- 7:26Speaker 1: her social media profile on x and she mentions in
- 7:30Speaker 1: there a number of times how kids should be able
- 7:33Speaker 1: to pick out a toothbrush without seeing sex toys next
- 7:36Speaker 1: to them, to which my response is, what CVS are
- 7:40Speaker 1: you going to where the orifice ales have crossed streams
- 7:46Speaker 1: because they don't usually put the below the waist stuff
- 7:50Speaker 1: with the mouth stuff. That's usually different aisles altogether.
- 7:53Speaker 3: But I'm going to go to CBS today.
- 7:57Speaker 1: I don't know why you can.
- 8:01Speaker 3: Yeah, I have to see I've never seen the stuff there.
- 8:05Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, CBS, Walgreens, Family friendly retailers, Target would be
- 8:14Speaker 1: included in this Walmart, any of the any of the
- 8:16Speaker 1: stores Target.
- 8:20Speaker 2: Look look usually around where they sell condoms and stuff.
- 8:26Speaker 3: All right, yeap, y'all's targets are different than mine.
- 8:32Speaker 1: I think it's it's just a matter of what's on
- 8:33Speaker 1: your list when you go to Target.
- 8:35Speaker 3: That's true, Okay, that's true.
- 8:38Speaker 1: I will say this though, if if this new lot
- 8:41Speaker 1: passes the come and Take It Flag is going to
- 8:43Speaker 1: get a hell of a makeover.
- 8:48Speaker 2: It's gonna have some new things flying out of it.
- 8:52Speaker 1: I can't wait to get that new new shirt.
- 9:00Speaker 6: Business online at freehouse on air dot com.
- 9:23Speaker 7: You're listening to the tree House.
- 9:25Speaker 8: Visit us online at Treehouse on air dot com.
- 9:31Speaker 1: This is the tree House, and we are in the
- 9:34Speaker 1: middle of our very special Christmas show inside the Treehouse.
- 9:39Speaker 1: I'm Dan, along with Trey and Raj and Trey. I
- 9:42Speaker 1: want to give you a very sincere thank you for
- 9:48Speaker 1: finding the next article we are going to share inside
- 9:51Speaker 1: the Treehouse. This is a story that I've never heard before,
- 9:56Speaker 1: and I imagine most people haven't. Yeah, so we are
- 10:00Speaker 1: now going to share that story with you. But first
- 10:08Speaker 1: think about how I want to word this. Oh yeah,
- 10:11Speaker 1: how on the did you find this story? I don't
- 10:16Speaker 1: even remember. I'll accept that, okay, because as you hear this,
- 10:26Speaker 1: you also are going to wonder how Trey found this story.
- 10:28Speaker 1: But at the same time you will be grateful for it,
- 10:32Speaker 1: all right, all right, So if if everybody is ready
- 10:38Speaker 1: today in the Treehouse, we want to tell you about
- 10:41Speaker 1: a Christmas story that doesn't make it into the Carols.
- 10:44Speaker 1: It's an Ocean's eleven style heist with a Spaceball's inspired
- 10:47Speaker 1: act of desecrating a man's corpse, but you know, reel
- 10:50Speaker 1: and stuff. This is the Heist of Saint Nick, written
- 10:54Speaker 1: by M. T. Anderson for Slate magazine. The Heist of
- 11:02Speaker 1: Saint Nick. It is a fact, strange but true that
- 11:05Speaker 1: Santa Claus's corpse was stolen from its tomb. Though Christmas
- 11:10Speaker 1: Carols inclamation specials have for some reason neglected the heist
- 11:13Speaker 1: of Saint Nick's dead body, the details of that theft
- 11:17Speaker 1: actually can tell us a lot about mythmaking and the
- 11:19Speaker 1: power of stories, however bizarre to shape reality. Plus it's
- 11:23Speaker 1: just a good tale to tell at holiday parties. The
- 11:26Speaker 1: gist of it is this. In ten eighty seven, two
- 11:30Speaker 1: Italian cities, Venice and Bari, raced to be the first
- 11:34Speaker 1: to steal the bones of Saint Nicholas, known to us
- 11:37Speaker 1: as Santa Claus, from a basilica in what is now
- 11:40Speaker 1: southern Turkey. Why because the corpse supposedly wept a magical
- 11:45Speaker 1: liquor that would cure all ills if you drank it
- 11:47Speaker 1: or rubbed it on your body, what some people now
- 11:51Speaker 1: do with Theegermeister. Anyway, Saint Nicholas was a real catch.
- 11:56Speaker 1: Forget everything you know about Santa Claus, almost everything we
- 11:59Speaker 1: as so jociate with him. The North Pole the sled
- 12:02Speaker 1: the Reindeer is a nineteenth century confection laid on top
- 12:06Speaker 1: of a much older and sterner figure. The historical Nicholas
- 12:11Speaker 1: was Bishop of Mirah, a merchant city on the Turquoise
- 12:13Speaker 1: coast on the edge of the Mediterranean energy and seas.
- 12:16Speaker 1: He was supposedly imprisoned and tortured during the Great Persecution
- 12:20Speaker 1: of the Emperor Diocletian. After his death, stories accumulated around him.
- 12:24Speaker 1: He had fought demons, He sniffed out a serial killer
- 12:27Speaker 1: who was pickling boys in his meat locker. He had
- 12:30Speaker 1: saved three girls from prostitution by throwing bags of gold
- 12:34Speaker 1: through their window late at night, a legend that is
- 12:36Speaker 1: the origin of his role as a gift giver to children.
- 12:39Speaker 1: And he had saved many sailors by flying through the
- 12:42Speaker 1: sky to their aid, daring storms, calming the waves, trimming
- 12:45Speaker 1: the sails, grasping the drowning by their hair, and teleporting
- 12:49Speaker 1: them to land for venison. Bari coastal cities on the
- 12:52Speaker 1: eastern side of the Boot, in the north and south, respectively,
- 12:55Speaker 1: and dependent on the merchant ships arriving and departing from
- 12:57Speaker 1: all over the known world, it would be invaluable to
- 13:00Speaker 1: have a shrine devoted to Saint Nicholas, the patron saint
- 13:04Speaker 1: of sailors. Businessmen from all over Europe would choose your
- 13:08Speaker 1: port to set out from if they knew they could
- 13:11Speaker 1: kneel at the altar of this champion of mariners. It
- 13:13Speaker 1: was the best of good luck, a guarantee of calm seas,
- 13:16Speaker 1: and a prosperous voyage. That was the thinking of a
- 13:19Speaker 1: group of grain merchants on a routine run between Bari
- 13:22Speaker 1: and the Syrian city of Antioch, which which you may
- 13:25Speaker 1: remember from the first Gladiator movie. Sitting around one blustery
- 13:29Speaker 1: day as they crossed the Mediterranean on their three ships,
- 13:32Speaker 1: they discussed the idea of stealing the Saints' bones when
- 13:34Speaker 1: they passed Mira, where he was buried, and it was
- 13:37Speaker 1: a good time to do it. The Christian city, located
- 13:40Speaker 1: in present day Turkey had just been invaded by the
- 13:42Speaker 1: Celgic Turks. The whole region was in turmoil. This was
- 13:46Speaker 1: the time to slip in and steal the body. It
- 13:48Speaker 1: turned out, though, they were not the only ones with
- 13:50Speaker 1: this bright idea. As they discussed it in the seaside
- 13:53Speaker 1: taverns of Antioch, again from Gladiator, where they were loading
- 13:56Speaker 1: their return cargo, some Venetian sailors overheard and both that
- 14:00Speaker 1: they in fact were about to plunder the tomb. They
- 14:02Speaker 1: had all the equipment at the ready crowbars, shovels and mallets.
- 14:06Speaker 1: They were heading there on their way home to Italy. Now,
- 14:09Speaker 1: the Barri sailors had been a little anxious about stealing
- 14:12Speaker 1: the corpse. He was a holy man, after all, and
- 14:14Speaker 1: saints were supposed to hover around their relics. If you
- 14:17Speaker 1: steal relics and the saint does not want to go
- 14:20Speaker 1: with you, it's not a theft, it's technically a kidnapping.
- 14:25Speaker 1: The fury of a Maritimes saint could lead to storms, maelstroms, krakens,
- 14:29Speaker 1: all sorts of disasters. But now that the Venetians had
- 14:32Speaker 1: thrown down the gauntlet, all the reservations disappeared. Venison Bari
- 14:36Speaker 1: were great economic rivals, and Venice had been getting the
- 14:38Speaker 1: upper hand with sweet trade deals and a powerful navy. Ari,
- 14:42Speaker 1: the scrappy underdog, was determined to get its own backs,
- 14:45Speaker 1: so the three berised green ships set up for Mira, immediately,
- 14:49Speaker 1: hoping to steal the body of Saint Nicholas before the
- 14:51Speaker 1: Venetians knew what was happening, and it must have been
- 14:55Speaker 1: an eerie's site. When they anchored at Mira, Turkish and
- 14:58Speaker 1: Turkmen raiders not to be confused, with the Tuscan raiders
- 15:01Speaker 1: from Star Wars had swept down out of the mountains
- 15:03Speaker 1: a couple of years before. The city itself was now deserted.
- 15:06Speaker 1: All its population huddled in a fortress up on a
- 15:08Speaker 1: nearby hills, surrounded by the tombs of their ancestors, and
- 15:11Speaker 1: they were probably paying tribute to the Turks, some kind
- 15:13Speaker 1: of protection money, but the truce was uneasy and they
- 15:16Speaker 1: rarely ventured out of the fortress. This meant only four
- 15:19Speaker 1: months guarded the tomb of Saint Nicholas down in the city,
- 15:23Speaker 1: carrying on their ancient duties filling decorative glass vials with
- 15:26Speaker 1: the ooze that drizzled from his corpse. Cautiously, the Bari
- 15:32Speaker 1: sailors assembled the task force of forty seven who would
- 15:35Speaker 1: march on the church, armed with swords for protection and
- 15:37Speaker 1: sledge tammers for breaking into the tomb. A skeleton cre
- 15:40Speaker 1: of twenty odd would stay behind and guard the three
- 15:42Speaker 1: ships in case the Turks noticed them and got hostile.
- 15:44Speaker 1: The Turks, according to one source, also worshiped the tomb
- 15:47Speaker 1: of Nicholas. They had been Islamized for only a few
- 15:52Speaker 1: decades and apparently felt that a holy man was a
- 15:54Speaker 1: holy man regardless of his precise sect. For both Christians
- 15:57Speaker 1: and the newly converted Turkish Muslims in the period, there
- 15:59Speaker 1: was an almost shamanic magical property to the Holy dead
- 16:02Speaker 1: that went far beyond doctrine. When the Bearist thieves reached
- 16:06Speaker 1: the walled compound that included the Nicholas Church and its
- 16:08Speaker 1: abandoned monastery, they posted guards to watch the crossroads and
- 16:12Speaker 1: make sure no one was coming to stop them. When
- 16:14Speaker 1: the sailors went into the church, the four guardians assumed
- 16:17Speaker 1: they were pilgrims, stopping off in the middle of a
- 16:19Speaker 1: trade route to ask for a prosperous voyage and buy
- 16:21Speaker 1: a vial of the nick liquor. After all, there was
- 16:24Speaker 1: a couple of priests with them. That seemed likely enough
- 16:26Speaker 1: that they were on pilgrimage, and only took a few minutes. However,
- 16:28Speaker 1: before the sailor's questions about where the body was stashed
- 16:32Speaker 1: started to seem a little too pointed suspicious, One of
- 16:35Speaker 1: the guardians demanded, why do you ask all these questions?
- 16:38Speaker 1: Can it be that you want to take the body?
- 16:40Speaker 1: Don't you know that we cannot possibly agree to such
- 16:42Speaker 1: a thing. In fact, we would rather die than permit
- 16:44Speaker 1: him to be taken. At first, the Bardi cru tried lives.
- 16:47Speaker 1: They claimed they'd only been sent by the pope to
- 16:50Speaker 1: seize the body, and they tried bribery one hundred gold
- 16:52Speaker 1: pieces for the bones. They were horrified. The guards were
- 16:56Speaker 1: Saint Nicholas's body had lain under the floor of their
- 16:58Speaker 1: church for seven hundred year. It defined the city of Mirah,
- 17:02Speaker 1: and they were not about to give it up. So
- 17:05Speaker 1: the thieves decided it was time to use force. This
- 17:07Speaker 1: was a big step. They were in a holy place,
- 17:08Speaker 1: they were worried about curses. Nonetheless, they grabbed the four guardians,
- 17:11Speaker 1: tied them up. They sent men out into the courtyard
- 17:14Speaker 1: to watch for resistance, and then, in superstitious fear, they
- 17:17Speaker 1: asked their own priests, seeing a few chants, asking Nicholas
- 17:21Speaker 1: for permission to steal him. The heist of Saint Nick
- 17:26Speaker 1: will continue after a word from our sponsors.
- 17:39Speaker 7: You're listening to the Treehouse.
- 17:41Speaker 8: Visit us online that Treehouse on air dot com.
- 17:56Speaker 6: You're in the Treehouse. Visit us online, Greenhouse on air
- 18:01Speaker 6: dot com.
- 18:04Speaker 1: Welcome inside the tree House. I'm Daniel Malley, along with
- 18:07Speaker 1: Trey Trendholm and Raj Sharma. We were in the middle
- 18:11Speaker 1: of something. We now returned to the heist of Saint
- 18:17Speaker 1: nick A young hothead named Matteo was sick of playing nice.
- 18:20Speaker 1: He walked to the point in the floor where there
- 18:22Speaker 1: was apparently a hole for drawing out the sacred oil
- 18:25Speaker 1: up from Saint Nicholas's corpse, and he started battering it
- 18:28Speaker 1: with his hammer. Soon other sailors were feeling bolder, and
- 18:30Speaker 1: they all joined in. They bashed apart the marble floor
- 18:33Speaker 1: of the basilica and found under it a sarcassav damn
- 18:36Speaker 1: it messed up that word, and they found under it
- 18:38Speaker 1: a sarcophagus. There is some possibility that Saint Nicholas's sarcophagus
- 18:43Speaker 1: survives to this day, with holes drilled in its scalloped
- 18:46Speaker 1: lid to draw out the oil and telling lye to
- 18:49Speaker 1: pour holy oil in. It appears that this was the
- 18:53Speaker 1: method by which the oil was renewed. The guardians of
- 18:56Speaker 1: the body were pressing their own olive oil in the
- 18:58Speaker 1: compound in, using it with local mirrh, and pouring it
- 19:02Speaker 1: through his siphon into the sarcophagus, where it would be
- 19:05Speaker 1: irradiated by the holiness of the sacred bones and could
- 19:07Speaker 1: then be packaged for resale gum. Back to Mateo, he
- 19:12Speaker 1: smashed the lid of the sarcophagus. The sailors found that
- 19:14Speaker 1: the whole box was welling with dark oil. Unfazed, Mateo
- 19:17Speaker 1: dunked his arms into the oil and felt around for
- 19:19Speaker 1: the bones. He was frustrated he couldn't find the skull,
- 19:22Speaker 1: which was obviously the real git. To the horror of
- 19:25Speaker 1: everyone who looked on, he lowered himself into the bath
- 19:27Speaker 1: of oil, drenching his clothes in sacred ecor or ikor herise,
- 19:33Speaker 1: and fumbled around feeling for the saint's head. I'd like
- 19:35Speaker 1: to take a brief moment and tell everyone again, this
- 19:37Speaker 1: is a real story. Now back to it. Modern investigation
- 19:40Speaker 1: of the bones suggests that in the process he almost
- 19:43Speaker 1: certainly shattered the ribs and pelvis of Saint Nicholas, which
- 19:46Speaker 1: he must have been kneeling on. When Aha Matteo found
- 19:50Speaker 1: the skull, he handed it up, and the two priests
- 19:52Speaker 1: connected to the heist carefully lay it on a cloak
- 19:54Speaker 1: to be folded up with the other long bones as
- 19:57Speaker 1: quickly as possible. The crew wrapped up their ill gotten
- 19:59Speaker 1: gains and made for the exodus. The four Guardians wailed
- 20:01Speaker 1: pleasing threats and cursed. Behind them, the armed band walked
- 20:04Speaker 1: back through the deserted city of Mira toward their ships.
- 20:06Speaker 1: They would have gotten there without incident, except, of course,
- 20:09Speaker 1: there's no honor among thieves. They had to stop and
- 20:11Speaker 1: argue about whose ship would actually carry the corpse. While
- 20:14Speaker 1: they argued, one of the guardians made his way up
- 20:16Speaker 1: to the fortress, where the Christian population of Mirra hid
- 20:19Speaker 1: and sounded the alarm. The people of Mira had suffered enough.
- 20:23Speaker 1: The city had been overrun. They'd been locked up in
- 20:24Speaker 1: their fortress for a year, maybe longer, paying tribute so
- 20:26Speaker 1: they could at least go out in the day to
- 20:28Speaker 1: tend to their fields and whatever livestock was left. And
- 20:30Speaker 1: now they're saint. Their city's one claim to fame was
- 20:32Speaker 1: being carried off by some hooligans from the heel of
- 20:35Speaker 1: the Italian boot. They poured out of their fortress and
- 20:37Speaker 1: charged down through the streets of the city, screaming in rage.
- 20:41Speaker 1: At this, the sailors picked up the pace, trotting toward
- 20:43Speaker 1: their ships, which were pulled up on shore to the
- 20:45Speaker 1: south of the city. The bones wrapped in a bundle
- 20:47Speaker 1: like Santa's, like Santa Claus's bag of toys slapped up
- 20:51Speaker 1: and down on the back of the priest who carried them,
- 20:52Speaker 1: drizzling grease down his back. The townspeople reached the ships
- 20:58Speaker 1: too late. The crew had already scampered aboard. I wish
- 21:00Speaker 1: it was through the snow. The people of Mira demanded
- 21:03Speaker 1: the bones back. They wailed and sorrow that their city
- 21:04Speaker 1: saint was about to sail away to foreign land. Some
- 21:06Speaker 1: even curse Nicholas himself, the father of the city, for
- 21:08Speaker 1: abandoning his children. But nothing would persuade the thieves. They
- 21:11Speaker 1: pushed off and started to row towards open waters. Men
- 21:14Speaker 1: and women plunged into the sea behind them, grabbing at
- 21:16Speaker 1: the ship's oars. Back on shore, they found one of
- 21:18Speaker 1: the Holy Guardians and blamed him for letting the Italians
- 21:22Speaker 1: snatch the saint, so they beat him to death on
- 21:23Speaker 1: the shore ah Christmas, But the ships were getting farther away.
- 21:29Speaker 1: The sailors were almost mocking as they pulled away from Mirra.
- 21:32Speaker 1: They would not have an easy voyage home. Some of
- 21:34Speaker 1: the sailors would steal joints and fragments of the saint,
- 21:37Speaker 1: a transgression that, as they believed caused them to suffer
- 21:39Speaker 1: through storms and almost capsize, but the Saint was theirs.
- 21:44Speaker 1: They drove a hard bargain when they got home to Bari.
- 21:46Speaker 1: All of them were to get a cut of the
- 21:47Speaker 1: pilgrim income for those who came to pray to the Saint,
- 21:50Speaker 1: which is one of the reasons we know about the heightst.
- 21:51Speaker 1: Not only do we have a couple of narratives written
- 21:54Speaker 1: a few weeks or months after they got back, but
- 21:56Speaker 1: a full financial account of the annual payments that were
- 21:58Speaker 1: still being made to their fan families eighty years later.
- 22:02Speaker 3: Huh.
- 22:02Speaker 1: A decade after the heist. In the mid ten nineties,
- 22:04Speaker 1: the Emperor of Byzantium, frustrated at the Turkish invasion of
- 22:08Speaker 1: his lands to the east, including the region around Mir,
- 22:10Speaker 1: asked the kings of Western Europe to send armies to
- 22:12Speaker 1: assist him in pushing back the Turks the barbarian monarchs
- 22:15Speaker 1: of the Hordes East, a counter evasion we call the
- 22:18Speaker 1: First Crusade. It was the beginning of two centuries of
- 22:21Speaker 1: senseless bloodshed in the Middle East that forever tainted Muslim
- 22:24Speaker 1: Christian relations. A series of disastrous massacres and incompetent defeats
- 22:28Speaker 1: that still swells the hearts of contemporary white supremacists with pride.
- 22:33Speaker 1: Many of the expeditions set out from barri where the
- 22:35Speaker 1: soldiers could pray to Nicholas for calm seas and prosperous voyage.
- 22:37Speaker 1: The city thrived as invasion forces supplied themselves at the
- 22:40Speaker 1: merchants stalls of the Port of Saint Nicholas and set
- 22:42Speaker 1: forth on their mission of destruction. And what about those Venetians,
- 22:45Speaker 1: the city's great rivals. What happened when they got timehr
- 22:48Speaker 1: and demanded the bones back? That's a story for another Christmas.
- 22:51Speaker 1: And this has been the story about the heist of
- 22:54Speaker 1: Saint Nick. Now we've all learned a little something.
- 23:01Speaker 2: How have we never come up with a liquor or
- 23:03Speaker 2: at least a shot called Nick liquor?
- 23:06Speaker 3: Mmmm?
- 23:07Speaker 4: Because if you if you have too many and you
- 23:10Speaker 4: say that wrong, you don't want to slur on that shot.
- 23:25Speaker 7: You're listening to the Treehouse.
- 23:27Speaker 8: Visit us online at Treehouse on air dot com.
- 23:31Speaker 1: And let it be said, we still know what the
- 23:35Speaker 1: greatest story ever told is, but this may be a
- 23:37Speaker 1: close second.
- 23:48Speaker 6: You're in the Treehouse. Visit us online at Treehouse on
- 23:52Speaker 6: air dot com.
- 23:55Speaker 1: You are in the tree House. Thank you for joining
- 23:58Speaker 1: us for our very special Christmas episode. I will say
- 24:04Speaker 1: that the story about the Heist of Saint Nicholas is
- 24:07Speaker 1: a little long, but it's pretty good and maybe maybe
- 24:11Speaker 1: in the future, if we ever decide to tell it again,
- 24:14Speaker 1: find a way to condense it a little bit more
- 24:16Speaker 1: than than what we already did. But what was it you.
- 24:19Speaker 4: Noticed, Raj, Well, when you messed up the word starcophagus,
- 24:24Speaker 4: I was like, man, you don't want to mess up
- 24:27Speaker 4: nick lickor. I'm just saying that's a that's a bad
- 24:32Speaker 4: way to end that story.
- 24:34Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 24:35Speaker 1: Yeah, that's one of those that after I read through
- 24:38Speaker 1: it the first time, about halfway, I was like, you
- 24:40Speaker 1: know what, I need to read this at least twice
- 24:43Speaker 1: all the way through out loud, just in case.
- 24:46Speaker 4: Yeah, because there's some tricky spots. Well, yeah, there's nick
- 24:50Speaker 4: liquor and then there's white supremacy is in there somewhere,
- 24:53Speaker 4: And I'm like, you don't want to you don't want
- 24:55Speaker 4: to combine those two.
- 25:00Speaker 3: I mean they would, but.
- 25:02Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, certainly, yeah, no doubt about that.
- 25:05Speaker 2: All right.
- 25:06Speaker 1: So there you have the Great Heist of Saint Nicholas again,
- 25:08Speaker 1: a true story, which is still fascinating to me. That
- 25:13Speaker 1: being said, I know it's Christmas and everything, and there
- 25:20Speaker 1: are other holidays that are happening, you know, Hanukkah, Kwanza,
- 25:26Speaker 1: but there's also Festivus. And I didn't know until recently
- 25:32Speaker 1: that our very own Trey Trenholms celebrates Festivus. Now, in
- 25:38Speaker 1: case you don't know what Festivus is, it's a secular
- 25:43Speaker 1: holiday that originated in the nineteen ninety seven Seinfeld episode
- 25:46Speaker 1: The Strike. In that episode, George Costanza's father Frank, introduces
- 25:51Speaker 1: Festivus as an alternative to Christmas, created to protest the
- 25:54Speaker 1: commercialization of the season, which, by the way, Festivus is
- 25:59Speaker 1: celebrated on December twenty third, which is today. Some of
- 26:05Speaker 1: the traditions of Festivus include no tree. Instead of a
- 26:08Speaker 1: Christmas tree, you get an undecorated aluminum pole. There's the
- 26:13Speaker 1: airing of grievances during dinner. Each person takes a turn
- 26:16Speaker 1: sharing how the others have disappointed them in the past year,
- 26:20Speaker 1: and finally feats of strength. After dinner, there's a wrestling
- 26:23Speaker 1: match where the head of the household must be pinned.
- 26:26Speaker 1: Festivus is fun, man, really is.
- 26:29Speaker 3: That's just a Indian dinner.
- 26:34Speaker 1: That's a southern family reunion with lots of nick liquor.
- 26:43Speaker 1: But again, I'm fascinated by finding out that my friend Trey,
- 26:47Speaker 1: that I've been friends with for over twenty years, you're
- 26:50Speaker 1: a Festivus celebrator. And so you went through this entire
- 26:55Speaker 1: past year and found your complaints and not how hopefully
- 26:58Speaker 1: not how Raj and I have disappointed, although it's possible,
- 27:02Speaker 1: but maybe just complaints in general.
- 27:05Speaker 2: Well it complaints in general. And found a source that
- 27:11Speaker 2: had compiled some good ones. Some of these heavy on Florida.
- 27:15Speaker 1: So is this a Florida Festivus.
- 27:19Speaker 2: It's a Tampa Bay Times Festivus.
- 27:21Speaker 1: Oh okay, yeah, I guess, so, I guess. I guess
- 27:24Speaker 1: the entire state would be just too much.
- 27:27Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's Internet, so it comes from all over,
- 27:30Speaker 2: but there are at times some heavy Florida influences, which
- 27:34Speaker 2: gives you. I need to say that, because it has
- 27:36Speaker 2: to give you some perspective for some of.
- 27:38Speaker 1: The things got you here, all right, So what do
- 27:41Speaker 1: you got?
- 27:42Speaker 2: All right? So start off with some that just made
- 27:46Speaker 2: me laugh, and then uh, it kind of end with
- 27:48Speaker 2: the top five Spotify Spotify Wrap Shows your year review,
- 27:57Speaker 2: but missus a whole month of listening. Never seen a
- 28:00Speaker 2: Christmas song on the you know, Spotify rap.
- 28:04Speaker 1: That's true because that stuff always comes out in mid
- 28:06Speaker 1: December and it's based on eleven months worth of data.
- 28:08Speaker 1: That's an excellent point.
- 28:10Speaker 2: I'm sick of shorter and shorter seasons of shows. I
- 28:13Speaker 2: demand every show have a minimum of ten episodes a year.
- 28:22Speaker 2: Why is twenty nineteen Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker
- 28:25Speaker 2: so bad? He resurrected the thirty year dead Emperor so
- 28:29Speaker 2: he could be the grandpa of this nineteen year old.
- 28:35Speaker 1: Oh god, yes, it reminds me of one of the
- 28:36Speaker 1: greatest memes I saw after that movie came out, That
- 28:39Speaker 1: that third one, The Rise of Skywalker, where it's like
- 28:42Speaker 1: the original movies, it's like the force flows through you,
- 28:46Speaker 1: blah blah blah. Cut to jj Abrams. The force comes
- 28:49Speaker 1: from the balls.
- 28:56Speaker 2: Artificial intelligence, it's no match for natural upidity. Amen. It
- 29:05Speaker 2: is the year of Our Lord, twenty twenty four, and
- 29:07Speaker 2: we still change the clocks twice a year.
- 29:11Speaker 1: Maybe not for long, maybe not for a long. They
- 29:17Speaker 1: could have passed it this last year, by the way,
- 29:19Speaker 1: they could have passed it. But now I guess I
- 29:22Speaker 1: want to make sure that Trump gets credit for it,
- 29:23Speaker 1: so they'll maybe they'll pass it this year. I don't
- 29:25Speaker 1: care past the damn thing. We're all sick of changing
- 29:28Speaker 1: the clocks.
- 29:29Speaker 2: Well, then the big debate now is which one do
- 29:32Speaker 2: you go to because a lot of people want to
- 29:34Speaker 2: do that where you would keep it where it gets
- 29:37Speaker 2: darker earlier, and then other people are like, no, let's
- 29:40Speaker 2: have it darker later. So that that's a whole nother controversy.
- 29:43Speaker 1: So there's the great divide mourning people versus night people. Yeah,
- 29:47Speaker 1: pretty much, Well that's going.
- 29:50Speaker 2: So for those of you who don't know, Publics is
- 29:52Speaker 2: a big grocery store chain in Florida.
- 29:55Speaker 1: It's like their version of a GB.
- 29:57Speaker 2: Yes, the Public's cashier provides play by play on every
- 30:01Speaker 2: item she rings up. Oh I love this popcorn. These
- 30:05Speaker 2: chicken tenders look so good. Next time I'm buying condoms
- 30:09Speaker 2: me relax and emodium a d as I await breathlessly.
- 30:12Speaker 2: Here stole their virtues.
- 30:17Speaker 4: My buddy got fired from a trader Jokes on his
- 30:20Speaker 4: first day because the ladies showed up with the bottle
- 30:24Speaker 4: of wine and a cucumber. He goes, we've all had
- 30:29Speaker 4: days like that. That's a one hundred per century story.
- 30:42Speaker 4: His first day, They're like, you gotta go.
- 30:46Speaker 1: He's just throwing his hands up as he escort of Malcohl.
- 30:48Speaker 1: What just spitting the truth. We've all had days like that,
- 30:53Speaker 1: just throwing facts.
- 30:57Speaker 2: Two shoppers having a cart reunion in the middle of
- 30:59Speaker 2: the aisle. Sorry to interrupt your third diatribe about your
- 31:02Speaker 2: least favorite kid, but I need to grab some paprika.
- 31:08Speaker 1: That's when that drives me nuts. And that's that's not
- 31:10Speaker 1: limited to a grocery store. That's just people being completely
- 31:13Speaker 1: unaware of their surroundings and inconsiderate.
- 31:17Speaker 2: Uh, why is it. There's no minimum, no job requirements
- 31:22Speaker 2: to run a government agency, But if I want a
- 31:24Speaker 2: job at outback steakhouse, I need three years experience.
- 31:33Speaker 3: Truth.
- 31:34Speaker 1: Yeah, blooming Onion is pretty complicated.
- 31:38Speaker 2: The number of flamingo pictures, posters, sculptures, signs, and decorations
- 31:42Speaker 2: versus actual flamingos in Florida is outrageous. I'd wager that
- 31:46Speaker 2: maybe one percent of the county has actual flamingos.
- 31:51Speaker 1: Flamingos, it turns out, are sorry for the pun, but
- 31:55Speaker 1: they're kind of flighty and they're kind of hard to find.
- 31:58Speaker 2: Uh huh. I hate full sized flags on cars. I
- 32:04Speaker 2: don't want to get killed Final Destination style because some
- 32:08Speaker 2: dude figured tinfoil had some electrical tape. It's good enough
- 32:13Speaker 2: to secure what's essentially a sail attached to a spear for.
- 32:24Speaker 1: That's not good to Maga very good.
- 32:29Speaker 2: That's not.
- 32:35Speaker 1: I like to take anymore. That was really good.
- 32:41Speaker 2: I can't stand when the plastic part of a clothing
- 32:43Speaker 2: tag lingers on the fabric and it decides to start
- 32:46Speaker 2: poking me on a random Tuesday afternoon.
- 32:50Speaker 3: Yeah man, I love Festivus.
- 32:56Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel great man dancing around this aluminum pole.
- 32:59Speaker 1: I can't I can't wait to see who gets pinned.
- 33:06Speaker 2: The Swanson Meatlow Family pack not only feeds a family
- 33:09Speaker 2: of two point five.
- 33:15Speaker 1: I've made my way through a hole asagna by myself
- 33:18Speaker 1: from Swansea.
- 33:22Speaker 2: Timothy, get it, Timothy shallow May. I still don't like him,
- 33:29Speaker 2: but he's growing on me, and that comes with its
- 33:32Speaker 2: own pains.
- 33:36Speaker 1: As someone who's currently watching Doom too, I relate to that.
- 33:42Speaker 2: My closest Taco Bell closed for several weeks for renovations.
- 33:46Speaker 2: Nobody is going to Taco Bell for the scenery or atmosphere.
- 33:50Speaker 2: Serve me tacos from the back of an old van.
- 33:52Speaker 2: I don't care. Just don't close for weeks at a time.
- 34:05Speaker 2: Yeah one too.
- 34:07Speaker 1: I love festival.
- 34:11Speaker 2: Why can't we have a universal standard for which direction
- 34:14Speaker 2: you must twist those twist those little wires that used
- 34:17Speaker 2: to close bags?
- 34:21Speaker 1: And how is it that sometimes you think you got
- 34:24Speaker 1: it figured out one direction somehow in the middle. It's
- 34:29Speaker 1: not supposed to be scientifically possible.
- 34:32Speaker 2: I bet I've wasted a thousand hours of my life
- 34:35Speaker 2: twisting those things in the wrong direction before discovering I
- 34:38Speaker 2: was going the wrong way. Oh my head.
- 34:45Speaker 7: You're listening to the tree House.
- 34:47Speaker 8: Visit us online that Treehouse on air dot com.
- 35:08Speaker 6: Visit us online at Threehouse on air dot com.
- 35:14Speaker 1: You can visit us online at Treehouse on air dot com.
- 35:19Speaker 1: You can visit us online at Treehouse on air dot com.
- 35:22Speaker 1: And while you're there, the microphone on the lower right
- 35:25Speaker 1: hand corner, you can click on that to send us
- 35:28Speaker 1: some feedback, leave us a message tree House feedback right there,
- 35:31Speaker 1: lower right hand corner. Use that microphone on our website
- 35:35Speaker 1: Treehouse on air dot com. Just like one person did.
- 35:41Speaker 1: And if you had to guess who the first person
- 35:44Speaker 1: would be to leave us Treehouse feedback throughout the entirety
- 35:48Speaker 1: of the listener base of this program over a couple
- 35:51Speaker 1: of decades. Who do you think that would be? Trey, Robert,
- 35:56Speaker 1: Robert Pale? What it's correct, Robert Palell, bless you, sir,
- 36:02Speaker 1: longtime listener, many time caller. Uh, he's the first to
- 36:07Speaker 1: leave us Treehouse feedback right here inside the Treehouse. So
- 36:10Speaker 1: let's allow him to do so.
- 36:11Speaker 9: Hey, it's for Bert the Catholic Church. This is regarding
- 36:15Speaker 9: Thursday's show. The Catholic Church will probably have a lot
- 36:17Speaker 9: more money from donations they to handle that whole raping
- 36:21Speaker 9: kids problem a little bit better.
- 36:24Speaker 1: Yeah, he's responding back to us talking about how the
- 36:27Speaker 1: pope or the church was talking about how they're low
- 36:30Speaker 1: on donations and near bankruptcy. And maybe we thought maybe
- 36:35Speaker 1: that's the reason why he was wandering around Rome and
- 36:37Speaker 1: opening up random door thinking they'll find some cash. But
- 36:40Speaker 1: Robert brings up a great point. Donations go down if
- 36:43Speaker 1: if people feel like you're mishandling the funds or that
- 36:46Speaker 1: they're just contributing to the payouts to the kids that
- 36:48Speaker 1: you've diddled.
- 36:49Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 36:51Speaker 1: H so thank you, Robert. We appreciate the first Treehouse feedback.
- 36:57Speaker 1: I don't want to call it a Christmas e version,
- 36:59Speaker 1: but it's churchy.
- 37:01Speaker 3: At least.
- 37:06Speaker 1: Today is Monday, December twenty third, twenty twenty four. Let's
- 37:09Speaker 1: celebrate with some Christmas birthdays. I didn't really bother with
- 37:14Speaker 1: the twenty third birthdays because to me, the only birthday
- 37:16Speaker 1: on December twenty third that ever mattered was my Pappas.
- 37:19Speaker 1: But he passed away many years ago. He continued to
- 37:23Speaker 1: rest in peace. Besides, if he was alive today, he'd
- 37:27Speaker 1: be one hundred and three years old. So I think
- 37:29Speaker 1: he's better for all of us that he is where
- 37:30Speaker 1: he is. Birthdays for Christmas Eve. If you're curious, We've
- 37:35Speaker 1: got Ryan Seacrest. He's fifty. Ryan Seacrest finally hits the
- 37:41Speaker 1: Big five zero on Christmas Eve. Ricky Martin turns fifty three,
- 37:46Speaker 1: Dedrich Bater turns fifty eight played Greg Otto on American Housewife.
- 37:52Speaker 1: Was Jethrow in the Beverly Hillbillies movie. Was the neighbor
- 37:56Speaker 1: in office space who said if he won the lottery,
- 37:59Speaker 1: he'd do two chicks at one time. Also, we've got
- 38:05Speaker 1: Lee Daniels, creator of Empire. He's sixty five, and Clarence
- 38:11Speaker 1: Gilliard he would have been would have been sixty nine,
- 38:15Speaker 1: but he passed away in twenty twenty two. He was
- 38:18Speaker 1: THEO the Hacker in Die Hard. Remember he's one of
- 38:20Speaker 1: the first ones. He was Jimmy. He was Jimmy on
- 38:23Speaker 1: Walker Texas Ranger Conrad on the original Mattlock as well.
- 38:27Speaker 1: And also he's Sundown in Top Gun, the dude that
- 38:34Speaker 1: rides in the back of the jet. Thank you Christmas
- 38:38Speaker 1: Birthdays today. Yeah, Top Gun's racist.
- 38:44Speaker 3: The only.
- 38:46Speaker 1: What's that tray? The only black dude, the only and
- 38:49Speaker 1: the only time you ever got to see him fly
- 38:52Speaker 1: was after a white dude died. Makes you wonder why
- 38:55Speaker 1: he was there at all. Probably affirmative action selection. Anyway.
- 39:01Speaker 1: Christmas Birthdays. Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister. He's fifty three.
- 39:08Speaker 1: Singer Annie Lennox from the Eurythmics is seventy, Carl Rove,
- 39:12Speaker 1: former presidential advisor, is seventy four. Country singer Steve Warner
- 39:16Speaker 1: is seventy, Barbara Mandrel is seventy six, Sissy's Spasic is
- 39:21Speaker 1: seventy five. Larry Zonka is seventy eight. And Gary Sandy,
- 39:26Speaker 1: who famously played Andy Travis on WKRP in Cincinnati, turns
- 39:31Speaker 1: seventy nine. Oh and also Jesus of Nazareth. Today is
- 39:35Speaker 1: his birthday, but he stopped having birthdays at the age
- 39:38Speaker 1: of thirty three. If he were alive today, he would
- 39:42Speaker 1: be roughly twenty twenty four. Pretty easy birthday math right there.
- 39:46Speaker 3: Not born in December.
- 39:48Speaker 1: Also not born in December. Yeah, that's the beauty of
- 39:53Speaker 1: That's like the story of the heist of Saint Nick,
- 39:57Speaker 1: the Nativity story, the birth of Jesus, the you know,
- 40:01Speaker 1: killing Jesus, like all these things, they're a little fluid
- 40:05Speaker 1: on the timeline. I think the like with Jesus being
- 40:08Speaker 1: killed in the Resurrection, I think that time of year
- 40:11Speaker 1: is pretty accurate. I think that's on point. Sorry for
- 40:13Speaker 1: the punt, but his his actual birthday was moved by
- 40:17Speaker 1: the Church to coincide with pagan rituals to get hurt.
- 40:23Speaker 2: It wasn't even really the church. It was counselor and
- 40:26Speaker 2: I see you, but church people the Bible together.
- 40:29Speaker 4: But the Catholic Church actually moved all the dates over
- 40:32Speaker 4: for like Easter and and Christmas.
- 40:36Speaker 1: I think Easter was pretty accurate isn't that right, Trey? See,
- 40:41Speaker 1: Christmas needed to be moved because you don't want to
- 40:42Speaker 1: have you know, you don't want to have two gift
- 40:44Speaker 1: giving holidays that close together.
- 40:46Speaker 3: Well, I mean it's Christ's Mass.
- 40:48Speaker 4: So that's where that the term comes from.
- 40:52Speaker 3: No, kid, Yeah, so that's where it was supposed to be.
- 40:56Speaker 1: Like you in a dick when you say it like that,
- 40:58Speaker 1: or you being honest compressed that you didn't know that.
- 41:01Speaker 2: No, I knew that. Of course it was. It's considered
- 41:06Speaker 2: it was in September. It's like, yeah, but when they
- 41:11Speaker 2: when they fused everything together, they had to appease the Pagans,
- 41:15Speaker 2: and so you know, it was before. That's why. It's
- 41:18Speaker 2: why the crucifixion. The crucifixion and and you know an
- 41:21Speaker 2: Easter bunny somehow go hand in hand.
- 41:24Speaker 3: Yeah. You should also read a great book called Jesus
- 41:27Speaker 3: Died in India. Mm hmm yeah.
- 41:31Speaker 2: Would you do you really want that? My dad was
- 41:39Speaker 2: there apparently.
- 41:42Speaker 10: Online Treehouse on Air dot com.
- 41:56Speaker 6: You're in the Treehouse Business Online on Air dot com.
- 42:06Speaker 1: You are in the Treehouse on our very special Christmas edition.
- 42:10Speaker 1: I'm Dan along with Trey and Raj and I have
- 42:13Speaker 1: two pieces of excellent information before we close the treehouse
- 42:17Speaker 1: for the remainder of the holiday season. The first of
- 42:20Speaker 1: which is Trey has a few more Festivus complaints to
- 42:23Speaker 1: share with us. But first is the second good news
- 42:30Speaker 1: I have for you. I have for you today because
- 42:32Speaker 1: I wanted to do it last year, but Barnes and
- 42:35Speaker 1: Noble really sucks at online book ordering compared to Amazon.
- 42:44Speaker 1: So I now share with you the book the story
- 42:50Speaker 1: Hookers and Blows Save Christmas. A holiday reading. This is
- 42:58Speaker 1: a real book, by the way, and this like I
- 42:59Speaker 1: didn't just like make this on my own. Hookers and
- 43:03Speaker 1: Blows Save Christmas, written and illustrated by Monty C. Peppin
- 43:09Speaker 1: or Pepin if he's French. It was Christmas Eve in
- 43:13Speaker 1: the small town of Pleasant. Everyone was excited to soon
- 43:17Speaker 1: open their presence. The weather was cold with deep piles
- 43:22Speaker 1: of snow. Police Officer Bob called Hookers and blow. Tom
- 43:27Speaker 1: transport is loaded with cards, candy and gifts, but broke
- 43:31Speaker 1: down out of town and is stuck in snow drifts.
- 43:35Speaker 1: We need all of these presents for the big party today.
- 43:37Speaker 1: No problem, said Hookers. We can help right away. The
- 43:42Speaker 1: snow was quite deep and covered the road. Blow got
- 43:46Speaker 1: to work blowing and could handle the load. They traveled
- 43:51Speaker 1: down Main Street and straight out of town, drove up
- 43:54Speaker 1: on Mount Dexter, then all the way down just round
- 43:59Speaker 1: the bend. Tom transport soon did appear, all covered in
- 44:03Speaker 1: snow right up to his mirrors. Blow cleared away the snow.
- 44:07Speaker 1: It didn't take long. Now hookers could check what might
- 44:10Speaker 1: have gone wrong. Hookers reached round and popped up Tom's
- 44:18Speaker 1: big hood, attached booster cables, and said, crank it real good.
- 44:24Speaker 1: Tom stuttered and sputtered, then started to groan his tired
- 44:27Speaker 1: old engine. It just might be blown. Tom moaned the
- 44:33Speaker 1: snow and the hills were maybe too much. I might
- 44:36Speaker 1: have broken a piston and wore out the clutch. No problem,
- 44:40Speaker 1: said hookers. I'm a big toe truck, you see. We'll
- 44:44Speaker 1: get to town quickly. You Blow and me with Tom
- 44:50Speaker 1: mounted on hookers, Blow plowed through the snow. They headed
- 44:55Speaker 1: for town, driving careful and slow. Hookers got on the
- 44:59Speaker 1: radio and called up ahead police officer Bob. We have Tom,
- 45:03Speaker 1: but his engine is dead. The snow keeps on falling.
- 45:08Speaker 1: Blow is blowing real hard, but we'll get there in time.
- 45:12Speaker 1: With candy presents and cards across bridges and train tracks,
- 45:16Speaker 1: blow leading the way up and down Old Mount Dexter.
- 45:19Speaker 1: They soon made up the delay. They drove straight up Mount.
- 45:24Speaker 1: They drove straight up Main Street while everyone smiled. Tom
- 45:28Speaker 1: loaded with presents for each and every child. They arrived
- 45:31Speaker 1: at the party and there was a great cheer for
- 45:34Speaker 1: Hookers and below had made it the best day of
- 45:39Speaker 1: the year. Two fantastic stories inside the Treehouse for your
- 45:46Speaker 1: Christmas enjoyment.
- 45:49Speaker 3: Matt Gates Christmas.
- 45:57Speaker 1: His Amazon wish list is pretty transparent. And that's not
- 46:00Speaker 1: all because we want to wrap up our very special
- 46:03Speaker 1: Christmas edition of the Treehouse today, which is to few
- 46:06Speaker 1: more of Trey's festivut complaints.
- 46:10Speaker 2: This one will be near and dear to everyone. Okay,
- 46:13Speaker 2: why does every bar have to have a theme? Can't
- 46:16Speaker 2: the theme just be getting drunk? This next one comes
- 46:23Speaker 2: from Milton.
- 46:24Speaker 1: No, no, no, hang on, that needs yeah, that needs
- 46:27Speaker 1: applause in a salute. Yeah yeah, well said.
- 46:33Speaker 2: This next one comes from Milton. They don't sell only
- 46:37Speaker 2: one sock in stores. I'm only short one sock? Why
- 46:40Speaker 2: am I forced to buy two?
- 46:45Speaker 1: That's actually a really good idea. Someone just needs to
- 46:48Speaker 1: start selling one sock multiple colors so you can find
- 46:52Speaker 1: one to replace the one that you lost.
- 46:55Speaker 2: The final one and remember this comes from Florida. Okay,
- 47:01Speaker 2: since winter band books such a problem, and who wants
- 47:03Speaker 2: to read a band book? Anyway? What happened to just
- 47:06Speaker 2: listening to the radio? Are watching them march during halftime?
- 47:22Speaker 1: Took me a second, but I got there. Oh. Thank
- 47:28Speaker 1: you for sharing those with us today, Cherry. We appreciate
- 47:30Speaker 1: that it's been a fun year inside the Treehouse, and
- 47:35Speaker 1: twenty twenty five promises to be bigger and better and
- 47:38Speaker 1: we look forward to growing with you. Have a wonderful
- 47:43Speaker 1: holiday season. We'll see you back here in twenty twenty
- 47:46Speaker 1: five Inside the Treehouse.
- 48:00Speaker 2: Eight