Transcript

#58 Harry · Heavyweight

0:15
Speaker 1: Pushkin.
0:25
Speaker 2: Hey, how are you?
0:26
Speaker 1: I'm okay? How are you?
0:28
Speaker 3: I I'm okay, I'm okay.
0:29
Speaker 4: I find you one of our room money.
0:32
Speaker 1: So you heard the news?
0:33
Speaker 3: Did you?
0:33
Speaker 1: Did you read the tweet that I sent you?
0:35
Speaker 5: No?
0:36
Speaker 1: Actually I haven't.
0:36
Speaker 3: I've been working all day and I haven't had a
0:39
Speaker 3: chance to bet.
0:40
Speaker 1: I can I read you the tweet from the Heavyweight
0:42
Speaker 1: account that we put out. Yeah, okay, it's a Heavyweight
0:47
Speaker 1: as it exists under Spotify will be ending after this season.
0:51
Speaker 1: We're so proud of everything we've made and we're hoping
0:53
Speaker 1: the show finds a new home in the future. Till then,
0:56
Speaker 1: stay tuned, stay subscribed, and thank you all so much
1:00
Speaker 1: for your love and support. Oh no, things are going
1:04
Speaker 1: to be okay. You know what, because it's it's it's
1:07
Speaker 1: show business. You know that song from Bugs Bunny Overtures,
1:11
Speaker 1: Turn the Lights, you know that song? This is it
1:14
Speaker 1: the night of Nights. No more rehoising and nicing up parts.
1:19
Speaker 1: We know every part by heart. It's about going on
1:23
Speaker 1: with the show.
1:24
Speaker 2: How are you going to go on with the show.
1:26
Speaker 1: We're going to try to find a new place for it.
1:28
Speaker 1: You know, we have an obligation to our listeners. Why
1:33
Speaker 1: does that make you laugh? I have an obligation to
1:35
Speaker 1: my listeners. Wait, let's let's just sit here together and
1:40
Speaker 1: think about all the laughter through the years.
2:05
Speaker 2: You're can I hang up?
2:10
Speaker 1: Can I hang up now?
2:12
Speaker 3: Okay?
2:13
Speaker 1: And you know what I'm gonna be okay, and you
2:16
Speaker 1: know you're gonna be okay. We're going to keep on
2:18
Speaker 1: doing this. I wanted to go to it.
2:20
Speaker 6: This is my this is my I'm signing off.
2:22
Speaker 1: I don't think you are. I don't believe it. I
2:25
Speaker 1: think you love doing this, am I right? Just admit
2:28
Speaker 1: it and I'll let you go.
2:30
Speaker 3: Goodbye?
2:31
Speaker 1: Hey, Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, thank you for these past eight years.
2:37
Speaker 2: Oh sure, off milking it.
2:46
Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight Today's episode, Harry.
3:00
Speaker 1: Right after the break, our story begins with two people,
3:10
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd or is it Todd and Ted in
3:15
Speaker 1: the plaid shirt. You are Ted, Yes, and you're Todd.
3:18
Speaker 1: That's great, okay, Hi, nice to meet you. Both Ted
3:22
Speaker 1: and Todd are identical twins, but not the Mary Kate
3:25
Speaker 1: Nashley cutie pitituiti type. They're more the slappy, happy, punchy,
3:29
Speaker 1: grumpy type.
3:31
Speaker 3: If you hit me, one more time.
3:32
Speaker 1: Case in point. That was the sound of Ted reacting
3:35
Speaker 1: to Todd, who, for no apparent reason, just whacked his
3:39
Speaker 1: brother in the arm. Is that a part of the
3:42
Speaker 1: way that you guys communicate?
3:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, uh huh.
3:45
Speaker 1: But if I'm not here, I mean, you don't punch
3:48
Speaker 1: each other?
3:48
Speaker 3: Right? Not anymore? No, not anymore? No.
3:56
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd are in their sixties. They both have
3:59
Speaker 1: long white hair and the stoic, deadpan affect of hitmen
4:03
Speaker 1: in a Cormac McCarthy novel. They grew up in South Dakota,
4:07
Speaker 1: surrounded by literal cowboys. Before the interview, they asked if
4:11
Speaker 1: there'd be cigarette breaks. They both smoke Pall Mall's, drink
4:15
Speaker 1: Keystone Lights, and they both work as contractors. They tell
4:19
Speaker 1: me they can't go into a home depot together without
4:22
Speaker 1: being asked the same asinine question, are you guys twins?
4:27
Speaker 1: In response, Ted and Todd stare back blankly. But the
4:36
Speaker 1: story Ted and Todd are here to tell isn't actually
4:38
Speaker 1: about their twinship. It's about their younger brother, Scott, who
4:43
Speaker 1: died in two thousand. Do you want to start off
4:46
Speaker 1: by maybe talking to me a little bit about Scott?
4:51
Speaker 7: Well, just here's a little brother, and that's about it.
4:58
Speaker 1: To spare you twenty odd minutes of coaxing and cajoling,
5:01
Speaker 1: I'll fast forward a bit to let you know that
5:03
Speaker 1: Scott was a year younger than Ted and Todd. He
5:06
Speaker 1: was the baby of the family and they often ended
5:09
Speaker 1: up taking care of him as older brothers. Ted and
5:12
Speaker 1: Todd were measured and steady. Scott, on the other hand,
5:15
Speaker 1: was fun and colorful.
5:17
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, yeah, real bright personality. I mean he was
5:20
Speaker 7: just definitely his own individual for sure. Yeah, he got
5:23
Speaker 7: all the personality.
5:24
Speaker 1: In school, Scott attracted attention, and not all of it good.
5:29
Speaker 1: This because, in addition to his big personality, Scott was gay.
5:33
Speaker 1: From a pretty young age, he was a target for bullying.
5:36
Speaker 1: But Ted and Todd always kept an eye out.
5:39
Speaker 8: You couldn't go after our little brother because then you're
5:41
Speaker 8: gonna have to deal with that both of us. So
5:44
Speaker 8: one offense you're going to have three events. It's not
5:47
Speaker 8: because we liked it. We were protecting our family.
5:51
Speaker 1: In spite of the haters, Scott remained a force to
5:54
Speaker 1: be reckoned with As a teenager. He once got into
5:57
Speaker 1: their dad's Lincoln Continental in the middle of the night
6:00
Speaker 1: and drove it almost one thousand miles across state lines
6:04
Speaker 1: at fifteen.
6:05
Speaker 8: I mean that tells you how independent that he really was. Yeahad.
6:10
Speaker 1: While Ted and Todd got married and settled down, Scott
6:13
Speaker 1: maintained his impish spontaneity, doing things like buying Ted and
6:17
Speaker 1: Todd's kids the candy they weren't allowed, or once, having
6:21
Speaker 1: promised his seven year old nephew a trip to the
6:23
Speaker 1: circus and then breaking his leg, made sure they could
6:26
Speaker 1: still go by teaching his nephew how to pump the clutch.
6:34
Speaker 1: Scott led a nomadic life. Every so often, Ted and
6:37
Speaker 1: Todd would get a phone call. Scott was in Roanoke, Virginia,
6:41
Speaker 1: living with friends. Scott was in Nebraska going to mortician school.
6:45
Speaker 1: Scott had crashed his car in the desert outside of Phoenix.
6:49
Speaker 1: But no matter where he went, and no matter how
6:52
Speaker 1: old he got, if Scott was in trouble, Ted and
6:55
Speaker 1: Todd's phones would ring. So one day in the fall
6:58
Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty six, when Todd received a call from
7:01
Speaker 1: Scott at three am, he wasn't all that surprised.
7:05
Speaker 7: He wanted me to come down and get him now,
7:07
Speaker 7: which was not unusual.
7:09
Speaker 1: Scott told Todd. He was in the hospital. When Todd
7:12
Speaker 1: got there, he was directed to a special ward.
7:16
Speaker 7: And pretty obvious something was wrong. And I walked in
7:19
Speaker 7: and there must have been six other beds in there.
7:22
Speaker 7: Probably he was the youngest, and at that point he
7:26
Speaker 7: would have been in his early twenties, and everybody had
7:32
Speaker 7: gowns and masks and gloves and shields, and I mean,
7:36
Speaker 7: it was really bizarre, what is happening? And they said
7:40
Speaker 7: you weren't aware your brother's diagnosis. And then that's when
7:44
Speaker 7: they said, your brother has AIDS.
7:47
Speaker 1: Scott wanted to get out of the hospital as quickly
7:49
Speaker 1: as possible, so Todd just put him in the car
7:52
Speaker 1: and drove him home. Never did they talk about AIDS
7:56
Speaker 1: or what it meant. They didn't talk much at all.
7:59
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd would call to check on Scott as
8:02
Speaker 1: often as they could. They'd ask if he was going
8:04
Speaker 1: to the doctor taking his meds? Are you taking care
8:08
Speaker 1: of it? They'd say, yeah, he'd say, And for the
8:11
Speaker 1: next few years, this is how it went until the
8:15
Speaker 1: day Harry arrived. Todd was on the phone checking in
8:23
Speaker 1: on Scott like usual. When he first heard her voice, this.
8:27
Speaker 7: Say in the background, It's like what is that.
8:30
Speaker 1: That was Harriet aka Harry, a red and green parrot,
8:36
Speaker 1: a three foot long macau to be exact. Ted and Todd,
8:39
Speaker 1: of course had questions, questions like what the hell are
8:44
Speaker 1: you thinking? Scott had always loved unusual pets as a kid,
8:52
Speaker 1: He kept a squirrel in the house and even a bat,
8:55
Speaker 1: But there was something particularly worrying about adopting a parrot.
8:59
Speaker 1: It's longevity.
9:01
Speaker 3: You have this disease.
9:03
Speaker 8: We don't know how long you're going to live, and
9:05
Speaker 8: you buy an analyst is going to last eighty five
9:07
Speaker 8: to one hundred years.
9:09
Speaker 1: Even for a healthy adult, such a purchase would mean
9:11
Speaker 1: a commitment that lasts into old age. In Scott's case,
9:16
Speaker 1: it felt like an act of denial.
9:18
Speaker 3: What Scott did was what Scott always does.
9:20
Speaker 7: Just I'm gonna do what i'm gonna do, and I
9:21
Speaker 7: like it and I want it, and that's how it's
9:23
Speaker 7: going to be, and it's gonna be fine.
9:25
Speaker 1: And so Harry was suddenly a fact of their family's life.
9:28
Speaker 1: Wherever Scott went, there was Harry, and in time she
9:33
Speaker 1: won Ted and Todd over with her rowdy antics and
9:36
Speaker 1: foul mouth turns of phrase.
9:38
Speaker 7: You son of a bit, Scott come here, you know
9:41
Speaker 7: what's for dinner.
9:43
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd had five kids between them, all of
9:46
Speaker 1: whom adored their cool uncle and his crazy bird. They
9:49
Speaker 1: would take road trips together. Harry glued to Scott's shoulder.
9:53
Speaker 1: When they went to get dinner and left Harry in
9:55
Speaker 1: the hotel room, she'd scream, Scott, you fuck her. Annoyed
9:59
Speaker 1: to be left out of the fun. Harry was loyal
10:03
Speaker 1: to Scott and protective too. She'd nibble at the shunt
10:06
Speaker 1: in Scott's chest like it was a splinter that needed removal.
10:13
Speaker 1: As time went on, it became increasingly clear that Scott's
10:16
Speaker 1: diagnosis was taking a toll. One day, when Ted and
10:20
Speaker 1: Todd called to check in, something felt off.
10:23
Speaker 7: He just devoided personality, just like, wait, whoa, whoa, I
10:26
Speaker 7: want to talk to you. He goes, I'm just I'm
10:28
Speaker 7: not feeling Todd.
10:29
Speaker 8: And the last time I talked to him, he just said,
10:31
Speaker 8: I said, what's going on with you? And he said
10:33
Speaker 8: I'm done.
10:36
Speaker 1: A few days later, Scott died. He was thirty eight
10:40
Speaker 1: years old. Ted and Todd rushed out to California. Their mom,
10:54
Speaker 1: who'd been living with Scott, was devastated.
10:57
Speaker 7: Because obviously she lost her son and her babe, her
11:00
Speaker 7: youngest at that and then you've got Harry that was
11:04
Speaker 7: making my little brother's voice and you know, would call
11:08
Speaker 7: mom mom.
11:10
Speaker 1: Harry grew unmoored, getting aggressive with their mother and anyone
11:14
Speaker 1: else who tried to handle her. The only people who
11:17
Speaker 1: she'd let touch her, the only ones she felt safe with,
11:20
Speaker 1: were the ones who most resembled Scott, that is, Scott's brothers.
11:25
Speaker 3: She was fine with Ted and I.
11:27
Speaker 7: When we would get there, she would just cock her
11:29
Speaker 7: head and look as she say Scott.
11:33
Speaker 1: In those moments, it felt like Ted, Todd, and Harry
11:35
Speaker 1: all shared some understanding. That word Scott was like a
11:40
Speaker 1: secret handshake. Before his death, Scott told Ted and Todd
11:45
Speaker 1: he wanted to leave Harry to Todd's eldest son, who
11:48
Speaker 1: was in junior high at the time, but Todd knew
11:51
Speaker 1: that keeping her just wasn't realistic.
11:54
Speaker 7: I had to tell my son, no, it just it
11:56
Speaker 7: wouldn't be fair to Harry, It wouldn't be fair to you,
11:58
Speaker 7: because tonam a caw. I don't think people fully understand.
12:02
Speaker 7: I mean, they get angry, they can be destructive. You know,
12:06
Speaker 7: if you ever see their claws or their beak. You
12:07
Speaker 7: don't want any party business. End of those that she
12:11
Speaker 7: was chewing into the ceiling, into the attic. I mean,
12:14
Speaker 7: they're a wild animal.
12:16
Speaker 1: And so they approached Harry's longtime glomer for help finding
12:19
Speaker 1: her a home. She offered to bring Harry to a
12:22
Speaker 1: nearby bird sanctuary or was it a pet store? Ted
12:26
Speaker 1: and Todd were so overwhelmed by Scott's death that they
12:29
Speaker 1: can't quite remember which they do remember though, the day
12:33
Speaker 1: of her departure, how their kids watched in tears as Harry,
12:37
Speaker 1: their beloved uncle's beloved pet, was taken away. Do you
12:41
Speaker 1: remember how Harry seemed to understand what was happening, How
12:45
Speaker 1: she howled.
12:46
Speaker 8: Her wings were everywhere, and she was and she was
12:50
Speaker 8: yelling at us. It was just it was panemonium. It
12:54
Speaker 8: was heartbreaking.
12:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.
12:55
Speaker 1: Tough at this point. Ted and Todd haven't seen Harry
12:59
Speaker 1: in over twenty years. But they do know one thing.
13:03
Speaker 3: This bird could still be out there.
13:08
Speaker 1: And so Ted and Todd have come to me with
13:11
Speaker 1: these questions, is she still out there? And if so,
13:15
Speaker 1: did they do the right thing in giving her up?
13:18
Speaker 1: Why do you think you're you're looking for for Harry?
13:21
Speaker 8: Now, we always took care of our little brother, and
13:24
Speaker 8: that's the one thing we didn't take care of.
13:26
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd had taken care of their brothers since
13:28
Speaker 1: they were children. Making sure Harry was provided for was
13:32
Speaker 1: the last things got needed from them and it's the
13:35
Speaker 1: only thing they couldn't do. Ted, do you feel guilt?
13:41
Speaker 3: How about it?
13:42
Speaker 8: Yeah?
13:45
Speaker 3: Okay?
13:45
Speaker 1: Can you say more about that? No, it's difficult to
13:50
Speaker 1: talk about Yeah it is, yeah, okay, So knowing that,
13:59
Speaker 1: knowing that Harry was okay, what would that What would
14:01
Speaker 1: that bring to you?
14:04
Speaker 8: We'd just be happy to know she's fine. And emotionally,
14:09
Speaker 8: I don't really deal with that.
14:12
Speaker 9: There's a part of them that doesn't want to talk
14:14
Speaker 9: about it at all.
14:15
Speaker 1: This is Hannah, Ted's daughter in law. Because Ted and
14:18
Speaker 1: Todd are such a closed book, she's offered to help
14:21
Speaker 1: translate them for me. Hannah tells me that through Harry,
14:25
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd can broach a subject they wouldn't otherwise
14:28
Speaker 1: know how to approach, and doing that might allow them
14:32
Speaker 1: to forgive themselves.
14:33
Speaker 9: So it's almost like they can talk about Harry in
14:35
Speaker 9: a way that's easier than talking about Scott.
14:37
Speaker 2: It's kind of like a surrogate. I think there's just
14:40
Speaker 2: a lot of pain in the death of their brother.
14:43
Speaker 9: Like, what I heard from Chase is that the one
14:45
Speaker 9: time that they've seen their dad's craze when their brother died.
14:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is Chase, Ted's son and Hannah's husband.
14:53
Speaker 3: They had no control over it.
14:55
Speaker 10: I'm sure they couldn't make him take his mediciner, do
14:58
Speaker 10: the thing he was supposed to do as far as
14:59
Speaker 10: getting rest or going to the doctors, and like they
15:03
Speaker 10: couldn't go beat up aids.
15:05
Speaker 1: When it came to their brother's death. Actions finally failed them.
15:09
Speaker 1: In actions, Hannah and Chase say, are the language Ted
15:12
Speaker 1: and Todd have for showing how they feel. Hannah says
15:16
Speaker 1: she can always tell when Ted and Todd have stopped
15:18
Speaker 1: by because some drywall will be sanded down, or she'll
15:21
Speaker 1: notice a fresh coat of paint.
15:23
Speaker 9: They also always unplug my toaster because they don't want
15:26
Speaker 9: to catch fire.
15:26
Speaker 1: Oh, I can always tell them.
15:27
Speaker 9: They've been here because the toasters, they're always sort of
15:31
Speaker 9: taking care of you. You just choked to your house
15:33
Speaker 9: and realize, oh, they've been here, and they's like taking care.
15:35
Speaker 2: Of some stuff.
15:37
Speaker 1: Cowboy style.
15:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, cowboy style, that's exactly it.
15:44
Speaker 1: Hannah and Chase worry though that in cowboy style too,
15:48
Speaker 1: they suffer in silence.
15:49
Speaker 9: Because I love them. I hope for them that if
15:54
Speaker 9: we found Harry it could they could heal more from
15:57
Speaker 9: Scott's death.
15:59
Speaker 3: Yeah.
16:00
Speaker 1: I think it would just be nice to know that
16:01
Speaker 1: she's doing.
16:01
Speaker 11: Good, like she's like with people who'd let her cuss
16:06
Speaker 11: and do whatever she wants.
16:08
Speaker 1: Kind of like an outlaw.
16:09
Speaker 7: Yeah, live in the life.
16:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's exactly it.
16:17
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I'm going to do my best here.
16:21
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to find Harry. That would be good, Okay.
16:45
Speaker 1: Armed with an old photograph of Harry, I set out
16:49
Speaker 1: on my search. Since Ted and Todd don't quite remember
16:53
Speaker 1: exactly where they surrendered Harry, I begin my quest to
16:56
Speaker 1: find this bird of Paradise by phoning. Birds in Paradise
17:03
Speaker 1: is a pet store in southern California, not far from
17:06
Speaker 1: where Scott lived. The owner, Lorie, has had the store
17:10
Speaker 1: for decades and is an active member of the Southern
17:12
Speaker 1: California parrot community. If anyone would know how to find Harry,
17:17
Speaker 1: it seems like it would be Lori, So I explained
17:20
Speaker 1: to her the project to find a bright red toddler
17:23
Speaker 1: sized parrot named Harry who curses like a French sailor.
17:27
Speaker 5: It's completely impossible.
17:29
Speaker 1: But like, isn't the Macaw community in the area small
17:34
Speaker 1: enough that people would maybe through word of mouth, be
17:37
Speaker 1: able to find Uh.
17:39
Speaker 12: Now, there's thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of
17:43
Speaker 12: Macaus in.
17:43
Speaker 1: The world, and it turns out it's difficult to tell
17:49
Speaker 1: one Macaw from another, even for an expert like Laurie.
17:53
Speaker 5: And you don't know if you know, something has happened
17:56
Speaker 5: to the bird, if it's been rehomed again.
17:59
Speaker 1: Is there is there any resources that that you can recommend?
18:03
Speaker 5: I mean, that's what the Internet's about.
18:06
Speaker 1: Do a Google search to explain to Laurie that that's
18:10
Speaker 1: what the problem is. I have nothing to Google search for.
18:14
Speaker 1: But Laurie is insistent it's just common sense. She says,
18:19
Speaker 1: with the Internet, you can simply Google search for whatever
18:22
Speaker 1: it is that you should be Google searching for.
18:25
Speaker 5: With the Internet nowadays, it does make things a lot easier.
18:27
Speaker 5: I mean, say I met a man and I was
18:30
Speaker 5: possibly interested him. First thing I would do if I'd
18:33
Speaker 5: do a search on him?
18:34
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, I'll put it this way.
18:37
Speaker 5: I met a man at Disneyland, a few months ago
18:40
Speaker 5: and seemed like a really nice guy and gave me
18:43
Speaker 5: a business card. He was a police officer, okay, And
18:46
Speaker 5: I found out that police officer is married, oh my,
18:50
Speaker 5: and so let him know that I knew he was married,
18:53
Speaker 5: and I thought it was what he was doing. And
18:55
Speaker 5: I never spoke to him again.
18:56
Speaker 1: But you told him that you confronted him. Good for you.
18:59
Speaker 5: That's the kind of person I am.
19:02
Speaker 1: I tell Laurie that while I respect her slew thing,
19:05
Speaker 1: her take no prisoner's style and the Internet as a whole,
19:09
Speaker 1: I don't know that any of this will help Ted
19:11
Speaker 1: and Todd. So Laurie offers one last glimmer of hope
19:15
Speaker 1: they'll find out.
19:16
Speaker 5: When they die one day and go to heaven if
19:18
Speaker 5: anything happened to that bird.
19:19
Speaker 1: That's beautiful. In the end, I do turn to the Internet,
19:24
Speaker 1: using it like it's nineteen ninety five all over again.
19:28
Speaker 1: And I just got an AOL complimentary cd ram in
19:31
Speaker 1: the mail. I joined Facebook groups like the Parrot Posse
19:35
Speaker 1: and Lost and found cockatiels and other bird companions. I
19:40
Speaker 1: even bookmark a site called the Big List of National
19:43
Speaker 1: and International Bird Clubs, but that all yields nothing. So
19:48
Speaker 1: as if it's eighteen ninety five all over again. Ahoy HOI.
19:53
Speaker 1: I turned to the telephone.
19:57
Speaker 4: Thank you for calling Annie's mobile bird for me hi.
20:00
Speaker 11: Yah and miss scale brad bird choice parent the landing's
20:03
Speaker 11: on parrot sectuary gives the permanent home.
20:05
Speaker 7: I only have one.
20:06
Speaker 1: Macau is it read by any chance?
20:08
Speaker 7: No blue and gold?
20:12
Speaker 1: Of everyone I speak with, nobody has seen any trace
20:15
Speaker 1: of Harry, and nobody believes I'll ever be able to
20:18
Speaker 1: find her. To what do I owe the pleasure of
20:29
Speaker 1: this invitation? But then one day my producer, Mona puts
20:33
Speaker 1: a meeting on my calendar.
20:34
Speaker 2: As you know, we've been trying to find this parrot.
20:37
Speaker 1: Oh I know Harry, I do know that, and.
20:40
Speaker 11: I've been casting a whiter and whiter net because I
20:44
Speaker 11: feel like the feedback we've been getting is that like
20:45
Speaker 11: it's just like a shot in the dark.
20:47
Speaker 1: That's a very generous appraisal of what we've been getting,
20:50
Speaker 1: because to me, it feels like it's been more like, no,
20:53
Speaker 1: this is insane. You are not going to find this bird.
20:57
Speaker 1: Stop trying to find this bird.
20:59
Speaker 10: Sure.
21:00
Speaker 1: Mona explains that she's been poking around on pet databases and.
21:05
Speaker 11: I found some other parrots who kind of like had
21:08
Speaker 11: some our stories and looked old. And there was this one.
21:12
Speaker 11: What it came from?
21:12
Speaker 3: This?
21:13
Speaker 1: What makes a pair of look old? I think you
21:15
Speaker 1: can tell you're getting too deep?
21:17
Speaker 2: They look grizzled.
21:18
Speaker 1: Should I be concerned? Okay, do with me, Mona tells
21:23
Speaker 1: me her deep dive turned up a sanctuary we haven't
21:26
Speaker 1: tried yet.
21:27
Speaker 2: It's called Oasis.
21:29
Speaker 1: On the Oasis website, each of the hundreds of birds
21:32
Speaker 1: they house has its own profile page. Mona looked through
21:35
Speaker 1: every single one.
21:37
Speaker 2: And that is when I found this.
21:49
Speaker 6: Oh man, uh god, wow, I I don't know what
21:59
Speaker 6: to say.
22:11
Speaker 1: So this is a red macaw named Harry.
22:17
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
22:19
Speaker 1: Look at the right wing.
22:21
Speaker 4: I know.
22:22
Speaker 1: Oh, and look at the rings around the eye. Oh no,
22:25
Speaker 1: even the beak is similarly. Oh, this is compelling. This
22:30
Speaker 1: Harry looks identical to the photo of Harry that Ted
22:33
Speaker 1: and Todd sent me. So you have not called the
22:36
Speaker 1: Oasis sanctuary yet, I have not.
22:38
Speaker 2: I was thinking maybe now.
22:44
Speaker 1: The Oasis Sanctuary. This is Janet Trumbull, director of the Oasis.
22:49
Speaker 1: I mean, with great excitement, I explained my quest and
22:53
Speaker 1: his macaw was also named Harry. And so we begin
22:58
Speaker 1: comparing Harry's the Harry who lives at the oasis, Janet
23:02
Speaker 1: tells me arrived there as a Harry.
23:04
Speaker 5: Yep, he even says his name Harry.
23:07
Speaker 2: Really yeah, so I know when we walk up to Harry, he.
23:11
Speaker 1: Always says, hi, Harry. Janet refers to Harry as a
23:14
Speaker 1: he because she's done a DNA test. She says that
23:18
Speaker 1: otherwise it's nearly impossible to determine a parent's biological sex,
23:22
Speaker 1: so it would be understandable if Scott thought Harry or her.
23:27
Speaker 1: I asked Janet, what else she can tell me about Harry.
23:30
Speaker 12: So he came to us from California.
23:32
Speaker 1: Oh, not just California, Janet says, but southern California, an
23:38
Speaker 1: hour and a half away from Yucca Valley, where Scott
23:40
Speaker 1: had lived. It seems Harry was taken in by a
23:44
Speaker 1: family with young children who teased and harassed him. In
23:48
Speaker 1: their care, he grew increasingly aggressive, and so they had
23:51
Speaker 1: no choice but to surrender him to a woman in
23:54
Speaker 1: the area who fostered difficult birds. Eventually she brought Harry
23:58
Speaker 1: to the Oasis.
24:00
Speaker 12: She guessed his age at twenty two. I don't know
24:03
Speaker 12: how okay, okay, he arrived in twenty twenty.
24:09
Speaker 1: Our Harry hatched in the late nineties, so twenty two
24:12
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty lines up perfectly. Janet, that would be it. Yeah,
24:21
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Well this is very unexpected.
24:27
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's kind of cool.
24:30
Speaker 1: We found a macaw whose name is Harry, who's the
24:33
Speaker 1: right age and who's from the right place. So I
24:37
Speaker 1: get back in touch with Ted, Todd and the rest
24:40
Speaker 1: of the family. Hi High High, Hi, Hello, it's nice
24:44
Speaker 1: to see you all. I tell them about everything I've
24:47
Speaker 1: been up to over the last few months, the sanctuaries
24:50
Speaker 1: and bird groomers, the pet stores, Lori's, Disneyland, Jigglow, and
24:55
Speaker 1: finally I show them the photo of the Harry who
24:58
Speaker 1: lives at Janet Sanctuary in Arizona. Do you believe that
25:04
Speaker 1: this is Harry? Oh?
25:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that's Harry. Yeah, that's firstly I thought.
25:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, Ted and Todd are convinced this is Harry, But
25:14
Speaker 1: as a freshly minted bird journalist, I can't yet make
25:17
Speaker 1: the call. As Laurie told me, individual macaus are nearly
25:21
Speaker 1: impossible for people to identify. They all look the same. Birds,
25:26
Speaker 1: on the other hand, can tell humans apart just fine,
25:30
Speaker 1: So to truly confirm that this Harry is our Harry,
25:34
Speaker 1: we need to know whether he recognizes Ted and Todd.
25:37
Speaker 1: And for that there's really only one thing to do.
25:43
Speaker 1: I guess what I'm winding up to here is I've
25:46
Speaker 1: Google mapped the Bird Sanctuary oasis from this studio. It's
25:52
Speaker 1: a fourteen hour road trip. I'm not suggesting that you
25:57
Speaker 1: leave right now and we hit the road like Muppet
26:01
Speaker 1: movie style, but which you want to go there? Yeah,
26:07
Speaker 1: jure Chase? Is this Ted and Todd When they're excited,
26:14
Speaker 1: You're getting like pinata happiness here.
26:16
Speaker 3: I think with these two.
26:18
Speaker 8: It's hotter in hell in Arizona in July.
26:21
Speaker 1: But yeah, after the break, eight hundred miles to see
26:26
Speaker 1: about a bird, all right, we're here. Ultimately there was
26:48
Speaker 1: no road trip. Instead, the family decided to fly to Arizona.
26:53
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd said it was the first time they've
26:55
Speaker 1: flown in nearly three decades. The last had been for
26:58
Speaker 1: their father's funeral. Ted and Todd, Chase, Hannah, Todd's daughter Jessica,
27:03
Speaker 1: and two grandkids all meet me in a Tucson Walmart
27:06
Speaker 1: parking lot, and.
27:07
Speaker 9: Then Ted and Todd jumped out because they We're anxious
27:09
Speaker 9: to gather KRD smoke.
27:10
Speaker 1: Where are they smoking?
27:12
Speaker 2: Where by the propine takes?
27:13
Speaker 1: Are you serious? By the pro paine takes? Hannah, as
27:17
Speaker 1: it turns out, is serious. I find Ted and Todd
27:22
Speaker 1: sucking down Paul Maul's indeed beside the propane tanks, which
27:26
Speaker 1: thankfully are empty.
27:28
Speaker 3: Ah humid, it's humid.
27:35
Speaker 1: As people pass by, they can't help staring a little
27:38
Speaker 1: too long at the two identical men, tall and slim
27:42
Speaker 1: with long white hair. For Ted and Todd, who shy
27:45
Speaker 1: away from the limelight in all of its forms, who
27:48
Speaker 1: hate to be the focus of attention, To be so
27:51
Speaker 1: notable must be a special kind of hell. The Rubbernecker's rubberneck.
27:55
Speaker 1: While Ted and Todd flashed identical expressions on their identical faces,
28:00
Speaker 1: a look of complete blankness. Cigarettes smoked, We all pile
28:11
Speaker 1: into Ted and Todd's suv. From here, the Oasis and
28:16
Speaker 1: Harry are about forty five minutes away.
28:24
Speaker 12: Hi, nice to meet you, Ty Todd.
28:30
Speaker 1: Janet greets us at the entrance of the sanctuary.
28:33
Speaker 2: All right, well, let's go ahead and go inside.
28:35
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking the Oasis is home to twenty two
28:38
Speaker 1: separate aviaries housing hundreds of tropical birds, almost all of which,
28:43
Speaker 1: amazingly Janet knows by name.
28:46
Speaker 12: Bubbles that he's a Patagonian conyer.
28:49
Speaker 1: There's Cosmo, Tutsi, Molly, Sammy, Toby, and Modene. There's Oscar,
28:54
Speaker 1: a blue and gold macaw who Janet tells us recently
28:58
Speaker 1: lost her mate, and Congo and Timmy, a pair of
29:01
Speaker 1: African grays. There are two green wings, Tango and Cash,
29:05
Speaker 1: named for the Sylvester Stallone Kurt Russell film about two
29:08
Speaker 1: minus smashed lapd officers. But while that Tango and Cash
29:13
Speaker 1: enjoy shooting off firearms and punching people in the face,
29:16
Speaker 1: this Tango and Cash enjoy eating honeydew and philbirds. Somewhere
29:21
Speaker 1: among all these birds is Harry. I was just.
29:26
Speaker 12: Saying, when you guys pulled up, Harry was screaming.
29:29
Speaker 1: Do you think there is a chance that Harry will
29:33
Speaker 1: recognize these guys.
29:35
Speaker 2: It's very possible.
29:37
Speaker 12: It's hard to say, and because he's not a cuddly bird,
29:40
Speaker 12: you know, I'll have to kind of read his body language.
29:45
Speaker 1: As we get closer to Harry's enclosure, we suddenly hear
29:50
Speaker 1: kill Harry, Harry, Hi.
29:53
Speaker 12: Harry, Yes, Hi Harry, And there he is shuffling around
30:01
Speaker 12: on a tree branch.
30:03
Speaker 1: Throughout this whole quest, with all the phone calls and
30:06
Speaker 1: Internet searching, I'd forgotten how beautiful these birds are. Harry's
30:10
Speaker 1: feathers are so vivid, he makes the world around him
30:13
Speaker 1: seem black and white. Harry looks like Saturday Morning cartoons,
30:17
Speaker 1: ten thousand crayons, a sunset, and a room full of gogains,
30:22
Speaker 1: all set on fire. Looking at him, it makes sense
30:25
Speaker 1: that the most colorful brother, which choose a most colorful pet,
30:30
Speaker 1: but seated right beside Harry, almost wing to wing, is
30:34
Speaker 1: another very similar looking bird. It turns out that this
30:37
Speaker 1: is Harry's mate, Valentina. Harry met Valentina eight years ago
30:42
Speaker 1: at the Refuge for Difficult Birds. They came to the
30:45
Speaker 1: Oasis together, and Janet says, Harry and Valentina are inseparable.
30:50
Speaker 12: Yep, They're always like that, right together, and you can
30:54
Speaker 12: see he's being very protective of her. They have bonded,
31:00
Speaker 12: very strong bonds, so we won't ever separate those two.
31:04
Speaker 1: Harry sidles up to Valentina, and as he draws closer,
31:08
Speaker 1: I can see that that while Harry is indeed beautiful,
31:11
Speaker 1: his feathers are ruffled and patchy, and his tail is shredded.
31:15
Speaker 1: Janet says the loss of feathers is something he's done
31:18
Speaker 1: to himself. It's a behavior called plucking.
31:21
Speaker 12: It's very common for parrots in captivity to pluck.
31:25
Speaker 3: She says.
31:26
Speaker 1: Plucking can start when birds are stressed or frustrated or grieving.
31:31
Speaker 12: They do definitely grieve, Yeah, because their bonds are very deep.
31:36
Speaker 2: Yeah.
31:39
Speaker 1: It's hard to tell how Janet's words are affecting Ted
31:41
Speaker 1: and Todd, but I suspect it might be adding to
31:44
Speaker 1: their guilt, exacerbating their own tendency to pluck. That the
31:48
Speaker 1: many should haves and could haves.
31:52
Speaker 4: Talk to him.
31:55
Speaker 1: He remembers, you we all step back and allow Ted
31:59
Speaker 1: and Todd's space to approach. All eyes are on them,
32:03
Speaker 1: and with all the self consciousness of two self conscious
32:06
Speaker 1: men who must address a bird before a crowd of
32:08
Speaker 1: family and near strangers.
32:10
Speaker 10: They begin, Hi, Harry, Hello, Harry, how are you see Yah?
32:24
Speaker 2: She's responding.
32:26
Speaker 1: Harry's body language shifts. He leans towards Ted and Todd.
32:30
Speaker 1: See how he's sitting forward. It's okay, look at ams
32:36
Speaker 1: just looking at him?
32:37
Speaker 3: You're okay?
32:41
Speaker 2: So I see some recognition there.
32:45
Speaker 1: It looks like we found our bird. Harry starts to
32:51
Speaker 1: come closer, but Valentina reaches forward with her beak and
32:54
Speaker 1: tugs on his feathers.
32:55
Speaker 12: It looks like Valentina's keeps pulling him back, is what
32:59
Speaker 12: I'm seeing. Like he does want to engage, but then
33:02
Speaker 12: she says no and gives him a little little nip.
33:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, she looks like, you get upset it.
33:10
Speaker 7: We can leave you alone, we can let you be buddy.
33:16
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd are reluctant to be a nuisance. They
33:19
Speaker 1: decide to leave the enclosure, and we all file out
33:22
Speaker 1: behind them. At last, Ted and Todd have found Harry,
33:35
Speaker 1: and although worse for where, he's okay. Still Ted and
33:39
Speaker 1: Todd don't seem satisfied.
33:41
Speaker 7: I think I just felt like, you know, you're.
33:46
Speaker 3: It's just disappointing.
33:50
Speaker 1: It's like they were hoping for something more, something closer
33:53
Speaker 1: to forgiveness. But what does forgiveness from a bird even?
33:57
Speaker 3: Look like? Let's go ahead and get out of here. Yeah,
34:02
Speaker 3: I hate everybody watching. I hated everybody watching.
34:10
Speaker 4: Well shall we go on?
34:13
Speaker 1: Half heartedly? Ted and Todd acquiesce and Janet continues the tour.
34:18
Speaker 1: She shows us the monk parakeets who look nothing like
34:21
Speaker 1: Tony Shaloub.
34:22
Speaker 12: Smaller species Kanyer's Quakers.
34:26
Speaker 1: She shows us the lovebirds, of whom I consider asking
34:28
Speaker 1: Janet if she's ever caught making whoopie bloodbirds can be
34:32
Speaker 1: extremely aggressive, but reconsider, and she shows us a rose
34:37
Speaker 1: breasted cockatoo, the Samantha Jones of the aviary Good bad
34:41
Speaker 1: men a love. While I'm having the time of my
34:46
Speaker 1: life watching Nature's drones all throughout the tour, Ted and
34:51
Speaker 1: Todd LaGG behind. It's only while engrossed by a parrot
34:54
Speaker 1: named Lady Gray and her ability to repeat the word cracker.
34:59
Speaker 1: Did you hear that?
35:00
Speaker 4: Cracker?
35:02
Speaker 1: Cracker, that I look around and see that Ted and
35:05
Speaker 1: Todd have disappeared. It's only later on, when reviewing the
35:09
Speaker 1: tape that I realized where they disappeared too.
35:13
Speaker 3: Oh, welcome to see Harry one last time? Yeah about
35:18
Speaker 3: the hord? Mmm without the hord.
35:22
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd had doubled back to see Harry without
35:25
Speaker 1: the horde.
35:27
Speaker 7: Hi, guys, Hello Harry, Hi Harry.
35:31
Speaker 3: Where does go friend? Though he's.
35:37
Speaker 1: This time? When Ted and Todd show up, just the
35:39
Speaker 1: two of them, Valentina stands back and Harry makes his
35:42
Speaker 1: way down the branch. He seems to feel safe. Yeah,
35:47
Speaker 1: and Ted and Todd seemed to feel safe too. Without
35:51
Speaker 1: the expectant eyes of the group upon them, they can
35:53
Speaker 1: finally ask the question they really want to ask, that
35:56
Speaker 1: they've flown across the country for.
35:59
Speaker 3: Do you remember Scott? You remember Scott?
36:06
Speaker 13: To that.
36:08
Speaker 3: He's watching.
36:10
Speaker 1: Harry doesn't respond, but then Todd has an idea.
36:15
Speaker 7: Harry, son of a bitch.
36:17
Speaker 1: He starts cursing like a constipated French sailor.
36:21
Speaker 7: God damn it, Harry, God damn it, Harry. Come here, Harry,
36:25
Speaker 7: Come here.
36:28
Speaker 1: Harry takes a couple more Leary steps down his branch.
36:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, sound like Scott.
36:39
Speaker 1: It sounded like Scott, says Ted. Now at this point,
36:44
Speaker 1: I've listened back to this tape hundreds of times. I'm
36:49
Speaker 1: not sure what I hear. It does kind of sound
36:53
Speaker 1: like he's saying Scott, sort of. But I guess it
36:57
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what I hear. What matters is what Ted
37:00
Speaker 1: and Todd hear. And it seems like they hear forgiveness.
37:07
Speaker 7: I'm glad you're okay, Hey, leave them alone?
37:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, probably.
37:17
Speaker 7: Bye, Harry, say bye.
37:21
Speaker 3: Bye.
37:24
Speaker 1: The two near identical men wave goodbye to the two
37:27
Speaker 1: near identical birds.
37:30
Speaker 3: I'm glad he's going all right. Yeah, that's.
37:34
Speaker 1: And with that, Ted and Todd go back to the group,
37:37
Speaker 1: and Harry and Valentina go back to living that outlaw life.
37:42
Speaker 1: In the end, Harry has something neither Ted nor Todd
37:45
Speaker 1: nor any human could have given him. He's paired in
37:48
Speaker 1: this world with one of his own. Of all people,
37:52
Speaker 1: Ted and Todd should be able to appreciate that. And
38:01
Speaker 1: so with this last deed for their brother Don, there's
38:05
Speaker 1: only one last deed to do.
38:07
Speaker 7: Do you have a sagarette with you? Let's go back
38:10
Speaker 7: over here. They're gonna give us so much of ship
38:15
Speaker 7: about it. I don't know to deal with these shirts,
38:20
Speaker 7: no fucking hockets, No this, honey, mad youre always go everything.
38:23
Speaker 7: I gotta mature in the market.
39:09
Speaker 13: That the furnitures returning.
39:12
Speaker 4: To its goodwill home. Now that the last month's rent
39:20
Speaker 4: is scheme with the damage to pros, take this moment
39:25
Speaker 4: to do so, if we meant it, if we talk
39:33
Speaker 4: were felt around for five from things Good.
39:38
Speaker 1: Accidentally, this episode of Heavyweight was produced by Phoebe Flanagan,
39:47
Speaker 1: Mohemy mcgouger, and me Jonathan Goldstein. Our Senior producer is
39:51
Speaker 1: Khaleila holt Our, Supervising Producer is Stevie Lane. Special thanks
39:55
Speaker 1: to mime O'Donnell, Lauren Silverman and Catherine Brewer. And special
39:59
Speaker 1: thanks as always to the one and only Jackie Cohen.
40:02
Speaker 1: Editorial guidance from Emily Condon. Bobby Lord mixed the episode
40:06
Speaker 1: with original music by Christine Fellows, John K. Sampson, Blue
40:09
Speaker 1: Dot Sessions, and Bobby Lord. Additional music credits can be
40:12
Speaker 1: found on our website Gimbletmedia dot com slash Heavyweight. Our
40:16
Speaker 1: theme song is by The Weaker Thans courtesy of Epitaph Records.
40:19
Speaker 1: Follow us on Twitter at Heavyweight or on Instagram at
40:22
Speaker 1: Heavyweight Podcast, and we have a new email address, Heavyweightshow
40:26
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. As you may have heard, this
40:31
Speaker 1: is our last episode as a show with Spotify. It's
40:35
Speaker 1: been eight years. I can't believe it, but we're looking
40:39
Speaker 1: for a new home and I have a feeling we're
40:41
Speaker 1: going to be back soon. So please stay tuned, stay subscribed,
40:45
Speaker 1: and truly thank you for all the great years. Play
40:49
Speaker 1: us out.
40:49
Speaker 13: Weaker Thans sign in an empty.
41:12
Speaker 4: So take a minute.
41:16
Speaker 13: Sadaze by ninety million long Lean Miles, watch a shadow
41:25
Speaker 13: across you.
41:28
Speaker 4: We don't live here anymore.
42:28
Speaker 7: The entirely shocked of the scene it ever airs. If
42:31
Speaker 7: what if this scene ever airs? Oh yeah, I wouldn't
42:34
Speaker 7: think so.