Latest / Heavyweight / 2025 Update: Buzz

Transcript

2025 Update: Buzz · Heavyweight

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hello, Khalila Holt, don't scare me like that. I'm sorry,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: my god. Welcome to the studio.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: So now that we find ourselves at our new home
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: at Pushkin Industries.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Like you're reading it for the first time.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: We're celebrating some of our past accomplishments in the form
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: of encore presentations. Encore Ravisimo. Today we're going to be
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: listening to the very first Heavyweight. Yeah, an episode called
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Buzz and it's.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: An episode that's personal to you.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: It's spoiler alert, Sorry, yes it is. It is Buzz
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: is my father.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: I really enjoy your dad. Whenever I get to hear
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: from him, it warms my heart.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Oh that's so nice. Yeah, my father has well I'm
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: not going to say that my wife married me because
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: of my father, but I'm sure it didn't hurt because
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: she's a very big Columbo fan Peter Falk, and my
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: father sounds a lot like he's of that generation. In fact,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: he would have grown up in Brooklyn around the same
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: time as Peter Falk. But anyway, Yeah, this was the
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: blueprint for Heavyweight. And it was out of this episode
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: that I thought maybe I could use my powers of
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: interlocution to help others as I was helping my family,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: why not spread the wealth?
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you thought I'm so good at this that I
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: got to do more.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: When you have mammoth gifts like that, I mean you
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: have a responsibility to share it.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: So well, without further ado.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Let's listen to the episode and stick around after for
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: an update from your dad.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: But first, oh, but first, a word from our sponsors.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Thank you sponsors, Miss Holt.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Before you go, if I could just ask you one
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: more thing. That's very interesting that you wear combs Ye
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: from Gimblet Media. This is Jonathan Goldstein, your old pal.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Is that is that was called Gimblet Gimblet Media.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: That's correct. It sounds like giblets, the inside of a chicken,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: like all the innerds. Well, everybody loves giblets.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: You, oh ship, they're my kids.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, I'm up here. Do you know what my
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: new podcast is about. I know, I don't know anything
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: about it. Each week, I travel into people's pasts to
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: help them repair something that's been troubling them.
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: M hmm.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: I'm sort of like a therapist, like a therapist, So yeah,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: do you find out? Do you find that funny? I supportive.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: That's the laughter of support.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: I think it's great.
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: I think it's great.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Do you have any questions for me about what my
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: show is and what it's going to be, Like, what's
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the name of your show?
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: What's the name of your show?
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, we're gonna go now, but Johnson's just about tell
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: me the name of his new show. As soon as
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: he tells me, I'm going to bang down on him
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: in five.
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: Remember to do that.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Yes, to hang up the phone on each other. Okay, ready, Yes,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the name of the show is Heavyweight, Heavyweight, you get it?
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: Two one.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: Hello.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Hello from Gimblet Media. I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Heavyweight Today's episode.
• 3:47
  Speaker 7: Buzz.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: Hello, Hey Dad, Hi Johnny.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Hey, how you doing good?
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: You good?
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Good?
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: Good? Yum Tivova, what's that?
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure? This is my father, Buzz. I'm calling
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: him at his home in Montreal. And the reason we're
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: talking crazy talk is because it's young Kipper the Jewish
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: day of Atonement, which seems as good a day as
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: any to talk with him about forgiveness. So I wanted
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: to I wanted to ask you something and I just
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: wanted to gauge your interest. Yeah, how would you feel
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: about paying your brother Sheldon a visit.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: I have no feelings, die, I'm not really interested.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: You're not no. My father, Buzz is eighty and his brother, Sheldon,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: his only sibling, is eighty five, and for the past
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: forty years they've pretty much been on the outs. My
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: father lives in Montreal and Sheldon lives in Florida, and
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: the last time they saw each other over twenty years ago,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: was at their mother's funeral when they had a fight
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: over the details of the arrangements. Since then, they've hardly spoken.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: It worries me because there's no not a lot of
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: time left, and I don't want my father to have regrets.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: When the subject of his brother comes up, as it
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: often has over the years, my father feels competing things.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: He grows angry or defensive, but other times he'll become
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: sad and remorseful. And it's the sorrow and the remorse
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: that I like best, because it's these feelings that I
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: believe speak to his better self, the self I want
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: to encourage. I'm not surprised that you're not jumping at
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: the idea, but I'm a little surprised that yours against
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: the idea Yeah.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: Time's passed. He hasn't shown much interest, so I'm respecting
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: that and I leave alone.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: What he did do was he he called you on
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: your eightieth birthday not so long ago, and you.
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: Felt good about it to him on his eightieth birthday.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: This kind of tit for tat accounting is what always
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: gets in the way. There's been a competition between the
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: brothers since I was a kid. I remember how in
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: my grandmother's small New York kitchen, Sheldon and Buzz got
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: into an argument who could do the most push ups,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: and the next thing I knew, my father was pulling
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: off his shirt and dropping to the kitchen floor in
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: his undershirt. My mother, not used to seeing the side
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: of him, stood over my father, flapping a dishtowel hysterically
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: while begging him to the point of tears to please stop.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Now you go, my father said, rising from the floor
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: when he was done. But Sheldon shook his head with
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: a smile. It was like he didn't even think my
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: father was worth the effort.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: You know what it is at this point with him,
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: I'll tell you what it is. I don't think it's
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: even anger. He's past anger, and he's passed any feelings
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: of animosity. He's passed that. He just doesn't care. Yeah,
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: you know that's apathy. I mean, sometimes at least hate
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: or love their emotions. Apathy is nothing.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what.
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: Johnny as a child, even when I was ten, when
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: I was nine, and I was crazy about him. We
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: had a great you know, I loved him. He was
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: the older brother.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: He was hello, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm listening.
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: Uh, you know. I just looked up to him, and
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: he had older friends. Sometimes he'd take me along with
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: him and he was good. Hey, somebody trying to somebody
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: trying to call here, binging.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Me here, don't you see, Buzz? It's father time? Who
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: is bringing you here? And Buzz loses track of time.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Air Conditioners remain boxed all through July, and expired coupons
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: from the mid nineties make plump his wallet, So I
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: worry he'll put off reaching out to Sheldon until it's
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: too late. The most complicated question, the one I keep
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: coming back to, is how did the bad blood begin?
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: And there are many versions. An ill fated trip to Montreal,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: where Sheldon felt slighted about having to stay in my
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: father's basement, an ill fated trip to New York, where
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: my father felt slighted about having to stay in Sheldon's
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: attic rude word spoken to each other's wives. In one
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: version of the story, Sheldon's refusal to bring a table
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: to my brisk almost resulted in my being circumcised on
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: an ironing board. But in the version being told today,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: my father was asked by Sheldon to pay more than
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: his fair share for their mother's funeral, and I.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: Said, you always working some kind of an angle. So
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: he got furious. He got furious. He started screaming into
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: the phone, go to hell, drop dead, bah bah bayh.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: And was that was how that ended. But I feel
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: he's the kind of guy that the gun. He has
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: angles like that, you know, he has angles. I always
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: felt I was on the up and up with him
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: and he wasn't with me.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: If you've got a stronger sense that he was interested
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: in seeing you, then would you.
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, you would be my g I wouldn't play
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: the house though, that's out of the question.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, quick sidebar. Anytime I've ever raised the prospect of
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: visiting Sheldon, no matter how hypothetical the scenario, my father
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: always makes a point of insisting how no matter what,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: he would not stay in Sheldon's house, even if he
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: was invited to, which I should point out he never is.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't stay at his house. How come you I
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: wouldn't stay there? I mean, not my thing?
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: How come you always bring that up? I mean, normally,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: when someone goes to visit someone that they haven't seen
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: in decades, don't stay at a hotel, you.
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: Know, I would stay at a motel or somewhere near hetel.
• 9:39
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: No, we'd get a place, you know, with an ice machine.
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: And uh, you know why you want to You're interested
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: in making a trip.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm interested. Do you think that there's anything
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: to be gained in seeing him?
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: Hm?
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: I guess there's something. Then, you know, you share your
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: common experience and talk about the old days, and there
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: are things that only he and I I can remember,
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: you know, yeah, you know you What you could do
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: is you could call him and see what what what
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: what his attitude is? You know, it depends on you,
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: know how how, how how you feel, what kind of
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: receptions you get?
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I would. I would be happy to
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: do that.
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: I like your initial suggestion that you call him feel
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: him out and see what he's like.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Okay. I didn't suggest that, but you you suggested that.
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I like that just because you'll give me an
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: honest you'll give me an honest reaction.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: I'm happy to do it. But I mean, what, what
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: what are you looking for from? From? What do you
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: want to hear from him?
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: I missed my brother. I would like to see him. Okay,
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: that's all. Okay, you understand, and you come back on
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: me with an honest evaluation.
• 11:11
  Speaker 9: Hello, Sheldon, Yeah, speaking hi that it was quite a
• 11:17
  Speaker 9: shock getting your phone call, you said, Johnath. Yeah, my
• 11:23
  Speaker 9: hearing is not that great, okay. And when I heard
• 11:27
  Speaker 9: the first message, I'm saying, who the heck is that?
• 11:30
  Speaker 9: I don't know anybody by that name.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Sheldon now lives outside of Fort Lauderdale, but my few
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: memories of him are from when he lived in upstate
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: New York. I remember he lived in a trailer. I
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: remember that he worked at a local prison, that he
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: smoked cigars, that he looked a little like my father,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: but was hunched, like the world was weighing down on him.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: And he always wore this expression on his face that
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: seemed to say, you gotta be kidding me. You're keeping okay,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: you're keeping occupied.
• 11:59
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I read a lot. I going to gym. I
• 12:04
  Speaker 9: go shopping. Hi, you know, here and there, little things
• 12:08
  Speaker 9: here and there, and so.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: You still go. How often you go to.
• 12:11
  Speaker 9: The gym three times a week?
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: Wow?
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: And what kind of stuff do you do there?
• 12:18
  Speaker 7: Well?
• 12:18
  Speaker 9: I do about twenty minutes of aerobics, uh huh, and
• 12:24
  Speaker 9: then I do a little weight training. I try to
• 12:28
  Speaker 9: flirt a little with the women there.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, my father also goes to the gym. That's
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: a part of his routine. Also, he was happy to
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: hear from you on his eightieth birthday.
• 12:45
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 12:45
  Speaker 9: Well he didn't call me on my eighty fifth though.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Tit meet tat Yeah, like, so, you know, maybe we
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: could go out for dinner. I don't know that kind
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: of thing.
• 13:01
  Speaker 9: Uh huh. Well, what kind of time frame are we
• 13:07
  Speaker 9: talking about here?
• 13:18
  Speaker 7: I don't know.
• 13:20
  Speaker 10: Our lives have been much different. I don't know how
• 13:23
  Speaker 10: much we have to have in common anymore.
• 13:27
  Speaker 7: Yeah, we don't have We don't have much in common
• 13:33
  Speaker 7: anymore except the fact that we're elderly and retired.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: Other than that, I.
• 13:39
  Speaker 10: Don't know what we have in common.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: You have your past in common?
• 13:45
  Speaker 10: Yes, I'll tell you honestly, I'm not a very sentimental person,
• 13:53
  Speaker 10: and I think, and I being a pragmatist, I take
• 13:58
  Speaker 10: things the way they are. I try not to dwell
• 14:02
  Speaker 10: upon the past, and I try not to take people
• 14:09
  Speaker 10: the way I remember them, but as they are.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Do you think that makes things easier, makes.
• 14:19
  Speaker 10: Things easier for me?
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Do other people around you? Sometimes? Doesn't make it
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: harder for other people around you ever.
• 14:33
  Speaker 10: To be honest with you, I've been in the last
• 14:38
  Speaker 10: few years, I've been a loner. You would basically almost
• 14:43
  Speaker 10: call me a recluse. I don't socialize with many people,
• 14:51
  Speaker 10: and I really don't give a damn what anybody thinks.
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and.
• 15:00
  Speaker 10: Contrary to popular believe, I like being alone by myself.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: I get along with myself. Well yeah, look, I don't
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: want to be rude. Yeah, yeah, but I want to
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: go have my lunch.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fine. It's fine, Sheldon. I
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: appreciate your talking to me, and you would be amenable
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: to spending some time.
• 15:29
  Speaker 10: Why not. We are brothers.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: I mean, we're not closer or anything, but.
• 15:35
  Speaker 10: You know, we're not going to have a chance to
• 15:37
  Speaker 10: see each other much in the future.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, is that anything that you think about.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: Not much now.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: And so I call my father back and let him
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: know that Sheldon is amenable. And because I know that
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: for my father the days tend to pile up like
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: unboxed air conditioners, I have my mother get on the
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: phone to help nail down a firm travel date and
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Dad he wants to go, if Dad wants to go,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: if he wants.
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: To go next weekend.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: We don't have to go on the weekend. We can
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: go during the week.
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, comes, as you know, you caught me off. God,
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: how about it. I'll call you Wednesday or Thursday.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: How's that today's Monday or yeah, or even if you
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: feel like calling tomorrow, you can call me.
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, I'll probably I'll call you at the latest Thursday, to.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Get the Thursday at the latest, that's three days from today. Okay,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: all right, you do what you want to do.
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: You call me, but I'll call you a Thursday.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Coming up after the break Thursday. And so on Thursday,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: possibly with a little nudging for my mother, Buzz agrees,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: And then my father and I are off to Florida
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: to visit my uncle Sheldon too.
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: And then you have an address, Yeah, I do Okay.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: My dad and I meet up at the Fort Lauderdale Airport.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: I flew from New York and my dad from Montreal.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: My father's all dressed up, wearing a faux Swaede sports
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: jacket that I've never seen him in. We grab our
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: airport rental and prepare for the two hour drive to
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Sheldon in the ninety degree heat. It's immediately made clear
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: that faux swayed might not have been the best fashioned choice.
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: It's like we're on a safariy.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: You on the road to Sheldon's. My father will experience
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: a spectrum of feelings as we first set out. There's excitement.
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: You know, my brother was funny in a lot of ways.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: I could laugh.
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: We're gonna have laughed with him, you know what I mean.
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: He's a very funny man.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: A half an hour in and there's bitterness.
• 18:05
  Speaker 11: We invited him to your baments and he returned a
• 18:08
  Speaker 11: very cold calld. Sorry we will not be attending, you know,
• 18:13
  Speaker 11: so mean, you know what I mean? Even the writing.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: An hour in and how is Buzz feeling?
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: I'm relaxed.
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: I'm kind of old to get anxious, you know what
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: I mean?
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Half an hour to Sheldon's a.
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: Little bit apprehensive.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Now, yeah, ten minutes to Sheldon's and buzzes feeling all right, Yeah,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: he's feeling a little.
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: Uh No, it's gonna be strange.
• 18:41
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it's gonna be very strange. I mean the man
• 18:45
  Speaker 6: is a stranger to me now, and yet he's my brother.
• 18:48
  Speaker 8: You understand.
• 18:48
  Speaker 6: It's a very strange feeling.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:53
  Speaker 6: I wonder if he's getting nervous, maybe because he's waiting
• 18:58
  Speaker 6: for us, right, yeah, yell set yeah.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Oh it's hot, it's really hot. Sheldon lives in the
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: corner house on a quiet suburban street ring the bell.
• 19:19
  Speaker 8: I guess is this his door?
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I'll double check maybe because there.
• 19:26
  Speaker 12: Is, Yeah, thank you, I smell the good smell of cigar.
• 19:44
  Speaker 8: There had become a monk may.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: And after all the years and the worry and the dread,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: things seem to be going swimmingly. We sit down at
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Sheldon's kitchen table and my father gets right into it.
• 19:57
  Speaker 8: Now, there's things I want to know.
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: You said that Rainy died.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: The dead are a good place to begin as a subject.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: They're easily agreed upon and not likely to spark a fight.
• 20:09
  Speaker 8: The uncle died, The uncle died. He was the youngest brother. Oh,
• 20:13
  Speaker 8: he died long ago.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: He died.
• 20:15
  Speaker 8: Oh you know who died, real prick.
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I didn't know him that well, he didn't know Yeah, yeah.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Nish.
• 20:27
  Speaker 8: Shocking. Yeah he was fat.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: He was fat, red head.
• 20:30
  Speaker 8: Red head right, yeah yeah.
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: Remember remember Johnny, Johnny was a sax man.
• 20:37
  Speaker 8: Ye, Johnny, he would fuck a dog on the street
• 20:40
  Speaker 8: if you sort of dog. He tried to fuck the dog.
• 20:49
  Speaker 8: Can I get you guys a cold beer?
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: I'd like a beer, olive beer.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Even though they're in their eighties, Sheldon and buzz Stop
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: possessed voices and temperaments suited to shouting out Brooklyn tenement windows. Well,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: my voice, olive beer is best suited to asking a
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: waitress if there will be a sharing charge. I forgot
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: about that.
• 21:11
  Speaker 8: Sorry.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Case in point this is Sheldon accidentally swiping a portable
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: microphone receiver off the kitchen table and me trying to
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: smooth things over.
• 21:20
  Speaker 8: This off. Well, it's annoying.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: You just put it in the in your pocket there.
• 21:25
  Speaker 8: Just take it off, please, thank you.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Over the next couple of days, my testes will flee
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: like frightened cockroaches, upward, ascending to heights not seen since
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the bar Mitzvah that Sheldon was not attending. And while
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: we're on the subject of testes, here's Sheldon reminiscing about
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the time he was examined for a rupture by their
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: family doctor.
• 21:48
  Speaker 8: Me and Wilie Rosen were joining the weightlifting Yep, say
• 21:52
  Speaker 8: you how to be tested for a rupture? Hey, I
• 21:55
  Speaker 8: remem being put his hand onto my balls. I started
• 21:59
  Speaker 8: left and so hot, I pissed right in his hand.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: Hey.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Over the years, I've seen my father in the role
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: of husband, uncle, and grandfather, but I've never really seen
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: him in the role of younger brother. How odd to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: see it now at eighty he sits beside Sheldon with
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: this expression I've never seen on his face. It's wide eyed,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: sweet and deferential. But as the day wears on, Sheldon
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: and Buzz began to squabble over their memories, fighting over
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: every little detail.
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: Remember the hallabaloo we had with the diet, head diet.
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: That heavy set girl a manicurist. She was a head
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: dying manicurist. No, she was a head dying. Here's what happened.
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: She went over to Earth.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: They even argue over the death of their grandmother.
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: I have found her body. My mother was across the
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: street a Greenborough. I remember walk and I knew she
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: was dead. I never saw a dead body of my life,
• 22:59
  Speaker 5: but I knew she was dead.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Sure, so wait till you found her, or you found her.
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: I remember looking in on the room and see how
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: I said it was awfully I found them.
• 23:10
  Speaker 8: But let him no, I'm not some credit.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: The whole afternoon is like this. Every subject, even their
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: dead grandmother, somehow becomes fodder for another pissing match. They're
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: burning up all this time with small talk, when what
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: they need is some big talk. In particular, they need
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: to address a story that I know who. It's a
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: great deal of meaning for my father. It took place
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty nine, on the day their mother left them.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: I've only ever heard the story from my father, never
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: from Sheldon. I wanted to ask what you remember, what
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: your perspective?
• 23:48
  Speaker 8: Well, I remember that time was when Pop was smacking
• 23:53
  Speaker 8: Iran and she ran out in the hole in her
• 23:55
  Speaker 8: slip fighting in the hole, he was smacking around. She
• 24:01
  Speaker 8: ran out. Yeah, so what happened the next morning?
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: The next morning, Yeah, look in a closet, her clothes
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: were gone.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Oh, what happened? After this, and my father's telling is
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: that his mother returned soon after she left with a
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: policeman in tow.
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: And they came back to try to get you.
• 24:22
  Speaker 8: They wanted you to come back with them, and where
• 24:27
  Speaker 8: were you? I was there, but they were trying to
• 24:29
  Speaker 8: drag you out of the house.
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: You weren't trying to grin Now, no, no, I can say,
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: with my father and grandma.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: And mother, this is the point of the story. For
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: my father, It proves once and for all how his
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: mother loved Sheldon more than she loved him. Sheldon didn't
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: move out with her, and after a year their mother returned,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: and together Buzz and Sheldon grew up under the same
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: roof in the same bedroom, often sleeping under the same blankets,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: each knowing who the mother had chosen, and each having
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: to do their best to carry on and live life
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: with the burden of that knowledge. A couple times during
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: the day I asked them why they haven't spoken in
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: so long, and they both insist, maybe out of embarrassment,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: that they do talk, just not often. But it isn't true.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: In fact, my father learned of Sheldon's wife's death many
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: years after the fact, and then only from me. Sheldon's
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: daughter got in touch through Facebook and we made a
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: phone date where she caught me up on her life
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: in Sheldon's and a few nights later, while over at
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: my parents for dinner, I told my father of his
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: sister in law's death. There was a terrible look that
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: fell across his face, one of sadness, but something else too,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: maybe shock over just how far he and Sheldon had drifted.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: I found out about Judy, about her death, your wife.
• 26:06
  Speaker 8: I didn't know about it either until you told me. Yeah,
• 26:09
  Speaker 8: didn't I tell you? You didn't know about her? No, we
• 26:13
  Speaker 8: didn't know. We didn't know she was sick about two years. Yeah, Judy, Well,
• 26:25
  Speaker 8: when she got the diagnosis, she was already stage four.
• 26:32
  Speaker 8: What did I know about cancer? So the surgeon, so,
• 26:37
  Speaker 8: he said, So, I said, well, doctor, how did the
• 26:40
  Speaker 8: surgery go? I always show you. I went very well.
• 26:44
  Speaker 8: But the cancer is in her liver. Now, I was spreading.
• 26:50
  Speaker 8: I said, it's in he'll liver. I said what? And
• 26:55
  Speaker 8: on top of that, I'm driving home, I'm all fucked up,
• 26:59
  Speaker 8: and I'm Space style and my driver windows open, and
• 27:03
  Speaker 8: some kids pull up alongside me and flip a lit
• 27:07
  Speaker 8: cigarette into my car you know where I usually, I commented,
• 27:22
  Speaker 8: buy myself on the ball. They got a waitress there
• 27:25
  Speaker 8: who always waits on me. He takes Cook.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Canady for dinner. Sheldon takes us to a local outback steakhouse.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: As people walk by, he provides a running commentary of
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: an elderly couple.
• 27:39
  Speaker 8: Don't get like that couple. Whatever you did, it's time
• 27:42
  Speaker 8: for the execution.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Of an overweight couple.
• 27:48
  Speaker 8: People are fat.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: It's as though he's sharpening his with readying it for
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: the main event. Teasing my dad about Canada.
• 27:57
  Speaker 8: I don't know how you could take Canada on your life.
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: So you got nice neighbors, it's nice, It's okay.
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 28:06
  Speaker 8: I wasn't gonna say, you're living in the same.
• 28:08
  Speaker 11: Place about thirty five, thirty eight years something like that.
• 28:14
  Speaker 8: I'm happy here. Yeah. Yeah.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: For my father, I know this is a touchy subject,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: believing as he always has, that Sheldon looks down on
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: him for the dinkiness of his Canadian life and home.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: It's like a constant reminder of just who is second best. Later,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: my father will repeat Sheldon's words. You're still living in
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: that same place, He'll say, for how many years? But
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: just then I watch my father clench and unclench his
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: jaw as he does when he is brooding. I know
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: he's trying to take the high road, trying not to
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: ruin the evening what.
• 28:48
  Speaker 8: Two hundred dollars and thirty cent said, I kidd.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Sheldon invites us back to his place for cookies, but
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: my father says he isn't up for it. Thank you,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: And as we walk through the restaurant parking to the car,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: my father is silent. I find myself feeling protective of him.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: After midnight, lying awake in our hotel, my father insisted
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: we stay at one. I lay in bed thinking about
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: that day in nineteen thirty nine when my grandmother came
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: back for Sheldon, not my father. For my father, not
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: only did it push him away from Sheldon, making him
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: feel jealous and resentful, but it also cast a shadow
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: over the rest of his life, causing him to always
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: feel passed over. He's mellowed with age, but as a kid,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: I saw it come out in all kinds of ways,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: always sensitive to slights, ready for a fight at the
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: smallest perceived defense. I wonder if there's a different way
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: for my father to see things, if there is the
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: only living person in this world who can help is Sheldon.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: When their mom left, Sheldon was nine, my father five.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Sheldon would have understood a lot more than my father. Yesterday,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Buzz and Sheldon talked like a couple of kids who
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: used to play stickball in the old neighborhood. Today, if
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: me and my big fat meddling yap have any sway,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: they'll have a chance to talk as men, as brothers
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: even because if not. Now when day two, this.
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: Is a damn good cigar, he well, Dominican Republican. They
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: make a damn good cigar in Dominical Republic.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Despite the difficulties of last night, the coin is flipped
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: back to the good side. Sheldon offers my father a cigar,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: and with a cigar, some cigar talk, some pretty foul
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: cigar talk.
• 30:47
  Speaker 8: We're riding Mount Queens Boulevard. Johnny's in the back seat
• 30:51
  Speaker 8: with the whole He's got his naked ass up in
• 30:54
  Speaker 8: the air and he's hum Well, the funny thing is
• 30:58
  Speaker 8: we had to stop for a light and there's a
• 31:01
  Speaker 8: truck driver sitting in the cab bump high.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: So if you guys missed each other, what do you
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: miss each other?
• 31:17
  Speaker 8: You know? He asked the weirdest question, what is he abroad?
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: No, I mean, I don't know. That's you know, eager
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: to prove to my uncle Sheldon that in spite of
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: the fact I'm wearing my wife's travel deodorant, I am
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: indeed not abroad. I allow them to return to more
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: pressing matters. They're prostates, that said Jesus.
• 31:38
  Speaker 8: He says, your prestate feels like the moon craters in there.
• 31:42
  Speaker 8: He said. I said, thank you, doctor, complimenting.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: So if I could steer this away from the prostrates,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: and so my father said that it's significant to him
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: to have come. What do you say?
• 31:56
  Speaker 8: I agree with whatever he said?
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: But what about you?
• 31:59
  Speaker 8: I said, I agree with whatever he said. Do you
• 32:02
  Speaker 8: want to written?
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: I know it feels like I'm getting a taste of
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: what growing up with Sheldon have been like. So again
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: I make my move. So I have some questions just
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: about because the stories that I know from my father.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: But I'm curious what your take is because you were older,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: do you remember what was going on when your mom
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: when your mother left? Originally like what, what?
• 32:33
  Speaker 8: Why?
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: And what was going on?
• 32:35
  Speaker 8: Didn't you cover this ground before yesterday?
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: But from my father's perspective, the way I understood it
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: was always you were the favorite. Did you did you
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: feel that way? At this point, Sheldon's face suddenly softens.
• 32:50
  Speaker 8: I always felt that I got the short end of
• 32:53
  Speaker 8: the stick.
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah, but you have You were kind of a favorite
• 32:57
  Speaker 5: with my mom.
• 32:59
  Speaker 8: Yeah. Maybe with mom, of course maybe. Temperamentally we were
• 33:04
  Speaker 8: closer than I was with my father. My father never
• 33:09
  Speaker 8: a me spit. Did you ever get any money from
• 33:12
  Speaker 8: my father? I can't remember. You never got a line? Now,
• 33:18
  Speaker 8: I can't remember you never One time I sprained my
• 33:21
  Speaker 8: ankle so bad. That was that was terrible. I laid
• 33:25
  Speaker 8: in that bed my hand. He was He says to me,
• 33:28
  Speaker 8: you lazy bum. Yeah. Man, he went off on me
• 33:34
  Speaker 8: that time.
• 33:36
  Speaker 5: He took Sheldon once Sheldon happened to say the word fuck.
• 33:41
  Speaker 8: He came in with that fucking strap, swinging with.
• 33:46
  Speaker 5: The bucket, and you know, I can understand leaving a
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: feeling of resentment and dislike.
• 33:52
  Speaker 8: Hey, yeah, that was his way of communicating with us.
• 33:58
  Speaker 8: Smack smack, and then what a way.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah it was easier on you.
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: You think, Uh, it wasn't that easy. But he was
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: tough on Sheldon.
• 34:08
  Speaker 8: Was I know, Oh, you were closer to him than
• 34:10
  Speaker 8: I was a lot of things that went on. You
• 34:15
  Speaker 8: didn't understand really well it did going on, so you
• 34:18
  Speaker 8: had a different take.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Well, are you surprised.
• 34:21
  Speaker 8: By But I was a kid. I didn't understand it.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: But you didn't know that Sheldon was getting it so bad.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: In Buzz's telling, their father was always a more or
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: less benign, childish figure, incapable of expressing his feelings and
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: so given to temper tantrums. For Buzz, it was their
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: mother who was the manipulator, the woman who played the
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: brothers off each other. But hearing Sheldon's take, it sounds
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: like maybe their mother didn't come to take Sheldon because
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: she loved him best, but simply because he needed more
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: protecting from their father. For the first time during our trip,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: I can see my father considering Sheldon's point of view,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: actually taking it in. I know it's intense for him
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: because he can't even meet Sheldon's eyes. Instead, he looks
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: at me, addresses his comments to me.
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: You know, it said that my father had such a
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: negative impact on him, you know, just awful because he
• 35:24
  Speaker 5: had so much going for me. He was a wonderful son.
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: He worked hard, he was a good boy.
• 35:30
  Speaker 8: He went to school talking like I'm a failure in life. No,
• 35:34
  Speaker 8: you aren't a fail. That's what I'm saying.
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: You weren't a faith But all I'm saying is that
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: emotionally he left an impact on you.
• 35:41
  Speaker 8: It took a long time for me to get out
• 35:44
  Speaker 8: of that emotion. And now I'm at peace to myself.
• 35:52
  Speaker 8: I can talk about him and laugh about it. Yeah,
• 35:56
  Speaker 8: now I want peace quiet. I'm happy living by myself.
• 36:03
  Speaker 8: Are you lonely, Sheldon?
• 36:05
  Speaker 5: No? No.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: The last time my father saw my grandfather in full health,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: my dad was visiting from Canada. My grandfather asked my
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: father to drive him to the cemetery to visit his parents' grave,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: and once there, my grandfather wept inconsolably. Later that day
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: he would succumb to a stroke and shortly after be
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: moved to a nursing home. With Sheldon being more local,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: the burden of my grandfather's care fell mainly to Sheldon.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: It seems like a lot of the family's burdens fell
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: to Sheldon.
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: They put a lot of responsibility on him, that my
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: dad should have been taking that responsibility and he shouldered that.
• 36:49
  Speaker 8: Well, who is going to take Carria, who is going
• 36:51
  Speaker 8: to take you to school? Meet you? I remember one
• 36:54
  Speaker 8: time I was later or something. You stood outside that
• 37:00
  Speaker 8: right I said, mousy, I'm here, I'm here. He was
• 37:05
  Speaker 8: good to meet a lot of times me. You know,
• 37:09
  Speaker 8: you were my older brother.
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: He used to knock the shit out of me sometimes,
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: but you know that's the way it is with brothers.
• 37:17
  Speaker 8: Well, yeah, I was good in some way some way
• 37:20
  Speaker 8: that I was mean? Who was not?
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: Who is not?
• 37:24
  Speaker 8: Who is not?
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: So if you feel like you were compelled to see
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: each other now because you knew that, you know it's
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: an hour and never kind of thing, then it means
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: that it was important to you both right to see
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: each other.
• 37:40
  Speaker 8: You want to take that sure?
• 37:41
  Speaker 5: I'm easy answer, yes, yes, because we're not getting any younger.
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: I mean, what's down the road.
• 37:50
  Speaker 8: I'm eighty he's eighty five.
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: I mean because there was a lot of water under
• 37:55
  Speaker 5: the bridge and we want to close that bridge.
• 37:57
  Speaker 8: Now.
• 37:58
  Speaker 5: I want to feel easy. Now, I want to say,
• 38:00
  Speaker 5: now he's going to be eighty six, I want to
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: call him on his birthday and say happy birthday to him. Now,
• 38:04
  Speaker 5: I'm not going to stand any fucking ceremonies anymore.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: As my father speaks as per his brother's example, dropping
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: f bombs like he's in a Guy Ritchie film. Sheldon
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: keeps his arms crossed and his eyes shut tight. He's
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: quiet for several seconds, and then he reaches out to
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: pet his cat.
• 38:22
  Speaker 8: Should I leave you at a cat in my will?
• 38:24
  Speaker 8: If anything happened.
• 38:25
  Speaker 5: If anything out, I'll take care of the cat.
• 38:28
  Speaker 8: I'll take care of the cat.
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: I'm happy I can't to see you.
• 38:32
  Speaker 8: That I am. I'm happy it came here. That's good,
• 38:36
  Speaker 8: very good. Wherever I want to buy a house.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: When it's time to leave, Sheldon walks us outside, but
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: before we get into the rental, he points across the
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: lawn to his neighbor's house. He tells my father that
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: it's for sale, and then he tells him the asking price,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: and my father says that doesn't sound bad at all,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: and Sheldon says that, what with Canada being so bloody cold,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: my father should consider moving to Florida, and my father
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: says maybe he will. They don't get too emotional, they
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: don't even hugo by. They just shake hands. And with that,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: it feels like Buzz has forgiven Sheldon, and Sheldon has
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: forgiven Buzz all right.
• 39:21
  Speaker 8: You take care of sankot this. Thank you, Yeah, thank you,
• 39:29
  Speaker 8: we'll speak. I'll speak.
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: Turn right on northwest, mad for drawing.
• 39:41
  Speaker 8: Oh my god, it feels so different now.
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: Do you know that this has taken a lot off
• 39:46
  Speaker 5: my shoulders idea?
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: You know, as we ride to the airport, my father
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: says that the thought of Sheldon all alone in that
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: house with just a cat makes him sad. Do you
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: really think he isn't lonely? My father asks. I assure
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: him that Sheldon seems okay with being alone, But my
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: father doesn't seem so sure. After all these years, the
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: burden of having lost his brother has been replaced by
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: a new burden, one that might be heavier to bear
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: now that the Fernuers returned to its goodwill home, now that.
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: The last month's rent is skeeting.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: With damage to pot take this moment to deced.
• 41:15
  Speaker 5: If we if we too felt from from the.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Things an accident And so you know why I wanted
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: to talk to you.
• 41:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I know you wanted to talk to me, but
• 41:36
  Speaker 5: you know about what I have no idea.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: So I wanted to revisit. Do you remember the story
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: that I made about you and your brother? Sheldon.
• 41:45
  Speaker 8: Sure.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, back then you were in your I think
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: you were eighty and I think Sheldon was eighty four
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: or eighty.
• 41:54
  Speaker 5: Five, right right right, Yeah, I was eighty.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: You just turned ninety Yeah, yeah, December. Did you get
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: a phone call from Sheldon?
• 42:06
  Speaker 5: Yes, I did, of course. Oh yeah, he welcomed me
• 42:10
  Speaker 5: into the Big nine.
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 42:12
  Speaker 5: He'll be ninety five in July.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: So do you guys talk on all of your birthdays?
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Are just on the big one birthday? Every birthday?
• 42:21
  Speaker 5: I call him, he calls me, yeah, and we talk
• 42:24
  Speaker 5: a little bit.
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we just talk.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: So what do you guys talk about? Would you talk
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: about when he called you up for your ninetieth.
• 42:31
  Speaker 5: How he's feeling. Does he still go out to eat?
• 42:34
  Speaker 5: Does he still drive a car? Is you know things
• 42:37
  Speaker 5: like that? Is he getting around and he goes out?
• 42:39
  Speaker 5: He's got got the steakhouse that he goes to. It's
• 42:42
  Speaker 5: like the outback, the outback, and he goes, hey, he
• 42:47
  Speaker 5: has his seat or stool and yeah.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Does he still smoke his cigars and drink beer?
• 42:53
  Speaker 5: Oh? You know, he said he stopped that because he
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: developed a cough, so he stopped.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: Even though you know, you only speak to Sheldon a
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: couple times a year. Do you feel like your life
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: is enriched by having him in it?
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: Yes, He's important to me in a lot of many ways. Yeah,
• 43:17
  Speaker 5: I feel he's my mortality. In other words, as long
• 43:19
  Speaker 5: as he lives, I'm okay, if do you understand that. Yeah,
• 43:23
  Speaker 5: it's like this is a bond we have in a
• 43:25
  Speaker 5: certain way, that we have this long life, and it's
• 43:27
  Speaker 5: kind of a gift and it's kind of a magic
• 43:29
  Speaker 5: to it. As long as he keeps on living, I'm okay. Wow,
• 43:34
  Speaker 5: you know, he's ninety five. I can go yet, you know,
• 43:37
  Speaker 5: a few more years.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: Thanks to everyone who helped put this episode together, We'll
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: be back next week with another encore presentation of Heavyweight,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: and with it, another update from our guest