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Fascinating! · Armstrong & Getty One More Thing

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  Speaker 1: Fascinating. It's one more thing. I'm one more thing. Two
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  Speaker 1: notes from the world of science fiction, Jack, I know
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: you love that genre of entertainment slash literature. I am
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  Speaker 1: not a science fiction person. I don't know why. I
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  Speaker 1: just don't know. I don't know why either. It's it's great.
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  Speaker 1: There's some that's just it's some of the wisest best things.
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  Speaker 1: You see. You change the setting, Katie, What did did?
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  Speaker 1: Did your dog break wind? Why do you have that
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  Speaker 1: look on your face? It feels the same way I
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  Speaker 1: do about science fiction. I work with philistines. No, all right,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: you know what, I'm not going to try to explain
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  Speaker 1: Beethoven to a couple of bassett hounds. No offense. That's funny.
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  Speaker 1: Now you either like it or you don't. But it
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  Speaker 1: is somebody more. I'll bet Tim Sandefer could could wax
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  Speaker 1: incredibly eloquent on why science fiction is so good because
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  Speaker 1: it changes enough frames of reference that you can isolate
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  Speaker 1: various aspects of human behavior in a way that highlights
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  Speaker 1: them in a way that's difficult with other fiction. Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: fascinating exactly. I have no blanket idea. This is note
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  Speaker 1: from science fiction number one. Why this popped into my head.
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  Speaker 1: I'm wandering off to the bathroom the radio ranch. It
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  Speaker 1: must have been. I was thinking about something that was
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  Speaker 1: really interesting, and I heard Spock's voice in my head saying, fascinating, fascinating,
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  Speaker 1: and you know what occurred to me? Tell me about
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  Speaker 1: mister Spock, Michael, I'm putting you on the spot here.
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  Speaker 1: What is the most distinctive thing about the character mister Spock?
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  Speaker 1: It was his ears? No, no, you know what.
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  Speaker 2: That's not a bad assw That's a perfect answer if
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  Speaker 2: you're gonna look at him, but not physically.
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  Speaker 1: How about his personality? What was most notable class anyone?
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  Speaker 1: That's right? Well, I'm interested to Michael, you don't have answer.
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  Speaker 1: Have you never seen Star Trek here and there? But
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  Speaker 1: not really? He was emotionless, right, exactly? Have you seen
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  Speaker 1: Star Trek Katie?
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  Speaker 3: When I was a kid, the original Trek, my dad
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  Speaker 3: watched a bit of it and I was forced.
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  Speaker 1: Oh I was. I was a big fan. And then
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  Speaker 1: I got to college and a bunch of buddies of
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  Speaker 1: mine and I would get baked every Sunday night after
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  Speaker 1: our like homework was done and stuff like this study
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  Speaker 1: and we would get baked and watch Star Trek Guy
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  Speaker 1: one episode or multiple No, just one, just one, over
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  Speaker 1: and over again. There was one of the TV stations
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  Speaker 1: that aired Star Trek at nine o'clock Sunday nights.
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  Speaker 2: What a different era in that you would now you know,
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  Speaker 2: be able to binge the whole series in one weekend.
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  Speaker 1: Right exactly. But oh, we had ground rules about there's
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  Speaker 1: no saving seats. If you got up to hit the john,
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  Speaker 1: you're you're the next guy is going to jump into
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  Speaker 1: that good seat and you come back and you'd you know,
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  Speaker 1: shuffling feet, lose your seat. There's etiquette. It was very formalized. Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: it occurred to me Spock saying, fascinating, that's an emotional reaction.
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  Speaker 1: His catchphrase contradicted his very essence. If you are a
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  Speaker 1: robot like and feel no emotion, you're not gonna be
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  Speaker 1: fascinated by a problem or an issue.
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  Speaker 2: It's just more information, but it has no emotional effect.
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  Speaker 1: On right, exactly. His very catchphrase contradicted his character. I
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  Speaker 1: hope Tom Sandifer hears this. I would love to hear
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  Speaker 1: his comments someday.
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  Speaker 2: Or the episode where he thought Jim was dead and
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  Speaker 2: he was so excited to see Jim that he has
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  Speaker 2: a big smut, Jim, you're alive, briefly breaking character and
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  Speaker 2: having emotions.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, he was half human, jack, Oh, that's right,
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  Speaker 1: he was half human. Tim Sandfer has written a piece
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  Speaker 1: on the evolving point of view and plots of Star
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  Speaker 1: Trek and how it parallels American foreign policy that is
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  Speaker 1: knockout good.
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  Speaker 2: Oh really, Oh yeah, that's interesting. It's not about how
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  Speaker 2: William Shatton or some seasons would be fat and some
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  Speaker 2: seasons would be fit.
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  Speaker 1: No, al loough, that is worthy of studying itself. All right,
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  Speaker 1: birds science fiction note number two, And there are a
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  Speaker 1: couple of people who email this. We're talking about gene splicing,
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  Speaker 1: editing designer baby, yeah, and how it's a real thing.
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  Speaker 2: This New York Times columnist writing about how she and
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  Speaker 2: her husband with IVF were given the choice of whether
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  Speaker 2: they wanted a boy or a girl, and they decided
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  Speaker 2: they didn't like the power to choose that, but then
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  Speaker 2: found out that there are a whole bunch of other
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  Speaker 2: things you can choose. And a poll came out that
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  Speaker 2: forty percent of Americans said they would make choices in
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  Speaker 2: embryos they if it would make it more likely that
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  Speaker 2: their kid could get into a good school whatever. I
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  Speaker 2: hate that phrase. I don't even know what that means.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I kind of hate that attitude.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so like make taller, better looking, smarter. You can
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  Speaker 2: choose that.
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  Speaker 1: Or just quote unquote happy, happier. Yeah, you guys ever
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  Speaker 1: see that show Black Mirror? On that No, I've got
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  Speaker 1: a note to watch that and I haven't yet. What's
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  Speaker 1: the premise?
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  Speaker 3: The premise it's basically way in the future, and it's
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  Speaker 3: very like technology based. So at one point you have
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  Speaker 3: people walking around and they have like a social status
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  Speaker 3: above their heads that you can see, you know, and
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  Speaker 3: if you do something that's socially unacceptable, your status goes down.
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  Speaker 3: It's just like a bunch of really terrible technology scenarios.
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  Speaker 3: This sounds like something out of Black Mirror.
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  Speaker 1: But did you enjoy that show? I love that, which
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  Speaker 1: is science fiction? You hypocrite. I don't do the whole
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  Speaker 1: space Aliens thing. I don't know. That's where you draw
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  Speaker 1: a lot, That's where I draw a line. Yeah, okay,
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  Speaker 1: I will watch it because it sounds really interesting. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it really is. So anyway, we were talking about this
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  Speaker 1: and I just did that. Mike Judge, who was behind
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: the we thought it was a comedy. Turns out it
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  Speaker 1: was a documentary idiocracy, one of our mutual favorite movies
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  Speaker 1: of all time. It's it's dumb, but it's smart anyway.
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  Speaker 1: He needs to make an idiocracy for genetically engineered humans
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  Speaker 1: who are all, you know, good looking, tall, blue eyed, whatever,
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  Speaker 1: kind of a Stepford wives baby.
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  Speaker 2: And pleasant or happy. Because we mentioned the show, every writer, musician,
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  Speaker 2: artist was unhappy. Has there ever been a happy great
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  Speaker 2: guitar player. I don't know if there has been.
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  Speaker 1: Right, whether alienated or lonely or a misfit who is
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  Speaker 1: looking for some purpose to their life. Yeah, yeah, it's well,
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  Speaker 1: discontent in general drives achievement anyway. So a couple of people,
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  Speaker 1: including Christy, wrote notes that said, hey, you're talking about
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  Speaker 1: the movie Gatica, which came out and I think somebody
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  Speaker 1: said nineteen ninety seven, it's not a comedy, but it's
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  Speaker 1: a beautiful film about the not too distant future where
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  Speaker 1: people choose traits and those who are born naturally are
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  Speaker 1: considered second class citizens. Oh wow. I'm a genetic counselor
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  Speaker 1: and former genetic research scientist, and it is literally referenced
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  Speaker 1: in ethical discussions all the time. It's normal to have
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  Speaker 1: someone ask the question, isn't that a little too gatica? Wow?
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  Speaker 1: What would cause U naturally born to be second class citizens? Well,
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  Speaker 1: because they're inferior, they're not all all and beautiful and perfect,
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  Speaker 1: and well, yeah, just naturally you would because you wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: be as good looking or as smart. And by the way,
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  Speaker 1: Christine Rancho Cordova, I will I'll drop her note, but
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  Speaker 1: she says, uh, I won't bore you with all the details,
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  Speaker 1: blah blah blah. No, go ahead, Borius, with as many
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  Speaker 1: details as you want. To find this all fascinating. And
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  Speaker 1: she makes the point that, yeah, we talk about the
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  Speaker 1: ethics all the time, but I do think it's just
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  Speaker 1: a matter of time, especially because other countries have been
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  Speaker 1: dabbling in it anyway. Uh, And I thought, Gatica, that
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  Speaker 1: sounds really familiar. Getka, why does that sound so familiar?
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  Speaker 1: And I think, I think that's the movie. I got
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  Speaker 1: to retell a story that's been told more than once
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  Speaker 1: on the show through the last well nineteen ninety seven,
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  Speaker 1: twenty five years whatever. I took my kids to see Elf,
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  Speaker 1: a good movie in the theater movie and they had
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  Speaker 1: a couple of previews a young Zoey Deschanel. Oh so
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  Speaker 1: cute anyway, Katie rolls her eyes. I'm a straight Maybe
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  Speaker 1: you were there for an older Ed Asner, So any oh,
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  Speaker 1: she was so lovable in that movie. She's darling anyway.
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  Speaker 1: So a couple of previews and then another preview we
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  Speaker 1: thought of a very dark and serious nature, very dark
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  Speaker 1: and serious scene unfolds and it is as I recall, oh,
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  Speaker 1: what's her name, a beautiful African American actress. Yeah, who's
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  Speaker 1: sitting in a chair talking to some sort of counselor
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  Speaker 1: or detective or something like that, and get the bleepers ready,
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  Speaker 1: and what's the ages on your kids? Again? This is
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  Speaker 1: a theater full of parents and children ages five through thirteen.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're seeing elf. So that in the theater,
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  Speaker 1: and the scene unfolded as follows, blah blah blah. The
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  Speaker 1: detective or counselor or whatever the person was says to
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  Speaker 1: the halle Berry character, so are you telling me you
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  Speaker 1: talked to Satan? And the halle Berry character, I think
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  Speaker 1: it was halle Bery says, talk to Satan, I fucked him,
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  Speaker 1: and the whole theater goes, WHOA, what is happening here?
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  Speaker 1: And there's a huge uproar, including me, why you're doing
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  Speaker 1: everybody shouting at the projection booth and they and everything stops,
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  Speaker 1: and the lights go on, and about two or three
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  Speaker 1: minutes of there's a great deal of buzz in the theater.
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  Speaker 1: You can imagine the parents and the kids going, oh
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  Speaker 1: my god, what does that mean? What does it mean
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  Speaker 1: to fuck Satan? Oh jeez, oh my gosh, es elf
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  Speaker 1: come out crying. They come on and say, we'd like
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  Speaker 1: to apologize the projection booth ran the wrong film. We'll
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  Speaker 1: have elth cued up for you in just a moment.
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  Speaker 2: If you'd like to sign some paperwork on the way
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  Speaker 2: out saying you will not hold us responsible for any
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  Speaker 2: future trauma, we will give you a free small popcorn.
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  Speaker 1: And I think that movie was gatica. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I'm wondering if you guys actually enjoyed treating your customers
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  Speaker 3: like a piece of yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Huh oh.
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  Speaker 3: I can only imagine the parents in there, Oh.
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  Speaker 2: My god, it is something, you know, since we got
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  Speaker 2: an F bomb in the show. Already out to the
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  Speaker 2: store because this happened two days ago. I got the
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  Speaker 2: little local market by my house, little grocery store that
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  Speaker 2: the good enough grocery store in case unless you need
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  Speaker 2: a whole bunch of stuff every but it goes.
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  Speaker 1: To nice grocery store.
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  Speaker 2: It just came under new ownership, and the guy's working
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  Speaker 2: really hard to uh, to please everybody and saying hello
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  Speaker 2: to everybody and introduce himself and everything like that. That's
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  Speaker 2: really nice and everything like that. I'm in the other
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  Speaker 2: there the other day and I'm going through and I said,
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  Speaker 2: it looks like it's a knocking the rain day, and
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  Speaker 2: he said, yeah, it's pretty fucking nice outside, all right.
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  Speaker 1: I love that. I thought, what, No, it's of society.
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  Speaker 1: He's just a nice, cheerful guy. He's like sixty two
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  Speaker 1: or something like that.
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  Speaker 2: Well, owns the store, kind of a fat guy, and
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  Speaker 2: just very super pleasant, like helping the old ladies to
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  Speaker 2: their car.
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  Speaker 1: It's pretty fucking nice.
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  Speaker 2: Like Sam told me, he said, you gotta start talking
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  Speaker 2: to him that way. It's like, where's the fucking milk?
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  Speaker 1: No, no, no, oh, that's awesome. Well, I guess that's it.
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  Speaker 1: I was really hoping you were gonna say, I guess
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  Speaker 1: that's fucking me too. Great minds. I thought of it.