197: My Waking-Hour Pie

Merlin shares a new insight about the pre-flight, but, as usual John disagrees. Then, there's some discussion of playlists and that time John got Merlin into Chvrches. There appears to be some continental disagreement about a ubiquitous facial expression, and John directs Merlin on some more of the things he supposedly pronounces weirdly. Your hosts might could want to explore the things it took them too long to realize, and Merlin graciously reads John one of his dreams. Follow-Up turns to the continuing mishegas over on The Bird Site. Yikes. And this was even before they added the bedrooms and gave a copy of the keys to a right-wing nutty bar. Woof. Eventually, this leads to a slight turn into how different people are exploring Mastodon. Do you treat it strictly as a Twitter replacement, or is it maybe a fresh opportunity to learn how a social media site *wants* to be used? Merlin misses a lot about LiveJournal, and John is just happy to be someplace that isn't owned and controlled by The Birthday Boy. John's goodnatured insistence that Merlin's household acquire a dog is starting to have an impact, and John leads us on a close exegesis of an unpersuasive Billy Joel photo. Finally, talk turns to Christopher Nolan in general and the movie *Tenet* in particular. How can you know when you're not *supposed* to understand what's happening in a film? Also, can an SUV really go that fast in reverse, or is that just because it's driving on the backwards side of the time partition? Who knows. Also, good robots are considered, and Merlin extolls the virtues of the Mr. Noodle family.