Welcome to “Ear Biscuits”, the podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time. I’m Rhett. And I’m Link. This week at the Round Table of Dim Lighting, we’re talking about gifts. A lot of people are thinking about gifts. Giving is in the air. Your collar is doing something that I could. Well, because, I could help you with or you like that? Is it undulating? You like that? Thank you. I kinda feel like, I just wanna say- I just wanna get my neck covered a little bit. I just feel like there are limits to the coziness that you should experience in public. And I feel like you’ve crossed the line. I love crossing that line. Well, I’m just saying that, I just feel like you’ve crossed a cultural line and you’re making other people feel uncomfortable because you’re so comfortable. I’m a boundary pusher. So we ask you Mythical beasts to tell us the best gift you’ve ever received and who gifted it to you, implying that, hey, we want a little bit of a story, as much as Twitter can stomach. And we said we might discuss it on an episode “Ear Biscuits”. This is the 313th episode and we are discussing that. But we’re not discussing that this is the 313th episode other than what you just did. That’s not what I was referring to. We’re also gonna be talking about our best gifts ever, and maybe some of the gifts that we’ve received over the years, or maybe even given over the years, that come up as we tell some of your gifts. It is the season for giving. And if your wife has a birthday of December 18th. Ooh goodness. Man, this time of year, like literally… Pressure. Like right now, ’cause at the time we’re recording this, I still had a few weeks and… No, it seems like, by your body posture you have no plans. You know what’ll help? Put your collar up, just for a second, just while you’re talking about this, just kind of experience it. There you go. Well, the thing, A little protection. the thing that- Makes you feel a little… This is what happens to me. More, creative. I wish that she would change her birth date. I’ve lobbied. I’ve lobbied for this and she says it’s not acceptable. Because I’m like. I get it. This time of year, this time of year is so busy for us, it’s like everything just gets piled at the end of the year. I don’t remember to do so many other things. I start seeing areas of my house where like things are building up, and then I see areas of my inbox that things are building up, and then I went like, Oh, I have to… And don’t look inward. I have to, Yeah, that’s how I feel. I have to give something for my wife’s birthday and for Christmas. And it matters to her, so it… No, here’s the thing. It doesn’t? Well, there are two disparate realities within my wife, she’s a complex woman. Number one, she really cares about gifts. She really cares about giving and she really cares about receiving gifts, naturally. That is her natural disposition ’cause she comes from a family of gift givers and extravagant gift givers, and extravagant gift receivers. Meaning that, when her family receives gifts from each other, there’s lots of emotional release. And I come from a family where my mom like gets everything for herself and just says, “You got me this for my birthday. You got me this for Christmas.” And she gave up. Ain’t no arguing with that from you, right? She gave up on my dad and my brothers a long time ago. I mean, and we actually want to, we wanna give, but she’s just like, “You’re not gonna get it right.” So I’m just gonna get stuff from myself. And then also in my family, you know my dad. So it’s just like, you give my dad a gift, it’s not like, you’re not gonna get some, you’re not gonna get the response that you’re looking for. You know what I’m saying? You’re not gonna get this, you get “Oh, I feel like” – What response are you gonna get? ’cause you know what, the response my dad gives. Yeah, I think you can relate to this. He gets the shirt and it’s just like, “Where do you expect me to wear this?” Your dad does super honest. My dad does just enough to feel some social obligation, but not actually make you feel great about what you got him. And listen. Because he’s- And I have a very similar personality. Is he kind of, he’s giving as much as he can muster for the gifter because for him, it’s like, gifts don’t resonate with him, maybe with you. And I don’t think with me that much, usually. Gifts are resonating more with me as I get older. But the interesting thing about Jessie is that this is the environment. This is the nature and the nurture that she’s bringing to the table, but she married me. And I think I changed her baseline level of expectations. Now, as I’ve established- Changed, you could come up with a stronger verb. I am a giver in many ways. And I actually, I like to give, but the thing is, is I have a little bit of, she’s got opinions and she’s got taste and I don’t necessarily have taste. And so when you, so… Wow, a woman with opinions and taste. What ends up happening is I may not respond as heartily as she wants me to do something that is given to me. And then I may not, but over 20 years of marriage, her expectations have centered in a place. Sunk. No, centered is the word that I want to use. They’ve become more realistic. They have descended And now she- into a pocket of despair. In fact, you know what she told me? She told me this two nights ago, she said, she was like, “I am so excited about your Christmas gift.” She was like, “I’m giving you” That you’re giving her? No, she’s giving me. She said, “I’m giving you the best… It is the best gift you will have ever received.” Crap! And she didn’t even know we were doing this. And then she said, “You know what? You shouldn’t even get me anything.” Because it won’t top it? Yeah. That’s what she said, “You shouldn’t even get me anything because it just will pale in comparison.” And you whipped out the contract, you’re like, let me get that in writing, I’ve already worked it up. Yeah, so I’m still going. And actually she will say, “Two things have happened.” That’s a lot of pressure on you. You feel cool about that? I’m fine because- ‘Cause she’s a good gifter. The point that I’m getting to is that her expectations have centered, lowered, sunk, whatever you wanna say. My gifting ability and my listening ability- Has gotten better. And the graph of gifting expectations and gifting ability has some… We’ve met in the middle, I’ve gotten better. Her expectations have lowered and I’ve actually hit it out of the park a couple of times. Most recently for her birthday last year, which you were a part of when I did the whole cameo thing with all the friends and family and the celebrities. Yeah, that was a good gift. And then I gave her something else too. And I’ve kind of forgotten at this point. But anyway, I don’t feel that much pressure from her. You wrote her a song, dude. Oh, I wrote her a song. Yeah, yeah, I see, I see. I’m getting better, man, but I’m also getting forgetful. I totally forgot, I wrote her a song for her- Well, you better hope she forgot, ’cause you don’t want her comparing that to every other gift. But we talked about it at the time. It’s like, you’re gonna have to go back into a trough to recenter the baseline. Well, I don’t feel a lot of pressure from her, I feel pressure on myself of like, I gotta do this. I got to do something special. For her birthday she will be with all her family and my family though because we’re flying back to North Carolina. So that’ll be special. And I did take care with the help of my sister-in-law, who volunteered, I didn’t ask her, to set up a special private dinner in some place. So we’re gonna do that, that’ll be nice. And then trying to figure out something to add on top of that. Anyway, I’m feeling pretty good about it, but I still have no ideas about Christmas. Collar down. Collar down, okay, here we go. Now we’re getting into it. Yeah, with me and Christy, it’s never been that charged around the holidays. It is a bit more of a focus on the kids and on like the struggle to get things for the family. The conflict we have is that like, it has defaulted to her to get gifts for not only her family, but my extended family. And that’s not necessarily fair and has been a source of tension. I mean, the solution has been to slowly just stop giving ’em gifts. Just like we give you the gift of our presence and something that, not that just like, I’m gonna give you something to say you got it. But like, even if it’s just a picture and given a lot of my family merch is a big win, I’ve discovered. We started doing that. We’re doing that again this year. Well, I hope they’re not listening to spoiler, but yeah- I think they’ve come to expect it. And I’m talking about the nieces and nephews. Yeah, nieces- I’m not like getting my mom a hoodie. I mean, I think your dad wants a hoodie. Oh, definitely, anything to continue to get recognized, he wants to wear. Yeah, ’cause for Christy it’s Mother’s Day and her birthday are like very, very close together. And it seems like they’re right on the heels of Valentine’s Day. So there’s like this triple threat of disappointment from the Linkster. Right on the heels. Right on the heels is kind of pushing it. Yeah February 14th, and then her birthday May 13th. Yeah, you’re like half the year is on the heels. Three months later, but… Yeah, you got about a quarter to prepare for that. J’s Blue Sunshine said, “This prompt from you guys, I can actually contribute to because the answer’s easy, Roxy.” She post a picture, “A teeny tiny, barely a palmful of chihuahua puppy my momma and daddy got me for my 19th birthday.” Okay, so you’re an adult and you’re getting this puppy. “Roxy grew to two and a half pounds and was the best thing that ever happened to me. We spent 14 years together.” Makes me wanna tear up. It’s like, I mean, we know what, you start talking about dogs that are gone, but like, you remember those 14 years together and that super cute picture. But can you love a dog that’s two and a half pounds as much as you can love one that’s 20 pounds? Definitely. That is a big- Of course you can. That is a big life altering gift. I know when, after my pop-pop passed away, my nanny was gifted a poodle, which was not a puppy, but like a full grown poodle for Christmas that was named Nicholas for St. Nick. I don’t know if she changed the name or if that was just a coincidence. And she didn’t, I mean, it’s kinda dicey when you give somebody a pet and they’re not asking for a pet. I would say, very dicey. Especially when it’s an old woman, it’s like- When was the last time she had a dog, period. My Papa had dogs always, but they were never house dogs. Yeah, yard dogs. They were yard dogs and she… It was not like a joyful moment when she got that dog. But that dog changed her life. Yeah, the people who gave her that gift, which I guess was like, Theresa and- Family, family. No, you’re on the wrong side of the family. Oh it was, nanny. Yeah nanny. Trying to get that now. Yeah, ’cause you remember little Nicholas, the little white poodle. Oh yeah. He was good. I had been picturing that after pop-pop died that nana had been given- No, I call ’em both pop-pop so my dad’s side pop-pop Neal. When he basically went for the most part blind, he was given a dog named Bacardi and then that dog kinda changed his life. And that Bacardi is still with nana now. Did they know the reference? Yeah, but they didn’t change the name. Good. So getting a pet companion can be a life altering gift in a good way, I guess, in a bad way, but then maybe not, maybe you just do something about it. You don’t hear about those, at least in this props. Yeah, I wanted to give some cat to the dogs, some tip for the tat. Carter Hastings said, “My family pooled some money together and formed the ‘get Carter a cat fund’ one Christmas so I could go out and choose a little friend and pay for all of the necessary supplies.” Lots of expense goes along with it and ongoing expense. “Dave is the best little guy I could ever ask for.” Here he is, the cat in the box with the cute, little pink nose on the white snout. And then the gray. I think that if you know that somebody, I mean easily, if you know that somebody wants an animal. Yeah, it’s tough to just give one, as a prescription. It worked out for nanny, but there was dicey there for the first month probably. I mean, it’s not necessarily good for the animal as well if it’s like- I think this Carter thing does highlight a really good system I mean, you lose the surprise of the moment, but like for me, my personality type, you know I want to pick out the dog or the cat that I’m gonna spend the next 14 to 20 years with. Oh, you know what? just an epiphany I might be having, and this gonna be a huge disappointment now if it doesn’t happen, not for me. Well, my wife doesn’t listen to this podcast very often. I don’t think- Thank God. Not unless like people on Twitter tell her to. So if you’re a fan of Jessie on Twitter, don’t tell her about this. You wanna get her a dog? No, what if she’s getting me a dog? That’s it. That would be consistent with the level of excitement that she… ‘Cause she knows that I- Of all the things that I do and the subjects I broad from this podcast, what you’re doing right now, I would not do. I’m just being honest, when it comes to gifts, and this’ll come up in a story later- You know what? It’s not gonna happen. I hate, like- I know- If someone wants to surprise me, I hate knowing that I didn’t surprise them. Like I want to make them happy. She wants to make you so happy. But here’s thing, I’m just thinking about the logistics of when our Christmas has to take place before we travel. Yeah. And the fact that we’ve already got a board to Barbara for a couple of weeks when we go to North Carolina. Yeah it’s probably that. So it’s like you can’t get a puppy, you can’t get a puppy right before Christmas and then not take care of it immediately as your own family, can’t be in his own home. So it wouldn’t surprise me because I’m on team second dog. It’s just, the amount of emotional energy and sort of logistical fortitude that it takes to make it happen is something- To get over that hump. So like, that’s really the gift is I got over that hump, here’s the dog. So, the more you think about it, you don’t think logistically? It hit me that it would be a perfect gift and it would- Well also- It would match her level of excitement. But it’s too far in advance too, right? I mean, does she pick out? Well, not, I guess you could pick out a dog and then months later- What if the dog is already in my house? What if it’s in a cabinet somewhere? What if the dog is wearing a Barbara costume and Barbara has been boarded this whole time. She has been acting strange, she fricking peed in our bed. Welcome to my world. Then there was like, I’m taking my squishy mellow out of the dryer for the second time, because Jasper’s peeing on my squishy mellows. Okay, well, Barbara has been well behaved in this area for a very long time. Yeah, I know. She rings her little bell when she wants to go out. She like rings it a couple of times- She is upset about something, what is it? Well- It’s the fact that it’s not Barbara or that she knows there’s another dog coming. Have you picked out, have you agreed on the type of dog you wanna get? Because that really starts to support this theory. We’re not as specific, like we don’t want to do a Barbara lookalike that’s slightly a different color. We having a- A peanut butter version of Barbara? We have not like, the McLaughlin’s don’t get that specific. The only thing I’ve said is I don’t want a big dog that requires a lot of activity because- It could be a dog man I don’t think that our family would support that in the right way. We’re not good enough at dog-walking. We need a dog that doesn’t need a whole lot of energy output. Do you want me to ask Christy? No, don’t even… In fact just forget I ever brought this up. It’s not gonna be a dog. I’m gonna forget any stuff you brought up. We will get a dog eventually but- I’ll literally forget about it. I don’t think that that’s it. I have a button in my brain that if you tell me to forget about something, especially something you said, poop! I’ve forgotten about it. Just like the “Men In Black” button? Like, I have one of those. Okay. So I’ve forgotten about it. Or like, “What We Do In The Shadows?” So don’t be mad at me. You will forget about this conversation. Yeah, call it a Jedi mind trick. Yeah, they don’t make people forget… It’s not gonna be a dog, but it wouldn’t be a bad gift because- I hope it is. I think the things that are necessary when you’re thinking about giving somebody an animal is you have to know that they’ve already expressed a willingness to invite an animal into your home and life. But just to round things off with the pet, Erin tweeted at us, “My aunt and uncle” I’m saying aunt. No, you’re assuming that they must be from a certain part of the country or something. This not the South. “My aunt and uncle got me goats in fifth grade! I bred them and managed a small herd for eight years. Looking back, the best part was that they lived at my grandma’s house because I lived in the city limits. It let me get a lot closer with my grandma for going over there every day.” That’s cool. Not only is it, I mean, I appreciate the connection with grandma, but if every fifth grader in America could be given a herd of goats. Well, you have to make the herd. You’re just given a couple. Forget about all the difficulties of where they would be and what they would be fed. But I’m just saying, if you can have every fifth grader have the responsibility of a herd of goats for the next eight years. So basically until they graduate high school. I like this as a social program. All our problems as a society would go away. I feel that. Do you understand? Everything that we argue about, everything that people get so bent out of shape about would completely go away. And if I ever have the privilege and honor to run for president, my platform is gonna be goats for every fifth grader. And you know what? The environment’s helped too, ’cause they eat trash. Well, they also will like, they can mow lawns and stuff, but they can get out of control. So we might have to do some sort of cooperative thing where there’s like, this class of fifth graders has a herd of goats, I don’t know, I need my team to work on the logistics, but just know that that’s my platform, goats for fifth graders. As long as my team- Okay, we’re gonna talk a little bit more about your gifts and our gifts, but speaking of gifts, we want you to know that you people who wait till the last minute to get stuff for yourself, Mythical stuff for yourself and for others, maybe for the holidays, you’re in luck because we have amazon.com/mythical. Yes, you can get the stuff that we’ve got over there, which is mostly or entirely different from the stuff you can get at mythical.com, and it’s all prime shipping. ♪ Prime prime prime prime ♪ So as fast as Prime gets to you is as fast as that Mythical merch can get to you, okay. Or get to your loved ones. I’m gonna do it again, Kiko. ♪ Prime prime prime prime ♪ And I’m never gonna do that again. That’s the official sound of Amazon Prime and not really. You know what I was trying to do, right? It was like a air horn. Yeah, the DJ air horn thing. Yeah. Okay, this one from JustKate_tm. “When I turned 15, my grandma got me a sewing machine and gave me lessons at her house. Seven years later, I have a degree in costume design and I work at a theater running wardrobe.” I love this. I might have to incorporate sewing into my goat plan at this point. You can choose between goats or a sewing machine. I feel that too man. Okay, all right, do you wanna run with me? Co-president? Co, yes. The first ever co-presidents, they’d change the constitution for us. You know what? I kinda wanna be vice-president, I kinda want- The lack of responsibility. The heck, yeah. Yeah, low pressure, got it. I love this. Lily actually asked for sewing machine and got it. How’d that go? And she did sew some stuff and she still has this like handy thing about her, but she never uses the sewing machine that much, instead she would do more like hand embroidery, which is actually pretty amazing, unlike book packs, backpacks, book sacks. Book packs. What do you call it? Book sacks is what you call that. Jean pockets, book sacks, all that stuff. But yeah, the fact that her grandma gave her something that just, it either changed or accelerated, maybe even determined her life trajectory to this point, with a degree in costume design, working at a theater, like just kind of putting the kindling together in the form of a gift and then like hid, the receiver brings the spark and it fans into a flame that is a pivotal point in their lives. You can’t hope for more from a gift, right? Yeah, and some people might be like, “Well man, if somebody doesn’t ask for something and you’re just forcing it on ’em, trust me and kids ain’t gonna do what kids don’t wanna do.” Right. So Kate obviously had a predisposition for enjoying this and it was maybe even in her blood and maybe that’s what her grandmother recognized. I try to give, but my version of this is giving my kids musical instruments and putting them in piano lessons. Lincoln is interested in production. So it’s like, what can we do to foster that and to see where it goes, Lily’s taken more to it. Like she’s saying, when she comes home for Christmas, she’s gonna take her guitar back with her to campus. And she also has a keyboard, but it’s so big, she didn’t wanna take that until she has more of a space where she can take that and the cat, I think by the time she’s gonna take that cat, I don’t know if I’m gonna want her to take the cat, and you didn’t hear that from me. I’m just starting to understand. I mean, this is a whole different discussion. I can tell by your sweater that you understand cats. I’ll leave it at this, Lincoln and I have many conversations about understanding how to connect with soccer is totally different than the dogs, but seeing some success there is rewarding. I’ll leave it at that. Give a good life-changing gift lately? Well, it’s interesting because I don’t know, my Locke is like me in that he’s all over the place, right? And interested in so many different things. And so he has bought himself with his money that he has earned at his job, three guitars. Now one was, according to him, the first one that was stolen, but we’re pretty sure it was just left on the corner- By him? By him, in the neighborhood somewhere because… What is that app that our wives go on? Nextdoor. And it was like, somebody had found a guitar on the side of the street and then- You didn’t retrieve it? Well, but Jessie was going back months and saw it. Oh. And so then when she reached out to the guy, the guy didn’t respond. I think it was because dude, I put this up here like months ago and now you’re reaching out to me. I’ve already pawned this thing, whatever. Pawned it, pawned it. It was a cheap guitar. And he’s got like his amp, I’ll tell you about the amps, these new amps that communicate with an app on your phone. Of course they do. And you can dial in a sound like, I want this guitar to sound exactly like- Jimmy Page? John Mayer’s guitar in this particular song. So like slow dancing in a burning room like that ryth, right? Yeah. And then Locke light plays it in, it doesn’t sound like John Mayer, but it sounds like you 17-year-old learning how to play guitar, trying to play John Mayer. But the guitar sound, the tone is exactly the same. And he’s like, dad, what about Merle Haggard? So-and-so so-and-so and then- ♪ Could be holding you tonight ♪ That that’s is that really awesome, like tele sound. But you hope to give ’em gifts that he takes off. Right, what I’m getting at is- You can’t control it. With Locke and the Shepherd’s playing piano, violin, and now is learning guitar. And so they’re kinda doing that, but I think a guitar would be a good gift for Shepherd at this point, because he’s just playing the ones that’s cool. There might be three laying around, or at least two. He ain’t done electrics though. Oh. But one of the better, this is an opportunity for me to talk about one of my favorite gifts that I got, because Jessie gave me my Nirvana hand pan. Nirvana is the brand. I say that because they’re based in Glendale, local business, but my light hand drum. Oh yes, but the musical instrument. Again, I requested this, it would have been a great gift, but it’s one of those things that like I had particulars. I knew which one I wanted because she, okay, I had played somebody a friend’s hand pan a while back. This is such a California conversation. Years ago, right? And then, so Jessie ended up getting me- I played my friend’s hand pan, I had some opinions about it. It’s not just California, Colorado, we could do this too. Yeah, Asheville. Asheville, there’s lots of places in the world. She got me a Russian tongue drum, which is that you’ve seen that thing in my house, which is about that big. And it’s like a metal, it looks like a spaceship and it just has these little U cut out like tongues and then you hit it with a mallet or a little yarn wrap thing. And I liked that, but it wasn’t the, I can get into the rhythm and play with my hands. It wasn’t a hand pan, right? If you hit that thing with your hand, it doesn’t make a lot of noise. So I found the people making them locally. I researched all the keys and I wanted to get the Celtic scale, mostly because of my Scotch Irish background. And it seemed like a good place. So I had these ideas, oh, let’s do the D minor. And so then she got it, and it was an amazing gift. I find that most of the gifts that are my favorite gifts are the ones that were my idea, and I selected and then told somebody, what… That’s basically what my mom does. I mean, how often does somebody? And again, my wife apparently thinks that this is what she’s done. That she thinks that she struck gold this year. We’re gonna find out, I’ll report back. A totally unexpected un-requested gift that is as fulfilling as one that you curated for yourself. That’s the ultimate gift. But I don’t have many examples of that. I don’t have many examples of favorite gifts, it was difficult for me. I just don’t think that’s my love language. So it doesn’t resonate. But like the biggest gift that is, I mean, has to rank up there pretty high. And you’ll have to help me remember how to tell this story, because I haven’t told this story in so long that- Don’t have a great memory. I gotta pull it back up. So I was 15-years-old and I was just looking forward to getting my license and getting a car. And there was a pickup truck on the used-car lot, just a few blocks from my nana and pop-pop house in Lillington. And I was like, “That’s the truck I want.” Candy apple red, A 1987. 1987 Nissan pickup with a chrome wheels, pretty redneck, like it wasn’t four-wheel drive, but it kind of impersonated a four-wheel drive. Did it already have the size tires on it? Yeah. Okay, yes, so it was like larger tires than it needed and larger than you would see, like if you saw this truck, and you are not from the South- It’s a little truck but the size is a little too big. You’d be like, “Okay that’s a redneck driving that truck.” Yeah, and that resonated with me because that’s who I was. And my pop-pop took me to see it, I believe one day. And this is in the fall and then that was it. And then how did this happen? Okay, then I noticed it was gone from the lot. You can see where this is going, he bought me the truck, okay. That’s where the story is going, but how did this… It was gone from the lot, and then I think I had this theory that my papa had bought me this truck, but it was pretty early before Christmas. And my birthday is in June, so I had a little doubt, but I did have an inkling. And then let’s see it’s Christmas, I believe what happened was it was Christmas morning. Oh, and I told you that I thought I had. I’m gonna be honest with you and to tell you that I don’t remember being involved on this side of the process. I told you that I thought I might be getting this truck. And then what had happened was, you were told that I was gonna be surprised with this truck. You were given the information. Why did they tell me? Because either my mom or my papa or somebody was just so excited about this gift. It’s just like, I assume Jessie is, as excited as she is, she’s probably told Christy. That’s why I’m not gonna ask her what your gift is, ’cause I don’t wanna have that information, and I’ve already pushed the button. I’m sure that if they told me that I’ll just turned around and told you. I can’t remember that part, if you told me ahead of time. But the part that I do remember. I’m not good, I’m actually, I’m a tight secret holder. You tell me something. And if you tell me that you don’t want me to tell anybody As a 15-year-old? I don’t know what I was like at 15. You were 16 at the time. I don’t know what I was like at 16. Now, I will take something to my grave. Oh yeah. I do not snitch. I’m really good at that too. I take pride in that. Again, it’s the button. I’m really good at it because I pushed the button and I don’t remember it. I totally remember it, and I always want to say it when I’m around the person who I know is the person who needs to hear it or would want to hear it. I’m able to compartmentalize so much that I legitimately no longer have the knowledge. That’s dangerous, man. That’s like not knowing you have a gun in your pocket. Yeah know what I’m saying? Well, I have it, I use it with discretion. That’s dangerous, man. It has bit me in the butt a couple of times. Yeah, right? ‘Cause you’re like, oh, I didn’t remember that I wasn’t supposed to remember that. Yeah, it’s like, keep a secret is different than forget you know it. So, I am questioning my technique. On Christmas morning, I’m at home with my mom, opening presents, stuff like that. Having the whole Christmas thing, I get a phone call. It’s you? Hi Link. And my mom’s in the room, I answer the phone. I’m talking to you, I’m like, “Hey man, Merry Christmas. What’d you get? What I get?” And then you start then you’re like, “Did you get it? Did you get the big red surprise?” Whether we had talked about it ahead of time or not. At that point, you assumed that I’d gotten it because it was Christmas morning, but I don’t go to my nana and papa’s house until Christmas night. I didn’t understand your complicated family traditions. So you were like- It could have been anything, big, red surprise. Let’s just assume you were that you were keeping the secret, but also totally confirming the surprise. You’re like, “Did you get the big red…” And here I am like- You already knew that you were gonna get this truck. And I didn’t want my mom to overhear that you were spoiling it for me. Well, there was no such thing as speakerphone at the time. My side of the conversation had to be really veil, I was like- And I’m sure this went great. Yeah, instead of saying like, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 15-year-old Link trying to manage two people at once. I was trying to figure, ‘Cause it’s like, “Yeah man, you know what? That’s probably gonna be tonight. You know I’m going to nana and pop-pop house tonight. I’m gonna get some more presents. Some may be bigger and redder and rednecker than others, but I haven’t gotten there yet.” You said something like that? No, I have no clue what I said, but that was the dance. Hopefully you didn’t say that because your mom would have known that you knew. Exactly, and then she probably wouldn’t have told pop-pop because this was his thing, to like surprise me, huge surprise. I get there that night, everybody’s opening the presents. Lots of tradition, lots of family members. By the time we get done with the presents, he’s like, “You may have noticed that you got less presents this year than you usually get every other year.” And I always love how he would go into like- Kind of a speech. If you gave him the opportunity to take the floor for something. “You may have noticed that you do not have as many gifts this year, as you’ve gotten in previous years.” It was like a political speech. “Though all of your half siblings and cousins have gotten the same amount of gifts that they’ve gotten in previous years. Let’s walk around, out back.” And I’m like, now I have to act surprised about this huge thing. I wanna give him the gift of me being surprised, but I’m not, but I was still elated. So I just channeled that, you know I’m a performer. He had it parked out back and it’s just one of those car commercial things, except a 1987 in 1994. It’s a 1994 commercial for a 1987 Nissan pickup truck. Yeah, and I got anything and didn’t know how to drive it, ’cause it was a stick. A stick, yeah. But he taught me and that was a connection that we made. And that truck is still in the family. You know what? That’s the third pillar of the McLaughlin plan as president, okay? Okay. Pillar number one, every fifth grader gets a herd of goats or a sewing machine. It’s up to them. Pillar number three, because those are actually two pillars. Yes, oh I’m tracking. Pillar number three is every 16-year-old has to get a manual transmission car. It’s a little lated now. I believe in electric vehicles, and so I don’t know if there’s a way to implement this. Electric race car. Do you like the combustion engine, we got to get rid of that sucker, but we got to somehow give kids electric cars- Still got to have a shifter. With the manual shifter that completely makes it more difficult because I think that made you a better person. Well, you got the paddles, the shifter paddles. The shifter paddles aren’t anything, no. Yeah that’s true. You got to learn how to operate a machine in a way that is meaningful and you gotta take care of goats. Put them in the back of the truck. I kept that truck all the way through college, hitting a tree, busting the radiator. I mean like near death experience, so much happened in that truck. I almost died in that truck. So many experiences, I took that truck into marriage and then eventually sold it, well it died and- Then you got a pretty similar truck to replace it. Yeah. But it was a Toyota. I got a Toyota. It looked like a four-wheel drive truck. Big wheels, but two wheel drive, which really was like one wheel drive. It was a Toyota pre-runner. Yeah. So it was a fake four-wheel drive truck because I was cheap. I didn’t even get the extend cab I was like- It wasn’t stick though, was it? No, I like that little truck. That was a good looking truck. I wanna get a little truck again. I actually- Don’t make little trucks anymore. That Toyota, that style of Toyota. Tacoma pre-runner are bigger now than they were. Like the the early aughts. That’s a really good truck. Yeah I like going back to them. My father-in-law had one of those that I drove that’s where I learned how to drive a stick. Speaking of that, just because while you just talking about this, I am gonna talk about the best gift that I ever got. Oh, we’ll do it. Because it’s the same gift that you got. I don’t know how long we had been married, not long. We were on staff at campus crusade at the time. So, we were not making a lot of money. No. And so definitely not in a position to purchase a car for ourselves that was not used or really a gift from someone else is what most of our cars would have been at the time. And Christmas morning, this was actually, I believe this was 100% unexpected. I remember it that way. You didn’t tell me so that I could call you before you got it and tell you you were gonna get it. So we’re at my in-laws house for Christmas Day, which is like two houses down from my own house. Oh no, at the time we wouldn’t have been, since it’s before Locke was born. So we would have been introduced, we were living in Chapel Hill. But anyway Chris and Ashley, Jessie’s sister and her husband, our Key West buddies were all inside the house. And then we’re opening smaller presents and clothes and stuff like that. You may have noticed. And then they said there was some sort of speech, please go outside and we’d go outside. And there are two, 2002 or 2003, whatever year it was, was the year that this was, Mitsubishi Monteros. Two, one was gray, one was burgundy. One was burgundy and one was gold. Ooh. And they’re exactly the same, brand new. One of my father-in-law’s employees had driven them up and put them in the driveway next to each other. And it was literally like, which one do y’all want? Like it wasn’t this one’s for you, and this one’s for you. That’s trouble, fight over the color. I don’t remember, it was an easy decision. We took the burgundy one, I don’t know why, and then I remember driving to Christmas conference because we always went to Christmas conference, which was the regional conference for campus crusade. The day after Christmas, we would drive, we would drive on the 26th because we were Emceeing the conference. Emceeing the conference. And I remember driving down Highway 40 and pulling up next to you and Christy. In the highway in our car that you did not, I don’t think you knew that we had gotten it. No. And like honking the horn at you and getting out to look over and see our big ass SUV that we just gotten for Christmas. I mean, that was really unusual. I mean, we drove the hell out of that car. Then your tire blew out, and we just kept going. That didn’t happen. But that was the most unexpected and most helpful-at-the-time gift because it was like, we really, we were getting, we were thinking about having kids. It was, we needed a car and we couldn’t afford one ourselves. It hasn’t gotten better than that since then. No sibling rivalry except over colors. You gotta give them the exact same thing. You gotta be equitable. Lauren, Hooksnpines tweeted, “Maybe not the best, but the most memorable gift. My great aunt got me the board game ‘Sorry!’, six years in a row every Christmas, not as a joke either. Legitimately, she forgot it’s what she got me each year before, the irony was lost on her. ‘Cause it’s called, Sorry!. Okay, there’s a few things to explore here. How could you… Yeah, it’s like… I think that this, first of all as we get older, sometimes the memory begins to fade a little bit and this is a legitimate thing that could happen and she could just have forgotten. And apparently that’s what happened- But her thought patterns stayed consistent. That’s fascinating. That is what I question. I think that she- What does Lauren want? I bet she want a board game. Sorry! is probably the best one. First of all, I’m taking issue with two things here. Number one, you’ve never said, Sorry, like a Canadian until today. Yeah, ’cause I was kind of impersonating Lauren’s great aunt, which I never say aunt either. I don’t know- You’ve been saying Sorry. Sorry. It’s sorry, if you’re from North Carolina. Yeah, I’m not being me right now. Okay, but the second thing is I think that this aunt gives Sorry! to lots of people, man. She got a bulk deal on, Sorry!, She’s got Sorries. Somehow, she came into a lot of Sorries and has maybe her system is off and she doesn’t know who’s gotten what, but Lauren is not the only person who’s receiving Sorries from this great aunt. I mean, there’s no way that she just- I mean that is the other possibility, if she thinks about Lauren and she thinks she’ll love this game. It is a great game. I like the feeling of that popper in the middle. Yeah, any sort of physical feedback that you can get. It’s very satisfying. Yeah. It is a great game. And you don’t lose the die, ’cause they’re contained in that module. This is a good time to, I wanted to check in with you on something, because- You’ve been waiting for this, you mean for the right time to bring what up. When I was in Kansas city recently Locke and Shepherd and I took a little drive into the city. They’d never been to Kansas city. We went to this, I think it’s called the River Market Area, sort of outdoor market. Shout out to the people at the Brazilian restaurant. I can’t remember your name, but you’re a Mythical beast. And you gave me a really incredible sandwich and then gave me some cheesy Brazilian bread balls or whatever they are. Wow, not gonna forget that, but there’s a store there that was a board game store, big board game store. Now I- It’s a tough business Yeah, it is. But it’s also like Pokemon cards and stuff too. Okay, irons in the fire, that’s a good business technique. It was a lot of square footage for this kind of store, but maybe it’s just because I’m so used to LA, like if you’re selling board games in LA, they’re gonna give you like 10 by 12, that’s it, that’s all you get, you know what I’m saying. It’s gonna be like a board game closet. Right, but in Kansas City, I guess you basically get what it amounts to two radio shacks. I don’t know if your radio shack scale is for your local radio shack, if it probably doesn’t exist anymore. It doesn’t. But anyway, I love the idea of board games. And so does Shepherd. And so we’re looking at all these board games and I’m just thinking, “Man, we should get one of these board games.” We’re not gonna get one because we have to fly back, et cetera. But that brought me back to, you kinda started getting into board games during the pandemic. And then there was this whole thing about you’re getting a national parks game. The pandemic, the kids are back in school, Lily’s off at college, has the board game, has it died, has the dream died? Funnily enough, I was thinking this morning that a holiday activity of ours should be breaking up Parks. And it would be a nostalgic event. The Neal family had never incorporated board games into our everyday Neal activities, I kind of like Survivor. But I think… Yes, it can be a nostalgic. There’s only so much time. So yeah, I think it can become a holiday thing, but probably only Parks. I think I could get… Is that what you wanted to ask me about? Yeah, I wanted to know, do you still recommend it? Yes. And the question I have as a followup is I think I could get just Shepherd into it. Jessie is a wild card, it depends on if she’s got a lot going on, Locke, forget about it, he might step in for a little bit, but could, are there games where just two people can play and it’s fun? Well, first of all, there is a single player version of parks within the game. Single player? So you can just play by yourself? I don’t what that means but that’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking are the good board games, in fact- I think you can play with two people, yes, I think so. I also might just do a little Google search. Just do that, Best two-player- Stop bothering me with things that you can Google. No I don’t remember. Two-player board games. If you have any insight, #EarBiscuits, just tag me. I wonder what you can do with six versions of Sorry! at once. Like, is that like a mega Sorry!. Well, I wonder if every single one of the little bubbles makes the same exact tone. Bryant Alvarado said, “My college roommate gave me a case of Kraft spirals macaroni, and cheese for Christmas one year.” A case. Solid. Love it. “He gave me a barbecue sauce sampler for my birthday the next year.” Nice, “One of the best friends I’ve ever had.” Yeah, you didn’t know where that was going. So that’s pretty cool, Bryant, You got a friend who knows you, but it kind of makes me wanna discuss our approach to gifting to each other. We’ve got this, like the main thing we go back to is that one Christmas when “Rocky V” came out, we each went to, in my memory, Sky City? We went to Roses. Roses. And we were browsing the music section. And we each decided that we wanted “Rocky V”. So we just both bought that soundtrack for each other. Can you name one song on that album? ♪ From The Streets coming to man a fighter ♪ ♪ Doing the best that he can to survive ♪ Who is playing that? ♪ Yes the survival for the fittest ♪ ♪ Strive for what is mine ♪ ♪ The Lord be my witness ♪ I have no clue what artists saying that because it was not a recognizable artist, but I knew that song. It was a rap song and it was on the soundtrack that you got me for Christmas, so I memorized it. Boy, I wish you would just take that part of your brain and apply it as other, The other talent. I’m telling you Man. I mean, it’s got some useless knowledge in there, man. There’s no way- You don’t have any useless knowledge? I could not remember any thing about that. I don’t know what the cover looked like. It wasn’t a good soundtrack. Of course, it was “Rocky V”. What was the best Rocky movie I’ve ever seen? And the only one you’ve seen “Creed”. No. Ever since Michael B Jordan’s bodyguards gave me the hard shoulder at that party. I just can’t go back to the B Jordan. “Creed” came out before that. Before you were body checked by his body guard, “Creed” was already out, maybe even “Creed 2” was getting ready. I like “Black Panther” a lot. But we don’t typically give gifts to each other these, well, okay, there’s the two versions of us that are, there’s blurred lines between the two. There’s the version that you see in the holidays that we celebrate, we celebrate each other’s birthdays in front of you on the shows that we make. And then when the birthday rolls around, because we shoot things ahead of time, it’s kinda like, “Oh, happy birthday, man”. I’ve already acted like I gave you a gift on the internet. That came out today. Yeah. And I don’t think that it’s just, again, first, I don’t think it’s either one of our love language to receive gifts. Well and this is what Jessie asked me all the time, because she’s like, is your like, “We got to get something for your dad.” “We got to get something for your mom.” And I’m like, “Oh.” And she’s like, “I want it to be like more thoughtful.’ And I’m like, yeah, “That’s great.” And then a lot of times we just settled on Amazon Gift Card or something like that, which is for a lot of people is just like, but that’s actually what my parents prefer in many ways. And they honestly, they don’t, like my family doesn’t care as much about it. Like I know that my dad is not gonna be like, “Oh man, you didn’t think about me.” But we always give them stuff, I’m just saying- Bit I think for, we don’t give each other stuff out of just an obligation and expectation. And we’ve never discussed it actually. It’s just that usually it doesn’t happen. There’s been some times when, I mean, like I remember for your birthday, I got you that Hawkman poster one time. And then I got you a wooden holster that would like charge your Apple watch and your phone. And I was in kind of a mindset of like, it. No, no, it wouldn’t charge it. Oh, it was a piece of crap. No, it was just a piece of wood that you sit your phone in it- And like if you ran the cable through it. Yeah, it was a wooden holster, It was only wood. He likes wood, he has an Apple watch. I’m gonna give him this, but it was a piece of crap. I was experimenting a couple of times with, am I gonna become a gift giver because, and I think it was, do I wanna be a gift receiver? And do I want Rhett to give me gifts? And then I discovered by giving you gifts, the thing I discovered was it didn’t resonate with either one of us. I think that the biggest thing, and it’s not about our love language. Is the reason why we don’t give each other gifts is we know how difficult it is for each of us to get up the gumption, to give gifts in general. And I think we believe that we’re on the same page, that the amount of work that we would have to put in is more than the amount of enjoyment we would get from receiving. It’s like we kind of have this unspoken thing that’s like, we both don’t want, we don’t have, it takes a lot of time and energy, especially this time of year. Like what you were talking about to like give gifts. You’re not, neither one of us really have felt need for that so it’s like, let’s just spare each other the trouble. Well, it’s interesting because, I honestly don’t, like if somebody gives me a good thoughtful gift I think it’s really cool, but I don’t expect it. I don’t expect it from you. I’ve gotten, I can’t recall because again, my memory doesn’t work in this way, but if I’ve seen some things I’ve been someplace and I’ve seen something that’s like around my birthday or whatever there’s a couple of like examples that are kind of analogous to what you did with the Hawkman thing that you, I can’t remember what they are. I will clarify, I think I found the Hawkman poster because I was looking for stuff to decorate our office at the time and I was like, you know what? Rhett would like this and it fulfills a desire that I have to have our office decorated. So it was kind of like me controlling how you decorate your part of the office. So like, I’ll take that then just like, it was kinda like I had another interest in giving the poster maybe. But I think one of the things I’m discovering though, is that when I find something, I’m gonna use the example of what I found for Stevie for her birthday. When I find something and I’m like, “Oh man, this is perfect and they’re gonna love it.” I get a lot out of that, And I think it taps into the same thing that I like, when I like cooking for somebody, it’s just like, they’re gonna think, they’re going to have this sandwich and it’s gonna be this great experience and we’re all together. So if whether or not. If you’re talking about the Liquid Death, sweats outfit that you got? Stevie is absolutely obsessed with Liquid Death, the drink which is just water. It looks like you’re drinking like a tall boy, malt liquor, so don’t drive with it, but it’s just water, it’s really good water, and she just loves it, and she’s always drinking one, she’s very hydrated. And I just saw on Instagram- You weren’t looking for a gift for her. No, I’m just scrolling Instagram and all of a sudden, I see this Liquid Death long sleeve shirt and it’s just like… I don’t know, I got an abnormal heart rate detected. Are you okay? I’m sweating. Maybe it’s ’cause I had my collar up too long. Let me check mine. Let’s see where I’m at right now, I’m at 74. Why are you making this about you? I’m just wondering, is there something that we should be… In the room? Is in the room that we should be worried about? I’m at 97. Oh, good Lord, I’m under a little stress. I see this long sleeve shirt and then I start scrolling through the wheel or whatever, Carousel. And it’s like, there’s a hat, there’s a hoodie. There’s matching sweat pants. And I’m like, this has got a Stevie written all over it. And the timing was right. And his birthday was coming up in like a week or two. I saw an ad. And by the way, she absolutely loved it and felt really like thought of and appreciated. And I’m not saying- I told her I found it. Yeah. And we don’t do that for Stevie every single year. We always get her something for her birthday, I think. It usually doesn’t matter. But it’s like, It usually doesn’t resonate. It usually is like, “Here’s a gift certificate to something or whatever.” ‘Cause it’s tough to find the things that connect with the person. But I saw an ad for something that I was like, this has got Christy written all over it. And I was like, you know what, I’m gonna buy it. This is not something I, I’ve only recently started buying stuff from ads. And by the way, we’re gonna do an episode, our 2021 purchases, that’s something we’re starting to do every year. So that’s coming up. That’s going to be fun. Yeah. I was like, you know what? I’m just, I really like this, she’ll really like this and I’ll order it and I’ll give it to her for Christmas. And now I’m thinking I’m just going to go ahead and give it to her now. I think it would be more of a surprise, but then I got to start over for Christmas. So maybe I’ll keep it, it’s already wrapped. I’m kind of itching to just give it to her. I don’t know what I’ll get it for Christmas then, but it’s a thing that like she could already enjoy now. I mean, I’m not going to say what it is, even though I don’t think that she’s listening. When you find that stuff, man, you gotta go for it. College roommates who give gifts, I think that’s sweet. Here’s another friend gift thing that I thought was creative. This is Aaronklemmensen, thanks for tweeting at us. “My roommate, my senior year of college filmed a little bit of almost every day of our senior year. He put it together like a vlog that needed, that ended up being over an hour and a half long. Having the ability to go back now and enjoy some of those moments again is truly special.” Very cool gift idea. And it’s a gift that he was able to give to himself too. Ain’t no shame in like a gift for you is a gift for me. I agree with this. Like that Hawkman poster. I don’t know if it’s called like what? The one second, One second a day or One Second app or whatever. One of our good friends has done that. I think we end up talking about it every year, by the way. Yeah, this is probably the third year that we’ve talked about it, but still never done it. But this that’s an hour and a half. That’s ambitious. But also you get a little bit more context, than just the one. The one second thing is great because it’s just like, okay, it’s 365 seconds and we’re done with it. But I do think that these man, I mean, this is kind of this kind of ties in with what we’ve been talking about with getting some footage of your relatives over the holidays, telling stories, it’s so easy to commemorate things. And if you don’t know where we were talking about that was, we do carpool vlogs on every month on the Mythical Society. So like a, just a 20 minute conversation. I think it’s kind of like an “EarBiscuit” in the car, but you don’t. I think it’s like an “EarBiscuit” in a car, but I think that that’s the wrong way to brand it, which is a separate conversation now. Anyway, that’s what we were talking about. I will say. Recording your elder relatives stories for the past year. But you know that, I’m sure Google is doing the same thing and other services, but Apple is basically doing, they’re basically creating these memories, right? Like, oh, on this day, November 18th, 2016, like what happened on that? Google Photos does it too. I was actually looking at it this morning. I’m just gonna play. Where is it? Oh, there’s Lincoln and Lily. Oh, this just in Hawaii. There we are, there’s me, the waterfall. Yep, this is, so there’s. I mean, this is our Thanksgiving trip. We got into the helicopters. Tell me what you’ve been thinking about Hawaii so far? Don’t touch it. So that’s Lando not answering your question. Oh, this is cool. I mean, this is like, ’cause I don’t want to take the time to do this. What in the world is that? A steering wheel of something. It was my leg, it was my bare leg in a car. Peer Pressure I think- This is us going for a hike. I get the idea. Well, I guess what I’m getting at is that what this friend took time to do, big brother is now doing it for us. The cloud does automatically. Like, we don’t need to curate our lives because the computers are doing it for us. And there’s probably a like, give me my summary of the year. I mean, you probably don’t even have to ask for it. It was gonna happen, it’s probably happening right now. But I’m not saying you can email it- this is not a thoughtful gift, I’m just saying that- Put it on VHS for your grandparents. Okay, I just kind of relived, our Hawaii 2016 Thanksgiving. We went together as family, how often do I think about that? Not very often. Everyday. I do. But now here it is, it’s a memory I’m on my phone and I could send that to everybody in your family, everybody in my family and they would be like, “Thanks for taking the time to do that.” I put a little something together. All I did was literally open an app and hit a button. Yeah, there’s a button. Is it share, you could send it to the group right now. Mystina Mashek, “A personalized song by the lead singer of my favorite band from my husband for Christmas. It makes me so happy each time I listen to it.” I don’t know what your favorite band is, so they’re either- Maybe a Local thing. Either this is a- This is Cameo on musical steroids, or this is a low-level band. This is either Cameo, this isn’t a very accessible band, or this is a big band, there’s a connection between, that the husband has, either way it makes her happy every time she listens to it. The Cameo version of that, the thing that we’re pushing for the Cameo montage stuff, I think is akin to this. Yeah and it’s losing its, it’s kind of losing its luster a little bit now, as everyone begins to understand that this doesn’t take a whole lot of work, it’s a system. It takes money and- But it’s still a very meaningful at the point of sale, as a point of sale but the point of experience. Speaking of thoughtful experience, Tyler Reese, FinalKickening tweeted, “I had the goal of visiting all 50 states before I turned 30, which was interrupted by COVID, on my birthday I woke up to the house decorated by my wife with things from my three missing states. And the rest of the day was spent doing activities and eating food from those states. So thoughtful. Very thoughtful, very sweet. So experiential. I love the fact that Tyler had this idea, first of all, to get to all 50 states before 30, I assume that being in trapped inside your home and just eating food from, I’m wondering what three states it was that he hadn’t been to. Alaska is probably one of them. Like if you have to just stay. I bet it’s not. But Hawaii. No, I bet it’s… You think it’s like a Vermont? Yeah. Rhode Island? I haven’t been to Rhode Island. I don’t want to throw The Dakotas under the bus, but I’m thinking Dakota. It’s easy to miss a Dakota. It’s easy to miss both Dakotas. South Dakota? I’m sorry Dakotas is easy to miss you. Which one has Mount Rush-less? That one’s tough to work up the gumption to go to. On a closing note, I thought that this one was a very sweet from Rachel Holmberg. “When I was three, I got a mini recliner that matched-” Okay stop there. First of all, a mini recliner is a thing. Of course it is. And this is a great gift for anyone who’s three. Well, not only are mini recliners or thing, but have you, I’m surprised that you guys haven’t done this at your house yet, but lots of people, and it seems a lot of people with Dachshunds are making little living rooms. If they have multiple Dachshunds in their home, they’re like making little living rooms with miniature, like couches and table, I haven’t seen this. furniture and artwork around that’s all lower level. And it’s like in a room in their house, and to give a room to a dog. But I mean, you got one kid in college. You can take Lily’s room and make it a dog room. I don’t know. Okay. Start over. I interrupted. When I was three I got a mini recliner that matched my grandpa’s. We would watch TV and eat our nightly ice cream next to each other in our recliners. My grandpa was my best pal and my only father figure growing up. Miss him every day. Oh, that’s so cute and poignant. My grandfather sat in his recliner. It wasn’t necessarily as inviting as it seems that your grandfather was, ’cause he just sat in his recliner, chewing on a cigar, drinking something. I think he just drank wine. My grandma just drank whiskey. She always smoked cigarettes and drink whiskey and he would smoke a cigar and drink something else. But I think it was wine. And he had a little poodle that would sit right next to him, Honeybun. Honeybun. Right up on him like that. There is a thought that if I had a little recliner to go back and I have my little candy cigar and my little apple juice. And your little fake poodle, your little Honeybun. ‘Cause there was no ice cream eating in that chair, and once he had a cigar and wine, he didn’t eat anything. I don’t know what he ate. Maybe it was whiskey too, but mama Neal buddy. She would have some whiskey every single night. I didn’t understand that that was a probably a problem until much later in life. I think this is such a sweet memory and sometimes it’s like, gifts that you can go back to in your brain because if it’s a three-year old recliner, you’re not actually going back to the recliner. It could be an attic somewhere. I like that. You could put your Dachshund in it when you grow up and put that on Instagram. Well, thank you for sharing your gifts with us. The stories of your gifts. May your gift giving be especially thoughtful. I got a rec. Give it to us. My gift to you, the gift that you can give to yourself, a musical pick-me-up. Enjoy that “Silk Sonic” album, Anderson Paak, Bruno Mars, super group Silk Sonic. You got some Bootsy Collins, Legend kind of narrating a story that lasts about 31 minutes. You got a little bit of Thundercat in one song, which is cool. But yeah, it’s just a syrupy retro soul funk good time. So if you need that, pick-me-up, give yourself that gift this holiday season, little bit of the “Silk Sonic”. Get in your recliner, grab your ice cream, your earbuds and listen to your heart’s content. #EarBiscuits, tell us what you think. Talk at you next week. To watch more “Ear Biscuits”, click on the playlist on the right. To watch the previous episode of “Ear Biscuits” click on the playlist to the left. And don’t forget to click on the circular icon to subscribe. If you prefer to listen to this podcast, it’s available on all your favorite podcast platforms. Thanks for being your Mythical best.