Red Taped Andy and Larry

Is Marcel Proust that author we all should be reading or just the founding father of internet trolling and incel culture?  In this new old-stock episode (recorded February 2021) we finally get around to reviewing Alain de Botton’s How Proust Can Change Your Life.  In addition to 50 minutes of mispronouncing “Proust” we also go off on a bunch of tangents including curated bookshelf backgrounds, loving/hating Scott Adams, the good and bad of Proustian moments, Andy’s misadventures in tiny European countries, and the “frosted kiss” of beer angels/ defrosting your soul with Dunkin.  (Trigger warnings: We also briefly talk about suicide, death, and hitting rock bottom)
Book:  How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain De Botton
Drink: Pommeau De Normandie and Ben Franklin Hard Cider (sometimes mixed—don’t do it)
References and Attributes:
Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness presented by Alain de Botton-Episode 1:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S24FxdvfOko&list=PLxRuhrcSjnv2weFRcqOeCpk4Wy7_hay2j
“Marcel Proust” by the School of Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mLdo4uMJUU&t=513s
“How to Cope with Bureaucracy” by the School of Life:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL_IoZqyb1I
Alain de Botton on The Tim Ferriss Show (Podcast): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KreaV59NkE
Opening Background Music: “Mastermind” from https://www.FesliyanStudios.com
Closing Quote: Marcel Proust read by Alan Rickman

Hope…. Is it the one thing that kept you going the past six months?  Did hope sustain you through the recent drought of Red Taped episodes.  Do you find comfort in the simple fact that no matter what happens no one can take your hope away? This episode we give your feeling brain what it is craving and leave your rational mind wanting by discussing (poorly) Mark Manson’s latest book, Everything is F*cked, A Book About Hope.
Please join us as we drive an unruly elephant, get a beer from a green turtle, and visit a very blunt panda....  Ooops!!!  One last thing…..we kinda, sorta, maybe, subtly…..take hope away.  Set your existential angst to eleven, party with nihilists, and find a better way forward.
Book:  Everything is F*cked, A Book About Hope by Mark Manson
Drink: Esperante (Mexican Style Lager)- Aslin Beer Company
References and Attributes:
Opening Song: “Scheming Weasel (faster version)” by Kevin MacLeod (CC Attribution 3.0)
Opening Quote: “Rixty Minutes.”  Rick and Morty, TV (Season 1, Episode 8)
Closing Quote:   The Big Lebowski. Film, 1998.

Has it been minutes, days, weeks, months, years? We are not sure because life has become the overlapping timelines of the Witcher.
Back in April your fearless and house-bound hosts decided to watch Season 1 of Parks and Recreation and talk about it with their friends.  Yes, season 1 is pretty horrible but re-watching it was just a small, fading ember of the dumpster fire that is 2020. (Don’t’ worry, dear listener, just like pizza, bad Parks and Rec is still pretty good and season 1 is only 6 episodes.)
This week we are joined by our buddy Norm to help us tackle episodes 1 and 2.  What happens when three bureaucrats born in the 1980s get together to talk about a sitcom from the early 2000s?  They talk about Cheers.   We know our listeners are fans of big and bigger government but sit back, relax, and feel some small township energy.
Production Note: This is episode 1 of a 3-episode series.  We will be returning to our book reviews  soon.  The next book to face our scrutiny is Everything is F*cked: A Book about Hope by Mark Manson.  
 

“When you light a candle, you also cast a shadow.”- Ursula K. Le Guin
“Ready to give up so I seek the Old Earth.  Who explained working hard may help you maintain. To learn to overcome the heartaches and pain.” - “C.R.E.A.M” by Wu Tang Clan
Is this episode good or bad?  Trick question: Only a Sith deals in absolutes.  This episode two caged bearcats wrap-up their lengthy discussion of Ralph Waldo Emerson by reviewing his short essay, “Compensation.”   We were hoping for a get-rich-quick scheme but instead we got an essay on the inherent natural tendency of all things to find balance and the resulting ethical framework that transcends artificial institutions.  This “deep stuff” is balanced out with a lot of discussion about: Star Wars; sleeping on the job (and failing at it); life changing fortune cookies; financial fitness and weight loss: bowling and drinking at 7am; St. Nick Offerman; Star Wars, again; quarantine-induced Malort tolerance; and the very fine line between six-pack winners and losers.
(Note: This is a follow-on episode to our review of “Self-Reliance.” You should probably listen to that episode first but you do you.)
Book: “Compensation” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Drink: Reis (Rice Lager brewed with Jasmine Tea, Green Tea & Yuzu [tastes like Coors Light in a good/bad way]) by Aslin Beer
References and Attributes:
American Philosophy: A Love Story by John Kaag (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28116747-american-philosophy)
Closing:
Excerpt from the Urban Dharma Podcast, episode “Karma: Friend or Foe” August 5, 2019 (https://www.urbandharma.org/udharma9/dharmatalks.html)

“Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!” ―  Winston Zeddmore, Ghostbusters (1984)
“We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. But habit is a great deadener.”― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
Social distancing, teleworking, beans and rice/rice and beans, TP shortages, virtual happy hours, and forgetting to hit mute—is Ralph Waldo Emerson the person we need to transcend all this?  This week the Red Taped lost boys try to grow up and become self-reliant (although we would prefer not to).  This quasi-normal episode gets a little off topic and explores: tiny mammal things (friend, foe, or delicious?); virtual train travel for cool guys; less than horrible elevator music; cider virginity stories; hot and bothered bats; and the erotic lives of America’s nonagenarian intelligentsia.   If you want to skip us catching up and get straight to the book forward to 17:50.
Read your Emerson and keep listening!
(Production note: please hang in with us and we work on improving the quality of the remote recording.) 
Book: “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Drinks: a moral imperative at this point
Next episode: “Compensation” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Attributes and References:
Go for a train ride:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw9qiV7XlFs
Background music for work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuBCIwEzBBI
American Philosophy: A Love Story by John Kaag (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28116747-american-philosophy)
Ethics by Baruch Spinoza https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205218.Ethics?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=jCFmYrXPgq&rank=1 )
Hot Bats?
https://massivesci.com/articles/bat-immune-systems-ncov-sars-nipah-mers-ebola-coronavirus/
Opening:
Charles Ives “Symphony No 1” : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM5e9fjFRHg&t=89s 
Reading of “Self-Reliance”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pEhC3345JE
Closing:
“Bartelby the Scrivener” (short film): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUBA_KR-VNU&t=1307s

Fat monks, tigers, cobras, and viruses, oh my!
A few weeks ago, two bearcats met via technology from their respective cages to honor a fellow bureaucrat with the prestigious Walter Peck Excellency in Bureaucracy Award.  They also took some time to talk about their recent transition to “all-telework-all-the-time” and other random things.  This is the first in a series of “Caged Bearcats Episodes” where we will be playing around with different formats and topics while social distancing.  
If you were ever curious what Andy and Larry talk about when they have nothing to talk about, this episode is for you.  The short answer is snakes, mostly.  The long answer: technology burn-out; neighbor shaming; becoming members of the siesta club; how mundane bar food can transcend into sublime memories; how turning 40 while social distancing is strangely like other life milestones (in a dark basement, scared, and so very alone); snakes, snakes, and more snakes; Demolition Man as prophecy; and the trials, triumphs, and tribulations of quasi-illegal hiking.
Book: none
Drink: whatever we could find.
Next up: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays Self-Reliance and Compensation
References:
The "Monk and the Tiger" story is from this video (Check it out, it will help):
“What do to when everything falls apart” by Ajahn Brahm  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe4gks2rAGg
Next time you are in Albuquerque, form some new nightmares:
https://www.rattlesnakes.com/
Technical assistance for the toilet paper shortage: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7nFEnFtvCM
Be back soon with Emerson and Parks and Rec...