Episode 171 -- "Tech Support"

Join Mike outside on a Friday night, discussing many topics including how bizarre it is that we need to pay to live; hunting and gathering; why people stack up at the ATM on payday when they can easily go to a teller; humans vs. machines and which is more nuanced; "Modern Romance", "Lost in America", and the deal with Albert Brooks; a failed shoelace purchase and making the best of it; Pokemon Go (of course); remembering Pogs; "Mysteries at the Museum" on the Travel Channel; designing a new web site on SquareSpace; lost wallet saga, and; a "Secret Life of Pets" review.

Show time: 1:06:41

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License Non-commercial Share-Alike License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released July 2016 on The Midnight Citizen and The Overnightscape Underground.

Permanent Vacation

Every time I think about scrubbing routine, I think about the end of



"The Graduate"




Here's a guy, Ben, who has always played the straight and narrow, done everything in life he had planned up to the end of college. And then, he scrubs routine.


Most everyone wants to change course, and each for his own reasons.Ben does it for a woman -- well, if you want to get technical, two women. But it's the daughter, Elaine Robinson, he really wants. And as he steals her away from the arranged wedding in Santa Barbara, the two hop a bus and plop down in back with unchecked daffiness.

Hey, baby.

Next, the impulse is over and they've gotten what they wanted, their smiles wither. Endorphins settle. As Simon and Garfunkle swell and the credits roll, you can see Ben and Elaine thinking the same thing: what now, then? 

So...you wanna grab some dinner?

You may have a different read on it, but I think the answer is pretty clear: they regret. For Ben and Elaine, they realize the feeling that most of us fear when we consider scrubbing our routine for something that might just turn out to be a flash-in-the-pan impulse. They sit on that bus, and they regret.