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Episode #34 - Dear Uncle John Letter

It's a classic couch ep! Amitai and Katie-Ellen are once again huddled up on the couch and they are full the brim with Spring Fever. We are smack dab in the middle of what Amitai dubs "the springiest Spring that ever sprung." The pair bond over how they can not stop falling in love out there (sometimes with the same person).

Their mutual crush on the dreamboat sales associate at Frontrunners prompts the following unsolicited PSA from Katie-Ellen:


If you took up a new running practice at the start of the pandemic and have been running consistently, if you are in a position to do so, it's time to get new running shoes.


Okay, back to regularly scheduled nonsense.


Organization in the Chaos of Being Alive

Katie reveals that in the initial "lockdown" pandemic times she made a reminder on her phone to prompt her in "a couple of weeks", you know, when this pesky global pandemy is through (a cool 14 days should do it), to text the woman she had asked out just before things shut down. A reveal of life architecture that got Amitai very fired up.


The pair discuss their various coping mechanisms - Katie to manage her lack of negative space and Ami for his excess. This leads to the memory of one of Katie's "To Do" lists from years ago, overseen by Ami. Would have looked something like this:

Sometimes you gotta be your own playfully abusive coach.

Shaped by the Sacred Text of "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader"

No guest this ep, but doesn't mean their isn't a STAR and it's clearly this formative series of books.

Uncle John's Bathroom Readers are a series of books containing trivia and short essays on miscellaneous topics, ostensibly for reading in the bathroom.[1] The books are credited to the Bathroom Readers' Institute, though Uncle John is a real person.

The quote from the Wikipedia entry for "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader" has revealed two incredible facts:

  1. Uncle John is REAL

  2. There is a Wikipedia entry for "Bathroom Reading". That entry opens as such:

Bathroom reading is the act of reading text while in a bathroom, usually while sitting on the toilet and defecating. The practice has been common throughout history and remains widespread today with both printed material and smartphones.

During the episode Amitai aptly called "UJBR" the precursor to the Internet scroll and I think these two quotes prove that yes, the Bathroom Reader really was like an early Wikipedia. You can definitely get lost in it.


If you've not had the pleasure to peruse one of the MANY editions (straight up 34 editions y'all!) of this great text, sincerely we are sorry for you.


Categories of Action

From the bathroom to the philosophy classroom, Ami throws out some recently acquired knowledge.

  • instrumentally rational (zweckrational), that is, determined by expectations as to the behavior of objects in the environment of other human beings; these expectations are used as "conditions" or "means" for the attainment of the actor's own rationally pursued and calculated ends;

  • value-rational (wertrational), that is, determined by a conscious belief in the value for its own sake of some ethical, aesthetic, religious, or other form of behavior, independently of its prospects of success;


Or as Amitai more clearly put it, "Instrumental Rational Action" are things that support your survival, "Value Rational Action" are things that support your spirit/the things you love to do.


May you, dear reader, be more balanced in these areas than your hosts, who are working on it.


Horny For

This week, Katie is horny for the smell of sunscreen.

Amitai is horny for running fast.


As always we remain internally horny for you. Thanks for being here.



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