Getting Through This with Tom and Scott

Tom is the only person to brave the pouring rain at the Windham Fall Festival, and he buys food from as many grateful vendors as he can. Scott sees his heroic story as a postwar black and white Italian film, starting Sophia Loren, as a olive oil vendor he befriends after buying several bottles.

We stand up for the common cold since the term “common” is lacking in respect for this hard working, reliably present, but not scary, virus, which Scott had this week. Plus, does listening to our podcast hasten one’s recovery from a cold?

A magical weekend in the Catskills, even without a double rainbow! Tom and Scott joined Sandy and our friends Bill and Rosa, by escaping the rain and made it to the mountains for a fun filled time worthy of the non existent society pages.

Did a picture of Tom not chanting, but smiling, on a WGA picket line, bring the studios to their knees and end the strike? And could Scott’s smiling and sign pumping to honking cars, have the same effect for the SAG AFTRA strike?

Time travel is a recurring theme of this podcast, and this episode offers the shocking revelation that no universities offer a program to study and research time travel. Which is why we have been unable to obtain the gizmo that will make our own Time Machine travel through time. So the time is now for universities and other institutions to make time travel a reality.

While cynics bemoan the gridlock of the opening week of the UN General Assembly, Scott, dubbed by Tom as “The Great Pedestrian” navigates the traffic by walking the avenue at a much faster pace! And he and Tom still found time to be a “flaneur “, strolling the busy streets, taking in the sights and sounds of the city, with no destination in mind.

Tom proposes that pedestrians, like Scott, who brave the rain, shall be rewarded with a payment of up to $15,000 depending on how torrential is the rain. This will incentivize people to ditch their cars and get on their feet, which will help fight climate change and lead to a better, more waterproof world, as pedestrians apply some of their funds towards weather protection clothing and gear.

We announce our plans to travel back to 1952, once our Time Machine is completed, and write the new MGM musical hit “Pedestrian Parade” with Gene Kelly and Judy Garland. We will write the script only when we arrive in 1952, so we don’t violate the WGA strike guidelines.

As Scott recovers from a bout of laryngitis, we raise our voices in support of the temporary voiceless. Tom even creates an original 18th century poet quotation about it, since no poet from the 18th century ever bothered to write one.

Scott visits Tom’s former homeland of Pacific Palisades, and imagines an Hitchcockian tale of a podcast host who assumes the identity of his cohost who has moved to New York. Will we use our soon to be completed Time Machine to go back to 1946 and make that film?

The podcast of record for these times takes on the uptick in cases, with a hearty laugh and a can do attitude. And to demonstrate that, we each quote a line from Faulkner! Can a Nobel or two be next?

Tom and Scott are relieved that our country’s Constitution does not mandate compulsory water skiing. Plus, we raise our voices on behalf of the potato, since it is the only food object tied to sitting on the couch. And we also stand up for the rights of the easily indictable ham sandwich.

Scott and Ginger get away from it all without taking a kayak to Quincy or Nyack. But they manage to spend a day at the pool without leaving their friends’s house, which would be impossible for apartment dwellers like us. Plus, after a weekend of using his “dog voice”, coupled with his regular use of his “cat voice”, could Scott eventually eschew his human voice altogether?

A change in our usual recording time doesn’t create a crisis of confidence, since we openly and transparently reveal this fact to our listening audience. Something that sets us apart from less principled podcasters.

You heard it here first! Our latest film idea is The Hiker and the Flaneur, which finds an urban explorer, like Renoir and Degas, who ventures to a small Catskills town with only a very limited sidewalk area. Then he wanders off Main Street and encounters a spirited hiker woman, and romance later ensues.

Scott stands in the middle of Park Avenue, but thankfully it’s during the Summer Streets hours, when cars are banished from that tony boulevard. We revisit our proposal for a pedestrian walkway that extends from New York to California.

At a Pyle(Tom’s real last name)family gathering, most of the next generation of Pyles have had kids of their own. Lots of kids. Which leads Tom to discover a shocking statistical trend, that in just two or three generations, most Americans will be Pyles! Which will make for a more quiet and self conscious country.

A day at the ballpark begins with attempting the daredevil, high wire act of trying to coordinate meeting on the same subway car as it arrives into the station. Newly released text messages reveal Tom’s anxiety over which train Scott would be arriving on. The maneuver is successful, although there is none of the anticipated applause by subway riders.

A brunch snafu and the way we handled it, shows how diplomacy in the face of bungled service, can pave the way for world peace. Plus, how something that amounts to a hill of beans is actually something to aspire to. Particularly, if it involves a variety of beans.

We rejoice that the outdoors is free, and we need not file a “walk plan”in advance for approval. Plus, we propose a “Dystopia” theme park, with dark, bleak rides. And Scott is relieved that he didn’t come up with the idea of the IPhone and podcast in sixth grade, and feels remorseful that he didn’t do anything with it.

Tom’s “stop the presses” story about how NYC tourists are in much better shape than those at Disneyworld inspires Scott to walk the copywriting tightrope to come up with a slogan expressing that theme without offending anyone. Plus, we delve into the overuse of the cliche “above my pay grade”.

Scott’s vivid word pictures of his Berkshires weekend inspires Tom to imagine sitting on the lawn at Tanglewood enjoying delicious chicken, and mouth watering German potato salad, but alas, the coleslaw has a bit too much mayonnaise. Plus, some tips on making more interesting land acknowledgments.

In a frank and frankly hilarious follow up to his prostate procedure episode, Tom details his very successful, but sometimes harrowing recovery. And we hope that intimate procedures like that will never be filmed for medical reality shows, and will instead be performed by Union actors in a reenactment show.

Tom and Scott join their pals at a Mets game, and banter hilariously without paying much attention to the game. Thankfully, they’re not asked to pitch, because they fear the ill fitting uniform and the derisive chants of the crowd if they bounce the ball to home plate.

There was a time when the weather report was lighthearted and strangers asked us, “Is it hot enough for ya?”Now we turn the grim reality of climate change into boffo laughs as we create a Retro Weather channel with weather reports from the 1960’s.