Getting Through This with Tom and Scott

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.

In an historic two for one episode, Scott buys and sets up a new laptop, which Tom says will earn him plaudits from the environmental movement, since it’s his first new computer in 12 years! Plus, after a months long hiatus, Scott picks up The Power Broker again, and moves three pages closer to finishing the compelling 1147 page tome.

While the thought of having our pets talk for a day sounds appealing, the same can’t be said if our bed suddenly started talking in the middle of the night. Plus, we upend the scriptwriting world by suggesting a writer write a review of their play or film, and design a poster and full page ad with other blurbs, before they write the actual script

We reveal that you don’t have to talk the talk to walk the walk. So that won’t keep us awake at night. Or in Scott’s case, prevent him from falling back to sleep an hour before his alarm goes off. Plus, we revisit The Great Pedestrian statue. Should it be the centerpiece of a giant pedestrian bridge, an environmentally sound project that might make Greta Thunberg become friends with Tom and Scott?

An unexpected visitor stages a conversation coup in the Catskills, when Scott and Ginger join Tom and Sandy for the holiday weekend. Yet another in a wildly eccentric cast of Catskills Characters that stop by Sandy’s Fair Lawn Inn in our upcoming book, film or episodic series, Life on the Mountain.

As he votes in a virtually unpublicized primary election, Scott realizes he’s the only voter in the room, making him a voting VIP, a giddy feeling that non voters didn’t get to experience. We propose a Museum of Voting to honor this cherished and exhilarating right.

Since their ethics are above reproach, Tom and Scott think they should replace Alito and Thomas on the Supreme Court. They eagerly look forward to the confirmation hearings where they will get huge laughs by telling Senators how much they hate ice fishing in Alaska, as well as hanging out in Montana with billionaires. But they will balance the hilarity, by stressing their commitment to honoring pr...

It’s our gala 605th episode, because why should you only celebrate a number with a zero at the end? On this historic episode, we ruminate about the pitfalls of fame, and why we’re relieved to have avoided that recognition. And we also celebrate not having to wear a tux, which never makes you feel comfortable, especially if it’s a rental.

Our slogan,”No Ticks in NYC” would compel tick fearing rural dwellers to return to the tick-free city and office towers would be full once again. Is the powerful tick lobby behind the refusal of the powers that be to not use our idea?

Tom and Scott attend the annual Museum Mile event, without actually seeing any museum exhibits, by eschewing the long, snaking lines to get in. But, as proud flaneurs, they take to the streets and take the Fifth. Fifth Avenue, that is, as they stroll down the grand boulevard free of motorcars for the evening. And then, miraculously, they have a fine dinner at a luncheonette!

Chat GPT can’t do comedy, so our profession has nothing to fear, and If it’s used for good and not evil, it can be a positive thing. Scott worries he might be a robot since he has difficulty identifying the photos with crosswalk’s online. Also, Tom and Scott propose a USO tour that promotes world peace instead of just entertaining troops fighting a war.

Scott returns home eager to take to the streets of Manhattan to reestablish his role as a flaneur in New York, as he had been in Paris the past three weeks. But the worst air quality ever in New York forces him to do the unthinkable. Stay indoors.

In our 600th episode, Scott continues to find ways to gush about Paris in a way that’s not reminiscent of endless hours trapped in someone’s living room in the 1970’s, watching slides of their vacation. And Scott becomes a flaneur, sauntering around the streets of Paris with no specific destination in mind, much the way Manet, Degas and Renoir did.

Scott is an American in Paris for the first time, who must find a balance between gushing about a city he loves, and the need to make travel anecdotes compelling. A week of not knowing the language of the country he’s in, has given him a new found appreciation of knowing the language of a country he’s in.