Getting Through This with Tom and Scott

Tom’s very moving moving story has Scott holding on to his seat, rather than the riskier sitting on the edge of his seat. But this thrill a second journey of a truckload of boxes, paintings and furniture from Tom’s former LA home, is so Hitchcockian that we can even figure out the scene where Hitch makes his brief cameo appearance.

We make the case for no case, as Scott revels in the elegance and sensual beauty of his unprotected IIPhone 11, as he awaits a free replacement for his Otter Box case. But we caution our listeners, that along with its sleek feel, glossy purple color and lighter and easier to fit in your pocket size, an uncased phone is like being a high wire act, where at any moment a dropped phone could lead to i...

The air conditioning in Tom’s car isn’t working, and he realizes it would be easier to solve global warming than find a Volvo service center that has the replacement part. Plus, Scott suggests a midi graduation gown to beat the heat. And we show our appreciation for the word “appreciate”, and how it gives everything more value.

As people are doing activities for the first time since March 2020, Scott just did something for the first time ever. He provides just a taste of the unbridled beauty of Vermont and New Hampshire, while Tom considers the merits of bridled beauty as well, as in a fine horse. And we wonder if Scott’s effusive praise of the Dartmouth campus will lead to his being named the commencement speaker at the...

A gift of large boxes of Ring Dings, Ding Dings, Devil Dogs and Cupcakes, which would have been a dream when Scott was a kid, turns into a nightmare as an adult. Will anyone accept his magnanimous offer to take some of the boxes off his hands, especially since sugar is the first ingredient in all of them?

We propose a yearly Throwback Thursday, where a random year is chosen in a lottery drawing, and the entire nation must wear the clothing of that period for the day. This will create many jobs and will be a boon to the domestic manufacturing of clothing from all different times in history.

Tom becomes the first volunteer doctor, and “urger” of urgent care, as he helps his girlfriend secure medical appointments that ultimately lead to a stirring happy ending. Plus, Scott conjures up a O’Henry like story, where a man sells his bragging rights to buy his girlfriend dinner, but is then left with nothing to say.

In a shorts story worthy of O’Henry, Tom and Scott reveal, for the first time, how they have managed to be lifelong friends and podcast partners, despite the fact that Tom doesn’t wear shorts, while Scott spends many hours researching his shorts purchases.

The two main elements of our philosophy are being relieved about things that don’t happen, and being very appreciative of what we do have. The Ice Hotel in Quebec, where you must wear animal skins while you sleep on a bed of ice, is a prime example of something we’re relieved we don’t have to experience. But we’re looking forward to going back in time to 1943, to make a new picture starring Kather...

What if we didn’t wait until we did something wrong to deny that we did anything wrong? This breakthrough declaration of innocence will fill you and your friends with relief. We also return to the Webb Telescope and create an antidote to feeling small and insignificant when you look at these new images of faraway galaxies. Simply take a microscope, look at a slide, and you will feel full sized aga...

The wondrous time travel images from the Webb Telescope inspire Scott and Tom to ponder if there is intelligent life in the outer galaxies, will they necessarily be smarter or look that much different than we do? Also beware of unscrupulous cosmetic surgeons claiming to possess the same infrared technology to make you look the way you did ten years ago.

In perhaps the best example of how we can breathe a sigh of relief from things that didn’t happen, Tom and Scott celebrate their total non involvement in causing Brexit, the recent Supreme Court decisions, and any major war, conflict or troubles.

Tom and Scott discover that a summer ski lift up Hunter Mountain, can be terrifying. So why do all the other riders seem so relaxed and carefree? At least, it’s almost ten degrees cooler at the summit, proving that “It’s cooler in the Catskills “.

Tom’s visit to Kingston in upstate New York inspires him and Scott to create a new word “quainterrific” and a new description of the Catskills as “America’s Tuscany”. We don’t ask for any recompense for these ideas, but we would welcome parties in our honor, preferably without food on skewers.

Tom and Scott once again propose “A Super in every House”, a WPA style program to give every homeowner a live in super, the service that rental apartment dwellers enjoy. Plus, we pitch another “new” 1950’s sitcom, “I’m Not Your Super!”, starring Fred Gwynn, as a Harvard educated academic who inadvertently applies for a job as a super, instead of superintendent of schools.

Tommy’s harrowing experience before and after flying from LA to NY is punctuated by our flights of fancy involving our ideas for Off Broadway shows staged in the 1960’s, thanks to the Time Travel Casting of our almost completed time machine.

On the way to meet a friend at Le Pain Quotidien in Central Park, Scott actually gets lost, and must endure the indignity of having the person he asked for directions, think he’s a rube from out of town. Tom and Scott set out to cast the movie version of The Lost Man, and plan to use their not yet finished time machine to cast a 1960’s Jack Lemmon and Spencer Tracy. This ability to cast in the pas...

Tom loves water, so he’s moving back East where there are lakes and rivers galore. Galore is one of those happy words, that is only used to describe things you like and nothing negative. Scott reveals that Chinese restaurants are the best place to get the coldest and freshest water.

For the first time in four months, Scott attends a film screening, and hopes that The World’s Greatest Audience Member has still got it. Tommy proposes that every person in the world gets to receive a rousing ovation, flowers, and the chance to be at Sardi’s to wait for the rave reviews to come in.

We shine the spotlight on The Inconvenienced, those drivers on Topanga Canyon in LA, forced to expensively idle in their cars for hours because of the Pan American Summit traffic. Plus, we speculate on what would happen if we walked past the stage door at Carnegie Hall, a frantic stage manager yelled, They’re here!” and we see a giant poster of us with the words, “Appearing Tonight”.

When you spend three hours watching your team lose on television, why can’t the coach acknowledge us in the post game news conference? Because those are three hours we’re not getting back, although if our team won, we wouldn’t be getting them back either. Plus, we introduce the “Relief Fan”, who joins the crowd midway through the game to replace a tired and possibly drunk fan.

After getting caught in yet another downpour, Scott implores the umbrella industry to come up with a quarter sized, inflatable one that you can hide in your pocket when it’s sunny, so you’re not mocked for carrying an umbrella when it’s not raining, Tom crafts a Clio worthy public service commercial that urges the industry to step up and invent such an umbrella.

We introduce our new travel concept,&“A Tourist In Your Own City”. Plus, how standing on line for ice cream can cure depression. And we preview our potentially upcoming tour of science schools with our lecture, “Invent or Debunk: Which is Better?” And, how a rent by the hour office can be better than the Sistine Chapel.

On our 500th episode, we play the first words Tom and Scott uttered on the first episode from April Fools Day 2020. When the world shut down, we had to create a new one that’s funny, hopeful, helpful, slightly delusional but ultimately plausible. We’ve championed Little Victories, where we get joy from simple, easily attainable things. And we’ve done it all with the voice of a 1940’s travelogue an...

In our never ending quest to identify and compensate phrase creators, we sing the praises of “mutual admiration society “, an expression invented by Thoreau. If the world could be a mutual admiration society, with praisers instead of appraisers, oh what a world that would be. Lavish compliments and holding each other in high esteem, is the way we treat each other on this podcast. And it will lead...