The Random Card Assignment

Show me state of mas. So me so T we speed a S me State a mind So me S be re the mom Hi, Hey, Hello I'm Dan And I have a confession to make. that is that I have a soft spot for stuff that other people might find stupid. I love roadside attractions and people who claim to have the world's largest whatever Even if I don't like the thing that is the largest. I don't I'm not particularly interested in pecans. I've been to the world's largest pecan multiple times When dririving around the country, you can stumble across these monuments, and they often have signs to lure in the wayward sailors, but I've found that they're kind of the fast food equivalent of things to see. awwesome and they're likely to satisfy a base hunger canan't feed your heart I grew up in Central Missouri in a college town called Columbia There was a lot to enjoy there and I could show you around all the hotspots like my favorite bar Eastide Tavern, or the Mazzoo campus or the MKT trarail I could tell you all about the memories I associate with these places, but they're also all things that anyone could find pretty easily. And they aren't the thing I would want to show someone if they were visiting Colombia for the first time Just outside town, there's a big tree that everyone affectionately calls the big tree And it doesn't disappoint. It is a tree and it is big As I've gotten older, I've come to realize that objectively speaking, the big tree is kind of a dud To anyone who didn't grow up in the Columbia arerea, probably just looks like a barely notable tree But for us showh Me staters, it was mythical I believe that everyone in every part of the country and even the rest of the world has a big tree Something that maybe kinda sucks, but is also awesome somethingomething that has no roadside sign or visitor center something that may not exist for any financial reasason. I'm from the show mee state So I want people to show me stuff I want to see it all. I want to see the big trees and this O guest is my appeal to the world to show me what every area's got. I like the only way to start this adventure off right was if I went back to where this all spiritually started The big tree. But before I got to that, I wanted to take the opportunity of taking a trip to the Big Tree as a way to visit a place nearby that I've always wanted to go to, but I've never gotten round to checking out That place is the bizarrely named Humansville, Missouri The town's name is Humansville, which is weird. But the simple explanation for why it's called that is that the founder of the town was named James Human That naturally raises a new question of why his name is human, but this investigation is just gonna lead us in circles For now, let's all just accept that there's a city called Humansville and see what kind of fun there is to find there Town Square in Humansville is a lovely place, and being there, I couldn't help but be humbled by how I was standing on the same ground where town residents held their fall festival, celebrating the local produce and farm products that made the community prosperous. Things picked up for Humansville in the nineteen twenties when a railroad man named HO Smith came to town and got everyone excited about strawberries One of the people who came down with berry fever was a local banker named Homer Wan who would go on to join Smith in a campaign to get the Hansville humans to plant berries. This was a majorly profitable decision, which eventually led to an expanding agricultural field and thriving livestock and cheese industries in town In nineteen thirty eight, AE. Babcock, the editor of the Humansville Star Leader Press, had a shocking life change Like so many Americans, he was worried about the future of bread Qote, I just got tired of store bought bread I wanted to revive interest in baking a loaf of bread at home. You know folks have almost forgotten that bread was ever baked at home, he said Instead of waving the flag of surrender, Babcock decided to announce that at the next year's fall festival, he would hold a homemade bread contest and the winner would be awarded fifty dollars The contest was a huge success and got over one hundred entries, but Babcock did not find what he was looking for A september eighteenth, nineteen forty nine article from the Springfield News Lader paints the picture for you Mr. Babcock was just a bit disappointed with his contest. He didn't find many loaves baked by young housewives I'll tell you what I'm going to do next year, he said I intend to eliminate all women over twenty five from the contest. This sounds to my ears like a bread creep, using a baking contest to network with young women. I was curious about this AE Babcock fellow, but probably unsurprisingly, the historical record's a little thin when it comes to the editor of a newspaper based in Humensville who is passionate about fresh bread But I had to know more After a lot of digging, I was able to find an obituary for Babcock from nineteen fifty nine, which informed me that he was eighty three at the time of his passing pututs his age of birth at about eighteen seventy six. The obituary said that in the course of his life, Babcock had worked in many areas around the United States, and various kernels of information put him as having a bit of a nomadic life, editing newspapers and having various careers around the country This leads me to an august seventh, nineteen oh seven article I uncovered in the Jefferson City Tribune about a merchant in Saint Louis named AE Babcock who happens to be friends with a ghost A strange phenomenon is Emelia Bauer She's a beautiful girl of the oriental type that is made the fame of artists, yet her beauty is hidden from all earth dwellers save one My name on earth was Amelia Bauower. My spirit name is not for mortals to know. I was born in the flash in the city of Boston on january tenth, eighteen seventy one An attack of the croup caused my passage into the spirit life when I was five years old My father's name was Barnesbauer. He was a carpenter and was killed by a fall from a ladder My mother's name was Lucy All of us are now in the Sirit land, even my little dog, which used to play with me His name is Victor and he still romps and plays with me and is never so happy as when nestling at my feet or dozing under the soft caresses of my hands My Mother and I once visited our old home in Boston, but no one in the house knew we were there I first visited Staint Louis twenty years ago when I met the dear flesh friend to whom I have attached myself for all time I'm with him while he is on Eth. When he enters the spirit land, we shall travel the air together, doing good to mortals when we may AE Babcock is the flesh friend that this ghost was talking about, and he sat down with a reporter from the tribune to describe what it's like to hang out with a child ghost Apparently, she can't fly or go through walls, but for some reason she often goes to work with him and helps with business decisions The ghost seems to hate the Rockefellers and calls Babcock Pete, even though that's not his name When she feels like going to the theater, the Babcocks take her, but only buy two tickets because the ghost can just sit on their shoulders Thankfully, people sitting behind them can see through her, so that doesn't cause any problems with you know other people and obstructed views. Also, Babcock's wife can't see the ghost but says she can hear her, which sounds kind of like a crazy guy's wife in the early nineteen hundreds trying to keep the peace Humansville is a lovely town, but now I'll never be able to think about it without considering the possibility that the editor of their local paper was an old man who was dear flesh friends with a child ghost and got mad that all the women who entered his bread making competition were too old Now with that fairly uneventful trip to Humansville out of the way, it's on to my actual destination. tree. I thought Maybe some people listening to this won't be convinced by me telling you about how wonderful the big tree is. So I enlisted my dear old friend and someone who grew up with me in Columbia, Missouri, Nicki Gifts to come and join me to talk a little bit about The wonder that is the big tree. A Nick, so nice to talk to you. I'm heading to the bigig tree. I'm going to go visit the Big tree and I know that everyone from Colombia loves the Big tree. And so I wanted to like You know that kind of Lavar Burton, don't take my word for it. You know, that kind of thing. That's what I wanted to add to the show by talking to you about your love of the V tree. Damn, what the fuck are you talking about I't I ever Dude, I don't think I've ever been to the bigitree What? I really don't think I've ever been. I think every time we got stoned and we were gonna you guys were all we're going to the big tree. I was just like, I'm gonna stay home That doesn't that's so that makes no sense to me. because I I don't Well, now that you're saying it, It causes me to have to take a step back and wonder if like, did I go to the big tree that much I think I did. and I feel like I went when, you know, there were stone times and you know, we were in our twenties, but I also felt like I felt like it was something that I went to as a kid too. Like it seemed like a part of the local The foundations. I remember talking about it a lot, but I don't have any So like maybe we did go and I just don't have any memory of it because it's probably not that memorable It's a huge tree I mean, there's a lot of big trees, Dan in better places There's no way around it and looks like I'm just going to have to admit that Nick is not as excited about the bigig tree as I hoped he would be I'm not one to be dissuaded by lack of immediate success So I decided I would commit myself to learning more about the Big tree to see if I could persuade Nick Get on my level with the big tree Right out of the gate, my research paid out huge, when I learned that the big tree isn't just called that because of a severe lack of creativity on the part of central Missourians. It turns out that the big tree is called the Big tree because it's an official B tree a champion tree, as designated by the conservationist organization American Forests In nineteen forty, a man named Joseph Stern set out to build a movement to save America's biggest trees, and a critical first step was calling them champion trees, which is honestly great branding and got everyone on nature's side Stern saw how efforts were being made to protect the giant redwoods in California, but that there were massive trees all around the country that were being forgotten and were in danger, mostly because no one really understood how big they are Stearns wrote an article titled Let's Find and Save the Biggest Trees that launched a campaign to measure trees in a fairly competitive way Standards were set and a point system was built. A trees score is the result of the following equation Trunk circumference in inches plus height in feet plus one quarter of the average crown spread in feet. Naturally, this is complicated because the trees are alive and the measurements can change slightly, but because all of the measurements are just added up, one factor changing won't change the tree's overall score too wildly Of course, this doesn't stop tree enthusiasts from taking these measurements very seriously and arguing over which trees deserve to be called champions and if this year we have new contenders for the crown The big tree I grew up with is a burr oak, and according to current measurements, it holds a score of four hundred and one making it the biggest of its species in Missouri and the third biggest tree in the state It's the Missouri Bur Oak Champion, but the national title for that goes to a tree in Michigan that scored a four hundred and forty eight A small part of me wants to go see that bigger tree, but it's also located in someone's yard, so that might not be worth a trip It just makes no sense to go all the way that see this tree if I'm not allowed to hug it So, armed with this kind of information, I feel like I'm ready to check back in with Nick and see if any of this changes his tune about the bigig tree. All right guys. so we soved it. Don't go to the big tree, justust come to Staint Louis What about this, though Okay. Did you know that the bigig tree is a champion tree What the fuck are you talking about So there's a champion like there's this organization that ranks trees And they like mathematically have figured out how like you can compare a tree against another tree all own algorithm Oh yeah, they got a score So the big tree has a score of four hundred and one Is that good pretty good V good Okay yeah Where's the rink all time So it's a burr oak. Right? That's the that's the kind of tree it is. And the biggest in the country has a score of like four hundred and forty in thatass in that weight glass. Yeah, yeah. it's a heavyweight tree. It's maybe a little bit a little bit below this other tree, but it's heavyweight. Like that's pretty that's pretty impressive a four hundred one. That's a good pound for pound raking right there. Well the tree in your backyard is probably like an eighty Yeah be like n I got a cherry tree. You wantanna come see that? I'll chop that down, man. Don't Stay away from my cherry tree. I cant tell a lie. I' chop down that f. I get cherries out of it like once every five years and they're delicious They're not like sour No, they're very good. My mother in law made a fresh cherry pie with it one year and I Think about it all the time. Why Why is it giving so little fruit? Are you not tending to? Fruitrees are fickle man. And like they got to have like perfect springs and and you know how Missouri is you get that weird like warms up and then it frosts again and that just messes with fruit trees big time. Apparently, I don't know. It's not like I'm Bot nist or tree expert or something Yeah, something tells me if you'd learn a little bit more, maybe you'd get more t. dont you dare.. D't you dare trying to talk me in to go into that stupid tree with you Gso to this tree. Let's see if we can get some fruit out of the big tree. frruit? I don't know So I'll come to I'll come to Stain. Louis and I'll come see this cherry tree. I'll give you some tips on how to get more more fruit out of it Don't want you ride We've come to a compromise. Okay proud man, and I'm willing to admit when I've gone fishing in a dry well If Nick wasn't going to get enthused about the bigig tree then maybe I needed to look in the mirror and choose a new destination to visit for my first journey Unfortunately, by the time that I had this sort of realization, I'd already gone to the big tree in Humansville. So here we are. Let's not throw the baby out with the bathw and get it a little fun where we can. But in order to pivot away from the big tree, I decided to enlist my dear friend Adrianne, AKA Angela Lampsberury, to tell me about what there was to see in the area where she grew up. And thus, my new destination for today is Niles, Illinois, where I will be taking in the majesty of the Laning Tower of Niles. I'm doing the show where I'm going to various places And I wanted to get some feedback from friends about where I should go, things I should visit and you are a dear friend of mine. So I asked you from your past wouldould you think I should go see? And without missing a beat, you immediately said, The Leaning Tower in Niles. Sure. Yeah, the Leaning Tower of Y Well, we can get into that. Okay, because I don't think it's called that anymore. I don't know that it ever was. I think that's just what everybody in that area knows it as. The There is a leaning tower in Niles, Illinois neear where you grew up. Yeah And the Y and it is for the YMCA. Yes which does not exist anymore. No I think maybe when I was a kid, it might still have been like a fitness center or like a YMCA Um I don't know what it is now. It's a lot It's nothing. It's just a parking lot. There's nothing there. It's just a exact small replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy in the middle of absolutely nowhere Niles, Illinois. Y. I should say you're saying it's a small replica. and that's not quite true. It's large. It's pretty big. Yeah, but I think it is smaller than the Twower Piza. You bet. I think it's half size. Okay. I think it's half to scale. and but that's big. That's still big. Yeah It doesn't it doesn't look like it belongs because there's like a hot dog shop across the street And I think that must stop I think the only thing that was there when I was growing up was maybe likeike a mile down the road, there was like an antiques car mechanic. Okay. And it was a road that really didn't have anything on it. It was just sort of maybe forest preserve It was a long straight road. And I remember so I grew up in Skoky which is like the neighboring suburb. And so Niles, I would go to visit my boyfriend in high school And so I would drive this road over to Niles and it was this there were two lights And the lights took Goddamn forever And if you you like always hit them and then you'd have to sit there for like fifteen minutes, then you would hit the next one. and that was the only thing on that road. I have news for you, those lights are still there. I hit one of them. They're the worst And yeah, there's just this and the thing that made me think of you and your just love of novelty, It's exact kind of weird roadside attraction that you would expect just like for a motel or Route sixty six or something like come see the leeaning Tower of Piza. But there's nothing there. No It's bizarre. And it is up my alley in a very weird way U and I'm embarrassed to say that I had gone to eat lunch at a place that's basically next door to the Leaning toer. And I didn't even notice that it was there. Yeah. The first time that I noticed this place when I was leaving the tower I was like, oh, I've been here before. I didn't see this. What? How is that possible? There's just no reason for it to be there. So u you've passed this many times because these bad lights Yeah between Skoky and Nes. Yeah. And did you ever visit it when you were younger? I never did. I've spent more time at the tower than you. one hundred percent. Goddamn it. But I don't think there's anything to do there. I mean, maybe I'm wrong. Nobody ever said that they're like, I went up into that tower and it ruled I had a blast No, it's there isn't anything to do there now. and I think that's a legal thing. sureure. But at some point you could go up it. Okay. They would they did let people up and you can see where you would likeike where there could be a path. Okay. But yeah, you're not allowed to do that anymore. Sure. It is very much just a closed tower. and a tiny little like reflecting pool that is out in front of it U, There's nothing to do There's stuff to think about So much to think about For instance, how there's a strange dynamic at play here, where the original tower in Italy was not intended to be leaning They meant to build a straight up and down tower, but the foundation it was built on was weak and it started to tip over It's leaned at higher and lower degrees over history, and at times people have had to construct counterweights to correct for the lean and make sure that the tower doesn't just fall over Conversely, the leaning Tower of Niles was always meant to lean The guy who designed it saw a structural flaw in a world monument and decided he was going to recreate it for fun This feels like someone doing a shot for shot remake of a classic film and intentionally leaving in a continuity error or an accidental boom mic from the original It seems mildly insulting to whoever designed the first Ter The good news is that we don't really know who designed the Leaning Tower of Piza, so it's unclear who should feel like there's shade being thrown their way from somewhere in the middle of Illinois It took one hundred and ninety nine years to complete the Pisa Tower, stretching from eleven seventy three to thirteen seventy two, but the Nils one was built quite a bit quicker. That's not where the differences between the two end The Piza Tower was built to be the Bell toower for the cathedral complex in Pisa, whereas the Niless Tower was built to be sneaky. In the early nineteen thirties, Robert Ilg, head of the Ilk Hot Air Electric ventilating compomany of Chicago, wanted to build a recreational park for his employees Here's an excerpt from the Chicago Tribune from march twentieth, nineteen sixty, discussing how this tower came to be Ilg built the park so his employees would have a place to relax and swim Cools in the property plus a water tank Dissatisfied with the appearance of the tank, Ilg decided to cloak it with a replica of the leaning Twer And this is a decision that makes perfect sense Curious what you know about the tower. Like what do you do you know anything about the creation of it or why it exists or I can't remember if you mentioned it to me or if it was like maybe a used car lot thing. Draw attention. You think it's a wacky inflatable man? Yeah It's a blowy man No, that would be great If it was like an Italian restaurant. they're just like, this will get people out here. I think that was the thing that made the most sense to me that it was like it had been an old like used car lot No, no, no. Okay. So in the nineteen thirties. Oh my god, is it that old? Yes I had no idea. Yeah, there was a guy named Robert Ilg and he owned the IlG Hot Air Electric Ventilation compompany. Okay. So it was an HVAC heating and cooling kind of outlet, right? Interesting. And he was like You know what My employees need a park So he built a park for them. All right. And the park that ended up eventually becoming like the YMCA and where this tower is is Ilg Park because it was just supposed to be for the HVAC employees to hang out pool there. Oh my go. Yeah So this was a recreation park for these like comppany people Is it still like the pool that's like part of the YMCA there? Well, the YMCA isn't there anymore. but I think it was. I think it must have been. because I feel like that was all indoor. likeike it wasn't anything you could see there. Like there was no as of the nineteen nineties There was nothing there that would make you think that like it was a park or anything that anybody visited I wonder if I think it might have been a case where there was a park and the YMCA was built on the park. Okay, and then everything just turned into a parking lot. I think so.. Everything has fallen apart since then. Yes. So the tower comes in because he was building this park for the employees, this Robert Il character And then he was like should have a pool So there's a pool, but you need a water tank for the pool buuilt the water tank and it looked like shit And so he's like, let's build a leaning tower of pizza. Oh my gosh. It's clever. It's just to hide a water tank. That's the only reason it exists Can I ask is it now like a five G tower? Probably.nt anti mask people did attack it during COVID he was obsessed with Galileo. And so that was part of the reason that it ended up being a leadaning tower of Piza U I you're missing our like fanatical, weirdo rich people. Yeah. Why doesn't anybody just have like odd hobbies anymore? This is a great crazy dude. Yeah he just owned like a heating and ventilation company. He wasn't even like Elon Musk. And he's not a billionaire. He's just a little too rich. And he decides I'm going to build a leading tower of Piza to hide the water tank for my employees park Yeah, like there's a universe where Mark Zuckerberg is still obsessed with like the Roman Empire, but he just builds like a mini golf And everybody inazing me getet like just the best one you've ever seen. Oh my God, with that kind of money, you could do so much crazy like little elevators. Oh my God. Yeah, couple lions. know he could do it up. Yeah If only Mark Zuckerberg would put his money towards a useful goal, like making the world's best put putt course Knowing him though, he could never wrap his mind around mini golf. It'd have to be meta goolf or some nonsense like that But getting back to Nils, the ownership of the tower has changed hands a bit over the years. It was owned by the IlG family as part of IlG Air Park until nineteen sixty four, when it was donated along with the land to the YMCA This was a full fourteen years before the village people put out their song and about sixty years before Donald Trump started dancing weirdly to that song all the time. So the Ils were well ahead of the curve on that one The Ils gave the tower to the YMCA, but they set some rules, notably that the tower had to stay standing until at least twenty fifty nine, and they had to put in a minimum level of maintenance As time went on, the tower became less of a priority for the why and it fell into some disrepair. Then the nineteen nineties came along, and Niles realized that they had a crumbling tourist destination on their hands that was gonna to fall apart if they didn't step in The town leased the tower from the Y and started putting money in for repairs This is paid off wildly, as we see in the following article from the Chicago Tribune from twenty thirteen. The town had just approved a study on what they would need to do to restore the building, and the article about this news features a picture of the leaning tower, along with a pull quote from Doug Kirby, the publisher of roadsideammerica dot com What's great about it? If you've never been over to see the real one, The one in Niles looks pretty big The Chicago Tribune is publishing an article about this local monument, so they reach out to the guy who's the authority on these kinds of monuments They ask him for comment, and the best they can get out of him is basically saying that the cool part about this tower is that most people going to it don't realize how much smaller it is than the real one so they can still enjoy it. This seems disrespectful, and we're discussing a tower that was built to hide a water tank I think what kind of captures me about it is that It's just a remnant of a thing that shouldn't be there It's It's a monument from another place It's in the place that has nothing else there It's not like a busy road that like everybody's like, Ohh, yeah, yeah, like Niles like that's their their big icon for like the city. Yeah. It's just a thing that's there. Until you mentioned it, I had never heard of it in my years in Chicago. No one no one is like, Hey, get this. you know that just outside town there's a Ter leans. There's I mean, there's no reason to go see it because there is nothing it it doesn't do anything. It's not like Like you could go picnic likeike there's no you could, you could. But if you saw it, you'd be like, Well, shit Yeah I. I would only take issue with one thing, and that is you say it doesn't do anything. And that's not true. It does do something. It holds water Yes. it also chimes. does it? Yeah, they're bells. I sit here having just arrived at the Leaning Tower of Niles and Not not sure if it'll capture, but they probably hear some traffic Background They u Airplane flying overhead. Oh, there we go. Oh hell yeah Listen to that As Luck would have it, I arrived here at three PM Almost on the dot and I had a little bit of a hunch that there was going to be ye, there's some bells in this thing But I didn't know if they played on every hour and hoo hoo, what a treat. We captured a little bit of the bells Bells Honestly sound sick. They're a little bit underwhelming O maybe they just need to be polished up or something. but But wonderful nonetheless, and now You Whoever is listening to this can say that you have heard Bells of the miniature Laning tower that's in the suburbs of Chicago I spoke way too soon So there's seven bells. Okay and get this One of them was made in sixteen twenty three. No shit. One of them was made in seventeen forty seven. Stop it. And one of them, I can't remember which one, but it was actually from Pizer Oh my God. Yeah, like a sixteen or seventeen hundreds bell. is in the tower and it chimes basically on the hour or maybe on the half hour in Niles A Four hundred year old bell is just there. I don't know that I've ever heard the bells. It's crazy. Anybody who listens to this episode will hear the bells because I captured them Oh myo And so they'll hear that. Okay. But they don't sound great. But nobody's gone to like screw with the bells over the years or anything. I wonder if it's part of why you can't get in. Maybe. Maybe they're worried that Hooligans would come and deface the bells. Well, it's a well cup secret 'cause nobody ever told me anything about bells. It's on a plaque in front of like the reflecting pool that it has like the ages of the bells And does somebody go ring Is there like a quasimoto of the Tower of Y? I really hope so I'm not sure. I don't know. I think it's automated. Okay. And I don't know if any of this is true This is just what I was told by a plaque. Okay Oh my God, if the plaque was just like Just for shits and giggles. Th blls from two hundred AD. These assholes I think it's pretty crazy to think that there's this tower that doesn't care that it's there No one else cares that it's there No. like I said, there's a bus stop out in front of it and people are just minding their business not looking at the tower waiting for a bus. Yeah. And there are two bells in it. Older than the US. I had no idea. I've driven by it a million times. It seems like this should be a piece of history. Nes should celebrate this more It's not even like you think maybe it would be like I don't know they don't have their own license plates, but like some sort of like Niles theme stuff like we've got the bigig Twer or you know, like it be in their motto. But I believe it is Niles peopleople count. find funny is like everybody goes to Pisa and they do that one photo that everybody does where they're like they stand in front of it and then they hold their hands up, like they're holding the tower up in perspective. Uh I don't recall a single person doing that. Are you kidding? No. I was there And I saw someone do it It was not crowded but I was the only person there for most of the time that I was there. But then a family showed up and one of them did the post. Yeah And I saw them like All right. Like you can't you can't resist. All we did in high school was drive around and like I don't know, stop at a park and sit on the swing set. or go to Bahai Temple and like roll down the hill on the lawn, we weren't doing anything. It seems like a thing we would do be like, hey, let's go over to that tower of Piza and do but maybe because we didn't have camera phones I It probably is that's part of it. and then it's also kind of dorky. Oh, it's super dorky. But I think it's good family fun. Yeah. And I learned this in a Google review that the Niles Tower is very popular in Niles arerea rappers music videos I don't know who any of these Niles area rarappers are. How many are there? I don't know, but it's on a Google review And I assume that they do that in the video too, you know, like holding up the tower I you can'tot. It's a real badass rapper for Sona If if I wasn't alone Or if I had the nerve to ask this family. Sure. There's a good chance I would have taken a picture with it. You't have to come back. You failed in your mission. I'll go back any timee. I'll live at that tower. I'll be the quasimoda So The city has taken over. Okay this and Okay, now the timelineess a little bit fuzzy for me here You brought up that Miles is sister cities with Piza This happens. A It happens in nineteen ninety one. Okay. I did not realize it was that recent. Yeah, it happened fifty seven years after the tower was built. Okay And so in effect, You had a guy who made this tower in order to hide a water tank. And then They got All their spells And became sister cities with a city in Italy because of that His stupid idea ended up changing History Yeah. effectively Yeah is such I don't know what's involved with being a sister city. Um I think Nothing You gotta show up at the wedding. You gotta babysit No, I don't know either. I think I think that I mean obviously I can't imagine there's much trade. I don't think Niles is exporting particularly more to Italy than other cities. No, I don't think of it as a particularly Italian. Look Kal. And think I think that places are sister cities with multiple cities sometimes. I don think it's they don't think it's a monogamous thing No.'s their're poly. Yeah, ethically multi sibling I don't I don't I don't know it goes into that either, but I think it's fun. It is fun. think and I think it's a great thing for international. Like when you were a kid, did you have a pen pal in another country h yeah, I did actually And It's a good thing. Yeah. brings us so close. It makes the world a little bit smaller. I think that's what sister City dumb. Okay. I think that's what it. It's basically his pen Palals. I have a feeling Niles doesn't have too many Irons of the fire. We're Niles, we're not busy. We could use a few more sister cities Can we build a tiny parthenau? Yeah You know, I'm shocked that it's that old and it has that much history and was like I don't know, constructed with that much care L it' it is for something that hides a water tank. Yeah, it's not sparse. You know, like in terms of like It's meant to look like leaning tower. Yeah, it does. Yeah, it's unnecessary. Yeah It just blows my mind that It's so ignored Lets see this is why I think it's such a strange thing that you asked or you suggested that I go to, but it's actually fairly perfect because it's amazing There's this history to it U But it is kind of like you said, ignored. Yeah. And there's no reason for it. Yeah. Like I would understand if this was over commercialized. Yeah. Like if they were out there selling Leaning Tower of Niles t shirts and charging admission or then I'd be like, eh, this sucks. Yeah. But it's just there. It's there for the public to enjoy that's there. it's not even like you would think it be like, you know, hang a light right at the big leaning tower. but it's not like on the way to anything. It's not even like a navigational point. It's just a thing that's there that No one really thinks twice about It's like a water tower. like I mean, even those I think, you know, they they kind of are iconic in certain cities like they kind of save Ferris, you know, like whatever. I think like they can be really iconic in that way. This isn't even that. It's just like an antenna or something. likeike it's just yeah, there's a big Rpllica a world monument over there. No reason. No reason. No reason And there's also something so wonderful to me about the like The idea that it was built for something so dumb as hiding a water tank. Yeah. Because to me that just speaks like I think there's something huge in there. Yeah that is, okay, there's a lot of water tanks to hide. Yeah Do you want to hide them with a block of something or do you want to hide it with a leaning tower I think it speaks to like the lack of whimsy, you know, and And Niles is such a whimsyless town You don't say I apologize, Niles. It's just not a place that has a lot of whimsy. It's such an oddity that it is there because it is such a whimsical thing Yeah. And I'm You know, I think I think that as I as I go around this this fine country and see things, some of them are going to be good and some are going to be bad. Sure. And to me, I'm quite happy I went to this. I'm glad I saw it. Yeah It's I don't it's hard to derive much meaning No But I mean, there's four hundred year old bells in there and no one cares. No one cares. Th Those are probably worth millions of dollars. You can't replace them Yeah, Yeah, I'd surprised they haven't been stripped and sold for. public funding or something, but Yeah, I don't know. There's a kind of Americana that I really, really love. like the novelty, you know, like roadside attractions, like the house on a Rock, like I know I've mentioned it to you before before Neil Gaiman sadly got canceled. I really like the book American Gods and they talk about how like there is a magic in in places that that accumulates in the sort of whimsy along like almost like ly lines. that just sprouts up in certain places that things that shouldn't be And they even talk about places that are so like they try to make popular and are just devoid of magic. And Hes is just one of those things where it's just it's such a place that is devoid of magic and then there's this impossible thing there. and it's like no one can see it and no one can look at it. This the right kind of Americana. It It's a guy who thought I know what will bring people joy a very small version of something in Europe And it was just like, that's something very American. Like we don't have stuff that will impress you But I know where you could get some of it, and I can only build it in half scale. Right. It's too big. But I can make a small one. I can make a little one And I think it'll be perfect. I think that there's something even more fun that his motivation was in care for his workers. Yeah. came before the idea to make the tower. Yeah. He only came he only ended up making the tower because he needed to hide something. Yeah presumably if the water tank could have gone underground or like it just didn't look bad. Yeah. It never it might never have happened Also he just had that passion for, I guess a certain place. For Galileayo. Yeah. so he just wanted to he was wanting to build something.' like I have an opportunity here I I'm gonna make something Real weird I think in a world of like when you have choices when you could either like fuck people over, do something boring or make a mini leaning tower of pisa, you should always do the third Everyone is better off You're better off. I don't know anything about Robert Ilg and I think he's great. Yeah. seems a delight I tried to find anything about him in like old newspapers. Yeah. And I kept just finding society pages stuff. Oh fun. Of like Robert Ilg and his wife are entertaining their in laws this weekend. that used to be in the paper. Yeah. It was crazy You know, I was I made the cover of the Skokies review. You don't say what I was born Congratulations. My birth was on the cover of the Sky review. so Big newewsday. Yeah Did they report on all births on the front page or was? It was 'cause I was born at home and I was delivered by the Skoky Fire Department And so it was a big day for all of them. Was this because it was a home birth gone wrong It was just a surprise. Okay, so it wasn't like you were a demon and you set fire when you came out of your mother. No, I think the fire department just got there before the paramedics. Okay Okay. Yeah, that makes it a little bit more interesting than just a birth announcement. Yeah. know, there's a little bit of a hook here. Yeah, they came back for my like first birthday and there was a cake It's nice That local baby we reported on survived A year Pretty much. So have you seen that show where children do errands? No what? I was visiting my parents and my mom wanted to watch there's a Japanese show where children get sent on errands And it's really cute because they kind of don't know how to do things.. So like in this one, a brother and sister had to go into town to go buy a clock. Is this a Japanese show? Yeah, okay. And I think it's pretty old. Okay. I don't had no context for this. It's just something my mom was watching. Okay Is it on pride? Probably it's somewhere. I don't know how she was watching it It's supposed to be cute becauses like o these kids, they don't know how to get on a bus. Yeah. There's like a hundred people following them with cameras to like make sure everything's safe and you know, like It's very weird, but they their kids and shucks, it's cute The one I watched with them, they talked to the like Whether years later When he was like thirteen or something like that And he did not want to talk to them. It was clear that they had to bribe him with a new pair of shoes. And then he still didn't want to talk to them. That's how I imagine you when you were one when the news came back 'll say for I need new booties if I'm gonna talk to you guys. For years, every family of anyt timee my parents went anywhere Have you heard the story of Adriot's birth I was like, I need everybody to stop doing this. Do you have a copy of that paper I don't, but I bet my parents do. I bet they do. Yeah. You could probably find it online in some sort of archive. Oh yeah, I'm sure. Nspapers. com has like everything. Yeah I'm just saying the Soky review, like those papers, they still don't report on anything to too significant, so I'm not surprised that I'm surprised that guy doesn't have his name. Maybe he does, but like I don't remember like an ill you know, museum or library or anything like that. Well Yeah, I think, you know, you make a leaning tower and you're good. You're doing. Yeah you don't w want to run the risk of whatever else you make being boring He' be like would you like to make a donation to the Niles liibrary? And he's like, no, uh. I got my thing. Did you see that? That's mine. Yeah. I made tower. You bononey up your own money Yeah Get somebody else with the books unless you want to make it the Galileo like playground of Cernicus Library of Ilg. Yeah. One of the lessons I've learned about myself as a creator is that I like to do things and not necessarily know why I'm doing them Sometimes that means making the terrible choice that you know is gonna suck, like listening to countless hours of infoWars content because you're curious where that path leads Other times it means doing something that has no inherent meaning to see if the act of doing the thing creates a meaning in and of itself. For this new show, I decided to incorporate a segment that is definitely the latter There's a lot of time out there driving on the road and your mind gets to thinking and you have these thoughts Sometimes it becomes hard to distinguish between a thought that's profound and one that's very dumb. And in some cases, you just have to roll the dice and see as soon as it comes out of your mouth, which is it I was driving and I realized that there's fifty two weeks in a year. So if I put out an episode a week, that would be fifty two podcasts in a year And there are fifty two cards in a standard deck As if that wasn't enough, there are fifty states in the United States, which is shockingly close to fifty two just like that. Born I'm setting out to put out an episode of this show each week, each one featuring a destination in a different US state plus two international episodes. Each state will be assigned a card at random from a deck of cards, and we'll see if at any point there's any sort of meaning that comes out of this Okay, fifty nifty United States. So I would like for you since we are sitting in the same room to take this deck Choose any card And that will represent for all time Illinois and the leaning Tower in Niles of the Y. Okay And that will be the Four of Sades. The Four of Sades. What does that mean? What does it mean? What does it mean? What does it mean? There's a fundamental piece of this bit, and that is that it's nothing Right? I don't know what it means It's a forgettable card a forgettable I think that one of the things that I'm going to run into a lot is I've played a lot of poker. And so I have feelings about cards. Sure. And almost all of them are the same. And that is that like, well If I'm looking down at the four of spades, I'm thinking Maybe maybe if maybe if they're suited I'll keep going. Maybe if I have another spade in my hand, maybe I'll keep going. I might fold this. Four spadees not that good, not that powerful of going. now. But I do think that it's symbolic it ass a forgettable card for a forgotten place But this is the whole state. This is Illinois. Oh, that's what you chose for the whole state. Yeah. Oh boy. Yeah. That's regretable. I should have picked something better Wh' next year do better next year In some ways, that feeling that you're expressing there is a four of Spades feeling. Yeah. that like o, Illinois could have done better. Yeah This This is the four of Spades of Illinois. Yeah this leaning tower of why. There's definitely better things in Illinois. Like what? I would say it's pretty cool. I'm sure there's something better in Illinois Yeah By most metrics. yeah. But I do think it's a fun thing. and I think it was a a not too far from home, fun place to head out to and just it made me think of you. It seemed like a weird novelty that shouldn't be there and it seemed like something that would appeal to you. See, now here's what I'm feeling. I'm feeling you're making excuses for it now. Which is four of Spad Z. You' you are trying you're trying to equivocate. Yeah and be like, ah, this isn't so good. And I think that the drawing the four of sppades has It brought a level of insecurity to you. Yeah, now the cards are you fucked it up with the cards. I could fuck up anything. It is just what it is That's what's magical about the deck of cards. Okay. Well I didn't realize that there was like one shot Always one shot I'm u I wonder how long it'll take for me to get very annoyed with this segmment not meaning anything Oh the cards? Yeah. I think that there's a really good chance I will get bored with it pretty quick. but I'm going to commit to it Well, I think there's a lot to commit there to because I mean my partner is very into tarot. Oh. And I am I am not. I'm not a Wooi person But I do respect practice of it. I think there is something that is really beneficial in reflecting on things even if they're random, because I think it makes you reach for things that you wouldn't have thought to reach for. And sometimes patterns and lines of meaning don't emerge until later. Yeah. So maybe the four of Spades being Illinois will make sense somewhere down the road and we just don't know it. Yeah Thank you for sending me to Niles. Oh, I'm glad It it was a wonderful first jaunt. Yeah, notot too far. No. which is nice. And'm as I'm starting to do this show, it's good to have something that first of all, is too far. And second is kind of like there's It's not too heavy. Yeah. It's something worth exploring kind of there's there is still a little bit of triviality to it. Yeah. And I think there's something I think we're all grasping for An American identity That's not sad. Let's steal it from Italy just shrink it down half size Italy. We'll take that for America. I think it's a real hard time to be an American right now and it doesn't feel good. Yeah. And I think that there is just something nice and exploring the kind of joyful spaces or the things that are even just kind of ambient that are unique and to appreciate those things. and You know, even if they're just of the background, I don't know. I think there's something significant in the insignificance We are in the shipfire of a country that a lot of things that we don't have control over, but it's still the place that I grew up And it's the place that people I loveved you know, were and significant things and wonderful things in my life happened. Yeah. and to remember that the There are, you know, in our towns and in our lives like U something different and unique. It's not just like the other Walmart. Yeah, you know. I've been I've been driving a whole lot for, you know preparing for this show and getting some pieces together. And one of the things that I can't help but think constantly is like I love this country. Yeah. I I hate that I love it, but I do Yeah There's a lot of great stuff And there's like a lot of great people. Yeah. There's a lot of great places and people. Exactly. We've been canceled. Scks. Had coming Should have renamed the show problematic fith I'll do late. Danarky made a theme song, it is doing like shit Um, yeah. It sucks to like America. but We can like America if we do better and if we create a new model of what it is. Yeah. If we create a new I don't want to say this No. Oh no. I don't as I'm saying these words, It's feeling like I'm saying that I'm going to redefine America. Oh no, I don't think you're going to do that. But I do I want I want to avoid something like that because it seems I think it's a good grandiose. Yeah, I think it's a good exercise for all of us to Um for the value of our community and of our you know, um, A lot of resignation. But the nation's made up of all the communities. It is, but even just on the smaller scales of things and you know, our towns and our states and our identities as you know Americans and how that means, but like something something that makes me not feel gross about saying I'm American. I'm an American and we have a mini leaning tower and that's good. That's okay. That's it, That's it. I've got just. Got to ride with that S days that's got to be good enough because It bad We got this thing You know, defend it with some amount of energy that's not my life. but I'll defend it Yeah M maybe throw a couple bucks if they asked me to chip in for the tower. one hundred percent. if they did like save the tower. I'm there. Yeah I'd do a live show there to save the tower. There you go. Yeah, that's how much I like it. A muppet movie. I would do a muppet movie of it Yes. I'd do a muppet movie for any reason. Yeah hundred percent. Yeah, I don't care. Give me with those muppets. You know I'm down. You know I love a muppet As this trip comes to a close, I feel like my visit to the Niles Tower and conversation with Adrian helped me reclaim some of my excitement for the Big tree Maybe it's dumb, and maybe it's okay for me to be pumped up about something that's kind of dumb It's maybe also okay to make fun of that excitement The world is big enough for the cynical and the naive, and on a smaller scale, each of us is big enough to contain both two Enjoy seeing the world through the wide eyed wonder of a child and allow yourself to feel that excitement so long as you don't let it lead you off a cliff chasing a butterfly. Enjoy mocking things and laughing at yourself so long as it doesn't stop you from taking a chance at getting out there and experiencing the world. Your inner cynic and your inner roube depend on each other. They're not at odds. So celebrate them both, along with all of the other myriad parts of the self that makes us who we are So that's Illinois in the books. I may have made it to the Big tree in Humansville, but make no mistake about it. This was not the Missouri episode. Missouri is yet to be assigned a card and that's really official business and we're going to find the meaning there somewhere I'd like to wrap this episode up with a big thank you to Adrianne and Nick for their contributions, and of course a massive shout out to DJ Dan Arky for making all the music that you hear on this show If you have a recommendation for somewhere you think I should visit, please drop me a line on my website showmstate ofmind. com especially if you have an idea for something in Delaware. But for the life of me, I cannot get a handle on that state and I have no idea what's up there And with that I'm off on my next trip I'll see you next time from who knows where I could be anywhere, but no matter the geography, I promise I'm gonna work to maintain that show me state of mind So me