Episode 225: We’re Going To Wasteland

The Overthinkers tackle Graceland, Argo, and, if you can believe it, listener feedback.

Ben Adams, Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather are joined by Zack Johnson (Jick on Kingdom of Loathing) to overthink Zack’s trip to Graceland, Ben Affleck’s Argo, the responsibilities of creator and audience when squaring a work of art with historical fact, the importance of footnotes, and, if you can believe it, listener feedback.

We’re not sure when Mark Lee will publish his book separating the good guys from the bad guys in all eras of history, but when he does, we’re sure we want you to buy it through our Amazon affiliate link.

→ Download Episode 225 (MP3)

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Further Reading

29 Comments on “Episode 225: We’re Going To Wasteland”

  1. Rich Thomas #

    Is Sam Waterston America’s Kenneth Branagh. At least when it comes to Olympic like speeches.

    Reply

    • fenzel OTI Staff #

      Definitely. Especiall when you consider that Law & Order is our Shakespeare.

      Reply

      • Ben Adams OTI Staff #

        I think Martin Sheen as our nation’s most beloved President has to be on the list as well.

        Reply

        • fenzel OTI Staff #

          He’s the one who gets to jump out of the helicopter with our James Bond, whoever that is.

          Reply

  2. Pasteur #

    “Dan Harmon is in the Ravioli” is my new favorite six-word story.

    Reply

    • Matthew Wrather OTI Staff #

      “Wrather does a bad accent” is an item in the OTI drinking game.

      Reply

    • Skab #

      As a non-francophone Canadian, I can tell the accents really well.

      But have no idea what anyone is saying.

      Funfact; When drunk my girlfriend will only speak french to me, I have yet to learn a word.

      Reply

  3. Rich Thomas #

    When we played the Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy we had a group of kids in my middle school computer club who shared tips with each other.

    Reply

    • Matthew Wrather OTI Staff #

      Here’s the thing I remember about playing the HHGTTG Infocom game on my Apple //c — the floppy drive would read after every move. I can’t believe it wasn’t more efficient to load parts of the game into memory and only reload at the scene changes or something.

      Am I the only one who found the grinding sound of a 5.25″ drive slightly worrisome? Maybe I was overly nervous because the floppy disks didn’t seem that sturdy — the big ones were literally floppy — and I was always afraid that I would pull out a mangled, chewed-up piece of plastic from the drive.

      Reply

      • Timothy J Swann #

        Hey, I was literally talking the other day about trying to release a single on 5 and quarter inch floppy because that would trump hipsters.

        Reply

        • Nick Nutter #

          That…is blatantly awesome. I’ve seen some nerdcore bands do 3.5″ floppies, but I haven’t seen the 5.25″ yet.

          Reply

          • Timothy J Swann #

            I haven’t got any left or a disk-drive that uses them, but that’s what e-Bay is for.

  4. fenzel OTI Staff #

    To update on something I said during the podcast, my negative take on the state of Zynga’s business was confirmed today — at least 100+ layoffs across at least three regional offices. Rumor is that entire Farmville team in Austin is shut down, leaving only slot machine team.

    I sympathize with those let go — could definitely see it coming, but that doesn’t really help.

    Reply

    • Ben Adams OTI Staff #

      I was fiddling with my mic settings so I missed my golden opportunity, but when you referenced “Skiing down Zynga’s stock chart”, I really, really wanted to make a Ski Free joke about being eaten by a Yeti at the bottom of the stock chart.

      Reply

      • fenzel #

        Just for refernence, it’s down 5% on the day, 12% on the week, 32% on the month, 57% on the quarter, and 77% on the year-to-date.

        The Yeti would be an improvement.

        Reply

        • Skab #

          The yeti is not very hungry after consulting with his stock adviser.

          Reply

        • fenzel OTI Staff #

          Gosh, if only there were companies out there that could take advantage of the enthusiasm for retro/classic games and the ability to play small, simple games on multiple platforms to build a solid business and create jobs.

          Reply

          • Timothy J Swann #

            I just worry that Zynga will pick it up and make it SkiFree Social – you know, you have to ask 5 friends for Yeti Repellent before you can even start ski-ing, and those rainbow coloured jumps are few and far between unless you pay microtransactions… (I’m aware I’m slandering microtransactions when KoL does use them).

  5. Rob Northrup #

    Regarding Mark’s Argo prequel about the overthrow of the democratically elected leader of Iran in 1953, there’s a selling point that might really hook Hollywood on the idea. The CIA asset credited with engineering the coup d’etat was Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.

    … Please take this moment to get all the Muppet jokes out of your system. Can we move on now? …

    That’s the grandson of Teddy Roosevelt. And another fun fact according to Wikipedia, “The CIA sent Major general Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr. to persuade the exiled Shah to return to rule Iran. Schwarzkopf trained the security forces that would become known as SAVAK to secure the shah’s hold on power.” That’s papa of our Gulf War I “hero” Stormin Norman Schwarzkopf, and yes, the Iranian secret police almost shared a name with some Vulcan character from Star Trek. This thing just keeps getting uglier and wackier.

    Anyway, I see Affleck playing the role of Kermit. No relation to his character from Argo, but they’re both CIA. A thrilling spy movie in which the Purebred American hero cuts democracy off at the ankles and helps install a vicious dictator. USA! USA!

    Reply

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