September 2, 2025 • 10 mins
On the Tuesday September 2, 2205 edition of the Armstrong & Getty One More Thing Podcast...
- Jack had an epiphany during his vacation that lead him to question his life's current path!
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's disappear, change our names, and live the life we
really want to live. It's one more thing.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm strong and who heavy.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I saw about a bumper sticker once and it hit
me like a ton of bricks, and uh, I've thought
about it many times. Why that is that appealing to
everyone when they see that, or only some of us?
I would guess it's pretty universal, the at least the
(00:32):
impulse briefly before you think about it much to just
chuck it all and start over and live the life
you really want to live. It would take a while
to get to that and figure out what that is.
By the way, well yeah, yeah, that's exactly what I
was going to say. Do you know what that is?
Congratulations if so. Well, so this happens to me like
(00:54):
practically every vacation where I'm on vacation and I get
away from the daily grind and I and then I
start to think at some point like I'm doing it
all wrong. I've messed up my wife. I mean, I'm
just why am I living my life the way it is?
I should be completely this should I was driving through
this tiny little town in Iowa. We stopped to get gas,
and then we were driving through this little town, middle
of nowhere, gravel roads, probably a population of eight hundred
(01:18):
people or whatever. There's little houses and people sitting on
the porch, and I thought, why am I not them?
Why am I not doing that? I could do that, but.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Porch sitting is a time honored pastime.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Could I actually or not? I don't know. Could I actually?
How long? I texted a friend that and they said,
I could see you doing that for about six minutes. Wow.
And anyway, so it's kind of funny that it came
around to I'm watching this interview Bill Maher's interviewing the
movie director Woody Allen and.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Who did not molest any children, by the way, No,
I believe that firmly, firmly. He is a brilliant movie director,
although he doesn't consider it himself brilliant. And one of
the points was Bill Maher saying, you claim you have
like no lofty thoughts in your movies and what he
Allan said, That's true. I don't what I Allan said.
(02:18):
Everybody thinks I'm an intellectual.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I'm not. I don't think about the meaning of life
or trying to like face the difficulties of existence or whatever.
He said, I make movies and then I mostly watch
sports and old TV shows. He said, that's all, that's
what I do in my life, and and anyway, so
it got off onto this quote which I thought was
really interesting that Bill Maher brought up from Eugene O'Neill,
(02:41):
who is a playwright from a gazillion years ago. He
did the Iceman Come With in a number of other
ones long Day Journey in Tonight. That's Eugene O'Neil. It
doesn't matter. His quote is a life with illusions is
unparta unpardonable, in other words, lying to yourself about various things,
(03:02):
but a life without illusions is unbearable. Yeah, and uh,
and Bill Martin Woody Allen's sort of getting to the
nune of that that that is the most basic core
of human existence. That those two things are true. And
you know it's a matter of degrees, but we all
(03:25):
lie to ourselves to a certain extent because you couldn't
handle it if you didn't you just couldn't handle it.
If you, I mean, if you, if you didn't like
ignore certain parts of your past or present or future,
or or or fully acknowledge the dreariness of some things.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
You just couldn't do it, you couldn't function.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
So you have to live a life of of lies
to a certain extent. Do you believe that or not? Yeah,
oh yeah, I believe it.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I might phrase it a little differently, of course, have
written no place, I don't.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
It's the human condition. It's got nothing to do with
being a playwright. It's it is definitely the human condition.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
And I also I would say, I would say there
are things that are better left out of focus because
it wouldn't do you any good to get the clear,
hard focused reality of them. You're just as well off
kind of, you know, putting a little uh vaseline on
the lens like they used to in the old timey
movies to make the not's a great looking actress look
(04:31):
all dreamy.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, I guess. Example.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
A good example is people thinking they're more attractive than
they are. They lie to themselves to thinking they're more attractive. Yeah,
well sure, yeah, And I mean unless you're like a
nutjob narcissist like the people on American Idol back in
the day, who would convinced they were the greatest singer
(04:56):
on earth. And they're either just nuts or dopes or whatever.
You're better off being a little more confident than you
probably deserve to be.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Uh yeah, reason, So that's part of it. On how
you need the illusions just to get through the day,
especially depending on how your life's going at various times.
I think everybody has periods of their life where it
ain't going that great. If you just fully embraced that
without illusions, it would be pretty tough. Probably. There's also
the stuff that you do subconsciously that none of us
(05:28):
understand because we change memories. This is known. We change
memories throughout the years to better fit our narrative, and
there's nothing you can do about that. That seems to
be just the human condition too. So part of the
reason you're able to go through life with these illusions
is you don't know the truth, right And you mean,
(05:50):
I had this happen once over the weekend, over something banal,
not the least bit interesting worth re telling. But like
the nuclear family was altogether me, both my brothers, my
mom and dad, the five of us, and like we
all have different versions of a couple of different things
that happened. We all remember them differently, even in ways
(06:11):
that aren't important. But so, what is that I don't
even know, so we don't even really know our own histories.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, I know that's always been really disturbing to me.
I've gotten used to the idea and just accepted it
because what else am I gonna do?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
But yeah, it's like every time you remember something, you're
remembering your last memory of it. It's like playing a
game of telephone with yourself, and you adjust it to
fit your narrative, your life narrative, right right, which is horrifying.
I remember, what was it, nineteen eighty I was having
sex with Farah Faucet. She was on top, and she said,
(06:48):
you know, Joe, we remember things to make ourselves happy.
So I want you to remember this in a way
that makes you happy. And I still do, still do.
A life with a energetic, very very generous, A life
with illusions is unpardonable. Well, a life without illusions is unbearable. Yeah,
(07:11):
I guess you just have to decide how many boy
I can think of some examples.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I don't know if I should say them on the air.
I know somebody who considers themselves a good parent who
is most definitely not, but they have crafted a narrative
in their life that works for them, I guess that
can't be good. I mean, they're just completely out of
touch with reality, and it's fairly obvious. But that can't
(07:38):
be good. To what extent do we do that with?
You know, I'm a good son, I'm a good parent,
I'm a good worker, I'm a good dancer. I don't
know if that's one. Probably not important, but you know
we craft all the life without illusions is unbearable.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Right, Yeah? Man, this is a lot, a lot to contemplate.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, and given the fact also that Woody Allen, one
of the great movie makers of all times, doesn't ever
think about that sort of stuff at all. I just
make movies and I watch lots of sports and old
TV reruns. That's funny. It's like Larry David says on
his tombstone it should say he watched a lot of sports.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Here's a question for you. Do you believe Woody Allen?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yes? About that? Yes?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I do you think he's completely well? He could be
completely sincere and also be wrong. Yeah, I'm shocked by that. Huh.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I also think, as you're always saying, you don't have
a whole lot of control over your personality. I don't
know what percentage you do. But it ain't a ton right.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It's one of those things that are probably better off
in soft focus mostly, I mean, otherwise I don't know.
Self contemplation constantly, Oh, we'll make you insane.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Oh and what are you getting out of it? At
some point?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Just get stuff done. It's good now. And again, obviously,
as I've said more than once, I've been humbled, seriously
humbled a handful of times in my life, and it's
been a good thing each time in retrospect, rather painful
at the time, you know. So you can't just cruise
through life completely clueless, although I know a there are
number of people who do well.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Here's I can't believe I'm going to interject this into
the conversation. No, but I'm the best example I can
think of it. Does Trump ever worry about any of that?
Does he ever that might have been a little too far?
Does he ever think that? Or does he just plow
forward and have a pretty happy life because of it?
I think that second one mostly, I think so too,
(09:48):
And I've known a few people like that. They just
seem to like, ye know, I did kind of break
some things in that china shop as a bowl but
whatever life goes on.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yeah, yeah, wow, is too too much to think about.
I've already contemplated having visited a foreign land and looked
at other people in their lives and their cultures and
their politics and their attitudes. And then you know, the
cultures that are my grading invading the Western world. Yeah,
(10:21):
I've already got a head full of this stuff. I'm
afraid there's no room at the end. No more heavy thoughts.
Can't take it. I got an opening next Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Well, I guess that's it.
Let's disappear, change our names, and live the life we
really want to live. It's one more thing.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm strong and who heavy.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I saw about a bumper sticker once and it hit
me like a ton of bricks, and uh, I've thought
about it many times. Why that is that appealing to
everyone when they see that, or only some of us?
I would guess it's pretty universal, the at least the
(00:32):
impulse briefly before you think about it much to just
chuck it all and start over and live the life
you really want to live. It would take a while
to get to that and figure out what that is.
By the way, well yeah, yeah, that's exactly what I
was going to say. Do you know what that is?
Congratulations if so. Well, so this happens to me like
(00:54):
practically every vacation where I'm on vacation and I get
away from the daily grind and I and then I
start to think at some point like I'm doing it
all wrong. I've messed up my wife. I mean, I'm
just why am I living my life the way it is?
I should be completely this should I was driving through
this tiny little town in Iowa. We stopped to get gas,
and then we were driving through this little town, middle
of nowhere, gravel roads, probably a population of eight hundred
(01:18):
people or whatever. There's little houses and people sitting on
the porch, and I thought, why am I not them?
Why am I not doing that? I could do that, but.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Porch sitting is a time honored pastime.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Could I actually or not? I don't know. Could I actually?
How long? I texted a friend that and they said,
I could see you doing that for about six minutes. Wow.
And anyway, so it's kind of funny that it came
around to I'm watching this interview Bill Maher's interviewing the
movie director Woody Allen and.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Who did not molest any children, by the way, No,
I believe that firmly, firmly. He is a brilliant movie director,
although he doesn't consider it himself brilliant. And one of
the points was Bill Maher saying, you claim you have
like no lofty thoughts in your movies and what he
Allan said, That's true. I don't what I Allan said.
(02:18):
Everybody thinks I'm an intellectual.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I'm not. I don't think about the meaning of life
or trying to like face the difficulties of existence or whatever.
He said, I make movies and then I mostly watch
sports and old TV shows. He said, that's all, that's
what I do in my life, and and anyway, so
it got off onto this quote which I thought was
really interesting that Bill Maher brought up from Eugene O'Neill,
(02:41):
who is a playwright from a gazillion years ago. He
did the Iceman Come With in a number of other
ones long Day Journey in Tonight. That's Eugene O'Neil. It
doesn't matter. His quote is a life with illusions is
unparta unpardonable, in other words, lying to yourself about various things,
(03:02):
but a life without illusions is unbearable. Yeah, and uh,
and Bill Martin Woody Allen's sort of getting to the
nune of that that that is the most basic core
of human existence. That those two things are true. And
you know it's a matter of degrees, but we all
(03:25):
lie to ourselves to a certain extent because you couldn't
handle it if you didn't you just couldn't handle it.
If you, I mean, if you, if you didn't like
ignore certain parts of your past or present or future,
or or or fully acknowledge the dreariness of some things.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
You just couldn't do it, you couldn't function.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
So you have to live a life of of lies
to a certain extent. Do you believe that or not? Yeah,
oh yeah, I believe it.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I might phrase it a little differently, of course, have
written no place, I don't.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
It's the human condition. It's got nothing to do with
being a playwright. It's it is definitely the human condition.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
And I also I would say, I would say there
are things that are better left out of focus because
it wouldn't do you any good to get the clear,
hard focused reality of them. You're just as well off
kind of, you know, putting a little uh vaseline on
the lens like they used to in the old timey
movies to make the not's a great looking actress look
(04:31):
all dreamy.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, I guess. Example.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
A good example is people thinking they're more attractive than
they are. They lie to themselves to thinking they're more attractive. Yeah,
well sure, yeah, And I mean unless you're like a
nutjob narcissist like the people on American Idol back in
the day, who would convinced they were the greatest singer
(04:56):
on earth. And they're either just nuts or dopes or whatever.
You're better off being a little more confident than you
probably deserve to be.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Uh yeah, reason, So that's part of it. On how
you need the illusions just to get through the day,
especially depending on how your life's going at various times.
I think everybody has periods of their life where it
ain't going that great. If you just fully embraced that
without illusions, it would be pretty tough. Probably. There's also
the stuff that you do subconsciously that none of us
(05:28):
understand because we change memories. This is known. We change
memories throughout the years to better fit our narrative, and
there's nothing you can do about that. That seems to
be just the human condition too. So part of the
reason you're able to go through life with these illusions
is you don't know the truth, right And you mean,
(05:50):
I had this happen once over the weekend, over something banal,
not the least bit interesting worth re telling. But like
the nuclear family was altogether me, both my brothers, my
mom and dad, the five of us, and like we
all have different versions of a couple of different things
that happened. We all remember them differently, even in ways
(06:11):
that aren't important. But so, what is that I don't
even know, so we don't even really know our own histories.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, I know that's always been really disturbing to me.
I've gotten used to the idea and just accepted it
because what else am I gonna do?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
But yeah, it's like every time you remember something, you're
remembering your last memory of it. It's like playing a
game of telephone with yourself, and you adjust it to
fit your narrative, your life narrative, right right, which is horrifying.
I remember, what was it, nineteen eighty I was having
sex with Farah Faucet. She was on top, and she said,
(06:48):
you know, Joe, we remember things to make ourselves happy.
So I want you to remember this in a way
that makes you happy. And I still do, still do.
A life with a energetic, very very generous, A life
with illusions is unpardonable. Well, a life without illusions is unbearable. Yeah,
(07:11):
I guess you just have to decide how many boy
I can think of some examples.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I don't know if I should say them on the air.
I know somebody who considers themselves a good parent who
is most definitely not, but they have crafted a narrative
in their life that works for them, I guess that
can't be good. I mean, they're just completely out of
touch with reality, and it's fairly obvious. But that can't
(07:38):
be good. To what extent do we do that with?
You know, I'm a good son, I'm a good parent,
I'm a good worker, I'm a good dancer. I don't
know if that's one. Probably not important, but you know
we craft all the life without illusions is unbearable.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Right, Yeah? Man, this is a lot, a lot to contemplate.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, and given the fact also that Woody Allen, one
of the great movie makers of all times, doesn't ever
think about that sort of stuff at all. I just
make movies and I watch lots of sports and old
TV reruns. That's funny. It's like Larry David says on
his tombstone it should say he watched a lot of sports.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Here's a question for you. Do you believe Woody Allen?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yes? About that? Yes?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I do you think he's completely well? He could be
completely sincere and also be wrong. Yeah, I'm shocked by that. Huh.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I also think, as you're always saying, you don't have
a whole lot of control over your personality. I don't
know what percentage you do. But it ain't a ton right.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It's one of those things that are probably better off
in soft focus mostly, I mean, otherwise I don't know.
Self contemplation constantly, Oh, we'll make you insane.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Oh and what are you getting out of it? At
some point?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Just get stuff done. It's good now. And again, obviously,
as I've said more than once, I've been humbled, seriously
humbled a handful of times in my life, and it's
been a good thing each time in retrospect, rather painful
at the time, you know. So you can't just cruise
through life completely clueless, although I know a there are
number of people who do well.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Here's I can't believe I'm going to interject this into
the conversation. No, but I'm the best example I can
think of it. Does Trump ever worry about any of that?
Does he ever that might have been a little too far?
Does he ever think that? Or does he just plow
forward and have a pretty happy life because of it?
I think that second one mostly, I think so too,
(09:48):
And I've known a few people like that. They just
seem to like, ye know, I did kind of break
some things in that china shop as a bowl but
whatever life goes on.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yeah, yeah, wow, is too too much to think about.
I've already contemplated having visited a foreign land and looked
at other people in their lives and their cultures and
their politics and their attitudes. And then you know, the
cultures that are my grading invading the Western world. Yeah,
(10:21):
I've already got a head full of this stuff. I'm
afraid there's no room at the end. No more heavy thoughts.
Can't take it. I got an opening next Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Well, I guess that's it.
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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