Georgia - Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation (Unofficial)

Hi, this is Greg Mattola, director of Confessed Fletch, starring John Hamm.

Now available on Paramount Plus, Blu-ray, Major Airlines, and My Living Room by appointment.

You are listening to ePluribus Motto with John Hodgman and Janet Varney.

And now here's Janet and John.

Why, thank you, film director Greg Mottola.

I'm Janet Varney.

And I'm John Hodgman.

Welcome to ePluribus Motto, the podcast that is all about celebrating the motto, symbols, fruit, and mammals and other stuff of every state in the Union, no matter how unfortunately endangered they might be.

That's right, and up until now, I believe we have dealt almost exclusively with official mottos, but go Georgia.

Georgia just had to buck tradition with an unofficial motto.

Georgia, notoriously afraid of commitment.

Thankfully, we still got a lot of symbols, wonderful symbols that did make the cut from frogs, dogs, whales, and fruit.

I wish fruit rhymed with whales.

That really would would have been something.

But let's get into it, John Hodgman.

Janet, it's wonderful to see you virtually again.

Obviously, we last time we saw each other was on the Jonathan Colton cruise when we recorded our first episode of e Pluribus Motto in many weeks.

And that was many weeks ago now, because

look, you're a very busy person.

And you're a very busy person not so very much but you're a very busy person and i i i come up with some things to do from time to time

and it was such a wonderful reunion on the jonathan colton cruise and we recorded a whole lot of fascinating information god you just keep saying recorded about georgia until we learned the state there the state that is the state of georgia yes uh not georgia the member of yolatengo no though she is often on my mind as is ira and the James, the wonderful band Yolatengo, often on my mind.

Wonderful.

The Georgia that was on our mind is the state of Georgia.

We had a wonderful, lively conversation.

People got up out of the audience,

real Georgians.

Yes.

And

then

the tape was lost at sea.

Maybe you didn't read the news.

Jenna and I are the only two survivors of the Jonathan Colton Cruise.

No, that's not true.

No tragedies befell

the wonderful Jonathan Colton cruise upon the MS New Amsterdam.

It returned to port perfectly safe and sound.

Everyone had a wonderful time.

The only thing that went wrong was somehow our Georgia episode was not recorded.

So what I say, Janet, to you is

a fresh start.

Fresh start.

America is a land of many things.

Including do-overs.

Exactly.

Let's pretend nothing ever happened and they'll start right over.

And yet, also paying tribute to and flying

on the wings of the good spirit and goodwill that we experienced at this live show.

The souls who were present there, I hope you feel their warmth and spirit here in this recording that just the two of us are on.

And if you were in the audience when we did our first and to date only live presentation of Eplerabismato on the high seas aboard the Jonathan Colton Cruise, hello, ahoyhoy to you.

Sorry that we lost the the recording of all of your wonderful laughs and giggles and so forth, but this is E.

Pluribus' motto, and this

is Georgia.

Well,

before we start talking about Georgia, I just want to pay quick tribute, quick tribute to our last state we discussed.

That was quite some time ago.

But that doesn't mean I've forgotten its motto because it's one of my all-time favorites, possibly my favorite that we've covered so far.

And that is the sweet and graceful state of Vermont.

Very graceful.

Whose motto is freedom and unity.

That's a good motto.

Freedom and unity.

And I think that's the word and, not an ampersand.

I don't think that we've come across a motto yet with an ampersand in it.

I think that's pretty hot, I would have to say.

I think, yeah, that feels almost commercial.

Like an ampersand almost feels too like consumer programme.

Well, you put an ampersand in it, and then it's an upscale restaurant in Austin, Texas.

Exactly.

Exactly right.

Freedom and unity.

Yeah.

Cable.

Great, great host.

Cable and wood stove.

I'm just looking around.

It all works.

Ethernet cable and fake wood stove.

That's what I see in front of me.

Hey, did I ever tell you the story about my oldest friend, Damon Graff?

I moved next door to Damon Graff when we were both three years old.

We became fast friends and are still friends today.

And when I was of a certain age, I don't remember, we must have been eight, nine, ten, something, younger than 10, I would say.

Whenever it was appropriate to have an imaginary friend, Damon Graff had one, and I did not.

And I was self-conscious about this.

Yeah.

One time we were hanging around inside because I'm an inside child.

And he said, Do you have an imaginary friend?

And I felt self-conscious.

And I said, Well, yeah, of course I do.

He goes, What's your imaginary friend name?

And I was really on the spot.

And I looked around the room desperately,

trying to come up with a name.

And I explained to him, Kaiser Jose.

Windowsill was the name of my

Kaiser Soze is slightly subtler.

You had to look a little deeper to unmask Kaiser Soze.

Yeah.

No, that movie was still 1,000 years from coming out.

Windowsille.

I saw a windowsill and I'm like, that's all I got.

That's all I'm getting.

Windowsill.

And what did he say?

I was like, uh-huh.

I don't think we chatted.

He didn't ask.

Yeah, he had no, he had no, he basically was like, no further questions.

And you sat down.

I think he figured out that I was a big old fraud.

And it's still such a thing.

I am still a fraud, it's true.

Yeah.

Well, I'm sure the fact that you looked long and hard at a windowsill right before you said the words was a partial giveaway.

I was probably pretty smooth about it.

I think that he probably realized windowsill isn't a name.

He was looking at a curtain rod, but he said windowsill.

I guess the guy must be real Imaginaria, not Imaginary.

While I take a sip of this delicious sparkling water, why don't you say what happens next?

We've established that we've got a model that's going to be very hard to beat with beautiful state of Vermont, freedom and unity.

But as we roll into Georgia, I know you have a lot of pleasant feelings about Vermont.

Do you have pleasant feelings about Georgia?

Could you give me, say, three positive associations that you have with the state of Georgia?

What comes to mind?

Well, first and foremost, my best friend and spouse, and whole human being in her own right was born in Chicago, but moved as an infant or very young child to Georgia, where she grew up until her middle to mid-late teen years.

Her father and stepmother still live there.

I have visited there in Atlanta, where they, you know, in, I believe the neighborhood is Buckhead,

multiple times.

And then my very dear friend from high school, Sam Potts, went to a non-accredited but very good design school to become a graphic designer in Georgia.

And then the third good friend that comes to mind is our mutual friend Chuck Bryant of the Stuff You Should Know podcast, where he lives.

He is a Georgian by birth, lives there still.

He and Josh Clark host the wonderful Stuff You Should Know podcast, which originated in Georgia and still emanates from there once a week or maybe twice a week now.

I'm there, always putting stuff out.

So I've stayed, I've stayed and done shows in Atlanta in very hot, hot, hot theaters in Atlanta

and stayed at Chuck's house in his very cool, cool, cool house.

Yeah.

He has a very, very cool houses.

Both cool because he's got good taste and it's nicely air-conditioned.

I agree, and I agree.

And wait a minute.

Wait, wait, hold the phone.

I'm holding.

Our son lives in Georgia right now.

Now, Hodgman and I have a son together.

No, I'm.

just want to

know, and this is how I want you to find out.

Yes, and yes, and it is true.

We have a son together.

And I often forget about him.

No, I and my spouse have a son who is 18 years old.

And when we last spoke about Georgia some weeks ago, he was not a resident of the state of Georgia.

He was a student in the state of Georgia.

And now he's a student resident.

He and his girlfriend have gotten an apartment, and they live there

in Savannah, Georgia.

Oh,

different.

Yes.

Savannah, Georgia.

Savannah, Georgia.

When you talk about Georgia,

Savannah is almost another planet.

I mean, not only different from Georgia, but different from the world.

Here's the only thing I'm going to ask of you.

I want you to say Savannah is almost like another planet.

Savannah?

I just wanted to rhyme a little bit more.

Girlfriend, Savannah?

It's almost like another plana.

Wonderful.

And my wife, who is not particularly southern by birth, certainly, or temperament, nonetheless, you know, she had a southern, a little bit of a

Atlanta accent, I suppose, Georgia accent, when she moved to Brookline, Massachusetts to attend third and fourth years of high school.

That's where she and I met.

She lost that accent, but I was just recently reminded of a story when she was half asleep.

because she loves to take to fall asleep as we all do, but she was half asleep.

And our daughter and I were chatting about something or another.

And Catherine, my wife and whole human being in our own right, says, sort of from her slumber, she goes, I could be a receptionist.

And we're like, what?

I don't know whether she was responding to something we were saying or what, but kind of out of her, and it wasn't really clear that she had been sleeping.

She goes, like,

you know, like we were saying something about receptionist, I could, you know, that would be a good job.

I could be a receptionist.

Now, my wife teaches high school school in New York City.

It's a very demanding job.

And it's her career and she loves it.

So the idea that she would be like, you could be a receptionist, you would consider being a receptionist.

Like, oh, yeah, it'd be so great.

I could be a receptionist in Georgia in a doctor's office, and people would come in, and I'd just be like, hey.

And then we're like, oh, you're asleep, aren't you?

Yeah.

I am so envious of both your wonderful wife and whole human being in her own right for having the ability to dream and still interact in real life, and also your

gift of you being able to be a part of that.

I've had one friend who kind of did that on a semi-regular basis, and I lived with her for a little while, and she would drift off while we were all still hanging out, and we could sort of still bring her into conversation, but it was clear she was also in a dream and would just like bubble up with something wonderful and strange and then sort of dip back down into wherever she was.

And it was one of the most charming charming things ever.

It's not a particularly common occurrence.

The only other time that I can remember is then when we both moved to New York and she sat up in bed at one moment, is everything okay?

She goes, yeah, it's a supermarket caper and Francis is in charge.

And you may not know that Francis was our cat at the time.

I did not know that.

Even better.

I would read that book.

I would read that children's illustrated book.

About a cat ripping off a supermarket.

The title of the book is clearly, it's a supermarket caper, and Frances is

in charge.

Yeah.

That's actually, you know what?

Maybe I'll, maybe next time she's

sleep talking, I'll get her to sign over the rights to that IP and then

I can do something with it.

But I think very fun, you know, I've been to Georgia quite a bit, both as a performer and as a person.

And, you know, that...

that idea, like, you know, like Atlanta is a really groovy town.

I really like Atlanta a lot.

I've had a great time there.

It is a world-class city, but it is definitely a place where people do say, hey.

Even Chuck Bryan has said, hey, to me sometimes.

And it's,

you know,

it warms the withered cockles of my New England heart from time to time to hang out with someone from the South.

And Georgia is definitely that.

Absolutely.

I love Georgia.

I have never been to Savannah from another plana, which I'm very ashamed to admit.

So that's why I leaned in extra hard and said it extra loud to try to act like I wasn't ashamed.

Well, to quote the great moth storyteller, Edgar Oliver, a native of Savannah, mother always told us Savannah is a trap.

Do you know Edgar Oliver?

Go to YouTube and search up Edgar Oliver if you want to learn about what Savannah is all about.

Okay.

Search

the story.

The moth presents Edgar Oliver Apron Strings of Savannah.

And that is genuinely how he speaks, and he's just a wonderful storyteller.

Savannah

is a different planet for sure.

It is the truly

haunted, southern Gothic,

Spanish moss-drenched.

Well, it's equally drenched in Spanish moss and booze, and it's great.

It's a great.

I've been to Charleston, and someone said, you've got a pinch of Savannah if you've been to Charleston.

Yeah,

Charleston

has that same

honeyed cobblestone, Spanish mossy, easygoing, but it's and you know, Savannah's money had dried up, whereas Charleston's money just got bigger and better and golder and whatever.

And since we're talking about Charleston, of course, we've discussed before that Charleston was the port in which the most captured and enslaved human beings were brought into the United States.

A very, very tragic and brutal history.

And indeed, Georgia also, like all of the United States, shares a brutal history of dehumanizing the people who were captured to be in Georgia.

That is to say, African people who were enslaved, as well as appropriating the land of the various indigenous people there, including the Cherokee and the Muskegon peoples, including the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, and the Cushata.

So that is the land from the Blue Ridge Mountain to the Piedmont Plateau to the coastal plain that we now call Georgia.

Belonged to those people first, we should acknowledge.

And

it's now, I mean, Atlanta is a major, major city, and Georgia is obviously a very important

mix of political cultures that may determine the fate of these United States going forward.

So it's an interesting place.

Obviously, I echo everything you said, and

I have a great, great fondness for Atlanta.

I have spent much time there.

I have been on many shows that shot there.

It's been a second home to me over the last 18 years.

So I love it.

And I love its people.

And I love the cultural diversity.

I've talked about it a lot.

Yeah.

Oh, I was going to say it's the home of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but you were going to talk about its cultural diversity.

It's true.

Yes.

And of course, I play Captain America.

No,

that is what I've been down there for.

If people don't know,

tons and tons and tons of

movies are shot in Atlanta now.

It is, I think, the most televised and filmed entertainment is shot in Atlanta

more than anywhere else in the world, I believe.

We can touch on some of those landmark or at least beloved well-known pop culture shows in a minute.

You mentioned a little bit what it borders, but we have Tennessee to the northwest, North Carolina to the north, South Carolina to the northeast, Florida to the south, and Alabama to the west.

I'd love to talk about the state shape for a moment.

All right, let me take a look at it.

If you can go ahead and take a look at that, if I don't have it open in front of me, but I do.

I will say I think you're best served by giving a little Google or Bing or Ask Jeeves to show you the outline of the state without any of the words, because I think you kind of need to look at the outline very much bare bones by itself to know that I believe that it looks like a child's drawing of the profile of Bart Simpson.

Wow.

That's what I see.

Oh, I can see that a little bit because there's that weird kind of overbite

down in the southeast.

Yeah, like a little, like a little bottom, like a pouty bottom lip or whatever.

Yeah, yeah, down in the southeast, that eastern portion.

If I look at the whole thing, though, to me, it looks like the profile of Grandpa Abraham Simpson a little bit, too.

That ridged forehead that goes along

northeastern border, bordering on Augusta, Georgia.

Yeah, exactly.

So there's that.

And like a lot of the southern, southeastern states, perhaps appropriately or not, it kind of looks like an outline of a country ham to me a little bit.

Absolutely.

A little rough around the edges, this ham.

A little rough around the edges.

Yeah, a little rough around the edges.

Nothing wrong with that.

No.

And

it's got this little coastline here,

which is very nice.

And that's where Savannah is in the northeast of the state.

And that's where Tybee Island is.

And you ever go to the crab shack in Tybee Island?

You can feed alligators there.

Oh, I see.

Okay.

Are you feeding them crabs?

Are you just buying crabs to then feed alligators?

No, I think they have like alligator chow or something.

Or maybe you can get a little fishing pole and put a little chicken on the end of it.

Yeah.

It's a lot of fun.

I mean, I hope it's fun for the alligators.

I don't know.

It's actually not that fun for me either.

But

it's kind of grim.

But

you can sit by the water and get some crab legs.

And they're a bunch of feral cats.

And it's very, I liked it a lot.

And our son and I went there.

And that's where we discovered one of the major cultural differences between the southeast and the northeast, which is if you're traveling in the northeast in a cab or a lift or an uber, I press the no conversation please button hard.

And they usually respect respect that.

But you take an Uber from Tybee Island, from the crab shack, back to Savannah proper, you will get a long story about how this young man grew up on Tybee Island.

His parents are divorced, but they still live a block away from each other.

They've each had a stroke this year, and that's why he came back to town.

But he's thinking about driving back to Michigan because that's where he really wants to be.

Long monologue.

I mean, Savannah.

Mother always told me Savannah was a trap.

And that's

every car car that we got into.

We heard a different, interesting monologue from a different young guy.

It was pretty interesting.

I liked it.

I will let anyone, pretty much anyone, tell me any story and any rideshare at all times, just because there are enough gems that have tumbled out that I'm always just like, I guess that, yeah, let's do it.

Let's do it.

Tell me everything.

We should start a cab company called Tumblin Gems Cab Company.

And we'll hire drivers, only drivers who have told stories on the moth.

Yep.

Do you think that that would be a good carry up in there?

But people would be like, yeah, I'm going to block that contact right away before I even call them.

I'm going to go with a ladder.

Respectfully.

I might go with a ladder respectfully.

Would you like to hear what Georgia's unofficial state motto is in that they never officially adopted any motto?

No.

Are they allowed to do that?

I declare.

Sometimes I feel like a mottoless state.

Wow.

Okay.

What is their unofficial state motto?

Dare I eat a peach?

Is that it?

Because of the peaches that they grow?

You're so close, but you just reverse dare and I.

It is I dare eat a peach.

It's very similar.

No, it isn't.

No, it isn't.

It is wisdom, justice, and moderation.

That sounds like

a little bit like a like, it's something that's like in a child's, like, of course, as you crack open your book of Psalms for children, you should remember always

wisdom, justice, and moderation.

It feels chidey to me.

To me, it feels patrician.

It feels like it came from a random motto generator on the web.

Yeah.

I just searched random motto generator, and there is a random motto generator, but it's mostly for like fantasy lands, like Game of Thronesland type motto.

Oh, I see.

I see.

Yeah.

So I'm going to get some mottos.

Ready?

Great.

Here are the ones that it came up with.

Friends, family, fatherland.

No, thank you.

Uh-oh.

Everyone.

From the grounds to the skies.

Peace, equality, unity.

Progress through wisdom.

I mean, that's practically George's.

Except for the progress part.

Progress there, like, no, let's workshop this some more.

We don't want to put progress in there

Okay.

Fire in the darkness.

But don't you think moderation is an interesting choice?

Like, certainly it's that one that sticks out to me the most that feels like, well, mother always said, in this case, not Savannah's a trap.

Georgia is moderation.

I don't want too much of anything unless it's streets with the name Peach Tree in them.

And then I want more, more, more.

What is it?

Wisdom, Calamity?

No, what was the second one?

Justice, my friend.

Justice.

Wisdom, justice, moderation.

Yeah.

I wonder what moderation meant in the context of the whatever, the 17th century.

This is what I'm asking.

I don't know that it meant temperance in the sense of abstention from alcohol necessarily.

No, I don't necessarily think that either.

I mean, I think maybe just kind of...

I mean, yeah, maybe it was like, we don't believe in, like, we're not aiming for extremes.

Right.

That being said, I don't know if it was able to meet that.

Keep it breezy.

Just Just be like, hey.

That's what it means.

Moderation means hey.

Hey.

I think that makes a lot of sense.

The avoidance of excess or extremes, especially in one's behavior or political opinions.

I mean, I wonder what the context was.

Well, I suppose we could find out, but we didn't.

So if you know, let us know.

It says that the motto comes from, this is one of those like

a snake chasing its tail, because upon the state seal are those words.

Oh, okay.

And so it's sort of taken from the state seal,

but that's still just,

you know, that just leads to the same question.

And I don't have to.

Someone put it on there at one point, but

they never officially decided to call it

the motto, the official motto.

Got it.

And as you know, I really like the fact that at some point someone had to officially write down, like, okay, now we're in a world where all of the state seals have been destroyed.

What description do I need to give a person so that they'll be able to recreate the state seal?

And so, if you needed to crack open the corner, this I think we talked about on the Jonathan Colton Cruise about how all of the state seals of all of the states have very, very

specific descriptions that have been written down in case we get into a Mad Max era where they've all been destroyed and they can only be reproduced by, there's no images of them left.

So, correct.

What is it?

Tell me all about it.

The obverse front of the seal is centered on the coat of arms of the state, an arch with three columns, the arch symbolizing the state's constitution and the columns representing the three branches of government, legislative, executive, and judicial.

The words of the official state motto, not official, are inscribed on scrolls that are wrapped around the columns.

A member of the Georgia militia, uh-oh, stands between the second and third columns holding a drawn sword in his right hand, representing the citizen soldier's defense of the state's constitution.

A border surrounds the coat of arms, and the motto, State of Georgia, 1776, is inscribed outside the arms.

The back, that's right, it's got a back of the seal.

It contains an image of Georgia's coast with a ship bearing the American flag arriving to take aboard tobacco and cotton.

Symbolizing Georgia's export trade, a second smaller boat represents the state's internal traffic.

Towards the left of the image, there is a man plowing and a flock of sheep.

The motto, Agriculture and Commerce, 1776, is inscribed around the outside of the image.

So that's the B-side motto, the B-side motto that does not get as much play as wisdom, justice, and moderation.

And some scrolls wrapped around columns.

Yeah, of course, the tobacco and cotton are problematic crops

in the history of Georgia and the southeast for obvious reasons.

So let's turn to something less distasteful, like the beautiful.

I've seen this photo now that I'm looking at it, the beautiful Martin Luther King Jr.'s tomb in the Martin Luther King Jr.

National Historic Park in Atlanta, Georgia.

Obviously, a hero of humanity and of Atlanta, Martin Luther King Jr.

And I never know that the tomb is set in a reflecting pool, and it's freaking gorgeous.

So that's very cool.

I will say that and the Martin Luther King Memorial Fountain in San Francisco are two of my all-time favorite sort of monuments.

And they both happen to be Martin Luther King Jr.

But that one, if you've ever been there, and we can talk about it when we talk about California, but that's a big state, so we probably won't get to it.

Basically, you're in the middle of San Francisco, right near Yerba Buena Gardens.

Possibly, this is part of Yerba Buena Gardens.

I apologize, Your Ber Buena Gardens.

You head into

a sort of recessed, three-sided square.

You're down

against these walls over which a waterfall is pouring.

And so the waterfall is also three-quarters of a square.

So as you're walking and reading Martin Luther King's famous speech, and I think I believe there are some other quotes there too, as well,

the sound of the water shuts out all of the noise of the city, and it almost sounds like applause.

That's my per that's my take on it.

It almost feels like there's a beautiful swell of applause as you're reading these words that have been kind of etched into granite.

It's lovely.

I love it.

Well, that feels like a fine button on the history of the great state of Georgia.

After a break, it's time for some southern cooking and state symbols.

Eplurbus Motto will be back right after this.

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Where do you like to eat in Atlanta, Georgia?

There are some really great kind of southern fusion spots there, but Atlanta is also one of those cities where, you know, it's a very worldly city.

You can get great versions of any number of cultural cuisines there.

It's a great city.

It's just very alive.

I used to like to go with Sam and other friends to the majestic diner in a neighborhood of Atlanta with the wonderful name of Ponce Highlands.

They used to have, I don't want to gross people out, but they had fried chicken livers that I really liked a lot.

I get it.

I was just thinking about it.

Yeah.

One of the hot spots in Atlanta is also an area known as Cabbage Town.

And I think it's great because it's an incredibly uncool name for, you know, for like a hipster area.

I love that it's still called Cabbage Town and proudly.

And it's wonderful.

There's some great neighborhood names in Atlanta, like Druid Hills.

Doesn't that sound spooky?

I like that one.

And Ponce Highlands, obviously.

And don't forget about Blandtown.

Oh, no.

No.

Wait, what?

No.

Blandtown.

A neighborhood in the north, a neighborhood of the west midtown area of Atlanta, Georgia, located either side of Hough Road from Howell Mill Road west to Marietta Boulevard.

It was one of the first black settlements around Atlanta after the Civil War War, named for a black man who owned

the name.

Well, that had to be it.

It was definitely going to be a person whose name was Bland, and not that it is a Bland place or a Bland town.

No, I apologize to Bland Town for having a little chuckle.

I love that.

I love that history.

The Peach Peach State or the Empire of the South.

Lot of trains come through Atlanta.

Big train town.

Lot of trains, lot of train problems.

If you're shooting anything near a train track, which you almost assuredly are because there are train tracks everywhere, there's just a lot of hold for the train.

And five minutes pass.

I know.

Those cargo trains are long.

It is obviously a huge and has been for a long time a huge commercial crossroads.

All those trains bringing all that stuff, transporting all those goods to and fro.

Yes, and somehow they've made it work because, as you mentioned before, it is a real boomtown for film and television, despite all of those train whistles.

Marvel Studios is down there.

Just a tiny pinch of things that have shot there.

But Forrest Gump, Stranger Things, The Walking Dead, Vampire Diaries, Stan Against Strainful, Junar and a Movie, The Game.

The last three I leaned hard into the microphone because I had the pleasure of working on all of those shows.

Say the

Stand Against Evil.

Stand Against Evil.

Dinner in a Movie.

Oh, right, Movie.

Which I did for seven years in Atlanta.

Oh.

Yeah.

And then I had a recurring role on The Game that I wish would have gone on forever because it was one of my favorite sets to watch.

On The Game?

What's that?

It was a BET show.

Oh, forgive me.

I didn't know that.

Oh, no.

It was a great.

was, it was a really fun show.

And, um, well, you know,

we're going to talk about the whole state and all the birds and trees and fruits and insects and so forth.

But I'll, I'll also say that Atlanta, Georgia is the home to Floyd County, an American animation studio that created Archer and as well was our partner in creating the show Dick Town, which is on Hulu still.

So there.

I had

to be on that show.

Yeah, thanks, Matt Thompson.

And Tyler Perry, also an early pioneer in bringing a ton of filming to Atlanta, has an extraordinary studio there and is, you know, just making stuff all the time.

So great place to do that.

Spike Lee is from Georgia, from Atlanta.

And the last time I flew to Atlanta, I sat very near him on the plane.

He was in the road just behind me, and he was so delightful.

He greeted everyone who got on that plane.

He was just so, he was so spikely about it.

Couldn't love that more.

Could not love that more.

Let's talk about some state symbols.

Love it.

I'd like to start with the state amphibian, because A is the first letter of the alphabet, at least the one we observe.

Can you guess what the state amphibian is?

Yes, I can, because I remember it from when we talked about it before on

C.

The American green tree frog.

Yeah.

You almost said frog like Jim Henson said frog, which means like Kermit the Frog said frog.

How did Kermit the Frog say frog?

It was sort of a, had like almost an extra syllable, and that was almost what happened just then in Great Wake.

Kermit the frog, frog.

Well, I was really leaning into it.

This is a good-looking frog.

Frog.

You know what I mean?

It's like frog and og are each their own separate frog.

The delightful American tree frog.

State bird?

Sounds violent?

Not sure it is.

The brown thrasher.

The brown thrasher.

Well, the thrashers were one of Atlanta's many defunct NHL hockey teams, the thrashers, based on the bird.

I don't know if that's a violent bird, but hockey is a pretty rough game.

I think this bird was a goon, as they say in hockey terms.

They thrashed a bunch of other birds.

Maybe so.

I do think, I mean, when we talk about the verb thrashing, that does not surprise me that it would work for a hockey team

as someone is thrashing about on the ice before they go to the penalty box.

And before them, I believe, were the Atlanta Flames that went back to Calgary to become the Calgary Flames again.

Anyway,

that's some sports that I know about.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

What about the sport of observing beautiful Eastern tiger swallowtail butterflies?

Eastern tiger swallowtail.

Butterfly is a state butterfly of Georgia.

A butterfly watcher would be a lepidopterist?

I believe that's right.

Although that almost, yeah.

I don't know why it sounds more like a medical specialty somehow at the end.

Well, Lepidoptera is

the order of winged insects that includes butterflies and moths.

Yeah.

But a Lepidopteris is probably someone who studies butterflies more than looks at them or collects them.

Yeah.

A person who studies or collects butterflies and moths.

There you go.

You were right.

What kind of butterfly is this one?

That would be the eastern tiger swallowtail.

I'm still on this brown thrasher.

Eastern tiger swallow.

Oh, what a beautiful, what a beautiful insect.

It's a beauty.

Cold water game fish.

Brook trout.

Uh-oh, sorry.

You were going to guess.

It's not a largemouth bass?

The largemouth bass is the state fish.

It is not the cold water game fish.

This is a state that needed to have two state fish.

Yeah,

I know that Chuck likes to

get up to some lake mischief up there.

I bet he catches some different kinds of fish.

How about that?

Okay.

Brook trout, largemouth bass.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Not enough fish.

What if I add a third?

What if I went ahead and added a third?

This one, the saltwater fish.

Red drum.

Oh, red drum, red drum, red drum, red drum.

One of the most haunted fish.

Red in the saltwaters.

Is the name of the fish.

Red drum fish.

I mean, that's extraordinary.

I'm going to say something about Georgia, and it's mammal, insect, bird, and fish picks.

Well, I don't know about if we've gotten to the mammal yet.

We haven't gotten to a state mammal, right?

I have not.

But, oh, amphibian, like that American tree frog, that looks pretty much like a frog.

I love it.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Like, that's, it's a green frog.

It looks just like a frog.

What do you think of when you think of a frog?

Mm-hmm.

If you were to picture, I don't know if you know what a drum fish looks like, but you know what a fish looks like.

And now picture one that's red, guess what?

You've got a dictionary image of the red drum in your mind.

They're not playing any games.

They're not caught, you know what I mean?

A fish needs to look like a fish.

Looks like a fish.

It's not like those whales that don't look like whales.

You know, like we, like,

I was reminded that the, I was reminded that the official state mammal of Connecticut is the sperm whale, which is delightful because that looks like a whale.

That was like a child's drawing of a whale.

Whereas a humpback whale looks like something that had an accident.

That's another story.

Gotta love them.

I love them each and every one.

Oh, you gotta love the whales.

Don't get me wrong.

Come on.

What about the state crop of Georgia?

What about the steak crop of Georgia?

Now, when we're talking a crop,

not, for example, a fruit.

Well, I don't want to say the ones that we just talked about that we're going to be talking about.

Well, we don't have to because that's not one of them.

Oh, okay.

So it's not one of them.

But once you realize what it is, you're going to be like, oh, of course.

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Is it sorghum?

It's not sorghum.

Going off of the premise that we've just been establishing, which is the frog looks like a frog and the fish looks like a fish, sorghum is not just like straight ahead enough for what this crop is and for what we have now established Georgia does with its official state symbols.

This is about as American as you can get.

Is it on the nose grass?

It's on the nose grass.

It's on the nose grass.

You got it.

What is it really?

It's a peanut.

A Georgia peanut.

Oh, remember how Jimmy Carter was from Georgia and when he became president, he had to sell his peanut farm because there were ethics once?

Georgia peanuts.

Look, in South Carolina, they have boiled peanuts.

We talked about that and I need never go back to that.

I don't want any of your wet peanuts.

But do you know what I've been enjoying?

Are some very dry peanuts?

And I'm not talking about dry roasted peanuts, which are delicious.

No, no, no, no, no.

But have you ever had salted, roasted in the shell peanuts?

Where they're.

No!

Yeah, I do like a very dry roasted peanut in a shell.

I really like unsalted, dry-roasted Virginia peanuts.

I like to get them in a big can.

Yeah.

And they are dry as a bone.

I think of Virginia peanuts as being plump and slick.

Yeah, the ones I get are just giant and

dry and unsalted, but like not roasted.

Yeah, certainly not dry roasted the way you want to beat it.

But if you get those roasted in the shell peanuts that come in bags in a supermarket,

you know what I like to do with them?

I just eat them shell and all.

I just eat themal.

You do?

Yeah.

Isn't the shell kind of dry and cardboardy?

That's what I'm talking about.

Dry, cardboardy,

and salty,

saltier than a salt lick.

I I can't believe you eat the whole shell.

I'm fascinated.

I mean, I just feel like they are, that's too cardboardy for me.

And also fibrous in a way that, like, I don't know if my mouth would want to swallow it.

It might be like, nope, no, thank you.

Well, look, I'm of that age where

what's good for my mouth doesn't matter so much as what's good for my digestion.

There you go.

I do.

I do indeed.

Wisdom, justice, regularity.

That's my motto.

State Peanut Monument.

Tell me about it.

There is a state peanut monument, and it is in Turner County in the city of Ashburn.

It has its own state peanut monument.

Turner County, I'm sure, very proud.

Ashburn City, I'm sure, very proud of their state peanut monument.

This is a giant column with a peanut sitting within a golden crown that says Georgia Peanuts.

Yeah.

And I see one image here where the crown has toppled and broken.

Oh, really?

Now I got it.

Georgia's famous peanut statue has has been rebuilt after the hurricane.

After nearly five years, this is an article from NPR from 2023.

After nearly five years, the big peanut statue has returned to Ashburn.

The original roadside attraction went down during Hurricane Michael.

The new one is stronger and locally crafted.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

And then they have a transcript of the whole thing where Aisha Rasco says, a metal guober looms large over the I-75 running through Georgia.

Ashley Miller is in its shadow.

And then it says, Ashley Miller, I'm out in front of the world's largest peanut monument.

Oh, I'll be listening to this on the treadmill tomorrow at the YMCA.

Oh, I think I'm going to have to as well.

And someone was very excited about Metal Goober, and I understand why, and I applaud that.

The new statue is made of sheet metal, and it's a little bit bigger than the original.

It's 16 and a half feet tall, eight feet wide, and stands on a 20-foot pedestal.

And for Ashburn residents, it's a source of pride.

That is one big nut.

It's one big nut.

It's one big metal goober.

I need to ask you what you think the state dog is.

The state dog.

And I need you to think more generally than you might be inclined to think.

Well, is it a dog that looks just like a dog?

It's more the spirit behind taking an animal in.

I guess I've given too much away.

Well, I was going to say the dog to me that looks most like a dog, when you picture in your mind a generic dog,

like a black lab, is what comes to my mind.

But that may be because I know that growing up, my wife, who's a whole human being in her own right, had a black lab in Georgia whose name was Jimmy Carter.

And when they boarded it at the kennel, they wouldn't allow it to be boarded under the name Jimmy Carter because it was disrespectful.

I see.

So it was just Jimmy.

But that doesn't get us to where we're going.

Is it a hound of some kind?

I need you to go broader.

I need you to go conceptual, like a state of being of this dog rather than a breed of dog.

State of being of this dog?

What do you mean?

Is it like Schradinger's cat dog?

You can't tell whether it's alive or dead.

It's always in a box.

It's the kind of dog you can adopt.

That's it.

The mutt.

Adoptable dog.

The mutt?

Is it the mutt?

That would be hot as hell.

I can't be more clear.

It is literally the, quote, adoptable dog.

The stray dog?

I'm not saying it's stray.

I'm just saying it's adoptable.

It's not a breed or species of dog.

Not a breed.

It is the state of being adoptable.

New York City's state dog is the working dog, right?

That's right.

Determined that at one point?

Yes.

This is the kennel dog or the soon-to-be-put-down dog.

Yes.

Good for Georgia.

State flower.

The adoptable flower.

I'm going to guess the Cherokee Rose just because I accidentally saw it right now.

Good.

Well, that's exactly what it is.

And

again,

there's nothing like naming your state something that has to do with someone who you completely displaced.

The state fruit, of course, is the peach.

We knew that.

What about the state gem?

What about the state gem?

And I will say this goes right back into the frog looks like a frog.

Just beautiful diamond.

More ubiquitous.

Just like, oh, what's that?

Oh, most likely it's blah, like that type of, like, I feel like this is everywhere.

Yes.

Oh, I got it right.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

We're a good team.

I can't wait to do some pub trivia.

What about state insect?

Well, I'm looking at a peach flower with a bee pollinating it on a different page right now.

So is it a bee?

It's a honey bee.

It's a honeybee.

Again, right on the nose, Georgia.

Come up with some interesting new stuff.

I'd love to ask you about your thoughts on the marine mammal of Georgia.

You can let us know if you think this marine mammal looks like you would think it would or if it looks like an accident.

Is it as boring as the, no offense, the honey bee?

It kind of in the sense that I feel like we talked, I want to say maybe it's Rhode Island.

I feel like we talked about this state mammal early.

And you definitely, I had never heard of this, but then you knew exactly what it was.

And I think you said, not unlike the sperm whale, I think you said, it looks like

it looks like what you would think it would look like.

I guess we've established it's a whale.

So it's a whale.

It's a whale.

It's another whale.

Yeah.

Well, let me think of the whales that there are:

blue whale.

Right whale.

Yes, my friend.

Humpback whale.

Wait, did I get it right with the right whale?

The North Atlantic, the North Atlantic right whale.

Is the state mammal of Georgia, United States?

Correct.

Huh.

There must be right whales floating around near Savannah.

Well, not, I mean,

I don't know that there was a whaling history in coastal Georgia, but there aren't that many right whales around at all.

Maybe one was just passing through at some point and they were like, oh, that's our state whale.

Yeah.

The North Atlantic right whales, there are, if you were to guess how many there are, because this is is a very big topic where I am in the state of Maine,

because the conservation of the right whale is very

necessary and controversial because

there is a dispute between

the federal government and fishermen in the state of Maine who deny that their fishing gear cause entanglements and deaths for these right whales.

But then there are people who say, no, they probably do, and it's a little bit of a standoff.

And the right whale, of course, was, and I'm sorry if I've I've gone over this before, but the right whale is so named because during the period of whaling in the United States, that was the right whale to get.

That was the one you wanted.

God, did you say that?

Yeah.

I feel like I would remember that.

Oh, wow.

And

it's pretty on the nose then.

The right whale, unlike the sperm whale, doesn't exactly look like a whale.

It's got a baleen instead of a mouth, which I find to be a little, a little off-putting to me personally.

It's kind of what I think of when I think of a whale is a baleen.

And it's got a mouth that goes in like five different directions instead of just having like a row of teeth.

It's got a baleen and a mouth that kind of goes up and then across and then down again.

And it looks like it's upside down all the time and it's got a bunch of barnacles on it.

And obviously it's between 45 and 52 feet.

And obviously it's a beautiful creature that I want to preserve and buy all.

And so I'm not against this thing.

It just does look a little bit funky and it's kind of adorable.

And if you were to guess how many there are in the world, what would your guess be?

Oh, no.

I shudder to think.

I don't know what the right amount is, but if we know that they're endangered,

how few of you do you have to have to be on the endangered species list?

This is pretty endangered.

Is it like

a hundred?

360.

Oh, no.

That's really interesting.

So I know, come on, you guys.

360,

according to

the NOAA, the North, I can never remember what that stands for.

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association, I believe it is.

Yeah.

Pick a samreel into this guy.

Yeah.

Or Dow.

Or them.

What a cutie.

Fewer than 70 reproductively active females.

It's really intense.

Really intense.

And they live in Atlantic coastal waters.

They migrate seasonally.

And look at this.

You know,

they

live off the coast of New England where they forage, and then they migrate to the southeast United States coast

to calve.

So Georgia.

Georgia is the spot where

these animals are going to reproduce if they're going to do it.

Good for Georgia.

I hope that that does raise awareness of the right whale.

Yes, indeed.

Oh, the right whale is the right whale to save.

And also all other whales.

Now,

let's talk about the mineral.

Oh, state mineral, Georgia.

Yeah, let's go through it.

Storolite.

I'm pretty sure this is just like some guy was named Jon Storr and he was like, I found something.

Yeah.

It shall herefore be known as Storolite.

Absolutely.

The state has its very own apostrophe possum.

I know we talked about this on the Joco Cruise.

Yeah.

Apostrophe possum because its full name is an opossum.

Correct.

So we are not even talking about the actual official name of the animal.

It must be a very special possum indeed to be the state apostrophe possum.

What makes it so special?

It's got its own comic strip, John.

Oh, right.

We're talking about Pogo by Walter.

There's Pogo.

Looks just like a possum.

Shakes head, sadly.

That's not why you love Pogo.

You don't love Pogo because he has perfectly captured the spirit and physical likeness of a possum.

If you want to read some now completely out of date and even for the time, completely opaque, allegorical, and very, very subtle takedowns of the political scene of the 1960s and 50s without really getting into any details about the Korean War or the Vietnam War, Pogo is for you.

Which is to say, not for me.

I never, as much as I liked old cartoons and comic strips, Pogo is just so wordy and so

full of itself.

Sorry, the estate of Walt Kelly.

Amazing cartoonist.

Just not for me.

And David Reese really loves Pogo.

I never really got into it.

It really is satirical in that kind of self-important way.

Smarmy.

Not smarmy, but just

smug.

Yes, a little self-congratulatory.

It wasn't a silly cartoon.

It was like,

I don't know.

I'm sure there are some Pogo heads out there who are going to take me to task, and you should.

You like what you like.

I'm happy to have David defended on the podcast.

Happy to have our mutual friend.

You know him better than I do, but I can call him a friend, David.

Definitely a mutual friend.

He can argue

the benefits.

Pogo the Possum, of course, being the denizen of the Okeefenokee swamp.

Correct.

Which is a real swamp in Georgia.

appropriately.

Okeefenokee swamp.

Yep, there it is.

I'm looking at it.

By plane, it is five hours and 30 minutes from Bar Harbor, which is just I'm just saying that

my browser knows where I am.

Great.

Got it.

State prepared food.

You got this one.

State prepared food.

Prepared food in the southern state of Georgia.

The

biscuit.

I mean, you're right there.

You're just right.

You just need to look a little to the right on your plate.

The

ash brown.

I was going to say.

Sausage gravy.

Sausage gravy.

It's got to be.

There's a big, there's a big.

Fried chicken livers at the majestic dining.

You're just

circle.

Oh, come on.

Now you're so close.

Give it to me, runnier.

Grits.

Yes.

Give it to me, runnier.

It got you there.

Gross.

Shout out to Grits.

Grits are fine.

I got nothing against Grits.

Reptile.

State.

Reptile.

Now, this I remember from some kind of tortoise.

I don't know what I've been talking about this.

Correct.

And it's not a snapping turtle.

It's a tortoise.

Tell me about this tortoise.

Well, this, my friend, has the

good luck of not just representing itself the tortoise, but also, I guess, what a gopher would look like if it were a tortoise, because it's the gopher tortoise.

The gopher tortoise.

I can only imagine they are so named because when you call them on the phone, they say, gopher tortoise.

I'll I'll see myself out.

No, stay here forever.

I think that people who have not been around a set or another occasion where people are using walkie-talkies may not get that joke.

And that's fine.

Go for tortoise.

Over.

The deal is, like, when you're calling someone on a walkie-talkie.

I swear you don't have to explain this.

Really?

I think, I think, I don't think you have to.

I think it's

just a message.

You thought I should have explained it.

Write us.

I won't explain it because Janet Varney thinks you're smart and I think you're dumb.

But if I was right and she was wrong, let me know.

You know what looks like exactly the thing that you think of when you think of a general thing like a tortoise?

The gopher tortoise.

I'm going to go ahead and say it looks like you want a tortoise to look.

I can't say it looks like a gopher.

I can say it looks like a tortoise.

This is like a 100% batting average in choosing things that look like just exactly what you think.

Yes.

They mainly eat broadleaf grass, regular grass, wire grass, and on-the-nose grass.

Isn't that interesting?

I was so hoping on-the-nose grass would make another appearance.

Oh, yeah, well.

You know what the Hodgman State joke is: callback.

Especially when I'm getting a little tired.

One thing we all have in common: we all have a mind.

It makes me so scared because I'm like, when is the bad thing gonna happen?

And minds can be kind of unpredictable and eccentric.

Everybody wants to hear that they're not alone.

Everybody wants to hear that someone else has those same thoughts.

Depression Mode with John Moe is about how interesting minds intersect with the lives and work of the people who have them.

Comedians, authors, experts, all sorts of folks folks trying to make sense of their world.

It's not admitting something bad if you say, this is scary.

Depression mode with John Moe.

Every Monday at maximumfun.org or wherever you get podcasts.

All right, we're getting close to the end of our symbols.

I think we need to talk about the state tree.

Georgia State's tree has got to be the live oak.

It absolutely is.

Which is a misnomer since I would imagine most of the live oak.

Yeah, I mean, most oaks that you see in nature are alive, aren't they?

I think I asked my partner and person in his own right, Brandon, about this, because he is from Texas, full of Texas live oaks.

I think I said, why is it called live opposed to something else?

And

I can't remember what he said, but it maybe has something to do.

Oh, you got it?

You looked it up?

Yeah, I got it.

I looked it up, but tell me what you think.

I bet you're right.

Oh, something about the fact that it survives droughts longer and can kind of survive like pestilences and other things longer.

Fire.

There are many plagues that are visited us.

Drought, pestilence, fire, plague, death.

Horseman.

But there's one.

That you don't think of, and it's not really a plague.

It's a season winter.

It's an evergreen.

It's an evergreen.

They remain green and, quote, live throughout the winter when other oaks are dormant and leafless.

I'm going to start calling it the live oak.

Yes.

The southern live oak.

A small grove of live oaks on a prairie is known as a mott.

In any case, they're beautiful trees and they have,

unlike an oak tree that you might, it doesn't look.

This is the exception that proves the rule because when I picture an oak tree, I picture a tall and stately tree of the northeast, but the southern, the southern live oak

has meandering leaves.

It's like natural bonsai.

The limbs extend radially from the trunk fairly low to the ground.

Everybody's just having a nice stretch.

It just takes its time and grows outward.

I'm so sorry to everyone who is hearing me doing this accent.

I do just imagine I'm just a villain.

You know, I'm just a terrible villain.

Twisting my mustache.

Yeah, exactly.

Carpet packer, if you will.

I would say that as we round up our state things,

if ever.

Round them up and round them out.

If ever there were a state vegetable worthy of being spoken of with a beautiful southern drawl, it has to be this one.

I don't think you can say this vegetable without doing a little bit of a drawl, even if you're not good at it.

I am taking a guess.

Is it sorghum?

I just want it to be sorghum.

I know you're hoping something's going to come up sorghum, but my friend and colleague, it is the Vidalia sweet onion.

Oh.

Why, it's a Vidalia sweet onion, of course.

A Vidalia sweet onion.

Which is good for making caramelized onions because they're so sweet.

Vidalia onions.

They really were extremely big in the 90s.

People, all recipes were calling for these Vidalia onions all the time.

Was it like Vidalia onions and squash blossoms?

I also feel like squash blossoms.

Which are now.

Squash blossoms were very big.

But I feel like they were big in the 90s too.

Yeah, for sure.

It's one of several varieties of sweet onion grown-up production area defined by law of the U.S.

state of Georgia since 1986.

And it was the official state vegetable in 1990.

I'm telling you, the Vidalia onion and friends,

those are the two things that define the 90s, as far as I'm concerned.

That's right.

I stand by that 100%.

Uh-oh, I lapsed into it.

Whoops, just thinking about that sweet onion.

Will you talk to us about

a song?

A song.

So the state song, of course, is Georgia on my mind, specifically

as performed by Ray Charles, which is, I think, unusual for a state song.

First of all, for a state, for an official state song, which I believe this one is, to not be some ludicrous military march

that no one knows, but for the official state song to be a popular song from the 20th century, no less, and specifically performed by a particular artist and a native Georgian, the great Ray Charles.

Georgia,

Georgia,

the whole day through

just an old sweet song

Keeps Georgia on my mind.

The lyrics, I believe, were written by Stuart Gorell,

though he is not on the copyright, but he shared royalties, thanks to the largesse, of his co-writer, who would still pay him the much more famous, and his former roommate, Hoagie Carmichael, a person with one of the greatest first names of all time hoagie carmichael hoagie carmicha i love i love an american songwriter who's named for a philadelphian sandwich

his full name was uh hoagland howard carmichael hoagie carmichael and he also wrote one of my favorite songs which was is not a song about any state but it's more of a state of mind it's a song called stardust

and i believe that i sang it on the cruise and i will

most famously performed by Matt King Cole, but I will sing it to close us out when you're ready.

Please, we're going to close out with that.

So, I think we do need to quickly rate our Georgia motto using a Georgia symbol that

we will select from our list

because I want to go all the way out with Stardust.

How about we do it for the right whale?

Just to

re-up awareness of the right whale.

Ranking zero out of 360 remaining right whales on Earth.

Oh no, that's putting a lot of pressure on loving this motto because one we wanted to have as many right whales.

I'm putting it exactly at 100

is below.

I'm not saying

this does not determine the number of right whales that survive.

I'm just saying.

That's the problem with our choice, I think.

If you track zero to five stars to zero to 360 existing right whales on earth.

Yes.

I put it, it's in the bottom third, about 100 or so stars for that particular mono.

I'd be curious to know why moderation is in there.

And if anyone has any illumination,

please let us know.

What about you?

Oh, I'll absolutely call it at 100.

I can't go higher.

I'll give it 100 white whales.

That sounds good.

I don't hate it, but

I'm not moved.

It's not doing very much.

It's not doing very much.

It's not particularly connected to the state.

It doesn't feel like it's not a state particularly known for its moderation.

I feel I'm being chided.

Somehow, when I read that motto, I feel that someone is looking at me over their glasses with a raised eyebrow and saying, remember, Janet, wisdom, justice, and moderation.

Like they already know I'm going to screw up.

That's how I feel.

It gets 100 right whales.

I don't know that Georgia has always been particularly wise or just or moderate.

And I don't, it doesn't even exude, doesn't even connect to any of the many mythologies of Georgia's culture and history.

So it's a nothing burger for me.

Indeed, you know what we're saying.

We love Georgia.

Let's do better.

Let's do better.

I mean, that's an incredible motto for Georgia.

Let's do better.

And brings us back around to the fresh start that we were trying to start with our bringing our mottos podcast back to life here.

I know that we're doing great.

It's just like dialectical behavioral therapy.

We're all doing the best we can, and we can do better.

Let's do better, Georgia.

Let's do better, all of us.

Now, of course, as we mentioned earlier, right, Hodgman, our episode on the Joco cruise was unfortunately lost at sea.

But to recapture the magic, let's hear that song you sang aboard that vessel, Stardust by Hoagie Carmichael.

Janet, nothing would make me happier.

And now the purple dusk of twilight time steals across the meadows of my heart.

High up in the sky, the little stars climb, always reminding me that we're apart.

You wander down the lane and far away, leaving me a song that will not die.

Love is now the stardust of yesterday,

the music of the years gone by.

Sometimes I wonder how I spend the lonely night dreaming of a song.

The melody haunts my reverie.

Notoriously one of the hardest songs to sing.

And I am once again with you

when our podcast was new and each episode an inspiration.

But that was long ago.

And now my consolation is in the stardust of let's do better.

Now, solo, and you can take us out.

You're going to say, like, you'd say, like, e pluribusmato is a production of maximum fun or whatever.

Do that thing.

Yeah.

E Pluribus Moto is a production of maximum fun on the Max Fun Network.

The show was edited and produced by Julian Varel, along with senior producer Laura Swisher.

Isn't it weird that I can sing on tune better like this?

Our music was created by Zach Berba and ePluribus Motto artwork by Paul G.

Hammond.

Now we would love to hear from you and your thoughts about Georgia that are as sweet as a Georgia peach.

Reach out to us via email at emailpluribusmato at maximumfun.org.

That is emailpluribusmato at maximumfun.org.

That's also where you can send pictures of the states we have coming so that we can include them in our episode art.

And we've also been getting some great feedback and corrections about past episodes.

So we're going to work on getting that out to you as well because we love you, we appreciate you, and we always like to learn a little more.

Now, if you do send us a photo from your state for an upcoming episode we haven't covered yet, you may just see your photo show up in your podcatcher when that state's episode airs.

Remind us where they can send those, John Hodgman.

Email pluribus motto at maximumfund.org.

I'm still not tired.

Email pluribus motto at maximumfund.org.

Next time, it is the penultimate edition of the first season of ePluribus Motto, where we visit

Illinois.

You know what the demonym of Illinois is, the people who are from Illinois?

I actually don't.

What is it?

The Sufians.

Oh, the Sufion Stevens!

The Sufion Stevenses.

The Sufion Stevens.

And until then, remember our motto, which of course is based in John Hodgman's deep and abiding love of Draculas the worldwide.

Let the right Whale In.

Get it because of Let the Right One In.

Maximum Fun, a worker-owned network of artist-owned shows supported directly by you.