2026 Update: James

Pushkin. Hi, Hello, Hi, Back in the studio again, back
in the saddle. Today, we're gonna knock on the door
of an old friend of yours named James.
Ah.
Okay, this is a first season episode. Yeah, way back
to me. It's one of the funniest episodes.
Yeah, it's very funny.
And it's also one that I would come back to
when I was kind of missing my friends, when I
was missing both James and Howard, I would just put
on this episode and it felt like I could spend
a little bit of time with them. It is funny
that at the time, when we, you know, went off
on our mission for this episode full of hope and
Shenanigan's in our heart or whatever, we felt like kind
of over the hill. Well, you know, we felt like
this is like kid stuff. You know, we're like men
in our mid forties, you know, and what are we doing.
But now listening to it from the vantage point ten
years later, I feel like, Wow, were we ever so young?
Ten years? My goodness, Yeah, a lot transpires, it turns
out in the course of ten years. It certainly does. Yeah,
And at the end of the episode, I uh check
back in with James to see what his life has
been all these years later. Well, enjoy, enjoy, indeed, please
make sure the volume is set at a temperate number. Oh,
but first, a word from our sponsors. Horrible timing.
Six kids in my house, two parents and getting kids
ready for Halloween.
Jonathan Goldstein calling for doctor Jackie Cohen.
I gotta go.
Wait wait, wait, hello Jackie. Do you know what? Okay,
you're a doctor, right, hurry up. I'm starting to realize,
like in the past year, I'm hurry. I'm pretty convinced. Hi,
I'm losing hair.
You're bald, balding, bald.
It's a process, so bald. Now I'm trying to figure
out if it's a symptom of something to go, John,
I got to go. The party starts in fifteen minutes.
You're having a party at your house. Why didn't you
invite me over?
Do you want to just do the show?
Or From Dimlet Media. I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is
Heavyweight Today's episode. James In When he was a kid,
James loved taking long walks with his dad, Douglas. Douglas
was a film buff, and during these walks, he'd recount
the plot to every movie he'd ever seen Hitchcock Kubrick.
James loved it, and when he grew older and finally
got to see the actual movies. As good as they were,
they often paled beside the versions. His dad told something
of a dreamer and an eccentric. Douglas lived his life
as though he himself were a character in a movie.
He died that way too. On his deathbed, he issued
an unexpected final request.
The request was that we scatter his ashes on the
eighteenth hole of the golf course he loved.
Each of Douglas's kids was handed a different task regarding
the estate. James was put in charge of the ashes.
My dad was probably the most important person to me
outside obviously my wife and kids. When he died and
when the will was recorded, I wasn't there. You were
actually there.
I think I was there.
Douglas was nearing the end and urgently needed to sign
his will, and James, who lived out of town, couldn't
make it in time, so he asked me and our
other good friend Howard, to go to his father's bedside
and bear legal witness to the signing of the will.
To this day, James still carries around a lot of
regret about not being able to be there. Although I
know it's unlikely, my memory of that day is of
Douglas wearing an ascot tucked into his hospital robe, regardless
of whether he actually was. Douglas was the kind of
man who always gave the impression of wearing an ascot
as always he was gentlemanly and cordial, this in spite
of the fact that he would pass away within the
next forty eight hours. Douglas was born an illegitimate child
in a poor part of England and raised by a
single mom. As a young man, he felt judged and
carried with him the feeling of always having to prove himself,
even going so far as to affect a posh, upper
class accent. For Douglas, golf was the domain of the
wealthy and sophisticated, and having his ashes placed on the
eighteenth hole of his beloved golf course, an event that
James says he probably envisioned being accompanied by bagpipes and artillery,
would mean finally receiving his due. But James is yet
to honor his father's request. It's now been sixteen years.
Is it just procrastination?
That's what I told myself. Yeah, I can vividly remember,
you know, a day afterwards thinking, oh, yeah, the simplest thing.
In fact, it seems so simple that we'll get to it.
And now, sixteen years later, it's very complicated. I think,
to be honest with you, there's a part of me
that wants to hold on to them because it's.
My dad.
And so the urn moved from mantles to closets for
a long time. It even knocked around in the trunk
of James's car. It now sits on a shelf in
his basement. Do you think it would be it Would
it be a load off your head if you were
able to spread the ashes.
The amount of times I cried, you know, going on
about how what a terrible son I was to not
honor his request, and the guilt I have about the
way he died, and you know I didn't deal with
it well, and.
It's all a piece.
He As he got sicker and sicker, he wanted to
go home desperately, and myself and my siblings decided he
could not go home because he was a hoarder.
Though it wasn't clear that he ever used them. Douglas
had an entire room filled solely with golf clubs. Having
lived through the war. He also saved empty TV dinner trays,
old microwaves, and broken radios that he'd find on the street.
We decided he could not go back there, and he
was so upset about that, and he went out just.
Really angry.
He just wanted to go home.
I can't fix the way he died, but this was
his one request and I haven't honored it. And not
only would I be putting to bed something that's been
dogging me for years, I think I'd also feel pretty
proud of myself that I'm the person I want.
To be, since the person I want to be is
the person who helps people be the people they want
to be. I asked James if he'd like me to
help him lay his father's ashes to rest, and James said, yes,
would you want to do that?
Yeah, of course I do.
The objective infiltrate Douglas's fancy old golf course and scatter
the ashes the obstacles except the genarian narcs with prying eyes,
not to mention the fact that scattering earthly remains is
against the law. For this to work, we need the
right team. James was the key man our entry point
into the operation and I was the bank bankrolling the
green for expenditures. All that was missing was a front man.
We needed a person of quick wit.
We have bat Cat, sat fat.
Someone cool under pressure. We needed that's I'm here Howard.
Not only was Howard our oldest friend, but he was
there with me the day the will was signed and
the directive was given. And to top it off, Howard
never met a grift, swindle or flim flam. He didn't
think was eggs and the coffee. Okay, fill your pockets
with extra after dinner mints at the local diner. Check
avail yourself. Avill gained coffee refills through a counterfeit Russian
Seniors card double check. Howard was always on the make
and up for anything. The date had been set Sunday,
which also, as it happens, was Father's Day. The team
was in place. We just needed to sort out logistics.
Thursday eight forty eight pm. Howard, Hey, Hi, hi, Hi, Hello,
I'm on the phone with James.
Hi.
I just wanted to get us all together to strategize
a little bit. So, Howard, is there any wisdom or
experience that you could bring to bear from you know,
past things, that you've done like this.
From my previous heist experience. Yeah, well we shouldn't do
as we get too high. Yeah, that's in one. Some
booze maybe might help steal our nerves.
So do you want to try to go there and
play golf?
No, I've never golfed.
I don't know how to golf, so I've never golfed either.
And it's the eighteenth hole too, so I wish it
was the first hole because we could just go and
suck and then do our thing.
Yeah, specimically needs the eighteenth hole.
Right, eighteenth hole, it's a last hole.
But if there's someone there watching us, how we how
do we do it?
The clubhouse is near the eighteenth hole. It looks over
the eighteenth hole, so that's another challenge.
What the clubhouse?
Clearly there was a lot of work to be done.
Nine two pm. A quick look at the golf course
website reveals a very specific dress code polo shirts, belts,
golf shoes, something called a tilly hat. If wearing a
polo shirt with some kind of bonnet wasn't embarrassing enough,
the rules explicitly stated that all shirts were to be
tucked in to your pants for this to work. We
need to honor the dress code to a t. In short,
we need the best disguises money could buy, and as
the bank, it was my job to secure the greenbacks.
After a brief parlay with Gimblet founder in CEO Alex Bloomberg,
I'm told my budget is fifty dollars, to which I say,
but I've already promised the crew I take them shopping
at JC Penny and now I'll look like an idiot,
to which he says what crew, and I say never mind.
Alex then tells me to take it up with Matt
because he's in the middle of a boardroom meeting. But
Matt scares me, so I just convert the green to
Canadian travelers checks, a safe, responsible move. So Alex, if
you're listening, you should at least cover the service fees.
Except you probably aren't listening because you're too busy with
your precious startup. So although it probably wasn't the kind
of establishment James's posh dad Douglas would approve of, we'd
need to hit the only place we could afford after you,
all right, Friday twelve thirty six pm. It turns out
the sports section of a Goodwill can be a pretty
sad place, unstrung badminton rackets, water logged nerve footballs you
only hope are logged with water.
And one boxing glove.
That's the As an advanced student of the heist film
as genre, I know that when pulling off a big job,
the perfect outfit is crucial. Think Michael Kaine's lux white
turtleneck in The Italian Job or Elliott Gould's neckerchief in
Ocean's eleven.
They have some very nice slacks here, I will say,
and the prices are very affordable.
You want to try on the polo shirts, not exactly
Frankie munez is wrap around shades and agent Cody Banks,
but it'll have to do.
Look at these two, Oh, it's like rayon.
The good news is that the Goodwill has changing rooms.
The bad news is that there's only one, and it's
about the size of a bus station toilet stall. I'm
going to come in with you, but since we are
a a team and be absolutely fearless together, we cram
in and like any team would strip completely naked. That
might be the uglies. It bears mentioning that the shirt
Howard is referring to is creamsicle orange and bears the
logo of a plumbing company, and luckiest of lucky days,
he's found the exact same shirts for me and James.
This way, he reasons, we can all match like a crew.
He looks good. It's supposed to look good. It's golfing.
Oh man.
Howard, James and I have known each other since we're teenagers.
Back then we used to hang out like this all
the time, just doing goofy stuff. But we now live
in separate cities with wives, kids, jobs, and we never
get to do this kind of thing anymore. Standing around
in the middle of the afternoon, laughing in the buff
with old friends feels nice.
So this is good. We got We've got shirts, and
I got a belt.
As we exit into the parking lot, our plastic sacks
plump with glad rags, something straight up magical happens.
God.
Before getting too excited about what we think we might
be seeing, possibly, we wait confirmation from the man who
can spot a con a mile off a double rainbow.
It's legit a double rainbow. And even Howard's impressed mildly,
and so James and I give ourselves over fully overcome
by this fortuitous sign. The crew was moved to song.
So it was red and purple and crimson and green
apple and.
A rainbow was a good omen like James's dad, Douglas
was looking down on us and smiling a big multicolored
upside down smile.
And jen blue.
Sure we were dressed to the eighteens, but if we
each took forty five minutes to sink a ball from
two feet away, we might attract suspicion. We needed to
train hard. I'm talking rocky running through waist high Russian
snow hard, a montage of steel drum musicians learning to
play Chariots of Fire set to the tune of Ayah
the Tiger hard. I'm talking actually learning how to play golf.
We find a driving range in the fancier part of
town and book a golf pro by the name of Stephen. Saturday,
one pm. Are you Stephen, Hey, Stephen, I'm Jonathan, This
is Howard, and this is James.
This is Stephen.
Stephen a smile with more dimples than the golf balls.
He lovingly cradles a tall drink of sports aqua velva
ou de toilette. If ever, there was Stephen's been golfing
professionally for over twenty years, and couldn't be nicer or
better smelling and considering the frantic barrage of imbecilic questions,
we ask he also couldn't be more patient.
Those official golf shoes. Yeah, well I want good questions
and stupid what a golfer think about? Like happy Gilmore?
Can we like that they find that they find insulting?
After a brief lecture on the basic how tos hit
ball with stick, cold stick, with hands, get ball in hole,
we're ready. We insist James go first. After all, this
is his mission, every want of whose doings is finished
just like this. Yeah, we're going to get to the well.
Stephen tenderly positions James hips and elbows. Howard grabs my
microphone and golf commentates.
I'd say he looks really, really horrible. It's just ridiculous looking.
I'm not encouraging.
Somehow James manages to connect on his very first try.
That's good.
Everyone's saying very encouraging things. But it's really horrible. Is
the same. But he got it.
It went in the air and he hit it.
It's like you say to a child. He's like, good
you hit it.
Stephen looks over at Howard, who now squats in the grass,
untying and retying his two left footed Goodwill issued golf shoes.
And then he looks over at me, a grown man
in a two large tilly hat, strings cinched tight enough
beneath the chin to ensure the clenched, jawed vocal affect
of a young Atharine. Hepburn. He waives us to come hither,
offering up something in the way of inspiration.
I'm gonna try to make it go from right to left.
It must feel really good when you get it up
in the air like that.
Well, it's great because that's the goal, right, is to
get it up.
The golf ball flies straight up into the air, and then,
as though eerily achieving human consciousness in mid flight, suddenly
takes a sharp left wa so cool. Howard, baptized in
the backsplash of Stephen's pheromones, is born again. He's seen
the pinnacle of male perfection, and James, it is not see.
James, that's what it looks like. That's when a man
hits a golf ball. A male of the species is
a golf ball.
Next up is Howard. He steps to the tee grips
the club, and just the way Stephen instructed, does this
adorable waddle back and forth to get his footing just so.
And then did you hear that? Let me play it
again thrice a swing and a miss, a swing and
a miss.
That's too much. Well, but if you're losing your balance
swings fast. The first twenty five years are tough.
Oh Steven, all this and funny too. My attempts were
just as fruitless. As it turns out, golf is hard.
We wonder if Douglas knew just how difficult a mission
he'd sent us on.
How would we do without the golf pro standing there
helping us?
You know the difference between golf clubs, And.
There's a wet No, I don't, not really, I mean
I know it's.
Lemedge driver, putter, one iron, two iron, three iron, putter, driver.
Pudder.
One am. It's the night before the job, and the
reality of our situation begins to set in. How can
any sting be stung when the would be stingers absolutely
stink at golf? Clearly this plan wasn't going to work,
and so at a quarter to two in the morning,
panic set in.
It's impossible.
It's impossible for us to play golf.
We would suck so hard we would never make it
off the first fucking hole.
And if we knocked the balls anywhere.
Yeah, I'm with you, it's like.
Only how to fucking juggle. It's like it's it's an
incredibly impossible thing to do. It's gonna be so obvious
that there's something's up because we've never fucking golfed.
Yeah, that's the issue. If we're doing any sort of subterfuge,
we're going to be the most obvious, conspicuous people in
the world, vicious. And then we'll have to get all
the way to the eighteenth holl That takes hours, I
mean literally hours, even if you're good, literally Yeah, and
then try to get the ashes out forget it.
Two fifteen am. Do you guys know what? Stomp rockets
are growing desperate? We chuck the old plan and begin
to free associate new plans.
We need a T shirt cannon. Well you know actually
that that could work.
Three zho five am.
What if we dumped them into say, like a balloon
and then filled it with water and then whip them
so they'll explode all on the eighteenth Green and that's it.
This was going nowhere. So I raised the possibility of
our pulling off a night job for those of you
squares who need to be hept to it. That's a
job one performs at night.
I think they might have dogs.
What if they think we're like terrorists or something super
super posh exclusive club going late at night with someone's
human remains, which is fucking totally illegal. Yeah, I mean
they must have some sort of security there.
Well, hunch percent.
The sun was coming up soon, So I suggest that,
like in Dog Day Afternoon or Reservoir Dogs, or really
any other movies about dogs that I've also not seen
but can only assume have happy, heartwarming endings, maybe we
just show up during the day and hope for the best.
This idea, Okay, that works for me, they.
Liked After the break the a team of golf sets
off on its mission.
I want to be golf Lungren and you can be
mister t t o E.
Right, gotcha?
I want one of mine.
You just know it's wedge. Your Reginald Van cleef.
Yous want to drink Scotch yet?
Maybe on ice? Sure? Thank you?
Sunday eight ten am father's day arrives, a beautiful one
in Montreal. James says, it's a lot like the day
Douglas died. We all rendezvous at the safe house, which
also happens to be Howard's wreck room. James has held
on to his dad's arn for sixteen years, but he's
always kept it in the velvet bag it came with,
so he's never actually handled it. Earlier in the day, though,
in anticipation of the job, he withdrew it. And if
there was any question about just how much Douglas loved golf,
it was immediately answered by what was revealed. Etched into
the side of the urn was a golfer in mid swing.
It hears to you, Dad, don't you some of Brucy's
poop bags that are actually unsentive, which is kind of nice.
We're gonna use these to transfer some of James's beloved's
father's ashes in't here.
Herod had the idea of using his pugs poop bags
to separate the ashes into portions for each of us.
His reasoning, should one of us get pinched by some
golf clubhouse Johnny Law, the two surviving members of the
crew could still carry out the job.
Oh my god, this is so strange.
Oh what a business.
I know, what a business?
I death, what business.
Well, I'm glad you, I'm glad.
I'm I've had a couple of drinks still getting off,
sent them out, But I'm really glad you guys are.
Doing this with me.
You're part of this thing. For sixteen years, was there
was this sort of fear that I wouldn't be able
to handle dealing with.
It, the physicality of it.
But if there's something I'm now grateful for it, and
I wonder if there was some wisdom in it, is
that he has compelled me to deal with this. I've
never cursed him for it, but I've been angry. I've
never been angry, but I've been I don't know what
the word is, sort of like fuck. You know, you
couldn't just go without, you couldn't just die. You had
to make this somewhat absurd, ridiculous request that was impractical
and almost impossible to achieve. But I'm right saying right
now kind of almost grateful for it. So let's hope,
let's hope we're successful.
Today eight twenty five a m. As we set off
on the job, Howard show's doubts about his outfit.
I looked like a fat failure of a dentist. I
looked like I lost my practice because I put dentures
in a child's mouth.
As we near the golf course, James grows silent. Am
I have part in a space?
All right? Good show?
How are you feeling nervous? I'm going to park near here,
just for a quick getaway from the parking lot. We
wind our way towards the green. Maybe it's testament to
a tillie had cocked at just the right angle. But
nobody seems to be stopping us. We have infiltrated.
Like how manicured it is. It's like it's like it
looks like a pool table. Also, it was a pile
of ashes there in the middle.
The golf course is what you'd expect, green grass as
far as the eye can see, trees, ponds. It's beautiful
and under normal circumstances, it'd make us feel peaceful like,
but just now it's making us feel out of place,
reminding us of who we are. Three frightened middle aged
man dressed in discarded plumbing company uniforms, struggling under the
weight of our bully knapsacks and a mission that just
now feels too big for us. I don't know, should
we just try to go to the eighteenth hole or
should we go in?
And that's I believe that's it, isn't it?
As it turns out, the eighteenth hole is the hole
nearest the parking lot. That red flag right destination screen
of the eighteenth hole, and that is it.
It is the most conspicuous hole. So thanks a lot
that right now we can Right now we're gonna washing, even.
Now we decided to play it cool case the joint.
We make our way to the ninth hole, which is
out of view, and it's here that fear sets in,
and with it bargaining.
The ninth hole, Dad, right here be perfect. I could
go with the whole urned dump it.
Maybe he liked the screen, he likes, he liked the
whole golf course.
It wasn't his.
But I know this is the back nine.
I know he liked about next denial.
That's my question.
Why don't your dad, who is an avid golfer, who
is probably really really serious about these games, why would
he want to put his ashes on the green which
would interfere with another golfers.
I suggest we cool our heels in the clubhouse, and
the boys agree. It turns out that that evening is
a Father's Day banquet, so the staff is rushing to prepare,
which allows us to wander around relatively unnoticed. The club
goes back about one hundred years and on the walls
are hung old brown and white photos and plaques commemorating
the members who've died fighting in both World Wars. Since
almost the start of our mission, James had expressed a
fear that maybe no one at the club would even
remember his dad. Douglas was just such a loner that
over the years James had never met any of his friends.
As far as he knew, he didn't really have any.
There was a lot about his dad he didn't know,
like whether he was even an good at golf. So
we was hoping he might find some small trace of
him here, a photo, or even his name on a
list somewhere. Oh the registreet we find a large, old
looking book that lists every champion in the course's history. Wow,
it goes back to nineteen o three wounds up.
I mean, I'm sure he's probably documented in some books somewhere.
It's just, of course, I'll find it.
Do you want to check that book? Did you look
through will?
Yeah?
I didn't see anything of her. Since the book won't talk,
we look for someone who will. We stop every staff
member and golfer who looks old enough and ask if
they remember Douglas.
I'm saying that Douglas Hurst.
The passed away in two thousand. We're hoping to find
some sort of side of him.
But yet I don't know.
The name doesn't ring a bell.
Douglas Hurst a long time ago.
People who remember him and I played six in the morning.
So the only guys I know are the grass.
I didn't know him, No, Dice and Hill.
Dug Hurst, you guys knew him?
Sure that.
In a basement room, squeezed into an armchair watching golf
on TV, is Serge Sarge, a French Canadian bulldog of
a man. He pours fistfuls of mixed nuts into his mouth,
which he washes down with generous slugs from his beer.
Craizy dog.
That's you.
Through the half jar of fancy cocktail nuts crammed into
his grizzled ma. You might not be able to understand
the words. Sarge is desperately trying to choke out. He's
saying crazy Doug. Crazy Doug is his nickname for James's dad.
Oh, I'm so glad I found someone who remembered him.
We asked a few people and not too many of
you know.
Bambernham helped me find in maybe a staff member who
had been here a while and no one knew a
lot of you.
I'm very well.
So is he a good golf player?
Was he good?
It was a good golfer? Using Yeah, it was like
I was it eight or nine handicap? Okay, Oh, that's
very good. He is like the top five percent of
all the golfers in the world.
So he was very good. He was very good, and
he was dedicated. The room full of golf clubs that
James had thought was garbage, Sarah spoke of it with respect.
He called it the largest most complete collection of golf
clubs in all of Canada. You never want to hear
someone refer to a person you love by a pet
name prefixed by the word crazy. But the benefit is
that when they tell you stuff about your dad, you
know they're being honest. So when Sarah says what he
says next, James knows he can believe him.
I don't think I have ever met somebody as brilliant
as your death, the level depth of knowledge about everything.
But on the other side, he was also very I
wasn't not.
Too shy, isolated like executive.
Yeah, he quickly alone. We saw him very rarely on
the clubhouse.
I think it was because he was a bit of
a loner.
But he did love for.
People, and he loved the people here, and he did
love all his friends here. But he really loved to
come at six in the morning when he could just
do his thing.
That was very my father. That's what I really used
to say, dude, it's very my father.
And it's not that he didn't like people. He just
liked to do things at his speed, his way, and
be done because he was sort of a loner.
He was a loner.
He's my father.
You're the son of your father.
And with that, it's time for James to become the
son his father had asked him to be and do
the job we came for.
And I think it's a great a way that we
just we're just walking around, we're members, members, sons.
We head back outside and walk with purpose to the
eighteenth hole. Fate would have it. The coast is clear.
Actually, James, your hand right now here just just kind
of just just kind of cool.
Yeah, tire shoe, tire shoe, this opportunity right now. Let's
walk with.
Him, with Howard on his left and me on his right.
We walked James out to the green, doing our best
to protect him from view.
Yeah, but we're walking with you. Say something.
Maybe I will say something in my head.
Do you want to say something in your head?
Yeah, I'm just saying something in my head.
Okay, Well, we're actually doing this.
This is incredible because you're actually doing it right now.
This is actually happening.
He's actually putting his dad's ashes right on the eighteenth hole,
just like he wanted.
We didn't think this would be possible.
Actually, James just tip this hat he put he just
dumped it right into the eighteenth hole.
Pre discreet. I got it right in the hole. That
felt really good.
I'm really glad.
Right in the hole.
I feel great.
I feel awesome.
Howard and I are feeling pretty good too. This is
the last time James would ever get to do something
his dad had asked him to do, and we're proud
to be a small part of it. We put our
arms around our friend's neck and pat his back.
Okay, well you got back home.
That's incredible.
Happy father's Day. Happy father's Day.
Worked up perfectly.
And James is right, it has kind of worked out perfectly. Sure,
unlike the end of heist films like Reservoir Dogs, we
weren't sipping drinks from a coconut on a beautiful beach.
But James had become the person he wanted to be,
and I had become the person who helped him become
the person he wanted to be. And Howard, well, he'd
become the person who fills up a dog poop bag
with free golf clubhouse dinner mint. So all in all,
it was a happy ending.
Thank you guys for doing this.
James had a fistful of his father's ashes in his hand,
and he walked onto that green like a dawn bend
onto one. He tipped his hat and just dumped it
right into the hole and clean right in the hole.
That was a hole in one.
That's what I would say.
Now that the Fernitures returned to its goodwill home, now
that the last month's rent is skiming with the.
Damage the plaz this moment to do so if we
if we.
Felt around for from things that accidentally.
Hello, my friend, how are you? Very nice to see you?
And uh, yeah, I was just listening to the episode
this morning, so oh hold on, hold on okay.
And I'm not giving one sec. I'm not hearing anything.
Give me one sec. Okay, I see what's happening here.
Hey, so sorry about that. So sorry, that's okay. I
mean we're going to a lot of trouble for the sound,
which I really appreciate.
Does it sound good though?
Does it sound okay?
Yeah, it sounds good. I mean it might not match
when we initially got on, so let's just back up.
I will say hello, hello Jonathan, how are you? I'm good?
How are you?
I'm very good.
We're such a couple of show biz phonies.
That's right, Yes, yes we are.
So you were saying that you were you were just
listening to the episode this morning.
Yeah. I hadn't listened to it, probably since it came out,
and as it happened, I was driving my son to school,
as I do, and I drive him to school because
he won't make it if I don't and also it
is a nice little father and son time. It's usually
passed in silence, but I said, hey, today, we've got
to we got to listen to this podcast.
Has he has he ever listened to the episode before?
No?
Yeah, what did he say?
He was impressed in that? Okay, well those are not
the words he used, but I could My gaba meter
is pretty good, my gabe dar is pretty good. And
I did see that he was impressed. I guess for me,
it was really great to listen to the podcast again
because what I got out of it. What was interesting
for me, One is that just being with you and Howard,
my two best friends. That was the big thing was
was Wow, I just love these guys. So that's the
main thing I took away from it. The other thing
is that hearing it again ten years later with my son,
I'm such a different person.
Then, How do you mean?
Because I, you know, my parents have been both been
dead for for a very long time now. My mother
died I think within about a year of that recording,
and that was ten years ago. So I'm not a
son anymore.
I'm a father. That's who I am.
So to listen to it with my son, it was
completely different, just a completely different experience. I think when
we were recording that it was still very much my father's son.
Yeah. You you've not been back to the golf course
to visit, have you?
No? I have not.
Have you kept in touch with Stairs?
No, not at all.
That would be uh, that would be an interesting.
That would be an interesting conversation. I mean, it was
a a friend to have.
He's a bold guy, right, because he's a you know,
here I am saying, oh, you know, we're doing this
podcast about my dad, and you know how much I
feel so much regret that I wasn't able to really
be there for him when he was dead.
And I just loved my dad, and he's.
Like, oh, crazy, Doug. Right, it was so bold that
I was like, Wow, good for you, Sarah.
Old is a nice word for it. Yeah right, Well
this was nice. James, Thank you, thank you.
It was great to speak to you again, and it
really did help me get closure. My dad used to
always say no bullshit. You know, he'd say no bullshit,
as my dad would say no bullshit.
It really was very meaningful because I don't have that regret.
I have other regrets, but that that one was put
to bed.
Thanks to everyone who helped put this episode together. And
if you want a little more James in your life,
and who wouldn't, why not check out his YouTube channel,
Screenwright with James a Hurst that spelled hu rst. James
breaks down movies and teaches you how to write screenplays
of your own just as he does. He's a successful
screenwriter and you can help you become one as well.
This is our last update episode of the summer. We
will be back with a brand new season of Heavyweight
God Willing this fall, and in the meantime, as always,
check out our free newsletter Khalila. What do you have
in the newsletter? This week we've.
Been including photos of our subjects, and this week we'll
have some photos of Jonathan and James together.
Yes, and you know, while I am an audio purist, yeah,
and you know, my mantra is sort of keep your
eyes closed in life, don't let's not get into the visuals.
I do appreciate a good photograph now and again, yeah,
I agree. And you can find this newsletter of which
we speak at patreon dot com slash Heavyweight see this
fall