Live from Boston, Massachusetts, it's theCUBE. Covering Red Hat Summit 2019, brought to you by Red Hat. Well, good morning, welcome back to our live coverage here on theCUBE of Red Hat Summit 2019. Along with Stu Miniman, I'm John Walls. We're in Boston, a delightful day here in Beantown, even made more so by the presence of Jim Whitehurst, the president and CEO of Red Hat. Jim, thanks for joining us, number one. Number two, what else could go right for you here this week? This has just been a great show, great keynotes. You had great regulatory news on Monday. I mean, you've got a four-leaf clover in that pocket there, I think, Fred. I tell you what, the weather's holding up well for us. You're right, with great partnership announcements, amazing product launches. You know, I've been at Red Hat, what, 11 years now, and this is only my third rel launch, right? When we deliver it, we commit to long lives and so, but it's awesome to be a part of that. And we had all the engineers on stage. I can't imagine how it can get any better. I guess I could win the lottery. Yeah, well, yes, just one step at a time here. Rel 8 and OpenShift 4, we'll get to those just a little bit. Let's go back to the keynote last night. First off, you have the CEOs of IBM and Microsoft. They're very big statements, right? We know about the IBM situation. I think a lot of people got a charge out of that a little bit, you know, Jenny commenting about, I don't have a death wish for this company. I have 34 billion reasons why I wanted to succeed. But a very good message, I think, about this linkage that's about to occur, most likely, and the thought going forward from the IBM side of the fence. Yeah, I thought it was really good to have her there, not only to say that, you know, we obviously bought it to make it grow, but also really making a statement about how important open source is to the future of IBM, right? You know, what became clear to me early on when we were talking is this is a major, major, I don't want to say Beth, the company might be too strong on word, but it is a major kind of largest possible initiative around open source that you can, you know, imagine. And so I can't imagine a better kind of validation of open source with one of the largest technology companies in the world basically going all in with us on it. Well, to talk about validation of open source, Satya Nadella up on stage, if you had told me five years ago that within a week I would see Satya Nadella up on stage with the CEO of VMware and then a week later, up on stage with the CEO Red Hat, I'm like, are we talking about the same Microsoft? This is not the Microsoft that I grew up with and worked with. So talking to your team and walking around, it wasn't just, you know, he flew in from Seattle, he did the keynote and left, he was meeting with customers. There's a lot of product pieces that are going together. Explain a little bit the kind of the depth of the partnership and what it means. Yeah, we've made just tremendous progress over the last several years with Microsoft.  Over the last couple years, it's truly blossomed into a really good partnership where, you know, I think they've, and we've both gotten over this, you know, Linux versus Windows thing and, you know, I say we've gotten over, I think we both recognize, you know, we need to serve our customers in the best possible way and that clearly means is two of the largest infrastructure software providers working closely together and what's been interesting as we've gone forward, we find more and more common ground about how we can better serve our customers. Whether that's, you know, what might sound mundane, but it's a big deal, SQL server on RHEL and setting benchmarks around that or .NET running on our platforms, now all the way to really being able to deliver a hybrid cloud with a seamless experience with OpenShift from, you know, on-premise to Azure and, I mean, having Deutsche Bank on stage to 25,000 containers running in production, moving back and forth to Azure. You know, getting customers to change is challenging. You know, it's a little surprising even after that, this morning, to be like, oh yeah, let me pull up Windows and log in and do all this stuff. We've talked to you a lot over the years about culture, you know, loved your book. We've talked a lot about it. What I really enjoyed last night is, I mean, you had some powerful customer stories talking about how Red Hat's helping them through the transformation and, like, the Lockheed one for me was like, and here's how we failed at first because we tried to go from waterfall to scrumfall and, you know, he definitely had the audience enraptured.  We have so many great what's to talk about, you know, RHEL 8, OpenShift 4, bringing in all those capabilities from CoreOS, but I really wanted to talk about the howl because that actually is the hardest part for customers. And so having kind of customers back-to-back talking about success stories and failures to get there, and it really is about culture. And so that's where we call the open source way, which we kind of coin, which is, you know, beyond the code, it's, you know, meritocracy and how you get people to work together and collaboration and that's what more and more our customers want to talk about. In fact, I would say 90% of the customer meetings I'm in, which are, you know, more CIO level meetings, they're all about, tell me about culture, tell me how you go about doing that. Yeah, we trust that technology's going to work. We don't have that issue with open source anymore. Everybody assumes they're going to have open source. It's really, how do you actually make that effective? And so that's what I really wanted to highlight over the course of the evening. Yeah, there was a lot of conversation too, and you're talking to Jenny about culture last night, that you had multiple discussions over the course of the negotiation or of the conversations. So it wasn't just some cursory attention, I mean, both of you had a really strong realization that this has to work in terms of this, you know, merging basically of philosophies and whatever, but you've had great success, right, with your approach. So if you can share a little bit about how those conversations went through, how they transpired, kind of how we got to where we are now that, you know, it's around the cusp of a successful moment for you. Yeah, sure. So, yeah, I mean, from day one, that was the center of the discussion. I think early on, so a year ago, IBM announced containerizing their software on OpenShift. And I think that's when the technical light went off about, hey, having the same bits running across multiple clouds is really, really valuable and OpenShift's the only real way to do that. And you know, so Arvind was here from IBM on stage talking about that. And so I think technically it was like, okay, ding, this makes sense, nobody else can do it. And IBM with their capabilities and services integration, et cetera, just a lot of strategic logic. I think the difficult part, even before they approached us now, kind of looking back on it and having all these discussions with them now, it's okay, well, culturally, how do we bring it together? Because, you know, we both have strong cultures. I mean, IBM has a famous culture we do that are very, very, very different. And so from the moment Jenny first approached me, literally, you know, hey, we're interested in this, let's talk about culture, how are we going to make this work? Because, you know, it is a lot of money to spend on a company with no IP. And so, you know, I think as we started to work through it, I think what we recognized is we can celebrate the strengths of each other's cultures. And you know, the key in this is to not assume that there's one culture that's right for everything. We have a culture hyper-optimized for collaboration and co-creation, whether that's upstream with our open source communities or downstream with our customers or with our employees and how that works. And that's great, and let's celebrate that for what it is. And you know, IBM kind of runs some of the big, most mission-critical systems in the world, you know, on mainframes. And how you do that looks and feels different. And that's okay, and it's okay to be kind of different, but together. If we can share the same values, if we can, you know, share the same desire to serve our customers and put them first, how we go about doing it, it's okay if those aren't exact. And as we got more comfortable with that, that's when I got more comfortable with it. And then most importantly for me is we can talk about culture, but a lot of our culture comes from the fact that we're truly a mission, kind of a purpose-driven company. We are all about making open source, the default choice in the world. And you know, to some extent, I remember having these conversations with the senior team, it's like, hey, if we're going to think we're going to change the world, you know, how better can we propel this forward? This is such a huge platform to do it. And yeah, it's going to be hard, but aren't we here to do hard things? Yeah, so you talked about it, you know, it's always been difficult selling when you don't have the IP. There's been a lot of discussions in the ecosystem today as to companies that build IP with open source and some of the models have been changing and some of the interactions with some of the hyperscale companies. And just curious when you look at that, it's, you know, related to what you're doing, what feedback you have and what you're seeing. Yeah, and look, let me first I'll say, I can talk about that as an interested observer because our model is different than a lot of open source software companies. You know, Paul talked about in his keynote today and we talk a lot about, you know, our model is 100% open source where we take open source code, typically getting involved in existing communities and creating life cycles, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so that model's worked well for us. Other open source companies where I think this is more of a challenge with the hyperscalers, write more of the software themselves. And obviously they therefore need to monetize that in a more direct way. You know, our business model, I always say, it's a really bad business model to write software and give it away. You know, that's not what we do. We're 100% open source, but you know, if you look at big communities, we're, you know, 10 to 20% of the contribution because we want to rely on communities. The issue for those companies that are doing more of the code contribution themselves is there's a leakage in the open source license, which is, you know, the open source, the viral license is, you know, if you make changes and you redistribute, you have to also, you know, redistribute your code as well. And redistribution and how it's defined in a hyperscaler is just different. So there's kind of a leakage in the model. I think that ultimately gets fixed by tweaks to the licenses. I know it gets really controversial when companies do it, but you know, Mongo's done it. And I think you'll see continuing tweaks to the licenses, which still allow broad use, but kind of close that loophole if you want to call that a loophole. Yeah, well, it's something that, you know, as observers, we've always watched this space. And you know, when you talk about Linux, you know, you've created over a $3 billion company, but the ripple effects of Linux has been huge. And I know you've got some research that we want to hear about. When we looked at like the Hadoop space, when you look at the impact of big data and now where AI is going, you know, the Hadoop distribution was a very, very small piece of that, so you know, talk a little bit about the ripples and some new research that Red Hat underwent. Yeah, we had some research that was, that we commissioned to say, well, what is the impact of Linux, Red Hat and Press Linux? And now we were all blown away, $10 trillion. I mean, so this isn't our number, so we had real experts do this. And I mean, it really blew us away. But I think what happens is, if you think about how pervasive it is in the economy, it's ultimately hard to have any transaction done that doesn't somehow ripple into technology. In technology days, primarily built around Linux. So in Red Hat and Press Linux, it's the leader. So it just pervades and pervades when you look at the size and the aperture. And you make a really good point around whether it's Hadoop or Linux. I mean, we could look at Red Hat, the leader in Linux and we're, you know, less than $4 billion of revenue, but we've created this massive ecosystem. Same thing with Hadoop. If you think about how big and impactful big data and the analytics that built on it are, massive. The companies doing it are only a couple hundred million dollars and I will say, I've become comfortable with that. I'd say five years ago, I used to say on my glass half empty day, I'd be like, we're creating all of this value, yet we're just only getting this little tiny sliver. I've now flipped that around and say, on my glass half full days, I look and say, wow, with this lever we have, with this little bit of investment, we're fundamentally changing the world. And so, everybody's benefiting in a much larger scale around that. And when you think about it at that aperture, it's something you get really, really, really excited about. Yeah, well, you talk about where the impact will be. Talk about cloud, the wave of containerization. You know, where do you see that ending up? You know, I look, you know, Kubernetes is one of those things, there's a lot of excitement and rightfully so it was going to change the market, but it's not about a Kubernetes distribution. It's going to be baked into every platform out there. Yeah. OpenShift's doing quite well and, you know, all the cloud providers, you're partnering with them and working with them. It's less fighting to see who leads and more as to how do we all work together on this? Well, yeah, I think that's the great thing about a well-functioning, mature open source project is it behooves everybody to share. Now, we'll compete ultimately, you know, kind of downstream, but it behooves everybody to share and build on this kind of common kind of component. And, you know, like any good open source project, it has a defined set of things that it does. I think you hit on a really important point. Kubernetes is such an important layer. Doesn't work without Linux, right?  And so how do you think about putting those pieces together, manageability and automation, things like Ansible? And so, you know, at least from our perspective, it's all right, how do you take these incredible technologies that are cadencing, you know, at their own pace and are fundamentally different but can't work unless you put them all together? Which to us, you know, that creates a big opportunity to say, how do I take this incredible technology that thousands of really technically sophisticated people are working on and make it consumable? Our traditional model has been like Linux, simply saying, we're going to snapshot, we're going to create a defined life, we're going to backport, you know, do patching, blah, blah. And we still do that, but there's now an added source of value of something like OpenShift where we can say, okay, we can put these pieces together and lifecycle them together. And, you know, we see instances all the time where an issue with Kubernetes requires, you know, a change in Linux. And so being able to lifecycle them together, I think we can really put out, you know, a platform where we literally now are saying, in the platform, you're getting the benefits of millions of people working on, you know, over time on Linux with tens of thousands of people working on Kubernetes and the learnings are all then kind of wrapping back into a platform. So our ability to do that is it kind of, open source continues to move up the stack, it's really, really exciting. You were talking about transformative technologies and how great it is to be a part of that, you know, right now.  Just without asking you to recount or recount all that, just give us an idea about how those are philosophically aligned and how you think those are open source follows that lineage, if you will, where it is fundamentally changing the world, it is a true global game changer. Yeah, and so the point last night was to really kind of illustrate how a change in thinking can fundamentally change the world we live in. And so what I talked about just kind of quickly is, so the scientific method developed in kind of the 1500s-ish timeframe was a different way to discover knowledge. So it goes from kind of dictates coming down from, you know, on high to very simple, hypothesis, experiment, observation of the results and the things that go through that process and stand the test of time and become what we consider knowledge, right? And that change led immediately to an explosion of innovation, whether that were the underpinnings of the industrial revolution or enlightenment, what we've done in medicine, whole bunch of areas. And the analogy I came to was around, well, the old way we used to try to innovate constrains us and a more open approach is a fundamentally better way to innovate. But what I found so interesting in it, and I think you just picked up on it, I didn't emphasize as much as I wanted to because I didn't have it out a lot of time, it's many of the same characteristics of scientific discovery. So the idea of, you know, independence, anybody can actually do this, the importance of experimentation and learning, those are core components of, you know, DevOps and Agile and open source, right? It's very, in the end, the characteristics are actually quite similar as well. I think that's just fascinating to see happen. Yeah, so I think about that, and if you can bring it back to the customers you're talking to, you have a lot of executive conversations that you focus a lot on the how is really challenging. We understand, you know, the organizational structure of most companies goes back, you know, over 100 years to military. So, you know, what do you see as some of the, kind of the biggest challenges that, you know, the executives are facing these days and how are they getting past that stuck? Yeah, and so, you know, I think the simplest way to state the problem, which I hear over and over again, is we tried an Agile transformation and it failed because our culture wasn't ready. And culture is more of a, I always tell the executives when they say that to me, it's like, okay, but recognize culture is an output, not an input, and it's an output of leadership behaviors, beliefs, values, what's been rewarded over time.  And broadly, the structures, the hierarchies, the bureaucratic systems that we have in place today are really good at driving efficiency in a static environment. So if you're trying to slightly take a little bit of cost out of building a car, you start with what you did last year, you get a bunch of scientists or consultants to look at it and then you direct some really small changes. So the structure we have in place, there's nothing wrong with them. When value creation was about standardization and economies of scale, the hierarchies work really, really well to distribute tasks and allow specialization and optimization. The problem is, now most value creation is requiring innovation. How do I innovate and how I engage with my customer? You know, the example I used a couple of years ago at Summit was, you know, the average cars use 90 minutes a day. So if you think about how to reduce the cost of transportation, is it taking 2% out of the cost of building a car? Or is it figuring out whether it's ride sharing or other ways to fractional ownership, whatever it is, to increase the average utilization of the car? It's clearly the latter, but you can't do that in a bureaucratic hierarchical system. That requires creativity and innovation. And the model to do that requires injecting variance in. That's what allows innovation to happen. So as leaders, you have to show up and say, all right, how do I encourage descent? You know, how do I accept failure? Right, so this idea of somebody tries something and it fails, if you fire them, nobody's going to try anything again. But experimentation by definition requires a lot of failures and how you learn from it. So how do you build that into the culture where as executives you say, holding people accountable doesn't mean, you know, firing them or beating them up if they make a mistake. It's how do I encourage the right level of risk taking and mistakes? You know, even down to the soft side. So, you know, how do you hold somebody accountable in an agile scrum?  Not around, here are the five things you were supposed to do and you did four of them so you get an 80. Right, now you can't say exactly what they need to do because it's a little blurry. So you have to have leaders mature enough to sit down and have a conversation with somebody as, I think you got an 80. I think you got an 80 because here's what you did well and here's what you didn't, but it's subjective. And how do you build that skill in leaders to be able to have those subjective conversations? Right, that sounds really, really soft, but agile's not going to work if you don't have leaders who can do that, right? And so that's why, and it's hard because, you know, changing people is hard. And so that's why I think so many CIOs and executives want to talk about it, but that's what I mean by it's a soft side and how do you get that type of change to happen? Because if you do that, pick ours, honestly pick somebody else's, you know, agile or dev out some of the methodologies. They'll work if you have a culture that's accepting of it. But before I let you go, there were two things, two quick observations about last night. Number one, Rahul Samant, hit you up on the licensing. So I know you got your hands full on that. Good luck with that. You mentioned licensing a little bit ago. And I learned that $34 billion is a good deal. Well, right? That's what you said, I heard it from, from a good deal. Absolutely. Well, two things, we're a separate entity. We don't have licenses, so I don't know how we would go into an ELA, given we don't have a license to sell. So we've got some expectations setting we need to do with our customers. Absolutely. And then, you know, but separately, you know, I think people do forget that Red Hat is a not only a really fast growing company, we're also a really profitable company. Most of the other software companies that are growing at our pace on a gap basis make little to no money. We have, because we get the leverage of open source, we actually generate a very large amount of free cash flow. And if you actually got to get the details of the financials, but if you look at our free cash flow generation and our growth, I would argue it was a smoking good deal at 34. I was asking for a lot more than that. You could add smoking good, lastly. That would work too. Jim, thanks for the time. It's great to be here. Great week. Thank you for hosting us here. Great opportunities on the show floor. I know that's exciting to see too, but continue success. We wish you all the best. Thanks so much. Thank you for being here. It's great to have you. Jim Whitehurst joining us. Back with more live coverage here on theCUBE. You are watching our coverage here in Boston of Red Hat Summit 2019.


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Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak. This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower, and we use words and phrases, especially written for people learning English. Coming up on today's program, Gregory Stockle has a story on a new study that says Earth is outside of its safe operating space for humanity in six of nine measures of its health. Brian Lin has this week's technology report on Google's new BARD AI tool. The company has linked the tool to its Gmail and other services. Later, Andrew Smith and Jill Robbins present the English lesson of the day. But first, here is Gregory Stockle. A new study from international researchers says that Earth is outside of its safe operating space for humanity in six of nine measures of its health. The study added that two of the remaining three measures are moving in the wrong direction. The international scientists published the study in Science Advances. They said Earth's climate, biodiversity, land, freshwater, nutrient pollution, and human-made compounds are outside of safe operating space for humanity. The scientists said only the acidity of the oceans, the health of the air, and the ozone layer are within limits considered to be safe. The ozone layer is mainly high in the atmosphere and prevents dangerous solar radiation from reaching the surface of the Earth. But the study warned that both the ocean and air pollution are moving in the wrong direction.  He is director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. He said we are in very bad shape. He compared the Earth to a weakening sick patient. In 2009, Rockström and other researchers created nine boundary areas and used measurements of them to judge Earth's health. The latest study continued research from a similar one in 2015. The latest study added a sixth area to the unsafe listing. Rockström said the Earth's water went from being safe to being out of bounds. The scientists said this was because of river runoff. They said better measurements and understanding of the issue had shown there was a problem. Rockström said these boundaries would decide the future of the planet. He added the nine measures have been scientifically well established by other studies. If Earth can manage these nine measures, Earth could be more or less safe. But it is not, he said. The nine measures were compared with each other in different ways. The team used computer simulations to predict the future. They would, for example, make predictions based on increases in the average temperature of the Earth. The team found if one area was affected badly by a temperature change, then all areas were affected badly. The team also found that if one area improved, all areas improved. The scientists said the simulations showed that one of the most powerful ways to help the climate is to clean up land and to save forests. Returning forests to the late 20th century levels would provide natural areas to store carbon dioxide, instead of in the air, where it traps heat, the study said. Rockström added that biodiversity is in the most troubling area but does not get as much attention. However, the study said the ozone layer is improving. This shows that when the world and its leaders decide to deal with a problem, it can be fixed. Neil Donahue is a Carnegie Mellon chemistry and environment professor. He said, for the most part, there are things that we know how to do to improve the remaining problems. Some biodiversity scientists, like Duke University's Stuart Pym, have disputed Rockström's methods, saying they are not worth much. Ranger Morgan is a Carnegie Mellon environmental engineering professor and was not part of the study. He said, experts don't agree on exactly where the limits are or how much the planet's differing systems may interact, but we are getting dangerously close. Morgan said he has often said, if we do not cut back on how we are harming the Earth, we're toast. He added, this paper says it's more likely that we're burnt toast. I'm Gregory Stockle. Google has linked its barred artificial intelligence, AI tool, to its Gmail service, and other company offerings. The American-based search engine company says the change will permit its users to easily use the AI technology across different product areas. Bard is a chatbot, a computer-driven system designed to interact smoothly with humans and perform high-level writing. Such tools are also known as generative AI or large language models. The first widely released chatbot was ChatGPT. It was launched by technology company OpenAI late last year. Google announced the launch of its Bard tool last February, and shortly thereafter, Microsoft announced it was redesigning its Bing search engine to include OpenAI's chatbot technology. Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI. In an announcement Tuesday, Google said it had created a system that makes it possible for users to extend the AI tool to other company services, or apps. This brings Bard technology to Google products, including Gmail, Drive, YouTube, Maps, etc. The system to expand the AI tool to other Google apps is called Bard extensions. Users can decide which apps they want to add Bard to. This can be done by going to Google's Chrome browser and following the process to activate new extensions. For the moment, Bard extensions is only available in English. In a statement explaining the change, Google gave several descriptions of how users could use Bard with other apps. For example, a user of Gmail could ask Bard to create a summary of all emails dealing with a particular subject. Another example is a possible solution to someone planning a major family trip. In such a case, a series of Google apps can be used together with Bard. The user can ask Bard to search through Gmail messages to get available trip dates from the emails of multiple family members. At the same time, a user can ask Bard to use Google flights to look up flight dates that would work for the trip. Bard can also be used to book available hotel rooms and connect with Google Maps to provide everyone with directions to the airport. And users could also use Bard to find YouTube videos of things to do during the trip. Another example Google gives is how Bard can link up with other apps to assist someone with a job search. In this case, Google suggests asking Bard to find my resume titled June 2023 from my drive and summarize it to a short paragraph personal statement. Another new add-on for Bard permits users to invite others into their Bard conversations. In its announcement, Google also said it had created a way for users to verify whether information produced by the Bard tool is correct or not. This move is seen as an effort by Google to help users get over concerns about its AI system returning faults, outdated or damaging results. Google says the use of Bard's Google it button can test the correctness of its results. When people use this button, Bard's results are compared with the results of a Google search on the same subject. Then, Bard points out the differences in its own results compared to information returned from Google search. Google's senior product director, Jack Krasik, told Reuters news agency the company thought it was important to add this ability to help users find the most truthful results. We are presenting Bard in a way that it admits when it's not confident, Krasik said. He added that the effort is part of a goal by Google to build user trust in generative AI tools while holding Bard accountable for its performance. In announcing Bard extensions, Google promised to protect users' privacy by blocking its employees from seeing any personal information Bard gets from apps such as Gmail or Drive. Bard said it had also taken steps to prevent data linked to Bard from being used to target users with ads or to train the AI tool. Krasik noted that currently, Bard users can only pull in information from other Google apps. However, he said Google is already working with other companies to be able to connect their apps to Bard in the future. I'm Brian Lin. Brian Lin is back on the show to talk more about his technology report. Welcome Brian. Thanks for having me. This week you explored a change by Google that permits users of its Bard AI tool to link that technology to other product offerings. How important do you think this move is for Google? So, Google's main explanation is that being able to link Bard to other company services will add additional value for Google users. And we explained some possible use cases the company described. But some industry experts have noted the change is also linked to efforts by Google to better compete with similar tools like ChatGBT, Bard's main competitor. One report estimated ChatGBT had about 90% more visitors than Bard so far in August. So Google's latest move could help turn that around. I know the report touched a little on privacy issues. How has Google said it intends to protect private user data that gets imported into the Bard tool? The main ways Google is trying to reduce privacy concerns is by promising that data linked to Bard will never be seen by human reviewers. And also saying that data will not be used to target users with ads. Certainly one goal of these steps could be to get more people to start using Bard extensions right away without worrying about those privacy issues. Got it. Thanks again for being here, Brian. You're welcome. Thank you, Dan. VOA Learning English has launched a new program for children. It is called Let's Learn English with Anna. The new course aims to teach children American English through asking and answering questions and experiencing fun situations. For more information, visit our website learningenglish.voanews.com. My name is Anna Matteo. And my name is Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith. You're listening to the Learning English podcast. Welcome to the part of the show where we help you do more with our series, Let's Learn English. The series shows Anna Matteo in her work and life in Washington, DC. People all over the world like to talk about the weather. Don't they, Jill? They do. It's an important part of daily life. You know what else people like to talk about? What's that? Other people. That's true. And they like watching them, too. In lesson 15 of Let's Learn English, Anna gets to enjoy some nice weather and watch all kinds of people walk by. Let's listen. Hello. People from all over the world come to Washington, DC. When I'm at work, I love eating lunch outside. I like to watch people walking by. They all look very different. Today, my friend Ashley is eating lunch with me. Ashley, today the weather is beautiful, isn't it? Yes, it is. We have to return to work. No, we have time. Let's people watch a little more. It helps that Anna lives in Washington, DC, doesn't it? Yeah, it sure does. She can see people from many different countries almost every day. In lesson 15, it also helps that the weather is nice. She mentions it to her friend Ashley. And then Anna's boss, Miss Weaver, mentions it to Anna. Ashley, today the weather is beautiful, isn't it? Yes, it is. It's a beautiful day, isn't it? Yes, yes it is, Miss Weaver. I noticed that each of them used a tag question when they asked about the weather, didn't they? That's right, they did. And I think we should explain a bit about this. I do too. OK, for example, let's say that it is a sunny and beautiful day. If I say to Jill, it's a nice day, Jill would agree. I can agree by saying something like, yes, it sure is. So Jill agrees with me. Tag questions basically ask if the listener agrees with the speaker. So if I say, it's a nice day, isn't it? I'm asking Jill if she agrees that it's a nice day. So my answer would be the same as before because I agree. I could just say, yes, it is. But if I want to stress how nice it is, I might say, it sure is. Tag questions might be confusing for some learners if they try to get the meaning based on the exact words spoken. When I say, isn't it? Which is the shortened form of, is it not? The word not can be confusing because in a tag question it actually means something different from not. Yep, the tag question really means the same thing as adding the short question, right? That's true. You can also think about it this way. If I say, isn't it at the end of a sentence, I'm really saying, is this in fact true? So listen to these two examples. Example one, this restaurant is really good. Is this in fact true? Example two, this restaurant is really good, isn't it? Example one and example two mean the exact same thing. The speaker wants to know if the listener agrees with the idea that the restaurant is in fact good. You're listening to the Learning English podcast. We also use tag questions with the auxiliary do. Don't we, Jill? Yes, we do. Let's give our listeners some more examples of tag questions but with different forms of the verbs. OK, I'll start. You like teaching English, don't you? Yes, I do. That professor talks a lot, doesn't she? Yeah, she sure does. That was a great concert, wasn't it? Yeah, it sure was. We don't have to work tomorrow, do we? No, we don't. In this example, the tag or end of my question was simply do we. The not was put in the first part of the question when I said, we don't have to work tomorrow. The not goes at the end tag for positive statements like, the weather is nice, isn't it? And in the beginning part for negative statements. And there is another case we should explain. If we are not asking if someone agrees, like about the nice weather, but instead are really trying to confirm if something is in fact true, then we usually put the not into the first part of the question. And there is no tag at the end. All right, let's give an example. I can say, doesn't Michael work in California? That means Andrew thinks Michael does in fact work in California, but he is asking to check. Doesn't Michael work in California means, is it in fact the case that Michael works in California? OK, by now I think we've explained enough about tag questions, don't you? Yes, indeed. But what about people watching? Anna likes to do that, and so does her boss, Ms. Weaver. They just look at people for a brief moment. They don't really stare at them. That would be rude, wouldn't it? In general, that would be rude, especially if the people are close by. So we usually just look at a person for a few moments. But it does depend on the distance. Is people watching something you like to do too, Andrew? Yeah, sometimes, especially in places like airports or tourist areas like Washington, where there are a mix of people from different areas. And I think that when you really know a culture deeply, you can make some good guesses about what country or even what area of a country people are from, sometimes just based on their clothes. That's true. You are more aware of small details. For example, I spent some time in France, and I can often notice if someone is from France just by some very small details in clothing and the way they walk and move their body. I don't even have to hear them speak. That's because you've seen more details of French culture. Yes, but on the other hand, I think we all need to be careful not to jump to conclusions about other people just based on the way they look. Especially if that leads you to stereotype or overgeneralize about other people. Each person has their own individual story to tell. This is a big, deep topic that I think is worth a longer discussion. Why don't we continue with this in another Learning English podcast soon? I think that's a good idea. There is a lot to talk about. Oh, but before we go, I just thought of another really good place to people watch. What's that? It rhymes with the number two. It rhymes with two. The zoo? Yes. Sometimes I think it's more fun to watch the people watching the animals than to watch the animals themselves. I think you're right, but that's kind of a tricky sentence you just said. Let's play it again for our listeners. Let's play it four times. OK, here we go. OK, but before we do, here's something our listeners can try. After you hear the sentence the first time, try to speak along with the sentence the next three times the sentence repeats. Or try to write down what you hear and then play it again and try to repeat it. Here's the sentence. Sometimes I think it's more fun to watch the people watching the animals than to watch the animals themselves. Sometimes I think it's more fun to watch the people watching the animals than to watch the animals themselves. Sometimes I think it's more fun to watch the people watching the animals than to watch the animals themselves. Sometimes I think it's more fun to watch the people watching the animals than to watch the animals themselves. Well, like we said, there's lots more could say about people watching and cultures. So listen for that discussion in another Learning English podcast soon. And be sure to keep Learning English with VOA Learning English. I'm Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith. And that's our program for today. Join us again tomorrow to keep Learning English through stories from around the world. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak.


What's going on everyone? Sam here with Leighton Sports Guard, Drippin' 22, Topps Chrom, Sapphire Edition Baseball, 10 box full case break, number 18, Random Team Style. So looking again at your random results, as always, combine those on the website under the results tab, as well as the link in the chat. So good luck everybody, again, just 12, or no, 11 to go, and seven to go now. Alexandros took four, thank you Alexandros, seven to go. Seven to go, and then we've got, I will also drop you a link to Mosaic Tier at 10 to go. 10 to go on Mosaic Tiered. Everyone, here we go. Good luck, T.C. Sapir. Spectral Elyse's tomorrow, that's gonna be fun. There's gotta be some schticks in that, for sure. Yeah, okay, sorry buddy, sorry buddy. Giving you a little bit of everything with Sapphire, for sure. Here we go, Schwindl, Hermon Marquez, Steven Ridings. So we'll have two dice rolls most likely to do on this. One is gonna be for the League leaders and one is gonna be for the dual cards. Red, Redetmer's rookie to five for the Angels. Five of five, congrats on that LA. Very nice, I could probably mag that, I would say. To be safe, it's probably not crazy, but a red rookie out of Sapphire, why not? The Mayhew, and that one we won't have to send anyway. Gold, Aaron Ashby rookie to 50 for the Brew Crew. Nice one, Milwaukee, Colton Welker rookie. Seasizuki rookie, nice one there, Cubbies. Lindor Walker Perez, Vladimir Gutierrez. Orange, Jacob Stallings, going to the Pirates. Congrats, Pittsburgh. Nice one there, Pittsburgh Pirates to 25. Nathaniel Lowe and a Blake Snell. Blake Snell as well, Snell as well. All right, here we go, here we go. Simeon Kiermeyer, Chris Owings, Joey Vaatu. Ryan De La Cruz rookie. That is a gold, Christian Yelich for the Brewers. Nice one, Milwaukee again. Two golds for the Brewers, and whoa, down goes the camera. Not bad, everybody. Gold, Christian Yelich to 50, and a Robbie Ray. One sec, everybody. Down goes, camera is right. Sheets, what are we doing here? Come on, Sean. Playing off over there. Orange, Walker Bueller to 25 for the Dodgers. Glacius and Andrew Vaughn. O'Neal Cruz rookie in there for the Pirates. Jordan Miles, Chad Pinder in base. Yandy Diaz and Cleveland Gordian. Dodgers do kind of need Bueller. Varshow. Hey, Turner, Ranger Suarez. Purple, Brock Holtz for the Rangers to 10. Yeah, six of 10, nice one there, Rangers and a Geolito. Connor Renfrow, Drew Smiley. Gold, Julio Urias for the Dodgers to 50. Redeemed your will of levice, let's go, nice. Go, Chris. Bobby Whit, Orange, Freddie Freeman to 25 for the Braves, MV Free, and Dylan Cease. I think Jake's gotta dial it in a little bit more, too. What up, Josh? Guthrie, Jacob, three. Yep, on the space. Orange, Reed Dettmer's going for that rainbow. There you go, Angels to 25. Oliver Ortega, Sam Anderson, Vandermere, Chad Kool. Gold, Andrew Benintendi for the Royals. Nice one there to 50. Barrio and J-Ram. Another red, it's Joe Musgrove, going to the Padres. Nice one there, San Diego. Padres, Joe Musgrove to five. League leaders, that's owned by a majority of the Dodgers, owned by a majority. And base. Again, guys, seven to go on the next break. Seven to go, breaks next. Pretty much, yeah, parallel. Pretty much parallel, for sure. One sec here, everybody. Something in the email here. Alexandros with two more. In select H2, Alexandros, thank you, buddy. We're down to five. Five to go, everyone. Five to go. Yeah, dude, Musgrove is a big dude, for sure.  Another purple to 10, Trent Grisham. Going to the Padres, nice one there. The Sapphire, the parallels tend to do pretty decent on the resale. Len Otto, rookie to 50, for the Rangers. Sandiel Contra, Shamanaya. It's not like this in every Sapphire either. Sometimes there's Otto, sometimes there's not. Like 23 Bowman Sapphire, there were Otto's. 22 Bowman Chrome Sapphire, they were not. I think Draft there was. Aksherser, that's still in about for me to think that one time. In the bathroom, what'd he say? It was so funny. Yeah, I wasn't lying, was I? No, it was so funny, we were at X Y. It's like, why do you bring that up? Like your dad told me to. Pretty singer to 50 on the gold. It's so funny. Yeah, probably will. Yeah, he was, the harmless, harmless guy. Purple Detroit Tigers to 10. Nice one there, congrats Detroit, Santander and Brandon Crawford. Wander rookie, that's a gold of Thai France to 50. Austin Riley, going well, Yadine, going well. Gonna sell out the next two breaks with Spateronis. Chris with another spot in select, thank you Chris. Zekeel with a spot in Mosaic, thank you Zekeel. And Alexandros with a spot in Mosaic. We're down to eight to go on Mosaic, everybody. Eight to go. Eight to go and five to go on the next break as well. Thank you all. So almost under 10 basketball spots on the day. Again, 10 Box Tuesday is now all sold out. Then we gotta move Elite, NT, PYT and 10 Box Tuesday football. And that's it on the night. Hey, what up Mark, how you doing buddy? And Corey Dickerson, going to the Blue Jays to 25. Jason Castro. Gold Cincinnati Reds for Cincinnati. Yeah, I would say the red, Jayrod Rookie, nice one there. The red, Red Dentmer's was pretty solid. Luke Williams, Omar Narváez, Yanni Hernandez. Like the base rookies of the big names do well because they're not super, like highly printed in this either, definitely a little bit shorter printed. Judge. And then if you get like a big vet low number and it's cute like we hit it on Connie Purple recently. That was a pretty big one. There's a gold Dane Dunning to 50 for the Rangers. Nice one there, Texas, Andrew Heaney. Juan Yepas, Fenway Park, blows. Orange, Mike Zanino for the raise to 25. There you go, Jason. Nice one there, buddy. Brock Holt, Luki Betts, Pat Velika. Plus we sleeve and top load every single card in this. Every single card we sleeve and top load. That is Minnesota Meetup. So one, two, three left with Otani, four, five, six right twins with Maeda. This will go for all of the cards that have guides on multiple teams. That is gonna be a six to go to the right with Kenta Maeda in the twins. So the duels will go right, duels will go right. 23 Sapphire, 23 Top Scrum Sapphire.  That's a gold mile straw for the Guardians to 50. Got Jonathan L with a cosmic spot. George S with a select spot. Daniel with three select spots. And Kenny with a 10 box Tuesday spot. Manny Margo. So select is now down to, I believe, just one. Yes, one to go and select. So let's fill Mosaic up, everybody. Eight to go. Mosaic, tiered, random team style, full case. Eight to go. Let's get that sold out, guys. And then we ran to 10 box Tuesday and we gotta sell out Elite Football. We gotta sell out National Treasures. Pick your team case of football as well. And then 10 box Tuesday football as well. Wonder what he's doing, probably selling shirts. Carter Keoboom to 50 for the Nationals. Shirts and hats. Shirts and hats. Underwear. Use drawers, coffee, coffee like the coffee filters. Slugger reunion, that is gonna go to the right with Wander. No league leaders, up until right now. Right when I say it. One, two left, three, four, middle, five, six, right unless they're owned by a majority. That is gonna be a five, gonna go to the right. So that'll go with Dylan Cease in the right. There's also a gold Blake Snell to 50 for the Padres, Lewin Diaz. CJ Abrams' rookie for the Padres, nice one there. Orange, league leaders, that's gonna go to the right anyway with the Dodgers. They own a majority on that card. Patees Duval Alonzo, league leaders, going to the right with the Mets. Superfractor, let's go. Good luck, everybody. No way. That is Juan Yepes, Superfractor. One of one, go into the Cardinals. Congrats, St. Louis. That is gonna be Mark H, congrats, Mark. There you go, buddy. Juan Dayawan, Superfractor. Very nice, congrats, Mark. Dom Nunez, Superfractor, Sam, and you know it Kyle. Gold, Mitch Handiger to 50. Twins and McMahon, we're also sold out on the next break, everybody, thank you all. Gotta get Mosaic filled up in the face. All right, quick recap here, everybody. Start with your golds to 50. We had the Mitch Handiger. Sean will sleeve that next. Blake Snell, Carter Keaboo, Miles Straw, Cincinnati Reds, Dane Dunning, Kai France, Brady Singer, Glenn Otto, Andrew Benintendi, Julio Urias, Christian Yelich, and Aaron Ashby. We had oranges to 25, Corey Dickerson, Mike Zanino, League leaders, Walker Bueller, Jacob Stallings, Reed Deppmers, Freddie Freeman, Purple to 10, Brock Holt, Detroit Tigers, Trent Grisham, Red to five of Joe Musgrove. We had the Red, Reed Deppmers, Rookie to five for the Angels, and then a one of one Superfractor of Juan Yepes. That'll do it for the break, everybody. Thanks again for the fill. Up next is Select H2.


order. And if your name is not called out among these 10, then I can add you at this point. But once we start, nobody else gets added. So we got Noel, and I got George, I got Jim, Olivia, Lenin, Dan, who I call Stan, Mila, Newton, Hunter, and did I say Noel's name yet? Yes. Noel twice. And did I list anybody else? Did Hannah, did I not call your name? I may have called your name or I may not have, but you're on the list, okay. Rebecca, a number between one and ten, please. Nine. Nine. That means that Lenin is going to be our first slammer. Say where you are, Lenin. We're going to have to calibrate the judges first. Yeah. Sometimes the top is on the bottom. Like right here. There. Lenin, I need a number between one and ten. No repeats, please. Three. Good call. Newton! May I have a number between one and ten, please? Nice call. Mila. Where are you, darling? Where's Mila? There you are, of course. Seven. Seven. She's got a brand new number that nobody called. She paid attention. Jim, did you pay attention? Yes, because I know nobody's got ten yet. Nice call, Dan! A number between one and ten that hasn't been called. One. Nice. Hannah. I like this name. It's a palindrome. Lenin, do you know what a palindrome is? No. What is it? No. Or you don't know. Hunter, do you know? No. Mila, do you know? No, well, you know what a palindrome is, well. I don't know what a palindrome is. Do you like a race car or a f**k-o-cat? Do you know what a palindrome is? It's the same thing spelled forward and backward. Excellent. And then we have words that are just backwards. They say something different. That's kind of fun, too. Dermatitis. Sit tight on red. Yeah, I know. Revolution. No shoe lover. Constitute. Man, you'll have to work that out. Constitute. Two tits knock. Constitute. Two tits knock. Hannah. Yes, it is. It's what it is. Hannah, I didn't ever retrieve one in ten. It hasn't been called yet. Excellent. Hunter. Five. And that's Noel. Pressure's on. Two. Five. No, Hunter, you said five. Where are you? I'm here. Did you say five? I don't know. Do you like? No, I didn't say five. One. Oh, you only have one number left. What are you looking at before? Pass. We've got ten and then there's eight up. So that leaves you two numbers. That should be easy. Seven. Six. Six. Six was a good call. Are you slamming in your name? Yeah, I'm Izzy. Izzy, I met you before. I met you before. Izzy, are you slamming, sweetheart? Yes. And your name is? Caitlin. Kaylee. Kaylee, K-A-I-L-Y. Do I remember it right? No. No wonder I didn't remember it right. K-A-Y-L-I. Thanks, Kaylee. Now, where were we? We got somebody up there. We got Olivia up there. And Olivia gave me a six and that's George. George, have you been keeping track of the numbers? I want to add two. I want to add an 11 and a 12, but try not to call those. Did you say four? That man pays attention. Of course, he's been to Slam's beautiful. That's Hunter. I already went. He's already up. Hunter's already up? He is already up.  So, where do we go here? We have to deal with them between 11 and 12. I had to cross this floor. You're not supposed to be on the board twice, Hunter. So, we've got two numbers left. Izzy, give me a number between 11 and 12. 13. I'm going to call that Kaylee. And we'll finish off with Kaylee. A number, please. 11. Excellent. Izzy. Way over here. So, this is going to be an elimination slam. Which is to say that the three top scorers will come back for a second round. The slam off round. Now, Izzy, you've only got one poem.  You were looking pained when I said that. I have to look full of them. She's got to look full of them. I only have one poem. So, those of you who only have one will read. I'm going to read my favorite poem. If you make it into the slam off round, you will say the same poem over, but you'll say it in a different way. So that way, you're still in the running for the fabulous prizes, which are up there and which I shall award to all three of the people in the playoff. Unless there's a tie, and we have four or five people in the playoff, and then I'll award them to the top three winners. Well, we have judges. When I call your name, judge, please step forward and receive the approbation of this extraordinary audience. Our first judge of the day is Rick. God, I don't know what happened to Rick. I want to judge, but he'll be agreed to be snuck out. What is your name, please? Stephanie? What qualifies you to be a judge? Not much at all. Now, if Rick comes back in, boo him. First judge, please step forward when your name is called is Michael. Qualifies you to be a judge, and he responded, and I quote, prior experience, and that's about it. That's Michael. I'm not cognitively here right now. Nothing. Did you want better? Because quote, what qualifies you, I said. She said, where are you? There you are. She said, not much at all. I'm basic arithmetic. Can you say the pledge with me, please? Which one? I will tell you. Repeat after me, because with your right hand in the air, Stephanie, you can't be out of there. Hi. Fill in your name. Hello. I will start over. Hi. In your name. Do hereby affirm that I shall remain objective throughout the slam. That I shall remain objective throughout the slam. Not giving unnecessarily high scores. Not giving unnecessarily high scores. To my sweethearts. To those who I wish would become my sweethearts. To those who I wish would become my sweethearts. Nor giving nasty and low scores. Nor giving nasty and low scores. To those for whom I hold disdain. To those for whom I hold disdain. To those for whom I hold disdain. The verse is the best of all. I can tell you all the way. Further. I understand. That I may give scores. All the way from zero. All the way from zero. Which means don't quit your day job. Which means don't quit your day job. All the way up to ten. All the way up to ten. Which means your poem and your performance blew my socks. All the way to Toledo. Which means your poem and your performance blew my socks. All the way to Toledo. Good. Usually they listen when I say this so that they can repeat me after. Be close anyway. Finally. I absolutely promise. I absolutely promise. To return the scorecard. To return the scorecard. To the slam. To the slam. At the end. At the end. At the end. If the audience approves these five people to serve as judges. You may return to your seats once you receive your scorecards. The official rules of slam from the Bible of poetry slam. Hewitt's Guide to Slam Poetry and Poetry Slam. Noel, does that look like me? Yes. That? My gosh. The poet shall perform original work only without props, costumes, or musical accompaniment within three minutes but with a ten second grace period in front of five judges who will score the work in a scoring range of zero to ten with decimal points to one place. And the highest and the lowest of those scores discarded. So what would be the highest score that a slammer could obtain? Yes, Noel. Excellent, Noel. How many tens would a person need to get a 30? Four. It's his first time somebody has gotten both questions right. To a slammer as we all keep in mind slammer Alan Wolfson Junction. The points are not the point. The point is the poet tree. Yes. Alright. Folks, at every slam there's a sacrificial poet. What does your eyes go way up in the air for again? Because I feel like a sacrifice already. You are not a sacrifice. I promise you that. We'll see what you score. We'll see. The poet is a person who gives of his or her talent with no hope of winning the fabulous prize. It's only for the judges to have an opportunity to set their particular base mark for scoring. What's so funny about that, Jim? I used to learn a word, right? It shouldn't be benchmark, but I said base mark. Because I wanted to see you laugh. We're done.  I'll have to time this because it can't go longer than three minutes in ten seconds. Half of me reclines on the cat. The other half hopes that he's okay. This is the longest time you'll ever have for scoring from now on. It'll be a lot faster. But right now, you're getting familiar with things, and I'm filling space by making noise on the count of three. One, two, three. Show me. I've got a 0.8. Boom. I've got a 0. Boom. What was that supposed to be? A 0.5. That was a 5.0. Are you confirming? She confirms a 5.1. A 7.8. A 0.1. And an 8.1. Oh! It's a 10 for the very discerning judge over there. He's learning. 0.9 for your savagery. At least I didn't know. Did you say those words? I must have been daydreaming. Let's hear it one more time just for the fun of it. I said he. I said I. Well, I'm dead as the said he. There it is. He wants to see a score. Yeah. The judge is on the count of three. One, two. One, two, three. Let me see them. I got a 6.8 from the meanie. A 7.5. A very confused judge with a 0.8. 8.0. 8.0, right? I have no idea. You hold it the way that he sees. Mathematically inclined, huh? 8.0. A 7.9. And a 9.7 and a 9.7 4, 8, 8, 6, 23. Same old. From once tears unabridged. Then spell them out on some paper to poke around with my pen. Picking my brain. Pushing around random life worries, events, thoughts, spawning words into little piles and phrases. Like arranging myself on a refrigerator door with little magnetic word blocks. Sometimes spicy, romantic or dicey. If nothing pitiful, perhaps political. Glad or sad.  If the cup gets too dark, too strong, I may need to lighten up on some verbs.  Nothing like a strong cup of words to start the day. Words scrambled to tears. Words arranged to laugh. Words stacked to thoughts. Words calling back memories drifting in space. Or lost around the corner of every crooked path. Dancing words. Singing the blues and twisting the wine from the depths of my soul. Perhaps you'd like a cup. Grab one up. Whether you've got something to say or not, you might as well to sit with a steaming cup and think about something. Or nothing much at all. What have you got upstairs? Kicked. You've been kicked. On account of three judges, one, two, three, show me your money. I got ooh, ooh, ooh. A 6.5 from the Mimi. A 9.0 a 9.1 a 9.5 and a 9. Now some of you may not be aware of this but I think most of you are that I am Vermont's reigning poetry slam champion. What annoys me more than anything is that my score from these judges was a 20.9 and and Latin got a 23.4 that would make him the reigning Vermont poetry slam champion except that Newton came along and dethroned him.  Let's hit for meals. The house is always sunny. When I push my brother in the water my dad doesn't think it's funny. Loons are scary, picking berries going for rides in Phil's truck Wendy's fries pizza pies starry skies flips on the trampoline cooking worms even though it's mean catching fish letting them go happy with I'm happy winter's gone so I can swim. On the calipri judges look run I'm going to give you a little extra half two and a half two and three quarters giving the money yeah I've got a 6.0 from the new Mimi a 7.3 a 7.7 a 7.8 and a 9.5 to three fleeing from the rising full moon five or six of them huddled in the middle of the side road nodding their heads and plodding probably just searching for gravel for their gizzards when I was a young man I found a crow with a broken wing I fed it gave it a box to sleep in perched it on my shoulder whenever I walked into town one day I guess the wing it healed because that crow took off from my shoulder and never looked back I had named that crow mister something I don't remember for all I know it might have been a female you see I don't know anything about crows they don't know anything about me on the count of three one and a half two let me see what a split here a 7.1 a 7.5 a 9.1 a 9.6 and a 9.7 carry it to 8.17 a 26.2 an NPR that 200 bad poems in us this is statistically proven in high school is a good time to get rid of those starter dope and well on my way to sprawling 200 bad counting this one now in the ovens all gliviously convection's heating what's needed into form another lazy loaf almost ready for the has been can't wait to see the alchemy of 201 many known masters of metaphor keep on speaking and now analog and similes as if improving art might be discontinuous like not smelling the telling signs of baking barf about to count as 164 can't wait to see the alchemy of number 201 by now you might imagine this as rehearsing in reverse pleading irony as simply satire self-facing so prolifically while banking on some poser's pith that is all about how many grow stale and mold together in a dumb heap dump of doggerel can't wait to see the alchemy of number 201 preserving a line of this and a twist of that will not pardon preposterous pox of paradox and poppy seed in 43 or postpone the feet of fate of almost funding number 58 from being fat in obon pan of sourdough for 166 can't wait to see the alchemy of number 201 judges are furiously scrambling audience, remember your job is to influence the judges so if you don't like the score thank you if it's too high you can bone if it's too low you can bone if you like the score you can cheer it doesn't matter but I always add to you when we see these scores on the count of three 2 3 I want to see them oh yeah somebody likes that score I got a 7.4 boo a 7.6 the guy who gave the 7.6 booed the 7.4 friends who are only around when things are good and then they take off as soon as they get bad collect your emotional baggage in trunks and left them one step for pick up at your earliest convenience don't knock at the door when you come searching for pieces of yourself that you've stashed in my cabinets for safekeeping I no longer inhabit this house you helped me to build the rooms we painted lie empty and I have left no forwarding address stamp your regrets return to sender and don't bother those cards of the travels we planned under the door I have locked the garden gate and thrown away the key even as I still remember you gave me your spine when I could not stand alone rebuilt my shattered hour glasses when I thought my time was up patched the holes punched in the walls by careless cruelty the space lingered between our words where once we talked until three in the morning avoid that grew and grew in a static vacuum and sometimes there's nothing left to say only the echo of the door slam and whisper on the answering machine the empty kitchen strewn with crumpled musical notes after the last song is finished the party is over but I will be sure to sweep the tiles before I leave dishes, dash them neatly in the pantry put the chairs back smooth the curtains turn off the radio close the door behind me listen to the quiet and whisper, thank you for stopping by see me after the show kid on that kind of three charges wood two or three I wanted to see them I got who, yeah a 1.1 from the newest media law 7.2 I got an 8.4 I got an 8.7 a 9.5 10 this tradition in slam but it's traditional that I play a little musical number for the first 10 of the day now I want to call you Peggy I hope that's okay Peggy, you gave the 10 so this song should also be for you but Hannah earned it so I'm going to perform it for her but listen carefully because you're in my heart did you hear the 10 away now I have perfect silence would you say that again you threw the 10 away yeah I threw it away but it was a lovely 10 anyway I got to get my musical instrument out I got my musical instrument out that's how I tune it getting ready for you she's finally got a score up a 7.6 a 7.9 an 8.5 an 8.6 an 9.5 an 8 is 25.0 perfect world everyone is loved and accepted no matter what religion they practice in my perfect world if you love some of the same gender as you you are treated just the same in my perfect world if someone changes gender they're supported through that process in my perfect world violence war and cruelty are forgotten words children and even some adults have never heard them my perfect world represents everything I believe in but this world could be just like it all we have to do is stand up and try on the count of three one two three a 7.7 ensuring you you got this each gust sweeping the dust of self del and negativity up into the air like leaves of yesterday trust the wind she knows as you do good point I should have done that I like the thought of a tailwind carry it on in the poem let's hear about it oh my gosh I should have warned something today on the count of three judges one two three you're a little fast there on 8.5 an 8.6 a 7.0 a 9.5 and a 9.6 and I'm at 26.6 experience I had when I was in the fifth grade in Lindenville racing in Lindenville I could feel his hoof piece pounding around the backside of the track we were near the home stretch and I clung to his back I heard the announcer say that we were way out front and all of a sudden my horse took over and pulled an unexpected stunt he gulped off the track out through the cow barn gate to that place where I was about to meet my unexpected fate he took a four hoof skid to a place of my wedding and I went sailing over his head into a pile of fermented bedding I clung back on and down the home stretch we flew and joined the rest of the pack before the race was through inside of the pack when I did not win I was thankful for the place that I was in getting a lot of losing may be the most important part of a slam any race the winner wins he knew about before he was here and for those of us who do not win it's the brand new experience 3 judges 1 I'm going to do it backwards I'll start with 3 and I'll go to 9 I'll give you a little extra time because I don't know the backwards numbers as well 3, 2, 1 hold them up 7.3 for George 2 8.9 another 8.9 of the score I'm going to have lots of money and 1 million 13 years away I'm only 7 but that's the one much to you but one day I'm going to change the world I know but what's so special about me is my story is simple I'm not going to be famous or get a Nobel Peace Prize instead I'm going to be kind I'm going to be nice and I'll try to make everyone feel like I have a friend while everyone snickers I'm going to be the one that smiles while everyone cheeses I'll stand up while others are quiet I'm going to speak out I'll leave no voice left unheard and no matter how bad someone treats me I'm still going to treat them like every other person on this planet my goal is simple make the world a better place how? one smile can change someone's day that one hey could lead to many more but I can't do this alone if everyone is just friendly we can all change the world I want her to quote be the change you wish to see in the world now you tell me you want to say the world with me? yeah I'm doing the Spanish don't I still have 8.7 I got the 8.2 I got the 8.7 I got the 7.7 oh there they are 8.8 9.87 the team has come up with the three finalists and has determined that they should perform in reverse order from how they performed the first time around which means that our second act will be Olivia's they will know our Olivia's and their total scores combined shall determine their eligibility for one of the fabulous prizes that are being offered today thanks to river rock school let's have a river rock to give those finalists an opportunity to get their feathers together I'm going to offer Izzy an opportunity to offer us a second poem we will not score it and then Kaylee will have a shot George will be welcome et cetera so if you don't have a little arrow by your name I'm going to ask you if you'd like to perform Izzy would you like to offer us a second poem yeah we're not showing weakness for being perfect news flash they will never be perfect those of us who see the world as it is see the world as bad, corrupted, unkind society rejects us they disregard us they try to help us they brainwash us to make us like them but what they don't see is our reasoning the reason we see the glass half empty is because the glass needs to be filled we see the world as a bad place because we've grown accustomed to being unkind even though I'm only 12 it's sad how ice can see more than some adults it's no wonder most Americans are afraid I understand that to some point our depression can be bad but think about this maybe it's good to think of the cons before the pros but I know we even want to brainwash us all so why can't you just stop the people who make the world unkind even the people even those people can leave a negative impact on someone's life there will always be the people who see the negative but you can reduce the people who do the negative I'm not saying brainwash them you can't change someone's outlook on life but you can try to change someone's output on life kids walk up to the kids who sit alone at lunch sit with them, talk to them you don't have to be their friend just make them feel like they're not alone teens, most of us use social media we see the damage that it can do walk up to that kid that may have been hurt either if they're at school or online tell them that what happened was not okay that you don't believe in those hurtful words that those people had no right to make them feel bad tell them that those bullies would go away just make them feel better adults, be the heroes of today show your kids that they can do good inspire them to change the world I'm not saying you should change how they see the world just how the world sees them everybody whether you see the glass half full or half empty that's how you see the world no one can change that but you but how you feel about the world let those good people in society help change your feelings for the better now let me ask you will you try to change the world try to change how others see the world or will you try to change the world for the better thank you I would be bored if I was bored I would be happy if I was happy I would be if I was you I would press that red button in the state college back in 1956 there was a pond just outside the classroom down on the pond just over the hill there lived a young muskrat and his name was Bill Bill was not as happy as he could be so he went out looking for some company he asked Tom Fox have you seen Sally and Tom replied she's down in the valley Bill found her there beneath a tree and she was just as pretty as a muskrat could be Bill got his courage put his shyness aside and he asked pretty Sally if he is bride she said she'd marry if he'd never leave her and so they were married by Deacon Veeber there was a guy in the class with the name of Bill and the teacher was a preacher on the weekend everybody was kind of pulled in there there yeah I don't have another one well then you can sit it out okay everybody has that oh you're oh I see what I'm saying you better come up with one lost in my family I went into therapy to try and figure out how to handle it then a couple years ago I found out that my therapist who I really loved had Alzheimer's and that this is called your voice stays with me we never exchanged Christmas cards though I must have tried post-hoc to wit you were Jewish and I have no faith but that was not why we would not be friends whatever passions and occupations we in common have it was a staggering intimacy of my almost hour regurgitating anger and shame of being only me but hell the paradigms of principal privacy are simply breached by the grace of gratitude refreshing memory you are still listening ears of past hearing the present for safekeeping and gut seeking on this perilous path I stumble of course but I fall less to temerity and temptation with whispers of encouragement an eyebrow of concern and sweet forgiveness when I am deaf but acting dumb again and yet again anguish blew my sails and grief gripped my tides tossed my sick soul into your gently knowing net you never said much then or since tendering me to some horizon of hidden truth with a curious view it was magic I could never see the tricks of my very own trade and only lost my guard in looking you mind meaning when I was empty from excavating family fault lines almost suffocating in the ether of life's too sad or fresh air to spare the embrace of what you did not say comforts me when I am hideous and harsh as reflections of your wise inquiry light the darkness of doubt in all of my days woo! Jimmy, you got another poem? yeah sure come here for a German plea it's another sad one short though it's called to a young poet lay palm up on either side of you beautiful wings of a moth that rests or pinned on display no longer trembling over piano keys or searching for nubbins on a rock face but still and pure as if it were through them your soul had passed okay my work is called one summer day me and my brother in the boy next door were sitting minding our own business when out of the blue my dad comes in and says you guys need to go outside who came up with that crazy idea but hey how bad could it be well for a summer day it was colder than most so after we were outside for a couple minutes we went silently through the basement door and sat plotting our revenge we were walking around thinking how do we get upstairs when there it was in front of our faces the step ladder so we carefully put it under the laundry shoot and climbed up step by step and as I felt my hands touch the lid I opened it and popped and then there was my dad the closet door what are you doing he says and it was I had a feeling that toward the end it hadn't been written down you were kind of extemporizing you were freestyling weren't you as they go along basically but this is a true story Linda was learning how to swim and she did float for 30 seconds I was really happy and I was proud of her until I heard that she got two packages and two pieces of lightsabers lightsabers the little candies that yes that's what I said lightsabers those little candies that are like a little round so I was really jealous and I kept saying they are making a mountain out of a molehill until now, now happy and I think that's perfectly worthy you know for a moment here I'm just going to buy a little time in case anybody needs to spruce up their poem and I'm thinking when will I have another exciting opportunity when will there be great fun as much as we've had today this much and when will everybody here be welcome to come and perform during National Poetry Month what? you didn't know it was National Poetry Month I don't know it is, welcome to April April was when I had a job and the rest of the 11 months I sit around and look at my phone yeah I like that you should be writing I should be writing so when are we going to have fun again Newton when do you think we'll have fun again at the end of April at the Aldrich Library or show up at Lonson Nation Theater in a couple of days wow I asked for one event he named two number one event in reverse order of what he offered this coming Wednesday at Lost Nation Theater and anything goes slammed now anything goes means it doesn't have to be original work it could be work of Billy Collins or anybody it can also be your own original work but anything goes it means also dancers are welcome to perform we are invited I've had a fella came in second down in South Pomfret two years ago at an anything goes slam a young man a little younger than you Bruce me? yeah and the young man got up on stage and he did a judo demonstration and he pulled in second twice pretty amazing well I'm going to do knife throwing then the main point is you get not three minutes but up to five minutes on stage wow anything goes sign up at quarter to seven at Lost Nation Theater and be there as audience at seven and then at six o'clock if you'd like free pizza the Aldrich Public Library at six use the back entrance please no it's another anything goes slam at six o'clock at six thirty we'll have a brief writing activity and then at quarter till seven the slam itself begins that's Friday the last Friday of this month just before on Wednesday the 25th at Lost Nation Theater now are we ready please put your hands together for round two this guy just came up with it out of my comfort zone the church at the stone wall best home fries in town love signs a must hate signs are nuts people on buses stop broken cars are rusting walk I say hey you just hey you just cussed did you smell that smells like a skunk is rotten on the count of three they're furiously scrambling on the count of three judges one two three I want to see oh my god oh your eight is upside down makes me wonder about all those sixes you were offering 8.4 and 8.5 and 8.5 and 8.7 and 8.9 7 is 13 a 52 what did I say 53.2 well you're wrong do my math yeah I got it thank you Ron at seventeen years old we danced the night away to an electronic beat spinning on a melody floating away teenage bodies so higher than the clouds have so far to fall when he came for 17 of their bodies emptied his magazine into their swirling vortex I imagine I heard them fall like the branches of the aged maple deep in the forest felt their ancient stone crumble they have been here before and we have been here before our bodies jingling in the pockets of those who should protect us bleached bone trading cards scattered on legislative floors and maybe I'm tired of writing about this perverse dance tired of treading on this floor taking care enough to soak my shoes in their blood collecting their teeth a roadmap to know where we are going nowhere on the road to hell is not paved with good intentions but with the bodies of twenty children who died within pastel walls clinging to construction paper and magic markers I don't know what words I can use when babies and bullets threaded together didn't move you yeah well I got a real meanie a 9.6 if I could back then I used to call her on the phone to kind you all with the receiver from the cradle and her voice said number please her phone rings one long too short if she didn't answer another word she'd be lying she ain't to home for three days gone to Boston didn't worry about homeland security back then everybody listened to him many years have come and gone and so too phones changing with stretchy cord phones reached out to touch somebody with a long curly tankly cord taking the world's first bungee jump that lets you walk and talk and work with your own personal line later a rotary dial soon giving way to push button musical melodies and then freedom with the cordless phone which brought together families in conversation why don't you leave the phone today we all worship with our own cool cell phone social conversation happens round lips with people we can't see bringing new complexity I stepped out to my current curbside hi there how are you came the voice of a man shingling upon a roof looking up I said hello he turned away a cell phone pressed against his head problems are no longer just calling people with hi where are you but borrowing a phone to call your own phone with the same question this year at family Christmas 21 people each with cell phones heard one ring seven reach like cowboys to draw their guns the number up for only one grandma to sit front porch and rock come you should say let's talk grandma if you can hear me these days you ain't rocking let's you're walking when you're talking in today's world everybody must get phoned don't you love those scorecards you may not know it but they actually have been photocopied from the Bible but I have copies in the back of my car I carry them in the trunk in case anybody would want to buy one because you know it has those numbers all printed nice right on the pages how could you do worse I don't know don't answer out of three judges two three I want to see them ooh 9.9 a 9.5 another 9.5 a 9.7 and a 9.8 17 a 28.7 and 6 is 13 6 a 56 0.3 I offer you a mystery prize from baguitos and a book certificate from our pond books yeah I'll take the book yeah hold on to that Juana congratulations Hannah left hand this one that's my left this is your there you are it's unbelievable born tonight please welcome for the judges Peggy Lynn where are you Lynn I keep forgetting where you are she told me her name was Virginia Woolf we got Michael a nice job from Michael and somebody else did we only didn't we have one more judge she's looking out the window let's hear from them judges


There's a saying I've heard a lot growing up on the shore, red at night, sailor's delight, red sky morning, sailor's warning, the gist being that red sunsets forecasted clear weather while red sunrises meant a storm. In my family, we have our own third verse, when the sun downs green, you must stay unseen. The sky was never completely green. It was subtle, a little emerald at the edges of the horizon. In 32 years, I've only seen it happen four times. According to my granddad, those green nights happen once or twice a decade and have stuck to that pattern going all the way back to when our family moved to the area. You probably haven't ever seen something so weird or even heard of it. That's understandable. As far as I can tell, the phenomenon is only observable within about a mile radius centered around our farm. Rare as they were, my folks took emerald sundown seriously when I was growing up. The second any of us saw the slightest jade tint at dusk, we moved fast. The farmhouse windows were locked and shuttered, doors bolted, and all lights extinguished. We would head to the basement and lock ourselves in for the night. Dad even hung a thick drape of padded cloth over the door to keep any sounds from leaking down. There were no games for us kids, no lights, no conversation. Everyone went to bed and stayed in the basement until dawn. I was never told why we performed this ritual, I guess. No one told me what we were hiding from or why. All my grandma told me once was that they were outside, but that we were safe as long as we didn't invite them in. My dad always had that hard look when it happened, so we all followed. We all listened. And after the farm became mine, I stuck to the tradition. Eleven years passed between green sunsets, with the phenomenon so infrequent and hard to predict. I'll admit that I let my guard down. In those eleven quiet years, I got married, brought Katie back to the farm, and we had a daughter, Olivia. They knew to keep an eye on the horizon in the evening, but I don't think I made it real enough. I don't think I scared them the same way my dad scared me, which means everything that happened a week ago is my fault. I was driving home much later than usual. I'd been mending fences all day in the July heat, so I'd swung by town for a drink. The sun was already three quarters drained into the ground. By the time I made it to the edge of our farm's property line, I glanced at the horizon more out of habit than anything else. When I noticed the faint smear of green light on the low clouds, my stomach nearly exchanged places with my windpipe. I immediately floored it and pulled out my phone. Katie, are you and Olivia in the basement? We're watching Paw Patrol. My wife replied. Why would we be in the basement? How did you remember to... Katie, Christ, look outside. I don't understand. The sunset. I heard Katie moving, likely to the nearest window, and then there was a pause.  She said, yeah, look, I'll be there in three minutes. Turn all the lights off, lock everything and head to the basement. Another pause from Katie. Matt, are you sure? I know we've run the drill and it's a family tradition, but do we really need to drop everything and run to the basement? I turned down the dirt road that would take me to the farm so fast that I thought my truck tires might lift off. Katie, please just trust me. Lock up, lights out, be quick. Alright, see you in a few.  Ribbons of pale green stretched out across the dark sky. The wind was picking up, an odor like charcoal and moss on the breeze. I'd never been out at night during one of the events. By this point, the whole family should have been safe and tight in the basement. There was still a sliver of sun peeking above the horizon, but it would be full night any minute. I parked the truck and got out at a sprint, almost tripping over the new welcome mat Katie had bought the week before when I reached the porch. Apparently, I was dragging mud through the house. Shit, I said at the front door. I'd left my keys in the truck and Katie should have locked the door. I tried it anyway. The knob turned. Olivia was still seated on the couch watching TV. The lights were off, but not all of the windows were shuttered. I heard Katie moving around upstairs. For a moment, I was angry, bordering on furious. Then I reminded myself that this was my fault. I think a part of me hoped that now that it was my farm with my family, whatever old curse or shadow came with the green sky might simply move on. It was my fault I didn't prepare. I didn't really know what to prepare for. But I could imagine my dad's eyes, that hard look he got. And I knew he'd be disappointed, maybe even scared. Katie, I called up the stairs. We got a head down. We got to go now. I scooped up Olivia and turned off the TV. Katie's light steps echoed down the stairs. She looked annoyed, then saw the expression on my face. Her eyes went a little wide. She asked, what's going on? Is it a storm? All I could do was shake my head. I carried Olivia down to the basement with Katie on our heels. Once I put my daughter on the old futon in the corner, I went back to check that the door was locked and bolted. I rolled down the heavy fabric that was tied above the doorway, then went back to my family. I'm not sure I got to everything.  And we forgot Olivia's snacks and her bear. You know, she can't sleep without the bear. I'll just run back. No, Katie stared at me, delicate mouth hanging open. I'd never talked so sternly to her before. Sorry, I said, I'm sorry for all this. It's been so long. We're down here for the night. I walked to the switch and turned off the main light. We kept a battery powered camping lantern in the basement. I dug that out and set it on the covered pool table. I'll pull out the futon for you to try to get some sleep. Remember no lights except this little one, no conversation if you can help it. And if you have to use the bathroom, don't flush. Olivia was watching me as I darted around the small room. It was cluttered and needed a good dusting. We didn't use the basement much.  In that moment, my daughter's eyes were fixated on me and wet with undropped tears. You're scaring her. Katie whispered, walking next to me as we paced around the room. Jesus, Matt, you're scaring me too. What are you so? Something shattered upstairs. I waited, unable to breathe. Carefully, I inched over to the table and turned off the lantern. Katie and I stood in the darkness, listening. Someone's in our house. She whispered, voice so quiet, I had to lean towards her to understand. I reached towards her blindly, felt her shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze. I think it was just a window. I said, they nothing can get in here unless it's invited. So as long as we waited out, we're safe. Jesus Matt, what's happening? I started to say I have no genuine idea. But before I could respond, something knocked on the other side of the basement door. Katie screamed, I would have if I was able to find the air. A long pause. And then the knock came again. Katie had found my forearm in the dark and was squeezing it hard. It didn't make sense. We were supposed to be safe as long as we didn't invite the new welcome Matt. It clicked just as the third knock came. Was the Matt an invitation? Olivia, polite little Olivia must have been scared and confused in the dark. But we taught her to always mind her manners. So when the fourth knock came with no answer, Olivia spoke up. Come in. She called out, no, I yelled, I heard the basement break open, running feet as if from an entire crowd crashed down the stairs. I tried to go to Olivia, but fell over a chair in the pitch black. People were laughing, screaming, pressing all around me. And then nothing. Everyone was gone. No sound in the room other than Katie yelling for our daughter. My hand brushed against the lantern. I turned it on and saw a frantic Katie fumbling towards the couch. Matt, she's gone. I was already moving, taking the stairs two at a time. The sky had fading lines of that same sick green light fading when I ran out on the porch. Stars were thick in the sky and a full moon was rising, plenty of light for me to see my daughter being led by two figures towards the tree line. The creatures were old. They had bloated human bodies, pale wrinkled skin, and both were stark naked. One an ancient man, the other a withered woman. Instead of a face, the man had the head of a ram with black spiral horns. From the neck up, the woman was a wild boar with gray hair and stained tusks. Olivia saw me and smiled. I ran as fast as I could, but all three had disappeared into the forest before I could catch up. I looked everywhere for a sign, nothing. Katie called the police and they found me out there stumbling in the dark. We searched all night. Our neighbors came to help the whole town. It was Olivia's third grade teacher who found her body just after daybreak. The only comfort was that Katie wasn't the one to find Olivia. Right now, the official report is that Olivia ran off and got lost and then animals got to her. The natural resource police are still out there a week later looking for wolves or maybe coyotes. I know that whatever got my daughter won't be found or caught, not until the next green sundown at least. Katie wants us to move too many bad memories, but I need to stick around. There will be another evening when the sun tints the horizon with jade and emerald light. It might be five years from now or 10, no more than 15. And when that night arrives, whatever comes out of that forest, I'm going to invite them in and I'm going to make them suffer.