70. Coronation Special: London From Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace: A Royal Journey Through London"

WEBVTT

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The Shark Deck. I'm Johnny Mack
and Travel is back this week. The

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coronation of King Charles may have inspired
you to go see London, so I

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thought I would do a two week
set here. This week we'll do a

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royal theme tour of London, and
then next week we'll take a look at

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some cool things to do in London. I was there a few years ago.

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When there's a baseball game, I
saw the Yankees and Red Sox play.

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We'll talk about that next week.
This week, let's start at Buckingham

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Palace. Right if you were in
a royal family mood, that's the place

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to start. It's the official residence
of the monarch. Queen Elizabeth was not

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a fan. She tried to get
out of there as much as possible.

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Charles hasn't been living there at all. He doesn't want to live there either.

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You'd think somebody would want to live
in a big palace, but it's

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like right in the middle of downtown
London. And I guess when you have

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an equally large estates up in the
middle of nowhere. Yeah, I could

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see the attraction. Buckingham Palace is
also undergoing some renovations these days, but

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that shouldn't mess up your tour.
When I went, I did a bike

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tour and I'll talk about the bike
tour next week, but let's just do

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an overview of bucking A Palace.
That's where you want to start. It's

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been the London home of the royal
family since Queen Victoria's rain. One thing

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you can look for if you want
to know if the King is home or

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not, check the flag. The
Union Flag is the red, wait and

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blue flag of the UK. That
means that the King is not home.

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If the King is home and he's
not going to be, the Royal Standard

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flies. The red, blue and
gold flag, known as the Royal Standard,

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symbolizes representing the United Kingdom, the
heart for Northern Ireland, red line

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for Scotland, three golden lines for
England. And when that flag is flying,

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it means the King is home.
Try and time it so you see

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the changing of the guard. When
I did my bike tour, I saw

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the changing of the guard. I
guess they planned it out. What do

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I know, silly American, But
I enjoyed it a lot. The changing

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of the guard is a formal ceremony
in which a group of soldiers is relieved

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of their duties by a new batch
of soldiers. The King's Guards actually working

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shifts of two hours each show every
two hours is a new shift. But

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what you're really talking about here is
the changing of the guard. That's the

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handover of responsibilities for the entire group. The entire group has been sharing two

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hour shifts between them. But that
whole group leaves and a whole new group

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of soldiers walks in and there's like
a big march and everything. It's pretty

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impressive, like super impressive. At
around ten thirty am, the quote unquote

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new Guard form up and they're inspected
just outside Wellington Barracks at their base near

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Saint James Park. While the Guard
is being inspected, a band is likely

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to play. At ten forty five
one of the groups of the old guards.

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Those are the guys done with their
shift. They'll start to form up

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in Friary Court. At ten fifty
five the new guards of the barracks will

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be led to Buckingham Palace, whereby
now quote unquote the old guards are waiting

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in formation. At eleven o'clock,
the old Guard and the new Guard present

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their arms to one another. Yeah, this is quite impressive. The captains

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of each group of the guard will
march toward one another and from there the

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keys to Buckingham Palace and to change
hands. Usually they're out all this.

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The band plays music to entertain the
crowds. The band is made up of

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thirty five musicians, usually belonging to
one of the King's guards regiments. Fun

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fact, the band usually plays traditional
music, but it's not unheard of for

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them to play Michael Jackson or even
the Game of Thrones theme. Some of

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the places you can watch this,
I mean, if you get close to

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the Buckingham Palace gates, that's a
great place. But anywhere on the mall.

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So if you're an American, you
hear the mall and you're like a

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mall. Now. The mall is
the main road approaching Buckingham Palace from Saint

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James's Palace. So if you're in
front of Buckingham House, you'll see this

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long road with a bunch of flags
on it. It's just a big,

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long, straight road. You've seen
it in the movies. When you're there,

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you'll be like, oh, I
know what Johnny Mack was talking about.

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Anywhere along there you'll get to see
the processions walk by. One thing,

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That's cool too, is as the
guard walks down the mall, there's

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no barriers or anything. It's not
like the Thanksgiving Day braid in New York

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City. You can just walk alongside
them. I was doing that a little

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bit, kind of behind them,
and I remember I got and yelled at

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a little But if you can get
there early, try and get up to

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the Buckingham Palace gates. There will
be a lot of crowds and once the

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ceremony begins you cannot leave. So
you know you went all the way to

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London. Do it all right?
Now that's done. Why don't you walk

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away from Buckingham Palace look towards the
Victoria Memorial. Then that's the thing in

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the circle right there. You'll see
it. Notice her back is to the

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palace and she's facing down a long
red road known as the mall. We

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just talked about it. Walk down
the mall and stop when you see large

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black gates on the left side of
the road. That's Clarence House. Clarence

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House traditionally home to secondary members of
the royal family. Clarence House was the

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official house by then Prince Charles.
Their official residence Buckingham Palace but the newspaper

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The Independent suggests that the couple's going
to remain at Clarence House until the major

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renovations at Buckingham Palace have been completed. There's currently a ten year renovation project

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going on over the palace. Clarence
House is currently closed to visitors. So

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take your pictures from afar. Okay, when we're down that, go back

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down the mall. Take the first
left on some Marlborough Road. Walk to

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the end of the road. Make
a left on the main road, which

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is Pall Mall. You're now looking
at the gate house of Saint James Palace.

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This palace, completed in fifteen thirty
six, was built by Henry the

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Eighth you've heard of him. He
moved into the palace in fifteen thirty three

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with his second wife, Anne Boleyn. These days, the offices of the

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Royal Collection Department are kept there,
and that's where the Accession Council meets to

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officially proclaim a new monarch upon the
death of a previous one. We saw

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that happen not too long ago.
The rooms they are also used to entertain

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guests on state visits. It's also
where the offices of Prince William and Prince

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Harry are located. Neither of them
lives there. All right, stay on

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pal Mall crossover Marlborough Road, keep
going straight. Stop at eighty pal Mall.

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This is the house of Neil Gwynn. Neil a mistress of King Charles

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the Second, the seventeenth century Chross
the Second, not the current king,

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he's Dross the third. But back
in the day, Charles the Second had

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numerous mistresses and was the father of
over twenty illegitimate children. All right,

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then get back on a pal mall
and walk to Trafalgar Square. It is

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a site of celebration and it hosts
numerous events throughout the year. Remember when

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I was there, they were having
a concert. They also sometimes show NFL

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games, ballet, opera performances,
small concerts. In the center of the

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square is a column known as Nelson's
Column, and it is Nelson himself who

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stands on top of it. Nelson
led the English Navy in the Battle of

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Trafalgar. The square is flanked on
the north side by the National Gallery,

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the Canadian Embassy to the west,
and the South African Embassy to the east.

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Keep wonging on the mall and you'll
see the Admiralty Arch. Believe me,

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you'll see it. The two arches
on the left and the right of

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the structure used for passing traffic,
but the center arch is open only for

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ceremonial events or athletic competitions where racers
come this way, such as the London

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Marathon. The archers are the reason
the mall is a red road and not

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a black road. The road symbolizes
a red carpet that's been unrolled all the

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way down to Buckingham Palace. We'll
take the break here. We'll keep it

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royal this week. Next week i'll
tell you some other places you can go

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on your London walk about, such
as ten Downing Street. When we come

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back, we'll look at some other
royal things to do. High Grove House

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Charles bought this back in the day. What did he use it for?

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He was married to Diana and kind
ang out with Camilla. There's his coronation

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weekend. Don't go there, Jenny
mick I. Grove House is reachable by

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bus from London or by taking a
train to Kemball and then a taxi,

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but it's close to outsiders. The
grounds are over for tours April through October

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through the end of May. There
is an exhibition at the Garrison Chapel and

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Chelsea. It's called High Grove and
Harmony, exploring a royal vision that lets

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you appreciate the gardens without leaving the
city. The exhibition demonstrates how fully the

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gardens embodied Charles's philosophical and esthetic preoccupations, his love of nature, is passion

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for tradition, and his enthusiasm for
artisanal crafts. You may also want to

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check out Hill House in West London. That's where Charles went to the elementary

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school. The Tower of London,
where the family jewels are. We'll talk

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about that next week. Some of
the jewels currently out on loan. There's

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a big coronation on Saturday. If
you were listening to this the first week

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of May when the episode originally dropped. If you're hearing it in the distant

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future, they're probably back now.
Kensington Palace home to the royal family since

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the seventeenth century, today the official
residence of William and Kates, the Prince

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and Princess of Wales. If you
want to travel a little bit, Balmorrow

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Castle in Scotland. That's where Queen
Elizabeth liked to spend the majority of her

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time when she could Windsor Castle and
Windsor the oldest and largest occupied castle in

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the world, founded by William the
Conqueror in the eleventh century. When the

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Queen couldn't get up to Balmorrow,
she'd spend the weekends in Windsor Westminster Abbey.

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You're going to see a lot of
that on TV on Saturday. If

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you're listening to this the week that
it came out, that will be the

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spot of the coronation. The Tower
of London Saint Paul's Cathedral. Will talk

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about those next week. Sandringham House
in Norfolk. The Royal family usually spends

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Christmas there. If you're a fan
of the Royal Family, check out Palace

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Intrigue. I'm a writer on that
podcast. We talk about the Royal Family.

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Episodes are nice and quick, kind
of like this show, kind of

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quick in and out. We'll tell
you what's going on. That's actually a

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daily It's called Palace Intrigue, all
right, So the Coronation of King Charles

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Saturday, May sixth, the twenty
twenty three. Next week I'll do a

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more traditional episode and I'll tell you
what I did in London and how you

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might want to approach London from the
point of view from a boy from Queens

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York City. Travel is back.
So you're at McDonald's and you get your

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bag and you open your bag.
You want to grab a couple of fries

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or something, and there's five thousand
dollars in it. Yeah, this happened

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at one guy. Hi, I'm
Johnny mag host of five Good News Stories.

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He gave the money back. Don't
worry. If you want to start

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for you. For example, there's
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released her debut album. How about the

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dude who found one hundred and fifty
corn on the cobs under his floorboards?

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Is corn on the cobs even the
way you say that? Who cares?

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And yes, that was a pony
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