The following podcast contains explicit language.

Hi, this is Josh Levine, and this is Slate Sports Podcast Hang Up and Listen for the week of October 13th, 2014.

On this week's show, we'll discuss Fox's Sabermetric-friendly alternate broadcast of the National

League Championship series. And what this means for the future of sports television,

we'll also talk about Heisman favorite Todd Gurley's suspension by the University of Georgia due to allegations he got money for autographs,

plus reigning Heisman winner James Winston's upcoming disciplinary hearing at Florida State.

We'll talk to Devorah Myers about the dominance of American gymnast

Simone Biles, who won four gold medals at the World Championships in China. And in our bonus

segment for Slate Plus members, the Culture Gab Fest, Stephen Metcalf, will join us for a Jets

Kovetch. Joining me in Washington, D.C., Stefan Fatsis, the author of the book's Word Freak and A Few Second of Panic and the Friday Sports Correspondent for NPR as all things considered. Hello, Stefan. Hello, Josh. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, Stefan. What do they celebrate on Canadian Thanksgiving? What are they thankful for in Canada? They have a lot to be thankful for. They've got the National Health Healthcare. They've got the Rouge. The ones who aren't Maple Leafs fans have that. They've got a lot of great comedians. They have flames and Canucks and al-Aweets. You know what Lifehouse is? They have Rough Riders. Do they still have Rough Riders? Or was that one of the... And the Rough Riders. They have either the rough riders or the rough riders. Oh, sorry. I don't know why.

I felt... They have rough riders. Do they still have rough riders? Or was that one of the... And the rough riders. They have either the rough riders or the rough riders. Oh, sorry. I don't know why. I thought Lifehouse was... Maybe Lighthouse. Oh, Lighthouse is the Canadian band. Lifehouse is American. My pen. And I think Rouge has... I think the Rouge has its own day. Rouge day. In November. It's actually an hour every regular day. It's the day when you expand the clock, so there's 25 hours in that day, and they give that extra hour to the room. I think it's just a minute, isn't it? Yeah, the Rouge man. Just a little bit, the Rouge. Hey, Mike. Hey, what's up, man? Hey, thanks for being here. Sure. Thanks for having me. So I was trying to bait you there because I heard you on here now last week. And the host said thank you. And you said, you're welcome. Right. Which I thought was a little bit like weird. It struck me as weird. This is a, this is an NPR topic of conversation. Isn't it, Mike Pasco, whether you should say thank you back? I usually say thank you back. I always say thank you back. But Mike said you're welcome, and I wanted to interrogate him about that. Sure. I've had many discussions about this in my entire history of doing what we call two ways on the radio. I mistakenly, weekly, rouge ways, as they call them in Canada.

I said, thank you once. I always say you're welcome, and I get congratulated on it by the exact

sort of people who tear me apart for my usual mispronunciations of things. But yeah, I always say

you're welcome. To me, it's become my signature sign-off.

Well, why did you say-

By doing things the right way, we do it the right way here. I say you're welcome the way it was meant to be said. Why did you say thanks for having me when I just said, thanks? Because we weren't done with the conversation. Oh, all right. Yeah. Like if I say, if you in the beginning said, okay, Mike, thanks for being on.

I'd say, yeah, no problem or it's my pleasure or whatever.

But at the end, to... Oh, all right. Yeah. Like if I say, if you in the beginning said, okay, Mike, thanks for being on, I'd say,

yeah, no problem or it's my pleasure or whatever. But at the end, to button it, thank you, you're welcome. Well, a lot of thought has gone into this. Sure. But there's also a deference thing. I mean, I've thought about this. I always say reflexively say thank you back. I don't say thank you back. So then it's not a thought.

It's a reflection.

It's a reflection.

But I thought about it's not a thought.

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