This week, the nerds talk gambling tech. Which reminded Marc of a time he was walking to work in Japan and passed a man in a pachinko parlor feeding the machine and smoking his cigarette. Eight hours later...same seat, same man, and a whole lot more cigarettes. Our song is about that man. Here's to you chain-smoking pachinko parlor gambling man.

[Verse 1]
Shutters rattle up at nine
I'm the first one through the door
There you are, old friend of mine
Waitin' like the day before

[Pre-Chorus]
Folks rush by, they got no clue
They don't know you like I do

[Chorus]
I'm still here (still here)
By your side, old friend
Nowhere else to be
You and me until the end
I'm still here (still here)

[Verse 2]
Ashtray's filling up by two
Lunch crowd's gone around the bend
All my silver goes to you
That's the way you treat a friend

[Chorus]
I'm still here (still here)
By your side, old friend
Nowhere else to be
You and me until the end
I'm still here (still here)

[Bridge]
Ain't no gamblin', just a game
All I win's a little prize
Diff'rent window, diff'rent name
Turns to cash, and no surprise

[Verse 3]
Same folks walkin' home at eight
Phone's been ringin' half the day
Let it ring, they'll have to wait
You and me, we're here to stay

[Final Chorus]
Lord, I'm still here (still here)
By your side, old friend
Nowhere else I'd go
You and me until the end
I'm still here (still here)

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss the history of technology, and what it teaches us about now.

email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com

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In 1608 a Dutch spectacle maker put two lenses in a tube to spot enemy ships, and the government wouldn’t even give him a patent. Four hundred years later the same idea is a ten-billion-dollar gold mirror a million miles from home, catching light older than the Earth. Renee and Marc follow the glass from Galileo to Webb: telescopes held up with string, a mirror polished perfectly to the wrong shape, and Renee’s forty-year grudge against a smudge.

We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes.

Join Renee and Marc as they discuss the history of technology, and what it teaches us about now.

email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com

Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.

Merch is available on the site too. It helps cover the cost of the podcast.

For this week's episode Marc and Renee look to the sky. Big fans of telescopes and astronomy the Nerds run through the history and future of astronomical instruments. Humble beginnings as tools for naval intelligence to instruments that peer into the very beginning of time.

So, our song this week is about that longing to see farther that you can with your eye and the desire to see the heavenly bodies more clearly. Lyrics below.

[Verse 1]
Lay me down in the cool night grass
Mama gazing way up high
That one's a world just like ours
Just a light up in the sky

[Pre-Chorus]
Only little lights
Only tiny sparks
Twinkle through the night
Hiding in the dark

[Chorus]
I want to see farther (see farther)
Farther than the eye
I want to see clearer (see clearer)
Clear across the sky

[Verse 2]
Held the glass up to my eye
Jupiter came swimming in
Four small moons were at his side
Saturn wore a silver ring

[Pre-Chorus]
Oh, I never knew
All that waited there
Hiding in the blue
Hanging in the air

[Chorus]
I want to see farther (see farther)
Farther than the eye
I want to see clearer (see clearer)
Clear across the sky

[Bridge]
Every light I'm looking at
Left before my mama's day
Some of them burned out and gone
Still they're shining down my way
Lookin' back (lookin' back)
A long, long way

[Final Chorus - key change]
I want to see farther (see farther)
Farther, far away
I want to see clearer (see clearer)
Clear to yesterday

[Outro]
Farther (farther)
Farther than the eye

We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes.

Join Renee and Marc as they discuss the history of technology, and what it teaches us about now.

email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com

Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.

Merch is available on the site too. It helps cover the cost of the podcast.