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#181 Crossing The Streams is White HOT (Bonus Ep37) – Great TV binge watching suggestions!

Need TV binge suggestions? You’ve come to the right place. We’ve got you covered.

In this bonus episode we discuss a few great binge suggestions:

  • Turning Point: 911 and the War on Terror (from live ep 40)
  • White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch (from live ep 71)
  • Prey (from live ep 84)

Crossing the Streams originated on this podcast in episodes 8 and 15. My idea was to record friends freely discussing TV shows (and movies) they binge on one of the many, many streaming services we all subscribe to.

Jeff Dwoskin is joined by Howard Rosner, Ron Lippitt, Bob Philips, and Sal Demilio are your co-hosts and we’re joined weekly by special guests.

The assignment? We each come to the show with a TV binge suggestion. It might be a series, movie, or documentary but we’ll give you the scoop so you can decide for yourself whether or not to dive in.

Each segment is pulled from a show and shared as is in all its LIVE goodness.

Join us LIVE every Wednesday at 9:30 PM ET / 8:30 PM CT

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/CTSYouTubeSubscribe

Follow "Classic Conversations" on your fav podcast app!

CTS Announcer 0:01

Looking for your next TV show or movie to binge? Well buckle up, grab the remote and settle into your couch for this special edition of crossing the streams. We're here to help you tune in and get the most out of those 50 monthly streaming channels you're currently paying for. So without any further ado, here's your host of crossing the streams. Jeff Dwoskin.

Jeff Dwoskin 0:30

Hey, oh, it is Jeff Dwoskin host of classic conversations and crossing the streams. What is crossing the streams is where we answer the universal question. What should I be binging next, I just finished something. And now I gotta watch something else. crossing the streams is here. We got your back tons of amazing streaming binging recommendations for you. These bonus episodes are segments from our live show, which is every Wednesday at 9:30pm. Eastern time you can join us live on our YouTube channel. We have over 90 hours of TV binge watching suggestions. These are segments from those shows. So if you don't have time to do that, you just sit here and we put it right into your ears for you. Today we have segments from Episode 4071 and 84 Turning Point 911 and the war on terror a great documentary white hot the rise and fall of amber Comrie Finch and pretty sure I said that wrong. And from Episode 84 prey the Hulu original movie, it's a matter of fact, let's kick off with prey. This is brought to us by frequent guests to the show Tony Berardo and Zach Wiseman, take it away guys. Patient going because we're gonna go to pray just a new movie on Hulu, Hulu, with our friend Tony B. explain to everyone what this movie is.

Tony Berardo 1:56

Yeah, so let me say this first off if you don't know what this is about, that's okay. That's how good of a origin story this is. You know, I dragged my I've seen every Predator movie from the yo G with schools nega to the ridiculous, remakes that as alien versus predator and recreate them and all that bullshit that they did. And that was just kind of a studio trying to take advantage of a name, right? Like they do with most movies. But this I thought was, if I could be so bold, I think this might be one of my favorite movies in the past two years year, like one of my favorite like top five, it's overall. Again, just a great origin story that doesn't waste time on an origin story. If that makes sense. If you if you don't know anything about predator, it's this massive alien creature that usually goes to planets and as kind of a orientation, so to speak with the rest of the Covenant, they drop off this predator to hunt and to find the most dangerous, primal predator on that planet. And Its job is to take down that predator. So essentially, the predator is to be the top dog of that planet. And that is like your initiation into this alien usually, like, it's portrayed, like in comics and things like that of the predator is a teenager, essentially, in the alien world to get dropped off various summer how they did in Roman times where they would take a Roman child, leave him out alone. And if he comes back to the Empire that he's you know, he's a man now and he could take over the kingdom one day, that's the kind of like, in a nutshell what the predator is. But when you first watch it, this one's actually a true origin story, it's placed thinking like 1700 were Comanches. And I forget the other tribes, but you know, this is way back in the day, you know, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, which the only criticism I have of this movie is, I feel like they spoke really good English for paying Comanches. But Go Go ahead, Zack.

Zack Wiseman 3:55

I don't know if you know this. But when the heat pit when the director pitched this, he pitched it to be completely in Comanche. So he hired people that spoke straight Comanche. And it was supposed to be that way. And Hulu said, No,

Tony Berardo 4:06

I did read that. And I thought that was kind of bullshit. Because I'm like, why would Hulu because I feel like the blowback would be even worse, which surprisingly, I haven't seen any blowback where people are like, Oh, that doesn't make any sense. Yeah, did people probably like Well, I hate reading subtitles. So I guess that's it is but I thought overall, they did a very good job in keeping with the Comanche culture, if you know anything about it. And again, the whole idea of in parallel, which it's kind of underlining in the movie, which I think is pretty genius without mentioning it as they're kind of like the predator and the Comanche warrior, which is played by Amber Mindhunter, who she's been a legion, stuff like that. But they're kind of parallel characters in the sense of like, they're trying to prove themselves, which is interesting, but they never mentioned it in the story because she is like the only a woman in the tribe that is a really good tracker, but no one takes her seriously. No one wants to bring her along on these hunts. So she's kind of in her own way, trying to prove herself and then long sort of short spoiler, she ends up going head to head with the predator and some wicked stuff happens along the way. So overall, I thought that character build up was great, but I really appreciated how they didn't mention predators origin story, it starts off kind of the predator gets dropped on this planet ESEM a lot of the invisibility cloak, pretty much the entire movie. And there's this massive reveal where you think he's gonna be like this animatronic, weird looking like you've seen in other predator movies in the past decade, where it's very cheesy looking. But no, this is like, he looks like a teenage predator like he's, he's fit. He's, he knows the, he knows how to track. He's almost kind of like a Comanche and the Predator world. It's just very well done in terms of that, because you appreciate that origin story. But also, you know that he's there to hunt. He's taken down animals left and right, but they don't mention it. You understand. They don't talk about that. But if you don't know anything about predator, you get it though from the storytelling. And my wife has never seen a Predator movie, or an alien movie, which we're working on working her up to that she's got a godfather and Goodfellas and stuff first, that's top priority. But she she hasn't seen predator at all. And she walked out of this movie, like, that's a really great movie. Like she had no other thoughts except for I enjoyed that. I love the character build up there was there was sadness, there was intrigue, there was curiosity, really good action scenes, I think there could have been a little bit more. But that's the great thing I think about an origin story is you get the build up a little bit with some great action. And then I think they already greenlit a sequel, and I'm sure there's going to be, you know, out of 90 minutes, there's going to be 60 minutes of action scenes in the sequel. So overall, I mean, I think it was great. I think you got a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, which they're usually wrong on a lot of stuff. But I think they're pretty on point. And it's got 88% on Google reviews. So overall, just great movie, I mean, highly recommend, if you got Hulu, I definitely would watch it for sure.

Zack Wiseman 6:51

Now, if you're if you're on Hulu, you can switch the language to be in Comanche. And that was the very first time I've ever seen this. So I actually watched prey twice, because I watched it the first time as is. And halfway through. I don't know how I got to this. But like, oh, you can put it on Comanche. So when I watched a second time in Comanche, I will say it's a it's a better movie, because it has like a cooler, like foreign vibe to it. So like you don't know the Comanches. And you also don't know the predator. And I think that was very, very clever that they did that. And I agree with you. You know, if you do know that the original predator, it does a really interesting thing. When you call it original predator. It's like, Wait, what are these gorilla people doing like in the woods? Why are they skinning people and then the alien, where this is the same thing. We're like, you get this thing. It's like, oh, there's these French people that are just doing some dumb shit here. And you're like, okay, cool. Now I get it. And then it's like the predator and he is primal. And like the bones. And for the first time, I realized, like, the sound design of this movie is so beautiful, like the sound fit. Like when that hatchet hits, like any piece of wood, or anything like that, I I've never been so like, enthralled by the sound of a movie. But I will say if you've seen this movie, try watching it again in Comanche and see if you'd like it a little better, because I thought it was very, very,

Tony Berardo 8:03

that's interesting. I didn't know that. That's incredible. And you know, I just on the point of language barriers and stuff, you know, the the French tribe. Again, I thought that was really interesting how they did because they, they were having conversations for two minutes, and there was no subtitles, but you understood through context and storytelling and their mannerisms, what it was, and it was, again, it was very there's the little details like you said, with the sound stuff like the hatchet like, yeah, like if you watch this thing on a surround sound Oh,

Zack Wiseman 8:32

it did you watch the very, very end, like during the credits, there's like this cave painting, and it shows the aliens coming back in. So it's like, alright, they're definitely setting us up for a sequel. So I'm super excited. I thought it was really, really cool and well paced movie. And by

Tony Berardo 8:46

the way, let's end it with this. It was on Hulu, and it wasn't in the theaters at all. And this was a great movie. Like Hulu. Okay, this is not HBO Max, I get it. But I mean, Hulu, they came strong. They come strong with a lot of stuff. But original content. Yeah, it's a movie. It's very rare. And I think

Zack Wiseman 9:03

that's one and there are I mean, you could tell where the budget lacks a little bit like some of the animals and see John's like I was a little cartoony but overall beautiful story. Well, well, well done.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:16

All right. That was pray for him. Episode 84 of crossing the streams. Thank you, Joanie and Zack now we're gonna go way back to Episode 40 with turning point 911 And the War on Terror Ron elimite is going to take us through this documentary take it away Ron. lighten things up here and 8.9 11 in the war on terror. Yeah. So long shadow.

Ron Lippitt 9:42

I thought it was appropriate given this week and I'm sorry to end on on a dark night you guys because it is it is a dark chapter that's reflected on Netflix and Netflix continues to do a great job with with Docu series and documentaries in general. And here we are, again, this one turning point 911 and the war on terror is It's a five part Docu series directed by Brian knappenberger, who's pretty well, known documentarian. It's an examination of 911. And listen, there are some fantastic 911 documentaries out there. So I am not at all suggesting that this is in any way a better replacement for some of the great 911 Docu series that have been out there, like the net Gao, and there was a frontline version. And there's there's been some great documentaries out about the events of 911. But that's not what this is what I really think is powerful about this, it is a documentary that focuses more on the lead up and the conditions that created 911. And the moment that America changed, not because just because of the attacks, I'm not talking about that I'm talking about that up until 911 focus was the residual Cold War that existed between US and Russian and the superpower race and, and the economic race that was going on, and American materialism that was just booming through the 80s and 90s. And 911 changed the American system, particularly of how we view threats into from what went you know, from a cold war mentality to now a fundamentalist terrorism mentality. And that represented an absolute shock to the system for the United States defense mechanism, but also a shift to the to the political world about of how we ascertain threats and respond to them in a modern world post 911. That's what this documentary focuses on. And I will tell you, the five parts the first to focus specifically on how poorly we miscalculated the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the arming of the Mujahideen and that and the rebels that Osama bin Laden helped to fund and to build a coalition against which formed the base for al Qaeda. And we so poorly miscalculated religious fundamentalism versus nationalism, America is so set on nationalism where we are America with our Russia, we believe that that's the race and the truth is the Islamic extremism and fundamentalism. That's a completely different game that they're playing than that we were prepared for that we didn't understand that we miscalculated, and frankly, right under our noses allowed Osama bin Laden and his organization and folks that were right here in the United States to exist and thrive and build and create the threat that right until the very end right up to 911. We had underestimated I will tell you just having lived through 911, as we all have at the time, as an American, I can't say that I ever like I wasn't seeing news flashes on NBC News or whatever, saying, Hey, we're about to be attacked. Or we knew about the the extremism, or excuse me the attacks and you know, Kenya and Tanzania and the attack on the USS Cole. But those were someplace else, we never considered that attack on the homeland. Right? It never crossed any of our minds. And it was so bold and so complicated and well designed. And you hate saying that about about a terror group. But but it really was. And so that's what's interesting about this documentary is it's not a very good documentary when it comes to the events of 911 itself. But it is an excellent documentary about talking about the conditions left by the United States, in Afghanistan and other places that allowed al Qaeda to build into what it became, frankly, fundamentalism everywhere in the world that still exists today. And that's that's the turning point for the United States. And it's probably more true today than it ever has been. So it's worthwhile. It's,

Bryan Green 13:43

it's, I'm sold. I'm sold, I want to watch it. Do they talk about the power vacuum that's left in Iraq after the first you know, 100 passionate war and the conditions upon which the okay, you

Ron Lippitt 13:55

know, so they talked very specifically about how Osama bin Laden capitalized on the apparent the imperialist view of us going into, you know, traditional Islamic lands like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, in response to Saddam Hussein. I mean, it's a worst case scenario, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait was exactly what Osama bin Laden and other fundamentalists needed to be able to point a finger at the US and coalition forces to be able to say, look, this is what we're talking about Western forces in Islamic lands, subjugating us and taking our resources. And that's, that's, that's at the core of it. So I've seen,

Bryan Green 14:29

I've seen so much footage, and we've seen so many documentaries in so many different ways and perspectives and angles about 911. Since the attacks and we're coming up on the 30th anniversary is 20th anniversary, excuse me. It leaves a mark every time that you watch those events. I don't think any American that was alive at that time or of a certain age at that time is ever going to forget because we are emotionally jarred right back to it. Every time we see those planes at that tower or every time we see Rudy Giuliani standing with a megaphone or GA You know, George Bush up there, whatever the image is for you in your own head that really got to you on that particular day or those events. But I find this super fascinating because I think that if we don't learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat the same events. I think it was a shock to the system even after the World Trade Center was bombed once by a similar fundamentalist organization. We still missed all of the warning signs for the second larger attack, they came to finish the job right. And we missed all of the warning signs.

Ron Lippitt 15:31

It is interesting because they they had behind the scenes footage from the White House and Oh, interesting sidenote, when 911 happened they didn't know where to take President Bush like they talked about that like on the day of like they had nowhere to take him they took him to Nebraska they took him to like they knocked him around different air force bases until they decided Washington was was safe didn't

Bryan Green 15:52

stay in the air for for six or seven hours he did

Ron Lippitt 15:55

he was he was in the air for quite a bit so that was interesting. But you know another interesting thing was they were talking about something like this unifies the country unified the Congress which is already a very fractured place to be but but here we are you know, we're Americans we all no one's republican or democrat anymore, but what became a fight was and I remember this partly was how much power to give President Bush unilaterally how much more power do you give a guy to attack and and now who do you attack like because this was a this is a terrorist group like so you know, they they of course went after the you know, the Taliban and those who harbored you know that in but But it became a bigger issue of this is going to come off as the West attacking Islam and they knew that so there was politics involved with this and and listen not to get into any politics here on this on this podcast, but for better or for worse, Maxine Waters was the only person in Congress to say I'm against giving on measured powers to President Bush to attack whoever he wants and that was an interesting thing she took a lot of courage she got a lot of death threats for that and it turned out you know what she might have been right you know, it's depending on your view on it so it

Jeff Dwoskin 17:08

is let's save some for the people as they can watch Yeah,

Ron Lippitt 17:11

yeah, but please check it check it out. Not for it's not for the it's attack documentary aspects of it but more about how it built into it. Enjoy it

Jeff Dwoskin 17:24

all right, Ryan, thank you so much for that thoughtful review of turning point up next from Episode 71 white hat the rise and fall of amber calm Bri Finch Sal demitted I was gonna take us through this one take it away. So let's see what you do no sound

Bob Phillips 17:42

I need to know why you chose this

Jeff Dwoskin 17:45

talk about white hot the rise and fall of amber cambrie and

Ron Lippitt 17:54

this should be a show is getting words in front of Jeff

Sal Demilio 17:57

this is this is a big moment and crossing the streams Jeff get the tomato sauce jars ready seems I'm making a I'm making my my review final before I do the review. And this is why I'm giving it five tomato sauce jars right now. And the only reason I'm doing this is because every single person in the United States needs to watch this documentary and here's why. It's not about Abercrombie and Fitch Abercrombie and Fitch is just the widget in this story. albrighton agrees with me this this is a crystal ball. This documentary is a crystal ball into what we are experiencing now in our today's society, with our social media, with racism, with diversity with with divisiveness, everything this documentary has that but in the night it was in the 90s and it's just it's just all there. Let me explain so Abercrombie and Fitch is a it's a obviously a clothing store. It started in 1892 with literally two guys named Abercrombie and Fitch and then through the the 20s and all that it was it was just an outdoorsman type of brand it was like almost like today's Cabela's actually the first spokes person for this brand was Theodore Roosevelt, the president, which is hysterical because of what it became I'm actually trying to write a bit about this frickin thing right now. So anyway, that's how it was it was just a outfitters fishing rods and that sort of thing. And then it was bought and sold and I don't want to get into all that but then in the early 90s It was purchased or in 78 it was purchased by a company called the limited which which got it to more of retail department stores and that's when a guy by the name of Mike Jeffries took it over and made it that Abercrombie and Fitch that we all know and a lot of people are probably watching no and it just was based on sex it was based on obviously guys with their shirts off and guys with their shirts off working at the pool. laces. This Mike Jeffries actually was a genius. He knew how to make this about wearing this to be to be cool. And he did it by putting these hot models in the stores. The stores were crazy. I don't know if you remember going into mall? I literally went outside. I never went in those. I did. I did. I did. I actually went in there and spent about 30 seconds in there. Because when I asked the sales or one of those guys with their shirts off, I said, Do you have a 44? Long? One of your things. The guy looked at me like what are you crazy.

Sal Demilio 20:35

But if you remember the stores in the mall, they had shutters on night club. Well, that was all done on purpose. It's an interesting company, how they became so big and they were they were big. And I know some of my co workers here on the podcast know what it is to work for a company where your sales are just through the roof every month, I worked for a company that our sales were good and when sales are good. The sales people for that company, reap the benefits. And Abercrombie and Fitch did it right they almost did it. They are probably the first ones to do what like companies in Silicon Valley are doing now. It's literally their headquarters is called a campus and they're from somewhere in Ohio, near Columbus, Ohio is where they're headquartered in New Albany, literally, they showed their offices in the 90s. And good footage on here of just these designers and people that work for the company just partying all night, they would literally stay on campus where their headquarters and just think of stuff to make and guys we're going out in recruiting models for their stores recruiting ad people it was so it was so sexist, you can't get you can't get away with the kinds of things that this company did in the 90s. And they just were getting bigger and bigger. And then the first the first little bit of canceled culture happened in about I think it was 2003. And they started making these crazy I don't know if you remember there used to make like these crazy shirts with crazy sayings on them. They were so so racist. I mean, using Asian terms of one of them I just repeating what was on the documentary, but one of the ones that got this Asian blogger to go nuts, and that's how I first kind of the first canceled culture app and one of the shirts they made and it was one of their best sellers. It was just just, you know, again, Asian demographics or Asian people on the shirt. And it just said it was like a stupid thing about if Asian people had a laundry mat called to Wong's won't make it or two wolves will make it white. That was the thing that those unsure of that. And it was it was just unbelievable. Imagine. Yeah, and then one blogger have one of those teachers, it one blogger started it, and then the you know, the floodgates opened. And that's what I'm saying. It was like the early signs of the canceled culture, early signs of having more diversity in our commercials and, and all that. So anyway, it shows all that it shows the success of the company, and then it shows the kind of the demise of the company. Actually, it's still it's still it's still going on today. It's a smaller company now, but they just kind of cater to older people. And obviously they cleaned up their, their profile, and it took years to do that. But they're not as big as they used to be. I don't know, I probably skipped over a lot of stuff. But Ron, if you want to put your input, but yeah, yeah, well, the malls to that was sorry, I wouldn't cut you off. But malls were huge in their success. Because, again, there was no internet now we just go to Instagram to see styles and all that. But we weren't going to malls and stuff. And that's where Abercrombie and Fitch became so huge because it was such an event for 14 year old girls to go to the mall and shop at Abercrombie and Fitch and anyway Ron, I'd love to hear your input. It was I think it was amazing. I think it was really something everybody should watch.

Ron Lippitt 23:40

It's a super interesting documentary. There's no doubt and you see it through the lens of today's standards and the the whole you know, all of the social consciousness and the me to movement and all these things that that are out there that you think that could How could that have been possible, but it wasn't that long ago that it actually was possible. They talked a lot about, you know whether they said it or not what they were selling was exclusivity correct. They want they wanted you to feel like you were being you were part of something that was exclusive, and they even went so far as talking about the people that worked in these retail establishments. They didn't care if they sold or not. They didn't care what their numbers were they only wanted them to be hot and the monthly reviews were not sales tallies. But were the managers required to list all of the all the employees and basically ranking them at how hot they are.

Sal Demilio 24:32

Just crazy crazy stuff that

Ron Lippitt 24:35

they decided whether to keep people or not. And there were no people of color and they profiled one of this young lady beautiful, beautiful African American girl who the only shifts they would give her were like after hours to clean up the store when nobody was there. Yeah, right.

Unknown Speaker 24:50

Yard ships

Sal Demilio 24:53

ended up being parked on Wall Street that

Jeff Dwoskin 24:55

making it sound bad but let me say when I worked there When I was one of those hot models, making my way I was recruited from tape world.

Ron Lippitt 25:12

So I remember, I remember very well the two ones make will make a white scandal. I remember that scandal very well. But I remember before that scandal, they gotten a lot of trouble with one of their catalogs, one of their catalogs. That's right. I remember that he sexualized children.

Bob Phillips 25:32

That's what it was. That's what it was. Yeah. They didn't talk about that in the documentary

Sal Demilio 25:38

glazed over it just a little bit, because they talked about the catalog. But it was very, very quickly.

Ron Lippitt 25:42

They got a lot of trouble for that catalog. And I remember they, and they talked a lot about that photographer whose name Sally and I'm blanking on, there was just one photographer that did all of their catalog work, like a decade. And he was famous, but also a famous, like, basically, they profiled as like a pedophile. And he would put these kids in just really tough situations. And you know, and essentially, if it were

Unknown Speaker 26:07

still around, they didn't get put out of

Sal Demilio 26:09

business. Well, there's no other run by different people. Mike Jeffries left. I mean, he again, this is this is when you couldn't come out of the closet back then. But he was a guy that was married, but he was, you know, obviously gay, just in the closet. And they actually him and this I forgot the other guy's name, but actually hit on a lot of the a lot of the models. And I remember they had the one model on there, they kind of talked to a lot of people that worked at the company or models. And this one model was like, Yeah, Jeffrey's wanted me to come to his hotel suite, and you know, just to go over some stuff. And he's like, Yeah, I'm okay. I you know, I just think I'm just gonna go to my own room. And he's just like, No, no, you need to come to my room and I need to try sub Manju and Baba but he's just like, Nah, I think I'm gonna stick and the next day is fire me the guy just got fired. Your services won't be needed no reason no nothing. He was one of the guys that was involved in lawsuits. So real interesting documentary I highly recommend again

Ron Lippitt 27:05

now I can I just say one more thing they were talking about. One of the featured writers who were right was writing exercises about Abercrombie. I think for the New Yorker magazine she was talking about, there's a concept that you can't burn too hot. If you if you're white hot, you'll net it's not sustainable. Right. And the whole concept of exclusivity, they were talking about how that's that that's just not sustainable. You can't it burns white hot, and then you die, right. And I kept thinking about it through the lens of social media and Facebook, because if you guys saw the social network and read about the founding of Facebook, that was also built on exclusivity designed to Yeah, to create exclusivity amongst you and your friends and the network's people.

Sal Demilio 27:51

Yeah, so I forgot which guy it was. I know we're running out of time here. One guy I think he was like a photographer. He said the moment I knew it was almost like that Steve Martin quote when he said there was one seat in the back you know, it was almost that quote The guy said, I knew we were gonna go downhill when forever we were always we were always regarded as the cool the cool kid close, but in one of the Tobey Maguire Spider Man's they had a guy like the you guys know that movie more than me but the guy that beat up people to bully he was wearing Abercrombie and Fitch throughout the whole movie that's when I knew we were gonna go downhill because the bully was wearing our clothes not that

Bob Phillips 28:33

I thought it was when they started selling 44 Long's

Jeff Dwoskin 28:41

I'll make all I'll call Bingo Bango. All right, Sal says definitely check out that documentary. Yeah, that you got Bray. Yeah, turning point. 911 so much. Don't want to keep Yeah, go grab that favorite spot here is on the couch, secure the remote cross your own streams, and we'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 29:07

Thanks for listening to this special edition of crossing the streams. Visit us on YouTube for full episodes and catch us live every Wednesday at 9:30pm Eastern time. Now turn this off and go watch some TV. And don't forget to tell your family. Yeah, I'll be busy for a while.

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