799: The Lives of Others
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A quick warning, there are curse words that are unbearped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org. From WBEZChicago, it's this American life. I'm Lily Sullivan sitting in for Ira Glass. A while back, we got an email from a listener in a small town in Utah. He wrote, "It seems like half the town has a huge elementary school-style crush on a local veterinarian." And I wanted to know, could this be real? So I flew to Utah, and I went to the place people would know a local vet, the dog park. Hey, do I ask you guys a question? I'm only thinking of a radio story about a vet who works here in town named Dr. Art? Yeah, like Art's the Heart's Throb. I thought it'd take me a long time to assess this. It didn't. I think different women in town thought he was very attractive. That's what I heard. Very attractive, yes. Everybody talks about the cute vet in town. Everybody says that about him. I mean, I'm not in the Dr. Art's, but I'd say he's looking pretty good. No, he's hot, but he's totally upstanding, he would never. But yeah, he's hot, for sure. Did you just say sorry to your husband? Yeah. My husband, he was first at her. Most of these people, it wasn't even their vet, though I did talk to someone who knows him as her vet. I tell you her name, but she asked that she, and her dogs, remained anonymous. Everybody knows Dr. Art's is a hunk. I refer to him as McDreamy, he's just so cute. Her husband, Jim, was fine with me using his name because Dr. Art says I know who he is because his wife always volunteers to take their dogs to the vet herself, alone. So where I really realized, I think this is the moment I realized that it was a serious crush, I guess we were dating. We had been dating long enough that we were already living in a house together and she was at this work training and she called me and I was at home and she said, "I need you to log into my computer because I need you to send over a file that I need for this training." And you okay with me telling this story? Okay. His wife nods and squeezes her eyes shut. She puts her face in her hands. And it's like, "Okay, cool." And I asked her, I was like, "So I got on to her computer and I think I had to log into her email." I was like, "So what's your email password?" And she goes, "Oh shit." And like, "What's the deal?" And she's just waiting and she goes quiet for a moment. She's like, "The password is Dr. Art's for life." Like a teenage girl, Dr. Art's number four L-Y-F-E.
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