Phantom pickleball noise is haunting Mobile, and one resident says the popping just won’t stop.
Plus: AI hallucinations land a Mobile lawyer in hot water, another Amtrak crash, Baldwin County investigators identify a 30-year-old cold case victim, and Alabama’s attorney general race gets even weirder.
All this and more by smashing the play button...
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The Mobile City Council recently voted to spend nearly $30,000 on quilt panels to dampen pickleball noises at Lavretta Park after a neighbor c…
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[0:10] Welcome to this week's episode of Lagnapod. I'm your host, Rob Holbert. Everybody else sign off here. I'm Ashley Trice. Graham McLaughlin. This is Scott Johnson. And I'm Kyle Hamrick. All right, Kyle Hamrick. You had probably the most important story of the week. That's right. Or the most shocking one, at least. There is some sort of hallucination
[0:35] associated with pickleball. Yeah, that's right. It's called phantom pickleball noise. Anthem pickleball noise, which I didn't know about. This is something we learned about here, you know. That's where, you know, you've been so exposed to pickleball. Yes. That you hear the popping of the balls against the rackets, even when games are not being played. You hear that pickle pop no matter what. Yes. Yeah, it just keeps going. So describe where this came, where did you learn about this? I was unsuspecting standing at the city council meeting.
[1:14] There's this one woman who lives near Lavretta Park. Right. They have a big pickleball complex there. Right. And she sent a letter to the city council, which is unusual for someone to like.
[1:28] Not go and speak to the council, but to send in a statement. Right. And she told the council that the pickleball courts near her home, near LaVretta Park, have caused her some anguish and have caused her to seek some medical treatment for stress, anxiety, trauma that goes into- They're ruining her life. They are ruining her life. And it all goes into this phantom pickleball noise syndrome where she has heard these people play it so much pickleball that she can't get the popping out of it. Now, this would be something you might say, okay, somebody made this up. But. No, it's a real thing. The, the acoustical society of the United States. The acoustical society of the United States. Into this phenomenon here and found that there is indeed such a thing as phantom pickleball noise. Too much pickleball noise. If you live too close to a pickleball court, you could lose your mind. And...
[2:33] It said that the noises could get so bad that you can get depressed. Yeah. You might have some suicidal thoughts. It's quite a pickle. It's very bad. There we go. Sorry. Yeah. Had to go full grandpa on that one. It's a lot of racket. A lot of racket from pickleball. After the city council heard this, I mean, they had an item on the agenda to put up some quilted buffers. Some quilted buffers. $30,000 for quilted dampers. So is it just going to be at this pickleball court or are they installing these mufflers, these pickleball mufflers throughout the city? Well, to begin with, we're going to solve the Lavretta Park, the phantom of the park here. We're going to solve that with the buffers for $30,000 and then we're going to move on to the rest of them. This is something I never would have expected. Well, I see y'all giggling about this. Have you ever been there nonstop? It's annoying AF. I mean, so many things are, though. I mean, you know, I mean. It is. You know, there's this thing called light noise. At a baseball park, you're not hearing pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. You hear maybe hear pop. Or ping.
[3:51] And then you'll just hear the parents start cussing. I get it. But, you know, I mean, it just doesn't seem. It seems like something that could easily be defeated with a little bit of white noise. I have a good idea. Remove all of the pickleball courts. That's right. There's an unpopular opinion. Yes. Turn them back into the tennis courts. Please address your comments to Ashley Trice. A. Trice at LanyardMobile.com. I'll stand by them as a tennis family. While the city council is fining $30,000 for pickleball. Can they find 30 grand for the potholes on my street? That'd be great. Just wanted to put that out there. That's not as important.
[4:25] Well, you have to come up with the phantom or the actual pothole syndrome. You need to have some sort of pothole PTSD. The phantom of the pickleball court. I thought that might be our intro video. Can tennis give you phantom tennis syndrome where all you're hearing is, ah! No. Whatever the noises they make when they share a pova. So, so here's, here's today's best segue. So speaking of phantoms, you, Scott, you had a story about an attorney who has had a bunch of phantom stuff in his legal briefs that he's gotten in trouble. Legal briefs sound like something he's wearing, but it's not, but he's, um, and it's fruit of the looms, but he's, no, he's, he has gotten in trouble with the Alabama Supreme Court for using AI. Yeah. If with phantom legal references and citations.
[5:16] Yeah, to get to say in trouble is might be an understatement. I mean, this guy's blasted. This mobile attorney, his name is Perry Hall. I've never heard of him. But he is just they make an example out of he's become the poster boy for using AI and and putting. I mean, they went pretty off on him here. Apparently a full breakdown of every single citations, like 30 or more that was either misquoted, didn't exist, was inaccurate. Yeah. And then, you know, he comes back. Well, the other attorney pointed this out
[5:50] in this trust fund controversy that they're in. And he comes back and he apologizes for the error within the very same, you know, apology. And then also he's saying that I won't do this again. And that same footnote where he's apologizing, he references two more non-existent cases. And so this Greg Cook, associate justice, says, I don't know how this happens unless you're using AI to draft your apology. To write your apology. Yes. Yeah. So it's it's become an issue in legal circles. And when we've read stories about across the country with people doing this and lawyers coming into court and turning in legal briefs that have all sorts of false stuff that is written by AI.
[6:39] But apparently, so the justices think they really need a revamp of some of the rules and regulations in the state for the legal rules. Yeah, there was two justices, and that was kind of buried in these files where they're calling on the rules committees to, hey, we need to clear instructions on guidelines, et cetera, for what happens when these hallucinations show up. Because, I mean, right now it's pretty just broad like any other kind of issue or error that you make as an attorney. I mean, they went as far as to throw his client's case out of the wheel. Yeah, I was going to say. Which, I mean, that's the toughest thing you could do. You lose your case because your attorney did this. Yeah, that's the hard part is these people lost their case because of this. And so, I mean, the justices were pretty rough on him. And I wonder if it will catch anybody's attention not to do this anymore because it has happened quite a bit. They're very clear.
[7:40] They're clear to say that it's not because he used AI. It's because he misused AI and just basically let this legal author tool just fly off the wind and never checked it or anything. That's the thing. It's really not that hard to just tell AI, hey, provide the links, provide the sources, and then go check them and make sure that they're accurate. It's like, I don't know. It's an extra step. It is. Yeah. I mean, if you're making it by your whole career, cutting corners,
[8:08] not saying that anybody else is in this case, but it's an easy thing to do. Yeah. And then, um, we also this week had yet another train wreck involving Amtrak. Um, why is this happening so much that this was, this was a little different, I guess. Well, you know, things kind of went off the rails. Things kind of went off the rails.
[8:31] That's a great. Hey, he did it first. Uh, so, uh, this, I, I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that this was the first time. That's good. As a reporter, come in and maybe be wrong. I don't know. Well, it's nice to be transparent. This is the first time I've reported on one derailing, and it was because a truck that was trying to pass over a track, his trailer got stuck because he was hauling a bunch of vehicles and trains coming. So this was a little different because it wasn't somebody necessarily trying to beat the train as has happened. Or, you know, I think over in Mississippi, somebody actually ran into the side of the train that was going past already. But this was not a circumstance, it doesn't look like, where somebody was trying to just get in front of the train before it goes by and they just misjudged it. They got stuck on the track and then the train plowed into it. That's right, yeah. And there were a couple injuries reported. The truck driver is alive, but I believe he was taken to a hospital to treat some minor injuries. A couple people on the train were also complaining of having some injuries. But yeah this is maybe the fourth or fifth can you see Amtrak Amtrak.
[9:48] I don't know. Well, the train is just, I mean, the train's got nowhere to go. The train's just doing what trains do. The train's just doing what trains do. It gets federal. It's like, I just didn't. Maybe you sue the truck driver if you got to sue somebody, you know? Well, yeah. I mean, no, I just thought there is some federal over, I mean, do they? Yeah. Yeah. And there's always a question of. Let's ask chat GPT.
[10:16] There's always a question of whether or not the guardrails that are in front of a lot of these crossings are functioning that's something i believe we all ask um of the alabama law enforcement agency which investigates these wrecks or sorry these uh these crashes well i mean crashes collisions this one in particular that was it was too heavy and it just couldn't get its just got bogged down get over the track yeah it's it i don't it's kind of an amazing thing though that i guess how many accidents they've had so far and i'm completely pro amtrak and everything i i think it's doing great but obviously people have not adjusted the fact that there's a train going 70 miles an hour well um you guys were you guys were both reporters um back when this thing this train was still around um you know did you guys did you guys ever have to like routinely report on somebody getting hit by the amtrak train the only thing I remember Sunset Limited the only thing yeah the only thing I remember I was, the largest yeah I was working at the Mississippi Press when the Sunset Limited happened and was running out the door to go, cover it and my boss called me back and said Mobile's gonna cover it just let them do it but and I'm kind of glad I didn't go out there because it's pretty gruesome.
[11:31] Um, it was, uh, but I do remember that, but I don't remember there being a bunch of collisions, crashes, whatever's with, uh, Amtrak's prior to that. And there were no crossing guards in our neighborhood, in our area at all. There was nothing. So I don't know. It's, uh, people obviously aren't paying a lot of attention to it in general.
[11:51] We're going to take a quick break, folks. We're going to come back and talk a little bit more. We'll be right back.
[12:02] And we are back. Grant, you have this week's cover story and the blurry-looking photo on the cover of the paper that looks a little bit like Kramer from Seinfeld. Yeah, I never got that until you said it. I watched Seinfeld like twice. And then you said it and I was like— You're a youngster. You need to watch Seinfeld all the way through. It's the funniest sitcom ever made. But anyway. Yeah, I meant I watched it through twice. But yeah, so there was last week, there was a pretty big press conference over there in Baldwin County and where they had discovered the identity of a man whose skeletal remains were found in 1994, a long, long time ago.
[12:44] And naturally, I was just really curious how many of these cold cases, which he is one of, do we have in coastal Alabama? And it turns out we've got hundreds of them. From Mobile to Mobile County to Baldwin County. And Baldwin County actually has a dedicated cold case detective. Right. That's the guy who figured out who this guy is. Yeah. So, I mean, he was a part of a couple of investigators who had sent off these skeletal remains of the.
[13:16] James Carroll Jackson is his name. And he retired. And then Lowry, you know, asked him to come back to be their cold case detective. And he got this giant family tree from the genealogical study that they have done in Texas. And he was able to contact just a whole bunch of family members. He was talking with law enforcement agencies and private organizations from all over the U.S. To try to figure out this case. And it wasn't until like a cousin of this guy remembered who he was that he was able to actually put positively ID Jackson. It was interesting that like his grandkids don't remember him. Yeah, so this guy, you know, he really didn't make it easy for Clint because he was married twice and estranged from his first family who made up a good portion of those who were left alive. He sounds like he had a little bit of a rambling life. Yeah, yeah, yes, he did. He drove a really cool red Chevy Camaro.
[14:22] Smoked a now extinct brand of menthol cigarettes, loved his cowboy Western shirts. Like the weird Western shirts. Actually, it's pearl buttons. he reminds me a lot of my uncle bb uh i'm not even lying he he lives he lives in florida now but um the uh the whole thing with it you know i guess so they he came here to work on construction work on roads so he was um he was a type of welder where uh they lay in the foundations for roads anybody who knows anything about roads know that there's rebarb under that concrete And his job was to weld all that together. And it's not confirmed, but they believe that he was working on the I-65 expansion project. If you're around here in the 80s, that was a pretty big deal, multi-million to tens of millions of dollars project.
[15:15] So he wasn't here very long. So he was shot at some point, right? Yeah. So, I mean, with probably within two years of him moving here, he was shot somewhere. Clint is not saying where he was shot. And then he was just left in the woods. Um, they don't really know if he was shot in the woods or if that's just where they left the body, but he wasn't buried. Yeah. Uh, I mean, they just left him where he lied. He was found by a guy who stopped to take a piss. That is correct. That is correct. I believe there was, Clint said something during the press conference of, uh, you know, never had a man needing to urinate been so helpful. Yeah. So they found his body, but anyway, it's, it's a, it's a good story. There's, uh, you know, interesting stuff on, on these cold cases and, and, uh, you know, they're always fascinating to see something that's been, you know, somebody who's been dead for, you know, 30 plus years and, and they finally at least figure out who he is. And, you know, maybe there's a, maybe there's a murderer out there who's feeling a little less like they got away with it. And that's, that's the really, that's the most important part of it is, uh, if, unless somebody comes forward and gets out more information about, you know, what happened to him or the circumstances around his death, um, the case will again, go cold. Sure. Yeah. Well, it's a cool story and hopefully they can find it. I'd love to see the finish of it.
[16:38] Ash, you wrote this week about, Some of the political race is going on. We're in political season. Things are getting hot. We're only a few weeks now from the primary, and it's as usual. Some of the stuff is getting a little ridiculous. I think particularly the attorney general's race has gotten absolutely bizarre. Yes. And now, of course, I'm totally blanking on his name. What's his name? Jay Mitchell. Jay Mitchell. I don't know. I kept wanting to say it. He used to be on the Supreme Court. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Jay Mitchell's ads. I mean, the first time I heard one was a radio one and I just, he's got one that says, you can a la Ackmar your butt back to the Middle East if you're into radical Islam. And I was just like, is this like an SNL skit? I mean, it sounds like literally like something you would watch on SNL, like as a parody of a Southern politician. Yeah. Yeah. And not in a good way. No.
[17:36] But now it's real. And his other one that he had was basically like saying, you know, I'm not going to let, Mobile become Mexico and Birmingham become Baghdad. And like, are these things that are happening? I didn't know that these were possibilities. You know, I didn't really. I mean, I actually looked up the Muslim population in Alabama is 0.5%. Yeah. I really didn't know we were having a huge problem. Not real close to becoming an issue. I mean. He's made it the centerpiece of his campaign, basically. Yeah, but of course, you know, now that his opponent is fighting back or one of the PACs, I guess. Yes. I was saying that he was like involved with the president of Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan, yes. That they said he was involved with the president of Uzbekistan. And then he put out a press release saying that he's been fighting the president of Uzbekistan. I can't. Is it Uzbekistan? Yeah, it is Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan. Not to be confused with Kajbekistan. I think there's like a couple. No, we're talking about Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan. So he was fighting the president of Uzbekistan. They're dead wrong about him. He's not working for that guy. He's fighting him. He was a double agent. That guy has... Was he in the court here? If you ask the president of Uzbekistan about Jay Mitchell, he knows who he is. He's been like, that guy has thwarted us at all.
[18:58] We would have taken over Alabama a long time ago if it wasn't for Jay Mitchell. We've had our eye on Alabama. We've had our eye. We were going to Uzbekistan the heck out of Alabama, and it did not work. Not all Jay Mitchell's watch. It was going to be used Bama Stan. We were going to do it. Used Bama Stan. Yeah. But the claims are so ludicrous. I mean, they just, it always. The other one was that he worked for Hillary Clinton. I'm like, what do you think is more of a turnoff for the average Alabama voter? Hillary Clinton or the president of Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan. I don't know. I don't even, I didn't even know they had a president. I didn't know what kind of government they had. I just think it's hysterical that that's the point at which they're, that they are getting to. They think like, this is what's going to turn voters on or off. People in Alabama are sitting up every night going, these radical Islamic extremists are taking over Alabama. Uzbekistan is coming for us. I was going to vote for Jay Mitchell, but he was working for that guy in Uzbekistan. And we're a Kyrgyzstan family here. Yeah, we're all about Kyrgyzstan here. That's my favorite stands.
[20:08] It's just so stupid. People in this state, I guarantee you, if you were to go out on the street and ask folks to point on a map, where is Uzbekistan? I couldn't do it. I don't know. I know it's somewhere near Russia. It's snuggled over there near China. near Kyrgyzstan. I know that. I know, I know where it's basically, they're all laying up there near Pakistan and, and, and the, and somewhere near Iran and Mongolia, yeah, all those areas. But the, um, the other one, you know, So there's some, I guess we've had some, some candidates that are shooting things. Yeah. That's, that's another thing that is going on. And one of them was Paul Prine has, he's got one where he, he has a, something about pistol permits and he's shooting a piece of paper with pistol permits written on it with a shotgun. I haven't seen that one. Yeah, that's online. He didn't shoot him with an unpermitted pistol? He shot him with a shotgun. He wanted, you know, how does he feel about it? He shoots it three times, and that's how he feels about it. With a shotgun. He shot a piece of paper three times with a shotgun. Yeah. Wow. It's something else. Very effective. Well, and fortunately for him, you know, we passed a law saying you don't have to have a pistol permit.
[21:24] Well, he's going to keep it that way. There's all these ads have just gotten bizarre. I mean, they're only going to get crazier, too. Yeah, we've got a couple weeks left, and then, of course, runoffs. It'll get bizarre. Yeah. Well, I think that's all we've got for this week, folks. But thanks for listening to us on Lagnapod. We will see you next Thursday. Love you. Bye. The Lagnapod is a Something Extra publishing production.
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