October 24, 2025 • 40 mins
We kick off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
The Boston Dragons Senior Pro Pickleball Team – Upcoming event at Eleveno Pickleball at Patriots Place this Weekend.
Guest: Michael Tow – Owner of the Boston Dragons Pickleball Team
'Nobody's spending $17 on an egg sandwich': Restaurant owners say inflation forcing tough menu choices.
Guest: Nick Neonakis – franchise expert - heads up The Franchise Consulting Company and The Great American Franchise EXPO. He's the author of “The Franchise MBA”
City of Boston Launches 2026 Swim Safe Boston Grant - $400,000 in funding available to help nonprofits expand free swim lessons to youth across the city.
Guest: Jose Masso - Chief of Human Services for the City of Boston
The government shutdown has created uncertainty and is entering the third-longest funding lapse in modern history. How does the shutdown impact the general public?
Guest: David Shapiro – Financial planner, Regional Director of Wealth at Johnson Brunetti
The Boston Dragons Senior Pro Pickleball Team – Upcoming event at Eleveno Pickleball at Patriots Place this Weekend.
Guest: Michael Tow – Owner of the Boston Dragons Pickleball Team
'Nobody's spending $17 on an egg sandwich': Restaurant owners say inflation forcing tough menu choices.
Guest: Nick Neonakis – franchise expert - heads up The Franchise Consulting Company and The Great American Franchise EXPO. He's the author of “The Franchise MBA”
City of Boston Launches 2026 Swim Safe Boston Grant - $400,000 in funding available to help nonprofits expand free swim lessons to youth across the city.
Guest: Jose Masso - Chief of Human Services for the City of Boston
The government shutdown has created uncertainty and is entering the third-longest funding lapse in modern history. How does the shutdown impact the general public?
Guest: David Shapiro – Financial planner, Regional Director of Wealth at Johnson Brunetti
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's nice eyes with Dan Ray. I'm felling razy. Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Selfis Nick's Blue Jays Dodgers. I hope you'll listen into
the best game in town night Side with Dan Ray.
My name is Dan Ray. Heard here every Monday through
Friday night from eight until midnight. Rob Brooks is back
in the control room. Rob is going to have a
very important week off next week, and Rob, I hope
you enjoy your vacation. It is well earned, that is
(00:28):
for sure. We're going to talk about the CPI report today,
going to ask you how you're doing with inflation, inflation
RAID holding steady at three percent.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
It certainly was good news in the stock market today.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
And then later on we're going to talk about whether
or not Donald Trump is a teflon president, meaning despite
what I think, so many issues surround him, nothing seems
to stick. Well, we'll talk to you about that at
ten o'clock, and then later on tonight in our twentieth hour,
I think we're going to go to a question that
everyone can answer, that is, what is your favorite pizza,
(01:04):
Whether it's a stroll bought pizza, pizza that you eat
out at a restaurant, or maybe a pizza chain. You'll
have plenty of opportunities at eleven. Of course, everyone has
a hall pass. You can call in any night this week,
and then you get that hall pass in the eleven
o'clock hour on Friday night, what we call the twentieth
hour of the week, because we're on the air five
(01:24):
nights a week, four hours.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Tonight.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
We're going to start off tonight with a new professional
sports league. This is one that was brought to my
attention by a friend of mine who tonight is in
a christ Church, New Zealand, and I hope that he's
listening on the radio because I'm going to introduce Michael Toe.
(01:47):
He's the owner of the Boston Dragons pickleball team. The
Boston Dragons have a senior professional picketball team and an
upcoming event this weekend out at page Its Place. So,
first of all, Michael to welcome to Night Side.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
How are you Dan?
Speaker 5 (02:05):
Thank you so much for having me, appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Delighted to have you with us.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I am not a devil day of picketball, I will
have you know, but it certainly seems to be the
rage amongst a lot of folks as I as I say,
on the wrong side of fifty. Now, I think you're
a little younger than that. But you're an avid pickleball player,
and how are you going to make a senior pro
(02:31):
pickleball team work. I guess you've already had some tryouts
and you've picked your team. Tell us about it.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Sure, yeah, it's we are well. Pickleball is the fastest
growing sport in the country, and it's surprisingly it's actually
not just for people like myself fifty and older. There
are you know, the young kids are playing. You know,
they're college teams now. It's talked about being an Olympic sport.
It's hard about being you know, a high school. A
(02:59):
lot of clubs now, but they're kind of close to
being an official sport. And I'm proud to bring the
first pro pickleball team to Massachusetts, the Boston Dragon. So
it's it's been exciting. This is our not inaugural season
of the USLPL, the United States Pickleball League, and we
(03:19):
just had our second major event down in Philly. We're
down in Indianapolis and we go to Baltimore next. It's
it's it's exciting, no, really exciting.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
You come to Boston at some point. I hope during
the pickleball season. But you have an event this weekend
when the Patriots are playing the Browns, and we do
tell us, tell us how that where is it going
to be? How proximate will it be to Jillette State,
Jillette Stadium.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Oh, we'll be right at Patriots Place at eleven oh.
We that's our practice facility and eleven oh has six
outdoor courts and right right by Trader Joe's there where
twenty thousand people head over from the parking lots, you
know Sunday morning to head towards Jillette Stadium. We see
the stadium right right with the courts and where the
people walk right by. We're going to host. We're going
(04:12):
to have a lot of our members of our team
who are we're local. We have our practice squad. We've
brought in the bu Pickleball Club for some younger competition
with tips and you know, giveaways and a lot of
giveaways from from our title sponsor, Doctor Frank and Boston
Paulo Therapy, which would be great photo booths and serve contests.
(04:34):
You know, come down to see if you can be
the be the senior pro so.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
By our mutual friend Al Frankie is involved in this
as well. He is he's a very active individual, that
is for sure.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
When did this senior.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Pickleball league form? I mean, it's real, it's very new.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Correct it is.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
We started at the Pickleball US opened down Florida where
teams are brought in. I'm a senior row pro player.
I've played for years and for a few years as
a senior pro, and they said that there's a need here.
Pick a ball is done usually in a pro pro format,
but it's it's done with, you know, kind of a
(05:17):
tournament format. This is actually a team with a league
or a pro team league. We have twelve teams across
the country, fourteen players on each team, and we had
our combine down in Virginia where we draft. We had
hundreds of people try out to be on this team,
and I drafted fourteen players, nine players who are local
(05:40):
two and a half hours within two and a half
hours from Boston. And it's been it's been nothing. It's
been so much fun. I Mean when I first did it,
I was like, all right, I had probably five percent
capacity in my time, and now it's probably taking ninety
five percent of my time, but I'm loving every minute
of it. So much fun, such a great sport. It's
really and really a drink come true.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Okay, so this is a passion for you.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
If folks stop by at Gillette, whether they're going to
the game or I don't know, if you'll continue the
exhibition once the crowd is inside for the football game.
The people, I guess could combine, you know, after one
o'clock after kickoff, how long, what time does the exhibition start,
when does it end? And how much interaction can people
(06:25):
Obviously people are not going to be able to get
out on the court and play, I understand that, but
they can observe what's going on and get a sense
what can they do interactively with.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
You for sure.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
It's actually yeah, it's actually we're doing it before the game.
So it's ten am to about one pm. We're gonna
be playing this, you know, six outdoor courts, but we've
been we'll have people come in and join us to play.
There's it's free. Uh, there's gonna be you know, tons
of giveaways, pictures, players, different contests.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
You know.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
There's you know at eleven how they have a beer
garden there. So people wanted to buy drinks and food.
They're more than welcome to do that. But in terms
of coming into play and join in, you know, we've
done this, we've done this once before, and we've had
people come in and kind of try there to hand
out to see how, you know, see if they can
beat a senior for a player. You know, it's a
(07:15):
lot of fun. People's very interactive.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Well, I understand that, but people need to understand their
own limitations because sometimes you say, well that doesn't that
doesn't look too bad, too hard, and obviously you develop
a skill with it. Most of your players who are
on your team, how long have they been involved in
the sport? I mean the sports has the sport itself
(07:37):
hasn't been.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Around that long.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
Yeah, the sport, well, the sport has actually been I
think since the nineteen sixties, but it really took off.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
It go ahead, I'm listening, yeah, and.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
It's and most of the people are on my team,
they're all top athletes. Many are professional athletes from you know,
tennis and can ball, ping, pong, you know, badminton.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Coordination and who are at Giles what you're telling.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Me, yes, and people who are very high level of
sports and now here here they are at fifty plus.
Now you can hear that here's a chance that they
can kind of come back and have the same kind
of fire towards uh, towards sports that they had maybe
you know, in their teens and twenties. And it's it's
you know, it's it's a you know, you've seen people
who haven't been active for so on, now all of
(08:29):
a sudden they have something to play for at a
very high level.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Okay, so now my question is how did you pick
the nickname the Boston Dragons? When we think about the Celtics,
obviously Boston has a big Irish heritage. You think about
the Bruins and the big bad Bruins, the Red Sox.
Obviously we know the Red Sox and the Patriots. That's great.
What is the derivation of dragons?
Speaker 5 (08:52):
I wanted something that was a little bit, a little
bit tough, you know, you know, from where it can
have a really cool logo, which we do. If you
probably see our sit you can probably see the dragon
logo with kind of fierce and you know, toss and fiery.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, you didn't want to be the bunny raffis.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
I get that you don't want to be the Bunny Rabbits.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Let's say exactly exactly all right, well that I'm like, all.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Right, that's that's a good one, you know, I I
you could have picked something like the Pilgrims. Maybe I
don't know and connected it, but Dragons will work. The
Boston Dragons the first professional pickleball team here from Massachusetts.
I can remember when the Boston Patriots started in nineteen
sixty and a lot of people were very skeptical the NFL,
(09:40):
the Giants and the Cleveland Browns. They were the teams
that we watched on Sunday on black and white television
and listen to Chris Schnkle report that, you know, do
the play by play of the Giants games, and many
of us felt, well, I don't know if this Patriot
thing is going to work, but Billy Sullivan certainly made
it work. It's now this this powerhouse, this this international football,
(10:01):
American football powerhouse, the New England Patriots, and maybe someday
down the line, people will be talking worldwide about the
Boston Dragons. You're going to give it a real good
start this weekend, and I congratulate you on your efforts.
Michael Toe, owner of the Boston Dragons. Do you have
a website where people can get some information we can
direct them to.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Sure, the best place is probably on my on our
Instagram it's Boston Underscore Dragons Underscore Pickleball. You can see
some of our players highlighted, some of our kind of
highlight points. We just had a big rivalry against the
New York ballers, kind of continuing that Boston New York rivalry,
(10:41):
and you kind of see some clips there and be
great people stop by.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Sounds great, Michael Toe, thanks so much for being with
us tonight. And maybe we'll do something later on this
month or early next month and we'll have you take
some phone calls from people, will do a longer presentation.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Okay, oh I would love that great, Thanks very much.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Okay, you bet. Michael told the owner of the Boston
Dragons spick a ball team. My name's Dan Ray. This
is Nightside. We are off of the races Friday night,
and we're going to talk on this hour coming up
right on the other side of the break here about
inflation at restaurant menus and we're going to talk about
that also in the nine o'clock hour, uh, and take
(11:22):
your calls we'll get to all of that. I promise
we have a good lineup for you on this Friday night.
Coming back on Nightside right after.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
This, it's night Side with Ray Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
My next guest is a franchise expert. His name is
Nick Neo Nakas. He heads up the franchise consulting company.
I know a lot of people think, oh, it would
be great to hear the add some radio to own
a franchise, whether it's a restaurant or some other sort
of franchise. I'm not sure that this is an easy
thing to do. But Nick Neunakis, welcome to Nightside. I
(11:58):
guess we're going to focus on restaurant franchises. How are
you this evening?
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Hey, Dan, I'm doing great. And you hit the nail
on the head. You know, if you really want to
work your tail off and not make a whole lot
of money, start a business.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, no, absolutely, you're the last person that it's going
to be paid, that's for sure. Now restaurant owners are saying,
I guess inflation is putting them in a bind. My understanding,
and I follow this stuff fairly closely. Egg prices, which
restaurant owners were very concerned about a few months ago.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Have actually come back to earth.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
So are they Are they complaining about something that was
a problem a few months ago, or are there other
factors that are hurting them as well.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
It's kind of whack a mole.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
If egg prices go up, they go down, Beef prices
go up, they go down, net net, everything is going up.
Everything is a lot more expensive than it was just
a couple of years ago. Labor, rent, people, food. So
when you think about all of these things in total,
the margins are getting tighter and tighter and tighter.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Okay, so let's let's drill down here, Okay, for the
fun of it. So you go to a diner, or
you go to a mom and pop restaurant, and you'll
order some couple of eggs maybe, or I would order.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Chocolate chip pancakes myself, a cup of coffee or whatever.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Normally you think, Okay, it's going to cost me somewhere around.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I'm guessing depending upon where you are.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
If you're in Manhattan, it's going to be more expensive
than New York City than if you're in Manhattan, Kansas.
What did a typical order like that cost, say, two
years ago, and how much of a difference is it today.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Just let's focus on from the point of view of
the consumer.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yeah, so I'm going to say two years ago, you're
probably looking at eight to twelve bucks, sort of top
of the bell curve. Now you're probably in the twelve
to fifteen dollars some markets like Manhattan, New York. You're Seattle, Washington,
you're gonna be a whole lot more.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
Well, those crazy, crazy markets.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Okay, So what you're trying to tell me is that
a simple breakfast they're the same whether you're in you know, uh,
you know, Falls Church, Virginia or Fall River here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
It's probably up twenty percent.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Uh, and there are other associated costs. They have to
pay their employees a little bit more. So they're going
to raise prices. But if things start to come down,
I never see prices drop. They go up, and it
isn't they go up and they come down. They go
up and they stay up. There's items in supermarkets right
(14:44):
now that I'm refusing to buy because I know that
they went up because of COVID and supply chain problems,
and I was ready to buy them under those circumstances.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
But those problems have disappeared.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Uh, and so I will go by a less expensive
package of cookies for example, or something like that. Can
consumers have an impact on this to their benefit? Or
we just go in and what's the bill? Here take
my money. That's not my style, but most people like,
(15:19):
what's it cost? Here's my money. I got to have
Saturday morning breakfast with my buddies at the.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Diner, no matter what.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Well, you know, yes, I mean, it's the short answer.
There's a famous economist expression which is or saying, which
is the cure for high prices is high prices. So
as prices go up, then you're going to start losing
demand at the margin, which then all of a sudden
starts increasing the pain to the providers to then start
(15:49):
dropping the prices, right because now you've got a glut
of supply. If you've got a lot of supply, you've
got to decrease the price to get rid of the supply.
So the high prices tend to take care of themselves.
The whack a mole economy that we've been in since
COVID is these things pop up all over the board.
Look at what's going on right now with beef prices. Right,
(16:10):
Trump said, We're going to start importing Argentinian beef. US
cattle producer said, whoa, what the hell are you doing.
You know, we've had a massive droughts. We've had to
decrease the you know, cattle herd in the United States.
That's what's increased the price if you're bringing in foreign beef.
Now we're the ones that are going to bear the
brunt because prices are going to go down, but we're
(16:33):
not going to be able to increase our herd and
then make up for all this lost time. So that
becomes the whack a mole.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Don't you think that what Trump was doing the other
day with the President of Argentina, he was kind of
throwing him a bone so that he could go back.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
He has.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
The president of Argentina has a big political election next week,
and I think the Trump administration wants to see this
particular president elected in Argentina.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
There was a political smell to that deal as far
as I was concerned.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Yeah, I mean, we need stability down in South America,
and you know there are very few non almost communist
socialist governments down there, and we need to protect the
ones their allies.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah, we've moved significant naval forces off Venezuela in the
last twenty four to forty eight hours and probably in
reg you know, it's if we could keep the guy
in Argentina in place. Legally, We're not not like in
the old day with the CIA will go down and
take care of business. They can't do that, do that anymore.
Where do you think quickly? Where do you think prices
(17:39):
are going? It was a three percent CPI increase today
and the stock market went up across the board, you know,
one percent, which was a really good day for the
stock market. I know that the number of the three
percent number got sort of mixed reviews, even mixed reviews.
I have two pieces here from CNN, one which says
that it was good and another piece of CNN said
(18:02):
it wasn't good. So there's so much inconsistency in reporting.
What did you think about that number?
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Well, I think you know, energy plays a huge role
in the CPI, right, so our gas prices have been
going down because drill may be drill, so we're able
to keep transport costs low. But you know, we're we're
definitely getting hit on labor and a lot of the policies,
you know, rightfully, so of you know, getting rid of
(18:29):
these illegal immigrants is impacting the labor cost across the
food supply chain. So that's where you're going to see
some increases in food, but it's less expensive to get
it to market. Remember during the pandemic, what the cost
of gas and diesel was, it was exorbitant. Right, So
we've got we've we've we've whacked that mall on the
(18:50):
energy side. That's that's coming down in the CPI. So
we're taking care of that now. The next thing that
I think is going to start happening is Americans we're
going to figure out how to deal with this. We're
going to become more efficient, We're going to add technology.
I'm seeing a lot of very interesting technology come in
all across the board, whether it's robotic cleaning at restaurants
(19:14):
or hospitals or hotels that decreases the labor input. Then
you start using AI through your ordering. There's some really
cool programs where you know, if you need to have
food coming in, a big component of the cost is spoilage, right,
Like if you if you've got an organic restaurant, like
a fish organic restaurant, right, you've got the worst of
(19:37):
all worlds. This stuff is going bad. You look at
it and it starts rotting, then you got to throw
it away. Well, who's paying for that? The people that
are eating the non rotten stuff. Yep, So you've got Yeah.
So if you've got AI and you've got better purchasing
and better supply chain, you can get the food that
you need when you need it to cook it so
that you're not throwing stuff away that decreases your nick.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
You would be a great guest to Great long form. Yes,
we might try to bring you back an hour later
this month or early next month. How could folks get
more information on what you do at the Franchise Consulting Company?
Speaker 4 (20:11):
You know, if you text the word franchise fra n
c CHIIC franchise to two six seven eight six. That's
two six seven eight six Dan. We love what you do.
We'll send everybody a copy of my number one best
selling book, The Franchise MBA that talks about franchising, talks
(20:32):
about business, talks about how to think about the economy.
Love to send them all a free copy of the book.
Text the word franchise to six.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Seven to do is just give that to me. Rob.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Write this down and folks can call in at the
regular number in the during the next half hour and
you will send it to them free.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
A charge brand charge would be my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
So what is it again?
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Franchise ye to two six seven eight six.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Two six seven eight six two six seven eighty six.
That's a good deal. If it's free, it's for.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Me and someone it's from you, yeah, or sixteen ninety
five on Amazon, and then I make you know a
royalty on it, but we'll send you one for free from.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Dan, Nick Me and Knockis. Thank you. Nick.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I really appreciate the timetime. You're an excellent guest. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Dan.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
Have a great night Boston.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Talk soon. So Rob, you've written that down. Anyone can
call in at six one seven two five four ten thirty.
If you miss that, uh, you just text to six
seven eighty six. That would work right, and you can
I assume leave your name and address At eight thirty.
Right after the news, we're going to talk about a
good program in Boston called twenty twenty six Swim Safe Boston.
(21:50):
We will be back on night Side right after the news.
At the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Delighted to be joined by Jose Massel. He's the chief
of Human Services for the City of Boston. Jose, welcome
to Night Sad. How are you this evening.
Speaker 6 (22:07):
I'm doing wonderful. Thank you, Dan, Thank you so much
for having me.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
So you are launching the twenty twenty six Swim Safe
Boston Grant, and it's four hundred thousand dollars in funding
that is available to help nonprofit organizations teach young kids
how to swim. I think that's a great idea. What's
(22:33):
the genesis of this, Jse.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
No, thank you so much. So this is actually the
third year that we're providing this grand opportunity. It began
back in twenty twenty two when we provide swim lessons.
We were able to basically advocate for some city funding
to ensure that we're able to increase these opportunities for
(22:56):
young people. We are already providing them through our Boston
centers and families and then indicated that we just had
a limited amount of slots available and so Mayor bou
I need to connect, learn explore, which is an overall
initiative to make sure that young people have access to
opportunities to learn life skills such as learning how to swim,
learning how to ride a bike, learning how to play
(23:18):
a sport, create party, and learn how to grow food.
What really wanted to make sure that we had this
available and so for the school year of twenty twenty
three is when we made the great opportunities available at
that time. And it really just was underneath the guys
of making sure that we wanted families and especially kids
to be safe around water during some months and during
(23:39):
the school year as well.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
So how many young kids in Boston, I use the
word kids as you do, we're talking about I guess
kids from what age six to fifty you do something.
What's the range of the young people who are who
are helped out of this program.
Speaker 6 (24:00):
Yeah, that's a great question. We are really just accepted
for a first time swimmers, so you know, young people
who are actually learning how to swim. Typically it's you know,
as young you know as you as you mentioned, six,
could be even younger to the you know, the age
of you know, typically twelve or fourteen, depending on like
a skill level. But it really just depends on where
(24:21):
they are and their you know, swimming ability at the time.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Okay, and where's the funding.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
There's some some long time you know foundations, or do
we need to give some credit to some folks who
are helping fund this or is it money out of
the city tax space?
Speaker 6 (24:40):
Yeah, it's in the operating budget. So since f y
twenty four, the fiscal year twenty four, we've had this
this funding available just to be able to support this
initiative and thankfully, you know, to date we had about
close to twelve thousand lessons provided. And again it's it's
(25:00):
would be focused on ensuring that you know, young people
have access to this life skill and to be able
to reduce or completely remove the idea of anybody drowning
here City of Boston.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
So is there an infort at all?
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Obviously it costs money, I'm sure to to hire people
to uh not only service lifeguards, but to teach kids
how to swim.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Is there an outreach by the city towards there's a
lot of you know, foundation moneys in Boston, the Boston
Foundation and moneies that foundations that have a lot of
money and this is this is it sounds to me
like a great program for city kids. Is there any
sort of an outreach that you guys are looking for
(25:45):
some support from private foundations. I think that a lot
of foundations would love to be involved in something like this. This,
This actually is something that's tangible and and you could
you can showed the benefit of it.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
This is this is such a great idea.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Have there any foundations stepping forward or are you just trying
to keep foundations on the sidelines.
Speaker 6 (26:09):
Oh, We're not trying to keep foundations on the sidelines
at all. We definitely will welcome any conversations foundations who
willing to have I do have to give credit to
Blue Cross boul Shield. They were earlier adopter. They actually
helped us launch on the marketing side, so when we
first launched it, they really were able to come on
and really just be able to help support and provide.
(26:31):
At the time, what we had is swim kits and
these were essentially, uh, you know, physically boxeding like physical
boxes that we made available for young people that included
swim caps, goggles, towels, just the basic necessity that they needed.
So so in addition to removing the barriers of costs
of the swim lessons, they also we also wanted to
(26:52):
make sure that they had, you know, easily accessible items
that they needed to be able to swim as well,
and so Blue Cross Boo Shield was able to up
at that time. But since then, I know a lot
of our partners, the YMCAs Boys and Girls Club, you know,
they have done the outreach to other foundations as well.
To what extent I do not know, but again we
(27:13):
will welcome any conversations folks are willing to have.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, I think that's fabulous.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
And when you think about teaching a child to swim,
that is a carryover skill that they can use for
the rest of their lives. I mean, it's a carryover sport,
almost like golfer, tennis. And it's also relatively inexpensive in terms
of equipment. If you take another child and put them
(27:40):
in a program to learn how to play hockey, it's
a great skating and all of that is great, but
it's pretty expensive, There's no question about that. All the
equipment of the skates, et cetera pretty expensive. And you know,
most young people, they end up stopping hockey when they're
(28:00):
you know, twelve, fifteen.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Twenty, maybe, yeah, not too many of them.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
That's not what you call it carry over sportl though
there are some you know, some other hockey leagues, some
senior hockey leagues around. But swimming not only is something
that is going to keep people in shape for the
rest of their lives, but also can come in mighty
handy if they're in a situation where where they need
to save themselves or others. So this Jose is great.
Where is where are most of these lessons done? They've
(28:27):
done at YMCAs? Are they done at swimming pools at
some of the some of the schools and colleges and universities. Again,
I want to give credit to anybody who's helping you along.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
The way here.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
Yeah, no, absolutely, Dan So Boston centers for you, the families,
and so that's the city department that primarily provides the
majority of the swim lessons. So that's our internal department
that where we have the pools available and are able
to provide lessons for free. Additionally, the YMCA, they do
have nine locations within you know the city limits boys
(29:05):
and girls clubs we have available and then we partner
with of course, Boston Public Schools is a great partner
in this work as well, and so like a lot
of their programming, whether they have school programs. Uh, they
either you know, jointly partner with BC YF which is
Boston the Families or with the y m c as
And so they are able to bring a good cohort
of the young people to be able to learn how
swim and heard some really great stories from you know,
(29:27):
both parents and young people who have learned how to
swim as a result of this program. And so having
branched off too, we haven't had any applicants from colleges
and universities just yet, have been in previous discussions, you know,
with some of our local institutions. But again, you know,
I think as these opportunities to become available, will continue
(29:49):
to explore them.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
You know, the last most important question of all I
saved it for the end. How does some parent or
child who's interested in this program? When when are the lessons?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Give?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And give it to me quickly because I'm running out
of time. And how can people get in touch and
get their their children on the list here that will
hopefully put them in a set of circumstances where they
can learn to swim in the next the next round
of lessons. When When will the lessons begin or are
they an ongoing thing throughout the year.
Speaker 6 (30:19):
They're all going throughout the year, Dan Boston, ot gov
backslash swim dash safe is where they can access information.
We ask folks that the lessons do phill up quickly,
so be patient, but we do have them available throughout
the school year, and then another round throughout the summer
as well.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Okay, give it that that website one more time. Because
people don't write, they're reaching for their pens. Now give
it to us one more time.
Speaker 6 (30:43):
Austin dot gov backslash swim dash safe.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Perfect. Okay, we're a good shape. Ose.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Thank you very much. Appreciate you taking your time on
a Friday night. We'll talk again.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
You're very welcome, Dan, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Coming up on the other side of the break, we're
going to talk with a financial planner about the impact
of the government shutdown. It's created uncertainty, it's now the
third longest funding lapse in US history, and how might
you be impacted by this? And we'll talk about this
a little later tonight as well, but right now we'll
take a quick break.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Back on nightside.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
You're on night side with Dan Ray on' WBZ Boston's
news radio, where.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
We're in the midst of the government's shutdown. I think
we're twenty five days and counting. With me is David Shapiro.
He's a financial advisor and the regional director of Wealth's
nice job when you can be the regional director of
wealth at Johnson Brunetti. David Shapiro, Welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
How are you.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
I'm doing great, Excited to share some of our thoughts
in this unique time in the US economy.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yeah, we've had a few of these now in recent years.
There was a time when the idea of a government
shutdown was inconceivable, but it certainly has become much more
conceivable in the last of fifteen or twenty years.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
So this is a multi headed problem.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
I mean, there are people in the federal government obviously
who have been furloughed, some may lose their jobs, Others
are working without pay.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
There's all sorts of problems there.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Then you have people who are impacted in many different
ways at this point, mostly adversely. What is the general
advice that you would give, and then let's talk about
some of the categories.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Are some of the things that people can do to
whether this this storm.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
Yeah, it's a pretty wild time out there. Today. We're
talking about a million and a half of federal employees
that aren't being paid or furloughed. A lot of those
different areas like still working, we still need the TSA
and traffic and the Social Security Office. But then there's
also government contractors where there's no scenario that they're going
to get their back pay. And ultimately there's gonna be
(32:55):
a lot of different strain. There's going to be fewer customers,
maybe small businesses that depend on federal contracts or federal workers.
We work with a lot of just very common, hard
working folks in the Boston area and they're starting to
feel it where now they're considering maybe taking out loans,
taking out money from retirement accounts. We're talking about maybe
twenty billion dollars that aren't being pushed into the US
(33:17):
and the local economies because of these changes.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
So again, with you kind of have I guess the
first advice would be don't panic, but a lot of
people probably are thinking they're getting close to panicking. What
do you tell someone at this point who is seeing
there the revenue stream drying up? I mean, in other years,
these shutdowns were shorter duration, and they generally have promised that, hey,
(33:44):
you're an effect going to get it paid holiday, because
this thing might last for I don't know, a couple
of weeks, but you'll get your money, You'll you'll get
your back paid.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
That's not the situation today.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Now, you're correct.
Speaker 5 (33:59):
And if we just look at the statistics historically, I mean,
the stock markets have hit all time highs over the
last few days, so the stock market remains relatively strong,
but doesn't help the average US consumer that's running whether
or not that paycheck is coming. And it's a really
good time for someone in those scenarios to maybe just
take a hard look at their budget, at their spending.
Typical worker, at the end of the month, you have
(34:20):
some money in your savings account and you're feeling pretty good,
but maybe it's time for a reset to figure out
where the dollars are going and having a specific plan
maybe change, making sure that you really have those additional
funds available for such emergencies and for the rest of
us not impacted by the federal government. It's just a
really good reminder that the world can go through a
lot of different scenarios out there and their temporary disruptions
(34:43):
not going to be really impactful long term, So you
really have to stay disciplined. You can't get emotional during
these these scenarios. There's going to be a lot of
political volatility as Congress and the Senator trying to figure
this out. So the biggest market effect today, it's not
really from the lack of spending, it's just there's also
not a lot of government data out there for people
(35:05):
to make decisions that's going to impact you overall. Economy.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Well, I think I think the market got to bump
today with that consumer price Index number that came out
for September. That CPI number was late, but it was
the three percent number was less than what the experts
had predicted.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
And I think many people suspect that this is going
to lay the found work, the groundwork, i should say,
or the foundation for another cut in interest rates next week.
I'm sure that you understand exactly what I'm talking about here,
that the market's trying to stay ahead of what where
they think the economy is going, and they and that's
(35:47):
what that's what that's why they were up across the
board today. All three indices were, if not one percent,
very close to one percent.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Yeah, I would agree. I was having this conversation my son,
who's a sophomore studying economics in college, and the challenges
we're using data that's relatively recent. The longer that this
goes on, the less data we're going to have, there's
going to be impacts in the economy. So the good
thing that may come out of this is maybe it
does accelerate some of these adjustments to the interest rates
(36:17):
because we can base that off of the certainty of
the last few months. But going forward, that data is
going to be less and less accurate because there's a
lot of moving parts, a lot of dollars not flowing
into the economy just because people aren't spending the same amount,
and there's not going to be a lot of people
gathering the same information.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Well, I'm going to in.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
The next couple of hours talk about there's been a
lot of suggestions by the experts. When President Trump first
started imposing tariffs in early April, the market really took
a hit, but then it came back pretty quickly, and
a lot of the fear that people were anticipating that
(36:56):
tariffs were going to be passed on. And I remember
the news stories that want to buy a car, buy
it now, because if you're wait till September, the prices
of cars are going to be, you know whatever.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Through the roof.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
The price of gasoline is down, on average below three
dollars a gallon, which is going to help in a
number of ways. It's going to help in the in
the perspective of what the costs are to move food
back and forth across the country, move any supplies across
the country. So it just seems that there's always been
(37:27):
these suggestions that the sky is falling, but it hasn't
fallen yet, and you have sometimes and I would love
to know what you think about that theory. I'm not
saying everything's going to be strawberries and cream going forward,
but it hasn't been one A lot of the experts
(37:48):
predicted in April, in May, for that matter, even earlier
this year when when Trump was inaugurated.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
What's your taking, I would agree, And anytime there's that
type of change, the potential of uncertainty, our office gets
pretty busy of folks just getting very nervous, and the
markets tend to trade with a lot of volatility based
on uncertainty when there's talks about tariffs, when there's talks
about these changes, that's when people get nervous. People pull back.
(38:18):
Once we have clarity and it's not a political statement,
but whatever the tariffs look like, whatever the political decisions are,
then the adjustments can be made. We're actively changing the
way we think about investing based on those outcomes. So
if you have the right plan in place, if you
have the right structure, you shouldn't be worried about the
day to days and the longer you stretch out your timeline. Now,
(38:40):
if you're going to be retiring next Wednesday, that's a
very different discussion than someone who's going to be retiring
in ten or fifteen years. So your timeline, your goals,
your specific needs should partly be driven. But making irrational
emotional decisions based by the latest news, you're never going
to come out ahead over the long run.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
Couldn't agree with you more, David, Thanks very much. Where's
your studying economics?
Speaker 5 (39:04):
Quinnipiac? So my oldest is in grad school and he's
studying there as well, and it's just it's interesting, it's
just real world information. They're getting a really good craft
course about the markets and things that historically haven't happened.
It's it's very unique scenario.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Great school in a very good hockey program, by the way,
very good, that's true.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
David Shapiro.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
How could folks get in touch with you with Johnson
Brunetti if they'd like to talk with you?
Speaker 5 (39:27):
Best way to reach out to us You can always
go to our website which is just Johnsonbrunetti dot com.
We have local offices throughout all of Boston. You can
also reach us directly at six one seven nine four
four six nine eight eight.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
All Right, David Shapiro, appreciate the time this evening, and
hope you have a great last weekend of October.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
November is lurking next weekend, sure is.
Speaker 5 (39:51):
And we're looking forward to that and we appreciate sharing
our thoughts with us the rest of the community.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
You're very welcome. Thanks, David, appreciate your time.
Speaker 5 (39:57):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
When we get back, we are going to talk about
the news for the economy today, and what I want
to do is I want to do a little bit
of a survey with my nightside listeners. I want to
find out what's going on in your life. Are you
cutting back on restaurants. We'll get to all of this.
I get lots to talk about in the next two hours,
and then twentieth hour, we're going to talk about your
favorite pizza.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
So we'll have fun tonight.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
A little serious in the next hour or so. Then
we'll we'll end the week on a positive note. Stay
with us,
It's nice eyes with Dan Ray. I'm felling razy. Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Selfis Nick's Blue Jays Dodgers. I hope you'll listen into
the best game in town night Side with Dan Ray.
My name is Dan Ray. Heard here every Monday through
Friday night from eight until midnight. Rob Brooks is back
in the control room. Rob is going to have a
very important week off next week, and Rob, I hope
you enjoy your vacation. It is well earned, that is
(00:28):
for sure. We're going to talk about the CPI report today,
going to ask you how you're doing with inflation, inflation
RAID holding steady at three percent.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
It certainly was good news in the stock market today.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
And then later on we're going to talk about whether
or not Donald Trump is a teflon president, meaning despite
what I think, so many issues surround him, nothing seems
to stick. Well, we'll talk to you about that at
ten o'clock, and then later on tonight in our twentieth hour,
I think we're going to go to a question that
everyone can answer, that is, what is your favorite pizza,
(01:04):
Whether it's a stroll bought pizza, pizza that you eat
out at a restaurant, or maybe a pizza chain. You'll
have plenty of opportunities at eleven. Of course, everyone has
a hall pass. You can call in any night this week,
and then you get that hall pass in the eleven
o'clock hour on Friday night, what we call the twentieth
hour of the week, because we're on the air five
(01:24):
nights a week, four hours.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Tonight.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
We're going to start off tonight with a new professional
sports league. This is one that was brought to my
attention by a friend of mine who tonight is in
a christ Church, New Zealand, and I hope that he's
listening on the radio because I'm going to introduce Michael Toe.
(01:47):
He's the owner of the Boston Dragons pickleball team. The
Boston Dragons have a senior professional picketball team and an
upcoming event this weekend out at page Its Place. So,
first of all, Michael to welcome to Night Side.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
How are you Dan?
Speaker 5 (02:05):
Thank you so much for having me, appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Delighted to have you with us.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I am not a devil day of picketball, I will
have you know, but it certainly seems to be the
rage amongst a lot of folks as I as I say,
on the wrong side of fifty. Now, I think you're
a little younger than that. But you're an avid pickleball player,
and how are you going to make a senior pro
(02:31):
pickleball team work. I guess you've already had some tryouts
and you've picked your team. Tell us about it.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Sure, yeah, it's we are well. Pickleball is the fastest
growing sport in the country, and it's surprisingly it's actually
not just for people like myself fifty and older. There
are you know, the young kids are playing. You know,
they're college teams now. It's talked about being an Olympic sport.
It's hard about being you know, a high school. A
(02:59):
lot of clubs now, but they're kind of close to
being an official sport. And I'm proud to bring the
first pro pickleball team to Massachusetts, the Boston Dragon. So
it's it's been exciting. This is our not inaugural season
of the USLPL, the United States Pickleball League, and we
(03:19):
just had our second major event down in Philly. We're
down in Indianapolis and we go to Baltimore next. It's
it's it's exciting, no, really exciting.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
You come to Boston at some point. I hope during
the pickleball season. But you have an event this weekend
when the Patriots are playing the Browns, and we do
tell us, tell us how that where is it going
to be? How proximate will it be to Jillette State,
Jillette Stadium.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Oh, we'll be right at Patriots Place at eleven oh.
We that's our practice facility and eleven oh has six
outdoor courts and right right by Trader Joe's there where
twenty thousand people head over from the parking lots, you
know Sunday morning to head towards Jillette Stadium. We see
the stadium right right with the courts and where the
people walk right by. We're going to host. We're going
(04:12):
to have a lot of our members of our team
who are we're local. We have our practice squad. We've
brought in the bu Pickleball Club for some younger competition
with tips and you know, giveaways and a lot of
giveaways from from our title sponsor, Doctor Frank and Boston
Paulo Therapy, which would be great photo booths and serve contests.
(04:34):
You know, come down to see if you can be
the be the senior pro so.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
By our mutual friend Al Frankie is involved in this
as well. He is he's a very active individual, that
is for sure.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
When did this senior.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Pickleball league form? I mean, it's real, it's very new.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Correct it is.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
We started at the Pickleball US opened down Florida where
teams are brought in. I'm a senior row pro player.
I've played for years and for a few years as
a senior pro, and they said that there's a need here.
Pick a ball is done usually in a pro pro format,
but it's it's done with, you know, kind of a
(05:17):
tournament format. This is actually a team with a league
or a pro team league. We have twelve teams across
the country, fourteen players on each team, and we had
our combine down in Virginia where we draft. We had
hundreds of people try out to be on this team,
and I drafted fourteen players, nine players who are local
(05:40):
two and a half hours within two and a half
hours from Boston. And it's been it's been nothing. It's
been so much fun. I Mean when I first did it,
I was like, all right, I had probably five percent
capacity in my time, and now it's probably taking ninety
five percent of my time, but I'm loving every minute
of it. So much fun, such a great sport. It's
really and really a drink come true.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Okay, so this is a passion for you.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
If folks stop by at Gillette, whether they're going to
the game or I don't know, if you'll continue the
exhibition once the crowd is inside for the football game.
The people, I guess could combine, you know, after one
o'clock after kickoff, how long, what time does the exhibition start,
when does it end? And how much interaction can people
(06:25):
Obviously people are not going to be able to get
out on the court and play, I understand that, but
they can observe what's going on and get a sense
what can they do interactively with.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
You for sure.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
It's actually yeah, it's actually we're doing it before the game.
So it's ten am to about one pm. We're gonna
be playing this, you know, six outdoor courts, but we've
been we'll have people come in and join us to play.
There's it's free. Uh, there's gonna be you know, tons
of giveaways, pictures, players, different contests.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
You know.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
There's you know at eleven how they have a beer
garden there. So people wanted to buy drinks and food.
They're more than welcome to do that. But in terms
of coming into play and join in, you know, we've
done this, we've done this once before, and we've had
people come in and kind of try there to hand
out to see how, you know, see if they can
beat a senior for a player. You know, it's a
(07:15):
lot of fun. People's very interactive.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Well, I understand that, but people need to understand their
own limitations because sometimes you say, well that doesn't that
doesn't look too bad, too hard, and obviously you develop
a skill with it. Most of your players who are
on your team, how long have they been involved in
the sport? I mean the sports has the sport itself
(07:37):
hasn't been.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Around that long.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
Yeah, the sport, well, the sport has actually been I
think since the nineteen sixties, but it really took off.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
It go ahead, I'm listening, yeah, and.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
It's and most of the people are on my team,
they're all top athletes. Many are professional athletes from you know,
tennis and can ball, ping, pong, you know, badminton.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Coordination and who are at Giles what you're telling.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Me, yes, and people who are very high level of
sports and now here here they are at fifty plus.
Now you can hear that here's a chance that they
can kind of come back and have the same kind
of fire towards uh, towards sports that they had maybe
you know, in their teens and twenties. And it's it's
you know, it's it's a you know, you've seen people
who haven't been active for so on, now all of
(08:29):
a sudden they have something to play for at a
very high level.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Okay, so now my question is how did you pick
the nickname the Boston Dragons? When we think about the Celtics,
obviously Boston has a big Irish heritage. You think about
the Bruins and the big bad Bruins, the Red Sox.
Obviously we know the Red Sox and the Patriots. That's great.
What is the derivation of dragons?
Speaker 5 (08:52):
I wanted something that was a little bit, a little
bit tough, you know, you know, from where it can
have a really cool logo, which we do. If you
probably see our sit you can probably see the dragon
logo with kind of fierce and you know, toss and fiery.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, you didn't want to be the bunny raffis.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
I get that you don't want to be the Bunny Rabbits.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Let's say exactly exactly all right, well that I'm like, all.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Right, that's that's a good one, you know, I I
you could have picked something like the Pilgrims. Maybe I
don't know and connected it, but Dragons will work. The
Boston Dragons the first professional pickleball team here from Massachusetts.
I can remember when the Boston Patriots started in nineteen
sixty and a lot of people were very skeptical the NFL,
(09:40):
the Giants and the Cleveland Browns. They were the teams
that we watched on Sunday on black and white television
and listen to Chris Schnkle report that, you know, do
the play by play of the Giants games, and many
of us felt, well, I don't know if this Patriot
thing is going to work, but Billy Sullivan certainly made
it work. It's now this this powerhouse, this this international football,
(10:01):
American football powerhouse, the New England Patriots, and maybe someday
down the line, people will be talking worldwide about the
Boston Dragons. You're going to give it a real good
start this weekend, and I congratulate you on your efforts.
Michael Toe, owner of the Boston Dragons. Do you have
a website where people can get some information we can
direct them to.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Sure, the best place is probably on my on our
Instagram it's Boston Underscore Dragons Underscore Pickleball. You can see
some of our players highlighted, some of our kind of
highlight points. We just had a big rivalry against the
New York ballers, kind of continuing that Boston New York rivalry,
(10:41):
and you kind of see some clips there and be
great people stop by.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Sounds great, Michael Toe, thanks so much for being with
us tonight. And maybe we'll do something later on this
month or early next month and we'll have you take
some phone calls from people, will do a longer presentation.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Okay, oh I would love that great, Thanks very much.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Okay, you bet. Michael told the owner of the Boston
Dragons spick a ball team. My name's Dan Ray. This
is Nightside. We are off of the races Friday night,
and we're going to talk on this hour coming up
right on the other side of the break here about
inflation at restaurant menus and we're going to talk about
that also in the nine o'clock hour, uh, and take
(11:22):
your calls we'll get to all of that. I promise
we have a good lineup for you on this Friday night.
Coming back on Nightside right after.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
This, it's night Side with Ray Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
My next guest is a franchise expert. His name is
Nick Neo Nakas. He heads up the franchise consulting company.
I know a lot of people think, oh, it would
be great to hear the add some radio to own
a franchise, whether it's a restaurant or some other sort
of franchise. I'm not sure that this is an easy
thing to do. But Nick Neunakis, welcome to Nightside. I
(11:58):
guess we're going to focus on restaurant franchises. How are
you this evening?
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Hey, Dan, I'm doing great. And you hit the nail
on the head. You know, if you really want to
work your tail off and not make a whole lot
of money, start a business.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, no, absolutely, you're the last person that it's going
to be paid, that's for sure. Now restaurant owners are saying,
I guess inflation is putting them in a bind. My understanding,
and I follow this stuff fairly closely. Egg prices, which
restaurant owners were very concerned about a few months ago.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Have actually come back to earth.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
So are they Are they complaining about something that was
a problem a few months ago, or are there other
factors that are hurting them as well.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
It's kind of whack a mole.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
If egg prices go up, they go down, Beef prices
go up, they go down, net net, everything is going up.
Everything is a lot more expensive than it was just
a couple of years ago. Labor, rent, people, food. So
when you think about all of these things in total,
the margins are getting tighter and tighter and tighter.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Okay, so let's let's drill down here, Okay, for the
fun of it. So you go to a diner, or
you go to a mom and pop restaurant, and you'll
order some couple of eggs maybe, or I would order.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Chocolate chip pancakes myself, a cup of coffee or whatever.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Normally you think, Okay, it's going to cost me somewhere around.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I'm guessing depending upon where you are.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
If you're in Manhattan, it's going to be more expensive
than New York City than if you're in Manhattan, Kansas.
What did a typical order like that cost, say, two
years ago, and how much of a difference is it today.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Just let's focus on from the point of view of
the consumer.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yeah, so I'm going to say two years ago, you're
probably looking at eight to twelve bucks, sort of top
of the bell curve. Now you're probably in the twelve
to fifteen dollars some markets like Manhattan, New York. You're Seattle, Washington,
you're gonna be a whole lot more.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
Well, those crazy, crazy markets.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Okay, So what you're trying to tell me is that
a simple breakfast they're the same whether you're in you know, uh,
you know, Falls Church, Virginia or Fall River here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
It's probably up twenty percent.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Uh, and there are other associated costs. They have to
pay their employees a little bit more. So they're going
to raise prices. But if things start to come down,
I never see prices drop. They go up, and it
isn't they go up and they come down. They go
up and they stay up. There's items in supermarkets right
(14:44):
now that I'm refusing to buy because I know that
they went up because of COVID and supply chain problems,
and I was ready to buy them under those circumstances.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
But those problems have disappeared.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Uh, and so I will go by a less expensive
package of cookies for example, or something like that. Can
consumers have an impact on this to their benefit? Or
we just go in and what's the bill? Here take
my money. That's not my style, but most people like,
(15:19):
what's it cost? Here's my money. I got to have
Saturday morning breakfast with my buddies at the.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Diner, no matter what.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Well, you know, yes, I mean, it's the short answer.
There's a famous economist expression which is or saying, which
is the cure for high prices is high prices. So
as prices go up, then you're going to start losing
demand at the margin, which then all of a sudden
starts increasing the pain to the providers to then start
(15:49):
dropping the prices, right because now you've got a glut
of supply. If you've got a lot of supply, you've
got to decrease the price to get rid of the supply.
So the high prices tend to take care of themselves.
The whack a mole economy that we've been in since
COVID is these things pop up all over the board.
Look at what's going on right now with beef prices. Right,
(16:10):
Trump said, We're going to start importing Argentinian beef. US
cattle producer said, whoa, what the hell are you doing.
You know, we've had a massive droughts. We've had to
decrease the you know, cattle herd in the United States.
That's what's increased the price if you're bringing in foreign beef.
Now we're the ones that are going to bear the
brunt because prices are going to go down, but we're
(16:33):
not going to be able to increase our herd and
then make up for all this lost time. So that
becomes the whack a mole.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Don't you think that what Trump was doing the other
day with the President of Argentina, he was kind of
throwing him a bone so that he could go back.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
He has.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
The president of Argentina has a big political election next week,
and I think the Trump administration wants to see this
particular president elected in Argentina.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
There was a political smell to that deal as far
as I was concerned.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Yeah, I mean, we need stability down in South America,
and you know there are very few non almost communist
socialist governments down there, and we need to protect the
ones their allies.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah, we've moved significant naval forces off Venezuela in the
last twenty four to forty eight hours and probably in
reg you know, it's if we could keep the guy
in Argentina in place. Legally, We're not not like in
the old day with the CIA will go down and
take care of business. They can't do that, do that anymore.
Where do you think quickly? Where do you think prices
(17:39):
are going? It was a three percent CPI increase today
and the stock market went up across the board, you know,
one percent, which was a really good day for the
stock market. I know that the number of the three
percent number got sort of mixed reviews, even mixed reviews.
I have two pieces here from CNN, one which says
that it was good and another piece of CNN said
(18:02):
it wasn't good. So there's so much inconsistency in reporting.
What did you think about that number?
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Well, I think you know, energy plays a huge role
in the CPI, right, so our gas prices have been
going down because drill may be drill, so we're able
to keep transport costs low. But you know, we're we're
definitely getting hit on labor and a lot of the policies,
you know, rightfully, so of you know, getting rid of
(18:29):
these illegal immigrants is impacting the labor cost across the
food supply chain. So that's where you're going to see
some increases in food, but it's less expensive to get
it to market. Remember during the pandemic, what the cost
of gas and diesel was, it was exorbitant. Right, So
we've got we've we've we've whacked that mall on the
(18:50):
energy side. That's that's coming down in the CPI. So
we're taking care of that now. The next thing that
I think is going to start happening is Americans we're
going to figure out how to deal with this. We're
going to become more efficient, We're going to add technology.
I'm seeing a lot of very interesting technology come in
all across the board, whether it's robotic cleaning at restaurants
(19:14):
or hospitals or hotels that decreases the labor input. Then
you start using AI through your ordering. There's some really
cool programs where you know, if you need to have
food coming in, a big component of the cost is spoilage, right,
Like if you if you've got an organic restaurant, like
a fish organic restaurant, right, you've got the worst of
(19:37):
all worlds. This stuff is going bad. You look at
it and it starts rotting, then you got to throw
it away. Well, who's paying for that? The people that
are eating the non rotten stuff. Yep, So you've got Yeah.
So if you've got AI and you've got better purchasing
and better supply chain, you can get the food that
you need when you need it to cook it so
that you're not throwing stuff away that decreases your nick.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
You would be a great guest to Great long form. Yes,
we might try to bring you back an hour later
this month or early next month. How could folks get
more information on what you do at the Franchise Consulting Company?
Speaker 4 (20:11):
You know, if you text the word franchise fra n
c CHIIC franchise to two six seven eight six. That's
two six seven eight six Dan. We love what you do.
We'll send everybody a copy of my number one best
selling book, The Franchise MBA that talks about franchising, talks
(20:32):
about business, talks about how to think about the economy.
Love to send them all a free copy of the book.
Text the word franchise to six.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Seven to do is just give that to me. Rob.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Write this down and folks can call in at the
regular number in the during the next half hour and
you will send it to them free.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
A charge brand charge would be my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
So what is it again?
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Franchise ye to two six seven eight six.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Two six seven eight six two six seven eighty six.
That's a good deal. If it's free, it's for.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Me and someone it's from you, yeah, or sixteen ninety
five on Amazon, and then I make you know a
royalty on it, but we'll send you one for free from.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Dan, Nick Me and Knockis. Thank you. Nick.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I really appreciate the timetime. You're an excellent guest. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Dan.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
Have a great night Boston.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Talk soon. So Rob, you've written that down. Anyone can
call in at six one seven two five four ten thirty.
If you miss that, uh, you just text to six
seven eighty six. That would work right, and you can
I assume leave your name and address At eight thirty.
Right after the news, we're going to talk about a
good program in Boston called twenty twenty six Swim Safe Boston.
(21:50):
We will be back on night Side right after the news.
At the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Delighted to be joined by Jose Massel. He's the chief
of Human Services for the City of Boston. Jose, welcome
to Night Sad. How are you this evening.
Speaker 6 (22:07):
I'm doing wonderful. Thank you, Dan, Thank you so much
for having me.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
So you are launching the twenty twenty six Swim Safe
Boston Grant, and it's four hundred thousand dollars in funding
that is available to help nonprofit organizations teach young kids
how to swim. I think that's a great idea. What's
(22:33):
the genesis of this, Jse.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
No, thank you so much. So this is actually the
third year that we're providing this grand opportunity. It began
back in twenty twenty two when we provide swim lessons.
We were able to basically advocate for some city funding
to ensure that we're able to increase these opportunities for
(22:56):
young people. We are already providing them through our Boston
centers and families and then indicated that we just had
a limited amount of slots available and so Mayor bou
I need to connect, learn explore, which is an overall
initiative to make sure that young people have access to
opportunities to learn life skills such as learning how to swim,
learning how to ride a bike, learning how to play
(23:18):
a sport, create party, and learn how to grow food.
What really wanted to make sure that we had this
available and so for the school year of twenty twenty
three is when we made the great opportunities available at
that time. And it really just was underneath the guys
of making sure that we wanted families and especially kids
to be safe around water during some months and during
(23:39):
the school year as well.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
So how many young kids in Boston, I use the
word kids as you do, we're talking about I guess
kids from what age six to fifty you do something.
What's the range of the young people who are who
are helped out of this program.
Speaker 6 (24:00):
Yeah, that's a great question. We are really just accepted
for a first time swimmers, so you know, young people
who are actually learning how to swim. Typically it's you know,
as young you know as you as you mentioned, six,
could be even younger to the you know, the age
of you know, typically twelve or fourteen, depending on like
a skill level. But it really just depends on where
(24:21):
they are and their you know, swimming ability at the time.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Okay, and where's the funding.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
There's some some long time you know foundations, or do
we need to give some credit to some folks who
are helping fund this or is it money out of
the city tax space?
Speaker 6 (24:40):
Yeah, it's in the operating budget. So since f y
twenty four, the fiscal year twenty four, we've had this
this funding available just to be able to support this
initiative and thankfully, you know, to date we had about
close to twelve thousand lessons provided. And again it's it's
(25:00):
would be focused on ensuring that you know, young people
have access to this life skill and to be able
to reduce or completely remove the idea of anybody drowning
here City of Boston.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
So is there an infort at all?
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Obviously it costs money, I'm sure to to hire people
to uh not only service lifeguards, but to teach kids
how to swim.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Is there an outreach by the city towards there's a
lot of you know, foundation moneys in Boston, the Boston
Foundation and moneies that foundations that have a lot of
money and this is this is it sounds to me
like a great program for city kids. Is there any
sort of an outreach that you guys are looking for
(25:45):
some support from private foundations. I think that a lot
of foundations would love to be involved in something like this. This,
This actually is something that's tangible and and you could
you can showed the benefit of it.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
This is this is such a great idea.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Have there any foundations stepping forward or are you just trying
to keep foundations on the sidelines.
Speaker 6 (26:09):
Oh, We're not trying to keep foundations on the sidelines
at all. We definitely will welcome any conversations foundations who
willing to have I do have to give credit to
Blue Cross boul Shield. They were earlier adopter. They actually
helped us launch on the marketing side, so when we
first launched it, they really were able to come on
and really just be able to help support and provide.
(26:31):
At the time, what we had is swim kits and
these were essentially, uh, you know, physically boxeding like physical
boxes that we made available for young people that included
swim caps, goggles, towels, just the basic necessity that they needed.
So so in addition to removing the barriers of costs
of the swim lessons, they also we also wanted to
(26:52):
make sure that they had, you know, easily accessible items
that they needed to be able to swim as well,
and so Blue Cross Boo Shield was able to up
at that time. But since then, I know a lot
of our partners, the YMCAs Boys and Girls Club, you know,
they have done the outreach to other foundations as well.
To what extent I do not know, but again we
(27:13):
will welcome any conversations folks are willing to have.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, I think that's fabulous.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
And when you think about teaching a child to swim,
that is a carryover skill that they can use for
the rest of their lives. I mean, it's a carryover sport,
almost like golfer, tennis. And it's also relatively inexpensive in terms
of equipment. If you take another child and put them
(27:40):
in a program to learn how to play hockey, it's
a great skating and all of that is great, but
it's pretty expensive, There's no question about that. All the
equipment of the skates, et cetera pretty expensive. And you know,
most young people, they end up stopping hockey when they're
(28:00):
you know, twelve, fifteen.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Twenty, maybe, yeah, not too many of them.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
That's not what you call it carry over sportl though
there are some you know, some other hockey leagues, some
senior hockey leagues around. But swimming not only is something
that is going to keep people in shape for the
rest of their lives, but also can come in mighty
handy if they're in a situation where where they need
to save themselves or others. So this Jose is great.
Where is where are most of these lessons done? They've
(28:27):
done at YMCAs? Are they done at swimming pools at
some of the some of the schools and colleges and universities. Again,
I want to give credit to anybody who's helping you along.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
The way here.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
Yeah, no, absolutely, Dan So Boston centers for you, the families,
and so that's the city department that primarily provides the
majority of the swim lessons. So that's our internal department
that where we have the pools available and are able
to provide lessons for free. Additionally, the YMCA, they do
have nine locations within you know the city limits boys
(29:05):
and girls clubs we have available and then we partner
with of course, Boston Public Schools is a great partner
in this work as well, and so like a lot
of their programming, whether they have school programs. Uh, they
either you know, jointly partner with BC YF which is
Boston the Families or with the y m c as
And so they are able to bring a good cohort
of the young people to be able to learn how
swim and heard some really great stories from you know,
(29:27):
both parents and young people who have learned how to
swim as a result of this program. And so having
branched off too, we haven't had any applicants from colleges
and universities just yet, have been in previous discussions, you know,
with some of our local institutions. But again, you know,
I think as these opportunities to become available, will continue
(29:49):
to explore them.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
You know, the last most important question of all I
saved it for the end. How does some parent or
child who's interested in this program? When when are the lessons?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Give?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And give it to me quickly because I'm running out
of time. And how can people get in touch and
get their their children on the list here that will
hopefully put them in a set of circumstances where they
can learn to swim in the next the next round
of lessons. When When will the lessons begin or are
they an ongoing thing throughout the year.
Speaker 6 (30:19):
They're all going throughout the year, Dan Boston, ot gov
backslash swim dash safe is where they can access information.
We ask folks that the lessons do phill up quickly,
so be patient, but we do have them available throughout
the school year, and then another round throughout the summer
as well.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Okay, give it that that website one more time. Because
people don't write, they're reaching for their pens. Now give
it to us one more time.
Speaker 6 (30:43):
Austin dot gov backslash swim dash safe.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Perfect. Okay, we're a good shape. Ose.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Thank you very much. Appreciate you taking your time on
a Friday night. We'll talk again.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
You're very welcome, Dan, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Coming up on the other side of the break, we're
going to talk with a financial planner about the impact
of the government shutdown. It's created uncertainty, it's now the
third longest funding lapse in US history, and how might
you be impacted by this? And we'll talk about this
a little later tonight as well, but right now we'll
take a quick break.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Back on nightside.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
You're on night side with Dan Ray on' WBZ Boston's
news radio, where.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
We're in the midst of the government's shutdown. I think
we're twenty five days and counting. With me is David Shapiro.
He's a financial advisor and the regional director of Wealth's
nice job when you can be the regional director of
wealth at Johnson Brunetti. David Shapiro, Welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
How are you.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
I'm doing great, Excited to share some of our thoughts
in this unique time in the US economy.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yeah, we've had a few of these now in recent years.
There was a time when the idea of a government
shutdown was inconceivable, but it certainly has become much more
conceivable in the last of fifteen or twenty years.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
So this is a multi headed problem.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
I mean, there are people in the federal government obviously
who have been furloughed, some may lose their jobs, Others
are working without pay.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
There's all sorts of problems there.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Then you have people who are impacted in many different
ways at this point, mostly adversely. What is the general
advice that you would give, and then let's talk about
some of the categories.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Are some of the things that people can do to
whether this this storm.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
Yeah, it's a pretty wild time out there. Today. We're
talking about a million and a half of federal employees
that aren't being paid or furloughed. A lot of those
different areas like still working, we still need the TSA
and traffic and the Social Security Office. But then there's
also government contractors where there's no scenario that they're going
to get their back pay. And ultimately there's gonna be
(32:55):
a lot of different strain. There's going to be fewer customers,
maybe small businesses that depend on federal contracts or federal workers.
We work with a lot of just very common, hard
working folks in the Boston area and they're starting to
feel it where now they're considering maybe taking out loans,
taking out money from retirement accounts. We're talking about maybe
twenty billion dollars that aren't being pushed into the US
(33:17):
and the local economies because of these changes.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
So again, with you kind of have I guess the
first advice would be don't panic, but a lot of
people probably are thinking they're getting close to panicking. What
do you tell someone at this point who is seeing
there the revenue stream drying up? I mean, in other years,
these shutdowns were shorter duration, and they generally have promised that, hey,
(33:44):
you're an effect going to get it paid holiday, because
this thing might last for I don't know, a couple
of weeks, but you'll get your money, You'll you'll get
your back paid.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
That's not the situation today.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Now, you're correct.
Speaker 5 (33:59):
And if we just look at the statistics historically, I mean,
the stock markets have hit all time highs over the
last few days, so the stock market remains relatively strong,
but doesn't help the average US consumer that's running whether
or not that paycheck is coming. And it's a really
good time for someone in those scenarios to maybe just
take a hard look at their budget, at their spending.
Typical worker, at the end of the month, you have
(34:20):
some money in your savings account and you're feeling pretty good,
but maybe it's time for a reset to figure out
where the dollars are going and having a specific plan
maybe change, making sure that you really have those additional
funds available for such emergencies and for the rest of
us not impacted by the federal government. It's just a
really good reminder that the world can go through a
lot of different scenarios out there and their temporary disruptions
(34:43):
not going to be really impactful long term, So you
really have to stay disciplined. You can't get emotional during
these these scenarios. There's going to be a lot of
political volatility as Congress and the Senator trying to figure
this out. So the biggest market effect today, it's not
really from the lack of spending, it's just there's also
not a lot of government data out there for people
(35:05):
to make decisions that's going to impact you overall. Economy.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Well, I think I think the market got to bump
today with that consumer price Index number that came out
for September. That CPI number was late, but it was
the three percent number was less than what the experts
had predicted.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
And I think many people suspect that this is going
to lay the found work, the groundwork, i should say,
or the foundation for another cut in interest rates next week.
I'm sure that you understand exactly what I'm talking about here,
that the market's trying to stay ahead of what where
they think the economy is going, and they and that's
(35:47):
what that's what that's why they were up across the
board today. All three indices were, if not one percent,
very close to one percent.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Yeah, I would agree. I was having this conversation my son,
who's a sophomore studying economics in college, and the challenges
we're using data that's relatively recent. The longer that this
goes on, the less data we're going to have, there's
going to be impacts in the economy. So the good
thing that may come out of this is maybe it
does accelerate some of these adjustments to the interest rates
(36:17):
because we can base that off of the certainty of
the last few months. But going forward, that data is
going to be less and less accurate because there's a
lot of moving parts, a lot of dollars not flowing
into the economy just because people aren't spending the same amount,
and there's not going to be a lot of people
gathering the same information.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Well, I'm going to in.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
The next couple of hours talk about there's been a
lot of suggestions by the experts. When President Trump first
started imposing tariffs in early April, the market really took
a hit, but then it came back pretty quickly, and
a lot of the fear that people were anticipating that
(36:56):
tariffs were going to be passed on. And I remember
the news stories that want to buy a car, buy
it now, because if you're wait till September, the prices
of cars are going to be, you know whatever.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Through the roof.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
The price of gasoline is down, on average below three
dollars a gallon, which is going to help in a
number of ways. It's going to help in the in
the perspective of what the costs are to move food
back and forth across the country, move any supplies across
the country. So it just seems that there's always been
(37:27):
these suggestions that the sky is falling, but it hasn't
fallen yet, and you have sometimes and I would love
to know what you think about that theory. I'm not
saying everything's going to be strawberries and cream going forward,
but it hasn't been one A lot of the experts
(37:48):
predicted in April, in May, for that matter, even earlier
this year when when Trump was inaugurated.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
What's your taking, I would agree, And anytime there's that
type of change, the potential of uncertainty, our office gets
pretty busy of folks just getting very nervous, and the
markets tend to trade with a lot of volatility based
on uncertainty when there's talks about tariffs, when there's talks
about these changes, that's when people get nervous. People pull back.
(38:18):
Once we have clarity and it's not a political statement,
but whatever the tariffs look like, whatever the political decisions are,
then the adjustments can be made. We're actively changing the
way we think about investing based on those outcomes. So
if you have the right plan in place, if you
have the right structure, you shouldn't be worried about the
day to days and the longer you stretch out your timeline. Now,
(38:40):
if you're going to be retiring next Wednesday, that's a
very different discussion than someone who's going to be retiring
in ten or fifteen years. So your timeline, your goals,
your specific needs should partly be driven. But making irrational
emotional decisions based by the latest news, you're never going
to come out ahead over the long run.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
Couldn't agree with you more, David, Thanks very much. Where's
your studying economics?
Speaker 5 (39:04):
Quinnipiac? So my oldest is in grad school and he's
studying there as well, and it's just it's interesting, it's
just real world information. They're getting a really good craft
course about the markets and things that historically haven't happened.
It's it's very unique scenario.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Great school in a very good hockey program, by the way,
very good, that's true.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
David Shapiro.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
How could folks get in touch with you with Johnson
Brunetti if they'd like to talk with you?
Speaker 5 (39:27):
Best way to reach out to us You can always
go to our website which is just Johnsonbrunetti dot com.
We have local offices throughout all of Boston. You can
also reach us directly at six one seven nine four
four six nine eight eight.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
All Right, David Shapiro, appreciate the time this evening, and
hope you have a great last weekend of October.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
November is lurking next weekend, sure is.
Speaker 5 (39:51):
And we're looking forward to that and we appreciate sharing
our thoughts with us the rest of the community.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
You're very welcome. Thanks, David, appreciate your time.
Speaker 5 (39:57):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
When we get back, we are going to talk about
the news for the economy today, and what I want
to do is I want to do a little bit
of a survey with my nightside listeners. I want to
find out what's going on in your life. Are you
cutting back on restaurants. We'll get to all of this.
I get lots to talk about in the next two hours,
and then twentieth hour, we're going to talk about your
favorite pizza.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
So we'll have fun tonight.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
A little serious in the next hour or so. Then
we'll we'll end the week on a positive note. Stay
with us,
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.