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August 23, 2024 40 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about! 

Survey: How many bad days do Americans have per month? With Scott Allen Curley – Expert on Mindset and Resilience and author of "Absolution: The Dark Path To Light".

Kiernan Schmitt – Author of Secret Boston: An Unusual Guide

Sherif Mityas - Restaurant Industry Expert discussed Bad Diners: The 10 most offensive things you can do at a restaurant!

And AccuWeather Meteorologist Carl Erickson on the weekend forecast.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news radio.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
All right, Nicole, thank you very much. Happy weekend to you,
and TGIF to all our listeners and callers. We still
have four hours of Nightside. We will take you all
the way to the cusp of Saturday morning, so stay
with us. We have four interesting guests this hour and
we are going to talk about the political story of
the day. Seems as if every day it's a different
political story. Yesterday it was the acceptance speech by Vice

(00:30):
President Harris at the Democratic National Convention. Today, Robert F.
Kennedy Junior, as had been predicted and speculated upon, has
endorsed the candidacy of Republican former President Donald Trump and
has just finished speaking at a rally that Trump is
holding in Glendale, Arizona. So this is it's gonna be
a really interesting race. Another little twist in the road.

(00:53):
But before we get to all of that, let me
remind you that Marita worked on today's show, and Rob
is on top of his tonight ready to take all
your phone calls, but not until after nine o'clock because
we have four guests that we want to hear from.
And I hope you want to hear from as well.
Going to start off with Scott Alan Curly and Scott

(01:13):
Alan Curley. Welcome to Night's Side. You're an expert on mindset,
mind set and resilience, but you're also a former prison
inmate now a self made millionaire in one of the
nation's most unlikely and successful entrepreneurs. Sounds like you've got
quite a story.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
It's well, first, let me thank you for thank you
for having me, Dan, It's such a pleasure. And yeah,
it's been it's definitely been a roller coaster ride, but
one that I'm still on.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Okay, Well, yeah, we all have roller coaster. We have
ups and downs in our lives, and anyone who is
able to get themselves squared away is a real asset.
In my book, you wrote a book called Absolution The
Dark Path to Light, and that does kind of say
it all. If I could just ask you how long
we inside.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
The wall, Well, my trouble started. I know we don't
have very long, so I'll give you the elevator. Elevator
pitch on that s Okay. My legal trouble started right
after high school. Pretty much I lived really growing up
was pretty pretty tough, and I started hourly right afterwards,

(02:25):
and to answer a question all after it was all
said and done, I spent about ten years in prison.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Well, I'm glad you're out. You sound like a pretty
sharp guy, and I think, you know, sometimes people don't
realize how good they can have it until maybe they've
experienced some tough times. And it sounds to me like
you've survived and now you prosper. So the subject we're
going to talk about is how many bad days do

(02:51):
Americans have per month? When you're in prison, there's not
too many good days. So you got a little expertise
on this, my friend. How did you come to this
issue determining a survey how many bad days to do
Americans have per month?

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Well, my folks reached out to you regarding that, and
I'm probably not it's probably not fair for us to
have this conversation. And I say that song and cheek,
because after you spent ten years in prison and have
gone through the things that I've gone through, then it's
very difficult for me to have a bad day.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
I hear you. I think we're on the same page.
I kind of said the same thing in a different way.
So yeah, but you've got it. You've got a perspective
on this. What's the source of this information? Apparently there's
some sort of a survey that took place. How did
they do that?

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, I do have my pr Folks told me about
the survey, and I believe they filled it out on
my behalf and my'm understanding it correctly. But but yeah,
my perspective on bad days are relative. You know, we're
as humans. We all have some days or that are
better than others. There's a saying that goes I once

(04:06):
was sad because I had no shoes until I met
a man who had no feet. So so you know,
that may be cliche, but I really, in my heart
and soul lived by that. There. You know, it's always
it could always be so much worse, and so I
try to live my life by just having what's called
an attitude of gratitude. I say this to myself and

(04:28):
remind myself of this. Also, which is my worst day
out here on free ground is always better than my
best day in prison.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Well, it's interesting. I looked at this survey real quickly here,
and I don't want to dive too deeply into it
because frankly, I think you got and a more interesting story.
They did a survey of two thousand general general people Americans. Okay,
they they concluded that the average American knows that it's
going to be a bad day by eight thirds six

(05:00):
a m. Now, I have no idea what that means.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, And look, we all had bad days, we all
have great days. But I just think that for someone
like yourself who was able to bounce back from this,
I think, I think the flip side of your story.
And I don't know if you're familiar with the case

(05:25):
of Aaron Hernandez was a football.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
At the Patriots very much though, and I think I
know where you're going with this.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, the point what I'm going is that you were
born in some difficult circumstances and you did. You had
a couple of mistakes. I don't need to go into
them or whatever, but that happened, and you paid you price.
Hernandez was blessed with talent, you know, a specific type
of gift which allowed him to become a top player

(05:53):
in the National Football League. But then he apparently a
legedly called into turned into a cold blow to murder
and ended up in jail. Threw it all away. I mean,
if Aaron Hernandez hadn't made some really dumb and horrific mistakes,
he'd probably be retired a couple of years and going
around and the worst thing he'd have to do for

(06:14):
the rest of his life would be signed autographs and
be gain money for it. So, I mean, it's it's
sort of the mirror image of you. You went from
horrific circumstances to a much better place. He went from
enlightened and wonderful circumstances to a place where he finally

(06:35):
couldn't couldn't tolerate it, And allegedly.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
It was definitely a sad story, and it's one that
we can all learn from. And in my opinion, it
comes all down to whether or not we choose to
be a victim, whether or not we're going to take
the victim stance. We all have been victimized at one
point in our lives. We cannot change that. We don't
know what Aaron went through, But we choose whether or

(07:01):
not we are going to be a victim. And I
think that's the key and all of it. Some people,
some of them, some folks unfortunately, just are kind of
quick to you know, uh ta, you have pity parties
and say woe with me, and when things go badly,
you know, they kind of cover their head up. And
we've all, we've all been been guilty of that. And
but I encourage everyone that I speak with because this

(07:22):
is pretty it's pretty hot topic and talking point. I
travel the country and speak a lot about these type
of topics, especially one like this, and that that it's
it's all, it's all in the mindset. And I do believe,
which may sound a little weird to you, I do
believe that there are times when we it's okay to
give ourselves permission to feel sorry for ourselves. I do

(07:43):
believe that every now and then, if you just have
to feel sorry for yourself, and if you need to
have that pity party, then go ahead and have one,
but put a but put a deadline on it. But
then it put us put a start time on it,
and a start and at a stop time on it.
And when that, when your time has expired for that
that pity party to end, and it's time to get
back out there and take care of business.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
I couldn't agree with you more. I see that on
your website you're the co CEO of a group called
the finish line tax Solutions in LLC, and this organization's
committed helping clients take control of their tax problems, and
that obviously can be a can be a big problem.
You speak around the country, how can folks, First of all,
how can folks get your book? Because it sounds to

(08:26):
me like this book absolution. Everybody at different times needs absolution,
the dark path to light.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Agreed? Yeah, okay, how.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Can they get that first of all? And then how
can they be in contact if they'd like to have
you commit and speak to a school group, church group,
or whatever type of groups just be or corporate groups spare.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
The book can be found on Amazon, Barnes Andnoble dot com,
in STEM stores pretty much anywhere book books are sold.
It's either going to be available in the store or
they'll be able to look it up and get it ordered,
or you can just order it on Amazon dot com.
And I can be found on Scott Alancurley dot com.
And I enjoy and love speaking especially to young people,

(09:06):
and I kind of have a passion for young entrepreneurs
and and and prisoners in me, folks who kind of
feel like they don't see a way out. And that's
That's that's where my passion lies. Because there's so much
opportunity and and and uh potential out there and so
many people sometimes they just need a little help to

(09:26):
to find it within themselves, you know.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Real quickly. And and I don't want to belabor this,
but you you need to to realize what you are
able to accomplish. I'd love to suggest a book to you, okay,
just for the fun of it, I think you'll be
interested in. It's called Basketball Junkie. It was written by
a guy named Scott Chris Herron who was an NBA player,

(09:50):
played grew up here in New England, played for the Celtics,
got drafted by the Denver Rockets, and developed a bad
drug habit. Okay, basically you know, was a heroin addict
and washed out of the NBA. Went on to play
basketball overseas. He played in three countries in China, Iran,

(10:11):
and Turkey. And while he was in those three countries
playing you know, professional basketball, but not making anywhere nearest
the money, that near the money that he would have
made of the NBA, he had to score a heroin
every day. In China.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
In Turkey, he's got his life Squared Away. I had
him on my show several years ago. Later that year,
he spoke to the incoming class of cadets at West Point.
I think you'd love the book, and I think that
you connect with him. Great guy. You remind me a
lot of him, A guy that really turned his life

(10:45):
around for the.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
While heron author. And yeah, Basketball Junkie with Bill Reynolds
looks like his co author. And yeah, I definitely I'm
going to be ordering it as soon as we get
off there.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
All r. It's gott pleasure to meet you of the radio,
and I hope that some folks uh check you out
at Scott Alan Curley A L L E N Curly
c U R L E y uh and think about
getting you around to some schools and uh in places
where you can tell kids the road that they should

(11:18):
not take. Let's put it like that. I really appreciate
your time tonight, Scott.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
I appreciate you having you bet you Okay.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Thanks very much, boy, that's inspiring. When we came back
on the lighting up a little bit, we're going to
talk about Secret Boston, an unusual guide details hidden Boston
history sprinkled around the city with Kierennan Schmidt, author of
Secret Boston, An Unusual Guide. We'll be back on night
So I we're gonna learn a little about Boston from

(11:45):
a local guy that maybe maybe we don't know. We'll
be back on Night's. My name is Dan Ray. Listen
to w BUS Boston's news radio ten thirty and your
AM dial. If you don't hear us or can't pick
us up on radio, you can just go to the
iHeart Radio you app download that and you can listen
to us any night, any well, any any day during

(12:05):
the night when at night we do nightside, or during
the day when we do covered news wall to wall,
uh anywhere in the world. Back on Nightside right after this.
Now back to Dan Ray line from the Window World
nights Side studios on WBZ the news radio. They sometimes
say that the city in which you live is the

(12:28):
city that you often don't know a lot about. Many
people who grew up in the Boston area never have
gone to Plymouth to see the Plymouth Rock. They're never
gone out to Concord and Lexington. You know, that's the story.
A lot of tourists come to Boston and they see
all the tourists headlines. They have headlines they see the
Old North Church, Paul Revere's House. However, there is a
Secret Boston, and that Secret Boston is the subject of

(12:52):
a book, Secret Boston, An Unusual Guide, written by Kiernan Schmidt. Kiernan,
Welcome to w BZ nightside. How are you this evening?

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Great? How you doing?

Speaker 4 (13:02):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
You're more than welcome. So tell us about Secret Boston.
I've been in Boston virtually my entire life, and I'm
certain there are some great places that I have never
gone or never seen. Although I would like to think
I've been everywhere, I know I haven't. So how did
you get involved in this task of not only writing

(13:24):
a book, but writing a book about Secret Boston. Tell
us the background, the backstory.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
Well, I live in Somerville and I've been bopping around
Boston with a few years out here and there since
about two thousand and two. And I've been a traveler
through a lot of my life. And there's this book
series that I love called the Secret Guides. As you mentioned,

(13:50):
this is now the edition for Secret Boston, and it's
published by a French publishing house called Jean Glais Publishing.
And what I always found was that their guides, which
are huge in Europe and they're just starting to make
their way into the United States, they always had these
sites that you just could never find in any other

(14:11):
guide book. And it would be areas that you would
walk by one hundred times without knowing the stories, just
behind the walls or just in that little corner that
you didn't look at. And so I have a travel
podcast called Out of Office where a friend and I
give tips and tricks and talk about our travels. And

(14:32):
I had Thomas john Lay, the founder of Genreas Publishing
in Secret Guides on and I said, you know, I
know you featured New York. I know you're working on
LA and New Orleans, but I got to tell you Boston,
having the great hit long history we have here, these
world class universities, has what it takes to have the

(14:53):
most obscure of obscure sites that the Secret Guides try
to find. And he basically said, great, together a proposal,
you got three fall write ups and then a list
of thirty and that grew to about one hundred and
fifty secret places in the guide.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Okay, give us four or five here. We don't have
a lot of time left. But give us four or
five little bit of a taste of the book, which
will hopefully basically inspire people to go get the book.
Give us start or three that we might not know about.

Speaker 4 (15:23):
Yeah, well, there's lots all around them. Just to name
a few. There's in back Bay, on the sort of
unassuming street there is a row house that you really
wouldn't blink twice, and behind it is the National Braille Press.
And this is one of the largest producers of braille books.
And they offer tours, but you have to know who

(15:46):
to write in and who to call. And they'll actually
show you these enormous printing machines that they have that
can produce twenty thousand pages of brail per hour, and
they'll teach you about the art of brail bookmaking. And
all of them are bound by hand, many by blind
workers who are there. So it's incredibly moving, this hard

(16:08):
work that goes into serving and these books go all
around the world and they are printed right here in Boston.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
Is that a deezer? You gonna tell us the name
of the street?

Speaker 4 (16:20):
Oh gosh, you know, I've got the book right here.
I'm gonna have to look it up. I believe it
is called Saint Stephens Street.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
Okay, there is a Saint Stephen Street. Give us a
couple more real quickly.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:31):
Well, there's a shop that is an industrial part of Summerville.
It's called Neon Williams. And this is one of the
last shops in the United States that still produces genuine
neon signs. A lot of the neon science has sort
of been cheaped out and they don't have genuine neon
in them anymore. And it's been around since nineteen thirty four.

(16:55):
It nearly closed in twenty eighteen and was saved by
an enthusiast of neon signs. And they have an enormous
collection from all across the United States of great neon signs,
from motels to bar rooms to chicken places. And you
can go in and you can actually see them bending
new signs today and it is just this warm, crazy

(17:18):
artistic studio full of light and color and chemicals.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Okay, let me let me ask you one more. Boston's
a big sports town. Give us something sports related.

Speaker 4 (17:29):
Well, let's see. Well, there's there's the Ted Williams seat
that is in Uh, that's.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
That's the red seat. Absolutely the red people.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
What I think is unique in my book. Is I
dug up a historic photo of the guy who actually
got hit in the head with that ball and he's
holding his fingers through the straw hat that got a
giant hole in and I don't think that's been been
seen for decades and decades.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
That's a great one. I can I can also show
you a street in a house on a little side
street in Brighton, which is a very assuming street where
one season Ted Williams lived.

Speaker 4 (18:03):
Oh, that can go in the second edition.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
You got it, you got it all right. Kieran enjoyed
it a lot. Kieran Schmidt Again. The book is entitled
Secret Boston and Unusual Guide. I assume available Amazon bookstores.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
What's the easiest, and it's in a lot of bookstores
around town.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Secret Boston, Unusual Guy and Unusual Guide. Kiernan, thank you
so much. Pleasure to meet you, and uh, keep checking
out and we'll do we'll do the second edition when
it comes out as well.

Speaker 4 (18:32):
All right, awesome, thanks so much, Thanks.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Kieran, appreciate it. When we get back right after the news,
we're going to talk about bad diners. No no, no, no, no, no, no,
you're taking that wrong. There's no such thing as a
bad diner in my eyes. We're talking about diners people
the ten most offensive things that people do can do
at a restaurant. Okay, so it's the diners are great.

(18:55):
It's the people in those diners that that we're talking
about out back right after the news at the bottom
of the era of My name is Dan Ray. This
is Nightside.

Speaker 4 (19:05):
It's night on Boston's news radio.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Thanks very much, Nicole. We are now delighted to welcome
to the show, Shariff Mityas Shariff, Welcome to night Side.
First of all, how are you tonight?

Speaker 5 (19:20):
I'm doing great, Thanks for having me right and.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
We're talking about bad diners. We're not talking about bad diners.
We're talking about bad people who go to these diners.
The ten most offensive things that people do in a restaurant,
according to a survey. Who did the survey? Tell us
about that?

Speaker 5 (19:38):
Well, yeah, I was the truegov dot com survey in
the UK and they really I think they hit it.
They hit it pretty hard in terms of what we
don't like to see in restaurants.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yeah, my mind is running is running away with me
right now. So these are British diners. So these are
not American diners we're talking about. But I assume the
bad habits of British diners a you know, coincide with
some of the bad habits of American diners.

Speaker 5 (20:04):
Is that that they do? And you can imagine some
of those things that you know you're you're not. You
don't show up for a reservation, you stay too long
at a table, you bring an outside food and wine
to a restaurant. Those are things that are happening both
in the UK and in the US.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
Okay, so this is kind of interesting. So you we
have we have as you know, I mean, we have
restaurants in America where where there is no liquor served,
then you actually are encouraged. They may hit you with
a corkage fee or something like that if you bring
a bottle of wine. Of course, but I'm looking at

(20:42):
this list here, uh so I want to hit some
of them Flirting with the staff number ten? Who would
be is there who's normally guilty of that? Is that
something that I would I dare say, older men might
do with younger waitresses. Who's who who forces with the

(21:03):
staff is? Does this go across gender lines or is
it more a male thing.

Speaker 5 (21:08):
It actually does go across gender lines. So you see
it and obviouslyeeing some old gentlemen, but there's a there's
a lot of women you'd like to sport with bartenders
as well, Dan, And so that's uh that it plays
on both sides of the fence. And okay, wow, No,
while we always wanted guests to enjoy themselves, we always
want them to be respectful.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Got you, okay, occupy a table for an extended period
during busy hours. How do you know that you are
there at the table too long? If you know, let's
assume that you're just oblivious. How do you get it?
How does someone on the staff gently nudge you towards

(21:48):
towards the door.

Speaker 5 (21:50):
Well, the best way to do it that we found is, uh,
you know, the server to come up stable and said,
we'd love to show you the kitchen, right, would love
to meet the chef. Right, So we get the table
off the table, right, We get the guests off the
table because they're going to get a little special tour.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
That's that's a that's a neat trick, right.

Speaker 5 (22:10):
We actually get them off the table so we can
turn the table.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Okay, and then I tend to try to clean my
table up a little bit. I know that that obviously
that's part of what the waiter a waitress is supposed
to do. But people leave a mess at the table,
such as spilled drinks or food crumbs. I mean you can,
you can, you can tidy.

Speaker 5 (22:28):
Up a little bit, right, Yeah, that's it's it's always appreciated, right,
I mean, it's it's you know, think about it as
if you went to someone's home, right, and you were
having a dinner at someone else's home. You know, just
just be respectful, that's all we're asking.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
There's another one here, which which to me looks like
a scene out of a bad movie, snap your fingers
to get the waiter's attention.

Speaker 5 (22:52):
So yeah, that's a no no right where they're not
trained seals. Right, So we want people to get always
you know, we obviously want our service to be attentive
and sure that they're they're meeting their needs. But don't
don't snap out our folks, especially you know, when you
get folks that waive money at the bartenders, that's that's

(23:15):
not helpful, right When we want to be there, we
want to help and serve our guests. But let's do
it in the right way.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Okay, So here's number four. I'm doing these reverse order
to stay past the restaurant's closing time. I mean, what
do they do in that situation? I assume most people
realize that restaurants close, you know whatever, they close at midnight,
one o'clock or whatever it is. I would assume more
of a problem with them with barrooms.

Speaker 5 (23:41):
It is, and right, and so you start cleaning up
around them, right, So at some point you hope folks
get the hints that it's time to go home.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Wow, Okay, And then I don't understand this. You're going
to debate menu prices with the staff. They give you
a menu, and you're going to say, you know, like
that burger h fifteen ninety five, that seems a little steep.
You think we could do it for ten fifty. Is
that what people are doing?

Speaker 5 (24:08):
Unfortunately, that does happen on occasion, and you know, you
put the poor server in a tough spot. They're not
setting the prices right, and so they're not obviously in
a position to negotiate prices. We're not a bizarre right
or an open market, and so yeah, that's pretty much
found upon. That's probably the biggest no no on the list.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
I can't imagine anyone doing that. They allow the children
to roam freely. Oh, I've seen that a lot. I've
seen that a lot, and I would assume that sometimes
if mom and dad have had a couple of glasses
of wine, maybe they're not as attempted to the little
ones as they should be. What do you do, I mean,
if you'll last sue the kids or what can the

(24:54):
restaurant do in that circumstance If they touch the kids,
people are going to be a little upset with that too.
Did they kind of like just guide them back to
mom and dad's table and say, oh, recognize these little
these little munchkins.

Speaker 5 (25:07):
Well, that's right, yeah, And part of that is is
maybe giving them something right, so, you know, bringing out
a little treat, bringing out you know, a little maybe
if you have a cupcake or some kind of a dessert,
obviously with a parent's approval, to get them to come
back instead at the table is always a proven method.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Okay, here's the worst, and I want to drill down
on this a little bit. So someone comes in, they
order a meal, they consume the dish, not the dish,
but the meal. And maybe they remember the clean Plate
club and at that point they say they don't want
to pay for it because they didn't like what they ate.

Speaker 5 (25:47):
That actually happens more than you would think, and at
that point it's really up to you know, the server,
the restaurant, the manager on duty, and you know, we
want to do right by our guests for the most part,
but we also want to be fair, and so at
certain points, you know, if there's let's call it repeat offenders,

(26:08):
we know who they are, oh yeah, and we tend
to nip that in the butt. But you know, for
the most part, we're trying to do right. If someone
did really like something, maybe we'll comp a drink instead
of the meal and make sure that they at least,
you know, we're giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Okay, so let's flip the script here. What about you
call a restaurant and you order a reservation for two
people at eight o'clock or four people at seven o'clock
or whatever, and you show up in the restaurant, the
person the host or hostess, says, gee, we're running a
little late. It's going to be a few minutes. You

(26:45):
can have a drink at the bar. So you're in
the bar and now it's a half an hour later
and you're about to order a second drink. What should
the restaurant talk about bad diners? Now that's a bad
restaurant because they have overbooked or someone's that someone take
your table. What should the restaurant do to make it

(27:05):
up to the customer who showed up on time for
their reservation and now we're going to have to sit
and show for you know, fifteen twenty half an hour,
maybe forty five minutes. What should a good restaurant do
under those circumstances.

Speaker 5 (27:22):
Well, a good restaurant, any restaurant, should obviously pick up
the drinks for those diners as well as bring them
out a complementary appetiser. Right, it's not just giving them
what they already had spent, but going one step extra.
What can I extra do for you because of the
inconvenience and because of I ruined your initial experience, and

(27:43):
I want to make it better. So it can't just
be give it up to what you already bought, but
give me one more thing.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Now, you know, I'm very impressed with your knowledge, and
I see that you're listed as a restaurant industry expert.
And I interview a lot of people on my show
and I often ask them, how do you become a
restaurant industry expert? A kid with people, I say that, look,
when you were growing up and you were eight or
nine years old, you didn't want you When someone said

(28:12):
in school, what do you want to be when you
grew up? Most kids are going to say, you know,
boys are going to say, I want to be a
policeman of firemen in the army.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Right.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
No one says I want to be a restaurant industry expert.
How'd you find your way into that field?

Speaker 5 (28:22):
Treef Well, like anyone in the restaurant industry, you don't
choose it.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
It chooses you.

Speaker 5 (28:28):
And you know, when you get in the restaurant industry,
you kind of fall in love with it because, you know,
feeding people is I think one of the most greatest
opportunities you can have, right, nourishing people, giving them food
and drink, giving them a great experience when they go out.
I fell into it. I love it, I stay with it,
and I find no better joy than ensuring people have

(28:51):
a great experience when they go out and enjoy a
meal with friends. And family.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
Did you, I seriously asked you. I mean, I know
that there was some great hospitality schools around the country.
We have a college up here in a little north
of Busting, Endicott College which has a great hospitality of program,
Cornell University School. A lot of people go there and

(29:15):
come out. Did you when you say you fell into it?
Did you just have an experience and say I like
this or did you go to school for it?

Speaker 5 (29:22):
I actually didn't go to school for it, believe it
or not. To your point, every you know, every little
boy and girl had a different experience. I wanted to
be an astronaut. Yeah, so I actually went to Boston University.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Rights that's my law school. I'm a graduate of Boston University.

Speaker 5 (29:37):
I graduated in eighty nine aerospace engineering from BOS.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
Younger than I am.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
I want you to know that if you go ahead.

Speaker 5 (29:47):
But then I got a job later on in the
strategy side of a restaurant company and ended up being
in restaurants. I'm a big foodie. I love being in
the restaurant in and now I have the honor of
being able to run a restaurant group with eight great
brands and three hundred locations around the country.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
I got to ask you one final question, and that
is why is it that so many really good restaurants?
And when I say good restaurants, I mean restaurants that
serve good food, reasonable prices. They seem to be the
restaurants that go belly up. And a lot of restaurants
which are you know, a little I don't know, extra

(30:29):
fancy or you're paying you know, eighty dollars for a steak.
Not that those are those sort of restaurants I go to,
but they seem to continue in business. Why do good
restaurants go out of business? Because I can cite I'm
not going to do it on the year right now,
but I can tell you a good restaurants that have
gone out of business, and I suspect you you know
what I'm talking about. What happens I do.

Speaker 5 (30:49):
Yeah, it's it's unfortunate. The restaurant industry is so hard
because it's so competitive. I mean, if you think about
all the places you can go to get a steak,
to get a burger, to get a chicken sandwich, you
could name hundreds, right, and loyalty is really hard. And
if you don't have enough loyal customers, they go elsewhere,
and unfortunately that's what happens. Yet, unfortunately people try you

(31:13):
and they don't come back.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
And even I will mention one change which mystifies me.
There was a burger chain that has been around, had
been around maybe I don't know, fifteen twenty years ago,
called funt Ruckers. Yes, I loved that chain. I thought
it was the best burger.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
They had salad bar, everything you wanted. And I thought, Man,
if I'm going to invest in a restaurant, this is
a restaurant. Invested in this now I believe out of business.
And I always think to myself, how did that restaurant
not succeed?

Speaker 5 (31:47):
Yeah, it's tough be just there was nothing differentiating about it. Unfortunately, Right,
there's so many other places to get a burger.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
Yeah, but oh the best burgers. I would stop if
I was driving somewhere, I didn't care what time of
the day was, I would pull into a fud Ruckers
and they had everything was fresh. Anyway, some night I
must do something on fud Ruckers. And I hope some
of the audience understands. Sure, if I really enjoyed this conversation,

(32:16):
thank you you most people who are coming on the show,
they have a book, or they they're they're plugging something.
Is there something you want to plug or have you
just come on out of the goodness of your heart
to share this this information with us.

Speaker 5 (32:28):
Well, No, one of my brands is actually Friendlies, which
is in the Northeast, and I would love for folks
to come and try Friendlies again. We're growing again. We
have a one hundred plus restaurants up in the Northeast
and the Eastern Seaboard. And yeah, everyone has a great
Friendly story.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Well, those a lot of great memories from Friendlies. I
thought they had great ice cream. I buy Friendly ice
cream at the supermarket because I love their ice creams.

Speaker 4 (32:51):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
They went through bankruptcy, correct.

Speaker 5 (32:54):
We did, they did, and we bought them out of
bankruptcy and we're growing again.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Well, let me tell you, let me know and we'll
have you back. If you get some some Friendlies open
in the greater Boston area, let us know. I will.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
I think it's I think it's a great option. You know,
it's a higher stirling, higher end and a lot of
the fast food places. At the same time. A family
can win there and they can they can have a
meal with themselves or with their children, and they're not
going to break the bank, so best of mine. It's
good to know. So anytime you see your friendlies folks,
and we we're heard it all up and down the
East coast, think about my friend Sharif Mityahs and we

(33:31):
talked about tonight. Thanks, thanks Sharief.

Speaker 5 (33:33):
Keep us posted, okay, thank you appreciate it, very welcome.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
When we get back, we're going to get a weekend
weather forecast. The weekend weather forecast, I will tell you
there is no snow in the forecast. It is going
to be a great weather. Wen I'm only joking. ACI
Weather meteorologist Carl Ericson will be joining us. This is
going to be one of those perfect summer weekends, it appears.

(33:58):
But I want to get a confirmed with Carl Ericson
and then we will talk some politics. There was a
very interesting development today. We'll talk about it right after
the nine o'clock news on Nightside. Coming back right after this.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio. We've had a couple
of fabulous days here in New England, and again New

(34:20):
England's a bigger area. You look at the map, you
say it's a smaller it's relatively small, but it's six
states and forecasting, one of the forecasting in New England
can be very challenging throughout most of the year with
us as Carl ericson Carl, this doesn't look like a
challenging forecast this weekend. It looks like a fabulous forecast
literally for the entire area. I believe how you doing today?

Speaker 3 (34:42):
That's right, Dan, Hey, hey, thanks for having me. That's
right and pretty easy forecast here this weekend. So we'll
take this one. But it's been a pretty nice couple
of days. I should continue here through much of this weekend.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah, so I guess we'll get a little rain on Monday,
but most folks are off on Saturday and Sunday. There's
literally a we're going to I mean, we got six states,
and obviously the main goes pretty far into Canada, pretty
far north, and then you got different mountain ranges up
in Vermont and New Hampshire, so the weather's always going

(35:12):
to be a little bit different. But I'm thinking this
is as good a weekend for the New England Chamber
of Commerce as we will have any time this year.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
Right tomorrow is definitely the best out of the weekend.
The entire New England region will have beautiful weather tomorrow.
Low humidity, that's the key there. That humidity is staying low,
so it's comfortable out there. Temperature so a few degrees
above the historical average, which is right around eighty, well
in the load to mid eighties for the most part,
as seventies, a little bit closer to the coast, but
just beautiful weather. Now as we go into Sunday, that's

(35:43):
if you are traveling a little bit further north, that's
when you could have a shower or two sneaking into
maybe parts of northern New Hampshire ups into a northern Maine,
but even that's going to be very very spotty activity. Otherwise,
further south, much of a New England have another pretty
nice day on Sunday. You might notice that a little
increase humidity on Sunday, a little bit more stuffy out there,

(36:03):
but for all intents and purposes, a pretty nice end
of the weekend as well.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
I was away a couple of weeks ago. Carl I
led a group of nightside listeners on a tour of
Rome in the Mouthy Coast and it was hot. I
know it was worn back here. I think it was rady.
It was like that first weekend in August, August second
to the eleventh, and it was ninety degrees or more
every day. There were a couple of days into hundreds.

(36:27):
We never really have that. We haven't. We haven't had
that many ninety degree days this summer. I know we
had some early, but it seems to have calmed down
in terms of the really hot weather. Am I am?
I correct to.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
That, well, at least across our area. It has now
all that heat's pretty much been focused across the central
southwestern part of the United States, pretty much a heat
dome there. We've had these little ripples of energy more
of a Northwest flow coming down from Canada here for
much of the time. So that's so while it can
heat up, it's difficult to get that prolonged heat and

(37:00):
not kind of a setup. So it's still the pattern
word to change. That's pretty much what we were out here
for this summer.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
I know, isn't it we need three days of ninety
in order to say there was a heat wave? Is that?
Is that the proper phraseology.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
Right for our geographical area. Now parts of the different
parts of the country maybe a little bit longer or shorter,
but much of the northeast, mid Atlantic New England. It's
three days in a row of ninety or higher for
an official heat wave.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
And we've only had have we had one this year,
and if we've had one, that that's about all we've
had that I can remember.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
Yeah, we had we were trying to string a few together.
We did have that one day we got up to
ninety five ninety eight back in June.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
But it looks like you.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
Didn't have trying to find three in a row, they're
just kind of scattered. I did a quick scan here
through the Oaks three file.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
To put you in this bustle. No, no, it's fine.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
We ask more general one back in July July we
have official heatwave there, we go have to be official here, right.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Yeah, yeah, we got to be official at nightside. So
then here's the here's the question. I know that there's
been some hurricanes, but we haven't had one up here,
thank god. At this point, Debbie kind of went through
western New England and eastern New York. But it was
it was the shell of what it was was it
was that DeBie. No, that was Burrow bur Okay.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
That was more of that long track a hurricane.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
First. How's it looking. I know that there's two or
three that are kind of percolating off the coast of Africa.
I know you can't go too far, you know, six seven,
eight days maybe, do you think we might have a
quiet year. I know that they were brought be forecasting
was going to be quite active.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
Well, we're actually really concerned here speaking with our other
acuather meteorologists of September. It's very quiet out there right
now across the Atlantic base and the Pacific actually has
heated up here with a couple of storms near Hawaii
going into this weekend. But the Atlantic has been very
quiet for a couple of main reasons. Increased wind shear
which kind of rips the tops of the thunderstorms off

(39:00):
any developing storms. But also there's been a large area
of dry air, a lot of Saharan dust blown off
from Africa and all that dry, dusty air in the
wind here. Those are just hurricane killers. You really don't
get much development that kind of a setup. But what
we're concerned about is we head into September here just
a couple, well just a week or two now that
dry air is going to go away. Also, the wind

(39:21):
here is expected to lessen, and you have all this
tremendous heat across the ocean, a sea surface temperature as
well above average. So the stages set, we're actually expecting
here at Acua there anyway between six and ten named
storms just for the months of sep September, so expect
the tropics to really heat up.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Across That's not necessarily six to ten in New England.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
No, No, that doesn't mean six to ten landfalling areas.
We're mostly concerned from Texas, Gulf Coast, Florida and up
across the Carolinas for landfalling tropical systems and hurricanes here
going into September. But that's not to say once they
make landfall, as we all know, they may race north
into New England, so we could still get some of
the wind and rain impacts from any landfalling systems further

(40:03):
off to our south. So definitely want to keep an
eye on the tropics here as we go in September.
Can't roll out landfalling hurricane even across New England, but
looks like the best chances of landfall impacts will be
across the southeast US over toward Texas.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
Call you the best, I thank you very much. Hopefully
we'll have you back, but hopefully for a nice positive
forecast like for this, like you're doing for this weekend.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Thanks you just focus on the short term. No hurricanes
this weekend, just beautiful weather, so enjoy that.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Thanks so much, Kyle, having everyone yourself. Okay, when we
get back, we're going to talk about what was expected
to happen today. Did happen? RFK Robert F. Kennedy Junior
dropped his well, he suspended his presidential bid. He's endorsed
Donald Trump. We're going to talk about it right after
the nine o'clock news
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