September 30, 2025 • 36 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
2025 Jimmy Fund Walk - Sunday, October 5th
Guest: Jessica Abbott - Assistant Vice President of the Jimmy Fund Walk
Big Apple Circus Returns to Boston at Suffolk Downs October 9th-November 2nd, 2025 - The Long Awaited Homecoming
Guest: Joe Gold - Big Apple Circus producer
The 41st All New England Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off at the Topsfield Fair! It will be held on Friday, October 3rd.
Guest: George Hoomis - co-chair of the All New England Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off
What Late-Night Eating Does to Your Gut and Sleep… New research suggests dairy can trigger unsettling or vivid dreams by disturbing digestion and disrupting sleep. How to Rest Easier with Dr. Julie’s Tips…
Guest: Dr. Julie Gatza - Co-founder of the Florida Wellness Institute, Health educator
2025 Jimmy Fund Walk - Sunday, October 5th
Guest: Jessica Abbott - Assistant Vice President of the Jimmy Fund Walk
Big Apple Circus Returns to Boston at Suffolk Downs October 9th-November 2nd, 2025 - The Long Awaited Homecoming
Guest: Joe Gold - Big Apple Circus producer
The 41st All New England Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off at the Topsfield Fair! It will be held on Friday, October 3rd.
Guest: George Hoomis - co-chair of the All New England Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off
What Late-Night Eating Does to Your Gut and Sleep… New research suggests dairy can trigger unsettling or vivid dreams by disturbing digestion and disrupting sleep. How to Rest Easier with Dr. Julie’s Tips…
Guest: Dr. Julie Gatza - Co-founder of the Florida Wellness Institute, Health educator
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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 going easy Boston's
News Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Sorry, welcome on in, everybody to a very interesting Tuesday
night here on Night Side. We will not be doing
any baseball tonight because you can watch that on ESPN
as the Red Sox have taken a two to one
lead on a basic by Red Sox outfielder who spent
most of the year kind of on the injured list,
(00:28):
so good for him. Nice way to start things off.
We have a very interesting show coming up tonight. I'm
going to talk with Boston Globe opinion columnist Jeff Jacoby
at nine o'clock about a recent piece, a piece that
he actually wrote today about the limits on personal forgiveness. Well,
he wrote that in the context of the Erica Kirk
forgiveness of the fellow who allegedly shot and killed her husband,
(00:52):
Charlie Kirk. A little later on tonight, we're going to
take a deeper look, at deeper dive at the piece
deal that is being proposed by the White House in
the former President Trump and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Yaho.
So we have lots to go over, but we also
have four interesting guests here in our first Hour, as
(01:15):
we always do, and I'm delighted to start the first
Hour tonight on a subject that everyone in Massachusetts and
New England has known about for years, and that is
the Jimmy Fund with us as Jessica Abbott. Jessica is
a vice president with the Jimmy Fund. And we're delighted
to have Jessica with us tonight because we're going to
(01:36):
talk about a walk that is going on this weekend.
She's an assistant vice president of the Jimmy Fund Walk. Actually, Jessica,
welcome to Night's side. How are you?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Thanks so much for having me, Dan, I'm doing great.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
How are you just great?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So tell me about the Jimmy Fund walk. All of
us know about the Jimmy Fund. You may want to
those real people who do not understand what the Jimmy
Fund is. But it's a wonderful charity. There's been in
existence now for what seventy five years at least.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Yeah, established in nineteen forty eight, so we've been around
for quite some time.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Seven by my count.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
You just yeah, I'm that.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
And basically it's concerned primarily about cancer and kids. What
a great cause. So tell us what's going to go
on on on Sunday, this Sunday, October fifth. How can
people get involved?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, so this Sunday is the Jimmy Fun Walk, which
is coming up, as you said, on October fifth. So
the Jimmy Fun Walk takes place along the famous Boston
Marathon course and participants can choose from one of four
routes of varying distances to walk from, so they can
walk anything from a full marathon that starts out in
Hopkinton to a five k that starts write at Dana
Farber Cancer Institute. So there's really something for everyone. And
(02:55):
all the money raised through the Jimmy Fun Walk supports
date of Barber Cancer Institute. So the weather on Sunday
is looking great, there's still time to register, so you know,
we'd really encourage people coming out and supporting this weekend.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah. Look, it's it's a wonderful day. If you're around town,
you can you can get a little exercise and do good.
How many people do you think will participate? Anyone in
Boston on Sunday is going to see Jimmy Fund walkers.
Trust me, I've been many times in the city and
(03:29):
you get a great turn on what what do you
hope for this Sunday.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, we really do. And you know, when we set
out this year, our goal was to have eighty five
hundred walkers and it's looking like we're gonna we're gonna
surpass that. We're over eighty seven hundred to date. And
as you said, the finish line is right in Boston
Commons are right in the heart of the city and
a really beautiful way to celebrate all that people have
done for fundraising and training throughout the throughout the fundraising season.
(03:55):
So it's it's a really nice way to celebrate Dana Farber.
And really the hope is just helpable on walkday.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
How many years have you done this walk? Now? I mean,
obviously I'm sure it wasn't instituted the year that Jimmy
Fund was founded.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah, the first Jimmy Final Walk was in nineteen eighty nine.
So this is our thirty seventh event.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Does anyone keep I'm sure knowing the Jimmy Fund, you
keep records of everything. Does anyone know in total how
much the walk has raised over those six years?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
So through last year we had raised over one hundred
and eighty five million for Dana Farber. And you know,
this year, we're hoping our goal is to raise over
nine point five million, which would be a record breaking
year for US, and that would bring us over one
hundred and ninety four million for Dana Farber. So full
steam ahead to hit that goal.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So the best way if at this late hour, well
it's really not late when you think about It's only Tuesday,
so you got five days here to sign up. But
what's the easiest way for people to get registered? I mean,
if they're part of a team, a walk team, they're
all set. But if there are individuals who will look
into just register individually. Maybe they're new to Boston and
(05:09):
it's a great way to meet friends, meet new friends,
what do they have to do?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, absolutely so I would say, you know, it's come one,
come on. It really is a family friendly event too.
So you can just go to Jimmy Funwalk dot org
and you can register online. Registration will close this Thursday
at noon, but even if you miss that, there's still
the ability to register on walkweekend. Jimmy Funwalk dot org
really has all of the event information that you need
either to get registered or to figure out where you're
(05:35):
going from a logistics standpoint, and you can use the
promo code news to save some money on the registration
fee too.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Oh okay, So there is a registration fee, and for
people I guess under the age of eighteen, you would
hope that they could raise I think it's a minimum
of thirty dollars.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Is that correct, So the registration fee is actually thirty dollars.
So it's a thirty dollars registration fee. And okay, the fundraising,
the fundraising minimums vary. If you are a youth which
is under eighteen, it's one hundred dollars, and if you're
over eighteen, it's three hundred dollars. So you know, and
then including the registration. See, you know, we're we're setting
out to raise money for Dana Farmer, so there is
(06:20):
you know, a fundraising component. But my team is here
to help with that too.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So absolutely be a barrier. Yeah, absolutely, Well this sounds
like again, you've got to have a great day, great event,
raised money for the Jimmy Fund. Nothing could be better.
You couldn't spend the fall Sunday any better than that.
And this, of course, I guess technically is the second
Sunday of the fall. They wanted to say it was
the first, but we've already had the first one. Oh bye,
(06:44):
Jessica Abbitt, Thank you so much for spending some time
with us here tonight, and truly best of luck. I
hope the weather holds for you. I think I hope
you break every record in jams of Walker's and then
money's raised. Thanks so much, Jessica. There is no greater
charity than the Jimmy Fund as roy as.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I'm concerned and thank you for your support over the years. Dan,
we really appreciate it, and we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Absolutely, have fun on Sunday and raise some money. Thank you.
All right, we get back, we go to talk about
another event that is fun, and that is the Big
Apple Circus comes back to Boston be out at Suffolk
Downs from October the ninth, which is late next week,
through the month of all the way till November two.
(07:27):
So it's the long awaited homecoming. We'll be talking with
Joe Gold. He is the Big Apple Circus producer. I
think most everybody in my audience has been to the
Big Apple Circus, which has been around for a while.
We'll refresh your recollection, get you up to speed as
to how you can get there yourself or maybe bring children,
no grandchildren. Back on Nightside. My name is Dan Ray.
Rob Brooks is back in the control room, coming back
(07:50):
right after this quick break on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on w b
Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Delighted to be joined by the producer of the Big
Apple Circus, Joe Gold. Joe, Welcome to Night's Side.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Thanks Dan, it's great to be with you again.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Well, Joe, how many years has the Big Apple Circus
been coming to Boston. I think it's been well over thirty.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
So this is the forty eighth year of the Big
Apple Circus, And I agree with you. I think it's
been coming for over thirty years, but it hasn't been
here since twenty nineteen. It was set to come back
number of years ago and then COVID hit and then
it just never came back. So we're really excited to
be bringing it back to the city of Boston.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Well, I remember one year when my kids were young,
I believe you had it on City Hall Plaza. And
now you're going to be at a different locale, a
great location, Suffolk Downs, which is in Boston, but a
lot of Suffolk Downs actually is in Revere. Everybody knows
where Suffolk Downs was. It was a legendary racetrack, horse
(08:55):
racing track. Tell us what they will experience. For those
who perhaps I'm not familiar with the Big Apple Circus,
it's a it's a fabulous entertainment for kids. They just
kids love it and adults do as well.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Well, I was going to say, you know, it's a
show for children of all ages. I think what Big
Apple Circus brings is really it's a traditional one ring
circus under the Big Top. And you know a lot
of people here in Boston are accustomed to going to
a three ring circus, but when you have a one
ring circus, you have a great appreciation for the artistry
of the performer. And what we do is we celebrate
(09:33):
human achievement, and our performers do things you can't imagine
that you could do yourself. And it's really it could
be very it will be very entertaining really for everyone.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, so some of the acts. First of all, I
know that for a long time circuses were criticized. They
were some of them actually have gone out of business
with you know, animal rights groups who are concerned and
about that that's never been an issue with you guys.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
No, Big Apple Circus has not had wild animals on
the show for a number of years probably, let's see.
I first was affiliated with them in two thousand and
I think two thousand and three was the last time
they had elephants on the show, and they had horses
for a while. But this year we only have one
dog act. But what people are going to see, you know,
(10:24):
it's a really high energy show and it opens with
a fantastic hula hoop act. We have a rizzly act,
and a rizly act is the act where one person
lays on their back and flips another human being with
their feet, and it's really a tremendous act. People love it.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, the performance? Are you folks out twelve months a year?
And how many different states or cities do you hit
during the process.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Well, the Big Apple Circus really for the last four
or five years only played in New York City, and
then we got in. Being a Bostonian myself, I wanted
to bring it back to Boston. So we're going to
open here for four weeks and then go to Lincoln
Center play there for nine. If all goes well, we
hope to expand the tour a little bit next year.
But Big Apple was really only in its heyday, was
(11:16):
really only visiting I think eleven cities and playing probably
four months out of the year.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
So, okay, so this is going to be the first
time you've been on the road in a while. I
did not realize that you had been off the road
for that while. This Big Apple Circus been off the
road for that length of time.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah, it's had a number of producers, and most of
the producers have been out of New York City and
they were content just to play Lincoln Center for you know,
the Christmas holiday, Thanksgiving and really be a holiday show.
And when we got involved, I thought it was important
to bring it back to Boston and really let the
people of Boston enjoy their favorite circus.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
How tough is it to find the perform for the
Big Apple Circus. Are they from you know, the northeast
here or do you bring people in from from further away?
Speaker 4 (12:09):
We have acts from Spain, from China, from Ukraine, from
the United States, from South America, so their acts, their
acts from all around the world, and we work to
bring in the best that we can find. And we're
very excited to be bringing that in this year, and
we have a fantastic act called the Kung Fu Boys
(12:32):
from China that balance on their head. And it's really
almost an impossible act to describe. But the first time
I saw it, and I've been associated with circuses my
entire adult career, I had never seen anything like this,
and I think the public will really respond very very
well to this act.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Now, Joe, you mentioned you're a Boston guy. How did
someone like you end up in the circus or end
up producing a circus? Is it a general show business
background you have or has it all he's been, you know,
dealing with these sort of you know, big, big events
under the big top.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
So when I graduated college a long time ago, my
friends were getting jobs with Marriott and Xerox and IBM.
I joined Ringling Brothers, barn and Bailey Circus and stayed
there for twenty years. And then when I left there,
I started my own business, and we then became the
marketing agency for the Big Apple Circus. And this year
(13:27):
I saw the opportunity to take it over, and we
grabbed it because I think we are able to put
together a show that people like. It'll be great family
entertainment and you know, there aren't a lot of things
that parents and children can enjoy together. There's there's not
you know, there's a dearth of family entertainment out there.
(13:47):
And I think we provide a great value for the dollar.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Now, Wringling Brothers were they were they based in outside
of Tampa, Florida.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
So Ringling was based out of Sarasota for a long
long time. When I joined the circus, it was based
out of Washington, d C. At least the executive offices were.
But I was on the road three hundred and sixty
five days a year for the first seven years that
I worked for them and lived out of hotels.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Boy, I'll say it, that's an interesting career choice. Your
friends who worked for married and IBM. They were in
office suites, I assume for the entirety of their career
you saw a lot of hotel rooms. But it's an
interesting life you chose, Joe, that's for sure.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
I got to say, it's been it's been a fun career.
It's taken me around the world many, many times, and
you know I wouldn't change it for anything.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Wow. Well, let's talk about tickets and how they get
how folks who are listening and are retrieved, are going
to get tickets to see the Big Apple Circus. I
know it starts on October ninth, which is a couple
of weeks away, well not but nine days away now
I think about it, and and then you run all
(15:02):
the way through November two, so you're here for pretty
close to a month.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Right. We're doing about thirty five performances, and if people
go on to Big Apple Circus dot com, they can
select the seats they like, or they can they can
put in for the best seat available. And our seats
start at twenty nine to fifty so it's very reasonably priced.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah, compared to a lot of entertainment ticket prices these days,
between sporting events or the theater, twenty nine twenty nine
dollars is a pretty reasonable price. Well, Joe, welcome back
to Boston. I hope you get wonderful reviews. I'm sure
you'll get great reviews, and I hope people get on
and get their tickets early. Joe Gold the Big Apple
(15:46):
Circus producer, and he's a Boston guy. I assume people
when they go there, they get a chance to talk.
There's a good opportunity to interact with some of their
performers and the people who are involved in it. That's
the thing I remember about the Brooke Big Apple Circus.
It was almost intimate in terms of the side of
the venue, and you had access to the performers.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Yeah, there's no question people can meet some of the
performers there. They'll be in the tent, and they can
meet several of the performers at intermission and after the show.
So it's a great experience and it's something that I
think people will remember for the rest of their lives.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
All Right, Joe Gold, thanks very much, best of luck
with your time here in Boston, and we'll do this
again next year.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
That was great. Thank you, Dan.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Thanks Joe Gold. So Big Apple Circus dot com. Get
your tickets, get them early. They're here from October ninth
through November second, and I think November the second, if
I'm not mistaken as a Sunday, I should be able
to figure out. November ninth, I think is a Thursday.
So you got some weekends, you got some daytimes. It's
great for kids of all ages. As he said, when
(16:53):
we get back here on NIGHTSID, we're going to talk
about the forty first all new England Giant Pumpkin Way
Off the tops Field Fair that's coming up this Friday,
and we're gonna be talking with George Thomas. He's a
the co chair of the All New England Giant Pumpkin
Way Off. I don't even know how they weigh these things.
(17:13):
We'll be back on night Side right after the break
at the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on wz Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
All right, there is a tradition here at the tops
Field Fair, which of course is a great tradition, The
All New England Giant Pumpkin Way Off this Friday, October
third with us. Is the co chair of the All
New England Giant Pumpkin Way Off is George Hoomas. George,
(17:45):
I know what Giant Pumpkin Way offs alike, but it
is amazing that this many people participate in this way off,
and I know it's a big event at the Topsfield Fair.
Tell us what's gonna happen on Friday, October third, and
welcome night side, George.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Well, thanks for having me. It's a pretty exciting day.
You know, it's the culmination of the whole summer that
you spend growing these things, you know, and they start
out the size of a ping pong ball, and in
ninety days they're hopefully a couple of thousand pounds. It's
pretty miraculous. So Friday will be weighing them. We'll be
(18:23):
unloading the trucks, measuring, lining them up to see, you know,
we weigh them, try to weigh them in order, you know,
to build a little suspense, big prize structure. As always,
tops Field is very good and generous to us. It's
a great way off. It's a very prestigious way off.
(18:44):
If someone wins the tops Field Fair, it's a it's
a big deal.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So so who is it? Is it just you know,
folks who grow pumpkins, you know, commercial agricultural farms and businesses,
or do you have some who have grown them in
their backyard?
Speaker 4 (19:02):
These are all backyard growers. And you know, when I
started about thirty years ago, a seven hundred pound pumpkin
was a big.
Speaker 5 (19:09):
Deal, right, you know, this has all been selective breeding
by just backyard growers that male seeds to each other,
do cross pollinations and keep trading seeds, and we're up.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
You know, the world records twenty seven hundred and twenty
seven hundred and forty nine pounds.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Let me ask you this, where who won? You know,
tell me who won last year? But what was the
weight last year that won, because it'll probably be a
good indication of how big the widow will be this year.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
You know what. I don't have that in front of me,
but I do have the fair record two years ago
was Jamie Graham and that was twenty four hundred and
eighty pounds.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So that's getting close to work. That's getting close. You
said the world record was twenty seven hundred.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Well we're we're a world class you know, way off.
This is definitely you know we're in the This is
this is a worldwide will I'm sorry, worldwide contest governed
by the GPC, the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth. We all go
by the same rules and it's it's become a very
very big thing where we have members in Europe, we
(20:17):
have members all over the place, met people that we
would never have met, you know, from Spain, Italy, everywhere.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
So let me ask you this.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
The pumpkin being grown in Russia this.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Year and that's coming over here.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
No, it's not coming. This is a new England. Way
off anyone is welcome, but it's there's an extra four
thousand dollars for the pumpkin being grown in at one
of the New England states.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Okay, so let's let's let's let's get down. Let's get
down to the nitty gritty here, George, Okay, how many people?
How many how many contestants do you think you have
or do you know you'll have?
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Well, we're looking at around thirty five. I would think, whoa.
And then years ago that you know, we were the
only way off around and we would have as many
as one hundred and two and it was an incredibly
long day. Of course they were small, they were smaller,
and it was doable. All these are you know, fork
(21:18):
truck you know bork trucks.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
So where do you do this? On the grounds of
the tops Field Fair? Do you do you cording off
an area.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
In the arena? It's in the arena, okay, So we're
very lucky. We have an indoor place if it ever rains,
where you know, out of the weather, and we have
a great, great way off and.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
All the pumpkins in the arena at the same time,
or do you they each get a number and they
bring them in, they put them on the scale, and
how just give me a sense of what it's like. George.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Okay, so what would happen if you had a pumpkin?
You would get in line and you would drive your
truck and trailer in and you would you know, fill
out your registration farm and we would unload you and
we line up all the pumpkins. You know, they're all
on pallets, so the four truck would unload your pumpkin,
(22:08):
line them up kind of according to the size, because
sometimes a bigger pumpkin can weigh less than a smaller pumpkin.
But we try to, you know, we try to leave
the biggest ones or the heaviest ones for last. They
all have a number, they're all registered, and we weigh
them one at a time and everybody gets their weight
and it gets pretty exciting at the end when you're
(22:29):
down to the last eight or ten, you.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Know, And what's what is the big prize for the
Is it a winner take all or do you have us?
Speaker 4 (22:39):
There's prize money all the way down to twenty five people.
So it's okay, so what's the.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Top George, George, you probably are anticipating my next question.
What's the big what's the top prize? What's what is
the winner table?
Speaker 4 (22:55):
The top prize if you break the fair record would
be ten thousand and five, one hundred and twenty five dollars. Okay,
So if you if you just win, which is pretty good,
you still get eighty five hundred.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, yes, that's pretty It's not going to be ashamed
out there, George. That's that's pretty good.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
It might it might even break even on your fertilizer bill.
But yeah, what is it?
Speaker 2 (23:19):
What does it cost? Realistically? And again I'm asking you questions.
We don't script questions here on Night Side, as you
probably have figured out by now, a lot of shows
the report the host gets a bunch of questions. I'm
just asking you questions, is I don't know anything, I've
never had a great poet.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Well, Questions that most people would ask. So how much
does it cost? It can cost as much as you
want or as little as you want. So, for instance,
you know you can spend a lot of money on fertilizer, pesticides, fungicides.
Some people grow in greenhouses now, and I mean full
sized greenhouses, you know, thirty by forty, thirty by seven.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Okay, so give me, give me a rough number to
have a competitive pumpkin in the all new England Great
Pumpkin Way Off. Realistically, Uh, this is something that people
take really, really seriously. So just give me a What
does it cost a couple of thousand dollars to develop
a pumpkin size?
Speaker 4 (24:20):
Yeah? Most likely a couple of you know, a couple
of thousand. Yeah, you're gonna spend a lot of time
on it to do it right. You know, you've got
to do everything right and you're still got to be lucky.
So you know, there's a lot of things that are
detrimental to these things, so you know, between bugs and
(24:40):
different diseases.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And how did this all start? This all start, George,
if you know and it didn't initiate, I assume I
know that there's Great Pumpkin way Offs in Canada. I
have a friend of mine who is very active, but
I've never grilled the miss of grilling you, how did
how did this started? This go back to the doesn't
go back to the mayflower, I'm sure where did it starts?
Speaker 4 (25:05):
No, but it goes back to Howard Dill from Nova Scotia,
and all these seeds can be traced back to his
strain of seeds, the Dill's Atlantic Giant. So I mean
he had a world record, I believe, way back. I
think it was four hundred and eighty pounds. I mean,
(25:25):
that's how far we've come. And like I said, we've
we've been trading seeds back and forth and doing selection.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
How do you know what seeds to trade? George? This
is what you've mentioned that a couple of times that
I don't understand that.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Okay, So let's just take it on a small scale.
Say we were at the fair and you look around
and there's thirty pumpkins there, so you can ask anybody
there for seeds. When they you know eventually they're going
to cut it open and take them out, So you
can ask anybody there for seeds. Most people will give
you seeds. We never used to charge money for seeds,
but things have changed. But I won't get into that.
(26:01):
So ninety nine percent of people will give you seeds
if you ask them.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
And then how do you figure how do you figure
out you've got a bunch of seeds? Do you put
them each in a in a in a little plastic
bag and then figure out which are the best seeds
and that's the science. I guess right.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Well, there's the site. There's a site called big Pumpkins
dot com and it will have like it'll have all
the way off for this year. We'll have all the
way off, right.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I want I'm gonna get that because I'm going to
try to figure out how how you guys do Look.
We've I think we've probably given our audience. I hope
they've been taking notes because there's a lot of information
here at George. Uh, it's Friday, October third. What time
in the morning or in the afternoon does this start?
Speaker 4 (26:44):
So we start unloading at two o'clock okay, and the
way off starts at four okay.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
And you'll have a you'll crown a winner probably by
what five.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Thirty, Probably closer to six or seven.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
All right, So this is a real contest, Okay, George,
this is great. I know I asked a million questions,
but I'm actually interested in it. So thanks so much
for answering those questions. I got another guest, Yeah, I got.
I'm a busy guy, George. I'd love to do it.
Maybe when I retire, you'll you'll see me there. Thanks George,
have a great one, all right. Congratulations to the top
(27:22):
field fair. We'll get back. I couldna talk about something
that I know a lot about him. That's late night eating.
Actually I changed late night eating habit when I became
a member of Awake in one to eighty. So stick
with us. Where you are going to talk with doctor
Julie Gatza. She's the co founder of the Florida Wellness
Institute and she's a health educator. We'll have some fun
(27:44):
with doctor Julie coming up on Nightside right after.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
This Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
All right, for those of us who work eight to midnight,
like Rob and me, sometimes at the end of the show,
you're a little hungry and that involves some late night eating,
and I have been known to do that. However, however,
it's probably not the smartest thing in the world to do.
And with us to prove that it's probably not the
smartest thing in the world to do, is doctor Julie Gatza.
(28:16):
She's the co founder of the Florida Wellness Institute. She's
a health educator, Doctor Gatzill, Welcome to night Side. How
are you.
Speaker 6 (28:22):
I'm good, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
So look, there are people out there who because of it.
No one, not everyone works nine to five. I think
I've worked one year in my life in the media
at nine to five, and you know it's twelve at
midnight and you're tired and you want to go to
bed thinking there's a couple of chocolate chip cookies there
(28:46):
and maybe some chocolate milk. Not a good idea, right.
Speaker 6 (28:49):
No, it's not. I mean in dairy in general, cheese,
the dairy products. We don't make enzymes to break down
dairy products. So in general humans have a harder time
breaking down dairy.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Okay, so eating cheese and dairy what I'm hearing you.
I want to put this up there in big lights,
okay for my audience. Cheese and dairy or no, no, yes.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
And the reason being is when you don't break something down,
it's going to sit in the gut, it's going to ferment.
It's going to be something that the body says, hey,
we should be sleeping, not trying to digest complicated foods
at this point. And so this is where people get nightmares.
This is where they have restless sleep pains and restless legs,
(29:33):
you know, digestive problems and you know, feeling groggy in
the morning because you've been digesting food that's complicated rather
than letting the body go into full rest at night.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Okay, so is in your position. I was in a
weight loss program many years ago where I was said, hey,
you can't eat any food after eight o'clock at night.
Now that was ten years ago, lost thirty five pounds.
Haven't put a palm back on, but I willccasionally. I've
been known to have a glass of wine after the show.
(30:05):
Let's talk about that. If cheese and dairy aren't good
for you, what about you know, a beerau a glass
of wine.
Speaker 6 (30:14):
I mean, you know, it's a similar thing. If somebody
is trying to get their health back, then that's probably
not something that you want to put onto their program
and have them try to figure out how to get
healthy with those things. But inevitably people are going to
mostly drink at night anyhow, so you will find that
probably there are certain alcohols that bother you more than others.
(30:34):
I know a lot of women have a hard time
with red wine and hormonal imbalance and hot flashing and
all sorts of things like that that can happen at night,
and people will often find you know which alcohol they
do the best with.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Okay, So if people do have the hungry horrors and
they've come home, there are you know, police officers who
work different shifts, and there are people who work for
to midnight shifts. If they do have the hungry hors
and they have to eat something, what's the best fruit
(31:06):
of vesual, like some apples or an apple or a banana?
What what? What do you suggest that actually does the least,
is the least disruptive to your sleep patterns.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
I would say a hybrid, a higher fiber type fruit. Apples, pears, peaches,
even blueberries and berries themselves are better for you. Bananas
are super high in sugar, so you know, now you've
got a huge sugar buzz going on before bed. And
you know, with weird shift jobs, you almost have to
(31:39):
treat it like a regular day situation. Are you really
going to bed right when you go home? If you're not,
then you do have those couple of lee way hours.
So that's its own special case. But most of the time,
when people are snacking at night with regular you know job,
you know times, it's usually the snacks are because aren't
(32:00):
eating enough protein in the morning, or they're skipping breakfast.
So I'm talking not a cup of coffee and not
a bagel and out the door, and not you know,
a bowl of cereal and calling it breakfast. You do
need the protein because late night snackers are usually breakfast skippers.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, no, I don't skip breakfast. I love breakfast, one
of my favorite meals of the day. So is there
I'm wondering if you have a book or a website
that people could could check in on, because a lot
of this information is really good, but some people will
not be taking notes here. Is there any anything that
we can refer folks to to help them put this
(32:38):
in their mind permanently and just not for a few
minutes they're listening to us tonight.
Speaker 6 (32:43):
Well, let me say one more thing about that, and
then yes, I'll tell you that if you're going to
eat at night, it's probably best to eat a very
simple protein. So whether that's you know, a piece of chicken,
a hard boiled egg, something that you know takes a
little time to break down, is you know, complicated on
the area that that's the hardest food or the one
that the body needs the most, and probably the one
(33:05):
that people are lacking because they're easily drawn towards eating
crackers and chips and snacks and nuts and things like
that rather than actually having proteins. So three meals a
day of protein. If you know you have a tendency
to snack at night, take a look at are you
eating three meals? And then as far as more information,
(33:26):
I'm a big proponent of people taking high quality enzymes
because with our food source, our land that's not being remineralized,
and just the source of our food isn't as great
as it used to be thirty forty years ago, We're
lacking things in the body in general, so people aren't
making enough digestive enzymes to break down their normal healthy food,
(33:48):
much less unhealthy food. So I've always said to people
to take all my patients take high quality digestive enzymes.
It will aid you breaking down the protein, the fruit,
the vegetable, even the junk food, because it has the
ability to basically chop it up like a sou chef
and make it available to the body and push the
toxines out easier. So I use one digestive enzyme called absorbed,
(34:13):
and on their website we have a lot of information
on absorbed and the benefits of you know, putting that
in with each meal, and you know, suggestions on what
people can do to you know, have healthier choices, and
none of these are amazing different than what you've ever heard.
The bodies are still bodies. Whether technology is evolved, our
(34:33):
bodies are still the same meat and bone bodies we've
had for thousands of years. So we still do have
to apply the basic principles, which is high protein veshables, next,
not too much fruit, and tons of water.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
It's very simple, yeah it is.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
But for those of us who are not doing it
every day. Those high quality enzymes you talked about those
available at pharmacies and stores over are they over the counter.
Speaker 6 (35:03):
They no, No, they're over the counter at you know,
better health food stores. And then the website would be
Nature'ssources dot com and you can find out tons of
information about the enzymes. They're good for elderly babies. I mean,
you know kids that can you know, take an enzyme.
They even have it in powdered form. And a lot
(35:24):
of my patients also give it to their dogs because
it eats in breaking down the actual dog food so
the dogs get more nutrition.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah. No, the problem is that all the food that
tastes good, that's bad for you.
Speaker 6 (35:37):
You know, however, not out all the bads for one month.
Only eat good food and you'll be so surprised how
good real food tastes. It's just when you're eating high fat,
high sugar, high salt, saturated fats, unsaturated fats, all these
things are like mimics to other things. So you are hungrier,
(35:58):
you need to snack more. You don't feel satisfied after eating.
And you know, when I clean up any one of
my patients diet, they're like, wow, I didn't really love chicken,
I didn't love broccoli, and you know, a good meal
actually tastes great now, absolutely well.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
I do appreciate your time and all the information. It
was really a lot of information. Doctor Julie Gatza, co
founder of the Florida Wellness Institute, and she's a health
educator and as you can tell, she's a great health educator.
Gave us a lot of information and eat well, eat well.
That's the best revenge. Thanks so much, doctor Gatsa.
Speaker 6 (36:32):
You're very welcome, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Doctor. Yet, we will be talking with Jeff Jacoby, Boston
Globe opinion columnist. He is a really fun guy. To
talk with and we will be joined by him right
after the nine o'clock news on night Side
It's nice Eyes with Dan Ray. I'm going easy Boston's
News Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Sorry, welcome on in, everybody to a very interesting Tuesday
night here on Night Side. We will not be doing
any baseball tonight because you can watch that on ESPN
as the Red Sox have taken a two to one
lead on a basic by Red Sox outfielder who spent
most of the year kind of on the injured list,
(00:28):
so good for him. Nice way to start things off.
We have a very interesting show coming up tonight. I'm
going to talk with Boston Globe opinion columnist Jeff Jacoby
at nine o'clock about a recent piece, a piece that
he actually wrote today about the limits on personal forgiveness. Well,
he wrote that in the context of the Erica Kirk
forgiveness of the fellow who allegedly shot and killed her husband,
(00:52):
Charlie Kirk. A little later on tonight, we're going to
take a deeper look, at deeper dive at the piece
deal that is being proposed by the White House in
the former President Trump and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Yaho.
So we have lots to go over, but we also
have four interesting guests here in our first Hour, as
(01:15):
we always do, and I'm delighted to start the first
Hour tonight on a subject that everyone in Massachusetts and
New England has known about for years, and that is
the Jimmy Fund with us as Jessica Abbott. Jessica is
a vice president with the Jimmy Fund. And we're delighted
to have Jessica with us tonight because we're going to
(01:36):
talk about a walk that is going on this weekend.
She's an assistant vice president of the Jimmy Fund Walk. Actually, Jessica,
welcome to Night's side. How are you?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Thanks so much for having me, Dan, I'm doing great.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
How are you just great?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So tell me about the Jimmy Fund walk. All of
us know about the Jimmy Fund. You may want to
those real people who do not understand what the Jimmy
Fund is. But it's a wonderful charity. There's been in
existence now for what seventy five years at least.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Yeah, established in nineteen forty eight, so we've been around
for quite some time.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Seven by my count.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
You just yeah, I'm that.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
And basically it's concerned primarily about cancer and kids. What
a great cause. So tell us what's going to go
on on on Sunday, this Sunday, October fifth. How can
people get involved?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, so this Sunday is the Jimmy Fun Walk, which
is coming up, as you said, on October fifth. So
the Jimmy Fun Walk takes place along the famous Boston
Marathon course and participants can choose from one of four
routes of varying distances to walk from, so they can
walk anything from a full marathon that starts out in
Hopkinton to a five k that starts write at Dana
Farber Cancer Institute. So there's really something for everyone. And
(02:55):
all the money raised through the Jimmy Fun Walk supports
date of Barber Cancer Institute. So the weather on Sunday
is looking great, there's still time to register, so you know,
we'd really encourage people coming out and supporting this weekend.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah. Look, it's it's a wonderful day. If you're around town,
you can you can get a little exercise and do good.
How many people do you think will participate? Anyone in
Boston on Sunday is going to see Jimmy Fund walkers.
Trust me, I've been many times in the city and
(03:29):
you get a great turn on what what do you
hope for this Sunday.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, we really do. And you know, when we set
out this year, our goal was to have eighty five
hundred walkers and it's looking like we're gonna we're gonna
surpass that. We're over eighty seven hundred to date. And
as you said, the finish line is right in Boston
Commons are right in the heart of the city and
a really beautiful way to celebrate all that people have
done for fundraising and training throughout the throughout the fundraising season.
(03:55):
So it's it's a really nice way to celebrate Dana Farber.
And really the hope is just helpable on walkday.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
How many years have you done this walk? Now? I mean,
obviously I'm sure it wasn't instituted the year that Jimmy
Fund was founded.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah, the first Jimmy Final Walk was in nineteen eighty nine.
So this is our thirty seventh event.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Does anyone keep I'm sure knowing the Jimmy Fund, you
keep records of everything. Does anyone know in total how
much the walk has raised over those six years?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
So through last year we had raised over one hundred
and eighty five million for Dana Farber. And you know,
this year, we're hoping our goal is to raise over
nine point five million, which would be a record breaking
year for US, and that would bring us over one
hundred and ninety four million for Dana Farber. So full
steam ahead to hit that goal.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So the best way if at this late hour, well
it's really not late when you think about It's only Tuesday,
so you got five days here to sign up. But
what's the easiest way for people to get registered? I mean,
if they're part of a team, a walk team, they're
all set. But if there are individuals who will look
into just register individually. Maybe they're new to Boston and
(05:09):
it's a great way to meet friends, meet new friends,
what do they have to do?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, absolutely so I would say, you know, it's come one,
come on. It really is a family friendly event too.
So you can just go to Jimmy Funwalk dot org
and you can register online. Registration will close this Thursday
at noon, but even if you miss that, there's still
the ability to register on walkweekend. Jimmy Funwalk dot org
really has all of the event information that you need
either to get registered or to figure out where you're
(05:35):
going from a logistics standpoint, and you can use the
promo code news to save some money on the registration
fee too.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Oh okay, So there is a registration fee, and for
people I guess under the age of eighteen, you would
hope that they could raise I think it's a minimum
of thirty dollars.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Is that correct, So the registration fee is actually thirty dollars.
So it's a thirty dollars registration fee. And okay, the fundraising,
the fundraising minimums vary. If you are a youth which
is under eighteen, it's one hundred dollars, and if you're
over eighteen, it's three hundred dollars. So you know, and
then including the registration. See, you know, we're we're setting
out to raise money for Dana Farmer, so there is
(06:20):
you know, a fundraising component. But my team is here
to help with that too.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So absolutely be a barrier. Yeah, absolutely, Well this sounds
like again, you've got to have a great day, great event,
raised money for the Jimmy Fund. Nothing could be better.
You couldn't spend the fall Sunday any better than that.
And this, of course, I guess technically is the second
Sunday of the fall. They wanted to say it was
the first, but we've already had the first one. Oh bye,
(06:44):
Jessica Abbitt, Thank you so much for spending some time
with us here tonight, and truly best of luck. I
hope the weather holds for you. I think I hope
you break every record in jams of Walker's and then
money's raised. Thanks so much, Jessica. There is no greater
charity than the Jimmy Fund as roy as.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I'm concerned and thank you for your support over the years. Dan,
we really appreciate it, and we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Absolutely, have fun on Sunday and raise some money. Thank you.
All right, we get back, we go to talk about
another event that is fun, and that is the Big
Apple Circus comes back to Boston be out at Suffolk
Downs from October the ninth, which is late next week,
through the month of all the way till November two.
(07:27):
So it's the long awaited homecoming. We'll be talking with
Joe Gold. He is the Big Apple Circus producer. I
think most everybody in my audience has been to the
Big Apple Circus, which has been around for a while.
We'll refresh your recollection, get you up to speed as
to how you can get there yourself or maybe bring children,
no grandchildren. Back on Nightside. My name is Dan Ray.
Rob Brooks is back in the control room, coming back
(07:50):
right after this quick break on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on w b
Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Delighted to be joined by the producer of the Big
Apple Circus, Joe Gold. Joe, Welcome to Night's Side.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Thanks Dan, it's great to be with you again.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Well, Joe, how many years has the Big Apple Circus
been coming to Boston. I think it's been well over thirty.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
So this is the forty eighth year of the Big
Apple Circus, And I agree with you. I think it's
been coming for over thirty years, but it hasn't been
here since twenty nineteen. It was set to come back
number of years ago and then COVID hit and then
it just never came back. So we're really excited to
be bringing it back to the city of Boston.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Well, I remember one year when my kids were young,
I believe you had it on City Hall Plaza. And
now you're going to be at a different locale, a
great location, Suffolk Downs, which is in Boston, but a
lot of Suffolk Downs actually is in Revere. Everybody knows
where Suffolk Downs was. It was a legendary racetrack, horse
(08:55):
racing track. Tell us what they will experience. For those
who perhaps I'm not familiar with the Big Apple Circus,
it's a it's a fabulous entertainment for kids. They just
kids love it and adults do as well.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Well, I was going to say, you know, it's a
show for children of all ages. I think what Big
Apple Circus brings is really it's a traditional one ring
circus under the Big Top. And you know a lot
of people here in Boston are accustomed to going to
a three ring circus, but when you have a one
ring circus, you have a great appreciation for the artistry
of the performer. And what we do is we celebrate
(09:33):
human achievement, and our performers do things you can't imagine
that you could do yourself. And it's really it could
be very it will be very entertaining really for everyone.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, so some of the acts. First of all, I
know that for a long time circuses were criticized. They
were some of them actually have gone out of business
with you know, animal rights groups who are concerned and
about that that's never been an issue with you guys.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
No, Big Apple Circus has not had wild animals on
the show for a number of years probably, let's see.
I first was affiliated with them in two thousand and
I think two thousand and three was the last time
they had elephants on the show, and they had horses
for a while. But this year we only have one
dog act. But what people are going to see, you know,
(10:24):
it's a really high energy show and it opens with
a fantastic hula hoop act. We have a rizzly act,
and a rizly act is the act where one person
lays on their back and flips another human being with
their feet, and it's really a tremendous act. People love it.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, the performance? Are you folks out twelve months a year?
And how many different states or cities do you hit
during the process.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Well, the Big Apple Circus really for the last four
or five years only played in New York City, and
then we got in. Being a Bostonian myself, I wanted
to bring it back to Boston. So we're going to
open here for four weeks and then go to Lincoln
Center play there for nine. If all goes well, we
hope to expand the tour a little bit next year.
But Big Apple was really only in its heyday, was
(11:16):
really only visiting I think eleven cities and playing probably
four months out of the year.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
So, okay, so this is going to be the first
time you've been on the road in a while. I
did not realize that you had been off the road
for that while. This Big Apple Circus been off the
road for that length of time.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah, it's had a number of producers, and most of
the producers have been out of New York City and
they were content just to play Lincoln Center for you know,
the Christmas holiday, Thanksgiving and really be a holiday show.
And when we got involved, I thought it was important
to bring it back to Boston and really let the
people of Boston enjoy their favorite circus.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
How tough is it to find the perform for the
Big Apple Circus. Are they from you know, the northeast
here or do you bring people in from from further away?
Speaker 4 (12:09):
We have acts from Spain, from China, from Ukraine, from
the United States, from South America, so their acts, their
acts from all around the world, and we work to
bring in the best that we can find. And we're
very excited to be bringing that in this year, and
we have a fantastic act called the Kung Fu Boys
(12:32):
from China that balance on their head. And it's really
almost an impossible act to describe. But the first time
I saw it, and I've been associated with circuses my
entire adult career, I had never seen anything like this,
and I think the public will really respond very very
well to this act.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Now, Joe, you mentioned you're a Boston guy. How did
someone like you end up in the circus or end
up producing a circus? Is it a general show business
background you have or has it all he's been, you know,
dealing with these sort of you know, big, big events
under the big top.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
So when I graduated college a long time ago, my
friends were getting jobs with Marriott and Xerox and IBM.
I joined Ringling Brothers, barn and Bailey Circus and stayed
there for twenty years. And then when I left there,
I started my own business, and we then became the
marketing agency for the Big Apple Circus. And this year
(13:27):
I saw the opportunity to take it over, and we
grabbed it because I think we are able to put
together a show that people like. It'll be great family
entertainment and you know, there aren't a lot of things
that parents and children can enjoy together. There's there's not
you know, there's a dearth of family entertainment out there.
(13:47):
And I think we provide a great value for the dollar.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Now, Wringling Brothers were they were they based in outside
of Tampa, Florida.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
So Ringling was based out of Sarasota for a long
long time. When I joined the circus, it was based
out of Washington, d C. At least the executive offices were.
But I was on the road three hundred and sixty
five days a year for the first seven years that
I worked for them and lived out of hotels.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Boy, I'll say it, that's an interesting career choice. Your
friends who worked for married and IBM. They were in
office suites, I assume for the entirety of their career
you saw a lot of hotel rooms. But it's an
interesting life you chose, Joe, that's for sure.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
I got to say, it's been it's been a fun career.
It's taken me around the world many, many times, and
you know I wouldn't change it for anything.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Wow. Well, let's talk about tickets and how they get
how folks who are listening and are retrieved, are going
to get tickets to see the Big Apple Circus. I
know it starts on October ninth, which is a couple
of weeks away, well not but nine days away now
I think about it, and and then you run all
(15:02):
the way through November two, so you're here for pretty
close to a month.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Right. We're doing about thirty five performances, and if people
go on to Big Apple Circus dot com, they can
select the seats they like, or they can they can
put in for the best seat available. And our seats
start at twenty nine to fifty so it's very reasonably priced.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah, compared to a lot of entertainment ticket prices these days,
between sporting events or the theater, twenty nine twenty nine
dollars is a pretty reasonable price. Well, Joe, welcome back
to Boston. I hope you get wonderful reviews. I'm sure
you'll get great reviews, and I hope people get on
and get their tickets early. Joe Gold the Big Apple
(15:46):
Circus producer, and he's a Boston guy. I assume people
when they go there, they get a chance to talk.
There's a good opportunity to interact with some of their
performers and the people who are involved in it. That's
the thing I remember about the Brooke Big Apple Circus.
It was almost intimate in terms of the side of
the venue, and you had access to the performers.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Yeah, there's no question people can meet some of the
performers there. They'll be in the tent, and they can
meet several of the performers at intermission and after the show.
So it's a great experience and it's something that I
think people will remember for the rest of their lives.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
All Right, Joe Gold, thanks very much, best of luck
with your time here in Boston, and we'll do this
again next year.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
That was great. Thank you, Dan.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Thanks Joe Gold. So Big Apple Circus dot com. Get
your tickets, get them early. They're here from October ninth
through November second, and I think November the second, if
I'm not mistaken as a Sunday, I should be able
to figure out. November ninth, I think is a Thursday.
So you got some weekends, you got some daytimes. It's
great for kids of all ages. As he said, when
(16:53):
we get back here on NIGHTSID, we're going to talk
about the forty first all new England Giant Pumpkin Way
Off the tops Field Fair that's coming up this Friday,
and we're gonna be talking with George Thomas. He's a
the co chair of the All New England Giant Pumpkin
Way Off. I don't even know how they weigh these things.
(17:13):
We'll be back on night Side right after the break
at the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on wz Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
All right, there is a tradition here at the tops
Field Fair, which of course is a great tradition, The
All New England Giant Pumpkin Way Off this Friday, October
third with us. Is the co chair of the All
New England Giant Pumpkin Way Off is George Hoomas. George,
(17:45):
I know what Giant Pumpkin Way offs alike, but it
is amazing that this many people participate in this way off,
and I know it's a big event at the Topsfield Fair.
Tell us what's gonna happen on Friday, October third, and
welcome night side, George.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Well, thanks for having me. It's a pretty exciting day.
You know, it's the culmination of the whole summer that
you spend growing these things, you know, and they start
out the size of a ping pong ball, and in
ninety days they're hopefully a couple of thousand pounds. It's
pretty miraculous. So Friday will be weighing them. We'll be
(18:23):
unloading the trucks, measuring, lining them up to see, you know,
we weigh them, try to weigh them in order, you know,
to build a little suspense, big prize structure. As always,
tops Field is very good and generous to us. It's
a great way off. It's a very prestigious way off.
(18:44):
If someone wins the tops Field Fair, it's a it's
a big deal.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So so who is it? Is it just you know,
folks who grow pumpkins, you know, commercial agricultural farms and businesses,
or do you have some who have grown them in
their backyard?
Speaker 4 (19:02):
These are all backyard growers. And you know, when I
started about thirty years ago, a seven hundred pound pumpkin
was a big.
Speaker 5 (19:09):
Deal, right, you know, this has all been selective breeding
by just backyard growers that male seeds to each other,
do cross pollinations and keep trading seeds, and we're up.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
You know, the world records twenty seven hundred and twenty
seven hundred and forty nine pounds.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Let me ask you this, where who won? You know,
tell me who won last year? But what was the
weight last year that won, because it'll probably be a
good indication of how big the widow will be this year.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
You know what. I don't have that in front of me,
but I do have the fair record two years ago
was Jamie Graham and that was twenty four hundred and
eighty pounds.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So that's getting close to work. That's getting close. You
said the world record was twenty seven hundred.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Well we're we're a world class you know, way off.
This is definitely you know we're in the This is
this is a worldwide will I'm sorry, worldwide contest governed
by the GPC, the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth. We all go
by the same rules and it's it's become a very
very big thing where we have members in Europe, we
(20:17):
have members all over the place, met people that we
would never have met, you know, from Spain, Italy, everywhere.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
So let me ask you this.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
The pumpkin being grown in Russia this.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Year and that's coming over here.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
No, it's not coming. This is a new England. Way
off anyone is welcome, but it's there's an extra four
thousand dollars for the pumpkin being grown in at one
of the New England states.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Okay, so let's let's let's let's get down. Let's get
down to the nitty gritty here, George, Okay, how many people?
How many how many contestants do you think you have
or do you know you'll have?
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Well, we're looking at around thirty five. I would think, whoa.
And then years ago that you know, we were the
only way off around and we would have as many
as one hundred and two and it was an incredibly
long day. Of course they were small, they were smaller,
and it was doable. All these are you know, fork
(21:18):
truck you know bork trucks.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
So where do you do this? On the grounds of
the tops Field Fair? Do you do you cording off
an area.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
In the arena? It's in the arena, okay, So we're
very lucky. We have an indoor place if it ever rains,
where you know, out of the weather, and we have
a great, great way off and.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
All the pumpkins in the arena at the same time,
or do you they each get a number and they
bring them in, they put them on the scale, and
how just give me a sense of what it's like. George.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Okay, so what would happen if you had a pumpkin?
You would get in line and you would drive your
truck and trailer in and you would you know, fill
out your registration farm and we would unload you and
we line up all the pumpkins. You know, they're all
on pallets, so the four truck would unload your pumpkin,
(22:08):
line them up kind of according to the size, because
sometimes a bigger pumpkin can weigh less than a smaller pumpkin.
But we try to, you know, we try to leave
the biggest ones or the heaviest ones for last. They
all have a number, they're all registered, and we weigh
them one at a time and everybody gets their weight
and it gets pretty exciting at the end when you're
(22:29):
down to the last eight or ten, you.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Know, And what's what is the big prize for the
Is it a winner take all or do you have us?
Speaker 4 (22:39):
There's prize money all the way down to twenty five people.
So it's okay, so what's the.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Top George, George, you probably are anticipating my next question.
What's the big what's the top prize? What's what is
the winner table?
Speaker 4 (22:55):
The top prize if you break the fair record would
be ten thousand and five, one hundred and twenty five dollars. Okay,
So if you if you just win, which is pretty good,
you still get eighty five hundred.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, yes, that's pretty It's not going to be ashamed
out there, George. That's that's pretty good.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
It might it might even break even on your fertilizer bill.
But yeah, what is it?
Speaker 2 (23:19):
What does it cost? Realistically? And again I'm asking you questions.
We don't script questions here on Night Side, as you
probably have figured out by now, a lot of shows
the report the host gets a bunch of questions. I'm
just asking you questions, is I don't know anything, I've
never had a great poet.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Well, Questions that most people would ask. So how much
does it cost? It can cost as much as you
want or as little as you want. So, for instance,
you know you can spend a lot of money on fertilizer, pesticides, fungicides.
Some people grow in greenhouses now, and I mean full
sized greenhouses, you know, thirty by forty, thirty by seven.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Okay, so give me, give me a rough number to
have a competitive pumpkin in the all new England Great
Pumpkin Way Off. Realistically, Uh, this is something that people
take really, really seriously. So just give me a What
does it cost a couple of thousand dollars to develop
a pumpkin size?
Speaker 4 (24:20):
Yeah? Most likely a couple of you know, a couple
of thousand. Yeah, you're gonna spend a lot of time
on it to do it right. You know, you've got
to do everything right and you're still got to be lucky.
So you know, there's a lot of things that are
detrimental to these things, so you know, between bugs and
(24:40):
different diseases.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And how did this all start? This all start, George,
if you know and it didn't initiate, I assume I
know that there's Great Pumpkin way Offs in Canada. I
have a friend of mine who is very active, but
I've never grilled the miss of grilling you, how did
how did this started? This go back to the doesn't
go back to the mayflower, I'm sure where did it starts?
Speaker 4 (25:05):
No, but it goes back to Howard Dill from Nova Scotia,
and all these seeds can be traced back to his
strain of seeds, the Dill's Atlantic Giant. So I mean
he had a world record, I believe, way back. I
think it was four hundred and eighty pounds. I mean,
(25:25):
that's how far we've come. And like I said, we've
we've been trading seeds back and forth and doing selection.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
How do you know what seeds to trade? George? This
is what you've mentioned that a couple of times that
I don't understand that.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Okay, So let's just take it on a small scale.
Say we were at the fair and you look around
and there's thirty pumpkins there, so you can ask anybody
there for seeds. When they you know eventually they're going
to cut it open and take them out, So you
can ask anybody there for seeds. Most people will give
you seeds. We never used to charge money for seeds,
but things have changed. But I won't get into that.
(26:01):
So ninety nine percent of people will give you seeds
if you ask them.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
And then how do you figure how do you figure
out you've got a bunch of seeds? Do you put
them each in a in a in a little plastic
bag and then figure out which are the best seeds
and that's the science. I guess right.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Well, there's the site. There's a site called big Pumpkins
dot com and it will have like it'll have all
the way off for this year. We'll have all the
way off, right.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I want I'm gonna get that because I'm going to
try to figure out how how you guys do Look.
We've I think we've probably given our audience. I hope
they've been taking notes because there's a lot of information
here at George. Uh, it's Friday, October third. What time
in the morning or in the afternoon does this start?
Speaker 4 (26:44):
So we start unloading at two o'clock okay, and the
way off starts at four okay.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
And you'll have a you'll crown a winner probably by
what five.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Thirty, Probably closer to six or seven.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
All right, So this is a real contest, Okay, George,
this is great. I know I asked a million questions,
but I'm actually interested in it. So thanks so much
for answering those questions. I got another guest, Yeah, I got.
I'm a busy guy, George. I'd love to do it.
Maybe when I retire, you'll you'll see me there. Thanks George,
have a great one, all right. Congratulations to the top
(27:22):
field fair. We'll get back. I couldna talk about something
that I know a lot about him. That's late night eating.
Actually I changed late night eating habit when I became
a member of Awake in one to eighty. So stick
with us. Where you are going to talk with doctor
Julie Gatza. She's the co founder of the Florida Wellness
Institute and she's a health educator. We'll have some fun
(27:44):
with doctor Julie coming up on Nightside right after.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
This Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
All right, for those of us who work eight to midnight,
like Rob and me, sometimes at the end of the show,
you're a little hungry and that involves some late night eating,
and I have been known to do that. However, however,
it's probably not the smartest thing in the world to do.
And with us to prove that it's probably not the
smartest thing in the world to do, is doctor Julie Gatza.
(28:16):
She's the co founder of the Florida Wellness Institute. She's
a health educator, Doctor Gatzill, Welcome to night Side. How
are you.
Speaker 6 (28:22):
I'm good, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
So look, there are people out there who because of it.
No one, not everyone works nine to five. I think
I've worked one year in my life in the media
at nine to five, and you know it's twelve at
midnight and you're tired and you want to go to
bed thinking there's a couple of chocolate chip cookies there
(28:46):
and maybe some chocolate milk. Not a good idea, right.
Speaker 6 (28:49):
No, it's not. I mean in dairy in general, cheese,
the dairy products. We don't make enzymes to break down
dairy products. So in general humans have a harder time
breaking down dairy.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Okay, so eating cheese and dairy what I'm hearing you.
I want to put this up there in big lights,
okay for my audience. Cheese and dairy or no, no, yes.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
And the reason being is when you don't break something down,
it's going to sit in the gut, it's going to ferment.
It's going to be something that the body says, hey,
we should be sleeping, not trying to digest complicated foods
at this point. And so this is where people get nightmares.
This is where they have restless sleep pains and restless legs,
(29:33):
you know, digestive problems and you know, feeling groggy in
the morning because you've been digesting food that's complicated rather
than letting the body go into full rest at night.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Okay, so is in your position. I was in a
weight loss program many years ago where I was said, hey,
you can't eat any food after eight o'clock at night.
Now that was ten years ago, lost thirty five pounds.
Haven't put a palm back on, but I willccasionally. I've
been known to have a glass of wine after the show.
(30:05):
Let's talk about that. If cheese and dairy aren't good
for you, what about you know, a beerau a glass
of wine.
Speaker 6 (30:14):
I mean, you know, it's a similar thing. If somebody
is trying to get their health back, then that's probably
not something that you want to put onto their program
and have them try to figure out how to get
healthy with those things. But inevitably people are going to
mostly drink at night anyhow, so you will find that
probably there are certain alcohols that bother you more than others.
(30:34):
I know a lot of women have a hard time
with red wine and hormonal imbalance and hot flashing and
all sorts of things like that that can happen at night,
and people will often find you know which alcohol they
do the best with.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Okay, So if people do have the hungry horrors and
they've come home, there are you know, police officers who
work different shifts, and there are people who work for
to midnight shifts. If they do have the hungry hors
and they have to eat something, what's the best fruit
(31:06):
of vesual, like some apples or an apple or a banana?
What what? What do you suggest that actually does the least,
is the least disruptive to your sleep patterns.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
I would say a hybrid, a higher fiber type fruit. Apples, pears, peaches,
even blueberries and berries themselves are better for you. Bananas
are super high in sugar, so you know, now you've
got a huge sugar buzz going on before bed. And
you know, with weird shift jobs, you almost have to
(31:39):
treat it like a regular day situation. Are you really
going to bed right when you go home? If you're not,
then you do have those couple of lee way hours.
So that's its own special case. But most of the time,
when people are snacking at night with regular you know job,
you know times, it's usually the snacks are because aren't
(32:00):
eating enough protein in the morning, or they're skipping breakfast.
So I'm talking not a cup of coffee and not
a bagel and out the door, and not you know,
a bowl of cereal and calling it breakfast. You do
need the protein because late night snackers are usually breakfast skippers.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, no, I don't skip breakfast. I love breakfast, one
of my favorite meals of the day. So is there
I'm wondering if you have a book or a website
that people could could check in on, because a lot
of this information is really good, but some people will
not be taking notes here. Is there any anything that
we can refer folks to to help them put this
(32:38):
in their mind permanently and just not for a few
minutes they're listening to us tonight.
Speaker 6 (32:43):
Well, let me say one more thing about that, and
then yes, I'll tell you that if you're going to
eat at night, it's probably best to eat a very
simple protein. So whether that's you know, a piece of chicken,
a hard boiled egg, something that you know takes a
little time to break down, is you know, complicated on
the area that that's the hardest food or the one
that the body needs the most, and probably the one
(33:05):
that people are lacking because they're easily drawn towards eating
crackers and chips and snacks and nuts and things like
that rather than actually having proteins. So three meals a
day of protein. If you know you have a tendency
to snack at night, take a look at are you
eating three meals? And then as far as more information,
(33:26):
I'm a big proponent of people taking high quality enzymes
because with our food source, our land that's not being remineralized,
and just the source of our food isn't as great
as it used to be thirty forty years ago, We're
lacking things in the body in general, so people aren't
making enough digestive enzymes to break down their normal healthy food,
(33:48):
much less unhealthy food. So I've always said to people
to take all my patients take high quality digestive enzymes.
It will aid you breaking down the protein, the fruit,
the vegetable, even the junk food, because it has the
ability to basically chop it up like a sou chef
and make it available to the body and push the
toxines out easier. So I use one digestive enzyme called absorbed,
(34:13):
and on their website we have a lot of information
on absorbed and the benefits of you know, putting that
in with each meal, and you know, suggestions on what
people can do to you know, have healthier choices, and
none of these are amazing different than what you've ever heard.
The bodies are still bodies. Whether technology is evolved, our
(34:33):
bodies are still the same meat and bone bodies we've
had for thousands of years. So we still do have
to apply the basic principles, which is high protein veshables, next,
not too much fruit, and tons of water.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
It's very simple, yeah it is.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
But for those of us who are not doing it
every day. Those high quality enzymes you talked about those
available at pharmacies and stores over are they over the counter.
Speaker 6 (35:03):
They no, No, they're over the counter at you know,
better health food stores. And then the website would be
Nature'ssources dot com and you can find out tons of
information about the enzymes. They're good for elderly babies. I mean,
you know kids that can you know, take an enzyme.
They even have it in powdered form. And a lot
(35:24):
of my patients also give it to their dogs because
it eats in breaking down the actual dog food so
the dogs get more nutrition.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah. No, the problem is that all the food that
tastes good, that's bad for you.
Speaker 6 (35:37):
You know, however, not out all the bads for one month.
Only eat good food and you'll be so surprised how
good real food tastes. It's just when you're eating high fat,
high sugar, high salt, saturated fats, unsaturated fats, all these
things are like mimics to other things. So you are hungrier,
(35:58):
you need to snack more. You don't feel satisfied after eating.
And you know, when I clean up any one of
my patients diet, they're like, wow, I didn't really love chicken,
I didn't love broccoli, and you know, a good meal
actually tastes great now, absolutely well.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
I do appreciate your time and all the information. It
was really a lot of information. Doctor Julie Gatza, co
founder of the Florida Wellness Institute, and she's a health
educator and as you can tell, she's a great health educator.
Gave us a lot of information and eat well, eat well.
That's the best revenge. Thanks so much, doctor Gatsa.
Speaker 6 (36:32):
You're very welcome, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Doctor. Yet, we will be talking with Jeff Jacoby, Boston
Globe opinion columnist. He is a really fun guy. To
talk with and we will be joined by him right
after the nine o'clock news on night Side
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