Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
How is it going?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I am memory and thank you for listening. So happy
to be along with you today. I got my friend
Scott Borhees alongside, which I very much appreciate. Scott. How
you doing today?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Great? Good to be back here. Today is out? Yesterday?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Oh yeah, you were doing a thing, weren't you?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Took my daughter to college yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
A place you probably aren't going would be My guess
is Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I like Cracker Barrel, Well I do too, but I
can't like Cracker Barrel anymore.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Well you can.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I'm just saying many people are disappointed in the way
that things are turning for Cracker Barrel. If you've seen
the redesign of the interior of Cracker Barrel, it went
from feeling like a good old fashioned country store, which
was kind of the point.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
To now.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Like a redesigned homely repainted Windy's. Now that would be
a little harsh.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I was just in Omaha's Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'm not saying that every Cracker Barrel looks like this
right now, but they're working on it.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Really.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
They just changed the logo and officially announced the rebrand
today or yesterday, But today is when the markets have
reacted to it, and they went from how would you
best describe the logo. It's a kind of like a
potato shaped thing that says cracker barrel, and you know,
like it's like a yellow circle e thing, and then
(01:25):
it's got like the brown cracker barrel.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Old timey font kind of thing. Yeah, and then it
was a classic. You can see it from miles away,
even if you can't read the words. You see the sign.
You know it's a cracker and it's.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
A guy, like an old guy up against a barrel.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well they have removed the old guy up against the barrel,
and they have changed the shape of the cracker barrel
logo to where now it's just kind of like an
oddly shaped hexagon and it just says cracker barrel in
there in the font that you know and love so.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
It used to.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Haven't renamed it, you know, to something less offensive like
monkey barrel, oh gosh or something like that.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well, they also apparently have changed the peg game. Have
you ever found yourself losing time to wait for your food,
messing around to see if you can get that last
that one pig left.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I've done it. I did it the last time we
were a cracker barrel.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
You got done the one peg?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, I did it in one shot, and I just
passed it the rest of the family and said, all right,
everyone else is I got super lucky. I usually get
down to like three pegs. I'm like, dang it, how
in the world did this?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
You know?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I got down to the one though, Well, congrats, thank
you a smart person. According to the actual little triangle,
it says leave only one you're a genius.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, that's that's if you play the game one time
and one time only in your entire life and nail it,
or can do that every time. I would not say
that I have that track record.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Oh okay, you've practiced. There are videos. I just tutorial
so how to do this.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
There's a way you can do it, and I managed
to get it done in that way one time.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
If you leave only two, you're pretty smart. Yeah, you
leave three and you're just playing dumb.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah that's me.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Leave four or more and you're just playing ignoramus.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Well they're replacing those now what yep, come on, it's
still the triangle and the rules are the same. Leave
only one you're a genius, Leave two rocking the chair,
but not the game. Leave three or more. No reason
to be embarrassed, Just try again, and that's it. That's it.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
They don't make fun of you, they don't mock you. Nope,
no reason to be embarrassed. Try again. But that's why
you play the game, because you're there with your family
and you pass it around and see who can do it.
And if someone's better than someone else, that gives you
some sort of intellectual superiority over the rest of the table.
As you sit there eating fried food and dipped in gravy.
(03:58):
Someone's got to feel like the one at the table.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah, I love man, I really do love it. Now
the there's a page called Governor Newso Press Office. It's
got four hundred and sixty two thousand followers. Official account
for the press office of California Governor Gavin Newsom. I
(04:22):
think this is a real account. I have no reason,
have no reason. But they like the poke fund at
Donald Trump, and they like the poke fund people who
support Donald Trump and Governor Newso. Four hours ago in
this press office said what is wrong with cracker Barrel?
(04:45):
Keep your beautiful logo. The new one looks like cheap
Velveta cheese from Walmart, the place for groceries, an old
fashioned term. Fix it asap, woke is dead. Thank you
for your attention to.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
This matter with Gavin Newsom acount, that's not Gavin Newsom.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
It's Gavin Newsom's press office account, and they're obviously mocking.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Oh oh okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yes, And then following that today we will make the
maps great again, because you know, we'll get to that
in a second, right with the jerrymandering and stuff. Oh yeah, yeah.
You know, as much as I would love just to
laugh at this, it just is a we have entered
a minimalist society. We have gotten to a point where
all brands are trying their best to reconfigure or reposition
(05:34):
themselves to be as appealing to as many people as
possible at the exact same time forgetting what helped build
their brand into a successful brand in the first place.
Bud Light a couple of years ago with Dylan mulvaney
is a good example. Earlier this year, Jaguar got got
by the idea of you know what would be awesome
(05:55):
is if we put a bunch of people you can't
tell if they're male or female in a bunch of
Ambow clothing and not show anyone what we actually sell.
They made an entire commercial rebranding Jaguar and they didn't
show a car, not one car in a thirty second ad.
Just a bunch of oddly dressed people wandering around in
(06:16):
what looks to be space. No idea. If you look
at how Jaguars performed this year, it hasn't been very
good at all. You have people that are leaving these
companies because they have misfired so poorly. And CEO Julie
Fel's Messino, who's been in charge of Cracker Barrel the
last couple of years, she seems to be next on
the block. Guess the percentage of drop in the last
(06:39):
five days of Cracker Barrell's stock. Yes, Cracker Barrel Old
Country Store does have a stock.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Did not know that they were a publicly created company.
I'm saying they're probably down thirty two percent. Man, that
was a good guess. They are down twenty percent over
the last month, fifteen percent over the last five days.
They're down nine percent today. Market reacting immediately today to
the new branding being unveiled by Cracker Barrel Old Country Store.
(07:06):
Have you been to Cracker Barrel I have. Isn't it
usually pretty busy?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah? Yeah, but again I haven't been in a while.
It's not like I've been to Cracker Barrel like all
the time. Maybe I just need to go back and
just double check and see how the Omaha store looks
versus the pictures of people showing of the newly renovated interiors.
I'd like to see if the triangles peg jumping game,
if it reads what it did when I was a kid,
(07:32):
calling me ignore a mus right and uh.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Oh, I bet you can't find one. Now people would
be pocketing them collectors.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
If you were hearing that this is happening, absolutely yeah,
those will all be gone. Uh but yeah, just like
right as the market's open the day down ten percent
and it's kind of held steady for the rest of
the day. But according to Cracker Barrel, the change is
part of a strategic transformation to revitalize the brand, which
originally started back in the May area of twenty twenty four,
(08:03):
including visual elements in their stores, restaurants, spaces, food and
retail offerings. The brand is going to maintain its rich
history of country hospitality and authentic charm. Has made the
brand a beloved destination for generations of family. According to
Chief marketing Officer Sarah Moore, we believe in the goodness
of country hospitality, a spirit that has always defined us.
(08:26):
Our story hasn't changed, our values haven't changed. So what
are we changing here?
Speaker 1 (08:30):
For?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
What's the matter again? I'm not trying to tell people
how to run their businesses. But if it ain't broke,
what are we fixing here?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Scott?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
For he's alongside this afternoon, Scott, you've taken a quick
peek at the additional interior of the cracker barrels. The
cracker barrel adjustments to their interior. What do you think?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
It's not completely dissimilar. It's maybe a little brighter, little
more room to move with. If you're at a cracker
barrel at any time, any place I've ever been to one,
it's usually pretty busy and there are a lot of
people kind of both milling around in that general store area,
which is where you're looking for various little games and
(09:14):
toys and stuff, and they're also waiting in line to pay,
and it gets a little congested. It looks like they've
freed up some space in there, and maybe in the
restaurant area.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
It looks maybe a bit.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
More spacious, slightly more homogenized, but not not yeah, not
completely dissimilar from what I've come to recognize as being
a cracker barrel.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Okay, all right, so you're not offended overtly by.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
This, dude.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
If they have the same menu they have, it's like, hey,
here's our fried menu dipped in gravy. As long as
it's all the same thing and you want to side
of ribs with that, you could put this in like
a hospital room and I'll sit there and I'll eat it.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
You know, you're making me hungry all of a sudden.
I love me some Cracker Bears. I need to go back.
It's been a long time. I don't want to make
it sound like I'm kinda boycott a place that rebrands,
because there have been a lot of rebrands and a
lot of rebrand misfires. Think about how many brands have
decided they went a little kind of modernized and kind
(10:18):
of shifted back into a more simplistic and kind of
old school variation. I'm talking about like Burger King. Remember
they went to kind of like that three D kind
of big old bubble letter Burger King, and then they
kind of shifted back to what they were in like
the eighties and nineties, which is what they are now.
Pizza Hut did the same thing. Now, if you look
(10:38):
at a Pizza Hut logo, it looked exactly like it
did probably in the in nineteen eighty seven. We're seeing
that in the NFL with branding. I don't know if
you've noticed, but a lot of NFL teams are kind
of going back to what their older, more cleaned up
looks were. It's almost like we got so crazy with
what we could do with logos and color schemes that
(11:01):
we didn't know that what we had before was actually
much more aesthetically pleasing. Now maybe change is the hardest
part of all. This is just the fact that we
didn't need a change for Cracker Barrel's logo or it's branding,
and people are a little bit my pearls because they
(11:21):
are seeing Cracker Barrel change the Cracker Barrel we've known
and loved our entire lives. The logo is changing, the
interior is changing, it's losing maybe a bit of that
old country store charm. But is it actually changing the business?
Could it theoretically increase business for families that avoided it
for all the reasons you mentioned that you loved it.
(11:43):
It's like, oh, well, it's a little crowded in there.
It just feels a little dingy when you're inside the which.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
I didn't say dingy.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I'm just saying, like the aesthetic in there was literally
like you're in an old country store, which I loved.
I absolutely love that vibe and that aesthetic. But it
being cleaned up now it certainly has a bit more
family friendly, welcoming. I know, I'm in a restaurant vibe
in the interiors, not of all the stories yet, but
they're working on it. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Look, my wife will not if she goes into a
restaurant and even the people who are eating there look
kind of dirty, and especially there's there's a type of
restaurant that she just won't go into anymore. She really
really didn't like it. She about every three or four
months is like, we haven't been to Cracker Barrel in
(12:32):
a while, so it's got the clean mom stamp of approval,
nice for Omaha's Cracker Barrel. And sometimes we've been on
vacation and sometimes it's the only place. Like, if you're
in Branson after nine o'clock and you want to eat something,
you don't have a lot of options.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Just roll on.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, and so she likes it. She likes you know,
getting fried ochre and all that stuff. Now, we don't
eat there every single night. We don't eat anywhere every
single night. You know, as long as Cracker Barrel didn't
get some people who didn't like it in the first
place saying, oh, Cracker Barrel, this is a place where
all fat people go in there to get old fat food,
and we need to tell them this is unhealthy. We
(13:12):
got to change everything. It doesn't look like that's what
happened here, but it does beg the question why did
anyone feel the need to update the logo?
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
We seem to be living in an era where if
you have nothing to do, you find something to do,
even if that may end up being detrimental to what
you're attempting to actually achieve over the long term. I'm
watching ESPN basically gobble up NFL network in NFL Red Zone.
They just got the rights of WWE's premium live events.
(13:47):
ESPN is seeing an opportunity to hoard the market you
know they are. They basically took WWE on and lost
UFC and took NFL network. They want to be in control.
They got major league by despite not having a deal
with ESPN to go over the air on ESPN. Well,
ESPN's trying to buy MLB dot tv for the online ads, right,
(14:09):
So ESPN is seeing, Oh, you got money, we're sitting
on it. We're gonna grab assets. That's building your business model. Yeah,
changing your logo, changing your advertising style, changing the interior
of your restaurant when nothing seemed like it needed to
be adjusted or changed. Seems like we're looking for something
(14:31):
to do, and we couldn't figure out what to do.
We couldn't build our business by acquiring things or by
trying to make maybe small tweaks to either what the
menu looks like or maybe what the interior or logo
might seem. Instead, we're overhauling it all at one time
because we got a new CEO that took over in
November of twenty three and says it's just not good
(14:52):
enough right now. I just don't know if I can
agree with that.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Just as long as you don't give your customers, your
fan base the impression that all. We reached out to
a team of very important influencers. They're all fourteen and
fifteen years old, and they and they said, oh yeah,
within Cracker Barrel's old. Has that logo been around for
longer than seven years? Yeah, it's been around for decades.
Oh my gosh, how old you get rid of that? Grandpa?
(15:16):
Come on, Boomer, get rid of that stuff. And then
you have to do an advertising campaign like you were
saying about Jaguar, where you act like you don't even
want to sell people food or a car or whatever.
You don't even put that in the things. That's the
cool way to get people here. You act like you
don't want them.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
The mysteriousness of what even are you trying to sell?
Will keep me engaged. Well, it hasn't worked for anyone
when they've done it that way. And for whatever it's worth.
Cracker Barrel down tennis percent today right at the open
of the markets, because yes it's a publicly traded company.
The last twelve months have been great, up twenty eight percent.
That includes the drop today, So it tells you that
(15:56):
things weren't bad at all. The old They had a
dip when we went into tariff land like many brands did.
They had rebuilt over the last I don't know, four months,
and now all of a sudden own goal unforced error,
come out with this very simplistic, overly minimalized logo and
(16:17):
it is I mean, you could see the downward spike
of what they're doing. And I don't know what to say.
I guess maybe we need another little bit of time
to see if it actually affects what their customers are.
But no positive publicity is coming out about this on
the SOS, so I guess we'll see, and maybe we
just need to do some recon here and go visit
(16:38):
some Cracker barrels.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I'm looking at the new logo. It's the same color.
It's of the background, it's the same color of the letters,
but it just it doesn't look like the Cracker barrel Solace.
I mean, it's just soulless.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Like you said, you could have recognized the old Cracker
barrel logo with the guy next to the barrel and stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
You see that just with the color, which I think
you can probably do that now too. It's the same color, nook.
It kind of looks like a Denny sign. The front
isn't but like the shape and the shape of it
kind of looks like a Denny's sign. Yeah, Like, no,
I hope Denny's doesn't change anything.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yeah, Denny's is good too.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
They took the phrase old country store out of the logo.
You know, someone was like, just don't put old in there.
It's old. We don't want anything that's old. This picture
of the guy is sitting here by this barrel. He
looks old. Oh he is old.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
That's the whole point, right, that's the guy welcoming you
to cracker barrel. What are we doing here? So we'll see.
We'll see exactly what tomorrow looks like for them, and
maybe the next few weeks and if there's backlash and
if we see a premature resignation from Julie Fel's Messino
as CEO of this company after she's made all these
radical changes over the last couple of years. Two thirty,
(17:50):
when we come back that redistrict d effort. Earlier today,
had a chance to talk to somebody who's living in
Texas name is David Grass. So he's given us a
lot of different perspectives on this. You'll hear from him
next on news Radio eleven ten kfab Emery sung story
yesterday we talked about was we were watching the vote
happen of the Texas redistricting effort or jerrymandering effort, And
(18:13):
I'm always looking for analytical ways to look at these
types of things. Joining us is political analyst David Grass
up today before we start breaking it down from an
analytical standpoint, what was yesterday all about?
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Yesterday was all about trying to position Republicans to the
best of their ability for the midterm elections. Traditionally, when
a party holds the White House and Congress at the
same time, like the Republicans do now, it usually switches
parties at the midterm elections. So President Trump decided to
(18:47):
use jerry mandering as a weapon to increase the odds
of Republicans holding onto the House at the midterm elections,
and Texas was the battlefield that he chose to carry
out that plan.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, there's been a lot of talk about whether or
not this is something that will trigger a response. We'll
get to that in a second. But I suppose this is.
I mean that we know this isn't the first time
this has happened, and we know that Texas and Iowa
where we live have different rules in how they redistrict.
So as we go into the science of like whom
(19:21):
draws the new maps and how they're drawing it to
get a basically be the favorites to land five additional seats.
What is that process like for the state of Texas
when they're trying to redraw those maps.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Traditionally, like every other state, the maps are drawn every
ten years. This was part of the Great Compromise in
seventeen eighty seven, which set up that the House would
be apportioned by population in the Senate would be two
per state. It's called the Great Compromise because states like Iowa,
we're afraid of states like you know, New Jersey that
are more populous, right, so that was the power sharing agreement.
(19:59):
This is very untraditional in the sense because typically the
state legislatures are the ones in charge of drawing these maps.
They do it every ten years. Well, it's twenty twenty five.
We're between one census to the twenty twenty and the
twenty thirty census, so that means that this is all
highly unprecedented. It's not unheard of, but it's very strange. Traditionally,
(20:21):
states that are controlled by a certain party, Democrats or
Republicans tend to draw maps that are more favorable to
their party, and that's why no party has the moral
high ground on this issue. If you go to a
place like Illinois or California, they're heavily skewed towards Democrats,
and in Texas and in Florida, they're more skewed toward Republicans.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Well, speaking of David Grass, so he's a political analyst,
I've seen the maps of a couple of these districts
in Texas where it's like a chunk of San Antonio
in a chunk of Dallas, and then just like a
tiny little line basically in between the two of them.
How how do you even come up with that? Would
be my question. You know, in the state of Iowa,
(21:01):
our four congressional districts are all full counties in their
regionalized county groups. You know, when they're drawing in Texas
with all the different metropolitan areas and trying to find
ways to have a seat here or grab a seat here,
I just guess I'm a bit confused as to who
even comes up with the idea of Okay, this is
(21:23):
going to lead to a more Democrat area or district,
and this if we change it could lead in this
way to a more Republican district. So who were are
these people in Congress that are drawing these maps? Like
who's drawing the map?
Speaker 4 (21:40):
This is usually analysts that draw these maps. They use
computer programs and imagine, now we have AI to figure
out how to dilute certain voters. So the overarchinge theme
for Jerry manderin which came from Congressman Jerry in Massachusetts
who drew a district like a salamander. So what you're
talking about is these districts don't look normal like the
(22:00):
ones you have in Iowa. So what they do is
they say, Okay, we have an overarching team to make
more Republican districts, right, but we can't eliminate Democratic voters.
So how do we dilute them by drawing these exotic shapes?
Started out with the salamander, but now we have all
sorts of shapes that challenge our imagination. In no way
(22:24):
is it more fair. It leads to suboptimal outcomes. Traditionally,
voters choose their politicians, but in this case, politicians are
actually shopping around for their voters, and it increases the
partisan divide, because think about it, if you build districts
that are favorable for a certain type of politicians, those
politicians don't really have to work to get re elected.
(22:46):
And that's why we see a lot of political extremism
on this side, or on both sides for that matter.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Yeah, it's a really good point. David Grasso's political analyst
joining us. Of course, the big hubbub in the response
to this was that the Democrats ran away, and we're
in Illinois and there's been a lot of chatter about
how do we bring them back? Are they under arrest,
did they forfeit their seats? What is the status essentially
on that kind of boycott as they were trying to
(23:13):
avoid a quorum so they couldn't even vote on this thing.
What's in procedurally? How would you be able to dance
around that if they just perpetually never wanted to come back.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Well, they did come back ultimately, and it was political
theater and in the sense that it was the height
of hypocrisy. They actually escaped. Most of them went to Illinois,
which is highly jerry mander the other way. Again, no
moral high ground from either party on this issue, and
now California is actually going to follow suit to try
to negate the gains that Texas makes. So here we
(23:47):
go to the race of the bottom of the barrel. Procedurally,
you know, they were gone, so they couldn't hold a vote.
They finally came back, there was a vote. Conservatives or
Republicans have a huge majority already in states like Texas
and Florida and many other states as well. So it
was merely a delay tactic. It was not meaningfully going
(24:08):
to change the outcome. And that's where we find ourselves
today in the Texas House. This bill passed yesterday, It
will pass the Senate on Thursday. After that it will
quickly be signed by Governor Abbott, and then after that
you will see Governor Gavin Newsom in California try to
copy the whole process to eliminate that advantage. Now, one
big caveat, though, just because you engineered districts for a
(24:29):
certain outcome, it doesn't mean that outcome's going to happen.
Elections still matter, and people vote based on things like
the economy, inflation, the culture war, and other things that
motivate voters to get out to the polls.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense to you, leading
right into the next question. Gavin Newsom is in California,
one of a few states that have kind of whispered
or at least threatened that they will redraw their maps
in response to Texas trying to steal what they're calling
steal a handful of seats for the upcoming midterm election.
(25:05):
Can they do that in if Texas can, I'm sure
that there's a way, But I mean, who are we
kidding at this point? I mean, this is like children
in a sandbox trying to steal each other's you know,
like bulldozers. I just I don't understand, like this could
be just never ending, right.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Oh, never ending, And no one's going to let up,
right because if someone lets up, then it just gives
the other party an advantage. Structurally, this is better for Republicans,
and nothing Blue states do can negate what Republicans are doing.
Just think about the national patterns occurring. There is more
migration from blue states to red states. They are growing.
(25:44):
In the next census, red states will have more seats
and will only benefit more from this jerry mandering. Additionally,
a lot of Democratic states, like California have specific laws
about against jerry mandering, so they're going to encounter more problems.
In fact, New York tried to jerry mander during the
Path census and it was thrown out by a court.
(26:05):
Here in Texas, I don't see a court throwing this out.
So structurally, this is always going to be better for Republicans.
But make no mistake, Democrats are going to make every
effort to try to eliminate any sort of engineered gains
that come from red states.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
This would go into effect by next year. Is that
kind of the plan. And are these other states trying
to hustle to get their own jerrymandered maps by then
as well.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
The whole point of this is for the midterm elections.
And again this is highly unusual. This is supposed to
occur in twenty twenty and then in twenty thirty. No
one ever said twenty twenty five, this is a manufactured crisis.
In this case, you know, I blame both parties for
this phenomenon. But in this case, President Trump asked for this,
So that's what did That's what ignited this latest race
(26:54):
to the bottom.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Yeah, well, it's going to be interesting to see exactly
what happens. Uh Iowa it has been kind of pretty
steady for the most part, and there hasn't been and
we have like a separate outside entity that even redraws
the map. So it's not something that people can make
themselves in Congress. But it's been very fascinating to watch
what's going on in Texas David Grasso with great information.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
And they're about to negate it. So California has exactly
what I would do it and they're about to negate it.
So don't hold your breath.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Oh okay, all right, well I guess I guess.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Nothing's ever perfect in this world. I suppose David Grassow
political analysts really do appreciate the time and the information
today as.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Always always pleasure to things, all right.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
And we'll come back. We'll talk about those lines and
why those lines are interesting. We've talked about Nebraska's rules too,
and we also in Nebraska have the two you know,
you only redistrict every ten years, and what redistricting would
look like if it was done to try to help
Republicans win. I have an idea. I'll tell you about
(27:56):
it next on news radio eleven ten kfab and Raise Songer.
I do to know how to put this, but I'm
kind of a big.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Deal on news radio eleven.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Ten KFAB obviously going to be an effort from California
and some of these other blue states to try to
match that and try to replace the five seats out
of schedule. Most of these situations are built and done
from a standpoint of twenty twenty census, twenty thirty census.
(28:25):
In every ten years, we look at where people are
living and then we redraw the maps. Now I mentioned
a couple of times Iowa. I think Iowa was pretty
unique because Iowa's districts are literally along county lines, and
if they have to move one county from one district,
like Pottawatamie County in twenty twenty was removed from the
District three and moved into District four, that changes which
(28:50):
district they're in and who they'll vote for. And it
did affect I think the races because it makes both
District three and District for much more likely to be
Republican held districts. Now, this is not done by the politicians.
This is done by kind of a third party of
analysts that look at where the populations are located and
(29:13):
are trying to get as close to an equal population
across the entire state. Nebraska is the same way, except
theirs is done in the unicameral. The unic camera will
come up with the ideas, but it is done very
strictly in twenty twenty after the twenty twenty census, So
of twenty twenty one, I guess, and then the next
(29:34):
one wouldn't be unless something crazy happens until twenty thirty one,
when we have all the information of the twenty thirty census.
If you look at the district maps, the second congressional
district is the blue dot if you will, as far
as Democrats are concerned. But it's being held by a
Republican right now in Don Bacon. Don Bacon's not running
for reelection. I would say it's going to be very
(29:55):
difficult for a Republican to try to match exactly what
he did the appeal he had to independent candidates because
last couple of elections, this is a district that is
voted blue. It just has Biden in twenty twenty Harrison
twenty twenty four. You are seeing how blue the votes
are going toward the Senate candidates as time has gone on.
(30:18):
Somehow Don Becan's maintained winning in this district. You saw
what happened in the mayoral race where John Ewing ended
up upsetting Mayor Jen Stothart, who had been the mayor
for twelve years, and now all of a sudden, the
people decided in a pretty overwhelming fashion that they wanted
somebody a little bit more to the left of center
(30:40):
as far as their politics go. I would say that
if Nebraska was trying to hustle really quickly and try
to redraw their maps to try to protect themselves from Omaha,
essentially controlling and voting in a Democrat, they would need
to kind of slice and dice a bit themselves. I'm
(31:01):
not a fan of this. I kind of made it
pretty clear in that interview. I really think that the
whole gerry manderin thing. Nobody who does this, especially out
of schedule, is going to tell me that they're not
trying to just geographically manipulate voters. It's not even like
your vote counts anymore. It's not about winning your vote
in a grassroots way. It is taking demographics in geography
(31:22):
and trying to build districts that make it easier for
one side or the other to win and it's both
sides who do it. They want, you know, the Republicans
want to try to slice the metropolitanarias into as many
pieces as possible and put more people from the suburbs
and the rural areas and Texas. This is what it
would look like where the big metropolitan area that has
(31:46):
likely more liberal people are not going to make up
enough of that district for them to maintain control of
that seat. Well, the same thing for Democrats who would
take a couple of different slices like the one that
I mentioned with San Antonio in Dallas, where one district
is like a little chunk of San Antonio, a little
chunk them up. With that, manipulate that you could try
to split maybe Omaha in the Omaha area in half.
(32:12):
We're splitting Sarpy County and half already if you look
at the district map, you just split Omaha in half
and go a little bit more of the rural area
and then have Lincoln try to be an island in
the completely different district. Maybe you split that in half
with the third congressional district. There would be a way
that you could try to rig it up and fix
it up to where only Republicans could ever really feel
like they have a chance to win. I don't think
(32:34):
it's a good idea, but it's something that could theoretically
happen if this continues to get out of hand in Texas, California,
and the rest of the country. Hello there, Happy Thursday.
At the Thursday Thursday, I'm Emery Songer. I am joined
by Scott Vorhies, who is very, very nice and kind
for coming and hanging out with me today. Do you
(32:54):
drink something during the show. Do you like to have
beverages while you're on the air.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
No.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
I used to be a two mountain do a show
kind of a guy. I'm now down to about two
mountain dew a month kind of a guy. So if
I'm drinking anything during the show, it's usually water. But
I'm on a Thursday Thursday. I'm not gonna let you down. Okay,
I'm gonna find something to drink. Just don't have a
sip of or whatever you're drinking.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Well, it's a coffee concoction that my wife makes. If
you want to try it, you can. At the anniversary,
by the way, thank you. I had celebrated nine years
of marriage and fourteen years together. With my wife yesterday.
So yeah, we celebrated by going to run Club, which,
by the way, one of the people from my run
club is going to join us at the bottom of
(33:42):
this hour, so we'll explain what run club is.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
I've had a lot of questions. You keep talking about
run Club. Are you allowed to talk about run Club?
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (33:48):
And I see that's a joke everybody makes. It's just like, oh,
I didn't know you were allowed to talk about run
club outside of run Club.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
It's like, No, it's a it's a coffee concoction. It's
like half coffee, a bunch of eyes. She like fills
it up with ice. She puts like half coffee and
then the other half is like creamer and milk mixed.
It's crazy. It's not for everybody. If you like black coffee,
this would certainly not taste good to you. It tastes
good to me. And so I'm drinking this, and then
I have two Mountain zvas because I am learning my lesson,
(34:15):
I'm trying to drink more zvas than mountain dews. So
they're a little bit more healthy, less ingredients in them,
but they have the same type of taste in a
similar caffeine.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Not once, not once, in my entire life, has anyone
given me a healthy alternative to pop, which I still
really like pop. I just like it in much better
moderation than I used to. Anyone who's ever said, oh,
do this, it's diet, or it's this free, or it's
that it tastes just like regular I drink it. It
doesn't not even close. I don't even know what's wrong
with you people who even would deign to say something
(34:49):
that's a blatant lie.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
You're right, it doesn't taste the same. I drank them
back to back. Obviously they wouldn't taste the same. What
I'm saying is it tastes enough like it that I
can drink it gives me the caffeine boost that I'm
looking for, And it's also only five ingredients and there's
no real sugar in it.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
I once went over to a buddy of mine's house
and he said, Hey, well, here's what we're grilling, portobello mushrooms.
And I know you're a steak guy, but you're gonna
taste this portobello mushroom. You won't even be able to
taste the difference between this mushroom and a sirloin. They'll
never find his body. It wasn't even enough in that instance,
just not to hang out with it anymore.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
That guy's in a shallow grave.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
You just chopped them up. Yeah, a mushroom and steak
is that a real thing?
Speaker 3 (35:34):
Look, Portabello, mushroom on the grill. Amazing, But it's not steak.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
It's supposed to taste like steak though.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Right, I'm sure your drink is just fine. I'm glad
you like it, but it's not like what you're saying
it's supposed to be.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
I have two. I'll give you one if you want
to try it. I don't come on. I'll drink this,
and then i'll drink one of those mountain zvs and
then you can have the other one, and you can
tell me what you.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Think you can drink that. I'll have a sip of
your mountain I don't even want it. I don't want
to say mountains.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
That's what it is. But you can't say mountain dug.
It's not mountain dew. It's mountain zvia.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
I feel like the Janitor and Billy Madison. I'd rather
have a beer. Maybe that's what I'll have. How about
you side Burns.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
You want some of this, I'd rather have a beer. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Great movie. By the way. I watch Happy Gilmore two
for what it's worth the other day for the first time.
Have you seen it? Do you watch it? I couldn't.
I don't understand why people were so upset about it.
I thought it was I didn't need a Happy Gilmore two.
I watched it and I was like, you know, it
was fun I died when Scottie Scheffler punched the guy
and the police came. He's like, oh no, not again.
(36:47):
So good, so good. That guy has no personality and
he was funny in the movie.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Okay, anyway back to business here, bet Bath Beyond. Did
you know this was still a thing?
Speaker 3 (37:03):
It's gone from village point it's been, it's been beyond
for a while. It's it's in the Great Beyond. Yeah,
as far as brick and mortars. But well, but what
I remember is bed Bath and Me almost thriving. It
was doing really, really well because they always send out
like every day you'd go to your mailbox would be
a twenty percent off coupon for bed Bath and Beyond.
(37:23):
And so then they stopped doing the coupons going, well,
maybe people like us so much that they'll come in
here and shop without the coupon. People stop getting the coupon.
They stopped going. They're like, well, I need to get
some bed Bath or Beyond. All wait till I get
the coupon. They never got it. They stopped going. They
trained us to use the coupon, then they took away
our coupon, and then they shut down. I thought they
(37:45):
were completely gone, but they're not. Uh yeah, so this
is interesting. So Marcus Lamonis is a big businessman.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
He has been on television also with The Profit and
The Fixer. He is his own website. He's the CEO
of Camping World. I think maybe most famously he's made
a lot of investment into like auto racing and things
like that. But he's also the CEO of bed Bath
and Beyond, which you are correct. If you think you've
(38:16):
seen an operating bed Bath and Beyond in the last
year or so, you are mistaken, because that's not a
thing that's actually happened. So imagine the puzzling look many
people would have seen on x yesterday when Marcus Lamona
said an official statement regarding bed Bath and Beyond. Here's
(38:37):
the full statement. We will not open or operate retail
stores in California. This decision isn't about politics, it's about reality.
California has created one of the most overregulated, expensive and
risky environments for business in America. It's a system that
makes it harder to employ people, harder to keep doors open,
(39:00):
and harder to deliver value to customers. The result higher taxes,
higher fees, higher wages that many businesses simply cannot sustain,
and endless regulations that strangle growth even when the state
announces a budget surplus. It's built on the backs of
ordinary citizens who are paying too much and businesses who
(39:20):
are squeezed until they break. At bed Bath and Beyond,
our responsibility is to our customers and our shareholders. We
will not participate in a system that undermines both. Instead,
we are investing in a California strategy that works twenty
four to forty eight hour delivery and in many cases,
same day service. Californians will continue to get the products
(39:41):
they love through bed Bath and Beyond dot com, but
without the inflated costs created by an unsustainable model. We're
taking a stand because it's time for common sense. Businesses
deserve the chance to succeed, employees deserve jobs that last,
and customers deserve fair prices. Californ delivers the opposite. That's
why bed Bath and Beyond will serve California customers directly
(40:04):
through Bedbethandbeyond dot com, on our terms and with their
best interests at heart. End quote. Okay, so keep in
mind this situation. This report comes out yesterday and it
(40:26):
lands on Gavin Newsom's Twitter right, because everybody's tagging Gavin Newsom.
It's like, look, here's another CEO of a company which, again,
by the way, I haven't heard much about Bedbeth Beyond
for a while. Well, Gavin Newsom grabbed one of the
stories about this and says, the company that already went
bankrupt and closed every store across the country two years ago. Okay,
(40:50):
that was his response. Say what you want about the guy.
He knows how to use social media a plus troll. Now,
this is a bigger California problem. There are way more
closures of major stores in California than anywhere else. And
you can say it's because they have more stores there,
but there is a pretty unsustainable model for business. Well,
Marcus ol Marcus Lamonis after this, had a couple of
(41:14):
other things to say, and he said, Dear Governor Gavin Newsom,
because he saw the whole okay comment, I thought your
posts would suggest we bring business leaders together to understand
how to improve the four pillars, slash friction of business
and find a way to make it better. So are
you ready everyone to hear the CEO of Bedbeth and
(41:35):
Me on a store that has, for whatever it's worth,
file Chapter eleven bankruptcy and pretty much lost its entire
footprint outside of potentially and apparently it's online footprint. Here
they are Number one streamline regulation, consistent simplified compliance rules
across state and local levels. Number two balanced labor environment
(41:57):
that's good for employees and employers. I think a lot
that has to do with the fact that you have
to pay people so much just to have them work
for you in the state of California. Number three litigation
reform reducing abusive lawsuits while keeping protection for workers. Not
exactly sure what he's requiring there. Maybe somebody got smashed
by a bed once. I have no idea. Number four
competitive tax and cost structure incentives to come as opposed
(42:19):
to disincentives to leave, which again California, Like, how do
you do that? People just generally go there anyway. It's
a big place, a lot of people. We can make
it over there. Well, you know, it doesn't seem to
be something they're super excited about. As far as Marcus
after that, he said, we bought the ip over two
(42:40):
years ago and have built Bedbathombeyond dot com into a
billion dollar online business. We will target opening three hundred
small to mid size neighborhood stores through our Kirklands investment.
You are a smart man, and I know the post
is out of frustration. So do you believe this three
(43:01):
hundred small to mid size bet Beth and Beyond and
neighborhoods across America just a couple of years after Chapter
eleven bankruptcy. Wow? Not in California, though it sounds like
it feels like California. Maybe maybe your neighborhood, bet Beth
and Beyond's going to come back there.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
Scott need the twenty percent off q pons and I'll
go sometimes I need some beyond.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
The top comment on this, for whatever it's worth is
you are a sociopath and deserve nothing, to which Marcus
Lamonis replied, thank you, I love social media. Well, we'll
see what exactly what happens. Billion dollars seems a bit
high considering what's going on. And did you know bed
(43:46):
Beth and Beyond we were talking about cracker barrel. Have
you seen bed Beth and Beyond? Did you know that
they had a stock? You know how, it's Beyond Incorporated.
For whatever's worth his name of the company. Do you
know you could buy into this?
Speaker 3 (44:00):
They're going after the Amazon model. Amazon's not doing too
bad for itself. That's it might not be a I'm
not one of these guys like bye, you know, but
it might not be. It can't be worth that much
right now.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
How much do you think a single stock of Beyond
Incorporated is worth? Thirteen dollars nine sixty Okay, I'll pretty good.
I'll risk nine to sixty. Over the last year, they
are down thirteen percent, but over the last six months
they're up twenty six percent. So they had a pretty
big cratering until oh say, the last eight months or so.
(44:36):
They bottomed out a couple of different times. And for
whatever it's worth, with all this additional attention they have
gotten through social media posts from Marcus Lamonas and a
little bit of help from Gavin Newsom. They're up nine
percent today. So there you go. Maybe the business model's
working after all, or maybe you just picked a fight
with the right guy on social media. I brought Scott
(44:57):
Vorhe's a treat. It is a mountain Zvia. How would
you describe the can? And what does it look like?
It looks like the new Cracker barrel logo generic.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
It's like, all right, we wanted to have some recognizable
colors here that people wouldn't find too distressful. Throw that
out there. Yeah, well it is pretty boring. Ingredients, are
you right? I'm gonna name every ingredient in this can.
Carbonated water, citric acid, natural flavors that's not an ingredient,
(45:31):
Stevia leaf extract, and caffeine, that's it. Natural flavors is
not an ingredient. It is an ingredient. It's all the
ingredient natural.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
It flavors to what it's just natural flavors like lemon
and lime would be what I would guess because that's
what this tastes like. So but here you go.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
So they can't they can't say lemon, and they can't
say lime, because there's no lemon and limon and natural flavors.
If I lick this mouse that Gary Sadlemeyer has been
using for the better part of the last five decades,
I'm going to experience natural flavors. It doesn't mean that
they're good or natural. There'll be a flavor. Natural flavors
(46:13):
is not an ingredient.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Natural flavors or flavorings derived from national sources like plants, animals,
or fermentation products whose primary function is to enhance taste
then provide nutritional value. The FDA defines them as essential oils, extracts,
or other products from natural sources like spices, herbs, fruits, vegetables,
or meats. While they originate from natural sources, they often
undergo a processing and may not be considered natural by
(46:39):
consumers like you.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
Well, I'm just saying natural from what everything has a flavor.
Pumpkin has a natural flavor that's different from an orange
natural flavor.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Lemon and lime.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
I want to know what I'm getting myself into before
I drink this.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
Have you seen the ingredient list from Mountain Dew?
Speaker 1 (46:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Okay, well this is this is child's play.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
It's I read the gingredients to mountain dew, and I
I don't drink mountain dew nearly as much as I
used to, but I still love it. So I think
the ingredients are God's nectar and divine flavors. I think
that was pretty much it. All right, I'll try this open,
try it, try it. Try one. If I just take
(47:21):
a sip of this and give it back to you,
are you going.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
To be fine? I'm not a weirdo. Geez.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
I wanted to I wanted three. I wanted three golf. Well,
I'm thirsty. Initial reaction never happen before. Initial reaction is
it's not bad. It's not mountain dew. Of course, it
tastes like it tastes like sprite trying to transition to
mountain dew.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Oh, it's like it's having an identity crisis, Like we just.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
Got back to school and last year I was hanging
out with sprite and now sprites like, I'm mountain zeba
your sprite, Like, well, I'm transitioning into mountains. I can,
but I take it to caffeine. Yeah, it's got that
that deity flavor to it, and so therefore I don't
like it.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
I don't like diapop.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
I don't like diapop either. It's not diet, it's not
diet pops. It tastes, it tastes a little flat compared
to regular mountain dew, but it's it's a that is
a truly useful and much better health related option for
a mountain dew esque drink with caffe nation, which I
need every day to to do this, And I like,
(48:36):
I don't know, I'm just I'm just sitting here and
I'm trying to uh, I'm trying to talk you through
why and how this is a all right, like that
this is a useful exercise for you.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
I'm drinking it. Well, do you want no another?
Speaker 2 (48:50):
Can you like it enough to keep it? I'm I'm impressed.
I'm happy. This is great.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Ye, I don't hate it. It just.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
It's it's not it's not something I will probably ever
grab for it again. It's actually kind of expended, but
I don't I don't want to waste it.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
Well, I would just drink whatever you didn't drink, because no, no,
you drink it. If you want it, you should drink it.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
How much I get, I'll wipe my lip. That first
sip was like.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Half of the can, so I don't even know how
much is left in there. Wow, there's like two SIPs
left enjoy and one of those SIPs is backwashed. Joy
nice awesome. If anybody says, you know, like, are you
a germophobe? This is your evidence that No, at no
point in my entire life if I ever been a germophobe.
In fact, I just I don't like being around people
are germophobes. It's kind of like, you know, I used
(49:40):
to work with a guy who hated it when people
use his headphones. Yeah, do you are you one of
those guys?
Speaker 1 (49:46):
Uh? No, It depends on the guy.
Speaker 3 (49:49):
Like if you if if I had big, sweaty guys open,
if I had open sores on my mouth and said, hey,
you know here, you can have the rest of this,
you're like, I'm good, Like, oh, are you a germophobe?
Speaker 1 (50:00):
I am when it comes to you, mister Kanker.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
So yeah, yeah, Like if you were to use my headphones,
the only thing I think is like, you're gonna get
long hair stuck in and I'm not have to pull
that out. But that's fine. Yeah, you're a clean guy.
There are some people who have worked in radio over
the years. I'm like whatever is in their ears, I
don't want in my headphones.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Fair enough. I just don't even think about it. It's
just like, who cares. Now, you're a sweaty guy. You're
eating some food at a restaurant. There's a hair in it.
What do you do? Is it like a buffet or no?
Speaker 3 (50:38):
They just served it to you. They brought it out. Yeah,
there's a hair. It's just a natural hair and cheese, right,
natural flavor hair. I pull the hair out, Yeah you,
I just presume that's probably one of mine. I pull
it out and I keep eating.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
Yeah, if it's not mine, who cares? Like, oh gosh,
there was a hair that touched my macaroni and cheese.
Look out, I don't know. I might, I might. I
now now I'm gonna eat my mac and cheese, Like,
are you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (51:03):
It's a hare?
Speaker 2 (51:05):
If there's like a live rat in my on my plate,
then i'd feel a little differently about that.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
But in natural flavors.
Speaker 2 (51:13):
Hey, I'm just suggesting that maybe you could end up
a little washed, a little washed up.
Speaker 1 (51:19):
Uh yeah, well you're not there yet, It's yeah, but
I can see it from here.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
Oh yes, now see this is the thing. I just
hope never get washed. Here's a good example. My favorite
professional wrestler is Chris Jericho. Love Chris Jericho. He was
really funny when I was growing up in the nineties.
He's a great athlete everything, Like I was just like, man,
he looks cool, he's you know, doing flips and everything.
He's in great shape, he's ripped. Like if I was
(51:48):
an athlete and wanted to be a professional wrestler, I'd
want to look and do what he does. And he's
still doing it, Scott, it's twenty twenty five. He's doing
it thirty five years later, and my goodness, the last
couple of years seeing him do anything has been kind
(52:08):
of rough.
Speaker 3 (52:09):
Why do wrestlers? Because my era of professional wrestling is
the early to mid eighties, which was the greatest time
for professional RUSS. You could make that argument that was
Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Ricky the Dragon, Steamboat Regi,
Randy back On Man Savage, who I leave, Roddy Roddy Piper.
I could flare slur my way and it wasn't a
NWA fan.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
But okay, fair enough.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
So I mean though a.
Speaker 3 (52:33):
Lot of those guys ended up still wrestling into their
sixties and seventies.
Speaker 1 (52:41):
Ny Flair.
Speaker 2 (52:42):
Why Rick Flair had his technically last match or retirement
match a year ago.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
How old is Rick?
Speaker 2 (52:48):
He's got to be seventy something, Rick Flair is. Let
me look this up real quick. He's seventy six the
retirement match, he was seventy four.
Speaker 1 (52:58):
Right, But seventy four, I mean he had like.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
A heart attack or something out there. It's I don't know,
you're right. Wrestling is like guys tend to feel like
they could hang on longer than they probably should. But
watching my my guy Chris Jericho go from this incredibly
nimble and ridiculously good athlete, great wrestler, good personality, is
funny and everything, and you see him just his body
(53:21):
shape changes over the time and he can't do the
flips anymore. It's just been tough to watch a guy
wash up. Right before your eyes saw a Facebook video
posted by a radio station in Indiana. They were in
the crowd watching DLR David Lee Roth, former lead man
(53:44):
of an incredible rock band, Van Halen, and it was
him a couple of days ago performing Panama, which is
a great song, one of the great songs about a
car ever and DLR is standing there in a full
leather outfit looking good like for his age. He's looking good.
(54:05):
You know how old he.
Speaker 3 (54:05):
Is, David Lee Roth, He's gotta be probably he's not
seventy yet, is he?
Speaker 2 (54:12):
He is? Is he he's seventy? He is right at seventy.
This is an interesting cat. By the way, I like
David Lee Roth his work with Van Halen. He is
one of the great, like in his prime, one of
the great front man's of all time. He also in
recent years, like in the last decade or so, got
his like paramedic license so he could be like an EMT,
(54:34):
just because he wanted to do something to challenge himself
and to help people and stuff. Very very interesting guy,
very strange guy. But he's still doing it. And I
watched this video of him performing Panama with his band.
Oh oh, it's bad. It's so bad. It's he can't
(54:57):
he's not he can't even sing. He's not really even.
He's just kind of like speaking the words almost. And
his body's looking great for seventy but you know he's
trying to sing or whatever that is. And I gotta
be honest with you, have you ever just kind of
has it taken the luster off of a guy that
(55:19):
you thought was awesome to see them age or struggle
or get washed whilst they just hung around a little
too long.
Speaker 3 (55:28):
I've always stood up for someone like Frankie Valley, who's
in his nineties, that guy and still goes around does
a show. Look like people know exactly what the deal is.
They're gonna go see a man who is on in years,
surrounded by backup singers. They're doing most of the work.
He comes out, he's Frankie Valley. He sings a couple
of lines, and there are people you know there. There's
(55:51):
also entertainment for people who are older and they're like, hey,
there's someone who's in our age range who's still out
there getting it done. Like, no one's being forced at
gunpoint to go see the show, right, you know, if
you want to go, have a great time. If you're
like that's not for me, then don't go.
Speaker 2 (56:08):
But Frankie kind of looks like he's a wax figure
up there. I'm concerned for his health. Oh he's they're
wheeling him out there when he's seven years or ninety
years old.
Speaker 3 (56:19):
You know, he's he's fine, don't worry about Frankie, all right,
so he wants to go do that, or Chris Jericho
wants to wrestle if they can do it, and people
are willing to go see him, even if it's like, look,
I know the crowds are getting smaller and smaller, but
you know, I enjoy doing this what I do. Why
not let him do it?
Speaker 1 (56:37):
Don't.
Speaker 3 (56:37):
I don't know where anyone's going to be like all right,
that's enough, you know, and drag him off there. But
it doesn't mean that I haven't gone to see an
entertainer who maybe was used to like wear the makeup
and that the big hair and jumping around, and I'm like,
well they're older now. I don't know. I don't need
them to do that. And I've seen some who have
(56:57):
done it, and I've been like that, dude's washed. And
I've seen some who have transitioned into being a more
mature artist who's changed this. They still do some of
the old songs, but they might do in a different
style or a different key or whatever, and that works too.
It's okay to transition into that direction, like bon Jovi has.
(57:18):
Oh yeah, apparently David Lee Roth has not refuses to,
but yeah, he's been kind of cheesy and weird for
a while.
Speaker 2 (57:26):
He's a weird guy, admittedly. I just maybe it's and
I'll step aside. When we come back, we'll talk about
I think I'm trying to take mental notes for myself
because one thing I do not want to do in
my life is get washed. Have you ever felt like
you got washed at something and you stop doing it.
One thing that I felt like I've gotten washed a
(57:47):
bit at was and I hate saying this out loud,
but writing. I used to just kind of write for
fun and just write different things and write things to
not like to journal, but just kind of thoughts and
put them into and I would I would find inspiration
in all different places, and I just like to put
(58:08):
it out there for people to see. And I've done
it for so long. When I try to do something
creative with writing long form, not like a sixty second
commercial or whatever, but just something descriptive or something I'm feeling,
I just read it and I'm like, oh, man, I
was so much better doing this when I was twenty two.
Speaker 1 (58:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (58:25):
Now I don't have a lot of practicality for that use.
It's mostly just for me. Unless I ever decided to
write a book, which I guess in our industry you
can't necessarily write it, Like, you can't rule out that
you wouldn't do that at some point. But has there
been something you found that you feel washed up?
Speaker 3 (58:41):
I remember the moment I got a long rebound. I
used to play almost probably two or three nights a week.
I'd play a lot of full court five on five
basketball at a local gym, and ah, man, I loved it.
I got a chance to kind of know the guys
and just really enjoyed being.
Speaker 1 (58:57):
A part of that.
Speaker 3 (58:58):
And I could feel like the recovery time afterwards for
the next day was getting longer and longer. I'm like, man,
I don't know how much longer I can do this.
So I get a long rebound on the left side,
and I get that, and I look up there. I
see one of my guys sprinting down the other side
of the court, and then a gap there between a
couple of defenders, and I can already envision, you know,
(59:21):
I can do the long Magic Johnson like full court
bounce pass, or maybe I take it down here. See
if he bites on the fake pass and I take
it in there for this this incredible lay up I'm
going to do over here. And as I'm picturing all
of that, a kid who's waiting to get into the
next game also sees the same thing. And as I'm
(59:42):
getting the rebound, I'm taking the first couple of dribbles
and looking at this fast break, this kid just to
the left of me just goes go because he sees
it too, like he knows, like this is a dream.
I love that stuff as a guard. And that's when
my right I don't know which, my hamstring, my quad,
both of them suddenly just were like, no, we're not
(01:00:04):
doing any of this, and like my muscle just exploded
and I couldn't even like hold on to the basketball anymore.
Like the basketball went trailing off. I hit the floor.
It was it hurt. I pulled that muscle, it like exploded.
It hurts so bad, and I just had to like
roll off the court and like sub and some other
(01:00:26):
younger guy goes got it and there it basically threw
me in an open grave. And I haven't done a
lot of that since. I still try very once in
a while, but as far as like I can do this,
as much as I want not after that moment that
was so bad.
Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
We need to, you know, because I used to do
that as well. I haven't in the last year or so,
just because I don't belong to that gym anymore. But
it's fun to get out there. But there are twenty
two year olds that are dunking and stuff going to
this gym that I was going to, and I can't
do that, And so I'm I'm not as fast as
I used to be. I'm still not slow, but I'm
(01:01:05):
not the greatest ball handler. I'm a lot shorter than
most of the guys that are playing. I'm just not
a useful player. So when guys are building their team out,
they're not picking me most of the time. And it's
that competitive where there's like thirty guys showing up and
there's one court to play five on five. A guy
loses and he's going to get picked up for the
(01:01:27):
next game by a guy that's got next. It just
got to a point where I was doing a lot
more sitting than playing, and it just didn't make sense
for me to keep going. But I like how you
mentioned that, right, because it would be awesome to get
a league of guys that we knew or just you know,
like ten to fifteen guys that we know and have
weekly pick up basketball at our speed, which I think
(01:01:48):
would be much more realistic than have these twenty two
year old guys doing between the lakes, dunks in between
the games and all that stuff. Now I mention all
this because here's what I don't want to happen in
my life. I don't want to peak ever at anything.
I have the personal philosophy that if you are completely
satisfied with you have accomplished in your life, there's nothing
(01:02:10):
left to live for. Man, you really just you need
to find something else because not having that carrot in
front of you that I can get better at this,
or I can go after this goal, or this is
the next thing for me to chase. When that's gone,
that's a miserable place to be. Not that I've really
ever been there, but I just don't want to feel
that way. So my fear is that when I get
(01:02:34):
to my forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, as life goes on
and different things go in and out of my life,
or you know, whether or not I'm doing this job.
I have no idea, but getting to a point where
I feel like I'm no longer able to get to
what I felt was my peak at one time in
something that I do regularly. I need to find something
(01:02:54):
else because I'm afraid of looking like Chris Jericho does
in a wrestling ring. Now, I'm afraid of looking like
what David Lee Roth looks like up on stage.
Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
I do not want that to be me.
Speaker 3 (01:03:03):
It's gonna happen, though, I got it, because I'll avoid
it because it's not about your perspective. I guarantee, I
guarantee you. David Lee Roth thinks he's killing it.
Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
You're right.
Speaker 3 (01:03:13):
The girls in the front row are still screaming yeah,
and he thinks I am a man. I am just
killing it. But from his perspective, he's doing fine. You
are watching that from across the way, going, oh man,
that guy. There will always be someone to do that
for you. I promise you.
Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Well, I'm gonna need somebody to uh. I'm gonna hire someone.
I'm gonna get enough bank roll. I'm gonna hire an assistant,
and their job is to tell me when it's over.
You know, I have a couple of parameters, and I'll
tell you what they are. Because I see these people
like the Iowa State Fair was a great it's great
people watching. When we get to that, when we come back,
I'll tell you a couple of these things that i've already.
(01:03:53):
I've told my wife just take me out back and
old yell or me, because I do not want to
be that guy. I will tell you some of those things.
And if you want to share yours with me of
signs you think you'll be washed email me Emory atkfab
dot com. It's news radio eleven ten KFAB. We're talking
about being washed up because it's a little painful to
(01:04:16):
figure out what exactly is or isn't happening. And I
gave my wife and my best friend. I've told people this.
When I see it, this is the end for me.
I want you to go ahead and just end it
all if given the opportunity. Now, of course, I'm not serious.
(01:04:37):
I don't want anybody to commit murder on me, or
to bury me in a hole, or to emancipate me
or emaciate me. I think it's the word I was
looking for there, and just like, let me just wither
away in solitary confinement. But that is right. Kind of
the idea is if you start seeing me be that guy.
(01:04:58):
You need to tell me, because I I don't want
to be that guy. Where's a knee brace to walk
around the Iowa State Fair?
Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
Guy? What's wrong with that?
Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
You put it yourself knee brace, big old knee brace
because you can't walk far enough without the knee brace on.
I have to like put on this big old knee
brace just to get you know, like five thousand steps
at the fair.
Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
Let me, let me, let me stand up for old
guys everywhere. At least that guy, he may have just
had knee surgery. He might be coming back. He might
be someone who has knee surgery because he's part of
your run club and he runs so much that he
needed to have knee surgery. He's like, all right, and
what do I gotta do so I can go back
(01:05:45):
out to run club. Well, you gotta take it easy
for a few months, and you gotta wear this brace
for running.
Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
Right.
Speaker 3 (01:05:50):
Yeah, but he's he's building. He might be building back
to that point. Or maybe he's not right. Maybe he
just laid around so much that his bones disintegrated and
they're like, put this brace on. At least he's still
out there walking. He could be like some people.
Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
Oh no, I'm gonna get to those people.
Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
Then you go ahead and do it.
Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
You can fall on that you can get those emails
because I guarantee as soon as I say it's like
people have medical reasons.
Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
You can't see as to why they might need to
do that when they're going around Walmart.
Speaker 2 (01:06:21):
So you go ahead, drive a scooter wherever you are
because you don't want to walk, guy.
Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
Oh man, what emory they might have.
Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
If you were paying eighty dollars a day to rent
a scooter at the Iowa State Fair, which I saw
a lot of people doing those scooter People are making
bank renting those scooters out for a day, and I
saw plenty of people that seem to be able bodied.
But if you can't, this is why I'll give I'll
give knee brace guy a pass because look, at least
(01:06:56):
he's walking.
Speaker 1 (01:06:57):
At least he's walking.
Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
The aesthetic of you know, walking around in shorts and
a knee brace, could you imagine the tan lines man?
But scooter guy or gal, what are we doing here?
And I want you to enjoy wherever you're going, whether
it's the department store, or it's the fair, or where's
(01:07:20):
another good place that you can drive a scooter around.
Speaker 1 (01:07:22):
Airport.
Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
Airport, Oh, Airport's a good one. It's like, man, are
we being for real here? If I ever and you're
free to do whatever you want. But if I ever
kind of think or want to become scooter in the
fair scooter in the store guy for any reason other
(01:07:43):
than my legs have been completely blown off, that's the end.
That's that's it for me. The Emory song er that
you knew is gone. Go ahead and put me into
a crate like they did in Indiana, Jones, and send
me eight hundred countries away. Top men, just the top
men are gonna be taking care of where I'm going
(01:08:04):
and literally just let them do whatever they want because
I am not me anymore. Do not let me become
that guy you see me one time?
Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
Do that?
Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
Get me out of here? Right?
Speaker 3 (01:08:13):
And I'm glad you said. Like, you know people with
who otherwise seem able bodied who are taking a motorized
scooter around. Yeah, they're not real old, they don't look
like you know that their legs don't work.
Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
They're just lazy.
Speaker 3 (01:08:27):
Yeah, we're not talking about people like in wheelchairs with nubs. No,
you know, different that's what the scooters are for. Emory
is not saying like, I don't care if you got
no legs, just torso your way around the fair.
Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
Come on, use your hands. What are we doing there? Skip?
Come on, Lieutenant Dan, We're waiting for you. What is
worse though, a person.
Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
Who'll just say maybe has yet to get their shipment
of ozempic okay, and they're maybe they're the before poster yep,
and they've decided like, all right, well I have to
do this. So I'm taking the motorized scooter and I'm
just gonna drive around because it's a lot more comfortable
for me.
Speaker 2 (01:09:08):
Which I imagine it is. Oh, it definitely is.
Speaker 3 (01:09:10):
I certainly have some sympathies for people who for whatever
reason get to be that size. Got it look life,
I do, honestly, I really do.
Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
But what I've had a sorry, I've had to trick
myself into that a bit because I cannot relate. And
I this is why it's tough for me to talk
about stuff like this because and you're like me, right,
it's just like we're we would be considered pretty in
shape for yeah, but sometimes I mean, you got a
couple different types of people. You got those who are
(01:09:41):
who got to be rather obese, and they hate it
and they hate themselves and it was part of that
manifestation that got them to look that way. And then
you got people just like I like carbs and you
know what, And I'm just a big, happy, fat guy
and I paint my belly and go to the football
game and I don't care. Yeah, I'm a big fat guy.
What do I You know?
Speaker 3 (01:10:01):
Like, you got the you got people who are like whatever,
and they're fine with it. Maybe they're not real healthy,
but they seem to be in a better mood than
I am. And I'm out there running all over God's
green earth try and lose five pounds, you know, So
I don't. I'm telling you when I say that, there
are some people who have different levels of giving up.
(01:10:22):
Sometimes that manifestation is easier to notice on the scale
than other times.
Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
So I will.
Speaker 3 (01:10:29):
I'm giving more grace to people as I and that's fine.
I'll give grace to people as we get older. I
just would not give grace to myself if that's how
I write it. So what's worse. We'll just go with
lazy person who's just like I'm taking the scooter, you know, walking,
You're not walking to B thirty nine. That's way over
in the other concourse. Just give me a scooter. Or
(01:10:50):
or the parent who takes the kid to the zoo
or the park or whatever, and that kid is an
able bodied, like four year old kid who should be
out walking, and they have the wagon and they got
the kid either in the stroller or the wagon that
little stroller suv that everything's got to go in there
in case a little you know, Junior needs a snack
(01:11:11):
or some water. The wagons are obscene now, those giant wagons.
You can take a nap in there.
Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:11:18):
Kids want to be out walking and running and jumping
and playing, and you, as a parent are like, hey,
get away from there, come back over here, you know,
without having them strapped to a stroller all the time.
Speaker 1 (01:11:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:11:30):
No, see, I can't relate to the kid thing either,
but I would be the type of parent that I would.
Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
I don't want to mess with this big, giant thing.
Speaker 1 (01:11:42):
I just don't.
Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
If there's a way we can like size down, I
like going camping for instance. You know, you know a
camper's mindset. What's the least we can get by with.
We want to pack the least. If we can live
with the least amount of stuff here, that's what we
should do. If I can fit it in a bag
that I can put on my back, I would rather
do that than lug around a giant wagon or stroller
(01:12:06):
for the kid. And then I'm gonna put the little
leash thing on the kid strapped to my waist. Kid's
not going anywhere. Where's he going? And he's gonna like
he gets a little far away? Come on, Junior, keep up,
let's go again. Probably the wrong guy to ask, but
I'm just telling you, Scooter guy, put me out of
my misery. You know, there was another one that I
had here, guy who decides he wants to dress with
(01:12:31):
tucked in T shirt with cargo shorts, high white socks
not branded, and those white, ugly Dad Nikes or new Balances.
Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
Those shoes are making them comeback.
Speaker 2 (01:12:50):
I see that teenagers hate it.
Speaker 3 (01:12:52):
Today's teenagers have jacked up the cost of Dad shoes
because somehow some basketball player somewhere thought they were cool
and did a video.
Speaker 1 (01:13:03):
I don't get it.
Speaker 3 (01:13:04):
And then my son is like, Dad, can I have
a million dollars for a pair of New Balance sneakers,
Like you.
Speaker 1 (01:13:10):
Want a pair of sneakers, look like that. I got
five pairs in my mowing.
Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
Shit, they staying on the bottom.
Speaker 1 (01:13:16):
Ye, you're in the garage. No, Dad, you don't get it. No,
you're right, I don't.
Speaker 2 (01:13:22):
You're right one, and I will never get it. A mullet, Guys,
if I ever am just like you know what, I
should cut my hair into a mullet out to pasture. Okay, Grandpa,
you're washed. Let's get you out of here. Anytime that
I make fashion decisions like that, which I am set
telling my wife that guy it's not working. If that's happening. Mustache,
(01:13:43):
if I do a mustache, which will never happen as
long as my wife is alive, there's no chance you'd
let that happen.
Speaker 1 (01:13:49):
They're wrong with them must.
Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
I don't like the mustache either. But if I ever
got weird enough and decided to be cavalier enough to
try to grow one and then take good care of it,
and you know, make it a part of who I am.
I told my wife if she ever was just go
ahead and just ended I got another one. Put me
(01:14:12):
in a box.
Speaker 3 (01:14:12):
The guy who can't see and no one will tell
him that he's got just florettes of nose hair, oh,
flowing out of his nostrils.
Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
Those guys, you got to trim up your stuff. Man,
what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:14:25):
Guy who forgets to wear deodorant all the time, it
has no idea how bad he smells. Somebody tell me,
please just help me to put some cologne on my goodness.
Speaker 1 (01:14:35):
Oh too much cologne, guy, That might be worse than
bad gay.
Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
Oh. We could fight about that all day. Trying to
avoid being washed up and avoid peeking in life and
things in my life that I have told people around me.
If you see me be this guy, go ahead and
either end it all or set up an intervention. You
ever watch intervention back in the day. No, it's like
we're somebody that doctor Drew. No, he does stuff like
(01:15:01):
that now. But Intervention used to be this show on
A and E where somebody who's like an addict, like
alcohol addict.
Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
Been in a real life intervention. Not me.
Speaker 2 (01:15:11):
Oh you know, so I know what it is. Yeah
so TV.
Speaker 1 (01:15:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:15:14):
So, but for people I haven't thought like we need
to put this on TV.
Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
So the TV show is essentially like they would trick
a person that's having some sort of addiction or some
sort of like life problem, and the people around them
are very concerned about their future. And then they like
get tricked into showing up at this place and then
they walk in and there's like seven of their closest
friends and family that are just there in a circle,
and they what's this all the time? And they're like,
(01:15:39):
what are you doing? What is this? And then you
sit down and you have to hear all this, and
that's like the moment where these people have to make
a decision as to whether or not they're going to
change their life. That's what needs to happen. If I
become body odor all the time, guy.
Speaker 3 (01:15:54):
Why if you become body odor all the time, guy,
it's going to be a virtual intervention. Why would we
want to be in the same room with you if
you stink so bad you're gonna spray me as I
walk through the house? Yea right, no, I uh so.
Speaker 2 (01:16:06):
The reason I say this is sometimes you don't even notice,
you know, like I get real sweaty when I go
out and you know I'm going running or working out,
or I remow the lawn or anything. I know that
I can shower for that. But sometimes you've got like
stinky shoes, you don't notice how stinky they are, or
maybe you just didn't put off the yodorant on that
sporting I'm okay today, but you know, sometimes you're not
(01:16:27):
really that okay if you're noticing it, becoming a more
of a habit that I'm a little tinge because I'm
a very I need good smells in my life. I
don't like bad smells. I can't eat food that smells
weird or bad. Cauliflower, no go, if you put cauliflower
in the microwave and you cook cauliflower, it is disgusting.
Speaker 1 (01:16:47):
What if it's covered in cheese.
Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
We're probably talking, Okay, we could probably start talking. But yeah,
it's just like my olfactory bul basically gives me the
green light of the red light just immediately based on scent.
I do not want to become the guy that has
forgotten his whole how to take care of himself. That
includes body odor, that includes your nose, hairs. I just
(01:17:12):
bought a new fancy trimmer, by the way, for like
that spot underneath your nose that it's hard to get
a razor to.
Speaker 1 (01:17:19):
Your a little hitler spot.
Speaker 2 (01:17:20):
Yeah, well, not not quite. It's just like up against
like the I have like a blade with like four razors,
they still don't get up high enough. So I bought
the trimmer for that. But it came with a like
a trimmer head that you can actually just put up
your nose and in your ears and I'll like take
care of that. I feel so much better looking at
myself in the mirror and I'm like, I can't see anything,
and I was.
Speaker 3 (01:17:39):
Gonna say something different about you. It must be the
your your nose fight is especially pristine right now.
Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
Did you notice nose hairs before.
Speaker 3 (01:17:48):
Your No, your your nose taint area is it's clean
as a whistle, my man, looking good.
Speaker 2 (01:17:56):
Yeah, that's that's my goal. Every time I take a shower,
it's like, how's the nose taint going? Yeah, that's that
is a term I did not know I was going
to hear today
How is it going?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I am memory and thank you for listening. So happy
to be along with you today. I got my friend
Scott Borhees alongside, which I very much appreciate. Scott. How
you doing today?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Great? Good to be back here. Today is out? Yesterday?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Oh yeah, you were doing a thing, weren't you?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Took my daughter to college yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
A place you probably aren't going would be My guess
is Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I like Cracker Barrel, Well I do too, but I
can't like Cracker Barrel anymore.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Well you can.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I'm just saying many people are disappointed in the way
that things are turning for Cracker Barrel. If you've seen
the redesign of the interior of Cracker Barrel, it went
from feeling like a good old fashioned country store, which
was kind of the point.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
To now.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Like a redesigned homely repainted Windy's. Now that would be
a little harsh.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I was just in Omaha's Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'm not saying that every Cracker Barrel looks like this
right now, but they're working on it.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Really.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
They just changed the logo and officially announced the rebrand
today or yesterday, But today is when the markets have
reacted to it, and they went from how would you
best describe the logo. It's a kind of like a
potato shaped thing that says cracker barrel, and you know,
like it's like a yellow circle e thing, and then
(01:25):
it's got like the brown cracker barrel.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Old timey font kind of thing. Yeah, and then it
was a classic. You can see it from miles away,
even if you can't read the words. You see the sign.
You know it's a cracker and it's.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
A guy, like an old guy up against a barrel.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well they have removed the old guy up against the barrel,
and they have changed the shape of the cracker barrel
logo to where now it's just kind of like an
oddly shaped hexagon and it just says cracker barrel in
there in the font that you know and love so.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
It used to.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Haven't renamed it, you know, to something less offensive like
monkey barrel, oh gosh or something like that.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well, they also apparently have changed the peg game. Have
you ever found yourself losing time to wait for your food,
messing around to see if you can get that last
that one pig left.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I've done it. I did it the last time we
were a cracker barrel.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
You got done the one peg?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, I did it in one shot, and I just
passed it the rest of the family and said, all right,
everyone else is I got super lucky. I usually get
down to like three pegs. I'm like, dang it, how
in the world did this?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
You know?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I got down to the one though, Well, congrats, thank
you a smart person. According to the actual little triangle,
it says leave only one you're a genius.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, that's that's if you play the game one time
and one time only in your entire life and nail it,
or can do that every time. I would not say
that I have that track record.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Oh okay, you've practiced. There are videos. I just tutorial
so how to do this.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
There's a way you can do it, and I managed
to get it done in that way one time.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
If you leave only two, you're pretty smart. Yeah, you
leave three and you're just playing dumb.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah that's me.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Leave four or more and you're just playing ignoramus.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Well they're replacing those now what yep, come on, it's
still the triangle and the rules are the same. Leave
only one you're a genius, Leave two rocking the chair,
but not the game. Leave three or more. No reason
to be embarrassed, Just try again, and that's it. That's it.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
They don't make fun of you, they don't mock you. Nope,
no reason to be embarrassed. Try again. But that's why
you play the game, because you're there with your family
and you pass it around and see who can do it.
And if someone's better than someone else, that gives you
some sort of intellectual superiority over the rest of the table.
As you sit there eating fried food and dipped in gravy.
(03:58):
Someone's got to feel like the one at the table.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah, I love man, I really do love it. Now
the there's a page called Governor Newso Press Office. It's
got four hundred and sixty two thousand followers. Official account
for the press office of California Governor Gavin Newsom. I
(04:22):
think this is a real account. I have no reason,
have no reason. But they like the poke fund at
Donald Trump, and they like the poke fund people who
support Donald Trump and Governor Newso. Four hours ago in
this press office said what is wrong with cracker Barrel?
(04:45):
Keep your beautiful logo. The new one looks like cheap
Velveta cheese from Walmart, the place for groceries, an old
fashioned term. Fix it asap, woke is dead. Thank you
for your attention to.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
This matter with Gavin Newsom acount, that's not Gavin Newsom.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
It's Gavin Newsom's press office account, and they're obviously mocking.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Oh oh okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yes, And then following that today we will make the
maps great again, because you know, we'll get to that
in a second, right with the jerrymandering and stuff. Oh yeah, yeah.
You know, as much as I would love just to
laugh at this, it just is a we have entered
a minimalist society. We have gotten to a point where
all brands are trying their best to reconfigure or reposition
(05:34):
themselves to be as appealing to as many people as
possible at the exact same time forgetting what helped build
their brand into a successful brand in the first place.
Bud Light a couple of years ago with Dylan mulvaney
is a good example. Earlier this year, Jaguar got got
by the idea of you know what would be awesome
(05:55):
is if we put a bunch of people you can't
tell if they're male or female in a bunch of
Ambow clothing and not show anyone what we actually sell.
They made an entire commercial rebranding Jaguar and they didn't
show a car, not one car in a thirty second ad.
Just a bunch of oddly dressed people wandering around in
(06:16):
what looks to be space. No idea. If you look
at how Jaguars performed this year, it hasn't been very
good at all. You have people that are leaving these
companies because they have misfired so poorly. And CEO Julie
Fel's Messino, who's been in charge of Cracker Barrel the
last couple of years, she seems to be next on
the block. Guess the percentage of drop in the last
(06:39):
five days of Cracker Barrell's stock. Yes, Cracker Barrel Old
Country Store does have a stock.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Did not know that they were a publicly created company.
I'm saying they're probably down thirty two percent. Man, that
was a good guess. They are down twenty percent over
the last month, fifteen percent over the last five days.
They're down nine percent today. Market reacting immediately today to
the new branding being unveiled by Cracker Barrel Old Country Store.
(07:06):
Have you been to Cracker Barrel I have. Isn't it
usually pretty busy?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah? Yeah, but again I haven't been in a while.
It's not like I've been to Cracker Barrel like all
the time. Maybe I just need to go back and
just double check and see how the Omaha store looks
versus the pictures of people showing of the newly renovated interiors.
I'd like to see if the triangles peg jumping game,
if it reads what it did when I was a kid,
(07:32):
calling me ignore a mus right and uh.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Oh, I bet you can't find one. Now people would
be pocketing them collectors.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
If you were hearing that this is happening, absolutely yeah,
those will all be gone. Uh but yeah, just like
right as the market's open the day down ten percent
and it's kind of held steady for the rest of
the day. But according to Cracker Barrel, the change is
part of a strategic transformation to revitalize the brand, which
originally started back in the May area of twenty twenty four,
(08:03):
including visual elements in their stores, restaurants, spaces, food and
retail offerings. The brand is going to maintain its rich
history of country hospitality and authentic charm. Has made the
brand a beloved destination for generations of family. According to
Chief marketing Officer Sarah Moore, we believe in the goodness
of country hospitality, a spirit that has always defined us.
(08:26):
Our story hasn't changed, our values haven't changed. So what
are we changing here?
Speaker 1 (08:30):
For?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
What's the matter again? I'm not trying to tell people
how to run their businesses. But if it ain't broke,
what are we fixing here?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Scott?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
For he's alongside this afternoon, Scott, you've taken a quick
peek at the additional interior of the cracker barrels. The
cracker barrel adjustments to their interior. What do you think?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
It's not completely dissimilar. It's maybe a little brighter, little
more room to move with. If you're at a cracker
barrel at any time, any place I've ever been to one,
it's usually pretty busy and there are a lot of
people kind of both milling around in that general store area,
which is where you're looking for various little games and
(09:14):
toys and stuff, and they're also waiting in line to pay,
and it gets a little congested. It looks like they've
freed up some space in there, and maybe in the
restaurant area.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
It looks maybe a bit.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
More spacious, slightly more homogenized, but not not yeah, not
completely dissimilar from what I've come to recognize as being
a cracker barrel.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Okay, all right, so you're not offended overtly by.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
This, dude.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
If they have the same menu they have, it's like, hey,
here's our fried menu dipped in gravy. As long as
it's all the same thing and you want to side
of ribs with that, you could put this in like
a hospital room and I'll sit there and I'll eat it.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
You know, you're making me hungry all of a sudden.
I love me some Cracker Bears. I need to go back.
It's been a long time. I don't want to make
it sound like I'm kinda boycott a place that rebrands,
because there have been a lot of rebrands and a
lot of rebrand misfires. Think about how many brands have
decided they went a little kind of modernized and kind
(10:18):
of shifted back into a more simplistic and kind of
old school variation. I'm talking about like Burger King. Remember
they went to kind of like that three D kind
of big old bubble letter Burger King, and then they
kind of shifted back to what they were in like
the eighties and nineties, which is what they are now.
Pizza Hut did the same thing. Now, if you look
(10:38):
at a Pizza Hut logo, it looked exactly like it
did probably in the in nineteen eighty seven. We're seeing
that in the NFL with branding. I don't know if
you've noticed, but a lot of NFL teams are kind
of going back to what their older, more cleaned up
looks were. It's almost like we got so crazy with
what we could do with logos and color schemes that
(11:01):
we didn't know that what we had before was actually
much more aesthetically pleasing. Now maybe change is the hardest
part of all. This is just the fact that we
didn't need a change for Cracker Barrel's logo or it's branding,
and people are a little bit my pearls because they
(11:21):
are seeing Cracker Barrel change the Cracker Barrel we've known
and loved our entire lives. The logo is changing, the
interior is changing, it's losing maybe a bit of that
old country store charm. But is it actually changing the business?
Could it theoretically increase business for families that avoided it
for all the reasons you mentioned that you loved it.
(11:43):
It's like, oh, well, it's a little crowded in there.
It just feels a little dingy when you're inside the which.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
I didn't say dingy.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I'm just saying, like the aesthetic in there was literally
like you're in an old country store, which I loved.
I absolutely love that vibe and that aesthetic. But it
being cleaned up now it certainly has a bit more
family friendly, welcoming. I know, I'm in a restaurant vibe
in the interiors, not of all the stories yet, but
they're working on it. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Look, my wife will not if she goes into a
restaurant and even the people who are eating there look
kind of dirty, and especially there's there's a type of
restaurant that she just won't go into anymore. She really
really didn't like it. She about every three or four
months is like, we haven't been to Cracker Barrel in
(12:32):
a while, so it's got the clean mom stamp of approval,
nice for Omaha's Cracker Barrel. And sometimes we've been on
vacation and sometimes it's the only place. Like, if you're
in Branson after nine o'clock and you want to eat something,
you don't have a lot of options.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Just roll on.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, and so she likes it. She likes you know,
getting fried ochre and all that stuff. Now, we don't
eat there every single night. We don't eat anywhere every
single night. You know, as long as Cracker Barrel didn't
get some people who didn't like it in the first
place saying, oh, Cracker Barrel, this is a place where
all fat people go in there to get old fat food,
and we need to tell them this is unhealthy. We
(13:12):
got to change everything. It doesn't look like that's what
happened here, but it does beg the question why did
anyone feel the need to update the logo?
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
We seem to be living in an era where if
you have nothing to do, you find something to do,
even if that may end up being detrimental to what
you're attempting to actually achieve over the long term. I'm
watching ESPN basically gobble up NFL network in NFL Red Zone.
They just got the rights of WWE's premium live events.
(13:47):
ESPN is seeing an opportunity to hoard the market you
know they are. They basically took WWE on and lost
UFC and took NFL network. They want to be in control.
They got major league by despite not having a deal
with ESPN to go over the air on ESPN. Well,
ESPN's trying to buy MLB dot tv for the online ads, right,
(14:09):
So ESPN is seeing, Oh, you got money, we're sitting
on it. We're gonna grab assets. That's building your business model. Yeah,
changing your logo, changing your advertising style, changing the interior
of your restaurant when nothing seemed like it needed to
be adjusted or changed. Seems like we're looking for something
(14:31):
to do, and we couldn't figure out what to do.
We couldn't build our business by acquiring things or by
trying to make maybe small tweaks to either what the
menu looks like or maybe what the interior or logo
might seem. Instead, we're overhauling it all at one time
because we got a new CEO that took over in
November of twenty three and says it's just not good
(14:52):
enough right now. I just don't know if I can
agree with that.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Just as long as you don't give your customers, your
fan base the impression that all. We reached out to
a team of very important influencers. They're all fourteen and
fifteen years old, and they and they said, oh yeah,
within Cracker Barrel's old. Has that logo been around for
longer than seven years? Yeah, it's been around for decades.
Oh my gosh, how old you get rid of that? Grandpa?
(15:16):
Come on, Boomer, get rid of that stuff. And then
you have to do an advertising campaign like you were
saying about Jaguar, where you act like you don't even
want to sell people food or a car or whatever.
You don't even put that in the things. That's the
cool way to get people here. You act like you
don't want them.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
The mysteriousness of what even are you trying to sell?
Will keep me engaged. Well, it hasn't worked for anyone
when they've done it that way. And for whatever it's worth.
Cracker Barrel down tennis percent today right at the open
of the markets, because yes it's a publicly traded company.
The last twelve months have been great, up twenty eight percent.
That includes the drop today, So it tells you that
(15:56):
things weren't bad at all. The old They had a
dip when we went into tariff land like many brands did.
They had rebuilt over the last I don't know, four months,
and now all of a sudden own goal unforced error,
come out with this very simplistic, overly minimalized logo and
(16:17):
it is I mean, you could see the downward spike
of what they're doing. And I don't know what to say.
I guess maybe we need another little bit of time
to see if it actually affects what their customers are.
But no positive publicity is coming out about this on
the SOS, so I guess we'll see, and maybe we
just need to do some recon here and go visit
(16:38):
some Cracker barrels.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I'm looking at the new logo. It's the same color.
It's of the background, it's the same color of the letters,
but it just it doesn't look like the Cracker barrel Solace.
I mean, it's just soulless.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Like you said, you could have recognized the old Cracker
barrel logo with the guy next to the barrel and stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
You see that just with the color, which I think
you can probably do that now too. It's the same color, nook.
It kind of looks like a Denny sign. The front
isn't but like the shape and the shape of it
kind of looks like a Denny's sign. Yeah, Like, no,
I hope Denny's doesn't change anything.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yeah, Denny's is good too.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
They took the phrase old country store out of the logo.
You know, someone was like, just don't put old in there.
It's old. We don't want anything that's old. This picture
of the guy is sitting here by this barrel. He
looks old. Oh he is old.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
That's the whole point, right, that's the guy welcoming you
to cracker barrel. What are we doing here? So we'll see.
We'll see exactly what tomorrow looks like for them, and
maybe the next few weeks and if there's backlash and
if we see a premature resignation from Julie Fel's Messino
as CEO of this company after she's made all these
radical changes over the last couple of years. Two thirty,
(17:50):
when we come back that redistrict d effort. Earlier today,
had a chance to talk to somebody who's living in
Texas name is David Grass. So he's given us a
lot of different perspectives on this. You'll hear from him
next on news Radio eleven ten kfab Emery sung story
yesterday we talked about was we were watching the vote
happen of the Texas redistricting effort or jerrymandering effort, And
(18:13):
I'm always looking for analytical ways to look at these
types of things. Joining us is political analyst David Grass
up today before we start breaking it down from an
analytical standpoint, what was yesterday all about?
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Yesterday was all about trying to position Republicans to the
best of their ability for the midterm elections. Traditionally, when
a party holds the White House and Congress at the
same time, like the Republicans do now, it usually switches
parties at the midterm elections. So President Trump decided to
(18:47):
use jerry mandering as a weapon to increase the odds
of Republicans holding onto the House at the midterm elections,
and Texas was the battlefield that he chose to carry
out that plan.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, there's been a lot of talk about whether or
not this is something that will trigger a response. We'll
get to that in a second. But I suppose this is.
I mean that we know this isn't the first time
this has happened, and we know that Texas and Iowa
where we live have different rules in how they redistrict.
So as we go into the science of like whom
(19:21):
draws the new maps and how they're drawing it to
get a basically be the favorites to land five additional seats.
What is that process like for the state of Texas
when they're trying to redraw those maps.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Traditionally, like every other state, the maps are drawn every
ten years. This was part of the Great Compromise in
seventeen eighty seven, which set up that the House would
be apportioned by population in the Senate would be two
per state. It's called the Great Compromise because states like Iowa,
we're afraid of states like you know, New Jersey that
are more populous, right, so that was the power sharing agreement.
(19:59):
This is very untraditional in the sense because typically the
state legislatures are the ones in charge of drawing these maps.
They do it every ten years. Well, it's twenty twenty five.
We're between one census to the twenty twenty and the
twenty thirty census, so that means that this is all
highly unprecedented. It's not unheard of, but it's very strange. Traditionally,
(20:21):
states that are controlled by a certain party, Democrats or
Republicans tend to draw maps that are more favorable to
their party, and that's why no party has the moral
high ground on this issue. If you go to a
place like Illinois or California, they're heavily skewed towards Democrats,
and in Texas and in Florida, they're more skewed toward Republicans.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Well, speaking of David Grass, so he's a political analyst,
I've seen the maps of a couple of these districts
in Texas where it's like a chunk of San Antonio
in a chunk of Dallas, and then just like a
tiny little line basically in between the two of them.
How how do you even come up with that? Would
be my question. You know, in the state of Iowa,
(21:01):
our four congressional districts are all full counties in their
regionalized county groups. You know, when they're drawing in Texas
with all the different metropolitan areas and trying to find
ways to have a seat here or grab a seat here,
I just guess I'm a bit confused as to who
even comes up with the idea of Okay, this is
(21:23):
going to lead to a more Democrat area or district,
and this if we change it could lead in this
way to a more Republican district. So who were are
these people in Congress that are drawing these maps? Like
who's drawing the map?
Speaker 4 (21:40):
This is usually analysts that draw these maps. They use
computer programs and imagine, now we have AI to figure
out how to dilute certain voters. So the overarchinge theme
for Jerry manderin which came from Congressman Jerry in Massachusetts
who drew a district like a salamander. So what you're
talking about is these districts don't look normal like the
(22:00):
ones you have in Iowa. So what they do is
they say, Okay, we have an overarching team to make
more Republican districts, right, but we can't eliminate Democratic voters.
So how do we dilute them by drawing these exotic shapes?
Started out with the salamander, but now we have all
sorts of shapes that challenge our imagination. In no way
(22:24):
is it more fair. It leads to suboptimal outcomes. Traditionally,
voters choose their politicians, but in this case, politicians are
actually shopping around for their voters, and it increases the
partisan divide, because think about it, if you build districts
that are favorable for a certain type of politicians, those
politicians don't really have to work to get re elected.
(22:46):
And that's why we see a lot of political extremism
on this side, or on both sides for that matter.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Yeah, it's a really good point. David Grasso's political analyst
joining us. Of course, the big hubbub in the response
to this was that the Democrats ran away, and we're
in Illinois and there's been a lot of chatter about
how do we bring them back? Are they under arrest,
did they forfeit their seats? What is the status essentially
on that kind of boycott as they were trying to
(23:13):
avoid a quorum so they couldn't even vote on this thing.
What's in procedurally? How would you be able to dance
around that if they just perpetually never wanted to come back.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Well, they did come back ultimately, and it was political
theater and in the sense that it was the height
of hypocrisy. They actually escaped. Most of them went to Illinois,
which is highly jerry mander the other way. Again, no
moral high ground from either party on this issue, and
now California is actually going to follow suit to try
to negate the gains that Texas makes. So here we
(23:47):
go to the race of the bottom of the barrel. Procedurally,
you know, they were gone, so they couldn't hold a vote.
They finally came back, there was a vote. Conservatives or
Republicans have a huge majority already in states like Texas
and Florida and many other states as well. So it
was merely a delay tactic. It was not meaningfully going
(24:08):
to change the outcome. And that's where we find ourselves
today in the Texas House. This bill passed yesterday, It
will pass the Senate on Thursday. After that it will
quickly be signed by Governor Abbott, and then after that
you will see Governor Gavin Newsom in California try to
copy the whole process to eliminate that advantage. Now, one
big caveat, though, just because you engineered districts for a
(24:29):
certain outcome, it doesn't mean that outcome's going to happen.
Elections still matter, and people vote based on things like
the economy, inflation, the culture war, and other things that
motivate voters to get out to the polls.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense to you, leading
right into the next question. Gavin Newsom is in California,
one of a few states that have kind of whispered
or at least threatened that they will redraw their maps
in response to Texas trying to steal what they're calling
steal a handful of seats for the upcoming midterm election.
(25:05):
Can they do that in if Texas can, I'm sure
that there's a way, But I mean, who are we
kidding at this point? I mean, this is like children
in a sandbox trying to steal each other's you know,
like bulldozers. I just I don't understand, like this could
be just never ending, right.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Oh, never ending, And no one's going to let up,
right because if someone lets up, then it just gives
the other party an advantage. Structurally, this is better for Republicans,
and nothing Blue states do can negate what Republicans are doing.
Just think about the national patterns occurring. There is more
migration from blue states to red states. They are growing.
(25:44):
In the next census, red states will have more seats
and will only benefit more from this jerry mandering. Additionally,
a lot of Democratic states, like California have specific laws
about against jerry mandering, so they're going to encounter more problems.
In fact, New York tried to jerry mander during the
Path census and it was thrown out by a court.
(26:05):
Here in Texas, I don't see a court throwing this out.
So structurally, this is always going to be better for Republicans.
But make no mistake, Democrats are going to make every
effort to try to eliminate any sort of engineered gains
that come from red states.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
This would go into effect by next year. Is that
kind of the plan. And are these other states trying
to hustle to get their own jerrymandered maps by then
as well.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
The whole point of this is for the midterm elections.
And again this is highly unusual. This is supposed to
occur in twenty twenty and then in twenty thirty. No
one ever said twenty twenty five, this is a manufactured crisis.
In this case, you know, I blame both parties for
this phenomenon. But in this case, President Trump asked for this,
So that's what did That's what ignited this latest race
(26:54):
to the bottom.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Yeah, well, it's going to be interesting to see exactly
what happens. Uh Iowa it has been kind of pretty
steady for the most part, and there hasn't been and
we have like a separate outside entity that even redraws
the map. So it's not something that people can make
themselves in Congress. But it's been very fascinating to watch
what's going on in Texas David Grasso with great information.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
And they're about to negate it. So California has exactly
what I would do it and they're about to negate it.
So don't hold your breath.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Oh okay, all right, well I guess I guess.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Nothing's ever perfect in this world. I suppose David Grassow
political analysts really do appreciate the time and the information
today as.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Always always pleasure to things, all right.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
And we'll come back. We'll talk about those lines and
why those lines are interesting. We've talked about Nebraska's rules too,
and we also in Nebraska have the two you know,
you only redistrict every ten years, and what redistricting would
look like if it was done to try to help
Republicans win. I have an idea. I'll tell you about
(27:56):
it next on news radio eleven ten kfab and Raise Songer.
I do to know how to put this, but I'm
kind of a big.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Deal on news radio eleven.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Ten KFAB obviously going to be an effort from California
and some of these other blue states to try to
match that and try to replace the five seats out
of schedule. Most of these situations are built and done
from a standpoint of twenty twenty census, twenty thirty census.
(28:25):
In every ten years, we look at where people are
living and then we redraw the maps. Now I mentioned
a couple of times Iowa. I think Iowa was pretty
unique because Iowa's districts are literally along county lines, and
if they have to move one county from one district,
like Pottawatamie County in twenty twenty was removed from the
District three and moved into District four, that changes which
(28:50):
district they're in and who they'll vote for. And it
did affect I think the races because it makes both
District three and District for much more likely to be
Republican held districts. Now, this is not done by the politicians.
This is done by kind of a third party of
analysts that look at where the populations are located and
(29:13):
are trying to get as close to an equal population
across the entire state. Nebraska is the same way, except
theirs is done in the unicameral. The unic camera will
come up with the ideas, but it is done very
strictly in twenty twenty after the twenty twenty census, So
of twenty twenty one, I guess, and then the next
(29:34):
one wouldn't be unless something crazy happens until twenty thirty one,
when we have all the information of the twenty thirty census.
If you look at the district maps, the second congressional
district is the blue dot if you will, as far
as Democrats are concerned. But it's being held by a
Republican right now in Don Bacon. Don Bacon's not running
for reelection. I would say it's going to be very
(29:55):
difficult for a Republican to try to match exactly what
he did the appeal he had to independent candidates because
last couple of elections, this is a district that is
voted blue. It just has Biden in twenty twenty Harrison
twenty twenty four. You are seeing how blue the votes
are going toward the Senate candidates as time has gone on.
(30:18):
Somehow Don Becan's maintained winning in this district. You saw
what happened in the mayoral race where John Ewing ended
up upsetting Mayor Jen Stothart, who had been the mayor
for twelve years, and now all of a sudden, the
people decided in a pretty overwhelming fashion that they wanted
somebody a little bit more to the left of center
(30:40):
as far as their politics go. I would say that
if Nebraska was trying to hustle really quickly and try
to redraw their maps to try to protect themselves from Omaha,
essentially controlling and voting in a Democrat, they would need
to kind of slice and dice a bit themselves. I'm
(31:01):
not a fan of this. I kind of made it
pretty clear in that interview. I really think that the
whole gerry manderin thing. Nobody who does this, especially out
of schedule, is going to tell me that they're not
trying to just geographically manipulate voters. It's not even like
your vote counts anymore. It's not about winning your vote
in a grassroots way. It is taking demographics in geography
(31:22):
and trying to build districts that make it easier for
one side or the other to win and it's both
sides who do it. They want, you know, the Republicans
want to try to slice the metropolitanarias into as many
pieces as possible and put more people from the suburbs
and the rural areas and Texas. This is what it
would look like where the big metropolitan area that has
(31:46):
likely more liberal people are not going to make up
enough of that district for them to maintain control of
that seat. Well, the same thing for Democrats who would
take a couple of different slices like the one that
I mentioned with San Antonio in Dallas, where one district
is like a little chunk of San Antonio, a little
chunk them up. With that, manipulate that you could try
to split maybe Omaha in the Omaha area in half.
(32:12):
We're splitting Sarpy County and half already if you look
at the district map, you just split Omaha in half
and go a little bit more of the rural area
and then have Lincoln try to be an island in
the completely different district. Maybe you split that in half
with the third congressional district. There would be a way
that you could try to rig it up and fix
it up to where only Republicans could ever really feel
like they have a chance to win. I don't think
(32:34):
it's a good idea, but it's something that could theoretically
happen if this continues to get out of hand in Texas, California,
and the rest of the country. Hello there, Happy Thursday.
At the Thursday Thursday, I'm Emery Songer. I am joined
by Scott Vorhies, who is very, very nice and kind
for coming and hanging out with me today. Do you
(32:54):
drink something during the show. Do you like to have
beverages while you're on the air.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
No.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
I used to be a two mountain do a show
kind of a guy. I'm now down to about two
mountain dew a month kind of a guy. So if
I'm drinking anything during the show, it's usually water. But
I'm on a Thursday Thursday. I'm not gonna let you down. Okay,
I'm gonna find something to drink. Just don't have a
sip of or whatever you're drinking.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Well, it's a coffee concoction that my wife makes. If
you want to try it, you can. At the anniversary,
by the way, thank you. I had celebrated nine years
of marriage and fourteen years together. With my wife yesterday.
So yeah, we celebrated by going to run Club, which,
by the way, one of the people from my run
club is going to join us at the bottom of
(33:42):
this hour, so we'll explain what run club is.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
I've had a lot of questions. You keep talking about
run Club. Are you allowed to talk about run Club?
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (33:48):
And I see that's a joke everybody makes. It's just like, oh,
I didn't know you were allowed to talk about run
club outside of run Club.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
It's like, No, it's a it's a coffee concoction. It's
like half coffee, a bunch of eyes. She like fills
it up with ice. She puts like half coffee and
then the other half is like creamer and milk mixed.
It's crazy. It's not for everybody. If you like black coffee,
this would certainly not taste good to you. It tastes
good to me. And so I'm drinking this, and then
I have two Mountain zvas because I am learning my lesson,
(34:15):
I'm trying to drink more zvas than mountain dews. So
they're a little bit more healthy, less ingredients in them,
but they have the same type of taste in a
similar caffeine.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Not once, not once, in my entire life, has anyone
given me a healthy alternative to pop, which I still
really like pop. I just like it in much better
moderation than I used to. Anyone who's ever said, oh,
do this, it's diet, or it's this free, or it's
that it tastes just like regular I drink it. It
doesn't not even close. I don't even know what's wrong
with you people who even would deign to say something
(34:49):
that's a blatant lie.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
You're right, it doesn't taste the same. I drank them
back to back. Obviously they wouldn't taste the same. What
I'm saying is it tastes enough like it that I
can drink it gives me the caffeine boost that I'm
looking for, And it's also only five ingredients and there's
no real sugar in it.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
I once went over to a buddy of mine's house
and he said, Hey, well, here's what we're grilling, portobello mushrooms.
And I know you're a steak guy, but you're gonna
taste this portobello mushroom. You won't even be able to
taste the difference between this mushroom and a sirloin. They'll
never find his body. It wasn't even enough in that instance,
just not to hang out with it anymore.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
That guy's in a shallow grave.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
You just chopped them up. Yeah, a mushroom and steak
is that a real thing?
Speaker 3 (35:34):
Look, Portabello, mushroom on the grill. Amazing, But it's not steak.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
It's supposed to taste like steak though.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Right, I'm sure your drink is just fine. I'm glad
you like it, but it's not like what you're saying
it's supposed to be.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
I have two. I'll give you one if you want
to try it. I don't come on. I'll drink this,
and then i'll drink one of those mountain zvs and
then you can have the other one, and you can
tell me what you.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Think you can drink that. I'll have a sip of
your mountain I don't even want it. I don't want
to say mountains.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
That's what it is. But you can't say mountain dug.
It's not mountain dew. It's mountain zvia.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
I feel like the Janitor and Billy Madison. I'd rather
have a beer. Maybe that's what I'll have. How about
you side Burns.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
You want some of this, I'd rather have a beer. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Great movie. By the way. I watch Happy Gilmore two
for what it's worth the other day for the first time.
Have you seen it? Do you watch it? I couldn't.
I don't understand why people were so upset about it.
I thought it was I didn't need a Happy Gilmore two.
I watched it and I was like, you know, it
was fun I died when Scottie Scheffler punched the guy
and the police came. He's like, oh no, not again.
(36:47):
So good, so good. That guy has no personality and
he was funny in the movie.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Okay, anyway back to business here, bet Bath Beyond. Did
you know this was still a thing?
Speaker 3 (37:03):
It's gone from village point it's been, it's been beyond
for a while. It's it's in the Great Beyond. Yeah,
as far as brick and mortars. But well, but what
I remember is bed Bath and Me almost thriving. It
was doing really, really well because they always send out
like every day you'd go to your mailbox would be
a twenty percent off coupon for bed Bath and Beyond.
(37:23):
And so then they stopped doing the coupons going, well,
maybe people like us so much that they'll come in
here and shop without the coupon. People stop getting the coupon.
They stopped going. They're like, well, I need to get
some bed Bath or Beyond. All wait till I get
the coupon. They never got it. They stopped going. They
trained us to use the coupon, then they took away
our coupon, and then they shut down. I thought they
(37:45):
were completely gone, but they're not. Uh yeah, so this
is interesting. So Marcus Lamonis is a big businessman.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
He has been on television also with The Profit and
The Fixer. He is his own website. He's the CEO
of Camping World. I think maybe most famously he's made
a lot of investment into like auto racing and things
like that. But he's also the CEO of bed Bath
and Beyond, which you are correct. If you think you've
(38:16):
seen an operating bed Bath and Beyond in the last
year or so, you are mistaken, because that's not a
thing that's actually happened. So imagine the puzzling look many
people would have seen on x yesterday when Marcus Lamona
said an official statement regarding bed Bath and Beyond. Here's
(38:37):
the full statement. We will not open or operate retail
stores in California. This decision isn't about politics, it's about reality.
California has created one of the most overregulated, expensive and
risky environments for business in America. It's a system that
makes it harder to employ people, harder to keep doors open,
(39:00):
and harder to deliver value to customers. The result higher taxes,
higher fees, higher wages that many businesses simply cannot sustain,
and endless regulations that strangle growth even when the state
announces a budget surplus. It's built on the backs of
ordinary citizens who are paying too much and businesses who
(39:20):
are squeezed until they break. At bed Bath and Beyond,
our responsibility is to our customers and our shareholders. We
will not participate in a system that undermines both. Instead,
we are investing in a California strategy that works twenty
four to forty eight hour delivery and in many cases,
same day service. Californians will continue to get the products
(39:41):
they love through bed Bath and Beyond dot com, but
without the inflated costs created by an unsustainable model. We're
taking a stand because it's time for common sense. Businesses
deserve the chance to succeed, employees deserve jobs that last,
and customers deserve fair prices. Californ delivers the opposite. That's
why bed Bath and Beyond will serve California customers directly
(40:04):
through Bedbethandbeyond dot com, on our terms and with their
best interests at heart. End quote. Okay, so keep in
mind this situation. This report comes out yesterday and it
(40:26):
lands on Gavin Newsom's Twitter right, because everybody's tagging Gavin Newsom.
It's like, look, here's another CEO of a company which, again,
by the way, I haven't heard much about Bedbeth Beyond
for a while. Well, Gavin Newsom grabbed one of the
stories about this and says, the company that already went
bankrupt and closed every store across the country two years ago. Okay,
(40:50):
that was his response. Say what you want about the guy.
He knows how to use social media a plus troll. Now,
this is a bigger California problem. There are way more
closures of major stores in California than anywhere else. And
you can say it's because they have more stores there,
but there is a pretty unsustainable model for business. Well,
Marcus ol Marcus Lamonis after this, had a couple of
(41:14):
other things to say, and he said, Dear Governor Gavin Newsom,
because he saw the whole okay comment, I thought your
posts would suggest we bring business leaders together to understand
how to improve the four pillars, slash friction of business
and find a way to make it better. So are
you ready everyone to hear the CEO of Bedbeth and
(41:35):
Me on a store that has, for whatever it's worth,
file Chapter eleven bankruptcy and pretty much lost its entire
footprint outside of potentially and apparently it's online footprint. Here
they are Number one streamline regulation, consistent simplified compliance rules
across state and local levels. Number two balanced labor environment
(41:57):
that's good for employees and employers. I think a lot
that has to do with the fact that you have
to pay people so much just to have them work
for you in the state of California. Number three litigation
reform reducing abusive lawsuits while keeping protection for workers. Not
exactly sure what he's requiring there. Maybe somebody got smashed
by a bed once. I have no idea. Number four
competitive tax and cost structure incentives to come as opposed
(42:19):
to disincentives to leave, which again California, Like, how do
you do that? People just generally go there anyway. It's
a big place, a lot of people. We can make
it over there. Well, you know, it doesn't seem to
be something they're super excited about. As far as Marcus
after that, he said, we bought the ip over two
(42:40):
years ago and have built Bedbathombeyond dot com into a
billion dollar online business. We will target opening three hundred
small to mid size neighborhood stores through our Kirklands investment.
You are a smart man, and I know the post
is out of frustration. So do you believe this three
(43:01):
hundred small to mid size bet Beth and Beyond and
neighborhoods across America just a couple of years after Chapter
eleven bankruptcy. Wow? Not in California, though it sounds like
it feels like California. Maybe maybe your neighborhood, bet Beth
and Beyond's going to come back there.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
Scott need the twenty percent off q pons and I'll
go sometimes I need some beyond.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
The top comment on this, for whatever it's worth is
you are a sociopath and deserve nothing, to which Marcus
Lamonis replied, thank you, I love social media. Well, we'll
see what exactly what happens. Billion dollars seems a bit
high considering what's going on. And did you know bed
(43:46):
Beth and Beyond we were talking about cracker barrel. Have
you seen bed Beth and Beyond? Did you know that
they had a stock? You know how, it's Beyond Incorporated.
For whatever's worth his name of the company. Do you
know you could buy into this?
Speaker 3 (44:00):
They're going after the Amazon model. Amazon's not doing too
bad for itself. That's it might not be a I'm
not one of these guys like bye, you know, but
it might not be. It can't be worth that much
right now.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
How much do you think a single stock of Beyond
Incorporated is worth? Thirteen dollars nine sixty Okay, I'll pretty good.
I'll risk nine to sixty. Over the last year, they
are down thirteen percent, but over the last six months
they're up twenty six percent. So they had a pretty
big cratering until oh say, the last eight months or so.
(44:36):
They bottomed out a couple of different times. And for
whatever it's worth, with all this additional attention they have
gotten through social media posts from Marcus Lamonas and a
little bit of help from Gavin Newsom. They're up nine
percent today. So there you go. Maybe the business model's
working after all, or maybe you just picked a fight
with the right guy on social media. I brought Scott
(44:57):
Vorhe's a treat. It is a mountain Zvia. How would
you describe the can? And what does it look like?
It looks like the new Cracker barrel logo generic.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
It's like, all right, we wanted to have some recognizable
colors here that people wouldn't find too distressful. Throw that
out there. Yeah, well it is pretty boring. Ingredients, are
you right? I'm gonna name every ingredient in this can.
Carbonated water, citric acid, natural flavors that's not an ingredient,
(45:31):
Stevia leaf extract, and caffeine, that's it. Natural flavors is
not an ingredient. It is an ingredient. It's all the
ingredient natural.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
It flavors to what it's just natural flavors like lemon
and lime would be what I would guess because that's
what this tastes like. So but here you go.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
So they can't they can't say lemon, and they can't
say lime, because there's no lemon and limon and natural flavors.
If I lick this mouse that Gary Sadlemeyer has been
using for the better part of the last five decades,
I'm going to experience natural flavors. It doesn't mean that
they're good or natural. There'll be a flavor. Natural flavors
(46:13):
is not an ingredient.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Natural flavors or flavorings derived from national sources like plants, animals,
or fermentation products whose primary function is to enhance taste
then provide nutritional value. The FDA defines them as essential oils, extracts,
or other products from natural sources like spices, herbs, fruits, vegetables,
or meats. While they originate from natural sources, they often
undergo a processing and may not be considered natural by
(46:39):
consumers like you.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
Well, I'm just saying natural from what everything has a flavor.
Pumpkin has a natural flavor that's different from an orange
natural flavor.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Lemon and lime.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
I want to know what I'm getting myself into before
I drink this.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
Have you seen the ingredient list from Mountain Dew?
Speaker 1 (46:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Okay, well this is this is child's play.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
It's I read the gingredients to mountain dew, and I
I don't drink mountain dew nearly as much as I
used to, but I still love it. So I think
the ingredients are God's nectar and divine flavors. I think
that was pretty much it. All right, I'll try this open,
try it, try it. Try one. If I just take
(47:21):
a sip of this and give it back to you,
are you going.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
To be fine? I'm not a weirdo. Geez.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
I wanted to I wanted three. I wanted three golf. Well,
I'm thirsty. Initial reaction never happen before. Initial reaction is
it's not bad. It's not mountain dew. Of course, it
tastes like it tastes like sprite trying to transition to
mountain dew.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Oh, it's like it's having an identity crisis, Like we just.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
Got back to school and last year I was hanging
out with sprite and now sprites like, I'm mountain zeba
your sprite, Like, well, I'm transitioning into mountains. I can,
but I take it to caffeine. Yeah, it's got that
that deity flavor to it, and so therefore I don't
like it.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
I don't like diapop.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
I don't like diapop either. It's not diet, it's not
diet pops. It tastes, it tastes a little flat compared
to regular mountain dew, but it's it's a that is
a truly useful and much better health related option for
a mountain dew esque drink with caffe nation, which I
need every day to to do this, And I like,
(48:36):
I don't know, I'm just I'm just sitting here and
I'm trying to uh, I'm trying to talk you through
why and how this is a all right, like that
this is a useful exercise for you.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
I'm drinking it. Well, do you want no another?
Speaker 2 (48:50):
Can you like it enough to keep it? I'm I'm impressed.
I'm happy. This is great.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Ye, I don't hate it. It just.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
It's it's not it's not something I will probably ever
grab for it again. It's actually kind of expended, but
I don't I don't want to waste it.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
Well, I would just drink whatever you didn't drink, because no, no,
you drink it. If you want it, you should drink it.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
How much I get, I'll wipe my lip. That first
sip was like.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Half of the can, so I don't even know how
much is left in there. Wow, there's like two SIPs
left enjoy and one of those SIPs is backwashed. Joy
nice awesome. If anybody says, you know, like, are you
a germophobe? This is your evidence that No, at no
point in my entire life if I ever been a germophobe.
In fact, I just I don't like being around people
are germophobes. It's kind of like, you know, I used
(49:40):
to work with a guy who hated it when people
use his headphones. Yeah, do you are you one of
those guys?
Speaker 1 (49:46):
Uh? No, It depends on the guy.
Speaker 3 (49:49):
Like if you if if I had big, sweaty guys open,
if I had open sores on my mouth and said, hey,
you know here, you can have the rest of this,
you're like, I'm good, Like, oh, are you a germophobe?
Speaker 1 (50:00):
I am when it comes to you, mister Kanker.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
So yeah, yeah, Like if you were to use my headphones,
the only thing I think is like, you're gonna get
long hair stuck in and I'm not have to pull
that out. But that's fine. Yeah, you're a clean guy.
There are some people who have worked in radio over
the years. I'm like whatever is in their ears, I
don't want in my headphones.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Fair enough. I just don't even think about it. It's
just like, who cares. Now, you're a sweaty guy. You're
eating some food at a restaurant. There's a hair in it.
What do you do? Is it like a buffet or no?
Speaker 3 (50:38):
They just served it to you. They brought it out. Yeah,
there's a hair. It's just a natural hair and cheese, right,
natural flavor hair. I pull the hair out, Yeah you,
I just presume that's probably one of mine. I pull
it out and I keep eating.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
Yeah, if it's not mine, who cares? Like, oh gosh,
there was a hair that touched my macaroni and cheese.
Look out, I don't know. I might, I might. I
now now I'm gonna eat my mac and cheese, Like,
are you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (51:03):
It's a hare?
Speaker 2 (51:05):
If there's like a live rat in my on my plate,
then i'd feel a little differently about that.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
But in natural flavors.
Speaker 2 (51:13):
Hey, I'm just suggesting that maybe you could end up
a little washed, a little washed up.
Speaker 1 (51:19):
Uh yeah, well you're not there yet, It's yeah, but
I can see it from here.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
Oh yes, now see this is the thing. I just
hope never get washed. Here's a good example. My favorite
professional wrestler is Chris Jericho. Love Chris Jericho. He was
really funny when I was growing up in the nineties.
He's a great athlete everything, Like I was just like, man,
he looks cool, he's you know, doing flips and everything.
He's in great shape, he's ripped. Like if I was
(51:48):
an athlete and wanted to be a professional wrestler, I'd
want to look and do what he does. And he's
still doing it, Scott, it's twenty twenty five. He's doing
it thirty five years later, and my goodness, the last
couple of years seeing him do anything has been kind
(52:08):
of rough.
Speaker 3 (52:09):
Why do wrestlers? Because my era of professional wrestling is
the early to mid eighties, which was the greatest time
for professional RUSS. You could make that argument that was
Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Ricky the Dragon, Steamboat Regi,
Randy back On Man Savage, who I leave, Roddy Roddy Piper.
I could flare slur my way and it wasn't a
NWA fan.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
But okay, fair enough.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
So I mean though a.
Speaker 3 (52:33):
Lot of those guys ended up still wrestling into their
sixties and seventies.
Speaker 1 (52:41):
Ny Flair.
Speaker 2 (52:42):
Why Rick Flair had his technically last match or retirement
match a year ago.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
How old is Rick?
Speaker 2 (52:48):
He's got to be seventy something, Rick Flair is. Let
me look this up real quick. He's seventy six the
retirement match, he was seventy four.
Speaker 1 (52:58):
Right, But seventy four, I mean he had like.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
A heart attack or something out there. It's I don't know,
you're right. Wrestling is like guys tend to feel like
they could hang on longer than they probably should. But
watching my my guy Chris Jericho go from this incredibly
nimble and ridiculously good athlete, great wrestler, good personality, is
funny and everything, and you see him just his body
(53:21):
shape changes over the time and he can't do the
flips anymore. It's just been tough to watch a guy
wash up. Right before your eyes saw a Facebook video
posted by a radio station in Indiana. They were in
the crowd watching DLR David Lee Roth, former lead man
(53:44):
of an incredible rock band, Van Halen, and it was
him a couple of days ago performing Panama, which is
a great song, one of the great songs about a
car ever and DLR is standing there in a full
leather outfit looking good like for his age. He's looking good.
(54:05):
You know how old he.
Speaker 3 (54:05):
Is, David Lee Roth, He's gotta be probably he's not
seventy yet, is he?
Speaker 2 (54:12):
He is? Is he he's seventy? He is right at seventy.
This is an interesting cat. By the way, I like
David Lee Roth his work with Van Halen. He is
one of the great, like in his prime, one of
the great front man's of all time. He also in
recent years, like in the last decade or so, got
his like paramedic license so he could be like an EMT,
(54:34):
just because he wanted to do something to challenge himself
and to help people and stuff. Very very interesting guy,
very strange guy. But he's still doing it. And I
watched this video of him performing Panama with his band.
Oh oh, it's bad. It's so bad. It's he can't
(54:57):
he's not he can't even sing. He's not really even.
He's just kind of like speaking the words almost. And
his body's looking great for seventy but you know he's
trying to sing or whatever that is. And I gotta
be honest with you, have you ever just kind of
has it taken the luster off of a guy that
(55:19):
you thought was awesome to see them age or struggle
or get washed whilst they just hung around a little
too long.
Speaker 3 (55:28):
I've always stood up for someone like Frankie Valley, who's
in his nineties, that guy and still goes around does
a show. Look like people know exactly what the deal is.
They're gonna go see a man who is on in years,
surrounded by backup singers. They're doing most of the work.
He comes out, he's Frankie Valley. He sings a couple
of lines, and there are people you know there. There's
(55:51):
also entertainment for people who are older and they're like, hey,
there's someone who's in our age range who's still out
there getting it done. Like, no one's being forced at
gunpoint to go see the show, right, you know, if
you want to go, have a great time. If you're
like that's not for me, then don't go.
Speaker 2 (56:08):
But Frankie kind of looks like he's a wax figure
up there. I'm concerned for his health. Oh he's they're
wheeling him out there when he's seven years or ninety
years old.
Speaker 3 (56:19):
You know, he's he's fine, don't worry about Frankie, all right,
so he wants to go do that, or Chris Jericho
wants to wrestle if they can do it, and people
are willing to go see him, even if it's like, look,
I know the crowds are getting smaller and smaller, but
you know, I enjoy doing this what I do. Why
not let him do it?
Speaker 1 (56:37):
Don't.
Speaker 3 (56:37):
I don't know where anyone's going to be like all right,
that's enough, you know, and drag him off there. But
it doesn't mean that I haven't gone to see an
entertainer who maybe was used to like wear the makeup
and that the big hair and jumping around, and I'm like,
well they're older now. I don't know. I don't need
them to do that. And I've seen some who have
(56:57):
done it, and I've been like that, dude's washed. And
I've seen some who have transitioned into being a more
mature artist who's changed this. They still do some of
the old songs, but they might do in a different
style or a different key or whatever, and that works too.
It's okay to transition into that direction, like bon Jovi has.
(57:18):
Oh yeah, apparently David Lee Roth has not refuses to,
but yeah, he's been kind of cheesy and weird for
a while.
Speaker 2 (57:26):
He's a weird guy, admittedly. I just maybe it's and
I'll step aside. When we come back, we'll talk about
I think I'm trying to take mental notes for myself
because one thing I do not want to do in
my life is get washed. Have you ever felt like
you got washed at something and you stop doing it.
One thing that I felt like I've gotten washed a
(57:47):
bit at was and I hate saying this out loud,
but writing. I used to just kind of write for
fun and just write different things and write things to
not like to journal, but just kind of thoughts and
put them into and I would I would find inspiration
in all different places, and I just like to put
(58:08):
it out there for people to see. And I've done
it for so long. When I try to do something
creative with writing long form, not like a sixty second
commercial or whatever, but just something descriptive or something I'm feeling,
I just read it and I'm like, oh, man, I
was so much better doing this when I was twenty two.
Speaker 1 (58:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (58:25):
Now I don't have a lot of practicality for that use.
It's mostly just for me. Unless I ever decided to
write a book, which I guess in our industry you
can't necessarily write it, Like, you can't rule out that
you wouldn't do that at some point. But has there
been something you found that you feel washed up?
Speaker 3 (58:41):
I remember the moment I got a long rebound. I
used to play almost probably two or three nights a week.
I'd play a lot of full court five on five
basketball at a local gym, and ah, man, I loved it.
I got a chance to kind of know the guys
and just really enjoyed being.
Speaker 1 (58:57):
A part of that.
Speaker 3 (58:58):
And I could feel like the recovery time afterwards for
the next day was getting longer and longer. I'm like, man,
I don't know how much longer I can do this.
So I get a long rebound on the left side,
and I get that, and I look up there. I
see one of my guys sprinting down the other side
of the court, and then a gap there between a
couple of defenders, and I can already envision, you know,
(59:21):
I can do the long Magic Johnson like full court
bounce pass, or maybe I take it down here. See
if he bites on the fake pass and I take
it in there for this this incredible lay up I'm
going to do over here. And as I'm picturing all
of that, a kid who's waiting to get into the
next game also sees the same thing. And as I'm
(59:42):
getting the rebound, I'm taking the first couple of dribbles
and looking at this fast break, this kid just to
the left of me just goes go because he sees
it too, like he knows, like this is a dream.
I love that stuff as a guard. And that's when
my right I don't know which, my hamstring, my quad,
both of them suddenly just were like, no, we're not
(01:00:04):
doing any of this, and like my muscle just exploded
and I couldn't even like hold on to the basketball anymore.
Like the basketball went trailing off. I hit the floor.
It was it hurt. I pulled that muscle, it like exploded.
It hurts so bad, and I just had to like
roll off the court and like sub and some other
(01:00:26):
younger guy goes got it and there it basically threw
me in an open grave. And I haven't done a
lot of that since. I still try very once in
a while, but as far as like I can do this,
as much as I want not after that moment that
was so bad.
Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
We need to, you know, because I used to do
that as well. I haven't in the last year or so,
just because I don't belong to that gym anymore. But
it's fun to get out there. But there are twenty
two year olds that are dunking and stuff going to
this gym that I was going to, and I can't
do that, And so I'm I'm not as fast as
I used to be. I'm still not slow, but I'm
(01:01:05):
not the greatest ball handler. I'm a lot shorter than
most of the guys that are playing. I'm just not
a useful player. So when guys are building their team out,
they're not picking me most of the time. And it's
that competitive where there's like thirty guys showing up and
there's one court to play five on five. A guy
loses and he's going to get picked up for the
(01:01:27):
next game by a guy that's got next. It just
got to a point where I was doing a lot
more sitting than playing, and it just didn't make sense
for me to keep going. But I like how you
mentioned that, right, because it would be awesome to get
a league of guys that we knew or just you know,
like ten to fifteen guys that we know and have
weekly pick up basketball at our speed, which I think
(01:01:48):
would be much more realistic than have these twenty two
year old guys doing between the lakes, dunks in between
the games and all that stuff. Now I mention all
this because here's what I don't want to happen in
my life. I don't want to peak ever at anything.
I have the personal philosophy that if you are completely
satisfied with you have accomplished in your life, there's nothing
(01:02:10):
left to live for. Man, you really just you need
to find something else because not having that carrot in
front of you that I can get better at this,
or I can go after this goal, or this is
the next thing for me to chase. When that's gone,
that's a miserable place to be. Not that I've really
ever been there, but I just don't want to feel
that way. So my fear is that when I get
(01:02:34):
to my forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, as life goes on
and different things go in and out of my life,
or you know, whether or not I'm doing this job.
I have no idea, but getting to a point where
I feel like I'm no longer able to get to
what I felt was my peak at one time in
something that I do regularly. I need to find something
(01:02:54):
else because I'm afraid of looking like Chris Jericho does
in a wrestling ring. Now, I'm afraid of looking like
what David Lee Roth looks like up on stage.
Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
I do not want that to be me.
Speaker 3 (01:03:03):
It's gonna happen, though, I got it, because I'll avoid
it because it's not about your perspective. I guarantee, I
guarantee you. David Lee Roth thinks he's killing it.
Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
You're right.
Speaker 3 (01:03:13):
The girls in the front row are still screaming yeah,
and he thinks I am a man. I am just
killing it. But from his perspective, he's doing fine. You
are watching that from across the way, going, oh man,
that guy. There will always be someone to do that
for you. I promise you.
Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Well, I'm gonna need somebody to uh. I'm gonna hire someone.
I'm gonna get enough bank roll. I'm gonna hire an assistant,
and their job is to tell me when it's over.
You know, I have a couple of parameters, and I'll
tell you what they are. Because I see these people
like the Iowa State Fair was a great it's great
people watching. When we get to that, when we come back,
I'll tell you a couple of these things that i've already.
(01:03:53):
I've told my wife just take me out back and
old yell or me, because I do not want to
be that guy. I will tell you some of those things.
And if you want to share yours with me of
signs you think you'll be washed email me Emory atkfab
dot com. It's news radio eleven ten KFAB. We're talking
about being washed up because it's a little painful to
(01:04:16):
figure out what exactly is or isn't happening. And I
gave my wife and my best friend. I've told people this.
When I see it, this is the end for me.
I want you to go ahead and just end it
all if given the opportunity. Now, of course, I'm not serious.
(01:04:37):
I don't want anybody to commit murder on me, or
to bury me in a hole, or to emancipate me
or emaciate me. I think it's the word I was
looking for there, and just like, let me just wither
away in solitary confinement. But that is right. Kind of
the idea is if you start seeing me be that guy.
(01:04:58):
You need to tell me, because I I don't want
to be that guy. Where's a knee brace to walk
around the Iowa State Fair?
Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
Guy? What's wrong with that?
Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
You put it yourself knee brace, big old knee brace
because you can't walk far enough without the knee brace on.
I have to like put on this big old knee
brace just to get you know, like five thousand steps
at the fair.
Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
Let me, let me, let me stand up for old
guys everywhere. At least that guy, he may have just
had knee surgery. He might be coming back. He might
be someone who has knee surgery because he's part of
your run club and he runs so much that he
needed to have knee surgery. He's like, all right, and
what do I gotta do so I can go back
(01:05:45):
out to run club. Well, you gotta take it easy
for a few months, and you gotta wear this brace
for running.
Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
Right.
Speaker 3 (01:05:50):
Yeah, but he's he's building. He might be building back
to that point. Or maybe he's not right. Maybe he
just laid around so much that his bones disintegrated and
they're like, put this brace on. At least he's still
out there walking. He could be like some people.
Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
Oh no, I'm gonna get to those people.
Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
Then you go ahead and do it.
Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
You can fall on that you can get those emails
because I guarantee as soon as I say it's like
people have medical reasons.
Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
You can't see as to why they might need to
do that when they're going around Walmart.
Speaker 2 (01:06:21):
So you go ahead, drive a scooter wherever you are
because you don't want to walk, guy.
Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
Oh man, what emory they might have.
Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
If you were paying eighty dollars a day to rent
a scooter at the Iowa State Fair, which I saw
a lot of people doing those scooter People are making
bank renting those scooters out for a day, and I
saw plenty of people that seem to be able bodied.
But if you can't, this is why I'll give I'll
give knee brace guy a pass because look, at least
(01:06:56):
he's walking.
Speaker 1 (01:06:57):
At least he's walking.
Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
The aesthetic of you know, walking around in shorts and
a knee brace, could you imagine the tan lines man?
But scooter guy or gal, what are we doing here?
And I want you to enjoy wherever you're going, whether
it's the department store, or it's the fair, or where's
(01:07:20):
another good place that you can drive a scooter around.
Speaker 1 (01:07:22):
Airport.
Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
Airport, Oh, Airport's a good one. It's like, man, are
we being for real here? If I ever and you're
free to do whatever you want. But if I ever
kind of think or want to become scooter in the
fair scooter in the store guy for any reason other
(01:07:43):
than my legs have been completely blown off, that's the end.
That's that's it for me. The Emory song er that
you knew is gone. Go ahead and put me into
a crate like they did in Indiana, Jones, and send
me eight hundred countries away. Top men, just the top
men are gonna be taking care of where I'm going
(01:08:04):
and literally just let them do whatever they want because
I am not me anymore. Do not let me become
that guy you see me one time?
Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
Do that?
Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
Get me out of here? Right?
Speaker 3 (01:08:13):
And I'm glad you said. Like, you know people with
who otherwise seem able bodied who are taking a motorized
scooter around. Yeah, they're not real old, they don't look
like you know that their legs don't work.
Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
They're just lazy.
Speaker 3 (01:08:27):
Yeah, we're not talking about people like in wheelchairs with nubs. No,
you know, different that's what the scooters are for. Emory
is not saying like, I don't care if you got
no legs, just torso your way around the fair.
Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
Come on, use your hands. What are we doing there? Skip?
Come on, Lieutenant Dan, We're waiting for you. What is
worse though, a person.
Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
Who'll just say maybe has yet to get their shipment
of ozempic okay, and they're maybe they're the before poster yep,
and they've decided like, all right, well I have to
do this. So I'm taking the motorized scooter and I'm
just gonna drive around because it's a lot more comfortable
for me.
Speaker 2 (01:09:08):
Which I imagine it is. Oh, it definitely is.
Speaker 3 (01:09:10):
I certainly have some sympathies for people who for whatever
reason get to be that size. Got it look life,
I do, honestly, I really do.
Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
But what I've had a sorry, I've had to trick
myself into that a bit because I cannot relate. And
I this is why it's tough for me to talk
about stuff like this because and you're like me, right,
it's just like we're we would be considered pretty in
shape for yeah, but sometimes I mean, you got a
couple different types of people. You got those who are
(01:09:41):
who got to be rather obese, and they hate it
and they hate themselves and it was part of that
manifestation that got them to look that way. And then
you got people just like I like carbs and you
know what, And I'm just a big, happy, fat guy
and I paint my belly and go to the football
game and I don't care. Yeah, I'm a big fat guy.
What do I You know?
Speaker 3 (01:10:01):
Like, you got the you got people who are like whatever,
and they're fine with it. Maybe they're not real healthy,
but they seem to be in a better mood than
I am. And I'm out there running all over God's
green earth try and lose five pounds, you know, So
I don't. I'm telling you when I say that, there
are some people who have different levels of giving up.
(01:10:22):
Sometimes that manifestation is easier to notice on the scale
than other times.
Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
So I will.
Speaker 3 (01:10:29):
I'm giving more grace to people as I and that's fine.
I'll give grace to people as we get older. I
just would not give grace to myself if that's how
I write it. So what's worse. We'll just go with
lazy person who's just like I'm taking the scooter, you know, walking,
You're not walking to B thirty nine. That's way over
in the other concourse. Just give me a scooter. Or
(01:10:50):
or the parent who takes the kid to the zoo
or the park or whatever, and that kid is an
able bodied, like four year old kid who should be
out walking, and they have the wagon and they got
the kid either in the stroller or the wagon that
little stroller suv that everything's got to go in there
in case a little you know, Junior needs a snack
(01:11:11):
or some water. The wagons are obscene now, those giant wagons.
You can take a nap in there.
Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:11:18):
Kids want to be out walking and running and jumping
and playing, and you, as a parent are like, hey,
get away from there, come back over here, you know,
without having them strapped to a stroller all the time.
Speaker 1 (01:11:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:11:30):
No, see, I can't relate to the kid thing either,
but I would be the type of parent that I would.
Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
I don't want to mess with this big, giant thing.
Speaker 1 (01:11:42):
I just don't.
Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
If there's a way we can like size down, I
like going camping for instance. You know, you know a
camper's mindset. What's the least we can get by with.
We want to pack the least. If we can live
with the least amount of stuff here, that's what we
should do. If I can fit it in a bag
that I can put on my back, I would rather
do that than lug around a giant wagon or stroller
(01:12:06):
for the kid. And then I'm gonna put the little
leash thing on the kid strapped to my waist. Kid's
not going anywhere. Where's he going? And he's gonna like
he gets a little far away? Come on, Junior, keep up,
let's go again. Probably the wrong guy to ask, but
I'm just telling you, Scooter guy, put me out of
my misery. You know, there was another one that I
had here, guy who decides he wants to dress with
(01:12:31):
tucked in T shirt with cargo shorts, high white socks
not branded, and those white, ugly Dad Nikes or new Balances.
Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
Those shoes are making them comeback.
Speaker 2 (01:12:50):
I see that teenagers hate it.
Speaker 3 (01:12:52):
Today's teenagers have jacked up the cost of Dad shoes
because somehow some basketball player somewhere thought they were cool
and did a video.
Speaker 1 (01:13:03):
I don't get it.
Speaker 3 (01:13:04):
And then my son is like, Dad, can I have
a million dollars for a pair of New Balance sneakers,
Like you.
Speaker 1 (01:13:10):
Want a pair of sneakers, look like that. I got
five pairs in my mowing.
Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
Shit, they staying on the bottom.
Speaker 1 (01:13:16):
Ye, you're in the garage. No, Dad, you don't get it. No,
you're right, I don't.
Speaker 2 (01:13:22):
You're right one, and I will never get it. A mullet, Guys,
if I ever am just like you know what, I
should cut my hair into a mullet out to pasture. Okay, Grandpa,
you're washed. Let's get you out of here. Anytime that
I make fashion decisions like that, which I am set
telling my wife that guy it's not working. If that's happening. Mustache,
(01:13:43):
if I do a mustache, which will never happen as
long as my wife is alive, there's no chance you'd
let that happen.
Speaker 1 (01:13:49):
They're wrong with them must.
Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
I don't like the mustache either. But if I ever
got weird enough and decided to be cavalier enough to
try to grow one and then take good care of it,
and you know, make it a part of who I am.
I told my wife if she ever was just go
ahead and just ended I got another one. Put me
(01:14:12):
in a box.
Speaker 3 (01:14:12):
The guy who can't see and no one will tell
him that he's got just florettes of nose hair, oh,
flowing out of his nostrils.
Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
Those guys, you got to trim up your stuff. Man,
what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:14:25):
Guy who forgets to wear deodorant all the time, it
has no idea how bad he smells. Somebody tell me,
please just help me to put some cologne on my goodness.
Speaker 1 (01:14:35):
Oh too much cologne, guy, That might be worse than
bad gay.
Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
Oh. We could fight about that all day. Trying to
avoid being washed up and avoid peeking in life and
things in my life that I have told people around me.
If you see me be this guy, go ahead and
either end it all or set up an intervention. You
ever watch intervention back in the day. No, it's like
we're somebody that doctor Drew. No, he does stuff like
(01:15:01):
that now. But Intervention used to be this show on
A and E where somebody who's like an addict, like
alcohol addict.
Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
Been in a real life intervention. Not me.
Speaker 2 (01:15:11):
Oh you know, so I know what it is. Yeah
so TV.
Speaker 1 (01:15:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:15:14):
So, but for people I haven't thought like we need
to put this on TV.
Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
So the TV show is essentially like they would trick
a person that's having some sort of addiction or some
sort of like life problem, and the people around them
are very concerned about their future. And then they like
get tricked into showing up at this place and then
they walk in and there's like seven of their closest
friends and family that are just there in a circle,
and they what's this all the time? And they're like,
(01:15:39):
what are you doing? What is this? And then you
sit down and you have to hear all this, and
that's like the moment where these people have to make
a decision as to whether or not they're going to
change their life. That's what needs to happen. If I
become body odor all the time, guy.
Speaker 3 (01:15:54):
Why if you become body odor all the time, guy,
it's going to be a virtual intervention. Why would we
want to be in the same room with you if
you stink so bad you're gonna spray me as I
walk through the house? Yea right, no, I uh so.
Speaker 2 (01:16:06):
The reason I say this is sometimes you don't even notice,
you know, like I get real sweaty when I go
out and you know I'm going running or working out,
or I remow the lawn or anything. I know that
I can shower for that. But sometimes you've got like
stinky shoes, you don't notice how stinky they are, or
maybe you just didn't put off the yodorant on that
sporting I'm okay today, but you know, sometimes you're not
(01:16:27):
really that okay if you're noticing it, becoming a more
of a habit that I'm a little tinge because I'm
a very I need good smells in my life. I
don't like bad smells. I can't eat food that smells
weird or bad. Cauliflower, no go, if you put cauliflower
in the microwave and you cook cauliflower, it is disgusting.
Speaker 1 (01:16:47):
What if it's covered in cheese.
Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
We're probably talking, Okay, we could probably start talking. But yeah,
it's just like my olfactory bul basically gives me the
green light of the red light just immediately based on scent.
I do not want to become the guy that has
forgotten his whole how to take care of himself. That
includes body odor, that includes your nose, hairs. I just
(01:17:12):
bought a new fancy trimmer, by the way, for like
that spot underneath your nose that it's hard to get
a razor to.
Speaker 1 (01:17:19):
Your a little hitler spot.
Speaker 2 (01:17:20):
Yeah, well, not not quite. It's just like up against
like the I have like a blade with like four razors,
they still don't get up high enough. So I bought
the trimmer for that. But it came with a like
a trimmer head that you can actually just put up
your nose and in your ears and I'll like take
care of that. I feel so much better looking at
myself in the mirror and I'm like, I can't see anything,
and I was.
Speaker 3 (01:17:39):
Gonna say something different about you. It must be the
your your nose fight is especially pristine right now.
Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
Did you notice nose hairs before.
Speaker 3 (01:17:48):
Your No, your your nose taint area is it's clean
as a whistle, my man, looking good.
Speaker 2 (01:17:56):
Yeah, that's that's my goal. Every time I take a shower,
it's like, how's the nose taint going? Yeah, that's that
is a term I did not know I was going
to hear today
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.