Picking Pennies from Urinals

Today, Doug Pike discusses picking up pennies from urinals, Bill Maher, and highs and lows.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplacethe TV remote because you were the TV
remote. Remember when music sounded likethis, Remember when social media was truly
social? Hey John, how's itgoing today? Well, this show is
all about you one. This isfifty plus with Doug Pipe. Helpful information

(00:28):
on your finances, good health,and what to do for fun. Fifty
plus brought to you by the UTHealth Houston Institute on Aging Informed Decisions for
a healthier, happier life and byTexas Indoor Air Quality Specialists because clean air
is healthier air. And now fiftyplus with Doug Pike. Wednesday edition of

(00:51):
the program starts right now. Thankyou all for listening to fifty plus here
on KPRC. I'm Doug, He'swill and if we're lucky, at the
end of this hour, we willhave entertained and potentially even educated you a
little bit. I don't try todo a whole lot of educating, and
I certainly don't try to do awhole lot of convincing. I just kind

(01:14):
of throw it out there in easyto swallow bites, and if you want
a second helping, you're welcome togo look it up. I would encourage
you in fact to go look atthe stories that I talk about and dig
deeper and find all the information youcan and then form your own opinions,
because that is how our country issupposed to work. We are supposed to

(01:40):
gather our own information, unbiased information, which I'm beginning to wonder if it
didn't just go out with the hulahoop, or at least with the walkman.
Do you ever have one of those? Will? Are you too young
for that? Too young for thewalkman? Was what was the first?
Oh, it would have been iPodsmaybe, yeah, I got an iPod

(02:05):
and then an iPod nano. Ohyeah, they came in. All the
different colors are fun. Yeah,but think of how antiquated that stuff sounds.
Now. You only need one devicereally to do just about anything,
and that is your phone. It'sencompassing, all inclusive everything you want on

(02:30):
your phone. I did see there'sa story. I'm gonna jump all way
back to the middle of my notes, maybe even a little farther to find
something I wanted to talk about standby because it relates to this and how
much information is being stored here,there and everywhere about all of us.

(02:50):
Where did it go? I'll getto it here. That's not it,
that's not it. That. Oh, that's definitely not here. It is
right here. There is a featurewill coming to Windows. Have you read
anything about this? No, itis going to record everything you ever do
on your computer and then feed itto AI. The feature is called Recall,

(03:19):
and a whole lot of people havea whole lot of concerns. My
hands in the air. Everything youever search, everything you ever research,
everything you ever type, every webpage you visit, every everything, every
ad you receive, I'm sure wouldbe documented and it's all going to be

(03:43):
stored there just because Microsoft says that'sthe future. So and you know,
I mean if Microsoft says it,clearly, it must be correct and true
and just unthinkable to go against that, right, What do you think of
it? Everything you do on youron your computer is recorded and held on

(04:04):
to and then turned over to AI. That's the scary part. We get
that it's gonna be fed to agood I'd like to know the answer to
that question. I really would.It didn't say this is one of those
really short things that I get shortstories and just a headline in a couple
of lines. But that's kind offrightening and honestly, if you stop and

(04:29):
look back fifty one hundred years,almost every new technology that's come along has
been caused for rejoice in some waysand cause for concern in some ways.
Almost everything we've invented in the lastfifty years, especially in handheld technology,

(04:50):
has been used by people who aregonna use it no matter what we come
up with, for their own personalgain, no matter how horrible it is
what they're doing. And I'm thinkingnow of the people who scam old people
out of money by preying upon themonline. Shame on them. They need
a good thrashing. That's what theyneed. Will would you agree? Good

(05:12):
thrashing? Thrashing? That goes wayback? I don't think, not even
my parents said that, and that'sbeen a while since I was a little
kid. Get over here, son, you need a good thrashing, a
good whooping, whooping. I mayor may not have heard the word whooping.
It wouldn't have been that. Itwould have been whipping. And I

(05:33):
had my share. I was notperfect. I was not the perfect child.
By Oh well, that's where youand I differ. Yeah, that's
the set one thing. Yeah,that's it. It was perfect, all
right? Let me. Let meget back to the world in which I
started. The weather today for thenext I don't know, five or six
days. That leads thanks to TexasIndoor air Quality specials for the weather Report.

(05:55):
By the way, pretty good ifyou're ready for ninety degrees in the
afternoon. I played golf Yester orMonday, played golf Monday in ninety degree
temperatures, fair amount of humidity,and it wasn't It wasn't fun. I
wasn't just happy as a clam aboutthe weather, but at least it was

(06:15):
bearable, and that bodes well forme this summer. I was really kind
of concerned that this summer might bethe one where the heat started to get
to me a little bit and Ihad to pick and choose my days and
all that stuff. But I thinkI'm just gonna keep going until it drops
me, until it just drops mein my tracks. I played all this
past summer at one hundred and fivehundred and eight one hundred and two and

(06:40):
made it. I don't know ifit was fun. It certainly wasn't there,
but anyway, I didn't get beatup too badly by it, so
hopefully I did go through five orsix bottles of water on Monday. I
know that, and that's good,good advice to anybody who's planning on doing
that. Bring it on summer.I'm ready for you. Market's doing their
usual nothing but minor movement in bothdirections. Not high enough to sell,

(07:02):
not low enough to buy on anyof the major indicators. Gold price thanks
to Houston Gold Exchange, down thirtytwo or so bucks an ounce the last
time I looked. It's still it'sstill within reach up and grab it of
twenty four hundred an ounce, though, so it's not like it just it's
not like a bottom fell out.Don't worry about that. Oil also down,

(07:25):
but only by half a buck barrel, which might drop gas prices a
penny or so, but only ifthat barrel price doesn't rebound tomorrow. Speaking
of oil and gas, our presidenthad decided to reduce our strategic oil reserve
even more. He's already sucked itnearly dry. He's gonna pull another million

(07:47):
barrels of gasoline. Will you've doneit to me again? You don't give
me any warning. Million barrels ofgasoline. That's thirty two million gallons,
just in time for summer vacations.Never mind that the fuels intended purposes emergencies
after major storms or in wartime orsomething. He's got his head buried in

(08:07):
the sand or somewhere and totally ignoringpotential strategic need. He also pulled one
hundred and eighty million barrels from thatreserve in twenty twenty two, after Russia
invaded Ukraine. A we gotta takea little breaker on the way out.
I'll tell you about Primo Doors.Primo Doors is where my wife and I
wound up after having a couple ofconversations with the people at Primo Doors about

(08:31):
our new front door. We've beentalking about it for a while and it
just seemed everything just seems so rightabout making this decision. We went over
there, we sat down, andwe were helped with the selection process because
they actually have thousands, literally thousandsof options for a new front door on

(08:52):
your house. Now, we wheeledit down from wood, iron, fiberglass
to just wood. We wanted anice solid wood door, then we're getting
that, and then we had topick a stained color. Then we had
to pick a locking mechanism in hardware, and all of these things, and
they made it extremely easy. Theymade it a very fun and pleasurable experience

(09:13):
that didn't take days. It justtook less than an hour. Certainly,
we were there and on the wayout, we both kind of looked at
each other and go, you know, this is exactly what we wanted.
If you want to change the appearanceof your home, every time somebody walks
up to your front door, they'relooking at that door and they're kind of
judging you by it. And ifit's been out there for a long time,

(09:33):
maybe last summer sun was its laststraw, and it looks like a
hunk of driftwood or maybe a coupleof palletts behind an old warehouse. Let
Primo Doors fix that for you.Premot Doors dot com, family owned,
competitive pricing, stay away from thebox doores. That's not who you want
putting your front door on your house. Primo Doors dot Com. What's life

(09:58):
without a nap? If I suggestto go to bed, leave it off,
just wait until the show's over,Sleepy Back to Doug Pike as fifty
plus continues. All right, welcomeback to fifty plus. Thanks for listening.

(10:18):
I certainly do appreciate it. Bythe way, if you're ever trying,
because we're in the little. We'rein the Baby studio. We're in
the Training Wheel Studio today because theAstros play at one right after the show,
and I'll go back to my deskand turn it on. We have
giant monitors in our offices around all. Well, we're on the seventh floor

(10:39):
where we are here, pretty significantoffice space, pretty significant number of big
televisions, and not a one ofthem that I can see from my desk
has the Astros game on it.There's one back in the kt RS newsroom.
I might just have to take mylaptop back there and keep an eye
on things. I don't know ifyou saw last night's game or not,
but boy, it was a ahum dinger that ended in our favor.

(11:03):
A lot of balls flew out ofthe ballpark last night, a lot of
home runs. The Kyle Tucker hittwo more to leave the American League was
seventeen. But the one that reallyprobably still echoing through that hole, through
that across that field was John Singleton'sabsolute bomb to directly directly to center field.

(11:26):
The only ball I've ever seen hitfarther was the one that Jordan Alvarez
hit a while back that went upinto a landing area a spectator area above
the hitters iron center field. Thisone clearly and easily cleared the fence out
there, which is I don't knowit's quarter mile or so. It's way

(11:48):
out there. Any baseball that getsthere is going to have a big dent
in one side of it when itfinally comes to rest, maybe two,
one from the ball hit the bat, and the other from whatever it smashes
into on its way down. Asignificant new poll that I saw yesterday and

(12:11):
I promised to mention today, andI'm doing it now. It issued the
determined which issues ranked highest on theminds of Americans, and it turned up
some great news in our four yearsearch for common sense around here, which
still hasn't found much. When askedto rank a list of all the things

(12:31):
we think about, Americans overwhelmingly rankedour economy as first. Now, this
is the same economy that our presidentand his mouthpieces in Washington continue to tell
us is fine. It's nothing tosee there. It's just the economy,
and we're all doing great to hearthem talk about it. Now. I

(12:54):
went to the grocery store again yesterday, and based on the little handful of
stuff that I bought and the amountof money I had to pay. No,
this economy is anywhere but great rightnow. Very frustrating, very frustrating.

(13:16):
There was something else I saw today, Yeah, I titled this from
the desk of Captain obvious. Adifferent poll, yet another pole. And
by the way, that number onewas was the economy that was at like
nine eighty two percent of us.I think the economy is in the toilet.

(13:39):
Inflation came in second. That's thesecond thing we worry about most.
Seventy nine percent of us are worrieda lot about that too. We can't
afford anything, but they keep tryingto shove this electricity, electric grid,
windmill, windmill, this solar panelat all. It just makes it hard

(14:00):
for anybody to make a living andpay taxes, which, by the way,
will skyrocket if this president gets anotherterm, unless you're really keen on
paying about half of every dollar youmake. Ultimately, we get taxed on
the taxed dollars that we ultimately getto take home every time we walk out

(14:20):
the door. Sales tax, thistax, that tax, give a dog
a bone. Yeah. No,So, anyway, the other poll I
found, Number one thing stressing usout in our lives is our finances sounds
kind of like the economy, don'tit. Followed by state of the world,

(14:41):
which is in turmoil and in greatpart because of us. Honestly,
some of the things we've done inthe past couple of years make no sense
on a global stage at all,none whatsoever, no sense, but they
keep doing them. And the thirdwas our physical health, which, honestly,

(15:07):
some of that can you you canattribute if it's poor, if you're
stressed, if you're anxious, youcan contribute, or you can attribute I
don't know why to keep saying contribute. You can attribute that to the economy.
You can contribute that to the stateof the world. Well, everybody's
a little anxious now if they opentheir eyes and start reading. I encourage

(15:28):
you all to go read, goread, reread every new source you can
find. Please go read them alland see what's going on. Uh,
moving on to the good stuff Ifound out. I'll tell you this and
just let it kind of stew duringthe break, because we'll actually let me
know that I only have a minuteleft. A story in the Federalist.
Federalist yesterday, the FBI was authorizedto use deadly force even against President Trump

(15:58):
during the raid on mar Lago storysaid that Attorney General Merrick Garland approved the
raid itself and an operations order thatauthorized that level of force if necessary.
Then we're looking for documents exactly thesame as what was at the center of
the searches through President Biden's offices andeven his garage for documents. He pulled

(16:25):
his vice president, only he wasn'teven charged because prosecutors thought the jurors might
perceive him as a And there's aquote from that a sympathetic, well meaning
elderly man with a poor memory endquote, which he kind of is.
Actually, we don't know exactly whatPresident Biden said in his interviews about the
documents, either because he evoked executiveprivilege to keep what he said a secret

(16:48):
from we the people. How convenient. I'd be really interested in that.
I'll tell you some more about himand about somebody who is kind of a
I used to not think much ofhim, but I'm gaining a stronger and
higher opinion of the man the moreI listen to him. I'll tell you
about that when we get back allthe way out, I'll tell you about

(17:10):
a late health This is a collectionof clinics around town where you can get
vascular work done. Okay, vascularwork includes the treatment of ugly veins.
It includes the treatment of fibroids forthe women in the audience. It includes
the treatment of enlarged noncancerous prostates forthe guys in the audience. And boy,

(17:33):
if you're dealing with one of those, you know what the symptoms are
and you know you don't like them. What you may not know is that
in just a couple of hours inthe office at a late health and you
can make that thing stop doing whatit's doing. Whatever it's doing to you,
trips to the bathroom all night long, other male issues that are being
thwarted by that pesky prostate. They'llgo in, they'll find the artery that

(17:59):
feeds it with FREEH oxygenated blood,and they will plug that hole. They
will shut down that supply, andwith shutting it down comes the the ultimate
destruction of that prostate, and itand all the symptoms it was given you
go away. Seven one, three, five, eight, eight, thirty
eight eighty eight. By the way, most of those treatments they do over

(18:21):
there are covered by Medicare and Medicaid. They're also doing regenerative medicine too.
I need to mention that because thatis proving extremely effective all over the country
in the world at eliminating chronic pain. So look into that as well if
you need to. A lighthealth dotcom, A L A T E A
latehealth dot com. Yeah, theysure don't make them like they used to.

(18:45):
That's why every few months we washthem, check his fluids, and
spring on a fresh coat of wax. This is fifty plus with Dougpike.
All right, welcome back. Wegot a little ground to cover in this

(19:06):
third segment of the program. Ihope he'll stick around during your lunch hour.
Thank you so much for letting mejoin you. What's for lunch?
Somebody send me an email and tellme what you're having for lunch right now.
I'd be kind of curious. Iopportunist that I am. Happened to
notice. I told Will about thisa minute ago. I noticed a box
from Colachi factory out there on thecounter, like, what's in here?

(19:27):
I opened it up and there wasa Kolatchi, A legitimate, regular,
old straight up Kolatchi. The Ithink it's a Polish sausage they call it
in the in the stores, andI grabbed that bad boy and bit into
it. And it was one ofthose hot ones, the hot one with
the jalapenos up and down. SoI don't know about you at my age,

(19:52):
but I'll find out a little latertoday whether that was a good idea
or a bad idea. In NewYork, yes the trial slash circus in
which Donald Trump excused of paying anadult film star to stay mum about an
affair our former president denies was thatthe trial was disrupted when yesterday the judge

(20:15):
cleared the courtroom and ordered a defensewitness to refrain from anything but answering the
questions he was asked, and toquit giving the judge the side eye and
rolling his eyes. Apparently that thatjudge Marshann, Mr Shanne. I'm not
sure what his name is, buthe young. He got visibly irritated by

(20:40):
this man, and the guy wasadmittedly, I would say he was.
He was kind of pouring little gason the fire, just making sure that
everybody knew whose side he was on. Defense witness. Good for him.
Back to our current president for aminute. He's actually ordered a ban on
el election betting markets, most ofwhich show him losing. The former president

(21:06):
Trump in November. It's kind ofsad and pathetic. Really, our own
president. I'm pretty sure under someoneelse's watchful eyes and instructions, pretty sure
about that he so dislikes where thisis headed, that he's tried just trying
to make it disappear. He's gonnarub a magic eraser over it or something
and just make believe it it's notthere. Late night host Bill Maher by

(21:26):
the way, shut down the viewsJoey Behar for refusing to criticize President Biden
at all. Ever, he toldher straight up, he said, he
said, you lose credibility, asif she still had any by refusing to
speak what we all know is true. Mar pointed out that Biden looked in

(21:48):
a quote from him in the inthe interchange in the exchange cadaver like end
quote during a recent speech, towhich just showing her colors that she just
can't help herself but just fawn overour current president, who is not what
he should be, she said,but his brain is good. Uh no,
really, how can you say thatwith a straight face? Have you

(22:11):
not watched anything he said in thepast year? Have you not taken a
look at the quotes? Have younot watched the tough time he's having just
getting around. I feel badly forthe man as a man. I do.
I don't like his politics at all, but I do feel badly for
the man that they're still presenting himas as they just can't see the forest

(22:36):
for the trees. Mark conceded thathe and Behar and Biden and Trump all
are pretty old. He was talkingto the whole crew basically there, but
he did note that all of themexcept Biden don't really present as old and
feeble and unable. Our president doesn'tpresent himself that well. And that's,

(22:56):
like I said, it's not hisfault. I think the fault really lies
in the people who continue to sendhim out, continue to present him and
talk about him as being physically andmentally fit. It's just not what anybody
who can open their eyes in theirears will see her hear. Others on

(23:19):
the view tried to push mar intoa corner on the war in Gaza too,
and he shut her down. Thiswoman who was trying he was trying
to she was trying to bait himinto saying something that he just he already
knew what she was gonna ask beforeshe opened her mouth, and she shut
him or he shut her down beautifully. You can find that on the internet.

(23:41):
Go look at it on Gutfelt.Last night, Marn marsat of President
Biden's doom and gloom speech at MorehouseCollege in case you haven't heard it,
Uh, it didn't do him anywell? Holy again. He actually told
graduates there at this traditionally black collegethat they would have to work ten times
harder to be created equally in thiscountry. What what year is he living

(24:07):
in? I'm not really. Hetold them also that if they if they
went to vote, when they linedup to vote in Georgia, that they
would not have water made available tothem. What on earth is he talking
about? What year is he livingin? That's just it's just so so
untrue, and it's so divisive.How can you tell these people that,

(24:30):
knowing full well, that it's justsimply not the case. It's just not
all right? Well, real quick, thirty seconds is that what we got?
I said? Two minutes? Ohgood, Okay, we're just gonna
chill and do something fun. Thenhighs and lows rewarding bad behavior, or
call me. I'll give you adime not to do it. Do it?

(24:55):
Do it, we'll do it rewardingbad behavior. That's not it professional
athletes. I did not know thiswill and it really makes me wonder just
how you know how downtrodden any ofthese poor guys are, is that would
be the correct way professional athletes whenthey get fined by the league for whatever

(25:18):
they get fined for, you know, like maybe beating up a spouse or
shooting somebody or doing whatever they dothat merits a fine from the league,
they can write that money off oftheir taxes. That's a tax deduction for
them. It's just insane. It'sso goofy and foolish and silly. And

(25:45):
then that kicker, I think he'swith San Francisco. Butker, he did
a commencement speech to a university incidentChiefs. Kicker, Yeah, the Chiefs,
that's who it is. And hewas promoting a good strong he's a
very devout Christian and he was promotingthat his Christianity, his faith, his

(26:07):
trust, that we all need tobe raising healthy families with two parents in
the house if that's possible, whichseems less and less and everybody's given him
grief. But the NFL actually cameout and said we don't agree with anything
he said, not along with ourrules and regulations. So it's okay to

(26:29):
shoot people, it's okay to beatup your wife, it's okay to do
all that if you're in the NFL. But no, don't talk about God.
Kirk Holmes, the custom builder forwhich I have spoken now for the
better part of ten years. Theybuild all the way from northwest Houston,
that's where a lot of them live. Actually a lot of people in that

(26:52):
company all the way out through thehill country now, and every time they
hand over set of keys, Iwould be willing to bet that a big,
broad, huge smile comes over thefaces of the people who are receiving
those keys, because what they're gettingaccess to is their dream home. Maybe
it's on a hilltop somewhere. Maybeit's on the side of the hill overlooking

(27:15):
a little creek that runs through theirproperty. Maybe it's just in a neighborhood.
And maybe it's got just the rightpool set up for the kids,
or just the right this, orjust the right that. Whatever it is,
it represents the selections that were madeby the owners. Because that's how
Kirk Coombs makes custom homes. Theonly two things common are that twenty year

(27:41):
structural warranty twice the standard and thetwo by six xterior walls to keep that
god awful summer heat out and thatwhat we get about three four days of
real winter every year. You cankeep that out too with those two by
six xterior walls. Kirk Coombs,in case you haven't heard me tell you
yet, is the twenty twenty fouror Southern Living Builder of the Year.

(28:03):
If this is your year for yourdream home, I recommend that you start
at Kirkholmmes. They will help youthrough the process with as much or as
little help as you desire. Greatarchitectural team, great design team. Or
you can just show up with awhole set of blueprints and say here build
this. Kirkholmes dot com is thewebsite that's k you are k because at

(28:25):
kirkholmebs it's all about you, agedto perfection. This is fifty plus with
Dougpike. All right, welcome backfor the file segment of fifty plus.

(28:53):
In a few minutes. I don'tknow about you, and I'm gonna kind
of be listening to the Astros game. I'd like to see them go ahead
and and win this series as well. If they could just keep winning two
out of three, three out offour, and keep rolling through like that,
they will in short order be aforce that cannot be ignored anymore.

(29:17):
For the first for the first monthof the season, month and a half,
maybe six weeks, it was like, oh, the Astros, Yeah,
we'll just kick that tomato can overwhen we go to Houston. And
now, like all of a sudden, there's a few people hitting. Don't
get me started either about Bregman beingin the four hole. That's just that
is probably rubbing me the wrong waymore than almost anything else. He was.

(29:42):
He was just getting getting his feetback under him in the sixth hole,
and now they got him batten fourthor in the fifth maybe even,
and he has absolutely no business beingthere. He got lucky last night because
he popped another ball up, buthe hit it hard enough to drive it
deep enough to move Who was itPena over there or no, Tucker.

(30:06):
It was Tucker over to third baseand then man as soon as Penya came
up and move that ball, orno he was, I think Tucker was.
I don't remember. Bottom line aswe won, I'm I'm trying.
I'm mixing up a couple of gamesin my head, and I'm not gonna
do that. I gotta get focusedagain, uh will, I'm gonna go

(30:26):
to you first, and then Imight do one semi serious thing here if
we have time. All right,I'm gonna give it to you again.
Where was it? Call me?I'll give you a dime not to do
it? Or hmm, maybe thiswould revive the post office? Or heis
and lows? All right, Iknow which one you want. No,

(30:51):
you don't be cause you're gonna You'regonna say another one. Then you're lying
the highs and the lows. Hyou were officially you're officially disqualified from further
participation until I deem you worthy.Oh so just sit back and relax.
Well, there's heis and lows toeverything. Yeah, that's true. The

(31:11):
highest and lowest points in the continentallyUnited States are both in the same county.
Oh, any guesses will go godWell, Inyo County, California,
Mount Whitney and the bad Water Basinin Death Valley. It's a cool name.

(31:32):
Less than ninety miles apart. Thehighest and lowest points in North Well
in the United States, Continental UnitedStates. That's pretty that's interesting. That's
just something you could maybe want abar bet on the bad water basin.
Yeah, that sounds pretty mean,doesn't it? In Death Valley? No
less, I know it sounds likethere would be treasure there. It's more

(31:55):
like the good water basin in PeachCobbler, New Mexico or something each whatever
is that two minutes you were shootingme there? Yeah? All right,
I'm going with this one, eventhough you're just dancing around it. Somebody
conducted a poll. First of all, why would you even ask this question?

(32:15):
And second people responded which to whichIf somebody had asked me this question,
I'd said, go away, pervert, weirdo. Somebody conducted a poll
asking men if they would take apenny they saw in a urinal Oh now,
how long would it take you tosay no? To a second?

(32:38):
Just said it? Most people,it says here, had the common sense
and judgment and just the overall justknowing right from wrong to say no,
absolutely not. I would not dothat. A penny is crazy? Okay,
what if it was a krugerrand?Could you go for it? How

(33:00):
much is a krugaran? That's anounce of gold, so a couple thousand
bucks? Wow? Yeah, Iguess go wash your hands, go wash
it off. Thirteen percent of theseidiots said they would do that. They
would take a penny out of aurinal. They can't even use that penny
for I thought of something, butit's gross, and I'm not going to

(33:22):
say it. All right, Holycaw are we close? You had twenty
seconds? Okay, somebody dropped asandal this is kind of funny, into
a chimpanzee's habitat at a zoo inChina, and the chip tossed it back.
I want to know how you dropyour shoe into a chimpanzee enclosure,
and whether the chip threw it backoverhand or underhand or maybe a slider that

(33:45):
would have been good. We're done. We'll see tomorrow. Audios