February 5, 2025 • 37 mins
Today, Doug Pike discusses Spring Break, living in a warm climate, and rats.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
You? Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Hey, don, how's it going today?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well? This show is all about you. This is fifty
plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life and Bronze roofing repair or replacement. Bronze roofing
has you covered? And now fifty plus with Doug Pike.
(00:51):
All right, Wednesday and issue. The program starts right now.
Welcome one and all to fifty plus. Thank you all
for joining us.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Make a little note here.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Okay, that's done. I don't have to worry about that anymore.
Fifty plus here Land of what? Land of I guess,
Land of the Reflux? And Home of the Gray? How's
that ring out?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Will? Pretty good? That's really good? Thank you? I was
I struggled this morning.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
I must have given thirty seconds to that trying to
come up with a home of the Gray. That's an
easy one that rhymes with brave and the but the
Land of the Free. I couldn't come up with a
word that describes seniors that rhymes with free, so I
had to go with the first syllable of reflux.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
And then just roll it from there.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
The creative process it's just so exhausting too. I had
to sit, just sit down and breathe deeply for a
few minutes after I came up with that. So it's
honestly hard to believe this country survived the past four years,
but it did. We lost a lot of ground, but
we're getting it back pretty much every day. If a
handful of bad people dismantled your car down to the
(02:07):
last nuts and bolts and then scattered the parts over
what ten acres of bottom land, it take a while
to put that car back together. And that's exactly what
our current president got handed to him back in January.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
He built a.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Strong, fast car, best in the world, long time ago,
and then in four years watched a bunch of greedy
people tear it down and hide the parts. Trump's heart's
some really good mechanics, so rebuilding this car piece by piece,
that's what he's doing every day, and it's run. It's
(02:44):
gonna run great. Once they finished, it's gonna be firing. Well,
they got to get all the bad people out of here,
and then they're gonna go the bad people who came
in here illegally, then the bad people who tore it down,
and they're gonna get exposed to the people who profited
from a whole lot of shady deals, and there's gonna
be nothing to shield them from the harsh light of day.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
When that happens.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Speaking of our Texas Democratic Representative Al Green decided just
a little while ago, actually that after President Trump said
something about becoming more involved in the Gaza situation, he's
already gonna try to impeach President Trump. The guy hadn't
been in office a month and he's already after me
(03:32):
and everybody in the country probably saw that coming at
some point, but he's he's gonna be the first, and
he's gonna get all the headlines for making an attempt
at this, and it's just it's just the continued.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I don't know what the.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
I don't know what the long term goal is here,
I guess, except to not allow our president to expose
what's been going on for the last four years. And
I don't see it working, to be perfectly honest with you,
so far as the weather goes, courtesy of Texas Indoor
Air Quality Specialists. Because cleaner air is healthier air. You
can find out how they clean duct work, which is
(04:10):
a fairly you. I think it is a unique system
they use and a unique practice, and it essentially takes
all the gunk out of your air ducts in your
AC system and removes it gently enough that it doesn't
rip it up or tear it up like some of
the brushes in whatever other methods do, and that stuff
(04:32):
stays clean for years to come. It's an investment in
your health. Texasiaq dot net. Texas Indoor spare Quality Indoor
Air Quality Specialists good people they really are. As far
as the markets go. They open this morning, I looked
pretty early more red than green the four indicators. Then
(04:53):
there was kind of an even split of the big
four round ten, and now it's really there's no major
movement either direction. Gold briefly at least this morning around
that same time, passed the twenty nine hundred dollars an
ounce mark for the first time ever. About fifteen minutes ago,
it was traded at twenty eight ninety four which is
(05:15):
still not any small potatoes. If you have some old
scrap gold laying around the house, might be able to
pay a house note if you can get a palm
full of gold somehow.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And on the plus side, for those of us who.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Ferry kids and grandkids to sporting events, to dance practice
and recitals or whatever, all over Southeast Texas every weekend
oil down almost a dollar a barrel and back beneath
lower than seventy one. Well it was lower than seventy
two dollars anyway, seventy one to twenty at last check
(05:52):
that was about eleven thirty. Still about six bucks to
go on that downward path before I get happy.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
But it's a step in the right direction.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Will do We have no claw again today, no clock
because because he doesn't want to get on the screen,
you turn it turn into trouble ticket. Yeah did you really?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
No?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
See, I can't trust this guy and a story that
just broke. What how much time do I have? You
have a minute? Forty? That's close? Good guess.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Trump administration just this morning back on track through coming
executive orders to disallow participation of chant transgender girls and
in girls in women's school sports professionals, he's not gonna
worry about. They can fend for themselves, I guess. But
in school sports, he's going to remove the transgender girls
from the courts or the fields, or the pitch, or whatever.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Story says.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
He'll order the DOJ and DOE to interpret Title nine,
which close to fifty years ago barred sex discrimination in
federally funded education programs. He wants them to interpret it
as prohibiting participation of biological males and female sports. And
I know that that's a very small percentage of the population,
(07:11):
but I've already seen videos of girls being physically harmed
by boys in the participation, especially high school sports, where
they've they've grown a little bit, they've gotten stronger. Further
than that, even in the same vein, they're gonna be
investigations into potentially fraudulent practices and attempts to allow males
(07:34):
to participate in women's sports. There's gonna be a lot
of big old bright Spotlight's gonna come down on a
lot of this, and I suspect there's gonna be some
problems sooner or later with how this all pans out.
Government employees already order to only refer to sex and
not gender. And he's also trying to stop government sport
for healthcare that aids in gender transition. A tremendous change
(07:59):
of core for our country. Tremendous change.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Of course, we got to take a little break. On
the way out. I will tell you about ut Health
Institute on Aging.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
This is the collaborative effort of thousands of providers around
here who, in addition to doing all the work they
had to do to earn that diploma on the wall
in the office, the big one that says MD says,
PhD says, nurse, practitioner says er, nurse, ICU, nurse, whatever what, therapists, whatever,
(08:33):
their credentials. They have gone back and received additional training
and education so that they can apply that expertise to seniors.
They know more about us than we know about ourselves, probably,
and they are more than willing to help us live longer, better, happier,
healthier lives just by taking the time to learn more.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
About what makes us tick. Go to the website.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
First of all, you'll be stunted how much actual information
is there, how many resources are there to help you
live a better life. And then you'll be able to
look around and find exactly where you can be seen
by somebody who is part of this Institute on Aging
at ut Health ut H dot edu slash aging ut
(09:19):
H dot ed U slash aging.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
What's life without a net?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I suggest you go to bed, leave it off, just.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Wait until the show's over. Sleepy. Back to Doug Pike
as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Boo boo bye, second segment of the show. Right now?
What is it? Twelve twenty one?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Will?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Is that correct? Twelve twenty Okay, well, we've got a
ways to go. That's what it comes down to. Moving
off of this front page here.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
That was weird and goofy and had some breaking news
in If there's some other breaking news I'll get to
at some point. In US military current events, Army recruiting
in the wake of our new president's election absolutely crushed
previous records. For December of twenty twenty four, the Army
(10:21):
enlisted more recruits than during the past fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
It's pretty good.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
For an army that was kind of struggling to find
anybody interested in defending our country for a while at least,
so hats off to the change the increasing up not
a change of the guard, but an increasing number of
people who are devoting themselves and pretty much given an
(10:49):
oath to defend the Constitution in the United States. It's
pretty much the same oath that law enforcement people take too,
and I'm glad it's in place and it needs to
be there. By the way, if you take pride in
our military as I do, and you're in a position
to do this, I produce a feature, a weekly feature
that is called This Week in US Military History. And
(11:11):
if you've heard some of them, surely you like the
intro that was done by our imaging team, which I
think is really cool. And what I do in each
of those is just take a snapshot into the past
of our nation's fighting forces and recognize recipients of the
Medal of Honor. It's a featured piece, a sponsored piece
(11:33):
that can run as many times on as many iHeart
stations across the entire country as you want it to
run anywhere, anytime. All you gotta do is let me
know that you want to do that, let me know
where you want it to run, let me know what
station you wanted to run on how many times a week,
(11:54):
and I can take care of that whole piece of
business for you all by myself, and I would be
thrilled to have more people sponsoring those. Right now, it
only runs a few times a week. I think it
should be running, like I said, on every station, every week,
every day, every hour. It's an important piece that does
(12:17):
share the great work that have been done by the
men and women who have served in uniform for this
country over the country's entire history. I've got sources that
take me all the way back to the beginning, and
I pluck pieces from each of those weeks, and I
pluck names from the lists of people who have earned
(12:38):
the Medal of Honor in that week and present them
in what I think is a pretty cool format. If
you're interested in that, just to email me Dougpike at
iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I'd be happy to help you.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Fox News had a story this morning that countered singer
Selena Gomez's recent tearful concern over the fate of illegal migrants.
Today's video showed a collection of responses from the parents
of children and young adults brutally murdered, raped, whatever beaten
senseless by illegal immigrants and asked pretty much as hey,
(13:12):
where are the celebrity tears for Americans who died unnecessarily
at the hands of people the former administration just let
walk into our country, or even flew them in when
it was looking bad on the border because so many
people were walking across. Don't forget that our former president
decided to fly them in. Just pick them up right
(13:33):
where they're leaving, wherever it was across the Caribbean in
South America, and just drop them off right in here.
One of the moms featured in the video today even
noted that Gomez's video looked pretty insincere. She said, I
recognize the lack of eye contact. I recognize the crocodile tears.
(13:57):
If somebody were acting that way in front of me,
I think.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
They were lying, And you gotta wonder.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
In media news, CBS News has turned over the FCC
to the FCC an unedited transcript of its sixty minutes
interview with former VP Kamala Harris. The network's been accused
of deceptively editing her answers to Bill Whittaker's questions.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
One version for the.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Face of the Nation for Face the Nation that a
weekend show, and another for sixty Minutes. CBS handed over
the transcripts and executive producer Bill Owens let it be
known as that happened that he has absolutely no intention of.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Apologizing for anything.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
In an ad Week story I saw this morning, It's
reported that this unfolded as the network's parent company tries
to sue or to settle a significant one two three, four, five, six, seven,
eight nine ten figure ten figure suit by former or
by current President Trump.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Time will you are twelve twenty five? Well, I got
three minutes? No, you got more like two minutes. I'll
take them. I'll take them.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
I'm gonna go to Miami Beach for this one. Miami Beach.
The city has dropped a commercial. I love the word
drops for all these things now, songs and commercials and
what the albums. There's one I'm gonna tell you about
later on if we have time. The city's just dropped
commercial about the upcoming spring break there, and it is
(15:36):
intended to let spring breakers who plan to visit Miami
Beach know that while they're welcome to be there, welcome
to have a good time, there are rules. There are
hard and fast rules that those students have to follow
or else be dealt with by whatever means and methods
(15:56):
are necessary to get them back in line.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
With the laws despot itself.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
It's kind of a montage of scenarios, one on a beach,
one in a restaurant in and others in which a
group of college aged people allegedly actually they're just young
looking actors. They share their fictional experiences with law enforcement
and curfews and parking fees and other little speed bumps
on their ride through spring break. It's well done to
(16:22):
give credit, and I think I want to say that
Miami Miami Beach paid like four hundred and something thousand
dollars for this one. There was a quarter million dollar
commercial last year that they ran and it actually did
help keep that spring break a little calmer and a
little more in control for everyone involved, which is good.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
In a nutshell.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
It just says, come on down, but know the rules
before you cross into the city limits. They're not a
whole lot of things that could mess up a good
spring break more than having a call mom or Dad
and tell them you've been arrested halfway across the country.
Will Did you ever go to any big make any
big trips for spring break?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
No?
Speaker 4 (17:03):
I don't think we even had spring break when I
was in school. We had Easter vacation that was about
a week close to a week.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Maybe are you talking about just like with my family
or like your schoolmates, your chums, your buds. No, I
didn't either. I didn't either. We were too busy. We
were too busy practicing anyway.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
So, and by the way, if you're wondering why we
got addressing this to my audience, I'll tell you right
when we get back. Just to keep will off my
back on the way out, I'll tell you about late health.
The group of clinics around town here, they're vascular clinics.
They perform vascular procedures right there in the clinics that
can help you alleviate a whole lot of things that
(17:50):
you may not like, you don't want to experience anymore,
But you really don't know where to turn ugly veins.
That's a no brainer for them. They do that every day.
They do that every day over there. It doesn't take long,
it doesn't hurt you, it doesn't you don't have to
do a whole lot of prep work. You just show
up and they can start taking care of those ugly veins,
fibroids in women, head pain, some head pains can be
(18:12):
alleviated with vascular surgery.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Who knew that right?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
And then, of course their primary function is to help
men older men.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Raise your hand, that'd be me and you half of.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
You help us with enlarged, noncancerous prostates. They do a
process called prostate artery embolization. It's the most common thing
they do at a late health and what it does
is shut off the blood supply to that prostate, and
that makes the prostate shrink and with it go all
the symptoms. You don't like getting up in the middle
(18:47):
of the night to go to the bathroom three or
four times, having to feeling like you just got a
god of gotta go. And then you go in there
and you just barely have any business to take care of.
And then you walk out and you sit down back
at your desk, back in your chair by the TV,
and five minutes later you got to go again. Those
are all symptoms. There's some bedroom symptoms that happen to
(19:08):
to those of us who deal with that. They also
do regenerative medicine there, and much of what they do
is covered by Medicare and Medicaid, not all of it.
But you make a phone call, you can find out
go to the website. First look at that and then
make this call, get a consultation scheduled, and see how
they can help you. Seven to one, three five eight,
eight thirty eight eighty eight seven one three, five eight
(19:29):
eight thirty eight eighty eight.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Now they sure don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
That's why every few months we wash them, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh cod o wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike. We all know what ban
that sounds like, but it's not.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
It's just something we have around here to use for
rejoining the program.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Right.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Will you got a problem with that, Doug? I never
said I did. I never once intimated at all that
I had.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
A problem with that.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Will.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I just just made an observation.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Observations aren't always piggybacked onto problems.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
It's just an observation.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
So back to what I was talking about about spring
breakers and why I brought that story up, because it's
a good conversation starter on the way to spring break
for grandkids, maybe your kids whatever, who are heading out,
good way to set expectations of what you.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Want them to at least.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Try to do while they're out of your sight and care,
especially if they have to get on an airplane to
go there, if they're flying someplace for spring break, boy,
hang on tight. I don't know how I will react
the first time my son tells me, Hey, Dad, my
friends and I are flying to soap somewhere and we're
(21:05):
gonna have a great time, and I'm sure they will.
I trust him, I just don't. I don't want him
to be taking advantage of anywhere. I don't want any
of that going on. Going out of town for spring
break kind of scares me. I've been to a few
spring break areas on fishing trips and happened to be
there while spring break was going on, and holy cow,
(21:28):
holy cow, it's way way different than what most of
us would have experienced. It's also a chance for all
of us to perhaps reminisce about our own spring break experiences.
And some of you, when I said that, cracked a
little smile, and you're if anybody asks you, if anybody's
sitting with you and ask you, why are you smiling
(21:50):
right now, You're not gonna tell them. On the heels
of the Daily Crash in Washington, d C. Comes revival
of the story around a lawsuit.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Again.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
It's the FAA apparently still ongoing, and there's a It
alleges that a highly qualified applicant was not hired as
an air traffic controller because he was white. The applicant
happened to be one of more than nine hundred men
and women, according to the suit, who were turned down
(22:22):
for hire despite making perfect scores on their air traffic
controller test after the administration changed its hiring criteria. This
was back all the way to President Obama, I believe
changed the hiring criteria and lowered its test standards. The
changes that man says cost him an air traffic controller job, where.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Well, actually it.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Got kind of nixed the problem that got him upset
about this in twenty eighteen when Congress voted against leaving
that procedure in place and reinstated the requirement that all
applicants pass the Air Traffic Skills Assessment test. But nonetheless,
this guy's not happy. In related news, by the way,
(23:10):
when President Biden hired somebody to run the FAA when
he became president, what four and a half years ago, whatever,
four years ago, I guess in that man's confirmation hearings,
he was unable to answer a single question about aviation
a single question about flying a plane anything aviation related.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
He had no earthly idea. But that's who President Biden
put in place to run the FAA. Let's light it
up a little bit.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Will this is yesterday's There are still some things I
wanted to talk about there, but I won't because I'm
gonna go to where's today's page?
Speaker 3 (23:52):
I know it's here there, It is right there? All right?
Will you ready? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Step in, getting busy the perfect day? Or nobody likes these?
Nobody likes these?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
A poll?
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Now you've you've walked right into a pop quizz. A
poll asks people what their least favorite month is, and
the top two responses were, what will least favorite month?
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Least favorite month for December and May?
Speaker 4 (24:30):
No, January and February. December, everybody's hopped up for the holidays. Okay,
January and February. It's just sixty days, a cold, nasty
way except down here, Uh for you?
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Do you have any least favorite month? Will?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Probably December? And why why do you hate December?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Because they just I hate the cheer.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Gosh.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
Okay, mister Scrooge, moving forward. I like them all, I
like all twelve of them.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
You know why.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Why?
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Because there is not a single month where we live
that I can't manage to get in rounds of golf,
that I can't manage to get in fishing trips. And
it's just every day is a holiday, except well except
for the six of a week that I work.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
But yeah, it's I love where I live, I really do.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
And that's that makes the difference if I lived in
if I lived in Minneapolis, or if I lived in
Canada or any any place north of pretty much I ten.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
No, I could go hird in that, but I don't.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
I don't want to go all the way to I
twenty because they still get a lot more ice and
occasional snow than I.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Prefer to have. I much prefer sunshine and and beaches
to snow. Yeah, there's both. They're both ground coverings basically,
but the beach is my favorite.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Uh, how much time do I have because I can't
see a clock in a minute and a half? Okay,
real quickly, I know why? Getting busy or that snow yoke.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Getting busy? Getting busy? Pop quiz again?
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Will one pair of rats has the potential to produce
how many descendants in a year? One pair of rats
can produce how many descendants in a year?
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Fifty?
Speaker 4 (26:15):
You're you're I don't know, you're about three hundred times off.
Fifteen thousand, fifteen thousand. Will I don't know if they're
that's any like them? Dim oak rats, dim oak rats,
the o the ones that live.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Around them oak trees. You know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 2 (26:37):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Will I have no resurrecting that from yesterday? Do you talk?
Of course you don't realize it. You don't know what
I'm talking about it. So I know it's time to go.
Is that right? We got like twenty seconds?
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Mmm?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
No?
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I will?
Speaker 4 (26:51):
I will hold those twenty seconds and get them back
after the break, right? Will I get twenty more seconds
in the last No, Because it's our last segment and
you gotta have azal You're gonna be done. When you're done,
you gotta get out on time. Well, that that just
blew the twenty seconds, didn't it?
Speaker 3 (27:08):
It did?
Speaker 4 (27:09):
If you fish, if you like to fish, if you
love to fish like me, if you think about fishing
but you haven't been yet, never ever, ever, I strongly
recommend the Houston Fishing Show this year, in its fiftieth edition.
This is the Goldennan of Fish Anniversary of the Fishing Show,
and it will be held the twelfth through the sixteenth
(27:31):
of this month at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
It's essentially the kind of the unofficial opening of spring,
the unofficial beginning of spring for fishermen around here, and
everything you can imagine that is related in any way,
shape or form to fishing will be there.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
You will have dozens of guides to.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Talk to from all over the country and all over
the world. There are people everywhere from Canada down to
South America and Alaska. You will have all kinds of
equipment to look at and size up, and you'll have
people from the factories where all this gear is made
who can explain to you the R and D process,
the work that goes into creating a new rod, or
(28:15):
a new reel, or a new kayak or anything related
to fishing. Continuous clinics all the way through the week
by expert fishermen who cover fresh and salt water, and
then the weekend of course, also there are kids clinics
where they learn how to cast and get giveaways or
plenty of giveaways for the kids.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
It's really kind of fun for them.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
If you like to fish, you love to fish, or
just want to get interested in fishing, this is the
place to be.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
The fiftieth Annual Fishing Show at the George R.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Brown Convention Center in Downtown the twelfth through the sixteenth
next week, that is when that's going to be. Go
to Houston Fishingshows dot Com.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Aged to Perfection and this is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Hi, welcome back to fifty plus. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Certainly do appreciate it. I've got I was telling Will
before we went to break. I have so many different
things on the plate this week, and every one of
them are legitimate stories. But I'm gonna run out a
week before I run out of news that's coming around here.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
There's all kinds of things going on.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
From the Good News Department yesterday, and I don't want
to miss this the Good News Department. There are glasses now,
and I was surprised to find out how affordable they
are for people who are hearing impaired. Okay, I mean
severely hearing impaired. There are glasses now that you can
(29:50):
put on that essentially serve as closed captioning right there
in front of your eyes. You can look at somebody
and when they speak, the glasses translate what they say
onto the lens. And there's video of a ten year
old girl who is is almost entirely deaf, I would think,
(30:14):
based on her speech, and she's trying her glasses on
for the first time. They were given to her by
her parents as a birthday present. She puts the glasses
on and it kind of looks at them and says,
what's with these? And then she sees a little bit
of what she said, and her mother says happy birthday,
(30:36):
and it shows up in her glasses, and then you know,
the tears start flowing and everybody's happy and all of
that good stuff. The bottom line, though a little research
I did to figure it out, these things apparently can
be had for less than about three or four hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Now.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
The downside at president is that health savings accounts and
insurance don't yet cover these life changing glasses. But I've
got a hunch that that if you know somebody who
could use some, and if they can't afford to buy
them themselves, there are probably a few friends and family
(31:15):
members in your closest circle who would all if you
can find ten people to throw in twenty bucks, you
can get them those glasses.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
What a tremendous boost in quality of life.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
I don't know why insurance and health savings accounts won't
cover something like this. These are life changing glasses for
these people. These will will make them far, far happier
and healthier long term than a lot of the things
that insurance will cover.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
I would see, I would think, So I'll check that box.
Let me go to.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
Oh, there's a couple of things about prisoners that did
I talk about prisoners being paid yesterday?
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Will? Did I get to that or know you did?
I did? Okay? Good? So as a five. Oh, that
means I don't have to read that part again, and
I can put this piece of paper over here as well.
So let me go find that. Where is it?
Speaker 4 (32:07):
That's not it, that's not it. That's it's going to
be over here, yeah, right here. It's very short. Prisoners
around the world are being offered the removal of days
from their sentences, not years, but days at least for
every book they read. These inmates. I am entirely in
(32:28):
favor of that swap out. Anyone who's sitting in prison
and reading books rather than cook it up ways to
escape or cook it up better ways to keep from
getting caught. If you're reading books in the library and
the prison has the right books, you're far more likely
to come out of there less likely to reoffend than
(32:49):
the average person who's getting out of use or out
of prison.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
And I've plaud them for that.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
You know what else I'd get behind reduced time for
inmates who are able and willing to teach illiterate in
how to read. That would be a nice little thing
to have happened as well. And I think if anybody
were willing to do that, they would deserve some time off.
Will how much time do I have because I have
(33:14):
no clock.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Oh you're it's twelve fifty three forty.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Oh good, so I've got lots of times. What you're
telling me? I ha that to some maybe I'll get
to good new Yeah, that's true. That's a good point.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
Time is a fleeting thing for a lot of people
from halfway around the world. By now, by spit it
out right now, by the way the Greek island of Santorini,
Have you ever heard of that?
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Will? Yes? There? You know what's going on over there now?
Speaker 4 (33:42):
What a series of more than a thousand earthquakes in
the last like week or ten days. Just it's not NonStop,
but and they're all They've all been fairly minor so far.
There've been a couple of window rattlers, but it's still
the ground is very uneasy beneath their feet there, and
(34:04):
the intensity and frequency are the greatest reported for that
island since the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Now, clearly in.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
The nineteen sixties the island didn't blow up and get
washed into the sea. And hopefully this too will be
a geological false alarm. But holy cow, for the ground
to be shaken that off and everybody, all the tourists
are gone, and the people who live there, I guess
since they've lived there since the sixties, or they know
(34:35):
somebody who has that person's just kind of calming them down,
maybe hopefully so. Anyway, In what has been hailed as
a game changer in medicine, comes news of an artificial
heart pump that's no larger than an ordinary pen, an
ink pen, and it's received FDA approval now for use
in children, after already saving the lives of a whole
(34:57):
lot of adults. The device is so small that cardiologists
don't even have to open a patient's chest to insert
what it's called an impella five point five, and it
can keep a heart pumping in the critical minutes and
hours and even days during or immediately after heart failure.
The component of the main component, the pump itself, is
(35:21):
barely the size of a fingertip, and it does all
the work for that damaged heart. There's one adult patient
that was kept alive for five weeks on one of
these things until a permanent transplant heart was secured.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
That is really cool. Time, will you got two minutes?
Oh my gosh, this is like heaven.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
Let's go back to your stuff, kind of back to
reality here the power of prayer, I know why. Or
buckle up, buck up, buckle up. It is somebody posted
a photo after an airline and I'm not gonna name
the airline.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
Look it up for yourself.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
If you want to upgraded a suitcase to first class,
it wouldn't fit in the overhead ben so they gave
the suitcase a first class seat and buckled it in.
People online are saying they should have upgraded a human
the first class, and I would have to agree with that.
(36:24):
They could have left that bag in a coach seat.
They could have left that bag, they could have stored
it where the pilot and the flight attendants put their bags.
But the bottom line was, and if that was a
first class passenger's bag, then shame on him or her
for I'm sure knowingly bringing on something they knew wasn't
(36:45):
gonna fit and didn't care.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
They just didn't care.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
I would far prefer that an airline in that situation
give somebody back in coach. Just run a lottery, you know,
some somehow, just a random choice, pick a number between
one and thirty three, pick a letter between A and E,
and then that person gets upgraded to first class. That
would have been way better. I think what they did
(37:10):
was kind of goofy, I really do hmm.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Time, will you got twenty seconds?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Perfect? Okay?
Speaker 4 (37:18):
The Power of prayer and new survey, thirteen percent of
Americans say God cares which team wins the Super Bowl,
in nineteen percent believe that God will determine the winner.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
I'm a religious person.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
I have faith in God, but I think God's got
better things to.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Do than pick the winner of a football game.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
We'll be back tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Thanks for listening audios,
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
You? Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Hey, don, how's it going today?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well? This show is all about you. This is fifty
plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life and Bronze roofing repair or replacement. Bronze roofing
has you covered? And now fifty plus with Doug Pike.
(00:51):
All right, Wednesday and issue. The program starts right now.
Welcome one and all to fifty plus. Thank you all
for joining us.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Make a little note here.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Okay, that's done. I don't have to worry about that anymore.
Fifty plus here Land of what? Land of I guess,
Land of the Reflux? And Home of the Gray? How's
that ring out?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Will? Pretty good? That's really good? Thank you? I was
I struggled this morning.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
I must have given thirty seconds to that trying to
come up with a home of the Gray. That's an
easy one that rhymes with brave and the but the
Land of the Free. I couldn't come up with a
word that describes seniors that rhymes with free, so I
had to go with the first syllable of reflux.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
And then just roll it from there.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
The creative process it's just so exhausting too. I had
to sit, just sit down and breathe deeply for a
few minutes after I came up with that. So it's
honestly hard to believe this country survived the past four years,
but it did. We lost a lot of ground, but
we're getting it back pretty much every day. If a
handful of bad people dismantled your car down to the
(02:07):
last nuts and bolts and then scattered the parts over
what ten acres of bottom land, it take a while
to put that car back together. And that's exactly what
our current president got handed to him back in January.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
He built a.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Strong, fast car, best in the world, long time ago,
and then in four years watched a bunch of greedy
people tear it down and hide the parts. Trump's heart's
some really good mechanics, so rebuilding this car piece by piece,
that's what he's doing every day, and it's run. It's
(02:44):
gonna run great. Once they finished, it's gonna be firing. Well,
they got to get all the bad people out of here,
and then they're gonna go the bad people who came
in here illegally, then the bad people who tore it down,
and they're gonna get exposed to the people who profited
from a whole lot of shady deals, and there's gonna
be nothing to shield them from the harsh light of day.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
When that happens.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Speaking of our Texas Democratic Representative Al Green decided just
a little while ago, actually that after President Trump said
something about becoming more involved in the Gaza situation, he's
already gonna try to impeach President Trump. The guy hadn't
been in office a month and he's already after me
(03:32):
and everybody in the country probably saw that coming at
some point, but he's he's gonna be the first, and
he's gonna get all the headlines for making an attempt
at this, and it's just it's just the continued.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I don't know what the.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
I don't know what the long term goal is here,
I guess, except to not allow our president to expose
what's been going on for the last four years. And
I don't see it working, to be perfectly honest with you,
so far as the weather goes, courtesy of Texas Indoor
Air Quality Specialists. Because cleaner air is healthier air. You
can find out how they clean duct work, which is
(04:10):
a fairly you. I think it is a unique system
they use and a unique practice, and it essentially takes
all the gunk out of your air ducts in your
AC system and removes it gently enough that it doesn't
rip it up or tear it up like some of
the brushes in whatever other methods do, and that stuff
(04:32):
stays clean for years to come. It's an investment in
your health. Texasiaq dot net. Texas Indoor spare Quality Indoor
Air Quality Specialists good people they really are. As far
as the markets go. They open this morning, I looked
pretty early more red than green the four indicators. Then
(04:53):
there was kind of an even split of the big
four round ten, and now it's really there's no major
movement either direction. Gold briefly at least this morning around
that same time, passed the twenty nine hundred dollars an
ounce mark for the first time ever. About fifteen minutes ago,
it was traded at twenty eight ninety four which is
(05:15):
still not any small potatoes. If you have some old
scrap gold laying around the house, might be able to
pay a house note if you can get a palm
full of gold somehow.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And on the plus side, for those of us who.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Ferry kids and grandkids to sporting events, to dance practice
and recitals or whatever, all over Southeast Texas every weekend
oil down almost a dollar a barrel and back beneath
lower than seventy one. Well it was lower than seventy
two dollars anyway, seventy one to twenty at last check
(05:52):
that was about eleven thirty. Still about six bucks to
go on that downward path before I get happy.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
But it's a step in the right direction.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Will do We have no claw again today, no clock
because because he doesn't want to get on the screen,
you turn it turn into trouble ticket. Yeah did you really?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
No?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
See, I can't trust this guy and a story that
just broke. What how much time do I have? You
have a minute? Forty? That's close? Good guess.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Trump administration just this morning back on track through coming
executive orders to disallow participation of chant transgender girls and
in girls in women's school sports professionals, he's not gonna
worry about. They can fend for themselves, I guess. But
in school sports, he's going to remove the transgender girls
from the courts or the fields, or the pitch, or whatever.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Story says.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
He'll order the DOJ and DOE to interpret Title nine,
which close to fifty years ago barred sex discrimination in
federally funded education programs. He wants them to interpret it
as prohibiting participation of biological males and female sports. And
I know that that's a very small percentage of the population,
(07:11):
but I've already seen videos of girls being physically harmed
by boys in the participation, especially high school sports, where
they've they've grown a little bit, they've gotten stronger. Further
than that, even in the same vein, they're gonna be
investigations into potentially fraudulent practices and attempts to allow males
(07:34):
to participate in women's sports. There's gonna be a lot
of big old bright Spotlight's gonna come down on a
lot of this, and I suspect there's gonna be some
problems sooner or later with how this all pans out.
Government employees already order to only refer to sex and
not gender. And he's also trying to stop government sport
for healthcare that aids in gender transition. A tremendous change
(07:59):
of core for our country. Tremendous change.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Of course, we got to take a little break. On
the way out. I will tell you about ut Health
Institute on Aging.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
This is the collaborative effort of thousands of providers around
here who, in addition to doing all the work they
had to do to earn that diploma on the wall
in the office, the big one that says MD says,
PhD says, nurse, practitioner says er, nurse, ICU, nurse, whatever what, therapists, whatever,
(08:33):
their credentials. They have gone back and received additional training
and education so that they can apply that expertise to seniors.
They know more about us than we know about ourselves, probably,
and they are more than willing to help us live longer, better, happier,
healthier lives just by taking the time to learn more.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
About what makes us tick. Go to the website.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
First of all, you'll be stunted how much actual information
is there, how many resources are there to help you
live a better life. And then you'll be able to
look around and find exactly where you can be seen
by somebody who is part of this Institute on Aging
at ut Health ut H dot edu slash aging ut
(09:19):
H dot ed U slash aging.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
What's life without a net?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I suggest you go to bed, leave it off, just.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Wait until the show's over. Sleepy. Back to Doug Pike
as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Boo boo bye, second segment of the show. Right now?
What is it? Twelve twenty one?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Will?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Is that correct? Twelve twenty Okay, well, we've got a
ways to go. That's what it comes down to. Moving
off of this front page here.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
That was weird and goofy and had some breaking news
in If there's some other breaking news I'll get to
at some point. In US military current events, Army recruiting
in the wake of our new president's election absolutely crushed
previous records. For December of twenty twenty four, the Army
(10:21):
enlisted more recruits than during the past fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
It's pretty good.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
For an army that was kind of struggling to find
anybody interested in defending our country for a while at least,
so hats off to the change the increasing up not
a change of the guard, but an increasing number of
people who are devoting themselves and pretty much given an
(10:49):
oath to defend the Constitution in the United States. It's
pretty much the same oath that law enforcement people take too,
and I'm glad it's in place and it needs to
be there. By the way, if you take pride in
our military as I do, and you're in a position
to do this, I produce a feature, a weekly feature
that is called This Week in US Military History. And
(11:11):
if you've heard some of them, surely you like the
intro that was done by our imaging team, which I
think is really cool. And what I do in each
of those is just take a snapshot into the past
of our nation's fighting forces and recognize recipients of the
Medal of Honor. It's a featured piece, a sponsored piece
(11:33):
that can run as many times on as many iHeart
stations across the entire country as you want it to
run anywhere, anytime. All you gotta do is let me
know that you want to do that, let me know
where you want it to run, let me know what
station you wanted to run on how many times a week,
(11:54):
and I can take care of that whole piece of
business for you all by myself, and I would be
thrilled to have more people sponsoring those. Right now, it
only runs a few times a week. I think it
should be running, like I said, on every station, every week,
every day, every hour. It's an important piece that does
(12:17):
share the great work that have been done by the
men and women who have served in uniform for this
country over the country's entire history. I've got sources that
take me all the way back to the beginning, and
I pluck pieces from each of those weeks, and I
pluck names from the lists of people who have earned
(12:38):
the Medal of Honor in that week and present them
in what I think is a pretty cool format. If
you're interested in that, just to email me Dougpike at
iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I'd be happy to help you.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Fox News had a story this morning that countered singer
Selena Gomez's recent tearful concern over the fate of illegal migrants.
Today's video showed a collection of responses from the parents
of children and young adults brutally murdered, raped, whatever beaten
senseless by illegal immigrants and asked pretty much as hey,
(13:12):
where are the celebrity tears for Americans who died unnecessarily
at the hands of people the former administration just let
walk into our country, or even flew them in when
it was looking bad on the border because so many
people were walking across. Don't forget that our former president
decided to fly them in. Just pick them up right
(13:33):
where they're leaving, wherever it was across the Caribbean in
South America, and just drop them off right in here.
One of the moms featured in the video today even
noted that Gomez's video looked pretty insincere. She said, I
recognize the lack of eye contact. I recognize the crocodile tears.
(13:57):
If somebody were acting that way in front of me,
I think.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
They were lying, And you gotta wonder.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
In media news, CBS News has turned over the FCC
to the FCC an unedited transcript of its sixty minutes
interview with former VP Kamala Harris. The network's been accused
of deceptively editing her answers to Bill Whittaker's questions.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
One version for the.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Face of the Nation for Face the Nation that a
weekend show, and another for sixty Minutes. CBS handed over
the transcripts and executive producer Bill Owens let it be
known as that happened that he has absolutely no intention of.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Apologizing for anything.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
In an ad Week story I saw this morning, It's
reported that this unfolded as the network's parent company tries
to sue or to settle a significant one two three, four, five, six, seven,
eight nine ten figure ten figure suit by former or
by current President Trump.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Time will you are twelve twenty five? Well, I got
three minutes? No, you got more like two minutes. I'll
take them. I'll take them.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
I'm gonna go to Miami Beach for this one. Miami Beach.
The city has dropped a commercial. I love the word
drops for all these things now, songs and commercials and
what the albums. There's one I'm gonna tell you about
later on if we have time. The city's just dropped
commercial about the upcoming spring break there, and it is
(15:36):
intended to let spring breakers who plan to visit Miami
Beach know that while they're welcome to be there, welcome
to have a good time, there are rules. There are
hard and fast rules that those students have to follow
or else be dealt with by whatever means and methods
(15:56):
are necessary to get them back in line.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
With the laws despot itself.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
It's kind of a montage of scenarios, one on a beach,
one in a restaurant in and others in which a
group of college aged people allegedly actually they're just young
looking actors. They share their fictional experiences with law enforcement
and curfews and parking fees and other little speed bumps
on their ride through spring break. It's well done to
(16:22):
give credit, and I think I want to say that
Miami Miami Beach paid like four hundred and something thousand
dollars for this one. There was a quarter million dollar
commercial last year that they ran and it actually did
help keep that spring break a little calmer and a
little more in control for everyone involved, which is good.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
In a nutshell.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
It just says, come on down, but know the rules
before you cross into the city limits. They're not a
whole lot of things that could mess up a good
spring break more than having a call mom or Dad
and tell them you've been arrested halfway across the country.
Will Did you ever go to any big make any
big trips for spring break?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
No?
Speaker 4 (17:03):
I don't think we even had spring break when I
was in school. We had Easter vacation that was about
a week close to a week.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Maybe are you talking about just like with my family
or like your schoolmates, your chums, your buds. No, I
didn't either. I didn't either. We were too busy. We
were too busy practicing anyway.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
So, and by the way, if you're wondering why we
got addressing this to my audience, I'll tell you right
when we get back. Just to keep will off my
back on the way out, I'll tell you about late health.
The group of clinics around town here, they're vascular clinics.
They perform vascular procedures right there in the clinics that
can help you alleviate a whole lot of things that
(17:50):
you may not like, you don't want to experience anymore,
But you really don't know where to turn ugly veins.
That's a no brainer for them. They do that every day.
They do that every day over there. It doesn't take long,
it doesn't hurt you, it doesn't you don't have to
do a whole lot of prep work. You just show
up and they can start taking care of those ugly veins,
fibroids in women, head pain, some head pains can be
(18:12):
alleviated with vascular surgery.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Who knew that right?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
And then, of course their primary function is to help
men older men.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Raise your hand, that'd be me and you half of.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
You help us with enlarged, noncancerous prostates. They do a
process called prostate artery embolization. It's the most common thing
they do at a late health and what it does
is shut off the blood supply to that prostate, and
that makes the prostate shrink and with it go all
the symptoms. You don't like getting up in the middle
(18:47):
of the night to go to the bathroom three or
four times, having to feeling like you just got a
god of gotta go. And then you go in there
and you just barely have any business to take care of.
And then you walk out and you sit down back
at your desk, back in your chair by the TV,
and five minutes later you got to go again. Those
are all symptoms. There's some bedroom symptoms that happen to
(19:08):
to those of us who deal with that. They also
do regenerative medicine there, and much of what they do
is covered by Medicare and Medicaid, not all of it.
But you make a phone call, you can find out
go to the website. First look at that and then
make this call, get a consultation scheduled, and see how
they can help you. Seven to one, three five eight,
eight thirty eight eighty eight seven one three, five eight
(19:29):
eight thirty eight eighty eight.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Now they sure don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
That's why every few months we wash them, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh cod o wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike. We all know what ban
that sounds like, but it's not.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
It's just something we have around here to use for
rejoining the program.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Right.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Will you got a problem with that, Doug? I never
said I did. I never once intimated at all that
I had.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
A problem with that.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Will.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I just just made an observation.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Observations aren't always piggybacked onto problems.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
It's just an observation.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
So back to what I was talking about about spring
breakers and why I brought that story up, because it's
a good conversation starter on the way to spring break
for grandkids, maybe your kids whatever, who are heading out,
good way to set expectations of what you.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Want them to at least.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Try to do while they're out of your sight and care,
especially if they have to get on an airplane to
go there, if they're flying someplace for spring break, boy,
hang on tight. I don't know how I will react
the first time my son tells me, Hey, Dad, my
friends and I are flying to soap somewhere and we're
(21:05):
gonna have a great time, and I'm sure they will.
I trust him, I just don't. I don't want him
to be taking advantage of anywhere. I don't want any
of that going on. Going out of town for spring
break kind of scares me. I've been to a few
spring break areas on fishing trips and happened to be
there while spring break was going on, and holy cow,
(21:28):
holy cow, it's way way different than what most of
us would have experienced. It's also a chance for all
of us to perhaps reminisce about our own spring break experiences.
And some of you, when I said that, cracked a
little smile, and you're if anybody asks you, if anybody's
sitting with you and ask you, why are you smiling
(21:50):
right now, You're not gonna tell them. On the heels
of the Daily Crash in Washington, d C. Comes revival
of the story around a lawsuit.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Again.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
It's the FAA apparently still ongoing, and there's a It
alleges that a highly qualified applicant was not hired as
an air traffic controller because he was white. The applicant
happened to be one of more than nine hundred men
and women, according to the suit, who were turned down
(22:22):
for hire despite making perfect scores on their air traffic
controller test after the administration changed its hiring criteria. This
was back all the way to President Obama, I believe
changed the hiring criteria and lowered its test standards. The
changes that man says cost him an air traffic controller job, where.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Well, actually it.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Got kind of nixed the problem that got him upset
about this in twenty eighteen when Congress voted against leaving
that procedure in place and reinstated the requirement that all
applicants pass the Air Traffic Skills Assessment test. But nonetheless,
this guy's not happy. In related news, by the way,
(23:10):
when President Biden hired somebody to run the FAA when
he became president, what four and a half years ago, whatever,
four years ago, I guess in that man's confirmation hearings,
he was unable to answer a single question about aviation
a single question about flying a plane anything aviation related.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
He had no earthly idea. But that's who President Biden
put in place to run the FAA. Let's light it
up a little bit.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Will this is yesterday's There are still some things I
wanted to talk about there, but I won't because I'm
gonna go to where's today's page?
Speaker 3 (23:52):
I know it's here there, It is right there? All right?
Will you ready? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Step in, getting busy the perfect day? Or nobody likes these?
Nobody likes these?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
A poll?
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Now you've you've walked right into a pop quizz. A
poll asks people what their least favorite month is, and
the top two responses were, what will least favorite month?
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Least favorite month for December and May?
Speaker 4 (24:30):
No, January and February. December, everybody's hopped up for the holidays. Okay,
January and February. It's just sixty days, a cold, nasty
way except down here, Uh for you?
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Do you have any least favorite month? Will?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Probably December? And why why do you hate December?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Because they just I hate the cheer.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Gosh.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
Okay, mister Scrooge, moving forward. I like them all, I
like all twelve of them.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
You know why.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Why?
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Because there is not a single month where we live
that I can't manage to get in rounds of golf,
that I can't manage to get in fishing trips. And
it's just every day is a holiday, except well except
for the six of a week that I work.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
But yeah, it's I love where I live, I really do.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
And that's that makes the difference if I lived in
if I lived in Minneapolis, or if I lived in
Canada or any any place north of pretty much I ten.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
No, I could go hird in that, but I don't.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
I don't want to go all the way to I
twenty because they still get a lot more ice and
occasional snow than I.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Prefer to have. I much prefer sunshine and and beaches
to snow. Yeah, there's both. They're both ground coverings basically,
but the beach is my favorite.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Uh, how much time do I have because I can't
see a clock in a minute and a half? Okay,
real quickly, I know why? Getting busy or that snow yoke.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Getting busy? Getting busy? Pop quiz again?
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Will one pair of rats has the potential to produce
how many descendants in a year? One pair of rats
can produce how many descendants in a year?
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Fifty?
Speaker 4 (26:15):
You're you're I don't know, you're about three hundred times off.
Fifteen thousand, fifteen thousand. Will I don't know if they're
that's any like them? Dim oak rats, dim oak rats,
the o the ones that live.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Around them oak trees. You know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 2 (26:37):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Will I have no resurrecting that from yesterday? Do you talk?
Of course you don't realize it. You don't know what
I'm talking about it. So I know it's time to go.
Is that right? We got like twenty seconds?
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Mmm?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
No?
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I will?
Speaker 4 (26:51):
I will hold those twenty seconds and get them back
after the break, right? Will I get twenty more seconds
in the last No, Because it's our last segment and
you gotta have azal You're gonna be done. When you're done,
you gotta get out on time. Well, that that just
blew the twenty seconds, didn't it?
Speaker 3 (27:08):
It did?
Speaker 4 (27:09):
If you fish, if you like to fish, if you
love to fish like me, if you think about fishing
but you haven't been yet, never ever, ever, I strongly
recommend the Houston Fishing Show this year, in its fiftieth edition.
This is the Goldennan of Fish Anniversary of the Fishing Show,
and it will be held the twelfth through the sixteenth
(27:31):
of this month at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
It's essentially the kind of the unofficial opening of spring,
the unofficial beginning of spring for fishermen around here, and
everything you can imagine that is related in any way,
shape or form to fishing will be there.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
You will have dozens of guides to.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Talk to from all over the country and all over
the world. There are people everywhere from Canada down to
South America and Alaska. You will have all kinds of
equipment to look at and size up, and you'll have
people from the factories where all this gear is made
who can explain to you the R and D process,
the work that goes into creating a new rod, or
(28:15):
a new reel, or a new kayak or anything related
to fishing. Continuous clinics all the way through the week
by expert fishermen who cover fresh and salt water, and
then the weekend of course, also there are kids clinics
where they learn how to cast and get giveaways or
plenty of giveaways for the kids.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
It's really kind of fun for them.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
If you like to fish, you love to fish, or
just want to get interested in fishing, this is the
place to be.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
The fiftieth Annual Fishing Show at the George R.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Brown Convention Center in Downtown the twelfth through the sixteenth
next week, that is when that's going to be. Go
to Houston Fishingshows dot Com.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Aged to Perfection and this is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Hi, welcome back to fifty plus. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Certainly do appreciate it. I've got I was telling Will
before we went to break. I have so many different
things on the plate this week, and every one of
them are legitimate stories. But I'm gonna run out a
week before I run out of news that's coming around here.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
There's all kinds of things going on.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
From the Good News Department yesterday, and I don't want
to miss this the Good News Department. There are glasses now,
and I was surprised to find out how affordable they
are for people who are hearing impaired. Okay, I mean
severely hearing impaired. There are glasses now that you can
(29:50):
put on that essentially serve as closed captioning right there
in front of your eyes. You can look at somebody
and when they speak, the glasses translate what they say
onto the lens. And there's video of a ten year
old girl who is is almost entirely deaf, I would think,
(30:14):
based on her speech, and she's trying her glasses on
for the first time. They were given to her by
her parents as a birthday present. She puts the glasses
on and it kind of looks at them and says,
what's with these? And then she sees a little bit
of what she said, and her mother says happy birthday,
(30:36):
and it shows up in her glasses, and then you know,
the tears start flowing and everybody's happy and all of
that good stuff. The bottom line, though a little research
I did to figure it out, these things apparently can
be had for less than about three or four hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Now.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
The downside at president is that health savings accounts and
insurance don't yet cover these life changing glasses. But I've
got a hunch that that if you know somebody who
could use some, and if they can't afford to buy
them themselves, there are probably a few friends and family
(31:15):
members in your closest circle who would all if you
can find ten people to throw in twenty bucks, you
can get them those glasses.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
What a tremendous boost in quality of life.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
I don't know why insurance and health savings accounts won't
cover something like this. These are life changing glasses for
these people. These will will make them far, far happier
and healthier long term than a lot of the things
that insurance will cover.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
I would see, I would think, So I'll check that box.
Let me go to.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
Oh, there's a couple of things about prisoners that did
I talk about prisoners being paid yesterday?
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Will? Did I get to that or know you did?
I did? Okay? Good? So as a five. Oh, that
means I don't have to read that part again, and
I can put this piece of paper over here as well.
So let me go find that. Where is it?
Speaker 4 (32:07):
That's not it, that's not it. That's it's going to
be over here, yeah, right here. It's very short. Prisoners
around the world are being offered the removal of days
from their sentences, not years, but days at least for
every book they read. These inmates. I am entirely in
(32:28):
favor of that swap out. Anyone who's sitting in prison
and reading books rather than cook it up ways to
escape or cook it up better ways to keep from
getting caught. If you're reading books in the library and
the prison has the right books, you're far more likely
to come out of there less likely to reoffend than
(32:49):
the average person who's getting out of use or out
of prison.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
And I've plaud them for that.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
You know what else I'd get behind reduced time for
inmates who are able and willing to teach illiterate in
how to read. That would be a nice little thing
to have happened as well. And I think if anybody
were willing to do that, they would deserve some time off.
Will how much time do I have because I have
(33:14):
no clock.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Oh you're it's twelve fifty three forty.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Oh good, so I've got lots of times. What you're
telling me? I ha that to some maybe I'll get
to good new Yeah, that's true. That's a good point.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
Time is a fleeting thing for a lot of people
from halfway around the world. By now, by spit it
out right now, by the way the Greek island of Santorini,
Have you ever heard of that?
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Will? Yes? There? You know what's going on over there now?
Speaker 4 (33:42):
What a series of more than a thousand earthquakes in
the last like week or ten days. Just it's not NonStop,
but and they're all They've all been fairly minor so far.
There've been a couple of window rattlers, but it's still
the ground is very uneasy beneath their feet there, and
(34:04):
the intensity and frequency are the greatest reported for that
island since the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Now, clearly in.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
The nineteen sixties the island didn't blow up and get
washed into the sea. And hopefully this too will be
a geological false alarm. But holy cow, for the ground
to be shaken that off and everybody, all the tourists
are gone, and the people who live there, I guess
since they've lived there since the sixties, or they know
(34:35):
somebody who has that person's just kind of calming them down,
maybe hopefully so. Anyway, In what has been hailed as
a game changer in medicine, comes news of an artificial
heart pump that's no larger than an ordinary pen, an
ink pen, and it's received FDA approval now for use
in children, after already saving the lives of a whole
(34:57):
lot of adults. The device is so small that cardiologists
don't even have to open a patient's chest to insert
what it's called an impella five point five, and it
can keep a heart pumping in the critical minutes and
hours and even days during or immediately after heart failure.
The component of the main component, the pump itself, is
(35:21):
barely the size of a fingertip, and it does all
the work for that damaged heart. There's one adult patient
that was kept alive for five weeks on one of
these things until a permanent transplant heart was secured.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
That is really cool. Time, will you got two minutes?
Oh my gosh, this is like heaven.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
Let's go back to your stuff, kind of back to
reality here the power of prayer, I know why. Or
buckle up, buck up, buckle up. It is somebody posted
a photo after an airline and I'm not gonna name
the airline.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
Look it up for yourself.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
If you want to upgraded a suitcase to first class,
it wouldn't fit in the overhead ben so they gave
the suitcase a first class seat and buckled it in.
People online are saying they should have upgraded a human
the first class, and I would have to agree with that.
(36:24):
They could have left that bag in a coach seat.
They could have left that bag, they could have stored
it where the pilot and the flight attendants put their bags.
But the bottom line was, and if that was a
first class passenger's bag, then shame on him or her
for I'm sure knowingly bringing on something they knew wasn't
(36:45):
gonna fit and didn't care.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
They just didn't care.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
I would far prefer that an airline in that situation
give somebody back in coach. Just run a lottery, you know,
some somehow, just a random choice, pick a number between
one and thirty three, pick a letter between A and E,
and then that person gets upgraded to first class. That
would have been way better. I think what they did
(37:10):
was kind of goofy, I really do hmm.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Time, will you got twenty seconds?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Perfect? Okay?
Speaker 4 (37:18):
The Power of prayer and new survey, thirteen percent of
Americans say God cares which team wins the Super Bowl,
in nineteen percent believe that God will determine the winner.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
I'm a religious person.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
I have faith in God, but I think God's got
better things to.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Do than pick the winner of a football game.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
We'll be back tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Thanks for listening audios,
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