Good Morning BT | Scott Hamilton fills in for Bo and Beth - Good Morning BT with Bo Thompson & Beth Troutman

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From one O seven point nine at them w BT,
Charlotte's m News talking.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
This is Good Morning BT with Bo Thompson and Beth Trout.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Ben. Good morning. It's Wednesday, December thirty first, the very
last day of twenty twenty five. It's good morning BT

(00:31):
on one O seven nine them Scott Hamilton and from
Bow and Beth Bow and Beth Off getting ready for
I'm sure a festive, festive evening. Got Bernie, we got Steve,
got Mark Garrison in the newsroom. We got man it got,
we got most of the crew. The last day of

(00:52):
twenty twenty five, and the years just keep flipping by
faster and faster. I remember when I was a kid,
and it seemed like an hour took a month. Now
it seems like a month takes an hour. Don't even
get me started on a day. What it feels like speaking,
it feels like cold out. Temperatures dipped down yesterday. It's

(01:17):
a bit chilly. It's gonna be in the twenties this morning,
slowly up into the fifties. This afternoon, should be in
the forties this evening, right around when things turned dark,
and then around thirty midnight or so. No rain thanked
the Lord. So we got that going for us, which
is nice. New Year's Eve events all over the place,

(01:40):
well most places. Several big cities across the globe have
canceled New Year's Eve events due to terror threats or
worries over safety or other related issues. And I'm talking
about Paris, Sydney, Australia, Tokyo, Bali, Bali, Hong Kong, Jakarta.
Those are just a few. They're they're tightening up. They said, man,

(02:02):
we're getting threats. We can't be. We can't be having
this out there. Somebody might get killed. There might be
an attack. We saw it happen in Sydney just recently.
Now most of them are still having fireworks shows and
things of that nature. But as far as big to dos,
like actual parties were, I don't know. The revelry is

(02:23):
up to another level. They're saying, nope, too much. Here's
an interesting tidbit out of Paris. The Paris concert for
New Year's Eve canceled due to security concerns, but but
not due to terror. It's because those French people can't
act right. Authorities asking them have asked them to cancel

(02:45):
it due to fears of quote, crushing and disorderly conduct
close quote. They say, that's what's happened the last few years.
And those French people too much French wine, too much
of French bread, too many French fries, acting like nut jobs.
So you better go watch some fireworks, but you're not

(03:06):
gonna be able to have the concert and all that.
Got a lot of stuff going on here locally, I
mean all over the Piedmont region and that includes for kids.
And this is where this is where I really dig it.
Starting at ten thirty this morning, over at the Matthews
Community Center, they're having a kid friendly event. I'm down

(03:28):
with that. I think that is absolutely fantastic. There's going
to be a DJ, there's going to be different types
of entertainment. And here's the best part. And Bernie and Steve,
I'm welcoming either or both of you to chime in
on this because this is the part that I love
the most. A countdown to noon followed by a balloon drop.
As somebody who can't stay up the way he used to,

(03:49):
and as two gentlemen who get up way before dawn,
you have to appreciate a countdown to noon. Tell me I'm.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
Wrong, absolutely, because I'm stayed up to midnight and years
to see the ball drop.

Speaker 5 (04:03):
I only know what midnight looks like from the morning,
you know what I mean, like because of having to
be here at three forty five in the morning.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
Like I see the people either celebrating New Year's Eve
when I'm coming to work, right exactly, Yeah, they're going home.

Speaker 5 (04:17):
That's what tomorrow is going to look like for me.
It's gonna be chaos on the right end of work,
That's right.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
I'll be off to Steve. Steve will be in tomorrow
on the board, poor Steve. Yeah, I will be. Now
when we say tomorrow, are we actually talking New Years?
We talk?

Speaker 4 (04:30):
We have Friday morning, we have best of tomorrow for
Good Morning, well for WBT.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Throughout the day, Steve will.

Speaker 4 (04:36):
Be filling on the board and I'll be off, and
then I'll be back on Friday for our live shows
with you, and Steve will be here for that as well.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
So it's so appropriate that tomorrow would be the best
of and then Friday morning will be live with an
absolutely suitable get us through the Friday after a holiday
until Bo and Beth come back morning. We're all gonna be.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
Just you know, kind of hanging out, just chopping it up,
it up.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
I I'm really into I'm sorry, I'm distracted by this
kid's event. It's for kids four and up. Tickets are
ten bucks. I think I want to go to this. Oh,
you're distracted. There's one and you, as a new father,
you need to start taking stock of these things, put
them in their mental calendar going forward for when your
child is now this one. Here's one in Pineville. Three

(05:24):
puppet shows starting at ten thirty for kids two to seven.
Your child is almost in that range, right, we wouldn't
want to see a puppet show? I mean adults?

Speaker 6 (05:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (05:31):
Why are we limiting it to seven?

Speaker 6 (05:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (05:33):
Adults too?

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Right?

Speaker 3 (05:35):
Yeah, I'm down with a puppet show. I'm down, matter
of fact. And I regret that I'm just now learning
about this because I would have liked to have gotten
organizers of this event at the Pineville Library on the
show this morning to discuss what is what is? What
is a free puppet show on New Year's Eve at
ten thirty in the morning. What does it entail?

Speaker 6 (05:53):
Well?

Speaker 3 (05:54):
How hard is it? Are we talking muppets? Are we
talking like Maryonnette's with the actual stream YEP.

Speaker 5 (05:59):
That was going to be my question, are they puppets
or are they marionettes?

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Because those are two very different things. I guess if
you have to ask, they're very different. You have to ask.
You those deals with the strings there, that's an art man.
I mean, that's that goes back centuries people with the
puppet shows and all that. I I I've always been
fascinated also creeped out because it's got that mister Rogers,

(06:22):
what was the imagination laying? Oh no, no, no, you
know where they were? The little subway deal that. Those
things always creep me out. They made me think of marionettes.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
Yeah, but also one of the saving graces of like
Team America World Police was the marionettes.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
I never saw that, scottill me, dude, I I only
watched c Span and Ken Burns documentaries on PBS.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
Yeah that tracks.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
Here's another event, Myers Park Library also having a puppet show.

Speaker 4 (06:56):
It's did you just search puppet shows? Me or me?

Speaker 3 (07:01):
No? I promise you I did not. All right, but
maybe maybe, okay, maybe we're ahead of the curve here
and we're identifying a trend that's coming up in twenty
twenty six, the Year of the Puppet the year, the
Year of the puppet. You know, that's pretty appropriate considering
some of the things going on in Washington. Oh heh,

(07:23):
that was good. That was pretty thanks. Thanks, I'll be
here all morning.

Speaker 4 (07:26):
Can you say it one more time? Just deliver the
deliver the punchline? All right, say it one more time.
I got you this time.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Go ahead. That's that's pretty appropriate considering some of the
things going on in Washington. Hell, wow, now we're cooking,
very now we're cooking. Is Boomer in the house? Wait,
say Scott, Yes, sir Bunny. Happy New Year, man, Happy
New Year.

Speaker 7 (07:48):
Heyre's the big event happening tonight.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
I was getting ready to bring that up. Oh this
one the big event tonight, the big event tonight. Just
west of Atlanta. Have you heard about this? You know
what's going on the town called Tallapoosa, Georgia, just off
the interstate headed toward Alabama.

Speaker 4 (08:05):
That's not a real place, yeah, Tallapoosa, Oh, I got not.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
We're real as what they're doing tonight. They're having a
possum drop. What okay, that sounds kind Forget the puppets, man,
I want a possum drop.

Speaker 4 (08:18):
A possum They dropped slowly or they like like Jim
slowly like.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
Drop, just like they do up in Times Square that
they have a possum instead of a ball. But they
have been bands playing. They make a big thing out
of it, a big thing. Now I will I have
the mother of all New Year's Eve anecdotes.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
In our next segment, Boomer and I want to make
sure you hear it, because this one, it actually tops
tops tops the possum drop from my own childhood. And
there may be some therapy involved trying to resolve some
issues with it. I may have suppressed maybe some thoughts
about it that I probably should deal with, you know,
sooner rather than later. Has it kills the poss some drop?

(09:00):
Trust me on this, I can wait.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Good morning, This is Good Morning BT.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
Good Morning BT on one O seven nine, Charlotte's news
talk station wbt OOE and Beth sleep thing. I presume.
I'm sure they're going to have a late night some
kind of black tie gala or whatever. Scott Hamilton, M
we got Bernie, we got Steve, and we got some

(09:35):
information on the possum drop. Shout out to Boomer for
giving us a heads up on this Tallapoosa, Georgia, Tallapoosa.
First of all, God bless Georgia forgiving us that interesting name, Tallapoosa. Tallapoosa, Steve,
can you research and see if that name has a
meaning like good hope or something, or farewell traveler or whatever,

(09:58):
because I'm sure there's something behind that. But Tallapoosa, Georgia
with a possum drop and the very very industrious, the
very resourceful Good Morning BT staff diving into the archives,
getting into the lab and getting some information regarding this event.

(10:20):
Here is a news segment that played on Fox five
that is a Georgia television station, and it has Danny Welch.
He's the organizer of Tallapoosa's annual possum drop. He is
describing the event. He's filling in some gaps, Bernie, can
you play that and the possum drop? Danny correct me

(10:42):
if I'm wrong.

Speaker 8 (10:43):
Is Spencer a possum in a gilded cage that has
dropped from a historic building in the center of Tallapoosa
at midnight. Spencer is named after Ralph Spencer, the founder
of Tallapoosa. It's a possum because possum Snout was the
older name of Tallapoosa, after a Indian chief there. This

(11:04):
thing Tom has grown so large that we are now
the third the third most popular New Year's Eve drop
in the country, next to the perogi drop in Whiteing,
Indiana and the potato drop in Boise, Idaho.

Speaker 9 (11:19):
What do you think about this, so, Danny, when I
hear possum drop, I'm thinking, you guys hoist a possum
up with a pulley and then drop it to the ground.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
But what does it really mean?

Speaker 10 (11:30):
Well, it's it's a celebration. It's you know, of our town.
Like George was saying, you know, the town had the history.
It goes back. It was a named possum Snout back
in the mid eighteen hundreds, and so the town you
don't have a history. But it's a it's a celebration,
you know, of the city, of our region here, and

(11:52):
we have a lot of people come out and celebrate
with us in our small town.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
We've got about.

Speaker 10 (11:56):
Thirty one and fifty people that live here, and tomorrow
night we will probably have between fourteen and sixteen thousand
that will come from across the nation and surrounding areas
to celebrate with us here in Tallapoosa.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Just so much to unpack from that, just so much
to take in and digest. First of all, Possum snout
the original name of the town that we now referred
to as Tallapoosa, and Steve, I gave you some homework.
What does what does Tallapoosa mean?

Speaker 5 (12:33):
So my you know, as my Google foo tends to do,
was able to find out that this is actually Muscogee
Creek language and the deeper meaning is town of the
grandmother or grandmother.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Town, you know, grandmother town.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
Yeah, which is interesting because I also looked up on
their municipal website. They've they've got a population of about
thirty one hundred people with a median age of about
four already five. So I don't know where the grandmother
town thing comes from unless they're having kids super young.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
When was this town founded? Can you pull that up?
Because I I have more questions now than I ever
thought I would have about Tallapoosa, Georgia before I knew
it existed. Matter of fact, I'm going to go in
and paint Bo and Beth into a corner. If anybody
from Tallapoosa, anybody out there that knows anybody in Tallapoosa,
anybody that's ever been to Tallapoosa, we have to arrange

(13:27):
for good morning, BT to go do a show in Tallapoosa, Georgia.
There has to be a sponsor there that would pay
the bill. And we send Bo and Beth to Tallapoosa,
Georgia to meet the folks, the good folks in Tallapoosa, Georgia.
I'm fascinated by this shorge. We should get a time
share there, Bernie, Why why why should we get one?
Just me and you?

Speaker 2 (13:46):
Dude.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
They've got a possum drop now, and that's the next thing.
And I'm glad he clarified that they're not actually dropping
a possum. I was concerned for a moment. Well, it's
just like gonna imagine every possum I imagine just sliding
down a pole. Oh yeah, oh, a pole, you know.
But they're not up on a platform like dropping possums

(14:07):
out of a bag. Well yeah, I didn't think they
ow that one.

Speaker 5 (14:09):
But maybe they would like just be slowly letting it,
you know, like on a on a pulley system, just slowly,
you know, letting it.

Speaker 4 (14:17):
I think we need to respect possums because they are
very good for the environment.

Speaker 3 (14:21):
Have have have we gotten any clarity on how old
this town is?

Speaker 5 (14:24):
Eighteen sixty incorporated in eighteen sixty.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
Oh, very nice. Pre Civil War, Okay, so we can't
blame it on any guys coming back from the horrors
of the war and decided to form a town called
what was it Grandma's grandmother Town? Grandmother Town is and
over across the line in Alabama is Grandfathertown. Hello Grandmother.
We should look that up. Here's two other interesting nuggets

(14:48):
out of this package. And again I'm absolutely fascinated. The
parogi drop. Oh, my wife would love that. See I'm
not a parogi yacht. She loves. I think they're kind
of gross. Honestly, I'm not fam uh. The potato drop.
The potato drop is that Idaho? Yeah, it's exactly where.
Very nice. And here's how here's how much this derailed me.

(15:11):
And I'm going to apologize to everybody out there, specifically Boomer,
because I set him up and he's been anxiously waiting
to hear my story of New Year's Eve. We'll have
to do it later in the program because this has
got all my attention right now. The possum drop, we
used to have one.

Speaker 7 (15:24):
It's nothing new. We used to have one in North
Carolina and then Peter got involved.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
Whoa Mark Garrison with some institutional knowledge. Were they dropping possums?

Speaker 2 (15:34):
Mark?

Speaker 7 (15:35):
No, they'd lowered it in a cage, a nice little
fully system, just nice and gentle.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
You let me go back out and hang out in
the garbage.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
He's just hanging. Where was this? Where did they do this?

Speaker 7 (15:46):
Let's see where it was in the eastern part of
the state, and Boomer Boomer helped me out here. What
where did they do the possum drop?

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Carolina?

Speaker 7 (15:55):
It was down east, but I can't remember the name
of the town.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Sounds like a Tabor city thing they did it wateful.

Speaker 7 (16:06):
I still like the flip flop drop in Folly Beach tonight.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
There you go. I saw that on the news. That's
going to be tonight or today tonight as well, and.

Speaker 7 (16:18):
Get that right on the growing flip flops.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
Well that they considering some recent history there. I thought,
God be too hard, am day.

Speaker 7 (16:29):
I like beach though, I love that place.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
This is good morning, Beatty, second half, first hour, Good
morning bet Scott Hamilton and from Bowen Beth. We got Bernie,

(16:54):
we got Steve. Moving right along on this New Years Eve.
We're efforting our guest right now. Susan Whirley. She's our
title is executive leadership coach. But what I wanted to
bring her on was to discuss New Year's resolutions. You know,

(17:16):
why do people met them? What what do people tend
to resolve to do? And how do you keep them?
But uh, looking back looking at her bio, though, wow,
she is a lot more than just a business executive
coach and so forth. She's she's got a little documentary series.

(17:39):
She's written seven books. Very impressive. I have never personally
done I have never had a New Year's resolution. I
don't know. I mean, I pretty much try to have
gold every day that I want to achieve. But maybe

(18:00):
maybe that's what's keeping me from really enhancing my life,
that I need to have these set dead start points
and endpoints, not just birth and death. Maybe that's what
I need to do. Maybe I need to have a
New Year's resolution. I don't know we're gonna ask. I
don't know we're gonna ask, Susan. Susan Whirley, welcome on board.

Speaker 11 (18:21):
Well, hither Scott, how are you?

Speaker 3 (18:24):
I'm I'm okay. First of all, I'm really excited because
it's New Year's Eve and I'm normally not that excited
about New Year's Eve. But I just learned today about
something called a possum drop in a small town in Georgia. Susan,
are you up for a road trip.

Speaker 11 (18:41):
Welfos to Georgia? Absolutely, because I'm from Wisconsin. Sounds a
lot warmer.

Speaker 3 (18:47):
I you know, I wrecked a rental car there one time,
totaled it. I was there for the PGA Championship in Sheboygan,
but whistling streets and I was in the middle of well,
remember the roads weren't numbered, they were lettered. It was
like X and B and double X and easy.

Speaker 11 (19:07):
They're named after, you know, some Indian sort of things,
like I live in Pewaukee.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
Ooh okay, now now we're chasing rabbits. What does Pewaukee mean?

Speaker 11 (19:21):
I'm not sure, and I've lived here for twenty years.
But we have Milwaukee, Pewaukee, you know, we have SoC City.
You know, all these kind of Indian sounding cities and roads,
and you're right other ones that are letters. So we'll
figure it out one of these days. Maybe we should chat, shept.
We'll get an answer right away, all right.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
I'm would have put a pin on this in a moment,
but I want to tell you that last segment, we
were looking up the town with the postum drop and
it was Tallapoosa and it means grandmother town. I locked
it up well, Susan. I reached out to you because
I was looking for somebody to discuss New Year's resolutions,
to thinking behind New Year's resolutions and how to keep them.

(20:04):
But I did a deep dive as deep as I can,
I guess without having to pay for an actual background
check into you. And I'm very impressed with everything that
you were doing and very impressed everything you've accomplished. It
looks like you've written more than a half dozen books.
You seem to have like a reality show or docuseries
that's getting ready to launch, and you're all about, Ah,

(20:25):
you're all about helping people go to the next level
as far as the way they think and the way
they approach life. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 11 (20:33):
That is correct. It's all about helping them create the
life they love. And you know, oftentimes the reason we
don't do that is we've been conditioned from birthday eight
years old on what we think would be the life
we love. You know, we get all these beliefs that
are in our unconscious mind, from church, community, our families.

(20:55):
What we you know, what we're taught success is, and
then what we end up doing and the rest of
our lives is striving and driving to meet that and
we get to the you know, to that outcome oftentimes
and we wonder why aren't we fulfilled? Interesting here and
here that when we can learn to tap into that
intuitive voice within now, we start making decisions and creating

(21:19):
the life.

Speaker 4 (21:19):
We truly love.

Speaker 11 (21:20):
But you know, by our own definition.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
Okay, I'm going to go full circle here, and I
think maybe you'll appreciate this. You you have a system
called the gut intelligent blueprint.

Speaker 11 (21:31):
Yes, yes, that's what the Doctor reality series is about,
as well as my books.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
Okay, and I assume that has something to do again
with listening to that inner voice, trusting your instinct, so
on and so forth. But it's a lot like our
own health. And what's the saying about, you know, when
you eat well, you feel well, you do good things,
But when you eat bad garbage in, garbage out, it's
pretty much the same thing. I think gut is an
appropriate description in your in your program.

Speaker 6 (21:59):
Well, you're very.

Speaker 11 (22:00):
Spark that you've tied those two things together. And it's
correct because our gut is not only our unconscious brain,
but it's actually our immune system. And when people eat,
you know, the wrong kinds of food, you know, with
a lot of preservatives and things like that, they clog
up their gut and they're clogging up their brain. And

(22:22):
oftentimes people will eat those kinds of comfort foods because
they feel stuck, you know, they're not quite sure, you know, why,
they're unhappy or unfulfilled, so they try to fill the
gut with those kinds of food. So the whole idea
here is clearing that space, you know, clearing that chattering

(22:43):
mind by quieting the brain, but also eating more whole
foods so that we have a it's like a plumbing system, right,
we have a plumbing system within our bodies that is
working better. And when we have that, when we breathe
into our gut, we can bring all those neurons, neurotransmitters,
and hormones up the vegas nerve and we can actually

(23:06):
get to higher brain thinking.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
Joined by Susan Whirley. You can follow her on Twitter
slash x at Susan K. Whorley. Susan, we've got about
three minutes left. I like what I'm hearing here. I'm
all about positive thoughts manifest positive results. I keep negativity
out of my life as much as possible for many reasons,
including one dress is going to be the death of
me and everybody else. But I preface this interview by saying,

(23:34):
I've never really had a New Year's resolution. I try
to attack each day with small, tiny goals. But I'm
thinking maybe this is the year where I say, you
know what, starting on starting on January first, I am
going to aspire to achieved such and such by such
and such a date. Tell me why or why not
I should have a New Year's resolution, and then tell

(23:54):
me the best way to attack that.

Speaker 11 (23:56):
Yeah, that's getting right to it. I love it. So
it's not so much that's the resolution itself that is
the problem. It's okay to have an intention and a resolution.
The key piece is to know why you have that
and how you're going about it. So why do you
have that? Is that your egos chattering mind telling you
that you need to do that to be enough? I

(24:17):
need to lose that twenty pounds to be enough. I
need to make this much money to be enough. Or
is that really coming from within yourself as inspired action,
your intuition telling you that yes, this is what you
really want. Your gut, your heart, your head is saying
you know, hell, yes we got this. And then the
how piece is making sure that you're meditating twenty minutes

(24:40):
a day. And I know that sounds like what you know.
I don't mean you have to buy yoga pants or
light a candle. I mean twenty minutes a day you
quiet your mind. That means, you know, sit in that
shower you know, or stand that shower for five extra
minutes and just breathe. That means while you're stirring the
noodles at the stove, just sit there and or stand
there and breathe. I mean, sit by the window, watch

(25:02):
that sunset for five minutes and breathe, So that a
total of twenty minutes a day you've quieted your mind.
When you do that, you create a whole new neural
pathway to the preto lobe and the occipital lobe in
your brain. And now you can ask your intuition, how
might I make that resolution happen? How might I make

(25:26):
that goal happen, that vision happen? And listen and you'll
get that twenty percent of inspired action that'll get you
eighty percent impact. And it's just a practice. You don't
go to the gym and lift ten pounds and do
twenty reps and get arms that look great. You got
to do it over and over again.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
I love it. I love it. Shee Susan Whirley. You
can follow her on Twitter slash x at Susan K. Whirly. Susan,
I'm going to keep you on speed dial. We're going
to check back in in a few months and we're
going to see how this system is working for me.
And also we're going to plan our road trip to Tallapoosa,
Georgia for next year.

Speaker 11 (26:06):
I love that, and I want to remind the listeners
to go to Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video. January nineteenth,
my docu reality series comes out Shift the Gut Intelligence Blueprint,
and it's seven real life people who are using the
blueprint to shift their lives. They come in with an

(26:28):
intention and then at the very end the last episodes,
you see what happens, but boys a lot of fun
in between because they're up against challenges and you see
what do they connect with intuition or do they fall
down to a lower level of consciousness, of fear, self
doubt and judgment and get in their own way, and
you'll see your story in their story. It's really great.

Speaker 3 (26:51):
It's January nineteenth on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.
Let's circle back around with you on January nineteenth, Susan,
appreciate getting up with me today. Happy New Year, pack
your bags.

Speaker 11 (27:04):
Thank you too, Scott, if I.

Speaker 12 (27:06):
Had, I got a final lap opening hour.

Speaker 3 (27:18):
Good morning, BT, Bernie, Steve, They're here. Are you guys
ready for my story? Go for it? Have I set
the stage. It's a good one. It's a whopper. Now, Bernie,
are you you're in your thirties right, yep? I'm thirty four. Okay,

(27:40):
you're thirty four. Okay, so this might be a little
beyond you. But things were wilder in the late seventies
early eighties. I grew up on the Kentucky West Virginia border.
Like my bedroom window literally looked into from one state
to another. And I remember my aunt, my great aunt.

(28:00):
It was my grandmother's baby sister wasn't much older than
my father, so they spent a lot of time together.
They had these massive New Year's Eve parties, and everybody
worked in the coal mine, and everybody had different skills,
and her husband was a blaster. His job was to
literally blow holes in the mountain so that they could

(28:23):
mind the coal. So on New Year's Eve, his tradition
was to go back into the hill behind their house,
dig a hole, put a barrel in the hole, and
fill it with dynamite. Okay, are you following me so far?

Speaker 6 (28:39):
So?

Speaker 3 (28:39):
Oh yeah, Well, on this one particular New Year's Eve,
they would have massive parties. I need to make that's
very important. They would have massive parties and they would
all be down in the basement. The children, unfortunately, would
have to be sequestered upstairs for whatever wildness would happen.
When everybody decided to go home, could thank the Lord.

(29:00):
We all made it home safely. Well, one particular New
Year's Eve, my great uncle he started celebrating a little
earlier than normal, if you follow me, and so he
didn't go far enough back into the hills to dig
the hole and put the barrel. And when midnight came
and the button was pushed, rocks flew everywhere, including through

(29:23):
the neighbors windows. State police come. Children are crying, parties over,
people are fighting, and I'm like five years old, six
years old, seven, going, Oh my gosh, the world's the end,
It's the end of times. Needles to say, that was

(29:44):
the last year that I saw a dynamite celebration on
New Year's Eve? Did it live up to the billing
I was giving it? That was pretty close. That's pretty good,
that's pretty well. I know my inn a barrel. I
can hear it now, I can hear it now. It's
so loud, it's so loud. But again, it's a different

(30:07):
time putting dynamite in a barrel? Who does that? Seriously?
Who does that? It's amazing. We're all alive. You didn't
have to grow up through that. You're thirty four. You
came into the nineties. I mean, you've never known life
without an internet, right, No, No, I mean I've grew
up playing outside in the creek and stuff like that.

Speaker 13 (30:26):
Like it.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
I had limited screen time when I was a kid,
So it wasn't like today where you know, well we'll
have an iPad out for the baby if he's screaming
and loves dancing fruit it's you know, we had like
I had like an hour a day that I got
to play video games in the rest I was outside playing.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
I had the best, the best of both worlds. God
bless your parents. The good on them. Well they did
a wonderful They did a wonderful job. It was part
latch key kid. Well, we've all experienced that to a degree.
We'll add that to the list of therapy issues we
have to resolve. Steve, have you ever heard dynamite in
a barrel? You know, you would think, being from Florida,

(31:04):
that I would have, But no, I have never heard
of Florida man, right exactly, because I mean that's normally
how those stories anything. When I think dynamite and a barrel,
I think that that story should start with Florida man
puts dynamite in a barrel. Or hey, y'all watch this.

Speaker 7 (31:21):
I thought it was a rock group, Dynamite and a barrel.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
That's actually who I'm gonna go trademark that website right
now that that'll be that. That'll be the name of
a Boomer's autobiography, Dynamite and a Barrel. Hm, the Boomer
vun Cannon story. Yeah, the Lifetimes of a Legend.

Speaker 2 (31:40):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
I gave him the title and the subtitle. Next hour,
we got our friend Brett Winnable he's coming aboard. I'm
gonna go over. That's gonna be that's gonna be delightful.
We're gonna go over some of the top stories from
a from a national perspective. Get Brett Winnable's take on that.
Then our friend Mark Garrison, he's over in the newsroom.

(32:03):
He's going to come aboard. After that, we'll go over
what happened locally in twenty twenty five, and then we'll
try to blend them all together and chop them up
later in the hour and maybe come up with their
own list of top stories locally and nationally. Because it's
been a year, that's one way to put it. It's
been a year. We've had a lot happen, and we

(32:24):
say that every December thirty. First man, it's been a year,
But this one, I think has really been a year.
When you look at the entirety of the three hundred
and sixty five days, what does twenty twenty six hold.
I don't believe in crystal balls, I don't believe in
tarot cards. That I really wish I had an idea

(32:44):
of what was coming over the next few months here
at home, abroad, everywhere, because this past year has been
pretty uncertain. First hour, Good Morning BT, Get the.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Books from the one oho seven point nine FM wo BT,
Charlotte's FM News Talk.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
This is Good Morning BT with Bo Thompson and Beth
trout Man.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
Our number two Good Morning BT on one of seven
nine FMWBT, Scott Hamilton and for Bow and Beth. Burning's here,
Steve's here, Brett Winterble he's joining us. We got him
out of bed well before ten o'clock. Special day, it's

(33:43):
a holiday or have you been to bed? Have you
been to bed?

Speaker 6 (33:51):
Listen? I get up really early and I go to
bed kind of late. But I'm excited. This is this
is like the best day of the year as far
as I'm concerned, because we get to see the whole
globe celebrate before we get to it here. So I'm
I'm I'm excited to see how how it's progressing. You

(34:14):
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
Well and help me out because I'm geographically challenged. Every
now and then, what is the last place that twenty
twenty six will arrive? Is it somewhere out in the
middle of the Pacific? I guess yeah.

Speaker 6 (34:27):
I think it's like the Alaska kind of the tip
of the Alaska thing. Uh, because that's that's where that
dateline lays. And so yeah, this is this is really cool.
New Zealand and Australia. They're doing their thing now and
now we get to wait and see how it goes.
And that's uh, that's always fun.

Speaker 3 (34:45):
How does the winterable household acknowledge New Year's Eve? Is
there like a moment of reflection and you're sitting back
by your fireplace with a smoking jacket, sipping brandy and
you're looking at the window like Bruce Wayne or or
are you out like you know, in the gutter somewhere
just going crazy and thinking about getting a prison tattoo.

Speaker 6 (35:05):
Now, listen, it's a very middle of the road sort
of a thing. I try to stay up to midnight
and you know, try to try to celebrate and have
a little you know, we'll have like a little of
adult beverage there to celebrate the incoming and then it
will be doing with the outgoing, you know what I'm saying,

(35:25):
and going to sleep.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
But okay, I.

Speaker 6 (35:29):
Used to. I went to a couple of very exciting
New Year's Eves parties, especially in New York City when
I was living there, And good, I'm good on that account.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
I'm going to hook you up right now because you're
one of my favorite people and we discussed it last hour.
At the Matthews Community Center, they're having a balloon drop
at noon for kids, so DJ, there's some entertainment ten bucks,
Brett Winterble. You can go in there and you can
celebrate like it's twenty twenty six. You can just go nuts.

Speaker 6 (35:59):
That's cool.

Speaker 3 (36:00):
I like it.

Speaker 6 (36:01):
I'm good with it. Unfortunately, I'm gonna be on the air. Uh.
And and well, no, fortunately I'm gonna be on the air,
I should say. And it's a it's all gonna be great.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
Well, what are you okay? First of all, what are
you talking about today? Before I get into why I
brought you one?

Speaker 6 (36:16):
Okay, So, I think I think the most consequential story
that is emerging that you're not really seeing on on
the cable channels is the absolute I'm gonna I'm gonna
call it now. The Iranian regime is going down. And

(36:37):
this is a huge story and you're not really seeing
a lot of it being talked about in the American press.
But this is this is a moment that could probably
erase what happened. Uh in the late seventies with the
Iranian regime. Uh, this this terrible, terrible regime that has

(37:00):
held their people hostage and abused them and all that
sort of stuff. Watch watch for Iran to change. And
I know we've seen fits and starts over the course
of history, but I think this is for real, because
every part of that nation is looking to be free

(37:23):
and to be rejoining the rest of the world.

Speaker 3 (37:27):
Okay, And I apologize if I catch you off guard
or you're not schooled yet enough on this, but I'm
dying to know what your take. I mean, I recall
to a certain degree when all that happened. I think
it was around nineteen seventy nine when the Shah was
pushed out, the Ayatola came in, and then we had
the hostages and all that, and YadA, YadA, YadA, and

(37:48):
that Brett, we're coming up on forty six years. Yeah,
forty seven years. That's a long time. And to your point,
there have been other instances where there has been pushback,
where there have been murmuring probably the best way to
describe it, of potential change in regime, but this one
seems to have momentum. I know there are a lot

(38:08):
of protests and all that going on. What's different now?
What has prompted this now to continue to swell to
the point that you actually speculate it could be for real.

Speaker 6 (38:19):
Trump bombed the Iranian nuclear facilities and the reality is
they've been neutered, and they've had a problem with with
all of their neighbors, and there is a unified front
that I think is taking a serious look. I grew

(38:41):
up in El Paso, Texas, and I remember the day
when a number of Iranian kids that I was in
school with under the Shaw decided that they were going
to go back to Iran because Iran was becoming a
total different nation and if became a totally different as

(39:02):
you said, you know, nineteen forty seven, forty seven years.
And it's interesting because it seems that stuff like this
tends to have a timeline to it, right you think
about the Wall coming down in Europe and what was
that that was about forty years for forty five years
of being held hostage by the Soviet menace. And I'm

(39:25):
telling you, I think with Trump pushing on this, there's
a reason why he was talking with bb net and Yahoo.
This is a this is an opportunity to not to
go to war with the Iranians, but to back up
the Iranians to get rid of the regime itself. The
regime is very small relative to the population, and that

(39:46):
population is sick and tired of being sick and tired.
And I think this is this is probably the biggest
If this goes, Katie bar the door, this could be unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
Joy about Brett Winnable, host of the Brett Winnables Show,
and Brett just a couple more minutes. And here's where
I tie this incredible thought together with the original intent
to bring you on. Let's say that this does happen.
Let's say the Iranian regime falls and there's a change
in leadership. Could everything that happened with regards to that,

(40:20):
the bombing of the nuclear facility, the protests, so on
and so forth, in hindsight hears from now, could we
look back as that the first dominoes falling being the
biggest story of twenty twenty five.

Speaker 6 (40:33):
For sure. I mean, if this goes, yeah, definitely, I
think this is a big, big deal. You're seeing in
a lot of ways the stuff that is now that
is now happening around this policy picture that the Trump's
put together and Marco Rubio's put together, and the relationships
now you've got with the Saudi's and you've got the

(40:57):
accords and all that sort of stuff. They are they
are definitely isolated, and it's at every level of that
country that this stuff is happening. And you do have
somebody who's potentially going to be could potentially become the leader.
And that's the res of Pa Lavi. You know, the

(41:17):
setup that that was once upon a time, and it
was a terrible regime. But this, this this new approach
may be something that we talk about for years to come.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
He's Brett Winterbow, host of a Brett Winterbole show right
here on one of seven nine WBT. You can follow
him on Twitter slash x. I don't really call it
Expritt anyway, He's Brett Winterbole's show on there. Brett, I'm
gonna let you go. I know you've got a lot
of show pripped to do regular time today. Three to six.

Speaker 6 (41:44):
Yeah, we're three to six. We're kicking it and we're
keeping it and it's going to be great. And I
want to wish everybody out there between now and three
o'clock enjoy yourself. Pace yourself and boy, am I glad
that usc.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
Lost You are the man, brother, Well, you are the man.
Have a good one, Brett. I'll see you soon. It's
good morning on the last day of twenty twenty five.

(42:23):
What is just an odd year? To put it, mildly
odd year from a nationwide perspective, a national perspective, ID year.
From a local perspective, A lot of a lot of good,
lot of bad, lot of sad. I had a lot
of sad lately. Got Mark Garrison, our esteem news director.

(42:43):
I'm going to join us and Mark when you when
we look back at twenty twenty five, and we'll say,
you know what that was the story that defined that
year for Charlotte. What what will we pick? What will
we talk about?

Speaker 7 (42:56):
One word? Crime? Yeah, murder of Arena Zarotzka on the
light rail kicked it off. It was caught on video.
Homeless guy who should have been locked up or in
treatment killed her, and it had gotten national attention and
brought the city's crime problem into sharp focus. You know,
the cops keep saying overall crimes down. They refuse, however,

(43:17):
to talk about the fact that violence in the center
city is way up Since July crime has skyrocketed. Fraternal
Order of Police even said we need the National Guard
because they're so shorthanded, about two hundred cops.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
They're shorthanded.

Speaker 7 (43:33):
But the mayor and the city council did not like
that idea. But I think you have to say crime
is the number one story of the year.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
Yeah, no doubt. And unfortunately that's what resonated with people
from coast to coast when they thought of Charlotte because
it was on video, and it always hits different mark
when it's on video. I mean, we hear about things,
and we talk about things, but we actually see the video.
It just it makes things real. And we saw that

(44:00):
poor girl sitting on that train yep, and what happened
to her? What I mean, what is going to What
is going to be the solution to this? Mark? I mean,
the police department in general seems to be in disarray. Again,
you're more well versed in this than I am, but
I know we've had this crime, there's a rising crime,
there's a violent crime. We had the shady buyouts or

(44:22):
whatever going on at the highest levels. How do we
flush this and start over?

Speaker 7 (44:27):
Well, yeah, you mentioned the buyouts. You're talking about Johnny Jennings,
the police chief who is retiring. He got this secret
three hundred thousand dollars payoff from his pals on the
city council back in March, all because he had his
feelings hurt by some comments that a former city councilman made.
He demanded money, said I'll sue the city, So they

(44:48):
go behind closed doors and give him all this money.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
We found out.

Speaker 7 (44:51):
We were the first to find out how much he got,
and it brought a lot of outrage from people. Now
we have a new chief, and he has a good
track record in Raleigh, at least in recruiting and getting
more cops to be hired. She said that is her
number one priority. Sadly, I don't know that, Stella Patterson.

(45:11):
Those going to be much different than Johnny Jennings, especially
in dealing with the public. You know, right now the
Charlotte Police Department won't answer questions about murders and crime.
They're not helpful in setting up interviews. I mean, they're
not interested in working with the media at all. Instead,
they have told us we'll tell our own story on YouTube.

(45:32):
And so you've got these high paid video producers at
the police department who turn out stories on things like
what's it like to be a police dog? You know,
that is their that's their version of informing the public
at CMPD, And unfortunately, I'm afraid the new chief is
going to continue that nonsense.

Speaker 3 (45:51):
You know, there's a word for that. It's called propaganda.

Speaker 7 (45:53):
Yeah, exactly exactly.

Speaker 3 (45:56):
It's state operated media and state operated television and that
is absolutely horrible. Well, well, Mark, while we're on this topic,
and I guess it needs to be broached, did the
presence of ice expedite things or accelerate things as far
as the perception of law enforcement in the area. Did
it make it seem maybe more impotent or did it

(46:18):
actually seem like crime was the issue and it's not
the people actually trying to solve the crimes, but it's
just that it's so rampant.

Speaker 7 (46:24):
They well, I think the border patrol coming to town
clearly is to the second top story, and it's tied closely,
of course, to the crime issue. They came to town
and began rounding up illegals. They said they were mostly
concentrating on finding illegals with criminal backgrounds. Some Democrats challenge that,

(46:44):
but yeah, I think that's probably that in the crime story.
They're all tied closely together. I'm not sure the border
patrol necessarily would have come to town had it not
been for the light rail murder. I think that helped
spur that and then.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Correct me if I'm wrong, But I think by Liles
would her reelection be third on your list.

Speaker 4 (47:08):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (47:09):
I mean, you know, she was a shoe and to
win because I mean, the Democrats ran a worthlet or
the Republicans rather ran a newcomer who was really wasting
her time, and the Democrats who ran against Liles, they
were wasting their time. Although I mean, you know, had
a viable candidate run against her, she could have been

(47:29):
somewhat vulnerable this year because she's so badly mishandled the
Zarutzka murder. Her first statement that she issued two weeks
after the crime was sympathetic to the killer, and that
blew up in public opinion. But yeah, I think that's
one of the top stories as well, that she easily
won reelection and that now you only have one Republican

(47:50):
on the city council and the rest are Democrats, and
so the Democrats will just they're clearly just running the
city getting a Republican elected here is nearly impossible now.

Speaker 3 (48:01):
In this city council. I mean, it's it's such a
pillar of stability and instability. I mean, we think about
tia Wana Brown flaming out the way she did, but
then you have and her name escapes me right now, Mark.
But the lady who's been Velmaila Leik, I mean, she's
they're going to have to need a bulldozer together her
out of this.

Speaker 7 (48:22):
Listen, there are a lot of people who have run
against Vilma Leek, and you know, she's quite the character.
She's been on the school board for years and then
on the count now County Commission for years. But people
on the west side of town her district lover, and
so she is a political force. I also think it's
worth mentioning this was the year Senator Tom Tillis fell

(48:46):
from grace with President Trump. You'll remember Tillis would not
back Trump's big beautiful Bill. Trump then gets on truth
Social and says Tillis has got to go, and days
later Tillis announced he's not running again.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Yeah, and Tillo's one of those guys who's not going
to be back in office, who are really just screaming
things as they go out the door. I know he's
getting onto Trump now about putin, Yeah, exactly. So the
fact that now Tillis had said he had already decided
he was not running again before Trump's tirade against him.
Whether you believe that or not, I'm not sure, but

(49:23):
it is interesting that Tillis had been in Trump's favor
and then all of a sudden he wasn't. And it
just shows, you know, the power of Trump and the
Republican Party. Although as we move into the new year,
the race for Senate to replace Tillis is going to
be very interesting. Democrat Roy Cooper, you know, he may

(49:46):
very well take that seat. And Mark, I know you
got your newscast coming up. But other than crime, what
are you keeping your eye on heading into twenty twenty six.

Speaker 7 (49:56):
Hmm, that's a good question. I think the political scene
here locally, and you know, also, I think the sheriff's
race is going to be very interesting as we move
into the fall, and I think crime we are still
keeping a close eye on it. The murder meter is
well over ninety for this year again, and it's going
to be interesting too to see what the new police

(50:17):
chief does. She has promised to hire more cops and
get rid of the deficit of some two hundred officers
that we have. She's also promised to bring the crime
rate down. So I think as you move into the
new year, that's certainly worth watching as well.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
And will Mark Garson be awake tonight when the ball drops, No, sir,
I will probably be in bed before the ball drops.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
This is good morning, beat.

Speaker 3 (50:47):
Second half second hour, Good morning BT Scott Hamilton. And
for bo and Beth. They get the last day of
twenty twenty five off. Good for them, Good on them.
Bernie's here, Steve's here, I'm here, we're all working. Mark
Garrison's in the newsroom, Boomers at work, a lot of

(51:10):
other people working today not a holiday for most folks.
So we're here, we're making our money. Speaking of money,
and Bernie and Steve, I hope you're sitting down because
I'm about to drop some knowledge on you that might
might rub you the wrong way. It might it might

(51:30):
upset you a little bit. Okay, you know who Prince
William is, right? Oh yeah, Prince of Wales. You know
the tall guy who didn't who has an age very
remember when he was like a teenager, he was like
Tiger Beat Magazine heart Throb. All that didn't didn't work
out great. He started looking more like his dad. I
guess his annual salary has been revealed. You know how

(51:56):
much this dude gets paid just to be Prince William?
Take taking yes, take your guess you just I.

Speaker 4 (52:02):
Don't think I can shoo because I know what he
I know what, I know what it is. I'm gonna
guess quote unquote twenty twenty thousand.

Speaker 3 (52:09):
Dollars what about Steve? Steve? Have you cheated Steve? Do
you do? You know what he makes? Do you know
what the what Prince William makes a year to be
the prince? Only because I look at your prep sheet?
Uh huh twenty or thirty thirty million dollars a year? Wow?
Thirty million a year? Yeah, to be born? That was

(52:32):
pretty exactly. That's the requirement. You took the words out
of my mouth, all right, So here you go, q
rant thirty million a year to be born, to occupy
a position, to cut some ribbons, to kiss some babies,
to shake some hands. Where does the money go? Where

(52:53):
where does the money go? Does he have a mortgage?
Hopefully a roth Ira well, smart cryptos, NFTs what but
it's thirty million a year. He doesn't have a mortgage,
I presume because they live in castles and whatnot. He

(53:14):
doesn't have a car payment because I'm willing to bet
he doesn't drive. You know, they got chauffeurs and all that.
What if he did have a car payment, wouldn't that
be funny? Or does he have a cell phone bill?
Does he I've known an internet bill, health insurance? All
good questions. And this it comes from something called the

(53:38):
Duchy Duchy of Cornwall Estate and it was something set
up a long time ago to pay for these these
people to fund their lifestyle thirty million a year. And
I am, look, it's good work if you can find it.
But apparently there's only one person on the planet who

(54:00):
find it because he had to be born in that
particular spot. I don't know now how this makes me
feel about Prince Harry, well, the former Prince Harry. He's
just Harry now, Harry windsor Harry Mom. I don't even
know what his name is. But you know, excuse me,
he turned his back on this to go do his

(54:24):
own thing. So I kind of more impressed now, maybe
because I don't. I don't think he was getting thirty
million a year. But let's say, arbitrarily throw this out there.
He was getting five million a year just to be
Prince Harry. That's a great deal. That's a good deal man.

(54:44):
But he decided to chart his own course and come
to America with his wife, who I don't know if
I should admire him or get him psychiatric help. Thirty
million a year, no one, no wonder You hear more
and more about should they do away with the monarchy?

(55:07):
Is it antiquated? Is it actually bad for their country?
It's not the galvanizing figurehead that it once was, that's
for sure. Not like you know, when Queen Elizabeth was there.
I mean, everybody looked up to Queen Elizabeth and they
would look for her to guide and say before that,
really her father, you know, the King would unite. They

(55:29):
would give these powerful speeches and unite the country, especially
during times of war and plaanity. Now, granted, Churchill was
the guy pushing the buttons and running things YadA YadA YadA,
and doing his own great speeches. We know that, but
the king was still a galvanizing force for the entire commonwealth.

(55:50):
Now I look at it, and you know Charles, And
maybe it's because we know so much about Charles's life.
We know some of the dirty laundry that's been thrown
out there. We've heard the recordings of him saying some
pretty risque in eleude things. We just don't respect that position.

(56:12):
I don't want to call it an office because it's
not an office. I mean the monarchy. I don't really
know how you frame it. It's not an office position.
That is a station in life. This thirty million, eight
thirty million a year is what he gets paid. I'm

(56:32):
wondering how much that total estate is worth. It's the
duchy of Cornwall estate. And again it's like your short's
duchies duchy d u c h y. How do you
pronounce that duchy? Yeah? I guess, Oh, I see what
you're saying. I'm just well done. Bravo. You got me

(56:56):
on that. Hey it it was established in thirteen thirty seven. Wow,
it is. There are two two okay, duchies d u
c h i e s plural there are two royal duchies.
A type of land management and financial investment firm that
can carry the functions of a corporation. Or trust, so

(57:18):
the income is typically payable to the British Royal or
Duke of Cornwall overseeing its operations. I aspired to be
the Duke of Morsville, Lord of Trumpman. Well done, man.

(57:40):
This is eats at me. As reigning Monarch Charles now
owns the Duchy of Lincoln, so they owned the whole thing.
Thirty point nine million dollars. That's how much William got
last year.

Speaker 4 (57:55):
I need a loan from Prince William and alone, just
this kind of loone you don't pay back.

Speaker 3 (58:01):
I'd like that. Here, here's one that really make you nauseous.
The Duchy of Cornwall manages one hundred and twenty eight thousand,
nine hundred and twenty two acres of land across nineteen counties.
How much property is one hundred and twenty eight nine
hundred and twenty two acres. Put your mind around that.

(58:23):
I don't even think I guess that's a city. I'm
not that smart. Well, what's the squad? I mean, how
many acres? Would you say? Charlotte uptown Charlotte. I couldn't
even begin to guess. Scott. Let me see Charlotte. This
is Scott. Steve Say's two hundred thousand acres roughly. So yeah, okay,

(58:43):
so basically, you know, a couple of wards of Charlotte
is what this thing occupies. One hundred and twenty eight
thousand acres. I don't And I can't hate him because
he couldn't pick you know, you can't pick your parents.
I mean you could, you could, you could hate him,
you can, I guess kind of. Now in this way
you get emancipated and all that. But that's another topic

(59:04):
for another time. I'm a culay culkin type deal. It
is just thirty million dollars because the dude was born
right he hit the gene lottery. I'm really at this,
I am. Did you watch The Crown, by the way,
I didn't. My wife loves that show. It is actually

(59:24):
pretty good up until like the last couple of seasons.
And that's why I have this knowledge of the royal family.
I mean, I wouldn't say I'm an expert by any
stretch of the imagination, but I have rudimentary knowledge of
it thanks to that show. John Lithgow in that show,
I don't think so, but you know he doesn't. I thought,

(59:45):
oh yeah, he was Winston Church. See he's such a
good actor. I didn't even recognize him. And then Gillian
Anderson is Margaret Thatcher, the lady from the X Files
making a final lap. Second hour, Good Morning BT one

(01:00:06):
O seven nine FM to w a BT, Charlotte's news
talk station. We've got Dana Falk coming up. She's uh,
she's going to join us top of next hour. Dana.
Dana is a catering and event expert. She operates, so
she's the founder and CEO of The Hungry Fan. You

(01:00:29):
might be interested in that Bernie and Steve The Hungry Fan,
and she specializes in like tailgating food and party foods.
I just want to get hurt. Well well, her fun
fact Dana Falk, daughter of David Falk, agent of Michael Jordan,

(01:00:50):
connect the dots. I wonder if she caters Mjay's events.
So well, we're gonna ask her though about out New
Year's Eve. What people can do, you know, to have
a nice get together without going crazy? Get her thoughts
on past New Year's Eves, so on and so forth.

(01:01:12):
By the way, this New Year's Eve sports wise, pretty
big deal. Quarterfinal of the College football Playoff. They start
tonight seven point thirty on ESPN number ten Miami versus
number two Ohio State's Cotton Bowl. Oh, we have NBA today,
the Warriors at Hornets one o'clock. I don't know how

(01:01:36):
I feel about that. One o'clock. They're probably going to
get boat raced. Well, Steph play. I guess Steph will play.
It's hometown, Hebi plays. He better play. The whole load
management thing. Just ReBs me raw we my son and I.
We went to the Lakers game, I think it was

(01:01:58):
last month, Lakers at Hornets and know Lebron. He was
a bummer. I want. I wanted to be able to
say I saw them. Yeah, I mean I didn't get
to see Lebron. I don't care well, but I wanted
to be able to say he's a baby. So if
you could care less, then you actually are passionate about true. Yeah. Yeah,
I said that. I couldn't care any less than I

(01:02:21):
do about Lebron James. I just wanted to be able
to say I saw him. Yeah, I guess that's fair.

Speaker 4 (01:02:27):
I'm just I'm not a big Lebron fan myself, but
it's you can't help but you know, admire what the
body of work he's put together over you know, twenty
plus years in the NBA. I mean, it's agree on
the court. He's uh, it's pretty incredible, but he's not.

Speaker 3 (01:02:41):
He's not my goat. I covered Michael Jordan's return from
his second retirement when he was with the Wizard. I
covered his train Dude, it was insane. I there's a
picture and I'll try to dig it up as I
can find it. When we would do the post practice media,

(01:03:03):
you know, and you go in the interview players, they
would set up chairs around him so that the crowds
went and swarm of reporters and there's a picture of somebody,
some very industrious, very clever photographer got up into like
above us, like in the bleachers at Trash Colliseum, because
training camp was in Wilmington and shot down, and you

(01:03:24):
could see the circle of media around him and then
the chairs keeping them separated. It was it was a
clown show. It was a clown show. The only thing
I've ever seen like it was Tiger Palooza when when
Tiger Woods was at the peak of his powers. Oh yeah,
that was a different vibe. Man. And you know Tiger

(01:03:46):
Tiger turned fifty yesterday. By the way, he needs to
join the Chance say, well, okay, And that's that's what
I'm kind of going to lead into here. If he's healthy,
I think he will and he's kind of hinted at it,
kind of addressed it. He will play on the Champions Tour.
What does it do for that organization? I mean instant

(01:04:10):
he's competitive, I mean instant boost. Yeah, golf.

Speaker 4 (01:04:14):
Instant golf is a better sport when Tiger Woods is
competing at a high level, whether it's in the on
the Champions Tour, I mean, people will people will watch
the Champions Tour purely because they want to see Tiger Woods.

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
If he's competitive and can stay healthy. That's the big question.
Though I covered golf a long time, you know, my
time at Golf Week and all that, and it's been
said that Tiger doesn't move the needle, that he is
the needle, and that's that's one hundred percent true. It's
one hundred percent true. Think about this, Bernie. We've seen
athletes be successful in the business world. Michael Jordan has

(01:04:52):
been unbelievable as as a businessman. I mean, you can
question how good of the owner he is, but other
than that, he's really good at being a businesiness man.
Really good. You could argue he's a great businessman too.

Speaker 4 (01:05:03):
He doubled his doubled his work just with the hornets,
I mean, yeah, just I mean even though the hornets
hadn't produced very well on the court there. I mean,
I think he bought in for like that was it,
half a billion dollars and sold them for multiple like
two billion or something like that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:17):
Yeah, the wins and losses ledgers aren't anything compared to
the business ledgers, right right, But Tiger, I mean we're
talking his impact. It's hard to quantify his total impact.
It is economically culturally okay, when he this is a fact,

(01:05:37):
and you can you can check this out. When he
had all that happened to him in two thousand and nine,
when he hit the tree, the naked bodies fell out
and he came out.

Speaker 14 (01:05:45):
About what kind of private life he was looking, YadA YadA. Yeah, yeah,
well for the infidelity and all that. You mean, like
the skeletons in the closet. Correct, I've never heard of
someone called naked bodies. I should trademark that that is.

Speaker 3 (01:05:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:05:58):
I think that made and they made make people think
that he had naked bodies in his car when he crashed.

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
Well that might be as well, but I guess but
sponsors dropped him. A lot of sponsors dropped him. Gatorad
dropped him, to tag Hower, I believe eventually dropped him.
I read a report that his scandal when the infidelities
came out and the aftermath of it, cost shareholders of

(01:06:26):
variopenies upwards of fifteen fifteen billion dollars. Wow. Name me
another individual that can have his personal life impact corporate
world like that? Nobody and Nike. Nike basically created an
entire golf division just to cater to him. Okay, And

(01:06:47):
when he stopped playing really you know, competitively around twenty sixteen,
after he got that DUI because of the ambient and
all of that and his body was breaking down for good,
Nike shuddered, It's golf division and said, you know what,
We're gonna go back to what we do. We make shoes,
and we make apparel. They were making balls and clubs
basically for him. There were other dudes playing with that stuff,

(01:07:10):
but he was the dude. And if he wasn't out
there using that equipment selling that stuff, they it wasn't
sustainable for them. Think about that and Nike's a big
company man, and shutter a whole to create a division,
and shutter a division depending upon one individual. That's his impact.
Golf courses. There are so many golf courses that popped

(01:07:33):
up because of Tiger so many, you know, a lot
of them shut down. I get it because of the
whims of the economy. But no other athlete. You could
say Michael Jordan, you could say Babe Ruth. Those are teams.
It's not apples to apples. Nobody's ever had the impact
of a Tiger Woods. You know what we got Chris

(01:07:54):
McClean from Mac and BONEFNZ. He's going to come off
about nine fifteen. I think I'm gonna get his take
on it. Tiger Woods turning fifty man, unbelievable. Dana Falk
of the Hungry Fan. On the other side, you're listening
to Good Morning BT.

Speaker 1 (01:08:17):
From a one oh seven point nine at FOUM WBT
Charlotte's f M News Talk.

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
This is Good Morning BT with both Thompson at the
Beth Troutman.

Speaker 3 (01:08:39):
Kicking off the third hour of Good Morning BT BO
and Beth not in Scott Hamilton. Here, Ernie's here, Steve's here,
markson and news room boomers doing boomer stuff. It's New
Year's Eve, the very last day of twenty twenty five.

(01:09:03):
I don't know how I feel about it. I mean,
I know we're getting older, but there's still the excitement
of a new year. What to look forward to, you know,
in twenty twenty six, and we had a Susan whirleyon
during the six o'clock hour and we were talking to
her about New Year's resolutions and how to manifest positive
things from positive thinking and really commit to being our

(01:09:27):
best selves and all that. And that's great, that's great.
Everybody should put in work on their selves, but just
have a little short term fun. Also, a lot of
people are going out tonight, a lot of people are
staying in tonight, maybe having people come over. There are
different ways to celebrate. You can celebrate alone, you can

(01:09:51):
celebrate with people at your home. You can have a
large group of people, a small group of people where
you mout and YadA YadA. I've done all that at
some point in my life. I don't don't know what
I like best. The older I get, the more intimate
I like it. But I still want to feel like
I'm able to have fun that I'm able to really
acknowledge the moment, and we're efforting Dana Falk. Now she

(01:10:18):
is the founder and CEO of The Hungry Fan, and
she's really she really is not mean this, and we
go back aways. Whenever there's a big event, I like
to lean on her to say, Hey, what's the proper
way to acknowledge this event? It could be New Year's Eve,
he could be Super Bowl, could be final for whatever,
something like that. What's the best way, what's the okay,

(01:10:40):
what's the most cost effective way? And what are some
ways to do it simply but make it look like
it's not simple? You know, Dana is that guy or
that person, that lady. She's able to pull that off
just really common sense approached all kinds of things. And
I think we got her now. Dana, are you here?

Speaker 6 (01:10:58):
I am here?

Speaker 2 (01:10:59):
Hello?

Speaker 3 (01:11:00):
Are you awake? Are you up? And at them?

Speaker 15 (01:11:03):
I'm awake. I don't know about up and Adam, but yeah,
I'm awake.

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
I'm here.

Speaker 3 (01:11:10):
What's uh what's New Year's Eve look like for Dana Falk?
This evening?

Speaker 16 (01:11:14):
Uh?

Speaker 15 (01:11:14):
Well, this evening it's actually uh you were talking about intimate.
It's just going to be family. Uh, this evening. Usually
we have friends over.

Speaker 11 (01:11:24):
My kids.

Speaker 15 (01:11:25):
We've actually all been a little sick, so we're just
sort of keeping it to ourselves just in case we're
still a little sick. We don't want to get anybody
else sick. But usually we'll have friends over, or we'll
go to a friends and bring food. But no matter what,
you know, if we're here or somewhere else, I'm usually cooking.

Speaker 3 (01:11:42):
So I am fascinated by you, and I'm fascinated by
what you do because you're able to make everything festive,
every every event is a celebration. Or Yeah, I mean really,
you've you've really done a good job, and you've you've
taken hold of a space that I don't think gets
enough tension. I mean, the hungry fan in and of itself,

(01:12:03):
has a huge demographic that goes underserved. People who like
to tailgate, people who like to get together and watch
sporting events. So I think you've really tapped into something there.
So when it comes to something like New Year's Eve
in twenty twenty five, given the if if I were
to come to you, Dana Faul, can I say, Dana,
how should I spend New Year's Eve? And how can

(01:12:25):
I do it on a budget. What would you tell me?

Speaker 15 (01:12:30):
I would definitely tell you to stay in stuff, for sure,
because as I'm sure you've experienced at some point as
an adult, at some point, everybody goes out to dinner
at least once on New Year's Eve. And I think
the thing that you discovered pretty quickly is the food's
all service is terrible. I like to call it the
C team because the A team and the B team
all have off because it's New Year's Eve, so you know,

(01:12:54):
and it's a prefixed menu. Rarely are you going to
order like a la carte, just going to give you
the order a certain number of you know, covers is
what they call it, and in the restaurant for people,
and that's it, and it's usually kind of a letdown,
and you kind of can't help but think, like, gosh,
like for a quarter of this much money, I could
have bought my own ingredients, and maybe for a little

(01:13:16):
bit more, I could have even sprung for like a
nice wine or some bubbly right. But you know, in
a restaurant or anywhere you go out, there's always margin.
They're going to mark it up. You could certainly do
it yourself. Assuming that you you know, have the willingness
to try. That's that's really all it takes, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
Uh, talk radio is also like restaurants there on holidays
they bring in the seed team. So that's me. I'm third.
I'm not QB one, I'm QB three. Just being honest
with you, Dana. Now here's something I do wonder though,
it is is food cyclical? And by that I mean,

(01:13:53):
here we have New Year's Eve twenty twenty five, and
I'm going to stay home, I'm going to prepare something
for my family or for some guests. What are people
preparing tonight as opposed to what they were preparing five
years ago, ten years ago. Is there a hot trend
in in that kind of space that people need to monitor?

Speaker 15 (01:14:15):
I mean, I've actually seen It's funny you say that.
Most of the time, I would say, I feel like
people generally just prepare whatever they deem to be like
one level up from what they would normally prepare. Because
tonight it's like a quote unquote, you know, fancy night.
So you know, if you're not usually going to go
throw some steaks on the grill or whatever tonight might
be to that you do it? What I have seen

(01:14:37):
a lot of is like the beef Wellington type dish
where you have the beef that's wrapped in the puff pastry.
I've seen on Instagram a lot of people making that recently,
which I think is sort of interesting because that's like
a very old dish, Like that's an old, stodgy, like
old timey recipe that has been brought back and it

(01:14:59):
looks super fancy. It's really not that fancy, particularly because
you can just go buy puff pastry. Like I would
never tell you go make it unless you're a big
fan of like the Great British Speaking Show and you've
learned how to do.

Speaker 16 (01:15:12):
It by watching.

Speaker 15 (01:15:14):
Other than that, I would say, just go buy your
puff pastry. I've seen that done and it certainly does
look really nice. And I've seen that I thought, I
really thought that was quite interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:15:26):
Yeah, I'm not into that show. I do like Barbecue
Brawl and Bobby Flay's Triple Threat, but we'll talk about
that all the year. I find it interesting though, when
you bring up a good point. Has the proliferation of
social media, specifically Instagram and perhaps Pinterest, has it changed
your business and way people approach to entertaining and serving guests.

Speaker 15 (01:15:49):
I mean, sure, I think that's how people get a
lot of inspiration. That's that's where you know it comes from.

Speaker 3 (01:15:55):
Me.

Speaker 15 (01:15:55):
You still always just have to go buy cookbooks and
figure out, you know, what in the cookbook was interesting
to you. It's kind of like buying a record, you know,
like you get like eleven to fifteen songs, but maybe
you only like two of them. But now you could
just go online and see what people are cooking up,
see the pictures, and pick out your recipes from there,
which I think. I mean, certainly it's fun. It's like

(01:16:17):
food porn twenty four to seven, which is great, but
it's also great for inspiration.

Speaker 3 (01:16:24):
Are there certain things that people need to consider or
to avoid the when they're looking at these things on
social media?

Speaker 6 (01:16:31):
Oh?

Speaker 15 (01:16:32):
I mean, you know, like people who make these dishes
for social media, generally speaking, art probably fairly advanced in
the kitchen, So there's that. Other than that, I mean,
some dishes require a lot of gizmos and instruments, you know,
so sort of when you're selecting your dish, you might

(01:16:53):
want to take a look at the ingredients a to
see how readily accessible those are to you in your
town with your supermarket, with what you have access to,
and two what the next steps? Like the ingredients you
look at first, then you look at the preps. How
difficult is that, you know if they were written, if
they've written at the prep steps for you, it seems

(01:17:15):
a little bit more than you're willing to bite off.
Maybe find something else because New Year's Eve, you know,
the thing is you go out, you get your ingredients,
you start to cook. If you screw up, I'm not
sure that the grocery stores are open on that long length.
They might always be because it's holiday, so you might
you might want to make something that you feel like

(01:17:37):
you can definitely accomplish from steps one to finish.

Speaker 3 (01:17:41):
Yeah, the grocery stores don't have a seed team. She's
Dana Faulk of The Hungry Fan. You follow her on
Twitter slash x at the Hungry Fan. Dana. One last
question before I let you go. Super Bowl coming up,
and that is literally your super Bowl in your business,
I would presume do you have anything special planned? Do
you have any events planned? What? What are you doing
this year maybe that you've not done in years past.

Speaker 15 (01:18:05):
Well, I'm probably going to try out some of my
I actually use. It's like a testing ground for a
couple of rescue ideas that I might have for Super
Bowl with the people that I invite over. I usually
just invite people over.

Speaker 6 (01:18:18):
That's my thing.

Speaker 15 (01:18:19):
I used to go to super Bowl parties. Now I
host super Bowl parties. So I just I'll start cooking
a few days before and uh yeah, and go to town.
It's it's the zero calorie day, you know, the zero
calories going in my body. I can eat whatever I want.

Speaker 3 (01:18:34):
So I tell myself, go to town. I'm going to
text you my address. I expect to be a part
of this shindig.

Speaker 6 (01:18:41):
Man, you got it.

Speaker 3 (01:18:43):
You got alrighty day to Faulk of the hungry fan, Dana,
get back to bed. Appreciate you joining us this morning.

Speaker 15 (01:18:49):
Happy New Year, thank you, Happy New Year to you too.
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 (01:18:54):
This is good morning, Beat, Good morning b G Bo
and Beth not in scott Hamilton. Here for another hour
and thirty eight minutes, the best of tomorrow. Then I'm

(01:19:17):
back in this seat on Friday. So let me get
this straight. They feel comfortable, they being the powers that
be Bo and Beth and presumably their superiors, are comfortable
handing me the keys to not only close out twenty
twenty five, but usher in twenty twenty six. So I Chris,

(01:19:40):
as you are, Scott, I am shocked, young man, shocked,
and it means I can set the tone for an
entire year or click create a god awful mess that
they spend the next twelve months trying to scrub clean
the choices. I think, I think I'll I'm gonna go
for the former, not the latter. I'm gonna try I
do a good job. I'm doing the best I can

(01:20:05):
right now. I'm just trying to put a bow on
twenty twenty five. Looking at this now. The weather, so
we're supposed to be in the fifties by this afternoon,
should be in the forties this evening and around thirty
degrees come midnight. So that's a positive. That's a win.
Because it was cold this morning. Brother, yes it was,
but there's no rain. Think the Lord Verrually. New Year's

(01:20:29):
Eve events all over and and some for kids. And
it bears repeating because this one. We talked about it
during the first hour ten thirty this morning to Matthews
Community Center. They're going to do the balloon drop that
starts then DJ Entertainment countdown to noon in a balloon drop.

(01:20:49):
Here's my question, and if one of the members of
the industrious Good Morning BT staff could figure this out,
where in the world will it be mid night at
twelve o'clock Eastern time, because it'll be turning to twenty
twenty six somewhere at noon while these children and other
people are are taken in the balloon drop at the

(01:21:11):
Matthews Community Center. Tickets for ten dollars, by the way,
But where would they be celebrating the new year? That's
that's my question right now. And then also we reference
this at ten thirty at the Pineville Library, free puppet
show kids two to seven or age fifty. I got

(01:21:32):
my hand in the year, Steve, American Samoa will be
celebrating the new year at noon today, American Samoa. That's
what That's what Steve says. So is that is that?

Speaker 6 (01:21:43):
Actually? How what was that?

Speaker 3 (01:21:45):
Howland Island? Baker and Howland Island?

Speaker 2 (01:21:48):
This role?

Speaker 6 (01:21:49):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:21:49):
I got how far is that?

Speaker 13 (01:21:51):
Now?

Speaker 3 (01:21:51):
I'm married and I got a baby. I can't. I
can't just go, Scott, we just go Let's see if
they got a Hampton end a use some points.

Speaker 4 (01:21:59):
Steve Wigo.

Speaker 3 (01:22:00):
Deeve says, cash in some Hilton points. Well head over,
hey man, they got it. They got they don't have
a Hilton, but they got they got a Courtyard by Marriott.
We'll go to that one.

Speaker 4 (01:22:07):
You ask George, George is a traveler himself. You could
take George with it.

Speaker 3 (01:22:10):
George, George travel most interesting guys, is big guy. And
I went, well, he does? He does? Do you nailed that?
And I'm glad Steve is with us, but George's big
golf guy. I would like to have gotten his take
on Tiger turning fifty yesterday. That would have been a

(01:22:31):
good one for George to elaborate on his thoughts on
Tiger Woods turning fifty years old. I remember when Michael
Jordan turned fifty. I mean it was just like, oh
my god, Michael Jordan's fifty years old. Now he's sixty three.
I think. Anyway back to New Year's UH, several big
cities around a planet not having celebrations due to UH

(01:22:56):
terrorist threats or worries over safety or other issue is prudent, bummer,
but prudent. It's just that where we are at Sydney, Australia,
dialing back some things in wake of some recent incidents
they've had over there. I'm hoping things go okay in

(01:23:18):
Charlotte the last couple of years uptown and around Rome Air,
Bern Park and so forth for different events July fourth
and whatnot, have it gone great? And that backs up
Mark Garrison's point. Last hour, we had Mark on to
talk about the top stories of twenty twenty five and
crime the dominant narrative. Mark was one hundred percent spot on,

(01:23:42):
and he talks about the murder meter and all that
and and that's not sensationalism, that's that's a legitimate thing,
and it's it's the It is the biggest problem facing
our community at this moment, and it does look like
it's going to be fixed anytime soon, because I'm questioning
how it's being addressed. It's not like it's snuck up

(01:24:04):
on us either, been trending upward for several years now.
And the video of the young lady being killed on
the train just drove it home even further. Again, everything
hits different when it comes to video, and that video
is just appalling and troubling on so many different levels.

Speaker 13 (01:24:25):
This is Good Morning GT with both Thompson and Beth
trout Man, I'm making a final lap third hour, Good
morning bet.

Speaker 3 (01:24:48):
On New Year's Eve. Five man, Ugh, it's not going
to be here much longer. Twenty twenty six. Right around
the corner. Chris McClain from the Mac and Bone Show
on ninety two seven w FN, it's going to join

(01:25:08):
us about ten minutes, twelve minutes, gonna get his top
sports stories of the year. I have to think the
Panthers are up there, especially if they wrap up a
playoff spot. Would that go down as the top story
in Charlotte Sports for twenty twenty five? Even though it

(01:25:29):
has yet to be completely written? Could it be the
PGA championship over at Quail Hollow, Scotti Scheffler doing Scotti
Scheffler things. What about what about the Greg Biffle tragedy?
Does that count as a sports story? I'm wondering, well
as Chris McClean when he comes on next hour and

(01:25:51):
speaking of Greg Biffle, A memorial service to honor Greg
Biffle and the six other people who died in this
month's States will plane crash. It's gonna be January sixteenth
at Bo Jingles Colisseum. We should get the preliminary report

(01:26:12):
in a couple of weeks outlining what initial indications are. Again,
preliminary report for that crash. The final investigation take about
a year and a half. And we got the awful
news the other day yesterday, really about Denny Hamlin's father
dying in that house fire. Denny Hamlin's mom, she's critical condition.

(01:26:38):
Last I read in a hospital and it was their anniversary.
It was their anniversary that came to light. I'm like, man,
it's just bad news all the way around. So our
prayers go out to that family. Our prayers go out
to the Biffles in the was, to those others who

(01:27:01):
were killed in that that States Will plane crash. Here's
some post office news. That's That's a sentence I never
thought I would utter. Here is some post office news,
some postal news. Bernie and Steve, let me ask you
guys this, When was the last time either of you
mailed something actually like put a stamp on it and

(01:27:23):
dropped it in a box, or oh, put a stamp
on something.

Speaker 4 (01:27:25):
I mean I've gone to like ups or the postal
office you know, recently to drop off some things that
they can send it.

Speaker 3 (01:27:30):
But I did that last week.

Speaker 4 (01:27:35):
We have some cristiest cards of the mail local listeners tea.

Speaker 3 (01:27:39):
All right, the US Postal Service is adjusting it's postmark process. Okay.
You know when you get something that's got that stamp
on it, and it's got a date, and that's used
to indicate the date when the mail was dropped into
a mailbox or submitted at the post office counter. So
to your point, when you sent the Christmas cards, they

(01:28:00):
stamped all right, Well, going forward, that postmark is now
going to reflect the date that an envelope is first
processed by an automated sorting machine. That this could be
problematic because for decades the postmark has been proof that

(01:28:21):
an individual made a certain deadline. Think about filing your taxes,
think about submitting a ballot and an election, getting a
bill paid. Yeah, oh well you look at the postmark.
I'll sent it in on time. Well, it's going to
be different now, So you got to If they're not
on top of their game at the post office, you
could be on the hook. You could be on the hook.

(01:28:45):
So you've got to make sure you know, and they say, oh,
what to alleviate this, just get it in early. Well
you could do that all along people aren't going to
do that. Maybe this is the way of forcing people
to do it, you know. And I get that a lot,
like you know, I'm running late, or I'm sorry I'm late,
or you know, well, if if you're in that big
of a hurry, you need to be somewhere, leave earlier.

(01:29:07):
That's that's my deal. I can't stand late. I can't
stand people who run late. That's just I think it's disrespectful.
But now I'm on a tirade back to the post office.
They say folks can go inside the local post office
and as for a hand stamped manual postmark for that date,
or they can use certified mail. Those are two solutions.
So if you have something that's critical that has to

(01:29:30):
be somewhere and it has to show that you sent
it by a certain date, you're gonna need to walk
inside and say put a stamp on this, got to
get this stamped.

Speaker 2 (01:29:46):
This is uh.

Speaker 3 (01:29:47):
This is going to throw some people, like old school people.
This is going to throw them a curveball.

Speaker 6 (01:29:54):
My mom.

Speaker 3 (01:29:55):
I could see my mom getting sideways over this. Over
a post post stage stamp of all things, or the
official stamp. Chris McClean macam bone show. He's going to
join us. We'll go over the top supports stories of
twenty twenty five and maybe maybe get his take on

(01:30:16):
tonight's Ohio State Texas quarterfinal matchup in the College Football
Playoff and maybe discuss Tiger Woods turning fifty yesterday LT
Ray fifty. You're listening to Good Morning BT on one
of seven nine WBT.

Speaker 1 (01:30:38):
From one oh seven point nine f M WBT, Charlotte's
f M News Talk. This is Good Morning BT with
Bo Thompson at BEV.

Speaker 2 (01:30:48):
Trout Ben.

Speaker 3 (01:31:01):
Fourth hour, Good Morning BT, Bo and Beth Off getting
ready for New Year's Eve, Shenanigans, Scott Hamilton Year for
the next fifty three minutes, Bernie at the Steel Wheels,
Steve over in a little corner doing Steve stuff. Final
day of twenty twenty five, and we've gone over local
news stories of the year, we went over national news

(01:31:23):
stories of the year. How about sports stories? After all,
today's a big day in sports. The college football Playoff
quarterfinals begins tonight the Cotton Bowl seven point thirty Ohio
State and Miami. And we're also also in between that
and Tiger Woods' fiftieth birthday that was yesterday, Tiger fifty

(01:31:46):
years old. Maybe on the Champions Tour. I will be
there and I will pray to God that they bring
back the senior event in Hickory that was shuddered a
few years back. Just a fantastic tournament. But I digress.
Let's dive into those top new stores. He's of twenty
twenty five joining us now. He's the co host of
the Mack and Bone Show over on our sister station

(01:32:06):
ninety two seven w F and Z. It's Chris McClean, Mack, good.

Speaker 16 (01:32:10):
Morning, got a happy New year? Man, what's going on? Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:32:16):
Just trying to get this over with without getting sued
or banned from the station or anything like that.

Speaker 16 (01:32:23):
Question the wrong person joining you? Man, I'm bad dude,
So I forget you.

Speaker 3 (01:32:27):
In trouble you are? Yeah, don't sell yourself short judge
or tremendous slouch. I got to ask you this, Mac,
and just my initial impression. And again you're the expert
when it comes to Charlotte Area of Sports. Is the
number one story right now twenty twenty five, Charlotte Area
of Sports. The Panthers possibly making the playoff or can

(01:32:48):
we not determine it until they actually do if it's
the top story or not.

Speaker 16 (01:32:52):
Yeah, obviously it cranks it up, you know, gazillion notches
if they can win on Saturday and get in, or
or if they lose and then the Falcons beat the
Saints and they take the most NFC Southway possible to
get into the playoffs, but cranks the story up. I
think it's got to be right up there anyway. I
mean just kind of the emergence of the Panthers as

(01:33:14):
a team that quite honestly does not stink. You know,
now they have moments they stink. Anybody that watched the
offense against Seattle the other day, I mean, this team,
what is it now? We're a ten week, ten games
of win one, lose one. But if we could take
a step back from the aggravation of the inconsistency, that's
major progress from the first seven years in a David

(01:33:37):
Tepper era, when it felt like we were consistent but
consistently bad. So I think, you know, yeah, maybe recency bias.
We're caught up in it right now, but it feels
like the biggest thing happened in Charlotte sports is even
if the Panthers do fall short, I think we're going
to be so cranked up this offseason about what kind
of additions are going to be made, because in the organization,
I think most people that cover this team, I think

(01:33:58):
feel like they kind of felt. They wouldn't come out
and say it, but I think the organization kind of felt, hey,
maybe this year is the year before the year to
kind of set up the breakthrough next year. They might
be a year earlier than they thought, and that would
be awesome. But I think the Panthers improvement and kind
of emergence has to be right up there. There's no
doubt about it.

Speaker 3 (01:34:17):
But Mack, you're talking like the Panthers actually have a plan.
Could that be true that they've actually had a plan
all along for this?

Speaker 16 (01:34:25):
Maybe that's maybe that's the way we put the first
sports story in Charlotte. It's the Panthers appear to have
a plan, because I don't think there's any doubt that,
you know, when David Tepper is the part of the plan,
I believe, actually believe it or not, has been David
Tepper stepping back and letting the guys that are actually
football people do their thing. He hired Dan Morgan as
the g promoter. Dan Morgan a GM Dan and Dave

(01:34:49):
Tepper decided to bring in Dave Canalis, a guy who
Dan knew from their Seattle days together, and he's really
backed off even brought in, you know when, during that
hiring process, brought in a third party organism to kind
of audit the Panthers organization give him feedback on what
should be improved that the forty nine ers use this,
the Lions use this, and so I think there's a
lot of good signs there. You know, we could joke

(01:35:10):
about it, certainly, because there's often not a plan in
Charlotte sports in general, but it does really feel like
they are much better run right now.

Speaker 3 (01:35:21):
Yeah, and I agree, and you touch on my next
point that they're often not doesn't seem to be a
plan for Charlotte sports in general, but kind of dovetailing
on what you just said about David Tepper stepping back,
letting the football guys do the football stuff and he
handles everything else. I have to, at this moment, and
I'm going to humble myself by saying this, I have to,

(01:35:41):
at this moment think that David Tepper has done a
good job of elevating sports in Charlotte by what he's
done with the Panthers by stepping away, but also with
Charlotte FC, he's showing that he is a good business
man if he sticks to the business side of things.

Speaker 16 (01:35:56):
What's your take, Well, first of all, I think you
humbling yourself is also one the biggest sports stories of
the year. No, I'm kidding all right, anyway, No, I
agree with you one hundred percent. And I think that
the thing with soccer, I'm a big I'm a big
soccer not to understand a lot of it is a
polarizing sports. Some people love love it and some people don't.
But I think the one thing that to me has

(01:36:17):
been evident with FC all along is David Tepper has
realized all along, man, I don't know who these players
are that we're bringing in from Europe. You know that
we're bringing in from South America. I think that was
a very easy one for him to stick to the
business side and let people do their thing. You know,
Orne Cornett, who's basically the GM, you know, sporting director

(01:36:39):
is the title basically the GM let him, you know,
kind of work and bring in players, and they've done
an amazing job in that respect. So I think that
came easier to him. I think the football thing. You know,
he's a minority owner for years with the Steelers. He
grew up, you know, locked in the football. I think
I think the football thing is one was harder for
him to kind of step away from. But I do
think there's a parallel it Now. Maybe it feel like

(01:37:00):
he's treating it more like he has the soccer team.
The soccer team's going to the playoff three straight times.

Speaker 3 (01:37:06):
Wow. I did not realize that, and I thought of
it at first, Mac, you know, because I'm not a
soccer guy. I don't understand the nuances of the sport.
I looked at it almost like minor league baseball. I
was going for the event. Everybody's sitting around channing, they're
wearing scarves. It seems so European, so continental. But then
I got into it a little more and I saw
a good product on the field, and I'm like, holy crap,

(01:37:28):
this is something really wonderful. I'm wondering how far they
can take this thing as far as growing it in
the fan experience.

Speaker 16 (01:37:35):
Yeah, it was a great addition to the sports city.
It really is the atmosphere on its own right. And
David Tepper up front. His whole thing was, you know,
at those early press conferences, you know, when Charlotte got
the team, his early thing was, are you ready to party?
Charlotte like, he embraced kind of the party side of soccer,
you know, and I think that's brought in a certain
amount of people. Soccer also is such a big and
so many of your listeners know this such a big

(01:37:57):
youth soccer area. Riley is as well, really this state is,
so I think there's so many soccer families out there,
you know, of kids that play and parents that are
soccer parents. I think that it's a nice blend of that.
The supporters, I mean, it's unlis. I love Panther fans,
I love Hornet fans, but the supporters, as they call
it on the soccer side, that supporter section is the

(01:38:17):
most insane collection of sports fans you will ever find.
Behind one of those goals there, they don't stop singing
and chanting all match long, and it's just a different atmosphere.
And the team's been good. The challenge for them in
the new year is breaking through. Though they've been in
the postseason three straight years, they haven't broke through to
the second round. So that's the challenge for them. But

(01:38:39):
then you've got you know, we got the Panthers in
the Hornets. We're just begging them to get into dang postseason.
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:38:45):
My last question for Chris McClain to the Mack and
Bone Show in ninety two seven wfn Z. Would Chris
McClain pay money to see Tiger Woods play on the
Champions Tour.

Speaker 16 (01:39:00):
I don't know, Probably not, but I hope he can though.
I mean, I hope he can be healthy enough to play,
you know what I mean. I just that's that's what
I want for him at this point I tune in
on TV. I'm not gonna lie to you about that.
I just want him to be healthy enough to play.
I will say this, when you said he was that
he has turned at fifty, that was a I don't

(01:39:21):
know about you, that was a damn, we're getting old moment,
you know.

Speaker 3 (01:39:26):
God. Yeah, it seems like just the other day the
whole Hello World deal in Milwaukee, and then you know,
running Away with the Masters, and you know, two thousand,
two thousand, the most dominant sports scene or sports season
in history, at least on an individual level, by any
athlete ever. I'll throw that out there was twenty five
years ago.

Speaker 16 (01:39:45):
It's crazy, like you're bringing up these moments. I remember,
like where I was watching the ninety seven Masters and
I remember that two thousand year and talking about it,
you know on e Rasio. It's like, that's another science
guy to getting old, Like when you when when you
like something happened just recently, but you're like, I know,
I was twenty five years ago. God, it's flying CON's

(01:40:05):
Flying Man.

Speaker 3 (01:40:06):
Well that and my third trip to the bathroom last
night around two thirty in the morning. But we'll break
that down on the Health show later today.

Speaker 16 (01:40:13):
I do want to shout out the Hornets and con Kinnipple.
I do think con Kin Nipple's rookie season. It also
has to get a mention in those Charlotte sports stories.
The kid is so ridiculously good and he becomes the
most recent guy that I did not want a Charlotte
team to draft that ends up being a star. This

(01:40:34):
goes all the way back to Cam Newton and Luke Keigley.
Matter of fact, I don't even know why I'm on
here as an expert.

Speaker 6 (01:40:39):
Scottie.

Speaker 16 (01:40:40):
I've had some rough moments of pre draft predictions.

Speaker 3 (01:40:44):
I will say this. I went to the Lakers game,
I believe it was last month, and I came away thinking,
how did Duke not win a national title with him
and Cooper Flag?

Speaker 16 (01:40:53):
Oh yeah, no that and that's another that's a local
sports story. Is how good that talent group was and
that they blew that against Houston and didn't win. It's amazing.
And by the way, you could also go down the
road if we were doing in state stories and national
stories that Bill Belichi Bill Belichick mess in Chapel Hill
has been captivating, aggravating, scintillating. It's been all that stuff. Man,

(01:41:16):
it's been crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:41:18):
Yeah, but they gave us next year too. We got
Bobby Petrino to break down. He's Chris McLean, host of
The Mac and Bones to ninety seven wfn Z. You
can follow him on Twitter, slash x at Mac w
f and Z. Mac appreciate you coming on this morning. Brother,
Go back to your day off, go back to take
a nap. Get rid for tonight. We'll catch up with
you in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 16 (01:41:37):
All right, man, have a great new year. Scott.

Speaker 2 (01:41:40):
This is good morning, Bat.

Speaker 3 (01:41:51):
It's good morning BT. Chris MacLean, I love Mac Mack's
a great guy, like genuinely a kind individual too. I
mean he's just a good dude. Yes, he is here,
he is. He's really nice. You are in the hallway,
Max s Mac. You know Bones kind of sketch. No, No,

(01:42:14):
we love Bone too. Bones good. We do love bull
old T. Bone. I uh, Bone Bones like Clemens, North
Carolina native. What's Fortsyth High School?

Speaker 4 (01:42:25):
A little known fact. I went to high school with
Chris Paul. I'm not sure if anybody out there is
that he did. He doesn't talk about it very much.

Speaker 3 (01:42:34):
He does. I'm just kind of a dark time that
part of his past he didn't want to relive.

Speaker 6 (01:42:40):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:42:40):
He Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:42:40):
When I was a sports columnist at the Whits Salem
Journal and I had my talk show up there on
w s j S. Bone would send me messages and
his mom, his mom was a listener, and I'm like, hey, yiss,
I'm down. I'm getting different demographics. This is wonderful.

Speaker 4 (01:42:56):
He might actually very knowledgeable. He might be one of
the funniest. Just random Twitter follows that I've that I've
had you just you'll tweet things randomly and they're very
relatable too, Like they're they're everyday problems that you and
me run into, and then you're like, wow, yeah that's
happened to me.

Speaker 3 (01:43:10):
Oh I love that, and make you laugh. Well, what's
the deal with airline food? He is like Jerry Seinfeld,
boom Boomfeld. I have you been to a Charlotte f
C game? Oh yeah, they're electric.

Speaker 4 (01:43:24):
I'm not even I'm not even the biggest uh you know,
soccer follower or ficinado, but they're the fans make it
a really fun experience.

Speaker 3 (01:43:33):
The whole experience inside the stadium is a good time.
I will I will say this, and I don't. I
don't know anything about soccer other than you have to
put the ball in the net. I mean really, And
I'm not I'm not belittling the sport. I mean it's
it's a global thing.

Speaker 4 (01:43:47):
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (01:43:47):
I don't. I just don't understand a lot of it.
But I will say this. I was in Europe during
the euro Cup one year, and I was I was
in I was over there for a couple of weeks,
so it was during the entirety of the tournament, but
on the night of the final, I was in Rome
and Italy was playing playing England in the final, and

(01:44:11):
I had an early flight the next morning, and all
of a sudden, I hear there's this crazy racket outside.
I'm like what, And they had just won. And I
went back out into the streets with the people and
it was cool. It was cool. And then I went
back a couple of years after that during the World
Cup and I actually took time to watch individual matches
with people in Europe. It's it's neat, man, it is

(01:44:36):
really cool. The camaraderie and all this. And I'm actually
I'm asking some of the English speaking people questions like, hey,
what does this mean? What does that mean? I still
didn't quite get it, but I felt the passion and
it was it was, you know, contagious, that's a good
way to put it, contagious. I also like how they
have their little scarves and their songs. They had a

(01:44:57):
little chance. Don't have chants in American football. Didn't mean
it like that.

Speaker 4 (01:45:02):
You got your little scarves and your little chance.

Speaker 3 (01:45:05):
Yeah, I mean, you know the cool there, you know,
they're little scars.

Speaker 4 (01:45:09):
Some of these stadiums get rocking, especially when they're like
international games there there.

Speaker 3 (01:45:15):
They are crazy about soccer. They love it. Sure, they
are oh yeah, they're like, yeah, well, we are about football.
I saw where Trump was wanting to change the name
of American football. I don't do that, don't know, man,
you can't do that. He was doing it to capitulate
to the FIFA people because they were, you know, kissing

(01:45:37):
his ring and wanting to give him awards and all
this and something about the World Cup. Come on, man,
I know he's still sore because he didn't get to
buy an NFL franchise, but you can't change the name
of a sport. And was it the Bills that he
tried to buy. Yeah, and then they tried to back
in the eighties. And that's one reason the USFL failed,

(01:45:58):
because he was trying to work side deal to tank
the USFL so we could buy an NFL team. There's
a there's a really good book called Football for a
Buck by Jeff Pearlman, And whether you disagree with Jeff's politics,
his journalistic integrity is pretty unassailable. I highly recommend this book.
It is it is outstanding the amount of research he

(01:46:22):
put into it, diving into the colorful history and past
of the USFL.

Speaker 2 (01:46:27):
This is Good Morning VAT with both Hudson and Beth.

Speaker 3 (01:46:31):
Troutman, second half, final hour, Good morning, VT. Scott Hamilton here,
Bernie Market Boomer closing out twenty twenty five. And when

(01:46:53):
we look back at twenty twenty five, what's going to
come to mind? What are we going to think about
when we think of twenty twenty five? What are we
going to connect this year with seven O four five
seven oh one oh seven nine seven four five seven
oh ten seventy nine. Let me know what you think.
Twenty twenty five the year of blank, the year of

(01:47:16):
it a gilded white house. Perhaps some people will think
that the ballroom and all that, the crying in Charlotte,
the Panthers positioning themselves for possibly making the playoff. The

(01:47:37):
shame of it is that we won't know until twenty
twenty six if they do or if they don't. But
as we discussed with Chris McClean of wfn Z earlier
this hour, it's a story in and of itself for
them to show improvement. I don't know yet how I'm
going to reconcile this year. I haven't decided. Maybe it'll

(01:48:00):
me tonight at eleven fifty nine, perhaps before then, maybe
not until tomorrow or in the weeks following. But I
do know this, I'm prepared to go into the new
year with a different mindset, with a fresh mindset. Here's
a chance to reset our clocks and to say, Okay,

(01:48:22):
what happened last year was last year. I'm not going
to repeat that, or I'm going to avoid that whatever,
and I'm going to be positive. Positive thinking elicits positive results.
I am a believer in that negativity. Just eat your soul.
Susan Whirley the leadership coach and life mentor however you

(01:48:46):
want to frame her. She wears a lot of different hats.
She joined us earlier in the program and we discussed
New Year's resolutions. Mi, what do what should we focus on?
What is the thinking behind the resolution? Motivate somebody to
have a resolution, and how should you approach them? How
how do you tackle doing something that's so important to

(01:49:09):
you that you have made it a priority. As the
calendar flips from one year to the next. What is
the proper strategy to ensure that you don't fail, that
you don't let yourself down? And it starts with the mindset,
the proper mindset. Now, I've never done a New Year's resolution.

(01:49:29):
I have never taken the time to write down a
list of things I want to accomplish over the next
twelve months, because I think I should try hard every
day for everything. But I think this time I'm going
to give it a go, and maybe maybe we'll be
in this position three hundred and sixty five days from
now and I just say, you know what I did it.
I succeeded, I lost weight, I saved money, I did this,

(01:49:52):
I did that, or I stopped this, or I stopped that,
or I could be sitting here going well good for
about six weeks. Well yeah, same old, same old happen.
We are ters of habit, human beings are. We're no
different than any other animal. It's hard to break those habits,

(01:50:15):
that's a fact. What are your New Year's resolutions? And
what will you think of when you think of twenty
twenty five? Let us know seven oh four five seven
ten seventy nine seven o four five seven oh one
zero seven nine. Bernie, do you do New Year's resolutions?
Have you ever done one?

Speaker 4 (01:50:33):
I mean, I, just like every other person, I think
you try, you try your best. I don't know if
I can remember one that I've actually been able to
follow through. With the entire year, unless it's something like,
you know, be nicer to people. I think there's like
my stepsister, she's I mean, I grew up with her,
she's my sister. She stopped soda for an entire year
and she doesn't even drink it anymore. But she that

(01:50:54):
was her New Year's resolution one year, just to not
drink soda, and she just stopped. And I just wish
I had that kind of willpower, don't.

Speaker 3 (01:51:00):
I don't. I don't know if I do, I really don't.
How old How old was she? Oh? She was, I
mean eighteen nineteen. I mean we were young. She's she's
an old soul and she's she's very disciplined. Okay, First
of all, you should never have a resolution or a
goal for you to be nicer to people. You're one
of the kindest people I know. Sincerely, Thanks God. I
appreciate it that for you to even it took a

(01:51:22):
lot of time to get here. I find that hard
to believe. And for you to even set you need
a resolution to be nicer to people makes me feel
even dirtier and bad about myself.

Speaker 4 (01:51:31):
But just an example, you know, just everybody is just like, oh,
I just need to be kinder to people and gentler
to people.

Speaker 3 (01:51:39):
You're pretty sure, you're really kind, You're welcome, You're welcome.
So but I I don't here. Here's why. Are you
one of those people who says, well, you know I'm
going to start working out on Monday, Well why not tomorrow?

Speaker 4 (01:51:52):
You know I'm gonna start a diet on Monday, Well
why not today? It's like celebrating Valentine's Day only Valentine's Day.
If you're only celebrating Valentine's Day with your valentine on
Valentine's Day, you got a problem. It should be you know,
multiple days a month you should go on me maybe
a little date, a little date night. That's fair, right,
A peeling back the home.

Speaker 3 (01:52:14):
I'm just saying.

Speaker 4 (01:52:14):
I mean, I wish that I had enough time to
take my wife out multiple times a month. I feel
like she deserves that. I wish I could give that
to her. But I feel like that's fair. You know,
a couple of times, maybe Steve a couple times a month.
Maybe if you're you know, in a relationship with somebody,
you try to go out a couple times a month
for a little date night.

Speaker 3 (01:52:30):
Oh I'm sorry, I'm single. I have no input on that.

Speaker 4 (01:52:32):
What's when you were in a relationship. I feel like
that's a fair you know, full working did and stuff
like that. Yeah, I would definitely agree.

Speaker 5 (01:52:40):
Like you mean you mentioned Valentine specifically, is is to
me has always kind of been that hallmark holiday of like, oh,
so I'm only supposed to show this person I care
one day out of the year.

Speaker 3 (01:52:52):
What about the other three hundred and sixty four of
them exactly? Well, then they got the anniversary and stuff
like that. So all right, here here's my and I'm
going to kind of devetail on that. Oh you got
to be with family at Christmas? Oh you got to
be a family with Thanksgiving?

Speaker 15 (01:53:07):
You?

Speaker 3 (01:53:07):
No, you can't, you know, Okay, what about the Saturday
after Thanksgiving? Does that count? Why does it have to
be Thanksgiving? You should try to spend as much time
as you can all the time. You shouldn't just be
one day, and if you can't make it that specific day,
then you make the most of the day you can make. Yeah, yeah,
I would agree with that.

Speaker 5 (01:53:24):
I do think, as you know, as we've all gotten
a little bit older and families have spread out, presumably
I mean not everybody's. But I mean, I know mine,
for example, for the first probably you know, twenty plus
years of my life, everybody in my family was basically
in Florida, and over the past like twenty five years,
we've all kind of spread out throughout the country and

(01:53:48):
even the world in some cases. So it's like in
the you know, those holidays or those opportunities where it's like,
well we can all kind of come back together for
family time.

Speaker 3 (01:53:57):
So that part of it I understand.

Speaker 5 (01:54:00):
But yeah, I mean if if you are within you know,
a half an hour or an hour or something of
family and you're only seeing them, you know, once twice
three times a year, that's there's this that's kind of
one of those no excuse type of scenarios.

Speaker 3 (01:54:13):
I would agree there, I forgot, we're back to Florida.

Speaker 5 (01:54:17):
Florida man, well you know, I mean I was just
using that as an example of like everybody was kind
of in the same area and eventually, you know, it
was like, oh, we're like four hours away, Like somebody's
in Jacksonville, somebody's in Fort Lauderdale. Like that's not that
long a trip, that's not a huge trip. But if
somebody's in New York and then there's another person in California,
and there's another person in you know, Oklahoma, Like okay, well,

(01:54:39):
now everybody's really spread out. We need, you know, if
we're going to have family time quote unquote family time,
then you know, yeah, the holidays are a good excuse.
People have some time off, they have the ability to travel,
they have you know, and it makes the holiday a
little bit just to just to touch, you know, more special.

Speaker 3 (01:55:00):
That's a good take. I accept that take.

Speaker 7 (01:55:03):
I have them every once in a while.

Speaker 3 (01:55:04):
I have them. It's like the other three hundred and
sixty four days don't count family that we put so
much emphasis emphasis on just these these you know, cornerstone
holidays that the rest of the year were like yeah, I.

Speaker 5 (01:55:18):
Just think it probably has to do with the amount
of time most people have off from work around a
Thanksgiving or a Christmas and New Year's for that matter.
You tend to have you know, two, three, four, five,
six days off that you can actually make the trip,
and so I think that that's probably the.

Speaker 4 (01:55:36):
Primary reason for it. But I would agree.

Speaker 5 (01:55:38):
I mean, if if like my parents live here, you know,
my mom and my stepdad live here, well we make
it a point, you know, at least once every two weeks,
every three weeks, like we're doing a family dinner because
we're an hour from each other.

Speaker 3 (01:55:50):
Like you have to be close enough. I couldn't agree work.
This kind of relates to some people who call New
Year's Eve amateur night.

Speaker 2 (01:55:59):
This is good Morning BET.

Speaker 3 (01:56:08):
Back in the final Lap, Final Hour, Good Morning BT
for twenty twenty five.

Speaker 16 (01:56:16):
This is it.

Speaker 3 (01:56:19):
And I'm looking now at some of the unique things
that people were, towns, communities, countries, whatever. Drop We have
the ball drop in New York and the theme for
this morning. We started it off when Boomer and I'm
gonna lay this at the feed of Boomer for bringing

(01:56:41):
up the possum drop in Tallapoosa, Georgia. I am fascinated
by this. It's just so ridiculous, and it's not the
only place that does something unique. But there's something about
this with the possum that I don't know. I find

(01:57:03):
it just very endearing and curious. Here's a clip on
Fox five down in Atlanta. This is Danny Welch. He's
the organizer of Tallapoosa's annual possum Drop. He's being interviewed
and he's going to give us some insight, Bernie, can
you play that? And the possum drop? Danny, correct me

(01:57:24):
if I'm wrong.

Speaker 8 (01:57:26):
Is Spencer a possum in a gilded cage that has
dropped from a historic building in the center of Tallapoosa
at midnight. Spencer is named after Ralph Spencer, the founder
of Tallapoosa. It's a possum because possum Snout was the
older name of Tallapoosa, after a Indian chief there. This thing,

(01:57:47):
Tom has grown so large that we are now the
third the third most popular New Year's Eve drop in
the country, next to the perogi drop in Whiteing, Indiana
and the potato dropping Boise, Idaho.

Speaker 9 (01:58:02):
What do you think about this, so, Danny, when I
hear possum drop, I'm thinking, you guys hoist to possum
up with a pulley and then drop it to the ground.

Speaker 3 (01:58:10):
But what does it really mean?

Speaker 10 (01:58:13):
Well, it's it's a celebration. It's you know, of our town,
like George was saying, you know, the town had the history.

Speaker 6 (01:58:19):
It goes back.

Speaker 10 (01:58:19):
It was a named possum Snout back in the mid
eighteen hundreds, and so the town you don't have a history,
but it's a it's a celebration, you know, of the
city of our region here, and we have a lot
of people come out and celebrate with us. In our
small town. We've got about thirty one and fifty people

(01:58:40):
that live here, and tomorrow night we will probably have
between fourteen and sixteen thousand that will come from across
the nation and surrounding areas to celebrate with us here
in Tallafusa, all.

Speaker 9 (01:58:54):
Right, which which leads me to my next question, Danny,
and that is.

Speaker 3 (01:58:59):
That is a lot of people. That's a lot of
people to watch that possum. And he says it's the
third most popular behind the drop in the potato drop man.
There are so many interesting ones out there. I'm looking
at a list. I actually found a list of all
the different little ceremonies. I guess these towns observe Coleona, Pennsylvania.

(01:59:27):
They drop a pretzel, how I okay? Oh, here you go,
Blamee Pennsylvania. A wooden cow is dropped from a silo.
Oh this one, Bernie. Do you like peeps like the candy?
You know? The not ever fans it is they're too sweet.

(01:59:47):
I'm not either. But if you go to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Tonight you will see a one hundred pound yellow illuminated
peep made out of fiberglass lowered. Wow, that's a big peep.
These are all in Pennsylvania, Just in Pennsylvania. I am shocked. Now,
some of these aren't that great. Like, for instance, and

(02:00:10):
I lived on Hilton Head for a few years, apparently
a giant lighted golf ball is lowered from the Harbor
Town Lighthouse. I have never heard of this. I've never
heard of this. I did not know this was a thing.
And then, of course Mark referenced the flip flop drop
at Folly Beach, something that started back in twenty ten

(02:00:31):
when it moved into twenty eleven. So that's kind of cool.
This list of there's simply like a lot of places
drop a ball. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Good on them. When you
think of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Bernie, what's the first thing that
comes to mind?

Speaker 2 (02:00:49):
Cars?

Speaker 3 (02:00:51):
Okay, okay, they drop a wrench? Oh yeah, like a mechanic.
I don't hate wrench, don't I don't hate it. You
get it? Get it? Does the mechanics use it? Boom boom?
Oh gosh, here you go. Let are still in Pennsylvania. Wow, Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

(02:01:11):
They drop a one hundred pounds stick of Lebanon blooney
that is, and then the bologney. This is real blooney,
and then it is distributed to a local food bank
and animal shelter following the drop one hundred pounds of blooney.
That's great.

Speaker 4 (02:01:31):
Need spam needs spam drop somewhere where does it?

Speaker 3 (02:01:33):
Maody? Drop spam anywhere? Spam drop fry it up? Yeah, man,
I'd be kind of down with that. Actually, I didn't
realize that all these things happened. I truly didn't. I
need to I'm now everywhere. Every time I go to
a town now, I need to go, Hey, what do y'all?
What do y'all do for New Year's? You know what

(02:01:54):
do y'all in Troutman? Are they lowering a trout Mores will?
Maybe a little tire like off a race car. I
should actually sell that to them, that idea. Here you go,
North Carolina, do the okay, Bernie, are you aware of
a lighted crown in Charlotte that's lowered? No? Not where

(02:02:14):
is that I'm looking at it? Says? A lighted crown
is raised, representing Charlotte's nickname is the Queen City Charlotte
Center City Partners producers the Festivities. I've never heard of this,
Oh I haven't.

Speaker 4 (02:02:27):
I'm sure I've probably seen seen it somewhere.

Speaker 3 (02:02:32):
In Beaufort. They drop a pirate a pirate.

Speaker 4 (02:02:37):
Oh oh, crowns up Queen City.

Speaker 3 (02:02:41):
Here's our winner right here, Brasstown, North Carolina. A plexiglass
pyramid containing a living a living possum, A live possum,
a real possum like in Georgia, is lowered from the
roof of Clay Logan's Convenience store for the possum drop.
So there's a possum drop in North Carolina.

Speaker 7 (02:03:01):
Yeah, they stopped it for a while. I guess they're
starting it again.

Speaker 3 (02:03:04):
That's cool, Mark Garrison, Yes, sir, I need you to
go to that next year. I would like to report.
That would be fun.

Speaker 7 (02:03:14):
I I will go with you on this trip, yes,
which it would be the Possum Adventure, and then.

Speaker 3 (02:03:21):
We can we can go talk to the peda people
who will inevitably show up. Why are you here? What
do tell me about this POSSI possum is more popular
now than ever He's lived at King's life up until
this moment. Yeah, he's being released.

Speaker 7 (02:03:36):
And we'll put on the expense account Possum story and
watch the Being Encounters go.

Speaker 3 (02:03:40):
What what are your twenty twenty five Thanks for stopping
by Scott Hamilton, w BT one O seven nine. Have
a wonderful year.

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Good Morning BT | Scott Hamilton fills in for Bo and Beth

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Good Morning BT | Scott Hamilton fills in for Bo and Beth