August 22, 2025 • 9 mins
Tune in here to this Friday edition of the Brett Winterble Show!
Brett kicks off the show with Pete Kaliner for this week’s Friday Hangover; they discuss everything from Cracker Barrel’s controversial logo change to the erosion of beauty in modern public art and architecture. With signature wit and sharp commentary, the two hosts riff on the idea of "art by explanation," criticizing the trend of abstract, government-funded art installations that lack immediate aesthetic value. The conversation also touches on branding absurdities, like the Cracker Barrel rebrand removing the iconic cracker and barrel imagery, sparking a comedic monologue from “Uncle Herschel.”
Listen here for all of this and more on the Brett Winterble Show!
For more from Brett check out his YouTube channel
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
News Talk eleven ten ninety nine to three WBT Brett
Waterbows Show. Great to be with you and great to
be with Pete Callender as we uh we have the
hangover and it's great to have you here in person
in the flesh, you know, really really fired up about
all the big stories from today.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Indeed, I like that.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I like that. I like that's a that's a very
indeed declarative phrase. Yes, I like that. It makes me
feel very confident in the things we're going to talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
It's like bully bully, woolly, bully, bully blo oh.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Bully blo. I like bull bully bully. Very good, very good.
I want to pay something off here.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
This could be cut number forty two, Uncle Hershall, Yes, Walker, no,
no forty two, please go Hello.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I'm the Cracker from Cracker Barrel, and y'all know I
said on that damn logo for forty eight damn years,
longer than the snake deep throwing the giraffe neck. Then
overnight you got this diverse, evil, ignorant or DEI group
of people taking over our marketing talking about we need
a rebrand. How you gonna rebrand without dbrand? I'm reading
(01:24):
people come to cracker barrel. How you gonna have to
play called cracker barrel without a cracker leaning on a barrel?
I mean, what's the next America?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
That's not Uncle Herschel. How do you know? I didn't
I mean that because that guy, Uncle Herschel, had no
idea what dee? I was?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Excuse me?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Oh he did it. The guy was from like a
century ago. He lives now, he doesn't. I mean maybe
in our hearts and on the old logos, but no, yeah, no,
they're not exactly. I said that. I said this at
the start, at the beginning of the of my last hour,
and I started talking about this, was that the new
low like the cracker barrel logo, does not have the
(02:05):
cracker or the barrel anymore, right, they're both gone.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
What's in the What is going into the barrels? Then storage?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Nothing is You don't even see a barrel the barrel.
They claim that the logo, it's the new logo. It
has a barrel shape, but it's on its side.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Oh yes, I saw that right.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
So it's sort of like bull. It's like a it's
like a like a rectangle, smooth edges and corners and
stuff of that kind of bulges that the like nobody.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
There there are no more those anyways, Like those don't
exist anymore. Like nobody uses those kinds of barrels like that.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Really no, Yeah, because maybe casks for like beer, like eggs,
that kind of thing. But those are those are perfectly
cylindrical exactly. They don't have the bulging sides whatever. But yeah,
I mean like again, you can you know, it reminds
me of what is I call it art by explanation.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Oh that's good. I like that.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
So these are the pieces that you see generally around town,
usually at a GOV Code building, and you don't recognize
it as art. You only you only see it as
art once you see the placard and you're like, oh,
this thing has a name, right, And then you read
(03:22):
the name right, and then usually it'll say the artist,
and sometimes it'll have a description to tell you what
the hell this thing is? What is right?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Right?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Because your human mind responds to beauty, right, because I
think it is divine. I think that I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yes, that's right.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Like you see something beautiful, it speaks to us, It
speaks to our soul. It elevates us, and it gets
us closer to the divine. This is beauty and to
recognize it as such. But instead we get these commis
that are like, Hey, we're going to put our trash
welded together. Yes, and we're going to plant it on
the front of your build things.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And we're going to rob you of these sort of
micro dose experiences of beauty around town.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yes, that that is. That's like the Impay buildings and
all those where it's like, we're going to put all
of the guts on the outside of the building, right,
and only in the inside will there be plants. Right.
And you're like, why are you doing this man right? Well,
because he's probably not in his right mind.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Well, it is a demoralization campaign, big demoralizmtion right here.
And so that's why I've been calling it this for
fifteen years. Art by explanation, because if you didn't have
the explanation, you wouldn't even recognize it as art. And
real quick, I got the classic story here, hit from
Charlotte hit me. They built the police academy, Okay, and
you've seen the police badge. The logo looks like a
(04:49):
hornet's nest because of Charlotte in the Revolutionary war, and
they kicked off the hornet's nest all that. So their
badges have always kind of represented that hornet's nest kind
of logo thing. Well, they hired somebody to do the
public art installation and they constructed this what was supposed
to represent that hornet's nest badge looking thing. But they
(05:11):
made it all out of chicken.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Wire, So we're really chicken wire as a hornet's.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Nest, right, And they wrapped it and they made like
a hornet's nest kind of make it look like a badge.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
So sexy, so great.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, and so they and then they plopped it down
in the lobby, Oh my gosh, and the janitor threw
it away. Good judgment because he thought it was trash.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
There's good judgment right there. That guy he knew what
he knew what he saw, right.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So that's what I mean. Like, if you don't recognize
the thing of beauty for what it is immediately when
you see it, it's not art.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
What is So if you think about beauty, or we
think about beauty, what would we be without beautiful things?
Like and I'm talking about it doesn't have fincessarily be nature.
It could be Amborghini, you know, right, some incredible car,
some incredible planes. Like we would be so sad.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Without any of that stuff, right, demoralized, depressed? Right, I mean,
like why you talked about the Lamborghini, Like why does
a certain car inspire you and come across as a
beautiful looking car, right versus another car that does not? Think?
That's right, Like you know, sixty eight Corvette versus a
(06:30):
nineteen eighty five k car.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
There you go, right, that's true.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Why does one of those vehicles evoke something in you?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And you know it's incredible. The Italians are are so
creative that if you go to buy a Lamborghini in Italy,
you have to tell them that you want the car,
not the tractors they have. Oh, Lamborghini tractors that they
use in Italy.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Are those as expensive?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
They're expensive, but they're not. I mean they don't have
the engine.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
How fast did they go? They don't know?
Speaker 1 (07:04):
It's a regular kind of you know, it's it's ill
droh Okay, it's like that Calvan.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I don't I don't know if it's good to know
if I'm ever needing a tractor for farming in Italy?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah, because I was when we were over there, there
was a there was a Lamborghini dealer tractor and the
guy goes, do you like that Lamborghini? And I go, ha,
really funny. That's a tractor.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
He goes, look at the low look at the logo.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
And it was there it is.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Man, Well, it's like the it's like the Mercedes vans.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I remember like the first time I saw like a
Mercedes work van, right kind of deal and I was like,
like that's super pretentious, Like why would somebody have a
Mercedes work Van? Sure, and then you find out, oh, well,
over in you know, Europe, this is all they have.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
That's what they use.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
That's what they use because they're not imports. They're domestic
vehicle because you're on the Autobaan. Yeah, and yeah, it's
just the easier to make them there, and they are
very stylish.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
They also have there are nowadays there are very very
high end Mercedes vans that are r VS.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Vans. Oh yes, yes, our HOA just had to prove those.
Yeah you've got the high end. It's a class B yeah,
Class B right, So those are now permitted to park
in your driveway and wow, that's very focused. They're the
size of the van. Yes, it is, and that's it's
not like I mean, if you can park a conversion
van in your driveway under the rules, then like why
(08:33):
can't you park this other?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
That's a good point.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
It's a size thing.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Please do not drain the gray water into the sewers.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
No, don't want to let them do that.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
That is that's only that's a no, no.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Right, that's only a randy thing. Randy quaid.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Wow, I like that circle of life. Yes, very good,
Pete Calender.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yes, sir, you are free to go. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I have a wonderful weekend and safe travels to you.
By the way. Uh programming now.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Oh yes, yes, we have a programming.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Brett won't be here on Monday.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Not on Monday. I will be correct.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Here in Brett's stead, and I will not be on
my show Monday. Nick Craig will be in my.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Stead, in your stead, and then you will be in
my stead, and then I'll be back Tuesday after where
I'm going in your stead, in my stead.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
You'll be back in your stead, back in my stead.
Right there you go, all right, all right,
News Talk eleven ten ninety nine to three WBT Brett
Waterbows Show. Great to be with you and great to
be with Pete Callender as we uh we have the
hangover and it's great to have you here in person
in the flesh, you know, really really fired up about
all the big stories from today.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Indeed, I like that.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I like that. I like that's a that's a very
indeed declarative phrase. Yes, I like that. It makes me
feel very confident in the things we're going to talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
It's like bully bully, woolly, bully, bully blo oh.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Bully blo. I like bull bully bully. Very good, very good.
I want to pay something off here.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
This could be cut number forty two, Uncle Hershall, Yes, Walker, no,
no forty two, please go Hello.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I'm the Cracker from Cracker Barrel, and y'all know I
said on that damn logo for forty eight damn years,
longer than the snake deep throwing the giraffe neck. Then
overnight you got this diverse, evil, ignorant or DEI group
of people taking over our marketing talking about we need
a rebrand. How you gonna rebrand without dbrand? I'm reading
(01:24):
people come to cracker barrel. How you gonna have to
play called cracker barrel without a cracker leaning on a barrel?
I mean, what's the next America?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
That's not Uncle Herschel. How do you know? I didn't
I mean that because that guy, Uncle Herschel, had no
idea what dee? I was?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Excuse me?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Oh he did it. The guy was from like a
century ago. He lives now, he doesn't. I mean maybe
in our hearts and on the old logos, but no, yeah, no,
they're not exactly. I said that. I said this at
the start, at the beginning of the of my last hour,
and I started talking about this, was that the new
low like the cracker barrel logo, does not have the
(02:05):
cracker or the barrel anymore, right, they're both gone.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
What's in the What is going into the barrels? Then storage?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Nothing is You don't even see a barrel the barrel.
They claim that the logo, it's the new logo. It
has a barrel shape, but it's on its side.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Oh yes, I saw that right.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
So it's sort of like bull. It's like a it's
like a like a rectangle, smooth edges and corners and
stuff of that kind of bulges that the like nobody.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
There there are no more those anyways, Like those don't
exist anymore. Like nobody uses those kinds of barrels like that.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Really no, Yeah, because maybe casks for like beer, like eggs,
that kind of thing. But those are those are perfectly
cylindrical exactly. They don't have the bulging sides whatever. But yeah,
I mean like again, you can you know, it reminds
me of what is I call it art by explanation.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Oh that's good. I like that.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
So these are the pieces that you see generally around town,
usually at a GOV Code building, and you don't recognize
it as art. You only you only see it as
art once you see the placard and you're like, oh,
this thing has a name, right, And then you read
(03:22):
the name right, and then usually it'll say the artist,
and sometimes it'll have a description to tell you what
the hell this thing is? What is right?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Right?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Because your human mind responds to beauty, right, because I
think it is divine. I think that I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yes, that's right.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Like you see something beautiful, it speaks to us, It
speaks to our soul. It elevates us, and it gets
us closer to the divine. This is beauty and to
recognize it as such. But instead we get these commis
that are like, Hey, we're going to put our trash
welded together. Yes, and we're going to plant it on
the front of your build things.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And we're going to rob you of these sort of
micro dose experiences of beauty around town.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yes, that that is. That's like the Impay buildings and
all those where it's like, we're going to put all
of the guts on the outside of the building, right,
and only in the inside will there be plants. Right.
And you're like, why are you doing this man right? Well,
because he's probably not in his right mind.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Well, it is a demoralization campaign, big demoralizmtion right here.
And so that's why I've been calling it this for
fifteen years. Art by explanation, because if you didn't have
the explanation, you wouldn't even recognize it as art. And
real quick, I got the classic story here, hit from
Charlotte hit me. They built the police academy, Okay, and
you've seen the police badge. The logo looks like a
(04:49):
hornet's nest because of Charlotte in the Revolutionary war, and
they kicked off the hornet's nest all that. So their
badges have always kind of represented that hornet's nest kind
of logo thing. Well, they hired somebody to do the
public art installation and they constructed this what was supposed
to represent that hornet's nest badge looking thing. But they
(05:11):
made it all out of chicken.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Wire, So we're really chicken wire as a hornet's.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Nest, right, And they wrapped it and they made like
a hornet's nest kind of make it look like a badge.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
So sexy, so great.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, and so they and then they plopped it down
in the lobby, Oh my gosh, and the janitor threw
it away. Good judgment because he thought it was trash.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
There's good judgment right there. That guy he knew what
he knew what he saw, right.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So that's what I mean. Like, if you don't recognize
the thing of beauty for what it is immediately when
you see it, it's not art.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
What is So if you think about beauty, or we
think about beauty, what would we be without beautiful things?
Like and I'm talking about it doesn't have fincessarily be nature.
It could be Amborghini, you know, right, some incredible car,
some incredible planes. Like we would be so sad.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Without any of that stuff, right, demoralized, depressed? Right, I mean,
like why you talked about the Lamborghini, Like why does
a certain car inspire you and come across as a
beautiful looking car, right versus another car that does not? Think?
That's right, Like you know, sixty eight Corvette versus a
(06:30):
nineteen eighty five k car.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
There you go, right, that's true.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Why does one of those vehicles evoke something in you?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And you know it's incredible. The Italians are are so
creative that if you go to buy a Lamborghini in Italy,
you have to tell them that you want the car,
not the tractors they have. Oh, Lamborghini tractors that they
use in Italy.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Are those as expensive?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
They're expensive, but they're not. I mean they don't have
the engine.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
How fast did they go? They don't know?
Speaker 1 (07:04):
It's a regular kind of you know, it's it's ill
droh Okay, it's like that Calvan.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I don't I don't know if it's good to know
if I'm ever needing a tractor for farming in Italy?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah, because I was when we were over there, there
was a there was a Lamborghini dealer tractor and the
guy goes, do you like that Lamborghini? And I go, ha,
really funny. That's a tractor.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
He goes, look at the low look at the logo.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
And it was there it is.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Man, Well, it's like the it's like the Mercedes vans.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I remember like the first time I saw like a
Mercedes work van, right kind of deal and I was like,
like that's super pretentious, Like why would somebody have a
Mercedes work Van? Sure, and then you find out, oh, well,
over in you know, Europe, this is all they have.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
That's what they use.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
That's what they use because they're not imports. They're domestic
vehicle because you're on the Autobaan. Yeah, and yeah, it's
just the easier to make them there, and they are
very stylish.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
They also have there are nowadays there are very very
high end Mercedes vans that are r VS.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Vans. Oh yes, yes, our HOA just had to prove those.
Yeah you've got the high end. It's a class B yeah,
Class B right, So those are now permitted to park
in your driveway and wow, that's very focused. They're the
size of the van. Yes, it is, and that's it's
not like I mean, if you can park a conversion
van in your driveway under the rules, then like why
(08:33):
can't you park this other?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
That's a good point.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
It's a size thing.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Please do not drain the gray water into the sewers.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
No, don't want to let them do that.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
That is that's only that's a no, no.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Right, that's only a randy thing. Randy quaid.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Wow, I like that circle of life. Yes, very good,
Pete Calender.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yes, sir, you are free to go. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I have a wonderful weekend and safe travels to you.
By the way. Uh programming now.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Oh yes, yes, we have a programming.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Brett won't be here on Monday.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Not on Monday. I will be correct.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Here in Brett's stead, and I will not be on
my show Monday. Nick Craig will be in my.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Stead, in your stead, and then you will be in
my stead, and then I'll be back Tuesday after where
I'm going in your stead, in my stead.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
You'll be back in your stead, back in my stead.
Right there you go, all right, all right,
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