June 7, 2024 • 36 mins
Maller & G. have another fun Friday! They Talk: Pat Sajak's Swan Song, T.J. Simers Tribute, Phrase of the Week, Foodie Fun, & more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cutbooms.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes
a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants
of the old Republic, a soul fashion of fairness. He
treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the
rich pill poppers in the penthouse.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The Clearinghouse of Hot takes break free for something special.
The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts right now.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
In the air everywhere. Welcome to another weekend of the
Fifth Hour with Me, Big Ben and Danny g Radio.
As it is the seventh day of the month of June,
and my mind is proper I think it is. This
is our first Friday show for the podcast, because June
(00:52):
first was what Saturday? Am I correct? I believe correct,
You're right, Look at that. I'm a human app. I'm
an app that has the the dates and and all that.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, we just recorded that weekend show yesterday. As that
listener pointed out, we do all these shows in a
couple of days in a row.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yes, exactly, exactly. Genius, absolute genius here and so we
begin the weekend here and I will get into a
story I promised on the radio show. The original Recipe show,
not the Extra Spicy, Extra Crispy Podcast. Some stuff that's
been going on behind the scenes here, So I'll share
that with you coming up in a little bit. But
(01:30):
I understand tonight is the final episode of the Wheel
of Fortune with the Goat? Is that correct, Danny? Am
I hearing properly that? Today? Is it? It's all over?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Wheel of Fortune? His last swan, his swan song? Is
that what they say? This should be a phrase of
the week swan song.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Oh, don't make me look at out there. You're trying
to incite.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, but say Jack started in nineteen eighty one on
that show Holy Shiska Bob over forty yeah, over forty
years ago, and of course Ofvannah White is gonna stay
on with your boy Ryan Seacrest.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, Well, here's the thing. I had a couple of
run ins over the years with Pat Say Jack and
in a really good way, in a really good way,
and they were all well, they were u sporting him
as a Dodger stadium. He was a regular at Dodgers Dam.
He loved the La Kings. It was odd though, because
Say Jack lives in I think he's in Virginia.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yeah, you've talked about it before on the podcast that
he'll fly to LA Yeah, tape all those shows and
then fly back to his home state.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, it's quite the gig, the nightly game shows like
Jeopardy and the Wheel of Fortune. Price is right. I'm
not sure about presses, right, but I know with Jeopardy
and whatnot, they'll end up filming like five episodes in
a day, and they'll they'll do a week of shows
and then they'll go on hiatus for a while and
(03:00):
then come back and do a week of shows.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
And so, man, imagine if we could do that in radio,
I'd be.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Great, man, just roll them all out and then that's it.
But Sajack was great, and I have some very fun
memories when I was a young young lad Danny back
in the day and Stu Nahan who was a big
time sportscaster in LA when I was a kid, and
I knew Stu as an adult as a young adult,
and Stu.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
He was on the Naked Gun movies.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, he was in a bunch of different movies. I
just think about baseball as like a character actor behind
the scenes as a sportscaster. Ironically enough, his nickname was
Silver Tip. Stu because he was known as a cheap ass.
But Stu was quite the character. And he was doing
local television back when it was the Ron Burgundy era
(03:48):
of television. If you know Anchorman, that old movie Anchorman,
that's about what it was. I don't know, Ron, that
sounds kind of crazy. Pat Sajack would. I was hanging
out at during batting practice at Dodge Stadium one of
the days years ago, and and Stu was there. And
(04:08):
Pat Sajak happened to be there because he's Pat f
and Sajack, you know, do whatever you want. He was
on the field prior to the game, and he was
he was going at it was Stu because the famous
story that Pat Sajack had had told and I know
he's written about this, It's been written, but it was
great to hear it from the horse's mouth. When Pat
Sajak was working at Channel four in LA, the NBC affiliate,
(04:33):
he got this offer to do the Wheel of Fortune,
and so he consulted with stun Ahan. He said, what
do you think is to do? And I think Sayjack
was like the weather person at the time, and Stu said,
don't do that. Game shows come and go, but people
always need the weather, you know, something to that effect,
and who goofed I've got to know, you know. And
(04:57):
so anyway, needless to say, Pat would remind Stull regularly
of that. And actually Pat spoke as to his memorial
service they had which was right across the street from
from our studios there, and they rant it out the
movie theater had like a celebration of life. But first
two when he passed away, and say Jack was there
(05:18):
and all that he flew out. But hey, listen, Pat
sajak Ago, he's not dead, He's just gonna It's one
of those jobs. Why do you even bother retiring? You
know what I mean? It's like one of those jobs. Yeah,
just keep doing it.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
I mean a legend in the game show game I
think I know the answer to this. But if you
could host one game show, what would it be?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Well, my favorite when I was a kid was Let's
make a deal with Monty Hall. I love that. That
was really cool. I think that's on again. I think
that's that's a thing. But I loved uh I Whenny
Big Money Stop. I also like that. That's not on anymore.
Jokers Wild, No, it wasn't Jokers Wild. I just I'm
(06:00):
matter a mental block here, but it was what it
was in It was like a nineteen eighties game show,
No Aamy nommy stop. What was it called? Press your Luck? Yes,
press your Luck? That's it. Press your Luck. That was
kind of cool. But I mean, any game shows, it's
a great gig. You got a game show, job your set.
(06:21):
Remember Drew Carey when he was at one point a
big star in the nineties, right, Drew Carey show was
very popular. That was in the nineties, right, I think
that was in the nineties. I think so, yeah, And
then he kind of he went down a little bit
and then all of a sudden he went right back
up with the game show because he replaced Bob Barker
(06:42):
as the host of his show, What would you Do? Danny?
What would your game show?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Be?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
The newlywed game. As a little kid, they always said whoopee,
and I didn't know what they were talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Do you now know what they're talking about to you now?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
No? Maybe that could be a word of the week, That.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Could be the word the word o the we are well.
Good luck to Pat say Jack who's made an s
load of money and an old radio contemporary of ours,
is going to replace him? Is that correct? Am I
hearing that accurately? The yep, Ryan Seacrest, who when I
was doing mid days starting out my career mid Days
(07:25):
in LA and then Seacrest was doing afternoon drive at
ninety eight seven Star FM. And look at us now, Danny,
look at us now. Your careers are like a mirror
of each other. It's a doppelganger, me of him, him
of me. That's just the way it is. That's the
way it is.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
A lot of people don't know this, but the very
first season of American Idol you were his co host
on TV.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, we don't like to talk about that. It didn't
work out, but at the time it seemed like a wonderful,
wonderful thing. So I wanted to mention something. There's a
few things that have gone on since we last spoke
on the pot yess not have you done the radio
show every night? Well, that's a little different. The radio
show is different. This is behind the curtain. This is
how we make the Hawt talks. You're never supposed to
tell people how you make the Hawt talks. Well, this
(08:09):
is how we make the hawtthalks. So this past weekend
kind of a melancholy type of a weekend for several reasons.
One of them I will get to right now, the
passing of a friend of mine who worked in the
media for a long time, TJ. Simers.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
T J.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Simers is a longtime newspaper man, one of the last
great columnists in America when that mattered, and that meant something.
To be a columnist in a newspaper doesn't mean much now,
but back in the day it meant a lot. I've
read his columns in the nineties. Yeah, I loved TJ's
work as a columnist, and I got to call him
a friend, which was even cooler. And he died. He
(08:52):
had brain cancer, and he died on Sunday. But as
Paul Harvey would say, that's the news. But now you're
going to get the rest of the story. And this
is something that I haven't We talked about. It was
a private matter and I didn't want to get into
it here. I didn't do it to get any kind
of attention, not that I would get attention for it anyway.
(09:13):
But I was alerted several months back that TJ had
brain cancer by a mutual friend of ours, my friend Jay,
who used to be a big editor at the La
Times back in the day, and so we were ahead.
We got to see TJ. And so, starting I would say,
three months ago, once every couple of weeks we went
(09:37):
to TJ's house. He had been bedridden. Was you know,
he had made the decision and I don't want to
get too much into this is his family's decision, but
he he had decided that you know, this was not
this was going to be the end, and he had
incurable brain cancer and rather than try some experimental stuff
(09:58):
and he did try one experiment mental thing, he just
made the decision that this was going to be how
he would check out, and you know, we all have
to die some way, and this was you know, he
just figured this is it and there's nothing I can
do it. And so I was able to visit him
and we'd go and chat. The first time he went
was we were there a couple hours and actually I
made him cookies. The last couple of times I saw
(10:19):
him the Tuesday, oh nice, yeah, he uh, the Tuesday
before before he passed away, we were at his house,
you know, bullshitting, you know, talking about nas and we
didn't really talk that much sports. We started out talking
sports and TJ was on this podcast I think the
end of twenty twenty three, I believe we yeah had
(10:42):
them on.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Oh I remember that, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah, and it was great. We told a lot of
the stories on that podcast. My favorite TJ stories when
TJ took over as the columnist in page two, which
was a big deal in the LA Times, and I
think he replaced Jim Murray if I remember remember correctly,
But either way, TJ was a football writer. The first
(11:06):
time I ever interacted interacted with TJ, he was a
San Diego based The LA Times had a bureau in
San Diego, charger beat reporter. He then became the NFL
columnist when in his time as the NFL columnist, the
LA market lost the Rams and the Raiders. They both left,
(11:27):
and so TJ was writing about the NFL when there
was no NFL in the market. And at that time,
the NFL was popular, but it was not nearly as
popular as it is these days. And so anyway, TJ
would write about the NFL, and often what he would
do is go to these big events and pester the
commissioner when is LA going to get a team? Blah
(11:47):
blah blah, blah blah, and that was his thing. But
I had him on. I was. It was in the nineties.
I was like in my early twenties doing a talk
show with Dave Smith. We had on the old Ben
and Dave Show. We had tj on in the middle
of the interview did not like the questions that we
were asking, so he yelled at us and then hung
(12:08):
up in the middle of the interview. And I still
I brought that up to him. Actually, this past last
time I saw him, were talking about some of the
old old stories.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
That was at that point in his career. Was he
cool with you or did he not really know you?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
At that point? No, I thought he hated me. I
thought he despised me. And the turning point was when
I was doing stuff with the Dodgers, and then he
took over as the columnist for the Times and he
would go out. Davy Johnson was the Dodger manager, and
Davy had a lot of success with the Mets and
was really living off that success he had managing the Mets,
(12:45):
who had a bunch of guys that hit a lot
of home runs and cocaine, the eighty six Mets, and
he was the manager of that team, and so you know,
he's just kind of going through the motions. And when
TJ took over, he came out as a flame throw.
He just was hammering everybody. And the LA media was
not used. That was not how they operate. The teams
(13:08):
in LA didn't know how to handle that at all.
They were like freaking out right. They were like, oh
my god, you know this guy is you know, he's
stirring up a hornets nest here. What are you doing?
And it was so bad. One of the Dodger beat
writers went to every player on the team for the
LA Times Dodger beat writer and talked to every player
(13:31):
and said, I'm not with that guy, like because he
was that much of a loose cannon and all that.
But I loved it. I mean, I thought it was
the greatest thing. That's that's how I was raised to approach.
You know, sports, you're supposed to be critical and you're
not supposed to kiss the player's ass. You're not part
of the team. You're supposed to question some things here
and hold people accountable. And TJ did that. He used
(13:53):
to call the owner, Frank McCord, the Boston parking lot
of Tendant was what he called Frank mc court and
just would slay him every day. And you gotta remember,
TJ got in a lot of trouble for that because
the one of the big advertisers for the La Times
was the Dodgers. They would buy huge, you know, full
full page ads in the newspaper and that was a
(14:16):
big old deal. Right, You're attacking an advertiser, so that
was a problem. My favorite all time TJ story, though
I have several, as we pay respects to the great
late TJ. Simers. When he was it was working for
the Orange County Register, but he did this starting at
the LA Times. He would take shots at Artie Marino.
He'd called him angry Artie, and Artie Marino got so
(14:40):
upset with TJ. Simers that he literally punished all of
the media in Los Angeles. This is one of my
all time great stories of a rogue owner being so
upset with a revolutionary media guy that this thing escalated
into a nuclear situation. Because it turns out Artie Marino
(15:05):
moved the press box at the Big A from behind
home plate where it had been since the stadium opened,
and that's traditionally where every single press box is right,
there's only a couple that aren't there. And he moved
it down near the pearly gates, down near the right
field foul pole, where you the media can't even see
the game from the press box. And he did that
(15:27):
because of TJ Simers, because he was so upset with
TJ Simers and what a mischief maker TJ was, and
how agitating he was, you know, just really annoying Marino.
He just he said, all right, we'll move the press
box and he did. And but you know, TJ had
a gruff exture. He wasn't for everybody. He wasn't. But
the thing that I love about and TJ. We were
(15:48):
actually talking about this also over the last couple of
times I saw him, was he became friends with Vin Scully,
Chick Hern, Bob Miller, these iconic podcasters in Los Angeles.
Was buddies with John Wooden and Kobe Bryant. These people
loved it, and we were telling he was telling me
(16:09):
stories about John Wooden and he said that wouldn't hated
being called the Wizard of Westwood and he did not
like the fact that everywhere he went people kissed his
ass and TJ didn't kiss his ass and busted his
chops and wouldn't loved it. He loved it. Was a
great story about that. And Kobe Bryant also liked the
(16:32):
approach that that TJ had. I it was a Mamba
mentality or not, but he didn't hold back and Kobe
Kobe respected that.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
So you talked about that Fullerton restaurant and I saw
an Instagram story on it a real just this past week,
and it said that he told the staff there at
that restaurant he loved being treated like a regular customer,
like he was just a regular dude.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, people who are when you get to a certain level,
you don't like that. You're like, no, I'm not, you know,
I'm just a normal person. I just happened to be
good at something like that. So I wanted to really
say a tip of the headphones to TJ. I will
I will miss his wisdom. I mean, it has been
been away from the media business for a number of years.
(17:19):
He was doing a blog for a while. He this
just happened by the way I think he found out.
He fell down in I want to say maybe April
and something like that might have been Yeah, it might
have been March. I mean, it was real quick. It wasn't.
It wasn't a long situation from when it began to
(17:41):
when it ended. So but in one of a kind,
there's really nobody else like him, at least in the
LA media. I mean, Teach is a guy that was
on that show Around the Horn on ESPN and said
how much he hated the show while on the show,
and they ended up getting getting rid of him. And
then I've told in the past, in fact, we should
probably linked to that conversation we had with TJ. But
(18:03):
there was an incident with Dwight Howard when Dwight came
over and the Lakers had this supposedly the super team
with Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, except they they couldn't
they couldn't play. They were terrible together. And that thing
skyrocketed right into the ground. And when the opposite direction,
it was a dud. And one day Dwight Howard walks
(18:24):
into the Laker locker room. He's all depressed and he's cursing,
and what's this all about? And it turns out that
Dwight was upset because at that time Stephen A. Smith
and Skip Bayless were working together and they had said
some mean things about Dwight and he was annoyed by that.
(18:44):
And so THENDJ he goes up to just Dwight. You know,
no one watches that show, Dwight the rating, I mean,
you're you're upset. Why are you upset? I can show
you the ratings that show gets. No nobody's watching. It
was the funny and Dwight could not wrap his head
around the fact that that show had very few people watching.
In his head, everyone was watching that particular show, and
(19:06):
it's it was. It was pretty amusing, and you know,
it was great. And TJ did actually listen to the
Overnight show and didn't hate it, which was which was
a nice thing as well. Good for my good for
my ego. So I rest in peace the late great TJ. Simons,
who passed away on this past Sunday. I also, before
I get any further, I did want to mention that
(19:29):
we had one oversight on Big Ben's Big Board. Not
a list, Danny, not a list, Big Ben's Big Boy.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
It was a really good list. So I'm curious to
hear what we missed.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
So we had the Street takeover, the Burn, Baby Burn,
the Casey Kasem thing wrong, Button, Bob All that the
shooting gallery, the mobster Henry Hill. But I forgot about
this one classic story, the night the bats got in
the studio. Do do do Do do do? Batman? Do
(20:02):
do do do? Do do do? Batman? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (20:04):
That was during Roberto the bus Driver's tenure, right.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yes, yes, it happened multiple times that bat's got in
the studio. I was not there one of the times.
That's probably why I had forgotten, But I was there
the other time, and we actually did live coverage. We
had boots on the ground, yes, outside, as this story developed,
we were there.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Was it Mike Carmon on a phone, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Harmon was on the phone. We had there were several
people involved. We had one person was the door guy
to leave the door to the courtyard open. But then
there was a chase guy that like chasing tornadoes, trying
to push good luck pushing a bat out of the studio.
And remember they thought the bat was gone, but the
(20:50):
bat was actually hiding at one point. But there was
a successful movement to get the bat out. But I
do recall that, and so thank you. Several of you
reached out to me via social media and email at
the fifth hour email address to let us know about
that I had forgotten and that is a that is
(21:11):
a thing that did happen. If you want to send
me an email about the mail bag or anything else,
we do the mail bag on Sunday, but you don't
have to wait till Sunday. Real fifth Hour at gmail
dot com, Real fifth Hour at gmail dot com if
you'd like to be part of this. I was the
one that everyone agreed we fed up on on Big
Ben's big board was the bad thing. There were some
(21:31):
other stuff brought up, but that well.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
We should have pretended like you did it on purpose,
just like when you mess up on something your old line.
I did it to see if you were paying attention.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
That's not aligne Danny, That's that's the truth. I could
do a perfect show. I could. I was taught by
my radio mentor my radio mentor Rick these Then you
just make a mistake every once in a while. It
humanizes you. You gotta be human. I gonna be relatable to
the to the common person is as they say, the
(22:00):
lay person.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Timed out for the phrase of the week, the phrase
of the week.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Praise of the week this week by request. If you
want to send a request in I will consider it.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Oh swansong.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
No, this is from Nick in Wisconsin. He wants to
know the origins of ifs and butts were candy and nuts,
it would be Christmas every day nuts? All right, So
let's get to this now. I was blown away by
this one. I'm so happy Nick requested this. I used
this line every once in a while, Danny, if if
(22:35):
some butts were candy and nuts to be Christmas every day.
It turns out it actually originated with someone in sports.
Isn't that mind blowing? I say, it's mind blowing. So
let's take you in the way back machine. The origins
of the word ifs and butts were candy and nuts,
be Christmas every day, or something along those lines. It
was actually coined by a Dallas cowboy, Dandy Don Meredith.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
I'll turn out the lots.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Yeah, well, that's one of the he's over, one of
the great tributes that we give to him, turn out
the lights, the parties over.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Well.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Also, back in nineteen seventy nineteen seventy or four before
our time, Danny g but Don Meredith was a commentator
with Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football and.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
We literally were not born yet.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And which is shocking at this point. I feel like
everything we talk about we were born for you happen
during our watch anyway. Howard Cosell during the broadcast, I
have a transcript of it. He said, if Los Angeles
meeting the Rams, if the Rams win, it's a big one,
but San Francisco is still very much in it. Don Meredith,
a color commentary here, then responded, if if sent butts
(23:49):
were candy and nuts, we all have a merry Christmas.
And Cosell responded, I didn't think you'd remember that old canard,
and then Don said, is that but it was? Well,
it turns out that what Don Meredith had done is
he had taken an old proverb from the nineteenth century
(24:11):
and repackaged it as his own. The original statement was
if as were pots and pans, if st Ann's were
pots and pans, there'd be no work for tinkers hands.
And that proverb goes back to expressing a regret like
if only we had money, or you know, only I
(24:34):
had the right connections, I'd be famous that kind of thing.
But Don Meredith twisted that around and it became what
it became, which is if some and butts were candy
and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas. The one
I hear more often is if some butts were candy
and nuts, be Christmas every day. But either way you
can thank Don Meredith. That phrase has been around as
(24:55):
that phrase for over fifty years now, over fifty years
of that nonsense. So that is the phrase of the week,
the phrase of the week.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I wonder in the future if there's a podcast, like
in the year twenty fifty and they do a phrase
of the week, Yeah, and the host will be like,
in the air everywhere where did that come from?
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah? You know what? Gas baggery came up with that?
Do you want to do some foody fun? We can
do a little foody fun. Why now we'll Yeah, let's
do it fun. We'll get out on the foody fun.
Let's do it all right. We all love our food.
Food very important here. And there's several food stories that
caught my attention. Some of them were sent by p
(25:42):
ones to this show that wanted us to be fully
aware of what's going on. I read that cracker barrel
you ever been You've been a cracker barrel right at
some point? Now, no, I haven't done there yet, all right,
and it's a Southern chain, but yeah, they do have locations.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
My chickadee went there with one of her kids and
they brought me back some biscuits.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah, give you a lot of food, large portions of food,
Southern food. But here's the thing. The CEO of Cracker
Barrel said this week they want the chain to become hip.
You said the brand, The CEO said, the brand has
quote lost some of it shine and they have plans
(26:25):
to regain relevance to become hip. How Danny, you're the
food guy, how can Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Get emc hammer online one.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
That's what you recommend?
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Yes, well, there's some things some other Their logo looks
old fashioned. Everything about the restaurant looks old fashioned. So
how are you going to go from that to being hip?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Well, you have to reinvent yourself. But then the problem
is if you reinvent yourself, you lose the base. You
can't lose the bass, So you do have to thread
a needle. I have to threat a needle a little
bit because you don't want to lose your bass and
you want to you want to bring new people in.
It's kind of like when NASCAR opened things up and
they started racing in La and uh well, the Inland
(27:12):
Empire and Vegas. Remember he upset people in the South work? Yeah? Yeah,
the good old boys did not like the fact that
NASCAR was going away from the Mason Dixon line.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
They were annoyed by that. They'd really not like this idea.
Then I would pay the Kardashians some a big pile
of cash under the table and have them visit the
Cracker barrel in Camarillo, California, not too far from Calabasas,
and they could do like some business lunches and stuff
inside the Cracker barrel. That would put them right smack
(27:41):
dab in the middle of the TMZ type websites.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Courtney is kind of like emotionally cold. Yeah. Now what
else is in food as well? Taco Bell introducing this
week the big cheese It crunch rap. Does that do
anything for you? I love the Mexican people. The cheese
(28:06):
It cracker that's sixteen times larger than the standard cheese
At cracker goes into the great detail here. Taco Bell
and Cheese It have joined forces, a collab, a cofab brother,
and a big cheese Big Cheese It crunch Rap Supreme
and Big Cheese It Tostada. Huh. A mouth watering lineup
of cheesy creation that is sure to thrill fans everywhere.
(28:28):
You thrilled Danny by this.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Well, I might try the tostada. That sounds interesting. I
do like cheese its, especially though the ones that are
kind of burnt. They even sell the boxes where they're
all burnt, so like, yeah, yeah, well.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Done, cheese its.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
So I don't know, I guess it sounds weird, but
I'd be willing to try it.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
So you can get the Big cheese Big cheese At Box.
This box includes the Big cheese At crunch Rap Supreme,
a beefy five layer burrito, regular sized nacho fries and
Nacho Cheese Song, and a medium soft drink for eight
ninety nine and seventy five calories. Yes, the Big cheese
It Destata that features the Big Cheese It Cracker, topped
(29:11):
with layers of taco bell seasoned beef, dice, tomatoes, crisp lettuce,
shredded cheese, and cool reduced fat sour cream. I like
that they had to put reduced fat sour cream on there. Yeah,
it's really important. I wasn't e gonna get it, but
now you put you put the reduced fat in there,
so I'm good.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I'm good now the old joke. Get a diet coke
with it and make everything better.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, you don't really see skinny people drinking diet Cokeven
about the old joke right back in the day. You
don't see that. But anyway, enjoy that. And it thinks
to alf who sent that along, the great alien o Piner.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
It was really rude. By the way, I'm holding a
diet coke in my hand right now, I'm dead serious.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Oh, let's see a Windy's launch.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
You called me fat?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Do you drink water and no water at all?
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Okay? All right?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And then what are you drinking during the day?
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Sodis?
Speaker 1 (30:07):
No? Why have you? Maybe I did?
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Wendy's launching a new Saucy Nugs campaign, seven flavors including honey, barbecue, spicy, ghost, pepper, garlic, palm,
and more. It's available nationwide. That starts June tenth, So
we still have a few days. That starts on. Is
that Monday, June tenth? What's the date? I think Monday?
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Am I running that?
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Today's the seventh eighth yeah, Monday. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
I'm living in the moment.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I don't know either, I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Plus, we recorded this last weekend exactly, and your favorite
all time favorite.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Arby's is in the foody news this week. Arby's introducing
the new cherry barbecue brisket sandwich in Canada. Ew that
sounds terrible. That sounds disgusting, is what that sounds like.
But that's if you're in Canada.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Does it have poutine in it?
Speaker 1 (30:58):
I did not. I do not see any poutine on here.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
It's all I know about Canada that mountains, glorious mountains
and beautiful scenery and mooses and poutine and hockey and hockey.
What is good luck to the Oilers tomorrow?
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Oh? Come, oh, this is a story night.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Eddie Curtseys stood up. Oh yes, sang oh Canada.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Well now this week he got upset with me because
I picked the Edmonton Oilers to win in Eddie's Anti
Edmonton and so so Garcia's like, oh you're a Canadian,
You're yeah, I forgot about that. I got to bring
that up. He rose to attention that Canadian national.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Aand did he took his hat off and he was
very respectful. The rest of us were laughing.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
All right, well, here's an Olive Garden in the news. Here,
never ending soup or salad and breadsticks for free. But
there is a catch. There's a catch. You can order
an adult andre and in restaurant only Olive Garden entree
three thousand, Yeah, something like that. They will they will
(32:10):
continue unlimited breadsticks and never ending soup or salad for
free with any entree ordered. And so they say that's
been the way it's been at Olive Garden, and they're
not they're not getting rid of it. They said, Olive
Garden serves Did you see this per year? How many
(32:30):
breadsticks they serve per year? Did you see the number? One?
All right, take a guess. What do you think?
Speaker 3 (32:36):
I say, two hundred and three thousand breadsticks?
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Danny, it's a national chain, Dan. Okay, see how many?
How many locations? Let's see how many locations for Olive Garden.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Let's start with The reason I went low is because
we've gone there once in five years.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah. My grandfather in law, Luigi, may he rest in peace.
This is so funny. The guy's from Italy. Right, you
don't get any more authentic Italian than a guy named
Luigi who's from Italy. He was born and lived there
until he was a young adult and moved his family.
He loved it, right, loved it, and he loved it,
absolutely loved it.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
And here's the reason why Mexican people love Taco bell.
That's not authentic, that's American, that's gringo. That's the gringo
take on it. But to them, it's like fast food version.
It's just a nice switch up.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Okay, all right, Well, according to the interweb, which is
never wrong, Danny, never wrong, there are at this moment
over nine hundred Olive Garden locations.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
So would you like to change your answer? Yeah, I'm
going to say one point seven million breadsticks.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
All right, pens down, reveal answers, Reveal answers. Alive Garden
serves seven hundred and forty four million bread sticks. What
a year? What bullshit? That's what they're they're claiming.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
That's bs. You don't believe them, No, you mean they're lying.
That's an over exaggerated no, that's what they said. They
do the math really quick. Hold, I'm doing the math alright.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
So seven hundred and forty four million divided by how
many of us say nine hundred? Yeah, nine hundred per location.
That's to the math, that's too many. That's eight hundred
and twenty six thousand bread sticks. I think I'm right
on that. Yeah, I think eight two six six six
(34:40):
six Sign of the Devil. So yeah, that seems like
a little lunch, isn't it. I know they're not that big,
and you get a basket of them every time you
get them. But that's a little bit much.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Let's see what the listeners think on our eight hundred
and fifty thousand streams we have on this podcast this weekend.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
All right, we will get out on that. Any anything
going on. I know it's National Donut Day today, which
is always a big holiday celebrated National Donut Day today
with Colvino and Rich. You know what I like, not
your cinnamon roll what you claim donut? That's my favorite donut.
You know you like it too. The apple fritter. Apple
Fritter's great. Yeah, I love apple fritter donuts.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
How about you number one on your list? You're your
big boy.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Well, cinnamon roll, apple fritter. Lately it's been apple fritter.
I love that. I used to live near donut man,
and they had the tigertail donut, which is a great
It's like a cinnamon spin thing. It's like the size
of your forearm and it's great.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Gotta say the jelly filled is delicious too. I mean,
after you've done eating it, you feel like you're gonna die.
It is really good.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah, that has National Donut Day today. And the top
flavor the number one flavor for donuts, you know what
it is, no glazed, glazed. Most popular. Number two is
the Boston cream donut, followed by the chocolate frosted, the
jelly filled, and then the chocolate cake.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Cake donuts are gross. Yeah, it's not done it. I
don't know they'd be gross, But.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
I'm not my favorite, not my favorite. And the two
massive donut companies are Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts. But
then you got like Tim Hortons does very well, Voodoo Donuts,
but they all get a small percent. Krispy Kreme gets
forty one percent, Dunkin Donuts gets forty percent of donut
sales in America. So all right, having a wonderful, wonderful day,
(36:42):
and we'll catch you all weekend long, got new podcast
coming out for you new audio content on Saturday and Sunday,
and we'll talk to you then. Asta pasta got a murder.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I gotta go.
Cutbooms.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes
a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants
of the old Republic, a soul fashion of fairness. He
treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the
rich pill poppers in the penthouse.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The Clearinghouse of Hot takes break free for something special.
The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts right now.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
In the air everywhere. Welcome to another weekend of the
Fifth Hour with Me, Big Ben and Danny g Radio.
As it is the seventh day of the month of June,
and my mind is proper I think it is. This
is our first Friday show for the podcast, because June
(00:52):
first was what Saturday? Am I correct? I believe correct,
You're right, Look at that. I'm a human app. I'm
an app that has the the dates and and all that.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, we just recorded that weekend show yesterday. As that
listener pointed out, we do all these shows in a
couple of days in a row.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yes, exactly, exactly. Genius, absolute genius here and so we
begin the weekend here and I will get into a
story I promised on the radio show. The original Recipe show,
not the Extra Spicy, Extra Crispy Podcast. Some stuff that's
been going on behind the scenes here, So I'll share
that with you coming up in a little bit. But
(01:30):
I understand tonight is the final episode of the Wheel
of Fortune with the Goat? Is that correct, Danny? Am
I hearing properly that? Today? Is it? It's all over?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Wheel of Fortune? His last swan, his swan song? Is
that what they say? This should be a phrase of
the week swan song.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Oh, don't make me look at out there. You're trying
to incite.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, but say Jack started in nineteen eighty one on
that show Holy Shiska Bob over forty yeah, over forty
years ago, and of course Ofvannah White is gonna stay
on with your boy Ryan Seacrest.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, Well, here's the thing. I had a couple of
run ins over the years with Pat Say Jack and
in a really good way, in a really good way,
and they were all well, they were u sporting him
as a Dodger stadium. He was a regular at Dodgers Dam.
He loved the La Kings. It was odd though, because
Say Jack lives in I think he's in Virginia.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yeah, you've talked about it before on the podcast that
he'll fly to LA Yeah, tape all those shows and
then fly back to his home state.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, it's quite the gig, the nightly game shows like
Jeopardy and the Wheel of Fortune. Price is right. I'm
not sure about presses, right, but I know with Jeopardy
and whatnot, they'll end up filming like five episodes in
a day, and they'll they'll do a week of shows
and then they'll go on hiatus for a while and
(03:00):
then come back and do a week of shows.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
And so, man, imagine if we could do that in radio,
I'd be.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Great, man, just roll them all out and then that's it.
But Sajack was great, and I have some very fun
memories when I was a young young lad Danny back
in the day and Stu Nahan who was a big
time sportscaster in LA when I was a kid, and
I knew Stu as an adult as a young adult,
and Stu.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
He was on the Naked Gun movies.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, he was in a bunch of different movies. I
just think about baseball as like a character actor behind
the scenes as a sportscaster. Ironically enough, his nickname was
Silver Tip. Stu because he was known as a cheap ass.
But Stu was quite the character. And he was doing
local television back when it was the Ron Burgundy era
(03:48):
of television. If you know Anchorman, that old movie Anchorman,
that's about what it was. I don't know, Ron, that
sounds kind of crazy. Pat Sajack would. I was hanging
out at during batting practice at Dodge Stadium one of
the days years ago, and and Stu was there. And
(04:08):
Pat Sajak happened to be there because he's Pat f
and Sajack, you know, do whatever you want. He was
on the field prior to the game, and he was
he was going at it was Stu because the famous
story that Pat Sajack had had told and I know
he's written about this, It's been written, but it was
great to hear it from the horse's mouth. When Pat
Sajak was working at Channel four in LA, the NBC affiliate,
(04:33):
he got this offer to do the Wheel of Fortune,
and so he consulted with stun Ahan. He said, what
do you think is to do? And I think Sayjack
was like the weather person at the time, and Stu said,
don't do that. Game shows come and go, but people
always need the weather, you know, something to that effect,
and who goofed I've got to know, you know. And
(04:57):
so anyway, needless to say, Pat would remind Stull regularly
of that. And actually Pat spoke as to his memorial
service they had which was right across the street from
from our studios there, and they rant it out the
movie theater had like a celebration of life. But first
two when he passed away, and say Jack was there
(05:18):
and all that he flew out. But hey, listen, Pat
sajak Ago, he's not dead, He's just gonna It's one
of those jobs. Why do you even bother retiring? You
know what I mean? It's like one of those jobs. Yeah,
just keep doing it.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
I mean a legend in the game show game I
think I know the answer to this. But if you
could host one game show, what would it be?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Well, my favorite when I was a kid was Let's
make a deal with Monty Hall. I love that. That
was really cool. I think that's on again. I think
that's that's a thing. But I loved uh I Whenny
Big Money Stop. I also like that. That's not on anymore.
Jokers Wild, No, it wasn't Jokers Wild. I just I'm
(06:00):
matter a mental block here, but it was what it
was in It was like a nineteen eighties game show,
No Aamy nommy stop. What was it called? Press your Luck? Yes,
press your Luck? That's it. Press your Luck. That was
kind of cool. But I mean, any game shows, it's
a great gig. You got a game show, job your set.
(06:21):
Remember Drew Carey when he was at one point a
big star in the nineties, right, Drew Carey show was
very popular. That was in the nineties, right, I think
that was in the nineties. I think so, yeah, And
then he kind of he went down a little bit
and then all of a sudden he went right back
up with the game show because he replaced Bob Barker
(06:42):
as the host of his show, What would you Do? Danny?
What would your game show?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Be?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
The newlywed game. As a little kid, they always said whoopee,
and I didn't know what they were talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Do you now know what they're talking about to you now?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
No? Maybe that could be a word of the week, That.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Could be the word the word o the we are well.
Good luck to Pat say Jack who's made an s
load of money and an old radio contemporary of ours,
is going to replace him? Is that correct? Am I
hearing that accurately? The yep, Ryan Seacrest, who when I
was doing mid days starting out my career mid Days
(07:25):
in LA and then Seacrest was doing afternoon drive at
ninety eight seven Star FM. And look at us now, Danny,
look at us now. Your careers are like a mirror
of each other. It's a doppelganger, me of him, him
of me. That's just the way it is. That's the
way it is.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
A lot of people don't know this, but the very
first season of American Idol you were his co host
on TV.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, we don't like to talk about that. It didn't
work out, but at the time it seemed like a wonderful,
wonderful thing. So I wanted to mention something. There's a
few things that have gone on since we last spoke
on the pot yess not have you done the radio
show every night? Well, that's a little different. The radio
show is different. This is behind the curtain. This is
how we make the Hawt talks. You're never supposed to
tell people how you make the Hawt talks. Well, this
(08:09):
is how we make the hawtthalks. So this past weekend
kind of a melancholy type of a weekend for several reasons.
One of them I will get to right now, the
passing of a friend of mine who worked in the
media for a long time, TJ. Simers.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
T J.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Simers is a longtime newspaper man, one of the last
great columnists in America when that mattered, and that meant something.
To be a columnist in a newspaper doesn't mean much now,
but back in the day it meant a lot. I've
read his columns in the nineties. Yeah, I loved TJ's
work as a columnist, and I got to call him
a friend, which was even cooler. And he died. He
(08:52):
had brain cancer, and he died on Sunday. But as
Paul Harvey would say, that's the news. But now you're
going to get the rest of the story. And this
is something that I haven't We talked about. It was
a private matter and I didn't want to get into
it here. I didn't do it to get any kind
of attention, not that I would get attention for it anyway.
(09:13):
But I was alerted several months back that TJ had
brain cancer by a mutual friend of ours, my friend Jay,
who used to be a big editor at the La
Times back in the day, and so we were ahead.
We got to see TJ. And so, starting I would say,
three months ago, once every couple of weeks we went
(09:37):
to TJ's house. He had been bedridden. Was you know,
he had made the decision and I don't want to
get too much into this is his family's decision, but
he he had decided that you know, this was not
this was going to be the end, and he had
incurable brain cancer and rather than try some experimental stuff
(09:58):
and he did try one experiment mental thing, he just
made the decision that this was going to be how
he would check out, and you know, we all have
to die some way, and this was you know, he
just figured this is it and there's nothing I can
do it. And so I was able to visit him
and we'd go and chat. The first time he went
was we were there a couple hours and actually I
made him cookies. The last couple of times I saw
(10:19):
him the Tuesday, oh nice, yeah, he uh, the Tuesday
before before he passed away, we were at his house,
you know, bullshitting, you know, talking about nas and we
didn't really talk that much sports. We started out talking
sports and TJ was on this podcast I think the
end of twenty twenty three, I believe we yeah had
(10:42):
them on.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Oh I remember that, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah, and it was great. We told a lot of
the stories on that podcast. My favorite TJ stories when
TJ took over as the columnist in page two, which
was a big deal in the LA Times, and I
think he replaced Jim Murray if I remember remember correctly,
But either way, TJ was a football writer. The first
(11:06):
time I ever interacted interacted with TJ, he was a
San Diego based The LA Times had a bureau in
San Diego, charger beat reporter. He then became the NFL
columnist when in his time as the NFL columnist, the
LA market lost the Rams and the Raiders. They both left,
(11:27):
and so TJ was writing about the NFL when there
was no NFL in the market. And at that time,
the NFL was popular, but it was not nearly as
popular as it is these days. And so anyway, TJ
would write about the NFL, and often what he would
do is go to these big events and pester the
commissioner when is LA going to get a team? Blah
(11:47):
blah blah, blah blah, and that was his thing. But
I had him on. I was. It was in the nineties.
I was like in my early twenties doing a talk
show with Dave Smith. We had on the old Ben
and Dave Show. We had tj on in the middle
of the interview did not like the questions that we
were asking, so he yelled at us and then hung
(12:08):
up in the middle of the interview. And I still
I brought that up to him. Actually, this past last
time I saw him, were talking about some of the
old old stories.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
That was at that point in his career. Was he
cool with you or did he not really know you?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
At that point? No, I thought he hated me. I
thought he despised me. And the turning point was when
I was doing stuff with the Dodgers, and then he
took over as the columnist for the Times and he
would go out. Davy Johnson was the Dodger manager, and
Davy had a lot of success with the Mets and
was really living off that success he had managing the Mets,
(12:45):
who had a bunch of guys that hit a lot
of home runs and cocaine, the eighty six Mets, and
he was the manager of that team, and so you know,
he's just kind of going through the motions. And when
TJ took over, he came out as a flame throw.
He just was hammering everybody. And the LA media was
not used. That was not how they operate. The teams
(13:08):
in LA didn't know how to handle that at all.
They were like freaking out right. They were like, oh
my god, you know this guy is you know, he's
stirring up a hornets nest here. What are you doing?
And it was so bad. One of the Dodger beat
writers went to every player on the team for the
LA Times Dodger beat writer and talked to every player
(13:31):
and said, I'm not with that guy, like because he
was that much of a loose cannon and all that.
But I loved it. I mean, I thought it was
the greatest thing. That's that's how I was raised to approach.
You know, sports, you're supposed to be critical and you're
not supposed to kiss the player's ass. You're not part
of the team. You're supposed to question some things here
and hold people accountable. And TJ did that. He used
(13:53):
to call the owner, Frank McCord, the Boston parking lot
of Tendant was what he called Frank mc court and
just would slay him every day. And you gotta remember,
TJ got in a lot of trouble for that because
the one of the big advertisers for the La Times
was the Dodgers. They would buy huge, you know, full
full page ads in the newspaper and that was a
(14:16):
big old deal. Right, You're attacking an advertiser, so that
was a problem. My favorite all time TJ story, though
I have several, as we pay respects to the great
late TJ. Simers. When he was it was working for
the Orange County Register, but he did this starting at
the LA Times. He would take shots at Artie Marino.
He'd called him angry Artie, and Artie Marino got so
(14:40):
upset with TJ. Simers that he literally punished all of
the media in Los Angeles. This is one of my
all time great stories of a rogue owner being so
upset with a revolutionary media guy that this thing escalated
into a nuclear situation. Because it turns out Artie Marino
(15:05):
moved the press box at the Big A from behind
home plate where it had been since the stadium opened,
and that's traditionally where every single press box is right,
there's only a couple that aren't there. And he moved
it down near the pearly gates, down near the right
field foul pole, where you the media can't even see
the game from the press box. And he did that
(15:27):
because of TJ Simers, because he was so upset with
TJ Simers and what a mischief maker TJ was, and
how agitating he was, you know, just really annoying Marino.
He just he said, all right, we'll move the press
box and he did. And but you know, TJ had
a gruff exture. He wasn't for everybody. He wasn't. But
the thing that I love about and TJ. We were
(15:48):
actually talking about this also over the last couple of
times I saw him, was he became friends with Vin Scully,
Chick Hern, Bob Miller, these iconic podcasters in Los Angeles.
Was buddies with John Wooden and Kobe Bryant. These people
loved it, and we were telling he was telling me
(16:09):
stories about John Wooden and he said that wouldn't hated
being called the Wizard of Westwood and he did not
like the fact that everywhere he went people kissed his
ass and TJ didn't kiss his ass and busted his
chops and wouldn't loved it. He loved it. Was a
great story about that. And Kobe Bryant also liked the
(16:32):
approach that that TJ had. I it was a Mamba
mentality or not, but he didn't hold back and Kobe
Kobe respected that.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
So you talked about that Fullerton restaurant and I saw
an Instagram story on it a real just this past week,
and it said that he told the staff there at
that restaurant he loved being treated like a regular customer,
like he was just a regular dude.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, people who are when you get to a certain level,
you don't like that. You're like, no, I'm not, you know,
I'm just a normal person. I just happened to be
good at something like that. So I wanted to really
say a tip of the headphones to TJ. I will
I will miss his wisdom. I mean, it has been
been away from the media business for a number of years.
(17:19):
He was doing a blog for a while. He this
just happened by the way I think he found out.
He fell down in I want to say maybe April
and something like that might have been Yeah, it might
have been March. I mean, it was real quick. It wasn't.
It wasn't a long situation from when it began to
(17:41):
when it ended. So but in one of a kind,
there's really nobody else like him, at least in the
LA media. I mean, Teach is a guy that was
on that show Around the Horn on ESPN and said
how much he hated the show while on the show,
and they ended up getting getting rid of him. And
then I've told in the past, in fact, we should
probably linked to that conversation we had with TJ. But
(18:03):
there was an incident with Dwight Howard when Dwight came
over and the Lakers had this supposedly the super team
with Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, except they they couldn't
they couldn't play. They were terrible together. And that thing
skyrocketed right into the ground. And when the opposite direction,
it was a dud. And one day Dwight Howard walks
(18:24):
into the Laker locker room. He's all depressed and he's cursing,
and what's this all about? And it turns out that
Dwight was upset because at that time Stephen A. Smith
and Skip Bayless were working together and they had said
some mean things about Dwight and he was annoyed by that.
(18:44):
And so THENDJ he goes up to just Dwight. You know,
no one watches that show, Dwight the rating, I mean,
you're you're upset. Why are you upset? I can show
you the ratings that show gets. No nobody's watching. It
was the funny and Dwight could not wrap his head
around the fact that that show had very few people watching.
In his head, everyone was watching that particular show, and
(19:06):
it's it was. It was pretty amusing, and you know,
it was great. And TJ did actually listen to the
Overnight show and didn't hate it, which was which was
a nice thing as well. Good for my good for
my ego. So I rest in peace the late great TJ. Simons,
who passed away on this past Sunday. I also, before
I get any further, I did want to mention that
(19:29):
we had one oversight on Big Ben's Big Board. Not
a list, Danny, not a list, Big Ben's Big Boy.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
It was a really good list. So I'm curious to
hear what we missed.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
So we had the Street takeover, the Burn, Baby Burn,
the Casey Kasem thing wrong, Button, Bob All that the
shooting gallery, the mobster Henry Hill. But I forgot about
this one classic story, the night the bats got in
the studio. Do do do Do do do? Batman? Do
(20:02):
do do do? Do do do? Batman? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (20:04):
That was during Roberto the bus Driver's tenure, right.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yes, yes, it happened multiple times that bat's got in
the studio. I was not there one of the times.
That's probably why I had forgotten, But I was there
the other time, and we actually did live coverage. We
had boots on the ground, yes, outside, as this story developed,
we were there.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Was it Mike Carmon on a phone, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Harmon was on the phone. We had there were several
people involved. We had one person was the door guy
to leave the door to the courtyard open. But then
there was a chase guy that like chasing tornadoes, trying
to push good luck pushing a bat out of the studio.
And remember they thought the bat was gone, but the
(20:50):
bat was actually hiding at one point. But there was
a successful movement to get the bat out. But I
do recall that, and so thank you. Several of you
reached out to me via social media and email at
the fifth hour email address to let us know about
that I had forgotten and that is a that is
(21:11):
a thing that did happen. If you want to send
me an email about the mail bag or anything else,
we do the mail bag on Sunday, but you don't
have to wait till Sunday. Real fifth Hour at gmail
dot com, Real fifth Hour at gmail dot com if
you'd like to be part of this. I was the
one that everyone agreed we fed up on on Big
Ben's big board was the bad thing. There were some
(21:31):
other stuff brought up, but that well.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
We should have pretended like you did it on purpose,
just like when you mess up on something your old line.
I did it to see if you were paying attention.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
That's not aligne Danny, That's that's the truth. I could
do a perfect show. I could. I was taught by
my radio mentor my radio mentor Rick these Then you
just make a mistake every once in a while. It
humanizes you. You gotta be human. I gonna be relatable to
the to the common person is as they say, the
(22:00):
lay person.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Timed out for the phrase of the week, the phrase
of the week.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Praise of the week this week by request. If you
want to send a request in I will consider it.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Oh swansong.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
No, this is from Nick in Wisconsin. He wants to
know the origins of ifs and butts were candy and nuts,
it would be Christmas every day nuts? All right, So
let's get to this now. I was blown away by
this one. I'm so happy Nick requested this. I used
this line every once in a while, Danny, if if
(22:35):
some butts were candy and nuts to be Christmas every day.
It turns out it actually originated with someone in sports.
Isn't that mind blowing? I say, it's mind blowing. So
let's take you in the way back machine. The origins
of the word ifs and butts were candy and nuts,
be Christmas every day, or something along those lines. It
was actually coined by a Dallas cowboy, Dandy Don Meredith.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
I'll turn out the lots.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Yeah, well, that's one of the he's over, one of
the great tributes that we give to him, turn out
the lights, the parties over.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Well.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Also, back in nineteen seventy nineteen seventy or four before
our time, Danny g but Don Meredith was a commentator
with Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football and.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
We literally were not born yet.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And which is shocking at this point. I feel like
everything we talk about we were born for you happen
during our watch anyway. Howard Cosell during the broadcast, I
have a transcript of it. He said, if Los Angeles
meeting the Rams, if the Rams win, it's a big one,
but San Francisco is still very much in it. Don Meredith,
a color commentary here, then responded, if if sent butts
(23:49):
were candy and nuts, we all have a merry Christmas.
And Cosell responded, I didn't think you'd remember that old canard,
and then Don said, is that but it was? Well,
it turns out that what Don Meredith had done is
he had taken an old proverb from the nineteenth century
(24:11):
and repackaged it as his own. The original statement was
if as were pots and pans, if st Ann's were
pots and pans, there'd be no work for tinkers hands.
And that proverb goes back to expressing a regret like
if only we had money, or you know, only I
(24:34):
had the right connections, I'd be famous that kind of thing.
But Don Meredith twisted that around and it became what
it became, which is if some and butts were candy
and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas. The one
I hear more often is if some butts were candy
and nuts, be Christmas every day. But either way you
can thank Don Meredith. That phrase has been around as
(24:55):
that phrase for over fifty years now, over fifty years
of that nonsense. So that is the phrase of the week,
the phrase of the week.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I wonder in the future if there's a podcast, like
in the year twenty fifty and they do a phrase
of the week, Yeah, and the host will be like,
in the air everywhere where did that come from?
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah? You know what? Gas baggery came up with that?
Do you want to do some foody fun? We can
do a little foody fun. Why now we'll Yeah, let's
do it fun. We'll get out on the foody fun.
Let's do it all right. We all love our food.
Food very important here. And there's several food stories that
caught my attention. Some of them were sent by p
(25:42):
ones to this show that wanted us to be fully
aware of what's going on. I read that cracker barrel
you ever been You've been a cracker barrel right at
some point? Now, no, I haven't done there yet, all right,
and it's a Southern chain, but yeah, they do have locations.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
My chickadee went there with one of her kids and
they brought me back some biscuits.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah, give you a lot of food, large portions of food,
Southern food. But here's the thing. The CEO of Cracker
Barrel said this week they want the chain to become hip.
You said the brand, The CEO said, the brand has
quote lost some of it shine and they have plans
(26:25):
to regain relevance to become hip. How Danny, you're the
food guy, how can Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Get emc hammer online one.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
That's what you recommend?
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Yes, well, there's some things some other Their logo looks
old fashioned. Everything about the restaurant looks old fashioned. So
how are you going to go from that to being hip?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Well, you have to reinvent yourself. But then the problem
is if you reinvent yourself, you lose the base. You
can't lose the bass, So you do have to thread
a needle. I have to threat a needle a little
bit because you don't want to lose your bass and
you want to you want to bring new people in.
It's kind of like when NASCAR opened things up and
they started racing in La and uh well, the Inland
(27:12):
Empire and Vegas. Remember he upset people in the South work? Yeah? Yeah,
the good old boys did not like the fact that
NASCAR was going away from the Mason Dixon line.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
They were annoyed by that. They'd really not like this idea.
Then I would pay the Kardashians some a big pile
of cash under the table and have them visit the
Cracker barrel in Camarillo, California, not too far from Calabasas,
and they could do like some business lunches and stuff
inside the Cracker barrel. That would put them right smack
(27:41):
dab in the middle of the TMZ type websites.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Courtney is kind of like emotionally cold. Yeah. Now what
else is in food as well? Taco Bell introducing this
week the big cheese It crunch rap. Does that do
anything for you? I love the Mexican people. The cheese
(28:06):
It cracker that's sixteen times larger than the standard cheese
At cracker goes into the great detail here. Taco Bell
and Cheese It have joined forces, a collab, a cofab brother,
and a big cheese Big Cheese It crunch Rap Supreme
and Big Cheese It Tostada. Huh. A mouth watering lineup
of cheesy creation that is sure to thrill fans everywhere.
(28:28):
You thrilled Danny by this.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Well, I might try the tostada. That sounds interesting. I
do like cheese its, especially though the ones that are
kind of burnt. They even sell the boxes where they're
all burnt, so like, yeah, yeah, well.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Done, cheese its.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
So I don't know, I guess it sounds weird, but
I'd be willing to try it.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
So you can get the Big cheese Big cheese At Box.
This box includes the Big cheese At crunch Rap Supreme,
a beefy five layer burrito, regular sized nacho fries and
Nacho Cheese Song, and a medium soft drink for eight
ninety nine and seventy five calories. Yes, the Big cheese
It Destata that features the Big Cheese It Cracker, topped
(29:11):
with layers of taco bell seasoned beef, dice, tomatoes, crisp lettuce,
shredded cheese, and cool reduced fat sour cream. I like
that they had to put reduced fat sour cream on there. Yeah,
it's really important. I wasn't e gonna get it, but
now you put you put the reduced fat in there,
so I'm good.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I'm good now the old joke. Get a diet coke
with it and make everything better.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, you don't really see skinny people drinking diet Cokeven
about the old joke right back in the day. You
don't see that. But anyway, enjoy that. And it thinks
to alf who sent that along, the great alien o Piner.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
It was really rude. By the way, I'm holding a
diet coke in my hand right now, I'm dead serious.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Oh, let's see a Windy's launch.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
You called me fat?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Do you drink water and no water at all?
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Okay? All right?
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And then what are you drinking during the day?
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Sodis?
Speaker 1 (30:07):
No? Why have you? Maybe I did?
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Wendy's launching a new Saucy Nugs campaign, seven flavors including honey, barbecue, spicy, ghost, pepper, garlic, palm,
and more. It's available nationwide. That starts June tenth, So
we still have a few days. That starts on. Is
that Monday, June tenth? What's the date? I think Monday?
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Am I running that?
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Today's the seventh eighth yeah, Monday. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
I'm living in the moment.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I don't know either, I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Plus, we recorded this last weekend exactly, and your favorite
all time favorite.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Arby's is in the foody news this week. Arby's introducing
the new cherry barbecue brisket sandwich in Canada. Ew that
sounds terrible. That sounds disgusting, is what that sounds like.
But that's if you're in Canada.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Does it have poutine in it?
Speaker 1 (30:58):
I did not. I do not see any poutine on here.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
It's all I know about Canada that mountains, glorious mountains
and beautiful scenery and mooses and poutine and hockey and hockey.
What is good luck to the Oilers tomorrow?
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Oh? Come, oh, this is a story night.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Eddie Curtseys stood up. Oh yes, sang oh Canada.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Well now this week he got upset with me because
I picked the Edmonton Oilers to win in Eddie's Anti
Edmonton and so so Garcia's like, oh you're a Canadian,
You're yeah, I forgot about that. I got to bring
that up. He rose to attention that Canadian national.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Aand did he took his hat off and he was
very respectful. The rest of us were laughing.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
All right, well, here's an Olive Garden in the news. Here,
never ending soup or salad and breadsticks for free. But
there is a catch. There's a catch. You can order
an adult andre and in restaurant only Olive Garden entree
three thousand, Yeah, something like that. They will they will
(32:10):
continue unlimited breadsticks and never ending soup or salad for
free with any entree ordered. And so they say that's
been the way it's been at Olive Garden, and they're
not they're not getting rid of it. They said, Olive
Garden serves Did you see this per year? How many
(32:30):
breadsticks they serve per year? Did you see the number? One?
All right, take a guess. What do you think?
Speaker 3 (32:36):
I say, two hundred and three thousand breadsticks?
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Danny, it's a national chain, Dan. Okay, see how many?
How many locations? Let's see how many locations for Olive Garden.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Let's start with The reason I went low is because
we've gone there once in five years.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah. My grandfather in law, Luigi, may he rest in peace.
This is so funny. The guy's from Italy. Right, you
don't get any more authentic Italian than a guy named
Luigi who's from Italy. He was born and lived there
until he was a young adult and moved his family.
He loved it, right, loved it, and he loved it,
absolutely loved it.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
And here's the reason why Mexican people love Taco bell.
That's not authentic, that's American, that's gringo. That's the gringo
take on it. But to them, it's like fast food version.
It's just a nice switch up.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Okay, all right, Well, according to the interweb, which is
never wrong, Danny, never wrong, there are at this moment
over nine hundred Olive Garden locations.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
So would you like to change your answer? Yeah, I'm
going to say one point seven million breadsticks.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
All right, pens down, reveal answers, Reveal answers. Alive Garden
serves seven hundred and forty four million bread sticks. What
a year? What bullshit? That's what they're they're claiming.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
That's bs. You don't believe them, No, you mean they're lying.
That's an over exaggerated no, that's what they said. They
do the math really quick. Hold, I'm doing the math alright.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
So seven hundred and forty four million divided by how
many of us say nine hundred? Yeah, nine hundred per location.
That's to the math, that's too many. That's eight hundred
and twenty six thousand bread sticks. I think I'm right
on that. Yeah, I think eight two six six six
(34:40):
six Sign of the Devil. So yeah, that seems like
a little lunch, isn't it. I know they're not that big,
and you get a basket of them every time you
get them. But that's a little bit much.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Let's see what the listeners think on our eight hundred
and fifty thousand streams we have on this podcast this weekend.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
All right, we will get out on that. Any anything
going on. I know it's National Donut Day today, which
is always a big holiday celebrated National Donut Day today
with Colvino and Rich. You know what I like, not
your cinnamon roll what you claim donut? That's my favorite donut.
You know you like it too. The apple fritter. Apple
Fritter's great. Yeah, I love apple fritter donuts.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
How about you number one on your list? You're your
big boy.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Well, cinnamon roll, apple fritter. Lately it's been apple fritter.
I love that. I used to live near donut man,
and they had the tigertail donut, which is a great
It's like a cinnamon spin thing. It's like the size
of your forearm and it's great.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Gotta say the jelly filled is delicious too. I mean,
after you've done eating it, you feel like you're gonna die.
It is really good.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah, that has National Donut Day today. And the top
flavor the number one flavor for donuts, you know what
it is, no glazed, glazed. Most popular. Number two is
the Boston cream donut, followed by the chocolate frosted, the
jelly filled, and then the chocolate cake.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Cake donuts are gross. Yeah, it's not done it. I
don't know they'd be gross, But.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
I'm not my favorite, not my favorite. And the two
massive donut companies are Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts. But
then you got like Tim Hortons does very well, Voodoo Donuts,
but they all get a small percent. Krispy Kreme gets
forty one percent, Dunkin Donuts gets forty percent of donut
sales in America. So all right, having a wonderful, wonderful day,
(36:42):
and we'll catch you all weekend long, got new podcast
coming out for you new audio content on Saturday and Sunday,
and we'll talk to you then. Asta pasta got a murder.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I gotta go.
Host
Ben Maller
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