The Wing That Fell… And the DoorDash Guy Who Picked It Up Anyway

Tony Katz and America’s favorite amateur drinker, Fingers Malloy, fire up the E.P. Carrillo Battleborn Warrior—a Connecticut Broadleaf-wrapped, double-binder, Nicaraguan-filled cigar created in tribute to the military, with proceeds supporting Fisher House Foundation. At $23 a stick, they dig into whether the profile (rich, tobacco-forward, hints of dark fruit, wood, a touch of floral on the retrohale) and story justify the price—and why you should never panic if a cigar feels a little dry coming out of the humidor.

In the glass, they pour Maker’s Mark 101 (Special Proof)—a 101-proof take on a classic bourbon. Tony and Fingers break down the nose (caramel, oak, a little fruit), the surprising melon/citrus notes on the palate, how the heat presents for a 101-proofer, and how a cube of ice changes the entire experience. They land on an easy verdict: this is exactly the kind of “always-have-it-on-hand” bottle every holiday liquor cabinet needs.

From there, the guys dive into a run of real-world nonsense and news: Target’s Black Friday swag-bag backlash (gummies, Uno cards, travel shampoo and lip oil after waiting in line since 3 a.m.), the rise of oversized vehicles in Europe and the U.S. and what “car spreading” and policies like Vision Zero really signal, and why economic numbers—from jobs reports to Black Friday spending to AI layoffs—feel completely out of whack.

They also tackle the never-ending wave of food recalls, including shredded cheese and milk, and ask whether we’re just better at catching problems or worse at making the food in the first place. And in a truly gross moment of modern life, they break down the viral DoorDash “dropped wing” video—where a driver picks a boneless wing up off the concrete, tosses it back in the box, licks his fingers, and walks away—plus what basic decency in food handling should look like.

Along the way: cigar-notebook tips, why shredded cheese might haunt your dreams, talk of big steaks in Iowa, and a very real threat to road-trip to Memphis for King Jerry Lawler’s barbecue.

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In this episode, you’ll hear:

• A full review of the E.P. Carrillo Battleborn Warrior cigar: construction, flavor notes, strength, burn, and value.

• A tasting of Maker’s Mark 101—how it compares to classic Maker’s, what flavors pop neat vs. over ice, and if it belongs in your home bar.

• The Black Friday Target swag-bag outrage and how to build a promo that doesn’t insult your customers.

• “Car spreading,” Vision Zero, and the cultural war over big vehicles, comfort, and personal freedom.

• Why food recalls (cheese, milk, and more) feel constant—and what that says about quality control.

• The DoorDash chicken wing disaster and Tony’s…let’s just say strong feelings about consequences.

Perfect for cigar lovers, bourbon fans, and anyone who enjoys a little economic confusion and consumer-culture madness with their smoke.

All that, and more, on an all-new Eat Drink Smoke!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wow, you gotta love a cigar with purpose, really art
with purpose, like a.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Focus and a vision.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
And that's what comes from this from Ronesta Perez Carreo.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
This is the battle Born.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
It's he drink smoke. I'm Tony Katz and that right
there is America's favorite amateur drinker. Fingers molloy Forged in strength,
built for honor. What was that designed to perform? It's
a little hard to read there in the golds printing
on the green label, but this is a nod to
the military because over there Careo they have got a

(00:39):
guy by the name of Lionel McCoy who spent two
decades in the military, and so they got with him
he works at Careo, and said, hey, let's design something
that is for the soldiers.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
And this is what they came up with.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
A Connecticut broadleaf wrapper which I do love Mexicans and
Andreas in the binder nik when in the filler it
comes in one size.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
It's a six by fifty six, which means it's six
inches long.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Tea always makes fingers Loy laugh. And the ring gage
is a fifty six. The diameter of the cigar, or
how thick it is around me tee again with the laughter.
So fifty four is really the top of where I
like to be in terms of comfort. But wanted to
give this a try. And that is it's not a
saddle leather. It's not a luxurious rapper. It's not even

(01:29):
a question of whether or not the rapper is rich.
Doesn't have that darkness, it doesn't have that oily sheen.
This this cigar looks like it could punch you in
the face and then make fun of your sister fingers
with loy. That's the it's it's not pretty, and I
don't mind that. I'm just saying, if you want to

(01:49):
talk about oily or the look or the modeled black no, no, no,
this looks almost like a matte finish on a cigar.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
That's fair. But what as far as the look of
the cigar. If you're saying that the wrapper isn't the
most pleasing, yeah, that you saw where I was gonna
go with this.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
The band is beautiful. So the band is done in
gold and green, right military green. It is a little
it's a little hard to read. And I'll tell you
right now, maybe this is my humidor I don't know
if yours is mine's dry, and I don't know if
it's the way I bought it or what have you.
I mean, I've got everything in my humid or, but
right now it's a little bit dry. Do not be alarmed.

(02:33):
It might smoke just fine, don't freak, don't lose your head,
but it should when you feel something like that in
a cigar.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Just take a look at everything. Make sure you've got.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Your distilled water, and they're always distilled water in your
humid or. Otherwise you'll get a mold issue or use
one of those packs, whether it's from bovetos I Car
wherever it may be.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
They're not sponsors.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
We just think the product does good work. Fingers, I'm
about to light mine up.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
You've just lit this up where well, first of all,
the draw was a little tight. But because you mentioned
that it is dry, and I noticed that as well,
I was a little hesitant to do the old pinsion
roll right.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
That's where you put it between your thumb and your
point your finger. You just roll it back and forth,
that's all.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
But I was worried that may crack the wrapper, so
I avoided doing that, and it actually the draw is
much easier now and it's I believe where it should
be nice, pleasant smoke coming off of this. There's a
richness to this, you know, rich tobacco note and then
maybe a little bit of chocolate, not getting a whole
heck of a lot of spice off of this stick.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
So, by the way, that is a great example of
don't get into too many bad habits.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
The cigar is draw It's like, oh, it's gonna be
a problem.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
You used to a cigar is a little more spongy,
feel a little more give to it. So you start
rolling it the first You don't know what the problem is.
You don't know if there's gonna be a problem. Don't
prethink that, which is what you did. You're like, I
see X that it's dry, but I'm not going to
prejudge what might happen. And now he's smoking a beautifully

(04:07):
well crafted cigar. Excellent work, fingers Molong, thank you.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
I did not pull out my jump to conclusions.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Matt, thank goodness, thank goodness. Get your notebooks out, pull
those out. What did you eat today? What did you
drink today? It's all gonna go down in the notebook.
And the weather. The weather is suck in Indianapolis, Indiana.
I believe that's a technical term, fingers moloon.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yes, it goes. It's actually scientific. We use it a
lot over at the Fingers Maloy Institute for Institutes of Institutes.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Right right, So there's cold, there's really cold. There's what's
happening here. There sucks, and there's I'm moving. We're just
about to the I'm moving stage of cold weather in
the Midwest.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, we've had a lot of snow, a little ice
in the morning. Sometimes we're having foggy mornings when it's
fifteen degrees outside. It's just crap weather altogether. Yes, So for.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Everybody listening on WDBO in Orlando, we never liked you.
Thank you. If everybody listening in Anchorage, We're sorry, we're complaining.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
We'll stop now. So, yeah, I think you're right.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Smoking the Ornesta Perez Creo ep Coreo the battle Born, Uh,
if there is a spice, it is it is from
the wood flavoring that that I'm getting right there.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
There definitely is a tobacco forward in this.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
I would say that that's an accurate uh this description,
Uh from this cigar. There's also and it's gonna you're
think it's gonna sound weird. I don't mean to sound weird.
There's something fruity going on.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Okay, there's dark fruit a pair is it is it?
Is it a pear or is it more dark fruit
like a like a prune.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
First of all, I would go more with a plum.
It's it says if the richness is a bit acidic.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Oh god, that sounded pretentious as hell.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
And I had my hand.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Like on my cheek like I'm Jack Benny. By the way,
you kids under fifty, asked Jeeves, Jack Benny. I almost
did a whole Rochester thing.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
Uh so, yeah, it's so so you're there's a little bit,
there's a sweet and then there's a spice, which both
could come from that idea.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
So I'm not sure yet. As I just lit this up.
The feel of this is right.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
The look of this, as I said, is is like
this this matt uh brown. It's it's just it's it's
it's not shimmery. It's not shining. You don't feel it.
There's no grit but there on the on the wrapper,
but there's it's.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Not smooth either.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
You know, you'd almost expect this to be like a
military cigar right forward coming at you.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
This is what we do.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
And if you don't like it, that's all right.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
We're still gonna take your land. It's like like that's
it's like patent if he were going to smoke a cigar,
this would be it right here, right it is. It
is very very straightforward.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
But it does have a little it does have a
little kick, It does have a little touch there of
something that that is. Is it smooth? Is it just
is it just shaving off the edges right now? I'm
not saying it's too harsh, just just a little.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
I just wish you could retrohal because did you just
do it? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (07:35):
And that's moving the smoke out through the nostrils where
you have a lot more flavor receptors.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
I almost get a little bit of floral when I
do that. But I notice when I retrohale a lot,
I get a little bit of a floral note that
I don't get when I'm normally smoking, because I don't
normally retrohal unless we do a review.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
But you don't retrohale. So I know if I did,
I would immediately die. I would be dead, and then
it would be eat drinking smoke with finger. There's malloy
and guest and son Jack Benny Fingers malloy, is this
in your Humidor for twenty three dollars a step.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
We're gonna have to get much more into the first third,
end of the second third, and maybe the final third.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
And by the way, proceeds from this go to a
place called Fisherhouse Foundation. A portion of every cigar goes
to that. So it's a little bit of a charitable
love fest. And fine, yes, it's in my humid Or.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
See that career.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
We love you that much. The Battleborn they call it
the Battleborn Warrior. You want to check that out, Grab
one smoke along with us. Let us know what you think.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
So Black Friday has come in and is gone.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yet somehow it still get all the Black Friday deals
like they're everywhere. It started three months ago, you can
still get. There was Independence Day and then July fifth
it was Black Friday, and the deal are still there,
except some of them made people unhappy. Tony Katz Fingers
Bloye's Eat, Drink, Smoke, Good to be with You find

(09:07):
it all wherever it is. You get your favorite podcasts.
Where ever did you get your podcasts? Be sure to
subscribe to eat, drink smoke. You found the story fingers
bloyant that Target has angered the customers. They are upset,
they are going to riot. Things are going to get ugly.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Well, this already happened, Tony. They were already. They were
already angry because, as you know, Tony, one of my
passions in life is to monitor social media outrage. Ellen,
does it better? Thank you so much so? Black Friday Target, Yes,
One of the promotions that they had was offering the

(09:46):
first one hundred shoppers who entered its store at six
am a complimentary swag bag containing free items. It also
said that one of these bags contained an extra prize,
valued at night or more. The prize could be a
ninja slushy Love me and Ninja slushy. You're gonna get

(10:07):
two of them, aren't you? Yes, one for each hand,
Beats headphones okay again, one fre each hand, maybe one
gift card to Target. Who wouldn't love that? So people
because of this promotion started to line up, many at
three o'clock in the morning waiting for the possibility of

(10:30):
getting a really sweet ninja slushy or some beats.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
But only one person was gonna get that. Yes, so
one hundred bags. First hundred people, they're gonna swag bag.
In one of those bags, you could have ended up
with beats or a slushy.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yes, but according to the street dot com, some customers
who received a gift bag without an extra prize were
not satisfied with the items inside the swag bag. Are
you ready for what was in the swag bag? I'm
gonna guess. I'm gonna guess. Huh.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
I was gonna say a five dollars gift card, but nope,
I think that'd be too much.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
You're right, that is too much. I'm going to say
a pen I used suck and a gift card to Kmart.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
That's what I'm going with. That's that's my That's my guess.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
About as valuable. Okay, uh, the small bag included.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Hold on, before we go any further. Was this at
all target locations or is.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
This at a specific target location?

Speaker 1 (11:36):
This? And is it? Is it in like a knockoff target?
It's spelled with two t's in the front, targeting moo
target right right, it's t moo target. This just says target,
So we got to assume this is the target target target. Yes,
this isn't like McDowell's to McDonald's and coming to America.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
No, and it's not okay. The the swag bag included
a small back of gummies.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Wait what kind of gummies?

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Apparently just the run of the mill candy kind of
some gummy bears, some gummy bears, A deck of Uno cards.
I already want to reverse. Your hair may have gotten
dirty while in line. So they included a travel sized
shampoo bottle and some lip oil. Wow, so the card

(12:41):
you suck?

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Three am?

Speaker 2 (12:43):
They show up and they have Uno cards, which they
could easily find in their junk drawer. Right, everybody, you
go in the junk drawer, you got keys from cars
you had fifteen years ago, sitting right next to the
deck of Uno cards. Lip bomb, Oh excuse me. Lip
oil bomb versus oil.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
Tone bomb versus oil has been the back and forth
amongst people for the centuries. Yeah, this is what actually
led to the fight between the hot Fields and the.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
McCoy's travel size shampoo and gummies. All right, that's stupid.
That is a fundamentally dumb thing to do. You and
I have not been in a target and how long
when's the last time you were in a target store?

Speaker 1 (13:26):
A couple of weeks ago. I was it.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yes, you know how long for me seventeen years ago.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
Wow. If I'm putting things into a gift bag, thinking
I've got one hundred people, the first thing I'm putting
in there is the five dollars gift card, right, yes,
Because it doesn't matter who you are, You're like, all right,
i'll get five bucks off.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
Something will cost I'll buy ten bucks.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
It will cost me half. All right, I'll feel good.
Five hundred bucks agreed. Target times all the stores. But
immediately people feel like, okay, that's great. If you went
ten people will be like, okay, that's they'd be like,
I'm getting a gift for so and so won't cost
me anything.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Great.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
In their head, they'll be like Target is terrific, and
they'll buy more stuff. That would be number one. Number two?
I what would be the number.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Two thing that you would throw in from Target?

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Right?

Speaker 2 (14:19):
They don't.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
I don't think all of them do the popcorn anymore.
So I would not have thrown in the popcorn. But
I would have thrown in some kind of kitchen gadget,
whether it be a scoop or whether it would have
been you know, a set of measuring spoons or something
like that. Suddenly that someone could.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Go, you know what, stocking suffer?

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Great?

Speaker 2 (14:37):
You know what grandma needs? This perfect. They took care
of it for me.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Done.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
It's it's all plastic and it costs a nickel. A
sham wow, A.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Loofa would have been don't eat the shampoo. Who doesn't
love a loofah? A loofah is a gift And if
you're gonna give the shampoo, first of.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
All, it shouldn't be shampoo.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
It should be some kind of of soap, some kind
of uh something like that, and then you add the
loof to it. This doesn't take much. We're two guys
who figured this out. For all the undred.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
Women in line, I completely agree with you, and I
assumed they were women because I am a sexist. I
completely agree with you that even though a five dollars
gift card isn't a lot, you would still be walking
away thinking, Okay, I got a little something out of
this one one TikTok influencer Tony TikTok influence. Yes I'm

(15:29):
quoting this person from the street dot Com said, literally
just played myself waiting five hours outside in the cold
to try to get this Target swag bag, and I
did give everything away pretty much except for the I
guess it was ELF lip gloss and the Uno cards.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
LF.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah, Elf, no friend because Elf. If you remember the
alien Elf, he had a big snot with the with
the lifts. That's ALF.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Oh that's ELFLF difference.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
So there you have it. You've got people running to
TikTok right away, upset with target. Target has uh. Let
let's face it, without getting too deep into the story,
has has ticked off a lot of people in the
last few years, and this just seems like another example
of people making decisions.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
It's it's not my fault that they don't know how
to do this. It's not my fault that they haven't
figured it out. It's not my fault that they don't
have anybody there who has any level of common sense.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
What are you saving the money for? What are you doing?

Speaker 1 (16:39):
Don't think about Okay, we've got an extra thousand of these,
let's just throw them in there. Think of what is
going to create the further connection between you and and
your buyer. It's the connection matter. Do we not understand marketing?
One on one? How do they feel about you?

Speaker 2 (16:56):
I'm impressed that you understood ELF. Oh yeah, I'm a
man who knows many, many things many. So what does
ELF stand for?

Speaker 1 (17:05):
It stands for electric light fun.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
You know what's great about E Rink Smoke You end
up learning something.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
That's sometimes what happens here. Eat Drink Smoke. It is
your cigar Bourbon Footy Extravaganza. I'm Tony Katz. That's fingers Bellow.
You find everything we do at Eat Drink Smoke Show
dot com and get those Christmas gifts. Let's go Bourbon,
Let's go bbq Recipes, Tips and Tails from the pit.
Those are our books at Amazon dot com. Let's go Bourbon.

(17:37):
Let's go barbecue at Amazon dot com. We are smoking
from ep Koreo. This is the Battle Born. This was
done in conjunction with one of their employees who spent
twenty years in the military, and part of the proceeds
here goes to Fisherhouse Foundation, as the story goes, and
this cigar six six by fifty six six fifty six

(18:00):
comes in at twenty three dollars a stick here This
is with the Connecticut broad leaf in the wrapper, and
then it is a Mexican Nicaraguan and the binder, and
that's sen Andreas and the binder and then the nicaraguin
filler and you know, Mexicans and Andreas give you that

(18:21):
sweet a little bit of chocolate, things like that.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
That's not what you get here.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
As Fingers said, this is the kind of cigar that
would make you think a patent.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Right.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
It's coming straight forward and it's right at you, and
it's coming for blood, and if it could, it would
take on Stalin.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
It's just that direct and that focused.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
This from what we're told, the EPCOREO battle Born is
actually actually referred to as the battle Born Warrior because
this size they refer to as the warrior size, so
it's the battle Born Warriors.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
They say, this is a full fingers medium, right, Yeah,
this is not as big as I thought it would be.
It is.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
It is a nice presentation though. It's actually a very
very nice spoke smoke. It's not as so much a
spice as it wood. Is it a fruit that kind
of exists on the tongue. There's really nothing in the cheek.
There's some nice smoke that comes off of it, but
none of those vanilla creams, none of that nuttiness. I
don't get any of that. Maybe it'll develop as we're
starting to work into the second third fingers, but so far,

(19:27):
nice cigar.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, it's rich a tobacco forward it to me.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
There.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
I was expecting it to have a little bit more
spice to it than it does.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Right at slight at best.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, there's not a lot here that really you know,
there's not like four or five notes that you'll you know,
hit you right in the face or anything. It's just
been a very solid smoke and it's been very enjoyable.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, but it's twenty three dollars a stick. Now it's
for the military, if you will with them in mind,
part of the proceeds goes to Fisher's house. You could
do it for those reasons. Twenty three is hard on
this cigar. But I will tell you it's smoking very well.
Because I said it felt dry, right, maybe it's my

(20:16):
humid or something else. I've done little touchups because you
know we're talking, But in the main, it's smoke.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
It's smoking beautifully. Yeah, it's I mean, the cigar is
smoking very very well. I'm super I'm.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Super fleased with it.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
If we're just gonna be completely honest.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
We're not We're not gonna be completely honest. Listen, when
it comes, we're gonna be a liar.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
Now, you know what I'm saying. Where I'm going with
this is because it's a it's for a good cause, right,
I would prefer this to be fourteen dollars a stick,
fifteen dollars a stick, twenty three dollars a stick. Yes,
I would have one of these in my humid or
because it goes to a good cause. It's definitely worth
your time. It's been a pleasant smoking experience. But you

(21:03):
start getting twenty three dollars a stick, it's like, oh boy,
but because of what you know, it's a charity cigar,
and yeah, I would have these money.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
And I get it. You know they're adding some more tobacco.
It's got that double binder that that's taking place there.
It's it's it's a little steep. Twenty three is a
little steep, But is it a nice stick? I'm I
would smoke another one. You think I'm not being fair.
At fifteen, you think, well you were at fourteen, Now
you're upping it.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
At fifteen. You start selling me on you Okay, okay,
but what what what what did you wish this cigar
would be.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
I was expecting to spend three hundred dollars for this cigar.
Oh boy, yeah, fourteen to seventeen. I thought it would
be not giving you a hard time at all. You
gave you a heart tak you were giving me. It
felt like you were giving me a heart true at all.
But check it out for yourself and let us know

(22:01):
what you think of the battleborn here. It's smoking, well,
it's easy, it is not It is not a full,
it's not a full. Now medium with a little bit
of a kick, a little bit of a hat.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
You're just getting into the second third of the cigar.
So maybe well both of our opinions on this cigar
will change as we move further down.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
But maybe by the way, you want to get your
notebooks out. What did you eat today? What did you
drink today? Right? You want to write all that down,
the weather that we talked about, and then break the
cigar into third's first, third, second, third, final third. We
talked about this earlier but we didn't finish it. And
then what you want to do is what are the
flavors you're getting out of that? Right? Write them down
in your notebook and when you try the cigar a
month from now, six months from now, for whatever it is.

(22:46):
You do it again and you kind of see where
your notes were and see your through line. What is
it that you really picked up out of the cigar.
It's a great way to study and learn what you're
interested in. By the way, my HVAC system, the heat
in the studio just did like it does this kind
of like flush out every now and again where kind
of like resets itself and it sounds like an airlock
opening and predator is going to come in. And it

(23:08):
just happened, and Fingers freaked, that was actually me. You know, no,
it wasn't. I know what you sound like. You sound
much worse than my mini split system here. But it's
time Fingers for News of the week.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Tony CNBC has the story November private payrolls unexpectedly fell
by thirty two thousand.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yeah, so understand that when we're recording, we don't have
the official number yet from Bureau of Labor Statistics. It's
also a real question about what the BLS is going
to be able to put out right. What is it
that they're going to say, who's back at work post shutdown?
Everything else? I study, I talked to economists and my

(23:52):
other gig as a radio host syndicated, and then here
in Indianapolis, I have no idea what's going on. I
am Talley.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
I nothing makes sense.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
The ten year treasury is at four percent plus and
that's what the thirty year fixed mortgage is based on,
and that hasn't really moved. And then you see the
bitcoin prices and the crypto prices falling off a cliff.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
You see that.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
People spent more on Black Friday, nine point one percent
more on Black Friday, but they bought luxury goods, not
multiplicity of goods, so they spent more money on less things.
And then gold, at my last check was at forty
two hundred dollars an ounce, and silver is at fifty eight.

(24:43):
I sold my silver at fifty one, full disclosure, so early. Now.
I did well on the silver, I'm not complaining about it.
One of the few things I've done well at in
my investments. But fifty eight would have been better.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Also, fifty eight that's a hedge against inflation. Do you
tell me see what's going on? Well, you know, my
philosophy is sell low and buy high.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Bravo, thank you, And.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
So now you tell me thirty thousand jobs, Yeah, thirty
two thousand. Here's what's interesting about these statistics. According to CNBC,
larger businesses entailing companies with fifty or more employees actually
reported in that gain of ninety thousand workers. Where the
job losses came were businesses with fewer than fifty employees.

(25:27):
That's where we saw the client of one hundred and
twenty thousand jobs.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
So a little bit of this is an AI play,
and it's hard to blame the economy, although I'm telling
you I don't understand the economy. The AI play is
ups Verizon HP. They're shitting tens of thousands of jobs

(25:51):
on Amazon, tens of thousands of jobs.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Including on the corporate level.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
They're going to try and replace things with AI and
see how much that that can work. So a lot
of this is just new tech revolution. And the thing
that's taking the jobs is also the thing that's pouring
trillions into the market. Money is being invested into AI,
infrastructure and chips and everything else left right and center.

(26:15):
So again it leads to this crazy level of confusion.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
I'm not quite sure what to make of it. I
feel like it won't seem to matter what is reported
when it comes to the economy, because there's so much
uncertainty of AI's impact on the job market that you're
gonna have millions of Americans who are just gonna always
feel uneasy as they see AI's impact in how it's becoming.

(26:40):
But uneasy for what what are they? What is AI really.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
Making someone feel uneasy about it?

Speaker 2 (26:46):
It's easier to worry about losing your job than it
is to think that everything's going well because most people
are pessimists.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
When you say most people, you mean, that's what I thought.
Is it really called car spreading? I mean, is that
really the terminology we're going with right now?

Speaker 2 (27:10):
This is this is what they're.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
Calling it in Europe.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
They are oh, oh Europe, Well, okay, then.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
T Drink Smoke. I'm Tony Katz. That's fingers from the way.
You find everything we do at Eat Drink Smoke show
dot com. Get the podcast wherever it is you get
your podcasts, just search for Eat Drink Smoke.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
This is from the BBC. That's that's a that's a
big outfit in the UK.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
The UK is the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom includes England.
I digress uh in the UK and across Europe, cars
are steadily becoming longer, wider, and.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Heavier same season consumers like them.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Big cars are seeing as practical, safe, and stylish, and
sales are growing, but some cities want to clamp down.
So the issue here is that people are getting bigger vehicles,
like we in the United States have come to realize
that the suv or the minivan is the only way
to travel and everything else is stupid, aside from a convertible.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
You know, it's your Yeah, you're right. I have a
sedan that I use for my commute, and that's it's
a long commutey. As you know, Tony, I have sixty
two gigs, and so I'm in my car all the time,
and I have a more economical vehicle.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
You said it before.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
I have a Chevy volt.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
There's nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
One of the gigs that I have. They let me
charge it for free, so I get a lot of
free mileage out of that. Out of that volt, I
don't have to pay for a charge.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
And your other vehicle is is an suv, Yes, And
your other vehicle after that is the most uneconomical pickup
truck in the history of the mankind.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Then that is the SSR. Yes, Chevy SSR. And I
have a GMC Acadia right.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
So, by the way, the Chevy SSR he has is
in yellow. It is such a beautiful story. Can I
embarrass you? The truck that his father got for his mother,
then his mother passed away and now he has the
truck and it's in this yellow and it is so
incredibly cool to see him driving down the street, to

(29:24):
see the way he babies this thing. He has never
gone above thirty two miles an hour in this vehicle.
It's not true spect he's never gone above thirty. It's spectacle.
It is one of the more Every time I see
you in it, it's beautiful, it's touching.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
I'm like, good for you.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
Good. I love every every part of it. But you
have to admit that for as good as the bolt
is and over engineered and the hybrid, and America is
totally down with hybrids, and they aren't down with electric,
but hybrid makes perfect sense to Americans, are like, absolutely,
get me from from seventeen miles a gallon to forty
three miles a gallon, Fine by me, fine, I just

(30:04):
or to twenty six or to thirty great, but they
want big and they want comfortable. And I thought car
spreading had to do with man spreading when you're sitting
and you spread your legs because you just want to
really be all relaxed down there.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
I hate it when people try, well, I'm not going
to go down that road. People trying to trying to
lecture guys on man spreading, and most of the people
who are doing that aren't men and don't understand. Having
said that, though, getting back to car spreading, you know
the VOLTI drive, I wish it were three quarter ton
pickup truck. Yeah, that would be the vehicle that I

(30:42):
would like to drive. But it's not economical. But you
feel safer in it. Big, more comfort, you know. It's
it's something that Europeans are starting to realize when for
years it felt like Europeans would make fun of Americans
and their big SUVs.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
So I because I have a local sponsorship deal with
with a Ford dealership in Indianapolis, I drive the Ford Lightning,
the F one fifty Lightning, and there's a whole conversation
whether they're going to end the production of that. I
have a friend who has the Electric Hummer, the new
Hummer EV. I have driven both. The Hummer EV is

(31:21):
an absolutely beautiful, beautiful vehicle. I think that the Lightning
is more comfortable of a vehicle. I love it to death,
but I work from home. It's fine by me. Nobody
else is doing this. It doesn't make sense. Electric vehicle
makes sense for like four percent of the population. But

(31:43):
I have tried from Ford the electric Mustang, which I
don't know why they call it a Mustang, but we're
not going to get into that fight right now.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
It's cool.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
It ain't nothing compared to the Lightning, to the feeld
of that truck.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Now, the actual Mustang, the real must.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Oh that thing all day that thing in inconvertible all
day long. But it is true. It's it is more comfortable.
You feel better in it, at least I do for sure.
The only time I feel better. And I find myself
looking like some of those seventy one oldsmobiles like the
coming more more modern like me and a group of

(32:22):
guys keep looking for a DTS Cadillac like twenty twenty
eleven when they last made them, because first of all,
smoke cigars in it. That's your traveling humid or. And
the thing is a freaking cloud man. General Motors did
it beautifully on that thing. You're just riding along. You
forget that it's actually a car. You're just floating. Life

(32:43):
is grand thing. Those things are to me the stuff,
but it's still it's big.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
It's big car or big suv, especially this time of year,
right when you are driving around and at any point
you go down the road, all of a sudden, six
inches of snow just falls out of the sky, out
of nowhere, not expecting it, and then it just feels
safer and you feel much more comfortable in a bigger vehicle.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
The problem Europe has is that they don't have the
streets for this. If you've ever been to any European city,
they don't have streets that can handle big stuff. Their
highway system maybe, but they're streets, absolutely not. And they
have a very different view of climate than we do.

(33:32):
I don't think you should burn tires in the middle
of the road everybody. I think you should be aware
of the environment, and I would argue that one should
be happy with and be respectful of people are conservationists
actual science and methodologies that create better outcomes that aren't

(33:52):
impactful on how humans exist. That's different than an environmentalist
who is radical to the point of culture like that
wants to fundamentally change how the human being actually exists
and survives and remove the things that have allowed for
human flourishing, like, for example, the automobile, like for example,

(34:12):
air conditioning. If you didn't have air conditioning, places like Houston,
in places like Tampa Bay would not exist. You couldn't
be there, it wouldn't work to the extent that it does.
And these technologies have allowed for opportunity, and certainly the car,
which is the ultimate in mobility, change the way human

(34:34):
beings live for forever. The environmentalist doesn't want that. The
conservationist might be in a discussion of how you go
about either better fueling or something else, but not to
the point of saying you shouldn't be allowed to do
such a thing. That's always been my differentiation. Yeah, and
you're seeing.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
They may see it differently, it's how I say. And
you're seeing governments around Europe pushing back against these vehicles
getting bigger and bigger. They just passed in Paris and
ordinance where it's going to cost more to park heavy vehicles,
and the mayor of Paris said, look, the larger the
vehicle is, the more it pollutes, and so they're going
to go after it, much like because of what you

(35:14):
said about environmental concerns in Europe and.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
So Europe it was Sweden that started this. I believe
it was Sweden. Something called Vision zero, which check your city.
It's there now in the United States, it's right here
in Indianapolis. Vision zero is predicated on the idea that
if we work hard, we can eliminate all car accidents.
So the vision is zero auto accidents and fatalities zero.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
Do you know how that's done, Fingers boy, I've never
discussed this with you. How do you get to zero
car accidents by everyone using public transportation or staying home?

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Right? Vision zero is not something that's about creating a better,
safer society. It's about ending auto transport and preventing people
from having indio visualized mobility and therefore being focused only
in reliant only on central planning what the government creates. Now,
we're not a political show when we do, eat, drink, smoke,

(36:09):
but it's undoubtedly true. So this idea of taxing larger cars,
they see you see that in the United States all
the time, all the time. But it's what Americans want.
It's what people want. They do want the safety in
the security. They do want steel, they want a more
comfortable ride, and they want a man.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Spread yes and bring back more stealing cars. Well yeah yeah,
the fat. Wow, you need a good entree.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
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(37:03):
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(37:24):
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(37:49):
use promo code Eat Drink Smoke that's the name of
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dollars off your order. I think we're kicking off to
Sember right fingers the whole holiday season. Hanukkah's around the corner.
Christmas is not too far after that, then the New
Year's I think I think we're hitting our December in

(38:11):
a beautiful, beautiful way with a little bit of Maker's
mark t Drink Smoke. I'm Tony Katz and that is
Fingers Maloy. He is America's favorite amateur drinker. Find everything
wherever it is you want to get your podcasts. Get
the podcast at Eat Drink Smoke, eatrinksmokeshow dot Com, Social Media,
Eat drink, smoke, but not just any maker's mark.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no. What do
they call this?

Speaker 1 (38:34):
They call this special, fingers malay, they call this special proof.
This is maker's mark one oh one? Coming in at
Do I have it right? Do I have it right?
Did I give it all away? One hundred and one proof?
Look at that? Fingers will applauding for anything that is
over one hundred proof right there. Fifty point five percent

(38:57):
fifty point five percent alcohol by volume. So this is
the special proof. Now, maker's mark, I think is a standard.
I think maker's mark is a standard in every liquor cabinet.
We're talking about a basic, easy understandable bourbon right here.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
That does not mean you don't have it.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Oh no, it's not cool enough, it's not hip enough,
it doesn't have enough of this. Stop being silly and
get into some of these basics. Remember we've been doing
this show now for six years. Fingers boy, I had
I did not bring this up with you. I have
a whole no que cards. If you're talking about a
basic bourbon over the six years we've done that.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
You must have in your liquor cabinet a basic bourbon.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
No frills anything else?

Speaker 2 (39:41):
What is that bourbon? Well, it's either Old Granddad one fourteen.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
It's Old Granddad one fourteen. That's exactly where I was.
What was the other one? I would put Maker's Mark
in that category. There are so many good bourbons at
these lower price points. One of the bourbons we did
a few years back that still people talk to me about,
Johnny Drum. Johnny Drum was to p this. It's terrific.
You're gonna love it. Maker's Mark is one of those.
It's it's fine, it's good in the cabinet for sure.

(40:09):
This coming in one hundred and one proof we got
the poor, worst, worst lines right here. Go ahead.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
You mentioned the holidays I did. There's something about the
red wax on top of the Maker's Mark bottle that
just screams to me, Christmas. Is it that the red wax?
That's how I topped my tree? Oh you dep it
in red wax again, bourbon? You you are a great Christmas.
So this is the Maker's Mark one on one.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
First of all, that color is so near the classic there, right,
it's a it's a little darker, it's a little more
in that orange, not so much in the reds there, beautiful,
beautiful look.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
Not much viscosity on this, not really sticking to the glass.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
There.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
It is that is just that is just.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
Pleasant for all the things where we're picking out these
notes and picking out these flavors. And don't get me wrong,
I love it. I love the artistic expression of bourbon.
It's why I love this so much. It isn't the drinking.
I'm not a bourbon drk I'm not a bourbon drinker.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
I'm a siper.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
I've always has been, same things with rye and everything else.
It's the art that moves me every single time. What
it is this industry does. I am in awe of
these people and very.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Often their palettes. But that nose fingers, yeah, yeah, I
mean you get the caramel, you get some oak. I've
seen other people talk about there's a nice little bit
of fruit on there.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
There is.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
I can see that. One hundred and one proof to me, Tony,
no ethanol alcohol at all on the nose.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
If you know, I have my nose a little different
than yours. If I go in, if I go in deep,
I can catch it right, really catch that ethanol for sure.
But that kind of tinge of citrus, that little bit
of sugary undertone. That that basic caramel there. It's just
a nut. Nice nice, nice expression for sure. On the

(42:04):
maker's mark one on one what they call the special proof.
But Fingers Maloy, enough of the sniffany sniffs.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
You ready for this, Tony, I haven't ready for this
all day.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
He is doing what is known as the Kentucky chew
ladies and gentlemen, taking a sip, moving it around the palate,
really trying to get a feel for the bourbon. I'm
a believer in the two SIPs methodology, the first sip
to set the taste buds, the second sip to really
get an idea of where those flavors are. And Fingers
Horatio Maloy.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
It's nice. There's nothing wrong with nice.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
It's great for the holidays. It's got a little bit
of spice to it. That caramel is there, there's oak.
You know, you could talk me into fruit, but it's
it's I don't know what you you said, citrus. I'll
buy that on the nose, not so much on the palate.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
It's it's hard to describe what that is, but it's good.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
And it's it's it's just you would never guess that's
one hundred and one proof.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
I'm going in. I'm going down here. It is.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
He's a Maker's Mark, special Proof one on one. He's
going in ladies and gentlemen, and he's doing what we
like to call the saganaw swish, the Memphis munch, the
chat mule. It was actually a little hotter that I
thought it would be. Yeah, oh yeah, it is in
a bad way, in a surprising way.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
Okay, Oh that is fruity, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
But what would you say that is? It's not like
a juicy fruit.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
Melon.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
Yeah, that's what that.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
This is gonna sound so stupid. There is a little
bit of like a tangerine candle up thing happening.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Okay, I'll buy that. That's where I'm at. Hold, I'm
going back in because I was struggling to I was like, Okay,
there's a fruit there, but it's not it's not orchard,
you know, it's yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
No, it's it is a citrusy kind of thing happening.
The caramel is not really I wish it was a
little bit more there. There's a cinnamon heat that's really
on the tongue. There's nothing. Hold on wait, wait a
little to the left, and no, there's no heat whatsoever

(44:14):
that it doesn't really exist. But yeah, that's a lot
of that's a lot of melon on the tongue. That's
exactly what it is. And a finish that's.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
What is that?

Speaker 1 (44:29):
What is the finish there? That's a good question.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
You know how sometimes we'll drink something and the finish
really hits you. This isn't that.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
It does have a little bit of like a wine finish.
It's subdued, like like the tannin kind of feel on
wine and wine is not my expertise at all. My
pallet's much better for bourbon and far superior when it
comes to cigars. Oh that's pleasant, that's just nice. You
forget sometimes.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
You forget it's like, you know what, that'll work.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
You don't have to think, you don't have to overdo.
But definitely I'm me, I like more open, I like
that caramel. But this is a nice presentation for sure.
Actually the finish gets now a touch dry.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
Now, that's interesting too. They may not have the one
hundred and one proof, but you know, when you go
to a restaurant and you want maybe an after dinner
bourbon there's a good possibility they'll have Makers Mark. Oh yeah,
a really good possibility.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
Fingers molloy Mago's Mark Special Proof one on one. Is
this in your liquor cabinet? I don't remember you pick
this up, but I've got an MSRP on this at
about forty one forty two dollars.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
I think I spent thirty five of on it, thirty
five all day. There's no question. It just goes in
the liquor cabinet and easy.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
And you want to use it for an old fashioned
which would be kind of interesting because it's melon, and
then you're adding the you know, ther there. It would
be interesting that modeling and you're adding some of the
citrus fruit, but the the the thirty five dollars. Yes,
it's just a it's just a guaranteed, no question, gonna work.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
Glad you have it.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
Yes, people want to get all special and think that
they gotta find the most esoteric and odd thing. No
classics work. Maker's Mark works, It really really does. This
is in your liquor cabinet, absolutely, and it is, by
the way, in the liquor cabinet. We are now in

(46:41):
the place where we can't trust anything anymore. And I
gotta tell you it's annoying. And we've discussed this before,
but I'll bring it up again. Have you ever seen
this many recalls in your entire life? Fingers Maloy, I
don't recall what he did. Look at him. We didn't
even rehearse that or nothing. And it shows Ze Drink Smoke.

(47:02):
That was funny on Tony Katz. That's Fringers. Will I
find it all at Eat Drinks smokeshow dot com. Our
books Let's Go Bourbon, Let's Go Barbecue, Let's Go Bbq.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
They're available at Amazon dot com.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Great Christmas gifts, Great Honukah gifts, Get them now.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Let's Go Bourbon and Let's Go Barbecue. Totally safe. By
the way, no possibility of those two books being recalled.
Absolutely not.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
One point five million bags of shredded cheese sold at Ald,
Walmart and Target have been recalled.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
There was my weekend.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
First of all, I want to say for the record,
that is a tremendous amount of cheese. So the USDA
issuing this urgent update about a mass recall. The Great
Lakes Cheese Company of Hirom, Ohio issued a voluntary recall
back on October third over possible contamination of metal fragments.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
What this happens a lot.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
December first comes and the FDA reclassifies as the recall
risk to Class one, so it may cause temporary or
medically reversible adverse health consequences. Oh, that's just not the
kind of word to you. Anytime you hear health consequences,
you know you don't want this. Five different varieties sold

(48:26):
under dozens of brand names, Target, Walmart, Aldi US and
Puerto Rico. And we got to post this over at
e drinksmokeshow dot com, Borden Brookshire, Cachet Valley, Chestnut Hill.
It's all the same. Cheese, Coburn Farms, Food, Lion, Food Club,

(48:48):
Good and Gathered. I think that's the Target brand right there,
Great Lakes Cheese, Happy Farms, AGB, which is a supermarket.
It goes on and on, Lucerne is there Public Shredded
low Moisture part skim Matzarell Shooks which is a Midwest supermarket, sprouts,
Stater Brothers. I haven't heard Stater Brothers in a while,

(49:11):
and that's just one of them. There seems to be
a recall. Now.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
Sometimes the recall is stupid.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
It's like when Costco has to recall butter because for
some reason the label doesn't say contains milk, and you realize, oh,
civilization is over.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
It's done.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
Is it already? Is it already done? I'm looking at
my fletaman von Reeste watch and my fletaman von Ree's time,
and that time says society's done. Right here Von reestri
E s t e von Reese dot com. Use my
last name, Kats and get your discount. No milk in there, no,
no nothing but good old fashioned time piece. It's gonna
last throughout the generations. That was such a shameless plug.
I feel good about it, von rees dot com.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
But it's.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
It's it's everywhere. And so the question is are we
better at detecting these things or are we worse the
manufacturing of these things?

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Both? As you know, Tony, I like to say it
all the time. Live leftlove that hope floats and everyone
is terrible at their job.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
But who's responsible for something like this? This isn't the
machinery and just using it too long and eventually things
grind off into the provolone.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
There has to be some sort of at the end
of the line, some sort of quality control like a
metal detector. I guess it's come to that.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
You run it under a magnet and if the cheese
floats up, then you know we got metal in this
one right here.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
This is it's disheartening because, like you said, it feels
like we are getting these notices of food recalls. Every
week there's a new one, and they aren't small. It
seems like they're always huge recalls, and the question needs
to be asked, Like you said, is it that we're
getting better at this? Is it that information is getting

(51:07):
out there and people are paying more attention to this
and then they're confronted because it's on these announcements are
made and the next thing you know, it's on social
media all over the place, where before you just have
to read it in a newspaper or you're hear it
on the radio on TV. Or is it the fact
that we're having more of these because you know, every
company is trying to cut costs, trying to figure out

(51:28):
ways to not spend as much money making the product
because things are getting more expensive that maybe some quality control,
some people are getting cut out of that department, and
we're seeing more and more of these recallss. We could
sit here and speculate till the cows come home and
make cheese. Having said that, though this is depressing, you

(51:49):
can't even trust cheese anymore, Tony cheese. There was a
milk recall in the Midwest last week.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
I believe it was. It is there's there's this there's
a concern that I have about what it is that
we're seeing. You know, there's a it's a story about Boeing, right,
and how they're supposed to be this certain material they use,
this liquid they use when they're seating the doors on

(52:20):
an airplane, and they didn't have that that special liquid,
so they used dog dish soup.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
That's no, no, no, it's not what you do.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
And then of course things like doors falling off midflight,
et cetera. So you can argue that everyone's terrible at
their job. But I think the greater, the greater question
is what made them terrible. Things peaked and then fell,
and I think that's the way people feel that it fell,

(52:51):
that the that the idea of of value and the
idea of standards has fallen.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
Now that isn't true all over the place. There's still
true end of growth.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
For example, in the United States, and there's there's creation,
and it happens in medical and it happens, for example, what.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
The consane investment in AI.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
No matter where you are with artificial intelligence, but there's
this real feeling that it's it's like quickserve outside of
Chick fil A.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
Do you ever feel like you're getting service?

Speaker 1 (53:17):
And when you do, aren't you amazed? Aren't you just
so shocked?

Speaker 2 (53:21):
Well, thank you, my gosh, you didn't spit my drink.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
You actually looked me in the eye. You knew how
to make change. It's a maybe America is saved right here,
but it is this feeling of the best moment peaked.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
And we talk.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
Often about generations and where For example, we spoke about
housing the other day and the lack of affordable housing,
and I made the argument that affordable housing if you
if you are a first time home buyer and you've
decided you need thirty five hundred square feet and granite countertops,
you're the problem.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
And you said, and I've been thinking about it, that the.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
Problem is that the home builder is not incentivized to
build the one hundred and eighty two, two hundred and
seventeen thousand dollars house. They're incentivized to build the five six,
seven hundred thousand dollars house. There are no new homes
to buy, and then there's a whole other conversation, but
culturally about that. But it's it's to the idea of
the things that the natural progression of things isn't progressing.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Now, maybe that's a growing pain of a society. Maybe
that's what it is.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
But certainly the growing pain that we're in stinks because
the decline part just food safety.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
The decline part is frightening and disappointing. I would love
to know, you know how the metal got into the cheese?
Was it the shredding process? Have something before that? Do
you buy shredded cheese or do you always buy the
block and shread it yourself?

Speaker 1 (54:55):
No, I buy shredded cheese, right, It depends on what
it's for sure.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
Isn't there some kind of like anti caking compound that
they put in the shredded cheese that's not supposed to
be good for you? Isn't it that what's going on?

Speaker 1 (55:06):
I swear to you right now, fingers, so help me God,
if you ruin shredded cheese for me, this will be
your last show. What do I know?

Speaker 2 (55:14):
Just a cave man.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
Take food advice from.

Speaker 4 (55:18):
You, eat, drink Smoking is your cigar bourbon foody extravaganza.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
I'm Tony Katz. That is Fingers molloy. We are smoking
the battle Born. This is from Ernesto Perez Carreo or
ep Coreo. This is their ode to the to the military.
Was done in conjunction with one of their employees who
spent twenty years in the US military. Six by fifty
six cigar, Connecticut, Broad Relief, that double binder with the

(55:51):
Mexican son Andreas. Nice stick, easy easy smoke. Not the
prettiest cigar, but a nice easy smoke. But they said,
everyone says, oh, it's a full body cigar. No it
is not. That is a medium with a little bit
of a kick, and that's fine. It is what it is.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
It doesn't play in too many notes. It smokes very well,
it smokes very nice.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
I'm not down for it for twenty three bucks, but
I will say this your job. I mean, we've been
taking our time with the show today. You are just
about done. Yeah, it's been a good cigar.

Speaker 2 (56:27):
Man, it has. It's been really solid. Uh you know
that that it's tobacco. That tobacco forward, very rich tobacco.
It is not as spicy as I thought it was
going to be. Getting a little bit of chocolate, some
wood throughout the smoke. It has been, you know, very
low maintenance. Really haven't had to touch it up. At first.

(56:50):
The draw was a little tight, but that went away
very quickly, very very happy with it. Okay, the price,
we've already touched on it twenty three dollars, so it's
a little higher than I would like for this. But
when you factor in that, you know some of it
is going to a good cause, then it's like, okay.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
I believe it was called Fisherhouse Foundation. And both fingers
and I felt that the cigar was dry when we
touched it. Was something wrong with my humid or what
have you. The instinct might be, well, I gotta I
gotta kind of break it up a little bit and
loosen it up a little bit. You don't know what
you need to do until you're smoking it. Don't prejudge it.
Light it puff see how it goes. It has been

(57:30):
a very good draw. It has been easy to work
with this ep Creo the battle Born also knows the
battle Born warriors. They refer to this size as the
warrior size, the battle born warriors.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
Check that out for yourself.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
And we're drinking the Maker's Mark Special Proof one on one,
one hundred and one proof.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
And I've got a cube right here. It's been melting.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
We're gonna move mine to it.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
A little bit of melon. Uh there was on the
on the on the on the pallet.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Oh right, I just poured it into the one thing.
Let's put the cube in that. I had a little
thing for my cube right there. Nice, nice easy bourbon,
not too much caramel, not too much oak, but a
basic thirty five forty bucks. Before the bottle, you added
a little bit of water, tores, No, you didn't know.
I forgot to get your water. That's okay, that's all right.
I'm just gonna bring it to a cube. There he goes.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
He's going in ladies and gentlemen, he is doing these.
I gonna swish on the cue now. I said, there
was a little bit more heat on this than I thought.
The heat is down, and.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
The cube gave it a little bit of syrupy. So
water brings down the proof. It's the only thing that
can bring down the proof. And then water will change
the complexion. Some flavors more pronounced, some flavors will be
more diminished. It added a little bit of syrupiness to this.
That's pretty groovy. That's pretty groovy. It also added a

(58:54):
little you get a little more let's say there's a
little more oak going on. That's I can work with that, okay.
And as I as I stated, you know, it's just
sometimes you need a basic you should not shy away from.
Oh it's maker's mark. Oh I would.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
That's for amateurs, that's for beginner.

Speaker 1 (59:16):
Screw that.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
It's very very good juice. So I'm gonna go in again.
You're going in again, Joe, my kay.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
He just finished it. He just finished it. You know.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
When you take the whole shot like that. Yeah, uh,
you notice there's a lot more oak and not much else.

Speaker 3 (59:35):
Wellhen you just throw it back, man, I have not
seen you do that in a while. Has it been
a day, It's been a year, It's been a year.
I'm really looking forward to New Year's Eve, New Year's Day,
bringing in a new year twenty twenty six with eat, Drink,
Smoke Nation. I think we're gonna have a lot of

(59:56):
exciting things coming up in the new year, and it's
a time to re juvenate, time to make resolutions and
and not follow through on them. It's it's very exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
Are you just desperately clinging onto something? So there's still hope? Tony?

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
I resent that people who know me call me fingers
glass half full Malloy, that's what they call you. Yes,
that's what they call you. Yeah, Johnny, good news. What's
in your glass right now? It's it's it's fully empty.
Yeah right, Oh wow, Well you just you just dropped
a three megaton truth bomb there, that's what you did.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
The maker's mark, special proof one on one, definitely in
the in the liquor cabinet. And this the battle Born
from ep Koreo. That price is hard for this cigar.
That price is twenty three dollars is difficult. It does
go to a good cause. Portion of proceeds go to
Fisher House Foundation.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
So does that tug at the heart strings? Three dollars
is a bit high.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
But that double binder Man, I mean this, I could
see this moving people and working for people to try Sure, sure,
I appreciate the effort here. They've been doing some really
really good stuff. The Encore I think is a great smoke.
Many we were in Vegas last we had the Pledge
and the Allegiance, two different cigars that they do.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
I liked the Pledge. I was not a fan of
the Allegiance, if I remember correctly. But the Encore, Oh, Daddy, Like,
I'm always amazed because people ask me all the time about,
you know, the show, behind the scenes stuff like I
always freely admit that I'm a cigar fan. But you
have a real passion for cigars. The fact that you

(01:01:35):
can remember that stuff. It's been almost two years since
we were at we were at the Four Queens, Yes,
where you had that cigar, Yes, you remember that. I
remember that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
I was. I was sufficiently disappointed in the Allegiance, and
I'm like, I don't know why, because I had the
one that's called the Pledge. I'm like, this was very
very good, and then I had the Encore. I actually
have some more excellent, excellent, excellent smoke.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
And so it's possible that I just it was me.
And that's why we always.

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
Discuss when you're smoking a cigar, you gotta smoke it again.
You don't know what, you don't know. A million things
could be wrong. First, the cigar itself could have a problem.
These are hand rolled products. Something could be off. It
could be you. What did you eat, what did.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
You drink, the weather, the mood, how tired are you?
What else is.

Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
Going on with you? Were you coming down with the cold?
Are you getting off of colder? Were you not even
aware something was happening where you had? Did you have
an imbalance? Everything is possible. So that's why you got
to go back and you got to do it again.
You can't have one to be like, I'm never touching
that again. This is not tequila when you were in college.
This is the the art is worth giving it your time.

(01:02:53):
It really truly is. So. Yes, I do remember, but
you remember things like you have.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
I remember the steak at the forecoint Ah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Yes you go sellar, Yeah you go sellar. Now we
have had good steaks. We've had steaks in Des Moines together,
which I think is I mean no offense to the
Peter Lugers crowd or the late great Sami Romanian Steakhouse
in New York, which was one of the most insane

(01:03:22):
places I've ever eaten. Ever. Adawan chop House des Moines,
Iowa might be the best steakhouse in America. And it's
been a lot of years, but Fingers and I did
the Iowa Caucuses there. We went in winter. We drove
out from Indianapolis and we stayed in Des Moines and

(01:03:43):
went and followed these politicos and we're reporting back on
it and went to eat at Ada One Chop House
and it's like the whole staff from Fox is over there,
and everybody from NBC has ever bro CAUs over there.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
This was twenty This was like a decade ago, twenty sixteen. Yeah,
so it was just just cuckoo crazy stuff. Yeah, it
was a decade ago.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
And then and then you sit down to what really
this It was probably it's probably the best steakhouse I've
ever been to.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
It's crazy. I had a slab of prime rip had
to have been eighty four ounces. It was just the
size of my torso, and I didn't want to order it.
Tony made me. He said, listen, you gotta do this.
There's no way I'm going to eat this, not in
a millionaires. And there's a picture of me looking at
this huge piece of meat and you could see the

(01:04:33):
expression on my face basically, how get myself? He looks
at a young sally Field. Sally Field. So for those
of you keeping score at home, we've done Jack Benny
and a Sally Field reference. Today I did him.

Speaker 5 (01:04:46):
Bringing up from the Gidget days. I just said sally Field.
Now Gidget's a good reference. Gidgets world class oh eight
on one chop house. Where's your favorite steakhouse? We'll go
pay a visit, which reminds me talk about Memphis.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
Fingers maloy.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
Two words for you road trip where we're going to Memphis.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
Outstanding Drink Smoke. I'm Tony Katz. That is fingers Maloy.
Find everything at Eat Drink Smoke. That's where you get
the podcast at Eat Drinks Smoke show dot com. I'm
on the social media, is on the Twitter ex at
Tony Katz. And I was discussing something that was happening
here in our beloved Indiana, something political, and and this
guy was commenting and I commented back, and I noticed

(01:05:36):
he had.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
An interesting link in his in his bio.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
I click the link and it goes to uh this
company he owns and his name is Barry at A
at A out of Memphis where you can listen on
k w A M. And I guess it's it's it's
this company he has and it's kind of like a
holding company for all these different things that he does.
And what is one of the things he does, King

(01:06:00):
Jerry Lawler's Memphis Barbecue Company. We're talking about the wrestler
Jerry Lawler, King Jerry Lawler's Barbecue.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Fingers, pack the car.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
I'm excited. We're taking a road trip to Memphis and
we're gonna have ourselves some serious ribs. Now, don't tell
my Rabbi because it ain't ain't nothing beef. There are
gonna be no beef ribs in Memphis. But we haven't
been yet, we haven't done that. This is going to happen. Barry,

(01:06:37):
if you're listening, someone tell Barry over there at Lawler's
rib Shack Imporium. That's not the name of it. It's
King Jerry Lawler's Memphis Barbecue Company.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
And and we're coming. Would you say that they put
the barbecue competition in Memphis in a sleeperhold? Interesting? Interesting?

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
I think that if you have a slab of King
Jerry Lawler's Memphis Ribs, you can take the turnbuckle, no problem.

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
I'm very I'm a big Jerry Lawler fan, are you
really all back of the old Memphis days when he
teamed up with Andy Kaufman and they did that whole
run where Andy Kaufman was wrestling.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
Sure, and then and then the David Letterman most dangerous
moment in television is Jerry Lawler slapping Andy Kaufman allegedly
on that show.

Speaker 2 (01:07:30):
And neither one of them would both. Andy Kaufin said
Jerry Lawler dead. Oh gosh, no, no, he's the last
all alive good man good Man.

Speaker 1 (01:07:37):
So we're road tripping to Memphis, right That's where we're
gonna get the pork. When it comes to beef, we
go to Defiance Beef Defiancebeef dot Com right here out
of Indiana from the farm directly to you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
Twenty one day aged the ribbis, the strips.

Speaker 1 (01:07:53):
I pulled out some strips to make this week, the tenderloins,
all of it. You ordered, the quarter cow, the have cow,
the whole cow. It comes to you cut to your specifications.
It's so good, it is so incredibly good. The flavor
is just there, that beef flavor. Those things you can't
get from the store. The cut you can't get from
the store, the freshness, can't get from the store. They

(01:08:14):
age at twenty one days. Then the phone call comes, Okay,
how do you want to cut? Do you want this?
Do you want that? Flank? Stakes, all this, and then
it comes to you individually frozen. It's done perfectly in
dry ice. Boom, right into the chest freezer and the
rest is history. If you go right now to Defiance
Beef dot com and use promo code eat drink smoke,
you get one hundred and fifty dollars off your order.

(01:08:35):
Go to Defiance Beef d e f I a n
CE defines beef dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:08:40):
Use promo code eat drink smoke.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
Get one hundred and fifty dollars off your order from
Indiana to you Defiance Beef dot Com. That's another road
trip we have to make. Oh gosh, yes, all right
now it's cold. Oh it'll be warmer in Memphis. That's true.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
We're going. I'm all in. I've never been to Memphis.
I've never been to Memphis. Are we gonna go to
Graceland too?

Speaker 1 (01:09:01):
Well, we're there.

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
The ribs there none as good.

Speaker 1 (01:09:05):
You don't know that? Well? What can be what can
be better than King? Jerry Lawler Barry were coming you
thought I was kidding. I don't. I don't care about much.
Uh you had a story fingers lor.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
What. I'm always amazed at people's behavior, especially completely oblivious
to the fact that there may be a camera on them.
There's always a camera on you everywhere, especially when you're
on someone's front porch.

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
And if it's not a camera made by man, it's
the camera of the lord.

Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
Oh wow, take that tear tears sleeping. Take that tear sleeping,
He says.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
It's a great turn of phrase. I've never said that before.

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
It look great on a bumper sticker. The New York
Post has the story Tony, a DoorDash driver dropped a
chicken wing on the concrete, put it back in the box,
licks his fingers engross caught on camera scene stop. I
have a question, how did the chicken wing drop? So

(01:10:16):
he was pulling it out of you know, they've got
that door dash sleeve, that little canvas thing with a
little pouch that they make sure that your food stays warm.
And so he was pulling all of the food out
and a boneless wing fell out of the box of
boneless wings. He decided, a quick thinker to pick the

(01:10:40):
chicken wing up, put it back in the box with
the untainted wings, licked his fingers and then tried to
stamp the sauce stain, just kind of rubbed it into
the concrete and then walked away. Well unfortunately for this
DoorDash driver in Florida, he was caught doing this on

(01:11:01):
a ring camera and now it has made national news.
The customer was interviewed and says that she would like
to see more training, and I don't know what you
could possibly do to basically say don't do that. See, see,
this is the problem.

Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
More training. This is this is not This is not
more training. What this means is that we have to
bring back the death penalty. You know, I used to
be a guy absolutely in favor of capital punishment, and actually,
over time and through consideration, I have turned on that
and I'm no longer in just about every case, I

(01:11:42):
am no longer in favor of capital punishment.

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
Um, this term me right around jail, jail, hard labor.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
We make a North Korean prison camp look like summer camp.
There isn't there isn't enough because in every part of
this there is such a failure of decency, rationality, and
humanity that we have to call a time out and

(01:12:17):
set everybody straight.

Speaker 2 (01:12:20):
I just don't know what goes through a person's mind
that forget that you could possibly be on camera, just
the idea that even if you're not on camera, you
don't behave this way. You just don't behave this way.
You don't do this. You knock on the door and
you apologize. You say, listen, I'm sorry. One of your

(01:12:40):
wings dropped out onto the concrete. I picked it up.
It was delicious, and then that's the end of it.
Or do you have a waste paper basket where I
could throw this out? You know what, take a little
off the tip. Instead of ten wings, you've got nine wings.
I apologize. Instead of trying to cover your tracks because
accidents happened, you would much be much more appreciative if

(01:13:04):
a door dash driver said, listen, I screwed up. I'm sorry.
I dropped a wing instead of this wingate is what
people are calling it now. This this this total cover up.

Speaker 1 (01:13:16):
I don't think you understand death penalty. But he has
to go to jail because what he did was try
and poison was pick the word another person. Yeah, he
doesn't know what's on the ground. He put it back. Sorry,
that's the crime.

Speaker 2 (01:13:37):
Here's I will throw this out there because, uh, you
know why not. I never blamed the victim. Ever, boneless
wings does does that person take a little responsibility for
if if it were a drumstick, maybe it doesn't fall
out of the package. That's all I'm saying. That's not No,
that's not what I'm saying. No, you don't know. You tried,

(01:14:01):
and God bless you for they aren't wings, by the way,
they're nuggets.

Speaker 1 (01:14:04):
That's true. Boneless wings were not wings. That is fact.
That is fact. Death penalty, labor camp, certainly jail. Do
you prefer the labor camp after the death penalty? Yes?
The makers mark special proof one oh one thirty five

(01:14:25):
to forty bucks a bottle. Absolutely in the liquor cabinet. Dude,
you don't need special, you don't need fancy, you need good.
This will do you do? You just fine? And the
epikoreo this battle born a cigar right here, six by
fifty six a nice stick. Definitely give it a shot
and supportive of the troops. This is e drink smoke