June 22, 2021 • 58 mins
So in this week's episode, Jason and Tony talk about Jason's quick trip down to LA to go see his mama, and of course, he has to pay homage to In-N-Out Burger. The similarities between our parents and how technology and age don't always play nice and tolerance for change goes to zero. Also, in this episode, I get an opportunity to talk to Jason about what it's like to be Jewish in a time where not only war is breaking out in the west bank and Gaza but attacks right here in LA and New York City. And how that makes him feel being Jewish and having to worry about such craziness. We also spent some time talking about our grandparents, the social norms of their times, and what was OK then or tolerated than in no way would be OK today. Jason and Tony spend quite a bit of time weaving their way through white privilege and what that means. Tony digs his heels in on the fact that he is Italian and not white and wants Italians put back on the little check box on all the paperwork you fill out at the doctor's office. Among other crazy topics, everything from taxes to Jason's a little more liberal, and Tony is a little more conservative and how that works in today's society. Sit back, relax and enjoy this episode.
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:13):
It's hard to speak your mind these days. voicing your
opinion is tough and a climatewhere you're either seen as an
ultra conservative or a bleedingheart liberal. But what about
our perspective? What about theGen X perspective? Hi, I'm Tony
a latchkey kid from the 80s and90s. Now I'm in my 40s wearing
cargo shorts, collecting StarWars figures and reminiscing
(00:35):
about the days before my firstcell phone. The Gen X
perspective as for us caughtsomewhere in between boomers and
Millennials are we see things abit differently? I'm tired of
staying silent. It's time torant, discuss, unload and
debate. Join Tony and his guestsas they tackle the topics of Pop
Culture, Sports, religion, andyes, even politics. If life's a
(00:56):
Rubik's Cube, we've got theexperience to tackle it. Welcome
to the Gen X perspective withTony Randazzo.
Do you want to start a podcastor looking to level up your show
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to a vodcast I don't know whereto start. My name is john and I
host a podcast called frompodcast to podcast where I help
podcasters bring their shows tothe next level by giving you
tips and tricks on marketing,writing, show notes
monetization, which host is thebest to use and, of course, the
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best equipment to use for apodcast. I drop episodes every
Friday on all podcast listeningplatforms. And you can watch the
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tons of free tools and guidesover on the website at pod squad
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join the squad today and getaccess to the next step of your
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What is Gen X? What is thesilent generation? What do
generations have in common? Hi,I'm Trish the dish from the Gen
X voice podcast and I invite youto listen to conversations I
(02:24):
have with folks from differentgenerations, backgrounds,
beliefs and experiences in anattempt to see what connects
rather than divides us. Eventhough Gen X has been called
slackers, Karen's are notmentioned at all. In some cases,
we are the bridge generation. SoI feel compelled to do my part
to destroy ageism by bringingall these voices together. And
(02:47):
as a bonus, each guest gets toanswer some 80s questions at the
end of each show. So downloadand listen to genix voice today
on Apple's Spotify, Amazon orwherever you listen to podcasts.
And let's see how much we havein common after all.
(03:07):
Hey, guys, this is john. And I'mFrank from the basement search
you may have heard of us. Westarted off slow in season one.
COVID tried to stop us in seasontwo, but Frank's too stubborn
for that. And now we're back inseason three, doing what we do
best coming to you from thebasement in Brooklyn, New York,
where a general discussioncomedy podcast that talks about
anything and everything. Videogames movies growing up in New
(03:31):
York City and being a dad toname a few. We also do a live
show every Wednesday night at9pm Eastern all over social
media and run a YouTube channelso don't forget to hit that
subscribe button and ring thatbell. We put out some great
content on YouTube like let'splay series where we play a
specific game every week. Thepodcast is available on all
podcasting platforms. You canreach all of our links at
(03:53):
streamer links.com slashbasement search comm listen to
us and feel the searchturned up the volume the volume
and now from Brooklyn, New York.
This is a basement search whichchildren
(04:23):
talk to me about la How was yourtrip? I know you went to LA and
you got to eat In and Out Burgerand how was it? It was good I
had a really good time. Yeah.
So you know it was a familyvisit saw spent one night out
with my brother and sister andfamily
drove down to Long Beach onenight to see my cousin's
(04:49):
you know when shopping downtownat the discount alley.
And you know and that justwill say I'm there.
Just help out my mom trying tofigure out life. I got our new
TV she had a 32 inch,like a four inch border around
it. Right that,you know, a third of the lines
(05:16):
for pixelated, she could barelygone. It was not a clear
picture.
So got her a new TV. Then shecalled me yesterday, the TV's
broken. Of course it was. Isaid, What do you mean, the TV's
broken? Well, the cable guyshere and we're not getting a
picture. I said, Well, did youdo this? No.
(05:42):
Oh, target now. Thank you. Bye.
So um, and I'm gonna say this onthe podcast, which is totally
gonna get me in trouble. My dad,my dad lives three miles away,
right here around the farm. Andlike my dad, and he calls me
noon last night, okay, this isjust for shits broke in the
(06:04):
house, I can't make it work. Youneed to come fix this kind of
conversations, not the otherphone calls. But like, my TV
doesn't work. My Internet'sbroke whatever it is, right
three times, four times a weekthat I have to go out there and
fix. Because he just hitsbuttons, you know, is just,
instead of hitting Enter oncethey'll hit it, you know, keep
clicking the click. And thenit's all right. Yeah. So he
(06:25):
does. And he's getting slightlymore challenged with that now.
And it's totally frustratingbecause he used to stay pretty
current on technology and stuffgoing on. And it's just I
realized that it just changes sofast. Like you miss an update.
And your computer's out of syncwith your phone. And your
Internet's not working all of asudden, and it turns into a
(06:47):
total cluster and right. He'sgetting calls from my mom all
the time, but it's just wicked.
I got a call from my mom.
About a month and a half ago.
She knew I was coming in, right?
And she said, Well, when you gethere, I need you to help me with
a problem. I said, Okay, what'sthe problem?
(07:13):
I lost $2,000 Oh, what do youmean, you lost $2,000? Well, the
bank says that I have 2000 moredollars than I should. Hmm.
Sounds like a good problem. Butokay, okay.
You know, and you know, she'llcall me and be like, the cables
(07:37):
broken. What do I do?
Yeah, it's so their tolerancefor technology, I noticed gets
shorter. Like they just don'thave the, the tolerance to go
through the same because it'sthe same problems over and over
and over again. And I think thatright just doesn't sit well with
them in general. And they justget I noticed this time with my
(08:01):
mom that she is. She doesn'tlike change anymore. No. Yeah,
she likes the way things areright. And they need to stay
that way. Yes. And no change.
Yeah, no, we had a huge argumentabout me buying her a TV because
she didn't need a TV show. Whenwe spend the money. Why do I
need a new TV? Oh my god, thisis just a waste slider. You
(08:22):
know, on and on. And on and on.
Come on. That's right. So didyou go in and out burger just
because I got to torture myselfa little bit. I went in and out
burger. Got my double doubleanimal style french fries,
animal style. Great large coke.
Yeah. My mom got a double doubleand my aunt just got a actually
she got a double single twopatties, one piece of cheese.
(08:46):
And my aunt just got acheeseburger. Because they eat
it all the time. So they don'tcare. They don't they only ever
eat it when I come in becauseyou make them go there. Right?
Yeah. What was it like? bagels?
All good bagel. So I gotta giveyou the name of this place. I
(09:06):
order bagels. They might notsend them to Oregon. I get them
out of New York City. Theyovernight them.
I don't order them all the timebecause it's you know, like four
bucks a bagel when you do thisbecause the overnight fees right
bake them on a Tuesday. Theyshow up on a Wednesday. Like
they're that fresh and they tellyou keep out what you want to
eat and freeze the rest becausethey'll go bad before you get
(09:29):
them done. If you buy like acase lead doesn't have them.
Right so I can't get them veryoften because Lori knows how
much they cost. And she's like,seriously the last thing a you
need is to eat bagels. And bethey're damn expensive so knock
it off. So they're awesomethough. They're super Oh my God.
And that Yeah, they overnightthem up to me from the city.
(09:52):
That's ridiculous. Totally.
I had to bring back an extrasuitcase full of food.
Follow up. bakery. Five ryebreads. Oh, Jesus. Right. Yeah.
And he tried bread is like twofeet long. So you kind of get
two loaves out of each ryebread. That's right. So I
(10:14):
essentially have eight loaves ofrye bread in my freezer.
And thenthey have these little pastries
they're called telcos. They'reall kinds of fillings, you know,
fruit fillings, chocolatefillings, that fillings. The
boys requested two pounds ofthat.
(10:37):
So, my my only suitcase that Ibrought down. Yeah. When I
filled it with the bread and thepastries and the stuff, you
know, a couple other things. Itwas already 50 pounds. I hadn't
put any clothes in it.
50 pounds of stuff. Yeah. Goodfor you.
(10:58):
Well, you know, I guess. So. Sois that How's that? Is that a
direct flight into Burbank fromRedmond now? Yes. Did I know
that? I guess it's brand new.
That's awesome. I was actually Iwas on the maiden voyage. Right.
first ever flight of thisairline out of Redmond. Okay.
And they had like, the firetrucks. Yeah, the airport fire
(11:22):
trucks come out during thewater. And they were spraying
you know, the water cannons andlike an arch over the plane as
we were going down the runway.
Oh, my God.
I would Yeah, I killed for aflight a direct flight to LA
like that when we were still inbright. Gosh, that would, that
(11:45):
would have made it so mucheasier to do stuff. Seriously. I
mean, that's just crazy. Butthat is awesome. So I do have I
do have one serious question,because I was watching the news
of this morning briefly. Andthey're talking about all this
violence against Jews. And inLA. I think it just happened to
(12:06):
there was a some people at arestaurant that were attacked.
What Seriously? What the fuck? Imean, can we just talk about how
stupid This is? I mean, if youlook at this statistics, anti
semitic attacks are up. It'slike 14 100%. Yeah, I've been
(12:28):
asked for years. It's beencrazy. I mean, New York City,
pre pandemic. I mean, they wereridiculous. I mean, those are
the, you know, the Hasidicaesthetic, Hasidic Jews.
I mean, Syria. I mean, I don'tunderstand it. I mean, that it
seems so foreign to me. BecauseI don't I don't personally
(12:50):
growing up just living, SouthernCalifornia, New York, wherever.
Butif you want to socially profile
or bebe prejudiced against somebody I
never even saw in a slight, noteven in a slight way against the
Jewish community. I mean, it'sso foreign to me, I can't I
(13:15):
almost can't grasp it. I mean,you read the history. And, you
know, the Jews have beenpersecuted. Forever. Literally,
since history has been inhistory. Since the Jews have
existed. You guys have been beatup, continually. I get that. But
I don't understand likeconceptually.
(13:36):
Understand how how people canhold hold that is something
against somebody like it's just,I don't understand it. I don't
get it. Right. Well, you know,it's coming from two places
right now. Part of it ispeople who believe in the big
Jewish conspiracy that Jews ownevery media, outlet TV they own
(13:59):
on the radio, they own all thenewspapers.
And so well, they do. They'rethe ones creating the news.
Yeah, well, and for a while.
I mean, there's all this stuffgoing on with
(14:20):
Palestinian, Palestine andIsrael. Well, that's what really
has caused a lot of it in thepast few weeks. Yeah, but
seriously, how is I mean, Iguess if you're from Israel or
Palestine, I mean, I guess Ikind of get it. Kind of, like,
right, if you moved here and youhated the Jews, and then you
(14:41):
know, everybody's fighting backhome and you're living here.
Would you take it out onsomebody in the Jewish
community? I mean, maybe I guessif you're if you have that much
hate in your heart, and you'rethat crazy or passionate or
whatever word you want to use,that's misplaced. I just don't I
have a hard time getting it, butI see it and I know just
like you do. I mean, I knowCatholics and Jews and, you
(15:04):
know, Muslims and blacks andwhites. And I mean, we know all
these melting pot of people thatwe have in our everyday lives.
And it's so hard to try toconceptualize how it would be
okay for even a second to justgo. Just because you're Jason
Lowery, and you're Jewish, thatI'm gonna beat the hell out of
you. I mean, right, serious. Ijust, I can't wrap my brain
(15:26):
around it, man. I'm having ahard time with this one. You
know, I kind of hate people.
Hold on to that kind of, Hey,you know, you're Jewish. So you
must be pro Israel and hate allPalestinians, and therefore
we're going to beat you out.
Yeah. But I mean to thePalestinians. I mean, do they
really hate each other? Or isthat all government based?
(15:49):
I mean, you know, I mean,there's obviously a larger
discussion there. But I mean,before the fighting, they were
living next door to each other.
And now it's neighbor againstneighbor, all of a sudden, just
because somebody has startedlaunching rockets across the
border, which is highlycontested. I know, there's a lot
of history there with, you know,yeah, with the Gaza Strip and
all that. I mean, that's I'mdefinitely oversimplifying that,
(16:10):
between the Gaza Strip and theWest Bank. It's right. There's a
lot going on a lot going on inthere has been there's a lot of
time. Linnea and,you know, yeah, it's been really
bad for the last 75 years since,right. You know, Israel became a
stateran in 1948. Well, right. It's
(16:33):
when you know, what I mean, wasit it was essentially the
Europeans went in there, andthey started carving up the, the
Middle East. And, you know, Imean, just looking at a map, not
taking into account the historyon any level, and just saying,
This is yours, this is yours.
This is yours. And this isyours. And it's been a nightmare
(16:54):
ever since they split up themiddle east the way that they
did, and I mean, it wasn't oneof the French it was the
British British, thank you. Itwas the British went in there
and did that. And then there'sbeen continual, while there was
continual fighting before that,but I think it was for different
reasons. Maybe you would know,obviously, a lot better, right,
(17:16):
and the history than I do, butit doesn't make any sense. When
you start telling a whole couplewell, more than one class of
people what to do and where tolive, they're all gonna get
pissed off.
That, so yeah, they're I mean,there's no, some people will say
that, you know, what the twostate solution is what we need
(17:36):
to do and right, you know,divide up the land. And well,
that was the solution in 1948.
And the Jews said, Okay, we'rehappy to do this. And the
people living there at the timesaid, No, and the other Arab
communities said, don't worryabout it, we got your back. And
(18:00):
the state was created. And, youknow, seven countries attacked
Israel. Right.
Andyeah, it's, it's been bad ever
since. Right? It was bad. JustYeah. It's been bad since
forever. Before that. I mean, Imean, talk about the history
(18:20):
lesson in the persecution, yeah,the Jewish community, it goes
back forever. And again, inmodern day times in America, to
see that kind of shit happen isit's baffling to me. I mean, I
kind of what I do get is, you godown, you know, to one of the
boroughs in New York City, andyou got the traditional Hasidic
Jews in the look, the way theylook, it's kind of like the
(18:43):
Amish up here. Now, and I'm notcomparing the Jewish to Amish
other than the way that theylook different. They just look
different, right? They dress,they dress different.
But they're normal as normal canbe when you talk to them. I
mean, they're normal humans. Andpeople will obviously you know,
forever, we've attacked eachother overlooks, and because
(19:05):
they look different, they mustbe different. And I'm going to
attack them and whatever. And Iguess I understand that part of
it on a very simplistic, dumbkind of way, but it is what it
is. But the somebody would haveto like seek you out and figure
out that you're Jewish to beable to
(19:26):
you know, go after you inwhatever fashion they thought
was appropriate or whatever youwant to call it, but it just, I
don't know. It just seems weird.
I mean, do you or your family orpeople in your community in Bend
talking about bend oregon rightnow? Like have that in the back
of your head when you go totemple or you go to do anything
where you're kind of not wavingthe flag that you're Jewish, but
(19:49):
that were people would assumethat you were Jewish because of
where you were what you weredoing on any given day? I mean,
do you have you ever secondthought that in the
Recent history and kind ofmy youngest son when he was in
(20:11):
ourswanted to wear his yarmulke to
school.
Kids are proud. I told him no.
Yeah.
Yeah. Cuz he would for sure getmade fun of on a very basic
level because he's doingsomething different. But at the
same time, right? You never kindof know. I mean, you were made
(20:33):
fun. might have been good toopen up that discussion of
different religion and stufflike that, but
you didn't first grade isn't theage to really have that because
you don't understand it. Andthose boys were, I mean, they,
they marched to their own beats,they always have. Yeah, I mean,
the way they dress and just, youknow, how they were raised. I
(20:55):
mean, I know their parents. So Iknow that they definitely
marched to their own tune, andthey don't, you know, they're
individuals, and they're, theyare who they are. And that's
awesome that they've been raisedthat way. But it's, um, yeah, I
mean, you know, we were grownup, I mean, I know, I've
probably called somebody as astupid Jew, or, you know, as
they call me a wasp, or, youknow, a day ago or whatever,
(21:17):
when we were kids, but it feelslike it's not as innocent
anymore. And maybe that's justbecause the ramifications with
adults, if you say stuff likethat, as a kid now is so much
greater, like elementary schoolnow, compared to elementary
school when we were kids. Imean, when we were kids, you
could threaten to kill somebodyout back after school or pick a
(21:41):
fight, and the teachers nevergot involved. And they, you
know, kind of left it all alone,and let kids work it out. But
nowadays that just doesn't existanymore in our world, not even
kinda, I mean, you're expelledfrom school, maybe even
criminally charged. I mean, it'snot you can't do stuff like that
anymore.
(22:02):
You know, now, you can't I mean,you know, I mean, I remember
this was right after we firstmoved back to Ben. So it must
have been 1999 or 2004.
Somewhere right around there. Hewas at a city council meeting.
And they were talking about, youknow, having to build something
or something to do with buyingor something. And one of the
(22:24):
city councilors said, Well, itsounds like we're paying a
little too much. Can we jumpdown?
Okay.
So that was 20. Oh, I wrote hima very long letter. Yeah, I bet
she did. Because your wifewasn't always Jewish. She
(22:45):
converted after meeting you. Andobviously being in a long term
relationship with you. She'sadopted that religion has hers
her.
But you.
So that term is a good one totalk about. I mean, 20 years
ago, and beyond that wasn'tsomething that was unheard of
(23:05):
that somebody would say, and Idon't know if it was
in this would be a question foryou is I don't know if it would
have been considered as offense.
I mean, nowadays holy.
Just carry on talking about now.
But 30 years ago, that wouldn'twould that be considered? I
mean, maybe slightly annoying.
But I'll tell you the truthbefore I moved to Oregon. Yeah.
(23:28):
I had never heard that term.
Really? Yeah.
I guess I probably did. Onlygrowing up in in an Italian
Catholic, New York world. That'ssomething that I seem to feel
(23:48):
like I've known my grandfather.
So we're going back twogenerations, although he would
have friends that were Jewish,but he was of that generation.
World War Two era folk, thatwouldn't hesitate to say
something like that or to makeracial slurs. But he also had
(24:12):
friends that were black. He wasin the fire department had he
actually did in Rochester. Hewas actually the the person that
champion.
When he got into the firedepartment after World War Two,
there was basically no, noItalians, and no blacks were in
(24:34):
the fire department. So all theItalians were in the police
department, in the blacks or inanything, essentially, and he
champion once he got up, he waslike assistant to the chief and
the fire department. He championtwo things and Italians getting
into the fire department andblacks as well. It was really he
(24:55):
did like this. I and I knewabout it because he had talked
about it.
At some point, but at hisfuneral, all of these retired
firefighters, a lot of them wereblack men, and they're, you
know, they're my grandfather'sage are close to it. So we're
talking in their 80s a lot ofthem are older because my
(25:15):
grandfather died, he was in his90s coming up and telling these
stories about without, withoutRandy, you know, we would have
never got into the firedepartment and all this other
stuff, but at the same time, hewould use racial slurs about
them to them. And they, and itwas all kind of this thing,
because they were all in thatwhole generation of people.
(25:36):
Everybody was beingbasically attacked by every
other thing, you know, so that,you know, the, the,
the Catholics and the Jews orthe Catholic, or the Italians
and the Irish, you know, theblacks and the Irish for sure,
not as much with the Italians,but the Italians as well.
Everybody fought and, and wentafter each other in as time went
(26:00):
on, they were all became friendswith each other when the
neighborhood started gettingkind of loosened up. And again,
you're out in LA, this is NewYork. And things were it was
really interesting. So as a kid,it was, it can be confusing,
because you hear yourgrandfather makes some sort of
racial slur. But yeah, twominutes later, his friend from
the fire department thathappened to be a black guy, or
(26:23):
you know, an Irish, and oh, myGod, the Irish and the things he
used to say, I mean, I can'teven repeat them.
But that was like normal talk.
But it wasn't normal belief. Youswitch to my stepmother side of
the family in her mic, my stepgrandmother, who grew up in the
deep south, the Bible Belt, andyou stayed on your side of the
(26:45):
tracks. Right? She grew up, youknow, when she was going to
elementary school, she broughthorses to school, I mean, that
old. She was always very niceand very friendly. But she was
always still very standoffishto people of color.
Because it was just somethingthat was so ingrained in her
(27:06):
entire life, right or wrong, andshe knew it was wrong. And I'd
have discussions with her aboutit. She wasn't an outward.
She wasn't ever prejudiced. AndI never actually heard a racial
slur out of that woman's mouthever. But it was just kind of
this almost subconscious,standoffish kind of thing. And I
(27:26):
always thought that that wasreally weird. Until I went to
North Carolina in my early teensor late teens, early 20s, and
spent a couple of weeks inGreensboro and the wall. The
South is definitely a differentkind of place than I had ever
experienced. Whenmy father went into the
(27:48):
he was in the Navy, right.
And he had to drive to Floridaor South Carolina for basic. He
had to drive.
from LA, from LA. Yeah. So heand a friend went, and they
drove through. They weredriving, you know, through
(28:09):
Mississippi at the time. And healways wore a very large Jewish
star.
Really, okay.
And they get to Mississippi, andthey're at a gas station,
filling their car with gas.
And this guy comes out a youngerkid
(28:32):
and says, Oh, are you Jewish?
And my father says, Yeah, andthe kid says, Well, can I see
your horns?
Your horns, your arms?
Because the myth was stillaround the Jews had horns.
(28:55):
Now that you're wet, you'reprobably talking 40s 1967 Oh,
that way that war? Vietnam. Oh,good, Lord. Wow.
Yeah, that isthat's kind of frightening.
Sorta, yeah. But you know, I,it's Yeah. And everything in the
(29:15):
news today. Not that I wantedthis whole conversation to be
political. But it's reallyamazing how far that we've come.
But how?
how upset so many people stillare that they haven't we haven't
come far enough for writing. Idon't know. I mean, I'm kind of
isolated in the world that I'min right now living in a very
(29:37):
rural area on the Canadianborder. I think Unfortunately,
our our parents generation stillhas a lot of ingrained
teaching. That really isn'tokay.
(29:57):
Like I was talking to my momabout
We while we were watching theshow pose effects. Yeah, it's
aboutgay and transgender men in the
late 80s.
During the AIDS epidemic, yeah,it's really good show.
(30:18):
And my mom's like, Oh, is thatthe one about the trainees? Not
that there's anything wrong withthat?
Right. Yeah. Right.
I mean, yeah, she says it'sokay. But doesn't say it's okay.
At the same time. Right. Right.
Yeah. And just saying there'snothing wrong with that doesn't
didn't make it okay. Just saysomething. You know? Yeah. Is I
(30:39):
in even at my age to it,admittedly, I find it.
I'm not so bad that I can't getover it or change behaviors, but
at the same time, I can see thedifficulty and
you know, like words that wewould, I was thinking about this
(31:02):
couple days ago, words thatdidn't exist five years ago. The
word woke the word. The word hasevolved. But the words that in
any seriously, like, it's almostI yeah, I don't some of it, I
don't understand. I'm obviouslyopen minded. And I'm very, you
know, and I'm in a retailbusiness where we get, we have a
(31:23):
huge military base that is rightdown the road from us that
people from literally all overthis country get dropped into,
into our world.
They're not necessarily locals,and they tend to stay in
Watertown. And on the base,they, you know, they kind of
stay close to home, becausethat's all they know. And, but
(31:44):
at the same time, I just, someof it is really hard to kind of
get because I mean, what yourmom said, and in the context,
especially right now, it's like,Siri, yeah, no, I know, you
can't do that. Seriously, yougot to kind of gotta change what
you say. And you just can't.
Because it's really upsettingpeople for even for a reason
that you may or may notunderstand. Fundamentally,
(32:06):
agreeing with it or not, isalmost irrelevant, because it's
how people globally are feeling.
What I have a problem with is abunch of white people running
around, apologizing for beingwhite.
I don't, that doesn't make senseto me. If you're going to
(32:26):
apologize for something that youdid as a human being, as Jason
Lally or Tony Randazzo.
That makes sense, but apologizefor being white privileged, you
didn't have a choice for how youwere born? Well, I guess you can
argue that too, if you reallywant to get into it, but you
didn't have a choice of how youwere raised, you just have a
(32:47):
choice of how you can actwhen you have the ability to act
on your own. Right. And that'sall you got, you know, and I
agree with that. But here's theproblem. Yeah.
I am, you know, male and white,right? Which means in America, I
(33:09):
am better than everybody.
I'm at the top of the foodchain.
Right? Whether we like it ornot, that's just how things
work. Right? Now, I'm not goingto apologize for my status.
Okay, I can't, I didn't chooseto be male and white, right?
(33:29):
What I can do is accept the factthat as a white male in the
United States,I have, and can do things that
people of other colors andgenders cannot
watch, I pose the slightlyopposing argument, if you look
(33:53):
at people in our own circle offriends, Glenn Glenn, thank you,
Glenn black, he's black.
And arguably, he's from at leastas long as we've known him. And
and I've, I've not asked himthis question. So making a
couple assumptions only fromobservations, he seems to have
had all the same opportunitiesthat you are, I have had, at
(34:13):
least in the time that we'veknown him, and that he's been in
our life. Now, that was also inBend Oregon and as an adult,
right, and when he went throughprayer, I like to answer. I like
to believe and hope that that'strue.
Right? I don't know. I haven'thad that discussion with him.
Right. It would not surprise meto find out that that isn't
(34:36):
true. Especially, you know,growing up in the 70s and 80s.
Right. Oh, yeah. Prior to us inhis life. Yeah. I'm pretty
confident that and I bet he wentthrough some stuff in the 90s. I
know that because I'd had talkedto him when he was dating. What
was her name? Jenny? Yeah.
Jamie.
(35:01):
Yeah, super white girl. Yeah,right. Yeah. Right. They would
get comments all the time whenthey were out. So comments.
But opportunity are twodifferent things. Right.
Totally. So, I mean, maybe he'sbeen, we're talking a whole lot
about us and we should bring himon the damn podcast. We probably
(35:21):
need to now we'll have to reachout to him but to get his
opinion on it, and I know he'sso easy going well must have the
product and he may not do it,but hopefully he will.
Yeah, okay. So yes, all thosethings are true. We white. And
I'm, by the way, I still have anissue with being called White. I
still consider myself Italianand why the hell am I not still
(35:44):
Italian? Why, how did I turninto being white? But that's a
different discussion. Arguably,I'm not white, but I whatever.
I still, there's no checkbox onthe damn forms, let's say
Italian. It just says white,Caucasian jackass and everybody
else or nothing at all. You canbe nothing because Italians are
white. They're not. We wereinvaded by multiple races and we
(36:08):
have Mixed Blood. I can show youmy genealogy thingy that I spent
money and spit in the tube forand they give you everything.
I'm not European.
I am European. But I'm fromItaly, which makes me a
trillion. And Italy's didn'teven exist until just like 200
years ago. I actually was lessthan that, like 150 100 years
(36:29):
ago, and been around a longtime. They were just, you know,
a bunch of people that keptgetting invaded. We were just
invaded all the time. They justinvaded.
Italy literally ruled Europe for1000 years old, the Roman
Empire, the Romans, those werethey weren't Italians. They were
Roman.
(36:50):
And then we were invaded by aMongol race. And that's all I
have to say about that.
So where is Rome?
Rome is nothing anymore.
old buildings and stuff.
I'm Italian. I'm not white.
White people are not popularright now. No, I take that back.
(37:12):
White people. Yeah. So I agreewith everything you said, Yes,
we were born into it. We didn'thave a choice of how we were
born. But soso what about the middle class,
black family, they don't live insome ghetto. They don't live in
(37:33):
the stereotypical world that somany people think that black
people live in, you know, andwhich is totally stupid and
wrong. But I do feel likethere's opportunity. In the
again, my perspective only, Imean, I'm not discounting
anything, anybody's saying. I'mtreading on very dangerous
waters here. But I see I seepeople that have gotten done
(37:56):
better with their lives andtheir kids and kids, they go to
college and shit, they becomepresident for the elderly.
Totally. So but the black,middle class family that lives
in the suburbs, right, still hasto live in fear of getting
pulled over by the police, theystill have to teach their
(38:17):
children how to interact withthe police. Sure.
Well, and how to interact withstore owners, and how to walk to
school safely,differently than I had to teach
my children.
(38:39):
I still don't agree with peopleapologizing for being white.
We're getting right on birthcircle back around to that one.
BecauseI mean, I get it. I understand.
I understand. not throwing thatin somebody's face and realizing
that yes, they have to grow upand live a different way. And I
don't think a lot of people areapologizing for being white. I
think that they are trying toown the fact that they have this
(39:05):
privilege and use that to tryand create change. Okay.
That probably is the bestexplanation that I've heard, to
be honest with you.
At that one, I could be okaywith not feeling like it's a
(39:27):
stupid answer. So thank youright for that.
Because that is honestly thefirst time that I've heard a
response to that question. Thatdidn't sound just stupid.
Yeah, it sucks. I you know, andagain, and I've also always
said, Man, I can't, I can't putmy self in somebody's shoes,
what it's like to live in theinner city, in the projects. And
(39:51):
I've talked to people that havelived there and whatever but you
kill you walk a mile in thoseshoes until you live in New York
City as an example where there'scockroaches is the norm in your
apartment. And that's notsomething that's abnormal. We
would absolutely lose our minds.
Absolutely. I know you would Iknow your wife would my wife
sure is how would not be okaywith cockroach for even a second
(40:14):
in LA there were cockroacheseverywhere. Yeah, well, right. I
remember not in Orange CountyJust saying.
I remember one night it's likeone o'clock in the morning,
right?
And there's thishigh pitched scream like a seven
year old girl screaming.
(40:37):
My brother had come home. And hewas in college. Right? So he's
like, 20 years old.
Come home, went to the kitchenand turn on the light. And a
cockroach ran across the kitchenfloor as they do when you turn
the lights on? Yes. And oh mygod, I thought he was going to
die. And then I asked him why hescreamed like a seven year old
(40:59):
girl. Yeah, of course. It'sand but that's the normally
they're supported. They haveflying cockroach dude. So we've
gone multiple years in a row,right. This year, was the first
year that I had the pleasure ofcoming face to face with a
couple of cockroaches in therental that we've rented year
(41:19):
after year. And of course, Iimmediately got on Google and
realized dummies are everywhereyou just didn't see before. They
spray for him twice a year.
There's traps everywhere. Youdon't have to live with them.
And yes, they none of thatmatters because the cockroaches
and they fly. And I turned onthe lights in the kitchen and
plucker goes running across thefloor. Now I took a deep breath.
(41:42):
I didn't scream Laurie was stillasleep. So I didn't say
anything. There's the last thingI'm going to do is tell my wife
that there's cockroaches in thishouse. So the next morning I
wake up and Laurie gets up andwhatever. And I'm standing in
the kitchen getting a cup ofcoffee and I'm thinking to
myself when we're in that littlebastard go and I kind of looked
at a corner of my eyes saw whatlooked like a clump of dirt in
(42:05):
on the floor in the laundryroom.
And it was that damn cockroachdad upside down because there
was probably cockroach bait inthe cupboards or wherever,
everywhere. And he died. So Inonchalantly went over and
picked him up and had the heebiejeebies and threw him away. And
then I didn't see anything thatnight. But the following night,
(42:27):
I turned on the lights in thekitchen, it was like two o'clock
in the morning get up to getsomething to drink. And then
another one run across thecounter. And I'm thinking Hold
on, he's gonna run face to facewith one of these guys and it's
gonna be all over. Like my wifeis gonna lose it. So I'm getting
I'm getting the heebie jeebiesat this point. Like, are they
crawling over my face while I'msleeping? Like I'm like, we
(42:49):
can't sleep. So that night Goback to sleep. The next morning
Laurie finds one in thecupboard. I think I think it was
that night that she's the nextmorning she found out presumably
a different one. I'll say it wasthe same one. And then I saw I
got it took care of that she wasseemed kind of okay with it. I
didn't see anything. That night.
Again, another one in thekitchen. The next morning. I'm
(43:12):
like, Hey, I got to talk to you.
She's like, what's what's wrong?
You know, we're on vacation.
We're you know, we're there forthree weeks. She's like, so
what's up? I'm like.
So I did a bunch of researchthis morning on Google. It's how
I started the conversation. Didyou know that it's super common
for cockroaches in Florida. Andthey even have flying ones and I
(43:34):
go through this wholedissertation. And I said in the
reason I'm telling you this isbecause over the last five
nights, three of which I've seencockroaches run in the kitchen,
and she was like totallynonchalant. Like, yeah, they're
in Florida. And yeah, that'skind of gross, but okay. Totally
different reaction than I was. Iwas expecting we're leaving and
(43:55):
going somewhere else. And I waslike, okay, and I'm thinking to
myself, why don't you pansy?
I was freaked out about it. Andshe was pretty, you know, she
wasn't.
I don't think if she would havesaw one, crawl over her foot or
run through the kitchen in themiddle of night, you probably
would have gotten a screech, butshe was totally cool with the
whole thing. And I had to kindof calm down and I called the
(44:17):
landlord who's a good friend ofmine
and said, Hey, this is what'sgoing on. She's like, hell yeah,
they're all over the place allthe time. Yeah, cockroaches
crazy. But again, some peopleit's totally common. They grow
up it's no big deal. But somepeople it's totally foreign. And
I don't know how I came on acockroach thing is a good
example of that, but I'm gonnago with it, I guess. And
(44:40):
and, yeah, so this started withtalking about going to Florida.
And then we ended upI stopped the recording when we
stopped. So I don't know howlong that first recording was,
but that's okay.
But yeah, it's just reallyWhy is this recording? Oh, we've
(45:00):
been on for an hour already. Iwas looking for Mike. Yeah.
So, let's, I want to talk aboutcuz I want to do this as an
entire, like, live stream ofman. And I'm going to show you
something. Let me see if I cando this. Okay, so you gotta be
patient with me. Okay, I'm goingto switch screens. Do you see
(45:22):
that? there? I can see I see thesuperfight cards. And can you
see my little head up there inthe corner? I see your little
head. Hi. So totally. So we havethis game, right? And the damn
lights not on.
Oh, lights on. So we have thisgame that we want to play.
(45:43):
Right.
And I don't think we should playit tonight because I think we
should just get on and play itbut we should play it later so
that your Oregon people can likebe on Facebook and watch us play
Super fast. Yeah, so we can playSuper fight right? We don't miss
a whole section of people thatare still working
(46:04):
it because late for you is kindof is really late for me. But
that's kind of okay.
You know, but even if we playedat like six or seven, I these
cards dude are off that they'rehorrible.
That's horrible. This game wasmade. I mean, it is horrible.
These are funny. These are like,I mean, seriously, this game was
(46:28):
made from the we should haveinvented this and made money on
it. And we were too stupid tofigure it out. Because it was
like every, every interaction wehad for 10 years, almost that
pissed everybody off. I mean,because I know your wife was mad
at us. Laurie was certainly mad,Alicia. I mean, they all were
pissed every time we open ourmouths. I mean, even last time I
(46:49):
saw you, Julie couldn't believethat the first thing that we did
was make fun of each other whenwe saw each other.
But you know, the game was made?
And I haven't played it yet. Anddid you get your expansions? You
didn't get them yet? Right? Idon't have the I didn't get the
expansions. Okay, we don't thinkwe don't really need them. No,
we can just play because it canplay out of the decks with the
camera because we only need tosee him initially, right?
(47:11):
Because, right, once we havethem and I've shown people what
they are, then we're not goingto be on that camera anyway. But
we just tested the camera out.
And that works that which istotally cool. So I am going to
mount that probably better toswing out of court, you wouldn't
believe what's going on in frontof me right now. But it worked,
which was awesome. That's areally cool platform, because
(47:32):
right now people are sochallenged with communicating
with people on the other side ofthe aisle. And you know, you
voted Obama and admittedly Ivoted for
that would have been bush. Hmm.
No, no, not that. That wasMcCain that time McCain. Yeah.
And then I didn't vote forTrump.
(47:55):
The first time. Admittedly, inthe second time, I was a little
challenge there didn't know whatto do. But we can talk about
keep that one a surprise. Butyou know, and then I ran in
local politics as a Democratright away. So you know,
oh, boy, there's someinteresting stuff to talk about.
But you know, you got to knowyour audience can't, you've got
(48:16):
to know your audience. Andthat's the really the important
part about that is when I wasapproached to run locally, I
said, Look, I'm more republicanand, and I don't have the I
don't have the because in NewYork State to run for local
politics, Republicans have to goout and get,
you got to get signatures, yougotta have a certain amount of
right and five signatures to beon the ballot. Well, back when I
(48:39):
ran, originally, the democratswere still doing a caucus. So
you get all your friends in theroom that are going to vote for
you that are Democrats, andthey, you know, they write your
name down on a little piece ofpaper, and then the head of the
democrats for the region, pullsthe names out of the hat and
says, okay, Tony, you got 22,and so on. So you got 20 Tony,
you win. And that's how I got onthe ballot the first time, which
(49:02):
was the only way I was gonnahappen, because there wasn't
enough time to get signatures.
That's why I switched. The onlyreason I switched at the time.
Then when this next term cameup, and I ran officially again,
they took away the caucus. Soyou had to go get signatures,
I'd like to caucus way better,but it was more engaging, I
guess, because you had a bunchof people in the room, and
(49:22):
they're all talking and it'sjust way more active. And as
opposed to going door to doorwith a piece of paper, say sign
this please, which I didn't doanyway. So it's based on the
amount of signatures is based onyour population. So
you have people help you, whichis totally legal go out and get
signatures. Well, the mayor wasrunning on the same cycle as I
(49:44):
was and she's been here for 100million years. So she carried
around my ballot, as well ashers. But then also you go to
different places. You go toenclaves where
the democrats are out or therepublicans hang out. You know,
you'reYou're kind of hard pressed to
get a bunch of signatures in theVFW mostly Republicans, a little
more conservative guys fromWorld War Two, especially, but,
(50:06):
you know, you go down to theyoga studio not not to be not to
be pigeonholing people or being,you know,
but you know, you're gonna getwhat you're going to get in no
matter where you go. So it'spretty easy to get. So I stay at
a Democrat. And now I've beenout of office for
a year and a half, two years,and I'm still a Democrat.
(50:29):
I haven't switched. And if I do,switch, I'll be an independent,
I'll never be a single party.
I'll never be a republican ordemocrat ever again. Once I get
down to the election on race andchange, Julie and I are not so
even though we would probably beindependent. We're both
registered Democrats, right?
Because in Oregon, if you're notregistered for a party, you
(50:50):
can't vote in the primaries.
Even as an independent youcan't, independence cannot vote
in the primaries.
I'm thinking if we can hearyou know, the only some states
they can't Yeah, you can in howthat works is
(51:12):
only I. And I may be wrong, butI think it's only if so what
usually happens is whoever'srunning, they'll pick up the
independent party in put it ontheir ticket, as well, so that
they get greater reach. Soright, they both won't do it.
But a lot of Republicans orDemocrats will do that. They'll
(51:34):
try to get the independentvoter, the green party vote or
the whatever, vote and get thaton their on the ticket so that
those people can come and vote.
And that's the only way I thinkthat you can
if right, if I remember right,yeah. So that's the only reason.
Julie and I are registered.
shockcraft. Yeah, that makessense is because
(51:55):
we like to particularly I liketo vote Yeah, it's one of my
favorite things. So I want tovote as often as I can, which
means I have to be registeredfor a party. Right? So yeah. And
from what I've understood is alot of people as you age, you
tend to change. Not always, butI've seen it, I saw it with my
dad, which when he was my ageand younger, staunch, ultra
(52:18):
conservative Republican, andhe's a total inbred and now he's
also you know, a meditationinstructor and his chat a major
overhaul of his entire life fromwhat he was doing. And he sees
things a bit differently now.
And in although he loves towatch Fox News, I think he
watches it as pure pureentertainment.
(52:40):
He tells me about it every day.
But yeah, it's reallyinteresting to see how people
age especially like teenagers,when they go from teens to 20s.
Or they go from not owning ahouse to buying their first
home. How are their first realjob how their opinions change on
things like taxes and, andwatching watching young people
get angry for the first timeabout political things like
(53:01):
that, because of grown upreasons. Instead of I'm, I'm a
Democrat, and I'm gonna, youknow, I'm going to protest that
because because, well, whyyou're 1817 years old, you don't
know shit about shit. Well,because all my friends are doing
it, you know, they don't knowwhy they're doing it or why they
feel that way other thanwhatever their experiences were
to get them there. But untilthey start, you know, getting a
(53:23):
career, getting a house gettingall those things and then things
like taxes become a real thing.
buying groceries and budgets andall those things start to become
real and that definitely pullson you and ways on your
politicalbeliefs. I think taxes are one
of those things that neverbothered me.
(53:45):
You know, they don't they theynever bothered me as even a
little bit until I owned my ownbusiness
and and then all taxes bother mea lot like a lot payroll tax
because you breathe tax and thenlike our governor here gas tax,
(54:09):
he's putting in a 50 cent gastax seriously, because you want
to get rid of all cars that havefreakin motors, you jerk. We
talked about this last time wetalk But see, I mean, come on,
really. So taxes have become abane of my existence. And
because that can heavily weighon the profitability of a
business if you're being heavilytaxed. Now I do believe
(54:32):
and I'm okay with certain tests.
So if you're selling a good or aproduct and I'm borderline here
because I sell wine, but it'slike cigarettes or weed is a
great example in Oregon notquite in New York yet but it's
gonna it's happening is youshould tax the shit out some of
that stuff like potato chips,soda pop in this is, you know,
things that are a fad Tax. Taxalmost. Yeah, I mean
(55:00):
Really, if it's if it'sunhealthy, and you're making the
choice to do it, and smoking isa good example, because I'm a
smoker, so I can talk aboutthis. And I'm fat. So I could
talk about potato chips, Iguess. But I'm gonna talk about
cigarettes for a second, I pay ahuge amount of tax because if I
go to Georgia, or wherever I goto buy cigarettes, when I'm on
my way to Florida, they're halfthe price. So, so $5 for every
(55:22):
pack of cigarettes that I buy inNew York State, more than that,
but at least $5 goes to tax.
That's now that's funding, Ihope it should be funding things
like getting quitting smoking.
So that tobacco tax should go todrug, you know, raising
awareness and programs to getpeople off of nicotine. They
(55:43):
should go to prevention andmedical stuff because of lung
disease and all the shit thathappens because you smoke. I
agree with that. If I'm going todo education, admittedly stupid
and bad for myself,if I should pay a little bit
extra to help cover the cost ofwhat that's going to do to
me, potentially down the road,I'm okay with it. But punishing
(56:09):
me because I own a car that usesregular gasoline. Because
everybody on the planet usesone. It's not like I'm choosing
to use a car. Because I couldfly otherwise with my wings
attached to my back that likethat just doesn't sit well with
me because it's not really achoice. Like I understand that.
But how are you know, how badare the potholes where you live?
(56:31):
Oh, they're horrible. I livesomewhere where we actually have
four seasons. Well, you do too.
I guess you really have summerand winter, but I get fall in
spring.
Okay, but a lot of that gas taxmoney goes to the Yeah, fixing
road. Sure. And I'm okay withthat part of the tax. Like I get
that part road repair, you driveon the road, the only way the
(56:52):
state can afford to pay the roadis the tax you put on gasoline
or buying cars. So sales tax,you know, part of the sales tax
or whatever and luxury taxes. Imean, we can really go off on
different taxes, but right,adding a 50 cent tax because you
really want to be the firststate to ban freakin cars with
(57:12):
regular motors or whatever. It'sup his sleeve, which I don't
know what it is. Whatever is uphis sleeve to charge that much
in attacks. He's doing that notfor the right reasons. In my
opinion, he might think they'rethe right reasons because he is,
you know, King Cuomo. He's notreally a governor is more of a
king reiax. But you know, it'slike, shouldn't we vote on
(57:34):
something like that? 50 centsgas tax really, you're just
gonna make that happen? just outof the blue. Like, that makes no
sense to me. Like that's where Istart have our problem. And
it'll be interesting. And I'mgonna save this one definitely
for another episode. But thatpower that local government has
over people now that they'venever felt or experienced before
that they've had since COVID.
Started dude, serious, right?
(57:57):
Watch them let go of that power.
Not in a New York minute.
There's gonna be some big oldproblems.
Thanks for listening to the GenX perspective with Tony
Randazzo, where we see things abit differently. Let's get
social. Find us on Facebook bysearching Gen X perspective,
(58:18):
Twitter, at Gen X underscorepodcast and on Instagram at Gen
X perspective. You can also findus online at Gen X
perspective.com. And reach outto Tony directly at Tony at Gen
X perspective.com. to maybe youcan talk strategy on how to beat
Super Mario Brothers three.
Don't forget to subscribe to theGen X perspective wherever you
get your podcast. Thanks forlistening
It's hard to speak your mind these days. voicing your
opinion is tough and a climatewhere you're either seen as an
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a latchkey kid from the 80s and90s. Now I'm in my 40s wearing
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And let's see how much we havein common after all.
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Hey, guys, this is john. And I'mFrank from the basement search
you may have heard of us. Westarted off slow in season one.
COVID tried to stop us in seasontwo, but Frank's too stubborn
for that. And now we're back inseason three, doing what we do
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(03:31):
York City and being a dad toname a few. We also do a live
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(03:53):
streamer links.com slashbasement search comm listen to
us and feel the searchturned up the volume the volume
and now from Brooklyn, New York.
This is a basement search whichchildren
(04:23):
talk to me about la How was yourtrip? I know you went to LA and
you got to eat In and Out Burgerand how was it? It was good I
had a really good time. Yeah.
So you know it was a familyvisit saw spent one night out
with my brother and sister andfamily
drove down to Long Beach onenight to see my cousin's
(04:49):
you know when shopping downtownat the discount alley.
And you know and that justwill say I'm there.
Just help out my mom trying tofigure out life. I got our new
TV she had a 32 inch,like a four inch border around
it. Right that,you know, a third of the lines
(05:16):
for pixelated, she could barelygone. It was not a clear
picture.
So got her a new TV. Then shecalled me yesterday, the TV's
broken. Of course it was. Isaid, What do you mean, the TV's
broken? Well, the cable guyshere and we're not getting a
picture. I said, Well, did youdo this? No.
(05:42):
Oh, target now. Thank you. Bye.
So um, and I'm gonna say this onthe podcast, which is totally
gonna get me in trouble. My dad,my dad lives three miles away,
right here around the farm. Andlike my dad, and he calls me
noon last night, okay, this isjust for shits broke in the
(06:04):
house, I can't make it work. Youneed to come fix this kind of
conversations, not the otherphone calls. But like, my TV
doesn't work. My Internet'sbroke whatever it is, right
three times, four times a weekthat I have to go out there and
fix. Because he just hitsbuttons, you know, is just,
instead of hitting Enter oncethey'll hit it, you know, keep
clicking the click. And thenit's all right. Yeah. So he
(06:25):
does. And he's getting slightlymore challenged with that now.
And it's totally frustratingbecause he used to stay pretty
current on technology and stuffgoing on. And it's just I
realized that it just changes sofast. Like you miss an update.
And your computer's out of syncwith your phone. And your
Internet's not working all of asudden, and it turns into a
(06:47):
total cluster and right. He'sgetting calls from my mom all
the time, but it's just wicked.
I got a call from my mom.
About a month and a half ago.
She knew I was coming in, right?
And she said, Well, when you gethere, I need you to help me with
a problem. I said, Okay, what'sthe problem?
(07:13):
I lost $2,000 Oh, what do youmean, you lost $2,000? Well, the
bank says that I have 2000 moredollars than I should. Hmm.
Sounds like a good problem. Butokay, okay.
You know, and you know, she'llcall me and be like, the cables
(07:37):
broken. What do I do?
Yeah, it's so their tolerancefor technology, I noticed gets
shorter. Like they just don'thave the, the tolerance to go
through the same because it'sthe same problems over and over
and over again. And I think thatright just doesn't sit well with
them in general. And they justget I noticed this time with my
(08:01):
mom that she is. She doesn'tlike change anymore. No. Yeah,
she likes the way things areright. And they need to stay
that way. Yes. And no change.
Yeah, no, we had a huge argumentabout me buying her a TV because
she didn't need a TV show. Whenwe spend the money. Why do I
need a new TV? Oh my god, thisis just a waste slider. You
(08:22):
know, on and on. And on and on.
Come on. That's right. So didyou go in and out burger just
because I got to torture myselfa little bit. I went in and out
burger. Got my double doubleanimal style french fries,
animal style. Great large coke.
Yeah. My mom got a double doubleand my aunt just got a actually
she got a double single twopatties, one piece of cheese.
(08:46):
And my aunt just got acheeseburger. Because they eat
it all the time. So they don'tcare. They don't they only ever
eat it when I come in becauseyou make them go there. Right?
Yeah. What was it like? bagels?
All good bagel. So I gotta giveyou the name of this place. I
(09:06):
order bagels. They might notsend them to Oregon. I get them
out of New York City. Theyovernight them.
I don't order them all the timebecause it's you know, like four
bucks a bagel when you do thisbecause the overnight fees right
bake them on a Tuesday. Theyshow up on a Wednesday. Like
they're that fresh and they tellyou keep out what you want to
eat and freeze the rest becausethey'll go bad before you get
(09:29):
them done. If you buy like acase lead doesn't have them.
Right so I can't get them veryoften because Lori knows how
much they cost. And she's like,seriously the last thing a you
need is to eat bagels. And bethey're damn expensive so knock
it off. So they're awesomethough. They're super Oh my God.
And that Yeah, they overnightthem up to me from the city.
(09:52):
That's ridiculous. Totally.
I had to bring back an extrasuitcase full of food.
Follow up. bakery. Five ryebreads. Oh, Jesus. Right. Yeah.
And he tried bread is like twofeet long. So you kind of get
two loaves out of each ryebread. That's right. So I
(10:14):
essentially have eight loaves ofrye bread in my freezer.
And thenthey have these little pastries
they're called telcos. They'reall kinds of fillings, you know,
fruit fillings, chocolatefillings, that fillings. The
boys requested two pounds ofthat.
(10:37):
So, my my only suitcase that Ibrought down. Yeah. When I
filled it with the bread and thepastries and the stuff, you
know, a couple other things. Itwas already 50 pounds. I hadn't
put any clothes in it.
50 pounds of stuff. Yeah. Goodfor you.
(10:58):
Well, you know, I guess. So. Sois that How's that? Is that a
direct flight into Burbank fromRedmond now? Yes. Did I know
that? I guess it's brand new.
That's awesome. I was actually Iwas on the maiden voyage. Right.
first ever flight of thisairline out of Redmond. Okay.
And they had like, the firetrucks. Yeah, the airport fire
(11:22):
trucks come out during thewater. And they were spraying
you know, the water cannons andlike an arch over the plane as
we were going down the runway.
Oh, my God.
I would Yeah, I killed for aflight a direct flight to LA
like that when we were still inbright. Gosh, that would, that
(11:45):
would have made it so mucheasier to do stuff. Seriously. I
mean, that's just crazy. Butthat is awesome. So I do have I
do have one serious question,because I was watching the news
of this morning briefly. Andthey're talking about all this
violence against Jews. And inLA. I think it just happened to
(12:06):
there was a some people at arestaurant that were attacked.
What Seriously? What the fuck? Imean, can we just talk about how
stupid This is? I mean, if youlook at this statistics, anti
semitic attacks are up. It'slike 14 100%. Yeah, I've been
(12:28):
asked for years. It's beencrazy. I mean, New York City,
pre pandemic. I mean, they wereridiculous. I mean, those are
the, you know, the Hasidicaesthetic, Hasidic Jews.
I mean, Syria. I mean, I don'tunderstand it. I mean, that it
seems so foreign to me. BecauseI don't I don't personally
(12:50):
growing up just living, SouthernCalifornia, New York, wherever.
Butif you want to socially profile
or bebe prejudiced against somebody I
never even saw in a slight, noteven in a slight way against the
Jewish community. I mean, it'sso foreign to me, I can't I
(13:15):
almost can't grasp it. I mean,you read the history. And, you
know, the Jews have beenpersecuted. Forever. Literally,
since history has been inhistory. Since the Jews have
existed. You guys have been beatup, continually. I get that. But
I don't understand likeconceptually.
(13:36):
Understand how how people canhold hold that is something
against somebody like it's just,I don't understand it. I don't
get it. Right. Well, you know,it's coming from two places
right now. Part of it ispeople who believe in the big
Jewish conspiracy that Jews ownevery media, outlet TV they own
(13:59):
on the radio, they own all thenewspapers.
And so well, they do. They'rethe ones creating the news.
Yeah, well, and for a while.
I mean, there's all this stuffgoing on with
(14:20):
Palestinian, Palestine andIsrael. Well, that's what really
has caused a lot of it in thepast few weeks. Yeah, but
seriously, how is I mean, Iguess if you're from Israel or
Palestine, I mean, I guess Ikind of get it. Kind of, like,
right, if you moved here and youhated the Jews, and then you
(14:41):
know, everybody's fighting backhome and you're living here.
Would you take it out onsomebody in the Jewish
community? I mean, maybe I guessif you're if you have that much
hate in your heart, and you'rethat crazy or passionate or
whatever word you want to use,that's misplaced. I just don't I
have a hard time getting it, butI see it and I know just
like you do. I mean, I knowCatholics and Jews and, you
(15:04):
know, Muslims and blacks andwhites. And I mean, we know all
these melting pot of people thatwe have in our everyday lives.
And it's so hard to try toconceptualize how it would be
okay for even a second to justgo. Just because you're Jason
Lowery, and you're Jewish, thatI'm gonna beat the hell out of
you. I mean, right, serious. Ijust, I can't wrap my brain
(15:26):
around it, man. I'm having ahard time with this one. You
know, I kind of hate people.
Hold on to that kind of, Hey,you know, you're Jewish. So you
must be pro Israel and hate allPalestinians, and therefore
we're going to beat you out.
Yeah. But I mean to thePalestinians. I mean, do they
really hate each other? Or isthat all government based?
(15:49):
I mean, you know, I mean,there's obviously a larger
discussion there. But I mean,before the fighting, they were
living next door to each other.
And now it's neighbor againstneighbor, all of a sudden, just
because somebody has startedlaunching rockets across the
border, which is highlycontested. I know, there's a lot
of history there with, you know,yeah, with the Gaza Strip and
all that. I mean, that's I'mdefinitely oversimplifying that,
(16:10):
between the Gaza Strip and theWest Bank. It's right. There's a
lot going on a lot going on inthere has been there's a lot of
time. Linnea and,you know, yeah, it's been really
bad for the last 75 years since,right. You know, Israel became a
stateran in 1948. Well, right. It's
(16:33):
when you know, what I mean, wasit it was essentially the
Europeans went in there, andthey started carving up the, the
Middle East. And, you know, Imean, just looking at a map, not
taking into account the historyon any level, and just saying,
This is yours, this is yours.
This is yours. And this isyours. And it's been a nightmare
(16:54):
ever since they split up themiddle east the way that they
did, and I mean, it wasn't oneof the French it was the
British British, thank you. Itwas the British went in there
and did that. And then there'sbeen continual, while there was
continual fighting before that,but I think it was for different
reasons. Maybe you would know,obviously, a lot better, right,
(17:16):
and the history than I do, butit doesn't make any sense. When
you start telling a whole couplewell, more than one class of
people what to do and where tolive, they're all gonna get
pissed off.
That, so yeah, they're I mean,there's no, some people will say
that, you know, what the twostate solution is what we need
(17:36):
to do and right, you know,divide up the land. And well,
that was the solution in 1948.
And the Jews said, Okay, we'rehappy to do this. And the
people living there at the timesaid, No, and the other Arab
communities said, don't worryabout it, we got your back. And
(18:00):
the state was created. And, youknow, seven countries attacked
Israel. Right.
Andyeah, it's, it's been bad ever
since. Right? It was bad. JustYeah. It's been bad since
forever. Before that. I mean, Imean, talk about the history
(18:20):
lesson in the persecution, yeah,the Jewish community, it goes
back forever. And again, inmodern day times in America, to
see that kind of shit happen isit's baffling to me. I mean, I
kind of what I do get is, you godown, you know, to one of the
boroughs in New York City, andyou got the traditional Hasidic
Jews in the look, the way theylook, it's kind of like the
(18:43):
Amish up here. Now, and I'm notcomparing the Jewish to Amish
other than the way that theylook different. They just look
different, right? They dress,they dress different.
But they're normal as normal canbe when you talk to them. I
mean, they're normal humans. Andpeople will obviously you know,
forever, we've attacked eachother overlooks, and because
(19:05):
they look different, they mustbe different. And I'm going to
attack them and whatever. And Iguess I understand that part of
it on a very simplistic, dumbkind of way, but it is what it
is. But the somebody would haveto like seek you out and figure
out that you're Jewish to beable to
(19:26):
you know, go after you inwhatever fashion they thought
was appropriate or whatever youwant to call it, but it just, I
don't know. It just seems weird.
I mean, do you or your family orpeople in your community in Bend
talking about bend oregon rightnow? Like have that in the back
of your head when you go totemple or you go to do anything
where you're kind of not wavingthe flag that you're Jewish, but
(19:49):
that were people would assumethat you were Jewish because of
where you were what you weredoing on any given day? I mean,
do you have you ever secondthought that in the
Recent history and kind ofmy youngest son when he was in
(20:11):
ourswanted to wear his yarmulke to
school.
Kids are proud. I told him no.
Yeah.
Yeah. Cuz he would for sure getmade fun of on a very basic
level because he's doingsomething different. But at the
same time, right? You never kindof know. I mean, you were made
(20:33):
fun. might have been good toopen up that discussion of
different religion and stufflike that, but
you didn't first grade isn't theage to really have that because
you don't understand it. Andthose boys were, I mean, they,
they marched to their own beats,they always have. Yeah, I mean,
the way they dress and just, youknow, how they were raised. I
(20:55):
mean, I know their parents. So Iknow that they definitely
marched to their own tune, andthey don't, you know, they're
individuals, and they're, theyare who they are. And that's
awesome that they've been raisedthat way. But it's, um, yeah, I
mean, you know, we were grownup, I mean, I know, I've
probably called somebody as astupid Jew, or, you know, as
they call me a wasp, or, youknow, a day ago or whatever,
(21:17):
when we were kids, but it feelslike it's not as innocent
anymore. And maybe that's justbecause the ramifications with
adults, if you say stuff likethat, as a kid now is so much
greater, like elementary schoolnow, compared to elementary
school when we were kids. Imean, when we were kids, you
could threaten to kill somebodyout back after school or pick a
(21:41):
fight, and the teachers nevergot involved. And they, you
know, kind of left it all alone,and let kids work it out. But
nowadays that just doesn't existanymore in our world, not even
kinda, I mean, you're expelledfrom school, maybe even
criminally charged. I mean, it'snot you can't do stuff like that
anymore.
(22:02):
You know, now, you can't I mean,you know, I mean, I remember
this was right after we firstmoved back to Ben. So it must
have been 1999 or 2004.
Somewhere right around there. Hewas at a city council meeting.
And they were talking about, youknow, having to build something
or something to do with buyingor something. And one of the
(22:24):
city councilors said, Well, itsounds like we're paying a
little too much. Can we jumpdown?
Okay.
So that was 20. Oh, I wrote hima very long letter. Yeah, I bet
she did. Because your wifewasn't always Jewish. She
(22:45):
converted after meeting you. Andobviously being in a long term
relationship with you. She'sadopted that religion has hers
her.
But you.
So that term is a good one totalk about. I mean, 20 years
ago, and beyond that wasn'tsomething that was unheard of
(23:05):
that somebody would say, and Idon't know if it was
in this would be a question foryou is I don't know if it would
have been considered as offense.
I mean, nowadays holy.
Just carry on talking about now.
But 30 years ago, that wouldn'twould that be considered? I
mean, maybe slightly annoying.
But I'll tell you the truthbefore I moved to Oregon. Yeah.
(23:28):
I had never heard that term.
Really? Yeah.
I guess I probably did. Onlygrowing up in in an Italian
Catholic, New York world. That'ssomething that I seem to feel
(23:48):
like I've known my grandfather.
So we're going back twogenerations, although he would
have friends that were Jewish,but he was of that generation.
World War Two era folk, thatwouldn't hesitate to say
something like that or to makeracial slurs. But he also had
(24:12):
friends that were black. He wasin the fire department had he
actually did in Rochester. Hewas actually the the person that
champion.
When he got into the firedepartment after World War Two,
there was basically no, noItalians, and no blacks were in
(24:34):
the fire department. So all theItalians were in the police
department, in the blacks or inanything, essentially, and he
champion once he got up, he waslike assistant to the chief and
the fire department. He championtwo things and Italians getting
into the fire department andblacks as well. It was really he
(24:55):
did like this. I and I knewabout it because he had talked
about it.
At some point, but at hisfuneral, all of these retired
firefighters, a lot of them wereblack men, and they're, you
know, they're my grandfather'sage are close to it. So we're
talking in their 80s a lot ofthem are older because my
(25:15):
grandfather died, he was in his90s coming up and telling these
stories about without, withoutRandy, you know, we would have
never got into the firedepartment and all this other
stuff, but at the same time, hewould use racial slurs about
them to them. And they, and itwas all kind of this thing,
because they were all in thatwhole generation of people.
(25:36):
Everybody was beingbasically attacked by every
other thing, you know, so that,you know, the, the,
the Catholics and the Jews orthe Catholic, or the Italians
and the Irish, you know, theblacks and the Irish for sure,
not as much with the Italians,but the Italians as well.
Everybody fought and, and wentafter each other in as time went
(26:00):
on, they were all became friendswith each other when the
neighborhood started gettingkind of loosened up. And again,
you're out in LA, this is NewYork. And things were it was
really interesting. So as a kid,it was, it can be confusing,
because you hear yourgrandfather makes some sort of
racial slur. But yeah, twominutes later, his friend from
the fire department thathappened to be a black guy, or
(26:23):
you know, an Irish, and oh, myGod, the Irish and the things he
used to say, I mean, I can'teven repeat them.
But that was like normal talk.
But it wasn't normal belief. Youswitch to my stepmother side of
the family in her mic, my stepgrandmother, who grew up in the
deep south, the Bible Belt, andyou stayed on your side of the
(26:45):
tracks. Right? She grew up, youknow, when she was going to
elementary school, she broughthorses to school, I mean, that
old. She was always very niceand very friendly. But she was
always still very standoffishto people of color.
Because it was just somethingthat was so ingrained in her
(27:06):
entire life, right or wrong, andshe knew it was wrong. And I'd
have discussions with her aboutit. She wasn't an outward.
She wasn't ever prejudiced. AndI never actually heard a racial
slur out of that woman's mouthever. But it was just kind of
this almost subconscious,standoffish kind of thing. And I
(27:26):
always thought that that wasreally weird. Until I went to
North Carolina in my early teensor late teens, early 20s, and
spent a couple of weeks inGreensboro and the wall. The
South is definitely a differentkind of place than I had ever
experienced. Whenmy father went into the
(27:48):
he was in the Navy, right.
And he had to drive to Floridaor South Carolina for basic. He
had to drive.
from LA, from LA. Yeah. So heand a friend went, and they
drove through. They weredriving, you know, through
(28:09):
Mississippi at the time. And healways wore a very large Jewish
star.
Really, okay.
And they get to Mississippi, andthey're at a gas station,
filling their car with gas.
And this guy comes out a youngerkid
(28:32):
and says, Oh, are you Jewish?
And my father says, Yeah, andthe kid says, Well, can I see
your horns?
Your horns, your arms?
Because the myth was stillaround the Jews had horns.
(28:55):
Now that you're wet, you'reprobably talking 40s 1967 Oh,
that way that war? Vietnam. Oh,good, Lord. Wow.
Yeah, that isthat's kind of frightening.
Sorta, yeah. But you know, I,it's Yeah. And everything in the
(29:15):
news today. Not that I wantedthis whole conversation to be
political. But it's reallyamazing how far that we've come.
But how?
how upset so many people stillare that they haven't we haven't
come far enough for writing. Idon't know. I mean, I'm kind of
isolated in the world that I'min right now living in a very
(29:37):
rural area on the Canadianborder. I think Unfortunately,
our our parents generation stillhas a lot of ingrained
teaching. That really isn'tokay.
(29:57):
Like I was talking to my momabout
We while we were watching theshow pose effects. Yeah, it's
aboutgay and transgender men in the
late 80s.
During the AIDS epidemic, yeah,it's really good show.
(30:18):
And my mom's like, Oh, is thatthe one about the trainees? Not
that there's anything wrong withthat?
Right. Yeah. Right.
I mean, yeah, she says it'sokay. But doesn't say it's okay.
At the same time. Right. Right.
Yeah. And just saying there'snothing wrong with that doesn't
didn't make it okay. Just saysomething. You know? Yeah. Is I
(30:39):
in even at my age to it,admittedly, I find it.
I'm not so bad that I can't getover it or change behaviors, but
at the same time, I can see thedifficulty and
you know, like words that wewould, I was thinking about this
(31:02):
couple days ago, words thatdidn't exist five years ago. The
word woke the word. The word hasevolved. But the words that in
any seriously, like, it's almostI yeah, I don't some of it, I
don't understand. I'm obviouslyopen minded. And I'm very, you
know, and I'm in a retailbusiness where we get, we have a
(31:23):
huge military base that is rightdown the road from us that
people from literally all overthis country get dropped into,
into our world.
They're not necessarily locals,and they tend to stay in
Watertown. And on the base,they, you know, they kind of
stay close to home, becausethat's all they know. And, but
(31:44):
at the same time, I just, someof it is really hard to kind of
get because I mean, what yourmom said, and in the context,
especially right now, it's like,Siri, yeah, no, I know, you
can't do that. Seriously, yougot to kind of gotta change what
you say. And you just can't.
Because it's really upsettingpeople for even for a reason
that you may or may notunderstand. Fundamentally,
(32:06):
agreeing with it or not, isalmost irrelevant, because it's
how people globally are feeling.
What I have a problem with is abunch of white people running
around, apologizing for beingwhite.
I don't, that doesn't make senseto me. If you're going to
(32:26):
apologize for something that youdid as a human being, as Jason
Lally or Tony Randazzo.
That makes sense, but apologizefor being white privileged, you
didn't have a choice for how youwere born? Well, I guess you can
argue that too, if you reallywant to get into it, but you
didn't have a choice of how youwere raised, you just have a
(32:47):
choice of how you can actwhen you have the ability to act
on your own. Right. And that'sall you got, you know, and I
agree with that. But here's theproblem. Yeah.
I am, you know, male and white,right? Which means in America, I
(33:09):
am better than everybody.
I'm at the top of the foodchain.
Right? Whether we like it ornot, that's just how things
work. Right? Now, I'm not goingto apologize for my status.
Okay, I can't, I didn't chooseto be male and white, right?
(33:29):
What I can do is accept the factthat as a white male in the
United States,I have, and can do things that
people of other colors andgenders cannot
watch, I pose the slightlyopposing argument, if you look
(33:53):
at people in our own circle offriends, Glenn Glenn, thank you,
Glenn black, he's black.
And arguably, he's from at leastas long as we've known him. And
and I've, I've not asked himthis question. So making a
couple assumptions only fromobservations, he seems to have
had all the same opportunitiesthat you are, I have had, at
(34:13):
least in the time that we'veknown him, and that he's been in
our life. Now, that was also inBend Oregon and as an adult,
right, and when he went throughprayer, I like to answer. I like
to believe and hope that that'strue.
Right? I don't know. I haven'thad that discussion with him.
Right. It would not surprise meto find out that that isn't
(34:36):
true. Especially, you know,growing up in the 70s and 80s.
Right. Oh, yeah. Prior to us inhis life. Yeah. I'm pretty
confident that and I bet he wentthrough some stuff in the 90s. I
know that because I'd had talkedto him when he was dating. What
was her name? Jenny? Yeah.
Jamie.
(35:01):
Yeah, super white girl. Yeah,right. Yeah. Right. They would
get comments all the time whenthey were out. So comments.
But opportunity are twodifferent things. Right.
Totally. So, I mean, maybe he'sbeen, we're talking a whole lot
about us and we should bring himon the damn podcast. We probably
(35:21):
need to now we'll have to reachout to him but to get his
opinion on it, and I know he'sso easy going well must have the
product and he may not do it,but hopefully he will.
Yeah, okay. So yes, all thosethings are true. We white. And
I'm, by the way, I still have anissue with being called White. I
still consider myself Italianand why the hell am I not still
(35:44):
Italian? Why, how did I turninto being white? But that's a
different discussion. Arguably,I'm not white, but I whatever.
I still, there's no checkbox onthe damn forms, let's say
Italian. It just says white,Caucasian jackass and everybody
else or nothing at all. You canbe nothing because Italians are
white. They're not. We wereinvaded by multiple races and we
(36:08):
have Mixed Blood. I can show youmy genealogy thingy that I spent
money and spit in the tube forand they give you everything.
I'm not European.
I am European. But I'm fromItaly, which makes me a
trillion. And Italy's didn'teven exist until just like 200
years ago. I actually was lessthan that, like 150 100 years
(36:29):
ago, and been around a longtime. They were just, you know,
a bunch of people that keptgetting invaded. We were just
invaded all the time. They justinvaded.
Italy literally ruled Europe for1000 years old, the Roman
Empire, the Romans, those werethey weren't Italians. They were
Roman.
(36:50):
And then we were invaded by aMongol race. And that's all I
have to say about that.
So where is Rome?
Rome is nothing anymore.
old buildings and stuff.
I'm Italian. I'm not white.
White people are not popularright now. No, I take that back.
(37:12):
White people. Yeah. So I agreewith everything you said, Yes,
we were born into it. We didn'thave a choice of how we were
born. But soso what about the middle class,
black family, they don't live insome ghetto. They don't live in
(37:33):
the stereotypical world that somany people think that black
people live in, you know, andwhich is totally stupid and
wrong. But I do feel likethere's opportunity. In the
again, my perspective only, Imean, I'm not discounting
anything, anybody's saying. I'mtreading on very dangerous
waters here. But I see I seepeople that have gotten done
(37:56):
better with their lives andtheir kids and kids, they go to
college and shit, they becomepresident for the elderly.
Totally. So but the black,middle class family that lives
in the suburbs, right, still hasto live in fear of getting
pulled over by the police, theystill have to teach their
(38:17):
children how to interact withthe police. Sure.
Well, and how to interact withstore owners, and how to walk to
school safely,differently than I had to teach
my children.
(38:39):
I still don't agree with peopleapologizing for being white.
We're getting right on birthcircle back around to that one.
BecauseI mean, I get it. I understand.
I understand. not throwing thatin somebody's face and realizing
that yes, they have to grow upand live a different way. And I
don't think a lot of people areapologizing for being white. I
think that they are trying toown the fact that they have this
(39:05):
privilege and use that to tryand create change. Okay.
That probably is the bestexplanation that I've heard, to
be honest with you.
At that one, I could be okaywith not feeling like it's a
(39:27):
stupid answer. So thank youright for that.
Because that is honestly thefirst time that I've heard a
response to that question. Thatdidn't sound just stupid.
Yeah, it sucks. I you know, andagain, and I've also always
said, Man, I can't, I can't putmy self in somebody's shoes,
what it's like to live in theinner city, in the projects. And
(39:51):
I've talked to people that havelived there and whatever but you
kill you walk a mile in thoseshoes until you live in New York
City as an example where there'scockroaches is the norm in your
apartment. And that's notsomething that's abnormal. We
would absolutely lose our minds.
Absolutely. I know you would Iknow your wife would my wife
sure is how would not be okaywith cockroach for even a second
(40:14):
in LA there were cockroacheseverywhere. Yeah, well, right. I
remember not in Orange CountyJust saying.
I remember one night it's likeone o'clock in the morning,
right?
And there's thishigh pitched scream like a seven
year old girl screaming.
(40:37):
My brother had come home. And hewas in college. Right? So he's
like, 20 years old.
Come home, went to the kitchenand turn on the light. And a
cockroach ran across the kitchenfloor as they do when you turn
the lights on? Yes. And oh mygod, I thought he was going to
die. And then I asked him why hescreamed like a seven year old
(40:59):
girl. Yeah, of course. It'sand but that's the normally
they're supported. They haveflying cockroach dude. So we've
gone multiple years in a row,right. This year, was the first
year that I had the pleasure ofcoming face to face with a
couple of cockroaches in therental that we've rented year
(41:19):
after year. And of course, Iimmediately got on Google and
realized dummies are everywhereyou just didn't see before. They
spray for him twice a year.
There's traps everywhere. Youdon't have to live with them.
And yes, they none of thatmatters because the cockroaches
and they fly. And I turned onthe lights in the kitchen and
plucker goes running across thefloor. Now I took a deep breath.
(41:42):
I didn't scream Laurie was stillasleep. So I didn't say
anything. There's the last thingI'm going to do is tell my wife
that there's cockroaches in thishouse. So the next morning I
wake up and Laurie gets up andwhatever. And I'm standing in
the kitchen getting a cup ofcoffee and I'm thinking to
myself when we're in that littlebastard go and I kind of looked
at a corner of my eyes saw whatlooked like a clump of dirt in
(42:05):
on the floor in the laundryroom.
And it was that damn cockroachdad upside down because there
was probably cockroach bait inthe cupboards or wherever,
everywhere. And he died. So Inonchalantly went over and
picked him up and had the heebiejeebies and threw him away. And
then I didn't see anything thatnight. But the following night,
(42:27):
I turned on the lights in thekitchen, it was like two o'clock
in the morning get up to getsomething to drink. And then
another one run across thecounter. And I'm thinking Hold
on, he's gonna run face to facewith one of these guys and it's
gonna be all over. Like my wifeis gonna lose it. So I'm getting
I'm getting the heebie jeebiesat this point. Like, are they
crawling over my face while I'msleeping? Like I'm like, we
(42:49):
can't sleep. So that night Goback to sleep. The next morning
Laurie finds one in thecupboard. I think I think it was
that night that she's the nextmorning she found out presumably
a different one. I'll say it wasthe same one. And then I saw I
got it took care of that she wasseemed kind of okay with it. I
didn't see anything. That night.
Again, another one in thekitchen. The next morning. I'm
(43:12):
like, Hey, I got to talk to you.
She's like, what's what's wrong?
You know, we're on vacation.
We're you know, we're there forthree weeks. She's like, so
what's up? I'm like.
So I did a bunch of researchthis morning on Google. It's how
I started the conversation. Didyou know that it's super common
for cockroaches in Florida. Andthey even have flying ones and I
(43:34):
go through this wholedissertation. And I said in the
reason I'm telling you this isbecause over the last five
nights, three of which I've seencockroaches run in the kitchen,
and she was like totallynonchalant. Like, yeah, they're
in Florida. And yeah, that'skind of gross, but okay. Totally
different reaction than I was. Iwas expecting we're leaving and
(43:55):
going somewhere else. And I waslike, okay, and I'm thinking to
myself, why don't you pansy?
I was freaked out about it. Andshe was pretty, you know, she
wasn't.
I don't think if she would havesaw one, crawl over her foot or
run through the kitchen in themiddle of night, you probably
would have gotten a screech, butshe was totally cool with the
whole thing. And I had to kindof calm down and I called the
(44:17):
landlord who's a good friend ofmine
and said, Hey, this is what'sgoing on. She's like, hell yeah,
they're all over the place allthe time. Yeah, cockroaches
crazy. But again, some peopleit's totally common. They grow
up it's no big deal. But somepeople it's totally foreign. And
I don't know how I came on acockroach thing is a good
example of that, but I'm gonnago with it, I guess. And
(44:40):
and, yeah, so this started withtalking about going to Florida.
And then we ended upI stopped the recording when we
stopped. So I don't know howlong that first recording was,
but that's okay.
But yeah, it's just reallyWhy is this recording? Oh, we've
(45:00):
been on for an hour already. Iwas looking for Mike. Yeah.
So, let's, I want to talk aboutcuz I want to do this as an
entire, like, live stream ofman. And I'm going to show you
something. Let me see if I cando this. Okay, so you gotta be
patient with me. Okay, I'm goingto switch screens. Do you see
(45:22):
that? there? I can see I see thesuperfight cards. And can you
see my little head up there inthe corner? I see your little
head. Hi. So totally. So we havethis game, right? And the damn
lights not on.
Oh, lights on. So we have thisgame that we want to play.
(45:43):
Right.
And I don't think we should playit tonight because I think we
should just get on and play itbut we should play it later so
that your Oregon people can likebe on Facebook and watch us play
Super fast. Yeah, so we can playSuper fight right? We don't miss
a whole section of people thatare still working
(46:04):
it because late for you is kindof is really late for me. But
that's kind of okay.
You know, but even if we playedat like six or seven, I these
cards dude are off that they'rehorrible.
That's horrible. This game wasmade. I mean, it is horrible.
These are funny. These are like,I mean, seriously, this game was
(46:28):
made from the we should haveinvented this and made money on
it. And we were too stupid tofigure it out. Because it was
like every, every interaction wehad for 10 years, almost that
pissed everybody off. I mean,because I know your wife was mad
at us. Laurie was certainly mad,Alicia. I mean, they all were
pissed every time we open ourmouths. I mean, even last time I
(46:49):
saw you, Julie couldn't believethat the first thing that we did
was make fun of each other whenwe saw each other.
But you know, the game was made?
And I haven't played it yet. Anddid you get your expansions? You
didn't get them yet? Right? Idon't have the I didn't get the
expansions. Okay, we don't thinkwe don't really need them. No,
we can just play because it canplay out of the decks with the
camera because we only need tosee him initially, right?
(47:11):
Because, right, once we havethem and I've shown people what
they are, then we're not goingto be on that camera anyway. But
we just tested the camera out.
And that works that which istotally cool. So I am going to
mount that probably better toswing out of court, you wouldn't
believe what's going on in frontof me right now. But it worked,
which was awesome. That's areally cool platform, because
(47:32):
right now people are sochallenged with communicating
with people on the other side ofthe aisle. And you know, you
voted Obama and admittedly Ivoted for
that would have been bush. Hmm.
No, no, not that. That wasMcCain that time McCain. Yeah.
And then I didn't vote forTrump.
(47:55):
The first time. Admittedly, inthe second time, I was a little
challenge there didn't know whatto do. But we can talk about
keep that one a surprise. Butyou know, and then I ran in
local politics as a Democratright away. So you know,
oh, boy, there's someinteresting stuff to talk about.
But you know, you got to knowyour audience can't, you've got
(48:16):
to know your audience. Andthat's the really the important
part about that is when I wasapproached to run locally, I
said, Look, I'm more republicanand, and I don't have the I
don't have the because in NewYork State to run for local
politics, Republicans have to goout and get,
you got to get signatures, yougotta have a certain amount of
right and five signatures to beon the ballot. Well, back when I
(48:39):
ran, originally, the democratswere still doing a caucus. So
you get all your friends in theroom that are going to vote for
you that are Democrats, andthey, you know, they write your
name down on a little piece ofpaper, and then the head of the
democrats for the region, pullsthe names out of the hat and
says, okay, Tony, you got 22,and so on. So you got 20 Tony,
you win. And that's how I got onthe ballot the first time, which
(49:02):
was the only way I was gonnahappen, because there wasn't
enough time to get signatures.
That's why I switched. The onlyreason I switched at the time.
Then when this next term cameup, and I ran officially again,
they took away the caucus. Soyou had to go get signatures,
I'd like to caucus way better,but it was more engaging, I
guess, because you had a bunchof people in the room, and
(49:22):
they're all talking and it'sjust way more active. And as
opposed to going door to doorwith a piece of paper, say sign
this please, which I didn't doanyway. So it's based on the
amount of signatures is based onyour population. So
you have people help you, whichis totally legal go out and get
signatures. Well, the mayor wasrunning on the same cycle as I
(49:44):
was and she's been here for 100million years. So she carried
around my ballot, as well ashers. But then also you go to
different places. You go toenclaves where
the democrats are out or therepublicans hang out. You know,
you'reYou're kind of hard pressed to
get a bunch of signatures in theVFW mostly Republicans, a little
more conservative guys fromWorld War Two, especially, but,
(50:06):
you know, you go down to theyoga studio not not to be not to
be pigeonholing people or being,you know,
but you know, you're gonna getwhat you're going to get in no
matter where you go. So it'spretty easy to get. So I stay at
a Democrat. And now I've beenout of office for
a year and a half, two years,and I'm still a Democrat.
(50:29):
I haven't switched. And if I do,switch, I'll be an independent,
I'll never be a single party.
I'll never be a republican ordemocrat ever again. Once I get
down to the election on race andchange, Julie and I are not so
even though we would probably beindependent. We're both
registered Democrats, right?
Because in Oregon, if you're notregistered for a party, you
(50:50):
can't vote in the primaries.
Even as an independent youcan't, independence cannot vote
in the primaries.
I'm thinking if we can hearyou know, the only some states
they can't Yeah, you can in howthat works is
(51:12):
only I. And I may be wrong, butI think it's only if so what
usually happens is whoever'srunning, they'll pick up the
independent party in put it ontheir ticket, as well, so that
they get greater reach. Soright, they both won't do it.
But a lot of Republicans orDemocrats will do that. They'll
(51:34):
try to get the independentvoter, the green party vote or
the whatever, vote and get thaton their on the ticket so that
those people can come and vote.
And that's the only way I thinkthat you can
if right, if I remember right,yeah. So that's the only reason.
Julie and I are registered.
shockcraft. Yeah, that makessense is because
(51:55):
we like to particularly I liketo vote Yeah, it's one of my
favorite things. So I want tovote as often as I can, which
means I have to be registeredfor a party. Right? So yeah. And
from what I've understood is alot of people as you age, you
tend to change. Not always, butI've seen it, I saw it with my
dad, which when he was my ageand younger, staunch, ultra
(52:18):
conservative Republican, andhe's a total inbred and now he's
also you know, a meditationinstructor and his chat a major
overhaul of his entire life fromwhat he was doing. And he sees
things a bit differently now.
And in although he loves towatch Fox News, I think he
watches it as pure pureentertainment.
(52:40):
He tells me about it every day.
But yeah, it's reallyinteresting to see how people
age especially like teenagers,when they go from teens to 20s.
Or they go from not owning ahouse to buying their first
home. How are their first realjob how their opinions change on
things like taxes and, andwatching watching young people
get angry for the first timeabout political things like
(53:01):
that, because of grown upreasons. Instead of I'm, I'm a
Democrat, and I'm gonna, youknow, I'm going to protest that
because because, well, whyyou're 1817 years old, you don't
know shit about shit. Well,because all my friends are doing
it, you know, they don't knowwhy they're doing it or why they
feel that way other thanwhatever their experiences were
to get them there. But untilthey start, you know, getting a
(53:23):
career, getting a house gettingall those things and then things
like taxes become a real thing.
buying groceries and budgets andall those things start to become
real and that definitely pullson you and ways on your
politicalbeliefs. I think taxes are one
of those things that neverbothered me.
(53:45):
You know, they don't they theynever bothered me as even a
little bit until I owned my ownbusiness
and and then all taxes bother mea lot like a lot payroll tax
because you breathe tax and thenlike our governor here gas tax,
(54:09):
he's putting in a 50 cent gastax seriously, because you want
to get rid of all cars that havefreakin motors, you jerk. We
talked about this last time wetalk But see, I mean, come on,
really. So taxes have become abane of my existence. And
because that can heavily weighon the profitability of a
business if you're being heavilytaxed. Now I do believe
(54:32):
and I'm okay with certain tests.
So if you're selling a good or aproduct and I'm borderline here
because I sell wine, but it'slike cigarettes or weed is a
great example in Oregon notquite in New York yet but it's
gonna it's happening is youshould tax the shit out some of
that stuff like potato chips,soda pop in this is, you know,
things that are a fad Tax. Taxalmost. Yeah, I mean
(55:00):
Really, if it's if it'sunhealthy, and you're making the
choice to do it, and smoking isa good example, because I'm a
smoker, so I can talk aboutthis. And I'm fat. So I could
talk about potato chips, Iguess. But I'm gonna talk about
cigarettes for a second, I pay ahuge amount of tax because if I
go to Georgia, or wherever I goto buy cigarettes, when I'm on
my way to Florida, they're halfthe price. So, so $5 for every
(55:22):
pack of cigarettes that I buy inNew York State, more than that,
but at least $5 goes to tax.
That's now that's funding, Ihope it should be funding things
like getting quitting smoking.
So that tobacco tax should go todrug, you know, raising
awareness and programs to getpeople off of nicotine. They
(55:43):
should go to prevention andmedical stuff because of lung
disease and all the shit thathappens because you smoke. I
agree with that. If I'm going todo education, admittedly stupid
and bad for myself,if I should pay a little bit
extra to help cover the cost ofwhat that's going to do to
me, potentially down the road,I'm okay with it. But punishing
(56:09):
me because I own a car that usesregular gasoline. Because
everybody on the planet usesone. It's not like I'm choosing
to use a car. Because I couldfly otherwise with my wings
attached to my back that likethat just doesn't sit well with
me because it's not really achoice. Like I understand that.
But how are you know, how badare the potholes where you live?
(56:31):
Oh, they're horrible. I livesomewhere where we actually have
four seasons. Well, you do too.
I guess you really have summerand winter, but I get fall in
spring.
Okay, but a lot of that gas taxmoney goes to the Yeah, fixing
road. Sure. And I'm okay withthat part of the tax. Like I get
that part road repair, you driveon the road, the only way the
(56:52):
state can afford to pay the roadis the tax you put on gasoline
or buying cars. So sales tax,you know, part of the sales tax
or whatever and luxury taxes. Imean, we can really go off on
different taxes, but right,adding a 50 cent tax because you
really want to be the firststate to ban freakin cars with
(57:12):
regular motors or whatever. It'sup his sleeve, which I don't
know what it is. Whatever is uphis sleeve to charge that much
in attacks. He's doing that notfor the right reasons. In my
opinion, he might think they'rethe right reasons because he is,
you know, King Cuomo. He's notreally a governor is more of a
king reiax. But you know, it'slike, shouldn't we vote on
(57:34):
something like that? 50 centsgas tax really, you're just
gonna make that happen? just outof the blue. Like, that makes no
sense to me. Like that's where Istart have our problem. And
it'll be interesting. And I'mgonna save this one definitely
for another episode. But thatpower that local government has
over people now that they'venever felt or experienced before
that they've had since COVID.
Started dude, serious, right?
(57:57):
Watch them let go of that power.
Not in a New York minute.
There's gonna be some big oldproblems.
Thanks for listening to the GenX perspective with Tony
Randazzo, where we see things abit differently. Let's get
social. Find us on Facebook bysearching Gen X perspective,
(58:18):
Twitter, at Gen X underscorepodcast and on Instagram at Gen
X perspective. You can also findus online at Gen X
perspective.com. And reach outto Tony directly at Tony at Gen
X perspective.com. to maybe youcan talk strategy on how to beat
Super Mario Brothers three.
Don't forget to subscribe to theGen X perspective wherever you
get your podcast. Thanks forlistening
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