#33 Robert Takes On The Cigarette Butt Baron

Chatting about Christopher Nolan, the genius behind the films like 'Following', 'Insomnia', and 'Memento', diving into the depth and layers of his narratives. It's not just about the films, we also explore how his creations stand apart from modern cinematic norms. 

Shifting gears from Nolan's cinematic world, we delve into the changing landscape of Hollywood. (Carlos wonders what the hell its all about) Ever thought about how streaming services have disrupted traditional compensation models for writers? Or, how the quest for storytelling sometimes ends up in unsatisfying endings? We draw parallels between modern comedic TV shows and the timeless 'I Love Lucy'. Also, come laugh with us as we discuss the unique style of standup comedy and the comedic genius of Nate Bargatze. 

Finally, Robert tells us about his family trip along the East Coast. (FAIR WARNING: he's got choice words for Asheville). From exploring the beauty of Asheville, North Carolina, to the culinary delights of Charleston, South Carolina, we share our experiences and reflections. We also tackle some serious issues, addressing addiction and the responsibility that comes with dealing with substance abuse. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
And we're here and we're back back.
It's been a while and I want totalk about all of the stuff
that's gone on since we've left.
But can I make a confessionreal quick?
Sure, I've bought 22 books inthe last 30 days.
What are you buying?
I just keep buying stuff.
I something will catch my eyeand I'm like I'll, I'll buy it.

(00:21):
Like I bought this one calledBeatrice's Last Smile that was
recommended by one of thesehistory podcast guys.
It's a history of the MiddleAges.
It's like 500 pages long.
When am I gonna read it?
I don't know, but it soundsgreat.
I couldn't resist.
I bought.
I bought, like the Oppenheimerbiography.
I bought the.
You know what else do they get?

(00:41):
I got Gibbons decline and fallof the Roman Empire.
I mean, I got a Coolidgebiography History of the
classical world at Costco theother night.
I have a problem, carlos.
I'm an addict.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
What it what is that?
I'm seeing Crusade.
Other voices, volume one.
What's all that stuff?

Speaker 1 (01:00):
okay, so those are insider books on the Babylon 5.
The TV show had a spin-off veryshort-lived, like 13 episodes
called Crusade, and theyproduced more Material about
behind-the-scenes with thescripts and whatnot, and that's
what those are.
So it's like a six-volume setof all of that stuff.
Every single script from theshow, all of the

(01:20):
behind-the-scenes tales, allthat fun stuff.
I have a whole set over thereof all the Babylon 5 scripts.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
That's the black Binding have you read them all?

Speaker 1 (01:28):
No, I've like read the behind-the-scenes stuff, but
I haven't read the individualscripts.
I do want to read them at somepoint.
It's just they're scripts, it'snot super engaging stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
I do love scripts.
I mean, you know cuz that's,that's what I was gonna do.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, so I was doing the screenwriting.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, to me it's.
It's really interesting becauseit's Compared to what we do,
yeah, it's a lot more vanilla.
In fact I was listening to somepodcasts, they were talking
about that.
He was a all-centered aroundChristopher Nolan.
Yeah, and Christopher Nolan isapparently like look just the,
the, the screenplays, just ashell, like the rest of it is

(02:04):
where you make the magic rightthat you're.
You're just getting the, theskeleton out there and then
putting the meat and the musclesand everything else when you
actually do the Video shoot,yeah, which, by the way, did you
hear?
We've got a friend, did youknow?
So Nolan is a big, you knowfilm.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Just I know this, for Nolan is huge buff.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
I'm a huge fan.
So did you know that they'vegot a like Like real film, like
real real tape film or whateverthey they call it that is
traveling around the country ofOppenheimer and you can see it
like on real film.
So they're playing at the IMAXat Opera Mills.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, there are a few .
There are like 16 locations inthe entire US that have the
proper screen where Nolan saysyou will see the full, real
version of it, and opera Millsis one of the 16.
Do you nerd out with that kindof stuff?
I want to go so bad, but like Ican't really.
I mean number one opera Millsis like 40 minutes away.
Number two it's a three-hourmovie.
Yeah, so by the time I get donegetting there watching the

(03:03):
movie and getting back, that'slike five hours out of my day or
something ridiculous like thattime.
It's a lot, and I meanespecially right now.
The wife's out of town for like10 days, and so I mean, if I
get a call from the school, oneof my kids is sick, I you know
what am I gonna do?
Leave in the middle ofOppenheimer, whoops.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
So unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
I apologize, christopher Nolan, I'm gonna
have to wait till it comes tohome theater and just watch it
on my 86 inch screen With thetheater.
I need to go back through hismovies again.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Dude, his movies are sweet.
Yeah, because I'd kind offorgotten, until I listen to
that podcast, how many amazingmovies he's.
He hasn't made a lot of movies,but the ones he's made they're
all quality, amazing.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah, I mean he did what he opened with me, minto.
I think he had another moviebefore that called following.
I haven't seen that.
I should see that, the shortone.
I don't know how long it is.
It's a movie about a stalker orsomething.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
I yeah and that was like a.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
That was his first foray, I think, in the film
there were some short onesbefore that, but yeah, memento
is like the first one he reallybroke out with, and then
insomnia, which was a remake ofright what we do.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
You know movie.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, pacino and Robin Williams.
Oh right in Hillary Swank I.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Forgot you was in it.
Yeah, she's really good in ittoo.
I totally forgot about that.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah, that actually I really love that movie.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
It's a it's a really kind of slow burn thriller in I
don't think I was in, I don'tthink I was in the right Mindset
when.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
I watch that.
I need to go back because Imean I'm fans of all of them.
Well, it's one of the thingswhere it was.
It seemed underwhelming atfirst, but upon subsequent views
I was like dang, this isactually just really good.
Yeah, and especially if youview it in context of like
against anything that's madetoday, you'll be like, oh, this
movie is excellent Really.
Oh yeah, it's a fantasticthriller.
It flips the noir thing kind ofon its head, because you know,

(04:47):
in a typical noir film,detective story, it's like it's
dark, it's moody, it'satmospheric, like Sin City.
Yeah, this is in Alaska in thesummertime when there is no
darkness, huh.
So it's like it flips thevisual image on its head.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
It's really good, I was up there.
I totally forgot I was in.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Alaska.
Yeah, it's in a very remotepart of Alaska town called
Nightmute, I believe, okay,which I don't know if that's
even a real place, but it'sfantastic and Robin Williams is
actually.
He's really good in it.
Man, I miss that guy.
I do too.
Anyway, so he did Batman Begins, dark Knight, which most people
like.
Just finally discovered himwith the Dark Knight, yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
But I saw that again.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
I loved it the.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Dark Knight with Heath Ledger.
Okay, that was a Heath Ledger.
I'm trying to remember which,what they were all cold,
obviously.
I've seen them all, but I can'tremember with all.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
I saw the Dark Knight like two, three days before it
opened, because they wereCross-promoting with General
Mills and Alicia worked forGeneral Mills at the time.
And so she got tickets to anearly screening because it was
all Dark Knight, you know,cheerios and stuff like that,
it's actually the sugary cereals.
And so I saw it like two daysbefore it opened, and I remember
walking out of that movie,number one, in the middle of it

(05:56):
I had this visceral reaction inmy stomach where I'm like I
don't know what's gonna happen.
This movie is amazing.
It was really really good.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
And.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
I'm like this movie is gonna make so much money and
it was like the highest grossingsuperhero movie in theaters at
the time.
And I love the third one too.
A lot of people knock on theDark Knight rises, but it is
long.
That's the one with Bane.
Okay, the island.
Yeah, we're where.
Basically it's a no man's land.
Yeah, batman, yeah Comics storythat they kind of reflected

(06:24):
from.
My only knock on it is thatthey use New York City as the
backdrop rather than kind ofmaking it less Descriptive.
So every time they switch to anexterior shot of whatever, I'm
like that's the Brooklyn Ridge.
Yeah, that's Queens.
Yeah, that's the GeorgeWashington Britain.
Like stop, just stop.
In the first one they tookSydney and they like Changed it

(06:46):
up so that it looked like acompletely different city.
Oh, is that what they did?
That's what they did in BatmanBegins, I think so.
It didn't look familiar, itwasn't one-to-one.
The second one they use Chicago, but they kind of.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
So Batman began, as it was the first one, with yeah,
with Christian Bale, that was Ilove that movie.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
I love that movie, not killed but not saved?

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, cali, what geez .
And then and then, what did hedo after the Batman?

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Well, this is funny is in between those Batman
movies.
He did the prestige right,which is crazy great movie.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Hugh Jackman.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Christian Bale, michael Cain, scarlett Johansson
, oh, oh right, david Bowie.
David Bowie was.
David Bowie plays Nikola Tesla.
Oh, I don't remember that atall.
Andy circus, who is now knownas better known as golem yeah,
he plays David Bowie's assistant.
Oh my gosh, there are so manypeople in that movie.

(07:38):
If you go back and watch itYou're gonna be like, oh, that's
, that's so and so, oh my gosh,that's so.
And so, oh my god, oh, it'scrazy.
And so, anyway, he did that onebetween Batman Begins and the
Dark Knight and between DarkKnight and Dark Knight Rises.
He did inception.
Oh yeah, which was crazy.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
I gotta watch out with my kids.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
He did interstellar.
After that I believe I finallywatched that this year.
It's solid, it's not, and itputs the emotion above the plot
cohesion, in my opinion, alittle bit, but it's not a bad
film at all and then I feel likeI'm missing something.
He did something else and thenhe did tenet, which tenet is
probably the that one doesn'thold up particularly.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, that one was that one for me.
I don't mind a mindbender, butwhen the mindbender doesn't
really complete it didn'tdeliver you know what I mean,
like I was still at the endgoing wait.
So what just happened?
And I'm a decently smart guy.
I would say you're smarter thanme.
But I was just kind of likethank you, hey, what?

Speaker 1 (08:37):
happened?
Yeah, it doesn't.
It doesn't hold together Superwell.
I'm just gonna say that it'snot I don't know it.
It makes sense what they weregoing for, but again, I feel
like it was one of things wherehe got emotionally out over his
skis.
It was the same sort of thingthat I felt like they tried to

(08:58):
do with the ending of Lost,where it's like they went for
the Emotional ending rather thanthe one that holds storytelling
cohesion.
What do you think should havehappened at the end of Lost?
At the end of Lost?
Yeah, it should have endedabout two seasons earlier
probably Sure but, it was toobig a hit to do that.
No, what needed to happen andthis was the problem is they got
lost in the middle and theydidn't know when it was gonna

(09:19):
end, and so they started openingstory questions that they
didn't have satisfying answersto.
So a better bet for them wouldhave been legitimately to have
ended it earlier.
And there I think we've talkedabout this before and I just I
feel really bad for them Becausethey they got stuck, they had
such a hit and it's like youdon't want to end the hit but at
the same time, if you don'thave satisfying answers to story

(09:40):
questions, don't fucking openthem up.
Yeah, I mean, that's like youknow the old Tom Clancy line if
you're gonna kick the tiger inthe ass, you better have a plan
to deal with the teeth.
Hmm, and I feel like a lot oftimes in Hollywood it's like
forget it, kick the tiger in theass and let's watch what
happens.
Okay, well, that's not a greatstrategy, like have a having a

(10:02):
bad plan for how you're gonnaend your story, or or you know
in the story question thatyou're Asking is better than
having none and then having tocome up with it.
But the other side of that, too, is when you are telling a
story.
If you choose to go foremotional satisfaction over
complete, like a complete lackof logic, you're like I want to

(10:24):
bend this so that this is the,you know, this heartwarming
thing happens, okay.
But if in the process you breakthe reality, the storytelling
reality, you've constructed, thefictive dream, understand
there's a percentage of peoplelike my dad who are going to be
like I hate this now because itmakes no logical sense to me.
And dad's right, I'm sorry,it's correct on that one.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
I wish sometimes I wish I could see.
Like you know, a show is made,the pilot is made, it goes for a
season and it's one of thosethings that got green lighted
and they're like let's just putit out there, and then it
becomes this huge hit.
And then they're like oh shitwe're gonna like write more and
I would love to kind of bebehind the scenes and like see

(11:09):
what, like scrambling to havethree times the number of
writers and like to really rampthat up and then and I could see
how that can get messy too.
I mean, we've talked aboutMarvel.
Obviously I think they're veryguilty of it, but yeah, I don't
know, man, that Hollywood isreally interesting.
I don't even understand what'sgoing on with the writer strike
and all that stuff.
Right now it's pretty simple.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
They want more money, yeah, and I don't necessarily
blame them, like they have hadsome people that have that have
posted things.
Like you know, they made like$395 for writing an episode of a
Marvel TV show and I get it.
The streaming service isn'tmaking any money, but that's
your friggin fault.
Like the idea that you make thewriter assume the risk for your

(11:52):
business decisions is basicallymeans you're trying to get
writers to work for free, and Iread a few of the other stories.
I mean this to me I don't givea shit, honestly, because I feel
like the quality of productthat comes out of Hollywood is
so garbage these days that Idon't care if they all fail at
this point.
Like I have.
You know, I just got the I LoveLucy collection the other day

(12:13):
and I watched one of the I LoveLucy episodes Lucy and the
Chocolate Factory.
It was great.
It's 25 minutes, it's funny,it's wholesome, it's silly.
It actually made me laugh morethan any TV comedy of the last
five years, probably probablylonger, harder than anything
other than community, or whatwas that Ellie Kimper show that
was on Netflix a few years ago?

(12:34):
The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
That one made me laugh some, but, like for the most part, I feel
like comedy is kind of a deadletter on television.
Like they're not.
They're not willing to pushboundaries or go to the spaces
where funny stuff actuallyhappens and so it's all kind of
like canned laughter, the.
I don't know if there was alaugh track on I Love Lucy, but
I don't think so.
I think it was an actual studioaudience and they were laughing

(12:56):
their freaking asses offbecause of how funny some of the
stuff that was happening wasgoing on.
Like Ricky Sticks, he's tryingto the other side of the Lucy
and the Chocolate Factory storybecause she ends up in a
Chocolate Factory with Ethel andthey're like trying to make the
line going.
They're like shoving chocolatedown their shirts and they're
shoving in their mouth becausethey're going to get fired if
they don't.
But the other side of it isthat Ricky and Fred are stuck at

(13:17):
home trying to do the domesticjobs because the whole plot
premise is that they switchedplaces.
Like, the men are like ah, youdon't know how tough it is to
make it out there as a man.
So the women are going to goget jobs and the women are like
you don't know how tough it isto take care of the house.
And so Ricky and Fred team upto make dinner and Ricky's

(13:38):
asking Fred in a great setup.
He's like ah, how much rice doyou need?
I put in a pound for each of us.
They're messing around with thething in the foreground and in
the background you see the ricejust boiling over out of the pot
.
Oh my gosh, I laughed so hardat that show.
I was like, oh man, this iswhat comedy used to be back when
it was funny.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
We've been watching a little bit of stand up, like
when we need a break from superserious stuff watching.
We were watching what's hisname?
He's from Nashville, nate.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Bargassi.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
I don't know if I should even say this, but uh oh,
he's my neighbor.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Oh, is you really?
Yeah, okay, I thought he livedsomewhere around here, so at
first I didn't know what tothink, yeah, I was like I should
make it clear.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
I do not know Nate personally, he's just like, yeah
, he is, but I know people whoknow.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Nate.
After a while I was like, Ireally like his delivery.
He's hilarious Like, it's justlike like, yeah, man, you know
it, just it, just I don't know.
It's something about his everyman delivery that he's not like
looking for the gaffaws.
It's just like I don't know.
And one of the shows the firstone we watched was actually
right in the middle of COVID andI didn't realize that.
Oh yeah, yeah.

(14:48):
And then so he's outside Ithink he's in LA and there's
helicopters going all over theplace.
And then a couple times I waslike they kind of they kind of
pan towards the audience andeverybody's wearing masks.
I'm like I can't even imaginewhat he, what he had to go
through to do that, because itwas still a great show.
But then we went back and wewatched something older of his,

(15:08):
yeah, and he was like, oh okay,like he had, he had the you know
the crowd in the palm of hishand, but I didn't know who,
because I kept seeing thebillboards over on 65.
I'm like I don't know who thehell this guy is.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Oh, really, I didn't know who he was.
I didn't know who he was until,like, my neighbors are like, oh
yeah, nate Barghetti livesright over here, because we were
over at their house and they'relike, oh yeah, that's Nate's
house right there, like acrossthe cult, whatever, and I'm like
I don't know who that is.
And then I watched this forspecial and I'm like, oh, that's
hilarious.
And I watched this one onAmazon and that's even funnier.
The end joke he has aboutlosing his front door is

(15:43):
freaking.
Oh my gosh.
And he's a clean comedian.
Which right, how in?

Speaker 2 (15:47):
the hell do you pull that off?
Yeah, I don't know.
I wasn't expecting that either.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, and well, this is the thing is
like I feel like I don't knowcomedy terribly well.
I keep intending to have myfriend Matt on the podcast
because he was like spent yearstrying to be a standup comic and
was finally like you know whatactually real estate is a better
place for my talents to be,because standup is a place where
you go.
I've heard repeatedly standupcomics say it is the thing that

(16:14):
you want to do if you literallycannot do anything else, because
you will suffer like no one hassuffered in order to be a
standup comedian.
I can't even imagine On theroad.
You know, 300 plus days a year.
You know the Miss Maisel stuffis all legit to people in the
audience, yeah, Anyway.
So I was talking to one of myneighbors about him and yeah,

(16:36):
he's supposedly a really niceguy, like really approachable,
really really good.
That's cool.
But I've never encountered himbecause I walk around the
neighborhood like in themornings and supposedly he
doesn't wake up until like noonor so, According to him on his
comedy show.
I'm not a stalker or anything.
That was what he said.
So there's zero chance I evermeet him because he's he and I
keep different, like completelyopposite hours.
But yeah, my wife, I think,knows his wife.

(16:59):
But one of those things were,yeah, that's cool.
Yeah, kids go to school.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
I thought he lived in the area, because I thought I'd
heard somebody mention thedude's name and I was like I
don't know who that is at all.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
I didn't at first either, but now I know who he is
and I think he's really funny,that's cool yeah.
But standup comedy, too, is ina weird place where it's like
you got at the top of the gameDave Chappelle, what's his name?
Bill Bill Burr, yeah, yeah, Ithink it's like boundaries right
In a way that traditionalcomedians, that comedians,
traditionally used to like.
You know well, I've got anEddie Murphy special from like

(17:33):
1980s called Raw Eddie.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
Murphy oh, that was so good.
Oh yeah, was that the?
I got my ice cream, was it thatone?
I gotta watch it again.
Honestly, oh my God.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
But you know, when you saw an Eddie Murphy special,
you were going to see some shitthat was going to make you go.
I can't believe you said that.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Well, it was back in the day.
They didn't pull and they madefun of everybody, everybody.
We were better offices outside,but they did not discriminate
at all.
And now they can't do anything,yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
I mean, and that's the problem and as a result,
we've had this bifurcation andyou get a lot of, a lot of
female comics, do this thingwhere it's just basically
talking about sex in thedirtiest way possible, and some
of that I find hilarious.
I really do.
Nikki Glazer is hilarious.
She does it very well.
Taylor oh, what the hell is hername?

(18:20):
Taylor Swift?
No, she's not that funny.
No, I'm just kidding.
She actually is kind of funny,but no, there's a Taylor or
something that's big.
She's got Netflix specials, theAlly Wong who does the the
pregnant lady on Netflix.
She's funny, but like, for themost part, it's like this
established kind of genre ofjokes and Amy Schumer, I think,

(18:41):
kind of pioneered it where it'slike we're going to make dirty
stories the centerpiece ofwhatever and it's like that is a
genre of comedy, but it's notwhat it used to be.
So Amy Schumer had some reallyedgy material back in the day.
Oh, yes, she's completelydisavowed at this point, which
is tragically a sacrifice in thename of wokeness, but you know,

(19:02):
it is what it is.
This is just where comedy is at.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
We need to get back to just making fun of ourselves.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
Of everybody Good grief and everybody feels better
when as long as you're doing itkind of equal opportunity,
because everybody has stupidstuff about them there's
somebody like you.
You actually used to be reallygood at like taking the piss out
of me, even when I wasn'treally enjoying it.
Like later on I kind ofappreciated it because it was
like I'm one of the guys.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
It's a very blue collar thing to do.
It is I mean, I say it all thetime I give the only people I
give shit to are my best friends.
Yeah, because it's a bondingthing it is.
And then if you don't have that, something is completely lost.
I mean, look, in the MarineCorps, we were constantly giving
each other shit.
Same thing with my family, mybrothers.

(19:50):
Same thing.
We give our mom tons of griefand it's funny she always like
she knows.
So she rolls her eyes but she'ssmiling.
She's like because she knows.
That's the way we all kind ofit's not mean spirit at all.
No, no, no, it's just likeeverybody's got their thing,
everybody's got their littlething that you pick on, because
that's what they were as a kidand we're not that anymore.

(20:12):
I couldn't imagine not havingthat with my best friends.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
I did hear that in the Marine Corps the level of
roasting that goes on is,especially in the infantry, is
like to the point where it wouldmake people who live in their
cost-cited newsrooms like runscreaming down to the HR
department crying into theirvinkies.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
It's like it's not appropriate for public
consumption.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
Yeah, exactly, it's like it will reference sex, it
will reference race, it willreference all of these things at
once and your mama combined andit will be glorious.
I remember.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
I remember what was I freshman in sophomore in high
school, and we used to go.
We lived in LA, we used to gobasketball like away games right
on the bus and it was my firstexperience with mama jokes.
And I remember these guys.
I mean for an hour-long tripwould just non-stop.

(21:07):
And you're just over there like, like laughing your ass off.
But you were just hoping, likeme as a shy kid, that I wasn't
gonna get it singled out.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
Please don't say that about mama.
Oh my gosh, they're bad.
I mean, there's some reallyquality ones.
Patrick Zabo, who was a writer.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, he and I used to do the yo mama jokes back and
forth.
Really bad, we would achievehigh level of burn.
We need to laugh more, man, Ijust all of us need to chill the
freak out the best medicine.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
It really is, you know we.
What was I reading the otherday was something about humor.
Is humor is not nearly as goodwhen you're by yourself?
No, it's much better whenyou're with a crowd, right?

Speaker 1 (21:53):
Every week in my network's community we do a meme
drop and I glory in pickingsome of the least appropriate
memes possible.
You should join, You'd enjoy it.
I would Every Tuesday.
Well, because I remember youused to do that on Facebook.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
I know I got freaking banned.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah, I was.
I always enjoyed that day whenyou would drop the new meme I
was dropping during COVID.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
I was dropping memes two or three times a day, right,
right, right.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yes, I do remember that.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah, so now it's a once a week thing that I do in
my community and I mean I hadone this morning that was so
dark, I was so delicious, it waslike I have to show you
afterwards.
It's beautiful, it's a thing ofan absolute, it's a masterpiece
.
They should print it out, frameit, hang it in the Louvre.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Well, you've got some room on your wall.
Still, did you see my?

Speaker 1 (22:38):
new one from Charleston.
What'd you get?
The one over there next to theParis picture, oh, on the right.
Yeah, yeah, did you paint that?
No, I got it in Charleston, oh,nice.
I got it on vacation.
Should we talk about vacation?

Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah, let's talk about vacation that sounds like
something to put a smile on ourface.
I still want to talk about.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
Calabash.
Okay, so you know how I said.
There's like two Calabashbuffets, there's like 15.
Around the country, no, in theentirety of Myrtle Beach, south
Carolina, wow, apparentlyCalabash is a town north of
there and I don't know if it gota reputation for buffets, but I
shit you not.
There's like 15 seafood buffetsand 10 of them have the

(23:15):
Calabash name on them, oh my God.
And they're all like thesomething Calabash buffet or
something, and it's all clearlylike spin offs of the original.
People like left that one andsaid we're going to compete with
them.
I don't think any of them are,you know, affiliated, affiliated
, but I mean, you can't throw astone in that town without
hitting a Calabash seafoodbuffet, oh my gosh.
So so I'll take you the wholething real quick.

(23:38):
Have you been on a vacationsince then?
Do you want to talk about oneof your vacations?
Because I know I think no, youknow, it's all you.
Okay, so we started inAsheville, north Carolina, first
day.
Technically, we started atBuckeys in Crossville.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Tennessee on the way there.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
How was it?
It was glorious.
We spent 200 bucks on gas andall the snacks and stuff and,
like I love Buckeys so much,have you been to one of the ones
I have not yet?

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Dude you were supposed to go to the one what
on the way to Birmingham andthen our trip got canceled so we
didn't go.
Yeah, I might just go likerandom weekend you should go,
should go to Birmingham, go eatit.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Papados, stop at Buckeys it's.
It's such a good time.
I love Birmingham.
It was so much fun when we wentthere last year for a couple of
days.
Anyway.
So Buckeys, asheville, theBiltmore amazing have you been I
have not been.
Dude, the Biltmore is worthgoing Really.
I mean I braved Asheville forit.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
Yeah, that I was.
I was going to say I couldn'tbelieve you were going back to.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
And I'll tell you something it lived up to the
legend.
We pull into the hotel and I'mtalking about Asheville being a
shithole.
We pull up to the hotel, I'mstarting to unload, and a
homeless dude a very homelessdude clearly come stumbling by
in a stupor.
It's two o'clock in theafternoon on a Sunday and he

(24:59):
walks up to the front door ofthe hotel and, like he had to be
in his thirties, I'm assumingfentanyl, but it could be any
sort of you know, opiate he sitsdown on the bench, he takes the
thing that has the cigarettebutts in it, the cigarette butt
holder, it's a little towerthing, you know, with a base.

(25:19):
He takes it, he turns it upsidedown and he shakes it out.
And I'm just like sitting therewith my kids in my suitcases
and I'm not super worriedbecause I'm armed, as always,
but at the same time I'm tryingto shepherd them by and I know
what he's doing, cause he'ssitting there and he's picking
for the cigarette butt that isthe least burnt to the nub and

(25:42):
then he lights it and gets hisnicotine fix and I'm like, oh,
asheville, fucking change.
What a great city it would beif it wasn't such a shit hole.
All the time.
The restaurant's amazing, thesite's amazing, the entire
mountain's amazing.
The enabling of people who areon substances that are going to
kill them in a very short orderFuck you, asheville.

(26:05):
That's not compassion.
You're shitty people and youshould be ashamed of yourselves,
and I wish I could take thatcigarette butt thing and beat
some goddamn sense into yourheads.
It's not right.
It's not okay.
Children should not be exposedto that and people shouldn't be
allowed to wallow in their ownfucking shit.
It's terrible, and you'reterrible people for allowing it.
You're an embarrassment to thestate of North Carolina.

(26:25):
Up yours.
Tell me how you really feel SanFrancisco.
That goes for you too.
I don't think it'scompassionate.
I really don't.
I think it's a shitty thing todo to people.
I think that there should be.
Every addict I've ever talked tohas the same story.
I hit rock bottom when they putme in the jail and they said
hey, you can go to rehab or youcan go to fucking prison Every

(26:47):
time.
There has to be some sort offorcing mechanism where you hit
rock bottom and they're removingthe accountability.
That makes people hit rockbottom and it guts me.
It really does, cause peopleare dying from this shit because
they're not confronted.
They need tough love andinstead they're getting enabled.
I'm sorry, I'm gettingemotional about it, cause people
are literally dying.

(27:07):
100,000 people died last yearfrom opiate overdoses, and that
means people.
And again, the New York Timesdoesn't give a shit, cause they
don't know anyone who'ssuffering from opiate abuse.
They've never seen anyone dieof an overdose and have to get
brought back by a dose of Narcanfrom some 22 year old who
shouldn't be seeing that shit infront of them.
But they're carrying Narcancause they've seen people OD in

(27:27):
front of them before.
And so fuck you, you enablers,you awful, awful people.
You think you're compassionate.
You're the worst human beingson the planet.
Sorry, I get a little upsetabout these things and a little,
a little keyed up.
Anyway, charlotte was the nextstop and no cigarette butts

(27:54):
there.
No cigarette butts.
No, I will just say aboutAsheville.
The city has so much potential.
It's beautiful.
It's beautiful there and theBiltmore is one of the coolest
places I've ever seen.
It's like a real life down Naby.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
I've seen pictures and I have plenty of friends
who've been there, but like whenwe went, I think we were gonna
go, but then I went and playedgolf with Lee and Jeff instead
you probably got more out of it.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
My kid said it was a high point of the trip was the
Really yeah.
Okay, and it's huge.
Right, it is massive.
I think it's I forget thesquare footage 125,000 square
feet or something.
And how many acres is it on?
It's 10,000 now.
I think it was 300,000originally Acres.
Yeah, I think that's right, cal.
They're joined right up to anational forest.

(28:42):
It's gorgeous and you get one ofthe little audio tour things.
The grounds are huge, it'sbeautiful.
I mean, I've been to the realVersailles so I have no problem
saying it is the AmericanVersailles.
It's absolutely amazing,definitely worth seeing.
Stay closer to the Biltmoregrounds because if you go into
downtown Asheville, as manydraws as downtown Asheville has,
it's a hoard of the walkingdead, I'm sad to say.

(29:05):
Just not cool, man.
The next stop was Charlotte.
I had never really been toCharlotte before.
I've never really spent a wholelot of time in the Carolinas.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Where'd you go?
Do you go downtown or somewhereelse?
We went downtown.
We stayed in the Great WolfLodge, Cause downtown is like
just office buildings, right?

Speaker 1 (29:24):
No, no, the NASCAR Hall of Fame was there.
Okay, that was kind of cool.
We were in like an uptown kindof area where they had it was
totally renovated.
They've got a mural scene inCharlotte that really impressed
the hell out of me, likepaintings on the side of the
buildings, and I'll show you thepictures.
They were on my Instagramactually.
Oh yeah, no, I saw them.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
They're better than even modern art I've seen.
I love a good like buildingmural.
I think that's beautiful theyhad so many in Charlotte.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
It was a really cool town in that regard, like I kind
of wanted to go around just tosee the murals, but nice foodie
scene.
We stayed out at the Great WolfLodge, which is that water park
thing.
Kids had a great time.
Wife and I were able to spend alittle quality time together
while they were off doing theirthing and I plotted a book there
, though I needed to put somemeat on the bones.

(30:14):
The next stop was what?
Charleston, south Carolina.
Really nice town.
I love Charleston.
It's one of my favorite townsI've been to in a long time.
I really like it a lot.
Great food.
Rodney Scott's barbecue,particular high point there.
Really, really phenomenalbarbecue.
I don't go in for the vinegarsauce, but like just the rub.

(30:36):
I do, you know, I do, I know,you do, I know, you do.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Did you go, like out to Isle of Palms?
You go out.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
We did the Patriot Point Naval base experience with
the USS Yorktown's newcommission from.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
World.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
War II.
The replacement Yorktown,because the first got sunk at
Midway Right Really awesome.
There's a Medal of Honor museumin there.
That is amazing.
Some of the stories they haveof the citations are just these
dudes were absolutely badasses,so phenomenal.
That was really cool actually,and they have a Vietnam

(31:19):
experience.
I didn't get to do it becauseit was like a hundred plus
degrees that day and my kidswere melting.
The deck of the Yorktown waslike it was brutal, it was
pretty hot.
You've been on a deck of anaircraft carrier when it's in a
hot place.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
I know Good guess.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
And you're dragging kids around.
Yeah, I was dragging kidsaround, it was just me.
I could have stayed there allday looking at the F6, your
Hellcats and the.
Could you go below?

Speaker 2 (31:42):
decks, yeah, like is everything open?
I don't think so.
It's stripped.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
It's decommissioned.
So I mean, I think you wewander around in places.
I felt like we weren't supposedto be mm-hmm, so I don't know
how hard they enforce it.
Like you can definitely Wandera bit.
Like there was the officersward room we went through and
like there was kind of someSuggestion that they tour you
around in these other places.
But they kind of had left ahatch open and so we were able

(32:10):
to just wander around.
That's cool, and my kids didn'twant to go back above decks
after that.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Yeah, so I was, I'm like, I'm like is it all
air-conditioned inside too?

Speaker 1 (32:17):
very little of it is air-conditioned.
Okay, there is a section thatis air-conditioned and my kids
didn't want to come out of thatsection of it, yeah.
But I was up on the deck andlike they've got all these
decommissioned like at 14s and asix intruders and wow, it was
cool.
It was really cool.
Wish I could have spent a lotmore time there.
I'm accumulating a list ofplaces I want to go so that when
the kids are out of the house.
So Lisa and I are gonna hit theroad for like a month at a time

(32:38):
and see all sorts of shit.
That's one of the places I'llgo back to.
We had a carriage ride inCharleston around the historic
district.
Yeah, super fun, beautiful,isn't it beautiful?
Yeah, beautiful, really nice.
We went to the Charlestonmarkets.
Oh, I've done that.
You've never been there.
Oh, it's so cool.
It's like this super longBuilding where it's like all a
lot of handmade stuff.

(32:59):
That's where I got my oh,inside.
Some of it's inside anair-conditioned, a lot of it's
outside and not, but it's socool like.
I got a Charleston cookbookthere.
We got a Christmas ornament.
My kids each got something forthemselves.
My wife got something.
She doesn't spend money onanything, so I love stuff like
that it was Josh.
He's not so cool.
Yeah, you would dig theCharleston markets.

(33:20):
You should go.
Do they have food?
Of course they do.
Yeah, they have glorious food.
I'm trying to remember what weate there, because we ate.
We ate at this little placecalled Gingerline or something
like that that had these.
What are those seafood thingswhere they fry it up and there's
corn in it?

(33:41):
Fritters, fritters, yeah, conchfritters.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
They're good.
I love a good conch fritter.
It's a little different.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
I love a good hush puppy.
Rodney Scott's had good hushpuppies Really.
Yes, they did.
They had amazing hush puppies,probably the best I've ever
eaten, oh gosh.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Charleston like donuts.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
I want to go back to Charleston.
Some point.
I loved Charleston and soanyway, the Myrtle Beach was
kind of at least.
You got really sick the lastnight in Charleston, really like
Terribly, terribly sick, to thepoint where we had to extend
our check out.
It was like like food poisoningyeah.
Yeah like really bad.
I don't know what it was.
No one else got sick at all.
Geez like she was throwing upall night from like three in the

(34:20):
morning on.
Pregnant Is she?
I don't think.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
I'm just kidding.
Sorry, alicia, if you ever everlisten to this.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
She doesn't.
She doesn't care.
I've thought about actuallyhaving her as a guest on the
podcast, but I feel like wewould.
She's so famous verse that,like she doesn't even like the
fact that I used my name no, youknow what?

Speaker 2 (34:37):
authoring we should do that, but you shouldn't be
here.
I'll just talk to her.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
Oh yeah, I only fair, then, that I interviewed Katie.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
There you go.
Tell me all the stuff that youhate about.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
All the stuff that you don't like.
That he writes yeah no, I don'tthink she would ever do it,
because she's so famous versethat I think she would just be
like I don't want to do this,which is funny because, like
she's one of the biggest talkersyou'll ever meet right.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
It's like she just doesn't want to do it in public
like that.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
So she's spoken in front of literally thousands of
people at a time, she'd be supergood at it she would.
But I just think it's one ofthose things where it's like
she's so private that she'd justbe like I get that she has
corporate voice whenever she wasin the job and I just I don't
know that she could ever be aCandidate she really.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
My Katie used to say you're using your work voice
again.
When I get on the phone, yeah,I'm trying to get something done
.
She's like you're using yourwork voice.
I can't.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
I.
I don't know when I turn it on.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
I just, I just do I don't.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
Even.
If I have a work voice at thispoint, it's the one where I
swear slightly less.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
Probably I've seen you, like I've heard you more
serious with people that, likeyou don't know, like I Would say
, more proper.
But I don't know I think youare pretty even across the board
some people, you know somepeople who are like complete
chameleons and they're like,depending on who they're around,
they speak completely different.
I used to be way more like that.

(35:57):
I'm much less like that now.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
I am a lot more likely to adopt a southern.
I'm kind of a mimic in thesense that I'll adopt your
accent if I'm around you longenough and I have to like fight
to avoid that because mostpeople view it as an insult
rather than a compliment.
But yeah, I mean, I probablytalk a little bit different if
I'm in like the blue-collarcrowd I used to work with it was
my clients and whatnot versusif you stick me into a I don't

(36:22):
know a corporate party orsomething when I'm wearing a
suit, I'll probably be awaresuit.
I have worn suits in the past.
It's been a while.
I don't want to wear a suitagain.
I you know I don't.
I've thought about it.
I'm like I feel like I kind ofneed to upgrade my wardrobe.
I feel like I'm such a slouchat this point.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
It's funny because I, you know, I say that, not
wanting to wear a suit.
I want to wear a suit when Iwant to wear a suit like that's
a dress up and feel like abadass, not because I have to.
Yes, yes, yes, 100% verydifferent things.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yes, absolutely.
I just feel like I I've donethe cargo pants and t-shirt
thing for long enough that I'mlike I don't think this is a
good look Like I'm not doing astethysm any.
Why do?

Speaker 2 (37:04):
you think I've gone like denim on denim now, right,
it's like I just I Needed a newuniform.
Yeah, that was really easy.
You know I went and I orderedfive, six pairs of jeans, five,
six denim shirts.
Yeah, bunch of you knowdifferent colored t-shirts.
Actually, I'm on in the marketfor, like cool t-shirts that I
can put underneath.
Yeah, same boots that are supercomfortable.

(37:24):
I can walk a million miles, youknow what?
You know, it's hard to findreally comfortable boots that
you can wear everywhere, that gowith everything.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
Those are hard for me .
You know you probably need tolook at like a work boot,
probably something like that,because I mean construction guys
have to walk, literally.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
I mean these are?
These are leather boots,they're toms, mm-hmm, but they
were given to me by.
I went to some.
I think the smartest thing I'veever done is like go to a store
and just say bring me what youthink I need.
And Because if I'm the onechoosing it, I tend to kind of
pigeon to hold myself intowhatever and if I don't like
what they bring, then I justwon't try it on.

(37:59):
But like, these are greatexample.
Yeah, these were one of fivepairs great that I got and
they've lasted forever.
They probably will last foreverand they're super comfortable,
but they're toms I never wouldhave like.
I see Tom shoes as those littleslipper things that I don't
even know what a toms is.
Yeah, look him up, there,they're.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
I just like.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
I think their story is really yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
I just really I feel like I've I've hit a fashion rut
, and I mean part of me, so I'dlike.
The other day at Costco Ibought a button-up shirt with
like a cross I don't want tocall them a crosshatch kind of
pattern.
Oh, like, like a flat.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah, like a plaid shirt yeah.
I had my daughter doing thisacross your body.
I was like you're wearingsuspenders.
Yeah, no.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
I'm decided to be farmer Bob.
I'm gonna plow the field thisafternoon.
I don't think it would be agood look on me.
My grandfather wore suspendersbecause he had a full-on garden
and he had done farming in hislife, and so he would wear
suspenders from time to time.
And I'm like papaw, I love you,but that looks fucking awful.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Could you imagine if we showed up with wearing
suspenders somewhere?

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Yeah, to a writers conference or something Shut up
to nink like that.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
Oh man, oh man, that would be interesting.
Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
Mmm, I don't know, that would be the word for it.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
I don't know.
I've seen some prettyinteresting people when I like
when I went to nink, I remembera couple people were.
They had like full-on vans thatwere like like writer themed
vans.
Oh yeah drove up in and reallyvery interesting people.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
Oh yeah, I mean, I know of at least one guy who
he's probably listening to thisTim, who is a farmer and an
author, mm-hmm, in which case Ihope you're doing well out on
your tractor this morning, buddy.
What is he from?
He's actually, I don't know.
He's just right up in Kentucky,right across the state line, so
probably farms weed these days.

(39:45):
Hey man, hemp makes money.
Heck, yeah, it's a cash crop.
No, so what was I gonna say?
Oh, so the last stop, myrtleBeach.
Hmm, seafood buffet that wasthe last stop.
That well, technically not.
We stayed in Chen'nu the lastnight, okay, but we stayed two
nights in Myrtle Beach Hotterthan hell.
Oh my gosh.
I'm used to Florida where thesea breeze comes off the ocean

(40:08):
and it's like it'll take 10degrees off of the.
Myrtle Beach is differentMyrtle Beach.
It comes out of the West and Imean it was 96 degrees and felt
like 103 and I'm sitting therethe first night and, cuz
Alicia's sick, I gotta have myphone in my pocket.
I can't go in the water.
Did you feel the ocean water?
I felt it.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
I went in at the second night, was it bath water.
That's what I remember growingup.
Oh, is that water?
Because it come.
I remember my dad teaching meabout this.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Oh, like a swatter stream or whatever.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
The Gulf Stream.
It's not Gulf Stream, butsomething, and it just.
I mean, I remember that waterbeing super, super warm as a kid
.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
Oh, it wasn't cold.
I will say it felt great thesecond night when I was able to
go in, when Alicia's like okay,I feel strong enough that I'm
probably not gonna die in thehotel room while you're gone
Roodle, oh it was, it washorrible.
I, um, I don't.
She didn't get to do anythingwith us in Myrtle Beach at all,
yeah, so, like I took the kidsto medieval times, we went to

(41:04):
this place called Broadway atthe beach.
Which have you been to?
Have you been to Severville,gatlinburg?
Yeah, yeah, you know.
The island there at PigeonForge Island yeah, they call the
island at Pigeon Forge is ahuge shopping complex, though,
oh no, I don't think they gotthe old smoky moonshine, they
got rides and whatnot.
anyway, they have a placesimilar to that in Myrtle Beach
called Broadway at the beachOkay, it was really cool.

(41:24):
They had this like hugeboardwalk area with a man-made
lake underneath it and they hadthese fish that would like you
could feed them.
People were selling the food tofeed them and there was so many
fish it was you, didn't youtake?

Speaker 2 (41:38):
a video I did I posted on Insta.
Is that what that was?
That's what that was?

Speaker 1 (41:41):
It was a.
It was a swarm of fish In aman-made lake.
It was the most fish I've everseen in my life.
There's catfish.
I think they were carp Carp.
Yeah, I think they're thisterrible carp that you would not
want to eat, so gross.
Yeah, oh, I got a great storyfor that.
So I had a friend who was upand I think Rhinelander,
wisconsin, rhinelander, yeah,and there's a significant Viking

(42:03):
population.
Well, there was.
Now there's actually asignificant Asian population,
yeah, and I believe they themung that come over from Laos in
Cambodia.
But they had settled in thereand anyway, one family told me
about this they Started a carpfarm in their basement.
Wow, really, the reek wasapparently incredible.

(42:27):
Yeah, they just flooded thebasement and kept carp down
there, holy cow, and they're nota nice smelling fish.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
No, no, I mean that's .
I mean there's scum suckers Iswhat they are.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
Yes, they are bottom feeding that they actually got
out into, I think, lake Michiganthere were huge invasive
species from for a while there.
Terrible, terrible fish, theAsian carp no redeeming value
unlike the scum sucking catfishdo.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
But I mean, don't they put them in like ponds and
stuff to Suck the stuff off thebottom.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Yeah, but again, they're an invasive species, so
they kind of displaced I thinkthey displaced the natural scum
sucker which is the catfish, andlet's be honest, catfish tastes
great.
Yes yeah, I do like catfish.
I don't think Asian carp tastesgreat.
No, even if you fry it.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
So yeah, do they eat them?

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Do they eat them?
I assume so I mean they werefarming them for a reason.
I guess it's probably one ofthose acquired tastes.
I'm sure people would say thesame thing about catfish if
they're coming over from Asia,they're like just catfish tastes
like shit.
Yeah Well, have you fried it?
Fry me.
This is a great hot sauce.
Yes, that is the other thingthat's that place over in
Franklin big shakes.
Yeah, chicken and fish.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
Yeah, I'm like, oh man, his hot fish are good,
mm-hmm, whatever their breadingis is really delicious.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
They make a good fish and hot chicken, yeah, anyway.
So yeah, we stopped off inChattanooga on the last leg of
the trip, stopped at Popesitosin Atlanta, waded 45 minutes
because it was a Sundayafternoon and I guess that place
is popular.
Huh, it was great.
That's so good.
So, anyway, then we went toChattanooga, took the kids to

(44:02):
the aquarium in Rock City andheaded on home.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
How, was how was medieval times?
I haven't been to one in a longtime.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
I went in Dallas a couple years ago and it was a
blast.
Then the one in Myrtle Beach itwas the same show, basically.
So I think I could do amedieval times, maybe once every
five years, and that's about it.
I just I was like, okay, I'mready to be done now.
I wish I'd gone to theBrazilian steakhouse or back to
the Calabash buffet.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Oh, so how was the buffet?
Okay, so you have becausebecause, okay, I know we built
up to it because we had so manytexts back and forth just about
that, like I have to know now.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
So we Blow into town Alicia still sick.
She's like almost immovable.
She's sick.
Our hotel room isn't ready yet.
We've driven all these hoursand she's like I just feel like
garbage.
I just want to get into thehotel room and I'm like, okay,
well, they don't have a hotelroom for us yet.

(45:02):
I'm sorry.
She's like all right, we can goto the buffet, I'll wait in the
car.
So we drove to the buffet.
She didn't eat for like threedays.
I'm not even kidding.
It was like grape juice andapple juice.
I felt so bad for her.
And meanwhile she's like thankyou for taking care of the kids.
She's like I don't want to ruinour vacation cuz I was like

(45:26):
should we drive home?
She's like no, where the kidschill about it.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
They were totally chill Okay.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
They were really good about it, they were bomb mom.
Yeah, they felt bad for her.
But I mean, like we're all inone room you can hear her get up
in the middle of the night andheave her guts out, like it's
just not, yeah, it's not good.
So anyway, I Get everyone tothe Calabash buffet.
The middle child decides he'snot really hungry and that's
fair.
I don't want to pay for him ifhe's not gonna eat.

(45:51):
So thank you for being honestwith me.
And so it was me, the oldestand the youngest, uh-huh, and me
and the oldest did a number onthat place and the youngest
definitely did not get hermoney's worth, or my money's
worth, I should say.
But I will say I would go backto Calabash buffet in a
heartbeat.
It was awesome.
They had all you could eat crablegs, oh.

(46:13):
They had fried shrimp, they hadbaked shrimp, they had every
kind of seafood known to man.
On that buffet there were ahundred and seventy or something
items.
They had a prime rib out there.
They had everything, man, oh,it was awesome.
It was like 50 bucks orsomething like that for an adult
and 25 for kids.
So you pay through the nose forit.
But I said they're crackingcrab claws.

(46:35):
For quite a while I didn't eatas many of them as I probably
should have, because I wasn'tThinking about it, and I ate
everything else before I got tothe crab claws, because it's
such an endeavor to like crack,oh yeah, crab claws.
I left stuffed and satisfied.
I was very happy with mydecision to go there.
Did it, did at least gag.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
When you got back into the car no, she was still
out.
I.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
Left her with a car running so I mean I can't not,
it's, it's.
You know, myrtle Beach, it's 96.
It's brutal, but yeah,thankfully they had our room
ready when we got back to theplace.
But, um, yeah, she, she was inrough shape all the way that we
got to Chattanooga basically.
I think actually Papa Cetus wasthe first meal she had.
Really, oh yeah, um, it's notgood.

(47:18):
I felt really bad for her, buttwo.
Otherwise the vacation waswonderful for everyone except
Alicia.
Highly recommend almost all thespots I've listed for you here.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
And now kids are back in school.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Yep, kids are back in school.
No vacations for a while.
Actually, I need to talk to youabout the next one, because at
some point we're going toSeattle, in Portland, oh yeah.
And then we're gonna take acruise to Port Canaveral at some
point, to, I guess, oh cool.
So to where?
Oh shoot, it's just the Bahamas.

(47:54):
Bahamas, yeah, easy, easy peasy, bahamas trip.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
So I just saw Sticking on food, as we usually
do, I watched.
Have you ever watched chef'stable on?

Speaker 1 (48:05):
I never watch any cooking shows, because they
would just make me hungry.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
Um, so I love chef's tables because it's it's, yes,
it's about the food, but it'sway more about the story, about
the chef and self right orherself.
And so we watched all the cheftables.
They're really really wellproduced, they're beautiful,
beautiful shows.
So they have a new, newer oneout.
It's chef's table pizza, whichyou know is right up my alley.
So they do a couple.

(48:28):
You know, katie, and I've beenwatching more.
The last one is about a woman inPortland, yeah, who has a place
called it's like a lovelies 5050 is what it is the, the
restaurants, a pizza and icecream and Everything is very
it's like.
It's like even more than farmto table like.
I mean, she puts like flowerpetals on pizzas and everything

(48:51):
looked absolutely delicious.
The ice cream actually lookedAmazing to.
Yeah, I can't eat it, yeah, butthe the two, I don't know is
really cool, just this littlepizza joint.
That's kind of I've actuallynever been to Portland, but it
may never know I made me want togo.
I've just I've been a littleleery in the last few years with
everything going on out there.
Yeah, I want to becauseeverything Speaks to me about

(49:15):
the, how beautiful it is, andyou know, the water out there,
if you can stay in the burbs,it's probably pretty okay.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
But yeah, I mean, the first time I ever saw Homeless
guys get in a genuine fight wasin Portland and they were
threatening to murder each other.
Yeah, and I'm like 10 feet awaywith my sister-in-law going
yeah, this isn't really humaneor decent, but whatever, not
really your vibe.
We're standing outside voodoodoughnuts waiting for everybody

(49:42):
else to get the doughnuts andsome like this is not cool, man,
is that downtown?
Downtown, it's, I don't know.
It's right down from.
I don't know the geography ofPortland all that well.
I've only been there a coupleof times.
The food scene in that town isamazing and the natural beauty
of the surroundings is fantastic.
If you get a chance to like,drive out to the coast.
It's Amazing, amazing place.

(50:04):
Last time you got, you went toSeattle 2014.
I was there for the EmeraldCity Writers Conference With a
bunch of romance writers, whoare all awesome people that were
there.
A bunch of our friends,actually people that you know to
.
So the great Rachel Grant, breaQuinlan I don't know what name

(50:25):
she uses.
She was Mimi strong at the time.
Alex Albrink I know I'mforgetting people.
Rachel Scherig was there.
Whole bunch of awesome.
Those are?
Those are some names I haven'theard in a while.
I know, I know the indie sceneis so fragmented, but yeah, we
were all out there for that.
So yeah, 2014 probably, and Ididn't see any of the city.
Really, it's time I stayed outBellevue which I will probably

(50:47):
do again this time, just becauseeverybody who Lives out there
and who's been out there is likedon't stand downtown Seattle,
for they are.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
I will say so.
I was just out there.
You know we went.
We were kind of through reallyquickly.
They seem to have cleaned a lotof stuff up.
Okay, there's still a lot ofdevelopment going on.
Apparently they're redoingevery that whole area down at
Pike Place Market.
Oh yeah, so the highway used togo like through there.
Well, I guess they shut offthat that part of the highway,

(51:16):
redirected it, so now it's gonnabe a much more like, just
bigger, like way bigger go allthe way down to the water, which
it didn't before.
So that made me really excitedbecause that area is just really
kind of neat.
I've never been a pike placemarket.
Yeah, I've always wanted to go.
I love it.
Man, I don't know was it.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
So you feel like it was a slightly better vibe than
it was, because I mean at onepoint the last time I was in
Seattle, it was like my cabbiewas like dude, do not stray,
yeah, cuz he dropped me off atthe Amazon offices and he was
giving me I think Bria was withme at the time because we were
taking meetings with Amazon andand they're like don't go
anywhere, call for a cab.

(51:54):
Like don't wander.
I think my Amazon rep told methe same thing.
It's like this is not yeah Cuz.
I mean it wasn't safe then andit's only had gotten
progressively worse for a while.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Hmm, I mean I've like over the years I've walked all
over that city.
Yeah, I've never really had aproblem.
Now I will say back in.
I want to say probably.
You know, the last time I wasreally there I spent time.
There was 2020, right before.
COVID yeah, yeah, and that waswhen I was like tent city
everywhere, yeah, likeeverywhere along the interstates

(52:24):
I'm like good grief, we didn'tsee that this time when we drove
through Interesting so so Idon't know, it just seemed, it
seemed cleaner, like theyfigured something out.
I don't know.
Again, I didn't spend like anextended time.
We literally went in, went tothe, to the port and and I was
just talking to the, to thedriver, as he was taking us but
drivers didn't know yeah, theydo, but I love walk.

(52:46):
It's.
It's a, to me, a very walkablecity.
We've stayed downtown a coupletimes, walked all the way down
to the pipe place Eatin.
I mean I've had some of thebest meals out in Seattle.
They have phenomenal food.
Yeah, you know, and we have.
We have.
We have a few family membersthat live out there.
Ballard is a really cool area.
If you ever get out there it's,you know, kind of fishing, like

(53:09):
old fishing area, but it's now,like you know, it's kind of a
cool place to live.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Yeah, we're gonna run a car and see the whole thing.
I take the kids for a few daysand just kind of try and see the
best Parts the city.
Like the art museum is supposedto be amazing, I've heard, yeah
, and then there's this place Idon't know if we'll get to it,
but there's like Cahooli at theglass or something like that,
where it's a Glass-blowing kindof exhibition.
It's supposed to be really cool.
I forget.

(53:35):
I mean I'd like to see theSpace Needle and and whatnot,
but I mean, again, it's one ofthose things where it's like I
love going through cities and Ilove being able to show my kids
all the cool sights in citiesand I've heard this like refrain
over the last few years whereKind of drives me nuts.
Where it's like, oh well,you're just, you know,
privileged if you're complainingabout your safety in a city and

(53:56):
it's like, oh Uh, what?
Like no, I would like everyoneto be safe.
This isn't just about me like,okay, I live in a pretty safe
suburb.
I live in probably one of thesafest suburbs in the entire US.
My concern is not just myself,but like I really think that

(54:17):
it's decent to extend safety toeveryone.
And there's this weird feeling,this weird vibe and like the I
want to say the ultraprogressive side of politics at
this point, where they're likeno, policing is so evil that
that safety is not guaranteedand it's just part of being a
city.
And there's this one, becausethere's this author, fellow

(54:40):
author, kat Rosenfield, who wastalking on a podcast or
something about New York and howit's kind of gone downhill the
last few years and I love NewYork, I know you love New York
and she was talking about, like,riding the subway and she and
her friends had a joke that wasnot really a joke.
I think this was Kat.
If this is wrong, I apologizefor attributing it to the wrong
person, but she had a joke amongher friends that it's like

(55:01):
you're not a real New Yorkeruntil you've been ejaculated on
on the subway and I'm like thatis absolutely disgusting and I
don't really think that that'sokay, frankly, and the fact that
there are and this is a shot atKat, because Kat was pointing
out that it's not cool thatthings are unsafe, but like
there are swaths of people thatare like will actually attack

(55:24):
you on Twitter if you complainabout the safety concerns on the
subway and it's like no, Iwould like the safety umbrella
of my nice safe suburb to beextended to everyone.
The the.
The weird place that we're inright now is that we went from
like wanting to actually extendthe safety to everybody to like
being in a position where it'slike maybe safety for nobody,

(55:44):
like no, that's, that's thedumbest shit I've ever heard.
No safety for everybody.
People shouldn't have to worryabout themselves as they walk
along the city street.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
And the fact that people are okay with that, like
they just take it as, oh, it'spart of where I live, is bizarre
to me it's some whack ass.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
progressive cope, I'm sorry, it's like everybody has
their excesses on theirpolitical side and that seems to
be the one on the progressiveside right now.
If you're in the deep policingmovement is it's like police are
so inherently authoritarian orcorrupt that we can't really
have them.
We need to re reconsider it.
Blah, blah, blah.
And their, their philosophyseems to be that if you just you
can like talk people out of itor something, yeah, clearly,

(56:25):
tell me you've never met apsychopath without actually
telling me you've met that.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
That's the thing I want more people like.
I wish more people couldexperience being on the other
side, like you know, being a copfor a day, yeah, and and having
to deal with a lunatic who'swho's rushing you, you know, and
hopped up on whatever they'rehopped up on yeah, that puts a
different perspective.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
We're just experiencing a mental health
break which happens a lot morenowadays.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
Yeah, that that needs to be somehow figured out.
We we definitely lack in thiscountry of taking care of people
who need that kind of help.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
Well, I mean, yeah, I've got a book on my shelf that
I keep meaning to get to onebook best minds.
Yeah, you're right, it's a lotof books, you a lot of books.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
Do you know what I want?
I want, before I come in herenext time, I want you to tag
everyone that you have not readyet.
Oh, it's the ones that arehorizontal.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
Oh, okay, that's the system.
Okay, all right.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
So all the vertical land flat, those those you've
read the ones that are.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
No, the ones that are vertical have been read.
The ones that are horizontal orhorizontal, see me and me.
And except on the lower shelves, I've had to put it, I've run
out of space.
So some of like the crusadeones that I haven't read are
vertical, but the lower shelvesare okay.
All right, now I see it.
Now you see it.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
I thought, I thought you were just.
That was the way you decorated.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
No, no, that's, the TBRs are horizontal and the red
books are vertical.
I like that.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
I like that.
So how do?

Speaker 1 (57:51):
you decide which one you read next.
I have a stack up in thatmiddle shelf up there that I
went through this morning and Iwas like, oh, shall I get back
to Napoleon?
Because I'm about 20% in ShallI get back to the right stuff?
I'm about 20%.
And then I read through likethe beginning of it, and so I
ended up.
What I did is I pulled this one, which is what I decided to go
with, and I read theintroduction of it.

(58:11):
It's Tombstone by Tom Clavin,and it got me instantly.
I'm like that's it.
I'm reading that Cool, but Itend to kind of meander a little
bit, the only exception beingso, I read this book called the
Fleet at Floodtide by James DHornfisher, and it's about the
last two years of the war in thePacific during World War Two,

(58:33):
and it's immediately after that.
I was like I need more World WarTwo and so I read Flyboys.
Oh, okay, you ever read thatone?
No, oh man, that one is amazing.
They made a movie I heard itwasn't terribly good, but it's
by this.
Flyboys is about the same guywho did Flags of Our Fathers, oh
, yeah.
So I immediately bought thatbook as well.
But between that and the Fleetat Floodtide I was like, oh, I
need to read more World War Two.

(58:54):
This is so good.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Have you?
Have you ever read?
Well, you don't read a ton offiction, though.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
I, so my fiction shelves are over here, yeah, but
I used to read a ton of fiction.
It was all I read for, like thefirst 35 years of my life.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
Yeah, me too.
And then you start writing itand I'm weird about it.
I've actually gotten back toreading some fiction as like
paperback.
Oh, I couldn't for a long time.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
Yeah, so, like so far this year, I've read those
three Brandon Sanderson booksthat he did for his Kickstarter,
and those have been awesome,have they really?
Oh, they were so good.
In fact, his book Trest of theEmerald Seas is one of the best
fiction books I've read in years.
Really, it's one of my all timefavorites.
Now, good old Sandin Brannersonman, oh man, yeah, I wish I had

(59:41):
more time to read fiction.
Actually, I just feel likethere's so much to know, so I
need to read my own stuff somuch I know.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
I know it's like I had to read because I started
writing yesterday.
I had to read the book beforelast week and it was like I
found myself by the end justskimming because really I just
needed to know basically whathad happened.
I don't need to read every line.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
Well, I'm going to have to read Southern Watch one
through eight or seven here inorder to write book eight Really
.
And those are some long books inthere, but once I get down I'm
done.
Like last year, I had to readall the sanctuary books over
again.
That's right, I forgot you didthat.
One quick note, because I thinkwe're about to end, is Robin
Haynes.
I want to give her a quickshout out because she took it on

(01:00:22):
herself to organize a giveawayof signed books for a bunch of
fans and a couple of my fangroups, and she went.
Yeah.
So she got the orders, shecollected the money and it was
not a profit thing, it was justa you know, she did it out of
the kindness of her heart.
Break even kind of thing.
Paid for shipping, paid for thebooks, had them got to me, I

(01:00:45):
signed them, she came and pickedthem up and then shipped them
all out and they're showing upto people's houses.
Final.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
I wanted to thank her for that, because she didn't
have to do it.
There was nothing in it for her, and so cheers to Robin, cheers
to Robin, good grief, all right.
Friend of the podcast.
She's been on two episodes.
Heck, yeah, maybe I need totalk to her next time.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
Yeah, there you go.
Yeah, cool, all right.
Well, with that, we're out.