December 8, 2025 • 32 mins
Michael Berry chats with Houston icon Mattress Mack to discuss life after open-heart surgery, retail shifts, and the power of community. Plus, candid takes on ivermectin, Texas laws, media bias, and a salute to America’s truckers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's that time, time, time, time, Luck and load from
Michael Verie show is on the air, pops up on
(00:36):
my calendar or memories. I guess it's called an email
I received a year ago today. It said, good mornings
are three days out from open heart surgery and here's
Mattress Max serving as celebrity Grand Marshal of the League
City Christmas Parade on Saturday evening. He never stops, he
never stops supporting the community. May God watch over him
(00:58):
and his medical team. We have been able to track
him down. He was somewhere between couches and love seats
on the sales floor. I'm sure our guest is the
honorable Mattress Mac. How are you, sir?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I'm doing great. Mister Barry, how are you good?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
One year in, three days after open heart surgery? How
do you feel?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I feel great? You know, the recovery time was its
first couple of months, a little rough after that. Great.
I was taking thirty meds a day. Now I'm taking zero,
so Byby Kennedy would be proud of me.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I guess you were taking what per day?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Thirty meds a day of what? All sorts of stuff?
I can't pronounce the names.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Oh, oh, okay, okay, okay? And how long? How long
was how long did it take until you felt like, okay,
I'm back to mac.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
You know, I went to work about five days after
the surgery, and I had to sit down most of then.
After about after about three months, I was good. I
was walking around and now I'm back working out, doing
everything I ever used to do. So it's been a
certainly a blessing in disguise. The hardest part was when
they wheeled me into the operating room and I asked,
(02:14):
the exhusiology is what he's gonna give me? He said,
fitting all. I said, oh no, that's the end, But
I survived.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
That reminds me of the old Ronald Reagan when he
got shot and he looks up at the doctors that
I hope y'all are Republicans. I don't think it was
five days when you went back. I think it was
less than that. And Ramon, do you remember what we
had something playing?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
No, you had said, I said, let me know when
you'll be back. People want to come and see you,
and you said, have them come out tomorrow. And I
think that was I mean, I think that was five days,
and so I announced that on the air and I
had a lot of people scolding me. How dare I
send people by there to see you? You could catch
(02:59):
a cold, which would be bad. Having just had I said,
listen to man loves people. He wanted to see people.
And I had a lot of people, including Russell Leaborrow,
tell me that's twice the man I'll ever be. That's
a tough fella right there.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well, I had to get back to work and take
care of my customers. That's what I live for, and
I'm still at it every day, but I'm only working
halftime now, just twelve hours a day, seven days a week. Show.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
But back, what are you seeing retail trend wise this
Christmas versus you know, obviously we had COVID and that
was very good for your business, but we've had trend changes.
What are you seeing today versus the long term trends.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, we see a lot more should I say older
people that are buying things. They're buying the mattresses and
a forty plus crowd. It was good that forty plus
cud of spending, but the crowd underneath that has been
really tough. And we've seen the total decline in the
(04:02):
buck bet business and furniture business very strange.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Do you think people aren't using bunk beds as much
as they used to, or you think young people aren't
spending money.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I think they have less children and they're not They
don't need them as much as buckbreds just to be
an absolute staple. In the eighties and nineties, twenty thirty
percent of the sales not bed and buck menephilia items.
Now it's it hardly stretches, so that's been a big change.
And certainly the things like temp repeating maxi cliners they're
(04:37):
selling very well. So we're certainly thrilled with the business
we have and trying to get some more.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Leslie Peru, who handles your account at iHeart, told me
that she believes the mat z Kleiner qualifies on some
plans for your eight not your HSA, but for a
health related expense. Is that true if.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
You're smart enough to go through the maras the government paperwork,
it does on certain items. But the government was still
only paid for by about twenty five percent of the chair.
They paid for the engine, the motor that fuels it.
That's all they paid for.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
You know, yesterday somebody sent me the wrap up video
we did after the Elbert Wood case, the ninety two
year old marine where hedid his house and there was
a picture of Opie and I don't remember who your
other salesman slash deliverer slash right hand man slash conciliary was.
It delivered it and they put the chair down and
(05:43):
Elbert Wood came in and they wheeled him in and
he sat down in his new chair and his face
just lit up, and I thought, man, that's a heck
of an ad right there. I don't know if you
remember donating that, but that made me happy to see.
I made a note to myself I would remind you
of that.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, those mobility chairs that fell, they changed people's lives.
And I had one calmer the other day. I called
back every customer and she called me back, said her
dad was comatose and not doing well and was not
looking forward to living. He's eighty years old. Something that
care totally changed his life. He started getting up, getting dressed,
(06:19):
shaving every day. He even got start back driving his
car because all because he got to sleep in that chair.
So we're in the business of changing and improving people's lives.
The temper Peede match his Maxique coiners and whatever we
can do. Because you know, I'm lucky to work out here.
I see modern day saints come out here every day.
These parents come out here with these autistic children. They
(06:42):
may be two years old and maybe five and maybe ten,
they may be forty and maybe fifty, and those parents
are loving on those kids. You can't help but be
inspired when you see things like that, and it happens
all the time.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
More families have a situation like that than you can imagine.
I've got about a minute left. As a form University
of Texas Longhorn, you and your brother played on the
national championship team. I know you were hot about JMU
making it and Tulane and your University of Texas Longhorns
not making it.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Your thoughts, well, the odds of the odds of James
Madison University winning. You bet one hundred dollars for them
to win the national championship, you get back forty thousand,
and if you bet one hundred to win on two
lane to win the national championship, you get back sixty thousand,
and uteam the Longhorns that Notre Dame. They probably would
have been. You bet one hundred, you get back to
(07:33):
one thousand or twelve hundred. So although the College Football
Championship is a giant money grab, they've missed the two
most popular teams in the country as far as I'm concerned,
and the two teams are deserving to put in a
Cinderella to Cinderella teams. They've already got a Cinderella team.
It's called Indiana.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
What a great season for that team. I mean, what
an absolutely great season for that team and for our
friend Gary Peterson's Texas Tech Red Raiders. I'm very happy
for them and the Aggie team. I know they're bummed
they lost the University of Texas, but I'm excited. I
would have loved to have seen three Texas team. Three
Texas teams in there, and University of Houston didn't miss
by much coming in at twenty one, I think in
(08:14):
the last rankings. Mattress Mac, we love your brother and
we're happy you're healthy again.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Thank you. It's very take care, but I'm snowflakes? Did
I did?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
I triggered prepare for a complete meltdown with more on
The Michael Berry Show New Laws. It took effect December fourth,
affecting ivermecton to begin with, supposed to be able to
get ivermecton over the counter. I haven't tried yet, be
(08:47):
interested to see if that is the case. I saw
a tweet that Mary Tally Boden put up the other day.
She said, uh, CD official who was in charge of
the program during COVID has urged that ivorymecten, oh sorry,
has urged that the shot be taken off the market,
(09:08):
that there no longer be this COVID shot. I think
that's what she said. Remember when they told us ironmecton
was horse paste and Joe Rogan, who had probably in
most weeks still does the biggest podcast in the world,
tried ivermecton and they said he's going to die, and
(09:30):
I think they were rooting for him to die. He
looked horrible. You remember how bad he looked. He was real,
real washed out. He genuinely looked terrible. He took ivermectin
and had a full recovery and rather quickly. May I say,
the people who said that was horse paste, they knew
(09:54):
it wasn't horse PASD or just horse paste. You know
what else horses take that we also take or use
water turns out horses do much better with water, and
so do we. But there were people who tried to
convince you that ivermectin was going to harm you because
(10:19):
it was for horses, not for humans. It actually won
a Nobel Prize for its creator. Now those people were
one of two things, either really really stupid, particularly in
their field of study because the reason they were being
quoted is because they were supposed medical experts, or evil.
(10:49):
And I'm left with no choice but to believe that
evil wins the day. In this case, You shouldn't take ivermectin.
Don't you want people to get better? And now it's
not even in dispute. The sad part is nobody's really surprised.
(11:12):
You're not surprised because you trusted your gut. You trusted
the people who were worthy of being trusted back then.
And the people who should be surprised you're naive neighbors,
you're over the top neurotic neighbor who was triple masking
and quadruple shot taking. They're not surprised. They just move
(11:34):
on to the next big thing. The earth's on fire,
the narco terrorists aren't getting free, aren't getting trials. Ukraine
needs another billion dollars. They just move on to the
next big stupid thing. It's almost impressive. It's retarded, but
it's impressive in that sense. It's really really impressive. Ivermectin
(11:59):
could have saved life. You remember what they got Mary
Telly Boding for treating patience she became. I talked to
her during that time. She was an absolute mess, and
I'll tell you why. Because she had wives, and it
(12:20):
was always a wife of a husband, if I remember correctly,
who were calling in a panic. Their husbands were on ventilators.
Remember the ventilators. We now know that ventilators accelerated death.
It didn't prevent it. I was in our hospitals. We
can't just forget that. People were calling they couldn't get
(12:42):
their husband discharged because you had the most deadly virus
in the history of mankind. Not true, but it had
advanced far enough by that time, and they were begging her,
just do something. Save my Charlie, save my Johnny, save
my Tommy. The man of their lives. Twenty thirty, forty
fifty years married, and she was having to take extreme
(13:07):
measures to get basic medicines to these people that are
now over the counter We lived through that just a
few years ago. We're not talking about using leeches any longer.
We're not talking about crazy medical procedures that we laugh
about because they were in the era of Newton or
(13:29):
Copernicus or even Ptolemy Ramon, we're talking a couple of
years ago. We're telling people that there are still many
of them in public life. It's crazy. It's crazy. House
Bill seven, passed the state House, was signed by the governor,
(13:50):
allows a person to sue someone who manufacturers, prescribes, or
distributes abortion inducing drugs in a state where abortion access
is already virtually banned. That's the state of Texas. A
bill passing taking effect December fourth, replaces the Star test
that was House Bill eight, with three shorter exams administered
(14:14):
at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year.
So there's not one big whammy, but three spread out.
But don't expect the Star to go away immediately. The
new testing format won't take effect until the twenty seven
to twenty eight school year. Ramon, do your kids take
the Star Test? Why don't they take the Star Test?
(14:34):
They're too smart? They they scored out of it? Is
that true? You can score out of it. Oh, they're
not in the right grade. Okay, all right? Interesting? What's
the right grade? Is it second? And fifth?
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Or third?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I think it might be second? In fifth Senate Bill
eight regulating bathroom use bars transgender Texans from using bathrooms
aligning with their gender identity in government buildings. You don't
get to identify as what you'd like to be. You
(15:09):
are stuck with God with what God created you to be.
God doesn't make mistakes. You got a whiger going to
the boys restroom? You want to sit down when you pee? Fine.
We had our Palm Beach three trip in well in
Palm Beach Barlago, and it was the night of our
(15:32):
last dinner. Everyone's feeling very happy. We've had a great
trip and they know the merrymaking is will be over
late the next morning we'd have brunch and fly back
with us our last big big event. And Emily, who
coordinated the trip, comes running in, pulls me to the
(15:53):
side and shows me a picture and it is about
a size twelve fo on a high heel under the
stall in the restroom. So what am I looking at?
That's who was sitting in the stall next to me.
He was a dude at some point he was like
(16:14):
water d Colin ol Red released a statement that he
will not be running for the Senate, even though he
has spent the last six months campaigning across the state
and raising money for the US Senate, a seat he's
run for before. It says, in the past few days,
I've come to believe that a bruising Senate primary Democrat
(16:38):
primary would would be a bunch of hassle. A bruising
Senate Democrat primary, He's not up for it. We're to
at Jasmine Crockett. Dude, you're supposed to be a former
football player and you're scared of Queen Latifah. Seriously, a
(17:01):
bruising senate primary. You can't beat Jasmine Crockett for real.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Ouch ouh wo. That doesn't come off well, does it.
I read a tweet the other day.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
From the Houston Police Officers Union and that said, we
are done responding to the Houston Chronicle Chronicle in quotation
marks when a paper stops reporting fairly, we stop participating.
If you're wondering why we're not commenting anymore, now you
know we understand if you still need their paper for
(17:43):
lining bird cages and litter boxes, that beneath a photo
of a parrot having just dropped a deuce on the
Houston Chronicle. Looks like he had must have peanuts for lunch.
(18:03):
Pretty strong statement from the Houston Police Officers Union. Their president,
Doug Griffith is our guest.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Thanks for having Michael.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
What exactly are you mad at the Houston Chronicle about?
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Well, they decided to go away from doing real journalism,
real news, and started doing opinionated stuff. Everything they hide
behind today isn't real news. It's their opinion. They hide
behind the editorial board and do nothing with true reporting.
As you see, recently, they had a whole episode about
(18:41):
this migrant child that was ripped from his arms of
his mother by horrible policemen, which just was not the
case whatsoever. I'll reached out to them. Did they even
entertain a phone call? Yeah, for about five minutes where
he argued with me saying that we messed up, which
was completely inappropriate. And Row and this is the one
(19:01):
of their editors, Evan. He's very left wing obviously, And
so I started doing some research and looking at their
stories and watching them. Half of them aren't even true.
They just put it out there. They put out that
this biker field was nonverbal. They had to walk it back. Nope, Nope,
he's autistic. Several stories say it was autistic. Oh guess what,
(19:24):
They had to walk that back because it wasn't true.
He's never been.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
There was a walk these back.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
But yet nobody holds them accountable. Right Yet they want
to tell us that our officers are doing it wrong,
that we ripped this kid away, took in the eyes.
It's just complete bs. And I'm not going to put.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Well, I could live with an occasional mistake. You're typically
you're the first to report. At least it used to be.
Houston Chronicle has almost no street reporters left anymore. But
back in the days of the of the gum sh
you intrepid overnight crime reporter, like, uh, what was his name? Jack?
Used to be the county treasurer. You remember, Uh what
(20:09):
was his name?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Kato?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Jack Cato? Yeah, you had you had Marvin Zendler, you
had I don't think Marvin starred the Chronicle, but you
had these guys that that worked the police beat overnight,
and and that's what they did. They were the first
to report, and they had to get it back and
get it fild and and you would read breaking news
in the chronicle. You don't anymore because they've slashed their
their staff, which is which has made a real dearth
(20:33):
of primary news reporting. Uh. But what they do have left,
it's not the making the errors. I could I could
live with errors if you corrected. It is that the
errors always go one way. They're anti law enforcement. They're
they're anti US, they're anti US, they're anti Americans, they're
anti MAGA, they're anti America. First. But you had a
(20:56):
story I noticed that you got very involved in recently
where a guy took his own life, A bad guy
took his own life. And as he is, well, I
don't really know exactly what happened. I have some theories
and somebody locally, I don't know if it was a chronicle,
maybe it's another station, maybe it's a TV station. They
(21:18):
had some woman who claimed to be an expert because
she'd been a cop, supposedly many years ago, and she
questioned what y'all had done. But I later learned that
she hadn't seen the video, she didn't even really know
what had happened, but she was certain that y'all had
made a mistake in the heat of that moment.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yes, sir, Yes, sir, that was actually nignatorial with ABC
thirteen that had this quote unquote expert from UFH fair Lake,
they had her on life she was an expert. She
said that her officers were not trained properly, though when
I spoke with her via phone, she admitted she had
no idea how much training these officers had. Every single
(21:58):
alcer goes through c I Trading crisis intervention training, and
these ulcers were attacking the CBS. They were able to
get the guy outside where a fight ensued and one
ulcer was stabbed in the head and the ulcer officer
had to take that guy's life. The officer that got
stabbed in the head had to go to the hospital,
his partner had to stay on the scene, not knowing
how else partner was doing, and had to deal with
(22:20):
the fact that he had to kill someone that four kids,
like twenty four to twenty five years old. He has
to live with that. And for this lady to go
out there and make comments saying that she knows what
they did wrong, that was inappropriate and I was not
going to allow our officers to just listen to that.
So why I'm going to stand up for our guys
in the same way that the Chronicle is doing these articles.
(22:43):
I sent in an op ed. They told me, you
you write it, will print it. Well, so far they
hadn't printed it. I've been told it's an editing in
fact checking. Well, hey, it's a chronicle fact check their stuff.
We wouldn't be in this position right now. But they
don't do that. They want to run and hide behind.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
It's going to fact check an editorial.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Good question, it's your opinion.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Find out when you call her a lady. You don't
mean that word the way Lionel Richie did.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
No, Michael, I do not. She's She's probably a very
nice lady educated.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
I had somebody at City Hall tell me that Houston
Police Department as a department, y'all are the representative of
the of the officers, that the department itself is no
longer responding to the Houston Chronicle. Is that true? Do
you know if that's true?
Speaker 3 (23:29):
I can't confirm it to now of those reports.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Michaels, sorry because you're under other because you don't know Dougs.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Well, could you ask somebodey, Yes, sir, I'll get right
on that they don't. They don't seem to be very responsive,
and I was told that they've made it a practice
that that Chief NOE doesn't doesn't care for their their coverage.
Now I'm speaking out of turn. That was from that
was from the political side, not uh not the Travis headquarters,
(23:58):
but my understanding us I think he and Whitmeyer had
come to the conclusion that they really didn't have time
for it, and that the chronicle doesn't have influence in
any case. But it does speak to how marginalized they've
become because they have become advocates and zealots rather than journalists.
(24:19):
Doug Griffith Griffith, President Houston Police Officers Union, Thank you, sir,
Thank you. Michael very game to activate the Michael Berry Show.
I read a Twitter post earlier this morning from a
site called The Disrespected Trucker said, congratulations. Doyle Archer, a
(24:45):
Kansas Man, is the Guinness Book of World Records holder
for oldest truck driver. He broke the record last year
and now hopes to break his current record on his
ninety second birthday on December ninth. Doyle Archer has been
driving trucks for over sixty years, has traveled approximately five
(25:06):
point five miles, according to Guinness World Records. He said,
I don't plan to retire anytime soon. As long as
my health holds, I'll keep driving. I don't have the
word retire in my vocabulary. Ninety two years old. So
I had to drive to Dallas and back this weekend,
(25:28):
and I don't know why I don't like that drive
so much. I like to drive. I'll go on Ien
Drive to Uvalde like it was going across the street,
all the way other side of San Antoni. I love
that Ien West Drive. The Iten East Drive is a
(25:48):
drive I've made hundreds of times because I was always
going back to visit my parents. Driving into Louisiana, going
to New Orleans always such a special place. I've always
considered neural and such a special place from when I
was a young person. So that one has meaning driving
(26:09):
down South fifty nine, South two ninety, or headed toward Austin,
all those little towns along the way. There's just something
about I forty five north that I don't particularly care for.
Once I get north of about Willis, there's just nothing
there for me. Nothing, I tell you what. There's there's
a lot of activity coming up in that Willis area,
(26:31):
got a whole new set a lot of rooftops that
brought retail behind it. It's uh. When they started Republic
Grand Ranch, we went out and checked it out, and
it was just really pretty topography for this part of
the state to actually have some rolling hills. And then
it was the heavy forested area. It's a seven acre
(26:54):
seven acre lake or the bridge over it, and that
was about it. I don't think they had built any
of the homes at that point. Yeah, and man, you
go out there now, it has dramatically changed in a
very very short period of time. Indeed, ninety two years old.
But you know, I'm on the highway and you're going
(27:16):
along and I don't know why, but I was sleepy
going and sleepy coming. I pulled over and got coffee
twice each way, two times each way. Stretch walk around.
It's dangerous, right. My wife was wanting to take a nap.
She kept saying, you all right, yeah, I'm all right,
(27:36):
Why I won't take a nap? So she would, and
then she pop back up again and then be worried.
I might have fallen asleep too. But you're pulling up
beside those eighteen wheelers, and you think to yourself, my goodness,
that cannot be easy. And we do a lot of
(27:57):
stops because I have a peanut size kidneing. But I
just think, you know, those guys drive for such long
periods that they'd drive longer if they could. My little
peadly four hour drive is like they're commute, and those
guys are out there for hour after hour after hour,
(28:22):
and that cannot be easy because people, I don't think
people understand how hard it is to slow one of
those things down. You see people dart in front of
them coming up on a hill. If the traffic is
stopped up on the other side, he's crashing into you,
and you're the one gonna die. And I can't say
(28:43):
that I blame him. And so you've got to deal
with all these jugheads out there acting like complete and
utter fools on the highway. I sometimes wonder do people
realize how heavy that piece of machinery is that they're
operating at such a high rate of speed. Speaking of wish,
did you see Petris hit on King City Chiefs last night?
(29:08):
I mean that is two objects in motion, one of
them at a very high rate of speed going a
different direction. That is a physics class waiting to be studied.
That was a collision. My goodness, that was that was
(29:32):
something else. Yeah, that was absolutely something else. But I
have nothing but respect for truck drivers. And you know,
we think of goods coming to the United States from abroad,
primarily China, in a container, which they do, and then
when they arrive at the terminal, they go typically onto
(29:54):
a rail yard a railcar, and that sends them for
the thigh the final and most complicated of the route,
and that's to put them in an eighteen wheeler and
take them to your retail store or to the distribution
center or wherever they go. And that turns out to
be a very very important part of everything we buy
(30:19):
that is imported into this country, and even the finished
goods that are not imported, a lot of the components are.
So for every one of you eighteen wheeler drivers out there,
hats off to you, God bless you. You do us
all a favor. And it cannot be easy, I've said
over the years, and it's true that some of our
(30:44):
most thoughtful callers over the years, and relatively consistently so,
are truck drivers. And I have a theory for that
they tend to have far less formal education then people
who call in and aren't nearly as clever as they
(31:04):
think they are. But truck drivers don't have the distractions
the rest of us do. They can't, so they got
windshield time, and they think. Truck drivers formulate their thoughts.
They structure their argument when they call, and so you
(31:25):
get guys to say, it might have be named Earl
and be from Liberty, and don't you have a deep
East Texas accident? But the point they make is of
greater depth than the people who call in and think
they're so clever. Anyway, that fella's been driving for sixty years.
If he'd started when he was young, he'd be driving
(31:46):
for seventy two years. That's incredible. Well, let's take one
call from a truck driver, whoever's the first one to
call in, just where they are, especially if they're out
on the open road. One thing about truck driving, we
wouldn't know. Ramone wants to know what a lot lizard is.
I have no idea seven one three nine nine nine
(32:08):
one thousand seven one three nine nine nine one thousand
It's that time, time, time, time, Luck and load from
Michael Verie show is on the air, pops up on
(00:36):
my calendar or memories. I guess it's called an email
I received a year ago today. It said, good mornings
are three days out from open heart surgery and here's
Mattress Max serving as celebrity Grand Marshal of the League
City Christmas Parade on Saturday evening. He never stops, he
never stops supporting the community. May God watch over him
(00:58):
and his medical team. We have been able to track
him down. He was somewhere between couches and love seats
on the sales floor. I'm sure our guest is the
honorable Mattress Mac. How are you, sir?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I'm doing great. Mister Barry, how are you good?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
One year in, three days after open heart surgery? How
do you feel?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I feel great? You know, the recovery time was its
first couple of months, a little rough after that. Great.
I was taking thirty meds a day. Now I'm taking zero,
so Byby Kennedy would be proud of me.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I guess you were taking what per day?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Thirty meds a day of what? All sorts of stuff?
I can't pronounce the names.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Oh, oh, okay, okay, okay? And how long? How long
was how long did it take until you felt like, okay,
I'm back to mac.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
You know, I went to work about five days after
the surgery, and I had to sit down most of then.
After about after about three months, I was good. I
was walking around and now I'm back working out, doing
everything I ever used to do. So it's been a
certainly a blessing in disguise. The hardest part was when
they wheeled me into the operating room and I asked,
(02:14):
the exhusiology is what he's gonna give me? He said,
fitting all. I said, oh no, that's the end, But
I survived.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
That reminds me of the old Ronald Reagan when he
got shot and he looks up at the doctors that
I hope y'all are Republicans. I don't think it was
five days when you went back. I think it was
less than that. And Ramon, do you remember what we
had something playing?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
No, you had said, I said, let me know when
you'll be back. People want to come and see you,
and you said, have them come out tomorrow. And I
think that was I mean, I think that was five days,
and so I announced that on the air and I
had a lot of people scolding me. How dare I
send people by there to see you? You could catch
(02:59):
a cold, which would be bad. Having just had I said,
listen to man loves people. He wanted to see people.
And I had a lot of people, including Russell Leaborrow,
tell me that's twice the man I'll ever be. That's
a tough fella right there.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well, I had to get back to work and take
care of my customers. That's what I live for, and
I'm still at it every day, but I'm only working
halftime now, just twelve hours a day, seven days a week. Show.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
But back, what are you seeing retail trend wise this
Christmas versus you know, obviously we had COVID and that
was very good for your business, but we've had trend changes.
What are you seeing today versus the long term trends.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, we see a lot more should I say older
people that are buying things. They're buying the mattresses and
a forty plus crowd. It was good that forty plus
cud of spending, but the crowd underneath that has been
really tough. And we've seen the total decline in the
(04:02):
buck bet business and furniture business very strange.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Do you think people aren't using bunk beds as much
as they used to, or you think young people aren't
spending money.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I think they have less children and they're not They
don't need them as much as buckbreds just to be
an absolute staple. In the eighties and nineties, twenty thirty
percent of the sales not bed and buck menephilia items.
Now it's it hardly stretches, so that's been a big change.
And certainly the things like temp repeating maxi cliners they're
(04:37):
selling very well. So we're certainly thrilled with the business
we have and trying to get some more.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Leslie Peru, who handles your account at iHeart, told me
that she believes the mat z Kleiner qualifies on some
plans for your eight not your HSA, but for a
health related expense. Is that true if.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
You're smart enough to go through the maras the government paperwork,
it does on certain items. But the government was still
only paid for by about twenty five percent of the chair.
They paid for the engine, the motor that fuels it.
That's all they paid for.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
You know, yesterday somebody sent me the wrap up video
we did after the Elbert Wood case, the ninety two
year old marine where hedid his house and there was
a picture of Opie and I don't remember who your
other salesman slash deliverer slash right hand man slash conciliary was.
It delivered it and they put the chair down and
(05:43):
Elbert Wood came in and they wheeled him in and
he sat down in his new chair and his face
just lit up, and I thought, man, that's a heck
of an ad right there. I don't know if you
remember donating that, but that made me happy to see.
I made a note to myself I would remind you
of that.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, those mobility chairs that fell, they changed people's lives.
And I had one calmer the other day. I called
back every customer and she called me back, said her
dad was comatose and not doing well and was not
looking forward to living. He's eighty years old. Something that
care totally changed his life. He started getting up, getting dressed,
(06:19):
shaving every day. He even got start back driving his
car because all because he got to sleep in that chair.
So we're in the business of changing and improving people's lives.
The temper Peede match his Maxique coiners and whatever we
can do. Because you know, I'm lucky to work out here.
I see modern day saints come out here every day.
These parents come out here with these autistic children. They
(06:42):
may be two years old and maybe five and maybe ten,
they may be forty and maybe fifty, and those parents
are loving on those kids. You can't help but be
inspired when you see things like that, and it happens
all the time.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
More families have a situation like that than you can imagine.
I've got about a minute left. As a form University
of Texas Longhorn, you and your brother played on the
national championship team. I know you were hot about JMU
making it and Tulane and your University of Texas Longhorns
not making it.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Your thoughts, well, the odds of the odds of James
Madison University winning. You bet one hundred dollars for them
to win the national championship, you get back forty thousand,
and if you bet one hundred to win on two
lane to win the national championship, you get back sixty thousand,
and uteam the Longhorns that Notre Dame. They probably would
have been. You bet one hundred, you get back to
(07:33):
one thousand or twelve hundred. So although the College Football
Championship is a giant money grab, they've missed the two
most popular teams in the country as far as I'm concerned,
and the two teams are deserving to put in a
Cinderella to Cinderella teams. They've already got a Cinderella team.
It's called Indiana.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
What a great season for that team. I mean, what
an absolutely great season for that team and for our
friend Gary Peterson's Texas Tech Red Raiders. I'm very happy
for them and the Aggie team. I know they're bummed
they lost the University of Texas, but I'm excited. I
would have loved to have seen three Texas team. Three
Texas teams in there, and University of Houston didn't miss
by much coming in at twenty one, I think in
(08:14):
the last rankings. Mattress Mac, we love your brother and
we're happy you're healthy again.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Thank you. It's very take care, but I'm snowflakes? Did
I did?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
I triggered prepare for a complete meltdown with more on
The Michael Berry Show New Laws. It took effect December fourth,
affecting ivermecton to begin with, supposed to be able to
get ivermecton over the counter. I haven't tried yet, be
(08:47):
interested to see if that is the case. I saw
a tweet that Mary Tally Boden put up the other day.
She said, uh, CD official who was in charge of
the program during COVID has urged that ivorymecten, oh sorry,
has urged that the shot be taken off the market,
(09:08):
that there no longer be this COVID shot. I think
that's what she said. Remember when they told us ironmecton
was horse paste and Joe Rogan, who had probably in
most weeks still does the biggest podcast in the world,
tried ivermecton and they said he's going to die, and
(09:30):
I think they were rooting for him to die. He
looked horrible. You remember how bad he looked. He was real,
real washed out. He genuinely looked terrible. He took ivermectin
and had a full recovery and rather quickly. May I say,
the people who said that was horse paste, they knew
(09:54):
it wasn't horse PASD or just horse paste. You know
what else horses take that we also take or use
water turns out horses do much better with water, and
so do we. But there were people who tried to
convince you that ivermectin was going to harm you because
(10:19):
it was for horses, not for humans. It actually won
a Nobel Prize for its creator. Now those people were
one of two things, either really really stupid, particularly in
their field of study because the reason they were being
quoted is because they were supposed medical experts, or evil.
(10:49):
And I'm left with no choice but to believe that
evil wins the day. In this case, You shouldn't take ivermectin.
Don't you want people to get better? And now it's
not even in dispute. The sad part is nobody's really surprised.
(11:12):
You're not surprised because you trusted your gut. You trusted
the people who were worthy of being trusted back then.
And the people who should be surprised you're naive neighbors,
you're over the top neurotic neighbor who was triple masking
and quadruple shot taking. They're not surprised. They just move
(11:34):
on to the next big thing. The earth's on fire,
the narco terrorists aren't getting free, aren't getting trials. Ukraine
needs another billion dollars. They just move on to the
next big stupid thing. It's almost impressive. It's retarded, but
it's impressive in that sense. It's really really impressive. Ivermectin
(11:59):
could have saved life. You remember what they got Mary
Telly Boding for treating patience she became. I talked to
her during that time. She was an absolute mess, and
I'll tell you why. Because she had wives, and it
(12:20):
was always a wife of a husband, if I remember correctly,
who were calling in a panic. Their husbands were on ventilators.
Remember the ventilators. We now know that ventilators accelerated death.
It didn't prevent it. I was in our hospitals. We
can't just forget that. People were calling they couldn't get
(12:42):
their husband discharged because you had the most deadly virus
in the history of mankind. Not true, but it had
advanced far enough by that time, and they were begging her,
just do something. Save my Charlie, save my Johnny, save
my Tommy. The man of their lives. Twenty thirty, forty
fifty years married, and she was having to take extreme
(13:07):
measures to get basic medicines to these people that are
now over the counter We lived through that just a
few years ago. We're not talking about using leeches any longer.
We're not talking about crazy medical procedures that we laugh
about because they were in the era of Newton or
(13:29):
Copernicus or even Ptolemy Ramon, we're talking a couple of
years ago. We're telling people that there are still many
of them in public life. It's crazy. It's crazy. House
Bill seven, passed the state House, was signed by the governor,
(13:50):
allows a person to sue someone who manufacturers, prescribes, or
distributes abortion inducing drugs in a state where abortion access
is already virtually banned. That's the state of Texas. A
bill passing taking effect December fourth, replaces the Star test
that was House Bill eight, with three shorter exams administered
(14:14):
at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year.
So there's not one big whammy, but three spread out.
But don't expect the Star to go away immediately. The
new testing format won't take effect until the twenty seven
to twenty eight school year. Ramon, do your kids take
the Star Test? Why don't they take the Star Test?
(14:34):
They're too smart? They they scored out of it? Is
that true? You can score out of it. Oh, they're
not in the right grade. Okay, all right? Interesting? What's
the right grade? Is it second? And fifth?
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Or third?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I think it might be second? In fifth Senate Bill
eight regulating bathroom use bars transgender Texans from using bathrooms
aligning with their gender identity in government buildings. You don't
get to identify as what you'd like to be. You
(15:09):
are stuck with God with what God created you to be.
God doesn't make mistakes. You got a whiger going to
the boys restroom? You want to sit down when you pee? Fine.
We had our Palm Beach three trip in well in
Palm Beach Barlago, and it was the night of our
(15:32):
last dinner. Everyone's feeling very happy. We've had a great
trip and they know the merrymaking is will be over
late the next morning we'd have brunch and fly back
with us our last big big event. And Emily, who
coordinated the trip, comes running in, pulls me to the
(15:53):
side and shows me a picture and it is about
a size twelve fo on a high heel under the
stall in the restroom. So what am I looking at?
That's who was sitting in the stall next to me.
He was a dude at some point he was like
(16:14):
water d Colin ol Red released a statement that he
will not be running for the Senate, even though he
has spent the last six months campaigning across the state
and raising money for the US Senate, a seat he's
run for before. It says, in the past few days,
I've come to believe that a bruising Senate primary Democrat
(16:38):
primary would would be a bunch of hassle. A bruising
Senate Democrat primary, He's not up for it. We're to
at Jasmine Crockett. Dude, you're supposed to be a former
football player and you're scared of Queen Latifah. Seriously, a
(17:01):
bruising senate primary. You can't beat Jasmine Crockett for real.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Ouch ouh wo. That doesn't come off well, does it.
I read a tweet the other day.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
From the Houston Police Officers Union and that said, we
are done responding to the Houston Chronicle Chronicle in quotation
marks when a paper stops reporting fairly, we stop participating.
If you're wondering why we're not commenting anymore, now you
know we understand if you still need their paper for
(17:43):
lining bird cages and litter boxes, that beneath a photo
of a parrot having just dropped a deuce on the
Houston Chronicle. Looks like he had must have peanuts for lunch.
(18:03):
Pretty strong statement from the Houston Police Officers Union. Their president,
Doug Griffith is our guest.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Thanks for having Michael.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
What exactly are you mad at the Houston Chronicle about?
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Well, they decided to go away from doing real journalism,
real news, and started doing opinionated stuff. Everything they hide
behind today isn't real news. It's their opinion. They hide
behind the editorial board and do nothing with true reporting.
As you see, recently, they had a whole episode about
(18:41):
this migrant child that was ripped from his arms of
his mother by horrible policemen, which just was not the
case whatsoever. I'll reached out to them. Did they even
entertain a phone call? Yeah, for about five minutes where
he argued with me saying that we messed up, which
was completely inappropriate. And Row and this is the one
(19:01):
of their editors, Evan. He's very left wing obviously, And
so I started doing some research and looking at their
stories and watching them. Half of them aren't even true.
They just put it out there. They put out that
this biker field was nonverbal. They had to walk it back. Nope, Nope,
he's autistic. Several stories say it was autistic. Oh guess what,
(19:24):
They had to walk that back because it wasn't true.
He's never been.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
There was a walk these back.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
But yet nobody holds them accountable. Right Yet they want
to tell us that our officers are doing it wrong,
that we ripped this kid away, took in the eyes.
It's just complete bs. And I'm not going to put.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Well, I could live with an occasional mistake. You're typically
you're the first to report. At least it used to be.
Houston Chronicle has almost no street reporters left anymore. But
back in the days of the of the gum sh
you intrepid overnight crime reporter, like, uh, what was his name? Jack?
Used to be the county treasurer. You remember, Uh what
(20:09):
was his name?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Kato?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Jack Cato? Yeah, you had you had Marvin Zendler, you
had I don't think Marvin starred the Chronicle, but you
had these guys that that worked the police beat overnight,
and and that's what they did. They were the first
to report, and they had to get it back and
get it fild and and you would read breaking news
in the chronicle. You don't anymore because they've slashed their
their staff, which is which has made a real dearth
(20:33):
of primary news reporting. Uh. But what they do have left,
it's not the making the errors. I could I could
live with errors if you corrected. It is that the
errors always go one way. They're anti law enforcement. They're
they're anti US, they're anti US, they're anti Americans, they're
anti MAGA, they're anti America. First. But you had a
(20:56):
story I noticed that you got very involved in recently
where a guy took his own life, A bad guy
took his own life. And as he is, well, I
don't really know exactly what happened. I have some theories
and somebody locally, I don't know if it was a chronicle,
maybe it's another station, maybe it's a TV station. They
(21:18):
had some woman who claimed to be an expert because
she'd been a cop, supposedly many years ago, and she
questioned what y'all had done. But I later learned that
she hadn't seen the video, she didn't even really know
what had happened, but she was certain that y'all had
made a mistake in the heat of that moment.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yes, sir, Yes, sir, that was actually nignatorial with ABC
thirteen that had this quote unquote expert from UFH fair Lake,
they had her on life she was an expert. She
said that her officers were not trained properly, though when
I spoke with her via phone, she admitted she had
no idea how much training these officers had. Every single
(21:58):
alcer goes through c I Trading crisis intervention training, and
these ulcers were attacking the CBS. They were able to
get the guy outside where a fight ensued and one
ulcer was stabbed in the head and the ulcer officer
had to take that guy's life. The officer that got
stabbed in the head had to go to the hospital,
his partner had to stay on the scene, not knowing
how else partner was doing, and had to deal with
(22:20):
the fact that he had to kill someone that four kids,
like twenty four to twenty five years old. He has
to live with that. And for this lady to go
out there and make comments saying that she knows what
they did wrong, that was inappropriate and I was not
going to allow our officers to just listen to that.
So why I'm going to stand up for our guys
in the same way that the Chronicle is doing these articles.
(22:43):
I sent in an op ed. They told me, you
you write it, will print it. Well, so far they
hadn't printed it. I've been told it's an editing in
fact checking. Well, hey, it's a chronicle fact check their stuff.
We wouldn't be in this position right now. But they
don't do that. They want to run and hide behind.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
It's going to fact check an editorial.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Good question, it's your opinion.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Find out when you call her a lady. You don't
mean that word the way Lionel Richie did.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
No, Michael, I do not. She's She's probably a very
nice lady educated.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
I had somebody at City Hall tell me that Houston
Police Department as a department, y'all are the representative of
the of the officers, that the department itself is no
longer responding to the Houston Chronicle. Is that true? Do
you know if that's true?
Speaker 3 (23:29):
I can't confirm it to now of those reports.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Michaels, sorry because you're under other because you don't know Dougs.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Well, could you ask somebodey, Yes, sir, I'll get right
on that they don't. They don't seem to be very responsive,
and I was told that they've made it a practice
that that Chief NOE doesn't doesn't care for their their coverage.
Now I'm speaking out of turn. That was from that
was from the political side, not uh not the Travis headquarters,
(23:58):
but my understanding us I think he and Whitmeyer had
come to the conclusion that they really didn't have time
for it, and that the chronicle doesn't have influence in
any case. But it does speak to how marginalized they've
become because they have become advocates and zealots rather than journalists.
(24:19):
Doug Griffith Griffith, President Houston Police Officers Union, Thank you, sir,
Thank you. Michael very game to activate the Michael Berry Show.
I read a Twitter post earlier this morning from a
site called The Disrespected Trucker said, congratulations. Doyle Archer, a
(24:45):
Kansas Man, is the Guinness Book of World Records holder
for oldest truck driver. He broke the record last year
and now hopes to break his current record on his
ninety second birthday on December ninth. Doyle Archer has been
driving trucks for over sixty years, has traveled approximately five
(25:06):
point five miles, according to Guinness World Records. He said,
I don't plan to retire anytime soon. As long as
my health holds, I'll keep driving. I don't have the
word retire in my vocabulary. Ninety two years old. So
I had to drive to Dallas and back this weekend,
(25:28):
and I don't know why I don't like that drive
so much. I like to drive. I'll go on Ien
Drive to Uvalde like it was going across the street,
all the way other side of San Antoni. I love
that Ien West Drive. The Iten East Drive is a
(25:48):
drive I've made hundreds of times because I was always
going back to visit my parents. Driving into Louisiana, going
to New Orleans always such a special place. I've always
considered neural and such a special place from when I
was a young person. So that one has meaning driving
(26:09):
down South fifty nine, South two ninety, or headed toward Austin,
all those little towns along the way. There's just something
about I forty five north that I don't particularly care for.
Once I get north of about Willis, there's just nothing
there for me. Nothing, I tell you what. There's there's
a lot of activity coming up in that Willis area,
(26:31):
got a whole new set a lot of rooftops that
brought retail behind it. It's uh. When they started Republic
Grand Ranch, we went out and checked it out, and
it was just really pretty topography for this part of
the state to actually have some rolling hills. And then
it was the heavy forested area. It's a seven acre
(26:54):
seven acre lake or the bridge over it, and that
was about it. I don't think they had built any
of the homes at that point. Yeah, and man, you
go out there now, it has dramatically changed in a
very very short period of time. Indeed, ninety two years old.
But you know, I'm on the highway and you're going
(27:16):
along and I don't know why, but I was sleepy
going and sleepy coming. I pulled over and got coffee
twice each way, two times each way. Stretch walk around.
It's dangerous, right. My wife was wanting to take a nap.
She kept saying, you all right, yeah, I'm all right,
(27:36):
Why I won't take a nap? So she would, and
then she pop back up again and then be worried.
I might have fallen asleep too. But you're pulling up
beside those eighteen wheelers, and you think to yourself, my goodness,
that cannot be easy. And we do a lot of
(27:57):
stops because I have a peanut size kidneing. But I
just think, you know, those guys drive for such long
periods that they'd drive longer if they could. My little
peadly four hour drive is like they're commute, and those
guys are out there for hour after hour after hour,
(28:22):
and that cannot be easy because people, I don't think
people understand how hard it is to slow one of
those things down. You see people dart in front of
them coming up on a hill. If the traffic is
stopped up on the other side, he's crashing into you,
and you're the one gonna die. And I can't say
(28:43):
that I blame him. And so you've got to deal
with all these jugheads out there acting like complete and
utter fools on the highway. I sometimes wonder do people
realize how heavy that piece of machinery is that they're
operating at such a high rate of speed. Speaking of wish,
did you see Petris hit on King City Chiefs last night?
(29:08):
I mean that is two objects in motion, one of
them at a very high rate of speed going a
different direction. That is a physics class waiting to be studied.
That was a collision. My goodness, that was that was
(29:32):
something else. Yeah, that was absolutely something else. But I
have nothing but respect for truck drivers. And you know,
we think of goods coming to the United States from abroad,
primarily China, in a container, which they do, and then
when they arrive at the terminal, they go typically onto
(29:54):
a rail yard a railcar, and that sends them for
the thigh the final and most complicated of the route,
and that's to put them in an eighteen wheeler and
take them to your retail store or to the distribution
center or wherever they go. And that turns out to
be a very very important part of everything we buy
(30:19):
that is imported into this country, and even the finished
goods that are not imported, a lot of the components are.
So for every one of you eighteen wheeler drivers out there,
hats off to you, God bless you. You do us
all a favor. And it cannot be easy, I've said
over the years, and it's true that some of our
(30:44):
most thoughtful callers over the years, and relatively consistently so,
are truck drivers. And I have a theory for that
they tend to have far less formal education then people
who call in and aren't nearly as clever as they
(31:04):
think they are. But truck drivers don't have the distractions
the rest of us do. They can't, so they got
windshield time, and they think. Truck drivers formulate their thoughts.
They structure their argument when they call, and so you
(31:25):
get guys to say, it might have be named Earl
and be from Liberty, and don't you have a deep
East Texas accident? But the point they make is of
greater depth than the people who call in and think
they're so clever. Anyway, that fella's been driving for sixty years.
If he'd started when he was young, he'd be driving
(31:46):
for seventy two years. That's incredible. Well, let's take one
call from a truck driver, whoever's the first one to
call in, just where they are, especially if they're out
on the open road. One thing about truck driving, we
wouldn't know. Ramone wants to know what a lot lizard is.
I have no idea seven one three nine nine nine
(32:08):
one thousand seven one three nine nine nine one thousand
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My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com