December 10, 2025 • 30 mins
Step back in time with Michael Berry as he dives into cigarette machines, classic TV promos, and the quirks of growing up in the ’80s—then pivots to politics, culture, and even Pantone’s color of the year.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time time time, luck and load. The Michael
Berry Show is.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
On the air.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Clyde, You're on the Michael Berry Show. What's the use, sir?
Good morning, Yes, sir.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I went to a little high.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
School in eighth grade.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It's last year up.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
In Virginia, and there was two vending machines right outside
of the math class. One was a milk machine that
was always out of chocolate milk, and the other one
was a cigarette machine. You can get your lucky strikes,
your camels, and two packs of matches.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
How about that? Oh, you could get matches out of
the machine.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, it came when you bought the pack of cigarettes.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Oh oh, okay, okay. And what were the what were
the brands?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Head?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Oh, most of the I don't know if Marlborough Man
had been born then or not, but I know they
had Camel's, Lucky Strikes, Winston's.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Uh, Winston's tas I should yeah, you know. I love
those old machine, those old cigarette machines. For my birthday
one hand one of those, uh yeah yeah. For my
birthday one year, Uncle Jerry got me one for the
r C C. Because I'd always wanted one and it
(01:40):
had those kind of gold colored pool handles on it.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yep, coolest thing ever. It's such a nostalgia.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
I follow a Twitter feed called cigarette nostalgia, and it's
all it's it's like scenes of movies that are iconic
that involved a cigarette, and the cigarette is part of
the the iconography of it all. And there was a
the other day there was a video of Peter uh
(02:13):
is it Peter o'too?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Peter too, Peter o'tool Peter o'too Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
And he's he's entering the Johnny Carson Show.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Was it Letterman? You sure it was Letterman? Okay, Okay, no,
maybe it was Letterman. And he calls out, you know,
our next guest.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Peter O'Toole, And there's a long pause and you start thinking, well,
maybe he's not coming. And here, very slowly around the
corner where the guests enter is Peter O'Toole astride a
camel with a long cigarette dangling from his mouth and
(02:58):
this absolutely nonplussed look on his face, like you know,
this was absolutely normal Lawrence of Arabia, you know, rolling
into Mecca.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
And he comes all the way around.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
And I hate David Letterman's politics today, but I must
say I think his show was brilliant. I think it
kind of modernized the Carson Show for a younger audience,
and there was a certain style of humor that I
don't think anyone has captured since then. And maybe it
was stuck in that time, but it was glorious. And
(03:33):
I've gone back and watched episodes and I see the
genius to some of the things he did, some of
the sketches he did.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
And it was really incredible.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
But one of the things I think he did incredibly well,
and I don't know if it was authentic, an organic
or not, but he laughed. He had a deep belly
laugh and he would cock his head back and he's
laughing as that's happening, and it just adds to the.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Whole, to the whole, move to the whole deal.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
We had a smoking area in our school and the
smoking area was outside one of the side doors, and
there was a bench with a little metal you know,
lean to their little little shed topping, so you could
stand out there when it was raining. But the smokers
wouldn't stand out there. They would stand right next to
(04:24):
the building. They get right up next to the building
because then you could you could avoid being But I
can remember classmates. I'm fifty five, so this would have
been eight mid eighties, eighty six eighty seven.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
I can remember.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
We had We had a lot of farm boys and
they would they would bust out after the second period
and then'd rush out to there and they'd be lighting
their cigarette as they ran so they could get their
full cigarette while they were there. Ramond Santa cost Santa
caught Frosty the Snowman, rummaging through the carrot bag and said, Frosty,
(05:02):
what are you doing, to which you replied, Santa, I'm
picking my nose. Charley, if you Liquor's thirty second Winston commercial,
do we have to pay for that?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Okay, go ahead? How you there? And this is Shirley C.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
Liquor with the United States Pro Smoking Comedy.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
We saw him this last night at my house.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
Winston's tastes good like a cigarette shoe. Winston's tastes good
lights a cigarette. Shu and Winston give you real flavor,
full rich tobacco flavor. Winston easy drawing too. The filter's
put the flavor through. Winston's taste good like a cigarette shoe.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I need sloat breaking now.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
One of the biggest women's tennis tournaments when I was
growing up, was the Virginia's limbs. Nothing quite says in
aerobic activity like a cigarette company. Jasmine Crockett's announcement that
she's running for the Senate, I have explained, is not
a campaign kickoff. It is a product launch. She is
(06:23):
there is a machine behind her that will get paid
a lot of money from this.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Launch.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
They will sell merch, they will raise money. They are
building a brand. It's the ivida Rainbow Tour where they're
preparing her to launch her and she's but there's more
to this.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
There's more to this.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Rodney Ellis, interestingly was one of the people who introduced
her at her event, and well, I'll get to that
in the moment of her talking about John Cornyn. You
know what, I won't have time to play those in
this segment. Let me go back then and I'll do
(07:07):
that in the next segment. This is a product launch,
not a campaign kickoff. So people say, well, what if
she doesn't win, she gave up a safe seat, she's
not gonna win, to which I respond, she's already won.
The victory is hers already. You have to understand what
(07:30):
people are trying to accomplish before you can figure out
why they do. You have to understand why they did
it to figure out whether they're successful at it or not.
She doesn't have to get more votes. So if you say, well,
Beto's a loser, he's a three time loser. Yes, but
Beto is a national political figure. You can deny that,
(07:52):
but it's true. Beto is a national political figure. He
was a congressman before that. How many congress creators can
you name? You can still succeed even as a failing
candidate if you become a brand. Jasmine Crockett had been
building a brand already. By the way, I wouldn't be
(08:15):
surprised to see AOC run against Chuck Schumer. Jasmin Crockett
doesn't want to win a Senate See, she don't want
to be stuck in a Senate.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
You're seriously wants to get paid. Bizarre of talk radio
The Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
You know what I say about the other day, Ron,
I've always gotten such a kick out of Mexican women.
They they do their sexy poppy for their man. I
won't do the impersonation, but you heard them talk sexy.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
I don't know that.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
There's a sexier, nastier, more, oh poppy, yeah, exactly out
there in any language culture.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
However, they also refer to their little boys, Papi, don't
forget your shoes. Poppy poppy.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
There.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
You heard her tell you have a bubble poppy.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
It's only been weird, Like, wait a second, you got
this poppy and you got that poppy, and they're very, very,
very different poppies. But I guess it speaks to the
fact that every grown mane is still a little boy
at heart, and that men want to be poppy of whatever, whatever,
(09:35):
whatever that may be. And then I got to thinking
the other day when I referred to my wife as
my baby, and I realized, wait a second, I refer
to my wife as my baby, and you refer to
a baby as a baby, and your wife is not
a six months old, So maybe I shouldn't be making
(10:02):
jokes about the poppy, right, all right, So Jasmine Crockett
does her product launch and this is very exciting for Democrats,
very exciting indeed, and Rodney Ellis was there, and I
start thinking about Rodney makes it his business to be
(10:25):
connected nationally. I think Rodney would have been one of
the driving forces to get Jasmine Crockett to run. Let
me take that back. I happen to know on very
good authority that Rodney was a driving force in getting
Jasmine Crockett to run. And if you think that has
(10:46):
anything to do with he wants to see a black
woman succeed or anything else, you're missing the dimensions to this.
Rodney owns Harris County. We know that five black women,
the Black Girl Magic BGM they call them, filed to
(11:07):
run in the Democrat primary against five white male Democrats.
There's going to be a blood bath in the Democrat party.
He needs black woman turnout in the March primary in
Harris County. Having Jasmine Crockett, who the media is going
(11:30):
to keep telling you, is this glamorous rock star candidate.
The crazier she is, the more ghetto she is, the
more support she will engender because it will show that
you can be ghetto and not be marginalized any longer.
(11:50):
It's fascinating play if you think about it. Jasmine Crockett
drives the black woman turnout in Harris County. That results
in more black women judges taking those judge ships away
from white Democrat judges. It means it come November, because
she'll win the nomination. It means it come November. They
(12:10):
can drive black turnout because they're going to make this
a very, very racial thing. They can drive black turnout
for their Senate candidates, for their state rep candidates in
every district across the state, for their congressional candidates. This
is a pretty advanced play when you consider it on
(12:33):
that level. Meanwhile, Jasmine Crockett said, the senator she works
the best with is you guessed it, John Cornyn.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
I can tell you that I've worked with Senator Cornyn,
who is up for reelection, a number of times on
a number of.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Pieces of legislation.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
He's actually not been the worst Republican that you can
find in the Senate, to be perfectly honest.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Damn corning with friends like that, you don't need enemies.
You were already in third place. Maybe switch parties or something.
I don't know. I mean, that's just could it get
any worse? For John Wayne mccorny. They had the BUCkies
visit where they had him propped up. I think they
had a ladder in his pants or something. Are you
(13:22):
happy to see me? Or have they put you on stilts?
There's something in your pants. That looks weird, I mean weird.
That whole thing was just was just a real odd deal.
I'm still trying to I'm still trying to process exactly
what was going on with all that. I fell down
a rabbit hole the other day and I came across
(13:45):
these old TV promos and from the seventies and eighties,
the classics Starsky and Hutch, Rockford Files. Oh there's some
good ones out there. Then there was some cop show
I can't remember for the life of me. It sounds
pretty bad. Sounds pretty bad.
Speaker 7 (14:11):
Tonight on ABC, Roquel Welch guest stars and hilarity ensues
on an all new Mark and Mindy. Then an old
flame returns, but does she come with baggage and murder?
It's all aboard, an all new Love. Finally, it's the
new show that's sweeping the nation. John Wayne mccornan is
a crusty old cop trying to save his job and
(14:32):
his new partner, Jazzy Crockett, is an unhinged rookie from
the ghetto.
Speaker 8 (14:36):
Maybe because these people they are crazy, because they always
look at how Christian needs. Yeah, I don't know how
many am on this side again.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Divorced.
Speaker 8 (14:45):
The thing is caught up sleeping with their coworkers, staffa answer,
and all the things. Yeah, you ain't gotta believe me.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
You'll buy someone.
Speaker 7 (14:52):
Buckle up and go on a ride with John Wayne
mccornaan and Jazzy Jasmine Crockett as they tried to save Texas.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
I end up ruining it all, Rob dog Walker, It's an.
Speaker 7 (15:03):
All new episode of Texas thirty tonight on Hades, the
Ramon Duck, King of Ding and this other guy, Michael Barry.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
I'm very happy birthday to my friend James Spiro Pappis
aka Jimmy Pappis aka Mayor Pappos.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
He's the mayor of one of the villages, Roan.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Do you remember which one it is? Traders Village? Yeah,
Traders Village. Yeah, over in Western let's say Traders Village.
I thought it was h let's see, Bunker Point. Was
it Bunker Point? I forget? He gets angry at me
(15:50):
for forgetting, but he's mayor of one of those villages.
He gets very excited because they they always appear in
these reports as being the richest municipality in the country. Well,
I guess, so you got like a hundred houses in there.
You got no Section eight housing. You don't allow anybody
(16:13):
to build on a lot less than probably at least
an acre. When you're doing everything, you keep poor people
out of there. Of course, you're the richest municipality in
the country. Municipality they got nobody on food stamps, they
got no crime. They do a shared policing the villages
(16:36):
with a wonderful group of people who I've known for years,
called the Memorial Village Police Department, and they talk about
they talk about it's the best job ever. After you
work for the City of Houston, you're a HPD officer
and you're getting shot at and writing reports and protests
and somebody's going to iad constantly on you. You go
(16:59):
to Memorial Village Police Department and it's like an early
retirement in a good way. Instead of playing golf. You
get to wear a uniform and be respected and have
people wave at you. And I had Larry Bogus, who's
their their officer, who's in charge of their pr I
had called him about there was a case in im
(17:22):
Memorial Village when I was asking him about it, and
he said, well, we consider ourselves a concierge police department.
So he said they will do things like if somebody's
paper's piling up and they know that person's out of town,
they'll pick the papers up and keep it till the
person comes back, so it doesn't look to outsiders like.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
There was like nobody's there, and you don't you definitely
want that.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
But in any case, so I asked my friend Jimmy
Pappus what he did on his seventieth birthday, because that's
a big deal. And he said, well, we had our
Christmas party at city Hall for the residents of whatever
it is.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Would you say Traders Village?
Speaker 4 (18:06):
I knew it was one of the villages, A good,
good answer, he said, we had our Christmas party for
our residents at noon. We had our city council meeting
last night, and then I spoke at Young Life. He's
very involved with Young Life, which I think is a
great Christian organization for young men. Both of my boys
have done it and it's fantastic. I think it's I
(18:27):
am a big believer in faith based Christian education organization Fellowship,
because I will tell you faith was very important to
me still is, but faith was very important to me
as a young man because of my salvation. But the
(18:49):
faith based activities were important to me because they kept
me out of trouble. And my mother was a big
believer in doing things to keep yourself out of trouble,
whether that was work or fellowship, that idle hands of
the devil's workshop, and I believe that to be true.
(19:11):
That's why I think so many kids get in trouble
when they go to college, not because they're awful kids
or they don't know any better. They had too much
time on their hands and nothing to do. So half
of what they're doing, which is stupid, is because they
want to do something exciting. They need some excitement, and
that's when kids do things get them in a whole
(19:33):
lot of trouble. So if you know James Spiro Pappus,
wish him on his seventieth birthday. He just lost the
true Spiro Pappus I've told you before. I learned this
from the Papas family. In Greek families Romone, they flip
the names. So instead of being Michael Christian Berry and
(19:57):
Michael christian Berry the second Junior and in triple sticks
and the fourth and the fifth, they flip the names.
So his dad is Spiro James Pappas and he is
James Spiro Pappas. And uh, if he'd had a son,
(20:19):
his son would have been Spiro James Pappas.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Again, so I never knew that. You see, the Greeks
got all these secrets.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
They don't tell you about, the secret handshakes and stuff,
you know, And so I started asking around and they
kind of look at you cock eyed.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
It's like Jews when you ask them about the boil,
they're like, how do you know that? Or black people
when you add well, anyway, people don't like you to
know the little secrets of their community that they keep
to themselves. And it turned out I started asking around
and all these people that have short names like Chris
or you know, Bob or Dimitri, they all have they
(20:59):
all have a longer Greek name, and then their middle
name is their dad's first name, and their first name
is their dad's middle name. I'm always the cool thing
about living in a big city is that you have
so many different people from so many different backgrounds in
(21:19):
this country. The difference being with New York is everybody
just came here ten minutes ago, so you have no
real sense of community. But the city of Houston has
communities that came in over the years and there's such
a fabric of the community that you don't think of
(21:40):
them as being Balkanized, you know here and there, but
they still do retain that little thing on the side
of you know, their famili's heritage going back multiple generations,
and the Greeks are one of the best examples of that.
You've got Greeks everywhere, especially in the restaurant community. Remember
(22:01):
that Catherine Micholas that called us the other day.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Yeah, the little girl.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
We had to do it on Friday, because she goes
to school four days a week.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
You know, she drives.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
She goes to a little private school in Richard's little
one room schoolhouse, and she drives an hour. She lives
in Cyprus. She drives an hour to get to go
to that school four days a week. That's an impressive
little girl. So I asked her, I said, where's that
background from. What's where's her name from? And she said
it's Greek. And I said, why didn't I see that?
(22:32):
Do you know George Micholas And she said, yes, that's
her uncle or whatever. He owns Cleband Cafeteria. So Uncle
Jerry and I made some sight visits. Yesterday, I went down.
I went over to Cromberg's flags and flagpoles because they
wanted to show me how the flags are made. And
then we were driving back and I called George Micholas
(22:54):
at Cleband Cafeteria because I hadn't talked to him in
a while.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Over on Missinette.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
If you want a good place to eat lunch today,
Fantasiclastic Place, Cleebird and Cafeteria. George Micholis is a fellow's name.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
Just ask.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
When you get there, he'll be the guy looking very
nervous running around. He looks like a skinnier version of
Al from Happy Days. And he said, hey, uh. He
said some some Lou Savaree. And I said, did Lou die?
And he said no.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
But I could see where you'd say that. I just
seen if you had talked to him Southern Pride, you
would just think Lou Savage just died. Very show.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
It is Trader's village that he's mayor of. We checked,
but it doesn't matter. Happy seventieth Birthday people do refer
to his constituents as the village people, which is not
which is not inaccurate. They are residents of the village.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Ramon.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
I always say we are not a breaking news type program,
but this story is huge and it is breaking news. Apparently,
the folks at Pantone, you know the ones that you
go in, and they came up with the color scheme.
They own the rights to the names of all the
colors in the world. They have announced the color of
(24:13):
the year for twenty twenty six. Apparently. I don't know
if you're up on the annual reveal, but Pantone has
been announcing a color of the upcoming year since nineteen
ninety nine, first year we've known. So for twenty twenty six,
get ready, the color of the year is uh oh white.
(24:37):
It's white, specifically something called cloud Dancer. Well, the word
on the street is there are some folks who aren't very.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Happy about this. Why am I not surprised by this?
Speaker 9 (24:53):
Okay, first of all, Panatone or whatever you call how
you're gonna say.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
The color of the year is white? You got one
of them.
Speaker 9 (24:59):
Identity crisis says Okay. I looked up on that Google
and Pantone or whatever supposedly mean everything hit everything but black,
and hear another thing that the Google tell the name
of the white color you chose would call cloud dance.
Now that's funny. Everybody know white people can't do two things,
and that's jumping dance. So y'all go buy them Sydney
(25:21):
swingy white people, baby mama jeans and go do your
chicken dance and enjoy being white.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
I got no time for building.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
I see red.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
I want chip into the blast colors people.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
I want them.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
To to play.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
The twenty sixth color of the year is clouded denser.
A shade of white will be the defining color of
the next year. Get those stained removing pens ready, and
then the styles desk rights. Pantone, the self styled color
experts have been predicting a color of the year since
nineteen ninety nine. They're picked for what was consuming in
(26:02):
twenty twenty six. Not their picks, their dictate. They're the
ones that make this cloud Dancer officially pantone eleven dash
forty two oh one. Either way, it's a pretty fancy
name for white or a symbol of calming influence in
a frenetic society, as well as a blank canvas on
(26:23):
which we can all start again.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Have they gotten it right?
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Reporters for the styles desks sat down to debate. Let
us know what you think in the comments, Vanessa Friedman said,
quote the announcement heralding Cloud Dancer as next year's color
features a woman all in white looking dreamily into a
cloud filled sky. Serenity is clearly the vibe, but given
the recent political discourse, when I hear white less salubrious
(26:52):
associations also leaped to my mind, ones that I doubt
Pantone took into consideration. But that could be twisted to
pretty uncomfortable ends. I'll bet Vanessa Friedman finds herself twisted
into uncomfortable places quite often, you know what with racism.
(27:12):
Jim Crow slavery and awe. Callie Holterman responds, it's certainly
a conspicuous choice following a year in which DEI programs
have been dismantled and the party in power has been
debating how friendly to be with a white nationalist. That
may not be what Pantone means by peace, unity and cohesiveness,
(27:36):
but I have to imagine it will come up for
some viewers. Alex Vodicoul adds, in terms of meaning, I
wonder if there are some clues in its title Cloud
Dancer what's going on there sounds like a nineteen eighties
one hit wonder track. Jacob Gallagher ads he's from the
(28:01):
style desk too, presumably political implications aside. I do understand
why a blank slate might be the right pick for
this moment. Culture right now is pretty darn stagnant. Everything
feels like a rehash of a rehash, or a piece
of media getting squeezed till there's.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
No juice left.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Stranger Things Season five, looking at you, exclamation mark. We're
in this moment where we're waiting, where we're awaiting the
next turn of the dial that.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Moves culture forward. Hence blank slate.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
I could have read that my best Paul Lindy voice
if I'd known where it was going to end up.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Then Miss Friedman is back. She's got white guilt, maybe
white Jewish guilt.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
There are so many associations with white, the white dove
of peace, the baptismal gown, the wedding dress, the white
T shirt in some Asian countries, mourning as in crying,
not early day. White is a color replete with meanings,
so not really that blank at all. Oh my goodness,
this is just too much. I mean, this is a
(29:08):
deep dive existential consideration of Pantone picking white as the
color of the year. Only the New York Times style
desk could bring us this quality. Meanwhile, I got an
email from Clint Ives, who writes zar kid Bragg moment.
(29:29):
My youngest son, Max Ives, came home from Vegas yesterday.
He competed in the Junior World Finals saddle Bronc Championship.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
From on what place you think he won.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
In the Junior world Finals saddle Brock Bronc Championship, tyzerbajannies
are good. He won the whole damn thing, the whole
shoot match. If you were to line up every kid
(30:04):
thirteen years old in the Junior World Final saddle Bronc Championship,
and you was to line them from here to the moon,
with the moon being first and here being last, Here
be on the moon, first place, the whole deal. Not
(30:26):
some kid from Idaho, not some kid from Waller or Belleville.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Nope, Well I don't know where he lives. He listened
around here.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Good on you, max I's congratulations, buddy boy,
It's that time time time, luck and load. The Michael
Berry Show is.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
On the air.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Clyde, You're on the Michael Berry Show. What's the use, sir?
Good morning, Yes, sir.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I went to a little high.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
School in eighth grade.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It's last year up.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
In Virginia, and there was two vending machines right outside
of the math class. One was a milk machine that
was always out of chocolate milk, and the other one
was a cigarette machine. You can get your lucky strikes,
your camels, and two packs of matches.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
How about that? Oh, you could get matches out of
the machine.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, it came when you bought the pack of cigarettes.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Oh oh, okay, okay. And what were the what were
the brands?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Head?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Oh, most of the I don't know if Marlborough Man
had been born then or not, but I know they
had Camel's, Lucky Strikes, Winston's.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Uh, Winston's tas I should yeah, you know. I love
those old machine, those old cigarette machines. For my birthday
one hand one of those, uh yeah yeah. For my
birthday one year, Uncle Jerry got me one for the
r C C. Because I'd always wanted one and it
(01:40):
had those kind of gold colored pool handles on it.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yep, coolest thing ever. It's such a nostalgia.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
I follow a Twitter feed called cigarette nostalgia, and it's
all it's it's like scenes of movies that are iconic
that involved a cigarette, and the cigarette is part of
the the iconography of it all. And there was a
the other day there was a video of Peter uh
(02:13):
is it Peter o'too?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Peter too, Peter o'tool Peter o'too Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
And he's he's entering the Johnny Carson Show.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Was it Letterman? You sure it was Letterman? Okay, Okay, no,
maybe it was Letterman. And he calls out, you know,
our next guest.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Peter O'Toole, And there's a long pause and you start thinking, well,
maybe he's not coming. And here, very slowly around the
corner where the guests enter is Peter O'Toole astride a
camel with a long cigarette dangling from his mouth and
(02:58):
this absolutely nonplussed look on his face, like you know,
this was absolutely normal Lawrence of Arabia, you know, rolling
into Mecca.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
And he comes all the way around.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
And I hate David Letterman's politics today, but I must
say I think his show was brilliant. I think it
kind of modernized the Carson Show for a younger audience,
and there was a certain style of humor that I
don't think anyone has captured since then. And maybe it
was stuck in that time, but it was glorious. And
(03:33):
I've gone back and watched episodes and I see the
genius to some of the things he did, some of
the sketches he did.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
And it was really incredible.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
But one of the things I think he did incredibly well,
and I don't know if it was authentic, an organic
or not, but he laughed. He had a deep belly
laugh and he would cock his head back and he's
laughing as that's happening, and it just adds to the.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Whole, to the whole, move to the whole deal.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
We had a smoking area in our school and the
smoking area was outside one of the side doors, and
there was a bench with a little metal you know,
lean to their little little shed topping, so you could
stand out there when it was raining. But the smokers
wouldn't stand out there. They would stand right next to
(04:24):
the building. They get right up next to the building
because then you could you could avoid being But I
can remember classmates. I'm fifty five, so this would have
been eight mid eighties, eighty six eighty seven.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
I can remember.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
We had We had a lot of farm boys and
they would they would bust out after the second period
and then'd rush out to there and they'd be lighting
their cigarette as they ran so they could get their
full cigarette while they were there. Ramond Santa cost Santa
caught Frosty the Snowman, rummaging through the carrot bag and said, Frosty,
(05:02):
what are you doing, to which you replied, Santa, I'm
picking my nose. Charley, if you Liquor's thirty second Winston commercial,
do we have to pay for that?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Okay, go ahead? How you there? And this is Shirley C.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
Liquor with the United States Pro Smoking Comedy.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
We saw him this last night at my house.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
Winston's tastes good like a cigarette shoe. Winston's tastes good
lights a cigarette. Shu and Winston give you real flavor,
full rich tobacco flavor. Winston easy drawing too. The filter's
put the flavor through. Winston's taste good like a cigarette shoe.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I need sloat breaking now.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
One of the biggest women's tennis tournaments when I was
growing up, was the Virginia's limbs. Nothing quite says in
aerobic activity like a cigarette company. Jasmine Crockett's announcement that
she's running for the Senate, I have explained, is not
a campaign kickoff. It is a product launch. She is
(06:23):
there is a machine behind her that will get paid
a lot of money from this.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Launch.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
They will sell merch, they will raise money. They are
building a brand. It's the ivida Rainbow Tour where they're
preparing her to launch her and she's but there's more
to this.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
There's more to this.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Rodney Ellis, interestingly was one of the people who introduced
her at her event, and well, I'll get to that
in the moment of her talking about John Cornyn. You
know what, I won't have time to play those in
this segment. Let me go back then and I'll do
(07:07):
that in the next segment. This is a product launch,
not a campaign kickoff. So people say, well, what if
she doesn't win, she gave up a safe seat, she's
not gonna win, to which I respond, she's already won.
The victory is hers already. You have to understand what
(07:30):
people are trying to accomplish before you can figure out
why they do. You have to understand why they did
it to figure out whether they're successful at it or not.
She doesn't have to get more votes. So if you say, well,
Beto's a loser, he's a three time loser. Yes, but
Beto is a national political figure. You can deny that,
(07:52):
but it's true. Beto is a national political figure. He
was a congressman before that. How many congress creators can
you name? You can still succeed even as a failing
candidate if you become a brand. Jasmine Crockett had been
building a brand already. By the way, I wouldn't be
(08:15):
surprised to see AOC run against Chuck Schumer. Jasmin Crockett
doesn't want to win a Senate See, she don't want
to be stuck in a Senate.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
You're seriously wants to get paid. Bizarre of talk radio
The Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
You know what I say about the other day, Ron,
I've always gotten such a kick out of Mexican women.
They they do their sexy poppy for their man. I
won't do the impersonation, but you heard them talk sexy.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
I don't know that.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
There's a sexier, nastier, more, oh poppy, yeah, exactly out
there in any language culture.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
However, they also refer to their little boys, Papi, don't
forget your shoes. Poppy poppy.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
There.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
You heard her tell you have a bubble poppy.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
It's only been weird, Like, wait a second, you got
this poppy and you got that poppy, and they're very, very,
very different poppies. But I guess it speaks to the
fact that every grown mane is still a little boy
at heart, and that men want to be poppy of whatever, whatever,
(09:35):
whatever that may be. And then I got to thinking
the other day when I referred to my wife as
my baby, and I realized, wait a second, I refer
to my wife as my baby, and you refer to
a baby as a baby, and your wife is not
a six months old, So maybe I shouldn't be making
(10:02):
jokes about the poppy, right, all right, So Jasmine Crockett
does her product launch and this is very exciting for Democrats,
very exciting indeed, and Rodney Ellis was there, and I
start thinking about Rodney makes it his business to be
(10:25):
connected nationally. I think Rodney would have been one of
the driving forces to get Jasmine Crockett to run. Let
me take that back. I happen to know on very
good authority that Rodney was a driving force in getting
Jasmine Crockett to run. And if you think that has
(10:46):
anything to do with he wants to see a black
woman succeed or anything else, you're missing the dimensions to this.
Rodney owns Harris County. We know that five black women,
the Black Girl Magic BGM they call them, filed to
(11:07):
run in the Democrat primary against five white male Democrats.
There's going to be a blood bath in the Democrat party.
He needs black woman turnout in the March primary in
Harris County. Having Jasmine Crockett, who the media is going
(11:30):
to keep telling you, is this glamorous rock star candidate.
The crazier she is, the more ghetto she is, the
more support she will engender because it will show that
you can be ghetto and not be marginalized any longer.
(11:50):
It's fascinating play if you think about it. Jasmine Crockett
drives the black woman turnout in Harris County. That results
in more black women judges taking those judge ships away
from white Democrat judges. It means it come November, because
she'll win the nomination. It means it come November. They
(12:10):
can drive black turnout because they're going to make this
a very, very racial thing. They can drive black turnout
for their Senate candidates, for their state rep candidates in
every district across the state, for their congressional candidates. This
is a pretty advanced play when you consider it on
(12:33):
that level. Meanwhile, Jasmine Crockett said, the senator she works
the best with is you guessed it, John Cornyn.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
I can tell you that I've worked with Senator Cornyn,
who is up for reelection, a number of times on
a number of.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Pieces of legislation.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
He's actually not been the worst Republican that you can
find in the Senate, to be perfectly honest.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Damn corning with friends like that, you don't need enemies.
You were already in third place. Maybe switch parties or something.
I don't know. I mean, that's just could it get
any worse? For John Wayne mccorny. They had the BUCkies
visit where they had him propped up. I think they
had a ladder in his pants or something. Are you
(13:22):
happy to see me? Or have they put you on stilts?
There's something in your pants. That looks weird, I mean weird.
That whole thing was just was just a real odd deal.
I'm still trying to I'm still trying to process exactly
what was going on with all that. I fell down
a rabbit hole the other day and I came across
(13:45):
these old TV promos and from the seventies and eighties,
the classics Starsky and Hutch, Rockford Files. Oh there's some
good ones out there. Then there was some cop show
I can't remember for the life of me. It sounds
pretty bad. Sounds pretty bad.
Speaker 7 (14:11):
Tonight on ABC, Roquel Welch guest stars and hilarity ensues
on an all new Mark and Mindy. Then an old
flame returns, but does she come with baggage and murder?
It's all aboard, an all new Love. Finally, it's the
new show that's sweeping the nation. John Wayne mccornan is
a crusty old cop trying to save his job and
(14:32):
his new partner, Jazzy Crockett, is an unhinged rookie from
the ghetto.
Speaker 8 (14:36):
Maybe because these people they are crazy, because they always
look at how Christian needs. Yeah, I don't know how
many am on this side again.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Divorced.
Speaker 8 (14:45):
The thing is caught up sleeping with their coworkers, staffa answer,
and all the things. Yeah, you ain't gotta believe me.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
You'll buy someone.
Speaker 7 (14:52):
Buckle up and go on a ride with John Wayne
mccornaan and Jazzy Jasmine Crockett as they tried to save Texas.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
I end up ruining it all, Rob dog Walker, It's an.
Speaker 7 (15:03):
All new episode of Texas thirty tonight on Hades, the
Ramon Duck, King of Ding and this other guy, Michael Barry.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
I'm very happy birthday to my friend James Spiro Pappis
aka Jimmy Pappis aka Mayor Pappos.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
He's the mayor of one of the villages, Roan.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Do you remember which one it is? Traders Village? Yeah,
Traders Village. Yeah, over in Western let's say Traders Village.
I thought it was h let's see, Bunker Point. Was
it Bunker Point? I forget? He gets angry at me
(15:50):
for forgetting, but he's mayor of one of those villages.
He gets very excited because they they always appear in
these reports as being the richest municipality in the country. Well,
I guess, so you got like a hundred houses in there.
You got no Section eight housing. You don't allow anybody
(16:13):
to build on a lot less than probably at least
an acre. When you're doing everything, you keep poor people
out of there. Of course, you're the richest municipality in
the country. Municipality they got nobody on food stamps, they
got no crime. They do a shared policing the villages
(16:36):
with a wonderful group of people who I've known for years,
called the Memorial Village Police Department, and they talk about
they talk about it's the best job ever. After you
work for the City of Houston, you're a HPD officer
and you're getting shot at and writing reports and protests
and somebody's going to iad constantly on you. You go
(16:59):
to Memorial Village Police Department and it's like an early
retirement in a good way. Instead of playing golf. You
get to wear a uniform and be respected and have
people wave at you. And I had Larry Bogus, who's
their their officer, who's in charge of their pr I
had called him about there was a case in im
(17:22):
Memorial Village when I was asking him about it, and
he said, well, we consider ourselves a concierge police department.
So he said they will do things like if somebody's
paper's piling up and they know that person's out of town,
they'll pick the papers up and keep it till the
person comes back, so it doesn't look to outsiders like.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
There was like nobody's there, and you don't you definitely
want that.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
But in any case, so I asked my friend Jimmy
Pappus what he did on his seventieth birthday, because that's
a big deal. And he said, well, we had our
Christmas party at city Hall for the residents of whatever
it is.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Would you say Traders Village?
Speaker 4 (18:06):
I knew it was one of the villages, A good,
good answer, he said, we had our Christmas party for
our residents at noon. We had our city council meeting
last night, and then I spoke at Young Life. He's
very involved with Young Life, which I think is a
great Christian organization for young men. Both of my boys
have done it and it's fantastic. I think it's I
(18:27):
am a big believer in faith based Christian education organization Fellowship,
because I will tell you faith was very important to
me still is, but faith was very important to me
as a young man because of my salvation. But the
(18:49):
faith based activities were important to me because they kept
me out of trouble. And my mother was a big
believer in doing things to keep yourself out of trouble,
whether that was work or fellowship, that idle hands of
the devil's workshop, and I believe that to be true.
(19:11):
That's why I think so many kids get in trouble
when they go to college, not because they're awful kids
or they don't know any better. They had too much
time on their hands and nothing to do. So half
of what they're doing, which is stupid, is because they
want to do something exciting. They need some excitement, and
that's when kids do things get them in a whole
(19:33):
lot of trouble. So if you know James Spiro Pappus,
wish him on his seventieth birthday. He just lost the
true Spiro Pappus I've told you before. I learned this
from the Papas family. In Greek families Romone, they flip
the names. So instead of being Michael Christian Berry and
(19:57):
Michael christian Berry the second Junior and in triple sticks
and the fourth and the fifth, they flip the names.
So his dad is Spiro James Pappas and he is
James Spiro Pappas. And uh, if he'd had a son,
(20:19):
his son would have been Spiro James Pappas.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Again, so I never knew that. You see, the Greeks
got all these secrets.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
They don't tell you about, the secret handshakes and stuff,
you know, And so I started asking around and they
kind of look at you cock eyed.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
It's like Jews when you ask them about the boil,
they're like, how do you know that? Or black people
when you add well, anyway, people don't like you to
know the little secrets of their community that they keep
to themselves. And it turned out I started asking around
and all these people that have short names like Chris
or you know, Bob or Dimitri, they all have they
(20:59):
all have a longer Greek name, and then their middle
name is their dad's first name, and their first name
is their dad's middle name. I'm always the cool thing
about living in a big city is that you have
so many different people from so many different backgrounds in
(21:19):
this country. The difference being with New York is everybody
just came here ten minutes ago, so you have no
real sense of community. But the city of Houston has
communities that came in over the years and there's such
a fabric of the community that you don't think of
(21:40):
them as being Balkanized, you know here and there, but
they still do retain that little thing on the side
of you know, their famili's heritage going back multiple generations,
and the Greeks are one of the best examples of that.
You've got Greeks everywhere, especially in the restaurant community. Remember
(22:01):
that Catherine Micholas that called us the other day.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Yeah, the little girl.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
We had to do it on Friday, because she goes
to school four days a week.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
You know, she drives.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
She goes to a little private school in Richard's little
one room schoolhouse, and she drives an hour. She lives
in Cyprus. She drives an hour to get to go
to that school four days a week. That's an impressive
little girl. So I asked her, I said, where's that
background from. What's where's her name from? And she said
it's Greek. And I said, why didn't I see that?
(22:32):
Do you know George Micholas And she said, yes, that's
her uncle or whatever. He owns Cleband Cafeteria. So Uncle
Jerry and I made some sight visits. Yesterday, I went down.
I went over to Cromberg's flags and flagpoles because they
wanted to show me how the flags are made. And
then we were driving back and I called George Micholas
(22:54):
at Cleband Cafeteria because I hadn't talked to him in
a while.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Over on Missinette.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
If you want a good place to eat lunch today,
Fantasiclastic Place, Cleebird and Cafeteria. George Micholis is a fellow's name.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
Just ask.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
When you get there, he'll be the guy looking very
nervous running around. He looks like a skinnier version of
Al from Happy Days. And he said, hey, uh. He
said some some Lou Savaree. And I said, did Lou die?
And he said no.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
But I could see where you'd say that. I just
seen if you had talked to him Southern Pride, you
would just think Lou Savage just died. Very show.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
It is Trader's village that he's mayor of. We checked,
but it doesn't matter. Happy seventieth Birthday people do refer
to his constituents as the village people, which is not
which is not inaccurate. They are residents of the village.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Ramon.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
I always say we are not a breaking news type program,
but this story is huge and it is breaking news. Apparently,
the folks at Pantone, you know the ones that you
go in, and they came up with the color scheme.
They own the rights to the names of all the
colors in the world. They have announced the color of
(24:13):
the year for twenty twenty six. Apparently. I don't know
if you're up on the annual reveal, but Pantone has
been announcing a color of the upcoming year since nineteen
ninety nine, first year we've known. So for twenty twenty six,
get ready, the color of the year is uh oh white.
(24:37):
It's white, specifically something called cloud Dancer. Well, the word
on the street is there are some folks who aren't very.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Happy about this. Why am I not surprised by this?
Speaker 9 (24:53):
Okay, first of all, Panatone or whatever you call how
you're gonna say.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
The color of the year is white? You got one
of them.
Speaker 9 (24:59):
Identity crisis says Okay. I looked up on that Google
and Pantone or whatever supposedly mean everything hit everything but black,
and hear another thing that the Google tell the name
of the white color you chose would call cloud dance.
Now that's funny. Everybody know white people can't do two things,
and that's jumping dance. So y'all go buy them Sydney
(25:21):
swingy white people, baby mama jeans and go do your
chicken dance and enjoy being white.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
I got no time for building.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
I see red.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
I want chip into the blast colors people.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
I want them.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
To to play.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
The twenty sixth color of the year is clouded denser.
A shade of white will be the defining color of
the next year. Get those stained removing pens ready, and
then the styles desk rights. Pantone, the self styled color
experts have been predicting a color of the year since
nineteen ninety nine. They're picked for what was consuming in
(26:02):
twenty twenty six. Not their picks, their dictate. They're the
ones that make this cloud Dancer officially pantone eleven dash
forty two oh one. Either way, it's a pretty fancy
name for white or a symbol of calming influence in
a frenetic society, as well as a blank canvas on
(26:23):
which we can all start again.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Have they gotten it right?
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Reporters for the styles desks sat down to debate. Let
us know what you think in the comments, Vanessa Friedman said,
quote the announcement heralding Cloud Dancer as next year's color
features a woman all in white looking dreamily into a
cloud filled sky. Serenity is clearly the vibe, but given
the recent political discourse, when I hear white less salubrious
(26:52):
associations also leaped to my mind, ones that I doubt
Pantone took into consideration. But that could be twisted to
pretty uncomfortable ends. I'll bet Vanessa Friedman finds herself twisted
into uncomfortable places quite often, you know what with racism.
(27:12):
Jim Crow slavery and awe. Callie Holterman responds, it's certainly
a conspicuous choice following a year in which DEI programs
have been dismantled and the party in power has been
debating how friendly to be with a white nationalist. That
may not be what Pantone means by peace, unity and cohesiveness,
(27:36):
but I have to imagine it will come up for
some viewers. Alex Vodicoul adds, in terms of meaning, I
wonder if there are some clues in its title Cloud
Dancer what's going on there sounds like a nineteen eighties
one hit wonder track. Jacob Gallagher ads he's from the
(28:01):
style desk too, presumably political implications aside. I do understand
why a blank slate might be the right pick for
this moment. Culture right now is pretty darn stagnant. Everything
feels like a rehash of a rehash, or a piece
of media getting squeezed till there's.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
No juice left.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Stranger Things Season five, looking at you, exclamation mark. We're
in this moment where we're waiting, where we're awaiting the
next turn of the dial that.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Moves culture forward. Hence blank slate.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
I could have read that my best Paul Lindy voice
if I'd known where it was going to end up.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Then Miss Friedman is back. She's got white guilt, maybe
white Jewish guilt.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
There are so many associations with white, the white dove
of peace, the baptismal gown, the wedding dress, the white
T shirt in some Asian countries, mourning as in crying,
not early day. White is a color replete with meanings,
so not really that blank at all. Oh my goodness,
this is just too much. I mean, this is a
(29:08):
deep dive existential consideration of Pantone picking white as the
color of the year. Only the New York Times style
desk could bring us this quality. Meanwhile, I got an
email from Clint Ives, who writes zar kid Bragg moment.
(29:29):
My youngest son, Max Ives, came home from Vegas yesterday.
He competed in the Junior World Finals saddle Bronc Championship.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
From on what place you think he won.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
In the Junior world Finals saddle Brock Bronc Championship, tyzerbajannies
are good. He won the whole damn thing, the whole
shoot match. If you were to line up every kid
(30:04):
thirteen years old in the Junior World Final saddle Bronc Championship,
and you was to line them from here to the moon,
with the moon being first and here being last, Here
be on the moon, first place, the whole deal. Not
(30:26):
some kid from Idaho, not some kid from Waller or Belleville.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Nope, Well I don't know where he lives. He listened
around here.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Good on you, max I's congratulations, buddy boy,
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