November 22, 2024 • 30 mins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Verishow is on the air, probably as good a
time as any for us to play maybe my all
(00:23):
time favorite Thanksgiving call. I have referenced this call over
the years since that time. Some of you will remember
the subject of the call, if not the name of
the caller. Her name was Julianne, and when she called in,
it was just going to be like any other call.
(00:45):
She talked about the fact that she's now married, her
son has grown up, but she went back to a
time where she was a single mom, her and her
son had no money. And well, I'll let her tell
you the story, but before it starts, I have to
tell you I didn't see where this story was going,
(01:08):
and it has turned out to be one of those
stories that I love as much as any call we've
ever received. And it's also I think one of the
reasons I play it is because some of you out
there might be where Julianne was at that time, and
I like to think that maybe this gives you the
hope to understand things can get better, and they will
(01:29):
get better. Julianne, Yes, sir, tell us about your odd
tradition on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Well, I raised two little boys all by myself. I
was a single parent. They're both they're nineteen and twenty now.
One goes to ut and one goes to Texas State.
They're doing great.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Good or night.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I raised them by myself, totally from infancy and Timon
really lean.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Where was their dad?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
It's a long story, sir. I'd rather not get into
that part.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Was he alive and just not taking care of his business?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yes, sir?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Is he a bad person?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
He's got some issues.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Is he still alive today? Yes, sir, Okay, do you
wish him ill?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
No? I don't. I feel very bad for the man,
but that's neither here nor there.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
You're a big.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well. I took many years to get here, sir, believe me.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
But they're both peace beyond understanding. We call that. Ramon,
What did you do? How'd you support those boys?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Well, initially I opened a little daycare and I took
in children because I didn't want them to go off
to daycare, so I took children in, and then I
also made burritos and tacos and drove around and sold
those out of my car. And then once they were
able to go to school, once I got them into
(02:55):
kindergarten and first grade. I worked in a little office
job and then I got lucky and met someone at
the pool, and I got into oil and gas and
now I'm a doctor, the controller. I have a great career.
Things just kind of progressed. God was good.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I wish you were right here beside me, because I
would give you a big hug.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Oh thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I admire people like you, I really do.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
My entire family lived in New Mexico, and their dad
would allow me to lead, and so it was just
the three of us. It was terrible, and one year
it was so bad we had sardines for Thanksgiving. That's
what we ate, sardines. So now every year for Thanksgiving,
I make sure that I have a beautiful plate and
(03:46):
I doll it up really pretty, and I make sure
I have sardines at our table so that we never
forget those when years. And that's my story.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I'll tell you what. We keep that one in the
archives and I always look forward at Thanksgiving to ramone
pulling it out and playing it again. And as I said,
I hope that helps somebody out there, if you're a
single mom or a single.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Dad, or.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
You've hit a spell of bad luck. Maybe made some
bad decisions, lost your job, hit the bottle too hard,
got addicted to drugs, whatever it is, it's got you down.
I hope that call. I mean, things turned out well
(04:44):
for Julianne, but don't you couldn't have told her that
at the time. And so you know what I'm gonna do, Ramone,
I'm going to play at this moment one of my
favorite songs of redemption by the Reverend Donnie McClerkin from
the what was the Horror? Amityville Horror. His his church
is the Amityville Baptist Church. He is the pastor and
(05:07):
the song leader there. He's also a very very successful
gospel singer and a dear friend. But let's uh this,
this is a this is a segment of redemption. So
this is for any of you out there that have
been knocked out, knocked down, not knocked out, knocked down
to get back up. Oh my god, that's not what
(05:33):
I wanted. You know what. I hate you, I genuinely, deeply,
seriously hate you. Now play what I asked you to play.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Full Between we fall, but we we full between.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
I'm a saying it's just a siner damn.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
But we couldn't stay there, and God.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Saying that, Oh my busty, head back up, Hey, get
back up?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Aga, oh my mo.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Anyway, if we get back up again, there.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Say mister kiss.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
We's a scene.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Oh, I guess we all.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
But we can't stay there. There's a scene of righteousness
inside of it.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Oh, we say, Lord, if we get back up again.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
We falled out sometime, but we get back up again.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Rise back, coming whim for.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Michael Barry wouldn't change it.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I had a system black, a too modern day Robin.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
This segment is one of my favorites. And if you're
new to the show, you don't know what we're about
to do. And for some of you, this is going
to jog a memory that was deeply recessed, and it's
going to make you smile. When I went to law school,
there was a study done on what caused people, what
(07:48):
made people most likely to want to go to law school,
and the number two reason was your daddy was a lawyer.
My daddy wasn't a lawyer. I was part of the
number one reason that as a child they had read
to Kill a Mockingbird. Now, that was a unique period
(08:10):
of time. I went to law school in the early nineties.
But that particular book and the portrayal of a lawyer
as a person who takes on fights and you know,
joustset windmills and battles for people and provides a defense
to the defenseless. That was very appealing to people. And
(08:35):
it was it spurred and stirred such a passion in
so many people. Well, I will tell you that over
the years, I've had the same experience with people who
got into radio. And when you look at when I
(08:56):
asked people what got you into radio, and it is
more often than not this particular radio show, And when
you ask him which of that show was your absolute favorite,
it is this particular episode and it being Thanksgiving, we
roll it out every year and we never tire of
(09:18):
it because we believe in great tradition. Here you go, baby,
did you ever wonders?
Speaker 6 (09:28):
Wondered? Whatever became of me? I'm living on the air
in Cincinnati, Cincinnati w k RD, got kind of guided
back in and done back in, down intown, up and down.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
And die.
Speaker 6 (09:50):
Maybe never being too just maybe think of me once
in a while on that WUK the Simsundi.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
That wonderful television program was created by Hugh Wilson, who
later said that he based a lot of the episodes
around the actual events and characters of his time in radio.
He didn't work at WKRP in Cincinnati. He worked at
WQXI in Atlanta, but he created one of the greatest
(10:27):
TV scenes of all time. Referring to that turkey drop scene,
he said, it was at a shopping center in Atlanta.
I think it was Broadview Plaza, which no longer exists.
It was a Thanksgiving promotion. We thought we could throw
these live turkeys out into the crowd for their Thanksgiving dinners.
All of us nai, even uneducated, thought that turkeys could fly,
(10:51):
and remember, these are live turkeys. Of course they went
just splat. People were laughing at us, not with us,
but it became a legend. In reality, the turkeys were
thrown off the back of a truck, so based on that,
Hugh Wilson wrote the scene which came to be known
(11:12):
as the turkey Drop scene, which I would argue is,
if not the greatest scene in television history, certainly up
there a little bit of audio less nessman, that serious
silly newsman on WKRP, the Turkey Drop.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
A culter seems to be circling the parking area. Now,
I guess it's looking for a place to land. No,
something just came out of the back of the helicopter.
It's a dark object or he's a skydiver lumming to
to the earth. I'm only two thousand feet in the air.
There's no curshue yet yet.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
The skydivers.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
I can't not just yet what they are.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
But oh my god, they're talking.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
They're crushing to the earth.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
Run longer to win?
Speaker 5 (12:05):
Your car's running around pushing each other.
Speaker 6 (12:10):
Oh my goodness, Oh but you wanted to.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Winning a bombs of the turkeys are hitting the ground
like sense of wetsuits say.
Speaker 6 (12:20):
I don't know how much longer, but the trot is
running for their lives. I think I go to step
in sight.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I can't stay out here and watch the city.
Speaker 6 (12:27):
As you know, I can't go in there, mothers, And
oh the tragedy hasn't been anything like this.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I don't know how much longer I can hold my
division here Johnny the.
Speaker 6 (12:38):
Court, last, last are you there?
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Less isn't there?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Thanks for that on the spot report last just tuned
in the Pinedale Shopping Mall has just been bombed with
ke tell them at eleven. You know, when I think back,
and that was a different person as you were too.
(13:10):
But when I think back to seventies television, which would
probably be my favorite, followed by eighties television, I've told
you the nineties was a lost decade for me because
between college and law school and my first job and
starting a company, I didn't watch any television. Was there
a social message to seventies and eighties television? Sure there
(13:31):
was Good Times or the Waltons or Archie Bunker, but
mostly it was just entertainment as entertainment, and the fact
that the people who got into screenwriting and scriptwriting and
production lost sight of that it is entertainment and decided
(13:55):
that they were instead members of a cult trying to
convince people of their silly ways. When you consider the
effect that has has had, when you consider the effect
that that has, how that has changed our entertainment. Look
(14:16):
at how people look at football differently, the taking of
the knee, that's changed it forever for me. Look at
how music and musicians and actors, it's changed all of it,
maybe in a good way, because you know what, in
many ways, I guess what I'm trying to say, and
I'm fumbling around, is that it entertainment should be about entertainment,
(14:41):
and when it stops being about entertainment, it turns us off.
And maybe it's better because I don't spend my weekends
watching football. I don't spend my time watching network television anymore,
and I fill my time with things that are more
productive and fulfilling and rewarding and meaningful. So maybe I
guess you could say they did me a face job.
(15:03):
Don't you use that tone to me? Not a joke.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
That's sarcastic, contemptuous tone that means you know everything because
you're a man, and I know nothing because I'm a woman.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
That is not a joke. That is a natural fact, Michael.
My grandmother was fond of oraville red and boker popcorn,
and therefore so was I. And then it just got
better and better and better. How many days a year,
(15:35):
how many times a year do you think you consume popcorn?
Pour that's probably mine too. Popcorn is the sort of
thing that I literally never intend to eat. I've already eaten,
and I'm somewhere that popcorn is present, and I smell it,
and someone says, hey, would you would you like some popcorn?
(16:02):
And I eat it, and then I eat way too much,
and I feel disgusting and I don't know, I don't
know what else to do about it. Yeah, and then
and then I wish I hadn't eaten popcorn. And it
leaves me with a bad feeling, especially if you get
it from a movie theater, because they put too much
butter on it. What other food do I shovel in
(16:25):
my mouth? Let me come back to that, because I
want to talk about thanks forving for a second, since
this is our Thanksgiving edition. If there's something I can
get through to you today, for this weekend, and some
of you are gonna be off, you're gonna be traveling
over the next few days. It is this. A democratic
(16:45):
republic is not a set it and forget it, ron
pop peel. You don't get to do it and walk
away from it. It is a labor of love. You
know what. When I got my first carbs in nineteen
seventy nine, Swaggen Rabbit, it had one hundred and fifty
thousand miles on it. And when I got it, my
(17:06):
dad said, well, you'll own a car for the rest
of your life, and it will be nothing but a
problem for the rest of your life. And I remember thinking, more, Dan,
I'm kind of fired up about my little Volkswaghian rabbit.
Why you gotta make it seem like that? When I
got my first house, he said, a house is a
constant need because he's a maintenance man, right, A house
(17:27):
is a constant need for maintenance and work. You will have,
you will you will never get to relax again. And
I remember thinking, well, Dad, but that wasn't he wasn't
depressed about that. That was him giving fatherly advice. And
I kind of feel like, you know, that's what Ben
Franklin said when asked, you know, mister Franklin, is it
(17:50):
a monarchy or a republic? And he said a republic
if you can keep it, because he understood that they
had just written the bylaws for a document that would
require the public's constant attention and care and good decision making.
(18:13):
It's much easier to have a monarchy. And I think
many people, even in America today, without understanding what they're doing,
would like a benevolent dictatorship because they don't want to
have to fool with it. They don't want to have
to be adult. They don't want to have to make decisions.
They don't want to have to discern between one candidate
(18:33):
and the other, one plan and the other. They don't
want to have to keep up with what are the
effects of raising interest rates or raising the minimum wage,
or lowering interest rates or sending all your money to
Ukraine or sending missiles to Ukraine. They don't want to
do that. But one of the things we have to
do is we have to preserve our traditions because they don't.
(18:55):
And we can't sit around and say, well, the TV's
not doing it, and the school's not doing it, and
this person's not doing it. You've got to do it.
So I went to a history site very simple to
help you out, and this is what you have to share.
Print out the meaning of Thanksgiving this Thanksgiving and just say, hey, guy,
I know it's kind of old fashioned, but I'm feeling
(19:17):
pretty good Trump one, I'm feeling good about American and
I want to start a new tradition. I would like
to read and just y'all give me sixty seconds. I
would like to read the history of Thanksgiving, and history
dot com has one the easiest one. There's more in depth,
and it goes like this. Thanksgiving Day is a national
holiday in the United States and in twenty twenty four
(19:38):
falls on Thursday, November twenty eighth. In sixteen twenty one,
the Plymouth colonists from England and the Native American Wampoaga
one Podnoag people shared an autumn harvest feast that is
acknowledged as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies.
(20:00):
For more than two centuries, days of Thanksgiving were celebrated
by individual colonies and states. It wasn't until eighteen sixty three,
in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham
Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.
But the holiday is not without controversy. Many Americans, including
(20:23):
people of Native American ancestry, believe Thanksgiving celebrations might mask
the true history of oppression and bloodshed that underlies the
relationship between European settlers and Native Americans. These same people,
who even if they are a direct descendant, have no
problem with their great grandfather having murdered other tribes to
(20:48):
take hold of the land, don't want the same done
to them. And that's the reality of it all. The
history of humanity is one of conflict and defies that tradition.
So as you sit on your iPhone, having gone to
schools and universities under a scholarship for being Native American,
(21:13):
maybe give thanks that you have air conditioning and steel
belted radial tires and a roof over your head and
airplanes to fly around in. Because the advancements that occurred
on American soil after those evil, awful white men came
to town are being enjoyed by you to an extent
(21:33):
that almost seems like you halfway enjoy them. Now back
to the point. The beauty of this tradition, if you
heard what I said, is it began in sixteen twenty one.
It began almost an entire century and a half before
(21:55):
we declared our independence from England. It was not for
two hundred years that it became an official holiday, but
it was continuously observed. It's older than America, and distinctly America.
Now that's beautiful, but that means our time together is
(22:19):
drawing to a close for this week. For all of
our new listeners, welcome to the program. Our show is
quite different than everything else on the radio. That doesn't
mean that we're better by any means. It doesn't mean
we think we're better by any means. We're not intentionally
(22:39):
different than so many other shows. We're just intentionally true
to ourselves and the show we enjoy doing. And after
almost twenty years of doing this, we've come to the
conclusion that if we do the show that we love doing,
then we'll wake up every morning eager to do it,
and surely that has to come through the airwaves and
(23:03):
in time. While a lot of people won't dig it,
which is okay, those that do will hang around because
it will be quite different than anything else. We're going
to use more songs and more sound, and you'll come
to find out once we get further and further from
the election, we're gonna be silly and we're gonna make
(23:26):
some jokes that are gonna make you cringe. That's the
point of it. If you listen to Norm MacDonald doing
the Weekend Update and you had to turn it off,
then we're going to be a tough, tough cookie for
you to crumble, because we enjoy engaging and challenging to
(23:50):
the point that you even sometimes wonder if it's okay
to laugh or to agree with that. We're going to
talk about race. We're going to talk about sex, by
which I mean male and female. And gender is how
you refer to nouns, not human beings. It's a silly
term to avoid, a term that makes people uncomfortable. When
(24:14):
I was growing up and you would fill out a document,
it would ask what your sex is, and yes, you
giggled because you were a kid. You can still giggle
today because it's funny. These are things we should never
stop giggling. But sex was a reference to male or female,
boy or girl. And I don't care if that dude
(24:35):
that got elected that claims he's a girl is a girl.
To their credit, they're not letting him go in the
girl's bathroom because there shall be no boys in the
girl's bathroom, even if those boys claim that they're a girl.
It's just that simple. Now, if he wants to go
(24:57):
in there and sit on the pot, he can do that.
If he's wearing high heels when he does, he.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Can do that.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
You probably didn't know they already have a gender neutral bathroom.
It's the silliest thing I've ever heard. One of my
friends suggested that rand Paul should call for a filibuster
just to get a just to make it so that
that dude's beard starts filling in somewhere along the way. Listen,
(25:27):
if you want to be weird, you want to be different.
I'm a libertarian at heart. I am. I don't want
by kicking your door down. Go be weird on your own,
living on your own, in your own living room, Go
be weird as you want. I really don't. I am
way more libertarian than most people I know, and I
don't waste a lot of time on silly things. Well, Michael,
(25:50):
you're against abortion. I am because abortion is not a
political issue.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
To me.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Life begins at conception. You might not like that because
at times it's inconvenient, but you know, a lot of
things are inconvenient. Having cancer is inconvenient, but you can't
just declare it doesn't exist. Raising children's very inconvenient.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
It's hard work.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
That's what nobody tells you. It's hard. It's absolutely difficult.
You know what else is inconvenient and difficult Taking care
of elderly parents and being patient and talking to them
on the farm if you're not near them, and being
there with them if you're able to. When people email
(26:37):
me and say I retired early so I could take
care of my mom and dad, or so I can't
take care of my dad or my mom. Man, my
heart goes out to them. I understand what that means.
I watched my mom slowly, painfully die. It's a brutal,
brutal thing. And my dad's eighty four and his health
(26:58):
is not great. It's time. And you know what, Sometimes
you don't want to talk to those old people. Sometimes
you don't want to hear about the doctor's appointment. Sometimes
you don't want to hear the grumpy. Sometimes you don't
want to hear about the bodily functions that now are
the lifeblood of their conversation and the seeming occupation of
their existence. It happens, But these are the things we're
(27:21):
put on this earth to do. And just because a
birth or a conception is inconvenient doesn't mean it is
okay to end it. And just because the elderly or
inconvenient doesn't mean it's okay to turn our backs on them,
because those are the things that make us human, Not
(27:43):
that damned iPhone, Not how many messages you can respond
to or how much doom scrolling you can do on
the social media sites. Those aren't the things that we
are alive for. Those aren't the measures of our magnificence.
(28:05):
Those are things we do to distract us from the
difficulties of our endeavors, our struggles. But it's our struggles
that make us human. And I hope you'll remember that
over the coming week, because there's a very good chance
there's a very good chance that you're going to have
(28:27):
to patch up relations with someone in your family at
Thanksgiving this year. There's a very good chance that you're
going to have to spend more time with a loved
one than maybe you'd like to. There's a very good
chance that your patience is going to be tried. Just
(28:48):
remember this, You can't control the actions of that other person.
Let them go, Let them go. You're never going to
convince them. Let them go, either avoid them altogether, or
if you must be there, simply laugh. I laugh when
people insult me, and it gives them to almost almost exclusively.
(29:12):
Two responses. One is, this dude is crazy, and when
you're crazy, it scares people, and I am crazy. Number two,
this dude can't be touched. I can't lay a glove
on it. I have attempted to wound him and I haven't.
But that's something I control, nobody else controls it. I
(29:37):
don't talk politics off the air. I don't try to
convince people. Somebody say, you got to talk to my wife.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Here she is.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
We talked to my wife, she's a liberal. No, I won't.
I won't. We'll talk about recipes, we talk about travel.
I'm not going to try to convince her because she
arrived at this point after a whole lot of things
have happened. She probably doesn't know anything about politics. She
thinks she does. She's still angry her dad left her,
or her first boyfriend dumped her, or whatever else. She's
(30:09):
still sad that her career didn't measure up to what
she wanted to be, or she didn't get to date,
she didn't get to marry the boy she wanted to,
and that guy went off to be famous. I'm not
here to fix her. I'm here to fix me. I'm
here to live the best life I can and be
here for the people that I love. So if we
don't get to talk to you for the next week
because you're off for Thanksgiving, I just want you to
(30:30):
know I give thanks for you and everything you've done
to take back this country,
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Verishow is on the air, probably as good a
time as any for us to play maybe my all
(00:23):
time favorite Thanksgiving call. I have referenced this call over
the years since that time. Some of you will remember
the subject of the call, if not the name of
the caller. Her name was Julianne, and when she called in,
it was just going to be like any other call.
(00:45):
She talked about the fact that she's now married, her
son has grown up, but she went back to a
time where she was a single mom, her and her
son had no money. And well, I'll let her tell
you the story, but before it starts, I have to
tell you I didn't see where this story was going,
(01:08):
and it has turned out to be one of those
stories that I love as much as any call we've
ever received. And it's also I think one of the
reasons I play it is because some of you out
there might be where Julianne was at that time, and
I like to think that maybe this gives you the
hope to understand things can get better, and they will
(01:29):
get better. Julianne, Yes, sir, tell us about your odd
tradition on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Well, I raised two little boys all by myself. I
was a single parent. They're both they're nineteen and twenty now.
One goes to ut and one goes to Texas State.
They're doing great.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Good or night.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I raised them by myself, totally from infancy and Timon
really lean.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Where was their dad?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
It's a long story, sir. I'd rather not get into
that part.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Was he alive and just not taking care of his business?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yes, sir?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Is he a bad person?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
He's got some issues.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Is he still alive today? Yes, sir, Okay, do you
wish him ill?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
No? I don't. I feel very bad for the man,
but that's neither here nor there.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
You're a big.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well. I took many years to get here, sir, believe me.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
But they're both peace beyond understanding. We call that. Ramon,
What did you do? How'd you support those boys?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Well, initially I opened a little daycare and I took
in children because I didn't want them to go off
to daycare, so I took children in, and then I
also made burritos and tacos and drove around and sold
those out of my car. And then once they were
able to go to school, once I got them into
(02:55):
kindergarten and first grade. I worked in a little office
job and then I got lucky and met someone at
the pool, and I got into oil and gas and
now I'm a doctor, the controller. I have a great career.
Things just kind of progressed. God was good.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I wish you were right here beside me, because I
would give you a big hug.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Oh thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I admire people like you, I really do.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
My entire family lived in New Mexico, and their dad
would allow me to lead, and so it was just
the three of us. It was terrible, and one year
it was so bad we had sardines for Thanksgiving. That's
what we ate, sardines. So now every year for Thanksgiving,
I make sure that I have a beautiful plate and
(03:46):
I doll it up really pretty, and I make sure
I have sardines at our table so that we never
forget those when years. And that's my story.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I'll tell you what. We keep that one in the
archives and I always look forward at Thanksgiving to ramone
pulling it out and playing it again. And as I said,
I hope that helps somebody out there, if you're a
single mom or a single.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Dad, or.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
You've hit a spell of bad luck. Maybe made some
bad decisions, lost your job, hit the bottle too hard,
got addicted to drugs, whatever it is, it's got you down.
I hope that call. I mean, things turned out well
(04:44):
for Julianne, but don't you couldn't have told her that
at the time. And so you know what I'm gonna do, Ramone,
I'm going to play at this moment one of my
favorite songs of redemption by the Reverend Donnie McClerkin from
the what was the Horror? Amityville Horror. His his church
is the Amityville Baptist Church. He is the pastor and
(05:07):
the song leader there. He's also a very very successful
gospel singer and a dear friend. But let's uh this,
this is a this is a segment of redemption. So
this is for any of you out there that have
been knocked out, knocked down, not knocked out, knocked down
to get back up. Oh my god, that's not what
(05:33):
I wanted. You know what. I hate you, I genuinely, deeply,
seriously hate you. Now play what I asked you to play.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Full Between we fall, but we we full between.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
I'm a saying it's just a siner damn.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
But we couldn't stay there, and God.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Saying that, Oh my busty, head back up, Hey, get
back up?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Aga, oh my mo.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Anyway, if we get back up again, there.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Say mister kiss.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
We's a scene.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Oh, I guess we all.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
But we can't stay there. There's a scene of righteousness
inside of it.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Oh, we say, Lord, if we get back up again.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
We falled out sometime, but we get back up again.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Rise back, coming whim for.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Michael Barry wouldn't change it.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I had a system black, a too modern day Robin.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
This segment is one of my favorites. And if you're
new to the show, you don't know what we're about
to do. And for some of you, this is going
to jog a memory that was deeply recessed, and it's
going to make you smile. When I went to law school,
there was a study done on what caused people, what
(07:48):
made people most likely to want to go to law school,
and the number two reason was your daddy was a lawyer.
My daddy wasn't a lawyer. I was part of the
number one reason that as a child they had read
to Kill a Mockingbird. Now, that was a unique period
(08:10):
of time. I went to law school in the early nineties.
But that particular book and the portrayal of a lawyer
as a person who takes on fights and you know,
joustset windmills and battles for people and provides a defense
to the defenseless. That was very appealing to people. And
(08:35):
it was it spurred and stirred such a passion in
so many people. Well, I will tell you that over
the years, I've had the same experience with people who
got into radio. And when you look at when I
(08:56):
asked people what got you into radio, and it is
more often than not this particular radio show, And when
you ask him which of that show was your absolute favorite,
it is this particular episode and it being Thanksgiving, we
roll it out every year and we never tire of
(09:18):
it because we believe in great tradition. Here you go, baby,
did you ever wonders?
Speaker 6 (09:28):
Wondered? Whatever became of me? I'm living on the air
in Cincinnati, Cincinnati w k RD, got kind of guided
back in and done back in, down intown, up and down.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
And die.
Speaker 6 (09:50):
Maybe never being too just maybe think of me once
in a while on that WUK the Simsundi.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
That wonderful television program was created by Hugh Wilson, who
later said that he based a lot of the episodes
around the actual events and characters of his time in radio.
He didn't work at WKRP in Cincinnati. He worked at
WQXI in Atlanta, but he created one of the greatest
(10:27):
TV scenes of all time. Referring to that turkey drop scene,
he said, it was at a shopping center in Atlanta.
I think it was Broadview Plaza, which no longer exists.
It was a Thanksgiving promotion. We thought we could throw
these live turkeys out into the crowd for their Thanksgiving dinners.
All of us nai, even uneducated, thought that turkeys could fly,
(10:51):
and remember, these are live turkeys. Of course they went
just splat. People were laughing at us, not with us,
but it became a legend. In reality, the turkeys were
thrown off the back of a truck, so based on that,
Hugh Wilson wrote the scene which came to be known
(11:12):
as the turkey Drop scene, which I would argue is,
if not the greatest scene in television history, certainly up
there a little bit of audio less nessman, that serious
silly newsman on WKRP, the Turkey Drop.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
A culter seems to be circling the parking area. Now,
I guess it's looking for a place to land. No,
something just came out of the back of the helicopter.
It's a dark object or he's a skydiver lumming to
to the earth. I'm only two thousand feet in the air.
There's no curshue yet yet.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
The skydivers.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
I can't not just yet what they are.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
But oh my god, they're talking.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
They're crushing to the earth.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
Run longer to win?
Speaker 5 (12:05):
Your car's running around pushing each other.
Speaker 6 (12:10):
Oh my goodness, Oh but you wanted to.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Winning a bombs of the turkeys are hitting the ground
like sense of wetsuits say.
Speaker 6 (12:20):
I don't know how much longer, but the trot is
running for their lives. I think I go to step
in sight.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I can't stay out here and watch the city.
Speaker 6 (12:27):
As you know, I can't go in there, mothers, And
oh the tragedy hasn't been anything like this.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I don't know how much longer I can hold my
division here Johnny the.
Speaker 6 (12:38):
Court, last, last are you there?
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Less isn't there?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Thanks for that on the spot report last just tuned
in the Pinedale Shopping Mall has just been bombed with
ke tell them at eleven. You know, when I think back,
and that was a different person as you were too.
(13:10):
But when I think back to seventies television, which would
probably be my favorite, followed by eighties television, I've told
you the nineties was a lost decade for me because
between college and law school and my first job and
starting a company, I didn't watch any television. Was there
a social message to seventies and eighties television? Sure there
(13:31):
was Good Times or the Waltons or Archie Bunker, but
mostly it was just entertainment as entertainment, and the fact
that the people who got into screenwriting and scriptwriting and
production lost sight of that it is entertainment and decided
(13:55):
that they were instead members of a cult trying to
convince people of their silly ways. When you consider the
effect that has has had, when you consider the effect
that that has, how that has changed our entertainment. Look
(14:16):
at how people look at football differently, the taking of
the knee, that's changed it forever for me. Look at
how music and musicians and actors, it's changed all of it,
maybe in a good way, because you know what, in
many ways, I guess what I'm trying to say, and
I'm fumbling around, is that it entertainment should be about entertainment,
(14:41):
and when it stops being about entertainment, it turns us off.
And maybe it's better because I don't spend my weekends
watching football. I don't spend my time watching network television anymore,
and I fill my time with things that are more
productive and fulfilling and rewarding and meaningful. So maybe I
guess you could say they did me a face job.
(15:03):
Don't you use that tone to me? Not a joke.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
That's sarcastic, contemptuous tone that means you know everything because
you're a man, and I know nothing because I'm a woman.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
That is not a joke. That is a natural fact, Michael.
My grandmother was fond of oraville red and boker popcorn,
and therefore so was I. And then it just got
better and better and better. How many days a year,
(15:35):
how many times a year do you think you consume popcorn?
Pour that's probably mine too. Popcorn is the sort of
thing that I literally never intend to eat. I've already eaten,
and I'm somewhere that popcorn is present, and I smell it,
and someone says, hey, would you would you like some popcorn?
(16:02):
And I eat it, and then I eat way too much,
and I feel disgusting and I don't know, I don't
know what else to do about it. Yeah, and then
and then I wish I hadn't eaten popcorn. And it
leaves me with a bad feeling, especially if you get
it from a movie theater, because they put too much
butter on it. What other food do I shovel in
(16:25):
my mouth? Let me come back to that, because I
want to talk about thanks forving for a second, since
this is our Thanksgiving edition. If there's something I can
get through to you today, for this weekend, and some
of you are gonna be off, you're gonna be traveling
over the next few days. It is this. A democratic
(16:45):
republic is not a set it and forget it, ron
pop peel. You don't get to do it and walk
away from it. It is a labor of love. You
know what. When I got my first carbs in nineteen
seventy nine, Swaggen Rabbit, it had one hundred and fifty
thousand miles on it. And when I got it, my
(17:06):
dad said, well, you'll own a car for the rest
of your life, and it will be nothing but a
problem for the rest of your life. And I remember thinking, more, Dan,
I'm kind of fired up about my little Volkswaghian rabbit.
Why you gotta make it seem like that? When I
got my first house, he said, a house is a
constant need because he's a maintenance man, right, A house
(17:27):
is a constant need for maintenance and work. You will have,
you will you will never get to relax again. And
I remember thinking, well, Dad, but that wasn't he wasn't
depressed about that. That was him giving fatherly advice. And
I kind of feel like, you know, that's what Ben
Franklin said when asked, you know, mister Franklin, is it
(17:50):
a monarchy or a republic? And he said a republic
if you can keep it, because he understood that they
had just written the bylaws for a document that would
require the public's constant attention and care and good decision making.
(18:13):
It's much easier to have a monarchy. And I think
many people, even in America today, without understanding what they're doing,
would like a benevolent dictatorship because they don't want to
have to fool with it. They don't want to have
to be adult. They don't want to have to make decisions.
They don't want to have to discern between one candidate
(18:33):
and the other, one plan and the other. They don't
want to have to keep up with what are the
effects of raising interest rates or raising the minimum wage,
or lowering interest rates or sending all your money to
Ukraine or sending missiles to Ukraine. They don't want to
do that. But one of the things we have to
do is we have to preserve our traditions because they don't.
(18:55):
And we can't sit around and say, well, the TV's
not doing it, and the school's not doing it, and
this person's not doing it. You've got to do it.
So I went to a history site very simple to
help you out, and this is what you have to share.
Print out the meaning of Thanksgiving this Thanksgiving and just say, hey, guy,
I know it's kind of old fashioned, but I'm feeling
(19:17):
pretty good Trump one, I'm feeling good about American and
I want to start a new tradition. I would like
to read and just y'all give me sixty seconds. I
would like to read the history of Thanksgiving, and history
dot com has one the easiest one. There's more in depth,
and it goes like this. Thanksgiving Day is a national
holiday in the United States and in twenty twenty four
(19:38):
falls on Thursday, November twenty eighth. In sixteen twenty one,
the Plymouth colonists from England and the Native American Wampoaga
one Podnoag people shared an autumn harvest feast that is
acknowledged as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies.
(20:00):
For more than two centuries, days of Thanksgiving were celebrated
by individual colonies and states. It wasn't until eighteen sixty three,
in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham
Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.
But the holiday is not without controversy. Many Americans, including
(20:23):
people of Native American ancestry, believe Thanksgiving celebrations might mask
the true history of oppression and bloodshed that underlies the
relationship between European settlers and Native Americans. These same people,
who even if they are a direct descendant, have no
problem with their great grandfather having murdered other tribes to
(20:48):
take hold of the land, don't want the same done
to them. And that's the reality of it all. The
history of humanity is one of conflict and defies that tradition.
So as you sit on your iPhone, having gone to
schools and universities under a scholarship for being Native American,
(21:13):
maybe give thanks that you have air conditioning and steel
belted radial tires and a roof over your head and
airplanes to fly around in. Because the advancements that occurred
on American soil after those evil, awful white men came
to town are being enjoyed by you to an extent
(21:33):
that almost seems like you halfway enjoy them. Now back
to the point. The beauty of this tradition, if you
heard what I said, is it began in sixteen twenty one.
It began almost an entire century and a half before
(21:55):
we declared our independence from England. It was not for
two hundred years that it became an official holiday, but
it was continuously observed. It's older than America, and distinctly America.
Now that's beautiful, but that means our time together is
(22:19):
drawing to a close for this week. For all of
our new listeners, welcome to the program. Our show is
quite different than everything else on the radio. That doesn't
mean that we're better by any means. It doesn't mean
we think we're better by any means. We're not intentionally
(22:39):
different than so many other shows. We're just intentionally true
to ourselves and the show we enjoy doing. And after
almost twenty years of doing this, we've come to the
conclusion that if we do the show that we love doing,
then we'll wake up every morning eager to do it,
and surely that has to come through the airwaves and
(23:03):
in time. While a lot of people won't dig it,
which is okay, those that do will hang around because
it will be quite different than anything else. We're going
to use more songs and more sound, and you'll come
to find out once we get further and further from
the election, we're gonna be silly and we're gonna make
(23:26):
some jokes that are gonna make you cringe. That's the
point of it. If you listen to Norm MacDonald doing
the Weekend Update and you had to turn it off,
then we're going to be a tough, tough cookie for
you to crumble, because we enjoy engaging and challenging to
(23:50):
the point that you even sometimes wonder if it's okay
to laugh or to agree with that. We're going to
talk about race. We're going to talk about sex, by
which I mean male and female. And gender is how
you refer to nouns, not human beings. It's a silly
term to avoid, a term that makes people uncomfortable. When
(24:14):
I was growing up and you would fill out a document,
it would ask what your sex is, and yes, you
giggled because you were a kid. You can still giggle
today because it's funny. These are things we should never
stop giggling. But sex was a reference to male or female,
boy or girl. And I don't care if that dude
(24:35):
that got elected that claims he's a girl is a girl.
To their credit, they're not letting him go in the
girl's bathroom because there shall be no boys in the
girl's bathroom, even if those boys claim that they're a girl.
It's just that simple. Now, if he wants to go
(24:57):
in there and sit on the pot, he can do that.
If he's wearing high heels when he does, he.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Can do that.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
You probably didn't know they already have a gender neutral bathroom.
It's the silliest thing I've ever heard. One of my
friends suggested that rand Paul should call for a filibuster
just to get a just to make it so that
that dude's beard starts filling in somewhere along the way. Listen,
(25:27):
if you want to be weird, you want to be different.
I'm a libertarian at heart. I am. I don't want
by kicking your door down. Go be weird on your own,
living on your own, in your own living room, Go
be weird as you want. I really don't. I am
way more libertarian than most people I know, and I
don't waste a lot of time on silly things. Well, Michael,
(25:50):
you're against abortion. I am because abortion is not a
political issue.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
To me.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Life begins at conception. You might not like that because
at times it's inconvenient, but you know, a lot of
things are inconvenient. Having cancer is inconvenient, but you can't
just declare it doesn't exist. Raising children's very inconvenient.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
It's hard work.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
That's what nobody tells you. It's hard. It's absolutely difficult.
You know what else is inconvenient and difficult Taking care
of elderly parents and being patient and talking to them
on the farm if you're not near them, and being
there with them if you're able to. When people email
(26:37):
me and say I retired early so I could take
care of my mom and dad, or so I can't
take care of my dad or my mom. Man, my
heart goes out to them. I understand what that means.
I watched my mom slowly, painfully die. It's a brutal,
brutal thing. And my dad's eighty four and his health
(26:58):
is not great. It's time. And you know what, Sometimes
you don't want to talk to those old people. Sometimes
you don't want to hear about the doctor's appointment. Sometimes
you don't want to hear the grumpy. Sometimes you don't
want to hear about the bodily functions that now are
the lifeblood of their conversation and the seeming occupation of
their existence. It happens, But these are the things we're
(27:21):
put on this earth to do. And just because a
birth or a conception is inconvenient doesn't mean it is
okay to end it. And just because the elderly or
inconvenient doesn't mean it's okay to turn our backs on them,
because those are the things that make us human, Not
(27:43):
that damned iPhone, Not how many messages you can respond
to or how much doom scrolling you can do on
the social media sites. Those aren't the things that we
are alive for. Those aren't the measures of our magnificence.
(28:05):
Those are things we do to distract us from the
difficulties of our endeavors, our struggles. But it's our struggles
that make us human. And I hope you'll remember that
over the coming week, because there's a very good chance
there's a very good chance that you're going to have
(28:27):
to patch up relations with someone in your family at
Thanksgiving this year. There's a very good chance that you're
going to have to spend more time with a loved
one than maybe you'd like to. There's a very good
chance that your patience is going to be tried. Just
(28:48):
remember this, You can't control the actions of that other person.
Let them go, Let them go. You're never going to
convince them. Let them go, either avoid them altogether, or
if you must be there, simply laugh. I laugh when
people insult me, and it gives them to almost almost exclusively.
(29:12):
Two responses. One is, this dude is crazy, and when
you're crazy, it scares people, and I am crazy. Number two,
this dude can't be touched. I can't lay a glove
on it. I have attempted to wound him and I haven't.
But that's something I control, nobody else controls it. I
(29:37):
don't talk politics off the air. I don't try to
convince people. Somebody say, you got to talk to my wife.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Here she is.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
We talked to my wife, she's a liberal. No, I won't.
I won't. We'll talk about recipes, we talk about travel.
I'm not going to try to convince her because she
arrived at this point after a whole lot of things
have happened. She probably doesn't know anything about politics. She
thinks she does. She's still angry her dad left her,
or her first boyfriend dumped her, or whatever else. She's
(30:09):
still sad that her career didn't measure up to what
she wanted to be, or she didn't get to date,
she didn't get to marry the boy she wanted to,
and that guy went off to be famous. I'm not
here to fix her. I'm here to fix me. I'm
here to live the best life I can and be
here for the people that I love. So if we
don't get to talk to you for the next week
because you're off for Thanksgiving, I just want you to
(30:30):
know I give thanks for you and everything you've done
to take back this country,
Popular Podcasts
Cold Case Files: Miami
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides.  Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer  Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.
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
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.