June 20, 2025 • 27 mins
Ben Maller (produced by Danny G.) has a fun Friday for you! He talks: Not for the Radio, Bootcamp Benny, Word of the Week, Foodie Fun, Flip-Flops, & more!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cutbooms.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes
a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants
of the old republic, a sol fashion of fairness. He
treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the
rich pill poppers in the penthouse.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The clearing House of Hot takes break free for something special.
The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts right now.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
In the air everywhere.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
The Fifth Hour with Me, Ben Mahler and Danny g Radio,
who is away this weekend hanging out with his pals
Covino and Rich. So you got me and this podcast
a super duper special pod on this Friday. And I'm
not blowing smoke. I'm not blowing smoke at all. No, no, no, oh,
(00:56):
what a week it was. As you know by listening,
the phones went haywire. There was a glitch here, a
glitch there, a glitch everywhere. Oh yeah, we had some issues.
We'll get to that at some point over the weekend.
But this being the Fifth Hour podcast, we go behind
the scenes, behind the microphone, behind the headphones and all that.
(01:20):
And it is a show dedicated to the super fans
of the Overnight if you have listened on a regular
basis to the Fifth Hour podcast, you are in the
one percent of the one percent. God bless you, all right,
God bless you for that. We thank you, because without that.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I mean we are wor screwed. We are.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
And I was away from my poach in the post
in the watch Tower of the overnight a couple of
nights this week. And those of you who were listening
to this podcast last weekend, of course you knew that
I was going to be away because I had said
at the end of the mail bag on Sunday that
(02:07):
I had some things to do.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
And I was gonna be away.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
And of course that did not stop a number of
people who are not p ones, who are more P
two s P three's, who sent me angry messages. Among
my favorites were, why are you not here? I'm working,
Why are you not here? Get your fat ass behind
the microphone? You only work four hours a day, Why
are you not here? Blah blah blah blah, went on
(02:30):
and on and on and on. So I didn't write
back to any of those people. I did not and
I've decided on this pod today that we are going
to go behind the scenes to a galaxy far far away.
And as the great radio man Paul Harvey would say,
(02:53):
you know what the news is, But in a minute,
you're gonna know what the rest of the story is.
In this case, you're going to know that I was
not hosting the overnight show. I was away a couple
nights Monday and Tuesday, Monday into Tuesday, and then Tuesday
Wednesday and all that, And in a minute, you're going
(03:15):
to find out the rest of the story. So it
has been many years since I have talked about what
I'm about to talk about into a microphone. In fact,
this goes back probably ten, twelve, thirteen, fourteen years. It's
been a long time, certainly over ten years, and I
think much longer than that. So let's go back in
(03:36):
the hot tub time machine.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
To a random year in.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
About the twenty twenty nine, twenty twenty ten, well probably
twenty ten, twenty eleven, I guess would be the period
somewhere in that period of time, probably twenty eleven. So
it's been fourteen years twenty eleven. We've locked in on
twenty eleven. So going back then, and I was hosting
(04:04):
filling in locally on our affiliate AM five seventy in
Los Angeles, the home of the Dodgers. Every once in
a while they will call me out of the bullpen
on a rogue mission, and I will go in and
yap away. And so I was asked by the person
who produced the show to step in.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So I did, and then.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
The host of the show during that broadcast it was
I want to say it was on a Thursday, but
might have been on a Wednesday or a Friday. But
I was hosting the show and the conversation came up
about you know, being a parent and family and all
that stuff, and I was asked if I had kids
(04:47):
or not, and I explained on that show against a
local show AM five seventy years ago, LA, I explained
that I did have a son, son who I helped raise.
I was helping raise at the time, and I helped
raised him since he was four years old at that time.
He was probably not much older than that. And it
(05:09):
was a rather benign conversation. However, that would be something
that sparked a bunch of diabolical fans of mine who
could not read the room and were starting to kind
of lurk around, and it freaked out my wife right
(05:33):
Whichel freaked out and some of these Stoker types who
are big fans, and I'm sure meant no harm at all,
but they were trying to get more intel about my son.
And this led to my wife getting some odd requests
on social media, and she was flustered, bedraggled, and she
(05:59):
was very upset.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
She who I did that I not talk.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
About him anymore on the radio to protect the family
from the lunatics that are out there. So I did
not talk about my steps on throughout his entire education.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
All of the.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Days I would take him to school or pick him
up from school, or the sporting events, all that stuff
that was just off the table, so off the table.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Did not talk about it on the radio.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Lived it, loved it, enjoyed all of it, just wonderful memories,
but not for the radio. Because my wife had requested
not to talk about it. So I never brought it
up until today, and I honored her request, and today
I'm allowed to talk about it because on Monday and
Tuesday of this past week, me and the wife took
(06:51):
off in the middle of the night after the show
a Sunday night and a Monday and headed to San Diego,
a city near and dear to my heart, that was
the place, as you may know if you followed the
nonsense here that I began my journey into broadcasting at
a commercial radio station, the mighty six ninety, which was a.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Border blaster station.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Ironically, it was only a couple miles away from the
address of.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
The old studio. Got off on SeaWorld Drive Pacific Coast Highway.
You make a right.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Turn on the off ramp coming from from the north,
make a right turn, then a quick left, and then
right across from the California Highway Patrol station is.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
The studio, which is no longer.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
The studio stations moved and it's a a Spanish station
border blaster station, but they're not there anymore. So anyway,
that's where I was, and literally less than two miles away,
I believe it was was MCRD. Now, if you live
in San Diego or you've spent time in San Diego,
(08:02):
chances are you know it's a great military town and
right next to the airport in prime real estate, some
of the most valuable real estate in all of San Diego,
right on the ocean is the Marine Corps Recruitment Depot
known as MCRD and that is where me and my
wife attended because there was family Day on Monday, and
(08:26):
then on Tuesday was graduation day. My son, my step son,
Patrick graduated. He is now a United States Marine. He
was in boot camp for the last three four months whatever.
It was, no phone, no contact, just sending letters. That
was the only contact, snail mail, as we like to say.
(08:47):
And very proud of his hard work, his dedication, his commitment.
This is something he's wanted for a long time. And
I recall he would come home from school and pop
on some military documentary and he'd study the military and
the different branches of the military and wanted to decide,
like what branch is he gonna go to? Is he
(09:07):
gonna go to the Army? Is he gonna go to
the Navy.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
The Air Force, the Marines?
Speaker 3 (09:14):
And after meticulous research, he determined that the Marines were
for him. And I'm very excited for him.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
This is something he's wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
He's a young guy, just graduated high school and he
has already passed boot camp and a bunch of his
friends and his contemporaries in school are just enjoying the
summer and trying to figure out what they're gonna do
next in their life. And he's got his life all
kind of mapped out, at least the next few years
(09:47):
of his life. So we spent several days in San Diego.
There was a a ceremony. I had never been to this.
It's an odd thing. I mentioned that the MCRD is
right neck to the radio station I used to work at,
and so it's close to that. And when I was
a kid growing up, I grew up surrounded by orange groves,
(10:10):
and then around the orange groves there was two military bases.
There was a El Tooral Marine Base and a Tust
and neither one's there by the way, Tust Orange and
El Toro and so much of them. My classmates when
I was in school were military brats that changed schools
every couple of years, and every once in a while
(10:31):
they would be friend one of these kids and they'd
take me on. I remember the Eltoral Marine Base. They
took us to the store there where we could buy
candy and all kinds of crap that we could get
without paying tax. So it was like, man, we're living
the dream here. We can get everything a lot cheaper
(10:51):
and all that stuff, And so I grew up around
the military. I remember the air show, watching the Blue Angels,
and when I was a kid, back before or a
lot of things changed in the world.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
When I went to the tust And Marine.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Base, they would allow us to like run through as
I remember, as I remember the planes, and they'd have
a plane open. You could like sit in the cockpit
of a real frickin plane, and they had tanks you
could go into the tank.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I mean, these are things. I don't think they do
that anymore.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
I doubt they do for liability reasons and for other reasons,
but back then we got to do it. So that
was my experience with that. And so even though I'd
worked in San Diego and I have friends that have
been in the Marines and the military and all that,
it was a much different experience actually being there, having
to go through security at the Marine Corps recruit depot
(11:43):
and they search your entire car. There's like a drug
sniffing dog out. So, as I understand it, the way
it works, if you're west of the Mississippi, if you're
west of the Mississippi River, you will go to San Diego.
And if you're east of the Mississippi River, you'll go
to Paris Island, which is in South Carolina, and this
(12:07):
place in San Diego has been around for over.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
One hundred years. It's been around since nineteen. It opened
in nineteen nineteen.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
We were learning all about it, and so you're there
and just run around and follow orders and they teach
you hygiene and cleanliness and all that stuff that you
need to know in the military. And it wraps up,
if you will, with this thing they called the Crucible,
(12:36):
which is a test of endurance and you have to
pass that if you want to end up becoming a marine.
And so the kid was able to pull that off
and lost a lot of weight, got in great shape
and dominated.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So we were in San.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Diego hanging out and that the family day was on Monday,
so we got to go around, got to go to
the They have a big museum, military museum, which is
next level, as you might imagine because it's from the
United States military.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
And we went to that. We went to some of
the stores and checked it all out all of it.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Ended up buying a few things at the store there,
and we did eat a meal the family there and
had some of my son's friends there. They were hanging
out from his high school buddies and so paid the
food actually wasn't that cheap, which I was like a
little bummed out by. I thought, well, it'd be cheaper
and it's like seventeen seventy for three pieces of chicken
(13:41):
and some fries some chicken figures, which was not not idea,
but you paid it whatever. Rare and appropriate, right, rare
and appropriate and whatnot. So got to experience family Day.
They had a presentation in this old theater and kind
of went over everything that takes place during boot camp
and all of that fine stuff, and it was very interesting.
(14:06):
I'm intrigued by it. And you know, fifty four hour
crucible things we talked about there where you're testing.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Your will and you run up.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
A hill and all this other random stuff. And so,
as I understand, you go through the boot camp and
then you pass that, and a lot of you guys
have been in the military.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
So you know better than me, and.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
You then get assigned to a different unit and different
branch of the Marines, and you're on your way. And
I've had a chance to correspond with a number of
my friends who I've worked with in radio who are
former Marines and former military, and there's a great rivalry
between the different branches of the military. One of my
great friends, Artie Art Martinez, who I worked with, was
(14:51):
a Fox Sports radio guy, and Art's a proud Marine.
He was in Desert Storm and has many many military
stories and he was very excited, very excited. He was
telling me some of the things about his experience and whatnot,
and that was great. And there's certain things about this
that I didn't know about. For example, on MCRD San Diego,
(15:17):
there is a piece of land which is like the
Holy Land there the Marine Corps. They have the parade
Deck they call it, which is just a big field
of not cement, but it's like it's paved, but it's
a memorial. It's honored as a memorial to the veterans
of World War Two, Korea, Vietnam, and the Iraq War.
(15:40):
And they will not allow you to walk on that.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
That is right in the middle.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
That's where they had the graduation ceremony on Tuesday, and
there are people standing around it, these military drill sergeant
people who will scream at you and chase you if
you walk on this. It's like the flora is lava
and you cannot cannot talk about that, you cannot do
it or cannot walk on that rather. So so anyway,
(16:08):
the graduation was on Tuesday, and went out, had a nice,
nice meal in San Diego and just learned all about
the military. So that was why I was away from
my post behind the microphone for a couple of nights
this week. The rare and appropriate personal duty called. And
(16:28):
now you know the rest of the story. The rest
of the story. So I'll give you occasional updates on
what happens next. And I believe the next assignment will
be Camp Pendleton. I think pretty much all these guys
who graduated boot Camp. I'm not saying anything out of
school here, you end up going to San Diego's up.
(16:51):
You go from San Diego up to Ocean Side, which
is like halfway a little north of Ocean Side, between
South Orange County and San Diego is Camp Pendleton's massive base,
which covers up some amazing real estate in southern California.
So he'll he'll be going there, and then he'll be
gone for another couple of months, and then eventually he'll
(17:12):
get assigned wherever he's going to go, and who knows,
could be anywhere in the United States or Japan, or
who knows where. I have no idea. He doesn't know,
nobody knows. It's the mystery of it all, the mystery
of it all. So very excited for him. This is
again what he wanted to do. It's his life is
(17:33):
dream to be in this, and he's getting that dream.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Started early on.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
So I wish him nothing but success and hopefully this
leads to amazing experiences and all of that fun stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
So turning the page from that is time now for
the word of the week.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
That's right, the word of the week on this Friday,
the twentieth.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Day of June, and the word of the week is marine.
I figure it will be appropriate. Yeah right.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I mean, I just told a story about going to
see the Marine boot camp facility in San Diego, which
is as again, I'm amazed at the real estate right
next to the airport, the views of the skyline of
San Diego off in the distance.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
We're right on the water. It's just amazing. Anyway.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
The word marine, like much of our language, originates from
the Latin word marinus, meaning of the sea, belonging to
the sea. The term is derived from mayor, the Latin
word for sa.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Now.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
The term entered the English lexicon through Old French marine
in the fourteenth century, and originally the word was used
to describe things related to the sea, such as marine
life or navigation, like Hey.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
I'm going down to the marine.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
And over time it expanded, as you might imagine, to
include military context like the Marine Forces or go the
United States Marine Corps referring to soldiers who serve at
sea or associated with naval operations. And there are related
(19:22):
terms such as maritime and which also means of the
sea and near the sea, and the shares similar origins
and whatnot. But the word of the week, the word
of the week is marine marine, and that takes us
into some food e fun.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Great for food e fun.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
So these are some actual food deals that have popped up.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Now most of these are fast.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Food, because most of us eat fast food. Even I
rare and appropriate will make a pilgrimage to raising canes,
although some of you tell me it's not that good,
but anyway, Del Taco, which is not available everywhere, but
Del Taco, debuted a new slow cooked pork carnita. Those
are available now at Del Taco, which is mostly in
(20:14):
the western part of the United States.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
So you've got that.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Little Caesars has introduced a new Fantastic four and one
pizza inspired by Yes, the Fantastic Four. It's a well
cross promotion with the the movie, and that has been
available since back on June sixteenth. Now Marvel Studio is
(20:41):
Fantastic four first Steps will be hitting theaters coming up
on July twenty fifth, but in advance of that, The
Fantastic four and one pizza features eight slices made from
the signature Crust brand.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
You know, the brand signats across.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Each top, with classic cheese, Pepperoni, Italian sausage and bacon
and pepper and holopano, all for the suggested price of
seven ninety nine. This must be a pain in the
tukis to make. It's gotta be right. So it's two
(21:19):
of this, two of that, two of that, two of
that and throw it all together and tada.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah. Now.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Additionally, to celebrate the launch, they are partnering Little Caesars
partnering with Fandango to offer fans who spend twenty dollars
or more online or in store between this past week
and then August tenth, they'll get a code for four
dollars off a movie ticket.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
So you got that.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
If that's your jam, have a great time, knock yourself out.
What else do we have on foody Fun Now? Wendy's
has long launched a Talkies Fueg meal with new Fuego
chicken sandwich and Fuego fries. Fuego at participating restaurants. You
(22:13):
can have a little spice, a little bit of a
spice in your life that actually starts today, by the way,
that starts.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Today on June twentieth.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
And the new Fuego fries the classic hot and crispy fries,
tossed them in a tangy chili lime seasoning and serve
them in a custom limit edition tear away bag for
easier snacking. So that is available. And they also have
additional arcade game where you can earn points and unlock
(22:48):
prizes with a chance to win ten thousand dollars. That
meal available at Windy's restaurants in Canada beginning June twentieth.
Prices may vary, so not just in the States, but
also in Canada.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
So you've got that. What else do we have on
food he Fun? Ready for food he fun Well?
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Taco Bell has launched a new Crispy Chicken taco and
burrito featuring all new Crispy Chicken strips, so you can
get that, put that in in your belly and knock
yourself out. Sonic has unveiled the new Grillos Pickles Big
(23:32):
deal meal. That's a mouthful that starts ten days from today.
It's available for a limited time starting on June thirtieth.
And I'm good. I know that alf is addicted to pickles.
He sent us a gift basket of pickle items which
we're given to other people at the radio station because
(23:55):
both myself and Eddie not fans of the pickle, but
other people did did enjoy the pickle, So there was that.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
There was that for sure.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
What else, There's nothing really major. I don't think I'm
missing anything. I mean, we had a lot of the
food stuff last week. All right, we'll get out on that.
I got a big weekend ahead. I will be here
with tails from a random early morning surprise. I'll tease
(24:27):
that for the next edition of the podcast. A random
early in the morning surprise that should not should not
have happened. The logistics on this should not have happened,
but did happen. If you would like to send a
message in for the mail bag, the fifth Hour mail
(24:48):
Bag on the Sunday Pod, you can do that right now.
Send it care of Real fifth Hour, Real fifth Hour
at gmail dot com. That's Real fifth Hour at gmail
dot com, and put your name and city in there.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Otherwise you're not going to get any credit. You're not.
That's just the way it is.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
And today, by the way, if I did not mention that,
only I did National Flip Flop Day. And I don't
mean flip flopping and all that stuff, but the design
I learned this, I fell down a rabbit hole, as
I'm known to do. The modern day sandal, which I
wear pretty much every night when I go to work
because I have a job that allows you to wear
sandals when you go to work. The modern day sandal,
(25:33):
we can thank our friends in Japan was inspired by
the Japanese zori z O r I zori and the
Encyclopedia of History of Japanese Manners and custom states Japanese
children use the flip flop type shoes when first learning
to walk, and returning Americans brought the zori back from Japan.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
At the end of the Second World War.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
It was a novelty item for friends and family, and
they brought this back as like a souvenir, and so
we need to owe I guess we do. Oh the
popularity of the current sandal to the Japanese During.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
World War Two.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
They took over much of Southeast Asia's natural resources and they.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Lost in World War Two. They looked to their resources
and they were trying to.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Find a way to improve the economy, and as the
legend goes, they ended up using the materials that they
had and flip flops with bright colors and all the
different variations.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
But it all started after World War Two. So there
you go.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
All right, anyway, I have a wonderful again, rest of
your Friday today. I got new podcast all weekend long
and later skater Osta Pasta Gotta murder.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
I gotta go
Cutbooms.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes
a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants
of the old republic, a sol fashion of fairness. He
treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the
rich pill poppers in the penthouse.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The clearing House of Hot takes break free for something special.
The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts right now.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
In the air everywhere.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
The Fifth Hour with Me, Ben Mahler and Danny g Radio,
who is away this weekend hanging out with his pals
Covino and Rich. So you got me and this podcast
a super duper special pod on this Friday. And I'm
not blowing smoke. I'm not blowing smoke at all. No, no, no, oh,
(00:56):
what a week it was. As you know by listening,
the phones went haywire. There was a glitch here, a
glitch there, a glitch everywhere. Oh yeah, we had some issues.
We'll get to that at some point over the weekend.
But this being the Fifth Hour podcast, we go behind
the scenes, behind the microphone, behind the headphones and all that.
(01:20):
And it is a show dedicated to the super fans
of the Overnight if you have listened on a regular
basis to the Fifth Hour podcast, you are in the
one percent of the one percent. God bless you, all right,
God bless you for that. We thank you, because without that.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I mean we are wor screwed. We are.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
And I was away from my poach in the post
in the watch Tower of the overnight a couple of
nights this week. And those of you who were listening
to this podcast last weekend, of course you knew that
I was going to be away because I had said
at the end of the mail bag on Sunday that
(02:07):
I had some things to do.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
And I was gonna be away.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
And of course that did not stop a number of
people who are not p ones, who are more P
two s P three's, who sent me angry messages. Among
my favorites were, why are you not here? I'm working,
Why are you not here? Get your fat ass behind
the microphone? You only work four hours a day, Why
are you not here? Blah blah blah blah, went on
(02:30):
and on and on and on. So I didn't write
back to any of those people. I did not and
I've decided on this pod today that we are going
to go behind the scenes to a galaxy far far away.
And as the great radio man Paul Harvey would say,
(02:53):
you know what the news is, But in a minute,
you're gonna know what the rest of the story is.
In this case, you're going to know that I was
not hosting the overnight show. I was away a couple
nights Monday and Tuesday, Monday into Tuesday, and then Tuesday
Wednesday and all that, And in a minute, you're going
(03:15):
to find out the rest of the story. So it
has been many years since I have talked about what
I'm about to talk about into a microphone. In fact,
this goes back probably ten, twelve, thirteen, fourteen years. It's
been a long time, certainly over ten years, and I
think much longer than that. So let's go back in
(03:36):
the hot tub time machine.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
To a random year in.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
About the twenty twenty nine, twenty twenty ten, well probably
twenty ten, twenty eleven, I guess would be the period
somewhere in that period of time, probably twenty eleven. So
it's been fourteen years twenty eleven. We've locked in on
twenty eleven. So going back then, and I was hosting
(04:04):
filling in locally on our affiliate AM five seventy in
Los Angeles, the home of the Dodgers. Every once in
a while they will call me out of the bullpen
on a rogue mission, and I will go in and
yap away. And so I was asked by the person
who produced the show to step in.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So I did, and then.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
The host of the show during that broadcast it was
I want to say it was on a Thursday, but
might have been on a Wednesday or a Friday. But
I was hosting the show and the conversation came up
about you know, being a parent and family and all
that stuff, and I was asked if I had kids
(04:47):
or not, and I explained on that show against a
local show AM five seventy years ago, LA, I explained
that I did have a son, son who I helped raise.
I was helping raise at the time, and I helped
raised him since he was four years old at that time.
He was probably not much older than that. And it
(05:09):
was a rather benign conversation. However, that would be something
that sparked a bunch of diabolical fans of mine who
could not read the room and were starting to kind
of lurk around, and it freaked out my wife right
(05:33):
Whichel freaked out and some of these Stoker types who
are big fans, and I'm sure meant no harm at all,
but they were trying to get more intel about my son.
And this led to my wife getting some odd requests
on social media, and she was flustered, bedraggled, and she
(05:59):
was very upset.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
She who I did that I not talk.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
About him anymore on the radio to protect the family
from the lunatics that are out there. So I did
not talk about my steps on throughout his entire education.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
All of the.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Days I would take him to school or pick him
up from school, or the sporting events, all that stuff
that was just off the table, so off the table.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Did not talk about it on the radio.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Lived it, loved it, enjoyed all of it, just wonderful memories,
but not for the radio. Because my wife had requested
not to talk about it. So I never brought it
up until today, and I honored her request, and today
I'm allowed to talk about it because on Monday and
Tuesday of this past week, me and the wife took
(06:51):
off in the middle of the night after the show
a Sunday night and a Monday and headed to San Diego,
a city near and dear to my heart, that was
the place, as you may know if you followed the
nonsense here that I began my journey into broadcasting at
a commercial radio station, the mighty six ninety, which was a.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Border blaster station.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Ironically, it was only a couple miles away from the
address of.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
The old studio. Got off on SeaWorld Drive Pacific Coast Highway.
You make a right.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Turn on the off ramp coming from from the north,
make a right turn, then a quick left, and then
right across from the California Highway Patrol station is.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
The studio, which is no longer.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
The studio stations moved and it's a a Spanish station
border blaster station, but they're not there anymore. So anyway,
that's where I was, and literally less than two miles away,
I believe it was was MCRD. Now, if you live
in San Diego or you've spent time in San Diego,
(08:02):
chances are you know it's a great military town and
right next to the airport in prime real estate, some
of the most valuable real estate in all of San Diego,
right on the ocean is the Marine Corps Recruitment Depot
known as MCRD and that is where me and my
wife attended because there was family Day on Monday, and
(08:26):
then on Tuesday was graduation day. My son, my step son,
Patrick graduated. He is now a United States Marine. He
was in boot camp for the last three four months whatever.
It was, no phone, no contact, just sending letters. That
was the only contact, snail mail, as we like to say.
(08:47):
And very proud of his hard work, his dedication, his commitment.
This is something he's wanted for a long time. And
I recall he would come home from school and pop
on some military documentary and he'd study the military and
the different branches of the military and wanted to decide,
like what branch is he gonna go to? Is he
(09:07):
gonna go to the Army? Is he gonna go to
the Navy.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
The Air Force, the Marines?
Speaker 3 (09:14):
And after meticulous research, he determined that the Marines were
for him. And I'm very excited for him.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
This is something he's wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
He's a young guy, just graduated high school and he
has already passed boot camp and a bunch of his
friends and his contemporaries in school are just enjoying the
summer and trying to figure out what they're gonna do
next in their life. And he's got his life all
kind of mapped out, at least the next few years
(09:47):
of his life. So we spent several days in San Diego.
There was a a ceremony. I had never been to this.
It's an odd thing. I mentioned that the MCRD is
right neck to the radio station I used to work at,
and so it's close to that. And when I was
a kid growing up, I grew up surrounded by orange groves,
(10:10):
and then around the orange groves there was two military bases.
There was a El Tooral Marine Base and a Tust
and neither one's there by the way, Tust Orange and
El Toro and so much of them. My classmates when
I was in school were military brats that changed schools
every couple of years, and every once in a while
(10:31):
they would be friend one of these kids and they'd
take me on. I remember the Eltoral Marine Base. They
took us to the store there where we could buy
candy and all kinds of crap that we could get
without paying tax. So it was like, man, we're living
the dream here. We can get everything a lot cheaper
(10:51):
and all that stuff, And so I grew up around
the military. I remember the air show, watching the Blue Angels,
and when I was a kid, back before or a
lot of things changed in the world.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
When I went to the tust And Marine.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Base, they would allow us to like run through as
I remember, as I remember the planes, and they'd have
a plane open. You could like sit in the cockpit
of a real frickin plane, and they had tanks you
could go into the tank.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I mean, these are things. I don't think they do
that anymore.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
I doubt they do for liability reasons and for other reasons,
but back then we got to do it. So that
was my experience with that. And so even though I'd
worked in San Diego and I have friends that have
been in the Marines and the military and all that,
it was a much different experience actually being there, having
to go through security at the Marine Corps recruit depot
(11:43):
and they search your entire car. There's like a drug
sniffing dog out. So, as I understand it, the way
it works, if you're west of the Mississippi, if you're
west of the Mississippi River, you will go to San Diego.
And if you're east of the Mississippi River, you'll go
to Paris Island, which is in South Carolina, and this
(12:07):
place in San Diego has been around for over.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
One hundred years. It's been around since nineteen. It opened
in nineteen nineteen.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
We were learning all about it, and so you're there
and just run around and follow orders and they teach
you hygiene and cleanliness and all that stuff that you
need to know in the military. And it wraps up,
if you will, with this thing they called the Crucible,
(12:36):
which is a test of endurance and you have to
pass that if you want to end up becoming a marine.
And so the kid was able to pull that off
and lost a lot of weight, got in great shape
and dominated.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So we were in San.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Diego hanging out and that the family day was on Monday,
so we got to go around, got to go to
the They have a big museum, military museum, which is
next level, as you might imagine because it's from the
United States military.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
And we went to that. We went to some of
the stores and checked it all out all of it.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Ended up buying a few things at the store there,
and we did eat a meal the family there and
had some of my son's friends there. They were hanging
out from his high school buddies and so paid the
food actually wasn't that cheap, which I was like a
little bummed out by. I thought, well, it'd be cheaper
and it's like seventeen seventy for three pieces of chicken
(13:41):
and some fries some chicken figures, which was not not idea,
but you paid it whatever. Rare and appropriate, right, rare
and appropriate and whatnot. So got to experience family Day.
They had a presentation in this old theater and kind
of went over everything that takes place during boot camp
and all of that fine stuff, and it was very interesting.
(14:06):
I'm intrigued by it. And you know, fifty four hour
crucible things we talked about there where you're testing.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Your will and you run up.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
A hill and all this other random stuff. And so,
as I understand, you go through the boot camp and
then you pass that, and a lot of you guys
have been in the military.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
So you know better than me, and.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
You then get assigned to a different unit and different
branch of the Marines, and you're on your way. And
I've had a chance to correspond with a number of
my friends who I've worked with in radio who are
former Marines and former military, and there's a great rivalry
between the different branches of the military. One of my
great friends, Artie Art Martinez, who I worked with, was
(14:51):
a Fox Sports radio guy, and Art's a proud Marine.
He was in Desert Storm and has many many military
stories and he was very excited, very excited. He was
telling me some of the things about his experience and whatnot,
and that was great. And there's certain things about this
that I didn't know about. For example, on MCRD San Diego,
(15:17):
there is a piece of land which is like the
Holy Land there the Marine Corps. They have the parade
Deck they call it, which is just a big field
of not cement, but it's like it's paved, but it's
a memorial. It's honored as a memorial to the veterans
of World War Two, Korea, Vietnam, and the Iraq War.
(15:40):
And they will not allow you to walk on that.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
That is right in the middle.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
That's where they had the graduation ceremony on Tuesday, and
there are people standing around it, these military drill sergeant
people who will scream at you and chase you if
you walk on this. It's like the flora is lava
and you cannot cannot talk about that, you cannot do
it or cannot walk on that rather. So so anyway,
(16:08):
the graduation was on Tuesday, and went out, had a nice,
nice meal in San Diego and just learned all about
the military. So that was why I was away from
my post behind the microphone for a couple of nights
this week. The rare and appropriate personal duty called. And
(16:28):
now you know the rest of the story. The rest
of the story. So I'll give you occasional updates on
what happens next. And I believe the next assignment will
be Camp Pendleton. I think pretty much all these guys
who graduated boot Camp. I'm not saying anything out of
school here, you end up going to San Diego's up.
(16:51):
You go from San Diego up to Ocean Side, which
is like halfway a little north of Ocean Side, between
South Orange County and San Diego is Camp Pendleton's massive base,
which covers up some amazing real estate in southern California.
So he'll he'll be going there, and then he'll be
gone for another couple of months, and then eventually he'll
(17:12):
get assigned wherever he's going to go, and who knows,
could be anywhere in the United States or Japan, or
who knows where. I have no idea. He doesn't know,
nobody knows. It's the mystery of it all, the mystery
of it all. So very excited for him. This is
again what he wanted to do. It's his life is
(17:33):
dream to be in this, and he's getting that dream.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Started early on.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
So I wish him nothing but success and hopefully this
leads to amazing experiences and all of that fun stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
So turning the page from that is time now for
the word of the week.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
That's right, the word of the week on this Friday,
the twentieth.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Day of June, and the word of the week is marine.
I figure it will be appropriate. Yeah right.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I mean, I just told a story about going to
see the Marine boot camp facility in San Diego, which
is as again, I'm amazed at the real estate right
next to the airport, the views of the skyline of
San Diego off in the distance.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
We're right on the water. It's just amazing. Anyway.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
The word marine, like much of our language, originates from
the Latin word marinus, meaning of the sea, belonging to
the sea. The term is derived from mayor, the Latin
word for sa.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Now.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
The term entered the English lexicon through Old French marine
in the fourteenth century, and originally the word was used
to describe things related to the sea, such as marine
life or navigation, like Hey.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
I'm going down to the marine.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
And over time it expanded, as you might imagine, to
include military context like the Marine Forces or go the
United States Marine Corps referring to soldiers who serve at
sea or associated with naval operations. And there are related
(19:22):
terms such as maritime and which also means of the
sea and near the sea, and the shares similar origins
and whatnot. But the word of the week, the word
of the week is marine marine, and that takes us
into some food e fun.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Great for food e fun.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
So these are some actual food deals that have popped up.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Now most of these are fast.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Food, because most of us eat fast food. Even I
rare and appropriate will make a pilgrimage to raising canes,
although some of you tell me it's not that good,
but anyway, Del Taco, which is not available everywhere, but
Del Taco, debuted a new slow cooked pork carnita. Those
are available now at Del Taco, which is mostly in
(20:14):
the western part of the United States.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
So you've got that.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Little Caesars has introduced a new Fantastic four and one
pizza inspired by Yes, the Fantastic Four. It's a well
cross promotion with the the movie, and that has been
available since back on June sixteenth. Now Marvel Studio is
(20:41):
Fantastic four first Steps will be hitting theaters coming up
on July twenty fifth, but in advance of that, The
Fantastic four and one pizza features eight slices made from
the signature Crust brand.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
You know, the brand signats across.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Each top, with classic cheese, Pepperoni, Italian sausage and bacon
and pepper and holopano, all for the suggested price of
seven ninety nine. This must be a pain in the
tukis to make. It's gotta be right. So it's two
(21:19):
of this, two of that, two of that, two of
that and throw it all together and tada.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah. Now.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Additionally, to celebrate the launch, they are partnering Little Caesars
partnering with Fandango to offer fans who spend twenty dollars
or more online or in store between this past week
and then August tenth, they'll get a code for four
dollars off a movie ticket.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
So you got that.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
If that's your jam, have a great time, knock yourself out.
What else do we have on foody Fun Now? Wendy's
has long launched a Talkies Fueg meal with new Fuego
chicken sandwich and Fuego fries. Fuego at participating restaurants. You
(22:13):
can have a little spice, a little bit of a
spice in your life that actually starts today, by the way,
that starts.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Today on June twentieth.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
And the new Fuego fries the classic hot and crispy fries,
tossed them in a tangy chili lime seasoning and serve
them in a custom limit edition tear away bag for
easier snacking. So that is available. And they also have
additional arcade game where you can earn points and unlock
(22:48):
prizes with a chance to win ten thousand dollars. That
meal available at Windy's restaurants in Canada beginning June twentieth.
Prices may vary, so not just in the States, but
also in Canada.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
So you've got that. What else do we have on
food he Fun? Ready for food he fun Well?
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Taco Bell has launched a new Crispy Chicken taco and
burrito featuring all new Crispy Chicken strips, so you can
get that, put that in in your belly and knock
yourself out. Sonic has unveiled the new Grillos Pickles Big
(23:32):
deal meal. That's a mouthful that starts ten days from today.
It's available for a limited time starting on June thirtieth.
And I'm good. I know that alf is addicted to pickles.
He sent us a gift basket of pickle items which
we're given to other people at the radio station because
(23:55):
both myself and Eddie not fans of the pickle, but
other people did did enjoy the pickle, So there was that.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
There was that for sure.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
What else, There's nothing really major. I don't think I'm
missing anything. I mean, we had a lot of the
food stuff last week. All right, we'll get out on that.
I got a big weekend ahead. I will be here
with tails from a random early morning surprise. I'll tease
(24:27):
that for the next edition of the podcast. A random
early in the morning surprise that should not should not
have happened. The logistics on this should not have happened,
but did happen. If you would like to send a
message in for the mail bag, the fifth Hour mail
(24:48):
Bag on the Sunday Pod, you can do that right now.
Send it care of Real fifth Hour, Real fifth Hour
at gmail dot com. That's Real fifth Hour at gmail
dot com, and put your name and city in there.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Otherwise you're not going to get any credit. You're not.
That's just the way it is.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
And today, by the way, if I did not mention that,
only I did National Flip Flop Day. And I don't
mean flip flopping and all that stuff, but the design
I learned this, I fell down a rabbit hole, as
I'm known to do. The modern day sandal, which I
wear pretty much every night when I go to work
because I have a job that allows you to wear
sandals when you go to work. The modern day sandal,
(25:33):
we can thank our friends in Japan was inspired by
the Japanese zori z O r I zori and the
Encyclopedia of History of Japanese Manners and custom states Japanese
children use the flip flop type shoes when first learning
to walk, and returning Americans brought the zori back from Japan.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
At the end of the Second World War.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
It was a novelty item for friends and family, and
they brought this back as like a souvenir, and so
we need to owe I guess we do. Oh the
popularity of the current sandal to the Japanese During.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
World War Two.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
They took over much of Southeast Asia's natural resources and they.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Lost in World War Two. They looked to their resources
and they were trying to.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Find a way to improve the economy, and as the
legend goes, they ended up using the materials that they
had and flip flops with bright colors and all the
different variations.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
But it all started after World War Two. So there
you go.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
All right, anyway, I have a wonderful again, rest of
your Friday today. I got new podcast all weekend long
and later skater Osta Pasta Gotta murder.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
I gotta go
Host
Ben Maller
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