Sprite or Spite?

Today, Doug Pike discusses fatherhood and Sprite.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Remember what it was impossible to misplacethe TV remote because you were the TV
remote. Remember when music sounded likethis? Remember when social media was truly
social? Hey John, how's itgoing today? Good? Well, this
show is all about you. Thisis fifty plus with Doug Pike, helpful

(00:27):
information on your finances, good health, and what to do for fun.
Fifty plus brought to you by theUT Health Houston Institute on Aging Informed Decisions
for a healthier, happier life andby Texas Indoor Air Quality Specialists because clean
air is healthier air. And nowfifty plus with Doug Pike. Thursday editions

(00:50):
of the program starts right now.I am two passes through. Is that
my son getting home? I lovethese ring doorbells? I really do.
This is through wordle and so farI have the first letter and nothing else,
and I have to beat will bythe end of the show. We

(01:11):
work on this during break sometimes haveyou done it already yet? No?
I'm working on it. They gotfive grays so far, well, and
I have one letter and it's inthe right place. Okay, So that's
why I got five more tries basicallyzero help. Yes, let's move on.
Shall we welcome to Thursday and thelingering chance of more rounds of miscellaneous

(01:33):
showers and thunder and power outages thatjust have come to feel inescapable of late
for tens of thousands of people.And while we're here, your ten second
weather ten second weather report courtesy ofTexas Indoor Air Quality Specialists. Because clean
air is healthy air, it goeslike this rain for lots of us through
Saturday, then not so much rainon Sunday, then not at all on

(01:57):
Monday and Tuesday, and as abonus, no sign of ninety degrees,
no sign of ninety degrees at allin all of those days. It's in
the eighties the high eighties, granted, but it's the eighties and not the
nineties, and there's nothing wrong withthat. Every day we can get it.
Speaking of power outages, I sawa story this morning about Centerpoint having

(02:20):
pulled down its outage tracking map,which was a really handy tool, honestly,
especially for someone in my position tryingto help people understand where the power's
out, where it's coming back,And then there was additionally prediction on when
things would be fixed. There arestill numbers posted at the Center Point site

(02:44):
how many they've restored. How manyare still out and such as that,
but the map is gone, andthere was a pretty big number of outages
yesterday, but it's down to justa handful of thousands, which is still
a lot of people to be withoutelectricity, even if they've only been without
it for four hours, because atthat point you've pretty much wasted almost everything

(03:07):
in your refrigerator and freezer, andso you got to go get a bank
loan to go fill up your fridgeand freezer again. Stock market took another
nose dive this morning. Dow wasdown three eighty early. I think I
just heard a two hundred and somethingpoint deficit from yesterday at present, and

(03:29):
it's about five percent off it's highsix or seven weeks ago. Whenever it
was that we were playing with fortythousands, a high thirty eight and changed
barely at this point. And that'sthat's a lot. That's a lot of
carving done. Hopefully oil down too, by the way, but not enough

(03:50):
to turn the savings at the pumpeven into a small slurpy. So it's
pennies we're playing with now, andthey need to keep going in the other
direction down and they need to dothat fast and gold thanks as always to
Houston Goldexchange dot Com up a fewbucks right now. Well an hour ago
twenty three sixty eight announce Onward weplot opening today with the Biden Administration's announcement.

(04:19):
I just don't understand this announcement ofMenstrual Hygiene Day, complete with a
list of five ways that employers canmake their workplaces menstruation friendly for what it
calls menstruators. An interesting part ofthose five guidelines was the fourth, which

(04:41):
reads guarantee access to paid sick leave, provide explicit guidance that menstruation is a
qualified condition for the leave, andensure that employees and their managers are aware
these are allowable reasons to use sickleave. Okay, Okay, I'm not I
have no issue with all of that. However, I do have issue with

(05:04):
the word menstruator when we're talking aboutwomen. Honestly, I find that term
kind of cringy and creepy. Reallynot really a big problem with the idea,
but this slow and steady erasure ofthe words women and women needs to

(05:24):
stop. It needs to stop.Halfway around the world in Denmark, the
University of Copenhagen, I've actually beennot to the university, but I had
dinner once in Copenhagen with some guys. I was all the way over there
in Europe with for a fishing trip, which was one of the most fun
times I've ever had. But Idigress. So halfway around the world.

(05:46):
At the u of C the Universityof Copenhagen, protesters railing against Israel demanded
that the university divest from companies thatdo business in the West Bank, which
the university said, Oh, okay, we'll cave in now. The divestiture

(06:08):
comes for Airbnb, Bookends, dotCom, and e Dreams. It's not
a tremendous financial hit either way forthe university, only adds up to about
one hundred and forty thousand dollars total. But you can start the countdown now
to the next round of demands fromboth whiny brats in the next capitulation to

(06:32):
demands of other spoiled students elsewhere inthe world. Wait till those Harvard kids
who didn't get to graduate here aboutthis. They're gonna lose their minds And
how much time do I have?Will wasn't that Let's make this easy way?
Oh, here's one from the golfWorld. In case you didn't hear

(06:53):
it, World number one, ScottieScheffer had all the charges against him dismissed
after an incident at the PGACH Championshiptwo weeks ago left him in handcuffs and
booked into the local jail. Arrestingofficers seem pretty upset about tearing the knee
of his eighty dollars pants. Thetwo, now that it's all settled out,

(07:14):
both seem to have put this onebehind them, and I believe there
was a handshake between them something likethat, maybe Scott, he'll buy him
some new pants. Then again,maybe not. Probably not all right,
we gotta take a little break hereon the way out of late health is
actually it's several clinics around town wherethere are vascular clinics where processes and procedures

(07:39):
such as prostate artery embolization take place, The embolization of arteries that feed fibroids
in women, the nasty veins yousee on your legs or wherever can be
made to go as well with vasculartreatments. They have these tiny little tubes
that can go into your veins,into your even capilary that are narrow that

(08:01):
a human hair that's how finely tunedthis area of medicine is now. And
what they do is they go inthere and they find that just the right
one where the problem starts and what'sfeeding that problem, and they shut it
off. They just shut it off, and with that shut off goes the
problem. If your prostates keeping youfrom getting a good night's sleep, if

(08:22):
your fibroids are affecting you as awoman, check in with a latehealth dot
com. Most of what they dothere, by the way, is covered
by Medicare and Medicaid, which isvery helpful these days. They also do
regenerative medicine there, which is incrediblyeffective and proving more and more so almost
daily in the alleviation of chronic pain. Seven one, three, five,

(08:46):
eight, eight, thirty eight eightyeight. I had an email from a
listener just yesterday asking about late healthand how to contact them. He was
having a hard time understanding, forvery for personal reasons, what was being
said and where to go. Andif you ever are worried about getting in
touch with one of these sponsors ofthe sponsors of the show, just email
me directly. I'll tell you aboutthat later. A latehealth dot Com A

(09:09):
L. A t e A latehealthdot com. You know, they sure
don't make them like they used to. That's why every few months we wash
him, check his fluids, andspring on a fresh coat of wax.
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike. Here we go, Thursday, second

(09:33):
six, only the second segment.It seems like we've been sitting here a
little bit longer that maybe it's allthat. Where did that come from?
L tempo? Oh? Sure itdid? You know it did? It
was very good too. It wasgood. That's all you got. Yeah,
it was okay. Now, yeahit went from good to fine.
We're going out. Okay, it'sall right. You endured it. Yeah,

(09:58):
I guess I'll take it. Wasthere any dessert I did not notice?
Was there any truth? There werecupcakes out therecakes? I saw?
Yeah? I was kind of Iwas kind of leaning on trash letches.
Yeah, I mean I love trussLedchen, you and me both. There's
one place that I'm not going totell you where it is on the air
because I'm very disappointed. Not onlydid they raise the price of their Trust

(10:20):
ltches, but they also reduced theserving size by conservatively for Yeah, it's
just this little pathetic looking thing,and worse, they haven't gotten a smaller
container to put it in, soit looks like it fills it up.
So what they've got basically is aBB in a box car that they want

(10:43):
like nine or ten dollars for threebytes. No, no, oh,
it's great, but not seven oreight bucks. Great, No, not
for that serving size. What areyou watching over my shoulder? TV?
Oh my? Moving on in NewYork, where a jury deliveries as we
speak, on the fate of DonaldTrump in a case that has no victim

(11:07):
and in which there's no actual crimecommitted. According to most accounts, steady
procession of attorneys in courtroom reporters havepicked apart nearly every aspect of what was
presented, even so far as todescribe Judge Wan Mersham's behavior and decisions throughout
the trial as pretty off the rails. If this jury actually does convict the

(11:31):
former president on any of the accountsagainst him, expect an appeal within minutes.
And I'm sure it's already written,and expect that verdict to get thrown
out after any any unbiased judge upthe ladder looks at those proceedings and how
they unfolded. It's been It's justit's been a circus. As has been
reported more than once. It's veryfrustrating. Um I can do this one

(11:56):
by an administration. Boy, I'mthere's gonna be a lot about that and
about college kids here. Over thecourse of the hour, Bid administration continues
to do this despite the Supreme Courttelling him he can't. He's like a
child, a spoiled child. Sometimes, this student loan forgiveness program that's now

(12:16):
come to include students even at uberexpensive and elite Harvard University, well to
remind everyone, it's not loan forgiveness, it's loan transfer. And all of
those billions of dollars in debt arebeing transferred, not forgiven. They're being
transferred to you and me and everyother taxpayer in this country. But not,

(12:39):
it's important to note, not tothe millions of unlawful immigrants he's let
in, for whom taxpayers also putthe bill for their housing, their food,
their medical care transportation. No,we pay that, We the taxpayers
who work our tails off. Nomatter what free stuff this bunch throws at

(13:01):
you between now in November, andthere's gonna be lots of it, you're
gonna see gas prices come down.You're gonna see food prices reported as at
least coming down some. You're gonnasee all these things that are gonna be
painting a really rosy picture for youright in the eleventh hour. But don't

(13:24):
fall for it. Please, don'tfall for Just remember who's paying for all
this stuff. It's you and me, We, the people of the United
States, are paying the tab fora man who's just signed his signed his
name to trillions of extra dollars indebt. The Bidens don't care. They're
loaded. The Schumers, the Pellusy, Polusy, Pelosi. I know a

(13:46):
doctor named Pelusy. That's why Isaid that the Schumers and Pelosis don't care.
They feed off power, which generateswealth, and then that wealth generates
more power. And the only wayto stop them is to vote them out
once and for all. And Ido I do hope that happens. That's
we're gonna have to We're gonna haveto work pretty hard to get this done.

(14:09):
In Kentucky, a high school seniorwas denied his diploma graduation exercises after
he professed his faith in God atthe podium. Michael Price asked to deliver
a speech to his graduating class sincehe was one of the top members of
that and he did, and thenat the end he was denied his diploma

(14:31):
for straying from the approved script.Where I'll ask, in this nation's first
Amendment, which mentions freedom of religion, does it prohibit anyone from expressing their
religious beliefs and punish them in anyway for it. That's not supposed to
happen under the current climate, though. I have a hard time. I

(14:52):
have a hard time believing that ifa student had spoken of transgenderism, or
Satanism, or Islam, or socialismor Alistine or any of that, the
administrators would have just sat back andsaid nothing. Michael Price knows he broke
the rules, and he's accepted theconsequences of doing so because he answers to

(15:13):
a higher authority, as is hisright. All right, well, let's
let's soften it up for a minutehere, Okay, I will give you
these choices. I see double trouble, or hope my wife and son are
listening. I hope the wife andson are listening. Yeah, I do

(15:35):
too. Uh. The story Iread says, maybe maybe you want to
think about splurging on that Father's Daygift this year because a study found that
dads are more likely to have heartissues because parenthood is so stressful. Why
are you laughing? Will you theperson who has no idea what a father

(16:00):
has to deal with? It's justthat's funny. Why is it funny?
Is it disease funny? Is itthe same for mothers? No, it's
not the same. Men, men, So you should get issues more.
Oh, that's what I'm talking about. Well, what are these what are
these men eating all day? Well? Are they eating junk? Well,

(16:23):
they're probably eating barbecue. I thinkthey're eating their feelings away and I think
could be yeah, maybe onto somethingthere. Well, I'm not really sure.
You may be onto something kind.I wanted to get a tattoo of

(16:44):
a can of sprite. I don'tknow why. I don't know why,
but the tattoo artist, being theRhodes scholar, he or she is misspelled
the word. So now he's gota green can of spite on his arm.
And I think that's kind of funny, I really do. That's good
and so close, so close,and honestly, I think that's kind of

(17:04):
better. You know, if hecould if he spends it right, he'll
say, yeah, I just know. I'm trying to see if people notice.
You know, yeah, I'm alittle spiteful. Whatever, it's time
to have you have no time.It's time to go, isn't it always?
UTL's Institute on Aging is a placewhere you and I and anybody else

(17:26):
who is a senior or who caresabout a senior. For you younger listeners
in this audience, and I knowyou're out there if you care about your
parents or if you are that seniorparent or grandparent, ut Health Institute on
Aging can help you with connecting youto providers who are specially trained in senior

(17:49):
medicine. In addition to whatever gotthem the diploma on the wall and their
clinics and in their offices, theygo back for deeper education as to how
that discipline applies to seniors and thechanges that take place in our bodies as
we achieve seniority. That's the wayI'm going to look at it now,

(18:11):
is I have achieved seniority. It'snot something I don't want, It's something
I do want, and this Instituteon Aging can help all of us live
longer and achieve even more seniority bymaking sure we get treatments and other care
that will help us do that.Ut dot edu slash aging, uth dot

(18:37):
edu slash aging, Aged to Perfection. This is fifty plus with Dougpike Well
thirty six on Am nine fifty kPrC. Thanks for listening to fifty plus.
Share the show with your friends,please, even those who live out

(19:00):
of town. As a reminder,all they have to do is lean into
that at home electronic snoop that's inthere and say, hey, Snoopy or
Alexa or what's the other one,Siri Siri, Hey, you play fifty
plus on iHeartRadio, or play fiftyplus on KPRC on iHeartRadio or whatever.

(19:30):
But that's all you've got to do. And afterward, after the show,
within a couple of hours, youcan actually listen to the podcast if you're
unable to get a show one dayand you would like to hear it.
I appreciate the listening. I reallydo. And by the way, I
mentioned earlier when I was talking abouta late health that I had a listener
email yesterday through the newsroom through ournews director to ask about the phone number

(19:56):
for the place, and in thewebsite and I got that sent to me
from the news director and our PMprogramming director, and I let him know,
and I let that listener know,and I'll let all of you know
that if you've got questions about anythingyou hear on this show, you don't
have to go through channels. Youcan come straight to me by email.
Just Doug Pike at iHeartMedia dot com. It's that simple, Doug Pike at

(20:19):
iHeartMedia dot com, and I willhappily answer your question. I will take
your suggestion for a topic of discussion, and I can find I can find
the expert. If you can giveme a topic, I can find somebody
who knows more about it than me. That won't take long. Maybe Will
Will could you handle some of these? Yeah? Probably you don't even know

(20:42):
what I'm talking about, do you? Yeah, you're talking about the phone
calls, the voice memos, Yes, pop quiz, Will watch has more
vitamin C broccoli or oranges? Withthe oranges? No? No, you'd
be wrong. See that's why you'renot going to be an expert. I
didn't know that either. In fairness, then the knee jerk has to be

(21:03):
orange, is right, because evenwhen you shoved down our throats. When
you buy cold relief, it's it'salways orange flavored. Oh, never broccoli
flavored. But it turns out broccolihas almost twice as much vitamin C as
oranges. I've always liked broccoli.I do do you? You said you
do it? Don't They're like littletrees. What about Brussels sprouts? I

(21:26):
like Brussels sprouts a laws do I? And and grilled God, they're so
good. Yeah. Oh man,that's that's one of my family. I
like a raw dog, do youYeah? Oh doubt it frozen. Yeah.
Just when I go to the grocerystore and I just pick up a
bag of Brussels sprouts, I juststarted munching on the home. Yeah.

(21:49):
Okay, let's go with that.Will. In an effort to leave no
erroneous stone unturned, our government andgovernments around the world are now going to
be blaming summer summer for our sluggisheconomy, and almost certainly down the road
at some point they're going to blamesummer for inflation and high gas prices and

(22:12):
gird and arsrtis and cramps. Notealso that this story I read claiming that
summer is to blame for low productivityand high prices, extrapolates its data all
the way out to the year twentytwo hundred. That's when they say it's

(22:34):
really going to be bad, whichis kind of a slap in the face
of faces of traditional climate extremists whoonly promised their disastrous doom and gloom changes
in ten and twenty year increments,none of which by yet has ever come
to pass. They always tell usthat it's the world's going to end in

(22:56):
ten years, and then ten yearslater, what do they say, The
world's gonna end in ten years onlyjust because of something different, because now
their original theory has been debunked.I titled this one washed Up but won't
shut up Actor Robert de Niro.Great actor, and no doubt, I'm
not taking anything away from his actingskills, but he wasted no time jumping

(23:22):
in the street in New York outsidethe courtroom where former President Trump and Stormy
Daniels circus was handed to the jury. He just he just ran it and
raved about how bad a man DonaldTrump is. Anybody who values the opinions
of super rich people who pretend fora living, who values that person's opinion

(23:48):
over their own, needs to splashsome cold water on their faces and wake
up. I don't care about theopinions of actors. I don't care about
the opinions of athletes. They arein many cases so isolated and removed from
everyday life in our country that theycan't possibly have an informed opinion. I

(24:18):
just it amazes me how many ofthese people are just think they're just their
self importance astounds me. It trulydoes. Huh. I found this yesterday
and didn't get to it, butI think it's worth mentioning because I would
love to know that this is goingto be done in the United States as
well over in India. Doctors nowhave available to them a mobile hospital.

(24:44):
Okay, think of a mass unitfrom the TV show back in the Korean
War. Think about that as beinga model for this. Only. What
it is is something that can beairlifted and dropped by parachute wherever there is
a need for quick response and treatmentof as many as two hundred patients.

(25:07):
And once this bundle touches down crewmembers or troops or whoever's there, volunteers,
whatever, that whole facility can befully functional as a hospital in as
little as twelve minutes. Twelve minuteseverything is unrolled, unpacked, the walls

(25:30):
are up, the roof is up, the power's on, and they can
take care of as many as twohundred people who are desperately in need of
medical care. I think we needa lot of those, and I think
they ought they ought to be sittingin hangars with big helicopters in anywhere that
is tornado or hurricane prone. Idon't think we need them for earthquakes because

(25:53):
we can't predict them nearly so well. But yeah, maybe a few in
the Midwest, maybe long the GulfCoast maybe, or on the East coast,
handfull of them. It's amazing tothink about it. And I saw
pictures of how it works. It'sall rolled up and tucked in and moved
around, and it's just like athousand things in what you would think is

(26:15):
space for five or six. It'samazing. How much time did you say
I had? Well, you havenone, none, none, Okay,
that's fine. I got a veryimportant thing to talk about right here.
That's kirk Holmbs. If you're inthe mood, if you were in the
hunt for a brand new custom home, a beautiful dream home, your forever

(26:37):
home, or maybe something that youintend to pass down someday to your children
if they deserve such a thing.Kirk Coombs can help you with that.
They build anywhere from basically now,they're into Northwest Houston all the way out
through the hill country. Think ofNorthwest Houston as a baseball field, and
that's home base, third base ofSan Antonio. First base is all second

(27:00):
base, college station. Anywhere onthat field. They'll build your dream home
so that you can come home andprop your feet up once you get the
keys to that place and think Imade it, this is it. I'm
overlooking a beautiful hillside, I'm overlookinga lake, a stream, whatever,
and they'll build that home for you. All you have to do is get

(27:23):
in touch with them, get withthe design team, get with the architectural
team. Talk about what you want, talk about what you want it to
look like, which way you wantit to face, what your plans are
for each and every room in thathouse, all the way down to the
light fixtures and the light sockets,and they'll help make that dream come true
for you. Twenty year structural warrantytwice the industry standard two by six exterior

(27:45):
walls for half again as much insulationas is traditional and the rest is up
to you. It's your dream home. They are, by the way,
the twenty twenty four Southern Living Builderof the Year in case I didn't let
you know that about one hundred timesalready. I'm so proud for them.
They're such good people and they havewon so many awards. While they've allowed

(28:07):
me to speak for them. Itreally does, it really does honor me
to be their spokesperson. I'm soglad to do it for him, and
I hope you'll check into it whenyou're ready to build that dream home.
Kirkholmes dot com. That's K youare K because at kirk Holmes it's all
about you old guy's rule. Andof course women never get old. If

(28:30):
you want to avoid sleeping on thecouch. Oh, I think that sounds
like a good plan. Fifty pluscontinues. Here's more with Doug Bright,

(28:55):
welcome back. We'll spend half thebreak looking at a survey of what or
a pole in which was determined thedirtiest cities in America, the dirtiest cities,
And I told him what he experiencedjust then. Is a prime example
of media bias. Okay, becausethe headline says what will it says thirteen

(29:18):
of the dirtiest cities in America andtwo are in Texas. And then you,
being the dutiful skeptic that you are, counted up how many of the
top thirteen are in Texas and thatwas two. Indeed, it was Houston
as number one, and San Antonio, which I pegged from jump as number

(29:41):
seven. However, they deflected theappearance of three California cities ranked as among
the top thirteen dirtiest. So theyjust totally they just totally glossed over the
fact that no Houston or no Texasis not that that shouldn't be the headline.

(30:03):
The headline ought to be three ofthem in California. I think I
think it would have been better ifit if it was, you know,
thirteen of the dirtiest cities ranked,and you'll expect what number one is.
No, No, I honestly,I honestly would have. I honestly would
have guessed probably possibly Philadelphia, probablySan Francisco. They if anybody's been there

(30:30):
lately, and from what I hearfrom long ago friends who lived there and
got out as quick as they could, I'm surprised that's not on the list.
Yep. Neither of those cities areon I know, well, which
just goes to tell you who whatare they looking for? Oh and by
the way, Houston jumped over Idon't, I was gonna say proudly,

(30:51):
but probably not now jumped over Newark, New Jersey. Yep. So Newark
breathes a big sigh of relief.This year. They just fall to number
two though, yeah, yeah,just barely. Then it's by a couple
of cockroaches difference, that's all exactly, and a pily garbage in the street
or something. I don't know.All right, let me move on here.

(31:12):
There was something I wanted to talkabout very quickly here, Not that,
oh, student protesters. I loveit when college students try to out
with the likes of Candae Olans andCharlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro one by one
day, and their little hollow argumentsget shot down as they realize that what

(31:33):
they thought, and likely what theywere taught is captive audiences to these progressive
professors, that most of it's justindoctrinating lies. And I could I could
listen to these clips for days,because most of them in with the student
either cursing or crying or screaming ormaking obscene finger gestures or all of the
above. Sometimes a kid gets it, though, and that's that's what I'm

(31:56):
looking for in these In these clips, and you can see the light coming
back on in their eyes. Theyrealize they've been duped, and the rest
really won't understand how badly they've beenburned by what they're hearing from these far
left leaning professors until they become taxpayers, Until they become taxpayers and realize exactly

(32:19):
who's benefiting from what fifteen to twentytwenty five percent of every dollar they earn,
every dollar, by the way,Columbia law students, this is hilarious.
Columbia University law students, who saythey're unable to focus and highly emotional,
are asking the school to cancel finalexams and hand out all passing grades

(32:42):
in the wake of the stresses they'veendured after watching police break up their protests
and take down their campground after theyviolently took over a building in support of
a cause. Half of them can'teven explain. You play stupid games,
you win stupid prizes, Shut up, sit down and take the test.

(33:06):
That's what you're there for. That'swhat you're there for. Oh my word,
Oh will you clean up before yougo on vacation? Will so you
don't come home to a filthy home? Sometimes? Seventy five percent of us
said, we try to do it. The other twenty five percent, Eh,

(33:27):
they probably didn't clean up when theywere there. No, why should
they clean up or when they gethome. Yeah, it's comfortable. We're
done. On that way. Closerto California, by the way, poised
to go completely banning bag plastic bagsin grocery stores, even the thick ones.
It's going to go into effect intwenty twenty six, and one more
reason not to move there. Talktomorrow, Audios