March 4, 2025 • 40 mins
Today, Doug Pike discusses candy, donuts, and Mardi Gras.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Remember what it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this? Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well, this show is all about you. This is fifty
plus with Doug Pike, Helpful information on your finances, good health,
and what to do for fun. Fifty plus brought to
you by the UT Health Houston Institute on Aging Informed
Decisions for a healthier, happier life, and now fifty plus
(00:43):
with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
All right, two day ed issue. The program starts right now.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Will let me know early that it took him six tries,
And if it took him six tries, that means it's
going to be a difficult word. It all depends on
how you start our daily wordal challenge. I'm through two steps,
two tries so far and have one green and that's
all I got. Will, I thought how I started yesterday?
(01:09):
Actually because I got it practice round. I got it
in three yesterday. You meet me every time.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
On Monday, I was feeling good and then and then
you know, every single step, I pretty much got a new.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
A new green mind.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
You go wrong?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
How could it go? You just got it. You got
it nailed right there, don't you. Yeah. Almost.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I don't know honestly that the letter I have is
no help whatsoever, by the way, and it really it's
almost more confusing than helpful. And I'll explain it to
you once I get it, probably on my fourth try.
That's where I think I'm going, and we'll find out.
In any event, moving forward, welcome to Tuesday. Certainly a
different day than yesterday, partly partly because I won't miss
(01:58):
any four foot puts like I did three or four
times yesterday, because I'm not playing golf today, and mostly
because it's either going to be rainy or windy or
both all day. And then on the upside, thanks to courtesy,
well thanks to Texas Indoor Air Quality Specialists texas iaq
dot net. That's the cleaner air people who do ductwork
(02:20):
cleaning and do it in such a way that it
will stay clean, every inch of that duck work in
your home. It'll stay clean for a couple of years. Anyway,
go to texasiaq dot net and you can find out
more about that. We'll start tomorrow, and then it's an
uplifting thing right behind. The uplifting part of cleaning your
(02:41):
duct work. We'll start tomorrow on a journey of eight
or ten glorious spring like days, comfortable highs, comfortable lows,
the whole way. So if you can make it through today,
just hold your nose and stay inside if it's still
rainy and still too windy to go outside where you are, and.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Then tomorrow is going to be.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
The dawn of a new, albeit short lived era around
here in the markets. Man all four, as you heard
just a few minutes ago on Fox News, all four
indicators took a pretty hard tumble this morning on the
heels of tariff news. They were recovering, but still significantly down,
as you just heard. And I honestly don't think this
(03:21):
is gonna last though, And I do think there's there's
some chess being played here in Washington that ultimately will
work out in our favor. The trouble. The trouble, they said,
was tariff news. Everybody's talking about the tariff news. Well,
all of that's based on algorithms and super super cue
(03:42):
no super computers making trades in just nano seconds. When
you and I have to have to call our guy
and ask what he thinks or ask her what she
thinks about our portfolio and maybe we ought to make
a move, maybe we shouldn't. Well, in the time it
takes the that phone call, a million trades have been made,
(04:03):
probably more so.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
We're not gonna beat all that.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
But Wall Street's bell ringing and chaotic look on the
floor for you and me, that's interesting, but it's inconsequential
relative to the bigger moves being made electronically. On the
good side of what we watch, thanks to Houston gooldexchange
dot com, Gold did move up pretty well, about fifteen
dollars earlier today, and even better, Oil dropped another buck
(04:31):
and a half early to sixty seven thirty one. I
think it was about ten fifteen. It's tried to come
up a little bit since then. But I'm pretty optimistic
overall about the path we're on, and I I'm just gonna.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Let it play out.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I'm confident based on business here at iHeart. I'm confident
because business owners seem to be ready, seemed to be
they've been poised and ready for something good to happen
for a long time, and they're reacting to what's going on.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Well, do you know what today is? It's International Pancake Day.
It's not just look over there.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
I don't trust that they're just jealous, because what it
really is today is Marty.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Graw, Marty Gras.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
What's bigger International Pancake Day or local Marty Gras Day.
I'm gonna guess International pancake Probably not not in this office.
It's not go out and see how many pancakes.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
When you account, it's bigger and the grand scheme of
things international is bigger than local.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
The little micro snapshot.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
If you go out there and look, you'll find big
City Wings and you'll find about a half a dozen
kingcakes or what's left there at two fay. I don't
think so that would have been nice, though, Oh my gosh,
crawfish would have.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Been very nice.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Oh boys, crawfish would have kind of stunk up the
office maybe, so that's what air cleaners are for. That
wouldn't have been a problem. I'd have been at My
fingers would have been stained by the afternoon, for sure.
It's been a while since I've eaten crawfish, and I'm
almost embarrassed as half Cajun to say that.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
But now, the.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Last time you had crawfish, god, almost probably last year,
a year ago.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I thought that you were gonna say we No. I
thought you were gonna say five years.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
No.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I don't think it's been five years. No, No, but
it's been.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
It's been at least last year, and it might have
been early in the season last year. So I'm I'm behind.
And I actually I had a good conversation with my
dynisty the other day. Had to go in there and
get some fixed nothing on my teeth, just a nightguard
that I wear so I don't grind my teeth away.
And he shared with me that he also is a
(06:52):
crawfish fan and he goes so far. I guess he's
that got that kind of time that he's found out
where to go.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
There's some app he has. I think even it shows you.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Where the biggest, best value crawfish are available. I'm talking
about like big crawfish, baby lobster looking things.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Man, uh, we might have to go.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
He also told me about a seafood restaurant, and once
I've tried it out, I might mention it on the air.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Until I do.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
I mean, I trust him implicitly, but it's I want
to go try this place.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I do.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
It's on the west side of town, not terribly far
from me. I may go take a swing at that.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
All right, we had to take a little break here
on my way out.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I'll tell you about a Late Health and the vascular
procedures that they do.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
That's what they.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Do at their clinics around town and have been doing
it for many, many years. For example, the most common
procedure they perform is something called prostate artery embolization. That
is for men, obviously, men who have issues with that.
Maybe over fifty you start noticing us a little different,
and then as you get older and older, things get
(08:04):
more and more different and less pleasant. And if you've
got those symptoms, you know what they are. You wish
you didn't have them, and that can be handled by
a Late Health. They've been doing this procedure for quite
some time. What it does is identify the artery that
supplies blood to that prostate and encouraging it to grow
and swell and become a problem. And then they shut
(08:26):
it off, just like turning off the water at the sink.
No more water, no more problems, no more blood, no
more problems. With the prostate also good with fibroids, and women,
also good with ugly veins. They do that all the
time as well. They can handle even some some head
pains can be alleviated with vascular procedures, most of well
(08:46):
all of which are done in the office, and many
of which are covered by Medicare and Medicaid. Even regenerative
medicine has done it. A Late Health and that's really
really helpful for people who suffer from chronic pain. Get
on the phone, give them call, talk to them, take
a look at the website a latehealth dot com, and
then call and set up a consultation. Seven one three,
five eight eight thirty eight eighty eight. Seven one three,
(09:10):
five eight eight thirty eight eighty.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Eight Aged to Perfection. This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
All right, welcome back to fifty plus.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Thank you for listening. Segment two begins. Now still under
kind of weird weather out there today. It's the the
chicken littles of the world. The forecasters last night, we're
all talking about potential possible maybe win us up to
at least thirty miles an hour for most of this region,
(09:50):
and then a little bit of forty mile per hour
potential a little bit east and north of here, as
this latest little cool front passes through with rain, of course,
and I don't think we were supposed to get a
lot of rain. It was mostly just a little. But
it's still rain and it's still nasty outside. So just
(10:11):
until you see the sun shining, until you see shadows
under the trees again, just kind of duck and cover
and see hot turns out.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Moving into the news.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
A Breitbart story this morning shared that fears over these
tariffs run rampant among people looking for anything that might
scare the rest of us about our economy, chicken lily stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Again.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Historically, however, what's going on now hasn't really greatly impacted
the economy. The media is playing the part of chicken
little in this one, constantly looking to scare us. But
analytics show, and this is from the Federal Reserve Bank
of Atlanta, according to this story in Breitbart at Breitbart
(10:57):
says otherwise, it's not. It's the impact on prices will
be modest at worst. That's what the Federal Reserve Bank
of Atlanta says, less than two percent, if at all,
across the board. So that's not exactly doomsday scenario. President
Trump is trying to modify North American trade. He's not
(11:20):
imposing any big tariffs on goods from China, by the way,
because we're trying to keep that line of trade more
open for obvious reasons. Also, it says in the story
that if Canada and Mexico will just make minor changes
to their economic policies, those tariffs would be lifted and
(11:42):
just minor adjustments, that's all. And both of our North
American neighbors now are in negotiation to cut a deal.
Maybe we will do that. We don't want tariffs, and
you don't want tariffs on our stuff, and yeah, that's
exactly what we want. We don't want to impose tariffs,
but we just want to be playing on a level
(12:02):
playing field.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I'll skip that one for now and go to let
me get these pieces of paper apart. Hush.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
I don't know what it is with this paper we use. Well,
do you find it unusually dry? Like if you have
two pieces of paper together, can you just easily get
them apart?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yes? Okay.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
In Boston, Mayor Michelle wu is being criticized pretty strongly
by police and residents up there alike for offering condolences.
This is a kind of an odd I don't know,
it's not odd. In the world of liberals, but it's
odd in the world of common sense. I would think
she is offering condolences to the family of a man,
(12:45):
a knife wielding.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Guy who was chasing people, who chased people.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Into a fast food restaurant up there and threatening to
stab them and really causing a ruckus. According to the story,
there was an off dude police officer inside. He identified himself.
He ordered the man to drop the knife, and when
the man refused to drop his weapon, the story said,
the officer had.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
To shoot the man.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Woo's public safety priorities, by the way, according to that
story again are letting young people quote lead the way
in reimagining public safety and include removing police from public schools.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
That was the safety was the end of that quote.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Also, she wants to remove police from public schools, and
she reiterated that even after a student was accused of
beating a principle unconscious. But she doesn't want any law
enforcement in there. No, just let the kids run it.
Just ask the young people what they want. Ask the
(13:51):
young people how many police officers they want in their school.
They're going to tell you none, because in their minds
they can go hide, they can they can whatever if
there's a problem in reality, if somebody shows up intent
on harming them, they're not going to be so tough
unfortunately in sports, and it's I guess you could say
(14:13):
it's it's finally come to this. At the USA Track
and Field Open Masters Championship, two of the three finalists
in the four hundred meter dash in New York it
was withdrew from the competition in protest of the third competitor,
a transgender athlete who has a history actually of bragging
(14:33):
about victories in women's events on social media.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Probably not a good idea to do that. How easy
it is, how easy.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
It is to beat the women in the two hundred
meter finals the same the same athlete beat a few
girls who competed as in the rest of the field
opted out for the same reasons as in the four hundred.
This particular person, a biological man now twenty one years old,
was competing against women girls in their teens. And that
(15:04):
person also happens to hold numerous records at former school.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Where they ran it.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Well, all that person's records biological male, are in women's events,
so that's it just flies in the face. And there
was another story about that too. I think from well,
there have been many stories about some of these more
liberal states that just refuse to come on board with
this and are just flushing Title nine down the toilet.
(15:37):
They truly are. There is no protection if that's allowed
to continue. There's no protection at all for a level
playing field for young women and for girls who are
working as hard as any male athlete ever worked, but
aren't able to achieve the same results physically as those
(15:58):
male athletes. And as long as they're allowed to participate, well,
just as you saw there, Yeah, the whole field in
the four hundred just said no, now we're done. We're
not gonna We're not gonna play this game anymore.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
We can't, we can't compete.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
And until uh, the people who say that nobody's being
hurt by this physically either haven't looked at the news,
they haven't watched the stories. They haven't they've just turned
a blind eye to the stories where young women and
girls actually have been quite seriously hurt, quite seriously hurt
(16:35):
by former males, well still male former men competing as women.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
And I have I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
If you want to if you want to profess yourself
to be a one. That's fine, but don't don't step
into the arena, don't step into the ring, don't step
onto the court. Any of that with with young women
who have been working very, very hard to be the
best at their sport.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I do disagree with that.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
All right, moving forward, Will, let's let's settle it back.
Let's rein it in just a little bitty baby baty bit.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
That one. No, I don't like that one. Pace yourself,
sweet tooth, or one rename at a time, M sweet tooth.
This is interesting, Will, And then it's as impromptu pop
quiz for you.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
And I know you love those. Is that why you're
nodding your head? Oh? Hold on, let me turn my
head back to vertical. Oh you're shaking your head left
and right and left and right.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Well, tough.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Approximately how much money did Americans spend on candy last year?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
You don't have to get really close. Two billion.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
You know you only missed it, Will, You only missed
it by fifty two billion dollars. Americans spent fifty four
billion dollars on candy. That was twenty eight billion on chocolate,
twenty two billion on none chocolots, and four billion dollars
(18:22):
on chewing gum.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
How much did you contribute to that chewing gum money?
Zero to chewing.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Gum I have maybe I probably spent I don't know,
twelve dollars on gum last year.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
But I love I do too, But I didn't, I
didn't not. My contribution wasn't a drop in the bucket. Really.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
My wife likes peanut m and ms, but that's only
maybe four bucks a week. I'm thinking of two little
bags and those little by the way, the little tiny
bags that used to be like a nickel or a
dime when I was growing up, two bucks Now, depending
on where you buy it. If you're lucky, you can
find them for about a buck eighty nine, the little one,
(19:03):
not the share size. Oh no, you're gonna double up
on that. And you know what I've been seeing more
and more in grocery stores. Will you know there's always
a bigger container of more of whatever it is, and
you presume that.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
It's less money. A lot of times it's not.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
You know what's not that way? Pringles potato chips. In
the place where I buy my groceries. If you buy
the normal size can, it's two bucks. If you buy
the next the bigger can that appears to be of value.
It's too something, but when you look at the per
unit price, it's higher than for the little can. Go
figure will smoking mirrors even in potato chips. All right,
(19:43):
we got to take another little break here on the
way out, I'll remind you that ut Health Institute on
Aging is absolutely positive one of the best resources that
seniors could have anywhere, and it just happens to be
right here in Houston, right here, mostly in the med
centers where mostly providers work, but a lot of them
also practice outside of the med center, in outlying hospitals
(20:08):
and clinics and offices where they can be seen by
anybody who happens to be out their way who needs
help with something very specific to seniors. That's what everybody
who's involved in this Institute on Aging that what they've
done has gone back and got an additional expertise and
how they can apply what they know medically specifically to seniors.
(20:33):
And that's a big advantage for us. It truly is
a very big advantage ut House Institute on Aging. Go
to the website, look at all the resources available there,
and then work your way into maybe a consultation, maybe
an appointment with a doctor who you know will be
able to help you as well or better than anybody
(20:53):
else in the field with something that applies to you,
to me, to anybody else who's in our age category.
Uth dot edu slash aging, uth dot edu slash aging.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Now, they sure don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Third second of the program starts right now. Thank you
all for listening on this windy, rainy day. Whatever it
is around your house, it's probably not pretty outside. Uh,
this sull will come out tomorrow, hopefully tomorrow. It should
it's supposed to and after all, well within twenty four hours.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
The forecasts are usually fairly accurate.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
They pegged it for this morning's rain, they pegged it
for today's wind. I haven't even looked outside, but I
bet it's pretty windy where you are. So fingers crossed
that they're right about the next ten days as well.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
Well.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I need them to be right for seven days because
next Tuesday I've been invited to participate in the media
Day events surrounding the Chevron Championship, which we'll be back
up in the Woodlands again this year. It's a big,
big event for the women's for the LPGA Ladies Professional
Golf Association. I wonder if they'll ever change that to
(22:22):
the WPGA.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I doubt it.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
This morning, the AP asked a federal judge well by
filing a suit actually to restore its access to presidential
events after President Trump ousted them for refusing to rename
the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, considered
pretty far left by the administration, and rightfully so based
(22:47):
on history. AP need only acknowledge the renaming of the
golf to regain access. It's not been prohibited from reporting
the news. It's not been prohibited even from White House grounds.
Reporters and photographers for AP, though have been denied access
to some of the events that go on around there,
and that the suit claims costs the association profits from
(23:10):
the sales of the photographs. Many news organizations, including Fox
and Newsmax, by the way, have urged the White House.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
To let the AP back in.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
And honestly, if I were present, or just for myself
being as engaged in news gathering and news writing and whatnot.
For as long as I have been I'd let them.
I don't have a problem with them being in the pool,
even if they refuse to name the Gulf something other
(23:43):
than what it used to be called, so long as
so long as they abstain from writing anything that is
clearly false, and once that happens, once they become a
news agency again, which for a while they were stretching
(24:05):
things out pretty good, and if they can they can
do what they're supposed to be supposed to do in
news gathering and reporting, fair and unbiased reporting, then fine,
let them in. And I think all of those outlets
really should police each other, and there should be some
(24:28):
There should be some repercussion if they step across the line,
if they do things that they either kind of halfway
know or totally know, or untrue, if they go ahead
and put them in print anyway, just in hopes of
being first to break a story, which has become the standard,
and not that.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
That used to be.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
It used to be when I was writing news at
the newspaper, mostly features is what I wrote, but I
did get called upon and because of what I covered,
there was some genuine news in there. And I've talked
about this before, but I'll say it again. It was
our job, Mine and Joe Doggets, and Shannon's and Bob's
(25:10):
and everybody else in that newsroom, in that sports department,
news department, whatever, Our job was to write a story
that was so fair and so balanced that the editor,
and they're always an editor reads every story that goes
into the newspaper. So long as that editor couldn't tell
what side we were on. It's really it's a simple
(25:31):
thing to do. You have to just set your own
feelings aside, your own personal thoughts aside, and then call
people from both sides of the issue, report both sides
of the issue, and then trust the readers to understand
and form their own decisions. It's just as simple as that.
If TV people, boy, if they'd ever figure that out,
(25:53):
they could get their viewership to go back up and
leaps and bounds. We're gonna hear both sides of the store.
We're going total crop. Yeah, let's do that. Let's go
back to a time when you really didn't know which
side of the fence the news reporter was.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
And I like that. That's what the news is supposed
to be.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
You're supposed to have all the information that they have
from both sides, and then let the chips fall where
they may, let the people themselves decide which side they
want to want to align with.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Got to hate s ending a sentence with a preposition,
but I just couldn't walk my way out of that one.
Oh well, that's it. Let them back in.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I don't have a problem letting them back in as
long as they do their job and if somebody else,
and again going back to going accountability across the board
in all those news agencies, make sure they're actually reporting
the news and doing what they're supposed to do, then
it would be, Oh, what a wonderful world that would be.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
And what a departure from the recent past from MSA
Microsoft News Network the kind of a snicker moment on
CNN Newsnight when host Abby Philip immediately shifted from one
topic to another when political strategist Scott Jennings asked the
(27:16):
show's panelists on that show to name one Democrat more
popular than President Trump. They were beating him up talking
about how nobody likes him, how so many people disagree
with what he's done so far, even Americans who disagree
with some of President Trump's moves so far, still like
him far better than any Democrats in Congress. His overall
(27:40):
approval rating, I want to say, fifty to fifty one
percent something like that at the last polling, and that's
polling everybody, so half Democrats, half Republicans. You would think
that'd be about right. However, the satisfaction rating for Democrats
in Congress was something like twenty one percent. Twenty one
(28:01):
And why shouldn't Why should why should anybody not really
like a guy who's been the first high ranking politician
in a very long time who said he wants to
reduce the size.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Of the federal government.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
And well, I take that back. They've all said it.
Clinton said it, Obama said it. I'm sure at some
point Biden said it get himself elected. But President Trump's
the only one who's really doing anything about that. And
in significant chunks too, in quite significant chunks.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
I saw a story this morning.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
I just glanced over the headline, but in what I
believe to be payments to oh, I think perhaps food
stamp programs, all kinds of programs that are are really
blowing up our budget to just giving money to people
who and it's people who need it in most cases. Okay,
(28:57):
I'd say at least in many cases. But what's been
uncovered is, at first blush at least is potential for
about two hundred billion.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Dollars in.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Payments that went to people who weren't supposed to get them,
or went to overpayment of people's benefits. And that even
if ten percent of that is real, If if ninety
percent of it's valid and ten percent of that's real,
that's still twenty billion dollars that we're throwing away every year.
(29:34):
Very frustrating. We got to take another little break. Holy cow,
they do come up fast, don't they will?
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Hello, we do have to take a break.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Oh really, Well, that's what I just said, all right
on the way out. No nothing, I'm not gonna tell
you anything. I have some climate news. When we get back,
you're gonna love this. We'll take a little break here.
We'll be right back fifty plus on AM nine to
fifty kp R.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
See what's life without a net? I suggest to go
to bed, sleep it off, just wait until the show's over. Sleepy.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Back to Doug Pike as fifty plus continues, Hi.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Four than final segment of the program. I heard all
kinds of Astros talk lately. I resisted temptation there to
say rounding third and heading home.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
But I do like the way the Astros are shaping.
Speaker 5 (30:33):
Up and the solid crew that they have waiting in
the wings from some younger players who may or may
not be brought up.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Anytime this season. There's a couple of people I would
like to see come up pretty quick. We'll just have
to see how that goes. I managed to get two
wings out of the kitchen, and I think when I
reached into the container, will there were I think there
were five waffle fries left, and I took two. So
(31:07):
if you hurry, you might get chrumbs. There's still other
people circling the drain out there. They were good. They
were definitely good. One of them was, well, never mind,
it doesn't matter. They were all good. Let's just leave
it at that. I mentioned climate change before we left,
and so i'll go to it right now under what
(31:30):
I called climate change or not. This past December, will
this is pop quiz?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Are you ready? And you're just gonna need to fill
in the blank.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
This past December through February was the coldest three month
period in the United States since the winter of what, I.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Don't know, since the winter of when.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
Don't even want to play now, twenty thirteen to twenty fourteen,
eleven years ago? What so? What eleven twelve years ago?
What about this? Is it's okay that we have a
coldest winter in twelve years whatever, it's been eleven years.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
If you go back through history, I can assure.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
You you will find other coldest winters in short and long intervals.
You will find other hottest summers in cold or in
warm and hot intervals, sometimes ten years, sometimes twenty years,
maybe sometimes I don't know that, probably not that much longer.
Before these these events happen, the planet has been in
(32:49):
constant climate change since it formed, and we've had ice ages,
we've had warm periods, and those go back and forth.
And the deeper we dig up in the Arctic and
down in the Antarctic, the more we learn about climate.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Some of those ice samples, the.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Core samples they pull out, it's fascinating what they can
learn from those things, and it just it just shows
that it's it's gonna change no matter what we do.
And the frustrating part is that or well up until recently,
up until November, basically there was still a big effort
underway to just keep throwing money and and when when
(33:33):
confronted with the question of how much will it cost
by Congress, the experts sitting on I've seen several of
the interviews to that to that direct in that direction,
and when these people are asked that, they consistently say,
we need to invest in the future of the climate.
(33:54):
We've got to We've got to control this climate. And
when asked by members of Congress how much will that cost,
they have no idea.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
We don't know how much it's going to cost.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
We just have to keep throwing money at it until
when is there an end point?
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Well, no, we just have to make sure that we.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Invest in and like, no, you don't, and especially I
talked about this just this past week. Until the rest
of the world gets on board, specifically China and India,
a couple of other major Russia, until they come on
(34:32):
board to the same degree.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
That we are.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
We were at least being dragged into it to the
tune of trillions of dollars, the lot of which we
find out was pretty poorly invested. Until everybody's on board,
then nobody's on board because those three that I mentioned
are I believe the three largest contributors to ozone depletion, to.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Just all the problems.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
That we say this planet has. And unless they're players,
unless they are true players in the game, then it's
gonna be a rough, rough road to hoe. All right, will,
let's go back to the fun stuff for a minute here,
and then maybe maybe let me see what my other
pages here, see what's on this one. I might stick
with these. These are kind of fun. So today is
(35:24):
Marty Graul, and I'm gonna let you choose, will, since
I I'm gonna get rid of that piece of paper.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
We talked about the candy sales over the top? Will
we do or not? Good for babies? Over the top?
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Man in India was reward not rewarded, awarded by a
court system more than two hundred bucks, which doesn't sound
like a lot of money, and it's in the big
scheme of things. Two hundred bucks is not that much money.
But he got it by suing a movie theater chain.
And I bet you boy, if there are some young
(36:05):
attorneys in this audience, they ought to be paying attention.
This guy got paid off for saying for believing that
he was kind of duped into watching too many commercials
before the feature film. That movie began almost thirty minutes
late because there were two public service announcements and seventeen ads. Now,
(36:33):
this company of mine, not mine, this company for which
I work makes its money off advertising.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I get that.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
But if you're running up thirty straight minutes of commercials
just so somebody can get to watch the movie they
wanted to see, I kind of see the guy's point.
I kind of see the guy's point. We have we
have rules regarding how many commercials we can play between
show segments around here, and sometimes we expand a little
(37:09):
bit of coverage, like in a big year like last year,
when all these politicians needed to have their word heard.
Sometimes it just stations have to go into kind of
an extra little mode to help take care of our clients.
But by and large, we try to make each hour
as much content, as much good, clean, solid program content
(37:33):
as possible. And then there's me, and I'm trying to
I really am so Anyway, Yeah, that guy got two
hundred bucks more than what he paid to go see
the movie, I'm sure, And with two hundred bucks you
could probably buy. Well, what could you buy? Will one
large popcorn? Or one dozen eggs? Maybe maybe two dozen?
Speaker 2 (37:54):
You buy for two hundred dollars? How much popcorn at
the River Oaks that's Riverbrooks Theater? Is that where you go?
Speaker 3 (38:01):
You could buy twenty twentyorns? How many admission tickets? So
how many friends could you take to the movies and
buy them popcorn for two hundred bucks? It's ten bucks
for popcorn unlimited?
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah? Do they know if two people are sharing? Yeah?
Do they care?
Speaker 5 (38:21):
No?
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Okay, so only need five popcorns for ten people? Right? Yeah?
I guess. Oh no, I guess let's move on, shall we?
Holy cow? Will uh not good for babies?
Speaker 3 (38:34):
I'm gonna do this one anyway for the grandparents who
may want to talk to their their children who are
in baby having times in their lives.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
TikTok? Where else you gonna get good information? Right? Tiktoks?
Make tiktoks?
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Make it a claim that feeding your baby a spoonful
of butter will help them sleep through the night. Well,
guess what experts say it's nonsense and even dangerous. Butter
not good for babies and can be a choking hazard.
So way to go TikTok and who owns TikTok again?
(39:11):
Remind me that'd be a really slow way to hurt
our country. But just the fact that that's out there
and being being presented as legitimate information is kind of
scary really when you get right down to it.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
Will, did you hear about the little boy in Oklahoma
who called nine one one on an old phone? That
it was an old phone, the family had not been
using it for years, but apparently he figured out a
way to charge it up and make a phone call
because it would still take emergency calls. And he called
and asked the police for emergency donuts. For some reason,
(39:53):
he needed donuts. Will have you ever done that? Well?
Speaker 2 (39:55):
And he knew who to call?
Speaker 5 (39:57):
Did?
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yeah? They didn't have to go far? I bet? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
The cool part Will, And this is this is why
I still I think I think law enforcement's fantastic people.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Okay, they brought him the donuts. They brought him some donuts.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
Get me some donuts for tomorrow. Will We'll be back then.
Thank you for listening.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Audios
Remember what it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this? Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well, this show is all about you. This is fifty
plus with Doug Pike, Helpful information on your finances, good health,
and what to do for fun. Fifty plus brought to
you by the UT Health Houston Institute on Aging Informed
Decisions for a healthier, happier life, and now fifty plus
(00:43):
with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
All right, two day ed issue. The program starts right now.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Will let me know early that it took him six tries,
And if it took him six tries, that means it's
going to be a difficult word. It all depends on
how you start our daily wordal challenge. I'm through two steps,
two tries so far and have one green and that's
all I got. Will, I thought how I started yesterday?
(01:09):
Actually because I got it practice round. I got it
in three yesterday. You meet me every time.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
On Monday, I was feeling good and then and then
you know, every single step, I pretty much got a new.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
A new green mind.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
You go wrong?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
How could it go? You just got it. You got
it nailed right there, don't you. Yeah. Almost.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I don't know honestly that the letter I have is
no help whatsoever, by the way, and it really it's
almost more confusing than helpful. And I'll explain it to
you once I get it, probably on my fourth try.
That's where I think I'm going, and we'll find out.
In any event, moving forward, welcome to Tuesday. Certainly a
different day than yesterday, partly partly because I won't miss
(01:58):
any four foot puts like I did three or four
times yesterday, because I'm not playing golf today, and mostly
because it's either going to be rainy or windy or
both all day. And then on the upside, thanks to courtesy,
well thanks to Texas Indoor Air Quality Specialists texas iaq
dot net. That's the cleaner air people who do ductwork
(02:20):
cleaning and do it in such a way that it
will stay clean, every inch of that duck work in
your home. It'll stay clean for a couple of years. Anyway,
go to texasiaq dot net and you can find out
more about that. We'll start tomorrow, and then it's an
uplifting thing right behind. The uplifting part of cleaning your
(02:41):
duct work. We'll start tomorrow on a journey of eight
or ten glorious spring like days, comfortable highs, comfortable lows,
the whole way. So if you can make it through today,
just hold your nose and stay inside if it's still
rainy and still too windy to go outside where you are, and.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Then tomorrow is going to be.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
The dawn of a new, albeit short lived era around
here in the markets. Man all four, as you heard
just a few minutes ago on Fox News, all four
indicators took a pretty hard tumble this morning on the
heels of tariff news. They were recovering, but still significantly down,
as you just heard. And I honestly don't think this
(03:21):
is gonna last though, And I do think there's there's
some chess being played here in Washington that ultimately will
work out in our favor. The trouble. The trouble, they said,
was tariff news. Everybody's talking about the tariff news. Well,
all of that's based on algorithms and super super cue
(03:42):
no super computers making trades in just nano seconds. When
you and I have to have to call our guy
and ask what he thinks or ask her what she
thinks about our portfolio and maybe we ought to make
a move, maybe we shouldn't. Well, in the time it
takes the that phone call, a million trades have been made,
(04:03):
probably more so.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
We're not gonna beat all that.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
But Wall Street's bell ringing and chaotic look on the
floor for you and me, that's interesting, but it's inconsequential
relative to the bigger moves being made electronically. On the
good side of what we watch, thanks to Houston gooldexchange
dot com, Gold did move up pretty well, about fifteen
dollars earlier today, and even better, Oil dropped another buck
(04:31):
and a half early to sixty seven thirty one. I
think it was about ten fifteen. It's tried to come
up a little bit since then. But I'm pretty optimistic
overall about the path we're on, and I I'm just gonna.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Let it play out.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I'm confident based on business here at iHeart. I'm confident
because business owners seem to be ready, seemed to be
they've been poised and ready for something good to happen
for a long time, and they're reacting to what's going on.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Well, do you know what today is? It's International Pancake Day.
It's not just look over there.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
I don't trust that they're just jealous, because what it
really is today is Marty.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Graw, Marty Gras.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
What's bigger International Pancake Day or local Marty Gras Day.
I'm gonna guess International pancake Probably not not in this office.
It's not go out and see how many pancakes.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
When you account, it's bigger and the grand scheme of
things international is bigger than local.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
The little micro snapshot.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
If you go out there and look, you'll find big
City Wings and you'll find about a half a dozen
kingcakes or what's left there at two fay. I don't
think so that would have been nice, though, Oh my gosh,
crawfish would have.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Been very nice.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Oh boys, crawfish would have kind of stunk up the
office maybe, so that's what air cleaners are for. That
wouldn't have been a problem. I'd have been at My
fingers would have been stained by the afternoon, for sure.
It's been a while since I've eaten crawfish, and I'm
almost embarrassed as half Cajun to say that.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
But now, the.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Last time you had crawfish, god, almost probably last year,
a year ago.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I thought that you were gonna say we No. I
thought you were gonna say five years.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
No.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I don't think it's been five years. No, No, but
it's been.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
It's been at least last year, and it might have
been early in the season last year. So I'm I'm behind.
And I actually I had a good conversation with my
dynisty the other day. Had to go in there and
get some fixed nothing on my teeth, just a nightguard
that I wear so I don't grind my teeth away.
And he shared with me that he also is a
(06:52):
crawfish fan and he goes so far. I guess he's
that got that kind of time that he's found out
where to go.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
There's some app he has. I think even it shows you.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Where the biggest, best value crawfish are available. I'm talking
about like big crawfish, baby lobster looking things.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Man, uh, we might have to go.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
He also told me about a seafood restaurant, and once
I've tried it out, I might mention it on the air.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Until I do.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
I mean, I trust him implicitly, but it's I want
to go try this place.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I do.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
It's on the west side of town, not terribly far
from me. I may go take a swing at that.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
All right, we had to take a little break here
on my way out.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I'll tell you about a Late Health and the vascular
procedures that they do.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
That's what they.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Do at their clinics around town and have been doing
it for many, many years. For example, the most common
procedure they perform is something called prostate artery embolization. That
is for men, obviously, men who have issues with that.
Maybe over fifty you start noticing us a little different,
and then as you get older and older, things get
(08:04):
more and more different and less pleasant. And if you've
got those symptoms, you know what they are. You wish
you didn't have them, and that can be handled by
a Late Health. They've been doing this procedure for quite
some time. What it does is identify the artery that
supplies blood to that prostate and encouraging it to grow
and swell and become a problem. And then they shut
(08:26):
it off, just like turning off the water at the sink.
No more water, no more problems, no more blood, no
more problems. With the prostate also good with fibroids, and women,
also good with ugly veins. They do that all the
time as well. They can handle even some some head
pains can be alleviated with vascular procedures, most of well
(08:46):
all of which are done in the office, and many
of which are covered by Medicare and Medicaid. Even regenerative
medicine has done it. A Late Health and that's really
really helpful for people who suffer from chronic pain. Get
on the phone, give them call, talk to them, take
a look at the website a latehealth dot com, and
then call and set up a consultation. Seven one three,
five eight eight thirty eight eighty eight. Seven one three,
(09:10):
five eight eight thirty eight eighty.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Eight Aged to Perfection. This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
All right, welcome back to fifty plus.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Thank you for listening. Segment two begins. Now still under
kind of weird weather out there today. It's the the
chicken littles of the world. The forecasters last night, we're
all talking about potential possible maybe win us up to
at least thirty miles an hour for most of this region,
(09:50):
and then a little bit of forty mile per hour
potential a little bit east and north of here, as
this latest little cool front passes through with rain, of course,
and I don't think we were supposed to get a
lot of rain. It was mostly just a little. But
it's still rain and it's still nasty outside. So just
(10:11):
until you see the sun shining, until you see shadows
under the trees again, just kind of duck and cover
and see hot turns out.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Moving into the news.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
A Breitbart story this morning shared that fears over these
tariffs run rampant among people looking for anything that might
scare the rest of us about our economy, chicken lily stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Again.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Historically, however, what's going on now hasn't really greatly impacted
the economy. The media is playing the part of chicken
little in this one, constantly looking to scare us. But
analytics show, and this is from the Federal Reserve Bank
of Atlanta, according to this story in Breitbart at Breitbart
(10:57):
says otherwise, it's not. It's the impact on prices will
be modest at worst. That's what the Federal Reserve Bank
of Atlanta says, less than two percent, if at all,
across the board. So that's not exactly doomsday scenario. President
Trump is trying to modify North American trade. He's not
(11:20):
imposing any big tariffs on goods from China, by the way,
because we're trying to keep that line of trade more
open for obvious reasons. Also, it says in the story
that if Canada and Mexico will just make minor changes
to their economic policies, those tariffs would be lifted and
(11:42):
just minor adjustments, that's all. And both of our North
American neighbors now are in negotiation to cut a deal.
Maybe we will do that. We don't want tariffs, and
you don't want tariffs on our stuff, and yeah, that's
exactly what we want. We don't want to impose tariffs,
but we just want to be playing on a level
(12:02):
playing field.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I'll skip that one for now and go to let
me get these pieces of paper apart. Hush.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
I don't know what it is with this paper we use. Well,
do you find it unusually dry? Like if you have
two pieces of paper together, can you just easily get
them apart?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yes? Okay.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
In Boston, Mayor Michelle wu is being criticized pretty strongly
by police and residents up there alike for offering condolences.
This is a kind of an odd I don't know,
it's not odd. In the world of liberals, but it's
odd in the world of common sense. I would think
she is offering condolences to the family of a man,
(12:45):
a knife wielding.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Guy who was chasing people, who chased people.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Into a fast food restaurant up there and threatening to
stab them and really causing a ruckus. According to the story,
there was an off dude police officer inside. He identified himself.
He ordered the man to drop the knife, and when
the man refused to drop his weapon, the story said,
the officer had.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
To shoot the man.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Woo's public safety priorities, by the way, according to that
story again are letting young people quote lead the way
in reimagining public safety and include removing police from public schools.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
That was the safety was the end of that quote.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Also, she wants to remove police from public schools, and
she reiterated that even after a student was accused of
beating a principle unconscious. But she doesn't want any law
enforcement in there. No, just let the kids run it.
Just ask the young people what they want. Ask the
(13:51):
young people how many police officers they want in their school.
They're going to tell you none, because in their minds
they can go hide, they can they can whatever if
there's a problem in reality, if somebody shows up intent
on harming them, they're not going to be so tough
unfortunately in sports, and it's I guess you could say
(14:13):
it's it's finally come to this. At the USA Track
and Field Open Masters Championship, two of the three finalists
in the four hundred meter dash in New York it
was withdrew from the competition in protest of the third competitor,
a transgender athlete who has a history actually of bragging
(14:33):
about victories in women's events on social media.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Probably not a good idea to do that. How easy
it is, how easy.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
It is to beat the women in the two hundred
meter finals the same the same athlete beat a few
girls who competed as in the rest of the field
opted out for the same reasons as in the four hundred.
This particular person, a biological man now twenty one years old,
was competing against women girls in their teens. And that
(15:04):
person also happens to hold numerous records at former school.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Where they ran it.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Well, all that person's records biological male, are in women's events,
so that's it just flies in the face. And there
was another story about that too. I think from well,
there have been many stories about some of these more
liberal states that just refuse to come on board with
this and are just flushing Title nine down the toilet.
(15:37):
They truly are. There is no protection if that's allowed
to continue. There's no protection at all for a level
playing field for young women and for girls who are
working as hard as any male athlete ever worked, but
aren't able to achieve the same results physically as those
(15:58):
male athletes. And as long as they're allowed to participate, well,
just as you saw there, Yeah, the whole field in
the four hundred just said no, now we're done. We're
not gonna We're not gonna play this game anymore.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
We can't, we can't compete.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
And until uh, the people who say that nobody's being
hurt by this physically either haven't looked at the news,
they haven't watched the stories. They haven't they've just turned
a blind eye to the stories where young women and
girls actually have been quite seriously hurt, quite seriously hurt
(16:35):
by former males, well still male former men competing as women.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
And I have I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
If you want to if you want to profess yourself
to be a one. That's fine, but don't don't step
into the arena, don't step into the ring, don't step
onto the court. Any of that with with young women
who have been working very, very hard to be the
best at their sport.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I do disagree with that.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
All right, moving forward, Will, let's let's settle it back.
Let's rein it in just a little bitty baby baty bit.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
That one. No, I don't like that one. Pace yourself,
sweet tooth, or one rename at a time, M sweet tooth.
This is interesting, Will, And then it's as impromptu pop
quiz for you.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
And I know you love those. Is that why you're
nodding your head? Oh? Hold on, let me turn my
head back to vertical. Oh you're shaking your head left
and right and left and right.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Well, tough.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Approximately how much money did Americans spend on candy last year?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
You don't have to get really close. Two billion.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
You know you only missed it, Will, You only missed
it by fifty two billion dollars. Americans spent fifty four
billion dollars on candy. That was twenty eight billion on chocolate,
twenty two billion on none chocolots, and four billion dollars
(18:22):
on chewing gum.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
How much did you contribute to that chewing gum money?
Zero to chewing.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Gum I have maybe I probably spent I don't know,
twelve dollars on gum last year.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
But I love I do too, But I didn't, I
didn't not. My contribution wasn't a drop in the bucket. Really.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
My wife likes peanut m and ms, but that's only
maybe four bucks a week. I'm thinking of two little
bags and those little by the way, the little tiny
bags that used to be like a nickel or a
dime when I was growing up, two bucks Now, depending
on where you buy it. If you're lucky, you can
find them for about a buck eighty nine, the little one,
(19:03):
not the share size. Oh no, you're gonna double up
on that. And you know what I've been seeing more
and more in grocery stores. Will you know there's always
a bigger container of more of whatever it is, and
you presume that.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
It's less money. A lot of times it's not.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
You know what's not that way? Pringles potato chips. In
the place where I buy my groceries. If you buy
the normal size can, it's two bucks. If you buy
the next the bigger can that appears to be of value.
It's too something, but when you look at the per
unit price, it's higher than for the little can. Go
figure will smoking mirrors even in potato chips. All right,
(19:43):
we got to take another little break here on the
way out, I'll remind you that ut Health Institute on
Aging is absolutely positive one of the best resources that
seniors could have anywhere, and it just happens to be
right here in Houston, right here, mostly in the med
centers where mostly providers work, but a lot of them
also practice outside of the med center, in outlying hospitals
(20:08):
and clinics and offices where they can be seen by
anybody who happens to be out their way who needs
help with something very specific to seniors. That's what everybody
who's involved in this Institute on Aging that what they've
done has gone back and got an additional expertise and
how they can apply what they know medically specifically to seniors.
(20:33):
And that's a big advantage for us. It truly is
a very big advantage ut House Institute on Aging. Go
to the website, look at all the resources available there,
and then work your way into maybe a consultation, maybe
an appointment with a doctor who you know will be
able to help you as well or better than anybody
(20:53):
else in the field with something that applies to you,
to me, to anybody else who's in our age category.
Uth dot edu slash aging, uth dot edu slash aging.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Now, they sure don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Third second of the program starts right now. Thank you
all for listening on this windy, rainy day. Whatever it
is around your house, it's probably not pretty outside. Uh,
this sull will come out tomorrow, hopefully tomorrow. It should
it's supposed to and after all, well within twenty four hours.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
The forecasts are usually fairly accurate.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
They pegged it for this morning's rain, they pegged it
for today's wind. I haven't even looked outside, but I
bet it's pretty windy where you are. So fingers crossed
that they're right about the next ten days as well.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
Well.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I need them to be right for seven days because
next Tuesday I've been invited to participate in the media
Day events surrounding the Chevron Championship, which we'll be back
up in the Woodlands again this year. It's a big,
big event for the women's for the LPGA Ladies Professional
Golf Association. I wonder if they'll ever change that to
(22:22):
the WPGA.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I doubt it.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
This morning, the AP asked a federal judge well by
filing a suit actually to restore its access to presidential
events after President Trump ousted them for refusing to rename
the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, considered
pretty far left by the administration, and rightfully so based
(22:47):
on history. AP need only acknowledge the renaming of the
golf to regain access. It's not been prohibited from reporting
the news. It's not been prohibited even from White House grounds.
Reporters and photographers for AP, though have been denied access
to some of the events that go on around there,
and that the suit claims costs the association profits from
(23:10):
the sales of the photographs. Many news organizations, including Fox
and Newsmax, by the way, have urged the White House.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
To let the AP back in.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
And honestly, if I were present, or just for myself
being as engaged in news gathering and news writing and whatnot.
For as long as I have been I'd let them.
I don't have a problem with them being in the pool,
even if they refuse to name the Gulf something other
(23:43):
than what it used to be called, so long as
so long as they abstain from writing anything that is
clearly false, and once that happens, once they become a
news agency again, which for a while they were stretching
(24:05):
things out pretty good, and if they can they can
do what they're supposed to be supposed to do in
news gathering and reporting, fair and unbiased reporting, then fine,
let them in. And I think all of those outlets
really should police each other, and there should be some
(24:28):
There should be some repercussion if they step across the line,
if they do things that they either kind of halfway
know or totally know, or untrue, if they go ahead
and put them in print anyway, just in hopes of
being first to break a story, which has become the standard,
and not that.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
That used to be.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
It used to be when I was writing news at
the newspaper, mostly features is what I wrote, but I
did get called upon and because of what I covered,
there was some genuine news in there. And I've talked
about this before, but I'll say it again. It was
our job, Mine and Joe Doggets, and Shannon's and Bob's
(25:10):
and everybody else in that newsroom, in that sports department,
news department, whatever, Our job was to write a story
that was so fair and so balanced that the editor,
and they're always an editor reads every story that goes
into the newspaper. So long as that editor couldn't tell
what side we were on. It's really it's a simple
(25:31):
thing to do. You have to just set your own
feelings aside, your own personal thoughts aside, and then call
people from both sides of the issue, report both sides
of the issue, and then trust the readers to understand
and form their own decisions. It's just as simple as that.
If TV people, boy, if they'd ever figure that out,
(25:53):
they could get their viewership to go back up and
leaps and bounds. We're gonna hear both sides of the store.
We're going total crop. Yeah, let's do that. Let's go
back to a time when you really didn't know which
side of the fence the news reporter was.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
And I like that. That's what the news is supposed
to be.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
You're supposed to have all the information that they have
from both sides, and then let the chips fall where
they may, let the people themselves decide which side they
want to want to align with.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Got to hate s ending a sentence with a preposition,
but I just couldn't walk my way out of that one.
Oh well, that's it. Let them back in.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I don't have a problem letting them back in as
long as they do their job and if somebody else,
and again going back to going accountability across the board
in all those news agencies, make sure they're actually reporting
the news and doing what they're supposed to do, then
it would be, Oh, what a wonderful world that would be.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
And what a departure from the recent past from MSA
Microsoft News Network the kind of a snicker moment on
CNN Newsnight when host Abby Philip immediately shifted from one
topic to another when political strategist Scott Jennings asked the
(27:16):
show's panelists on that show to name one Democrat more
popular than President Trump. They were beating him up talking
about how nobody likes him, how so many people disagree
with what he's done so far, even Americans who disagree
with some of President Trump's moves so far, still like
him far better than any Democrats in Congress. His overall
(27:40):
approval rating, I want to say, fifty to fifty one
percent something like that at the last polling, and that's
polling everybody, so half Democrats, half Republicans. You would think
that'd be about right. However, the satisfaction rating for Democrats
in Congress was something like twenty one percent. Twenty one
(28:01):
And why shouldn't Why should why should anybody not really
like a guy who's been the first high ranking politician
in a very long time who said he wants to
reduce the size.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Of the federal government.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
And well, I take that back. They've all said it.
Clinton said it, Obama said it. I'm sure at some
point Biden said it get himself elected. But President Trump's
the only one who's really doing anything about that. And
in significant chunks too, in quite significant chunks.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
I saw a story this morning.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
I just glanced over the headline, but in what I
believe to be payments to oh, I think perhaps food
stamp programs, all kinds of programs that are are really
blowing up our budget to just giving money to people
who and it's people who need it in most cases. Okay,
(28:57):
I'd say at least in many cases. But what's been
uncovered is, at first blush at least is potential for
about two hundred billion.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Dollars in.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Payments that went to people who weren't supposed to get them,
or went to overpayment of people's benefits. And that even
if ten percent of that is real, If if ninety
percent of it's valid and ten percent of that's real,
that's still twenty billion dollars that we're throwing away every year.
(29:34):
Very frustrating. We got to take another little break. Holy cow,
they do come up fast, don't they will?
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Hello, we do have to take a break.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Oh really, Well, that's what I just said, all right
on the way out. No nothing, I'm not gonna tell
you anything. I have some climate news. When we get back,
you're gonna love this. We'll take a little break here.
We'll be right back fifty plus on AM nine to
fifty kp R.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
See what's life without a net? I suggest to go
to bed, sleep it off, just wait until the show's over. Sleepy.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Back to Doug Pike as fifty plus continues, Hi.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Four than final segment of the program. I heard all
kinds of Astros talk lately. I resisted temptation there to
say rounding third and heading home.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
But I do like the way the Astros are shaping.
Speaker 5 (30:33):
Up and the solid crew that they have waiting in
the wings from some younger players who may or may
not be brought up.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Anytime this season. There's a couple of people I would
like to see come up pretty quick. We'll just have
to see how that goes. I managed to get two
wings out of the kitchen, and I think when I
reached into the container, will there were I think there
were five waffle fries left, and I took two. So
(31:07):
if you hurry, you might get chrumbs. There's still other
people circling the drain out there. They were good. They
were definitely good. One of them was, well, never mind,
it doesn't matter. They were all good. Let's just leave
it at that. I mentioned climate change before we left,
and so i'll go to it right now under what
(31:30):
I called climate change or not. This past December, will
this is pop quiz?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Are you ready? And you're just gonna need to fill
in the blank.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
This past December through February was the coldest three month
period in the United States since the winter of what, I.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Don't know, since the winter of when.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
Don't even want to play now, twenty thirteen to twenty fourteen,
eleven years ago? What so? What eleven twelve years ago?
What about this? Is it's okay that we have a
coldest winter in twelve years whatever, it's been eleven years.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
If you go back through history, I can assure.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
You you will find other coldest winters in short and long intervals.
You will find other hottest summers in cold or in
warm and hot intervals, sometimes ten years, sometimes twenty years,
maybe sometimes I don't know that, probably not that much longer.
Before these these events happen, the planet has been in
(32:49):
constant climate change since it formed, and we've had ice ages,
we've had warm periods, and those go back and forth.
And the deeper we dig up in the Arctic and
down in the Antarctic, the more we learn about climate.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Some of those ice samples, the.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Core samples they pull out, it's fascinating what they can
learn from those things, and it just it just shows
that it's it's gonna change no matter what we do.
And the frustrating part is that or well up until recently,
up until November, basically there was still a big effort
underway to just keep throwing money and and when when
(33:33):
confronted with the question of how much will it cost
by Congress, the experts sitting on I've seen several of
the interviews to that to that direct in that direction,
and when these people are asked that, they consistently say,
we need to invest in the future of the climate.
(33:54):
We've got to We've got to control this climate. And
when asked by members of Congress how much will that cost,
they have no idea.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
We don't know how much it's going to cost.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
We just have to keep throwing money at it until
when is there an end point?
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Well, no, we just have to make sure that we.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Invest in and like, no, you don't, and especially I
talked about this just this past week. Until the rest
of the world gets on board, specifically China and India,
a couple of other major Russia, until they come on
(34:32):
board to the same degree.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
That we are.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
We were at least being dragged into it to the
tune of trillions of dollars, the lot of which we
find out was pretty poorly invested. Until everybody's on board,
then nobody's on board because those three that I mentioned
are I believe the three largest contributors to ozone depletion, to.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Just all the problems.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
That we say this planet has. And unless they're players,
unless they are true players in the game, then it's
gonna be a rough, rough road to hoe. All right, will,
let's go back to the fun stuff for a minute here,
and then maybe maybe let me see what my other
pages here, see what's on this one. I might stick
with these. These are kind of fun. So today is
(35:24):
Marty Graul, and I'm gonna let you choose, will, since
I I'm gonna get rid of that piece of paper.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
We talked about the candy sales over the top? Will
we do or not? Good for babies? Over the top?
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Man in India was reward not rewarded, awarded by a
court system more than two hundred bucks, which doesn't sound
like a lot of money, and it's in the big
scheme of things. Two hundred bucks is not that much money.
But he got it by suing a movie theater chain.
And I bet you boy, if there are some young
(36:05):
attorneys in this audience, they ought to be paying attention.
This guy got paid off for saying for believing that
he was kind of duped into watching too many commercials
before the feature film. That movie began almost thirty minutes
late because there were two public service announcements and seventeen ads. Now,
(36:33):
this company of mine, not mine, this company for which
I work makes its money off advertising.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I get that.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
But if you're running up thirty straight minutes of commercials
just so somebody can get to watch the movie they
wanted to see, I kind of see the guy's point.
I kind of see the guy's point. We have we
have rules regarding how many commercials we can play between
show segments around here, and sometimes we expand a little
(37:09):
bit of coverage, like in a big year like last year,
when all these politicians needed to have their word heard.
Sometimes it just stations have to go into kind of
an extra little mode to help take care of our clients.
But by and large, we try to make each hour
as much content, as much good, clean, solid program content
(37:33):
as possible. And then there's me, and I'm trying to
I really am so Anyway, Yeah, that guy got two
hundred bucks more than what he paid to go see
the movie, I'm sure, And with two hundred bucks you
could probably buy. Well, what could you buy? Will one
large popcorn? Or one dozen eggs? Maybe maybe two dozen?
Speaker 2 (37:54):
You buy for two hundred dollars? How much popcorn at
the River Oaks that's Riverbrooks Theater? Is that where you go?
Speaker 3 (38:01):
You could buy twenty twentyorns? How many admission tickets? So
how many friends could you take to the movies and
buy them popcorn for two hundred bucks? It's ten bucks
for popcorn unlimited?
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah? Do they know if two people are sharing? Yeah?
Do they care?
Speaker 5 (38:21):
No?
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Okay, so only need five popcorns for ten people? Right? Yeah?
I guess. Oh no, I guess let's move on, shall we?
Holy cow? Will uh not good for babies?
Speaker 3 (38:34):
I'm gonna do this one anyway for the grandparents who
may want to talk to their their children who are
in baby having times in their lives.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
TikTok? Where else you gonna get good information? Right? Tiktoks?
Make tiktoks?
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Make it a claim that feeding your baby a spoonful
of butter will help them sleep through the night. Well,
guess what experts say it's nonsense and even dangerous. Butter
not good for babies and can be a choking hazard.
So way to go TikTok and who owns TikTok again?
(39:11):
Remind me that'd be a really slow way to hurt
our country. But just the fact that that's out there
and being being presented as legitimate information is kind of
scary really when you get right down to it.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
Will, did you hear about the little boy in Oklahoma
who called nine one one on an old phone? That
it was an old phone, the family had not been
using it for years, but apparently he figured out a
way to charge it up and make a phone call
because it would still take emergency calls. And he called
and asked the police for emergency donuts. For some reason,
(39:53):
he needed donuts. Will have you ever done that? Well?
Speaker 2 (39:55):
And he knew who to call?
Speaker 5 (39:57):
Did?
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yeah? They didn't have to go far? I bet? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
The cool part Will, And this is this is why
I still I think I think law enforcement's fantastic people.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Okay, they brought him the donuts. They brought him some donuts.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
Get me some donuts for tomorrow. Will We'll be back then.
Thank you for listening.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
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