October 5, 2025 • 12 mins
The wait is over! Beloved by trivia buffs, bathroom philosophers, and casual readers everywhere, Uncle John is back with its 38th annual edition. Once again, Uncle John and his team at the Bathroom Readers’ Institute have filled an absorbing volume with witty, weird, and wonderful articles perfect for readers of all ages.This all-new edition continues the tradition that has entertained millions: a treasure trove of fascinating stories and quirky facts from the worlds of pop culture, history, sports, science, and beyond. Longtime fans and newcomers alike will delight in the signature mix of:Short articles for quick trips to the throne roomLonger reads for extended staysAmusing lists, odd quotes, and brain-twisting quizzesUnbelievable exploits of dumb crooksEndless odd trivia to amaze friends, stump coworkers, and outwit family members“Every year, our goal is to make readers laugh, learn, and look at the world a little differently,” said Uncle John. With more than 15 million Bathroom Readers sold, Uncle John’s tradition of turning idle minutes into mind-expanding adventures shows no sign of slowing down. Whether you’re a lifelong fan or discovering Uncle John for the first time, this year’s edition promises to keep your brain busy and your funny bone tickled.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And there you are again, mister Brian. How are you, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Oh, it is always.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Great to talk to you. I'm in a good mood.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Oh my god. Just the things that you uncover. You
give me that opportunity to escape the real world and
step into an area of you know, at first it's disbelief,
but then you know, I find myself going, no, Brian,
mister uncle John is going to tell me the truth
about these things. And that's what makes it so fascinating.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, thank you, it's uh, you know, it just it
makes me proud to be alive. Like it's just such
a wonderful world out there, and I get to I
get to uncover it and share what I.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Find with with other people. It's a it's a pleasure
and it's an honor.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Really, when did you realize that content is really what
people want? Even with radio listening, you know, the program
directors would say, you've got to get on subjects that
people want to know about. Don't make it about you,
make it about them and their interests.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
You know, that's a that's a really good question. You know.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I think I think I've always known that, like just
what unites us, you know, it's we're all curious. We
all want to know, you know, what's going on with
the world of at us. We all want to understand
everything just a little bit more. And you know, just
little finite, little facts and stuff is the universal language.
People just want to know cool stuff that they can
they then share with other people at parties or in
(01:13):
conversations and things like that.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
It's just it's life enriching.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well, I mean, look at what you did with Wi
Fi names, because everybody's got their own Wi Fi name.
I mean, if you were to be in my neighborhood
and you're searching for a Wi Fi to jump onto,
it says I love my beautiful wife Lee, that's the
name of it. I mean, why do we do that?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Because we want to be you know, we're always looking
for little places to share a little bits about ourselves,
or to be funny or clever, or to make other
people smile, like you know, like you said Wi Fi names,
like I know the names of every dog in my neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Now, because of what people's Wi Fi are.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Do you think that there are any armchair, quarterback, bathroom readers,
Because I mean it seems like that what you've got here.
It took a know it all to put it all
inside this book. And now what you're doing is you're
enabling other know it alls.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Oh absolutely, we we we We always say that like
we're every every no it all, uncle, every note all dad,
every Chris Clayvin out there. You know, it's we fueled
the fire, and I'm I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Not sorry, you know.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
One of my most fascinating parts of the book was
the fact that when when you went into unseen TV,
because we've all done that, We've gone through an episode
of a show. We liked the show, or maybe we
didn't like it, but then it disappears.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, yeah, that's always that's always happening.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
You know, shows that you know never even made it
past the pilot for for obvious reasons. Like there was
this show on It was a it was a small
network called Packs I think it's Eye on now. They
just showed like Law and Order reruns. But in the
two thousands they used to have kind of family friendly
original content. And the show called Mermaids was about.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
A couple of guys who used bombs to increase.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
The commercial fishing yield and then after their father died,
three Mermaids swore to hunt down these fishermen.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
And avenge the death of their mermand's father.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
But the mermaids all had superpowers, but they also couldn't
leave little water.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Jeez, are you ever going to put together a museum
like Ripley's. I mean, because you go down the streets
of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and I mean there needs
to be a know it all book from Uncle John.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Oh, that would be that would be cool. I would
I would love to move move to Myrtle Beach and
open up a museum of the add and absurd. But
until then, I guess I guess we just we just
write about it and just create the feeder of the
mind for people.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Well, I'd love to find out what's going to be
happening with people when they discover that you've got pirate
jokes in this new edition, because I mean, we're going
into the Renaissance festival season and everybody's gonna go, ah,
my pirate jokes, and you've got them there you mister Brian.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Boone, we do we do.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I love, I absolutely love pirate jokes. Here here's the one.
How much do pirates pay to get their ears pierced?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
What's the answer, A buccaneer, a bucket? Oh of course it's.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
This might be my favorite joke of all time, you know,
regardless of what's about. What did the pirates say on
his eightieth birthday?
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Oh, okay, I'm eighty. Oh for the love of God?
Of course, you know, you know what the think about
it is these pirate jokes. It's almost like they're self
explained tory. You just sit there and go, of course
it is. Of course that's exactly what the answer is.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yes, After every.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Time I hear I'm like, oh, of course, how am
I not guess that?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Uh? Where do South American pirates come from? Oh? I
don't know that one our Argentina, of.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Course they do. Please do not move. There's more with
Brian Boone. Uncle John He's coming up next. Uncle John's
know it all bathroom Reader, often imitated but never duplicated.
We are back with Brian Boone. I am a research whore.
(04:57):
In other words, I like to dig in and I
think I'm so ad that I do. At twenty four
to seven, do you use AI technology to go looking
for things? Or is that clickbait waiting to be found?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
No, we don't.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
We don't need ai, which there's so much out there
and that we find.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, no, no, we don't need to do that, Like
I don't.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I don't need something filtering it for me because I
love the discovery also like I love I love going
out there and finding it, like whether it's talking to
people or things that are sent into us.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Reading. I read a ton of magazines.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I watch a lot of TV, a lot of documentaries,
watch a lot of movies.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
I read a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Like everything is always an idea waiting to happen, Like
you just see something, You're like, oh, I wonder if
we've ever written about, you know, the origin of garden
gnomes or you know, I'm obviously.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Looking around my office right now.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
You know that who's the first person to use you know,
a microphone and a stage performance like those. There's just
always something to explore if you if you just look
a little bit closer, you'll you'll find, you know, just
fascinating stories about things. And I get to do that.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
So let me ask you, one creative person to another
creative person here, because I'm constantly taking notes. Are you
the same way? Do you have a bunch of tablets
sitting around just sitting there waiting to make their way
to a book or a podcast.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Absolutely, I've got I've got notebooks filled, I've got the
notes app on my phone field you know, you know,
a running list of article ideas like I've got.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
I've got articles in here that I've been that I've been.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Wanting to write for years and years that I just
never got a ride to it. I finally got to.
You know, I think this book has one about a
an art heist of like you know, Autobottom books like
I've been. I've been wanted to write about that one
since I heard it happen, you know, been ten fifteen
years ago. There's just always something to write about.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Well, you've got something here that I'm shocked that law
and order has not come knocking on your door and
they would call it law and order.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
No at all.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Uncle John takes us there because you've got strong stream.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Don't don't strange lawsuit edition. This is awesome for a
TV show, dude.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Oh that would be that would be a really front. Yeah.
The janitor who was cleaning the laboratory at the Rensaller
Polytechnic Institute, he heard.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
These annoying alarms, and.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
They were triggered because the temperature had risen two degrees.
But basically he decided to flip the circuit breaker because
he thought he was turning off the alarm, but he
didn't understand that he turned off the freezer, and they
just discovered that he'd killed the whole bitch of sale
cultures overnight, twenty years worth of irreplaceable research, including a
(07:31):
few experiences they said would be groundbreaking.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
So the university sued the cleaning.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Company and then they settled, and the poor janitor said
he was just trying to help.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
That would be a great episode of law and order.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
You know, I've got inside this studio so many Pez dispensers.
In fact, the collection of kisses right over here to
my left, and I've got so many other Pez dispensers. Now,
I'm going to tell you you rocked my world with
all about pass because a number one, I didn't realize
that pez pez is vegan, pez is vega.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
It's it's just corn syrup and artificial coloring agents that shock.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
This whole entire article will give people the opportunity to
really dive into another reason why you should be collected
and because there's so many different things here. I mean,
you really dive into the history of this. I mean,
this goes way way back to nineteen twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Dude, it does. I mean, and this is another example
of something that was on my desk and I was
looking around for article ideas.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
He goes, I've got about I've got about two hundreds
as the centers myself.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
So I was just like, oh, we've never done pez
and like, I think it's really interesting that, you know,
there's there's so many thousands of cartoon characters on.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
But when they started out.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
For thirty years from nineteen twenty seven on, it was
a it was an anti smoking aid. They were pepperminc flavored,
and they just had little rectangles on top, and they
were just supposed to, you know, you're supposed to pop
one of these tiny little ments, these little brick mints
whenever you felt like smoking a cigarette. And then I'm
some investors and some business partners came in and decided
to you know, maybe this could be something that would
(09:09):
be you know, more interesting if it was candy flavored,
and then we could license out the rights to put
characters on. So nineteen fifty eight The first character to
appear at a test s dispenser was pop Ey Wow.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Our radio station jocks and podcasters reaching out to you,
because what you're doing with all of your Uncle John
books is you're creating what we had back in the
seventies and eighties, and that was Joel Whitburn's information about
music history. This right here is every bit the reason
why and what we need as broadcasters. And do they
credit you? And do you want the credit?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
I love the credit.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
You know, a lot of DJ when I do these interviews,
these djas tell me I've been collecting.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
These books for twenty thirty years.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Whenever I need airtime, I pick up a bathroom reader
and I wad a.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Lot of fun fact. I'll be listening to the radio
and I'll hear a fun fact.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I'm like, that sounds familiar, and it's it's from one
of our books. Like that's so extremely flattering that these
books get out there and they really become a part
of people's lives.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
All right, let's talk about business here, okay, Because this
new book, I swear to God, this is the first
time that I've actually seen ink on the actual pages
on the side. Whose decision was that. I think it's creative.
I think it's genius. It plays with my imagination. But
I know that as a business person, then you know,
somebody had to be sitting around going, oh my god,
come on, Brian, do you really need ink on the
side of these pages.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
I wish I could take credit for that. I did
not know that was something you could even do.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Our design team came up with that, and they told
me that they were going to try to do something
with the spine, and then I got my copies in
the mail a few weeks ago, and all those ducks
on the side. What a way to make it stand out?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
What a way to make it stand out? I love them.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Have you started a podcast yet on this stuff? Because
every time I talk with you, I'm sure I bring
that up. I said, why aren't you putting this on
a podcast?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Where I work?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
It's in the worst oh CD, it's happening.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
There, and the works, and you're going to the work.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
We're we're just I mean, it's it's just like all
of our all of our all of our information.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
It's like, what do we what do we do? What
do we put in? What do we leave out? So
where discussions are are underway.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, because I just came across an article the other
day about how to preserve your legacy. It's not through
writing and people discovering your journals. What they're going to
do is they're going to discover what you did in
the digital age, and they're going to find it one
hundred years from now.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Huh Yeah, I think that's true.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Pretty freak, that's u.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Let's let's you know, we all we all want to
be remembered that like, you know, if if this is
my legacy and just sharing a cool info with the
world and making a little bit more understanding the people,
that's uh, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Well, you've got a powerful legacy. Where can people go
to find out more about you, Brian? Because I want
Uncle John T shirts to be out there. I want
people to be speaking the street.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Oh boy, We're at portablepress dot com. That's our publisher,
portable press dot Com. And then the books you can
get anywhere you can find these books. We're in every
bookstore under the trivia or sometimes the humor section, and
then we're at all the major online booksellers too.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Are you doing a book tour at all? To where
you're going from store to store because I'm sure there's
a lot of people that would like to meet you.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
That's a that's a cool idea, and I'd love to
do it. But right now we're we're just hitting the
hitting the radio in the podcast circuit, which which is
always really fun.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Well, you know, the door is always open. Please come
back to this show, the dude, I mean, the door
is always going to be there for you. Just walk
through and say, I got an idea. And now it
includes a little calendar on the side you can put
on your dang desk.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
We got the page of day calendar. That's right. You can.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
You can get a little little story in a little
fact every day. Just just make us, make us a
part of your of your of your work life, you know,
take us out of the bathroom and bring us into
the open.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Will you be brilliant?
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Okay, oh you too, Thank you so much.
And there you are again, mister Brian. How are you, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Oh, it is always.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Great to talk to you. I'm in a good mood.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Oh my god. Just the things that you uncover. You
give me that opportunity to escape the real world and
step into an area of you know, at first it's disbelief,
but then you know, I find myself going, no, Brian,
mister uncle John is going to tell me the truth
about these things. And that's what makes it so fascinating.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, thank you, it's uh, you know, it just it
makes me proud to be alive. Like it's just such
a wonderful world out there, and I get to I
get to uncover it and share what I.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Find with with other people. It's a it's a pleasure
and it's an honor.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Really, when did you realize that content is really what
people want? Even with radio listening, you know, the program
directors would say, you've got to get on subjects that
people want to know about. Don't make it about you,
make it about them and their interests.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
You know, that's a that's a really good question. You know.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I think I think I've always known that, like just
what unites us, you know, it's we're all curious. We
all want to know, you know, what's going on with
the world of at us. We all want to understand
everything just a little bit more. And you know, just
little finite, little facts and stuff is the universal language.
People just want to know cool stuff that they can
they then share with other people at parties or in
(01:13):
conversations and things like that.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
It's just it's life enriching.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well, I mean, look at what you did with Wi
Fi names, because everybody's got their own Wi Fi name.
I mean, if you were to be in my neighborhood
and you're searching for a Wi Fi to jump onto,
it says I love my beautiful wife Lee, that's the
name of it. I mean, why do we do that?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Because we want to be you know, we're always looking
for little places to share a little bits about ourselves,
or to be funny or clever, or to make other
people smile, like you know, like you said Wi Fi names,
like I know the names of every dog in my neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Now, because of what people's Wi Fi are.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Do you think that there are any armchair, quarterback, bathroom readers,
Because I mean it seems like that what you've got here.
It took a know it all to put it all
inside this book. And now what you're doing is you're
enabling other know it alls.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Oh absolutely, we we we We always say that like
we're every every no it all, uncle, every note all dad,
every Chris Clayvin out there. You know, it's we fueled
the fire, and I'm I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Not sorry, you know.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
One of my most fascinating parts of the book was
the fact that when when you went into unseen TV,
because we've all done that, We've gone through an episode
of a show. We liked the show, or maybe we
didn't like it, but then it disappears.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, yeah, that's always that's always happening.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
You know, shows that you know never even made it
past the pilot for for obvious reasons. Like there was
this show on It was a it was a small
network called Packs I think it's Eye on now. They
just showed like Law and Order reruns. But in the
two thousands they used to have kind of family friendly
original content. And the show called Mermaids was about.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
A couple of guys who used bombs to increase.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
The commercial fishing yield and then after their father died,
three Mermaids swore to hunt down these fishermen.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
And avenge the death of their mermand's father.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
But the mermaids all had superpowers, but they also couldn't
leave little water.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Jeez, are you ever going to put together a museum
like Ripley's. I mean, because you go down the streets
of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and I mean there needs
to be a know it all book from Uncle John.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Oh, that would be that would be cool. I would
I would love to move move to Myrtle Beach and
open up a museum of the add and absurd. But
until then, I guess I guess we just we just
write about it and just create the feeder of the
mind for people.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Well, I'd love to find out what's going to be
happening with people when they discover that you've got pirate
jokes in this new edition, because I mean, we're going
into the Renaissance festival season and everybody's gonna go, ah,
my pirate jokes, and you've got them there you mister Brian.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Boone, we do we do.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I love, I absolutely love pirate jokes. Here here's the one.
How much do pirates pay to get their ears pierced?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
What's the answer, A buccaneer, a bucket? Oh of course it's.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
This might be my favorite joke of all time, you know,
regardless of what's about. What did the pirates say on
his eightieth birthday?
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Oh, okay, I'm eighty. Oh for the love of God?
Of course, you know, you know what the think about
it is these pirate jokes. It's almost like they're self
explained tory. You just sit there and go, of course
it is. Of course that's exactly what the answer is.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yes, After every.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Time I hear I'm like, oh, of course, how am
I not guess that?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Uh? Where do South American pirates come from? Oh? I
don't know that one our Argentina, of.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Course they do. Please do not move. There's more with
Brian Boone. Uncle John He's coming up next. Uncle John's
know it all bathroom Reader, often imitated but never duplicated.
We are back with Brian Boone. I am a research whore.
(04:57):
In other words, I like to dig in and I
think I'm so ad that I do. At twenty four
to seven, do you use AI technology to go looking
for things? Or is that clickbait waiting to be found?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
No, we don't.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
We don't need ai, which there's so much out there
and that we find.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, no, no, we don't need to do that, Like
I don't.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I don't need something filtering it for me because I
love the discovery also like I love I love going
out there and finding it, like whether it's talking to
people or things that are sent into us.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Reading. I read a ton of magazines.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I watch a lot of TV, a lot of documentaries,
watch a lot of movies.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
I read a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Like everything is always an idea waiting to happen, Like
you just see something, You're like, oh, I wonder if
we've ever written about, you know, the origin of garden
gnomes or you know, I'm obviously.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Looking around my office right now.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
You know that who's the first person to use you know,
a microphone and a stage performance like those. There's just
always something to explore if you if you just look
a little bit closer, you'll you'll find, you know, just
fascinating stories about things. And I get to do that.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
So let me ask you, one creative person to another
creative person here, because I'm constantly taking notes. Are you
the same way? Do you have a bunch of tablets
sitting around just sitting there waiting to make their way
to a book or a podcast.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Absolutely, I've got I've got notebooks filled, I've got the
notes app on my phone field you know, you know,
a running list of article ideas like I've got.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
I've got articles in here that I've been that I've been.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Wanting to write for years and years that I just
never got a ride to it. I finally got to.
You know, I think this book has one about a
an art heist of like you know, Autobottom books like
I've been. I've been wanted to write about that one
since I heard it happen, you know, been ten fifteen
years ago. There's just always something to write about.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Well, you've got something here that I'm shocked that law
and order has not come knocking on your door and
they would call it law and order.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
No at all.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Uncle John takes us there because you've got strong stream.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Don't don't strange lawsuit edition. This is awesome for a
TV show, dude.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Oh that would be that would be a really front. Yeah.
The janitor who was cleaning the laboratory at the Rensaller
Polytechnic Institute, he heard.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
These annoying alarms, and.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
They were triggered because the temperature had risen two degrees.
But basically he decided to flip the circuit breaker because
he thought he was turning off the alarm, but he
didn't understand that he turned off the freezer, and they
just discovered that he'd killed the whole bitch of sale
cultures overnight, twenty years worth of irreplaceable research, including a
(07:31):
few experiences they said would be groundbreaking.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
So the university sued the cleaning.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Company and then they settled, and the poor janitor said
he was just trying to help.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
That would be a great episode of law and order.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
You know, I've got inside this studio so many Pez dispensers.
In fact, the collection of kisses right over here to
my left, and I've got so many other Pez dispensers. Now,
I'm going to tell you you rocked my world with
all about pass because a number one, I didn't realize
that pez pez is vegan, pez is vega.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
It's it's just corn syrup and artificial coloring agents that shock.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
This whole entire article will give people the opportunity to
really dive into another reason why you should be collected
and because there's so many different things here. I mean,
you really dive into the history of this. I mean,
this goes way way back to nineteen twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Dude, it does. I mean, and this is another example
of something that was on my desk and I was
looking around for article ideas.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
He goes, I've got about I've got about two hundreds
as the centers myself.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
So I was just like, oh, we've never done pez
and like, I think it's really interesting that, you know,
there's there's so many thousands of cartoon characters on.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
But when they started out.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
For thirty years from nineteen twenty seven on, it was
a it was an anti smoking aid. They were pepperminc flavored,
and they just had little rectangles on top, and they
were just supposed to, you know, you're supposed to pop
one of these tiny little ments, these little brick mints
whenever you felt like smoking a cigarette. And then I'm
some investors and some business partners came in and decided
to you know, maybe this could be something that would
(09:09):
be you know, more interesting if it was candy flavored,
and then we could license out the rights to put
characters on. So nineteen fifty eight The first character to
appear at a test s dispenser was pop Ey Wow.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Our radio station jocks and podcasters reaching out to you,
because what you're doing with all of your Uncle John
books is you're creating what we had back in the
seventies and eighties, and that was Joel Whitburn's information about
music history. This right here is every bit the reason
why and what we need as broadcasters. And do they
credit you? And do you want the credit?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
I love the credit.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
You know, a lot of DJ when I do these interviews,
these djas tell me I've been collecting.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
These books for twenty thirty years.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Whenever I need airtime, I pick up a bathroom reader
and I wad a.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Lot of fun fact. I'll be listening to the radio
and I'll hear a fun fact.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I'm like, that sounds familiar, and it's it's from one
of our books. Like that's so extremely flattering that these
books get out there and they really become a part
of people's lives.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
All right, let's talk about business here, okay, Because this
new book, I swear to God, this is the first
time that I've actually seen ink on the actual pages
on the side. Whose decision was that. I think it's creative.
I think it's genius. It plays with my imagination. But
I know that as a business person, then you know,
somebody had to be sitting around going, oh my god,
come on, Brian, do you really need ink on the
side of these pages.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
I wish I could take credit for that. I did
not know that was something you could even do.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Our design team came up with that, and they told
me that they were going to try to do something
with the spine, and then I got my copies in
the mail a few weeks ago, and all those ducks
on the side. What a way to make it stand out?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
What a way to make it stand out? I love them.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Have you started a podcast yet on this stuff? Because
every time I talk with you, I'm sure I bring
that up. I said, why aren't you putting this on
a podcast?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Where I work?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
It's in the worst oh CD, it's happening.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
There, and the works, and you're going to the work.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
We're we're just I mean, it's it's just like all
of our all of our all of our information.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
It's like, what do we what do we do? What
do we put in? What do we leave out? So
where discussions are are underway.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, because I just came across an article the other
day about how to preserve your legacy. It's not through
writing and people discovering your journals. What they're going to
do is they're going to discover what you did in
the digital age, and they're going to find it one
hundred years from now.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Huh Yeah, I think that's true.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Pretty freak, that's u.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Let's let's you know, we all we all want to
be remembered that like, you know, if if this is
my legacy and just sharing a cool info with the
world and making a little bit more understanding the people,
that's uh, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Well, you've got a powerful legacy. Where can people go
to find out more about you, Brian? Because I want
Uncle John T shirts to be out there. I want
people to be speaking the street.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Oh boy, We're at portablepress dot com. That's our publisher,
portable press dot Com. And then the books you can
get anywhere you can find these books. We're in every
bookstore under the trivia or sometimes the humor section, and
then we're at all the major online booksellers too.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Are you doing a book tour at all? To where
you're going from store to store because I'm sure there's
a lot of people that would like to meet you.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
That's a that's a cool idea, and I'd love to
do it. But right now we're we're just hitting the
hitting the radio in the podcast circuit, which which is
always really fun.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Well, you know, the door is always open. Please come
back to this show, the dude, I mean, the door
is always going to be there for you. Just walk
through and say, I got an idea. And now it
includes a little calendar on the side you can put
on your dang desk.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
We got the page of day calendar. That's right. You can.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
You can get a little little story in a little
fact every day. Just just make us, make us a
part of your of your of your work life, you know,
take us out of the bathroom and bring us into
the open.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Will you be brilliant?
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Okay, oh you too, Thank you so much.
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