09-24-24 FULL SHOW - Why The Mountain Lion Hunting Ban Is A Bad Idea

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Bill and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, it's Mandy Connell, Andy, Dona Ninem, God, wait you
wanna study? And the nicety us.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Through three Andy Connell, Keith who is sad babe?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to a Tuesday edition of the show.
I'm your host for the next three hours, Mandy Connell,
joined by my right hand man, I call him a Rod.
You can call him Anthony rodri guys, and together we win,
say you right up to three p m. When we
give the show over to those sports guys in the afternoon.

(00:46):
So in the meantime, we've got lots to do. Today's
another one of those things where there's a bunch of stories,
most of them totally unrelated. I try to do as
little politics as I could, because let me just I'm
gonna do a little mini poll before we do the blog.
I'd like your opinions on this, ladies and gents of
the show, and remind me to do this at two o'clock.

(01:10):
Remind me to do this again. Okay at two pm, Comma,
remind me to do this again. I took the legs
out from under you on this one, Anthony.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yeah, you can text that at two o'clock. Don't forget
to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Okay, So here's my question, and you can text us
on our common spirit health TEXTLI.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Don't forget it two o'clock to do stop it, all right,
stop it two o'clock, stop.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
It, do that thing. The thing is, I need to
know what you guys are looking for from this show.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
I've got some Colorado stuff on the blog. We've got
a ballad initiative thing on the blog. But let's talk
about the Trump Harris race as it is right now.
Unless something incredibly just extraordinary happens, we're going to be
subjected for the next few weeks because the polls are

(02:08):
very very tight, and we're going to be subjected to
just all kinds of crap. So what level of crap
do you want me to cover on the show? Do
you want very little crap? Do you want a medium
amount of crap? Or do you want all crap all
the time. And I'm specifically talking about the presidential election.
And I merely say this because I feel like from

(02:31):
here until the election, we are only going to hear
about polls, and we're gonna hear about dumb things Kamalae
Harras said, and dumb things Donald Trump said. How much
of that do you want? Because I don't think there
are very many people in this listening audience who are undecided.
I really don't think so. I mean, maybe I should

(02:51):
have my Undecided's. If you're undecided, you can hit the
text line at five six six nine, oh and tell
me you're undecided. But I think people have pretty much
to do they're going to vote for, and so it's like,
do we want to keep beating a dead horse or
do we want to cover other stuff? Now we are
going to be getting starting Monday. I'm hoping to have
my guide my voter Guy done by Monday. I've already

(03:12):
started working on it. And there are a ton of
ballot initiatives and for the most part, pretty my opinions
on most of them are pretty straightforward. But I am
still still vacillating on rank choice voting still. And we
need to get Nick Troy, you know, we need we
need to have Kent Theory on the show. Make that

(03:33):
happen a rod because he just sat down. Well, let
me get to the blog. I want you to text
how much of the crap do you want? Yeah? Sorry, Well,
I'm thinking about all this stuff, trying to you know,
it all goes together. Let me do the blog. Find
the blog at mandy'sblog dot com. That's mandy'sblog dot com.
Look for the headline that says nine twenty four twenty
four blog why the Mountain Lion hunting Man is a

(03:56):
bad idea. Click on that and here are the headlines
we'll find with in and eyone's listening office, half of
American all with ships and clipments of say that's ConA
Press plants today on the blog why you need to
vote no on the Mountain Lion hunting Man auroranew those
apartments were taken over by gangs. Denver has a pantload
of ballid initiatives too. Charlie Blackman deserved better. Enjoy your

(04:18):
last decent Tabor refund about Ranked Choice Voting DPS tries
to polish the turd. Southwest is so close to losing
me forever. Obesity is stable except scrolling the burden of
being good looking. Estes Park got a nod the new
pay it backwards trend people make going to the movie

(04:39):
theaters suck. Men and women feel pain differently coffee is
good for your heart. Cops are going after license plate
scoff laws. That's one big gas pumpkin. Octopus are like
gang leaders. Seal sneezes sound like farts. Why is the
FCC breaking its own rules to let Soros buy a
radio network? Why not change your birthday too? Israel knows

(05:01):
where Hesbela has hidden everything. And those are the headlines
on the blog at mandy'sblog dot com. Now, if you
just heard those headlines, you hear that I have some
political stuff, but then I also have Octopus's gang leaders.
That is like my favorite story of twenty twenty four.
We're going to get deep into that a little bit
later on the show. I got, you know, finally, cops

(05:24):
are going to crack down on license plates. Okay, so
a Rod, Where's I driving? The other day? I was
driving down I seventy sort of in the middle of Denver,
part of I seventy right, So I'm going through the
heart of Denver. I look to my right. The car
on my right has an expired license plate from three
years ago. The car in front of me has no
license plate. The car to the left of me has

(05:46):
no license plate. So I am surrounded by three cars,
none of them had the proper license plate on them.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Nothing ever makes me want to not pay taxes, bills
or my own registration more than seeing everyone go years
without doing it.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, why do we have.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
To be the good citizens and no one else cans
cracked down on?

Speaker 2 (06:03):
So I love this. Yes, this week there's a big crackdown.
It's going to be all the way up and now.
The front range from Colorado Springs up through Denver and Aurora.
And yeah, a bunch of law enforcement agencies are involved
in this. And last time they gave out like three
hitdred tickets. So don't be that person. Get your stuff done.

(06:25):
That's happening next week. That's on the blog. I got
a story about coffee being good again. That's on the blog.
Very interesting story about men and women feeling feeling pain differently.
Isn't that interesting? I think that's fascinating, not surprising, but fascinating.
We've got some stuff on rate choice voting today. That's

(06:48):
what I was getting to when I got distracted by
myself a few minutes ago. You made me want to squirrel.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
You know, I want to know I'm saying, I want
to give you another opportunity to squirrel here.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
No, it's fine, No, I really don't actually to the
blog right question real quick, pain pre and post you
having a child, how has that impacted whether you have
higher or lower painton. I am not the person to
ask because I never went into labor. I had an
urgency section because Q was in distress, gotcha. So I
did not experience the entire thing. So I'm not the

(07:18):
right person to ask. Maybe other people can weigh in
on the text line as well. So I asked you
to hit the text line and tell me how much
crap do you want on the show, And I'm just
giving you the mix of the crap. The video that
I keep referring to with Kent theory is with John Caldera.
It was from The Devil's Advocate. I watched it this morning.
I'm going to watch it again this afternoon. I then

(07:40):
have a column linked on the blog for the anti
rank choice voting argument, and I'm telling you right now,
if that's the argument, then I'm voting for ranked choice voting.
I have concerns. I think there's going to be an
adjustment period that could be unpleasant for people that don't
pay attention to the new rules. But I think that

(08:03):
this is the best opportunity to get the most reasonable
people in office. And yeah, I want reasonable people. I
want principled people, but I want reasonable people. I'm the
sort of hard right and hard left are so debilitating

(08:25):
to everybody in the middle that it's whether you're center
right or center left. There's far more center right and
center left and dead center people than there are far
right or far left. And yet the way the primary
system works now, it is usually the fringes that do
the most electing of the candidates. So we will have
to see Mandy lots of crap. Let me give the

(08:47):
responses really quickly. What level of crap do you want
on the show? Meaning the federal presidential election? Of course, Mandy,
lots of crap. Mandy, in general, I like to keep
crap to a minimum. This is the first time in
my life I actually believe this is the most important
election ever. So I'm going to vote moderate crap. Okay,

(09:07):
got it, Mandy. I talked to a cop yesterday and
they said they are prohibited from pulling over cars with
expired tags. It's deemed racist, unbelievable. That was a change
in policy that was made several years ago, and mostly
because they don't have enough cops. I don't know of

(09:28):
any department. And if you work for Aurora, or you
work for Denver, or you work for Colorado Springs, those
are the three largest departments I know, they're not fully staffed.
And even if they were, like in Denver, even if
they hit full authorization level, that authorization level was set
before one hundred thousand people moved here, so it's woefully inadequate.

(09:51):
So that's why they changed it. But yeah, it has
created the atmosphere that Arod mentioned where it's like, why
should I bother paying when no one else is paying?
Soh yeah, Mandy, medium to light amount of crap at most.
Please there are many other things to talk about. Mandy,
so sick of the political crap so over it. Love

(10:11):
listening to you. Oh dang it, forgot to turn that off.
All crap all the time jk lol. Please cover non
political woodship or issues. If you don't know who to
vote for by now, you're a well I can't say
that on the radio. Prefer a crap free zone. Sick
of it all, Mandy, undecided is who to write in

(10:34):
as I will not be voting for Harris or Trump.
Somebody else is going to write in Snake Pliskin. I
saw that one earlier from Escape from New York, so
that's always an option. Snake Pliskin twenty twenty four, Mandy,
I'm trying to tap your Florida hurricane expertise. I'm scheduled
to fly Frontier to Tampa tomorrow with Helene, hitting on Thursday,

(10:55):
seeing at Treasure Island on beach four nites. I love
that hotel. By the way, do you think I'm doing
for storm surge? Power outages possible, big hassle, and therefore
should take the travel credit if they offer. Yes, yes, indeed,
And I'm not sure. I know that storm is supposed
to hit the Panhandle. I looked at it today, but
you're just going to be in rain and misery. Although

(11:16):
Tampa has pretty good I don't know about Saint Pete.
Tampa buried their power lines a long time ago, but
Saint Pete I don't think they did. I can't remember,
but yeah, I would reschedule it. I would just call
and say, yeah, I want to reschedule. See what they
say there, because it's just no fun. The aftermath of
a hurricane is no fun cause there will be people

(11:37):
that are supposed to be helping you that their houses,
you know, are affected, or they're having an issue. It's
just it's not fun to be there and be part
of the burden. Uh Mandy. If voters can't figure out
how to get a state, I D how are they
going to figure out ranked choice voting? And lots of
politics news and econ leave the Love the fluff and
author interviews and parenting tips and feel good stories for

(11:59):
roth'sh show. No, no, I'm not doing that. Here's the
thing about ranked choice voting. This is the argument. They're like,
oh my god, it's so complicated. No, it's ever gonna
be able to figure it out. This is so confusing.
It works like this. Everybody's on the primary. Everybody's in
the pool for the primary, right, no matter who you are,

(12:19):
if you qualify for the ballot with whatever means ballot
qualifications has to be met, you are in the primary,
and the top four vote getters come out of the
primary and will go on the general election ballot. Now,
in the general election, let's say it's me a Rod
Keenan and the wine Yogi on the ballot and you

(12:40):
decide you want to vote for me first. Wrong?

Speaker 5 (12:43):
Yes?

Speaker 6 (12:43):
What?

Speaker 1 (12:45):
No?

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Wrong? Voting for you first ever? Me? Well wait a minute,
you don't want to You don't want to campaign that
way because you're gonna screw yourself because my people are
not going to vote for you. Second, here's what happens.
You vote for Mandy first, you vote for a Rod, Second,
you vote for the Wine. Third, you vote for Keenan
fourth only because he hasn't been years long, you know.
And so then Keenan gets knocked out because he's the

(13:07):
fourth place finisher. They take who did Keenan's people vote
for a second? Oh, some of them voted for a Rod,
some of them voted for the wine, Yogi, some of
them voted for me. We add those votes to our tally.
And then the third place winner knocked out? What happened
to the third place winner? Who do they vote for?
A second, third, fourth, and so on and so forth
until someone goes over fifty percent. It is not a

(13:28):
complicated process. We spend all of our lives putting things
in ranked order. Okay, we have top ten lists for
every freaking thing in the world. You're telling me people
can't figure out. Hey, if my person doesn't win, who
would be my second favorite choice? How is that too?
Can If you can't follow along with that, I don't

(13:50):
want you to vote, because it's not that complicated, even
older people. This is how you explain it. You go in,
you look at the ballot, You vote for your first choice. Now,
if you're thinking to yourself, if my first choice doesn't win,
who else would be okay with me? Write that person
down second and so and if that's it. If you

(14:10):
just want to put down one and two, that's it.
You don't have to write down anymore. If you just
want to put down one vote do, you don't have
to write anymore. But this incentivizes people to campaign in
such a way that their opponents' supporters may consider giving
them the vote if they're if their person doesn't win,
so yeah, we shall see. So you get a wishy

(14:32):
washy candidate that says whatever the crowd in front wants
to hear, with all due respect, what do you think
candidates do? Now? Do you really think that candidates pandering
to the far right or the far left of the
party the people most likely to come out and vote
in a primary. Do you really think they're giving you
their heartfelt feelings inside. No, no, I mean you guys,

(14:59):
so to act like that would change just move from Alaska.
Ranked choice voting is so easy. I found being an
unaffiliated voter much more difficult. So that's interesting Alaska. There's
a movement in Alaska to repeal it because the candidates
did not recognize that the game had changed and did
not change how they campaigned. And a woman who is

(15:22):
not necessarily representative of all Alaskan Scott elected. We'll see
if she gets out this time. So yeah, you may
as well make voting a beauty contest. Now, yeah, yeah.
Ranked choice voting is it just a primary or is
in the general election as well? It's just in the
general election. It is not in the primary. And the primary,

(15:44):
everybody goes on the ballot from every party, and everybody
gets the same ballot, and you choose who you want
and the top four vote getters go through to the
general election. It's that simple. And then in the general election,
boom and do this. Why does that? I just answered
writers last I want to get rid of it. If

(16:05):
you're a Republican and vote for a Democrat, you have
no morals. No no, no, no, no, no no, no,
let's just say this. Okay, let me use the fourth
Congressional District as an example, because when Lauren Boebert jumped
into that race, it threw everything into chaos because she
had so much bigger name, idea, a bigger bank, all
of that stuff. So I'm gonna just say, what if Lauren,

(16:26):
We're going to take Lauren out of that race, and
you had five candidates. You had deb Flora, you had
Jerry Sonenberg, you had Richard Holdtorf, you had Peter You,
and I am forgetting someone. So I'm only going to
use four candidates. You got four candidates right there, and
I'll say, okay, number one, I'm going to vote for
Deborah Flora. But if Debora Flora doesn't win, I would
be really cool. If Jerry Saunenberg won, And if Jerry

(16:48):
Saunenberg didn't win that, I'd be really cool. If Peter
you won, and then if Peter you didn't win that
I'd be really cool if you know, Richard Holdtorf won
and I could rank those choices. All of those people
are Republicans, so you're not necessarily voting for Democrats. And
I know it seems crazy here in Colorado, but at
some point there may be a time when we get

(17:09):
four Republicans that make it through to the general election.
That's so far far away, so far away, but I
you know the goal of this, and i'd urge you
to watch this video on the blog today with Kent Theory,
and again we'll try and get him on the show
Asapa Rod's already working on it. But watch the video
and it clarifies so much of this because right now

(17:31):
the only argument is that it seems to be being
made against ranked choice voting. Is number one, it's confusing.
As I just explained, it is not confusing at all.
And number two, it will destroy the two party system.
And I got to tell you, guys, I'm cool with that.

(17:52):
I'm perfectly fine with that, because the two party system
has jumped the shark in my opinion, in the United States,
and something's got to shake it up. I'm not saying
that I wouldn't be a Republican, but you know, I
probably wouldn't be a Republican. I don't know, not the

(18:13):
Republican party here in Colorado now who would want to
be associated with that? So if that's the argument that
it's going to destroy the two party system. I'm like,
that is not a winning argument to me, not at all.
A little bit later in the show, at one point thirty,
we're going to talk to a guy named Mike Costello
about the proposed Mountain Lion ban and why it's a

(18:34):
bad idea from a guy living in California where they
already did it. But when we get back new proof
that the city of Abora knew indeed that gangs had
taken over apartment complexes, we'll do that when we get
back to early Blackman broke my heart and announced his retirement.
He's long been my favorite Rocky long so I mean,

(18:55):
we've been in town almost the same amount of time.

Speaker 4 (18:58):
I think it was Jack Corgan who said on CMN
this morning, and is quite possibly one of the coolest
ideas ever heard.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
First retire the number nineteen. Yep.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
When you do it and you have his number in
the outfield, the little circle with the number, have a
little beard right below the number, would be amazing.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
You have to, because I have to tell you there's
a part of me that has so much admiration for
Charlie's ability to rock a mullet and wear that beard
for the last thirteen years he didn't have his first
year here. He didn't have his first year, he didn't
have the beard. He started getting the beard, like I
think in the second year. It grew over time. Yeah,

(19:35):
it was. It wasn't altogether, you know, just a fabulous
mullet and beard combo right out of the chuot. It's
a planning and today he's having a press conference at
two o'clock. We will air that live here on KOA.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
So so Rockies have a tendency for their top flight superstars
over the years to be normal dudes.

Speaker 4 (19:56):
John Helton, Charlie Blackman. I mean, those are the two
main one. It's like mine obviously on too low in
Trevor story and Nolan fallows much into that category. But
the two most notable guys offensively in all the offensive categories,
Todd and Charlie just normal guys. If you want to
live normal lives and walk away and just be done
with it.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
I hope he uh, I hope he enjoys his retirement.
He's got two little kids, so that takes me staying away.

Speaker 4 (20:21):
Charlie Blackman in Colorado post retirement, his lifestyle, He'll be
just fine.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Are they staying here? Do you know? I don't know.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
Maybe, I mean, he loves the outdoors, fish, he loves
the fish, he loves all the stuff that Colorado has
to offer.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
So I don't know. You think I don't know. We'll see,
we don't know. We have no idea.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
We'll find everyone voices better be horse. Yes, so the
rest of his home, this home standing, Yeah, Charlie.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
And now I have to I have to go see
another Rockies game before they're done. Yeah, we're going on Friday,
are you really? Yeah? Okay, Well then I expect you
to carry the way. The last three games that I've
been to, he has not played like it's been a
rest day for him, because I mean, he's no spring chicken. No,
he's thirty eight. I know he's not exactly like a
boy of summer. If I'm a man of summer.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
If I know, Charlie Blackman, this is a guy that,
outside of a injury where he can't walk, he's going
to play these games, I hope.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
So he's going to play these games, all right. So
I want to get an update on the Aurora apartment
complex thing. For the record, the apartment complex seems the
apartment complexes that were affected owned by CBZ Management seemed
to be turning the corner. One of them, of course,
has been condemned and is all boarded up and is

(21:34):
now going to be for sale. But story in the
Denver Gazette today, communications between the City of Aurora and
the council of a troubled apartment complex show that officials
understood the owners of Aspen Grove wanted local government to
board up the building in order to quote take back
control of the property from a Venezuelan gang. The information

(21:59):
was revealed after the Denver Gazette threatened to sue the
City of Aurora, who had redacted these emails almost in
their entirety so once they were clear. The Denver Gazette
reports that these emails say, to be clear, my impression
from what has been occurring generally is that your client

(22:20):
has been asking for the city to take this action
in order for your client to take control of the
property and to sell the property. That from Peter Schulte,
Aurora's assistant city manager writing Assistant city manager attorney, excuse me,
City attorney writing to CBZ Management's attorney on August sixth,

(22:45):
A week later, officials moved in and shut the property down.
And evicted three hundred residents well before the story was
poo pooed, well before that, meaning car ever, everybody over
there is just there. They are lying, liars who lie.
They all knew and they just didn't want to admit it,

(23:07):
and they just talk about a pr disaster that was
absolutely unnecessary, and everybody who made the decision to keep
what I just read to you that letter from Danielle
Drensky from the public. All you had to say was
we know there's a problem and we're already working on it,
stay tuned and then take your actions. But instead it

(23:29):
was like, oh, no, that's crazy, No, no, that's not happening,
when clearly they knew it was happening. So there you go.
Just I'm not saying I told you so, but I
am saying this story I'm I'm guessing Kyle Clark won't
cover that particular part of the story. I'm guessing that's
not going to make it on next because he today
was that today or yesterday? He tweeted that I was

(23:50):
today a cartoon and in it in the caption, it
says mir mccaffman was part of the spreading that gangs
would take it over his city. That's not even remotely
what Mayor Coffin said when he was sort of when
he had the issue forced on him, he was forced
to admit that, yes, there were apartment complexes that had
been taken over, which now we know is what was
being asserted to the city on August sixth. Just throwing

(24:13):
that out there, just letting everybody know what's going on.
But hopefully it seems to have settled down. They've arrested
a bunch of these alleged gang members, and hopefully we
will not have to deal with this moving forward. Now,
if you're looking to buy an apartment complex, I have
one for you, a rod. If you and Josce Lenary
looking to invest in an apartment building, which got I

(24:34):
got an apartment building that's all boarded up that used
to be full of gang members allegedly. Yeah, high quality investment. Well,
they bought it a few years ago in twenty nineteen,
for twelve point seventy five million dollars. I don't think
there's any way they sell it for twelve point seven
five million dollars. Now, you know, it probably needs a

(24:55):
couple mil in updates to get it livable and habitable,
and so it's not back in the news soon. You know,
this has been a really interesting sort of way of
understanding how the broken windows theory works. And the broken
windows theory was what was adopted by Rudy Giuliani when
New York was absolutely just full of crime. It was dirty,

(25:21):
the city was gross. People were scared to go there.
In the late seventies. It was a nightmare, and Rudy
Giuliani said, we're going to enforce all the little crimes
because when people see broken windows in a building, they
assume that the owner isn't paying attention, and therefore it
is easier to break into, to live in, to squat in,
to victimize, to otherwise destroy. And that's exactly what happened

(25:42):
in these apartment complexes. We had landlords from out of
state who didn't maintain the property, who didn't make it
so that the property was decent, and it was easy
for gangs to come in and take over. And now
they're paying the price by having to sell their apartment complex,
probably at a greatly reduced price. So there you go.

(26:03):
It's all come full circle. And we only had to throw,
you know, one hundred families out of their apartments to
make it happen when we get back. I got some
questions on the text line about ranked choice voting, and
they demonstrate to me that people are really, really not
at all informed about what ranked choice voting does. So

(26:27):
we're kind of gonna dip into a couple of those questions.
I don't want to, you know what, No, I'm not.
I'm gonna get We're gonna get can theory on the show.
Let's make that happen, because he is a much better
explainer than I am, and he'll probably be able to
answer every question, whereas I might find myself stumped at
some point and not want to give you the wrong information.
Denver has a pantload of ballot initiatives as well. We'll

(26:50):
get into that little of this, little of that stick around.
Come back right here on KAA Denver. We've got a
ton of ballid initiatives on our statewide ballot, and Denver
has piled on a bunch of Denver ballot initiatives, and
I'm working on the ballot guide right now, and I'm
just going to say, if you're in Denver, I would
vote no on all of them. It's an easy thing
to remember. I'll explain why though, as I go through

(27:11):
them very briefly, here you are a city of Denver
is asking for a sales tax for Denver Health. The
initiative proposes a point three for three four percent sales
tax increase to support funding for Denver Health. It is
the hospital of last resort and has this year. I

(27:32):
think they had what do we say, one hundred and
fifty five million in uninsured costs this year, Very very high.
It's gone up dramatically over the last few years. If approved,
it takes Denver sales tax to nine point one five percent,
generating an additional seventy million in revenue a year. Here's
why I vote no, not because I don't want Denver

(27:53):
Health to be solvent, but because think about how much
money Denver just threw at illegal immigrants this year. Part
of this unassured you know bills, outstanding bills are because
of the illegal immigrant population. That to me shows that
Denver is irresponsible with tax payer money. And I know

(28:14):
we're supposed to be a welcoming city. But did you guys,
did you guys vote for that? Is that what you
voted for? Did you vote for one hundred and something
million dollars to help illegal immigrants. Most people didn't, so
let Denver figure out how to pay those bills without
raising taxes. But that's not the only tax increase they're
asking for. They're also asking for an affordable housing sales

(28:36):
tax increase. It would be a point five percent sales tax.
It would increase Denver's sales tax with the other one
to nine point sixty five percent. That would be the
highest on the Front Range and equal to some of
the mountain towns. Now here's why I would vote no
on this. I'm not against affordable housing, but if they're
really serious about affordable housing, they need to do a

(28:56):
couple of things. Number One, they need to do a
complete over of the permitting system in the city of Denver,
because permitting can add like twenty grand onto the price
of a house just in delays. That is unacceptable. They
need to look at every single regulation to find out
if it is worth the return on investment, meaning is

(29:19):
it worth having that regulation in the sense of safety
or some other thing, or are there ways to get
rid of some of these regulations or mandated things that
will help bring down the cost of building a house.
They need to work at incentivizing affordable housing not just saying, look,
if you don't build affordable housing, we want to penalize you.
What about incentivizing What about working with developers to figure

(29:43):
out ways to make it easier and more affordable for
them to build affordable housing voluntarily and without government subsidies.
How about that? Until you do all of that, Know,
you don't need another dime of the City of Denver people,
the people that shop there know you just don't. You're
not being responsible with the money and responsibilities around home
building that you already have. This one initiated Ordnance THREEHO

(30:07):
eight prohibit the manufacturer and sale of animal fur products.
And I'm voting no on this because animal fur is
used for a whole bunch of stuff, not just giant
fur coats. It's used for making hats, It's used for
all kinds of stuff, And I just don't like being
micromanaged the fur trade, meaning people buying fur coats that

(30:28):
were solely produced for making a fur coat. The fur
sales have plummeted, plummeted just naturally as people move away
from fur, and I'm just I'm tired of anything that's
going to put somebody else out of business. And then
there's initiated Ordinance three oh nine that would shut down

(30:48):
a slaughterhouse in Denver and put a lot of people
of colorad of work, people who love their jobs, by
the way, people who have been at that company for
a very long time. And this is just a bill
run by animal rights advocates because they don't want us
to eat meat. And if they can shut down as
many slaughterhouses as they can, then meat gets more expensive

(31:09):
to process, making it more expensive, which makes it harder
to buy for people with their budgets. And that is
just part of a large agenda that they can go
pound handover. So no on that, and then authorize collective
bargaining for municipal employees. No, I'm not even gonna explain it. No, no,

(31:29):
So as you can see, I would vote no on
all of these. But you know, I wonder whinter Denver
it's gonna hit their limit when it comes to raising
their own taxes. What are you gonna say, I had enough?
Now if you work in Aurora, or you work in
you know, outside the Denver city limits and you're just like, oh,
I'm down to the nurcery store and Aurora, I don't

(31:50):
have to worry about it. I can buy my stuff
in Aurora, I can buy my stuff in Douglas County.
I can buy my stuff in Highland's ranch. It's a
net benefit for the immediately surrounding counties. I think so
yeah that When are you gonna get tired of raising
your taxes, Mandy? According to the National Association of home Builders,
approximately twenty five to twenty eight percent of the cost

(32:14):
of a house is government fees and regulations. Hey, that's
what I'm talking about. Fix that first before you want
more of my money. We'll be back right after this.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Bell and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 7 (32:31):
No, it's Mandy Connell, Andy Ton, KLA.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
Nine FM, Sad.

Speaker 8 (32:43):
Sad and the nicety three Mandy Connell, Keeping Sad Thing.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
Welcome up, Welcome to the second hour of the show.
In one hour from now, we will be airing the
Charlie Blackman retire Fairement press conference. Charlie announced his retirement
and we're gonna hear from him and possibly is beard
and maybe the sworlds that might live in his beard.
We don't know in an hour, so stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, though, boy, howdy do I have some

(33:13):
stories for you in this hour? I have so much
good stuff on the blog today it's not even funny
including this story. Enjoy your last great Tabor refund. What
do I mean by that? Well? Uh, Colorado taxpayers will
see the income rate fall to four point two five
percent for twenty twenty four and receive Tabor refunds averaging

(33:37):
three hundred and twenty six dollars thanks to Tabor's limit
on state revenue collections. Now why do I say the
last Tabor refund? Well, because next year, the Democrats in
the legislature decided to take the money that would have
gone to your pocket and decided to put it into

(34:00):
other people's pockets. People they believe deserved your money more
than they believed you deserve your money. They approve new
laws that will divert surplus revenues toward child tax credits
and an expanded earned income tax credit for low income earners,

(34:21):
rather than give tax breaks to all Colorado residents or
just the ones that pay taxes. Democrats argue these targeted
tax breaks benefit those who need it most from those
who have to give to those who need isn't that
I mean? What Carl Mark said something along those lines.
I never get that quote quite right, but I do

(34:43):
get the gist. So this is your last decent table refund.
And by the way, the more you pay, the more
you get back. And no matter what anybody tells you
about how unfair that is, with the rich get more,
the rich pay more in taxes. That's just the facts.
So the fact that someone making three hundred and twenty

(35:04):
thousand dollars and a dollar or more as a joint
filer is going to get back eleven hundred and forty
two dollars, it's because they paid in way more than that.
Even filers who are paying fifty three adjusted gross income
of fifty three thousand and less joint filers are going
to get that three sixty two.

Speaker 4 (35:24):
So there you go.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
But it'll be the last big table refund we ever get.
And they Democrats hate taber so much because it limits
how much they can raise our taxes. So they've done
two things. Number One, they have simply continued to raise
our taxes, but they change the name to tax or fee,
so they just change the name. But they continued not taxes,

(35:47):
They just changed the name to fees. Right, we're just
gonna call it a fee now, and they have reallocated
your table refund in mind to other people, so we
won't miss it, right, it's.

Speaker 9 (36:00):
No big deal.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
What's And then they'll come to us and say, what's
the point? We should just repeal it because you know
it isn't even most people don't even get this anymore,
so why do we even still have it? And then
they'll push to repeal table. It's all just part of
a long term strategy, and it's a good one because
this is the easiest way to do stuff. I mean,
everything horrible that our government does to us started incrementally.

(36:25):
The income tax had been passed on everyone with the
intention stated intention of having everyone pay into the income
tax system. It would have never passed, but instead they said,
we are going to pass an income tax on the
top one percent of income earners in the United States
of America. And everybody was like, heck, yeah, soak the

(36:46):
rich do it? Well, how did that work out? I mean,
do you pay income taxes? Because I do, and I'm
certainly not in the top one percent of earners even
in Colorado, and yet I'm paying income tax. I don't
know how that happened, because they soften you up. They
soften you up by doing it to someone else, and
then they're like, well, you know what, we need everybody

(37:07):
to share the load. I have a couple stories today
in the blog. They share the load stories. Oh, by
the way, either way, listen to this. Wait, where is it.

Speaker 6 (37:19):
In?

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Axios? I love the way they do their stories, so
they bullet point The state must refund one point seven
billion in excess revenue in fiscal year twenty three twenty
four two taxpayers when they file a twenty twenty four
tax return. The size of the surplus triggers a new
state law that reduces the income tax from four point

(37:40):
two five percent from the current rate of four point
four percent. It will also lead to one billion dollars
in sales tax refunds, ranging from one hundred and eighty
one dollars two five hundred and seventy one dollars depending
on income levels. Yes, but says Axios, and this is
where you're supposed to get. Serious refunds will leave state

(38:01):
lawmakers with less to spend on government programs. The discretionary
spending in the current twenty twenty four twenty twenty five
fiscal year is down one point eight percent from the
prior year, the second straight decline. No notice, they said,
discretionary spending. They continue. Moreover, lawmakers are looking at a

(38:25):
three hundred and seventy one million dollar deficit because of
state budget over spending and rising costs. I don't care.
You guys made the problems by overspending. Fix it. Don't
ask me for more money. And you know that's coming. Guys,
you're gonna hear all these poor sort We're gonna have

(38:47):
to cut education, and we're gonna have to cut police
and fire. Notice they never say we're gonna have to
cut middle management. We're gonna have to cut out a
layer of their bureaucracy. We're gonna have to cut people
who are not doing a good job. We're gonna have
to find those savings by getting rid of redundancies within
the governmental system. Maybe we'll consolidate some programs. Maybe we'll

(39:11):
consolidate some offices or get rid of some offices. Imagine that. No,
it's always cops teachers. Cops are teachers, firefighters, park rangers,
people land to put uppies at kittens. Ugh, it's just
so gross. Anyway, Moving on, So, I've been pretty open

(39:32):
on the air for a long time about my love
for Southwest Airlines. I am the freak that loves the
seating at Southwest Airlines, love it. And one of the
things that keeps me coming back to Southwest Airlines again
and again and again and again and again is two
free bags, because when you look at the ticket price

(39:52):
with Southwest, sometimes they're a little bit higher than other airlines,
but they don't nickel and dimei to death. Know that
you're not gonna have to pay for a seat upgrade.
Well now you are, because starting January first, Southwest is
going to assign to seating and just like all the
other airlines, they're gonna find a way to charge you
more for seats that aren't right next to the crapper,

(40:14):
or seats that recline a quarter of a quarter of
an inch a little further than the other seats, So
that part of it is gone. So already I'm gonna
have to pay higher fees right there. But an activist
investor that I do not like at all is now

(40:36):
leaning on Southwest to have them get rid of two
free bags. Yeah yeah, keep Operating officer Andrew Watterson told
employees in the leaked video that the worst has still
yet to come. It's thought the Southwest will cut loss

(40:58):
making routes to save money. But this activist inventor at
Elliott Investment Management. The activist investor says they are demanding
that Southwest iconic bags fly free perch is ditched, and
they say charging for baggage will bring in tens of

(41:18):
millions of dollars in revenue. And guys, here's the thing.

Speaker 9 (41:24):
Do you are you loyal?

Speaker 2 (41:25):
Are you loyal?

Speaker 9 (41:25):
Loyal?

Speaker 2 (41:26):
Loyal to any particular brand of anything? A rod? I mean,
is there anything that you were like, I will never
veer away from this brand, and no way you can't
talk me out of it. Because there are a few
brands that I feel that way about. Southwest has been
one of them. Apple when it comes iPhone. There you go,
a perfect example. Yeah, there you go, because you have
an you have a MacBook, you have you have all

(41:47):
the Apple products now except a PC at home. I know,
but that's than that Apple all the way.

Speaker 4 (41:55):
I have some knockoff versions just to where like when
like running or on vacation Oakley.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
Yeah, there you go, super super nice and love them.
What would they have to do to make you go
never again? Oakley never again be the official ioware of
the Oakland now Las Vegas raiders. Maybe you know what,
that would be a bad choice. That would be a
very alienating choice if they made that. Mandy, I'm a

(42:22):
plus preferred on Southwest and think this will backfire. I
like choosing my own seat. I rarely check bags. I
check bags all the time. I just all like slepting
my stuff. I need products, people and products don't make it.
The security tell me you never travel internationally. I love Southwest.
No partner loyalty program, I don't. I have a credit

(42:43):
card for all the other airlines. I just I use
my points and miles on all the other airlines. I
don't really care about that. Southwest is easy for me,
and they've always been a joy, a joy to work
with until now. Now they're just like every other airline.
So now I'm shopping pricing convenience, which for Southwest doesn't
work out because they don't fly the route that I

(43:05):
fly the most, which is to dateon Ohio. But I'm
just I'm disappointed. I understand you gotta make money, one
hundred percent. I one hundred percent understand that. But the
things that make you different those are the things you're
gonna go after. I just don't understand that, yes, ketchup
Hines or I'm not putting it on my food. I
stopped eating Heines ketchup for a long time because of

(43:27):
John Kerry. It's my little singular protest of how annoying
that guy was. And he just married into the family.
I'm back to Hines because he's really a non issue
at this point. Ketchup is a brand. I won't do
it without Mandy's the same reasoning. I'm making Southwest my
only airline, But the whole state of flying airport thing
in general made me give up flying all together several years. Anyway,

(43:51):
I love to fly, you guys, I don't mind. I
get to the airport early. You know, I'm that person
and now I have all the these credit cards to
get me and all the fancy clubs. So I go
up to the fancy club and I have a snack cocktail.
Then I'm meander over to my gate, get on the airplane,
get my aisle seat. I'm looking, excuse me, my window seat.

(44:13):
I'm looking out the window at this beautiful country of ours.
I am that person that looks out the window, not
the whole time, but a good bit of the time. Mandy,
I have four kids. Southwest will lose me two bags
free is important? Also a plus yep, brand loyal to Apple, Anderson,

(44:34):
Bean Boots, Ray Band Sunglasses. I flew United first class
for less than business select on the Southwest. Wow, I
have not had that experience where I got a good
deal on first class. Just haven't. Haven't done that yet,
And I don't use my miles to upgrade Irish butter
great poopon how very boogie have you text her? How

(44:55):
very bougie? I was trying to think if there's anything
else I have, like incredible brand loyalty too, but there's
not that much, especially when dang it Costco has upended
my brand loyalty that I've had for years with some
of their Kirkland brand products. They're better than the brand

(45:15):
name products. At this point, I don't know. I don't
have car loyalty. You know, I'm not brand loyal for cars.
I don't know Cleanex brand that's only Cleanex. You can't
use a fake Cleanex, no dollar store Cleenex for this nose,
No way, Mandy, Wrangler jeans, do you have the square

(45:37):
button the Wrangler jeans because Wrangler gives me a square butt.
Can't do it, Mandy, I only fly Southwest due to
my children that travel with sports equipment. There you go, Dayton, Ohio,
says this text or that airport is hilariously small. The
company I work for is based in Sydney, Ohio, and
I fly to Dayton frequently too. And can we all

(45:57):
just say that smaller airports are far superior to larger airports,
far superior. Like the little Milwaukee airport. We just flew
in and out of a rod. How cute was that?

Speaker 4 (46:10):
Yeah, but if you have to spend a lot of time,
you know, food choices.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, they only had Chili's Chili and the airport is
never good. It's just not it's not good. Brand loyalty
to Tie, says this Texter. Loyal to Toyota, and that's
a good choice. This person said, redheads are my brand
of choice.

Speaker 4 (46:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
Yeah, in any case, I'm just I want them to
make money. I want them to be around. I want
them to be able to pay their people, but I
don't want to. I'd rather they just raise the prices
so you can get an average, you know, and go
from there. That would make it much nicer to fly
south ast southwest right now, because uh, it's all the

(46:55):
planes are full, so full. I haven't flown on a
plane that wasn't full on Southwest and forever. Okay, I
want to get one more story in before we go
to break, because I love this story so much. If
you listen to the show for any length of time,
you know that I am a fan of octopuses. I
watched the documentary called My Octopus Teacher, highly recommend so good,

(47:17):
so so good that I don't order octopus anymore. Chuck
might have ordered it on Saturday night at Yaya's Mediterranean
Cafe down the street here in the Tech Center, which
is just an outstanding restaurant, not sponsored, just letting you know,
just loved it. But I can't like. I just don't

(47:38):
know if I could eat octopus because they're so smart,
they're sentient, and this new study about octopus this is
so cool. So the research they send a bunch of
researchers down into an area off Israel, and they planted
a bunch of cameras and they tracked thirteen octopuses for

(48:00):
a total of one hundred and twenty hours using a
bunch of different cameras. The team followed octopuses for thirteen hunts. Okay,
so the octopus is hunting, but the octopus were not
hunting alone, but they weren't hunting with other octopuses. They
were hunting with fish. Between two and ten fish were

(48:23):
working in groups with the octopus to hunt and find
little stuff to eat. But here's where it gets really good.
The hunting groups typically included several species of reeffish, such
as grouper and goatfish. The octopuses did not appear to
lead the groups, and this is my favorite part, but
they did punch other fish to enforce social order, most

(48:48):
often at black tip grouper. Now, what did the black
tip grouper do? Well, the black tip grouper are what
they call the main exploiters of the group. They're the
ambush predators, the ones that don't move and they don't
look for prey. So here's what the octopus would do.
The fish would like kind of stop moving, you know,
they'd kind of start swimming in place, and the octopus

(49:09):
would punch them to keep them moving. And the researcher said,
if the group is very still and everyone is around
the octopus, it starts punching, but if the group is
moving along to a habitat, this means they're looking for
prey and the octopus is happy so it doesn't punch anyone.

(49:29):
So essentially, the octopus is the enforcer of the gang
of hunting fish. Like, I don't know why I love
this so much, but now I want to pet octopus.
But I only want to pet octopus if it's gonna
be an enforcer octopus, right, Like, I don't want an octopus.
It's just gonna lay around and be like, hey, what's up.

(49:50):
I want the octopus. It's gonna be in the aquarium.
And if a fish is just like hanging out and
not doing any the octopus like bam, just knocks them
right in the noggin. That's the octopus I want. So
the researcher thing that the fish benefit from such hunting
groups because the octopus can reach into crevices where their

(50:12):
prey hides and the kind of flush it out. And
then the octopus benefits, they think, because it can just
follow the fish to the food rather than do its
own speculative hunting.

Speaker 10 (50:23):
Right.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
It just I mean, I love this. I think it's
like the coolest thing ever, Absolutely the coolest thing ever.
You got to read that story. It is outstanding, just outstanding, Mandy.
Have you tried the no sugar added heinz ketchup. I
wish I would have discovered it years ago. Tastes so
much better in my opinion, I have not, but I

(50:46):
will try that. Does it just taste like tomatoes? I
don't know. The plural is octopi? Okay, I look this
up earlier and I'll look it up again. Hang on,
octopi or octas octopuses. According to three sources, it is

(51:08):
the preferred plural when speaking or writing in English. The
correct plural of octopuses or octopus is octopuses, in keeping
with the proper Greek or Latin.

Speaker 4 (51:21):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
Uh, they said, but why do people confuse octopi with octopuses?
And the answer to that is the words origin. When
a Latinized word is used for scientific purposes, there was
a misunderstanding about which plural form to use. And then
the plural of octopus is octopuses. So thank you, text her.

(51:42):
But I looked that up this morning because I was
not sure if any sea creature is not from this planet.
I vote octopus correct? Correct?

Speaker 9 (51:54):
No, it is.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Everybody's like OCTOPI. I'm like, no, it's not. It's octopuses.
Loyal to Koa, thank you, thank you for that. This
person said, I like grilled octopus. I'm just going to
say this. The grilled octopus at Yaya's just down the
street Era off of Bellevue. Oh, it was out standing.

(52:16):
It was so good that we got it for an
appetizer or truck did and I'm on A had to
bite even though I felt bad about it, but I
still did it. It was already dead. He actually got
the octopus as his entree. That's how good. It was delicious,
absolutely delicious.

Speaker 7 (52:34):
So uh.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
To the person who said, Mandy, have you read this book?
I can't see the book because there's no photos that
will come through here. Mandy, Oh there it is. Have
you read Remarkably Bright Creatures. It's a book written for
the perspective of an octopus in an aquarium.

Speaker 9 (52:48):
No.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
I will totally read that book now. The fact that
we had to change the octopuses instead of OCTOPI shows
how ignorant our culture is. But no, texture you are wrong.
You are wrong, and I'm forced to go back and
read what I read earlier today. Octopi, the supposed plural
of octopus, is a favorite among fans of quirky words,

(53:12):
but it has no etymological basis. The form was created
by English speakers out of a mistaken belief that octopus
is Latin and hence pluralized with an ie ending. But
as explained above, octopus comes from ancient Greek, where its
plural is octopodes. Though it came to English to be
a scientific Latin, it was never a native Latin word

(53:33):
and didn't exist in that language until scientists borrowed it
from Greek in the eighteenth century. And if it were
a Latin word, it would take a different form and
would not be pluralized with the ie ending. Still, while
the use of octopi can't be justified on an etymological basis,
it is not wrong. It is old enough and common
enough to be considered an accepted variant. So there you go,

(53:56):
in the spirit of Charles hartente Elster Nan or Niner,
you were wrong. My next guest is on to talk
about an issue that is on the ballot. It is
an issue that I am not waffling on. I was
talking about waffling on rank choice voting earlier. But when
it comes to interrupting the process that already exists in
Colorado to manage the wildlife population, including mountain lions, I

(54:18):
am not interested in making any changes to rock that vote.
And joining me now is Mike Costello. He's with an
organization called how and he just wrote really good call
him that was in Westward about why this ban is
both unnecessary and unscientific and uncalled for. Mike, Welcome to
the show.

Speaker 7 (54:39):
Hey, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
I appreciate the opporday to expand on the Westward op
ed and get a little more granular on this subject.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
So you are actually in California where they have already
done this correct.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
Yeah, hunting of mountain lions has had a few inflection points,
all of them going to more and more control against
the management of the critters in California since the seventies,
and the most aggressive of those, I would say it
was ballot box initiative, you know, a public vote to
eliminate honey of mountain lions in the state.

Speaker 7 (55:14):
And then also about four or.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Five years ago, a policy decision made at the Wildlife
Department level influenced by some of the anti hunting industry
folks to eliminate or significantly reduced lethal removal of problem lions.

Speaker 7 (55:30):
So they came up.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
With a three strikes in your outrole on lethal removal.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
And so like we've just we've got forty fifty years
of mountain lions, generation of generation.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
And I love mountain lions.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
The thing is is, hunters love wildlife, right, but now
we have wildlife that don't act like wildlife.

Speaker 7 (55:47):
They're not scared of humans.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
They push into not just rural boundaries, but they're pushing
into suburban areas, and they are not healthy. Like if
they're coming after humans, if they're coming after horses and
donkeys and goats and dogs and cats in your backyard,
there's an imbalance, and that imbalance really it's it's about,
you know, hunting can Hunting can support wildlife and ecosystems

(56:14):
and support that balance. And we're just we're way out
of whack here in California right now because of this.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
So we you know, I grew up my dad was
on ter for his entire life. I hunted when I
was a kid. I don't hunt anymore, but we were
always taught about, you know, the perspective of wildlife management.
It was never about We're just going to go out
and shoot something. First of all, my dad made us
eat everything we killed, So I've pretty much eaten everything
that you can shoot. Not mountain lion because I've never

(56:41):
shot one. But we always talked about keeping the balance
so animals didn't starve to death, whether it's the deer
population or it's the mountain lion population. To your point,
mountain lions don't normally come into neighborhoods, but if they
can't find anything else to eat, or their territory has
been encroached on by another mountain lion has pushed them
into a urban suburban you know interface, then it becomes

(57:02):
a huge problem. And it's not just a huge problem
for the mountain lion. It becomes a huge problem for people.
And is that what you guys are seeing in California?
Do you have more human lion interactions now?

Speaker 7 (57:15):
We do there.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
It's almost every day there's some rural or suburban community
that has like, oh, a mountain lion was in so
and Soto's backyard day, or mountain lion was walking through
downtown today. Elorado County is kind of the epicenter of
it right now. That county since this lethal removal management
tool has been removed from the department, has seen just
an exponential growth, probably fourfold growth this year in conflict

(57:40):
and we call it depredation conflict than say, just a
few years ago. So the growth of these issues is escalating,
the lack of fear from lions to humans is escalating,
I think.

Speaker 7 (57:52):
But the I think it's really important though. Mountain lions
aren't like, I don't like.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
This by this kind of DIVICEIV thing about this caricature
of a trophy hunter and then the hunters saying, oh,
the mountain lions are bad.

Speaker 7 (58:05):
Mountain lions are doing what mountain lions do.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
Mountains are fantastic, and most hunters that I talk to
love mountain lions.

Speaker 7 (58:11):
There are phenomenal creatures. They are amazing critters, and.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
They do what they do really well, right they hunt
and kill large prey. But also the trophy hunter is
this caricature, this make believe villain of a trophy hunter
is fictional. And to push this type of ballad and
issue to forward, you have to create a divided audience.
You have to create an evil trophy hunter caricature, and

(58:36):
then you have to say, oh, the mountain lions are
good or bad or whatever, they're not good or bad.
They're doing mountain lion things. And to me, this isn't
just about preventing conflict. It's about overall management both in
the wild places. Like in the wilderness, do you love
the mule deer? Do you love the yelk? Do you
love seeing lots of big horn sheep?

Speaker 6 (58:54):
You know?

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Do you want to see all of the animals in balance?

Speaker 7 (58:56):
And CPW is.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
Done a phenomenal job of this in the last fifty
sixty years, one of the best in the world, like
two hundred and forty biologists, like they've got to do
their work.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
Colorado Parks and Wildlife as who was talking about in
the program that we have now And this is how
I started this interview by saying, I have no interest
in changing what we're doing now. Every year they get account,
they do the best they can to get account, They
get a number of mountain lions, and then they give
out a number of tags based on the mounta lion
count for this year. They're very invested in keeping the
mountain lion population healthy at a good solid number, making

(59:29):
sure that all the cats have room to rome. You know,
and so they've been doing this successfully to your point
for decades now. And this is just like the stupid
wolfree introduction that we're dealing with now, where a bunch
of people in the front range were like, no wolves,
there are are them, but they don't want them in
Civic Center Park, right, They want them far away from
where everybody else is. I'm afraid that there are enough

(59:51):
people who are going to say, oh, this cats are
so beautiful, we shouldn't haunt them. What is the outcome?

Speaker 9 (59:56):
Then?

Speaker 2 (59:56):
You just mentioned mule, deer and elk, So have you
seen those populations of your prey animals, I guess have
they been greatly reduced as the mountain lion population has
come up.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
California is widely regarded in the in the big game
hunting community than the deer hunting community in the Western
States as being the one of the greatest places that
go for public land and scenic beauty and one of
the worst places to go for wildlife because we have
such poor predator management our systems.

Speaker 7 (01:00:29):
We have we have more bear than any other state
in the US. Southern Alaska.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
We have this wildly successful mountain lion population. Our deer
has suffered tremendously over the last forty years, while other
while predators have really increased.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
And where did where did?

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
We are at an inflection point where I believe there
is a there's an ecosystem i'll say crisis coming up
in the next few years. Bears are, Bears are are?
We have twice more bears that we thought we had.
Mountain lions are losing out to the bears because bear
steel two thirds of three fourths of their kills and
mountains are coming into our neighborhoods. And it's the fault

(01:01:07):
of the lack of management. I think. You know, when
you have a non hunter that's going to go make
up vote, They're going to make a vote based on
a headline and a picture, right, Like what's important to
them is successful wildlife, successful thriving ecosystems. And to do
that you need to take in thousands of data points

(01:01:28):
and make complex decisions every single year, which is what
CPW does. And when you take this tool out of
their toolkits, like telling somebody to go build a house,
but you can't have your hammer, Like you take this
tool out of the toolkit, CPW is not going to
be able to do their job, and it's called adaptive management.

Speaker 7 (01:01:47):
Right now, they can adapt.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
If the mountain lion population starts to go down, there's
a problem there. They can pull those tag numbers back,
those quotas back. Adaptive management's gone. If mule deer are
suffering or big horn sheep are suffering in Colorado three five,
ten years, no, CPW.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Has no tool. I have no ability legally to do
anything about it. Mike Cousin if this goes through.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
So if you love critters, you just got to you
gotta let them do their work. Advocate at the commission level,
but let them have their tools, let them.

Speaker 7 (01:02:14):
Do their work.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Mike Costello is my guest. You should go and read
his column on Westward. I put a link to it
on the blog today at mandy'sblog dot com. Mike, I
really appreciate you taking the time to let the people
of Colorado know that this is a bad idea and
I appreciate it. Man, Hey, thank you so much. All right,
that is Mike Costello. We will be right back fourteen
years as a Rocky and he has decided to hang

(01:02:37):
up his cleats. He will be missed. He has always
been my favorite Rocky, always and We have a press
conference from him coming up at two p m ish.
We will carry that live here on Colorado.

Speaker 8 (01:02:50):
And if he cries, I'm gonna cry, you guys, If
he cries, I can't can't stand it and he cries,
that would be terrible, just terrible.

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
Interesting story on the blog today. I got a bunch
of cool stories on the blog today, but I want
to throw this one in here. Obesity numbers in the
United States are finally leveling out. They're holding steady in
the US, but there's not all good news in that.
Good news would be they were coming down. The category
that that includes those with severe obesity has gone up.

(01:03:29):
The US obesity rate is about forty percent. Nearly one
in ten of those surveyed reported severe obesity. Now, what
is severe obesity? You are considered using the body mass index,
which is not a great measurement tool, but it's kind
of one of those. It's the best measurement tool we
have right now. If you have a BMI of over thirty,

(01:03:51):
and you can go anywhere online and get a BMI calculator,
it's very very easy. You just put in a few numbers,
we'll tell your BMI. A BMI of thirty is considered
to be obese. If you have a BMI of forty
or higher, you have severe obesity. And it is more
likely women who are severely OBEs than men. And the

(01:04:11):
problem with that severe obesity category going up is that
that's where all the real illnesses kick in. You can
read about it on the blog. We're going to break
early so we can hit the Charlie Blackman press conference,
which will hopefully be on time right after this. Well,
toss to the Charlie Blackman press conference right now.

Speaker 11 (01:04:29):
Welcome to the front of the room, Rocky's outfielder Charlie
Blackman and his daughter Josie is Son Wyatt also want
to recognize that welcome Charlie's wife Ashley, his parents samyron Ellen.

Speaker 7 (01:04:39):
Thank you for being here. Appreciate it.

Speaker 11 (01:04:42):
As you all know, Charlie announced yesterday that after fourteen
years in Major League Baseball, all with the Rockies, he'll
be retiring at the end of the season. Charlie, congratulations
on an incredible career. We're all looking forward to celebrating
you this last week, of course, field, because you already
made such an eloquent statement yesterday announcing your retirement. We're
just going to turn and over to questions. If you

(01:05:02):
have a question, please raise your hand.

Speaker 7 (01:05:03):
We'll get you a mic.

Speaker 11 (01:05:05):
Please pass the mike back when you're done answer asking
your question. With all that said, we'll get started with
Patrick Sanders.

Speaker 7 (01:05:11):
Patrick, go ahead, okay, Charlie.

Speaker 12 (01:05:13):
Before I asked the question, I'd like to say, I think,
on behalf of all of us who covered you all
these years, thank you for the thrills on the field,
thanks for your professionalism, and just for being.

Speaker 13 (01:05:25):
So good to us. I know it's very much appreciated,
so I wanted to say that, thanks. Patrick, You're welcome
for the guys.

Speaker 12 (01:05:38):
My question for you to start out of the gate.
I saw you your post yesterday Instagram and et cetera.
How difficult a decision was this for you to decide
to retire because you obviously can you can still play
the game.

Speaker 5 (01:05:57):
Very difficult, and I think I don't really grasp the uh,
the gravity of it just yet. You know, I think
this last week will reveal a lot about you know,
how I feel about stepping away from the game. It's
really uh and for most of these guys in the room,

(01:06:18):
it's to this point it's pretty much all I've.

Speaker 7 (01:06:21):
Known, right, but it's it's all I've known, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:06:27):
I feel like I've never really worked today in my life,
but I do work really hard at the same time,
So it's it's it's going to be very different on
on the other side, I know that, But at the
same time, I think.

Speaker 7 (01:06:45):
I think it's the right decision.

Speaker 5 (01:06:46):
I think the game is being played at such a
high level, it really demands a certain amount of uh,
you know, time, physical ability to help strength.

Speaker 9 (01:07:00):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:07:00):
I think there's just a point at which I don't
think I'm going to be able to continue to play right, Like,
that's the fact of life.

Speaker 7 (01:07:09):
It's going to happen.

Speaker 5 (01:07:10):
So I think I'm making the right decision, and that
makes things a little bit easier in the sense that
I don't have to wonder if this is right or wrong.
But at the same time, it's it's definitely going to
be difficult, you know, stepping away.

Speaker 14 (01:07:28):
Yeah, Charlie, I echo what Patrick said, and just the
baseball talks have been I cherish those, man. But my
question for you, You've put so much dedication into this game,
so many hours. Are you looking for something that you
can put that amount of effort into or is it
time to sit back, relax, breathe through than those enjoy life.

Speaker 5 (01:07:53):
I don't think I'm looking for a nine to five
Thomas probably going to take some time and and get
away from from the grind. I think I am looking
forward to, uh you know, having free time, spending more
time with my family, uh doing doing some dad stuff.

(01:08:18):
But at the same time, I don't think you can
just take a someone who's who's playing at this level,
who's reached, you know, the highest level in any profession,
and and then just turn the competitive spick it off.
I don't think it works like that. I think it's
kind of your gift and your curse. Uh So, I
I do wonder what I'll choose to apply myself to next.

(01:08:42):
I have this. I don't know if it's a problem,
but I don't like to like dabble in anything.

Speaker 7 (01:08:49):
I like to be very very good at it. And
that's you know, that's so far.

Speaker 5 (01:08:56):
It's been baseball, or it's been you know, there's a
few hobbies where I've tried to make it way harder
than it should, you know, like fishing and and and
stuff like that.

Speaker 7 (01:09:05):
And so I do think I'll probably.

Speaker 5 (01:09:11):
You know, do something else that I choose to do
this recreational, but then probably turn it into something where
I try too hard just to follow up.

Speaker 15 (01:09:21):
Obviously, you were in that Rockies hat. You've done it,
done it for so long. How much is the next
chapter or the rest of the chapters? How much will
that involve the Colorado Rockies.

Speaker 5 (01:09:32):
I definitely plan to be involved. I've already had some
conversations with some very important people in the room here
that are going to allow me to continue to be
a part of the group and and hopefully contribute, just
in a different fashion. I don't, you know, I don't
think I'll put the uniform on and be part of

(01:09:56):
the staff right like a permanent fixture. But I do
you want to come to spring training. I want to
come to course field. I want to be around the guys.
I want to talk to some hitters, you know, be
in the cage occasionally.

Speaker 9 (01:10:12):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:10:12):
I you know, I do still very much want to
be a part of the Colorado Rockies family.

Speaker 7 (01:10:18):
Just not sure exactly how yet, Charlie, not a question.

Speaker 9 (01:10:23):
But I got a text this morning with some pictures
of some beautiful fish, and the gentleman that sent me
this text set tell Charlie that I commend him for
an incredible career.

Speaker 5 (01:10:34):
Jim Tracy, that's great to hear hear from Jim. You know,
there's so much that goes into your your first experience
at the big league level and and having Jim be
there and be a part of it. It's it's something

(01:10:55):
you'll never forget, right and then the guys can attest
like the guys that you come up with and that
you're around with as a young player and break into
the big leagues with. I mean, that's something that you
will always remember and it's a very special time. And
so it's you know, Jim was a big part of
that time for me in my career. Charlie, When did

(01:11:19):
you start knowing that this was going to be it?
And was it a slow progress to progression to get
to where, yeah, this is the last or what did
it hit you like a thunderbolt. I'm I'm really big
on making deliberate choices, and I don't like to float
through life. I like to choose how to spend my

(01:11:39):
time and what I want to do, and baseball's been
exactly what I've wanted to do. But at the same time,
I've seen other guys have been around some really, really
good players that have aged out of the game, and
it happens really fast for a lot of guys, and
I didn't want to be taken by surprise. So I've

(01:12:02):
I've been thinking about it. It's been on my radar.
It's something that I knew was going to come, and
I was prepared for it last year. Should should things
not go my way, you know, that's about the age
where guys start to get old. And you know, I

(01:12:24):
broke my hand and I was able to come back
and play well, and you know, it was kind of
a blessing, like having the game taken away from me briefly,
you know, towards the end of my career, and realizing
that I wasn't done. I still wanted to play, and
I came back played well last year, and I knew
that coming coming back this year was the right decision,

(01:12:48):
and I was. I was very excited for the opportunity
and thankful to have the opportunity after an injury played season.
So I came into this season, you know, wide open,
knowing that this very well could be my last go around, and.

Speaker 7 (01:13:07):
You know, it wasn't something that I just decided you
know this last month.

Speaker 5 (01:13:11):
This was something I knew going into spring training was
probably going to be my last year.

Speaker 16 (01:13:20):
Charlie, because your schedule has been so well defined from
February till October for the last fifteen plus years, asking
big picture, what are you going to do with your life?
Seeing guys like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning at the Olympics.
Do you have things in the summer that you've just
missed that are on a short list of next time
I'm going to add these few things or hopefully the
next time the Olympics or whatever.

Speaker 7 (01:13:37):
Maybe it is weird to just.

Speaker 5 (01:13:39):
You know, just sit on a bus or in a
hotel and look around and see all your your normal
friends go to the beach or have a vacation or
do summertime activities. So I think there are some things
that we have decided that.

Speaker 7 (01:13:53):
We want to do.

Speaker 5 (01:13:53):
I know, we're we're going to the Kentucky Derby next year,
you know, like stuff like that that you know instead
of like watching it, you know, and during VP, you know,
with with your guys, you know, we're gonna get out,
We're gonna do some stuff. We're gonna we'd like to travel.
We we like going to the beach, We like swimming.
You know, we were going to do some summertime stuff

(01:14:14):
like that.

Speaker 3 (01:14:15):
For sure.

Speaker 10 (01:14:17):
Congratulations, Charlie, a great career. But as you said, this
has been building for a little bit. So like this
past weekend a Dodger saved for an example, did you
walk off knowing this last time.

Speaker 5 (01:14:26):
I'm going to play here?

Speaker 10 (01:14:27):
And we're their emotions surrounding each of those last chapters
on the road this year.

Speaker 7 (01:14:32):
For you, yes, I mean I walked into the stadium
knowing that, right, and so it's it's.

Speaker 5 (01:14:37):
Been a little uh you know, I felt like I'm
retiring a little bit at a time. I don't think
it's I don't think it's gonna just be this Sunday.

Speaker 7 (01:14:48):
And I walk off.

Speaker 5 (01:14:49):
But it was, you know, leaving Salt River Fields for
the last time as a player and knowing it, and
you know, leaving like you said, you know, Dodger Stadium,
and you know, I think there's been little moments like
that and uh, you know, having conversations in the clubhouse
and you know, telling the guys on the bus. You know,
it's it's a little bit, a little bit at a time,

(01:15:11):
and in still building and I'm looking forward to this week,
but I know it's going to be obviously nothing I've
ever experienced before. I'm sure it'll really it'll really grip
me towards the end of the week.

Speaker 6 (01:15:27):
I've got a couple of quick but Charlie and congratulations
and thank you for elevating the art of the clubhouse interview.

Speaker 5 (01:15:34):
If you've done that.

Speaker 6 (01:15:36):
But you've been a role model for fans and for
your teammates, I think, and a leader. What did it
take for you to find the sweet spot for both
of those roles? And can you talk about what it's
what it's meant to kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:15:51):
Carry that.

Speaker 7 (01:15:54):
That leadership arts really tough, I think. I think once
you h you can't You can't be a leader unless you.

Speaker 5 (01:16:05):
Start thinking outside of yourself, which is really hard unless
you've been successful, you know, It's it's really hard as
a young player without a track record to to, you know,
spend time trying to elevate the guys around you when
you yourself have glaring weaknesses. And now that doesn't mean
I've got it all figured out. I think it just
means that some of my weaknesses I can't figure them

(01:16:29):
out anymore. So I'm want to start, you know, help
trying to help other guys, and so I think that's
you know, looking at yourself as part of a whole
and everybody aligned with the same goals. I think realizing that,
you know, my problems are probably going to be the
problems of someone else, and I've I've had lots and

(01:16:51):
lots of failures and struggles in my career. And trying
to recognize that in someone else's life or career or
swing or whatever where it is, and then maybe help
them get over it quicker than I did is is
kind of my chosen leadership method. But yeah, ultimately you

(01:17:16):
probably want to think about other people and try.

Speaker 7 (01:17:19):
To do the right thing.

Speaker 5 (01:17:20):
You know, two pretty good guidelines.

Speaker 6 (01:17:22):
And you mentioned, you know, wanting to stay involved with
the Rockies. Can you talk a little bit about just
spending fourteen years in Colorado and living in part of
the year here, what that's meant And do want to
continue spending time in Colorado? Is that something to anticipate?

Speaker 5 (01:17:38):
I do. I think we'll try our hardest to maintain
a presence here in Colorado. And you know, last night,
after I made my announcement, we did the most Colorado thing.
We could think of, and went went to Red Rocks
and watch some music, and you know, it's just such
an incredible state.

Speaker 7 (01:17:56):
I've been able to see so much that it has
to offer.

Speaker 5 (01:18:00):
Or there's nothing more American than the UH than the
Colorado Rockies. So it's uh, it's a great state. It's
a great place to be. And you know, I really
enjoy fishing the outdoors and and there's there's no better
place than Colorado, no.

Speaker 7 (01:18:15):
Vision of that.

Speaker 17 (01:18:16):
Hey, Charlie, kind of building off that last question, You've
been part of this club and it was in through
a couple of rebuilds. Why stay in Colorado? When was
there a point in the second half your career where
you thought maybe I should ask to be sent to
a contender.

Speaker 7 (01:18:31):
So Baseball's baseball is super hard. Careers are fragile, bodies
are fragile.

Speaker 5 (01:18:40):
There's a lot that goes into playing the game. And
I think a big part of it is being in
a good situation where you want to be and in
a situation where they want you to be there also,
And I you know, I got to give the the
Colorado Rockies a lot of credit that I am very

(01:19:04):
thankful for that being a two sided Street right, The
Rockies wanted me to be here just as much as
I wanted to be here also, So it was it
was really an easy decision. This is where I want
to play, This is all I've known, I think, to
go somewhere else and hope for the best, you know,

(01:19:26):
I just, I just I didn't see the benefit in leaving.

Speaker 7 (01:19:29):
And ultimately, I'd like to see.

Speaker 5 (01:19:32):
This franchise be successful and play well and when, and
it would mean a lot more to me. And it
means a lot more to me to have been successful
here and to have made it to the playoffs, and
to have the guys that I've seen grow up in.

Speaker 7 (01:19:47):
This clubhouse be successful.

Speaker 5 (01:19:49):
I mean, ultimately, that is so much more rewarding for
me than to you know, like mounts around you know,
not to discredit anybody else who's chosen to leave, but
like the this is one of the few choices you
get in the game, is where you want to play,
And I made that choice to stay here in Colorado, Charlie.

Speaker 18 (01:20:09):
For those of us who have had the privilege of
covering you for your entire career, I know a number
of us have been asked, well, what would best describe
Charlie Blackman, and my response was consistency. And in a
game that demands that, if that's your legacy, what.

Speaker 7 (01:20:30):
Would that mean to you?

Speaker 5 (01:20:33):
I mean, I would be very proud to be considered consistent.
I think I was thinking about yesterday, how to you know,
word my communication that I wasn't going to play ball anymore,
and and consistency came up a lot.

Speaker 7 (01:20:51):
The game is just so.

Speaker 5 (01:20:53):
Hard that really your only fallback is your.

Speaker 7 (01:20:56):
Consistency, your day to day, your foundation.

Speaker 5 (01:21:00):
That's really the only thing that I can control outside
of didn't choosing what to how to deal with results, right,
So I've certainly had lots of experience dealing with negative
results or positive results, and so I'm constantly trying to
get better. But if you want good results, you probably

(01:21:22):
need to have a consistent input, and it needs to
be a really high level input. And I'm never really
considered myself a good enough player to be successful if
I wasn't doing things the right way. And so the
only way that I could mentally free myself to play
the game and not worry about negative consequences was to

(01:21:45):
do everything that I could ahead of time to make
sure I was in.

Speaker 7 (01:21:48):
A position to succeed.

Speaker 5 (01:21:49):
You know, that's take care of my body, you know, scout,
make sure my swing's in a good place, work on
my mental game, you know. And once I've taken care
of everything that I can take care of, well, then
at that point we're just we're playing the game. I
don't have to worry. I don't step onto the field
like hoping bad things don't happen. I was able to

(01:22:09):
know that good or bad. I'm proud of the product.
And then if you can do that, you know, one
day you'll probably be a better baseball player than you
were the day before. And if you can just stack
that on top, you know, week by week, I think
eventually you might be a consistent player.

Speaker 19 (01:22:35):
Charlie, how do you explain the love affair that this
fan base in this town and this stadium has had
for you, And how do you kind of reciprocate that
process that in this moment and how you say goodbye.

Speaker 7 (01:22:47):
To them and to the only fan base.

Speaker 2 (01:22:48):
You ever know.

Speaker 5 (01:22:50):
This is really such a great place to play, and
I feel like being the only team in this time
zone and to have a place as beautiful as course
field to play and uh, it's you know, Denver is
such a great fan base and great stadium. It's it's

(01:23:11):
really it's easy for me to sometimes take it for
granted that we always draw well, you know, good or bad,
and Uh, it's just been really surreal to have the
city embrace me. You know. I feel like I have
a lot of really positive experiences away from the park

(01:23:33):
where people come up to me and you know, they
don't want to bother me, but they say, you know,
you know, something really positive and then just like leave
it alone, and it always leaves me feeling better. And
and I feel like that is like the Denver spirit.
It's just very very positive, and it's you know, it's
it's hard to be you know, upset or negative and

(01:23:56):
such a beautiful place where we always have great sunshine
and it's it's a great it's it's great fans to
play in front of.

Speaker 7 (01:24:03):
And I'm really looking forward to this last week. Charlie,
thank you for everything.

Speaker 5 (01:24:09):
You've had three different managers at seemingly three different phases
of your career.

Speaker 2 (01:24:13):
When you think of them and the impact that they've
had on you, what comes to mind?

Speaker 5 (01:24:19):
Uh, Wow, that's uh, that's a pretty good question too.
So Jim would be Tracy was my first manager. I'm
just trying to figure out like my place in the world,
trying to get comfortable, you know. That was.

Speaker 7 (01:24:41):
Obviously one of the harder stages of my career. And then.

Speaker 5 (01:24:46):
And then it was really awesome to play for Walt
because he was such a good competitor.

Speaker 7 (01:24:52):
He was he just wanted to win, and.

Speaker 5 (01:24:56):
He was a position player himself, played and played it
out altitude and and knew what it means to play
a lot of games at altitude for the Rockies, and
and and we were good, and I was young and productive,
and we made it to the playoffs, and I'll certainly
never forget that. And then but it seems like that

(01:25:19):
went by so fast to you know, uh, those first
two stages.

Speaker 7 (01:25:23):
And then I think the.

Speaker 5 (01:25:24):
Bud Black era has really helped me grow as a
person and as a player. And I remember thinking in
the first it's weird that Bud Black is right here.
And I'm like, but I remember thinking early on, I
guess it was the first year that we we made
some decisions in the bullpen, and I was like, that's

(01:25:47):
that's like these are good that like we're making good decisions,
you know, like we're like, this is this is what
I would do, you know, And I felt like, you know,
but has a lot of experience he brought to the
Rockies and he has a really incredible demeanor. And I
think it serves our group well with ups and downs.

Speaker 7 (01:26:09):
And I think I think it it helps us.

Speaker 5 (01:26:16):
Play the game without worrying, without holding back. I think
it it lets guys like Bloom as players. I think
it's a it's a really good dynamic. I think it's
it's been really helpful for me, and it's it's been
a situation where I can be who I want to

(01:26:37):
be and who I think I am as a player.
And I think I think also, I think you need
to include Mike Redman and that that conversation. Mike Redman
is a he doesn't like to take things too seriously,
which is good for me because I'm like a pretty
serious guy. And if I don't have someone like Mike
Redman or around, or you know, had a few teammates

(01:27:01):
kind of fit that mold too. I don't have someone
around to counteract my seriousness, like I think, sometimes I
can be in a dark place. So I think those
two together are a really incredible duo. And I think
they're going to continue to do well for the Rockies,
and I'm excited about the future.

Speaker 12 (01:27:23):
Yeah, Charlie, I want to ask you about your walk
up song, which has becomes so iconic. Correcting from wrong,
I think that.

Speaker 5 (01:27:29):
Started Georgia Tech, right, it did.

Speaker 12 (01:27:31):
Okay, so you've had your whole career and it's becomes
this anthem. What are your emotions? What do you feel
like when you get to the play and it's a
big crowd, you know, and ninety percent of the crowd
knows what to do when they sing along as they do,
What does that make you feel like?

Speaker 5 (01:27:50):
I mean, it makes me feel at home, right, I
mean it's it's really hard for me to listen to
that song and like not stop think about baseball, you know,
get romantic with the game and and know how important
of a song that is for me in my career,
and and think about the interaction. I mean, this is
it's rare that you see that kind of interaction from

(01:28:11):
a fan base and a player, uh you know, you know,
in a stadium. I mean, it's just an incredible song
and I've never really once thought about changing it. And
and the city and the course field has really embraced it,
and you know, just you can't listen to that song
and not think about baseball and not think about hitting,

(01:28:32):
and you know, it's it's it just puts me in
a great mindset and it's it's it's an all time favorite.

Speaker 2 (01:28:40):
I found the story the news story. This story, out
of all the news stories that I've read in the
last I don't know, five ten years, just speaks to me. Okay,
I felt this in my soul, and I just want
to I want to thank the New York Post for
finally honing in on something that is such a huge
problem that it's it's about time that someone is talking

(01:29:03):
about the struggle of what it's like to be an
attractive human being on Reddit a thread ass folks, what
was your horrible experience for being attractive? And it was
like looking in a mirror. For me, it was like,
oh my god, all these things, all of these things
have happened to me, all the unwanted attention. So hard. God,

(01:29:25):
isn't it exhausting? Anthony? It is just like, oh, oh,
it's tough. You know, we struggle through, We do the
best we can, but I mean, it just wears you down.
It wears you down. All the people who think you
want to steal their husbands. It's just exhausting. All of
the mister steal your girlfriend jokes, you get a rod
all the time. I mean, come on, it's just anyway.

(01:29:51):
A lot of people weighed in. Now here's the thing.
How do you know these people are hot? Is it
because they all have hot people problems? There is, my
the way, a thing called pretty privilege. And there's been
some very interesting studies that have shown that attractive people
are more likely to get a job, they're more likely
to get favorable treatment, all of these different things. So

(01:30:11):
we know that these people have pretty privilege, and now
we're supposed to feel sorry for them. And I know
what I just did. I switched from being one of
them to attacking them. I'm neither. In reality, I think
everybody has struggles, whether you're super hot or just look
like the girl or guy next door. Everybody has issues
they have to deal with, and you can ascribe them

(01:30:32):
to anything. For me, in all seriousness, this is serious,
and I'm not even being sarcastic when I say this.
When I first got into radio, there was a lot
of pressure because I worked in hot talk there was
a lot of pressure to sort of like dress in
a trashy way and behave in a trashy way because

(01:30:54):
of that station. And I resisted. I'm just not I
didn't want to be on the radio that bad. So
there is you have to you want to be taken
seriously as an attractive person. But I think it's funny
that people are like, you know what, finally someone cares
about my struggle as an attractive person. Texters, I want

(01:31:14):
to know what is your biggest what's the biggest burden
of being an attractive person?

Speaker 16 (01:31:19):
What is it?

Speaker 9 (01:31:19):
I mean?

Speaker 2 (01:31:20):
Is it the constant you know, fetching attention? Is it
when people buy you things for lunch? You know, when
people just tell you you're pretty all the time? It
must be exhausting, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:31:32):
The construction worker cat calls are just too much. And
I just I can't walk past a construction site anymore.
I take the long way.

Speaker 2 (01:31:40):
I can't. I just it's it's too uncommoned. Okay, So
here's a story about walking past the construction zone in
New York City. Chuck and I had the opportunity to
go to New York many years ago, and coincidentally, Ford
truck's birthday. We'd had a conversation weeks before and he
said he was talking about how attractive he personally is,
right and he said, if you get me a shirt

(01:32:02):
that says sexy bitch on it, I'll wear it. So
I had the shirt made, but he was supposed to
swing by the screenprinters and pick it up because it
was his friend. And he didn't do it, and we
go off to New York or no, he missed the opportunity.
He was supposed to wear it. But like six weeks later,
we fly to New York for the day and we're
having a day in New York and it was beautiful,
the weather was perfect, and I come out of the

(01:32:23):
bathroom and Chuck is standing there in the hotel room
in New York City with a hot pink shirt on.
This says sexy bitch in big letters across the front,
and that is what he wears in New York City,
sight seeing all day. He himself became a tourist attraction
in New York City. At the top of the Empire
State Building, little ladies from Asia were taking photographs with
him in his shirt. A goth band stopped him in

(01:32:45):
the subway to take a picture with him in the subway,
and then we are walking by a construction site and
construction workers are yelling down from the construction site, Hey,
sexy bitch, and I'm like this, this is what it's
like to live with my husband right there. He's the
tourist attraction, he's the entertaining one.

Speaker 7 (01:33:08):
If.

Speaker 2 (01:33:08):
By the way, if you go to Japan with us,
I'll make him he can't bring that shirt to Japan.
They're a much more conservative culture than we are. I'll
put some black tape over it. You'll see what I mean.
He's way more entertaining than I am. We're gonna take
a quick time out and come back and wrap things up.
Right after this, Ralph says, attractive problem women expecting you
to be available to them at their whim Mandy, do

(01:33:30):
you really think pretty people listen to your show? Of course,
pretty on the inside too, mean Texter, it's so hard
to constantly have to explain why I'm actually old enough
to have daughters in their twenties. Dripping in sarcasm, Mandy,
having to constantly constantly carry a stick to beat the

(01:33:50):
women off me, It's exhausting, exhausting. Pharmaceutical sales jobs can
be too easy to get. As a fellow BP beautiful person,
I agree, it's exhausting having to write down dozens and
dozens of beautiful women's phone numbers every time I'm out
in public. It's such a burden being attractive this day

(01:34:14):
and age. Lots of stuff on the blog today that
I'd love you to see, including some really funny videos.
You know, I got to get to a couple of
stories tomorrow though, A Rod, you forgot me to remind
me to do the something that I told you to
remind me to do at two o'clock. We're a little
busy at two o'clock. Yeah, that's right, because we let
Charlie talk.

Speaker 3 (01:34:32):
Give haven't got into the best video on the blog today?
Which is the best video on the blog?

Speaker 2 (01:34:35):
Come on, you know me? What do you think I
think is the best video on the blog? Steal Sneeze
is like farts? Damn right? Yeah, a seal does. Ryan
walked in and only heard that sentence. Well that's really
all you need to do about the program. Ryan, you
got some headphones on. Well we'll try this out. We'll
trot it out of your hang on, a Rod, tell
me give me my audio for a second. Here, here
we go. That's a sneeze. Seal sneeze. Yeah, seal snez

(01:34:59):
sounds like a far yep. Yeah, I heard that on
the I heard of the broadcast. I didn't know what
was going on.

Speaker 20 (01:35:05):
I was like, Mayre, is the signal weird in Parker? Like,
what was it supposed to sound like seal farts? Wait
to know that that right during Charlie's Yeah no that
was his.

Speaker 2 (01:35:18):
That was yeah, a little said and of course little
boys a microphone and immediately go up and go yeah,
like yeah, no, it did not way the seals farting
during Charlie. You would not do this, would Wait? I
didn't think you did. I just didn't know who was
doing that. They do sound exactly the same now that
as far, I have to answer this question, Mandy, on
a scale of one to ten, what would you consider

(01:35:39):
yourself to be? Where am I? If I'm in La
I'm a five. If I'm in Dayton, Ohio, I'm a nine,
A hard nine. Okay. It really is locationally dependent one.
And I felt that way my entire life. Yeah, like
many things in life. Yeah, I mean, but now I'm older,
so I'm judging that on as a fifty five year
old woman, scale like, I'm not I'm not going to

(01:36:00):
compete with a twenty five year old Okay, I don't
need that kind of blow to the ego.

Speaker 3 (01:36:03):
Well, it depends on the people that you're talking to.
Is that there might be some people that you know.
I'll stop right there, but I'm just gonna say.

Speaker 2 (01:36:13):
Way possible. Yeah, I love what I could make Ryan
slightly uncomfortable when it comes in to do the show. Yeah,
we werell of course talking about Charlie Blackman announcing his retirement,
not completely unexpected. He's obviously a lot older than he
was when he started here fourteen years ago, but still
sad to see him go. I feel like, in a
weird way, like that is the punctuation mark of the

(01:36:34):
Rockies teams that I have loved so much since I
got here thirteen years ago. It was parallel with him,
and now it's like a whole bunch of new people.
I don't know anybody is. It's not the same, So
I have to reassess and maybe there'll be somebody else
to love as much as I love Charlie.

Speaker 3 (01:36:50):
I think that's perfectly said, And yeah, same thing like
I've been covering the Rockies now from fifteen years a
little over fifteen years, so I just really kind of around.
I mean, I've been watching the Rockies from much longer,
but there's just there is something about the constant that
was Charlie Blackman in the locker room or in the clubhouse.
And again, you know, he's just one of those those
guys that wanted to be here, you know, in professional sports.

(01:37:13):
And I know he talked about it, and I thought
Jack asked a really good question. We're gonna have him
on a five thirty tonight. But it's one of those deals,
like he has this consistency about him, his approach, and
it's something that the rest of the players that they
always resonated with.

Speaker 2 (01:37:27):
And he's such a hard worker. I mean, he's known
for being a guy who really really works hard to
maintain his body physically. And we're all going to miss him.
But now it's time for the most exciting segment on
the radio. It's gone him.

Speaker 9 (01:37:41):
Of the day.

Speaker 2 (01:37:42):
All right, what is our dad joke of the day? Please?

Speaker 3 (01:37:45):
I saw two huge blackbirds in my garden this morning
and they were stuck together.

Speaker 2 (01:37:51):
Turns out they were Valcroz Word of the Day please Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:37:56):
Word is an adjective adjective one word jerk water.

Speaker 2 (01:38:01):
I thought you're gonna say, jerk wad is like backwoods,
like like a like a really rural kind of I
don't know, I get small town ish kind of thing,
back like jerk water. Yeah, I mean I was called
that this morning. I didn't know what it was. To
now I'm glad I'm here. Great means remote and unimportant.

Speaker 4 (01:38:20):
Often you to describe a small town village that is
out of the country, far from cities.

Speaker 2 (01:38:25):
Thank you very much. Also from a jerkwater town myself.
But the word synonym for trivial.

Speaker 3 (01:38:31):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:38:32):
Today's trivia question. Speaking of trivial, which Marvel Comics superhero
serves as the High Priest of the Egyptian Moon God.
I'm gonna guess isis as it has to be? No, wait,
hold on, wait wait, yes, it's moonlight. But the question again,
it is which Marvel Comics superhero serves as the high

(01:38:52):
Priest of the Egyptian Moon God Priest. Okay, whatever here? Yeah, yeah,
so Mark also known as Mark Spector Mark. Okay, what's
our what's our category? Yesterday's is three letter words. Okay,
real janaire guess.

Speaker 4 (01:39:11):
An actor takes one during his curtain call Mandy corect
throw away your oven and join Woody Harrelson in the
movements for this type of food?

Speaker 2 (01:39:22):
What's wrong? Correct? Good?

Speaker 4 (01:39:24):
Muhammad Ali stung leug a bee with this short straight punch?

Speaker 3 (01:39:29):
Bryan, what's a job? A politician taking the low road?
Is said to sling this? Brian blood.

Speaker 4 (01:39:41):
Uh Manly Manly first name of British plotter something in
sesame Street game show hosts.

Speaker 2 (01:39:50):
This, what is that question? What is that question? New category?
That's correct?

Speaker 3 (01:39:57):
Whoa what?

Speaker 2 (01:39:58):
Guy Smiley? What does Yeah? I already said, I had
already said new quest, new yea, but I knew the answer.
I don't care rob me when I started, but he doesn't.
There's an asterisk on that one.

Speaker 4 (01:40:13):
I'm sorry, you know, I almost want to because I'm
back to wait for the mic like, Oh, we're gonna get.

Speaker 2 (01:40:18):
I wanna, I wanna, Yeah, I'm just gonna no, I
call it.

Speaker 3 (01:40:22):
No, it doesn't count. Category on a game? Okay, snakes
on a game. Each year in India, up to fifty
thousand people are killed by.

Speaker 2 (01:40:33):
Creating what are boa constrictors.

Speaker 7 (01:40:38):
Now?

Speaker 3 (01:40:38):
I don't have to see it killed by crates and
these hooded snakes.

Speaker 2 (01:40:43):
Ryan doesn't have to say it. Ryan wins. What is
a comera on that one? You both can't the point
that Guy Smiley I could have easily easily, but I
make the rules here. You both my game. Basically, I
make the rules, adopted the rules in two thousand and five.
I adopted it. I host it.

Speaker 6 (01:41:03):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:41:04):
Did I just win? To in a row?

Speaker 7 (01:41:06):
That's what I want to do?

Speaker 2 (01:41:07):
You did not win. I am essentially going to Jordan's
Charles you right now, I'm going to be You'll see
me in a swisschool. Children will shock it up, shock
it up to a tie? No tie?

Speaker 7 (01:41:18):
No tie?

Speaker 2 (01:41:18):
Did he no? Guy Smiley? No, he didn't die on
your show. I bet you're not going to talk about
Guy Smiley because you don't even know who he is.
Yan Ka Sports Guy Smiley Free coming up next