Pat's Peeps Podcast

Ep. 379 Today's Peep Watches The Flintstones, Firelight, And Friday, Attending Last Night's Celtics/Kings Game, Surprising Rose Bowl Champs, News Headlines In History, and An Ironic Musical Hit

• Pat Walsh

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A quiet Friday turned unexpectedly electric: the red light for live radio clicks on, the foothills breathe after days of rain, and a crackling fire sets the stage for a run through memory, music, and sports that somehow all connect. We start with a simple joy—The Flintstones—and land on a timeless truth hiding in a cartoon: ideas often look silly until they fly, and only then do the doubters ask for a title and a seat at the head of the table.

From there, we flip a desk calendar and tumble through New York history. Times Square’s first fireworks, the renaming of Longacre Square, and the birth of the ball drop show how one publisher’s celebration became the world’s countdown. A century-old curveball—1917’s “fake” New Year, shifted by Sunday liquor laws—proves culture can pivot fast when rules change. These snapshots aren’t trivia; they’re evidence that traditions evolve and still hold power.

Courtside at Celtics vs. Kings pulls us into the pulse of a city. We revisit seasons of struggle, the art of asking honest questions after losses, and the grace of athletes who lead with warmth. Wayman Tisdale stands tall here—NBA forward, Grammy-winning jazz bassist, and locker room light—reminding us that talent is richer when it lifts people. Then college football flips the script: Indiana smothers Alabama 38–3, a statement that dynasties aren’t destiny. An offensive lineman’s MVP nod puts proper respect on the work that makes everything else possible.

Music closes the loop. The Turtles push back against a hit-making machine with Eleanor, a witty satire of bubblegum love that sneaks in an early Moog and still hooks your ear. It’s creative defiance you can sing along to—and a neat mirror of the night’s theme: nostalgia balanced by reinvention, comfort carrying change. Come along for the ride, share your favorite throwback or upset, and stay for the live show at 7 p.m. If the stories resonate, follow, rate, and send this to a friend who loves hoops, history, or a great song with a wink.

SPEAKER_02:

Hello there, it's Pat Speeps. We're back again, back at it. Pat's Beeps 379, number 379 on a Friday. Happy Friday. It's great to be with you. As always, and uh my name is Pat Walsh. I am the host of the Pat Walsh Show on KFPK News Radio, 93.1 FM 1530 a.m. in Sacramento was simulcast, don't you know? And heard everywhere on your free iHeart app and all your streaming platforms, just like this very show. By the way, a surprise to me, even, quite frankly. I get word that because I, you know, I've been off for two weeks on vacation from my radio show, and uh, but but I've been doing the podcast, and I just assumed that I would have tonight, the weekend, back Monday. Most people are back Monday. Not me. Found out today. I'm working tonight. So how about that? So if if you'd be so kind, I'd love it if you'd tune in the radio tonight beginning at 7 p.m. when I host my show, The Pat Wall Show. Now, on this Friday, you know, they don't have two days off and then back on Monday. So, anyhow, uh I look out my studio window into the beautiful foothills of Northern California, where now the sun is kind of trying to peek through. Down in the low the valley today, I think, I don't know, maybe had some sun. Perhaps, I don't really know. But maybe, but up here in the uh foothills, it's been pretty much cloudy all day. But as I'm speaking, but as we speak, the it looks pretty nice out there. The the sun, the sunset is looking so nice. It's not quite sunset yet, but anyhow, it looks nice out and the sun is peeking through, which makes me very happy. Man, we've got a lot of rain and snow. Great stuff. Great stuff. I'm so glad. Anyhow, thank you for being here. You know what I'm doing right now? Because I, again, I'm in vacation mode. I'm doing something right now, I haven't done it in a while, but it was one of my favorite things to do when I was a kid. I remember when I was in oh seventh and eighth grade, my dad and mom both worked, but for some reason I'd ride, I'd get I'd get home, ride the bus home from school, and I'd be the first one home. And that meant I had like an hour to myself at 13 and 14 years old in the house. And as crazy as it sounded, now kids are playing video games and all that. Yes, I did listen to a lot of music, but I couldn't wait in that one hour to get home because I knew that I could get one hour back-to-back episodes. The Flintstones. I loved watching the Flintstones. And I'm watching the Flintstones. Right now, this is the one where, you know, Barney is building the what he wants to call the Barney Copter, and Fred is like, yeah, Barney, you're not going to be able to do it. Ah, the, you know, uh, he just doesn't believe he can do it. And so now Fred is in the moment. He's taking he's taking a nap on the hammock. You know how he used to do that in bedrock? He'd take that nap on the hammock, Fred, because it's a Sunday. The newspaper boy, Arnold, just threw the newspaper at Fred. Morning, Arnold! You know, and Arnold, morning, Mr. Frintzone! He'd throw the paper at him, conk him over the head. But it's a Sunday morning, so Fred's out there trying to, you know, he's trying to rest, but Barney was over there banging on metal because he's trying to make the what he wants to, what he wants, it's his flying machine. The Barney Copter. And then Fred doesn't, he poo-poos the Barney Copter. Goes over to his hammock. Now he's taking a nap. But there comes Barney flying over, and then Fred's suddenly a believer. You remember this episode? Fred can't believe what he's saying. He lays back down to go to sleep and he pops up. See now Fred's all in. Now he's his pal again. See? It's like a big old egg beater in the sky, the barney copter. But then Fred has his own name for it.

unknown:

What do you mean? Green boy? What do I say?

SPEAKER_02:

Eating. Fred just takes over. He's gonna be president of the company.

unknown:

I will be the president, and I'll make you vice president in charge of production.

SPEAKER_02:

Isn't that nice of Fred? He'll be the president of the company he didn't believe in. And then Barney will be the vice president in charge of production. Anyhow, yeah, I'm enjoying the Flintstones today on a Friday. It's a Flintstones Friday! That's right, the Flintstone Flyer.

unknown:

I was gonna call it the Barney Copter.

SPEAKER_02:

So it's what do you go? What do you go with the Barney Copter or the Flintstone Flyer? Obviously, Barney invented it, so got news for you, Freddy boy. We'll let you know how that turns out. See, that's the important stuff I'm doing today on a Friday. Kicking back with a couple of episodes. Ben's watching the Flintstones. And I've got my fire going in the fireplace right now. It's all cozy in here. Ooh, the sun is peeking out right about now. Very nice. You know, I got this um this desk calendar for Christmas. It's the New York Times headlines in history. And I I thought I would do one every day. Tell you what the headlines from history were that were in the New York Times. These are three hundred and sixty-five remarkable stories from the Times archives. Page-a-day calendar for twenty-six. Let's see what they say about this. Travel back in time through headlines from the New York Times and discover hundreds of the most fascinating and important events as they originally appeared in the paper. From political milestones to watershed moments and technology. Motorola, for instance, introducing wireless telephones. What day was that? April 4th, 1973. Hollywood Highlights, Sports Records, and more. Each day, they say each day's extraordinary headline is accompanied by a detailed caption that provides historical content. So, I meant to do it yesterday. So I'll have to catch up with uh day one from you know yesterday, January 1st, and this being the second day of 2026. Happy New Year. By the way, how long do you say Happy New Year? How long does that go? You say happy New Year for, I don't know, one day? Is it just New Year's Eve into the New Year? Are you still saying Happy New Year, like let's say next Monday? What about a week in? Where does it end? Okay, here's the here is the New York Times headline and story for January 1st. This would be from 1905. What is F-E-T-E? It figures the first one I wouldn't be sure. Is that Fede? Fede? New Year's Fede? At Times Square? What is F-E-T-E? Someone help me! January 1st, 1995. The New York Times publisher Adolph S. Oche. Not a popular name anymore, is it? Adolf. Somewhere along the line, that became fairly unpopular in much of the world. But anyhow, all due respect, Adolph S. Ochus organized a fireworks display to the delight of hundreds of thousands of people in Midtown Manhattan to celebrate the opening of the New York Times building the next day. Or the New Times building, I should say. The area previously known as the Long Acre Square had recently been renamed by New York City as Times Square after the publication. Now the next day, the Times reported never was a New Year's Eve more joyously celebrated. Three years later, the Times would lower a 700-pound ball from the top of the company's building. Through the Times, no though the Times no longer occupies the space, revelers around the world still celebrate the New Year with, of course, the ball drop at the location in person or on television. So that originated in 1905. Big new Fetty. Now today, January 2nd, let's see what they have for us here. This is January 2nd, 1917. New Year's Eve fell on a Sunday. The headline is New York rejects a fake New Year's from the New York Times. New York rejects a fake New Year's. January 2nd, 1917. New Year's Eve fell on a Sunday because state liquor laws at the time prohibited the carry-out sale of alcohol and service in most bars on Sundays. New York City attempted an eve-like celebration Monday, January 1st. Hotels and restaurants were hopeful that they could salvage a bad break on the calendar, but the experiment failed to arouse enthusiasm in the city last night, they said. They being the New York Times reporting that. So there you go. January 2nd, 1917. I'll either continue that on my podcast or on my radio show. Let's see what else do we have. Oh yeah, last night had a good time. Last night, thank you to Kim and Brent for tickets to go see the Boston Celtics playing the Sacramento Kings out at the Golden One Center. And we had outstanding seats. Really nice seats right under the bucket. I would say, I don't know, maybe because they get the floor seats and then it starts to go up a little bit right there, right off the floor. So maybe we were four seats up from that. So I mean it was just incredible seats. You know, that's the first basketball game I've been to in a while. But I am a Celtics fan. And yes, of course, being from Sacramento, you know, the Kings didn't show up until 1985 in Sacramento. But being a Sacramentan, I I right away pulled for the Kings too. Covered them for many years. But I was born a Celtics fan, so I like both teams. So that's one of the rare instances that I win or I even lose, I still win, you know, if that makes any sense. But it's it was no match. You know, the Kings held uh held held court for a while there, but you know, kept things pretty close, took the lead a couple of times, but in the end it was the Celtics pulling away. 120 to 106, and now the Celtics are one of the hottest teams in the NBA. I won't dwell on that too much, other than to say, you know, it was a fun experience. And again, thank you for that experience, Kim and Brent and Gail. Appreciate that very much. You know, I covered the Kings for many years, like I said, as the sports guy in Sacramento. And I'm talking about when the Kings were not good back when you know they were losing consistently. And I tell you, it's hard to sit in a press box uh and come up with numerous questions to go in and talk to the Kings players about after they lose yet again. I mean, what are you gonna say? How did it feel to lose again? Yeah, like what are you gonna say? There's not a lot. So you have to go in with a good attitude, you have to be creative in the way you approach the players who are usually pretty darn good. You know, I remember a guy by the name of Wayman Tisdale who played for the Sacramento Kings. If you if you remember Wayman, I always point him point him out as a really a shining star and a shining personality when it comes to the Sacramento Kings. Because I tell you, no matter win or lose, when you went into the locker room after a game, if the Kings were trounced, you would still see a smile on big old gentle Wayman Tisdale's face. He didn't look at you as some chump reporter who's just gonna ask him more miserable questions about losing. He took it in stride, he put a smile on his face, and he was always a gentleman. He's gone now, Wayman Tisdale. But suffice it to say, it was always a very interesting thing to cover the Kings when they weren't losing, but then they started winning. Then you saw real change around Arco Arena. You still had great guys on the team, you know, when Weber and Bibby and Jay Will and Paige Stoyakovich. That was a good group of guys. Lawrence Funderburg. People don't really remember like a guy like Lawrence Funderburg. It's overlooked in the mix. Back in the old days for a brief period of time, Marty Conlin, who played for the Kings, back when they were really losing a lot. How about Hido Turkelou? Excellent player. Anyhow, that was a good crew to cover as well. You know, Wayman Tisdale, by the way. One thing about him and rest in peace, Wayman, he was a Grammy award-winning jazz artist. And I thought I'd share a little bit of Wayman Tisdale's music with you. You're on Pat's Peeps. Three seventy-nine. He began playing in his father's church, later brought his bass on team road trips, doing his during his 12-year NBA career. And his albums often reached the top 10 on the Billboard charts. Sometimes he play the bass upside down and retuning it to function as a lead instrument. In an interview at jazzecology.com or jazz ecology, Wayman Tisdale considered music his first love. Rest in peace, Wayman Tisdale. Anyhow, great time at the Kings last night as I reminisce. There's so many memories I would love to share with you about my days covering the Sacramento Kings. There were some good times, very interesting times. By the way, check out our merch page if you would. PatsPeeps.com. We have well, we have merchandise, really nice hoodies. I just got a couple of the hoodies for Christmas. I got one for myself, one for my brother, and one for Scott Robinson. By the way, Scott Robinson, who just had surgery, if you happen to be listening to this, we are certainly wishing you well and uh hope you're feeling better. That you'll be up and around very soon, my friend. We miss you and we want you to be better so you can get back on the radio with us. Check out his show at beyond the humidor. Indiana! Indiana wants me. But I can't go back. Remember that song. Winner, surprise winner of the Rose Bowl. You know, this was the, I think this was the worst college football team for a long time. The worst. A laughing stock of college football. Dwelling in the basement of the Big Ten. Suddenly they're a national powerhouse. Kurt Signetti, their new coach, has a team in just two years handling Alabama. Alabama! The Hoosiers with them 38-3 Thursday night, last night, in the Rose Bowl, advancing to the college football playoff semis. But Alabama, who just a couple of years ago, they were the team to beat for years. They lose 38-3 to the team that has been the doormat of that of college football. And to make things even more interesting, the Rose Bowl Offensive MVP award given to Hoos Hoosers player, Heisman Trophy winner, Fernando Mendoza, threw for 192 yards and three touchdowns in the blog win. But the award instead goes to Hoosier's redshirt senior Pat Coogan, quite the Stand-up guy.

SPEAKER_01:

MVP from the 2026 Rose Bowl is Pat Hogan, the leader of the offensive line. First of all, after the High School Trophy ceremony, I saw you stuck in the airport with me, so congratulations on getting back to Bloomington and getting back here. What is it? You played the national championship game last year with Notre Dame. Now you've come here pursuing another one. What's this been like? How would you describe the secret sauce to giving this team success? Well, first of all, I just want to thank everybody for showing out and making this memorial last.

SPEAKER_00:

These last 10 months have been the best months of my life, and I'm just so grateful for my teammates, Coach Signetti, for bringing me here, Coach Postad for believing in me. These guys are fighters, and we got more to get done.

SPEAKER_02:

Good, good job. Awesome win for Indiana. And congratulations to them. So this is an interesting tune I was thinking about because of how it came about. Because most people, I believe, if you even know what hit they did, and a lot of people do, it's like the you think they're a one-hit wonder, but really they weren't. They did have another hit. They actually had several. But people only seem to remember one for whatever reason. So there's a 1968 song by this group. Uh originally included on the their name, Present the Battle of the Bands. Written by Howard Kalen, writing co-credit to all five members of the band. Kalen, Mark Volman, Al Nickel, Jim Pones, and John Barbada. The song was written as a satire of their biggest pop hit. By 1968, this group had had a number of successful pop records on the White Whale uh White Whale label, including Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me, Babe. Also, their biggest hit. Also, She'd Rather Be With Me. Oh, the later two were written by Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon. The band members wanted to diversify their musical output. Sort of like, you know, in parallel with some other some other groups that were trying to do something different, be creative, innovative, if you will. They wanted to record their own material. However, their record company was reluctant to allow them to do that. They wanted an they wanted them to do a repeat really of the first song of their biggest hit. Do another one of those. I'll just tell you the band is the Turtles. Happy Together. Remember me and you. I do. Remember that? So happy together. Alright, so the Turtles. They want them to write another Happy Together. White Whale does. Their label. But they're sick of hearing it. So as a demonstration of their musical versatility, they recorded the album Battle of the Bands. The Turtles present Battle of the Bands, which feature performances with a wide variety of different musical styles. They recorded the song literally as a parody of the opposite, like the happy-go-lucky, they'll pop songs by themselves that they've been performing. With deliberately cliched lyrics, very just like preteen, like teenage love lyrics, you might say. Like your looks intoxicate me, even though your folks hate me. There's no one like you. I think you swell and you really do me well. And then the line of lines, you're my pride and joy, etc. Like, who puts the word etc. in there in a song, as a lyric, etc. This was also one of the first pop songs to use the Moog synthesizer, which is heard during the first half of the second verse. So you want to listen closely to that. A song called Eleanor by the Turtles on Pat's Peeps 379.

SPEAKER_06:

You gotta think about you. I just can't live without you. I really want you, Eleanor near me. Your looks intoxicate me. Even though your folks hate me, there's no one like you, Eleanor really.

SPEAKER_03:

I think you swell, and you really do feel well. You might have joined I really think you're grooving.

SPEAKER_06:

Let's go out to a movie. What are you saying now, Eleanor Ken?

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you for listening. Happy Friday, it's Pats Peeps 379. We'll see you on the radio.

SPEAKER_05:

Maybe we won't watch the show. I think I love you, Eleanor. Love me.

SPEAKER_03:

I think you swell. And you really do me well.

unknown:

You might fribe joy and send.

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Pat walsh

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