Three Guys Around a Table and The Best Of…
Three buddies sitting around a table debating the best of everything and discussing what is on their minds
Three Guys Around a Table and The Best Of…
From James Franklin to Franklin from Peanuts: who calls better plays?
Start with the money. A $50M buyout balloons toward $75M once you factor in staff moves, new hires, and the cultural reset that follows—so we pull apart the real economics behind Penn State’s coaching drama and why midseason firings now collide with transfer rules, NIL leverage, and donor timelines. Then we ask the uncomfortable question: if college football operates like the pros, do we need pro-style governance—cap-like NIL budgets, GM roles that understand compliance and fundraising, and hiring targets that are more than rumor-fodder names?
Power doesn’t just live in stadiums; it lives on your street. Our HOA’s proposed bylaw changes and cameras turn “protect property values” into a tangle of overreach: bans on simple car maintenance, conflicting voting thresholds, and assessments that could hit homeowners like surprise invoices. We talk transparency, limits, and how to rebuild trust when speech gets labeled “not helpful” and shut down.
To reset the vibe, we go on the road. San Francisco surprises with a smooth Waymo ride and a haunting Alcatraz audio tour that turns history into lived experience. Across the Atlantic, rain lifts as Mass begins at St. Peter’s Square, the Colosseum’s underfloor elevators spark engineering awe, and a cruise from Sicily to Portofino offers scenes from party islands to mega-yacht harbors. Along the way, we squeeze in wrestling twists, a foreign candy draft, betting lines that look way too large, and a quick nod to the hoops calendar.
If you’re into college football strategy, NIL realities, HOA sanity checks, urban mobility, Roman history, or just laughing through the whiplash, you’ll feel right at home around our table. Listen, share with a friend, and drop your take—what’s the smartest fix you’d make to either a football program or a neighborhood rule? And if you’re new here, hit follow and leave a quick review so more curious listeners can find us.
Three guys around the table. And by three guys, we're talking about three friends: a lawyer, an engineer, and a school superintendent.
SPEAKER_01:And just like our personalities, our opinions vary, and we certainly don't always agree. Whether we're discussing the best of or giving our tips and tricks of things in everyday life, you're sure to learn something if you stick around.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's been a couple of weeks since we've been with you. Some of us have been traveling. We'll have some talks about it, but there's been a lot of things going on in the world in the last two weeks. So this is going to be a little bit of a hodgepodge, a little bit of a potpourri that we're gonna we're gonna delve into some different subjects. But the first one I want to get into. Yep. James Franklin. Yep. We've given James Franklin a lot of dissing on this on this podcast. He's never been able to win a big game. And I think it's deserved. I didn't know Northwestern was a big game.
SPEAKER_02:But Northwestern put the nail in the coffin, obviously. Isn't uh isn't life in the Big Ten just interesting sometimes? I think we've entered into a different world of college sports. Yeah. I heard um you know, I I heard it discussed this way because everyone's talking about the$49 million buyout. Yep. You might as well just say$50 million, right? Heard someone else talk today that it's really more like$75 million that they're investing in getting rid of this coach. And they explained it this way$50 million to get rid of him to pay out his contract.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:They're going to bring in a new coach, and that's gonna be another$10 million. Big both, right? No question. They're gonna have to get rid of all of the staff under James Franklin. So if they were under multi-year contracts, including Jim Knowles, they will have to buy them out as well. Then they're gonna have to pay the new staff to come in. Yeah, it's a big it's a big dollar change.
SPEAKER_00:I had read online that Adidas was behind it. I don't know if any of that's true, but I'd read it online that Adidas was also behind it.
SPEAKER_02:I read that the um actually I didn't read, I heard on one of those uh sports um shows that the uh the owner of the Buffalo Bills is a big Penn State guy. And he is bankrolling it because he wants the new head coach to be Joe Brady, who is the Bills offensive coordinator or whatever. I I'm I'm pretty sure that that's correct.
SPEAKER_01:Um Chris, are you going to participate in this episode? I was just wondering who would be a better coach, James Franklin or Franklin from the Peanuts? Well, I think there's a lot of questions. Or Benjamin Franklin.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, seriously, just think Franklin Covey. Think about what's happened in in basically two and a half weeks. Right. I mean, if you remember College Game Day was there for the Oregon game, and and it was a wide out, and everybody thought it I mean if you remember all the ESPN people were wearing white, yeah, and and he said this will be the greatest, James Franklin said this will be the greatest college environment in the history of college football. Yeah. And it was a great game. Yeah. Oregon won, and that started the downslide. Yep, yep. And then who beat him after that? It was uh uh was it UCLA or that's right, it was UCLA because it was the first game under their new uh interim head coach, right? And then Northwestern beats them in college station on homecoming. And how's that possible? First of all, I know because honestly, Kentucky and Northwestern be a pretty good game. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So But Kentucky can't beat the top three dogs in the SEC. No, and when when James Franklin went out, uh when he took them out to UCLA for that game, after the game was over in his post-game press conference, he even said he was like, uh, you know, uh, we could we could blame the travel and we could, you know, but uh it's all on me, you know. Uh uh, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and that's what he said after the Northwestern game.
SPEAKER_02:He goes, We're gonna get it fixed. It's all on me. But but in essence, he was you don't say, well, we could blame the travel unless you're blaming the travel. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I I've always said that whenever somebody says a sentence and it says but everything before the butt is missed.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, exactly. Not not to not to, you know, but not to be offensive, but however, you know, Penn State shouldn't even have a program. You've said that. I think I've heard those words they do have one before. We do. And who is who's going to be the next coach there?
SPEAKER_00:Well, one of the rumors online Mark Scoops. No, no, we couldn't be that lucky. Uh one of the rumors online is Marcus Freeman. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. I don't know what I don't know why he would leave Notre Dame for Penn State.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think he will, but what I thought was interesting is somebody put this on the on the tweet, since we don't do X's on the tweet. Yeah. It's the tweet says Penn State Athletic Director Pat Kraft plans to take a couple of big swings during the hiring process. One of the names that has been talked about is Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman. And somebody said, explain this to me like I'm five. Penn State wants to replace James Franklin with younger James Franklin, whose signature win with Notre Dame is against James Franklin. That's pretty good. So I thought that was pretty good. Um Brian Hartline. But I can't see him leave it. Yeah. And I can't see Brian Hartline getting the job. I think they're going to want an experienced take care.
SPEAKER_02:I think the guy they're really going to go after is Matt Rule from Nebraska. I've heard that. He is a Penn State alum. You know. And he's done good at Nebraska. Yeah. I I don't know that. But is he going to leave? I don't know. You know, he I don't know that he'll leave. So um, you know, maybe who who else, what other name gets mentioned with every Matt Campbell at Iowa State? Yeah. Every single one, and he never leaves.
SPEAKER_00:What what are your thoughts about these power five schools getting rid of their coaches midseason?
SPEAKER_02:So Houston never happened. No. Um, it's a different world that we live in. Sure. Um, but ultimately, I I just don't understand it.
SPEAKER_00:Um well, especially because under the new rules, players can leave within 30 days. Right. After a coach gets fired.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. And so what happens if you get bring in an interim, okay, and you you just name someone that's on the staff to get us through the end of the year, and then you win three or four games in a row. Like UCLA's doing right now. Exactly. And then you're stuck with, oh, well, we're gonna have to go with Clay Helton now at USC. You know, I I don't uh I don't get it. Yeah, I don't I don't love it. But uh James Franklin, though, exception to the rule. That dude ha is a uh is a John Calapari of football. Except Calapari could he won the national title. Yeah, he could win, he could win a few Calipari. He could win a few. Uh I just came back from Italy, dude. It would have been Calapari. So that's probably true. Uh but he's a used car salesman. I mean, James Franklin, what has he ever done?
SPEAKER_00:I think you should compare him more to Penny Hardaway. That's fair. Yes. I think he's the Penny Hardaway of college. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, that went away quick though, didn't it? Yeah. Or is he the um um um uh the prime coach prime?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that went downhill quickly, too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you don't hear anything about that anymore, do you? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So interesting.
SPEAKER_01:Did you hear who uh Auburn named today as their um their managing director? No Bo Jackson.
SPEAKER_00:That's a good one.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. The running back for Ohio State? Oh, a different Bo Jackson.
SPEAKER_00:Baseball player for the Royals.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. He was pretty good. He had a good arm.
SPEAKER_01:He could run up the wall.
SPEAKER_02:So Ohio State has a running back right now, a freshman, and his name is Bo Jackson. Right. Now, that's just a nickname, but he's he's been Bo Jackson his whole life. You know his what his real name is? Lamar.
SPEAKER_01:Jackson?
SPEAKER_02:Lamar Jackson. It's a pretty good name, too, though.
SPEAKER_01:Right?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, either way, he's pretty good.
SPEAKER_02:Pretty good.
SPEAKER_00:Pretty good. Um what do you think about all these schools hiring these guys who I mean it kind of started with Andrew Luck at Stanford that are taking these kind of like overall? General manager things.
SPEAKER_01:Um, you know. They're more like the pros every day. I mean, you got all that money to deal with and all that.
SPEAKER_02:But they are the pros now. Yeah, yeah. I mean, they really are. It is. Um, so I don't know about Andrew Luck is kind of an exception, you know, because he's a really sharp guy, understands football and all of that. Hiring just a former player just to be the face, that's that's okay, but you better have some knowledge of how nil works and all those things because you know I mean you can't just be the face that runs the place. Yeah, exactly. Before we go any further, I need to give a shout out to a couple of our new listeners. And by the way, that was a good rhyme. I thought it was good. I thought look, it was trying to move us into the next topic, too. What would Jackie Childs say? Your face is my case. That's a good one. Come on. That's pretty good. Yeah, Jackie Giles.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, quality logger.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Oh uh shout out to a few new listeners. Haymarket, Virginia, Reston, Virginia. We're big in Virginia, and Adelaide, South Australia. Whoa.
SPEAKER_00:Do you think we're big in Virginia because of my accent? I think so. I think so.
SPEAKER_02:I I I I'm down. Yeah. Whatever it takes. Um, so I I think we should give a very brief update on HOAs, too, because we've had a lot of uh some some changes to the HOA things going back and forth that we want to at least briefly mention how much we hate homeowners association, just in case our listeners haven't heard us say that about.
SPEAKER_00:So the HOA that Mark and I live in brought out their pro well, first they set up a signing party to sign the new restrictions, even though nobody ever saw them. Yeah. And then they finally issued the redlined versions, which goes well above and beyond what the purported uh changes that were going to be made. And when people started commenting on it on Facebook, it got shut down because those comments were not helpful.
SPEAKER_01:And there were some comments by two of us in this room that were not helpful. I just want you guys to know that I was assisting the uh the elderly within the neighborhood. Your father. And uh looking through, and I gotta be honest with you, you guys, you, Mr. Hunter, wrote an epistle twice.
SPEAKER_02:And turn the page, and turn the page, and I didn't call it an epistle, I called it a work of art.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm like, wow, this is well drafted. Yeah, that's pretty good.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, I'm all about freedom of speech. And uh it's authoritarian when you can't say what you want to say. Yeah, and when you try to hide your whatever you're trying to get past, um we are going to the next uh meeting. Hundred percent.
SPEAKER_01:1000%.
SPEAKER_02:So it's next week, right? I don't know. Okay, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_01:Tell me when and I'll go and represent the elderly than everyone.
SPEAKER_02:Well, there I don't think they've set the date. Because he's screwing it up, he's screwing up and voting for it. He doesn't he doesn't get a vote anymore. Yeah, we need to remove him. So um, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But anyway, that my hatred is ongoing and my searching for properties is greatly increasing.
SPEAKER_01:My pleasure has increased. Please share some of these wonderful changes well to the bylaws.
SPEAKER_00:Well, for for example, one of them is you cannot do any car maintenance on your vehicle on the lot in the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01:So that means no windshield wipers, no tire pressure.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that was my that was my example. Is that washing a car? Uh that's I consider that maintenance.
SPEAKER_02:And and you see, this is really impacting me with all the maintenance that I do on my vehicles. Well, I mean, with wait, I should probably be ready with uh Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I mean, I I would happen, Janie and I happened to be walking around the neighborhood, and I saw one of our neighbors putting air air in his tires. It's starting to get cold, so the air pressure's going down a little bit. And I almost said you can't be doing that. I'd have said that.
SPEAKER_01:You can't be doing that.
SPEAKER_00:Secondly, I don't think there's a house in the neighborhood that that meets this one. You're supposed to have a screen that blocks the viewing of your HVAC system from any street. Yeah. I don't think there's one house in the neighborhood that complies with it. Nope. In addition, you can't have an unregistered car on a lot in the neighborhood. I violate that right now. The 72 Nova's not registered.
SPEAKER_02:My golf cart isn't registered.
SPEAKER_00:Right. I mean, it's just ridiculous. And and currently it says you gotta have 70% of the lot owners to approve a change. Well, that's still in the new one, except in the next paragraph down, it says any amendments to this require 60% of the members in good standing of the homeowners association. Which, I mean, it can't be both.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So So, and and recently there have been cameras that have been installed in our neighborhood by the homeowners association.
SPEAKER_00:We're spending thousands of dollars on cameras because two plants got stolen.
SPEAKER_02:And and they are being monitored by non-homeowner. By the spouse of the president of the association who does not have an ownership interest in the house.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:That's in the homeowners. Isn't this a law? I'm seriously, isn't this a lawsuit waiting to happen? I mean, could we file a lawsuit saying there's a man who is who is uh observing us coming into and out of our neighborhood that um it's definitely possible. It's in a it's in a public place. You you posted this thing and it's going to I it's it's I want I want to sue. I want to sue myself as a homeowner.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you want to sue yourself? Nice. But anyway, my hatred for homeowners is homeowners associations is greatly increasing, and my uh thoughts of buying a different property are also greatly increasing. I just love it. And and my wife's uh thoughts also greatly increasing.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. I just love it how um one of the bylaws too is you cannot have a basketball goal in your driveway. It must be in the backyard.
SPEAKER_00:Right with your grass.
SPEAKER_01:That's a good way to learn. Uh it's just Of course the elderly in the neighborhood thinks that's a great one because I don't want to see a basketball goal.
SPEAKER_02:Did this homeowners association pass the no celebration in the NFL rule a few years ago? I mean, uh seriously.
SPEAKER_01:Well, there's something in there about fireworks too. I remember saying something about fireworks.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Uh so it's it's all it's all ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00:It's not worth it. When the purported purpose was to make the home homeowners and I pay them every year, yep, to make them pay their dues, yep, fine. Just add that. Right. Um, but that's not what it says. It says pay any assessment that the homeowners association puts on you. So if the homeowners association decides they want to put the roads to be marble, yeah, and it's gonna cost a million dollars and there's a hundred houses here, then in 30 days I gotta come up with 10 G's. Right. That's a hard pass. Yep. Yep. Not happening. And and we have a realtor in the neighborhood who responded and said, this is gonna hurt house prices in this neighborhood, but some people don't care.
SPEAKER_02:Oh before we so before we move on to speaking about some travel things, yeah. I wanted to briefly bring up a a little, we need a little wrestling update here. Uh wrestlings had a big couple of weeks. Big couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_00:Have you kept up any? Uh that would be enough. No. Wrestling's had a big couple of weeks. Big couple of weeks. Oh, you didn't know? Yeah, I mean, huge couple of weeks, honestly.
SPEAKER_02:And so my question is, how can we trust that the Seth Rollins thing is an actual injury versus a work? And oh, I don't know that you can, honestly.
SPEAKER_01:Did they really turn on him as well?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, they 100% turned on him. Yeah. Uh and I think Brock Lesnar takes over. Interesting. Well, I mean, think about Paul Heyman. He came out with him on the last one and introduced him and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. He's the greatest manager of all time.
SPEAKER_02:He is Paul Heyman.
SPEAKER_00:I didn't even think about that, but um he's he's the greatest manager of all time.
SPEAKER_02:See, I just figured it was so that they could start pushing Braun Breaker. Could be. Could be.
SPEAKER_00:But the only But I mean, how can you push Bratz and Greed anymore? He just beat Roman Reigns.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Yeah. And um, you know, Braun Breaker Seth Rollins was right in that he said, you know, you can't come out here like I can and speak for 15 minutes and no, he can't. No, but he's got Paul Heyman to do that. So a couple things about that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Uh one of the have you seen have you seen where Big Baba Pump went on Twitter? Oh, I did see that. Have you seen that? Oh, Steiner math is awesome. That's good. That's good.
SPEAKER_01:Uh let me find it here because I don't want to misquote Big Boba Pump. My problem is, I was wondering did he have his chain mail headgear on while I was doing it, but okay.
SPEAKER_00:So so he says, I'm quoting Big Papa Pump here.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:So let me break it down for you all all you dummies that don't understand what just happened. You take Seth Rollins, the so-called visionary, and you put him in the ring with Braun Breaker, a genetic freak. So what Seth didn't calculate was the betrayal quotient. Now let's do the math. Okay. Seth thought that he had a hundred percent chance of survival with Braun by his side. But what he didn't know is that Braun's got sixty-six and two-thirds loyalty when you factor in the family bloodlines, and the other thirty-three and a third is pure rage. So now Seth's sitting there asking why. I'll tell you why. Because Braun Breaker's not here to play backup. He's here to take over. He's the dog face destroyer, and now he's off the leash. So, Seth, you took your eye off the math. You had a hundred and forty-one and two-thirds percent chance of getting betrayed, and now you're just another statistics in the Steiner equation of pain.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, is that not awesomeness? That's Yogi Berra S.
SPEAKER_02:141 and two-thirds percent. Uh I am I am just in awe. Yeah. So where are we at though with that? How did I do on my predictions for uh uh phenomenally working? I mean, seriously, I I I don't I didn't miss any no, no. Uh Tiffy time going down.
SPEAKER_00:I thought that was happening. Yep, yep. Because I mean she can take the loss and Stephanie they'll care cannot. Yeah, yeah. So um yeah. So I don't know if it's a work or not. Um you knew they were always gonna break up at some point. Yeah. Uh it just wasn't gonna be 170 days. So I I do think he's actually hurt this time. Because if you noticed on it, he never moved his left arm at all. Right. Well, and you saw the ref too calling in the back. Yeah. Right. So I I do think he may be hurt this time. Right.
SPEAKER_01:And now I have what, 30 more, three more John Cena nights, and that's it. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So one more quick thing on wrestling, and we'll just make this quick. Bleacher report today ranked the top 25 male WWE superstars in the past 25 years. 25 years. Okay, so from 2000 on. All right. Rock number one. Who's number one? Rock. I'd say Cena. Cena's number one. Oh. Greatest of all time. Give me a couple of names that you think would be in the top 10. Undertaker, Stone Cold, the Rocks. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:From 2000 on, I mean, it they're sorry.
SPEAKER_00:They were 90s.
SPEAKER_01:Never mind. They were 90s.
SPEAKER_00:Undertaker was number six. Okay. Okay. Stone Cold made the list, but he was number 20. Okay. Okay. I I would say obviously Brock Lesnar. Um, he made the list at number 12. Okay. I mean, the list surprises me a little bit. Um I mean, I think the first two after John Cena, we nobody will have a problem with. Randy Orton. Randy Orton. Roman Reigns. Roman Reigns. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Seth Rollins, I would say, is in number eight.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Um Ray Mysterio is four. Oh, come on. Right. That one caught me off guard. Chris Jericho is five. No. Undertaker six. Kurt Angle seven. Seth Rollins eight. The Rock eighth. And Daniel Bryan is ten.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know who that is.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting. Eddie Guerrero was 15.
SPEAKER_02:And when didn't he pass away? Right, yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01:Really? Like 04 or something, right?
SPEAKER_00:Booker T was 24.
SPEAKER_01:That's funny.
SPEAKER_00:Uh so I mean the the Cody Rhodes is 21. I I Shawn Michaels is 17. I just didn't see it. No, Sean Michael. Sean Michaels in the 2000s? Yeah. That's what it says in the last 25 years. That's the reason why I was like, this don't make sense to me. Yeah, I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, me either. So uh travel. Travel. I want to hear about San Francisco.
SPEAKER_00:San Francisco was good. I mean, it's um the sea lines are always fun. Janie and I would get up in the morning and we'd walk down to it. They smell so good, too. Well, I can't I can't smell, so it doesn't matter. It's terrible. But dude, some of them things were fat. They called that blubber. They're all big, but there were two that were like, you're old and you're fat. You know? But but the my personal favorite thing that we did was Alcatraz Tour. Oh, yeah. Alcatraz Tour was legit. Really? It's awesome. Well, you go over there and if when you go into the jail where the jailhouse was, you do this audio tour through there. And I always like those kind of things. So it's people talking on it that are that are that were in the jail or work the jail or something like that, and they're telling you, and then it'll say, Go to jail cell 140, and this is a typical one, or or then it would be like, go to this one, and this is where they put the guards at when they were trying to break out and they killed the one here. And oh geez. And then you got to go into some of the cells, you got to go into solitary confinement. And this guy said he he was in solitary confinement, and it had this metal um like wire mesh on the door, but it was the hard metal, and he said he would count the squares. Oh wow. Or to kind of pass the time, or he would rip a button off his shirt and it was so dark, he would throw the button and then he would get down on the floor until he found it. And then he would stand up and he would throw it again, and then he would get down on the floor until he went to find it. So so it was pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_02:Uh in your opinion, being out there, could anyone have ever escaped it? I don't think so.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, because you're looking at two miles any direction, and the water temperature is 50 degrees all the time. Yeah. I just can't see it. I mean, they they said that somebody had their body got found close to the Golden Gate Bridge. That was hypothermia.
SPEAKER_01:He uh he stole a bunch of uh rubber gloves and put he stole a shirt and a bunch of rubber gloves and blew the gloves up and surrounded himself in them and put the other shirt on top of them to create an insulation and also to kind of make up a float out of him. But they found him and he was still alive at the Golden Gate Bridge, but he died like right when he I mean he was he washed up and died because he was so so there's like three or four guys that supposedly escaped.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the Anglo Brothers. Nobody knows what happened, but they never found their bodies. I just can't see it. I mean, it's it's a pretty good, it's a pretty good boat ride out there. I mean, it's 10, 10, 12 minutes on a on a big boat to get there. And that water's rough too. Yeah, oh yeah. So that was awesome.
SPEAKER_02:Uh how was the weather at this time of year?
SPEAKER_00:Weather, it was it was a weird weather pattern for them. So it was a little bit warmer. It was mid 70s during the day and got down to you know upper 50s at night. I thought it was great. Uh we went on a um a city tour in a 1970s Volkswagen bus. Nice. Um, which was hippie mobile. Oh, yeah, it was total it was 1,000% a hippie mobile. Uh but it was it was interesting. You get to see a bunch of the different parts of the town. And the most interesting thing, not uh touristy related, was we did do our first Waymo. And for those of you don't know what Waymo is, Waymo is basically an Uber in an unmanned automobile. Oh, okay. So it's a Jaguar car, it's run on a computer. Uh, you just get an app and you say, I'm here, I want to go here, and the car comes and gets you just like an Uber, and you get in it, and I sit in the passenger seat, Janie and Hallie sit in the back, it plays the spa music, and and it says you'll be there in 16 minutes or whatever. And and the computer runs it and it says, Don't touch the wheel, we're good, and you just go.
SPEAKER_02:Man, it sounds like the total recall movie. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:But you know what? Janie was a little bit concerned about it the first one, and then she was like, This is the only way we're traveling. I mean, then after that she goes, I don't want an Uber ever again. Yeah. Uh San Francisco was great. Um uh, you know, we got to see some uh we we got to see Hearst Castle. Uh, and we got there was a nice pier there, uh, and some weird eucalyptus trees because they're weird colors. Um I didn't see much of that, honestly. I just smell that. I I did you're correct. Okay. We saw very little homelessness. Uh the guy who drove the hippie mobile said that they've got a new mayor out there that's part of the Levi family, and that he's been taking care of business. Now, I don't know anything about it. We were only there for like four days or something like that, but uh very little homelessness, very little begging, you know. I get more in Lexington than I got in San Francisco every corner. Yeah, and um uh yeah, so it was it was good. I mean, nice uh uh Hallie had a good time, so it was all it was all good. Awesome. What about your trip? Great.
SPEAKER_02:Um good, good. I hope you enjoyed it. Uh so yeah, it was it was great.
SPEAKER_00:Uh we we was anybody campaigning anywhere? Because there was no campaign. I didn't hear one person say vote for me or anything like that.
SPEAKER_02:It was not not a political atmosphere at all. Uh flew into Rome, spent two amazing days in Rome, got to see the Pope uh give uh got to see the hat in a picture of the hat. Yep. He does weird things in the woods. Got to see the Pope give back give Mass, which was great. That's awesome. It was uh it was at 10 a.m. on Sunday in St. Michael Square, and um it was um we we got there at 6 30 in the morning to wait in line and thinking that hey, if we get here this early, we're gonna be able to get in. And we get there at 6 30 and there are 500 people in front of us in in line. So we're like, oh man, it's gonna be great. It's gonna be crazy. Uh a couple thousand got in line behind us, and because it's a Jubilee year, there's people from every country in the world with their flags and celebrating, and um so they let us in at 7 30. And I say in and I mean just into the square. Right. We're outside the square. And um it was rainy, just pouring rain uh all morning. Uh 6 30, we're out there just getting poured on. And so we go in and and there's seats, and so we we get a seat, pretty good seat. Um and we we sit next to these nuns from Argentina, and they let us have one of their umbrellas, so which was very very uh very nunly. I appreciated that. Right. Um and uh wait until 10 o'clock. And at 10 o'clock, you know, the music starts and the procession of cardinals comes out, and here comes the Pope. And I swear, as soon as he stepped out, the rain stopped for the first time all morning, just no rain. And uh the mass started. That's interesting, man. That's interesting. It was now, you know, it was it was it was uh it was great. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime things. Oh, absolutely. And uh I would have totally went to something like that. Yep. Um, Rome was awesome. So many people. Um, it is a Jubilee year, so there's a lot more people there than normally there. And uh, but you know, we saw the Spanish steppes, Trevy Fountain, the you know, the Pantheon, the Coliseum. Coliseum, I learned a lot of things that I did not know. Um so in the Coliseum, right? Yeah, yeah. And so uh Russell Crowe is there a lot. So in the Coliseum, you you look in and you're like You're talking about all the tunnels underneath the bottom? Yeah, why why is that yeah. Why why is there a basement? Yeah. There's a basement in the Coliseum and what
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's where the snow off the lakers.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:So the slaves and the animals stayed underneath, and they actually had working elevators that would come out. It's cool. That's pretty interesting.
SPEAKER_01:Or is a lot of it's missing the bottom most. You can see these down through there. That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'll show you a picture. Uh it was that so it was really interesting. And then um got on the cruise ship, went to Sicily, which we learned a lot about Palermo, the city, and how the the mafia is still very much a thing there. They keep they keep their uh toenail clippings and fingernail clippings, you know that. Well, I saw that on the Sopranos, of course. So uh and then we went to Abiza, and I gotta tell you, Abiza, yeah, not you know, not I wasn't too thrilled with Ibiza. Young young kids go there to the party for an old fogey like me. Yeah, uh, it was just a thing.
SPEAKER_00:Did you tell them to not party?
SPEAKER_02:Uh no, I didn't tell them to get off my lawn.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, good.
SPEAKER_02:Uh then we went to Valencia, Spain, and I could live in Valencia, Spain tomorrow and be happy. It was stunningly beautiful. I loved every part of that. Then we went to Genoa, Italy. No, I'm sorry. We went to Marseille, France. That was really nice as well. Uh beautiful, you know, Mediterranean city. Right. Then we went to Genoa and we took an excursion to Portofino. And if you you know never been to Portofino before, it's it's just a really small little bay and more wealth than you could possibly imagine. And there was this mega yacht when we pulled in, and I had to look it up, and it was the owner of the Houston Rockets, right, who also owns the Landry uh restaurant chain, which includes about 40 different restaurants, Rainforest Cafe, um uh what's the Morton Steakhouse, Landry's, Landry's, all the different Landry's. His name is Fertita. And uh that and that yacht had a helicopter on it, and the yacht, he's that one he's got for sale because he just ordered a new one. Of course he did. We looked it up, and it was it's on sale for a a smooth 192 million. So I wanted to call Chris and let him know that the family you could go ahead and they don't buy used yachts. Oh, that's true. We prefer to call them yet. I'm a big Yadget fan. That's right. And then went back to Rome. So yeah, I mean, it was Yeah, I've never been to any of those places, but it sounds awesome. It was it was I would highly recommend, and I know you've been there, and um, you know, what were your thoughts similar?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I loved it. I absolutely loved it, and I love the people over there, and it's just you know, it's it's so I don't know. I uh the Vatican, Vatican City was so unique to me. I didn't I thought you could just walk in like a it was a city. I didn't realize you had to go through like airport security.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, it's a it's its own independent, it's a country, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But going through airport, it's not part of Italy. No, no, yeah. Um, it was good. So do you guys want to ask me about how my trip was?
SPEAKER_02:Where you guys were we completely want to know all about it. Wasn't it to Oktoberfest in Germany? No, it was to Louisville, and it was fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:I was at a conference all week in Louisville.
SPEAKER_00:Did you go to WW Cousins?
SPEAKER_01:No, but I did go to pretty good burger. That's a good burger. Never had one. Hey, pretty good. Really? I actually went to the uh Brazilian steakhouse on Monday night.
SPEAKER_00:I'm never going to a Brazilian steakhouse again. Let me tell you something. Why? Because they made me mad the last time I was there.
SPEAKER_01:Because he asked for a bowl of bacon, but they really brought it. We were all there together. I know.
SPEAKER_00:I turned my token over to stop bringing stuff.
SPEAKER_01:I forgot. Let me tell you what happened to me. I finally had to turn mine over because my plate runneth over and I was eating everything. But and it was delicious. And I think it was better in Louisville than it was that time in Lexington. Um, it was so good, but I I got the meat sweats, it was terrible. Oh, yeah. Uh I was done at that point. But yeah, Louisville was nice. Uh it poured down rain all day Tuesday. It was miserable. Five and a half inches of rain. And then uh Wednesday was okay, and then Thursday I uh wrapped it up and came back. And yeah, that was pretty much my week in Louisville. You guys missed out a lot. It was great. Oh, yeah. Oh, and as far as that goes, everything seems to be better now. Good. Um almost back to normal.
SPEAKER_00:Um one thing I forgot to say about San Francisco, we did do the cable cars. Oh. And we rode down Lombardo Street. That's the weird one that goes uh back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Lombard. Whatever.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I every time I hear the the cable cars thing, the streetcar, I all I can think of is Price O'Roney San Francisco tree. Yeah, so we rode those. Um, so that was neat. Um, yeah, I mean the the Italian people are really cool. Yeah, they appreciate it when you try to speak Italian to them, and they all speak English. I mean, you know, but they really Do they laugh at you? No, they actually uh the you know they dig it, they dig it, and then they'll correct you too. Like I I was in a I was asking how much this thing was that I was buying a souvenir, and I was like, Quanto mucho, no, no, no, no, no, Quanto Costa, Quanto Costa. I was like, ah, Quanto Costa. He's like, see, see, and then he goes, uh, where's Teganabagoo? Did you have any pizza? I had pizza that was so interesting. First, first day there. Diabolo. No, it actually it was Diabolo. Spicy sausage salami. Yeah. Uh it was Diabolo, but it was super thin crust. Oh, yeah. Like cracker caper? Less than a cracker. Really? Crunchy. Crunchy, crispy. Total support. It's good, man.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean Diabolo's where it's at. Yeah, I I have to pull up a crack. I ate nothing but Diabolo and Carbonara over there.
SPEAKER_02:Carbonara that was ridiculous. Um the I had the best meal I ever had in my life over there. And then I get the gabagoo. There's the uh, there's the there's the there's the pizza. Oh, yeah, I totally ate it. It's so good.
SPEAKER_01:It's spicy. Yeah. And greasy. I gotta admit it's pretty greasy.
SPEAKER_02:So, but yeah, it was it was just great. I could I could live in Italy, I could live in Spain, and and yeah, it was it was great. Well, instead, you have a wonderful HOA you get to deal with here. Well, well, for me, it's a lot of elderly people I gotta deal with. I gotta stick around in my uh, you know, in Mikasa. Um now I brought back Spanish and Italian candy.
SPEAKER_00:But you got a lot there, so we can't have all of that. No, we can't do it one at a time. Yeah, we'll do what is this? I got the verb.
SPEAKER_02:This one, this one was from uh Ibiza, Spain, and it's called uh crunchy.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Sounds like sounds like it's gonna have texture. Never been to all right.
SPEAKER_02:I break off a piece.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, while you're breaking off the candy, can can you all give a shout out for how proud you were of Reagan's response to the city? Reagan, that was incredible.
SPEAKER_01:That was good. I've never been more proud.
SPEAKER_00:Me either.
SPEAKER_01:What do you say? What? Are you able to break that off over there? I broke it off.
SPEAKER_00:Break it off, so oh that's got a little crunch to it.
SPEAKER_01:Oh good though. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. That's real good.
SPEAKER_02:Who's an Ohio State guy this weekend? Ohio State is at Wisconsin. Yeah, no problem. Should shouldn't be an issue. Hopefully. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:What's that called?
SPEAKER_02:That is called crunchy. Now, do we want twirl next?
SPEAKER_01:Twirl.
SPEAKER_02:This is a twirl.
SPEAKER_01:And it's a double. Oh, it's left side or right side.
SPEAKER_00:This makes a lot of trouble.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:So what do you think about the crunchy, first of all? I like the crunchy.
SPEAKER_01:I like the crunchy.
SPEAKER_00:Well, we gotta rate it.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:I haven't tried this one yet. This might be the driest thing. Is it like a whomper? What it feels like.
SPEAKER_01:It feels like an milk ball, but it's bigger.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna go eight on the on the crunchy.
SPEAKER_01:You know what? I'll give a nine. This is not much to do with that. It's like a two.
SPEAKER_00:I would have to go whatever that one is. I didn't like that one.
SPEAKER_02:No flavor. This is a Cadbury twirl. Also bought in a bees of Spain. Alright, so do you want to try one of these Italian ones next? Alright, let's pick one of these.
SPEAKER_01:Alright, look.
SPEAKER_00:While you're opening that, what do you think the line is LSU at Vanderbilt? Six and a half LSU.
SPEAKER_02:LSU at Vanderbilt? Uh-huh. I'd say the line's three and a half.
SPEAKER_00:LSU is getting two and a half.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not shocked by that. No.
SPEAKER_00:What do you think the line is? Old Miss Georgia. Old Miss Stinks. I'm sorry. They're so overrated. Stinks. What do you think the line is?
SPEAKER_01:Georgia, six and a half.
SPEAKER_00:What do you think, Mark?
SPEAKER_01:Georgia.
SPEAKER_00:Seven and a half. What do you think the Kentucky Texas line is? 107.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that's good. What do you think the Kentucky Texas line is? 12 and a half. Okay, this one. I don't know. That is what it is. Gianduja. That is the best. Novi. Gianduja Novi. That's got jelly or something in it. That's good. Is it really 12 and a half? No kidding?
SPEAKER_00:12 and a half.
SPEAKER_01:Read that. That's good.
SPEAKER_00:That's smooth. What about Tennessee at Alabama?
SPEAKER_02:Alabama is probably favored by 5.5. It seems like a lot of points.
SPEAKER_01:11 and a half. Eight and a half. I'm taking Tennessee there.
SPEAKER_00:That seems like a lot of points.
SPEAKER_02:Even though I picked Alabama to win it all.
SPEAKER_01:That's good.
SPEAKER_00:And let me go to the big 10 real quick.
SPEAKER_01:I'd give that one a 10. I wish there's some more of that one. That's good.
SPEAKER_00:A 10?
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah. It's like it got a jelly flavor to it, like a grape jelly. And it's good.
SPEAKER_02:I like that one. I have to I have to agree with you. That's a 10. I don't give a 10 too often, but that's pretty dang good. You want another beat? So it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00:But the texture is so smooth on it. The texture's pretty good. I actually like the crunchy one the best for texture-wise. That's good. What do you think the line is for Ohio State in Wisconsin? Um probably way um way too much.
SPEAKER_01:What did you say? Four and a half.
SPEAKER_02:I'd say Ohio State's probably 11 and a half.
unknown:24.
SPEAKER_02:That's too many points. Look, Luke Fickle has issues, but the man can coach. He doesn't have a whole lot of talent there at Wisconsin. He will find a way to keep it closer than that. 24 and a half is the line. I would take that in a heartbeat.
SPEAKER_00:That's a lot of points.
SPEAKER_02:And Camp Randall?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. When it's your Super Bowl, come on. Yeah. That's a lot of points. All right. Well, let's get out of here. College basketball started. We had Midnight Madness. Kentucky plays a week from Friday. They play Purdue in an exhibition game.
SPEAKER_01:Blue White Scrimmage this Friday, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they play Purdue in an exhibition game. Was that a Yahoo, by the way, or just a sneeze?
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that was fun. It was fun. Two months. Random.
SPEAKER_01:Two months. Two months. October.
SPEAKER_00:Lima.
SPEAKER_01:Are we gonna go?
SPEAKER_00:Are we gonna do New Year's Eve in Lima?
SPEAKER_01:That'd be fun. We could do that. Because we can have enough fireworks in our neighborhood.
SPEAKER_02:We couldn't do it until 12 01 on January 1st, though, right? No. That's where December 18th.
SPEAKER_00:He can go back December 18th, so we're good.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay.
