Richmond Legends, Labor & Local Government (Edna Frazier, tradespeople, Avula Reddit AMA, potholes) — Unscripted #039

Sign up for the Monument Ave 10K and use code "VERAHOUSE" for $5 OFF:
https://runsignup.com/Race/Register/RaceGroup-2046938?raceId=53948

Anyone who joins our 10K team will get a limited-edition Vera House collaboration tank top, and an invite to hang out the morning of the race for coffee and bagels before we hit Monument Ave together.

Anyone who joins our 10K team will get a limited-edition Vera House collaboration tank top, and an invite to hang out the morning of the race for coffee and bagels before we hit Monument Ave together.

We will be guiding 2 groups — a comfortable run pace, and a walking group — so whether you want to push yourself a little or just come out, get active, and meet some new people, you’re officially invited and all are welcome and encouraged.

In this episode of Vera House Unscripted, we talk through a range of Richmond topics including local events, city culture, housing, and government. We start with Richmond’s recent 2026 weather swings after the ice storm and water crisis earlier in the year, and the sudden shift into warmer spring temperatures.

We discuss Richmond’s outdoor culture including running, cycling, and access to nearby nature destinations like Great Falls Park.

The conversation also covers Richmond folklore through the story of Edna Frazier, a prank-call legend that circulated among local students before the internet. From there, we discuss historic Richmond housing prices using a 1925 housing advertisement from the Carillon neighborhood, and how housing costs and affordability have changed over time.

Later in the episode we talk about the shortage of skilled trades, homeowner and contractor relationships, and the growth of consumer financing and payment plans. We close with a discussion about Richmond Mayor Danny Avula’s Reddit AMA, including topics like transit-oriented development, GRTC expansion, Main Street Station train service, and ongoing concerns about potholes and city infrastructure.

Topics include Richmond weather, Monument Avenue 10K, Sports Backers, Great Falls hiking, Richmond folklore, Edna Frazier, historic Richmond housing prices, skilled trades shortages, contractor trust, consumer financing, Danny Avula Reddit AMA, Richmond transit planning, GRTC expansion, Main Street Station, and Richmond infrastructure.

Quick interjection to invite you to Vera House Studios. If you are a local Richmond business, entrepreneur, brand owner, or service provider—and you know you need to create better content to get your products and services in front of the right people—we can help.

Transcript

0:00

Welcome back to the VeriHouse podcast. On today's episode, we talk about a beautiful hike that you should go and take at some point in the Great Falls. It's something that I did last weekend. Highly recommend. We also talked about the recent AMA, which stands for ask me anything if you didn't know, which is the session that our mayor, Danny Avula did on Reddit and how that went. Yeah, it went, it went, it went. So tune in for that. And we also talked about being a homeowner about a hundred years ago in Richmond and what that would have cost you, whether you're a renter or a homeowner. It's definitely a good episode. What else would we talk about? Yeah, we talked about a bunch of good stuff today. We talked about the Monument 10K, which is coming up pretty soon and our affiliation slash participation in it and some information on how you can potentially participate in the Monument 10K with us. We also talked about a woman who is only known by legend and Richmond lore named Edna Francis. I think Edna Frazier, who may have been the craziest prank callee that we've ever heard about. We also talked about tradesmen, the lack thereof, and maybe how we can build a relationships between people who actually need the trades like homeowners and people who actually provide the trades. And how do, how do we potentially rebuild the relationship between those two people? So stay tuned. We get into a lot of good stuff. Dude. How's your week been? Week has been good. Busy. Working. Playing. I'm just kidding. Almost no play. Really? Just all work. Yeah. Yeah. It's been a busy one. That's how it goes, man. Well, it's Friday. It's like a hundred degrees outside. It is. It's the first a hundred degree day in Richmond's history. Yeah. Happy fake spring, fall, spring, fall, spring. Yeah, we are definitely in fall, spring. It's like low humidity. It's warm, mild, low cloud cover. So it's like 80, not too bright outside, but it's nice, man. We were sitting outside on the patio a little bit ago and we started to get a little sweat on. I was like, I don't think I remember the last time I was sweating being outside, even though it was only like last summer, it just feels like it's been a whole lifetime since last June. Well, we've, you know, we've had to survive a lot in, uh, 2025 and early 2026 with the ice storm and the snow storm and you know, water crisis. Yeah. All that. Yep. Yeah. We have gone through a lot in a little bit of time and it's only the first week of March, but it feels like we're halfway through this year already. It does, man. It does. The beginning of this year is flown by, flown by. I cannot believe we were just sitting outside at 76 degrees out, but it feels way hotter because there's not a lot of airflow. Yeah. Yeah. It was, yeah, it's not a lot of breeze. It's not breezy at all, actually. And then like two weeks ago, we're literally just complaining about how cold it was. And then a week before that we're slipping and sliding on ice. Yeah. Yeah. It's insane. And yeah, we probably got snow coming next weekend or something, you know, probably or flood. Yeah. Or a flood. Yeah. Probably a flood. We're, we're due for a flood. Um, yeah, I'll be running a half marathon tomorrow. It's going to be 80 degrees outside. So 80 degrees sounds nice to half marathon. Not so much. Yeah. Fair enough. But when you put them both together, it sounds awful. Brilliant. It's beautiful. No, it sounds terrible. I'm not a runner. Um, I commend anyone who does run the marathons. Um, the most running I'll do is from. My car to my front door when it's raining outside. Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. You know, I ran this same one last year and the weather was like a little bit chillier. I actually started with a sweatshirt on, so it was much chillier this time last year, this exact date last year than it is this year, because no doubt tomorrow I'll either run it in a tank top or like literally no shirt. Yeah. Cause it's going to be hot. And normally running is better when it's a little bit chillier outside because like you work up body heat and then you're good. Yeah, exactly. I ran the half marathon last year in a t-shirt and I don't even think I really broke a sweat just because the temperature was like, right. You know what I mean? Not like, not that I didn't break a sweat cause it, that like, it wasn't hard. It was hard. Um, but it was just like the right temperature to where you're not really overheated. Yeah. Um, but tomorrow will be a different story. I mean, again, props where they're due, you won't catch me outside running in a marathon, a half marathon, a four K a two K one, any of the K's I'm good. Yeah. I'll gladly sit on the sidelines and cheer you on as you run by. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we'll have a lot more to talk about in the coming weeks about this, but as a quick heads up for everybody, um, we are going to be putting together a monument 10 K team. That is true. And so if you're listening to this, it's already set up. You can use the promo code of Vera house to sign up for the monument 10 K, uh, for a collab between us and sports backers. Yeah. And when you join, look for the Vera house team and be sure to join the team and we'll give you the details very soon on what that means. So join our team, sign up for the monument 10 K use the promo code Vera house. Uh, and when you do so you'll be getting a free t-shirt and we'll have some other fun details and stuff. And yeah, come hang out with us and come run or walk the monument 10 K. You don't have to run it a lot. Thousands of people walk it. Thank God. It's a very walking friendly event. Um, so either way, come in, come and run it with me. Come and walk it with Perry. Come hang out with Vera house. Have a good time. But, uh, yeah, man running. It's a good time. And I was just talking to a friend of ours. I used to run, I was running or I was a runner in high school, ran track. What did you run? I was a sprinter, so I didn't run like the long distance. Yeah. K's sending you the case. I didn't do that. Yeah. I did a hundred meter, 200 meter and the long jump and triple jump. Nice. So I was, I was booking it, man. But that after my race was over, I put on my sweats and I watched everybody else run for hours. I didn't do that. Yeah. That kind of sounds like the way to go. It was the way to go. Yeah. You know, you get all the acclaim of being a sprinter, but you only have to run like three races. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, the training was brutal. Yeah. I actually really enjoyed the training and I enjoyed watching the results of seeing the results of my training. My times would go down consistently if I was consistent with the training and that was pretty cool. Yeah. It's I like cycling. Cause it's a little more like explosive. Like, even though I run, I'm really not a runner. I don't enjoy it all that much. Um, honestly, it's just easier than cycling a lot of the times. Like if you're going to go on a bike ride, like you don't go on a 30 minute bike ride, but you could go on a 30 minute run, right? At least I don't go on a 30 minute bike ride. If I'm getting on the bike, I want to be out there for minimum hour and a half. Yeah. You know? So it's not like, it's not something you just like do on a quick lunch break or something, you know? So I started to fit in running because I had the cardio and the fitness to do it, but it's just an easier way to like, get outside and like, get that outside adrenaline going on, especially when the weather's nice and it's a much lower commitment than going on a bike ride, bike ride, you got to get your whole get up on and like check your tire pressure and like do all that running. I can put on some sunglasses and some sneakers and just head out the door. Or you could do like, I feel like most people do is skip all the getting on your gear and prepping the bike, get on your bike and go for a ride. I've been on a bike ride with you, so I know what it entails. You can go on a 30 minute bike ride if you want. Yeah. Takes you 30 minutes to get to the bottom and probably halfway back. That's where I would usually feel, you know, perfectly comfortable sitting as opposed to running. And you mentioned that you like, you like running more than you like riding your bike. To me, that's backwards. Yeah. I don't like running at all. I can do it. And I have done it in the past. I've even started to try and do it more now because I know it's good for you. But man, I just, I much prefer riding a bike. You get to sit down, but you still get that cardio, that zone two, especially if I'm, you know, going on a ride with you, we're getting, we're getting after it, but there's no, I wouldn't say there's no need for me. I could split the difference. I can do most of my rides, 30 minutes, call it an hour, maybe, and be fine. And then every now and then I'm doing like an hour and a half, we're booking it through the fields or through the backwoods or the trails, or, you know, going off of ramps and flying in helicopters or whatever else we get into. Uh, but that's just my take on it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I definitely, I prefer to be on the bike. Um, it's just a little bit more of like a commitment, at least in my, you know, like where I'm at with it. Yeah. Um, because if I'm going out on the bike, it's not a quick thing. It's like, I want to be out there for a while. You know, it's like, I want to ride at least 20 miles and like, get into it, you know, where it's like running. Yeah. Just run around the block and whatever, you know? Right. Yeah. And I just like being outside, man, you know, this past weekend I was up in DC. I went to see Matt Reif. So see the comedian live at capital one, uh, arena up in DC. Yeah. It was cool. Totally sold out. It was like 20,000 people there. And Monday morning it was snowing. So it's snowing Monday morning. I headed to great falls state park. It's like 30 minutes outside of DC. And I'd never been there before. So this is in, in Virginia. So within the state lines, it's a state park. I drive in there. The ranger at the booth is looking at me like, what are you doing here? Cause it's literally like a blizzard. You know, it's like the snow's coming down. You're the only one. Literally there was no one. My truck was the only truck in the parking lot. There's nobody there, but I had the entire state park to myself for like four hours and I went and hiked the river trail and what's called difficult run, um, at great falls and it was. Insane. Like it was insane. I've been on a lot of hikes, a lot of runs, a lot of bike rides. Um, the scenery was crazy. So if people have never been to great falls, I highly recommend it. It's amazing just by itself, but when it was snowing and nobody there, I felt like I was on another planet. I bet you the ranger was like, I was about to go home and here comes this guy and I got to sit here and wait for him to call a nine one one because it's snowing, he's going to slip and bust his ass. I'm sure the thought that exact thought, let me just get the paramedics on speed dial. Yep. Yeah. But I mean, just the like terrain does look pretty sweet. Like it's pretty sick. I saw the videos you posted and, and I'm not a hiker, but it looked like the scenery looks jealous. And the thing is, man, I know to get to those places you have to hike, but that's, that's like the barrier for entry to me is like, I don't want to have to go all the way there. I just want to like show up at the park and it's like right on the edge of where I get into the park. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty sweet though. It's I mean, like to me, like the terrain, it just looks like you're the landscape was crazy. I just say, man, and that's what hour and two hours up the road. Yeah, it would be like an hour and 45 minutes, two hours from here. Right. From Richmond. That's another one of the, the like really redeeming qualities of living here, man, is just, you're no more than a couple hours away from like a really incredible hike, a really scenic location. There's so many that people that like myself that have been here, like a lifetime haven't even been to, I've never been in great falls. Yeah. I hadn't either, man, but I would definitely go back and yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Kind of a similar view, but it was fun, man. I went up there. Like took some crazy pictures. Yeah. You got, you got your, um, who am I thinking of? He like directed the dark night. You got like your dark Chris Nolan. You got your Nolan vibe going on right there. Definitely. It was, uh, it was pretty sweet. It was, it was a lot of fun, really cool views. And like I said, like the videos look cool. I'm not a hiker, but I'm like, it makes you want to do it. Right. I need some boots. Yeah. I mean, you know, on, on a more like, you know, like we're both similar, right? We're both like solo guys live alone, you know, building our own businesses. Like, you know, it can be a very like isolating experience sometimes. Yeah. And so you would think like doing that would also be very isolating, which like in a way it is, but it's like a whole different experience, you know? Um, many years ago, like I was never, I wasn't interested in any of these things, like running, cycling, hiking, all this like outdoor adventure type stuff. Like I'd never really pictured myself as that type of person, but I will say. Cycling is what kind of started it for me. And then you just really remember how much you love being outside as a kid. Yeah. It's like, you know, especially for us, like growing up in the nineties, you know, it's like, you're just, yeah, it's all you do. You just like go outside. You just like play all day. You're running around in the woods, like riding skateboards or whatever with, you know, your friends or whatever's going on, you know, and your parents just say, you know, they'll whistle or call you and be like, all right, dinner's ready, you know, and that's it. Yeah. You're out in the woods. You're up to no good with your buddies. You're walking, you know, every week you go out with your friends, you're walking a little further away, trying to test the, the leash, how far you can get away from your house before you get in trouble. Yeah. You don't tell your mom where you were because she found, if she found out. She'd crack the whip, but then, you know, you meet up, you make a plan. It's like, all right, we're going to go out to the, to the Creek, like in my neighborhood, I lived out in, in RICO and we lived in a, like a subdivision, but it wasn't so far removed from like nature. Um, which is kind of why I liked living out there. Like we lived in a neighborhood with, you know, a lot of similar like ranch style homes, like the one story homes, but it was again, like a heavily wooded neighborhood, which is a lot of Henrico and Glen Allen and, and Chesterfield is the neighborhoods are like in the woods essentially. So you could walk 10 minutes down the street and into just a wooded area in between some houses and find the Creek. So me and my boys, we just meet up after we're done playing video games, get on the, uh, the bicycles and right out to the Creek and just hang out at the Creek, play with the salamanders and, you know, squeezing frogs and shit like that. Just doing dumb stuff that you do in the woods. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not saying I remember like one year, me and my like couple of neighbor friends. When I was a kid, we like took one of the sheds in the backyard. That was like full of stuff and it was never really used all that much, but we just like cleared everything out of it and like turned it into our clubhouse. And my parents were pissed because we just like moved to the lawnmower and just pulled it all out and like left it in the yard. Um, but anyway, I think like, you know, at the end of the day, we're adults, but like, we're all just kids, you know, we're all just kids grown up. Um, and it's interesting as I got more into like just being outdoors, I was like, dude, I love this. And then just started to pick up on it. And yeah, either that, or I'm just getting old now. It's like, Oh, let's hike and look at birds. I mean, it's both like you, like you mentioned it where we're kids that are just getting older. Yeah. You know, you talk to someone who's in there in later years in their life, 60, 70, 80, 90, even most of them will say that they don't feel their age. They feel as if they are still 40, 38, late forties, mid forties, uh, late thirties, mid forties, because that's when, you know, you really turned into like the grown version of yourself. Like, I think I went on a little, a little bit about it on some, a couple episodes back, but like the late thirties, mid forties, I'm going to turn 40 last June. You definitely start to feel like, dang, I'm a grownup now as where like maybe five years ago, I was definitely still like really immature and I've matured some more, but you still like the same stuff that you did when you were like 20, when you were 15, you know, yeah, you could probably grow out of some like, you know, childish tendencies, but you still like the same things. Like I like cars and I like anime and I like movies and I like, you know, fashion and like clothes and stuff like that. You're not going to, I'm not, I don't feel like I'm going to grow out of those things. They might morph and change, but you talk to somebody who's in their seventies, eighties, they still like that stuff. They still watch it on TV. They still look it up on the internet. They, maybe they can't participate in all of it, but that's still something that they feel passionate about. Totally. Totally. Yeah. One of those things for me is music, like, and I know that's true for you as well, but like music, like dude, I could sit in my office and listen to music for like a week, you know, and be totally fine and do nothing else. Like that's it. And I'd be totally fine with that. Um, and yeah, the outdoor stuff has kind of like brought that up, but you know what makes me think about this where you can really see that like adults are really just like children is if you ever find those videos of these sort of like middle aged Karen type people, and they just happen to be caught in like a bad moment where they're like freaking out about some stupid little thing where they're like, you know, it'll be literally like some middle-aged woman and there'll be harassing someone saying like, you know, don't speed on my road or like, you know, don't, you know, put your grocery cart back or like whatever. And they're just being, you know, what would be considered a Karen. Yeah. And especially when you see them, I would say like above the age of 50, right. And you'll have like a young person, maybe it's somebody Gen Z or like whatever, and they're like filming this person being a Karen and then they start running at the person with the camera. And for me, I just can't help, but like imagine that person as like a young person. Right. And it's like, you can see their personality. Like you just, it's like, that's like, like them in adult form is actually the same as them as like an 11 year old. They're throwing a tantrum. Yes. It's like the same exact thing. Yeah. It's like when you're a kid and you didn't get your way, you didn't know what to do and you had no like recourse, so to speak, you couldn't fight anybody. You couldn't pay someone cause you didn't have any money. You couldn't run anywhere because you didn't have anywhere to go. Yeah. You couldn't tell your mom cause she didn't care. You couldn't get your friend to do it for you because you didn't have any friends or whatever. And you're just like, the frustration has nowhere to go. So that's what you see. Yup. And like the Karen's are like, it's unfortunate that now everything you do just gets filmed to put on somebody's Instagram. Yup. But it's hilarious. I love it. Yeah. Or like, did you see the one where, and this wasn't even an old person, it was like somebody like our age or maybe even a little bit younger, the girl that's screaming at the cops, like she's in her car and she sounds like, she sounds like a metal singer. Like she's screaming so loud. And she's like, um, yelling about how the police wasn't wearing his seatbelt or something. And she's just, it's, if you haven't seen it, dude, it's like gotta be one of the craziest things I've ever seen. And it's the same thing. It's like, yeah, this person is an eight year old in a 35 year old's body. Yes. You know, and you think you, or you would think that like a certain age, you like grow out of doing stuff like that. I don't think you grow out of it. I think you learn from your mistakes or you learn from your experiences and you realize to get what you want. Maybe that's not the best way, but you got to do it a few times to figure that out. Yeah. You got to bump your head and then you'll learn the lesson. Well, and not to get too philosophical with it, but I actually really love this concept, which, um, do you know who Carl Jung is? So, you know, there's all these like Jungians and Jungian psychology and stuff, but there's a really great book called, I think it's King Warrior Magician Lover. And it talks, and this applies to both men and women, but it talks about these, um, psychological archetypes and how, you know, most people, right. And I think this is pretty normal and fair to say that like most people don't fulfill all of their kind of like personal archetypes. Right. So let's say, and the book is basically arguing these components, right? So King Warrior Magician Lover. And of course, Jungian psychology is focused very heavily on the male psyche, but you could apply it to women as well. But that book in particular is about the male psyche and it paints this picture of these different archetypes, right? So like the King archetype, the warrior archetype, the lover and the magician. And for example, um, they use the example of Joffrey in Game of Thrones and right. So like, exactly. Everybody does, you know, and that's why he can't even get another role now is cause like everyone just sees him as Joffrey, right? It's like the, it's the Harry Potter effect or the, you know, the Frodo effect. Right. It's like, everybody sees him as that character, but so he basically plays the character of what's called, um, the high chair tyrant, right? So he's like, he's a King, but he's really like a baby in a high chair, you know, and it comes back to this thing of like, and we actually talked about this over lunch a little bit where if you have to tell people, you're the King. You're not the King. You might not be the King. You know, I actually think that that there's a line in Game of Thrones that is similar to that. Probably like someone, maybe I'm making this up, but like an elder is trying to instill wisdom. Yeah. It's like, you don't get people to believe that you are a King and sitting in your power by forcing them to believe it. Yeah. I think it's like, uh, Tywin, Tywin Lannister. Yeah. He says something like, cause that's basically his like grandfather. Right. Right. Yeah. It's exactly that, you know, so if you think about some of these tantrums that like adults throw, you know, if you think about, I mean, any person like in their fullest, right. When they're bothered by something, most likely they would know that throwing a tantrum is not how you get your way or solving the problem. But for whatever reason, that thought just goes right over somebody's head when they're at the grocery store and they think like making a scene is like how you get someone to stop doing whatever you think is. Yeah. It's just, it blows my mind. It's chaos. And I know that the, the, you have to take with what you see on the internet with a grain of salt, because you're only seeing it from one perspective and you're only seeing it at the moment of like it's peak. So you're seeing the person losing their temper. You're seeing the person who's filming it, like take the, the role of, or act as the victim that you're being accosted. We don't know what happened 15, 10 minutes, 20 minutes ago. Probably the protagonist or the antagonist, right? It's it goes both ways. Right. But it is funny to see funny. It's funny. And a little sad, in my opinion, to see people grown adults talking 40 plus in public, sometimes in the middle of the street, completely lose control. I can say very honestly and clearly that I've only lost like control and like was in a blind rage like once. And I was really young. These people have jobs and families and responsibilities, and they're probably more prone to being pushed over the edge. The edge is probably a little closer. You know, you got a lot of stuff on your plate and it's just the wrong day, wrong place, wrong time, wrong day, wrong person. And they're like, zero Fs are left. I don't care if I end up on the internet, I'm taking you down, or I'm going to try my best to do that. Yeah. And it's just like, you don't have any more options, man. Like you are literally like bubbling over with rage and you have no way to express it other than vibrating and like yelling at somebody. Yeah. That sucks. Dude, it reminds me of the, it's like a parody video of the guy who's like an internet troll and he's got like four computers set up and he's like being interviewed and he's like, he's like, Oh yeah. He's like, you know, I get so much energy out of this. And like someone posts something and then he's replying to it as like, um, I forget what it is, but he's like, just because you're a doctor doesn't mean, you know, anything. And he's like, enter. And he's like, ha, she'll love that. And then he like, and he goes to the next one and he's like, um, he just says like, what, like, you know, whatever, he's basically just a troll and it's dude, it's gotta be like the funniest video. And I wish everyone had seen that because they would realize it's a parody, but that is what's happening. You know, it's like, there are people that live to just piss you off on your buttons. Yes. Poke your buds. You got to go in there with the Zen and just zero Fs. Don't let them poke your buttons. Don't feed the mob. Don't feed the mob because inevitably you will end up on the internet. If you've never seen it, it's so good. Like it's such a great, um, such a great little like parody. Yeah. And it's just, it's an example. Dude. Have you seen this before? Ways to drain people's energy nowadays is via the internet. This woman is astrophysicist. Actually, this is not how space works. Read a book. These are just zingers that I have set up the energy. You get this way. It isn't quite as pure, but if you do enough of it, it'll fill you up. Sucked. Where was the Chinatown? Oh my gosh. Strangers. Completely furious with you. It should be the life. Who? So dumbass, you know, who's dumbass. One of the best ways to, so that's incredible. Yes. So who, who, like, they just decided to do this parody. Like it wasn't like an SNL skit or anything. I don't know. Um, it probably would be like an SNL skit or something. It doesn't really say where it's from. Um, it does look like it's like ripped from something else though. He's like, as soon as they call you a dumbass, you know, you got them. And they called me a dumbass. That's incredible. He's like, this woman's an astrophysicist. He's like, actually, this is not how space works. Read a book. This actually reminds me of like story. I came across pretty recently about like prank calls. Yeah. Have you heard of a woman named Edna Frazier? No. So I hadn't either. And one of our listeners recommended that we look into it. So they sent us a message about it. And it reminds me of a time before the internet and like when you're a kid and you would prank call people, do you remember prank calling people? Of course. Yeah. Ah, man, I did it like occasionally. Like I didn't do it that much. I did it with some friends. You just like call a random phone number or you would like have a phone number that you were supposed to call. And like, it's interesting when there's like an urban legend and you're really not sure if you participated in it or if you actually heard about it or if you're just like misremembering, but I looked into this and I'm like, I have vague memories of like calling Edna Frazier. Yeah. So apparently people called her as the prank phone call and she was known and her number was known as this number that you call for pranks and you call and the story goes, you call, you talk to her, you give the pleasantries. Hello. How are you? What are you doing? And then all you had to do to say, or you had to say to set her off was bloody Mary. And then she would start screaming obscenities at you cursing and talking about like blood and spaghetti and all these other crazy things. And that's what kids did in like the nineties. They called kids in Richmond. They called Edna Frazier so that she could screen obscenities at them. Dude, that's awesome. And like, it's weird. Like, I don't know if I did, but I have this vague memory of like, maybe one of my friends did it. I don't know. And I'm like, I'm like remembering bloody Mary is a thing or was a thing. So in the late 19 or late 1990s and two thousands around Richmond, teenagers passed around the phone number that supposedly belonged to a woman named Edna Frazier calling that number became a kind of local dare. When someone answered the person on the other end, believed to be Edna would often exploit in a long, angry, profanity filled rants, the reactions were so intense and unpredictable that the woman could quickly became known among local teens as crazy Edna or crazy lady. The nickname bloody Mary also came attached to her because call is often used the phrase to trigger a reaction. And many people remembered, remembered her yelling bizarre phrases involving blood, spaghetti, ketchup, and graphic imagery, imagery, stories of calls, spreading calls across Richmond schools without the internet, just by word of mouth by the early two thousands students from completely different parts of the city all seem to know the same number. And many remember the phone line being completely busy from prank callers trying to get through people who claim they spoke to her, call spoke to her, say the calls were chaotic. Sometimes she would answer calmly at first, but then, but once you realize it was a prank call, she would launch into long tirades that people later reported to their friends at school. And this is all like before the internet and like when prank calls were a thing. And I'm like, I think I did that. I think I did that with my friends. Dude, a wonderful Edna is still around, you know, let's get her on for a special episode. I think she has passed. Yeah, I'm sure. And I looked into like this person, let's see if I can get some information, but there wasn't a lot of info, very little confirmed information exists about Edna Frazier, the woman believed to be behind the Richmond's crazy Edna prank call legend. What we know mostly comes from shared memories and online discussions. Edna Frazier is believed to be, to have lived in Richmond, possibly somewhere in the North side area. Some accounts claim that she appeared in an old phone book listing on Edgewood Avenue, teenagers cross across Richmond, passed around her landline number, which I have here and I can share it if you want to try it out. That number is 8 0 4 3 2 9 8 7 0 8. Should we call and see if Edna answers? Give it a call. Okay. What is it? 8 0 4 3 2 9 8 7 0 8. The number you dialed is not out of service. Dang Edna made sure that her number never lived on after that. She probably took enough harassment for the rest of the universe. Um, that's wild. I do remember like making some stupid, silly little prank call. It's like a pretty early memory. I was pretty young. And like me and my neighbors, I remember we like called the like customer support number on like a yogurt box, like a yogurt packet thing. And we called him and we probably thought we were so funny. We're like, yeah, we found a turd in the yogurt. Like we do. I did. I think now I'm remembering I was too scared to do like prank calls. So I would call and then like get really nervous and then like hang up the phone or like say something and like start to prank and then just hang up the phone. But like I had friends that would do it and would do it like way better than I could, but I was, I was, you can't just call a stranger and like be weird and say weird stuff. If you call it Edna, you didn't have to do anything. She was going to be the weird, crazy one, which is, I can't imagine being like one of those kids back in the day. I'm like, did you call Edna today? Yeah. Yeah, dude. What a bummer. We should see if we can get that phone number and we'll make that the number for people to call into the show. Yes, yes. That would be pretty legendary, right? You get Edna Fraser's number. That's going to be the Vera house phone. Yeah. And like the legacy lives on, you know, and that's where people will be able to call into the show and pitch their, their friend. Yes, it's a glimpse into our, our future Vera house dating show where people call in and pitch their friend and someone, yeah, somebody calls in and says, Oh, I have a match for so-and-so let's run it. Yeah. Pitch a friend Vera house edition coming summer, 2027. Definitely. Yeah. Well, we are going to get, you can text into the show right now. So if you're listening to the show, just go to the show notes description. You'll see a link that says like, get, it says like, have thoughts, text us here. So you can always text the show anytime you want, but we do think it would be really cool to put something together where people can actually call in and leave voice notes. Yeah. That would be cool. Yeah. Like basically leave a voicemail for the show. Yeah. And we definitely truly want to have that up and running, um, in the next month or two. So that'd be super cool. Side note, I want to shout out, uh, a random listener that I ran into this morning. Nice. I was out on a walk around the corner from my house. And as I usually do, like, I like to go outside, get some sunshine. First thing in the morning, get a nice walk in and I'm rounding the corner at my headphones on listening to music. And I passed by this guy who's like wheeling in some supplies into a business. And I walked by him and I hear like somebody yell. And he's like, Hey, I turned around, took my headphones. I says, Hey, don't you have a podcast? I'm like, yeah. He's like, dude, I love your podcast. I'm like, Hey, that's awesome. Thank you for listening. My name is Perry. Nice to meet you. His name is Gary. Shout out Gary for saying what's up. Yeah. Yeah. I think, um, like we forget how small Richmond is, you know, and like doing something like this is like, it makes it very obvious how small of a town it is. Yeah. Um, yeah, obviously we've been fortunate because many of the stories that we've told and a lot of the things that we've shared have then been shared and passed around amongst everybody we know, you know, and everybody we don't know. It's pretty cool. It's I thoroughly enjoy when people say, you know, we love the podcast or like, say hello, I was at a, I was at a whole foods and this is like when the ice was still like around, but I've been like mostly cleared up and I'm coming out of whole foods. I'm going to, you know, walk to my car and this guy's like having trouble backing into a space that was like kind of squished by the mounds of ice that they piled up in the parking lot. So I'm like, Hey, you know, turn your wheel this way, back it up that way. Don't hit the ice. He rolls his window down. He's like, love the podcast. It's like, thanks man. Don't hit the mound. Maybe we'll have one of those moments. What's that movie director's name? Like a Tarantino, the most famous director of all time. Um, I don't know if that's true, but you know, Quentin Tarantino, he has that moment where I think he's like leaving a Starbucks. Like, you know, this is probably like 20 years ago or something, some paparazzi like gets in his face and like says something and he's like, take a picture. So, you know, and he, I don't know, he mouths off to him or something. That's going to be you dude. Oh yeah. The paparazzi, the Richmond paparazzi is going to be following you around. Paparazzi is coming. They, they're, they're outside of the club every time we leave. Yeah. You're not even going to be able to get a slice of Zorch pizza, dude. They're going to be hunting you down, putting you in the Richmond tabloid saying like, Perry Young's dating so-and-so. It's like, I don't even know who that is. Dude, if they want to make me famous, I'm cool with that. Yeah. Just, you know, just keep saying you love the podcast. Keep listening and tuning in. Text the show. Perry Young's from their house is dating Angelina Jolie. Like spread that rumor. That's a rumor I definitely want on the Reddit thread. Yeah. Yes, I am actually dating Angelina Jolie. Yeah, dude. Who wouldn't be down to be Tomb Raider's husband? Well, the new Tomb Raider, I think is Sophie Turner. Okay. I think somebody's new. There's a new Tomb Raider. I don't even know who that is. Sophie Turner. She was, uh, she was in Game of Thrones too. Okay. Um, I thought I saw that new Tomb Raider. You might find it before I do. Oh, she was in Tomb Raider. I mean, uh, sorry. Game of Thrones. I was like, I didn't recognize her at first, but yeah. Interesting. It doesn't say I can't picture her as Tomb Raider, but you know, whatever. I mean, wow. This really shows you how long ago Game of Thrones was. She's a child. Right. And now that she's an adult, it's like, yeah, you can't even recognize her. Yeah, Sophie Turner is going to be the new Tomb Raider. Okay, cool. Laura Croft, right? Yeah. Well, to be determined. We'll see, uh, you know, I'd like to edit my answer for the tabloids. I'm dating Sophie Turner. There you go. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Well, I think you got a good shot. Yeah, man. You know, we both, we have a lot in common, you know, we're, uh, we both have two legs, um, but we've got a couple of eyeballs. That's true. Yeah. That's all that's all you need. Yeah. That's all you need, man. That's all you need to make a good first impression, you know, and a good pickup line. Oh yeah. You know, I don't know any good pickup lines. Yeah. I normally just go to like, what are you wearing? If it's like a phone call, you know, but you do it in like a sarcastic manner or like, Oh, so what are you wearing? You could do like phone call. Pickup lines, but just do it in person. Like, hello, how are you? Knock, knock. What are you wearing? Yeah. Yeah. But I've learned that like my humor doesn't, doesn't transfer well all the time when I'm not like in person. Like, I think that happens for lots of people. I'm sure. I'm right. Like you, you think you're, you know, you're, you know, you're funny, but when you do it via the phone, especially via like text, it just doesn't translate. Well, I think like, yeah, context is important. And I think, um, maybe people don't know this, but like, I don't take anything seriously ever at all. Like everything is just kind of the world's playground. Like I just don't take things seriously. So I'll make very unserious comments about serious topics. And, um, like, how dare you? Right. Like, what do you, what do you mean? I don't even know what I said. Yeah. I just casually dropped that. Like Thanksgiving is fake and people, you know, and like, I'm being serious, but I'm also just kind of being funny and it's like, whatever. And then you never know who's on the other side of that comment. That's just going to like be up in arms and, you know, ready to like burn down the fort. It's cool, man. We can't please everybody. Exactly. You know, exactly. You can't take a joke, um, order it to go. I don't know. You know, so please don't take my advice or use my pickup line of what are you wearing? Cause it probably won't work. Or do it and then write into the show and tell us how it went. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. And I can't explain why it works, but maybe it's, I don't know. Yeah. No comment. No comment. Oh, don't try it. And if you do try it and it doesn't work, don't blame me. That's my, there you go. That's the disclaimer. Yeah. Someone's going to get canceled or like put in some Facebook group. Cause they told me to say this. It's like, yeah, this creep asked me what I was wearing. It's like this, the beer house podcast gives out terrible dating advice. It's like, well, look at the source. It's like, yeah. Why would you ask two single guys about dating advice? Why would you ask two single podcasters about how to Clearly we're killing it. Yeah. It's like clear, whatever we're doing is not working. But even though it's not working, we're on a roll, right? Like if that's the goal is to continue being single. Yeah. It's a kidney. Yeah. I mean, we aced it. I think that's how you win is you just change the goalpost. Yeah. Right. It's not like, Oh, I want it to be in a relationship and I'm not. It's like, no, I want it to be single running a podcast studio. Goals achieved. Yeah, there you go, dude. Yeah. Life is solved. Done. You know, cash me outside. Yeah, I know that's a throwback. Dude, that's a good throwback. That's a great one. Um, yeah, you know, who knows? But I mean, forever ago, right? It's like, you'd get married, but then you would just die seven years later. So like, wasn't that big of a deal? You know, you just like get typhoid fever and you'd be like, all right, I'm out. You'd organ trail dysentery. Yeah. Or, I mean, dude, back then people were getting married at 22 because the life expectancy for men was like 30. Yeah. 36. Yeah. You know, making it to 40, you were old, you had a beard, you owned a house, you had a gun, like that was the thing. Yeah. Nowadays people are living until like late eighties on average and they get married four times, five times. Now that may be an exaggeration, but what's the rush? Yeah. You know? Yeah. Well, I mean, I think we're definitely devolving, right? Like you think so? I think so. Yeah. I mean, dude, if you look at some of the buildings that people built like 200 years ago, that's true. And then like, yeah. Or even just look at like a bench and then you go look at the bench on the corner. It's like, I don't think we're moving forward. It's odd how that's working out. I think we're moving backwards. Yeah. It's a weird feeling. Cause you're like, we have more technology and it made more scientific advancements in the last five years than we've made in the last 20 years. And that's how time works. Science gets easier, so advancements happen faster. More time goes on. But if you were to look at the stuff that we have and the way that like science is being like implemented, something's happening where it's not going to us. We're not getting it because things are getting cheaper to make, but they're also getting cheaply made more often. Yeah. And they're cheaper to make, but they're more expensive to buy and rent and lease and all of that pop quiz. How much was Richmond rent in 1925? So 100 years ago. 50 bucks. Okay. So this person found this thing called the bride's journal is basically like this journal from somebody that was, um, getting married back in 1925. And inside of it, there's an advertisement and. It actually is for a house that's for sale. And the crazy thing is the image of the house. Okay. Right here. This house is in my neighborhood in the Carillon neighborhood. Oh, no way. Yeah. So this is like almost like an Italian style, like big, a frame villa that is right on the street where arts in the park happens. Nice. Um, and beautiful home. It's huge. Okay. So it says no more rent own a home for less than half the price. Home ownership is mostly making up one's mind to start where there's a will, there's a way to build. So the rent here, okay. Is, and it shows if you pay rent per month at $25 per month, that was close. Yeah. The total in 10 years is $3,954 for the whole house. Yeah, total total in 20 years is $11,035. So basically what it's saying is it's making a comparison of what most people pay in rent, right. And then comparing it over the course of renting for 10 years and 20 years. So it's basically saying, look, if you're going to pay $25 a month in rent in 10 years, you're going to pay almost four grand in 20 years, you're gonna pay almost 11 grand and it's going to say, own a home for less than half that. So it's like, why are you renting? You should buy a home, right? So it says, look at the long-term prices. If I took the $25 a month amount for 20 years and divided it, I would get about$919. I don't even think I get a studio apartment for that anymore, which no, you got not in Richmond. Um, now I don't know what that house has to do with this. I think it's maybe this is some old school, traditional clickbait. Cause I, I couldn't imagine that that house was, you know, 10 grand, even a hundred years ago is really hard to believe massive. This house is like, it's stunning and it's huge. So I don't know if it's actually referring to this home, but yeah, it's crazy, man. You know, it's like, we're living in upside down clown world. We're like, everything is made worse. Everything costs more. And actually no one knows how to do anything. Yeah, man. Expertise is going out the window. Yeah, there's, um, there, I know if you've maybe seen this, there's a big push for trades specific skilled tradesmen and women, because the lack of a generation of people that went to school to learn a trade. So contractors, HVAC professionals, electricians, plumbers, um, you know, anyone who works with their hands and is a professional and has been trained is in higher demand than they have ever been. Because over the last 10 ish years, most people didn't want to go to school to be an electrician. They wanted to go to school for any number of, you know, disciplines, philosophy, art, education, mathematics, and then become, you know, skilled in their field. But we all, we know all too well that the majority of those focuses and disciplines in like a regular four year university don't yield any real long term career paths. So people switched from like the trades and like pseudo arts and sciences education to statistics and economics and business, and then they become consultants or they work for a law firm or they work at in the, in wall street, they work in investment banking because that's the highest yield employee or employer relationship. But then who's going to fix your toilet? Who's going to put a roof on your house? Who's going to build the house that you live in? There's like a pretty drastic shortage of those people that are skilled enough to do it the right way. Now the other side of that is like a lot of that stuff is getting easier to do, but somebody has got to do it. You talk about like, you know, AI replacing lots of jobs. No one is saying that a computer is going to be there, be able to rewire your 12 little outlets, right? No one is going to take, like your computer is not going to take away the ability for somebody to come in and install a bathroom in your house. So if you're looking for a job and you don't know where to go, go to a trade school. You can get it. You can get hired today and they will pay you to learn and you'll make more than most people in a career field that used to pay out more than like an electrician or contractor. I think I saw a post where this guy was interviewing like tradesmen. So it's kind of in the streets like, Hey, you know, you're, you're a contractor. How much do you make a year? You're an electrician. How much do you make a year over hundreds of thousands of dollars guys are making? And they've been in the field for like two years. Yep. Well, and I fully support that. And I totally agree. I definitely think people should consider that, especially if they maybe don't have a direction, you know, and do this, it doesn't always have to be a forever thing. You know, it's like, yeah, do it for a while, especially if you're looking for a direction. But one thing I would say is I, I fully support that. But then if you think of the establishment, right, let's say the world of HVAC and you, you know, what, you have HVACs in there wondering like, Oh, I wonder why we have no workers. And I think the answer is pretty obvious because imagine that you are that person that goes to trade school, you build the skill and then you're in there and you're making however much money, right. Let's, you know, cause I think like six figures is maybe a stretch when you're first starting. Right. So let's say you first start, I don't know, call it 50 grand a year. Right. But then your job, right. You're a repairs person or an HVAC technician or something, and you're going in and you're realizing that even though you went to trade school, even though you did all that, you're still at the like bottom of the totem pole. And really what's happening is that all the money the company is making off of the overpriced equipment that they're selling, and then they're more focused on like financing. Right. So you really are just the hard labor and all the money is being made by everybody else in the company. Yeah. Right. And it's like, Oh, you have the salesperson that comes in with a pamphlet and gets to sit in air conditioning all day. And like, you know, just comes in with a clipboard, talks to them and sells them like a $17,000 HVAC unit that was manufactured in China and then shipped here. And then you're sold a credit line to pay for it. Right. And now the company just made like half of your yearly salary in 15 minutes, you know, and then you're like, Oh, you know, so the guy or girl walks out the door with a, you know, $2,000 commission in 10 minutes. They didn't do any labor. Yeah. Right. And then you're there and you're like, Oh, okay. Now I have to sit here in a house that doesn't have working AC, sweat my ass off and like install this thing. And I'm gone all day long. And as soon as I'm done here, I got to go to the next house. And the thing is, I think that that used to be, there used to be more, um, like pride in those types of jobs. Right. And now there's not because not only have people like lost respect for a craft and, and a trades like trades work, but I think also the, like the products that they're installing are lower quality. Like there's not this interaction with the homeowner, you know? So even the consumer is like not in a position to even be grateful for the work because they're like, dude, I paid 20 grand for this. I just got totally screwed. Right. You know, so they're not necessarily like, Oh, thank you so much. Can I get you a lemonade? You know, we just don't live in that world anymore. You know, it's like, okay, cool. I'll be down the street at the coffee shop, watching you on my ring camera and like, you know, I'll come back home when you leave, you know, it's like, we just live in a different world, man. And it's not to discourage people from doing trades jobs. But I think, um, I think that that's why there's maybe a decline in people being interested in it because it used to be that the trades people like wore really nice uniforms and like people looked up to them. And it was like, yeah, they are like the backbone of this country. And it's totally been flipped on its head where it's like, now it's like, Oh, no thanks. I have a robot vacuum. Don't worry about it. Yeah. It's like, well, I mean, it's, you make a good point, man. And there's, that is the duality of this situation when it comes to trades as a career and then skilled tradesmen who are in need, because there's always going to be a need for people to build things. For the most part, there's always going to be a need for people to maintain stuff. People will always have to be involved in some degree. And especially as a homeowner, I'm sure you have had your experience with dozens of trades people over the course of owning your house. And anyone who has, you know, a similar situation, the decline of customer service, and then the decline of respect for the tradesman happens not at the same time, but it is a cause and effect on both sides. The tradesman shows up, does a shitty job, charges you an arm and a leg, and it has to come back two weeks later because it doesn't work. And then the customer treats the trades person like a less lesser human because they're crawling around in the mud and their English isn't very good. And they had to pay this guy more money than they wanted. And they're just having an overall crappy experience. So like neither of them like that scenario. So you have two people that both need each other, that both lost complete respect across the board. And I know that there is an attempt to regain respect from customers, their companies, and tradesmen who are being taught how to engage with customers and clients, to provide really good customer service, to do the job well the first time, to not charge them an overpriced, overcharged premium. And then on the same time, on the same token, people are realizing the lack of the amount of skilled trades people. There's lots of them, but not all of them are as good as you need because there have been a slew of really crappy people come through and make that, can tarnish their reputation. So eventually the pendulum always swings back the other way. The tradesmen become more reputable by providing better service. The customers become more trusting because they get what they need without being raked over the coals. And that, that's the ideal scenario. Yeah. Well, and I think it all comes back to the fact that everything's just overpriced, man, you know, and it really, that is the first domino that creates all these issues is like inflation and people are maximizing profits over everything else. But I think people do that. The smaller business owner and the billionaire guy, they're both doing it, which is trying to maximize as much money as they can make, which no shame in that. Right? Like you have to make a living and if you provide value, you deserve something in exchange for that value and most times that's something monetary, right? So people pay for it. But the issue is that the more expensive everything becomes, the more incentive there is to screw the consumer. Right? And so it's like, Oh, we've got to charge more. We've got to cut costs. We've got to cut quality. We've got to cut, you know, we've got to increase margins. We've got to do all this cause we have to make more money or we're going to tank. We're going to go under. Right. And who pays that price? Like the average person, you know, the average person, the average like consumer, uh, you know, whatever with an everyday regular job is just living a normal life is the person who pays the consequence for that, you know? And then, so it's like, yeah, it's just, yeah, it's like an endless circle. And, you know, the solution is, yeah, we have a banking system that feeds on us. You know, it's like everywhere you turn, it's like, Hey, would you like some, uh, high yield interest? Like, you know, would you like, uh, a high credit limit? Would you like a high rate of interest on your credit card? Would you like a loan? Would you like to refinance? Would you like use karma? Use this, use that it's dude, it's all a scam. It's so interesting and so funny. Now you, you make a good point. I had been looking at making a large purchase or a large dollar amount purchase between, you know, me and my sister and I were looking to, to, to pick something up. And you usually, you try to plan for these large purchases, like something like a car, right? You make a plan for that. Something like a house, you make a plan for that. You, you go to the bank, you talked about your loan criteria. You look at your interest rate, talk about how much money you're going to put down. So on and so forth. Now you can finance just about everything and they've made it extremely convenient to finance everything. You can finance anything you buy online, essentially through Klarna, a firm, like Cash App has a finance thing. You can finance low ticket dollar items, so something that costs five bucks, it'll say break it down into payments of two hundred, two fifty, two dollars and fifty cents over the course of two weeks. If you want to finance something that's sixty bucks, you want to finance something that's, you know, two hundred dollars. And then you can finance things that are more expensive. But what you don't know or what they don't tell you or make very apparent is the interest is beyond extremely high. I was doing the numbers on a really, you know, relatively expensive item. I think the cost was like two thousand, three thousand dollars. And because you want to weigh your options, it's either pay for it with cash, use a credit card or finance it. I looked at the Affirm financing page for this item and most people wouldn't because it takes you to another website and you got to look through it and here's your your interest rates and these are the adjustments and all this kind of stuff. But it's plain text on the website. If you finance this for thirty six percent over the course of seventy two months, the cost, the final cost would go from three thousand dollars to six thousand dollars. So you're paying three thousand dollars in interest if you finance it through this full term finance. It blew my mind because that number makes it like overly abundantly clear that it's a scam. Right. You can't ignore three thousand dollars. You can probably ignore another 20, another 50, another hundred dollars tacked on to whatever you're financing. Something's two hundred bucks. You finance it. It'll be like seventy five dollars in interest or whatever. Three thousand dollars in interest for something that costs three thousand dollars. It just it's a scam. It's insanity. Yeah. It's crazy. You know, the whole I mean, the whole banking model. Keep it in a mattress. Yeah. Cash in a mattress. Wanted in not to get too off the rails here, but, you know, you think about like, OK, well, I'm just not going to participate in that, right? Like whether it's, you know, acquiring a business or making any large purchase, but especially when it comes to like something like a home. Right. So you think about all of the like core necessities, you know, you could make an argument that you don't need a car. But like if you live in America, especially in the suburbs, like you kind of need a car, right? Like you can live in the city and, you know, I really don't drive that much. Right. But I'm fortunate I work for myself. I can walk here from my house, you know, so I've got the core necessities that I need. But I do have a vehicle. Right. But technically, in theory, I don't need it. But let's say you're like, OK, well, I don't want a mortgage and I also don't want to rent. I just want to build my own house. Well, you can't. You know what I mean? And it's because they'll be like, oh, you can't do that. You can't you can't get a permit for this. You can't do that. This this doesn't pass code. And it's like, that's not up to you, dude. If I want to live under a tree, under a towel, I'll do that, you know? Yeah. It's like, so how come a homeless guy can put a tent on the side of the highway? And sure, he's not allowed to do that. Right. But no big deal. But as soon as you turn it into like mud bricks and some logs and a roof, all of a sudden they want to come and arrest you. You know, you got to pay your dues. Yeah. Give them a cut. Yeah. It's I don't know, it's just it's insanity, you know? Yeah. Or it's like, yeah, you can't make your own natural water pump to like pump water and filter it yourself and pump it up the hill and get, you know, water into your house. I mean, you can't do that. You'd be like that guy, that young black kid who created plastiline, which is fuel that is derived from plastic waste. He's been decades perfecting his process. He is a trained chemist and a scientist, and he built his own machine, bought some machines, bought a lab and has been creating his own fuel. There was a post saying that he had been he'd gone missing, of course, because he posted like the first successful running car on plastiline. He's fine. But for about a week, people were freaking out, thinking he got taken by the NSA. Yeah. Well, dude, that's what they do is they say, wow, what a brilliant young man. You're going to change the world. They're like, we're going to write you a check today. We'd love to keep you involved in the project. Right. And then they say, wonderful. Well, we're going to acquire your patent that goes in the USPTO and then poof, then it's gone because it's military and it's like, OK. And so they take it and use it for the military, use it privately. But it never goes to the mainstream consumer. Right. And then he gets paid out, signs an NDA. And they're like, cool, we own you now. Don't talk about this because you can't talk about it. Thanks for your technology. Thanks for the patent. We're going to take we're going to use it for this. And it's never going to go to the big companies. And even if it does, they're not going to use it. And if they do, they're just going to triple the price and then blame it on sustainability and eco-friendly and energy wise and all that other stuff. So then if you say no, then you're assassinated and then they take it anyway. Yes. You know, yeah, that's just how it goes. That's how it goes. You know, you end up like Jim Carrey with a new face after decades of railing against Hollywood and all of the glitz and glamour. And then he shows up on the boardwalk or or the red carpet with like 20 years worth of Botox and a whole fool head of hair. Yeah. He's somebody got to him. Yeah. Or they killed him and cloned him. That's the running theory is that it is a clone. Yeah. It's creepy. I haven't really looked into it, but I mean, here, look, because because without context like this, it all of it sounds so crazy until you like look into it. Right. And it's so funny because it's like if we didn't have distractions throughout our life, like I promise, if if you didn't have a job and there was no Netflix and there was none of this other stuff, right, you'd have time to look into these things. Right. You'd be like, oh, what's MK Ultra? What's that all about? And then you and then you would spend the like 8000 hours that it takes to learn all this stuff. Yeah. And then you'd be like, wow, that's insane. I can't believe that was all really happening. But instead, what happens is you just hear about it. And then like the news or something's like, that's a conspiracy theory. And it's like, well, wait, where does the news come from? And it's like, oh, wait a sec. Turns out they're the conspiracy theory. Anyway, you get my point. But then you look into it and you're like, basically, what I'm getting at is think of the craziest possible reality ever. Aliens. And that's what's happening. Like, that's what's going on. So it's like, oh, no way that they are like, you know, kill Jim Carrey and then like took his skin cells and made a clone out of him and grew his head in a jar and then fucking sent him out on the red carpet. Do they probably did do that? That's probably exactly that's probably exactly what happened. That's the thing is, like, I know that you're you might be right, because anything's possible, but it's so far fetched. It's insane. It's no way that happened. Yeah. But I guess you never know. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's like, oh, yeah, there's no way we knew about Pearl Harbor, we would never let Japan just attack us so that we could enter World War Two. It's like, turns out, yeah, we did do that. See, look it up, look it up. Hashtag, look it up. Do we know about all these things? Yeah. Anyway, we won't get into that. But, um, dude, on some more local stuff, we got some, you know, we got some burning answers. We got some answers to some burning questions lately, did we? So I would say pretty cool. The Richmond mayor, he didn't ask me anything on Reddit. So basically, like he made a post. Yeah. You know, we heard about that. And he was like, all right, we're going to do and ask me anything during this time period. And I figured we would read through some of the top, like maybe three or four questions and answers that they provided, because it does seem that there's some pretty like burning questions that people have. So one of the top ones was this. As more and more high density residential projects are being built, does the city have significant plans to upgrade our public transit to support so many new Richmonders? And here was Danny's answer. So he says, absolutely. The more people that come to Richmond, the more we have to prioritize multimodal development. A major focus of the Code Refresh effort is to create mixed use transit oriented corridors where residents can easily access stores, restaurants and other amenities. We will continue to invest in sustaining and expanding the GRTC. So he goes on to say a bunch of other stuff about like the Fulton rail yard expansion, the long bridge over the Potomac River, train service out of Main Street station every 30 minutes throughout the day. So he says that there's a lot of good transit stuff coming and that he's super fired up about the future of Richmond. Super fired up. And there were questions similar to things that I know that you've mentioned before, which is like bringing back like a Richmond trolley or like rails or like a train, you know. Someone said anything to modernize our city. Now, what it seems is that he basically just provided singular answers to certain questions. You know, there wasn't really a lot of back and forth. You know, it's the political jargon. Right. And he was immediately accused of using Chad GPT for these answers. And he immediately accepted that accusal because it was true. That's incredible. And I'll read his response to that, and then we'll go through a few more. Oh, Danny, I know. So what ended up happening is that a huge YouTuber, his name is Lewis Rossman. He's got like two point five million subscribers. He realized that the Richmond, Virginia mayor was using Chachi to write replies, which I use all the time. I don't disagree with his comment here, but it's just like, you know, if you're mayor, you got to you got to think through these things a little bit. You know, it's like you got to know that people are going to catch that and like, you know, say some shit. Right. Yeah. So I don't hold it against them. You know, at the end of the day, it's like he's the mayor. If he's using AI all the time, there's a bunch of information in there about his job and what he does. And it is probably easier to be like, hey, how can I answer this question? So I get it. Not saying it's the right thing to do, but I did think his answer was funny because people thought that his answer to the Chachi B.T. accusal was also written with. Of course, of course. So his response was, first, I freaking love Chachi B.T., obviously. And then he said, if you think you're not using A.I., but you use Google, then you're likely likely using it. A.I. is the present and future of how work gets done. So people need to get on board. Now, there are certainly a host of ethical issues around how it should be used and a lot of thoughtfulness that needs to be applied from a data protection standpoint. But I'm actively working to incorporate more A.I. usage into City Hall to help our workers be more efficient so they can spend their time doing the important human things that only humans can do, like a social worker providing support to a client. Dude, what a clapback. Sign me up for mayor or at least make me like the the PR consultant here. Yes, I would have been like, look, dude, and that's on Reddit. Yes. I would have read it. Yeah, I would have been like. Look, Mr. Mayor, we need to adjust this answer a little bit, you know. She's us, you know, but anyway, it's like. In almost any scenario, it's like the thing it's like, OK, I think this is what we should do. Just do the opposite. Yeah. Why don't you tell me what your idea is? And then I'll tell you not to do that or tell you the exact opposite. Whatever you thought, do the exact opposite. Well, he said any serious organization or leader that is not actively figuring out how to use AI is going to be left behind. And I don't want that to be us. Last year, I approved a city AI poll. It's just, dude, it's it's the political ring of morale. You know, it's just such garbage. It drives me crazy. It is. We also know the dynamics of Internet comments. Yeah. If somebody calls you out on something, if somebody says anything negative about you, if somebody is trying to bait you into an argument, if you reply, you already lost. Yeah. You can't win by trying to clap back from somebody calling you out. Yeah. It will never end good for you. Yeah. You will always look like the one who's climbing an uphill battle. Totally. Just leave it where it lies. Yeah. Take the L and keep it moving. Yeah. And I think on this one, as somebody who I think we both do, but as somebody who like I understand what he's saying and I don't disagree with him, I get it. Yeah, I do, too. But at the same time, it's like he must know that it's like you're kind of playing a 50 50 battle, because I don't think anybody would disagree. Like, yeah, I was probably helpful. But you'd like said that you dedicated these few hours to answer questions. It's like just answer the question. You're going to dig yourself into your own grave. Right. The best response is thanks for the consideration. I'll look into this. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's the over explanation makes you look guilty. Yeah, because you did admit it. But then trying to double down and give the context, no one cares. You've already admitted to being identifying as what you have been accused of. Sure. You caught me red handed. Thumbs up. Yeah. Keep it moving. And I'm a big fan of like the big picture thinking. So it's like and I don't know if people are thinking about this, but it's like, OK, here's the thing, though, dude, is currently the state of Virginia, our city. And I mean, many other states are being accused of increasing their city's power bill to support the infrastructure. And then here you are as the mayor of that city using standing up for A.I. saying, I love A.I. I use it all the time. And we're like, yeah, do. But there's a lot of people that are kind of saying that's the problem. Yeah. And now you're basically siding with the issue. And it's like, OK, so you're making an argument for A.I. Yeah. Right. And you seem to be pretty. You literally said you're fired up about it. Right. It's like you're pumped about it. So I don't know, man, that's kind of an issue because now. Yeah, it's like, dude, we're trying like people are asking questions to Dominion, which same thing, their statement seems kind of questionable, you know, and it's like, yeah, easy for them to say like, oh, yeah, you know, this huge increase in your bill is just due to the weather. And it's like, yeah, dude, I I'm sure. But what's going on with these data centers and why are there so many and what's happening? And it's like clearly everybody's talking about it. So you would think if anybody was going to be aware of that conversation, it's going to be the mayor. And it's like, hey, dude, how about you just maybe don't dive into the A.I. conversation headfirst? Right. But yeah, so anyway, let's dive back into just a couple of the other top questions and see if you can spot the A.I. jargon. OK, so we'll just go through a couple. I thought this one was funny. So here's the comment from a Richmond citizen, bro. There's a giant pothole six feet across and six feet deep in the middle of the exit onto Kerry Street from one ninety five. No warnings, signs or cones or anything. It's been there for days and it has surely destroyed numerous cars. Fix it before someone gets hurt. And Danny replied, bro, steer clear. Wow. I know that pothole, right? It's brutal. There's a cone in it now. But yeah, he said, bro, steer clear. Wow. JK, thanks for pointing this out. Let me figure out if that section is state managed or city managed. And I'll make sure DPW is aware. Always best to report these things to three one one. So we have a record and can track it. Now we've talked about three one one before. I will give credit where credit is due. The three one one app is pretty damn good. I definitely recommend people download it. It's not perfect. And sometimes you'll create a ticket and the city does just like close it out or ignore it. That does happen because I would imagine they're getting hundreds of tickets a day, maybe even more. So I get it like a city infrastructure, city bureaucracy. It's never going to be perfect. But I will say I've had a pretty decent experience on the three one one app. So definitely check it out. Next big question was, oh, and someone said two days ago, apparently they're doing a pothole blitz in the coming weeks. They are requesting that people notify them through three one one so that they can cover all the potholes. Yeah. So the city is doing a lot to fix things. You know, I think especially as we start to roll into spring. So all good things ahead for Richmond. I think, you know, regardless of the the crazy Reddit chaos. Right. Maybe maybe don't do an AMA on Reddit. Maybe do it on YouTube. Do like a YouTube live stream. That would be great. I think so, too. Yeah. Stay off the Internet. Stay off the text threads. Definitely stay off Reddit. Just do a live stream on YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it goes back to like the Internet troll thing that we watched. It's like the trolls are waiting on Reddit. Right. And they're waiting for people like him to slip up. Yes. Yeah. And yeah, they're ready there. It's a it's a piranha tank. Yes. You know. So anyway, we're looking forward to spring. I think it's going to be an amazing rest of twenty twenty six. I agree about it. Everyone keep their eyes and ears open for information regarding the Monument 10K. We would love for you to join us. So tune in. We'll put the details for that in the description below. This podcast was recorded at Vera House Studios in Richmond, Virginia, and produced by Perry Young and Mike Metzger. you