Flyover Guys
Just a couple middle-aged midwestern fellas who are here to yap about pop culture and sports. Occasionally, we'll fly over some random, forgotten about topics from the past that we hold near and dear to our hearts.
Flyover Guys
Episode 25: Spring Cleaning Our Lives
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On this episode of the Flyover Guys, Seth and Joel discuss spring cleaning areas of their lives and society that may need a little adjustment--thank you for listening.
Welcome to the Flyover Guides, a show by two middle-aged Miss Western fellows who are just trying to figure out what was, what is, and what will be about aspects of American culture from our little plot of soil here in the Heartland. Jump on board this week. Our episode, it's time to do some spring cleaning. Did you just finish spring break, by the way? Oh, we have two weeks until our start. What? Yeah, two that's April. April spring break? Yep. Oh my gosh. I don't know how I feel about that. I don't know if that's a good idea, or maybe that is.
SPEAKER_01They want they want the the beaches to be a little warmer when all these kids head to the either down to the the Gulf of America or whatever we call it, and or over to the Atlantic.
SPEAKER_00So okay. Jeez, that's shocking, honestly. But what so when does school end? Does it still end in mid-May? Yeah. Yep. So they just come back for a few weeks, then is really what it is. Oh man, it's like a summer appetizer.
SPEAKER_01And all the AP kids, they're they're done. Like my daughter's a senior, and all her AP classes are just they'll wrap up and she'll be like totally done pretty soon thereafter.
SPEAKER_00So just be sitting around then. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Well, we're here to do some spring cleaning. It's uh annual tradition, I know, at the Schaefer household. We had spring break last week, and there was the never-ending litany of things to clean, except we had all of our kids back, and that meant that everything just blew up and there were bombs everywhere. So I guess this week, now that they're gone, might be more of this actual cleaning.
SPEAKER_01So do you know what's terrible about this area down here in Georgia? What is it? It's it's pollen, and I was not aware of this until we moved. There's literally a layer of yellow pollen. If your cars are outside or like our deck and patio, it looks like a blanket of just pollen that falls and blows, and when the trees start to really pop in the spring, it's it's terrible. Like we have to cover up all of our uh furna outdoor furniture and all that kind of stuff, just and then you have to sp power wash everything. It's terrible down here. So your allergies are bad.
SPEAKER_00Mine are. That's then that's spring cleaning number one for me is I want to get rid of those Bradford pear trees. Uh I mean, they look nice and white, but they're just disgusting and smelly, and unfortunately, we have them all around us. Yeah. But our our what we're gonna try to do today is we we're doing this about spring cleaning and what do we want to change? Uh, so it's kind of like if we got to be czar for a day, uh, what do we want to change in society or clean up or fix? And so what we're gonna do is just play this uh or think of this exercise where we go around to different rooms of the house and we have to clean it up, and essentially that serves as a metaphor for what are we trying to clean up in our society. So we'll see how it works, because as always, it's like grumpy old men. Like, I don't like this, I want this to be fixed. But hopefully it's not just grumpiness, but there's something to be said. So we're gonna start simple. Our first cleaning project is the closet. Um, I would say the closet, it's small, uh, it's messy, it's largely unseen, though. So what you want to clean up isn't that big a deal, but you just feel better about the world, you feel better about your day when you know this little corner of it uh is in order. So, what is something that's not a big deal, but you just want to clean up a little bit?
SPEAKER_01Well, first of all, I feel like the old guy about getting off my lawn and stuff when I was going through the this exercise, but uh we'll get to the lawn. This first one is it's kind of a big deal to me because I grew up in a small town like we we talk about, and one of the things I want to clean up are just little social norms of like waving to people, or when I'm in public or like on a trail or on a sidewalk and I pass by somebody and I say hello or kind of wave to them, and there's like no response, uh, that drives me nuts.
SPEAKER_00That's yes, yes, that does. And I feel like phones are changing that as well because it's even like texting or or shooting an email. Uh, and I don't know how you feel about this, but like when I send an email to somebody, I would expect a response within a day or two. And I don't know if I'm if that's bad etiquette or if I it's unreasonable. It drives me nuts. I'm like, just shoot me a line back. I need just to kind of get a short answer or your insight. And so maybe I I don't want to hijack your I'm not I don't mean to hijack your topic because yours probably are just more personal greetings, but I feel it's just the whole concept of of communication is is bizarre now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And this is another one that I some of these things I may be repeating myself on this podcast, but um for state farm or car insurance, we have to take you could take a defensive driving course online and you get a reduced rate. So, you know, I went through like this six hour, you kind of speed through it a little bit, but uh one of the things that it was really emphasizing was blinkers.
SPEAKER_00Speed through an insurance. Let's get that clear. You speed through an insurance defensive drive.
SPEAKER_01Okay, go ahead. But it's it's blinker when to use your blinkers. And I've I swear people have stopped using their blinkers, which is a form of communication, especially at like a four-waist people at four-waistops don't even use their blinkers. That's a vital thing that we should know in that situation. Are you turning in front of me at this four-way stop? Because I'm gonna go if if two of us are across from each other and you don't have your blinker on, I'm going straight ahead. But then they like will turn right in front of you, and I'm like, dude, you have to tell me that you're you're gonna turn. So it's little things like that that are just driving me nuts. That's actual law, but just some of the social norms of how we kind of see each other and and communicate. I I feel like we need to clean that up a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh I I have some of those things like down. Like, what uh let me ask you, what are your thoughts on titles? Do you like titles of like Dr. So and so or Mr. Anderson or Mrs. Anderson? Do you still like that formalism? Or do you like it when somebody says, nah, my name's Jake, just call me Jake? And yeah, especially in a professional setting. Where are you at with that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, professional, I think it should be there. Um, however, I'm kind of unique because I started teaching right after um The Matrix. So I had students with Mr. Anderson, and it got to be like, okay, that's you know, not funny anymore. But uh sometimes I get I lose track of everybody's title, I guess. Yeah. If you're I I'm not really in a situation anymore in my life where I really am around people with titles very much.
SPEAKER_00Um but Okay, let me ask you this. Your daughter brings home a boyfriend. Okay. Do you want them to call you Mr. Anderson? Or is it hi Seth, how are you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, initially I think you should use the the title until you have at least passed a certain like uh threshold of how many how long you've been dating. Okay, so it's still there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I I do think you should address I I think younger people should address older elders, you know, with a title.
SPEAKER_00All right. Let's clean that up, everybody. Let's let's communicate, let's be friendly, let's say hi. You know, my favorite thing is driving on the two-lane roads and lifting your finger up. Uh just not the middle finger, just your index, and just like that's a how's it going on down a country road. Yep. I love that. And I wish that was I I wish more people employed that on those two-lane roads. I don't expect it on in the city, but I definitely like it when I'm driving on two-lane roads.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's it was almost mandatory if you grew up in a small town like I did, especially with a lot of dirt roads and stuff and people in trucks. So okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, let's move on to the kitchen. All right, nice one for the closet. That's good. Um, now we're we're gonna clean up our kitchen. What I mean by cleaning up our kitchen is you spend time in this room every day. So for some people, this room is critical, but for others, it just may be a pass-through room uh if they eat out a lot or something. But it's definitely a part of your daily experience. So magic can happen in the kitchen, but also, you know, it doesn't weigh as heavily as others. So now we're looking to clean up something you would find to be maybe a little bit more in your face for most people, not everybody.
SPEAKER_01Mine might be mine might be a little off here what we're looking for, but um I live on a small in a small neighborhood. We have about 24 houses or so. And every Thursday is is trash day in our neighborhood. We have a lot of waste. Like this drives me nuts. And and it maybe I'm taking it a little too literal, but um, we also went out to eat the other day, but I just feel like in the last 20 or so years, um our society just we have so much stuff. And there we have um two bins. We have uh just a regular garbage and a recycling. There's a lot of houses in my neighborhood that have that require two garbage bins and one recycling, and it's full. Like every week. I'm like, what? We have five people, four people in our house. We barely get halfway full, like two trash bags. And maybe I'm just off on this topic, but um are you criticizing people for cleaning? They're they're cleaning out their stuff, they clean every week. And I don't want to harp on my neighbors specifically. I don't know if anybody even listens to this, but it's not just my neighbors, but uh somebody also made the comment they came over to our house and we we also throw out our food, we don't throw our food waste into our trash. We have a compost pile that we actually have that that we kind of use uh to just get rid of our food waste, and then we compost it and put it in our garden. Um, but just the serving sizes we were out eating at restaurants, and people will get up and walk out, and there's just a ton of food and everything that's just so wasteful. Um, I I think in general we should really, and I know with inflation, all this stuff, and how we have shrinkflation, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I I think we need to really cut back on how much we waste in our society, and and that could also be time too. But uh, what are your thoughts on that? Am I just complaining about that or what?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, I I agree. We we live in a society of disposable society where where we just we go through so much. I don't want to go off on a long tangent. My long tangent would probably be the problem with what's happened in society now is that corporations have got to a point where they don't allow you to be able to fix something that you have to dispose of it to get a newer version. And so if that I was reading a good story in the Washington Post about farm equipment and how angry farmers are becoming about the different types of farm equipment that they can't replace the part under manufacturing laws, like they have to go back to the original manufacturer, they just can't go jerry-rig it and fix it. And for farmers who that that's your way of life is just to hey, let's rig this up and get it going, because you got to move, you gotta take care of your crops, but they haven't been able to do that increasingly, and and how frustrating it is that we're digitizing more and more things, be it farm equipment or obviously cars. I mean, think TVs, you could used to go replace a tube in your TV and get it fixed. Now, if something's out with your TV, you're like, well, we just got to junk our TV and get a whole nother one. And I so part of me just thinks this is what's happened with with the way we've designed goods uh or corporations have been allowed to design goods in the last 20, 30 years.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a good point. I remember reading Brokaw's Greatest Generation, they talked about you know how they they would could fix anything and make it work. And this saying they don't make it like they used to, you know, you're right. I mean, we used to have the same um appliances and everything growing up. We we would kind of fix them and we rarely bought new stuff, but like you said now, you could go to Walmart and buy a flat screen TV for less than $200, and you know, what does it take to fix something these days? So yeah, it it it just makes more sense to to sell volume, I think. I think that's the name of the game now. So to replace stuff is just um easier than it is to fix it. And and who's gonna fix it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. But okay, I got one for you on this one. Um, I didn't throw one in on the closet, so I will throw one in on the kitchen. Um the speaking of the kitchen and eating, I'm getting more confused about tipping. I I don't I need we need to clean up what the rules are for tipping because I'm confused. Um, I feel like if I go to a restaurant, it's a no-brainer to start at 20%. This is somebody's way of life, uh, and I will go up from 20% if they do a really good job. But the floor, honestly, for me is 20%. But then when I go pick up something like Chipotle, let's say, or Subway, am I supposed to tip? It always gives me the tip box, and I'm like, yeah, well, why am I tipping? That this is already I'm already paying nine bucks for a turkey sandwich, and I don't feel like I should throw in another two bucks. So that's what I when do you tip and when do you not tip?
SPEAKER_01I don't know, to be honest with you. It when I was growing up, it used to always be at restaurants and like barbershops. I mean, there weren't very many places that you would tip, and like your bartenders and stuff like that. Uh, but now, like you said, it I feel like everybody has the option of putting that out there. And and you do feel a little, I guess, cheap if you don't. And sometimes they look at you like they're expecting something, like, gosh, I you know, it all the prices are already kind of high, and and I came and got it, so shouldn't I get it too?
SPEAKER_00I exactly I walked in and picked it up. You made it, but that's that's your job. You're not really serving me, and uh you know what I mean. The restaurant's done its function, so I don't. I I'm baffled by this. And and you know, my daughters are or door dashing up at college. That's kind of a side hustle they got going. One of the things about door dashing, this is where I have real fears for our kids' generation. My daughter went to Taco Bell to pick up an order for a girl, and it was like two burritos. I don't know how much that cost, but that's got to be around five bucks. I think. The girl tipped my my daughter eight bucks. My daughter had to wait an hour. And Taco Bell it's slammed. It's a Saturday night in a college town, so every drunk is going there at 10 o'clock at night. So my daughter's trying to fight the crowd to say, Hey, I have a DoorDash order I'm trying to pick up. The girl's texting her, going, Where's my food? Where's my food? And she's like, I'm here, I'm trying to get it, I'm doing my best. I promise I'm not forgetting about you. So like she waited like almost an hour, and then she drove to the girl's house. Now, mind you, the girl lived three minutes from a Taco Bell. And then the girl comes out wrapped in her blanket, and her boyfriend's wrapped in a blanket there, and they come out the driveway and thank her. Tip her an additional $10. So she got tipped $18 for two burritos, which was a three-minute drive. That is, and I'm like, hey, good for you. I said that to my daughter, good for you. You got 18 bucks. That is so moronic. I can't get over it. That you're gonna tip $18 for two burritos for that's three minutes away. Yeah. I mean, uh, so I yeah. That that's like an example of the other end of tipping. That's like, oh my gosh, we're tipping that kind of money for that's uh I'm just confused on tipping. So I don't know if I have a solution. My my thing is I just want to get it cleaned up. I need some czar out there to just basically say, and I guess maybe that's what we're doing here, if you provide me a service that's above and beyond the basic function of what I'm going to, then I can see that. Yeah. So a sit-down restaurant, a waiter or a waitress who serves me and provides extra things. But if it's just me walking into a dog and shake and them having a tip thing, I'm like, no, you are already gonna make me cheese fries. I don't want to tip you extra. You were gonna just that was your job was to hand me, just hand them to me, and I'll take it from you. So all right, that's the kitchen. There's probably other things, but we better move. We've okay. So now we're we're going to the bedroom. All right, now the bedroom, we're gonna clean up the bedroom. This is more personal, a little bit more private. Um usually you don't like to talk about these things in public, but it's critical. You gotta clean it up uh for a healthy life. So try to, Seth, keep it PG 13 at least. So, what are things that need to be cleaned up that fall into it's more personal, it's private, um, it's critical to life.
SPEAKER_01All right, so we've mentioned that we're getting older. And the thing about getting older is you lose, and I and I feel we now interrupt for a CI. Oh, you lose a you you lose a lot of things. Um But one of the things that I've really noticed is and this is sad, it's just a personal thing, but like muscle mass. Yeah. And like you you think about your health, and um you know you need to eat well and stay in shape. But but I stopped weight training when I was I I don't think I've lifted weights in the last uh ten years. And I do things around the house and stuff and outside outdoor work and stuff. And I hike and stuff, but I think to to maintain just in general uh good health, you have to have strength. And uh I have to start doing that on a regular basis. I know this is this is maybe not what we should be talking about, but um that and also like just mental sharpness.
SPEAKER_00I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I do that kind of stuff, but I read about all these things about uh how to keep your mind sharp and and not go down this route of like dementia and stuff. And yeah, and can you do things to help prevent that? And so there's a lot of games that you could play that just help with with quick thinking and stuff beyond just an ordinary like reading and and just whatever, but that's what I'm kind of looking at lately is just my my muscle mass and then my mental sharpness. And how do you how do you keep that in line and how do you clean that up, I guess, would be what I was thinking about on this one.
SPEAKER_00So dang, I'd say you I thought you were pretty good at that. You're always like nature hiking, or I hear you're out on a long bike ride or something.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but I don't know if if it's being in shape or but I feel like I'm just not as strong in general. And I I don't know if that's just typical aging or I mean I don't want to go out and like lift all these weights and stuff and yeah, or take all these supplements or anything, but um I just feel like I'm needing extra strength training now.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah. No, I I I I know what you mean on that one. Uh I do. Um I wake up and I I'm like, why does it why does it feel like I pulled a muscle and I just I all it is is me getting out of bed or something. I'm like, I shouldn't be that I shouldn't feel like I just got in a 15 round match with my. Ice and just getting out of bed or something. Yeah. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go a different way. I'm gonna use the internet and again, something personal and private. Internet commenting. Alright, here's my thing with internet commenting. We're already, have we already just accepted that there's big brother eye in the sky watching and listening to everything you do? I've kind of accepted that too. So here's my thing. I need somebody to clean up when somebody makes three negative or hateful comments in chats, which I don't know. I don't I bet I comment once a year and then I regret it immediately. Why did I add my comment to that? It's stupid. I'm not gonna change somebody's mind on Facebook or whatever. But once you hit three negative or hateful comments, your account's frozen for a week. Uh this is what I want to clean up. And then just shut her down for a week because you've given out your hate to the world, and I feel like the internet comment section is a cesspool of humanity, and I rarely see genuine dialogue. I'm on a few film groups, and we'll go back and forth, and and I'll add comments there because I like to hear people's responses of hey, what's your favorite, you know, foreign films of the last five years? And I like to read what people have to say, and then I'll say, Why do you like this one? or help me understand that. So I will comment in that way, but uh the idea of me sitting there saying, You're an idiot, or that's a stupid choice, when most of what we're talking about is just personal preference, it's just hateful. So if I can do a spring cleaning that's a little bit more private, it's for the millions of unnamed people who sit and they will just type hateful things. I think after three hateful things, you're locked out for a week. I accept Big Brother in the sky.
SPEAKER_01It's so much easier these days to criticize, and you can criticize literally anyone at any time online. So uh back in the day you used to have to, you know, be two-faced or whatever. Remember when people used to be two-faced?
SPEAKER_00Did you ever do the secret three-way calling where you had the other person secretly listening on the third line? Yeah. It's like, oh, she does like you see. I asked her. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Now it's just it's no face. You could just say whatever you want and don't you could be anonymous and it just doesn't like you said, it's not additive. So so we do need to have somebody that you just get three strikes and you're out for a while.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. And maybe more than a week. Maybe it's like uh six months or something. It's like a PED suspension or ban. You know, you're out, you're out for 180 days. All right. Well, anyways, that's just kind of my random weird one. All right, let's go to the living room. Let's clean up the living room. Uh, the living room, it's relaxing. This is our leisure, it's our space for recreation, it's our space for conversation, hang out. Uh, so this can go in any direction once you're in a living room. What do you want to clean up in the living room?
SPEAKER_01So we are we are in the heart of March Madness, and I know that there's actual people trying to take care of this right now, even in our government or whatever. Um watching this college basketball tournament this year, it's been really good, actually. There's been uh I'm friends with good games. Yeah, there's been good games, and there's there's good stories. I'm friends with people from that are Nebraska fans, and Nebraska's gotten a couple wins. Let's go with Heuberg.
SPEAKER_00Let's go away.
SPEAKER_01So, but uh we really do need to clean up this portal, and we need to clean up the teams um that we don't really have the conferences, really aren't regional anymore. I can't keep track of anything. So I I think I think we kind of opened Pandora's box on the NIL money and and all this TV money and and the uh realignment of conferences and stuff, it's gotten so out of control that I don't even now I'm more of kind of a casual fan. I don't even know players, I don't know teams and conferences. I've just lost all control. And I feel like we needed to be.
SPEAKER_00Something like that, that's ridiculous. New York and LA in the same conference for college kids. It's stupid.
SPEAKER_01And football and basketball may not it may not be as big of a deal, but think about all those smaller sports. That how are you gonna compete? How are you gonna how how are you not gonna lose money in that venture? I mean, it just doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_00So would you say like rewind and go back to the Big Ten, the Pac 10, the what what would you go, Big 12, Big Eight? I don't know. Yeah. Um, original SEC, if if there's some way to rewind to like 2005 or something. Um geography has to play a role.
SPEAKER_01The biggest thing about agreed, it it just makes sense. And and that's the best thing for also for rivalries as well, is you just have the traditional rivalries of of competing with with the states and schools near you. Um but the other thing is the whole student athlete thing with the portal. I who even goes to class if you're changing from one school to the next uh and you're and you're able to do that, there's no incentive, I don't think, for kids to graduate really. Some of these guys just or female, whoever. Um, I I made a comment in in my brother's uh text thread about you know, I think schools should kind of zag the other way and really incentivize people staying four years and say, hey, we're gonna give you a big bonus if you come to our school, stay, and graduate, and and don't even get involved, like don't even recruit guys through the portal, just try to focus on four-year guys, or if you leave early to go pro or whatever. But and I know that can't work because everybody else is not doing that, so you can't really compete. But I just feel like the the portal is just in constant motion and and it's like a whirlwind of and it just spits people out all over the country, and and I've just lost I've just lost control of what I'm a fan of or something. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I think you and I have referenced Chuck Klosterman in his football book, right? Where where he talked uh he he has a really good um he has some really terrific insights about these things are popular until they're not. Uh so if it was horse racing, uh if it's boxing, these things were just huge in our culture and our society, and we and they thought they were too big to ever fail. And I think that's what we think about things like football and basketball. That they're no, no, no, no. They're different from other things in history, they're too big to fail. And I do think we're seeing with college football and basketball the short-term, this is fun. Look, Indiana won a national championship in football. That would have never happened, you know, 30 years ago. Short-term fun, long-term, it's gonna be a disaster, I think, precisely because so this what foundational uh kind of cornerstones of college athletics has been your family and going to those colleges and taking on your neighbors or nearby schools and building that kind of link and tradition where what kind of people are gonna travel uh across the country to see their kid who's at this school for maybe a year. It just won't last, it's not gonna endure. And so I I'm not no Stradomiston able to predict where it's gonna go, but it's not gonna be good in the long run. It might be intriguing in the next five years, but over 50 years, I think it's a disaster.
SPEAKER_01So think about this. Um, if now I know this is mainly just college athletes who who change, but there's some of these guys that go to four four schools or three different schools. What's their alma mater? When you're a booster and stuff, I mean, what do you go back to? Who do who do you uh retire jerseys and numbers anymore? I it's gonna be hard. It's gonna be so convolutive. Like, do we retire that jersey or that, you know, like I I just feel like I've always been a Wichita State. I went there, I I graduated from there. I'm always gonna be going back to that's like my school, but I just feel like if all these people just go everywhere, it's like who do you actually claim as your own, as your own you know, athletes that are in your school.
SPEAKER_00But that's a terrific one. Let me piggyback off that and see what are your thoughts on this. This was gonna be from my living room, and I decided to go the sports route as well. Um, I'm going youth sports. I feel like youth sports needs to be cleaned up. And I don't know if you and I talked about this a while ago, but the idea of almost the professionalization of youth sports, of having kids play year round in traveling teams. Uh, I I'm thinking of like my son one year played almost 40 games of baseball, and he wasn't even a middle schooler yet. It was miserable, it was awful. It was expensive for us. Uh, it felt more like a second job. He had fun for about 50% of it. And the and the other coaches are good guys, and the the the boys were good boys, but it's just this is a grind. And I feel like a lot of sports do that, and that's the expectation now. How do we clean this up? How do we do how do we not do this anymore?
SPEAKER_01Well, we need to emphasize the purpose of sports is for the overwhelming majority of people who play sports, it's for fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And what you know, being a high school coach, one of the the hardest things that parents didn't understand is your kids not gonna go, chances are they're not gonna go to college and play this sport. No. Just the percentages play out. But the problem is, is our like you said, we professionalize youth sports at such an early age that by the time they get to high school, they expect that they're just gonna go on and play in college because they've spent all this time and money. And guess and guess what? You get to the end, you get to the end and you figure out how much of a waste it was. Now, don't get me wrong, there's a lot of fun, there's a there's a lot of team stuff, there uh, but when you think of it at the end of the day, what you know, you you spend this money for the purpose of hopefully they go on and get a college scholarship, but at the end of the day, the reality is they're not, most of them. So it's just like just focus. We need to focus on just the enjoyment and the process of doing things. Even even like art or you know, just being creative or or I don't maybe I shouldn't be saying a lot of this stuff, but just enjoy things because you you like doing it. Don't don't expect this. Now now I don't want to if anybody's playing sports that's you know, if you have a goal to go to college, by all means. But uh one of the things that we had our kids in travel soccer. Neither of them even played soccer in high school, ultimately. Uh so so so don't don't always just think that everything has to be kind of this professionalism and what our kids do.
SPEAKER_00And that's what I can't figure out. Is it parents living vicariously through their kids saying, I uh this didn't happen in my day, so by God, it's gonna happen for you. I don't know. Is it the the sense of wanting to belong and fit in to make sure your kid is a part of a group and they're not left out? I mean, I guess that's a powerful driving force. Is it this idea of if I can get my kid a scholarship because of the exorbitant costs of college now? I don't know what it is of those factors. All I know is it seems to be doing more damage. Whatever we're all doing, we're doing it wrong. And so I don't know if we create youth leagues where it's like you show up at 2 p.m. and parents drop them off and you're not welcoming. Let the kids figure it out, let them play for three hours, and you can come back at 5 p.m. and you'll have your you'll have your reps there or whatever to make sure things get organized, but let them just be kids and let them play. And you know, you could speak to this. Most problems tend to come from the parents, not the kids. So I would love to design some type of youth sports leagues where it's like, this sounds so cold-blooded. Parents, you're not welcome. Yeah, uh go let your kid be a kid, and just they're gonna make friends, they're gonna figure it out, and that's part of growing up is going through some of those things and let it happen, all right, and show up later.
SPEAKER_01You know, the other thing that people don't do very well anymore is they don't know how to lose.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And that was one of the problems I faced the last time I was coaching in high school was uh I'm not stupid. We weren't gonna win. We weren't gonna win all the games. I know I knew that. I'm not I'm a realist, you know, and and people are like, well, you just accept losing. You know, there were a couple parent comments where you just accept losing or something. It's like, no, it's not there's always a winner and a loser, and you have to face the reality that you're not gonna win everything. So how do you take losing? And and I think we build our kids up not to lose, but when they actually lose, it's the end of the world and and everything's falling apart. It's like, listen, this is life. There's I mean, you're not gonna win everything, and and and you should not expect to win everything.
SPEAKER_00Well, I don't want to get like into the deep waters here, but we have leaders who set that example as well that they can't accept losing, but it's just it's rigged against them. And I I get exhausted with conversations about there's a conspiracy by the referees, or or you know, the the NFL planned this, or I'm like, I'm sorry, I just I'm not doing I'm not going down that road. Yeah these guys are moving so fast and in a blink of a blink of an eye, and you're trying to make a call, and I just can't get behind the well, the refs did this or the league wanted this to happen. And I find that's just symptomatic of where our culture's at. There's there's always some nefarious conspiracy. And I'm not saying there hasn't ever been. I mean, we can talk about Tim Donegie and the NBA and gambling and the and the role that plays. I I just think it's a largely a tired argument for people just don't know how to accept losing. And and that's why you call them fans. They're fanatical, they're illogical. Um, and I I think we've gotten to the point where that's bled into so many other as aspects of our lives of being fans and fanatical that you you just lose perspective, even. And like you say, it's not that important. Oh, you lost a basketball game. You'll be okay. It'll sting. And and you know what? Sometimes that's good to experience the sting. I I think you know, we always talk about it's important to fail at times, so you learn how to get up and come back stronger. So yeah, okay. So, anyways, that's my that's one of my recreation ones, youth sports. So you got on college sports, I just dropped it down a little. Good. That's good. Let's go to one more. Um, now we're going out to the yard. And so when I say we're cleaning up the yard, spring cleaning the yard, this is our connection to the outside world. This is our land, our property. It's how others see you, maybe how others are perceived. Again, this is more open-aired, open space. Take it however you want it in terms of what do you want to clean up in the yard.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I didn't know how to go about with this one or or to what extent. Um but I was thinking, I had a conversation with somebody the other day about rebranding. I think our government needs rebranding. I th I think I think everything has become so big and there's so much government, so much everything that we just lose sight of what our government does and and what it means to be uh a citizen in our country. And and I was thinking maybe we could just go off of the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And like we we pay taxes every year. What does our tax dollars go to? Who controls our taxes? What should we pay for? What shouldn't we pay for? Um and I just thought if we focus on something like life, well, we have we need to have health insurance and and just and things like that. Liberty, what are our freedoms that that we have? And then the pursuit of happiness with everybody has their right to education and training and uh the property that you have. But you know, how can we rebrand our government? Because I feel like it's just kind of gotten out of control, especially with all the divisions that we have. Uh, but what can we how can we be a pillar again in the world uh to where we can kind of rebrand ourselves to where people and I don't want this to be controversial, but you know what? Everybody has their opinion. This is just an opinion. So um I I I think what we saw, what we have seen with Donald Trump and how the the MAGA movement was such a simple concept, um, maybe that was to its own detriment as as well as well, you just kind of see it as make America great again, but you don't really know details of how to do that. But I think um if we could just like retool based on that those something of this nature, um, I'm I'm not really making a good argument for my own view here.
SPEAKER_00I want to piggyback. I just want you to finish. I like what you're going. Um yeah. Okay, so here's here's my thing. You both you and I both have taught history. I think to go forwards, we go backwards. We bring back the Civilian Conservation Corps. All right. In other words, we rebrand by going back to the New Deal. For those of you who don't know the Civilian Conservation Corps, you had three million young men in it. Nowadays, it can be men and women, and they had planted over three billion trees, built a hundred thousand miles of roads and trails, national parks, totally transformed the West. I say we bring the CCC back, one for the environment. Now, here's my other one. Also, to build a high-speed rail. I want to clean up by creating an elaborate high-speed rail system, the way you see it in Japan, the way uh we see it in France and the Switzerland, what is it, the Tejve or whatever. Um and so we're cleaning up the environment. We're creating environmentally friendly trains that go two to three hundred miles an hour. That's my big idea for spring cleaning is go back to go forward and you build them like on top or underneath the interstate highway system. And so I don't know how you do eminent domain with all that, but if you're already on, you know, the interstate highway system, can you imagine? No, I'm gonna use Wichita, Kansas. If you're in Wichita, Kansas, and you want to go to Denver, that right now is about a seven to eight hour trip. On the high speed rail, two and a half hours. If you were say, hey, I want to go to Kansas City, Kansas City, two and a half hours, it's gonna be an hour. Dallas, five hours away from Wichita, it's gonna be an hour and a half. St. Louis is gonna be an hour and 45 minutes. Can you imagine what that does for like tourism and bringing people together? It's like, hey, it's 8 a.m. on a Saturday. Let's go jump on a 10 a.m. trip uh train, and by noon we'll be down in Dallas and we can hang out for the day and come back at 10 o'clock tonight and be home by midnight. How great would that be? So I'm in on creating the CCC, two parts environment, and the other part building the infrastructure of a high-speed rail. That's my that's my let's clean up America.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so the if you have the big highway system already in the middle, at least in the Midwest, like in Kansas, you have just empty space, mostly for a buffer from from traffic on both sides, I assume, uh, for safety reasons. But put it in there. You could even make it a little elevated or whatever. Like Chicago has the L. Yeah. It's kind of elevated. Um I don't know, but it the opportunity is there. You know who should be in charge? Elon Musk. He's your guy.
SPEAKER_00Oh, and with that, we have now cleaned up America. Oh boy. Oh, jeez.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we we need to get we need to we do need to catch up as far as you know, transportation. I think we do lag behind those areas that you did. The parts of the world that you mentioned.
SPEAKER_00So that was my slightly bigger idea than canceling elementary and middle school graduations. I want to when I talk about cleaning up America, I'm like, I'm sorry, let's just cancel these graduations. There's no reason why. We went to a middle school graduation that was an hour and 45 minutes. I'm like, that's longer than high school graduations. You're just moving next door buildings. What are we doing? Let's clean it up, people. Come on. All right. Well, hey, thank you for cleaning up at this spring cleaning episode. And hopefully that gives you food for thought. Or if you have other suggestions to what to clean up, please text Seth or I and we will get on it. So we're gonna go work on this middle school graduation crap. Um, but otherwise, we will be back soon, and um we appreciate everybody listening, and we hope you have a lovely spring, and we will be talking at you soon. So, Seth, thanks for your wonderful ideas.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_00All right, take care, everybody. See ya.