PILTDOWN MAN AND THE CARDIFF GIANT
Two longtime friends, one a former comedian and the other a world traveler, riff on life, the arts, music, sports, travel and Horehound candy, and follow rabbit holes on just about anything. Much of it tongue in cheek while entertaining themselves and hopefully you. Future plans are interviews and at least one listener.
PILTDOWN MAN AND THE CARDIFF GIANT
(42) "Hell Was Great Yesterday Because It Was Campaign Season-The Colbert Questionnaire For Regular Guys"
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A free return trip to Mexico sounds like pure good news, until you remember the last time involved stone stairs and a head injury. We start there, with weather, mood, and the weird way life hands you a do-over, then pivot into a Colbert Questionnaire-inspired run of personal questions that somehow gets funnier and more revealing the longer it goes.
We talk comfort food and nostalgia with a deep dive on pot roast Sundays and a no-shame love letter to barbecue, then jump to the “one song forever” debate with the Beatles, “Let It Be,” and John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Along the way we hit the power of smell memory (vanilla, coconut sunscreen, eucalyptus), the earliest scenes we can still picture from childhood, and why certain songs like “Ohio” can still stop you cold. If you’re into storytelling podcasts, conversational interviews, and the psychology of memory, you’ll feel right at home.
Then we go full sports history: Bill Russell vs Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain’s ridiculous stats, and why winning, defense, and team context matter when you argue “greatest of all time.” We wrap with the best advice we’ve ever gotten, the careers we wish we’d tried, our hardest English words to pronounce, favorite politicians, and an unexpectedly honest question about cremation vs burial and where you’d want your ashes spread.
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thanks for listening
Joe
Rainy Start And Mexico News
SPEAKER_00Hey everybody, it's Pilt Down Man and the Cardiff Giant. We're looking at episode 42. I'm Joe Flush, and here's my partner, Eddie Penn.
SPEAKER_01Good afternoon. It's after just barely afternoon in Central Kentucky, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00Ten minutes after 12. Yeah, and and uh, you know, is a possibility that we don't have to build that arc afterwards.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's ranged for five straight days, you know, it's hard to say.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, and I don't think I could, I don't think I could do it. I don't know my qubits. Are you a qubit guy?
SPEAKER_01I'm not. You know, I never was really a math guy at all. So, you know, I wonder how many pinky the elephants that would be. I don't know it'd be a ton.
SPEAKER_00Because it had to hold elephants as well. So that's right. Uh yeah, it uh we're we're here and we're dealing with the elements, and Ed's been all alone. He's been on by himself, he's really been sad. Uh all alone again, naturally. Yeah, but tell us the good news. Uh what is it about your vacation? About your vacation.
SPEAKER_01Uh, I got good news uh last night. I've been trying to uh many of you know, or at least some of you know, I I suspect. Yeah, with we've talked about it on our podcast. Have we talked about it? Yeah, it was like episode five. Okay. I had a bit of a head injury in Mexico, and someone would say, How could you tell? But I could tell by the way that I hit the uh the stone stairs and came up with and not knowing where I was. But anyway, make a long story short, I I didn't get any of my money back from the Airbnb folks, and I get that, they're running a business. So um the guy that I uh run it from initially uh texted me last night and said, Would you like, would you like to to come back? And I'll, you know, you've essentially already paid. You didn't get any money back. And he said, I can let you have it for gratis. And I said, That sounds pretty free. Yeah, I I told him that at the time. If I knew what the word gratis meant, that I think we'd be good. But uh anyway, he said, Won't you come back, pick a week out before the end of the year is up, because he's gonna have a long time renter that's gonna rent for him from uh any from him for anywhere from two to five years, he thinks. So I'm gonna I I got that news and I'm gonna prepare for another short trip this time to Mexico.
SPEAKER_00See life is not that bad, Eddie. It it wasn't in that instant. No, yeah. That very millisecond, yeah. I'd go right back to that step that you fell on. Uh fall again, but this time cushion yourself, you know, cushion the blow.
SPEAKER_01Maybe put a pad down at the bottom of the stairs.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's not a bad idea. But that was good news because I wanted to go back to Mexico. My heart sort of remains in Mexico for some reason or another. My friends can't understand why. That's not important to me. I just know that what one person likes, another one doesn't necessarily, and I happen to like that.
SPEAKER_00Well, I've you know, I've been in Mexico, but not not like you have. But uh uh I certainly liked Cancun, that whole area around there, Chichenitsa. Yeah, Tulum is a great place. Yes, and all that. I I liked it, but I noticed that when we were on the bus, so uh as we headed toward Chichenitsa, it was a little scary outside. Yeah, I think you just like saying the word chits and itsa. I do. Yeah, that's a word that you could pronounce pretty easily. Kinda. Kinda, kinda.
Colbert Name Change And The Questionnaire
SPEAKER_00Well, I you know, I thought we ought to uh uh we we both watched uh Stephen Colbert uh do his final questionnaire. Yeah. I mean I've watched him since uh when he was on the daily show and stuff like that. Uh but yeah, he did the Colbert Questionnaire uh just to ask stars about about their lives and stuff.
SPEAKER_01Let me let me ask you a question about him personally, that that I you probably know the answer to. Did you know that most of his family pronounces their last name as Colbert? I didn't know that. And uh he has a he changed, it was always Colbert when he was growing up and at home. And then when he got to Northwestern University, he thought, I like the sound of Colbert, and I could do it pretty easily. I could just that change. And he said, I was the only one in my family that did that. My brother, who's a physician, kept Colbert, and he said, I think another brother or sister kept Colbert. And he said, I think I'm the only Colbert. And surely he wouldn't have done that for an affectation, would he?
SPEAKER_00I don't know, Ed. I mean, uh people sometimes people want to stand out a little bit. And when you've got when wasn't he the 11th child? He's 11 out of 11.
SPEAKER_01And he could have gotten lost in the shuffle easily.
SPEAKER_00And you know, then there was tragedy in that family. His dad and brother, two brothers, I think. Two two brothers were all killed in a plane crash. And uh you don't know. I mean, people like like my grandson, uh Nick, changed the name, has changed the name several times. And uh uh you you have your reasons.
SPEAKER_01Well, you got a name change, not not uh uh officially.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I but well from gnome to plume, I guess. Well, from Jody to Joe was definitely one that I yeah uh kind of and my parents were fine with that.
SPEAKER_01For me, it was Eddie to Ed.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I got to a certain age, I just thought I'd I'd like to lose that probably.
SPEAKER_00I had I had a friend uh in grade school, high school, all that, and she was very short, and so everybody called her little Janie Chilton. And uh there became a time we were told, hey, I'm not little Janie anymore. I'm Jane. And I get that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I it gives you a little bit more gravity.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, seriousness, too. And she's she's somebody I highly respect and still still out there, and I still he'll hear from her every now and then. But we wanted to do something similar to what uh Stephen Colbert did about asking questions of ourselves, and uh we came up with several questions, some of which were the ones we kind of borrowed from him. Well, are we gonna get sued for that, Eddie?
SPEAKER_01Well, we're sort of giving him credit now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're giving him credit, but we didn't give him any money.
SPEAKER_01We didn't give him the credit will work for him.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I think you're right. But okay, let's start out with one.
Favorite Meals And Food Nostalgia
SPEAKER_00Um let's do an easy one. What's your favorite meal?
SPEAKER_01You know how much I like to eat and how much I like food. Uh, but in fact, I posted this on Facebook not long ago. Uh it used to be it used to be for me if I could have peeling each peel in each shrimp, that was a perfect thing for me. I just love shrimp cocktail and that kind of thing. But um when I was growing up, my mother would cook a pot roast and potatoes and carrots and celery, and it would cook on the stove about half the day.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I can remember the the fragrance of that. I'm not gonna call that a smell, that's the fragrance that I that is really more of an apropos apropos um word. But I remember that that meal, and I remember that we it made us sort of happy because we all sat around that dining room table and ate on a Sunday afternoon, you know, it'd usually be a Sunday meal. Yeah and and that brings back uh good memories for me. And seldom did we have really any kind of uh acrimony or anything at the table. You know, it was usually pretty pleasant, and I I remember that meal.
SPEAKER_00I loved it. And it's funny that you said that because I would have thought maybe a fancier thing than you than what you put out there, you know, when you're more of a foodie than I am.
SPEAKER_01Well, you that's funny you should say that because when I was in France, I told my wife, we were in Paris, I said, I'm not interested in any um art on a plate. I'm interested in real French country food. Yeah. We're gonna look for that and we can find that.
SPEAKER_00Do you have any rabbit out there? Yeah, I I try to eat rabbit every day as I go. That uh the you know, I didn't know I liked rabbit that much, but in France, yes, I I liked it.
SPEAKER_01I had it in Barcelona too. That was after you with one of our trips and you'd left and I was there without a credit card, but I had enough money to get rabbits for for my dinner, and so I did.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm glad that what about you? Well, my uh I I guess if you describe my taste, it's mostly variety. I like changing things up, but my most favorite meal, the one I keep coming back to, I love barbecue. I love that. Uh uh it can be ribs, it can be pulled pork. It's it's gotta be pork. Uh, but yeah, I like that kind of barbecue. I like having the baked beans and coleslaw and and uh potato salad and corn pudding. Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01That I love that. You are a country boy.
SPEAKER_00I am. Thank God. And I and I don't think too much about whether it's good for me or not.
SPEAKER_01Well, I don't think, you know, you you couldn't call pot roast and potatoes and gravy and all that stuff necessarily.
SPEAKER_00And I think what if somebody told you now you had to stop eating that though?
SPEAKER_01If you know, I don't eat it much these days.
SPEAKER_00My uh we we cook a little bit differently than that in my house these days, but um but I I'm pretty much 75 years old almost, and uh I'm eating all the barbecue I want. Unless they find, you know, there's a cure for old age. Uh but yeah, those are good ones.
One Song For Life
SPEAKER_00Okay, what about a song that you can listen to? You get one song to listen to the rest of your life. You don't have to listen to it continuously, but then when you do, you got a go-to song.
SPEAKER_01You know, I I thought about that oftentimes, even outside of this podcast. I've thought about that for myself because I like music. And, you know, uh, right away I think about the Beatles because I was really influenced by the Beatles as a young kid. And but I don't necessarily think it has to be them. If I were gonna pick from them, um I would pick maybe Let It Be or a song like that from the Beatles. But I'm just as interested, I would be just as happy listening to any James Taylor song.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And uh get one song. You haven't named one song. Well, let it be. Let it be. Okay, Beatles, I think probably. I I'd like that choice. I mean, there's several that you pick from from the Beatles yesterday.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Michelle, I like it. I like those soft, those soft songs from them, really.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I pretty much liked everything they did. Uh but my song is my song is not from the Beatles. It's uh co-written by Yoko Ono.
SPEAKER_01Of course it is. It is to sing on it, it really is.
SPEAKER_00No, she does not. It's Imagine of John, yes, John Lennon and Yoko. There are other songs out there, that would be my song, but other songs out there like uh Ohio. Oh, I yeah. When I hear that, I cry every time. Very poignant. Cry at that song every time. It puts me right back there. In where? Can't state, yeah. Can't state the shootings and all that. And this song was written just days after that.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, he might be an unusual character, maybe a jerk. Um probably, yeah, but but wow, he he still can pump a song out there. Old Man is another one of his.
SPEAKER_01Talking about Neil Young specifically.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah, oh yeah, I didn't mention him. No. But uh, yeah, uh, and I and I also want to say for you know, Bohemian Rhapsody, every time I hear that, it's a masterpiece. It is, and it's like five songs. I know it counts for five, and it's a long song. So remember what they told them.
SPEAKER_01That'll never work on radio. We can't use that on radio.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's kind of like kind of like Alice's restaurant, uh, which is 17 minutes long. Yeah, and uh they told him it wouldn't play on radio, so he didn't make it for radio. Arnold Guthrie. Yeah, Arl Guthrie. He didn't play and every and every Thanksgiving we turn it on just because they'll love the song. But uh, but yeah, so imagine his mind.
Favorite Smells And A Dark Joke
SPEAKER_00Um what's your favorite smell?
SPEAKER_01Well, I think we're back to that meal that I talked about, if I'm gonna do this the easy way. Uh but on the other hand, um I really I like the smell of vanilla. Oh, yeah. I've always liked it, and uh and I I know that some people find it almost repulsive for some reason. I mean, I've always liked the smell of vanilla. I've also liked the smell uh or fragrance, I should say in this instance, of of coconut oil for uh uh anything that's got coconut oil in it, like uh sunscreen, sunscreen or sun tanning lotion. Yeah, I love that smell because I equate it with the beach and sun and summer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I never I mean I get why you would, but uh that would never be the one that came out for me. Let me back up. It seems like we're not giving just one answer, or at least maybe No, no. But you did say you you voted already.
SPEAKER_01I landed on it already.
SPEAKER_00So You know, a man, a man uh that was a politician uh died, and he went to the pearly gates and uh Tell me it's Trump. Tell me it's come on, it might be I haven't seen the news today. A man goes in there and he talks to St. Peter. St. Peter said, you know, with a guy of your stature, uh, we let it let you choose. He said, Well, I choose heaven, of course. He said, No, well, you spend one day in heaven, one day in hell, and then you vote which one you want to do. So the guy goes, Well, that's strange. He said, But it's the rules, you gotta just do it. So he goes to he goes down to heaven, and there's his friends.
SPEAKER_01Uh to heaven or down to heaven?
SPEAKER_00Well, I think in this way, it's down, it's down, and because it takes a down escalator.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00So, yeah, that's kind of uh you got to picture that. He goes down to hell, and there's all his friends when the door opens and they're playing golf and they're laughing and they're betting horses and they're beautiful women there, and uh people are getting drunk and singing, and it just looks like a great old time. When his 24 hours is up, he goes up to heaven, opens up the gates, and those people are having a great time too. They're singing, they're going cloud to cloud, they're playing harps. Well, what's the difference? Well, his friends are in hell, but uh so so he the he uh he goes, Well, I you know, I'm kind of surprised at my answer. Well, it's time to vote. He said, but I'm gonna choose hell. And so devil says, Okay, he gets on the escalator, goes down, down, down into hell, and uh it's hot. There's lava everywhere. The devil is poking people, it's they're picking up trash and they got boils on them and all. He goes, wait a minute, wait a minute. Yesterday this place was great. And the devil said, Yeah, yeah. Yesterday we were campaigning. Today you voted.
SPEAKER_01Let's see, how'd you get there from uh smelling flavors?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. We got there. Uh I will say that my favorite smell is constantly eucalyptus. It it makes me feel clean. It uh it it relaxes me for whatever reason. I love it and don't have enough eucalyptus in my life, but I do I do burn some incense and things like that to throw it in the air. Yeah, but that would be it for me. Uh what is okay,
Earliest Memories And Family Stories
SPEAKER_00let's go. Uh the what's your early is memory?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I've got I uh and I've had cousins and other relatives and even friends who say, You can't remember back to that point. I can and I do in detail. I remember when I was two and a half and uh uh years old, and my sister was uh my mother was pregnant with my sister. And I remember all the months that pretty much all the months, even up to the time that my sister was born in 1955, I had a pony that I called uh uh blackie. Guess what color the pony was?
SPEAKER_00It's probably white.
SPEAKER_01It was black, and I called it blackie because I was two and a half. And uh I asked my mother if I could ride, and she said, you know, it's cold outside. I don't want to, I don't want to go out there and lead you around on a pony. Besides that you'll fall off and and hurt yourself. Make a long story short, uh, that's a memory that I I eventually went out and eventually I fell off the pony, by the way. Yeah. Eventually I cried, and she said, I told you so. I told you you're gonna fall off. I told you you're gonna cry, but you promised me you wouldn't do either one of those things. And I was two and a half years old.
SPEAKER_00That was your first major fall, huh?
SPEAKER_01It was, yeah. Tells you a little bit about my subsequent falls, I suppose.
SPEAKER_00Well, my I'm a little, you know, I get told the same thing that I'm wrong about this memory. What I remember is it was dark. I was in a bed of some kind, I was crying, and I don't know why I was crying, but I remember feeling somebody pick me up, take me to a rocking chair, and rock me near a fireplace. I didn't see it, I felt it, I smelled it. Uh I'm assuming it was my mom picking me up, uh, but it was just a gentle rock in there and just just relax me. But I can feel I can feel the heat off of that fireplace, even. That's funny. Now, the first one the first one I remember actually seeing something was we apparently lived in Lexington. Mom went to a little embroidery store to get uh yarn or something, whatever. And I remember we walked in and all the women were coming around to stare at me, and I'm hiding behind my mom's skirt. Um you did that until you were 15, though. I it was uh when I was 42, I quit doing that. Uh but I remember all the colored threads and stuff in there, and I was kind of fascinated by all the colors. But that first one about the you know, about being taken to a a chair and all that, I'm sure it's real, but I have no idea my age or anything about it.
SPEAKER_01That's funny because I have that same memory of my grandmother. It was my grandmother picked me up, and she'd sing um she'd sing swing low, the old spiritual, to me in my ear. And and I remember her picking me up and me putting my head on her shoulder, and I'd ask her to sing that song. So you just preceded me by your did we have the same grandmother?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. I wondered if they rocked me and then picked you up later. I think it's possible. You know, I'm older.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're you're older than I am.
SPEAKER_00But uh okay. Uh I
Bill Russell Versus Michael Jordan
SPEAKER_00okay. Here's a question for you. Who was better? Bill Russell or Michael Jordan?
SPEAKER_01Better. That's uh I might reframe that.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01For for for my money, is it is it Michael Jordan or is it Bill Russell? For my money, it's always gonna be Bill Russell. It's always gonna be Bill Russell.
SPEAKER_00Same for me, and not just because I was a Celtic fan. That guy willed them to championships. 11 championships in 13 years that he did, and it set the tone for that team who's now got how many championships? You know, I think they have 18 championships.
SPEAKER_01Yes, which I've said all along.
SPEAKER_00I think if you go back to preceding episode, yeah, you'd find that I said 18. Uh we have to agree on that, and I'm gonna add another name in there just because if we're talking about pure talent, we're talking about pure talent. I think Walt Chamberlain beats all of them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_00And they have dominance, yeah. He wasn't good at free throws, but I thought it was funny because he said uh he said I'm he said, why did he miss so many free throws? He said, We didn't need them.
SPEAKER_01Uh tell the tell the listeners how he shot free throws.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he did. I mean, he tried a lot of different things. You talk about the underhand. The granny shot. Yeah, the granny shot.
SPEAKER_01There were two players that used that.
SPEAKER_00One was Bill Russell, and the other was oh god, no, no, Gold State Rick Berry. Rick Berry. And Rick Berry. He was a 90-some percent fancy. Yeah, Rick Berry. I mean, why didn't why don't more people follow him? Because that was that was unbelievable. Yes, but maybe he's the only one that had that talent.
SPEAKER_01And this is not to no one would ever say Michael Jordan wasn't one of the most Fabulous athletes that you can imagine in a million years.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And with great teams and the major, the main player on all those teams. But if you're just looking at, you know, product, you're looking at Bill Russell all the time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So Chamberlain, uh when he averaged over 50 points a game for a season. And he averaged close to 30 rebounds that game, I think, one season. Yeah, he he was the kind of guy that was so big and so dominant. I really think he got bored at times.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I think so too.
SPEAKER_00Uh and they would say things like, uh, yeah, but you're not getting the assist. And then what did he do?
SPEAKER_01He led the league in assist.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I know who was second that year. I'm pretty sure I know who that. Guy Rogers of the Chicago Bulls, I think was second that year to to Wilt. I think I'm right about that.
SPEAKER_00I I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_01I think that's right.
SPEAKER_00But uh he did things that, and this was with no three-point line, uh, that and only, you know, just a few teams in the league. I know that they had like eight for a long time.
SPEAKER_01He could score any time he wanted. All he had to do was want to. Remember? Yeah. I mean, and Jordan could score it pretty much at will, but he had to work a little bit for it sometimes. Right.
SPEAKER_00Uh Bill Russell was right behind him. Uh, but what he did, he'll he he was the first player that just used defense as his main calling card. And and let everybody else do it. And they put good people around. But I hear people say all the time, well, the Celtics had all those stars around them. Listen, Will played with some pretty good.
SPEAKER_01He had some good, he had Hal Gritter and he had Billy Cunningham, Chet the Jet Walker, uh, Wally Jones. He had a pretty good one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he had pretty good ones. I I think that his concentration on winning was probably less than Bill Russell. Bill Russell was uh Bill Russell was two-time college champion at San Francisco with Casey Jones on that college tour.
SPEAKER_01Right, right. Yeah. And uh what did Wilt do for you? We were talking one day in the past, I think it might have been a few months ago, could have been years. Wilt did something for an encore, though. He did something after his career. He played volleyball.
SPEAKER_00Was he good? He was the best. And and he uh it's just I whatever the guy decided, he did something else with a record too, but uh I'm not sure that Google it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but research.
SPEAKER_00The numbers seem a little bit off, but uh you know, if Will wanted to, I think he couldn't.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. He set his mind to it, he probably could
Best Advice And Being Curious
SPEAKER_01have.
SPEAKER_00Uh Eddie, what's the best advice you've ever gotten?
SPEAKER_01You know, I I was I was thinking about that not long ago. Um and some of it you might say, well, that's sort of what's the word I want to use? Sort of uh whimsical in a way. One of the things, and I truly believe this. My my father, although he didn't do it all the time, you're gonna find this strange that it might have come from my father already. Um then I'm gonna maybe talk about somebody else real quickly. But uh my father said you have a responsibility to put your best foot forward all the time. Did he do it? Absolutely not. In fact, I didn't see it most of the time, but but the sentiment was there about uh dress and carriage and that kind of thing. He said, you know, it's not gonna hurt you to polish your shoes once in a while. It's not. He said, You put it, and that's truly putting your best foot forward. Yeah, literally. Yeah. And he said, it's not gonna hurt you to keep your shoes polished. It's easy to do, it doesn't take any time. And it you can be lazy and not do it and say, I like scuffed shoes. I don't mind scuffed shoes. But people sort of notice people's shoes, or particularly men, a lot of the time. Uh, future employers sort of notice that kind of thing, the detail of that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00Women like it. Women like polish shoes. They do. I mean, they like when guys dress up. Yeah. And that that was one of the many reasons that I never got because that was just I mean, I'm a sly bit. I mean, you can see it. Uh I I'm comfortable. Well, let's just put it that way. I try to be comfortable, but I agree with you that it's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01I think it's a good thing, but but my mother also said, and I and I still can't do it, but she suggested, she said, you don't have to go about everything in life like you're killing poisonous snakes. Yeah. You really don't have to go about it like that. She said, you can lay back a little bit. You can not care a lot of times what people are going to say. You can try to remain calm in a situation that doesn't require you to kill poisonous snakes in any facet of life, you know, if you try if you concentrate on it a little bit. But it's always been hard for me. I go about everything.
SPEAKER_00I you know, I I've had advice from everybody, a lot of good advice.
SPEAKER_01Something like that problem.
SPEAKER_00Something like that, yes. Uh, but I I think one thing that mom said that stuck with me, and that is you can't do everything, but you can do that thing you want to do. You can take that, put your time, energy, money toward that, and you can do that thing. And uh I've exceeded I've exceeded what I thought I could do. I mean, things that I was afraid to dream of, I I did dream of. Put my time, money, energy into that thing. Well, I've I've collected a lot of things. Now, did I get uh perfection in AOs? No. I did not.
SPEAKER_01You got pretty dang get good in a bunch of stuff, didn't you?
SPEAKER_00I I did, and and I have a general knowledge. I'm fun enough that when I'm in uh conversations with people that I don't even know, that I have general knowledge in a lot of things. Uh the these people we met uh in Chicago, uh it was uh, and I'm and I've already forgotten uh it their names, but uh it was Michelle's uncle, I think, and uh cousin and his girlfriend. And those two people uh met at a cafe where they play video. I mean, I'm sorry, board games. It's a board game uh cafe or you know, kind of club. So she went in there as a wingman for somebody, uh playing the old type of games and learning new board games. It's become a it's there's a resurgence in that thing. And uh uh I got in conversation with with them and I I couldn't hardly shut up because it brought back memories when I was a kid. We played board games, card games. I've been in some of my own games. I still got some, I got a card game that I actually have that is uh I I have uh now I've can't well I've got the rights to it if it ever gets published. The problem you trademarked it? Yeah, I did. Really? Yeah, and I I made zero attempt to ever sell it, make it and sell it and do it, all that. It's just because it was fun making it, and I saw people's joy in playing it. It's a pretty damn good card game.
SPEAKER_01Let me let me say something about uh I'm gonna give you a compliment and I hope it's not blowing smoke.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it blows smoke. I could use some smoke.
SPEAKER_01But but what you said about finding things um or being pretty good at at several different things or many different things. Mike, I'm gonna give us I'm gonna give a shout-out to my cousin. I'm not gonna name him, but one time he was in an interview. He's interviewed in in Frankfurt where he lives all the time. He's an artist, yeah, and he's a musician. And they interviewed him on on local television, uh, actually Lexington Television, which is local. Uh, and they they were he he said something like this. In fact, it's almost verbatim, as I recall. He said, You know, I'm pretty good at finding out things that I'm pretty good at. Yeah, pretty good at finding things that I'm pretty good at. Yeah. And that that was that's a skill that he has. And I think that's sort that's been kind to you too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I and you know, I don't care about getting really great at something. I just I enjoy the discovery. I thought like finding something in the corner of my eye and go, wow, I'd like to try that, and then do. Yeah. And I was still like that, but I think you're more so. Well, so you know, mom, mom's advice there. I mean, I would think things like, I like running, but I'd never run a marathon. I would never go to Pamplona run with the bulls.
SPEAKER_01And you did both those things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I did both of those. I ran New York City Marathon twice and and the Smoky Mountain Marathon once.
SPEAKER_01Oh, you're blowing your own smoke now, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm gonna blow some smoke. But but the same, like I grew up with cards, I grew up with uh all those same games and trying to figure out strategies and all that. And my friends that I played with, I man, I miss those days. Those were some of the best days.
SPEAKER_01I remember your cousin when we had him on the podcast, Jim said, I remember those games that you invented, and we played them all the time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's a great memory.
SPEAKER_00So, you know, you got that. It might not be the uh, but I'm gonna
Dream Careers And Why Podcasting Works
SPEAKER_00okay. If you could do any job, if you could, if you could have selected any career, what would it be?
SPEAKER_01Well, if I'm George Costanza, I I I I I think I'm pretty much uh an engineer. And you might say, you could never, you're not an engineer, you you never could be an engineer. That's a whole other thing that we can talk about. Seinfeld, if anybody has any recollection of that episode at all. Yeah. But for me, uh, I think in my mind I've always tossed this up. And the question is, would I rather be Mickey Mantle or Paul McCartney? Because sports and music are always very interesting to me and still are. And I think that's the question. Would I be Mickey Manley or would I be Paul McCartney? And I think I'd be Paul McCartney. That's the profession I'd take. Well, you said he was a bit of a jerk. Yes, you got that going for you. So I think I would be, I would have picked some kind of musician, maybe, because I l I just love music. But those two things have been constants in my life, sports and music, you know, for whatever reasons.
SPEAKER_00I'd love the arts, and they can be anything. Like I'm fascinated by music, which I can't do, which I'm just not any. I mean, you talk about not good at I'm terrible at. Well, you can listen to my guitar playing at the beginning and tell that I'm not. Well, listen, that sounds like Mozart to me. I I can't, I I can't do it, and I've tried lots of different things. And we're gonna have an episode about music. We'll have somebody's bearing both of us in here talking to us. Uh is it Paul McCartney? It's not Paul McCartney. All right, and you know, and it's uh but that'll that'll be fun. But yeah, I enjoy I think com I mean comedy brought the most joy to me because uh you you get to find out immediately whether it works or not. Now, what I'm uh what I think about musicians is they're lucky. They're very rare that they get booed.
SPEAKER_01Uh if they hit a bad note, no one really says anything, you know?
SPEAKER_00Well, Michael Flannery, you like uh talking about jazz man, that was Michael Flannery, and said the great thing about jazz is if I had a wrong note, that's the way I felt. I love that. So, but you like visual art too. You like painting. I do, I like painting, and uh right now I'm doing acrylic pouring and I'm into that. You know what I think you'd be good at? Was that the podcast?
SPEAKER_01I think you'd be good at a podcast.
SPEAKER_00Well, I did decide to to try this, and it was a pain in the butt to get it set up, but uh we're doing it. We are doing it. I mean, this is episode 42, and I think we can make it to 50, especially since your contract doesn't run out before then.
SPEAKER_01It's the same as uh uh Mick Jagger was asked one time early on in his career how much longer he thought he could do what he's doing, and he said I think he thought he could last the band could last another two years, at least that the lifespan of it.
SPEAKER_00Well, you never know. But
Hard Words And Favorite Politicians
SPEAKER_00uh okay, what's the hardest English word do you think to pronounce?
SPEAKER_01The hardest English word to pronounce for me is not is not a Spanish or French word. It's an English word. Because of those other two languages, there are very there are lots of words that I have difficulty pronouncing, as you probably know. But the hardest English word that I that I'm going to try to pronounce right now as we speak is need a drum roll. Statistics. You did it. Statistics. I did it twice in a row, but I really have to think it through because if I'm in just a casual conversation and that word comes up, I sort of rolled it out of my mouth somehow or another, and it's a semblance of well, I I would tell you my favorite uh word that I have a hard time pronouncing, but I can't.
SPEAKER_00I mean, that's the reason I can you feel it? I can't know. I there's so many of them, Ed, that I get caught up in. And you know, I'm getting to be, especially when you get new medicines and stuff, you see the thing on there and you just go, cloppadaggle. Yeah, I have no idea. And I you get they then if you do that, then they'll pronounce it correctly for you. But I give up. I'm I if I can't do it, I can't do it. It seems like a lot of times I don't know what my problem is. My brain will not turn that word around. And that pops up in the spike.
SPEAKER_01So when you try to pronounce something, do you see it spelled first? I do. I see it spelled on a blackboard right here, and I just try to read it left to right.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, right to left would work maybe.
SPEAKER_01But but uh can you pronounce the word moccasin? Moccasin, yeah. There you go.
SPEAKER_00A lot of people can't for some reason or another. Oh, that's not that hard for me. What's your favorite all-time politician?
SPEAKER_01You know, uh I've thought about that and and I have two or three in mind. Certainly George McGovern was the politician of our generation, really, because he was sort of he was sort of cool. You know, he had a cool vibe. He had a cool fact, and he was liberal, and uh he was running during he ran in the presidential election of 72, didn't he? So that was a different time. We had different things culturally and socially going on, and I really, really liked him. But uh I'm gonna name two others, uh, and you don't mind. We're in the our heads. Uh I really liked Jerry Brown uh for whatever reason. The one of the specific reasons was, and I can be really shallow, I'm really shallow in a lot of ways. And yeah, I think you know that in most ways, yeah. In most ways, but he dated Linda Rodstadt for crying out loud. Yeah, and that gave him the full, the the full cool vibe that you could possibly have, in my opinion. So, and I'm gonna name one other, and it's he's sort of infamous in his in his his famous oscillity. Uh, in Huey Log Long, the former governor of uh Louisiana, and who was used as the uh as the central figure of all the king's men, uh by Robert Penn Warren. Uh no relation. Um, but he was an interesting character to me and just totally corrupt, and no one could do anything about it. Yeah, it was interesting to me. He just rolled right through.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he was he he rolled with an iron fist, that's for sure. Uh who's yours? Oh, yeah, I wanted to say Martin Van Buren. You know, you know why Martin Van Buren? No, he was the first U.S. president born in the U.S.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, all the rest of them were born in England, and he he's from Ohio, I think, isn't he?
SPEAKER_00I'm pretty sure that he is. No, my my favorite, but just because of the quote, when it was John Quincy Adams, when he left office, and I think it was Madison that followed him. I think that's right. But his his speech to Madison was I hope you're as happy coming in here and being president as I am leaving it.
SPEAKER_01That's a great quote, man. It doesn't necessarily rank up there with as not what your country can do. No, no, but in a different way.
SPEAKER_00It does, yeah. But okay, we got one last question for
Cremation, Ashes, And Closing Laughs
SPEAKER_00you. Cremation or burial?
SPEAKER_01Without question, without question, it's cremation for me. Without any thought whatsoever. Well, obviously, I've put some thought in it prior, but um, I I I I hate the idea of being in a casket and for people parading by me. I suppose if it was a closed casket and they had a photo of me, and you know how much I enjoy pecky photos, if they had a photo of me, maybe from Pamplona, I'd be kind of cool.
SPEAKER_00Well, what if they uh what if they had one last selfie with you? I mean, that's it's your last chance to get a selfie.
SPEAKER_01I'd absolutely hate that. I would despise that. I wouldn't like anything.
SPEAKER_00You wouldn't care about it, you'd be dead.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's so but creation would be the way that that I would go. In fact, I I haven't written that in my will, but I plan on doing that one day, maybe.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, uh I mean I do think it's like a serious question because um neither one of those are very good for the environment. Oh, I know. Uh and uh if you think about it, I think cremation is a worse, actually.
SPEAKER_01But uh ask me where I would want those ashes spread.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, or do you want them to spread? I don't I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I yeah, you're dead. Yeah, I I'm not really sure, but I think I've always thought that uh my parents grew out uh up out in a rural community called Pink's Mill, and my f my cousins still have farms out there, and it backs up, the cemetery actually backs up to the to the farm. And I always thought I really have fond memories of that place. Go out there and spread those ashes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I want to be a Kingland race course. I think that's a good thing. And and they have also already said that Keeneland doesn't like when people try to spread ashes. You could do it without yeah. My my daughter said, no worry about that. I'll get it done. Uh but uh you know, you know, the one thing you were talking about, uh not wanting to be buried. I always think it's funny you see these uh movies and stuff, bad guys grab somebody and they're taking them out to kill them, and they want these people to dig their own graves.
SPEAKER_01Would you do that? You know, it depends on whether we'd had a hard rain lately or not.
SPEAKER_00It it gives you a little more time, but the time's not that great.
SPEAKER_01It's not really good. I'd be sweating, wouldn't you? You'd be sweating a lot.
SPEAKER_00And I'd probably, you know, I have difficulty digging a hole because it was just the one foot. I've got a bad foot, but it might it might buy me quite a bit of time. I'd I'd have to say, hey, look. I'd have to say, you know, I I know we're gonna bury me here. I know you're gonna kill me and bury me here, but damn, I could I fellow could use some help. You know, get over here, just dig a couple of shovel bowls. Okay, well, I guess we've I guess we've answered enough questions so that you know a little more about us.
SPEAKER_01We wanted to know that much. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's been fun. Eddie, why don't you get us out of here?
