Welcome to Vermont Ketchup with Matt, I'm Matt, Glow, I'm Glow, and I'm Adam. We are Weekly Rundown of everything happening in the Green Mountain State. Took a couple weeks off, I was in Florida, how was it? It was fine, it wasn't great, it was fine, a lot of family, it rained almost every day. So I couldn't even get out to the beach, I couldn't do the thing that you go to Florida for. so it was just like any good breweries or anything yeah they're hard to find in Florida yeah I had barbecue twice it was fine yeah I'm not trying to downplay it was just like whatever it was yes it was very much like a you're visiting family visiting family that was the whole point and that's what I did a lot of too much that was mad by the way so I see y'all got some fresh cuts and you're telling me about the spot you go to, which it seems like a hidden gem. We don't know the name of it. Well, it's one of those chains. I'm guessing supercuts. I could check. Where is it? It's on Shelburne Road in the new shopping plaza that has the big Hannaford's in. Oh, and there's a gym there, too. Yeah, crunch. That's right. You get a crunch at the gym. Yeah. That's where I go to get a pump sometimes. That's right. Yeah. You can go and get your hair cut and pumped. We gotta get pumped first, probably. Well, no, maybe, I don't know. They don't wash. Again, it's just like an old-fashioned barber shop. You just walk in, because you're not going to get all the fluffy towel. We're not paying for that. No, like two bits for a shave, nothing like that? But isn't it pretty simple? And I've enjoyed every single male cutter I've had there. They're called cutters, huh? Well, they're not. I shouldn't. Barber? No. Hairdresser? Hair stylist? Hairstylist. I think that's better. Mine was a little too chatty for my... because he wasn't really interested in anything I had to say. You know, everything was about him. I kind of prefer that. Me too! You can talk as much as you want as long as I don't have to respond. I even said that one time to a real chatty person who kept asking me questions. I said, look, you can talk all you want, just don't ask me any questions. You're talking about yourself. I'm interested in you. Just pretend I'm asking you questions. Yeah, it wasn'that. And it was fast, too. Last time I went to the place that you and I normally go to on Main Street, it took forever, because... It's popular. It's very popular. But no, I was right in there, but the person was slow. She said everything really... She was very slow. I think, okay, if you're a stylist and you're listening to this, email the show, because I have this conspiracy that some stylists go purposefully slow to make it seem like they're doing more work to make you want to give a better tip. That could be. You ever got that vibe? No. Because I mean, all of our hair's closures are probably the most complicated, but like Matt and I, come on. I actually have a card that one of the hairstylists at the barbershop that we go to, she wrote it out on the back of this card. This is what he likes, a 5 here, a 4 here, a 3 here. I handed the guy the card, he looked at it, I said, is that okay? He says, perfect. And I was in and out of there in 10 minutes. Yeah. I got a 6. Can you tell? No, because I don't- Because it doesn't look like, you mean a 6 on the side? Yeah. Okay, yeah. It does look like a 6. I guess so. I remember he explained to me, so what do you want, a 4, a 5, or a 6? And I was like, well, can you explain to me? what the difference is. And he's like, uh, why did I ask? You just give her a five, it's in the middle. So anyway, it's a six. Because he was a five, and at one time even a four, which that was getting a little too close to the skin there. You're like, I might get drafted. They might be confused for a Nazi. Oh, well, there's that. I don'think so, though. I don'think you're Hitler's type. Thank you. That's a compliment. Thank you. Alright, anything else that I missed in the last interview? Is it great clips? Great clips? That's it! Great clips. You said a lot of male stylists. Well, so far there have been three that I've seen there. When went just a week ago, it was two men. And then another woman... And then a woman showed up later. Right. And then you had one... One time you told me you went in there and there was a woman there, but she wouldn't get off her phone. Right. So, I'm always hearing barber stories. I got a haircut in Florida. The first place I went to was a place I went to with my entire childhood. It's called the Bent Pole, because out front there's a bent pole. And it used to have no name. It was just like, just a barber shop. But then the owners changed. I went in there, a bunch of dudes. I'm like, okay, this is probably good. People are super slow. This woman keeps talking and complaining. She gets a phone call. She takes it. In the middle of cutting this guy's hair. And then she hangs up and she looks at him and she's like, I have to go email my parole officer. It's going to be a while. And she just walks away. And he's in the middle of his hair. What can he do? He can't go anywhere. He's like that guy in the in the cab in the airplane. Yeah, just what? So I was like, all right, that's it for me. So I got up and left and like pulled in gas station and search for another spot. Walked in. Yeah, eight minutes. Boom, boom. Yeah, but that's a great story. Yeah, I gotta go email my girl. It's gonna be a while. Guessing she's not the fastest emailer. Basically, and you know, she ain't making it up. That was a legitimate thing. It wasn't like, oh, I have an emergency. No, she's walking into the room to email her parole officer. And, Skull, you're telling me the guys that you go to, one of them is a, what is he, does something for drag queens? Yeah, he makes the costumes for drag queens. And he told me all the stuff he uses and how he's got different projects everywhere. You know, he sounded a lot like me, but I was happy to just listen to him. You know, just, I enjoyed it. What is it, like 20 bucks, too? For us, it's 16. Because we're seniors. Yeah, I think it has been going up every six months a dollar. So it's now 16 for us, I think, 17 for you. I mean, we don't get that much. I don't remember. We paid for both, but I don't know. He gave me a little beard trim and mustache trim. That's extra. He did? I asked him to. They do the eyebrows? Oh, yeah. So happy. Can I do the eyebrows by myself? Yes, I've already showed you how. I have to. Are you kidding? Do you have a machine or do you use a comb? I have a machine. That has a setting on it? I just kind of do it carefully. You don't have a guard on it? I do, I have, but I don't know which one to use. I don't know. I just do it because it gets kind of out of, you know, there's, It's just like, I wake up in the morning and they're out of control. Oh, me too. It's like, where did they come from? Me too. You know? So I have to do it between haircuts because I don't get that many haircuts. A safe way to do it without using a clipper or whatever is comb your hair up towards your forehead and then press it down and then use a scissor, of course, cut carefully and you could see the hairline and all the extra hairs that are sticking up. Because you're holding it down and it's above your eyebrow line. See? I need someone to demonstrate that. Like, because it's one of those things where if you mess it up, now your eyebrow is weirdo for a couple weeks. I mess it up all the time. Can you tell? No, but also I'm not judgy. I'm going to judge you because of your eyebrows? I can't. If one is less than the other. Someone would. I'm saying, I'm worried about the mistake is there's nothing. Right. Like, my guy has one eyebrow. Right. But if you do one, you have to do both. I can't just be the guy with one eyebrow. One is worse than zero. Right, unless the one is completely straight across, the spaceless brow. All right, but yeah, I think I would prefer, if I'm getting my hair cut, I want the guy who is making drag queen costumes, right? Yeah. If the guy was like, yeah, in my part time, I do woodwork. I'm like, no. You want that guy. You want my guy, yeah. But this last one was, I loved it too, because I was wearing my hat, and he made a reference to... It looks like what? Mickey Mouse? Minnie Mouse? Minnie Mouse. Is that a positive reference? Because he's from Florida, from your neck of the woods actually. And I asked him a couple of places, what he thought of them, you know, to move to. He was chatty. All I had to do was ask one or two questions, and it was perfect. I love that and you could take your time cutting my hair when you're chatty and you want to just talk and talk That's fine with me. I mean go ahead take your time Yeah, I wish I had that. I don't know the right way to say like what you said Like you can talk to me, but I will not respond Just pretend you're cutting a dead person's hair I'll take it in. I'll respond twice. You just tell me when. When's it my turn? Give me a cue. Tap my head twice. You know what it is? You have to come up yourself with the right question. That could get them going. Have you ever had any trauma in your life? The next thing you know, they're clipping your scalp. What's your question? Do you have one? No. But you have to have one. I don't. I said you have to have one. I didn't say I have one. Are you all ready to get into it? Yeah. So. It's no national day, is it? It's Happy New Year's Eve. Happy New Year's Eve. So what? Yeah, right. That's a what. Do you guys do anything? No, I think it's a sign of a happy marriage, I realized. We both came to the independent conclusion we're not doing anything and we just sort of... We don't even have to say it. It's like we're not doing anything, we're not staying up, we're not... It's like our Christmas. We didn't say, well, I'm not going to buy you a present. We just knew that weren't going to buy each other presents. And it was a great Christmas. Yeah, and we do that with birthday gifts, too. You know, it's like that kind of thing is. And it relieves us of so much, you know, because after a while, how much more clothes am I gonna buy for him, right? He doesn't want it, first of all. So, yeah, there's nothing else that's left. That's just a lot of stress. It is some national days, but they all suck, so. New Year's Eve is... All right, we'll go New Year's Eve. Are y'all doing anything? No. We'll be in bed by 8.30, like we have been all week. Fair enough. Moving on. So, some of these stories are from... At least three weeks ago, I think. Well, yeah, so I don't know which ones you want to talk about. I kept in the ones I thought we should mention. Still relevant? Yeah, I got rid of some, a bunch of them. But I thought some of them, you know, carry some weight still. So, the first story, Phil Scott. Governor Phil Scott. Here you go. Was he the most popular governor in America? Yes, he is. Approval rating of 64%. That's high. Does Christmas have an approval rating of 64%? I don'think so. You can get 64% of people in this country to politically agree on something. That's unheard of. That is unheard of. You know? What do you think makes him so popular? I don't know. I think that it's that we don't see him very much. Right. You don't hear from him very much. He's not out there throwing himself out there. what like some of the people in government in Vermont do. Remember our last lieutenant governor? She was on the news every two days for doing nothing. You know, and Phil Scott's out there. He's actually working every weekend to still help the flood people. You know, he works hard. He doesn't crow about it. You know, you can't get two words out of the guy. That's a true Vermonter. そうだね。彼はプログレッシブを持っていると思う。モニク・ペイリアーの中で、彼はクレイジーなことを言っている。彼はまだビートを取ることができる。でも、デモクラットはプログレッシブを持っていない。彼らは誰かをチェックする必要がある。どう思う? I was just going to say that, yeah. Nothing. You don't read about anybody in his administration. I mean, there's worthless people in his administration. We know that. We'll talk about one in a few minutes. But, yeah, he just does his thing and doesn't, you know, yap about it, you know, on the news. And he's very good at communicating. He's right there with the disasters, you know. He's got his boots on out there in the street of Barrie or something, you know, that kind of stuff, so... Yeah, but I mean, what's he really doing? He's not clearing debris. But that's who he is. He's not a lawyer. I mean, he might have been. I don't know what he was. I know he was a race car driver. But he's more of a country guy. So, anyways. Yeah, but the old legislature, they're only 40% of the people. 40% of the people think they're doing good. Right, but that's a whole, right? But if you dig in, I think if you say like, what about your representative? Yeah, oh yeah, they love me. I don't even know who ours is. You're looking at the wrong person. I usually know stuff like that. I bet I could pick the name out of a list, but I can't come up with it off the top of my head. There's probably more than one anyways, in this county that represents us. I don'think much of them either, but I'm not one of the 40% that thinks they're doing a good job. Yeah. I mean, for us, it's like, well, housing is out of control, nothing's been done about that. Homelessness is out of control, nothing's been done about that. It's like, it's just do something, at least try something, I guess is where I'm at. Everything gets in committee and stays there for two years until the next, you know, the next legislature comes in. You know, that's what it is down there. Nobody wants to do anything, or they can't get anything done. I gotta get one of these committees, a little cush job, I'd be a good committee member, I'd bring bagels or something, let's hang out. You wouldn't ask a lot of questions? No. Don't bring me along. Adam, how do you vote? Present. Okay. Joan Shannon wins the Democratic nomination for Burlington Mayor, which means she will be the Burlington Mayor. It does. プログレッシブの選手と闘っているのがエマ・モルヴェーニ・スタネックさんです。彼女は優勝することはできません。彼女たちの選挙権はありますか? 選挙権? 私たちが選挙権を提出したことは知らない。私たちが選挙権を提出したことは知らない。私たちが選挙権を提出したことは知らない。私たちが選挙権を提出したことは知らない。 Yeah, so well, we'll see. I mean, I don't know what she's gonna do. I mean, I like her as As I said before there was what three or four women running for this nomination. I would've been fine with any of them Oh the three Democrats. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, I like them all it was a Karen Paul Karen Paul and CD No, our friend Madison No, I wouldn't find a lot of them. But yeah, I think once Joan Shannon got the endorsement of the police, it was like, oh, there you go. That's all it took, right? Well, that's actually... For the most part, yeah. And the firefighters. Well, yeah, that doesn't... But the police, that was important. Could you imagine if one candidate had the police and one had the firefighters? That never happens, right? It's kind of a combo. Right. Yeah, I mean, that's what put her over the top. I think if you go by signs in people's yards, I think it was a toss-up between Karen Paul and Joan Shannon. Yeah, and it would be with me, too. But that police thing, yeah, that did kind of swing my vote a little bit more into this one. This could be a bloodbath against the progressives. Yeah, it might be. But you know, we're blaming the progressives. No one blames Moreau. No. Like, he also didn't do... I'm trying not to curse. He didn't do... Yeah. Yeah, right? I'm like, what's the non-curse word? Anything. He didn't do anything. Yeah, you know, because he'll always be kind of a progressive to me anyways. What? He was at one time. Come on. Mr. Business Build It Everywhere. Yeah, but he's changed. I think it's crazy, you know, downtown. Oh, the amount of building? Yeah. And yet, they still have the auditorium. And still, we don't know what's happening with the old Y building. Somebody's looking at it to put it in a hotel again. Again? Again. Which one? The YMCA? Yeah, the Y. But the other place, they should just tear down the auditorium. It's too bad, though. We've gone over this. Yeah, I know. Old news. There's another story we've gone over. Unemployment having problems again with their computer system. So crazy and the next one is kind of a combo of like the cost of like this IT renovation and I was thinking about like last time we were talking which was like what a month ago we're talking about like updating these systems and Glo mentioned something about like people don't want to update it because they know the one way and they'll retire or quit if they to learn a new way. I've thought about that so much since you said that. First of all, that makes me very sad, if that's true. Second of all, I say, so F'ing what? Get them out. Like probably the new system, we don't need that many people, because probably the software can do, can at least eliminate a couple of those jobs. Right. The problem is they've messed up before down there on hiring somebody to do work, and they do a terrible job, and the software doesn't work. They contract the wrong vendor. Right. Whoever the cheapest one is, you know, that's the problem. You know, you get somebody who really can't even do it, but they're the cheapest one. Why can'they just like pick up the phone and call like Maryland and be like, what are you using? Does it work? That's what I do. Right. Massachusetts right next door. Right. Ask them. Right. Like call 20 states What are you using? Like take some notes. Okay, based on what we've found. This is probably the best way to go It's gonna be a little bit more expensive but in the long run Yeah, call other states who are in the 21st century As opposed to us. Right. I mean, don't call Alabama. No. But who knows? They might be fantastic at this because maybe they have a lot of claims. You know, who knows? Yeah. Like, how long does that take? A week? To have all those meetings? These people, these people have been waiting months to get their unemployment. They can't, and they can't, and they can'try to, they call, they can't get through. It's the same old story. And I wonder if they drive to the building if it's locked. They won't let you in. Really? They can't? Wow. I don'think so. What's happened? People would be too pissed off. You know, there would be scenes every day. There are so many things like this. Like at my work, there's different departments. And when you go to their website, I'm like, who can I just call or talk to or where can I go? There's no office listed. There's no phone number. It's just the name of the department with the email address. I'm like, I'm not even... This would be a 5 minute conversation, instead it's going to be 20 emails. I went to Vermont Insurance Company down in Barrie. Montpelier, you mean. It's in Montpelier or Barrie, wherever it's around, somewhere. East Montpelier, West Barrie. Yeah, and we walk in the building. There's actually nobody there that can help you. But we got real lucky because there was a woman there who couldn't work from home that day, so she had to come into the office. She's like getting her flooring replaced or something. She's like, damn it, you're lucky! Yeah, and I got so lucky because she's the one that helped me. She's the one that fixed the problem that had been going on almost a year. Do you remember her name? Yeah, Michelle. Michelle A. Okay, we'll leave it at that. She's great. We don't want this person getting flooded with money. She needs help. That's right, that's mine. Yeah, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, you know, Vermont, they're terrible. I mean, they give good service, but they don't always know what they're talking about. So, it's better than Medicare. But yeah, there was nobody there. I just happened... I'm surprised the door was unlocked. She's probably kicking herself, like, damn it, why didn't I unlock it? Something similar, my wife getting her green card, there's a ton of paperwork and all these hoops you have to jump through and we're waiting for something and it was taking way too long and just like she went up to like we have in St. Albans there's a passport like one of like five passport offices in the country it's up there for some reason and walked in he's like can anyone help us like oh yeah come on in like it's like they were sitting around waiting for stuff to do and like where was this St. Albans oh really and like helped her and she's like wow like this would have been like months of waiting and like they got it done like the same That's nice to know, too. I'm not saying you should flood their office, but... Yeah, I know. Homeland Security, they spend a lot of money in Franklin County. Well, they're closer to the border. Right, they have all the immigration stuff. So that takes us to the cost of upgrading these systems. I'm trying to remember what I read when I read this, but... 30 million? Oh, okay. I'm sure money well spent. But when I think about it, that's like what, only 15 streetlights? Right, right. I always forget where to point. Oh, the Williston Road. Yeah, like the Williston Road and Dorset Street intersection, that was what, like 2.5? Yeah. So maybe this is a deal. I don't know. They just have to, if it's that much money, which I'm not sure if it's a lot or not enough, I really don't, hire the right people. Because last time you didn't. And the people I always dealt with in that department of the state when I worked there for 15 years, they were horrible. The people who would come and fix your computers and stuff, they didn't, you know, near the end they got better, but for a few years it was terrible. And none of our cameras worked, couldn't get in to fix it. So in 2017, Governor Phil Scott created the Agency of Digital Services. Three years later, Secretary John Quinn set up a state fund to pay for ongoing state IT projects, but there's currently no ongoing revenue. In order for funds to be released, then independent reviews have to be performed, benchmarks have to be met, industry standards need to be met, all the information needs to come back to the legislature before funds are released. Well, do that. Do those things. It's going to take years. That will take years. Yeah. I mean that was, for example, we had no cameras at the rest areas. They were there, they didn't work. So I went to a hearing down in Montpelier with a committee, with Dick's, the guy that has the farm stand in Colchester. Mira? Mira? Oh, whatever his name is. Oh, Mazza. Mazza. I got you there. Dick Mazza, I think. Dick Mazza, Dick Sears, the guy from Bennington. But we had a meeting, and they were stunned that there was no cameras. It had like seven or eight of the rest areas in the state. But you know how long it took them to get it? Three years. They were shocked. This is terrible, we need to get on this immediately. Three years later. Yeah. They could have just gone to Costco and hired a militarist. Exactly. Really? Bing, bang, boom, you got yourself a security system. Right? I mean- But it's got to be independent review. Oh, Jesus. And we have to figure out who's the right vendor. We have to interview them. We have to go through all the process. And we got to go through each department in the state to make sure everything's, you know, it's like- But really, the problem is that none of this affects the people in Montpelier, in the legislature. They're not filing for insurance. they're not dealing with, you know, unemployment claims, they don't give a shit. They're not fostering children and getting them lost in the system, you know what I mean? Like, they're just like, doesn't affect me. Now, if the banking system were to fail, that'd be fixed muy pronto, I'm sure. Yeah, it's a big source of frustration. It didn't look like we had like all this COVID money just a couple years ago. We're like, what do we do with it? Where'd it go? Where did all that money go? I think we're sitting on it. I think they've got it stored somewhere. I think that'd be my one complaint about, well not my one complaint, but a major complaint about Phil Scott is like, he could open the purse a little bit more, I think. God, I can't imagine they spent all of it. I don't know. Unless it was just to pay for hotels for homeless people, which costs a lot of money. It does. All right. Moving on. Yeah, moving on. I mean, do you want to jump ahead to the homeless story? There is one coming up. Sure. Alright, let me move this around real quick. So I guess we'll start with the City Place fire. You wanna jump into that, Matt? Okay. Oh, here it is. Yeah, Burlington Fire Department had to respond to a fire, reported bulldozer fire at City Place at 2.30 in the morning. What's City Place again? That's the hole. Oh, okay, I thought so. That's the hole. It's not a place, it's a hole. Well, it'supposed to be a place. The city hole. Calling it Burlington's best hole is not the best marketing. We're going to call it city place. It'll eventually be something if these fires don't keep happening. They say the bulldozer was engulfed in a fire when they arrived. And they were saying it was hard for them to get to. So they're like, how does someone get in here and start this fire? You think someone's like the old Molotov cocktail over the fence? I don't know, but they don't even know who caused it. So is it suspicious, or it is for now? I'm sure if there's a bulldozer on fire at 2.30 in the morning. That happens all the time. Was it a Tesla? Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah. So do you think this is someone who is just a crazy person who's like, I like starting fires? Probably. Or do you think this is someone who's trying to send a message? Oh, yeah, it could be to this or something, you know, I don't know this was this an act of terrorism construction terrorism Could have been or just is them trying to slow down their own project. They know they're not gonna meet their deadlines What do you think of bulldozer costs well says here the Whoa 400,000. No, that's all that's all for a bulldozer Well, okay. Maybe it depends on the size. No, that's way too much, I think. Oh, it is? Oh. Maybe not. There are different sizes. There are. That's true. My uncle had one from 1955 in his garage. Holy crap. Yeah, they are, well... Am I right? More than you guys? Yeah. For once? It really depends, like... You always are, honey. Oh, no. Maybe I just looked at the wrong thing first. Now I'm on the shopping tab. Oh, now I have to eat dirt, right? Is that what it's called? There'such a wide range, and like, do you want one from 2000? You know? It's interesting, they list them, like, we have miles, they have them by hours. I can get you a 2000 case 550G LGP dozer with 1200 hours on it for 7500. I can get you that by January 6th. We cruise around the backyard just digging stuff up. Build whatever you're building back there. Then I got this other one, 2019 John Deere 950K dozer with almost 4,000 hours on it. And that's going to cost you 600 grand. And that's an old one. Well, yeah, 2019. So I'm guessing these ones in the city place were not brand new. But, right, that's an assumption. Okay, yeah, there's a, yeah, I'm learning here now, there's a lot of different kinds of bulldozers. But yeah, there's a website called Rubby, R-U-B-B-I. I mean, it's Rubble. You get classes, which would make more sense. Which sells bulldozers. Back to the story, a short time later, at 3.49, crews responded to a fire at a homeless encampment off Battery Street. behind Foam Brewery oh I'm sure Foam loves it yeah I mean it'still a little wooded and everything but it's on a cliff pretty much it was ignited by a tipped over candle you think that was a homeless person who's like you know I'm homeless and all but I gotta have my yanky clean cotton scent just to relax me in the evening. Wow. Yeah. Two fires in one night, but they're not related. Probably not. Oh, I don't know. Do you suspect foul play? Nobody knows anything. That's true. Nobody knows anything. I will mark that down as part of our show's title. And then this other story, which is old, is like, homeless encampments are being monitored for safety. Really? Recent events seem to suggest otherwise. Yeah, it's... I wonder how many homeless encampments there are in Burlington. You said you saw some tents in South Burlington. I can't remember where now. Yeah, how do you define encampment? It was it... Oh, right there on Battery Street, a battery park. That was tent after tent. That's right, I think it was there, maybe in one other place. Yeah, I think there'some in the woods by the 189. So what's in a camp, like five tents? How do we define that, do you think? I would say five. Five? And is this city approved? No, I don'think any of them. Oh, I see. Is the city approved? The city tents? The city's bringing out tents? These are tents. They're city tents. Nah, there's none of that. Yeah, it's all just wherever they can find it. I'm trying to imagine if I was homeless. And in this situation, I'm not married. Would I want to be part of an encampment? Or would I want to be just solo in the woods somewhere, like, just leave me alone? I mean... Definitely leave me alone. Leave you alone? Yeah. Only because of the other people probably not really being the type you want to befriend. That's true. Yeah, you don't know. Well, there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of drug use and that kind of stuff. And I don't want to be around that. I'd only want to hang out with the new homeless. With the new homeless? Yeah. The people who maybe lost their job. A couple bad decisions or unfortunate events, rent got jacked up, car got repossessed, lost your, you know, like those kinds of things where it's like a series of unfortunate events, not that you're a drug user or mentally ill, just you're like, well, I'm on the streets now. How would you tell them apart? Oh, I bet you could tell them apart. I mean, scent. That's true, yeah. That would be the first clue I would imagine. How many shopping, a strand at shopping carts or around their tent. Also just in general demeanor, you know? Yeah. Like if someone is homeless and they seem very comfortable being homeless, I'd probably avoid that person. Maybe I'd be drawn to them because they could teach me their ways. I don't know. I don't know, I just, it just. These are questions to consider in the new economy, Matt. Oh, I know. We all need to think about these things. I look at it, I just feel so sad, you know, for humans to be in that situation, no matter what the cause is, you know? It's just, you know, they're irrelevant, pretty much, to society. Well, well, it's too bad. And Vermont has one of the worst rates of homelessness in the country. Yep. Really? Where do you think we rank in the 50 states globe? So we're the worst? We're not the worst. Oh, so one is good and 50 is like you're the worst? Opposite. Okay, so first is the worst. Who do you think is the worst? Why, no, I'm asking you. You just said Vermont. No, we're not the worst. You said we're the worst. Oh, that's okay. But who's on first? Okay, okay, I get it. Gracie Allen. First, let'see. I don't know. Okay. I can'think of it. Okay, wait. Give me another chance. There's only 50 states. It's not Vermont, so. So you're down to 49. Okay. It's not Alaska. Okay. It's not Hawaii. We're talking continental. Yeah, yeah. What do you think, Matt? I just read this. I've already read the story. Matt reads ahead. Matt does his homework. Okay. That's why I put you on the spot. No, it's okay. Okay, California. California is number four. Hey, I'm on the page. You're on the board. Ding, ding. Good answer, good answer. So, New York is number one. Oh, New York City, you know, every time I thought of New York, I thought of upstate New York, because, well, you know, we're right across from it. Well, it's New York State. Yeah. So, and then Vermont is number two. Whoa, holy smokes. Yeah, so New York has 53 out of every 10,000 New Yorkers are homeless. Vermont has 51 out of every 10,000. Wow. And the next is Oregon and then California. If you look at the story, they have a map of like a kind of a color, a coded map of like a color coded map of like worst to best. Darkest is worst. But yeah, it's a lot. And when I think of New York, I'm like, glow, I think of New York City, but why the hell do you think people come to Vermont? Or they don't come here, they come here, then they become homeless? Is that what we're thinking? I think that's what it is. You think so? Drug problem, housing. Yeah, because I don'think we're giving them, we're not, like some states give people like that a lot of money to live on. I don'think we're doing that too much. So, drugs, lack of housing, lack of entitlement programs, I hate to call them that, but whatever, safety net programs I guess is what the progressives would say. What are those top four states that all have in common? They're blue. Very blue. So, counterpoint, in these other red states, are these people in prison? Right. Yep. So, I mean, is that the solution? And the red states are the ones that are sucking off the teat of the federal government, too. Right. Yeah, that is crazy, though. But yeah, you're right, they are bright blue states. Well, Oregon. I don't know how blue Oregon is. Portland is. I know. I think it's mixed. California's a mix, too. That's true. I guess we all are mixed. But if you look at this, the homelessness over time, 2000 and I'll go 13, 10 years ago, 1,454, now we're at almost 300. So more than doubled in 10 years. And those numbers have to be undercounted, right? There's no way they're an actor. I mean, they're not tagging them and releasing them, right? There's no way that they'd actually know how many homeless people there are in the state. No, I see more and more of them all the time out on Shelburne Road. And another thing I've heard so much of this lately is parents having their adult children living with them. Like, I think that is very common. It's big. Yeah. And like, you're not homeless, but you're lucky you have rich parents, or at least parents that will take you in, that are alive, that can afford to take you in and that will take you in, you know? Yeah. We're going back to where people used to live, you know, three generations. Maybe that's the way. Yeah. Remember that? I grew up with that. Next door. Yeah. Like I talked about the Italian families that lived on the first and second floor, they were all related and they were already three generations in each one. Yeah, people don't do that anymore. Well, except in probably certain areas of the country, but yeah. And then their brother lived across the street and they would talk across the street. In other words, instead of crossing the street, they would scream across the street. Italians? All loudly? I just hope they weren't using their hands. Alright, so yeah, Vermont, number two. Maybe next year we'll be number one. Oh, by the way, this report was from January of 2023. That's when the data was collected. So it's way worse now. Oh, it's terrible now. So maybe we're number one now. We'll find out, I guess, in a year. All right, moving on, Matt, where are we? Burlington has had its hottest annual temperature in the last 127 years. Until next year. Which will be hotter. The next year will be hotter. Yeah, the warmest, hottest average annual temperature. And it had all sorts of other stuff, too. Oh, what was the one before that? Did I mention it? The one before, who broke the record? What year broke the record before? 127 years ago, so. You're kidding. Yeah. 127 years ago? I'm gonna do the math real quick. So- That's when I started. Oh, so that wasn't even, so this is the hottest- Period, on record? Yeah. But wait a minute, hottest, okay, nevermind. No, I understand your question. And I'm trying to find the answer. So Glo was asking, before this year, what was the previous hottest year, right? Yeah, that's what I thought, but I don't know. It doesn't, I don'think it says in the story. It probably beat last year's. I guess they could just write this story every year. Just like change a couple of things, like, yep. But the graph shows that it was a, it's been a gradual increase. So that's why maybe, you know, every year is the highest. 2022 was the highest up until 2023. you know, maybe that's it. Because if you, but you notice the coldest when it comes down into, you know, sags here, it's between 1940 and 1960. I find that interesting. What do you mean the coldest? You mean like, but that's like, because that's- Am I reading the wrong chart? Am I on the right page? You are, but like, you're talking about like one of the gray lines and the blue line that's 2023? January 23? Yeah. Wait. But are you looking at like January? Or are you looking at like... Oh, no, I'm looking at... there's one up on maybe closer to the top that has the years. Ah, gotcha. Okay. Okay, now I see what you're saying. So you're saying why is it... It's dipped right then, and then it starts to go back up. Why, was it colder then? It... that's... Oh, is that highest? That's hottest then. Right? We're not talking cold, we're talking hot. Yeah, warmest, yeah. Never mind. I'm just, it's just. This whole month of December's kind of felt like November. I've heard that. I haven't been here for most of it, but I've heard that like, it's been super foggy. Yeah, it was three days. You were lucky you weren't flying in, I don't know what airline you were on, but they, American, had no flights for two days. Really? Because they all got diverted. Damn. Because my wife was sending me pictures of her walk home, and it's like 2 in the afternoon. It'spooky. And I was like, God, it looks like a British horror movie. That's what I said. You get up in the morning and go, oh, God. The fog. Oh, it was terrible. But it kept coming and going. All of a sudden, it'd be coming in again. It was just really weird. Fog is weird to me, anyway. Fog is weird. It'super dangerous. Underrated. It is underrated. One of the scariest times of my life was in a fog bank on the water. The Gulf of Mexico. It was just- What were you doing? We were headed to this other island- Oh, you're driving? On a boat, and all of a sudden- Oh, on a boat? Yeah, were on a boat, and all of a sudden, we're engulfed by fog. Did you just stop? Well, we stopped and tried to listen for the, or maybe to see, because we knew the lighthouse over at the island were going to would be working yeah we couldn't see it but we could hear you know like a clanging or something so we thought maybe that was it so it's truly a horror movie it was we heard a clanging sound like chains. We're in the middle of a channel in Tampa Bay in the middle of this channel where very large ships go through but they've got a like there but that's how we found we heard this clanging so we We saw the outline, this big shadow, it was a ship, but they couldn't go anywhere either. They stopped. They stopped. Everybody was stopped. That's what you do in traffic. It gets foggy and we just agree to stop. I don't know how we found it. I think we just meandered around a little bit and finally we found the island that were looking for, but it was scary. Yeah, it is creepy, like you, yeah, I mean, and that's how blind people operate every day, right? Yeah. Not able to see what's happening. Yeah. All right, moving on, where are we? Terminally ill? So more than, so we talked about this, what's it called? Comfort in dying? Aid in dying. Aid in dying, which glow, I'm not, I don't remember if you were here for that, But basically, it's you can now in Vermont buy life-ending drugs if you have a terminally ill situation. And they finally passed it? Yes. Is what you're saying? Okay, great. It passed I think a year ago. A year ago, but this was the first year. That somebody has used it? Two hundred people. Oh, wow. Two hundred people qualified. A few of them died before they got the chance to use it. Mm-hmm, which call that a wash? Yeah, I don't know. I guess that like I mean is shipping a bitch on these things It's like oh three weeks Today or maybe they make you jump as they probably make you jump through some hoops before you can get it It's just all I'm sure you really have to think you there's the end they have criteria You know, you just can't be Like having pain all the time. You actually have to be dying or something like that, you know You can't just be like, my leg hurts. Yeah. I'm going to kill myself. Do they have an age limit on this? I don'think so. So if some 12-year-old is like, I'm done with this. I'm checking out. Well, you say that. There probably is an age. You have to have parents' permission. But yeah, here was the chart. The cancer is 153, neurodegenerative conditions 26, end stage lung disease, six, multiple Condition 6. I like the multiple conditions. Take your pick. That's called the Yahtzee. He's got it all. End stage heart failure. The one unknown. Yeah, I have a friend that lives in Florida. She wants to come up and do this. Now, we talked about this. We weren't sure about the legality of that. She can't because they... I think she doesn't qualify because they can't definitively say she's gonna die anytime soon. She wants to die because her life sucks, but I think that was, I mean she'd have to check in it. So doctors are like, well, because don'they say, oh you have like a year to live? They're not even giving that to her. They're not saying anything. She could live 10 years, but suffer, you know. Quality of life is not a factor down there, I guess. I don't know. So is this open to people from out of state? I don'think so. Oh, no, there was some woman that sued to have her. Well, how long would she have to live here to be considered a resident? Right. If you got here, you got a mailbox. Yeah. Or just slept on your couch for a week and got her mail to James over here, right? Would that count? I don't know. I don't know. There'so many questions. Yeah. Now we're asking the questions, Glo. Normally you're asking the questions. It's a bizarre of show. Yeah, but yeah, that's 200 people. That's great. I'm all for it. I don't know how you guys feel. Oh, yeah. I mean, we may want this someday. Why suffer? Right. You know what I mean? It doesn't make any sense. We don't do it to animals, and yet we're forced to have to do it to ourselves. I was listening to a podcast about some the medical breakthroughs for this year and they're now able to like look at I'm gonna get this wrong but like plasma proteins or something in like your organs and now they can say like yeah Matt you're like 60 I won't say your age your 60s whatever but I can say like oh but your heart is 50 your kidneys are 60 your lungs are... Stady. You know, like, they can look at, like, the actual age of, like, different parts of you, and they're getting closer to, like, understanding, like, what makes you age, and, like, and then getting closer to, like, stopping that from happening. Pretty freaky. Yeah, that is. I don't like that. No. Well, people are living too long now. Well, I mean, it's... Actually, our rate's going down. Yeah, we're going down. I think it's easy to say that, but then like, you know, you hear people say like, Oh, if I make it to 75, just take me out. And it's like, okay, now it's 74 years and 350 days. You ready to go out? No, no, you know, so I don't know. Yeah, I think that sometimes and then I see like some movie stars 80 years old, I go, that person's 80? Because they look so good. They're still working. You know, whatever happens all the time. Jane Fonda is what, 2000 years old? Dolly Parton. I mean, she's been updated, you know, like She looked great in her Dallas Cowboy outfit, didn't she? She did, but also, I'm like, I'm like, hmm, like, what's real? Yeah. In that scenario. But yeah, she looked great. It always surprises me when somebody Mick Jagger? Mick Jagger. Was he 82? Something like that. You see Joe Biden and you're like, ugh, just sit down. All right, moving on. Sports betting? We're going to have sports betting in Vermont. This is one of those things where I'm just happy that I don't have that vice. I know people who cannot watch sports unless they're betting on it. They need that excitement. They need that stress of what's going to happen. The only sports betting I ever did was these little dollar cards that people used to say, you know, you'd win two bucks or three bucks or something. I don't know what it was. But that's like a social thing. Yeah, but I wasn't betting on any teams. I'm just terrible at it. I wouldn't be any good at it. That's the thing. No one is. If you're great at it, if a lot of people were great at it, they wouldn't be making any money and they wouldn't exist. Now, is this something people were already doing, so now they're just making it legal? I don't know if you can legally bet, if you lived here in Vermont, you couldn't legally bet with FanDuel or one of these other DraftKings? I'm certain. I mean, I'm pretty sure all you need is a VPN. Just say like, I don't live in Vermont, I live in Alabama. Yeah, don't people online gamble in poker games? Yeah. Yeah, so I don't get it. And that's been going on for years. I think now it's gonna be easier. Like you don't have to jump through that hoop of like... Well, they're actually licensed to do this in Vermont now. These three companies, DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatic Sportsbook. Which are the three big ones. Yeah, so... We've talked about this before, and I still don't remember the answer. Is there a casino in Vermont? No. What's a... New Hampshire has some. Upstate New York has some. What's the closest one, probably New Hampshire, from us? I don't know, because most of the people that I talked to that were going to a casino were either Quebec, the Mohawk reservation. I think there's one in upstate New York too, but I'm not sure. It may be New Hampshire. We go right by it when we go to visit your cousins over by near Buffalo. Oh, there's one down. Yeah, that's western New York. There's one. Okay. Yeah, near Pennsylvania, so that's way, it's way too far. So why doesn't Vermont have a casino? Because we don't have any Native American Indians, or Native... That are recognized by the federal government. Only Native Americans can open a casino in America? What about Las Vegas? No, but that's where most of them come from. Can we open a casino? Matt Adams sports book. I don't imagine, I don't know. I know the only ones that I know of in this area, Rhode Island has a bunch of them, I think they're all native. I just think it's easier, cuz gambling's not legal in Vermont. Well, not yet. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, casino gambling is not legal. But if some Native Americans who are recognized wanted to open, and they could probably do it. Casino gambling is not legal, but I can buy 1,000 lottery tickets tonight if I wanted to. Yeah. I know. Because it'so different. All right, moving on. Lawmakers are hoping to address the court backlog. I added this pretty recently, so if you all didn't get a chance to read it, I want to invite the CEO, I mean Matt, I know, Chloe, without reading it. So there are, what, 14,500 court cases waiting to be heard. Will there be a trial for any of these? It's gotta be bargain time. Well, so one solution they proposed, which seems, so one is they're trying to hire more judges. Okay, that makes sense. Another one they proposed, which seems wildly illegal to me, is they're trying to say, okay, if you have like four misdemeanors, we're just going to bundle those into one felony. What? I've been arrested 14 times for littering. Now it's a felony. They're trying to pass a law to like, do that, like kind of like it was weird bundling. And they're also one thing I want to know is how many. So let'say This is called 15,000 cases. How many people is that? Like, it's not 15,000 people. No. Because we always hear of these multiple offenders. So it's probably more like 5,000. Yeah, 1,000. 1,000. It's 1,000 people, and we all know who they are. I just don't understand why everything moves so slow. I thought we had a right to a speedy trial. No. That's right. You're supposed to. about that. We do have a right to. But if you can't get to a judge, how are you going to get that? That's what I'm saying. Well, let's blame Sarah George for this. Actually, if Sarah George were a different person, we might have more. She's lenient. She's not charging people. That's true. Yeah, it could be twice as much. Yeah, so in Vermont, misdemeanor cases should be closed within 180 days. 180 days. You get arrested for a misdemeanor. It's gonna take half a year of your life. Sitting in jail. Well, a lot of these people are released. That's just the problem. Yeah, we don't have enough jail space for the people who belong in jail. But statewide, 53% of the cases have not met that standard. And felony cases should be resolved within a year. Those seem way too long. Do it faster. Like, why don'they have judges? They just retired and they didn't replace them? Nobody wants to be a judge? I don't know. Gloria, make a good judge. Yeah, you're very judgy. Yeah. You'd be a great judge. Yeah, but I also remember exactly maybe, not really, you know, that's me. Yeah, well. It's like, I start with one and before you know it, You got me chiseled without even saying a word down to three. Well, you make your decision, you bang the gavel, the person's gone, and you go, well, actually, but anyway, it's too late. Then you look, you go, then you forget, and you have another one because you're seeing 15,000 people. Yeah, do you have to be an attorney to be a judge? I think they're voted in. Oh, are they? So I think, like, yeah, you run for judge, right? You know what? I'm not sure anymore. I think maybe some counties. I know, in some cases, yeah. Are there county, it's a county difference? Is it a state difference? I'm pretty sure, don't we vote on judges? I'm almost certain we do, which is so crazy because they have their political affiliation. I'm like, that doesn't make any sense. First of all, well, it does make sense because I'm only voting for, I'm voting for no Republicans. So I guess that makes sense, but I shouldn't know that, right? They shouldn't be, but I guess they are influenced. I'm kind of, see, now I'm, well, maybe, you know. Yeah, I don't know. I know I voted for judges, side judges or whatever. I don't know. Superior court judges? I don't know. I want to be a side judge. I don't want to be your major judge. That sounds like something that would be a political thing. Maybe more people should run for judge. Right. I mean, I'm sure a judge makes pretty good money. You probably have to know the law. Yeah. I think you have to help somebody get into office. I think that's how you get to be a judge. Are you calling shenanigans? Of course. I grew up in Newark, remember? Yes. All right, moving on. We're running a little long. Franklin County, Vermont sheriffs are calling for Franklin County John Grismore, the nut kicker, to resign. He ain't hearing none of that. Yeah, surprise. Because when cops are telling other cops to resign, that makes me think that there'something there. They know something. Well, the legislature did an inquiry on him. They know a lot. There'something there. He's a crook. This wasn'the first time he kicked a handcuffed man in the nuts, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Because he did it right in front of two other people, right? Yeah. So I'm saying let's- I'm saying there's more than that. You think so? Yeah. But he is fighting it. So what do you think? In six months this guy will be no longer a sheriff but he'll be a Fox News commentator? Probably. There you go. There's a path. Moving on. Workforce investments, are they paying off? Seems like the short answer is no. I guess. Right? Yeah, that's what they said. We still, every year 15,000 people retire. and well just 5,000 high school seniors enter the workforce. People are retiring. Yeah, the unemployment's like nothing here now. You can't get a job now. I would love to see, no, Vermont has unemployment, our open jobs are double the national average. Oh, I see what you're saying, okay. Yeah. The story doesn't break down like, what are these jobs? Right. So... Yeah, I would imagine most of them are shitty jobs. You know? Yeah, three jobs, three open jobs for every job seeker. Well, it's like the parking garage now that was owned by the city's... I should say, by the city. There were several of them. There's no longer an attendant. So you have to now know your license plate. So I'm just giving you a tip. Don't go and park your car on the fourth floor, run down the stairs, realize you don't remember your license, but you gotta run back up anyway. So- You might not think this about me. I know my license plate. Well, when you've been through about 12 or 15 of them- It's true. You're kind of like, it's only gonna change again. You know. I've only had two in my life, so. That's it, yeah. I mean, I'm sure up until I was 40, I knew what my license plate number was. And then after that, I was like, eh. You don't make like a little name or a song out of it to remember? No. Yeah, there you go. Never had to. Mnemonics. I was always just, I had a weird memory for remembering. I still remember my father's license plate on his 1956 Mercury. M-A-W-636. Okay, I don't know if that's bad that you shared that over the podcast, but I see what's fine. I'm not gonna cut it out. No, I mean, come on. He's been dead a long time. I'm sure that's been retired, that license plate. Can you imagine? So, and you only have now six. 650 million. Okay, that's a good guess, I'd say. Yeah. And so, and all you have is three letters and only six digits in order to. Yeah, but the permutations are. Yeah. By state also, right? Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. License plate number somebody else in another state. That's true, I guess you could. But still, like, imagine New York City, you know, how many people and the amount of numbers they could probably go through. So New York City has a different license plate than New York State, right? Because of that exact thing you just said? Because some are white and some are yellow. No, it's all the same. It's all they can get. Somebody decided, I don't like that color, we're going to change it. And then three years later, they change it to another color. They did that in New Jersey. Yeah, it used to be just the orange and black in New York. Now it's white and other colors. Yeah, it gets confusing, especially when it's been so many of them, New York alone. So anyway, back to the workforce problem. They said their solution is twofold. They are trying to train the state's existing workforce. But does that mean pay them more? and then also invest in apprenticeships and social programs like child care, housing, and transportation. Who the heck wants to work in child care? Who, and then housing, what you're like helping homeless people find housing? Like- Right, all the jobs that- And getting paid 20 bucks an hour to like just work with a population that no one wants to work with? And then transportation, does that mean bus driver? Like what? Yeah. Like break that down more. What does that actually mean? To me, it's just another one of these unsolvable problems that we have in the state right now. And they can become solvable if somebody comes up with the right idea, but you know, you hear something like this, what good is that going to do? Unless you're doing viable apprenticeships, like electricians and people like that, You know, which would actually come to a decent job afterwards. Yeah. I mean, what do we need in this? What do we need? Like, we need vocational workers like electricians, carpenters, stuff like that. We need nurses, like doctors, or just people who can push a button on a... What is that? Scan machine thing? CT scan or something. How long do we have to wait to get one of those? You know, right? Yeah, train people to do that. Right. Yeah. Or just there'so many things they can be trained in but to do, you know, childcare. Yeah, we need childcare workers, but they're not. Unless you pay them. Right. Like childcare is so expensive, but childcare worker pay is so low. Right. And like we found out like some like French company owns like have like the daycares in Vermont or something. Yeah, it makes no sense. All right, moving on. Glo's favorite building. Does this building have a name? I don't know. It's a Handy building. Oh, I don't even have to read it. I already know. You just told me. Yep. 17 unit complex 184 Church Street is barred from renting out the building until September 5 2024. Existing tenants must be relocated on the Handy's dime. Wow. Relocated, sure. But then, how much did their rent just go up? Like, do the people want this? So, but why is there, is there all kinds of things wrong with this building? That's the reason? Yes. So, the board showed, Joe Handy testified that he wouldn't ever do anything to repair the building if the city revoked his permit. This is after he failed to address more than three dozen code violations on the property. Wow. Now, there's bad landlords all over the city. These aren'the only ones, no. And the city never comes down on these guys. This is, like, really the first time I've ever seen, you know, that they're... Well, it's an eyesore, and it'so close to the marketplace. The police... It is part of the marketplace. The police park there. What? The police park there. They're there so much. Yeah, that's what you know that bad. It's terrible those businesses. I'm surprised They lasted as long as they did across the street from this thing. I can't believe this place has 17 units 17 I know see I mean that tells you right there just looking at it Well, he's a he's an asshole, you know, he's a slumlord and doesn't give a shit So the handies doesn't one of them like make a good sandwich or something? Like I thought is it that the little diner thing down? Is that the handy we like? Yeah. Yeah, we like him He's a nice guy. Yeah. Handy's Luncheonette. It's down at the corner of Maple Street and South Williams. Right. Is he also a landlord, sun lord, or? I don't know anything about him. He spends all his time there. You know, he's got two kids. Seems like a nice guy, big Yankee fan. Makes a good hot dog, you know, a good red hot. He used to make a really good hero. Hero? You know, gyro. Hero. Got rid of it. But, yeah, I used to go there just for that. The other one, the only one, I mean, I know the landlords and stuff, but the only, it was the service station on South... Oh, yeah, on South Winooski. Yeah, South Winooski. Yeah, that was notorious for ripping people off. South, no, that'still north. No, it's not, forget it. It's Pearl Street that divides it. Glo, guess how many times police were called to this property this year, but not the whole year. We're stopping at September 25th. January 1st to September 25th, how many times did the cops come to this property? Let'see, 30 times 9, 270 maybe? How did you do that, Matt? That was 30 times a month? Yeah. You're a little bit low. It was only 219. Okay. Well, hey, you know. Like I said, it was 25 times a month. And if you ever walk down that driveway, which I did at one time, like I said, and that's how I found out where that artist lived, which maybe he'still there. Who knows? I can't remember his name. Matt? No, he's across, he's moved. Oh, yeah. So, but yeah, it looked bad back then and that was, you know, a good 17 years ago. Yep. Y'all ready for a break? Yep. Alright the music is from Keegan Brown, a little bit of techno. The song is Fragrance 52. I'm going to make a hole in the bottom of the box. I'm going to make the other side the same way. I'm going to make a hole in the middle of the body. I'm going to make a hole in the back of the head. Thank you for watching! See you next time! Oh, Gene Richards. He used to run the airport and he got fired. He's a very successful business man. He used to be a slum lord. He had a lot of places but they were all really nice. Yeah, he kept them nice. He sold all those, was at the airport for many years. Did a great job for a while but he rubbed people the wrong way. and so he got fired and now he bought the Johnson Woolamills in Johnson. We've talked about Johnson before, do you remember? Sure. It was the one with the Chinese man driving and something about a truck and all this, you don't remember that? I mean, I've been to Johnson. Okay, so I don't have to explain. They had a brewery there. They do? The one we don't like. The gluten-free one? No, there's another one. What's that? Oh, it's not in a village of Johnson Mm-hmm. I was getting Johnson confused with Lindenville. Oh, yeah. No, that's different. Yeah Johnson's on the way to Lindenville same road One where they treated us poorly. Yeah, it was this anyway, yeah Never mind All right, I know we talked about Johnson before and you've visited Johnson so that's yeah, that's it I don't have to like, oh, no, wait, that's right. You think it's Lyndonville. Never mind. Are you talking about Lost Nation? No, we like Morrisville. Oh, that's Morrisville. Those villes get me all confused. I can't keep up with it. Berlin, Vermont villes. 10 bends? No. Anyways. Anyway, let's go back to Gene Richards. So I worked with Gene at the airport for a while and he always called me a rock star, but then again he called everybody a rock star. OK. Did you feel it was disingenuous? The first time I realized, that's pretty cool, then I heard, wait a minute, he just called that guy, that guy's terrible. Does this guy have like Bill Clinton energy? Yeah, he'small. He'shorter than I am. Whoa! I'm sorry. Whoa! Come on! Sorry about that. He's not a dwarf. I've seemed larger than I am. You have a big presence. I'm the original Biggie Smalls. I was saying whoa because I didn't... This guy was like CEO of the airport, right? Most CEOs are 6 foot plus. He's a dynamo. He's always on his phone doing it. And I get along with him. He does a lot of great things at the airport. I mean, but he just really didn't know how to treat people, I think. Or he treated them the way he had always treated people, and some people didn't like it. Well, you know, some people, the way they know how to get shit done is one way. And sometimes that way is being a dickhead, especially if people are not living up to what they're supposed to be doing. And again, what he inherited there, not because of Brian Searles. Brian Searles was in charge. Brian Searles couldn't get anything done because of the good old boy network that was running the airport when he came in there. So can you explain a little bit of what, is that the airline people? I don't even understand what that means, the good old boy network. No, they're the people who worked for the airport. They weren't, you know, the airlines have very, I don'think they have a lot of say of what goes on around. Who works for the airport? Well, there was there was a guy who worked there for 30 something years. He was the engineer, he's the one who designed everything at the airport. But he was, he and somebody else, this person who had worked her way through the office, it just sort of took charge. So those two were running the airport when my friend, uh... Searles? Searles, Brian Searles, who is a very classy guy and has done a lot of different jobs around the state. But he said, yeah, I just, he says, it was just, you couldn't get anything done. Those two, you know, they sabotaged. Finally, they found some irregularities in the books. And, you know, they got rid of her. They couldn't fire her, so they sent her to work at the Burlington City Hall, which she lasted about three weeks. She's like, I'm not in charge here. I don't like this. But anyway, I get back to that. The airport was, I mean, it was busy too, because it was Canadians and everybody, you know, leaving the country, and it was just really busy, but nothing could get done. And Gene came in there and did a lot of good things. So he rubbed a few people the wrong way in order to do it. Yeah, he didn't like us too much, the chamber. He wanted to get rid of us from day one. Well, he was like, why are you here? Yeah, he thought that he goes through Fort Myers a lot and they have a lot of volunteers. That's fucking Fort Myers where everybody's 80 years old and looking for something to do. And they're not there on Christmas. They're not there at night. Come on, he thought we should do it all volunteer. Look, he's walking around trying to cut costs. That's his perspective, right? Yeah, he was always trying to do that. Anyways. So now this dude's making Johnson woolen mills. I guess they make flannel blankets. Jackets. Socks, maybe? I don'think so. I don't know, wool socks, is that a thing? Wall socks? Yeah, but not... Yeah, of course they are. Best wearing trousers in America. They make trousers, huh? Yeah. Well, good for him. Have you ever shopped there? No. It's a really old store. It's cool. But it's just, you know, it's another thing that's not made in this country very much anymore. Nope. You know, we have Vermont Flannel, Johnson Wool and Mills, which still make everything here. Well, they import the flannel. I mean, there's no mill anymore making flannel fabric anymore in this country. I'm in the market for a flannel, but in this one picture, none of these designs are jumping out at me. They seem very old school. Oh, they are. They're all Vermont. Yeah, they're checkered. That's what Johnson, Wollen Mills always portrayed. They still keep on that sort of Vermont look. You know that kind of, at one time, this is all you would sell. That shirt that he's wearing in the picture, the flannel shirt, that's Vermont flannel. Cuz that's the same design we had on some Vermont flannel gave us. Wait, he's wearing a Vermont flannel shirt and a Will and Mills photo? I don'think they have Will and Mills shirts, I don't know. There's no way that Gene Richards, everything you just told me about this guy, would let that little detail slip. There's no way. This dude is... Is this him? This picture? Yeah. Yeah, there's no way. I mean, I'm not, you know, maybe you know what you're talking about, Matt, but maybe he's thinking about he's featuring the vest, not the shirt. Yeah, that's true. I think that's what it is. But yeah, so what do you think, this company, based on what we know about Gene Richards, is gonna turn it around? I think so. He's a real promoter. You have to be that today. You have to be able to promote shit. And he understands, he's always got the latest gadgets, so he's not some old guy who doesn't understand. And he talks to people, he hires the right people. So the people he had doing IT for us, they were incredible. Maybe he's got, I mean, nowadays you need social media. So hopefully he's hired someone who's doing that for him. I'm sure they do. But I just, yeah, except for a guy like this, probably had a few different options, right, of where to go next. It's like, you know, like you say, you turned around the airport, like, I wonder like, why he chose this. Hugely successful. banking, investment banker, before he became a landlord. Because this guy could do nothing, right? Spruce mortgage. Oh, he owns Spruce mortgage, too. Yeah, like this guy could like just fish for the rest of his life. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He just loves doing it. He's he's got a lot of energy. He does. Yeah. Well, good for him. Good for Johnson Willemel. Yeah. I'm glad it was saved. At least I don't know if he's gonna be successful, but... You may have to change some patterns, though. I mean, I'm with you. Plaid, plaid. I mean, okay, let's have something else. Oh, wow. So I will say that. So Walmart knows how to plaid. The George company has some pretty good plaid designs in my estimation. But yeah, some of these are like the old school, like just the green and black, red and black. Yeah. It's like that's fine, but like... Yeah, it'something new. Yeah. Innovate, Gene, you will, I'm sure. And I will say that I started this segment by saying like he's very famous and I mispronounced his name, so my bad. He's not Glenn, he is Gene. I caught that. Alright, moving on. This is the craziest story I think we've had in a while. I did not know this existed. This is why I put this on. So, this woman, Glo, Naomi Wood. So, her family, I'm assuming, is Pentecostal. Because they sent her to, they're Vermonters, they sent her to a Pentecostal school in, is it Lakewood? Lakeland. Lakeland, Florida. Lakeland Girls Academy. Well, she died. How? Yeah. I'm not sure. She had chronic stomach pain for a month. They told her to take Pepto-Bismol and pray. The day before she died, she was non-stop throwing up violently. They never sought medical attention. Because of religion? Yes. Okay. unclear if they notified her parents, and now her parents are suing the school of saying this is wrongful death, negligence, and a judge in Florida ruled that they cannot sue them through the regular court system, they have to go through something called adult and teen challenge, I'm sorry, they have to go through Christian arbitration, which is an alternative to litigation governed by biblical principles and presided over by a Christian mediator." Oh my gosh, is there something actually like that? Obviously there is, yeah. So the judge said, no, you have to figure this out. First of all, Christian mediator could be anyone, right? That doesn't sound like someone who's gone to school for it. Most of the Christians I know, I don't want them mediating anything. And I wonder whose side the Christian mediator is going to fall on, you know? Right. Like, this is absolutely nuts that this exists. That's why I put this story out. I said, what is this? I have never heard of this. And I imagine 99% of the people have never heard of this. And what is this judge doing? Punting, you know, punting that way. Basically, he's just, I don't want to. But why? Like, why would he do I don't know. Unless he's Pentecostal? Maybe? And they went through all the stuff that I just told you about the Pepto-Bismol. Oh, I'm sorry, I neglected to say they gave her soup as well. Pepto-Bismol soup and prayer. But the place is closed now, anyways. Dwindling enrollment. I wonder why. This is wild. So, yeah, the cause of death is undetermined. This should be a movie. You know? This would be a movie Because it shows us something we didn't know existed Which is this weird court? Yeah, it exposes this whole other weird side that like Christian mediators. Also what would make this a good movie? I think and I'm not trying to like gloss over this woman's death, but like Her parents were on board With it with all with this shit. Yeah until their kid gets sick. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, exactly And then it's like, now you're not so Pentecostal, are you? Yeah. Yeah, you know what I mean? They sent here, they knew the deal. They knew that we don't do medicine, we do prayer and soup. So this Vermont couple is Pentecostal themselves? Is that the reason why they would send their daughter? I would assume so. Why else would you? A Catholic wouldn't send their kid there. No way. God, a horrible story. Oh, so this, okay, now I'm getting, now I'm reading to the end of the story. So this school likely has provisions for religious arbitration in all of its employment and student enrollment contracts. And this lawyer says, like, I have not found a single case where the courts have not enforced the arbitration agreement. So they signed something that said if something goes down, they don't do this arbitration. That's a way to get out of a lot of shit. That'so crazy. I bet you they don't even know it. What does that mean? It's on page 37, clause 68B in this contract. You don't have to read it, just trust us. Just scroll down and just click I agree. So if you don't sign it, they won't let you in. Right. Because they don't want to get sued. Yep. Oh man. Wow, that's amazing. Who would direct this movie? Who would write this movie? Who would this be? I have to think about it. Yeah, but it seems very like, what was that one from years ago? Spotlight. Kind of feels like a spotlighty kind of thing. That was a great movie. Remember it? Boston Church getting sued because it had molesters. Oh, yeah, it was the Boston Globe reporters doing a story on it. Michael Keaton, some other people. Yep, I remember it now. All right, this next story, Gloria, wanted to talk about. Wanted you to talk? I wanted you to talk about. I thought you were wanted to talk about it. Well, OK. Because she likes Fred Tuttle. I like Fred Tuttle. I had him on my wall, holding, I mean. Well, who's Fred Tuttle? OK, Fred Tuttle was, he's this farmer from Tonbridge who this person from New Hampshire or decided they were going to run for office somewhere in Vermont. Massachusetts. OK, Massachusetts. And he'some rich guy who thinks he could just roll right in, and everybody was. So Fred Tuttle ran against him. In the Republican primary. And all he spent, I remember, was a stamp-size ad in seven days. That was all he put out for promoting himself. and he won because he beat him by 10 points he won the primary yeah he won the primary and then he endorsed Pat Leahy easily won that was his whole thing he didn't like this guy coming in from Massachusetts rich guy yeah and running for his senator he wasn't gonna beat Leahy anyways but that's pretty cool they made a movie of it a man with a plan and i think i've mentioned it before and i think you should watch it as part i mean i don't know it's a little bit of vermont sort of haha but this but uh... the reason i put this on was because of there'd be at a debate and uh... toddled queried his opponent how many teats does a whole scene have how many does a jersey have MacMillan guessed six, but that was way too, that was too many. So that'll beat him in the, you know, in the primary. And then, um, but he, this is about a guy, this is a seven days article. These reporters talking about stuff that they, that has happened to them over the years. And he had to verify a quote. So when heard the debate, heard tits. How many tits instead of teats? So he had to verify that, and it turned out he did say tits. Yeah, but he didn't know until he was calling someone who had like first hand was there, right? Yeah, yeah. So he was unclear, so he just went with teats as it was originally printed, but then at the last minute he had to call the printer, or like the people who were printing the paper, and said like, change it, change it's tits, it's tits. And so he braced himself, because back then in 96 or whenever it was, Is that when this was? I thought this was recent. Oh, no. It was 96. Yeah, 96. So that was a long time ago. Almost 30 years ago. I was one year here in Vermont. Yeah, and he thought... No, no. It wasn't 96 because Tuttle died in 2003. Oh, okay. I think this was this year. The story ran. Oh, maybe. I'm talking about the movie. But why would 7 Days have a problem printing tits? They didn't have a problem. They just were worried that people might be offended by it, because people get offended, man. There's a lot worse stuff in Seven Days than tits. Yeah, I don't know. I don't read it anymore. Not that I ever really did. Let's get this straight. I've never read it. Anyways. Yeah, so the movie Man with a Plan was in 1996. Yeah, right. Yeah, this year's fact-check. So this time this year, yeah. Tit vs. Teat. Okay. So that's the big to-do? Yep. That was it. Yeah, so it was a big like, as Matt was saying, this writer was worried that he'd get some emails or phone calls like, I can't believe you printed tits, or maybe he was worried that, I can't believe that you're misquoting. Because it does change it, right? Teats is definitely a dairy farmer. Yeah. Most I probably the average American wouldn't know what a teat was. I do I milked a few Most Americans know what a tea is. I don't know. I you know, I don'think most Americans know Yeah being down in Florida and just like I went to a couple of bars and just being among the people, and just listening. I would just be there, just grab a beer, just cuz I'm like, I got a house. Just listening to conversations and also just being in airports and shit. It's just like, yeah, I'm in a bubble. I live in a bubble. Yeah. Because of what? Living up here in Vermont? Up here in Vermont, and also just with a certain group of people that I talk to, where I work, the kinds of people I interact with, I just have this very small world. And then when I go out into the actual world, I'm like, okay, people just like, not that they're bad, but they're just like, I don't know what the right word is. I don't know, it's just, yeah, it's a lot going on in the world, I guess. And is it because they're talking slang a lot, cursing? It's not slang. It's just like, I guess I would say their conversations are minutiae, mostly complaining. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's it. That's it. Yeah. And I'm just like, that's really what you're you've gathered here to complain to each other, which I guess what we do sometimes on the show. So I understand that this is ironic of us saying it. But but like nothing, you know, it's a lot of like Then he sat in, and I sat in, and it's like, ugh, just shut the fuck up. Yeah, bars should be fun places. Bars should be fun. Yeah. We went to the old post over here the other night. Finally. The other night for lunch. It was good. The old post. It's over by Crunch. Oh, okay. It's right by where we got our hair cut. Okay, all right, all right. We had lunch there. It was decent, we had a good Reuben, good fries, we had the Upper Pass beer. Upper Pass, it was good. Cloud Drop? I don't remember, it was an IPA. That's the one that's commonly. Oh, I thought you were talking about the sandwich, sauerkraut. No, Cloud Drop. Cloud Drop or Cloud Drip, I think is the Upper Pass one. Oh, I thought I heard sauerkraut. It was good, you know, it's my kind of bar, kind of woody. Yeah, Jukebox, they were playing music, really good, like the best of 80s music. It really was, it was good music. A little Duran, a little Peter Gabriel, a little Genesis, a little Ciné La Paire. You know me, I don't know. But it was, you know, they have 12 dollar burgers, I guess, 13 dollar burgers. That's cheap nowadays, right? It is cheap. The bartending was wonderful. And people met there, like they all know each other. They were all at the bar. We were sitting at a table, but they were all at the bar. Except that one Asian dude. I don'think he belonged. Wow, okay. No, I'm not saying that. He was talking to people, but they didn't know him. He would be interacting with people, but I knew they didn't know him. So he was just like, it was like a Jim Jarmusch movie, you know, where this guy just shows up. You know, he's run away from his business conference and he's just, you know, drinking in bars and shit. He was making an effort. Yeah, he was. People were very friendly. You know, everybody was very nice. So, but we're glad we tried it. Yeah. We like a little saloon. We'd like to go back. I'm down. Take me with you. Okay. Yeah, all I have is like sandwiches, salads, starters. That's it. Okay. Nothing fancy. That's fine. No quiche. No... What's the quinoa situation at this place? Do you have quinoa? Do you have kale salad? That's you. I know it is. You're Captain Kale. All right, we're moving on. Judge apologizes for telling sex abuse victim that her abuser loved her in his crazy way. Okay, this headline is absolutely insane, and I give props to the writer for framing it this way, but the actual story is not that bad. I mean, the story is bad. It's bad, but this is not only the headline, it's the first line in the story. What's up with that? You know, sometimes the headline writer is on vacation, right? The story was filed December 28th, so let's call that copy and paste as the headline writer. So, Matt, do you have thoughts about this before I cut you off? I don't know. I'm just amazed. Why can't we be judges? We would never do this. I mean, you're right. It's not as bad as the headline, but it'still bad. It's a dumb thing to say when you can also say nothing. Right. So, yeah, so Glo, Kenneth Blackwell, this 40-year-old, I think we talked about this. Yes, we did. He was, first of all, his charges got drastically reduced, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. He essentially groomed this woman, or girl, since she was like 12. He'do things like walk into a room while she was changing or naked. I think they lived together or were around each other cuz they're family. He'd shave naked in a way that she could see him. Sounds like he made me the stepfather or step-whatever. Maybe, that's probably right. Smoked pot with her, rubbed his genitals against her, like all this like, oh, that's, that was. That was a. Wait, wait, she got excited. Tell me. You said that like you just like had your first bite of Thanksgiving dinner. What was that? Like. I got distracted by a commercial, sorry. All right, all right. Those over there look like they're laughing. They're listening. So anyway, he was found guilty. He pleaded down to something super lenient, like three months or something. Like a couple years probation. And the woman, I'm sorry, the girl, she's now 17. She read her statement in court. And she said that she used to have nightmares about this guy, and that she used to think that she deserved what he was doing to her. And that his actions were her fault, which is what he wanted her to think. And the judge said, she was incredible, this was a difficult case. And he told the victim, it may have seemed to her like this guy loved her, and maybe he did in his crazy way. So it almost sounded like he was just kind of riffing and just was trying to say like- Went too far. It kind of seemed like he was trying to say like, you're not wrong for thinking that it was, it's not your fault for being manipulated. But then he went too far, as you said. Which riffing? Just kind of going off the cuff, just winging it. He didn't plan what he was going to say, he just started talking, that's what the show was founded on. That's us, honey. We riff. Okay, I'm going to remember that. Yeah, so, I don't know, very stupid and maybe we'll get an appeal even based on that line, but I don't know. I mean, I think someone should tell the judge that he was a fucking idiot, but also, he shouldn't lose his job or anything. No, it's nothing crazy. I think it's just misspoke. We've each probably done it in the last hour and a half. Norwich. What is this group? Is this the town of Norwich? Town officials? A select board? I think it's the town. The town. So Norwich, which- Are we talking about the university or the town? No, it's the town. OK. Okay. So, I'm learning that Norwich is kind of a shady town. Is it? Yes. We were just talking about it earlier, about the Norwich Inn. Okay, so what'shady? So, three years ago, a resident, Christopher Katucky, how many times does that guy have to say, not Kentucky, Katucky. So, he filed a lawsuit over allegations that the town'subcommittees were not complying with Vermont's open meeting laws, which means that they were meeting privately to do town business and not disclosing those meetings, maybe some emails that were not public record, like that kind of stuff, they were not being transparent. And he's a former lawyer, so he's like, you know, a retired lawyer is not the person you want in your town. Nothing else to do. You don't want this person active in town politics, right? So this guy is persistent and they fought it for three years. They paid the lawyer less than 800 bucks for his legal fees. That was this settlement. Wow. But they had to pay over $100,000 in their own legal proceedings or whatever. And they lost. So they basically spent $100,000 to try to keep the right to hide whatever they're doing. That sounds shady. That sounds shady to me, right? Yeah. That'shady. Yeah. I agree. I guess we won't go back to the Norwich Inn. No, go to the Norwich Inn. But. Yeah, they had nothing to do with this. Right. We don't know. The guy next to us could have been on the board. I don't know. You're just asking questions here. Yeah, they are. I think the Norwich Inn is completely absolved in this matter. Like, they're not parties to it. But it's interesting that they paid this guy 716. Yeah, it's one of those towns that every single building is white with real black shutters. It has that look and it's very colonial look to it. What do you think they're doing over there in Norwich? Obviously not listen to this show because they know not to do these things. Do you think they have a deep, like, like is this one of those towns that has like this conspiracy that like everyone in the town is in on it except for like this guy and a couple other people and it's all just like very underground? And like, Matt, is there a sex cult happening in Norwich? Uh, I hope not. Do they take Satan? Do they worship the devil over there in Norwich? I don't know what the hell they're doing. It's a very sedate town, though. Yeah, there's nothing to it except the general store and the Norwich Inn right next door, which has the smallest bar I've ever seen. Well, that's as far as we've gotten. We've seen these movies at 3 a.m. That's when it turns on. So Norwich, you're on notice. I guess you lost, so you're... All right, Brattleboro, a pub that I've only been to once. I think y'all have been there multiple times. We've never been there. No. But we drank this beer early on in our beer career. Yeah. We liked this beer career. Yeah, we used to get it at the co-op. Yeah, and we loved it. But then something happened to the owner, McNeil, and we've been to Burrow several times and looked in that barn. It sure looks like it's just, yeah. Now it's burned down. It burned down. Well, it burned down like a year ago. Yeah, he was in it. Yeah. He was in it? Yeah, he's passed. Yeah, he's gone. Was this suicide by Bernie or placed in or? I don'think so. I don'think so, I think the usual. Was it suspicious? Was there somebody who didn't like him and torched the place? Because it sure looked like it could go up quickly. It's like an old building, right, Matt? We never even walked in because it looked so dark. You did? Yeah, you walk in, it'super dark. It's bigger than you expect. And the people, everyone knows each other. Sometimes you go to a brewery and people walk in and they're like, I'm from Massachusetts. What's your best IPA? But here it was like, hey, bub, that kind of thing. No cars in the parking lot, they'll walk from somewhere. We were out of place, were out of towners. But I mean, the bartender was drinking with the patrons. Which I think is illegal. It is. I mean, I used to do it all the time, but I don'think it was against the law. Nobody cared. Florida and nothing is against the law. Let me strike that. It seemed like, but I cannot confirm. Apparently. The bartender was drinking with the patrons. We've been having that light flickering, too. Oh, interesting. Yeah, let's keep an eye on it. I think this building's haunted. I'll tell your wife. Oh, yeah, please. So, as we said below, this guy, he unfortunately died in a fire in his own bar. Maybe he went out on his own terms, but we don't know. He had good beer. Very good. It's too bad. But now the city wants to take the land. Why? How could they do that? If he owes taxes? I was just going to say, that's probably the only way they could do it. His daughter inherited it. She probably doesn't want it. Well, who would now? The land is worth $45,000. That's it? Isn'that crazy? Hey, wait a minute. Let's think about this. Maybe we should think about buying it. What do you know? Reopen? Want to move down to Broward and open a bar? Well, not really, but- If were gonna do that, we'd go buy the bar down there that's for sale. That's too expensive. Yeah, it is. The brewery. The other one, the Whetstone. Whetstone's for sale. See, this is the perfect opportunity to pounce, because now Whetstone is gonna be changing hands, gonna be some, changing over. You gotta go into McNeil's, buy that up, open it up under the auspices of like we are going to be like the grassroots bar where the dive bar that everyone loves. We're not that corporate. Everybody knows each other. Yeah. It's not like our bartenders will drink with you. Tourists come in with, you know. No tourists. We'll invite the tourists in, but we'll make them feel local real quick because our bartender will drink with them. I was thinking, oh, maybe we can renovate it. No, I don'think so. Yeah, look at those photos. There's no renovation. No, they're just knocking it down and destroying it. It was an old-looking place. I wish we had gone in, Matt. Yeah, I wonder if some other brewery will just buy that location and just expand, you know what I mean? Like, you don'think so? There's one kind of right across the street. Yeah, but it's like a weird... It's weird, kind of... It's like a sour beer. Yeah, sour. It's very specific. We, I think we looked at the menu and went, oh. Right. There's no IPAs. This is like fruit drinks. Yeah, it's essentially a wine bar. Yeah, yeah, that's what it seemed like to me. Not for us, but they're still in business, so people might like it. Yeah, good for them. I don't know their name. I don't either. And I'm not giving them any advertising. We've done free ads for multiple places on today'show, and some anti-ads. All right, still in Brattleboro. I just thought this was a cute story. a principal, Keith Lyman at Brattleboro Area Middle School, got duct taped to a wall because the students exceeded their donation goal for Project Feed the Thousands, so. I don't understand. How did the two go together? Why? He challenges the students, if you raise this much money to feed the thousands, you can duct tape me to the wall. Got it. Okay, we did it. Challenge accepted. And they did it. That's cool. Did y'all have any elementary or middle school principals who were cool like this? Nothing like this. I had, no. No. No, I had Sam Sheik. That was his name. That was my principal for kindergarten through sixth grade. Yeah. He was kind of a no-nonsense guy. And then, I can't remember who it was at my middle, my junior high, but yeah, I had old Wheeler Leath, who probably played football at Alabama. Wheeler, that's a name. Yeah, he was a good old boy. How about you Gloria? Knopf and Rosenfelder. That's how, those are my principals. I'm guessing those are your last names? Yeah. Sounds like a lawyer. Knopf and Rosenfelder. Slip and fall, Knopf and Rosenfelter. Yeah, how about you? Well, I had, so when I was in elementary school, probably fifth grade, we got a new principal, because I think a previous principal, I think there was some issues and stuff. Anyway, he left, and so we got a black guy, Mr. Turner, and this is probably the first black person that I ever knew in my life, like in power. What year was this or how old were you? 1990, I was 10. Wow. My town was kind of not officially segregated, but kind of was. But anyway, Mr. Turner was cool, always wore a suit. Even though it's like, looking back, I'm like, man, this is a lot of shit. But always wore a suit. And if he stopped you in the hall, because he would walk around and actually talk to the kids. And if he stopped you in the hall and chatted with you, or if you asked him a question or something, and he had a pocket full of fireball candies. So he'd give you a fireball and be like, eh, whatever, like, good chatting with you, and then be on his way. And the two years I was there, if we raised enough money doing like, I can't remember what it was. I don't know if were reading books or doing something like that, he would dance on the roof wearing a pink suit to the Pink Panther music. Oh, right. Really? Really? And I guess you failed. No, we did it twice in a year, twice in a row. I don't know if we did it or not. There's no independent checker, right? We were audited. That's cool. Back when Gloria and I were in school... No sense of humor at all. Nobody had a sense of humor. In fact, Wheeler-Leath... I had a sociology teacher who I loved. who used to play kind of good music between classes, you know, he just had a little record player and he was playing like shaft and things like that, you know, whatever. And one day were sitting in class and the principal poked, and we were in one of those, it wasn't a building, it was portable, Portable, because they had a few portables, because whatever, and he stuck his head in a portable and he says, How you doing Mr. Shirk? What's going on? Oh, we're just doing a class and he goes, Oh, by the way, I don't want you playing any more of that hound dog music between classes. That sounds like a code word. Yeah, his name was Shank. It wasn't Shirk. Yeah, it was like hound dog music. Oh, can't even play Elvis. Yeah, right. He's probably okay. That's the kind of principal I had. That was my last good principal. The rest were... My last two, yeah, they were both brothers. Like, one was a middle school principal, one was a high school principal. It's very weird. I didn't realize that was a family business. All right, Matt, we're moving on. Local retailers rejoice over improved holiday sales. They had a great holiday. And for a lot of people, it might not seem like it, but the economy in the United States has really taken off. I don't know, man. I kind of disagree. Well, I mean, I think it's great if you're heavily invested in the stock market. But if you're just getting by and relying on like your wages to increase, I think your wages probably have not very much increased. Well, I mean, as far as if you look at the numbers of inflation coming down and unemployment, blah, all that stuff, the numbers look great. In fact, in the world, we're the number one economy. I know, it might not sound like much. There are, I think companies are over-inflating their prices and that kind of thing. I think those kind of things are happening. It does cost a lot to go to the grocery store. But they had a good season here. I think that's great. I think it's great that a lot of people have money to spend, And companies were like, Oh, well, you know, yeah, supply chain. And then it's like, well, why is it not ever gone down? Right? And they're like, well, we don't do that. Yep. They never drop the prices. Because we realized you dummies will pay. That's just gluttony in America or greed in America. Cheez-Its are a dollar more and you'll pay for them because you dummies like Cheez-Its. And that's going to be the way it is. Yeah, that's true. Burn it all down, Matt. Get the guillotine. Time for a revolution. Yeah, yeah, a revolution. Start with Moreau. That was not a threat. No. Not threat. I'll take that. Maybe I'll cut that out. OK. We are not going to guillotine Moreau. We don't recommend that. We will guillotine Moreau if he runs for governor. OK, well, I'll definitely cut that out. No, no. I'm just kidding. We will theoretically guillotine him. We don't want him as governor. We're way too lazy to guillotine anyone. Yeah, that's true. What am I going to build a guillotine? We'll just make fun of him online. That's all you have to do. Yeah, there's no guillotine happening. But it's good that they made money, right? I mean, that's a positive thing. But, you know, businesses making money also means that, like, customers are paying more. So it's like, it's a balance. I just, yeah, the economy. It makes no sense to me. Well, it's like there's multiple economies, right? Right, there is. There's this general economy where it just assumes that, Well, the stock market is doing well, so everyone's doing well. No. It's like, what? That's not how life works. No. And the stock market is this weird entity where, if a company does bad, their stock goes up sometimes. It's like, what the fuck? Yeah, no, it makes no sense. That's why I could never major in economics. No way. I mean, it seems boring anyway. OK, moving on. You know what's not boring? What? Vermont Ninja Warrior. So I guess we would have heard about this if Glow had her events segment, but were off, so we didn't hear it. No, no shade. You were off. We were off, so were off. Oh, okay. You were busy. I was. It was the holiday season. So I guess yesterday, or what day is today? I don't even know what day today is. Sunday. All right, yeah, that's right. It was at church. So yesterday, Vermont had a, what I guess is a pop-up, Vermont Ninja Warrior Training Center. What do you mean a pop-up? Just suddenly this thing just pops up? I don'think, so this thing only lasted nine hours, and then I think it's gone. So I think they go from like state to state. And I think they're promoting the show, and maybe also trying to find contestants. There's probably a fee to get in, so they're probably making some cash on the side. Are you familiar with the show Vermont Ninja Warrior? No. American Ninja Warrior? No, that's why I was gonna ask you. So it's what? No, I've never heard of the whole thing. You've never heard of American Ninja Warrior? Well, I can imagine what it's all these different things, these obstacles they gotta do. Not me. Oh, man. Never heard of it. American Ninja. I've seen little videos of people failing, smashing their face or something. Is this like the one with the, you know, people singing and doing all kinds of tricks, Americans got talent? No, no. Nothing like that. No, quite not. They're kids, actually, I'm looking at this. Yeah, these are younger kids, but I think it was like 9 to 17, so. They're just promoting the show. Yeah, sounds good. It's a thing to do if you if I had like a ten-year-old and was like What we doing today? Like hey, you want to go try your hand at being a ninja warrior. Yeah. Yeah. Yes Yeah, or if you had like a high school kid who was like really fit and like been like doing a lot like Gymnastics or football whatever like hey, let's go do this. See if you can win It's fun. Yeah might be on TV. Yeah, maybe All right, you'ready for the break yep, okay the music is from Are you gonna be able to walk the dog, Sonny? It's gonna get dark soon. Hold on. It's fine. Okay. The music is from the Cold War Conspiracy, the song is Not For Me, You. Sorry! It's okay. We're back. Alright, so we start with our... Sorry. That's okay. America's favorite segment where we run down the worst people in Vermont. The scallywags. The dirtbags. The screams. Oh, look at that. I feel like you have a note card on your laptop. Matt, it's time for... The scumbag map. I like to start light with the scumbag map. Yeah. In Waterford, over there, down there. So yeah, it's right next to Barnett. Okay. You know Barnett. I do know Barnett. So the Vermont State Police are asking for the public's help in an investigation into theft of nine road signs. This was a couple of weeks ago, so it might be even more by now. People just stealing signs over there. That's really weird. I think that's just like kids just wanting to memorialize their time. I think it's a game. Who can come up with the most? Maybe. You know, I sold nine signs, total value $2,000. A hundred bucks a sign? Yeah, a hundred bucks a sign, or two hundred bucks a sign, that seems a lot. I don't know, but that brings us to, and Matt, you might know a lot. What do you know about Waterford, Vermont? Nothing. What? I don't know a lot. I was four years old when I moved out of there. That's no excuse. You have to go back, Matt. You have to go backwards. But I did look at this Wikipedia page that we always use. What'stuck out at you? How few people, notable people were born there or live there. Only two? Didn't we have Putney? There was like 12 and there was like jottering and people like that. Yeah, usually we're good for like a few state senators. And now they get a wrestler, you know, an inventor. Yeah, all we got is Amos Hadley, Speaker of the New York State Assembly, so New York. Amos Hadley sounds like the oldest name ever. Right. It sounds like that would be like the caretaker of some old mansion. Born in 1694. Amos Hadley. And Jonathan Ross, Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court and United States Senator from Vermont, which I have no idea when. I'm going to look him up. Oh, he was born in 1826, so it was a while ago. Oh, he went to St. J. Academy. Is that prestigious? Well, it is over in St. Johnsbury, yeah. I mean, but it's a private school. A lot of my relatives went there. One thing that might be problematic is there is an area known as White Village. It features homes from the 1700s, a church, a library, a post office, and bed and breakfast. White Village does sound a little weird. That's White Village. What's that over there? Well, I'm not going to say that one over here. The colored library is over there. Oh, there's White Village. That's all I got about Waterford, Vermont. I just figured every now and then I'd like to feature a town that we've never talked about and this one popped up in a dirtbag story. Well, at least you learned where it is. Yes, also named after Waterford, Ireland. That famous place. So that is all we know about Waterford, Vermont. Moving on. One of our favorite scumbags, Daniel Bagnet. He's on the lam. He's been commanded to turn himself in. Guess what? He's not doing it. Yeah, and they're not going after him. This is the second time that he's been commanded to turn himself in. They're afraid of this guy. They are. He's got cops on his side. He's got a ton of weapons. Yeah. They don't want to wake the situation. We've discussed this many times, but just as an update, he remains defiant of the court. He makes a mockery of the law, and he does it. With the police backing. Yep. That's cool. Yeah. I mean you wonder why like people like stockpile guns. It's for this reason because the cops aren't gonna come after him. Yeah, that's cool Vermont man sentence. I'm sorry. Do you want anything else? I'll say about that. No, it's just No moving on to Rutland Vermont man sentenced to five years in federal weapons case. I was just impressed by the hall. He's got this guy got a lot of weapons One of them looks got a little pistol thing Yeah It's like something Alexander Hamilton shot somebody with. Oh, the one on the bottom? Yeah. It almost looks like a toy gun. Yeah. So he's in possession of a short barrel shotgun. They found that, then they did a search of his home, and they found that along with, so shotgun, six other guns, 2,978 rounds of ammunition, 880 bags of heroin, and over $7,000 in cash. That little gun is the shotgun. That's a shot off shot guy, because you see the shell right next to it? That's true. There you go. He's a scumbag. What are those badges on the bottom? Oh, he's got like... Is this guy a Boy Scout? Vermont Game Warden, State Police, ATF. Oh, this guy's got these... Oh, maybe these are the people that helped in the bust. Yeah. I was thinking that he was like, he had them in possession. He was impersonating officers. Yeah, okay. Well, yeah, go to jail for 50 days and be let out and start killing people. So now we're moving over to Newport. Newport. So, police identify Newport man killed in Christmas Day stabbing. It's a holiday miracle. You always want to be killed on Christmas Day. I mean, we've all wanted to stab our family on Christmas, but we don't do it. So they identified the man. Autopsy was conducted on Donald Kuhl, 58, of Newport Town on Wednesday. They determined the cause of death to be a stab wound to the chest. And this guy, the killer, lived in a camper on the property. So you always want to have some loser camping out on your property, because they'll kill you. What do you think they're paying a month to camp out on your property? Is it worth having just a drifter on your property? Do they know each other or is this just, Hey, I'll give you 200 bucks a month to live on your property. I promise I won't stab you. So they determine the cause of death, but they've yet to determine the manner of death, which is interesting. I thought he was stabbed. Yeah, I know, but like, I guess the manner is about toxicology. Oh, were they drunk? because I'm guessing most stabs to the chest are not done with a sober mind. Their arguments have ensued. Yeah. And probably arguments over something stupid, like money, or a woman, or... You have to move off my property. There's that one, yeah. Oh yeah, my knife says otherwise. Anyway, so, let'see what happens. Authority received a report that Part of an altercation, and they found the guy dead at the scene. I guess other people were around and were like, I just saw a guy stab a guy. Time to call the police. Alright, moving on. We got a couple of retail thefts. Two women arrested in connection with Milton car thefts. Oh, this is not retail, sorry. Yeah, this is old, but now that I've had my car stolen, I would just like to hope that everyone who steals a car just burns in eternal hell and I hope they get arrested and I hope they suffer in jail. Yeah this is really one of the people, Kirsten St. Martin. Trouble. That name is Trouble. So baby, what's your name? Kirsten St. Martin. Ah, check please. See ya. Bye. I'm looking for Mary Johnson. Yeah, so she stole a car from a liquor store, which I feel like is unfair. Those people are sitting ducks. They don't lock their cars. And then the other girl, Nicole Strickland. She's the one from the Redwood Jolly Station. These girls must be fast. Yeah. Hey, you see a car running? They jump in. That's what it is. They don't say if they're running or not. So many people leave their cars running. Like, don't do it. Like, why would you do that? She has numerous charges, including assault, robbery, grand larceny, and DUI. So we don't even know the story on this one. Drunk and crazy person. Yeah. Well, hope you get locked up forever. Don't let him out on parole, Sarah George. Which you already have, probably. Alright, moving over to Enosburg. A couple of guys broke into a Walgreens. the men who caught surveillance camera just after midnight breaking the window glass so they weren't even like with a hammer they weren't like surgically they were up on the roof removing the air conditioner to yeah these guys are not crawling through the shafts the AC shafts the ventilator this is not heat in the movie these guys are like yeah like coming in through the roof no they um they're going right through the glass and what do they steal honey? Cigarettes. I need a smoke. Where can we get one? There's a store right there. I got a hammer. That's incredible. It's amazing that's all they sold. They didn'think like, well, there's other things of value in here. Let's get a case of beer. Anything. The razors. Razors are pricey. They have a pretty good shot. It's not a great shot, these guys. We'll see. Maybe they'll get away with it. It's just amazing to just be like, these two dudes walking down the street, obviously intoxicated. They're like, man, I need to smoke. I got this hammer. Let's make it happen. But it didn't. I guess cigs are expensive. It's true that they are. I mean, I don't know the exact price now. I've never smoked. But I know like back in the day, they were like a buck or two a pack in my day. And now they're like closer to 10 or more. I don't really have any idea. I quit in the late 80s and I think most I ever paid under $2. I think now it's like 5, 6, 7. It's always the people who can't afford it who smoke. Moving on to Berlin. Police say they have made an arrest, taken to a string of thefts. We have a gang, Gloria, and this gang is targeting Kohl's. Hmm. There's one in Berlin? Did not know that. Must be in that little mall. I like the fact that this person didn't even disguise herself. This photo? Yeah. No, also you're wearing... You're wearing camouflage, you have red hair. Maybe she's hoping the camo would help her blend in. Bleached red hair. Yeah. Yeah, you have bright red hair. I can't see her body because she is camouflaged. You know, maybe camo and dyed red hair does make you blend into Berlin. Maybe that's what everyone does. So yeah, they stole a bunch of stuff from Kohl's. Kaylee, name your kids with a K. But they didn't arrest the dude. Because you can't see him. Maybe Kaylee didn't snitch. Maybe she's going out like a G. She'so... She'so G. Whatever that means. Gangsta. All right, we've done the scumbag map. Let's transition to something happier. Glow, the story's for you. Have you looked at Mojo? No. Fair enough. Love the honesty. Mojo works with, I think it's just Vermont generally. He works with the Vermont Internet Crime Agency. What is that? Oh, internet. So it's mostly pedophiles. Okay. Mojo, they kind of throw some shade on him. They say like, he's a chubby dropout who doesn't always listen to commands. He's an English yellow lab, working for the Attorney General's office. He has a special skill. Like, like any dog can smell drugs, marijuana, cocaine, whatever, like, that's baby stuff. This dog can smell USBs. This dog can smell cameras. Camels? Cameras. Oh, cameras. Oh, probably cameras. Camels. So, a little back story on this dog. He was trained to be a seeing eye dog, but he was terrible at it. Because he injured one of his compadres or whatever, because I guess there was a hot dog stand across the street. And Mojo's like, we can make it. The cars were like, no, you can't, so I guess the blind guy maybe got a little banged up on that one. So Mojo got transitioned over to this special school in Indiana, which trains dogs to sniff out electronics. Hard drives, flash drives, SD cards, those kind of things. Because I guess they emit some kind of gas that we don't even smell, but it's there. And so he's a big help to this agency. That's cool. When they kick down doors and they're raiding a place, Mojo can help them find the little things that they're actually looking for. It says in his final years on the job, too, I guess they're gonna retire him. He's eight years old. Guess that's old. I don't know, yellow lab glow, eight years old? It could be. Right in middle age, I think, right? Because he lived to be about 12, 13. So if he works a couple of years, they're going to have a time where the new dog comes in and they're kind of like with each other. But I didn't know this kind of dog existed. I didn't either. I didn't know that dogs were sending out USBs, like hard drives. I had no idea. And there's another thing, another layer to the story. Not only is Mojo good at his job, when they're raiding these places, they're often finding kids, and the kids are the victims. The yellow lab. Yeah, so the yellow lab is someone there to comfort them. Aw. So that's also helpful. Good for Mojo. Yeah, and also helps his partner, who's like, yeah, this job is really tough, and his dog is a good companion. Mojo Risen. Is that a reference to something called Mojo Risen? From The Doors. Okay. Mojo Risen. Sorry. Ancient references. No, I love it. Jim Morrison reference from 1970? I think it's even earlier. 1968? 68, 69. I think that's right in our demo, Matt. I think it's L.A. Woman. We can't play it. We don't want to pay for it. We can play it. We don't pay anyone anything. We're fine. But yeah, Mojo. Glow, you should read the story. I think you'll get a kick out of it. They kind of diss him. They're like, oh, Mojo's giant boxy head. I mean, they don't flatter this guy. He's not a handsome guy. Eight years young. It's like, come on, man. Just let this dog be. But yeah, so they'll be getting a new one. Um, the last thing I had here was like just like the year in search. Are you interested in this at all? All right. Do a little bit of guessing. Well, you're gonna be terrible at this. Nah. Just so you know. So I have the Google searches from 2023. Man, you're not gonna, well, Matt might get some of this. But this is also a way to like kind of reflect on like, oh shit, that also happened. And the news, what do you think were the top news stories searched in 2023? CNBC? No, no, like the actual story. I have no idea. It's either Ukraine, not at all. Number one, I'll give you number five, Hurricane Idalia. Don't even remember that. So that's the kind of stuff, yeah, me neither. Number four, Hurricane Hillary. Don't remember that one. It's not Hamas attacking Israel? That's number one. Number one. And Ukraine's not in it at all. You're kidding. We're over that. And the Russians know that. That'sad. What is it? You have the clocks, but we have the time? Yeah, man. So, number three, Turkey earthquake. Remember that? Nope. Maybe you don't remember two then. Number two, amazingly, the Titanic submarine. Oh yeah, the submarine that disappeared was destined to disappear all along because it was a piece of shit. The people are all athletes, except for Jeremy Renner, who's number two. What's number two? Jeremy Renner, he's an actor. He got into a snowmobile accident. He was cleaning his road or something. No, it was a snowplow. A snowplow. He thought he was gonna die. He ended up going back there yesterday to the hospital. They took care of him and thanked everybody. Because they didn't expect him to ever walk again and all that shit, but he did. I don't know much about Jeremy Renner, but I have a positive opinion about him. I like him too. I like him as an actor. Me too, it doesn't hurt me a thing. Deaths. Oh, deaths. Deaths, baby. Deaths. Deaths. I only remember the people who affected me, and I don'think any of them are on the top. Andre Brouwer? I think that's way too recent to make the list. That was a homicide actor. Was he in Law & Order at all? No, he was in Men of a Certain Age, which we liked. Oh, he was in that? Yeah, with Ray Romano. Yeah, it was really good. and then he was in Brooklyn 9-1-1 or yeah he played a gay lieutenant or something but that's who I remember because I really liked him Oh again I Tom Wilkerson just died a couple years a couple days ago when I don't know who that is Tom Wilkerson yeah Phil Monte mm-hmm But he was also in Michael Clayton, who are you? I am the rap of whatever, he was good. But anyways, who is number one? Well, I'll count down, maybe it's a little spot. Number five, Jerry Springer. Didn't know that, I didn't even know he died. Number four, I don't know who this person is, Ken Block. How do you spell the last name? B-L-O-C-K. I don't know who that is. Hold on, I think we're all gonna be like, oh. Yeah, Oh an American rally driver Wow, see this is interesting because it shows you like what? What's popular amongst the world? You know, I mean like again, we're in bubbles, right? Like number three This shocked the hell me. This is so high Sinead O'Connor Hmm, but she'such a has-been right? I mean, it's like it never was she's famous off singing a cover song She just disappeared. I know she's dead. Yeah, but I mean she just disappeared for the last few years But like, it's crazy that people are so interested in her. I didn'think she'd register. Number two, Tina Turner. Don't remember, because it didn't affect my mind at all. Yeah. She's one of those ones you're like, oh, I didn't know she was still alive. Or like, she wasn't like in the spotlight when she died, which is the case for most of these. And number one, once I say it, you'll go, oh. And you'll go, who? Matthew Perry. Right, who? From friends. Oh, okay. Which one was he? Chandler. Chandler Bing. I see a lot of these like, none of us would know like, these songs, I mean, number one song is Japanese. Don't know any song. Jason Aldean Had a song called try that in a small town, which I've heard of. Oh, that's the anti Yeah, liberal song. Yeah, which is fine I'm trying to find some ones that we might know that y'all might know Here we go movies We went to one movie this year Barbie number one. See we're number one Look at y'all staying current. Number five, John Wick, chapter four, which I'm sure you did not see. Number four, Sound of Freedom, which is like the QAnon movie. Number three, Jawan, which I don't even know what the hell that is. And then number two. Killers of the Flower Moon? No. Oh, Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer, yeah. Killers of the Flower Moon, not my favorite. Here we go. Shout out to Korea, number one recipe, bibimbap. We've had that. Yeah. We've had that at my home. Man, see, the problem with a lot of this stuff, like you're not going to know the TV shows. I wouldn't expect you to. It's weird because I used to know all that. I don't know. We don't watch TV anymore. Well, Netflix and Amazon, that's pretty much it. Oh, this is maybe a couple of interesting things. I won't ask you to guess. I'll just go through these, top parks in the world. Villa Borghese in Rome, El Retiro, Madrid, Spain, Hyde Park, London, Central Park, New York, Park Gould, Barcelona. Wish I was just that. Did you go to that park? I did. Very, very overrated. Not worth your time if you're in Barcelona. Okay. Top stadiums, top museums. I bet it's at Isabella Gardner in Boston. No. Top museums, there'something in Tokyo, Natural History Museum in London, a museum in France, British Museum in London, Le Louvre. I mean, those are the top museums. Nothing in the US. No. Yeah, very interesting. Let me see if I can zero in on Vermont. Maybe I cannot. Yeah, Burlington. I'm just going to scroll through this real quick. Yeah, this is like, you ever search like near me? This is what was in Burlington. Number five, Pilates near me. Number four, dispensary near me. Okay. Number three, rage room near me. What the hell is a rage room? I don't know. I don't have no desire to destroy stuff instead of trying to solve a puzzle. Number two, podiatrists near me. Podiatrists? Everybody's got bad feet. Wow. And number one, air quality near me. Still bad in New Jersey. Yeah, because we had those fires or whatever. Yeah, that's it. It was not very exciting. And it just proved that the world is passing us by. Yeah, we live in a little bubble up here in Vermont. I'm gonna read home. Yeah, we don't care. Yeah, we're gonna get out of here. See ya. Peace! Bye-bye. button in the verb You mean this button? lol

Vermont Catch-up (Ketchup)

171: Nobody Knows Anything, Christian Mediation Shocker and Norwich Shadiness

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