Hey, everybody. Welcome. I’ve got Chad from TitBose. Thank you. TitBose.com. The incredibly true facts. Oh, I said incredibly, didn’t I? the world. acts of space, but they meant it literally. True Facts of Space 2029 because people are taking this public domain packaging it. every variant you can imagine. here’s one here. Let me, uh, let me share this. This is, uh, the incredible facts about space. There we go, man. And then it’s not the true ones though. It’s only the incredible ones. Here’s amazing ones, right? These people And then this is interesting facts. So they’re not even incredible. Yeah. And then you got the fun facts. True. There is something almost… I wouldn’t say that that’s not already the case. that is historically proven to be true, too, over and over again yeah I think I think it’s true it’s hyper true I think if you got 80 then you’re doing pretty good yeah I think we’re lucky to get over 50 like 55 is uh is probably the positive, don’t you think?
see how you could talk yourself into several different positions depending on some bigger picture belief systems you had pinned down already so Thank you. Exactly. That’s right. there you go now now you actually have written a book called the incredible true facts of space as well. So you have the website you had the website for years, though. The website has been around for there you go. For over 20 years. But the book You’re kind of doing it all backwards here. Usually the book comes out. It isn’t available. Okay. Well, there you go. that’s interesting yeah I guess well you get certain ones with Amazon Prime anyway but I think there’s other add-ons that you can do as well so Right, right. You know, a part of that. Audible. Yeah. I think they own Audible.
gotcha oh there goes your lights everybody The plus is usually a $5. They should have called it Prime 5. Because it’s all $5. I want to start that right now. Everybody’s doing plus. We’re going to do 5. What do you think? Titfos 5. It’s a solid number. I’ve always was partial to it from the time I was a child because… And it’s an odd number, which I enjoy odd numbers. It truly is. So that way, even numbers are kind of shady. It’s true. Well, some people have six, but it’s okay. there’s, Right. Right, yeah. That’s true. Interesting. Ha ha ha! Yeah, it doesn’t have anything to do with that. Okay. I don’t like this, so I’m going to make it fail. Okay. Sure, sure. You type words and whatnot, hold them upside down. Sure. Well, that’s one level of fun.
Deep thought here in the box. I love calculators. You think people really before the late 60s, early 70s didn’t have access to calculators, and then cheap calculators came out in the late 70s, early 80s. Really? Right. Exactly. No, it was. I had, as a kid, we had an adding machine, which was this huge mechanical monster with all the buttons. It didn’t have, you know, now you just have 10 buttons. It had 100 buttons, right? So you’d have 10 digits with all 10 digits. Oh, you want to amortize the number? Yeah. Do you want the French method? Yeah. And then you had this big handle, almost like a one-armed bandit that you then had to pull down, and it shot up these metal typeset things that had the numbers on them, and then they would smack against the paper. Oh, wow. It was a monster. Not only the calculation, but then your numbers.
Yeah, well, it went onto the paper, and you go, ka-chunk! And it was the funnest thing to play with. It was outdated technology. This is probably from the 20s or something. I don’t know. You talk about playing with calculators. That was more. And it was very industrial and heavy. I mean, you couldn’t carry it around. There were a lot of mom-and-pop shops still using those. Yeah, and you go, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, ka-chunk! Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, ka-chunk! And then, you know… Oh, no. My mother did the books and she would sit down there and she would do this really quickly. I mean, she was, you know, she was adept because she’d been using that thing, obviously, for probably a couple of decades at that point. So it was it was fascinating where it worked.
You muted yourself there. There you go. Mike. Bob? Yeah. Okay. You’re there. We had a connection problem. You just muted yourself for a moment. That’s all. Ah, rats. I was telling you, when I worked at a grocery store, you know, one of my first jobs, and the ladies that worked the cashiers, you know, they would still doing a lot of typing. They were scanning things, but they were still doing a lot of typing and everything was still cash. So it’s kind of a different skill set. I’ve noticed going through that, uh, just the absence of, of effort that it used to require, you know, having, you know, having worked as a, as a kid, do you see my gosh, you know, we’re lucky we still have, uh,
so I always wait in line to go in the cashiers lines at Publix because I just, I like the fact that they still have cashiers on duty. Yeah. So, you know, miles, uh, my cohost for static radio, he’s a, I always go into the, the people line rather than the computer line. Yeah. And then I always go into the self checkout. You do. Yeah. Oh yeah. Cause I don’t, I don’t want the, uh, interaction, uh, Or the scrutiny on what I’m buying is usually the thing. I like to talk about it. Yeah, I like that. But he’s more social like you where he wants to interact with these folks and find something out, I guess. I don’t know. I’d get to say, look, these incontinence pants really are for my dog. Yeah.
That’s right. You can tell they’re not my size. It’s obvious. Would you like to open them together? Well, so let’s talk about the book a little bit here. What would you call it as, I mean, other than the facts about space, would you call it a compilation of short stories? Yeah, yeah, it is. It’s a mix. It’s It’s a light read. I don’t even know. It was like 160 pages on Kindle. Oh, man. I didn’t spring for the page numbers. What the hell? I have 190 on my PDF that you sent me. This is a proof copy. Oh, okay. I see it’s got the proof on there. Yeah, so it’s not really for sale. I do like your artwork. I will say your artwork is very good. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah, I like it. It is an AI background with an AI chair and an AI TV and AI carpet.
I’m going to take back my statement. No, I’m just joking. No, I mean, I like, cause you use the incredibly incredible true facts of space part multiple times. Obviously you’ve added something to the book, but yeah, I’ve seen that other part many, many times. Let’s see. So it started in a Walmart in a inner hell little box where I was supposed to be selling cell phones and was pretty much the directed not to worry about it so uh you know, I, I was like, okay. And Darren didn’t like me being in the office because I, you know hung inappropriate posters in the, in the bathroom once. Um, I was still just young enough to be a little bit nuts, you know, like when i worked at Blockbuster, uh, no, sorry, alfalfas. This is before blockbuster bought us. We were kind of the cool record store. And, uh,
so alpha like the our gang person. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Books and video. It was interesting. Local mobile kind of, I think it grew up to like three locations. So it’s, uh, anyway, it was, um, what were we talking about there? You’re working and selling cell phones that you weren’t supposed to sell. Yeah. I think i was still just young enough. to be a little nuts. Back earlier when I worked at Alfalfa, this was music. Oh man, I don’t know. 24, 25, 24 maybe. So anyway, I had a special sale that we would refill your Zippo if you rented three movies. After we’d become a blockbuster, that wasn’t It wasn’t part of the plan anymore. It was no longer a, no longer a bonus that we could offer to the customers. You guys had like all of this lighter fluid under the counter. No. In fact, I came up with it because we always had lighter fluid and,
on hand and for taking labels. Oh, for removing the label. I got you. That was before the gunk gunk off or whatever it’s called. Yeah. And when we were still talking about physical objects, you know, like each one had to be had to be made and had to look right. Yeah. So it’s amazing to think how much time we used to spend sorting those tapes, making sure they were rewound and mainly not because you were like, you know, paranoid, angry video guy that wanted them rewound. But it’s just the complaint you would get. And, and the, the lack of showmanship you would serve by giving somebody a video, they get home, their popcorn, their kids are on the couch, they plug it in and they got to rewind the whole thing. You know, I mean, classically that was considered, you know, really bad form, right. For, for being cool to your customers. So it’s,
And Alfalfa’s was kind of much more of a hip store. So it really would have made a great movie, now that you think about it. Is this the place that says Alfalfa on the window there? Does that look like it, or is that something different? Oh, sorry. No, I can’t really see it. I guess the screen’s way too small. No problem. I was trying to find an image of this. It was like… It was blue and yellow, but a lighter blue and a lighter yellow. Oh, okay. This is probably something newer then. Yeah. This would have been peculiar to Mobile and, I don’t know, 1992 to 1997, maybe? No, no. Blockbuster would have bought them in 92, I guess. Yeah. Hmm. long time ago man a while ago hard to imagine. I can’t quite count the numbers. You need a calculator. It’s always good to have a calculator when when’s it not good to have a calculator? Exactly. Well, um, so, so what is this book about? This book is, uh, many different stories, short stories.
separated by strange lists uh short poems, and vocod poetry okay man where’s oh i do have my glasses i need uh i need some light. That’s the problem. Yeah, I was gonna read you a piece oh yeah yeah let’s let’s hear a little bit. Let’s get a little reading in here. Now, did you ever sell any cell phones at the Walmart? Usually, the goal was to send them to the main office. Just say we didn’t have any inventory there. Oh, gotcha. So, he really didn’t like this whole operation. He’s like, just send them someplace else. We don’t need to have the… It’s a fad. This cell phone’s a fad. Here’s for more of a list-like thing. This is an incredible true fact of space. Sure, the truth will set you free, but on Zlon, it will also stain your teeth permanently. When you buy your next interstellar craft, don’t get too hung up on the upholstery. I know a guy who can take care of that for you. The best toilets…
in the tri-galaxies carry the Duraflush label. There’s this planet called Earth, but watch out. They’re carbon. When sleeping during the space hibernation, try not to dream about naked women. It’s a trick. Tricky Zorlons. The problem with space food? Well, the ketchup’s actually blood. Uh-oh. Hyperspatial reality elf. Don’t panic if you meet. Be calm. Close your eyes. Breathe. And one more thing. You’ve got space fever. All right. So there we go. All right. So here’s more of a story. This is probably like a five or six day story. I feel I remember feeling defiant. Lad and Lassie, Mobile, Alabama. Oh, the days at Lad and Lassie when the air smelled of crowns, rebellion, and the faint whiff of mischief. I can still picture the wooden-stalled bathroom, that creaky painted stall that was like a time capsule from another era when cars were the size of pleasure yachts and health codes were optional. Anyway, it talks about Joy, this girl that was really tall.
that’s all i remember and uh it talks about square dancing, some other things and uh then there’s some more abstract things like the haunted video game parlor. And it’s, you know, it’s a story about uh dracula’s are involved. You know, alien robots, a 900 foot tall mechanical michael Jackson. swept his neon green laser eyes across the desert, incinerating the bats in a fury of bursts. The Dracula telethon blared from the arcade speakers, hosted by a count, a caped count. He raised funds for diseased and socially challenged children. Just then, a man in a Lemon Pledge outfit came out in costume, Sang just like Sammy Davis Jr. Galassi, everything. Frank was down there kicking his shins, drawing more laughter, piles of donations. A cameraman, motorcycle, even a dinette set with 100 yards of carpet were given away as the crowd cheered. Inside, Boomer and Vishna played on. Boomer, pausing the joystick, drove a virtual car while Vishna fed him rice and sweet milk lassies.
Her laughter echoing. You’re the best dental assistant alive, Boomer. Anyway, so it’s a love story between this hat and a Dracula telethon that goes on. What is a Dracula telethon? Yeah, like Dracula’s, you know, like. It’s not in the book, don’t worry, but I have hundreds of Dracula said stories. That sounds like some kind of Jeff Foxworthy kind of… Dracula says… Yeah, let me get some water. Dracula says, I want your blood, right? Right, that’s the one everybody knows. That’s your common… You may be… You may be a vampire if… If you don’t purchase my eye cream. You can see him being like a QVC host. That’s right, yeah. It’s kind of the 120-minute version of QVC that never happened. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Now it’s nighttime QVC. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think you should do an infomercial for your book. Yeah, that’s a good idea. Yeah. Well, this kind of is, but it’s not exactly because you need to have somebody who’s a little more smiley and ingratiating. Well, I like seeing your cartoon cat avatar. Yeah.
I see it on LinkedIn all the time. Yeah, that’s true. It’s all over LinkedIn. They wouldn’t let me put it as my picture though. I got a strongly worded email about that or message that I could not have the cat be my image. Apparently, they want you to be professional on LinkedIn, although they’ll let me post about people farting. Your posts always stick out on LinkedIn because LinkedIn is like, let me vomit something the person I’m kissing up to, you know, in corporate said. Let me tell, you know, my ex-boss that just got a better, you know, $10 million parachute deal. Let me tell them that I really, you know… appreciate what an asshole they were, you know? Yeah, exactly. So you read through LinkedIn. But for certain marketing groups, you know it’s and and it depends if your buyers, like if your buyers change jobs a lot it’s in like really specific industries, they’re probably all over LinkedIn. Because about, you know, after 10 years, you’ve met enough other
people in the same industry that you kind of form these, you know, ad hoc social networks and you got a lot of intelligence between places. Um, so that’s always kind of a neat thing to see it neat to see how it affects just everything else. Yeah. Yeah. I’m, I’m incredibly surprised that, uh, people actually take the time to look at, uh, my content on LinkedIn, you know, the only kind of real stuff up there is that blue cartoon cat signs that you might have car trouble okay fire Well, that would be bad. Fire under the dash and hood. Fire under the hood spreads to the interior. Oh, that’s bad. Yeah. The windshield melts while the wipers. It’s too dark for me to see, man. You know, you need some of those glasses that have the little lights on either side. Yeah.
That’s really what I need. Let’s see if we can… I’m not going to cut you off, I hope. I’m going to just move this whole thing. There you go. Look at that. All right. We’ll all read together. That’s right, everybody. I’ll take the first line. Make sure you get a tasty beverage because here we go. Large crane lifting your car over swamp fails. Dropping your car down into mysteriously placed buckets of lava um Dracula is hiding in the truck with a knife or no with a loaded pistol oh gosh when the engine fail falls out of the car the oil pan develops a bad leak and you’re also out of gas red dummy lights on the dash. are hard to see over the telephone pole coming through the windshield. It sounds like something like Johnny Carson may have enjoyed. Neighbor seen pouring sugar into gas tank. It’s a sign of car trouble. Bomb in the glove box explodes prematurely. 500-pound sentient jail has appeared in your back seat. Mm-hmm.
And he hates cars. Calvin pees on your car during asparagus season. Poor old Calvin. I know, man. You know, the guy never did any licensing because he never wanted to sell his characters out. Right. It happened. He fell in with a bad crowd for Calvin, you know. But he sorted himself out now. He’s actually become a a buddhist monk so uh mercury retrograde retrograde in fire sign sagittarius ends water sign Scorpio. batteries dead. You know, battery dead that’s that’s bad news. uh very bad news yeah so uh so there’s lots of fun to be had. I love the dracula thing in there. That’s good. Now, how do you feel? So, you know, you and I both have known Frank Edward Nora for many, many years over at TheOvernightscape.com, ONSBG.com. Actually, you know, I have a little tag there. There you go. You can go there and see him, hear him. Oh, you just disappeared. There you go. But he has a Dracula…
show called count angelus’s contraption. Do you remember this? This is a great idea. It’s, um, yeah, it’s, it’s one of those monster host shows. Uh, but this, this guy’s hosting classic movies, kind of like in a town when we grew up, when there were independent tv stations and, you know, to try to show something interesting at night or after school or late at night. Yeah. you know, they would put on these interesting shows. So, yeah, I love the idea. And I, I hope someday that he does it at least one of one episode with puppets and everything, because I think it’s one of those fantastical things that could, it’s one of those things that it has all the hallmarks of being something and,
Yeah. And I think Frank would be a great personality to be dressed up into some kind of outfit and character and, you know, actually be Count Angelo’s. The physical contraption has to be made behind him, too, because. Right, right. Well, I think it should be made out of cardboard. But anyway, your Dracula thing just reminded me of that. I’m sorry we got off on a tangent there. Because your Dracula references, I’m like, oh, it reminds me of Count Angelus’ contraption where he would put bad movies into some kind of machine and then it would come out with an even worse movie. You know, that was, I think, the idea that I recall. And then he had other people. There is… Oh, gosh. What is the name of it? I’m going to blank on it now. There is a show in Canada that was on in the 70s. I’ve got to find it now. Vincent Price actually did the intros for the show in his later years before he passed away. Oh, okay. He did them all over the course of a week. He went up
there and did all these intros. Um, and i feel like i just can’t remember the name of this thing, but yeah. Yeah. I’m trying to, I’m, I’m, I’m stalling while i’m looking to see if i can find it. Uh, I know it was, you know, the memories are very clearly video qual video era quality you know stuff that was hard to upscale, you know, DVD levels for some reason. And, uh, even actually reach dvd levels no that’s uh dvd looks okay uh especially with a good up scaler you you can make ah i got it. The Hilarious House of frightenstein is the name i do not remember that name, but yeah. maybe Maybe it just felt out of memory because it’s not a very good name. Well, the funny thing was I found out about it. This is kind of like a tangent to Dracula and Count Angela’s contraption. I’m going to bring it up on the screen here so you can see it as well if you’d like. And because there it is, Hilarious House of Frightenstein. And
it was mainly this, this one, uh, actor. Um, so here he, he’s all made up here with the thing on his head. And then this is this kind of, you know, Igor, uh, type person there. But, um, let me see if I can find, I watched, if you go, it’s actually out on those free streaming, uh, things. And he does do a Dracula impersonation right there is his Dracula thing. Now, What no one knows, and I’ll see if I can find a picture of this because it’s quite interesting because of the fact that, here’s what I’m saying, is it had all the hallmarks to be something great, but maybe it wasn’t at the time. Let’s see if I can find it. Sorry, I keep scrolling. Because this was the inspiration. I heard the voice parts of it. I wonder.
Someone could take the voice sections and reanimate the stories. It was a kid’s show. Oh, gosh. I wish I could find… Anyway, I’ll tell you if I can’t find a picture of it here. I wish I could make the screen bigger. I don’t know. Oh, that’s okay. Mike Myers took inspiration from this because this guy… Um, had a character that was a mini me. He is the originator of mini me because he had his Dracula character. And then he had a, a, a small person, a little person dressed exactly like him. And he literally calls him the mini me. That’s a really great concept to come up with. And yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s a pretty original idea. So Mike Myers stole the wholesale. He didn’t credit the guy for this. He has in interviews, but I don’t know that he credited the guy and, and, uh,
You know, monetarily. Well, man, he should. I mean, just out of respect, you know, the guy obviously made an impression on him. But if you like, because I know you’re a fan of the Sid and Marty Croft. Well, yeah, I don’t think it’s very good entertainment. Right. Except for look through a certain lens, right? Right. You’re familiar with it and you are… I grew up with it, yeah. And I thought it was really cool at the time. Right. This is like Sid and Marty Kroff from Canada. Like the… Was it the Sea Slacks or the… Oh, yeah. Sea Stacks. Oh, the Sea Stacks from Land of the Lost. Yeah, those were pretty cool. Witchy Poo, I remember fighting with her in front of a blue screen at the…
the amazing world of Sid and Marty Croft in Atlanta, Georgia. So in Atlanta, you know, it’s only open. Apparently, Frank has talked about it many times. I think for like nine months, which which is wild because it I’ve talked about it, you know, a couple of times on shows and, you know, the overall impression was, yeah, you could kill, you know, half a day there. but i think it was kind of like disney world price. And then right they had, you know, a lot more problems with the machinery breaking down at times. So, you know, I remember when we were there, there were several times where it’s like, no, this, you know, it’s gone down, you know, indefinite weight, but then people would wait in line because, you know, apparently that was the norm.
And so and I guess they were probably trapped, right? They didn’t have Disney level technology, and they were trying to build a couple very simple dark rides like, you know, the pinball machine game was a ride was the most original thing they had by far. Those people in the pinball. There you are. Oh, OK. I can’t see it because that’s OK. Trust me. I look like an ant. It’s not possible. Yeah. But it’s very interesting, all of that. There’s the world of Sid and Marty Krofft. I remember the Inside the Pentagon game was very disco looking. Right. It was kind of the height of disco look. Everything was smooth, round chrome. You’re one of the few who actually got to… experience it. Well, I got to ride that uh atari game where, like, my older brother was driving the fire engine, and then i was on the back with a separate oh yes i did that, yes. Man, that was a lot of pressure for a kid, you know that and that but that was a fantastic game and you know, for the time
by any means it was it’s very simple graphics, but right in the sense of what it was representing, it was somewhat of a physics simulator sure so so yeah it was, it was an early insight into kind of how deep these games could be. You know, these games didn’t have to just be shooting a single thing because at that point we were just getting to that was like the cowboy game Nintendo had one out, and I’m pretty sure that was one of the first products they distributed to the U.S. It was some sort of a gun game. Oh, yeah. It was a gunfighter? No. There’s an interesting story with that game, too. I can’t remember at the moment. I like Frank’s policy. If you can’t remember, just be like, nah. If you can’t remember, just make it up.
That’s my policy. Well, that was interesting. What, uh, what the AI did, you know, he had a unique personal copy AI. So it’s limited to 26 gigabytes of data about everything. Um, so anything you ask it, it’s going to do its best to answer, uh, you know, with, with the, uh, LLM formula and, and it would, um, It made up things like there was a restaurant at Disney’s Horizons at Epcot. And Frank was like, oh, well, tell me more about this restaurant. And it starts going into detail about what they served and how they served it. And it was so neat looking that the right stuff filmed a scene. And it’s known for that. And it’s like, none of this stuff is true, right? None of it’s real.
We’re headed for a future of having no idea what our past or present is. Right, yeah. Because it could make up anything, and if you’re not anywhere in the area or know about it, then you’ll just take it as fact, maybe even incredible true facts, and… You’ll go with that for the rest of your life. Sorry, but I’ll be right. technology troubles here. I think you need to get uh go uh i do i think now you’ve muted yourself again or something. You’re gone. You can still hear me. You’ve disappeared. oh there you are. Now you’re back. What’s her name appeared the the orb lady? Oh, yeah. theory She’s like, of course it’s true, Chad. Horizons did have that restaurant. You’re remembering it wrong. What was that episode of star Trek? It’s like, there are five lights.
You know, and it was like, there were like four lights and Captain Kirk’s like looking into the four lights and the voice from above is going, there are five lights. And he’s like, there are four lights. And the whole thing was like a mental game to break him, you know, to get him to say, to be compelled to speak truth, right? So to speak. Right. That’s what’s going to happen. That’s what’s going to happen to all of us with this AI. Yeah. Have you seen the quote with the movie? I don’t know if it’s real or not, but I did see that the other day. It might not be real. But the movie Dune, one of the lessons was the father royal guy was like… Paul Atreides? No, it was the Duke Atreides. Yeah, go ahead. Paul is the main character. Did you find the quote? I’m talking that up. Oh, no, I didn’t. That’s off the top of my head.
Oh okay. What kind of code is it? Let’s see. What’s it about? Men will invent machines to think for them. Oh, gotcha. Then they’ll use machines to remember for them. And then powerful, abusive men will take over the machines and use the machines to enslave all men. Right. Sounds about right. I was like, man, that is how you do it. Yeah, I think it’s a foolproof plan. Yeah. I mean, you know, we’re all in our little fiefdoms and we don’t know the difference. Well, people who read the incredibly incredible true facts of space. Oh, thanks. Yeah. You know, I, um, it, I write, I started writing weird stuff when me and my brother would take long road trips because we would, my father’s parents were from Connecticut and my mom, uh, were from, you know, Grove Hill, North of Grove Hill and the, you know, kind of nowhere above Grove Hill. And, um,
So we did a lot of road trips, you know, either to the country every other week and Connecticut once a year, um, once or twice, twice in a year. And it’s a really long drive, you know? So, so my father would find like every single thing you could do. And if you remember back then, if you were part of AAA, you could order trip kits. Yeah. Trip kits. Yeah. And so they would send you these little packages, and it’s like, you know, you’ll take this road, and here’s some good places for lunch. Here’s some good places for dinner. And, you know, little mini reviews of them. And so you can just kind of plan the whole deal out with just these little cards. And, of course, you had to be smart enough to take I-45 or, you know, I-65 north all the way until it hits I-85, and then you got to make that turn, right? Right. Yeah.
So it’s complicated, you know. Just as complicated as it is now, but people were able to do it without computers helping them. Right, without somebody talking to them the whole time. Exactly. Well, maybe the navigator in the car talked to them, but it was a different type of talking to you. Man, yeah. Yeah. No, I kind of miss the days of not knowing for a while. You know, there’s always that point in the road trip back before gps where you would be lost. Right. And you would not know if you were and then you’d finally come to a realization by a road sign or a or a landmark of some kind. And then you’d be like, oh, no, we’re not lost or you’re getting to it you’re getting so many miles to a certain city, so you imagine, okay, eventually, okay, we’re on the right way at least. Right, we’re on the right exactly this is that we you know we saw
Another city that we recognize. So we’re on the right way. Yeah. And Alabama, I noticed growing up because I moved to Dallas, you know, for like 20, 22 years. Wow. And so the traffic growing up, you know, driving anywhere, you could kind of dead reckon because you were either going to be on I-10 east or west. You know, you go over to Pensacola. go over, catch that other road all the way down to Orlando. Or you go west through Texas and keep on going out into California. You know, you take I-10 all the way. Right, I-10, yeah. And, um, so my mind was always just northeast west south you know if if if something was northeast of me, I could get there. You know, just combination of growing up and knowing the city and and the fact that
The roads were relatively normal. But then when you get to Dallas, one, it’s never not under construction. Twenty-something years I worked or lived there, there never were not major construction projects on several different interstates. And so I do not miss the hour-long drive in the morning and the hour-long drive in the evening. And that was probably, you know, one of the better commutes I had while living out there. I’ve got a question for you. I was in the South recently, not like South Carolina, so not South. Why don’t they do construction all year round in the South? Because it never gets really too terrible. I still wait for the summer. yeah um i probably should have overheard something about that at some point laura’s laura’s father was a uh a traffic engineer with oh okay the the alabama you know, he was in Montgomery. I’m from mobile and we met in auburn but um laura’s father james in montgomery was uh department of Transportation. I don’t know exactly what it did in it, but
He did well there, and he was there for like 30 years, so whatever that would be. But anyway, it’s very technical, and it sounds like a boring job, but the people in it, they’re all such engineers at heart. that they love talking about soil viscosity and, you know. Oh, maybe if it’s a certain temperature that has problems with the concrete and stuff, maybe. I don’t know. I think it’s, yeah, I think it’s probably a couple choke points make, along with the fact that a lot of people don’t like to do especially if you’re from the South and you’re not really close for it and you’re not really accustomed to it, the idea of holding a metal hammer or something or just holding a tool outside and hitting something when it’s really cold and you’re not used to cold, well, you know, most workers would rather not. And I think what’s always been true in construction is if you’ve got…
20 guys that, you know, always show up. Other than that, they’re not horrible. You know, they’re not a threat to anybody. But, yeah, they kind of really don’t care. But they show up all the time. They actually show up, yeah. So in construction, that counts for a lot. So if you get this kind of weather that your guys don’t want to work in, then that percentage just stops dropping to the point where it’s like, well, you’re not going to fire anybody. these guys, cause you’re a Southern guy too. And you know, you’re kind of being a little unreasonable, you know, whether yeah, not going to show up. So you just here in St. Louis. Oh, that’s a problem. I’m just curious. I think we’re on the right track though. I think we figured it out in, uh, in St. Louis. Um, I always felt bad for the water department because St. Louis has very,
very old infrastructure. And there for a while, like back in the early 2000s um when i was in the city all day, every day uh water mains broke constantly. And it would be the middle of winter, and a water main would break. And there’s guys down in that hole getting wet in freezing temperatures. Oh, my gosh i know and i’m like and and it was happening, like, I mean every night on the news water main you know del mar and uh you know and how do you how do you not get wet, right? Right, exactly. And your hands get wet right you’re i mean they suited up and everything, but you’re getting soaked down in a hole in the middle of winter trying to to wrangle the pipe. And I’m like, this has got to be the worst job in the world. Now, the funny thing was, and this is like late 90s,
and this is another weird local thing, because I know you like this stuff. Anyway, there was a guy who was a local wrestler. His wrestling name was the Giant Assassin, and I think he was like 6’4″, 6’5″. He worked for the water department, and he was in those holes, and I would see him. I would see the Giant Assassin. That’s a horrible name. Well, he was… It was down in a hole. It’s not well thought out, right? Well, he was very popular. I think he’s in the St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame. But if you were a giant assassin, it’s kind of hard to sneak around. Did you see anything unusual today, sir? Well, there were a hundred people in and out. There was this one giant with a gun.
you know i guess he i guess he comes to mind. But, uh, yeah, the giant assassin, because he’s really tall, and he would be down in a hole on hampton avenue uh with water shooting out of it. And I was like, wow, that’s a giant assassin fixing the water main. I think we should go further. I think you should have some other ailments that, uh, that plagued him in his journey to kind of show character development. Yeah. Well, at this point, I think he’s passed away, unfortunately, but in the nineties, he was quite popular in the local wrestling, uh, circuit, uh, around here, which like, it might be funny if he had a speech impediment, right. And several different angles, kind of like, um, uh, Kripke on the big bang theory there with the W’s.
Yeah. I heard something about that show. I heard there’s some new… Yeah, it’s on HBO. I actually watched the first episode. Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, I think is what it’s called. Yeah. It was all right. I mean, you know, it’s not… They’re not trying to be the Big Bang Theory. They’re just characters from the Big Bang Theory in a different scenario. It’s still comedy. That’s smart. I never… I never really caught the show, but I don’t have strong negatives or anything about it. For a big budget network style comedy, which I think a lot of people like us may have appreciated it more if we went back and watched it. Because now looking back, it was… kind of the last big bang of that type of programming, which really is unique to an era. It’s hard to imagine that a whole era has naturally passed like that. Because you have this book out and you’re a bona fide author, I’m going to pitch you an idea tonight. Okay.
and this ties into this whole thing. I am a huge fan of workplace comedies. You name a sitcom that takes place at a work in a work environment, a specific work environment, not just a generic one. Right. And I like those that like, there was a thing called superstore, which was at a Walmart clone. Okay. Yeah. I haven’t watched that one. Yeah. That’s a good one. Right. I mean, um, And I’m re-watching News Radio, which was from the 90s with Dave Foley and Phil Hartman. And it’s a great workplace comedy set. It was so funny. Yeah, at a news radio station. And I’m like, we are missing right now the quintessential workplace comedy. It could be at a pot store. You know, a dispensary. I think that would be a really good workplace comedy to write. What say you, Mr. Chad? Well, you know, the comedy you just spoke about, now it’s like the two main people involved, maybe it’s a couple, and one of them is really from
more what you would expect angle and then one’s really off type somehow like uh super you know, religious and um and really into it, you know yeah and show how that works out i i think they’re i think their nemesis could run the liquor store next door. That, I’ve got one in mind. uh we were going antiquing just just the other week, and uh we were we drove and we were we were hungry and it was it was sunday and uh so we were like where’s you know where’s open where’s somewhere where we can uh get get a bite real quick and uh so the only thing open was like a uh arby’s america’s roast beef yes right yeah I don’t know what really says it that way anymore. Remember when they had those big hats that were kind of vulgar? Yeah. Something about the top of that hat always bothers me. Yeah, a little suggested. The funny thing, I just was making fun of Miles on the show this week where he said he was having lunch when something was happening, and I said, oh, he was eating Arby’s, and he had barbecue sauce all over his face. Yeah.
So, it’s funny how you synchronicity I’ve got some stories about Arby’s sauce. I used to collect it for a relative, friend of the family in the country. And it was an old guy. He was really old, but he really liked squirrel, and he really liked Arby’s sauce on his squirrel, you know? I can see that. I can see where that would help the situation. Well, yeah. It works pretty good on reindeer and deer. I’ve tried it that way. In college, my radio partner, Big Jim Slade, we did the show 91 Requests together. His father always stocked him up with deer sausage. We learned that Hamburger helper could really be deer helper, you know. Oh, yeah. There you go. And a little barbecue sauce, then you’re all set if you want it. Made some pizzas. A little horsey sauce. It cuts through the gaminess. That’s kind of where I’m going with that. I think that’s their new slogan, Arby’s. We cut through the gaminess.
Yeah, and I guess it’s useful for that hunk of whatever they’re cutting into to make all those thin slices that you don’t want to look at too close. Right, that’s right. There’s a lot going on in those slices. Look at the marbling on this. But no, I think that we need a workplace comedy. Uh, there’s a void right now on on the uh streaming services for a really, really solid workplace comedy. So, yeah, I, I guess you just have to do some studying what the, the average like office workspace, you know, really looks like. because it’s, just you know, what i see around is just pretty all over the place. Yeah. but i guess it was more like land of cubicles, you know? Right. Well, there you go, land a cubicle that could be a whole show right there yeah yeah uh land the cubicles and you have the one cubicle on that is always turning over. There’s always a different person in the cube, and they look over, and there’s a whole different person every time they go by that cube. I mean, that’s the whole thing, right? There’s this, you know, the constant churning of workers
Right. You know, and that whole aspect of things in the land of cubicles. Oh, man. Yeah. I remember how heavy computers used to be, too. Yeah. IQ, IT guys having to pull that stuff in and out. Yeah, I had a at one point, I think I had a 25 inch computer monitor. Which was unheard of for the day, right? Right. This was back in the 90s, right? What were you doing with it at the time? Well, it was holding the earth in place, mostly, because it was so heavy that I got it because I wanted to have this big monitor and I got somebody to sign off on it. I don’t remember what transpired. I don’t know if I got them drunk or I had some secrets. What company was that at?
Well, I don’t ever talk about the companies. Oh, that’s right. You and Frank. Yeah. But I mean, I was the only person that got this monitor, which then became the envy of people after I got it. I didn’t talk about it. I just got it. But then that one person’s like, oh, look at this monitor. Bob has got this giant ass monitor. Hey, Nuga, have you seen Bob’s monitor? Yeah, monitor. Yeah. Yeah, and I also had two monitors way before two monitors was kind of a thing. That’s cool. But this one was just so big and heavy, and I’m trying to remember, I think it was even a Sony, which makes a difference, obviously, at the time especially, right? Yeah, when those were new. There was a period where their early 90s, it seems like, their computer line was really stylistically…
ahead and probably technology too oh yeah and sony’s were just like boat anchors. That’s sort of a classic era for sony you know, I love that whole transistor era of of japanese electronics uh kind of through to the recent present. Like to me the the sony rs stereo systems of the 90s that’s kind of the the ultimate uh except for maybe the, uh, the nakamichi dragon cassette deck we would need, but yeah, but yeah, that’s, that’s kind of like my favorite. What do you call it? Switching system. And, uh I think we ought to get one of those. Let’s figure it out, Bob. I’ll work on it. You never know the uh that’s that’s the hard though. because that’s a lot of stuff. And the minimalist side of me.
i know, I know. I’m trying not to have stuff, yes. It’s like, well, I’ve just got a really good sound bar now you know that’s yeah that’s that’s everything’s in one space, and it’s kind of uh zen not having, you know, wires go and connecting right or i guess they’re wireless now. I don’t know uh yeah bluetooth and whatnot, yeah. Do you remember when uh dobi prologic came out? Yes. Oh yes. Oh my gosh, man. I had some, uh, of the bows bookshelf speakers, which were really popular for a while and very expensive. Um, you know this would be like the seinfeld era because they had the bows sound wave and then they had these really nice bookshelf speakers that bows put out.
And they even had a store, the Bose store. Oh, I remember. Yeah. Yeah. And I went to the Bose store and got these fantastical. But again, this I got it for work. Oh, wow, man. And yeah, I had it. It’s always. Yeah. I don’t know how I finagled all this. Now that we’re talking, this is my workplace comedy. I’m like. How did I talk everybody into these kind of things? Because I was not the decision maker. You’re like, look, even though I’m an accountant, I need to be able to edit several high-definition feeds at a time. I’m just a security guard, so I need to hear what’s going on. No, my boss was a bit of a… I think the funny thing is, in hindsight, is my boss was a bit of a shyster. And he would always kind of finagle things. And he was a boss, right? So he had some authority. He’s long since retired. And so I think he liked it because I would just come up with these things. It was almost like a challenge for him to get things.
You know what I’m saying? So it’s like I presented him with a challenge. Could we get this big monitor or could we get these way too expensive speakers for the office? And then I think he took it as a personal challenge to try to push it through and see if he could get it. This was one of his triumphs. We had to buy a new work vehicle. And we typically, because we had to haul things every once in a while, we had minivans at the time. And somehow he was able to get a minivan with a multi-CD player in it. And all the rest of the minivans had roll-down windows still. Training tapes to motivate the team, right? I don’t know what… Yeah, they had the crank windows still whenever, you know, this was at the transition to crank windows. And he got us a minivan with all electric, everything. It was like the top of the line minivan. And somehow he finagled that. So it was, you know, now that we’re talking about it, I’m like, he was quite the master manipulator of the system. That’s awesome.
Yeah, and he also was – I always tell this story. He was the only person I knew, and I think to this day still know, who was able to disappear at the exact right moment in a crowd while having a conversation. Interesting, yeah. Yeah, so he’d be talking with a small group of people about something, and then something would come up like, well, how did you – What are you doing or whatever? And he had the uncanny ability to then be gone and no one saw him leave. And they’re like, where’s John? And I go, and he’d leave me there, which was the other thing. I would be stuck in the conversation. And then he would be gone. I’d be like, oh, I don’t know where he went. And then he’d just be gone. He may have been a Dracula. He may have. He may have. He was actually very photogenic, so he may have.
Although Dracula doesn’t get his photo taken. Oh, it’s just the mirror. Can Dracula get his photo taken, but just not in a mirror? think when mirrors were new technology i i think it was like he couldn’t be seen in a mirror right and so if you saw his if you looked in a reflection and you know you notice his his body you know wasn’t really there right then uh but uh but no i i think the the modern era thing was see dracula just the sun yeah just the sun yeah well let’s let’s wrap it up here, Chad. What about, like, a whole uh wide spectrum flashlight right oh true like a little flashlight, and I’m, like, killing dracula it’s gotta be oh yeah that sparks another memory. I was able to get full spectrum fluorescent lights from my office as well. That’s pretty cool i’m gonna have to ask you offline what yeah what
what you were up to. It looked like the sun when you’d walk into my office because we had the full spectrum of light. Chad, the incredible true facts of space, you can go to it as a website, which was first. Now, you can read it as a book. Yes. Thanks a lot, Bob. Thanks for having me on and talking about stuff we we’ve probably talked a couple hours uh but we certainly meandered a lot so but that’s okay. I appreciate you having me on. Thanks, man. Well, hold on just a second i’m gonna click a button and uh i’ll talk to you in just a moment, Chad. But we’re saying goodbye to everybody else. All right.
