Speaker 1: Kubbooms.
Speaker 2: If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes
Speaker 2: a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants
Speaker 2: of the Old Republic, a sol fastion of fairness. He
Speaker 2: treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the
Speaker 2: rich pill poppers in the penthouse.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: The Clearinghouse of Hot takes break free for something special.
Speaker 2: The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts right now.
Speaker 1: In the air everywhere. Welcome to the month of December,
Speaker 1: the first Fifth Hour podcast for the month of December.
Speaker 1: I am Ben Mallor you probably are knew that with
Speaker 1: the Great Danny g Radio. And this is the very
Speaker 1: beginning of the December broadcast season. Always an interesting time,
Speaker 1: Always an interesting time because a lot of vacation coming
Speaker 1: up over the next month into twenty twenty four. But
Speaker 1: here we are Danny beginning a new How exciting is that.
Speaker 3: I'm actually a little blurry eyed right now because it
Speaker 3: was iHeart Company party last night.
Speaker 4: We were all looking for you too. You never walked in.
Speaker 1: I have not been to an iHeart Christmas party since
Speaker 1: they were at the Beverly Hills Hotel. And like the Hilton,
Speaker 1: and these are these massive, massive parties. I actually did
Speaker 1: want to go this year though, to be fair. To
Speaker 1: be fair, I did wanted to, you know, be like
Speaker 1: everyone else there and try to suck up the management
Speaker 1: at the iHeart Holiday party. But because of the schedule,
Speaker 1: it was just physically impossible. But you were there, Danny.
Speaker 1: So what was the food situation? Like? What are we
Speaker 1: looking at here? Was it just appetizers? Did they pay
Speaker 1: for drinks? Usually they don't pay for alcohol at these things.
Speaker 3: What they do and it was the same way last year.
Speaker 3: They give you a couple of drink tickets when you
Speaker 3: walk in, okay, so they try to control the damage,
Speaker 3: and then there's bartering going on between coworkers with extra tickets.
Speaker 3: The food was like sliders and little mini burgers. There
Speaker 3: were some hot trays of wings and stuff like that,
Speaker 3: so the food was pretty good. Then the desserts I
Speaker 3: didn't partake because I've still been sugar free the past
Speaker 3: five weeks. But there were people walking around with cookies
Speaker 3: and brownies.
Speaker 1: Okay, who do you think ate the most?
Speaker 3: I saw Rich go back and forth about five different
Speaker 3: times after he had a few drinks. Is at first
Speaker 3: he wasn't eating and I heard Covino say dude, you're
Speaker 3: not eating, and he's like, no. Later after I drink
Speaker 3: and he got enough drinks in him to where I
Speaker 3: saw him, as he said it, nibbling on the food.
Speaker 3: But it was after everybody else was done with the food.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Did anyone take a doggie bag of food when they
Speaker 1: were on their way out? Did anyone say, I take
Speaker 1: that tray of sliders. I'd like to have that for
Speaker 1: tomorrow's lunch.
Speaker 3: No, I didn't see that, but I did see what
Speaker 3: you were talking about, with a lot of butt kissing
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. You'll be proud to know that.
Speaker 3: I went up to Julie Talbot, who is the president
Speaker 3: of our company.
Speaker 1: One of the most powerful people in broadcasting.
Speaker 3: And I did not kiss her, but I immediately started
Speaker 3: to ask her about Animal Thunderdome.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, yeah, yeah, she said, what.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, She was a fan about kick the coverage
Speaker 3: and listened to it every morning, so she knows Animal Thunderdome.
Speaker 3: And she's the one who drew up the paperwork for
Speaker 3: Clay as she lives at Nashville and is a neighbor
Speaker 3: and his friends with him. So that was my You know,
Speaker 3: I've known her for a while, and I walked up
Speaker 3: and said, so, what's going on with Clay? What's going
Speaker 3: on with Animal Thunderdome? And she threw her hands up.
Speaker 3: She's like, I No, I gave him the paperwork. I'm
Speaker 3: waiting for him to sign it.
Speaker 1: So all right, right, So now you can pester Clay then.
Speaker 4: Exactly all right? Instead of and that's a rule.
Speaker 3: On our afternoon show yesterday, Coveno and Rich did the
Speaker 3: rules of holiday Christmas parties and they said that one
Speaker 3: rule is you're not supposed to talk business.
Speaker 4: But I broke that rule.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't agree with that. I haven't gone to
Speaker 1: these things in a while, but I was at one
Speaker 1: of the greatest Christmas parties of all time. We've talked
Speaker 1: about this over the years, so if you if you've
Speaker 1: heard this before, you can just fast forward through the podcast.
Speaker 1: But I don't know that you were at the company yet, Danny, but.
Speaker 4: With a strip, Yes, yes, I love this story.
Speaker 1: So there was one of the guys that didn't have
Speaker 1: a girlfriend and so he did love going to the ballet.
Speaker 1: He enjoyed the jiggle joint and was a regular there.
Speaker 1: And as often happens in that world, you become obsessed
Speaker 1: with one particular ballet dancer that you have to get
Speaker 1: their attention. And so this guy, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if we've named in the past, what.
Speaker 4: Was it, What did he do? Let's just say that
Speaker 4: what did he do at the.
Speaker 1: G He did not work on the air. He was
Speaker 1: behind the scenes.
Speaker 4: Okay, so like a sales guy.
Speaker 1: Not quite a sales guy, but but he was worked
Speaker 1: behind the scenes. And somebody that I knew and I
Speaker 1: had known for before we worked together at at Fox
Speaker 1: and then after and I still know him to this day.
Speaker 1: But he did have a girlfriend and producer.
Speaker 5: Uh so we you know, we were buddies and and
Speaker 5: so this man, I mean, these are back in the
Speaker 5: days when you know, money was just flowing.
Speaker 1: I mean it was I mean, I'd go to these
Speaker 1: holiday parties and they'd fly in all the big Premiere
Speaker 1: Network stars like Art Bell would come in from Perrump.
Speaker 1: Matt Drudge was doing a radio show for the company
Speaker 1: see case them. Doctor Laura was a huge star in
Speaker 1: radio at the time. They had her a bunch of DJs.
Speaker 1: I didn't know who they were, but they seemed important
Speaker 1: and they were there, and the big shots, and I
Speaker 1: mean it was just crazy. I mean, somebody that loves radio.
Speaker 1: It was like wow, I mean, like the biggest names.
Speaker 1: I was like an All Star team, you know, it
Speaker 1: was like the All Star Game. They're all coming out there.
Speaker 1: And they used to have these things at these big,
Speaker 1: swanky Beverly Hills hotels. Now I don't usually go to
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills. I live, I used to live at the time.
Speaker 1: I lived close to it, but I'm you know, it's
Speaker 1: not my jam. So I went to the party, and
Speaker 1: I was I did not have a date, I know
Speaker 1: one I was dating at the time, so I went
Speaker 1: by myself. But the guy, he didn't want to go
Speaker 1: by himself, so he brought He brought the girl that
Speaker 1: he had been giving all his money to the ballet
Speaker 1: and she came with him, which would not have been
Speaker 1: a problem Danny, except she dressed like she had to
Speaker 1: work after the show, after the party she had to
Speaker 1: go to. And the the snickering and the whispering from
Speaker 1: the other women, the wives and the girlfriends that weren't
Speaker 1: strippers because it was so over the top, and uh
Speaker 1: and it.
Speaker 4: Eventually because their lives aren't as interesting.
Speaker 1: I guess, but you know, the alcohol starts flowing. Initially,
Speaker 1: it's just you can tell everyone's talking about this woman
Speaker 1: because she's dressed like a total whore, and uh, they're
Speaker 1: all talking about all the other women are you know,
Speaker 1: you're getting real caddy and all that, and so we're
Speaker 1: like we're trying to figure out what's gonna happen. We're
Speaker 1: doing the math on the alcohol. The open bar at
Speaker 1: those days, we had open bar. Uh buffet style food
Speaker 1: was just just wonderful, massive amounts of food and I
Speaker 1: was fat, so I ate a lot of it anyway,
Speaker 1: So uh, sure enough, once the booze started flowing, one
Speaker 1: of the women who was I don't know she was.
Speaker 1: I assumed she was married to one of the other people.
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe it was a girlfriend. But she
Speaker 1: worked up enough liquid courage to confront uh the stripper,
Speaker 1: and there was a there was a brief conversation confrontation
Speaker 1: type situation, and then then that inspired some other women
Speaker 1: who had to get something off their chest they wanted
Speaker 1: to say. So it was quite. It was quite the scene,
Speaker 1: but it was it was hilarious because it was just
Speaker 1: you don't expect to see something like that at a
Speaker 1: family company holiday, part family there were no kids there,
Speaker 1: but it was all all dressed up and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: And there was family education, money involved.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was good. And then I was at another
Speaker 1: different year. We were at one. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you were at this one, Danny, it might have been
Speaker 1: before you worked at the company. Two. But there was
Speaker 1: a employee who while the president of the company was
Speaker 1: giving the State of the Company address, this employee was
Speaker 1: sitting there listening.
Speaker 4: Oh, I was at this heart During the speech.
Speaker 1: His wife was the one that was talking shit, and
Speaker 1: she she laid it on like and she I guess
Speaker 1: she didn't know that we could hear everyone else could
Speaker 1: hear what she was saying that she was echoing the
Speaker 1: president of the company. And this the Holly party was
Speaker 1: like on a Friday or a Saturday. I think it
Speaker 1: was on Saturday, but maybe a Friday night. It was
Speaker 1: one of those days. But anyway, we did the Hollay
Speaker 1: Party and then we show up to work on Monday,
Speaker 1: and the guy no longer worked at the company.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it would be like if my wife he got faded.
Speaker 3: And then Scott, you know, was giving this big speech
Speaker 3: about how awesome everything's going, and she's.
Speaker 4: Saying, yeah, right, you're not even paying my husband enough money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty much how it went. That's pretty much.
Speaker 1: That's pretty much how it went.
Speaker 4: So because of what your significant other does.
Speaker 1: Though, Yeah, but that does happen, right, We see that
Speaker 1: in sports people have gotten in trouble because their wives
Speaker 1: are done. True, So it happens on this pod. I
Speaker 1: one story before I forget. I also remember getting my
Speaker 1: balls busted when I would go to these parties because
Speaker 1: they charged a lot of money to park at these
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills hotels. So I would cruise around Beverly Hills
Speaker 1: all dressed up to try to find street parking. And
Speaker 1: then one of the parties I went to, I found
Speaker 1: street parking, but then I had to go back every
Speaker 1: couple hours to feed the meter.
Speaker 4: And weren't you worried about your Porsche being on the street.
Speaker 1: Well, unfortunately, they never paid me enough to have to
Speaker 1: have a Porsche. So I think that was the company's
Speaker 1: way of looking out for me, Danny. I think they
Speaker 1: knew that if I had, you know, a really expensive car,
Speaker 1: it would be a problem. But so then I would
Speaker 1: I would go back, you know, to feed the meter,
Speaker 1: and I'd run back and I ended up getting covered
Speaker 1: in sweat because I was really fat at the time,
Speaker 1: and you know, people, well, are you all sweaty? What's
Speaker 1: going on? Good memories? Though I wish I could have gone.
Speaker 1: I mean, these things are always like during the week
Speaker 1: in the like early evening.
Speaker 4: They're not three to five pm.
Speaker 3: So we missed more than half of it because our
Speaker 3: show was on the air. As soon as the show
Speaker 3: ended we crossed the street, people were already buzzed. When
Speaker 3: you walk into a party late like that, you have
Speaker 3: to quickly go to the bar and try to catch up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's really a racing ends time because you
Speaker 1: only have you know, you have probably by the time
Speaker 1: you got there forty minutes maybe you know, forty minutes
Speaker 1: to eat. And one thing I will say for this company,
Speaker 1: they are by the clock when it comes to two hours,
Speaker 1: not two hours, and ten minutes not two hours. You know,
Speaker 1: five minutes. That thing cuts off at five o'clock. And
Speaker 1: if you're if you want that extra slider, you better
Speaker 1: grab that thing at four fifty nine fifty nine or
Speaker 1: you're not getting it. It's over.
Speaker 3: They did refresh the food, which was different than last
Speaker 3: year because I remember the food being cut off promptly
Speaker 3: at five last year, but this year they brought out
Speaker 3: some fresh food before the deadline and then for those
Speaker 3: who stayed after the bell, our Boss Scott put his
Speaker 3: card at the bar. Huh buddy, right, But Rich Davis
Speaker 3: didn't know this, so he took his Covino and Rich
Speaker 3: credit card for I guess like their Patreon show they do.
Speaker 3: He took their company card and he was buying drinks
Speaker 3: on that when he found out that card was at
Speaker 3: the bar. You should have saw the look on his face.
Speaker 1: Oh man, awesome kick to the nuts right there.
Speaker 3: An employee came up to Scott and said, they're gonna
Speaker 3: now close your card. Would you like one more? And
Speaker 3: Rich looked at him and he's like.
Speaker 4: Wait, your card is at the bar right now.
Speaker 3: This was after he had signed all these drinks on
Speaker 3: his own card.
Speaker 1: I would like a bottle of whiskey? Can I get
Speaker 1: a whiskey bottle and a kiel It to go in
Speaker 1: a doggy bag? I would like to have that. We've
Speaker 1: got on this pot. We've got Doc Mike Doppelganger, the
Speaker 1: Taco canquistad and Hush Puppies. We start with this and
Speaker 1: it is Friday, and so this is the time where
Speaker 1: I tell you that I have a TV show, the
Speaker 1: Chronicles of Television. It's week thirteen. We have made it
Speaker 1: another week on Bennie Versus the Penny picking NFL games
Speaker 1: against the spread man.
Speaker 4: What does that TV money feel like?
Speaker 1: Oh man, it's so amazing, it's so great. It's a
Speaker 1: little better than radio a little better than radio money.
Speaker 1: But you know, who knows. It's only a seasonal show, Danny,
Speaker 1: so you don't know. But it is on. If you
Speaker 1: don't live in a city that has Benny Versus the Penny,
Speaker 1: a reminder, it's on Direct TV, It's on Fubo TV.
Speaker 1: But I turned out to be this week during Bennie
Speaker 1: Versus the Penny doc Mike doppelgame, I did not drink
Speaker 1: my own piss. I didn't do that. But let me explain.
Speaker 1: So doing the late night show in if you're familiar
Speaker 1: with LA if you're not from the area, we do
Speaker 1: this in Sherman Oaks, which is right where the four
Speaker 1: oh five, the infamous four oh five Freeway and the
Speaker 1: one O one Freeway meet, just over the hill, down
Speaker 1: the hill from bell Air, one of the ritchiest neighborhoods
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles where a lot of fat cats and
Speaker 1: Hollywood moguls live and all that. So we do the
Speaker 1: show down the hill from there. Across the way is
Speaker 1: a famous shopping center, the Sherman Oaks Galleria, and then
Speaker 1: the San Fernando Valley where you have places like where
Speaker 1: in Sino Man, that classic movie in Sino Man, Woodland Hills,
Speaker 1: all these different places. That's one direct. Now the other
Speaker 1: direction is North Hollywood. That's the next kind of town
Speaker 1: over North Hollywood. And then you've got burd Banks down
Speaker 1: the way and whatnot. So I get done with the
Speaker 1: radio show in Sherman Oaks and I hop on the
Speaker 1: one oh one Freeway and I head east away from
Speaker 1: from the main heart of the San Fernando. Well, I
Speaker 1: hit the other direction and head into Century City.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you drove away from the money. Yeah good. And
Speaker 3: then and then there's a little bit of money again
Speaker 3: when you get to Universal City exactly.
Speaker 1: So we went over there, yes, I says central, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Universal City. So I went over there. Universal Studios is
Speaker 1: where we record the TV and so I have my routine.
Speaker 1: Now I do the radio show and then I zoom
Speaker 1: over to Universal and there's no one there. There's like
Speaker 1: a security guard who looks at me like what the
Speaker 1: fuck are you doing here? You know, like why are
Speaker 1: you here at this hour? So I get that, but
Speaker 1: I know my thing. So I park in the We
Speaker 1: have the Abbott Costello parking, so I park in that,
Speaker 1: and then I walked to the to the place we
Speaker 1: do the TV show. I'm the first one there. There's
Speaker 1: no there's like a security guard sleeping at the desk,
Speaker 1: and then there's like there's like two people manning the
Speaker 1: NBC News the bureau, the NBC News Bureau desk, the
Speaker 1: overnight people. So I go to I go to our
Speaker 1: little room and I'm getting ready. But this week a
Speaker 1: little different than other weeks. Now why was this week different? Well,
Speaker 1: for some reason, I was even more tired. I must
Speaker 1: have been the hangover from Thanksgiving and I had a
Speaker 1: night off which was odd and all that stuff. So
Speaker 1: I'm trying to coordinate my schedule. But I'm really tired,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I don't nap. I don't do that.
Speaker 1: I'm not a napper. And I didn't really have time
Speaker 1: to nap because I had a lot to do. I
Speaker 1: had a lot of notes I wanted to go through
Speaker 1: I'd done a lot of prep, but really the process
Speaker 1: of how we make the hot dogs is I do
Speaker 1: a lot of the number I put a lot of
Speaker 1: the numbers together on Monday and Tuesday, and then you know, Wednesday,
Speaker 1: I do do more. That's where we meet with the people.
Speaker 1: I have email correspondence and meetings with the people in Boston, Vinnie,
Speaker 1: the guy that produced the show, and those guys, and
Speaker 1: John who's in Philadelphia. So we kind of email the stuff.
Speaker 1: I give them the stuff they need and then they
Speaker 1: tell me stuff that I need and then so that's
Speaker 1: how that goes. And so then we do that. But
Speaker 1: then when I get done with the show, I just
Speaker 1: really put everything together. It's like putting a jigsaw puzzle together,
Speaker 1: but it's not really heart a jigsaw puzzle. It's a
Speaker 1: twenty two minute TV show, not that hard. But that's
Speaker 1: the way I do it. And so I need a
Speaker 1: certain amount of time to put everything together, just to
Speaker 1: give you an idea I'm giving I'm like the inside whatever.
Speaker 1: So I'm really tired. I'm like really really tired, and
Speaker 1: I end up, as I said, becoming Doc Mike s Doppelganger.
Speaker 1: I fell asleep at my computer while I started out
Speaker 1: sitting up falling asleep, and then eventually my face gravity
Speaker 1: took over and went down on the keyboard, which did
Speaker 1: wake me up. It did wake me up. So I
Speaker 1: wasn't even out for that long though, Danny. I only slept.
Speaker 1: I think it was about fifteen to twenty minutes. I
Speaker 1: think that's about it. But it was like a micro
Speaker 1: nap and it actually worked. I woke up feeling refreshed.
Speaker 1: I was like perked up crazy. And the reason I've
Speaker 1: been I say, Doc Mike, because if you've been with
Speaker 1: the show a long time. Years ago, Doc Mike, when
Speaker 1: Michael Vick was in prison, Doc Mike drove from Chicago
Speaker 1: down to Levenworth thinking that Michael Vick would take a
Speaker 1: meeting with them. They'd have a meet and greet at
Speaker 1: Levenworth Prison, and so Doc was documenting his trip from
Speaker 1: Chicago to Kansas. Wasn't that long a drive, but he
Speaker 1: didn't sleep, and he told me what he would do
Speaker 1: since he didn't sleep, was he would just pull over
Speaker 1: to the side of the road or get off one
Speaker 1: of the off ramps and sleep for five to ten
Speaker 1: minutes and then get back on the road for another
Speaker 1: hour or two hours and I said, what are you going?
Speaker 1: What are you a dumbass?
Speaker 4: Here?
Speaker 3: I am.
Speaker 1: I didn't plan on doing this, It wasn't intentional, but
Speaker 1: I ended up doing it, so it worked out. I
Speaker 1: was able to get what I needed to get done.
Speaker 1: And as many people have pointed out to me in
Speaker 1: the past who are older than me, the thing about
Speaker 1: get it done, it's done when the show when they
Speaker 1: tell you, as we know with radio, right Dan, you
Speaker 1: prepare Dan, you prepare for the radio show, and you're
Speaker 1: never prepared, at least I've never prepared enough. But ultimately,
Speaker 1: when the light goes on, you have to the show
Speaker 1: will be fine. You know what I'm saying. Like, you
Speaker 1: do as much as you can, but usually it doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter. You're ready to go. And as far as
Speaker 1: the TV show here in week thirteen, first of December,
Speaker 1: we are actually not on quite as much in LA
Speaker 1: because of the there's high school football. We're getting preempted
Speaker 1: by high school football, which is a kick come on. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: for example, I believe on SoCal Sports Net tomorrow just
Speaker 1: I don't know if you can record things day, but
Speaker 1: we have a one showing I think it's six am
Speaker 1: because if there's like high school whatnot. And then we're
Speaker 1: on Sunday morning at a and am. But as far
Speaker 1: as today, we're on in Boston on NBC Sports Boston.
Speaker 1: After the Celtics play the Sixers. We'll have back to
Speaker 1: back prime time late night TV showings at eleven and
Speaker 1: eleven thirty. Philly. We're on a eleven thirty Chicago. We're
Speaker 1: on our normal ten o'clock slot in Chicago. We're on
Speaker 1: a couple times in San Francisco on NBC Sports Bay Area.
Speaker 1: Benny Versus the Penny six o'clock ten thirty will be
Speaker 1: on NBC Sports California, Sacramento there and that's at eight
Speaker 1: and I mentioned so Cal. Also, our normal time slot
Speaker 1: on SNY at eleven thirty am on Sunday in New
Speaker 1: York will be on. There are regular times, so that
Speaker 1: is that's the TV show. So see if you can
Speaker 1: figure out that I was so tired I fell asleep
Speaker 1: in the I think I fell asleep a second time,
Speaker 1: but I the first one was like the big one
Speaker 1: that really kind of woke me up, and then I
Speaker 1: started popping caffeine pills trying to trying to keep going
Speaker 1: on that. So there is some big news here outside
Speaker 1: of the doc. Mike Doppelganger must alert the Mala militia
Speaker 1: down the line here that I don't know if this
Speaker 1: counts as breaking news, but it is a news update.
Speaker 1: My tight wadd ways have led me to move on
Speaker 1: to divorce something that was very important in my life
Speaker 1: that I have had in my life.
Speaker 4: Oh I love your wife, Oh not her.
Speaker 1: For I've had. This has been in my life longer
Speaker 1: than the wife. It's been. Oh, probably I think this
Speaker 1: has been in my life, Danny and I want to
Speaker 1: be almost oh man, almost thirty years twenty five for sure,
Speaker 1: Probably not thirty, but twenty five years of my life.
Speaker 1: This has been part of my life. And I've ended it.
Speaker 1: I've said that's it. It's not you, it's me, and
Speaker 1: I must move on.
Speaker 4: From you your moped.
Speaker 1: Did you see my notes my cherry red and moped. No.
Speaker 1: I have made a economic decision due to the pootin
Speaker 1: price hike. I have eaten my final crunchy taco at
Speaker 1: my beloved Tito's Tacos.
Speaker 4: Oh man, I have it should be funeral music right now.
Speaker 1: I have ended it. I love the neon orange cheese,
Speaker 1: the the crunchy taco. Just everything about the beef just perfect,
Speaker 1: the oil that tastes weird. I love it all, but
Speaker 1: I just can't. When I started going to Tito's tacos
Speaker 1: long time ago, the tacos were less than two dollars
Speaker 1: a taco. Now, and this is not I'm sure you've
Speaker 1: been there day. It's not fast food or it's not restaurants.
Speaker 1: It's fast food. It's like a fast it's basically fest food.
Speaker 4: It's fast food Mexican.
Speaker 1: It's fast food Mexican. Five dollars and seventy cents for
Speaker 1: a crunchy taco one five dollars and seventy cents. That
Speaker 1: same taco was two dollars. Now, you say, well that's
Speaker 1: a long time ago. Now, I would agree with you,
Speaker 1: it was a long time. But him in that long
Speaker 1: to more than double the price, and really almost three
Speaker 1: times the price. That's not that's not right. Nine five
Speaker 1: for a bean and cheese and meat burrito night for
Speaker 1: a breeda, and I know, twelve fifty for a beef burrito.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So like how I got an egg McMuffin last week.
Speaker 3: It was like a real treat. It was five ninety five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I get it. People have to make money.
Speaker 1: Restaurants have to make money. I understand food's not et.
Speaker 1: You know, cheap stuff goes bad. I understand all that.
Speaker 1: But I know I'm out. So I have now become
Speaker 1: the great taco canquistador. Oh no, yeah, I am a man.
Speaker 3: Oh the way that you the way that you did
Speaker 3: your knockoff roundtable pizza, Your gonna knock off their tacos.
Speaker 1: Well, not quite. I realize we essentially live in Mexico here, right.
Speaker 1: We live in a nice part of Mexico in southern
Speaker 1: Caras and I love it. No, I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: in a bad way. I think it's great. We have
Speaker 1: the greatest Mexican food you could possibly have, outside of
Speaker 1: just driving down to Tijuana or going to Mexico City.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. Right in California, It's just awesome. So and
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, I love Tito's, but I'm sure
Speaker 1: I can find there's other It's gotta be thousands of
Speaker 1: crunchy taco places in La So I am a man
Speaker 1: on a mission. I am. Now I'm seriously thinking about
Speaker 1: starting a food blog. Danny that my taco cantista doorways,
Speaker 1: I should start like an Instagram page of me just
Speaker 1: trying restaurants. And then I thought, if I did that,
Speaker 1: maybe it would be like a tax write off. You know,
Speaker 1: I could write it off or something like that. But
Speaker 1: because I'm that cheap, no.
Speaker 3: Non or you could be like Portnoy where they give
Speaker 3: them or they try to give them lots of free pizzas.
Speaker 3: He claims that he always pays for the pizzas. But
Speaker 3: I mean, if you're not the taco guy, you could
Speaker 3: probably get a lot of free tacos.
Speaker 4: It's a good idea.
Speaker 1: So I started my mission as the great Taco Conquistador,
Speaker 1: to conquer the crunchy taco, the gringo tacos. My friend
Speaker 1: Alex Mexican guy. He died years ago, but he he said, gringo,
Speaker 1: you eat the gringo tacos. He said, we eat the
Speaker 1: regular tacos. That's what they eat in Mexico. I said, well,
Speaker 1: I like the crunchy talk, and so I started last week.
Speaker 1: I found a place in the Arts district in downtown
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Right now, this is a great neighborhood. It's
Speaker 1: actually an up and coming neighborhood in LA but it
Speaker 1: is surrounded on one side by the La gun Club.
Speaker 1: On the other side is skid Row, and so it's
Speaker 1: kind of wedged in between theirs. But in between there,
Speaker 1: I went to Chewi's Tacos dorados.
Speaker 4: Now, what's your number one thing you're looking for? The
Speaker 4: price point.
Speaker 1: Two things, price and crunch crunchability. I'm trying to get
Speaker 1: that crunch ability and I don't want to pay. I
Speaker 1: want to pay less than four dollars of taco. Is
Speaker 1: that too much to ask for.
Speaker 3: Dan, No, it's gonna be hard, though. I would think
Speaker 3: that taco is going to be around two fifty.
Speaker 1: You think two to fifty. See, I think I look around.
Speaker 3: I think at little hole in the wall spots two
Speaker 3: fifty to three dollars. Okay, Titos is taking advantage of
Speaker 3: the fact that they are like a famous spot, kind
Speaker 3: of like that famous doughnut spot that overcharges.
Speaker 1: Oh, the one in the Voodoo Oh that one's too important. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot like you in Hollywood Pink's Hot Dogs. Yes, famous.
Speaker 3: So once you get a reputation like that and you're
Speaker 3: kind of like a tourist attraction, I feel like you
Speaker 3: double your prices.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're you're made man, You're good to go the
Speaker 1: Quick Malor food review as the Great Taco Conquistador. Went
Speaker 1: to this place, Chewy's Tacos Dorados, and I ordered three.
Speaker 1: It was four crunchy tacos. I had the shredded beef.
Speaker 1: I had two of those, the potato and the ground beef.
Speaker 1: They also have a pork option. I did not get
Speaker 1: the pork taco. Good news, Danny. The taco cost with
Speaker 1: cheese three dollars and fifty cents.
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, that is a.
Speaker 1: Reasonable price for a taco. I'm okay with the price.
Speaker 1: I'm fine with. I don't love. I wish it was cheaper,
Speaker 1: but I'm okay. I realized it's twenty twenty three and
Speaker 1: stuff's expensive, So I guess.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking of street tacos, which are a little more
Speaker 3: affordable than the crunchy right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're paying. It's a premium item, Danny. It's a
Speaker 1: premium item with crunchy taco soumringo. That's right, yes, so
Speaker 1: I pay my money whatever. It's got this weird kiosk
Speaker 1: thing at Chewi's Tacos Dorado's. They're in the Beautiful Arts district,
Speaker 1: and the crunch was solid. It was it was pretty solid.
Speaker 1: I did not enjoy the.
Speaker 3: Meat, though, I think a lot of people would be
Speaker 3: more concerned about the meat.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the shredded beef was really good. The potato not
Speaker 1: so good. The ground beef I would never order again.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't feed that to my dog. But the shredded
Speaker 1: beef was really good. So on the malarimeter of food
Speaker 1: goodness as the great Taco Conquistador, all right, one to ten, Yeah,
Speaker 1: with ten being amazing, like the greatest thing you've had. Master.
Speaker 1: I'm giving this place a seven point five giv that's
Speaker 1: a solid score. Seven point five Mallard Food Review, seven
Speaker 1: point five. I will be back. I think my plan
Speaker 1: is I go to a lot of Dodgery games during
Speaker 1: the summer, and sometimes I get there early and I
Speaker 1: prepare for the show. So it's in downtown Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: so I think I'll just cruise by there, pick up
Speaker 1: some tacos, and then go to Dodger Stadium and that'll
Speaker 1: be that. And the parking is not the greatest. There's
Speaker 1: a lot some street parking. I'm sure it'll be really
Speaker 1: bad when stuff's going on in that neighborhood. I happen
Speaker 1: to go a Thanksgiving week so it was kind of
Speaker 1: quiet down there, but it was good. So it's a
Speaker 1: good start. And let me know, guys, send me a
Speaker 1: message if you you would actually want. I'm seriously I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about starting a food review blog that just like
Speaker 1: obviously only in southern California, but when I travel and
Speaker 1: I go to other places, I can visit my brother
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin, my other brother in New York.
Speaker 4: Or is this like a YouTube thing?
Speaker 1: I think I would maybe do it on Instagram, but
Speaker 1: I would I think Instagram probably be the way I go.
Speaker 1: I could because those are short videos, right, those aren't
Speaker 1: very well Yeah, I could do a minute or I
Speaker 1: don't even think there are a minute a lot of
Speaker 1: those things, right, Maybe maybe they are, but not that long.
Speaker 4: It sounds like a TikTok opportunity you can get.
Speaker 1: I'm writing the demo on TikTok. We have one other
Speaker 1: note I want to get out on this. So Jeremy
Speaker 1: from Vermont is a big p one of the podcast.
Speaker 1: He emailed me. He said he always listens to the podcast,
Speaker 1: the radio show, and he's not missed the fifth hour podcast.
Speaker 1: So thank you Jeremy and beautiful vermontt Home of Arnie Spaniard,
Speaker 1: and I hope to visit Arnie in your state of
Speaker 1: Vermont next time I go back to Boston. Anyway, Jeremy
Speaker 1: emailed me and he says, hey, Ben, this is right
Speaker 1: in your wheelhouse. He says, I love the he loves
Speaker 1: the words and the phrases that we do every week,
Speaker 1: the origin stories, and this is an item that I
Speaker 1: have loved since I was a little boy. The first
Speaker 1: time I everate this item was at Long John Silvers.
Speaker 1: Did you ever go to Long John Silvers?
Speaker 4: Got a few times?
Speaker 1: The fish fast food fish rest. Yeah, my parents took
Speaker 1: me there when I was a kid, and as a kid,
Speaker 1: we thought that was fine dining.
Speaker 4: We were like fast food fish sticks.
Speaker 1: Yeah. We were convinced that our parents were spoiling us
Speaker 1: at Long John Silvers, that we were great. My dad
Speaker 1: loved the he loved the tartar sauce, but he also
Speaker 1: loved the vinegar. So Jeremy said, I found this on
Speaker 1: the internet thing. It's fascinating and it's the origin story
Speaker 1: of hushpuppies. And this is actually a couple of years old.
Speaker 1: I looked it up. I did some research here, Jeremy,
Speaker 1: and so the claim it was a Facebook page that
Speaker 1: posted something claiming the term hushpuppies came back from the
Speaker 1: slavery days in America that fried cornmeal was thrown by
Speaker 1: escaping slaves at dogs to prevent the dogs from following.
Speaker 1: Now this is quite detail, So I was like, is
Speaker 1: that really that? I mean, is that really true? And
Speaker 1: here's what I found that nobody seems to know for
Speaker 1: sure whether it's like it's possible that that is exactly
Speaker 1: what happened, and that's the story. Everyone's convinced that it
Speaker 1: was around the Civil War. It was in the South
Speaker 1: where the hushpuppies came came about. And I guess they
Speaker 1: think it was derived actually originally from a South African
Speaker 1: fryed corn meal. There was a fried cornmeal dish called
Speaker 1: mealy pop and that goes way back. The Southern states
Speaker 1: have taken ownership of it. Louisiana claimed that nuns who
Speaker 1: came to New Orleans and the seventeen hundreds made the dish,
Speaker 1: so it goes back that far. There are plenty of
Speaker 1: stories about Union soldiers during the Civil War. There's another
Speaker 1: version where fishermen or runaway slaves the quiet the howling dogs,
Speaker 1: which we just gave that one. There's the fisherman's story,
Speaker 1: a guy claiming that anglers who returned from fishing expeditions
Speaker 1: to try try to cook the food the fish over
Speaker 1: the fire, that their dogs would begin barking and yapping
Speaker 1: from the aroma, and so to quiet the dogs down,
Speaker 1: the fishermen fried up bits of corn meal that they
Speaker 1: were using to cook the fish, and they just put
Speaker 1: the cormea and they fed it to the dogs. But
Speaker 1: they are people that deny that I mean. And so
Speaker 1: the gist of it is, there's like three or four
Speaker 1: different versions of what actually happened. The earliest mention of
Speaker 1: the term hushpuppies, from my research, occurred in the nineteen
Speaker 1: twenties actually nineteen twenties in Macon, Georgia, but these obviously
Speaker 1: go back before that, and all in the South, all
Speaker 1: in the South nineteen thirties though, and so the gist
Speaker 1: of it is the hushpuppies in America. The modern version
Speaker 1: of the hushpuppies definitely came from the South. But there's
Speaker 1: a lot of creative writing where people that would write
Speaker 1: stories about anything that came out of the South, anything
Speaker 1: food related. Every single story of Southern food involves plantations
Speaker 1: or the Civil War, So who knows whether it actually
Speaker 1: happened that way or not, but it's a good story,
Speaker 1: and so people like good stories. We'll get out on that.
Speaker 1: It is Friday, Danny, the first of December. What do
Speaker 1: you got going on? I'm off from the radio. I
Speaker 1: worked last night, so I'm done. What do you have
Speaker 1: going on here?
Speaker 4: Danny? Speaking of last night?
Speaker 3: Just really quickly, they had potato croquettes at the holiday party.
Speaker 3: Do you think those are a cousin of what you
Speaker 3: were just talking about?
Speaker 1: Oh, the hushpuppy. Do you like hushpuppies?
Speaker 4: I do? Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know anyone that doesn't like hushpuppies.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean they've ever.
Speaker 1: Met anyone that's anti that's anti hushpuppy.
Speaker 4: You'd have to be Canadian or un American.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hushpuppies are great.
Speaker 4: I could just eat hush I love you Canada.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh cold. But you'll be on with Corvino and
Speaker 1: Rich right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have a fun Friday show from two to
Speaker 3: four pm. We'll be doing our weekend hob nobbin in,
Speaker 3: previewing all the NFL action for Sunday and even talking
Speaker 3: some college football today, so that'll be good five to
Speaker 3: seven pm in New York City.
Speaker 1: It's a big night tonight in college football, the PAC
Speaker 1: twelve Championship game, and I'm pulling for Washington. They'll probably
Speaker 1: get smashed, but I'm pulling for the Huskies here, big underdog.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I like their quarterback.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I think I don't know if I've said
Speaker 1: on the podcast, but my best friend Hunter, my gambling
Speaker 1: buddy from high school. His sister actually works for the
Speaker 1: University of Washington football program, so she's like connected. So
Speaker 1: she hasn't got me a free hat though, so I
Speaker 1: shouldn't promote them. But anyway, all right, I have a
Speaker 1: wonderful Friday. We've got new podcast, all weekend tales that
Speaker 1: have never been told before. We'll have some foody fun
Speaker 1: on the Saturday podcast, I believe, and we'll see what else.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of interesting tales to tell, and
Speaker 1: so have a wonderful, wonderful rest of your day.
Speaker 4: Asta pasta, got a murder. I gotta go