It's Night's Eyes with Dan Ray. I'm going you mazy Boston's news radio.
I know certainly is. We are in the final hour of myself filling in for Dan Ray on night side on WBZ. Ben Parker here and normally you would hear me from two until six o'clock at the afternoon doing the news here on WBZ. But Dan is away and I get a chance to play, so very nice to be here with you. We've had a great night tonight. We talked a bit about Kamala Harris's pick for Vice President.
Tim Walls, the Minnesota governor, get a little bit into the housing crisis with the Massachusetts Housing and Livable Communities Secretary at Augustus, little gun violence talk shot spotter system. And then the Paris Olympics. We got to talk about that a little bit. And we also got to talk to a gold medal Olympian named Michael Ruzioni, who is from Winthrop and you've probably heard of, the captain of
the nineteen eighty Winter Olympics hockey team. I'm gonna take a little trip back in time a couple of different ways here in this half hour. First of all, we're
going to go back just over a year. Everybody is very well aware and was very well aware at the time, and hopefully you still are, and maybe say an extra prayer or something at night for the folks of Lahaina in Maui in Hawaii, because it's been a year just about since the devastating wildfire that everybody saw, whether on social media or on the news or on wherever the internet,
and they're still dealing with this. Just because we all moved on with our lives and something else grabbed our attention, they are still dealing with it. And I'm honored to bring in tonight the founder of Rebuildmaui dot Org Alfi Bassetturro and welcome to the show. Alfi.
Hey, thank you, Ben, thank you for having me.
I really appreciate that absolutely, and I think it's important that people realize that things are still going on there. And I shouldn't say it that way. I make it sound like nobody knows that stuff's still going on there. I'm sure plenty of people do, but it's not top of mind u for for most people, most Americans, as it was a year ago or so when when it
when it first happened. But well, there's a lot of stuff that still needs to take place there where where are we, I guess, And when I say we, I mean you in terms of getting things back to some semblance of something normal.
So it's it's really been challenging here. Okay. So if anyone's been to Maui or why do, they'll know that if you're trying to build something, create something, it always takes much much longer than it would on the mainland, right when you're in Boston. So because of the island, if you're trying to shift something here, the work ethic here is also a little bit delayed. Normally, if you're trying to build anything here, you're you're talking about twice
as long. It's not three times as long. So now you layer in the fact that we were hit by a mega fire right. It took about it took us a couple of thousand homes within the fire right. We are approaching our one year anniversary and we haven't had one home to rebuilt since that time. It's a shame to be able to report that, but that's the current status, right Like, we haven't had one structure, we built one home, one residence. A lot of folks are still living in
hotel shelters. Some posts are still are homeless after this event, and I mean, I wish we had something better to report, but that's that's the current state you know of events at the moment.
I did. I did see a news story this week that, uh, some of the survivors of the wildfires moving into a former hotel as well. So I mean, there's there's places to put people. But first of all, I would I would imagine that I don't care where you're staying. If you're not staying in your own home, you're not staying where you want to be.
Okay, So listen, we lost our home in the fire. We lost three businesses and fire we had to evacuate five times. So what what I mean by that is when we were at our home, we saw the we saw the fire start. We started the fire approach our home and it was about two buildings away. At that point we said, okay, time to leave. We we evacuated. We went to another location. When the fire got there, We're like, let's get out of here. So we evacuated
five times total. Now with now, yeah, with that said, it's I mean, like you fast forward one year later, everyone's just trying to get on with their life. But it's really hard, man. Some people are stuck and when something grand like this happens, to get stuck in that event, right, Like if they're in divorced, if they lose a family member. I'm not talking about this fire, I'm talking about it in life and something huge happens, they get stuck in that event, right. So a lot of people are stuck
and they have really hard time moving on. And I see a lot of those people, right, I really struck. Yes for some people, like did you just mentioned then, who are moving into some shelters that's not home. I mean it's not home. Like, we lived in a hotel for two months. We had to get out of there because we weren't on vacation and people who were staying
in the hotel with us were on vacation. And I'm not gonna, like, I'm not going to like judge them for like having a good time or ordering drinks and like they're on vacation and I'm in a hotel, right, And so we got out of there as quickly as we could. We found a home to live. But when the fire happened, all of the renolds they increased two to three times. I'm going to tell you what that means. So, for instance, I was running a home before the fire happened.
It was five thousand dollars right it's it's forty five hundred, and we lived right across from the ocean. Now Reynolds are going for the house that right now is ten thousand dollars, So it's you know, I don't know how many people can afford ten thousand dollars, but I have the least spensive rental on Maui or bedroom on Maui on the west side of Mountain, because right now the two houses that are on my streets are running for
eighteen and twenty one thousand dollars a money. Now, I don't know about you, Ben, but that's a ton of money to pay on a monthly basis.
Yeah, I mean, it's my man. I would guess it's almost impossible for anybody who's not already made a money, which you know, a lot of people who are just regular people living in Maui aren't made of money. I mean, sure, there's celebrities who go there and buy millions and millions of dollars, you know, in terms of estates, and stuff. But yeah, the average person's not not walking up with eighteen grand a month and going I'd like to live here, please.
Yeah, they don't even qualify for the rental, you know that, Like you go apply for the rentals, they don't even qualify. They didn't make sure the Yeah, no, no, the renolds are you have to get them through FEMA or you have to get them through the county, and those are far and few between. So there's a lot of people who are who are being lost to shuffle and it's unfortunate. And you know who's speaking really lost to shuffle is
the teenagers. The teenagers because right now there is very little mental health and whether anyone wants to talk about it or not, but let me just tell you something. Whenever a crisis it's a family, right, it could be it could be loss of life, It could be lost your home and a fire. It could be you know, hurricane, tornado, whatever, Right, it could be flood. Right when something when something significant happens and it changes the course of your life, that's
when trauma occurs, right, trauma. Right, But right now we have very little attention on mental health care, and there's a lot of kids who are suffering from that right now, and it's a shame. And I'm only mentioning that because a lot of our teenagers need that. We have a huge emphasis right now on bringing trauma therapists into our community to provide that kind of care for our kids, because it's it's not being aggressive.
So anyway, one of the one of the reasons I wanted to do a check here on how things was going. There was a little bit of a selfishness to it. And I alluded to this before we brought you on earlier, back in uh many years, many many years ago. I actually I worked in Hawaii. I was actually a DJ on a cruise ship out of Honolu and we thankfully, by the way, Maui's my favorite island that we that we visited because we were there two days a week.
We were there two days a week. We docked over in ka Alui, which is where I had my mail delivered. So technically, at least according to the post office, that's where I lived, although it was hard to live in a little post office.
Yeah.
But but of course, you know, we would come over to Lahaina, whether we would have lunch or we just drive over there. We'd go up Alaiakala. Sometimes we'd over to Hannah. We would snorkele up on Kinapali, off the off the beaches there by the hotels. I mean. So, I mean, I'm of all the islands in Hawaii and and and certainly I saw, you know, many of them. Maui is is is is my favorite for a number of reasons, not the least of which is it's a really beautiful island. But I spent the most time there
of any island. And so when I heard, uh, you know, and obviously not about me, but when I heard thea was burned to the ground, it was like, holy you know, somebody could have hit me in the side of the head with a baseball bat and it wouldn't have hurt anymore.
Yeah, you know, it was really unfortunate, man, And I just wish there was.
Yeah. Well, and I still know people who live there and and and worked there longer than I did. I mean, this was many, many, many years ago.
Uh.
But you know, when you go somewhere and you work and you know people, and you've met people, and you've you've gone to these places, and and even someone who just goes there from vacation for a week, probably fe in their heart about Lahaida. But I mean this was a place I went every week for two days a week and you know, fell in love with because everybody does unless they're crazy. So yeah, I mean my heart bleeds for you guys, knowing that you A went through
this and b that you're still going through this. I mean, the ocean still looks blue and it's beautiful, but holy cow, I can't even imagine you know, what you're seeing on the shore there.
Yeah, No, it's still beautiful here. It's still wonderful. Like I'm actually at the beach right now with some friends that are visiting from the mainland right now. But I'm always I will always stake time to talk about what's happening here, because yeah, I mean, everyone's for gonden about what's happening here.
And I don't blame the.
I'm not criticizing anyone for like, forgetting or moving on, because it's just what happens, right, But I will tell you that there there was over you know, over seven thousand people who were displaced fire right and a lot of those people had to move. They didn't want to, but they had to.
Right.
We have a ton of families who are still living in these you know, subpar you know housing, you know structures. Because we're an island, we can't just move to the next city. We don't have that. You know, when on the mainland, if a tornado hits, what do they do They just drive to the next town right where the tornado didn't affect it. We don't have that capability. And that's just that's just the way it is, right So, but you know, there's just there's there's a lot of
people who are still suffering. There's a lot of people who still need us son of help. There's a lot of kids. There's a lot of kids need a lot of help because when parents are in crisis, kids are and right now that's our big focus right now. There's a lot of kids just need a ton of help. Even if there was no fire that ever happened, right zero, think about them. Think about when you were a teenager, you just you just don't know, Like there's just so
many questions about life. You know, you're question yourself. You're like you wonder if you're good enough, you wonder if you're enough you want to like those are kids are still dealing with that. Plus to dealing with the fact that you want their homes when they're dealing with the fact that they all lot their their parents lost their job. They're dealing with the fact that their parents don't get along anymore because they don't know if they're going to
be able to live here anymore. And that's really difficult, right. So, you know, I don't blame anyone for like rushing over here and trying to help. That's not what I'm trying to do. I'm just trying to just explain what's happening here, because, uh, you know, when people realize, like, hey, there's still a lot of families kids, I my kids, they have friends who are living in a hotel and who are still expected to go to school.
And it's bad.
It breaks my heart because it's really people realize like they're like, oh, you're in a hotel, you're in a resort, you're living on the beach. It's cool, no, but you don't realize you have to get to the you have to walk to the parking structure which is minutes away, and you have to get in your car, you have to drive off, you have to park in the parking structure again, and none of this feels like home. You're not stucking down my ties, enjoying life. You're only worried
about when you have to leave. No one tells you when you have to leave. That's a really hard part because you know, usually you have like a leaf right or you have a mortgage, and that tells you how long you have to live there.
This is different.
No one tells you how long you get to stay in your current residence. So it could be tomorrow, it could be today, it could be three weeks, and that becomes really really stressful for a lot of parents. So you know, I just want to tell people what's happening on Maui and that I just I also want to think we want people to still come to visit Malle. Our economy depends on tourism. And I know it sounds like, you know, you're speaking out of both sides your mouth.
That's that's the fact of the matter. We need to WURSM. But yet we're still recovering, and that's it's going to be that way for years. That's the unfortunate truth.
Well, Alfie, we wish you all the best, and I know the website will direct people there so they can check it out. And yeah, go visit Maui if you can. I mean, who doesn't want to visit Hawaii? And it's beautiful there, and it's you know, it's still beautiful. And the people, by the way, I got to say this, and I'm not saying this to uh, you know, to kiss up to you or anything, but you know, the
people there are just such wonderful people in Hawaii. You don't know until you go in and and and hang out with them.
You know what, I'm going to say this, and then we can go. When people come to Maui, they realize it can be kinder. You can be more patient, they can be more generous because everyone else is. They feel like they've been giving they been given permission to be the kindest version of themselves. Everyone's waiting for permission to be kinder. And when they come to Maui to finally find that, when they go back home, they're like, Okay, I can't be that way. I got to haunt my horn.
I got to be even patient. When they come to Mawi they can find us, so like, yes, that's what you can find. And it's a wonderful place to come and invite everyone to come out here and enjoy it, experience it. But we're still recovering. But it's gonna take a while. But you know what all over the world is people suffering bad things that happen to everyone. So I'm not trying to tell anyone like what was you know, No, man, bad things happen to everyone. Now it's our turn. We're
going to figure it out. It's gonna take a little while, so I appreciate you taking a few moments to focus on us. Thank you, Ben, thank you for your listeners, and you know, thank you for taking the time to be interesting though.
Absolutely by the way, Alfie, as I let you go, there's a couple of things that I haven't said in a long time because you know, I'm not working in Hawaii anymore, but I've always wanted to say it while I was here. So mahalo for joining us. And aloha my friend.
Hey, aloha my friend. I really appreciate you. Gay, thank you for not forgeting about us. Okay, thank you?
All right? There he is? That is That is Alfie best Soto. He is with rebuild Maui dot org. It's the website we build Malui dot org. Go ahead, check it out. They're rebuilding Maui. That's gonna take a long time to do it, and I just thought that we should get an update. It's been a year since the wildfires that everybody seemed to be glued to their TVs and cell phones and whatever on, and they're still there
and they're still trying to get things back together. And yes, I have a personal issue there because of working in Hawaii so many years ago and spending so much time in Maui. But I figured i'd share with you and maybe you could share with somebody else. Not right, We'll be back as we continue. Ben Parker filling in for Dan Ray on Nightside.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
That's not true. Not back to Dan Ray. Ben Parker filling in for Dan Ray on Night's Side on this Tuesday evening. We unpacked a whole bunch of stuff this evening and we still have another half hour ago before we're done. We did talk about and we'll take phone calls if you want to talk about any of the things we talked about tonight, including the picking of Tim Walls as Kamala Harris's vice presidential running mate. We also talked a little bit about the Olympics this evening. Were
you watching them? Are you watching them? Do you care? Do you not care? Who knows? And we, of course we just talked about Maui. There's not really much to call in on on that particular topic, but I did want to just kind of revisit, and I thank Alfi for joining us. Did you notice, by the way, when we were talking to Alfie and he said I was at the beach, it sounded like the beach. God, I missed the beaches of Maui. Spent almost a year there back in the early nineties as a DJ on a
cruise ship, and it was a lot of fun. And I met a lot of great people working on the cruise ship. I met a lot of great people who came as tourists on the cruise ship, and a whole lot of great people in Hawaii that you know, lifelong friendships. In fact, some still I am friends with so And by the way, I'm gonna throw this out there too. You didn't ask, but I'm going to tell you that the first time because we just had if you remember, in April we had the full solar eclipse. A lot
of went saw it. They went up and saw it across parts of northern New England and other parts of the country. I went up to Vermont to see it because I wanted to see a full solar eclipse again, because in nineteen ninety one that is the first place I ever saw one out the middle of the ocean on a cruise ship.
That's great.
Hey, look look who's on the telephone? Figured out how to call me tonight? Glenn's and brighton? Hey there, Glenn?
Hi?
Ben? Have it took to you in two years? I know?
Well, you don't call me anymore, and that's it makes me sad. But go ahead.
Oh oh, before I get to my call, what how do you spell team's last name? Kamala Harris's pick w A l z Oh. I thought it was waos h like Marty Walsh.
Its walls yeah, walls? Yeah?
Yeah?
All right? Are were you're going? You writing him a letter?
No?
Okay, thought maybe you were writing him a letter and you wanted to get the spelling right before you dropped it in the mailbox.
Yeah. I'm not on his side politically, so that's not one I didn't want to.
It's all right, you don't have to be. You don't have to be on anybody's side politically. Last time I checked your word in American. I'm an American. Everybody's American. We're all friends here, and we can we can be adults. We can be the adults in the room if if other people don't want to be that right.
Uh yeah, I called on the Mount rush Oh on the Mount Rushmore.
Oh yeah, we didn't get to well, we didn't get to that exactly yet because we're going to start after the half hour. Go ahead, who's if we were going to put somebody on Mount Rushmore, anybody as a fifth face up there? Who would you put?
Guitarist Jimmy Hendrix. He played two months before he died. He played on a volcanic on that said ali in Maui, Hawaii. What's the name of the aliak? I can't pig of which that's on?
Yeah?
Yeah, I got a bootleg vinyl with him called Maui Broadcast.
He played on on the top of Haleakala.
Yes and JOEI wait JOI have seventy with JOI thirtieth.
By the way, last time I was on Haleakalo, which was some years and years ago, and people never believe me when I tell him this. If you haven't been there, it's cold. It's cold. Oh my, is it cold? Right before sunrise? You go up there to watch the sunrise. And you know, not every day is it as cold as other days. But boy, you go up there, you've better bring a jacket or you're not gonna be happy with yourself. I just thought to tell you.
That because Hawaii is known for nice weather.
Yeah, because it snows in Hawaii, you know.
Well the high elevations.
Yes, yes, I wish it only snowed in the high elevations in New England, but that doesn't work.
But originally from Rhene Island and Deck when Hendricks was a Brown University's radio station used to call him an electric libertarian guitarist because he's a loud, free and uninhibited Oh.
There you go, so so I see you have hit all the milestones here, Glenn, and then we gotta go for news. But I wanted to know who and why, and you did both the who and the why. So I do appreciate that.
Oh yeah, no, it's this is fun. You're a good seiling. I like when you're failing.
All right, don't be a stranger. Glenn, I'll talk later, all right, all right, right, all right, so we've got to move along here and do some news. But he Glenn kind of stole a little bit of the thunder there coming up in the next half hour, and I'll explain exactly why when we get there. There's four faces on Mount Rushmore. As you're probably aware, there could be a fifth. I suppose maybe a sixth, seventh, eighth, Who knows if you you were in charge of putting a
fifth face on Mount Rushmore. American got to be American and does not be a politician. But why who and why who? And why would you put on Mount Rushmore. You can give us a call and tell us your thoughts. We will continue as we go here on a Tuesday night, Ben Parker filling in for Dan Ray on Nightside.
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
So he wasn't a good place to make whatever decision at top of his game, such a consequential president of the United States, a Mount Rushmore kind of president of the United States. Want to know what comes next that he belongs up there on Mount Rushmore.
Lincoln and Joe Biden.
But you got Teddy Roosevelt up there and he's wonderful. I don't say take him down, but you can add Biden.
That is Nancy Pelosi talking to CBS is Leslie Stall and you heard it. You've probably heard the cut already before, but where she talks about serious or not whatever, right Joe Biden being on Mount Rushmore. I don't want to make this political. I just thought to myself, well, probably not going to happen. Then again, probably nobody's going to end up on Mount Rushmore other than the ones who were already there. So I thought, well, maybe we could
figure out who maybe should be on Mount Rushmore. There's got to be somebody right worthy of being on Mount Rushmore, at least according to Knight's Side listeners Ben Parker filling in for Dan Ray on Nightside. So, with Nancy Pelosi telling CBS that Joe Biden belongs on Mount Rushmore, who do you think belongs on out Rushmore? We already had Jimmy Hendrix mentioned we also in my ear just a
short time ago from our illustrious producer Carry Grant. Because because by the way, not a bad reason, maybe not the maybe not would I agree that he belongs on Mount Rushmore. But because of the movie north By Northwest where he was on Mount Rushmore, you get it. That was pretty good. Nice shot. Rob Brooks. Appreciate the effort. So you give us a call at six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty and tell us who who should be on
Maunt Rushmore. And by the way, does not have to be a president, as you noticed by Jimmy Hendrix and Kerry Grant. Doesn't even have to be a politician. It can be anybody. But they gotta be American or at least best known for American stuff. And you got to tell me why why do they belong on Mount Rushmore? Because if you don't have a reason, then why would we put them up there? For you garrets in Wooburn, Welcome to night side, Gary. How are you?
That's actually one years of age? I get a little confused about life questions the Mount Rushmore. There's two different Roosevelts. Who was the one that won both the wars against Japan and Germany.
That would be Fdr Roosevelt. No, the other Roosevelt's up there, Teddy.
Okay, now, question why is Teddy up there?
He had a good agent, you know, I think partly. And I may be wrong, but I for some reason it to me. I think because of his ties to the outdoors. He was a big outdoorsman, and he also did a lot with the National Park Service and all that and establishing it, and I think that's why. I think that's at least one of the reasons why he ended up up there. But am I one hundred percent sure? No, And it does. He always seemed to a degree like the weird just one up there. I don't mean weird,
just like he was weird. I just mean it. It seemed like, you know, you had Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln, and you go, oh, yeah, that makes sense. And then you're like Teddy Roosevelt. I don't know so, but so you think.
FDR, you gotta go with Franklin.
We have to.
He fought to was at once the United States. Of course, we use the atomic bomb on Japan. Uh, even though through the year is I questioned that, But then again, I guess it was legal to do that back then.
Correct, Well, they did it. Of course FDR was dead when we dropped the bombs on Japan. Uh. So uh, you know, he didn't he didn't do that, But He's the only four four term presidents, so I guess that gives him something. And look, FDR is a safe guest or bet for anybody who wants to uh uh to put another face on on Rushmore. And you went with the presidential angle, which which is fine because there already are presidents up there. But would you something?
Yeah, you taught me something. You you said that he died and then our government still did it. Correct? Yes, Now who made the call on that, Congress?
Harry S.
Truman?
What was that? Truman?
Harry S. Truman? Okay, fine, so I'm giving credit to somebody different.
Well, and now mind you, and and I'm not defending We're not defending FDR. I mean he was a two four term president and did guide us mostly through the wars and all of that. So now people have their their downsides on on Roosevelt, and other people love Roosevelt at the end of the world. But he did not. He was not alive when they when they dropped the bombs.
So you just taught me some. Thank you on that note. But one question I have for you, Uh he got a suit the depression? Correct? Uh?
Yeah, Some, I mean some would argue that you know, he didn't. He didn't help as much as he could have. But yes, he was that. He was there when we got through the depression. So yeah, I mean he gets well and he of course the New Deal and putting in a lot of the social programs that we know today, at least at the beginning back in his administration. So I mean there's a lot of things that people point out that make him a good choice to be on
Mount Rushmore. So I was kind of hoping you go with a rock star or something that would be kind of cool.
Right, I got the perfect one. Then go ahead and we'll forget about the presidence for a moment. How about why don't we just go with any type of man's statue of a man in uniform of the military of the United States one fifteen million men the next day at the Pearl Harbor in les into the military. What do you think of that?
I can't argue with you. I mean, if you're going to put somebody up on Mount Rushmore and mas will be a service member, maybe what you do and thank thanks for the call, Gary, Maybe what you do just to keep people happy, because you know that's what I like to do. I'm a happiness maker. Maybe you have to put two new faces on Rushmore, right, one with a military man and one with a military woman. Maybe one of the wax or something on one end of the All right, we're gonna get too confused if we
keep doing this. Anyway, Who do you think should be on Mount Rushmore? Nancy Pelosi thinks Joe Biden should be, So why not go off the reservation here and say, well, it's probably a bad choice of words, right, since there was Native American land never mind, I didn't mean to do that, but so so I just thought, you know, we got four presidents up there. Do we need another one? Even if we all agree, Let's pretend we all agree Joe Biden should be on Mount Rushmore. Did we really
need another president on Mount Rushmore? Let's get somebody else, somebody who did something else for society, Tim's and Winthrop. Who do you think should be up there on Mount Rushmore?
I get two of them. Ronald Reagan again.
A president, but yep, go ahead.
That's what I mean.
And Benjamin Franklin and do you know brand new and Franklin Washington wanted to be president.
He said no, thanks, that's the smartest thing he ever did in his life.
I'll tell you he did everything else. And Ronald Reagan did so much for the country. He brought us out of the from Killie Cotter in those days the seventies were down the dumps. And another one maybe mikeah Rizzione that the whole hockey team.
Maybe. Yeah, Well Mike was on with us tonight and I should have mentioned that to him. I don't know if he would have wanted to be on to Yeah, we had him on earlier. Yeah.
Yeah.
He lives right around the corner from me.
Oh all right, well tell me my said hi.
Yeah.
Yeah, since you didn't hear the show, you probably don't know that he and I are going to start training to do some curling at the Olympics next time around.
So you're serious, No.
I mean, yes, we talked about that, but we weren't serious.
So yeah, he's a good guy, you know, he's he's very generous and he just knew his limits and he came back and gave back, you know what I mean. But Benin and Frank Ronald Reagan and getting back to him, he did so much to help this country.
By the way, I'm gonna do you one better on the Benjamin Franklin one. You know how they put the the the antenna things on top of the buildings, and lightning rod.
Types of things, and metro electricity.
Well you gotta put on if you put if you put Benjamin Franklin on top of Mount Rushmore, you got to put a lightning rod up there, so whenever the lightning strikes, it hits Ben Franklin's head. Well, well I think it makes sense, all right.
Yeah, well he's one of the ones. And well Reagan really did a lot, you know.
Yeah, well, and of course, you know, thanks for the call to him. Of course, that's why I want. I mean, I'm fine with people suggesting presidents, but we get into a little bit of debate over well I didn't like him because he was this or he was that, or he was liberal, or he was conservative or he was whatever. You can make arguments for every president, maybe not everyone, but most of them, to maybe peek up there, depending on how rabid you are a fan of that particular president.
But I've just kind of thought it'd be neat. Hey, we got we got four presidents. We got enough presidents up there already. Certainly Joe Biden's probably not going up there, as Nancy Pelosi suggested, So so who rock star? Maybe a I don't know, maybe some other politician if you choose, but well, maybe an actor. But I want to know why they got to be American. And I want to know why Laurie is an Idaho Wow, all the way from my hope. Hi, Laurie, welcome to Night Hide.
Why thank you?
Actually A big fan of Dan Ray's on Nightside, and you are the only substitute I have ever called?
Well, thank you? Who should be? Who should be on Mount Rushmore?
Me?
Now, well, I was trying to lead.
I was trying to lead you somewhere. I didn't know if you're better take them so big?
You should have your own mountain.
I don't know. Thank you.
No.
I actually just wanted to say you are my favorite Besy anchored during the week, and I just want to say I really appreciate you and your sense of humor and everything else, and you're as funny tonight as you are on the air, And so I just wanted to say, and you No, I'm sort of a purist, and that Mount Rushmore is for presidents and I don't think anybody else can be there because these are presidents that were in the formation and the frontiering and the pioneering of
our country. And sadly, the times there's such that no other president really have that opportunity.
Maybe to make Laurie happy, we need to we need to have a new mountain, and we carve in four new faces of I don't know, movie stars and the rock.
Stars exactly make a new mountain all right now?
Now, well that could be a whole other topic right for another day. I mean, who do we put first on the on the rock star and movie star mountain?
So are they together?
Are they mountains?
Well? I don't know.
I mean we might look into six new mountains here.
Yea, I'm gonna have to fill in for Dan and off a lot more there. So who knows, I guess. So thank you Laurie for the compliments and for checking in.
Thank you, it's been a pleasure.
Thank you.
All Right, there's there's Laurie from Idaho. Uh yeah, I I you know. Here here's the problem. That whole topic that we just spun off on, uh is it could be show after show after show. I might have to fill in for Dan for weeks. Uh, just to figure out where we're going to put the mountain? Are we doing all rock stars? Is it going to be one for the male rock stars? Female? And then and then if you let's say, for example, let's say you picked uh and I'll only pick him because they just retired,
right Aerosmith? Right, so Steven Tyler? You want to put Steven Tyler up on a mountain to honor him? Do you have to put all of arrows Smith up there? I mean it seems like could be fair. Well, now you've got more heads to car. Now it's a more expensive project. Now you've got to you'll raise taxes. We'll just go with the one added to Mount Rushboard just for fun. You can give us a call if if you'd like to chime in, Uh, six one seven two
five four ten thirty. We got Tom standing by. We'll get to him in a few minutes and hopefully you at six one seven two five four ten thirty. Who should be on Mount Rushmore with the four heads that are already up there. Ben Parker, filling in for Dan ray on Nightside.
US, is directing it now back to Dan ray line from the Window World night Sight Studios on WBZ.
To news radio. Hey Dan, get in here. It's back to you. I just said it right on the radio. I just heard him.
Dan.
Sorry, Dan Ray's not here. Ben Parker filling in for Dan Ray on Night's side. We've got just about ten minutes to go on the show, and then I will leave and you will stay here hopefully six one, seven thirty. If you want to give us a call, we are asking the question who should be on Mount Rushmore if we were going to add a fifth head to Mount Rushmore. Nancy Pelosi told CBS that Joe Biden belongs on Mount Rushmore. You may have heard the clip of this or heard
about it. We're not getting the political here. This is the catalyst. However, for this particular topic. We got enough presidents. We got four of them on Mount Rushmore. If we're going to put a fifth head up there, we'd have to put our heads together and figure out who should be up there and why. So they don't have to be a politician, they don't have to be a president. They should be American or at least known for stuff they did in America, the United States thereof, and why
should they be up there? Give us a call at six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty if you'd like to chime in, like Tom and Yarmouth is doing.
Hi there, Tom, how are you doing?
I am well? How are you tonight? It's a Tuesday night. We're not even at Wednesday yet. Do you believe that?
Yeah?
I do, Thank God, listen, I'll buy yeahbe you should.
Go on there?
Oh that is that is very nice of you to say. I don't look in Stone. Let me just put it down.
Well, I'll tell you one thing is for the past few weeks, fast few villains. I won't mention any names. But I'm not too impressed with that individual.
You are.
You are much more, much more unbiased, and I'm much easier person to listen to. So I can't wait. If Dan can't be there, I wish you would make sure that you were there more often, because the other individual doesn't impress me much with his his bias.
All right, well, Tom, I appreciate that, and I also appreciate the fact that you want me to be on Mount Rushmore. I of course am biased, because of course, of course I should be on Mount Rushmore. I should have statues and everything. For crying out loud, it's taken so long. Rick's in Maine. Welcome to night side.
Rick.
Who do you think should be on Mount Rushmore?
Well, Ben, I know you're type a time. I have three. The first one Neil Armstrong, but he has to have the space helmet on when it's carved into the into Mount Rushmore. Would they would be one?
Well, let me let me ask you this would would would people know it was him? If it was just a space helmet? I mean'd have to probably have something that would indicate because of all the astronauts there are, I mean, people would go which at is that?
Maybe have Armstrong across the top of the helmet.
I don't know, good idea.
The second one Thomas Edison, and he could be holding a light bulb for that matter. And the third one because the visual would be fantastic. Albert Einstein with the hair.
Oh yeah, a boy, you'd have to pay extra to have somebody carve that hair though, yeah, heart, it would be the carve that hair out of the stone.
We'd have to get a stone hairdresser.
Is there such a thing, Well, there could be, there would be. Now this would be a new, a new industry that we could develop exactly.
But those of those of mine with Armstrong one, though, I think that without the helmet, I think would be okay.
I don't buy the way, and I know he's not American, but I and I don't want to start a war here. But if we're gonna put uh Edison up there, should shouldn't we consider a Tesla Nicola Tesla.
Well, he had, he had great breakthroughs. But of course the other one would be Henry Ford. M hmmm, who did a lot as far as the Industrial Revolution, great American. Of course I didn't know him personally, but history has treated him well.
Well.
James saw his name's still on car, so you know, yeah, just not just the.
The only Ford whose name's not on a car.
Is Edzel, Right, thanks Ben.
All right, thanks Rick? Just a little inside Ford joke. I tell that it all the Ford get togethers that I'm not invited to. Uh six one seven thirty. Nancy Pelosi told the CBS that Joe Biden should be on Mount Rushmore, insinuated in not so many words, Hey, he should be up there. You know, I don't want more presidents than Mount Rushmore. And I'm not saying that because I don't think some presidents maybe deserve it. But we
did the president thing. Well, Mount Rushmore's got the president's we need to if we're going to add somebody, which, by the way, nobody's really talking about really adding somebody. But I'd like to know if if we were going to add somebody, who should we put on Mount Rushmore. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty. They can be a politician, they don't have to be. They can be a president, but I would prefer they're not because
we've got enough presidents up there. So if you have an idea of someone who should be or could be on Mount Rushmore, I've already been suggested, So don't don't do that. It'll just look like I'm trying to stuff the ballot box. Six one, seven, two, five four ten thirty. We only got a handful of minutes left, so I'd like to sneak in another call or two, So give
us a called Mount Rushmore. By the way, I don't want anybody, because nobody's uh suggested women, and I don't want people to think that, well, it's got to be a guy, because there's already four guys up there. We need another guy.
That you know.
How about how about this, I'll throw one out and we have Gena and Evert, which will go to a second. And this is gonna make some people upset, but I'm saying it because, boy, if you're talking about somebody who's made an impact on the United States and the world economy, Taylor Swift. I put Taylor Swift up there?
Why not?
I mean, why, but why not? Jean's and Everett? Who should go on Mount Rushmore?
Gene Hi, thank you? Who should go on Mount Rushmore? I have a few, a few of them.
Donald Trump, Yeah, I take it to a Trump fan.
Yeah, yep.
And you and Nancy okay, and Dan Ray of course, who almost puts up with me, and Rob and also Laurie who does the traffic report in the morning.
Great Lori Grandy, Yeah, we love Yeah. By the way, I hate to break the news to you, Jean, and I don't want to get into wy or why not. Some of those people shouldn't be up there. But you're going to need a whole new mountain with all those people you want to add.
Yeah, but you know, I don't ask so much.
So blue Hill available, we could, you know, we could see if Blue Hill's available and put us down there.
We'll see what happens.
All right, Gene, thanks for checking out.
In Mount tom They could maybe just something on that one, all right, see you later.
That's a good idea. Just a lot of people. I mean, that's a lot of carving. They already did a lot of carving. We don't have time for all these faces. Maybe we just do a little one, like a like a miniature Mount Rushmore with our heads on it. John's in Braintree. Hi there, John, How are you good?
How you doing good?
Welcome to the night's side. What do you got?
I got John McKay. I'm sorry, John McCain.
I got John McCain. That sounded almost like you had a disease. I got John McCain. I'm trying to get rid of it, but I got John McKay.
The reason is is because you know what you were talking about military, Yeah, you were talking about stomach.
A hero.
He was, in my mind, was definitely a hero. I would have voted say him for president until he picked Sarah Palin. And in comparison to Donald Trump, he is who would really be a good president, Not Donald Trump, that woman.
And of course he's yeah, he's the he's the late uh senator uh uh and and and and he he came class. I mean, he know he had a chance and and I don't know, maybe his running mate did do him in, but yeah, he was a class guy.
I thought he was a class thought very quickly. I watched one of his rallies. A woman came up to him and slammed, Obama. You know what I mean, an older woman. He got down on one knee and he said to him, he said, maam. He says, Obama is a great guy. He's he's a gentleman. He's a good guy. The only difference between me and him is our policies. Now that's a class guy. Donald Trump would have thought of a six year old name to call him. I just you know, you know that's what John McCain's my choice.
All right, John McCain, it is Thank you, John. I appreciate it. And that's gonna wrap things up. We got to get out of here.
Uh.
I'm gonna tally up the votes. I was mentioned the most time, so I'm going up there. Thanks quick for me, all right, Thanks for joining us on nights. Dan Ray will be back at some point. I don't know who's in tomorrow, but I'm doing the news tomorrow starting at two in the afternoon. Tune in on WBC