A Farewell to 2020

the podcast world. We woke me in because four hours a night are not enough eight days a week. This would be the eighth day of the week and the final podcast of twenty at least the final scheduled podcast or any audio content for that matter of here as we wind the year down, so much to serve time off coming up here over the next couple of weeks, and we are booming out of the I Heart Podcast now. We thank you guys for supporting the podcast year. It's

been great. Do appreciate it. In I will tell you that coming up on I think it's Christmas Eve into Christmas, they're gonna be a bunch of one hour vignettes from the different shows on Fox Sports Radio will play in a loop, and we are part of that. So I'm not sure exactly what hour it's going to air, but they're going to put on an hour from each show some of the highlights of the year, and so we'll have that for you on Christmas. So that's something to

look forward to. Here. Coming up, we are joined yet again from West of the four oh five the man who's relative is destroying Los Angeles as the district Attorney, David. There's a pressing question that has been served from from me to to you that we need to acknowledge on the air right now on the fifth hour. Oh is that right? What would that be? Um? Based on everything that's gone on in and how the impact of your

show has gone from radio to now radio and digital. Um, do I qualify for a Benny because I think I'd be the outright leader and winner of one for sure. Be careful what you ask for. Wait, careful what you ask why just say it? Be careful what you asked for? Why there's different categories to the Benny's okay, and uh, you know you do have a reputation as being overbearing, overbearing to who, to the listener, pretentious, you know, and then those are You've taken some pot shots at the

Malla militia, so the Malamussa can fight back. But I mean you are eligible, you sure me, eligible to win the most coveted award and Overnight Sports Radio Producer Top Producer. Yeah, you know. I'm just I'm saying, be careful, all right, because you think the Malamlitia is gonna shepherd you in. Uh, that's not quite how it works. You have people part of the militia that actually call Fox Sports Radio to

enquire about personal things about me. Oh is that right? Yeah, like you got fucking losers in Ohio or Cincinnati for to be more specific, that call to inquire about personal things about me. Oh, I see, I got not that that bothers you, you're yeah, you know, Oh yeah, of course it bothers me. It bothers you, Okay, yeah, I mean you can write a book, then on it. You should write a book about you think it would sell. You're trying to write a book. I have tried to

write a book. I'm still actually in the process of that. I'm currently a waiting word on a project that might or might not happen. Right, I'm not optimistic about it, but you never know. It's out there, it's in the ethos, so maybe it will happen. Your energy, right, you put that out there into the into the world, and now you're waiting for any books you think we could sell? Though, if I wrote a book, how many books could we sell? I don't think. Yeah, of course what you say it

doesn't matter. But you know, the people that are making the book, it matters to them. It would be irresponsible not write the book and two people by the damn book. But yeah, I'm curious. I got some decent stories to tell. You have what close to fifty five thousand Twitter followers. I don't know. I don't even know if that's a real measurement because there's a lot of Russian bots and algorithms and all that crap. But yeah, there's a decent

number of people follow me on there. I think it's you can sell enough, and especially if you've got some friends in New York that are in the media, they can pump you up. Yeah, yeah, I mean, why not go for it? So this is a mail bag podcast. No bag podcast. Before we get to the mail bag, remember last chance, last chance, cameo, Cameo, cameo, cameo, cameo, cameo, cameo. I'm taking some time off, but assuming I'm not out in Sherwood Forest somewhere with Robin Hood right, you know,

Fried talking all that. So if if I am available and I'm near the grid and I get a you know, cameo request or whatever, I am more than pleased to help you out on that. Do that for you, Cameo dot com. Ben Maller, check my name out there. But as far as the mailbag, these are actual questions by actual listeners, and we'll get right into it. Yes see these questions submitted via Facebook, the Facebook page which is the Ben Mallor Show page on Facebook, and Real fifth

Hour at gmail dot com. If you want to send an email and anything else to add to that. Yeah, I mean, I know you're driving in the fast lane, but if we go to the car pool lane real quick, we must acknowledge you can slow down. We can slow down if you want. We have to acknowledge our our friends that decide to take the time to review us on iTunes. Eight days a week is not enough I want nine days a week. That's from what does that bring? The heater seven loved him. He pitched for the Astros

back in the day. There you go. Uh m J nineteen says, excellent show David's father was great. Uh Neil responded last week and he said Mr West of the four Old Five brings the modern to the old school. Man of the people. Ben mallor They're ba is entertaining and the bits on the show are unique. Keep it going, It's good. Uh This other one from John says the fifth hour without me is like taking a dump without a butt wipe. I will not listen unless I'm back.

That's pretty good. It's so good. It's a good this is This puts me in the lead right now. And Ben for that prominent Benny as top producer for the Ben Miller Show. Yeah, I noticed that you're think the what's the term for that? Cherry picking? I think that's the term here. You're you're kind of overlooking some some things here, you know. I'm just there's a lot of

things to get to have. We have a short amount of time, and I don't want to take up too much air time since the legal term is suppressing evidence I think is you know, a lie biomission is still a lie. You know, a live biomission is still a lie. I want to point that out there. Yeah, alright, Uh, Actually, before we get to the mailbag, there's a couple of stories we didn't get to yesterday that I wanted to bring up here because I thought they were interesting. They're

kind of food related stories here science stories. Did you see this week? This did not get a lot of attention, but US regulators have okayed genetically modified pig for food and drugs. Yeah, so you get a pig made in the lab and you can have your your bake. I wonder if that's kosher if it's made made in the lab. So so here in the United States were modifying pigs, and in China they're they're genetically modifying soldiers. Oh well, to eat their own, you know, to each their own.

And how are they eating them in China? Like we're eating the pigs now, they're still sticking the bats. All right, All right, here's another odd food story that I saw the other day and I'm like, whoa, wow, this is crazy. So there's a guy in London, a researcher in London whose life's goal here is to turn blank into food ship well kind of Uh, he's a in London. He's trying to get a million, millions and millions of chicken

feathers and turn that into food. Yeah, guys, the thirty years old he's originally from Thailand, but he's in London and he is seeking funding to continue as research into how to best convert the nutrient components found in chicken feathers into a powder that can be transformed into a lean, protein rich source of edible food. Just chicken feathers, they say, contain protein. And if you're able to serve this protein to others in the world, the demand from everyone will

help reduced waste. That's great. Now, I hope what if he does come up with this and he does serve it. I hope he serves those chicken feathers warm and hot and appropriate. Is that? Is that how you're supposed to do well? I mean, I know some people don't serve their chicken warm that they're gatherings, but it's fine. So when the restaurant opens, the food is served. When the restaurants closed, if you come get a meal, you get

what youever you get. That is going to change the the phrase though, that one of the great slogans I used this sometimes you can't you can't make chicken salad out of chicken feathers. Well maybe you can, you, maybe you can. We might have to revisit that, right, we have to say, wait a minute, here, hold honest hold, honestly, are you gonna incorporate something different into your diet in oh? Oh,

I see where you're going with that. No, I'm asking you strategically speaking, since you mentioned your labs the other day that were good, that were fantastic, you said, so, are you gonna do anything else to up your game? Now? No, I'm not planning on it. I mean if if you know, I try to eat a little healthier from time to time, and I don't eat much during the week anyway, So I don't know, I mean, other than adding more meals to my routine. Uh, yeah, I don't know what you get.

I'm just saying, like, if you went one day where you went strictly green or you went strictly fruit. Yeah, well, I love fruit. I could eat tons of fruit. Who doesn't like that? No, of course, I've just seen the world's oldest rice patties were discovered in China dating back of six thousand three years. It's pretty good. That's old. That's an old rice. Man, What do you think what do you think can live longer that rice? Patty or

a cheeseburger from McDonald's. Um, french fries from McDonald's. Have french fries from from McDonald's. Good. Uh, that's uh, that is the okay, Sorry, let's get to the mail bag. People would like to ask questions. We have their questions. Michael from Newton Falls Rights and he says, what will you remember most about sports in the year. I think I already know the answer, the Dodgers winning the World Series. But if there's anything else I would be happy to hear. Well, yeah,

there's a lot. Listen, this is gonna be a very memorable year. And this is something we're gonna reference from years and you know, years and years down the line. Obviously, for me personally in my little world, the Dodgers winning, the Clippers getting Kauai and then slipping on the banana appeal um in the playoffs against the Nuggets. Uh, the night we had to wear the paper bag on my

head and how embarrassing that was. Uh, The bubble, the NBA bubble, the virtual NFL shrapp and really just in general. I guess I'm painting with a broad brush here, But the hundred and thirty four days without sports sports radio Armageddon, and we have lived through sports radio Armageddon, and we kept cranking out new content in the podcast. And and also remember this kind of patting ourselves on the back here, but we had the highest listenership in the history of

Fox Sports Radio with no sports. Most people in the here, I've been been here for twenty years at Fox Sports Radio, and this was the most listened to year we've ever had. And it makes no sense because there were no sports, and people weren't driving n P exactly. Most people listen to audio content in their car and and all that. And then also remember sports being hijacked by politics. I

remember that. I mean, those are all things, you know, they're general statements, but those are all part of what I will remember from the year. Especially I think that was sports related. The perfect one to three combination of Rudy Gobert touching the microphones, not not really caring too much about COVID, and then and then the entire arena gets shut down in Salt Lake City. That that whole night was like like you were living in a movie.

It was a horror movie because you had the report came out that Tom Hanks America is but loved Tom Hanks and his wife attested positive for the COVID and they were canceling games and you didn't know what was gonna come next, and it was like one thing after another. It was piling up. It was wild, wild night, wild night. All right. Matt from Dallas Fort Worth right, Sin says, if you could do the broadcast for any Major League Baseball team not named the Dodgers, which would you choose?

And would you do radio or television? Inquiring minds would like to know, all right, well, thank you, mack. Well, the the one that popped a boy, like the Red Sox or the Yankees. You'd like to be in a big market with a loyal, passionate fan base. And as far as like the radio, TV think, it really depends on my financial situation because TV people get paid more money. They're better people than us because they have makeup on

So that's one thing. But radio, to me, that the art of broadcasting baseball on the radio, when it's done properly is awesome. So it's I would go with I would go radio because it's more inclined to tell stories. It's more about telling stories when you're doing a game and you worked the pitches in and that kind of But you did radio Gascon for a team that went bankrupt there in Bakersfield, California, the Bakersfield Blaze. May they

rest in peace. And in fact, during this whole COVID, I actually did the final three game road trip for Vanderbilt, who was the defending two thousand nineteen World Series champs. College baseball. You did, Yeah, they came out in here and they did. They had a three game tournament series with usc U c l A, and then TCU also came to town. So I called their series that weekend before everything is shut down. Look at you. It was it weird because you didn't know who any of the

people were. No, I was doing my homework. I did my research, and there was a bunch of guys that did know. On the flip side, to answer your question with that, I'm surprised you didn't say Wrigley, Like Wrigley would be a great spot two to call a game, especially for radio. Yeah, yeah, but I've I've done some work on the Red Sox, like postgame stuff when I was doing this stuff for w E I, and that

was a lot of fun. The people would. I just love the fact that even no matter where you are, I did Dodgers talk years ago, and when the Dodgers won, nobody seemed that interested. When they lost, the sky was falling. The same thing happened with the Red Sox, like when they won La la la la la, nobody cared and they lost. Fire this guy fire, that guy traded this guy. It's the same same concept was in play, all right, Stopper and all of Branch. I think that's in Mississippi,

but it might be in Texas right soon. And maybe that's just a made uptown he says, is oodles and of noodles as good as Marcel says it is not too sure of his judgment. I'm just saying, well, Stopper, keep in mind that Marcel, We'll eat whatever Uncle Dynamite gives him. That's the beauty of food picks with mars l and Uncle Dynamite comes over to the puce there in Brooklyn and drops off a crate of oodles and noodles which you can get for like seventy five cents,

and uh, that's your meals for the next week. So yeah, and occasionally I'll get some Kennedy fried chicken. I'll get some of that. Um. But yeah, a cup of noodles, right, it's the same same Thing's fine. I don't know that you want to have that for dinner every night. Kevin in Kansas writes, and he says, I enjoyed your photos of your recent bookstore trip. Yeah, I went to the

world's last bookstore, last great bookstore, whatever it's called. And uh, I was wondering, he says, about your book reading habits. What are your go to genres? And do you make time daily for pleasure reading? Um, and so a bunch of questions like that. But but Kevin, I guessed to answer my wife's all about fiction. I'm nonfiction guy. Um. And as far as like the genre, I like to learn my Mischion gossays, I'm into words. I mean, I like learning the history of words. It's kind of a

weird thing I have. I've tried always trying to expand my vocabulary. So I like those books that kind of go into the linguistic parts of the history of language and how certain phrases became mainstream and how know words misspelled, like a salon in America became saloon because they misspelled the word salon. People that came over from Europe wanted it to be like salon, but they didn't know how to spell it, so they called it with an extra oh,

and it became saloon. Like a little little crap like that, which is uh, which I gotta kick out of. And then I like learning about people that are successful, how they became successful, and what they did and those kind of things. So that's usually the kind of books that I go for. And as far as do I have

pleasure reading, I don't during the week. On the weekends sometimes I will be able to to let go, but not during the week because pretty pretty tight schedule, believe it or not, with this radunculous stuff that we've got calling and getting the monologues ready and all that stuff, so it takes a long time. Derek in Auckland, New Zealand rights and he says, what is your best My co workers are crazy story, Derek Beautiful, Auckland, New zeal

I think we've told this before. This is before you David but we had an editor back in the days when they only had one editor or two editors, and this guy was worked so much he just walked off the job in the middle of a shift. He just quit. He quit. He left the company. And not only did leave become he didn't tell anybody. They were worried that he had a medical emergency or he had some kind of issue here, and they tried calling him. He didn't

answer his phone. They contacted the police. I remember that movie Falling Down. We just have like the breakdown Michael Douglas. Yeah, Michael Douglass falling Down. Yeah. Yeah. So this guy just kind of like lost it and he was like, yeah, I can't handle this anymore. And the stress and everything, and and then finally, after the police reached out to try to get a hold of him, he called hold up and said, stop trying to contact me. I'm done. I'm not you know, I'm not working. But that's the

My co workers are crazy, craziest. I've seen some fights that have happened at radio stations, things along those lines. But who doesn't fight from time to time at work? You know, we got a company mandate or not a company, We got a network mandate that remember in two thousand sixteen that we could not talk politics after the like, we had a major meltdown here at the network after Trump was was elected president. That was a major, a major meddal with like half the building building here, oh

like everything else. Half the people were happy and half the people were like, oh my god, this is the worst. No. But the people that were happy, we were happy. But the people that weren't happy actually went on air to voice their displeasure and take up airtime to voice that displeasure. They use the sports radio airwaves as the bully pulpit for their political belief which is always what you want to hear, always what you want to hear, unless it's not. Who else we have? J In Maine says, how did

Big Bend meet Mrs Mallard? Well, thank you Jay for that question. I was doing some online dating and uh, we connected online long long ago, and I went on a date at a was supposed to go see a movie and we ended up going to a restaurant near the movie theater and just kind of talked and hung out, and uh, the one thing led to another and look at me now here all these years later. Introvert sets up a date to go to a movie theater to not talk, and then ends up actually talking with I

guess my wife? She says he's not an extrovert, but what's half either way? Your wife? He says he's not. Carlos in Houston writes In says, what you would you guys take on those Paul clowns in a tag team match and win? Would you guys do it for free? I would love to punch Jake Paul. That'd be That'd be good. Unload on Jake Baul. I'd have to get my my weight back up so I could really give a Molly whopper to uh him. But yeah, what a

bunch of losers. Those two guys are, my god, think about that's the reason to hate the Internet, That the Internet made those two guys celebrities. I guess I guess they're celebrities. I don't know, all right, I says, not that Stevo from Florida right soon says, I'm sure you've said it before, but I'll officially ask, do you were gag on like the dance with Mary Jane? If not, why al right, guess gan you like the sticky icky

fan of that? No I'm not either, um. And as to why, I don't know, I just never got into it. I guess the fact that I I my my mom, and you know, she would don't smoke anything. You know, I'm back, and when I was in high school was mostly that's how you consume. The weed was just smoked. Um. But I don't have a problem with people that smoke you. I don't care and do whatever you want. I don't care. In fact, when I'll tell you a funny thing about

when that's funny. But when my mom was really sick and she was kind of near the end of her life, and she was in a lot of pain, a lot of pain that the cancer had just taken out uh, the joy of life. And I was reading online about how weed help people in that condition feel better and you know, they could enjoy the final days of their life. And I tried to convince my mom, who had taught me always not to smoke weed, to do the weed.

She didn't do it. She didn't end up doing it, but I was like, I really wanted to do it because he was. I mean, she was just in so much pain and agony, and I was like, this could help. And unfortunately, didn't work out anyway? Who else you have? Matt from Alabama sometimes I've never heard of, says, can I get weed Man Hippie's number? I'm heading out that way in May. Look at this and guy wants to hang out. Matt wants to hang out with weed Man

Hippie wild. Now, normally I would not ever give out a phone number, and I probably shouldn't do it here, but I will direct you where to get weed Man Hippi's phone number. Okay. I'm gonna direct you where to get weed Man Hippie's phone number, okay, because he gives it out on his Twitter page. So if you go to weed Man Hippie with a y, weed Man Hippie with a y right in his profile, it that is his actual phone number. Yeah, he should call me. He

puts his number on his Twitter profile. Yeah, who does that? That's his Obama phone. But you can you can contact But by the way, when I said Obama during the middle of Alection period this year, people were getting upset because I said Obama phone. But that's what it is. It's he's got an Obama but you've got a government phone. That was Obama's program. People get upset about the darndest

thing they do. There you go, people get upset on people get up set on YouTube when we do benny versus a penny because they accused me of making myself look better than you, like I have any control over your internet camera background and audio. Well, that is true. That is a conspiracy. Last seven tweets sent out by weed Man Hippie please pay pal me money at weed Man Hippy at gmail dot com. I'm penniless and starving. That is all the way from December eleven up until now,

every every tweet. But you want to hang out with this guy? Really, Matt, you want to hang out with that guy? I mean, my good. That's another great story and show history. We we hooked weed Man. Weed Man was kicked out of his home and he was homeless and he needed a place to stay, and a listener offered to bring weed Man in as a house guest. And then weed Man said I had him kidnapped. Yeah, wonderful, pretty wild, all right, Kevin in Rockford? Right, so says

Mr Mallard and Mr Gascon. How how polite, how respectful? One to the apocalypse is over my wife and kids and I will be taking another vacation to California. We really enjoyed staying in the Palm Springs area. We can hit both San Diego one day in l A the next and have a few days relaxing at the hotel. What are some fun family friendly things to do in l A around October? Last time we toured l A,

we kept getting caught up in tourist traps. Kevin says, I like the like the Spider Man in Hollywood wanting fifteen bucks for taking a picture with my kid. I want to avoid that kind of stuff. Recommendations please, Okay, so Kevin, if you really want the full Hollywood and Highland experience, which it sounds like you got on Hollywood Boulevard, Um, when things open up, there's a cat, there's a food court, a top Hollywood and Highland. I used to live in l A, in in that part of l A in Hollywood.

I used to go there sometimes get like a Philly chiefe steak that will fully cheese steakstand. So you go there and all those guys dressed up as the different characters are sitting up there smoking and they have their uniform their costumes on and they take their heads off, so you see like there's Mickey Mouse eating some orange chicken um um, and he's got the hell the head of Mickey Mouse on the table, and he's got a cigarette in his mouth, and he's got a plate and foot.

It's the most depressing, uh place, It's it's wild man. But as far as to answer your question, like, what are some unique places that are not the tourist traps um, I think just like Griffith Park, which I don't think is a tourist trap. I don't know. There's there's some cool little unique things that are part of l A history. The old l A Zoo which is still there, the original l A Zoo. You can go walk through it

kind of buried off the beaten path. And they have the bat Cave, which was the the original Batman TV show and they filmed the lot of TV shows. That's buried in the bowels of Griffith Park. And there's also some hiking trails you can get um and you know, you could do the Hollywood Sign but if you walk, you can actually walk up over the Hollywood Sign and look down upon it, which is which is pretty cool. Oh what else, guess if you can come so you

can come west of the four or five. Here we go and you can make your way to tarran It's a resort in Palace purities Um. There's a lot of trails that you can actually walk from the resort down to the water, which is fantastic. So if you want to take the kids down. I don't know if you have a pet, but obviously traveling here a little bit

different with pets. But the kids who enjoy it and uh and you and the misses can get a little R and R. There's a couple of pools there, there's a couple of restaurants, and then you can make your way around the bend and you can go from tarran Era Resort to sam Pedro. You got the Crian bell that's down there. You can visit that if you like. Um. If you go to San Diego, Sea World is always a popular that's a tourist trap. Guest. Here's what you're

doing Old town San Diego. I was just gonna say that, you go to old town San Diego, great Mexico, wonderful Mexican restaurants there, great vibe, um, big Fan, Big Fan, that's one of my favorite spots in San Diego. And then if you just want to like, you know, bring your kids out drinking. Oh, okay, San Diego. He's got to remember this because we mentioned old town. You have to go to a spot called the Hash House. Doll that Hash House and go go h have you been

in that's in Vegas, but it's started in San Diego. Yeah, but it's all it's there. There's a few location. Yeah. They give you massive portions of food, yes, like stacks of stacks of pancakes. It's like one pancake, but it's is huge. The drinks are great, everything is It looks like an optical illusion. Objects appear bigger than they actually are. But they are that big, that's what. And then, uh, the only west of the four or five place I would advise you to go is Catalina Island. Boy, it

is beautiful. You spend it a little day trip there. It's an our boat ride. You're out on the boat in the Pacific. You go out to Catalana Island there and you can lay on the beach. That got a little you know, it's a very small town. The thing of shops there, a little restaurants. What a beautiful wonderful What about the Getty Museum They had a Getty museum free. Yeah, somebody got paid for parking something us. But that's a

beautiful place. Yeah. There's some some hidden hidden museums around, uh, Los Angeles that are not Hollywood Boulevard and all that. And the other thing which is kind of cool, um, which is you know, it's it's Hollywood touristy related, but it's unique is you can find the houses where they film movies and just kind of go around and check some of those. You know what I'm saying, right the Steve's Secret. Yeah. Uh, butot I used to take when

I was dating back in the day. I would take people to the Brady Bunchhouse because at the Brady Bunchhouse was right near where I worked. It was cool. Check out the Brady Bunch House. Not quite as cool anymore because that shows like dated. But uh, and then food wise, Kevin, you gotta go to Tino's Tacos and Langer's Deli. Gotta hit those. It's the Langers Deli. Come on. We make sure you put them in bulletproof vest and give them shotguns. But you can go there and hang out and get

any kind of contraband you want right across the street. Um, it's one of the great pits of America. I'm sure that guy David Gascon loves it because that is sodom and gomra. That is what he wants all the l a to be. Like, uh again, any kind of street drug, you want, any kind of fake idea, you want, any kind of debauchery, It's all right there for you right across the street. But Langer's Deli is great, top deli in the West Coast, top Deli better than the New

York Deli's. Tito's Tacos is a is a ridoncrously good place. So there are a couple of places. Alright, what's next, who do we have? Emmett in Washington says, what's worse the cheating astros or gag on producing the fifth Hour parte from Emmett? That's a tough one, kind of askhole rights to that. Emmett in Washington, what a loser? Linda from Omaha rights and she says, I don't have a question. Just the warmest wishes to all for a very merry Christmas.

Keep up the good work. Well, thank you, Lynn, we appreciate Murray in Saskatoon rights and he says about a month ago. I asked a question, and you said you didn't think Saskatoon was an actual place. Well, I am here to say that was a bad job by you, Murray says. And I attached the screenshot here it is of my location has proof that it really does exist. My question is that what is you when you're right hand is getting a workout on a busy sports weekend?

Do you ever switch to your left hand? Very funny, Murray. Let's go back to Saskatoon. So I looked it up. Saskatoon is three hundred seventeen miles from the American border. In Canada. The closest state to drive to if you were to drive down from Saskatoon is North Dakota. So you drive down from Saskatoon and the weather looks to be very much like like Minnesota weather. It's it's freezing, freezing in Saskatoon, a fine city in Canada, which is even worse because it looks like it's right in the

middle of either going to Edmonton, Calgary or Winnipeg. So if you're one of those fans that the jets the flames of the oilers, you're you're fucked. The the forecast. Here are some of the temperatures. On Friday, the high end Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada was one degree. Now it is warming up into the thirties. And then next week it's next Wednesday's coming Wednesday. It's gonna be high of four degrees, low of one degree. Boy, that's a lot of range. That is a lot of range. And they get the

snow and the whole thing. So they have that beautiful Saskatoon Here's wonderful during the summer. But even during the winter. I'm sure you can skate on a pond there, right, yes, I would imagine. Why not. Let's see your else we have r J and San Antonio says, what will you guys be doing on January one? No plans any New Year's Eve, plans guest recovering from a hangover? Okay, Chef Scott Actually January one, yes, we'll be doing Benny versus the Penny. Oh boy, what a way to kick off

the new year. Chef's Chef Scott in Orleans, right, so, and he says, hey, Ben and David, great job. The last few weeks, I was worried that Gag Gay Gone would quit. He sounded so frustrated. A couple of weeks ago. I am so glad he got it out of his system. The show wouldn't be the same without you, bro. Not that it wouldn't be better, it just wouldn't be the same. It's very carefully crafted. Yeah, Scott says, so I've I've got a Christmas story. He says it's a lesson, so

he wants to He's not really a question. He wants to give a lesson, which I think is a good lesson, he says. When he was about ten years old before he became the legendary Chef Scott of NAWS, when he was just a snot nosed punk ten year old kid in the nineties, he says, the most notable thing, A notable thing I asked for was a Sony Walkman top of the line with external microphone, cassette, radio, et cetera. I remember those were big when they came out, and

you were cool if you had one of those. That was the gadget to get. Anyway, Chef Scott says, I knew my mom had to get it for me, So I went up to the attic every night for a week and I found it. All of my unwrapped presence, I played with them. This ten year old kid playing with all his Christmas presents before Christmas always put him back. He says, before morning, come actual Christmas morning, it was the worst Christmas ever because I knew exactly what I

was getting and he had obviously played with everything. Uh says. Needless to say, I learned my lesson. Chef Scott says that the anticipation and excitement of the unknown is the best feeling. And he says, did you guys ever do something stupid during honak or failed Christmas present? I'm gonna go back to your story, Chef Scott, because you bring

up a great point. It's one of the weird things about life and the dating game, all right, dating, the anticipation, like when you're dating someone knew, the anticipation of the hooking up part is often better than the reality, right. You know. There's a lot of things like the like your whatever, your dream job is, getting your dream job, like the reality of it having to do it is different. But the anticipation, I I that's a great point by

Chef Scott. That's a key part of this like it and the term is as far as toys and stuff, it's buyer's remorse. Right, You're like, Oh, I really need to get item X, and then you get item X and then you're like, oh did I spend too much money on it? Do I really need? It? Is as good as I thought it was gonna be, you know that'll Yeah, it's not the greatest question, but I wanted it to be Christmas related. Happy Holidays, guys, Love you

and a hearty Paul Harvey good day. Yeah, alright, Chris in ma Cocota, Iowa writes in he says, hey, only three hours west of Chicago. Sorry for the length, shortened as needed, all right, says the recent pandemic highlights the obtusive, disconnected, and even outright contempt for fans that players have had for fans. Looking at you, n b A, he says, As salaries continue to grow, I see this getting worse.

It will be harder and harder for average Joe's to connect to the games and billion dollar athletes and all this stuff while paying twenty five dollar beers five hundred dollar tickets. Question is how soon before we see the first billion dollar contract and in what sport will it be? This is from Chris in my Cocota, Iowa. Well, we we're in the age. If you look at the gold standard right now is the Patrick Mahomes contract. Mahomes is five hundred million if he gets at all ten years,

five millions. What's trout fo Yeah, that's not five Yeah, Mike, Mike Trout. Let me get up Mike Trout here. Let's see here. What is Mike trout contract is forever contract with the ages four twenty six, twelve years four six, Mahomes ten years, five hundred over five hundred so good. Yeah, But to be fair, Chris, this long ago players became unrelatable. You know, there there was a time when guys had to get jobs in the offseason, that the butcher shop

are picking up trash that served in war make ends meet. Yeah, they had to fly fighter jets in the war. Those days are long gone. He also says, how do we reconcile everything we hear about how wonderful John Wooden is with the fact that Sam Gilbert sent him the best players. If wooden't was in North Dakota, nobody would have heard of him. Yeah. Well, most most people don't know that part of John Wooden, the legend, the Wizard of Westwood

and all that. But yeah, that's one of the legendary stories in Los Angeles sports lord Sam Gilbert, who was I think he was a construction guy as I remember, and he had some dealings in the car business. But he is a north torrious figure. He was. He was the big booster that helped pay all those star use A players to go play for John wood Well, really, when you think about it, wouldn't had that whole pyramid of success. He had the you know the twenty five

common behaviors of successful people. The the creed is the big one, right, the seven things to do um, be true to yourself, help others, make each day your masterpiece. That was his most famous quote. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible, make friends, make friendship of fine art, build a shelter against a rainy day, Pray for guidance and count and give thanks for your blessings every day. Those are the seven things in the creed John Wooden's

creed um. But it doesn't say anywhere in there not to take bribes from Sam Gilbert, Right, I think it says that anywhere. Yeah, you think anybody in college sports, like you think Nick Saban doesn't have a guy at Alabama who might be helping him out a little bit, or you know I'm saying. I mean I maybe I don't know, maybe not, maybe it's all ethical. I'm I'm a cynic. I tend to think that's not the case.

I think that's something something else going. All right, let's see who else do we have doing the mail bag? Mail bag, mailbag, mail bag. Eric from Chula Vista, San Diego Way says, Ben Guesscon, what gifts are you hoping to get for Christmas? Hank? What luxury west of the four or five? Trinkets for Gascon? As far as I'm me, I'm I'm good. I don't really needed. I'm at the point I've been much have whatever I needed. I need something, I'll go out and get it. I don't think there's

anything I really need. I'm okay. That's boring. How boring an answer is that? That's not that's not the kind of answer you want, But that's the answer. What do you need? You probably need a lot of stuff. You're West of the four or five, you're booge your loddie dog. I need some socks, socks. Yeah, I need some socks, and you're old man socks. I need some walking shoes I've had. I've had a couple of shoot pairs of shoes that I've used and beat up during my some trips,

and uh, they're running on on the um. How many you have walking shoes? You have running shoes? How many other shoes do you have? Dress shoes? Dress shoes? Yeah, and then sandals. That's about it. But but the shoes that I have now are the shoes that I wore when I went to Europe two years ago, and they're just beat the funk up. Yeah. By the way, I'm a pilot road in. He's he sent an email, but he didn't really have a question. He he did say

he's thinking about becoming a hat benefactor. Oh, don't do it. He's thinking about doing it. Oh you don't want to hat? I do want to have, Okay, so why why you Okay, I'm not panhandling for I'm not panhandling for a hat either, I'm not. I mean he wants to send one. That's fine. You trash of every chance you can get. Because he showers me with praise. I think he's just he's just

entertaining you. I think he knows he's not entertaining. I just acknowledge the fact that he's, uh, he's an upstanding citizen. He's you know, white collar. He works hard, he works with the blue collar mentality, but still and delivers the first class service. All right, and wrote a great story for us about going to China. I think you missed the spot right there, you know, get that over there a little bit. Speaking of which, didn't you get that

that blow job from justin Cincinnati yet? Oh no, he has not paid that off. And I'd like him to pass that on to somebody else. But you can do that on cameo. Yeah, Jason in Rocky Mount, Virginia, right, and says, hey, Ben, if you had to work with a co host for one year per management on radio, options are gag on Real Talk, beer drinking Brian, Doc Mike or Justin in Cincinnati. Who you're picking? Who are

you picking? Uh? Well, with all due respect to the people I'm with right now here on this podcast, I would say Doc Mike. He is so loony tunes that it would be fascinating to get inside deeper, to the to the neurosis of Doc Mike. It would be like getting into a taxi in Mexico. Yeah, it's Mr Toad's Wild Ride. It's all those things you don't know. You're just like, I can't believe this guy said that. Doc, isn't he just found out this week the Chargers moved

from San Diego? He was, what anymore? Mind you? This is a guy who's been calling sports radio since before I was alive, and you're telling me that the Chargers because I guess he said before Vietnam he was in San Diego and and the Chargers, and I guess he has fun memories of that. So like, uh, you know, Doc, They've they've been in Los Angeles for one of four years at least. I think it's how long has it been now they moved from San Diego? I think it was.

I think has been four years. Rivers was here when when they moved. It's here for two years? Yeah, those risky Chargers. All right, we have time for one more here. Let's see who do we have? Glenn from a sacrament who says, why have the Pac twelve football and basketball schools fallen off a cliff? It's one of the great mysteries of life. But it's not actually not that a mystery. They just you got incompetent. It would appear in competent leadership,

and it's the Peter principal. Like the the intellectuals who run these schools, they don't really put an importance on sports, even though they make a ton of money on it. And they've got this guy who's a nice guy. I've met him, Larry Scott. I don't think he knows what he's doing. Um, he's a he's ah. He came from the world of women's tennants and now he's running the PAC twelve and he's been there for a long time.

And it's it is the Peter principle. You rise up to your highest level of incompetence and you stay there. And that's pretty much what this guy has done. He's been with the PAC twelve. I think it's been over ca years now. Then they are an afterthought, and that in the first decade of the two thousands they were a big time player with USC had some really amazing teams, Oregon had some really good football teams and a few other schools popped up on the radar in the PAC

PAC ten then and they became the PAC twelve. But yeah, it's uh, that guy, Well, I mean, Mike, God, what are you doing and and nobody just continues on. I mean, there's no buzz on the Pack twelve. The schools um it's it's a self fulfilling prophecy. They don't they don't prioritize prioritize it, which is not the word I'm looking for, but they don't put an effort an emphasis on it. I guess what I'm trying to say. Yeah, the television

contract with the Pac twelve network included sucks. And then you look at the coaching like you see like coaching basketball and football is not there, it hasn't been there recently. And then with Arizona all they have a Sean Miller like he's had some good teams, but they've been out recruited by San Diego State, and san Diego State's actually beat in ust l A on numerous occasions in college basketball, not Arizona, but they've met deep into the n c

Double A Tournament. But it's it's rather out of want. A team from the Mountain West Conference is better than you in college basketball, but that's where we're at right now. That conference is embarrassing, which is unfortunate. Yeah, although as a fixer up, as a fixer up, not bad, right, not bad as a fixer up, pretty good. I guess yeah. I mean, can you go in there, You're like, hey, you can kind of restore some things and be the conquering hero. But will they actually ever get off there

took it is and change things around? I don't think so. You do not think no, Like you said, there's no emphasis on it. Like the SCC, it is. It is loud and proud, and they have pride in what they do football, basketball, baseball across the board. It's the same thing with the Big Ten, except they go into the Olympic sports as a well all right, uh, I did find another question here Glenn in Chicago. I just checked the email bag. I guy go in in in the Windy City, right, So he says, who ran faster to

the bathroom? Lamar Poops Jackson or you Ben mallor I click listen. I I had full jets going. I was like I was going turbo, time to go to the bathroom. I was speedy. Gonzalez on my way about him, but he didn't seem like he was doing the tight took his thing where he was holding the cheeks and he was trying to walk fast. But he didn't run. I think it might have been because he didn't want to slip on the concrete there as he was making his way through the bowels of the stadium in Cleveland to

go to the powder room. And but yeah, I was driving on the Autobahn. I was. I mean, I was desperately trying to get there, and I was. I was so happy and then so sad right away because I thought I had made it. I felt like I had

made it, that my scamper was worth it. I had galloped and I had made it, and I was there and then tedda surprise, surprise, surprise, Uh did not did not quite make or anything else to add, yes, because we were can put the baby to bed here, anything else you want to throw in there on top, anything

special that we missed. That's it. If you are down on this early on Sunday or even the middle of the day, you can catch the rest of the picks for Ben on Benny Versus the Penny on YouTube and then out of course the Monday night selection to Monday, Monday Monday. That's all the pish and be safe, listen. I want to thank you guys, been a great year.

You've been very supportive of the crap that we put out here and what I put out and I'm not deserving, but I do appreciate it, and thank you and upward and onward in one and like I said, we might pop up. We didn't do Benny Versus the Penny, so we're not completely going away. I'm gonna let my wife know about that. Any of us of the play still um and so I'm excited about that. That means what Christmas is it? When is the date on this Christmas? Right?

We'll be on Christmas? Or are we doing on Christmas? I don't know. We might have to do it on on the Saturday. All right, well, I think there's games on Saturday. But we'll figure it out. We'll let you know, follow us on social media, we'll tweet it out and if you follow the YouTube channel, you'll you'll obviously find out what's going on. So all of that is available. Stay healthy, and uh, hopefully we'll have a much better and we'll at least have a few years before the

next global pandemic. Ruins are quality of life. But to be safe, beuh, be well and prosper and all those good things. And we'll catch you on the on the other side, be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller Show week days at two a m. Eastern eleven p m. Pacific