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It's a clearinghouse of hot takes. Break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts right now.
In the air everywhere the Fifth Hour we meet Ben Maller and daan Ag Radio and a Happy Saturday to you and his final four Saturday today and.
I'm sure we'll get to that at some point.
It is also National Deep Dish Pizza Day today. Happy Was it the fifth day now of April? Yes, the fifth day of April, as we are just getting the party started here on the Saturday, yep. And I did see Danny the National Deep Dish Peace Today. And we've talked about this in the past. Like I've been to Chicago many times. I have family in the Chicago Land area, and the first probably six times I visited Chicago in my life, I never ate Deep dish pizza. I was
anti Deep Dish pizza. I said, I don't like tomatoes that much. Why would I eat a pizza where the tomato is the featured star of the show Because they have, you know, the deep dish. They got the tomato sauce on the top, and it really bothered me. I was like, I don't understand. And then I finally had it and actually had it. The first time I deep dished pizza
was in Vegas. At that you know, they have a deep dish One of the Chicago pizza places was in Vegas and I tried it, and I was like, oh, man, I have missed out on a lifetime of deep dish pizza because I thought it looked unattractive and I didn't want to partake in it.
Did you really miss out all that much?
Though?
It's okay, but I feel like it's a little overhyped.
I like it. I like it.
I had had a lot, and uh, it depends there are there are better deep dish pizzas. Then they're not all the same. There's like two or three different places in Chicago. Actually, one of the local places that's not a chain, I thought, and I don't have the name in front of me, and I don't remember the name.
I can look it up.
Numero Uno in something.
Yeah, that was our deep dish right southern California.
Yeah, yeah, now that I loved Numero Uno. You're right about that one. But there's been some other Deep Dish pizzas where I've paid through the nostrils because they are really expensive pies and they just didn't make the cut.
Yeah.
Do you know there's like one or two Numero Uno places left. It's like we talked about. That was the Noggles. I think we talked about that. There was there's like one. No, there's like a few of these. Pioneered Chicken is another one. Yes, remember Pioneered Chicken.
Of course they famously starred OJ Simpson in their commercials in the eighties.
Yeah, it was a very It was more popular than KFC. Well, I stand corrected. There's only one New Marono left, and it's right there on Wilshire.
Actually I used to.
Live right here. Now, when there's only one, you got to ask yourself is it one of the legit ones or is it a knockoff?
Well, it looks like it has the same exact logo. Now what my go to? I love the New Marono pizza, The Deep Dish pizza. But I also love the these garlic puffs you see. You think they still have those? Because I would probably drive down there right now.
I mean, nothing going on today.
I thought you were going to attend basketball games all weekend long.
Well, yeah, we'll address that. How the Mighty have fallen? How the Mighty have fallen? Yeah?
Like, wait, you don't have time to drive to get the garlic.
I'm a very important person.
You're a very big radio star in southern California.
Exactly exactly now, I'm looking at the appetite. Oh they have it, says Romano bread puffs. I think that's I think that's the same thing. Oh, ten ninety nine for six bread puffs. That seems Is that a good deal? I don't know if that's a good deal or that. I don't know, but anyway, what it's just dough.
Yeah.
On this podcast, we have the customer service snaffo A lot to get through.
I did want to start with that.
Actually, you brought this up so last night the Clippers were playing the Dallas Mavericks. Now, my wife's out of town this weekend. She's busy. She's over in Arizona doing some stuff.
Whatever.
A bunch of hookers and cocaine.
Exactly.
Yeah, it's time to have a good time, get back to the old life, living the life, going out the games and hanging out and all that stuff.
So wait, your old life is sitting in the Tommy's parking lot eating a chili burger at two in the.
Morning on ifaw Hollywood Boulevard. They're the one on one No. So so I was like, all right, I'll go back. I have not been to the new Clippers arena, you know, working at night during the week, and my weekends are spent with the wife, so I don't I don't get out there. I haven't been out there. I've driven by it.
I go to.
The only time I really go I was NFL games because that's you know, that's the King. So so I was like, all right, you know the Clippers are playing. I really want to see this new arena. And I hadn't been out since COVID and I'm like, all right, I'll reach out and I'll I'll go through the proper channels. And so I contacted a buddy of mine, well I used to work with in radio, who works for the Clippers right and worked there for a long time. He knows everyone, so I thought, all right, so I reached
out to him about a week ago. I said, listen, I'm thinking about going out there. You know, I'll do it through the media because I'm by myself. I'm not going with anybody. I don't need tickets. So I said, I'll go in the media thing. And so who do I context? It's no problem, I got you. I know exactly who to talk to. Here's the person. So they sent me the email address of the person said here you contact them, they'll take care of you. So I
email them and then nothing, no reply. So then I'm like, well, this was a couple of days. This goes back to like Wednesday. I get no reply. I think it was Wednesday.
So then the date.
Normally the way this stuff works when you're in the media is you you need approval. If you're not a seasoned, credentialed person, you need approval the day before. So it gets to Thursday, so a couple days ago. So Thursday, I'm like, well, they didn't get back to me. So I text my friend and he's you know, it works with the teams. I don't know what happened. I mean, they should get back. That's their job, their media relations people.
So then I went on the we have access to these NBA media portal website things where they have all the contacts, like the direct contacts with the team. So I was like, all right, so I must have this guy must have had bogus information. I don't know how he would he works for the team. So I'm like, all right, I'll look this up. I'll kind of I'll kind of futs around with it and I'll find who
I need to talk to. So I went on there and I clicked a few things and I surfed my way through and I found the page with all the contacts media relations contacts for the LA Clippers. So I found that the person and I kind of recognized a name on there who was in charge. So I emailed them. I said, listen, I I'm contacting I emailed person X. They never got back to me, so I was like, just want to make sure we're good for tomorrow and hope all as well.
Whatever. So that was it.
I said who I you know, obviously explained who I am and all that, not that I needed to, but whatever. So then nothing, I got no reply. And this is the second time now this has happened. The La Kings never got back to me. That was about a month ago. And now the Clippers. I mean, I am getting shot down right and left here. So just when you think you're on top of the world, Danny, and I'm like, listen, my career, I think it's going pretty well. I had
a TV show during football season. I just you know, the radio shows got six hundred affiliates or over that. Now we're everywhere. Things are going pretty well. Podcast is doing well. And then I can't even get these these schmucks to right back. I mean, you're in your job title is media relations, and yet you're a you're ghosting my email.
I mean, what are you doing me?
Seriously, you're in you know how they say they have they have first responders.
This is a non responder. And I'm sure if I you know, I can. I guess I have some numbers I can call whatever.
But they'll they'll be like, well, you know, the email disappeared. You know something happened. It fell into the abyss. So I'm like, whatever, I I you know, I watched the game, watch all these games on TV. I don't need to go to the game. You've me nice to get out there, and I did get a lot back in the day when I was there all the time, I got a lot of information. People love to tell you stuff. Sometimes you don't need to know certain things, but they'll.
Tell you anyway and all that.
So, but anyway, that was that was the I call it a snaffoo and customer service. But I just don't leave me haying even if you say no, I'm fine, just right back say no, I'm good with that, or right back and say no, you didn't you got to do this, you know, do X, Y and Z.
I'd be fine with that.
Just be courteous, be professional. Like am I being an asshole?
I don't know.
Am I being the bad guy? Maybe I am. I have no idea.
No.
Radio stars used to be the influencers. We've talked about that in the past. Yeah, and somewhere along the way here some radio stars quote unquote stars have been a little bit buried. And it's not right. Eighty eight percent of the world still tunes in to their FM and AM radio stations in their car, so we should be able to live on our platform forever.
I agree, no matter what. Just like the horse and buggy, No, I mean, we have that something. We do have a lot of a lot of people. Listen, well, we get we used to get a lot more. Okay, imagine the hookups Lorena gets. We got hooked up like that all the time, and we're due.
Yeah we did.
You know, Lorena gets pretty girl privilege hookups.
We got that. We were treated like pretty girls.
We were we were given stuff we didn't really need or want or like. I had a cell phone deal at one point, I had a free cell phone. Use to test out some new cell phone one time. I mean it was it was great. All kinds of clothes I didn't really need and things like that.
Man, I got music, music, music radio.
You get even more, dude, besides all the drugs that were handed to us from record companies and stacks of one dollar bills at their showcases inside strip clubs. You know, the new artist, the new R and B artist on their label is performing inside the strip club And me and the other radio dudes used to walk in and the executive from the record company said, Okay, here's the rule, though, you have to spend all of these ones inside the club. So what did I Yeah, So there were loop there
were a lot of loopholes loopholes up the ass. And so what did I do, though, Ben, I took half those ones stuck them in my sock like I was on the subway in New York, and I left that place with a big wad of ones and that that was my meal money for the next day or two.
There you go.
You're good to go, man, you're ready to go. And I remember back in the day on the road trips, they before the uber and everything was on your phone. They would give you these taxi therese scenes called taxi cabs, and they'd give you the receipts and you could get very creative that they give you just these cards, these
yellow cars. I'm in New York, that they give you these yellow cards, and you could get very creative on how much that cab ride cost and it could be very expensive, and then that you get that money back.
Now, you should never do that. That would be wrong.
Just to kind of frame what we were talking about though, the difference between radio and podcasting. And I know, I realized we're doing a podcast and when you're listening and we thank you, and you probably listen to a bunch of podcasts.
And you're like, I understand, I listen only to podcasts. I don't listen to radio show.
So in the United States, about eighty two percent of people aged twelve and older listen to terrestrial radio AMFM radio week eighty two percent podcast even though they've grown and they've done well, it's like forty two percent of people age twelve or older listen to podcasts. That's on a per month basis. So radio has a much larger reach. And as Danny pointed out, you wouldn't know that from the way the the radio people get treated by the
media relations people. Right, it's like, what are you doing?
It is uh, it is wild.
So, especially how many years you've spent hyping up the Clippers, you would you would think that they would run to give you seasoned seats even before the year starts.
Yeah, I mean I have.
I've been the hok Tour for the Clippers over the years. I mean, my god, let's be honest here, and that is that is wild anyway, whatever, So that's fine, but I will be watching the Final four. Any interest in this today that any at the Final four? Double barrel action from San Antonio the year that Cinderella died, No bracket bunching miracle in the Final four, all the all the storylines going in big upsets. We wasted all our
time on that. It's all chalk. It's all chalk and the Final Four, and it's this afternoon for us.
Yes, if you're in these at night.
But you know what, I heard a promo on the network with you saying, hey, we want number ones. And I agree with you because I bet you both of these games today are gonna be dog fights.
Yeah.
No, I like Auburn for what it's worth.
I think Auburn is gonna take down Florida, and I think we're gonna get Auburn versus Duke in the National championship game on Monday night.
I know Florida is the hot pick.
Auburn won the regular season of the SEC, but the Gators won the conference tournament.
And so that's why I and I'm I'm meaning I'm biased. I was asked the other day.
I was the other morning I was on with Bob Fesco and Kansas City, my guy, I mean, we're talking about the Final Four. I pointed out that one of the reasons that I like Auburn is not because I
went to Auburn or I like Charles Barkley. Years ago, when I did the weekend show with Looney Tunes on Saturday, we had a we had college basketball coaches on back then, and one of the years we had this guy who was coaching at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee named Bruce Pearl who came on as a guest, and he was very engaging and you know, enthusiastic and fun and just a really good radio guest. Everything you look for in a radio guest. And so I was like,
that's pretty cool. And that followed him a little bit. And he's coaching at Auburn, so I had a lot of scandals in his career coaching and all that, but I think back to those days he was just working his way up the coaching ranks. And now I's got a chance to win the national championships. So hopefully it'll work out for him. And I wanted to to I don't want to do too much sports because you know, it's not it's a week in podcasts, but I did love what Bryce Harper said yesterday.
I don't know if you saw Bryce, and.
The Dodgers are playing the Phillies this weekend and it's it's one of those series, Danny down the line, you're thinking playoff baseball. It's it's a pretty good chance the Dodgers in Phillies Pass will cross at some point in October baseball. But that's man word early April. So who you don't want to get two worked up whether you win or lose in April.
Right o care? But anyway.
Bryce Harper was asked about the massive amounts of money that the Dodgers are spent, and also as a result of that, how many people are upset because the Dodgers they're opening to day payroll was three hundred and twenty eight million, but when you put in all the taxes and all that, it's over four hundred million that the Dodgers are actually going to be spending.
It's like your contract at FSR, well.
Very similar, mind's a little bigger, SORR. Bryce Harper was asked about that and all the negative energy, the bad juju around the Dodgers because people are upset and they're up in arms and people are pointing fingers and they got to stop the Dodgers and all that stuff. And Bryce Harper, who wanted to play for the Dodgers at one point wanted to play for the Dodgers at one point, I just wanted him what would have happened if that had been a love connection? But it wasn't.
Anyway. Bryce Harper was asked about the Dodgers spending.
All his money and this was over the weekend yesterday, and getting the pipeline of Japanese players, some of them really good, some of them not so good, and he said, quote, I don't know if people will like this, Bryce Harper said, but I feel like only the losers complain about what they're doing. I think they are a great team, they are great organizations. So it was a rather generic quote. But that's not that's not what the people want to hear it, Danny, And so Bryce is getting a lot
of crap. I don't understand why he's say that. That's not right he should say that, But I think it makes a lot of sense, like when when other radio people, you know, I mope, I kind of poke fun at Cowherd and some of these guys that make the big money. But I'm I'm like, I'm happy they're making the big money. It's great, right, why not?
And the rising tides raise all ships.
Right exactly, exactly I don't see the I don't see the problem. And if you're a player, you would want the Dodgers there because they drive.
Up the price.
Unfortunately, in our business it doesn't seem to work that way, where if you know, radio company acts spends a lot of money on a talent, that doesn't mean that the other radio company's going to spend.
A lot of a lot of a lot of money. But it doesn't.
I thought it was a fine response, and I like the fact that people are triggered.
Like, oh, I can't believe he's ah my god, Brys, oh my god.
It's like, really, what are we doing? By the way, Danny, it's not about me or sports what you did the you were doing the coward sure yesterday, right, What has.
Been going on with you this week?
Yeah?
Speaking of Colin, stars attract other stars. C and R did a really good job filling in for Colin, and that was fun the show on Friday afternoon for most of the country nine to noon. Here on the West Side, it was a lot, a lot of fun. But Thursday evening I needed a margarita or two because we took Big Baby CoA to Sharkys.
Have you ever been to Sharky's sounds familiar. I don't think I have I don't remember it. If I have been there, it sounds familiar.
It's Mexican food, so Sharkis are famous for like their burritos. The burritos are like the size of your forearm.
Okay.
So it's like a decent sized place, probably about thirty tables inside, and we sit down. CoA was in a good mood on the car ride over. He wasn't fussing or anything. He was listening to his baby Bop music bop in his head.
Not good.
But as soon as he took a bite of one of the tortilla chips on the table, he started screaming, bloody murder. Did he maybe get the corner of the chip into his gums? Was he choking on this tortilla chip? Obviously, you try to open your kid's mouth up and look inside like you're their dentist, And we didn't see anything. Bleeding. Got to the point, and all parents can relate to this,
where you become a spectacle. Every other table, and it was dinnertime, every other table inside the restaurant started to stare at us. Now, it's not the end of the world, but you obviously want to get your kid quiet as soon as possible. The parents who are really really obnoxious at a lot of these places you go to, or even on an airplane, are the ones who are oblivious and don't care that their kid is screaming.
Oh yeah, yeah.
The parents are just mia for whatever reason, they probably shouldn't have had a kid, and they don't mind that this kid is ruining everybody else's day. So we don't want to ruin everybody's dinner. So we're doing everything we could think of to pacify him. We're handing him credit cards, a lot of our wallets, which he loves to handle cards because he sees us paying with these things. So you give him a credit card that didn't work. He
threw the credit card at me. I guess I'm not gonna be able to buy this kid off with, you know, stuff at the table, so oh yeah. So then I gave him my cup of water and it had ice in it, and he threw the cup. So now the cup lands, the ice spills all over the floor, and people are looking at us, and now they're starting to talk where you're like you hear, oh my god, look at that those poor people, like, they start feeling bad for you, but at the same time they're annoyed because
you're kind of ruining their dinner. Brenda looks at the situation, grabs him, leaves her burrito in front of her, and storms out of the restaurant. Now I'm sitting there and our fourteen year old daughters also at the table, and we're just kind of looking at each other, and the rest of the people are staring at us also, And I don't know she going to come back in. And she outside rocking him and talking to him. Did she take him to the car to give him he calls
it boo? Guess what that is? I think what many of us love. Yeah, there's a bee missing at the end. We don't know she given him the boob out in the car. What's going on? Is she going to come back? She never returned, So me and our fourteen year old daughter finished eating our food. I wrapped hers up in ato go box and we get out to the car and she just looks frazzled. He still he's down on the floorboard, running from this side of the car to that side of the car like a wild Indian.
Can I say that racist?
So he continued his party inside the car, buckles him in and he is just going crazy. And Brenda's like, just get us home, get us home, please, get us home. Man. That was the longest ten minute drive of my life. Get him home, Get him upstairs to his toys. He sits down, smiles, giggles and laughs, and it was like none of it ever happened.
Oh my god, And you never found out what.
No have no clue what was bothering him. Don't know if he hurt himself with the chip. That's when it all started. I blame the tortilla chip because whatever happened with that bite of tortilla chips set him off the deep end. I love this little human more than words can explain, but oh my god, I never want to bring this kid out in public ever again.
See. The other problem is he now knows like if I do this, then I can get I can leave the restaurant and eventually get and get boo.
Yeah, get the boo.
And you know you love the boo and you want the when you can get that, you want the chip. I want the boo. You got to keep us posted on this. The Life and Times of the Spawn of Danny g to see whether or not he tries to do this move again next time you go out to a restaurant.
Yeah, by the way, this was not a very good financial decision either, to have a child. I saw this stat the other day. It's mind blowing. This is how much it costs now to have a child? You ready for these numbers?
Hey, here we go, drum roll please? Okay?
How much?
A new study reveals just how expensive it's gotten to raise kids and it's a doozy. This article says the data found that the cost of raising a child has surged twenty five percent, reaching a staggering two hundred and ninety seven six hundred and seventy four dollars over an
eighteen year period. Among the tracked categories, daycare costs have jumped more since twenty twenty three, rising fifty two percent from eleven thousand to almost eighteen thousand, food has jumped thirty percent, and health insurance premiums twenty five percent.
Wow, geez? Is this?
Oh?
You could you could just do one hundred thousand, three hundred thousand.
Did you see Anthony Edwards We talked about this on the Overnight Show. Anthony Edwards you know, he's got four he's he's done the four by four day, and he's got the four kids for baby mamas.
He's done the four x four.
But one of the kids, I guess one of the baby mamas he didn't want to have a kid with. I guess the others he was fine with. So he this is according to I think it was in Touch Weekly. I read this in. I believe that's where I read this in. I might be wrong, but I think it was that tabloid. Somebody sent me the link. So he supposedly paid a check. He could have checked for one million dollars to this baby mama said all right, here's your child's for the rest of the kids eighteen years.
I'm out. Gee, I didn't know you were allowed to do that. Number one, Number two. I guess he paid too much, because you know, I think he paid a little much, Danny, because it's only, as you said, three hundred thousand or so.
But yeah, yeah, for us regular folks, three hundred thousand sounds like a lot. For a ballplayer, he's like, well, you know, I'm gonna get three hundred million. I could just keep shooting my seed.
Yeah, and he is and he's scoring a lot of baskets. There's a lot of baskets that are open, for sure.
Go to the hole. It's wide open, exactly.
Always available. Whenever he needs to work out, he's got a place to go. Hey, I wanted to mention before I forget. I know we're hanging out here on a Saturday. It's the Final four and all that. One of my pet peeves. So the Chargers yesterday on Friday agreed to a contract with Trey Lance.
Has anyone he's a quarterback?
Has anyone gotten more headlines and more attentions for not being able to play than Trey Lance?
Like it is like fascinating.
He is the personification of a bust right. The amount of opportunities seems. The third overall pick by the forty nine ers in twenty twenty one, and they traded a bunch of scratcher tickets to get him and all that sky high expectations ton you know, three first round picks, a third rounder to acquire him, and then he gets upstaged by Brock Purdy with the forty nine ers and goes to the Cowboys, And there was always going to get an opportunity, and he's going to show a lot of things.
He goes to the Cowboys and now he doesn't do anything there.
And the Trey Lance in his career since drafted number three overall twenty twenty one, it's not twenty twenty five, has started five games across four and seasons and he stinks.
And he never even.
Played that much at North Dakota State when he was in college, he only had seventeen college starts. He has since he started college, Trey Lance has started twenty two games, and yet everyone's, Oh, he's going to be so good and all this. It's crazy. It's crazy. There's a guy that should go to the Canadian Football League. That's a guy that should go to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Is what he should do?
My god.
Anyway, I just wanted to complain about that. It's just an they certain guys get put on the pedestal.
Danny. Yeah, I just saw.
I saw the headlines yesterday and I was like.
No, And it's a good reminder. We're just three weeks away now? Is it three weeks? The draft is on the twenty four, less than three weeks?
Yeah, Thursday, back on Thursday was a three week mark.
So yeah, we're from.
So under three weeks away from the NFL Draft, and this is a good reminder, don't overthink it, don't over complicate your draft picks.
No.
Also, as much as we talk about the draft, I don't know about you, Danny, but I'm sure we'll.
Get to this at some point.
I as we go in the weeks to come, my NFL draft experience is mostly I watch like the first ten picks, and then I'm out, and then I just I'll check my phone to see who got drafted after that, but I'm not. You want to see your team, obviously, but I'm not. After that, I'm out.
I'm done. That's all. Anyway, we have the word of the week, the word of the week. Here's the word a week.
This in honor of Redbreast Paul from Rhode Island, who called again and is always completely hammered and just outstanding and so hungover.
Now, the term hungover or hangover.
Same interchangeable words.
There.
We obviously know what it means.
You've been drinking a little too much and your body kind of messes up and you feel like crap and all that.
So the word hangover is not that old a word.
It first appeared in English in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century.
The sweet spot is right around the eighteen nineties.
That's when this all kind of that the word connecting to the after effects of alcohol consumption.
At a large rate. However, it is.
Believed that the word here the word of the week hungover, that it actually is a smaller version of hanging over and same meaning you know you're hanging over, the leaning over because you drank too much and all that.
And to go down the rabbit hole a little bit further.
Some of the terms they used before hangover were a head full of bees. So Danny, if I say you have a head full of bees, it means you drank too much. The horrors they described it as, the drinking misery, is the horrors and the concept my favorite partner when I fell down this rabbit hole of the word hungover is it's actually the concept is ancient. Like I love the fact that as long as there's been human beings, people have just gotten completely sauced that humans have been
drinking fermented beverages since the beginning of time. And there's even hangover like symptoms that appear in the text as old as the Bible. So I mean you're going, You're going all the way back. And they say that the historians that have gone in the ancient Egypt and look through the paintings in the tombs where the pharaohs and all that were laid to rest, they found in the Egyptian, ancient Egyptian tombs the paintings there, paintings depicting people getting
hammered and from from from booze and having issues. So anyway, I think that's, uh, that's kind of cool. But it goes all the way back to Biblical times in the Egyptians walk like an Egyptian, drink like an Egyptian. I guess we are drinking like Egyptians. We get a little hungover.
All right, Well, there it is.
It is the word of the week, hungover or hang over, but we were going with hungover.
We'll get out on that, enjoy the.
Final Four today and probably be watching. I don't know, I get nothing else. I can't go to any of these games. They don't allow me to.
Get Yeah, now, why is it back to back nights of Clippers Mavericks? Is that from the fires?
I believe that is the case. I think that that's why they're doing that. They still did to make up some games because of what happened otherwise. Yeah, they wouldn't schedule.
Yeah, so you got locked out of Clippers Mavericks twice in a row.
Yeah, how will my life go on?
I mean I didn't even really care about seeing the Mavericks obviously. All right, we'll get out on the heavy great day.
We will be back. We get the mail bag tomorrow, talk to you then Austa pasta my folation