The Fifth Hour: Suck It, Teleprompter

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If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of the old Republic, a sol fastion of fairness. He treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the rich pill poppers in the penthouse.

Wow.

The Clearinghouse of Hot takes break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts right now in.

The air everywhere and Happy Friday, the last Friday of the month of January.

The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller.

And Danny g Radio on the twenty sixth day of January. I am told Danny it is National Fun at Workday. So are we gonna have fun while doing the podcast? I think we'll be okay, right, we usually have pretty good time, I think, boo.

Yeah, we always have fun on this pot cast. January, though it feels like March already.

Yeah.

Well, you know, time time fly. We're gonna have a Super Bowl in a couple of weeks. We got then we get in the silly season in the NFL, which is nothing but made up rumors, which we have pretty much every day. Anyway, we don't really need the seat that. We pretty much have that NonStop as it is.

Speaking of the Super Bowl, there's gonna be a lot of excitement in Vegas with the NFL. They put out a memo to every team and to everyone involved with the Super Bowl about gambling, and it was just one word in all capitals.

It said, don't don't Yes, don't you go.

You're going to a city that is designed on gambling, but do not gamble. Yeah, well that was done as a preemptive strike, Danny, to make sure to make sure that no one who does gamble costs the NFL money in a lawsuit. Right if somebody who were to try to fix the Super Bowl or something like that, which would take more than one person, but if the NFL got sued, they would be like, all right, well we tried.

We told them not to do it. I didn't listen to us, but they told us.

Yeah, this is the first Super Bowl ever where they encourage you to have a bunch of hookers in cocaine, but just stay away from dambling.

A bunch of hookers and cocaine.

It's funny because I was talking to a buddy of mine who does the stuff with the Chiefs, and if they win on Sunday, I was like, well, where are you going to be in Vegas?

Like, what's the itinerary?

And they have it all planned out of course, should they win, every team, the four teams that are left, all have the plan should they win, going to Vegas, And from what I understand, they're going to be staying pretty far away from the strip. There would be out like Henderson or some of the teams are going to stay there. There's also Red Rock, which is, you know, far away. That's where a ritzy part of Vegas is, the outskirts of Vegas. So the teams will not be staying.

I do not believe. I do not believe.

By the way, it's National Peanut Brittle Day today, so I gotta make more peanut Maybe i'll make that later today.

Peanut brittle. Yeah, that's so good. I love it. Dis bad for you, I think too, but it's good. He's amazing. So I wanted to start this being the Friday Show.

It is championship weekend in the NFL, which is somewhat exciting. Oh yes, as we wind down and then wind up for the Super Bowl, and time is on our side. I'm gona call this time on our side because it was episode twenty. I've not done twenty TV shows on the NBC regional cable networks. At Benny Versus the Penny, the thirty Minute Show, which airs on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning and is syndicated. We taped our latest episode yesterday. Now I will tell you the degree of difficulty did

But we don't do the Thursday game. Usually.

I picked the Thursday game. That doesn't make the show because it's on Thursday. If they're Saturday games, that doesn't make it. So we focus in on Sunday and Monday. Those are the sweet spots because the show airs in New York on Sunday morning and we want to have as a fresh as show as possible. So now we're down to two games. You got one side of the bracket.

I think I said that right, maybe not.

It's early, but this is a double edged sword. Danny doing the TV show with only a couple of games. It is a blessing. It is a curse at the same time, because there's no need to rush. Time is on our side, right, time is on our side.

Good thing for you guys. Both games are on Sunday this weekend.

Yeah, we don't have to worry about that the rest of the there's only a couple of weeks ago in the show to worry about that. The other thing, which is great with a radio background, dealing with the people at NBC, and you'll appreciate this, Dan, he's a fellow radio guy. They're like, well, you know, I can you fill the time? They're like they want to know, like you know what's going to go into it.

You know.

It's like, I guess TV people are not as your standard TV people are not used to having to fill time randomly.

Spell of prompter readers. Yeah, well Looney is a prompter guy. Yeah.

I have made it twenty weeks without using the prompter. Wow, I'm proud of that too. No prompter, no proplet Now Looney prompter guy. He's we call him. We call them presidential or we call them Obama or Biden or whatever.

They all the guys that read.

The prompter the president. So we did change it up a little bit. The episode will start airing later today. I'd love for you to watch it. That would be pretty cool if you were to you listening, were to check it out. And the first showing, let me check here the first showing today. I believe our first showing is actually in the BET's a tie because of the time difference. It's the Bay Area. Actually, I think Philadelphia wins.

Alone, and we're on in Philly.

We're on late night in Boston tonight on our flagship NBC Sports Boston. Benny Versus the Penneby on there at eleven pm and eleven thirty pm tonight, and so it's me on Chicago this evening, a couple of showings in Philadelphia, and we'll be on in Southern California two showings on Saturday Tomorrow, six am, right and early record that one, or if you're awake at three pm and you happen to be home on Spectrum Sportsnet so Cal in the

The word of the week.

And I think this is an appropriate word. We've got a full moon going on right now, and we do this podcast on Friday. You get up pretty early. I'm up all night.

I don't go to.

Bed, do the overnight show, hangout for a few hours, come back at some point we do the podcast. We don't say specifically when we do the podcast, but we do the podcast early.

We do the podcast early. So the word of the week is groggy. Like that word. Yeah, it's good work. It's good word. So everyone feels groggy.

At one point or another, right at lethargic feeling my life. When I was in school, I always felt groggy. I'm not a morning person. I did one tour of duty on morning drive radio, which was the worst year and a half of my life.

I hated it.

I could not adjust my schedule. It was a freaking nightmare, and so that was terrible. I hated it getting him really early, and I was always kind of out of it and all that. But the term, the origin story this is an interesting one.

That's why we picked it as the word of the week. The word groggy. It was Steve Grogan's nickname. That's right. Wow. Yeah.

It originated in the eighteenth century when a former Fox Sports Radio Morning guy Mike North.

Oh, there's no question teamed up with Andy Furman for the first time.

No.

Eighteenth century, there was this British dude named Admiral Vernon, who Admiral Vernon. Don't mess with Admiral Vernon. And the legend goes, and they believe this to be true. The legend goes that sailors gave this guy, General Admiral Vernon, the nickname.

The Old Grog.

And why is that, Well, he had a clue. Ok, all right, so they said because he had Old Grog, called it at the cloak, and that was made from material called grogrum that is a weather proof proof mixture of silk and wool.

So this is.

Eighteenth century, so weather proof, they called it grogrum. And then in seventeen forty, Admiral Vernon, nicknamed Old Grog, he decreed that his sailors should be served their rum diluted watered down with water, rather than than you know, the normal normal way they'd been doing it, and this was called Grog.

Think he was the very first bar owner.

Yeah, exactly, greedy guy, this Admiral Vernon. So this this beverage, he was named Old grog, and the combo that he came up with where he mixed together the rum with the water, diluted it with water that was called grog. And the feeling experienced by the sailors in the eighteenth century when they drank too much, they were groggy from

We use the word groggy all the time, most people do. It's just the way it is. So that was interesting, right, you believe that.

I don't know how has that because there was no internet in the eighteenth century.

So cool.

I was joking about it being somebody's nickname. It really was somebody's nickname.

Yeah, I don't know.

How does that spread them? Like I understand there's some sales. How many sailors were there that heard that and drank the grog and got drunk and called themselves groggy?

I don't know.

I mean that's what that's the origin the story. But there you go, the word of the week, believe it or not. I wasn't around in the eighteenth century, and neither were you.

Neither were you. But the word of the week is groggy.

Wow, oh my, oh my god.

And we moved to the kitchen or the restaurant more like the restaurant with the foody fun, foody fun.

I saw a lot of restaurant stories this past week.

Yeah, there's some good ones. Now this one is not fun. It is rather shocking. I had to do a double thing. I thought maybe this was a satire story.

Uh huh. I think I know where you're going. I don't know. Maybe not, maybe, I don't know. It involves in and Out? Is that Okayah? The first time in seventy five years, right.

Yeah, they're closing their first ever restaurant.

In and Out.

Burger announced this week that they're closing their first location. And I don't know that we talked about it. Did we talk about it on the podcast What's been going On There?

No, we didn't.

I want to point out that this location is near the Oakland Airport. I've eaten at this In and Out several times going up to Raider games.

Yeah.

So I got a couple of people who listen to this the radio show in the Bay area, and there's some video clips.

Have you seen the video.

Yeah, it's super sad. What is happening to that city right now?

Yeah, you'd think somebody in a position of power might like say, I know, you know, maybe we should do something about this.

You lose the Warriors, the Raiders, then you lose the A's, and then you lose your In and Out?

Are you fucking that's a little too far In and Out Burger? I mean, the one thing he lose a football team and a basketball team and a baseball team. But in and Out Burger. Come on, there are people that don't like sports that live in the Bay Area. Fine, but everyone loves a burger, even vegans loved.

You go to In and Out.

You can get a grilled cheese if you want. But this is insane. So if you don't know the story, as Danny says, right near the Oakland International Airport, and there are multiple videos that have been sent to me, I have seen these over the last couple of weeks.

They stop in and out. I'm in Oakland. I'm gonna get a burger, you.

Know, because these people are most probably aren't from California, where they're from a place that don't have in and out burger, so they're like, I'm gonna get an out burger.

It's a West Coast thing.

So they'll park their rental car in there in the parking lot and they'll go in and these guys are coming in, smashing the window, grabbing suitcases out of the trunk.

They're like breaking.

Yeah.

Well, the one video I saw, I saw two with the one that was crazy. These guys would drive in, guys in hoodies. One would break the driver's window and then he'd reached down, raise up the thing to open the trunk and then grab the suitcases back in the car and gone in like twenty seconds. It's absolutely nuts.

No.

Yeah.

Yeah, and it's so said. The location was already boarded up. Yeah, we waved the white flag.

It's done. Yeah.

According to the San francisc Were Chronicle, there were thirteen hundred and thirty five incidents near the location since twenty nineteen. What There have been eleven hundred and seventy four car are breakings, nine robberies, two commercial burglaries, four domestic violence incidents. One employee described her own car being vandalized. They broke

Yoah, oh no, where's Wyatt Arp? Like? So honestly, like some.

Renegades need to go in there for the good guys and clean that city up.

Man.

I mean for everybody like me who loves the Bay Area, this is a sad day.

Oh it's embarrassing.

And you'd think the people again that were in charge that could actually do something about it, that are elected or people that are working for the city could do something about it.

But everyone's like, you know, that's fine. What are they doing? Seriously, what are they doing?

If somebody in power, got up at a podium and broadcasted on all the TV stations and radio stations up there and said, if you do this, you will be shot on site. Do you think that those criminals might crawl back in their holes?

Well, then they know they're not going to do it now, because yeah, it would be better because they know now nothing's going to happen. Even they get caught, what happens, you know, you get some judges like, ohright, well, you know, don't do it again, you know.

Yeah.

And recently there was a famous TikTok chef who scheduled this big trip to San Francisco to review some Bay Area restaurants. He was so excited and he gets there. What did he encounter? Tons of crime and problems. He had to cut his trip short and that made the rounds and a lot of Bay Area natives were sad seeing that story go viral.

Well, we've told this story.

I remember doing it on the podcast that there was a TV crew in San Francisco that was out doing a story on crime in San Francisco and they got robbed at gunpoint while doing a story about crime in San Francisco. They were you know, there's stuff taking so at gunpoint. So it's a wonderful place. It is actually a beautiful place. If they cleaned it up, it's a wonderful place to visit.

But Mike, yeah, I mean this is going on in Berkeley too. And if you've ever been to the Berkeley Hills or the Oakland.

Hills out of money, you don't know.

There is millions and millions of dollars in those hills. But you go down to the flats and things are a nightmare with crime.

Yeah, the thing that blows me away.

And we see this, you know in La like in bel Air, Right, you have to come down from the hills to go shopping, right, there's no in those ritzy neighborhoods. There's no markets and things like that. Like, you have to go out and you have to go with the great unwashed. So if the great unwashed or robbing you at the store, what is that?

I don't get it.

I mean they've let it go for so many years that this is where we're at.

Yeah, and this is not we're not doing politics here, but whatever they're doing is not working.

How about that, Danny Well phrase it that way?

Yes, we can we No, I mean I think I think that's more than fair. And as somebody who lived there for years, I can tell you that it's always been corrupt as far as politicians on both sides of the aisle and everything in between. Nothing has ever worked with anybody in their lip service. It's always been about the politicians and in that area lacing their own pockets and not giving a shit about the people who live there.

But who's paying them to allow crime to happen? That's the part I've never understood. Like, if I understand they've got all these wonky moon bad ideas, that's fine, that's not my cup of tea. Whatever floats your boat. But like the crime thing, doesn't that hurt everyone? There are less businesses leave. That's less tax money for the politicians to spend frivolously, you know, pork bill spending and all that.

I don't get it. Now, there is a positive in and out story.

While they closed the one in Oakland near the airport, and I'll bet you they closed that because those videos went viral. Danny, you think that played a factor, because this has been going on since twenty.

Nineteen, played a big factor.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, those videos all of us anyway, good news in Idaho.

In and Out they opened, I think.

Their first location this recently this week or so, and I was just reading a story here that there were people lined up at four point thirty in the morning wearing long John's, sleeping in the parking lot because they wanted to be the first at In and Out Burger. What would it take, Danny, for you to line up at four point thirty in the morning wearing long John's on a freezing Idaho morning to get in line for In and.

Out a tasty double double. That's all it would take. Oh, there you go.

My right hand was getting a workout. I was going to get in line. There was where I used to live. There was a raising canes that opened up, and I love raising canes, and they this thing like, if you get in line, the first hundred people are going to get like some gift card where they get free food for.

A few months or something like that. I forget what it was.

It was something like that, and I was like, man, I was doing the cost benefit of analysis, and I was like, well, I'll probably get fat again if I get that. And then I drove by because I was seriously thinking about doing this, because why not and there were when by the time I got there, there are already people lined up. I think there were already enough people there to get all the gift cards. So I was like, I've screw that.

Yeah, I told you about this when the Chick fil A finally opened in Burbank a few years back. Remember I got there early in the morning. People had tents set up in the new parking lot. They left overnight to get the year of free food.

Well, I hope it was worth it for him. I hope they enjoyed their free food. Is there limits on every day?

I know there's been I've met people that have that McDonald's Gold card where the Golden Arches card where you get free McDonald's.

Chick fil A should have done given everybody a card there, and once they got the card, all excited, they go to the run to their car and drive away like, man, that was so worth it. I got my card. And then you look on the small print on the back of the card. Only valid on Sundays.

Yeah, Well, a lot of these NFL teams are like Chick fil A. They don't work on Sunday, Danny. That's a lot of these these these coaching hires. I don't do sporty, but my god, some interesting hires. There are some other food news. We all need one story, I think McDonald's or two stories. Double double Big Mac is this?

Have you seen this?

The the double Big Mac four burger patties. It's got seven and eighty calories, eight grams of fat. The regular Big Mac has five hundred and ninety calories.

So people have.

Been chowing down on the double Big Mac, which, if you know, the Big Mac, even though it's got the two paddies, it's got the bread in the middle, so there's not that much meat in it. Cut that meat the two patties is more of a reasonable I think.

I've also seen people on some.

Videos online at Costco and they get the two chocolate chip cookies and the vanilla cone.

Yeah, the vanilla ice cream.

They make their own ice cream sandwich. But the problem with that is that ice cream. You got to eat that really quick. It melts so fast.

Yeah, it was crumbling in this guy's hand and then he was feeding it to his friend out of his own hand.

It was a pretty gross video that went viral.

Yeah, it's not it's not good. That has more calories than a big Mac, even a double big Mac. If you combine two chocolate chip cookies from Costco and the vanilla thing whatever, the ice cream, that's nothing. I don't really count calories though. I just don't eat. That's what I do. And then when I eat, I eat what I want, but I don't. I can't do You count calories now, I can't do it. If you can, you're a better person than me. I can't do it.

I've tried with that my fitness app. Yeah, lasted for maybe a week or two, and then after that I have a pretty good sense of if I'm over eating, and so I know like what to do without having to type everything into the app.

Yeah, Like I fast enough where I feel like I can eat what I want and I haven't gained any weight back.

In a while.

There was a period where I was making cookies every week and desserts it and it became it became a problem. But I cut back. I cut that back. I was also drinking a lot of juice. Like, I don't drink soda. I haven't had soda in years because I got fat based on soda, and I lost a lot of weight just knocking soda out of my diet. I just saved myself a lot of empty calories.

Yeah, you pull the post alone and.

I drink mostly water, But I like on the weekends, I'll go crazy. I've got this crystal light stuff which I don't even know it's good for you or not, but it's just a little flavor, little kick to the water. My favorite is the strawberry. They should sponsor this podcast. I freaking love that strawberry. It is amazing, absolutely wonderful. Here's an interesting story in the food world. It says Americans eating habits have changed in terms of their consumption

Take that for data. Put that in your pipe.

So people are not chowing down like they used to get in there early for the breakfast and all that, they're going there more for dinner. I'm more of a lunch guy. Back in my fast food days, I'd eat lunch and dinner, but mostly lunch. That was my sweet Spot.

I saw also Cosmic.

We talked about Cosmic, this new competitor for Starbucks, which is McDonald's trying to take down Starbucks. And they've opened a few of these things and they're I love thing's only been open for a few weeks, and they're claiming that this cosmic is already tremendously popular with.

People in their twenties and their thirties. It's only a couple. I don't only know that. Come on, and where have they tested it? We haven't seen any near us.

I think they're in Chicago, which is where McDonald's headquarters are. I believe I've not seen a cosmic I have not.

Chicago doesn't speak for the rest of us.

That's right, Although remember that line, if it plays in Peoria can play anywhere which is not Chicago.

That's a good points close to Chicago.

Well, yes, closer than us, Yes, that's for sure. All right, we'll get out on that. I got the TV show tonight. We have another podcast tomorrow, another one on Sunday, The mail Bag on Sunday, Danny, what do you have going on.

Today in your world?

On this wonderful Friday, Covino and Rich This afternoon.

Yeah, I'm gonna take a nice little snooze, a nice little nap because I'm still groggy from this long radio week, and then after that produce this fine podcast and then turn my wheels quickly to get to Sherman Oaks, California, the Fun Friday edition of Covino and Rich five to seven pm in Upstate New York.

Beautiful upstate New York, which is where you can get bodies get dumped.

Yeah.

Yeah, And then if you are further up, you can go to Cooperstown and see Adrian Beltray in the.

Hall of Fame.

All right, have a great day. Thank you for listening. Remember TV show tonight. Check your local Feeble TV listenings and we'll talk to you next time.

Austa Pasta got a murder. I gotta go.

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