The Pussy Willows

and Dainty g back at it again. No days off, no days off, and here we are, very exciting, very exciting. How's life treating Danny? You were on the show this week? That was it's good to have you in for a night. Yeah, it was really fun being in on the live show to company the podcast this week. Yeah. People were very excited that that must have made you feel good. And people were like, oh man, Danny Jay's back. You know, tell you what. Coop deserves a lot of credit, even

though people love giving him a lot of crap. Because you have so many plates spinning at once on your overnight show. You gotta keep it going, Daddy. You know, it's it's it's always surprised motherfucker. You gotta keep it like that, going one thing after another and all that. But a lot of moving parts on your show. But that's a compliment to your programming. Well, thank you. And as you know, Danny, it can get very slow in the overnight hours, so we try to keep the ship

moving and the time does fly. I've noticed the time does go by pretty quick. And my only complaint is when it came to password, one of the two contestants was a slug and we could tell, and you could tell that that of putting your name first like always do, but my name first, so that he would choose me, and sure enough he did, and I got the worst

partner in the history of password. Well, part of the problem was we we actually I saved some more time for password because you know, usually I don't Usually I'm like, nobody knows how to you know, nobody knows any words. Uh, this is a hot mess. You know, it's just it's just a disaster. You know, it's like what every week it's like. But this week I was like, all right, we'll leave a little more time. And then we had Chris and Houston if I remember correctly, and then Gordy

in Waterloo called back using the name Doug from wherever Toronto. Yeah, and so that threw us off. We had to hang up on him. Then we had to wait for somebody else to come on. Then the guy that came on was clueless. I don't know what was going on with that guy, but but you're right, Danny, I one thing I've picked up. I know, there's a few things I picked up with ears, but human nature, I could tell that guy just was scan in the radio, had no idea who I was, had no idea who you were

the show. He was like, where was he in Boston or something like that, I don't know, somewhere somewhere in the Northeast. And he he was just like scanning the dial and he stumbled on the show and he was bored. So I knew he didn't have no he had no idea of who we were. He never heard password before. He just called up because he had some agenda that he you know, he wanted to spew a bunch of nonsense.

So I knew, based on my years of doing this, whatever name you say first, most of the time they'll pick and if they don't really know the show worked out advantage me. Disadvantage. I'm sorry about that. I had a good move by you for me. Yeah, but but you got to play password. You know, you didn't have anybody, you had a cadaver with you, but you got to play password. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, all right.

And this edition of the Fifth Hour on Saturday, the Life of Math or the Life of Danny g and some of the stories that you know, for what every reason, I don't talk about this on the I don't toot my own horn on the show. We you know, we're hard, oh sports showing and then we just talked to a bunch of drunk people around that. But but no, I I have some random things that have taken place, and so I bring those up here on the Saturday podcast

and some some seem to enjoy that. And you know, we have time for whatever else pops up, we will we will see here depending on the time. So we've got uh, the playground, Arby's, the Arby's so where's the meat? Owes two fs and the goose Chase and possibly again time permitting, we may have you know, pop quiz, which is what we've done from time to time. So we'll see how much time we have left, but I want to start now. This was actually a a sad week

for those of us that our fans of radio. Uh. And I was gonna do a whole rant on the Overnight show. I chose to save it for the podcast. So this is not really a life of Mallard story. Kind of is is a little bit of it that I don't know that I've shared before. But as a connoisseur of radio, one of the quirky figures in our

business turned off the mic for the final time. And we go to Chicago, the Windy City and one of the great towns, Chicago, and a lot of family in Chicago from Chicago moved out to California before I was around, and I still have family in the Chicago and area. Uh. That's where the news came from. Danny. So this this radio talker, legendary radio taco named Les Grobstein, and we found out he had passed at the age of of sixty nine. He was still working on the air in

chicag Ago. This guy a Chicago original. You know, we have Doc Mike that calls the show, and I often say that if you cut open Doc Mike, you'll get like a deep dish, Chicago pizza or one of those Italian sandwiches that they have in Chicago. He's just reeks of being Chicago. But so did Less Robsney. And he was a radio guy covered sports. You know, it's weird. He started at age nineteen. I started in radio and

age night you were actually younger day here. How old were you when you started, uh, the high school radio station? I was fourteen? Fourteen? Wow, So I was nineteen when I started in in radio right out of high school, you know, like the year after that I got into it. But this guy started with nineteen. He worked over fifty years covering Chicago area sports, professional, college, mostly professional the

last you know, forty five years or whatever. And you know the fact he started as a kid and all that stuff. An amazing run and Less Robstey and held down the overnight shift at the Score in Cargo, which is one of those massive signal on terrestrial radio station type deals. I mean, we were on the Score in the early days of Fox Sports Radio, and it was amazing.

The signal went from like Tennessee obviously covered the Upper Midwest, but it went to Tennessee and then I forget, but it was like way out west, like pretty much blanketed most of the country on six seventy on the AM dial, The Score. I think they have an FM now too, if I'm not not mistaken. But it was a massive thing, massive station for terrestrial radio that boomed all over the place.

And uh, you know the funny story about that. We used to be on The Score on Fox doing the night programming was on there, Uh, and we got in trouble. Doc Mike actually got us in trouble. Um. But the big thing was, I don't know if you remember this or not, Danny, the Cubby Chubby song, which we'd play from time to time. Uh, it was it was it was a Chubby Cubby or the Cubby Chubby, which one. I think it was the Chubby Cubby. I think that was it. I think it was like this. I just

played it. I've played it for you before when you've reminisced over it on the air. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was the song that got us in trouble for whatever reason. And there were a few other um mitigating factors that played in that We're out of our control. But this guy, he made like a barbershop quartet cub song. This is back. It had to be like oh five or something. Rememb remember the Cup of the Uh the Bartman. Remember Steve Bartman that the kid that messed up the

Cubs were gonna go to the world. I mean it was six somewhere in that period of time. I forget what they all run together, but it was a Steve Bartman year and we were on there and the Chubby Cubby or the Cubby Chubby whatever it was, we played that song got in some trouble. But anyway, that's not a Cubby Chubby. I just looked it up. Cubby Chubby. There you go that it so uh. Think of this

more like a euloge. You've been like a fun eulogy, a tip of the mic, if you will, A blinking of the on air light to Less Grobstein and one of the other things. And I wanted to bring this up his claim to fame. Danny, do you know what Less Grobstein did that we have played on our show every year since I've been at Fox Sports Radio, we played at least once a year. Uh, and many other radio shows do. Let's Less did something that will obviously

it's outlived him and it will outlive many other people. Uh, do you know what he did? Danny? What what? Less Grobstein has claimed to famous No Less grob glad thanks for playing along, Less grow I know you probably. Les Grobstein was at Wrigley Field in the early nineteen eighties. It was April twenty nine. Nine. Happens to coincide that my birthday. It's not I wasn't born in three, but my birthday is on April twenty nine, and I was gonna kick out of this. So the Cubs were playing

the Dodgers, which makes it even better. A right Cubs and died. You got a sword on one side. Now, the Cubs were being managed by Lee Eliot, and they were not playing good baseball. They were not playing good baseball. The crowd was very upset. The Cubs got off to a five and fourteen start, and the fans at Wrigley were just throwing trash on the Cub players because if I remember correctly, the locker room in those days was

out like in center field or something like that. It was like they had to walk out to the to the clubhouse if I remember anyway, for somebody hadn't walk out in the outfield and they were just raining down like just crap at the ballpark, just like the Cowboys game. Yeah, exactly, it was similar. But you know, now everyone freaks out. There was no social media in nine three. It was you could do whatever you wanted pretty much. It was a different world than it is obviously these days, where

everyone's pearl clutching everything. So then I get to the point, please, So Les Grobstein was a radio stringer, a job that I had for many years. Would you just a radio reporter and that job which doesn't really exist much anymore, I think. I mean, I would go to games. I would phone in at the top of the hour. I would give like a twenty second update. You know, it's been Mo'm a Dodger stadium. Blau know it's fourth inning, Dodgers lead the Cardinals, you know, five to three, and

that's it. And uh, and then I'd have to get some interviews, and I have to use my tape, my my Marants tape recorder to go in the locker room and do interviews and and then I would feed it on the phone back to whoever I was worried for. And so that's the job that West had. But three, he's at the Cup game and Lee Elia chose the nuclear option. Uh, Danny, he chose the nuclear option. Uh. He was not happy. It was bad time for the Cubs,

bad time for Lee Ilia. And thank god that less Robstein happened to be there and had his tape recorder and recorded it for posterity's sake. So to honor less Robstein, I am now going to play in its entirety no bleeps because we're on podcast, right, Danny, we can play bad words. So let's just enjoy and celebrate the greatest piece of audio art in my life to come out of a locker room. This is Cubs manager Lee Elia. We go back in the way back machine, all the way back to April of n and here is the

Cub manager addressing the Cub fan. Here we go, buckle up. I'll tell you one fucking thing. I hope we get sucking hotter than ship, just to suck it up them three thousand fucking people that show up every fucking day, because if they're the real Chicago fucking fans, they can kiss my fucking ants right down down and print it really really behind you around here, my fucking hands. What am I supposed to go out there and letting my fucking players get destroyed every day and be quiet about it.

For the fucking nickel dyone people to show up. The motherfucker's don't even work. That's why they're out of the fucking game. They're only go out and get a fucking job and find out what it's like to go out there in a fucking living ay. But to say of the fucking world work it. The other fifth didn't come out here the fucking playground for the cot suckers hip some motherfucker's hip them. Cut the cocksuckers what the fucking players got busting their fucking ass, and the sucking people bow,

And that's become my fucking ant. They talk about the great fucking support that the players get around here. I haven't seen it this fucking yet. The name of the game has hit the ball, catch the ball, and get the fucking job done. Right now, we have more launchers than we have wins. So fucking changes that have happened in a couple organization are multi fold, all right, They don't show because we're five and fourteen. Unfortunately, that's the

criteria of them. Some fifteen motherfucking percent to come out to date baseball. The other eight earning a living take more than a five and thirteen or five and fourteen to destroying the makeup of this club. I guarante see you that there's some fucking pros out there that want to fucking play this game, but you're stuck in a fucking mother fucking Dodgers and the Fillies and the Cardinals

and all that cheap ship. All these mother fucking editorials about say and fucking uh, the Telliitis and all I said that they'd sickening. It's unbelievable. It really, it's a disheartening fucking situation we're in right now. Five and fourteen doesn't negate all that work. Hundred forty three fucking games left. Who I'm trying to say it, don't rip them fucking guys out there, Rip me. Do you want to rip somebody? Rip my fucking head. But don't rip them fucking guys

because they're given everything they can give. But once we hit that fucking groove, it'll flow, and it will flow the talents there. I don't want to make any clarantry. I'm frustrated. I'll guarantee I'm frustrated. It would be different if I walked in this room every day at eight starting and saw a bunch of guys. It didn't give a shop ship all right. That was the the full lead, Hell you're ran. He actually kind of calmed down towards the end the first the first minute of that. Oh

my god, Yeah, unbelievable. That that is Michelangelo. That is the Mona Lisa. That is uh, that is insane. That the rant of the world's work in the other come out here. It's a playground for the blank blank. Oh my god, he said, it's a playground for the cocksuckers. Oh man. Now I remember playing that several times on the Ben Mallard Show throughout the years. Obviously tons of leaps.

I've never heard it unedited before. That was amazing. Uh, it's awesome, And almost forty years later, it still is the gold standard for a RAM. People talk about Dennis Green or Losorda had a bunch back in the day and just just amazing, just absolute, really great. And Lee Elia is still alive. He's in his mid eighties now and he's still around. And the other thing about that

he did not get fired right away as the cup manager. Today, in modern times, if you did what Lee you did, you'd be fired immediately because of social media and all that, and that people would be upset. But Lee, really I believe he lasted another I have to go back and check, but I think it was like a couple of months or maybe even longer before kept saying five and fourteen, So they waited until he was what five and thirty one before they fired. Yeah, it's something like that, and

and and so the other part of the story. Now for the rest of the stories, The great late Paul Harvey would say radio legend from a different era. So I actually had the chance to meet Less Grobstey and the guy that just passed away that did record that audio. And it was years ago. Was that the NBA Finals in Indianapolis? That gives you the year the Pacers were

in the NBA Finals. I happened to be there and and I actually have a mutual friend with Less, the late Joe McDonald who was a Titan in Los Angeles Radio and Afternoon Drift kind of like the Mike Francessa of l A Radio and you know, control the airways for a long time and new Less anyway, I ran into Less at I think it was called the Concico Field house at that time. It's got some new name. Now.

The pacers were playing, and we chatted for a few minutes, and the rafters of the of the gymnasium there and I I believe it's like wife either worked in an airline or had some some connection to an airline, because he traveled a lot. And he was very polite. Les Grobsteen a little shy, true radio introvert, and there's a lot of radio guys that I'm an introvert. Less was it's two introverts. I was being less And I told

him I appreciated the lee O your thing. He's probably heard it eight you know, at that time he'd probably heard eight thousand times. And we chatted a little bit. And I've heard the same thing about lee Elia that I heard about Losorda, that the that rant which we played, which was just absolutely amazing, that there were actually some other rants that were as good or better that we're

not recorded. And I've heard the same thing about Losorda, that the Kingman's performance in kirk Bavakwa and and the rants that have been recorded for the sorta like there were other rants where it was just the sports writers and nobody was recording it, and those were We're awesome also so uh and rest in peace. Uh the as you cross over those pearly gates that are Les Robstein And what a what a amazing running radio I was working. It was still overnights at age sixty nine, still working crazy,

that's awesome. I mean when you're seventy, I hope your show is still running. My god, if I was, if I was at seventy, how many years oh, my god, like fifty years on on Fox Sports Radio at that point. Well, knowing you in the way you like to save money, you'll probably still be on at seventies. Well, the good news is, Danny, that the company is paying me enough. We're I'll probably need to be on until I'm seventies. So I just want to thank them for that. The

motivation to continue to work, Danny, it's it's outstaying. So now I understand we talked last week somehow Arby's came up. Yeah, in the conversation, and you had said that you were going to try to find and Arby's near you, the home of Where's the Beef for? What? What was their slogan? What is the we we have the meats or the meats. Yeah, not the beef. The meats. Back in the day when

we were kids, Wendy's used to say, where's the beef? Yes, yes, they had that old woman and she had the disappointed look on her face looking at the bun and all that stuff. So when you think of Arby's, you think of the like the classic roast beef, the curly fries, that, but they have a lot of other stuff on their menu these days. So you you found how far away was the Army's from your house? About a ten minute drive.

When we talked last week on the podcast, I said that I was convinced that they were like a storefront for a big drug dealer in because I didn't know anybody that ate there, and I hadn't eaten there since the late nineties, a couple of decades at least. So I got my tender Roni, who was not a fast food fan either, is my wife. She didn't like fast food. What is it with these women not liking fast food?

I mean, my god, well, yeah, I couldn't eat it every day, dive to time like I my my my go to my guilty pleasure if you will, is I love like raising Kanes I'll go to Raising that's fast food. Oh yeah, that's about it. I like. I like Raising Kanes too. You're the reason why I've eaten there. Um, you know, but like the junk food of fast food restaurants. So you can't really eat that stuff every day? Well maybe coope? Can we all know you today? But all right, so I stay away from it. It's a treat to

go to fast food restaurants. So I told my tenderoni, look, it's show research. We gotta go check this out and take some pictures. We took her daughter doesn't get a lot of it, but knows what's good and what's bad. So I'm like, I'm a rating from you. We founded on Thousand Oaks Boulevard. It looked like this Arby's was straight out of the nineties. The tables that we sat down at had not been cleaned since n That's unfortunate. That is that is that's not what you're looking for.

It wasn't a good start. But luckily in our car we have a pack of the Lysol wipes. Well, is it someone there like hit you hit like a buzzer supposed somebody supposed to come over like clean it up or something that like most fast food restaurants, it's like one person clean stuff up, right, maybe pre COVID, but now during the past couple of years, the ex uses. Oh, because of COVID, we can't clean tables and we can't

have an employee doing any of that. So there was no employee walking around cleaning anything or servicing the customers inside where the tables were. Outside where the tables were, we we cleaned the table ourselves. And this black cook is all over the lysol whites. I mean it literally had not been cleaned in years. So we're like, okay, but you know a lot of people were just there was a lot of foot traffic though, people were taking their food and leaving, so a lot of people were

just walking in, grabbing food and going back home. These are the days of eating your food at home during COVID. Sure do you say euro or gyro? I know a lot of people say it differently. Well, you can say to either way. I think I think the proper ways, Uh what is the proper way euro? Right, That's what I was taught. But then even when I was in New York visiting, people were calling it a gyro. So yeah, I used to say Gyro, but then somebody told me

what guy. Yeah, it ran into somebody that yelled at me and they said, it's not Giro, you stupid American. It's yeah, that's the other one, so Guro. But then it's like, I thought that was money. Lady was sitting out eating one, and I was like, man, that looks good. I didn't come to Arties for one of those, but I think I'll try that. My TENDERNI ordered a market fresh turkey and bacon sandwich which had ranch in it, so you'll love that. That's disgusting. Her daughter ordered one

of the classics. She got a beef and cheddar cheese sandwich. Well, she's a purist. She's a she's a purist of the armies, which she is. They put it on a nice onion roll. We got some crinkle fries, and the daughter also got some mac and cheese. Let's see, it was for the four of us. There was three of us. She ate like two people, um three for the three of us, it was twenty four bucks. But that's not horrible for

these people. That's okay, we get the food problem. She opens up her mac and cheese and there is a human hair right on top of the mac and cheese. You hate to see that. You hate to see that, and you hate to eat that. Also, you're like, come on, man. Yeah, So we weren't off to the best start. But my Tinderoni marched inside and with a soft voice so other customers couldn't hear, told the girl what was wrong with the mac and cheese. They threw it in the trash can,

told her they would start another one. So we opened up the rest of our food. It was better than what I thought. The quality of the ingredients were pretty good. The fries were delicious, my eurro was good. The sandwich was really good. Uh, the melted sheddar on the beef was not a hit with her daughter. And her daughter wasn't really a fan of the mac and cheese either, because they're trying to do like an uppity mac and cheese with the white cheddar. Now, you don't need the

white cheddar. That's too that's a bridge too far, the white cheddar. Keep it keep it simple, stupid, right, the kiss method. Keep it simple, stupid. Her daughter was like, this tastes like the bac and cheese at Panera Bread and she gave a thumbs down on that love the fried Oh uh, let's see, she gave it a six. Tinderoni gave it a five. I would say I would give it a seven because I like the quality of the food, the the ingredients that they used in their food.

The cleanliness of the restaurant gets a minus nine. Back it all the way up, all right, And now did you consider the There's been a lot of buzz on social media in the last couple of weeks. I think, I don't know if this is why we talked about it, but the Diablo chicken sandwich, which is like their big gimmick right now. Supposedly it's the spiciest sandwich available at a main, mainstream fast food restaurant. And then their whole gimmick is they give you like a vanilla shake, like

a little small vanilla shake. Did you consider doing the Diablo? Did you consider going down that road? I did not, but we did discuss it on the ride over to Arby's. In fact, that's how this all came up on the mail bag last week was because we had our listener asked us if we've ever tried the Hot Nashville. Oh, yes, that's right. That and ironically enough, last weekend. I don't usually eat late at night because I have to I'm

on this gazey fasting diet, you know. And but we were driving around and my wife said she wanted to eat. She wanted me to go with her, and I was like, okay, i'll eat, but then I'm not gonna eat on Sunday. So I didn't, you know, that's the deal I made with I'll eat like at midnight, but I'm not eating tomorrow. And so she said, okay, whatever you do, you stupid do it everywhere. And so we went out. We found a Dave's Hot Chicken, which is like a like an one of those uh you know, it's I guess it's

a chain, but it's a small chain. And I ate a spicy chicken sandwich like midnight. And there were a bunch of you know, a bunch of like college kids in there, challenge down and stuff, and it was great. I loved it. It was wonderful. There's always a line outside. Yeah, no, it's good. I mean they were open late. And I actually a lot of chicken last weekend. I think I'm gonna turn into a chick. I'm gonna start clucking good bait taste like Bernie, Uh, what's your your trip to Arby's? Now?

I had from OS to FS. So I made one of my semi regular radio appearances. I there's a few radio shows I call into because I know the people and I'm friends with them, and I don't I don't

get paid for them. But one of the semi radio, semi regular radio appearances I did from a parking lot at a different Chicken Shack restaurant in in southern California last week and I was still battling, as you know, my voice, it's most of the way back, I'd say, it's about I'm not quite all the way where I wanted to be, and hopefully it'll be back back soon.

So but last weekend it was weird. I got off the air on Friday morning and I had this big, like coughing fest, and then I messed up my my vocal cords because I've been coughing so much, and so I was like, oh crap, Like I could not have done radio Friday or Friday night or Saturday night. My voice was all messed up. And but my buddy Sports with Coleman, beloved Baltimore media icon and longtime nemesis of John Harbaugh, the Ravens coach, and so he wanted me

to come out and talk some NFL playoffs. So when Sports with Coleman ask you, you have to accept. So I said, I'll do it and popped on the radio in Baltimore and the interview was scheduled for five forty I have l a time, okay, And I had planned the schedule so i'd have things to do and then that would, you know, kind of wrap it up. But I got done with the stuff I had planned with my wife earlier, and then my schedule got all wong

because I got everything done. And then, you know, as a result, my wife wanted to go eat a little earlier, and I said, I don't want to eat until I get this thing done. You know whatever. It was my my neurosis, and she asked if I could just do the interview earlier. I said, well, no, that's not That's not how it word. When you're scheduled to do an interview, you can't say, hey, uh, let's do it at a different time at the last minute. That's rude. You're not

allowed to do that. So I explained to her, and she like, all right, whatever, so we drove to the chicken shack that we were gonna have uh lunch slash dinner at and uh anyway, I sat in the car. My wife went out and ordered the food and went to the restaurant, and I sat there and barked and bloviated into the phone in my car about the NFL playoffs and all that stuff, and uh, we did the whole thing. But I did get a shot and I'm very proud of this from O's two F's or from

f st Os. I did get a shot in at the Baltimore Orioles on Baltimore Radio. So I felt good at that from OS to FS because yeah, they're raising the fences at the iconic Camden Yards, which has been around a while now, and I ripped I would a joke. I ripped him to me, that's one of the cathedrals of baseball, and you're breaking up concrete because you're you can't find a good starting pitcher or you can't find a guy that can hit the ball to the moon. And it's a joke. Right as I was taking it,

I felt good to rip them on Baltimore Radio. So I was very proud of myself. Danny that's a real story. They were moving their fences back. Yeah, you can look it up. Not a lot of people talking about it because it's kind more of a Baltimore local Baltimore story. But if somebody should have said, no, no, don't do that, I mean, what do you what's going on with you? What a bunch of pussies? Yes right, not pussy willows. They're pussies. Changed there from the orioles to the pussies.

They should imagine what their logo will be. I have no idea unbelievable willows. Yeah, exactly, all right, I think we'll put the baby to bed. We got a big mail bag day fighting about that and the man that saved the mail bag that'll be on the Sunday podcast. We almost had no Sunday podcast. I got excited, Danny, I'll tell the story on the Sunday podcast. But I was like, oh man, we can. We have to do two podcasts. We don't have to worry about the Sunday podcast.

And then the very last minute, all of a sudden, it was like, oh man, it's like, oh, I guess we have to now do the podcast. So anyway, we're getting all that any promote Danny, any comedy gigs, any music gigs, anything at all you want to promote, just to fit our podcast. Make sure you rate it, subscribe to it. Yeah, that would be great help. We used to make a big deal about that back in the old days on the podcast. So yeah, if you write a review it makes a difference. It does. It shouldn't,

but it does. Have a wonderful rest of your Saturday. Enjoy the NFL playoff games today and we will catch you next time. Population