Welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota Nice. Emphasis on Minnesota Nice that we desperately need. We got Steve Brown here. Hello, Steve. Hi, everybody. Steve came straight here from work, where he gets paid, to hear where he doesn't get paid. Kevin Gorg, are you on the, uh, on the line? I'm on the line and ready to roll, Borg. Where are we calling you at? I'm at Why is that a bae?
I took a little drive, just parked kind of near the lake, and, uh, you know, the pups get a little too rambunctious when I'm at home doing the podcast, so I like to go somewhere and soak in the sun, and so yeah, this is lovely. Room with a view, actually. Yeah, Steve and I are in the, uh, the basement studio. We've got our candle burning from a kindness co. Yeah. Uh, got some nice feedback from people that, uh, enjoyed the last, uh, the last podcast with the McNulty's. Where do you get it?
Well, people call me, people text me, people Nobody calls me about this stuff. Well, maybe if your friends Oh, wait. Do your friends know that you have a program? I talk to people all the time. Every once in a while I hear someone that says Does anybody, do any of your people listen to the show? Some people say they do. People I don't expect say they do, but no one that I Like who? Give me a shout out. No one that I live with listens.
Oh, no one in my family, my kids, my, no, they hear enough of this BS at home. They don't need it to, you know, my wife, you know, she will check it. My mom does listen, but it's kind of random. Yeah. My parents listen. Yeah. So fantastic. So we're just doing this to make our parents happier to get credit from our parents. Like I always say, this is an opportunity for us to have our voices heard. We love to hear the sound of our voices. That's true. Some of us are professional voice people.
We've got a singer. Well, you, wait a second. Technically You're getting paid to speak when you're, when you're on, uh, Fox Sports, no, Ballet Sports North. You get paid to speak at Canterbury Park. I do. And then, I mean, you've, I mean, think of the money that you've made in the Johnny Clueless band. Oh my god. I have made, I, I, I make money singing in a microphone, I guess. sometimes. Yeah. You've got tens of dollars. I also do voiceover work.
So I did, since we saw, I saw you last, I did a voiceover project for a friend of mine. Well, tell us about that little studio. Um, I have a friend who's an editor and a, and a, he creates a online spots for Excel energy and many other clients. So I've done a bunch of projects for him. So we hear you on You got to go online and find it, but it's, it's not a, what do we Google? Steve Brown, voiceover XL energy. Yeah, just do that.
It's not, it's not available yet, but it's not, it's a fresh, you know, fresh Kevin, we're going to do a, we're, we're talking all things, Minnesota. Nice. What that means. That's what the, uh, that's what we're gonna put on the, the liner for what the name of this program is. I, uh, I have to apologize. We missed last week. We didn't have a show last week because we were preparing for this week Exactly. It's a big show. I, I was getting prepared for the Olympic, uh, big opener.
Yeah, were you preparing for it? I was preparing for that. Did anybody, did you watch that disaster? I heard about it. I saw a little bit of something. Yeah, I couldn't. I tried to watch it, guys. That just wasn't for me. I'm not going to disrespect anybody. I know some people that really liked it. I did not. It wasn't for me. Wait a second. You know people that liked that? Well, not personally. Are you still friends with them? I mean, there was nothing.
I'll tell you what, I did think that the athletes Floating down the uh, is it the Seine? Yeah. The Seine River? Is that how you say it? It's the river. It's fine, yeah. Down the river in Paris. I don't know what it's called. It was really cool and it was raining and, you know, I love watching people getting poured on. You know, like golf tournaments. I love watching the British Open when it's just pouring on people. I have a question. I do too.
I saw just a little bit of it and it was, it was very unique. My first thought was Did you see the testicle? There was a testicle that was exposed. No! What? What? Yeah. Oh no. At the Last Supper thing, I heard about that. Oh no, but I what? I don't be the guy. Don't be that guy. What I saw, what I was wondering about was why was it during the day? Isn't it typically an evening thing in a stadium? Why were they. They were all over the city area. No, it's always an evening thing.
This is the first time that it's ever been done outside of a stadium. That's what I'm saying. That was different for me. I was like, what's going on here? I think they wanted to, uh, they wanted to highlight the, the beauty of Paris. And you know, all of the, I mean, that, that, that river. And you're going by Notre Dame. It's just over the water, from what I can tell you, though. They're postponing events in the triathlon because the water's contaminated.
I mean, yeah, who wants to swim in E. coli? That's what the problem is. Again, it's, there's good and bad in all this. I think there's a lot of really good, fun events to watch. The gymnastics will be great. The swimming will be great. Some of this stuff, though, and the way it's playing out is not ideal for Paris. Kind of a surprising, uh, uh, Why would they make such a statement? Like they pushed it really hard. I think European, the artistic, whatever, license, whatever, it was weird.
It was weird, but I didn't see all of it. I just heard about it. I watched what would be considered the low light of the event. I was busy serving the community on Friday night. What were you, where were you serving the community? Uh, it's a public service situation related to, no, God, no. I was, uh, I was laying a floor at my son's new house. Oh, that's right. Yeah. I'm Bob the Builder. You are. I'm kind of a carpenter. I'm actually really impressed with some of you. Who else was a carpenter?
Don't impress us. Jesus. Jesus was a carpenter. Oh, don't go down that road there, Jesus. He's a craftsman. He's a craftsman. He did some paddling, I'm sure, in his day. As I see you walk on water, I'll be a believer. He did some batting board, you know, I mean, the guy's got, he had skills. Yeah. That guy. I bet. He sure did. You know what I noticed, though? Um, age is undefeated. I have never been so sore, so stiff, after three days of crouching and Isn't it surprising?
Oh my God. It's just five years ago, stuff you do five years ago. All of a sudden you do it for five minutes. Like, Oh, you're sitting in a car. I mean, my buddy will drive to St. Cloud or drive. So we get out of the car and both go, Oh my God. Yeah. We're sitting for her. It's wild. It is. We're, we're, we're getting old at that, but it's better than the alternative than not getting old. Right. Right. All right. Uh, KG, what have you been up to? How are things at Canterbury park?
I understand that you got a. A guest lined up, not for the Wooden Sticks podcast. What's that all about? Yeah, I'm excited. I had a nice long conversation with our world famous track announcer, Paul Allen, the voice of the Vikings. I'm a fan and he's been doing some great work the last couple years. You know, he's, in the last five years, Paul has kind of reignited um, his passion for religion. And, you know, Paul's an all in kind of guy. He's a lot like John and I worked either.
We're all in or we're all out. We don't kind of run around the peripheral and Paul is all in and he puts his money where his mouth is. So he's out there every Monday night. He does the chapel service on the backside. The backside is where the barns are, where the horses live. And we usually have between 1200 and 1800 horses that live in Shakopee at Canterbury. For the summer. And there are people that live in the dormitories that take care of those horses that basically live there year round.
And so PA is the pastor now that, that, um, does the Monday match. He's in the jockey's room every race night. Leading a prayer service with the jockeys to, you know, basically get everybody on the same page. Be safe out there, get everybody home. You know, you're riding these animals going 35, 40 miles an hour and it can be a very competitive job, right? But it's a very dangerous job. So there's a prayer service available at every racetrack in America, and PA leads the one at Canterbury.
So he puts together a really cool day, um, for the backside kids last week where there was a private donor. Which he'll get into when he joins us for the next couple of weeks. But basically they had a full day where they had a picnic and the kids got these baskets and in the baskets were all kinds of candy and toys and fun things and a hundred dollar gift card. And so they got to go over to Shields and bring the kids for the shopping spree.
And, you know, there's a, the Shields at Eden Prairie, which is the closest one, uh, to the racetrack has a big Ferris wheel in there and some interactive stuff for the kids. So really a fun idea and, you know, people that don't make a ton of money, those families, you know, they're living check to check. And so just an outstanding endeavor by, by PA. And I'm like, we got to get you on the Kindness Chronicles. And he said, he's on board.
So one of these next two Tuesdays, we'll, uh, confirm that with him here this week, which one works the best for him. But I think it'll be great to hear his story. Did you leave anything out? Did you leave anything for him to talk about? Oh, there's so many details. No, they do a bunch of other stuff. Okay, good. He's out there on a weekly basis helping out.
And it's uh, It's an incredible journey, and I don't think a half an hour will be enough for, for PA, but it'll be, uh, it'll be a wonderful show when we get him on. Well, that's fantastic. Well, I appreciate the, uh, the effort that you made to ask one of your dearest friends to spend 30 minutes, and he is world famous. He has become world famous. Oh, yeah. Listen, when you're getting a direct tweet from LeBron James, um, you know, that's a pretty big deal.
Uh, I was blown away, but you know, he's so good at what he does. Honestly, I've worked with Paul for almost 25 years. He's one of the most talented individuals I've ever been around. And he works hard. Like the secret sauce, PA works his ass off. He really does. And I've seen it. And it's funny this time of year, he's exhausted because he does the radio show like us. He's getting close to 60.
So he's at K Fan in the morning at 7, does his show 9 to noon, goes out to the Vikings practice facility in Egan, spends the afternoon there, comes to the racetrack, calls the races, we get done at 10 o'clock. And now he's been going for 15 hours. And when he was 30 something, when he first started doing this, it was cool. Now he's 50 something. And to your guys's point about getting out of the car after driving the same cloud, it takes a toll, right? Like, uh, he's exhausted.
And so, um, yeah, I, I'm in awe of some of the things that guy can do and. Uh, he's just, uh, he's a heck of a dude. Would it be okay to talk about his hair? He has one of the finest heads of hair He does. I've ever seen on a man. He kind of looks like David Farrity now.
Now again, a lot of people might not Understand this golf fans will David Farrity was a golf personality that was on the golf channel for many many years He's he's moved over to live so nobody gets to see him anymore But he had that hair going everywhere the gray and black mixed Beard and PA has that look and he plays it. Well, it really it really works from speaking of golf um Because we didn't have a show last week.
We weren't able to talk about the open the british open your impressions Wow, I I gotta tell you You That golf course was spectacular. I love watching golf at its, you know, original spot. Like you, you look at golf in a place like Scotland where it all began. That's what it's all about. You talked about the weather and the wind. Oh my God, those bunkers. It's just incredible.
Like I love watching the open championship and Xander Schaafle has gone from a guy that You know, forever couldn't get over the hump, couldn't win a major to a guy now that's won two majors. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but he might challenge Scott Scottie Scheffler for player of the year in a year where Scottie Scheffler has won six times, won a major and won the player's championship. It's still up for debate.
And with the Olympics starting this week on the golf side, if Xander pulls off the gold medal again, and he's the defending gold medalist, then he might end up being the player of the year. Unbelievable year for him. Very fun. Steve, what were your impressions of the Open? Tell us about, uh, your favorite golfers. I think it was a little windy. Yeah, Jack Nicklaus, he looked pretty good out there. Yeah. Love that Arnie Palmer. Yeah. Have you ever heard of Arnie Palmer? Not the beverage.
Chi Chi Rodriguez I think did pretty good. Yeah, Chi Chi Rod Rodriguez, yes. I didn't know there was any golf this weekend. Um, I will, uh, there was, well that was last weekend. This weekend, this weekend was the 3M Open in Blaine, Minnesota. Oh, I saw some postings about that. And how fun is it that you get a guy like Johnny Vegas. For starters, his name is Johnny Vegas. It is. His name is Johnny Vegas with an H. And he's from Venezuela. Okay. Well then, yeah, I guess. Is he from Venezuela?
He's from Venezuela. He played his college golf at Texas, hadn't won in seven years, and it was a pretty decent field. Like, you had top 15 players in the world like Tony Finau to hit the gala. So the rub of it was to get into the FedEx playoffs where the real, like, unbelievable money is, you've got to be in the top 70 players. After the very next week. So this is the penultimate weekend of golf on the tour. After the Olympics, there's one more tournament and he was 125th.
So he needed to win to get to the top 70 and he did it. And now he's in the FedEx playoff. Uh, you got to see his family on the 18 screen. I love those moments. Uh, in PGA golf, when the, when the, um, significant other and the kids come charging out there. This is a guy at the, kind of the back end of his career. Hadn't won, like I said, in nearly a decade, and one of the nicest guys on the tour. When you see this guy get interviewed, he does a bunch of stuff with kids and for charities.
Like, this was a really cool win for the three I'm open. Many of you, you know, you guys don't know this, but Johnny Vegas was the first initial name for the band. We changed it to Johnny Clueless. What? Is that right? Yeah. That was our first name. Now that's really cool. Was it spelled J H O N N Y? Cause that's how this Johnny Vegas spells his name. Yes. He's got the H out of place as far as I'm concerned as a member of the Johnny, community. I, I think my, I love the last name as Vegas.
Steve Vegas would be a great name for me. Steve Vegas. Yeah. Maybe that's what we should Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Guidance Chronicles. We're here with Johnny Vegas. I love it. That would be very fun. people seem to really like coming out here. Usually the weather is, uh, is moderate. Um, it was a little hot this weekend. It was too warm, yeah. Too warm for me. But, yeah, I don't like the heat.
But, uh, probably they do a lot of interactive stuff, like they showed during the CBS broadcast over the weekend. And I believe Jim Nance kind of spoke to this, some of the spots where there's little autograph zones for only kids, so kids can line up, and when the guys get done on the range, they come over, they take pictures, and they sign stuff for the kids.
I think the 3M Open's done a really good job of getting the type of field that's still fun to watch and competitive with a couple superstars, but for the most part, they get sponsor exemption. For a lot of guys that play golf locally or have been on, you know, to D1 college, a lot of gophers are there. Uh, you got young guys that are like, we saw a guy that's, uh, I can't remember the left hander, John. I don't know if you watched a lot of covers on, yes, that left hander, he's a local kid.
Yeah, is that Craig Warren's kid? No, it's spelled different. But he's a member of one of the local courses here in the Twin Cities and he, he got a sponsor exemption. The 3M opens up a great job of opening doors for young players with connections to the state. And then they raise a bunch of money throughout the week with that event. For local charities. So, you know, for us to discuss them, the kindness chronicles, it actually makes sense and the tournament was fantastic.
The golf course is outstanding for a, for an event that isn't a marquee event on the tour. The course is all about lots of birdies and lots of doubles and triples, right? Like Johnny Vegas made a triple on day one. He was one under cruising along on the front nine and tripled the seventh. That's the kind of golf course it is, or it's not just a birdie fest where you got to get to 30 under to win. I know the winning score yesterday ended up being what?
16 or 17 under that's pretty moderate in this day and age where, for the weather, there's two poor tour players can go low. I love that term, go low. Um, I have had the uh, the good fortune of playing the TPC course many times because our friends Patrick and Christine are members out there and it's so much fun to watch a course. I'm playing from the whites. These guys are playing from the tips, which is way back. So the tip, Steve, is the farthest, tee box from the green. Right.
Now the green is where the putting takes place. Oh, right. Yeah. No, yeah, I know what you mean. Okay, so. There's different tee positions. Different tee positions. I've been, I was a caddie. Come on. Were you at the Yacht Club? I was at the Yacht Club. Well, fantastic. Look at you. Wow. Well now. Um, but yeah, it's fun watching. Okay, I'm hitting from the whites and here's where I hit my ball too.
They're hitting from 120 yards behind the whites and they're just blowing the ball past where I would be. It's really fun to watch a course that you've played at. How do you do it on 18, John? Do you ever go for the green and 2? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Heard. No, not a chance. Yeah. If I want to lose a hundred balls, it's a hard golf. No, like it's like 200 yards of carry, right? Like you get the perfect, like three wood for guys like us to get there.
You, so you take the long way, you, you lay up and try to knock a wedge on and three, but that's a, yeah. I like the scenic route. Yeah, I'm with you on that. Remember we, John and I were there a couple years ago and we got to sit right on the 18th hole and watch the guys come through. Yeah, we got a nice shady place that was right there for this 3M open? Yeah, and I think the reason that we, that we stood on the 18th is because we didn't have to walk very far. And there was a food court.
Remember there was a Savoy. There was a Savoy pizza right behind us. There it is. There it is. There it is. So Steve, tell us, uh, you got a little something about Minnesota Nights that you want to, uh Well, it's been a topic that I've had on my little list to talk about because in our opening you talk about, uh So, given our listeners a dose of the Minnesota Nice, the world a dose of the Minnesota Nice that it desperately needs.
When maybe people that are listening from somewhere else, they don't know that term, but what that means is the stereotypical You mean like Hudson? If they're listening from Hudson, Wisconsin. No, like the perceived behavior of people from Minnesota that were friendly, kind, helpful, polite. Um, but And I think, you know, for the most part, that's true, but there is another side to it. Yes, there is.
And so that could also have a negative connotation, which would be, uh, people that are, they're like, not kind. And, and they're actually, they're upfront, they're saying all the right things, but behind, they're not, they're not going to provide what they said they were going to do. And it's kind of be, it's passive aggressive, aggressive, I think is the term that you're looking for. And, and.
That is one of the, uh, the things that I often hear people talk about when they refer to Minnesota nice. It's kind of like with a little bit of a wink. Yeah. Like, oh, yeah, Minnesota nice, whatever. I know people that have lived out east and then, and from Minnesota, lived out east for a long time, have come back, and they've been in a restaurant. I think I even told this before, but they're like, oh man, the Minnesota nice everyone seems so friendly.
But if you kind of listen, or if you kind of catch what's going on, they're actually not always being nice. That is not a good thing. It's not good for the brand. So back to Minnesota Nice. Yeah. You talk about sort of the passive aggressive piece of the Minnesota Nice, and I think that because we're so consumed with just generally speaking trying to be kind to others, every once in a while you gotta have a break from that.
And I like to, I like to, for mine is to manifest in sarcasm behind people's backs. Well, is that You love that. I really do. It's one of my favorite things. You're good at it. You're actually sarcastic in front of them, I would say. Sometimes. If you know them, I guess. Yeah. Well, actually Sometimes not. I have a fun story to tell you. Let's get story time. Story time. So Friday night we're at, uh, do a littles in golden Valley. Okay. That's where the, uh, the young lad bought a house.
So we're at do littles. That's where your carpentry work is. Be that's where that's where it'd be in. Yeah. Hey, Seuss, we're, uh, we're, we're putting our, our magic to work. there's these two guys sitting in the booth. Across the walkway from us. And these two clearly wanted to talk to us. And who were you with? was with my son, Jack and his friend, Ryan runner. Uh, these, those guys played baseball together and actually our roommates. They've been roommates.
Okay. Um, the one guy was just, you could see that he just wanted to chat. So of course being the Minnesota nice guy that I am. Oh, you just hate to chat with. I just hate to chat with people. I just said, how are you guys tonight? what's good on the menu? And that was a mistake, because they really wanted to tell us about everything on the menu. they're both from New York, and, the guy asked, are these my sons? And I said, no, I'm, I'm the father of this one, and this is his boyfriend.
Oh, no. Oh, I did. Yes, I did. Oh, no. just to see what kind of a reaction I could get. And the, the one guy I think may have been a member of that community. And that may have been the reason that I said, I just want to see what kind of response that I could get from him. Super wrong with that. Not that there's anything wrong with it. it was very fun. And they, you know, we're, so what do you do? What do you do? And stuff like that. And, uh, I told him that I lived in Mata Midi.
That's for you, Michael Dempsey. the Matomidai line. And he said, Oh, I have a friend that just bought a house in Matomidai. And I said, Well, they must be very wealthy. We don't just let anyone hear Matomidai. I said, Are you sure its Matomidai or is it a separate line?
Suburb of Mata Midi and I said it just like that and the one guy totally got it He knew exactly what I that I was just playing around, but the other guy he was like well What is wrong with this clown and by the end of it so the sarcasm sometimes? It's just necessary. I feel like it's it's a release valve for me, maybe Yeah, Kevin, what's your KG? What is your take on Minnesota? Nice. What's your experience with that? Do you because you travel a lot?
Yeah, you see a lot of people from other places and and and meet people that are coming here from any other places What's the take what's your I get it? I mean i've lived here all my life and I think people here for the most part are very helpful But I think the biggest Misnomer of all. And until you've been there, you probably won't get it. But I always heard, you know, Minnesota nice for sure is a thing. And people here in the Midwest are great to each other and take care of each other.
I do believe that I really do. But New York always had this label where, Oh God, New York, Oh, New York city. I have found in my travels that the people in New York are some of the nicest, most giving and generous people of their time.
Anywhere I've been and you know when you when you travel for what I do with broadcasting for and I've done it for baseball and hockey in New York a bunch there's a crew of The folks that make the broadcast happen that work, the truck, work, the TV, uh, the cameras and all the audio stuff, these folks are salt of the earth. And then when you wander around New York and we all stay near Times Square, people are so damn helpful. Like I don't know. I always felt like Minnesota nice is legit.
Passive aggressive is legit here. I get it. New York always had this label. All those guys are so gruff folks out there. So me, it's the opposite. They could not be. Nicer. And that's kind of where I was. When I think about New York, I always smile because I love those folks. Well, I'm going to go ahead and disagree with you on that one. Hold on. This is another story time story. Speaking of Times Square, I, I'm with my children, all three of them, and my bride. What era are we talking about?
This would have been probably 15 years ago. So Riley was probably three or four years old. New York goes through different changes, but. Well, and we're walking through Times Square, and one of those Bad looking Elmo characters came up to us. Oh no. Looking because they want to take a picture and this Elmo costume. And I'm pretty sure he was in a costume. I don't think it was the actual Elmo. Cause if it was the actual Elmo, he was on heroin or something because he was a bad looking Elmo.
It was, he came up to us and he, you know, asked if we wanted a picture. Huh? And I said, no, thank you. And as I'm walking away, he says, have I told you this story? He goes, no Gordo, which in Spanish means fatty. And I stopped and I turned around, I turned around and I said, did you just call me Gordo El Gordo? And he didn't say anything. I go. You're in an Elmo costume. And you're calling people You're Elmo. You know what? You're right.
Dirty Elmo. You're filthy, heroin Elmo. And I may be a little on the Gordo side. And I had this conversation with him. I said, but I'm not in an Elmo costume. Wow. I win. I turned around. I walked away a hero. You walked away with your dignity. Kind of. I don't think that's a label of typical New Yorkers though. I'm going to disagree still, but yeah, you get lost, you get turned around.
Um, I, I've just had the best experiences in that city and it's one of my very favorite places in the world to go. I would never live there, it's too much, like, I, I would, I would spend money like there's no tomorrow and I'd be broke in a minute, but I do love that area. Yeah, let's not let Dirty Elmo represent all of New York, John. Heroin guy, I mean, come on. We played there a few times. Heroin Elmo. Yeah, I love it. Harry Heroine Elmo. We played there, uh, a few times.
We played at the, the, uh, the, uh, whiskey C CBGs Oh no. CBG sets sets the West Coast. And, uh, and we found we were prepared for harshness and we found people to help us park and helped us find things, uh, where streets were. People were super helpful. Helpful. I, I agree with you, Kevin, except we did lose a whole box of CDs that someone stole, uh, when we were packing. Well, they kind, well it might have been the same guy. Yeah. Could have been Harry Elwell. Elmo might have got in there.
Um, but I found it to be quite a great place. We enjoyed it. Okay, I do have a, this has evolved from Minnesota Nice to New York Nice. Ah. KG, do you remember when we went to, uh, we went to New York together and we wanted to go see Phantom of the Opera and we went to the box office at the theater where Phantom was playing and the woman that was, do you remember what happened? The woman that was working. We went there to go buy Four tickets for the four of us. That's right.
And she said, I got some tickets for you. They were her tickets. What? And she gave them to us at a serious discount and they were like in the third row. They were unbelievable feet. They were outstanding seats. Huh? And we were the hero charm. Did you charm her? We were the heroes that night. Well, did we charm her? Yeah. Well, of course we charmed her. Obviously that's what we do. Ve god Um, well now, hold on. I, that's, that's very cool to hear about.
Um, I will add to that and if, we'll kind of let's go kind of full circle, but Minnesota nice. I think Minnesota people. Want to have that out front. I worked at Target. Everybody's very nice fast fun and friendly fast fun and friendly But you do you do see the other side of it a little bit sometimes And I and I mean because people are a little more sensitive if if everyone else isn't acting as Minnesota nice For instance, there was a guy worked with him Kurt who's an awesome guy.
I worked with there He was very blunt and very to the point as as if he's from the East Coast. It's just his communication styles. Very You can walk up and say, Hey, um, they're looking for the thing to say, who's Who's they and say he was very much in so you it kind of took me back at first like oh this guy hates me He's so rough about communication after a while. I understood him like oh, this is what way easier. We're not You know lilting around what you want each other to do.
Like here's what I need. Just got a point I really appreciate that. That is, that is a, uh, that is a quality. It's a communication style. And I think in Minnesota, we get a little, we do all the small talk. We do all that. And like, uh, it's sometimes it's, it's unneeded, especially in a business setting where you're trying to get stuff done. It's funny. You should bring that up. Um, there was a guy by the name of Bruce Richard.
Um, and Bruce Richards was the, uh, the president of NSP before there was an XL energy and he was a big power. He was a big philanthropist in the, uh, in the East Metro area. I was really good friends with him. Lovely, lovely guy passed away several years ago. And when I would visit with Bruce, we would sit down for lunch. He'd go no small talk. We'll save that for later. What do you want from me? Wow. And, and it was, it was a little disarming at first.
It's like, Oh my God, you know, I got all this small talk BS that I got, I'm prepped for it. And he's like, I just want to know what the point of this meeting is. And he goes, we can talk about our kids and all that stuff later. Get to the point right away. And it is, it's so refreshing. And I have found that, that. You know, now that we're on the philanthropy side of philanthropy, as opposed to the, to the getting, we're on the giving side as well.
Yeah, I mean, we still get, but on the giving side, when I'm meeting with, uh, you know, uh, an organization that's interested in Masonic charities, philanthropy, I'll sit down with them. I was at one up in, uh, Sauk center last week called Eagle's Healing Nest. And they help, uh, veterans that are dealing with, uh, you know, depression, Chemical, uh, chemical use issues, those types of things. And I just sat down, I go, what are you looking for?
Yeah. Uh, you know, how is your, you know, whatever. Good to see, uh, what are you looking for? What's, what's the point of this meeting today? And, and I think that they do appreciate it. Yeah. So maybe there is a touch of, uh, you know, Minnesota nice with a little East coast twist to it. Yeah, there's a, there's a, there's a way through there that could be better.
And obviously the, you know, the Minnesota nice that's damaging is the one we want to try to avoid, which it's, which is not being genuine, not being real. So stick to it, you know, whatever you're saying you're going to do, do it. Absolutely. that's a real, that's the real Minnesota nice. we've been going on here for a while. So what we're going to do is We're going to sign off, and next week we're going to, uh, have part two of this conversation. we don't want to go on too long, right?
Keep it short. Can I, can I bring up one more small topic? Sure. We had a challenge to our, our, our guests. Our listeners. Yeah. Can we talk about that on the next episode? Let's talk about that challenge. We'll set up the new challenge. That'd be great. Great. He's right there. All right. Johnny Vegas, Johnny Vegas. Off we go.