Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Just Leave It… | 2/17/26

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Lone Star Tick…  Lunar New Year…  Mardi Gras is in downward fall…  Seventy four years not a day missed…  Top Movies…  Paramount back in the picture?... Sunkin Ship found in Lake Michigan…  Email: [e-mail]  www.blazetv.com/jeffy   $20 off annual plan right now ( limited time )   Olympic medal count…  Who Died Today: Robert Duvall 95 / Reverend Jessie Jackson 84… Bathroom Etiquette update…  Joke of The Day… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Blaze Radio Network. And now, chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher. Now there's something else that I have to be concerned about. Something called the Lone Star Tick. I did not know this existed. So apparently, 450,000 Americans, this is estimated, have this condition. Most don't know it yet. It's called the Lone Star Tick.

Apparently they're spreading northward. Uh, so, you need to make sure that you have not been bitten by any kind of chicker bites. Uh, the lone star tick larvae apparently reprograms your immune system. Now, I found out this out because of a man who had no heart disease, no poison, just sudden unexplained death. Yeah, I know. Apparently he ate a hamburger for lunch and four hours later, he was dead. the autopsy couldn't explain it. Doxicology was clean, no heart disease, no poison, just sudden unexplained death.

I don't want none of that. I guessing you don't either. I took allergists or allergists a month to solve the mystery. Alpha-gal syndrome. A tick-borne allergy to red meat. I'm not laughing. It's not funny. So be prepared.

I don't know if you can get it. tested for it. Make sure, I guess there's medicine that you can take for it. The CDC, you know, you can check the Alpha-Gal Syndrome statistics. New York State has a tick surveillance data that they put out, and Nature Medicine love them. Talks about the Alpha-Gal death case study. So just be prepared for the Lone Star Tick larvae. If you have that, it's going to reprogram your entire immune system. So if you have any sugar bites, I will say get checked out very, very fast. Welcome. Welcome to chewing the fat, Fat 5 Plus. Yes, it's the year of the horse. Happy Lunar New Year. Everybody in China is busy partying starting today for like 40 days. It's a big travel

40-day party. Apparently, China is expecting 9.5 billion plane, train, and automobile trips during this 40-day period around the celebrations. That is according to China's National Development and Reform Commission. Love them. The Lunar New Year also marks the beginning of the Chinese Zodiac calendar's year of the horse, or more specifically, the year of the fire horse. So, happy New Year. and have fun. Those of you that are have been born and the newborns in the newborns from today on the year of the horse. So not only do we have the Chinese new year happening. I think we have Mardi Gras going on too as well.

I thought Mardi Gras was back in January, but I guess maybe that's kind of all back in January and we do have some celebrations going on. I know they have, you know, Gasparilla. at the end of January in Tampa, but New Orleans is considered like the epicenter of the festivities.

I mean, they have visitors, millions of visitors coming in, and it's a huge economic impact. Apparently, and I don't know that I knew this, Mobile, Alabama, claims the first American Mardi Gras in 1703. Uh-huh. No, I'm sorry, Mobile, you can say it all you want,

as loud as you want. New Orleans is still the epicenter, okay? I don't think Mobile Alabama is the epicenter for that. But hey, that's just me. You have the social clubs, the crews, and Rex and Zulu. They all have their big floats, and they throw out beads and de bloons. And everything is all good to go. Apparently, they, you know, well, obviously you have millions of pounds of trash.

And then you have the pounds, 100,000 pounds, at least, of beads, prompting, I guess, the development of these new biodegradable things. throws. Yeah, I bet you those are great. Everybody wants biodegradable beads, but that's still going on. And then I saw a story, a Mardi Gras story, which this tells you that Mardi Gras is coming to an end. Okay. Two black Barbie dolls were seen hanging from beads on a Mardi Gras float. This is in New Orleans. And it sparked all kinds of outrage. The mayor called it offensive and unacceptable. And organizers apologized. Okay. So what happens is, the float rolls by, and the guys throwing beads have Barbie dolls hanging from their beads, whether it's white or black Barbie dolls.

And then when they see little kids, they throw them the dolls. That's part of the parade. So this guy's got the Barbie dolls hanging from the beads has nothing to do with hanging black people. But you know that because people are outraged and they have to apologize for it, That means that Mardi Gras is coming to an end. When you have a guy that usually hangs dolls from his beads to throw into little kids is in trouble for having the dolls hanging from his beads. We are in a tough place.

Also, I'm sorry to break it to Mobile, Alabama, but apparently Mardi Gras evolved from Roman festivals into a global event. I mean, you have the Rio de Janeiro, Venice has the masked balls. so I hate to break it to Mobile, Alabama, but the Romans at the festivals first. I know. Dry your eyes. You know, one of the things that kind of irks me about Instagram,

and it's probably true with all the platforms, but just have Instagram on my mind. You can follow me on my Instagram account, Jay Fisher. What is my Instagram account? No, Jeff Fisher Radio. I don't know what it is. At Jeffrey JFR. Jeff Fisher Radio.

of those things. Should probably, you know, rename it so they all have the same thing. But that's, yeah, that's work. So I'm just going to change it around. Anyway, so Instagram, they feed me news in my timeline. But a lot of times the news is old news. Like I see this story about this woman, a 90-year-old Texan who retired from her 74-year retail career at Dillard's.

and it talks about her time and her life. So now I look up the story because I want to know, hey, when did that story take place? Well, this story was from a couple of years ago. So it's not that old to hit my timeline. And I don't remember talking about Melba Mibain before. She worked at Dillard's for 74 years. She's 91, I think now. She was finally retired.

And her advice was being happier at work. Just be happier at work. And just find the place that you love. Don't worry about the money. Oh, okay. So she worked at Dillard's for 74 years. Now, technically, it wasn't that long because she began working as an elevator girl at the Mayor and Schmidt Department Store.

Man, and who doesn't remember the Mayor and Schmidt Department Store in Tyler, Texas in 1949 when she was 17. And that was through a work study program at Tyler High School. And the store then, the Mayor and Schmidt Department store, was purchased, I'm sorry, acquired by Dillards in 1956. She said she moved to the men's clothing department, then later cosmetics, where she stayed until she retired. So she worked in cosmetics for all those years. she said that she began working in cosmetics because they had gift baskets there and one of the girls just couldn't sell any of them. And they said, hey, why don't you try to sell these gift back to us?

And she did. She said, I stepped out from behind the counter in the aisle and I talked to people about the baskets. I sold every single one. So that's where I was staying right there at the cosmetic counter. Now, she's also became friends with the founder, William T. D. Diller. who visited, used to visit the store with his children. So she would babysit his daughter. Yeah, so she's never losing her job, ever.

Forget about it. Dillard is not getting rid of her. And they never did. In fact, he told her, you have a job here as long as you want it. And she took him up on it and worked for 74 years. Now, apparently, she never called out sick. She never missed a day. I mean, 74 years of work.

You never call out. out sick, you never missed a day, that's pretty impressive. And then she said, one of the things I like is she was, when she turned 65, she was going to retire. And the coworkers and her son even said, why don't you just stick it out for a couple more years? And so she did. And then she decided, you know what, I'm just going to keep working.

They told me I could have a job as long as I want it. I'm going to keep working. But you know what? I'm tired. I'm tired of working on Sundays, and I'm tired of working nights. So I'm going to get the head of Dillard's on the line and say, hey, I still want to, you know, I'm going to continue to work here, but I can't work nights and I can't work Sundays.

And you know what? The floor in the cosmetic counter, too hard on my feet. Let me put a little carpeting down. And they did. and they readjusted her schedule. You know why? Because she worked there for all those years. Never missed a day at all.

Zero. So congratulations. I don't even know if Melba is still alive. In fact, let's check that out. As far as I can tell, Melba is still alive, probably at the nursing home in Tyler, Texas. So she's hanging in there. How old would she be?

She retired after 74 years at 90-91, but two and a half years. since she retired, shows she'd be, you know, 93, 94 now. So happy birthday to Melba. She turns, you know, 94 or 95 or however old she is. But Melba Mebain, not dead yet. I will say this. If you have a movie that you want people to go and see,

what you need to do is have Glenn Beck rip up. it on the air and tell people not to go see it. I listened to Glenn on Friday as I was driving back from the studios and he was talking about Wuthering Heights and how terrible the movie was. He remembered reading the book

he was going to have to read the book again to see if it was as terrible as what the movie was and he told people don't go watch it. Well, it is the highest grossing worldwide debut of 2026. So it took in $82 million on the opening weekend.

Now, maybe people were going to see it to, you know, see if Glenn was right and that it was terrible. And we'll find that out next weekend on how much it drops. But holy cow, it absolutely is the number one movie. It had $38 million on the four day. Oh, yeah, Valentine's and President's Day. and then an $83 million global debut. So, you know, that's made enough money already. I think, although it was the budget for this thing.

I don't know. Netflix has already offered $150 million to make this as a streamer. Okay. But Warner's and Robbie opted for an $80 million theatrical release instead. Okay. Then Goat was number two. Crime 101. Send help.

Solo mail. Zootopia 2. still hanging in there. Utopia 2 is made over a billion dollars. Oh, yeah, they're pretty happy with that $150 million budget on that movie. Good luck, have fun, don't die. Iron Lung still hanging in there in the top 10. It's already made $44 million.

It cost $3 million to make. So that's a pretty good turnaround on your cash. Avatar Fire and Ash hanging in there in the top 10, number nine. That has made over a billion dollars gold. and Dracula number 10. Wow, Dracula has only made 38 million global with a $52 million budget. That means it's not really that good. The 2026 box office is tracking 8% ahead of last year. Disney just became the first studio to cross $1 billion in global ticket sales this year. I mean, that's thanks to send help and avatars fire and ash and Zootopia 2.

Yeah, I mean, those two have already made over a billion. So they're able to say, you're welcome, Disney, you're welcome. And the theaters are probably happy because that means more people are back because they got hit in the gut on, you know, with the Valentine's Day weekend. And then over there in the Super Bowl weekend. But the Valentine's Day weekend gave them much love. So they all got the little heart. Oh, maybe they were giving away free chocolate.

No, don't count on that. Studios won't do that until, you know, they're actually closer to death. And that's a mistake on their part. But we've covered that before here on chewing. And I'll let that ride for now. So incredible how I guess money talks and BS walks. Is that an old saying? Yeah, I think it is.

So a week or so ago, we got the message that Paramount was looking to get back in the deal in the Warner Brothers Discovery Deal because they already had a deal with Netflix. Netflix is already going through all kinds of hell. They're going through all kind of Department of Justice inquiries over their deal with Warner Brothers. And Paramount is still pissed and they want to make the deal. Well, now, and they said no way.

So they revisited Paramount has said revisited and offered some kind of wonky deal to get back in the picture. and everybody said, no, I don't think so. But apparently Paramount has now offered a path to a superior deal. Huh, isn't that interesting? So the board is looking to change that now again. Apparently, Paramount has boosted its hostile takeover,

which really isn't a hostile takeover, to $30 a share proposal with a ticking fee coverage of the Warner's 2.8 billion net breakup penalty. Netflix doesn't care about the $2.8 billion. They want the deal and reduced refinancing costs, pushing the Warner Brothers Discovery Board to weigh whether the richer package could beat Netflix deal or force it to raise its own offer. So it's not over yet. And the beauty, the bell of the ball is still Warner Brothers Discovery. And we'll see who gets it. Is it Netflix? Or is it bear. My guess, Netflix will come back to the table.

They're already, you know, going through all the, jumping through all the hoops and they'll say, look, we'll throw another, you know, I don't know, 10, 20 billion on the table here. Shut up and we'll move on. And I think that will be done with that. But that's just my guess. Because I have no idea.

And if this story that I have in front of me right now gets me to start singing the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, I'm going to be angry Because it's already kind of in my head The headline is lost ship discovered And all I can think of is Superior they say Never gives up for dead

No in the gales of Northern America Come early Well, it isn't in Superior Apparently this is in Lake Michigan Researchers have found the Lock LaBelle A luxury passenger ship That sank in Lake Michigan

like over 100 years ago, actually over 150 years ago. The 217 foot steamer was discovered 20 miles offshore between Racine and Cadocia, Wisconsin. The Lock Label was built in Cleveland in 1864. The ship sank twice. You think after the first time they would have learned their lesson? Nope. The first time in 1866 after a collision on the St. Clair River. After being restored in 1869, the ship was purchased by a Milwaukee-based company.

Then on October 13, 1872, the ship left the city with 53 passengers and crew, as well as goods, including barley, flour, pork, and whiskey. After two hours, it began leaking uncontrollably and encountered a storm, forcing passengers to escape by lifeboat. Eight people died. 80-year-old shipwreck hunter Paul Ehorn discovered the hull via sonar way back in 2022 and waited to announce its discovery until he created a 3D model of the ship.

So I guess now we go down and try to get the goods or we just say, yeah, look what I found. There's a ship down there. Do we want to bring it up? I don't think so. I think the lock level is a bad luck ship. I mean, the first time it sank and nobody listened and they brought it back up. And the second time it just began leaking uncontrollably.

I say leave it right where she's at. Be sure to follow me on my social media accounts at Jeffrey JFR on X. Jeff Fisher Radio on Instagram and Facebook. You can always email the show, Chewing the Fat at theblaze.com. Chewing the fat at the blaze.com. I see them all. I mean, not comment on them all, but I do. do see them all and I appreciate your joke of the day submissions and I appreciate all the kind words

and the mean words I don't appreciate but you can send them anyway I do see them and you can always order a cameo from me as well at Jeffie JFR on the Cameo app that's not free that costs a pretty nickel to order a cameo but it's worth every pretty nickel at Jeffie JFR on the Camio app now I don't have a tick-back account and I probably should but I say see where TikTok is kind of right back where they were. They were struggling for a little while, but apparently now there are no worries. They remain at around 95% of its late January level, and that's when the U.S. Joint Venture Ownership model was announced, and so I guess that's still ongoing,

and TikTok is still blooming. I know there are people in my life who use TikTok and use it frequently. So I know that it's still hanging in there. And I find that 95% of the late January level, that seems low. I feel like it would be more than that. If it's those other 5%, if it's 95%, the other 5% that's gone, they probably would have gone away anyway. But, you know, you just never know.

And we still have the Winter Olympics happening. We're starting to fight back a little bit. I see we're still in third place as far as the total medal count. We have 20 medals. Italy has 24. Australia has, I mean, Norway has 30. They're far and away number one. No question about that.

I don't know. We're pretty good. We've got six gold medals. And this is what this chart really. lies on. Everybody loves the gold medals. So Norway's in first place with 13 gold, although they're in first place with total metal count as well. Italy is in second place with nine gold medals, and the United States has six gold medals tied with the Netherlands, and we have nine silver and five bronze. So anybody else down here that's hanging in there with some kind of weird anomaly?

Nope, not at all. Not at all. Not at all. I see where Oh, I thought, oh, that was Krizakistan. Kazakhstan actually did get a medal. But I did see that people were all wound up about one country paying their athletes money for a gold. Singapore. They were paying like $792,000 for one of their Olympic athletes. to win the gold. Well, Singapore hasn't won a medal. So it doesn't matter how much they were paying

for the gold medal because nobody's winning them. That's okay. The U.S. top gold medalists, top medalists are supposed to get like $38,000 or something. Depends on their sponsors and who they have. The U.S. obviously doesn't pay them for that. And the U.S. women's hockey team advanced to the gold medal game. They are playing Canada, who they destroyed in an earlier match. So that's good news because they're going to destroy them again. I have faith in that. And in our skating, what has happened with our skating? We went in the skating with such hope.

And we've just been getting our butts kicked. So there's that. And so, I mean, we're still hanging in there as far as metal counts. And, you know, we've got our third place with 20 total medals. we should be beating Italy and Norway. It's really Norway is the winter country, and they do well in all of these events, but Italy should not be in front of us.

I'm sorry, no. But they're the home country, and maybe they get an edge. Who knows? But we still have, we still have time left to come back. So are we going to come back big? Yes, doggone it, we are.

Okay, who died today? Who died today? Well, let's begin with Robert Duvall. Robert Duval, Oscar winner, Robert Duval, dead at the age of 95. Now, I really want to apologize to Robert and his family because I thought he was already dead. when my son comes downstairs yesterday and says, Dad, Robert DeVall died. And I'm like, that's got to be an old headline. He's been dead for a while. Nope, he hasn't. So rest in peace to Robert DeVall now, in my mind, dead at the age of 95.

He was in such, he was in a lot of great stuff. A lot of great stuff. I mean, obviously the godfather, one of my favorites. He was the judge, which was really good. He was in Jack Reacher, right? The Tom Cruise Jack Reacher movie, the first one. The first one. Because he owned the Gun Club outside of Pittsburgh, and he helped Tom Cruise.

He helped Jack Reacher out at the end there at the construction site. He was awesome. He was awesome. And another one that's one of my favorites is The Apostle. The Apostle? Yes. Because that's when they had to play the Lyle Lovett song. I'm a soldier.

the army of the Lord. I'm a soldier in the army. I love that song. And I first heard it from the movie The Apostles. So rest in peace to Robert Deval dead at the age of

95. Then we have Jesse Jackson, the good right reverend, Jesse Jackson. Can I get a? Amen. Amen. Jesse Jackson, dead at the age of of 84. Now Jesse's been really struggling as of late. He had really kind of a strange disease. It was kind of similar to Parkinson's, but really, really kind of bad. And it was called

progressive supernuclear palsy, which is a rare disease, like I said, causes a decline similar to Parkinson's disease, but is accelerated. Apparently he's been in the hospital, or at least he went into the hospital. It was reported that he went in the hospital in November. I don't know that he ever got out. But the Jesse Jackson, man, he was, I mean, he ran for president, presidential hopeful. He was everywhere at one point. Apparently, he started working for or met with Martin Luther King, Jr.

just before Martin Luther King was assassinated. And so he kind of felt like he took over. the mantle of the of the of the the civil rights movement when uh martin luther king junior was was assassinated and the reverend the right reverend jesse jackson stay out the bushes that's was his line about the the bush family i mean he's got his uh his i am somebody poem that everybody knows i am somebody i am somebody i may be poor but i'm I am somebody. I may be young, but I am somebody.

And it goes on and on and on. It may have been in my Angelo poem as well. But it's the right Reverend Jackson's. I am somebody poem. And as only he can say that, I don't want to take away from the right Reverend to Jesse Jackson. So rest in peace to Jesse Jackson, civil rights movement in his,

coalition, the, what was his coalition? It was the push, right? Yeah, the rainbow push coalition, where they, you know, went out and tried for help because of, you know, wanted to make America more open and equitable society. And by donating to the Rainbow Push Coalition, that will help make America more open and equitable. Anyway, rest in peace to the good right reverend Jesse Jackson dead at the age of 84. I also did some investigating on the bathroom etiquette story that we talked about yesterday. So that was going on at our studios.

So the investigation is still ongoing with, you know, I'm doing a separate investigation. I'm Frank Cannon. tonight's episode bathroom etiquette I'm doing my separate investigation outside of the normal investigative circles so I mean they were still pissed

it wasn't just one bathroom by the way it was two and that's an issue and so I believe that they have an idea who this person may be who did some well some unsettling things in the bathroom

bathrooms. And so I told, I offer that. Apparently there is some kind of surveillance in the building. Obviously, you can't have cameras in the bathroom legally. But you can't have, you know, you can have surveillance in the building and know who's going in and out of the bathrooms or in and out of that area. And then you just kind of have to, you know, go from there, figure out who the is doing a nastiness to bathrooms. So, well, I'll keep you up to date. As of right now, no one has been charged. And I know in the email, it said that further action may be taken to address the matter.

I don't know what that would be. I don't know if we're tying the key to a chain to the bathrooms. Or if we have to use our door code. to use the bathroom. Maybe we have armed security. That costs too much money. Armed security for the bathroom. Or maybe we just tell the person who destroyed it,

we put their nose in it like you do dogs and then make them clean every bathroom in the building and then you walk them to the curb. But I don't know if you lose their job. So you just hold their nose in it, rub their nose in it, and make them clean all the bathrooms after you do that. And then maybe they can think twice.

Okay, let's get out of here. I'm going to leave you with the joke of the day. This joke from William, who emailed chewing the fat at the blaze.com with his joke of the day. And it's kind of, well, it's kind of sad, actually. I'm telling you this because William works hard at, you know, it is writing, coming up with jokes,

and I appreciate the hard work. And this isn't bad. You know, I did chuckle at this, at this, so a panda walks into a bar. He gobbled some beer nuts and then pulls out a pistol, fires it in the air and heads for

the door. Hey! Shout to the bartender, but the panda yells back, I'm a panda. Google me. Sure enough, panda, a tree climbing mammal with distinct black and white coloring, eats, shoots, and leaves.

See, No, I'm pretty sure you got it. Stream and subscribe to more Blaze Media content at theblaze.com slash podcasts.