The Eric Metaxas Show - Fun Facts Friday (Encore)

Episode Date: April 3, 2020

Have your slide whistles at the ready... it's an encore presentation of Fun Facts Friday where you'll learn all about the nation's drive towards seat-belt safety in a very musical sort of way! (Encore Presentation)

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I tell all my relatives to take it. Relieffactor.com. Coming up is part two of a previously recorded pre-quarantine interview Eric did with Chris Denham and then stay tuned for an encore presentation of Fun Facts Friday. Enjoy. Today, Eric will interview a man with the head of a turkey. No joke. The rest of his body is perfectly normal, but his tiny turkey head is very unnerving.

It's teeny we needy. And now, Eric Mataxis. You know, Todd, we got rid of that guest. It was so unnerving. So we were placed him with a normal person. In fact, we got the guests from our previous hour, Chris Dunham, just to hang around, which has really saved us a lot of time in cab fare. Chris, thanks for not leaving. And we were just talking about your book from abstracts to absolutes and how you found God in Jesus. And you were talking about how difficult it is for someone like your father coming from a traditional. Hindu Brahmin background to admit publicly that maybe he's changed his mind, he's accepted Jesus, and it would be very, in a culture like India, it's not easy, it's not America. And so it comes with a lot of baggage that, you know, you are someone and that to throw that away would be, it would be very American.

And it's why I think evangelical Christianity has thrived in America to some extent, because culturally it works, but in places like India, you pay a huge price. And so how did your father deal with this? I mean, he struggled with it. And in fact, you know, when my mom passed away, my mom passed away without ever accepting Christ. And, you know, it's hard to take a stand, but when you take the stand, you have to do it for all the right reasons and not the wrong reasons. And at my mother's funeral, I told my father I can't participate because I would be violating the uniqueness of Christ if I participated in a funeral that aren't

all kinds of gods that my mother worship in. And my father looked at me and he says, today your stand proves itself to me because I know you loved your mother. You did not buckle to tradition. This God must be real. And maybe for the very first time ever, something unusual happened at my mother's funeral. Five minutes before they did anything to her in the name of their gods,

my dad said to me, he said, son, before we do anything to your mother in the name of our gods, would you mind praying over her in the name of yours? and maybe for the first time at a Hindu funeral, I prayed out to Jesus saying, Lord, you're the Lord of resurrection.

I don't know if you'll answer this death hour need, but you are the God of Lazarus, twice dead friend. Wow. Twice dead. That's amazing. This is amazing. So your faith,

it's interesting when someone like you is able to walk your faith out logically. I think a lot of us who would say we're Christians, we don't process things the way you do. You have a very logical mind, and it's why you're so successful as a speaker and as a consultant in business. I want to turn, while we still have time,

to the issue of business. You wrote a book with the former head of Microsoft, which is pretty big deal, Rick Beluzzo. It's called Hardheaded, Soft-Hearted, lessons from the boardroom to the break room. For those who don't know who Rick Beluzzo is, you just were telling me a little bit of his story. Tell us his story. Well, Rick, of course, was raised in California. His father is a migrant. Came to the United States first to the prisoner of war

after World War II. Eventually... The prisoner of war? Yeah. During the war, he was brought here from Italy, then went back and then came back to the U.S. and began his life as a garbage collector in San Francisco, became a machinist later on. And his son became the head of Microsoft. So Rick started with Hewlett Packard, and he was there in the days of Dave Packard and all of that. So the title, Hardheaded, Softhearted, actually comes from Dave Packard's words to Rick, when Rick was wondering if he would ever fit in with the Ivy League people who he was competing with at HP, while he was just a guy who graduated from Golden Gate University.

And Dave Packard's words were, if you want to succeed in life, you have to be hardheaded. Results rule, but you have to be soft-hearted people matter. Rick and I met on the professional speaking circuit where I was doing those big events with Rudy. Giuliani and Colin Powell. I did about 150 of them nationwide. What do you mean those big events? Like we've all been to those events. What big events with Rudy Giuliani and Colin Powell? The Get Motivated series that ran from about 2002 to about 2012 down all over North America with big names like President Bush, Laura Bush, would show up.

Colan Powell and Rudy Giuliani were consistent fixtures on the program. They would use local celebrities in each of the city, athletes. Mr. Ziegler was a fixture because I traveled. with Mr. Ziegler. I was a fixture on about 150 of them. And it was during those days that Rick had just finished his tenure at Microsoft where he had stepped down and Baumert took over that Rick and I began to drive to the venues together because I would speak right after him. And somehow he took a shine to me as someone who was simple and didn't care about his pedigree. I always would say, what can I pray for you about? I would always try to lead with my faith because I was a nobody.

I was not going to compete for pedigree with these people. They were all, you know, running billion-dollar companies. And when Rick said, hey, let's write a book together, I'll write the hard-headed part results rule. Why don't you write the soft-hearted part? People matter. So he wrote 10 principles from the top down. I wrote 10 from the bottom up. We met in the middle. And that's the book that's been used as culture transformation curriculum in some of my consulting endeavors. Culture transformation curriculum. You're talking about business, corporate culture. Yeah, walking in and basically telling people both how do you have the strategies, the management principles, the sales and customer service strategies where results rule. And then the

softheartedness. Because, you know, Eric, we have moved from an either-or mentality in business to an and also. Either-or used to be, I'm going to rule with an iron fist that was one style of motivation. The other was just completely rah-rah, go-gat-em tiger. But somewhere, a combination of both where you tell people, hey, you know, when you're at my environment, I expect productivity from eight to five. But I'm going to give you enough ammunition to leave that when you go back, So this is built on the premise that humanity was designed to be 24-hour champions. For 8 to 10 hours of the day, practice the skill that allows you to make a good living. But for the balance of the time, invest in the will that allows you to shape a life.

It's fascinating to me because you, I mean, because you are Christian, you realize that God and our virtue, the way we behave, all these things, they're as central to things as what we call results, right? In other words, if you say in business, we have to have results, we have to have profit. That makes sense. Sure. But those of us who are Christians know that results without God, without virtue, can become meaningless. Sure.

Or worse than that, because we've seen this, right? If a company focuses only on the bottom line, their bottom line will not improve as much as if they focus on the bottom line and other things, right? In other words, it's kind of like the idea of greed or whatever. It's one thing to want to grow a company. But if you focus on that to the exclusion of everything else, in a way, you will crush people's souls who are working at the company. So that's the part of the book, the soft-hearted part of the book. But it's interesting to me that a guy like Rick Beluso understands that is vital because there have been many corporate cultures where they don't get that.

And I guess those are the places where you went to speak. Yeah. And I mean, you know, to give you a statement, the statement that we use in the curriculum is rules without a relationship will always lead to rebellion. So you can have rules in the organization, but they have to be a relationship of why they exist. Now, when Rick was first, when he first came out of Microsoft, if you go online and read his reviews, he was one of those guys who would go and shut down entities in the name of the bottom line. And he says one day he was walking through a factory and he smelt machine oil,

and it was one of those factories that he was instrumental in closing to impact the bottom line. And he thought to himself, where have I smelt that before? And he realized his dad used to come home smelling like that. And then he really realized, behind my decisions are people. So from now on I'm going to try to make sure I incorporate both, that I will try to strive and make the bottom line impactful for the shareholder, but I will try to make sure that the people who are going to deliver that bottom line are also validated. It seems to me that this is always the issue, right? In other words, that we need to have both.

If somebody says it's just about the people, you say, wait a minute, we're running a company here. It can't just be about the people. But then there are people that say it's always about the results. I mean, sometimes when you bump into people who would call themselves economic conservatives or people who are free market people, they act as though the free market and numbers divorced from people will deliver Nirvana or utopia or whatever. They really act as though it's this magical thing, and they don't seem to understand that there's a relationship between the free market and virtue and people.

and talk a little bit about that. Yeah, I mean, if you look at the personality, I just told you to talk about it and we're going to a break. Hold on, folks. When we come back, Chris Dunham, we'll talk about that very thing. All right, evidently, he's my boogeyman. We can't get into that right now, but I'll take your word for it, Casey. I'm talking to Chris Dunham.

Chris, you're not my boogeyman. Let's be clear, okay? You're my guest. And I wanted you to talk about that dynamic. that I referred to in the last segment. So go ahead. Yeah, the hard-headed, soft-hearted about results rule, but people matter. In most organizations, we have an either-or mindset, and it is, like you had alluded to earlier,

you can't just focus on results and burn people out. But many years ago, USA Today had done a study when people left the organization, managers thought that when they were polls saying, oh, they left because they wanted more money. employees who were polls said no we wanted to be in on things and understand that we actually were making a contribution. So on one extreme, we used to have the really hard-nosed business people. On the other extreme, we have this complete social utopia that give everything away and give away the farm. But reality is in the middle, and if you look at someone like a Dan Cathy or someone who ran Chick-fil-A for all those years, I remember when we were in his office, he said if you practice business based on the golden rule, do unto a lot.

others as you would have them do unto you, something miraculous will begin to happen, and that's the biblical concept. Can that actually be parlayed into business? Yes, before you make a decision, ask yourself, if you made the same decision for yourself, how would you react? So we can actually take it down to very simple quantitative. By the same token, Christians working in the marketplace, I tell them that try to become the best salesperson, by learning the skill that allows you to be the best salesperson, then start sharing your values and your virtues. because an organization would wait longer to get rid of someone who's productive, you know, the whole difference between profit and a profit.

So I said, don't go holier than thou at the start. Make sure that you become the number one salesperson. And then when you take the award, tell them, I'd like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Nobody gets rid of you. So, you know, there is a merger there, and it's just common sense. And by the same token, I just tell people that, you know, there's a certain place. I'm a big fan of the Reverend Dr. Marnalo the King, but not so much for his civil commentary, as much for his divine commentary, that was a precursor to before he went to India after he was influenced by Gandhi. So Marlono the King actually went to India because he was influenced by Gandhi, and it was Stanley Jones' book that inspired him, profiles in a friend, he comes back.

In fact, in the footnotes he writes, this is what's going to be the liberation for the African American people. And so even in his style of substance where he wanted results for a nation and an entire race of people, he began by understanding the commonality that there is something at the heart of their belief. And that's why he coined those terms. You know, it's about character. And so the character of an organization is revealed by the people and how they feel because they come from different backgrounds. So I hated being patronized by people when I walked into an environment saying, oh, you're from India. Well, what gave it away? Sherlock, quit going around tiptoes. Give me a sales skill that I can survive so I can feed my family.

But today we're at the other end of the spectrum. We're afraid to talk to any of the migrant communities worrying we'll offend them. If you're worried you can offend them, you can never impact them and give them any strategy for excellence because you're the one who started the business. So that's what I mean by the culture transformation means we start at communication and just hammer it down by fact. So you deal with, do people come to you? and say we want you to speak to our corporate culture? We want you to, how does that work? In other words, they... Well, that's how, you know, Brad, for example, our initial, after he had come and heard me

speak at the Ziegler event, we began a conversation, he had me come up and speak in his company. And he'll be the first to attest that after any of the meetings, when I do a Q&A, the number one question that's asked is about faith. And I don't mention faith anywhere in my conversation. But they begin to realize that there is an underlying commodity that begins to drive productivity, the dignity of who you are, the dignity of who you are, the dignity of self. And the Bible reveals that to us. You know, if you go back to the garden, the number one thing we were given was to till the soil. The number one onus given in the Bible was work. And when they violated that, you know, everything else broke loose. But the reality is that when I go into a corporation, they would invite me saying, hey, come and bring that mindset. Tell them that they have to sell. They have to serve. They have to come to work at 8 o'clock. They can't be dancing around on punctuality.

but make it go down easy by also telling them we care. So I bring that duality of message that's been quite effective so far. Well, it's effective because it's true. Yeah. I mean, that's to me what's interesting, is that this is not just something that works. It works because it's true and because it deals with the totality of the human being. Sure. And you and I know God's word will not come back void.

So that's all we're doing. Mr. Ziegler would always say this. He says, all I'm doing is paraphrasing. the Bible. You don't go in there with scripture and verse, but what you do is you use, I mean, I would say proverbial literature or something like that. So they kind of know where I'm coming from. But that was the reason for John Maxwell's success. I mean, he wrote 66 books, but began as a preacher. His success as a leadership, luminary is now, but the man started with the church in San Diego and changed the world by the thought process, but everything he teaches comes out of the Bible.

Well, it's fascinating to me how, you know, truth is truth. There's no such thing as Christian truth. It's either truth or it's not. It's excluded. But if you're really interested in how human beings work and how, I mean, how the human being operates, but then how human beings work in the marketplace, it's fascinating to me that if the Christian faith weren't true, these things that work, they wouldn't work. I mean, so somehow there's an insight that you have and Ziglar has from the scripture that is able to make people more productive. Yeah, and I'm not a seminary trained person, but what I've done is, you know, just looked at it and tried to find its common sense application. I'll give you an

illustration. I was speaking in London. We were doing a train the trainer for the Ziegler franchisees that had come from Romania and a few other countries, and I was doing the train the trainer for three days. And there was a young lady from Romania by the name of Magdalena who had grown up under the communism of Chowcelsko, where the word God was taken out of the lexicon. So after the session finished, We talked about value, we talked about virtue. And then I just shared with her. I said the same thing. In about 15 minutes, I'm going to share the real truth for those of your interest at Com.

So this was at a hotel, Crown Plaza, and London. So you do the same thing that Zigler used to do. You give your business talk, and then at the end of it, you say, if you want to hear where I'm coming from. Yeah. And so I can bring you the other aspect of it, which I was not allowed to do corporately or whatever. Right. So this girl came to that session. That night, this was still in the day.

of email before text messaging, but I got one of the most excited messages, which is what still keeps me going. I do 125 events a year, spend 100 nights a year in a hotel room, so I'm gone a lot, but how do you stay motivated during this because of email? This lady wrote me an email when she got back to Romania and she says, after you finish the seminar, I understood the training we were supposed to deliver, and I know I'm going to be successful as a trainer. But when you gave that final bit of information about the God in your life, I felt your Jesus dance, my heart. Now I can't paint that picture. I can share that picture. It's just something that elevates you saying what you said earlier. Truth is truth. God's word will somehow seep through all

of the rhetoric that man can give as long as we stay obedient to his word. It is so fascinating to me because people want to succeed and you're telling them that, well, if you want to succeed, this is where I'm coming from. This is where I get my ideas from. They're not abstract ideas. they're connected to the God who created us, who loved us, who loves us, who died for us, who's with us, who wants to be with us forever. It's fascinating to me that, you know, you could say the same thing about if I go to people in a third world country and they say, you know, why do you have the freedoms you have? How does that work?

It's inescapable, ultimately, that I say, well, the reason it works is because behind it are these beautiful ideas about who we are, who God is, and by the way, it's true. In other words, if it weren't true, it would just be kind of like another philosophy. But it works. If you look at countries that operate along the idea of self-government in a free market somehow, they create wealth and all these things happen. And so even if you're not interested in where they got that from, you have to be interested in the idea that people are better off and these things are happening.

happening. We've just got about a minute left, Chris Dunham. If you have a minute left in one of these seminars and people say, what's on your mind? What can be the last thing we share with my audience? Well, if all we go through life is searching for the how-toes that will make us better, we're going to end up disappointed because that framework will come from people who figure out how-toes. But if you know why something works, it becomes formulaic. So when you want to change, ask yourself why you want to change, don't just look for how you can change. The why becomes a solution seeker unto itself.

When you set goals, for example, of weight loss that you had talked about or whatever it is, you need to ask yourself why you want to be healthier because it's the right thing to do. And I've always believed that why is formulaic how makes you a follower of other people, why makes you a leader of yourself? Why? Asking why makes you a leader of yourself. This is heavy stuff. Have you ever thought of going on the speaking circuit?

I think you could succeed. I'll try. That's a prediction. Maybe this will get me some exposure. I was going to say. Okay, so you, if people want to find you, they can go to Krish Dunham. It's K-R-I-S-H-R-H-D-H-D-A-M-N-A-M. And your company?

Sky-L-L-I-F-E. SkyL-E-S-L-E-S-L-E-S-L-E-V-E-L-E-V-E-L-S-E and based in Dallas. And part of the SkyP-PAS group of companies. All right. We're out of time. Chris Dunham. What a joy. Thank you so much, my friend.

My pleasure. It's that super tramp. You know what that means, Albin? What does that mean? It means we're in for a truncated episode of Fun Facts Friday. Friday. A couple of us. Who did that? What was that?

Oh, my goodness. It's fun facts. Folks, we thought we could contain the humor into hour one today. Alas, we've failed. No, the humor has washed over into our two. to we had Ezra Levant talking about all kinds of serious stuff, but somehow the humor leaked through disgusting image into this segment, and we're going to have to do a little fun facts Friday. Alvin, first of all, at some point in the next couple of minutes that we have left in this program,

you've got to tell your avocado story. I do. I mean, in all the avocado stories I've heard, this is certainly one of them. Yes. Okay. So do you want to do some fun facts Friday first? What do you have a question for me? No, well, I have a big question.

And I know the audience wants you to answer this. Now, earlier in the first hour, we did answer questions. But here's a big one. You have great music on this show. Everybody talks about the bumper music. But what is your favorite song? I mean, do you have a favorite song? My favorite song?

Yeah. Do I have a favorite song? No. I don't, you mean, other than the Fun Facts Friday theme song, which we haven't played today? Actually, I don't know that I have a favorite. Maybe I'll have to really think about this. And next week when we do Fun Facts Friday, you can ask me again, maybe I'll have an answer. But right now, no, I don't.

Okay. Can I share, I can maybe share my favorite song? No. Okay. Oh, sure. Why not? Go ahead. It's the first song I ever danced to. Now, I was alone when I was dancing, but it's still the first song I ever danced to.

It's the seatbelt song. Do you know that? There's a buckle up for safety. Buckle up for safety. Everybody buckle up. Put your mind at ease. Tell your driver, please. Buckle up for safety, everybody.

Buckle up. You never heard that? I'm sorry, what? It had a big impact on my... That song, was that Henry Mancini? I never can remember my composers. First of all, what year did you first hear that? Well, that was probably in my early teens.

That's usually where something dramatic happens. So this is going way back. Going way back. But I don't remember that people were talking about seatbelts that long ago. Like, in the late 60s, people were talking about seatbelts? Yeah. Oh, yeah. And we did it became, I guess, a law back in. Here's a fun fact. It became something of a law. It didn't become a law until like the late 70s.

Was it that late? Oh, yeah. Well, I was wearing them. As soon as I heard that song, I buckled up for safety. But where did you hear that song? I heard it on television. What kind of life do you lead that you heard that song? Well, that's a good, it's like, you know, only you can prevent forest fires. I mean, only you. But there was no song with that. Yeah.

Buckle up for safety. But you know what? It's warmed its way into my head now. Buckle up for safety. Everybody buckle up. Is that it? That's it. Put your mind at ease. Tell your driver, please buckle up for safety, everybody.

Buckle up. Now, you know, somebody wrote that. They did. And that person is probably lying in a cold, cold grave right now. It's so sad. No, but I mean, seriously, like, that's one of those jingles that if I had heard it back then, it might be my favorite song. I know. You can't get a, it's kind of thing.

But I've literally never, ever heard that song. Okay. Buckle up for a safety. It's really warmed its way into my psyche. It's bitten itself into my brain. It's branded itself onto my very soul. I can't believe that. Buckle up for safety, buckle up.

Yeah. Buckle up for safety. Everybody buckle up. It's like your mind at ease. Tell your driver. Please buckle up for safety. Everybody buckle up. Yeah.

That's so beautiful. That's like a Bach cantata. Like it doesn't get in terms of Western art, that's like the high watermark of Western art. Albin, thank you for sharing that extraordinarily banal, eminently forgettable song, because really, I think we needed to hear that today. Although in all seriousness, there are people out there who don't buckle up. And I think that, I think the Lord of hosts, the Lord Savahoth is his name. He called us to sing that song today to remind those reprobates who don't value.

you their lives who don't care about the people who would watch them, you know, be lowered into a grave. They don't care. And we're here to remind you for crying out loud folks. Buckle up for safety. Do it for yourself. Now that's reminded. This is a boils my potato.

I have to share it. Okay. Now we're going to shift to boils my potato. Now we've got to remind people that means it makes you really angry. It makes me really angry. And you made that up. Nobody has ever heard that phrase before the show. So, Albin, tell me, my friend, what boils my friend?

What boils your potato? Okay, there are plenty of things, but this one just recently is speed bumps, okay? This really gets me. Not razor bumps. No, not rate. Speed bumps, okay? Because there is no national, like, height for a speed bump. They can be any, any level at all, any height at all.

So you want the government, you want big government to regulate speed bumps? Yes, I do. In fact, I organized the march on Washington. Even I didn't show up. Over this issue? Yeah, as long as you organize it, you don't have to do everything. That's all I have to do. But that's not the point.

The point is they're sometimes too high. In the condo community where I live... The speed bumps are sometimes too high. I'm not kidding. If I go over it more than five miles an hour, like the hood pops open and the alarm goes off on my car. And your dentures fly out the butterfly window. That's right. And now I have to get out, put the car in neutral, and push it over the speed bump.

And, you know, that's a little annoying. Now, wait a second. So in this condo complex where you live, you're saying the speed bumps are too high. Too dang high. And it boils your potato. Of course. Does it get your goat? It gets my goat.

It chaps my hide. Does it chap your hide? It does. Yeah. Man, that really chaps my hide. Now, you have a boiled your potato as well. I did? I don't think I do.

You don't have any boiled. There's nothing, nothing sets you off. I didn't prepare for this segment. This was your segment. Fun facts Friday. We haven't even come to any fun facts, and we're going to have to go to a break. When we come back, oh, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to, We've got a lot of fun facts.

We've got the avocado story, Albin. That's right. Of all the avocado stories I've heard in my life, and my goodness, how many have I heard, this is certainly one of them. We'll be right back. Buckle up for safety, always buckle up. Put your mind at ease. Buckle up for safety.

Buckle up. Buckle up for safety. Always buckle up. Pull your seat belt snuck. Give an extra tuck. Buckle up for safety. Buckle up For safety

Buckle up I can't believe For safety Always buckle up Show the world you care By the belt you wear Buckle up for safety When you're driving

Buckle up Buckle up for safety buckle up I can't believe that That is such a peppy song I'll never get it out of my mind I'll be buckling up even when I'm not in the car Thank you James

Yeah Our engineer, he just dug that up, archaeologically speaking. He found that. Buckle up for safety, everybody buckle up. Unbelievable. Okay, this is Fun Facts Friday. We've got a lot of fun facts. Oh, yeah.

And we're only going to read the fun ones. Okay. So, Albin, you've got an avocado story. Oh, I do. Maybe, you know what? I think we better start. We promised that. Okay.

Okay. This morning you said, hey, who wants to hear my avocado story? Right. And everybody had blank stares. Like, what? And a few left the studio. Yeah. So, but tell us.

Tell us. Yeah. Okay. Here's my avocado story. Now, on the way to the subway, a couple days ago, I, I knew that we needed avocados at home because Anne wants us to eat avocados and bananas every day. Okay, so I figured I'll stop. And you're the most hen pecked radio sidekick.

Yeah, but I'm very healthy. So we're, I'm coming up to the guy that sells, you know, the fruit and vegetables right there, right in front of the subway stop. So I go there and I, there's a sign there. It says two avocados. for a dollar. So I tell the guy, wait, wait, wait, wait, that's an incredible price. It says two avocados for a dollar. Yeah. Okay, so the sign says that. Yeah, it does say that. Two for a dollar, okay? So as I'm getting the two for a dollar,

avocados, underneath that, you know, and this is a handwritten sign, underneath it in smaller letters, it said one dollar each. Hold on. I got to do the math in my head. So the sign says, avocados, two for a dollar. And then beneath it, it says $1 each or one. So I say the guy, I said, does anybody ever get one avocado for a dollar? And he looks at me and says, yes, yes, once in a while. And I'm like, really? So I take out my cell phone.

I'm getting my cell phone out because I got to take a picture of this. The avocados with the sign, right? So then the guy goes, no, no, no, no. He grabs a sign and he takes it and he takes it away. And he says, two foot or a dollar. He was ashamed. Yeah, he was like, okay, somebody caught him. So anyway, so yesterday I'm going to the subway.

and it's back. The sign is back. The sign was back. The sign is back. And he's off to the other end of his little cart selling some fruits, right? So I quickly take out my camera and take a picture of the sign. So there it is. Okay, I'm going to post it on Instagram. You've got to send me that photo. Yeah. That reminds me, like, I think I read a sign once, like ham sandwich, 25 cents, ham, 10 cents extra. Like, I mean, literally, the people are often not thinking, and they write stuff like this. Yeah, yeah, I think we need, like, as seen on the streets of New York or, you know. I mean, look.

signs that, you know what, though, on my way home, I'm going to buy me a couple of avocados. There you go. Two for a dollar. I mean, seriously, though, that's like what? Two for a dollar. It's like seeing a sign. Are they loaded with parasites and you shouldn't eat them?

What's the catch? Excellent. All right. Fun facts, Friday, Alvin, we've got to share some fun facts. We've got it. I've got a quick one right here about Lincoln, since we just got through President's Day and all the presidents, et cetera, et cetera. Did you know that Abraham Lincoln signed the Secret Service Act?

And this is into existence on the same day that he died, the very same day, Secret Service. But when he signed it into law, it was originally formed to stop counterfeiters. Okay. It wasn't about protecting the president. It was about going after counterfeiters because that was the big deal back in the day. If you're thinking, remembering it's the... Now, here's the problem. That's supposed to be a fun fact.

It's kind of a sad fact, Albin. Okay. But then how about this? He signed it on the day that he was murdered. He signed the Secret Service Act. Yeah, it's like, man, there are people laughing all across the world. That's another boils my potato thing is when people say, careful, after you've fallen, they'll say, oh, careful, or what's your step? It's like, if you would have told me that two seconds earlier, I would not have fallen.

Yeah, those people are just useless, useless. What's the point? I think there's a word for him, jerk. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. How about that? How about that?

Did you know that jerk is an actual term from physics? I bet you didn't know that. Now, that's a fact. Well, I took AP physics. I got a 1, which is the lower score you can get. But I did learn that you have, first of all, you have speed, okay? Yes. What do we call speed in physics?

Speed and physics is, I don't know, velocity? Correct. Thank you. We call it velocity, okay? And then the change in velocity is what? V times. No, the change in velocity is called acceleration. Oh, okay, yeah.

But the change in acceleration is, called jerk. Uh-huh. Not making that up. Okay, well, that's good. But isn't that interesting? Like, it sounds like something I'd make up.

It does. But it's kind of like the change in velocity is acceleration, and the change in acceleration is called jerk. Okay. I know, I wish I made that up, but I didn't. It's true. But that's a fun fact. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, we got a fun fact for you.

Okay. Any other fun facts? Yeah, another fun fact about Russia since Russia's in the news. There you go. With Bernie Sanders being in the, the race and all that and Russia influencing our 2020 election. Yeah. Russia has a larger surface area than Pluto.

Okay? So if you go to Russia and you walk all over it, save your money. Don't go to Pluto, okay? Because you've already... So you mean to tell me that Russia is not considered a planet? No. And yet, it has more surface area. Hey.

You know, it extends over eight time zones? How many time zones does Pluto have? Actually, no one knows. that's a very complicated question. It depends on how fast it's been. But actually, I love facts like that. Pluto has the same, has less surface area than all of Russia. Yes.

Mother Russia. Mother. Okay. Any other fun facts before we... You know what? This should be an easy one. If you're at home, scoring it home and you want to see how many fun facts do I get right, which state's votes finally decided the 2000, the 2000 U.S. election, which states votes? Well, that's easy. Yeah.

That's an easy. it's an easy one. Florida. Florida with the hanging chat. Now, some kids out there, they weren't even born. I know. The hanging chat is like 10 minutes ago,

but it's now 20 years ago. Yeah, exactly. What? Come on. You know, 20 years isn't what it used to be. That's a fact. No, and I don't like the fact that life actually goes faster when you're older than when you're little.

I know. It seemed like a year was an eternity when you were little. And it was in 1964, that famous seatbelt song, shut up the charts. Billboard charts. I'll never forget it. Number one on the Billboard Chairs. Okay, we're almost out of time. Thank goodness.

When we come back, we're going to have a little more fun because we just can't contain ourselves, Albin. Now, today's Friday, by the way. If you should sign up for the newsletter. You should. You should order honorbound coffee. You should. Honorbound coffee.com.

And you should stay tuned for the final segment of the week. Hold on to your hats, folks. Who knows what we're going to have for you? Even we don't. A georgie girl swinging down the street so fancy free. Nobody you meet could ever see the loneliness there. Inside you. Hey, there, Georgie girl.

Why do all the boys just Patty? You just don't try. Lucky can one guy be? I don't know. How lucky? Hey, Albin, I've got, we've got one amazing fun fact to share before we end. our week. Now, before that, before we share the insane final fun fact of the week, which it is insane, I can't believe I didn't know this, this kind of thing I thought I would know. Before we do

that, I want to tell people, you've got an opportunity because we're doing a campaign with food for the poor. They are feeding the poorest of the poor in Guatemala. Guatemala has the infamous title of being the place with the highest level of malnutrition in the Western hemisphere horrible to think that in the entire western hemisphere there are people in guatemala who are suffering from severe malnutrition so this is the reason it's an opportunity the good news is we can do something about it the good news is we don't just say oh how horrible we can do something about it in fact we're obliged and commanded to do something doesn't mean in this case in particular but we all have to do what we can and i want to say that the the reason i consider this an

amazing opportunity is because the money that we have in the west goes so lowly. far in a place like Guatemala that it's almost unbelievable. $80 of our money, $80 can feed a kid for an entire year because of food for the poor. That's how they leverage, not only leverage our money, but they leverage their contacts around the world with donations of beans and rice and other foods. So I want to say that if you give $80, you're feeding a kid for an entire year, they get water for life. That's $80, folks. If you're $80, folks. If you're feeding a kid for an entire year, they get water for life, you give $320, obviously that's the same blessing for an entire family for it. You think about that. That's $27 a month. Almost everybody can afford to do that if they want to give back somehow.

And so we try to give you opportunities and we try to give you great opportunities. I consider this a great opportunity because the leveraging of the American dollar is just outrageous when you think about how poor they are in Guatemala that for 80 of our dollars we're feeding a kid for a year. and did I mention water for life? Think about that. They don't have clean drinking water. If you give $80, that's food for a year and water for life. They're drilling wells. It's unbelievable. I'll give you the phone number before we get our fun fact of the last fun fact of the week.

Close out the segment. All right. Here's the phone number. And by the way, I recommend you go to our website. The website is metaxis talk.com. But this is seriously, it's a huge opportunity. We want to thank you in a hundred ways. as we enter you into a drawing to win all kinds of stuff to visit us in the studio.

We give away Metaxus Super. That's commercial free podcasting. All kinds of great stuff. So please just take advantage of this. But the phone number is 844-8663 Hope. 844-863 Hope. 8-4-863 Hope. God bless you as you give, Albin.

Yes, I've got the final fun fact of the week. Okay, this is November 12th, 1859. Check your calendars. 1859. Here's something. We've got a lot of, there's a lot of musical. musical stuff here in this Fun Facts Friday, but he floats through the air with the greatest

of fees, the daring young man on the flying trapeze. That was Jules Leotard. He performed the first flying trapeze act in the circus Napoleon. Jules Leotard, and of course, that's where we get the word. And in French, it would be Jules Leotard. Now, wait a minute. He's wearing a leotard. You need to tell me

that the word leotard comes from the dude on the flying trapeze? The dude, man. I mean, seriously, I never knew that. That's right. I actually kind of doubt it a little bit, but I'm trusting you. Yes. I wouldn't, you've researched this. I would know. I've, yes. So the word leotard. A leotard comes from this guy named leotard. And of course, from that, we get, you know, Unitarred. We get all these, these terms that we, that we have used. But leotard originally comes from the name of the

man on the flying trapeze, 1859, Paris. This is, this is amazing. Now I know where leotard comes from. And you do too, folks. We call that Fun Facts Friday. You know stuff now. You didn't know before. You are the richer for it. If you don't believe it, trust me, you just are. Okay, thanks for listening.

I want to remind you again, food for the poor. Go to our website. Really, this is a tremendous opportunity. Tremendousmetaxis talk.com. Check it out.