The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 182: Mother Knows Best

Episode Date: January 12, 2021

After reading chapter 5 of his bestselling book, Mike surprises his two-time bestselling mother with a phone call, on which they discuss the perils of prevarication, the joys of growing up Rowe, (on a budget,) and Peggy Rowe's unsolicited review of Mike's new show, Six Degrees with Mike Rowe, which she may or may not have actually watched.

Hey guys, it's Mike Rowe. This is the way I heard it. The only podcast for the curious mind with a short attention span. Today I'll tell you the true story of a patient man who met a girl, fell in love, and did what he had to do to make that girl an honest woman. Then another true story about another patient man, a patient man with limited resources who employed a unique parenting style that left his son convinced that rich people were more to be pitied. then envied. That man happens to be my father, John Rowe, who is still against some very long odds, married to my mother, Peggy. In fact, Peggy Rowe herself has agreed to join me for a profoundly unscripted conversation about whatever it is mothers and sons talk about these days when the mother is a best-selling author and the son is a guy who invites her onto his podcast for a quick catch-up. It's episode 182. It's called Mother Knows Best, and it starts right now. Is it weird to love people but despise human resources?

If so, well, color me weird. It's not to say I don't respect the millions of people who work in HR departments and companies all over the country. I do. It's just that I don't envy him. That's why MicroWorks doesn't have an HR department for people. better or worse. And it's also why I use ZipRecruiter whenever we need to expand. ZipRecruiter has proven themselves a million times over by helping countless employers get through the hiring

process faster and more effectively than ever before. And now they have a new feature that instantly shows you the most interested, the most passionate, and the most qualified candidates first. This is a huge time saver, hours and hours of save time. And it helps people like me find the people who can function in a non-traditional work environment like microworks. In other words, ZipRecruiter works for me, and they'll probably work for you too. Post a job for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash row. And watch what happens. Odds are you'll find a human resource that just happens to be a great fit for your company

in 24 hours or less. ZipRecruiter.com slash row. ZipRecruiter.com slash row. Partest Way to Higher Chapter 5, A Patient Man John was a patient man. His attraction to Peggy had been instantaneous and profound. Their courtship, a whirlwind of barely suppressed passion.

And now, as John stood at the altar, watching the object of his affection walk slowly toward him, his thoughts were those of a man whose patience was finally about to pay off. As Peggy drew ever closer and the organ heralded the coming of the bride, John recalled the day he'd proposed. At first Peggy had demurred. She said she'd think about it tomorrow. But John was persistent as well as patient, and eventually she said, yes. How happy he had been, how relieved. He knew that the most eligible debutante in Atlanta had accepted proposals from five other men, all with more to offer than he could ever hope to match. He knew that she had broken

off all those engagements. But now, here they were. Peggy in her wedding gown and John in his tuxedo, standing just a few feet apart. The ceremony was a blur. Scriptures were quoted, songs were sung, the minister spoke sacred words, and all of Atlanta's society bore witness. Then, the tricky part came. Before he got to the vows, the minister regarded the congregation and invited anyone present who might object to the union to speak now or forever hold their peace. John glanced out at the faces of those assembled in the crowded church and held his breath. He knew that several of Peggy's previous suitors were in attendance.

Would they object? What would he do if they did? The moment passed. John exhaled slowly, and when the minister asked the groom if he would love, honor, and cherish Peggy from this day forward, John stared into the face of his true love and said the only thing he could say. Nothing. Because the preacher was not talking to John. The preacher was talking to John's best friend, a man named Berrien Upshaw, read to his friends, Today, Red was the man that Peggy was marrying. John had plenty of objections, but disinclined as he was to forever hold his peace.

He had no intention of speaking now. He proceeded with his plan instead. He smiled. He handed red the wedding band and applauded as his best friend married the love of his life. The following days, weeks and months were difficult for John. He knew his true love was in the arms of another man. But John couldn't really blame, Peggy. Red was a charmer.

He looked like a film star. He'd made a fortune as a Prohibition-era bootlegger, and he possessed a mercurial quality that made him irresistible to the fairer sex. John Marsh, on the other hand, was a mild-mannered public relations man who dabbled in journalism. As Peggy had told John when she broke their engaging, along with his heart, life is under no obligation to give us what we expect. Indeed.

But with respect to expectations, John knew something that Redd and Peggy did not. He knew them. He knew them better than they knew themselves or each other. John knew that Red expected a compliant and cooperative wife. He knew that Peggy expected a tolerative wife. He knew that Peggy expected a tolerant and devoted husband. In time, John believed their expectations would go unmet. And when they did, he knew that Red Upshaw would no longer give a damn about his sacred vows.

He'd be more likely to give his blushing bride a whack. And Peggy would never tolerate that. Two months went by before Red ran out of patience with the fiery woman who couldn't help but speak her mind. When she showed him a bit too much sass, he showed her the back of his hand. And that was that. Peggy moved out, and John was waiting to pick up the pieces. Before long, he proposed again. Peggy told him she'd think about it tomorrow. John smiled and said he'd heard that one yesterday. Peggy smiled back, and this time she said yes, straight away. and they lived happily ever after.

Sadly, ever after would last only 24 years. Peggy was killed by a drunk driver when she was just 48. But during her time with John, she didn't just find true love. She found her true voice. With John's encouragement, Peggy started to write. She wrote about love and passion, pride and prejudice, war and death, hope, and all the things in between. Some say she wrote the story of her own life.

Peggy never confirmed that. But then again, the most famous character she created was a strong-willed Southern Bell, a beautiful socialite named Pansy, whom every man wanted to wed. Peggy swore up and down that Pansy had nothing to do with her.

But she did choose for Pansy's husband a dashing mercurial bootleger, who she swore had nothing to do with Red. As for the character Pansy desired but could never possess, a man married to her best friend? No, that guy wasn't inspired by John Marsh, not at all. Whatever the truth was, the publishers loved Peggy's manuscript. They only had one change to make when it came to the 1,030,000. page novel, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and sell 30 million copies in the process.

They thought the name Pansy was too weak for the fiery character Peggy had pulled from thin air, and John convinced Peggy that the publishers were right. In real life, that's exactly how it happened. A dashing bootleger named Red Upshaw, frankly, didn't give a damn, while an average Joe named John Marsh knew with certainty that tomorrow would be another day. As for Margaret Mitchell, she'd written herself as a pansy, though her publisher knew she was really a scarlet. And as for everything else, well, that is gone with the wind.

If you ask the other John and Peggy, my parents, how they've managed to stay married for well over half a son, century, they'll credit an uncompromising level of honesty with each other. If you press them, though, you'll learn that their commitment to the truth did not extend to their children. Indeed, when it came to raising three boys on a public schoolteacher's salary, my parents lied like rugs. I remember a television commercial that used to air during Baltimore Orioles home games. It was for an amusement park in Ocean City, Maryland. According to the announcer, a visit there would amount to the time of my life. At that particular moment, my life had amounted to about nine

years. For the most part, I was satisfied with the way things were going. Then I saw the wild mouse. The wild mouse was a giant roller coaster that threatened to leap from our black and white television and smash through the wall of our tiny den. It shared the Ocean City Boardwalk with the roundup, the tilta whirl, and other mysterious control. traptions that plunged and spun this way and that. I'd never seen anything like them, a parade of machines devised for no purpose other than pure enjoyment. I remember the camera zooming in on a kid about my age. He was strapped into the wild mouse next to a pretty girl, his excitement teetering on the verge of rapture. I was transfixed.

Hey Peggy, get a load of these dingalings on the TV. I think they're going to puke on each other. My parents were sitting on the sofa behind me. Oh, those poor children, Mom said. Why would anyone stand in line all day just to get vomited on? Obviously, Peggy, those kids are deranged. Look at them. I searched the sea of jubilant faces for signs of idiocy or nausea. Isn't it sad, John, how some children need machines to have fun? It sure is, Pegg. It sure is. Later, another commercial appeared, this one for a movie called Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It was playing at the Senator, and according to the announcer, it was a thrilling film for the whole family, a must-see event. I had never been to the Senator before or any other movie theater.

I was captivated. Tell me something, Pegg. Why would anyone want to see the movie when they could read the book instead? books are so much more interesting. Well, John, as I understand it, movies are for children who can't read very well. Isn't that sad? It sure is, Pegg. It sure is.

In 1971, we didn't have the money for amusement parks or must-see events, but I never felt bad about missing such things. I was too busy feeling sorry for people who had to endure them. Hey, Dad, can we order a pizza tonight? A what? We had never eaten a pizza before, much less ordered one. The concept of food delivery was completely foreign. Bobby Price says his mother has a pizza pie delivered right to their house every Friday night, I said, and Chinese food every Wednesday. My father sighed and spoke

with a hint of sadness. Look, son, Bobby's mother doesn't know how to cook. It's not her fault they can't have normal food. Then, quietly to my mother. Peg, maybe you should call Miss Price, give her the recipe for your meatloaf casserole. Of course, John, that poor boy deserves a home-cooked meal. He sure does, Peg. He sure does. It was a strange sort of snobbery to develop at such an early age, this sympathy for the more fortunate, but that's precisely what my parents engendered, with duplicity and guile, they turned envy to pity. By the time I was 11, I felt nothing but compassion for classmates of mine who had been forced to wear the latest fashions. Sadly, they had no older cousins to provide them with a superior wardrobe of softer, sturdier, broken in alternatives. One Sunday, after church,

our neighbors came by with the slideshow from their most recent family vacation, hundreds of photos, photos from Yellowstone and Yosemite. The Branagans had stayed for hours and hours and told stories about Indians and geysers and wild bears. My brothers and I were spellbound. When they left, my dad smiled and waved as they pulled out of the driveway. But when he turned around, his expression spoke for him. Oh, those poor bastards, it said. Like a Greek chorus of one, my mother dabbed at her eyes with the Kleenex. Gosh, John, can you imagine flying all the way across the country just to take a walk in the woods? No, honey, I sure can't.

But then again, not everyone has a forest in their own backyard. That's a good point, John. That's a very good point. My parents shifted their gaze toward the large tract of woods just beyond our pasture and looked with satisfaction at the epicenter of the sensible, affordable amusements that kept my brothers and me occupied on a daily basis. A swift-running creek, a swamp of frogs and cat-tails,

an old wooden bridge, and a maze of hidden trails that might lead anywhere. Later, when I was less gullible, and TV commercials were more persuasive, a new parenting style would evolve, one that included phrases like, No, and because I said so. But when I entered the sixth grade, I did so with a firm understanding that movie theaters were for the illiterate, vacations for the unimaginative, and home delivery

for lazy housewives who couldn't cook. As for amusement parks, they were probably okay, if you didn't mind waiting in line all day for the chance to vomit all over your friends. Dumb? Well, are you sick of it yet? Are you sick of AI hogging up all the headlines and sucking up all the bandwidth? You find yourself wishing we lived in a simpler time? Do you miss the rotary phone? Well, get over it.

The genie is out of the bottle. The poop is out of the goose, I'm afraid. AI is here to stay. And every business in the country is asking themselves the same question. How do we make it work for us? Well, the answer to that question varies. but you'll find it in a free guide that you can get right now at netsuite.com slash mike. It's called demystifying AI.

It's totally free. It's essential reading for anybody trying to make sense of a future that appears to have arrived yesterday. NetSuite, of course, is the number one AI enterprise resource planning software out there, trusted by over 43,000 businesses. With NetSuite, you can use the AI of your choice. Scrock or Claude or chat, GPT, whatever else is out there to connect to your actual business data, all of it, and automate all of those tiresome, time-sucking, soul-deaddening manual processes. This is AI built into the system that's currently running your business.

Learn more at netsuite.com slash Mike. And while you're there, pick up their free business guide, demystifying AI. It's filled with super useful information. And again, it's free at NetSuite. dot com slash mike that's net sweet dot com slash how you doing mom i'm doing okay how you doing i'm doing all right you're on the podcast i'm on the podcast yeah it's happening oh like right Like right now? Why wait?

We're busy people. Okay. All right. Well, what do I do? Well, pretty much whatever you want. Have I called you at a bad time? Well, you told me you might be calling me two hours ago, so I was ready two hours ago. If you check your email, you'll see that I sent you a Zoom invite, but you didn't respond.

So I thought, well, you probably don't want to Zoom. Maybe you just want to talk. So now I'm just calling you and recording our conversation because literally dozens of fans of the way I heard it are desperate to hear your voice and wallow in what I'm sure will be a long list of words and wisdom. Oh, golly. Let me swallow this mouthful of food.

And I'll sit down at my desk here. I'll try not to disappoint. Did I really call you in the middle of dinner? Well, in the middle of preparation. And Dad found asleep, so we're okay. All right. Well, Dad can sleep and you and I can chat. Now, the people on the podcast, what I like to call the listeners, have just heard Chapter 5 of my book, which means they heard the story I wrote about Margaret Mitchell, and then the story about you and dad trying to raise your three sons.

Are you familiar with that body? I am familiar with that. Yes, that story was funny. I enjoyed it. Is it more or less the way you heard it, the way you remember it, as far as you know? Well, I would say there's some slight hyperbole in there. Explain what hyperbole means to some of my listeners who might not know that kind of fancy talk. Hyperbole is exaggeration.

It's based on. on fact, but there's a little bit of exaggeration in there. I'd say just a little. Like what parts? Well, Michael, you make us sound like terrible parents. Like we never did anything good for you. We deprived you of all kinds of entertainment. And that wasn't so.

I mean, we were raising children on a shoestring. That's true. Because your father was a teacher. teachers don't make a pile of money. And your mother stayed home with the children. Now, why are you subtly talking about yourself in the third person? I don't know, Mike. Don't be so particular.

I'm just saying it's a tell you have. Because when you lapse into bouts of hyperbole and exaggeration, because you're fundamentally honest, I've noticed that you refer to yourself in the third person. And I think that gives you a certain extra agency to prevaricate. Well, I just said that your father was asleep. That's third person. No.

And your mother had a mouthful of food. All right. In the story. No, no, wait. It's rare that you misspeak. But when you tell me that my father is asleep, that's not third person. He's my father and he's not talking. To talk about yourself in the third person is different, isn't it?

Mm-hmm. A little bit. All right. I didn't know you were going to be so specific. pardon me I just wanted to say that you portrayed your parents in a light that wasn't

altogether accurate although it was based on it was based on fact but you did prevaricate just a little bit look but the broad strokes are true dad was incredibly parsimonious

and you both were very inventive I mean you did in genre in me a certain pity for the well off. You really did, whether you meant to or not, and I thought that was kind of ingenious. Really? Well, I don't believe that was our intention.

You know, let's be fair here. We gave our children a lot of experiences. We went, we took you lots of places. We gave you a lot of, yeah, you have a nice history, Mike. You did a lot of stuff growing up. I mean, we took you to the circus. We took you to the fair. We took you to the zoo.

We joined the YMCA so that you could go swimming every day in the summer and have swimming lessons. So don't come off as this, you know, this poor deprived child, which you weren't. Now, so it's true that when we took you to the circus, we packed our own snacks. We didn't buy the cotton candy and the popcorn. corn and the cracker jacks and the peanuts that were so expensive. We had our own little bag of treats. So that's true. You know, I will confess to that.

And when we went to the fair, we packed a picnic lunch and they had picnic tables. And instead of buying the incredibly expensive food in the fair, we had our own picnic basket. I vividly remember all of that. But the thing that you're forgetting is that you took it a step further. Like I never, when you pulled out the popcorn, I remember at the circus, you pulled the popcorn out of your purse. And the whole proposition wasn't, oh, no, we're too poor to buy the expensive popcorn. It was, our popcorn is better. It's handier.

It's more convenient. We don't have to get up. We don't have to pay for it, obviously. That was just one small thing. But it was more about look at all those poor people standing in line waiting to buy popcorn, where we have it with us right now because we're forward-thinking people. Because we plan ahead. There might have been a little bit of that. Yes, I do confess that we might have led you to believe that you were altogether fortunate for having a special popcorn that came from your mother's purse.

Yes, right. And never did I feel like I was missing out, you know, going to the YMCA and swimming. And, I mean, that was the whole point. I never felt neglected until I got older and realized the degree to which you weren't manipulating us. But fundamentally, the whole story is a compliment on child rearing at a time when money was tight and you didn't want your kid to feel like victims. Yeah, I guess that's true. money was tight and we tried to give you the experiences that were wholesome for children you know without breaking the bank so to speak and our popcorn was superior it was better than

the other the other was filled with butter and flavoring ours was just plain popcorn and it was much better for you right because it it allowed us to use our imaginations to wonder what normal popcorn tasted like, the kind with flavor in it. Of course, you didn't know what you were missing because you never had that kind. And when we took you to the movies, we always took our own snacks, too. Nowadays, they don't allow snacks to come in your purse. They frown on that. They want you to buy, you know.

But back then, it didn't matter. When's the last time you actually went to a movie? I mean, obviously, pre-COVID, you haven't been out of the apartment. But when's the last time you were in a theater? Oh, my goodness, Mike. Trying to remember what we saw. I can't even remember. You know, maybe about five years ago we went to a movie.

Isn't that terrible? Well, I remember you telling me you went to see, you wanted to see a film, and you wound up walking into, was it something about Mary? Oh, yeah. That's right. You know when we go to the movies and when we're on vacation,

in the winter when we go to Florida and we stay with your brother for sometimes a couple of months or a month, sometimes we'll go to the movies when we're down there. Yes, we did. We went into one movie and we were really shocked.

I think it was something about Mary. Somebody was standing at the door and they had something in their hair that was really disgusting. And I think we turned around and walked out and we went into the little theater right next to it. It was one of these complexes where they had five movie theaters off of a hallway. Yeah, and we sneaked into the next one.

And we liked that movie better. Oh, that was Mr. Holland's opus. It has been a while since we went to the movies. But it was good. So you went to see a heartwarming story of a music teacher and wound up seeing Cameron Diaz standing at the door with a suspicious substance causing her hair to stick straight up. Yeah. Actually, we went to that one first,

something about Mary, because it sounded wholesome. I probably thought it was a religious film. And we were shocked. And we turned around and walked out. We didn't stay real long. I'm sure it was a good movie, and we didn't give it a fair chance, but Mr. Holland's opus was really great. Okay, well, look, you're on the podcast because you were the subject of the previous story,

and I told the people on Facebook I was going to invite you on, and they wanted me to ask you all sorts of questions. But it's all book-related. Everybody wants to know if there's a third book coming, and what it feels like to be, you know, as ancient as you. you are and somehow or another begun a whole new third act in your life and so forth and so on. So if you want to brag about yourself, this is the time to do it. Well, I am still upright.

You know, I'm in pretty good health. And I do love to write. And I seem to be able to do it fairly well. And I am on my third book. I have finished about, I've done about 10 stories, but a few of them need more work. So I'm finished about seven stories, but I have a long way to go. So it will probably be another year before it's ready. And this is the fun part.

I mean, the writing part is really, and you know that yourself. It's really enjoyable to sit down and write. The not-so-fun part is after you finish and then you hand it to the publisher. and he has all kinds of requests. And then you've got to flog it. You have got to flog that thing until you hate it. And then you have to keep talking about how much you love it. Well, you know, this has been really unusual because my book was launched April 14th this year.

The same time that the pandemic came about, or as you like to say, the plague, the plague was launched. The same time my book was launched. And, you know, marketing a book during a pandemic is very interesting. Thank heavens for Zoom. I've done a lot of book events on Zoom. But I do miss live audiences. Live people are... They give you a lot more feedback.

They're so much more interesting than the dead ones. Exactly. Well, you know what I'm doing tomorrow? I mean, this is Sunday right now when you and I are recording this. spending every day this week, I will be talking about Discovery Plus and 6 degrees. And it's going to be super weird because obviously there was enormous news last week and that's going to be sucking all the air out of the room. So think about me. I'll be on the Today Show at some point, Tuesday or Wednesday, I think. Oh, I'm going to write that down. Mike on the Today Show. Okay, Tuesday or Wednesday.

Oh, look it up. Look it up. Are you going to be anywhere else? Yeah, there's a whole long list of things. There's a satellite media tour on Wednesday or Thursday, which means I'll just be, you know, on dozens of different stations all over. I just sit down here in my office where I am right now, and I'll be Skyping and zooming in.

And it's really funny because, you know, now I don't have to get on a plane. I don't have to fly to New York. I don't have to check, you know, an expensive hotel. and I don't have to spend four days and cars running all over town. What I do instead is I just sit here and reach four times more people, but go completely out of my mind because you're just sitting here for 12 hours in a row over and over and over. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It could get boring, I think. Well, do you have a minute for an unsolicited critique?

Because I have had time to watch your first episode. Of six degrees? Yeah, yeah. I finally figured out how to do it. I haven't figured out how to get it on the TV yet. I know we can do it. But so far, I've just watched it on the computer. Dad hasn't seen it yet, but I really enjoyed it.

And so did my dentist. I went to the dentist the other day, and he asked me if I'd seen it yet. I said, yeah, he said, we really enjoyed it. So that's good news. And I think my dermatologist might have seen it too. She was in such a hurry, you know. she gets you in and out and hurry but anyway i loved it i didn't realize it's very highly produced i mean there's so many special effects and and it's informative and it's educational i love chuck

every time i turn around there's chuck there's another character and you know it's really funny it's kind of funny because i sort of had a drink every time i saw chuck it was like a little drinking game with me. And I thought, oh, there's Chuck. I'll have a little sip of this. Oh, there's Chuck. He's a policeman. Oh, look. He's, yeah, anyway, I liked it. That's not the game you want to play with this show, because Chuck is literally in every scene, upstaging me at every possible turn. But, yeah, I know. I'm glad you like it. I hope Dad likes it being a history teacher, you know, he'll be critiquing it pretty hard. I'm going to show it to him tonight. I'm going to bring it up on my computer again tonight,

and we'll watch the first episode again. I'll let you know what he thinks about it, but he'll like it. I mean, my guest today, Tomolbenis is an American giant, and I'll tell you why. Tom understands on a fundamental level that the business of mining is a non-negotiable prerequisite of our civilization, and our economic independence, just like the business of making things. American Giant knows this, which is why they committed themselves 16 years ago

to make all their excellent clothing right here in this country. It wasn't easy, but they did it. They sourced locally grown cotton, and they built factories in towns across the nation where they could hire hardworking locals who cared about making a quality product. And then they went about the business of gently reminding people that when you buy a piece of clothing from American Giant, you're not just buying a high-quality sweatshirt or T-shirt or another pair of jeans. You're investing in a local supply chain. You're supporting communities from the Carolinas to California. And you're getting a piece of clothing that won't just survive the wash.

You're getting a garment that'll get better with age. Check out their high-quality staples, hoodies, teas, denim, built to be worn. year after year at American-giant.com slash Mike. It's quality you can feel and a true American success story that you can be proud to support. Use code Mike. Get 20% off your order at American-giant.com slash Mike. American Giant, American Made.

American Giant, American Made. It's hard for us to be objective. you know, we like everything. Well, most things that our children do. This is not true. You've been brutally honest with me over the years on a number of occasions about the various ways I've disappointed you in my chosen field.

Well, I have to say this show is a lot cleaner than dirty jobs. You look a lot cleaner and you haven't done anything disgusting so far. And you really look good, Mike. You look really fit. Well, and so does Chuck. You know what? Chuck lost 30, 35 pounds. I think 30 pounds.

Wow. Yeah. Maybe you were a good influence, you think? The fact that you... I know I was. You know? Yeah. I hadn't been in the office for a long time and I went down there and I lost 40.

And, you know, Chuck was just enormous at the time. I thought, no, that's no good. So, yeah, during the pandemic, he's walked, like five or six miles a day. Well, that's good. You know, over the course of my adulthood, I've probably lost about 500 pounds. I've gone on a lot of diets.

And really, I should be the size of a little charm, like a charm on a charm bracelet. I have lost so much weight over the years. But I just can't seem to stick with it. Now, who cares? You're 82. Eat what you want, right when you feel like it. Say whatever comes to mind.

I will be 83 in a couple of weeks. Isn't that scary? Oh, my God. That's right. And you know what? This year just sucks so bad. Wait a minute. Last year, I guess.

Well, this year's not off to a great start. But you guys had your 60th wedding anniversary. Couldn't do anything for you. I know. I know. Well, we'll catch up. Well, we'll get together. I mean, in the gift category.

Oh. You'll be able to give us something pretty sad. we are dying to go someplace any place you know what i did this morning we went to church and guess who we took with us you will never guess you physically went we physically went to church this morning we've been doing that um the sanctuary is large and we have a skeletal congregation coming maybe 20 people and the rest are on zoom and we took someone near and dear to our hearts with us this morning. Who?

We took Freddy. You sent us two Freddie masks. And they have pictures of me. I mean, these are real like photographs of Freddy. So we took Freddy to church this morning. And he said, where are we? I've never seen a place on this. He said, my biped never takes me to church.

Very funny. Very funny. I think he enjoyed it. There was a. a solo today. And it was called his eyes on the sparrow. And I think Freddie like that

because I've seen him eyeing the birds in your backyard. Well, I've seen him more than eyeing them. In fact... Oh, no. Yeah, this is terrible. I don't think I've ever wrote about this or certainly told you, but he's...

We were coming back from a walk and there was a rustling in the ivy and he jumped over the retaining wall and a bird had fallen out of a nest. It's a baby bird. And Fred picked up the bird in his mouth and I still wasn't sure what it was and he ran over to me. And, you know, he kind of reared up on his hind legs and all that was sticking out were the little bird's feet. And I said, oh, Fred, give me the bird. Open your mouth. and he bit down and swallowed

and the bird was gone. He swallowed a hole. Yeah. And, um... So his eye was on this parrot, really? I mean... And his teeth were on this sparrow. Oh, it's just, you know, it's just got, look.

Nature tooth and 12. Look, everybody thinks he's just this adorable little creature, you know, and he is. But in the end, he'll eat you alive. Well, I mean, like, it is nature, really. it's you know he's programmed he's programmed to catch to catch small things and he did

hey if you have anything else you want to say go ahead and say it because we haven't talked for 20 minutes I can't imagine anybody's really going to listen to us do this but you really never know I'm sure they hung up long time ago where they turned turned it off no I don't have anything profound to say

I have to go in the kitchen now and fix some supper for us, your father and your mother. Is he still sleeping? I don't hear him, so I think he is. He had an extra long walk today. You know what? So he's probably, oh, he's pushed. What are you having for dinner?

What are you making? I was going to have a salad, but I forgot to buy tomatoes. So I'm having some roast beef sandwiches and a little platter of cold veggies and dip. I've got broccoli and carrots and some. cauliflower. So we're eating healthy. You don't have to worry about us. Okay. All right. Well, before I say goodbye, I need to remind people that they can download my book, listen to the audio version of it, wherever people do that. And yeah, because I promised the publisher I would tell people that. So I'm a promise made

is a debt unpaid, mom, as you may have heard. Well, Michael, I don't know why you guys didn't send me some books. You sent me one book. And I gave that to my sister. and now I thought I had a book I thought I had a book on the table because I have read it but it was your book cover but it was on a dummy book. It was another book inside.

It was very disappointing. Chuck told me this. Just so people know, what happens is before you get the book off the press, you have to start hawking it. So the publisher sends you old books.

doesn't matter what it is, and they put the cover on it, so you have something to hold up, right, when they take your picture. And so that's what we did. And we were in Baltimore, and you were there, and we were doing an ad for the book. And you must have taken that book home. Because Chuck told me, when he told you that I wanted to call you and talk to you about chapter five, that you picked up the book and started reading chapter five, which is not chapter five in my book.

Absolutely not. this was about women being in charge. And it didn't make sense. And I didn't remember a title as, you know, from your book like this. Anyway. So, okay, so maybe Chuck will send me another book. He might. He might not.

You know, I got one here. I'll send it to you. Okay, because my sister was just desperate for one. It's 2495. Oh, okay. The book checks in the mail, hon. Don't expect it any time soon. Your brother's just got their crissue.

Christmas gift. Actually, you know what? The paperback version's coming out. So sit tight. I'll get you one of those for free. Oh, is it? Oh, that's even better. That's not as heavy for our three-day cans.

I can read that in book. In bed. Yes, I do need to read it again. All right, mom. I got to go. I love you. I love you too. All right.

Enjoy dinner. Say hi to that. Is Chuck still there? Is Chuck there? No, no. He was back east, but he's back. He's back in L.A. waiting for me to finish this recording so I can send it to him so he can post it.

Oh, okay. All right, honey. Well, this was fun. You call me any time. Do I have to record it each time? No, no, you don't. In fact, I prefer you not to. And if you do, you let me know ahead of time because you never know what I might say.

Thanks for coming by my humble little podcast, mother. I do love you. All right, honey. I wouldn't miss your podcast. Love them. All right. It's a privilege to be on it. Bye.

Go, goodbye. Bye-bye. Well, there she is. My mother. I hope you enjoyed her. I miss her. And I apologize for the audio, but I couldn't figure out our normal microphone,

so I'm just talking you off the computer. Anyway, let me know how boring this was over on my Facebook page. Thank you, and I'll talk to you next week. If you work in University Maintenance, Granger considers you an MVP, because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Granger is your trusted partner. offering the products you need all in one place

from HVAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more and all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock so your team always gets the win call 1-800 Granger visit granger.com or just stop by granger for the ones who get it done the ocean delights us some marvel at the colorful world below the surface the ocean feeds us others find nourishment in its bounty

The ocean teaches us how our everyday choices impact even the deepest places. The ocean moves us, whether we're riding a wave or soaking in its breathtaking beauty. The ocean connects us. Find your connection at Monterey Bay Aquarium.org slash connects.