Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Calling Elvis: Toronto Mike'd #611

Episode Date: April 4, 2020

Mike calls Elvis to test his new cable.

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And the Keitner Group. They love helping buyers find their dream home. Text Toronto Mike to 559. I'm Mike from Toronto Mike. And this Saturday afternoon, we're calling Elvis. How's North Oshawa today, Elvis? Little gloomy weather-wise, but otherwise it's same old, same old. Elvis, how's North Oshawa today, Elvis?

Little gloomy weather-wise, but otherwise it's same old, same old. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I guess. But this is a Saturday, so it's not the same as yesterday because you probably had work yesterday. Yeah, I mean, the joke is that every day seems the same. Every day is either a Wednesday or a Saturday. It's kind of the same. But yeah, you're right. I mean, no work. So that just means that instead of sitting in my office talking to other people, I'm sitting in my office talking to you. work, but the people deserve an Elvis update because so much has changed since we last talked. But let's start with you. I know it's the same old, same old, but what is that? What does the day look like in the Elvis household?

Well, I mean, we have three little kids here. So three kids, 10 and under. So it's interesting. You know, my Mrs. Elvis is a teacher. So last week she was busy getting ready for virtual teaching, which starts on Monday. And then, of course, the kids will be doing that as well. So I think our life is going to get a little bit more complicated because this week I was able to work and, and Mrs. Elvis was able to, you know, wrangle the kids. Um, next week of course is going to be a little bit different and she is also going to have to work as well. So yeah, patients will be required

by all. But other than that, I mean, we have a pretty good routine going. We have our, like, once we finish our day, we sit down together for a dinner, go out and walk the dog quickly. He's an old guy now, so he doesn't need a big walk. We drop him back off at home, walk around the block, come home, watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, and then kids off to bed and then flip on the Netflix and just zone out. It's amazing how adaptable we we are like that we can sort of, yeah, there's a few days of transition, maybe a week of transition, but you fall into new routines. Like you basically adapt to the new normal pretty quickly. I absolutely agree that there was a transition period. I noticed that at work a lot, there was the week before last, there was a lot of people who were really struggling with, with the, with the adjustment and sort of what the new normal was.

And this week, well, you know, things continue to escalate and things continue to get worse before they get better. It seems as though people are a little bit more resigned to what's happening in the world and are refocusing. I'm lucky to be able to work at a company where we're still full steam ahead. People are refocusing on work and back to being as efficient as we possibly can and productive, but certainly nowhere near what we were when we were in the office.

Now, we won't name the place you work, but any layoffs or salary reductions? That's the big thing right now. My wife's work at a big meeting about salary cuts across the board in lieu of mass layoffs. Negative here. There is no talk of any layoffs or any salary reductions. In fact, we have a very large sales staff and there is talk of the way in which we're going to be able to compensate them for obviously having a variable component of their role that is, or their compensation that is just not going to be able to

be achieved, putting a lot of stress on people and how they're going to pay for things. So I think my company is in a lucky position where we're hopefully going to be able to announce something that will take care of our sales team and alleviate some of that stress. I know Facebook has done something interesting. I think they gave all of their employees $1,000. I could be wrong on this, but what I've heard is they basically guaranteed everyone's performance evaluation this year will be in exceeded expectations, I think,

$1,000 in cash. And I think they've guaranteed all their salespeople's full OTE, basically guaranteeing everybody that you get 100% of your pay, like as if though you achieved all your sales quota, which is really generous, but obviously they have the funds to be able to do that. Right. That's awesome because I mean, we're at a point now in the pandemic here, I don't know how many weeks in we are, three or so, but now we're at a point where I now know a lot more people who either got laid off because of tough times and they were laid off and hopefully to be brought back when things get better again. Or experiencing like if they're freelance people, like they simply all their work is dried up. And then I have

performer friends like musicians who have no gigs. Like there's just an incredible number of people listening to us right now and that are in our circles who are just hurting, hurting financially right now. It's really, it's really gotta be tough on people's psyches and emotional wellbeing. Yeah. It's, it's,

I mean, I've, I, I, for whatever reason, my, my, my buddy,

my close friends are, are, are lucky. They're, they're, they're either teachers or their wives are teachers or, you know, a buddy of mine is in the construction business and he has a lot of government contracts. And so they are, they, they, they're full steam ahead and they have to work, but he, his, his type of construction is

one where he's able to, uh, practice social distancing. distancing. And then I have another buddy of mine who works for a company where they test equipment and certify it. And he's still going into the office. They basically have shut down everyone from going into the office, except for these testers. And so therefore they have the space to be socially distanced. So he like, he, you know, he goes into the lunchroom and eats lunch by himself and basically doesn't come into contact with anybody for, you know, an extended period of time. So yeah, my, my friends have been relatively lucky. It's been great.

Good news. Now, how are your parents doing? Everybody healthy? Uh, well, I mean, why does Jarvis always want to come and hang out with me? Now we're not, the video is just for you, always want to come and hang out with me? They're both here. Both of them. The video is just for you, but come over here and say hi to Elvis. Come over here. We're not actually in public with the video here, but come in front of this camera. Hey, Jarvis. Hi, Jarvis.

How are you? Good to see you. And Morgan, you got to get your head over and over. Can you let Morgan in? Hey, Morgan. How are you? Good to see you. Morgan just had a birthday. Hi. Yes.? Hey, Morgan. How are you? Good to see you.

Morgan just had a birthday. Hi. Yes. Happy birthday, Morgan. My little girl, Holly, has a birthday on Tuesday. Elvis says happy birthday to you both because, yeah, yours is Tuesday there and Jarvis's is on April 9th. So he's turning six. Oh, right on. Cool.

Okay, guys. Daddy's going to finish his chat with his friend. But you're good people. They have their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles there. Okay, yeah, go be good, but don't be too loud. Thank you. Yeah, this is, I call it the lowering of, I call it the pandemic-worthy bar.

Like, I accept stuff in the pandemic I never would have tolerated. So are they playing now? Are they playing in the basement now? They're right now on James's bed. They like to go, they play on James's bed. They like to go. They play on James's bed. So yeah, they're around the corner, but hopefully they, yeah, it's fine. Whatever. It's pandemic. But okay. I'm going to play a jam for you.

And then we're going to talk about it here. So here's a little jam. First of all, how's, how's Mary doing? I listened to the, your little recording with her about Kenny Rogers, and that was very sweet. I saw your comment there, yeah. That was well-received, that little impromptu. It's not even a numbered episode.

It's in the same pile as when Dean Blundell attacks. It's in the... Amazing. For Kenny, but really for Mary. But but yeah she's uh you know like she said so profoundly on that episode uh everything ends right there's something yes everything like and you and i who we're right now we're in our 40s and you're a survivor but you're feeling you're healthy right now you're cancer free and you're healthy right now. You're cancer-free and you're healthy right now. Correct. Yes.

I don't know what that, like, I mean, I had pneumonia in the fall, so I'm not sure like what compromises my immunity, if at all, more, the fact that I had pneumonia or the fact that I'm a cancer survivor or if it doesn't matter at all. So who knows? I had pneumonia, I'm going to say that if it doesn't matter at all. So who knows? I had pneumonia. I'm going to say that was two winters ago. You know, and yeah, walking, whatever they call it.

The one that I, you know, I kept biking and stuff, but I had pneumonia and you're right. I don't know. I'm just trying to, I'm trying to be as careful as possible, but we'll get back to all that. Let's play a little jam here. I can't hear anything. Am I supposed to hear something? Interesting. I wonder if it's your headphone setup, because normally on Zoom,

the guest I have on Zoom can hear the music I play, but you cannot. I'm quite literally just plugged into my laptop, my friend. Why don't you tell me what song it is and i'll i'll uh picture it in my mind well i'm letting it breathe a bit here but it is bill withers lean on me oh yes okay but now you know the reason i wanted to do this episode not only to catch up with you was because uh i made a radical change if you will to the way I record these remotes because I was so unhappy with

the quality and I couldn't figure it out and I was changing all these variables everywhere and then it's basically I realized the one variable I hadn't changed is the fact that I connect the laptop with zoom I connect that to the board I record

through via bluetooth and it hit me like what there must be another way to connect it. And of course there is. It's the what the hell is that called? The three and a half millimeter headphone jack. So I bought a cable yesterday that I could connect. I can plug into the headphone jack on the laptop and then the other side comes into the board. And it means I don't use bluetooth anymore and it really improved everything and that's why i wanted to have this chat for that reason but you are the first zoom guest i've had that couldn't hear my music so now i need to figure that out but uh yesterday i know you're not up to date with your toronto mic episodes but yesterday i had had Stu Stone and Cam Gordon and Ian Service.

Do you remember Ian? Yeah, I saw that. Isn't that like, aren't they on? That's like the second time in two weeks or something. Oh, they come on every Friday. Yeah. Oh, okay. Is that a pandemic thing

or is that like a regular occurrence thing? No, it's a pandemic thing. Gotcha, okay. Spread some cheer during the pandemic every Friday. But the, in fact i could give you the zoom link and you could join us next friday if you're not on a work meeting or something but sure uh all three people on that zoom could hear the music i played the way i'm playing it now and i'm just wondering why you can't but this is all stuff i can noodle but it's interesting you can't yeah okay just looking at my stuff

huh okay so yeah bill withers died i don't know if you caught that news i did that's sad obviously i mean lean on me is an iconic song though i i'm i'm i'm not a big uh i have to admit i'm not a big, I have to admit, I'm not a big, huge fan of Lean On Me, but it was obviously, it's a big song. It's an iconic song. The song that, the version that we probably grew up with, that was not his version, correct? Wasn't there like a version that came out in the 80s or 90s that we would have listened to? A band called Club Nouveau. That's right. Right. So that would have been the one that

we knew right right you're right that's the first time i heard lean on me and then uh this song my daughter loves the older daughter is uh easy like no uh i almost said easy like sunday morning that's lionel richie that's different but the songs are actually similar now that i think about it but ain't no sunshine right yes ain't no sunshine when she's gone but i thought lean on me is interesting because if you listen you know the lyrics are you know lean on me when you're not strong and i'll be your friend i'll help you carry on and then it talks about one day i'm gonna need somebody to lean on but we're not allowed to lean on anybody right now unless they're in our little pods. It's over, man. It's over.

What do you think the overall... Do you think there's going to be... Sorry to get off of that. Yeah, sure. You probably want to do a proper obituary. No, I just wanted to play lean on me. What do you think? Do you think that there are going to be long long lasting social changes as a result of this? Or do you like the P some of the people I work with,

I think that there was a hope and a desire that at some point in time, it's just like going to be over and we've ripped the bandaid off and we go back and, you know, I, I, I'm not necessarily, I don't think that that's going to happen. I think that this is probably going to to linger which is going to make it even worse for a lot of people like we you know like there may be things that come back and stuff but I think that sounds like COVID-19 is here to stay and then you know further to that you know what kind of social distancing remains in place or just becomes part of the new normal like is the handshake officially dead i know we talked about this before but yeah or some of the other things that we talked about like will we have to queue for for certain things like in perpetuity i think for sure there's going to be a link the effects just the psychological effect i think we're looking at at least 18 months i think

of people basically a lot of the stuff we're that's being pounded into our heads, like for survival, like this is a pandemic. To survive the pandemic and to help, what do we keep saying, plank the curve, however they say it. To do that, you must do this, this, this, this. It's not like you can just press a button one day in like August or something and say, okay, things are normal. It's not.

No, no, no, no. It's going to be many months, 18 months at least, where people will carry that and will basically, no one's going to shake. Most people will probably avoid shaking hands and things like that. I think a lot of the practices we have now will continue. And then I don't know, like I remember after 9-11, I was feeling, no, I always think it's 9-11. That was a whole different sensation. But during Katrina, I distinctly remember thinking to myself, oh my God, there's thousands of people in the Superdome

right now who, and I was reading these things about what's happening in the Louisiana Superdome. And I'm like, there's no way you could ever just enjoy a sporting event in that building again, like forever, this will change everything. And then at some point things were completely normal and they win a Superbowl in that building or that, that team wins a Superbowl.

And I just think possibly at some point things are pretty normal, but I think it's time this culture, this society loses the handshake as a greeting. What do you think? I think it's time that we abandon that practice. I never loved that practice. In fact, I disliked it. But it was like if you didn't do it

and you didn't show how strong you are of the handshake, you were somehow less of a man. Like there was something wrong with you like do i want to do business with this guy at least as if the two things had anything to do with each other what are your thoughts on the handshake uh if we were to fast forward you know five years into the future well i mean there's a video out there of mike pence talking about yes yes oh jarvis please be nice to your little sister she loves you okay go work it out yeah Mike Pence saying that I mean so Mike's Mike Pence was saying that basically like in politics

like that's part of the that's part of the norm like that's how I think he said that's how we do business or that's how you do business so yeah I think there could very well be like a generational divide, perhaps, you know, in the short term, there could be people that, and I'm trying to think of another equivalent of something that like old people do that, you know, younger people don't do anymore. Pay with cash. That could be it. Yeah, it could be, but that's not real. I mean, that's not disruptive because you can still pay with cash, right?

Like I'm trying to, it's a good, I guess it's a good example. I'm trying to think of like something that an old person definitely does. And we would just never do that. Um, but you know, like occasionally you pay with cash, but, but I think there's, I think now paying with cash carries with it, like germ spreading connotation, but like an old person does like a younger person doesn. But like an old person does, like a younger person doesn't look at an older person with disdain because they pay with cash, but you could very well see in the, you know, in the future, if someone tried to shake your hand, you would,

you would say no. And then that, then there would be like this social tension right between the generations. Like casual racism. Like we old people. Yes. That's probably a good one. That's probably a good one. Casual racism. Yeah. Yeah. people. Yes, that's probably a good one. That's probably a good one. Casual racism. Yeah, yeah. That's probably a really good one. And I wonder if there's probably going to be a period like that, right?

Where you've got like the older folks of the world that are going to be, you know, insistent that, you know, hey, I'm never going to give up this handshake for whatever ridiculous reason. And then there's going to be other people on the other end that are militant about that. Like they'll get offended if someone, you know, extends their hand. Right. I don't know. It'll be weird. It'll be weird. It could very well be the end of it.

Do you know anybody who's not practicing social, what do we call it? Physical distancing? I do not know anyone who is doing that. Well, non-essential workers, I mean. Yeah, no, I don't know. I don't know anyone. I mean, and Iessential workers, I mean. Yeah, no, I don't know. I don't know anyone. I mean, and I think that, you know, there are like, for instance, my brother today went to get

his winter tires taken off of his car. But, and I'm waiting to do this as well with my dealership because they emailed me what they're going to do. It's actually quite interesting. And he messaged me today. And quite literally, the mechanic, everyone who encountered him is like full hazmat suit, essentially. So, you know, my dealership emailed me and said that we're working on a system by which you book your appointment in advance. You pay in advance, you pay in advance, and then we will get it to the point where you can drive up and you will not have to get out of your car and we'll change all four of your tires for you. So things like that, like I'm hearing about people doing things like that,

which technically is like, you know, we're getting closer to going out and doing stuff. But there are things like, you know, you don't have to get your winter tires off, but it's actually not good to drive around with winter tires in this kind of weather. So at some point in time, we got to move on. Right. But yeah, so but I don't know anyone who's not social distancing. Thankfully, I do know a friend of mine who works for 911. She's a 911 operator. And I was messaging with her today. And she mentioned that people are calling 911 to report people who are not social distancing. And I said, are you guys, like, are you guys, I don't know how loud that is compared to. No, because these mics are so unidirectional.

Gotcha. I don't think. So it's loud for me, but I asked her, I'm like, so are the police actioning those? And she said, absolutely. Like the police are quite literally, you know, like if you call 9-1-1 on someone, they will go out and they will attend to that call. Oh, wow. Okay.

Because I would think that's not a, that's like you call the police number directly. You don't call 9-1-1 for that. No, that is, yeah, they are, they're doing it. They're going out. Ride out your neighbors. Absolutely. Yeah, exactly. Now yesterday, okay, yesterday I had to, I bought a cable, the one that They're doing it. They're going out and... Ride out your neighbors. Absolutely. Yeah, exactly. Now, yesterday, okay, yesterday I had to...

I bought a cable, the one that we're testing right now. Thank you very much, Elvis. And I bought it at Staples. And the way it worked is I drove to the Staples near Sherway Gardens there, and I park in a special spot, and I phone a number. So I did this yesterday. And I phone them, and I give them my order number. And they basically, they come out out and they pop open my trunk, trunk, and I, they leave it in the trunk and

then I drive off. It's like grocery delivery at Loblaws. Yeah. Or yeah. Loblaws. Grocery pickup. Right. Exactly.

Okay. So yesterday also, uh, Monica had a big order at Longo's and, uh, I, I drive up to, they have these big trucks in the parking lot, like 18 wheelers or whatever. And then I, all right. All right. So I drive up to the guys at the 18 wheelers and I tell them my- It's amazing. I don't listen to your podcast, but I'm guessing that this doesn't happen with any other guests except for me. No, I think it's because it's a Saturday. So Monica doesn't think I am doing any real work. I know paid work today.

What? Yeah. Don't drink my beer. Okay. Pick them up and then let me do this. Finish your recording. Okay. Yeah.

That's pretty much because it's a Saturday. Like, uh, cause I actually, I'm still doing, uh, paid recordings. Uh,

not as much as I was, but, uh, so I'm trying to like i think as i okay so basically yeah long goes in lobla same thing as a pickup there's no contact in those things blah blah blah so yeah things like that have emerged which is which is good because i can't bike to my no frills anymore even though i have a really nice uh blue jays mask that monica sewed for me but uh which was quite controversial at the time but is less controversial today than it was then things changed very quickly yeah i was gonna like you're pro are you pro mask or are you just doing that to make michelle happy uh morgan happy i know monica sorry monica wow michelle where did that come from yeah there's too many m's in this family. So did you do that to make?

At first I did. And then I like it now. It gives me it makes me feel a little more comfortable. But the key there is that the two things. One is that mask is not a mask that you've taken away from any frontline health care workers. That is because people like to say, oh, don't wear a mask. We need them for the nurses and doctors and et cetera, cleaners. And no, we're not. That's, this is something she made upstairs. Secondly, this does not replace social distancing. You still practice the two meter rule. Okay. It's

not like, oh, I don't have to practice the two meter rule because I have my Blue Jay mask on. It's just an additional layer. And from everything i've read uh there's no danger or harm and it might help so uh i know the cdc just said that they think all americans should do that so yeah there was a lot of if you're right there was a lot of debate about that though um i think part of the part of the fear is that like you just said if people start wearing masks then they they cease to social distance which is obviously not right what they want right right because as we've said many times or maybe it's just me saying it uh a lot of people are dumb yeah they are and you can get you can get droplets in your eye too right like it's not just going to go in your mouth or your nostril it can go right in your eye like yeah all those openings your ears right like uh i don't know oh my you're

probably your asshole too like i don't know right i should start wearing underwear for like an additional an additional layer one night you wear underwear on your head i practically do when i wear that mask but one nice thing that's come out of this i don't know if it's a nice thing but it's interesting is that the uh ridley funeral home which is my uh my local funeral home yes your local your local right right okay your local funeral great uh they're ordering masks from monica oh, really? Because they're front line. They still have funerals. They have many different rules now, but they still have the funerals and they have front line workers at the funeral

home. So as to protect them, this is like a they're washable, right? So you wear them for a funeral and then you wash them and blah, blah, blah. And Monica did a lot of homework into this. Anyway, they're microbial mike mike antimicrobial i can't say that word uh fabric and etc etc but she's making like 10 of these things for ridley funeral home right now can she make five of them for the for the monaco family and then um you just do is you revealed your secret identity

that's fine and then uh and then when I go and visit my units, I can swing by and pick them up. I understand you've been visiting your unit often. Well, hey, that doesn't change in the pandemic, my friend. It's not the end of the world or anything here. I think it does change because I don't know what your lifestyle has become uh but prior to that friday the 13th that was it so prior to march 13 every single weekday from 8 a.m to 5 p.m i was home alone yes completely alone

yeah you too okay since that day i've never been alone there's no i come down here sometimes and i tell the kids okay this is a corporate recording you actually have to stay upstairs i didn't say that today but um because they're going nuts by the way this is how this is my new normal it's like living in a what is happening is someone dying over there hold on morgan come on the mic and tell us what's going on come over here come here oh dear come here can you share the tiger claw please okay good boy what a good big brother okay they're fighting over a tiger claw but jarvis just agreed to share it with Morgan and it looks like they've gone upstairs. So it's crazy.

Um, by the way, I, before I learned that you can't hear my songs, which really obsessed me. Cause I, uh, I did a bunch of,

a bunch of different zoom tests and never had that happen. So I don't know what the difference is. What are you wearing as a headset right now? I'm just wearing like little earbuds that are plugged in wired into my into my laptop i would normally use airpods but like you're to your point sometimes bluetooth when you're recording isn't the greatest so but when i'm at work when i'm at work i don't use any headphones at all because i'm in this room by myself take them out so i just take them out yeah take them out like unplug them from the macbook or

whatever how about now can you hear me now yeah you sound the same yeah the microphone on this macbook is pretty good even though it's pretty old you know how zoom allows you to do those funny backgrounds and stuff yep um my every time i try and enable it and my macbook tells me that it's too old and not good enough. So my MacBook is getting old. It's like almost three years old, I think, three or four years. All right. Jarvis was asking me what the TV, I have TV lights down here.

It's been a while since you've been down here, but it's like TV studio lights for the live streaming, which I'm not doing right now. And he had to know what the heck I use that for, but he doesn't seem to understand. This is very important business. I'm going to play a song. I want to know if you hear it now, okay? So tell me if you hear this. I hear nothing.

I hear you. Very strange, my friend. I'm not sure what's happening. Maybe you're the first test I've done since I got rid of the Bluetooth. It's possible. It's possible that. Maybe there's another connection you need to make. But no, it's possible that when you connect by the three and a half millimeter headphone jack cable I'm using right now,

that that doesn't allow the music to go through but bluetooth does so it's possible that would suck because then when i do those jam kickings of stew stone and cam gordon uh they'll sound much better with the cable but we'll lose the ability to share the music which would kill the episode damn it yeah yeah okay so i think you need to call what's his name the guy who did all your sound what's his uh don't tell me what's his name oh shit i was talking to him yesterday uh i i met him in in oshawa here when he was doing sound for curling i went into his trailer and we had a nice chat we had a nice chat i hear he made quite the impression you don't remember his name oh come on don't do that do you want me to tell you a good guy like really nice guy i just don't

see him comment very much anymore so i don't see his name in front of me god damn you know what the ian service thing because we used to talk about him all the time too stokely stokely yeah that's right good boy uh yeah uh one thing that you kind of cut you out of this whole community is when you abandon twitter so right why don't you talk about that apparently i have like a hundred notifications on my uh oshawa elvis account and i have no idea what people are talking about or saying about me or saying to me so this is a good topic because we'll leave aside the one you're uh affiliated with and we'll just talk about like the big three which i do so let's say let's say the big three for our age group is facebook instagram and twitter

yes i am on one of them right the one i abandoned so the one I liked the least of those three is that Michelangelo Leonardo it's Raphael Raphael damn it I like Michelangelo because his name is Mikey like me okay and he likes pizza a lot like I do okay so uh what was I saying oh yeah so I noticed that the only time I ever went into Instagram was to upload a picture of me and the guest that we took outside the house. Fair enough. Then guests stopped visiting and those pictures disappeared and I haven't been on since. I actually don't miss it at all.

I never enjoyed Instagram, but I thoroughly enjoy Twitter and I'm on it all day long, essentially. And I'm curious why you left Twitter and if'm on it all day long, essentially. And, uh, I'm curious, uh, why you left Twitter, uh, and if you miss it at all. I just found it not fun or funny. I found it, um, I found it negative. Like there's just a lot of negative Nancy's on there and people who are just douchebags. I didn't really get a lot out of it. I found that I know a lot of people say that they like it for news, but I just found it, I guess maybe, I guess probably, I probably just didn't do a smart enough job of following the right people in terms of like getting, figuring out like what I wanted out of it. Facebook, similar reason as to why I got off the hook, I just think

it was way too negative and people were just, you know, and then Instagram just seems to be like, I don't know. It just seems to be more friendly. It's like, it's very light. I go on it a couple of times a day. It's interesting to see people posting pictures about their kids and their family or whatever else. And I don't really, I guess I don't really engage with social media very much. Now the interesting thing is would you consider Reddit to be social media or not? No, it's just that's an that's like a content aggregator gotcha so i i go

on reddit um quite often um and i've i've done a better job i think of following some of the channels that i think are interesting there um but yeah i don't i don't miss twitter at all i never really i i don't think I ever really liked it enough to be able to miss it oh yeah no I it's just yeah and I totally get what you're saying because I had the same feeling about Instagram and then I noticed yeah that that I found out I discovered to myself that I was only going there for one reason and when that reason disappeared and I mean that reason will come back and I will still share those photos there but uh i do miss you on twitter because there's a lot of like fotm engagements and stuff where they like to bring you in and stuff and uh well it's i do follow twitter from your from your website so i

go to toronto mike and i'll i'll scroll through your twitter feed there and then occasionally i will click on it um to see like the thread or whatever. So I will follow your Twitter account pretty much exclusively. And then there was that moment where I did come out from, from my deep dark cave where when I was scrolling through your nonsense, I got a notification from Twitter saying that it was some sort of stupid anniversary or whatever. So I actually clicked on it and shared it. So it was my first tweet in many, many, many, many months. When was this? This was a few weeks ago where it said it was my eighth anniversary or something on Twitter or something stupid. And you commented on it and then Femke.

Lieve Femke. Lieve Femke. She commented on it as well and i didn't bother to comment back because you've got fans you know like i'm thinking of like moose grumpy and andy and she were some of those people i'm i follow on uh on uh or they follow me on instagram so what an interesting uh interesting time now um yeah you talk about who like uh who's we talk about who's been, in my estimation, whose brand has really just gone down the toilet as it relates to all this COVID stuff? Oh, can I guess? Sure. Is it a Canadian media personality?

Yes. Yes. Well, in addition to Dr. Drew and... I'm not sure either one of them I could... Here's a guess. Sid Sixero. Yeah, what is happening with this guy?

It's weird. I don't follow him on Twitter. That tells you something right there. Yeah, it's very strange. He was one of those people that said that this was all a like an over-exaggeration and blah blah blah blah it was very he's i don't know i again i don't i don't uh i don't i'm not on here long enough so i i don't know if that was just maybe a lapse in judgment

or whatever but but i don't like those kind of hot takes because you're so out of your lane. Like, who is Sid Sixero to say such a thing? I thought you were talking about me for a second. Like, I'm so out of my lane to talk about anyone on Twitter, which is true. No, Twitter is a public, to me, no, you can complain about things on Twitter because they have pressed a button to say I'm sharing this with the great unwashed masses. And therefore, it is now fair game. Right. Yeah, it's, I don't know. I don't know.

I just never really got Twitter. It'll be interesting. I'm not sure. I'm not sure what's going to happen there is what I should mean, what I mean to finish my thought. What do you think of the fact that, okay, so one of the silly movements

that frustrated people like you and I, science-loving humans like us, is the anti-vaxxer movements and people who would kind of rail against vaccines. And I'm not just talking about the flu vaccine, which I always get day one. I want it so bad. But I'm talking about like the mandatory, you know,

measles and smallpox and all these things. Okay. Now we're living in a world where we're all like desperately waiting for one vaccine to arrive in like 12 to 18 months. I would suspect this throws a lot of, as if they needed more science, but a lot of cold water on that movement that seemed to have some strange popularity with people.

What do you think of that? I'm going to guess that the movement will pick up steam. I think that it will drive people to, like the people who are anti-vaxxer already are just going to get even more hardened in there. I feel like this is playing to their base, right? Tell me why, because it feels like... Someone's going to come up with some sort of theory

that coronavirus was created as a result of people getting back. Like the vaccinations, like the, the fact that we were, you know, injecting ourselves with the flu virus every winter and allowed us to somehow, it's not allowed it to somehow mutate in the human body or whatever.

And that created you know i know this is always one of those like myths that the uh anti-flu vaxxers would talk about was that uh getting that flu vaccine would make them susceptible to what they called the super flu and they're going to basically conflate that into this coronavirus being the super flu right meanwhile this the science behind all this is that the coronavirus has been around for a long long time it just has never entered into the human whatever the human you know body in the way that it did this time around yeah they call it slippery it morphs in my fear a couple of my fears late at night when it's dark and i'm

one of them is that uh it, it's going to morph again. Like, cause it already did this radical morphing to, to, to, to go from person to person pretty, pretty quickly. Like the one thing,

and this is, uh, I don't want to bring anyone down, but this is some of my thoughts at night is that, um, this is actually as pandemics go, we're getting off really, really lucky with this one.

Like, this is going to sound terrible, but there could be, the next pandemic could have a significantly higher kill rate. And what if, imagine this, I had this chat with Monica, like right now, we don't really worry about this killing our children. Like, we don't have that thought at night. We're worried about killing your parents.

You could get very sick. I could get very sick. We don't want to get this. We're doing worried about killing your parents. You could get very sick. I could get very sick. We don't want to get this. We're doing everything we can. But what if the next one, or what if this morphs into one that, like the Spanish flu, attacks the young and healthy? Yeah, that's scary. But I also, you're right, that is one component.

I think the other reason why we're, quote, unquote, getting off, I can't remember how you put it um getting off easy yeah as pandemics go yeah as pandemics go and i think it's just because we're like it is not the you know early 1900s we have the ability to do some of the things that they just couldn't do so i would imagine that if this was back then like i don't know again i i'm speaking on my ass here i'm not a scientist i don't know if this is as deadly or could be as deadly. It doesn't sound like it, but maybe it would be if

we, because I think what the projections yesterday with the Ontario government, they said, if we did nothing, there could very well be 100,000 people dead. I don't know how that stacks up against the Spanish flu. I don't know that well enough. But, you know, Gare Joyce, who's an FOTM just wrote a great piece on the Spanish flu.

And it's fascinating because, uh, as you might already know, the, the most of the deaths from the Spanish flu were wave two people. It went away in the summer people, you know, in 1918 or whatever that was, people started going about their day to day pretty normally. And then in the, when flu season arrives in the, whatever that is October or whatever, it came back harder than ever. So it's like they got a false,

they were tricked, not tricked, yeah, they were tricked into thinking this thing had come and gone. And then it came back and killed more people than before. Interesting. I mean, they talk about the dangerous aspect or prospect of a secondary and tertiary wave right we and which is crazy to think about because we haven't in based on what we all know is we haven't

peaked yet like the the primary wave has not yet peaked so we can't really even you know think about it or imagine a secondary tertiary wave yet because we haven't gone through this first one um did he write an article about it or did he talk about it on a podcast? Because I would hate to listen to the podcast and not listen to yours. So is there an article I can read? Yeah, I think it's on Sportsnet.com.

Sportsnet? Because I Googled it and it came up with the podcast. No, he wrote it up. He wrote it up. I'm pretty sure it was on Sportsnet. I think on the Sportsnet website, I think there's the GearJoy's long... It's like it's like a long form really well he's a great writer as as you probably yes yes i do enjoy him he's a nice guy too like i mean he's i think my first experience

with him in person was when he did the stand-up at your show it was kind of a little um i think getting to speak with him afterwards and a of times. He's a good dude. What do you think about... Sorry, go on. I was going to ask if you were at the Wolfpack match with him or if that's a match you didn't go to. I was. I've been at the Wolfpack match. Has he been there once or twice? I feel like it's been twice or was it just once? Maybe

twice. I can't remember. I know he was at that finals I think. Do we know what's happening with the Wolfpack? That is one league that I have not heard anything about. I'm a huge follower of it, but I mean, it's huge in England. So,

or big in England. I don't know. Okay. Prior to the shutdown, uh, Wolfpack were getting their asses handed to them. Like they were getting hammered. Oh,

really? Yeah. Like, which is what people were saying was going to happen because they were, it's just such a huge difference between the league that they were in versus the league that they were going into. Like, really bad.

I mean, they had a tough opening schedule. Now it's all moot. It doesn't matter anymore. But apparently, it was going to be a dogfight to stay in the Super League. We were really bad. We were getting killed. I was still excited to go to those matches, though, when they came back

to Toronto, which is now... Many things I was excited about is on the... It's been paused. What were you going to say? Their website says that the games, the home games up to... There's three home games between now

and May 2nd, and they've all been postponed and they're hoping that and the league itself is suspended like everything else although i heard korea is going to start playing baseball again oh really yeah interesting what do you think about uh wrestlemania is this weekend but it taped. What was taped last weekend or the weekend before? And it's going to be the first WrestleMania that's over two days. They've decided to split the card over two days. And they're also broadcasting it for free, at least in the United States here in Canada,

you have to have a cable subscription. So I won't be able to watch it, even though I, if it was free, I would probably tune in. But unfortunately Canadians don't get it for free unless you have cable, which I don't be able to watch it even though I, if it was free, I would probably tune in. Uh, but unfortunately Canadians don't get it for free unless you have cable, which I don't. What do you think about, uh, WrestleMania going ahead?

That seems to be like some, there's rumors that some wrestlers who were on the bill decided not to wrestle. I think it sounds to me, it sounds dangerous. Like in my sniff test, like from an entertainment standpoint, I don't

even think i could name a current wrestler so i actually like it's off my radar completely but it it it seems like you know a bunch of men being that close together and sweating and performing like that with uh even if you have just minimal amount of like camera people and sound people whatever it sounds dangerous to me doesn't it sound dangerous to you it does i mean i guess the only way that it would make sense for you to do it is if leading up to it every wrestler like every wrestler is in a hotel like the same hotel everybody's quarantined together for two weeks beforehand, you perform, and then you quarantine for two weeks afterwards. And then that makes it safe. Right? In theory, every if you put it, but it's totally unrealistic. Of course, they didn't do that. But that would be the safe way to

do it, right? Like if you and I wanted to record a podcast, if we wanted to do it in person, really the safest way for us to do it would be for us to quarantine for two weeks separately, right? Go into, you know, together, record,

and then quarantine for two weeks together after that. Right. Or here's my idea. I have a pretty long cables to the microphone. Like I could sneak out the microphone into the driveway. Okay. You could drive here now. Or I could just move in or you could move in here.

I got no room at the end here, but, uh, brother, uh, thanks so much for this test. I'm actually sad, uh, on a technical level because i i was uh really excited i had solved a problem like capturing the good audio but now during this test i learned i have another hurdle to overcome i just uh wish things could go back to normal the way uh the way i liked it pre-pandemic yeah i hear you it's uh it's tough so hopefully you can get it fixed man because i know that you have a lot of fans and you've got some, you know, your business depends on all this kind of stuff working. So hopefully you can get to work. Otherwise, I guess it's back to back to Bluetooth. Well, the good news is the business, which helps me pay the rent. Oh, two things are good. One is, do you know what my child care expenses are right now? $0. Right. You know what it was before?

A lot of money. Hundreds. $2,000 Zero dollars. Right. You know what it was before? A lot of money. Hundreds. $2,000 a month. Jesus. Look at you. You're a rich man now. Well, I've probably lost more than that in my monthly taken.

But the good news is when I do the paid recordings, voice only, because I do all the audio in post. So actually, this solution is good for that i'm just trying to figure out how the hell to get a great audio capture of people like yourself while we listen to jams and talk about them but i will work on that uh later gotta be away

call stokely i'll call stokely he'll figure it out for you and let me tease tomorrow's episode if i may. Do it. I'm calling this, and you'll have to guess what it is, but I'll tell you the title. The title of tomorrow's episode of Toronto Mic'd, which will be episode 612, the title is

Wilner Squared. Wilner and his brother are coming on. Right willner because they're both willners so that's confusing but mike willner and norm willner are going to join me for a conversation that's cool man i like it tomorrow at four o'clock i have the other thing i have to i never know whether i should go live with the periscope or not uh i did a i don't think you've seen it because when we started this before i pressed record you were surprised to see a cast on my left hand so there is a like 19 minute periscope i did i don't know how long it is but there's a periscope i did on tuesday tuesday morning which i just

talked about my broken wrist and last time time I checked 3000 different people had watched it. Wow. But none of them named Elvis. Yeah, no. Well, I didn't know. I didn't,

I went back on your blog as we were talking about here. And I, and I did see that. I just thought it was, you know what I thought it was. Now I remember seeing it and I, I, what I thought it was is like a rough,

like something from the past, like a throwback Thursday. So I was like, I don't need to see this. Now that I know what it is, you know, I'll go back and watch it. I don't know if I'll watch all 20 minutes of it. Do you fall off your bike or something? Can you give me the headline? Yeah, yeah. I fell off my bike.

Yeah. It's worth watching the video just to see my helmet. I show my helmet on the video and you got to see that. Now, by the way, oh yeah, casts. So this is, I'm 45 years old. This is the first time in my life I've had a cast on my upper body. I've never had a cast anywhere on my body. That means you're inactive. No, it means that I'm careful okay all right so I've never broken a bone I've broken like you know like like I ripped my nail off like when I was a kid and I've had stitches but I've never had a

broken bone so excluding not counting the broken pinky from 18 months ago, which they don't put a cast on. So if we don't count that, because they called it a bone chip, I don't think it counts. But excluding that, this is the fourth time I've broken a bone and still maybe the most painful injury I've had was a separated shoulder,

which was not a broken bone. So I have had my, I, you know, through, uh, my, uh, lustrous slow pitch career and my, uh, my hockey life. And, uh, you know, I have had a few and biking and stuff, but this is okay. So this is the first time I've broken. No, this is the first time I've had a cast because of a cycling accident. And that's like an 80 000 kilometers or something uh but uh yeah first time i've had a cast on my upper body in my entire life but sounds like you've never had a cast so no how do you like it i hate it how long do you have to have it on for well that's the thing so first the uh i go into emergency and they put in what they call a temporary cast,

which is plaster of Paris, big bulky thing that the emergency doctor does. Then I go to the fracture clinic to get my fiberglass cast, which is lighter. And they say, oh, we can't do it now because you're way too swollen. So they basically said, you got to come back Wednesday, which is going to be in what, four days.

You got to come back next Wednesday for, we'll do an x-ray to make sure that the, the break is aligned because you can't, you got to make sure they have to re-break it if it's not aligned and they're going to put the fiberglass cast on Wednesday. So the total casting thing is six weeks. So six weeks of a cast and then, uh, aggressive, painful physiotherapy. Why do you have to need physical therapy? Is it because of your hands, like to move your hands

and stuff? Because it's a joint. Like, you know, if you break your, you know, you do a fracture and no one can see it, but you, but if you do a fracture, like in the middle of a bone, it just heals up. Like it never happened, but rest. Yeah. it's my wrist bone so if i want to get like anything close to 100 of my you know normal mobility of my left wrist apparently those first couple of weeks of physio are like vital like painful stuff you do getting the motion back i mean anyway it's going to be a it's going to be a tough go and who knows when i'm on a bike again but at least six weeks and maybe longer, depending on how painful that is.

Kitty, that sucks, man. I know that's one of your passions. A quick question before we go, because I just got an email. I found a Gary Joyce's article, by the way.

So thank you for that. I'll read that. Do it. I just got an email from Louis CK and he has released a new stand-up special digital um so question for you in the hive mind do you buy louis ck's new special it's 7.99 um would you buy it for one if you were a purchaser of his previous content which i was normally he would release stuff for $5. Um, and, uh,

uh, so that would be one question I would have. And then the follow up question is if it was free, would you watch it? Yeah. So I'm not, I'm not a big cancel culture guy. Like, uh,

and I, I'm pretty familiar with the details and I'm not even going to lighten what he did at all. But, uh, there is a big difference between a Louisis ck and a bill cosby sure there is a difference um so yeah i don't know i'm i'm i'm uh i'm torn right now i have the website i did click on the link i guess you could argue like why am i still subscribing to his newsletter that would be one thing and then i clicked on the link to actually open up the page to be presented with the option to purchase it but i don't know it's

a question that i know it's a great question because it's a great question and and i think one of the things we do is we we have this one category where we throw everybody in the same category but uh what's the other idiot? The guy in... Yeah. Like, things he did and things Bill Cosby did are a completely different... I don't know how to say this, category or whatever, than what, you know, Louis C.K. did.

And that's not to excuse Louis C.K.'s behavior. But I am of the opinion that, for example, let's say right now I put on the Jackson 5 ABC. Yeah. Like I'll get that groove on. I might dance. I might even enjoy myself where I know there are people who that's like a non-starter. Like you cannot listen to Michael Jackson now. Like there's a, I don't have that, i don't have that cancel culture there's a lot of artists i enjoy but i don't condone their activities or think they're good people it's it yeah it's it's interesting man i'm not sure i don't know what the i don't know what the

answer is so the michael jackson one was is an interesting one too because it is different as well in the sense that he was never criminally convicted of anything, right? How about this? Not criminally convicted, although civilly convicted. I would watch right now, I would watch with the kids. In fact, I might do it because I just thought of it. The Naked Gun. Okay? Because OJ's in it.

OJ's got a big role in that thing. But I will still laugh my ass off even though I believe that man, sorry, he was surprisingly good in those movies. Yeah. He's great. That's that.

Yeah. He's really good in those movies. And, uh, I, I believe he, uh, brutally murdered two people. And,

uh, so, so there you go. Like that's far worse than what louis ck did yeah yeah yeah yeah murder is murder is different than um you know doing what louis ck it's it's a it is it is it's weird i mean like i think we just look for the black or white right pardon the that's a michael jackson song, but like, we're just looking for you know, like, right or wrong, and

you know, as I read comic books, and you know, it's good or bad, and that's just not the real life, and I think that that's what we look for, but yeah, it's more complicated than that. And a lot of it has to do with what you think of the art to begin with. Like, for example... Separate the person from the art form.

I found it effortless to cancel Chris Brown. Who? Not the painter, by the way. I work with someone named Chris Brown. It's funny. Oh, the very final guest who made an appearance in the studio before our lives changed forever was Chris Brown's brother-in-law, whose name is David Ryder and writes for the Toronto Star. And that was Chris Brown.

No, like the rapper, the painter. Oh, the painter. So that was Friday the 13th. And so that photo I have of David Ryder and I, it's got some symbolism to me. That was the last time I took my photo in the usual spot with a Toronto Mike guest. When was the last time that you went out for something that wasn't essential? So Friday the 14th.

No, Friday the 14th. Saturday the 14th was the last time I went out for anything that wasn't food or my wrist injury. Gotcha. Weirdly enough. So the kids last day of school here was the 12th of March, which was a Thursday. So my one, my oldest daughter has been inside since then. My son and I went for a haircut on the 14th, uh, the morning of the 14th, I went to the TFC match that evening. Right. Um, and then, which was their home opener and their only their second match, match the only they've only played two matches this year that evening weirdly enough was um my middle daughter's first sleepover and so we I drove her before I went to TFC I drove her to her friend's house and she slept over that evening and I picked her up on Sunday morning right and then so she's been in the house ever since then. So all three of my kids have been in the home since that weekend, but it's so weird. Like how, how much, like looking back,

I probably should not have gone to TFC. My daughter probably should not have slept over at her friend's house. And we probably shouldn't have gotten our haircut. But everyone's been in the house now for more than two weeks. So we know that we're okay. Even if we had no symptoms, we should be okay.

The variable that throws all of this into the unknown is me going to the fucking grocery store. Like that's just, that's the whole part of this that makes everything fall apart. But what about, I know it's hard to get a date, I guess,

because actually we're doing this for my mom. We're trying to get Loblaws, I think, Loblaws to delivery or Longos. I can't remember which one. Longos may as well, but I know Loblaws does deliver in some areas. I would assume in Toronto. That's the difference. They don't deliver out here, but they do the pickup. But you're right.

Before the wrist injury, I was biking with my trailer to no frills, wearing my mask, being very careful. I had gloves. I'd put gloves on when I went in, and then I wouldn't touch my face, and I would peel off the gloves and put them in the garbage when I left. Right. But you're right. It felt like I was playing Russian roulette.

Yeah. I mean, and the other thing, too, is that because you're now going, and you have a big family like I do do, I go to the grocery store now. Like I'm trying to go for an entire week. It's hard because perishables, you know, sometimes you just run out of them, but I spent 500 bucks like the last time I went. And it's just because you're buying, you're trying to buy a whole bunch of stuff, but you're also trying to buy like my, the kids and, and Mrs. Elvis are trying to bake and stuff. So we're buying like stuff we wouldn't normally buy.

And it's just like, I can't fucking afford this. No, I, you know, I, I think, uh, basically I've stopped looking at the cost of food. Like literally like I used to be big on sale items and, uh, I'll buy this when it goes on sale and stuff. Like all that's out the window in this pandemic. Like I was not only spent $500 last, you you know last few days that i went um but i was in the grocery store for two hours because i have such a long list and i'm also trying to be super careful so it takes a lot

longer and then you have to wait in line forever so it's like it's it's really a big thing now to go grocery shopping beyond just the beyond just like worrying about getting sick like i can't just run out for something in between meetings like i used to be able to you know now i've got to like plan it and it's a whole thing it's great it's it's interesting well hopefully that well you think it's scary going to the grocery store imagine if you had like you had to go to a hospital like yeah my dad wants to go for his blood transfusions every two weeks. And he's an old man. So, I mean, that's not the greatest thing for him. It is what it is.

Because I'm going to be at the hospital Wednesday. Yeah, it's craziness. But very careful. Take precautions. Do what you can. Thanks, Elvis. Take care. Give my love to the family. I can't wait until this all ends and we can all get together and have a beer and enjoy some sense of normalcy again. Yes, sir. Hopefully, you'll see me around later. Peace and love.

Enjoy that, Louis C.K. Peace and love. And that brings us to the end of our 611th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Elvis doesn't go on Twitter anymore. It's his loss. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. And the Keitner Group are at The Keitner Group. See you all tomorrow with Mike and Norm Willner. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Rome Phone. Rome Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business

and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RomePhone.ca to get started.