Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Festivus 2024: Toronto Mike'd #1605

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

In this 1606th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike and Elvis celebrate Festivus 2024 with the airing of grievances. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

The tradition of festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I got a lot of problems with you people. Now, you're gonna hear about it. And now, it's time for Your Blog Sucks. On another day, come on, come on With these roads, I'll tie Can we do no wrong? sucks. As God is my witness, Elvis, I can't remember if we were supposed to talk over that intro. It has been so long. Do you know what that is? No, I was going to say, did we use that song way back in the day?

That is the intro. That is the actual intro. I remember Humble doing his thing, but I don't remember the song. Yeah. So let's give a little context, because there's nobody. Maybe that guy, What was his name? Jay-z or something. There's a no. It's one. Jay, right Rob. Jay was a big fan. Okay, so oh, yeah that guy over a decade ago

I had this idea where we would have a spin-off series. Like it wasn't gonna be a part of Toronto Mike it was gonna be a spin-off series a Standalone podcast it was gonna be called your blog sucks you remember why I was gonna call it that well cuz your blog sucks because you once know my brother Steve once told me your blog sucks now and I told you about that yes I do remember I do remember pre podcast and this was before like it was obviously a joke your blog didn't suck it sucks now but it didn't suck you don't tell Cheryl it sucks now okay but

you you used it in like you used it and I like the phrase your blog sucks and we call it name for a podcast yeah well ten years on I thought it would be a big fucking hit so yeah we recorded ten episodes of your blog sucks and one guy listened well at least one guy I only know one guy I bet you moose grumpy was listening she's on the live stream now, but that was the opening theme. Cause I love that song because that's the Vaughn Bondy's and that song was from rescue me. Do you remember rescue me? Yes. Okay. So that was, that's like a post nine 11, uh, what was Dennis Leary? Uh, yeah, that was, he was like a firefighter or something. His brother died in 9 11 or something. And it's New York firefighter. So I watched looking back, I watched this rescue me. That might be the last time I watched like regular TV or whatever. But Dennis Leary is back on TV. I think what is a new show?

I think he has a new show. Okay. Uh, like a network show. I think so. Yeah. Well, look it up. Well, that guy needs to be on like HBO or something so he can swear, right? Like you don't want Dennis Leary being family friendly. and isn't he isn't he also infamous for stealing people's material possibly yeah I'm pretty sure oh Bill Hicks and stuff I remember now there's like a Bill Hicks routine he borrowed or whatever but we all remember asshole as a big much music hit yeah they would play that video all the time I'm an asshole and we all kind of dug it and he had an album that was very popular called No Cure for Cancer. Yeah. Hold on to that C word is going to come back later. I'm teasing it. Okay. C words coming back. But I want to just tell the listenership

that we dropped 10 episodes of your blog sucks. Well over a decade ago. It didn't gain any traction and I just sort of took those episodes and I decided they don't get to be a standalone feed. Nobody's fucking listening So I'm just gonna make them like bonus episodes of Toronto mic'd and then we moved on of our lives, right? We'd yeah, we did. Well, we tried to going Dutch and Oh speaking of me they Fumka. Yeah, she's Dutch So that's yeah going Dutch is an upcoming American comedy television series created by Joel Church Cooper.

And it's going to be on Fox and Hulu. Oh, it sounds like it's going to be a smash. Oh, it's going to be. The next Modern Family. I mean, all good shows start in January. Right? It's clearly a fill in for another shitty show that they already canceled. Well, No Cure for Cancer.

He was right about that. We're working on it. But I wanted to bring the Festivus, the annual Festivus episode. I don't know how many December 23rds you visited me, but most of them. It's a lot of them. Like we should go back into the-

Archives? Bonkives or Boonkives and yeah, figure this out. Okay, well maybe while we talk, Jeremy Hopkins, what are you doing for the next 10 minutes? Can you find out how many festivals? I mean, like there should be like some sort of like celebration for number 10. Well, this is probably at least 10, but I wanted to bring it back to the truth. I think it had like, you know how like the, what do I pick on arts and entertainment, right? Back in our childhood, the arts and entertainment right back in our childhood the arts and entertainment

when we were kids the arts and entertainment the A&E network was like for like I don't know you'd see like ballet and shit like yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and then they became like the law and order station and then yeah and also intervention remember they played intervention like well as a day but they had what's called scope creep This is very common like the history channel starts off being all about Hitler. Okay, right? Yeah, and then at some point It's about like pawn brokers or whatever right like yeah, it's called scope creep It happens to all these fucking specialty stations. Well, that's much music much music right now It's like a Simpsons rerun channel or something is it I don't I wouldn't even if it exists It probably airs like old episodes of something that MTV became the Jersey

shore network. Right. Exactly. So that's, that's a good example of scope creep Festivus episodes of Toronto Mike featuring Elvis who, uh, in a moment I won't like tell people who you are because now I think it's fun if people just drop in cold and hear this voice and they wonder who it is. Shout out to Alan's why I go talk about him in a minute. But the Festivus episodes morphed, it became kind of like Christmas episodes, but I like these being anti-Christmas episodes. So today we get it right.

Today is all about the airing of grievances. Correct. My first unofficial grievance airing. Unofficial though, because I don't want the official one yet. Unofficial is that everyone talks about, like Festivus is like, you know popular now like people I was listening on the radio on the way like ESPN radio. They did like a whole festival thing and Everyone talks about you know, there's the poll and it's December 23rd

And there's the evening hearing of the grievances But like have we just completely abandoned the feats of strength like what the fuck's your problem? Are you doing that in the? completely abandoned the feats of strength. Like what the fuck's your problem? Are you doing that in the, uh, your secret household in North Oshawa? Yes. Festivus includes the feats of strength. Do not forget the feats of strength. Like at the Toronto tree?

We can wrestle naked out by the tree there. Well, Monica, if she's back, she can take the photo of us wrestling by the Toronto tree. Perfect. I would make it preferred. So a little housekeeping though, often. Yeah, well, I would do it no other way. You know this already Okay, so if you don't know who elvis is, uh, that's your problem

I'm not going to tell you that only took about three years or four years to come some come to fruition Figure it out. I think about this episode for the real head on the mic elvis is cracking open a great lakes beer Even though it's 10 a.m Because in north osho is 5 p.m. That's what they say It's always 5 p.m And i'm gonna crack one open too even though after we record I'm going to bike to Sugar Beach and drink beers with a FOTM Hall of Famer. Here we go. Great links is so good. And if you ever listen to Toronto Mike you'd get into the FOTM Hall of Fame you know that right? You're like the Pete

Rose if you just said just admit you did bad thing and say you're sorry we'd put you in that fucking thing before you croaked does P Rose get in now Well now that he's dead anything's possible I know but now you put him in cuz he's dead like I don't think they can put him in now Oh, yeah, I think he got away fuck themself, right? I think you got to wait like for another commissioner at least I don't want to see I don't want to guess any of your grievances But I was at the Toronto Raptors game, thanks to a ticket gifted to me by Ridley Funeral Home.

Oh, nice. And they gifted you something similar. It's a measuring tape. So Brad Jones gifts me two tickets because Michelle, my oldest daughter, had just arrived back in Toronto because she lives in Montreal during the school year. Going to McGill, she's doing great, but I haven't seen her since Thanksgiving. Like that's, imagine you didn't see your daughter since Thanksgiving.

Can you imagine? Okay. You have multiple daughters actually. I do, I do. Right. Is she here or she? She's in Toronto right now, but she's not in this house right now.

Right, okay. But okay, so she's at her mom's house, but she and I went to the Toronto Raptor game and every quarter was dedicated to a different decade of Raptor basketball. So quarter was dedicated to a different decade of Raptor basketball. So quarter one was the nineties. So a lot of Damon Stoudemire stuff or whatever quarter two was the two thousands and that's what we've decided to call the odds.

And there was a lot, I'm going to tell you right now, there was a lot of Vince Carter loving that. All I could think about is Elvis. We'd be so mad right now. I love we're giving to this man. I don't want to spoil anything. So just wink of this might come up later. Not winking. No, I'm not. So this. The love we're giving to this man. I don't want to spoil anything. So just wink if this might come up later.

Not winking. No, I'm not. So this is not when you're gonna. No, but I will tell you. Yeah. My middle daughter was, I'm very proud of her because she auditioned for and made the Toronto Raptors, the Lil Ballas Raptors dance team. Oh, wow.

So she dances at 15 Raptors home games. and so she's done four or five of them already and every time we go and I look at the number 15 and you don't go into the I don't go watch every game because I can't afford it. We don't get free tickets or anything. Okay. But we've been to two games I think maybe three out of the five because because of just, excuse me, different things. I went there one time with my son and I looked up and I said, see, that's Vince Carter. Do you know who he is? And my son said, yes. And I said, never ever cheer for that man.

He screwed that team. And he's the only person, if I'm the only person that remembers, I remember carries that cross. I will continue to do I'm happy to do that all right so that won't be one II just was worried that I would stomp all over one of your grievances being the retiring of number 15 at the start Vince Carter and his mom Vince I am as we know this about each other and I guess I won't tell people who the fuck you are,

because if you don't know, that's on you, okay? Because you've been established over the 12 year history, 12 plus years, 1,600 plus episodes of Toronto Mike. We've established you, Elvis's. You co-hosted TMLX. 17. 17 with me, thanks. I'm losing track now, that's a good sign. Yeah.

But I'll just tell people that, well actually I'm gonna let Alan Zweig tell people. I that, well, actually, I'm going to let Alan's wife tell people I'm going to save it here. I'm going to save that. So we're going to get to the grievances. But I want to cover a little basis here, including one thing I mentioned to you at TMLX 17. But you didn't seem to recall. Do you know Elvis that you and I were in the backyard recording during the pandemic? Yes, I do. Do you remember the COVID-19? Is that one of your grievances? No, I figured that that's, you know, doesn't it's not a thing as much anymore. Well, I remember coming over and we were in the backyard. Yeah.

So that was the moment the shout out to Ridley funeral home was coined. I don't remember that being the Oh, you do. Tyler Campbell for a episode of FOTM cast Not the most recent one. Maybe a couple back maybe three back. In fact, they're gonna be this is by day I mean Tyler Campbell and Cam Gordon are gonna be here the first week of 2025 for another FOTM cast where we review the previous quarter Is this listen to these things? Is this like the walking dead, but the talking dead show? Maybe, but I didn't see that, but this is basically,

we take the last quarter of the TMU, the Toronto Mike universe, and we dive in, like who died from the TMU, who had the exciting episode. Totally, this is talking dead. This clip blew my mind, I can't believe this happened. I never watched it either, but it was like, you watched the walking dead, and then like, there was an hour long show afterwards

where some of the cast came out, and they talked about the show. It's for the real heads, right? Like you don't want a casual, you don't want an Elvis listening to FRTM cast. Okay. You want the real heads. I want- How funny would it be if I'd listened to no episodes, but I listened only to the fan cast? Not a bad idea, by the way, but here's the moment. Are you ready Elvis? I'm looking forward to your reaction here. This air, and this is during the

pandemic. I think this is like 2012. Well, you'll tell me because it'll depend on when your beloved father passed away. Okay. So let's listen. My sincere condolences. Last time you were in my backyard, I was giving you sincere condolences showed out to Ridley funeral home. I was because your father had passed away and you were very Is that too fast? So your father had this is your dad died. Shout out to the funeral. So again, again, again, my sincere condolences. And you were, can you really say sincere condolences?

I mean, come on. It's been over a year. Like, you know, that's fantastic. But I, I, that'll listen. I'll listen to that over again. There you go. Do you remember that? I don't remember it, but it said over a year ago. So I would gather that that was 2021. Okay. So your father passed in 2020. Yes, June of 2020. Okay. Then that would be the festivus. That was probably December 23rd, 2022. No, 2021.

2021. Right. That's crazy. But that is funny. Like, holy shit, that is funny. So that's like a, and again, not, not, I didn't have notes to say fucking shout out to really funeral. Like it was an organic moment that caught on. And ever since that episode, it's not a total like that. Yeah, we're going to be shutting it really feeding home. I think it's that. That's funny. That is really, I'm that's, I really like that you brought that up. That's good. Who, Tyler dug up the clip, either Campbell, who's the VP of sales. How does he have access to these clips? Oh, cause he's just,

he just goes back to the park. Everyone with an internet connection on planet earth has access to radio just thinking of this episode radio show or something. No, this is not a radio show. Okay, let's imagine I mean they're Recording this on tapes. No, you're overthinking so we have a shout out really funeral home off the top okay, because you and I similar vintage and I think this is important for well, I, sports fans in this city, but just sports fans in general. This was to me a big one.

I was offline for several hours this day and I literally went into blue sky on my phone from after a swim and I'm looking at blue sky and I see Matt laden. Okay. Do you know the name Matt laden? No, Matt laden is a guy in Edmonton. Oh, that guy, the crazy guy. So he was on the app formerly known as Twitter. And then I told him, hey, I'm

moving to Blue Sky. And he followed me to Blue Sky, set up an account. So almost every day he goes, Mike, he goes, Toronto Mike, what's happening tomorrow on Toronto Mike? Like he sets me up to like promote future episodes. He's kind of amazing. And then he'll ask me, like, if I have a sports media person over, he'll be like, can you ask that person to ask the boss to like recruit James Duthie from TSN so he can host Hawking in Canada? That kind of stuff. Like seriously.

But the great Matt Layden, he wrote, did you hear about this person's death? And that was the, I'm like that he's dead. Like I saw him fairly recently. I was thinking he could suit up for the Blue Jays in 2024. I didn't see him in person. I saw him on like TV or something But here is a clip of somebody I want to remember off the top a One run late for Philadelphia as we go to the bottom of the night Jim Fragosi will give the ball to Mitch Williams to try to get the final three outs and force a game seven

I'm making Anderson what I'm known for being the greatest leader of all time. Top of the order, Ricky Henderson. Williams walks Henderson on four pitches to open the nine. So I was on first base and then I got to second base. Line in the center, falling fast ahead. Which was mainly worried about me, still in third base, in the center, falling fast ahead. It was the main word about me, he's still in third base, in the scoring position. And now Ricky Henderson is taking Williams out of his game.

Trying to keep Henderson close to second. Williams has fallen behind Carter 2-0. So he ended up slide stepping, and trying to throw a slide, but he hung his life. Well hit double and fair play. Way back in. It's all me. I think it's all me. Mitch says it's all me. Wouldn't for you, Joe wouldn't have ever hit that ball. Okay, a moment to process. Firstly, any thoughts on the passing of the greatest leadoff hitter of all time, the greatest base stealer in the history of Major League Baseball? Just ask him if you're in doubt. Well, you can't ask him anymore. We lost Ricky Henderson at 65. Yeah, two thoughts. One is if you want to know who the greatest baseball player of all time is, just ask Ricky Henderson. He'll tell you. And two is like this is shocking because it looked like he could have, and he actually apparently said so, um, over the winter. He, he thinks that he could easily be the base stealing leader in baseball now.

He looked like it though. He looked good. He looked really good. Yeah. But apparently he died from pneumonia, which is brutal. Which reminds you that if you're eligible, here's a PSA, if you're eligible to get that, uh, there's a vaccine for pneumonia. There is, isn't there? You have to be 60, 65. Something like that. if you're eligible to get that, uh, there's a vaccine for pneumonia. You have to be 60, 65, something like that. So you got it already, right?

There are so many people I know that have pneumonia or like have got it in the last six months. It's crazy. Do you know the name? I've had walking pneumonia, but I didn't, it didn't even interrupt the bike ride. They gave me a pill and then it went away. But did you, uh, do you know the great, uh, gear Joyce? Do you know?

Yeah, yeah, I do. Okay. Gare Joyce almost died of pneumonia a few years ago. Oh, wow. Oh, I remember that. It was close. He says it was close. He can drop stats on you what happened to his blood pressure and stuff, but he was, you know, knocking on the door. St. Peter was opening that gate. St. Peter. Oh, that's who's at the gate. When you die, you'll find out. You'll find out St. Peter anytime, anytime. So I have a few thoughts. What is I love that? I love the whole idea that Ricky Henderson is at some point decided he Hit that walk off home run in 93. It's on brand. It really is on right. It's fantastic

But that quote is so perfect but then I Revisited it all in my mind and he did that He absolutely plays a role because he you have the greatest base stealer in the history of the game on second base, right? We're down by one. So that's the tying run on second base dancing. There's only one out. I think Devon white was an out, but Molitor, he didn't get credit there, but Molitor hits the hit that brings Ricky to second base. So now we got first and second Joe at the plate.

I think Alfredo Griffin is on deck. Like I think that's like a trivia question. It sounds about right. That's amazing. Who's on deck. Alfredo Griffin is up two outs tying run on whatever. Go ahead. But I'll just say he totally gets in Mitch Williams head and he may have played a role, but there's a big difference between yeah, having the greatest base stealer in the history of the game, dancing on second base at that at bat will help Joe Carter, but he kind of takes that, which I would believe to be true as a baseball fanatic, especially back in 1993, and he makes it, I'm the reason Joe Carter hits the three run homer. Now Joe's got to touch them all.

But I do remember as a diehard Blue Jay fan in 93, when we made that, got that Ricky Henderson, it was a trade for a great pitching prospect named Steve Kotze, I believe his name was. Didn't pan out, but we all thought he was going to be like a great one. But I remember the Ricky we got wasn't the Ricky who played for the Jays. Like we got a Ricky with these, these amazing numbers and he fell off, like he fell off big time when he joined the Blue Jays. So we never really got that Ricky, but we did have a Ricky who could dance on second base with one out in the tying run at second base. It was a threat, right?

The threat that he brought. Always. Always. And he had to dance and Mitch does kind of look like he's getting a bit distracted. He knows. So I am going to give partial credit to the great Ricky Henderson we lost too soon. Well, it's all part of the game, right? Like Joe still has to hit the home run and, you know, throwing, you know,

distracting the pitcher while you're on second is part of your job as a base runner, especially if you know, and did it better, right? Elvis. Correct. So what he did have a little bit of a swagger, but I actually dig it. I dig it. You know what? The swagger comes off as, um, genuine, like he, I believe that he believes that. I don't think that he's just trying to be, you know, like show some bravado. Like I think that he actually does believe what he just said there. That wasn't just him trying to

brag. That was him from his perspective being factual. And he believes he hit that three run homer in the D3. So Alfred so Alfredo Griffin was indeed on deck and I remember, um, I think like this is sort of like AI happening here for me. So I don't know if it's, I am not, we're misusing that term. I don't remember. There were misusing the term AI, but this is actually AI. It's an AI, right? But we are like, we're now applying AI to everything from like a bread maker to a fucking Mike. It looks like Alfredo Griffin was pinch running for Ola route. That's why he was in the game. Right? Right. Because you don't want to. Yeah. Other is slow is molasses there. Okay. Now I have a breaking news before I play one last clip of Ricky Henderson. This is moose grumpy who has looked into the Toronto Mike archives. You ready? Here are festivous episodes. Assuming I labeled them all properly. 2016's one I'm gonna do one 2017 yeah 2018 that's three yeah 2019 yeah 2020 that's five yeah 2021 yeah 2022

2023 now 2024 that means we're at nine that's the next year is the big ten so 2016 is the first one correct according to lose company we should maybe go back into the archives and see if there is an episode that was recorded on the 23rd in 15 and just not labeled as 15. All right, Moose, just confirm for Elvis. He wants to be confirmed. Okay, now- Well, because you brought it up, that maybe it was mislabeled.

Maybe it was mislabeled. I'm going to play one more clip of Ricky Henderson. You ready? Well, Ricky, now that you're in Toronto, you're probably right into my morning show on the Fan 1430, aren't you? Sure am, Bob. Yeah, I knew that. You like the way we cover Toronto's sports teams in depth every day, don't you, Ricky?

Sure do, Bob. So that's why you listen to me, right, Ricky? No, I listen for weather and traffic. It pops in every 10 minutes or so. Hey, a guy like me got a plan this day. The Bob McCowen Show. Everything a guy needs to start the day. We say mornings on the fan, 1430.

Weather and traffic? Do you remember these ads, Elvis? No, I do not remember those ads. No, not at all. But that would be the only time that Bob would ever have an athlete on, was to do a commercial. To do a commercial.

I don't know if that was the case in the morning show, but definitely for prime time sports. He despised having athletes on because he didn't think they have anything good to say, which I would, I actually agree. Yeah. Most of the time they just read like some, uh, talking points memo or something like that. Uh, yeah, I don't have many active. That's a good show.

It shows you how cheesy radio used to be, right? Like there's just, well, if you find a few fun facts, one in again, shout out to Scott Metcalf who sent me that audio, but in fact, I'm going to put it. I wanted to ask you about that. Where did you get that? Scott Metcalf gave me that. So that's cool. This is some fun facts. One is that was the fan 1430 before it moved to 590. I remember listening the day that that happened and actually physically turning the dial when it changed over to 590. I remember that distinctively.

We are the perfect age for that switch 590. I remember that distinctively. We are the perfect age for that switcheroo. I think it was early 90s or whatever that was. And then another fun fact there is that's a morning show with Bob McCowan, who was most famous for being afternoon drive. So we forget there was a period of time when somebody else hosted prime time sports.

Do you know Elvis, big trivia before we get to our grievances, who hosted prime time sports? I feel like I know when you say it, but I can't. Well, you will know when I say it because his name is Dan Schulman. Really? So Dan Schulman was the primetime, the only other host that show ever fucking had. Dan Schulman, who was in the building when Ricky Henderson hit that three run homer, the walk off homer in 93 to beat the Phillies. When Ricky hit that Homer, Dan Schulman was in the building, stuck in an elevator as he told us. But, um, from now on I'm calling it the Ricky Henderson walk off. And that was not an accident.

And you should know also Elvis, cause you don't listen to Toronto Mike, the Joe Carter is now in FOTM. He's been, he went, oh yeah, I know that. Okay. I knew that. Just he, it was at that, uh, golf from it at the goal. Joe Carter that. I knew that. It was at that golf tournament. Joe Carter Classic. I hope Ricky's there in spirit next year when I'm there. I can't believe we lost the great... Where does Joe live these days? Do you know?

No, but he's somewhere... I'm gonna guess it's like... I couldn't guess actually. Florida maybe? Yeah, is it like where he's from or is he like... He's from Kansas City, isn't he? I don't know where he's from Or is he like living like in one of the Sunshine States? I don't know. I'll ask him though when I return to the classic in 2020 I'm going again. I the guy told me I did a great job So it'll be just me and the fan 590 Kevin Shea. No. Oh, yeah. Well, like we're gonna get that in a moment We're almost there everybody. I want so okay. So where was I going again? Oh, so the funny, yeah, so Bob McCowen went on to do Mornings and then Dan Schulman, the only other host Prime Dance Parse, did you hear the news that Bob McCowen's

done with this podcast? I heard that, yes. Any thoughts on the long career of Bob McCowen? No, you know, my, I guess I didn't hear the full question. I answered before I answered or heard the full question. I will say, I didn't hear the full question I answered before I answered the or heard the full question. I will say I never listened to his podcast either. So that's what I was going to say.

No, I've never listened to it. So I have no comment on it. Uh, I can only imagine it was just a really poor man's version of prime. Oh, I never heard it. Um, I had strokes, like he had multiple strokes, which would be challenging to listen. I, someone was commenting about how challenging it is to listen to him. Brian Gerstein, maybe? Maybe.

Especially last man standing. Especially like right after the strokes. I guess he had gotten a little bit better, but... And he's divorced again and all that stuff. Well, his wife actually, I think his ex-wife was a real estate agent who I believe sold... Second or third. Sure. He has a daughter with her though. And I know he opened up to, I want to say oh FOTM what's her name she sounds like a cartoon

character it'll come to me her name but she wrote a piece for Rogers magazine when he was right to Rogers in which he talked about like his daughter and his wife left him and he was all alone in this well he wasn't the part about that he sold that right who knows what percentage ended up going to her. Right. Now he's in like a nice, I think, poor credit or something like that. Right. But, uh.

He's a legend. I mean, there's no doubt about it. In Toronto radio, in Canadian radio, he is a legend. He was- Rutherford. He- That's the name of the woman who did the interview who has been on Toronto Mic. Her name is-

Does she have a first name? Yeah. It'll come to me in a minute. Kay starts with a K. She sounds like a cartoon character. It's unbelievable to talk to her. Okay. Oh, like her voice. You mean? Yeah. Oh, I thought you meant like her name. No. When you said Rutherford, I'm like, what the hell? Her voice sounds like a cartoon. I would have been a grievance of mine. Rutherford is not a cartoon name, but I know that we're saying now. So I would say, uh, Bob's a

legend. I mean, he was one of the first to do like the whole radio simulcast on TV thing. Um, sure sure someone will argue that there was probably someone else somewhere else. Well, Howard Stern did it first, right? I don't know. Well, it was pay-per-view, I guess, right? So this was like, you know, on cable. I'm sure someone will argue someone else

did it somewhere else fine, but I didn't see it. So, I mean, Bob was a legend. He really was. He was unique. He brought a different style of broadcasting to sports talk radio that won't be duplicated. And he just got, I guess, aged out for lack of a better term, which kind of sucks for a guy like that. Well, he made a lot of money. I think that worked against him the most. I know he got the tap on the shoulder and it's like, your time's up.

Right. And they sent him home. Right. And I think it was because of how much you made. Well, I also think that there like nothing replaced it really for a small period of time after many, many years, they tried to seemingly bring in Tim to do something similar and that clearly didn't work out either. I think that lasted for like three years. So you still in love with Sid Sixero? I never was in love. I thought you were a big Sid fan. I think that lasted for like three years. Are you still in love with Sid Sixero? I never was in love with Sid Sixero. I thought you were a big Sid fan on breakfast television.

I liked him more than Sid. I'm not a big Sid fan. Real talk. Okay. Sid is too, he's too out there for me. He's too much. Too much for much. He's too much. He's too much. He's too much. I liked him. He's pit for the pit. I really liked Tim's show. I liked him and Sid too, but I really liked Tim's show. But clearly it doesn't work anymore in today's era.

I don't think they care anymore. That's part of the problem, but I do. You know who does care? So two things, we're all going to sit down and watch a three hour like, or listen to a three hour sports show anymore. I think you're going to talk about TMLX 17. I mean, is anyone going to do that anymore? Like, like, you know, people don't know they're on Tik TOK and they need it like quick hits. Right. Yeah. People don't read articles anymore. They just read headlines. Right. So I think

the whole environment is the cable companies, they can't afford to cater to the people who can still handle long form. And that's why this stuff has to exist because we have to go outside. Like I'm not, you know, like people are like, uh, who's going to do that? Of course there's people who still crave that, but not enough people for Rogers or Bell to invest in it. So really, it's up to, I'm not going to say it's up to us, but it's up to us and it's up to the, who are the independents out there, the Brunts and the Merics and these people who aren't beholden to the cable companies to create that content. Because there's still a bunch of us who do want long form deeper dives. Well, it'll be interesting once Bell divest itself of all this stuff and it's just gonna be Rogers left, right?

Like that'll make it does that make it better or worse? I know I don't know perhaps perhaps there's an avenue to make it better because they can sort of do what they want to do without worrying about competition, but Big no no from FOTM Rob Del Mundo So shout out to Rob Del Mundo who reminds me her name is Christina Rutherford and Christina's with a K and I knew this and I'm sorry I had a blank it's been a while since she came over she came over with Greg Brady's wife Rachel Brady okay I don't know if you ever read Rachel Brady in the Globe and Mail but Mark Weisblat has a great point about Bobcat in 1995 right so this is 1995 this is Bobcat 1995 this is well this is Mark Weis. This is Bobcat. 1995. This is well, this is Mark Wiseblood

on Bobcat. 1995 turned out to be one of the most tumultuous in McCowen's career as he was fired only to be rehired. So he was fired in 95, rehired a month later to host Primetime Sports because Dan Schulman left to become the Blue Jays play-by-play announcer on TSN. So this is 95. Shulman's doing afternoon drive. He quits to go do Blue Jays games for TSN. Smart move by Shulman. Now they have to bring Bobcat back. Oh, he didn't write it though. Wikipedia wrote it. He copied and pasted it. But, so he won't give too much credit to Wise Blood. But McCowan then promptly, getting the new gig as a primetime sports host, he promptly takes a three week vacation after hosting one show on a Friday afternoon.

So there you go. That's the kind of guy. So he was like the Ricky Henderson of talk radio sports radio in that you want to know who the best broadcaster in the country was? Ask Bobcat. He'll tell you it was Bobcat. Yeah. And he he had that bravado and that swagger And it worked well for him because in all these contract negotiations, he went in wanting a lot because he felt no one does it better. And he often got what he wanted. I also love, I love the stories of Steven Brunt. Maybe it was on this podcast, telling the stories of how he would just like walk in

and there was like no prep. He would do no prep. At least he would do prep at the station. He'd just walk in with his sunglasses, sit down and turn the mic on. And then a lot of times, he wouldn't even talk to his co-host before the microphone went on. He was just a real curmudgeon in that way,

but also clearly knew his stuff without really demonstrating before the show or after the show, for that matter. He had a good rap on him. Yeah. And then he would go out and smoke during commercial breaks and all that kind of stuff. Like just a real sort of like a real character kind of guy. Like I'm surprised he can get mixed up in any sort of like shenanigans and stuff. Right.

Seemed to be like that, you know, because he was a top dog, you know, like you would imagine that there would be people that he could have taken advantage of, but that never came out of it. So to his credit, that kind of stuff. No, he's just a cranky curmudgeon guy. You know who else is a cranky curmudgeon guy? Who? Alan Zweig. You know what that means? He really is. That I know. I don't even know who he is really, but I know because I've met him and I know him from your podcast. TMLX17.

Yeah. So I have a short, short clip of Zweig's take on you from TMLX. Yeah Yeah, you were there. Okay. I thought it was like that. I thought you were sitting beside me I thought you got this so this is how it's why I had to say about you. So let's listen closely It's very short. Here we go. Also your co-host is just fucking laughing. It's like Ed McMahon Who is the? Anyway. Hi-yo.

This is way better than the fucking Stanley Cup story. It's way better. Firstly, are you criticizing the great Kevin Shea story? But it was fantastic. It really was good. Jack McClane. I mean, it's just an easy target to be able to poke fun at that story.

But it was really good. It was only 21 minutes. It was fantastic. I think it was really great. I know that you were worried about the, or other people were saying that it wasn't, you know, content wise, not the greatest way. A few people said, oh, that's kind of ballsy,

for lack of a better term. The fucking podcast was three hours long. But yeah, to start though, you opened giving somebody the mic, uninterrupted for 21 minutes. But it's not like I was blindsided. I knew the story. I invited him personally and said, can we open TMLX 17 with the Jack McLean story?

You promoted the story. You talked about it. I actually didn't know it was 21 minutes. I didn't say, I kind of was thinking maybe this will hit 15 minutes. That's what I was thinking. And it went 21. So six minutes more than I expected, but there was no way I was going to interrupt that story to move it along any faster This is the long we just talked about this is a long form content And if you don't like long form you're not listening to Toronto Mike anyway, especially the tmlx Right like that. That's an extra long. No, I wasn't that wasn't a dig. That wasn't a crazy hours That's like a really long show. Well, I was at the Hummel and Fred Christmas show yesterday at Kelsey's

Yeah, they went like an hour and change. You're still allowed. You're still allowed to go there. I'm the producer. Still? Yeah. Okay. Unless they're going to call me at some point, but I feel like that, that is like, uh, I feel like that relationship is like just emotionally scarring. That I just, you were at my wedding where they were there too. I was at the table.

Yeah. I feel like that relationship might be. And Howard was hammered that day, right? He was very intoxicated. Yes. He made the speech that infamous speech, which wasn't scheduled in which he looked at. Because it's funny, because tomorrow is the Monica's family Christmas.

They do Christmas Eve in the Filipino community. Yeah. So tomorrow I'm going to that. So they're going big tomorrow. You're going to Edmonton? No. Oh, they most of most of them are not in the Filipino community. So tomorrow I'm going to that so they're going big tomorrow. You're going to Edmonton? No, they most of them are not in Edmonton. Oh, they're not anymore? Most of them are, no her parents are in Edmonton so their parents won't be at this party. But lots of her family's in the GTA actually. So I'll be at this family Christmas thing tomorrow.

Is it in Mimico? It's in Thornhill. Thornhill, okay. That's where I believe it's going to be. So you have to drive there? Yeah, well, 100%. This is a driving thing. Gotcha. Got to watch that snowfall come in here. But all this is to say that when Humble Howard inebriated at the time, took the mic on schedule. Incredibly inebriated. His first sentence, he made a crack about not understanding my brother's speech, whose

birthday was yesterday. Happy birthday, Ryan. But then his next sentence was, he looked the, uh, side and it just turned out that Monica's family was on one side and they were mostly Filipino people. Cause she's yes, they're their background is it makes sense. I mean, is that like, but he looks at them and says, don't worry if you didn't understand. We didn't understand either. Like this whole like, right. And apparently did he ever apologize for that? I don't know

if he apologized for it directly. I can't remember, but he has been banned from the Philippines. Like he's actually not allowed. He's not allowed to travel to the Philippines. He's on like an amazing no end. What would happen if he showed up here? Humble. Yeah. Well, I'm like sure. No, it's, I don't think it's that bad. I think Monica knows that he's a, a radio guy who likes to in a comic who likes to Make bits and sometimes they're awkward. Like I know sometimes when I'm on I'll say something stupid because I'm kind of on and then I realize oh like like I'm it was sure it was awesome But it was cringe like it there's no recording of that by the way, which is otherwise we'd open this episode with it

Okay, that was a soul. So last thoughts, because I have one more clip I'm going to play from TMLX 17. Then we're going to air our fucking grievances Elvis. And we each brought five grievances to the table. And I have more just to, so I'm going to feel them out as we go. I like it when you feel me out. So any last thoughts on being compared to Ed McMahon? Okay. Former Tonight Show host. Alex Wigde said, who's this guy? Because I don't think Alan knows who Elvis is and that's on him. Correct. This guy is just laughing at your jokes and I was thinking that's why he's a good fucking co-host. Well the joke is incorrect in the sense that I wasn't, I laugh at all the jokes

You have a big laugh not just your jokes and you don't have a lot of you're not a jokey guy You did have some good zingers. I'm a funny guy There were a couple good jokes that you did make in tmlx to whatever the 17 and I actually called them out on the show So like you can be funny, but your role is not to be funny. Generally speaking I'm usually laughing at something I gotta move things along 21 minutes. You're up Kevin. Although I guess in this podcast I'm laughing at you quite a bit So yeah, fuck it. Whatever. It's fine I don't the thing is is that 99% of the people who are there and listening have no idea who the fuck Ed McMahon is

So like no, that's a jet. I feel like that's a gen X crowd. Yeah, there's not below gen X, right? Like here sunny cuz I was in this- There's probably baby birds. Oh yeah, I forgot, I was at the Christmas party yesterday, went like an hour and changed, mine go three hours, but mine go three hours because everyone who attends and wants on the mic- Can get on the mic.

Gets on the mic. Humble and Fred only let pain sponsors on the mic, right? So it's 100% different, right? Oh, so it's a big SoCrow jerk. Well, it's just not like, I didn't get on the mic, for example. Oh, you did? Well, really, you're the producer.

I know. Don't you permanently have a mic beside you like Gary Dell? No, I was like wrangling people like they wanted Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home. Oh, really? And Brad, Brad, do they shout out to Ridley Funeral Home? They don't actually ever say those words. I don't think they know I say them. They should adopt those words. Shows really feel. But Ridley Funeral Home, as we speak right now is a sponsor

of Toronto Mike and Humble and Fred. How many times has that happened in history where you've had Oh, Palma pasta for a little while. And I think I brought a company to them called garbage day. That was one of the very rare sales sales made. I remember I used to have that app and that's an RBC app to support you. So I introduced them to humble and friends. So there's been a few instances I think that might be it. I can't remember if sticker you calm ever sponsored humble and Fred Oh, right, but there's very few examples, but there is a current example, which is red leaf, you know Right who's sponsoring boats here?

So I was doing a lot of wrangling of things like that and gotcha So I know but but if he had called me on the mic to say hello I 100% was prepared to do it, but I never got called on the mic So it didn't happen But at a Toronto mic listener experience only once a year do we do the live recordings and that's at Palma's kitchen And I want to thank Palma for hosting and Palma has a large lasagna in my freezer for you. Thank you. Thank you Anthony's the best. He really is the best. Well, he, you and I and Anthony have a great history because we were, uh, way back. This is way back to like when your blog didn't suck days before the podcast.

Yeah. Way before the podcast. When my blog didn't suck. I think it did suck by then, but I can't remember. So there's a lasagna for you. I have one more clip from TMLX17, but first I'm going to give you this wireless speaker from Monaris because you're going to listen to season seven of yes, we are open, which is hosted by another guy we chatted with at TML. He's the best Al Grego. I feel like I've known him for a long time. Anthony or Al? Anthony, just because I've known him for a lot longer. Okay. But Al Grego is also the best longer history there. Deeper history. What about, what do you think of Peter Gross? Is he also the best? I want to know. I'm going to ask you, but everyone has TMLX. What are your thoughts on Moose grumpy? She's alive on the light

She's lovely. She absolutely yes I mean I don't know who she is before this whole like podcast thing comes and then like all of a sudden she's like This super nice person. Well, she comes like events. That's how I get to know my listeners And she's like she like she listens and she's like nice and like she you know, she gets it She just did Homer. It's like she's in on the joke. She's lovely. You know, like she's great.

And she's become a dear friend of both Stephanie Wilkinson, who's an OG. She was on the bus before the podcast. Okay. Oh, she was. Yeah. She was a, before my blog sucked. She was a big fan of Toronto Mike.com

and leave a Fumka who will talk about it. I thought they were friends before. No, they all met through the listener experiences. So I have a question for you. Like, and I thought of this on the way I thought of that. I have a statement from the VP of sales. So you go for it. I thought about this on the way in actually this morning while I was showering, I like how many years have you been doing this? Uh,

this is a now you're 1313. So 13 years ago, I know that this is somewhat of an unfair question because podcasting and the world today is so much different than it was 13 years ago. But when you started this and made the conscious decision, maybe unconscious because you sort of were forced into it a little bit, did you ever think that you would get to the point where you had this sort of business and also community that goes along with what you're doing? Because you've built something really, really special.

It's, if you've never been to- High praise from you. If you've never been to a Team LX or even like just participated in online stuff with Mike, he really has this amazing community of people that have just like come together and it's amazing. Did you ever think that that was possible or was that even like a glimmer or a twinkling in your eye of something? No one forced me to start Toronto mic'd. I literally just watched humble.

I started humbling Fred podcasting in October, 2011. Well, I think you went, what I meant was that you went into it full time. Oh, 20. Oh, I know. It's 2018. You got laid off from your job. 2018. I left my full-time job and started TMDS. I have to get my initials correct. Okay. So I hear what you mean. Okay. So no, but I started the podcast in 2012, right? So the podcast was six years old when I started. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But no, I never, of course not. You don't, I, who am I right? I'm not a radio guy like you, you, you are Western radio. I wasn't Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But no, I never, of course not. You don't, I, who am I right? I'm not a radio guy like you. You were on Western radio. I wasn't a radio guy. If you used to call Western games for the university. Yeah. Football, hockey. Yeah.

Come on. Yeah. And I know you lost a good friend. Uh, Carlo Carlo. Yeah. See, I remember these things. Good memory. Multiple vowels and Carlo. Yeah. Yeah. He's finished. He was finished. Oh, he's finished. All right. No, are really clean at home. No, I'm sorry. I never met him. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But I absolutely don't, that's not, no, I didn't think about it. Remember, not that you should remember, but the first TMLX event was at Great Lakes Brewery. I was there.

And they said, hey, have you thought about having a library event? And I actually kind of laughed it off. Like it'll just be me. And if I can beg elders to come. Maybe I wasn't there. Would that was, you said the first One wasn't broadcast right? Um bum bum bum can't remember our cast the I remember I do know that Al Grego's band played it there the way maybe I was maybe I was there then can't remember

If I recorded the first one, I think I was at one two or three At Great Lakes. Yeah, and then the palmmas kitchen one, definitely a Palm, a Palm's kitchen. Okay. So we were at, cause 18 will be in June, right? So we're already at 18, but I guess a bunch in the park, like throughout the pandemic and stuff. Yeah. We, we met at Marie Curtis park for beers. Uh, and I'm going to carry that tradition at sugar beach, uh, later today, but, and that's not a TMLX. So Michael Lang, don't worry. Don't sweat it over here. Oh dear. He's got a street. So a couple of things. He's like Al Ripken now. So Mark Weisblatt says,

TMU was possible. That's the community we call it the Toronto Mike universe was possible because our guy Mike was an enthusiast of the three ring circuses that would develop around radio shows. So maybe I think he's saying you're a whack packer. And I got to get this thing in here. If you were, I don't know if that's a promotion or promotion. And he's right. If you were a student of the TMU, you understood how this was possible of Toronto Mike. So we, this thing, and I was just for, I want to shout out to four people because this is going to be a very somber

moment where I shout out really if you don't home, but this bunch of friendships have come out of the tmlx events where listeners get together and they have one thing in common they like the same podcast okay and maybe they even like me maybe they like Elvis I don't know but this broad squad I want to shout out because it's gonna tie into this clip I'm gonna say was it is moose grumpy Stephanie Wilkinson and leave a FAMCA. But there was a fourth member, Sheila Knysovich. Sheila Knysovich and Sheila, early 50s, attending all the events, very involved,

dropped out of a heart attack. Yeah. She passed away very suddenly. And it was a, that was a hit. I remember getting the news and confirming it with her employer, because she had an employer, a real estate agent in like Bloor, King's Way. Anyway, her name is Gludish.

Her last name was Gludish. And I confirmed with her all the details and I couldn't believe what I was hearing that Sheila was gone. And you know what that's like with Carlo and people you've lost in your life. It's a hit. So they are now friends, but they did not. They were not friends pre-CMLX events. I did not know that. See, that, I mean, that also speaks to the power of the community

because as an outsider looking in, I see, you know, especially Moose and- Why are you an outsider? Why don't you come on inside? It's warm in here. Okay. So Levi Funke, I'm going to play a clip, but Moose Grumpy writes in the live stream, by the way, why am I reading these real time clips? Because we're live at live.torontomike.com and many members of the community are there. The whole TMU is amazing. This is Moose Grumpy. We have helped each other find jobs, raised money for charities, support through lifetime events, births, deaths, weddings. Much love is spread between friends. So I'm that's it I feel honored about that but I feel like we're doing some drifting away from the the crankiness

of these grievances here my goodness but one last clip from tmlx17 and then we'll get to our grievances I promise. This happened. Lieve Fumke, yes, please give us an update on your health we're all thinking about you I did drop off the wire DVD set that. We're all thinking about you. I did drop off the wire DVD set, that's how much I care about you. How are you feeling? Give us a health update. So I had a PET scan about three weeks ago and it showed that I was cancer-free. cancer-free. And there you go.

Thank you. So thank you, Lee Befumka, FOTM Hall of Famers. Any words before we give up your mic? Well, I don't want to embarrass him, but someone at this table has been with me throughout the whole journey and always there getting my back because he's been through it too. I don't want to make you cry. But Elvis, thank you. I like when he cries.

Elvis has been there for me. I thought you were talking about me, but you're talking about Elvis. Any words to say to Lide? I mean, she's a remarkable woman with everything that she's gone through we text back and forth and there's good days and bad days but she's always way more positive than I would be in that situation and you're you're just an inspiration and you're gonna keep kicking ass I know it. Thank you. Love you. Love you too.

There was a hug happening. There was a hug. You're tethered. Okay, ladies and gentlemen at home, there's a big head phones on. You can't have Elvis and leave a thumpka. I've been playing by playing. I'm like Dan the dance showman of the emotional moments here. Keep us posted. Yeah, you were crying again. You haven't cried that hard since George Michael died on Christmas Day. Jesus. You know, before I get your reaction to leave a if I'm a fun fact, not fun that George Michael died on Christmas day, but Ricky Henderson was born on Christmas day. Was he really?

Yeah. Oh, he would have been 66 in a couple of days. Okay. You know what blew my mind? Cause my, I don't like this guy as you know, and I don't want to, but Ricky or you don't like Ricky. I don't want to go down another tangent, but if I told you that Ricky Henderson was 65 and Eddie Vedder turned 60, which is I think today or yesterday is his birthday.

Love that guy. Would you believe me? Cause I like, I feel like Ricky Henderson is kind of like a Hulk Hogan. Like I thought Hulk Hogan was 50 when we were kids. And then like, he just always looked old and Ricky Henderson, like, I'm right. I just thought he was a lot older than this. When I heard he was 65, I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? I thought he was 80. Well, you know who looked at you? Speaking of world series wins for the blue Jays in 92, we beat the Atlanta Braves. As you will recall. Yes. Do you remember Atlanta brave? The guy who got the final out, uh, the great Otis Nixon. Yeah. He looked 54, 55 when you're playing at the Braves. Yeah final out the great Otis Nixon? Yeah, he looked 54 55

When you're playing at the Braves? Yeah, how old is he now? I mean like he's gotta be 100 right and then it's great because I want to get back to leave a phone The thoughts on what leave a phone can said now that you can process it and maybe not be drowning in those north oshawa tears But hold on the uh, oh christ. What was I? I'm playing. You, you made a very good dark joke after that. Do you remember the dark joke? Of course I do. Cause when I listen back, you know, it's a good edit out of that. Cause I'm like, Oh Mike, you can just let a sweet moment happen. But it was team Alex. And I, I would, I, my joke was that leave a Funko was put into the hall of fame because she was sick. Right. And if she's cancer free, my joke was that leave a FOMCA was put into the hall of fame because she was sick and she's cancer free.

Maybe we take that back, but that was all a joke. That was a, Oh yeah. So just last point, I just remembered where I was going. Cause you know, I'm enjoying my, she's not listening live anyway, so she's doing, we can say anything we want. Yeah. She's the moose is taking notes for her. She's got an appointment yesterday. The whole, well, not the whole family family but four members of my family sat down to watch. It's a wonderful life Streaming on prime so I I got to it late in life like yeah thirties But now it's appointment viewing and I ball every single time I balled last oh really okay every night But the character of mystery and people who have seen it which is a lot of people

Mr.. Gower is a key character. Okay. He's a pharmacist Mr. Gower when George Bailey is like 12 years old or something. Mr. Gower is in the movie Okay, and then mr. Gower is there when George Bailey is like, I don't know and it's like 40 or something I don't know at 35. I don't know how far that movie goes. He's an complete adult He's played by Jimmy Stewart, but mr Gower does not age. Like Mr. Gower looks like an old guy when George Bailey is a kid. And at

the end of the movie, the final scene on Christmas Eve, a beautiful scene, the bell rings. Mr. Gower is there singing the odd lang sign and Mr. Gower looks just as old as he did in the beginning of the movie. So it's kind of like, it's wild. Everybody kind of, there's an aging different actors and stuff, but Mr. Gower, I know there's no CGI in 1947 or whatever the hell 48, but it's wild when you see Mr. Gower in the beginning of the movie. And then this movie goes several decades, a few decades in time, and he still looks exactly the same old man. Mr. Gower, shout out to Mr. Gower. That's not one of my grievances, by the way, Elvis, please react to those very kind and beautiful words are leave a funk I said about you at tmlx17 well, she I mean she's amazing it's it's um

if the whole thing is sad, but I think the one of the more sadder things is that it took like you know a crazy thing like being diagnosed with cancer for me to be introduced to two people that are really just good people. There's always a shortage of good people in your life, and so any more good people that I can add into my day-to-day to keep things moving in a positive direction, I will welcome. The context for adding them sucks, but I'll take it. Um, but you do know the TMU is full of those types of people.

That's literally the community that has developed. I just, didn't I just fuck, but they have to all get cancer for you to care about them. Didn't I just blow you to like earlier to tell you that I don't have, I don't have all these that I don't have the opportunity to meet. Well, thank goodness, Levi, Fumka got the cancer. So you take the time to get to know her lovely, lovely husband. FOTM. You know what it is? It is it is a lot easier to go to these things now because I

do recognize people and they're very nice and friendly and lovely to talk to. And you get to know them a little bit better. It's it's it's amazing what can happen after you go to a few of these things. Well, I hope to see you- Like your VP of Sales is a great guy, you know? Oh, I have a quote from him before we get to- now the grievances are coming. Maybe the whole episode is teasing the grievances and we never get to it. Yeah, yeah.

That'd be great. Hour at a time! VP of Sales writes in multiple- I think we did reference the garbage day app, which was a sale by VPSales. Oh, good. And he has also sold, I want to shout out Mike Majeski, another great VPSales sale. But VPSales writes multiple sales, multiple, because that's two I mentioned right there, big dollars, screwed by COVID, there was a huge thing going to happen with the branch

of RBC responsible for apps like garbage date. There was a huge deal happening when COVID hit and everything got paused and then the principals moved on to other jobs and this of course died on the vine. You've heard of that story before. He says, so basically he says, I've sold before and I will sell again. And I want to say, I believe in you. My, I'm hitching my wagon to the VP of sales, just like I'm hitching my wagon to Ian service, just like I'm hitching my wagon to Elvis. You know, I'm going to leave a lot of money on the table and I'm going to be happy to do so.

One of the original episodes I was on was with Ian or I am service as I like to say. Yeah, I am at your service. Ian service drove from Guelph to be a part of one of our episodes because he's a big fan. He's still a big fan. So love that guy. He's a good dude here. All right. We're ready now. Stoke. Hold on. Has Stokely ever come to a team? Alex, you know what? Cause he's a busy guy. He's always got sports stuff, right? He might've been at one at great lakes brewery, but, um, I, he's a fun story. He's a couple of weeks ago speaking to Ian's are I had an issue and I won't get into the details because it's boring me to even think about it in my head as I formulate it but basically

there's a USB connection from this board to this laptop so I can play things on the laptop that go through the board and then go back to be recorded in the laptop it's a two-way street this cable okay this cable I'm pointing to right now yeah but the two-way streets started becoming a one-way street out of nowhere, where I would play stuff here. Anything I played on the laptop was not being recorded. Like it would go through the board, I could hear in the headphones, but it wouldn't be recorded here.

So it's now, what's wrong here? I troubleshot the fuck out of this. This should have been one of my grievances. I changed the cable, I changed the laptop, I changed all the parts one by one. I had long convos with Ian service trying to just talk it out Sometimes you talk to somebody who knows what's going on to help, right? And then I'm talking to different people so I can't figure it out The only piece I didn't swap out was the board because I didn't have another board right there over a thousand dollars

But then I went to long and McQuade and I put it in order for a board and I was gonna pick it up The next day. Oh, you actually want to buy a new board because it's 30-day for a board and I was going to pick it up the next day. Well, you actually want to go buy a new board because it's 30 day return policy. Oh, right. If it wasn't the board, I was going to return it. Right. The only way to know if it's the board is if I reach out. But then I phone Andrew Stokely, my audio guru who set me up to have a half years ago.

He doesn't answer the phone, but the ring is different. You know, when you phone in the ring is different, like a, yo, he's like overseas. He was on a beach in St. Lucia okay but he didn't answer the phone but he texts me back and he goes hey what's up I'm on a beach in st. Lucia yeah I said well enjoy the beach don't worry about me and then I said but here's the problem I'm having okay he kind of we text back and forth for a while I tell him what I've done he says okay I'm kicking ass if my troubleshooting I'm doing a great job he says have you reset the board to its factory settings no okay so that would be a big pain in the ass though right cuz well have you customized or no spending 11th hundred dollars on a new

board or whatever kidding yeah anyway so I and I spent four hours troubleshooting this and I was working around it I had to do an episode with with Luke Sellers and Gear Joyce and I had to go another laptop because I couldn't go through this one. It was a whole thing. I'm like MacGyver over here putting together Toronto Mike episodes. Long story longer, which is the new expression I'm going to use. I do the factory reset, fixed it. Okay.

Setting the, so whatever bug, whatever happened was fixed by the factory reset. And that suggestion was put in my head by Andrew Stokely. That's what we're doing here was celebrating Andrew Stokely who was on a beach in St. Lucia. You know, he does a really good job on Reddit with just that audio guy or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He does.

He, he like people ask him questions about Jay's games and audio and stuff. And he does a like, he's just super responsive and he's got quite the following there too. Well, he's good at what he does. He really is. I saw him in Oshawa when he was doing the world. It was, was it the Canadian curling was Canadian curling championships or the world champion? I don't know if the world. Well, if I'm having the world championship of curling, I'm doing it in North Oshawa.

There it wasn't in North Oshawa. It was downtown Oshawa. I was in Oshawa last week. Do you know? I saw you posted that I was on Bloor street, which I thought was funny. That's right down in the south end. Yeah. Right off the 401. Okay. So James Patterson, we're about to kick ass of our first grievance Elvis. James Patterson writes in that his grievance is that he has to work today. Boo to that. Isn't he the guy from twilight? There's multiple James Patterson's. I don't, I think this guy is not that guy because he has to work today. I don't think the twilight got you. That's James.

I'm working right now too. Actually. Oh, well we're going to get to that here. I see you have the jacket on here. Did I ever tell me what you're going to do if you're Manera speaker? Did we get distracted? I'm going to play it. You're going to listen to season seven of yes.

Yeah, you did tell me. I did tell you that. You did tell me. And I gave you that you have more than just the Great Lakes beer that you've popped there You've popped open to so far But you're going home with you and I already told you you have a pome pasta lasagna, right? And I gave you the Ridley funeral. Yes, so one last piece of advice and then we're gonna kick with this Recycle my electronics dot CA. You know how you have a room for Costco purchase. Yeah

Still have that room? I still make that joke. I think it's, I think that was clever. But do you have a room for old cables, old devices, old? I would say a room, but I've definitely got multiple, uh, closets, multiple, uh, uh, Tupperware. Well, that's why you moved to North Oshawa, right? Like you can be in South Etobicoke and have no closet space.

Correct. Or you could be in North Oshawa and have fucking rooms for Costco purchases. Costco purchases and cable Tupperware bins. If you were king of your life, let's say you move your wife out of this equation, move your kids out of the equation, would you still be in North Oshawa? Uh, no, not right now. No. Where would you be? I don't know where that would be. I'd probably be right downtown. Downtown. Okay. But I don't know about that. Downtown now versus downtown when I live there is different. The condo prices are dropping. Yeah, I know, but it's like,

there's nothing to do downtown at night now. No, right. Isn't it? Isn't it like a dead zone? It's a, it's like dead zone. Isn't it? No, I don't think so. Yeah. That's what's going on. You could go to the distillery district, the home, the, the, the, the, that's what's going on. You could go to the distillery district the home That's what I'm the Christmas. That's why I'm fucking itching to do you could go to sugar beach and have beers with me go to the Christmas market a lot of people go on the Christmas market tonight. Okay, I can't wait Uh, so James Patterson has to work today boo to that. Thank you to recycle my electronics.ca Elvis that's where you go. If you have old electronics, old cables, you just say, Hey, this is cable. Yeah, I just did this because I went to recycle my electronics.

I see. I just saw Ian service just did a whole truckload. He's got a lot of big electronical stuff. He had to get rid of. I just did this. I went through all my stuff, old laptops, old cables. I put it all in a box. I went to my computer.

I went to recycle my electronics dot CA. I put in my postal code. It said, Hey, the staples near Shearway Gardens will accept that for recycle my electronics.ca. I literally brought it all to the staples. It took me like a minute. I filled in a form, dropped it off. Nice. It gets properly recycled. So the chemicals don't end up in our landfill. Beautiful. Is that amazing or what? I love it. I love it. Recycle by electronics did something that I appreciate. They signed up for all of 2025. Already? I've already... Beauty. I'm the VP of sales around here. Beauty. Who was it that you were trying to close on TMLX? Wasn't there someone you were trying to close that TMLX?

Yeah. I'm trying to close a Hollywood suite. His name is David Kines. Yes. And we're closed. I looked into that and I can't watch it because I don't have cable. Yeah. I think you can through Amazon, give Amazon. Do you have prime? Yeah. Like through that. Oh, I can watch it through that. You subscribe to Hollywood suite through that and you can get all the Stu Stowe movies you can handle. I've only ever watched one. I didn't know there was more. Oh my God. I've seen the dark side of the ring. Right. Well, that's different. That's on crave. I think. Yes. Has he, is he doing more of those? Do you know? Yeah. What's he's, he's a, yeah,

he's doing another season that they commit, I guess one season at a time. And he'll a hundred percent. That's usually how it works. Once he's, I don't know. I got a whole 12 month book and from the recycle my town. Okay. I cannot wait any longer. All right. So the tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I got a lot of problems with you people. Now, you're going to hear about it.

Elvis, what's your first grievance? I'm looking at seven here and I'm trying to figure out where to start. Pick your top five, big guy. Do I go heavy or do I go light? I'll go light. Whoa. Do I go heavy or do I go light? I'll go light. Whoa. I'll go light.

Okay. I is ridiculous that every single year trying to get COVID and flu shots for you and your family is harder to do than getting Taylor Swift tickets. It's unbelievable, both in terms of the way in which you have to sign up and register for them and then when you show up specifically at Shoppers Drug Mart it's like they're fucking surprised that you're there. It's like what the fuck is going on and then you wait around for like a half an hour well who knows what the fuck they do and then like this year we actually left. We didn't get them done at all at this particular shoppers because they were morons and we have like you know had better things to do than

fucking hang around and wait for you know some pharmacy assistant to get their head out of their ass and get it all ready. I don't understand how it is that we live in a world in which we can't easily and quickly get two shots every single year. We know it's gonna happen every single year. Just get it done nice and easy, in and out, boom. Like, it's ridiculous. Part of my second grievance is a rant on this exact topic. I just went through this. Yeah. Here's the pro- I've nailed it down. 100% the problem is we have a family doctor. So we make an appointment and the two little ones, for example, who we are responsible for, we'll go to the family doctor and the

family doctor is like, who wants flu shots? I've got flu shots in my fridge. Who wants one? Do you want one? You want one? Heck, everyone gets one. The kids get a flu shot. But you know what the family doctor can't put in your arm? What? The COVID shot. They can't put a COVID shot in. No, this is the, this is the missing link. Okay. This is a Doug Ford. I know. The COVID shot is you got to go through like a pharmacy, like you mentioned shoppers or no frills. Or a health unit. Right. So the family doctor has got flu shots up the wazoo. Where do you want it? But for the COVID shot, you got to go make an appointment with some kind of a law blog company or something.

It's a complete, it's somewhere else, okay? So we have two different chunks. I had to go to Shoppers to get my COVID shot. But while I was there, I'm like, I don't want to do two trips. So give me the flu shot while I'm here. Then I'm in the doctor's office, the actual general practitioner, doctor, family doctor, with the two little ones, they're getting a quick little yearly checkup or whatever. And she's like, here's your flu shots, but no, you don't get the COVID shot.

They can't, they can't, the family doctors aren't given the COVID shot. This is like a Doug Ford government thing. It is to me, it really is. It's part of a rant for my grievance number two. So you're, you know, we're kind of borrowing here, but it makes no sense that my family doctor can't give me a COVID shot. It's so dumb. We, and the, the, the really dive into it. Shoppers has this really extensive like application process to get the appointment. And then when you show up, you give them your health card and they have to go in and basically put in all of the information again, manually.

Like it doesn't, I got a. Like it doesn't transfer over. It doesn't transfer over. It's so dumb. Because I like, I question them. I'm like, what are you doing? Like everything's there. And I know it's them. It's shoppers.

Because I took the family to Costco in the pharmacy, which we don't normally go to. We go to Costco all the time, but just not the pharmacy. I should now because we walked in we said hey we have an appointment. They sat us down everything was already in the computer. I got the fucking email from the government saying I had my COVID shot and my kids had their COVID shot before the shot was even in their arm because they literally did the paperwork and then boom. Like it was all like what% what I filled out the form itself as a pain in the ass, but I did it all in advance from my from my home and then didn't have to sit there while some pharmacist did it

again. Shoppers is like get the fuck out of my health care. Fuck you. Fuck you hard. Love this. Grieve it. You're you know, this is the light. That was the light. I got a shadow out. You know what? I turned 50. So you'll get there in what five years when you get to turn 50. How soon before you're celebrating? A year and a half.

A year and a half. You're almost there. You're catching up. Oh, because my oldest brother, yeah, I guess he has my older brother. He turned 48 yesterday. So you're similar vintage. So I had eligible for the Shingrex,

it's called a Shingle Vax, but you pay out of pocket. My mom had Shingles and it was like, she's still feeling it's brutal. Well, I made the decision that I will pay out of pocket. Why do you have to pay for it? Cause it's 65, I think. Oh, but you can get it when you're 50. You can get it when you're 50,

but you gotta pay out of pocket. So I don't have, I don't actually, it's funny cause my wife works for a big bank. I don't have a fucking drug plan. Do you mind saying how much it costs? Two hundred and change. Oh, here's OK. So a story on this big bill. I go I line up.

And I had to get other pills because I'm fucking have a clotting disorder at my Costco down the street from the great. You can get the shingle shot at Costco. Yeah. So I go to Costco and I have a I I have an actual, uh, what do you call it? A far, um, subscription, a prescription. My doctor's prescription. Hey, I got a prescription for Shingrex and they're like, okay, do you want us to give you this?

And then you're going to put, you have to keep it at this temperature until your doctor puts it in your arm. And then I said to the guy at Costco, well, can't you guys put it in my arm? And he goes, we can put in your arm, but a, you have to make an appointment and B it's $12 for us to put this in your arm. And I said, I said, well, I would pay $12 to not worry about what fucking temperature I've got this thing at for the next 40 hours. I can bring bike it over to fucking my doctor to put it in my arm. I said, I'm already paying 200 and change for this drug. I'm happy to pay $12. Right. So I make an appointment right there. I had

to come back the next day. I bike over to Costco and I, but you're right. Once you have the appointment, very quick, you sit down for a minute or two, you go in, you get the shot and it's done. So I have the, but you have to, but they're like six months apart or something less than that, but like two to six months or something, right? But I have the first Shingles vaccine in my arm Elvis beauty. I love a 12 whole dollars So that's a person at cost of dollars again, I guess right I guess so Yeah, I guess that's like they're charged for sticking a needle in your arm or whatever is $12. So I love your first grievance It ties in with my second one. That's a spoiler, but you're ready for my first grievance

Should I play that stinger before each grievance? Like maybe do I play this before each grievance? Is that too much? The tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I should have cut it right there. I got a lot of problems with you people. Now you're going to hear about it. All right. My first grievous grievous general grievous general grievous from James.

James loved those fucking movies. Okay. Spotify. Okay. I'm just going to go off on Spotify for a moment here in 2024 and to be specific October 1st, 2024 something started happening in multiples of hundreds to be quite honest with you. I'm listening. I'm going to go. Yeah. Elvis is going to go. I'll give a play by play of how strong his stream is in the 2024 Festiva season. In 2024, Spotify is removing episodes of Toronto Mike like it's their job to do so. OK, so I like to have guests return to Toronto Mike to kick out the jams. I've been doing this for many, many years. It was an idea I had on a bike ride when I was literally thinking of a tweet I saw from Mike Wilner and Mike Wilner tweeted he

loved Pearl Jam's 10 and I'm on a bike ride and my brain says I like Pearl Jam's 10. I'm surprised Mike Wilner likes Pearl Jam's 10. What else does Mike Wilner like? And then I thought what if Mike Wilner came over and we played his 10 favorite songs of all time and we listened together and we talked about those 10 songs? What does that song mean to Mike Willner? When did he first hear it? Why did he choose it? And then I could give a little bit of feedback like, I love that song too.

Oh, I don't even know that song. This is the first time hearing it. Oh, very interesting that you chose that song. And all this does, these Kick Out the Jams episodes at Toronto Mike and all this does these kick out the jams episodes of Toronto Mike's all it does is it makes people like the song more you heard Mike Willner kick out Toto's Africa and you were like oh I liked that I forgot how much I like Toto's Africa then you go stream lots of Toto and then you discover more Toto and next thing you know you're diving deep

into Toto and then you find out members of Toto are going to I don't know Casino Niagara or something or Casino Rama and you buy tickets to see Toto because you're now all into Toto because Mike Will and they're kicked out Africa. This is literally how it works okay maybe you'll buy a Toto t-shirt and maybe you'll see them every time they come to town and you'll dive into their catalog, you'll fall in love. This is how it works. Maybe you'll tell five of your friends about your love for Toto and maybe those friends, somebody in that friend group will tell five of their friends about this great Toto they discovered and it's all

because Mike Willner kicked out Africa on Toronto Mike. Well, Spotify's algorithm, it's bought. It detects the use of this song and it's... I get an email saying you have 48 hours to prove you have the rights to play Toto's Africa or we're removing the episode. And guess what, Elvis? There is no way that I know of and I have done extensive research of so can and Alan Cross and everyone in between There's nowhere I can go to Legally properly

Play Toto's Africa unless I negotiate with the entertainment lawyers for Toto in the record label and license it like I'm a Netflix show Elvis Fuck Spotify removing all these episodes of trauma and it's literally hundreds of episodes And if you're a Toronto mic listener if you're an FOTM if you love what you hear right now And you're listening to us on Spotify get a new app Change your app. It's overreach. It's crazy. It's it's nuts. I mean like yeah, it's I agree with you on this This is nuts good on the yelling too. I like it Well, you inspired me what you yell yourself what this started just this year though

Well, it was always a threat and I always knew it existed when I have a client I say don't do it because it's not worth the hassle, right? But I'm the rebel without a cause I'm breaking the eggs. How long does an episode usually stay up before it gets taken? Uh, sometimes nowadays I know if I dropped an FOTM KOTJ episode in which listeners send in the clip and then play the song and it's like dead on arrival. Okay. DOA like that guy didn't last more than 48 hours in total. Is there a certain- But I got a note today about somebody who kicked out the jams maybe six years ago and

it's like, Hey, 48 hours and that one's gone Toronto mic. It's going. There's a little bit of a spill over here. So cause podcast listeners, in my humble opinion, as a podcasting pioneer, I've just the godfather podcast. Yes. It's on LinkedIn. You can check it out. You ever been to LinkedIn? No. Well, I'm going to talk about that later. Oh, great. Podcast listeners. I've become too reliant on big tech. I'm talking about Apple. I'm talking about Spotify I'm talking about Amazon. I'm talking about Google one day. Maybe I'll talk about the owners of LinkedIn Microsoft

Okay, this is big tech get yourself a smaller Indie podcast app because this is something that I don't think everyone knows XML because this is something that I don't think everyone knows. XML, extensible markup language. It is non-proprietary. It belongs to everybody. It's the democratic egalitarian beauty of podcasts. Apple, Spotify, Google, Microsoft, they don't own XML. It belongs to us. Therefore, in theory, Ian Service and I can go away and in a couple of weeks

launch a new app that will parse an XML file and essentially play a podcast for you. So don't rely on those big tech companies to listen to podcasts. Go find a smaller independent indie podcast app and you won't have this issue. Who? What should I use? Well, are you an Apple or Android man? I'm an Apple person. Outcast is a good one I hear about. I'm not an Apple guy, but I've heard about this.

Good, good band too. Outcast is a great band. Andre 3000. I think he's out doing some new stuff these days. Okay. So that's my message there. Uh, don't use Spotify for podcasting. It's gotta be really frustrating for you as the godfather of podcasting.

Well, it's like I knew the risks. I knew the risks. But you know what? Spotify people can't hear all of my stuff, okay? I, now I play a game when I kick out a jam and I've been doing less lately because it's getting in my head. I know I changed my closing theme

because it was getting flagged because Rosie and Grave from Shakespeare, my butt was getting flagged. Even though they clearly gave you permission, correct? Yeah, because it's, it's, I need, it's like, yeah, they've given me permission, but it's like who owns the song? The thing I get tells me that the, the owner, the labels or whatever that own this thing, it's a whole hassle. I just wish there was a way like, you know, when you play music on the radio and you go to So Can and you get a license, you go back.

I wish there was something globally where I could play like some Bruce Springsteen or maybe there's even rules. I'd be happy happy you'd have to like do logs and stuff But at least I'd have some here's my certificate number mr. Spotify and YouTube does this to me too It's a hate. That's why I don't live stream on YouTube It's a pain in the ass But we do have live dot Toronto Mike calm because no one's policing that and there are many podcast apps I don't give a fuck if I play Bruce Springsteen or Neil Young or whatever. Anyway, that's my first grievance.

The fact that Spotify in 2024 has decided to remove hundreds of Toronto mic'd episodes because yes, I play the Beatles. It's a good one. That's a good grievance. Yeah, I got four more everybody, so buckle up. Okay, again, What's our decision? Am I playing that bumper for everyone or we just go just go cuz I could play that for everyone George Costanza Frank Costanza Shows the Redleaf funeral home. Go ahead. My next one is about our good friend Taylor Swift

My eight-year-old who I just heard come in love is Taylor Swift and perhaps not the angle that you think I'm going to be taking here because I'm also a fan of the Buffalo Bills. I do watch football. I enjoy football. And there has been a lot of consternation. Is that a word? That's the word. That's a word. It's been a lot of consternation over the last year or so since Taylor Swift has started dating Travis Kelce from the Kansas City Chiefs. And there are people out there who are seemingly upset about the attention that Taylor Swift, Kelsey, and the Chiefs are getting as a result of this romance, whether it be

fake or not, you can decide as to whether or not you think it's an authentic relationship. Well, what drives me bonkers is when people who are fans of sport, like me, like my friends, like sports casters, both young and old, who get their panties in such a knot because the television cameras show Taylor Swift in a private suite watching her boyfriend play. Right. I don't understand this obsession with wanting to hate a pop icon because she is dating some guy who's playing on the field. Of course she's going to go fucking watch her boyfriend play. Right. Is it her fault that she is the most popular person on the

planet at the moment? No. Is it his fault that he happens to be dating a good looking woman who's the most popular person on the planet? No. Just let them fucking be. Is it the network's fault for showing that she's celebrating in the box after the Travis Kelsey touchdown the goal the goal the goal of a broadcaster is to Make compelling content that people will watch or listen to right and when you put up Taylor Swift on the screen even for like those five seconds with her, you know hugging someone's mom or whatever It's gonna bring new viewers. Okay, great. It doesn't affect me in any way. Yeah, they're not showing Taylor during the play.

Correct. They show old people up in the box any, all the time. Right. The owners, the rumors is that Jerry Jones is the owner of the Dallas Cowboys and Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots. They're the primary negotiators with these networks and the rumor is, the conspiracy theory is, is that they have it written into the contracts that they have to be shown on TV every time their teams play anyway. So I'd rather look at fucking Taylor Swift celebrating

than these fucking old geezers. Right, I agree with that. Get over yourself. If you are so upset that Taylor Swift is on TV for five seconds while you're watching a football game, you got big problems. You're either a misogynist, you're a... I don't know what you are, but just you're... it's dumb. Is it possible... first of all, I agree if you... I like your grievance there too and I agree with you. Is it

possible that this has been so politicized because Taylor came out suggesting that her followers, the Swifties vote for Kamala Harris, if anything, it got worse because of that, um, because it existed before that. But we all knew where she, what side of the fence she stood on anyway, cause she endorsed, um, Hillary. So I mean, come on. And she and Joyce endorsed, but you know, there's a lot of, uh, that, uh, the Trumper contingent, we'll call them, who love, many of whom love their NFL football.

Why, I mean, they call everyone snowflakes, but they're the biggest snowflakes themselves. So shut the fuck up. Just watch the fucking game, and who cares if they show Taylor Swift for five seconds. If anything, it means that you can actually watch the game with your wife or your daughters, because they're excited to see that.

But my suspicion is that you don't actually want to do that. It's fun, right, Elvis? You're watching an NFL game to get away from your family because you hate them and you hate your life. So just fuck off. And they're glad you're doing so because they get a break from you. But fuck off. Seriously. Like it would be, my kids are into the into games now because they potentially could see Taylor, which is I'll take it for any time.

I have the chance to spend time with my children. I'll take it because it's not something that happens, you know, as often as maybe we'd like because they grow up and they have their own interests. That AFC conference final between the Bills and the Chiefs in Kansas City is going to be bananas. It will be. And Josh Allen, most exciting player in the game today. He is. He is. Yeah. I'm going to the game on Sunday. I'm very excited. They're going to crush the jets. Uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's going to be, it's going to be a fun playoff. It really is. Let's go. Why am I still mad about Doug Flutie getting benched in 2000 the music city

miracle? Everybody look it up. There was a lot of, a lot of the Trump or two that Doug Flutie is he really? Yeah. He's been doing events for Donald Trump. All these people who just don't want to pay tax. Wayne Gretzky was partying at the Mar-a-Lago. How do you feel about that? I feel like changing my 99 Gretzky sheets. I've had them since I purchased them at the byway back in 1981.

You're going to pay tax people. Like it's just, it's the reality of the world in which we live. Okay. Well, let's not make this too political unless that's a grievance. And then it's all good here. I am going to air my second grievance and we did touch on it. So I'm going to burn this one right now. But I don't. OK.

So, yeah, you know, Mike bikes a lot. OK, you know, I'm going to hit 14000 kilometers in 2024. Blah, blah, blah. Mike bikes every day. Mike also has kids who bike a lot. In fact, my eight year old and I still bike to school. We're still going to school and biking. Oh, that's good. He's eight and still going to school or she's biking. Don't misgender Morgan. Come on. Morgan goes both ways. It goes all the ways. Okay. So Doug Ford, they won't dwell on this too much, but bill two one two passed and part of Bill 212 means that the provincial

government can rip up bike lanes in this city and I'm just gonna air my second grievance as Doug Ford who's premier, he's not mayor of Toronto but he is premier of Ontario, removing bike lanes, fucking with Ontario Place and Ontario Science Centre which is literally now in Sherway Gardens, you're gonna see it later today. Can't wait. That's where the Ontario Science Centre and when you see it and remember what it was when you went to Ontario Science Centre, which is literally now in Sherway Gardens. You're going to see it later today. Can't wait. That's where the Ontario Science Centre. And when you see it and remember what it was when you went to the Ontario Science Centre, your blood will be boiling. Okay.

Not letting my family doctor give me a COVID shot. My goodness. On Friday, I was visited by Amber Morley, who I quite like, uh, still full of piss and vinegar. She's the counselor for this ward ward three, South Etobicoke, Lake Shore. She does not support bill two one two, but she doesn't have to it's already passed legislation, right? Because they have a majority but Brad Bradford as you and I heard when Allen's why storm the table What did you think when when Brad Bradford so Brad Bradford much like anyone else who came to that event and wanted on the mic

Got on the mic. I said yes to any human being who came to tmlx 17 and wanted on the mic And of course, I said yes to any human being who came to TMLX 17 and wanted on the mic. And of course I said yes to Brad Bradford. And of course I just brought up Bill 212 because he supports 212, the ripping up of the bike lanes on York and University and Bloor which is near where I live. And as we heard at TMLX 17, he supports that. We were talking about it. And that's when Alan Zweig stormed the table and yelled at us What did you think when you saw this guy running towards the table? I didn't know what to think I really didn't I didn't know what we haven't talked about this But we couldn't because apparently he was yelling from his table

Could not our head press correct could not our headphones on talking to the guests We don't hear a word from the crowd correct. I heard the crowd was a little loud and I'm sorry for that But we actually are oblivious to that. Correct, we do not hear that. Plus we also had level challenges. Right, because we didn't want feedback in the room with Al Gregg. Okay, so when he storms the tables,

because he knows we don't hear him, and he wants us basically to shut the fuck up and move on. He doesn't want to hear us talk to Brad Bradford about bike lanes, which is a fair point. A lot of people are like, I agree with the point, but I just didn't want somebody else producing Toronto Mike because literally that's my job. My initial thought that he was coming up to ask a question or to say something that was

unrelated to the conversation, but more about his time, like, Hey Mike, I need to go. Can you get me on soon? Or I thought that's what it was going to be. And then when he just started ranting, I was like, this is, this is amazing. Like this is so cringe. He's like, stop talking about bike lanes. So I will do that. I'm going to hear him in my head right now. He's living rent free in there right now. Cause he listened to your podcast. Yeah. He does. I get lots of notes from, uh, Alan's white about episodes. Uh, he was one of the guys, he was really angry that I took a turn. I took, and I didn't put this into grievance cause it's not really from this year, but I was really disappointed and hurt by, um, what I saw as intentional deception by Buffy

St Marie. Right. And it really, and I talked to him, I just talked about it with an indigenous man, uh, on Toronto Mike the other day because I, uh, will point out I'm not an indigenous man. It was a great episode. I am merely a man of Irish descent here. So I was curious for his take on it and it was very interesting. He wants not only should she give back her Junos so they can go to people they belong to, they should have gone

to but give back the order of Canada because she's not Canadian. Yeah. Buffy, Samarine. That's a prerequisite. Okay. So Alan's Wig was very upset with us going at Buffy, like leave her alone. She's done a lot of good. Yeah. She's done a lot of good for the Indigenous community. So, we kind of had it out for a while via email about... I mean, I feel like that's a fair debate.

Yeah, sure. But I have the right to be disappointed and hurt by it. And again, all I knew was what I saw in the Fifth Estate. It's not like I had done my own research or whatever. So, but it was compelling. And the fifth estate is not a Joe Blow's podcast blog. This is a CBC with lawyers going through everything and they're doing a great job in that.

But this is not from 2024. So just 2024, it's the encroachment. It's Doug Ford, who should be focusing on provincial responsibilities like healthcare and education. Those are the two big ones, but there are many, many others, of course. But bike lanes should always be a city's responsibility. This is extremely municipal. So I know Ontario Place belongs to the province.

It just happens to be, I'll be beside it today when I go to Sugar Beach, the Science Centre, you know, just the whole, the bullshit going on there to kind of force the closure. And now it's like literally, it's almost a kiosk in the Sherway Gardens. It's all of this Doug Ford and the fact that I, you stole this thunder, but the fact that I couldn't get a COVID shot for my kids from their family doctor, that is bullshit.

It is. That's a grievance for you. Okay, buddy, what's your- Do you think he should buy back the 407? I Think that That's it. That's a yeah. Well who sold it was a Harris's Harris sold it. Yeah Yeah, like we're leased it. There's a and I don't have the name at my disposal But Ed Keenan when he comes over every quarter last time he's over he explained that there's this like science behind like you can add more lanes and then you get alleviation of volume for a very short period of time. And

then you're right back where you started. Like there's some law. The lanes don't, adding lanes doesn't do it. But he wants to add a new, the new highway he wants to build. And then he talks about the tunnel under the 401 and everything. Well, they say that that was a ruse to make the, the, and everything. Well, they say that that was a ruse to make the bill for buying back the 407 more palatable. Like, hey, we can have a tunnel. So you're the driver man. What do you think about, should we buy back the 407? Well, what we should, in addition to not having tolls, I don't think we should have tolls because it really is an anomaly. It's the only highway that is told in the province. So you can make an argument as to why that particular highway should be told.

I think two things should happen. One is I would be in favor of buying back the 407 and removing the tolls, which I think are if you can do one of those things, they're not going to do the other. So I think it's sort of dead on arrival. If they do buy it back, I would imagine that they would keep the tools to pay for the 30 billion dollars that it will cost them or whatever. But I think the more important thing to do would be even if you don't buy back the 407, which is to implement a rule that was in place back in the 90s, I believe, until they got rid of it. Mike Harris, I think, got rid of it, which is no 18-wheeler trucks on the 401 during business hours, basically.

And so if you reroute them onto the 407, you can then alleviate a lot of traffic that happens through the core. And then I can, I can bike the 401. That's what they, that's what they should do. Just make the 401 cars only between the hours of say, I don't know what the hours were. It was say like six to six to six, maybe whatever the hours

were, I can't remember. And that would do a lot of good. Breaking news from Jeremy Hopkins, who was at TMLX 17 at Palmer's kitchen. He says the TMLX crowd wasn't that loud. He says, it just so happens. It takes place on top of a very busy store. So basically they're hearing, like overflow noise from Palmer's kitchen. Good point. Who was complaining? Who are these fuckers that were complaining? Maybe if you were there, you wouldn't, you wouldn't have been, maybe it was all, was it someone that was there? I, well, it could have been someone that was here on the

recording. Oh, I thought it was recording our mics. No, we, oh, I thought it was somebody on the recording. You know how you have to be right on his mics. You can't hear, you can't hear. Okay. I can understand that though. If you were in the room, there were, there were times where you could tell that people were chatting. Yeah. And that's why, by the way, that's why I have at least three TMLX events, Toronto Mike listener experience, by the way, I have at least three of these events every calendar year, and only one of them is a live recording. The other two are what I call hangs.

Like here's a beer, here's some Palma pasta food, mingle hang. That's what it's going to be at Great Lakes brewery in June. And that's what it's going to be at the GLB brew pub in September. And then we'll be back at Palmer's Kitchen for another recording. So we're literally down to one such event every year where I record. And that doesn't really lend well to like chatting up other FOTMs we haven't seen in a while. So I understand that. Okay. Your next grievance, Elvis. Okay. You want to get the song ready?

Yeah. You want to play it right now? No, no, no. Don't play it yet. I'll let you know. I'll cue you up. So a friend of mine, um, with all... You have a friend? Yeah, yeah. With all good intentions, um, highlighted this particular song to me. And I guess the song came out say four or five years ago. I wasn't aware of it at all. Not a, I didn't follow this artist very much. I really only know one song. They forwarded me the song and they said, Hey, I thought you would like this song. And I listened to the song and it's, it's very beautiful, but it's also incredibly, I don't know,

if you listened to it before, uh, Mike, or if you licensed to it, when I, when I sent you, but the lyrics are incredibly powerful. it when I, when I sent to you, but the lyrics are incredibly powerful. And my grievance is that it is a beautiful song, but it is heartbreaking and very challenging to listen to. But I also have this weird obsession of watching reaction videos on YouTube to people watching this. So I haven't heard this. It is, you only need to play the first verse

and then the chorus. Do you wanna watch me react to it? I actually, I don't, I loaded it up, but I didn't listen. Okay, it's, it's, I cry every. Can I play it so you can cry again? Oh my God, he's crying right now, everybody. Okay, we gotta play this right now. ["Rainbow Street"] Oh my god, he's crying right now, everybody. Okay, we gotta play this right now. They turn off all the lights I won't read you your wrongs or your rights

The time has gone I'll tell you goodnight, close the door Tell you I love you once more The time has gone So here it is I'm not your son You're not my father We're just two grown men saying goodbye

No need to forgive No need to forgive, no need to forget I know your mistakes and you know mine And while you're sleeping, I'll try to make you proud So daddy, won't you just close your eyes? Don't be afraid It's my turn to chase the monsters away So,

when my father passed, he was in his bed and I went up to him and I don't know if he heard me or not. But I told him that he was a good dad and I loved him and he died shortly after. And this song brings me back to that particular time where James is, James Plunge is sort of putting in words that I couldn't where it was almost like I was telling him that Hey, Pa, I got you And so my My grievances is that I fucking hate this song and I hate the person who sent it to me

But I also love them and I love this song too and so I clearly you know, um And so I clearly, you know, still processing. My father is passing, even though we weren't, the crazy thing is that we weren't incredibly close, but clearly close enough. And so, yeah, this has just been a big part of my life since it was introduced to me about four or five months ago. If you watch the video, Mike, his sister wrote a poem and he turned it into a song. Their father was diagnosed with stage four kidney disease and the video is just James singing the song and then eventually it pans out and his dad is there with him and that part where it says put your hand on my shoulder his dad it was all done in one take and it wasn't scripted and his dad puts his hands on his shoulder or on his arm

it's a powerful powerful video as well saying goodbye No need to forgive No need to forget I know your mistakes and you know mine And while you're sleeping I'll try to make you proud So daddy won't you just close your eyes

Don't be afraid So daddy won't you just close your eyes? Don't be afraid. It's my turn to chase the monsters away. Woo! All right, first I'm glad you shared that, buddy, because that's some heavy shit. But I get, you get, there's a catharsis, I think, and you can kind of channel, like like how you feel through James Blunt song

There's almost like it's almost like I can't stop listening to it. Sometimes it's no I you know what ready for this again that's a very personal Elvis story and Wow, very raw and real but it's actually a lot like what I did last night because Every year since I discovered this as it like my 30s again. I didn't grow up watching. It's a wonderful life. I Knew about it because Simpsons parodied it. I didn't grow up watching it's a wonderful life I knew about it because Simpsons parodied it it was everywhere I know it's a wonderful life I knew the characters I got the vibe never saw like this I'm not gonna watch a black the one with the bell yeah yeah yeah so I'm not gonna watch this 1940s black and white thing or whatever whatever and then I think what is all the fuss about let me just watch this stupid thing I watched it alone like I don't know ten years ago or something every year now and and the kids watch it with me because they're gonna see daddy cry and they know it and

But I think it's the same thing you're getting out of that song where at the and I'm I can't spoil a fucking movie it's like 80 years old or whatever but spoiler alert 1948 this fucking movie came out. Okay spoiler alert but at the end there's a the people come together for George and and well it's really his brother comes in Harry Bailey and he says it's actually your fault because you're crying so but to my brother, the richest man in town. And then, you know, my grievances that I'm crying on fucking Toronto Mike and December

23rd, that's my grievance. But bottom line, the reason I watch that movie every year is because even though I know a note for note now, I know it note for note. I think it's the best crafted movie I've ever seen. And I'm a pulp fiction guy. Okay. But I want I know what note for note and you know exactly what notes coming when verbatim and I know it's coming sort of like field of dreams actually. I know it's coming and we get there and then the bell part is there too and attaboy Clarence and I'm balling. I was balling last night and I've seen it now 10 times every

10 years in a row and Jane Jarvis Jarvis is 10 is like beside me cuddling and he says daddy I'm crying too and he was crying too. That's awesome and then you hear that song from James Blunt because I only know beautiful. That's my chain. Yeah, yeah, that's me too. Me too and that song I'm hearing what he's him and saying goodbye to his dad and I'm yeah, but I don't know. I'm just glad you shared it and It's a big one

Thanks for letting me talk about it. I appreciate it I can only imagine what I don't know the chats either gone silent or they're like you guys are a bunch of fuck I'm afraid to look actually But I mean, it's all you know real and yeah Sorry about that. No, I'm just thinking now I got a segue over to the, as I collect, as I collect myself, I bought a pack of M and M's and they're all fucking brown. I know I should have left that for no, no, no.

You, you, you gotta know when to hold them, know when to fold them. That was a closer blunt is for closers only, you know that. Okay. So now I'm one to fold them. That was a closer. Blunt is for closers only. You know that. OK, so now I'm going to totally change. It's funny because I'm going to drink. I'm drinking a burst. I love burst. I PAs am I less of a man if I drink IPA?

No, no. Why would you say that? I the problem with IPA is that they've some people, some breweries go way crazy and be like, let's make it the most sour highest alcohol content that we possibly can. And it's just not a beer anymore. It's like a, right. It's like a Ferti or whatever that's called the ready to D R T D or whatever. But okay. So I'm,

I enjoy the burst and I'm bringing some to, uh, we're going to drink a beer of cam Gordon at a sugar beach. I'm going to bike over cause the snow apparently doesn't come to four. So I'm going to try to get this ride in before four and you'll be home by four. Although we dwell on that James Blunt song. You might have to tell the family you'll be home later than four. OK, so my grievance number three, we each have five grievances just to reset here. It's about Twitter.

So Twitter is where I, Cam Gordon was the Director of Communications for Twitter Canada when I met him. And I used to love this app. So with all due respect to the very respectable and lovely LinkedIn, okay, Twitter was my social media platform of choice. Like for 15 years,

I would check Twitter several times a day. I tweeted tens of thousands of choice. Like for 15 years, I would check Twitter several times a day. I tweeted tens of thousands of times. It just suited the way my brain works. It's like as the stream of consciousness snippets and it was easy to share. It was like, okay, this is how my brain works. This is how my things flow through my fingertips or whatever. Twitter matched it up pretty perfect. And I kind of curated this following list and then totally dug that app for 15 years and only app I enjoyed checking actually and I checked it multiple times a day again for 15 years and then Elon Musk bought Twitter and now here we are a couple years later first thing I think on Elon Musk's to-do list when he bought Twitter was fire cam Gordon I think that was

number one and then he went from there. But now I hate fucking logging in. So you're like, Mike, you can delete that account and you're 100% right. But now I check two places on Twitter once a day. I check DMs because people are still using it like an email or whatever. And I check my DMs and they're open and I check my mentions because people ask me questions and I guess I reply to them or whatever. So I check DMs and mentions, but I miss the Twitter of 10 years ago where I enjoyed my actual feed. Blue Sky is where I'm hanging these days and it's pretty sweet, but it's got a bit of that vibe and I'm digging it for sure and I'm on it multiple times a day.

But it's still missing some of those key voices that kind of... It was like we all had this town hall where we're all meeting in the same place for a while and then it all got fucked up. So my grievance, I suppose, after all that is how this Nazi sympathizer, Elon Musk has fucked up my Twitter and shout out to FOTM hall of Famer cam Gordon. Time for you to respond. What's with the dead air here? Are you still crying? Well, I know I didn't, I didn't know if what you wanted me to say that in the eighties,

do you think it, cause I had this chat yesterday in the eighties, if you were crying about a song, do you think some guy would just tell you to suck it up buttercup? Like that's a hundred percent what happened in the age. We came of age in an age where like you're crying over a fucking song. Yeah, there's no man There's no crime, you know, no crying the demise of Twitter is I wasn't on it I was on it before but it's good before it was cool years and years and years and years It the whole thing is I mean it just like these the the conversation around oligarchs Is that is that the word right? It's all the guys. yeah is it's real and it's scary right like legit that a billionaire

unelected billionaire is gonna run that country yeah and I think the best thing we can do is keep calling him president because it'll piss off Trump so much that hey I mean that's your strategy the whole thing is gonna go up in flames anyway it's to be ending disaster Have you talked to cam on the podcast about the demise of Twitter? I'm sure I have because he's been on many times since right and I cannot remember any specifics except that he saw coming Is he with him the night he got the email? So he was at a Stu Stone movie premiere. It was Vandits as I recall And we were watching the premiere

at the Scotiabank Theater downtown. And we had a little dinner thing beforehand. We all, a bunch of FOTMs met up before this movie. And that night at midnight, he got the email, basically your services are no longer required. No, whatever. Here's your package. Yeah, whatever, exactly.

And we, he was not blindsided because everybody in Twitter Canada knew that Elon was good. Yeah, whatever. Exactly. And we think he was not blindsided because everybody in Twitter Canada knew that, uh, Elon was good. Remember cam was literally replaced by a shit emoji. Like, so when you write for a media, somebody, you know that he was a media guy. So now when you, when you would write for a Twitter Canada, whatever, I can we get somebody to respond to this story or can we get a quote about this? Can we talk to someone about this? The it's just an auto reply with a shit emoji like so cam Gordon was replaced by the shit emoji I know it's crazy my buddy was the head of

Twitter Canada for a while and he was like I remember talking to him not about this but about Twitter in general and he was like just so high on it the possibilities that he and everyone else they were sort of envisioned for this was you know even though I didn't necessarily see it or agree with it, cause I wasn't on it, but he was, it's just, it's really, it's sad. Yeah, so here we are now where when I, cause what I do is I post on blue blue sky,

but if it's a, if it's a promotional tweet, like, oh, the Elvis episode, Festivus episode just dropped. Here's the link, right? That I copy and paste what I put on blue blue sky, literally control A control C, and then on Twitter I control The yeah, yeah, I think I do it every day. Whatever's that and then that is my post that is it So there's nothing or no original content on Twitter. I just copy and paste what's over there because there's still people following

I'm just promoting shit over there But if I ever log in if I even even now when I look at these mentions soon I'll stop looking at my mentions because there's always just the most the the rudest, most hateful, like everyone just wants to rile you up for a fight. It's almost like a rage farm. It's like the purpose of unhealthy. It's no, it's not only is it not healthy, it's, it just sucks so bad. So you're right. I'm opting in to still check my mentions at some point. I'll drop that too, but it fucking sucks. Blue sky is where I enjoy that the most of all the social media apps right now, there's still missing some key voices, but we're getting there and fuck twitter and fuck Elon Musk. And that's my third grievance. I'm into it.

All right. What is your fourth grievance? Can we move quicker too? Can I ask? Is that rude? Hey, burn, no burn. Yeah, you can burn. Um, burn. What does that mean? Burn? Burn means go fast. This one is, this one is cheap, but as a 48 year old, I'm tired. I'm really tired. Right. I'm tired of being a Toronto sports fan because my heart and, and I'll add Buffalo in there too, cause just I've been a fan with them and they've never won the super correct. It's just tiring to see the same thing over and over again. Like the debacle that is the Toronto blue Jays went three years ago,

four years ago, so much promise. We should have been in the playoffs. It's gone, you know, like I remember we won and we were so excited and it was like dependent on the outcome of another game and they flipped over and then it was like a home run and it was over in seven seconds. It was brutal. And you know, the Leafs, it's just like, let's run it out again. And you know, like Brad and Craig are now in charge, like who the fuck cares? And Shanahan has no plan. There's no Shanna plan. There's nothing. And you know, Raptors are,

they're in a rebuild. There's promise there than a rebuild, but it's just, it's exhausting. Five years away from the. And then TFC is just so they're in the mess. They have the second or third highest payroll in the league and they're like the worst team. Like it's just whore. It's exhausting.

And so I don't know if it's because I'm just old and I'm like yelling at the clouds, like the guy in the Simpsons or. Abe Simpson like yeah It's just like it's enough like like try Enough and then well like I mentioned my daughter Dances for the Raptors for my wife and I had to go to one of these games to watch her and we're sitting in like Literally three rows from the back right it's costing us a hundred bucks a ticket right like what the fuck this is insane

Right like just end it. It's over. Right. Like stop. But I'm an idiot. The real grievance is me because I'm the idiot because I still fucking watch and I follow and I, you know, as much as you used to. I mean, no, I don't watch like as many. I watch like playoffs, right? Yeah. And I'll watch like, you know, very few Toronto games. It's, yeah, it's, it's, it's enough. Like it's just tiresome and it, and don't give me the bullshit, like go follow another team because it's like, you can only, only one team can win, but this is worse because it's just there. Also I like rooting for home teams. Cause when you win in 2019, there's a fucking parade of a million people and you have part of it. There's like not

it's, it's, it's, it's enough. So we are going to go quicker for these last couple. Cause you got to get out of here. I'm just going to say, I agree. A hundred percent. I'm a Toronto sports fan and it sucks. And there's only one good regular season team and there's really no good playoff. So the Leafs are pretty good regular season team and they only won one round in the last 10 years. Really? Like I'm, well, like who cares about winning games in February? But I think the J's, I think the J's are going to be complete shit in 2025. I think they can be terrible. I think they're going to be a lot like last year, which was terrible.

And if not 2025, definitely 2026 because Bo and Vlad will be gone. So Vlad might have a good season, may not, but I would imagine he would because he's out of here. Bo might have, we'll probably have a good season. Because I thought Shacken's might be your one of your grievances. I mean, that whole thing is just, it's brutal. Go Cleveland. Okay. So we're going to move quickly here. I'm going to kick out my fourth grievance here and I will do this succinctly. Elvis is going for his second P. Is that the second P?

Okay. I'm going to keep jamming here. So you can, you can do P. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Then, then, but then you're going to have to be, you should go now. So then I'll do it real quick here, but let's you can do pee. I know, but I want to hear you say it. Okay, okay, okay. Okay, then, then, but then you're gonna have to be, you should go now. So then I'll do it real quick here, but let's say you produce podcasts for a living. So I produce Toronto Mike, then I produce podcasts for other people. If anybody out there wants a podcast,

give me a shout, Mike at Toronto Mike.com. We can talk about it on Zoom, or we can meet for a coffee, or we can meet for a Great Lakes beer, and we can discuss it. Love having these chats, regardless of whether you we can discuss it. I love having these chats regardless of whether you do anything with me. I enjoy meeting new people and having these conversations here. So let's say you birthday podcast with somebody. I won't name names in this

little spiel here by the way. And you have this kind of really cool idea and you record a whole whack of content to put together. Let's say 11 episodes or so. And then 50% of this duo that you're recording with this really cool premise, at least I thought it was a cool premise, 50% of the cast fails. So you got 11 episodes in the can, but 50% of the cast, one of the members decides, I'm out, I can't do this. And there's a whole wild reason here, but I won't get too tabloidy here. But you, now you're fucked because you got these 11 episodes in the can and you're not allowed to drop them because 50% of the cast is bailed. And now out of this, you're actually literally getting dragged in the

tabloids like people.com and people are like, Oh my goodness, they referenced you in this a tabloid article. My goodness gracious, me, Toronto Mike. Wow. So now you need to pivot with your one of the clients who has remained with you and you're going to reposition this podcast and you're going to have a different angle, a different vibe. But you do this together. Like you work really hard to get a new angle for the podcast. You actually get this podcast to number one for its category in Apple podcast and then you get news and again Nicely delivered via email by somebody you really legitimately like as a human being so I don't even want to name names or crap On anyone specifically, but you're basically told I'm leaving you for Jan Arden

Essentially was a message I got here and now this podcast you birthed and worked years on with the pivot and the And now this podcast you birthed and worked years on with the pivot and the tabloid dragging, getting it to number one, finally getting a voice with some reality TV heat is literally just gone. Like, now it's, hey, thanks for doing all that work for years. We'll take it from here. And it's gone. And my grievance is that business is never personal. And that was a business decision, regardless of whether I understand it

or think it was appropriate. But it's impossible when you're a one man shop at TMDS to remove business from personal because you become friends when you work closely on something and then you realize, oh, there's no reason they have to stay with you. They can go to Jan Arden if they want. And that's what happened.

And that's my fourth grievance, Elvis. Does she have a podcast network? Yeah. With a woman named Sarah Burke. She has a network. Yes. Sarah Burke is like, uh, Sarah Burke is the, like, yeah, she'd be like, she'd be the technical person. Or I don't know if she's technical or not, but she's like the producer. And then Jan works closely with Sarah on the Jan podcast. And then they like to bring in other women podcasts. Like it's really a woman network. Gotcha. So they have like a network of right. And then this person would leave me for her basically.

And then for me, I'm I and it's literally a redirect of the art. We talked about the XML earlier. You just redirect it to the new feed. And now that everyone subscribed to your feed that you're hosting is now going to be picking up files on the other service. And that's it. So when that moves over, like you don't have to resubscribe, right?

You're just still subscribing. No, because you just redirect the feed. So you don't have to read us. The end user would be none the wiser, I suppose, unless it's referenced. Was it handled professionally? Well, I got a nice email to say, this is the difficult decision and I love you,

but I'm doing this, please redirect this feed to this new home. And that was it. And then I said, yeah, no harm, no foul. If she called me today, I'd have a nice chat with her. I'm not actually mad at her. It's just sort of this reality that like, I'm not a big agency. Like TMDS is one guy and he does his best

and becomes friends with his clients. And then, you know, I have to remind myself that other than Toronto Mike, uh, these shows are not mine. Like I don't own these shows. I literally help people with their shows and it's a kind of a good reminder. Like, you know, they are your children. So the grievances, the grievances, the grievances is that I,

the grievance specifically is having birthday podcast and then having dealt with 50% of the cast bailing with kind of a sensational reason and then having yourself dragged in the tabloids and then pivoting and then getting it to number one after many years and then being dumped to move it over. Right. It's all that's the grievance. All the stuff that went into the podcast. It was not your typical podcast. It was a lot of gotcha. Pivots. That's my word. The pivot's a lot of pivots and a lot of evolving and a lot of shit happened there. And again, the tabloid dragging, that's a first for me. And it might be a last for me because the tabloids aren't interested in me, but there you go. And now, because we're cooking with gas, your final, this is my final one. And then I got one more short one to end with. This is my final one. So, uh, I started working at my employer 13 and a half years ago and a week before I started, or I started a long time by the way, 13 and a half years is a long time.

time by the way. Yeah, 13 and a half years is a long time. When I started my onboarding was a eight and a half by 11 sheet of paper that was put on my desk and I was given a laptop and a monitor keyboard and a mouse that I had to set up myself. It was very boot strappy. It was a crazy, crazy time in our industry that had just been birthed basically. And a woman started a week before I did and had come from the same type of background that I did in the sense that we were both recruiters hired to do this new job that didn't exist until we knew it existed because they hired us to do it. And she was in New York City and we formed a friendship that lasted 13 and a half years. Until, I guess it's technically not over, but until Monday. My best, I hate the term work wife. I think it's stupid and it's insulting to my real wife.

But if I ever were to have a real, if I ever were to have a work wife, it would be Maria. I'm having a real tough time with it because Maria passed away on Monday from cancer of course she had a multi year battle with this up and down and we would text each other all the time. And it was like stupid stuff. We had a great relationship. We shared a stage at our customer conference for seven years in a row. We were the hit of the show.

And I don't say that to just be braggadocious because our NPS score showed us that we were the best. We had the highest rated talk that we had at that event for seven years in a row and only got retired because of COVID. They brought us back after COVID for one final go in 2022. And that was the last time I saw her in person was 22. But we kept in, of course we were super close and kept in touch and her text messages back

stopped in about October. I knew something was up. I knew that she was back in the hospital and she would only heart or thumbs up my messages. She would stop replying to them and then found out that she passed away on Monday. And so, me and two other colleagues who had been there for a long time, they don't work

at the company anymore. We created a list of like 300 people, maybe not 300, say like 150 people that hadn't worked there in a while, but knew her and would want to know from someone other than just like a post or an email and so I spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday calling people that I hadn't talked to in years and years and years and just telling them that Maria had passed away and so I hate to do this twice on your on your show Mike I really do because it's supposed to be fun and it's supposed to be We laugh and we have a good time

2024 has probably been the worst year of my life for all sorts of reasons beyond what I talked about here And I just want to say fuck cancer and I can't wait for the the turn of the year to come around and I Miss you a lot, Maria. I'm sorry. My condolences, buddy. Maria. Wow.

You know, now I don't even know what the point is of me airing this fifth grievance because you went heavier than I anticipated. I'm sorry, man. That would be sorry. Don't be sorry. You had a rough 2024, eh? Cause I, I saw you, of course I saw you at TMLX 19. So when you got the call to co-host TMLX 17,

did you ever think twice? Like were you in from the get-go? No, no, I, I, no, I- So were you going to say no? Yeah, but I didn't know how to say, I didn't know how to say no for one. Fewer calls to serve. Forget about, forget about the TMU and all that stuff. I wouldn't know how to say no to you because I know that, um,

it's fun, right? And clearly you're asking me for a reason beyond just us being friendly and stuff. So yeah, I didn't know what to say, but, uh, but you did eventually say yes. Of course I'm going to say yes. Cause they were friends and not like, of course I want to, if it's going to help you to be on the show, then I'll, I'll be on the show. Hey Jarvis Jarvis is walking through. Is that Jarvis's room now? No, no, no.

He's getting the Nintendo switch. Okay. Yeah. So of course I'm going to say yes, but I definitely had to think about how rough was 2024 because you seemed in good spirits. Every time you know, you put on a good show, you laugh at my jokes, which is most important to me. And then here you are again, you, you didn't miss Festivus. So that's twice now in the past month we've been hanging out here again, we have geography issues. You're in North Oshawa, man. There's a sense of, uh, let's move to South Atomic Colony. I'll see you every weekend. Sense of, uh, you know, I, I guess I crave a little bit of

normalcy, um, in what has been a crazy, crazy year. So. And it does, it's a reminder that you don't know what people are going through, right? Like I think, happy go lucky Elvis is, you know, he's got, he's got the great families and North Oshawa. He he's running LinkedIn or whatever. I can't remember where you work. It doesn't matter. I'll fix it in post. But the bottom line is it sounds like you had a rough year and you survived cancer. Yeah, I mean, I, I thought about that on the way here. I was like, do I say that and like get called down on it? Cause I've, you know, like, yeah out. You can speak to what's your,

but I don't want to be overly dramatic, but yeah, looking back at it. And you know, everyone has their own shit and not trying, I'm not looking for pity or anything like that, but just like, yeah, it's, uh, looking at, I think it's also silly to be like something's like, you know, the turn of the year is going to make a difference or what, cause that's fucking calendar. Who cares? But I think symbolically it'll be helpful to see 2024 go by the wayside. See, I don't know how to follow that up.

You're not going to do, why aren't you going to do yours? It'll be one line. It'll be, I realize, uh, I can't actually follow that up with my grievance, but I will do a fifth grievance cause, uh, I'm contractually obligated to do five. All right. So, all right. So Elvis, I turned 50. Yeah. And it was TMLX 15, which was amazing at Great Lakes Brewery. You couldn't make it because

you were out of town or something like that. The one trip I had this year. Oh yeah. And then wonderfully FOTM's like you contributed to a kayak and more. And it was, it was amazing. It was amazing. You hate it. I know. I love it actually was amazing. It was amazing. You hate it. I know I love it. Actually follow me on Strava. You'll see.

I hear you. I hear you talking. But so I turned 50 and I still feel good. I'm about to go to bike ride. I actually feel great. But what's happened literally since I turned 50, it was almost like that next week. My eyesight started to deteriorate.

So here, hold on. You're an old man. You got glasses. Yeah. What do you need? Literally, when I work on the laptop, when I'm on the laptop, that's it. I don't need it. I never wear it unless I'm when I'm working on the laptop, I'm working away and fives look like sixes and I'm doing the George Costanza squint. You know what I mean? I'm like, oh, I can read it, the squint, whatever. But when I throw in the glasses, it actually focuses. Like, I guess that's what glasses do.

Do you ever wear glasses? I wear contacts all day. I'm wearing contacts right now. Okay, so I guess the positive side is I got 50 years with my natural vision being A-okay, but in my 50th year, my eyesight has plummeted. It seemed like it plummeted almost overnight. And now I can't even do computer work without throwing on the glasses. So my grievance is that we get 50. I mean, some people get less

than 50. I understand I'm lucky to get 50 years, but you get 50 years out of these eyeballs and then they go to shit and then you need to wear something on your head just so you can do your work. I go to the doctor every year for like a checkup and I know people don't normally do that, but I do cause my past history and uh, something happened or I do that by the way, I can't even remember what it was, but it was like when I turned 40, I complained about something to my doctor and her response was, well,

you're 40 now. Right. And I'm like, that's so arbitrary. That can't be true. And she's like, it is true. You turn 40 and your body starts to change. I'm like, motherfucker. Motherfucker. I guess the same thing would happen at 50. And happy Festivus to you, Elvis. This was another great.

You got to come back in 2025. Of course, I'll be back. Festivus won't be the same unless Elvis is in the basement. And that brings us to our 1,606th show. Go to torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. And I'm on blue sky at Toronto Mike. Follow me there. Actually it's at torontomike.com because Ian service told me to make it my domain name.

So, you know, it's a real me. So follow at torontomike.com on blue sky. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery. That's Palma Pasta. That's recyclemyelectronics.ca. That's Minaris. That's Ridley Funeral Home.

Much love to all the FOTMs listening. Happy Festivus everybody! Do you recognize this song Elvis? Rob Crews made this. I unmuted you so we can hear your reaction. I heard it at TMLS. Hey, I heard I unmuted you so we can hear your reaction. I heard it at oh, yeah Romantic traffic buddy. I hope you don't get any on your way back to North Oshawa Thank you.