Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Peter Gross: Toronto Mike'd #709

Episode Date: August 19, 2020

Peter Gross suffered a stroke!

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Pumpkins after dark. Save 10% with the promo code Toronto Mike. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees. From Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week with some real talk he desperately needs to deliver. The ironic episode, that's what we're calling this, the ironic episode. It's Peter Gross.

Hello, Peter. Mike, who holds the record for most appearances on Toronto Mike? Great question. This is at least my fifth or sixth. Oh, you're not close to the record. No. You've got a lot of work to do. I aspire to be.

Hebsey's been on more. Hebsey? Yeah. Definitely Mark Weisblot from 1236. Great newsletter. And as you know, Peter, because you must be a big fan, I do an episode called Pandemic Fridays. In fact, I'm recording tomorrow night in this backyard

with Cam Gordon and Stu Stone. And those guys now, we've done 22, 23 episodes. I was hoping I'd be the Joey Bishop of... Oh, and Joey, you reminded me Regis just passed away. Regis. Did you ever meet Regis? I never met Regis, but I loved

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the original. Yeah. Oh, I thought you had more to say about it. Yeah, that was a BFD. Hey, what if we actually just got to it okay so let me just set the stage by saying you were last here as recently as july 15th and just to give a little uh perspective here this was days before your 70th birthday just

mirror like six days before yeah july 21 21st, I was 70 years old. And I think we are going to run a clip of me boasting about the fact that illness will never strike me. I'm going to live forever. Something along those lines. Spoiler alert. Yeah. So if people want to go back and listen to your one, you kicked out the jams.

We'll talk more about this in your story that you're going to share with us. But you kicked out the jams for your'll talk more about this in your story that you're going to share with us. But you kicked out the jams for your 70th and that was episode 686. So if you're subscribed to Toronto Mike just scroll down to find 686 and you can hear Peter and I

here in the backyard. You were down here. I'm pointing to the grass and now you've been promoted that you get to come up on the deck with me. This is a deck. so congrats on that uh let's just play a clip from that episode so here is some of peter gross on toronto mic uh just in mid-july you said some things before i press record that have me curious like so you said you're not going to get this and i just want you to elaborate like is it because you're so careful or because you're you believe you're immune to such things i need you to elaborate it's because i'm indestructible see i want you to um some people would say such a thing

with a wink like i'm indestructible wink wink and they're doing a bit i need is this a bit i can't tell it it's less of a bit than a reality. First of all, my mother is 97 and in perfect health. I mean, she's not going to die, so I'm not going to die. I mean, I never get a cold. I never get sick. I mean, I'm talking years and years and years. I feel like we're going to be playing this clip back when you suddenly pass away.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I die, you'll play this. Have a heart attack in six months, and I'll be like, remember this, Jack. Peter, the microphone is yours, please. Not only are you a wonderful member of the media, I grew up watching and enjoying City TV and at 680 News. You're also a client.

You've got two podcasts with TMDS, Gallagher and Gross Save the World, and you have, of course, Down the Stretch, which is the de facto Ontario horse racing podcast that everybody should be listening to. But also, as I told you on that episode, I consider you a friend. You are a friend, first and foremost. The microphone is yours. Please talk to us. Okay, we labeled this show The Irony Show.

And, of course, there was that piece of business from July the 15th of me boasting of my health, and part of the irony is saying that we'll be back in a few weeks after you've had your heart attack. Well, let me see, today's Wednesday. Ten days ago, I had a stroke. Whoa, okay. So ten days ago, you, the indestructible, you've never been sick.

You'd said this before, but you've never had a hospital stay before, right? You know what? There was one night I stayed over. I had symptoms of a heart attack. It turns out I had a hot dog caught in my throat or something. It was nothing. They threw me out. Okay, but you often, I mean, we've talked a lot on Gallagher and Gross Save the World and

on Toronto Mic'd where you don't worry about getting sick. You don't worry about dying because you're indestructible. But you're telling me now, 10 days ago, you suffered a stroke. Okay. Give me some details. Okay. So, and there were actually people at my house, both my kids, my grandson, my children's grandfather at the house.

And I began to experience kind of a dysfunction in my right eye. Kaleidoscope vision, shattered vision, things shimmering. I couldn't make the right eye work with the left eye. When I was trying to read script, I could only read what was on the left side of the page. Is it like tunnel vision? No, no. More like kaleidoscope, where just every, I couldn't make out what was where, where just every, every, I couldn't make out what was happening on the right side of anything. I couldn't focus my two eyes together.

And then after about 15 minutes or so, um, it got a little scarier because I realized I couldn't find words and I couldn't express myself. I couldn't finish sentences and there were all these people in the house. And of course you don't want them to know anything's wrong so i kind of just burrowed away i had two very routine edits to make on my down the stretch podcast something i've done thousands of times and i couldn't do it and i couldn't see the keys and i couldn't remember what to do and it was weird because i was kind of schizoid because half of me was laughing at the other half because half of me knew I knew how to do it. Uh, but so I knew that there was a neurological issue. And do you remember you wrote me that night and you said, you said that, you know, here's the, here's the episode. You said, please listen and make sure it's okay.

You said, because you had this, you were talking about your, my, you called it a migraine. I, I, I really, you know, you thought you were you were talking about your, you called it a migraine. I really prefer. Right, because what did you know? You were trying to describe to me that you were unable to focus for a long time. And I listened to that episode and it was your normal, excellent content. Like there was no signs. Yeah, after about two hours, I was able to sit down and function perfectly fine. And you were the first person that I indicated that something had happened.

So strangely, the next day I woke up and I didn't have those symptoms, but I felt crappy. So I thought, and I don't know if you recall, a week ago, Monday was a very hot day. I thought, I'm going to just go sweat this out. And I went on a 90 minute roller blade. It was very, very hot. I was uncomfortable because it was hot, came home, got in a nice shower and felt great. And people, after they found out that I'd had this issue said, you're out of your mind. That was a stupid thing to do. So Monday, Tuesday, Monday, Tuesday, I was having kind of residual

So Monday, Tuesday, I was having kind of residual problems with the right eye. Nothing really dreadful. But I do recall I went out for a drive and almost went through a couple of stop signs because I simply could not see them out of my right eye. Oh, no. Anyways, long and short, after speaking to a couple of... No, go long. I like long. Okay, I'll go long. So I didn't want to go to the

hospital i was well aware that something uh really serious had happened and i didn't want to go to the hospital so i kind of put it off but at this point have you alarmed your uh family members you live with that's the issue i i i phoned my mother and i told her probably i don't know if i connected a to b but i once you tell my mother i've had something and she I don't know if I connected A to B, but I, once you tell my mother, I've had something and she says, you've had a stroke. She, she, she actually said to me, she diagnosed you on the phone. My mother was a physical therapist. So has a medical kind of background. Um, and she actually said, it's a TIA. Now a TIA, I'm going to talk about what a TIA is. So, because my mother said, you better get to the hospital. At that point, I've got no choice.

And friends said. Moms are good for that. So, I couldn't get in touch with my doctor. When I phoned my doctor, I got a message saying, Dr. Lau is not seeing any more patients. I went to a walk-in clinic. The guy at the pharmacy, there was no doctors, put me on the phone to a doctor. That happened very quickly. I told him my symptoms. He said, oh yeah, you better go to the hospital. So I immediately jumped in my car, drove to Mississauga.

When they, there was a long lineup. You know, when you go to the first- Well, you do a triage, right? You see a triage nurse. So I thought this is going to take forever. So it was about an hour, hour and a half until I got to the front of the line. But once I got to the front of the line and identified my symptoms, they seemed to move me along quite quickly. And, uh, within a couple of hours I had a CAT scan. And so I, I was at the hospital at three, somewhere around eight o'clock, a doctor came to me and he said, you've had a stroke. Okay. What's your reaction when a doctor,

because one thing to hear from your mom, because moms are often they are overprotective, even though your mom's an expert and she was right. But when you hear the doctor look at you and say, you've had a stroke, and this is only, you know, you know, you're still in, I'm indestructible. I don't get sick. I don't get anything. You're not too worried about COVID. What's your reaction when the doc says this?

You say, doc, you're wrong. I'm Peter Gross. No, no. I guess he just confirmed what I knew. I don't remember. I mean, if a doctor comes to me and tells me I've got cancer, that's a whole other thing. Okay, so the doctor says you've got a stroke.

So I knew I had a stroke. I also knew that on the scale of difficulty, I'd had a very tiny stroke. That I knew. But did he say that to you? At some point, they said, you've had a TIA, which is a transient ischemic attack. Transient is the happy word, which means it's temporary. It came and it went. Ischemic, I have no idea what that means. That's a big word.

And attack is not a word you want to hear. So then I have, yeah, so I had the CAT scan, which checks out what's going on. Because I had one after my bike injury. Did you? Yeah, because my helmet split. So in March of this year, I had a CAT scan, which checks out what's going on. Because I had one after my bike injury. Did you? Yeah, because my helmet split. So in March of this year, I had a CAT scan. And I was told that it happened.

They showed me a really pretty picture of the brain. And they showed that the problem. Your brain? Not my brain. No, a diagram. A diagram. And my transient ischemic attack happened in the occipital lobe, which is kind of just above the base of the neck.

And it's interesting because if you look it up, the occipital lobe controls eyesight and interpretation of things that you're looking at. Oh, that explains why you couldn't make the edits. Like it explains everything actually. So they, they made me stay over. I had a, I had an intravenous in my arm for 25 hours. I'm getting to the irony part. Okay. Because the next day I had to have an MRI and an echocardiogram.

So I'm staying overnight and they put me in a room and there was an old Asian gentleman beside me. Aside from the fact that he was making unpleasant noises all night long. Like I say, it was maybe my second time staying in a hospital. So I knew I wasn't going to get to sleep. So I made my son drive a charger to the hospital and the nurse goes to the front door, picks up the charger. So my phone's working all night long. And I thought, I think I'll listen to that episode

that I did with Mike on July the 15th because I never listened to the whole thing. Who's got the time? Were you going to listen or were you going to watch the, cause we did that live on Periscope like we're doing now. Were you going to watch the episode? No, I didn't realize I could watch it. So I'm listening to it. And here's, I'm laughing because I'm lying in hospital after having a stroke,

listening to an episode of Toronto mic in which I'm boasting that nothing's ever going to happen to me. So that's the irony. That's the irony. And it's funny to listen back when I was pulling that clip because there's a lot more than that. But it's basically, I believe there's a point in that episode

where I let you know you're going to die or something, right? Your mom's going to die. You're going to die. We're all going to die. How would you feel if that stroke had killed me? Okay, so let's talk. So, uh, it firstly, um, uh, I mean, maybe right off the, right now, let us all know how you're feeling now. So how many days removed are you from this stroke?

10. So it's, it's 10 days. It's 10 days. And, um, this is, this is foolish. Had I not gone to the hospital, I I'm feeling fine. But it's very important that I was diagnosed as having this because it makes me aware subsequently. And the most important thing is that I'm now on blood thinners and taking aspirin every day. And with regards to the issue of my right eye, quite frankly, for years years i've had this very minor dysfunction in the right eye that is it's kind of like you know a sore ankle or gastrointestinal reflex it's kind of annoying it never bothered me but now that i'm on the blood thinner i'm feeling that right now my sight is is more crisp in the right eye. I'm

not having that problem as much. So that's kind of the good news. Good. Okay. So it's good that you got a diagnosis because you'll recognize it next time it happens. And also they put you on this blood thinner and the aspirin, I guess it's like a baby aspirin or something. Yeah. And that's going to help prevent a future TIA? I think what it does is it reduces the chance. The fact that I've now been diagnosed with a stroke means that I'm more likely to have a second one than anybody else. Okay, so relatively speaking,

you'll correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're going to get a stroke, this is the one to get. Oh, yeah. It's, it's at the absolute benign end of the stroke thing. And I, I've got to say this about Mississauga general or whatever it is.

Part of the Trillium. What were you at? Part of Trillium. Okay. They were fantastic. So here, Ontario and Queensway. Yeah.

Yeah. I never felt that they had forgotten about me. You often go to the hospital and you, well, they've forgotten about me. You often go to the hospital and you, well, they've forgotten about me. That there was a steady stream of nurses and therapists. They made me do the Montreal diagnostic test, the same one Trump did. How did you do?

I'll tell the truth. I got 27 out of 30, so I didn't necessarily ace it. But I'm being very argumentative, and I'll probably get up my lawyers on this. You have to identify pictures. There was a picture of a camel, but the hump wasn't like a definitive hump, and it had a long neck, so I said giraffe. Yeah, I think that we'll give you a pass on that one. Get a better picture of a camel. So she was pretty pleased.

And there was, there was another, I'm not sure if it was part of the Montreal cognitive test. Yeah. Yeah. No, it was. They, they asked me to count backwards from a hundred by seven and I'm really good at that. Okay. Okay.

93, 86, 79, 72, 65, 58, 51, 44. And she had to stop me. And then another part of the test was, she says, I'm going to run the stopwatch for a minute, and I want you to come up with as many words as you can that begin with the letter F. And she said that the, and I didn't use the one word. I was going to say. She said that the average was 10 or 11, and I did 26.

Oh, wow. And she actually said that was the most. But that's an area of expertise. That's also, that's your expertise. That's an area of expertise. Your's also your expertise. That's an area of expertise. Your 680 News is a morning sports guy. They came and they gave me an eye test because I had difficulty with my eye. And this is going to sound like bragging, but they said they were quite amazed at how good my eyes were for a 70-year-old man.

So at no point did they say, well, you've got serious problems with your eyes. I was able to read little tiny letters. Like without glasses or with, I've never had glasses. That's amazing. Cause I must. Yeah. I,

yeah, I don't think I'm going to get the most part. Uh, though I was diagnosed with having this stroke, I passed all of their tests. There's, there's no, there's no brain damage from this.

Okay. It's right. It's all the cocaine use. I probably, no, there's no brain damage from this. Okay? That's right. It's all the cocaine use in the 80s. No, if I've got brain damage, I suspect it's probably more from the pot than from the coke. I would say that... And you had to bring that up. I've never sat down with you

that you have failed to bring up the fact that I indulged in drugs at a time. It's a fun fact. You've used up your quota of that reference. I didn't know if you should have told me it was bothersome. Not that I'm sensitive. I would have stopped. That's one, that's one of the symptoms of having a stroke.

But I can still bring it up with Johnny Gallagher, right? It's okay if I do that. I'm okay. So, so I have so many things I want to say. One is, uh, I'm glad that you're okay. Uh, you look, you look great for a 70-year-old who had a stroke 10 days ago. Go ahead.

And point out, how did I get here? Oh, yeah, you rollerbladed here. It's about seven or eight kilometers. That's something. You know what? You and I are cut from the same cloth there because once, one night, I don't know, a couple years ago,

I thought I was having a heart attack. I was talking to my wife. I just said, I explained what I was feeling and she said, well, it's better safe than sorry. She's really sensible. And I was talking to my wife. I just said, I have, I explained what I was feeling. And she said, well, you should, it's better safe than sorry. Like she's like really sensible. And I biked to the hospital and then, and it wasn't a heart attack and not a heart attack, but I did bike to the hospital and I never even considered like, I don't know, getting a lift or

taking a Nuber or something like, I don't know. How do you get to the hospital? You bike to the hospital, even though I was going to find out if I was having a heart attack but so i think we're both kind of well well many many years ago i've had carpal tunnel uh surgery on both hands so the second time i had it they said to me uh you know because they they give you a a sedative and they said to me don't drive home and i said don't worry about it i got my rollerblades and i rollerbladed home with stitches in my hand after having carpal tunnel surgery. Oh, man. I mean, I could tell you the stories.

I've biked myself to the hospital with, like, suspected broken ribs and broken pinkies and all these things. Anyway, in regards to your mental acuity, is that the word, acuity? Yeah. Your sharpness. acuity, uh, your sharpness. Uh, I think I'll be, I'll tell you pretty quickly because again, once a week I listened to, uh, down the stretch by Peter Gross, which if you haven't subscribed to down the stretch, what are you doing with your life? Like this is not, even if you, even if you don't love horse racing, this is a wonderful podcast. Uh, and if you do like horse racing, it's a slam dunk. You gotta be listening to down the stretch,

but I would, I think I'd pick it up right away. You have such a high standard. You're so good at that, surmising everything in a very entertaining and educational way and piecing it together. You're so gifted on that front that anything less than the best would be a sign that, hey, I'll be phoning you up. Peter. You think I'm losing it? Rollerblade to the hospital i

want to put a plug in um i get a tip last week about a harness driver who won a race at mohawk for the first time kind of like a rookie hitting a home run in the major leagues for the first time so this is kind of a routine story for me the fellow's name was daryl tyson and so i get in touch with him and i ask him how old he is. He says he's 32. And I said, 32? You know, I figured you were 19 winning your first race at Mohawk. What have you been doing with your life?

He says, well, I was a bullfighter for 10 years. This guy went from, and there's video. Look it up. Daryl Thiessen, T-I-H-I-E-S-S-E-N. There's video of him. He's one of those rodeo clowns that distracts the bull. And there's two videos, one in which he dances around and the bull doesn't get him. And the second one, he tries to jump over the bull, but he lands on top of the bull's

horns and gets flipped. I don't know how. And then he gave me a whole litany of injuries that he'd suffered. So that was just a really interesting angle. But again, a 32-year-old rookie hitting his first home run, that would be like the plot of The Natural. Yeah. Although, how old was...

I always wondered, because the actor was older than, I think, the character. Well, at least 45, Robert Redford. Yeah, how old was Roy Hobbs when he finally makes the night? Well, they certainly suggest he's in his late 30s or early 40s. Yeah, I always thought like 36 or something, because back then 36 would have been ancient, I think. But anyway, for a ball player. Did you care for that movie?

I liked it, but I was very young. I loved the closing scene, so iconic. Just too much slow motion with the ball going into the lights. But I like the baseball stuff when Bump goes through the wall, and I just like the whole idea of coming back and going to win the pennant, and then that whole Wonder Boy, or Wonder Boy, Wonder Bat, Wonder Boy.

I just liked the epic theatrics of the big home run. I just liked it. Eight Men Out, I think, was a much better baseball movie. That was years later, right? That was years later, I feel. I just liked it. Eight Men Out I think was a much better baseball movie. That was years later, right? That was years later, I feel. I feel like Natural, because I feel I was pretty young when the Natural was mid-80s, maybe? And then Eight Men Out...

Have you seen Robert Redford now? No, not at all. Very sort of handsome and very sort of you know, windblown in the face. Well, how old is he now? He's in his 80s. I can tell you right now, he's not rollerblading to the face. Well, how old is he now? He's in his 80s. Okay. Well, I can tell you right now,

he's not rollerblading to his appearances. So what I want you to do, if you don't mind, and am I right that, so you do need to be on high alert for future strokes, but otherwise you're kind of, right now you're kind of normal? Well, I don't know what high alert is. You know what?

The one warning was cut down on the amount of Coca-Cola I'm drinking. Oh, too much sugar? Yeah. So sugar's bad. And they said- And you're not drinking Coke Zero. You're drinking Coca-Cola. What's the point of drinking Coke Zero?

It's like drinking zero. See, I would prefer. I find it too syrupy sweet, a Coca-Cola. I like Coke. I like Coke. I find it too syrupy sweet, a Coca-Cola. I like Coke. I like Coke.

I, you know, the last 10 years I've been aware of the influx of sugar and salt in my body. And, you know, obviously that's, you got to cut down on that. Okay. So you might, are you going to make an adjustment? Maybe diet Coke? I think, no, no, no. Just less? No, I move to fruit juices.

A lot of sugar in there, too. Yeah. You like the sugar drinks. I'm just trying to help you out here. I got some Great Lakes if you want to go there. And by the way, I do have a Palma Pasta lasagna for you. Well, the Palma Pasta lasagna. Actually, in all of the notes that they said, whenever possible, consume Palma Pasta lasagna.

Okay? Well, you were at a Mississauga hospital. Pretty near to where... possible, consume Palma Pasta Lasagna. Okay? It was, wow. Well, you were at a Mississauga hospital. Pretty near to where, yeah. You know, there is a location here in Ontario in Queensway. There is a Palma Pasta location. Yeah, I'm serious. That's very accessible to me.

The other one's farther away. Oh, no, it's in the, there's a strip mall thing, and it's, I'm going to say it is say it is i'm gonna get this right it is the northeast corner there's like a strip mall there and there's a palma pasta in there i've been to it yeah okay okay so you got one in your backyard that out but yeah that was one of the instructions they cut down on coca-cola and eat palma pasta lasagna which is just i i mean every time i'm, this is the, and I hope Garnett Bernsdale's not listening. Oh, he is though. He would definitely be listening.

This is the best pasta, the best lasagna I've ever had. Although I have made my own. When you make your own, is that better than palm and pasta? You can be honest. Yeah, yeah. Because I'll tell you why, because it's my own. And I just put such an outrageous amount of meat in it okay so you you like but the uh yeah you're doing i'm just thinking you like your coca-cola

and you like your meat yeah okay i can see uh you are going to be invincible and live forever you know my size is a real factor in this whole argument tell me well how tall am i five four or in this whole argument. Tell me. Well, how tall am I? 5'4". No, I'm not that tall. I use centimeters, 157 centimeters. How tall are you in feet and inches?

I'm not 5'2". I'm not 5'2". Okay. And the older I get, the bigger that is. When I was, I was funneled out of city television in 2004. But before I unceremoniously left, one of the stories they kept assigning me to was the hundred year old birthday party.

Oh yeah. Okay. Centurions. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you see your neighbor?

No, I can't. You just shouted my name out behind you. What did he say? Peter Gross? Yeah. He knew you were Peter Gross. Yeah.

See your legend. Oh, he say? Peter Gross? Yeah. He knew you were Peter Gross. Yeah. See, you're a legend. Oh, he recognizes your voice. I can shout out to Kareem. Oh, terrific. What's your name, sir? Kareem. Okay, Kareem, are you a neighbor of Mike's? Okay, there we go. That's right next door. Right next door. He's a big Stu Stone fan. We're doing a podcast now, but

thank you for dropping um so so the stories i did several of these stories of the hundred year old people having their birthdays right and i and most of them were women i think i did nine women and one man all of them were very tiny skinny people okay the only way you get to be 100 is to stress your organs as little as possible. So Shaquille O'Neal is not going to make it to 100. I think that would be extraordinary. Even the man, the man was, he was a Jamaican police officer. He was no taller than me, and he was probably 20 pounds lighter.

I'm 5'9". Am I okay? Well, you're really sleek. So you've got a good chance. Yeah. Just the more weight you carry around, the So you've got a good chance. Yeah. The more weight you carry around, the bigger the problem. That makes sense. Your organs have

to. That actually makes sense. So your being 5'2", it's going to benefit you because even though you had a stroke 10 days ago, you're still going to try to live forever. This is still the goal. Oh, that's still my plan. But you're going to reduce your sugar intake. Yeah. Reduce the sugar. Reduce the salt intake. Did they say the salt. Oh, that's still my plan. But you're going to reduce your sugar intake. Yeah, reduce the sugar, reduce

the salt intake. Did they say the salt was bad? I get mixed messages on the salt. Did they say that? I don't think. I don't know if they said that. Sugar, the science is clear on sugar. They gave me a booklet. I think there's a mention of the salt, okay? And the cocaine and the heroin.

But you've never done heroin. Have you ever done heroin? No, I'm curious what you've done there. Let me ask you in greater detail, if you don't mind. So you're in the hospital. I mind. How many nights did you spend in the hospital? I deeply mind this personal invasion into my life.

It was 26 hours. It was from 3 o'clock Wednesday. Because when I was talking on that phone when you first broke the news to me, you had a stroke, it really did feel like you had been in that hospital for like a week but that was only one day, okay? Only one night in the hospital. That's wild. Yeah, one overnight. And you had a charger for your phone

so you listened to the episode of Toronto Mic'd, episode 686 where you were on the show for one hour and 39 minutes and we talked and we caught up and you kicked out the jams. Can you tell me about that experience, lying in the hospital room,

having just had a stroke, and then listening to yourself kick out the jams less than a month earlier? Because I liked how you described it to me on the phone. It was like watching, even though I wasn't watching, but it was kind of like the script for a movie where a character has had

probably a much more extreme experience. I have, but, um, there was, it's a wonderful episode and I'm probably reacting personally. I don't know how someone else listened to it. It's a really,

I can tell you I'm not you. And I listen, even though I am the host of the show, which makes me probably a little biased, but I thought it was an absolutely wonderful episode. It, it walked me through so many critical moments of my life, things that really mattered to me.

I mean, I wasn't lying in this hospital bed weeping, but I was kind of going, this is like watching a movie of my life, as if someone had produced it. Because you asked me to pick 10 songs that reflected parts of my life and i did it kind of at random and very quickly but the way they all came up it just reminded me of so many things in my life you know going back to delivering newspapers in 1965 and listening to

the mamas and papas and the effect that the Beatles had on me. And then a piece of business, dancing in the rain, singing in the rain with... Bing Crosby? Who knows? It wasn't Bing Crosby. The dancer. Fred Astaire. No, it wasn't Fred Astaire.

Come up with a third one. Ginger Rogers. How come we don't know this? Hold on, I'll tell you now. Well, I had a stroke, so I can't remember it, which was a story. Gene Kelly. Yeah, it was Gene Kelly.

My excuse is I'm very young. I lip synced that as my last story at City TV when my life was really swirling down the drain, and it had a kind of irony and wink-wink at everything. Anyways, so I'm lying in this hospital bed at the Mississauga General, part of Trillium Group um listening to this i think it was at 90 minutes 99 an hour 39 99 minutes yep i mean i can't i can't pay attention to anything for nine minutes but i listened to this whole thing and just it was almost like standing on a podium outside of myself watching

my own life, sort of an out-of-body experience. And the irony, of course, struck me, the boasting about how healthy I am and nothing will ever happen. Because as I recall, before we pressed record on the podcast, we were talking just in general about COVID

and social distancing or physical distancing. We were talking in general, and then you were telling me before we pressed record, basically, but how you're not worried because you don't even get a flu. You don't get the sniffles. You don't get a cold. You're not getting sick.

Anyways, it's interesting. But I want to say that that experience that you described, which I'm glad you shared that, what it was like for you to listen back to yourself kicking out the jams. If I may, that is the exact point of kicking out the jams if i may that is the exact point of kicking out the jams i can have you on for several episodes and we can talk about all the cocaine you sniffed and whatever and all your your trials and tribulations at city tv and getting the rays from moses and these are all fantastic stories but you don't you got what you get from listening to

somebody talk about the 10 songs that they've loved in their life and why. You basically get, even though sometimes the guest doesn't realize it, you get that peek into their psyche and you get that whole this is your life vibe. And it really is wonderful. And your episode was great. It's a great idea. Now, in the extremely unlikely possibility of me predeceasing you. I really hope you go first. And I don't mean that disrespectfully, but I'm doing the math in my head, and there's a good 25 years, 24 years.

I would encourage you to hang on to that and have people listen to it, because it's... You know, I thought of this. I know where you're going with this, and I'm going to tell you, and this is another thing. When I found out you had a stroke, I wanted to know, oh, Peter, are you going to die? I was glad to find out you weren't going to die, not just because you're

a good guest and a good guy but you're also a good friend and most importantly, you're a client. I can't lose clients, right? You heard Peter goes out of stroke, you're going how much is this going to cost me? Oh my God, I do two podcasts because it's not even, oh my God, I can't lose Peter now. I'm my God. He, I, he, I do two, it's two podcasts. Like it's not even, it's, it's,

oh my God. I like, oh my God, I can't lose Peter now. But, uh, I'm like, oh no,

I get to call my accountant right away. We're in trouble. Peter's on his deathbed. Uh, but you, as I've often referred to, and it sounds a bit remote, uh,

remote, remote, what's the word? for morose, morose. I hear the word. I think moronic is where you're going. Okay.

Yeah. That'll work too. But in the eight years I've been doing this, over 700 episodes with over 500 guests, different people, I have never, never has anybody who's ever been on one of these mics on an episode of Toronto Mic

never has anyone died. Never. There's not a single death. And a lot of people who should have been on the show, but for some reason never got on a mic and did Toronto mic, some of them have passed away, but you will not, there's nobody, I can tell you right now. So I was, should it happen, because inevitably, you know, we're eight years in and someone, you know, it's going to happen. Some guests on Toronto mic are eventually going to die. It will be interesting to go back and listen to their deep dives and their,

uh, jam kicking after they've passed the episode of you kicking out the jams. Should you have passed away? Would have just gone nuts. I'm telling you, it would have, it would have been a bit, it would have been a very big hit.

Well, I give you permission. Should that ever happen to, Peter Gross died yesterday, and now let's play from July the 5th, 2020. Yeah, July the 15th. Yeah, so just give me a heads up, though. If you think this is it, if you've got that vision, it feels like maybe the second stroke is bigger than the first one. Did they say anything about that? Like, does the second one come bigger?

No, only that mathematically the chances are greater of having a second one if you've had a first one. By the way, do you know this song? Does it ring a bell? Because next time you kick out the jam. This is Billy Squire's big hit, The Stroke. We'll add this to your... And if you're an Eminem fan...

I kept complaining when I was in the hospital, like the attractive nurse would come in, and I would say, they told me I was here for a stroke. Oh, you didn't use that line. They'll arrest you now for that. All right, so Great Lakes Brewery, I was there today. I biked over, I had a good chat with Troy. They have a wonderful

beer and I can't remember the name. Something to do with gender. It's going on sale tonight at 6.30 and proceeds from every can they sell of this beer is going to a wonderful cause. Here I am. What is the name of the cause that's getting...

Who's the long the longtime MPP? Hold on. The longtime MP. Here, I'm going to Google this. I should have this information at the tip of my tongue. We'll edit this portion out. Will not. Will not.

Yeah, I'll come back to it, actually. You know, it's funny. yeah I'll come back to it actually you know it's funny long time MP has a wonderful foundation in this neck of the woods and they're getting the money for this beer that I can't remember the name of see this is what happens when just before you arrive

I go off and I learn new things but I don't write it down and it's all in my head and it'll come to me later but Great Lakes, great beer, picked up some fresh beer for guests of Toronto Mike, I mentioned I got the lasagna for you Peter so you're gonna go home with a meat lasagna it's your favorite lasagna in the world and I'm happy to feed you

that's why you're back right you just needed to be just came for the lasagna I thought I mean you know those of us who like to live our life out in radio and television feel we have a message for people whatever and it was a really interesting experience. And I want to emphasize, I think I was alluding to this, the way I was treated at the hospital was remarkable.

And nurses and doctors, you know, we talk about who the real heroes are. And it just seemed like every couple hours, someone came in to check on me, to talk to me. But that's what the triage is for. They basically say, okay, we've got a 70-year-old who has the symptoms of a stroke. So you now will be treated differently than the guy on his bike who thinks he broke his pinky. That's the way it should be. And that's why you got such attention, because it uh, potentially serious. This is a real thing. You're not there because you cut your finger. Uh, I don't know, cutting, making the salad or whatever, by the way,

speaking of heroes, cause our frontline workers are heroes and shout out to the frontline workers, uh, not only dealing with the COVID, but dealing with Peter Gross. So shout out to the frontline workers, but the hero, I, uh I couldn't call up the name of in my head, shame on me, Jean Augustine. Jean Augustine, her foundation is going to benefit from this Great Lakes beer that you should all buy. I also want to thank StickerU. StickerU.com is where you go for your decals. That's where you get your down the stretch stickers and decals, et cetera. I want to thank Austin Keitner from the Keitner Group. What great partners they've been.

Austin Keitner can be reached if you text Toronto Mike 259-559. Peter, you should take your grandkid to Pumpkins After Dark. Go to pumpkinsafterdark.com to book your car ride. It's a drive-thru event this, and it's going to kick ass, but the spots are all filling up very quickly. So use the promo code TRONOMIKE when you do that, okay? And Barb Paluskiewicz, she's your outsourced, she and the great people at CDM Technologies,

they're your outsourced IT department. You can call Barb at 905-542-9759 there's a free network assessment you should uh look into what were you gonna say there peter i have no idea okay so oh i was talking about well so two o'clock in the morning so now i've been there for 11 hours okay nurse comes into the room and she says i I have to take a swap. So she takes this long Q-tip and puts it up very deep into both of my nostrils. COVID test. So maybe it was a COVID test. And then she

says to me, I have to take it from your bum. No, she's joking. I'm not kidding. I had to pull my pants down. It was the highlight of my... Wait a minute, wait a minute. So they didn't tell you what it was? You just bent over and said, minute wait a minute so so they didn't tell you what it was you just uh bent over and said go for it like what were they doing in your butt i have

no i don't know there must be a reason are you sure this wasn't some kind of dream or uh hallucin this is really happening well i asked her to do it a second time but the one i had a camera in my butt for uh they wanted to look at my prostate yeah well i've had that too so yeah i mean so twice in the last three days just personally but i know that's whatever i'm just making the point that um it it it wasn't a difficult experience it was uh a learning experience about being in the hospital because fortunately i've gone a long time in my life without the hospital visit. Um,

there was a really interesting hour and a half, uh, on Thursday. So I, so I go in Wednesday, stay overnight and I've got to have an MRI. Now, do you know what an MRI is?

Yeah, of course. I've had several. Yeah. Where they put you into that. Yeah. You go, yeah,

you go into that cylinder and you got to stay still and it's a very tight quarters. Yeah. And they take a magnetic resonance imaging. Apparently you didn't have a problem going in. No, no. into that cylinder, and you've got to stay still, and it's a very tight quarters. Yeah, and they take magnetic resonance imaging. Apparently, you didn't have a problem going in. No, no. I guess you suffer from claustrophobia? Yeah, yeah.

Okay, that would be tough. So they give me a bulb depressor. So as soon as I go in, I go, oh, no, no, no, no, and I'm slapping the machine, and they pull me out, and I said, I'm sorry, I'm very claustrophobic about this. So they readjusted the headset, and they put a cloth over my eyes. And for some reason, it was easier to take at that point. But what a strange machine.

So that's your first MRI? Yeah, that's my first MRI. You didn't play a lot of sports, I take it. I've never come close to having a concussion or anything. Yeah, I think I've broken a few bones in my day and, uh, I've had, yeah, I've had a few MRIs, but yeah, if you suffer from claustrophobia, that can be, uh, that could be really, really tough. So, so that was, uh, you know, a half hour, 45 minute event. It doesn't take it. It was closer to 20 minutes in the machine. And right after that, I go into another

room and I've taken my shirt off and this really attractive nurse, I think her name was Amanda, puts her arm around me and pulls me tight against her while she takes an instrument that's covered with jelly and just keeps rolling it back and forth over my left nipple. Ultrasound maybe.

Well, it was called an echocardiogram. Oh yeah, I had one of those too. And then a doctor came in and I still had the intravenous in and apparently they injected bubbles through my heart to see if there was any opening or aperture. And it all came back okay.

Yeah, yeah. But this is a very attractive woman holding, like, basically hugging me so that I'm tight to her. So I go from the MRI, which was kind of a disturbing event to, to see, I almost get,

I almost get the vibe. You, uh, quite an, you had a kind of an exciting 26 hours. Like it's, it's unfortunate it happened, but considering it's come and gone and you were able to roller blade here,

which is amazing for a man, half your age. Uh, it's, this was kind of an exciting break from the norm for you. It was interesting, yeah. You got to listen to your episode of Toronto Mike, your recent episode, and that was a great experience for you.

And you got these attractive nurses that are manhandling you, or womanhandling you. And I matched Donald Trump in the Montreal Cognitive. Yeah, you could be president of the United States of America. You did all right there, and you were able to, you counted down so fast by sevens that I was like, I don't know if I could do that. I mean, this is all kind of exciting. So

the headline, though, in my tweet, as I promote this episode, I'm just going to tweet. Peter Gross has massive stroke. Put the word massive in. No, I've got to keep my credibility here. Come on. You know, now I know leaders of major political parties so i can't be doing i have to keep this integrity intact here so if you had passed away from the stroke and i'm glad you didn't i would have been shocked uh mainly because uh in the gallagher and gross combo uh i put all my

money on gallagher going first. Like, all my money. Even though you got 10 years on him. I've got all my money on John Gallagher dying before Peter grows. Well, he likes the wine. Yes, he does. Yes, he does. Which may explain why we haven't heard from him for a month. Have we done a wellness check on John? So that also explains, I guess, so we should just be forthright that, you know,

Peter's willing to come into this beautiful backyard and record episodes of Gallagher and Gross Save the World. So Peter's not the bottleneck there. Could we talk about the proposed new podcast that we've been kind of mulling? Like, what is the, so you have, of course, for the horse racing in Ontario, Down the Stretch continues. That is the de facto broadcast for fans of horse racing in this province. You're the host.

You put it together. You know your shit. It's great. Everybody can pick it up for free, and they should. Now, you also have Gallagher and Gross Save the World, a personal favorite of mine, but we're in a little bit of a trouble spot because we got to, you know, get Johnny to... We need him for Gallagher and Gross Save the World, a personal favorite of mine, but we're in a little bit of a trouble spot because we got to, you know, get Johnny to,

we need him for Gallagher and Gross Save the World. So tell me about this new idea you have. Well, for two years, actually for, I guess a total of six years, I did The World According to Gross at City TV. Do you want to hear an episode before we continue? Like here, just throw, You got one by surprise? I hope it's a good one. It's whatever YouTube has. Beggars can't be choosers

here, but I'm going to play it and then you can always talk over it, but let's hear it. The world according to Gross tonight. Our former sports director learns there's something missing in his new life as a roving reporter. In truth, I should really be about the last guy on earth to be depressed. I've got this great new job without all the anxieties and hassles of sports, but I just

can't seem to break the bonds. Peter, you're suffering a fairly common syndrome, what we like to call career displacement depression. You've probably heard of the career displacement depression. What you need is to find a place no matter how... It's Chabandosa, cameraman at City TV. Great character.

Just to get it out of your system. Good morning, Stephen Leacock. Time for the LTV News. I'm Corinne, and here's Stephen Leacock. Oh, so I see what this is. So you're at Stephen Leacock. Time for the LTV News. I'm Corrine, and here's Stephen Leacock. Oh, so I see what this is. So you're at Stephen Leacock. My cousin Howard Gross taught video arts there. Just like City TV, Leacock has a studio,

and three times a week they create their own news and sportscast. Just like at City, there are cameramen, floor directors, control room crew, sound technicians. That's pretty good for a high school. And playback operators. We didn't have that in my high school. But unlike City, everyone in this course revolves through every position, which means every student gets a chance. You're running a pretty lame episode of... Well, upload some to YouTube.

Okay, I'll bring it down. Okay, I'm sorry it's uh not your greatest hit here but what gives everyone a taste of what yeah what the essence of that was i go and i audition at this little high school to be the sportscaster and i suck at it okay so uh now tell me about this idea you have for a new podcast this podcast would be called The World According to Gross. Well, I would like to resurrect that. I find that I'm going on Facebook a lot

and arguing with people about a variety of things. You know what you see on Facebook over and over and over is so many people died of the flu is so many people died of the flu. So many people died of diphtheria. Why did we stop the world for this virus? And I keep having to say, there's a vaccine for the flu. And the number of people dying is multiplying and we don't have any of this. Also, this is not the flu. Do you ever tell them that? This is not the flu. It's not the flu. It's a virus. But this is not the flu? It's not the flu. It's a virus.

But, but, you know, they keep throwing the numbers out for the flu and I'm getting distracted here, but 80% of people who die of the flu don't take the vaccine. So the numbers are, are distorted that way. Um, so it just, it strikes me that, uh, I guess I'm looking for an avenue to express myself. And I really don't want to be rambling on about Donald Trump on a regular basis. Because there's people way more skilled than I am. But I would like to talk about all of the ridiculous things I've bought on eBay. So if I'm hearing correctly, unlike Gallagher and Gross Save the World,

where you and Gallagher go back and forth and is 100% reliant on Gallagher wanting to record, like that's sort of a big, you know, a mandatory prerequisite is John Gallagher wanting to record, which has been a challenge in the last several months. This is an opportunity for you. Nothing, you know, you have the horse racing, which is about horse racing,

but this would be an opportunity for you to express your Peter grossness on a variety of topics on a regular basis. Yeah, that's nicely put. I've got a twisted sense of humor. I find, I mean, just this whole episode of having a stroke, I find very amusing and I find it interesting to talk about. And maybe I have a capacity to take a number of issues

and make them interesting and funny and uplifting. Moses really influenced me. And he used to emphasize life-affirming stories. He wanted stories to be life-affirming stories. He wanted stories to be life-affirming instead of, you know, frightening and panicking, stories that reinforce the incredible concept of being alive and all there is to experience in the world. And I've been very fortunate that I've had hundreds and hundreds

of really interesting experiences that most people don't get. Absolutely. Now, do you envision having guests? Like, let's say this is a weekly podcast. Have you thought about, like, is this a half an hour a week? Do you have guests that you converse with

and interview or chat with? Do you have a co-hostverse with and interview or chat with? Do you have a co-host? What's your thoughts? Okay. This is like an on-air meeting. Well, I'd like to do it with you. This is funny.

Here's the sales pitch happening live on a podcast with you. I like the way you interview. I like the back and forth. I like the way that you've, um, uh, probed me. No, the probe. Oh, is that what happened the last couple of days? Provoked.

You provoke, uh, um, I mean, I'm really willing to, to talk about anything that happened in my life. Um, so.

Except cocaine, apparently. That's enough. You've reached, you've reached your maximum reference to that. No, again, again,

I, you know, I, I did cocaine 35 years ago, so it's really easy. 35 years afterwards, uh, 35 years after you do anything, so it's really easy 35 years afterwards. 35 years after you do anything stupid, it's really easy to talk about. You spend a few years in denial that you were an idiot.

But I would like to try it with you, sort of you as the straight man, questioning the things that I bring up. Having a guest would be a great idea. I'm interested in, you know, that I like to bring in sound bites from various things. We did, and it would have been better if we hadn't recorded it on my phone, but John and I did a Gallagher and Rose of the World

where we broke down what we thought were the top 10 Canadian comedians, the top 10 funniest Canadians. Okay, yeah. So we had a lot of clips from that. So I like to bring in clips to illustrate. I mean, radio is very challenging because you have no images. That is true.

That is true. Podcasts are the same. Absolutely. So the onus is on the broadcaster to make it as interesting as possible in as many ways as possible. I mean, I would love to spend half an hour talking with Martin Short or Andrea Martin or John Candy, which might be difficult. I was going to say, I don't think you're doing the John Candy one. But okay. So I'm just trying to wrap my head around this.

So it sounds like it's a bunch of stuff. It sounds like it's the world according to gross. So you'll have a guest. Maybe you'll just talk to me. You'll focus on different topics each episode, but it'll be like a regular dropping of gross. It would be a half hour that all the times would be uplifting would make you feel better about yourself would put a smile on your face maybe give you the odd

giggle um maybe make you feel that you're a better person than me okay okay now why don't we open it up let the audience know like if if the audience uh it would be interesting to hear back from listeners well yeah is there an audience for this is there an appetite for the world according to gross because i mean again super biased here but uh i love the idea but is anybody interested and then on the other front like it would be nice like if it was uh a sponsor like brought to, like, a title sponsor right off the top. Like, the world according to gross brought to you by Depends, for example. Is that a reference to my age?

Brought to you by Aspirin. Right. Bayer. Right. Bayer Aspirin. right bear right there um well we shouldn't have any problem getting sponsors because there'll be hundreds and thousands of i wonder how many people remember it from uh 1984 85 86 and from 2000 2004 that we did that um well a lot of people listening to us right now i don't know but in the general populace that number will dive a little bit and dip a bit but people who are listening to us right now i I don't know, but in the general populace, that number will dive a little bit and dip a bit.

But people who are listening to us right now, I think most of them would remember the world according to gross. It was great stuff. A lot of us have fond memories of those, uh, Moses city TV days. So the twofold, uh,

action items for listeners are, uh, do you want the world according to gross? Is this something you'd subscribe to and listen to? Uh, and, if there's any, uh,

small to medium size okay all right well heck we'll take we'll take the coca-cola sponsorship too uh if there's anyone out there who has a marketing budget and uh is interested in like the title sponsorship like i'm thinking one sponsor like we'll we'll we'll you know make a lot of noise for one sponsor heck it could even be like a uh it could be an investment, what do they call them, representatives? Who are the people? Financial advisor.

I'm thinking there's a lot of opportunities here to kind of up front, you know, World of Coin to Gross brought to you by, and then of course there'll be a plug in the episode, so you should reach out as well. So let me know if you're interested. Twitter at Toronto Mike. Peter, you're at Peter the Gross.

That's my Twitter handle. Yeah. And you know how to write me, Mike at TorontoMike.com. And just let us know. Do you want to hear episodes of The World According to Gross like I do? Awesome. A few years ago, the short man by Browns would have sponsored. The problem is Lou Brown died.

Oh. And his wife sold off. And actually, because the clothes were really, really good and very expensive and they had a 15% sale, everything in the shop for 15%. And I spent almost $2,000 there

and I'm still wearing that stuff. But that's a plug for Brown's The Short Man that doesn't exist anymore. You know, I haven't really considered that. So are you able to buy things off the rack? That's tough, but that's a plug for Browns the Short Man that doesn't exist anymore. You know, I haven't really considered that. So are you able to buy things off the rack, like if you go to a Markswork warehouse or something? It's almost always a bad experience for me. And is it because your sizes are like in the boys section?

My torso is close to normal, but from the waist down, my legs are a little bit shorter than average so when i buy a pair of jeans that fit me nice around the butt they're ballooned down by the ankles so then i have to take them to my uh beautiful vietnamese i have this beautiful vietnamese dry cleaner that i got a big crush on. And then she tightens them up for me. Nurses and dry cleaners. And waitresses. And waitresses, yeah. I love those women. All right, good stuff, Peter.

I can't believe you had a stroke, and I can't believe it was just so quickly after you told us you were invincible. Anything else you want to share with the masses before we play a little lowest of the low here? Make sure you don't leave without your lasagna. What's the lowest of the low? That's the artist behind the closing theme song. Oh, okay.

How long have we been on? Oh, I don't know. We did an hour and change. Wow, time flies. But is there anything else? Like, this is an opportunity. You got the camera on you, the mic's on before I press this button.

Well, I really would encourage people to check out Down the Stretch. As you indicated, it's not necessarily for diehard aficionados of horse racing because they do make it as entertaining as possible. On the last show, for example, I had a story about a woman who was one of Canada's first lady jockeys and her daughter. Well, the woman's name is Bonnie Eshelman and her daughter's name is Skye Chernitz, who just incidentally is beautiful. Like just she's gorgeous young lady. And she went on a couple of huge long shots last week and she can't get an agent.

So she has to go around the barns on her own saying you know please put me on your horse so she's a pretty good jockey but doesn't get on uh many good ones and in the same show i had a story about a 57 year old jockey whose daughter won a race at woodbine so a father and daughter jockey and a mother and daughter jockey. And I think that's the kind of thing that is interesting to anybody. Yeah, they're human. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Like I said, I listen and I don't necessarily have a great passion for the horse racing,

but I have great passion for down the stretch. Maybe we'll close. When was the last time you spoke via phone with John Gallagher? Like, does John Gallagher know you had a stroke? No, I just, uh, it's frustrating.

Well, I mean, and I don't know if I should make this public, the difficulty that we're having with John, but, um, he's just, he's such a remarkable force when he sits down at a mic.

And, um, you know, if I do the world, according to gross with you it's going to be a completely different thing it's going to be more peter gross centric um sure johnny's just got such amazing stories and he projects on radio so well um that if we could somehow pry him out of his house and away from his bottle of wine and get him to do some more, it would be a benefit to all mankind. Yeah, and again, I'd be willing to set up the studio in his backyard,

and he just has to waltz out to the backyard. And you know, you live at Islington and the Lakeshore. Oh, you're going to give the whole address here? No, you live at the Islington Lakeshore area. Sure. And he lives at Lawrence and Avenue Road. And you would put your equipment in your little... My trailer.

Your trailer. Which I used to pick up beer earlier today. And you would bike up there. Absolutely. Yeah. The things I do for my clients, Peter. That's about 25 miles uphill. Miles? I don't think it's that much. Oh, that's a hike. I'd have to Google this one, but I was thinking 25K or so, but I could be wrong.

I don't know. I do, like, again, I just recently recorded in Dr. Diane Sachs' backyard, and that's, like, Eglinton and Spadina area. Like, so I'm trying to think. I think I'd have no problem biking to. Once you get to Eglinton and Spadina area. So I'm trying to think. I think I'd have no problem biking to... Once you get to Eglinton and Spadina, you might as well go to Lawrence Avenue Road. Right.

I'm thinking that would be approximately 25K or something like that. I don't think it'd be miles, though. Okay. That's 16 miles. So, John, we're coming for you, buddy. And Peter... Okay, so let me know if for you, buddy. And Peter. Okay, so let me know if you get any feedback.

If you get no feedback, maybe we'll just forget the idea. But do people want to have a half hour every week called The World According to Gross? That's the big question. So, FOTMs, you've got your marching orders. And hopefully we get some feedback. Again, Twitter, email, smoke signals, carrier pigeons, just, we'll just find us. Peter,

I mean this sincerely. I'm glad that you're okay. Like, you sound as great as ever. You look fantastic. You rollerbladed here. So, I'm glad this was the good kind of stroke. I'm sorry you had any stroke. It's like a Seinfeld episode. Well, no, no, not a Seinfeld.

David, what's his name? What was his show? David Spade? No, the producer of Seinfeld. Oh, yes, of course. Curb Your Enthusiasm. It's a good kind of leukemia. There's bad leukemia. There's good leukemia. It was a good kind of stroke.

Oh, yeah. My buddy Elvis, I once jokingly told him he got the good cancer and he got so mad at me. I thought he was going to punch me out, because apparently there is no good cancer. And I'm like, well, there is good cancer. My buddy had a stage four esophageal cancer, and he didn't make it six months. I said, okay, yours is...

Anyway, there are... Yes, all cancer sucks. Transient ischemic attack. If you're going to have a stroke, have that one. And that brings us to the end of our 709th show. Since we're live on Periscope, I'm going to look at the Raptors score. As we speak, Raptors are losing

by two points to the Brooklyn Nets. It's 65-63. I'm actually encouraged by that because I popped in early and we were getting beat pretty good and I'm glad the Raps have clawed back. So we're only down by a bucket. That's good news. Game two in the first round. I want to sweep.

My son promised me we'd sweep that first round. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Peter is at Peter the Gross. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Sorry, Jean Augustine, that I couldn't come up with your name. I feel great shame.

Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Don't leave, Peter, until I get to the meat lasagna. Sticker U is at Sticker U. The Keitner Group are at The Keitner Group. CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. Pumpkins After Dark, they're at Pumpkins Dark. And, of course, Garbage Day are at GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike. See you all

tomorrow night for Pandemic Friday. We're kicking out the Grunge Jams with Cam Gordon and Stu Stone. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Rome Phone. Rome Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RomePhone.ca to get started.