Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - #TMLX14: Toronto Mike'd #1388

Episode Date: December 9, 2023

In this 1388th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike and Cam Gordon chat with FOTMs who came out to #TMLX14. Guests include Stephen Brunt, Tom Wilson, Dana Levenson, Mike Richards, Lorne Honickman, Larry Fedoruk, Bill Brioux, Peter Gross, Brad Bradford, Dave Charles and Ivar Hamilton. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Electronic Products Recycling Association, Raymond James Canada and Moneris. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

live from palma's kitchen in beautiful Mississauga, Ontario. It's episode 1388 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville.

RecycleMyElectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. The Advantage Investor Podcast from Raymond James Canada. Valuable perspective for Canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable, informed, and focused on long-term success. Season 5 of Yes, We Are Open, an award-winning podcast from Moneris,

hosted by FOTM Al Grego. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. What episode number was it that we had the debate about whether or not you should continue to call out the numbers of your episodes? Oh, my brother said maybe it was after about 100, he said it was

amateur hour. Lose the numbers. Sorry for the awkward pause there. I heard the noise gone, and I know Al is actively working on the audio in here here but thank you to everybody who came out to TMLX 14. Thank you. They're not drunk yet. This feedback

is temporary. We're going to fix that but I would like to introduce my co-host for this event. You know him? This tall handsome glass of water here. This is Cam Gordon. Thank you. Only my second appearance this year

after more appearances than anybody in history. And you're on the calendar again for like next week or something. That's right. More CanCon crap coming next week. No one does CanCon crap better than Cam Gordon. And joining me, he tells me he's got 10 minutes before he has to bolt to Oshawa to take his kid to a hockey game.

But Elvis is here, everybody. Elvis! Hello, everybody. And we're going to kick things off with a very special guest who has joined us all the way from Hamilton, Ontario. Stephen Brunt, everybody. Stephen, how are you doing? I'm good, Mike. You see, I'm the punctual guy, right?

You say noon, I'm here at noon. No, you know what? I'm here at 10-2. I'm the same way. I'm the same way. And thanks for being here on time. And good to see you, Stephen. I want to open things up, gentlemen, and re-talk about what happened last night with the flight that did not have Shohei Otani on it.

That's the greatest thing ever. I saw Dean Blundell confirm that video. It was official, that sideways video. That's right. There was airport footage of Shohei Ohtani arriving, and Dean was certain that was Pearson. As a guy who used to work for the company, that was not a Twitter master class

from a number of well-followed accounts yesterday. I was not really working and 100% invested in everything that was happening. My son is a huge baseball fan, who's a huge Jays fan. And I saw that video from a non-crazy person that was shared, and I jumped out of my chair, ran downstairs, and, Charlie, you've got to fucking look at this video. And he's nine.

I'm like, Charlie, it's happening! He's here! We were hook, line, sinker. I bought it too. We were right in. There was a fucking Christmas tree in the video. It was clearly today. Stephen Brunt,

what did you think of everything as it transpired in real time yesterday? Well, it's not dead yet, right? And this is a weird process, this one. I will give the boys covering this some slack because it is a tricky one. I can't think of anyone that's been as locked down as this. But if people are in the business of speculation and the business of insidering. And, you know, a lot of what you get in that world is kind of, you know, quote, unquote, informed speculation, right? So you talk to people, but you don't, there's kind of an art to saying things, but not actually putting yourself right out on a limb.

So, you know, for instance, so if John Marossi says, I hear the Braves are in as well, like no one's ever going to say that's not true, right? Like, who knows? I don't think they were in. But no one's ever going to say that's not true. Right? Like who knows? I don't think they were in. But no one's ever going to say they're not. But if you say he's on the plane, that's a problem. Right. Because he's got to get off the plane. You know, you're way out there.

So, yeah, I was kind of glad I didn't have to. I watched my pals Blair and Barker do a show yesterday in the middle of this. That was bizarre. In real time. Yeah, I'm glad I didn't have to do I watched my pals Blair and Barker do a show yesterday in the middle of this. That was bizarre. In real time, yeah. I'm glad I didn't have to do that. They came on, so again, I'm all in. I had sports, I was watching more fucking poker yesterday than I've ever watched before,

because I'm like, if anything's going to happen, Sportsnet's going to have it. They pop on at four o'clock. I'm like, this is it. And then they're like, oh, we don't know anything. I'm like, yeah, right, you don't know anything. 5.55, because Twitter also told me that at 6 p.m. there was going to be a news conference.

Right. That's another one. Shohei was going to pop out of a box. Where did that come from? The only person I saw who tweeted that was Adam Seaborn, who I don't think is enough, who's normally pretty reliable with his stuff. And everyone's like, well, he had the handshake emoji.

It's official. Has anybody actually confirmed this? Like, I don't know. Again, specifics. Well, I think that that's also, like, to your point, no one was going to confirm anything. No. So normally, yeah, you would want to wait for that stuff,

but because no one was going to confirm anything, you're like, yeah, this is real. Well, that's it, right? Yeah, it's the Seaborn one I saw that too. And you're right, he's normally a pretty reliable guy. He works in the industry. Sure. Knows stuff.

But when you say something that specific and black and white, it's, you know, it's 605. Everybody knows it's not happening. What a bizarre event that was. And then, you know, who comes off the plane? It's the Dragon's Den guy. Which is also crazy because no one likes him. He's like the total opposite guy of Otani. It's weird.'s Den guy. Which is also crazy because no one likes him. He's like the total opposite guy of Otani.

It's weird. It was weird. Yeah, with his name, as Al says, with his name on the tail of the plane. I think it's also one of these things so many people want it to happen. People just want to believe, like the Phantom Sushi dinner for 50. It's like, oh like oh well you know i was telling mike earlier just quickly that the guy who one of the original guys who posted the flight path originally he's posted on reddit today apologizing he apparently is one of his passions is to follow

flights and like he he's got a passion with airplanes and he has COVID and he was at home feeling not well and bored and saw that there was this plane coming from Anaheim and he tweeted about it saying like hey I think Otani could be on this well and they also remember this I don't know if it's the same guy but whoever nailed the flight going from Anaheim to Clearwater got it right because that was the day that Otani was in. Yeah, yeah, that's right. So it could, you know, it's... And I remember rationalizing yesterday, like, who the fuck is going to fly from Orange County

to Toronto? That can't possibly be a good route. And I do that all the time for work. So, like, I was totally into it. I was like, yeah, hook, line, and sinker. Yeah, we all bid on that one. And we'll see what happens. But, yeah, he's

not in the city, so Shohei Otani will not be at TMLX 14. I do want to know if that sushi dinner actually ever happened. That was the other thing. They said it was a surprise party for his wife or something, and then someone said,

oh, her birthday's in August or June or something like that? I don't know. Wild, what a wild event. Why would Kikuchi be making reservations for 50 plus people? Has to be it. It all lined up and then you start to believe

because I was a skeptic, skeptic, skeptic until I was certain it was happening. The entire family invested. My 11-year-old daughter says to me when we found out Otani wasn't signing, her response was, well, why would he come all the way to Toronto for a dinner and not sign a contract?

So clearly missing that that was also not the case. Wow, okay. So thanks again to everybody who's here. Looks like a nice full house. Hello, I see Larry Fedorek is here. Hello to Larry. Hello to everybody in-house. Hi, Simon.

Nice to see you, buddy. So this is important. And there's an Expos hat. Make sure you get a picture with Brunt here, Brian. Come on. All right. Just two things that have to happen. Wow.

Whoa. I just received a gift from Brian Gerstein. Suspiciously shipped. I didn't know there was gifts. Was it Brian Greenspan or Gerstein? I can't remember anymore. Somebody had the wrong Brian. Okay.

Thank you so much. But here, I want to just do a little housekeeping which is to tell everybody you get a you get a free meal everybody that's amazing palma pasta is going to feed you so make sure you get your token that lets you go to the hot table and order whatever you want thank you to leave a fumka who got my daughter Morgan a meal. How is it Morgan? Is it good? Thumbs up for Morgan everybody. Kid approved. Kid approved. Absolutely. So you get your meal

but also Tyler Campbell and I dropped by Great Lakes Brewery. How do you say that word? Brewery? Can you say it Elvis? How many years has it been? It's been many years. We dropped by this morning and picked up much beer for everybody so enjoy responsibly there's delicious fresh craft beer here from great lakes brewery

so there you go that's the housekeeping items uh some famous people like steven brunt will pop on the mics today but what i love about these tmlx events is that I'm as excited to talk to Stephen Brunt as I am to talk to you normies out there. All the plebes that join us. And many of you have gone above and beyond. So here's a little, you know, people who have gone above and beyond. I just want to thank

Tyler Campbell for actually driving me here today. So my wife could take my son to his hockey game. So he's a VP of transport. Al Grego, much love to you, buddy, because you love your speakers here all the way from Holland's Landing, and I appreciate you very much.

There he is back there. So thank you, Tyler. Thank you, Al. And thank you, L. Thank you, Al. And thank you, Lieve Fumka. You made these wonderful name tags. Takes a village here,

and these are just a few of the greats who have helped out today. I wanted to take a moment. I don't know if you guys have a beer on you, but last year, we had an event

in this very same space, which has not been, nothing's happened to this space since we were last here. Were you here, Cam? I was not here, but yeah, we got to talk about home renos. This is a reality show waiting to happen. Are you a handyman, Stephen Brunt? Do you think you could help us out here?

No, I'm not, no. But a year ago, you could help no no i'm not no but a year ago um there was a uh a gentleman here named norris mcdonald who came on the mic right and i had never met norris but uh i got to meet him and uh sadly we've lost norris mcdonald since that tmlx, and I just thought we should take a moment to pay tribute to one of the good ones, Norris McDonald. To Norris. Perry Lefkoe, the other Perry who's not here today, because Perry's attending a memorial service for Norris, and he couldn't be here. But on that note, here's a quick list of the people who had conflicting events today that

they couldn't get out of and sadly send their regrets they won't be here. David Schultz, Perry Lefkoe, Rush Mike, Mimico Joe, Liz Brio, Roger Ashby, Jason Portwondo, Mark Weisblot, Gord Miller, Kurt Swinghammer, Paul Romanuk, Humble Howard, Scott Morrison,

Scott Turner, Mike Epple, Bob Elliott, Steve Simmons, Fred Patterson, Thank God. Rob Pruce, Arash Madani.

David Alter. Banjo Dunk. And Stu Stone. Has Simmons written about how better he is than everyone else who reported that Otani's not here in Toronto yet? Has he done that? Let me check. What time is it here? Okay.

How much time do you have left? Technically check what time is it here. Okay. How much time do you have left? Technically, I'm a minute over. Okay. So, everybody, this gentleman, I should have put him on the list of special people. Elvis drove all the way from North Oshawa just to spend 15 minutes on the mic with us. And thank you for doing that, Elvis.

You're a good friend. I do it for you Mike I don't know about the people here I'm potentially spilling something that isn't necessarily public but I was invited to a WhatsApp group recently

where there's a bunch of crazy people that talk about this podcast holy shit that's a fucking ride crazy people that talk about this podcast. They're called FOTM. Holy shit. That's a fucking ride. There's some normal people, and then there's some really out there folks that are in that group, but

I just want to say, every once in a while, I scroll through it, and it's amusing, and I appreciate you welcoming into the community, community that I didn't ask to be part of. But, yeah. welcoming into the community, community that I didn't ask to be part of. But yeah, these are fun. I have been to, I don't know, however many of them I can actually get asked to

to be on the microphone. When I'm not asked to be on the microphone, I generally don't show up. But these are fun. So enjoy the afternoon. It really is a good time. Enjoy the food here too. Poma Pasta is the best place in the city, having grown up just down the afternoon. It really is a good time. Enjoy the food here too. Pomo Pasta is the best

place in the city. Having grown up just down the street, it really is a treat. And congratulations again on all your success, Mike. You deserve it. This is pretty awesome. Elvis, everybody. I didn't mean to do that, but okay. That was beautiful. Thank you so much.

Love you, man. Love you, too. Tyler, I want to ask you about your tweet at Shai Davidi here while we have Stephen Brunt on the microphone. They're called posts now. Oh, my goodness. Always the communications director. I was going to say, tweet is copyrighted. Shout out to Richard Funeral Home.

No more tweets. So VP of no sales, as I see it on your name tag. Thanks again for the drive this morning. Anytime. I'll drive you anywhere you want to go. You got, you know, opposite of you is Stephen Brunt here. I saw your tweet to Shai Davidi. What did you think of what Shai Davidi wrote about?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I read the article and I was a little upset because I feel like us, we, Blue Jays fans, we're kind of just along for the ride. I think the sensible ones of us were just kind of enjoying the spectacle of it all. But then John Marossi tweets about it.

Rogers Sportsnet, they add baseball programming to their schedule because people are all hyped about it. Rogers Sportsnet has, they add baseball programming to their schedule because people are all hyped about it. And so I feel like it's not on the fans for buying into this because the MLB account, like the official MLB account was tweeting about it.

So why is that? Why do we need a lecture from Sorry, what did he say? Fans got a chill? Yeah, basically. Sort of? Basically. So, you know, I took a little bit of, like, and I know where Shy's coming from, and I don't know, a bit of a conspiracy theorist.

Like, I feel like maybe there's a little bit of air cover from Rogers. That's a big admission. We can unpack that. Nah. We can talk about that. That part there isn't. Fair enough. Yeah.

But, look, I understand. I read the piece too. And it was kind of, you know, it sounded like something that was written at the end of a, you know, and I would say that Shai himself in this whole story, like, you know, three weeks ago or a month ago, no one thought Otani's come to terms. Right. No chance. And then, you know, this has kind of gained traction over the last little while and i don't

know like i i talked to somebody who actually would know uh about two weeks ago and they said yeah we're in you know we're we're in it's he's probably still gonna sign with the dodgers but we've got the money right so that was the first time i thought holy smokes they're actually in so this thing has kind of evolved now shy has not has not been driving that bus at all in his writing and has been very cautious and is more skeptical than a lot of people are about this. And I think, so he's probably the guy sitting there saying, you know, I don't think this is real, maybe at all. And then at the end of the day, he's, at least in terms of people not being on planes and stuff,

he's proved, or at sushi dinners is proved to be correct yeah and you know so you yeah you're kind of saying well why is why are you guys all so excited this is obviously and i and i look i i didn't i thought that was the wrong vibe you know but i understood why it got written yeah and like i respect shy i think he's a good writer and and i tend to trust him more than a lot of people on the beat but you, you know, as I said to Mike on the drive up here, like yesterday was more fun and more entertaining than the whole Blue Jays season this year. Like it was a fun ride. It was kind of fun.

We'll see how it ends. I'd be interested to see how people react one way or the other. Like, again, I think it's still entirely possible they're going to sign him, which is mind-blowing. But, yeah, I understand why i'd like i got caught up in it yesterday you know and i'm we look a lot of us who are in the business you know there again there are people who go further and take risks and speculate and it gets them hits and it gets them radio appearances and all kinds of things and you kind of go well you know you live by the

sword sometimes and kind of wondered yesterday as it was kind of go, well, you know, you live by the sword sometimes. And I kind of wondered yesterday as it was getting more and more and more, you know, certain people were going further whether, you know, you better be right. Yeah. But, yeah, you never blame the fans for it. Look, generally, in general, you don't blame the fans for anything.

You don't blame the fans for not buying tickets. You don't blame the fans for being too loud or too quiet or any of those things. It's just not. Yeah. It's the joy of it is getting swept away. Right. Exactly.

Yeah. Hey, Stevie, that reminds me. What did you think when Greg Popovich told the fans to stop booing Kawhi? Well, you know, I,

again, I don't think unless people are actually abusive, like, and there are, and there are, and there's some stuff that happens now that is, I, is way beyond the pale right like i it's the reason i don't go to buffalo bills games and sit in the stands anymore because i don't want to hear i don't want to be with people saying the things those people are saying you know it's and that's abuse right but yeah i think people

have the right look in in you know somebody who's lived off that trough for a lot of years people's passion is what drives it if people were if they approached it like going to the movies where you take it or leave it none of this whole thing falls apart right people it's not about being rational it's about being emotional it's about kind of letting yourself

go and just telling people hey tamp it down really you really want to tamp it down I was trying to think, was there another circumstance where a coach had taken a live mic in an arena to address the crowd? No, I can't remember it.

Do you think I could think of it as like the malice in the palace type situation where maybe it's like calm down or we're not playing, like something like that. It was wild that he did that. I have my own points of view. Amazing.

Now, I see here Dale Cadeau, by the way, who came all the way from Vancouver. Is that right? Close enough. When he gets on a mic, he'll correct it. Dale said he's not coming on the mic. He's not coming on the mic? No, he said, screw you.

I'm not going on that mic. He's holding out for big bucks here. Okay. All right. So, Tyler, thanks. I realize there are a lot more people that's holding out for big bucks here. Okay. All right. So, Tyler, thanks. I realize there are a lot more people that have shown up since we last took a break. Get out of your camel

because I do want to get any more voices on the mic. I do want to remind people who just showed up that there's all you can, well, all you can drink beer until I run out of beer. So, there's a bunch of cases still.

So, grab yourself a Great Lakes beer and, of course, make sure you get that coupon or whatever it is that gets you the free Palma Pasta meal downstairs. Look, Gord. Hello to YYZ Gord. He's got the coupons there.

Make sure you guys get one. Get your free meal. You just go downstairs, line up. There's Kirstein's going to go. Who do you want on the mic next? I don't know. I mean, there's so many greats here. Who wants to want on the mic next? I don't know. There's so many greats here. Who wants to come on?

Put up your hand if you want to come on. Larry Fedorik. Larry Fedorik, everybody. A little Christensen Hollis vibe. This is good. That's very cool. I only invite Larry because I love his sweater. What's that?

What's that? I love your sweater, sir. Thank you. Larry, nice to see you, buddy. Nice to see you. Have you ever met Stephen Brunt? I have not. No.

Hey, how you doing? I always wanted to. One of the shows I had was on until 6 o'clock and I had an hour commute home. And I would love when Stephen Brunt was on the Cowan show

because that was just a special drive for me. Thank you. It's great to be sharing a mic with you. Yeah, those were the days. Yeah. You know, Damien Cox was over yesterday and we were having a little chat about those primetime sports commutes that I used to have.

So, oh, I can't believe I used to have a commute at all. But, Larry, how are things with you? Things are good. Things are, you know, we're actually competing for an award this year, you and I. Elaborate. I'm excited to be nominated,

and then this will tie into Al. Because I was going to ask you, because usually the awards, I remember the year I won. Back in 74, no, a couple of years ago, I actually was announced on this

event. Wow. So I always thought the awards were right around now, but they're not. I don't know what's happening. I think they are. I think we'll get more insight when we get Al on the mic. But I think these awards, when are these awards? There you go. December, though. think these awards, when are these awards? There you go. December, though. I shrugged there. But this year, Toronto

mic'd, and my later This Same Life both got nominated for Outstanding. So we're in the same category. Wow. Wow. What if, oh my goodness, Larry, if I lose, I hope I lose to you. I feel the same way. I do, if I lose, I hope I lose to you.

I feel the same way. I do. I was like, I looked at the others, and there's no competition there. It's got to be you or me. They're crappy podcasts, right? That's right. Audio shit, basically. But Larry, I really think, I know I'm a little biased here, but later that same life, I think it's a great, well-produced, really great show.

I listen all the time. Everybody listen. Later That Same Life. It's really all I do now, so I've got a lot of time to do it, you know, and really enjoy it. And I kind of approach it the way I do when I had a talk show. It's like, what are we going to talk about today? It could be just about anything, except this is a weekly podcast,

so I do that kind of week to week so when it says personal series it's like yeah some some weeks it's personal and other weeks it's topical and and newsy and but i liked when you just did an episode about jfk's assassination and i loved you talked about uh that visiting dallas and doing like the the official sanctioned tour, and then the car you drove in. Everybody's heard the podcast, so I'm repeating myself here. But 30 years after the assassination, it's the 90s,

and we're in Dallas on business, and my program director and I have an afternoon off or something, so we take the rented car to the sixth floor museum at Dealey Plaza. And we go up there, and it's kind of audiovisual stuff. And the corner window where Lee Harvey Oswald was, and he was there, and he did fire a weapon. I'm not saying he had a lone gun and all that stuff, but he was there. So they have that corner of the sixth floor cordoned off with plexiglass,

and it looks just like it did in the day, boxes and things. But a few feet over is another window with almost the identical view. And to stand there, and because I'm of a demographic where I was a little kid, I still remember all that being called in from outside, the president's shot, we're Canadian in the prairies, but it's a big deal. Of course it is. And we're watching the TV for 48 hours, unprecedented coverage and all that stuff, Cronkite, blah, blah, blah.

And there I am standing at a window looking almost as Oswald would have. And you exit through the gift shop on the ground floor, and then, it's true, and unsanctioned by the Sixth Floor Museum and not part of it, was an exact replica of the Lincoln Convertible Stretch Limo. 50 bucks each, guys, come on, we'll take you on the parade route.

Wow. And we're looking at each other like, this is inappropriate and creepy and 50 bucks. And he goes, no thanks. So he goes, okay, 50 bucks for the two of you. That's a bargain. Still creepy, still inappropriate, but half price now. So we went and we flipped for who sits where. I lost.

So he took JFK's seat. I took Jackie's seat. Good call. And we had a third guy from Cleveland. He was in Connolly's seat. Nobody wanted that, he said. Anyway, so it's identical in every way, except it's got a little logo on the door,

and it's got speakers on the back. And as weird as this sounds, we take the parade route on main street in houston and and in the speakers are playing crowd cheering and police motorcycles and everything yeah and he and he turns on to elm and dealey plaza and at the exact spot in the speakers gunshots ring out and he floors it just like the limo driver did in the day and takes off and we drive part of the way to Parkland Hospital

and then he kind of takes an exit and back to the sixth floor rides over. Best thing I've ever done. Wow. I mean, I know how touristy and tawdry it sounds, but it was fantastic.

It's like a LARPing thing almost. You did. Yeah. Or like fancy camp. Like immersive, old school, real life experience. So anyway, JFK's anniversary was 60 years this past November 22nd. And it passed so quietly. And that was kind of my point of my podcast.

Unlike JFK, it passed quietly. So, sorry. Hey, I rode in the car. How much worse can I get, right? But it, so I wrote about that. And I thought, well, I can't write about it and talk about it without kind of sharing that experience in Dallas in the 90s. Because it was still, I've never been back to Dallas since then.

But it burned in my memory wow okay and on that same day Stephen we went to Dallas Stadium the old Texas Stadium and I and we had a nerf ball and I caught a pass in the end zone so oh my god that was the other fun part of the day hell of a business trip what a day yeah that's that's a magical day wow so that's this week and next week something else in the week, you know. So if you don't have the message clear yet, it's that you should

subscribe to later that same life. Yeah, I have a YouTube channel and of course, Mike takes care of putting it gosh,

everywhere, right? Every platform. Yeah, it's everywhere. Everywhere you get your podcasts and I can't believe

we're both nominated in the same category. That's an outstanding personal experience. But you have won in the past, as you reminded us. I've won. I have never won anything. Honor just to be nominated. Remember that, Mike.

That's what I keep telling myself. But Al Grego says you've got to win these things. Yeah, you've got to win. To be discussed. Okay, Larry. Thank you for plugging that, and good luck in the awards. Well, good luck to you, Larry. I actually might

vote for you and make sure I want Larry Fedorek to win that award. Always a pleasure to see you. Voting's closed. Thank you. Thanks, Mike. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Larry Fedorek, everybody. thank you guys thank you larry larry fedorik everybody

okay so my co-host cam gordon we gotta let's cycle through like like mad like rapid fire let's get some people sure okay so what i'm gonna do now is tie the christmas guy, and Brian Dunn. Okay. We're going to have a festive off here. Who's more festive? Is it Ty? Here, I even might have some music for this while these people get themselves ready. I believe Brian was like an upside-down clown. I was.

Hi, everyone. Hi, Ty. You can't hear the Christmas, Ty. Oh, it's gone. Christmas is gone. Oh, that's better. Well, I can give you more Christmas if you want, of course. It's just us talking.

It's Christmas. Okay. All right. So, Ty, the Christmas guy, you're a good FOTM. How are you doing? Yes, I'm great. Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas to you.

Is it too early? No, it's not too early. Wow. I've been saying it all year. Great. Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas to you. Is it too early? No, it's not too early. I've been saying it all year. For Brian Dunn and I, it's never too early. Retrofestive is the sign. So I just received word before we get back to the festive off here. Received word from Stephen Brunt that Tom Wilson is on his way.

Oh, good. Tom, I thought you were going to say that somebody signed on a dotted line. But Tom Wilson will do. That would be wild. Okay, the next time you pick up your phone. Okay, so Retro Festive is... Yeah, I run a store called Retro Festive. Anybody heard of Retro Festive is... Yeah, I run a store called Retro Festive. Anybody heard of Retro Festive?

We sell retro stuff and we sell festive stuff. And that's kind of my passion. And Brian actually is a great customer of ours. Many years, many, many years. Ever since the X days. And I've been going to the store every year multiple times. But the way I got into it is an interesting story. I kind of did a documentary about the movie,

A Christmas Story, and how it was filmed in Toronto. And that kind of led me to selling leg lamps online, and then it kind of grew into a business. But the original story of tracking down all the locations of A Christmas Story filmed in Toronto was a great one. And we actually discovered all the costumes from the movie. We donated them to a museum in Cleveland and more.

So that's kind of my claim to fame. What about you, Brian? What's your claim to fame? Well, I love shopping at your store. Oh, I have an announcement today, actually. Woo! Okay. Someone you've always wanted to be an FOTM.

I'm going to be on a show this week. I'm going to be a guest on Mary Berg's show on Wednesday. It's not airing on Wednesday, but I'm shooting on Wednesday. I'm cooking some chutney thing or something festive. That's awesome. Yeah. She's my neighbor.

Not my next door neighbor But my neighbor Mary Bird Actually I have a question for you Mike I listened to Your episode with Ardo Jadaro And I helped hook that up

Because his son Andrew Was best friends with my wife I had no idea. No, he didn't tell me that. So I saw him at the C&E this summer and I said, oh, there's this guy, Toronto Mike. He talks about your dad, Ardo, all the time. Yeah. I'm scared of that guy. And you should really get in touch with him.

And I listened to the episode. It was an interesting episode, unlike a lot of episodes. It was, you know, with the phone and call and all kinds of stuff. It was interesting. What are you saying saying it was an interesting episode unlike most episodes oh no no i didn't mean to say that it was not what he meant it was unlike a lot of episodes because it was like part in person and part on the phone well yeah because ardo is in king city or something so we zoomed in ardo and that's when I faced my fears.

I missed this one. Who's Ardo? Okay. When I was 15, I got a job working at the C&E. Right. You might have heard of this. Stu and I are still fighting it. You're working during the Rolling Stones concert.

Steel wheels tour at the C&E grandstand that he saw at the Skydome. Sure. Because they went to both. Okay. Yeah. See? I heard. And, okay, so Ardo was my boss,

and I was scared shitless of him. Okay, yes, yes. He talks about him all the time. For three summers. That guy, yes, I know. Ardo has screamers in Vaughn. It's like a Halloween event. Of course.

And I did not know until right now that Ty the Christmas Guy told Andrew Jadaro, the son, to come on Toronto Mike. And this all happened thanks to Ty the Christmas Guy. Well, it was a great episode. But I was just wondering, you spent so many years kind of reminiscing about this figure from your past. What was it like to kind of encounter him again? You know, it was it was different oh it was

completely yeah well it was wildly wild for me that to have that like somebody i hadn't talked to in decades i was to encounter him as an adult now it's different i was 15 16 and 17 when i dealt with ardo and then now it was kind of regressive. I'm not trying to be funny but was it triggering of just like dredging up bad memories from... Not bad memories but when I heard the voice and then I had him yell at me again just like... Hey, what are you doing?

I did wet my pants. But I know Ardo differently and he's actually a teddy bear so it's funny when I hear you talk about... Oh, he was not because I think he had to keep these teenagers in line and he assumed this persona and he's a you know bar real angry guy but so thanks for doing that ty and brian how are things you're going to be a mary berg show which is bfd i had an audition two days ago to be the new voice of president's choice so did you book come on chocolate chip. Did you book that gig? Come on, chocolate chip cookies.

Did you book that gig? Didn't book it. Well, I just had it. It's due on Monday. I sent it in yesterday, so. Okay, there's a few people in the room. Lots of things going on. Might want that gig there, okay? That's huge.

No, just me. Only me. I will just point out, when Ty, earlier, before we started, Ty asked me if he could bring a gun in here. Well, it wasn't quite like that.

Oh, the diehard. The diehard guy. I left it in my car because it does look a little threatening, but I actually brought, if anybody likes the movie A Christmas Story, I brought the original Red Rider BB gun that is seen in the movie. Well, one of them. They had a couple on the set, but

I came into my hands last year around this time. And sometimes I show it to people and their eyes glaze over and they're like, okay. But I thought, oh, maybe today someone will care about the original Red Rider BB gun. So I brought it. But then just before I brought it in here, I thought, it might not look good if I bring a firearm through the store. So I left it in the car. But you know what I did bring?

If anybody likes the movie Christmas Vacation, I brought a case of moose mugs here. Oh, my God. If anybody wants to go home with a moose mug, that's courtesy of our store, Retro Fest. Wow.

Okay. That's amazing. I appreciate your guns. Just so you know. I need a picture with that. Okay. You can come out to my car and hold my gun. It's just in the front seat.

I covered it up though. Well, Ty, Brian, thanks for being here. FOTM Brian Dunn, FOTM Tyler. We're together. I have not met Tyler in person. I have not met Cam in person either. Is that true? Never.

Really? Hi. I'm a big fan too, Cam. I wish you wouldn't have bailed. Ooh. This music, everybody. This is Lorne Honigman's music. It's Lorne Honigman in the house. Lorne Honigman.

He's being cagey. Wave him in here. You can't take a subtle hint. I got that. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, Legal Brief Zone, it's Lorne Honickman.

What a song this is. Probably my favorite. That's your all-time favorite, Bob Dylan? All-time favorite. It's one of my very favorite Bob Dylan. First track, first side, blood on the tracks. Can't go wrong. Can't go wrong. You won't find a bigger Bob Dylan fan.

Or you're pointing over... Well, let's find out. Dave Charles, do you mind taking this microphone here, sir? Do you mind? Doing the Dylan off. Lauren, you just took a wild vacation. Where were you? Yeah, I was in the Far East. Vietnam, Cambodia,

Laos, Bangkok. Totally, obviously a different part of the world. Unbelievable to be there. They're expanding their tourism, and it's based on the Vietnam War. So you get to go to all these places, but a different place. Had you been to that part of the world before? We were in China. all these places, but a different place. It's a different place. Had you been to that part of the world before?

We were in China five years ago. I've been to Japan when my son lived there, but this was different. This was, you go to these places, and you are experiencing, obviously, they came out of the war all those places and they're just and it it's it's quite a thing to see so wait wait your son lived in japan yeah he lived in japan he was teaching english there and we went at the time which was uh about 17 years

ago this christmas if i'm doing the math does he have any insight into shohei othtani's... Just a minute. Was he at the sushi dinner? Yes, yes. I missed it. Is there an update? Is there an update? Yeah, Tom Wilson's running late. Tom Wilson is en route, ladies and gentlemen.

I think Tom gets a police escort to get here. Totally. Lauren, have you ever met Dave Charles? No, no. There you are. Dave Charles helped start Q107.

I know. I know. You know. I don't know. Of course. Of course. I mean, it's a pleasure. Okay. Let's find out on the record here. So let me ask you this. Dave Charles, are you familiar with the work of Lauren Honigman? Absolutely. One of the great news guys of all time.

Well, I wouldn't call that that and he's a lawyer as well right that's right and i know that you went on how do i know that yeah no but uh 10 50 chum i remember you very well yeah like and it's and and you know one of the great things that that this guy toronto mike does is you know he's he's hooked into all these people. And for me, the same way. When I started, and your name, I never met you, but it was Dave Charles. And Q107, I tried when Q first went on the air. Was that 77? Am I right about that?

May 2, 1977. And that was the first time I met the late, great Mark Daly, who was coming on to do the news there. And I just, you know, and I knocked on the door, you know, it was one of those things like, can I get on the air here? And it was, no. You know, I think you got to go work up in Nooka Canooka, Saskatchewan or something first. But when Q went on the air, it was like, for me in many ways, when i started at city tv and being part of city pulse when it first started everything that was all we were all together at that time

there was that that feeling and the queue was a lot like city and uh kicking ass on the street doing things that others weren't doing and and uh and your name was out there as a guy that I should meet one day. And look at how I'm meeting you right now. See, I bring people together. Yes, you do. Did he pass the audition? You got the gig, Lorne. Oh, my goodness.

Dave, good to see you again. Yeah. We did a quick Zoom recently where I gave you heck because you called me podcast Mike. Oh, podcast Mike. No, podcast Mike. Close enough. Don't you want to have two personas? Toronto Mike to podcast Mike. And I confused your, I confused these, Jim,

no, who did I confuse? Farrow, Dave Farrow with Dave Farrow. Dave Farrow. I'm only human, Dave. Who's a program consultant and Dave Farrow, who's a good writer. Well, you know, I don't want to slander the wrong person. That's why I have Lord Honigman here on standby. He's my legal representative right here.

Cam, I'm just curious. I sit to your left here today, Cam Gordon, everybody. You have, to your right right now, you have Lord Honigman, and you have Dave Charles. I'm going to pinch you. Are you dreaming? Are you right right now, you have Lord Honickman, and you have Dave Charles. I'm going to pinch you. Are you dreaming? Are you dreaming right now? I'm like you, Mike, as you know,

where I grew up as a listener, and even Larry Fedork, you know, I was the Rivers Air Force back in the day. Absolutely. I just say, I read Stephen Brunt, like, this is awesome. Stephen Brunt.

There you are. There he goes. I mean, it's... And by the way, Larry and I have a connection. Yeah. Did you know that? Can I guess it?

You have the same barber. No. So between 1978 and 1980, yours truly and Mr. Fedork, he was much funnier than I was. We did stand-up at Yuck Yucks back in the day. Whoa. We did stand-up at Yuck Yucks back in the day. Whoa. And we both started when Jim Carrey was there to start and Howie Mandel and everybody.

Their careers went in a certain direction. So when I walked in here as Larry was on, and I know Larry's connection with you, Mike, and I thought, oh, wow, am I going to see Larry today because we've known each other for so long so this is this is for me this is and I thank you it's this therapy I'm getting to meet all these people that that I there was this bond and connection in the past and you don't forget these people and Stephen Brunt by the way Stephen Brent

and I never met but Stephen Brunt, I was always somebody who would talk about you as being the guy in sports and sports journalism that sort of set a standard. So then again, you know, Mike, thank you so much for inviting me to this. I feel so much better right now. Thank you for being here. I feel like you've told me for 14 TMLX events in a row that you would try to make an appearance. Yes, yes. And you got here. Well, you should have told me for 14 TMLX events in a row that you would try to make an appearance. Yes.

And you got here. Well, you should have told me how therapeutic this would be. You're going to grab yourself a meal? No. I wanted to stop in, say hello, but, you know. Listen, I love seeing you. You know that. And I just think the world of you.

You are one of the good guys. Oh, thank you. It's good to be on the good guy side and uh and keep up keep up all the work mike and and keep doing what you do because you do it so well i gotta write that down tangled up in blue thank you lauren honickman soman. So here, I'm going to let Dale Cadeau know. You don't mind going to the mic, do you? He's thinking about it. Would you go

on the mic? Oh, okay. I see he's pointing to somebody else here. Mike Richards. Mike Richards on the mic, everybody. Dave Charles, have you met Mike Richards? No, Mike. Hey, how are you? It's just keep on coming

Is this happening, everybody? Wow I'll tell you, it's great to get applause This day, you know, you're just people chucking stones And you get a warm meal, too That's not so shabby here Mike, how are you doing? I'm doing fine

I mean, every year, or a couple times But around Christmas time, we come see Anthony because it's the demand of the family to have his Italian food. This thing of ours. Yeah, the mobster. Anthony the mobster. And Stephen Brunt is here. I know.

All the popular people, the good people. And look at this. Everyone is here. Why I got a smattering of applause, which is I can feel the excitement building in the room right now. The reason I was calling in Dale Cadeau is Dale Cadeau might be your biggest fan. Dale is awesome. He's also, with his friend, Sean Kelly, has given me free meat.

I don't know what your qualifications for good friends are. Is that a euphemism? No, no, no no although i guess it's a popular thing these days so i shouldn't say anything yeah so mike okay so and dave you can consider yourself co-host if you have a question for mike here but mike came on my show toronto mike he made a very big announcement he was leaving saga 960 yes right and he was going to be part of this network, this digital enterprise. And then I got very excited. Yes, as did I.

What happened? It's on the past tense. Well, no, it's just that I feel every time I come on your show, it's like, and here comes Mike Richards, or another huge announcement, and then nothing happens. Or there's something bad that happens that never quite gets there, and you start feeling very, I don't know, Trump-ish,

where I'm going to make this, this is going to be the greatest show, the greatest show. Some people, that's what we call it, the great show. And then what I have found is, and of course, as soon as I made that huge announcement, boom, another surgery. Right? Out come the drills and the saws. I back in there and i finally get out and then you you're sort of responsible for finding all this sponsorship that's hilarious that's fun never done that in my lifetime so there you are in october november go to a friend's mom's uh

celebration of life boom covid i get covid like i i don't know how many more landmines and hurdles i got a hit but uh so that that has made it a little difficult but the the hardest thing i based i think basically is now that sports radio has been literally strangled to death and and bell has made sure that they are exploding the stations as we speak and there won't be any sports radio left on either side, no matter the company, that trying to find a way of having sports media survive is difficult. And what makes it more difficult is that, you know, you hear complaints all the time that, you know, this radio sucks and we don't get to hear opinion on the television, you know, the venues, whether it's Roger Sportsnet and TSN. But if you go to the corporate people

and it seems to be such a difficult sell that I find that I'm like, I don't want to hear from these people anymore that say, I really wish we had something better. You could, and it is still possible, but it has to and would be independent, which is what I've been working towards. And I think at the end of the day, I mean, I'm still going to try, and I'm still in it.

And there's still some big companies that are kind of going back and forth. But at this point in my life, the dance becomes more difficult. And so in trying to achieve some level of, well, look, you got, you know, my good friend, Steven Brunt. Can I still, I can still say good friend, even though we haven't seen each other in 27 years. I think. 27, really?

I think it was me, Steven Brunt, and Dave Keon were hanging out last time. It's been a while. What a moment we're witnessing. But, you know, when I was on the fan in Calgary, so when I'm on 960, and I had gone out there because they had dashes. They had zero ratings. They were the home of Jim Rome. Well, actually, it was the Calgary Flames and Jim Rome. Those were the two things.

So I go out there because it seems to be my thing in life is I find where it's the worst and the most terrible, and I go in. And so we build this station and this show the program director's name was Kelly Kirsch and he allows me to do what I wanted what I what I think sports mornings should be which is entertainment and then the best guys with the best opinions who are seasoned in in many different things many areas including, including storytelling. So Stephen is on with Bruce Dobigan, and I have Scotty Taylor from out west. Dave Naylor is my CFL guy who's one of the best. I'll say that Dave Naylor is one of the best football reporters

on either side of the board. I can't say enough about Dave. And so I have all the best people on, regardless at that point of being Rogers or TSN. And then, of course, the split comes and TSN goes into radio. And then we have this difficulty where you can't be friends and you can't have this side or that side. So it becomes, for the first little while, interesting for the first three, four years. And I was very happy with what we were doing.

And then you see the strength of what Bell wants to do and it's certainly not broadcast and it definitely isn't an understanding of sports radio. So what you have in this country currently is whatever that next generation was that control the strings of sports radio,

they don't know what the hell they're doing. They don't know how to make money at it. So it seems very expensive for them. So that's why when you listen to sports radio now, you're like, well, how come everyone's so shit? Well, it's because they have zero experience for the most part. I'm not saying they don't maybe even know

the individual sports or the stats, but that's just looking on your phone and regurgitating something with another nerd. So it becomes this sports nerd fest that, quite frankly, isn't storytelling. They're not talking to general managers. They're not talking to players. They're not talking to those that make the news. And some people, like a Stephen Brunt, like a Bruce Dobigan,

like a lot of these other people, they have 30, 40 years of talking to people like, well, if I'm looking at Steven, Pele, Muhammad Ali, every great Leaf and Blue Jay and Argonaut that we've ever heard of. So when there's an opinion about a sport or an event, it comes from that place. Where now it's just guys going, yeah, I'll take Veskin to get like over four and a half shots, like probably, and I think I'll take Veskin to get over four and a half shots, probably. And I think I'll take the puck line. Okay, we get that.

You're a scumbag. We're all scumbags. The reason I can say that is because I talk like that. My son and I gamble all the time, every day. But when you turn on the radio and you're going to a job, you're kind of like, maybe it's not great, maybe it's okay. I think you should want to hear a guy who said, well, seeing what the Leafs did last night, here it comes.

You know, Richards is going to come on. He's going to talk to Steven Brunt. You know, the fake Mike Babcock's going to show up. He's going to say, you know, I thought they were pretty good out there and what they needed to do was get a better coach. I tried my best. And by the way, Mike, can I see what's on your phone? Because you've got to be a good pro. So I just think you should have stuff where people go, I like that, blah, blah, blah. And we just don't have that. You don't

have choice. You don't have a depth of knowledge from a lot of them. And again, this isn't putting those on the air down saying that they don't know the sport. Some of them, that's all they know. But they're not broadcasters. Which is why they said, you should do a podcast. Well, yeah, I tried that. And it's not that maybe there won't be a version of that of what I'm going to do. And I still hope to get that national TV show.

But wait, what happened to the national TV show? Well, I still have to go out and find basically money for it. It's me. But did that change since your last visit to Toronto? Well, I didn't realize it. I didn't realize it was all going to be me. I thought there'd be other people helping. But didn't we have all that?

Is he asked for money or something? Well, he's got money. Oh, no, he has money. It's just they want more of that money you know i root for you so hard i root for mike richards and i it's hard to watch you you know it's like you're going to kick that football and then lucy's going to pull yes well i i think that's a very good analogy of of how it's been but it's been that way for a lot of people in this industry i look at the number of good broadcasters who currently aren't on the air they're they're where are they he's right there

in the front row steven brunt why why did humbling fred have to go to something and literally now i know they didn't invent that technology but at the time i'm like i invented that technology okay so you invented a technology big hand for mike who invented the podcast and And I'm like, why would they not be on 99.9? Or why they wouldn't be on 102.1? Or just name the dial location. Why would two guys who I think are in the Radio Hall of Fame, or at least they've won awards

or whatever they've done. No, no, no. So, but where is that? Reign it in a little, Richards. But why? Where are all the... Why would Mark Hebbshire, who never is boring for one second, why would he have never have shown up on the fan? Now, again,

there are personal things that happen. There are professional things that happen. I get that. But when I turn on the radio, I expect someone to say something that either I didn't have that perspective,

I'm not looking to do the hot take where I'm just going to go and rip something to see if I can get a reaction. I want somebody to sit down and explain to me, okay, what's up? So today, so today, just not far at what was the Rico Coliseum. I'm not sure what they call it now, but Purdue is playing Alabama. It's a college basketball game. Coca-Cola. Okay. It's the Coca-Cola Coliseum. So one of the most different types of athlete that we've ever had in this country, Zach Eadie plays for the University of Purdue. They are playing Alabama today in Toronto,

a Toronto born seven foot four phenom who was the outstanding player. Did anyone ever, did, was even accidentally hear about this game today? I'm like, because I'm looking at it. Why? Because I'm handicapping. I'm doing the bad stuff, right? I'm looking, okay, Zach Eaddy. What do you mean he's going to play well in front of his home fans?

What are you talking about? Like, in other places, this would be huge news, but in the splintering of what we have in sports, if it's a TSM property, if it's a Rogers property, if it's, you know, they don't want to share, they don't want to talk about it. And I got news for you. In this country, both soccer and basketball,

that's where it lives. If you want to go to a high school right now, there was a day probably when I sat down in my era, if I wasn't talking about, you know, you know, Daryl Sittler or, you know, it was a hockey conversation, most predominantly a Leaf conversation. And right now you'll sit down there and, you know, someone's got a Mo Salah jersey on. That just would never have happened in our day because I not only would not know who that was, I'd be hard pressed to say Liverpool. And I knew Liverpool meant the Beatles.

That's about as far as it went. And now the conversation amongst young people, I mean, they could probably tell you all the stats on all the Raptors, where they came from, and the sports, yes, sports has shifted. But the problem is those that now are in control of sports and sports radio and sports media they only want to see those stats they only want to compare themselves like they're in their bedroom uh after school talking about who's the better player and that's as far as it goes they're not going to talk about for instance why would why why does boucher why does he play the way he does well they're not going to talk about oregon they're not going to talk about the Pac-12.

They're not going to talk about when he played with Dylan Brooks. They know none of this. But what they're going to tell you, well, on a nightly basis, he plays a 17-point. Oh, here we go. The nerd fest. And at some point, unless, I mean, I'm wrong on this, a lot of you know these stats. A lot of you have phones. A lot of you follow the games.

But I don't know how interesting it is for you to hear someone else regurgitate those stats and then throw in well i think he's going to score 14 and a half points i think he's going to get 10 boards and three assists i just don't think it's that interesting let's talk about the reality of what you just said rogers and bell should not be broadcasters. That's a tiny little part of what they... They're not broadcasters. They're into cell phones. They're into digital technology. They're into selling that.

And that's like 95% of their profit. Yes. So they're not broadcasters. So what are they doing in the broadcast business? You know, you will see a lot of Bell stations being sold over the next year. As you will, Rogers not so much. But, you know, there's Stingray.

Don't forget, that's another big broadcast company. But that's the problem. We have people in the broadcast business with a lot of money who shouldn't be in the broadcast business. For me as a broadcaster, I want to hear the stories. I want to hear the stuff behind the scenes. I don't care about stats. You know what's really been a cancer in your business? Gambling.

Every single spot set on TV, and not so much radio, but TV, is online betting. It's like nuts. It's cancer. It's killing sport. I'm not going to sit there. It's terrible. There's an applause here. Terrible.

That's the problem. When you come back and when I look at it as a programmer, as a broadcaster, I look at what Steven does. I look at what you do. I want to hear Mark Hemsher tell a story. That's what it's all about for me. It's storytelling. That's what engages the fans. As soon

as Buck Martinez gets into the rave about back in the day, I'm listening, okay, to a point. When he starts getting into stats, I don't give a shit. I really don't. Right. I don't want to hear that anymore. I want to hear the stories.

That's what drives listenership. It's storytelling. That's what good sport is. Sports is entertainment. Hey, let's have a, hey. That is, you can say it better. Well said, Dave Charles. You should go into some kind of radio consult.

You want my card? If only I had the money, I'd fix some of this. Now, only because I checked the clock here, I got a bunch more people I got to get on. But, Mike Richards, will you come on Toronto, Mike, to make the announcement when the next thing is?

Well, hopefully I will. And I do hope. And by the way, thanks for having me here. There are just so many interesting people. And, you know, and the one thing about Mike,

and I think we all feel this way, you know, it's so, it has been difficult to make a living in this business. And there was a time where you did kind of feel like a little bit of a rock star. Whether it was Gary Dunford writing about stuff or, you know, you were always not that far away from someone appreciating your craft

and, you know, the companies appreciating you. My God, they had Christmas parties. Remember that? There were Christmas parties these people would put on. And as it got a little more tougher and less and less jobs and less and less respect and dignity, I think Toronto Mike, Mike Boone, did all of that for us. So on behalf of, I think, a lot of people,

thank you so much for showing us that respect. Thank you, Mike Richards. Thank you, Dave Charles. I have a very special guest I'm going to try to get on the mic next, although I see Steve Cole has got his ear right now. It's been pounced on. Tom Wilson is in the house. Tom

and Stephen. Stephen, would you mind returning? Would you come back? Come on the mic with Tom. Since you're wearing a Junkhouse t-shirt, it's only appropriate here. I got a thing to say about Junkhouse too. Okay.

So we're going to get Tom settled in there. Stephen knows the mics, but now... Oh my God. You want to stick... It's up to you. You can stick on the cans.

I'll put them on my head. God, what's in Tom's pockets? This is good. I hear you, Toronto Mic. Tom, I'm honored you came, man. Thanks so much. You know, I knew you would come because I talked to Margo.

This is the secret. Yeah, that is the secret. Margo got me here. There's Margo right there. If you talk to Margo, you might land yourself at Tom Wilson. I just do whatever she says. I know. And you know, we talked in the past. You and I have the same gum. Like, we chew the same gum. Yeah.

I just cycle through those all year long. I know. They'll put us in the same casket for's it. I just cycle through those all year long. I know. They'll put us in the same casket for all the toxins we're putting in. Shout out to Wrigley Funeral Home. Steven, you wore the junk house. I did, yes. You and Tom came from Hamilton here.

We did. Yeah. You've been a fan of Tom since forever, I guess, if you're Hamiltonian. Well, we actually grew up, not that we knew each other, but we were born within two weeks of each other,

I think, something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. East Mountain, West Mountain, right? He's on the East Mountain, I was on the West Mountain. So we're like 56 blocks apart or something on the mountain. Okay, where does Pagan

fit into this story? Right in the middle. And our kids know each other and yeah, it's a small town. Yeah. Amazing. Tom, I saw you perform

at the Horseshoe Tavern. Yeah, that was some kind of fun, huh? I mean, I shouldn't be surprised. I think you're amazing, but Junkhouse sounded so fucking good.

Well, there was, we added a couple, well, let me just say, younger fellas. There was three members, the three surviving we added a couple, well, let me just say younger fellas. There was three members, the three surviving members of the band, Ray Faruja, Russ Wilson, and myself. And then we got Aaron Goldstein, who's been playing with the band, a pedal steel player, who you might know from City in Color and Cowboy Junkies, et cetera. And Jesse O'Brien, who plays piano with me all the time.

And Champagne James Robertson, who, if you are in Hamilton on the last Sunday of any month in Hamilton at the Capitol Bar, he does this kind of, oh, it's a hypnotic guitar jazz thing. It's absolutely beautiful. He's fantastic. Amazing.

Cam, you must have a question or two for Tom, and this is your chance. Have you met Tom Wilson? No. Well, hi, Cam Gordon. I'm Tom. Nice to meet you. I think we met once.

I went to McMaster, and you actually did a guest lecture in Mike Daly was teaching the popular music class. FOTM Mike Daly. Yeah, who was that? I actually remember that, yeah. I remember talking. It was the popular music class. FOTM, Mike Daly. Yeah, who was that? I actually remember that, yeah. I remember talking. It was the oddest thing.

I thought you were in that class. Totally. But I was talking about a life-changing moment when I was going to do a gig. I was playing as a folk singer at a place called the Pizza Patio, which was like a fern bar. And there was this lineup of punk rockers

out in front of the bar that were lined up to go to banisters to see Teenage Head. And I told that story, and sitting in the classroom was the late Gord Lewis, who was in your class. He was. Yeah, he was taking the class, and he did guest lecture. I said, Mike Treblecock. Yeah, yeah, right, yeah. Yeah, so for me as a huge music fan, like I was huge fans of all you guys. Everyone else is taking the class just because it's an easy class.

It's like this, you're a popular music guy. I remember your lecture, just you were at them like eating them at the palm of your hand. Well, thank you. All these people were just taking it because it's a bird class, whatever. He could read the phone book and you would be mesmerized. Yeah, one of my best Mac memories, I say that like 100%.

Thank you very much for that. Wow. Why won't Junkhouse just do a tour now? I'm working on it, by the way, Tom. I've been putting out the word. Are you working on a tour? I'm making some calls. I said you're available at a price.

Well, because that was a one-off, right? Was that like a Hamilton show? It was a Hamilton in Toronto show, and it was a bit of a strategic move I hate to say it we love playing but uh we wanted to do a couple sold out shows and let people know that we uh you know can still put bums in the seat like a showcase a showcase with a lot of money involved yes but you really did sound fantastic thank Thank you, Mike. I appreciate it. And Rob Baker was in the crowd. Yeah, Robbie was around, yeah.

He was hanging around. Those guys, we knew those guys from way back in someday, the early 80s, actually, I met them. Wow. Well, what does your day look like today? I know you're in town for a while. Well, I was in town. My wife and I drove in.

We were staying at the Pantages Hotel because we were at Massey Hall on Wednesday night with the Andy Kim show. All right. And I'm at Harborfront with Toronto Symphony people doing a Christmas show. And after this, we're going down to the Cameron House to pay tribute to, to tip our hat to the late David Baxter,

who was a fantastic guitar player, played with David Wilcox and the Teddy Bears way back in the 70s. And then he had a band with his wife, Sherry Keene, called the Sharks, and was a music publisher with Pure Music, a good friend of the community, a curmudgeon, 100% curmudgeon, supreme curmudgeon, and somebody that we're going to be missing. We're missing a lot of our friends these days as we get a little older, so we might as well go and tip our hat to David

Baxter, to Cameron this afternoon. The amount of stuff I saw on social media about him was huge, and I had never heard of him. I'm like, why do I not know this guy? He was one degree removed from He was a guy that was behind the scenes. He was a guitar and I had never heard of him. I'm like, why do I not know this guy? But he was like one degree removed from like... Well, he was a guy that was behind the scenes. He was a guitar player and a writer,

but he was a publisher, and he was also somebody that was discovering acts all the time. So you know what? He's somebody that deserves our time this afternoon. Stephen, did you catch Junk House at that Hamilton show? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was fantastic. Great night. Packed out, it's Bridgeworks. I like that venue

too, Tom. It's a good place. Yeah, you know what, Tim Potichuk has the magic touch, you know. Tim Potichuk, Toronto Mike, is a guy who started Sonic Onion Records for his band Tristan Psionic.

And from there, he started up the Supercrawl. And he's just an overall supporter of the arts and a bit of a real estate baron, too. He is that. Yeah. Tara Lightfoot there next weekend. Yeah, Tara Lightfoot will be there. Amazing. Now, I see Hamilton Mike is in the house, everybody.

Hamilton Mike was also at the Junkhouse show. I didn't know that Mike was known as Hamilton Mike. This is something so exciting that there's a Toronto Mike. Is there a Mississauga Mike? Probably not. Nobody in Mississauga named Mike. No, no, no. There's like literally 12 Mikes here.

All right. Oh, and they'll not know it, though. Where are you from, Mike? Brampton! Brampton Mike's in the house. That Brampton Mike, Michael Lang, I'm going to have him on the mic later, but he is at his 14th Toronto Mike listener experience. Incredible.

And while I'm doing quick shout-outs, is Moose here moose grumpy there she is moose grumpy is one of those unsung heroes too that she's been taking photos i have noticed moose thank you so much amazing uh moose grumpy goes above and beyond and did you get one of those moose... What are they called? Are they mugs or something? Like a moose mug. Ty, the Christmas guy. Maybe Tom wants one too. Are there any left?

I want a mug. Are there any more cup mugs left? She's checking. All right. Because Ty, the Christmas guy from Retro Festive. Okay, because Tom Wilson needs one. I'd like a mug. We need a mug for Tom Wilson.

This is like a big moose antler thing. That's very important here, too. What's that? Oh, I'm okay. Moose is amazing. Actually, moose. Could I get one? Moose, get Cam Gordon and other Great Lakes beer, please.

Thank you so much. Wow. Okay you so much. Wow. Okay, Tom Wilson. Oh, thank you for my nothing. Oh, do you want that? No, no, no. Tom doesn't drink. Oh, nothing.

No, I don't drink alcohol at all. If I start drinking, I'll try to feel everybody up. Tom, so when I saw the Sky Dgers in hamilton recently yes i was in the opposite corner of you i was in like the front left corner and you were in the back right corner yeah that's when i met margo shout out to margo everybody who made sure this got in the calendar for tom but there's a then i and i'm glad steven's on the for this. So a woman comes up to me. Ooh. And she's like, hi, Toronto Mike. And then I go, oh, hi, what's your name?

And she goes, I'm Stephen Brunt's wife. Yo. So why weren't you there, Stephen? I was dog sitting. No, I had to, honestly, I had to look after a dog that was a neurotic dog. My kid's dog. I was stuck at home. I couldn't go. I go every year to that show. I was stuck at home. I couldn't go.

I go every year to that show. It's a great show. I love that show. Yeah, and I love the guys. Yeah. Yeah, okay. So I was deeply disappointed not to be there. Well, you're a better father than I am.

Dog father, yeah. I'd have left the dog and gone to the Sky Digger show. Amazing. Tom Wilson, I've got to say, every time you come on these mics, you've made three appearances on Toronto Mic. This is like 3.5, I guess, if we count this one. But every time, I'm like, this guy's great.

And you're welcome in... Well, I feel so at home there, Mike, between the laundry, the dryer and the laundry machine and the cat litter and the freezer. It's like, you know, it's where Margo makes me sleep half the time. So I feel completely at home down in your basement. I would like to know, actually, I'd like an inside reaction

that people probably don't know. But I mean, now I've told friends of mine, you got to go on Toronto Mike. Mike is fantastic. Mike actually pays attention to your answers. Mike injects fantastic ideas into the conversation so i tell people like my friend colin james i said hey man you got to go on toronto mike he's been on though yeah and and how like do people know they're going into your basement no i think colin was surprised

yeah because he was doing his run and then he's like oh this is like a guy's house and he's in the basement and he had there was a moment of col James where I could tell he's like where's my hand where the fuck is going on here how did I end up in some guys South Etobicoke basement that's right well that's what I thought first cuz I came from core communication I came from doing TV down some TV station down on the water there and then I went and did an interview with the Globe and Mail. And then they said, okay, and you're going to do Toronto Mike? And I was like, where am I really?

What has happened to my career? Well, you know what? What has happened to my career? Wow. I can say, you know, now what's become typical, this happened with Paul Langlois and then it happened with Sam Roberts.

And it's becoming typical is that their itinerary will be do breakfast television or something and then go on Toronto Mike in his basement. Like this is sort of just now I think it's starting to be more normalized. It's a circuit. It's been a long haul. Our publicists

don't prepare us. They just say Toronto Mike. They don't say you're going down the basement. It's kind of like throwing a hand grenade into a room and running down the hall. You know what I mean? It's like, here you go, Toronto Mike Bang. I want to shout out Bill Brio, who's here, and he's playing the

role of Santa at this festive event. Fellow Michael Power graduate, Bill Brio. Is that what we said? I don't remember ever saying that. Akalaka-chi. Just what we said? I don't remember ever saying that. Aka laka chi. Just made that up.

I know. Well, we have different generations here. Maybe we got rid of that one. Okay. Everybody, big round of applause. Oh, it's Margo's brother, Andrew, who's the big fan, right? Yeah, Margo. He can't be here today.

He's taking his kids to hockey. I heard that excuse from several dozen people here. And I did, again, not a good dad. I did not bring my kid to hockey. And I tell everybody, Jarvis will be here soon. He's coming here straight from his game. Monica took him to the game here. But I want a big round of applause for Tom Wilson.

Love this guy so much. And Stephen, I might pull you back. I gotta go to the dentist. You gotta go to the dentist. Okay. Thank you Stephen Brunt. Thank you Toronto Mike. Thank you Tom Wilson. Congrats Mike. Thank you guys. You guys are

welcome in the basement anytime. Anytime. Cam, here, let's take a breather here for a moment here. So make sure everybody gets their palma pasta. You get a free meal down there. There's beer right there. Margo, seriously, thank you very much. She's a good one. Margo's got the cargo.

Reg has got the rig. You know it. Hey, in fact, speaking of Margo, I just read the T-shirt that Michael Lang is wearing. Hey, come sit down here, because I want to show you out for your 14th. And I know everybody's like, don't let Tom go. They're all running to get a selfie with Tom Wilson.

Have you seen that mass exodus of following Tom Wilson? I have seen that. You want to come on? Yeah. Oh, yeah, right now. Sure. That way you don't... Yeah. So we're going to? Yeah. Yeah, right now. Sure. That way you don't... Yeah. So we're going to do these two. And then

you and I are going to cook with gas. And I have your songs, by the way. Perfect. Cam, how's it going? Good. Good to see you. What is this? Ladies and gentlemen, now on the microphone, Bill Brio. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mike. It's great to be here. I missed that one. All right, gentlemen, we're having a conversation over here with Bill Brio. I know you guys are having your own thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, Mike, I came down. I'm painting my house, and I came down here specifically

because I want to defend you I think it's outrageous what people are saying about you online and I won't stand for it everywhere I read it says F-O-T-M like that there's no need for that that's not appropriate

you know what you should have a comedy duo you're a funny guy. So it doesn't mean what I think it does, eh? What's it really mean? Okay. I'm sorry. These events are such that I want to focus 100% on Bill Brio. Meanwhile, Andrew Ward's got his kids and everything.

Bill Brio, you have a podcast. Bill Brio... I do. The podcast? What's it called? Yes, Brio TV you have a podcast. Bill Brio... I do. The podcast? What's it called? Yes, Brio TV, the podcast. And, yeah, I'm just getting over the thrill of sitting where Stephen Brunt was sitting. I have several of his books. Bobby Orr is one of them that comes to mind.

So can I tell you, now that he's gone, I can tell you guys something. Everybody, okay, I can now share something here. So Stephen Brunt has had it in his calendar to be here at noon, and he was here. He was here when I was setting up. That's how good a FOTM he is. F-O-what? But he confided in me. He's got a...

Suddenly this morning, he had a toothache that was getting worse and worse throughout the day. So he was going to stick around and go on the mic with Damien Cox, but then he let me know he has to go see a dentist because this toothache is not getting any better. And yet he still came.

He still came. And he hung out for what? 90 minutes? Oh, at least. And he came on the mic twice, but that toothache. So Brunt's a good one. But Brio, you're a good one.

Joe Sini was your goalie in a hockey league? Yeah. I played, by the way, Brunt's dental appointment's at 2.30. Hey, now. Yeah, I played hockey with Joe, who is a tremendous goalie, with his teacher's league up in Brampton. And I played several years. Is he really a good goalie, or are you just saying that?

No, Joe could stop the puck. We had fun. This was a great league. There were six teams, goalies. I miss several years. Is he really a good goalie, or are you just saying that? No, Joe could stop the puck. We had fun. This was a great league. There were six teams, goalies. I miss these guys. I stopped playing just when COVID hit, and also I'm way too old for that. But Joe went on this giant trip around the world, and as you know, with his family, and took them just as COVID hit.

Joe from T.O., everybody, is how we know him. So a shout out to Joe. He was a good puck stopper there for sure. Late breaking news. Is this Shohei Otani information that I received from Brad Bradford? Wow. He's coming on the show.

He's an FOTM, I think. Wait, are we in Scarborough? East York. He's an East York guy. All right. Bill, who is the most fascinating person you've ever had on your podcast, personally to you? Oh, it's hard to single them out.

I really enjoy talking to folks who have been around a long time. I did an episode with Dick Cavett recently. Really? That's amazing. Yeah, yeah. That was a lot of fun. You know, and Dick Cavett, for people who may not know, was a contemporary of Johnny Carson. He was sort of the thinking man's late night talk show host in the 70s, going back to the 60s and it was just really a very cool chat with him you know the fellow who was the producer of Laugh-In

George Schlatter did talk to him a couple of months ago he's 93 did you ever have Norman Lear on your podcast? I was going to say I want to hear Bill his memories of Norman Lear I have a Norman Lear story I did get to meet him about 10 years ago. As a TV critic, I would go down to L.A.

to the TV Critics Association press tours. And we have an annual TCA Awards. And so we were giving 10 years ago, Norman Lear came with Rob Reiner, who played Meathead on All in the Family. And they accepted this Heritage Award by reading the transcripts of the Nixon secret tapes where Nixon was, What is this? All in the family. This show is...

He made derogatory remarks about that. So they were so thrilled. That's a good Nixon impression. Thank you. I am not a crook. I am not a crook. I am not an FOTM. I am not an crook. I am not a crook. I am not an FOTM. I am not an FOTM.

But he went down, and so I went up to him, and I saw him. He was dressed up, and I said, oh, my God, I've got to talk to Norman Lear. This will be my last chance. He's 90. I could have waited 10 years, you know. Yeah, right. But I went up to him, shook his hand, and said, Mr. Lear, I just want to tell you, I grew up watching your shows.

And he looked at me and said, so did I. So I thought that was really interesting. I don't think Lear started out as this liberal firebrand. He evolved. He was a... In World War II, he flew 52 combat missions. You know, he was in the Air Force. He was a

man of his time. But he certainly was someone who educated people. And I just can't imagine all in the family if it was airing now, half of America would think that Archie Bunker was a hero. You're right. They would miss the whole point of that one.

They would. Folks like that are always a great thrill for me. But often, Mike, sometimes it's just the last one I did. You know, and I just talked to a guy who puts DVDs together, an executive producer,

Andrew, and he has just put out this Bonanza release, and a lot of the secret extras are from Canada, from CBC, because of Lorne Green. So there's all kinds of stuff. So it's just fascinating where people go

and how far they dig in order to get some little nuggets. And one of them, I'm an extra on his DVD release because one of the interviews I did years ago at TV Guide was Michael Landon. I actually had the last print interview with him just before he found out he was dying of cancer in 1991 wow so i put it out as a podcast a few years ago and andrew found out about it and it's an extra on the bonanza the complete set dvd that you could get amazing now yeah amazing i used to i knew him from little house on the prairie yeah little house for sure and uhed by an Angel. Touched by an Angel. Touched by an Intern is another good show.

Or Touched by an Uncle. Different kind of show. Yeah, different kind of show. Different kind of show. Okay, Bill Brio, I wish you got to come over for a deeper dive. I will. And we can get into it because time is of the essence here. Before I go, Mike, can I just say one thing?

Because I know FO really is Friends of Toronto. Friends of Toronto, Mike, can I just say one thing? Because I know FO really is Friends of Toronto. Friends of Toronto, Mike, yes. And I wanted to just let people know on Wednesday, December the 20th, if you love old television, if you're into vintage TV, I'm going to be at the Westdale Theatre in Hamilton. Great, great neighborhood cinema if you've been there. I was just there, yeah. Okay, so I have a collection of old vintage TV shows on 16mm.

I've got two classic Christmas episodes, the Dick Van Dyke Show classic Christmas, and then a Bewitched Christmas episode. We're going to have vintage commercials. And it's a TV party. We've got sponsors, so if you answer some trivia questions, you could win a year's subscription to Paramount+. The streaming service, you can watch Frasier and all the shows on there.

So that's Wednesday, December 20th at 1 p.m. on that day. If you want to do something different, please come out. Oh, my God, yeah. Hamilton, Mike, you'll be there, right? Come on, how can you miss it? Please. He's working that day. Quit your job. Okay, quit your job. Thank you, Bill. Hamilton, Mike, you'll be there, right? Come on, how can you miss it? Please. He's working that day. Quit your job.

Okay, quit your job. Thank you, Bill. I have an idea. I have an idea. This is why I'm the host of Toronto, Mike, when I have these ideas. So, everybody, round of applause for Bill Brio. Thank you very much.

TV feeds his family. And, Mike, congratulations for all the great episodes. Dave Hodge picking music. My God, that's a service right there. Yeah, thank you for what you're doing. Thank you. Go power. My God, that's a service right there. He's unbelievable. Thank you for what you're doing. Go power. Go power. Go Trojans. Okay. Jeremy, I'd like you

because I have an idea. You are going to be a good match for Michael. So, okay. So this gentleman's name is Jeremy and I've never met Jeremy. Jeremy's got a great Ontario Place sweater. Excellent. And Michael Lang's got the I Don't Know Margo. Okay, perfect. So, we're

going to get you comfy there. Alright. So, what we have on the mic right now, Cam Gordon, we have somebody who's attending their very first TMLX event. I thought we were going to have like pro-Ontario. And someone from Therm

over here. Okay. I got thrown into the fire. Jeremy, this is your first TMLX event. Michael, this is your 14th TMLX event. So who loves me more? You two. Let's see. Well, clearly it's me.

I mean, I arrange my COVID infections around these events. And that's not easy to do. Well, I got COVID to listen to Mike, so I don't know. So here. So, Michael, let me find out a little more about Jeremy here. So, Jeremy, how did you discover the show? What brought you out here today?

What do you think? I'm a graphic designer, an artist, and I've loved the history of Toronto ever since I was a kid. And just the look of everything for years and years. And a lot of your guests are involved in Toronto history and also Ontario Place and things like that. So I stumbled across you a while ago and I've been listening ever since. And I kind of feel like I know you, even though I don't. Well, I don't know you at all, Jeremy. So it's not fair.

But I'm out there on social media a lot. I'm one of the guys that runs Vintage Toronto on Facebook. I also am involved in doing a lot of graphic design here and there. I just was at the Spacing 20th anniversary. I'm the guy that did the colorization of the panorama

in the middle of the magazine. It's an 1847 panorama. It's only been in black and white up until now. I painstakingly went through there and colored every little thing. It's a dull palette, but it's a lot better than black and white. Okay. And other than that, I've just been very involved in Toronto history. I go around dressed up in old suits all the time and check out places around Toronto.

See, this is our kind of guy, right? Amazing. So I deep dive a little further into the past, I guess. But yeah, i've always found it interesting and just and fascinating what's just in our own backyard that we don't have to travel across the world to go see so do people i imagine people are like passing you content for the facebook and because you guys are on instagram too i feel like i follow uh vintage toronto's not on instagram there's other there's There's a lot of new sites that have come out.

Vintage Toronto's been out since about 2012. And I sort of jumped on the bandwagon and now I'm kind of running the whole thing because the other guys had to do other things. Gotcha. Okay. But yeah, I'm out there doing things through Hopkin Design. I do a lot of things just on my own,

I guess. Very cool. Yeah. Okay. Do you have a feud with that old Toronto guy? I don't have a feud with him, no. For him, it's more of a business. For me, it's more of a hobby, right? It has been a hobby for years, but one day I would like to make it a lucrative pastime,

but I don't know how yet. We'll see. You never know who's listening, right? There's this guy jeremy doing this cool shit and he's got cool hoodies and here he is at tmlx14 i also have a connection to uh tyler the christmas guy okay what's your connection to ty the christmas guy years ago i bought my very first leg lamp from him because one thing i noticed about toronto in history all the time we'd watch movies, we'd be like,

there's nothing about our local area. Right. And it was just so cool. I'd look at Christmas story and go, oh, my God, that's the Cherry Street Bridge. And oh, my God, that's like, that's right across from, you know, much music. Right.

And little by little, I started picking it out. And then he came out with a documentary about it and yeah, I've gone and taken photos of all those places and it was kind of cool and I really was into collecting radios for a lot of years. I had over a hundred antique radios and I thought well, the props that are here, they're all Canadian so that radio must be Canadian and I found out it was only released in Canada. The one that he listens to with the decoder ring and writes out all of his stuff about the BB gun. And I found the radio and then identified that that was the one.

And ever since then, people have been collecting that radio. So I still have it at home. I got it restored to look like the one in the movie. And so that was kind of cool. And then when I heard your podcast recently with him, that was another connection. Yeah, Ty, the Christmas guy, who's a big hit here today

because he's given away all these wonderful moose... Sure, moose mugs. Moose mugs, and they're a big hit here. Also, I grew up in Scarborough, and I worked probably steps away from where they filmed a lot of the interiors of that movie. And they also filmed SCTV there at Magner Studios. Wow.

At Pharmacy, just south of Eglinton. Okay. Listen, you're worthy of being an FOT. I mind you yourself. Oh, my God. My goodness gracious. I could just talk to you about this for 90 minutes here. Michael Lang.

Hello. So glad you come out to each event. I would hate I don't think I could have one without you at this point Like I can't make TMX 15 I just shut it down Well don't do that Don't do it on my behalf

I want to say that I'm glad Don't miss it then That Tyler Campbell was able to come out Because he's an inspiration for us For what happens when you don't eat well and stay healthy So thank you for that. I love this rivalry between you and Tyler. I love it so much.

I love it. It's only a rivalry for him. So were you saying he was from Thermae or? Oh, we all need our day spas. Oh my God. Okay. Just a joke. I wasn't sure.

Allegedly. We'd be suing him. We'd be throwing rocks at him Fuck Thermae A lot of good memories of Ontario Place and it's sad what's happening right now with a lot of those things My first concert at Ontario Place was the Mamas and Papas with my parents

and the association opened for them Jarvis is here everybody opened for them. Jarvis is here, everybody. Is that with Kenny Rogers or without? I think it was without. But is that the old form spinning around? It was awesome. I don't think I realized they toured after Cass Elliott.

Yeah, I don't know who played the Cass Elliott in that role, but... Mama and Papa. It was John Phillips for sure and friends. California Dreamin' is one of Peter Gross' favorites. He was a real normal guy. Is Peter Gross here? Oh, yeah.

He was here. I did see him earlier. Maybe he's getting food. He loves his pasta. Alright, so everybody, round of applause for Jeremy and Michael Lang. Leslie, can you come on a mic? Would you come on? Okay. And Buffalo Boy, would you come on a mic?

Buffalo Boy. Yeah, this is kind of amazing. Talk about a trek to come to TMLS. But everybody, this is an important announcement. It's Leslie's birthday today. Happy birthday, Leslie. Happy birthday. Best birthday party ever

and she's the star of the hit show I have nothing no I have a very small part in the hit show I have nothing it's a big role it's a big role so Leslie we're going to catch up with you here quickly

but also this is amazing I think and there's a little one here with Buffalo Boy. It's the youngest attendee. Mini Buffalo Boy. So, Buffalo Boy, did you come from Buffalo for TMLX 14? Yes. Wow. He came from Buffalo, everybody.

That's huge. When you cross the border, did you tell them that? What's that? When you cross the border, it's like, oh, I'm going to TMLX? Yeah, like they say, why are you not your reason for a visit? Wait, is Jill, are you leaving? Did you want to say hi? No.

Okay. Jill, everybody, is leaving. I didn't get a selfie with Jill. That's my bad. Okay. What's the name of your little boy there? This is Gavin. Hi, Gavin.

He is a little over a year old. Okay. And I wanted to bring him up here and introduce him to Canada. This is his first trip up. Fabulous. I know you're a big Humble and Fred fan, and not just because you're wearing the T-shirt, but what brought you to Toronto Mic'd?

Actually, I just half-discover discovered you just through Humble and Fred and just, you know, doing the... You and Gord Kennedy are in that club here. Yeah. If Gord's here, I've got to get him on the mic later. Actually, I probably discovered you through Freddie P., through his blog. Oh, Canadian Thinker. Yeah. Cool.

Dude, I'm glad you're here. Leslie, how are things with you since your breakout hit in I Have Nothing the only person who actually recognized me like in real life said I think I saw you on something was actually Melissa Grello from The Social so Carolyn was my sister Carolyn Taylor who's the star

and creator and everything who was an FOT as well so she was on The social, I guess, when they were doing all the big media blitz for the show. And after the show was over, Melissa's staring at me, and then she points me and she goes, were you in the show or were you in the doc? And I said, yeah.

So that was like the only time that I've been recognized for having, I mean, like three episodes. And you're here with your cousin. Yeah, my cousin Janet who was also in the episode as well. I was going to say, do your two appearances in the episode?

Okay, so let's do this real quick. Buffalo Boy, I can't believe you drove from Buffalo. I hope you got yourself some pasta. There's some beer for you.

But dude, it's nice to see you again. It's been a long time. Yeah, I believe it was the last time I came up here for anything like this was one of the Humble and Fred Christmas podcasts. Yeah, maybe that 20th anniversary thing or something like that. I know I saw you there, but it's good to see you.

Man, what a trek. Buffalo boy. Yeah, you want to come on? Yeah. Were you with me, Cam, when i went to subversives the uh lowest of the low dog no it was not with you okay okay tyler were you with me okay tyler was with me okay simon head by the way who directed that dog i'm gonna get him on the mic next is in the room here with us. Simon, say hi to everybody.

And we're going to find out from Simon how the hell you can stream this documentary because everybody's asking me. I feel like I'm the PR guy now. I'm the publicist for this thing. Everyone's like, how do you see this thing? I'm like, I don't know. Simon's going to tell us here. Okay, so Janet, I met you at that subversive screening.

Correct. Good, so far so good, right? And Janet, well, I met you at that subversive screening. Correct. Good, so far so good, right? And Janet, well, I call her Jano. Yeah, I'm actually Cousin Jano. Cousin Jano. So Cousin Jano, she's the resident Lois of the Low expert, so she knows, she's the one who introduced me to the Low. I wouldn't say I'm an expert.

Okay, I'm an expert. You're an expert. What we're going to do is I'm going to let Leslie go soon and then put Simon in that seat, and then we'll find out if you're an expert. I'm not an expert, Simon, trust me. And how are things going with you, Leslie? Things are going fine.

Are you having a good time? Yep, it's a good day. I'm spending my birthday with a bunch of friends and strangers, which is great. A stranger is just a friend you haven't met. Exactly. You're all friends now, right? You're all FOTMs. I'm an FOTM.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Please, no. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Leslie. Happy birthday, dear Lassie Happy birthday to you Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Before I turn it over to Simon,

I just want to say we actually have a connection. So Joe, who was at the premiere, you rode the Ride to to conquer cancer with him. So he, yeah, Jernoek, yeah. So he's a really good friend of my sister's, but I know him and his wife Tracy through that. So yeah, there's a connection there. I have a birthday present for you, Leslie.

Do you? It's a wireless speaker. From Mineris. Thank you. And you know what you can do with that wireless speaker? I can stream Toronto Mike. Yes, you can stream Toronto Mike. And season five of Yes, We

Are Open. I will thank Al Grego personally. And we're going to get Al on the mic soon to find out more about that. Al was on my podcast too. I have to put a plug in. What's your, well tell me the name of your podcast. It's called No Recipe Required and it's about food and cooking and baking and I had Al on a few months ago too. I have to put a plug in. What's yours? Well, tell me the name of your podcast. It's called No Recipe Required, and it's about food and cooking and baking, and I had Al on a few months ago. And I have to say, it's fantastic.

You're not biased at all. No, she's very low-key. She picks great people with really interesting stuff to say. So, thank you. And I love these glasses you wear. They're very distinctive. They are. I feel like a signature.

People would recognize you from I Have Nothing before they recognize Leslie. Because they would, this distinctive look. I can't say, but I have been stopped. How many times have you been stopped? Enough. Yeah, more than Leslie, who is a star of that thing. Are you friends with Carolyn Taylor?

I'm like, she's my cousin. Wow. Yeah. Okay. That's huge. All right, so now Leslie, who is a star of that thing. Are you friends with Carolyn Taylor? I'm like, she's my cousin. Wow. Yeah. Okay. That's huge. All right, so now, Leslie, thank you very much. Simon, come on over here. And now, Cam, listen, I rely on you as my coach.

I can't look into this. There are many people I need to talk to. Sure, yeah. And we're going to do it in the next, like, we got less than 90 minutes. Oh, that's better. You got to keep it moving. Not an expert, Simon. Lots of time.

Promise. I'm just hanging out. Simon Head, director of Subversives, the lowest of the low documentary. Thanks, everybody. This is so weird. I can hear stuff now. Where can we stream Subversives?

Big announcement. It will be digitally released on December 22nd. Okay. Just in time for Christmas. That's right. That's excellent. It's a really good Christmas viewing, actually. The morning's kind of hectic, depending on what's going on in your home. And then... Put the kids to bed

and watch Subversive, right? There you go. Wow. I also have another announcement. Okay. I love these announcements. I got another one. December 21st, it's going to be screening at Mills Hardware in Hamilton. Is this the Hamilton show today? Have you noticed a lot of Hamilton content? A bit of Buffalo, a bit of Hamilton.

I have another announcement. Oh, my God. This movie came out as a book as well, so I transcribed the movie into a book. I'm going to Buffalo. Is he still here? Going to Buffalo to Hi-Fi Hits to do a book as well, so I transcribed the movie into a book. I'm going to Buffalo. Is he still here? Going to Buffalo to Hi-Fi Hits to do a book signing for that. Okay. Very cool.

Look at you. Now, we have with us Janet, who knows more about Lois and the Load than anybody. No, I do not. I heard that somewhere. Okay. Simon, is there any, like, I don't know, is there a quick off the top of your head,

is there a piece, because you work, you don't just direct these, you work with these guys, right? Yep, tour manager, sound person for the past six years now. Amazing lowest of lowest, the Toronto Mike house band you know, so Dave Hodge told me

do you have a piece of trivia for Janet to see? I won't know it Well, off the top of my head, not really I mean, they're pretty open book, anything they've done has been documented with their community, which is very, very strong in this. The scene of the lowest level of what they've built

has been such a really heartfelt, good place to be. I'm very fortunate to be part of it now. Yeah, I'd agree with you on that. So no trivia, only that, what color is ron hawkins eyes i don't think i've been that close i'm gonna go hazel yeah no it's they're blue are they okay i mean i've only said one of those like during covid there were maybe it wasn't and you call yourself a lowest to the lowest well it, it was Leslie who got me. She was like, hey, we're going to go see Ron Hawkins

playing in somebody's living room. I'm like, okay, great, I'm in. It's definitely, what he does is brings it to the community. That's what it is. What I have to say, what I love about the lowest of the low, unequivocally, is the way that they capture the spirit of East and West End really well. And I remember being at a concert, and Ron said,

because we're on a first-name basis now, Ron talked about the tensions between bands back in the 90s, East-West, side of Toronto, and they have really done a great job of bringing the spirit of each side of the city to, and so you listen to stuff from the, when you live in the West End, like Little Wild Tonight, you know,

and it's like, you know, referencing Bathurst, you're like, oh, yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, that's, I've always lived on the West Side. But then listening to Just about the only blues, and then going to the only with Leslie. And I'm like, yeah, I get that sense too.

Like, he's really great at that, you know, but also acknowledges that tension. Because I think he lived on Margarito back in the day when he was, you know, the law was, like, everywhere. So that's what I love about them. There's a band out of Australia called Weddings, Parties, Anything. Yeah. Huge fans.

They actually took Rosie and Gray to Australia and made it into a hit, and I interviewed them for the movie. Yeah, I saw it. And it's so funny in Australia, and it's like, yeah, you go to Bathurst and take a streetcar. You know, it's like, he has no idea what we, you know, I mean, he's been here a couple of times, McThomas, but it's like, it's such a, you know,

and someone thought that that was like an old Australian folk song. Right. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah, I think I missed that in the doc, but yeah. I mean, he's really got a great, and shout out to Steve Stanley, who's jangly guitar of the 90s. And stunning good looks.

Stunning. He was over last week. Stephen Stanley. I will reserve comment on that for fear of being deemed sexist. I could say it. There's no fear of that nature in this room here, please. So where can we watch this on the 21st? It's coming out on a website called...

22nd. 22nd. See, I'm paying attention. There you go. I was seeing if... You're testing me. It's going to be on a website called Gumroad. If you go thelowdoc.gumroad.com,

you'll find the documentary there, as well as some other stuff. There's some special features. There's an eight-minute part where it's just about Art Bergman. I love Art Bergman. Because he's art, and he's awesome. I love Art Bergman. Yeah, I went and he's awesome. I love Art Bergman.

Yeah, like I went all over Canada and I had people in different parts of the world interviewing for this movie. Three years in the making. How much time did you spend with Art Bergman to get usable stuff? It was over three hours and Art talked about art a lot.

Yeah. Like a lot. And I got about, if you watch the movie, he's in there for like 10 seconds. But now you can make an Art Bergman doc. I know. Well, actually, there's one in the making.

It's not fully announced. I probably broke it. Oh, Alan Zweig's involved? Something like that, yeah. Yes. And correct me if I'm wrong, Ian Blurton was in the doc. Yes, he was.

And he, we grew up together. Our moms knew each other. We might have run around downtown Toronto in the 80s. Yep, change of heart. Doing some stuff. FOTMian Blur. One last anecdote before we cycle in a couple of new voices here is that I once biked in a snowstorm to see Ron Hawkins

at the Only Cafe with Cam Gordon. Amazing. You see how that all comes there? Amazing. I actually lived like two doors away from Sauce, where Ron just Gordon. Amazing. You see how that all comes there? Amazing. I actually lived like two doors away from Sauce where Ron just did. A weekend residency. Yeah, which I was

unable to attend, but I was following along on Facebook. So thank you, Simon Head. Everybody can get a digital download, I guess, of Subversives on the 22nd of December. Thanks for coming, Simon. Good to see you. And Janet, nice to see you again.

We'll see you soon. Cam. Do you know why I'm playing this song? It's like Madonna. Do you know whose music this is? No. What FOTM would have this as their

walk-up music? Come on down, Dana Levinson. Oh my god. Huge. On the DL. And Peter, do you want to join us? I think it'll be a thrill for Dana to have Peter Gross on the mic right there. It's like peas in a pod here, Peter Gross and Dana Levinson.

Isn't this an amazing combo, Dana Levinson? Yeah, I love it. Wow. Dana fucking Levinsoninson good to see you DFL Dana you know it how do you know

Peter Gross how do I know you Peter Gross in the biblical sense I mean whoa we're connected in many ways

in the back of a limo was there cocaine involved? No, Michael. Someone else. Oh, yeah. Who was that again? Jeannie Becker. I deny that.

Yeah. And it was way before my time. It was Jeannie Becker. And I never worked in the same building. No. Am I correct? Because he's a city TV guy who then went and did 680. Right.

Right. I interned at 680. Maybe you, maybe, you know, he launched the career of Mike Willner. That's his claim to fame, right, Peter? Sorry? You launched the career, oh, you can put these on. Oh, okay, I can't do it. You launched the career of Mike Willner.

I'm somewhat responsible for Mike Willner, yes. Okay. I think the fact that he has a great degree of talent was also helpful. When you call places, like if you're just randomly calling, I don't know, a bank or, I don't know, do people recognize your voice still? No. Really? Maybe 25, 30 years ago. Not now?

Not really. No, because all of the people on the phones are in their 20s and 30s, have no idea who I am. Oh, okay. That's their problem. There was a really interesting period in the 70s and 80s where I was recognized constantly, and it was kind of fun. Fun.

I don't know, I hear your voice. You're very popular in this room. You've got a good crowd. I've got to text Apple and tell them. I counted. There's over 50 people. Tell Apple that Stephen Brunt was here. Okay.

And he missed out. Apple's really upset. He had some event to go to. He really wanted to come. He's crestfallen. Yeah. Mike, are we live on X right now? We're not live on X.

I don't even, you call it X? Do you know this guy? This guy used to be working for Twitter. It's called X now. It's called X. I don't want to be rude.

I mean, that's the name. No, we're not doing it. That's like calling CTV Toronto CFTO. No, but it technically still is CFTO. Our baton broadcast. But Dana, please talk to me.

Hi. Hi. You just recorded a new episode of On the DL. I did. It dropped yesterday. Thank you very much. Everybody should be subscribed to On the DL.

Let's give a round of applause to this excellent podcast. Thank you. Thank you so much. But what I thought was very particularly interesting was you recently had a live event that I attended. And I learned so much about perimenopause. Good job, Mike. Thank you. And menopause. Good job, Mike. Thank you. And menopause.

Yes. But it was like a live event and we were all there and there were people and cameras. It was a big deal. It was like a production. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's my wheelhouse. I like all that live stuff and I like big productions

and we decided to take the show on the road. I guess on the road would be downtown. And we had a fabulous expert come in from the US and we had a great crowd. It was sold out. And we hope to take on the DL on the road again soon and have some more

live shows. But in the meantime, we'll still do our thing, you and I, we'll still do our things over Zoom. Would you do a live event with your special guest being Peter Gross? Sure. Peter, what do you want to talk about? Are you any relationship to a woman named Wendy Levinson?

I am not, no. When I was 12, I had a big crush on her. Real talk. We are real talk. I had a newspaper route. So at 6 o'clock in the morning on a very snowy morning, I walked out a heart on her front lawn with my initials and her initials. Did it work?

Oh, I don't think so. What city? North York, York Mills. Oh, no. I have Mills. Oh, no. I have no cousins here, no. But Dana's father I find very interesting in that he was a sprinter. Yeah, he was an athlete, yeah. Yeah, but not just like, you know, like I, Cam Gordon's somewhat of a sprinter himself,

but your dad was like a champion sprinter. Yeah, he was an Olympic athlete, my dad. Yeah. Wow. He represented Canada. What was his name? What is his name? It was, yes. Yeah, he was an Olympic athlete, my dad. Wow. He represented Canada. What was his name? What is his name? It was, yes.

Oh, I'm sorry. His name is Stan Levinson. So you can Google him and you'll see. Google Stan Levinson. Which Olympics would this have been? It was Australia, 1956? 58 or 56, yeah. So he was the fastest man in Canada.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. He was deemed the fastest man alive for a little bit, too. So, you know, yeah, so he's got something in common with Donovan Bailey. Mm-hmm. Definitely. He met Donovan Bailey, yeah. Okay.

Mm-hmm. Did they race? No, no, no. My dad was not racing at that point, no. Okay. But he was running every day up until, I i would say the last few years of his life but he's still no matter the no matter the weather whether it was you know plus 35 or minus 35 he was out the door at six o'clock in the morning running so i get my once a runner always yeah i like going

outside and doing my thing in the morning too is this the first time cam you've met dana no i think i met once or twice yeah some Twitter events back in the day. Oh, of course. He would always invite me to the Twitter events. Even I remember you and I were at an event thanks to Cam. We were, yeah. The TIFF event?

Yeah. There was a couple. Yeah, there were a couple of events. And I can't remember the name of the movie anymore. The Last Queen? I'm not the movie guy. The last Twitter event. The viola davis yes that was yes in the back corner you and i were in the back corner but there was another event that you had uh invited me to and i was very grateful it was

really about how you could get your information and messaging across on Twitter more effectively. Right, this was at the Twitter office. Yeah, I was very impressed by the office and the team. I thought they were lovely. Well, no one's reported that the office is closed. Do you want me to do that? Yeah, go right ahead.

I've slept as to a few. Who can tweet that first? That's some exciting news there. It's closed, like, for good? Well, yeah, they've, like, moved, obviously with changes at the company okay so yeah but that was a good space

we had so much fun in there so listen hopefully I'm not out of bounds here but like so I had this news that the Twitter office was closed

I deemed it no one cares like this is where I put it like no one cares that's probably why no one's written about it yeah because we already know

that it's a Buffalo boy I can't believe you came from Buffalo you're amazing what a know that it's a Buffalo boy. I can't believe you came from Buffalo. You're amazing. What a cutie. He's from Buffalo. Oh, look.

That's a cutie. What a cutie. Hi. Did you know that's Dana Levinson right here? Hi, nice to meet you. Hi, nice to meet you.

Oh, you guys thought you were here. That's a happy kid. Your kid's happy. Nice to meet you. That's the most charismatic person in the entire room. Gavin.

Gavin. Hi, Gavin. Named after Gavin. Gavin. Gavin. Hi, Gavin. Named after Gavin Rossdale. Is that correct? A little bit. See, a little bit. I see the resemblance. It's got a machine head.

I mean, yeah. He does. Glitter. Is that an egg? What are you holding? Cam, what do you think of Bush? All right, thank you, Buffalo Boy, for coming. You're one of the good ones.

Peter Gross, I saw you. You were bonding with that kid over there. I like him a lot. And you brought your grandson with you. Yeah, he's paying no attention. He doesn't even know what we're talking about. Because Jarvis is here now. Where's your grandson?

Graham. We're talking about you. Would everyone look at Graham and embarrass him? Hi, Graham. Attractive young man in the third row there. Where's Jarvis? He's getting his food. He'll be back up here. Mike, I want to ask you something. Jarvis is here. Can I play something for you? You just said

not to be, what did you say? Not to be inappropriate? What did you say before? You said something. Oh, no, no, no. You said not that anybody cares. Right. Yeah. I love when you say that. Yeah. I do. Because you say that all the time. Well, people don't care about anything. And you're like, not that anyone cares, but I'm going to do it anyway. I love that about you.

I barely care about this. Oh, I care about this. I'm just kidding. Cam's been mailing it in all afternoon. Do you know how long it took me to get here? That's how much I adore you. Okay, well then let me, this is important. So long together. Hanukkah, Hanukkah Come like the menorah

Let's have a party We'll all dance a hora Happy Hanukkah. Thank you, dear. Thank you. Happy Hanukkah to everyone who celebrates. Thank you.

That's very nice of you. Thank you. Peter, do you celebrate? Yeah. Well, I've told you about my mother. She's making dinner for a dozen tomorrow night. Me too. Wow.

A dozen. Are you invited to Peter Gross' mother's party? No, I'm making a dinner for a dozen tomorrow night too. Do you know, but here's the difference. You're like a young 36, 37 years old. Just had a couple years of that. Peter Gross' mother is 100.

Wow. And worthy of more applause, she's in near perfect health. Oh, Peter, that's amazing. She's mobile. She's bright. She's very happy and comfortable. What's her name? Marilyn.

Tell Marilyn I wish her happy and healthy. I'm going to tell her. And she's cooking dinner for 12. Yeah. Wow. She does that monthly. God bless. Yeah.

That's amazing. It's really nice. That's lovely. Is Cam invited to this party? Everyone, it's 3 Concord Place, Suite 2205 tomorrow night. He doxed his mom. What's the buzz number? You won't regret it.

You will not regret it. You just doxed your 100-year-old mother. She'll say, Peter, why did you do that? Didn't we just do an episode about how you fall for these scams online?

You remember this episode we did? I have been taken advantage of. Because that behavior is simpatico of someone who would fall for these phishing schemes. Cuts both ways. Barb Paluskiewicz would be very upset with you.

I don't fall for any schemes. One like that one. Okay. Zero. Mike, you'd be happy for me. I don't fall for schemes. None. You're savvy. I just don't fall for any of that shit. Hanging with Pat Forne. Have you been burned before and you learn from your mistakes

or you just have a natural skepticism? Burned how? That's the question for you, Dana. I mean, I've been burned for sure. I've been burned, but not by a team. Because sometimes people have to kind of get burned in order to learn that the fire is hot. I've been burned.

I'm a little skeptical, but I don't get taken. No, never. Although I look like I'd be the kind of get burned in order to learn that the fire is hot. I've been burned. I'm a little skeptical, but I don't get taken. No, never. Although I look like I'd be the kind of person that would be taken. So when that Nairobi prince tells you that you could get $600,000 U.S. simply by responding and sending him a few bucks. Well, Peter falls for that every day. Listen, Peter, I wouldn't fall. I have a prince.

I've got a king. I don't need any of that. Okay, so can I talk about Dana's king for a moment? Dana's king shares the same birth date as yours truly. Yeah. Really? Isn't that nice? Yeah.

That's fate. Why, what date? Because I am her king. Yeah. No, I'm not a king. Okay. But. I have an understanding.

Yes. Yeah. So things are good with the Levinson household, whatever household it's called. I guess he's not a Levinson. Yeah. But everything's good with you. And what else is going on in your orbit? We haven't heard from you in a while.

I feel like you're in Vancouver a lot. I've been in Vancouver a lot. What's been going on? Yeah. So I've been in Vancouver four times in less than a year. Okay. That's a lot. It's a big trip.

For me now, if they called me tomorrow, I'd go. It feels like my second home if you have not been to the west coast and I had not been to the west coast prior to a year ago, which is crazy wow, okay I say get your bleep

to the west coast west coast is best coast even when it's like this and it's raining and it's cloudy, whatever it's just the most beautiful vibe there so I've been shooting commercials

okay every time I go I shoot in my series like right in Vancouver right in Vancouver the last shoot we did North Van which was so stunning

yeah yeah so I've been in Vancouver a lot I'm hoping to get on the DL rocking and rolling

we have another episode coming up. And every week we're going to be dropping new episodes again. Because my people are asking. Right, Mike? The Dana fans. If anyone's here who wants to come on a mic and has to leave, I don't know, wink at me or tap your head or something, and then I'll make sure you get on a mic.

Did you want to come on the mic? You sure? Can you take a photo? Hello. Juan's going to take a photo. Nice to meet you. I wish I had you on the mic. These lovely people are leaving, and they never got on the microphone.

Maybe it's me. No, it's not Dana, please. It's not you at all. But I do know I have to get some more voices on, and I've got to clear up. So, Dana, any last warming thoughts? Again, happy Hanukkah to you. You taught me how to say Hanukkah. I did.

I was saying it wrong. No, no, listen. It's not wrong. It's never wrong. It's just pronounced differently. That's what I always say. What's the correct pronunciation? Hanukkah, like honey. Hanukkah. Not Han. I was doing Hanukkah. I did Hanukkah's the correct pronunciation Hanukkah like honey

Hanukkah not Han Hanukkah I did Hanukkah and it's Hanukkah look at Peter's face he's cringing what about the

Hanukkah I'm not going to do that with them because the Hebrew letter that starts Hanukkah has that raspy sound to it the Hanukkah

I'm not going to clear my throat but Hanukkah I mean H-A-N-N-U-K-A C-H-A-N-N-U-K-K-A, C-H-A-N-N-U-K-K-A. Right. What's up with you, Peter Gross? What are you up to these days?

About 5'2". Wait a second. I'm 5'2". Well, unfortunately, you're taken because we could make jockeys together. I bet you. Oh, my God. Always this term. Was that inappropriate? Was that a together. Oh, I bet you. Oh, my God. Always this term. Was that inappropriate?

Was that a euphemism? I hope not. And, Cam, what are you up to? Working for the phone company these days. Okay. The red one. Not the other one, not the phone company that I work for? Not the blue one.

Not the one that I work for. Okay. Yeah. Do you have any insight, Dana, into the whereabouts of Shohei Otani? Oh, no. Okay. No. Let me know when you find out.

I don't, actually. I'm just on a search for Madonna. I want to make sure she comes in January. Did she ever play? Like, she had dates, and then she had to cancel them, right? She did. She wasn't well. There was a lot of speculation that she had a breakdown or something to do with drugs.

But she's now booked for January the 11th. So I'm hoping to be there. I was at the Keith Haring exhibit at the AGO and she's featured in it. There's some like real vintage Madonna there from like the early 80s. Oh, I'll go. Yeah. I've got some great early 80s shots in my house. Totally.

Yeah. No, there was was a video playing she was on bed it was very provocative thank you for telling me that we call her Medina for a reason she's a super fan

there you go so nice to see you guys so nice to see Dana Levinson round of applause for Dana and Peter Gross two legends So nice to see you guys. So nice to see Dana Levinson. Round of applause for Dana. And Peter Gross. So nice to see you too. Two legends in this market.

So nice. Together. Absolutely. Not for the last time, because I'll get you together at another TMLX event. We say merry everything. Merry everything. Get it?

Merry Christmas, merry everything. Merry everything. Merry everything. Right? Peace and love to Simon Head who's leaving now,

everybody. The band directed a great documentary about a great band. Thank you, Dana. You're welcome. Thank you, Peter. Can Steve and Judy Cole

come on the mic? Steve and Judy Cole. Are you sure? You gotta. You wore that sweater. I gotta talk about that sweater. Yeah.

You have to come on so I can... I'll give you two minutes. Two minutes. Two minutes to talk about that sweater. Yeah. You have to come on. I'll give you two minutes. Two minutes. Two minutes. In fact, that's it. So, Cam, let's do this. Sure.

We're putting a cap, like five minutes or less for every guest, and we're going to get everybody on. Yeah, let's see how it goes. Let's do it, okay? Okay, rapid fire. Yes. Because it's an audio. I would like to say that there's four people in Hamilton who I love, and two of them were here today, and I had a little chat with both of them.

Who are the other two? My daughter lives in Hamilton and my grandchild. Very good. Wow, Steve Cole. Matt Rushmore. Do you know what that means? I was responsible for two of your favorite Hamiltonians being in your presence today. That's right.

You were. And I appreciate it. I'm honored you came here. I want to ask you about your sweater. Judy. Yes. Oh, I love... Okay, we're going to get you back.

On the mic, Judy. Closer to the mic. Sorry. You're both wearing matching sweaters that have a dog, a cute dog on it, and it says the word Stuart. That's Stuart. Stuart Stone Shaker. So your dog's name is Stuart Stone Shaker.

And he is not named after Stu Stone, despite I think Leslie, with the hard S, claimed that, and other people. But he seriously is not. Until right now, I thought your dog was named after Stu Stone. No, he's not. And you know what? His middle name is actually

Gordon. Wow. Are you serious? That's a mind blow. It's Stuart G. Stone Shaker. Okay, very good. How old is this dog? One year. September 29th. It's got to be named after Cam and Stu. Nope. It seriously isn't.

I'm sorry. Where do you get these sweatshirts from? They're custom jobs. Come on, Cam. I can get you one. I can hook you up. Okay, remember, we're doing two minutes on each guest now. Anything else important we need to know?

Judy, this is important, okay? We met at the Dome. I know what this is. It's my favorite story statement. We met at the dome i know what this is it's my favorite story steven we met at the dome yes and uh you were you remarked that this was your biggest celebrity encounter uh since you met paul mccartney yes correct it's so again i'm no one sees i'm not twisting her arm or winking at her can you reiterate that for everybody? Just confirm that's true. Yes, that is true. What's true?

Big day meeting Toronto Mike. So thirsty. At the Dome. Is this going to be a drop now in every episode? He literally sits at the front of the Horseshoe Tavern and just waits for people to recognize him. He's just like, wait, they'll be along soon. It's insufferable.

The meeting with Paul McCartney, to be honest, was one of these. Hey, mate. Hey, how you doing? And then he did a Jake. The meeting with Toronto Mike was longer. It's huge. And you guys came an awful long way to be here. How long was that commute?

It's almost, is it more than Buffalo Boy? No. So Buffalo Boy wins. But you guys came from a long ways. In fact, is James Edgar here? James Edgar came from Beaverton. Does your commute, is that longer than his?

We had a discussion online with James. I think he said an hour and 49 minutes and we were an hour and 20-something. Where are you guys? Near Wasaga Beach. Oh, nice. Okay. Well, I'm really honored you came,

and I really like your hair. Thanks. It's my winter coat. And if Bill Brio can't play Santa, you can. David Letterman. Nice. Judy Cole, Steve Cole, good people, everybody. Thank you for coming here.

That is too fresh. Al Grego and James Edgar, if possible. And then we're going to really cook. That's a good combo. We're going to cook, yeah. Now I'm just putting people together. I see Degrassi Jr. High're going to cook, yeah. Now I'm just putting people together. We're going to cook. Glasses and beer. I see Degrassi Junior High expert Andy is here, everybody.

You're just choosing us by appearance now, are you? We're going to cook with gas here. Yes. All right. Al Grego, how many podcast awards do you have? Just the one. Just the one so far. Is that right?

I've been nominated for a few, but yeah, just one. You did win one. What did they give you? Did they give you a plaque? Did they give you a certificate? Did they give you a ribbon? They gave me a pat on the back and some graphics to post on my website. Tap on the shoulder.

Is there a cash award when you win? There was for my employer, but we won't go into that. Okay. Is there an event where they hand these out? Yeah, well, it's an online event, yes. Okay, nice. Yeah, it's pretty nice. We watched it last year with my family,

and when they announced my name, it was a little exciting. And you're nominated again this year, right? Yeah. Because Larry Fedorek and I are nominated. I know. I'm very aware of that. I may have nominated both. Did you make that happen?

I may have made both of your, well, I made your nomination happen for sure, because you don't give a shit. But we also nominated Larry. But I don't give a shit, but I won't shut up about the fact I'm nominated. Not a word of a lie, but an email went out to announce that Mike was nominated, and in big block letters

at the top saying, do not, what was the word that they used? Embargo. Embargo. Don't say anything until 5 p.m. And immediately Mike tweeted it out. It's like, yeah, look, I just was nominated for an award. And that account, Canadian Podcast Award, tweeted on me and said, you can't mention this until 5.

Yeah, and Mike, you're just like, watch me. And I was like, arrest me for tweeting, man. Luckily, you weren't disqualified. Hey, so now that you're on the mic, I can tell you how grateful I am that you help out at these live recordings by bringing your gear. The reason the crowd can hear us is because of you. Well, sometimes they can hear you, yeah. I think we found that the perfect length of a Toronto mic episode might be an hour and a half, because then when Tom Wilson left, people kind of stopped listening. Well, people started chatting with each other, I noticed.

I think they've calmed down again. Well, here, let me tease everybody that we have big, big names still to come. For example, Toast's own Bob Ouellette is here. Bingo Bob! Shout out to Bingo Bob. But I do appreciate, I appreciate your support. I appreciate your help. I'm just like, I don't know, I could cry right now.

I think you're tremendous. Thank you. So thank you for that. And now it's our chance to catch up with James. James, how have things been for you and your wife, who is here today as well, right? Yeah, Sam's here. Since you moved to Beaverton.

It's good. It's really good. Because you left Etobicoke for Beaverton. Yeah, and there's challenges. We're not close to anything. Every time we come to the city, we have to. Nothing? You're not close to anything?

Not really, no. We're really close to each other. You know what? Beaverton's a nice place. So we have a restaurant there called Stefano's Cafe. I swear to God, as good as almost any restaurant in the city. A fine dining kind of restaurant. So Beaverton's got the...

And we have another... We have a wing place that has insane pub food that's really good. So it's good. The dogs love it. I love it. Right. We hate it when we have to go to our office occasionally because it's too far. We went too far.

Was this too far, Palma's Kitchen? No, no. This was nothing. This was nothing. And you've only missed one TMLX event? Am I right? Yeah, and that's only because you guys cheated to make it so I couldn't be there

so he would get the record. It was all a conspiracy. Michael Lang you're referring to. We know that. We know it was conspiracy. By the way, Canada Kev is here, everybody. Canada Kev. I just wanted to bring up

that baseball player thingy. Shohei Otani? That guy. Sure, that guy, whatever it is. Let's talk about that guy. That guy is the greatest player in the history of the sport. Yeah, whatever.

I was kind of watching it. I'm sorry he doesn't drive cars for a living. It's not interesting. Yeah, you know what? You know what was more interesting? Jane Sibri over here. The same...

It's a deep cut. Over the summer, there was a lot of speculation that Marc Marquez was going to go to Garcini, and it eventually happened. And you know what? That was ten times as exciting as that whole baseball... Whoa, I don't know what any of those words mean. John does. John's here somewhere. I do. know what any of those words mean. John does.

John's here somewhere. He knows what it means. Joe Louis, everybody. Joe Louis is here. Joe Louis, if you don't remember, he's the guy who hated Stu Stone for making that movie. Right. He also makes a hell of a snack cake, apparently. Also, he had a very controversial FOTM KOTJ submission that got a lot

of backlash for crappy covers but we'll talk about that when he gets on. I'll unpack that one. And my Morgan's here but you've got a Morgan as well. We have a Morgan. She's at Carleton University. I was going to say what's your tie to Carleton? My daughter goes there. My daughter is kicking ass in second year at

Carleton. Excellent. Does she like living in Ottawa? She does. Seems like a good place to go to school. Yeah, she is. They moved off of... What's a bad place to go to school? I don't want to say. I think if you're like a teenager and you're moving out of your house, then pretty much anywhere is great.

Well, I know. I mean, my daughter's living it up in Montreal right now. I'm like... I was going to say Windsor. Yeah, Windsor. I mean, my daughter's living it up in Montreal right now. I'm like, huh? I was going to say Windsor. Yeah, Windsor. I don't want to throw shade on you. You know, yeah, you're thinking, what city can I offend right now? It's far.

It's four hours. I mean, think about it. Well, James Edgar, a love of seeing your face here, and I'm glad you still make the trek from Beaverton, and I'll try to catch up with you after this. That's the one thing about the live recordings which we haven't done in a couple of TMLXs. I don't actually get to like, you know,

hobnob with you guys. So, I will see you after. Again, Al, thanks for all your support and helping with the speakers and a big round of applause

for James Edgar. He's like an OG FOTM. And Al Grego. Bit of an OG FOTM and El Grego bit of an OG FOTM what do you mean bit of I was reading

your fucking blog yeah definitely definitely OG OG for sure thanks guys so much take care thank you Mike

thank you Cam who do you want next Bob Del Mundo you want to come on and I need a I need a woman's voice uh Lieve are you coming on the mic or no she's not coming on the mic not today Moose Levi, are you coming on the mic?

Or no, she's not coming on the mic. Not today. Moose, do you want to come on the mic? It's a moose talk? Because I want to find out if Moose Grumpy got a moose mug. That's what I'm going to find out. Rob Del Mundo, FOTM, love your Homer Simpson. I got to show that to him.

Well, yeah. Morgan, are you here? Morgan, have you seen this guy's sweater? Do you want? Morgan loves the Simpsons. Like, she just goes to Disney and streams Simpsons. Like, she just loves it. Well, yeah, I went for the Christmas theme today

because I'm a huge Simpsons fan. And getting back to Shohei. Take them off, please. Getting back to Otani for a second, if I could. Okay, so wait. There's two conversations, guys. These are all live mics. We're going to get back to this.

She's getting lapel pins. Yeah, talk about Otani. Okay, in 30 seconds or less. So, these are all live mics. We're going to get back to this. She's getting lapel pins. Yeah, talk about Otani. Okay, in 30 seconds or less. So basically, I wore this only because with all the Otani stuff going on, I can't help but think of this one Simpsons episode where Homer kidnaps the daycare kids. And all of a sudden, it's like he's in this van. And Kent Brockman and Arnie Pine, this guy, are looking over here.

And it's like, I mean, Arnie, Arnie, Arnie, how are the children? And it's like, Arnie's there. I can't see through metal, Kent. and that's the whole thing with the whole the plane with otani and uh even back maybe about a year and a two years ago with um longer than maybe with the kawaii leonard in the limo that's all i can think about is like i can't see through metal kent so that's that's all i could think about with the simpsons but uh that's what i like about the simpsons everything in life has a Simpsons connection here. Good to see you. Moose, thank you for taking the photos

and for all your support. Happy to do it. How are things with you? Good. What did Cam just give you? You guys kind of did that on the side. Like, let's talk about it. What is it?

Well, Cam can explain. Yeah, it's a John Olerud lapel pin. Amazing. And when I saw it, I went, ooh. Her eyes lit up. Her moose eyes. The great Ivor Hamilton is here, everybody. Ivor Hamilton is here.

Okay. Name drop. Ivor Hamilton is in my running group. Really? York Mills runners, buddy. That's where we are. That's amazing. That's amazing.

Ivor's coming over next week. Fantastic. We got to talk. He's a retired man now. He is. I saw where we are. That's amazing. That's amazing. Ivor's coming over next week. Fantastic. We got to talk. He's a retired man now. He is. I saw that on Twitter. Fantastic, buddy. Well, it's not true until it's on the Twitter.

That's for sure. On the X or whatever the hell it's called. Moose. Yes. You got a Moose mug? I did. Okay. Are they nice?

What are they? I made Morgan go get one. I went to. From Christmas Vacation, the little moose mugs that they have. Yeah, yeah. They look great. And just further to more FOTM hand-me-downs, Steve Cole has been going through

his Blue Jays paraphernalia souvenirs and is going to be sending me some photos. So anybody that wants to download Blue Jays souvenirs, here you go. It's like the antiques roadshow. I love it. I love it. Moose,

thanks for coming out. Amazing. And Rob, thanks for coming out. Yeah, you bet. You're still around after. We'll do a little catching up. Good to see you. You're a good one. And you're still covering some hockey action? Yeah, for sure. So I can't wait for New Year's Day.

The PWHL will have its first game at Mattamy Centre there. So I'm not a shield for them, but I love women's hockey, so I'll be there for sure. Yeah, you could, yeah. They sold out? Is that what I heard? They did in two days. The season?

Their season ticket packages, so at Mattamy Centre. So, yeah. Well, that's a success story. I'm looking forward to it. Absolutely it is. Okay, right above the Loblaws. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Absolutely.

I'll 22 or 23 International Foods. I think you get that red dot, and everybody and his dog is taking a photo over there where the center ice dot used to be. Oh, right, right. So this is where I met Wendell Clark, and I referenced this with, who was I referencing that with? Who the heck? Ken Reed.

Ken Reed, thank you. Ken Reed. That's terrible. Ken Reed. I'm a wine you. That's terrible. Peter, people wine fan. Yeah, yeah. It was only Monday. It was a long time ago,

okay? But Ken Reed and I. I'm glad somebody listens out there can yell out these answers to me. So, we're cycling through

guests very quickly now. Rob and Moose, thank you. Can I just take a second, Mike? Oh my God, yeah. I just want to say thank you to you

once again for bringing this all together and that the friendships that we've established through both in person and our not so secret group, the ladies Andy and Miriam and Steph

and Leslie and people that I talk to every day and appreciate that you do this for us well that's very kind and I'll point out so Stephanie Wilkinson was here, but then she had to go so we didn't get Stephanie Wilkinson

on the mic, but I just want to, for the record, that Stephanie was here. And when you say Miriam, that's leave a fumka. Because I think some people are like, who the hell is Miriam? Her cover's blown. I know. Her cover's blown. Alright, thank you Moose.

Gore, do you want to pop on? Yeah. Who wants to come on the mic? Actually, let's do Brad Bradford. Do you want to come on? Here we go. Brad Bradford. Local politician.

Bob, you're not. You're not. Is that yours? Yeah, I was going to say. You want to ask him some questions? Okay, so let's do this. All right. So here's what I'm going to do. We're going to check in with Gord, and then Bob's going to sit there,

and then it'll be good to have a constituent. East End Ham, Monarch Park here. Hey, there's been a few East Enders here today. There you go. So Gord, YYZ Gord, where is Tom? Tom tweaked his back yesterday, and the thought of driving to Mississauga with a not so comfortable back from the east end of the city was not on the table. But he sends his regrets.

All right. We miss Tom. Tom's listening. How are you doing? Doing well. You're doing lots of traveling still. A little bit. Where have you been recently? Last big trip was New Zealand and and fiji that's a big trip the beginning of november since then family in iowa and then friends in houston okay well those

are underwhelming trips but that uh that's that uh i've heard houston's like awesome though uh houston's it's it's a good food city it doesn't have like in terms of tourist attractions you go to the NASA and that's about it but I live there so it's more about friends

but going back to favorite restaurants and it's not a bad place to live it's cheap and other than it's

Drake likes it there right? Drake likes it there? I don't know I think it's very popular with the NBA guys Well if Drake is listening Wasn't Mike Richards

going to have Drake on his program? Wasn't that one of the big guys? Mike Richards is amazing, love that guy but man, he dreams big, right? I almost, yeah Gotta dream big, it's all you got Alright, YYZ Gord Thanks for coming I hope to see you again after here I almost, yeah. Got to. Got to dream big. It's all you got. All right.

YYZ Gord, thanks for coming. I hope to see you again after here. Bob Ouellette, come sit over here. Yeah. Bob Ouellette, that's you. Okay. Brad, how's it going, buddy? It's great.

So Bob's coming in. We're going to be working on a Saturday here in Constituent. House calls. I got some things to say, Brad. House calls in Mississauga from beautiful beaches in New York. That's true. That's right. Love it.

I've got to do this because it's what we do. There you go. Bob Ouellette, ladies and gentlemen. Hello, hello, hello. I feel like this is the Spider-Man meme. Oh, yes. Okay, so Brad, bear with me here. The original toast duo was Cam and Stu.

Yes. Do you remember this, Cam? Do you remember doing this? I do remember, yeah. And then I think it was you who started it. You're like, I'm tapping out for a bit. And then Stu's like, oh, I got to tap out too. And then I'm like, screw you.

I'm going to replace you both. And I went and found myself Rob Pruse, who sends his regrets he couldn't be here. It's the best. And Bob Lillette. And I don't know if Toast has ever sounded better. We now, I think we've done more Toast episodes than the original duo.

That might be close. It's pretty close. I think we should be renamed. We should be able to lose the coy in Vance and actually be Bo and Luke now, I think. That's what I think. I don't think it works that way. This is like Journey,

where the new guy is actually saying more than Steve Carey. Yeah, Gowan with... Yeah, six, exactly. Yeah, same thing. Anyhow. How's Brad Bradford doing in City Council? Brad and I don't always see eye to eye on everything.

I'll be completely honest. And I'll be honest, Bob. I don't spend a lot of time on twitter so i apologize no that's okay you know that's okay there was i seen it all no no it's all good you know what we've had i've had a very good history in our neighborhood with nate uh who just lost the liberal leadership uh for ontario i'm a big fan of Nate's. Mary Margaret lives on my street. So who is now the provincial, she's the MPP. So did you know how close we are, how proximal we are then? Are you in our hood too? That's right. I know your office is right behind me, but I didn't know.

And I'm also, so if you're by our MPP. I'm like four doors down from her. So look at this. We had to come to Mississauga. We had to come to Mississauga. We had to come to Mississauga, but in fact, we're a stone's throw apart. Yeah, okay, cool. I bring people together.

So we just have another hashtag, fresh GLB on the porch sometime. Yeah, for sure, absolutely. Come to the backyard. We've tricked out the backyard pretty good. All right. Love it. Yeah, you guys both love your GLB.

I love it. So Brad, how are things going? Yeah, good. Yeah, holiday season's upon us. Lots going on at City Hall and across Toronto. And it's a nice time of year. People are generally in a pretty good mood. And coming to the end of 2023, which has been a pretty wild ride for a lot of us. You know, me also. Big mayoral run for 121 of us and new daughter. And so it's been a, and my first appearance on Toronto Mike. So, which is certainly a probably top three highlight of the year.

Which was great, man. You just, you just came in some guy's basement in Etobicoke. We had a great chat and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Yeah, no, that was nice. And that was my, also my first exposure to Palm La Pasta. And I've just filled my, my, my belly today and I'm just washing it down with a cold brew. So it was worth the drive out here and a lot of good folks in the room. So this has been nice. I'm surprised you didn't bike. Yeah, you know what?

I'm not able to spend the time to do the whole thing. No, it's time. Yeah, it's the commitment. You can bike anywhere if you have the time. I was on the bike yesterday, though. Yeah, we were getting unseasonable temps here. It's like 13 out there right now. Yeah. It's the commitment. You can bike anywhere if you have the time. I was on the bike yesterday, though. Yeah, we were getting unseasonable temps here. It's like 13 out there right now. Yeah.

It's crazy. I didn't even wear a jacket today. Did you bike here? No. No. I actually had my car service, Tyler Campbell, pick me up and drop me off. Wow, nice. We had to pick up beer and stuff, too, though.

Good. Have you been keeping up with your Toronto mic dabs? Last one I listened to was the, I texted you, the Peter Kent. Yeah. Long form. That was a nice ep. Yeah, thank you. He has a very varied experience in his life, seen a lot of different things, and he shared

that with all the listeners. And the tone in which he delivers it, the guy's a pro. Oh, yeah. Obviously. How did that one come together mike banjo dunk banjo dunk is in a book club with peter yeah oh my god and banjo dunk thank you rob del mundo everybody there's robby and remember if anybody's got to go i don't know tap your head or wave at me or something, because we're going to get a bunch of people in here. But yeah, so that's how it came to be.

Vangel Dunk said, you've got to do Toronto Mic'd, and then Peter Kent's like, okay. And he just came over. Cool. Just like that. And I also did not realize and learned a lot about the musical side of his career and life experiences, which was cool. And then hearing this afternoon, Ron Hawkins,

and you know, I will just shout out Stephen Stanley, a friend of mine, East Ender. Also played on the street, on our street during the pandemic. So I was there drinking a beer on the street too. So was I,

talking to Stephen. All right. And so, but the point there, new album out from him, and I just received the vinyl in the mayor as an early, um, it,

the backer, the collapse of the hive. And so I haven't listened to it yet, and I just received the vinyl and the mayor as an early backer, the Collapse of the Hive. And so I haven't listened to it yet because I just got it yesterday, but I'm excited to get that. There's an episode of Toronto Mike you should listen to next. Stephen Stanley came over last week to talk about the new album and played live in the basement. So tee that up on my drive back to Beaches East York, which I'm sure will take a long time. It's like an hour to get here today. It was ridiculous. Yeah, there's traffic in Toronto. Yes. My apologies to you guys. No, that's all right will take a long time. It's like an hour to get here today. It was ridiculous. Yeah, there's traffic in Toronto.

My apologies to you guys. No, that's alright. It's worth it. Can I ask Cam some questions about being a Toast host? Toast host, sure. What do you need to know? I don't know. You're the expert. You started it. Have you heard? Do you have any pointers for me?

Got any directions? I mean, you're an actual broadcaster. I'm just like a PR flack. I'm just like, I'm a PR flack. I don't know. Does Cam listen to the new toast? Yeah, of course. Okay. I'm asking for direction from him to see because he's the OG.

He did it, right? This youngster, Bob. I got no tips. Nothing. No notes. No notes. I purposefully try to... I just like to keep Mike on his toes. That's all. I like to always have at least one selection that pisses him off.

We're doing a toast between Christmas and New Year, right? Mm. Okay, so Rob Pruess and Bob Willett. Okay, what's the next topic? Oh, it's nonsense songs. So songs that have... I'll use it like Oobla Dee, Oobla Dah. Okay, like gibberish.

Gibberish, yeah. Yeah, gibberish jams. Gibberish j gibberish gibberish yeah yeah gibberish jams gibberish jams that's perfect gibberish jams yeah so you know so like

oobla dee oobla da and the other one is like I think of semi-charmed life do do do do do do

those are words right you know like yeah many spoon songs gibberish jams okay so I was just thought I'd like

you know if Stu was here he'd totally give me some direction was just thought I'd like, you know, if Stu was here, he'd totally give me some direction. Why isn't Stu here, Cam? You know? Because my original,

I wanted to get the four of us on. Because he is in Toronto, I think. You know what? Then he lied to me. I would like, I choose to believe.

He's like, show your tongue. Which plane is he on? Which plane is he on? He told me he's in California. What's that? See, Moose says... Moose is amazing at this, right?

She's cyber-stalking everyone. She knows where Stu Stone is. He's in California, everybody. Track his plane. Okay, I just saw the clock. I know. Bob? We'll see you in a couple of weeks.

See you in a couple of weeks, man. I'm sorry about the drive. No, no, that's okay. Always great'll see you in a couple of weeks. See you in a couple of weeks, Ben. I'm sorry about the drive. No, no, that's okay. Always great to see you. Yes, Mr. Bradford. Thanks for listening and thanks for being up here. Been a slice. We'll see you around.

Thank you. Oh, I wanted to say one thing. I had mentioned that I got Harry Shearer. It's not until the new year on Bob's Basement. I was worried about that. I know. I just wanted to let you know because you were talking about Harry Shearer. Yeah, because Harry Shearer is amazing.

I'm just jealous of your guests. Harry Shearer, Hot Lips Houlihan, and I'm slumming it here with Ivor Hamilton. Still like blown away Bill had Dick Cavett. Okay, so Jarvis, can you just tell me, did you win your hockey game? Just jump on the

mic and just tell me how you did real quick here, please. Real quick, and then I come on come on over here what no no you go you run this one real quick finally the iver jarvis brother neil is here by the way brother neil are you leaving did you want to come on a mic and say hi? Okay, so Jarvis, just on the mic, just tell me how you did in the hockey game. Well, I scored a goal. What?

That's your first goal of the season? And I missed it? Yeah. Dad of the year. What kind of goal was it? Can you just tell me? I'm devastated. I took a shot and it went in the year. What kind of goal was it? Can you just tell me? I'm devastated. I took a shot and it went in the net.

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. That's a good approach. Okay, any more info? Was it just on the slot? Oh yeah, we won against the team. We went to a way, a place. So babe, was it a good game? You played well?

Oh my goodness gracious. I told you to stink up the joint today and play well tomorrow. Okay, Jarvis, thanks so much. Love you, buddy. Morgan, do you want to say hi? Yes, Morgan, say hi. Hello. Oh, that's Morgan, everybody.

Hi, Morgan. All right, Brother Neil, have a seat here. Congratulations to Ivor Hamilton, retired. How does it feel? Pretty good, although it was like going from 100 to 5 in a week with so much on the go. But I guess first week out was kind of like a little bit of a vacation. But we'll get through it.

I've got lots of things on the go. Now, I'm saving my deep dive for Wednesday. You're coming over Wednesday. Yes, sir. And you're feeling better? Yeah, I don't know. I hope I sound better. But yeah, I mean, I sound, I mean, anyone who listened this week could hear it in my voice.

But thank you for letting me push it a week. We're going to do it next Wednesday. And I mean, not that it's a public event, so people can't just show up to this thing. But you've got like a retirement party coming up, right? Yeah, there's a, I've spent 35 years at universal music uh 11 or 12 of it running their catalog department so i worked with all of the legacy acts and if you were a long time classic rock band i basically worked with all of the bands that i grew up with so i worked with the hip and rush and i finished things off working on the Rolling Stones Hackney Diamonds.

Wow. The Who. So it's really, really, really was exciting and gratifying to do that. So they're putting a surprise together. They told me they're going to embarrass me big time. But I'm looking forward to it. Is Mick making an appearance at your retirement party? We have a stand-up

in the building that we used for a 40 Licks party back in July. I'm assuming that that is part of Mick is going to show up. That's amazing. That is amazing.

That is amazing. That's a long run you had. And you know, when you come on Toronto Mic'd, we always focus on like your CFNY.

And I just realized you were on the CFNY not. Totally. Yeah, I was right there. Ivor Hamilton. Yeah. Okay. But we always,

we kind of don't talk too much about the music business career that you've had because we had to wait until you retired, I think. I think so, yeah.

It was pretty sticky but I've got lots of great stories when we talk on Wednesday to tell you about a lot of things. You want to tease one? Do you want to tease a story

that we're going to dive into on Wednesday maybe? Get people, whet people's appetite? Actually, why don't you about a lot of things. Do you want to tease a story that we're going to dive into on Wednesday, maybe? Get people wet people's appetite? Why don't you pick a band and I can tell you a story? Alright. Boot Sauce. Boot Sauce. Oh my god.

I saw more of Backwoods, Ontario with Boot Sauce and maybe Upstate New York and any other place. I remember they did a gig at CBGB's. I'm like, wow, this is amazing. Well, they put them on at 4 a.m. in the morning. So there was about five people there, similar to a gig in Detroit. But they were hardworking guys and they had a good run for a couple years. But

I don't know. People seem to diss on Boot Sauce. It seems to be one of those early... We do it early and often. You know why? Bands come on. People like Art Bergman and Ron Hawkins from Lois L. Lowe come on, and they literally say fuck Boot Sauce. They burned a few bridges. They really did.

Wasn't the guy's dad someone fell known? Sonny Granik. Sonny Granik Jr. Yeah, it was Sonny Granik Jr. Here's the connection. You know that the famous story where Art Bergman gets kicked off the bus? Right, like in... The Sons of Freedom.

That's a boot sauce tour. That's right. Cures on there. Art Bergman, Sons of Freedom tour. Yeah, so Art Bergman got kicked off the bus, and Art blames Boot Sauce. That wouldn't surprise me. And then that's the famous story is that lowest of low, we're going the other way on this highway.

I think this is in Saskatchewan or something. It's somewhere in the prairies or something. And they see Art Bergman on the side of a road, and then Ron writes the song, Life Imitates Art, about seeing Art bergman on the side of the road because he was kicked off the bus by boot sauce wow well i mean more to be discussed on wednesday i'm gonna tell you art bergman wasn't the easiest guy to work with either so i can only imagine i could see hey ref here hey ref the world's biggest art bergman fan

cast a question? So as you step out of the record, what state do you think it's in? What are the biggest concerns right now? Specifically, there's so much angst around AI and stuff. I think we absolutely need to manage AI for all the legal ramifications and who's responsible and who's going to get paid. But I will tell you on the AI side that there's a life in eternity if it's done right.

For certain bands, you've certainly heard about it happening with ABBA and the show that they did in London. I had a buddy of mine. We went to see the show back in October. And at the end of the show show ABBA 2023 comes on stage to say thank you very much to everybody and he's like that's amazing that ABBA showed up. I said no they didn't that was an ABBA talk.

KISS just did something similar right? KISS announced the same thing. So there is a great move forward that acts can be preserved and tour forever and I gotta tell you that the ABBA show, and I'm not really a big fan of the music, but it was amazing to see what they did with it.

The fake Guess Who is going to be... The fake Guess Who is another big, big issue. I borrowed time. Shout out to Sask Joy. Well, Burton Cummings is doing his part to distill the rumors. One Facebook page. Okay, so because, if you check that clock out here, so we're going to start just saying hi's to people, okay?

So, Ivor, I'll see you Wednesday. Thanks very much. Thanks for coming. Get your pasta. You get your free beer. I got some downstairs. I'm going downstairs. So thank you.

If I haven't done this yet, thank you. Brian Gerstein, you want to come sit here? Okay. So, Brother Neil. How am I going to follow up in Ivor Hamilton's footsteps after that? The man with the voice. That is amazing. Yeah, you that? The man with the voice, that is amazing. Yeah, you can hear him on NY the Spirit,

which is the David Marston streaming service. You can hear him on that now, right? But we're going to get more information about Ivor and NY the Spirit and everything on Wednesday. I expected to see Perry in the co-host chair, sorry, Elvis, and instead we get Cam Gordon. Pleasure to meet you. So for those who don't know, the original idea, which was

locked and loaded until it wasn't, was this was a Pandemic Friday reunion. Right. Yeah. Up until like two weeks ago. Up until I got a text from Stu that I'm in California. He bailed. Too bad. Tragic. And Rasmus. It's too bad. He bailed.

Too bad. Tragic. And usually I come here and I get to meet Lucas. Do you remember Lucas with the lid off? He would, yes. He told me he thought it was last week or something. Exactly. He mixed up the dates.

I had his jam loaded up, but he... Oh, his walk-on music. Yeah, which is too bad. So we're doing real quick highs now. So Brother Neil, that's it for you. High and bye. Thank you. Who wants to come on?

Put up your hand if you want to come on the mic. Right here. Come on. All right. Brian Gerstein. Welcome. Or is it Brian Greenspan? I can't remember.

Who made that? It was Ken Reed. I was expecting Bill Pullman. That really kind of caught me off guard. I know. But at least Ken Reed knows your property in the six. He knows your theme song. Like, he knows you. He just thinks you're

Brian Greenspan. That's right. Not the worst. Not the worst person to be. Did you know Steve Cole, who's got the crazy hair over there, is the guy behind the Expos in the Wild Twitter account? I had no idea. Oh my god. Alright.

And so Leslie's here. You're here. Yeah. And Steve's here with his Expos jacket. You see that? He's got his Expos jacket. Awesome.

I just think that, you know, it's been Hamilton, Hamilton, Hamilton. Let's get a little Montreal going here. But how are you, Brian? I'm doing well. We're having a really good

Hanukkah holiday. Had 13 people over for night one, so that's taken care of and I can relax and enjoy the restukkah holiday. Had 13 people over for night one, so that's taken care of. Now you can relax and enjoy the rest of the holiday. Let's have a party. We'll all dance a hora. Gather around the table. Happy Hanukkah!

Thank you. Thank you. Happy Hanukkah, Brian. Appreciate it. I don't know if you remember me, but I used to work for Thornhill MPP, Gila Martel, and I think you came into the constituency office one day. Yes. And we had a chat about Toronto Mike. We did.

Yeah, you're right. Okay, you're the guy. Were you selling like sponsors? I can't remember why you were there, but I just remember that conversation specifically about Mike. Well, the reality is I've been trying. Were you selling sponsors? I don't know. I already have a VP of no sales.

Actually, you know what that was for? That was for the Spring Farm community because we had Rio Can trying to build condos right in our backyard, right at the Sobeys Plaza with the largest Jewish Sobeys in the neighborhood. It was totally out of whack. Right. So that was why. Yeah, I remember. So, Nathan, tell us about yourself.

Is this your first TMLX event? This is my first TMLX event. I've been a longtime listenertime listener since day one. I think I discovered you on the big yellow board way back in the day. Sounding, yeah. Wow. Okay. So what do you do? What's going on with you, man? We've got to get some info. What do I do? So I'm, I guess you could say, a recovering Tory staffer, if that makes sense.

I spent eight years at Queen's Park, four years in opposition, and then four years in government. And then, you know, the pandemic, I think, kind of burned a lot of people out. And I decided, you know what, I'm going to take a step back and maybe focus on some other stuff. I put my time in and now I've just been kind of freelancing, helping politicians and nonprofits and all that kind of good stuff. politicians and non-profits and all that kind of good stuff. Amazing. So glad you came out. Glad to see you.

This is your first event. I love that you're a first-timer. Brian, always a pleasure to see you. You're a great FOTM, but because we're in the final moments here, and I've got to get a few more voices. Hey, ref, do you want to come on and say hi? You want to? You can drop a fuck Art Bergman on, ref, do you want to come on and say hi? You want to? You can drop a fuck Ertbergman on this episode.

Did you want to? Yes? No? Hey, ref is waving me off. You hear that? No, hey, ref. Andy, did you want to come on and say hi? Yeah, go say hi. Okay.

And Ian Service, do you want to come say hi? Of course. Okay, Ian Service is a big deal. Technical support. Nathan, hopefully I'll chat with you after the recording. Nice to see you, buddy. I want to get a selfie with you. All right, so we have Ian Service.

Ian, thank you for your help and support over the years. You couldn't do Toronto Mic without Ian Service. You're very welcome. Are you still hosting torontomic.com? No, no, not the website. Well, not the website, the audio file. Oh, the audio, not the website. Well, not the website, the audio file. Oh, the audio, just the audio. So if you're listening to this right now on your podcast app of choice,

it is being served from Ian's services server. Yeah, many, many servers involved in this whole process. There's a lot of downloads happening, right? Yeah, tons. How many? I can't tell you that. Do you ever do your top downloads of the year? Like most downloaded episodes?

I rarely check, but I did get a Spotify rap that told me the number one episode of 2023 was the John Tory sex scandal with David Ryder. Right. Okay. Wow. I can't believe that was this year. Yeah, that was this year.

It's like so long ago. Andy's wearing her Degrassi Junior. That's amazing, that jacket. I know. That's amazing. Oh, Retro Kid makes that, right? Yeah. Amazing jacket.

Andy, always good to see you. I'm glad you're here. Thank you. It's a grassy time. Because you had to wake up early to get here. It was a real early morning for me, but I really wanted to come. I had never been to a Palma Pasta. Did you get your pasta?

Not yet. I'm going to get it. Really? I'm going to get it on the way out. How do you know those tokens don't expire at 3 o'clock? Oh, God. No, I mean that. For you, I'll make sure you get it.

Make sure you get pasta, because I will be lingering for a little bit after this. But I want to say happy holidays to you, Andy. Thank you. Same to you and your family. And Ian, man, we couldn't do it without you. What a great FOTM you are. I'm just texting Stu. Oh, yeah. Tell him what he's missing? Yeah. Okay, Andy. Thank you. Same to you. And Ian, man, we couldn't do it without you. What a great FOTM you are. I'm just texting Stu.

Tell him what he's missing. Okay, good. Shame. Alright. Thank you guys so much. Thank you, Mike. And now, Joe Louis and Carlo, you want to come on? No, he says no. Canada Kev. Canada Kev.

Have a seat, Joe Louie. Okay, you'll come on next. Craig's coming on next. All right. And by the way, put up your hand if you're in the room right now and you'd like to come on the mic. Hamilton Mike will come on the mic. Is anyone else?

I'm just scanning. This is it, like last call. Last call. Although it would be nice if we scanning. This is it. Like last call. Although it would be nice if we should close maybe with Anthony Petrucci. He hosted us all. Let's give it up for Palma Pasta. Who fed us all. Joe Louis,

when we kicked out crappy covers. No, here we go. You submitted Barenaked Ladies, Lovers in a Dangerous Time. Yeah. When we kicked out crappy covers... No, here we go. You submitted Barenaked Ladies, Lovers in a Dangerous Time. Yeah. Boo! Boo!

Boo! Greg Popovich on the mic. Don't boo him. I really think it's one of their worst songs. Oh. And I'm not a big Barenaked Ladies fan. But I was listening to Brian Wilson in the car on the way over. I love that. It's just a great song.

But that, just Lovers in a Dangerous Time by them is just such a shitty song. It's... What specifically don't you like about it? The whole... The vibe of it? The whole rendition

doesn't give me the feeling of love or danger or anything. It's so weak. I think you're a troll. I think you're trying to rile up people. That's a great song.

Terrible song. I stand by it. Do you like the original though? Here's the great song. Terrible song. I stand by it. Do you like the original, though? Yeah. Here's the odd thing. Yeah. I don't really like the original. Okay, okay.

Then why did you submit it? Because I like the acoustic version of the original. Because you wanted to upset a bunch of FOTMs. No, no, no. You just wanted... It's the first thing that came to me. When you asked for these crappy... And I heard it on the radio.

I was like, oh, my God, I hate this fucking song. I hate it. And boo. Have you ever kicked at the darkness till it bleeds daylight? Every day. I'm about to kick at this guy. Are you kidding me? I'm pleased to be sharing the microphone with the illustrious Canada Kev.

Hey, hey. I hear where you're coming from with that song, honestly. That's a good t-shirt. I'm a massive Bruce Coburn fan and love the Barenaked Ladies too from right when they started out. And I don't mind that cover, but to me it's a cover

that doesn't bring anything new to the song. And I think that's kind of what you were saying there too. Thank you. When somebody just redoes a song, kind of like Life is a Highway like that's a garbage cover to me because it does nothing new to the song

like a country band yeah but it doesn't like create it new like dude Nina Simone's Here Comes the Sun right you know like that that is to me

a quality cover where they've actually taken the song and made it something completely new okay I'm gonna rely on Canada Kev here

his argumentation on this is a lot better than mine. Okay, but remember this. Canada Kev is high as fuck right now. Always. Always. No, I'm a good guy. I love it when the weed man's in the house. Green Christmas, everyone.

Green Christmas. So what I'm going to do, guys, is I'm going to shout out people who aren't coming on the mic. I'm just going to say hi to my high school buddy, Shem. Shem. Shem. Like a stooge?

Shem, can you believe we're all turning 50 next year? We're turning 50 next year. That's crazy. Shem also is with Sticker U. Shout out to Sticker U. And of course, his wife Alice is here. FOTM Mark Carey is in the building brought his kids

Michelle is here too not my Michelle but his Michelle there nice to see you Mark Carey Dan did you want to come on the mic and say hi Dan is here you know Dan from the

secret FOTM WhatsApp group yeah Dan's secret the not so secret group not so secret group. Not so secret group. We can't stop talking. Jim, did you want to say hi? You're sure?

This guy is the guy I went to Skydiggers with. Jim Romanco, everybody. Shout out to Jim. Skydigger super fan. We saw Stephen Brunt's wife there. All the wives. Tom Wilson's wife there. All the wives. Tom Wilson's wife there. My wife is here.

Monica. Did you want to come say hi? My mom is here. Mary. Mary. Did you want to come on a mic? Did you want to come on a mic? She can't hear me, right?

No reaction at all. So how are things going, Canada Kev? Things are going pretty good, I must say. It's a little bit kind of crazy at work right now these days at the CBC. I loved it. I would say that your wife is my co-worker. You and Megan should...

Sorry, you and MF. Whoa, you doxxed your own wife? She shall not be named. How come MF is not here today, Kev? We have a Christmas event tonight, so she's not here. This is a Christmas event. I know. So do I.

That's not a good reason. She said to regret. Why won't MF come on Toronto Mike? Maybe she'll do the exit in Toronto. Bad timing. No, no, I'm good. I got seniority. Yeah.

I don't know. One of these days. You got Jen Hollett on this year. I'm good. I got seniority. Yeah. I don't know. One of these days. Like, you got Jen Hollett on this year. I didn't think Jen would ever come. And I had her for an hour. Yeah. Yeah. The CBCers will talk.

They got nothing to lose now. Yeah. Yeah. She did do an awesome story on that kangaroo, though. She said she got, like, more feedback on that than anything she did this year. And probably internationally, too, right? Totally. Yeah.

She took the photos, too. Yeah. She was writing the pen with the kangaroos. Totally, yeah. She took the photos too. Yeah, she was writing the pen with the kangaroos. I still want to know what the name was. Yeah. Nobody reported on the name. How much she got that? Well, she's not that good a reporter, okay? Get the name out of her finger. She's not Brian Lennon. She's not Brian Lennon. Alright, Craig, do you want to jump on here, Craig? Okay.

You're the best, Joe Louis. We'll talk after. Thanks for having me. I was fully expecting to being stabbed in the face by Brian Dunn when I showed up, but he smiled at me, and I think we're all right. Your jams are your jams. Your jams are your jams. Here, this is for you, Joe Louis, because your crappy covers inspired so much feedback. Hamilton Mike, come on the mic.

So, Craig, how are you? I am doing well, thank you. It's good to see you again. How many TMLX events have you been to now? This would be my fourth. Three of them have been at Palmer's Kitchen. Okay. Okay.

On that note, though, I saw, you've got to grab these guys when you see them, but Anthony Pacucci was in this room like 10 minutes ago. Yep. Is he still here? No, he walked out. Lasagna in the oven. And I was going to close the episode with Anthony

to thank him for hosting us, but if anybody, does anyone want to get him? Tell him Toronto Mike is asking for him. What do you think of Palma Pasta? Is it delicious? Oh, it was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. Did you get a Great Lakes beer?

I did, yeah. And I got a burst, and I was commenting with a few people. I'm actually, my commute is actually a little closer than some. Today, I'm actually coming in from Niagara Falls. Oh. But down there at the LCBO stores, they don't seem to carry burst anymore, so I was glad to have one.

We need to talk to Troy Birch about that and see if we can. Give them heck down there. I'll give them heck. I like the burst too. Yeah. So I went to Great Lakes this morning with Tyler, and we were like, what beer should we can give them heck down there i'll give them heck i like the burst too yeah so i went to great lakes this morning and i'm with tyler and we were like what beer should we get or whatever and i'm like a couple of cases of canuck a couple of cases of the lager and i'm like we need a burst like you need that one ipa like yeah something about that area there was another company that makes like what they call either a new england or american ipa and they're

not stocking that one either. I don't know. Some people suspect it's seasonal. Maybe they just carry them in the summer. I don't know. Regional preference. I guess. Right. Quickly here because we are going to wrap up shortly, Cam. You've done great service. Everyone,

shout out to my co-host, Cam Gordon. What a great job. If we failed to mention it earlier, my apologies. But Yes, We Are Open is an award-winning podcast hosted by FOTML Grego that is available now. Season 5, inspiring stories. Download, enjoy. And the Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada.

Install the Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada. Install the Advantage Investor on your device of choice. And when that device breaks, don't throw it in the garbage. Go to recyclemyelectronics.ca. Hamilton, Mike, you came a long way to be here. Here's a wireless speaker for you. Thank you very much. And you brought your boy. I've seen him before because Hugh, who's named after Hugh Dillon.

Correct. Was at TMLX 5. Well, we've been to all of them here. Oh, he's been to all of them. And that's why. I actually took a day off work today, vacation day, because he's like, Dad, are we going? I'm like, well, I'm working that weekend. Well, Tom, you knew Tom would be here. Yeah, that cinched the deal for me.

So you were, I remember this. You're like, oh, I got to work that day. And then I mentioned Tom Wilson was coming. And then suddenly you were able to be here. Oh, like, oh, I got to work that day. And then I mentioned Tom Wilson was coming. And then suddenly you were able to be here. Oh, wow. It's a miracle. That's a Christmas miracle. Funny how that happened.

Sorry, Mike. You were enough of a draw. Good to see you, Hamilton, Mike. You too, Mike. You guys have a good time with your brunt and your... Yes. Can I say, Paul and Pasta, I got one of their caprese sandwiches. My God.

The value, the size of that thing, amazing. That's a hell of an ad read. I'm like, I could barely eat this thing. Amazing. You know what, Cam, we didn't eat. Multiple meals, I know. I'm going to pick up some stuff to go home to. I am taking lasagna home for dinner tonight.

Absolutely, yeah. While you're here, load up. It's a holiday season, why not? Thank you, Hamilton Mike. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, while you're here, load up. It's a holiday season. Why not? Thank you, Hamilton, Mike. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, Cam. Hamilton, Mike, everybody. Craig, thanks for coming again, buddy.

I hope to see you at the next one. I guess I could say that I was going to have a chat with you off mic. I'm like, no point in that. I'll just do it on the mic. Yeah, why not? I was going to have Anthony Picucci on the mic to thank him for hosting and just check in with him. Are we sure he's not here? But he's not here. Well, he's downstairs, I think. Okay. Why not? I was going to have Anthony Picucci on the mic to thank him for hosting and just check in with him. Are we sure he's not here?

But he's not here. He's downstairs, I think. Okay. Is there anything? Do you want to do the quick thing? Real quick here to close? Go ahead. I have your songs loaded.

Yeah, yeah. Don't worry about that. We'll get into that next week. Are you sure? Yeah, these are more recapping your top Eps of the year, but we can do that when I'm in your basement. Okay, so let me play. Maybe I'll close with a crappy cover.

I've actually heard this before. Like this version specifically. So this is Last Call. If anyone wants on this open mic as we say goodbye,

now is the time. Last Call. Nobody's taking him off. Yeah. Isn't this terrible? Does anyone know who this is? This is a cover version. It's like Bon Jovi

covering Fairytale of New York. It's Bon fucking Jovi. When Ivor Hamilton's over. When Ivor Hamilton is I turn my face It's Bon fucking Jovi. Oh, there's a When Ivor Hamilton's over. That's a crappy cover. Yeah. When Ivor Hamilton is on the show on Wednesday.

He's the guy who got the Bon Jovi banner on the Air Canada Center. I get it. These worlds should not collide. I'll just say that. So thank you to everybody who came out.

I don't know how many unique Moose Grumpy, do you know how many unique people came out today? Any idea? She's in a deep conversation there. Do you have a guess? It was full, but then it was different full.

I'd say it was like 60? I think higher. Do we know? A couple of thousands, I heard. 60 to 2,000. 60 to... Anyway. Somewhere in between.

So thank you for coming out. TMLX 14 has come to a close. 68 name tags. 68 name tags. That's good. And then some renegades won't put on the... Sounds about right. A few kids.

I hope everybody enjoyed their Great Lakes beer. I hope everybody enjoyed... Hold on beer. I hope everybody enjoyed. Hold on. There's a, what is this? Okay, we have, this is it. We're closing on this note. We have an excellent source verified on Twitter who is reporting that Shohei Otani

is signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers. After all that. Oh, wait, wait, wait. The sushi dinners. Where's Brunt? Why Brunt had to go to the dentist? Cam,

after that, it was a dumb deal yesterday. I feel like it happened. I think we all wanted it to happen. I think that dragon is going to pitch for the Jays. I don't know. Okay, so on that note, I can't believe Otani's not coming to Toronto after all that. It's been verified on Twitter.

Sweet. Yeah, okay. Well, it's been verified twice now. The dream is over. So wait Yeah okay well It's been verified twice now The dream is over Shohei Otani Not a Toronto Blue Jay And less work for Cam I would think

Yeah I won't be working tonight I guess And that... Oh, actually, before I wind down, Tim Heron wanted to be here with his daughter, Laura. And then I got a note from Tim. I'm going to read it real quickly here. After the build-up, the special guests, and hearing from all those FOTMs,

I'm going to have to bow out. A friend from Brantford went in for a routine tune-up for his pacemaker. Didn't make it out. His last words to me on Friday were, Tim, it's an electrical problem and not a plumbing situation. I'm heading down to Brantford tomorrow and won't be able to join you guys. It is sad for this to happen, but I lost my dad 50 years ago tomorrow.

Tim enjoys life for the living. However, we must give our buddy Rick a proper send-off. Please pass along to everyone that Paul Burford is better. He is out of the hospital, but not out of the woods just

yet on his health issues. So let's big ups for Paul Burford. Let's hope he does well. But Tim says, enjoy the GLBs and Palma Pasta. I will raise a glass of Great Lakes beer tomorrow for my pal in his honor. And to you and for all you have done for the FOTM community. All the best to you and your family. Hope that Jarvis

and Morgan get what they asked for from Santa. Ho ho ho. FOTM, Tim Herron and Laura. So there's a lovely note to close on. Can't believe Otani signed with the Dodgers after all that.

That's fucked up, man. They should make a documentary about this last... Give it a shot. Give it a shot. Let's do a deep dive into the last 24 hours.

Black Friday. And that brings us to the end of our 1,388th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. I'm also on Blue Sky. Cam

is on Twitter as Cam underscore Gordon. Barely, but yes. Barely. And much love to those who made this all possible. Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Raymond James Canada, Mineris, Recycle My Electronics,

and Ridley Funeral Home. See you all next week. But I wonder who I wonder who Maybe one day she'll realize There's a thousand shades of green Cause I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah

I know it's true How about you? I'm picking up trash and then putting down ropes And they're brokering stocks, the class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am But who gives a damn Because everything is coming up

Rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow warms me today