Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Toronto Mike'd #52

Episode Date: September 26, 2013

Mike is joined by Il Duce who spills the beans on what really happened that night, talks about finally abandoning his Blackberry and gives Mike tips on what to see in Italy.

Welcome to the 52nd episode of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com. Joining me this week is Anthony, also known as Il Duce from Palma Pasta. And hosting this audio file are the good people at Core Fusion. May I call you Il Duce? Yes, you can. Welcome, Il Duce. Nice to be here, Mikey. Welcome back.

But this is your first time at the brand spanking new Toronto Mike Studio. Wonderful to be here. Wonderful home. Congratulations. Thank you. You got the grand tour. Does it be here. Wonderful home. Congratulations. Thank you. You got the grand tour. Does it meet your lofty expectations? Absolutely.

Wow. And are you impressed by my fading skills here? This is something new. You're wonderful on this. Thank you. You've been practicing a lot? Every day, all day long. Fade in, fade out.

Not working and doing this? Wonderful. Yeah, don't tell my boss. I've been fading a lot. Just between you and I. Good. What's new with you, my friend? Everything has been great.

Actually, just we came back from vacation in the summer and went to Europe. As you've known, I've told you that before. And now we're just heading into the busy season for work, which is Palma Pasta, and just taking it from there. Okay, you went to Italy. Yes. Anywhere else? No, it was throughout Europe. Sorry, throughout Italy.

It was north to south. So we did a tour basically almost of every spot. We didn't hit, I mean, all the ideal cities. I didn't go to the Riviera or anything like that. But we hit northern Italy, we went to Positano, we went to the Amalfi Coast, we went to Naples, we did Rome, we did everything, Florence, all the nice spots. Okay, it may surprise listeners to learn that Anthony Petrucci from Palma Pasta is of Italian descent. Absolutely. Okay, so I have to plead a little ignorance here.

So you were in Italy. You had a great time. In like two weeks, Monica and I are going to Italy. It'll be my first time in Italy. And she gave me a list of the five cities we'll be visiting. So I'm going to tell you them, and you can tell me, like, just tell me, like, it's a good place to go or tell me, you know, just give me some insight. Absolutely. Okay. The first one is Rome.

Rome was my favorite. Rome is one of the best places to be just because of the historical part, but just the vibe that if you're staying downtown Rome, and that's what I would suggest, if you're staying outside, then you can get bussed in or take a shuttle that are running all the time. But my cousins were living downtown Rome, right near Piazza Navona. Can I stay with them? Sure, why not?

There might be a language barrier, but that's not bad. That's okay. There usually is. But staying downtown, it was one of the best experiences for the whole family. Now, my wife Carmela had never been to Italy at all. So staying downtown in the middle of Rome, like you have the Colosseum, you have everything in walking distance so saint peter's basilica the coliseum piazza navona all these different spots that you

see on on tv but actually being there it's something uh it's it's a different different experience okay just to rewind uh you are anthony uh tony is a short form of Anthony, although everyone calls you Anthony if they're not calling you Il Duce. Your wife's name is Carmela. Carmela. So it's Tony and Carmela. Very close. I know where this is going. I just wanted to make sure that didn't breeze by without drawing attention to that.

Tony and Carmela, yes. That's amazing. That's amazing. Okay, so Rome is a winner. Venice. Another good spot to visit. I mean, a lot of people, I went there back in 83, and this is the first time I had been back to Venice. And it's a much cleaner spot than when I went originally back in 83. A lot of nice history to it. Traveling the gondola ride, you have to do that.

Going, taking a tour, and they'll show you the different spots. There's a lot of historical stuff, museums and everything within downtown. It's not just about Piazza San Marco, which is the most touristy area. There's a lot of different things that you need to see that are just as interesting in Venice. Tell me about Florence. Florence was another great spot.

It had more of the museums. The only thing that I really didn't like about, not that Florence, but about Italy. Now, all the stuff that was free to go see, the museums and everything, you had to now actually pay to get in. So the Statue of David. You lost me. The Statue of David. You lost me. The Statue of David. All these different museums you had to actually now pay to get in, which was fine. I understand that.

But it shocked me at the price to get into some of the more modern museums or the different spots. Okay, two more quickly. Laspezia. Am I saying that right? Laspezia. Laspezia, I never did. but i think you're going to pisa okay there's a tower there right it's crooked yeah it's a little crooked so you might help them uh straighten that out but down when you're it's the only thing that is there is the leaning tower of pisa after that you want to you want to hit uh hit the road yeah that sounds yeah okay and what about my last one is milan milano um again another sorry milano was

just another spot that we just stayed temporarily it wasn't anything there's nothing nothing more till duomo the center of milan after that it's just an industrialized city there's not much to it okay great so uh those are the those are the five spots i'm gonna hit uh in a couple like two to three weeks uh we're going to Amsterdam and then we're going to head straight to Italy and that's our you know

our honeymoon because the last time we I don't know if we've hanged a lot have we hung out since the wedding? No

we haven't seen each other oh my gosh we haven't seen each other before I go down by the way I'm sorry I just I have the

Godfather theme loaded up and I'm like I'm not going to talk about Italy down, by the way, I'm sorry. I have the Godfather theme loaded up, and I'm like, I'm not going to talk about it. Best movie, by the way. Is it your favorite movie? Absolutely. It's in my top five, but I sometimes like two better than one, and then sometimes I remind myself, I see one again, and I remember, oh, that's actually better than two. I think they're both fantastic. Actually, GF1 and GF2, it's 1A and 1B.

I don't think there's any other better movies out there. That's a personal preference, but even from others as well. Great movie. No, fantastic. I can't even argue with that. Now, please, to be telling me, this is for Rosie, before we dive down the wedding aisle. Rose wants to know, my normal co-host and your friend,

she wants to know, like, can she get the heart-shaped ravioli at Palma Pasta? Is it available at the hot table or just during the Valentine's Day season? We do it, normally we do it, full production on Valentine's Day season. And we usually might carry a few boxes here and there, but we don't do it full production on valentine's day season and we usually might carry a few boxes here and there but we don't do it often enough that is the only time that we get more of the requests we do it on the odd occasion if some of the weddings because they implement it as a positive one or two proportion but if she if she calls me i'll definitely make a a good we'll make a something for her okay because she wants uh me to take her to the hot table,

which is the Semantic Court location. Seminic. Seminic. Semantic. My semantics are on. Yes, that one. The one where I bumped into that famous day. First time, yes.

Okay, and she wanted to know if the heart-shaped ravioli would be there. If she comes, we'll make it for her, absolutely. Okay, Rose, you hear that? And on the Palma Pasta, because you know I love Palma Pasta, and they have Mississauga locations, and they have an Oakville location. It's our new store,

palmapasta.com, if you have to find it. You've been saying new for like three years now. I remember when it was a new store three years ago. Seriously, how old is that location? Tell me. It's going on its third year. Yeah, so you're like the new VR. I'm sorry, but it was the new VR for 10 years.

We'll call it the new Palma Basta. Right, okay. Why not start a new Toronto location? Not a new Toronto location, but a new Toronto location, meaning this neighborhood you're in right now, which is just a little bit west of Mimico. We'll get you to manage it? Yeah.

There's lots of cheap rent on Lakeshore. It's a little sketchy. I could get you a cheap storefront. I will help manage the new Palma Pasta in Etobicoke. We can do that. We can do that. Actually, we've tried many. We've thought out.

The next thing is to expand, but we're just thinking about which area we go. More to the suburbs or more to Toronto? Now, back to the wedding, if you don't mind, which was catered by Palma Pasta. Actually, I have to say that wedding was absolutely the funnest night in a long time. Talk to me, son. That was a lot of fun. Venue-wise, I mean, you couldn't have picked a better spot. It was...

Where was it again? Arda Gallery in the distillery district. And you know what? It was the perfect venue for a wedding. You couldn't have picked a better spot. The day was fantastic. The weather was, you know... It was a beautiful day.

You had great weather. And the guests and our table. So you enjoyed your table because Rose was at your table and Elvis... Elvis was a lot of fun. Yeah, he's a fun guy, surprisingly enough. I've never met Elvis. You know what? Everyone was a lot of fun.

It just had a good jump to it. And Humble and Fred were at your table. You were a great table. Humble, Fred, Elvis, Rose, and their significant others. And you know what? We had a really good time. We had a really, really good time. Later on in the evening, I mean uh things got a little out of hand but

before all right we'll get there we'll get there now um the serving staff we hired was definitely not palma pasta because they weren't up to code they had two people calling sick and i think they were shorthanded or something well what had happened um we had a meeting previously there and the girl they had enough staff, whatever. And then that day, two people had called in sick and one of the girls, one of the main, had broken her wrist. So she was in a cast. So basically she couldn't work. So there's three people less.

So, you know, being the businessman that I am, I wanted to get into the weeds. I had to make sure that this was going to go well for my good bud Mike and stepped into place to sort of get what it is when you're doing the when you're doing the serving it becomes like an assembly line and they were going to be short staff so they needed more people inside to do the plating so that's where I stepped in and helped out so I took off my jacket rolled up my sleeves went into there And that's when we started to serve the product and I stayed behind. And I didn't go to our table, but I was in the kitchen with all the other servers. I did notice during this event, I would come to your table to hang. I would kind of, there were a lot of tables and, you know, I was one of the guests of honor.

So I felt I would visit each table and I kept saying, where's Il Duce? And they'd say, he's working in the kitchen. And I'm like, that better not show up on the invoice. What the hell? I can't afford Mr. Palma Pasta working in the kitchen. Did I ever thank you for this, by the way, this huge favor? You did. Did I?

You did. Even that night, you know what? Yeah, you did. I gave you a big hug? You did. Because that was above and beyond. It goes without saying. And you're in the kitchen, and apparently you have some stories.

You teased me with some stories about a solid, what would we call humble Howard? Is he a B-list celebrity? What is he? C-list? You know what? For me, he's an A-list. He's an A-list for you. A-list.

A-list for me, too. So you have some stories about this A-list celebrity. So painting the picture, I'm in the kitchen on the assembly line getting everything ready and prepping. So I'm the lead on it just because I want to make sure everything's going away. And so I'm directing people. And we're a little bit behind schedule just because we're short-staffed. So the food is not going out as quickly as possible. behind schedule just because we're short-staffed. So the food is not going out as quickly as possible. So at that time, we're just trying to work through things and Humble walks through

into the kitchen and I'm thinking, okay, so he starts talking to me and you know how Humble talks. He's very, very loud. And this kitchen is separated from like, we should point out, this kitchen is clearly separated from the main room. There's separation. So I'm not sure what's going on at the table, but he walks in and he starts talking to me and going on. And I'm not hearing a word he's saying. Because you're actually like plating food. I'm plating food, but I'm trying to concentrate just to make sure that nothing goes missing and no one is missing anything. Because you know what? They're not as experienced.

Some of them weren't. And you're a perfectionist. And I wanted to make sure everything was. So Humble's talking to me for about three or four minutes. And there was this one server. Her name was Janna. Wonderful lady. Young lady.

And she didn't take kindly to Humble coming into the location because Humble stayed there about two minutes. So she asked me after. She said, do you know that gentleman? She did not know who he was? No, she didn't. She didn't. You could have dropped the, do you know that gentleman? She did not know who he was? No, she didn't. She didn't. You could have dropped the, do you know who I am? No, but he just yammered, and then he couldn't see that I wasn't initiating.

So he just, okay, I'll see you later. So he walks out, and this girl, Jana, says to me, who is that gentleman? And I could see she was steamed. Do you know that he shouldn't be belonging in here? And I said, you know what? I just met him that night. He's a vagrant. He wandered off of Jarvis. I just met him that night. I don't know anything about him, but you know what? I'll tell him not to, not to come in here. Yeah. We'll stop feeding the homeless. So as we're going through this,

we're going through the plating and I guess they serve our table, which I'm not at, which is with humble. Now I get word that one of the persons there, and I think it was Dahl, didn't get her dish yet. And that's Fred's wife. And that's Fred's wife because we hadn't started serving the fish. So they tell me, and I said, we'll get to it very shortly. And who gets the fish? You got beef and chicken.

Who's getting the fish? Well, it was Dahl getting the fish. Dahl got the fish. Dahl got the fish. So they wouldn't start eating until Dahl got her fish. So what ends up happening? Who comes into the door again? And it is Humble.

And I'm thinking, holy shit. So here he comes through. He grabs a plate. Now, he doesn't push people out of the way, but he nudges people. And he starts serving himself and talking as he's doing it. Now, as he's doing this, this girl, Jonna, steam is coming out of her ears. You could see if she looks good. I wish she was on this podcast.

I'd put her on this third mic. Oh, man. And he's just talking as he's going along. And, oh, this is wonderful. What is this? What state is he in at this point? Could he walk a straight line? He was, you know, the first time he came in, he was a little loose.

Now he's looser, if that's a word. So he's a little cut. And he's coming in, and he's coming in and he's just talking as he he just grabs a plate starts serving doing everything himself doing everything and he's not and everyone just stops what they're doing and watch he thought it was a buffet buffet and everyone stops and watches him and it's dead silence and he's just talking and saying oh what's this here let me grab a little bit of this little bit of and he just walks up has anyone else done this and he's the only one who's come to self-serve.

He's the only one. And there's 100 people at this wedding. He's the only one. He's been back there now a few times, and he's loading up. Okay. So the second time. So now this girl has hit red. Okay.

He's hit code red. So she says to me, tell that guy not to come in here again. I said, I don't know him. I'll get word out there that he cannot come in she says if he does i will personally throw him out beautiful so i said listen you know what don't worry about it and i don't know i just got busy again and then we're almost on our last plates and we're just getting ready i think it was just the last few. And in comes Humble. This is the third time. And he's really, he's a little ripped. So he comes in and he knows that that girl, John, I guess he did it to whatever.

He knows that girl just cannot see him. So at that point, I go to the other side of the table. I thought she was going to cost him. So as I'm going there, Humble starts to grab another plate and starts serving himself and putting a whole bunch of food on there. And I thought she was going to grab him. Was he feeding his family out the side door? Is it possible his daughters were lined up? He came up for the third time and he came up for the second time for another meal.

This was for himself. And he says it. And as he's doing it, he's just talking and he's nudging these people out of the way. And they're just watching him. They're not saying a word. But this girl, John, is ready to jump on him. Oh, I i wish so as he's doing it i'm trying to escort humble out i could see her at the back and i says listen just relax and i'm starting to escort humble he's going out hoping that there's not going to be any altercation that's hilarious oh man and so uh did he come back

for a fourth round or just the three are you kidding no then he's the only one though he's the only one who came back. And that was it. And that was it. And that was it. All that happened, that was it, and he didn't come in again. Now, he was enjoying himself because last episode of Toronto Mic'd, this podcast you're on, featured his lady friend Amanda Watson, who was at your table.

And she was telling me that, yeah, they were, you know, he was drinking and that she wanted him to make a speech and then she prodded him to make this speech. Actually, Amanda, you know, I listened to the podcast. She was wonderful. That was the first time I met her. I can understand why Howard really gets along with a wonderful, wonderful girl. Anyways, she is coaxing Howard.

But Howard really doesn't want to make a speech. Or he does. He's just saying that he doesn't. But then Fred is egging him on, and so am I. So we're almost egging him on and saying, humble, humble. So he's really getting riled up. And I think your brother had just said his speech. Yes, Ryan made a speech, yes.

Now, you have to understand, Humble, he's loose. I mean, he's loose as he's going to do this, but I think he really wanted to make the speech. So as he's going up there, we're egging him on, he goes up there, and there is a point when he makes the speech where I think he completely loses the crowd. So as he's saying it, he turns toward i don't know how he's segregated first of all you know first of all monica uh completely managed the table arrangements okay now we did it like the one table was my softball team so i get that but you know what what you had on that you had half yeah you know because she put her family her family believe it or not her family is of filipino, her family is of Filipino descent.

All of them. Of course. Almost all of them. And they were all sitting together. So yes, one half of this room is Asian and the other half is white. Remind me of an Italian wedding because what they do is they have half the family on one side, half of the other family on the other side, which is fine. I understand that.

But as Howard is doing this, he turns to the right and he's getting reaction but as he goes to the left his left and turns to them and walks with the mic they just stone faced him wow dead silence because i i'm only facing howard and i'm enjoying the speech because it made me laugh but i didn't see the reaction there was they were just stone faced and i was i was looking at everyone. They were just staring at him. It was like a deer in the headlights. So there was a certain point that I always wanted to ask Howard. At what point did he know that he had completely lost the crowd? You know, he still references it all the time.

So it was like he was walking in there and they were dead silent. So he gives, you know what, he gives a funny, it was a funny joke. I thought it was really, really funny. And no one laughs. So at that point, he knew that he had lost it. Do you remember the joke? So he gives a funny joke. I thought it was really, really funny. And no one laughs. So at that point, he knew that he had lost it. Do you remember the joke? It was about, I don't know, don't feel bad.

Don't feel bad about not understanding Ryan's speech or something to that effect. We didn't understand a thing either. And as he's saying that to them, I mean, referencing that they didn't understand't feel bad but you know what it was a funny joke i don't know why i i think amanda felt bad but you know what it was but amanda didn't feel bad about alienating filipinos it was amanda felt bad that it was a it was kind of knocking my brother's speech which was a beautiful speech by a beautiful man it was you know You know what? It was a wonderful speech. Because you can knock the Filipinos all you want, but Ryan's out of bounds. I thought Amanda was referencing

that she felt she apologized to Monica for offending the Filipinos. Oh, maybe. Maybe both. You know what? It was just a joke. It's comedy. Hey, I laughed. I was cool with it. If it had been a knock against white Torontonians of Irish descent,

I would have laughed my ass off. But the reaction that he received after where there was dead silence and not a laugh on that side, that's when he gave up the mic and walked out. And it was at our table. We were bursting out laughing. Listen, when the mics get turned off,

I'll tell you about the reaction to that speech. It's like, it's not even, I can't you about the reaction to that speech. It's not even, I can't even tell you while we're recording that's how amazing, how awesomely amazing and unbelievable the rest of the story is. You know what? I thought it was funny. I would have, if he

would have made a reference about Italians or something like that, it was funny. Humble is very funny. He's always making Jew jokes, if you will like he it's self-deprecating he is he's very self-deprecating and you know what he can laugh at himself and that's you know they're sensitive that's a sensitive culture of all the cultures i've been like uh associated with which is funny the filipino culture is a very insecure and sensitive culture now did your speech pref? Okay, now we should move on

to my next topic. Okay, so all in all, on this beautiful night, you had a good time. Wonderful. Carmela Soprano had a good time. Soprano had an awesome time, too. And it still brings up great storytelling memories to this day. Yes. You know what?

Honestly, Mike, that was a special night. And my speech, by the way, I've had, I went to Edmonton with Monica recently and we sat down with a bunch of her old friends and I told my speech to this group who in this environment were going to be straight up and honest. They were going to tell me, everyone says funny, not offensive in the least.

Nobody finds it offensive. It's not about whether it was funny or offensive. It was, was your speech before Humble's? Or was it after? I believe it to be before because we had scheduled speeches and Humble was the only non-scheduled speaker. Now I can understand why there was deadpan

when Humble went into it. Oh, they were already... Your speech was... Like, should we tell people the line? Because there's only one controversial line. No, I don't... Well, it was... I'm speaking as a father

and someone from whatever... When your 32-year-old daughter gets married. It's not about that. To someone she's living with. You know what? It was, you're very honest. That's what I like about you

is you're very honest. Listen, my seven-year, well, she was eight, I guess. My eight-year-old was in the room. I understand that. And I still was comfortable you saying that line. If I was the father of the bride,

I would have still found it a little inappropriate. He, I have video of him laughing at the line and the,, I would have still found it a little inappropriate. I have video of him laughing at the line. It's not about that. Fine, but the person, it's not him who has the issue. But anyway, once I turn off this mic, I'll tell you everything. We'll have dinner.

Whomever, whomever did. It was just, it was funny. But it was a great night. It was a fantastic night. We had a great time. You did. You planned it well, and it was a lot of Monica. Not for that you didn't have a hand in it, a great night. It was a fantastic night. We had a great time. You did. You planned it well, and it was a lot on Monica. Not for that you didn't have a hand in it, but Monica did an absolutely superb job.

And she's happy, and everybody's happy. Perfect. Now, do you still rock? Oh, my goodness. I'm looking at your phone on the table. I was going to ask you. You were a staunch BlackBerry guy. Yes.

I've been for years. You defended it forever, yeah. For about, as soon as it launched, I even had the one where they had the rotary dial on the side. Of course. I had that old one first. Is that the blue one? Because I had the blue one. That was the blue one.

That was my first phone. Yes, that one. And I kept on going with BlackBerry, always updating it. And recently, just because what was happening with the market, and I don't know if they'd be able to support it further down the road, I decided to jump to Samsung. Okay, so is that a Samsung Galaxy S3? Four.

Four? Wow. Okay, so Monica has the S3, and I have the, it's an S1, but it's called an Infuse. But what do you think of it? I like it. I think it's really good. I think that the operating system is the one thing that attracted me. You have to get used to it. Once you've been a BlackBerry user for so long and had the keypad, it was a little different on this, on the touchscreen.

This is exciting to me because I went from BlackBerry and I had a bold and a curve and I was all over the BlackBerry. And then about two years ago, I got a Samsung Galaxy running Android. And I remember after a day of using it, I remember feeling like my phone had the internet. Like it was like, it was like all of a sudden you were on the web. Whereas before it was always tricky or cumbersome or unnatural. Like it never felt like you were connected. Well, I think that their focus was on the business crowd. And you know what? This phone is something that you can use now. Everybody, I mean, everyone has a smartphone. It's funny that I think it was five years ago they had 50% of the smartphone market was that uh sounds about right yeah and now

they've got less than 10 or less it's about five so yeah they're losing out to like windows now they're losing out and you know what it was just unfortunate because i like to support a canadian company um but at the end of the day it just had to be feasible for what i needed it for emails and everything else and just being able to go onto the internet and and so forth so it's funny because it's like yeah I consider myself on team android and I'm like a proud and I love android and I'm proud of my android phone and then you have team iphone and so so humble's on team android fred's on iphone uh monica and I are on android but you know elvis is on ip. Rose is going to make an announcement next week that she's leaving BlackBerry. She's not on BlackBerry, but she's got a dumb phone.

It's not a smartphone, and she's going to leave it for, I believe, an iPhone. And this is her big announcement. So it's like I see half my friends are iPhone people, and they're happy, and half my friends are Android people, and they're happy. So it seems like everyone's happy as long as they're not running BlackBerry. are Android people, and they're happy. So it seems like everyone's happy as long as they're not running BlackBerry. Unfortunately, that's the situation right now, and if you remember, I sent you an email

on what you thought of your Samsung. I do remember, and you took my advice. Yes, I'm very honored. I thought about that, and I said, you know what, a lot of people do like it. Why did Rosie take my advice? Well, we'll find out next week. We'll find out next week.

And I had a question about the BlackBerry. I'm going to really quickly play something, and I don't know if this will be interesting or not. If this sucks, I'm going to actually edit it out, okay? But you are a fan of radio. Yes. And you're a smart guy, so you're aware of how phony baloney most radio is.

Like, if they're doing some kind of a contest or having people call in, you must be aware that most of the time this is staged and just ridiculous nonsense usually okay so i happen to have like old archived uh audio from humble and fred shows of past like these are mp3s of old shows like from 04 05 06 i don't remember how i got these i think i think i went to Humble's house in 06 and he gave me a disc or something and I ripped it and it's in my iTunes. So this thing comes on.

I'm going to play it now. And this randomly came on literally like two days ago. This came on. 16 after 7 o'clock. I was having a massage about a month ago from this huge, wonderful woman named, I think, LaCoura or something. I don't know.

And she said to me, are you Aquarius? huge, wonderful woman named, I think, So this is Humble Howard. or something, I don't know. On that Lana, Nick's 99 show. And she said to me, are you Aquarius? I said, yeah, as a matter of fact, I am. She said, I could tell. I said, what do you think?

And I'm going to let it go a little bit because my soundboard, I'm not sure how to fast forward. I'm hungry. What's happening? Hi, Shannon, how are you? Listen, this is Shannon calling

and listen. You heard me talking about that. No, you think, you know, men are always thinking about, you know. Well, we know that. What are women thinking? You know what? I'm probably going to get in trouble from every other woman in the world, but we think about the same thing.

You do not. We do. Okay, well, just the social deviance of us. You think dirty thoughts, too? I think about naughty bits on the bus just like you. You're a bad girl. You listen to Humble and Fred show. Do you recognize that voice? That is.

Oh my goodness. So you actually have some thoughts too. You know what? I actually had to go to a massage therapist myself a couple years ago. I had like a really minor whatever car accident and the guy was... Eileen. Eileen.

It's Eileen. Yeah, so playing... Anyways, this randomly shows up and I go, I know that voice. Where do I know that voice from? I'll bring it down now, but it's basically a staged call from Eileen

who worked at the mix at that time and worked with Howard behind the scenes faking, pretending she's Shannon calling in on some topic that they were talking

about how did you get this yeah i i he gave me a disc or something in 06 when i was at a palatial estate in oakville anyway it randomly comes on i'm like i know that voice that's eileen who now is on the podcast and used to work there at the time i guess but i just thought i'm gonna play this for il duche because it's just like tells you how phony baloney it all is. How contrived and ridiculous it is. That's Shannon calling in to discuss when she thinks about sex at a massage or whatever. It's Eileen doing a stage call in the other room. Eileen was doing the call.

Yeah, that's Eileen. Pretending to be Shannon set up there to create content. It's all phony. Maybe her name was Shannon at the time. No, that, that is, she probably called in probably every other day when nobody noticed.

Uh, do you have any predictions about, uh, our Maple Leafs as we, I think they're going to be, I think they're going to be in tough injury free. I think that they can make the playoffs. Um,

but it's going to all depend on Bernier and what he does. I think it's going to be all up to Goldstein. So you're putting it up to Bernier. Fine, but why is it that management doesn't trust James Reimer to be the number one guy when he was awesome last year? I don't think he is, though. But why? I want to understand. I'm a big Reimer guy. I almost feel like I'm rooting against Bernier because I want

Reimer to get the gig. But it becomes an emotional attachment. If you look at what he did and what he has problems with his glove hand, it's important. You've got to look at the style of goaltending, and I don't think that he could lead this team to the next level. That's just my honest opinion.

But why do we think Bernier's the guy when he's always been a backup? But you have to remember, he lost his job because of injury. So it wasn't that they were... Bernier? Yeah, I think he lost his job. I think he just happened to be behind Jonathan Quick.

No, I think he lost it. I think he was originally the number one. I think he lost his job back then to he just happened to be behind Jonathan Quick. No, I think he lost it. I think he was originally the number one. I think he lost his job back then to Jonathan Quick. And then, of course, Jonathan Quick took hold of the reins and completely knocked him out. Now, if you're comparing them, I think Bernier's got an edge. I think Leafs' success will depend on goaltending. So whomever that can be, if it's James Reimer, if it's Bernier,

it's all going to depend on that. I think defense were solid too. We signed Franzen today. Yep, 2 million. So we're pretty deep. We have a cap issue, but I think, who is it? Lyles, I guess Lyles is making a lot of money. Apparently, Loisel was on, I think he was on TSN 1050 right now

when I was coming over, and he says, that's just media stuff. We're not over the cap. We're going to be under the cap starting the season. Well, that's good. Yep. I don't want to lose sleep over these cap issues. No, no, no. They're not going to have cap issues. Everything's going to be fine. Any more questions

for me? Actually, why do you like The Wire better than anything else? That's the one thing I want everyone to know. Okay. And you think you're talking about The Sopranos, right? Yeah. Okay. So I have watched The Sopranos in its entirety. I loved The Sopranosanos anyone who wants to search for sopranos on toronto mic.com well the glowing i loved that show in a way i love a few shows i can count on one hand the shows i talk about like that i think sopranos might be my third favorite show ever third now yeah well it was always third because i always had six feet under a little bit higher. I actually like six feet under a little bit more. So did I. And I got Breaking

Bad in fourth. And I hope it wraps up strong because it's a strong fourth. But Breaking Bad, which you're following that one? I am. Absolutely. So Sunday is going to be exciting. Very exciting. Number one, and you can see the DVD set behind me on that bookshelf. The Wire is just a better show. Like it's just a deeper, more in captivating, enthralling, smarter show that says more and does more. And it's a show I could watch many, many times. Sopranos I could watch maybe once or twice, but I can watch The Wire,

literally I could watch it a hundred times and get a bunch of stuff out of it the hundredth time. It just, I, and it's art, right? It's hard to match. And it's personal. And we are talking about a show, The Sopranos, that I have as number three, which means this is a show I love. I love The Sopranos. I just happen to love The Wire more. That's personal. But the one thing I can say is that Sopranos made all these other shows possible. It was a groundbreaking, I don't think we really understand how groundbreaking it was at the time to allow shows like The Wire, Breaking Bad,

other shows like that to be. Oh, I don't deny that. You could probably argue that The Wire doesn't get five seasons if it's not for The Sopranos. No. I think that's a fair argument. And The Wire was a good show.

It was an excellent show. So did you watch all 60 episodes of The Wire was a good show. It was an excellent show. So did you watch all 60 episodes of The Wire? Yes, I did. And is it a top five show for you? For me, it would be. Okay. So we're in the same boat.

We love two shows. You love one more than the other. Yes. Yeah. But they're both fantastic shows. But anyone who talks about how much they love Breaking Bad or talks about The Sopranos or whatever, I just say, you know, please do me a favor and try The Wire. To a T, they all have come back to me

and thanked me. You know, thank you. That is a magic show. You've been saying it for a long time and you know what? I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt because I haven't been able to watch The Wire. I never put myself through it.

But you know what? The Wire is one of those shows that you have to watch three or four episodes at a time. And that's what I did with that. And I really, really enjoyed it, starting from season one all the way to season five. I think season five was a little soft. No, you're right. Four is my favorite season.

And then five is a little uneven because there's a couple of storylines which are, like, everything's so realistic in The Wire. And then there's a couple of storylines that you have to kind of, it's a little convenient. I think because they had to wrap it up. I think that they had to wrap it up and close it down so that's why but that's not bad for a 60 episode five season you know arc there that we got a like a little bit of maybe that's a little little contrived or convenient in season five but otherwise the show brilliant and what i like about the wire is that season two and season one are so different and then then three comes back a bit of one, but still different, but similar. But then four is completely different again. Like, it kept changing up.

We're looking at gangsters, and we're looking at cops. And the next thing you know, we're looking at the schools. Sorry, the docks first. You got the docks. The docks. Yes. That was really good. Which was amazing.

And then you got the schools. And the next thing you know, you're in City Hall. Like, it was the whole city. That was what was special about that is that it changed seasons. It changed areas. I always say areas because it started with docks. It went to City Hall. It went to gangs.

It changed areas. So you saw the whole part of Baltimore, which was really neat. And it was filmed there as well. And actually, my favorite character, well, one of my favorites. There's so many great characters in The Wire, but Jimmy McNulty was one of my favorite character well one of my favorites there's so many great characters in The Wire but Jimmy McNulty

was one of my favorite characters he was and then in season 4 he disappears he went to film a movie or something and he actually

is hardly in season 4 and season 4 is my favorite season so it's like imagine The Sopranos if Tony disappears for a season how's that season

never would have happened because Tony's here my friend and that brings us to the end of our 50 second show for a season. How's that season? Never would have happened. Because Tony's here, my friend. And that brings us to the end of our 50-second show. You can follow me on Twitter

at Toronto Mike and Anthony at Lasagna King. See you all next week. I want to take a streetcar downtown.