Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Toronto Mike'd #57

Episode Date: December 6, 2013

Mike and another Mike almost come to blows (trust me, it's intense) and commenter Ben tells us why he won't use a grocery divider.

Welcome to the 57th 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 Michael Muzzin from iTechs. And hosting this audio file are the good people at Core Fusion. Welcome back, Michael Muzzin. and it's great to be back you know you're filling in for rosie but as far as i'm concerned you're worthy of having your own podcast you know what i appreciate that i i really would like my own podcast one day in fact i i almost kind of consider rosie is filling in for me with these shoes just too big to fill for her she thinks that as well so you're on the same page rosie i love you rosie doesn't listen when she's not on oh well i've actually learned this is that right we can like say anything we

want about her and she'll never ever hear about it what's up with her hair anyway her hair is awful isn't it oh shoot no uh rosie's lovely in, next week when she's back, we have a story. We bumped into each other at a grocery store recently. Did it hurt? And it hurt. And I'm going to tell the tale next week. My friend Michael Muzzin, we lost an iconic figure in the world yesterday. Gretzky's still alive. You know, I was thinking, you know, in my head, I was thinking, so Nelson Mandela passed away.

Gretzky's still alive. You know, I was thinking, you know, in my head, I was thinking, so Nelson Mandela passed away. And then I was thinking, okay, there's no bigger figure internationally when it comes to, you know, heroic icons. There is no one bigger than Nelson Mandela. The closest I could come up with was Muhammad Ali. And then I realized, okay, so that's internationally. If we bring it just to Canada, you know, the biggest icon, in my opinion, in Canada right now is Wayne Gretzky. Yeah, I agree. The ambassador for Canada on a world level, a worldwide level. I agree with that assessment. But, yeah, you know, it's funny when you consider the impact that Nelson Mandela has had over the last, obviously, many, many decades.

What he's done and what he's been, he's been able to do, what he's stood for for so long or what he stood for, obviously profound, obviously a tremendous impact that it's, it's just touched so many lives, millions and millions and millions of lives. But to lose him, you have to say is obviously very, very sad. But, but then again, it goes back to the old adage of, Hey, he lived to 95, you know, and obviously many of those, many of those 95 years were a struggle, but he obviously did a lot of good with the years that he was not in a struggle. It's hard to believe when he was released, we were, you're only a little younger than me, so we were teenagers when he was released from prison in 1990, and he was 71 years old. And at the time, I remember reading at the time in the paper, because we didn't have the internet back then.

Did you know that? No. Okay. We had the bulletin board stuff, but that was about it, right? I read it like on dead trees. I read this. They said one of the reasons he was released is because they didn't want him to die in prison. I remember reading that.

Somebody said they didn't want him to die in prison because he'd become a martyr. So they let him out at 71. It's hard to believe how much he did since 1990. I don't know what the math is. I'm not that bright, but I'm thinking it's like 23 years. Yeah, 23, 24 years. Not bad, right? It's pretty good.

And I don't have a calculator. You can vouch that for the audience. That's right. You have a laptop with multiple mathematical tools at your disposal. Come on. But Nelson Mandela, is there a bigger figure internationally in terms of icon? This is the kind of man

who can sit down a staunch Leafs fan and a staunch Habs fan and get them to embrace and cooperate together. That's the kind of man Nelson Mandela... I disagree. I'm telling you, I think he could do that.

I disagree. So is there a bigger icon? I don't know. I haven't really thought of it from that point of view. I will say this, though. When I was at the Leafs game last night, Leafs won 3-2 in overtime. When I was there, they had a moment of silence before the game for Nelson Mandela.

I saw that on the National last night. They showed that they had a moment of silence. I thought that was quite interesting. That's how big he is. But I almost, I did, part of me thought this is inappropriate. This shouldn't be at a hockey game. But then the other part of me thought that this does speak to the impact he had on so many lives. So you thought, for a moment, you thought, this is not a hockey figure.

He has nothing to do with hockey. Why are we remembering him? Yeah. Because let's say something happened to, I don't know, Stephen Harper, let's say. They would definitely do it for Stephen Harper, but you're saying that's a national thing. That's a Canadian thing.

Nelson Mandela was South African. He's a leader for a country. Of course they would do something. What if Jean Chrétien passed away yesterday? Would they have had a moment before the leave game? Yeah, because again, he used to be the leader of our country. You know, that to me is appropriate. You know, what may be another question might be is if something happened to like a Barack

Obama or something happened to, I don't want, you know, I guess, you know, now we'll never know, but if something happened to the Pope, to me that almost equates to Nelson Mandela because he actually is a worldwide leader of some degree. So to me that would be a good comparison. But you came around quickly to understanding why this was appropriate. Yeah, I'm sympathetic to the situation, so I was fine with it. But I just thought it was odd. In the words of the great Bob McCallum, it raised a Spockian eyebrow.

Oh, the great Bob McCallum. He thinks he's pretty damn great. He does, but he is great. I now listen to the podcast because I used to listen. First of all, I'm never in a car anymore. I used to have drive time while he was on, and I would usually tune him in and hear what's going on uh now that i'm like i never drive anywhere i now will if i have time which is rarely actually that i get to this because i have other podcasts ahead of it in my

priority listening sequence but if i have time i'll throw on bob mccowan's podcast no commercials perfect yeah it's you know you have to go back a day. Yeah. So today, I guess you could hear yesterday's show, but that's my new, my new discovery in the podcast front. Yeah. No, I really enjoy his show. I think he's insightful and he covers a lot of ground and he's,

you know, I think he's tolerant, but yet he's also impatient. So it's quite interesting to hear him go through the motions. And before i just before we leave nelson mandela i just want to urge everyone and maybe i should ask you first have you ever seen the 30 for 30 documentary uh the 16th man about the 95 world cup of rugby um i haven't seen it i know what it is now that he has passed i will probably watch it but uh no no huge

desire to run out and see it now, no. Yeah, all the 30 for 30s you should run out and see now. I've seen quite a few. I would pause this to let you. But that's actually, regardless of whether he's alive or dead, that is one of the top 30 for 30 docs in my humble opinion. Oh, well, I will check it out. So I just posted it just to let the listeners know.

I posted the HD full-length version on torontomic.com. So if you... Is that illegal? Posting, it's not illegal. I don't know who uploaded it, but... Oh, okay. Fair enough. So you posted a link to it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't actually upload it, but I posted it on YouTube. It's on YouTube. I embedded it. So if you haven't seen The 16th Man, it's got a lot of Mandela youtube i'm it's on youtube i embedded it so uh if you haven't seen the 16th man it's got a lot of mandela content and it's a magnificent story it's that's one of those too good to be true but is true and you really need to watch this and that's the connection to the motion picture of invictus is that yes oh yeah yeah that's right so invictus

is good too but this is actually way better actually i liked invictus until i saw this doc and then i i now would go back to this doc and not invictus but invictus was pretty good too i guess morgan freeman was nelson mandela and invictus right yeah and how good is he i mean he's amazing and there's i know the stringer bell from my favorite show of all time the wire which you have not seen i don't know what that is dude the stringer stringer okay that's all i need to know about you this podcast is over stringer string bellringer Bell is going to play Nelson Mandela, I believe, in a biopic that debuted yesterday night, of all things.

So that's just... This is The Longest Yard, is it not? Something like that? Yeah, something like that. Yeah. One final thing is I was a big rap fan in the late 80s and early 90s. What did you think of rap music in the late 80s?

And what do you think of it now? What do you think of rap? You know, it's funny you say that. I have a much greater appreciation for rap now and what rap and what hip-hop did at that time. I have a much greater appreciation now than I've ever had. I just think it was a great addition to the music,

you know, scene, if you will. And I think it's great. I miss some of that simple rap. Your pro rap. So I was a big public anime guy, but I also listened to a lot of Ice Cube and a lot of Ice-T. And this is an Ice-T song from his, I guess, 91, but it's the OG original gangster original gangster album by ice t he had a cut on it called prepared to die and like i instantly it was very easy to memorize these lyrics and i used to do a lot of raps believe it or not even wrote raps and i used to rap a lot true i'm sorry do you have any

raw footage of this there's probably somewhere uh i actually uh very quickly was able to do the prepared to die rap. It's like 39 seconds long and it was about Nelson Mandela. And I'm going to play it now in its entirety because I'm guessing almost nobody listening to this podcast knows prepared to die by ice tea. So if this is too loud for your headphones, feel free to take them off. But 39 seconds of ice tea starting now. Watch me flip and rip on the freedom tip.

Open your mind, see the point of the ice pick. I stand tall while my brothers still choose to crawl. Black power, it's in effect, y'all. But you don't understand, you're still a slave to the man. Prepare for revolution. Some suckers say we're free, I gotta disagree. Half my posse's in the penitentiary. So I'ma drop and kick the science with defiance.

Because I have no alliance with suckers who choose not to act black when they are black. Get out my face with that. You better ease back because Mandela did 27 hard ones, not in a window room, but in a barred one. While his wife had tears in her eyes, the man is a hero. He needs a Nobel Prize, but that'll never happen. So I'm going to keep rapping free of my brother's minds from their entrapment to silence the ice. They'll probably put a bullet in me, but I'm prepared to die. Mandela's free. Put a bullet in me, but I'm prepared to die Mandela's free. So there you go. And at that time, of course, there's a line in there that says,

the man is a hero. He needs a Nobel Prize, but that'll never happen. Well, it did happen. It did happen. And shortly after the song came out. Shortly after the song came out. So perhaps we could thank Ice-T for Nelson Mandela's Nobel Peace Prize. And thankfully, he's now solving crimes in New York City.

That's correct. And doing bad reality shows, solving crimes in New York City. That's correct. And doing bad reality shows, I hear, with his wife. Coco. Right. Who Monica met in Vegas fairly recently and was too nervous to ask him to take a picture with her. Oh, really? True story. But her sister got a picture of him. Okay, so moving on.

Nelson Mandela, even though he's 95 it still was sad to to hear about it and uh but it's been interesting revisiting his life and the man we should all be inspired by this man we should all be more like mandela and that's all i'm gonna say about that um i wanted to talk to you mr muzzin uh we become uh good friends i like you. I like you too. In fact, we actually play together. With sticks. With sticks on ice. Let me clarify, on ice. On ice, yeah, not field hockey.

Or any other way. We play for the Cherry Hawks. The Cherry Hawks, which if you don't know, is an homage to Don Cherry. We're not out there searching for virgins, like virgin hawks. You know, I never thought it could be that, but thank you for clarifying. I never thought of that. That was one of my first questions.

So why Cherry Hawks? Because we're searching for virgins? Who named it? We're not. I did. It was really about, hey, we have Black Hawk sweaters, but I love Don Cherry, so Cherry Hawks. Nice.

And so I want to just have a quick discussion about labels we apply to people who think differently on certain subjects and you're the perfect guy yeah you're the perfect guy to have this chat with because um we you're actually right now my only friend who i would consider a friend who has sort of ideologically aligned himself in a way dramatically different from my own. Now, I'm going to just preface this by saying I've never considered myself a lefty, okay? But you do play left wing and you are left wing. But I should be a right wing. I actually had a game, a fun little pickup game on the weekend where I played right wing and it actually felt more natural i might be playing the wrong wing we

should probably talk about this offline we'll talk about this okay we'll do some some cherry hawk game strategy and again not searching for virgins go on so uh i i am new to the cherry hawks and in the dressing room it's quite literally people will walk in one of your good friends uh andrew yes andrew will come in and say... Also a fellow righty. Will pretty much say, hello, lefty. So you're a left... I think the last time I was in the dressing room, he said... And I'm not going to say too much about the dressing room

because I firmly believe what happens in the dressing room should stay in the dressing room. Just like Vegas. Like Vegas, baby. I'm not going to call anybody out for anything they said because that's like a place of... Yes, just like Vegas or church. Everything stays there,

but he did. I think the first question I got was, so, so are you really a lefty or are you, so you're a lefty, eh? And I just wanted to talk to you about these labels. So the a in there,

don't you? Yeah. Well, I think that's what he said. So, and I like him and he's great teammate and I like everybody on that team, but it's feels a lot like what I would call Ford nation in there. There's a lot of,

uh, talk about, and some stuff I think I can say, but there's talk about the media and police conspiracy against the mayor, Rob Ford. And I guess I wanted to have a little chat with you as sort of a representative of this righty. A, why are we all divvying up, like throwing our sticks and saying you're right, you're left? Why do we all divide with these labels? Which I don't understand. I've never considered myself a lefty because I wouldn't vote for someone because of the party they represent. I've never.

And municipal politics doesn't even have parties. Like, you can say, oh, yeah, well, Ford would be a PC guy if he was provincial. But I never thought. You can say Miller was an NDP, and I understand how you map that, but I never went out and voted for David Miller and said, I'm voting for NDP. I just want to understand the labels.

Speak to me about the labels, and then help me understand why that dressing room is full of people who sympathize with Rob Ford and seem to sincerely believe there's some kind of a conspiracy against him. Please continue. Okay, so let's talk about the labels first of all a lot of this said of course in in i'm not sure the best word to use but it's very light it's very light-hearted very ingestive very light-hearted so i believe sincerely that's a that's a big bottle of water you're drinking um that i believe sincerely that

you are as left-wing as they come now that's my belief that's what i see that's what i hear that's i can see it on anything you publish it seems very evident to me which is fine i've i've i've a few i have like a handful of left left handed friends no left hand that's wrong left wing uh friends kind of like uh habs fans i have like a room for five that's maxed out right now and you're in that category can i ask what what makes you say that what do you mean like okay for example i i mean i do own a car and i will drive it if i need to get somewhere where i can't you know bike or walk sure and i'm not as you see like i don't have solar paneling everywhere. It's a pretty normal home in Toronto. I don't ever go up.

It wasn't part of Occupy Wall Street. I wasn't sleeping in parks to protest anything there. So I'm left-wing because I think... A lot of your views align yourself with a left-wing type policy. Left-wing views. So therefore... Can you tell me some of the views that are right versus left? Just throw a few out there.

Because one of them I suspect is, of all things, bicycling. Is that just you being funny? Or do you sincerely believe that lefties bike and righties don't? I'm just curious. Well, it's not as black and white as that. But for certain, there's a stronger stronger contingent of cyclists if you will that are left wing versus right wing for sure 100 do you think that's because down city for downtown is more left wing and then the you know we're in etobicoke right now like etobicoke would

be more right wing and basically there's less biking in etobicoke because of the way uh like how far it would be i don't think there's less people to get to work from. I don't think there's less for that reason. I just think that, but I think your assessment's correct in terms of the geographic political landscape of Toronto. That's fair. I think that's accurate in terms of what you describe. You know, I'm not,

and a lot of it is said in a teasing manner and speaking to the change room, you know, a lot of it's said in a speaking manner. Yes, you know, a lot of your views are very anti-Ford, which is fine. But they always have been. This isn't a new development. Oh, no, I'm not suggesting it's new.

I'm just saying that a lot of the views are anti-Ford, which is fine. Don't get me wrong. I think the man should resign. Do you understand why a reasonable person, regardless of right or left, might be anti-Ford? Do you understand where that might come from? Oh, absolutely. But you have to realize, too, this whole hunt that I believe that has occurred and is occurring, this was before the allegations

and the admissions came out. This was happening long before that. So my point is that, you know, whether somebody hates Ford or they love Ford, this was all happening before that. Only the implosion of Rob Ford in the last few weeks has only, has only fueled that fire.

So let me, and let me just go on record. I think the man should resign immediately. In fact, I think the man should resign and head to Hollywood on a one way ticket, not come back and get every John Candy and Chris Farley role there is because he is, he's a physical comedy on,

on two feet. The man could be in tons of movies and do very, very well. So why, if you think he should resign, why do you think it's a witch hunt? Because it sounds like you're essentially saying that he's a witch. You have to realize, well, maybe...

Is it a witch hunt if there is actually a witch? Well, it's just terminology. You could say it's a ford hunt if you want. Why do you think there has always been a ford hunt? Okay, I'm not going to go there for a second. I just want to say this. I just think that that's what the man should do. What he's done is completely inappropriate.

The way he's conducted himself is completely inappropriate. He's embarrassed the city, although he's put a billion dollars worth of media attention on himself in Toronto. The reality is that he should resign. We don't want that for our city. We don't want a leader like that. Because you're a business owner. You're a businessman. Of course. You don't want Rob Ford representing your city. Absolutely not.

But having said that, the work that he has done while he's been in office, he's actually been quite good. Can you tell me what he's done? No, I'm not going to go there. It doesn't matter. Because you know why? Because there's no facts behind that. Because I hear this from the Ford Nation people And they talk about what a great mayor he is But there's actually no evidence of him being a great mayor

He just divided the city between suburbs and downtown Here's what's going to happen If you and I get into that It'll just turn into a fight Give me one thing Because I suspect you're going to tell me it's privatization of garbage Because that seems to be the go-to Which of course you know in Etobicoke you had way before Ford was a councillor

I understand. We don't want the listeners to hear a physical fight beat down here in the yellow room. Thug nation, then. Thug nation, whatever you want to call it. The penalty minute nation. So you're not going to give me any idea of why he's a good mayor, but he's a good mayor. The work that he's done is good, despite the drinking and the cocaine and crack. that he's done is a good despite the drinking and the cocaine and crack but i will say this the amount of resources that have been put out to attack him to to trap him to what all those all

those words you want to use you know they're trapping him because he's doing it i understand that but the resources that have been allocated for it have been absolutely preposterous airplane surveillance wire tapping up the yin yangyang. Come on, it's ridiculous. I don't even think we can talk about whether it's ridiculous until we know everything, right? This has been spilling out dribs and drabs. We have to wait until it's all on the table. You know what? It doesn't matter. I think there's way better

content to cover than go over Ford Nation and go over left-wing and right-wing witch hunts and Ford hunts and all that stuff. Then just tell me this, though. Why do you think people have been Ford hunting? I think because he isn't a savvy left-wing politician that can spin things and say things the way a left winger can. Do you think,

uh, we, we Harper hunt? Uh, I think, uh, it's not as, uh,

it's not as, um, prevalent, but I believe that it's there. It seems pretty, I mean, I don't know. I don't, you know, other than the Senate scandal here, which is all, you know, deserved. But look at the newspapers. There's not a lot.

The Harper hunting, the reason there's Ford hunting and not Harper hunting is because it's not Ford hunting. It's idiot liar hunting. Okay, but you could say that for David Miller. No, you could say. You actually cannot. I know. I've got to move on.

I realize we are going to have a fight. No, no, no, no, no, no. You have no no no no no you can't just no no you can't spew stuff out like that give me the david miller lie give me the one he lost a hundred million dollars that's your david miller lie he looked at us and he told us that he was spent he was x when it was really y you can't no one can produce a sound clip of david miller uh knowingly lying to the people of toronto knowingly lied but ford knowingly lies all the people of Toronto. I'm not saying he knowingly lied. But Ford knowingly lies all the time. This isn't about a Ford comparison, is it? I just wanted to know

why you thought he was a good mayor. I wasn't even going to talk about Miller. Here's my point. There's tons of examples. Did you know McGinty is now teaching at Harvard? Did you know this? This is what you Ford Nation guys do and it kills me because we're not talking about McGinty. Can you answer the question?

Can you answer the question? I actually have no idea what McGinty is doing today. No idea. He's teaching at Harvard. Okay. I just learned this. If it's true, it's fine. He has the right to get any job he can get.

That's fine. But my point is that when the left-wing guys, like the Millers and the McGintys, when they mess up, the media does not nearly attack them the way the left-wing attacks the right. There's no doubt about it. You don't think the Liberal Party was attacked over the closure of the gas plants? I'm not saying that they weren't. I'm saying in comparison. All right. We're going to move on because I'm just trying to get you to see the light that this is not a right-wing

this isn't about this podcast isn't about me seeing the light everything that has come to rob ford was because he played in the dirt and he got dirty i'm not disagreeing with the man what the man has done is wrong why he's still you know why he's still uh symbolically at this point an elected mayor is beyond me the man two more questions and then a very light, fun chat with a commenter about why he doesn't use dividers when he goes grocery shopping. So one last thing.

Just tell me what you dislike about cycling because this has nothing to do with Rob Ford. I just want to know what it is you hate about cyclists. They feel that they're entitled and they're selfish.

They all do? Most. I am at a loss for words. You do know cycling is good for everybody. I don't care. It takes people out of cars. It's good for their health. It's good for Mother Earth.

It's got so many benefits. I can't imagine you hating somebody for participating. This isn't about hating people who ride a bicycle. This is about driving along Toronto streets, and you have to watch out for the cyclists because they feel entitled and they're selfish the way they hog the road. But you know they get their own lane. They're a vehicle. It doesn't matter. So you think they shouldn't have a lane.

How many times do you see a cyclist go through a red light? How many times do you see a cyclist go through a stop sign? How many times do you see a cyclist break the law? All the time. And you know what? No one does nothing about it. Well, I think you should encourage people. Are you at a loss for words? I'm sorry. I'm not denying that some cyclists run red lights.

I'm merely saying that I don't think we should. Well, you asked me why I'm against cyclists, and that's why I'm against cyclists on the street like that. Do you know I cycled 14 kilometers today? Congratulations. Can you reach over and pat yourself on the back, or do you want me to do it for you? Do it for me.

There you go. So my point is. Do you know how healthy and how much of a better player i am on the cherry hawks because i cycle every day well you just got bumped on the first line oh shit i forgot i'm talking to the coach okay uh last question it's about your beloved son who is gorgeous because i see him on facebook all the time i see uh him getting bigger and i see him you know now this is what I see him taking baths, but that's going to sound awfully inappropriate.

It's going to sound bad. Yeah, no, there's no inappropriate shots of my son in a bathtub. He, yeah, he's doing great. You know, he's amazing and I'm in love with him and he's just a wonderful addition to my life. I'm so blessed. Would you love him if he cycled everywhere?

I hope he cycles as much as he wants. Would you love him if he were a homosexual atheist cyclist who voted for the NDP party? That would never happen. But if that happened, just theoretically, if he's atheist homosexual cyclist

who votes NDP, would you still love him? No, it would never happen. It doesn't matter. But you'd still love him? It doesn't matter. Just tell me you love him. No, it doesn't matter.

Tell me you love him and we'll move on. It would never happen. You can move on whenever you want, but it would never happen, so it doesn't matter. Okay, love him We'll move on It would never happen You can move on whenever you want But it would never happen So it doesn't matter Okay you want to try this

So we're going to Skype Ben Ben is a long time commenter I've never ever spoken to Ben I've never met Ben But he's standing by via Skype To talk to us about dividers And grocery stores And this is kind of exciting right

He better be a Leaf fan And a right winger Go on I have no idea But I have a feeling He's not going to be a right-winger. Okay, let's do this now. I'm excited. Let's see if all my technology works. So be nice to Ben. He's younger than us.

Be nice to Ben, okay? Promise me you'll be nice to Ben. I might be nice to Ben. We'll find out. Maybe Ben's not there. Ben better be there. We've set this up. I'll be patient. Hello? Ben, you not there. Ben better be there. We've set this up. I'll be patient. Hello? Ben, you're there. Yep.

How are you? You're on the air. Oh, it's my 15 minutes now. I can't give you that long. This is a very time-constrained show. Look, we almost had a... You're going to hear this later, but we almost had literally a bloodbath in here as the right and left wingers collided.

I will say this, and Ben, it's Muzzin. Nice to virtually meet you. I am against guns, so I'll say that, but go on. Ben, he wants to know right off the bat, though, if you're a righty or a lefty. I'm a righty. Atta boy, Ben. A man who's down-to-earth, logical, and sees things in black and white. Yeah, come on. He's right-handed, he's telling us. No, he's not.

No, he's not. You know what? He's telling me the political spectrum in which he lies. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Ben, this conversation is suddenly over. I thought you meant handed. If we were talking political spectrum, then I'm on the left side. Is there a hang-up-the-button? Don the button don't worry ben i'm gonna mute his uh microphone i have some

basic questions for you ben where are you in the world right now and how did you come to learn about uh toronto mike okay i'm i live out in oakville um and uh i kind of came to you in a convoluted way. There was a posting on 102.1 The Edge from Jason Barr linking to a video of Fred's neighbor eating a disgusting hot dog, and then I started visiting freddip.ca, and then from there, when I got bored, I started clicking over on some of the links he had on the side and then came over to your site. You know, that freddip.ca was also,

it evolved to be known as canadianthinker.com and almost regularly I ask Fred to get back to it. Like I thought it was a great little, a little, it did skew a little right wing, which made Muzzin here very happy but i was i love fred i loved reading his rants and stuff and i wish he'd get back to it well i think at the beginning it was a lot more topical and then near the end it became um a lot of what was on there was just solely political in right near the end oh the mcginty stuff got a little extreme i'm

so tired of politics david miller uh with a guy with his head up his ass. Yeah, that's right. That's also accurate. Move on. Yeah, we're going to start our own crossfire here. So watch out. Okay. Now, Ben, you raised quite a stir recently because you had the gonads to say that sometimes you will not use the divider when you're grocery shopping.

Right. Yes. Apparently, I had the audacity to suggest that you didn't need to use it all the time. Now, before I even dive down, go down that rabbit hole, I just want to understand, you called it a baton. Is that what they called it in the store you worked at? You know what? Because I mainly worked when I worked at the Metro slash A&P. It was mainly just I was in the photo department and then I worked cash at the same time. So I don't think there was anybody ever said to you, you need to use the divider or the baton. It wasn't explicitly or implicitly stated that there was a name for it. So that was just the name I kind of gave to it.

Now, we have a lot in common there because I spent five years working at a grocery store in the Galleria Mall at Dufferin and DuPont. And it was a food city. That's how old I am. And then it got turned into a price chopper at the end. But we never called it a baton. I just wondered if you guys had a different name for it, but that explains. No, no, no, no. That just was just what I, I figured I'd call it. So, uh, yeah. And then, uh, I didn't, I didn't realize that it would, it would, uh, it would create such a buzz in terms of all the comments that were coming out on the, the open mic that day. And then, uh, later on when, well, Rosie and I chatted and we have a story next week where we bumped into each other at a grocery store last week which was funny and um she says sometimes she doesn't use it either so she's with you i just think you're both uh incredibly insensitive and

cruel people well that's the nicer way than you put it in your last podcast what did i say you were an asshole right yeah yeah yeah that's quite a difference wait mike muzzin uh do you use the divider when you grocery shop do you grocery shop is that the mrs muzzin job no no i do go to shop although it is rare and um yeah i i mean yeah i'll use it i don't see the big deal i as from a business standpoint i love how they're now putting advertising on it. Oh, that was inevitable. Yeah, anytime they can find some space to advertise.

But there's no reason for you not to use it, except that using it is courteous and helpful. So you will use it. Because you look like a helpful, nice guy. I think I went into a big explanation on the open mic that day. I tend to be a little verbose. But most of the time, i don't put it down i find that people will put it down you know immediately for their you know after their groceries or they'll if i've already stacked mine on they'll

put uh one down to divide my groceries between theirs coming in behind but i never grab one and put one down and usually when i'm loading groceries on that conveyor belt I'm giving enough space between myself and the guy in front of me or the lady in front of me so um it's just you know you run into these odd situations where if you don't put it down um people will kind of stare at you and uh and and and judge you um quite uh and rightly so negatively people need to get their head in shape. And I think it's more funny than anything else because I think that I made the comment, and I think someone else liked it, was that that baton or the dividers, the one thing dividing us from the animals is what it seems like. You're like an anarchist. You're like the Joker in – what did the Joker say? Some people just want to watch the world burn.

I think that's what he said. You just want to light the match and walk away. I think maybe it's just sometimes I'm looking for a little excitement at the end of my grocery trip, and then I just want to see someone's reaction. I think that's what it boils down more to. I was also reading a comment today from Corey on the cloth bag

situation as well when he's shopping oh yeah he uh he he says that uh he'd rather use plastic bags as i recall screw the cloth bag see that's so left wing who gives a shit i find it convenient why would i want more plastic bags when i could just reuse a bag i already have so you can use the pickup dog shit ben do you use uh i don't have dogs ben do you have uh do you have a preference plastic bags or uh cloth i use cloth bags for everything except meats and then i i'll get a plastic bag for the meats oh that's a safety thing yeah potential for the meat juice like dripping down into the bottom of the bag and just sitting there you know and then that makes sense on top but that's otherwise yeah no i've got the three cloth bags they always come with me and uh and then if

i'm getting meat then of course the plastic bags but it doesn't i just don't i don't use them to pick up dog poop because i buy the bags that are you know that decompose for my two dogs so muzzin's uh rolling his eyes at you jesus christ ben i'm joking don't worry about it i called ben an asshole last week but yeah that's that's pretty much uh that's that's pretty much it i mean i think it's just easier to have the cloth bags and i think at the end of the day if you've ever been to the dump um you know you just see the amount of plastic bags that people are just throwing out so even if it takes me five years to go through a cloth bag i mean yeah i think if it takes if it takes you five years to go through a cloth bag then you're way ahead of

the game by going cloth i think that uh cory likes to quote studies where people use their cloth bag like 20 times and then throw it out or something like that but but you know cory's a contrarian uh he's been the commenter for a long time too and and sometimes we agree sometimes we disagree but he's a you know contrarian much like freddie p yeah yeah and there's a couple others on the blog that do that as well yes now uh i don't know if we'll be able to do that we might do this again in the future but i just want to say thanks for being the first commenter we skyped with and it actually sounds really good so oh is is it working well on your end? Yeah, like it's better than a phone. It sounds really good.

Okay, perfect. Well, I guess I can also judge when you post the podcast. Yeah, we'll see if this makes the cut. I might have to do some editing. No, I'm just kidding. This was actually really, really fun. But do me a favor. Can you please start using the divider?

I'll do you one favor, Mike. Next time I'm in the grocery store, I'll take a picture of my food on the conveyor belt and I'll make sure there's a divider there. Screw it. You should use all the dividers. Take them all.

Hog them. Do that. Do that. Take that picture and tweet it at me at Toronto Mike and then I'll post it. That would be awesome. All right.

You'll get one on Sunday. All right. Take care, my friend. Okay, Mike and Mike. That's right. Mike and Mike signing off. Talk to you later. Bye. Bye. Well, that was fun. That was, uh, better than us bashing each other's heads, uh, over, uh, well, it's you who does the bashing. I show up and I show up and you have a political agenda to go over. Mr. Muzzin. I, how often do I have someone sitting in that seat who I didn't realize you were no longer defending the mayor.

I felt like you were still in camp with him. You know, he's going to be part of the parade that's going on tomorrow. I don't even know what parade you're talking about right now. It goes right by my house. What parade is it? It's called the Etobicoke Santa Claus Parade, or no, the Lakeshore Santa Claus Parade,

I think they call it. It's an Etobicoke thing, but along the lakeshore. And it's tomorrow. I'm going because Pinball Clemens and a bunch of stuff and I'm bringing my kids and my nephew's coming, Nate,

but I just found out today Rob Ford's going to be taking part in it. And you're still going to go? Well, that's big of you. He's been at all the Santa Claus parades I've been at

so I'm used to seeing him out there. That's big of you, Mr. Boone. Let's turn it to hockey real quick. I want to find out. I love the Leafs. You love him out there. That's big of you, Mr. Boone. Let's turn it to hockey real quick. I want to find out. I love the Leafs. You love the Leafs. That's common ground we share.

Good God, thank God. And it was a good game you were at last night. It was a great game. We ended the losing streak. Five games is down the tubes. What do you, I know we won yesterday, but having said that, something is wrong. Do you agree there's something wrong with this team?

I can point out three things that, you know, real Leaf fans are going to identify with. Are you ready? I'm ready. We clearly and obviously need an impact number one center. The Bozaks and the Cadres is just pretend. That's not real. That's not good enough.

And I'm not saying that this is going to be something we can easily go and get now. That's fair. You miss Matt Sundin. I don't really miss Matt Sundin, but I miss somebody. Sure. My point is that we need somebody who can obviously dish the puck off appropriately and responsibly on a consistent basis and minimize those turnovers, Kadri.

But put it on Kessel's stick so he can fire the puck at the end on a more frequent basis. Kessel's in love with Bozak, though. There's a group of kids there. I don't care if they're dating. My point is that Bozak is not nearly the player in terms of skill set or even ability that Kessel is. And it's no slight against Bozak. It's just he's just more like a— No, I think that's completely fair.

I think we could use a number one center. He's just more like seems to be more appropriate for a third, maybe a second line center... No, I think that's completely fair. I think we could use a number one center. He's just more like... It seems to be more appropriate for a third, maybe a second line center. No, I agree 100%. My fear with this team, and I know you said three points, so that's one.

We need a number one center. What's your next point? I think the defense is clearly not good enough. Can you elaborate? Because I find... Mark Fraser, Dion Phaneuf, Carl Gunnarsson. Those are my three on the chopping block. I watch all the Leaf games too.

I actually... And don't hit me for this. I think Phaneuf... Like physically? I think Phaneuf, yeah. I think Phaneuf is a good, solid defenseman. And I like him on our team. I like him too.

As a number four, not a number one. So you don't think he's a top two defenseman? No. For this team to win a championship, I don't think he's a top two defenseman? No. For this team to win a championship, I don't think he's a top two defenseman. Yeah, we're so far from that. I'm just trying to get out of the first round. No, I think this team is good enough to win the first round.

Well, we almost did last year. No, but my point is that obviously the goaltending is way superior to what it was last year and i'm not trying to slight scrivens or slight rhymer as a tandem i'm just saying that it's it's far better uh you know it has to be we give up whatever 45 shots a game or whatever that 50 shots last night that was yeah that was awesome if we my my what i've noticed is we don't win unless our goalie is the number one star like so basically basically our goalie has to stand on his head

for the Leafs to actually get the two points. It reminds me a lot of the days when Cujo was here where they had this, you probably know this, there was a stat where if they were outshot by a dramatic amount, their winning percentage was through the roof. But my point is that when you look at what Bernier has brought to the table

and you look at what Reimer seems to be improving on, there's some things Reimer, I think, still needs to improve on, like rebound control. But when you see what Bernier's glove does and you see the way he seems technically more sound than Reimer is, when you assess all that, the goaltending is far better than it was. Now, having said that, it's obvious. If you can see the scoring is there,

you can see our offensive output is pretty good so right away it points to the defense now i don't know this maybe you yeah but even strength offensive output is not very good oh no i'm not i'm not denying that i'm just saying that as far as a top weakness is concerned it's the defense okay give me the third point um well i was going to name players so those okay right off the top was gunnarsson and fraser have to go. But then I'm not saying Dion's a bad player. I think he's playing the best hockey he's played in a long time,

probably since his rookie season. But I still think he's a number four, not a number one. Wow. So we need three defensemen better than FNUF to compete for a cup because we're going to be waiting another lifetime. I can't see us because I think he's such a solid defenseman that I think there's only like, there's only a he's one of the essentially he's at a point where you you won't be able you could never afford it but it would be possible to acquire three defensemen superior to him well yeah but having said that i i think that there are some other

defensemen like like jay gardner who played great before his injury last year. I think he should be getting some more ice time. I think he's a better... The coach hates him for some reason. I don't know. He even did in Anaheim. So my point is that I think that Gardner, for example, I don't think that there's a better Leaf defenseman that brings the puck out of the zone

and has that first pass. I think he's the best defenseman that does that. And I think Riley's probably right there too. Yeah, he'll be good too. He'll be good. I wish they'd let him play in the juniors though. I just feel like, why not let him go do that experience

that may hopefully win a championship? I agree, 100%. Good man. What's your third point? Well, again, I was grouping the players there. Okay, you're right, you're right. Okay, so we are fucked. Why are we fucked?

Like, all these things that are wrong i i don't see any of them being resolved under carlisle's regime here in 2013 no but i i don't think i still think it's a work in progress i wouldn't put it necessarily right under carlisle's regime i would say that as as known as i think known as probably knows the same things that we're talking about and i'm sure he's doing what he can to address it but i think our assets are limited you know do you want to give up a garden do you want to give up a riley i don't know no i hope we don't actually but you realize yeah you do have to give up something to get something so my frustration is if you look at the elite players in the league you basically have to draft these guys like uh it's my frustration is that when a team is lucky enough to get

themselves a crosby or a malcolm just use p to use Pittsburgh as an example, they lock them up and they don't let them go. It's like you have to suck properly. Not the way the Leafs sucked. The Leafs were good at finishing 10th. We were never good at what Pittsburgh and other teams did. Yeah, if there was a draft pick for finishing 10th and number one, it would be great. We would be loaded with Jonathan Taves.

We'd have superstars. But don't forget Crosby, of course, was a lottery. True, a lottery, but coincidentally they sucked. I'm not saying that they... It was a lottery. It was a lottery. But I guess what I'm trying to say is that what's happened is that you have a marketplace that is clearly not a patient marketplace, especially, and understandably so.

But you have a marketplace that says, okay, they buy into, quote unquote, rebuilds. And what ends up happening is inevitably that people get tired of doing for the waiting on the rebuild and then they say well we do give it a good five years i know we will give a we will give a rebuild a good five years before we get tired i think it's more like two or three years how long is burke here i think he was here for four years you know he tried to sue me apparently Apparently. That turned out really well for Burke. Anyways, how's Hazel May?

Anyways, my point is, is that... She's Filipino, you know. Apparently. Do you know Monica is Filipino?

Is related to Hazel May? I don't know. Maybe they're all related maybe at some point. I have no idea. At some point. But I'm just, I'm gonna,

I don't know if you know, I'm having a son is coming. I heard it. I see you in public with his name. The name is public, but I haven't actually put it on a podcast yet. Well, is this your chance? Do you want to put it on a podcast?

Nope. So I haven't actually, I've gone public. You're forgetting. You're my Facebook friend. So you see a public mic. I'm just a Facebook friend? You even sense it? No.

No, but you are a Facebook friend. And you see a digital mic that others don't see in the Toronto Mike world. Toronto Mike, like my friend Ben there, who we just talked to on Skype, he's not my Facebook friend. So I have gone public in that world. Don't be offended, Ben. So I haven't gone public in this world yet. So I'm going to wait a bit.

Maybe if Ben joins the Cherry Hawks, he can be a Facebook friend with you. Ben had a picture in Skype of him playing slow pitch, it looked like. And I mean, I play slow pitch. You play slow pitch it looked like and i mean i play slow pitch you play slow pitch yeah but cherry hawks is a hockey team oh shit that's what i'm doing wrong hey how do you think i'm playing we're gonna i i've had enough leafs talk um so now it's cherry hawks cherry hawks a talk you are a very good hockey player i appreciate that thank you you are a worthy captain uh how am i doing so far just be honest i'm not i just be honest i know what i am my i must the stats uh make me look better than i am and i'm aware of this i just wondered how you think

i'm doing am i getting better yeah i think you are getting better and better um with each with each week i really honestly believe that having said that i think we all have the the forwards as a whole i'm playing everywhere but the forwards as a whole i I'm playing everywhere, but the forwards as a whole, I think are struggling offensively to put the puck in the net. That seems to be pretty evident. But I still think that there's room for improvement. I've looked at the schedule the next few weeks and it looks favorable for us. I'll just put it that way. That actually makes me feel good because we started poorly, but we have got better lately. And that's what it's really about, Mr. Boone. And you know what? I was out there. I skated yesterday night with my kids at High Park,

and I was skating Saturday in Ajax at a fun pickup game. I'm out there working, Mr. Muzzin, because I want to contribute to this team, and I want us to make the playoffs. Ice time makes a difference. The more you get, the better you'll be. And just so everyone knows, we have these discussions about politics and stuff and you hate bikers and you hate, you know, you love Rob Ford and we do this thing. But the fact is, I regard you as a friend and I like you very much regardless of our differences. Likewise, Mr. Bruin. I really, really enjoy our relationship and friendship.

And that brings us to the end of our 57th show. You can follow me on Twitter, at Toronto Mike, and Michael Muzzin, at Michael Muzzin. See you all next week. Go Leafs go. Go Leafs go. Read Andrew Miller and wander around.

And drink some Guinness from a tin. Cause my UI check has just come in. Ah, where you been?