The Chat
The Chat
#32 Debating Mission Impossible vs Marvel, College Education Value, and Sharing Food Memories
Carlos & Robert chat: Have you ever wondered how the Mission Impossible series manages to deliver one thrilling installment after another? We unpack this mystery in our latest episode, discussing director Christopher Macquarie's captivating style and Tom Cruise's ability to drive a story. We also draw comparisons between the practical effects of the Mission Impossible series and the CGI of Marvel movies. Plus, get ready to experience the nostalgia as we revisit the legendary Harrison Ford’s varied roles and the iconic DeLorean from Back to the Future.
As we venture further, we address the ongoing debate on the value of a college education. Can you imagine attending college classes without paying or having an AI professor? To lighten the mood, we confess our favorite Taco Bell treats and our cherished taco spots, and even delve into the fascinating world of pies.
We then move on to discuss our football fandom, and the unique spirit of attending high school football games. We also offer an insider's view of the University of Central Florida's growth and how universities attract students. Our conversation about career choices and self-actualization is especially enlightening as we share our thoughts on the importance of choosing a career path that brings joy rather than misery. Lastly, we end on a scrumptious note, reminiscing about our favorite food memories from Taco Bell, tortilla making, and our ultimate pies and crumbles.
We are back.
Speaker 2:Not from outer space. This does not from outer space, Exactly so have you seen the new Mission Impossible movie yet?
Speaker 1:No, half my family went to go see it last night, half. Yeah, well, my mom took two, my kids Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah. We went on Tuesday as a whole family and it's sweet, is it? It's really good. I mean, the Mission Impossible movies have been kind of on a steady upward trajectory, I agree, and this one I don't know if it tops the last one fallout is so good, but it's right there with it, really nothing else. It's really, really. I was intense that last. It is holy cow. This one's very intense too. I was very impressed. I think they did a fantastic job with it. Again, it's the same Crew and team as well, I should say the same director, as in the last two. What's his name? His name is a Christopher Macquarie. Okay, he wrote Valkyrie.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I didn't realize that wrote and directed the Jack Reacher movie with Tom Cruise Okay, which I think is a fantastic movie if you can get around. You know Tom Cruise being he did too right.
Speaker 1:He did not do the second one wait, no, no, no, cruz was in two of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the second movie.
Speaker 1:I did not like it. Oh, it was not good, and Macquarie didn't. Honestly, that book was not very good either.
Speaker 2:I never go back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, one shot was awesome. Yeah, I mean it slaps. It's really really good Book and movie. But yeah, he, he wrote and directed that. He did Rogue Nation, which is the fifth mission possible, and fallout, which was the last one six, and so he's in for dead reckoning one and part two next summer and he's just I mean, he understands the fundamentals. He actually did, I think, one of the major story rewrites or Origination of top-notch Maverick as well. Really, yeah, he's a fantastic screenwriter. He's the I think he's the guy who did the screenplay and the whole thing for the usual suspects oh, shut up. Yeah, yeah, he's. Yeah, he's really good, holy cow. And he talks on Twitter sometimes. I occasionally check in on his Twitter account. He'll talk about like storytelling stuff and he's just dudes, dudes, the writer first, but he's got a great Ability to direct. Does Cruz write stuff too? I don't think so. No, I think he just knows enough about story that, like he'll sit down with the writers and be like this is bullshit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's a pretty back to the driving drawing board and flush it down the toilet.
Speaker 2:He's.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I I've always liked him. I like his work, his work. I think his work ethic is incredible. Yeah, exactly, I mean, he's a maniac, he really is. Whatever happens behind the scenes I really don't care about. But yeah, and I'll tell you what. You know what they did with Maverick. And now, if you're, you know, if they're, if they're, if I mean, how far they, how long are they trying to go with the mission possible movies?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I mean if this one I'm the amount of commitment to practical effects versus all this CGI garbage that they're doing nowadays. Like you know, you watch a lot of these movies and there's no weight to what happens. Right, you'll see them and they're like rolling around through the streets and they just doesn't feel like there's any. It doesn't feel like it's real. Yeah, the stuff they do in mission impossible is almost all real, like there's some CGI touch Work done and stuff, but like they built a train and then wrecked it. For this one they had Tom Cruise driving off a mountain with a helicopter behind him on a motorcycle. I remember that and they're like filming it. I'm just like this Do you know how many.
Speaker 1:But you know what's funny is, you say that and you know how many. How much content has been generated because of that, like all the interviews that he's done. I think I've seen clips from Five, six different interviews, not like I'm following it, just on the motorcycle scene. Yeah right, because everybody wants to know how they did it. So it's, it's interesting.
Speaker 2:It's like they built this this world around, not just the movie, but the making of the movie as well, which is pretty cool man, it's hype and I mean I I have to admit it's hype for a reason because I've seen the behind the scenes of the Marvel movies and you know a lot of. It's just there's giant green screens in every direction and they're you know a scene of them running and then getting lifted up by a wire and whatnot, and I love that. I'm thinking of Captain America, civil War specifically, where it's like we have to keep the secret from everybody and so we're just basically filming in a giant green box. And they do some really good work or have in the past, I think over the last phase or two, marvel CGI work has kind of gone to crap but, and so it looked very cool and very realistic and whatnot.
Speaker 2:But there is a lack of weight to a lot of those scenes where it just didn't feel, yeah, I'm like, oh, okay, you know, if you do that wrong, I think the Russo brothers, who directed the last two Captain America movies and the last two Avengers movies, did a really good job of like having stunt players and whatnot in there, where it kind of looked like Some of these things had some weight to them. But you get the wrong director in there and they're doing stuff, and it's like the last Doctor Strange is a good example of it. They had all of these action and effects scenes and it's like none of it felt Real or like it had any weight to it. It was so fantastical that it's like it's very pretty, yeah, but it's like I think.
Speaker 1:But I think you, you were absolutely right. That it's funny, because I look at this when I'm writing as well, I like to be, even though I'm writing fiction, grounded in reality. Right, like things that could possibly happen, right, and the same thing. I like what you're saying about there's no weight, like literally, it looks like everything's floating. Yes, right like like think, when things crash, it looks a certain way, yeah, it feels a certain way, like you feel that in your bones when, like, let's say, two trains are colliding, and it feel like and, and I get that it's funny because I, I hadn't thought about it until you said it that way, yeah, but the weight of it absolutely like Huh, now it see, now I want to go back and look at a couple things and watch a couple things and and and really kind of think about how they, how they made those things, because I think that's super important for just realism.
Speaker 2:Did you ever see the Harrison Ford movie the fugitive? Oh yeah, I love that movie. You know they wrecked an actual train for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it was a big deal at the time, like it wasn't totally out of the realm of possibility of that movie.
Speaker 2:It's one of my favorite thrillers of all time. It's so good and and Ford's really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's fantastic.
Speaker 2:I'm generally a Harrison Ford fan. I think you know, depending on the material he's given, he can do what about regarding Henry, he was really good. Oh, that was such a good. I haven't seen it in a long time, but I remember him being excellent. Oh my gosh, I think I cry every time I see that movie Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I gotta go back and watch it again. He's, he's solid. I mean it's easy to miss the fact that he's in, the fact that he's been a superstar for so long that he's actually a really good actor. Yeah, someone mentioned it actually because they were talking about Indiana Jones 5 because they start off with a 20 minute D-aged sequence where he's in there like that's not Harrison Ford who's in the D-aged. They got a young guy playing him and you can tell like Ford is very physical in his motions and his acting and this guy probably doing his best but like he can't not him, he can't mimic, yeah, harrison Ford's movement. Because Harrison Ford, I think about it and it's like you know he'll get. He's talking to somebody and he'll like get right up in their face and like wag his finger in that face when he's really mad at him.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking like there's a scene in Clear and Present Danger where he gets up in the face of the I don't remember that Henry Zerny, I think, is the name of the actor who plays Bob Ritter and he's just like, yeah, if there's menace, because Harrison Ford's not a small guy and it's like his whole Frame, his muscles in his neck are bunched up, you can see the lines of his body and it's like if you put me, an amateur crap actor, into a scene like that, I'm like You're wrong, henry Zerny. Hey man, you're, you're right. And I mean like my body language is gonna be I'm just playing this, whereas you know the tension lines are not there. There's no veins bulging out. It's just me attempting to pretend I'm angry, because I'm not actually mad at him.
Speaker 1:This scene from Back, of the Future comes to mind.
Speaker 2:Hey man, let go of my girl, or whatever it is, crispin Glover it's. I've seen that movie approximately 10,000 times. Oh my gosh, no Biff, yeah, no Biff. You leave her alone.
Speaker 1:I gotta go back and watch that with my kids. I don't think I've seen it. Oh, it's so good.
Speaker 2:The first one is the best, but the second two are decently good yeah. Very entertaining very really are. That was my favorite movie as a kid? Was it really back to the future of? Part one was my favorite. I wanted his truck Really. Yeah, I wanted the DeLorean. Yeah, I wanted his truck.
Speaker 1:With the bling on the back. Yeah, this is the fusion and all. Yeah, I know, I know putting putting up banana peels in and egg cartons, yeah, beer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, I love, I still have the DeLorean. It's right over there. A little miniature went over there on my desk. No joke, yeah, I'm a nerd. That's the one you wanted. I did. I wanted the actual DeLorean and have you ever driven?
Speaker 2:one. No, and nor do I want to at this point. I was I was a Acquainted with reality about it by a friend of mine who's like you know those things don't drive for shit. You can get one and you'll be spending most of your life doing maintenance on it because they don't run Well at all, or calling a tow truck. Well, basically, if you buy one, you kind of need to buy two in order to have the spare parts to replace all the ones that are Going on either. They make. It wasn't that many. Yeah, I mean, you used to be able to. I had a friend in high school who was like you can buy one for about two thousand dollars. Jeez, they're not that expensive because they're kind of pieces of crap.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, I think I wanted to buy one for a couple seconds, but I wanted. I wanted Marty's truck that he got at the end.
Speaker 2:Well, just, yeah, that was a popular choice. But did you see that they were gonna roll out a new electronic electric DeLorean Mm-hmm yeah, and they rolled it out and like did the intro video and everything and it looks nothing like a dollar and I'm really, why would you bother?
Speaker 1:Geez, I Think there's a way of doing it to like having it just enough, but not not to throwback.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's got to have some sort of some sort of connection right. It can't just be like a total. It can't be like a total rip-off, where you look at it and you're like that doesn't look anything like a delorean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look at this, this is what the new delorean looks like oh, it's pretty, but that doesn't look like a delorean. Exactly yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't even remember being like that, but maybe that is what it looks like. Where is that?
Speaker 1:Is that parked in Paris? Looks like it's parked on the Sim.
Speaker 2:I don't even know. That's from Carscoopscom. It does not look like a delorean. It looks like an Audi had sex with a delorean and that came out. Maybe that's what happened.
Speaker 1:Robert, maybe what happened, maybe Right in the tailpipe. Yeah, maybe it's AI generated.
Speaker 2:Have you been playing with AI at all lately? All day, every day, do you? Really? Yep, I've been not giving as much aid and comfort to the future destroyer of mankind, but I wanted to start tutoring me in math. You can do that, I know. I'm like. I don't feel like my math skills are up to stuff. I'm like a 760 verbal SAT and my math is sadly not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean so. Recently I've read that there are a couple schools I want to say it was either Stanford or Harvard or something they are developing AI which for incoming freshmen would basically be their own personal professors.
Speaker 2:Nice, I mean it sounds like a huge waste of money for the students when they'll probably be able to have that for free soon.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, but you still get the whole experience. But basically, what it is is like a professor in your pocket. So if you're having a hard time with whatever, it's completely tailored to you, and I think it's absolutely brilliant, because that's where we're going.
Speaker 2:I know that's where we're going with this. I just want to say on the record right now I don't want any professor in my pocket unless she looks like Margot Robbie.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe, maybe.
Speaker 2:Speaking of it, did you see the controversy this week on Twitter where all these people are saying that Margot Robbie is like a five? What they're like? Oh, she's so mid. I'm assuming these are people who've never had sex, because Margot Robbie is a nine or ten.
Speaker 1:She's beautiful by any metric and she's fantastic in everything. Yeah, pretty much that I've seen her in.
Speaker 2:Wolf of Wall Street. I mean, she even was the bright spot. She and Will Smith were the bright spot of that crappy first Sue's Squad movie. Yeah, I never saw that one. It's not so good. The second one's amazing, by the way, the one with Idris Elba. I caught some of that.
Speaker 1:It was like when we were in the hotel. You need to see that, and so of course there were commercials, so it was, like, you know, back and forth. It's funny, you know, my kids grew up on streaming. Yeah, so they're not used to commercials and going back and forth between channels.
Speaker 1:Well now, after three weeks away, they're like professionals. They memorized every channel on the cruise ship. They knew exactly where to find this kind of movie or whatever. And I mean they were watching like National Geographic, which they would never do when we're at home. But they watched other movies, like what. I walked into their room and they're watching Drumline. Do you remember that?
Speaker 2:movie I do. It was Nick Cannon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nick Cannon, which it's actually a pretty good movie, it was very entertaining.
Speaker 2:Father of all humanity in the next few years, yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:How many kids does that dude?
Speaker 2:have Nine or ten. Wow, you go, dude. There was a I think I might have described this before, but there was a meme where it's like this is what humanity will look like in 2042, and it's beautiful, and it's just Nick Cannon with a bunch of different faces, A bunch of like with a girl's hairstyles and boys' hairstyles and mustaches and various kinds of facial hair. Scientists have estimated this is what humanity will look like in 2042.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, nick, just Nick Cannon, they are.
Speaker 2:Ryan Reynolds. You know his own cotton. What cottage industry is viral content? He does those commercials for his aviation, jen and Noble and whatnot. He has won a series of them for a drink he calls the vasectomy.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen that. You haven't seen it, you should look it up.
Speaker 2:He did one with Nick Cannon and he comes in at the end and he's like how many kids do you have? He's like nine. He's like just I've got three. Come here, let's just hug, let's just hold each other for a minute. It's so hard.
Speaker 1:Ryan Reynolds. I want to hang out with him at some point.
Speaker 2:Like I don't know.
Speaker 1:He seems like fun. Do you think if you hung out with him he'd be really weird or just pretty chill?
Speaker 2:I mean, by all accounts, he's a cool guy yeah, that's what I've heard, you know, and he's just really a genuinely funny person.
Speaker 1:Did you watch the rexham show?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was really well done. We really enjoyed it. Rexham, yeah, their soccer team that he and Rob McElhaney bought in Wales. So it's the whole run up of you know they bought the team and of course, you know two, I think two seasons in they ended up winning the league and they'd like last in league. So it was really cool because a lot of it they didn't want it to be about them, it was about it's about the town and so all these different characters within the town and it's all you know. It's all true. And then they follow different players and they bring in managers and I'll tell you, you get to see. You know, I grew up playing soccer. I didn't watch it, I don't know it, I don't know how brutal it is, like like the fans, how brutal they are and like the basically the mobs.
Speaker 2:What are they called Soccer hooligans? Yeah, the hooligans.
Speaker 1:Dude, like it's bad. We got like three quarters away through the season and and I was like I was like man, I would love to go over there and watch a game. And then they have the hooligan episode. I'm like I don't know if I want to go. Do that now, like, and it's no, it's it. Now I understand why the British government like put, try to put the gabbash on that, yeah, back in the 70s or 80s, because it got like really out of hand, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And he's still. I mean, it's not unheard of and obviously in America, if there's a sports team that has a victory or whatever, for there to be a riot afterwards. Sure I mean, but not every game, no, not every game. Like UT, when they beat Alabama last season, they tore down the goalposts. The fans stormed the field and tore down the goalposts, which is like late hooliganism compared to what happened on that before. It's like hooliganism compared to what you're describing.
Speaker 2:Right, it's totally the soccer riots, I guess, like British fans, football riots, football, terrible, terrible stuff happens.
Speaker 1:I mean how? How is that good for the game? You know?
Speaker 2:what I mean.
Speaker 1:I don't know, like I don't know. I mean, I guess a lot of those are sold out all the time, right, because you have. You have because over there they're, maybe it's just because they're militant about the game and they, you know, they're born with it and they, that's. That's a team Like Packers and Vikings fans, yeah, but it's even more localized there because, like that team, the it was, it's like the Packers, the, the fans actually own the team. Oh, is it Okay?
Speaker 2:That is like the Packers.
Speaker 1:And then they ended up. I don't know if they ended up selling the whole thing or a part of it. So you know they, they, they're, they have a vested interest in it.
Speaker 2:Many of my clients when I was financial services guy I mean it was I met plenty of cheese heads, packer, huge Packer fans, ones that had the dedicated their lives essentially to the Green Bay Packers. And like there was one dude I worked with and he had entire rooms of his house. He was a single dad with like four kids and he had like that was their thing. Yeah, that was their thing, it was his thing, it was his identity is that. He's Lauren, he's the packer guy and I mean super sweet dude, great family. But like he had the shares to the Green Bay Packers team like hanging on the wall in pride of place. I mean it's just, and all of the memorabilia everywhere. I mean you walk into houses and you'd see like all of this Packers memorabilia. There was a distinct fanaticism that went with Packer fans that you didn't typically see from other fan groups. I should say no.
Speaker 1:I mean, I never grew up with something like that.
Speaker 2:Dan Prestigard's obsession with the New York Jets I think it's Jets is a little disturbing, but those fans are pretty fanatical now too, because they're the only New York team and they've got a good team now, which is nice. I'm kidding Dan. Dan actually is a listener as well as a pass guest.
Speaker 1:Thank, you Dan Thank you Using a little needling there, yeah yeah, I don't know, and I'm not, like I'm not a Titans fan. I will say we've been to a handful of Nashville soccer matches. Now, yeah, they're fantastic, they are I don't know, man, it's because it's. It's also very contained, whereas a football game can drag on and on and on. Yeah, a soccer match is 90 minutes and, yeah, they might take on a couple minutes for you know injury time or whatever they call it, but like you know that you're getting out of there at a decent hour and there's no hooliganism. There's no hooliganism. The stadium they built is really nice.
Speaker 2:I've seen the pictures.
Speaker 1:It looks like parking is kind of they're still figuring that whole thing out, but I don't know. I've enjoyed every time. Plus didn't hurt that my good friends have really, really good seats.
Speaker 2:Oh, that would do it. Yeah, because I've only been to. I've only been to two NFL games in my life. They were both Titans games, even though the first one I went to was in Baltimore. Oh, really, yeah, it was in 2008. I was there for business. I'm like Alicia and I are like we're just having having fun hanging out and she's like, oh, you've never been to a an actual professional football game, have you? And I'm like, no, and it was turns out the Titans were in town for the Ravens that weekend. So yes, the other time I went was here in town, but like, yeah, that's the only two games I've ever been to. I don't love NFL.
Speaker 1:I'd rather, I'd rather go to a college football game.
Speaker 2:honestly, I'd rather go to a high school football game. It's a quick drive home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. I don't know something about like the bands, and it's like you know. There's a different vibe when you go to a college football game. There's one more people.
Speaker 2:I like the high school football game. There's that whole Friday night lights feel to it. There's the hometown pride feeling to it. College football is similar, is it? I didn't even go when I was at UCF because they would play all the games downtown and I never went downtown Orlando. If I could avoid it, oh, really I just. I mean, I had that fear of cities that my dad instilled that I didn't really get over. I think I've been to downtown Orlando once in my life. There's not a lot down there. Like I went for Shakespeare in the park when I was in a senior in high school and that's basically it went to.
Speaker 1:UCF. Yes, we, when we were down in Orlando, we stayed at the Celeste, which is right. It's like basically in UCF.
Speaker 2:Oh really, yeah, I don't even know where that is. Yeah, I haven't been there.
Speaker 2:The campus is massive. Yeah, it's grown since I was there exponentially. I think UCF, by student body numbers, is the second largest student body in the entire United States. What? Yes, I believe that's correct. I think it's number two after University of Phoenix. Really, I believe that's correct. It's a massive school. It has satellite campuses. It's just there's a lot of people that go there. I did not know that. Yeah, a lot more UCF grads than there used to be, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were having orientation the day we checked in. I'm so sorry for you. Yeah, well, they, it wasn't. It wasn't, we were going the opposite direction, luckily, but there were a lot of, lot of kids there.
Speaker 2:I didn't remember going to you orientation. I must have, but I don't remember it. I didn't. There's not a lot of memories I have from that period in my life. There's a lot of video gaming. I used to climb in the. They had a rec facility, you know a gym, and the only thing I went there and did was climb on the rock wall. Really I did it was really fun.
Speaker 1:I'm sure their facilities are a lot nicer than before.
Speaker 2:Oh, everything's gotten an upgrade since I was there Massively. That's grown so much.
Speaker 1:That's schools in general, right, because they've realized that they've got out. They've got to have nice stuff in order to attract students these days.
Speaker 2:It's a little crazy how much it has become like a almost like a vacation sort of thing where it's like oh well, we've got this on the Lido deck, kind of totally promotional type stuff. Yeah, it's like, oh, the the. I feel like a little of the I'm sure it's still somewhat difficult to pass. You know, all the way through college like you'll fail out if you're not trying. But it does feel like maybe some of the self discipline has gone out of it, maybe some of the because what we were talking about before where it's like if you don't have to struggle some to get through, there's less character development, let's say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know, see in. Really, the only exposure I've had is going back to Virginia and I will say that has gotten way harder there Really. Oh, my gosh, telling me about these kids are under so much pressure, dude. I just, and to the point where I love UVA, I don't think I want my kids to go there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I want them to be challenged, I just don't want them to like it is a top school, I mean, and I don't remember exactly where it stacks, but I was looking through US News and World.
Speaker 1:Report Usually one, two or three on the public top list.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so that's what it is is. It's just gotten so high up the rankings that it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you know they pride themselves since, really since before I went there right before when they started doing the rankings that they were ranked right up there with, you know, the harvards and all the other ones I have. I really don't care where it actually stacks up.
Speaker 2:I went to the Harvard of Central Virginia.
Speaker 1:But we did, we. I mean we competed with all those schools and you have a lot, a lot of smart kids that go there and the scores definitely show that, and I mean these kids. When you meet these kids and you hear all the stuff that they've accomplished before they've gone, I'm like no way I would get in these days, absolutely no way. So I think the like the higher tiers like that that have just gotten gotten more and more competitive, because I even you know we're still someone involved and we give a little bit, but you see the numbers and how many people apply and how many are getting in, and it's just, I don't know, man, it just to me it's too much. It's too much, I don't know. And we're we've just started having that conversation about starting to visit colleges for our kids and I don't even know where to start. Dude, I really don't.
Speaker 2:It's called University of Tennessee Knoxville. It's right over there down there. Yeah, not a huge fan, one of my buddies his kid, got a full ride to the University of Alabama. Really, yeah, university of Alabama is very much a school that, because they've got all that football money, they offer scholarships and financial incentives for everything If they can get you to come down there. They view it as a recruiting tool to get you to live in Alabama, which is Alabama's a nice sure nice place generally. I mean some of the cities are a little bit higher crime, so I mean, but if you get out in the suburbs it's really rustic, idyllic, humid, but not that much different from what we deal with here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean Alabama's come a long way when it comes. I mean the same thing with, like Auburn. It's funny you were talking about places that colleges and universities have become like vacation spots. I remember when my I think it was my niece was looking at schools and she was telling us about like the stuff that they had at Auburn. Like you know, these facilities are crazy. Yeah, like, yeah, like lounge pools and all this other stuff. I'm like man that as a kid man that's, I don't know that'll be pretty attractive to me if I was going through that process again.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean, especially if you're a stupid young man thinking with the other head, heck, you get to go to a wreck pool where it's like all the codes are out there in bikinis like come on, yeah.
Speaker 1:Are you kidding me? I'm not going to lie. When I when I visited Virginia for the first time and I stayed there, I stayed with a friend, a girl who was a friend of mine that was a year ahead in high school and I stayed on in her room on the girl's level of the dorm. Yeah, and that was really cool to a 17 year old boy, being in the middle of all these girls that were really really nice and smart. I was like I'm in heaven. How can I not go? I didn't visit any other schools. Did you Like I'm sold? Oh my gosh. And you know it helped that. It was a great school. Yeah, you know, it definitely served me. Well, I almost failed out, but I know why I was there now, but I don't know. I just I look back and I'm like my parents didn't know how to take me around to schools either. Later on they figured it out with my younger brothers, which was good. But what's funny is three out of the four of us all went to Virginia.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, if you left me to my own devices. Like, my wife knows how to do all of those things, so do school visits into whatever and she's already talking about it and I'm like school visits, don't you just like? Show up on the first day of school and be like I'm here for my classes Apparently, not Apparently there are people who plan their education out.
Speaker 1:It's pretty crazy, oh yeah, yeah, like my, my sister-in-law is taking one of my nephews and they're doing it's basically like a world tour. I mean, they're like like you, going from city to city with your whole family. That's what they're doing on break, yeah, and you know they turn into a vacation, but like I don't even know where to start, I really don't. I don't know how to get in contact with people for tours.
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 2:take tours I don't know you do. I know that I actually. I mean I can put you in contact with, like, mike Lorenz just went through it, dan Prestigar just went through it and you know, all the rest of my friend group in on the street here. They have gone through that in the very recent past where it's like they've got kids going into college or kids in college and it's like it's a very different. Their way of doing it here in the upper middle class is very different than the way I did it, where it was like, you know, community college. There was no need for a tour. Yeah, Right.
Speaker 2:Show up in first day of classes. Here's a map. You'll be okay, right, you know. And UCF was not that, you know, tough to navigate or whatever. When I did that either, it was just like it was very low key, not a lot of pressure. It was 15th and 16th grade at that point. But yeah, it's a very different atmosphere, feeling and way of doing things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you know even well, it was even different between me and my wife, like she, I think she said she applied to like 20 different schools. I think I applied to eight maybe, and really it was like it was stuff, it was schools that sounded cool. So like I applied to Pepperdine because it was in Malibu, oh my brain went to school at Pepperdine, I think I applied to Hawaii.
Speaker 1:I played since I was in high school in Virginia. You know I applied to UVA, james Madison, virginia Tech, duke. I don't think I applied to UNC. So it was like I didn't know, like I just didn't know. There were some that sounded cool and some that were nearby that I knew people wanted to go there.
Speaker 2:I had no idea where to start but you know, I want to give my kids more of a hey, this is what the landscape looks like you know, well, like one of my friends he has a kid that's a school in South Carolina somewhere and it's for a sports management program Like the best in the country is like you go here, through here, and then you can go into sports management with a professional team Like they have the Rolodex has.
Speaker 2:Like all of these people that have gone through their program that are, you know, managing the professional sports teams, at this point it's like to me that's a very focused approach to education, which was not my approach. My approach was well, I've got a scholarship, I can go anywhere, and my parents are like well, what do you want to do? Yeah, I don't really know. Yeah, okay, well, why don't you try the community college until you kind of figure that out? Because it doesn't make a lot of sense for you to go off to University of Florida or Tallahassee and just blow through this scholarship unsupervised, with all this freedom, and you don't know what you want to do. I'm like that probably makes sense and also I don't want to leave home yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, so my son brought up the other day. He's like I guess he's been following somebody on YouTube, probably, probably. That is what did he say? He's like because we were having the college discussion he goes well. So so, dad, and ever since I've homeschooled them, they've they have a different view on education, especially him, he's 14. And he's like so, so really, I could go to college without paying for college. I'm like what he goes? I thought he was going to go one way. He goes well.
Speaker 1:I'm following this guy and he basically like went to Harvard classes but didn't like wasn't enrolled or anything, but learned everything that they did and he didn't have to pay for it. He just went to the classes. I'm like that's trespassing. Well, yeah, there's that and there's a way of doing it that you know. Everything that you ever want to know is online anyway. Right, if you want to find it, if you want to learn it, it's out there, thank goodness. And then we you know we started talking about AI professors and all that sort of thing and it's, but it's interesting to see like Professor in your pocket.
Speaker 1:Yeah, professor, in your pocket, welcome. But it's. It's interesting to see which way a kid's mind goes right, because he's still questioning a lot of things, and maybe a lot of it's because I question it now, like what's, what's the real value of a college education type thing, Right there, I know those conversations a lot, whereas, you know, my daughter may question it, but I think for her it's more of a like an experience type thing.
Speaker 2:And it's a social experience. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, which is which is fine. It is what it is, you know. And then, of course, our 10 year old could care less, yes, but but you know, back at my 14 year old is like I don't know. It's been interesting to see which way he's kind of thinking about things, because they don't really know what college is Like, they don't really understand it. He visited a couple of schools, but I don't know, I'm excited and a little bit like I don't know what the hell I'm doing. That's where a smart wife comes in and we'll figure out how we navigate all that crap.
Speaker 2:But I mean I just I look at colleges is now in, a lot of these colleges are charging really inflated prices for degrees that will not pay off. Yeah, I mean flat out will not. And so as a value proposition, that's dicey and my wife would be the first one to be like, no, you're not getting an English degree. I think we've talked about that in the past and so I just look at it and I'm like you know, there's got to be other and there's still degrees that pay off really really nicely. There's really good return degrees.
Speaker 2:But it's like if you tried to make me do an engineering degree, I don't think it would have ended well. You can't force a kid to do a degree, even one that pays. You know potentially could pay off very well If it's something they absolutely hate, like most people. I think the self-discipline thing is not going to. I mean, you can. I guess you could do it in strictest terms, you could apply the sort of pressure to them to make them do it. But like, do you really want to Do? You really want to lock them in to a career that they don't seem like they're going to really want to do?
Speaker 1:Well, you know and you can.
Speaker 2:I mean, the idea would be you look at the menu of careers and you pick something that's at least kind of tangentially.
Speaker 1:I don't want to do that to my kids is my answer, and part of it is having the conversations with them, right, Like what are you thinking? What do you enjoy? What does give me hope is you're hearing more and more about companies companies hiring kids basically straight out of high school. Or I've actually heard about kids getting hired in high school like 14, 15 year olds and then being sent to college and so it's like, it's like it's like work and college, so they're, they're coming up with some sort of programs that everything kind of fits together, that I understand more, but, like as an 18 year old, I didn't know what the hell I wanted to do you know I had an RCC scholarship so I knew I was going to the military, so really what I majored in didn't really matter.
Speaker 1:I achieved my major like five times. So I don't know it'll be. It'll be fun to navigate that part.
Speaker 2:It's funny, as we talk about this, though, because I'm like thinking about it in terms of wow, what freedom that we're sitting here discussing it from a more like top of Maslow's hierarchy sort of way.
Speaker 2:I want them to be able to do something that will make them money but also allow them self actualization, which is what my career has allowed me, when, in reality, like a lot of people out there are like I just need to get a job and that's fine. The idea would be, you know, in a perfect world if you could do both something that pays your bills rather nicely, as writing has done for us, and also allows us the chance to self actualize at the same time. It doesn't always work out that way, but if you're going to spend four years in school, you know, maybe that is the sacrifice you make, because you're like I'm gonna chase the money and I'm gonna take this degree that I don't really want and then lock yourself into it. God, I hope you pick, in that case, something that doesn't make you absolutely miserable. That's at least bearable, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, because I mean, come on, for most people a job is a job is a job, and you just gotta deal with that, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's no self-actualization there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, whether your outlet is, you know your family or a hobby or you know the fucking packers, whatever it is like. I understand that. I understand I work a city job and the way I get my rocks off is I watch the packers and everything that they do, and I've got five rooms dedicated to them in my house. That is my outlet. I totally get that. But like I think we are in an interesting spot where I had this talk with I think it was my wife and a couple friends recently, like our kids get to see what we have done and accomplished Right, so that opens up you and I never I didn't ever saw this growing up that this was even a possibility that I could work from home and make good money and be with my kids and all that. So that to me is really exciting. So to see that in my kids, that they know that that's an option for them, is pretty cool. But at the same time I'm like dude, you're not getting a free ride here.
Speaker 1:You know, like you gotta earn your own way For sure. But then I see people also who have made a lot of money. You know. They have flexible schedules and they give their kids everything. And now they're starting to go out in the real world and they're not doing anything?
Speaker 2:No, because why would you at that point? You need some sort of motivation, and I think the motivation usually starts as soon as the money runs out. Yeah, you hope. Otherwise they take a flying leap right down into Polktown, where you and I spent quite a bit of time.
Speaker 1:Tastes like poverty to me Tastes like poverty man, tastes like Wendy's Value Meal actually, for me it was Taco Bell.
Speaker 2:Hey man, those Taco Bell Value Meals were nothing to sneeze at.
Speaker 1:They were some good tacos, that no.
Speaker 2:Beef and potato burrito still haunts my dreams.
Speaker 1:Man, I'm glad they didn't have those. What were they? The Doritos Tacos when I was yes the Locos Tacos Golly, those were good.
Speaker 2:I don't think.
Speaker 1:I've ever eaten one.
Speaker 2:They closed our Taco Bell for like two years or something during COVID, while they were doing the rehab of it and it's opening in. I haven't been to it once since it's reopened the one in the middle by Target, yeah, by the Cool Scrain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was closed for like two years. I didn't know that, yeah, and so, like, we were in Arizona or wherever last year and I like made a special stop at a Taco Bell because I hadn't been to Taco Bell in so long, you really needed it. Huh, I needed my Taco Bell, I needed my taste of poverty.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, oh the memories of those days, Golly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I still love a good fried chalupa. The steak chalupas are just epic. Oh no, I've never had one. That's an upgrade. That one doesn't taste like poverty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I stuck to the basics I like. Like a crap, ton of tacos and burritos. Made it back to food, by the way I know, and the little crunchy churro things I guess?
Speaker 2:Well, you remember that originally they had the cinnamon twist, the Twis. Yeah, they had the Christmas first and it was like a fried piece of tortilla and it was sprinkled with the cinnamon and the sugar.
Speaker 1:And then they did the twists. I make those, by the way.
Speaker 2:Do you? Yeah, they're great. Yeah, they're delicious. I've made one before too.
Speaker 1:actually, you just take the tortilla shell and like, cut a tortilla into triangles, yeah, yeah, and then fry it until they're just lightly golden, and then sugar cinnamon. Sugar cinnamon Easy. I've done that too Delicious they are great my mom used to make those growing up.
Speaker 2:Have you ever made homemade tortillas yourself? Not your mom. No, my mom has. I have not, I have, and they taste amazing. Yeah, I know Alicia's like. These are one of the best things you've ever made, and they're pretty simple, too right. They don't take a terribly long time. The issue is smoothing them into a proper circle.
Speaker 1:Did you get one of those presses? I have the press.
Speaker 2:It does not circularize them. So they're kind of lumpy and off-center because I'm not great at baking or rolling. But they taste amazing. They functionally are fantastic. They're just aesthetically a nightmare.
Speaker 1:I could be a baker in another life if I didn't have to wake up at 2 in the morning and I could eat as much as I wanted.
Speaker 2:That would be the real problem. I would gain 300 pounds as a baker. Like I made blueberry muffins at one point. I love a blueberry muffin, me too. Sweet fancy Moses and I made it and it was so good, but it was so bad for me.
Speaker 1:Did I tell you about my pie, my pie escapade from Costco? Please tell me. So they make this ginormous pie. It's probably I don't know I want to say it's 16 inches across. Oh yes, I've seen those and it was like a cherry berry pie or something like Tricot Berry and I expected nothing. I can't remember how much 15 bucks, whatever. I was like.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 1:I'll try it. Carlos doesn't wait until he gets home. So I was with my daughter, wow. And so I got a fork on the way out in Costco and of course I started digging it in the car. And so my daughter tells a story last night to my mom and she goes yeah, so he had this much when we got in the car. Then we made two more stops. By the way, by the time we got home a third of the pie was gone and I'm like not untrue, that was me and it's funny. Then my wife chimed and Katie goes. She goes OK, to be kind, it was a really, really, really good pie.
Speaker 1:I'm like thank you, thank you very much, and she's not a huge pie person, because I am like a good pie, oh, like apple pie, but berry pie oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:See you get the right kind of apple pie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, OK. Have you ever had less apple for me?
Speaker 2:OK, so the Sara Lee, the Dutch apple pie, where it's like got the crispy crust on the top of it.
Speaker 1:It's more like a crumb. Yeah, because it's more bready. Right, it's more like a crumble, I like that Like I like that a lot.
Speaker 2:I love a berry pie too. I got a cherry, a little cherry one from Publix. I ate the whole thing in one day. I'm like I can't buy a big pie because I know what will happen.
Speaker 1:I'll eat the whole damn thing. Yeah, just like me, buddy.
Speaker 2:Just like you, I like lemon meringue. That's why I sent you the thing when Buttermilk Sky closed its location here. I was like, no, like Anakin Skywalker. My loss was great. No for the poor. Poor, what was? It called Buttermilk Sky, buttermilk Sky Pie and they've got a few of them around Tennessee, but they had this one pie that was called the I-40 pie and it was like a cross of, like a chocolate chips coconut pecan pie. They called it the I-40, because it started in Knoxville. Yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 1:Oh man, that thing is good. Yeah, I had some not great experiences there. I don't like it when a pie is too overdone and I felt like they were. I think it's maybe because I got this Flaky blurry. Yeah, yeah, the small ones, and the small ones are really easy to overdo. But yeah, my wife, she makes a. It's called a Derby pie. It's basically like a chocolate chip cookie on pie and it's all just chocolate goodness. And yeah, god, we did. We went right back to food. I'm not even hungry and, yes, we did.
Speaker 2:Have you ever had any of the pies over at what's the place in downtown Franklin, the Mary D's Bakery? I have never had pies in there.
Speaker 1:See, they've got them and I've heard amazing things about them and I've never made it Danger, Danger danger, see, because my first go-to when I go to a bakery is a true bakery item, not a pie Especially. You know me and donuts. Like you, give me a good glazed donut and I'm in heaven. Yes, yeah, mary D's, I've been in there a couple of times for meetings. So typically if I go for a quick coffee meeting I won't eat anything heavy, so I didn't have anything. But I've been in there a couple of times it smells delicious.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does. It smells really good. Whenever I go to Cork and Cow I can smell them and I'm like I got to go there sometime and I never make it Because downtown Franklin so far.
Speaker 1:Do you go in the fudge place when you go to downtown Franklin at?
Speaker 2:all Kilwins? Oh yeah, I've been to Kilwins. It's the sweet shop out of my dreams. Yeah, it's delicious, the stuff they have there is. Oh man, it's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you have the chocolate and caramel covered?
Speaker 2:rice crispy treat. I've only been there a couple of times. I'm not a big caramel fan. I don't even remember what I got. I love it. Downtown Franklin has so many great places to go. I mean Ruby Sunshine I'm there by there. Oh, you've never been to Ruby Sunshine. Oh, it's great. Puckets, Cork and Cow, Grey's on Main 55 South All of these places are fantastic. Do they close Red Pony? They were for a while because they had a fire, a kitchen fire. It's back open again. Got it, but that place is great. I like Cork and Cow better. Well, they're totally different. I mean, Cork and Cow is a classic, amazing steakhouse.
Speaker 1:If you let me choose, I would definitely pick Cork and Cow Just more of my vibe personally. It would depend on the mood I'm in. We had a great meal at Red Pony, Wasn't it like?
Speaker 2:you, me, me, me and Nick.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, we were upstairs, I think, looking out on the town there was a lot of food.
Speaker 2:It was and really, really, really good. Yeah, it was good. But yeah, I was going to say, even outside Franklin at the factory now, what they've done with it. Have you seen it since they did the refit?
Speaker 1:I have not been since they finished it.
Speaker 2:Are they done on?
Speaker 1:the inside.
Speaker 2:No, that's going to be a while, but you remember how I asked you at one point. I'm like, oh yeah, what do you think of the factory in Franklin? You're like I wish they would tear that place down. They did on the inside and now they've rebuilt it and it looks really good. It does look good, but Mike Lorenz and I went over there and ate at the taco place in there.
Speaker 1:Oh, Mojo's, mojo's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what's your favorite taco there? Oh my gosh, how do you pick?
Speaker 1:Oh, I know, I know mine, and it's not the obvious answer I like the hot chicken one a lot.
Speaker 2:I like the fish one a lot. I don't know what's yours Cauliflower, the classic cauliflower or the.
Speaker 1:Korean barbecue one, the cauliflower taco. Really it is ridiculous, man.
Speaker 2:Because they did a Korean barbecue cauliflower taco and I'm like what and I have never tried it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't have that one, the regular one it is, and Katie and I have been numerous times and we try a bunch of different things. We always go back to the cauliflower one. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:I've got to try it next time I go. Yeah, it's really, really good. But yeah, we were walking through there and they've got a new bar in the entryway.
Speaker 1:It looks awesome and there was no one there, and that's on the side closest to Moffioso's right yeah, which, by the way, moffioso's closed.
Speaker 2:Oh, it did I heard it did.
Speaker 1:No way yeah yeah, oh, that's a bummer.
Speaker 2:I've never been there. I try to go for lunch one day and they're not open for lunch. That pizza's really good. Yeah, they're still open for catering gigs. But yeah, really, that's what I heard. But then, yeah, so I was a lot of other things I was going to say. And then, after I finished at Mojo's, of course, I immediately had to go to Five Daughters and get donuts. Yes, five Daughters.
Speaker 1:Bakery and get donuts.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I love that place. The 100-layer donut, which supposedly was, like Kim Kardashian and Kanye's, favorite place here in town. The Cronut, yeah, well, no, it wasn't the Cronuts. The 100-layer donuts, those are the Cronuts.
Speaker 1:Oh, they call them Cronuts. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was sitting at Waffle House a couple of weeks ago and a black dude drives by in a fancy SBMW like one of the $120,000 models, and he's got his windows down and he looks in for just a second and I'm like, is that Kanye West? And he's gone.
Speaker 1:Was he wearing Adidas or no?
Speaker 2:I couldn't tell because he was wearing like he had chains and he had on, like you know, like a I don't know a sportsy shirt. It looked like the kind of thing Kanye would wear. It looked like Kanye and you were at Waffle House. I was at Waffle House, but he just drove by outside.
Speaker 1:Dude, because Waffle House is all windows. Do you find that amazing things happen to you when you're at Waffle House?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's just when they bring me my food. I love that place. I mean, I fed a family of four, including two teenage boys, for less than $60 today.
Speaker 1:Oh I know, yeah, that is, that's definitely legit.
Speaker 2:Um, because I mean we've been eating a lot of takeout and stuff since summer started and I'm going to tell you something like $60 is the cheapest I've paid for any meal involving four of my family members. It's. I mean, inflation has been ridiculously off the charts. Yeah, that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1:Have you been down in the new Ed Leys yet?
Speaker 2:No, Fair farms. I've heard good things that. I've also heard the lines out the door.
Speaker 1:It moves pretty quick, does it? Yeah, I will say that because I'm not a big line guy. And we went and it wasn't bad. Their banana pudding is phenomenal.
Speaker 2:I've heard from two or three people one of whom might have already been you about how great Ed Leys is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it was. It was really good that we're going to get that for Sunday dinner, but I like a place I can go get like a family pack of food.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you know that's why I'm a big fan of Chewies, which you know, nationwide franchise or whatever. They're great and they're consistently great. Yeah, they always have a family pack of fajitas. It's not cheap by any means, but like it's great.
Speaker 1:Do you get the fajita packs from El Sombrero? No, no, I never have. You want to go? Even cheaper and more food? No way, oh my gosh, we. I go to pick that up sometimes and it's like lugging bricks into my car. They put so much food in there. Yeah, and of course that's, you know, five minutes from your house, yeah, it is it's very convenient.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've never even been there. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's good, good little spot.
Speaker 2:There's a place over in Noam'sville that's a Mexican place. That's really good too. Do you know which one I'm talking about? It has like a huge menu. I think it's called Cancun's or something like that. It's really great.
Speaker 1:If you're ever in Noam'sville, is that in that strip mall? Yeah it's in well, I mean the original strip mall.
Speaker 2:No, this one's a newer strip mall. There's one up there too. I know which one you're talking about and I can't recall the name of that one. It's right by that Korean barbecue place. That Korean barbecue place is legit, by the way. I've never had that one. You need to go If you've ever liked Korean barbecue. You can go and get a family meal and they'll sit you at the barbecue table where it's like got the fire plate in front of you. Oh really, you can get right there on the grate in front of you. My kids would love that. It's sweet. We took the whole family one night, on the rare occasion when nobody had any activities, and, like everybody, loved it.
Speaker 1:Which one is that? Is that on the way to Noam'sville?
Speaker 2:It's just called Korean barbecue. It's on Noam'sville road heading north toward. It's like right there past the publics, Right there at Concord Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it's farther north, got it.
Speaker 2:Just north of Concord road Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just never get that far north.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I usually don't, but Michael Renz was like okay, you want Korean food? This is the place. They've got a dul sat bibimbap there. That is the stuff of dreams. What is that again? It's like a rice dish with bean sprouts and beef and it's seasoned and it's got like a fried egg on top. It's so good, it's so good, yeah, and they blacken the rice at the very bottom of the thing, see, that's the kind of food I could eat all the time.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, like. My go-to now is like rice and meat yeah, I do that a lot.
Speaker 2:That's my diet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what's been a real life, because I don't like making rice, those 90 second rice bags.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh my gosh, we get them. Those bowls, they have them at Costco. It's just a little bowl, yeah, but I like sticky rice. I like the bags.
Speaker 1:The Uncle Ben's or whatever it is. We don't get one or two, we just take the whole box and go check it out.
Speaker 2:We get a box and it's like 12 of these or 24 of these bad boys in there. It's like I go through those things like crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of the things I figured out I can eat without feeling like absolute, but Almost.
Speaker 2:I mean a lot of people have a lot of digestive maladies. I heard that white rice is basically the most digestible thing that everybody can kind of eat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was happy when I figured that out too, because I just assumed it was going to hit me like bread does. Yeah, man, we were on vacation and there were a couple of times where I splurged and I had like a roll at dinner one night and, dude, that hit my gut like a bomb Really.
Speaker 2:That sounds like me. And cayenne pepper Really. Yeah, oh yeah. If I get heavy loads of cayenne pepper it's fine going down like I'll tear up a little bit and whatnot, but it about Eight hours later at most. I'm feeling like someone's got me bent over in there just pummeling my guts. I'm just beating the shit out of my so you don't do Nashville hot chicken. I do, but I got to be real careful about what level of intensity I get it, because I love the flavor of Nashville hot.
Speaker 1:You too, I don't like it super hot, though, because I don't. I want to actually enjoy it miserable at that point.
Speaker 2:Like I'm not a Glutton for punishment, I enjoy a little little heat, but I don't like if I go to bishops meet and threes which is, for my money, the best Nashville hot chicken mm-hmm, I'll get it as Mild or medium at most and I'll probably suffer a little bit if I get it medium later because you still get the flavor of it.
Speaker 1:I'm with you, I love the flavor of it flavors, and when it's too spicy, it I think that overshadows everything. I just don't enjoy it.
Speaker 2:You know who else has good hot fish and chicken, or well, hot chicken and fish, is that big shakes right down there in Bergesboro.
Speaker 1:Where are they now? I don't know where they moved to. I drove by there and I think it was closed.
Speaker 2:No, I haven't been there in a while. They had another location on Columbia Road they had I like their like they did chicken tenders.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was really good yeah my kids had those.
Speaker 2:They liked them. Yeah, their fish was pretty good too, yeah. Yeah, I think I've had that a couple times the I hop there closed as well Right, which was sad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, can't say no. I've been there once, you never okay. Yeah, more of a cracker barrel guy. Katie does not like I hop, so we don't go to I what?
Speaker 2:how can you?
Speaker 1:not like pancakes. No, no, I think. I think it's a, I think I don't think it has anything to do with the pancakes. I think it has everything to do with the vibe.
Speaker 2:You know really you know, it's definitely a lot more working class in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's not even that, I think. I think maybe she had an episode as a kid like maybe she, like this, tastes like poverty or like home, I don't know. Yeah, so we stick to cracker barrel and but she loves waffle house. I love yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't understand how people can't like waffle house. I think it's a class issue. Where it's like people hate to waffle house, it's because they hate poor people.
Speaker 1:I love waffle house. I love that they bring out those hash browns.
Speaker 2:I love hash browns are dynamite yeah.
Speaker 1:I love that everything's like as big as a plate. It's really amazing.
Speaker 2:America's what that is. That is America, by God, it is I. I Love to waffle house and so first time I went to one and I just I mean, when people are like I hate, well, I'll ask or whatever, making fun of it, I'm like you hate America.
Speaker 1:You hate America. Are you American I?
Speaker 2:Don't get into this, into this. If you don't love it, leave it. But if you don't love waffle house, well then, just walk out the door, stupid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, go to McDonald's, buddy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now odds are pretty good. The overlap on the Venn diagram between people who hate waffle house and people who hate McDonald's, it's like a full circle.
Speaker 1:Absolutely I'd agree with that, oh, I finally went to Kava, by the way, oh did you like it, I did.
Speaker 2:Okay, I got. I'm like I always hate to give someone a recommendation and have them be like I hated no.
Speaker 1:It's right, it's totally right up my alley, right? I mean in you hit it spot-on, it's you know? I think you said something like it's it's Mediterranean Chipotle and everything was really good. Did you see? They did their valuation just came out, did not? Yeah, they, I saw they just went public. They would just went public some huge number. Good for them. So I guess they're doing great, but I didn't get one of the pre-made ones Like I like that. You can pick what, yeah, what you want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I totally yeah. No, I took Katie the other day too After, actually, I think.
Speaker 1:I think the last time I went was right after our last episode. I was like you know what he's mentioned it, so I'm gonna go and it was really good.
Speaker 2:I've been shilling for Kava because I own the stock. No, I don't actually, but I'd like to, probably if it is there a way?
Speaker 1:Can you get like double me or double?
Speaker 2:If you ask them, I bet you they would let you, because it seems like they're really customer service oriented Totally. Most of those companies that do things that way will let you kind of customize stuff. So I bet you you can't, because I always get double meat at Chipotle. Yeah me too. It's like I need that protein baby. Yeah, give me that protein baby.
Speaker 1:Well, on that note, I feel like we've been talking about food for 50 minutes.
Speaker 2:I think we probably we talked about college some, but I feel like we did consume a lot of time talking about food, which means it's probably lunchtime. Which means are you going on vacation soon, is that why? Yeah, I think so. I'm still thinking about that Calabash buffet. I'm anticipating what is.
Speaker 1:Calabash mean. Is that a name or does it mean something? I I'll let you know when I get back. Please do, and please take pictures of you. You know Waddling out to the yeah, I'm not doing that, yes, you are humiliating.
Speaker 2:All right, I'm gonna tell you should do it that way. She has no problem with humiliating.
Speaker 1:There you go, neither, neither, neither does my wife with me, yeah, so there we go we got that in common. All right, brother, and we're out.
