Donkeys

0:09 Welcome back to another episode of A Record of My Father. Today we're talking about these donkeys that I got a photo of Mikey and Macky. I did not know that donkeys could smile. I did not know that. Did you see them smiling? Come on, the thumbnail is what you listeners out there should be listening to. Really looking at, not looking at, and you should be listening to this, but looking at that. Yeah. Why were they smiling? They looked really happy. Did you see the ears? You see the ears on them. Yeah, I know when their ears are straight up that they're happy, and when they're back they're like nervous and worried. Exactly. And they are donkeys, right? They're little tiny ones. Mule. What? Is it a mule or is it a donkey?

0:51 Donkey mule is a cross. It's that's the horse and something and a Jackass. And that's what makes a mule. I think it's a mule. And because I rode one, I rode one a long time ago. It was really like, I can remember that as a child. I was 11 or 12 I think when I threw, rode one down in the country and the mule was very dominant. And I got up on the mule and I'm walking on the on the street with it and it just stops and goes like, Nah, fuck off, I'm not going to do anything. And he reaches around, he's trying to bite me in the leg and I didn't know how to get it. And I'm like, so I'm trying to get off the mule and he won't let me get off 'cause each time I try to get off, he reaches around to bite me. And and then I yell back to the house, 'cause it's my, I guess, great uncle. And I don't really know the relationship they had with my mother, but we would go down there and visit down in mouth of Wilson of all places, Virginia, way, way in the sticks. You know, they had a wooden stove that they cooked food on. You know, the whole house was heated with wooden, you know, nothing very, very different farm raised tobacco, cows and things like that.

2:00 Everything was made there. But anyway, the donkey, he he'd gotten a donkey given to him because the somebody didn't want it, because it was a honoree. And, and so he we happen to visit and he's like, you can ride the donkey. And there was an older kid there that was jumping over the fence with the donkey, and we thought it was cool, so we rode it. And then the donkey was like, no, I don't like you. So the guy comes running down the street to me. And he goes, yeah, he's really mean to people that don't know how to treat him. And he yells at the donkey. And then he says, let him get off. And then the donkey just stays there. And I get off and then he gets on and the donkey just takes him back. And I'm sitting in the street and I got to walk back. It was. It was. It was just.

2:40 Sounds like a fever dream. This doesn't even sound real. No, it's true. Through my brother Seth wrote them. You can verify that fact. Story I've ever heard so strange when you. Started by talking to that's that's a mule 'cause it's bigger and also I don't think mules can reproduce, I think that they're. No, they're sterile. Yeah, they are sterile. But donkeys, the little tiny guys that carry all the weight and everything. And it's like we, we support a charity that that got donkeys that they're going to live on site and we, you know, help pay for the defer the cost of, you know, all the stuff that goes into making a donkey on site for children that have been abused. It's child help.

3:29 It's a big thing. We've done it for years and years and years. But the donkeys is was a new idea. And it's like, wow, this is something that the kids love because it's small, it's easy. They had a barn and it it it, it gives the children an interaction with an animal that they can take care of and ride. And it's a little more than just a Kitty cat or a doggy. Doggies are much more difficult because the kids are more. I mean, lots have major issues. So donkeys are, it's easier thing to, I mean easier animal to control. And also like from three until like 10 or 11, which or 12 probably till they age out, they can ride the donkey.

4:12 So there's a, you know, you take them for a walk, walk around the park, 'cause I remember when I was a little kid, they had one of the, they had those donkeys tied to like the turn around. Of the post, yeah. Yeah, 4 little kids on them and they go around in a circle and you get your little walk around. And then I remember when I was like, I think I was in first grade and we bought, I had a nickel and we bought these tickets for a raffle and I won a raffle and it was a donkey. And it was a donkey that was like half the size of me. And I had that donkey till I was like 20, you know? I wrote that I'm really talking to me. About big giant Love that donkey.

4:53 I don't know why, because it's something that I had that nobody else had. It was big and it was neat and it was a, you know, it was a plush animal and it it probably was about 2 1/2 three feet tall. You could sit on it and I could sit on it and pretend I was riding a horse or something, you know? They had plush animals back then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really. I don't. Know plush plush. It wasn't like like you're you. See the plushies? Now that's what they call them. I don't think they're all that. Soft it was, but it was softer than anything that I had ever had. And we didn't have stuffed animals. We didn't have anything like that. There was no this is one of those things that came along. It's like when you're a little kid and you'd love that, that furry feel. That was a possession that you could have when you had nothing. Yeah.

5:40 And. And. That was a big deal. But the cool thing is, is it did not appeal to older brothers and sisters, you know, 'cause if you win something like, hey, if I'd gotten a handgun, my brother would have taken in an hour. You got a. Switchblade. Yeah, that's mine, asshole. I'm taking that too, yeah. The wonderfulness of having brothers. Oh man, I really missed out on that, didn't I? Yeah, you learned how to get your ass kicked. Well, I learned how to do that at school anyway. I mean, that was kind of that was self. Taught you. You were doing. You were, you were sadly doing well. I don't know. Sadly you were. You were more beaten. And I, I made the wrong thing when I told you and I said no, no, when, when, if someone starts something, don't push them. Don't do it.

6:29 Hit him in the face. So one of the amazing. Greatest advice you ever give a 5 year old you dumb ass. You learn. I remember they're about 5 office meetings later, probably 2020 office. I got so many trouble for that over and over and over, 'cause you get into an argument with somebody and they would do like what most people do when they're younger is they push you and say, yeah, you, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? And Wham, you would lay them out and, and when people were messing with you, you did not like, like if you don't know anything about fighting, most people throw you down or try to throw you down on the ground or grab you and not to hold you and then throw you down or something. You never did that.

7:16 You never did that. You always went straight for the head, punch him in the face, you know, And I mean, I saw you beat up three people at one time while they were all around you. And I was just like, and I was running toward you, not for your benefit for theirs, because one would get up and run at you and you'd Wham hit him and he'd fall down. And then another one. Cause but it, it, I mean, they started it. You beat the hell out of them and and then I had to save them. And then you looked at me and you were all upset and and you were apologizing and I was like, yeah, sure, you you shouldn't beat up those three guys that were picking on you. That's wrong.

7:57 Very bad. Very bad to stand up for yourself. I think that is something in adolescent teaching that we've gotten away from is standing up for yourself. I don't know. I feel like there's such a cognitive dissonance between parents and their children now. Well, it's weird. I don't know you. You were. You were very control of your space and you from and, and, and when someone bumped into you, you thought they did it on purpose. You were very like everybody did things purposefully when in reality, most kids in 1st and 2nd grade couldn't control how they walked. I sat there. I mean, I remember going to lunch 'cause I did. I went for your first grade through like 4th or 5th or 6th, something like that grade.

8:41 I would see every Friday for lunch. I would go there and I would see the kids in line and like first grade, it would be like an accordion where they just come up and the teacher goes stop and was like, you know, kids were looking in different directions and they just kept walking and banging into each other. 567 And then I'm thinking like, wow, Zach doesn't. Then he and then you would turn around and and punch the guy behind you for banging into you. And he was just like, why did he hit me? I don't know. I don't know why he hit me. I don't think people can still walk in a straight line I. Think no, no, no, I mean I. Especially when they're in a bars. But I thought that it was so interesting to see like what people were.

9:21 And there were people that did reacted exactly the same you did, turned around and pushed them. And then there were the ones that were like, it just rolled off their back. They just like, look, hey, stop it. You know, Miss Johnson, he pushed me and she's like, yes, Donnie, we know he pushed too. Everybody pushed everybody when I said stop, you know, because you're all in the line. It's just like to watch that and see that was just sort of, oh, that's why I just, you know. Man, I feel like people are getting away from wanting to be teachers still. I don't know. Oh yeah, the the money. Seems like a lot of people are not doing it a little. Higher when you get right out of school, but it doesn't rise from there so the money is crappy you get. Benefits though, don't you?

10:08 You get some sort of benefits. You have to be in for a certain time to get a pension. Some get I, I don't know if they're all defined benefit or defined, which means you get a set amount when you retire as opposed to defined contributions. Like if you put money in, it's going to earn and you're going to get it back. That's your 4O1K. That's when that's the defined contribution. That's if you put in a certain amount, you get a certain amount back. The defined benefit is you will get 80% of whatever your highest salary was when you retire. And that's a very expensive plan because it's very hard to guesstimate be how long you'll live after the fact. And people who are living too long, we need to kill more of them. But that's another that's another podcast on why people need to die earlier. But the.

10:52 Well, I think people need to die earlier now I don't know the whole. Teacher thing is like it seems so weird that parents in particular are either incredibly underrepresented or incredibly overrepresented at well, or maybe maybe it's just my own particular thing. It's just like, I remember your third grade teacher. What was Patterson and he's the guy Came from the poor schools in Southern Maryland. I forgot what the names were. Oh, like Prince William County or something? No, no, that's Virginia. Montgomery County. Montgomery County. No Montgomery County's rich PG, Probably. Oh, there we go, PG.

11:34 Montgomery County, when I had a parents night there, no one showed up. Maybe one, maybe and then but but at McLane, over here at where the hell did it go? Churchill Rd. That elementary school when you had a parent teacher like, you know, the at the beginning of the year, there were not enough seats in the classroom for the parents because the mother and the father would come and most of them were 50% were divorced. They bought the other person. They were always. That's such a good point. So yeah, I kind of forgot about that. People representing each kid in the class and they were all shooting questions at the teacher and it was 3 hours of intensity and they would do these detailed PowerPoints of what they're going to do. And I'm like, you know, I just want them to learn the ABC's and not kill anybody and learn how to, you know, hit fewer people. I do remember back to school night was something out of out of the ordinary.

12:37 And if you didn't show up for your kid, you looked like you were, I mean. They had grandparents. It was just like crazy. But with that becomes people that want to tell you how to run your class because we live in a in a fluent neighborhood where you have people that both people are highly educated and usually have high-powered jobs. And if one retire one, I mean, I saw it a lot there because I was sort of the room mother person for years because I was lucky enough to be able to retire. But a lot of the moms in particular all went and got master's degrees, all became lawyers or something like that. And then when they had a kid, they, they retired. But they're, they're still like super aggressive, super smart, you know, So they're there, they're much, they're much more educated probably than the teacher. And so they're all pushing for plans for little Johnny to be a rocket scientist by the time he's. Seven, I'll ask you a question.

13:37 Do you think the invention of the helicopter mom was in the early 2000s, or do you think it existed prior to that? I think that we thought that there was, there was through the 70s and 80s, there was a lot more and end of the 90s, I would say there was a lot more. Bring your parents and make your parents part of the solution. Make them, bring them in, bring them in, bring them in, bring them in. And so then people started to realize, you know, the more I know about little Johnny and, and people cared, you know, and I, and I think it's real. It's really kind of weird because when we were growing up, kids would be seen but not hurt, you know, they would, they would, you know, it's very it's a very different time when I think in all through the 80s and stuff like that. Even when I got married, 90 and when all of when all of the people started popping off, we popped off. You popped off around 99, right?

14:41 Yeah. When people started having kids in the 90s after we got married, we, we had a a number of friends that, you know, one by one they start spawning. Well, the kids were the center of all attention. You're just talking about in the late 90s. Yeah, I would say mid to late 90s, they were the absolute center. They were the new boy that you would come over and have parties and have a drink of wine and little Johnny would sit in the middle of the room and you would all have your babies all sit there and how wonderful they are. And they'll do a dance world. Yeah, yeah. And. And some choreographed. Things as opposed to, you know, when I was growing up, they would, they wouldn't bring the kids, they'd leave them at home unattended and just go get hammered at somebody else's house.

15:27 That is interesting too, because if you think about. The kids were not there and if the kids came, the kids were like get out of the. House well, it's like a pet mentality. That's what it is. It's a it's a pet mentality almost. It's like, look what he can do, right? Look what exactly Johnny can. Recite your alphabet now. Johnny's like 1 1/2. Well, I remember mom was talking to somebody at some point and she, this woman was talking about what her son could do or something. And then, and then mom was talking to her and she's like, well, he knows all his, what was it like his construction machines or his heavy machinery? And I like ripped off like 40-5 different like like bulldozer kinds of genres of bulldozer.

16:09 You know, it's, it's, it's, it's what you're exposed to. And you know, and you were very interested in mechanical stuff and how it worked and you wanted to build things even though you didn't really know what you wanted to build And you know how to build it. But you want to get a spring and you want to get a chain and you wanted to get it a nail. And it's like, what the hell? Is that I think we're 4 episodes deep on the spring story here. OK, Like we're 4 episodes. Deep. I love that. I just love that it just keeps going. Well, you know what I want to build? I want to build a robot donkey. Now after that photo, Yeah, I want to build WE. Started out with donkeys and here we are talking about the education system in America. Yeah, you keep, you keep derailing me. You derail me every episode. And that's the job of. Well, think about when you think about donkeys, I think about the wonderfulness and you know, it's just they're, they're they're not going to hurt the kids. They're they're there's an older. One, well, they tried.

16:56 One tried to bite you. I mean, you can't say. And it's like 8 feet tall. And when I got on it, it was, you know, it was a big one, you know, But I've had, I've had bad interactions with riding horses and stuff like that. Oh, that's when a horse and A and a donkey. And they just stop and they're like, Nah, I'm not, Nah, I'm not, I'm not riding you anymore. They are really stubborn. I I have heard that they are really stubborn. You have to show them who is in control. You cannot, you cannot negotiate with a horse or a donkey. You have to show them and you have to convince them. And the way I've seen people do it is they're mean, you know, I mean, I saw people, the horse, the donkey just was sitting there and just stopped. And I remember I was riding it.

17:44 I was riding the horse and he and he and he and he's running and we're both running side by side because we went out riding and my horse just goes left and I'm pulling the bridle right to go right. The horse goes towards the tree with low branches and drops his head. He tries to freaking scare me on the and I'm like ripping it on the other side. My best man in my wedding deepest runs up, runs over beside me, jumps off, jumps off his horse, does the little over the top, you know, Mr. Cowboy guy jumps off, runs over to the horse, grabs the horse by the bridle, you know, in the front, starts pulling it and starts cussing at the horse. It is the most comical scene.

18:34 He's tapping it on the nose saying listen, you peace. You know, you stop that you're not in charge. I am in charge. I will make you Alpo by the end of the day. And he's just yelling at and I'm he just just man, the horse just looks down. It's just like, OK, I'm sorry. And then we had no problem after that. It was like he just he just totally brutally just screamed at the horse like he was going to kill him and eat him and chop him up and just so loud and so. And I was just like, I was embarrassed for the horse. I felt bad, but but the horse was trying to knock me off because, you know, it could and I wasn't, I wasn't being strong enough when I, and evidently, I mean, I thought I was pulling back. I was, I thought I was ripping his mouth out because I had the range like that to go right.

19:22 And he said no, we're going left because I can knock you off there, but I can't do anything right. Because Wright was onto the trail, but he didn't care, didn't care at all. But I'd seen this happen a number of times with me and horses because I think they sense that I'm a pushover, so they're like, I can do whatever I want. You know, it seems weakness, yeah. You're you're heavy, so get off. Or maybe not weakness, but a kind soul. And they're like, you know what? Yeah, yeah. Kind of time you can push around. I'm breaking out a horse prison today. Yep, I'm breaking out a loser. I got a loser on my back. I'm out. I'm leaving, dude. I'm jail breaking out of here. Oh, you know, Speaking of. Well, they had, they had a can of, I don't know if you ever seen Alpo with horse meat. It's a dog food.

20:04 No. And it says Alpo with real horse meat. They had cut that label and it was in the barn, over the barn. That's great. Yeah. We show them that every day just in case they want to get out of line, you know? What did I watch recently? I watched a documentary about a pet sematary made in 1977, and it was really, it was really, really good. Bill Hader did a interview with the filmmaker. Can't remember his name, but it was fantastic. But there's this clip too. There's Like the other Side, because in the 70s, mid 70s, there was rendering factories as well. And this rendering factor owner basically is like, you know, there's an elephant that died over there and everybody wondered where it went, but then they never questioned the rendering factory, you know, And it's like there's a bunch of people. He's like much people quit because they couldn't stand the idea of what was happening behind those doors, even though they've never seen it.

21:00 I don't understand it. I just don't get it. This guy was hilarious. Oh my God, this is a man. This is a real guy that owns a rendering factory. And then bring factory next to a pet cemetery. No, it was like 2 kind of counter things, like one guy was trying to build a pet cemetery and it wasn't profitable, right. And then they had to shut it down. And he's like, I gave up on my dream. This has been my dream since I was a kid. I have always wanted to own a pet cemetery. Like, that's kind of odd. But the running Pig. Yeah, in a way. In a way. I wrote the book we'll link that. That was really, really good. I really enjoyed that documentary here. I actually have the the title here coming up shortly, but I also Speaking of horse prisons, right? Speaking of horse prisons, I went to Alcatraz the other day. That was crazy.

21:50 And you? Went there. No, there were not but the. Donkeys. No, there weren't. Have you ever ridden a donkey? I remember riding something about 5 feet and then they said that's the end of the horse ride and we were about to get into the woods. I had no idea where that was. That was then when we were when we went across Wyoming, remember we stopped and they had their, they're going to have their little ride. And instead of going into the woods, they're like, oh, we're going to do a horse ride or a donkey ride or whatever the heck it was. We all got on the horses. We ride out to the street. We do once around the little square pasture and then they're like, that's it. And they take us back.

22:32 And I'm like, and that was like 20 bucks and you're like, really, really. We didn't even go up into the that was no, we were going up into the woods and that up into the mountains. And we ended up walking up in the mountains later and it was oh, beautiful sky. Where where was that? That was in South Dakota. That was Jackson Hole right this side. It was this it was between Jackson Hole and is Sonic City, which is the head of South Dakota because we landed there. OK, here here's we drove across the whole state and we stayed in a, a, a, a ranch somewhere and that's where that's where I remember you riding a horse and it was so ridiculously short the amount of time this. Was actually, I remember this, even younger. I was even younger than that then because I was 12, No 9 there.

23:21 I think I was about 7 when I remember this. The documentary, for those interested is Gates of Heaven, directed by Errol Morris. Really funny documentary. It's very. We rode an elephant at the Where was that? Where do we ride out? Oh. No, we rode the elephant you rode. We've only rode once, right? I've never rode it. Have I ridden 1? Yeah, yeah. You rode one at Renaissance Festival. Remember they had an elephant there. No way, really. We got the devil horns. You remember the devil horns that we got that you tie on the top of your head? Well, you and I were having axe fights and people were and you mother was screaming at me. I bought you a shield, the devil horns and. A Oh, I remember the.

24:06 Shield You had a sword and I had an axe and I had. A shield and you had a purple sword too. You remember the purple sword, huh? We were just the one with the purple handle. Warring the whole time while we were there and it would just break out like every 20 feet and she would start yelling and and she would yell at me and I would stop. And then you would stop. And then we'd go 20 more feet and then you'd hit me with a stick and you'd laugh. And so then I would come to hit you and then she'd turn around and, and she would yell at me to grow up and not be like over and over was horrible, man. I was just like, man. And then I would laugh because I was getting in trouble with your mother and I didn't know what to do.

24:53 And I was like, you know what? I'm I. And so I started doing what you were doing and we would go 5 feet and you'd get ready to hit me and I'd hit you first. Well, I remember too, I used to try to. I used to hit you in the hand. Oh yeah, that was so painful. I have. That's why my, when you look at my, when you look at my fingers, my pinky finger, Oh my God, it's crooked to this day, 'cause you broke it, you broke. Both of them broke. Well, that was also the first time I had a honey roasted peanuts in my life. When we watched the jousting, you remember the jousting and you guys bought a honey roasted peanuts and I was like what is this? This is phenomenal. How old was I? Like 7-6.

25:36 Yeah, six to seven, right in that. Time Oh my gosh, that's a that's a hell of a memory what else happened there maybe 8, maybe 8 you know I. Remember the elephant thing? I remember that. You got the big Turkey leg. Remember that. We got that that year. Yeah, well, one year, I don't remember which one. OK, gotcha. We went a few years. I want to go this year. I want to go to another one. Well, the biggest. One in the country, the biggest one in the world, is Texas. I watched the documentary. You see the documentary about that? I would go there. I would go there for the documentary. I would go to see it. Does that? All right, let's go. Let's do it. When is it? Year round I. Want to go there when there's a billion people? Well, I get the surgery in two weeks, so or 10 days after that, you know I won't be doing anything.

26:19 They make him fly $40 million a year in revenue, 40 or 50. Really crazy. Yeah, maybe. I can get a job there. And it's like a town. It's like a whole town because he said he read this book by Walt Disney. And Walt Disney said if you're going to do it right, you're going to buy your own county, you're going to get your own county. And that way you can control everything. Special laws, yeah. And so that guy basically started his own county and that is the Renfair County. Isn't that interesting? The documentary was fantastic. Oh my gosh, I want to take donkeys. I hope so, but it's we got to do it. We got to do that. I've been wanting to do that for a long time. Yeah, for, for a very long time. But yeah, the one in what was it?

26:59 Maryland is like the third biggest in the world or in the. Yeah, it's in. It's in the top 10. Oh, OK, got it. There's one out here that's year round too that I've never been. There's a renaissance one I think in Scotland that's really big too. Whoa, that makes sense. But it's only like half the size of the one in Texas. The one in Texas is like 3 million people and you're. Like, yeah, it might be the base in the world. Can you imagine the war that you would start there? We would start a war. I'd be hitting people and knuckles. And all the people that all come dressed up in our other armor and everything. And you know, and then somebody was telling me about the Night Games and I'm like, what the hell is that? You know, those are, that's a real combat sport. Now what? Where they dress up in armor and hit each other with real swords.

27:40 No, it's fake. No, no, they hit each other. 10. Or it's a real combat sport. It's off shoot of MMA now. Yeah, I'm not even kidding. They get in the cage and they try to punch each other until they're unconscious. That's crazy. Oh, very odd. I'm not going to disagree. With that, well, I mean, if you know, if you, if you can be good at something and you like it and it's cool and you get to beat somebody at it and it's like competitive, hey, have fun, you know? Exactly. Speaking of which, you're. Wearing, which we have to do. Or not? Are you wearing the Iceland hat right now? No. No, I'm doing this. Is this is Vietnam? But no, that's the Iceland hat. Oh, it is. Yeah, look at it. OK, it's Iceland. Iceland, Vietnam, same thing. I lost the Vietnam one on an airplane because it was going through security. It was on top of my backpack.

28:23 It got swept up inside the magnet thing and it got taken up. I don't even know it got stuck in there. I think Bob's there right now. I should probably tell him it could be a hat. They should probably get another one. This is our trip. You and I were going to go on this trip and you and you said no because you were effeminate. I don't know where. Oh, you wanted to do an episode on donkeys? So that's what we're working on right now. Right. And so we were accomplishing. We're about halfway through that's. What we're going to do, you know, as long as you can do that, everything's fine, right? Yeah. Donkeys are what make the world go round. I think so. I haven't seen a good one in a while and I think the photo really resonated with me. Well, they, I mean, they got rid of like animals it carnivals and things like that.

29:07 Yeah. I mean, you look now that you would see donkeys and elephants and lions and, you know, copy Bara, the biggest rat in the world, They would have that come soon. The biggest rat in the world was the copy Bara. But you would see these like Clyde Beatty Circus, Ringling Brothers, Barnum, and they would all have these animals. But it turns out that they were torturing the animals and they were horrible to the animals and they would die in a, you know, like SeaWorld where they're where they're, where they're killing whales annually. And you know, the killer whales are being killed and they put them in small tanks and all that kind of stuff. And they're sad and they're, and their things go aside. And so you don't see animals being exploited in that manner.

29:50 You see it overseas. Like when we were in we in Vietnam and they were selling the elephant rides. And we found them buying Apple. We couldn't get it. What? We fed them pineapple. Yeah, we paid for the pineapple to feed the elephant, but we would not ride them because, well, your mother guilted us probably for the most. Part. Well, once she pointed out that the elephant was crying, I was kinda against it. Yeah, yeah, that was sad. That was it. And then while everybody else was doing that, we got to climb the we climbed that Spire. Yeah, they all rode the elephant. They said we don't have enough time to go to one of the wonders in the world. And I said, well, I'm never using this company ever again. We came all the way to the other side of the world and they're like, here you are right in what is it Angor what Angor what And we weren't supposed to allowed or supposed to go to the top of this one the.

30:39 Tallest. That was the dumbest thing in the world. But we went anyway. Because if you think about it, they're and you're looking at 30 hours, 30 hours of flying time. And they're like, well, we got to go back and I'm like, we don't have time. And I was like. We'll take a cab. We'll take a cab. Me and you went up top and we, I think we still got back before they did, yeah. We did. Because they dawdled and the and, and you were thinking like of all the places and things that you would want to do and want to see the, IT would be like going to Vatican City and not going inside or something like that. Going to India, going outside the Taj Mahal and saying, you know, I don't need to go in, I'm good. It's not worth it.

31:20 That it's Well, I actually have to go eat lunch after this, so I'm just. Gonna it really? It really isn't. It really isn't worth it, But that's another story. Really isn't. Not it's OK. Is the outside nicer than the inside? Yeah, the outside, the look and everything is, is just amazing. And when you go to inside the wall of the grounds, that's kind of neat, but they kind of hit you up to take off your shoes. You're not allowed to wear shoes in there. And they put them in a locker and they make you give them money to guard their locker. Otherwise your shoes will be gone. And you can't take pictures unless you get paid for access to different points to take pictures of the Taj Mahal inside of the walls. But then you actually go into like the little mausoleum area and the little mausoleum areas, you know, that's where the Princess or one of them is buried or something. And then you go up and around that and you look out the back window and you look down, down the river and you see that. And that is the gorgeous scene.

32:19 I mean, you know, but is my uncle said before I'd gone there, he'd been to India and been to the Taj Mahal. And he said it's very odd to go to this thing that it's, you know, one of the wonders of the world. It's beautiful. It's gorgeous. You know, they used to have, like, all sorts of jewels all around the base, all around the whole outside wall from 0 all the way up to 12 feet, just beautiful stonework and jewels. All the jewels have been stolen since then. But when he went, he said the thing that bothered him the most is like, you see just poverty. That is, it's when I think about like I've never been to the Sudan, I've never been to I've seen poor people in many places and I've seen oppressed and things like that. But I haven't seen people to that level of huge, huge numbers of people that it's, it's, it's a, it's an incredibly tall, hard task just to get food and water enough to survive the rest of today.

33:39 When you think about that, I mean, that's why when I, you know, people say, Oh, you, you, you were poor growing up. And it's like, well, you know, I mean, I lived indoors. I mean, so that's, that's one level. I always lived indoors for the most part. Very rarely do we not have food, you know, so. I've seen the videos too of the the front of it and then they they turn around and behind or like I guess they turn around like from the camera's point of view. Yeah. And it's just. And then you go like, oh, well, think about it. They're all there because they know wealthy, rich people like me and anybody that has, you know, lives indoors comes to see and they're all asking and they're all looking for, you know, money to survive. And yeah, that was a that just puts a stone in your stomach and it makes you think like, you know, as as humanity, we can do better.

34:36 And I think that's the that's the thing I think about now when we have all these. We're thinking we can do better, but you're talking about the infrastructure of a country that you're not familiar with and it's what is it? It's like a like a billion and a half people or something. Well, anytime, Anytime I see somebody that's worth $200 billion and then I see millions of people starving, I see that that person of their own volition can change certain things. Have you seen the the billionaire that lives in Delhi above everybody? He's that's who I'm talking about. Oh, that's who you're talking about. Build. You build a 40 story house.

35:18 House. Yeah. House think about that house. So the top five stories are his. He's got a pool, he's got he's got like the staff is on floor number six and eight. He's got children that live on different floors and you're just thinking like, Oh my God, Oh my gosh, that's and that's only one of his homes. And you think to yourself like, OK, I, I understand that you can say that he drives commerce and stuff, but can we not drive it into his pocket a little less than maybe drive it to people's food bowls a little more? I mean, why is that so? Why is that such a? Horrible thing. And why is it, you know, when you think about these things, it's like, hey, I'm I'm once again, I'm preaching the whole help, you know, those with less. I don't think that that's you know, and oh, oh, you can. Oh, Phil, you should give more.

36:10 And it's like, yeah, you're right. So. I want to know what he does. Yeah, I'm curious. But we have Donkey or his name. Yeah. Curious about that. Yeah. You know what's funny about Yosemite is I actually recognized like one of the places. I think we. Did we stay? Are you saying Yosemite Sam? No, the the park and and I think we stayed actually in in Yosemite from what I remember. And the weirdest part too, is it Yosemite is a lot smaller than you think it is. It's a it's a lot smaller than you think it is. I was very shocked. It's like 1 road. And then during this time too, I guess there's the other Rd. is closed for the winter. It's actually kind of a good point, but a lot of it is closed and I'm I'm getting my film back today, though it's got. Mukash Ambani is.

37:03 That what his name is. Yeah, overseas Reliance Industry is one of industry's longest largest conglomerates. I remember. Them reliance industry. Yeah, it's called Reliance. Interesting. Yeah, it's, it's huge, huge shoots deal. He may be there's Merkash Arbani. I think he might be the, the, the tall office building. But there's, there's many, you know, there's Mukesh, there's Gautam Adani, there's Saviri Jindal, the Jindals, Shivnadar, Yeah. I just remember seeing the photo and I think it was about 2012 National Geographic, and it was pretty egregious. Yeah, pretty egregious. You know, I mean, well, look at you know, they had to take down bridges to get Bezos yacht. It was so big.

37:50 Think about that. I mean that's and it, and it was built in Amsterdam and they had to take down a bridge or two. I, I, you know, when they build it, but they planned on that. That was built into the cost of it is that it's going to be so big that it's, it can't go under the bridges that we have here. So we're going to have to take them down after we built it. Sure, whatever, just add that, put that on the tab and you think to yourself like, and he has a he has a yacht. It's like, what is it? He has a some, I don't know, it's like 100 foot or 150. Foot thinking about taking bridges down akin to the way people think about ordering appetizers at restaurants is pretty crazy to me.

38:32 That's yeah, that's a pretty interesting thing. Well, it's, it's all about what, what you get accustomed to, what you used to. And it's like, OK, I'm going to have a birthday party for my kid. So he's 16. So I'm going to, I'm going to have a Roman theme. I'm going to rent. There's an island off of Ibiza and it, it cost like 5 million to rent, I'm gonna rent that island. I'm gonna have, I've invited 300 guests. I'm gonna have pick up points in the US and private jets. It's gonna be, and a lot of them will have to be separate jets because most of these people will not ride together in New York and Miami and LA. So most people will get to these locations and then I will pick them up and I will fly them to my island. I rented a island.

39:20 We we will have upon arrival, they will go to the What the hell do they call you when they dress you? When they dress you. Yeah, they dressed. They dressed everybody in Roman gear. Oh, like a wardrobe person. Yeah, wardrobe person. Roman gear for 300. This is real? I thought this was. A yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was one of the most. It was a, it was this. I don't think it was son. I think it was his daughter. And I think it was her like 16th or something like that. And if I remember correctly, the number was like 28 million.

40:01 Oh my God, I didn't even know they had. Kids, you know, and this, no not this is not Bezos. This is somebody else this. Is a hedge fund guy and he's like, what am I going to do? And then so all of a sudden you've kind of had somebody that like you spent $28 million for. It's like a two or three day affair. There's some like clean water. If everybody could have clean water in the US, it's like, well, 100 million or something, it's something like that. But you know what, though, is that the US has been trying to craft a slave class for the longest time again, and that's kind of what we're getting too. But we haven't been. We haven't been doing it. When you say you mean craft it, is that what you said? Yeah. Yeah, I think they are.

40:42 This is all very purposeful. This has been purposeful since 2008. I think that it's just been trying to go this way for the longest. Time. I would say since the 80s. Yeah. Since we started, we, we started cutting taxes and that has we started cutting taxes on the top, the very top earners since then. Are you talking about triple? Down economics, kind of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Theory of may give me more and, and I have been and each and every time it's been advantageous for me financially and, and every single time when they cut the rich people's tax by getting more, you know, so it's, it's really incredibly stupid of me to bitch about that. But I think that we need to as a society as a whole, think more and care for those that have less. And I don't think that it's that it's, you know, and it's not a, it's not a judgement statement.

41:38 It's what I try to do. I think it's important. That's why I buy donkeys. Cause donkeys are important are making people soulless. I think that they're making people soulless 'cause you're so distracted. And what is what the key kind of what did Karl Marx say about in fascism? And he's like, you just blind the opponent so starkly with news about themselves and critiques about themselves that they don't even have enough time to prepare to see what's going on in front of them. That's a little loose thing. And that's what's been going on for I don't even know how long. And not just fascism, but on like all sorts news networks, I think it has been going on with fascism, but also just you're just blinded by so much content now that you don't even know what your own life is like.

42:28 And it's. 'Cause in the 80s there wasn't, there wasn't 24/7. What's happening? We used to. We were the purveyors of news out of the Securities Exchange Commission when something happened there. I knew it before the whole rest of the world. When a company filed something or did something, that's where it started. It was copied there, it went to the newswire services and then it was disseminated. This is pre Internet. So in the Internet now something happens in India, you know, and there's a this, that or the other that hurts somebody. And as long as it's gruesome enough, you put it on, you put it on the web and you can get you can get a whole lot of traction. If it's mean and horrible and a lot of people die, maybe you got some pictures of the torn up bodies and you can have don't look at this and unless you really want to see the torn up bodies, which is a driver to get people to click, you know. And so I think that's, but you know, that still doesn't mean that we can't be friends with donkeys. What?

43:34 What are you eating recently? What are you? What are you eating? Donkey meat. No, like what does your diet consist of? What is my diet? I think when I think of diets, I mean too much of one thing and not enough of another. I'm I'm, I'm I'm trying to be more conservative in. Without what you're trying to do, just what you're doing. Today I had AI went by the French restaurant. I bought a baguette. I bought it home. I had three cups of coffee. I have barbecued Buffalo chicken, you know, it's sliced. I had a hat on the bag at with the Swiss, Lacey Swiss had that for lunch, breakfast, whatever it like 12:30 and then I went I had a doctor's appointment and then I came home in the afternoon and I had another one at like 4:00. And that's all I've had today.

44:31 Yesterday had we had, I think I had a bunch of I'm yogurt. All of a sudden I'm into yogurt and blueberries. And stuff. I can't do it. I can't do it. I don't like it. I don't really like it that much. I'm not a lover of yogurt, but I'm a lover of the effect. If I eat yogurt and I put blueberries and granola in it, it's it's and it's like 2% zero, whatever the hell it is. I get the Ziggy whatever. And that, that one's really well, you know, I think. You don't like it too. I don't think you want to know why I've never liked yogurt. It's because I've always done the health nut, Faye, Faje, whatever it's called 0% fat, 0%. And then I, I'm like, I'm forcing myself to eat it and I'm like, why am I doing this?

45:17 Why am I doing this to myself? Why am I doing? I don't enjoy this. I've learned that if I mix, I put a whole, I throw that in that I put A at least an inch thick of blueberries. Yeah, yeah. And then I take about 1/4 inch, I mean, a handful of granola that I drop on top, the sort of so then in every bite there's blueberries and granola, which I like. I like those a lot. And the, and the protein, it's like 18 grams of protein for whatever. And that's the biggest thing is you're supposed to be, you know, the news of the day, the doctors of the day is they're pushing protein. I don't know if this is because. I don't believe anything doctors say anymore. I just don't. Because bread's good for you one year, it's bad for you the next, then it's bad again.

46:01 Then bread causes cancer, then it cures cancer. And then you know what? I'm tired. I'm tired of it and I'm tired. Of it, I'm thinking that the less chemical stuff that you get because I'm that's. That's just what I'm thinking about. One of the things that I try to do is eat things with less chemicals in them. Like blueberries and I mean granola has a fair amount of chemical stuff in it to make it all sticky and sweet. Yogurt is not, you know, it's all natural, whatever the hell that. You know what I kind of stopped doing? I kind of stopped eating just fish, you know? Like I'll eat sushi, we eat. Fish. We eat fish. We just had steelhead last night. I'll eat. Sushi I won't eat. Fish I won't eat like, you know. Or salmon or trout. Or I don't eat tilapia anymore because somebody said something about it tastes like it's made of poop, but I don't know if that's true.

46:50 Well, it's a genetically engineered fish to live on the bottom of the ocean or on the, the, the whatever it is the fish farm and you got about 1000 million of them in one small little cage. And so it's kind of like it's one is ethically wrong. But at the same time, if you don't buy them, then other people will. So who really cares? Well, that's like saying if you know, if you don't, if you don't murder them, somebody else will. Well, that's the whole thing when people say how dare you take that flight? You should be more conscious about your carbon footprint. I'm like, the plane's taking off whether I'm on it or not. Like, I don't know about that. Well, if, if everybody said we're not going to take a plane, then it would matter. And I think if that's the key, you have to, you have to have society as a whole.

47:34 One person cannot make the impact you need. You need and, and one of the things you have to do is you have to do what you say and say what you do. You know, you have to be if, if you're, it's like one of the things that I think was probably one of the, the, the missteps of the original climate change Bush was people were all talking about making the world a better place and cleaner. And, and I think, I think that if you were to come in and say that that's great. But they had this, they had Gore who was the wrong person. He's he's, he's considered on one side and one side only, and he's not, he's not in the middle. You need somebody like an egg.

48:16 Ed Begley. That from my perspective, is somebody that he rides a bike. He doesn't, he doesn't ride a car. He has his car, his house is in LA and it's totally self sustainable. I mean, it's or something to that effect. It recycles everything. And it's like, that's the kind of person I don't need to, I don't need to have you telling me that I should use less. When you ride a private jet and you have this and on top of that, then you went to work for a fund and you wanted to trade carbon credits and it was your exchange that was going to make you another billion. And I'm like, no, no, you're, you're getting too much money for saying that you like climate change.

48:59 If you were getting no money and you were doing something else with it, I would I would totally respect that. But if I stand to make money by a particular position and then I'm saying that's a good position to be, then I feel like that I'm tainted. That's just my thought. Well, I'll tell you something too. What if I told you that those energy saver statistics and measures at which the general public can save on power and electricity and how they can help the environment was one of the largest PR firms like deals that came out of Big Coal. Big Coal made those PR deals to have those in the general public. That is true because it's a disguise to make it on the general public that it's their fault that they're changing the environment and not the unregistered coal scrubbers that are pumping out thousands upon millions of cubic square feet of carbon emissions per year that go unvetted all the time. And it's not it's not my fault.

50:01 It's. Not it's, it's, it's I'm, I'm, I'm dumping 8 oz. I don't fertilize anymore, but I used to fertilize the yard and I was probably dumping pounds of, you know, fertilizer chemical into the stream would wash by and go like a a couple pounds a year. And that has nothing to to resemble like the ones that are in the Midwest that have, you know, 50,000 lbs of pesticides put out on a weekly basis and it washes into this. No, but it's your fault. It's not big pharma. Or even think about this. Think about you mountain top mining in West Virginia where they cut the top off of a mountain and then they push it into a valley.

50:45 Strip mall strip. Like where a fucking lake is and then they they have the audacity to blame me for driving on a road trip? Are you shitting me? Like no, like it's not my fault. It's good. Never. Will be what? But then, but then the people that say that it's your fault are making money off that. So that's not that's fair. You know what? The capitalist structure really, really works well when you you just got to blame other people. I think, I think it really, really works well for if you're a above a certain area. And I think, though, that we're finding that even as we speak, the bar is rising.

51:26 Oh yeah, it keeps. Rising with every year rises that, you know, having having $1,000,000 is no longer like being wealthy and people look at it and say wow, I want to be a millionaire. And it's like, well, you know, in my neighborhood or in the neighborhood that the one we lived before, the houses are, you know, half 1,000,506 hundred, 800 a million. So if you own a house, you're a millionaire. But but then you got to have a car, you got to have another car because both of you are going to work for that, you know, And our neighborhood, I think in this, in this area, the average income is like 140 or $150,000 a year per person. You know what I mean?

52:06 See, on your point, Gavin Newsom just came out to CNN and said that he sees LA becoming the new Detroit in the next five to six years. I saw that and it's funny 'cause I watched a Detroit documentary about this guy that moved there from California 2008 and then has been basically monitoring kind of the transition right throughout the last 20 years. And it's a great documentary and it's so funny 'cause in the his own like kind of Q&A after the movie, he said, wow, like, I really look at you guys and I really see this place becoming the new Detroit. And that was about a month before Gavin Newsom said that. I think that that well. If you think about it now, here's how does, how does it happen? What is there?

52:47 Are there, are there key points that you can do to reverse that? I mean, is it and and it's not? I do. I do not believe that it's kill the homeless. I don't think that's how. You tax incentives to bring production back to LA is the only way that that would really help 'cause the entertainment industry was such a backbone of this area. I guess you really have Silicon Valley now kind of putting them putting up the GDP instead of, you know what, Detroit. Detroit had had a higher tax rate than the rest of the community because it was the city and you survived the city. So what happened? What happened to Detroit auto industry?

53:27 Auto industry moved out because of the higher tax rate. They moved to the suburbs. Suburbs kept the lower tax rate. So they were sucking off of and they were using the city as the airports and all the stuff like that. Yet everybody moved to the suburbs. They moved to the suburbs because cleaner, safer, blah, blah, blah. And you got a lot. It's like, I know people that live in New York City and love it. But then then they moved into the state. They're like, Oh my God, I have a yard. I can walk out in the back of my yard and I can have a picnic in my own yard, my yard, you know, And you're like, I have a dog now that could go outside without me with him. I never understood that. Having a dog in New York, What the hell is that? I see people. Or even lonely for that matter.

54:10 Like, I know you're lonely, but that is the you go to work, you go to an office, and you leave your dog at home. 8 hours, 8 hours with nobody. You know, those people are the scum of the earth, I swear. And then you go outside and then you let your dog shit on the fucking pavement. I have to step in it. What is that? Oh my God. Sidewalk is much better. Bujka told me that when I was 13 years old, we were walking with you in New York. We were visiting him and he's like, he's like, are these people? And they're fucking dogs, How dare them. And then I was like, that's kind of an overt mind. So that's kind of a little ridiculous. And then I thought about it more. I was like, no, you're totally right. You're totally right about that. Oh my gosh. It's, you know, and in the argument you're going to take care of dogs, it's like, ah, are you really?

54:55 No, no you're not. No. No. Because if there isn't demand, there wouldn't be dogs. You know, what time are we at Aaron, by the way? People talk about well, we, we, we're out, we pop to an hour. Yeah, that's what I thought. What? What are our donkeys? What Mikey and Mackie? Mikey and Mackie, we've had multiple updates. When you come back, we'll have to go see them and ride them and take pictures and post it to Yeah, my father. I think so. Well, I'm using the thumbnail of them smiling. Yeah, smiling donkeys. I love that. Yeah, Chris, it's a good thing, you know, to make other people smile. And I think that that is that's a worry worthy life. Would the people are gonna love this thumbnail like this thumbnail?

55:42 This. Is gonna be great. I need to download this right now. I just like this photo, makes me happy. Don't you wanna? Don't you wanna be a donkey? Yes, I definitely. I mean a donkey. A donkey makes people happy. I I think of Eddie Murphy donkey, I'll tell you about a retiring. Plan move to somewhere that's not here because there's going to be a tremendous recession in the next 10 years and oh, 10 minutes. Yeah, right. And then we're never going to recover from it. Go to Europe, have a mini goat farm, Have a mini goat farm out in the middle of France where you see those houses for like 200 thousands, like a 14 bedroom. Live there. Hang out with the ghosts and extract goat milk all day. That's kind of.

56:28 Like don't buy the house, rent the house. Rent the house. Never buy. Never buy in a foreign. Land those historical places too I don't know about. I don't know how the historical values cause in DC too. You can't change a lot of things or you need to hire contractors with specific licenses that can work on things. That are Alexander is the same way 18 meters. Yeah. You know I got to change my window $3000. Well, that's where granddad ran into a lot of because he didn't have the licensing to work on a lot of that stuff, so he couldn't book the jobs. Yeah. And that was that was a problem. Yeah, but he did. Did he own? He he granddad never had a donkey story, did he? No, no, not to no. Didn't you have? We haven't.

57:08 We have a Christmas ornament of a blue donkey. We do. Yeah, whatever donkey stories can you think of? I remember riding one. Do we ride them in the colop, I guess, or are those horses? Those were real horses around the volcano. We rode them fast as hell, too. Yeah, that was a dream. Was that a dream or was that real Galapagos? First time, yeah. First time, Yeah, first time we did. So we did do that. That wasn't a dream. Second time we were on a boat. Yeah, there was no horses on the boat. We're no horses on the boat. Yeah, there was a couple. There were a couple bigs from no horse. Some horse faced people, but never never because.

57:50 We I know I'm looking in a mirror again. We're just so attracted. Tell you that. We're just so attracted. All right, it's well, it it'll be. Wrapping up, what are we doing here? No, I was just it. Well, I'll close with the story. I remember I was sitting in Rehoboth at beach with one of the buddies and we're there drinking a bar overlooking the boardwalk. And this guy is bold and he weighs about 300 lbs, two 80, and he's probably about 5-7. And he would be out of the top 100. He's definitely in the 90s as far as who do you want to date or go out with? And he's making references to these women that walk by that are in bikinis going, oh man, look at that. She's got a belly. Wow, that's disgusting.

58:32 And I'm looking at him and I'm just like, and he's wired a shirt. He's got one of those Hawaiian shirts and literally the buttons are pulling apart. Like when you see when it's so fat and it's so sticking out and I'm thinking like, what? I just couldn't. I couldn't get over that because it was so funny. Maybe a little introspection do. You not. Do you not see that what you know that you probably shouldn't be judging something else when you you appear to be? Wow. Wow, little introspection goes a long way, you know. Yeah, exactly. Little introspection. That was funny. That was really good. Well, as always, a record of myfather.com. Check us out on Spotify, Instagram, YouTube, and then Oh yeah, Oh yeah, this was the episode. No, wait, wait, this isn't now 2 episodes after we did the Adam Weber one.

59:25 So that's great. Talk to you guys later. See you next week. Party on.