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Manage Your Money, Find your Soul, and Cover Your Ears. A space dedicated to providing life-giving financial and spiritual information via an engaging discussion about mindfulness, intentionality, and offensive topics. Co-hosts Hartley Wright and Kevin Bartolacci hope to help you discover the benefits of enriching your life.
Well, you know, a place like Golden Corral, 90 days, you could you could do that. You could say, you know what? I eat here. I'm good for 90 days.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's about right.
Speaker 1:It's like me with a Big Mac. I I loved Big Macs.
Speaker 2:I hate Big Macs. I've had one in my life. I hate
Speaker 1:Well, as a teenager, I loved Big Macs. And so then as I got to an adulthood and realized how many calories was in 1 Big Mac, I said, okay. That's it. Welcome to the faith, finances, and f bombs podcast where we inspire you to manage your money, find your soul, and cover your ears. Well, hello, everyone.
Speaker 1:As I've said before, this is not a wait. My mic is hot. Maybe I should back up. Somebody somebody listening now has probably just covered their ears, which is great because we gave them a warning. I have said before and probably will say again, this is not a political podcast by any means, but I think it's fair to say we are politically we are political adjacent.
Speaker 2:That's a good word for it.
Speaker 1:I would think so. That's how I've thought about it. And so,
Speaker 2:you're the wordsmith. What would be the difference between adjacent and tangent? Tangent. Nah.
Speaker 1:I hadn't thought about that. We'll have to
Speaker 2:Just throw it out there.
Speaker 1:Tan why would you say tangent? I don't know. Oh.
Speaker 2:Because I like the word tangent.
Speaker 1:You just like the word tangent. You
Speaker 2:Well, specifically tangential. I like that word.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Tangential. You know, some words and I'm not saying this about tangential, but some words do not exist.
Speaker 2:I know. Although, you know, the whole irregardless is now in a dictionary.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And it has been for some time, and we have an episode that was where I did talk about that. And I think I even mentioned that it was in the Yep. Dictionary.
Speaker 2:And we
Speaker 1:have a whole podcast episode where my f bomb of that particular podcast were these words that are not words, and more and more, they are becoming words because we have accepted them. But
Speaker 2:Yeah. Oh, let's get back to politics then.
Speaker 1:Yes. So, we introduced and we are waiting on data to unfold on the Alabama IVF situation. And then lo and behold, last Thursday night, we had the presidential State of the Union address and then a Republican response from Katie Britt.
Speaker 2:From Alabama.
Speaker 1:From Alabama, senator. And then there was quite a Saturday night live, which I have not I am not a Saturday night live enthusiast and haven't been for many, many, many, many years. Listener, if you're not aware of this, the 2 of us are very, very old guys depending on your age.
Speaker 2:It's all good about context.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I'm old to make sense. Depending on your age, we're either very, very, very old or maybe just very old. We're old to Jason. Either way, I was alive when, Saturday Night Live began, and so those were great days.
Speaker 1:They were fabulous. They were fantastic in terms of Saturday Night Live. And, and then it hit a point in which it was just I thought, man, this isn't working anymore. And some of that may have been age related. Some of it was just my particular flavors of what I like and I don't.
Speaker 1:So but every now and then, there's something Saturday Night Live has that I think they do have really good sketch. Scarlett Johansson was the guest on Saturday Night Live. Their whole opening was her impersonating Katie Britt, and she had her down to the t. Nice. If you if you did not see Katie Britt's
Speaker 2:I did not.
Speaker 1:Presentation, I would watch that first. A rebuttal? Her rebuttal. But you need to watch a good you need to watch it up to about the 7, 8 minute mark where you can see how she presented it, and then you'll really appreciate Scarlett Johansson's parody.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Have you read any article or heard anybody speak about her rebuttal in itself in terms of I'm asking because I don't know if you're comp if you're hearing all of this for the first time. It's what I'm about to say.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I know very little other than I saw a fact checker article, and she was talking about us sex trafficking. And
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Mentioned a woman, and the woman said that was from 2004 to 2008 Oh. During Biden's administration. Yeah. That's about all I know.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And part of, Johansen's pitch perfect parody points that out. I'm mentioning all of this because I do believe, at least at this point, she is likely to be Trump's running mate.
Speaker 2:That's why she drew the
Speaker 1:I believe that's how she was chosen to
Speaker 2:Politically, that makes sense to me.
Speaker 1:Yes. Politically, it does. And people have had quite a reaction all across across the board.
Speaker 2:I have no doubt.
Speaker 1:Trump is the forerunner. He's kinda secured that spot. And I'm not sure about Bobby Kennedy. Is Bobby Kennedy still I can tell
Speaker 2:I can tell about
Speaker 1:June. Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. Bobby's Bobby's
Speaker 1:Let me specify. Again
Speaker 2:For us who are older For
Speaker 1:us who are older, see, the listener knew exactly who I was talking about. Yeah. You needed the clarification.
Speaker 2:Well, just because I'm older than
Speaker 1:you, it is. Yes.
Speaker 2:And I wanna make sure that they knew we weren't talking about a dead person.
Speaker 1:That's right. Yes. Oh, I'm sure it would Our special guest today, our musical guest on the podcast today will be the dead Kennedys.
Speaker 2:That's right. Once again, for young people, you may not know that. Now he's running as an independent. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I was hoping you were gonna tell me someone else
Speaker 2:because no good news for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I was hoping you'd say someone else because I because I'm not sure the incumbent
Speaker 2:is What a situation we're in.
Speaker 1:Yes. We are in quite a situation. And, again, we are not political here. We are just politically adjacent.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But I gotta I gotta imagine if we could talk to all 330,000,000 Americans 1 on 1 and just say, come on. On one hand, you got this. On the other hand, you got that. How in the hell did we get here?
Speaker 1:Great question.
Speaker 2:These are the 2 best options out of 330,000,000 people? I I can't believe that's true.
Speaker 1:That's where we are.
Speaker 2:I know that's where we're at.
Speaker 1:I just It's hard to fathom how it happened.
Speaker 2:My mind works. I wanna know how did we get here? That these are the 2 choices? Again?
Speaker 1:Again. That in 4 years' time
Speaker 2:cow.
Speaker 1:Knowing what we had and witnessing how everything unfolded, how is there no one else?
Speaker 2:What's so disappointing to me. In one of my class sessions, I just said, I feel sorry for you all. Here you are, 21 years old. For some of you, this is the 1st presidential election you've been able to vote in, and this is your choice. Do you remember when, we looked at candidates who were in their sixties, and we thought they were old
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:For being president. And now we're looking at guys who are gonna turn 80, and you're like, well, okay.
Speaker 1:Well and even Bobby Kennedy is an independent. He's 70.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But he's in great shape.
Speaker 1:He is in great shape, man. That guy.
Speaker 2:You see him without a shirt?
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. That guy is I I need to know his routine. I know some of it because I've heard his wife talk about it, on a podcast where she was a guest. He's in the gym all the time. He's working out all the time.
Speaker 1:He constantly goes. He exercises. He never he never stops in that regard.
Speaker 2:Yeah. My guess would be it's been a habit for most of his adult life or
Speaker 1:I would guess so.
Speaker 2:He wouldn't be that disciplined. Yeah. And it certainly doesn't hurt that he's had financial resources to do whatever he needs to do.
Speaker 1:That is that is very helpful. Yeah. Not to just beat a horse to death and not to turn off listeners who say, okay. I'm done with this episode. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Back in the early eighties, he would talk about it. We finally got to a point where it it was just the right time for Trump. He was like, you know what? With these choices, I probably have a realistic shot.
Speaker 2:I still think all of his decisions were driven by revenue. Think of the publicity he got in 2015 when he came down that golden hell of it or escalator.
Speaker 1:Escalator.
Speaker 2:Isn't it hasn't stopped since? That's a wonderful thing. It's great. Great.
Speaker 1:There's some process there. A small loan of $1,000,000. $1,000,000. That's a horrible Trump impression. First time I've ever tried that.
Speaker 2:Well, keep working on it because, I mean, he may be president for the next
Speaker 1:4 years. He may be president.
Speaker 2:We wanna sharpen that, invitation so we could do some parodies on our own podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's true. America's a mess. I'll just say that.
Speaker 2:What's that? What do you got?
Speaker 1:This is the magazine, Foreign Affairs. That's why I opened with this political leaning because America's a mess on its own, but Russia and Ukraine are a mess. So I was reading about where they're at in terms of bringing that to an end and then Israel and Oman. Haiti
Speaker 2:in there?
Speaker 1:Yes. Holy cow. It's gonna be very interesting what happens in the Middle East, or maybe we should start looking and calling it the new Middle East because it's not gonna be the same. I don't wanna get into all of that because then it would become very political in terms of America's involvement or lack of involvement with Russia and not really helping and supporting Ukraine, helping Jerusalem, but not doing what they need to do. So that started October 7th.
Speaker 1:How long is the war in Ukraine has been happening since 22?
Speaker 2:Yeah. We're in our 3rd year.
Speaker 1:3rd year of that. But one thing I can say about that is, as I read this morning, this is the Russian military, are they weak and vulnerable, almost at an end? Or on the flip side of that, are they strong enough? And do they have support? And do they have arsenal support in order to come in and do some devastation and destruction?
Speaker 1:And both statements are true. It really just depends on decisions that need to be made. Yeah. The same can be true about Israel. I think really in the Israel situation, they just need new leadership.
Speaker 2:Saw a headline about Netanyahu possibly losing his leadership Yeah. Position because of all this.
Speaker 1:They were getting ready for elections when the incidents happened on October 7th, and then that brought everything to a halt. So here we are now, this many months later
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:People really don't understand. One of the things on my perpetual to do list is get a better grip and handle an understanding of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. And and most people really don't have an understanding of it. And, I mean, why would they? That's part of our luxury of being westerners.
Speaker 1:We can be surrounded in our first world problems and hear about those things, and they rattle us and they and they stir us for for what? All of a day and a half, and then most of us are back to our usual lives and ignoring
Speaker 2:everything else.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So enough about that. I'll let you respond to that and then move us into finances if you would like.
Speaker 2:And I don't really have a response that's coherent or intellectual. Yeah. One thing that popped my head is we're talking about Trump, Biden, Netanyahu. If your father took the keys and wrecked the car, how often would you keep giving him the keys so he can go back out?
Speaker 1:Well, it depends on if I am an enabler, codependent.
Speaker 2:Seems like that's what we're doing with these guys. It's like, well, you screwed it up the first time, but come on back for another try.
Speaker 1:Can I just push push the edge here a little bit more? We have our senators and our representatives are all men who just will not give up power. They most of them don't realize how they're abusing that power. And so why not? Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, I mean, that's part of it. We're gonna keep giving them the keys because if I hold him accountable, I'm speaking not as myself. But if I am a senator, for example, if I hold him accountable, then someone is gonna need to hold me accountable, and I don't wanna be held accountable for many of the decisions I've made. Yeah. And what's on my record and how I vote and the fact that I do keep giving him the keys.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think that's I don't think that makes me cynical. I only think it makes me skeptical. I'm trying to be a realist.
Speaker 2:Practical optimist. Yes. The new book I'm reading. Alright. Well, I'll talk about finance.
Speaker 2:We'll get off of that.
Speaker 1:And the listener takes a big heavy sigh.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Thank god. Not a lot to talk about since we were here last week. Things are good. We have, on pace, have another record high today.
Speaker 2:The S and P is currently at 5167. The record high close is 5157. So we are above, but we still have, gosh, 4 and a half hours left of the trading day. So anything could happen. So there's really nothing new.
Speaker 2:Chairman Powell testified last week before congress and essentially said, I think we're done raising rates. Right. First time he's made that statement in any form. He's always been much more vague. So now comes the race of who wins the first rate cut?
Speaker 2:There was trying to guess. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan said this morning, I think they should be cautious and wait as long as they can to cut rates. Because the economy's doing great. His point is don't rush it because we don't have to go backwards. You get it wrong.
Speaker 2:We don't have to reverse and raise rates again. Just let it sit. Think there's probably some wisdom in that. Powell, in his defense, has been clear for a year now. We will analyze the data and make our decision.
Speaker 2:Now the skeptics have already ran into this with some client appointments, have said, oh, yeah. But it's an election year. They'll cut rates. I said, you're probably right. I'm not saying it's causation, but there certainly seems to be a correlation between election year and rate cuts.
Speaker 1:Very, very much.
Speaker 2:There wasn't in 16 or 20 because rates were still at 0 from back in 2009. So that that's something that's in our heads is a collective consciousness. Like, politics are gonna get involved in this. They're gonna cut rates so that the incumbent has a chance to win. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's I don't know that that's actual, but that's what people believe.
Speaker 1:In my history, that's what I used to believe until until recent until the recent time. Well, just
Speaker 2:think we had no rate cuts in 12, 16, or 20.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So in the 3 most recent elections, no rate cuts that year. Right. But that's still what people believe.
Speaker 1:It's a default thing that I've had to shift and change.
Speaker 2:Yep. I think I told you this, and we probably had on a podcast. After that lunch, I went to
Speaker 1:Yes. Is this about the history of Yeah. The facts. And you're gonna yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we'll we'll have those little teasers on the podcast all summer leading up to the election. Okay. We'll try to be a voice of factual data as opposed to what we all think to be true.
Speaker 1:Right. Right.
Speaker 2:I'll bring those in. We'll kinda cover those.
Speaker 1:I catch you often didn't get you, we missed because I worked assumptively that everyone who is listening knows what we're talking about, but there might be someone who's just dropping in for this episode. We missed that part about actually what you're talking about, which is, say what it is you're talking about.
Speaker 2:1st Trust data? Yeah. So they went and grabbed data and analyzed a whole bunch of, let's just say, potential outcomes in presidential election years. What happens when a Republican wins? What happens when a Democrat wins?
Speaker 2:What happens when the White House, the Senate, and the Congress are controlled by the same party? What happens when it's a split? What happens when it's a president that's a republican, a split? All of those kind of things. And they broke it down with a lot of historical data and just said, they're very much into facts.
Speaker 2:This is what happened. And once we start presenting it, I suspect there's gonna be 47% of the population that's gonna be shocked of our listeners. And I've already been through this in 2020 on Facebook. Even though
Speaker 1:people are
Speaker 2:gonna argue presented facts, I was told, no. That's not right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So I'm prepared for that again because that's a human behavior. It's a known researchable outcome that when you present actual facts and data that are contrary to someone's opinion, they do not change their mind. They just dig in deeper because they now feel salted. So I don't know how else to do it other than saying these are the facts. I don't know.
Speaker 2:There's gotta be some way to communicate that without attacking the other person. I hope we can do it well. I don't know. We'll find out.
Speaker 1:So a couple of things. You made the statement. Our economy is doing great.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 1:Should come as no surprise to you that one of the things Katie Britt attacked, she kind of evoked that fear that the economy is in bad shape, which we know is the playbook. And then this last thing that you're talking about, about people feeling assaulted, to that, I would say, hence, no. You weren't wrong about the economy. Our faith focus, during the Lent season, which we are still in, has been on not giving something up, but rather taking up a practice of prayer. And so I wanted to make these kind of simple so they're not complex.
Speaker 1:I wanna make them very tangible. Would would that be tangent? Would that make them I don't know.
Speaker 2:No. Tangent.
Speaker 1:Tangent. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Probably the same root.
Speaker 1:It could be. So I wanted to make them tangible and concrete and easy so that you as a listener can say, hey. This is very simple. This is a way I can make space for God. And so today, I'm just gonna be very simple and very short and just talk about the practice of a breath prayer.
Speaker 1:Now this has origins of when it began and how it began. I don't think the background of this is really necessary for you to appreciate this, and there's some scripture that goes with this. But I would just say that the great thing about a breath prayer is it's a way that you can connect with God in any kind of moment, in any kind of situation, and you already have words that are provided. So you can be praying about a situation or a circumstance that you are in by simply lifting up a breath prayer, which draws you near to God and you feel his presence near to you and you feel that you are connected with him even though you are experiencing what it is you are experiencing. It also works as a place to just connect.
Speaker 1:If you feel yourself experiencing some anxiety, if you feel yourself intimidated or apprehensive about something, you're not settled, breath prayer can be something that settles you. And so without getting into the background, just to keep it simple so that we have an easy access to Create space for God, I would just say, here's how a breath prayer works ideally best, and this has been my experience. A breath prayer is as simple as this. You want to find a name for God, not one that you make up yourself, but a name and a title for God that does exist, and there are plenty to choose from that are biblical. And if you do not know many, you can just simply I've never done this.
Speaker 1:You could probably just put in a Google search names for God, and you'll probably be get the Hebrew ones first. That's probably gonna be your top hit. The El Elohim and the El Adonai and, you know, all of those. But if you go into a deeper search, you can find God in the person of Jesus. There were many, many, many names and titles.
Speaker 1:You wanna have a breath prayer that includes a name for God that you resonate with that is very personal to you, that means something to you of significance. And then you want to put in a prayer of what it is that you most need. What do you need from God most in this part of your life? Or maybe it's something that has been an ongoing struggle or something that has been a great concern about where you do not feel that you and God are in touch with one another, place where you struggle to make that connection. And then I believe this is very important.
Speaker 1:I know many people who have breath prayers, and their breath prayers are much longer than this, but I think what works best is 7 syllables.
Speaker 2:If I were to use heavenly father is what identifies for me.
Speaker 1:So just break that down.
Speaker 2:That's 5.
Speaker 1:Heavenly father. That's 5.
Speaker 2:And I can only use 7?
Speaker 1:In that case, you would probably use more. Okay. What again, I'm presenting the ideal. Alright. Ideally, I think 7 works best because this is a breath prayer.
Speaker 1:So it's a prayer that you make as you breathe. So you have a few syllables where you breathe in and then a few syllables where you breathe out. So in 2010, when I began to embrace and be an actual active participant in every bit of my transformational process, the first thing that alarmed me was I felt like I'd lost my soul. I was out of touch with my soul. I was no longer connected with my soul.
Speaker 1:I mean, I literally thought it was lost, and it put me into a panic and a tailspin. I may have talked about that before in an episode. So when I began to incorporate the spiritual discipline of prayer and different types of prayer, because I had thought I'd lost my soul, I I said, okay. What would be a name for God that I really resonate with? Well, I need him to be a shepherd because at the time, I am a lost sheep.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. It's what I truly believed. Mhmm. So shepherd resonated with me. While he was a very important part of my life and we had a good relationship, I was not making him lord.
Speaker 1:K. There's big god, but then there's lord who I allowed to have a personal interaction. Actually allow him to have some control and influence and just surrender control to him. So I needed a shepherd because I was a lost sheep. I had not been making him Lord.
Speaker 1:So there I had two names for God that really resonated with me and were very meaningful. Shepherd, lord. My big need or my concern, my panic was that I've lost touch with my soul. Mhmm. So then my prayer, and that's really at the heart of the mechanic, is what is it that you need to prayer, and and it can be an ongoing prayer.
Speaker 1:And mine at the time, and it and this was my breath prayer prayer for several years, was I wanted him to restore my soul. So then my prayer became, shepherd, lord, restore my soul. So I had 7 syllables. Alright. So then I could say, shepherd, Lord, as I breathe in, restore my soul as I breathe out.
Speaker 1:That was my breath prayer from 2010 for many, many years. So it was my breath prayer for much longer than it needed to be. It's still a breath prayer I have. I have a handful of breath prayers, but I hold that up as a good example that fits the ideal. You've got 7 syllables, easy to remember, not very complex.
Speaker 1:You can breathe in and breathe out. This is the kind of thing that is very helpful when you're laying on a hospital gurney about to go into a test procedure. Everything that's going on in your mind and your heart, your emotions, you're you're not stable in any way. This can be a very calming thing, and it can bring you close to God and you can feel like, okay, God's in control. If you're in line at a grocery store and you're about to lose it because you picked the line with the slowest checker and you can feel yourself losing your sense of balance because you've got too much to do.
Speaker 1:You were too hurried, and so you're gonna start to curse and swear, and you're getting very frustrated inside. And you don't have to say it out loud, but you can say it in your mind. You know, shepherd, Lord, restore myself. So in the example you had, you have 5 syllables there. Your actual prayer part, well, is it gonna you're probably gonna need more than 2 syllables.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So then maybe pick words that are similar to that for the title, or you just have a longer prayer. Kelly does this. Kelly has had a few breath prayers. I don't know that any of hers have just been 7 syllables. I might be wrong about that.
Speaker 1:A couple of breath prayers that I'm aware of that she has had have been right there around 9:10. I'm not saying if you have more than 7, it doesn't work. It's just a longer breath. You know, inhale with a few syllables, exhale.
Speaker 2:I'm with you.
Speaker 1:And I like the 7 syllables, and I think that's ideal because it makes it very simplistic and it's easier to hang on to.
Speaker 2:Good stuff.
Speaker 1:I had a friend. I still have a friend, but he his father had diabetes. It was bad. It was he had a serious Yeah. Case of diabetes, and he eventually died from the disease.
Speaker 1:Yeah. One of the reasons it overtook him was because he just did not care to change. And when I mentioned this to my friend, he says he knows ways to trick the testing and trick the doctor when he goes into a test. So he will go a couple of nights before his test and chow down like there's no worry at Golden Corral's buffet. And then a couple days later, he does whatever he needs to do to that, just fools the doctor enough to think that his levels may be high, but it's it's okay.
Speaker 2:It's hard to fool harder to fool an a one c because they'll tell you that's a 60 to 90 day average.
Speaker 1:So that would be tough. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is a one time snapshot. Boom. Right then.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So talking about this now makes me wonder if if his diabetes testing or check ins or whatever they were based on glucose.
Speaker 2:It had to be glucose
Speaker 1:or he couldn't have gone. He couldn't have gone
Speaker 2:out of golden cow. Yeah. He must did it 90 days in advance. But yeah. Well, that's a lot of planning.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, a place like Golden Corral, 90 days, you could you could do that. You could say, you know what? I eat here. I'm good for 90 days.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's about right.
Speaker 1:It's like me with a Big Mac. I I loved Big Macs.
Speaker 2:I hate Big Macs. I've had one in my life. I hate
Speaker 1:Well, as a teenager, no. It's just it's preference. I loved Big Macs. And so then as I got to an adulthood and realized how many calories was in 1 Big Mac, I said, okay. That's it.
Speaker 1:So I decided at that point to have 1 Big Mac a year.
Speaker 2:Just keep the streak alive?
Speaker 1:In the last few years, I don't know when I had the last one because I just got out of the habit. Because when you're only having 1 a year
Speaker 2:Yeah. At some
Speaker 1:point, you say, I don't need to have 1 Sure. This year. When they came out with, again, listener, we are old. The quarter pounder with cheese has probably been in existence your entire life, but it has not been in existence my entire life. No.
Speaker 1:So when they came out with the quarter pounder with cheese, that was my burger of choice at McDonald's. But before that, it was always a Big Mac. Yeah. That was it. Hungry for a burger.
Speaker 1:Speaking of McDonald's Yes. It is not uncommon for parents of young children or even some older children to frequent McDonald's quite a bit. Yeah. We
Speaker 2:took our kids there.
Speaker 1:When our children were young, I would pick them up from school. We'd get a snack after school. When you have an after school snack, you have 3 options. One of which is you don't go anywhere. You come home and you have a snack at home.
Speaker 1:That is really the most reasonable and the most pragmatic, and it's probably the one I would highly recommend except I'm a 7, and so, therefore, we're not gonna have a snack at home. So that leaves you with 2 other choices. You either go to a place like Sonic or you just run through McDonald's and get something like a cone. So we would frequently go through McDonald's to get ice cream cones because that's pretty you know, it's okay. Safe snack.
Speaker 1:Not bad. It's a nice little treat.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But their their ice cream machine would be out so much. If I had a podcast at the time, this would have been a a full f bomb. It would not have been a cherry bomb. It would not have been a smoke bomb.
Speaker 2:Right now.
Speaker 1:It is a f bomb The for me.
Speaker 2:Frequency of the ice cream machine being broken has increased over whenever you were most frustrated by it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I saw an article online that says, why is McDonald's ice cream machine always broken?
Speaker 1:There you go. Makes you wonder if it ever really is broken. We didn't go to McDonald's every day. We wouldn't have an after school snack every day. Madison, I don't know if she loves to tell this story, but she's I've heard her tell more than one person.
Speaker 1:And she will tell about a time in which on this particular week, we wanted to get a cone, so we had tried this is, like, our 3rd attempt of the week. I'm talking to the drive through attendant, ordered the ice cream cream, says, I I'm sorry. The ice cream machine is broken. We can't give ice cream today. And I said, done with McDonald's and peeled out, peeled away from there in a rage.
Speaker 1:Nice. Plymouth Voyager minivan, but all but 2 of those tires were squealing. I mean, I left
Speaker 2:skidmarks on
Speaker 1:friends of ours that our kids grew up with living in Tennessee now. They've moved in Tennessee in 2017. 2019, Brian, the dad, sends a text just to myself and Madison. Sends us a text with a link to a news article in Florida about a man pulling out an AR 15 because the ice cream machine was broken. He doesn't say anything.
Speaker 1:Florida. He just sends a text with that link. Madison simply responded, I bet he yelled done with McDonald's. Alright.
Speaker 2:So I'll give you an up to date version of the same story. The class I teach is in Fulton, Missouri, so I drive there Tuesday Thursdays. A friend of mine who's a client lives in Fulton. He normally comes to Columbia to do our meetings. But since I'm in Fulton now twice a week, I told him his name's Alvin.
Speaker 2:I said, Alvin, one of these days, I'm gonna come in early, and you and I will get some ice cream. A client of mine passed away that Alvin knew, and I found out she knew him one day I was talking to her in Fulton. She passed away. So I checked in with Alvin. I said, hey.
Speaker 2:Did you know so and so passed away? He said, yeah. I just found out. Did you know her dad died last week? Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I saw that in the obituary, blah blah blah. So I said, I'm gonna come in early because I'm worried about you. Because he openly said to me, it's really bothering me. I'm having a hard time with it.
Speaker 2:So I thought I'm gonna go just meet him for ice cream. We'll talk for a while, see how he's doing. So I called him, and I'm like, hey. I'm coming to Fulton. Can you check around and see where a good place to get ice cream in Fulton?
Speaker 2:He says, sure. So I call him back. He goes, well, the place I wanted to take you to is downtown, but they close at 1. So that wasn't gonna be an option. So I said, well, I know where the McDonald's is.
Speaker 2:Is there only 1 in Fulton? He said, yes. Well, then I know where the McDonald's is. How about we just make it simple? We'll go get an ice cream.
Speaker 2:We'll sit and talk before I have to go to class. Great. So show up. I'd like a, you know, a sundae, blah blah blah. Our ice machine is broken.
Speaker 2:I said, that's how I felt. And I start I looked at him, and I started to laugh. And I said, then I'm assuming you don't have a McFlurry or a milkshake either. And she said, yeah. It's all out of the same machine.
Speaker 2:So here we are just 3 weeks ago. Wow. Once again, a McDonald's whose ice cream machine is broken.
Speaker 1:What the hell, McDonald's? No. You are a national I mean, you are an international phenomenally. And this is a universal thing. Like, if you mention it anywhere, people will be like, I could be in an airport, and I could hear someone say, let's go over to McDonald's.
Speaker 1:Well, not for ice cream.
Speaker 2:That's right. So I mean, that's other passengers are gonna say, not today because their ice cream machine's
Speaker 1:growing. Exactly. Right. It's it's what is what is up with that?
Speaker 2:To me.
Speaker 1:There should be an international investigation into this. That'd be a huge parody. That's a parody I could write.
Speaker 2:Think the justice department needs to get involved in this.
Speaker 1:Do you remember Super Size Me? I would just do one on just I would just do one on the ice cream. I would just Yeah. Let a camera follow me around. Perfect for Say, we're gonna go nationwide.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna go city to city, and I will eat nothing but ice cream cones, but we're gonna track and see how many of these McDonald's say our ice cream machine is down right now. It's amazing. It's broken. It's almost like it's
Speaker 2:Well, we got our f bomb in.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Right? Yeah. It's amazing to me. And that is not, I mean, it's it's as unfathomable as the fact that we are down to Biden and Trump again.
Speaker 2:That's a good corollary.
Speaker 1:Biden and Trump and McDonald's ice cream.
Speaker 2:The country is not well.
Speaker 1:It we are in shambles.
Speaker 2:But I'm not dare gonna say make America great again.
Speaker 1:Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That's another when you do go and check, when you go watch the footage of her, you might check out just a little bit of Biden's state of the unit dress.
Speaker 2:I can't bring myself.
Speaker 1:Because there was a, oh, gosh. What was she? I guess she was a rep. Yeah. The heckler.
Speaker 1:You heard about her.
Speaker 2:Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Speaker 1:Yes. I heard about it. And she was wearing what was inappropriate and illegal to wear at a State of the Union address. She had a mega hat on.
Speaker 2:Oh, shocker.
Speaker 1:And, I think her shirt might have had something with Trump or something, but
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:Oh my god. There is such a concern for America. But hey,
Speaker 2:wrap this up and go get some ice cream done.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Let's go see. Yeah. Right now.
Speaker 2:We're on the case.
Speaker 1:We're going to go see report.