... The noon hour of Madness and Mayhem, the podcast. [upbeat music]
Well, Victor, today is the day we say goodbye to the old water tower in Idaho Falls.
Oh, they're tearing it down today, huh?
They're starting the demolition for it. I did see a few posts, not a few, just one actually, of, uh, some person saying they're gonna handcuff themselves to the old water tower so they don't take it down.
[laughing] I hope they do. I hope they do, so we have something to talk about tomorrow.
Please.
[laughing] I mean,
is that a crime to handcuff yourself to it? I don't know. That would be a question for Traffic School, powered by the Advocate's Injury Attorneys.
All right, here we go. There's the notepad. I'm pulling it out right now and putting it on there for you.
All right.
Can you get arrested for handcuffing yourself to something that's about to be demolished?
Yeah. Um, I was scrolling Life in Idaho Falls to see if anybody was talking about it, 'cause I assume people are gonna lose their minds, some.
They already were, um, over the weekend. It got announced by the City of Idaho Falls late last week.
Okay.
And then all the posts started to come about. Uh, Katie Lee from Z103, she posted a picture of her dog in front of the, uh, the water tower in the background. I don't have any pictures of myself, I don't think, in front of the water tower. I think I just have a picture of my two friends who came to town, and that was back in 2021.
Yeah, I don't know if I have a picture of myself in front of it either. But I did see, um, when they... I couldn't remember the date, but when they announced, you know, they were gonna be tearing it down soon, uh, the comments section was very funny. Some people were just going nuts, just going nuts, and to me, it's like, I get it, you've seen it your whole life, but, you know, it's, it's just a water tower.
It's such a small-town thing to freak out about.
Yeah.
That's what I was thinking. Really? A water tower?
Yeah.
That's what we're getting mad at?
I'm, like, trying to think what... You know, what would the equivalent of the water tower be like in Poky? I, I don't know if there is anything.
They tear down the Roach Motel, whatever that place is called.
Yeah.
Where System of a Down played, maybe.
Yeah.
First National Bar. [laughing]
The First National, they're tearing it down! Not gonna stand for this, man. The Hotel Yellowstone in downtown-
What about the, uh-
The neon signs
... the Holtz Arena?
Oh, the Holtz Arena. That, that could be one that if they tore it down, I'm sure people would get upset, even though, you know-
Oh, wait. The, uh, that, uh, Native American, uh, tribute thing, the, the pole.
The Chief Theater?
The Chief Theater, yeah.
Yeah.
The, that giant pole. I mean, I think it's cool.
Yeah.
But what if they tore that down?
But it i- it, uh, hasn't always been around-
Ah
... like the, the theater was.
I thought it had. Yeah.
And then, you know, when the theater burned down, like many, many years later, they put up the, uh, the neon sign on the pole. Gotta say, Idaho Falls needs to take a look at Poky's downtown and liven it up a bit with some, some color, some neon. Lot of, lot of neon going-
Oh, neon's fantastic.
Yeah, yeah, just looks good. Looks good.
Love a good neon sign.
Oh, yeah, definitely, man. So-
One of the reasons why I want to go to Las Vegas, go to the Neon Museum.
I've been there.
Ooh.
It, it's pretty cool.
I'm jealous.
You know, it's, uh, it's pretty neat. Lots of signs. [laughing] You know, just lots of signs.
I'm sure you'll get blinded.
Yeah. No, it, it was cool. I watched, uh, some bands play there. Um, and it, it was cool.
But do you think people are gonna be, like, look at that, uh, new water tower begrudgingly and be like, "I gotta stare at this thing now"? They just get angry every time they see it, the new one-
Probably
... not the, not the old one. Like, w- they'll tell their kids, "We used to have a water tower here that was pretty."
Oh, yeah, yeah. No, guaranteed, guaranteed, even though it's, uh, it's all about what it's for, you know? They, they had to get a more modern one-
Now, does that thing-
-so it works right.
Does that thing really supply water for everything in Idaho Falls?
I don't think everything. I, you know-
That's what I was trying to figure out. I'm like, "Wait, wait a minute. Does this old water tower, was that the one that was supplying water to the, the, the, the town?" [chuckles]
Let's see. What is the purpose of a water tower? [laughing] 'Cause I've never really, uh, thought about it. I mean, you, you know it has water. Use gravity to... Stupid Google AI overview. Uh, "Maintain consistent water pressure and provide a re- reliable supply for homes, businesses, and firefighting." So, I mean, I, I, it couldn't supply all of the water.
I, I do see here on the AI overview, the old water tower, was it, was it actually called the Tim Horton Tank?
I don't know. Yeah, it says-
I can't tell with this whole AI overview. I feel like we might need to do some research on this or have somebody message us about it or something. I don't know.
Yeah, so they, they pump water into it, and, uh, I don't know.
[laughing] You're lost, too?
I'm lost.
[laughing]
I just, uh, I hope-
It's one of those days where it's just like, "Okay, do I really care?"
Yeah, exactly. [chuckles]
Do I really wanna read about a water tower?
That- maybe that's why they picked today to start tearing it down, 'cause they know everybody's gonna be, like, going back to work after the holidays, and energy's just super low. Like, I am tired today.
They should have-
I'm just tired.
They should have, uh, took a page out of somebody's playbook and maybe have done it at, like, 2:00 in the morning, so when everybody wakes up, it's all of a sudden just gone.
Yeah, that, that would keep people away. Now, I'm, I'm not gonna go down there, but, but I'm done working. I'm going to my couch. I-
No, but I'm just saying, like, you wake up in the morning, the whole water tower's gone, people would be upset for like, I don't know, 10 seconds, and they'd be like, "Okay, it's, it's gone already."
Yeah. Yeah, and they, they'll get over it fast and find the next thing to be angry about.
Right.
That's what people do on the internet nowadays.
I say we tear down all the old buildings in downtown Idaho Falls.
[chuckles] Just tear down old town.
And we add a nice, big, modern Trader Joe's.
There you- [laughing]
The parking's already bad as it is in downtown-
[laughing]
... and every Trader Joe's needs to have bad parking.
Yeah, yeah, so it's, it's ready to go.
Not only that, but also, like, we were trying to figure out, uh-... What place was it that went out of business recently? Oh, the JOANN Fabrics.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
We were trying to figure out w- what would they put in there?
Hmm.
And I was thinking maybe a fifth O'Reilly Auto Parts-
[laughing]
-'cause Idaho Falls needs that.
We do have a lot of O'Reilly Auto Parts.
The first mega credit union.
Hey, how about a car wash, DJ? [upbeat music]
How about a soda shop, where you walk in and you go to the very far back of that building?
[laughing] Yes.
Something like-
More soda shops, yeah.
[upbeat music] Victor, I feel like this has happened more than once, McDonald's getting hit with a class action lawsuit about the McRib.
I saw that, um, 'cause they're saying there's no rib meat-
Right
... in it.
And you would expect that from a place like McDonald's, right?
I mean, if you look at the McRib-
It's a loaf.
It, it's a loaf.
[laughing] Yeah.
That's what it is, it's a loaf.
It's a meatloaf covered in barbecue sauce-
Yeah
... and it tastes great.
[scoffs] I'm not a huge fan, but that's 'cause I worked at McDonald's, and I think I overdid it on McRibs. Um, and my friend, uh, a roommate, he worked there later on, and somehow he got a case of them. So we had this case of McRibs in the freezer-
Yikes, wow!
And we were eating them forever.
That's insane. [laughing]
[laughing] I mean, I got very tired of McRibs.
A case of frozen McRibs to bring home.
Yes. Yes, and-
Are you sure he didn't steal that?
He might have. I didn't-
[laughing] There's no way they just give employees those types of things.
Yeah, he might have stole it. I don't know. But we had a case of McRibs, and so we ate them all the time, and I just got so sick of them. But, I mean, who would think that they're actually making them from ribs? They, they don't even taste like rib meat, you know? It's, it's got a certain texture to it and things like that. It's clearly a loaf.
Let me look up what exactly is in the McRib.
I think it's just, just pork, right?
Yeah, pork, water, salt, dextrose, rosemary extract, and then, of course, you got the home-style roll, and then there's a- the pickle, right?
Uh-
The sliced onions and the pickle?
Yeah, and I think I always ordered them without the, uh, onions or pickles.
Oh, see, I get mine with no pickle. No pickle belongs on any sandwich, okay?
I disagree, but-
Okay, sure
... that's fine. That's fine. Um, people will sue for anything if they, if they can. Now, did they say it was a class action lawsuit?
Um, let me check.
Or just a lawsuit? 'Cause class action would mean, uh, we can get a taste. We can get a little bit of that money.
Yeah, class action lawsuit.
Okay.
I bought one recently. I p- I think I paid for it through the app.
Oh.
It might have been my app, it might have been Aubrey's app, but either way, I'm hoping to see that money.
You know, and back in the day, the McRib was, like, a cheap sandwich. They charge a lot for it now, don't they?
Well, imagine if it had real rib meat in it.
[laughing] Maybe that- maybe it used to have real rib meat, and they charged less, and then they're like, "Wait a minute, this thing's, uh, like, a novelty sandwich. Let's take the rib meat out, get all the, you know, the cheapest parts of the pig, and we'll make it into a loaf, and then we'll sell it for tons of money."
You know at least somebody who freaks out about the McRib every time it makes its return, right?
Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure, and I don't get why, 'cause it's, to me, not very good. I'd much rather just have a regular old double cheese or something like that from McDonald's.
I know me and you always, uh, kind of, uh, wonder, what is Culver's doing in there? What are they gonna release next?
I was actually checking their app the other day-
See?
... to see if they had something new, and they don't.
Right, I keep forgetting that they have the rewards points on their app now, in order for me to earn free stuff.
Yeah.
I always just still go to the drive-thru. I might get one today. We were having this hefty discussion in the Discord server about what we order at, uh, In-N-Out Burger.
Mm-hmm.
And they're having a huge fight, 'cause I guess one of my friends does not like the In-N-Out spread sauce-
Really?
... and doesn't get it, and gets ketchup and mustard instead.
What?
And-
That's what makes the sandwich.
My friend Zach, he thinks his opinion's the right way all the time.
Mm-hmm.
Like, I told him, like, I don't get any lettuce on any burger ever, 'cause j- there's no, there's no defense for lettuce being on a burger, other than the fact it provides a, quote, "nice crunch," which is really still n- not a great, like, "Oh, it's a, it's a nice crunch." [scoffs]
I, I like-
Who cares?
... I like lettuce on a burger. I, I don't know if it's the crunch or what, but I, I like it.
I wanna go right to the flavor, right to the sauce, right to the cheese, right to the meat. Some onions in there, love those.
Now, if I'm making a burger at home, I probably just go cheese and sauce.
Yeah, it makes sense, 'cause you don't wanna dice the onion. You don't wanna, [chuckles] you know, slice a tomato.
Yeah, and, uh, and I don't know, the, the pickles, I, I just don't... I'm, I'm lazy at home, but if I order a burger to go, yeah, put some pickles on there, put some lettuce, just no onions.
I, I go back to my previous statement about no pickles belonging on an- on any sandwich. I think about the chicken sandwiches that I make sometimes. I'll put, like, the pickle flats on them-
Yeah
... and I'll put, like, the little, uh, chipotle aioli on top.
Yeah, I never, uh, thought I'd be down with pickles on a chicken sandwich till one day I was like, "I, I think they screwed up my order and put the pickles on." I'm like, "All right, I guess I'll try it," and it's like, "Oh, this is pretty good." Pretty good stuff.
Pickles are more tolerable, but when you decide to put water chestnuts in an Asian food dish, I lose my mind.
You don't like water chestnuts?
I hate water chestnuts.
Why?
It, it goes back to that useless crunch factor.
[laughing] That-
And there's no taste to them. That's why they're called water chestnuts. [laughing]
[laughing] That's true, they don't have much flavor.
Right.
They are crunchy, uh, but I like them. We had some in, uh, the food we had last night.
Aubrey's sister dumped some in the, the food bowl, and I just took every single one of them out and put them in Aubrey's bowl.
[laughing]
And she was apologizing for every single one of them. I'm like, "Aubrey, I'm just giving you the water chestnuts. There's no need to apologize." [upbeat music] Wrapping up the noon hour of Madness and Mayhem. You know, Victor, we were talking about, uh, pretentious, uh, purchases, and, uh, Aubrey's brother gifted his wife... Oh, no, I think it was vice versa. His w- his wife gifted him a towel warmer for the bathroom.
A towel warmer!
Yeah.
See, I thought about getting one of those for, um, like, Taryn and Matt, but I didn't end up doing so. I just got them an Amazon gift card.
But there's one at Costco for 99 bucks, and I can't imagine having that much money to be like, "You know what? I-... maybe I do need to warm my towel and have that on the counter in the bathroom. You've seen my bathroom, there's no counter space.
Yeah.
That thing would need to sit, sit out in the living room.
Yeah.
And that just looks dumb.
See, the w- way my heater in my bathroom works, it, uh, kind of blasts at the wall right where the towel rack is, so I have a towel warmer. It's just not [laughing] supposed to be a towel warmer.
[laughing]
[laughing] So yes, in my bathroom, very highfalutin with my, uh, you know, uh, unintentional towel warmer.
And you would consider yourself a millennial, right?
No.
Okay, well, sorry.
I consider myself in between millennial and Gen X, as a goonie.
Well, never mind then. I was gonna ask this question: What is the peak millennial midlife crisis purchase-
Ooh
... from r/millennials?
Okay, what are people saying in there?
Um, the top answer, "I got an espresso machine, and sometimes my latte art..." Oh, I can't finish the rest of that sentence.
See, that does-
Doesn't resemble something that I can't say on the air.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah, um, that sounds like a, uh, millennial purchase, for sure, and, uh, that- I wouldn't buy one of those.
I don't really care for coffee, plus I really can't drink it. The last time I did was when we had that really hectic weekend or few days, not even a weekend, a few days, where we went with Lou Brutus-
Yeah
... to the Devil's Orchard, and before that, I didn't sleep at all the night before for some random reason.
Oh.
Then that night, we didn't get home till, like, 2:00 in the morning-
Yeah
... and then we had to be back here early the next morning.
Mm-hmm.
And then we had the concert the next night, and that, by the other day, I, my heart went into AFib. It was, like, the day before my birthday.
[laughing] Yeah.
Heart went into AFib, and that was also the day I shaved my head. I'm like, "That does it!
[laughing]
I'm doing it finally."
[laughing]
It was a weird couple of days.
That, that, those were- [laughing]
Be- before I turned 28.
Yeah, that, that was a wild-
[laughing]
... wild few days there. Anytime Lou Brutus is around, it, it's gonna be wild.
Well, now I can take some melatonin if I'm not sleeping. Like, last night, I didn't fall asleep till, like, 2:00 in the morning-
Yeah, geez
... just because I was hanging out with my friends. We were having this in-depth conversation. It always happens late at night.
Yeah, I-
Never, like, 4:00 in the afternoon.
No. Yeah, and I was waking up over and over last night. Oh, I was so tired this morning. I think it was just 'cause I knew I had to come in, you know, I had to wake up early, had been in holiday mode for weeks.
Now it's the first full work week-
Oh!
... of 2026, Victor.
When I rolled in here this morning, that was the first thought in my mind, five days ahead, and I was just like, "Ugh."
I have 11 days until I get to go home for a week and just take a week off.
Push that. Oh, good for you, bud. [laughing]
[laughing] I don't think it works. Well, what is the peak millennial midlife crisis purchase? Someone said that the toy you wanted as a kid but never got.
Okay.
Uh, houseplants. Why do I suddenly have so many houseplants?
Yeah, see-
There's a lot of people out there with plants.
That's true, and it, it does seem like more of a millennial thing. I, I don't know. I don't know. Or, or a girl thing. Anyway, I don't want any plants in my house 'cause there's bugs in them.
I have two cactus, cacti. Is that what they're called, cacti?
Yeah.
I have two of those and one, like, tree I got from Costco for $11.
[laughing]
And that's about it.
Hey.
Yeah.
That's more than me.
I s-
More than me.
Uh, the, the cactus just sit there at the kitchen window, and sometimes when I pull the blinds down, the, uh, the thorns will hit my hand and hurt.
[chuckles] That's fun.
Yeah.
[laughing]
I did it to myself, you know?
[laughing]
And then I see someone commented here, "I can't afford a midlife crisis."
Ah, that's, that's also very millennial.
Yeah?
[laughing] For sure.
Well, there's also c- career swap.
Oh, oh, I, I guess. I mean, my midlife crisis thing was a dumb TV, you know, just an overpriced TV. That's... I love it. I love that TV, but, um, that was, that was about it.
I think my dad was going through a midlife crisis 'cause he bought so much new furniture, bought a new $2,000 TV, you know?
Yeah.
Uh, there's that inner competition between every guy. You wanna have the bigger TV.
Yeah, I wish I would've, would've got a bigger one-
But-
... but it was way [laughing] too expensive.
But when you go for the giant TV, sometimes you pay not that much money for a crappy picture and-
Yeah
... all of that. You wanna have the 8K.
Yeah, so-
You wanna have those gory scenes right there.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I got the, the OLED, you know?
Yeah.
I, I did get that, and it was very expensive to get a giant one. Um, you can, you could, you know, get one that's maybe 10 inches shorter for, uh, like, half the price, but I was like, "I need, I need that extra 10 inches of TV."
[laughing] Yeah, you do.
[laughing]
Yeah, you do.
[laughing] [upbeat jazz music]
The Noon Hour of Madness and Mayhem is a production of Riverbend Media Group. For more information or to contact the show, visit riverbendmediagroup.com. [upbeat jazz music]