I'm gonna go.
I'm gonna go.
I'm gonna go.
I'm gonna go.
I'm gonna go.
I'm gonna go.
I'm gonna go.
I'm gonna go.
Whoo!
Bus potatoes.
Holy.
Let it.
Education talk.
Educated educators talking.
Education Friday.
Whoo.
Jacob.
Producers choice day.
Man.
I had to clear my schedule to be available for my own show today.
Jacob.
So I appreciate the invite.
I'm sure Johnny Lupinace also is happy to be here.
Oh, yeah, ecstatic, man.
This is one of my favorite shows of all time.
It happens once a week.
Just pure joy.
So happy to be here.
Okay, before Jacob, you take over though.
I got to ask you guys to give me a read on the situation I had today.
Okay.
I'm here.
All right.
I had to give, you know, kind of like opening welcome remarks
to a guest speaker at our institution
who was addressing our cyber security computer science majors
and their field.
And all the students in that major were there in attendance.
And the professor who put on this event, you know,
did the actual first opening remarks.
And I mean, I'm talking a head full of hair,
like lots of big curly hair going.
And so, and he says, you know,
I'd like to welcome Dr. Tim Slecker up.
And I came up and, you know, I just was kind of like,
I'm like, man,
I didn't get the hair memo for the day.
And I looked out.
And it was like the biggest comedic flop ever.
Stone face.
Well, since Pudi Tang.
Hey, don't talk about one of my favorite movies that way.
Silence and looks of.
And then I even, you know, went a little bit further going,
come on here.
I mean, come on.
You look at me.
I got the wrong memo.
Tim, you got.
I think we learned anything from Kramer.
It's that once they're not laughing,
don't double down on whatever you're saying.
Just give up on that bit.
Better to date.
No, no, no.
And so then I'm like, okay, wow, tough crowd.
And then it was like all of a sudden,
I'm like, wait, I'm in a Saturday night live.
I'm in a Saturday night live.
Sketch.
Because I'm trying to drop humor.
On the IT guys.
And it didn't work because.
They can't get that kind of humor.
Or they got it.
And we're expressing, you know, happiness.
And it wasn't able to see the connection.
Because, you know, the different,
it was a different audience.
And so, you know, here I was trying to,
you know, have a little bit of fun with, you know,
the guys that come into my office and go,
is it plugged in?
You know, and I'm like, well, yeah, it's, it's plugged in.
Well, I don't, I mean, I don't know.
Let me sit down here.
I mean, so I'm just wondering if a group of future cyber security majors,
it was, I was still funny, right?
It was the audiences.
Well, I'm asking you guys.
You know, Tim, I think sometimes the audience's reaction is the measurement of funny.
Although, although I think you've turned the moment into something funny,
like for us, like, and listeners are probably, you know,
doing the, the laugh.
And now, like, hey, that's, that actually is pretty funny.
Good friend.
But man, this sounds like many of my opening classes in the last couple of years,
you know, for a good decade,
I could say, let me allow myself, allow me to reintroduce myself.
Yeah.
You know, and people would come into the,
to the famous lines of, you know, Jay-Z songs that I had grown up on.
You know, now I say stuff like that and people are like, I don't,
I don't understand what this guy's saying.
Like he said, some pretty weird things.
And it's just quiet.
But you have to come on a historical type of reference.
I'm talking about, look at the head here, Johnny.
Okay.
There, there, there's no doubt of my baldness.
And the intro speaker and, and in fact,
anybody who can watch us can see that all three of us are, you know,
good representations.
And so when you get up right after a guy with a big head full of curly ass hair,
curly ass hair.
That is so easy.
Yeah.
Whoa.
Oh, that's like a turn.
Now I know what I want to do.
I appreciate your attempt at a self-deficating human,
but it didn't go over well.
And I appreciate him that your joke bombed and you said, no,
it's, this must be the audience's fault.
These guys are just too technical.
It's just infeasible that my joke wasn't funny.
It must be the darn audience.
Yeah, it's the tech oriented students.
Nothing to do with the fact of their generations, you know,
consciousness of, you know, body shaming and or maybe, you know, being like,
whoa, he said something about that other guy's hair.
Maybe he's saying something about his hair either way.
I'm not sure if I should laugh.
So Tim said, guys, don't worry.
I'm ashamed already.
You can laugh.
You're not shaving me.
I know it's bad.
Okay.
So then to follow it up, I go down to the main guest speaker who's, you know,
a cybersecurity expert from Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburgh,
super computing center.
Oh, yeah.
And I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, man, I said, I felt like I was on a Saturday night.
I've skipped.
I said, your, your crowd doesn't seem to get humor, do they?
And he, he agreed with me.
Yeah.
All right.
He's on your team.
I don't know.
Maybe what you should have said is, wow, I didn't know you had to have six or seven inches of hair.
And then they would have gone nuts.
They would have loved it.
Yeah.
All right.
Before you give another speech, you got to sit down with, you got to sit down with your producer
and, and say, Jacob, help me spin a few lines here.
I'm here to help to access the generation out there who's, who's attending.
And he'll, he's got you, man.
See, he knew how to spin that joke so that you would have got a big six seven out of the audience.
The huge, an epic moment.
All right.
Six, seven is sure, whatever.
Jacob, you're, it's back to, it's your show, man.
And you know who hasn't asked six or seven questions yet on the show that he has questions
on.
This guy, we're 12 minutes into the program.
But let's get going with the producer's choice show.
For two, two producer, Jacob's choice chairman of the board.
You and I will have two choices.
Chairman of the board, Jacob.
Jacob, chairman of the board.
I, I've got the board.
It's spelled B-O-R-E-D.
We choose to go to the mold.
Life's a tough choice in here.
We chose one.
Tim, Dr. Johnny, fellas.
Guys, you're correct.
It's Thanksgiving.
Because four score and 200 years ago, George Washington and the Pilgrim set forth upon this
continent with a brand new country called America.
They landed at Plymouth Rock, Met Squanto, and frankly, everything went really great.
We had the first Thanksgiving, yada, yada, yada, and here we are today as the greatest
country on earth.
Now yesterday, we continued that greatest of American traditions by celebrating Thanksgiving.
It's a day for spending time with those we love, and also with our family members.
Eating delicious foods, laced with sleep-inducing chemicals, and planning out what things we want
to risk our lives for on Black Friday.
Today, I'm joined by two jive turkeys that we can all be thankful for on this episode
of the producer's choice show, Dr. Tim Slecker, and Johnny Lupinachi Doctors.
Thank you so much for being here today on your own show.
Of course.
Of course, man.
Appreciate it.
Now for anybody new here, the producer's choice show is the show where I, producer Jacob,
ask interesting, topical questions to Tim and Johnny right here on their own show.
And today, I'm going to start us off with a pretty easy one.
I'm going to ask you, gentlemen, this.
What did you do for Thanksgiving this year, Tim?
Oh, Jacob, well, you know, typically this is going to be a Thanksgiving where I get to
not say something because the past two Thanksgiving's supplying the turkey dinner for the family.
And Johnny, I think we'll remember this in addition to the bird.
I also had to prepare the anti bird, the toe, right, the tofu turkey,
the tofu turkey, the tofu turkey, man.
And yeah, yeah, yeah, vegans and vegetarians were around the table for the last two years.
And so this year, first of all, I wasn't the preparer of the dinner back, back around
to my mom and dad.
It was their job to host this year.
And I got to kind of sit back and watch how different family members found something
throughout the day that they were offended by other family members.
But yet, sitting down for the dinner, there was no trace of the angst, animosities,
and anxieties that occurred up until the Thanksgiving feast.
And so for that, Jacob, I was really thankful this past Thanksgiving.
Well, Tim, is that how you guys do things?
You're kind of on a rotation posting Thanksgiving.
It's like the World Series, we do one here, then we go do one over there.
Well, it's been a bit of a challenge because me, I've been a bit of a mess with my family,
having lived in New York, having lived in Pennsylvania, having lived in Wisconsin,
having lived in Ohio, and now living in Pennsylvania.
You're a rambling man.
Yeah, yeah, so I kind of messed up.
I was born a rambling man, the flow.
So yeah, lots of times, it's been different.
But this year, actually, this was a return year to tradition because my parents, most
of the time, have always been the Thanksgiving hosts.
You know, 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, getting to the point now, though,
Jacob, where I'm thinking, you know what, a door dash Thanksgiving might have been something
to be thinking about, that's all I'm saying, but no, it was great.
I got to go back to Clayton, Pennsylvania, yeah, that magical steel town city where the
deer hunter cast was from and sit around and yeah, actually get to spend, you know, some
quality time with family members who typically don't get to spend a lot of time with each
other.
It was kind of that classic holy crap, you're now old type of thing.
So, you know, I, but, but always appreciate Thanksgiving and mostly appreciate not having
to prepare the toeferky.
I think we can all appreciate not having to have a toeferky, Tim, I think that resonates
all across this great country.
Johnny, how about you?
What did you do for Thanksgiving?
I know you've got a big old tribe there just in your house.
Do you guys have your own Thanksgiving or do you travel?
What, what's the Johnny Thanksgiving all about?
Well, I'll tell you guys, I didn't get the memo about hair.
Oh, man, look at how I got a laugh out of that.
It does work.
Tim, the joke does work.
So it's just you, yeah, the idea, like Thanksgiving was awesome, you know, I talked about
before, aside from some of the complexities of holding space for both having a day where
we celebrate what we're thankful for and grateful for, it's also a little bit of, you
know, holding some space for, you know, the not so nice parts of history.
So it's also a day of mourning for a lot of our friends of the family who are indigenous
folks.
So it kind of holds space for it to be, you know, a holiday with a lot of feelings.
But it's always a tough one to think about, you know, lost family members too.
Like our family has experienced some losses in the last couple of years and so it's different.
But it's a great Thanksgiving, you know, I cook a big meal, not shocking.
I love a substantial meal, I'm a big fan of food.
So a whole day planned around cooking, feeding friends and eating, copious amounts of green
bean casserole, you know, of pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes with the marshmallows on top,
you know, mac and cheese, turkeys, cooked a couple of turkeys this year and you went with,
you know, a couple different ways of making them and, you know, brining one and then buttering
another one.
Oh, man, I love to eat.
I could go on and on.
So a whole day around food, but, you know, we went to locally, there is a local middle
school counselor.
It's just amazing, gal, Mrs. Mott and she hosts the McKenzie Memorial Turkey Trot, a loss
in our local community of her 15 year old daughter a few years ago, turned, you know, a difficult
day into something that brings community together.
It's a pretty huge event where we live.
So it's fun to go out and see all the, you know, middle school students, high school students,
former students of hers, you know, current students, families, all participate in a local
turkey trot.
So even though I, all of my life, I said there's two types of people, the types of people who
get up, stay in their PJs, watch the parade, put on football and eat all day families.
And then there's the ones that go running those turkey trots in the morning and those,
there's only two types.
And now on both.
So, you know, I went on that turkey trot, it was good time, great community event.
You know, one of those ways where, you know, folks as part of, we talked about it here
on Bust of Pencils all the time, a public education brings together community.
That's just one of those moments, you know, local counselor at the middle school just
beloved by students, you know, turns that day into a, a really heartwarming memorial
where the community comes out and does something that's part of a Thanksgiving tradition
around, you know, I'd say around the country, I know that members of my family, even though
I strongly identified as the, get up, stay in your PJs and cook kind of guy for Thanksgiving.
My mom, who has now passed used to go to a turkey trot and a trot with my brother, who's
our runner, go figure, he likes, he likes running, the guy actually likes to run.
I always said running was a punishment in every sport I ever played in.
So, you know, no, it was a good day, lots of time with family, of course, it's got a big
family here.
So, feed them is, you know, just a joy.
So it was a great day of eating, you know, having the football games on the McKenzie Memorial
turkey trot and then just chilling and relaxing.
That's a great answer, guys, I appreciate both of your stories for me.
I am thankfully a child of divorce, so I've got two Thanksgiving's to go to, which will
be great.
They're both pretty close by, you know, we're eyeing each other from across town, you know,
two rival Thanksgiving's, full of delicious birds and no tofurkey.
So that's, I think we can all be thankful for that.
I'm going to give you both a gobble for those answers.
This one's for Johnny.
Those are slightly different takes on the gobble.
I hope those with a fine ear can tell Johnny, what's a turkey trot for, for people who
are Thanksgiving PJ guys like me?
Well, I mean, they, they, they, they, they range in what they are.
The one I did was I believe if I'm, again, again, I'm not a runner and I would say I
mostly fast walked this one, but it's like two and a half miles, five K, just a, you
know, kind of a tradition, I think around the country.
I think they change in lengths, but they're like many marathons.
I know I'm Detroit.
It's a big deal.
You get your number and it's actually a race for those who really competitively run, but,
you know, it's like Thanksgiving morning, usually it's a big kind of running event and
it's usually like a five K or might be even longer in some cities, but, you know, it's
a nice, I was, I was walking at a brisk pace, I'd say, you know, I'm not a big runner
guy.
So, you know, it's kind of, kind of jogging at times, just to fit in with the crowd,
like peer pressure and then fast walking the rest, mall walking, I said, I like to call
it, got my, you know, sneakers on, but yeah, in general, for those listening who don't
know about turkey trots, just an opportunity to get out with members of their community
and run like a mini marathon or, you know, some kind of little course through the city.
Usually, I know in Detroit, it's pre parade, Detroit has a big Thanksgiving day parade.
So you'd get up early anyways to go to the parade if you're that kind of family.
And I was always a big watching on TV guy, but, you know, as I got older members of my
family, so I took up the tradition of going and running in the, you know, the trite's
turkey trot and then sticking around and hanging out and maybe having a few beverages
of choice and watching the parade and then coming back and I'd be like, welcome back.
Here's all the food.
Let me feed you.
So, you know, working up an appetite on Thanksgiving, maybe even some kind of say it's like, it's
the counterbalance to the sit and eat to get up and move.
But in this context for us, it's a big kind of community bonding, you know, memorial
for families that is tough.
Like you have lost family members, a big family day can sometimes be a difficult one.
So what better way to do it than to share it with as many people and positive vibes as
you can and, you know, that certainly took place.
So love that.
And I'm just wondering, I know it a lot of marathons and fun runs and things like that.
They also try to raise money for causes.
Is that kind of part of it too?
Yep, absolutely for a fund, you know, almost always their charity event.
So there's an entry fee and donations and all kinds of sponsors all usually go into
a cause whether it's, you know, some of them to fight cancer, you know, some of them to
end hunger, you know, some of them to help like families experiencing poverty, all kinds.
This one I believe goes to a scholarship fund, you know, to help families and, and with
school, with school stuff.
So yeah, generally they're, they're an opportunity to raise money like a giving, giving activity.
We do a lot of thanks.
It's also good to do the giving on Thanksgiving and I appreciate that now talking about going
for a nice trek.
I'm wondering, Tam, are you going to trek out today to do any black Friday shopping?
Have you ever been a black Friday guy?
No, never.
I mean, I, there is nothing about, you know, going after incredibly ridiculously large screen
TVs for low prices that would ever get me out the door.
I am a black Friday kind of like guy who, you know, for me, that's a nice day off and
I get to go do a little bit of hiking and head out into the woods and spend some time
in nature because that following, you know, Pennsylvania, Johnny will remember that because
on Monday, Jacob, it is the truest religious holiday of all in Pennsylvania.
That's the first day of deer season.
Oh boy.
You know, you know, that, you know, so then we have truly not going after to Ferke, but
going after the venison.
So Friday is a nice day for me to get out and do a little scouting to get ready and
to solidify where I'm going to locate my butt at like five in the morning on Monday.
I had no idea that you were a decorated deer hunter Tim.
Oh, yeah, man, I take him down, Jake, I take them down.
You know, I'm, I'm, I'm, and he heads, he heads to his house where his kids that are vegan
and animal rights oriented boycott his hunting practices.
It's tension and the slacker house.
No, it's actually they, they both grew up, took my son out many times, he, but he absolutely
did, did not like the whole idea of killing, you know, and he is the vegan.
My daughter became the vegetarian, but I took her out hunting.
In fact, one of her courses in her college that, in fact, she's about to graduate here
in December, she's in wildlife and natural resources management major.
And one of the courses was a hunting in America course.
And her homework for over the Thanksgiving break was to go hunting with her dad.
And it was that a really hard assignment for her.
No, it was actually, I mean,
she was fine.
She enjoyed it.
She didn't want to kill anything.
And we didn't really get to see anything that day.
But no, so, so yeah, I, I like Black Friday for the ability to get out and get out in
the woods and kind of get my head around, you know, like, oh, okay, yeah, on Monday morning.
This is going to be a good spot.
I can feel it, you know, in case our friends from PETA are getting angry, let me say, you
know, not to toot my own horn, but I also produce raised in whisko here in civic media.
And they have taught me that hunting is also a big important part of conservation.
So that, you know, if you do love animals, you love deer, you don't want them to be overpopulated
because then that sucks for the deer.
So Tim is actually part of helping animals and helping himself to a delicious meal.
Exactly.
That's the other thing that I'll tell you, there's another thing that hates deer.
Those are cars in the background, you know, and actually, you know, part of that overpopulation
issue has a lot to do with, you know, car and deer collisions, you know, with that.
And of course, I know people are going like, but what?
Yes, I know over development of deer lands is also pushing them into smaller spaces, creating
more overcrowding, pushing them then to run in front of your cars.
I get all that.
I get a chicken.
I think I'm actually a pretty ethical hunter and if we ever want to do truly a show,
the education show on hunting and its place in, not just America, but in, in, in recognizing
that we all eat and eating actually requires killing.
And people have gone, I eat strawberries, I know you do.
But if you eat strawberries in February and you're from Wisconsin, your strawberries
were on a truck that came from California to bring you those strawberries.
And that truck killed a few deer on the way there.
Had you not needed to eat your strawberries in February in Wisconsin, then maybe I can
talk to you, but, you know, it's just the complexity of, yeah, so even vegetarianism, you
know, requires some form of killing and that's not to then glorified.
It's to acknowledge that it's a complex issue being alive.
I remember I was down in California to stand and I saw this strawberry about 80 yards
out. That was a great day for me, hitting that strawberry.
Johnny, same question to you, I know it's hard to remember what it was because we ended
up on shooting strawberries, but at the outset, have you ever been a black Friday guy?
What do you think?
Yeah, I've never been a black Friday guy again.
Like I said before, I was pretty firm about the like, stay in my pajamas, watch football,
cook food for all the folks, even though I do participate in the turkey trot this
year, got me out, moving around, man, I love days off.
You know, I'm blue collar scholar.
I work hard on the work days and to have a Friday where you're not working, you know,
I've never, I mean, I worked retail jobs occasionally in my come up, like early college,
maybe here or there, especially seasonal because it's always great to make some extra
money.
So, you know, I know it's a big work day for a lot of folks who are doing important work
in the retail sector, but man, I like to just stay home, you know, I, there's so many
few, there's so few days that you can just relax at home.
I'm not a big black Friday guy, however, I will admit the tinge of black Friday I do participate
in, if I, if I do tends to be online stuff, right, I know, you know, stinks for local
industry.
Hey, I am a big fan of the local, like support local business Saturday, I think we talked
about it earlier this week on the show, I will go out of my way, you know, on time off
to, to do that, because I think that's super important, our local shops and different things,
sometimes they'll have like a pre holiday in market or, you know, start to get ready
for the holidays.
I'm a big fan of that, but my, the most traditional thing I do on, on black Friday is usually
do either a big house project, you know, we're cleaning the house really deeply this weekend.
And you know, catching up with that marathon, that is August to November for educators.
So that's a big chill thing.
And then the other thing is I will look, you know, I love my, one of my guilty pleasures
in life are collected hockey jerseys and some of them go on sale, like most things.
And so, you know, this year I may have purchased a team USA jersey on a black Friday sale,
because it's an Olympic year, so getting ready for Olympics and it's best on best again
for hockey.
I hope it wasn't a fanatics jersey, Johnny, those drive me nuts.
Oh, Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, I don't want to get into it too much, Johnny.
But I'm just saying when I'm with you, when I go on the internet, it's like, Oh, here's
a jersey for $187 and then it's, I mean, it's not even an iron number.
It's just print.
I'm like, Oh, what is this?
What are you doing?
Yeah, fanatics, uh, yeah, they have a contract with most professional sports organizations
right now.
And, uh, where's my 1990s Adidas jersey that's got stitching and whoa, yeah, yeah, I know,
I know.
Well, uh, you'll be, you'll be pleased to know that there are stitched Nike jerseys coming
out.
And even the fanatics jerseys this year for team USA, the fanatics does have kind of a corner
on, you know, professional sports right now and this, this hockey team will be stacked
with skaters and pros from the NHL, so it's a pro team.
So there is contractual obligations for fanatics to be the, you know, the, the, the, the
retailer of those jerseys, uh, but I'd say this one is stitched, uh, it's a nice stitched
jersey that I may have ordered on Black Friday, but yeah, other than the online stuff that comes
through my social media, right, and reminds me, ooh, sale, you know, I'm not a big Black
Friday.
I've never been one to get up early and go wait in line for anything, um, just too much
man.
It's a, to, to, to not sound too judgmental, so I won't even get into like the, the
politics of Black Friday, but also just kind of makes me a little sad, right?
Like it's like, you know, if most of America would agree things cost too much to the point
where like a big sale is something we compete with one another for, it's like a mini version
of the Hunger Games.
It just gets me kind of in my feelings and I would rather avoid that and stay with my
turkeys, right?
Just eating leftovers and, uh, you know, doing home projects and settling into the winter
that's about to happen.
Uh, oh, another thing I love to do, although we haven't gotten enough snow yet here.
Usually, usually there's enough snow, a Black Friday snowboard trip, uh, chance to get
up into the mountains on an early snowfall is, has been, uh, a tradition when there's snow.
There's no snow for it this year, uh, but hopefully it's coming.
That was a good one.
You know what?
I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do it right now.
That you earned that gobble that was a good answer.
I like that.
Yeah.
What about me?
All right.
You're okay.
That was a sympathy gobble, Tim.
I want you to know that.
All right.
A participation gobble.
Yes.
Uh, fellas, we talk about education, we talk about the news and sort of with the news,
it tends to be talking about things that are negative.
I mean, we try to bring in the positive, but we're responding to events happening.
I want to take a minute because it's, you know, it's Black Friday.
We just had Thanksgiving and I want to ask you what's something that you're thankful
for in education this year.
Dr.
Tim Slecker, hit us with it.
Oh, and that gobble an education this year, man, Jacob.
I like that.
Um, did you hear me stalling?
I do.
Yeah.
Um, you know what, um, here's what I, I'm actually thankful for.
I am thankful for that in all of the chaos and the dismantling that, of course, we highlight
here on the show that the incredible innovations that we still continue to see.
And again, I'm going to point and give our big props out to Mike Bigley up there at
Cease of Four in Wisconsin, um, who, you know, is saying, hey, guess what?
You know what, um, Alpha School, maybe $40,000 a year for private, you know, AI, AI
incorporated, but there, Mike Bigley, the Cease of Four area, rural Wisconsin, public
school, they are innovating, bringing AI, job readiness, workforce education, relevancy,
sponsors with incredible Ashley furniture.
I'm talking to that stuff.
And when I see pockets of that and I know they're happening everywhere, that's what I'm
thankful for because, you know, the show has always been pro public education.
And anybody listening though knows that Johnny and I have been incredibly critical of the
way schooling has usually, you know, come about, you know, the, the, the remembering of what
it was like to sit there and rose and all those things.
So we've always been critical of, you know, technically what we call pedagogy or teaching
bad teaching.
We've been critical.
So anytime I see that innovation and there are lots and lots of other places, I am thankful
that we get to have a show and highlight and bring those cases out into the public in
a world that is constantly beating down on teachers, educators and all those leaders
involved in public education.
That's my thankfulness.
Tim, you earn this one and I'm going to give this one to Tim and Mike Bigley shout out
to both of you.
That was great.
Now, Johnny, same question to you.
It's Thanksgiving.
Tell me something you're thankful for in education this year.
Yeah, I think I'm thankful for all the teachers out there who are doing the hard work day
and day out, despite, as we've said many, many weeks on end here at Busta Pencils, you
know, it is the hardest time in any of our careers.
And Tim and I have been teaching a pretty long time.
It is no joke, the hardest time to be a teacher, whether it's, you know, the threat or fear
of school shootings or it's the constant cuts to funding to essential aspects of what
children need in schools or it's just, you know, the labor conditions for teachers.
You know, we talk about how hard and difficult it is, but I'm grateful and I'm extraordinarily
thankful for, you know, all the hard work for great teachers continuing to teach children
in their classrooms and for showing up every day and, you know, providing with what I think
every kid deserves and that's an awesome teacher.
So I'm grateful for all you educators out there who are doing teaching and I guess tangent
to that.
Anyone out there who supports teachers, whether you're a parent, whether, you know, you're
a principal, whether, you know, your staff somewhere in the school system or you're just
a person in the community who says, Hey, you're a teacher, aren't you?
This coffee's on us, right?
It's just really great.
So I'm thankful and grateful for all you educators out there in tangent to that.
We want to you who supports teachers doing that work that they do.
So I'm grateful for our teachers, Jacob.
I think we're all grateful for our teachers, Johnny.
I agree with you absolutely on that one shout out to not just our listener teachers out
there, but all teachers around this country and around the world.
Thank you for the work that you do.
That's always something bright.
No matter what the news is, we know our teachers are out there working hard.
I've got one last regulation question for you guys.
And I think we'll keep it here with you, Johnny.
What's your favorite item in the classic Thanksgiving food pantheon cranberry?
I love cranberry sauce.
And this is, I'll admit it here, I make a really good homemade cranberry sauce from fresh
cranberries.
And yes, I like it, but man, nothing makes me happier on Thanksgiving day in a can of
that jelly log of cranberry.
Like comes right out of the can and you kind of slice it up and I love that stuff.
I've loved it since I was a kid.
I look forward to it.
You would think there's some kind of rule where you can only have it on Thanksgiving because
for as long as I love it, I should just get it all the time.
But I don't only have it once a year and a big fan of the the jellied cranberry blob
that comes out of a can is absolutely just delicious with all parts of the meal.
It makes it for me.
Dr. Tim Slecker, favorite Thanksgiving food.
The stuffing stuffing with turkey gravy right there, man, love it, love it, love it, love
it.
And more than any other part of the meal, turkey included.
So I agree, short and sweet there, Jacob, I'm with you Tim.
I think stuffing is my favorite part of Thanksgiving too.
And the thing I like about stuffing is on its own.
It's okay.
But when you pair it with a little bit of mashed potatoes, a little bit of turkey, cranberries,
then the, you know, then the stuffing is fantastic.
And that's just like us here on busted pencils.
They're all good.
But when we come together for educated educators, that's when we really thrive.
Fellas, I want to thank you this year for giving me the chance to host the producer's choice
show, the number one rated show within a show anywhere in America.
This is the 27th episode of producer's choice.
It's been a great year so far, guys.
Thank you for this opportunity to host you on your own show.
Oh, thank you, Jacob.
Thank you.
Thank you.
With that, I've got time for one last very important question.
Let's go.
I'm going to start with you, Dr. Tim Slecker.
Is it okay to start putting up your Christmas decorations now that Thanksgiving has ended?
How do you feel about that?
I am okay with it.
I myself won't be doing it, but I get it.
And I actually, I appreciate it.
And in fact, some of those earlier this week too, I even appreciate those people.
Now how early is acceptable, Tim?
This is a big debate in our society right now.
I, you know, it's got to be at least middle of November for me.
Okay.
Anything be, you know, let's get through Halloween and get over the stomach ache of the
Halloween candy and then maybe throw up a little pre-Christmas decorations.
That that seems reasonable to me, Tim.
I, I think we can all get behind that or can we?
It's Johnny's turn to give his answer.
Dr. Johnny Lupinachi, when is it okay to start putting up your Christmas stuff if you celebrate
Christmas?
Yeah.
I think for, for me, and I'm going to spouse this like, like broadly, I think after Thanksgiving.
I think as soon as you're done with Thanksgiving, boom, it's like, hey, let's go ahead.
It's green light, literally and figuratively, you know, let's get the lights up.
Let's get the Christmas decorations out.
Big fan of any time after, after Thanksgiving, it's fair game, it's, it's welcomed.
It's sort of fun.
And I even don't mind when establishments do it like maybe the week of Thanksgiving,
because I do like, you know, the night lights of like you might go out and go for a walk
and you start to see them.
So I'll extend that for me.
It's after Thanksgiving dinner, maybe not that night, but at least the next day.
But I will say I, I do enjoy seeing it during the week.
So anytime around Thanksgiving, I'm okay with.
I, I agree.
Let's wait until, you know, Thanksgiving is over because, you know, what, what else are
you going to give the giant inflatable turkey his time to shine?
All right.
Don't put up the Christmas stuff next to him.
Let him gobble up some attention for once.
But Tim, I think with that, there's time for one last thing.
Well, Jacob, now is time for your moment of sin.
To be helpful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic.
It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also
of compassion, sacrifice, courage and kindness.
Thank you, listener.
We are grateful and thankful for you.
And especially thankful for you listening to this episode of producer's choice.
And remember to grab great podcasts packed full with more busted pencils content on Apple
podcasts, Spotify and of course on the civic media website.
Hey, don't be late for a home room on Monday and be sure to grab next week's class and
session on Wednesday.
And if you don't already know, well, then you're going to love this, but you could catch
busted pencils broadcast every Saturday at 3 p.m. central time across all the civic media
and network stations for one hour of your favorite blue collar scholars, Tim and Johnny
and Keith Bustin pencils.