The Savannah Bananas (Hour 2)

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Stephanie Miller here.

Listen up, my pals, John and Gordy are up for best radio team in Madison Magazine's best of Madison poll.

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Thank you, Stephanie.

Yeah, that was a big

thumbs up.

I guess nice to say.

We had a lot of fun with her last year at the Barrymore.

Yeah, the sexy liberal tour.

That was fantastic.

Really nice people, by the way.

Yes.

Great backstage.

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Seven minutes past the hour.

Yes, we are up for best of Madison for best radio team.

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if you so choose.

We encourage you to do that,

don't we?

We do.

We do.

We had a few texts here.

One is, I wonder if Trump even knows what the story of Ms.

Robb is all about.

He's opening at the Kennedy Center, that grand opening tonight.

How many people do

you say?

Ten people of the cast are not going to appear on

stage.

I know they have a large cast of extras, but at this point, maybe they're the stars actually not showing up on stage.

Yeah, he says it's his favorite play.

That's what

he

says.

I wonder if he

even knows what the story is about.

He'll probably revel in a man being jailed for years for stealing a loaf of bread.

Yes, yes, he probably doesn't know anything about it at all.

We did forget Doug out in St.

Francis.

Where is your 24-7 coverage of Trump stumbling on the stairs to Air Force One?

Damn, I knew we were forgetting something.

Yeah, play that video over and over again.

Yeah, they'll have that one.

Yeah, he just tripped

a little bit.

No big deal.

I mean,

come

on.

Doug does ask, though, is the stumbling incident the reason for Trump's invasion of LA?

And I think there's a tie in there someplace.

Maybe.

Perhaps.

This is kind of making the rounds on on X as well.

The Obama administration deported 3.1.

Six million people Biden passed four million not once did either need troops in the street to do it That's all you kind of need to know about what's happening.

It's a good

point

Yeah, we'll get into a little bit more of this in just a moment at first John because we're in our seven o'clock hour.

It's time for our Scotty Text-to-Win contest our Scotty summer text-to-win contest This is where you could win either a hundred dollars cash or

Milwaukee Brewers club level tickets, and that's what we're giving away this hour.

It's those Milwaukee Brewer tickets and It's easy to enter all you need to do is get that civic media app you download the app and the Apple or Google Store Find the WM DX area on that app clicks click Click on to the text button It's right there.

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What is the word this hour?

The word is beer

B-E-E-R.

Beer.

Beer.

You got it?

I got it.

Okay,

beer.

What a key word there.

You

have until 8 a.m.

to touch

that beer.

To drink

beer.

Okay.

Is that what you're gonna say?

And

again, it's for brewers tickets.

Club level seats.

There are other key words at other hours.

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So the keyword is beer.

Text it.

And you could be a winner.

We'll notify you in a day or two if you are the winner of this contest.

Okay?

All

right,

well, that sounds

good.

Now I was just checking out what's going on at CNN.

They're covering some of the action there in LA.

Of course, the curfew is in effect.

There's no one out right now.

So action packed coverage.

Nothing really to cover.

But they were showing, you know, tear gas being shot at the protesters.

You can count the protesters on one hand.

So they're throwing these tear gas canisters out there into the street, but there's no one out there.

I guess they've got nothing else to do, but practice.

Is that what they're doing?

I think that's what's happening out there.

Let's get to one of our stories here.

In a shocking moment of cognitive decline, Donald Trump blames Gavin Newsom for causing a lot of death during the protests in LA.

Let's listen to that.

When

is the last

time you spoke with Governor Newsom?

A day ago.

Called him up to tell him got to do a better job.

He's doing a bad job Causing a lot of death and a lot of a lot of potential death.

What if we didn't send out the National Guard and last time we gave him a little additional help You would have Los Angeles would be burning right now.

No

Los Angeles would be Not a lot different than what you saw it take place in California in Los Angeles just a little while ago.

Yeah the fires

Now the thing here you got to keep in mind that the first of all this isn't minority report We're not predicting the possible deaths of future people at at the protests Secondly, I think that maybe you know He really is the cause of all of this happening in the first place by going around Newsom getting the National Guard involved in all of this nationalizing the National Guard and of course

Because there are zero deaths at this point.

Yeah.

You know, just bringing it up is, is ridiculous and it, and it flames the whole issue.

It does.

The whole problem that they have out there at this point.

Well, the protests are spreading to other cities too.

Again, according to CNN, there are other major cities where some more protests are popping up.

Chicago, New York, Austin.

Austin, Texas, Washington, DC, and there's a few more.

So they're starting to, you know, it's starting to get more support from the protesters in some of these other major,

major cities.

And you also heard him mention that he talked to Gavin Newsom a day ago.

Right.

He didn't.

He actually didn't.

It was a couple of days before.

I think it was.

And Fox News reported it, but they tried to cover it up by not mentioning the day.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

I thought it was like a Friday or

something.

It was a couple of days before.

It wasn't the day before.

Did you just talk?

Oh, yeah.

I talked to him yesterday.

No, it wasn't like that at all.

You're

from

flying.

Who's

ever heard of such a

thing?

I know.

Well, he just must have his days crossed.

You know, his mental decline is very visible at this point.

So we're going to

start stumbling and bumbling around.

Yeah.

Let's move to the state now.

I mean, we've some of that not a lot going on curfew is still in effect But let's go to the state budget that's being debated up there at the Capitol Wisconsin state

budget.

Yes And again as I mentioned a number of times before the Republicans find a way to always punish and penalize the UW system for some reason I don't know why Now I do know why why don't we play this is cut 87

And this is Robin

Voss.

I'll give you an example, right, on the UW.

We have given basically zero increases of the UW because most of us believe that the UW needs serious reforms.

The governor says Republicans have refused to invest in public school education, childcare counts, childcare in the UW system.

Did you not come to the table on that end?

Oh, that's a lie.

A lie.

Yeah, I mean, we did.

We're willing to do it.

just not as much as he wanted.

We tried to find a way to invest in childcare that actually went to the parents and to make sure that we weren't just having a go to businesses, right?

There

are no, for anybody who's watching, there are no cuts in Medicaid.

When they tell you there are cuts, it is untrue, right?

Now, there are work requirements, which if you're able-bodied, you shouldn't be on Medicaid anyways.

Or, worst case scenario, buying it through the exchange like millions of people do around the country.

Mm-hmm.

Well, he doesn't mention of course the exchanges will become more expensive So that's not going to be a good thing.

All right, and then of course funding child care We need the money to go to the child care facilities because they're having a hard time Maintaining staff because they're not getting a paid enough and it's difficult to get people to go to the child care centers because

Yeah, no one can afford them anymore, right?

So there's a double whammy there and they're not funding either one of those streams not just the parents but also the child care centers and then of course he talked about the UW needing serious reforms That's why they want to hold up funding for the UW system because in their minds

it needs serious reform.

Is it

something very similar to what Linda McMahon wants to do for the colleges and the K through 12 systems?

There are not enough conservatives being hired at those schools.

So there needs to be reforms.

I think that's what he is talking about because that's what the administration at this point is talking about.

and more of getting DEI out of the

curriculum.

Yes, the excuse DEI,

yes.

Still leaning on that.

Spread the racism, make it more systemic.

And then Johnson, Ron Johnson, you know, when we're in the media, we have a chance to ask them the question, the real question, the bottom line question, we never do.

This is kind of

almost there, okay?

The house reconciliation bill will add $2.4 trillion to the federal debt over 10 years.

That's effort cutting, spending by $1.2 trillion.

Now, Ron Johnson says, cutting back tax cuts is a tax increase.

No, despite

Okay, why don't we just hear this cut this is from here and now from public television and Ron Johnson Responding to a question.

Let's listen.

You know figure out how we can do something that's really hard You know one of the points the president made in the meeting is you know Democrats always so unified and I pointed out well, that's because they're doing the easy thing They're spending money there.

They're mortgage our kids future.

It's hard to be the parent It's easy to be the parent says hey, we're gonna go to Disney World.

It's hard to be the parent who says

We can't afford that.

I know we all want to go to Disneyland.

We just can't afford that.

All right, now here's the thing with him is that we want to spend money on the people.

Okay, that's a really bad thing.

And the question that hangs out there, of course, and I think Frederica Freiberg asked the question, you know, what about the tax cuts?

Let's keep going with that.

We're kind of in that position right now.

We're trying to rein in all this massive deficit spending, trying to restrain the growth of the deficits.

Well, the spending is on some pretty necessary items.

The top priority government is defense, so it spends more on defense, realizing that we're probably going to have a hard time passing appropriation bills, probably operating on a continuing resolution for the next fiscal year, and also recognizes we have to secure the border.

If adding $2.4 trillion to the national debt is irresponsible in your mind, as I've heard you say, why not dial back the tax cuts?

It's not tax cuts.

It's preventing a tax increase.

What is interesting is no matter how much you try punishing success, now I've got a great chart goes back, I think more than 50 years showing top marginal tax rate of 91%, 70%, 50% again.

All right, yeah, Danny brings up the facts and figures and everybody's eyes roll back into their head because that's all he ever does.

But yeah, she did bring it up.

And yes, why not just not?

give the tax cut.

Why not let them expire so we can pay some of that money down, get rid of the debt that we

have

and the deficit.

So why don't we just do that instead?

Yeah, you don't have an

answer.

No, apparently.

Okay.

It is 7.19.

Coming up, we're going to be talking to Brittany Merlot.

We'll get the latest on the weather.

This portion of John and Gordy in the morning brought to you by Verlo Mattress of Madison.

Wake up and sleep better on a Verlo Mattress.

Plenty has changed since 1958.

Some things remain constant through Verlo's history.

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Brittany Merlot next with weather.

Stay

right here.

WMDX, John and Gordy sitting here in the morning.

We're waiting for our voice notes, if anybody would like to contribute a voice note to the show.

We have our Southern accent versions that John and Gordy performed.

Apparently.

Yeah, not just to show you how.

It's been us and

Tony, that's it.

Yeah, well Tony, yeah, in East Troy.

Yeah, do you have him standing by?

I do.

Let's listen.

Okay,

push the button.

Troy from Mount Horrib.

Tell that Peterson guy to shut his yeah.

Okay, Brittany Merlot joins us now.

Brittany, did you know that we have that ability on the Civic Media app now?

People can just push a button and send us a quick verbal note.

That is

so cool.

It's a voice

note.

Yeah, what the heck?

I love

the technology these days, but sometimes you don't want to do it live.

You get nervous, so you just go ahead and send it.

Right, exactly.

So we're seeing bright, beautiful sunshine at the moment here.

It's

in and out.

We've got clouds just on the horizon, but now we've got sunlight.

I guess it's going to heat up a bit today, right?

It is.

Yes, yes, yes.

So you've got a few spiny sprinkles lingering in the area, a few clouds out there, but it's mixed more with sunshine as we go through the afternoon.

Temperatures right now in the upper 60s.

We're gonna go to the mid to upper 80s today.

So yeah,

feeling like summer and don't worry, John.

The dew points won't be that bad.

I was gonna ask

you.

So it's gonna be like honestly a perfect nice warm day.

But we do have a lot of rain rolling in as we go through the next couple of days.

Could see chances moving in around midnight tonight.

Kind of lingering.

Maybe tomorrow morning, a few spotty showers there.

We'll dry things out by the afternoon.

Highs go back to the mid-seventies tomorrow, so mild, not too warm, not too cool.

Then, Friday, we'll go back to about 80 degrees, partly sunny, beautiful day, but then more scattered showers and storms, probably midday and through the evening on Friday.

Some of those could linger through early Saturday morning.

Clouds want to stick around on Saturday.

But overall the weekend, nice and dry, sunshine back out by Sunday.

So we're a lot of the rain staying more north.

Really just chances overnight and then Friday evening.

Okay.

All right.

And we have the big Madison night market on Thursday and tomorrow night.

And hopefully that rain will stay away from us.

Well, hopefully.

And if Brittany can do something about that, if you can just...

Put a word.

Try to

take it away from you guys.

Yeah, I'm trying to

lift that whole system north.

Hopefully I'll get the rain.

You'll stay dry.

That's what I'm working

on.

Okay.

All right, good.

Thank you for working on that.

Keep on that.

We appreciate it.

Okay.

All right, Brittany.

Good to talk to you as always.

All right.

Talk to you tomorrow morning.

As

well.

It's Britt Emmerlow, our WMDX chief meteorologist.

Thanks, Brittany.

A reminder that our Scotty Summer Text Wind statewide contest, we are in a contest hour.

The keyword this hour for a pair of brewery tickets, club level seats.

The keyword is beer.

You can text that to us on the Civic Media app.

It's free to download, free to use, and again, that gets you into the...

grand prize drawing for Wisconsin Dell's area getaway or Door County getaway.

So the word is beer, John.

I think that's the first time we've had

that word beer.

Yes, I believe so.

It's about time.

Okay.

Man.

Okay.

All right.

You're familiar with Star Wars?

Yes, I've heard it.

Yes.

What do you say?

You're familiar with Emperor Palpatine?

That one I don't know I you know I watched the first two Star Wars movies

Yeah, that was it for me.

He didn't watch the the Senate where he was okay ruling over the Senate.

What about you Dom?

Do you know Palpatine?

I know Palpatine.

Really?

I'm a little Star Wars fan.

All right.

All right.

Well, so what's the deal?

Gavin Newsom posted a video version of a Trump Post on social media

And this is a takeoff on Emperor Palpatine's message to the Senate in Star Wars.

So let's listen to this.

A

once great American city, Los Angeles has been invaded and occupied by illegal aliens and criminals.

Now violent, insurrectionist mugs are swarming and attacking our federal agents to try and stop our deportation operations.

But these lawless rights only strengthen

are resolved.

I am directing Secretary of Homeland Security, Christy Nelm, Secretary of Defense Pete Headsett, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, in coordination with all other relevant departments and agencies to take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the migrant invasion.

All right.

Wow.

So Gavin Newsom hosted

that?

Yeah, that was, yeah.

Wow, so intense.

I don't know who produced that.

Again, it's a takeoff on a actually Trump truth social post, word for word.

And, you know, it has more impact, I think, with Emperor Palpatine saying it.

Yes, that's pretty good.

Yeah, that was well produced.

I know it was great stuff, you know.

Thank you Gavin Newsom for posting that.

There was great some great stuff on the daily show last night, but we'll

have to get into we'll have to get into

that about some of this of course 29 past the hour this portion of John and Gordy in the morning brought to you by Madison Hearing Aid Center They emphasize passion over profit.

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Coming up next, Mike McCabe is in the house.

He'll be with us in just a moment on John and Gordy in the morning.

All right.

Don't go

anywhere.

All right.

I'm staying right here.

Stay right there.

I'm not moving at all.

Everybody sing along to this.

Okay,

here we

go.

Oh, yeah, here we

go.

There's a swingin' town I know called Capital City.

Madison.

People stop and scream hello in Capital City.

Sing it, Tony.

Yeah.

It's the kind of place that makes a bum feel like a king.

We do that here.

Oh, yeah.

All right.

This is Johnny Gordy in the morning.

In the capital city.

In the capital city.

Right on State Street.

That's where we're at.

736, sunshine today, highs in the mid to upper eighties.

Want to remind you, the Scotty Summer Text Wind Contest continues.

We're in a keyword hour, and the word is beer.

You can text that to us on the Civic Media app.

It's free to download, always free to use.

What, downloading the

beer?

Yeah.

Well,

if you could, wouldn't that be great.

Yeah, and this time around, yeah, if you text in that word and you are drawn as the winner, you will receive a pair of Brewer Club level tickets.

Oh, yeah.

And of course, be entered into the grand prize drawing, which is...

Door County getaway or Wisconsin Dells getaway.

Okay.

So the keyword is beer.

What was the last time you went out to the ballpark?

Well, it's been a long, long time, but I was tuning around on one of those streaming TV stations and they had ESPN on and the game was between the Savannah bananas.

and the party animals.

Oh, Savannah bananas.

They're hot.

See, I didn't know anything about this.

I discovered this and everybody else I asked about this.

Oh, yeah, yeah, Savannah bananas.

Yeah, they're great.

You know, fun team.

Yes.

Mike McCabe joins us, by the way.

Yes, Mike McCabe is here in the studio and we've got to ask him about it because you know about the Savannah bananas.

Yeah.

Everybody

else does, John.

I feel like everybody's keeping this a

secret.

No wonder there are, you know, people quietly talking in the corner of the room, simple as, and not involving me.

They used to be more of a well kept secret.

You know, people didn't know them outside of Savannah, Georgia, but now they're like a national phenomenon.

They're a traveling road show.

They're like the Harlem Globetrotters of Minor League Baseball.

They are.

You

get them here

in Madison.

Yeah,

exactly.

The announcer calls them the Nanners.

The Nanners.

They have all kinds of antics.

They have bright yellow uniforms.

Yes, they do.

And they do performance dances at home base or on the sidelines as it's going on.

The players are out there like cheerleaders.

Even the umpires get involved and play along.

There was one time I saw someone

hit

a home run and he was doing a front flip all

across the bases.

The first base umpire does a backflip.

They

do all kinds of when they call their place.

Fun stuff.

It's I was just, you know, I was, I was caught up in it.

I just loved every second of it.

It's like the world wrestling federation, right?

It's fun.

You call it the heart.

They call him the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball, but there are some former players on the team as well as just crazy guys.

And I got to tell you what I saw.

This was just the most.

amazing thing ever.

It was a pop fly ball in the outfield and the guy reached behind him, self with the glove and caught the fly

ball.

They can do that.

They can do that.

Not an easy thing to do.

I used to try to do that in practice, but I would never have the guts to do it in a game.

But the thing is, they have the sports guy out on the field doing interviews with some of the players.

And

he's got a long leopard codon.

Doing it.

Yeah, uh-huh.

Well not a lot of times you see, you know professional announcer out on the field with a long leopard coat on

It's all just fun and games.

Oh, it's high art,

too.

It

is.

Yes.

Really fun stuff.

Savannah bananas.

You can

see

all kinds

of stuff on

YouTube.

The party animals, you know, they were scoring and they actually beat the Savannah bananas in this particular game.

But they took off their shirts and they started playing without their shirts on.

Just it was absolute a riot.

I just love watching this.

This is great stuff.

You know, and they by the way, they sold out.

two games, two upcoming games at a stadium.

So they've become such a hot commodity that they took it on the road and they are filling stadiums.

Yeah, everywhere.

People love the show.

Now you talked about, they are the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball.

But you talked about the early days when the Harlem Globetrotters were very, very popular.

But you had like a B team.

Oh yeah, there was a B team.

I went to a small, you know, I grew up in the country.

I went to a small rural school.

And so they weren't going to get the Harlem Globetrotters to come to a little town.

But there was a B team called the Harlem Satellites.

And it was, they had the same kind

of uniforms and it was the

same sort of show.

It just wasn't the big names.

It wasn't Metal Arc Lemon and

Curly Neal and all

those guys.

But it was, it was.

kind of an unknown cast of characters, but the same routine.

And it filled the gym

and

a wonderful show.

So I remember that, because I used to see the Harlem Globetrotters on TV, but then saw the Harlem Satellites in person, got a bunch of autographs, had no idea who these guys were.

Well, they're

still out there.

They still travel around.

And

of

course, they always play the Washington Generals, who always lose.

The

Generals are not supposed to win.

They accidentally won one time.

How long do you think a metal arc lemon has?

Oh, he's retired.

Oh, yeah.

He passed away.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, this is the question I always had when I watched the Harlem Globetrotters way, way back when.

I was wondering why they didn't play like that in actual basketball games.

Why wouldn't they do that?

Why wouldn't

they

make it more entertaining and fun and crazy like that, you know?

You

know, little known fact about the Harlem Globetrotters is that some

some professional baseball players played for the Globetrotters.

Fergie Jenkins, the Hall of Fame pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, was the Harlem Globetrotter for a time.

I

didn't know

that.

And I think Bob Gibson, if, you know, somebody should correct me if I'm wrong here, but Bob Gibson, the Hall of Famer from the St.

Louis Cardinals, I think also did a stint with the Globetrotters.

But I know for a fact Fergie did, because, you know, you know, it was.

All Cub fans love

that.

Fun stuff.

So Mike McCabe, actually you're going to go on a little trip here real soon,

right?

I am going to Tanzania.

Because?

The Tanzanian tea bean, coffee beans?

Just

out of a desire to explore.

You know, I like your travel.

A lot of people don't know this about me, but I did a two-year stint in the Peace Corps in West Africa, in Mali.

Which is where Timbuktu is by the way.

Oh, um, but is it great band?

I love those guys.

Oh, no, that's I've been to Timbuktu.

I've been to Timbuktu.

Yeah, Timbuktu was a damn good band by the way.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah.

Pat McDonald.

Pat McDonald.

Great guy.

Pat McDonald and the Essentials.

Yes.

And I saw them at OK's Corral here in Madison.

I know.

I

think we may have been at

the same show.

We probably were at the same show.

It was many years ago.

Yeah.

And the band becomes Timbuktu 3.

Right.

They had some moments.

Oh, they were great.

They were stars.

They were excellent.

Yeah.

But, you know, I wasn't even sure that Timbuktu was a real place.

Yes.

Because, you know, people...

It sounds crazy, doesn't

it?

They kind of treated it as this mythical end of the earth or something.

But it's a real city.

And I've been there.

And it's now been almost devoured by the Sahara Desert.

It's really...

Oh, full desert and there's sand everywhere.

But it used to be a city of 100,000 people.

Now it's more like 30,000 people-ish.

And, you know, kind of living on the edge of, you know, really struggling place.

It used to be so central to trade routes in West Africa.

The salt trade, you know, salt would be brought by camel caravan to the countries like Ivory Coast, which would send up their more tropical products.

It used to be a huge trade center.

It has a thousand year old mosque.

I had a university, all of which is, the mosque still stands.

It's still, you can go to a thousand year mosque there, but the university's closed.

It's a shadow of its former self, but it's still, it's a pretty magical place.

Now

it's kind of living up to its name.

It

is the end of the year.

Yeah, it is, but been there.

But I've never been to East Africa, so this is just a journey to unexplored territory for me, at least, and looking forward to it.

Great.

So let's talk about your latest article on Substack.

It's entitled, let me get back to it here, Piss Pots and Yeller Dogs.

So what are you saying?

That's

a headline, that's a

grabber?

Yeller Dog, that's something your dad told you.

Well, both of them were, the title of the article relates to motivational phrases that my dad was fond of when I was not living up to his expectations.

He would say, well, you're never going to have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.

And if he didn't get my attention with that, he would then go on and say, hi, Otish.

sell you off for a Yeller Dog and shoot the Yeller Dog.

Now,

is that

a reference to Old Yeller?

I don't know.

I think Yeller Dog is just sort of...

But shooting the Yeller Dog.

Yeller Dog.

I mean, that's what they did to

Old Yeller.

That was just his way of saying what he thought I was worth at that moment.

I know, but as a

reference at that point, I think maybe the movie had something to do with...

It's possible.

It's kind of country talk.

A way of speaking.

Your dad really worked.

He did.

I wrote in the article, I only recall my dad taking a full day off one time.

Wow, yeah.

In my entire upbringing, he took a day off to travel 200 miles to see my youngest sister get married.

My two oldest sisters,

were married on the farm, so he didn't have to leave.

But my youngest sister had moved away, and so he took the full day off, made me stay home, by the way, to milk the cows.

So I missed my youngest sister's wedding, because he wouldn't trust anybody to milk the cows who was outside the family.

That's the way he was.

But he worked every day, seven days a week, Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, you name it.

And in a factory.

And you know, when he first, he was basically a sharecropper earlier in life.

That's the northern term for it is farming on halves where you're a tenant farmer.

You do all the work, the landlord gets half of the proceeds of whatever gets produced.

And he saved up enough money to buy his own farm, but he had to work in a factory.

So he worked a full shift, five days a week.

and then milked the cows before and after his shift and did the

farm

work on the weekends and whatever else he could squeeze it in.

Tough son of a gun.

And he expected his kids to have a similar work ethic and he pushed us hard.

That was his way.

It was kind of

funny because

you made an appearance and somebody in the crowd brought...

up the fact that he worked

with your father.

Which stunned me, because, you know, my dad was born in 1919 and has been dead and gone for quite some time.

But here's a guy who actually worked with him in that factory, elderly man now, but he must have been really young, must have been 20 years old when he worked with my dad.

Yeah.

Wow, that was a great story.

It was.

All right, we're visiting here with Mike McCabe when we will continue the conversation in just a moment.

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a little bit of a Timbuk 3.

Turn it back up there for a

second.

This

is such a great song.

It really is.

I haven't heard in

years

to

kind of pat me down.

Yeah,

gotta wear

shades.

John Agordi in the morning, 92.7 WMDX.

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And we're talking about...

Talking about the Harlem Globetrotters, the baseball, the Savannah Bananas, and how they have sold out two shows at a great American ballpark.

Yeah, Cincinnati.

Yeah, that's huge.

But I really like one thing they had in it, and that is the golden batter.

Are you familiar with the golden batter?

It's a golden batter.

This is where they can enter a batter anywhere in the lineup that they want on each team.

Yeah.

Really?

Yeah, it's kind of fun.

They have great ideas that

could certainly be their own rules.

And there are some who've said that Major League Baseball should adopt that.

where you could take Shohei Otani, and in a crucial moment, insert him.

Insert him, but yeah.

That

would be kind of cool.

But so far that has not progressed beyond probably talk radio.

The Savannah Bananas.

Right.

You gotta really check them out.

If you ever see them on TV, it's very entertaining stuff.

But anyway, let's get back to your Substack article.

And that is Piss Pots and Yeller Dogs.

And the point of your post, actually, let's get to that

quick.

There is a point to all the storytelling, you know, and if people wanna, you know, read it, the online journal is called A Beyond House and it's mikemacabe.substack.com.

So people can go read it.

The point is that despite my upbringing, and despite the fact that it probably would make my dad roll over in his grave, I think America needs to shorten its work week.

And Iceland did a six year experiment.

with a shortened work week.

And then the results were so positive, they decided to take it national.

And they went to a four-day work week nationally.

And of course, skeptics said, well, that's gonna harm worker productivity and it's gonna create economic stagnation.

Didn't happen.

Worker productivity has not gone down.

In some cases, it's actually improved, interestingly.

People working fewer days, yet producing more.

It hasn't created economic stagnation among the European countries.

Iceland's got the best economic growth.

The lowest unemployment is doing exceptionally well.

And workers are saying they report fewer mental health problems.

They like their work better.

There's greater job satisfaction.

And I think when you look at all the stresses here in this country and the fact that we've got rates of clinical depression

that are

the highest in our nation's history, suicide rates that are rising, and just all the pressures that exist, I think it's something that America should be doing.

And

like I said, my

dad had one day off and worked seven days a week.

all the time, you know, his whole life.

But, you know, we don't live in my dad's world anymore.

And those days are gone.

And with the automation that you see out there, Iceland decided to do something about work-life balance.

And they started it experimentally, but now it's national policy there.

They decided work-life balance matters and let's do something about it.

And that's the kind of discussion that we're not even having in the United States.

We're not talking about what we could do to establish better work-life balance.

And so dad, like I said, is probably grumbling at me and making some reference to Yeller Dogs down his grave, but hey.

I was just gonna say that Gordy and I could never.

ever work a short and weak because we've got to be here for everybody in

five days

away.

That's what it's all about.

I don't know.

Carve out an exemption

for a radio show.

Well,

Catherine's here.

I mean,

what do you think about that?

We worked

like two or three days.

Let's skip over the

what?

Saturday.

See, I don't want to abandon everybody during the week.

And we gotta be here five days a week.

We gotta hold everybody's hands through troubling times.

John Mentor telling us that Pat McDonald's wife and Wally Ingram from Beloit on drums is in Timbuk 3.

Oh, yes.

Yeah.

So just to bring

that up.

Thank you,

John.

Thank you for that.

Mike McCabe, thanks for joining us.

You're

going