1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:05,080 On the occasion of your New Year's celebration. My fellow Americans, and I 2 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:12,320 extend our very best wishes well the prosperity and well being of the government and 3 00:00:12,359 --> 00:00:16,359 the people of Vietnam. This is Ronald Reagan, President of the United States. 4 00:00:17,079 --> 00:00:20,280 I'm speaking to you, the peoples of the Soviet Union, on the 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:24,280 occasion of the New Year. I know that in the Soviet Union, as 6 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:28,440 it is all around the world, this is a season of hope and expectation. 7 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:36,799 Slow him, good them, slove him, ShaSS him. Years from 8 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:40,399 now they'll be talking about it. They'll be talking about this great, great 9 00:00:40,479 --> 00:00:44,359 thing that we did. Welcome everybody, Happy New Year. It's the Ricciy 10 00:00:44,399 --> 00:00:47,439 Podcast, number six hundred and seventy two. I'm James Linlax here in Minneapolis, 11 00:00:47,439 --> 00:00:51,119 where it's bright and it's cold, and we're looking forward to a new 12 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:55,880 year. I don't know why, because there's just no point to New Year's 13 00:00:56,119 --> 00:01:00,880 is there. We all know that nothing changes, nothing changes except the rent 14 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:03,319 is due. Really, I mean, the whole idea of New Year, 15 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:08,920 New me is ridiculous. You come up with some resolutions and things you're going 16 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:12,200 to do, and we all know that they founder on the rocks of February, 17 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:15,519 if not earlier. I actually find it easier to make little, tiny 18 00:01:15,599 --> 00:01:19,840 changes and resolutions that I know that I will be able to fulfill. I 19 00:01:19,239 --> 00:01:26,840 vow to have a small chocolate mint covered pretzel every day after lunch. I 20 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:29,760 think I can do that. I vow, actually, this is my New 21 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:33,959 Year's resolution every day, thanks to the miracles of ample music, to listen 22 00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:37,560 to one new artist that I've never heard before from start to finish and not 23 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:41,079 give up after fifteen twenty seconds because it's auto tuned and thumping or the rest 24 00:01:41,079 --> 00:01:45,159 of it. But really, actually to try to learn something new musically every 25 00:01:45,239 --> 00:01:48,040 day. It's not hard. It's the things that make you get up and 26 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:51,680 go someplace and do something like workout or quote something that you love that you 27 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:53,519 don't want to do. That's the stuff that never works. So I don't 28 00:01:53,519 --> 00:01:57,159 know why we put ourselves to this. Well, we do because it's January, 29 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:01,879 right, and January is the start of everything new. January, as 30 00:02:01,879 --> 00:02:07,120 we all know, is named after right Janus Roman, god of doors. 31 00:02:08,479 --> 00:02:10,680 First learned about him when I was a kid. I first of all, 32 00:02:10,719 --> 00:02:14,360 I was freaked out by him because he had a he had two faces, 33 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:16,800 he had one, you know, normal forward facing face, and then one 34 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:20,479 in the back. I thought, how does that work exactly? How do 35 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:25,280 you manage all that sensory input? Why would you want if you have a 36 00:02:25,319 --> 00:02:31,680 cold, does the back nose run at the same time as the front allergies? 37 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:35,159 You've got four eyes that are going to be driving you nuts. And 38 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:38,960 how roman is it really to have a god of doors? I mean, 39 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:43,479 these these guys you understand after a while the appeal of monotheism, because when 40 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:46,639 you have God's cluttering up absolutely everything. The God of you know, the 41 00:02:46,680 --> 00:02:49,400 God of desks, the God of chairs, the gods of pens, the 42 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:53,120 gods of dog everything. Everybody's got a dog. You figure, you know, 43 00:02:53,199 --> 00:02:54,560 something comes along and says, no, there's just one. It's going 44 00:02:54,639 --> 00:02:58,639 to simplify thing. It's you. I'm going to bundle it all into one. 45 00:02:59,639 --> 00:03:01,199 But then, of course human nature being what it is, that gets 46 00:03:01,199 --> 00:03:05,080 complicated as well, with saints and what they're in charge of them. I 47 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:07,719 put three people in a room with one thing, and at the end of 48 00:03:07,759 --> 00:03:08,759 the day, two of them are get to a gang up against the other 49 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:13,759 as to what the one thing means. Anyway, I was wrong as a 50 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:16,439 kid and just thinking that Janie had to do with doors. No, he 51 00:03:16,479 --> 00:03:20,479 had a lot more to do with that. He was the god of beginnings 52 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:25,479 and as such was regarded by many in those days and Lord the complexity of 53 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:31,680 Roman deities and their stories, he was the first. He was the number 54 00:03:31,759 --> 00:03:35,360 one guy. He started everything out. So when you started the day, 55 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:38,240 he prayed to Janice. When you started a new business enterprise, you played 56 00:03:38,280 --> 00:03:39,560 prayed to Janney. When you pray to a god, you prayed to Janis, 57 00:03:39,639 --> 00:03:44,360 just because the beginning of everything. And if you go back and look 58 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:46,439 on your Wikipedia, you will find that he was also related to the god 59 00:03:46,479 --> 00:03:52,039 of portals, because they had a different god for portals as for doors. 60 00:03:52,759 --> 00:03:54,319 Okay, I don't know why they needed that. I don't know if they 61 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:58,599 had to do some reconciliation sessions there where they divide it up. Okay, 62 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:03,039 you're gonna have harbors, he's gonna have doors, You're gonna have warehouse openings, 63 00:04:03,039 --> 00:04:09,199 he's gonna have like business doors and the rest of it. But you 64 00:04:09,199 --> 00:04:14,240 know, when you study the whole story of Janis, it turns out that 65 00:04:14,319 --> 00:04:18,759 he ravaged some nymph and in the process made her a goddess and she's now 66 00:04:18,759 --> 00:04:27,839 regarded in their view as the goddess of hinges, the goddess of hinges. 67 00:04:28,759 --> 00:04:30,639 It's not the most it's not the biggest job you can have, I suppose 68 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:35,759 in the pantheon. And if you're a guy who fixes doors for a living, 69 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:40,920 I imagine that you probably would be burning some salt and some you know, 70 00:04:40,959 --> 00:04:44,120 some spelt to her every day before you went to work. But really 71 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:48,439 so, yes, Janie got a doors, but of so much more and 72 00:04:48,759 --> 00:04:51,160 less. We think, however, that it's kind of silly. They have 73 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:54,199 a got of doors. They had a god of hinges and a god of 74 00:04:54,279 --> 00:04:57,439 knobs too, and that just sounds like something that you should just say as 75 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,839 an epithet when you're disappointed in something, Oh, God, lot of knobs. 76 00:05:00,759 --> 00:05:02,600 Well, there was a person who had to sit by the door, 77 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:09,319 of course, like me right now, who is there between the thing from 78 00:05:09,399 --> 00:05:14,079 which you come and the thing into which you go being the next year, 79 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:18,800 And that person was named after the god of doors and beginnings, Janice, 80 00:05:19,079 --> 00:05:23,720 And from that we get Janitor. So in a way, when we say 81 00:05:23,759 --> 00:05:27,680 a janitor and we see the people around the building doing what they do to 82 00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:30,519 clean things, it's actually part of an old and noble tradition, and for 83 00:05:30,639 --> 00:05:34,439 all we know, the janitors for two thousand years have been part of a 84 00:05:34,519 --> 00:05:41,720 secret society actually that knows all, sees all, and actually keeps everything working. 85 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:44,360 I know, without them, nothing gets picked up and thrown away. 86 00:05:44,439 --> 00:05:48,079 So thank your janitor today, That's all I'm saying. It being the beginning 87 00:05:48,079 --> 00:05:49,879 of the year or the end of the new, dependent at the end of 88 00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:53,439 the old, depending on when you're listening to it, I'll bet you wondering. 89 00:05:55,399 --> 00:05:58,560 I hope there's a roundup of this year, because I really would like 90 00:05:58,639 --> 00:06:03,720 to revisit all the awful things that happened and confirm my priors and revel in 91 00:06:03,759 --> 00:06:09,360 all the things that went awry and weep and moan and rent garments and the 92 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:12,360 rest of it. I'm really not in the mood for that. You can 93 00:06:12,399 --> 00:06:16,199 find it elsewhere, but I find year end summations to be hideous, to 94 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:19,360 be honest. Oh, we have lots of actualities as to what I as 95 00:06:19,399 --> 00:06:21,240 to what happened, and we might get to those. But there are two 96 00:06:21,279 --> 00:06:25,759 things that I want to do. One of them is I posted on Ricochet. 97 00:06:25,839 --> 00:06:28,720 You know ricochet dot com. If you're listening and you're not a member, 98 00:06:28,879 --> 00:06:31,000 you should be. I mean, really, I'm trying to shame you 99 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:35,560 into it for all these years now. No shame is not the word. 100 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:42,319 No cajole. Welcome you. Extend a hand to pull you through the portal 101 00:06:42,319 --> 00:06:45,600 of Janice to the place where you've been looking for the Internet for a long 102 00:06:45,639 --> 00:06:50,000 time, the home of sane civil mostly center right conversation. So I posted 103 00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:54,800 on Ricochet and the member feed, which can't go to unless you remember some 104 00:06:54,959 --> 00:06:58,600 questions to see if anybody has any questions of me about anything. I'm going 105 00:06:58,639 --> 00:07:00,759 to try that. I also thought, rather than looking back at the year 106 00:07:00,839 --> 00:07:11,279 here, it might be instructive to go back to nineteen twenty four, nineteen 107 00:07:11,439 --> 00:07:14,920 thirty four and briefly look at what January first looked like at the front page 108 00:07:14,959 --> 00:07:17,800 of the paper. What were they concerned about? Well, for example, 109 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:20,560 let's take a look a nineteen twenty four. I just happen to have it 110 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:25,360 right here in front of me, thanks to newspapers, dot com, big 111 00:07:25,399 --> 00:07:30,160 headline. And I do this to remind you that whatever we think is the 112 00:07:30,199 --> 00:07:32,800 most important thing going on in the last year. They were thinking that then, 113 00:07:33,079 --> 00:07:38,879 were they right? Were they wrong? Was it actually affect human history 114 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:42,040 in the years to come. Well. January first, nineteen twenty four, 115 00:07:42,079 --> 00:07:48,120 the Minneapolis Journal. Big headline top above the fold hole page Obertagon halts war 116 00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:54,800 on rebels. Delay is ordered, a waiting arrival of arms from US. 117 00:07:55,399 --> 00:07:58,600 Now Obergon is probably forgotten. I had no idea how to look them up. 118 00:07:58,639 --> 00:08:01,040 It has to do with the Mexican rebel so we were supplying arms to 119 00:08:01,079 --> 00:08:05,560 them. We were involved in our border state. We were having troubles with 120 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:11,279 Mexico one hundred years ago. It was a stunning surprise. Below that another 121 00:08:11,319 --> 00:08:16,560 headline, bits of wreckage from dix Muede identified. Now, what I love 122 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:22,079 about these old papers is that when first the story of Dix Muede was broached, 123 00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:26,319 they had to explain what it was. But after a few days of 124 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:30,639 newspapers, of course everybody knows what dix Mute is. And in this case, 125 00:08:30,839 --> 00:08:35,600 Dick s Muede was a Zeppelin and as such, as you might imagine, 126 00:08:35,879 --> 00:08:43,399 came to a not entirely felicitous conclusion. Zeppelin airship built for the Imperial 127 00:08:43,399 --> 00:08:46,600 German Navy, unfinished at the end of First World War. Reading this off 128 00:08:46,639 --> 00:08:50,559 the top of my head, obviously no Wikipedia. It exploded in mid air 129 00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:54,519 on the twenty first of December twenty nineteen twenty three, off the coast of 130 00:08:54,559 --> 00:08:58,159 Sicily, killing all fifty two people of forty two crew and ten passengers. 131 00:09:00,039 --> 00:09:03,519 As Wikipedia, this is one of the first great airship disasters, preceded by 132 00:09:03,559 --> 00:09:07,799 the crash of the British R thirty eight and the US airship Roma, and 133 00:09:07,919 --> 00:09:11,600 followed by the destruction of the Shenando in twenty five, the British R one 134 00:09:11,639 --> 00:09:15,919 oh one in nineteen thirty forty eight dead, and the Akron in nineteen thirty 135 00:09:15,919 --> 00:09:20,039 three seventy three dead, and the Hindenburg in thirty seven twenty thirty six dead. 136 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:22,919 So does the dix Mewed matter to us one hundred years later today, 137 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:26,559 Probably so, in that it was part of a pattern of these things going 138 00:09:26,639 --> 00:09:33,320 up kaboom that led to the lack to the diminished interest, shall we say, 139 00:09:33,399 --> 00:09:37,919 in flying around in a great ball of a gas. So that's that. 140 00:09:37,919 --> 00:09:39,679 That was nineteen twenty four. They were also, of course worried about 141 00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:45,039 the weather there. The mercury had dropped to sixteen below in Minneapolis, which 142 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:50,000 is not surprising entirely, and it was a sedate reveling because you couldn't drink 143 00:09:50,039 --> 00:09:56,320 so much anymore. Oh and let's see, Yes, a furnace had exploded 144 00:09:56,360 --> 00:10:01,240 and twenty five families were shivering somewhere in Minneapolis in front page news, So 145 00:10:01,279 --> 00:10:05,480 that's twenty four. Part of it is I think the newspapers, well, 146 00:10:05,559 --> 00:10:09,279 it has to do with the newspaper you read. That was the sedate journal 147 00:10:09,360 --> 00:10:16,039 for the respectable people. The Star probably reported about a whole bunch of people 148 00:10:16,039 --> 00:10:18,639 who doing nasty things. Well in nineteen thirty four, I'm looking at it 149 00:10:18,679 --> 00:10:22,799 right now, nineteen thirty four January first, that would be ninety years ago. 150 00:10:22,840 --> 00:10:26,279 What's the big headline at the top, thirty five hurt in eighty six 151 00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:35,759 crashes. Thirty five people here in thirty five crashes or in eighty six crashes. 152 00:10:35,039 --> 00:10:39,919 Now that was the toll for the year. It wasn't like eighty six 153 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:43,159 people that wreck their car that night. But below that was a big deal 154 00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:46,320 about the conference rum bill. What the conference rum bill is? Oh, 155 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:50,720 it's just rum about letting people drink more. Because it's thirty four, that's 156 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:54,840 pretty much it. The whole front page is car crashes, it's cold and 157 00:10:54,879 --> 00:10:58,919 you can drink pretty soon. Something here, Oh, Chicago murders were up 158 00:11:00,159 --> 00:11:03,879 ten percent over the course of the year, and Octave Thanet, novelist was 159 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:11,000 ill. Here's one of yours, your moments of realizing that all fad famous 160 00:11:11,039 --> 00:11:16,159 fleeting Octave Thanet. Do you have any idea who that was? Pen name 161 00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:18,320 of a woman who was very popular and wrote an awful lot of novels and 162 00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:22,440 was well known, and obviously so by the fact he's on the front page. 163 00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:26,600 But she had the diabetes and she would kick off about a week after 164 00:11:26,639 --> 00:11:30,399 that. Octave Thanet never heard of her before, used to be a household 165 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:33,480 name. Take note, writers, that's what happens to us all nineteen forty 166 00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:41,519 four. As you can well imagine, well, uh yeah, headline Nancy 167 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:48,399 Escape bridge destroyed by Italian coast leap frog raid, Yanks take more hills, 168 00:11:48,639 --> 00:11:52,919 eighth gaining All this meant something very specific to people in nineteen thirty four. 169 00:11:52,919 --> 00:11:56,240 They would know where the eighth was and what the They would know what the 170 00:11:56,240 --> 00:11:58,960 eighth was and where they were and what they were doing. Russ drive, 171 00:11:58,080 --> 00:12:03,720 perils Nazi river Army. That's a headline, Russ drive, perils, Nazi 172 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:09,559 river Army. A couple of the Oh russ spoil. Nazi New Year party 173 00:12:09,720 --> 00:12:13,559 was below that, so you get the feeling that the russ Our allies, 174 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:16,519 of course good old Uncle Joe, are on the move and the Nazis are 175 00:12:16,600 --> 00:12:20,720 on the back foot. Other than that, it's pretty Oh yes, little 176 00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:24,320 tiny story down here at the bottom of the paper. Twenty nine bombers lost 177 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:30,919 in raid, twenty nine US bombers lost in a raid. Front page, 178 00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:35,720 but below the fold. You're used to that nowadays, Well you can well 179 00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:39,279 imagine. Come nineteen fifty four. Well, hey, it's a swinging happy 180 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:46,240 time, is right. Everybody's enjoying hula hoops and rock and roll and everything's 181 00:12:46,279 --> 00:12:52,519 great and McDonald's and shakes and tail fins and and happy time. Minneapolis Star 182 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:58,240 January first, nineteen fifty four lead headlines parents of seven shot after New Year 183 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:03,279 party in city right below that in big type as well. Two killed by 184 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:11,240 hit run cars. Hello that blast outdoor fell's gunman. So that was that 185 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:16,000 parents shot, two killed, and somebody shot a gun out the door and 186 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:22,440 killed somebody who was moving around. Good times. But a small story about 187 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:26,559 a GI who changes his mind and quits the Red Pow an American war prisoner, 188 00:13:26,559 --> 00:13:31,120 A guy who defected. Claude Bachelor of Kerna, Texas, decided he 189 00:13:31,159 --> 00:13:37,120 was to go over to the other side to the Norks, and turns out 190 00:13:37,159 --> 00:13:39,360 he didn't like it very much, and thereafter he came back with his hat 191 00:13:39,399 --> 00:13:43,000 in his hand and was jailed. Later got out and went to work as 192 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:48,240 an accountant. Died about twenty years later. So fifty four is pretty violent. 193 00:13:48,559 --> 00:13:52,480 Fifty four is looking violent. Let's look at nineteen sixty four. What 194 00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:56,799 would your presumption of nineteen sixty four January first be? Well, as it 195 00:13:56,879 --> 00:14:01,320 turns out, it's all local news. Astrian requests court to transfer trial to 196 00:14:01,399 --> 00:14:05,440 Duluth. Big trial. Nobody cares what it's about now, But there's a 197 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:09,240 little story down at the bottom. Two US officers are wounded by viat cong 198 00:14:09,919 --> 00:14:16,600 and that, of course is going to absolutely consume everything. Perhaps the story 199 00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:22,000 of most lasting significance is one little tucked away in the front page. Biologists 200 00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:26,519 joint hunt for life on Mars. Their tools, of course, were not 201 00:14:26,519 --> 00:14:30,600 as sophisticated as the ones that we have today, but they were trying, 202 00:14:30,639 --> 00:14:33,480 they were looking. It's entirely possible at night that twenty twenty four will be 203 00:14:33,519 --> 00:14:37,480 a pivotal year in the search for life on Mars, or the attempt to 204 00:14:37,519 --> 00:14:43,519 put life on Mars, that life be us if elon Musk's rockets all work 205 00:14:43,799 --> 00:14:48,759 and his desire to get us there gathers esteem. Nineteen seventy four, which 206 00:14:48,799 --> 00:14:52,720 of course is a horrible year, area shivers in record colds. The major 207 00:14:52,799 --> 00:14:58,679 headline Mayor quits gas prices up US to permit heating oil gas to rise. 208 00:14:58,759 --> 00:15:05,039 One sent a nation for additional nations to raise crude oil prices. British began 209 00:15:05,159 --> 00:15:11,080 three day week to save energy. The temperatures were twenty below in Minneapolis and 210 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:16,200 the and the price of everything was going up. So, yeah, nineteen 211 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:20,480 seventy four, we're pretty much sure that we weren't going to have any gas 212 00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:22,759 in the future. It was all going to run out about four or five 213 00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:26,720 years. Of course, the idea that the prices would go up and that 214 00:15:26,759 --> 00:15:28,120 would spur more exploration than the rest of it. No, we were all 215 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:33,840 very much concerned about alternative forms of energy, and we weren't coming up with 216 00:15:33,879 --> 00:15:35,440 any synth fuels. That was big, I remember that. But we were 217 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:39,279 all going to get used to not being able to drive very much in those 218 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:45,440 days were over. We were, of course wrong. And I can't really 219 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:50,240 think of any era other than the early seventies in which so many erroneous beliefs 220 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:56,600 were adopted by so many. It seemed to be that was a starting point 221 00:15:56,840 --> 00:16:02,559 for people thinking incorrectly or in correct decisions, because when you look at you 222 00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:04,679 know, you look at nineteen forty four, well, what were they doing. 223 00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:07,919 They were fighting the Nazis, that's generally what you want to do. 224 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:11,639 You look at nineteen thirty four, and they were getting rid of the ridiculous 225 00:16:11,639 --> 00:16:17,039 criminal enabling prohibition and saying it is a civilized thing to enjoy a glass of 226 00:16:17,039 --> 00:16:19,159 whiskey. And well, my view, that's pretty much the way to go 227 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:22,320 to. And in nineteen twenty four in the paper I didn't note this, 228 00:16:22,399 --> 00:16:26,120 there was a note from Calvin Coolidge at the top, telling everybody in America 229 00:16:26,159 --> 00:16:30,000 that we are a good, strong, prosperous nation. We should believe, 230 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,279 we believe in ourselves, and we believe in the future. And that's and 231 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:37,639 that's a good way to go. But in seventy four everything seems to be 232 00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:41,919 just falling apart here. So look at at nineteen eighty four. Now you 233 00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:45,039 would think, of course, eighty four America's back Morning in America and the 234 00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:47,399 rest of it. But you have no idea if you weren't there at the 235 00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:51,519 time. Excuse me, Helmut, there was my cough button. It used 236 00:16:51,519 --> 00:16:52,679 to be in a radio station. He used to have a cough button. 237 00:16:53,639 --> 00:17:00,559 You have no idea how much the newspapers in nineteen eighty four were general preaching 238 00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:06,519 doom and misery, that everything, everything was bad because of that Ronnie raygun 239 00:17:06,559 --> 00:17:10,960 guy right well, nineteen eighty four, Minneapolis Star Tribune, January First, 240 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:15,200 it was a Sunday military takes over in Nigeria. No bloodshed reported in fifth 241 00:17:15,279 --> 00:17:22,640 coups since nineteen sixty. And you remember that military coups in Africa seemed to 242 00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:26,200 be the sort of thing that would populate your paper about once every four or 243 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:29,400 five months or so. Nobody paid any attention to them, and nobody cared 244 00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:37,559 mondale calls for removing marines from Lebanon without forty five days. This is what 245 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:41,359 Walter Mondale would say, force without purpose is weakness, not toughness. The 246 00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:48,319 vulnerability of our marine's undermines not preserves our credibility. Well, we don't know 247 00:17:48,319 --> 00:17:53,559 where that went. Let's see Navy flyer tells Jackson. Oh, the Syrians 248 00:17:53,599 --> 00:17:59,119 are treating him well, says navy flyer who was talking to Jesse Jackson. 249 00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:03,000 The flyer had been nabbed by the Syrians, and Jesse Jackson, who in 250 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:06,880 those days was a frequent intermediary element, had gone to speak to him. 251 00:18:07,319 --> 00:18:11,039 And then my favorite headline of all, which you probably can repeat in any 252 00:18:11,079 --> 00:18:15,799 newspaper for any place, at any time, for whatever reason, I quote, 253 00:18:17,319 --> 00:18:23,440 growing reports may indicate growing problem. Let me run that one by again. 254 00:18:23,759 --> 00:18:30,400 Growing reports may indicate growing problem. Now it has to do with sexual 255 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:36,440 abuse of children. But that's kind of an evergreen, as we used to 256 00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:42,039 say, Come nineteen ninety four, we're sort of getting into the common era, 257 00:18:42,119 --> 00:18:47,240 aren't we. Nineteen ninety four seems to be part of the world in 258 00:18:47,279 --> 00:18:52,359 which we inhabit right now. South African leaders plead for calm because there was 259 00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:56,119 a shooting spree in joe Burg, and then there's something about a local gambling 260 00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:02,039 racetrack and that's about it for international lose. Everything else is local because the 261 00:19:02,079 --> 00:19:06,079 paper had realized we don't need a reprint the New York Times. We can 262 00:19:06,079 --> 00:19:10,400 tell you what's going on here. So ninety four, if I remember correctly, 263 00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:14,400 it's pretty good. We didn't think so at the time. No, 264 00:19:14,519 --> 00:19:19,680 we were under the boot of Clinton. We were worried about Jack Puts knocking 265 00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:23,680 on our doors on behalf of the irs, which is not an unreasonable thing 266 00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:29,279 to believe. But we were going through this whole strange we're beginning perhaps the 267 00:19:29,319 --> 00:19:32,720 whole strange nineties paranoia, a bit that you saw in the X Files and 268 00:19:32,839 --> 00:19:36,440 Art Bell and all the rest of it. Y two K and this feeling 269 00:19:36,519 --> 00:19:40,200 that something was coming, and it was. It just wasn't anything that we 270 00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:45,480 were expecting at all. The old Black Swan, or rather two of them 271 00:19:45,599 --> 00:19:48,960 appearing in the skies of New York, which means we go to two thousand 272 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:49,920 and four, which is the last year I'm going to do here, and 273 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:57,200 the headline is Americans Party under Orange Alert, which is something that may not 274 00:19:57,279 --> 00:20:00,240 mean anything to anybody in the future, but at the time it did. 275 00:20:02,119 --> 00:20:06,599 This was three years on and the main headline on New Year's Eve was still 276 00:20:06,720 --> 00:20:11,200 something of the sort of we could be bonded, and we're looking around and 277 00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:18,039 we're nervous about it. But no, nothing happened. Year after year would 278 00:20:18,039 --> 00:20:25,559 go by and nothing would happen. And we would become accustomed to nothing happened, 279 00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:29,160 nothing happening. I don't know about you, though, I don't see 280 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:33,079 any of these gatherings to this day without thinking something might happen. Why wouldn't 281 00:20:33,119 --> 00:20:38,279 it. While we may have cleared the decks of some of the bad actors 282 00:20:38,319 --> 00:20:44,359 back in the day, they seem to reassemble and cohere and redouble their efforts 283 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:49,039 to do something about us. Statan Magnus right, also a big prediction here 284 00:20:49,039 --> 00:20:52,240 in the headlines of that paper, Warren politics will co star in the news 285 00:20:52,279 --> 00:20:56,440 of two thousand and four to come. You think, I think it's possible, 286 00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:00,440 and I think the same thing will go here. We will be discussing 287 00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:07,440 the two wars ongoing in twenty twenty four. We will be discussing politics, 288 00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:11,079 which will seem like an absolute, complete and total mess, which it will 289 00:21:11,119 --> 00:21:15,680 be and often does, because it's only from the distance of time when passion's 290 00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:19,440 cool and the winners and the victor's right the histories that we tend to think 291 00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:26,440 that everything else moved smoothly. It doesn't. Although the machinations underfoot this year 292 00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:33,400 seem particularly egregious, wouldn't you say, But that's for a two twenty four 293 00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:41,640 podcast with misters May rob Long and Peter Robinson. I had asked on the 294 00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:45,319 Bricochet page whether or not anybody had any questions for me, and I think 295 00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:49,920 if they, let's check here and see what they said, and see if 296 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:56,200 there's anybody who did the wrong page. See if anybody who does. You 297 00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:57,519 know, this is the point usually where I go to a spot but we're 298 00:21:57,559 --> 00:22:03,240 giving you a little break. We're going spotlets this week. I could probably 299 00:22:03,279 --> 00:22:07,519 from memory give you a bowl and branch for free. I could probably from 300 00:22:07,519 --> 00:22:11,319 memory tell you about all the wonderful sponsors we've had in the past that have 301 00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:14,039 made it Ricochet possible. But the thing is, it's really people like you 302 00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:18,799 who make Ricochet possible, who commit to every month pooning up a small amount 303 00:22:18,839 --> 00:22:21,240 of money to say, yes, I want this thing to go, and 304 00:22:21,279 --> 00:22:22,680 I want to be able to contribute. I want to be able to comment. 305 00:22:22,799 --> 00:22:26,440 That's the great thing. There's some science that I love, and I 306 00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:30,839 go down into the discus in man, I tell you you just have an 307 00:22:30,839 --> 00:22:36,000 image of an awful lot of really unhappy people who just love to do nothing 308 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:41,119 more then sidle into the room and issue a conspicuous piece of flatulence and then 309 00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:48,559 wander out as though some great witticism has been undeployed. And it's the thing 310 00:22:48,559 --> 00:22:57,119 I like about Ricochet is that I am constantly abraided by other people's mulish disinclination 311 00:22:57,240 --> 00:23:03,039 to agree with me or what I have my head. So civil conversations with 312 00:23:03,079 --> 00:23:07,000 people that you've had civil conversations with for a long time and who think differently 313 00:23:07,039 --> 00:23:11,200 about things is a big plus as opposed to just marinating in the bath of 314 00:23:11,279 --> 00:23:15,440 everybody agreeing with everybody else. Oh, there are fourteen comments on this, 315 00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:19,680 let's see. Well. Don Tilman, who smells his name backwards, says, 316 00:23:19,759 --> 00:23:23,119 this is an opportunity for a record of the greatest number of segues in 317 00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:26,640 a podcast. I don't think I've had one. Why because I haven't had 318 00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:33,039 to go to an ad and b because I haven't had the steel bar in 319 00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:37,839 the spokes of Rob Long and his ability to derail any segment that I wanted 320 00:23:37,839 --> 00:23:41,400 to do. Jenna Stocker, who by the way, is also writing for 321 00:23:41,559 --> 00:23:49,400 American Center of American Experiment around here and is an absolutely fantastic writer, just 322 00:23:49,519 --> 00:23:56,160 great. I wanted to start writing nineteen forties mystery novels too, said if 323 00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:59,079 you had a chat with the young James Lillax about your life since childhood and 324 00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:03,240 which you're up to now, what would he be most surprised to hear that 325 00:24:03,319 --> 00:24:07,759 it all worked out, that it all actually happened. I mean, that's 326 00:24:07,799 --> 00:24:11,079 the thing. I became what I wanted to become. I went where I 327 00:24:11,079 --> 00:24:15,319 wanted to go, and I did what I wanted to do. I was 328 00:24:15,319 --> 00:24:19,400 a kid in Many in Fargo reading the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper. I had 329 00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:22,279 to go to the library to get it. It was the missive from the 330 00:24:22,279 --> 00:24:26,039 big city. It was the it. It told me what was going on 331 00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:30,920 in the big town, to which I'd only been a couple of times once 332 00:24:30,519 --> 00:24:36,079 as a small boy. When we paid an extraordinary visit, absolutely magical, 333 00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:38,319 really, I stated at Howard Johnson, I'd never seen one of these things 334 00:24:38,319 --> 00:24:42,200 before. Orange roof with a little turquoise top, I'm thirty, how many 335 00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:48,000 flavors of ice cream? It was just that futuristic lobby building, that that 336 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:49,759 that that you drove that dad went into to get the keys. I mean, 337 00:24:49,799 --> 00:24:53,200 I'd never seen anything. Then we went to Southdale and an enclosed mall, 338 00:24:53,279 --> 00:24:56,759 the likes of which, of course did not exist in Fargo. There 339 00:24:56,799 --> 00:25:00,359 were birds indoors in cages too, story cages in the winter, singing. 340 00:25:02,839 --> 00:25:06,079 Ah. It was great. I loved it. I wanted to go there, 341 00:25:06,079 --> 00:25:08,920 and every visit I paid to Minneapolis next, I only only reinforced that. 342 00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:14,000 And what I wanted to do was to write, and I wanted to 343 00:25:14,039 --> 00:25:17,960 be in newspapers. I wanted to write for the Minneapolis start So I wanted 344 00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:22,079 to be a columnist for the Minneapolis Startribune when I was growing up. And 345 00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:26,400 I am. And that's I don't know what more to say about that except 346 00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:29,640 whew, what a relief. It all worked out. Am I disappointed that 347 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:34,039 I wasn't challenged or didn't have bigger ideas. What if I decided that I 348 00:25:34,039 --> 00:25:37,759 wanted to be a columnist for the New Yorker. Well, I don't want 349 00:25:37,799 --> 00:25:41,960 to be one of those. I'm happy here where I have an audience that 350 00:25:42,079 --> 00:25:45,599 surrounds me and has surrounded me since the early eighties when I started writing in 351 00:25:45,599 --> 00:25:48,799 the college papers. So that might be it. I might be surprised to 352 00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:53,680 learn that it worked out completely. Thank you. Jenna john Stanley writes, 353 00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:57,359 The Vikings used to play in the Minnesota cold, but now the Vikings play 354 00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:02,319 indoors. Is the movie Doors linked to a lack of Super Bowl appearances? 355 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:07,519 No, No, I don't think so. I think it's something else. 356 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:14,359 I think it's a curse. It's the curse that hangs over us. There's 357 00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:18,680 something deep in the marrow of the Vikings fan that is unable to be happy, 358 00:26:18,039 --> 00:26:21,960 that knows that at the end of it, at the end of it, 359 00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:29,200 we'll ever get there. Never. It never happened. It's supposed to 360 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:33,960 happen. This year, it was supposed to happen. Kurt was great, 361 00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:38,359 JJ is supposed to have after a last year where her Ja was supposed to 362 00:26:38,559 --> 00:26:41,519 but we lost fourth straight and then you know, went through four quarterbacks. 363 00:26:41,519 --> 00:26:45,839 So now second John continues. Is the willingness of the fans to suffer outdoor 364 00:26:45,839 --> 00:26:51,720 in the cold a link to post season victories? It could be, you 365 00:26:51,799 --> 00:26:53,559 know, you look back at the old shots of the Vikings playing in the 366 00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:57,680 snow, and the snow gathering on the eyebrows and the caps of the people 367 00:26:57,720 --> 00:27:02,519 in the stand still cheering, and you think there are heartier people than we 368 00:27:02,599 --> 00:27:07,319 are for God's sakes. A. Yes, perhaps so. B they're drunk 369 00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:11,920 though pretty much short that everybody had a nip of some snowshoe grog or peppermint 370 00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:15,920 schnaps, some fine Phillips products in a flask that kept them warm. But 371 00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:22,160 yeah, that's the way football is meant to be played, bruisingly endured in 372 00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:25,160 the outdoor elements. But on the other hand, I've been inside the new 373 00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:29,640 stadium and it's absolutely gorgeous. And I've been there when it's cold outside and 374 00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:33,599 I'm happy to be warm inside. So yes, I'm a member of that 375 00:27:33,079 --> 00:27:42,319 debased, debauched, defeat, indolent, sybaritic crowd that can no longer endure 376 00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:48,200 the way things used to be. Wisconsin con Wi Coon said, you work 377 00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:51,480 for the Star Tribune, are you? And there are some other noteworthy and 378 00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:55,759 otherwhile not worthy, There are still at least local papers still in existence. 379 00:27:55,799 --> 00:28:00,319 But the model doesn't seem viable. Nothing new there. But are you seeing 380 00:28:00,319 --> 00:28:08,319 any viable replacements emerging? Uh? No, yes and no. What we're 381 00:28:08,319 --> 00:28:11,160 trying to do here at the newspaper, of course, is to transition to 382 00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:17,319 all digital. That's the future. Hate to say it, sorry Tree industry, 383 00:28:17,839 --> 00:28:21,319 Sorry delivery guys, I mean and sorry everybody who loves the newspaper, 384 00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:26,920 including me. But the move is to all digital. The problem, of 385 00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:32,599 course, is what's that word, I'm looking for money? The problem is 386 00:28:32,599 --> 00:28:37,039 getting people to exchange goods in exchange their money in exchange for our goods and 387 00:28:37,079 --> 00:28:41,640 services. Because I was on Reddit the other day and somebody had posted a 388 00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:44,400 story from the link from the Star Tribune, a very important story from the 389 00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:48,039 Star Tribune, a story that only we had if I believe correctly, that 390 00:28:48,119 --> 00:28:51,759 we had gone out and sent somebody. We paid somebody to go there and 391 00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:55,160 look and do and research and come back and write it. And then we 392 00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:59,480 had put that information on pieces of paper, handed them to a distribution system 393 00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:03,519 that put them all over town and also put them up online for something that 394 00:29:03,559 --> 00:29:08,279 we paid for. And the person said, you know all, I'm not 395 00:29:08,279 --> 00:29:15,319 going to pay to read that. I'm not going to pay for news. 396 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:19,839 Okay, all right, I get that now. Somebody doesn't want to pay 397 00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:26,279 for something because they have a reason. A they don't like the bias, 398 00:29:26,559 --> 00:29:29,799 or they don't like what's being nobody's obligated to pay for anything, but if 399 00:29:29,839 --> 00:29:33,599 you would like local reporting, you generally have to pay somebody to go out 400 00:29:33,680 --> 00:29:37,960 and do it. The old days of relying on the blog of sphere. 401 00:29:37,079 --> 00:29:41,400 It's not going to happen. The BLOGI sphere is an adjunct. It's a 402 00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:44,680 necessary corrective. It's good. People do a lot. I mean people do. 403 00:29:44,839 --> 00:29:47,640 There are people who are who have their niche and they do it. 404 00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:51,119 I'm not sure they do it as much as they used to before, but 405 00:29:51,319 --> 00:29:56,839 generally, no, you have to pay, and so it is you got 406 00:29:56,839 --> 00:29:59,240 to hand over some money. Now who do you hand over the money to? 407 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,680 In our case, we are a brand. We've been around, We've 408 00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:04,200 been doing this for one hundred and fifty years, and we have a track 409 00:30:04,279 --> 00:30:08,400 record, and we have the standards of objectivity. I know, I know 410 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:14,480 what people say, but I know I know what goes on here, and 411 00:30:14,519 --> 00:30:17,720 I know what we believe, and I know what the ideas and the ideals 412 00:30:17,759 --> 00:30:22,559 are. So the model that emerges is going to be two or three competing 413 00:30:22,599 --> 00:30:26,559 online sources, which will eventually require either AU to pay or B somebody behind 414 00:30:26,559 --> 00:30:29,640 the scenes to pay for it, and you don't know who they are. 415 00:30:30,599 --> 00:30:33,880 So I like our model. I do. And there's more to it. 416 00:30:34,519 --> 00:30:37,359 And I mean, if you just have a I'll just shut up about it. 417 00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:41,880 Just that's it. Y Kon goes on to say, I get most 418 00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:44,839 of my local news from our local talk radio station. Their coverage is better 419 00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:47,960 than the local broadcast news and less biased than the local paper. Okay, 420 00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:49,799 I don't know where that is, but where do they get their news? 421 00:30:51,319 --> 00:30:53,160 Where does the talk radio place get their news? I mean in the old 422 00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:57,160 days. I remember when I worked for KSD KSDB a AM fifteen hundred. 423 00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:00,839 Our news department was run by John McDougall, who was an old TV guy, 424 00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:06,799 and Bruce Gordon also, And it's kind of a you know, a 425 00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:10,079 rip and read is what we You know the wire, you ripped the wire 426 00:31:10,119 --> 00:31:11,880 off, you read the wire. You didn't have any guy you did. 427 00:31:12,039 --> 00:31:15,079 We did ksdbting and a lot of guys going on the field for the AM 428 00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:19,839 version, right and not MINDI talk radio stations have guys who go out and 429 00:31:19,839 --> 00:31:25,160 report, so if they do great. He goes on to say, there's 430 00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:29,799 a need. But outside those dying papers and the patch whatever that's considered, 431 00:31:29,839 --> 00:31:32,400 do you see anything on the horizon. It seems like that there's another reason 432 00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:36,480 people are more focused on DC versus their local cities and states, as there 433 00:31:36,559 --> 00:31:40,000 just isn't the coverage of states. That's that's the problem. That's why you 434 00:31:40,039 --> 00:31:42,799 need local organizations devoted to covering your state, so pay for it, is 435 00:31:42,839 --> 00:31:48,559 all I'm saying. Stad. I had said that my promise to you is 436 00:31:48,599 --> 00:31:52,480 no tiresome, depressing recaps of the year, and Stad said, but quote 437 00:31:52,519 --> 00:31:59,319 tiresome and depressing unquote is you at your best? JK goes on to note, 438 00:31:59,319 --> 00:32:01,480 do you miss doing National Review cruises? And are there plans to start 439 00:32:01,519 --> 00:32:05,480 them up again? I know the NR Institute still has them. Do I 440 00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:15,279 miss doing the National Review cruises? I don't know. Yes, yes, 441 00:32:15,599 --> 00:32:19,839 I do very much so because I love going on cruises. Can't get my 442 00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:22,960 wife to go anymore because she thinks she doesn't want to fall overboard, although 443 00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:25,799 we might do some river cruise because I guess you can swim the shore. 444 00:32:27,519 --> 00:32:31,119 I loved them because I loved meeting everybody and talking late at night at the 445 00:32:31,319 --> 00:32:36,920 night Old Session or at the sessions at the Crow's Nest Bar. I love 446 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:42,640 being in the Caribbean. I loved being part of the NR enterprise. I 447 00:32:42,839 --> 00:32:47,119 really did. It was great fun and I may do it again. The 448 00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:52,119 Institute is having them at Alaska, and problem is is that they need to 449 00:32:52,119 --> 00:32:55,160 get enough people. If they have enough people, they can bring on the 450 00:32:55,279 --> 00:33:04,079 second tier talents like myself. And as I said to them last when I 451 00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:07,000 was there, went out to the National Review Christmas party in New York, 452 00:33:07,079 --> 00:33:09,359 I said, you know, I do offer a full spectrum service package here. 453 00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:14,519 I'll talk a lot at dinner, I'll talk a lot. In the 454 00:33:14,559 --> 00:33:19,480 evening, I'll talk. I actually will engage people at breakfast or on the 455 00:33:19,519 --> 00:33:22,640 ship anywhere, not just at the meetings. Fans, are you know full 456 00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:28,799 customer service? I'm your customer service guy, and we'll see what happens. 457 00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:31,720 Full sized Tabby, well, thanks for asking stad send him a letter, 458 00:33:31,759 --> 00:33:36,279 tell him you want me. Full Sized Tabby says, I would enjoy hearing 459 00:33:36,279 --> 00:33:39,559 some of your most memorable or interesting surprising experiences covering the State Fair over so 460 00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:45,599 many years. Huh, that's interesting, State Fair. I hadn't thought of 461 00:33:45,599 --> 00:33:52,559 that in a while. Mostly it's these Quotitian moments that don't really add up 462 00:33:52,599 --> 00:33:57,680 to anything except for a deep and abiding love of the entire enterprise. I 463 00:33:57,680 --> 00:34:02,079 mean, I was never there when anything big and was I I don't think 464 00:34:02,119 --> 00:34:07,679 so. I wasn't there when the bull escaped and ran through the crowd and 465 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:15,360 killed itself by dashing its head into a fire stanchion, you know, fire 466 00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:22,920 plug bang. No, I heard about it happened later. I have done 467 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:27,760 dozens of shows where I stand on this little stage in the broiling sun with 468 00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:30,880 a neon huge yardstick, trying to get the audience to pay attention to me. 469 00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:36,199 Those all blend into one. I mean, I'll have a guest who 470 00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:38,280 will talk about eating crickets, and well, you know, I'll eat some 471 00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:42,480 cricket peanut butter, and another guests will come by with the flight of local 472 00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:44,880 beers and I'll drink those in the sun and then fall on my head. 473 00:34:45,639 --> 00:34:51,840 All I remember about the fair is just its existence and then its non existence. 474 00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:53,880 The fact that I usually show up the day before, when everything is 475 00:34:54,480 --> 00:35:00,159 just getting set up and all the grass is green and they're starting working the 476 00:35:00,159 --> 00:35:05,480 friars, and the smells of everything is just absolutely just wonderful. It's waiting 477 00:35:05,519 --> 00:35:07,639 to happen. It's fresh and it's new, and you know, the sprinklers 478 00:35:07,679 --> 00:35:13,760 are making the are on the flowers. They're glistening in the morning light. 479 00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:15,960 It's just but it's not the fair because there's not a lot of people there. 480 00:35:16,239 --> 00:35:20,360 There's not a lot of people walking around with stupid t shirts and uh 481 00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:24,639 and uh and expressions of expectation of small children and old people and being it's 482 00:35:24,679 --> 00:35:29,079 not the fair without the people. And so when I show up and plunge 483 00:35:29,119 --> 00:35:30,599 into it, it's just what it was last year and the year before and 484 00:35:30,599 --> 00:35:37,280 the year before. And even though it's changed somehow, that place is gone. 485 00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:39,800 That place is a new sign, that's new, it's still just the 486 00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:43,920 fair. And it goes back maybe to what I was saying before about that 487 00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:46,039 trip to Minneapolis, because now that I think about it, at first trip 488 00:35:46,119 --> 00:35:49,440 to Minneapolis, when I said the birds were in the cage and the winter 489 00:35:49,559 --> 00:35:53,000 inside, that wasn't true. Couldn't have been, because it was fair time. 490 00:35:53,159 --> 00:35:58,000 We went to the fair. We went to see the Twins out at 491 00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:00,559 met Stadium, but we went to the fair as well. And as a 492 00:36:00,679 --> 00:36:04,800 very small child, I stood there and looked up at this gopher in a 493 00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:08,360 turquoise in white sort of you know, music man suit, with a straw 494 00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:13,599 boator and his cane, and I associated him with a state fair, which 495 00:36:13,639 --> 00:36:15,480 I was just in love with too, because I'd never seen anything of its 496 00:36:15,519 --> 00:36:21,039 magnitude. I'd never seen anything with so much noise and joy and the fargo 497 00:36:21,159 --> 00:36:23,840 Fair. The North Dakota State Fair happened about two blocks from my house, 498 00:36:24,199 --> 00:36:29,119 and it was smaller as you can well imagine. And at night I used 499 00:36:29,119 --> 00:36:31,960 to sit there on my steps and far go and hear the fair, the 500 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,360 distant sound of it, and the screams and maybe the chuffing of machinery and 501 00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:38,360 the rest of it, and I would swear the days after the fair was 502 00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:42,119 over in the summer, I could still hear it. So I always loved 503 00:36:42,159 --> 00:36:45,719 the fair, And to walk into the one in Minnesota was just was just 504 00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:50,719 the world. It was just the world as it should be, with its 505 00:36:51,039 --> 00:36:54,159 wonderful fried foods and corn dogs, and it's malts, and it's spin art. 506 00:36:54,239 --> 00:37:00,320 We would make spin art, which were involved taking these little things and 507 00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:06,440 putting them on a spinning piece of spinning canvas, and the fumes were so 508 00:37:06,639 --> 00:37:10,280 carcinogenic that it's a miracle anybody for my generation made a past fifty. So 509 00:37:10,360 --> 00:37:13,719 I love the state fair and full sized tabby notes. One of the delights 510 00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:15,239 for me of state fairs that they draw such a variety of people. And 511 00:37:15,239 --> 00:37:19,519 that's absolutely true. Here's everybody. You don't seeing the course of a day, 512 00:37:19,719 --> 00:37:22,480 course of a week, course of a month. This is Minnesota. 513 00:37:22,679 --> 00:37:25,159 These who are, this is what we are. Whatever you think about your 514 00:37:25,199 --> 00:37:30,599 group, No, Steve C. How do you manage your time? You 515 00:37:30,679 --> 00:37:34,960 come across as very productive and yet appear to wander off into tangents a good 516 00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:39,599 deal of to me? What digressions? Well, since I have absolutely no 517 00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:44,599 set things to do over the course of a day, I have long ago 518 00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:51,079 set my own routines. My day goes on rails, and it always has. 519 00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:53,760 When I was back in college, writing people used to note, you 520 00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:59,840 know, you're the only guy who says he's a writer. Well, actually, 521 00:38:00,079 --> 00:38:04,360 lights that's my secret. That's what I do. I would make time. 522 00:38:04,599 --> 00:38:07,000 I would sit down every day. I'm going to do this. Now, 523 00:38:07,559 --> 00:38:09,719 I'm not going to do that. Then I'm going to do that over 524 00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:13,639 there. This is my pinball time, this is my writing time, this 525 00:38:13,679 --> 00:38:15,840 is my walking time. And I stick to it, and sometimes it makes 526 00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:20,119 me incredibly unflexible, and I get twitchy if I moved off the schedule. 527 00:38:20,159 --> 00:38:24,480 But Monday through Friday the life is unrailed. The weekend the chalks are off 528 00:38:24,559 --> 00:38:28,400 madness and madness. But that's how I do it. I just and I 529 00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:30,920 have set in and I can do different things at different time, so I 530 00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:34,920 don't get bored, because I get bored very easily. Don g who would 531 00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:37,400 like to remind us that c AGW as a scam. By that, I 532 00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:45,599 hope he means that the anthropogenic global warming right goes back to wy Coon about 533 00:38:45,599 --> 00:38:50,519 the Star Tribune me working there, and notes young adults get their news from 534 00:38:50,559 --> 00:38:54,840 TikTok. I didn't see that coming newspaper existed before the advertising model. Will 535 00:38:54,840 --> 00:39:00,000 they exist after the collapse of advertising, just a different kind of advertising. 536 00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:01,800 We still have advertise. I mean, we still have ads. We still 537 00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:05,079 have lots of ads, and we still have people go out there and sell 538 00:39:05,119 --> 00:39:07,599 them, and we still have people who use us as a medium to get 539 00:39:07,639 --> 00:39:09,480 to the people who want to buy this, that or the other. That's 540 00:39:09,519 --> 00:39:15,480 great. We'll never be without ads, and that's one of the things that 541 00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:21,400 we got going for you. It just pains me to look at the ads 542 00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:23,159 of the old papers and it's not as you could just because there were so 543 00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:28,039 many. I mean, Downtown had Dayton's Department Store, Donaldson's Serious Pennies, 544 00:39:28,559 --> 00:39:30,559 it had powers, It had all of these stores, each of which would 545 00:39:30,559 --> 00:39:36,760 take two three pages out in a Sunday newspaper. The quantity of retail advertising 546 00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:39,679 in the old newspapers is astonishing. The newspaper on Sunday would be three hundred 547 00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:46,599 and seventy pages thick. We're still the third largest Sunday newspaper in the country, 548 00:39:46,599 --> 00:39:50,079 but we don't know that. But it wasn't just the big ads. 549 00:39:50,119 --> 00:39:52,800 It was the little tiny ones. I mean the profusion of stuff either for 550 00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:59,760 scab medication or scrofula or qatar, moving on to little tiny thing for golden 551 00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:04,800 girls, milk and salt and all the rest. It was just the eye 552 00:40:05,159 --> 00:40:09,559 could could could linger on the page of an ordinary newspaper on a Tuesday afternoon 553 00:40:09,639 --> 00:40:15,800 and find a three dozen things to think about. And that was just one 554 00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:19,599 page. So we will exist after the collapse of advertising. But by the 555 00:40:19,639 --> 00:40:22,800 way, if you look back at the oldest newspapers, they have ads. 556 00:40:22,400 --> 00:40:25,679 I've looked at newspapers in the eighteenth century in England, they have ads. 557 00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:29,840 If you look at newspapers from the nineteenth century in America, the front page 558 00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:34,480 is almost all ads. And so yeah, I just didn't have a lot 559 00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:38,960 to sell. But lord, all ads, shoes, books, cheap metal 560 00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:45,519 things. GLD three, purveyor of splendid malpropisms. That was great. Reagan 561 00:40:45,599 --> 00:40:50,599 member, I should note, I says in response to my thing about being 562 00:40:50,679 --> 00:40:53,480 tiresome and depressing, he says or she there are at least five of us 563 00:40:53,599 --> 00:40:57,960 ricochets in the Alaska trip this coming summer. Can you weasel your way into 564 00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:00,800 being there? I'm working on it. I'm working on it. The only 565 00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:05,480 problem is is I am also sort of kind of sort of obliged to a 566 00:41:07,840 --> 00:41:10,320 to do a show in England. I think I'm booked at a theater. 567 00:41:10,719 --> 00:41:15,599 Another story, Stephen, See best book and movie you have read and seen 568 00:41:15,679 --> 00:41:22,039 this year? I can't think of any sold. They can't because the movies 569 00:41:22,039 --> 00:41:24,840 they come in to go and I don't think of them in terms of years. 570 00:41:24,840 --> 00:41:28,679 And it may have been that the best movie that I saw this year 571 00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:31,639 was something that was from three or four or five years ago. I mean, 572 00:41:31,679 --> 00:41:35,519 I see a lot of as impressed with Parasite, for example. Takes 573 00:41:35,559 --> 00:41:38,519 me a while to get to some things, and that's that's the problem with 574 00:41:38,559 --> 00:41:40,840 that. And likewise, I think the probably the best book that I read 575 00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:44,360 that I mean, how do you define best? Is it gonna be Thomas 576 00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:49,760 Soule's latest? It should be could be it's great. Or is it a 577 00:41:49,800 --> 00:41:53,000 novel that I reread because I'd forgotten how it went and I was at the 578 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:57,760 beach and I wanted a detective story. Or is it simply because it was 579 00:41:57,800 --> 00:42:01,440 a Roman detective story that I read at the beach earlier in Kancun that kept 580 00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:07,639 me interested, not for its vivacious pros, not for its spellbinding mystery, 581 00:42:07,039 --> 00:42:12,280 but simply because I knew the characters and liked them and wanted to spend some 582 00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:15,440 time with them in this sort of reimagined way of what we'd like to think 583 00:42:15,519 --> 00:42:20,079 Rome was. It's great. You know, Roman mysteries, there's a whole 584 00:42:20,079 --> 00:42:22,719 big genre, and they each have their own different approach to it. I'm 585 00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:25,360 kind of tired of the guys I got to go back to the well every 586 00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:29,639 single time to do the whole Caesar thing. Yeah, we know, and 587 00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:31,679 more interested in the ones that come along later. This series that I was 588 00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:37,639 reading, which is not particularly it's great literature, but it's a Marcus Aurelius 589 00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:44,320 view. It's a very very upstanding view of Rome. Kind of cool. 590 00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:49,119 Mid mitht White Male, when talking about the Vikings and the Snow and the 591 00:42:49,119 --> 00:42:52,039 rest of it, says that that working playing outside thing has worked well for 592 00:42:52,079 --> 00:42:57,480 the Packers lambeau Field thirty consecutive years of Hall of Fame quarterbacks and just three 593 00:42:57,519 --> 00:43:00,840 Super Bowl appearances. Shut up, shut up, go away. Uh. 594 00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:02,679 And then they go back and they're arguing about this, about that again, 595 00:43:04,719 --> 00:43:07,039 and then Peter Jean, Hi, Gene, how were you. Jeane, 596 00:43:07,079 --> 00:43:10,360 by the way, who has been with us for a long time, has 597 00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:16,239 been on several Ricochet cruises, and as you all know, is the well 598 00:43:17,079 --> 00:43:20,280 there's there was there was, you know, on a cruise, you'd see 599 00:43:20,360 --> 00:43:22,280 Jane, and you'd see Dave, and I missed Dave. And I used 600 00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:25,559 to work with Dave here at the paper, not at this building, back 601 00:43:25,599 --> 00:43:30,239 at the old building, back at the old building, under the old management, 602 00:43:30,280 --> 00:43:32,320 which is so stupid that they took him out of his extraordinary talents and 603 00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:36,559 put him to put him to doing some rote thing, not drawing as much 604 00:43:36,559 --> 00:43:39,079 as he could have. Just ridiculous. All you need to know really about 605 00:43:39,079 --> 00:43:43,320 management sometimes is that they would take him, you know, newspaper management, 606 00:43:43,599 --> 00:43:45,159 is that they would take him in a talent like Dave Metheni and say why 607 00:43:45,159 --> 00:43:52,000 don't you, why don't you edit the entertainment calendar fools. Anyway, Gene 608 00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:57,000 asks any chance of Lilac's Post of the Week returning. I guess so let 609 00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:00,840 the powers that be decide that. I think we still love the sounder for 610 00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:04,480 it, don't we? Yeah? I think we do? Or did I 611 00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:06,960 make that one up? Did I? It would doesn't matter if you could 612 00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:08,280 pick what time period in the US to live in, other than now, 613 00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:12,480 what era would that be? I asked, because you are such a collector, 614 00:44:12,559 --> 00:44:19,239 connoists, your commentator of Americana in architecture. I have always thought all 615 00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:22,159 my life that I would have liked to have been born in nineteen hundred and 616 00:44:23,039 --> 00:44:28,880 live eighty nine years. I think it'd be fantastic. You'd be a teenager 617 00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:31,679 during World War One, and you'd so you'd be an idiot, twelve fourteen 618 00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:36,599 year old kid who was excited about war news and following it and the rest 619 00:44:36,599 --> 00:44:38,519 of it, and it all seemed terribly modern and terribly terrifying. You'd be 620 00:44:38,519 --> 00:44:43,360 in your twenties during the twenties, which would be I mean, come on, 621 00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:47,119 just the jazz, the Charleston, the Hooch, the flasks, the 622 00:44:47,119 --> 00:44:51,840 Fitzgerald. Who wouldn't You'd be in your thirties and probably settled a bit during 623 00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:54,159 the depression, which wouldn't be that great. But you know, it's not 624 00:44:54,159 --> 00:44:57,559 like everybody went on the breadline. I mean, there was still a functioning 625 00:44:57,599 --> 00:45:00,400 economy. It was just crippled, and it was a fascinating time, time 626 00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:04,119 of rapid growing sophistication in a variety of mediums. If you look at the 627 00:45:04,119 --> 00:45:06,480 movies of the thirties compared to the twenties, you look at the ads of 628 00:45:06,519 --> 00:45:08,599 the thirties, the magazines of the rest compared to the twenties. We grew 629 00:45:08,679 --> 00:45:13,159 up fast in the thirties. To be in your forties and the forties would 630 00:45:13,159 --> 00:45:15,760 be well, you know again, following the news in your fifties and your 631 00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:17,719 fifties. That's the thing. We think of the fifties as being, you 632 00:45:17,719 --> 00:45:21,079 know again, happy days, carefree. No, no, no, it 633 00:45:21,119 --> 00:45:23,159 was a difficult time. It was neurotic, it was anxious. I mean, 634 00:45:23,239 --> 00:45:25,400 yeah, it had a lot going for it. There was much more 635 00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:30,119 cultural capital and cultural solidity. But at the same time, I mean, 636 00:45:30,159 --> 00:45:32,800 for God's sakes, imagine being somebody who had been through the depression in World 637 00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:37,920 War two looking at juvenile delinquents, looking at all these hoods and these thugs 638 00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:40,360 and saying, what is the matter with you? You know what we went 639 00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:44,719 and you're and you're acting like you know you were born in some awful, 640 00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:50,719 horrible world. Come on, sleepe up, yeah, eat nick Losers. 641 00:45:51,039 --> 00:45:53,039 And then to endure the sixties and the seventies and then finally in your eighties 642 00:45:53,039 --> 00:45:58,199 and you're waning years of your dotage. Live until the Berlin Wall came down 643 00:45:58,239 --> 00:46:01,159 and we won. There had to be somebody who was eighty nine years old 644 00:46:01,400 --> 00:46:06,840 who was watching the Berlin Wall come down and realized we won, and then 645 00:46:06,880 --> 00:46:09,480 they died. There has to be There has to be somebody who either turned 646 00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:14,320 off the television and went to bed and never woke up, or somebody who 647 00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:16,880 was in a nursing home and it was not going to go gentle into that 648 00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:21,480 dark night and held his trembling hand with the remote up at the television in 649 00:46:21,519 --> 00:46:22,719 the wall and saying, I'm not going to turn it off. I want 650 00:46:22,719 --> 00:46:27,320 to see how this comes up. They're tearing down the Berlin Wall. We 651 00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:30,880 won. Good, I can go It happened to somebody. It's a nice 652 00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:34,639 note to go out, and it's a good note to go out on. 653 00:46:34,920 --> 00:46:38,119 Here too. Thank everybody for listening to this, and remember that you never 654 00:46:38,159 --> 00:46:43,360 see what's coming when it comes. All the things we're worried about today are 655 00:46:43,880 --> 00:46:46,280 things that we probably won't be worried about next year. There will be something 656 00:46:46,280 --> 00:46:54,719 else, and to gird yourself for it, and remember that some days bad 657 00:46:54,719 --> 00:47:00,960 things happened. To state the obvious and the banal. But then the arc 658 00:47:00,039 --> 00:47:02,920 of history, which is a term that I hate because it doesn't exist, 659 00:47:04,519 --> 00:47:08,480 moves in such a way that you were watching the wall come down, and 660 00:47:08,559 --> 00:47:13,320 in our lifetimes we will see the equivalent of that in some other sense. 661 00:47:13,719 --> 00:47:15,360 We can't see it coming now, just any more than we could see it 662 00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:20,360 coming in nineteen eighty four or eighty two or seventy nine. But good things 663 00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:23,639 will happen because we're America, because we are optimistic, because we are still 664 00:47:23,679 --> 00:47:30,599 free, and because we are the last best hope of Western civilization. And 665 00:47:30,679 --> 00:47:34,360 on that cheerful note which I entirely mean, I thank you for listening. 666 00:47:34,400 --> 00:47:37,880 I'm James Lennox. We'll be back next week with Robin Long, probably with 667 00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:43,119 rob and Long and Peter and Robinson to join the Ricochet Podcast, And as 668 00:47:43,159 --> 00:47:45,719 ever, I'll see you in the comments, not at Ricochet five point zero 669 00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:52,039 because it's common, But some point this year we'll see you in the comments 670 00:47:52,159 --> 00:48:28,920 at Ricochet five point oho, but for now, happy New Year. Ricochet 671 00:48:30,679 --> 00:48:30,639 joined the conversation