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- [00:00]
Underdog Fantasy Announcer
Football's biggest game is coming up, and you can get in on all the action with Underdog. And if you're not on Underdog yet, you're in luck because new customers score $75 in fantasy bonus entries. When you make your first $5 fantasy entry, playing underdog is easy. You just go to the app, make picks on if a player will go higher or lower on stats like touchdowns, rushing yards, receptions and more. You get them right, you can win yourself up to 5,000 times your cash. I think this week on Underdog, I'm going to look for Sam Darnle to go higher on yards for it, maybe even go higher on touchdown passes, too. What are you waiting for? Download the app today and use Promo code garage to score $75 in fantasy bonus entries. When you play your first $5 on fantasy, that's promo code garage underdog make.
- [00:48]
Underdog Fantasy Legal Disclaimer
Picks win money must be 18 plus, 19 plus in Alabama, Nebraska, 19 plus in Colorado for some games, 21 plus in Arizona, Massachusetts and Virginia and present in a state where Underdog Fantasy operates. 20 terms apply. See assets.underdogfantasy.com web playandgetterms dfs HTML for details. Offer not valid in Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Concerned with your play? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org in New York, call the 24.7Hope Line at 1-877-8-HOPENY or text hopeny 467-369.
- [01:22]
Tommy Mischke
Join me, John Randall, at the North American Banking Company Minnesota Golf Show, February 13th through the 15th. It's your chance to try out the newest clubs and equipment from the biggest names in golf. Improve your game with free lessons and clinics from PGA pros. And when you're done, relax at the 19th Hole Lounge with your favorite post round beverage.
- [01:42]
Josh Arnold / MSP Plumbing Heating Air Announcer
The $100,000 putt is presented by MSP Plumbing Heating Air. Committed to your comfort since 1918, the 2026 Minnesota Golf show is swinging into the Minneapolis Convention Center February 13th through 15th, and we want your business on the green. With thousands of passionate golfers roaming the this is your chance to get your brand in front of this quality demographic with a vendor booth or larger sponsorship. And this year's ambassador, NFL hall of Famer and Viking legend John Randall. So yeah, it's kind of a big deal. Want in? Don't wait for your invitation to land in the fairway. Call Bernie Lauer at 651-632-6646 or email blaurpi.com before the best spots are gone.
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Tommy Mischke (Host)
And topping the news today. Two murders and a robbery in less than 24 hours. The law enforcement sting operation went horribly wrong. One of the suspects is a white female in her early 20s. I was taking a look at all the headlines from around the world. I got up today and just looked at, well, well, the whole wide world. I looked at the headlines from all over and boy, there's a lot of rough stuff going on all over the globe. Country after country with struggle after struggle. People really having a hard time out there. A lot of the news was horribly unpleasant. It was a rough, rough stretch with my coffee today. Looking at it all, I just kept going, well, let's try this country, let's try that country. I mean, I was moving around the globe and headline after headline, one worse than the next until I got to this one, which turned my frown upside down. Ready for it. A good cashmere sweater can elevate any winter outfit that was buried in the mix. I am so glad I stumbled upon it, though, because there was a shift right there. I think it was right after reading some nasty stuff that was going on in France and just a brutal story out of Nigeria and then this one, God awful crime in Sydney, Australia. Anyway, somewhere in there, all of a sudden. Hold it. A good cashmere sweater can elevate any winter outfit. It was in the New York Times. Any winter outfit. Found myself thinking about ways I could brighten your day, lift you in some way. Are we able to look on the bright side? What's the diagnosis, sweetheart? What? Stage four, they're calling it. It's in the liver. Well, a good cashmere sweater can elevate any winter outfit you have. It worked, honey. It elevates almost every winter outfit I have. Even my janitorial coveralls. Why, it sure does, sweetheart. I lost my family in a house fire, but a friend gave me a beautiful cashmere sweater. And I'm not embarrassed to say I danced merrily for 20 minutes. I lost my family in a fire. But my friend, he gave to me a cashmere sweater and I danced merrily. I no longer have a family, so this might sound crude, but a brand new cashmere sweater sure can lighten up my mood. There's no tragedy in life that looking good can't fix. Life will throw you hard balls. You gotta know a few tricks when you're lost and despondent, filled with rage and fear. Put on a cashmere sweater and just look in the mirror. You will hardly notice the world's falling apart. Put on a cashmere sweater and make a brand new Start. We're going down the tube, folks. Oh, God, we surely are. So might as well go down looking like a superstar. Let the world go to hell. If you want to feel better, turn your back on it all and buy a cashmere sweater. Then right after that headline, it was back to China's Trade surplus climbs past 1 trillion. Battlefield picture Worsening for the Ukraine. Taiwan Vows to Defend Sovereignty After China's Military drills. I went right back to that cashmere sweater headline. When I was a little kid, there was a commercial, and it's still in my head, and I have no idea why, because I believe it was a commercial directed at women. I don't even remember what the ad was for, but it almost sounds like it was for something like a cashmere sweater. The ad opened up, we're talking the mid-70s, and this damn ad is still in my head. When you look your best, your world is suddenly a better place. You know that? It's true. That's still in my head after half a century. I think it was for women's clothing. I think what struck me about it was, well, just that philosophical notion that when you look your best, your world is suddenly, suddenly a better place. You dress a certain way and the world. The world gets better. And then they added that you know that it's true. Like, don't even try to deny it. Come on. The only point of reference I had was when I'd get a new pair of tennis shoes. I remember walking out of the shoe store with my mom and running across the parking lot in my new tennis. And hell, yeah, the world was looking better. It's funny, those things that make the world look better. The world as opposed to just your day or your own personal sense of yourself. When I was a kid, I remember learning how to spell the word. Time. Somebody taught me it, I think my dad or mom. And I realized that T I, M E spelled a word, and that if someone had asked me how to spell that word, I could have told him. And I don't mind saying that not only did the world look better, but I certainly was a more interesting person at that moment. I thought. And I did something. I did something for the rest of the evening. The rest of the evening. God, I must have been hurting for friends or hobbies. I just ran through the house spelling that word for about two and a half hours. We had the ability in our house to run in a circle around the whole house because what normally would have been a dead end. When you got to the bathroom, there was a second door. To that bathroom. Which would allow you to exit and get to the kitchen and then back. Dining room, living room, den, bathroom, kitchen, dining room, living room, den, bathroom, kitchen, dining room, living room, den, bathroom, kitchen. And I just kept circling, spelling the word time. Now I'm sure there were seven other kids do another bizarre. Other bizarre things. And frankly, I don't know why my parents weren't going mad. I'm sure other things that were going on included my oldest brother in the basement playing a full trap set, a full drum trap set as loud as he could. My mentally challenged sister chasing either my brother or sister around, wanting to scratch them and pull their hair. That was a daily experience. Another brother banging on one of the two acoustic pianos we had in the house. My younger brother sending GI Joe equipment down the chute into the basement. For no reason other than to give GI Joe and all his equipment to ride. Mom's trying to cook for 10. Dad's pouring himself a Tom Collins and getting the hell out of there. And no one is telling me to shut the hell up. Two hours of running around. Two hours of running around the house spelling time just because I can. Now, maybe mom could handle it that day. Cause dad had brought home a cashmere sweater. Here, honey, try this on. See if it doesn't make you want to pour a drink. And forget about the fact that we ever had kids. Remember when we were first married, honey? Remember how fun that was? We were so in love. We had nothing but time. Oh, boy. Remember how I said to you, I don't know for sure if I want to have kids? And you said, well, neither do I, but we're Catholic. And I said, oh, yeah, that's right. We're gonna have a boatload of kids, aren't we? Holy smokes. I don't got the money for that. You're not gonna be working, are you? Nope. All right. Well, I'm gonna pour another drink. When you look your best. Your world is suddenly a better place. You know that it's true. Then my sister put Carole King on the record player. And Carole King said, you gotta get up every morning with a smile on your face. And show the world all the love in your heart. Because then people are gonna treat you better. You're gonna find. Yes, you will. That you're as beautiful as you feel. But, Carol, even if you're as beautiful as you feel. You could still feel better with a cashmere sweater. Why don't you write that song? You can still feel better trying on a cashmere sweater. Have you ever stopped to think about what an unfortunate name that is for a piece of clothing, a sweater. When I was growing up, there was always this heavy set guy in class who was a sweater. He was always sweating. No matter what. He couldn't not sweat. You'd look over at him and he'd be perspiring. Winter, summer, it didn't matter. I never knew what was going on. There was just breathing for him, an effort. Always had beads of sweat. Why did they name that piece of clothing a sweater? Well, it says right here a sweater is called a sweater because they were originally intended to induce sweat. People wore those items so they could sweat and lose weight. The term originates in the 1880s Sweater from the verb to sweat, referring to knitted garments worn to induce sweating and reduce weight. Now in the uk, United Kingdom, they don't call it a sweater, they call it a jumper. Another unfortunate term. I think jumper. I think someone committing suicide. I think a guy on a high rise, on the ledge, we got a jumper. What's he wearing? Get that guy a cashmere sweater. When you look your best, your world is suddenly a better place. You know that it's true. Have you had some reckless, careless SOB ruin your day? Somebody who was a bit callous in their approach to living and it resulted in a personal injury, One that has angered you because you were doing nothing wrong. Your day was going swimmingly until this. Yay, who screwed up. And now you have medical bills before you think about getting even by playing ding dong ditch and then having a little paper bag on fire with doggy poop in it. That's how we used to get even with people when I was growing up. Anyhoo, before you go down that road, you go to Minnesota Personal Injury.com and you find out how you reach Brad Shaw and Bryant and you tell them about your case over the phone and they'll say to you, darn right you have a case there, Mr. Flackenpuss or Mrs. Sophenhopper. And we're gonna take that case and we're gonna get you the compensation to make you whole again, to balance the scales of justice. Because we had Bradshawn Bryant seek justice for the injured. And we get it. All right now this is going to be Greek or Swahili to some of you. But you folks in the pressure washing world, you people who have businesses that need and utilize industrial pressure washers, you'll understand this language. I want to know if you have a pressure washer in your shop that takes diesel fuel or that takes kerosene. You tired of filling that tank every day. A stationary pressure washer that heats the water with natural gas or with electricity from American Pressure is your solution. Call American Pressure. Find out all the ways a new stationary machine could benefit your business. And understand this American Pressure will always happily come out to your business and look at your whole setup and they'll make recommendations. It doesn't cost you anything. You should take advantage of the knowledge of the people at American Pressure. They can change things so dramatically for the better. At your work site, you won't know until you talk to them. Take the time to do it. You won't be sorry. American Pressure of Robbinsdale. Let's continue with the odd headlines, shall we? Ran into this one today. Ditch the flowers. Get her something practical. This Valentine's Day. Ditch the flowers. CNN suggests you ditch the flowers. Go with something practical. One of the things they think is practical. The crochet your own emotional support desk plant. Crochet your own emotional support desk plant. You know, we've moved in so many different areas with the emotional support stuff. During my WCCO stint, a woman called regularly who had emotional support rabbits. And of course, originally it was the emotional support dogs. Here it says you can crochet your own emotional support desk plant. Are we moving to where everything could offer emotional support? Isn't this right here my emotional support coffee? I think it is. And when I go to sleep at night, that's my emotional support pillow. My wife is my emotional support spouse. And I like my car a lot, so it's kind of my emotional support ride. Cashmere sweaters sound like emotional support creatures. They'll elevate any winter outfit. When you look your best, your world is suddenly a better place. Yeah, ditch the flowers. Get her one of those. Do it yourself. Crochet your own emotional support desk plant. Here's another gift they recommend. It's a special kind of phone charger. Do you know what Valentine's Day is? I mean, participate in it or not, I don't care. But once you do participate, if you feel a gift is in order. Where's the wall charger coming from? Valentine's Day is a day where what's being celebrated is love. One could argue there shouldn't be any gifts. You could argue that other than the gift of love. But maybe there are gifts that are symbolic of love. And maybe flowers have been that for a long time. And I get that. But maybe wall chargers are now or desktop emotional support plants. I'm still thinking flowers should be there. And I'll tell you why it's not just the old fashioned thing either. Flowers should never get old. It should never become a situation where, ah, just flowers. Flowers are extraordinary. I mean, where. Where the hell would we be on this planet without flowers? Again, participate in the whole Valentine's thing or don't. It's not a crime either way. But if you participate, if you choose to make Valentine's Day something different from other days, if you buy into a day celebrating love, please dispense with a notion that one ought to buy a wall charger as a means of showing love. I know there are different. What do they call them? Love languages. But let's face it, some languages of love come across as well. Pig Latin or worse. Gobbledygook. Honey, I got your wall charger. It's a unique one. I saw it on Amazon. Thought I'd go practical instead of. Instead of getting you the flowers. It's my love language, honey. Gobbledygook. Gobbledygook. Honey, I changed the roll of toilet paper in the bathroom and I made it so it unwinds the way you like it from underneath instead of over the top, the way I prefer it. Happy Valentine's Day. That's my love language. Gobbledygook. Gobbledygook. I'm not sure what could be a more depressing headline and one more indicative of our times than ditch the roses, trash the roses, dump the roses, chuck the roses, go with practical gifts, you can do that six weeks from now on a Tuesday when you're at the hardware store. This is Valentine's Day Again. Participate or not, it's up to you. But if you participate, don't look at Fleet Farm or Menards with little hearts in your eyes, saying, this will show her I'm passionately in love with her. Here's another gift they recommend. This is a particular kind of kitchen scissors that's quite impressive. Apparently they have a plastic handle. Based on what I can see here, they'll cut open a bag of frozen peas if she wants to do that. Kind of neat. So on Valentine's Day, you could get her this special pair of kitchen scissors. I would expect to hear within 30, 40 seconds, Paul, I want a divorce. I wonder how many gifts on Valentine's Day have been followed with, paul, I want a divorce. Flowers are alive, like you and I are alive. Okay? They're impossibly graceful and elegant in their beauty and their majesty and their presentation. They decorate the earth with color, with design, with these ineffable qualities that few are really able to articulate. How can you really talk about flowers in a way that really gets at what flowers are, what they bring to this world? Honey, I was gonna get your flowers, and then I looked at them and I said, these things don't do squat. I'm getting a wall charger. Paul, I want a divorce. If you do give roses at Valentine's Day, I think you should hand them to her with some information. I think you should say, in case she doesn't know, darling. It is said that roses first grew from the tears of Aphrodite, tears that were mixing with the blood of her dying lover. That's where we get roses, sweetheart. They were born out of tears. They grew out of the tears of deep love. Whereas this wall charger was made in a Chinese sweatshop. The rose, sweetheart, is one of the oldest flowers on Earth. It is 35 million years old. At least 35 million years ago, you could have found a rose growing on this planet. It would have looked just like this. And then you say to your girl, you ever look at the letters in the name Rose? Take the E at the end of the word and place it at the front, and you have the name of the Greek God of love, Eros, son of Aphrodite. In a world filled with chaos and uncertainty, flowers offer a timeless reminder of life's beauty, a reminder of life's resilience and its wonder. Forget the cashmere sweater. Flowers have their remarkable ability to uplift our spirits, to soothe our souls, to remind us of the beauty that's still around us in all this chaos and madness. Flowers are ambassadors of the natural world, nature's masterpiece. Each one a work of art, crafted with precision, with care. Flowers remind us to stay present in the moment. And as we become aware of the moment and the moment alone, we find the doorway. A sense of peace and joy and fulfillment. In a world of hustle and bustle. Flowers offer a little respite, calmness, inviting us to pause, to appreciate, to reconnect with beauty. Why would you get a wall charger? How was that pair of kitchen scissors gonna compete with flowers? Emotional support plant. Can't the flowers be the emotional support plant? I also read today that Valentine's Day is going to test Victoria's Secret's new strategy. Victoria's Secret apparently dropped the ball last Valentine's Day in their marketing, in their products. Sales were way down. People must have been buying wall chargers. Anyway, this year, Victoria's Secret's trying something new. I believe it's Carhartt lingerie. Available at Fleet Farm for The gal who likes to look good in bed but still wants to get up early and clean the garage. Carhartt lingerie from Victoria's Secret. Available at Fleet. Do you really have such a handle on your money? Such a handle on all things associated with retirement savings, such a handle on your IRA and 401k that you need no free advice at all? No insight? None. I don't believe you. You're not as smart as you think, camper. Danny and I've been offering you a free consultation with Josh Arnold over the phone. 48 minutes. One heck of a lot of minutes to about your financial picture as you near retirement in the not too distant future. By gum and by golly, don't be cocky. Call Josh for free. 48 minutes on the phone to talk to him about your situation. Afterward, you hang up and you never call him again if you don't want to. If he didn't impress you, he didn't impress you. If he can't do anything for you, he can't do anything for you. But what if he can? You could be finding out for nothing. 952-925-5608.
- [27:01]
Josh Arnold / MSP Plumbing Heating Air Announcer
Investment services offered by Josh Arnold Investment Consultant, LLC. A security and investment advisor. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All investments involve risk. Tommy Mischke is a paid endorser over.
- [27:13]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
At Minneapolis St. Paul Plumbing, heating and Air. It is Free Brewery. That's right. Free Brewery. Free Brewery is when they give away a furnace. They give you a furnace. You ever had one handed to you? How are you going to win a free furnace? Here's how you're going to do it. You're going to get a little tune up on your current furnace. It's only 49 bucks and the furnace needs it anyway. You didn't get a tune up this winter, did you? And it needs one. For 49 lousy bucks to get a tune up. You need anyway, you will enter this contest and thus have a chance to win a brand new furnace. When was the last time you even heard of anybody giving away a furnace? Whoever does that. Minneapolis St. Paul plumbing, heating and Air. Does that take advantage of free brewery? Spend 49 bucks in February and you will earn a chance to win a free furnace. Wait till March. Too late. Well, I think it's time to go to the listener list and see who we can call. It's always good to talk to people.
- [28:48]
Julie (Caller)
Hello?
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Tommy Mischke (Host)
Well, hello, Julie.
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Julie (Caller)
Hey.
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Josh Arnold / MSP Plumbing Heating Air Announcer
Hi.
- [28:53]
Julie (Caller)
It's about time we connect.
- [28:55]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
It has been a long time. How many months have you been on the Old Callers list.
- [29:02]
Julie (Caller)
I have been on the callers list since day one, since you started your show.
- [29:08]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I think you've been on there 11 months.
- [29:11]
Julie (Caller)
I think I've missed you three or four times.
- [29:13]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Yeah. What am I catching you doing?
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Julie (Caller)
Working.
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Tommy Mischke (Host)
What kind of a job?
- [29:18]
Julie (Caller)
I am a traffic coordinator.
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Tommy Mischke (Host)
A traffic coordinator in radio?
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Julie (Caller)
Well, no, I'm in TV now.
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Tommy Mischke (Host)
Misky, you got a job in television?
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Julie (Caller)
Yeah.
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Tommy Mischke (Host)
And for those who don't know traffic involves coordinating commercials.
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Julie (Caller)
Yes. Thank you. Because when I tell people that I work in traffic, the first thing they think of is, oh, so you get to go up into the helicopters and tell everybody what's going on with traffic. That's not what it is.
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Tommy Mischke (Host)
Do you like this job of yours?
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Julie (Caller)
I love this job of mine, especially because I went to work for another company and it was a great job. But because of budget cuts, they eliminated my job. So for like three, three years I was in the medical field. Worked at health partners for a while and I was miserable. And one day my husband was reading something and he said, julie, they're looking for a traffic person at Fox 9. And so about three weeks later, I was working in TV.
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Tommy Mischke (Host)
It's interesting. You've been miserable in a job. You've already used the word miserable. So you've experienced misery and now you're in a job that you absolutely love. I mean, that's quite a chasm. Those are two very different lives right there.
- [30:57]
Julie (Caller)
That's true. That's really true. Because I was just kind of lost. I just thought this is just not for me. And I. And I still pinch myself because I just think. I went to broadcasting school. My husband and I met in Austin, Minnesota. The radio, TV broadcasting program down there that doesn't even exist anymore. So we've both been in broadcasting for going on 40 plus years. So I got a lot out of that little degree. I'm doing something that I love and I'm learning something every day. You know, radio and TV pretty much are the same what my job is, but I'm doing so much more than just placing commercials on a log. You know, digital is a big thing now. And becoming a sponge, Mishke, absorbing so much, especially at my age.
- [31:52]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Do you know that the majority of Americans hate their jobs? In surveys, the majority of Americans hate their jobs. And in some surveys, the stat indicates upwards of 80% of Americans hate their jobs. What a sad, sad state of affairs that is. So much of your life you're spending in misery. You're sleeping eight of those hours, eight of them. You're working a job you hate, and then you die. Then it's over.
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Julie (Caller)
And I know people that say, oh, my gosh, I hate my job. I get up in the morning and I just have a pit in my stomach thinking about having to go to work. I worked a job where this woman, she was miserable all the time, and she just seemed to bring everyone else down. It was like she wanted her misery to be our misery. And I have known people that have just stressed out about their job so much that has not been good for their health. I pretty much work all day long at home by myself. Not a lot of communication, except maybe a phone call and email back and forth with my boss and a few others. And my husband works outside of the home, so I'm home here a lot by myself, and I kind of enjoy it. I'm by myself, and I like it. My husband and I were married for nine years, divorced for three, and got remarried again.
- [33:29]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I know a guy who married, got divorced, remarried that same woman, got divorced again, and remarried her a third time.
- [33:39]
Julie (Caller)
I don't know the third time. That would be kind of scary to think, you know, we've already done it twice, and we're going to go for it the third time. When I was divorced for those three years, people were saying to me, you know, why don't you do a matchmaking thing? I didn't do it because I was still very much in love with my husband.
- [34:04]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
For three solid years after your divorce, you were still in love with your husband. That must have been odd because you're divorced. You must be saying to yourself, well, this is going to be a rough life. I'm going to be in love with a man who I'm never going to see again.
- [34:20]
Julie (Caller)
I didn't want anything to do with the divorce. It just wasn't really my idea. So, I mean, I really wanted to work on it. We both had a son together, so that was another reason why we continued to, you know, see each other and have that connection. But it was really hard because I was still very much in love with him. But the person that I saw, it just was like, all right, that's not the person that I fell in love with. I don't really know what's going on. And he was just going through a lot of personal things and felt like, well, I think I'd pretty much destroyed this relationship in this marriage, and so I need to move on. And he went through a lot of struggles and figured some things out for himself with his own personal demons. And we found our way back to each other, but it was very, very hard. I think about the time we started to see each other, date, kind of rekindle things. I had kind of come to the realization that, Julie, I think you've pretty much done everything to prove to this person how you feel that you love them and you can't do anymore. It's kind of out of your hands. It was really, really hard to think that you were going to have to move on and think about dating someone who you think, well, they don't have the sense of humor that my husband has. They don't. It was hard to think about having to move on. I was like, oh, man, I don't want to go through the hassle. And just a lot of that stuff that you deal with when you first meet people in dating.
- [36:07]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Did he come to you after two and a half years, three years, and say, I figured some things out. I want to give it another go? Yeah.
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Julie (Caller)
He came to me at a point where I knew that he was going through therapy, and I knew that he was doing something about it. And we got to do a lot of talking, and we talked about it, and it was pretty much, what do you think? Should we do it? So we got married by a justice of the peace at a little small farm outside of Stillwater. It was just he and I and a judge and the caretaker as a witness, and my son. And we got married again. And it was the best thing we ever did because he changed in so many ways. But I changed in so many ways, and I realized to then that I can be on my own. I'm okay. And. And at the time when we had gotten divorced, it was a matter of, wow, you know, I really depended on him to do a lot of things for me. And I. I didn't know how I was going to survive the divorce. It was the hardest thing in my life ever. Funny that you can look back and you could think that three of the worst years of your life are something that you learn from. And they ended up to be something that you had to go through. We had to go through that time to get to where we are now.
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Tommy Mischke (Host)
So I wonder what it felt like for your son. He goes through the divorce of his parents and then the remarrying of his parents. That must be very strange for a kid to go through.
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Julie (Caller)
I think it was. It had been really hard for me to go and drop him off at his dad's house or for his dad to come to the house and pick him up. And it was so hard that I started to drop him off at a children's, like a daycare because I just couldn't see him. And my husband at the time was also seeing someone else. And so my son would come home and he'd be like, well, dad was with so and so. And we went here, and then he dropped me off at this other person's house while he went out. I just thought, what are we doing? But then later, you know, he got to a certain age and he started to ask us more about why we got divorced and what was all involved. And that was. That was a good conversation. It's a rare thing. I mean, it happens more and more people that I talk to. After my husband and I got back together, I realized there are a lot of people that have married, divorced, and remarried.
- [38:59]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I read a survey one time that 75% of divorced men said years afterwards they would remarry their first wife.
- [39:11]
Julie (Caller)
Yeah.
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Tommy Mischke (Host)
So what's going on there? My sense is the reason for the divorce turned out not to have anything to do with her. They figured that out, but too late.
- [39:23]
Julie (Caller)
There you go. And my husband will tell me now that one of the things that drew him into therapy and back towards reconciliation with me was this person that he had been with really kind of turned around and turned the screws on him. She wanted to become the new mom to our son and wanted him to basically kick me to the curb. She was pretty demanding in that aspect. And my husband was like, well, she is the mother of my child. You're never going to be his mom. He just thought that he had just ruined something that we could never get back to. He didn't know how to go back and fix it.
- [40:17]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
That's a fascinating story. I'm going to let you go. I'm glad you've been able to spend this much time.
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Julie (Caller)
I saw the phone number. I said, it's Mischie. I gotta answer. I gotta get him this time.
- [40:30]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I'm so glad you did. It was a delightful conversation. Thank you. I hope to talk to you again somewhere down the line.
- [40:36]
Julie (Caller)
Thank you, Tommy, so much. Take care of yourself.
- [40:39]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
You as well. Bye. Bye. Now, Often when I'm doing ads for people like Fury Motors, I think about all the years I've been with them, how long I've known Tommy and Jimmy Leonard, the current owners of Fury Motors, How I knew their dad, Red Leonard. How I wish I knew their grandpa who was selling cars on Concord street in South St. Paul way back in the 20s. And what I think about is all I have to do is get one of you listeners to walk in their doors, to walk in and look at their showroom, whether it's in Waconia with their Ford dealership, whether it's in Forest Lake with their Buick and GMC dealership, or whether it's South St. Paul and Stillwater with the Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep operations. If you walk in the door, my job's done. You'll see the difference. You'll feel the difference. You'll sense why this place is special. They have every used car you can imagine in all makes and models. So whatever car you're looking for, they have. But again, my job is not to sell you the car. It's to sell you on the Leonards and the Fury way of doing business. And I want you to just feel it when you walk in there. Everything else will take care of itself. The Wellshire. You really don't place your loved one needing memory care until you see it. If that truly happens with everybody looking for memory care, they don't need me because the place would sell itself. I think the feeling at the Wellshire is you won't check it out because it's in Bloomington and Medina and you want to have a place real close to you to place your loved one so that you can visit often. I'm telling you, that's the wrong priority. The top priority should be how is that loved one of yours taken care of? All of those hours that you're not there, the vast, vast majority of those hours, you're nowhere to be found. Think about how they will live in those hours, not how it will be easy for you to visit. When people see the well shire, there really is no longer any question of where their loved one needs to be if they need memory care. Please tour the Wellshire of Medina and Bloomington before you make your decision. Tom. It's Tom.
- [43:26]
Tommy Mischke
Oh, man.
- [43:26]
Julie (Caller)
Mishke.
- [43:27]
Tommy Mischke
What's up?
- [43:28]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
You tell me.
- [43:31]
Tommy Mischke
I'm just working on some websites.
- [43:33]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Working on some websites? Multiple websites.
- [43:37]
Tommy Mischke
Multiple websites.
- [43:38]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I've never done anything like that in my life. How many you got going there?
- [43:42]
Tommy Mischke
We got about eight now.
- [43:44]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
You're working on eight websites? Yeah.
- [43:47]
Julie (Caller)
So we got like a.
- [43:48]
Tommy Mischke
Like one main website, kind of deploys.
- [43:50]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
To eight different ones, but what do you call yourself?
- [43:54]
Tommy Mischke
A web developer.
- [43:55]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
A web developer? You and spiders. So you're sitting working on websites right now and someone's going to give you some money for that? A lot of money.
- [44:05]
Tommy Mischke
I do okay, I think. Yeah.
- [44:07]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
You know, when guys say they do okay, they do better than okay, I think.
- [44:12]
Tommy Mischke
You're supposed to say that in the Midwest.
- [44:14]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
You're supposed to say that out in New York. You're free to say, I'm rolling in it, brother. What else goes on in your life? I mean, work, work, Work makes Tom a dull boy.
- [44:28]
Tommy Mischke
I just hang out with my wife and our pets and just try and read. Try and stay off the Internet after work.
- [44:35]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
That's a fascinating thing you just said there. I just want to hang out with my wife and our pets and read. Yeah, that actually sounds like a pretty good life. I mean, it's not bad. Somebody once said the problem with most people in terms of finding happiness is not that they don't get what they want. They need to ask for less. You're asking for very little there.
- [45:01]
Tommy Mischke
Not much.
- [45:01]
Julie (Caller)
I'm pretty.
- [45:02]
Tommy Mischke
Hopefully, I'm pretty happy. Go, lucky guy.
- [45:05]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Your pet doesn't get hit by a car, your wife doesn't divorce you, and you keep your library card. You're good.
- [45:11]
Tommy Mischke
That's a pretty good life for me. If that's all I got to worry about.
- [45:14]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Can I pass along a little bit of advice for Valentine's Day this year?
- [45:18]
Tommy Mischke
Yeah, of course.
- [45:19]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Ditch the flowers and get her a phone charger.
- [45:22]
Tommy Mischke
Think that'll go over well?
- [45:24]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I don't know. I read there's a trend out there to ditch the flowers and go with more practical gifts. Like perhaps an emotional support desk plant or a nice sharp kitchen scissors for.
- [45:38]
Tommy Mischke
You know what? That's a great idea.
- [45:39]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
No, it's not. That's a terrible idea. I want you to get her flowers.
- [45:44]
Tommy Mischke
The kitchen scissors isn't a bad idea. We just had some of our kitchen stuff rust up.
- [45:49]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Kitchen scissors is fine for a Tuesday in March, not for Valentine's Day. You could give her a scissors that's designed to cut your clothes off in bed. This is a holiday about romance, right?
- [46:02]
Tommy Mischke
Yeah.
- [46:03]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
What do you like to read?
- [46:05]
Tommy Mischke
You know, it's funny. I actually just finished your book. I absolutely loved it. If I'm gonna sell it, like, I think folks, when you pick it up, you gotta, like, read one or two chapters a day and then just kind of sit with them. Like, I was trying to read it all in one go, and I was like, this just isn't working. Like, I didn't feel like it was meant to be read that way. Like, I felt it was meant to, like, take in and ingest and just think about. And so that's what I did with it. I loved it. I absolutely loved it.
- [46:34]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I never thought about what you're saying, but what you're saying makes sense. It obviously is not a huge book, but it has a lot of chapters. And when you have a lot of chapters, I can imagine that early ones would get lost by the time you're into the later chapters. And they're about very different things. I can see that. A guy called me when the book came out and said, mishke, it's the first book I've ever sat and read cover to cover in one sitting. And at the time I actually thought, well, that's great that people can do that. That's wonderful. But now I'm listening to you talk and I feel like I should say, don't do that.
- [47:10]
Tommy Mischke
I mean, everyone has their own kind of reading style. But like, I. Stuff that stuck with me is like the one the story with, I think his name was Ambrose. The guy who was skating on the rink.
- [47:19]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Yeah.
- [47:20]
Tommy Mischke
And was just having a great time. And then there's just so much stuff kind of going on in the background while you're enjoying the story about this guy skating. And it's just like, whoa, like this. When it all finished, man, that just. I had to sit there. Just think about this. I reread it like three or four times. This is awesome. I enjoyed it. But it was like, kind of creepy in a way too, if that makes sense. Like, and sad.
- [47:42]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Well, it was a little dark. A little dark. That particular story, short story, came about because I am someone who likes to skate real late at night. I like to find a rink at about three in the morning and just go there alone and skate. And that's where the idea for that came from. It started out where I was just writing about that and then this other stuff came to me and pretty soon there was a whole story, and then.
- [48:12]
Tommy Mischke
The snowman one too, where he's talking to the therapist. I love that one too.
- [48:16]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
The snowman is just this simple little thing that kids make and sits out in the yard. But there is also this thing that just oversees the neighborhood day after day, week after week, all winter long. And what it's like for that snowman were it to be somewhat animated, given some life. And I found myself picturing it needing a therapist, which so many of us do now that we don't have the shamans to go to or the village elders. Anyway, I appreciate the kind words on the book. How long have you two been married?
- [48:50]
Tommy Mischke
15 or 16 years now.
- [48:52]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
15 or 16 years. And you guys have decided not to have children?
- [48:57]
Tommy Mischke
How did you know that?
- [48:58]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Because after 15 or 16 years and Mishke's psychic here. Well, not to mention your emphasis on pets.
- [49:06]
Tommy Mischke
Yeah, yeah, that's true. That's true. You're right. Yeah. No, we decided not to have kids.
- [49:11]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
When did you make that decision? Right before or right after you got married?
- [49:16]
Tommy Mischke
I think right after. Because it almost seems like you kind of have, like, a script in a way where it's like, oh, we got to move in together. Oh, we got to get married. Oh, we got to buy a house. And I think when we got the house, we're just like, we're good with pets. Like, we don't. We don't want to have kids.
- [49:29]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I find that that is becoming more and more popular. Far more young people don't feel the need or desire to have children.
- [49:39]
Tommy Mischke
I have no interest in them. I have nieces who are awesome. But, like, I'm good. Like, it's cool hanging out with them for an hour or two and. But, yeah, yeah, that's good.
- [49:47]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
So what do you. What do you think it is? Why do you think people want to have kids? There must be evolutionarily some impulse in people to have children, because otherwise we'd all die out. So you don't have that?
- [50:02]
Tommy Mischke
No. And I don't. You know, I don't know what the drought is or what why people do and don't. I remember I read, like, in Tuesdays with Maury.
- [50:10]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Do you remember that book, Tuesdays with Maury? Mitch Albom.
- [50:14]
Tommy Mischke
That's right. Yeah. I remember him talking to Maury about having kids. And he never gave advice either way, if you should or shouldn't. He just said, there's nothing like it on earth. That kind of stuck with me is like, he never said, you need to have them or you don't need to have him. He's just said, there's nothing like it.
- [50:29]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I don't fail to understand why people wouldn't want kids. There's a certain freedom that you're giving yourself there. If you have this wonderful relationship with your wife and you just are into each other every day and just loving all the time together and can't get enough of each other, the kids will get in the way of some of that. So I don't sit around going, why wouldn't someone want to have kids?
- [50:55]
Tommy Mischke
Yeah.
- [50:56]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I personally would consider this existence for me wasted had I not had children. I'm on the other extreme. Keith Richards said, when the kids came along, suddenly I understood the meaning of life. I'm kind of in that camp. It was necessary to complete some understanding of what this whole existence is. But I have plenty of relatives who are Catholic priests. I think they might have secretly got married. I don't know. I learned over the years that some of these priests have secret deals going on. I talked to a priest regularly on the show when I was at KSTP who got himself a gal on the side. And he said the Vatican was cool with it. If you weren't a parish priest and you kept it on the down low. He told me, in Canada, it's far more prevalent. Meanwhile, I knew another priest in my St. Paul neighborhood. He wasn't married, but he kind of had a quasi girlfriend. They went everywhere together, they took trips together, they did everything. But they were quote, unquote friends. And I don't doubt that they were just friends, but very intimate friends. I mean, very close. The woman had gotten divorced and she and the priest were really tight, and it made him a very happy man. Amon senior pulled me aside one time and said, you know where the Vatican screwed up? Misko. And he called me Mischko. He said they screwed up by taking away intimacy, not by taking away sex. There are plenty of priests who could get by without sex. But when you take human intimacy away, what he meant was the priest alone in the parish rectory should be able at 9 o' clock at night to invite a gal over. No sex, but just intimate conversation, maybe a drink together, men and women hanging out. They took that away from priests, he said, and that was the true crime, human intimacy. They left them, what, having to talk to their maid again? The priests in my extended family would want to keep the maid around a little longer at the rectory, just have a woman around to talk to. Imagine a lifetime of talking to guys. You know, the safest thing for those guys was to be seen with men. The parish I grew up in, all the guys hung out from the men's club in the rectory drinking whiskey. And that's all fine and dandy. I enjoy a bunch of guys getting together and having some whiskey. But eventually, dear God, you talk about life losing something. No women. No women. Why not just hurl me off the top of the Sears Tower? But I don't want to put that in the category of no kids, because what you're saying is not that you don't want kids around you, you just don't want to father them, right? Yeah.
- [53:55]
Tommy Mischke
Yeah, that's true. Yep.
- [53:57]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
You like kids, don't you?
- [53:59]
Tommy Mischke
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
- [54:00]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Yeah. Okay. So you're just the fun uncle.
- [54:04]
Tommy Mischke
Exactly. Yeah. That's kind of how I look at it.
- [54:06]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Sure, I get it. And they get to hang out with your pets when they visit you. What do you have for pets? Do you have an emotional support desk plant?
- [54:14]
Tommy Mischke
That one passed away, unfortunately.
- [54:16]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Well, you got to water it. What do you have?
- [54:18]
Tommy Mischke
That's true. We've got two dogs, A cat and a zebra finch.
- [54:23]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
A zebra finch? What's that?
- [54:26]
Tommy Mischke
Dude, he's honestly just a living decoration. But he's sweet. Little Mac man, he's our guy. He just kind of hangs out in his nest all day and he watches cartoons.
- [54:37]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
He's a living decoration. I was arguing that's what flowers are. Now, hold on a second. You named him Mack and he's in a cage?
- [54:47]
Tommy Mischke
Yep.
- [54:48]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
And does he stay in the cage or does he get to fly around the house?
- [54:51]
Tommy Mischke
No, he just hangs out in the cage.
- [54:54]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
What is that life like, do you think? I mean, just between you, me, and the fence post, what is that life like for that bird?
- [55:00]
Tommy Mischke
Seems happy.
- [55:02]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Well, how would you know?
- [55:03]
Julie (Caller)
I know.
- [55:04]
Tommy Mischke
That's the thing. Yeah. I mean, he tweets at us and he always makes noise, tweeting.
- [55:07]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Could be. He could be trying to signal someone in the outside world, get him the.
- [55:15]
Tommy Mischke
Hell out of there. Right?
- [55:16]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I mean, people can keep a cat indoors. If a place is big enough, there's some fun to be had. I've watched cats enjoy themselves, just chasing the shadow of their paw around or something. But with the bird, I'm wondering what a fun day is. You say it watches cartoons. I'm not buying that.
- [55:36]
Tommy Mischke
Oh, yeah, no, we put on, what is it, me TV tunes. He's got that on all day. He'll watch Woody Woodpecker. He's got, I think the Super Friends comes on.
- [55:45]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Do you sense he's actually watching it?
- [55:47]
Tommy Mischke
He sits in his nest and he turns and watches the tv. You know, some of those cartoons have the fake sound, the fake laugh track. When that goes off, he'll start tweeting like he's laughing too.
- [55:58]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
My fear is, if you grabbed the bird and just held it pretty tight so it couldn't move after about 10 minutes, it would have the exact same expression it has when it's hanging out in the cage or hanging out, flying around the living room. Thus, how would you know what suffering is and what it isn't? That's the trick is you got to know what it looks like when it's suffering to know when it's happy. But I swear it has the same damn face when it's suffering it very well.
- [56:26]
Tommy Mischke
Yeah, I never thought of that.
- [56:28]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I wonder if anybody ever puts a bird Down. Because, you know, with a dog, you can sometimes tell when it's suffering and you don't want it to suffer. And you put the dog down. With a bird, it might be suffering its entire life. How do you know?
- [56:40]
Tommy Mischke
We've had parakeets before, and we had to put one of them down, actually two of them down, because they would hang out at the bottom of the cage and just kind of limp around. You could tell, like, they were not in a good spot. So we bring them to the vet, and they would check them out and be like, it's their time to go kind of a thing.
- [56:55]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I gotta ask you, when. When you put a bird down, do you gotta pay a guy for that or can't you just take care of that at home?
- [57:04]
Tommy Mischke
We paid it. We paid a gal to do that? Yeah.
- [57:06]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
What'd she charge? Just give me a sense of what she charged.
- [57:09]
Tommy Mischke
It was a couple hundred bucks.
- [57:11]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
A couple hundred bucks to kill a bird? Aren't there about 20 humane ways to do it? That would take about a half a second. That don't cost anything.
- [57:19]
Tommy Mischke
That's a good point. You know, they gave it. They gave it a couple injections of things, and, yeah, it passed away.
- [57:25]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
But I'll tell you something. I was walking in Paris, France, years ago, and some kids were standing around looking at a bird that had been hit by a car. And it was in pretty rough shape, but it was alive. And they were checking it out and spending some time examining it. And I try to tell them, we need to do something here. But I didn't speak French. They thought I was taking their bird. They got very upset, and I couldn't explain it to them. They were getting a little riled. These guys were about 12, 13 years old. I finally pulled aside another guy who spoke a little English, and I said, can you explain that? We need to put this bird out of its misery. This is not a happy moment for this bird. Well, the guy told me he explained that to him. I couldn't swear to what he was saying to the kids, but I don't think he explained it well because they seemed to be fine after that with me doing what I had to do until I did it, at which point it was almost an international incident. I mean, it really got ugly because what I did. And again, I could only operate with what I had. I picked it up, I saw a paper bag there. This was a bird in really bad shape. I won't go into details. It was alive, but it was in really bad shape. I put it in the Paper bag. I put the bag down on the ground and I picked up a giant concrete block. One drop of that. Yeah, we're talking about 0.00008 seconds gone. Boom. I didn't have a gun. Someone else might have twisted the neck. I wasn't up for that. Wow, those kids. That apparently was not what they were expecting. I don't know what this guy said to him in French. Those kids had. They had weapons. I was not seen as anything but the enemy at that point. I had to hightail it for the border. I had to get to Luxembourg before I felt safe. The French get sensitive about the killing of an animal. You go to the vet in France and I don't even think they put them down. I think the vet just says, I'll keep it around till it dies naturally. Have you had to put down a dog yet?
- [59:36]
Tommy Mischke
Yeah, we've had a couple dogs pass away.
- [59:39]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I bet you paid for that.
- [59:41]
Tommy Mischke
Oh, yeah, I don't have.
- [59:43]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
I don't have an easy an easy out there. When I was growing up, my mom used to grab the guitar and she used to sing me a song. You ever heard the song Old Shep?
- [59:54]
Tommy Mischke
No.
- [59:55]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Well, I wouldn't recommend listening to it. It's an old folk song. She used to sing it. She liked to sing that song. And I couldn't take it. I mean, I could not take it. It's about having to put down a dog.
- [60:06]
Tommy Mischke
Yeah.
- [60:07]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
With a hand that was shaking, I held out my gun and held it to Shep's faithful head. I didn't want to do it. I wanted to run. I wish they'd a shot me instead. They gotta kill the dog in this damn song. It's about the worst song I've ever heard. So we'd be sitting around the campfire up at the cabin. Mom would pull out the guitar, start singing that song. I'd run for the cornfields now old Sheppy's gone where the good doggies go Never, oh, never to roam but if dogs got a heaven there's one thing I know Old Shep has a wonderful home it's just a God awful song. Now if it had been a bird. No, no, no, no, no. I would have liked to have asked that vet of yours. What's the tiniest thing you've put down? Have you put down a hermit crab? I mean, I wonder where do they draw the lines?
- [61:18]
Tommy Mischke
They'll do anything because my wife did work at a vet and they see all kinds of exotic pets like salamanders, rats, mice, you know, what I'd like.
- [61:26]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
To bring to a vet a worm. Because here's the crazy thing I'd say. I dare you to put that thing down. I've tried it. You cut it in half. The other half still goes on living. You can't kill these bastards, but you're gonna charge me anyway, aren't you, you sick, twisted freak.
- [61:44]
Tommy Mischke
Oh, man, that's great.
- [61:48]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Well, I'm gonna let you go. I'm glad we were able to connect.
- [61:52]
Tommy Mischke
Yeah. Heck, yeah, Mishke. I appreciate it. I've been listening to you forever, man. This is so cool. I never expected you to call me. I just threw my name on the list. But this is. This was great to talk to you. I've been listening since I was, like, five or six, when my dad would drive. This is so cool.
- [62:05]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Good God, five or six years old, you were listening.
- [62:08]
Tommy Mischke
Yeah. Yeah.
- [62:10]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
All right. On that happy note, I'll let you go. Say hi to your wife for me.
- [62:14]
Tommy Mischke
Yeah, for sure.
- [62:14]
Julie (Caller)
Thanks, Mishni.
- [62:15]
Tommy Mischke
I'll talk to you later.
- [62:16]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Oh, and say hi to Mac, man.
- [62:18]
Tommy Mischke
I will. Absolutely.
- [62:19]
Tommy Mischke (Host)
Okay. So long.