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Looking for the ultimate adrenaline rush? Bring your friends and drive a tank with our four star general package including two passengers. Start with a safety and history briefing, then roll out in a massive five ton military truck to the battlefield. Then climb into the 432 Armored Personnel Carrier, hatches closed as you drive by periscope across our course. Finish strong at our indoor range firing a Sten M4 and a 1919 belt fed machine gun. Drive a tank.com booked today the 2026 Minnesota Golf show is swinging into the Minneapolis Convention Center 2-13-15 and we want your business on the green. With thousands of passionate golfers roaming the floor, 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 blaurbi.com before the best spots are gone. 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. The $100,000 putt is presented by MSP Plumbing Heating Air, committed to your comfort since 1918. Coming to you from the old outpost right here along the bleak, barren tarmac of University Avenue. My name's Mishke. You staying warm out there? It's a hard, hard win. Harder by the hour. Big weather news. I like weather news, especially dramatic weather news. One of the most sprawling, one of the most menacing winter storms ever. One that threatens to deliver a potentially historic blow of snow and ice. The long lasting storm will be destructive over a 1500 mile path from Texas to the Northeast. Major US cities could get the most snow they've had in years. Down south, they could deal with ice storms unlike anything they've faced in a long, long time. More than 120 million people in two dozen states are under winter storm alerts. Read your headlines people. They're fun. Historic winter storm to slam much of the US Destructive ice and snow yes, I'm sitting here ensconced in the old outpost off the bleak, barren tarmac of University Avenue and a major winter storm is gearing up to gut to gu the center of our country. A swath going from Texas, cutting diagonally across the plains and up into the Northeast, by golly. Let's go to Craig and the weather center. Craig, confidence grows about what will become the storm that defines the entire winter. And it may be a storm that many remember for many decades. Many decades my ass. Craig. This isn't some silly storm of the century. This is the storm of all time. Going back some 14 billion years to the big bang. Which by the way was nothing in terms of drama compared to this winter storm we're looking at. Snap out of it, Craig. Get with the program, you moron. How many days are we looking at? Friday, Saturday and Sunday across parts of the southern plains, much of the south, the mid Atlantic. And it'll also impact the Northeast as well. It'll impact the whole world, you twit. Stop trying to sugarcoat it. Lives are gonna be lost. So many that it'll make the black plague look like a fender bender. What? Shut up. Multiple areas the size of multiple states without power. Hundreds of thousands per state, if not millions per state. And outages continue for a long period of time. And it's going to be really cold. Heavy snow, but also the freezing rain. Major ice storm with days and days of outages. Attaboy. I like how you're making it sound real ugly. I think we're going to hear people screaming. Craig, what do you think? Are we going to hear people screaming? Will it be the howling wind that's outside our door? Will that be the sound or. Or will it be the screams of our dying citizenry suffering in a way that'll make em long for Dante's 9th circle of hell where Satan chewed on the flesh of Judas Iscariot. What? Shut up. Craig, are you still with me? Craig? We lost Crag. Let's go to Marvin. Marvin is not in the weather room. He was there but he descended the stairs into the weather bunker. Marvin, I have to say of late you've sounded almost aroused by the severe weather we're expecting. Is this almost a fetish for you, Marvin? This Arctic mass, Arctic storm, Arctic blast, Arctic wall of violence, Arctic outbreak. Unlike we've seen in years. A major winter storm that's going to cripple a large part of the United States. The biggest storm, winter storm. This is going to be the biggest and most impactful winter storm for the United States. Dozens of states covered in ice, buried in snow. Just an absolute major winter storm and we're likely to see blizzard and ice storm warnings. Record setting area of high Pressure. There's going to be record breaking cold throughout the upper Midwest. And I'm bringing Jason in here just to help me out. Just discussing about this major impactful storm that's coming up.
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Makes you sick to your stomach. Makes you sick to your stomach. You just want to vomit all over your shoes.
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Right now. I'm throwing up. Well, we're going to have to cut away from those two. That's getting uglier than even I imagined. But it does give you an indication of the kind of weather system we're looking at and indeed how hard it is to stomach. Let's now go to Dave Feck. Dave, this is the kind of system that you don't want to ignore. This rare weather pattern will begin with a powerful Arctic air mass surging south, bringing life threatening cold. Wind chills could drop to 65 degrees below zero. While this Arctic blast crashes south, a surge of Gulf moisture is moving north at unusually high levels. Snow and ice accumulations of this magnitude in these areas will lead to widespread power outages and near impossible travel conditions. I'm gonna break down exactly what you need to know about this major winter storm that is about to slam the States. Guys, I'm gonna be honest right off the bat, this is one of the most concerning winter storm trends that I have seen over the last five years. We could be talking about a crippling and very dangerous winter storm in terms of ice accumulation. This is where things could be historic. I mean, we're talking about three days here that we could have closures across many states. Infrastructure damage, power outages are all on the table. I want to be a weatherman. Golly, this is fun. You people who are still going with Clicklestein and Mucklewecker for attorneys. What are you thinking? How many times do I have to say Bradshaw and Brian to get you to no longer think Clicklestein and Mucklewecker? I wouldn't be caught dead in the offices of Clicklestein and Mucklewecker. Have they won awards? I don't think so. Are they respected by their peers? I don't think so. Bunch of ambulance chasers. I've been talking about Bradshaw and Brian for over a decade. My wife is sick of it. During intimacy, I'll bring up Bradshaw and Brian. She'll say, stop it. I'll say, did I say their name again? She'll say, yes, you did. You did it again. I am so sorry, honey. I dream about Bradshaw and Bryant some nights. I'm getting a windfall, a compensation package that makes me want to retire and move to the Bahamas. The only downside is I've put up with quite a personal injury. The trade off has been no legs, but I don't need legs to lie on a beach. Nobody does. Make Bradshaw and Brian your personal injury attorneys. You keep their number handy. Find it @minnesotapersonal injury.com who doesn't love this time of year? Football playoffs are here and underdog is the best place to get in on all the action. Underdog is so easy you just pick if your favorite players will go higher or or lower on stats like touchdowns, rushing yards, receptions and more. If you get your picks right, you could win up to 5,000 times your cash. So many great players to choose from this time of season, but the way I look at it, I think Matthew Stafford to go higher on yards passing is always a good way for me to go. And Saquon Barkley's a nice pick to go higher on rushing yards. So what are you waiting for? Download the app today and use promo code garage to score $75 in bonus entries when you play your first $5. That's promo COD garage underdog make picks win money must be 18 plus, 19 plus in Alabama and Nebraska, 19 plus in Colorado for some games, 21 plus in Arizona, Massachusetts and Virginia and present in a state where underdog fantasy operates. Terms apply. See assets.underdogfantasy.com web playandgetterms dfs HTML for details. Offer not valid in Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Concern with your play, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org in New York, call the 247 Hope Line at 1-877-8-HOPENY or text Hopeny 467369 with CarGurus Discover, you can skip the filters and describe what you're looking for in your own words. Simply type what you want and Cargurus Discover instantly surfaces real listings that match your exact needs. It's no wonder Cargurus is the number one most visited car shopping site according to SimilarWeb's estimated traffic data. Buy or sell your next car today with Cargurus at Cargur. Go to cargurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's C A R G u r u s.com cargurus.com. I read this headline today. Can Fantasy Football Punishments End the Male Loneliness Epidemic? What's that you say? Can Fantasy Football Punishments End the Male Loneliness Epidemic? There's a lot there. First of all, a reminder again that there is a male loneliness epidemic out there, but how it connects to fantasy football punishments is a mystery to me. Let's take a look at this story. If you see a man at a restaurant with a blow up doll, don't be surprised to learn he's the recipient of a fantasy football punishment. More than 50 million people in North America participate in fantasy sports in which participants draft dream teams of real athletes, then rise or fall in their league's rankings based on those players performances. And many invest in league punishment, typically something inexpensive and relatively low stakes that the last place participant has to complete. Being able to talk trash about one another, making fun of people in last place, and so on is a mechanism for men to communicate and bond with each other. Common punishments include wearing a dress or a tutu in public. Boy, we're down to that as a solution to the male loneliness problem, huh? I was lonely till the fellows made me wear a dress. Now I have all sorts of friends. Was it a sacrifice to wear the dress? Sure it was. I can't say I loved it. I mean, people looked at me funny. But look at all the pals I've attracted. Yeah, some of the pals are a little iffy. Sure, the one who keeps groping my bare thigh. That's not appreciated. But the point is, I'm no longer lonely. I want to momentarily address the male loneliness issue. I realize that in old America, long ago there was the Elks Club and the Moose Lodge and the bowling leagues and maybe in all of those categories, these organizations, these groups have lost a certain appeal or a certain draw for various reasons. I'm not sure I understand it all, but by golly, have you fellas out there not heard about meetup groups? It really is quite startling when you enter the meetup world. Have you ever been to the Meetup website or gotten the Meetup app and looked through all the different groups meeting in your city from all walks of life, people getting together left and right, bars, coffee shops. All cities in America have meetup groups. Groups set up for like minded folk to gather and do or talk about all sorts of different things. Some of it's conversational, some of it more active. Some of it is project oriented. Some of it is about learning. Some is just conversing BSing. Some of it involves book clubs. Some of it is just maybe playing chess with a group regularly or cribbage. But it's astonishing how many meetup groups can be found out there in any given town. There has to be one to suit almost any guy's tastes, no matter how particular they Are. So I'm just struggling with this idea that of a loneliness epidemic when there are these meetup groups everywhere now. Meetup groups did not exist in the 90s, 80s, 70s, when people were apparently less lonely. It's kind of a miracle to me the way people invent these things, this whole meetup thing. In the Internet age, someone came up with this brilliant solutions to loneliness, I think. I went to a meetup group one time. I wanted to try it out. I was in a stoics group, a group that sat around at a bar and talked about the wisdom of the Greek Stoics. I enjoyed it. I didn't stick with it, but I'm glad I tried it out. The thing was, I wasn't particularly lonely. I just liked the idea of going to a bar and talking about these old Greek guys. No, loneliness is not my issue. I have other issues, other pathologies, neuroses, afflictions. Loneliness just doesn't happen to be my cross to bear in this life. But of course, one need not be lonely to join a meetup group. One can just want engagement for the sheer fulfillment it brings. Are the lonely guys in America not looking into meetup groups at all? Not looking for that sort of thing? Or don't they know about it? Cause once you start to look into these meetup groups, you can get lost for a couple of hours going over one meetup group after another, seeing if it's something that suits you. It's hard for me to believe it's not the rock solid solution to loneliness for guys, those guys who don't have the church group or the volunteer organization. Just looking locally here at what's available. I notice meetup groups here called. Here's one called Break the Bubble for people who have moved to the Twin Cities and can't figure out how to break in. There are all these established relationships already here in these cities. They find. And they don't know how to make inroads. Well, break the bubble. There's a group right there, a purely social group, and they tell you to bring anyone you want with you. Come to our gatherings. We just get together and have fun. Here's another group, the Minnesota Monthly Mingle, Just an informal gathering of people who want to hang out. A social group with no agenda. The Minnesota Mingle. That sounds like it should work for some of you fellows. If you were truly lonely, wouldn't this be a possible way out for the more cerebral? There's this group complexity and coffee. They get together and talk about perceptions, beliefs, philosophy. A little more heady here's an international friends group. This is for people who have immigrated here from different countries. They're encouraged to attend this very social get to know one another gathering. Personally, I'd be afraid it's a front for ice, but I suppose you could take your chances. Worst case scenario, you're thrown in a detention center in Texas where you get to use a pickle bucket for a toilet. I'm sure glad they were kinder to my ancestors when those folks immigrated. People were kinder back then, More decent. Here's a group that bowls together at Sun Ray Lanes. Fun social group. They're looking for more members. Here's a meetup group called females in their 40s. Now some of you guys who've lost in fantasy football can show up in drag at these gatherings. See if you can fit in. Make sure you talk about your feelings though. Don't talk about football. Here's a bird watching group that you can join. Here's an investing group that meets socially regularly to talk about investing. Here's a meetup group, cribbage at Gallagher's Bar for you guys looking to play cribbage with a beer and some buddies. Come on, let's fight this loneliness business. Let's kick its ass. Here's a social group where you bring your dog. Can't imagine what can go wrong there. You meet in a guy's basement. You bring your dog. It's an unfinished little basement, little six foot high ceiling. You cram in there with a bunch of dogs and you talk about your lives and sip scotch and a few people get bit, but not a lot. And if you tire of being bitten, you can open the door and move into an adjacent room where there's some cock fighting and you can bet on your own rooster. No, that's not true. But this is a meetup group where you bring your dog. You meet at a place called St. Bark, an indoor dog park over by the fairgrounds. Here's another meetup group called Coffee and Conversation. Informal little group, they get together, just shoot the breeze. Here's a group that likes to gather and discuss current events, politics, culture, different perspectives. Every gathering ends in a pretty brutal fist fight, but that just brings in that whole cool fight club vibe that makes it all the more appealing to the guys. Anyway, it goes on and on and on. Meetup group after meetup group after meetup group. There's something for everyone. There's probably even an introverts meetup group where you sit in different rooms and avoid all contact. But at least you get out of the house. I do find myself thinking, this isn't really the era where loneliness should be the big thing. Not like, say, the frontier days in the 19th century. Now that's when people should have really been lonely. Wasn't there a loneliness epidemic on the frontier in the 1800s? Homesteading in the middle of nowhere, isolated. Why weren't people lonely then? There were no meetup groups. Only groups you ever met up with were maybe a posse of Native Americans. They were the first ones to say hi. Did you know that? I can't believe this. But I've done the research and it appears to be true. The first. The first person in recorded history to say hi. Well, Native American. Yeah, that's what I'm learning. I thought, who was the first person to say hi? So I looked it up. Goes back to 1860. Some Native American gave a talk and he started the talk out by saying hi. Now a lot of people will say, didn't the natives say how? No, they did not. There were no Native American tribes that ever said how as a greeting. Hollywood screwed that up. There was no how. But high apparently was used. The interjection high as a casual greeting was recorded for the first time in American English around 1860. The first use of it was in the speech of a Kansas Indian. Boy, it would be so strange to be walking across the plains in the 19th century, run into a native and hear him say hi. It's very hard to get in your head, that scene. Hi. Oh, oh, hi. Hi there. I'm just passing through, heading out west. Heard something about a gold rush. Then the native might say, well, okie dokie. Wow. You guys say okie dokie too. Wow. This is not at all the kind of exchange I expected to have the first time I met one of you guys. Hi, Okie dokie. You natives have this sort of informality thing going on that sort of throws me a bit. Yeah, we do. We do. Is that cool with you? Oh, yeah, yeah. And just hearing you say is that cool with you? Is odd. You guys say that too. Get over it, dude. Wow, I can't believe this conversation we're having. I thought by now you would have scalped me. Oh, that whole scalping thing is a bit of a misunderstanding. You know where scalping started? It started with our native barbers just being really bad at their jobs. It started as a screw up. It was a botched haircut. We didn't have any training at all. We were winging it. And the first guys to get haircuts in Our tribe, well, they really suffered. That's why for years and years, you saw a lot of natives with long hair. No one dared go back to try it again. It was well into the 20th century before we thought to give it a try again. I think it was the 1970s, actually. The American Indian movement was going strong, and they suggested we get these bad 1970s perms. Suddenly all us natives looked like white guys in porn movies. It was just awful. You know what that reminds me of? When I was a kid and I'd watch movies involving Native Americans, I'd say to my brother, how come none of them have beards? You ever think about that? There was never a movie where an Indian had a beard. It's not like there were all these great razors sitting around all over the place and cans of shaving cream. But all the natives had smooth faces. The cowboys didn't. What the hell? Well, I learned later that because our native populations were descended from Asia and Asians coming over the Bering Land Strait, much like Asians, they couldn't really grow beards. And so any light facial hair that did appear, they just plucked because they thought it was unsightly. In fact, I learned that with a lot of the natives, they were so down on facial hair, some of the tribes anyway, that they would even pluck their eyebrows. Imagine then what they would have thought running into European travelers with their thick beards and mustaches and thick eyebrows. They must have thought, you people are savages. Savages. All of you freaking cavemen. How did we end up with a loneliness epidemic? Now, why wasn't there a loneliness epidemic on the old frontier in the 19th century? Alone on the frontier? You're living in wyoming in the 1860s. You need a friend, Bob. Are you kidding me? I need a friend, A dog, a wife, a log cabin. Are you available as a friend? Well, I'm just passing through. I'm a gunslinger. Okay. Well, what would we do if we became friends, do you think? Oh, I don't know. I suppose we could have a draw, see who shoots who first. It ain't playing board games at a coffee shop, but it's something to pass the time. Okay, well, I've never been shot. That sounds exciting. What happens exactly? Well, Bob, you bleed a lot. Oh, okay. I don't mind that, I guess. These clothes are old and dirty anyway, Bob. There is risk of infection. I don't mind that. My dad and mom both had infections. I remember telling him, hang in there. Penicillin will be invented in 60 years and this will all Go away. They couldn't wait. But here's the real reason I want an infection. Rumor has it you get quite a fever and then you have these crazy fever hallucinations. And here in Wyoming we can't get lsd, but damn if we can't get infected. Know what I'm saying, gunslinger? Well, I know exactly what you're saying, Bob. I did peyote with a native southwest of here a few hundred miles and it was quite a ride. I shot a three horned multi colored talking lizard named Thelonious. The natives claimed it wasn't real. I say different. He was wearing leotards and an Aztec headdress and delivering scripture in Germany. But that was long ago and miles away. Bob. I'm a stranger in these here parts and I could use a friend. Are there any meetup groups in this area I'd like to join? A meetup group? Well, yeah, there's a gunslingers meetup group and they just do draws all day long. Well, who started that group? The casket maker in town. He's no idiot. There's another meetup group for folks who enjoy digging outhouse pits. They meet at the Hitchin Post on Saturdays. No one has shown up for those meetings yet. But the table waits for em there if they ever do. You might be interested in this. We don't have fantasy football, but we do have fantasy gunslingers. The loser has to wear a woman's petticoat and work one week as a maid for the madam at our brothel. That alone keeps people practicing. It ain't so much the cleaning up that bothers people. It's more the way you gotta fend off the customers. They get all handsy. Bob, I like you. I think we can be friends. You know, when I was a young guy, they used to have ads on television that tried to encourage you to make a phone call to someone. I think the big slogan was reach out and touch someone. And the whole ad was really about just picking up the phone and calling someone. Just say hi. That's all they wanted you to do. There was a whole ad you could watch trying to get you to pick up a phone and call someone and say hi. Maybe you'd meet someone and become friends and then learn that they live on the other side of the country and to stay friends, well, you could reach out and touch them using something called a phone. And these ads would tell you to use that phone to say hi. You've made some new friends who live far from you and keeping them close.
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Is so easy to do.
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Reach out Reach out and touch someone. Reach out. Crawl up and just say hi. Reach out, Reach out and touch someone. Don't let those new friends get away. A telephone call now and then will bring them closer they're waiting to hear from you. So reach, reach out and touch someone. Give them a call. For many years that slogan was used. And then from what I've read, it started to get. Well, people began to think of it as kind of icky to tell people to touch someone. This was even before the whole me too thing. All of a sudden, all of a sudden the vibe in the country was, no, don't touch me. Then don't touch me. It was sort of like everyone became psycho. From the movie Stripes. Francis. Remember Francis? Any of you guys touch me, I'll kill ya. He wouldn't have liked that commercial. The name's Francis Sawyer, but everybody calls me Psycho. Any of you homos touch me and I'll kill you. Touch me and I'll kill you.
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Reach out.
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Reach out and touch someone. I'll kill you. You know the moment? It's when your mom asks about visiting her mother who passed away 20 years ago. Or when your dad wakes up at 3am expecting to go to a job. He long ago retired from most facilities. They put him in a locked wing. They call it memory care. They park him in front of a television set. The Wellshire of Bloomington and Medina said, what if we built something wildly different? What if we created four households for the four stages of memory care? What if we became specialists in this area? Lets create a town square, a cinema, an ice cream shop, professional musicians doing music therapy, chefs, actual chefs making food that honors who these people were before memory became their enemy. The Wellshire of Bloomington and Medina purpose built memory care, not an afterthought wing in an assisted living facility. Because your father, who built houses for 40 years, deserves better than a hallway. And hope you're in the kind of business where you use pressure washers. But there are pressure washers that hamper production and pressure washers that supercharge production. Simplify your workflow. I recommend highly calling American Pressure so that they can show you the difference. American Pressure's team of pros can dive into your current setup, give it a good hard look, get a handle on your goals, and create a customized system that fits you best, that fits your business best. From full turnkey wash bays to factory installations with tailored solutions, American Pressure will hook you up with everything you need. And they train your people on how to run these things. Suddenly you're making more Money, your business is more efficient. Everything's easier. You, you're happier. All because of a call to American pressure of Robbinsdale. Find them@AmericanPressure.com. There's a funny little paradox with this male loneliness epidemic. As I got to thinking about it and did a little research, I came upon quite a few articles that talked about how older men prefer to be alone. Well, wait a minute. Which way is it? Is there a loneliness epidemic? Or do older guys prefer to be alone? Here's a headline I read in a news story. Reasons why older men enjoy being alone. Living without a partner means no pressure to conform to someone else's expectations. As men age, they value the ability to be themselves completely without feeling the need to change or compromise. As men age, many choose to embrace seclusion rather than companionship. Many older men believe that being alone offers unique benefits and a sense of peace. Solitude brings a level of tranquility that's hard to achieve in a relationship. Many older men appreciate the quiet and the calm that comes from seclusion, allowing them to unwind and enjoy their own company without interruptions. Relationships require constant emotional investment and management, Navigating through disagreements, misunderstandings, emotional ups and downs. It can be draining. Older men often appreciate the emotional freedom that comes with. With being alone. Well, are there two groups of men out there? Is there the lonely crowd and the I want to be alone crowd? And what are the percentages of each? Because you can also read a headline like this. The emerging crisis for older men. Remember the John Prine song hello in there? The lyrics went, you know, old trees, they just grow stronger. And old rivers, they grow wilder every day. But old people, they just grow lonesome waiting for someone to say hello in there. Hello. Well, what do you say we spin the big listener wheel and see if we can come up with someone to call, someone from that listeners list, people who have given me permission to give them a call on the old show. If you'd like to be on the listener list and possibly get a call, just text me. 651-3218, 949-6513, 218949. And if you'd like to email the show for any reason whatsoever, you can email me at mishkeubardradio. Okay, let's see what we come up with. Robin.
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B
All right.
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A
What do we have for digits? Yes. All right. Very good. Okay.
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B
Hello?
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A
Hello, Robin?
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B
Hello.
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A
Hello, Robin.
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B
Is this Mishki?
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A
You're damn right it is.
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B
Well, it's nice to hear from you.
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A
What are you watching? Television.
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B
I Am watching an old Star Trek.
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A
An old Star Trek episode. Which one is it?
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B
The one where they go through all the time portals and Spock and McCoy end up in some Arctic environment, and.
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A
Spock falls in love with a fetching young gal. Yeah, you know who he fell in love with?
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B
Who?
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A
The woman from the Polaroid commercial. The one who used to do the commercials with James Garner.
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B
What was her name? Jeanette Hartley or something like that.
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A
Mariette Hartley. Yeah, I remember that episode well. This was where they went back in time thousands of years, almost to some Stone Age period in the Arctic. At the end of that episode. I don't want to spoil it for you, but at the end, when Spock has to come back and leave her behind, Jim wants to console Spock because Jim knows the human half of Spock had feelings for Mariette Hartley. And he comes up to Spock, Jim does and consoles him. And Spock says to Jim, she's been dead thousands of years, Jim. And of course she has, because now they're back in the future. Spock's trying to say, jim, I'm no more grieving now than a person would after thousands of years getting past a death of a loved one. Let it go, Jim. I have.
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B
That's almost as sad as City on the Edge of Forever, where Jim falls for Edith Keillor, played expertly by Joan Collins.
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A
As I recall, that took place in a city much like Chicago in the 30s, right?
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B
Yep.
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A
That was a heartbreaker, because unlike Spock, Jim was fully human, and it broke his heart to know that she had to die in that episode. She was hit by a truck, I believe, right?
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B
Yep.
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A
I've seen them all. I grew up with it. My brothers and I would sit around and watch it just before dinner. So in the afternoons these days, you pretty much just watch television?
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B
Yep.
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A
I gotta ask you something about loneliness. There's a loneliness epidemic out there, especially with older men. I've been reading about it a lot today. The loneliness epidemic. What's that about, do you think?
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B
Mm. I couldn't put my finger on it.
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A
But you spend an enormous amount of time alone, don't you?
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B
I do.
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A
You like being alone?
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B
Well, I didn't when I was younger. I did a lot of it, but I've gotten used to it, I guess.
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A
Interesting.
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B
Used to work with a fellow, and he'd walk up to me randomly and say, you know what? I hate people. Well, that's a little extreme.
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A
But there are a lot of those guys out there. Unfortunately, they take their cue from Daniel Plainview. In the movie There Will Be Blood.
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B
Ah.
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A
Daniel Plainview didn't like people. I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people. I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money I can get away from everyone. I see the worst in people, Henry. I think what it is, is people are complicated. And it's difficult to figure out sometimes how to connect in some deep way with another person. And people like that eventually get a dog. But I am curious to know if there's any part of you that would like to have more people in your life.
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B
I think so.
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A
Have you ever heard of meetup?
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B
I have.
- [40:04]
A
Have you ever contemplated joining some meetup group in some area of interest that dovetails with your own? Yeah. But you haven't done it.
- [40:17]
B
No.
- [40:18]
A
I'd be curious to know what it would be like for you.
- [40:22]
B
Maybe I'll do a little research for you and let you know.
- [40:24]
A
That would be swell. You're not a cribbage or chess guy, are you?
- [40:29]
B
I play cribbage. My grandma taught me when I was six.
- [40:32]
A
There's a meetup group gets together and has a social hour where they hang out and play some cribbage. Maybe at a bar or a coffee shop. One or the other. Anyway, I've been trying to figure out why, with meetup out there, we have so many lonely men.
- [40:48]
B
Maybe they choose to be lonely.
- [40:50]
A
Well, that's the thing I'm learning that a lot of them do. Clearly not all of them, or we wouldn't get these reports month after month about this loneliness epidemic. There have to be some that are just saying I don't know where I'm gonna meet anybody. Well, I'm gonna let you get back to Spock's passionate kiss, which should be coming up shortly.
- [41:09]
B
All right, Tommy, you call anytime.
- [41:11]
A
All right. Good talking to you.
- [41:14]
B
Likewise. You have yourself a great day.
- [41:22]
A
You've been putting money into your 401k for 20 years. You have no idea if you're doing any of this stuff right or not. You're kind of winging it out there. Your ira? Same thing. Mutual funds? Hey, you picked them because the name sounded good. Meanwhile, retirement isn't some distant dream anymore, is it? It's 12 years away. Maybe eight. Here's the truth. Most people are stepping on landmines with their retirement money and don't even know it. Josh Arnold has been helping people with their retirement savings plans for years. 40 years. He has seen every mistake. You ought to call him at 952-925-5608. Because you'll get 48 minutes with him on the phone for free. No obligation, no sales pitch. He looks at your money situation and he tells you the truth. Are you on track? Are you making mistakes? Are you being as smart as you could be? 40 years, Josh has been steering people straight. Call him. 952-925-5608. 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. It's 11pm on a Tuesday in January. Your pipe just burst in the wall. Water spraying everywhere. You're standing there in your socks, thinking, why does this happen to me? Well, because it's Minnesota and it's winter and frozen pipes don't ask permission. Minneapolis St. Paul Plumbing, Heating and Air has been taking care of your little problem since 1918. They have seen every nightmare a Minnesota winter can throw at your plumbing. Frozen pipes that burst at 2am Sewer lines that back up when the ground's frozen solid. Water heaters that quit the coldest night of the year. Sump pumps that freeze, drains that won't drain because everything under your house turned into an ice rink. It's not if your plumbing's going to have issues, it's when and when it happens. You don't want someone learning on the job. You want people who have fixed frozen pipe disasters in every single neighborhood in the Twin Cities since before your grandparents were born. Minneapolis St. Paul Plumbing, heating and Air.
- [43:53]
B
Hello?
- [43:54]
A
Hello? Mike?
- [43:55]
B
Hello?
- [43:56]
A
Mike?
- [43:56]
B
Hey, Misty. Can you hear me okay?
- [43:59]
A
Not as well as I would like.
- [44:02]
B
Okay, hold on a second.
- [44:13]
A
You building a brand new phone there, Mike?
- [44:17]
B
Okay, how's that?
- [44:18]
A
Dramatically better. What am I catching you doing?
- [44:22]
B
Delivering mail.
- [44:23]
A
It's a little chilly out there.
- [44:26]
B
Well, you gotta layer up.
- [44:28]
A
Does that make you look weird?
- [44:30]
B
I don't care if I look weird or not.
- [44:32]
A
You don't really care if you look weird.
- [44:34]
B
I've always been kind of a person who marched to the beat of my own drummer.
- [44:38]
A
What kind of drummer you marching to these days?
- [44:41]
B
Well, not to bring you down, but my best friend died a couple months ago and I'm kind of drumless right now.
- [44:48]
A
Your best pal died?
- [44:51]
B
Yeah. She was 51. Died of cancer. People say, well, a man and a woman can't be best friends, but I don't believe that. When I was in the Navy, in San Diego, on that submarine, her family sort of adopted me and made sure I had kind of A family out there. Her stepdad was on a different sub than I was on, and I kept touch with her and stuff, and we grew into best friends and things like that. So I knew her over 40 years.
- [45:18]
A
I'm gonna try to connect some dots here. You were in a submarine? And how did you meet her?
- [45:26]
B
Well, this buddy of mine was on the same sub as her stepdad. He said, you. You have to meet this family. They're. They're kind of insane. So he figured I'd appreciate a little insanity once in a while, so I went over there and kind of hit it off with the family.
- [45:43]
A
And why did he think you needed to meet any family at all?
- [45:48]
B
Well, I was by myself out in San Diego. My family was in Wisconsin.
- [45:52]
A
So your buddy felt you might be a little bit lonely? Yeah.
- [45:58]
B
Yeah, because he spent a lot of time over their house, and he thought maybe I would enjoy it instead of hanging out by myself at the barracks and blah, blah, blah.
- [46:07]
A
So when you get a little free time, your buddy takes you over there and introduces you to him, and you meet the daughter. How old is she compared to you at this point?
- [46:17]
B
At that point, I was 20 and she was 10.
- [46:20]
A
And you looked at her and said, sweetie, you're going to become my best friend?
- [46:24]
B
Well, no, it kind of developed over the years. It wasn't right away. We lost touch for a while, and then she found me on Facebook as a friend.
- [46:35]
A
Does she have a significant other in her life at this point?
- [46:40]
B
Yeah, she was married.
- [46:41]
A
She was married, but she was getting a hold of you, wanting to reconnect, and her husband was okay with that.
- [46:48]
B
And after a while, after. After years went by, she said, well, Mike's my best friend, and that's not negotiable.
- [46:54]
A
Did she stay married to the end to her husband?
- [46:58]
B
No.
- [46:58]
A
I wonder how much the fact that the husband wasn't the best friend had to do with it.
- [47:04]
B
I don't know. But he wasn't the only divorce that I helped pay for. I was married 91 to 94.
- [47:11]
A
That was a good run. That was a good, solid run there. Boy, I bet the first six months were pretty good. And then it went downhill.
- [47:20]
B
Oh, you. You're right. Mitch Key.
- [47:24]
A
So I want to ask you about the death of your best friend. What are you going to do now for friends?
- [47:31]
B
You can't replace somebody like her. It's hard to replace people sometimes.
- [47:36]
A
Were you with her at the end?
- [47:38]
B
No, I was going to go and see her before she died, but she died before I got to Ohio.
- [47:43]
A
How long before she died, had you had your last conversation with her?
- [47:48]
B
It was probably about a week or so.
- [47:50]
A
Did you end the phone call as though it were your last or. No.
- [47:53]
B
The last thing she ever said to me was, I'll talk to you soon.
- [47:57]
A
Maybe true.
- [47:59]
B
I believe in that stuff, that people can be contacted from beyond the grave. I believe in this. There's too many things that are unexplainable in this world.
- [48:07]
A
She could show up at the foot of your bed middle of the night.
- [48:11]
B
You know what's weird is when I'm thinking about my dad or whatever, a lot, I find dimes.
- [48:17]
A
Was your dad, by any chance, Franklin Delano Roosevelt?
- [48:22]
B
No, he was Adolph Eugene Peterson.
- [48:26]
A
I bet he found himself a nickname. Instead of using that first name, he went by Gene.
- [48:31]
B
He went by his middle name.
- [48:32]
A
Yeah.
- [48:33]
B
He was born 1141 and I was born 42464. I'd imagine he's one of the last Adolfs around.
- [48:40]
A
I'm struggling with the fact that he was born in 41 when it was well known on planet Earth who the crazy Adolf guy was.
- [48:49]
B
This is a Scandinavian spelling. A D, O, L, P, H, not a D, O, L, F. But still, they sound the same.
- [48:56]
A
My dad's brother was born around the same time, and they named him Himmler.
- [49:02]
B
Wow. That was Heinrich Himmler, the famous German guy. But.
- [49:06]
A
But they didn't want to go with Heinrich because they were already well aware of that kook. Do you have anything to say about the loneliness epidemic in this country with older men?
- [49:17]
B
Some older men are lonely, and some just enjoy being by themselves. I don't think everybody's the same, you know, if you get what I'm saying.
- [49:25]
A
I've been addressing this idea. This idea that there are lonely men out there and that there are men out there who want to be alone.
- [49:34]
B
I agree with that.
- [49:36]
A
So which one are you?
- [49:39]
B
I would say I enjoy being alone.
- [49:42]
A
You don't have a significant other in your life and you have a solitary profession.
- [49:47]
B
That's one of the things I like about this job. I like being outside and I like being by myself.
- [49:53]
A
I have heard that alcoholism was a problem on submarines.
- [49:59]
B
Alcoholism and divorce. Yeah. I finally took the cure about 15 years ago.
- [50:05]
A
I had an old World War II veteran say to me that 95% of people assigned to submarines were alcoholics. He said there was something about that.
- [50:18]
B
Life out of 1985. We spent nine months of that year underneath the surface of the ocean. So most of the time, being underwater is kind of boring.
- [50:28]
A
You ever have the experience of the submarine going to the surface in the middle of the ocean and you being able to just take in the fresh air.
- [50:38]
B
We were on the surface going up to British Columbia, Canada, in 1984. So I brought a thermos up there, and it was a full moon and a clear night, and you could see lots and lots of stars. And I looked down, and here's five or six dolphins playing with the bow of the submarine as we're going across. The only noise was the submarine cutting through the water. That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Going to see on a submarine is different than being able to see outside and things like that. It's a different experience. I mean, you climb in a tube, and then a few weeks later, oh, we're in Japan. Now, you know.
- [51:18]
A
Any possibility ever to look out a window and stare at a whale?
- [51:24]
B
No, there's no windows.
- [51:26]
A
I think that's a design flaw. Well, I'm gonna let you go and move on before the afternoon shot altogether. But I'm glad I got ahold of you.
- [51:36]
B
Me too. I'm glad we got the connection. Mitch, Key.
- [51:39]
A
Thanks. Good talking to you.
- [51:41]
B
You too.
- [51:42]
A
So long.