MISCHKE: "Want to Go Bowling"

Summary

Garage Logic – "MISCHKE: Want to Go Bowling"
March 11, 2026 | Hosted by Gamut Podcast Network
Main Host: Tommy Mischke ("Mishke")

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Episode Overview

This episode of Garage Logic, hosted (primarily) by Tommy Mischke, revolves around the idea of personal failure—how our missteps, mistakes, and embarrassments are as common (and as interesting) as our successes. Through humorous storytelling, listener calls, and reflective commentary, Mischke explores the concept of shared human imperfections, finding camaraderie and even entertainment in life's blunders. The program also features the recurring motif of bowling as both a literal and metaphorical touchpoint for exploring everyday experience, happiness, and authenticity.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Museum of Personal Failure (02:01–21:00)

• Introduction to Failure: Mischke sets the tone, celebrating the catharsis of failure instead of fearing it, declaring:

  "Failure I enjoy when it all goes to hell. I mean, you're giving it a solid try...and then all of a sudden, boom." (02:01, Mischke)

• Museum Concept: He discusses the rise of the Museum of Personal Failure in Vancouver, BC, which collects self-submitted objects that represent different failures—wedding gowns from failed marriages, rejection letters, and more.
  • The founder, Steven Collins, sought to diminish shame and recognize failure as a universal bonding experience.
• Society and Spectacle of Failure:
  Mischke contrasts truly spectacular failures (Evel Knievel’s crash, Nixon’s second term, Geraldo Rivera’s empty Capone vault) with mundane mediocrity.

  "We like great failures, just like we like great successes. What we don't like is kinda good, but not great." (04:13, Mischke)

• Corporate Flops:
  Mischke recounts failed business products like McDonald's pizza, New Coke, Cosmopolitan yogurt, and novelty products like Cheetos lip balm and Burger King’s Satisfries.
  • He spins a fictional "mystery burger" bit, poking fun at bizarre fast-food experimentation.
• Underlying Message:
  Failure is normal, and life's upsets make for the most relatable, memorable stories.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Failure’s Universality:

  "I'd relax a little bit more. I'd realize there's a tremendous amount of failure in this world and people like me are failing left and right...We celebrate the successes so much that people start to think failure is unusual, but I think it's the norm." (09:33, Mischke)

• On Failed Products:

  "Cheetos lip balm was a real thing. You can look this up, you can Google it. Cheetos lip balm existed at one point. It was a horrible failure." (13:56, Mischke)

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Listener Call #1: Ken – The Texting Mishap & Perspective on Politics (22:32–37:36)

• Ken's Personal Failure:
  Ken shares his embarrassing story of accidentally sending an intimate text meant for his wife to Representative Peggy Scott, a state legislator, acknowledging it as a lingering personal failure.

  "Instead of sending it to her, it went to Representative Peggy Scott of the Minnesota House, who I was working with at the...That was an embarrassing moment that I still haven't...lived down." (23:10, Ken)

• Station Colleague Bob Davis – Transformation:
  Discussion shifts to Bob Davis, a former political talk host turned nomadic traveler, as evidence of life changes.
  Ken notes:

  "He's so much more just laid back...He's just out of it...It was making him crazy." (28:40, Ken)

• Reflection on Tribalism & Political Identity:
  Both note a surrendering—moving away from intense political engagement to focus on real, local life and human decency.

  Mishke: "What are they missing? Are they missing living?" (30:02, Mischke)
  Ken: "Yeah, building relationships and things with people and having experiences is so much more fulfilling than trying to change the world." (34:14, Ken)

• The Limits of Politics in Real Life:
  Mischke details how political divides rarely affect day-to-day neighborliness outside election days, underscoring the importance of kindness and decency over tribal differences.

  • "Neighbors are neighbors. You be at a gas station, we're all the same conversations...all of the political stuff goes out the window." (34:14, Ken)

• Insight on Social Media's Role:
  Social media exaggerates and amplifies division, creating an artificial world distinct from face-to-face life.

  Mishke: "There are two worlds. There's the world online, which is kind of an artificial world, and then there's the world when you walk out your front door. And those are two different worlds." (36:04, Mischke)

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Listener Call #2: Andrew – Life at the Bowling Alley (40:45–46:55)

• Andrew’s Work:
  Andrew works at a 70-year-old bowling alley, contentedly performing his job.
• Bowling as a Motif:
  Playful banter about bowling’s enduring appeal and Mischke’s amusement that, even after the first perfect game, the sport continues.

  Mischke: "As soon as the first guy got 300, there was a sense to me that what's the point of continuing with this game?" (42:39, Mischke)

• Reflections on Job Satisfaction:
  Andrew insists, "I got the best job for me." (42:28, Andrew)
• A Lighthearted Ode:
  Mischke spontaneously creates a comedic poem honoring the bowling alley repairman, blending gratitude for finding a purpose with tongue-in-cheek wisdom.

  "We all have a role to play. We all have a path...There is no peace, my friends. Like finding your place." (44:18–45:46, Mischke)

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Listener Call #3: Kelly – “Want to Go Bowling” (49:25–56:58)

• Unconventional Romance Narrative:
  Kelly shares how his relationship started with a phone call about making steak, leading to dates—bowling being the icebreaker.

  • The age gap (26 years) is handled candidly; his girlfriend keeps the relationship secret from her father, but her mother approves.

• Generational Parallel:
  Mischke delights in Kelly’s old-school invitation, noting,

  "That was my mother and father's first date in 1950...my dad said to her, 'want to go bowling or something?'...I just delight in the fact that your approach was not that dissimilar to the old man's." (51:00, Mischke)

• Honesty & Being True:
  Mischke encourages Kelly to meet his partner's parents, citing the relief and maturity of honesty over social discomfort.

  "There's just one [reason not to do it], and that is, it might be a tiny bit uncomfortable. There's your one reason not to, set against all the reasons to do it." (55:34, Mischke)

• Memorable Moment:
  A loyal listener, Kelly praises Mischke’s unique character:

  "You're a rare spirit, and I do appreciate it. It's really hard to find characters like you in this world. So many phonies and fakes." (56:34, Kelly)

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Notable Quotes by Timestamp

• "Failure is what makes this museum interesting. What do people consider a failure? Losing a job? College rejection. A botched attempt at sewing a pair of mittens...Sharing rejection and disaster and failure feels cathartic to a lot of people, apparently."
  – Mischke, (05:33)
• "Real failure is interesting...Take Evel Knievel's Caesar's Palace jump. That fall of his was a work of art, an absolute work of art. And the art was the art of failure."
  – Mischke, (06:19)
• "You can't combine certain things. It doesn't work. Cheetos lip balm was a real thing...It was a horrible failure."
  – Mischke, (13:53)
• "Your party on Friday night can go later than your party on Wednesday night...There are just these lovely agreed upon ways of living as well as agreed upon ways of welcoming each other. But that first Tuesday in November was very different."
  – Mischke, (31:53)
• "I would find someone's political view and religious view way down on the list...I would first see to what extent they seem to have a heart, a compassionate view of others..."
  – Mischke, (34:31)
• "There's a great philosopher...who has the view that everybody's right, they're just partially right. Whenever someone makes an impassioned plea and argument...something in what they're saying has some truth to it."
  – Mischke, (35:47)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• 02:01–21:00 – Deep-dive monologue on the Museum of Personal Failure, failed products (Evel Knievel, McDonald's Pizza, etc.), and philosophical reflections on failure.
• 22:32–37:36 – Call with Ken: texting mistake, politics fatigue, Bob Davis’s life change, the value of decency over partisanship.
• 40:45–46:55 – Call with Andrew: bowling alley life, job contentment, comedic career-ode.
• 49:25–56:58 – Call with Kelly: cross-generational romance, bowling as a date, honesty vs. social comfort, listener appreciation for host Mischke.

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Tone & Style

The episode is informal, quirky, self-deprecating, and philosophical, with Mischke’s trademark blend of wry humor and empathy. Listener calls are weaved in organically, allowing real-world experiences and confessions to connect with larger themes about failure, humanity, and the search for authentic happiness.

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Overall Highlights for the Uninitiated

• Failure is not only inevitable, it’s fascinating and unites us more than success ever could.
• Even mistakes can become stories worth telling (and laughing at), from corporate disasters to personal mishaps.
• Local, human connections matter more than tribal political allegiance—kindness is the true currency.
• Sometimes, the best job in life is simply the job that fits you, and a bowling alley (or any honest work) can be a place of humble fulfillment.
• The simplest gestures—like inviting someone bowling—can forge lifelong memories and echo across generations.

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This episode embodies Garage Logic’s small-town, gumption-filled sensibility: irreverent, neighborly, and always ready to laugh at life’s gutter balls as well as its strikes.

Transcript

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[B]

Hello there. Have any of you been failing of late? Failing in any way, shape or form? My name's Mishki. Have you been giving life a solid try, but it hasn't been working out? Failure after failure after failure. Oh, good. That's. That's what I'm saying. Celebrating here today. Failure I enjoy when it all goes to hell. I mean, you're giving it a solid try. You're really sure you're pulling it off and then all of a sudden, boom. Welcome to the program, everyone. I've been spending a lot of time researching a brand new museum in North America. This one's Called the Museum of Personal Failure, it's become quite popular. It's a collection of self submitted failures. People have sent in their failures and this museum is collecting them. They say it takes the shame out of defeat and turns it into a shared human experience. The Museum of Personal Failure, you can visit it and find a wedding gown from a failed marriage. You can find a gallon of spilled paint. You can find rejection letters. All these things represent failures in people's lives, things that didn't work out. When I first started the museum, there wasn't any plan, says even Collins, who created the Museum of Personal Failure. I didn't have a vision for what it could become, what it would become after back to back relationship breakups. I just realized I felt defeated. I felt like I had failed and failed again. I was sad. I was processing the losses. I wanted to feel less alone. So I put an ad out that said failures wanted. I didn't know how people would react. It was a see what happens sort of thing. Well, submissions poured in over several months and I realized there was enough material to bring this idea of a museum of failure to life. There has been a steady stream of visitors to the museum. It's been nonstop, Collins says. The first few days we had 500 to 600 people a day. Visitors have found the objects deeply relatable. Charlie Materi's rusty scissors are on display, representing his failed career as a barber. Zafrine Jaffer sent in a piece of art that she thought was a complete failure on her part. Once again, Collins says, I didn't know what this was going to be, but I think it's interesting. I think failure is interesting. I think failure is what makes this museum interesting. What do people consider a failure? Losing a job? College rejection. A botched attempt at sewing a pair of mittens. Someone submitted a piece of music they thought was a complete disaster. It went nowhere. No one wanted anything to do with it. Sharing rejection and disaster and failure feels cathartic to a lot of people, apparently. The Museum of Personal Failure is in Vancouver, British Columbia. I think failure is interesting. What would not be interesting would be the Museum of Pretty Good but Not Great attempts at things that were, well, pretty good, just not great. That would be boring. The extremes tend to be where the intriguing can be found. So I understand why this museum has become so popular. We like great failures, just like we like great successes. What we don't like is kinda good, but not great. The Museum of Pretty Darn Good, but certainly not anything to write home about would go out of business in A week. Real failure. However, real failure is interesting. Take Evel Knievel's Caesar's palace jump. That fall of his was a work of art, an absolute work of art. And the art was the art of failure. Or how about Nixon's second term? So many of us were glued to our television sets watching that presidential career crash and burn. Fascinating. Nixon should be in this museum in Vancouver. Now. A rather uninteresting presidency was the presidency of Jerry Ford. Nothing great happened, but nothing horrible happened either. That's boring. That's why the Gerald Ford Presidential Library is one of those little libraries you can see in neighborhoods attached to a post dug into the ground. It's in Michigan, right at the start of a dead end street near an abandoned playground. Jerry would have been better to have failed spectacularly. Remember Geraldo Rivera and Al Capone's vault? That live television program? Spectacular Failure. Tough to find a more spectacular failure witnessed in real time by more people. 30 million people watched that live program. I was there. I was waiting to see what they were going to find in Al Capone's vault. And they found nothing. Here's another great failure. McDonald's pizza. A lot of you don't even know McDonald's tried pizza. Sure they did. Back in the 80s, McDonald's executives thought they could capture the business they were losing in the evenings to pizzerias. They said, how hard is pizza to make? We can capture the burger market and the pizza market. Now. Initially, it seemed promising. They designed a quick cook pizza oven that could get a pizza pie out in under six minutes. But the downside was the ovens took up valuable kitchen space and slowed down the making of all the other items. Worse yet, in some of the McDonald's, the pizza boxes could not fit through the drive thru windows, forcing those franchises to have to remodel. Within 24 months. The whole pizza experiment was no more. They got out of the pizza business altogether. An abject failure, sort of like New Coke. All of that should be in this museum. I'd like to get out to Vancouver and take in the museum of personal failure. I think what would happen, the effect it would have after spending an hour or two in there, the effect it would have would be, I just feel better about myself. I'd relax a little bit more. I'd realize there's a tremendous amount of failure in this world and people like me are failing left and right. And we ought to realize it's more common than we think. We celebrate the successes so much that people start to think a failure Is unusual, but I think a failure is the norm. If Evel Knievel were alive today, you know what would be kind of fun for him to leap the museum of personal failure and fail to reach the far ramp crash in a tribute to all who have failed before him. Better yet, he could bring his wife a failed marriage due to all Evel Knievel's endless philandering. He could put his ex wife on the back of the motorcycle. They could jump together. Crash together. And it could symbolically represent his own crashes, his own failures, his marriage, crashing, his marriage failure. In fact, we could set the sight lines for that jump in such a way that the whole incredible spectacle, which normally would be something to see, would be obscured by construction equipment and foliage, thus making it fit. Failed entertainment. A failed leap, a failed marriage, failed entertainment. And instead of an ambulance and emergency medical personnel, we could send a waitress and a plumber to help evil out. And a children's book author making for a failed medical intervention, A failure ultimately to save his life and the life of his now ex wife. The story of the entire event could be written by a newspaper reporter in invisible ink. He could get the story in just under deadline, but the editors wouldn't be able to read it, so it wouldn't get printed, making it a failed journalistic effort as well. Or I could stop right now and call this a failed podcast bit. I'm going to send in a recording of this entire bit and say it failed. To accomplish all that I hoped it would, I want it placed in the museum of personal failures. I got obsessed with failure today, finding anything I could on failure. It was fascinating to me. I learned Cosmopolitan magazine, Cosmopolitan magazine, that women's magazine at one point tried to make yogurt. I'm not joking. At one point you could buy Cosmopolitan yogurt. Why on earth they attempted a foray into this particular food sector is beyond me. But they did launch a range of low fat yogurts aimed at women between 15 and 44. And it just didn't work. No one wanted Cosmopolitan yogurt, just like they wouldn't want Time magazine, salad dressing or National Enquirer suppositories. You can't combine certain things. It doesn't work. Cheetos lip balm was a real thing. You can look this up, you can Google it. Cheetos lip balm existed at one point. It was a horrible failure. Cheetos lip balm should be in that museum just as surely as Miracle Whip skin cream would be. If they did that, or Hellman's mayonnaise skin cream or cow pie fabric softener, turpentine cough syrup. But Cheetos lip balm was a real thing. It didn't have the usual cherry, mint or vanilla flavors. The lip balm actually tasted like Cheetos. And that would of course be the reason it would fail. I did not know that Burger King at one point had come out with satisfries. Satisfries. They were supposedly healthier than regular fries. The batter used was less porous, which prevented too much oil being absorbed while it was frying. But here was the problem. Burger King could not promote the difference in its ads without damaging its core. French fries. Apparently no one ever thought of that. You can't come out with satisfries, say they're healthier, then continue to sell the old fries because you're in essence talking about how unhealthy they are. Customers came up with a nickname for saddest fries. You know what they came up with? Saddest fries. The saddest fries. Burger King said, okay, we screwed up. Put this in the category of McDonald's pizzas. I love that they experiment though. I love that they mess around with stuff. I wish they'd try something like the mystery burger. Either McDonald's or Burger King could do this. The mystery burger. We don't even know what's in it. Would you like a mystery burger? When you pull up to the drive through, that's the first thing they could ask. Would you like our mystery burger? What's in that? Well, we don't know. That's why it's a mystery. Do you think I'll like it? Who knows? You could love it. Then again, it could kill you. See, we've developed a little something we call drive thru roulette game to play at all. Why sure, I'll play. How much is the mystery burger? Oh, it's free. Burger King decided to offer this to entertain those of us who have to work here. A job that may be the single worst in all of America. And this is a way to keep us around. We get to watch people order it and see what happens. That's why I'm still working here. I'm sure not doing it for the money. So you mean you give me the mystery burger and you watch me eat it as a form of entertainment? Yes siree Bob. Now, some people drive off from our pay window and we see them crash within about 40ft right into an embankment. We didn't know they were tasting cocker spaniel. Nobody told us. But then Every now and then, someone likes the mystery burger. We made a burger out of bubble gum and hot tamales last week, and it was a big hit, so you never know. Ready for your mystery burger? Want to spin the big roulette wheel, see what happens? See what you get? All right, let's go for it. My life is dull, boring and repetitive. I work at the assembly line. I go home. I watch Wheel of Fortune. My life is meaningless. The mystery burger may be just what I need to bring some surprise, some color and some energy to this existence of mine. Give me a mystery burger. Here you go, sir. Take a big bite. My God, this is awful. What the hell is moving around under that bun? Well, let's take a peek. Looks like those are mice. Better in your burger than in our restaurant. We can get in trouble with the health department. Oh, God, I should never have played this game. Not so fast, sir. Order another mystery burger, see what happens. We promise it won't be mice this time. All right, give me another one. Whoa, this one's really different. Wow, I like this one. Well, what do we have here that looks like. Oh, that's a heroin burger. How you feeling on that one, sir? Well, I'll tell you something. I'm not feeling like watching Wheel of Fortune. When I get home, I think I'm just gonna play some old Moody Blues albums. It's gonna lay around. Heroin, huh? Never had that. When I was researching failures today, I came upon Harley Davidson perfume. But just like Cheetos lip balm. Bad decision. Harley Davidson perfume. You could probably put Harley Davidson on a lot of things, but not perfume. And of course, it didn't work. The ad said one of the most iconic brands in the world now comes out with a rare perfume. What are you wearing tonight, Gretchen? I'm wearing Harley Davidson perfume. That explains it. You smell like my repair garage. Okay, whatever. Am we gonna have sex or what? I don't know. I'm not sure what I'm getting into here. Oh, come on, you chicken. I built a new bed for us last week. With a roll bar. I'm scared, Gretchen. I'm frightened of you right now. Get in here, Al. Bring your pry bar. What? Harley Davidson perfume. Burger King Satisfries, McDonald's Pizza, Cheetos Lip balm, Cosmopolitan yogurt. May they all find themselves at the museum of Personal failure. It's the 1920s. A man with the last name Leonard is standing on a dirt lot handing over the keys to a Model T. There's no fury sign yet, just a handshake. And a name that means something in a town called South St. Paul. Forty years of handshakes later, it's 1963. And the son of that gentleman with the last name Leonard takes that legacy and gives it a name. Fury Motors. Same street, same town that was over 60 years ago, that street in South St. Paul that still has Fury Motors selling Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, but there's another one in Stillwater also selling those cars. And there's a Ford dealership in Waconia, also with the name Fury. And a GMC and Buick dealership in Forest Lake, also carrying the name Fury. And this family with the last name Leonard is still showing people in this part of the country how to sell cars. Fury Motors. Feel good about where you're buying your next automobile.

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[B]

Somewhere, three states away, in a room filled with server stacks and cooling fans, a piece of software is deciding if you can start your business. It doesn't know your face. It doesn't know your grit. It doesn't know that you've lived in the Twin Cities your entire life. It doesn't know you. To the big national banks, you're a data point folks. A digit in a cold flickering algorithm. North American Banking Company thinks that's a tragedy. North American Banking Company is a community bank with six Twin Cities locations and. And that's it. Built on a radical old school defiance. The belief that a banker should actually know you. They have all the mobile apps, the global reach, the high speed tech, every bell and whistle the giant national machines brag about. But North American Banking Company has a pulse. There's blood moving through their veins. They're a bank for people, the big banks. They offer you a machine. North American Banking Company offers you a partner, member, fdic, equal housing lender. Well, I think it's time to spin the big listener wheel and find out who we can call. A lot of people have put their name on the list willing to take a phone call from old Mishk and I spin the big wheel, see where it lands. And I give somebody a call. Let's spin it.

[D]

Hello?

[B]

Hello, Ken.

[D]

It's a voice. It's a voice that touches me in my spirit. Spent a lot of evenings in the 90s listening to a certain Tommy Mishke in my garage airbrushing goalie masks.

[B]

Airbrushing goalie masks?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Was that lucrative?

[D]

Actually, it was. That went pretty good. It kind of ran its course, and I got tired of doing it and moved on to painting motorcycles and custom cars and stuff. Ended up designing motorcycle parts for a living.

[B]

That's what you do now?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

If you were to place something in the museum of Personal Failures, what would it be?

[D]

Oh, in hindsight, you know, with this whole texting thing, it took me a while to get used to. If someone texts you and you text them back, you better check who you're sending the text to, because sometimes you get a few at once and you send the wrong message to the wrong person. So I was sending a note back to my wife about just explaining my affections for her, let's just say. And instead of sending it to her, it went to Representative Peggy Scott of the Minnesota House, who I was working with at the. That was an embarrassing moment that I still haven't, to this day, really lived down. And that was probably 12 years ago.

[B]

Any way at all you could deliver to me word for word what that text said?

[D]

Probably not on a radio show.

[B]

Really? It goes into that area. Yeah.

[D]

It's not the kind of thing you'd want to send to your congressperson.

[B]

Well, it doesn't sound like something you'd want to send to anyone. Anyone outside your wife.

[D]

Exactly. And that person being top of the list of, no, don't send it there.

[B]

So did she respond before you had a chance to correct yourself?

[D]

I'm afraid so. I believe it was three question marks

[B]

in a row, along with a heart. Imagine if she would have texted back, I'm putting on my Harley Davidson perfume right now. Let me know when you're swinging by.

[D]

That would have been a different outcome.

[B]

I had a friend who was having a discussion, a little bit heated with a boss. His boss was a woman, and he was upset about something, but he was trying to be polite about it. And they were kind of going back and forth on the phone, and he realized he wasn't getting anywhere with his boss, and he decided he would just end the call. So he said, okay, well, we can talk tomorrow when I come back into the office. So said goodbye and pressed the button, thinking he was disconnecting the call, but he missed that button. Oh, so what he did was say, we can talk tomorrow when I'm in the office. Bye, bye, and then failed to hit the button and then said, you fat cow. And then he looked and he saw he hadn't hit the button, so then he quickly hit the button, and then he sat there in his car for an hour trying to figure out, A, what his future was looking like, B, whether he should just pull the car into the garage and leave it running now and just sit and wait for an end to come, a merciful end. But he instead went back into that office that next day, walked into that office without having had any more communication with her, and there she was. And there he was. And he had to confront the fat cow. I mean, he had to confront the woman. To his credit, he did. He did apologize. And, you know, there's no real way out of that.

[C]

No.

[D]

That takes a little healing time. Yeah. Hey, you know what? We have a mutual friend, and that is one Bob Davis.

[B]

Bob Davis. And you are friends?

[D]

Yes.

[B]

And how did that come about?

[D]

I used to do political stuff until I realized that just sucks the life out of you. And we did some events with Bob Davis because he had a political talk show at one point, and him and I just got to be friends. We hit it off because we both like a lot of the same things, and cars and road trips especially. And, you know, the Mishke Road show is often played here at our company as well, too. So you've had many years of entertaining our group of people here we work with as well as Bob has, too.

[B]

Bob, he used to follow me at kstp. He used to do his show after mine. And Bob was pretty intense. Here's what I'm marveling at regarding that individual. However, I believe today he is a very, very different human being. I get the sense Bob. Bob has gone through some extraordinary metamorphosis. Am I right on that?

[D]

You're spot on. You're spot on. He's so much more just laid back. And I worked a lot of nights doing painting and artwork and stuff. And so you and Bob listen to you guys every single night. It was fantastic. So I've got a warm spot in my heart for the two of you guys.

[B]

He was intensely political. Now, I was not a political guy. I. I was doing my radio show. And then he would come on and KSTP would go right back to the hardcore politics that it had going all day up until I came along. So he was this guy who lived and breathed politics. I mean, he was just rabid about it, intense going to all sorts of websites, just filling his mind day in and day out. It's all he did. And now it's almost as though he has nothing to do with that world. He has disappeared into a nomadic existence, living in deserts and rural little areas with other nomads, traveling caravans of people who have disconnected from the world entirely. I don't know that he has politics in him anymore. I think he's like some sort of mystical figure now.

[D]

A sage. A sort of sage.

[B]

Does he recognize this transformation? Does he ever fully address it? I've never heard him actually address it.

[D]

Yeah, he does every once in a while. And I know from conversations I've had with him, he's just. He's just out of it. He's just like, you know, there's no point. It's not. It's not getting anywhere. It was making him crazy. I was in the same boat. I was very, very politically involved. And I was like, I gotta get out of this. Do something else that's more creative.

[B]

So there's a fascinating thing here that I want to bring. Bring up this politics thing. Bob was apparently trying to take it somewhere. You were trying to take it somewhere. I'm not trying to take anyone anywhere. So I'm fascinated by people who think they can take people somewhere, that they can do this and affect that and make the world this way. And somewhere along the line with you and Bob, there was a surrendering a sense of, what am I doing?

[D]

That's an actually very good way of putting it. A surrender of just, you know, what gave it a good shot, had a good run, but it's not being effective. So why should keep doing it where I can take that time and actually create something tangible?

[B]

So in this country right now, where you have perhaps more people than ever spending their days just in the thick of it politically, it's all over social media, and of course, all the people who are even making a living just hammering the drum of politics day after day after day after day. What are they missing? Are they missing living?

[D]

Yes, I think that's part of it. And I think that the part of it is. I think it's tribal.

[B]

It clearly is tribal. But what stops these people from having the Bob Davis metamorphosis or yours, where they say, you know what? I would just like to live a human life and not make this the centerpiece of each day?

[D]

Boy, I wish I had an answer for you, Tommy. When I say tribal, I don't mean left versus right. I mean just being part of something. It's really easy to get locked into a certain mindset on any side and not be able to see your way out.

[B]

It's interesting. I used to have these discussions with another guy who had a radio show at ksdp. In this case, the guy who was before me, Bob, was after me. Before me was a guy who lived and breathed politics day in and day out, just like Bob. Jason Lewis.

[D]

Yes. Yes.

[B]

And I used to say to Jason, you know, there's more to life than politics, my friend. And he'd say to me, mishki, everything is politics. Politics seeps into all things. You present something to me, some scenario, some situation. I'll talk to you about the political tentacles, the political ramifications, the political machinations. And I said, really? In everything? He said, yes, in everything. And so he and I were in very different places. But one of the ways I came to see things my way was I lived in a neighborhood, and everybody in the neighborhood lived a certain way. And that way was, well, the way people live in my neighborhood now. They all more or less got along with each other because they all more or less agreed upon what getting along involves.

[C]

Right.

[B]

And it involves you being able to do anything you want in this wonderfully free world of ours here in the United States, as long as it doesn't affect the other person in some deeply negative way. We're all reasonable with one another. Your party on Friday night can go later than your party on Wednesday night. And your lawnmower at 9am makes a lot more sense than your lawnmower at 6:30am and there was just these lovely agreed upon ways of living as well as agreed upon ways of welcoming each other. When you ran into someone or visiting with someone, when they came over to your garage sale, everybody seemed to be on the same page as far as the page of humanity goes. But that first Tuesday in November was very different. If you went with how they voted on that day, it was very different. Everybody was in their own little. Well, I guess we'll go with tribe in a sense there. But what I came to realize is how does that really play out outside of that first Tuesday? Outside of that first Tuesday? My battery's dead on my car. Dan over there brings his jumper cables. Susie, she makes some food for Debbie because Debbie's having a health crisis. And I'm already dealing with different political views here. But it's not playing out in any meaningful way until that first Tuesday in November. And so then I sit back and say, well, what really is this political thing I found myself thinking on A local level. I'm not sure any of us would be different politically. Somehow. It's when it gets bigger and gets beyond our neighborhood. People have these radically different views, but views that on a local level don't seem to play out in any meaningful way, which then gets me thinking in terms of politics as far as towns and neighborhoods versus nations. It's all very strange to me and hard for me to figure out. I ended up finding that a far more important factor in this world was a general sense of human decency.

[D]

I find the same experience. Neighbors are neighbors. You be at a gas station, we're all the same conversations where you're filling up the tank, all of the political stuff goes out the window. And I think when I realized that, I'm like, yeah, building relationships and things with people and having experiences is so much more fulfilling than trying to change the world.

[B]

Yeah. I would find someone's political view and religious view way down on the list. As I evaluated them, I would first see to what extent they seem to have a heart, a compassionate view of others, and to what extent. Living with them in a neighborhood is easy because they get it. They get the game of living together.

[C]

The.

[B]

The guy revving up his engine, midnight in the garage after he pulled the muffler. He's just not a very kind person. He's just selfish. And that is what I would look at and be concerned about more is selfishness and a lack of kindness above all else. And other than that, I think it would be wonderful to have people exploring all sorts of varied and different ideas. I think that would make it very interesting and fun to talk about. So I haven't figured out where things go wrong. Somewhere things do go wrong, and I think it's in the getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and somewhere it starts to get really messed up.

[D]

I wonder if it's the question that never gets answered anymore is the what if they're right? That's a question I didn't hear much. In politics, we got to oppose this because it's from the other side. But what if they're right?

[B]

There's a great philosopher, American philosopher, who has the view that everybody's right, they're just partially right. Whenever someone makes an impassioned plea and argument, if they're at all intelligent, something in what they're saying has some truth to it. But because truth is often complex, they only have a piece of the story, and they're playing it out as though they have it all. I find with most arguments in great debates, for instance, Both parties are coming with elements of the truth. And I think social media, that takes something like a small division and accelerates it, expands it and intensifies it to the point where it gets so distorted. And maybe that alone is where we find the big culprit. Because there are two worlds. There's the world online, which is kind of an artificial world, and then there's the world when you walk out your front door. And those are two different worlds. I used to have it happen when I was a little kid. I used to watch a television show, and then I'd walk out my front door and I'd realize, this world outside this front door is not the same as that world I just saw on that television show. But you watch enough of those shows and they can start to get you thinking that's real.

[D]

Yes,

[B]

I do find myself heartened at Bob Davis continuing to plug along. So please give him my best.

[D]

Yeah, I will do that for sure. I should hopefully be talking with him later this week. He always says nice things about you. I always thought, hey, maybe if I hang out with Bob long time. One of these days. One of these days I'll get to talking.

[B]

Well, you're very kind. I'll let you go. Wonderful visiting with you.

[D]

Yes, sir. Thank you so much for the call. Call anytime.

[B]

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[C]

Hello, this is Andrew.

[B]

Hello, Andrew Misky.

[C]

What's going on?

[B]

You tell me, sitting here at work.

[C]

I work at a bowling alley.

[B]

You work at a bowling alley?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

People are still bowling, still putting the pins in place by hand.

[C]

We get little seven, eight year old kids to do it. Stand there by the balls and we throw them at them. You know, extra points if you hit the kid.

[B]

Couple of buddies of mine had a contest when they were bowling to see who could create the greatest arc on the ball vertically. Yes. You know who won that contest? The guy whose arc on the ball, when he sent a ball toward the pins, went up so high it went through the ceiling. Not only went through the ceiling, but it went two lanes over before coming down through the ceiling, over, over that other lane, sending all sorts of material crashing to the lane. You would think that fella must have got in a bunch of trouble. No, he ran and they couldn't catch him.

[C]

Yeah, I could believe it. I could believe a guy threw a ball like that. You could watch that all day on YouTube.

[B]

Yeah, we didn't have YouTube for that. All you had was the memory. And you had to live with just retelling the story over and over again and. And of course, the story would change over the years, as all stories do. It's just natural. And I'm not sure what really happened versus the story I tell, but it's Close, I think. Do you ever say to yourself, I've got the best job in the world?

[C]

I got the best job for me.

[B]

Well, that's what I mean, because this

[C]

is as good as it gets sometimes. I've had a bunch of other jobs. I've worked a lot of places. And this right now, this is good.

[B]

It's extraordinary to me that bowling still exists. As soon as the first guy got 300, there was a sense to me that what's the point of continuing with this game?

[C]

I agree with you. I don't bowl.

[B]

We put a man on the moon. We're not doing that anymore. 72 was the last time anybody stood on the moon. There's a group going up to the moon here shortly, but they're not even going to land. And the reason is, we did that. That's what a 300 game is. Why are we still bowling?

[C]

I don't know. I don't do it.

[B]

I was doing some research today on a museum. It's a new museum in North America. It's called the Museum of Personal Failure. People send in different things from their lives to represent their failures. If you were sending something in from your life, what would be something that might represent your greatest failure?

[C]

Nothing I want to tell the world, I guess.

[B]

How old is that bowling alley you work at?

[C]

70 years.

[B]

70 years old. Good to know some things don't change.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

What did you want to do when you were a little kid? What did you want to be when you grew up?

[C]

Play first base for the Minnesota Twins like everybody else.

[B]

That's right.

[C]

Kent Herbeck.

[B]

That's right. For you it was Kent Herbeck. For me, it would have been killer brew.

[C]

Yeah. I don't know, man. How I don't think about, like, what I wanted to be or even what I want to be in the future anymore. What job is going to be better than a bowling alley repairman?

[B]

What job could be better than a bowling alley repair man? For jobs, I have tried them all Sat on many boards, often as the chairman but one day the good Lord gave to me the call. Bowling alley repairman was written across the sky. I did not ask how and I did not ask why I drilled oil in Kuwait, climbed mountains in Pakistan But God said, be a bowling alley repair man. The good Lord knew me well My success and my sins my desire to be a first baseman for the Minnesota Twins he said before the big bang came, he had for me a plan. And it called for me to be a bowling alley repair man. We all have a role to play. We all have a path. You may learn of mine and you may start to laugh. But money, women at adventure are not the things I chase. There is no peace, my friends. Like finding your place. I was captain of a ship. I did not need that life no more. I trained to be an astronaut but found that life a bore. And no, they do not need me on the Minnesota Twins. They need me fixing the machine that resets all the pins. Well, I just wanted to check in. I'd been going through the listener list while I was doing the show. Thought I'd track you down.

[C]

I'm glad you called. Feel free to call anytime. I listen to you at work. So I'll come in at six in the morning and I'll put your podcast on. So I appreciate it.

[B]

Well, thanks. Thanks for saying that. Great visiting with you and I hope to talk to you again sometime.

[C]

Sounds good.

[B]

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[C]

Hey, Misko, how you doing?

[B]

Kelly, you've answered.

[C]

I sure have.

[B]

How long have you been on the list?

[C]

Since you announced that you were gonna take phone numbers and get a. Get ahold of people.

[B]

That was a year ago. So what do you do with your life?

[C]

I got a girlfriend. I'm working at a place called Safety Clean. We pick up hazardous waste.

[B]

Where'd she meet your girlfriend?

[C]

Previous job. One night, she just called me looking for how to make a steak properly.

[B]

How to make a steak?

[C]

Yeah, how to cook it. Right. I gave her my opinion, and it just became like, six months of talking on the phone. She is much younger than I am, so I was like, but gosh, she's hilarious. And she's the sweetest girl I've ever met, you know?

[B]

How old are you?

[C]

51.

[B]

And how old is she?

[C]

25.

[B]

Wow. So how long have you been together?

[C]

I know, about two and a half years now.

[B]

So two and a half years ago, you're working at some job. Does the job have anything to do with steak?

[C]

No, it doesn't, Tommy. It's just. I think she was just hadn't made a steak before, and she was like, how do I make a steak properly? I've tried it, and it turned out terribly.

[B]

And rather than going online or to YouTube, she called Pilgrim Dry Cleaners. So she calls Pilgrim Dry Cleaners.

[C]

Well, she works there as well to

[B]

see if someone at the dry cleaners knows how to make a steak.

[C]

She called me and she said, hey, you know, I made a steak, and it's terrible. Can you help me out? And then I finally said, hey, you want to. Want to go bowling or something?

[B]

I love that you said, want to go bowling or something. Yeah, in 2026. I just love that. That still would be an opening line if you wanted to date someone. That was my mother and father's first date in 1950. In 1950, my dad said to her, want to go bowling or something? And they went bowling. Now, I just delight in the fact that your approach was not that dissimilar to the old man's. First of all, I think it's a hilarious thing to do with a woman on a First date. I mean, I could see saying, want to go have a cup of coffee? Want to have dinner? Want to go bowling? That's a very specific thing. You know, it's like saying, would you like to play badminton with me? It's just an odd opening line to me, but not to everybody.

[C]

Let's go bowling. Let's just go do something and get to know each other and talk.

[B]

You're 25 years older than her. Was any mention made of that gap at that point?

[C]

I had never even asked her age. You know, she held a conversation very well. She's been on her own since she was 18. It was just two people talking. I am a secret to her family. I know that they knew we were dating at one point, and she said, oh, my mom loves you. Of course, her father, being damn near my age, wasn't crazy about it. And she is Daddy's girl, so she didn't want to rock the boat. She just said, we're broken up. And I said, you know what? Whatever. I know it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I get that. But when someone can make you laugh and they really care for you, this world blows by so fast, I'm gonna just overlook certain things.

[B]

I wonder if this thing continues, if there will come a point where she'll have to take you by the hand and bring you to meet dad.

[C]

I've asked her about it, but to

[B]

no avail, because dad must be wondering why his little girl isn't dating.

[C]

Yeah. And her friends know. Her sister knows. I've met her sister as well.

[B]

You say you've been together how long?

[C]

Two and a half years.

[B]

Two and a half years. And unfortunately, come holidays, she heads off with her family and you have to be alone.

[C]

Yep. That's why I love you, Tommy. You're so insightful.

[B]

I just think that's the unfortunate part, is there are these moments when you want to be with her, and you normally would be with her, but you can't. Holidays being one. A birthday. She might get called by her family, hey, come over. And she might want to say, well, I'd like to spend it with my boyfriend. Oh, that's right. I can't tell you I have one. I wonder what would happen if she allowed it to just be rough in the beginning, where her dad's just a little upset. But her dad realizes, as her dad talks to her mother, who likes you, her dad realizes, you know, she's grown, she can make her own choices. Maybe this won't last. But in the meantime, I'm not gonna be a jerk about it.

[C]

I've contemplated myself of just going to her parents house and saying, look, I can't do this anymore. This is who I am.

[B]

I think that's a lovely idea. For multiple reasons. One is the relief of it for you personally, just the relief of the honesty. Two is the possibility that it could advance things and it could be where later you say, why didn't I do that a year ago? Number three is it's just plain honest and real. And you are somebody who she likes and you like her. And you know, this isn't that odd. It's not like she's met an alien or you know, she's 14 with a 60 year old. This isn't that bizarre. And the fact that her mother likes you says that you are in the wheelhouse roughly of what the family considers a normal, healthy human being. So for all of those reasons, I would encourage you to do that. And boy would I love to learn how that went. If you ever do, I tell you

[C]

what, I've been close and if I do do it, I'm assuming I can just text you on this.

[B]

Absolutely. Number yeah, 651-321-8949 indeed. Text me and let me know. And I might even when I get the text, give you a ring. But I would really like to know because I can't think of a reason not to do it. So the only reason not to do it, and there really is just one, and that is it might be a tiny bit uncomfortable. There's your one reason not to set against all the reasons to do it.

[C]

No, you're right. I have nothing to lose.

[B]

You really don't. You really don't. Because say he doesn't want to see you again. Well, you don't see him anyway.

[C]

You're right. The only other thing I can think of is that it really turns her off. Let's say I go forward and do this. How is she going to react?

[B]

Well, say for instance, her reaction is, well, that's it. I don't want to have anything to do with this honest person who was forthright and went to my father with the truth that we like each other and we're spending time together. That's an odd thing to turn someone off. And this balancing act of trying to be daddy's girl and please him continually is just not healthy.

[C]

No, you're exactly right. Plus, you know, this isn't like we see each other once or twice a week. You know, she's always over at my place or having me over to her place. So I agree with you 100%.

[B]

Well, keep me posted on it. What were you gonna say before I

[C]

let you go here?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I just want to say thank you. You've been great. Sincerely. I know there's a lot of fans out there, but you're a rare spirit, and I do appreciate it. It's really hard to find characters like you in this world. So many phonies and fakes. So I do sincerely appreciate you.

[B]

Well, thank you. Thank you for that. And I enjoyed. I enjoyed visiting with you, and I hope to talk to you again.

[C]

All right. You take care, Tommy.

[B]

You as well. So long.