Getting Personal: Childhood Stories, Influential Figures and Dream Meals

 We put each other in the hot seat with a series of 21 unpredictable questions, revealing aspects of our personalities and experiences you may not know. We take a nostalgic trip down memory lane, examining our upbringing, laughing at our rebellious teenage years, and discussing how all these experiences continue to shape us today.

The excitement doesn't stop there. Picture this - if you could be anywhere else with a snap of a finger, where would you be? We tackle this and more, opening up about our personal vices, influential figures, and even our favorite books. Delve into Clay's struggle with nicotine and my journey as a former smoker - it's raw, it's real, and we don't hold back! We also debate on who would make a fantastic president outside the political realm. Spoiler alert - Arnold Schwarzenegger might just be the unexpected hero we need.

To round off this rollercoaster ride, we let loose and share our dream last meals (hint: we've got Surf and Turf with a side of classic breakfast!). This episode is a no-holds-barred, all-access pass into our lives, beliefs, and quirks. Whether you're looking for a hearty laugh or some food for thought, we've got you covered. So buckle up, and let's get this immersive journey started!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey everybody, we are doing something different today. We are changing it up, right, Clay Cause we are. We're a little. We're a little tired of all the news and stuff, so we thought we'd have some fun, right.

Speaker 2: 0:13

Yeah, I mean, you know you can only do heavy for so long, right you got. Everybody needs a little bit of levity and a little bit of off topic, and I think this one's going to be a blast. I think we're going to have a good time with it.

Speaker 1: 0:25

I love it All. Right, right after this, we're going to do something fun. Okay, so what Clay and I have decided we're doing today is we are going to go back and forth with 21 questions. So I mean, is it going to be exactly 21? I don't know. We'll see what we get through, see what happens, but that is our plan. I'm so excited and I'm not going to lie, I have some stupid ones on here, because I kind of like stupid questions. We should have flipped a coin. We should have flipped a coin to see who was going to go first. Let's flip them.

Speaker 2: 1:19

So let's so, just so everybody knows. Normally Elsa and I have a process when we decide what we're going to talk about for the week, and usually it starts, you know, somewhere two or three days before recording and somebody will send somebody an email that says hey, let's talk about this, or let's talk about this, and we'll, we'll, we'll pull some ideas together and and, and then we'll we'll settle, and it usually happens pretty quickly. Elsa shot me this one yesterday, so, and I love it, I think it's a great concept, I think we're going to have a lot of fun with it. Um, but all she said was let's ask each other questions. So I have no idea what she's going to ask me. She has no idea what I'm going to ask her, and who knows who interpreted what out of just that simple task of let's ask each other questions. So let's, let's see, this is going to be fun.

Speaker 1: 2:06

Yeah, I feel like you're going to have like, if I, if I have to put a guest to it, I feel like you're going to have the more like intellectual questions and I'm going to have like, I promise, I promise one of the questions on there, I'll, I'll take it right off of there of dumb questions to ask people Uh, I'm not going to ask you your favorite color. If you want to share it, that's fine, but I'm not going to ask it. I did better than that, but not much better.

Speaker 2: 2:31

Did you do is? I'm not going to add and I'm not going to ask you the Barbara Walters If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? I'm not. That is not on my list of questions.

Speaker 1: 2:40

Okay, fair enough, fair enough, all right. Who's starting? Who's starting? Oh, ladies first. Oh, I love. What a gentleman, what a gentleman. All right, so here we go. I was going to mix it up, but I'll lose my, I'll lose my point, I'll lose my place, so I won't mix it up. Uh, I'm going right down my list here. We'll go back and forth. Right, one for you, one for me. All right, perfect, okay. So here we go. This isn't a silly one. This is like a start off good one. Um, what would you have done or become? Has you not gone into the service?

Speaker 2: 3:11

Um, so we've said this before, I've said this before a number of times. That was kind of always my trajectory from the time I was a teenager. But, um, you know, when I have a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, uh, could have gone into law enforcement. Um, I'm a master's degree in management, which obviously I put into account. I've dabbled since retirement in business, which I hated, um, but truthfully, uh, if not gone into the military, I probably would have been a teacher. Uh, probably my older sister, my, I don't know what it is, but my older sister's a, you know, she works in education, she's principal. My younger sister works in education, she's a reading specialist. I probably would have been a high school social studies history teacher and, um, and soccer coach. That's probably where I would have would have ended up.

Speaker 1: 4:01

I could see that. I could see you doing that easily. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 4:05

Yeah, definitely, definitely, where I would have been. All right, elsa's turn, all right. If you could go back and give your 17 year old self one piece of advice, what would it be?

Speaker 1: 4:18

Oh, I think it would be, and I'll explain it after I say it I, I think it would be, do it anyway. Um, I, I would say you know I've talked about this many times I, I am, and nobody believes me, but I swear to you, it's true, I am. I am a severe introvert. I, I, you know, and people get confused too, like, right, introvertism isn't that you're shy? Uh, I'm not shy, but I definitely Like to stay to myself and do my own thing and you know, and control my environment and all that kind of stuff. Um, and that is something that definitely held me back from doing some of the things that I would have.

Speaker 1: 5:00

I definitely I shouldn't say would have that I wanted to do. And the one thing that I wanted to do really badly, that I never told anyone, uh, growing up in high school in particular, was I wanted to join the drama club, like I love. Now, it's not a surprise, like knowing everybody, knowing the things that I wanted to do, knowing the things that I do now it's like totally not a surprise. But if I had said this to anybody, you know, even just five years ago, they would have like really no, sir, but yes. So I would say do it anyway, meaning do it in spite of the fear, uh, fear of like ridicule, um, or failure, really. So that would be my advice to my 17 year old self Do it anyway.

Speaker 2: 5:41

Like it, like it.

Speaker 1: 5:43

All right, let's see, I got one for you. Here we go. Uh, another simple one maybe. Um, what is the best book? Cause we're authors, we got to talk a little bit of book stuff. What's the best book you ever read, and why?

Speaker 2: 6:00

Best book I've ever read, and why. Um, I would say, and I don't even know if they still read this in high school, but, um, before I got to high school I have an older sister. She's two years older than me Um, and my family's full of readers. Um, my dad eats books uh, my oldest obviously but my older sister read catcher in the rye in high school. And before I got to high school she said read this, um, and and obviously you know everybody that's read, you know catcher in the rye, it's a, it's a classic, you know. I think it's probably is to me as close to the great American novel as there has ever been one. Um, but really what it did for me was it transitioned me from, um, kind of youthful, teenage kind of reading to really kind of adult no kidding kind of reading, um, and. And so there was a huge maturity step that came with that in just what I took into my life, um, so it's not just the content, because it's a phenomenal novel for everybody to read it.

Speaker 1: 7:10

Right.

Speaker 2: 7:10

But really what it did for me, you know, in development as a, as a human being, as an adult, growing up, there was a big leap there. So, you know, catcher in the rye, I think, has a huge place in my heart, you know, as far as it I really one of the best books I've ever read.

Speaker 1: 7:24

I love that. Great choice to great choice. I love it.

Speaker 2: 7:28

Okay, so this is a little bit of a two-parter, a little bit. What was your best job ever and your worst job ever?

Speaker 1: 7:40

Oh, okay, those are um, so I'll, I'll do the excluding, podcasting, all that kind of simple. Exclude that, Um, best job. I probably have to say I, I was a floral designer for 15 years and the the yeah, and it was a little mom and pop shop and she taught me, she saw it. So I had, I had painted a mural on my now grown daughter's bedroom when she was a baby and, uh, she came and delivered flowers for me because I had just had a baby and she saw the mural and she said, did you paint that? You know freehand or whatever? And I said, yeah, you know, I did. And she said, well, you've actually got some artistic talent. If you ever want to come into the flower shop and learn how to do floral design, I'll teach you. And I was like, okay, that sounds great. I was able to bring the baby and everything. So I would go into this little mom and pop flower shop and she would teach me how to, how to make floral designs and and I'm a little morbid my favorite thing to make was always um, funeral sprays, because they were just so big and you could just like, really like you know, creative with it and, um, yeah, so that would probably be like the greatest job, um, for for the time I did that, for like 15 years, loved it.

Speaker 1: 9:02

Worst job Probably probably the worst job was probably my first job Uh, it was. It sounds great and it's such a typical small town girl job to have too. So I totally realized that. But, uh, I worked in a gourmet food shop and it was great for the food, uh, but I hated every minute of it. I hated being on the cash register. I hated.

Speaker 1: 9:29

I was so embarrassing. I'm so bad with numbers that I I would go into automatic panic mode and even things that I knew. Like you could say to me you could like catch me off guard and go two plus two and I go. I don't know, Of course, I know what it is, it's seven, Getting, getting, but yeah, so it was very stressful for me. They'd be like I didn't even know. This is how dumb I was. I was like 16. So, come a little slack people when I say this to you, I didn't know what a quarter pound was like, right off the you know, like dumb things. I didn't know and I was like, um, I don't know what to do. I since learned Don't worry, I've, I've learned, but yeah, that was the worst one, Okay, oh, I gotta ask you something.

Speaker 1: 10:14

I'm like wait for the next one. It plays like dude. All right, let's see. Okay, so here's the dumb one for you. I've got a dumb one. It's not really dumb. Do you think aliens actually exist?

Speaker 2: 10:31

Um, so I am yes, I do, Um, I think it is um, extremely, um, shallow minded. I think it's crazy for us, in this massive universe, um which we still, you know, haven't touched um, but we've, you know, explored visually and we know, you know, kind of what's out there in the expanse and you know, at least conceptually, we know, to think that there is not another living thing outside of this one little planet. I think is absurd to believe that there is no other potential for life anywhere else in the universe besides this one little planet that we sit on. I think it's I don't know if it's narcissistic, I don't know what it is, but anybody who says, ah, it's impossible, there's no way, there's aliens, I think you're crazy. I really think that you are off your rocker if you don't believe that there's potential for life in other places besides this planet. It's just, it's crazy to me.

Speaker 1: 11:42

Yep. I agree it was a perfect word for it too that it's such a narcissistic notion to think that, I mean, the universe is so huge they're still discovering, you know, and that'll never stop. I mean, it's just gonna go beyond our comprehension. It is beyond our comprehension. So, yes, I agree with you 100%.

Speaker 2: 12:02

Yep, you're definitely aliens. I don't know if they're green, but they're aliens, yeah well, I mean, listen, I'm not going beyond, there's aliens, but there are aliens, okay. So I know that you are. I know that you are now a very you know conservative Christian. You know, I don't know if you've always been that, so I'm gonna ask you what was your the worst punishment you received as a child or teenager, and what did you get it for?

Speaker 1: 12:35

Oh, so I was, I was the. So I have an older brother. He's four years older and he was the golden child, like he never did anything wrong. Or if he did do something wrong, he was smart enough to like, own it and apologize and do all the right things. I did everything against what I was told to do. If you told me to sit, I'd say I was so obnoxious. If you told me to sit, I'd stand. If you told me to, you know, whatever I had to do, the opposite of everything, and I was extremely willful. I did whatever I wanted and was very like, damn the consequences. Now, having said that, I will also tell you, hand to God, that I wasn't a terrible kid. I was just rebellious, but not excessively so, so worst thing I ever did. Well, it's actually our funny story that my mother and I tell together and we laugh about.

Speaker 1: 13:28

I snuck out of the house which is not an uncommon thing and met up with my girlfriends and we met down at like the gazebo. I lived in a condo complex at that time and we met down in this spot. We were all hanging out. One of the girls' fathers must have checked on her in a room and, of course, found she wasn't there, so we hear him yelling her name out. She goes in well unbeknownst to me and the other one. We didn't know that. She ratted us out the jerk, and so I had this whole system of when I would get back to the house.

Speaker 1: 14:05

I knew like which floorboards could get to the stairs like you get the blueprint pretty quick and I walked through our slider door and I'm tiptoeing, I have my shoes in my hand and I'm tiptoeing and all of a sudden I hear where have you been? And my blood turned to ice and it was my mother. And yeah, and it was bad enough that I snuck out, but it was like at I don't know. I think I came in, probably at like three o'clock in the morning. At the point, I think it was like maybe, I don't know, 14, 15 years old, and that's the only one I'm really copping to, because the other ones I don't think my mother knows yet, and I don't care that I'm 50 too. That means she don't need to know. Listen, she still can count to three, and when she gets to two, I stop whatever I'm doing. She's like one, two. Okay, mom, I'll stop. So, yeah, never ends. Yeah, we'll call that the worst.

Speaker 2: 15:02

That you were. So I am the boy. I literally known in my house as the boy, so I have kind of that. I have the older sister and the younger sister and I am the boy. And my older sister and I were.

Speaker 2: 15:19

We weren't bad kids, but we were a little risk takers. We did go out and have a good time, we snuck out of the house, we did those kinds of things, and then my younger sister clearly was the smartest of the three of us learned from all the things that my older sister and I did and she had a great teenage experience. She was just smart enough not to do the things that were gonna get her in trouble, or at least not the caught doing them. So we all were a little adventurous I guess is a good word, but I did. I got in my fair share of trouble and I did my fair share of things wrong. So, yeah, I don't know how much we would have hung out, but I definitely would have been the bad influence had we hung out. I love it. Yeah, I always hung out with the bad influences.

Speaker 1: 16:09

Like I wasn't the bad influence and I know that sounds very whatever, but I had the strictest parents Like my mom always looked at me and said like my mom always looked like she was the coolest, like she was a hairstylist so she'd always have like funky hairstyles and she looked like she was so cool and all my friends would be like oh, your mom's so cool. I'm like no, she's not, she's so strict. I had the earliest curfew out of everyone. Always she was always like she was that mom that called. If I said I'm going over to Jackie's house, she'd be like hi, it's Elsa's mom, I'm just making sure that somebody's gonna be like come on, mom, so embarrassing God.

Speaker 1: 16:54

But yeah, I was a troublemaker and my brother used to like just shake his head and I remember he would literally say to me like don't you understand how easy it is to not get in trouble? Just own up to it, just say I'm sorry I was wrong, it won't happen again. Because that's what he would do. And they'd be like you're so mature, we're so proud of you and you know. And I'd be like you know, and I'd be that little jerk and I'd be getting in trouble and they'd be sitting like this. You know I'll care, you know, being just obnoxious, obnoxious. My kids are good. They didn't do that to me. I don't know, I don't know how I got lucky, but they were not like that. Their stories crack me up of like you know. Now, of course, they're adults and they're like mom. You never knew it. But one time, you know, we went outside and we were in the driveway hanging out with our friends. I'm like, really, is that it Cool? Nerd, nerd losers.

Speaker 1: 17:49

Oh yeah, they're a little. I'll tell them some mild stories now. And they're like mom, it's cute, I love it. All right, let's see what do I have for you here. Ok, if you could snap your fingers right now and appear somewhere else, where would you be Anywhere in the world?

Speaker 2: 18:17

So I think everybody's got a bit of a bucket list places you want to go and those kinds of things. I'm not a beach person. I'm not a no secret in the world. I'm a massive soccer fan and a player I've played my entire life and, as a soccer fan, the teams that you generally cheer for Root 4, are not here in the United States and I follow an English club, Liverpool, which I'm a massive. Life stops in my house for me when the game's on and that's my thing. So if I could snap my fingers and be standing in the home end, known as the Cop in Anfield, their home stadium and watch a Liverpool game, like right now, I would go.

Speaker 2: 19:05

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 19:05

I love that. That's cool. Do you watch that show? You ever watch that show, ted Lasso.

Speaker 2: 19:09

You know it's amazing because everybody asked me that because I'm such a soccer guy and the only streaming service. I don't have is Apple, so I have never seen. Ted Lasso. Oh well, I'll tell you what.

Speaker 1: 19:21

Just to forewarn you if you do decide to get it to watch, that stop at. Like season two, or is it season three? They all of a sudden went super woke like hardcore. They were great up until this point and then they just it must have got new writers or something and they just started laying it on so thick and I stopped watching it. But just to forewarn you before, up to that point, it is so good, so good and it's yeah, it'd be a fun one to watch. To that point, ok.

Speaker 2: 19:51

All right, here we go. So three people, dead or alive, that you would invite to a dinner party.

Speaker 1: 19:59

Oh, my gosh, that's such a hard one. Ok, ok, let's see. Oh, I know, after we're done here I'm going to, at like midnight I'm going to go. Oh, why didn't I say so? And so, all right off the top of my head, let's see. So you can go ahead and laugh at me, because I'm laughing at myself and I know I'm taking it back before I change my mind. Hang on. Elvis Presley is number one because I love Elvis.

Speaker 1: 20:30

I just like, flat out wear huge Elvis fans. I have been since I was a kid, so Elvis would probably be number one for me. I suppose I should pick somebody like really smart and historically influential. Well, he was, but you know what I mean. You know, I'd like to sit down with Maya Angelou, that woman, she was pretty amazing. I would have loved to sit with her.

Speaker 1: 20:58

Now let me think of somebody alive, somebody alive that I would love to sit and talk with. I can tell you right now, it's not Kamala Harris, it's not her. It's not her. I know y'all were thinking that. I know you were like, oh, I bet she wants to sit down and talk to her. No, I'd be a little uncomfortable. Who right now? You know what? Honestly, we talk about Donald Trump in many ways, in good, bad, indifferent, all of the above. But I think I would like to sit down and just have a genuine conversation with him to see who he really is, without the cameras, without all of the stuff and things, just sheer curiosity of does he bring that whole extra dynamic to quiet, normal conversations or not? So that would be my third pick and, like I said, tonight at midnight I'm going to shoot you an email and say, oh, this is who I should have said, but we're sticking with those Sitting at a table for dinner.

Speaker 2: 22:04

We have Elvis, maya Angelou, donald Trump and Elsa. That's the table.

Speaker 1: 22:14

That's a crazy table right.

Speaker 2: 22:16

That conversation would be you'd need somebody to transcribe that There'd have to be a court reporter there doing the whole thing, because that would be some. Definitely people would be interested in how that turned out.

Speaker 1: 22:27

I think so. I think so because you couldn't get further apart people, right? In their lanes and in life and mindsets and everything. So I feel like I picked a good table.

Speaker 2: 22:40

No, I like it. I like it, it's very diverse Good yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:42

All right. Now part of me is wondering, like I'm curious about your answer to that question too. Can we cheat a little bit? Sure? Yeah, all right, I really wanna know yours.

Speaker 2: 22:54

So Teddy Roosevelt, number one lot of conservationists, obviously, president, soldier, all those things, amazing life, one of the last, I think, great American adventurers. So he's one of them. Who else? It's tough, right, it is tough. It's tough to narrow it down. I mean, there's a ton of people that I would love to sit and talk to, but Teddy Roosevelt's one for sure. Let's see, I would be very interested in bringing in really any one of the framers of the Constitution and get a real sense of what they truly were thinking as they wrote that. That would be, you know, I hate to say it would take a lot of debate off the table at the same age, which would be a huge bonus.

Speaker 2: 24:06

But that would be, and it doesn't any one of them that was there for the Congress in Philadelphia as they were writing. All of that would be a huge thing. And then let me see somebody alive. Somebody alive. I actually would like to sit down with that crew and bring Secretary Clinton and sit her down at the table.

Speaker 2: 24:43

I think that's not to gang up on her, but just sort of challenge of ideas and an ideology to go back and forth between the original you know, one of the framers of the Constitution, a former president myself with my life experience, and then her with a very different ideology and mindset, and just see where that conversation kind of runs itself. I think that would be very, very interesting to see.

Speaker 1: 25:14

Yeah, would yes, very much, so I agree.

Speaker 2: 25:19

All right, now does that mean I do, I ask. No, no, go ahead. Go ahead, because I've got one that we're both gonna weigh in on coming here in a second yeah.

Speaker 1: 25:27

Okay, cool, all right, let's see. Do you have a bad habit that you need to give up?

Speaker 2: 25:35

You don't strike me as a bad habit guy you do. I do. I have my, only my. I'm cutting down on soda, which is not really a bad habit, but it's something that I need to improve on. I do have a nicotine thing. It's a long time thing. Yeah, anybody who's been in the military, and especially if you've been a combat arms kind of guy, like the life that I lived chewing tobacco is almost a cultural norm.

Speaker 2: 26:07

I've quit a number of times. I quit for the last stint, I quit. I quit for three or four years and then I was retired and COVID hit and I was working in the business world and I was overloaded. Covid was nuts. I was running three branches by myself when I was only supposed to be running one and there was a whole bunch of things going on in that and I was just stressed out and one day I broke. I broke and I was like, okay, I'm going back to this and I broke and I need to stop again. And but that is my bad habit, I do chew tobacco. Wow, yeah, it is what it is. Everybody's got a vice, and that one's mine.

Speaker 1: 26:54

Yeah, listen, I can't, even I genuinely cannot judge. I was a cigarette smoker for like 20 years and it's been. I think I'm getting close to 20 years that I quit. But yeah, I came from a long line of smokers. Everybody smoked. I smoked my first cigarette and I was like 11 years old yeah, yeah, you know, and I mean because everybody smoked.

Speaker 1: 27:23

So it was curiosity and yeah, I smoked for a long time and all the way up until the year or so that I said I remember distinctly saying I'm never going to quit smoking, I love smoking. It was like my identity, it's part of who I am, like I'm even I've even got muscle memory right and I said I was never going to quit. And then I went through like a major, significant life change and I just had this epiphany that I was done having external things control me and I felt that my addiction was in control of me because I would park five rows down in the parking lot to have enough time to it's so embarrassing to even say it to have enough time to smoke that cigarette to the door.

Speaker 1: 28:16

It's like gosh, that is so, so bad. So much control over your every action, and I knew I would only get worse as I got older and the final straw was seeing my at that time four-year-old daughter basically pretending to be me. I was watching them, they were playing you know kids all playing in the front yard and I watched my little four-year-old, this tiny little thing, go like this and go. And then apparently I was a very flamboyant smoker, according to her, and she threw this, you know, invisible, pretend cigarette on the ground and grounded out, really, you know, dramatically with her foot, and I went oh my God, she's being me, she's imitating me and this is horrifying and that was probably like the absolute final straw. So, point being, I totally get it.

Speaker 2: 29:09

I'll take some guilt off of you. She was imitating Sandy from the end of Greece. It wasn't you. She had just seen Greece ["You Better Shape Up"]. It was not so, it wasn't you. You weren't a bad example, you're a great mother, so Darn that, sandy, it was very.

Speaker 1: 29:29

Sandy, like I'm gonna, I'm over going with that for sure.

Speaker 2: 29:34

Okay, so here's the one, and this is awesome. We always ask for feedback from people. I had a listener, a fan who listens every week. Give me a question for the two of us, right? So this is from Stephanie, and her question is Do you give any credence to any conspiracy theories and if so, what are they? And then the flip side to that is are there any out there that you look at and go that's total bull? I don't believe any of that.

Speaker 2: 30:06

So first, one is conspiracy theories that you think there's possibility or probability of fact, and then ones that you go. Nope, I don't buy that at all.

Speaker 1: 30:16

Wow, okay. So, stephanie, that's such an awesome question and thank you, thank you for watching the show. We love you, oh gosh. So one I buy into and one that I don't, one that I buy into. So here's an interesting one, and I wish I was better prepared in that I had more explanation and details to give you. But you guys are gonna have to look it up on your own and maybe I'll find something to put in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 30:42

But one I was just told slash asked about, somebody was telling me her exact words were so have you gone down the rabbit hole about fluoride? And I went about fluoride, no, what, I'm afraid. But tell me. And basically, like, the gist of it is is that it's actually a byproduct of something else, and it was just something that was just gonna be waste and they got rid of it. And somebody was like oh, I know, why don't we use it and tell everybody that it's? You need it for your teeth, and blah, blah, blah. And apparently the truth of it is is that it's like whatever it's got in it, whatever it does, actually is affecting our children, ours, I guess, everybody's intellect, your brain functioning, and so that is one that I'm starting to go down now. And because of everything going on in the world, all of the chemicals if you go, look at everything this is always a big conversation of all of the chemicals that we allow in our foods and products now where all these other countries have long band because of the detrimental effects. So that is one I think I will definitely buy into once I do a little more research.

Speaker 1: 32:06

So that one definitely, I think, and one that I don't gosh. There's a lot, I think, you know, for some reason. One that comes to my mind right away is the whole John. No, is it John Kennedy Jr? Yeah, that, remember that I was going around for a long time, that he's still alive, that he didn't die in the plane crash, yeah. So I'm gonna have to say I never bought into that one. You know all these sightings of him and the theories of that and I'm probably gonna anger some QAnon people by saying that. But yeah, that one I have a hard time with. How about you?

Speaker 2: 32:49

What are yours. So the one that I absolutely buy into is Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone Like there's no, no way, there's no two ways about it, and I. So I had a. I took a in high school. I took a contemporary American civilization course and the teacher was infatuated with the Kennedy assassination. We talked about it all the time. And then when I was in college, I took my like 100 level English class that everybody takes, and that professor was infatuated with the Kennedy assassination, right, so we talked about it all the time. And then as a I think as a sophomore I took a history class that was solely presidential assassinations. It was one night a week, was a ninth class, it was three hours long, it was one night a week, and the first half of class we would talk about Reagan or Lincoln or whatever, and then the second half of class was all the conspiracy theory stuff about Kennedy.

Speaker 2: 33:54

So I've been inundated multiple times with all of the flaws and the holes and the potential possibilities and everything else around the Kennedy assassination. And if there is one thing that I believe for a fact was, it was not Lee Harvey Oswald by himself. There's no way in the world. So that's one that I lend tons of credence to. Who did it? I've got my theory, and my theory is it was a compilation of a number of organizations, up to and including agencies, and organizations within the United States government played a role in that somehow. So that's one that I definitely buy into. One that I don't buy into are the. We never landed on the moon.

Speaker 1: 34:46

Oh, that is a really good one. I don't buy that. I think we did.

Speaker 2: 34:50

I truthfully believe that we did, and I know that there are everybody says why haven't we been back and why can't we get back, and why and listen, I'm not that smart, I'm not an engineer, I'm not a chemist, but I do, and there's probably a number of reasons we can't get back or haven't gotten back, but I do believe that we have been there. I do believe that. I don't believe for a second that that was fabricated in a sound studio somewhere. I do honestly believe that we have set foot on the moon.

Speaker 1: 35:29

Okay, yeah, I tell you what when you like, like I said, when you start going down those rabbit holes, they give some really convincing very convincing man, but it also reminds me a little bit. I don't know if you ever seen it. There's like a meme that's been going around forever. It's like a picture of Albert Einstein and the quote is you shouldn't trust everything you hear on the internet, Albert Einstein.

Speaker 2: 35:56

Einstein, yeah.

Speaker 1: 35:57

Right. So it's like one of those things you're like, oh, okay, yeah, and just obviously, given that, like, stop everything you read on the internet isn't true. And so those rabbit holes, man, they could be a lot of trouble, but what a great question that was. That was awesome.

Speaker 2: 36:17

Thanks to Stephanie for that one that was great yeah, absolutely Great to get listener participation.

Speaker 1: 36:23

Yes, yeah, and we always tell you guys, and we'll tell you again. Anytime you wanna send us in a question, a comment, any of those things, we'd love to discuss it, whatever the case is, or just a topic that you want us to talk about, and we can put our thinking caps on and handle it. We can handle it Nice.

Speaker 2: 36:41

Okay, here's one with some meaning behind it. Do you have a personal hero or mentor?

Speaker 1: 36:50

Oh, oh gosh. You know, since I've been on my faith journey, that I talk about all the time. My hero and my mentor is Jesus. That is 100%, 100% hands down. If it has taught me nothing else, it has definitely taught me to not have false idols, and that is the one. Yeah, that was a shockingly easy one for me. I panic at the start of every question.

Speaker 2: 37:24

I'm like, oh my God, am I gonna have an answer?

Speaker 1: 37:26

Oh, ah, but that was an easy one for me.

Speaker 2: 37:29

Yeah, yeah, that was an easy one.

Speaker 1: 37:31

Yep, yep, all right, let's see what have I got for ya. Oh, let's see. Okay, I don't know if this is easy or hard, but we'll find out. So when you meet someone new, meeting somebody new, what would be a red flag about them? A vibe or whatever it is that they give off? What would be a red flag to you that would just put you off of them? Is there something they would do, say appear or anything?

Speaker 2: 37:58

Yeah, the one upper. I have an absolute pet peeve with people, especially people you just met. There's a difference between holding and carrying conversation like relating to someone, shared experience or something like that. But if they're an immediate one upper like that, I will walk away from that conversation without hesitation. I can't do people like that, I hate to say. It seems to be becoming more common. It's almost like people need some sort of validation kind of a thing. But if you can't just meet someone, if you can't find a way to relate to them without propping yourself up as being better than them, that is a person I have no time for and, truthfully, I don't need my life. So if you're a one upper, if that's your jam, then I am not hanging with you, not even a little bit.

Speaker 1: 39:11

I like that, I like that, yeah, and that totally. That answer doesn't surprise me at all, because you're humble, like you're confident, but humble, and people who are like that don't need to one up anybody, so I totally get that. I love that. My husband's like that too, very like no one would even have any clue of and he's got this like you, this massive body of accomplishment, and you would never know it unless you point blank ask him and then he'll tell you. And even then it's kind of like pulling teeth and it makes me crazy. I'm like, well, you know what he did, you know he's been where he's been, what he can do, blah, blah, blah, and he's like it's all good, it's all good, but it's that humble confidence that I think is is a really very cool character trait for sure.

Speaker 2: 40:03

Okay, so I got one for you, all, right, okay, so here we go. Do you know how your parents picked your first names?

Speaker 1: 40:11

Oh yeah, actually I do so, so, so a lot of you know, some of you don't know, so I'll tell whoever doesn't know. I am half Cuban on my father's side and half German on my mother's side, so they were each born in their respective countries. My mother I don't know where she I think it was like an actress or something. When she was pregnant with me, she heard the name somewhere Mala M-A-L-A, and she loved it and that's what she wanted to name me and my father's side of the family, the Cubans were all in an uproar because you already know Mala, mala means bad, and they're like you can't name her, that that's not going to happen.

Speaker 1: 40:55

Yeah, it was a terrible name blah, blah, blah. So she, she gave in and she, she gave me my name and but to this day she still calls me by Mala, and some family members do too, and she always gets mad at me that I don't introduce myself as as Mala to people, because she's like that's the name you've been called your entire life and you don't use it. And I always say because that name requires such an explanation, because nobody heard that name before, like I don't know anybody who's ever heard that name before, and anytime that I did use it, people are like Mala, what's that? You know, where did that come from? So it was embarrassing when you're a kid and you have to, like, explain yourself. So, yeah, that is. That is where my sort of kind of where my name came from and where it didn't come from.

Speaker 2: 41:43

Yeah, so I'm, I'm a. I'm a clay, not a Clayton.

Speaker 1: 41:49

Oh, you know what I think I would have just, I think I would have assumed that it was a shortening of yeah.

Speaker 2: 41:56

No, it's just clay, and it was a guy that my dad served with in the Air Force that he just liked his name. That's literally all it was. But you know it's funny because, like you said, as a kid it was a little rough. I got called mud and dirt and you know all those kinds of things. But also, as in a family that I grew up shooting and shooting clay targets, trap ski, that kind of thing for years and years and years, and even occasionally now in that environment, if I am out, you know shooting, or I'm with my dad, or when I was a kid I was, we were in that at the gun club or whatever, and you know they'd be like, oh, is that where your dad? You know, is you get named after the clay? No, no, that wasn't it. But thanks, you know yeah, thanks a lot.

Speaker 2: 42:50

Yeah, but yeah, clay, not Clayton, that's clay not Clayton. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 42:57

Yeah and there's no other. Like there's, that's the only, that's the only. Shortening that it would be like there's no other clay, clay, something.

Speaker 2: 43:05

So I like it when I was so great practical joke, not at my expense and truthfully I wasn't even involved in. I was a lieutenant. I was stationed at Fort Riley, kansas, and I was the second in command of the, the order, the unit that I was in right. So the other lieutenants all had a responsibility Administratively they had to submit documents for me to sign and review and all these other things. So this brand new lieutenant shows up and one of the older lieutenants says you know, he asked him. He goes hey, what's the XO's signature block? You know he's going to have to sign this memo. What's his signature block? And he goes oh, it's Clayford P Novene and he goes, oh, okay.

Speaker 2: 43:48

And he just puts it in there. So, this guy, this, you know, he's like two, three years younger than me, you know, and a lieutenant's a lieutenant, truthfully. But he brings this thing into me and he goes hey, you know, hey, xo, you know, can you review this for me? And I'm like, oh, yeah, sure, no problem, you know. And I look at it and I scroll down and I read the whole thing and I get to the bottom and I look at him, like who are the where, the, what, the, you know? And he's like what? And I'm like, who the hell told you this was my signature or this was my name? And he's like, oh, so and so. And I'm like, yeah, you've been had, man. And this is back in the old days where, like, he did this on a word processor, like it's just like he had to go back and like redo the whole thing over again.

Speaker 2: 44:31

But yeah, so the only, the only variation of that that has ever crossed is Clayford, which is a total makeup, but yeah, entertaining nonetheless.

Speaker 1: 44:41

Yeah, that's good, I love that.

Speaker 2: 44:44

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 44:44

Too funny, all right, so I've got one last one for you. And so that is, you know, staying with the theme of our, our program overall. Who do you think would make a great president? But the catch is it can't be not that we think anybody that's running right now is a great candidate, but it can't be someone from whoever's already running, somebody from the pool yeah.

Speaker 2: 45:14

From the pool that's already out there, so nobody from the current pool.

Speaker 1: 45:18

Yep.

Speaker 2: 45:20

And I and I mean I've met a number of these folks in person, and there are a number of folks that people are, you know, enamored with that I've met in person and I have told them, if you only met them in person, you would probably think otherwise. Interesting, yeah, I think. What about somebody who's couldn't, isn't even qualified to be president? Sure, so I I honestly think if he was, if he was eligible to run and people are going to think I'm crazy I would be very interested to see Arnold Schwarzenegger as president.

Speaker 1: 46:08

Oh interesting, I really would.

Speaker 2: 46:10

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 46:11

I really would.

Speaker 2: 46:12

That's a fascinating choice, obviously not, not us born, can't run for office or can't run for president. Right, he has, you know, obviously ran California, you know as the governor and the governor as you remember you know, and, and you know, actually acted more as a politician than he ever did as a celebrity when he was in office. Now, he did use his celebrity to get some things done, Sure and and okay, Well, by the way, so Ronald Reagan but, you know, I actually think he did it and I remember it pretty well.

Speaker 2: 46:46

I think he did a pretty good job and I think that his you know he's one now who is not afraid to call a spade a spade. He calls it as he sees it. He's not afraid of hurting people's feelings. You know he doesn't bend with the wind and maybe people will say he can afford to because you know he's got no future political aspirations, so maybe he's free to do that. But either way, I think you know somebody out of the realm, left field, total left field pick. I think Arnold Schwarzenegger would be a very interesting presidential candidate.

Speaker 1: 47:22

Yeah, that's a fascinating pick. I wouldn't have. I wouldn't have. I don't think I would have guessed you would have said that in a million years I'm probably because there are so many people to choose from it just wouldn't even cross my mind. But yeah, interesting, interesting, I'm just already picturing them and it's like a terminator, yeah right.

Speaker 2: 47:43

That'd be cool. So so an appropriate last question for you. Okay, appropriate only because it's the end of the show, not for any other reason, but a little bit, probably the, I would say, the silliest one that I have asked you thus far Death Row, last Meal, what is it?

Speaker 1: 48:03

Oh, Death Row. Last Meal Gosh.

Speaker 1: 48:06

Anything you want, oh my gosh, I am like the most boring person on the planet. I think it would be. I'm just sticking with my favorites. It would be Surf and Turf, flamin' Yon Lobster, cold ATTheors. Oh, I see, okay, yeah, what would I want for sides? Hmm, asparagus with Hollandaise sauce. Um, I need a starch, donna, I think I need a starch. Garlic smash potatoes. I told you it's not going to be. You know I am, I'm a meat and potatoes girl, I guess, based on that, right, yeah, that would be my last meal and I would want.

Speaker 1: 48:51

So I have this weird obsession with watermelon. Like it's so weird, like these are the things. Now you're all going to hear how freaking weird I am and the things that I think of in this brain of mine. I had this thought one time, that, and I said it out loud, so I'm saying it again. If I were stupid, wealthy, the one thing that I would do for certain is I would have the most fresh, ripe, beautiful watermelon, beautiful watermelons, flown to me year round, and I would have watermelon, like basically every day, but only the heart of it, only the very center of it, and I would toss the rest and that would be my crazy, bizarre extravagance as a dumb wealthy person.

Speaker 2: 49:41

So yeah, that would be your rolling stones. Take out all the green M&Ms, you know kind of extravagant thing would be fresh watermelons, fresh watermelon on the daily.

Speaker 1: 49:54

On the daily? That would be. Yes, that would be my diva moment, for sure.

Speaker 2: 50:01

Listen, I'm not going to dispute your last meal. I mean, I'm a meat and potatoes guy too. I would actually go the breakfast route, which I know is probably a little bit weird, but it would be.

Speaker 2: 50:14

I always. I remember back when I was in college, as I frequented some establishments that served alcohol. There was where I went to school. There was actually three of them in town. There was a hardies, which if you're not geographically in a hardies area, you probably know it as Carl's Jr. That's a hardies variation. Anyway, the hardies in town used to make really what was a drunk meal. It was, and the bars would. About an hour or so before closing time the waitresses would walk around and take orders and they would send a bouncer to the hardies and they would come back with these things in styrofoam containers and then hand them out. You'd pay for them and all that stuff, just like you as you paid your bar tap.

Speaker 2: 51:08

Sure, it was called a herald, so it was two biscuits. Now, keep in mind, this is, you know, middle of the night. Yeah, too much to drink, but it was two biscuits. It was scrambled eggs, it was broken apart sausage patties, it was hash browns and it was all covered in gravy, all of it. Wow, and, and we would eat heralds and, and to this day I'm the guy who goes to the diner and I have something that looks exactly like that. So it's free, but it's all covered in gravy.

Speaker 1: 51:44

So if I'm going to go to death row.

Speaker 2: 51:47

I'm having heart attack. Gravy, that's what I'm at Yep.

Speaker 1: 51:50

I like it, I like it. I think that's awesome, I love it. I'm a big fan of unconventional, you know, meals. I I actually do eat like dinner foods for breakfast, like I will. I will not think twice about having you know, barbecue, chicken and whatever for breakfast and cause my logic reverse.

Speaker 2: 52:12

I do, I do, absolutely. That's a winner every time.

Speaker 1: 52:18

Right, you can't lose on that. It's so good, it's so good. And my argument is always the same Like your stomach doesn't know the difference, you know, like it's food, it's food is food. So yeah, so well, now you all know how strange clay and I are, and hopefully that endears us to you even more than than it we already are. Right, we're near and dear to your hearts and you just love us so much that you're liking and sharing and subscribing and doing all of the things to stay in our universe and our orbit, because, guess what, we love you too and we, we want you along for the ride. So make sure you do all of the things I just messaged messaged I'm looking at a word and saying it out loud. All of those things I just mentioned is what I meant to say, clay, we're going to let you close it out because you have a better grasp on the English language right now.

Speaker 2: 53:15

So First things first, thanks again to Stephanie for the great question. Yes, again, proof positive listeners, if you send us stuff, we'll, we'll, we'll take it on, we'll, we'll definitely, you know, pull it into the show and and we want to hear feedback from everybody. So thanks again to Stephanie for her question and contributing to this show. But that was a lot of fun and, interestingly enough, we both interpreted the quest, the task, essentially the same. We were not years apart, right? You know you didn't come at me with a whole bunch of deep philosophical political world questions and I didn't come back to you and ask you for Kamala Harris impersonations, and you know we were not miles apart. We were pretty much down the middle and and we hit it just right and it was a lot of fun, I learned a lot about you and I think you learned a lot about me. So thanks everybody for tuning in. I hope you had a good time, I think it was a great show and, as always from me, you know, keep moving, keep shooting.

Speaker 1: 54:16

I love it. We'll see you guys in the next one. Take care.

Speaker 2: 54:57

Bye.