6-7-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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That's betterhelp.com slash positive. I wonder how long it will take before all of this completely dies out and it's not a story anymore. This was the bombshell but I suspect that Jay Monahan decided it would be better to suck it up, that it would be worth the money.

He decided, I'll take the backlash, I'll field the criticism, even from my own tour membership, and it'll be spicy, it'll be hot, it'll be unpopular for a while, but then it's gonna die down. The golfers are gonna go back to golfing, the fans are gonna watch, US Open's coming up, then we've got the Open Championship across the pond, the money's gonna come in, some of the most popular players in the world are going to be reabsorbed into PGA events because of the merger, and in the end, life will go on. And honestly, who's gonna be keeping track whether or not this grows the game of golf?

Gotta eliminate your competition if you want to be a monopoly. Isn't that what Phil Mickelson called the PGA Tour? Essentially that it was a monopoly and that it controlled the golfers. There's only one reason why Jay Monahan doesn't inform the PGA Tour players ahead of time, because he knows they have more power than he does. That together, the membership of the PGA Tour, the guys who have the name recognition, the guys who have far more money than he does, the guys who are talented, the reason that fans tune in and show up to events? Yeah, those PGA Tour members, those golfers, like Rory, like Tiger, even if he doesn't golf on a regular basis ever again. Think about the popularity of the Tour, it's not based on events, money, it's based on the players.

The majority of sports fans don't follow the PGA Tour day in and day out. This will die down. But what will remain is the money. I can hear Kyrie Irving in my head, it's not about the money, baby. Except there's no other reason to do this.

It's not about the money, baby. So if you're Jay Monahan, you keep it secret because you know that the Tour membership will not only shoot it down, but publicly embarrass you and cause the whole thing to collapse before it even starts. Maybe threaten to boycott events, blah blah. Well, at least demand a say.

So you do it under cover of night, you don't tell them, you just wait for the criticism and the heat to fizzle out and then you go on your merry way. And the PGA Tour is a lot richer and there's no competition. So, huh.

I guess if you're Jay Monahan, you don't mind being called a hypocrite once or twice. If in the end result, you get the resources and the events and the new golf courses, you get an unlimited bottomless pit of cash that comes from the Saudi governor himself. The budget, whatever it takes. That's the budget.

The bottom line is whatever it takes. Yeah, so who cares what people say about you? Your tour just got a lot richer and you got a lot richer and ultimately the chatter will fizzle. This time last year, live golf was all the rage.

The golfers that were leaving all the rage. It's barely a blip on the national radar anymore. Until today. Until Tuesday. It's our hump show.

This was the opposite of a news dump. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We've got about a half hour until you get your questions answered. So it's asking me anything part of our hump show every week on Twitter, After Hours, CBS, also on our Facebook page. Some of you are asking me about the wildfires and whether or not they're affecting my neighborhood in northern New Jersey, which is right outside New York City.

Certainly are. Thick enough smoke that it almost looked like fog in my neighborhood. It was an eerie green and yellow. Because you really couldn't see the sun. After the morning in which it was neon pink because of all of the smoke in the atmosphere, it changed the color of the sun. And then it was this thick haze blanketing my neighborhood and a very distinct smell of smoke. Because of all the wildfires, 140, 160, it's a lot of them that are burning in Nova Scotia and Quebec, the eastern Canadian provinces that are dealing with it up close and personal. But now 17 of the states in the U.S. have air quality warnings for people with asthma or any type of respiratory disorder.

My dog has chronic bronchitis, so I had to be really careful of her. I was going to run outside on Wednesday. It was supposed to be such a nice day in the upper 60s. But our alert will last until the end of the day on Wednesday. And I can feel it in my throat when I breathe it.

It stings my eyes at times. So, yeah, I'm definitely thinking about those of you who have got to change your lifestyle on this Wednesday. So ask Amy anything.

Maybe we'll keep you entertained while you have to stay inside. About a half hour from now, send your questions to producer Jay's attention on Twitter or Facebook. Our phone number, 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4CBS. We'll continue to sprinkle in more of Jay Monahan, Phil Mickelson even, just because it's so much fun to think about how validated he is. But Jay Monahan actually did a press conference after the hour-long meeting with the players in which it was acrimonious. A lot of players who were incredulous that they knew nothing about this.

And Monahan admits it was rough. I would describe the meeting as intense, certainly heated. This is a very complex, obviously it's a very, it's been a very dynamic and complex couple of years. And for players, I'm not surprised that, you know, this is an awful lot to ask them to digest.

And this is a significant change for us, you know, in the direction that we were going down. But as I'm trying to explain, and I will continue to explain as we go forward, this ultimately is a decision that I think is in the best interest of all of the members of the PGA Tour. But how do you know that if you didn't ask them? Sure, you're the commissioner, but how do you know how they feel if you didn't ask them? So the meetings with the Saudis and Jay Monahan also included a couple of PGA Tour policy board members.

This has been going on for seven weeks, seven weeks. But Tiger didn't know, Rory didn't know, Jon Rahm didn't know. Most PGA Tour stars were completely in the dark.

But one golfer anonymously has indicated that Monahan stood in front of the room and took everything the players gave him. Such, such lofty language, maybe to try to talk over their heads, except they're the ones that attract the fans. They should be involved and consulted. They should be.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Again, I think it's funny, like as in haha funny, to think about the reactions of the live players. Like Bryson DeChambeau, certainly Phil Mickelson, just funny stuff. They must, they must have been laughing their rear ends off on Tuesday. Now, I don't know how many of them knew ahead of time. Doesn't sound like very many, but you wonder if Phil had an inkling.

It's pretty connected. So we'll get back to it. Unless you would like to bring back some Phil from a year ago just for fun.

He was so salty. For a long, long time, my 30 years on PGA Tour, pretty much all the best players played on the PGA Tour, at least for the last 20 years. That will never be the case again. And I think going forward, you have to pick a side. You have to pick what side you think is going to be successful. And I firmly believe that I'm on the winning side of how things are going to evolve and shape in the coming years for professional golf. You know, we play against a lot of the best players in the world on live. And there are a lot of the best players in the world on PGA Tour. And until both sides sit down and have a conversation and work something out, both sides are going to continue to change and evolve. And I see live golf trending upwards. I see PGA Tour trending downwards.

And I love the side that I'm on. Wow. Does Phil know something that we didn't know? Do Phil know something that most of the rest of the golf world did not know?

That was from October 13th of last year. Oh yeah, Phil was definitely in the know. Not just that, but he took a wild flyer, a flying leap of faith, and landed on the right side. It's all about the money.

And I love the side that I'm on. Oh my gosh, he sounds brilliant now. He didn't sound as brilliant when he said he was off the record. When he was, I forget who it was, it was S.I. I believe. Or maybe it was Golf Digest.

I'll have to go back and look so I don't take the credit away from someone that it wasn't. Remember he was part of that magazine in his cryptic quotes about the Saudi money and who cares. And they've got a lot of money.

I mean just their human rights violations. I mean he didn't care. Dustin Johnson, also one of the best players in the world. Yeah. It's got to be very validating now. Let's talk to Daniel who's in Charlotte. Daniel, welcome to After Hours, CBS Sports Radio.

Good morning. So that's got to be the most pocketbook wallet screw job of the last decade for those who are loyal to the PGA and stuck with Jay. Of the past two years, the John Robs, the Scotty Shefflers, the Justin Thomases, the successful golfers from the PGA come nowhere close to the paychecks the live players have gotten despite the live players playing on municipal golf courses on the WB. For all that's worth. I just think this is a royal disrespect of Jay and the PGA to those who remain steadfast all over the press conferences last year.

You know, Rory being one of the most outright spokespeople for the PGA. What does he get? He gets a pat on the back and thank you for your loyalty. Yeah. They hung him out to dry.

And a tiger tiger is going to be one of your front man for two two eras now. And he gets nothing. Yeah. What do you think? I would say nothing.

How would you feel? I wouldn't say nothing because they're still making money playing golf and the purses are likely to be increased. But I would say if I was any one of those PGA Tour members who was kept in the dark until Tuesday, I would feel duped. And there is no way that I would trust Jay Monahan again.

And if it were me and he better watch out, I better watch his back. If it were me, I'd start I'd try to start a vote of no confidence to get the guy ousted because ultimately he works for the membership. That's a great point. My last question was going to be like, how do they welcome Greg Norman back into the fold somewhat? And ultimately in sports, obviously, the sponsors kind of run your run the roost. Our sponsors turned off by this. Like, I mean, does this kind of add fuel to what you just mentioned about the vote of no confidence for Jay who sponsors who stood by the PGA? Do they take a stand? Yeah, that's a good question. Kind of outright, you know, you're going to be in bed with, you know, the whatever people think about the Saudis and the oil money. But if the sponsors take a stand, that's a quick out. It is certainly going to be an interesting question.

Excuse me. Plus, the fan base, right? Does it matter? Ultimately, I don't think it does. But if golf doesn't see a ratings boost on TV, they could continue to have issues, right? Because the ratings and the viewership actually determine what they can charge for ads. And outside of the majors, because it's so wide open now, you do have stars, of course, but it's so wide open on the tour that you're constantly having different guys win every week. You don't have a dominant star like a Tiger Woods or even Phil when he was in contention all the time. It's a different era of golf and you really need some stars to be uber popular to maintain that interest outside of the major.

So, yeah, we'll see whether or not viewership is affected at all and whether or not sponsorships and corporate partnerships are impacted. Very good. You have a great day. All right. Thanks, Daniel. Good to talk to you in Charlotte.

855-212-4227 is our toll free line. I'm looking back to Phil Mickelson's statement from when he made his announcement that he was officially joining the live tour. I think a lot of people knew that that's the way it was going, but that it was officially joining the live tour. And some of his comments, golf desperately needs change and real change is always preceded by disruption.

I chose to put myself at the forefront of this to inspire change, taking the hits publicly to do the work behind the scenes. Right. So I would I bet money. Well, that's been a problem for Phil.

I would be confident that he was involved or at least he knew this was going to happen at some point. He says, my experience with live golf has been very positive. They passionately love golf and share my drive to make the game better.

They have a clear plan to create an updated, positive experience for any for everyone, including players, sponsors, networks and fans. He's one that has been publicly critical of the PGA Tour. He didn't believe that the model was sustainable. He also didn't believe that there was enough of a of a, I guess, of the power given to the golfers to determine their own path. He likes the group format. He thinks that live golf and the format would appeal to a younger audience because of the schedules. And so it was called experimental, but now the PGA Tour is going to absorb some of these group type of events. The group formats. Wow, let's quick talk to Matt, who's in South Carolina.

Matt, welcome to After Hours, CBS Sports Radio. OK, what's the number one reason you should try Instacart shopping over one point five million unique products from over 1000 retailers and get everything delivered right to your door? And as fast as one hour, all in one app.

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That's point dot me. Thanks, Amy. Love the show.

Thank you. You know, you know, when I read Breaking News today, I thought, man, it's good to see the bad boys finally prevail. It really was. It was interesting.

But no. So and then I got to thinking I was like, man, I haven't seen and maybe you have because I'm on my way home from work, but I didn't see are they going trains with the dress code or we still going to be able to see shorts and the collared shirt? You know, they had DJ on certain holes on the L.I.V.

tour. So I thought it was kind of cool, really? Yeah. Well, a lot of people did think the format was kind of cool. Now, maybe gimmicky. There are parts of it that are gimmicky. A little bit like putting a pitch clock in the middle of Major League Baseball. Just kidding. No, a little bit like putting a runner on second base in extra innings. Right. Let's make it gimmicky.

The play in tournament in the NBA. To me, that's gimmicky. But I do think that there are some elements that a lot of people really liked because it was more upbeat. It was a different format.

It's not nearly as slow on TV because of the shotgun start. The fact that you've got a group play. I think a lot of golfers enjoyed it because it didn't require nearly as much of their commitment. So so many of them would be gone four and five days a week, plus pro ends, maybe six days a week. And many of them said the schedule was impossible to keep up with.

Not just not just the injuries, but also just being gone all the time. And so this required less of them and they were able to still make the money. Actually, absolutely. And I don't know if you ever watched it, but the best explanation that I ever heard was Dustin Johnson on the full swing Netflix series. And he said basically what you just did.

Listen, it's a new era. And he said, what family man wouldn't want to play less golf and make more money and not have to travel as much? Exactly. That's that's the best way that I've ever put. And that was coming from, like you said, one of the world's greatest golfers.

And, you know, Dustin's always been a family man. Yeah, well, agreed. And I think that that is something every American can identify with.

One American out there wouldn't like to make more money to do the same job that you love, to have the same career and be able to spend more time at home. I mean, that's a duh. So when I heard that, my buddy and I were, and I said, man, why would somebody even have to think about that?

Like, where do I sign that contract? Right. Well, part of it is because initially, at least, they weren't sure about participation in the majors. And then the other challenge is that some of these guys, they really do enjoy the PGA events and they were going to be blocked from golfing in PGA events. But now that's no longer a factor. Oh, yeah, that's off the table.

Now, now we're just going to hopefully, and you said it a minute ago, hopefully they kind of roll with the new era and keep a good mixture. You know, I wouldn't mind letting them play in shorts or having certain tournaments have DJs or whatever. I like it. Could you imagine DJs on the PGA Tour? You're not even supposed to golf clap when you're out there. In fact, you're not even supposed to shutter a camera when a guy's in his backswing and they're going to have DJs out there.

It reminds me of my buddy's dad I played with. But the new thing is that they have speakers that you can take with you on the golf course. Yes, yes. Oh, he gets all out of sword whacked out about it.

Speakers can't be allowed on the golf. I said, come on, really? I mean, you know.

So, yeah, we'll see. I remember the first time I made a 60 foot birdie putt, I started screaming on the green. I didn't care. And then I was like, oh, sorry. All right, Matt, good to talk to you in South Carolina.

You too, Amy. Thank you. I did that. I actually did that.

It was a double break putt coming down a hill and over a couple of different rises, sunk it from 60 feet and started hollering on the green. Oh, sorry. Oh, my gosh. All right. Find us on Twitter after our CBS.

Also on our Facebook page. Honestly, in a couple of days. Well, once we hear from Lori. Oh, my gosh.

It's the hump show. I've started making things up. Once we hear from live golfers is what I was going to say.

And then I transition to Rory. Once we hear from live golfers like Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka. I think he did respond on Twitter.

I'll have to look for that. But Rory and Tiger. Oh, once we hear from them, the whole thing's going to die down when the U.S. Open is coming up. Father's Day weekend.

This will not be a factor outside of actual big events. Oh, and our guy Matt Adams will join us from Scotland. He's coming up next hour. About 15 minutes for Ask Amy Anything. Go, go, go, go, go. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. This is NBA Finals. We're talking about effort.

That's a huge concern of mine. You know, and you guys thought I was just making up some storyline at the game one when I said we didn't play well. We didn't play well. And tonight, you know, the starting lineup to start the game is 10-2 Miami. Start the third quarter. They scored 11 points in two minutes and ten seconds.

And we just got – we had guys out there that were just whether feeling sorry for themselves or not making shots or thinking they can just turn it on or off. This is not the preseason. This is not the regular season. This is the NBA Finals.

And that to me is really, really perplexing, disappointing. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. That was the voice of Michael Malone after game two in which the Denver Nuggets coughed up a 15-point lead on their own court in the Mile High City ball arena where they were previously undefeated in these playoffs. Watch the Miami Heat put together was at 12 consecutive points from Gabe Vincent and Duncan Robinson.

And while their lead was shrinking and disappearing, the Nuggets seemed powerless to stop it. That freight train that is Miami in the fourth quarter, when they get hot, they get hot. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio Game 3 of the NBA Finals coming up on this Wednesday night, the hump night.

No, that doesn't sound right. Let's not call it that. We call it the hump show. We call it the hump day. You call it the hump day. I'm sleeping during hump day. But it's Wednesday night. Why do we even get cute?

Why not just go with the actual name of the day? Mike Malone, as he was previewing game number three and answering questions, he was asked about whether or not he regrets calling out his team and kind of putting them on blast following game two. Honesty isn't critical. So I don't view it as being critical. I think it was an honest assessment of the game. And before I came out and spoke to you guys, I had the same conversation with our players. Never once will I come into a press conference to say something to you that I haven't spoken to our team about. And our players owned it. I asked them after the game, why did we lose tonight? And they told me we didn't play hard enough.

They told me we weren't disciplined enough. So it wasn't critical by any nature. It was an honest assessment.

I like that. Honesty isn't criticism. It was an honest assessment. But I started with them.

It wasn't as though I told you anything I hadn't already told them face to face, man to man. If you really want to simplify the first two games, it's in the first three quarters, we have dominated both games. The Miami Heat are dominated in the fourth quarter. They're averaging 33 points a game in the fourth quarter, shooting over 60% from the field in the fourth quarter and over 50% from three. So we're up eight going into the fourth quarter. In game two, we're up 21 going into the fourth quarter of game one. And they opened up on a 15 to two run in that fourth quarter to take control of that game. So how can Michael help himself?

How can everybody else help themselves communicate, be disciplined? And it starts with the defense. Definitely does. They do not have a killer instinct. The Heat, however, that's their number one, well, one of their top, I would say their chemistry is probably their number one advantage and the physical defense they play. But one of their huge advantages is that they do have a killer instinct. They're relentless.

They never stop. Jimmy Butler, now a member of the Miami Heat, of course, trying to win his first ring. And who's got three of them from his time with the Heat? A Hall of Fame member of the Heat. That would be Dwyane Wade.

Oh, D. Wade's getting all of the wisdom and experience that he can possibly muster and dumping it on Jimmy Butler. There's always D. Wade just telling me to be myself and be who I am, create my own story and go out there and compete and do what you love to do. And that's when he's been in my corner for a very long time now.

I'm very grateful. He has a huge reason why I'm here. I don't like to be compared to that guy. But the one thing that I do want to be like him is a champion.

So that's what I got to go do. He's a two way basketball player. And he does so many winning things that I think unfortunately when you view maybe a 56 point game, everybody on the outside views that he has to do that every game to impact winning. He understands the levers that contribute to winning.

And he's doing it on both sides of the floor. He has an incredibly tough cover defensively that matters. And then offensively, I still think we just have a great place where everybody feels settled. Like if you're role players and everybody can step in and start playing great, it's usually because they feel a confidence level from the best players. Eric Spolstra raving about Jimmy Butler. He sets the tone. He's the heart and soul. It's pretty incredible what these heat have done. And game three. Oh, man.

Very often it's the dictator in a tie series of who goes on to win hanging in the ballots in South Florida. All right. You can find us on Twitter after our CBS late question, a late entry, if you will, for asking me anything.

Also on our Facebook page. I still haven't told you about how I got ambushed by a baby bunny. But oh, man, that's a good story, too. And we're taking your reaction about live golf and the PGA Tour becoming brothers.

Brothers with a huge inheritance. Could you imagine? Just imagine for a second how Rory felt when he I actually felt bad for him when he got the news. Oh, my gosh. I think there's got to be a part of him that's debating leaving the sport entirely.

The whole sport? I don't think he's going to, but that had to have crossed his mind. He looks like a fool out here. They hung him out to dry.

Hung him out to dry. And Tiger Woods, too. Yeah. But Rory was the real voice and the real captain behind this thing. Right. Tiger every now and then spoke because he would be in front of a microphone. But what he and Rory did was to call that players only meeting in Charlotte, I believe it was, last fall and stress to them. Stay the course. This is where it's at.

The PGA Tour is the history of the game. Ruh-roh. If I'm Rory, I just don't see how I can take a paycheck from him. I'm telling you, if I'm Rory, I start a campaign to get Jay Monahan ousted. How could you ever trust him again?

Can't. He's a big fat liar, is what he is. But he's rich. Certainly is now. Oh, that live money.

That's stateofaudio.com. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Time to ask Amy anything. Sort of.

All right. I need a break from Liz from PGA. I feel like it's the spring of 2022 again. Man, all the time we spent talking about this last year, and it turns out to be a blip on the radar. And honestly, that's what Jay Monahan is hoping. He's hoping that all the criticism, all the backlash, all the fallout, it's going to die down in a couple of days, tops a couple of weeks. US Open will take center stage, then the Open Championship. And you know what?

Before long, the PGA Tour will have all kinds of new resources coming in, and nobody will care anymore. Let it go, dude. Let it go.

Let it go, dude. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Time to ask Amy anything. Well, you are going, well, Jay's your proxy.

He is going to ask your questions, and hopefully you get the answers that you seek. We're going to start here, because I'm really curious to hear this answer. So David wants to know, what is the worst road trip sudden change of plans that you've ever experienced?

Oh, gosh, you want to talk about absolutely awful. I had a Nissan Sentra that I, it was a hand-me-down, driving across, I think it was upstate New York, maybe. I was on my way from New England to Northeast Ohio, and I stopped at a rest stop. The car would not start again. As it turns out, it was something very simple, spark plugs, that's it.

It's all it was. But it's middle of the night, because I was driving after school or after work, something along those lines, and I couldn't get the car started, because I have no idea what to look for. I call a tow truck, no joke, this is two or three o'clock in the morning. The tow truck, of course, has to tow me back to this other gas station that had a garage or a garage itself.

And per his rules, he's got to take the car into a compound yard to wait until the garage opens up, he can't just leave the car outside in the front. I refuse to leave my car. I have a cat in the car with me. So I climb into the back seat of my Nissan Sentra, it's cold, I am back there trying to sleep in this impound, did I say compound, I meant to say impound yard, in this impound yard with the cat in the car, because I wouldn't leave the cat, and I have to stay there for four or five hours. I lock the doors, I'm scared to death, I don't know who else is in there, it's dark, there's weird noises, and I had to wait until they opened at eight o'clock in the morning so that whoever ran the garage could look under a hood and tell me with spark plugs, replace them and I'd be on my way. It was the worst.

I'm stranded at a rest area at two o'clock in the morning in the middle of freaking nowhere, I'm telling you, it was upstate New York or something along those lines, I had to sleep in my car for, and of course I didn't sleep a wink, and the cat was freaked out too. Oh, it was just awful. That was the beginning of a horror movie. It was a horror, my own personal horror movie. That's insane, that story didn't disappoint, alright. Well I'm sorry that happened. Do you ever think my story is disappointing? No, but I knew you'd have a good road trip, sudden change experience, I knew there'd be one. That was a good one.

Alright, so here's another one. I didn't think so, it wasn't so great living through it. I was in my twenties, I mean it was just, it was scary. Sounds horrifying.

Yeah. Random upstate New York. Alright, here's another one involving the car. Robert wants to know, when you're driving, what is the one thing that aggravates you the most on your daily commute? The one thing that aggravates me the most? The one thing, oh my goodness, well, driving in and out of the New York City metro, there's always a bazillion things that aggravate me, but on the commute, it is the fact that it doesn't matter if it's one o'clock in the morning eastern time, there are always, always trucks and buses and rush hour traffic in Manhattan, especially lower Manhattan.

I do not know why, I do not know why these people don't have lives and jobs and beds, don't know. There's always traffic. People tell me, oh, you commute opposite traffic.

Oh, no, no, no, no. There's no such thing in New York City. In Manhattan, there's just traffic.

There's no opposite traffic. So yeah, I get road rage. Also, the thing that really bothers me is when people are on their phones and do not go at a green light or when they're driving by me at the breakneck speed of 80 miles per hour in a 30 mile per hour zone and you can smell pot coming from their vehicle. That's always great too. Oh my gosh.

Real safe. So many things. Don't get me started. I mean, don't get me started. All right, well. Please, it's too late.

My blood pressure's already up. This is our first Ask Amy anything in this month of June, which of course means summer is on the horizon. On the horizon. Karen asks, what are some of your favorite things about the summer? Well, the beach. Number one is the beach and beach days. Number two would be ice cream because it's just better in the summertime when it's super hot. Well, let me just segue real quick into this one. Larry wants to know, what's your favorite place to get ice cream as we continue the summer question.

We'll slide that one in there. Well, I do love Dairy Queen. It's a shill for Dairy Queen, I've always been that way. But if you're in Wisconsin, Culver's. People in Wisconsin know all about Culver's ice cream.

Yeah, I really am no respecter of persons. I'll take ice cream from anywhere. It's great when it's homemade though.

There is a place in my grandparents, my maternal grandparents hometown that we always go to when we're in the Youngstown area. And it's completely homemade. It's all homemade flavor. It's just amazing. Really, it's the mom and pops and the homemades, but Dairy Queen is not a bad substitute.

And favorite, are those favorite things about summer? Anything else? Oh, well. Interrupted it. You did.

You did interrupt it. I love the stars in the summertime when you get a clear night and you can see the stars forever. Usually the Big Dipper hangs over my house in the summertime. I love being able to wear flip flops all the time. I really enjoy road trips in the summertime. I mean, there's a lot I love about the summer.

I don't love the humidity though, and so I'm always really happy to see the fall. But yeah, there's a lot of great things to love about summer. Being outside, picnics, golf, I mean, whether it's Liv or PGA, no, I'm just kidding, I mean playing golf.

Yeah. First week golf. Lots of things to love. Hats. I wear ball caps pretty much all summer long or summer hats.

We're big summer hats. Kayaking and just, you know, keep going. James asks, if you could learn how to cook and perfect one recipe that you don't currently already know, what would it be? Oh, you're going to laugh at me, but I can't make pancakes. I try and they never quite come out the right way. It's not really a recipe.

It's just pancakes. We did that together once. We did. Did we do well? I think we did okay. They were edible.

We liked them. They were edible. Well, a friend was over for Memorial Day weekend and the first two pancakes I pulled out of the pan were tremendous. The second two, I do not know why they weren't cooked on the inside because they were cooked on the outside.

This is what happens to me all the time. I wish I had a perfect method for making pancakes. French toast. Oh, so good.

Not currently part of my diet, but I do love it. Also cupcakes. Now I can make the cupcake, but I'm not great at icing them. So I wish there was a perfect way for me to be able to frost or ice the cupcakes because I'm also not great at that.

In fact, it intimidates me. Any recipe that has icing on it or a glaze on it, I get really intimidated because I'm not great at spreading it evenly. I just made apricot bars last night. I'll make anything that has a, you know, like a layer of say oatmeal on top, anything like that. But I stink at icing and glaze.

No way. I can make it. I just can't get it evenly spread on, say, a cupcake or a cake. I stink at frosting cakes. I can't.

So I would love to be able to do that. Huh? That surprised me. Your cookies and stuff always look so uniform. Cookies don't have icing on them, you goofball.

But like the way they're made and folded, it's so meticulous. It's not frosting. I don't, I don't. I'm not great at frosting. It looks just like a blop.

It doesn't look pretty like what you see in magazines or in bakeries. All right. Well, Brian asks here, what is your all time favorite board game? Trivial Pursuit.

Nice. I love Trivial Pursuit. Is it even a thing anymore? Is that a Star Wars Trivial Pursuit? If there is, I need it. Oh, that's it. I'm Googling it right now.

I can't confirm, but there I'm like 90% sure there's got to be one. Bob, that's what I want for Christmas or for my birthday since you didn't get me a gift for my birthday yet. All right. As you're looking that up, we'll go into the next one here.

Um, another Brian wants to know what are your, there is, there is, wait, do I dare spend 75 bucks to buy it on Amazon, 75 bucks, 75 bucks, but how many questions, but I don't have millions. Oh my gosh. Okay.

All right. There's a classic trilogy edition. Oh my goodness. Classic trilogy. Who's obsessed with Star Wars edition. Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry.

I ruined the whole thing. Is there like a prequel edition or a stop? Yes. Okay.

Go, go. Another Brian asks, what are a few of your favorite hiking trails for the summer? I can't tell you that because then you would want to go there too. Actually. I really, no, I can't tell you. I don't want anyone to be able to find me on the hiking trails.

No. If I tell people where my favorite hiking trails are, there's a chance I'll be, I'll be discovered. I do love the Catskills and I did a series of three mountains going back. I just actually don't hike a ton in the summer cause it gets super hot and humid, but I like the AT as well.

The Appalachian trail, there are parts of it that intersect in the Northeast and Virginia. They're great. Here's an interesting one. Eric wants to know what is your best revenge story on a classmate, teammate or family member if you have one? A family member?

Who gets revenge on a family member? I was in there. I'm just reading it. There's something I can come up with in 20 seconds, man.

I'll think about that for next week though. Okay. Because I can't possibly tell you a revenge story in 20 seconds. Theresa asks, you're running, you're running like you're out jogging and you, a black cat crosses your path. Do you turn around or you keep running past it? I'm not superstitious.

In fact, a baby bunny ambushed me on my walk on Tuesday and I just, I screamed, but, but poor bunny was scared too. Oh, and here's some rapid fire bar of soap or shower gel. Bar of soap.

Actually, if it's, if it's shower, like I don't use gel, I just use regular. What's that? A pump in the soap. It's what's it called?

Why can't I think of? It's not shower gel. It's shoot.

What's it called? Uh, I don't, it's just, it's just soap. It's not gel. Okay, go ahead.

Sorry. It's singing. You're dancing, singing Madonna or share, share gecko or salamander salamander for see the future or change the past for see the future. Be a horse or be a dog. A horse. That's it.