A Better Life New York
Steve "The Judge" focuses on the art of enjoying yourself through food, fun and frolic. Steve conducts live Interviews on many popular and controversial topics. Steve has candid conversations about fine dining to BBQ, cigars to cars, history making events and everything in between. Recently, we added a special monthly addition ion collecting Antique Phonographs with experts Wyatt Markus, and Collector/Dealers Joe Hough and Tracy McKinney. Sponsored by Premium Botanicals the maker of Herbal Spectrum a line of full spectrum Hemp based CBD products. http://www.mypbcbd.com
A Better Life New York
Tasting New Jersey's Best Steakhouses, Debating Cannoli Cream, and Delving into Mental Health Matters
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Have you ever been torn between the perfect cannoli cream filling and the mouthwatering juiciness of a perfectly cooked steak? Well, join the club! We, George and Steve, are back with our tenth episode to bring you a delightful conversation about our shared love of food, combined with a valuable discussion around crucial social issues.
Our recent food adventure took us to the Hartsdale House of Pizza, where the caramelized onion and sausage pie was divine! But wait, there's more. Steve got us to try a cannoli, sparking an interesting debate: should a cannoli be filled all the way to the middle? Rocco's Pastry Shop’s St. Joseph's pastries were another stop on our food journey, leaving us in a sweet dilemma over their cream fillings. We even venture into local gems of New Jersey, bringing you the best steakhouses, with an honorary mention of our affection for Gallagher Steakhouse in the city and Mason Jar's irresistible prime rib.
But it’s not all about food. We touch upon the vital topic of mental health and its societal challenges. We delve into the complexities of addressing mental health in our society, the delicate balance between civil liberties and safety concerns, and the much-needed understanding, love, and care. We wrap up the episode with the hope that each one of us can play a role in supporting others. So, come along on this journey as we look forward to celebrating our future episodes with you and yes, there is a roasted chicken in the horizon!
This podcast is brought to you by our sponsor, premium Botanical makers of herbal spectrum, a full spectrum CBD product. You could find our products at wwwmypbcbdcom. Listeners of our podcast get 15% off the month of December by using the code a better life one word at checkout. Now our podcast Hello everybody, and welcome back to a better life with George and Steve. We are in Double Digits, episode 10.
Speaker 2:Right, george, that's great. It is great Kind of a milestone.
Speaker 1:Huh, it is a milestone. I can't believe that we've done. And I was just telling George that I got a call from a guy I went to law school with. I realized that I graduated law school over 20 years ago and I maybe spoke to him once where I ran into him one night and he ran into someone else I went to law school with who told him about the podcast and he called me today to say not only did he love it, he binge listens to it and wanted to know when the next one was coming out. That's nice, thank you so much it is.
Speaker 2:it's unbelievable. So, after a few hundred downloads, we're at episode 10. Our formula is basically we speak our minds, talk about things we love, things that have helped us pursue, in other words, a better life, and mostly circles around food.
Speaker 1:It entirely circles around food, but that's a common denominator weather and food. People all need weather and people need food. You put death and taxes in there and you got the perfect set.
Speaker 2:That's right, inevitable. What do we wanna talk about today? What's new and exciting to her? I was debating whether to talk about tonight's dinner. Shamefully, we went for pizza again, heartstale house of pizza is rocking our world.
Speaker 1:I had to talk him into the cannoli, but he did eat half. I was surprised.
Speaker 2:So I took a meeting today in the city. I got back around what three or four? I was wiped out. I wasn't really ready to record. Got my second wind and I texted Steve. I was like you know what I'm gonna shoot over? I'm gonna pick up pizza. And Steve, you were just like, oh, what about cupcakes? What about cannoli? What about? Who is this guy? I'm like it's literally 32 degrees outside today, so I was not in the mood to hit multiple destinations. I just said you know what, let me take care of it.
Speaker 2:Tonight I went, prior to pulling up at the store, called in advance, 20 minutes right on the dot, called for a sausage and caramelized onion pie, got a little bit of. Wanted to try their sauces. I got a pint of a la vodka sauce. What was that? Oh, it was delicious. It was absolutely delicious. The sauce was. The sauce was fantastic, and sometimes the crust can be a lot of extra dough. I tried to partition it center bite and then crust bite and whatnot, but sometimes you just end up with too much crust and I always think that a little bit of marinara or some kind of sauce is a perfect conduit to dunk that crust in. So I got a little bit of the vodka sauce. I'm so happy I did. It's fantastic. And then Steve's urging of the cannoli. I'm not a big fan of cannolis, I don't know why, I just. But it was good. It was nice and crunchy, they had good texture, good sweetness, custard it was great Around and I'm sure you're aware of this.
Speaker 1:I love to go to a Rocko's Pastry Shop on Carmine and they make the during St Joseph's day. They make these pastries and those St Joseph's pastries they fill one with a cream which is almost like an eclair kind of cream and the other with cannoli. And it's always the ever ending decision and trying to figure out whether you should have the cannoli cream or you should have the other cream. And I usually pass on a cannoli because you can always get cannoli cream and get the regular cream. But sometimes I get both and eat both.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, today was a cannoli day.
Speaker 1:It was good. They don't fill the middle though.
Speaker 2:You know what Is that? Par for the course or no.
Speaker 1:I see it done. I don't understand it myself. To me and a cannoli and I'd love to hear from everyone out there A cannoli should be all the way filled from the middle.
Speaker 2:Very American.
Speaker 1:It really should be. First of all, they're not cheap. Second of all, you like the cream. What's available today is a lot is people buy and you can even buy it at the check-os. They have it and there's is really good. To be honest, they have a thing of cannoli cream and they break up the cannoli Shell into many pieces and then put it on a table like a dip and it's like a dessert dip.
Speaker 2:You could put on and take as much cream you want on that pieces for those of you who aren't from the Westchester area, the Chico's is a family-run supermarket, if you will grocery store, a really high-end. I adore them because when I first moved up here I was in this like micro brewery beer phase of my life. They have this monstrous selection of micro brews. On top of that you go into their protein section and they're sourcing really quality meats from chickens. The name of the game today is Bell and Evans. If you're not carrying Bell and Evans there's something wrong with you. But you go to the beef section and Creekstone farms.
Speaker 2:Now, creekstone farms is the main beef supplier for the famous Pat LaFrieda butcher company. They service every top high-end restaurant in New York City. Pat LaFrieda is synonymous with burger patties, with dry-aged steaks, the best Surloins, ribeyes, porterhouse, you name it. They carry it and my understanding is 90 95% of their beef is from Creekstone farms. This really Amazing beef program out of Kansas I believe. When you see Creekstone farms out there, take note. The price isn't that much more than other competing brands but Hands down the best tasting beef on a large-scale production in the United States for sure.
Speaker 1:I I love the checkers and I first. Is it the checkers? The? Chico's well you're right, it's the.
Speaker 2:Chico's okay, okay.
Speaker 1:I'm just a foreigner. I pronounce everything wrong. I don't know what to tell you, as well as I speak. On some occasions and rare as that may be I have trouble troubles with pronunciation of words, but anyway, the first time I went to one and I say I've been the one in our month it was really great, but first time I really went, I had a lot of shopping do. It was in a holiday and I went to the one in large mom, and Not only was every register rocking with really qualified people as checker routers, whatever you call them, and I get it.
Speaker 2:I get it George get and there.
Speaker 1:So when you go to check out Somebody's bagging, somebody's this, somebody's that and you you're getting it all and you're able to get out of there in a short.
Speaker 2:You're not standing there online During holiday season every lane should be manned by at least two right one at the register, scanning, hitting the register, and one bagging. My biggest gripe with Baggers is I think there should be a prerequisite course. It should be an intermediate or above Tetris player in order to bag, because there is so much inefficiency going on bagging. Sometimes the logic is so lacking that I turn beet red and I almost want to scream, but then I look like a crazy person, right, and then nothing gets done. But there's certain things that you should understand when you're bagging. Like chips, fragile things that crumble should not be bagged first. Eggs should not be bagged vertically, just common knowledge I had. Once I bought a pie. I kid you, not Steve. I bought a pie and the lady packed it vertically.
Speaker 1:I, george, give me a look like I. I appreciate that and, and I have to say Then I think I throw everything in the bag to the point is that the checker unpacks it and packs it again and Giving me the look that George was giving them.
Speaker 2:I do, I do the unpacking packing post their packing on that neurotic Customer. I'm just so annoying, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:I believe you and, and the interesting part, the other part about the check was that first time that I went and that is is the they had a person in every aisle, a person in every aisle Saying you looking for something Is just something I can help you find actually, you know what I have experienced, that and something I can help you find yes, the customer service a plus.
Speaker 1:And I'll be like, yes, do you have gelatin sheets? And they're looking at me like what the heck is that you asked. So I'm gonna ask you I know you don't carry it, but and a little gold, look for it. They'll go in the back, they'll talk to the manager. They'll go through everything trying to figure it out.
Speaker 2:I was expecting you to say, oh, would you like gold or silver?
Speaker 1:That would have been something. Yeah but I usually use silver, but I don't know what the difference is in the gold, you know.
Speaker 2:I think it's just the potency of the gelatin.
Speaker 1:I've never had success with gelatin sheets. Really, and for those who don't know what it is, jelton sheets are like you get the powdered gelatin, use it to make. I use it to make either ice cream, certain kinds of ice cream. Panicotta man Panicotta, those are the two big things I use it for and I have the sheets, but I've never had success with the sheets and I don't know if it's I'm not using enough. Are you blooming them, perl? I'm.
Speaker 2:I'm doing them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean is you take them, you put them in the water, you do it the powder too, and you let it mix in, and then it becomes a little bit of a gelatinous thing and then when you put it in the heated, when you put it in the heated, whether it's Panicotta or whatever, you put it in as it cools, it gives it some body and you don't taste it or anything, because there's nothing to it.
Speaker 2:We should have a resident pastry Advisor our panel, my friend Gina. She's a fantastic baker. She did the courses either at I believe it was the FCI pastry program that she's Constantly baking for her kids and I'm sure she would have these answers.
Speaker 1:Well, we should definitely get her in. Yeah, all right, so what? But the Checos is? They say it right this time no, you said the Chico's. When I go to the one in Eastchester, they actually have a bar. The one in Eastchester. Wow, they have a bar where you can get all the beers on tap.
Speaker 2:So smart, I know, I think the one they wanted to build or remodel or whatever in Harrison. Initially they said there was gonna be a bar. I think they may have abandoned that, but it's a beautiful site. It's a beautiful building, people are great in there and Just fantastic array of goods.
Speaker 1:Yeah last thing is I bought a. I was looking for a standing rib roast or a rib eye. Okay, roast, not the Crown, but just the regular right like a three bone, yeah, I think it was four bone.
Speaker 1:Okay, prime rib and I went in there and they had it. When the guy was like, how much do you want? How big do you want it? When he had it all and it was Phenomenal. How great matter of fact. I spoke to George when I was making it and he gave some tips about leaving it open and letting it age a Little bit in a refrigerator and I did all those things dry out.
Speaker 1:Yeah and then I encrusted it and it came out. I did I actually I found some recipe I saw on YouTube and it was really great and I have to remember what it was and maybe I'll put it on the, put it out there the name on the Instagram for you. But it really just came out. It's nothing really. You do you put it in the oven. It cooks so damn. If it's room temperature which is all beef should be room temperature before you cook it. It cooks so quickly. Of all the things you could make, it was the simplest and with a little horse, white horse radish. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:Knock your socks off a good quality beef salt and pepper and, yeah, that horse radish for your roast. Wow, that sounds good, man, that sounds really good.
Speaker 1:When I was in kid used to be a restaurant in New Jersey Called Jorgensen's okay, up almost in Sussex County on the way on the end of route 23, and they were known for the prime rib. You bought it by the inch, you know what I mean, and you had a great prime rib and I thought it'd be just real old, gigantic, like mansion. You're walking back in time. You go there on a Sunday. It's expensive, if I remember correctly, and my cousin went there the other day and he said to me it's just as good as it was I 20, 30 years ago when we used to go.
Speaker 2:There's so many hidden gems in New Jersey, it's mind boggling.
Speaker 1:Oh, this is in the sticks. You go down this road. You think you're going through a cornfield.
Speaker 2:There's I don't know if you know this. There's a place called Steve's Sizzling Steakhouse on. Is it 17? 17.
Speaker 1:South, that's right, and I don't know if it's Carl Statt or Rutherford. Border right by where the giant stadium is. I know it's called MetLifeNow or whatever it is. It's on the right and they do a steak and when you get the plate first it's on metal sizzling platter metal sizzling platter and it comes with this juice and it is so phenomenal. First of all, if you touch it, you're going to send your brain. It's so hot.
Speaker 2:It is so good. By no means is this a Manhattan steakhouse experience. Correct, this is a Route 17 county highway type of pit stop. Did you notice the amount of sports memorabilia plaques on the walls?
Speaker 1:It's been there since I've been, at least since I've been 18.
Speaker 2:Yankee players have gone, giants players have gone. They have just crazy amounts of signature, autographed photos and you just sit in the banquette and imagine guys like my memory juggled but guys like Babe Ruth right, they were there eating the same steak, steak fries and it used to be like a little old house.
Speaker 1:It was like a little shack, but it's a little bit bigger now.
Speaker 2:So the price is right Really and I remember it being like $13 or something Delicious.
Speaker 1:I'm sure it's much more than that, right.
Speaker 2:So yeah, 17 for like 14 hours.
Speaker 1:Here's my Steve Sizzling steak story. So right around there I used to run a trucking company and we had about I don't know 50 or 60 trucks and on any given day the world would come to an end. Trucks would break down. Clients we've been trying to get to use this for the longest time. Today's the day and they need it right away.
Speaker 1:Everybody's out there, accidents, everything goes wrong and the poor girls in a dispatch are in the office. Everybody would be gone. It'd be like four girls, me and two dispatchers and it would be dead in the summer when it's a thousand degrees. And I would, and the girls would be just oh yeah, they're going to be there in 15 minutes, they're going to be there in a half hour, and it calls and it's ringing. You can't answer and you keep taking more jobs. You don't have enough drivers to do it.
Speaker 1:On those days, on those days, being the lunatic that I can be, at times I used to turn all the air conditioners on negative 20. So cold that we meanwhile it's 100 degrees outside. So cold that everybody had to wear winter coats and gloves. And I would order, I would send one of the drivers over to Steve's Sizzling Stakes and I would get 10 sizzling steak dinners for the entire office and we would sit there out of our minds, busy in winter clothes in 100 degree weather, eating Steve's sizzling steaks, because it was the reward, was as absurd as the day was and everybody remembered it and everybody killed themselves.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome.
Speaker 1:But my favorite New Jersey steak place and I don't know if it still exists in Hoboken but I think it does, and that's Arthur's Steakhouse. There used to be one in there, always was one in Hoboken. I don't know if it's still there or not and then there was one in Emerson, new Jersey, or Westwood, somewhere around there, and then they put one in out by Mars Town I think it was Mars Plains, a Lake Mohawk I think it was. There were these three and they would have this steak right. First of all, the potatoes that came with the steak had been cooking for a century. All right, they had onions on them and they had some kind of seasoning on them, but they were like so good and they were somewhat charred from being in a pan, but they were just as tasty as can be and I used to save them for the next morning and make eggs with them. Then you would get a ribeye on a bone but it was hot as can be, pink through the middle, perfectly cooked and crispy on the outside of the steak, like it was almost charred and it was charred, but the flavor of the charring really enhanced the steak and it was some and it was the best. They made a really great hamburger too, but the steak was big. Usually If you took a girl she only ate half of hers and you got to eat the other half a litter on that night or the next morning, so you took the half whole. But it was an amazing steak. It really worth it.
Speaker 1:I loved Arthur's Steakhouse. It really was a treat to go to. There was one other steak place I used to go to. I even go now. I love Rabbi. I'm sorry, I do love Rabbi.
Speaker 1:I'm a Gallagher Steakhouse in the city kind of guy now but I love Prime Rib and there's a little half barbecue, half bar place in Mawon, new Jersey called Mason Jar and the Mason Jar is like an old place we used to go to when we got out of school and you'd go over and drink and whatever. But every night they have Prime Rib. They have a king and a queen cut and it comes with a baked potato or fries or whatever you want and it is so good, it is so fresh and it's so good. So if you're anywhere near Northern Jersey, mawon, new Jersey, you can go in. There's millions of things on the menu, there's lots of things to have, but Mason Jar has a great Prime Rib. I love it. I'd go there right now and eat it if I didn't just have pizza again with George. I've had enough pizza over the last couple of days, but it's so good but I love it, even you know what when I've had.
Speaker 1:If you really want to save a few bucks, go to Outback. Outback on the weekend, friday and Saturday. They have great Prime Rib. It's really pretty good. They only make it on Saturdays and Sundays. I believe it may be Friday, saturday and Sunday, but by the end of the day on Sunday they usually run out. So it's one of those things. But I love Prime Rib because I love have Prime Rib with horse radish and I love horse radish. Those are the New Jersey spots. I know there are many more. Those are some of the New Jersey steak spots I like to go to. That's just steaks.
Speaker 2:We've got hot dogs. If you talk about hot dogs, hirams, rutts, hut, what?
Speaker 1:else, rutts Hut, isn't Clifton right Hirams? Then there's Callahans Callahans, callahans is great, what's the name of the place on? And then there's Falls Grill. There's the place in Patterson Is that what it is, falls Grill, but next to the National Park, the Falls Park. Dad, I don't know.
Speaker 2:When we talk about Patterson it gets into Middle Eastern and all different ethnicities over there. There's like little Palestine in Patterson right.
Speaker 1:I got a story for you if you want to talk about it. So years ago, when I was in college, a friend of mine was a manager there and a guy I worked for and he was Egyptian and he was really good to me. Even when I was in Italy for a year going to school, he kept my job open the whole time I was away for a whole year. So he was very good to me. He let my schedule be whatever I wanted to do so I could go to school at the same time. Years later it turns out that he went to the same mosque in Patterson that the 9-11 terrorists went to and years later, after 9-11, he reached out to me and I was a lawyer already. And he reached out to me and said I've been blacklisted, I can't fly, I can't do anything, I can't get a job, I can't get a license, I can't do anything. He's been blacklisted, I'm guessing, because he was part of that mosque. I don't really know. So that was something.
Speaker 1:And I remember once in a while when I would miss my regular train, I would get off in Patterson because I lived in Hawthorne, which is like one or two towns. Train stops later and at that point. I got off in Patterson, I grew up in Cape and I'm telling the guy he starts telling me the story how he was the cab driver who drove the terrorists to the Newark Airport from Patterson. Apparently they lived there. He said I'm in bed that night after all what happened, blown away, and the FBI come breaking down my door to talk to me about what I know about the guy. Of course he said I picked him up, I dropped him off. He was an Arab guy. I think he was Spanish of some kind. I don't know what island or where he was, from some South American country maybe, and he said it was horrible. How did I know the guy in my car was about to destroy the world or try to?
Speaker 2:Unbelievable.
Speaker 1:That's the stories, that they're all out there. Those stories, they're not forever. Oh, wow, okay. So next week I don't want to, let's start talking about next week.
Speaker 2:So next week we've been talking about a chicken yes, a roast chicken, I mean in different variations. We have to pick a style, a certain discipline. We go Contemporary, go classic.
Speaker 1:I think you're gonna have to cook this. If you're gonna start talking like that Classic, you're gonna have to brine it right yeah we'll see.
Speaker 2:We'll see If we can get our hands on a nice bird, I think. Give me a list.
Speaker 1:I'll go pick it up so it's all here so you don't have to run around the night, the day I'll have it, I'll go the day before I don't know when we're gonna record again. We've been, first of all, some night, some weeks. We have to, we kill ourselves to get it in and now this week. This is the second.
Speaker 2:I Think it's like the third recording in seven days. I think it is we're fun a roll. I think this momentum, the feedback we get, gets us going and it gets me going for sure, and not only through DMs and what. But I get text messages. Hey, just listen to the most recent or they'll go back and re-listen to so for episode three and Ask questions, and that's the stuff we love.
Speaker 1:It's funny under the clear blue sky episode one will go up 20, 20 downloads and I'll be like a heck is listening to episode one. I'm just amazed. I'm amazed at the organic way this thing is grown, considering all three do is talk. I.
Speaker 2:Don't know we do anything. I think we catch them, catch all our guys when they're hungry. I think that must that might help. Yeah, when we should consider.
Speaker 1:Getting a shout out to PLP out there. I know you're the OG. You're the original guy Listening to the podcast and loving it.
Speaker 2:So nice, some of our previous interviewees, I think the gentleman, the Italian gentleman, franco, we have to get back to Franco.
Speaker 1:I was thinking of that today that I haven't spoken to him. I know he said it was a little busy and then I think that was partially because of the holiday. But being Thanksgiving and the other holidays are coming, we certainly can spend some time talking about Christmas. Though my tree still seems to be in a box at the moment, I am gonna absolutely put it up and hopefully I put it up before the day I have to take it down.
Speaker 2:How big is the tree that you have Goes all the way to ceiling, okay, and then you decorate the crap out of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know how tall the ceiling is. I think it's nine foot. Yeah, I All right. Yes, usually whoever I'm doing with it says don't you think it has enough ornaments on it? You're like no, no, I want to buy more.
Speaker 2:Wow, all right, it do. You do buy an extra ornament every year signifying that particular year, or Well, what? Makes what makes it to ornament status?
Speaker 1:Crazy, something that's obscure for an ornament. Okay, like a lobster. I have lobster ornaments, I have barbecue ornaments. Santa Claus in the truck, that kind of crap, gotcha.
Speaker 2:Now do? You don't have kids, so I don't know if you do the elf on the shelf. No, I don't get the elf on the shelf.
Speaker 1:What the?
Speaker 2:heck, is that what? I didn't get that elf on the shelf when I was a kid, but I didn't get anything on a shelf.
Speaker 1:This is a kid.
Speaker 2:This kind of just came out.
Speaker 1:I'm sure people have talked about it, but we didn't even have stockings when I was a kid. Yeah, now my cousin had my cousins family. They had stockings and they would Put 40 things in these huge stockings and wrap each one individually. So it was totally torturous to open it up and more torturous for the rest of us to watch one at a time. People open it up pageantry. He was a photographer, so they used to get rolls of film back in a day that's got and he'd Individually wrap every roll of film.
Speaker 2:I remember those days, those Minolta and on a conica. I think we bought conica and then Fuji, fuji film.
Speaker 1:I had a minolta, I think yeah, times has changed.
Speaker 2:We have aged. Now this iPhone is a Mega monster, it's the great equalizer.
Speaker 1:We were cracking up because when we filmed the other day, I'm filming with this said ten thousand dollar Cinema rig and then I'm talking with it and then in between I took a couple videos with my iPhone and we were admiring how well the videos for my iPhone came out and I'm like I wish I, george, was like. I wish you would have filmed the entire thing with your phone.
Speaker 2:I know the automatic setting on that iPhone is. It's too good.
Speaker 1:It really is it is good, and I have no idea how to use my camera, so that doesn't make yeah, that doesn't help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Huh. So what else have you seen?
Speaker 2:Um, what was it like in the city today? You know what I was about to talk about. That Grand Central was extremely civilized, to the point where it was as if I was in Europe or something. It was really nice walking through the town. Just going to the east side, I took a quick subway ride up to 59th to meet a friend prior to my meeting.
Speaker 1:What subway was that? F? The number four four, four to five.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was pretty civilized too. All in all, new York City was not the chaos bound Christmas seasonal Mayhem that you'd expect.
Speaker 1:Once you get congestion pricing, which is a whole another trip Um which may come to pass, it's really gonna cut down on all the traffic that. That is $15 every time. You know what a deterrent, what a deterrent.
Speaker 2:The weather cooperated. It was cold, don't get me wrong, but without Snow and leading to slush, it was very easy to navigate through. The city was great. City was, as you'd expect, super expensive. Yeah, to the point. I think I had a Two coffees. I bought two coffees and a pastry and it was like 26 bucks. Okay, welcome to New York. And my friend was like and now this is actually very reasonable for midtown, so stop your bitching.
Speaker 1:I Remember going and spending $15 on an orange juice on on on Madison Avenue? Once when I was driving a truck I pulled over. I needed something to drink or something really quick. I went in those. I have his orange juice. I said I'll take. It was $15. It's not. Yeah, and that's 40 years ago. You 35 years ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, almost dare to say, you got ripped off.
Speaker 1:No foolin'.
Speaker 2:Oh boy New.
Speaker 1:York City. It was good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as long as you got hydrated and you got in your merry way. What else? What else do we? I wanted to talk about mental health. That was like a big thing that's been on my mind that I wanted to share and talk, but that might be better for another time. Like we're way past the half point, if not three quarters, of today's recording, I don't want to bring up something so heavy, but we'll keep that on the burner and talk about, yeah, like men especially my, our perspective men's mental health, things about self care, self love, understanding your pursuit of happiness, your meaning to life, your position in other people's lives, friendship and all that stuff. It's a little touchy, a little maybe soft, but I think it's okay to bring up these days because and this is something that I really do feel if I'm thinking it, others are thinking it and it's a good thing to make sure we're all able to talk about and discuss.
Speaker 1:I agree I have. I understand the difficulties of mental health. I understand there's civil liberties issues. I understand there's safety issues. I understand that the hospitals of the past, back in the Willowbrook days, were horrible and I know the drugs progressed themselves in a way to help, but that's not happening. There are homeless people out there that clearly need care. There are people everywhere that need care and, just like when you talk about gun control and that these people with mental health issues are possessed weapons and use them, I don't know what to say.
Speaker 1:People, gun control on a grand scale is definitely an issue. It's certainly an issue that needs to be talked about. But on the other part is how is it people who have mental health issues always seem to have never gets picked up when they give out the handguns? I don't know what happened. Look at these rifles. Look at these last owners where. Look at what happened in Maine. In Maine and I'm not anti-gun by any stretch of the imagination in Maine they had no mechanism for taking someone's guns away. That had mental issues Clear signs clear Police were aware of it.
Speaker 1:The parents alerted them to take someone's guns away, but no particular legal. You have to sue in court because there are no right to carry laws in Maine, like in New York. You have to fill out a form, you have to go through, you get interviewed by the police officer, you get interviewed by the judge before they sign off on your carry, on your full carry. In Maine there are no full carry statutes, so you just carry.
Speaker 2:I could become a resident of Maine and carry a gun and go buy a gun and carry it. Correct Anywhere within the state? I believe so. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:Okay, so there were no mechanisms to take guns away, because in the old days if somebody was acting crazy and they had guns, somebody went over there and took them and nobody did anything. But now everybody sues, everybody, protectionists, that the other thing rights, or whatever. What's the different world? I don't know what the answer is and I don't want to get off on gun control, because that's not the issue we're talking about. We're talking about mental health. Yeah, and there are going to be ways. The trouble is that a lot of times the people that, whether they're homeless or not, that need care don't get it because they think they're okay.
Speaker 1:They're unaware how many times have you heard people say oh, I'm okay, I stopped taking my medication.
Speaker 2:You hear that a lot.
Speaker 1:You hear that a lot. And talking about civil liberty issues, you can't force somebody to take their medication. So what do you do? I don't know, and you would hope the government would sit around and figure things out. But they can't figure anything out anymore. Everybody the government's in such a disarray that middle center roof floor.
Speaker 2:These are hard decisions that need smart people to come up with answers, and it's just not there and to govern a country of our size is, I mean, it makes it monumentally more difficult.
Speaker 1:In a changing world. Right, we're in a changing world. The election system is different, running for office is different. The people that are available for different Social media has changed the world. Social media is out of control to a certain extent.
Speaker 2:Plus, it's not a we don't know what's real. We don't know what's real Right. We're not a homogenous society either. So now we're dealing with all these different ethnicities, cultures and this hodgepodge of just different walks of life.
Speaker 1:Right, what means one thing to me means another to you. Yeah, you know what I mean and I always give this example and an example of two people love the kids in high school. Love in the four years high school, never left, never dated, never cheated with anyone else, went through. They go to college. They want to get married. They get married. They go out to dinner. Right, two families go to have dinner. They're going to get married for the first time One family.
Speaker 1:When they have dinner, everybody sits and eats calm. Everybody nod of fights. They have an educational discussions, people are using their silverware, people are being courteous to other people. Another family it's a bloodbath. Everybody's screaming at each other and that's. And everybody's laughing and giggling and making fun of each other and whatever.
Speaker 1:They're both normal behaviors, but normal for each other. And when you put those two behaviors together, they both think the other one's not normal. And that's just one example of how difficult it is to agree, because there are hundreds of normal behaviors, millions probably of normal behaviors in this world and people are different. They're raised different and you never know, george and I couldn't have been probably raised any more different. We couldn't look at things more differently and there are pluses and minuses to both of those, and it's just the way it is. The world politically has to find a true ground and it's going to take a real leader and as far as I know, I haven't seen one in 100 years. I don't even know if I know what a real leader is anymore, but they used to be out there, they used to be. You know, I may not like what he says, but I believe he's trying to do the right thing or she's trying to do the right thing.
Speaker 2:We don't see that anymore, it's upon ourselves, right, it really is. It's a grassroots thing. It's upon ourselves to treat our neighbors with love and care and not to be so me all the time, but maybe more us, or we We've lost that?
Speaker 1:Think about it. Well, there was iPods to cell phones, to individual things, and I have talked about this or spoken about this before Years ago. When you want to listen to music and went over somebody's house, I had five records. They had five records. You went to the room, you listened to the music. Everybody listened, you talked, you shared what you had. You listened to their albums. They listened to yours.
Speaker 1:Now, no one listens, nobody even knows what you're listening to. Everybody's an individual, everybody's an island. Everybody's wandering around on their own. They've lost the ability to communicate. They've lost the ability to sit down and try to figure out what common ground is. I want to hear this song, I want to hear that song. Let's do this. We'll play this song first and the other song next, and then you know what, over time, you end up liking the other song. But that doesn't happen. And I just have to say the world has become if you're on the other side, you're my enemy, and then is not the answer. I just I spoke to a woman today and she said to me I'm not crazy about my candidate, but I hate the other candidate and I'll do anything in my power to be sure that they don't get in office. Is that the viewpoint? I don't understand the viewpoint. I don't understand how people just hate each other so much that they're going to support people they don't believe in, and that's why we get politicians that don't do anything.
Speaker 2:They definitely prey on that conundrum right Fear, fear. It's a heavy topic. I think about some of my friends who have lost because of depression and mental anguish and just despair, and we just don't know what others are suffering through or going through and true it really is. It's so important to try not to jump to conclusions, to judge, and just show a little empathy more often than not. Right, and I want to leave off with that sentiment.
Speaker 1:So let me tell you a short little blurb of a story that I heard once of two alcoholics talking to each other, and it's an old story and maybe you've heard me tell it before. Man's walking past and he sees his friend down in a hole and a friend yells up to him can you get me help? I need to get out of the hole. The friend jumps down in the hole and he said what's your? There's a whole, it's a longer story, but I'm cutting to the chase. Why'd you jump down here? And now we're both down here, stuck down here, and he says I've been down here before and follow me, I know the way out.
Speaker 1:And that's really how life is. When you find people that are troubled and they find people that maybe have lost their way, you have to be the one that says that's okay, follow me, I know the way out. And that's why you save the world. You start with one person at a time. You start moving in the direction. You help people for no reason other than to help them, and that's what life's all about, and that's the way I look at life totally. Every long journey has a first step and every and we are here to help everyone else in the world and if you do that, you'll be happy and content all the time and people will stop you and say how do you do it? How are you so upbeat every day?
Speaker 2:Because that's what you're focused on. You got that lending hand. You're paying it forward now.
Speaker 1:Always. I definitely that is the truest statement. When I was. It helps when you have people that care about you in the world. When I was down when I was whether it was financially or no other time I was never mentally down, but down financially people would give me money, people would write me checks and I would say, what are you doing? And they would say, listen, I just came into money, you need it, I know you'll give it, I know you You'll give it back to me. And yes, everybody got their money back. But I was amazed I was turning money away from people trying to help me. And then you know it's just the way it is and now you pay it forward. That's how life works. I think we got too deep.
Speaker 2:I know we weren't really deep, but I'm five different topics. It's important, though, if you need someone to talk to, if you just need someone to listen, right, we're always here. You can reach us, direct message us. That goes to everybody who's listening to friends, of friends who you know and always try to be that extra layer of protection for our fellow brothers and sisters out there.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I think, on that wonderful note, hopefully there's a roasted chicken in my future. Yes, amongst all the things.
Speaker 2:And George, I'm going to call it. Yeah, thanks for listening guys. Thanks, episode 10.
Speaker 1:Episode 10. Good night, good day, good morning, good morning, good morning.
