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#34: Let's Build a Prison Downtown
42 Plays4 months ago
#34: Let’s Build A Prison Downtown
Jessica gives us the latest update on her temporary dog rescue while Francis recounts his unfulfilled morning of coffee, oatmeal and mysterious “hello’s”. They don’t quite understand how the lefties decided to build a high rise jail on prime land in downtown Brooklyn. Pay attention to the Donkey principle and did you know Instacart is price gouging you for basic groceries? Happy cooking with wagyu beef tallow spray or mix it up with duck fat spray for maximum flavor. The second half of the podcast lets us wonder out loud if the proposed USA Hockey Development League will help or hurt hockey families.
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Transcript
Welcome to The Grocery Stick Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
From a makeshift recording studio in Brooklyn, welcome to The Grocery Stick with Jessica and Francis. Shut the front door. That is not what we agreed upon. Francis and Jessica. Meh, ignore that.
00:00:13
Speaker
We're Brooklynites and friends.
Introduction to Topics: Travel, Sports, Parenting, Life
00:00:15
Speaker
We're here to talk, laugh, commiserate, and argue about all things travel sports-related, kid-related, and plain old life-related. It's Francis and Jessica, or I quit.
00:00:23
Speaker
Shh. The sweet sound of Jessica Silver's voice through a working microphone. Nothing better on a Tuesday morning.
00:00:35
Speaker
Than listening to me? I think i think there are many things that are better on a Tuesday morning. hour oh i mean And I've been playing around with the gain on my microphone all morning trying to figure out how to get just the right input without the echo.
00:00:53
Speaker
Yeah, I hear you. And I have now explored every single room in the apartment. Including closets. Including the
Technical Issues and Wi-Fi Woes
00:01:01
Speaker
closets. The closet doesn't work because for some reason the Wi-Fi signal is bad. So when I did post in our last episode, 32? 33? I can't remember. remember.
00:01:15
Speaker
It was choppy. So I was kind of pissed off at myself. Yeah. Oh, damn. Episode We're in episode 34. That's a lot of episodes.
00:01:27
Speaker
Yeah. That's lot episodes of just shit coming out of our heads. I was just going to say that. I didn't want to be offensive, though.
Concerns About Foster Dog's Health
00:01:35
Speaker
How was your how was your dog walk this morning?
00:01:39
Speaker
um My dog walk this morning was fine. I take them separately because i can't really manage them together at the same time. Same foster dog? Yes.
00:01:50
Speaker
We may have run into some problems, though. so Oh, no. We're not sure ah what that future is going to look like. Health problems?
00:02:02
Speaker
Well, yes. there's So he has a mass on his back that oh man originally I thought in the photographs was actually a cigar burn because he was part of an abuse-neglect case. Mm-hmm.
00:02:14
Speaker
um As it turns out, I met up with my vet because the rescue, although lovely people, you know, they've been taking their time. I mean, he came to me on December 7th. It's what, January 13th?
00:02:27
Speaker
And, you know, they've not helped me find a vet that they're that they're going to contract with in the New York City area. They like abandoned you? No, I wouldn't say abandoned. that I think that that would be an extreme. Okay. You know, it's just, you know, hell, I guess it hasn't been a priority and the holidays were, you know, upon them. And um i think, yeah you know, things get complicated when the holidays come about. Everybody is in their holiday mode and everything else kind of falls by the wayside, which is fine.
00:02:59
Speaker
um But you know he's kind of a lumpy dog. And so um what how this whole thing started was I ran into a friend with her dog on the street at on you know like a regular night walk.
Financial Burden of Dog's Surgery
00:03:15
Speaker
He and her dog were playing and Caesar's arm flayed to the side. you know And they they don't move laterally. Their front limbs don't move laterally.
00:03:25
Speaker
And so he cried. He whimpered. He was limping. He limped all the way home. And so I contacted my vet and I said, hey, you know this is what's going on. Can you take a look? um In the meantime, I'm going to give him some carprofen, which is canine ibuprofen.
00:03:39
Speaker
Okay. And so he swung by the next morning and he was taking a look at him and it was a sprain, which was no big deal. Okay. Yeah. But he was looking at the masses, you know, the lumps. And he said, you know, I think that's a mast cell tumor.
00:03:52
Speaker
Yeah. And I need to take a sample. So two days later, he took a sample and I just got the cytology back and it is mast cell tumor. It's sorry to hear that low. Thank you. Yeah. It's low grade, um which means the survival rate's fine, but they need to be removed. Like you can't like just leave cancerous lesions and just hope for the best, even if they're low grade.
00:04:14
Speaker
And there's some spread already because, you know, like I said, he's lumpy. So. Okay. But. Okay. Well, and I was going to do the surgery because we, we were. Time out for a second. What mean you're going to the surgery? It's like your dog.
00:04:28
Speaker
Yeah, I know. Well, you know, my, my family likes him quite a bit. I didn't know you were that rich. Yeah. Yeah. Just pouring out of Maine for sure. It actually, you know, it wasn't as bad as I thought. The first estimate I thought he gave was like $15,000. was like, no rescues even going to But it was
00:04:48
Speaker
which was like fifty percent of it normal sorry yeah Your dog, $1,500. Yes. You probably have insurance. Agreed. I'm not trying mean. No, no, no.
00:05:01
Speaker
And suddenly you're out $1,500? Yeah, I know. Well, it gets better because the night before last night, my daughter was petting him. She had moved me over the couch to sit between me and the dog. Yep, yep, yep. And she was petting the dog and he snapped at her.
Social Media Arguments and the Donkey Principle
00:05:20
Speaker
Is this like the no good deed story? Maybe. this start so January 2026. But I have to say, he's he really is a great dog. He's sweet. He's lovely.
00:05:31
Speaker
you know i think he's resource guarding me because I make him feel safe after being you know in a kennel for so long or whatever. um and then last night she like leaned in He was like resting and he looked at her and she leaned in to say hello and he snapped at her face.
00:05:49
Speaker
Hmm. And so, you know, I'm in contact with the rescue and I think um invariably they're going have to find another foster because this is just, he's a great dog. It's just not maybe the right environment for him to thrive.
00:06:03
Speaker
He probably. um Sorry, I shouldn't, I'm not trying to make like this, but. they're I mean, to me, they're animals. Oh, yeah. I know. Sure, of course. And so there's some instincts in there that you can't, I think you can't train out of them.
00:06:22
Speaker
Yes. Is this last is like Six Feet and Roy? where everyone's like Or like, who's that guy? Who's that guy in Australia? The the guy? Oh, Steve Irwin. Steve Irwin. It's like, everyone says their animal is domesticated and well-trained until they're not. Right. Right.
00:06:36
Speaker
Well, you know, he's he's literally six weeks out of being, you know, jailbird for the most part, right? I mean, he's been living, you know, in a shelter for 15 months. Traumatized in the whole bit. but Yeah, and he's got it and he's got a history of abuse. I mean, there's there's stuff there. It's just, you know, again, maybe not the right environment, you know? um Yeah, I would think so.
00:06:58
Speaker
If you're snapping at your daughter. Yeah. Yeah. So. But, but, okay. So this is a weird way to start our call. I know. I had all these, things and i had all these, you know what? I feel bad about myself. i feel bad now because I had all these like stupid, really surface level. Well, let's get to there. Cause it's so much better. was going complain about my oatmeal this morning. And I was like, that pales in comparison to this dog and your problems. No, no, no. Hang a second. So.
00:07:31
Speaker
Out of the kindness of your heart, you're you're a dog foster care parent. Is that what you call it? Yeah. Okay. Take this dog. Something happens. It gets sick.
00:07:43
Speaker
It attacks your daughter, whatever else it is. Knock on wood doesn't happen. but And then you don't hear back from those guys. it' this too bad for you? is that what happens? I'm i'm asking a serious question here. like I don't understand how this works. They find another foster and they move him.
00:07:58
Speaker
No, no, I understand that part. yeah That's in theory. yeah In practical day-to-day terms, yeah until they come for him, I don't know if that even happens, or do you ship it? like like what ah what The practical part of like finding a new family for this dog, the days it takes to get that to happen, the transportation to said person, if what if they're in freaking Detroit?
00:08:26
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think that that's going to be okay where it goes. I think, you know, i think they're a New York-based rescue. you Okay, but, you know, something, God forbid, would happen.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yeah, that's not going to happen because I'm going to keep them separate. And i you the the kids already know you know what the deal is. like That is not a thing. I'm going to try the best again to mitigate the situation. And I've talked to my vet. I have ah an acquaintance who um I actually met recently who I'm going to reach out to today also to find out what her opinion is on like how I should manage it. um Because she's got a lot of experience.
00:09:09
Speaker
Like I've never experienced this behavior before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. mean. Like this is me. hear the jingling in the background. Oh, yeah, no, he's here with me. Oh, yeah. And the other episode where you said, hey, if you hear jingling in the background, it's my dog.
00:09:23
Speaker
And I was like, I can't hear it. I was like, shit, I'm losing my hearing or some frequency of my hearing. And then my god sister who listens to the podcast out from Vancouver, and she was like,
00:09:35
Speaker
You can't hear that? I could hear it all over the place. And was like, what? Are you serious? It's loud. ah It's loud. It's his car. heard it. I'm like, what? i I'm getting old and deaf.
00:09:46
Speaker
Oh, yeah. No, he he doesn't. It's funny. He's he's not stopped moving. Oh, but I hear it now. Sure. Yeah, because he's literally not stopped moving. So partially deaf. Only when people talk to you and tell you to do something are you deaf. Exactly.
00:10:00
Speaker
i Listen, I had this whole list of, it was a very unfulfilling Tuesday morning. I like it. Let's start with the unfulfilling Tuesday morning. Old Asian angry man. I didn didn't start the day angry. It's weird. I didn't start the day angry. I walked out, went to get my coffee. And the first thing that hit me was two people said hello to me on the street.
00:10:22
Speaker
Okay. People you knew or people you didn't know? People I don't recognize. Okay. Okay. One male, one female. Okay. My walk to coffee is two blocks.
00:10:35
Speaker
Okay. Two and a half blocks. I'm very good with people and faces and what have you. So two people said hello to me that I really did not recognize. was like, hmm, have I lived here too long? And I've said hi to too many people, strangers on the street. I'll say good morning to people I don't know.
00:10:56
Speaker
It's okay. Right? if they If they catch your eye, you know how you walk down the street, someone catches your eye, hey, good morning. and And people say good morning back, right? So maybe that's happened. Yeah. I hope they don't live in my building because that would be a shame. I'm really good at remembering everybody in our in our building of 123 apartments.
00:11:14
Speaker
um Anyway, so first I was like, I might have lived you too long in this area, nine years, or I am getting old and crazy. So that was first. Or it could be both.
00:11:27
Speaker
It could be both. Then I went, then i then okay, no big deal. Got home and ah was reminded that I can't be eating fried chicken and bubble tea every day without killing myself. So decided to do something, you know, it's the new year, eat oatmeal.
00:11:45
Speaker
Wait, you were going to have fried chicken and bubble tea for breakfast? no. But it's like, you know, yeah. ah It does cross my mind every day that I should have fried chicken and bubble tea.
00:11:57
Speaker
I had bubble tea last night. Okay. she Okay. All right. So how often, how many times a week do you have fried chicken and bubble tea? No. Like. Come on. Come clean. I probably, no, I probably have to do i maybe once every two weeks.
00:12:11
Speaker
Okay. Let's separate it out. How many times you have fried chicken versus how many times you have bubble tea every week? Oh, nowadays fried chicken, much less.
00:12:22
Speaker
Okay. Much less. but but but But it's because I stand there as, you know, longingly and they look at and I go, I can't. i just It's not good for my health. I go to the gym. but but but bla blah Bubble tea easier because, you know, we're on the road for hockey.
00:12:36
Speaker
And you're thirsty and it's like, do I go to Starbucks and get coffee? Sure. to you know people I'm looking around, people drinking wine and beer. I don't drink. Surely i could have one bubble tea like a week and not kill myself. Sure.
00:12:49
Speaker
Probably. or not ruin my health. Sorry. um wow So, so I was reminded, take, eat oatmeal and it's like sawdust. I don't know. I don't know how else to make oatmeal taste good. Without adding a lot of stuff to it, which then defeats the purpose of eating the oatmeal, right? Well, it depends on what you're Like ground sugar nuts and seeds. what Anyways, so the easy thing to do is just like make the bowl oatmeal and literally spoon it into your mouth and just swallow it without even like tasting it. I can do it really fast and then drink my coffee. Well, are you making it yourself are you buying it from somewhere? I'm going to give those pouches and hot water. Oh, yeah. Well, so the first thing is no flavor you know not using water and using some kind of milk, whether it's you know dairy or dairy-free, makes it different from the beginning. It's way better.
00:13:42
Speaker
Water and anything like that is just basic and terrible. I'm Asian. I can't do milk. Yeah, I know. But you could do non-dairy milk. I know, but it's just like, forget it. I'm like, I just try to get it in and swallow it and just get it over with as soon as I possibly can. Yeah. hear So I'm unfulfilled.
00:14:00
Speaker
I'm full. I'm unfulfilled for my breakfast. Right. And then look out the window as I'm getting set up for our podcast. And, and then even though we face sort of the opposite direction from our living room, we can sort of see the jail being built. Right.
00:14:15
Speaker
Yeah. like For fuck's sake. I'm sorry. Like, It's prime real estate. I mean, i know but you know this because you used around here. I don't think people understand. like for my for my For our listeners who don't know New York City or Berlin, I mean, you're talking about a piece of land that when you build up this 20, 30, 40-story jail, right?
00:14:41
Speaker
It's high rise. You get views. You get sweeping views of the Statue of Liberty, right? New Jersey, the mouth of the East River.
00:14:53
Speaker
Yeah. Downtown Manhattan, Skyline. Oh, yeah. like This is prime. but like this could be That building could be Brooklyn's version of Billionaire's Row.
00:15:03
Speaker
and Yeah, it totally could. Right? sure. yeah No, seriously. I mean, given the sweeping views yeahp of Manhattan and everything. and i'm Yeah, and the idea that it's one stop into the city. I know.
00:15:14
Speaker
and so I'm like, im for the friends that live in Asia, I'm like, If you were in Singapore, this would be built like building a jail next to the Marina Bay Sands Casino. If you were in Hong Kong, it's like building it next to the Shangri-La Hotel in Central. was like, nowhere else in the world would this happen except for freaking like lefties in America who say, it's not fair to make your family go to wherever you're buttfuck part of the of the city or country to visit your loved one in jail. right I'm like, there's a reason why you don't go to jail. So now we've made it easy right and taken prime real estate to go to jail while
00:15:53
Speaker
Everyone's complaining there's not enough housing supply. Right. In the city. There's your answer. Right. so Yeah. Build a condo right there. Right. Well, I mean, ok so, you know, for starters, it was a jail and they tore it down to rebuild a new jail, which is the part that's interesting to me.
00:16:10
Speaker
Holding facility. A holding facility. Right. Okay. It's a fucking jail. Holding facility. No, no. Holding facility for our dear friends who protest all the stupid things they protest.
00:16:21
Speaker
and Yeah. least didn come out But now it's a jail as in you get sentenced. Right. And now you're in your serving time. But even a holding facility is technically a jail. Let's be honest. Basic, right? Jail is you're being hold you're being held for doing something stupid and you're being held against your quote will because you did something stupid. So whether it's a jail, a prison, a holding cell, like you can distill it down and it's all pretty much jail.
00:16:48
Speaker
True. Fair. Right? Fair. So, yeah. So, okay. They tore down a holding cell and now they're building a jail. It's just like, it doesn't... But ah what I don't understand is like, why?
00:17:00
Speaker
First of all, why did you tear down the original one to build a second one? Oh. The resources... Don't get me started. I mean, that's just... and And they're building it higher, right? That's just grift to the max. Like, yeah everyone's got their hand out.
00:17:13
Speaker
Right. And... taking taxpayer money and putting it in their pocket and going to buy their G-Wagon and Ferrari. I mean, 100%. it was supposed to be 40 stories. And I think through enough protests, it's now 20-ish stories. That's awful, though, because 20 stories at that location blocks all of the sunlight for the building that I used to live over there.
00:17:37
Speaker
That 20 floors is going to block all the amazing sunlight I used to get in my apartment on the fourth floor of the building across the street. Totally. Yeah. I used to get the most beautiful morning light and it would go, the sun would transverse the sky and I would get light all day until the late afternoon.
00:17:52
Speaker
But I got yeah the most beautiful, beautiful morning light in that apartment. Those apartments on that building are going to be eclipsed by this jail and they are going to be pissed off.
00:18:04
Speaker
Yeah. They'll be in darkness the entire first half of the day. Yeah, right. Okay. so then so So happy go on my walk for coffee, confronted by oatmeal, unhappy, looking at the jail, more unhappy. Yeah. yeah And then I saw this thing on Instagram and I thought about you because once a while you get into these arguments ah ah online with people, right? Yeah, yeah I do. I do.
00:18:30
Speaker
I keep telling you for your own good, please don't do it. And i I came across this thing. I don't know. if The phone's always listening to me. So clearly it it knew that was unhappy. And then sent me this thing called the donkey principle. Have you heard of this? The donkey principle.
00:18:43
Speaker
not. How to avoid foolish arguments. And basically the lesson is if you argue with a fool. You're having a foolish argument? You become a fool. Yeah.
00:18:54
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a dog. Everybody out there, our PSA, Jessica and Frances PSA for you is the donkey principle.
Reflections on Social Media Use
00:19:02
Speaker
If you argue with a fool, you become one. Yeah.
00:19:05
Speaker
It makes perfect sense. Oh my God. Perfect sense. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways. Yeah, it happens to me all the time. You know, I mean, like, i you know, like, social media for me is is a blessing and a curse and maybe more a curse than a blessing after all.
00:19:24
Speaker
um Yeah, like, I signed out of two of them. Did you really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because, you know, it's like, first of all, it's an absolute time suck.
00:19:35
Speaker
Like, I can go in and go to check, you know, and say, okay, I'm just going to go check and see what's going on, right? But the truth is, is like, i don't actually give a shit about what's going on.
00:19:45
Speaker
It's probably more reflexive. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Like I'm, I have 10 minutes where I'm not doing something. Yeah. And instead I'm going to go on my phone, but it's really why i don't need to go do something else. Funny shit out there on Instagram. There is. There really is. And, and you know but the problem is, is it's a rabbit hole. And yeah yeah i oftentimes will end up, you know, spending, thinking I'm going to spend 10 minutes. And next thing I know, it's an hour.
00:20:16
Speaker
I'm still sitting there scrolling, reading dumb shit, arguing with people online. And it's like, it doesn't benefit me and it doesn't enhance my existence. It just makes me feel angry. Yeah. Mostly.
00:20:29
Speaker
um i I am incredulous at how pet we live in an upside-down world right now. yeah Logic is is defied all over the place. It's completely illogical. And I live you know in a headspace of logic. And so you know i try really hard to impart logic. And people meet me with vitriol. And it's just like, wow, okay. You hateful beings. Like, wow. Okay, so... you But so, you know, be a little brainless like me and just scroll through the funny shit.
00:21:04
Speaker
Yeah, but my feed is not funny shit anymore. Oh, but you see, the more funny shit that you seek, right the more your phone will send you funny shit. Yeah, know. The rest of the stuff. I know, algorithms and such. Where where did I see this?
00:21:20
Speaker
Someone was like, it must yeah must be like ah one of those party conversation starters. And it's like, you know, open up your... Open up your Instagram right now and open your search box and let's see what's on your suggested suggestions.
00:21:36
Speaker
Right. Right. And like, okay, I do it. And mine's always like funny shit, podcast stuff, golf, hockey. Yeah. Right. And so, oh, okay, okay, okay. That's what you're looking at. And so you can program your algo to actually, you want Didn't I send this to you?
00:21:53
Speaker
You can reset your algorithm, I think, on. You did not send that to me. On Instagram. I definitely sent it to you and Diana somehow. you? like Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like on Instagram? I'll send it to you again. Either on Instagram or I sent a screenshot and texted you guys. Definitely and not. You're busy. Maybe you didn't you missed it. But anyways, anyways I'm going to resend it to you. you can re you can You can now, I think you can see, not only can you see what your algorithm is feeding you.
00:22:18
Speaker
Yeah. I believe you can reset it. That would be interesting. Yeah. And ah yeah, I would just say reset, reprogram your phone to send you funny shit.
00:22:33
Speaker
There's some funny stuff out there. I mean, there theres is some really funny stuff out there. It is still a rabbit hole. You can still spend hours even just on the funny shit that people are posting.
00:22:44
Speaker
and But at least it would make you a little happier and not make you argue with other fools. Maybe, maybe, maybe. yeah Oh, and do you remember remember our stuff our talk about like the pricing algos, how they were trying gouge you? Yes. now it's like, aside from Uber and Airbnb and all the different places, travel, blah, blah, blah, and flights, now Instacart is doing it. Are you serious? Oh, oh you and this is the, like this is, I don't know if this is the lowest of the low. It might be. It's one thing for travel and everything else. Now, Instacart is, so if you and i decide to order the same box of oatmeal or milk or eggs on Instacart, it will show us different prices.
00:23:34
Speaker
Are you kidding me? They're using, and and they get, it's a test and blah, blah, blah. It's a test under the guise of, oh we're trying to help our retail partners you know find the proper price discovery. And and again, they're like, oh, you know if it gets if it's too high a price, we want them to know that you're overcharging people. Bullshit.
00:23:51
Speaker
No. Bullshit. Either you're overcharging people, you're not. Right. So what they're doing is, so let's say you and I did buy eggs. And let's say eggs is, you see $3.99 and I see $5.99, right? Yeah. And they're going to they're gonna keep track. If I say okay to $5.99, the next time it might be like $6.99. And you'll just keep like changing the price on me until I take it out of my basket go, that's his limit.
00:24:14
Speaker
That's a trap. That's his limit on eggs is like $7.99. So back it up, back it up, back it up. Let's go $6.99. And that kind of bullshit that they're testing.
00:24:24
Speaker
That's angering. Oh, I mean. Because it's as if like stuff's not expensive enough and really it's like you're just feeding into this narrative about, you know,
00:24:36
Speaker
um
00:24:39
Speaker
inflation, which it kind of is like the antithesis to inflation because inflation is kind of the natural, you know, that driven by markets, right? It's the natural increase or decrease or whatever.
00:24:53
Speaker
But this sounds like this is so intentionally like robbing. It's like Robin Hood. It's really right. I mean, it's price gouging. Yeah, it's price gouging. Right? Call it some kind of level of fan, but it's like the price should be the price. It can't be different to different people.
00:25:07
Speaker
Well, but it's like that for everything. And so now they're just kind of dumping on the bandwagon. Yeah. So literally everything we do now, because of AI, but we're all going to see different prices. And it's like, what are we going to Play the game where we're always emptying our cookies and deleting our history and everything just to that just to try and game the system so I get the best price? I mean, someone told me that they search for flights with a VPN out of like Mexico or something. I've heard this before.
00:25:38
Speaker
heard this. And then apparently, apparently like something like one, it was a very specific number. I'll have to look it up again. it was either 1.37 a.m. 2.37. It was something between and in the morning.
00:25:51
Speaker
when supposedly the system's reset or something, or there's very low, or has minimal traffic, if you look for your flight then, or your hotel then, you would get the best price. Fascinating. This stupid. Like, we now getting to a point where it's like, come on. i like This is what it's become?
00:26:06
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, because the world is really going to hell in a handbasket. It's just, it's like one thing on top of another. Oh, I'll tell you what I saw also at the butcher that thought was awesome.
00:26:19
Speaker
Have you ever seen, you know, they have cooking spray. Yes. right It's always like, whatever, olive oil cooking spray is brave when you're healthy. Have you seen Wagyu beef tallow spray? No.
00:26:32
Speaker
Did you see this at Paisano's? Oh, it's genius. Yeah. I'm like, it's genius. It's on the shelf. So you can use cooking spray. Yeah. That is Wagyu beef fat.
00:26:43
Speaker
Yeah. They have a duck fat one. oh that's genius Yeah, it's pretty smart, actually. I mean, i mean ah you know, wouldn't use it because I don't eat meat. but Is it healthy? Is unhealthy? I don't know. it's is that any any Is it any more unhealthy for you than olive oil spray?
00:27:01
Speaker
I don't know. I don't think so. I mean, I think if you're already eating the steak, you may as well just use the Wagyu. tallow yeah to to cook it. I mean, no you know, what's the difference at that point?
00:27:13
Speaker
You're releasing tons of beef fat. You same thing with like duck, right? If you needed to, I mean, if you're going to make duck though, the reality is, is you're not oiling the pan. So that's for something else. Because if you're making a duck breast, you put it in skin side down.
00:27:27
Speaker
Oh yeah. and i think So it doesn't matter. i think this is definitely for like, Hey, I'm going to make scrambled eggs this morning. i need a little oil in the pan. do I use butter?
00:27:37
Speaker
Do I use olive oil? Do I spray it with wagyu beef? Beef tallow. ah tallow Even the people are using beef tallow is like sunscreen.
00:27:49
Speaker
No. h It's true. Wait, what? you what It's true. I'll send it to you. I'll show you. No, not sunscreen. Bathing oil. No, of sunscreen. Sunbathing oil. No, sunscreen. Nobody pours oil unless you're 15 and you are paying attention to the stupid UV meter and the higher the meter, the more you're outside oil on your skin. Wait, wait. Back the truck. Back up the truck. You know, when we were Send it to you now.
00:28:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it to me now. When we were kids, I was never a beach person. Shocking. I distinctly remember... up until we were in college, people but put suntan oil on their skin. Do not recall that?
00:28:29
Speaker
Yeah, of course. It's not sunscreen, right? It's sunbathing, suntanning oil. Literally putting oil. So when you tell me you're putting beef tallow on your skin, that's oil yeah to get you a tan. Yeah, I'm sending you the the yeah one clear. But it's not sunscreen. 10 best beef tallow sunscreen of 2025. Oh, that's weird.
00:28:47
Speaker
that's weird Yeah, Sky and Soul, mineral sunscreen with grass-fed tallow and zinc oxide. and it's I don't know. I don't know why it's beef tallow. I don't know why that's the vehicle. So is that why dogs start following people around? because it smell Totally possible, right? I don't know.
00:29:06
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. What will they think of next? Good for you. Yeah, I don't know. That's like rubbing yourself with butter and then going to the beach. Yeah. I don't have any idea. I don't have any idea. like It's a total foreign concept to me. it also I think they're using it as a moisturizer, which makes more sense to me. so Maybe it's a moisturizer with the zinc oxide and that's what makes it sunscreen.
00:29:25
Speaker
But I wouldn't wear i wouldn't want to wear beef fat as anything. Or is it one of those scams where you know how ah I've been taken in by this where you go say, hey, try this truffle infused olive oil.
00:29:41
Speaker
Yeah. And you're like, m oh, it tastes good. And then you when you actually see them make it, you realize that in a in a complete big bottle of olive oil, they use literally one drop.
00:29:52
Speaker
Of truffle oil. Because it smells, is this the scent is so strong, you think there's a lot And they're like, no. No. I wonder if truff does that. If they're of that, you know, like, oh.
00:30:03
Speaker
Maybe. It's not really infused. It's just kind of like lightly touched. Maybe. Yeah. Okay. Anyways, we've digressed way too long on my stupid shit. Back to your dog thing. Oh, no, no. We're not going to go back to the dog thing. I want to shift gears.
00:30:19
Speaker
Oh, yeah. What are we shifting gears to? you So have you seen Clanko Media's post from last night, from yesterday? Oh, I mean, they post every day. i know, multiple times a day. But did you see the thing about, it's titled USA Hockey Redraws the Elite Youth Hockey Map with New National Development League?
00:30:35
Speaker
Yeah, I saw that. Yeah. You got thoughts? um I mean, at the high level, let's say at the high level, if it is, I'm sure it started out as a genuine experiment or genuine sort of,
00:30:53
Speaker
reasoning or rationale for wanting take control of the nation's best players. It's no different from what they're doing. what they hey It's no different, I think, than what they do in Europe, for sure. Yeah.
00:31:07
Speaker
What they probably used to do in Canada, where the point is, you live in a certain geographical area. The team is community-based.
00:31:21
Speaker
You play. as you improve, you would go up and down the chain, right? Of like AAA, AA, single A, B, right C in Canada. You've set up this whole thing, right? and And you have to have enough faith in the system that if you're late bloomer and you are a AAA player, you'll get there later on.
00:31:42
Speaker
And if you're an early bloomer, you might get there first, but then you can get downgraded. And and the point is, like develop the kids' skills Develop the players. Don't they this for lacrosse? I think they do this for lacrosse. I remember all the Connecticut, I remember all the Connecticut friends that we had when Evan played out there for hockey. When they played lacrosse, they played for the town lacrosse team. Well, anyways, bottom line is for me is like, I think this comes up because if you, if you're in Sweden or Finland, whatever, these, these kids play for the same organization their entire lives. Right.
00:32:19
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Different levels, but the same organization. So imagine our kids playing Cyclones from Mites at six all the way to, let's say, 16 before they go to juniors, if they're that good.
00:32:35
Speaker
Yeah. Right? Yeah. And so so high level, I get it. It does actually help you and me. It would help people like you and me in the sense that everyone's trying to leave, right?
00:32:47
Speaker
and like you're You're stealing players from this team. You play for the Avs one year, you play for Rangers the next year, you play for the Gulls the next year. Everyone's looking for ah the secret sauce to college hockey or whatever higher level hockey and coaches are lying to you and telling you, oh, we've become to if you if you are you're from Florida, come to the Gulls and play for us. And then you realize you're in the third line, you get no ice, that kind of bullshit, right? right So 100%, except that in America, and because they're only doing fifteens and seventeens well not Well, technically, the 15U is 14 and 15-year-olds.
00:33:20
Speaker
17s would be 15, 16, and 17-year-olds. Okay. so And again, like if you're a really good 15-year-old, sure, you can play up in the whole bit. but But in the American system...
00:33:31
Speaker
All it's going to do is take the politics and money that's what we see every day in the tier one national bound charter, tier one independent, blah, blah, blah, blah blah and transferred into the national
USA Hockey's New National Development League
00:33:53
Speaker
program. And you're goingnna are you going to tell me that the national program, when there are humans involved, coaches with egos,
00:34:00
Speaker
that this bullshit politicking and money is not going to just move from left pocket to right pocket. Right. mean, come on. Yeah. I mean, one of the things about it that bothered me was the you know the roster rules.
00:34:16
Speaker
Right. You know, like you carry a max of 22 players. Yep. 20 skaters, two goalies, right? Yep. All goalies must be U.S. citizens. Yep. But then you can rot each team can roster up to two non-U.S. skaters.
00:34:32
Speaker
Yeah. Why? Why? Well, no. Why? Like, why? I think that I think that's ridiculous because all of these other countries who have high level hockey players for the most part churn out their own talent.
00:34:47
Speaker
And I feel like USA should keep two United States citizens. It's the same thing. Well, we have friends who are Canadians who live here because their parents work here.
00:34:59
Speaker
And then are they not supposed are they not allowed to play hockey? No, but I mean, you know, like, okay, but if they're a goalie and they're great, they couldn't play here. They couldn't play in this. That's what I'm saying.
00:35:11
Speaker
Right, but at the point. You're screwing that kid because – You're screwing that. So your parents happen to work for whatever XYZ company. They get moved from Toronto to New York. You're a goalie.
00:35:22
Speaker
You don't get to play. You're good enough. Well, you can play elsewhere. yeah I know. But like let's say if you what if you're top-tier talented goalie, you're at prep school or you're whatever. but yeah There's so many scenarios. But and under this model, you can't play for the national team program.
00:35:40
Speaker
Right. But here's the thing, right? The national team program or the USHL or the NOL or whatever NCAA, right? Like, let's just take the NTDP.
00:35:52
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Right. yeah And TDP shouldn't have international skaters. It should be, in my opinion, it should be the U.S. skaters, U.S. goalies in the national training and development program sure in the United States. Right. Yeah. Like USHL and all like they're going to pull players from other places anyway.
00:36:12
Speaker
Right. yep They're not going to just pull players from this new structure. But there are no foreigners in an NTDP anyways. They're all Americans. No, but but this development league is a track yeah through for that. For NTDP, USHL, NAL, NCAA, and eventually Team USA.
00:36:33
Speaker
I know, but it's just it's a it's the American track, right? So forget juniors. does Juniors doesn't matter. Juniors has its own rules. they own They're going to draft whoever they want to, like you said, they're going to draft whoever they want to draft. Who cares? We're just talking about U.S. youth hockey.
00:36:48
Speaker
At the highest levels, you will end up at US NTDP. Fantastic. Big World Juniors, you're the best the best. Okay. Right? At the lower levels, which is 90, we talked about this, right? 99% of the kids.
00:37:02
Speaker
ninety nine percent of the kids but It's funny to's funny to say this. The bottom 99.5% of hockey players. Jesus Christ. Right. The top 0.5%, nothing changes for you because if you're really that good, you will be found.
00:37:19
Speaker
It's impossible not to be found in this age if you're a top 0.5% hockey player. Right. Right? Regardless of whether you bloom at 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, you will be found. okay so for the bottom ninety nine point five percent of the hockey players Right.
00:37:37
Speaker
The problem with this system is that if you run it concurrently with all of the individual programs that we have now, all you're doing is really fucking up the place even more than it was before. Right. Right. So you either say to everybody, there are no more private hockey teams and U.S. national team runs everything. Right.
00:37:59
Speaker
Right? Yeah. Or USA Hockey says you must now play only for your only for your community teams. Right. Okay. then And people move. And listen, if you think you want to move to I don't know, Connecticut, Stanford, because you think mid-Fairfield Rangers is like the best team in Connecticut, power to you. You have to move there. Right. And they do that in Toronto, right? the the What is that? The GTA?
00:38:25
Speaker
have no what that The Greater Toronto Area. Oh, GTA. Greater Toronto Area, yeah. It's GTA league, no but it's some super-duper league where they churn out some of the best Canadian hockey players. And people will, it's almost like a school district, people will lie, right? Rent the house or buy a house or whatever it in that area so their kid can play in that team. But that's what okay.
00:38:47
Speaker
And so fine, like make it community-based. But if you if you start this program, I think i'm going to start it in twenty seven That's not a lot of time for the for the whole hockey community to adjust. Right.
00:39:01
Speaker
It's basically one tryout. Well, I don't think they care about the hockey community adjusting. So anyway, this is another another crazy... You're just doing you just throwing another wrench into into the system, which is just a screw a lot of people.
00:39:16
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, this kind of goes a little bit to, you know, what I had... um What I had read at some point about, you know, how some of the top draftees over the past couple years come from extremely affluent families. Really? Yeah.
00:39:36
Speaker
um i I'll dig it out and I'll send it to you. I can't remember off the top of my head, but like. Not to be mistaken for Nepo babies, like the kids. No, they were in there also. Like a couple of them were listed as, you know, sons of, you know, former NHL hockey players. yeah But there were there were other ones listed who, you know, are like sons of super hedge fund guys or, you know, just the affluence. I would argue that not in athletics.
00:40:06
Speaker
That doesn't happen because if you don't have a core level of athleticism and size, you cannot train yourself to that level. You can train yourself to be a tier one player. But if you have a kid who's affluent and you have a kid who's not affluent – And they have the same, let's just say, same potential, right? Similar hockey similar size, similar skill level, right? And you have one who is affluent and you have the other who is not. The kid who has the affluence is going to be better because they have the resources do all of the extra training that the other kid doesn't have. But that's the same in everything in life. School applications, everything. But it was just something that was highlighted. And then I look at this, this new development here with USA Hockey, and I think, well, that kid who is an affluent, whose family can't afford to train him the same way, will miss out on those opportunities because he doesn't have the same amount of backing.
00:41:10
Speaker
So goes back to... community-based teams right paid for by the taxpayer or whoever or some generic body. right well right i think these people pay their tuition or they get scholarships right to these you know organizations. I'm just saying outside of outside of those three practices a week and the games on the weekends, what I'm saying is the skate coach, the trainer at the gym. yeah, yeah, yeah. They're trying to, I get it, like at the high level, you're trying to eradicate all of that
00:41:41
Speaker
All of that, what I call grinding
Impact of Money on Sports Grit
00:41:44
Speaker
it out. you've you've got money, you get to grind your way right with an average level of athleticism and skill and talent. right but You can grind your way to a higher level. Right. So then you take away the grittiness of of the sport. and And the sport historically, right from really from its beginnings, has been almost all about grit.
00:42:08
Speaker
And so now what you've done is you've taken the grit and you've subtracted it out of the equation, which is kind of a little bit strange to me. Because you know those are the stories that you want to hear. You want to hear about the kids who grind, who yeah have yeah nothing, who come up like a phoenix from the ashes kind of thing. right Those are the stories that give other people aspirations and give people hope and and drive.
00:42:32
Speaker
right Oh, yeah that kid has nothing and I can do it. Well, then, you know what? I have nothing and maybe I can reach some kind of platform of potential Yeah.
00:42:44
Speaker
It's just, you know. But the whole sporting, it's not a hockey thing. The whole sporting system in America. i know. Yeah. Is completely forever ruined by private equity and businesses. Right.
00:42:57
Speaker
Because of the outjump.
00:43:01
Speaker
I don't know who you blame. Maybe it's every to everybody. But ultimately it lands, again, let's go back to. let's say for the major sports, yeah football, basketball, hockey, you know whatever whatever, baseball, whatever pro league, golf, right? Whatever pro leagues exist.
00:43:16
Speaker
Again, even if you're not thinking about it, when you first start at six, seven, eight, nine, 10, by the time you're 14 or 15 and you're playing a sport seriously, any sport, college recruiting enters into your mind. Right.
00:43:34
Speaker
And so that's kind of the root of, it's the chase of that outcome, which ends up empowering or enabling, enabling better word, enabling all of the grifters.
00:43:48
Speaker
who run the camps and the private lessons and all the other bullshit they want to lie to parents about to say, if you spend seven hours with me, I'll make you a better player. And then if you, if I'm the coach of the team, I'll give you more ice time or more playing time or more field time. Like that's that circular bullshit that happens. And again, I'm not blaming anybody in particular, but the American system is that way because there's so much money at stake.
00:44:12
Speaker
Even if it's just tuition, right? Right. Even if you're just playing the sport, So you can go to a D1 school on a scholarship. Yeah.
00:44:23
Speaker
Right? Yep. Even that, forget about the boosters and all the other n NIL money and anything else that comes across, right? Just the tuition part, which is $100,000 a year, by the way. There's nothing to sniff at. right Right. To my Canadian friends who are paying like five to 10 grand for their college their kids to go to college. Right. This is $100,000 a year Yeah, which is bananas if you really – Bananas. Four years. If you take a step back, like that's insane.
00:44:48
Speaker
Right. So when that kind of money is at stake for your kid or your family, then that's what breeds the whole, hey, pay to play. It's essentially pay to play from the age of six. Right.
00:45:04
Speaker
Right. It's like insane. It's insane. It's insane. and And, you know, like if you, like we've talked about before, right? If you really added up all of the money that you've spent, like from the beginning to date, it's and absurd. i mean, it's, it's literally, it could be close to one, you know, it over, well, it's certainly over,
00:45:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:29
Speaker
from six years old and now you have an eighteen year old who's still playing regardless of whether it's club or boarding school or you know whatever that looks like yeah i mean the amount of money is is probably you know like a nest egg for some families in this country It's bananas. Honestly, it's an in insane amount of money. So when you go back to what you and i talked about before, like when you first start your kid in a sport, it's for the joy. Yeah. Keeping them busy, off the video games.
00:46:00
Speaker
Right. right Right. All the lessons you learn sports. family, it was a great incentive to get good grades. Right. Right. do your homework, do your grades. You can't play the sport that you love so much unless you get the grades. Right. Right.
00:46:12
Speaker
And, and it will serve you. You don't, you can't see it as a child, but like, Hey, when you apply to college, buth blah, blah, blah, you know, all this stuff will come together for you. Okay, fine. So you do it that way. And then of course, it's like you and I, we didn't start the whole hockey journey. If we had known, if our outcome was college yeah and we had known what it takes to get to college as a hockey player, we wouldn't have chosen hockey.
00:46:37
Speaker
Yeah. Right. I mean, no based on outcomes. Right. Based on outcomes. Based on outcome. Right. Or, you know what, or I would have done just, I would have done some of the things differently. Right. But, so you get into it and then the kids love it. And, and and and i was just, you know, talking to my son was like, Oh, you know, Hey, these summer are hockey camps we used to go to, man, it was so much fun. Roxy's will live forever. And Donkey Kong and in Boston, because you were there for whatever college camp and you were hanging out and those are good times. So like, yeah, That's what you want, the bonding.
00:47:06
Speaker
Yeah. Right? And that's coming to an end for you and me. Yeah, it certain extent. and And so that's that's the stuff that's, if you can afford to pay for it, that's worth it, right? Those are memories. and And again, like up and down the spectrum of whether you can afford or not, you will build your own memories on the road with your children. So that's the- Right.
00:47:25
Speaker
awesome thing about travel anything right right regardless whatever you do yeah chess band yeah i mean and and that's you know and that's one of the things that i valued most and we've talked about this before but it's like the time that i've been able to spend the focal time yeah yeah yeah you know that you're able to spend and bond and be together and but people are naturally competitive and too many people now are chasing outcomes when they start their kid in a sport yeah that breeds the The paranoia.
00:47:55
Speaker
Oh, hold on. Oh, hey, I heard that. Hold on a minute. I got a problem. Sorry.
00:48:03
Speaker
you You want to say hi to Sam before we do? Okay. There's some movement happening. Yeah. In in Jessica's studio. Oh, Yeah. i got I got a kid. I got a dog.
00:48:17
Speaker
I love it. It's called family. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, the dog the dog was getting antsy being in the room with me. I hear jingling. Yeah, he doesn't stop moving. Probably walking in circles, right? Totally. and you know like i had a you know There's a a saying about you know like rest and digest.
00:48:37
Speaker
Yeah. Careful. Rest and digest, right? You give them a bully stick or an edible bone and then they hang out. um And so he's had that, but he's, you know, like, chews for two minutes. And then he's antsy.
00:48:52
Speaker
Yeah. just like You know, and and honestly, after, you know, the incident over the, you know, two incidents over the past 24 hours, I'm on a little bit more like on high alert about all of it. So, you know. Yeah.
00:49:05
Speaker
Which they can totally sense also, which is bad. So I got to figure that out. Yeah. But whatever. I didn't want to go back there. We got our soapbox about the whole sports and everything and, and you know, ruin being ruined forever. But it it is. It kind of is. and It totally is. It's like everything else. Look, even in hockey.
00:49:24
Speaker
even hockey with all the private equity guys buying ice rinks and teams, like why would you do that? Their profit, they're the only reason a private equity company buys any asset is to squeeze every last cent. Right, because it's all about money. It's all about the money and the profit. That's fine, that's their business, right? But when you start doing that in youth sports, right and what are you really doing?
Private Equity and Youth Sports Development
00:49:44
Speaker
You're just transferring the money. yeah Not only are you doing it in youth sports, you're doing it in mass in youth sports. You're gobbling everything up. The vertical integration is amazing. yeah It's like we buy the junior team and then the ice rink and then the youth team. Right.
00:50:01
Speaker
And at every level, we're going to do our best to squeeze every penny out of the parents. Right. Who are paranoid about, we saw this even at Cyclones. Right.
00:50:13
Speaker
when they were young and the parents are like, they went apeshit. If like your kid, we all started together at seven, eight, nine, and then some kids start to grow faster or go athletic, some slow down. Every kid peaks at different things. And parents would get really upset about like the, in I mean, that's not imbalance, but the inequality of,
00:50:38
Speaker
I don't know, whatever God gave you, right? In that sense, in terms of your skill level and your size. Like, my kid's never going to be six foot four. do i am I going to go around bitching at people that that it's unfair? No, way that's just the way it is. That's like, you know, but that's part of the parental, the weird parental competition.
00:50:54
Speaker
Yeah. Right? You find it everywhere. That's the unhealthy thing. Right. That is the unhealthy thing. And it happens often, frequently. People, they lose their filters. Right.
00:51:05
Speaker
yeah And their boundaries, right? they like All the boundaries fall away. and next thing you know, like these wacky, competitive, bullshit things come out of these people's mouths. And and they and they act on them, which is bananas too. like you know I mean, I don't have any specific story in mind at this particular point. But, you know...
00:51:26
Speaker
Oh, actually, i do. I have one. i remember youth hockey and it was spring hockey. Right. So people used to cheat all the time for spring. hock Yeah. Right. Which was rude yeah ridiculous. stupid free There's nothing at stake. and Nothing at stake. Like stupid plaques. You know, there's no not even street cred. Like nobody cares. It's just your extension of the season. Having some fun. You know, for us, you know, we used to do Sound Shore. So we were, you know, like Eric Nates. hmm.
00:51:51
Speaker
And he kept the same team together for, you know, great six years or whatever it was. much fun. Right. And so the parents became friends and the kids were a unit. And, you know, we used to go away on these weekends, like four weekends, and we would have a great time.
00:52:06
Speaker
yeah But I do remember that one year, one of the kids in particular, i'm not naming any names, he grew exponentially over you know other kids.
00:52:19
Speaker
yeah And yeah they asked for his birth certificate. No way. Who's they? The team? No, no, Yeah, the team did it. And then the admit like the the organizers were like okay with it. And it's just bananas. Yeah.
00:52:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Just bananas. You know, and of course they, you know, they talked him off the ledge. but It's just like, no, this kid's in 07. It's so funny. But yeah, but you see, have you seen those funny videos of like in football or basketball where have like 13 and 14 year olds and an abnormally large 13 or 14 year old who's hit puberty early yeah it's just ridiculous it's like the football ones are especially funny because like you'll see some 15 year old kid who like six foot four and and actually 200 pounds and all these like 125 pound pipsqueaks are like grabbing on and you can't take you can't get this kid down this kid's going end right it's like what are you that's
00:53:18
Speaker
I mean, yeah that's just part of it, right? It is. but It is. Anyways, by eyes what i mean what did you think of the national program proposal?
00:53:31
Speaker
of the Well, you know... On one hand, after coming up through youth hockey, it makes sense. and And by that, I mean, you know when you look at let's say, my hockey rankings, yeah ok and you look at the distribution of of teams from one to, let's just pick an arbitrary number, let's just say 200. Yeah.
00:53:57
Speaker
Right? Yeah. Yeah. You know that the top 10 teams in that ranking are the best teams with the best players. What you have then past that 10th team going down towards 200.
00:54:13
Speaker
Is you have these teams that you know have a smattering of talent, kids who are in those markets, whose parents won't or can't move. They've got one line. That's good. Too young to bill it or not willing to bill it. right There's a ton of reasons. Yeah.
00:54:29
Speaker
But then what you have is you have these schedules and these tournaments where they all are, start you know, USA hockey related and they're all playing in the same areas. And those top 10 teams are murdering the yeah teams that they're playing. Yeah. Who were below that because they're, they're stacked.
00:54:45
Speaker
That's right. um So in that regard, I kind of look at this proposal and I think, okay, well, that would subtract that issue mildly because you're going to take those top kids. Let's just say the top kids off the gulls, right? All the top kids play their league. See you later. then the other 99.5% play together. Right. And they have more, you know, it's more equitable because it gives you the opportunity to win games.
00:55:17
Speaker
um You know, on the flip side of that, you know, those kids, they're really going to end up playing for the fun of it because now what you've taken out is you've taken the scouting aspect and you've put it into one area. Yeah.
00:55:31
Speaker
yeah Right. So then you also have a layer of advisors who are going to lose out also because you're going to have those, you know, DL teams on the side.
00:55:43
Speaker
yeah and then you're going to have the rest of the country. And of course, the rest of the country will hire yeah advisors, you know, with some kind of hope to get somewhere. um But it really, it changes the landscape really dramatically.
00:55:56
Speaker
um i think, like I said, and and in a couple of positive waves, both but in also some real negative ways too. Yeah. I think ultimately nothing happens except more anger and angst. Yeah. Because, again, it's like it's not they're not doing it from six years old. Right. They're doing as the two key points, entry points for college recruiting, juniors recruiting, everything. Right. The junior team's can't shrink their leagues to the point where they only take U.S. national team kids. right
00:56:30
Speaker
Right? So... so Okay, let's be real, right? the ninety The bottom 96%, okay, they don't care. They're just playing, even as aspirational, at 15, they don't break the top 4% of the nation.
00:56:46
Speaker
And so you're just playing
Exclusivity in Youth Hockey Leagues
00:56:48
Speaker
for fun. and You play in high school, you play whatever, double A, and you're you're happy. Okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah they go Now you're talking about the top four, the remaining top 4%, of which the 0.5% are doing this national team program. Right.
00:57:03
Speaker
the advisors still exist because the people on the cusp of breaking to that 0.4% are hiring every advisor they can find to get them across the line. So that's the top 1% player, right right? The next to they used to have to fill in EHL, NCDC, USPHL, now the top goes USHL, all those Canadian hockey leagues that are out junior A, B, C. mean, like that still exists.
00:57:33
Speaker
And so- So nothing changes except you create even more angst because if I'm like, if the 0.5% go to this NTDP program and I'm actually in 0.6% because I grew late or because i had a bad day in the tryout or whatever bullshit happens, now, and my parents can afford, now I'm paying more money for more lessons and and the more camp summer camps and more everything else to one day hopefully break into the 0.5%. And if i don't-
00:58:06
Speaker
It's the same as today, right? Like in new York, when our kids have to go invite only to to state festival. What? Right. Well, and I don't have a problem with the fact that it's invite only because, you know, it's like those college camps we were talking about, right? You want to make sure that you have it be competitive. Like you don't want someone showing up who can't skate, who can't compete. Yeah, but inviting only –
00:58:30
Speaker
No, because you don't have enough scouts to look at every New York kid playing in any different team that they have. It's impossible. But you got to remember, it's a nomination by coach. <unk>t No, no, no. But like the Connecticut ex example, the New England example, I think is a little bit better. It's not perfect. a little bit better, right? In the sense that you have a fall tryout.
00:58:49
Speaker
Four State Festival. Right. Which is the first call. Right. So everyone goes. Single A, double A, triple Who cares? If you want to just go have fun and you want to see what's out there, you go. But remember- And then get called. Do you remember the year- have- Yeah. That they did- Didn't they do that at Canioc Park that one year that we all showed One year. I know. The one year. The one year, right? That was exactly like- don't know. And even then- But even then that was invite only because that link wasn't supposed to be shared with everybody. Right. And to make matters worse, they already had it picked. Yeah. Yeah. So then when the registration link leaked out and we all shared it, then everybody shows up and then after that they go pure invite only. Okay, guys. And that's what breeds politics and money and all that stuff, right? But you do New England style and you say, okay,
00:59:33
Speaker
Yeah, we get it. The first round is going to be massive. All these kids are going to show up. You can never eliminate politics and money, but you're giving the opportunity for everyone to show up. right And let's say you're a single A kid. You get there, like holy shit, there are some really good players here. Okay, cool. Right. And they're going to be like the tier one players, triple A players who think they're good enough and they don't get picked. And okay, boohoo. i Hey, I've been part of that.
00:59:56
Speaker
Yeah. Right. My kids never made out of, out of States to, to national camp. Okay. For whatever reason, fine whatever. And then, so that happens, but you've given everyone the opportunity to be seen. Right.
01:00:06
Speaker
Cut, cut, cut. And then you get to the final 60 to 80 where they choose the final 15 to represent the state or or the region. And then off you go. Okay, fine. Right. But in New York, it's it' it my only you like as a parent or a player, you're like, but if I go to boarding school or if i go to different place and I'm a New York resident, but I go to school somewhere in a different state, which happens a lot, how do I know I'm being so quote unquote seen? Right.
01:00:33
Speaker
Now, again, I guess we would argue at the end of the day, if you're really, really good and you were overlooked by the state festival and national camp, those players still so succeed. Like if you're a good player, you're a good player and you find a different path to juniors and you find a different path to college and whatever else you had to, right? Sure. So that's cool. so so then So that's why to me, like the national team program, which is supposed to coexist with private programs just adds more angst now because you need to either go national completely or private completely. You're just throwing one more avenue for people to like grift. Right. parents That's right. And, and again, you know, like that whole thing about scouting kids who, yeah you know, maybe don't get seen or whatever, like those kids really won't get seen anymore because all eyes are going to be on that DL league.
01:01:23
Speaker
Yeah. Nobody will get seen. And, and you know, it's they're going to have to go through. and that's the other thing, right? Kids who are good, who don't have advisors, who have found their way, now will need to have an advisor because otherwise they'll never get looked at. Think about the panic at 14 now, 14 U-Hockey. Yeah.
01:01:41
Speaker
Year one. yeah Yeah, To be so good, you get picked for this national team program. Right. I mean, shit. You just – Right. I don't know. i Yeah, I don't know either. With the best of intentions, it's going to, I think it doesn't work out. Right. Okay.
01:01:55
Speaker
It's been an hour. Yeah. We've ranted enough. Done. Here we go. I'm done. You know what time it is.
Dad Jokes and Episode Conclusion
01:02:01
Speaker
Oh, God. It's time for the dad jokes. Oh, I'm getting ready. These are easy. Come on, man. these are these are These are super easy.
01:02:10
Speaker
ah Why do trees get emotional in the spring? Why do trees get emotional in the spring?
01:02:23
Speaker
I don't know. I was going to go with something weeping, but that doesn't apply to every tree. so I mean, you're close. I'm always a little close. I'm never that far off. I'm always a little bit close, but just off the mark.
01:02:37
Speaker
um They always feel a little sappy. Sappy. Okay. Okay. Nice. nice and close You were close. Yeah, I was close. Weeping, sappy, whatever. Okay. ah Oh, how about this one?
01:02:54
Speaker
What kind of bagel can travel? What kind of bagel can travel? I lost the sound effect. I can't get my Jeopardy music. Something happened to my system. Now I'm pissed off. ah Sorry. I was going to say, do you want me to do it? I can do it. What kind of bagel travels? I don't know.
01:03:14
Speaker
I don't know. Come on. A plain bagel. oh my God. ah Oh, my God. I'm done with the dad jokes today, man.
01:03:25
Speaker
ah It's been that kind of morning, folks. Thank you for listening. Truly. Yeah. I got to go finish this oatmeal. Oh, my God.
01:03:36
Speaker
Yeah. i got maybe i haven't eat you know what I haven't even eaten anything yet. Breakfast. famous All right. There you go. Episode 34 comes with me. Thank you very much, everybody. Catch you later. Thank you for enduring.
01:03:48
Speaker
Bye. Bye. Well, well, well. You made it to the end. We can't thank you enough for listening to all of our random thoughts. Don't forget to give us a five-star rating.
01:03:59
Speaker
And you know how to reach us on the gram at TGS pod or send email to hello at the grocery stick.com.