Episode Title: The Late For Changeover 27 Nov 2024
Date: Nov 27, 2024
My Turkey’s Triptophan took me to sleep, which is Thanksgiving excuse number one for being late for changeover, weekly space news and variety show. I’m your host Marty Smith and I’m here with Mr. History Eric Perot. Hello, welcome Padres.
Our man in the closet Jake Wall. That tricky thing I get you every time well. And our very own Queen of Sides, Anna Mondragon.
We’re here to bring you the latest headlines and updates pertinent to all guardians and to the lower branches as well. So take your seats, get informed and have a laugh as we present late for changeover. Hey, it’s the Thanksgiving episode.
We’re not really doing anything for Thanksgiving, but we’ll call it the Thanksgiving episode. I thought about putting a turkey on there, but I couldn’t figure it out. I thought it would be kind of funny if a turkey ran across.
You’re going to put Eric’s face. Yeah, we are gearing up. So I must say that today I already said I do love the holidays just because the military just says at it.
We’re not doing anything for like a week and a half. We’re starting our leaves. Contractors you can come in if you want, but we’re not doing anything.
So this is my first year not being in the military. Yeah, that’s historic. It was really hard for me to focus because you’re right.
We do do that. Yeah, in the military. It’s like, let’s go to lunch.
Let’s let’s let’s cancel all these meetings. We’ll tackle it on Monday and you’re like, yeah, but we need an answer. No, yeah, we’ll get to it.
We’ll get to it. Nobody’s going to talk to you on Thanksgiving anyway. That’s right.
That’s right. And where I work, we’re subject to having like a sys admin there. And they’re like, yeah, we’re on call.
Can’t really do anything. So okay. All right, good for you.
I guess I’ll take some PTO. So but welcome. And it’s, it’s nice to go on the holiday.
So stay tuned to the end of the podcast for all you out there because we’re going to have an epic Thanksgiving meal debate. Oh, you’ll be epic, right? It’ll be something. All right.
So so let’s get to some news, shall we? And news it up. I liked it. That’s a car song, isn’t it? News it up.
So this one, I always like to start by giving you something to worry about on Thanksgiving. Yeah, it’s great. So this one’s this one’s from msn.com the turkey blowing up.
No, this is the world blowing up. So NASA is tracking or was tracking a football field size asteroid approaching Earth today. I didn’t read about what happened, but it was passing by Earth today.
Uh, the huge asteroid the size of a football field zip past the Earth today. Yeah, the asteroid named the asteroid named 2006 WB is estimated by NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory to likely be about 310 feet across. Uh, though, according to JPL Center for near Earth object studies, the asteroid may have a diameter anywhere between 240 and 525 feet across.
That’s a big one. Uh, the building size 2006 WB is classified as a near Earth object or NEO due to its proximity to our planet. NEOs are defined as objects that come within.
Now it sounds like it’s a lot scarier than it is, but then when they start defining it, NEOs are defined as objects that come within 30 million miles of Earth. Oh, that is so close. Which equates to about 120 million miles from the sun.
I don’t know why they do the back measure, but, uh, 30 million miles from Earth. Um, isn’t it funny that your, your sign here says NASA tracking football field side asteroid approaching Earth. Like it’s going to hit us.
Yes. You should be in your cellars now. Right.
You should be making love to whoever you can. And, uh, there’s going to be asteroid babies near Earth object 30 million miles away. The baby bump at a passing distance of 554,000 miles.
The asteroid will skim past us about twice the distance between the earth and our moon, which orbits, uh, we don’t need that. The asteroid passed at a speed of about 4.2 kilometers a second or roughly 9,400 miles per hour. This is several times faster than even the speediest of bullets.
A rifle bullet travels up to around 2,700 miles per hour. So this is going to be baby. Um, some Neos are additionally classified as potentially hazardous asteroids or PHAs.
A potentially hazardous object is classified if, if they are 4.6 million miles from the sun. Again, I don’t know why they measure it from the sun or something. I was thinking if the sun misbehaves, right.
And there’s like a solar flare. There’s, there is some energy that comes and pushes things. That’s all I was thinking.
I was nerdy now. And also, I don’t know about the gravity in between the sun and the earth. Like, does that affect how it floats? Well, um, all those perturbations, if you will, could push it towards the earth, right? Perturbations.
Yeah, you like that. That’s a good word, Jake. It’s my favorite, uh, enlisted P-E-R-H-E-R-B-A-T-I-O-N-S.
Herbations, perturbations. Master perturbation. How do you smell it? We’re off the rails on the first story.
It says they have some serious perturbations going on over there. Get out of the corner. Quit perturbating.
Really affecting her attitude. All right. It says they have discovered over 34,000 near earth objects in our solar system.
And they track at least 2,300 potentially hazardous asteroids. That’s a lot, man. Is that daily? Or is that now? They’re tracking it now.
So where did it go? I don’t know. Space. It just, uh, was by 30 million miles away and it was like… It went south.
That, that direction. And it did a roadrunner noise. In space.
Can’t hear an adult. So yeah, it’s kind of clickbaity. But even when you go to like the, uh, orbital analyst and they have like, uh, what are those collision alerts or whatever they have for the satellite? And they’re like, oh, we’re on alert.
And it was like, well, that’s, it’s like miles away. It’s not even close. Yeah, but we got to take all the actions for it.
And they’re like, okay. It provides a wind gust, you know. Coming within 50 kilometers.
It’s a tsunami as it goes by. Ooh, tsunami. Spell that one.
Yeah. So it passed by harmlessly. We’re all okay.
So we can go on about our Thanksgiving. So thank goodness. Yes.
Now, moving on to space news dot com. Remember a couple of weeks ago when we were doing that, uh, story about the air leak and the ISS caused by the Russians. Well, the Russians are striking again unwittingly, right? So the ISS crew reports an unexpected odor from the Russian progress cargo spacecraft.
I tell you, man, it’s, it’s, you should do a series, almost like a joke series, a weekly series about the ISS and the daily things they have to deal with. Get you, yeah. You know who I blame? Fucking Sonny.
Martin! And Butch. Sonny and Butch up there. They’ve been up there too long.
Russian Sires and Velcro, baby. They’re probably not doing their chores. They’re just like angry.
And everybody just kind of avoids them because they’re like, don’t say anything because they’ll fire back at you. You know how long I’ve been up here? You know how long I’ve been wearing the same pair of Tronies? First time or space time, Sonny? You tell. This is the first time we’ve heard it this week.
That’s the point. How did they do laundry up there? I don’t know. It’s a good point.
Yeah. Yeah. You got the vacuum.
Maybe they’re just made out. Maybe they’re just Moses now. And they’re like, did you go fart in the Russian space? Because it goes, yeah, goddamn right.
I did. Hell yeah, I did. You see what those guys did to my coffee cup? They’re lucky.
That’s the only thing I did. I can’t get them. All right, Butch.
Calm it down. Calm it down. Bill Boeing, I quit, by the way.
Yeah, Bill Boeing. Oh, my God. So, Russia just sent a resupply craft up there a couple of weeks ago.
That’s my step. Yeah, Febreze. There’s no Febreze up there.
That’s coming next time. Summer’s Eve. What’s the Russian version of those trees? Yeah, damn.
That was rough. That was rough. Wow, none of us would have gotten away with that.
Surprise. Supplies are important. Oh, man.
Yep, they do. Did you go make that stuff? I don’t know. I’m sure it’s right next to the Massengales stock.
The progress MS-29 spacecraft from Russia docked with the Poisk module on November 23rd. The spacecraft designated Progress 90 by NASA was carrying about 2,500 kilograms of cargo, such as supplies, water, and propellant for the station. However, the station’s crew reported several hours later that when cosmonauts opened the Progress spacecraft, they noted a strong smell and droplets of some kind of fluid, not identified.
That’s definitely on Earth, fart crap, Justin. Sealed it. Surely cook off the day before, and they’re like, they will love this.
We got them so good. Oh, man. They eat.
Do y’all remember those little fart bombs? Oh, sure. Yeah, on the 4th of July. Yeah, you would throw them a grab and they’d be great.
Yeah. Maybe there’s some of those out there. Could have been.
Yeah, gotta have been. There’s a float bomb for you. So the controllers activated a filtration system to remove any contaminants, and the crew closed the hatch to the module.
NASA added that controllers concluded that the station’s air quality was at, quote unquote, normal levels by the time of its statement. Now, this incident is the latest in a series of issues involving Russian spacecraft at the station. Previous issues included coolant leaks in December of 22 on a Soyuz spacecraft while docked at the station, and a Progress cargo spacecraft in February of 23 also had coolant leaks.
A radiator on another module, which Russia added to the station in 2021, also suffered a leak in October 23. So this is how, but everything that comes out, right? NASA always, they paint it over. So the Soyuz leak prompted the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, to spend to send up an uncrewed Soyuz to the ISS to replace Soyuz MS-22.
Out of concerns, the cooling system might fail during reentry. That extended the stays of two Russian cosmonauts and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio from six months to one year. And they just went back a couple of months ago, right? So they got extended up there too, but we didn’t know that.
So how many people are out there right now? You know, it’s funny. This sounds like the Russia guys were like, nine. They were pissed about having to air our dirty laundry and NASA was like, yeah, but look what Russia’s doing too.
Russia’s doing all this. That’s all what about it. So it’s like, yeah, well, if they had this Russia’s like cosmonauts or astronauts out of here, stop breaking our stuff.
There’s holes all over the place. Look what you did too. Your spacecraft’s what’s up and it’s leaking air.
Oh yeah, we never had a hydraulic leak. Oh, all those bastards got us good on that one. So Russian officials blame the Soyuz and progress cool links on micrometeoroid or orbital debris impacts.
An explanation treated skeptically by many in the space community, but one that NASA at least publicly accepted. They don’t have sensors on the ice. It’s like a bickering.
Of course they do. Of course they do. Such a bickering couple.
It is, I know. And that’s, but doesn’t it seem like every problem up there, they’re just kind of like, it’s no big deal. It’s nothing.
We’re not sure what it is, but we’ll figure it out. Don’t worry. It’s nothing.
Yeah. Meanwhile, the astronauts on the verge of dying at any moment and had 14 week old babies. I tell you, I saw a recent picture of Sunny, like she was reading to some kids on the earth or something like that.
And she is looking like tired of being up there. Oh, I bet. She’s like, can you imagine that though? Still with the hair out there.
No, like I can imagine the pressure on the body and bone. She’s probably just thinking like. But the mindset too, you were up there for a day or so.
Just five days. They were supposed to be up there for five days. And now they’re going to be up there for almost one new pod.
And now, and then the ship we came up on is like Saturn and they close the factory because Boeing is thinking about getting rid of space ops and they’re like. Self pleasure will only take you so far. Can you imagine that though? Let’s imagine like you, like one of us.
Hey, we’re going to just go do a TDY out to where even if it’s a nice place. Korea for a week. Sure.
Hawaii for a week. And then freaking eight or nine months later, you’re like, dude, I, I got a life back there. Yeah, I got totally screwed.
And they’re like, what? You’re getting TDY is like, I want to go home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.
Oh man. And it’s Thanksgiving. Please.
Yeah. So Russians strike again. And you know, the Russians didn’t sign on to stay with the ISS past 2030.
They’re like, we’re out of this. Crunk this broke down thing. We’re going to check out the Chinese because they’re putting up a sleek new station.
It’s fancy or so. Yeah, it’s really nice to keep avoiding missiles coming into Russia, right? Yeah. Well, yeah.
And now there are missiles going into Russia. Yeah. So good job about going administration.
Uh, okay. I’m going to escalate that every time. So the day, the days of our ISS.
That’s a series ready for the making. Oh, that was amazing. With this.
What is it? Gulligan’s Island or whatever? Kind of. Yeah, that would be hilarious. Yeah.
Because they were only out for a five day tour and now they’re stuck there for years. We could make a couple of seasons off of that thing. Oh yeah.
Okay. Release news on it every other week. So yeah.
And it’s like these stories like NASA is like, oh, they picked up on the stink. Sorry. Now we got to go out there and say, oh, it’s, it’s nothing.
It’s okay. Everything’s all right. We shut the door and went away.
Somebody threw a dead cat in their spacecraft. People, they lots are like, or, you know, the, or the fish wrapped up in newspaper. Like, I wonder what level of cleaning has to happen before they put it and seal it in those pods.
Like they have all bits of dust and everything. Cause there’s, yeah, you open something up and there’s a little piece of fuzz or piece of dust. Or that that’s up.
Yeah. Yeah. Mouths, you’re like, well, thanks Russians.
Jeez. We don’t have a budget. It’s a micrometeor.
It’s not. Snakes on a plane. Snakes on the ice.
What was that? We were saying they should seal that air leak up. What was that stuff called? Flex seal. What was that? Flex seal.
Fix it. Well, I always say that nothing gets you ready for Thanksgiving. More than a couple of military theft stories.
So I got a couple teed up for us. All right. Now go figure how this one happens.
So this is, this one’s from task and purpose. All right. The army is putting up $15,000 reward to help find 31 pistols and optics stolen from Fort Moore, formerly Fort Benning.
So now listen, this is crazy. Half a year after 31 pistols went missing from Fort Moore, the army’s criminal investigation division is increasing the reward offered for any help finding the weapons as well as optics that have also vanished from the base. A CID reward poster shared to social media, including the army subreddit, offers up to $15,000 for credible information that can help find the pistols and gear or the people who stole them.
Alongside the 31 M17 pistols, CID is also searching for two enhanced night vision goggles and one 13 Delta thermal optic. Those went missing all that for more than $15,000. I know that’s that’s our job.
Pay a lot of money for that. Those went missing between August and October. All the gear and weapons were stolen from the crescents consolidated equipment pool on Fort Moore.
So this is the this is the picture they put up on social media. Check this out. $15,000 rewards.
But that doesn’t even cover the cost of the pistol. No, I know. What are those Berettas, right? M17s are Berettas? That’s the new six hours.
That’s the new six hours. Oh, man. Yeah, it’s not the bread anymore.
God dang. Those are 500 bucks a pop right there. Okay, so that’s $15,500.
Yeah, right off the bat. They’re offering under market value. Yeah, it’s going to turn it over.
Yeah, exactly. And two night vision and that thermal site. That thermal site’s got to be five grand, right? Someone has gotten court martialed for letting that shit walk out.
I don’t know. I don’t know. Someone’s not being held accountable.
We we came out of the field and we’re missing a weapon once. And we didn’t leave the field till we found it. Same with us.
You never. Yeah, where is this? Oh, somebody had set it up and then it got wrapped up in a Tamil net and they didn’t realize it. And so when we packed all the stuff up, they’re like, hey, where’s my weapon? And they roll back and everybody’s like, go back out to the field and go find that.
We were the same way. You weren’t leaving until everything is found. That weapon was.
So this almost sounds like an insight. But if you said it’s at the depot, though, so they could just have literally cases of all these things. Oh, sitting around in the back shop area that haven’t been inventories and somebody turned them in.
It sounds it sounds more insight job is. Yeah, it really does. Because stuff is put in some type of weapon storage area.
It, you know, yeah. Under lock in racks. If not with a guard, occasionally.
A random patrol. Don’t they have that monitor like a camera? Oh, they do. And they also have an armor and assistant armor and everybody else who’s in charge of that arm.
Yeah. It says the theft of the pistols was first announced to the public in June. According to the Army, the 31 M-17s were missing from the equipment pool between March and May of this year.
However, Army CID was only informed in May. So they kept it under wraps for a couple of months, right? Yeah, they couldn’t find it. CID initially put up a $5,000 reward for information on them in June, but now they’ve increased it up to $15,000.
$5,000. Hey, they got $5,000 bucks. You think that’s good? It’s like, yeah, that’s all they can collect.
It’s like an inside job. Someone in the know. Well, listen to this.
The missing gear and guns at Fort Moore are among several instances of military equipment stolen from bases in recent years. Missing weapons have ranged from rifles and pistols at Camp Lejeune to an M240 machine gun from the Army’s National Training Center of Fort Irwin. At least 1,900 guns went missing or were stolen in the 2010s.
That’s great gun control. Come on, arms control. This is why the Pentagon can’t do an audit.
Equipment’s not there. They can’t keep track of it at the base level. And that was surprising to me.
Parser believed that it’s that frickin’ rare. I thought it was rare. Yeah, I thought so too.
I thought so too. So I’m curious. We’re going to have to look into that and see if the other branches have lost the equivalent amount of… Yeah, please.
But I don’t think the Air Force would have at least done that. The only one… Yeah, the Air Force is going to be second. The Space Force, they’ve got to lead the league in what we talked about last week.
Missing printers, missing monitors, broken chairs. They’ve got to be on top of all that stuff. Because they’re not giving them any more equipment than that.
Toner cartridges, maybe they’re like, hey, we had 15 toner cartridges lost. Those things are $500 a piece. And I’m not sure that the Marines are like… We haven’t had a printer since the 50s.
This is the newest printer we have right here. It’s about to retire. We don’t know how to maintain it.
Yeah, exactly. People are making the little naked pictures on paint. Who’s printing porn again? Who’s printing porn? All right.
Well, let’s put you more in the mood with this next story from military.com. How can it get worse than that? We’ll probably give you clues to the previous story we did. So… I guess if you guys think about it, it’s not a tank driving down the road this time. Right now, it is.
It’s pretty one-handed. So, a former Navy officer steals over $850,000 in military. Yeah.
And he had this one going for a while. A former US Navy officer has been sentenced for conspiring to steal over $850,000 in military gear and selling it to buyers in other countries. Richard Allen, 53, pleaded guilty August 29th to conspiracy and six counts of money laundering.
Now he’ll serve 18 months in prison followed by three years of federal supervised release. Allen, who served with the US Navy for more than 20 years before retiring, began the scheme while stationed at Naval Weapons Station in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he had, quote-unquote, unfettered access to warehouses. Court documents stated.
And they also have about 31 handguns missing? He’s like, yeah. Right? I do that in my sleep. 31? Nothing.
Terry, you want one? I got five of them in my trunk. Using his access, Allen stole $856,000 worth of Navy gear and supplies. Now listen to the categories.
These are including uniforms, winter gear, flame retardant shirts and pants, soft body armor, goggles, infrared flag patches, Navy sealed trident insignia, and small arms protective insert plates. It’s a weird mix of stuff to get almost a million dollars from. But it’s easy to go to live like all those things you could get at any Army supply store.
So he could own his own Army supply store. And be in his own supply. He’s a new Walmart of military gear.
He’s got zero overhead. I mean, that’s true. Everything is profit.
Court documents revealed Allen used an email address hosted on a Russian server to communicate with buyers, even telling one buyer he could make a wish list for him if he wanted. He accessed military base police radio codes to monitor activity and make sure the thefts succeeded. What’s going on there? Security forces.
It wasn’t just the poor people in the inventory. That are like how many generations of Navy seaman or corpsman got busted for missing inventory. Because of this guy.
Right, right. He’s like, I had him. I just counted him yesterday.
Yeah, he’s like, boom, it’s like the security forces. Like, imagine that. Yeah, he’s on the border being a trader to selling it to foreign companies.
Well, yeah, yeah, that’s true. Yeah, that’s true. A little bit.
I’m surprised he’s not up on espionage stuff, but maybe it was the nature of what he was selling. You know, yeah, I mean, I got fire retardant shirts. What do you think Azerbaijan? Do you want to buy some fire retardant shirts? I’m like, give me some movies.
How much are those? And they’re like, there are a thousand dollars a piece. It’s like, wow, okay. He’s good.
Like, I don’t even know how to. I don’t know how to do it. Yeah, just Azerbaijan or whatever.
Like, how do you ship a pallet to there? Like, right, right. I don’t know. I don’t know.
He access military. Oh, I read that. Even after retiring, Alan kept directing the conspiracy and receiving payments for it.
Now, listen to all who investigate. The scheme was investigated by Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Homeland Security Investigations, Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement, and the FBI. It took like 50 dudes to figure out that this guy was like stealing shit.
And the great thing is. This is an NCIS episode though. Oh yeah, this is going on that.
We got him guys. We got 50 years. How long is he? Is he going to be in for the rest of his life? 18 months.
Yes, like that was it. 18 months in length. Oh yeah.
18 hard. We got him. We got him.
Is it a federal crime though, since he stole from the government? It’s gotta be. Yeah, it’s for sure. Yeah, sure.
But well, does that get you in the mood for Thanksgiving or what? I am blown away. It’s a good time. But I must admit what Jake said about the Pentagon not being able to pass an audit makes total freaking sense to me now.
Yeah, I mean when the stuff’s not there, you know, it’s just like hey, I had it. I can’t tell if it ain’t here. Like okay, well.
Clean square in the dirty floor. That’s where it was. That’s where it was.
I know it. And they probably got blamed for stealing it too. Oh, you know there was.
31 pistols. We’re gonna have to docu-pay for that. So, oh, they’ll do that too, right? Yeah, so, okay.
That’s just two instances at two bases. Oh, and that’s understandable why the Pentagon would be like, we don’t know where 14 billion dollars worth of stuff is. Two bases have a million gone between themselves.
Right, and that’s just the ones that made the news. That’s just the ones that made the news. So, you know, there’s a whole bunch that’s covered up that’s not out there.
And I love the part. So, what are you doing about trying to recover? Well, we offered $15,000. We figured it’d be fine.
Isn’t that enough? That should do it back, right? Yeah, that should do it. Right, right. Exactly.
All right, it’s time for another debate on late for change. Wait, I gotta pull out my facts. Oh, you got notes.
Yeah, I wrote a couple notes. I wrote a couple notes, but I don’t think I have to. So, what we’re gonna do is we are going to debate the best side dish for your Thanksgiving meal.
We’re going to determine the all-pro of Thanksgiving meals. All right. I’m not going to go first because I have the winner.
Easy, easy though. Easy! All right, yeah. Oh, yeah, easy, easy.
So, all right. Variations to yours. All right, all right.
You want me to go first? I’ll set the tone and then you guys will just, you’ll just never get there. It might be boring for the listeners because they’re like, the winner’s coming off the top. Yeah, the winner’s coming off the top.
There we go. So, all right. I chose stuffing, which is easily or dressing depending on it, right? But stuffing is easily the number one side dish of Thanksgiving, right? And I’ve got, I’ll end this with two questions that’ll make it crystal clear why it’s the best.
Yeah, the term stuffing gives you really bad visual. No, no, no, it doesn’t. Don’t try to just be smart.
I’ve had a lot of real dry ass stuffing. Like, right on. What I meant by variations, you can put anything.
And you can put oysters. She’s already. We’ll let you make your case.
She’s already making the case because it’s that good. No, it’s that versatile. It’s that versatile too.
It’s the most flavorful food of all of Thanksgiving because it’s got all the bits and buttholes out of the inside of the turkey thrown into it. So some soggy ass bread. If you’re lucky.
Oh, so good. Some croutons that somebody just window sprayed some shit on. That even works too.
Because I’ve had stuffing to sometimes you’re like, I had a weird flavor, but I’m still eating it. So stuffing can be made with a variety of herbs, spices, aromatics, right? And it can include different textures like toasted bread or crunchy vegetables, which I’m not a big keen one on the crunchy vegetables, but you can do it. You don’t like so many jerks in yours? No, it’s OK.
It’s OK. But some people overdo it and then it’s too much. It’s just got to be done though, soft.
Stuffing goes great with turkey master tails and gravy. It can be eaten for multiple meals. That’s the one thing that you can reheat.
You know, besides the turkey, you can reheat stuff. What does it do to your gut though? That doesn’t matter. Could you imagine if you just ate a whole thing? Scientists have proven it’s not really a trick to fan.
It’s just a pure amount of fucking bread. It’s expanding in your guts. You’re going to diffuse an asteroid out of your… It’s not the turkey.
The turkey has been blamed for years. It’s the stuffing the whole time. Maybe they loaded the Russians up with that before they went up there.
Just produce the effect they wanted. You can prepare it. You can reheat it.
You can have for dinner, breakfast. You can prepare it up to 24 hours prior and then warm it up and it’s good. It can be vegan.
You can add meat, fruit, vegetables to it. It can give you salmonella and E. coli. It can give you turkey.
No, don’t tear it down. It can be moist or it can be dry. You can cook it in the bird which is stuffing or on the side which makes it dressing.
Now, here’s the two questions I have that… Wake me up when you’re done. Here’s the two questions. Are you going for length to the convince us? Yes.
All you got to do is answer these two questions and you’ll know why it’s the best side dish. Jake left. That son of a bitch.
The first question is, when else do you eat stuffing throughout the year? Except for Thanksgiving. Right? Second question is, if you don’t have stuffing, tell me another side. If you don’t have, somebody will be like, hey, how come you don’t have the oysters out here? It’s the stuffing.
You got to have the stuffing. And that’s why stuffing is the king of all sides. I rest my… There we go.
Done. Now, the versatility… Go ahead, fight for a second. Fight for a second.
But the fact that you can put like every bit and bob in for stuffing… If you want. You don’t have… Anything… Stuffing is a dangerous side. Like, there’s some houses I’ve been over, I’m like… Delicious side.
Oh, I’m not taking that stuffing. Well, that’s true. Like, a small scoop of this stuffing.
I’ve had true stuffing come out of the bird, and it’s just like… That’s a little too much. It’s nothing but gray. When I think of stuffing, other than mashed potatoes, that’s a lunch lady sound kind of sound.
Yeah, it can’t be. It can’t be. Enjoy your meal.
Come on, you get extra stuffing. Well, preparation techniques aside, stuffing is still the most important side to the Thanksgiving meal. I think we’ve proven otherwise.
I just… Well, I’m ready for case number two. Eric, you better step up. All right, man.
So, I’m going to set the tone here. Thanksgiving, right? Two things. Relax.
Comfortable. Eat. Correct? Do we all agree on those three? Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. No.
I’m going to go a little non-traditional, right? I’m going to go with a little bit more comfort food that can’t go wrong if your stuffing is dry and your turkey tastes like crap. Introducing the savior of Thanksgiving, mac and cheese. Ooh.
Southern baked macaroni and cheese is the ultimate comfort food and relaxing, right? That’s a pretty good point, actually. I never had mac and cheese, though. No one ever has just perfectly baked mac and cheese.
No one. Except for… Perfectly baked. Noises after it leaves the oven enticing you with an aroma to come sit down.
Get out of here. And you can do so many other things, right? So here’s the thing. Think about this, guys.
If you’re invited to someone’s house, right? She needs mac and cheese. She needs cheese, right? Especially for a holiday. Is that you? You can’t just show up toting a casserole pan.
You can’t. You have to be assigned for that job because it’s so imperative to have a good casserole of mac and cheese. That’s why the ultimate relaxing and comfort food for Thanksgiving is mac and cheese.
Yeah. I’m thinking of that restaurant that serves nothing but mac and cheese. Yes.
Eric, I’ll give you the fact that mac and cheese can be great. Mac and cheese can be great, but it’s not iconic Thanksgiving at all. It’s any backyard barbecue.
It’s a Wednesday night with a blue box. It’s every holiday. It’s just not… It’s every day.
It’s a Wednesday with a freaking mom that has cut up weenies and ketchup on it and be like, I’m too fucking broke to make you dinner. You eat it all year long and then you still want it on Thanksgiving. I will actually ask that if there’s one steady dish at Thanksgiving, it’s pretty much mac and cheese because you can’t make it too runny, too dry.
It’s pretty much steady yet. It’s a savior for all the other stuff but at the same time, it’s not a Thanksgiving side top placer when I used to eat the mac and cheese that my kids didn’t eat because I was like, I don’t want to go away so I’ll just eat this mac and cheese. That doesn’t mean Thanksgiving.
That just means I was too lazy to make my own dinner and the kids were too picky to finish up the mac and cheese. Yeah, no. We will call it a holiday dish because every holiday requires a good mac and cheese.
Hold on, hold on. I do not see the Native Americans making mac and cheese. It goes against culture, culture.
And I suppose you saw them stuffing, making a stuffing. Oh, they were stuffing the shit out of that bird or whatever they could get. It just turns into a stuffing, right? More bread, flour.
At least it’s feasible that stuffing could have been there. It’s not feasible that mac and cheese is making herbs and bread. It’s a frickin’ early 1700s or whatever.
Herbs and leftover bread is abundant. Natalia kids. Mac and cheese.
Pasta. Come on, man. Every holiday mainstay.
Wow, do you see this? That famous day where they introduced elbow macaroni to the Native Americans. Everything took off. Everybody knows that’s the third thing in the cornucopia.
Mac and cheese. That’s what’s so viable about this structure. It goes all year long, man.
You gotta hit it. All year long. All right.
You made your case. You made your case. It’s up there.
We’ll see how it goes into the consciousness here. Okay. Jay, hear your dark horse.
I don’t have an introduction. That’s the bad thing. But I chose sweet potatoes.
One, it’s economically good to buy sweet potatoes because they’re cheap. Not as cheap as mac and cheese. But it’s a start.
Again, going back to Eric, you can eat them all year long. It could be savory or it could be sweet. It could be baked into bread, rolls.
It could be it could be its own pie. It’s a hot tea. Yeah.
I’m gonna go into bubblegum. You got you got mashed and you got baked yams. Candy yams.
See yams, yams. And it’s good for your gut. Like super good for your gut.
It produces so much fibers for you guys. Mac and cheese until they add all the marshmallows. That’s true.
That’s supposed to help you with the turkey digestion. I think they add the marshmallows to try to offset the taste of awful sweet potatoes. You got to church up sweet potatoes so much for them to be good.
Yeah, sweet potato soup. So delicious. What do you want, Keto? Get out of here.
That would have been a good one. For those who are for Keto. My son can be your savior.
My son says the only thing he remembers from his childhood as far as like eating things is flaxseed. I put flaxseed in everything. You’ve got to poop.
You’ve got to poop. Poor kid is traumatized by shitting so much. He’s like, flaxseed’s my flaxseed.
And as he’s older and he’s having a beer with a guy and they’re like, you shit three times a day, don’t you? And he’s like, no. He’s like, what is wrong with him? But since I was a kid, what has my mom been doing to me? My mom took care of me. Or he goes away from the poem for a week and he hasn’t shit since he left.
His body’s so conditioned to flaxseeds. His body’s like, where’s my four pounds of flaxseed? I’ve only gone twice today. Wow, that was a long stretch to get off of sweet potatoes.
He also got super yummy from Texas Roadhouse. Everything’s good from Texas Roadhouse. This is all fun and games, but the real iconic, I admit, it is controversial.
Okay, I’ll fully admit it. You either love it or hate it. But the most iconic thing to go on Thanksgiving is always just sitting there in the background just jiggling full of its tart joy.
It’s like in cranberries and not your aunt man. It’s cranberries. Okay, because it is jiggling too, but not in the right way.
Okay, and or fresh. It doesn’t matter. If you’re at a bougie house, like Dave Chappelle had that stovetop joke, but you’re at a bougie house.
Yeah, yeah. You’re like, what is this? And it’s a bowl of delicious cranberry, like real cranberries. Right out of a can or a bowl.
You gotta have the bridge lines. That is the most iconic. Molded into them.
But there’s that one childhood memory of some something that you’re like, what are these? These are cranberries and you didn’t get your ribby cranberry jelly. That’s right. And you’re like, what is this crap in this bowl? Where’s my jelly? Where’s the ribs? Where is all this? You’re like, what’s going on in there? And there’s always that one person who’s like, it lands and then it breaks.
You’re like, I don’t think anybody has given it our anybody of any of our houses. Dude, the cranberries are the most iconic. Love them or hate them.
And also, everything else, even sweet potatoes can be savory. Everything else is savory. Right, right.
You need that palate cleanser. You need that bit of heart to wake back up and say, that is stuffing his shit. And these sweet potatoes are way too overcooked.
But because of the cranberries, you’re able to see that. Like, guys, I might eat the cranberries because my mac and cheese was perfect. Now, mac and cheese.
Okay, mac and cheese could be amazing, right? Yeah. But then you have turkey. You have ham.
You have mac and cheese. Those are all very rich, very savory flavors. Cranberries to the rescue.
Let me hook you up so you can start tasting the other things. I have never had mac and cheese and cranberries. I wonder what that tastes like.
Oh, it’s a delightful treat. It probably spices up those bland ass mac and cheese. I must say.
You can put cranberries in stuffing. You can. True.
You can. Oh, that’s a beautiful lake. Like pool of cranberries so red and pretty.
Okay, I’ll shut up. You’re right. It’s until you get to the UTI.
Boom, cranberries, cranberries. Makes it burn more. But I mean, think of that magical cure if you put flaxseed and cranberries.
Yes, you ain’t never know that. Gotta go. Heaven.
All right. So put your. To all our 12 listeners, please actually comment on this because I know cranberries have a shot.
We’ve come on. We left out deviled eggs. We left out biscuits.
Oh, there’s a time. But of these for stuffing. Mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, and cranberries.
I don’t know about that. What do you mean? They made a song about sweet potatoes. Sweet potato pie.
No, I think you made up that song. All right. So use your use your honesty and let’s let’s vote.
All right. But use the arguments now. I still think stuffing is the most iconic.
However. I think Jake makes a great argument because that’s like the only real sweet thing that’s there until you get to dessert. Uh.
Sweet potato. Mac and cheese. Mac and cheese are steady, Eddie, but they got a ceiling.
Nobody walks away and going. Did you have the mac and cheese? Oh my god. Oh, I think the different.
I think it’s different. Mac and cheese can get to here. And that’s it.
They’re like, okay, that’s good. That’s good. That’s it.
Cheddar yams. I hate yams. So I’m not going with sweet potatoes.
Oh, dang. I actually honestly, I think it’s between dressing and and freaking cranberries. I think Jake had.
I’ll give you. I’ll give you my vote check. That’s a good.
That’s a better argument than I had. I think so. So I’m going.
I’m voting for Jake. Based on the argument. Eric’s not going to give it up.
Eric’s withholding. Eric’s freaking withholding. It’s like Pirates of the Caribbean.
Yeah. They’re going to vote for themselves. Yeah.
Is that I honestly would give it in between cranberry and dressing. You can have either one of these two. Eric, what do you think of the argument? Every day of the year.
What do you think of the arguments? Come on. Objectively, what do you think of the argument? If we’re specifically going on the mainstay of Thanksgiving. It’s okay.
Stuffing cranberries. Maybe even some sweet potato. I would agree.
Those are mainstays for a traditional Thanksgiving. But if you want to expand your horizons. Oh, Eric.
You have to have mac and cheese. Oh, that’s not that’s not a strong argument. I hear you.
Whatever one vote, whatever one comment kicks in is going to decide this whole. I think it’s in between stuffing and cranberries. It’s going to be so random comment.
All right. I’ll tell you what we won’t decide a winner. Bring it up at your Thanksgiving table.
See what your own families vote for. And then we’ll come. We’ll convene next week and we’ll see which one’s a good call.
LinkedIn comment of Jake walls and asshole and the mac and cheese. Oh, you mean like Jimmy Smith will say. Exactly.
That guy’s a dick. I spent way too much time with him and loved every minute of it. But he should lose.
All right. So whoever’s listening out there, throw us a comment or vote. And we’ll we’ll reveal the winner next week based on what our families say.
So winner winner turkey dinner. Will you remember to ask this question? And more importantly, after your Uber ride home, will you remember what they said? 100% see you’re going. I did ask.
I have no idea what it was. Let me tell you about the adventure I had. I was soft to the gills.
We went to Pueblo. I don’t know how we got the Pueblo. Did you know bars are open on Thanksgiving night? It’s amazing.
I had to call my daughter and come pick me up and she wouldn’t. But we had second Thanksgiving at the bar. We had leftovers.
Jimmy down the road had mashed potatoes. And you know what they had? I’ll tell my mother-in-law to pay attention. They had bins and bins of mac and cheese.
I think we’re gonna have mac and cheese for Thanksgiving dinner now. I want to try it. See, I’ve never had it for Thanksgiving dinner.
I know this will be a new one. That’s the thing. Anna won’t remember what she had for Thanksgiving dinner.
So, so clearly it’s not iconic though. It’s left up to the families. It’s left up to the family.
Amen, amen. Eric, did you have a history? Well, I sort of did, but I got overrun by the producer of the show. You didn’t.
I just suggested. No, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t like it.
Why do you keep asking? Don’t even ask. I know. I shouldn’t have.
Just do it. He hammered me, man. So, I’m like… Come on.
You’re a strong man. Come on! You are Mr. History. Make an argument for it.
If you would like, I came across this. I didn’t research it, but I came across it and I thought it’d be good for history. So, I’m like, okay.
Oh, my God. I like it though. All right.
Regaless. This is pretty cool. The current holiday while you’re eating your mac and cheese and enjoying Thanksgiving.
The day after as you’re hungover. Thanksgiving is… And you’re just picking it up cold and you just… Mac and cheese bricks. Yummy.
Yummy. That’s great. I had many mac and cheese bricks from the food they brought into the MCS.
Worked out mid. They’re like, hey, there’s some food over there. And he pulled that mac and cheese out.
I’m like, go back. You got a hot sauce set up just to spruce it up? You’re like, yeah. It’s like mac and cheese on a stick.
Mac and cheese ball. Nope. All right.
Sorry, Eric. All right. So based on the holiday, I thought this was really appropriate, especially after Marty sent it to me.
Thanksgiving has seen a significant military actions during the 20th century during that timeframe. Soldiers found themselves in active conflict even on a day typically reserved for gratitude and fame. Here are three historical U.S. military battles that were fought during the Thanksgiving weekend.
And I’ve heard two. I didn’t hear of the one. And then it turns out it was like one of the biggest battles of World War II.
Which was this one. It’s called the Battle of the Hurtegan Forest. The Hurtegan Forest.
The Hurtegan Forest. So in November of 44, U.S. forces were deeply engaged in the Hurtegan Forest against the German border. This grueling series of battles included intense fighting around Thanksgiving, aimed to push through Germany’s fortified defenses.
Commanded by Major General Courtney Hodges, the first U.S. Army struggled with harsh conditions, dense forests, and entrenched German positions. Known for being one of the longest battles fought by the U.S. forces. That’s where I didn’t know.
I didn’t know that either. The Hurtegan campaign resulted in significant casualties. Although no formal Thanksgiving celebration took place on the front lines, American troops did receive special holiday meals to maintain morale.
However, at home, the sacrifices were felt profoundly as families recognized challenging conditions, soldiers faced in Europe. The victory was bittersweet as losses were heavy. But the battles competition allowed allied forces to advance closer to German territory.
So that’s the big one. And there were two others and I’m not going to read much of them because these are known. Yeah.
One of them was the battle of the Choson Reservoir. Frozen Chosons. God.
Yeah. Frozen Chosons when the Chinese came into the war and hit us pretty hard. A lot of losses there too.
But that also took place during Thanksgiving. And then last but not least was Operation Desert Storm. Some of us were there.
Some of us weren’t. But a lot of troops ate Thanksgiving meals in the old desert during the 1990 Gulf War. So good stuff.
A lot of battles. A lot of things have occurred when soldiers and sailors and airmen were fighting many, many battles during holidays that they should have been home with their families. Well and that just gives us all that much more perspective to enjoy two days from now and enjoy with our family and we’re not deployed and we’re not digging a hole and we’re not on a three drink limit.
Thank God. So good. Thanks Eric.
That was great impromptu history that you pulled out. So that was I appreciate that. Well thank you for your suggestion.
Thank you for the humble pie. Thank you for the sarcasm. Like we share all a bunch of other holidays with a bunch like globally, right? Yeah.
It’s Thanksgiving. I think that’s uniquely US. I mean other countries have President’s Day and Memorial Day and Veterans Day and even Halloween.
Yeah, other or something similar. I wonder if Thanksgiving is. I think Thanksgiving is uniquely.
Of course. Think of the history. I think it’s it’s specifically geared towards us.
You think there’s other countries that celebrate. Joining. Yeah, I mean like the first time the discoverers joined.
I don’t know. Wherever like. They’ll celebrate it.
If that means they can get in the chow line. Like oh yeah. Marigold Thanksgiving.
Hey yeah, we should go. We should go to Indonesia and have pineapple turkey. Yeah, and introduce mac and cheese to and see what they think.
They’ll be like. It’s already there. It’s already there.
That’s a worldwide phenomenon. It doesn’t even exist in Italy. It probably doesn’t even exist in Italy.
Yeah, they’re like oh those Americans bastardize another way. Brilliant creations. What is this macaroni? This is trash.
It’s like a cappuccino. After that, we don’t do it. That’s right.
We don’t do it. Good. I keep pushing.
That’s because you know it’s hard to debate it. Well, I’m going to think about it. I definitely will think about it.
I’ll give it a shot. And I’ll be thankful that I don’t have it. My kids both requested mac and cheese.
Oh no. But God, it’s really going to be interesting to see what it’ll be on my table. Yeah, I’m just trying it for the first ever time.
So it’s not an abundantly available Thanksgiving meal. That’s true. Not like stuffing.
That’s good show. Good one, man. That debate.
I may have to cut that debate up into several parts to put it out. That was good. That was good.
Like I said, I’m interested to see what the results are. Watch the winner be flaxseed. Every mother will be like, oh, she really knows what she’s talking about.
I’ve been looking at my husband for years. He has no idea. So funny.
He’s going to invest in bidets after today. Flaxseed. Flaxseed.
Well, on that note, I think we’re an end up. And on behalf of all of us here, I’d like to thank you for listening today. Please like, share, and subscribe.
Let us know how we did in the comments to make sure that next week you are not late for changeover. I was so delayed. I know.
That was terrible. You know how terrifying a snake in space would be? Like, how would it be moving? I just thought about that. Like, it’s wiggling in no gravity? It’s just freaking wiggling and doing circles in no gravity.
Before you go, I gotta get a joke for you. Well, you call a pig that practices karate. A pork chop.
Thought you were going to go with kung-pow. A pork chop. What do you call an old snowman? A cup of water.
He’s been practicing too. I’ve been working with those on my grandson, man. I’m going to get jig back for all those jabs.
Everybody’s going to love this. Why’s the turkey cross the street? It truly wasn’t a chicken. Oh, on that note.
Thanks for everyone listening and happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Have fun. See you.