All right. You guys taking your first little
sippy poop? Not yet. Oh, no. First one I pulled
back. I don't know what we thought about this
the first time. I don't remember drinking it.
Honestly. It's kind of... It's probably been...
I was looking at the bottles because I was trying
to pick which one that can... You know, because...
Guys, look. We've got a specific equation when
it comes to serving drinks. And when we have
guests... We've got to be careful because if
we pull from a bottle that won't allow us to
equally distribute it like three, four ways down
the road. Then it's really ugly. I'm going to
have to drink it. Or it's going to have to go
into our infinity bottle. I don't know if you
noticed out in the green room, we've got a big
old bottle, big gallon jug. Okay. That is our
infinity bottle. It's got over 70 bottles in
it. It's very good. It's very good. It is fantastic.
A splendid whiskey right there. Seriously. All
right, folks. Welcome to the... Dudes Like Us
podcast, it's September 23rd, 2025. It's the
first half of our Dudes Like Us podcast. Check
us out on Facebook. Check us out on Instagram
-podcast or Woodcraft if you guys want to pick
up some of our swag. We have a couple guests
tonight, and I'm super excited. We're not going
to talk too much about how I know you guys, but
like that nefarious bar in the back selling dime
bags. I don't know what that was all about. Dudes
Like Us, I'm Sean. I'm Paul. I'm Jeff. I'm Craig.
I'm Greg. All right. All right. Welcome to the
podcast, guys. Glad to be here, sir. Craig and
Greg. Oh, my God. I can't even say it. It's first
half. What the fuck? God, are you drunk already?
It feels like it. Wow. Cheap days. All right.
Well, look, I was chatting with Greg a month
or two ago and was sharing with him about what
we do on the podcast and what we like to talk
about. We talk about dudes like us, things that
we do in life and normal thresholds, abnormal
thresholds that we do. Different way of growing
up. You know, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, taking kids
to school, college the first time. You know,
the different phases of life. Deaths, you know,
births, you know, kids getting married, empty
nesters. It's nonstop. And a lot of times we
go back in time and we look at some of the charts
of the 80s, 90s, and we kind of reminisce about
one hit wonders. And, you know, we just, we're
the ADD classic thing to listen to because we're
not just one thing. And, of course, I'm the conspiracy.
Conspiracy guy, for sure. Oh, yeah. And we give
him shit for it. For sure. Yeah, you sure do.
But this chair sucks, man. My fat ass keeps going
down. It's a conspiracy. I think that rod underneath
is trying to interject. It's going to impale
me one of these days. All right. Well, what say
you guys? Let's start off and explain to us why
you're here today. Well, first of all, for the...
Invitation. I want to thank you guys for inviting
us to be here. It's a pleasure to be here. Excited
to have some discussions and shenanigans accordingly.
But essentially, this turned into— I'm just here
for the free drinks. There you go. Hell yeah.
I like this guy. We all get the root. We get
more of that club soda. But yeah, Sean, you and
I got to talking about various subjects, and
we really got into some pretty deep discussion.
Yeah, we did. And it was really fascinating to
hear some of your points of view, and a lot of
them really lined up with mine. So it seemed
there was a lot of like -mindedness there. and
it kind of spawned the conversation of joining
on this podcast. So, you know, I've done a few
of them. Me and Craig are actually looking to
get one startup of our own, and we're trying
to get that one kicked off. So I invited Craig
to come with me, of course, with your invitation,
Sean, to really stick his nose in, get some free
drinks, and see what he can pick up here. Whenever
you have the opportunity to hang out with quality
men, I always make time for that. Greg and I
have known each other for 30 years now. You probably
need to clarify that. Give us five minutes before
you give us that benefit. Just looking over the
resumes, it seems to check out. So we were fraternity
brothers at North Texas. And since then, we started
what's called a Juneto. And we've been meeting
with that once a month. A Juneto was started
by Ben Franklin. And it's Latin for a meeting.
And at the time, Ben Franklin and his buddies
felt that there was just too much going on in
the world for any one person to digest that.
So him and his buddies would get together and
just talk about what's going on in science, what's
going on in the news. And so there are Junto
clubs out there. Our buddy Seth is the one who
started it. And you get together. You can do
it whatever frequency you want. We do it once
a month. But you bring a presentation. Five,
ten minutes long. About something you find interesting.
And that could be finance. That could be something
in science. That could be, like, I did one this
past Sunday on the 25 plants that are illegal
in the United States. And just kind of went through
that. It's kind of funny. Like the really invasive
plants? Invasive plants. Cocaine. Opium. Cot.
You know, that kind of stuff. Cocaine is a plant?
You know, the funny thing is, is that when you
look at one, it just looks like a shrub. Like,
I could grow this in my front yard. Nobody would
know it. And there are some plants on there that
one of my neighbors actually has growing in his
front yard. And I thought, oh, man, that's totally
illegal. It's a cocaine plant? It's called a
moonflower. And the seed pot on it creates hallucinations.
And it's kind of like. I don't know if your grandparents
were gardener, but like oleander. Oleander, right.
Technically, it's illegal, super poisonous, very
popular plant in the 40s and 50s. Interesting.
They're still around. I mean, it's not like they're
dousing them with - Yeah, there was a neighbor
just a few houses down that had oleander all
along their fence. Yeah. No, there's a lot of
things - They are deadly, but there are some
arguments or some controversies on some of these
deadly - plants that taken in specific doses
or mixture of other that they're healthy are
these 20 part of that at all yeah absolutely
i mean uh so just as background i'm a pharmacist
so i got a doctorate in pharmacy from texas tech
and we found out 2 000 years ago that the poison
is in the dose And so same thing, like digitalis
comes from a plant that taking it high enough
doses will kill you. At low enough doses, if
you have a heart that has an irregular rhythm,
you take digitalis and it gets the heart back.
Interesting. That makes sense. Yeah. And then,
you know, they tested it out on a bunch of villagers.
And a lot of them were no longer with them. Some
things you have to find out the hard way. Yeah.
The village idiot was the one that was like,
okay, this does, ooh, too much, too much. Let's
get Mikey. He likes it. Just like we were talking
last week about cashews, and we learned that
cashew is the seed of a fruit. It's not an actual
nut. And in order to make it, it's in a shell.
But what's inside is a toxin that the lady we
were listening to that said is similar to poison
ivy toxin. Like, who figured that out? Did they
eat it? and then just have some problematic throats
or what. Yeah. Who tried that? How'd they find
that out? The hard way, I guess. Trial and error
through a lot of things. So basically, you know,
the Junco group, really guys that have a thirst
for knowledge still. Sure. You know, a little
bit of a nerd coming out in all of us. You know,
we're always trying to learn more. And that was
another thing that. that ben franklin did with
this junto was uh get to a point where they were
dividing up the study of a certain subject and
five guys for instance would break it up into
five sections and each one would do their research
now this was coming from a time where they didn't
have libraries yet right so it doing the manpower
to do research on something it took a lot more
so they divided and conquered and came back and
shared the information and basically you could
walk away at the end of that with the full breadth
of knowledge on it with one fifth using round
numbers of the time that you put into it now
ben franklin actually wrote about this in his
autobiography and that's where seth originally
uh came across the autobiography read it and
then passed it around to each one of us and then
said hey we should do this junto thing that's
looks kind of cool and it was like well actually
that would be kind of cool let's do that and
the results of that first of all you know some
of the best friends that we had in college we
get together and we have time for fellowship
uh we you know we break bread together we we
have this thirst for knowledge that we get to
quench with doing you know research and presenting
on something so it kind of kept us into our studious
uh scholarly ways in college and um it cuts out
all the excuses of hey i want to hang out with
jim bob over there and yeah we'll talk to you
next time and then it never happens right life
gets in the way exactly but you're carving out
time that's like yeah it's kind of like our podcast
we we carve out time and it's protected this
is our own junta yeah i mean tuesdays We do zero
research, though. No. No. We haven't given each
other enough time. I mean, if it sounds right.
If you listen, we've... We usually find out by
Chuck that we're usually wrong because he fact
-checked us live and, yeah, we're wrong. It's
fun, though. They're fun circles. It's the travels
to get where we're going is what's important
because we're so full of shit sometimes. We sound
very confident in our beliefs. We're not the
podcast of misinformation. We're the podcast
of incorrect information. Hey, there you go,
man. That's great. Which is the difference. Well,
this kind of fellowship is actually something
that has been shown to really be rewarding for
men. specifically, which is a little bit different
than women. Women socialize, you know, men are
from Mars, women are from Venus. We have our
different makeup and compositions and brain patterns,
et cetera. And, you know, men specifically have
a little bit more of this need for a fellowship
with other men. And it becomes very rewarding
when you have that good, wholesome fellowship.
That's really part of what has spawned, you know,
ancient fraternities that got started. the reward
that they got from that. We've talked about this
so many times about how, so Greg here is, I forget
the title, but he was the grand poobah of the
Masonic temple in Fort Worth and which is a beautiful
building. If you've never been there, they do
weddings and stuff like that there. But you know,
if you look at our grandparents generation, they
were in a Mason's or rotary club or a bowling
league or something involved in their community
instead of. I'm going to go to work. I'm going
to drive home. I'm going to watch television.
I'm going to go to bed. Winch repeat. Yeah, it
doesn't work. We're meant to be communal. And,
you know, I'm real proud of Greg for being in
the Masons because of that. I think, you know,
trying to promote that with guys. And, you know,
it doesn't have to be the Masons. He has a familial
tie to it. But, yeah, it could be anything for
guys to get together. Or the ladies as well,
you know. So what's the story behind the skimpy
outfit you guys wear? What? Oh, sorry. The goat
and everything else that's supposedly. What is
that jar of fluid outside? The lizard people
who eat mice raw. Yes. All true. I originally
got introduced to masonry through my grandfather,
who was my hero growing up. He was the man that
taught me to be a man. That really was the male
influence in my life. And he comes from the greatest
generation. He was a pilot in World War II. Uh,
he was one of the first commanding officers when,
after world war two, when they started, uh, the
air force, which actually their birthday was
what just last week. Um, he was one of the first
commanding officers, uh, in the air force when
it was founded. And, uh, he also flew in, uh,
the Korean conflict and, um, you know, he's got
the silver star, uh, the Navy flying cross, uh,
and, you know, retired spent after spending his
whole career in there. And it was just, he comes
from that group. of people that made it through
some of the harshest times, uh, through the great
depression, through world war two, uh, through
the great awakening, uh, across the world. And
it set that tone for that post world war two
era. That is, I don't know. I think I could comfortably
say, I think we're kind of getting away from
that right now. Uh, we could go into that though,
but he was a part of that, uh, that resilience,
that accountability, all that. But he was a part,
he was one of those that made it through it and
through all of the challenges, along with, you
know, many of our other grandfathers. We wouldn't
all be sitting here today if it wasn't for those
strong men that made it through those tough times.
For sure. Not only then, but throughout history.
We're basically the culmination of greatness
throughout our genes history. The strongest survive.
But after, you know, that, I think that's why
they called them the greatest generation is because
they overcame so many big obstacles and they
made it through. You know, you don't go to the
gym and lift light weights to get stronger. The
same goes for life. And they went through a lot
of harsh stuff and they overcame it. And they
were very resilient and strong as nails. And
seemingly didn't complain. Yeah. Seriously. I
mean, they came back from the most horrific experiences
and got married, had kids, got a great job. And
like all the things you just said, they just
did it. They just did it. They did. It's amazing.
And that's the reason why they call it the greatest
generation, man. Well, that's because Jack Daniels
was really inexpensive back then. Oh, true. That
had a big part of it, didn't it? It helps. It
does help. But back to that, my grandfather was
a Mason. And as were a lot of some of my other
family members that, you know, my great -grandfather,
my great -great, my great -great -great. I mean,
it went back pretty far. And I had some uncles
from, you know, the woman side of the family
as well and her father. So there was a lot of
family ties there. And there was this experience
I had as a kid seeing these. You know, I was
living with my grandfather in high school and
these men came and knocked on the door and I
answered it. And it was just, you know, this
group of five guys that all had suits on that
were there to see him. And I was like, what is
this? You know, so I got to kind of stick around
and watch and see what's going on. And they basically
drove down from Oklahoma where his original home
lodge was to present him with a 50 year service
award. Oh, nice. And masonry, you know, you get
after you've been raised as a master mason. You
got a clock that starts. You got like a birthday
every year after that for that. And then after
so many years, you hit that 50 -year mark. Then
they really like come out and give you an award,
give you a pin, do a whole event for you. And
then they do them like at 60, 65, 70, and 75.
Can you – because I've heard of the Freemasons
my entire life, but I don't know if I fully understand
what the Masons are and what they do and what
they – the whole – what they are essentially.
Yeah. Cause they've got some, there's some, I
don't want to say spooky, but there's some like
people like concoct some weird things about it.
Like they, they're superstitious. Oh yeah. There's
a lot of, a lot of weird, you know what I mean?
Right. So yeah. Talk about that. Yeah. There's
a ton of conspiracies out there. Yeah. Um, and
this is a big, if the history is so long and
so old and you know, a lot of documents have
not been fully discovered. There's a lot of folklore
that goes along too, that you can kind of weed
through. Well, you know, when you're ignorant
about information, you make up stuff. And I think
that's what's happened. I mean, if it's not right
out in the open as a very public organization,
then people are going to make up stuff. And they
have. Anyway, sorry, go ahead. And then there's
been conflicts throughout history that has really
fueled that, particularly with the Catholic Church.
And if I could go kind of go back to where Masons
really get their ultimate roots from, it goes
back to the Knights Templar. And there was, just
to briefly brush over that, there was, you know,
the Knights Templar were the Navy SEALs of their
time. You know, they were. a force that was built
basically to protect the Christian pilgrims going
to Jerusalem that were constantly being raided
and, you know, murdered and robbed by, you know.
It's a dangerous path, man. It's a dangerous
path. And it was the, you know, the Muslim raiders
that were basically terrorizing them on their
pilgrimage. So the Knights Templar was originally
founded to protect them along the way. And they
grew to this massive force. They had these requirements.
You already had to be a knight. You had to be
knighted by some kingdom. You had to have wealth.
You had to come with your horse, your squire,
your equipment, your money. And that grew tremendously
over time. And they got to the point where they
really became... you know, a force of the Catholic
church too. They were protecting a Catholic church.
They were fighting wars for them. They began,
then they kind of grew into this mercenary force.
And then if you fast forward to King Philip of
France at the time had, was best friends with
the grand commander of the grand commander of
the commandery, who, who was basically, you know,
the chief of staff of everybody. in the chain
of command and you had different conclaves of
them spread out but he was the head and he was
based in in paris and um king philip had had
uh engaged you know uh the grand commander to
you know hire the knights templar to fight a
battle for him to fight a war um this this commander's
name uh was jacques de malay and um after this
war jacques and king philip were having a conversation
and jacques was going well you Let's follow up
on this. I haven't had the chance to talk to
you about it, but more or less, you promised
us money for this, and when would you like to
take care of that? And Philip basically double
-crossed him at that point. And after that conversation,
sent a messenger to the Vatican with a message
that the Knights Templar were heretics and were
going against the Catholic Church. then turned
right around and arrested Jacques de Molay and
his commanding officers. Oh, wow. And then the
Knights Templar saw what was going on and they
gathered, I mean, these guys had, they were the
protectors of all of the Christian relics. So
some of the stuff that goes all the way back
to King Solomon's temple, you know, the Holy
Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, you know, all
of these different things, they were the protectors
of it. And so the Knights Templar basically disbanded
and spread and grabbed the stuff and left. And,
you know, some went to Africa. Uh, cause the,
you know, there was, that goes way back to King
Solomon and his relationship with the queen of
Ethiopia, who he ended up bearing a child with.
And so there was, you know, there was, you know,
colleagues out there they could go to. And so
they went there and then they went up Scandinavia,
they went up into the English Isles and, you
know, went back to where they came from. Is it
true they found some of the Templars stuff or,
uh, symbols here in North America on rocks? Not
that I'm aware of as being actual. No. No, they
hadn't made the trek across the pond at that
point. That was a later situation. This kind
of predates the 1600s. And so when Jacques de
Molay was arrested by the French forces, they
burned him at the stake outside of the castle.
And that was... is the day of Friday the 13th.
So the Friday the 13th date, that's where that
comes from. It's from the execution of the commander
of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay. And
all of those relics went out. And of course,
there's a lot of conspiracies from them then.
Some are up in Roslyn Chapel in Scotland. So
they're not all in a warehouse? Well, we saw
Nick Cage, right? Good question. You saw Nick
Cage track all that down? Yeah, there's a whole
lot. Okay, that's not true. Well, oddly enough,
I mean, it's a fascinating story, so I could
go on about it. I'll try to be quick. But the
Catholic Church, that's where the papal inquisitions
happened. They did the trials for the Knights
Templar. They found him to be not guilty, and
they let him all go. Okay. Surprisingly and oddly
enough, that pope died within 90 days of an accident.
King Philip. died of a hunting accident within
90 days of that, too. So it's like the enemies
kind of fell, but the Knights of the Temple are
disbanded, basically. All of the knights went
back to where their homelands were. Oh, yeah.
I mean, they had to skedaddle, man. They were
being picked off one by one, right? That's right,
yeah. And they ended up blending back into society,
and what they did was utilized a skill set that
they developed during their knighthood. And what
they built were these fortresses. They built
castles. Forts, castles, these strongholds. And
they were expert stonemasons. And what they did
was they developed this hierarchy of sorts that
labeled which level of expert you were in masonry.
And they tied in their rituals from the knighting
ceremonies. Into rituals that, okay, you're an
interdependence or you're a fellow crafter, you're
a master mace. Okay. And over time, that operative
organization became less operative. And then
it kind of flipped over into a speculative, if
you want to call it that. It became more fraternal.
And there was not more need for this operative
trade guild of sorts. And it became more of a
fraternal guild. But it didn't have any war,
like, you know, no. no warfare or no it was all
strictly construction masonry that's correct
yeah okay yeah and that happened over time i'm
sure yeah it happened over time it's hard to
pinpoint exactly when it happened but there was
this switch from operative to speculative yeah
and they used a lot of the same symbols and rituals
to you know do their degrees and they turned
into a fraternal organization and that happened
somewhere between the 15 and 1600s And then there
was, uh, in England, there was this, you know,
all of the UK, there were these different grand
lodges jurisdictions that were all kind of fighting
with each other on who had legitimate jurisdiction.
And then at some point, and actually it was,
it was, um, in 1717, they unified all of the
jurisdictions underneath one grand lodge system
for the fraternity of Masons. And then they founded
the, uh, the United Grand Lodge of England. And
then from there, from 1717, that United Grand
Lodge became really what was the... the ultimate
authority for Freemasonry. Getting the guidelines
for each chapter, so to speak. Absolutely. You
have to be recognized by the Grand Lodge of England
to be legitimate. And they were called lodges,
not chapters, not guilds. They were called lodges?
Well, each lodge is called a lodge. Then you
have a jurisdiction. Okay. Interesting. It moved
from the different countries, and then France
gave a... gave a charter to a to a massachusetts
lodge and then they kind of grew from there massachusetts
gave one to louisiana and then texas during the
uh around the battle with mexico right they were
texans were trying to set up a lodge and they
went to mexico because that was a the jurisdiction
in texas they wanted to get a charter to have
a texas you know jurisdiction and santa anna
who was actually a mason uh oh wow denied it
it was like no you're your subjects in Mexico.
And so that's where we took over. And then the,
then the, of course, you know, the battle of
the Alamo, you got, you know, you know, Travis
Bowie, uh, Sam Houston, um, Juan Seguin, like
all of these guys were Masons. I mean, Davy Crockett
was a Mason and they heard that this, this word
of Texas spread through lodges. Sure. And that's
how Davy Crockett and the volunteers in Tennessee
worked their way down was through that chatter
that went through lodges. And Louisiana gave
a charter to Texas to open up its own jurisdiction.
And the Battle of San Jacinto, that charter was
in the knapsack of once again during that battle.
And when they captured. You know, they, of course,
you know, the story, they beat the Mexicans,
you know, it was a 10 to one odds. I mean, and
the numbers that were greatly outnumbered, but
remember the Alamo, the anchor, the, they, they,
they, they kicked their ass and captured, uh,
Santa Ana. And, um, Santa Ana, uh, of course
gave his, what Mason recall, the grand hailing
signs of distress, which is basically, you know,
if you're really in need, you know, you give
these words and give this signal, then that legitimizes
who you are and that you really truly need help
and you're obligated to help him. Well, obviously
he gave that there. And word is that that sparked
the conversation of should we let him live or
should we kill him? And from there it's like,
well, he did. Because he's a fellow Mason. He
is a fellow Mason, so maybe we shouldn't kill
him. And then the discussion was, well, actually
this would be better because we could send him
back to his country defeated, letting them know
that he is no longer. So they'd stripped him
of all of his military gear and he basically
left in his undergarments and went back to Mexico.
Santa Ana actually died as a homeless poor man.
Oh, wow. On the streets. I've always seen it
kind of like a checking account from the old
days of how do you know if this person from a
distant land is a good person? Can I trust them?
Can I trade with them? How do I know that it's
a good person? If you have standards. across
time across areas and that person comes to you
and says presents to you hey i am also in this
club i've been vetted i'm a good person you can
trade with me you can do business with me nice
that's kind of the shorthand of it is like tsa
free check it is it it is a it's a vetting process
i mean there's a qualifications to be mason But
it's gone through time. It's gone through time.
And if you look back at history. And it's multi
-country. Yeah. There's hundreds of years of
establishing this kind of rule of law, but a
standard, like you said. Yeah. A standard of
conduct and integrity. So in order to become
a free man, you have to be promoted by somebody
and introduced into it? Or is it just like, hey,
I'm walking in off the street. I want to be this
kind of a thing. I'll give you the basic rundown.
First, you have to have a belief in higher power.
Atheists are not qualified to be a Mason. You
have to be a good man. Well, you first have to
be a man, which is this old ancient thing because
it goes back to, you know, the age of slave days,
right? So you have to be a freeborn man. You
have to be, you know, a belief in God and you
have to have, you got to be a man of good rapport.
So you have to be recommended. Sorry, Jeff, you're
out. So keep going. I'm waiting to see if Sean
and I are still candidates. Sean's way out. Never
mind. Maybe I'm the last. I might be the last
hope. Well, they let me in, so you guys might
have a shot. Well, you know, in the 1940s was
probably the golden age. You know, the 30s, 40s,
50s. Anybody who was anybody was in masonry in
America in those times. Of course, if you go
look back through history, some of the most well
-known people were a part of that. The list is
long. And in the 40s, the golden age, if you
want to call it that, everybody kind of knew
everybody. So the vetting process was a lot easier.
Somebody could vouch for somebody. You was like,
okay, I need to get my friend. It's time for
you to get in or my son or my nephew. It was
one of those things. And everybody in the lodge
already was familiar with them because they were
a part of their community and they knew them
well. Today, it's a lot different. There's not
a lot of... It's a huge... You got to look at
their OnlyFans and their Instagrams. You got
to make sure there's not one of those. How does
one go to OnlyFans if you don't have an account?
No judgments here, Greg. There's a master account
just for you. Yeah, so it's different now. Greg
has a chapter in feet. Stay out of my business,
please. But yeah, now it's different. The population
has dramatically grown. Oh, yeah. It's hard to
keep up with a small world organization like
that. Yeah. And there's a lot of other things
to compete with your time now. You know, you
didn't have all the pro sports on TV. You didn't
have all these different things to do. I mean,
Masonry is the original fraternity. They're the
OG. They started fraternities. And since then.
The Flintstones, you know. Barney and Fred Rupp.
I'm going to the lodge, Barney. The moose head.
Was that an elk head or a moose head? They were
making fun of the elks. The elk lodge. Okay.
But I mean, it's still, I mean, it's a reputable
fraternity to be in. And what do they do? Like,
what do they do? Like, charity work? Lots of
charity. Yeah, there's a lot of charity work.
I guess if you want to say the main thing is
going to be fellowship. Right. A reason to get
together and kind of iron sharpening iron. Iron
sharpens iron. Every one of these guys has been
well recommended. He's got a good head on his
shoulders. He's taking care of his family. Here's
the other thing. He wants to be a better man
for his family and his community. Love it. And
he's trying to improve. And that's like the common
thread. And he's got a support group to do it.
That's right. It kind of weaves that blanket
with all of us in our different threads. When
you get around other people that are in that
same position, you know, it's like it adds, it
motivates. You know, when I get around Craig,
you know, I get motivated. And I get around some
of my other Mason got buddies and I get motivated.
And it's just, it is, it's that iron sharpens
iron. It really is the act of it. And you really
learn what that means when you feel it and see
it and do it. Well, and you've got an inner circle
that's modeling behavior. Exactly, yeah. Modeling
opinions, modeling, you know, all that kind of
how to treat people. Absolutely. And, you know,
you get out of masonry what you have time or
are willing to put into it. You know, there's
a lot of stuff to do. There's a lot of appendant
bodies within masonry. You know, you have groups
like the Shriners. You know, you have to be a
master mason to become a Shriner. There's the
Scottish Rite, the York Rite, and, of course,
what they call the Commandery, which is kind
of an homage to the Knights Templar. um, and
every one of these different organizations, you
have rituals that you go through. And a part
of that is so like in the, basically Freemasonry
is three degrees. You have entered apprentice
fellowship, fellow craft and master Mason. And
you go through, you know, after you get, you
have to, you know, it's old school, you get voted
on. Uh, then you, you know, if the lodge approves
of it, then, then you get, uh, And you've got
to build a little model. You have to use a skill
saw. You have to use every tool that they tell
you. You have to know how to use a sander. You've
got to bring your goat. Is that the Boy Scouts?
It's like a compass. But seriously, there's absolutely
no element of masonry. No. The zero of that.
No, but like the tools. So, you know, you've
got a plumb square and a level, a gavel, you
know, all of these, the 24 -inch gauge that they
would use to measure. Yeah. All of these tools
Mason uses as symbols to remind you of something.
Sure. You know, like, and this information, like
this isn't secret stuff. You can find it online.
Yeah, but originally they were builders. From
the Templars and they kind of dispersed and that's
what they did. Yeah, it was operative and it
became fellow. So how did that trade kind of
lose its magic as it became older into symbols?
Well, why not branch into other areas? Like if
you're George Washington and you want to survey
the frontier, you don't want to build a stone
fort while you're finding Pittsburgh at the confluence
of the rivers. They're spread thin. Yes. Yeah.
You know, again, I'm not a Mason, but the thing
I always found interesting about it is that there
is so much suspicion about it. I don't think
I've ever told you. My grandfather did not like
the Masons because he was like, well, they do
a whole business together. They worship Lucifer
and all this kind of thing. And I'm like, he
was a hardcore Southern Baptist. Anytime you're
outside of a organization that has secrets, not
a secret organization, it's always odd looking.
My personality is one that's like, then why not
join them? Why not try to understand? Yeah, exactly.
Don't base your opinion on ignorance. Yeah, exactly.
Just, just go figure it out. But, uh, you know,
you, you get to know a few of them and you're
like, okay, these guys are arguing what we're
going to have for lunch next Sunday. I mean,
they're not taking over the world anytime soon.
So, you know, I mean, at least that's been my
experience. Yeah, exactly. You know, Masons have
always taken some pride in stirring the pot of
conspiracy. Sure. Yeah. That's part of what you're,
what you're told after your masturbation degree
is to not argue with the conspiracy theorists.
Don't respond to them. Let them do their thing.
And that goes, I mean, the Catholic Church did
that. Going back to the papal acquisitions, they
forever were against the Knights Templar. And
then when the Masons came around, they were forever
against, to this day, against Masonry. And that's
part of why there were secrets, if you want to
call them that. What the degree the rituals are
about and all the catechisms of that, uh, of
the esoteric side, that's all secret. But, you
know, if I'm going to talk about, you know, what
we do in lodge and what we're doing, that's all
wide open. I mean, these buildings are all over
the, all over the world and the signs are out
front. Symbols here and there, just like, uh,
whatever you, you said it earlier, Nicholas treasure.
So, so you say that the, the Catholic church
is against the Masons like they were the Templar,
uh, as a Catholic, are there Catholics within
the Masons? A lot. Yeah, there's a lot. So how
does that dichotomy, how does that... How do
they weigh that against? Don't the Catholics
have their own organization? Yeah, they have
the Knights of Columbus. Knights of Columbus,
there you go. Yeah, with the hats. Those hats
are pretty. I've got to admit, I would join just
for the hat. That's the commander. Mason hats
suck, right? Yeah. What's going on? The commander
has basically the same uniform, same hat, same
kind of a thing. The shriners get the cars. Oh,
that's true. That's what I want. Oh, no, yeah,
that makes it worth it. Now, the shriners are
great. Let's focus on what's important. It's
the hats. The go -karts. Has anybody ever talked
to the Shriners about monster truck go -karts?
I think it's an option. Yeah, well, they do NASCAR.
They sponsor a car with NASCAR, and they do,
what is it, the Pro Bowl for college? Okay. They
sponsor that, too. They're pretty heavy. Shriners
are, I'm a Shriner, and that organization was.
really kind of found it to be the playground
of masonry. They could, outside of lodge, get
together and fellowship, have events and fun.
So they're always throwing parties and events,
and they raise money. But it's not directly affiliated?
It's not officially affiliated with? It's called
an independent body. There's a requirement for
Shriners that you have to be a Master Mason in
good standing. Oh, okay. So it is an extension
of the Mason. It is. Yeah, it's an extension.
And the Shriners, their philanthropy is the Shriner
hospitals. And those are some of the greatest
hospitals for crippled and burned children there
are in the country. In the world. I mean, we
fly in people from all over the world, children
that have been. severely burned and get them
into these hospitals and take care of them. You
know, Masons have been funding this since they
were founded. And then the Scottish Rite does
the same thing. They've got the hospital that's
here in Dallas. Right here in Frisco. Yeah, the
youth orthopedics hospital. Right up until the
way in Lebanon. They just had their 100th anniversary
a few years ago of the Scottish Rite Hospital.
And that's been completely funded by Masons since
its opening. Now they take insurance, but Masons,
we still raise money to fund it. Same thing with
the hospitals. Take donations, take some insurance,
of course, to subsidize the cost. But these two
organizations are leading in their field. Like
Scottish Rite leads the world in pediatric orthopedics.
This isn't just a hospital. This is actually
a great research and development group as well.
And they're leading the world with it. So these
hospitals are doing some amazing things for communities
everywhere. And it's really exciting to be a
part of that. I love those two hostels. Do the
doctors and the staff have to be a part of the
Scottish Rite or the Masons? No, no, no. Hiring
the best. So looking for the best in the field
and bring them in. Do they pay market price?
You know, I don't work in HR to give that kind
of an answer. That's a tough one. It seems like
a fair question because if it's coming out of
the pockets, I mean, these professionals aren't.
It's not, it's not, they're, they're not there
for charity. No. So no, they're certainly getting
paid well. And they certainly want the best.
They're bringing in the best. So I mean, they're
getting, they're getting commensurate wages for
their skillset. And, uh, you know, there's some
subsidized volunteers. There's a lot of candy
strippers, if you want to call them at those
hospitals. Um, I I've spent time doing it myself.
Um, I'd encourage anybody, if you've got the
chance to go visit one of those or volunteer
some time, it's really a great place. The Scottish
Rite Hospital doesn't even look like a hospital
on the inside. It looks more like a school or
a daycare. They designed it that way to make
it more of a comfortable, homey environment for
these kids. That's awesome. Fascinating stuff,
man. Yeah, so they're raising money, doing stuff.
I like it. I like to learn whatever I'm doing.
We don't know here. But Masons have been a part
of more than just that. You know, they founded
education in Texas. I mean, every schoolhouse
was built by Masons and they built their lodge
in Texas to be a schoolhouse with school on the
first floor and lodge on the second floor. And
the lodge paid for the teacher salaries and,
you know, all the supplies they needed until
they eventually turned it over to the state.
And then the state took over the education system.
And that went well. Yeah, look at us today. Yeah.
Time to take it back. So lodges do a lot of fundraising
and give away a lot of scholarships. That's one
of the biggest things that they do. Well, I think
there's a lot of, I don't think it's misinformation,
but just missing information, because I had no
idea that Scottish Rite was part of the Masons
at all. I've heard of Scottish Rite my entire
life, and the Shriners. I didn't know that was
part of the Masons at all. The good work that
they're doing. And it seems like they're not
all about touting the publicity of it. They're
just kind of behind the scenes, want to do their
thing, want to give back, want a fellowship of
men. They're not all about tooting their horn.
He was talking about the heyday of the Masons,
which was 1940s, 50s, even into the 60s. And
for whatever reason, the boomers really didn't
join, nor did Gen X. Masons aren't allowed to
try and sell people on it. Like, you need to
come and all this kind of thing. They don't publicize
any of it. Yeah, because we don't recruit. That's
kind of a thing. No, I like that. It's the hardest
way to grow an organization. You have to be curious
and all this kind of thing. It's kind of odd,
yeah. Yeah, now masonry needs to be creative
to keep people coming in besides the folklore.
So in Texas, while we still can't actively go
out and recruit, I can certainly sit in a...
room like this and get to know the guys that
I'm sitting with and say, you know what, are
you a Mason? No. I could say, man, I bet you
would make a good one. Right. And just spark
the curiosity. Yeah. And then if you had some
questions, I'd certainly be excited to answer
them and invite you. And like you said, every
man needs that. Yeah. Every man needs that. They
need fellowship. They need, you know, to belong
to something. That's where a lot of the problems
are right now. I mean, there's guys that aren't
given direction because there are fathers out
there that are not paving the way. They aren't
a representation of what a man should be. You
know, it's just society. Such as that, but there's
a lot of fatherless families out there. That
and it's just, you know, we're being stretched
across the board working. I mean, there was a
time where the dad was working and the mom was
at home and now you need two parents that are
working. And it's like, Your children are left
alone, and now you have these devices that are
now parenting your kids. Time sucks, yeah. And
the teachers are parenting your kids and teaching
them stuff that I don't think is inappropriate.
So Greg and I have talked extensively about intentional
fatherhood. This is something I'm passionate
about. This is something Greg's passionate about.
So gifts for all of you, but we came up with
Dinnercation. Grab one of those, man. And what
this is, you can go to dinnercation .com. These
are placemats. And they have different subject
matters on them. So you have finance, you have
life, you have business. And what this is, is
that like my dad, I love him, but he really didn't
give me a lot of direction in life. Just kind
of had to figure it out. And if you're waiting
for your kid to get home from school and just,
how was your day, Johnny? They're not going to
figure out life. In the past, we lived on farms.
Our, you know, our fathers were dentists and
you'd go to work with them. We don't have that
anymore. We don't work with our sons anymore.
We don't work with our daughters anymore. And
so what these are are talking points. So, you
know, you can't just go to your child and say,
OK, you need to save for retirement or how do
they know how to finance? When they get their
paycheck, how much should go to rent and utilities?
How much should go to food and clothing? How
much should go to their retirement? And that's
what each of these are. There's 22 points on
each of them. And like the 50 -30 -20, that's
50 % goes towards your rent or mortgage and utilities
and that kind of thing for your home. 30 % should
go towards food, entertainment, what have you.
20 % towards retirement. As we all know with
investing, if you have a rate, you have time
and you have principle, the most important of
those three things is the time. And so you got
to start young because that compounding, by the
time they get ready for retirement, if they start,
if you start retirement planning when you're
50, it better be, yeah, it better be lottery
tickets. Yeah. But if you start when you're 19.
Oh my God. Yeah. No, you're dude. You got a huge
NASDAQ. Yeah. And it's like that on all of them.
It's. How do I choose the right spouse? What
am I looking for in a husband and a wife? What
am I looking for in my friends? How do I start
a business? Uh, those kinds of things. And they're
just talking points. It's not, nobody wants to
be lectured to nobody, you know, nobody wants
to be preached at, but a little five minute talk
once a week with your kid between the ages of
like seven to 12, it's just, it's foundational
and it'll, it'll. Carry them for the rest of
their life. And then there's other things, you
know, like I happen to be the descendant of Major
Jonathan Tipton, who was a fighter in the Battle
of Kings Mountain, which is a Revolutionary War
battle. And it was the turn of the Revolutionary
War. Now, all of us, and this is what I find
so interesting, all of us have interesting, heroic
people in our families. That we probably don't
know about. We weren't taught about or anything
like that. Right. If you look at a Roman family
from way back in the day, in their entryway,
in their foyer, they had death masks of all of
their elders that came before them. And they
would say, this man was a senator. This man fought
the Gauls. This man. And their children would
wear these and enact plays. They knew their family
history. And they would honor them and cherish
them and be proud of their name and their lineage.
Now it's like, well, you know, I met grandpa
and I heard something about great grandpa. I'm
from nobody. I am nobody. Exactly. It's kind
of how they feel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know,
I want a large presentation to kind of instill
that. And I think more men should do that with
their children of our history didn't start 50
years ago. No. We've been working at this. We've
been pushing this rock up this hill for a long
time. How are we going to carry this on? How
am I going to pass this on to you? How do you
choose the right friends so that you, you know.
It's not lost on me that it's a placemat either.
Yeah. Because we talk about families that eat
together, stay together. Amen. And we don't do
that anymore. No. That's a lost thing. Like I'm
saying, this is part of the way we are now. I
mean, they are taking the family structure away.
I mean, they're at least not endorsing the importance
of families. No, in fact, they're incentivizing
the other way. There's financial incentives for
single mothers. And I feel that, and this could
be backed up with data, that we're in a crisis
of fatherless children across this country that
don't have a father around. Or if they do, he's
not intentional. He's not involved at all. And
we can look at the data. To support that. I mean,
take a look at the men that are in prison. How
many of them have father issues? Not one around
or one that was a criminal as well. And that
number has been has been tracked. And that's
like over 80 percent. And partially not to no
fault of their own. Yeah. They came from a pattern
of. Yeah. They learned from culture. They learned
from there. We have to turn this around as a
society. And I think the starting point is creating
better men. And I think through that, you get
better women and you get a better society. And
I don't know. I was encouraged in this last election.
I think people are finally connecting the dots
of, oh, what I've been sold doesn't work. So
my wife is center left politically, and all of
her friends are saying the same thing. A lot
of them are in their 40s. No children, no prospect
for a... They're like, we were bamboozled kind
of a thing. Are they realizing it? 100%. Yeah.
And they're all saying that. And, you know, it's
quietly. It's not... They're marching on downtown
with it. But it's... Sure. We're connecting these
dots that this doesn't work. And we have the
history to know what does work for a family to
make us all happy. Well, I think when the whole
Black Lives Matter, the BLM, wasn't their doctrine.
Part of their doctrine was to do away with the
nuclear family, was to try to tear that apart.
They scrubbed that from their website, but it
was on there at one point. It's very Marxist
in its core. It's Marxist in its core, and that's
bled into education. Our educational system has
been very much dubbed down. We've taken away
the classical education. You've got teachers
hanging up gay pride flags. Yeah, and it's spilled
into the universities, and it's grown from there.
We have to turn this tide. Our national education
system really took a big turn with that. I mean,
it was founded by Horace Mann, but what it turned
into was where we are today, which is a modern
source of education, which is based on standardized
testing. And so all of our kids are being taught
basically to memorize. You make a good grade,
you're great. To a really low bar. Yeah. You
make a good grade, you're valuable. You make
a bad grade, you're bad. You're invaluable. And
that sets the stage of your value comes from
authority and not from within. Well, and they're
pushing them through the education system, even
if they're not passing. If they're not tuning
in their work, they still give them a 50%. I'm
like, no. That's the no child left behind thing.
And the class moves on. It's so dumb. And it
had a noble purpose, but it... Like all other
types of legislation, it backfires. Yeah, I've
had some serious problems with our local school
here on how they prepare our children because
I had two boys go through the system. All our
kids went through the system. My oldest went
off to college and was wholly unprepared for
it. For one thing, the school district here does
not give any kind of final test. They don't prepare
you on how to take an exam, how to... You know,
learn from the beginning to the end and then
have to go back to the beginning and recall all
of that. Right. So we started here and we worked
our way here and they don't have that. And, you
know, I think the school today, I'm not saying
the classes are easy, but I think the whole program
is easier than it once was. Sure. They get early
release. They can, you know, the seniors can
have half a day. Screw that. They get out. The
grades are turned in three weeks early before
graduation, which doesn't incentive to do anything
at that point. There's no final, like I said.
I think that's detrimental to the kids. My oldest
felt it. He had to learn on the flight. He called
me his freshman year going, Dad, they want me
to learn or take a test on everything we had.
this quarter. He actually called me and asked
me that. Is that allowed? Can they do that? I
was like, yeah, it's called a final. That's what
I was bitching about all those years. Think about
it. They coasted into college. Their edge wasn't
sharp. Their expectations were low. They're not
resilient anyway. This generation is the furthest
thing from resilient in terms of dig deep. Fight
through it. Well, to your point, that's exactly
the broad stroke of it is that they teach to
memorization and they don't teach to learn. So
you memorize it, you regurgitate it, you get
a good grade, you're valuable. If you get a bad
grade, you're not. And the class moves right
on. So internally, they're learning their self
-worth comes from authority. And that comes from
Marxism. And they're not learning subject matter
along the way. They're starting even history.
They're starting at the later point, the founding
of America. They're not going back and teaching
ancient history, Asian, African, Europe, building
up the context to get to where they are. They're
going straight to this point. And then this becomes
a lesson of oppressor versus oppressed. And that's
the mind frame that you get coming out of the
public education system. Even objectively, like
you watch the Ken Burns series about the Civil
War, and he's reading private's letters back
home. Eloquent, deep emotion. The kid couldn't
write that today. In fact, this is some years
ago, but I went and saw the Daniel Day -Lewis
Lincoln movie. And I was coming out and there
was a family in front of me, a couple of teenage
kids. And one kid said to the other, I have no
idea what he was saying. And this was, you know,
Gravine, Texas. It was in English. But they just.
And they're like, oh, my God, it was so stupid
and boring. They just were losing. And we keep
trying to dumb things down to keep people feeling
comfortable. And it's like, no, it's, you know,
you don't get in shape by, well, let's make you
comfortable on the couch. No, go to the gym.
Well, I think I saw a stat or I heard it on one
of the news programs, and you may want to pull
this up, Chuck, is I think the national average
of students that can read is under 50%, or it's
very close to that. I think people that are proficient
in math is really low as well. And I was extremely
surprised at this. So proficient level, 30 %
of eighth graders in reading. That was last year.
I think this is by design. Yeah, I'm afraid it
is. Of course. That's what I'm worried about.
They're not all that interested in self -thinking,
you know, assertive, ambitious people. At what
point do the parents storm their local ISD and
say, hey, we're not taking this off you guys.
You guys need to change the curriculum. And then
you get labeled as a terrorist. Yeah, no. Well,
that's what happened under the last administration.
Yeah, no, it did. This is all the blueprint of
the... Karl Marx and his theory. Divide the family.
The family is a threat. Dumb down the people.
Keep them down. Take control by force. And make
them part of the machinery. Everybody play your
part and shut up. I want to back up a little
bit. Greg, what is the organization you're referring
to? What you guys want to do? You have spoke
with the, did you guys want to set up? Well,
you called it intentional fatherhood. Yeah. Is
that? Is that? I would say an organization, more
along the lines of just a general movement in
America that we desperately need. Trying to spread
the good word. Just talking about it. It's about
involvement. Because we need to all be talking
about it. We haven't slapped a label on it yet.
But the spirit of it is what we're talking about.
Because we do have a label right here. The dinnercation,
the explaining elegant aphorisms. You said this
is available on dinnercation .com? Yes, sir.
So look for those listeners. Those listeners
out there that are listening to this. So if you've
got kids or you've got grandkids or if you just
want it because you want to have a wonderful
vocabulary of aphorisms, this is great. Matt
has about two dozen phrases, mottos, et cetera,
that everyone should know. It's not about the
money. It's not about the money, but it's about
the money. Every action you take is a vote for
a person that you want to be. True hell is when
the person you are meets the person you could
have become. So there's just a bunch of them.
There they are up on the list. These are fantastic.
They used to have these at the doctor's office.
They used to have these in the nurse's office
at school. And these were great things for the
kids to listen to and read in passing because
you've got to instill that in the everyday thought
process. And that's missing. That's absolutely
missing right now. So the idea is that on the
next step is that Greg and I will be illuminating
what each of these points are. In case they don't
seem clear at first glance, just, hey, this is
what we're trying to talk about here. How to
pick your friends. I have a question about one
of them that's not clear at all. It's under finance,
number 19. Smart men go broke in three ways.
Liquor. Ladies and leverage. Yes. I don't know
who you guys are. I'm really struggling. It's
not a perfect science. It said smart men. Yeah.
So we're going to talk about the whiskey real
quick, but do we have permission to post some
of these? Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. Yeah.
I hope you do. We've got a first half whiskey
we're going to talk about real quick and we'll
go around the table and we'll kind of just chat
about it. This is the Whistlepig Small Batch
Piggyback 100 and is it 110 proof? No, 100 proof.
100 proof. Six year. Is it bottle of bond? No.
No? No. Small batch. Small batch. It's not bottle
and bond. It's not bottle and bond. So this is
Whistlepig Piggyback. Six years. This one, we
have no idea why we picked it, because it probably
had the most in it. Whistlepig makes some decent
stuff, too. Six years. Yeah, the problem I have
with Whistlepig, their general product is it's
extremely expensive, typically, for what you
get. For what it is. For what you get, yeah.
They're very proud of their booze. Now, this
isn't bad. It is a single batch. Yeah. Well,
it's a small batch. Or is it a small? It's a
small batch. So for those who don't know what
a small batch is, they take a cluster of barrels
and they claim that as a small batch. And they
mix them all together. And that's the product
that comes out. But it's kind of a marketing
term because a small batch for Whistlepig and
a small batch for Heaven's Hill could be wildly
different. 100 barrels, Heaven's Hills could
be 5 ,000 barrels. That's a small batch for Heaven
Hill. Isn't that funny? Because they produce
so much. I think they said a small batch for
Jim Beam was 50 ,000 barrels. I was like, what?
It can mean a lot of different things. It's a
lot of different things, but it's specific to
the actual distiller. Nice. And obviously the
smaller the distiller, the less barrel. I just
got to say it's a fantastic bourbon. Thank you
so much for sharing. Oh, it is. Yeah, absolutely.
It's not bad at all. So let's talk about the
nose. What do you guys get from the nose? And
do you need another pour there, Greg? Or I know
you kind of, I think you spilled yours. Well,
I'll tell you what. The first thing I got when
I stuck my nose in there is I got chocolate.
Chocolate? Chocolate. That's what I got. A little
chocolate and caramel. Yeah, chocolate. And especially
on the nose. Not so much on the palate, but to
finish, I'm getting lots of peanuts. It's not
that kind of podcast. Peanut. Oh, okay. Yeah,
okay. Mine are bigger than peanuts, John. Wow.
Wow. We have guests, Jim. Almonds? Brazil nut.
You know, so, yeah, it's... I don't have a fantastic
nose, so unless it's over 110, 120 proof, the
smell doesn't come through as much as I'd like
it to. But as far as the taste goes, this is
the classic, what I haven't said in a long time,
classic stone fruit, lightly floral. Any anise?
I don't taste anise in this one, surprisingly.
Thank God. You were on like an eight -week streak
of anise. Everyone that had an anise tasted it.
No, no. Well, I tasted it. I tasted vanilla a
little bit. There's actually some sweetness on
there as well. It's very, very, very easy to
drink. I mean, for a hunter -proof, I could put
a couple ice cubes in a straw and drink a pint.
A pint. So are you guys big whiskey or bourbon
drinkers? I like a good mixed drink like an old
-fashioned. I normally don't go straight. I know
it's heresy. No, it's not. I love old -fashions.
Well, my question is, are you guys used to higher
-proof liquor? Oh, yeah. 100, 110, 120 kind of
stuff. Okay. I actually haven't been drinking
for the last three years now. Oh, sorry. Oh,
great, great. I just kind of broke the seal.
Remember, iron sharpens iron. In this case, it's
been back in time. Like a stone against the rock,
right? Yeah. No, I stopped drinking as a part
of my wellness journey. But, you know, before
that, I was... into the, into bourbons. And I
mean, I still have a stack of bottles that I
have that I'm like looking at at the house. Like,
what am I going to do with this? I know you just
bring them over here and give them to Craig.
We'll put them in the collection. Well, you know,
there's, there's, everyone's got their own path.
You know, I, you said mixed drinks, old fashions.
I have, I think I'm on the cusp of being an alcoholic.
I don't drink a whole lot, but I can pound back
when I do drink. And I don't know how some of
these guys, like old fashions, good lord. They're
dangerous. Yeah, they sneak up on you. The part
of it is that I can drink them, and it's so easy
to drink. So I don't do mixed drinks. I don't
do old fashions. I drink them straight, and I
drink them strong, and that way I sip them. And
that's really, for me, that's been successful.
I don't know how you guys can do it because a
jacket and Coke, oh my God. I can't do that.
Mix that stuff or some sort of sweetener or even
club soda. Shoot. Yeah. It's crushable. Yeah,
it can be. I mean, I could just crush it. Yeah,
it can be dangerous for sure. Oh yeah, that first
one. It's harsh, but those next couple ones go
down smooth. Oh, yeah. That was my problem. I'd
get, you know, 6, 8, 10, 12 drinks in, and I
was hammered. Right. And, you know, I would say
I was pretty close to where you are, describing
yourself, that I was. I wasn't an alcoholic,
but I felt like I was just on the edge of it.
It's not something I did every day, but you know,
I traveled a lot for work and have a hard day
at work. You're at the hotel. Usually somebody
else's have their company credit card out and
bam, work hard, play hard. Drinks were for usually
free and it was too much. And you know, and I,
I just hit a point with my, with my health. It
was like, okay, this isn't working. And, um,
it's certainly not contributing towards me improving.
And so I just made a conscious decision to step
back. And that's a hard, that's a hard call to
make for a lot of guys. It is. And I, and I certainly
appreciate that. And I don't have any judgments
on it. There's a lot of our friends that don't
drink. I think you have to be receptive to that
because, in fact, there have been some people
that want to be on the podcast. They're like,
well, I don't drink. I was like, well, we do
a Dudes Like Us podcast, but it's not necessarily
all about liquor. Our whiskeys that we drink
is maybe not even 5%. It's barely 10%. Yeah,
well, 10 minutes of a conversation, if that's
sometimes. Sometimes we talk about it, we get
off of it so fast. Oh, yeah, exactly. Y 'all
need to rate this. It depends on who's here.
Like if we have a distiller or a sommelier or
a steward or something, and we want to talk about
their product, yeah, we'll spend a whole podcast
talking about it because we want to pump it up.
We want to dive into it. And the listeners out
there, because we have millions. Millions. The
listeners out there, they want to know, too.
I mean, there's some adamant listeners out there.
And they want to hear all about the stuff that
we talk about when it comes to some of these
whiskeys. And sometimes they don't want to hear
any of it. They want to hear Jeff's next vocabulary
word that nobody's ever heard. They want to hear
Paul say something. Something. Anything. And
some of my stupid stories that I tell. Well,
you know, the healthy lifestyle is making a bit
of a comeback right now, if it was ever out or
in. But it is becoming popular now, too. to not
drink. And you're seeing a lot of... And it's
actually hurting the industry. It is. They're
having a lot lower sales than what they're anticipating.
So they're taking a hit from it. And we're talking
about bars, too. Like liquor stores and bars.
Frankly, I don't think people can afford it.
Yeah, there's also that. Well, it is the cause
of and solution to all of life's problems. Sure.
So are you guys sticking around for the second
half? Because I would love to talk more about
the wellness stuff. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Sure? Okay, great. All right, let's do that.
Let's make sure we have that on the board. So
before we end the segment of the whiskey section
part, what we normally do is rate it. I'm going
to rate this one. This is 100 proof. So this
is the 100 proof category, the whistle pig. There's
a lot. 100 bourbon, bourbon, whiskey. You know,
it's a fair. It's kind of meh. The flavor, it
hits you in the front mildly, and then it leaves
right away. It leaves a little iced tea about
five minutes, a couple minutes later. You still
got some resonance of some tea back there, some
sweet tea. But, you know, is it something I would
buy again? No. Yeah. There's too many better
options out there. Yeah, especially for the 100
-proof stuff. You know, there's a lot more. So,
hell, Michter's is 100 -proof, and that thing
blows this shit out of the water. Right. You
know? That was 95. 95. It's very flavorful. And
this one just doesn't hit it. I am shamefully
going to give this one a 4 .9. Oh, wow. I'm disappointed.
No, I'm not that low. I'm around the 6. I'm looking
at some of the others that are in that range.
Who are they? In the 6s, you got the Wildcatter,
the Luxrow Blood Oath that we just had. Yeah,
we thought that was decent. Right, the Cooper's
Craft, Luca, Mariano. I'm going to go 5 .8. I'm
going to go 6. Just because it's easy to drink,
it's smooth. I think it's very, this would be
a good one for someone. The reason I ask is because
we have people ask us, what's your favorite bourbon?
Well, we like the shit that's 115, 120 proof.
We do. And if you're not used to that. That's
why I was asking, is that easy to drink for you?
Because if you're not used to that proof, it's
hard. I think it's also about price point, right?
That's a big part of it. It's over 50 bucks.
Really? Okay. I think it said MSRP was $42 .99.
Yeah. So, you know, as a 100 proof, it's very
easy to drink, and I think this is very approachable
for someone. Yeah, sure. Yeah, it's a run -of
-the -mill decent. Decent one at 100 proof. I
would agree with that. Yeah. But for me personally,
I mean, if I were to rate it for somebody else,
it'd be a little bit higher. But for me, on my
scale, it's going to be four or nine. That's
better than Eagle Rare. Or Eagle Rare. With Ambarano.
That's true. Now, you know what? We want to save
that for the second half? Yeah. The Ambarano?
Yeah. You got your package in the mailbox, right?
Actually, I saw it down there when I came home.
I haven't looked at it yet. What the hell, man?
How could you not look at a t -shirt and a little
plastic thing stapled to it? Because I walked
in and Craig knocked on the door and I was like,
all right, who's this? I put it in your mailbox
yesterday. The damn Mormons are here again. He
released the hounds. I gave it the office. The
look of confusion. I was like, who are these
clowns? I was like, oh, Sean. I got it. He's
like, I just had hail. You guys are already at
my door. I literally walked in and right to the
door. So I'm sorry about that. No worries. But
no, I have not opened it and looked at it yet.
So I'll grab it during the break. So we made
some t -shirts. If you'd like us, t -shirts.
There's a variety of different ones out there.
This one's kind of ridiculous. If you don't mind,
bring it up. I want these guys to see it. Yeah,
we'll talk about it. All right, cool. All right.
Now we got a couple minutes. You guys want to
stab at anything before we sign off for the first
half? Let's see. Let's save some of the big topics
for the next round, for the next one, but let's
see. Real quick, let's talk about fantasy football.
Jesus. Do you guys do fantasy football? Not anymore.
I do not. Limited time. I think after this year,
I'm going to quit. Did you see who's in first
place? No, I'm not even watching. We don't need
to talk about fantasy football. Oh, that's why
you want to talk about fantasy football. Because
it's never happened before. It never has. You
need to act like you've been there before. I'm
always in last place. I recall this time last
year, I was first place, and I was talking shit,
and then I think I lost every game after that.
And that continues into this year, too. Oh, my
God. I've lost the first two games of the year.
Three. Three? Yes. Oh, the pain. Humanity, right?
That's why we do fantasy football because that
gives us a reason to give each other shit, right?
Any excuse to talk shit is a good excuse. I'm
all for it. 100 % in. The group of guys that
we do fantasy football with, it's guys that we've
known for 15 years plus. We played, some of us
have been together since 1998. This is our Junto,
right? Yeah, see, I stopped doing fantasy football,
but I got a couple of buddies that were in a
group text, and I still jump in and talk shit
to them like I'm playing. Right? But it's great
because I don't have any skin on the game, and
they don't know who I picked, so I can just make
stuff up as I go. Well, I think technology has
gone a long way now where you don't have to do
that much work. It's all automated. It's on the
phone. I mean, I remember 20 years ago. 25 years
ago. She's getting old. 27 years ago. You know,
we're doing fantasy football and then you have
to wait till the Sunday paper comes out or the
Monday morning paper and then you're looking
at the stats and you're adding it all up and
it's just like, oh, Alan Harper got over 100
yards plus two. Can this not be the new bar of
how we rate our AI systems and how well it picks
fantasy football teams? Yeah. We should be. I
just, it seems fair. It should be able to do
better than we do. How does quantum mechanics
affect me? It doesn't. You know, I've got to
be honest, man. I was trying to find what they
call cheat sheets, which just simply lists the...
the players. Sure. And they are non -existent.
You have to pay for them now. Well, yeah. I don't
mind paying for them, but you have a hundred
and they all look nefarious. And it's just like,
which one do you go with? I pay 20 bucks here.
No, I don't want to pay five bucks a month for
the rest of my life. Right. I'll pay 20 bucks
right now if you give me a fucking list and I
can sign off after it. You know, I'm done. That's
all I wanted. I thought I had the secret weapon.
I was going to use ChatGPT to create all of those
cheat sheets. Nice. And I went through this Big
thing with it, I was like, find me all the cheat
sheets. I want you to aggregate it, pull them
all together, find out what each of them had
for all these different players. It was like,
you want to do this and this and this? I was
like, you're damn right I do. He goes, all right,
I'll do it for you. Total fail. Number one, Troy
Eggman. The first thing he did was give me a
blank spreadsheet. I was like, what the hell
is this? What am I going to do with this? And
I said that. I was like, what is this? Why did
you give me a blank sheet? Oh, you're right.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It turned into 45 minutes
of, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And I was like, you're
done. Yeah, the conspiracy theorist says that's
a design by Vegas to keep it that way. Come on.
He was a train wreck. Anyway, but you know what's
one thing that's really good about it? You talked
about the Junta, right? These are guys that I
would probably not, a lot of them, I would not
talk to if we didn't play fantasy football. It's
an excuse, and we get together in person for
the draft every year, and that's the only time
I see these guys. Maybe mid -year we'll do a
little gathering sometimes. I think we've done
that once. So that is the one valuable thing
about it. Awesome. Guys you would never talk
to. And it's camaraderie. It is. Absolutely.
It's a form of it. It's different from the ones
that, I don't mean to slam the workmates out
there that have the office teams, that kind of
stuff. Yeah, I don't really subscribe to that.
But this group of guys, this is fun because these
are lifelong friends. And that's awesome. And
a reason to give them shit, like you said earlier.
Absolutely. All right, cool. Dude, it's been
a pleasure having you guys on the first half.
We're going to have fun on the second half. Awesome.
Thank you. Looking forward to it. All right,
well, check us out on dudeslikeus -podcast on
Facebook and Instagram. We have the first half
of September 23, 2025. Thank you, Chuck, for
staying on Top of Shit, Dudes Like Us. I'm Sean.
I'm Paul. I'm Jeff. Craig. And? And Greg. All
right. Thank you.