Latest / Day Drinking With Dog / Barrels for a Cause
Transcript
- 0:01Viva Tequila Seltzer, the number one hard Seltzer in the world, and the
- 0:05official heart Seltzer of Day Drinking with Dog. Ditch them all add tequila Welcome
- 0:12Back Day Drinking with Dog. We are back in studio finally, after a
- 0:15month on the road. I left crappy Florida for even crappier Connecticut. It
- 0:21was Yeah, it was crap. The weather was crap. Worst year I've
- 0:25ever had down there, floods, everything. But we're back in studio and
- 0:29I got three of my friends returning today for barrels for a cause. We
- 0:33had you guys on last year. To my left, Corey Shoe, Tony
- 0:37v D Straight Across and Jennifer Paris Paradise without the E. There we go.
- 0:45What's going on guys too much? Thanks for having us? Yeah,
- 0:47absolutely, thanks for coming back. I love this cause. I love Litchfield
- 0:52Bourbon, everything you guys do, the Bethel Center, the Raate Crisis Center,
- 0:56and of course your lovely liquor store on the other side of town.
- 1:00Also its own community social service, don't you think so? Right? Like
- 1:03you play a vital role in people's life. I you know, we definitely
- 1:07prioritize being involved in the community. So yes, it's definitely labor of love
- 1:11for us. Yeah. Yes, we're happy to do it again for sure.
- 1:14And you like bourbon. I love bourbon. Yeah, I'm like yeah,
- 1:21So a master is an overstatement, but maybe a professional drinker is a
- 1:25better way to put it. Yeah. So the Whiskey Club is a robust
- 1:27group of men and women, a little bit over four thousand people now and
- 1:33it's just a wonderful community of people who share common interests. And over the
- 1:38now decade of doing it, it's been a wonderful experience to meet so many
- 1:42new people beyond. So, you know, anything I talk about with whiskey
- 1:46is always community, community, community, and the whiskey community will support and
- 1:52this is another opportunity for the community to support two very good causes. So
- 1:56nice functions, awesome. Unfortunately, a couple of us if offs in the
- 2:00room will not be partaking today in this beautiful American single malt whiskeys. Yes,
- 2:05yes, it's dry January. Well, you know, I yet I
- 2:08was being and Jennifer just talked where she's doing it. I guess you call
- 2:12it a damp February. Damp January January, So starting tomorrow, you're back,
- 2:20We'll see it's been a good January. I don't know, like I
- 2:23feel so much better. I do feel so much better. I'm on like
- 2:25day three and I'm like, woke up this morning. I was like,
- 2:28all right, let's go. Yeah, I did compliment you on how good.
- 2:30Yeah, I know, I dropped like a half a pound three.
- 2:36So it is a real thing. People are doing dry January. Yeah,
- 2:42there are a long month though, no alcoholic options too, which has been
- 2:45where all the growth has been in our world on the retail end, Rashine,
- 2:49are you selling any of that, the THHC stuff. Yeah, So
- 2:54there's all kinds of confusion about the canning and the legality of it, be
- 2:58honest, but uh, we do have plenty of options with the real THHD
- 3:04extract in it. And some might believe that Delta non is it not alcoholic?
- 3:07Though it is not alcoholic. You're not allowed to combine alcohol and marijuana,
- 3:13at least not yet. Yeah, sure that so I don't think we
- 3:15need to. It's going to be combining the two were going to fan duel.
- 3:23Yeah, So we're we're working through the compliance side of that with the
- 3:27State of Connecticut as we speak. But yeah, it is a thing,
- 3:29the whole thhd seltzers. It's it's a real category. Now. I was
- 3:32at a restaurant Saturday night. I open up the menu and they had four
- 3:38choices of KNTHDHC, and ZBD. Interesting, and it was a really exclusive
- 3:47restaurant. Really. Yeah, I've never seen it before ever. Yeah,
- 3:52so the market is wildly shifting. So whether it's this dry January or thhd
- 3:58seltzers, you can look at markets like Colorado have already opened up to legalize
- 4:00Maril. I think it's like as a as a bar owner or restaurant owner,
- 4:04that could be just beating hyperbole. But like like Jennifer comes in and
- 4:09she's not a drinker, but or maybe she is, and she wants to
- 4:11switch to well let me try a tech thing to seek can down. Well
- 4:15she has two and she's like drooling on her wings in the corner, Like,
- 4:18I don't know how this works. Has it been studied? Yeah,
- 4:23it's we've recently taken the tips training. Was the last time you've do on
- 4:27tips? Uh? This year coming up? I need to do it.
- 4:30It's very three years now. Yeah, So is that is that something they
- 4:33talk about now? It was I would say tangently touched on. Yeah,
- 4:36it's still an areas tangentally. He had his little word of the day coming
- 4:44through. So we we spell, we do, we do, we do
- 4:48do words day at the shoe house every morning with the kids. So good
- 4:51was that today's work? No, today was hubbub hubbub. Yes, it
- 4:57is. It is a problem for for us because you know, our job
- 5:00and Jeremy's on that side, the other side of the bar and I'm on
- 5:02the other side of the counter is to know who you can serve. So
- 5:08getting trained on what is being you know, compliant, who you can't serve
- 5:13with now weed in the mix basically and alcohol, it makes our jobs a
- 5:16little bit more difficult for sure. I don't think there's a solution yet now,
- 5:20Tony, I know you're no longer in the police department, but I'm
- 5:24sure that's something that's being talked about. You know, how to how to
- 5:28see signs of somebody that's just now that it's legal. Well they're all trained
- 5:32right in identification and things, but the problem is it's legal, right.
- 5:40See. I don't even think people understand this. This is what I think
- 5:45the problem is in the state. Is no one understands, Like if people
- 5:46smoke weed and it's legal, they think just oh, I'm like they'll list
- 5:50smoke weed right outside in the park and the sidewalk before they go into stone
- 5:55Bridge. That's not legal. That's not legal. No, no, but
- 5:58like there's but they didn't really like it's almost like an open container law,
- 6:01right, Like you just really you go walk down the street now and is
- 6:04anyone going to body is not He's still in marijuana, right, It's the
- 6:09new cologne. It's something We're in a lunch at a local restaurant here and
- 6:14we walked in and the people next was like it was while you're still was
- 6:18weak. Right. I think it makes like our work, you know,
- 6:25in our in our nonprofits more difficult as well, because there's such a culture
- 6:30of acceptance and they're such a like kind of excessive culture. And right now,
- 6:34because we've had these like breakout kind of banner years for cannabis and alcohol
- 6:41has always been a front leader in like substance consumption. The fact that it's
- 6:45so accessible, that it's so kind of supported and endorsed in communities, it
- 6:49becomes difficult to know when you have a problem and somebody has a problem and
- 6:53like being able to manage that and help somebody manage it in a time where
- 6:59it is so prevalent, right, and and folks are going through a lot
- 7:02in addition to that, so they're like leaning on these like substances for a
- 7:06little bit of self soothing, self medicating comfort. And so I think it's
- 7:12not only is it like around your work and like where you're going, but
- 7:15it also becomes a little bit more difficult for our work too because they have
- 7:20it's not just a a no, like just saying no, right, we
- 7:25know that that's not right right, right, and so and so a lot
- 7:30of like the work that that has done over the years is like how do
- 7:33we reduce the barriers to accessing things like shelter services and food every day right,
- 7:40like basic needs where sobriety is not necessary, but we understand that people
- 7:46are really struggling with how to balance all of these vices in life right are
- 7:51accessible. I'm always the conspiracy side of things. I just feel like when
- 7:59it comes to anything that becomes legalized over time, it's it's just a money
- 8:05thing to me, like like the gambling and you know, it's like I
- 8:11was just up at the casino and you know, you can't watch it any
- 8:16games or anything without you know, and then there's like any little line on
- 8:20the bottom, you know, if you have a problem, you know,
- 8:22the dial one eight hundred, you know, blah blah blah blah blah.
- 8:24And I just find that, like I always say, follow the money,
- 8:30like I just it's it's to me, it's well. And a lot of
- 8:33these laws were put into effect with the thought that funding like revenue driven would
- 8:41come back to supporting programs that help people who are struggling with addiction. And
- 8:46I don't think that we've seen that turnaround with cannabis yet. But the reality
- 8:52is that like alcohol consumption and sales, like there's there's just not enough resource
- 9:00to support people who are dealing with alcoholism. And who I think it's less
- 9:05I was I think twenty two million dollars taxes last year from cannabis sales for
- 9:09the state. Yeah, well that's the beginning, right, being right,
- 9:13and they're saying how short they supply is like they don't have a lot of
- 9:18variation to their products. Well, I know some guys that could get some
- 9:22good stuff. Still, they're off somewhere the world gambling. Well, yeah,
- 9:31bookie had a bookie? Is that person gambling on the app? Now?
- 9:33So? Yes, So I actually know plenty of bookies and I gamble
- 9:37on the app myself. The one thing it's it's it's kind of funny because
- 9:43it's it's a little hypocritical, I think. But like, you can't bet
- 9:46on Yukon in this state, Okay, but they're aout eight now, so
- 9:50I bet on the kids, right, they're allowed to make money, right,
- 9:54But you know how far is Yukon from the mass border? Yeah?
- 9:58Yes, I mean literally minutes twenty five minutes. The kids can just drive
- 10:01up there place the bet in Massachusetts and then drive back and watch the game.
- 10:05And then you saw the story of the LSU kid, right the receiver,
- 10:07Oh he plays for the Patriots. Yes, of course it did anybody
- 10:13I don't know. So this kid, his name is Keysham Butte, and
- 10:18he's a wide receiver for LSU. He got drafted by the Patriots last down
- 10:22and when he was eighteen and nineteen years old, faked his ID or something
- 10:28and made a FanDuel account or draft Kings or whatever it was, and placed
- 10:33nine thousand bets over the span of the two years, and some of the
- 10:37bets he placed were on his own performance to actually performed, not to like
- 10:43you know, like to catch his seven balls in a game and score a
- 10:46touchdown. And that game he had like two catches and no touchdowns. So
- 10:48at least he's trying. So it got to the point where I mean there
- 10:54was like almost a million dollars transferred back and forth. I think, you
- 10:56know down I don't remember. I didn't read the whole article, but like
- 11:01he's in like jail right now, like for for frog identity theft, like
- 11:05all sorts of crazy shit, Like is there anything to prevent you from betting
- 11:09on yourself? Like if if all things are legal rules in place, yeah
- 11:13that you're not allowed. I don't know anything about this. Yeah there's rules,
- 11:16well NFL players, if there's this is I knew this was going to
- 11:20happen when the NFL came out with this stuff or they legalized gambling, because
- 11:26all these kids through college, including myself, we had a bookie. We
- 11:28gambled. It's it's an addiction, just like anything else. And these kids
- 11:33come up and now they're in the pros and now they're making money. Now
- 11:37they're like, oh shit. So many players have been suspended already, like
- 11:43just have your brother do it. I don't know, Like it's just you
- 11:46know, and they're gambling on one of the biggest things you can't do is
- 11:48gamble on an app at your facility, Like you can't be at the practice
- 11:54facility and gamble and all these things are geolocated, so they know exactly where
- 11:58you are. So comes back to you know, team personnel, or comes
- 12:01back to the NFL that, hey, you know Tony Vedy was gambling at
- 12:05Law you know, on the high school game. He's one of their coaches.
- 12:09He can't do that, you know, Like it's just that you don't
- 12:11just make an example of dumb sh it like that. And it's I think
- 12:15it's interesting to bring up the gambling in marijuana with the Howard learning as a
- 12:18society how to deal with you know, you said, the impacts what you're
- 12:22doing. It's going to impact what you're doing at the Great Crisis. It's
- 12:26definitely a new landscape. And you know, I think about it from a
- 12:28parent's perspective. You know, I have two little kids, and I have
- 12:31nieces and nephews. And this time he came up recently at a family a
- 12:35family get together you know, what do you what do you do with a
- 12:39thirteen year old boy with a phone in his pocket or girl and they know
- 12:43about gambling, so now all of a sudden, that devil is in their
- 12:48pocket at all times. So how you know, it's about educating at the
- 12:52even younger age. I mean, what what is the solution? It's it's
- 12:56definitely a challenge. It's something that we face every day. That's not the
- 12:58only devil. I mean, we see it in our prevention programs in the
- 13:03schools that these young kids' second grade, first grade, third grade all have
- 13:09cell phones and they have access to the internet and to the dark places of
- 13:13the internet. Correct, yes, and there's very bad people out there,
- 13:16and we go in and do these presentations and it's just you'd be surprised at
- 13:24what a third grader's doing on the internet. And parents need to be involved
- 13:28in that, and that's what we teach. We teach the children how to
- 13:30be safe. We send a packet home to the parents to continue that education.
- 13:35But the internet's a really difficult place, not just for my girlfriend's son.
- 13:41He's thirteen now, you know, but he's had a phone for three
- 13:43years. You know, he'll say He'll send me fucking reels. I'm like,
- 13:48what do you want? Like, I think they're funny, but I'm
- 13:52forty nine years old, Like why is this? Like there's no filters for
- 13:56age content, there's nothing just guess age content filters. That's a that's a
- 14:03great point. And every day there's a new app. Right, My staff's
- 14:05always online trying to keep up with the apps to share, you know,
- 14:09And that's for your program. So when you go into the schools, Yeah,
- 14:13we need to educle into each school systems that we service, the seven
- 14:16towns of the service, and we teach everything from sexting to body safety,
- 14:22to bully in to consent, all age appropriate and we started pre k.
- 14:28Yeah. I would also imagine that there's crime happening on these platforms too,
- 14:31right, People are being violated, people are being I mean, we had
- 14:33a case the other day. So there's there's some synergy between Tony's organization and
- 14:39the Bethel Center because sadly we have the same households, you know, meeting
- 14:46both services at the same time. We had a case the other day where
- 14:50it was a mom who separated from her partner and the partner just blasted social
- 14:58media platforms with private information and pictures as retaliation to an important and necessary split,
- 15:07right, And it was an immediate like you know, police response and
- 15:11immediate because this is I mean, this is criminal activity. But it's so
- 15:15hard to prevent, like you're so you have to be so reactive, like
- 15:18you have to be on these things. You have to be able to track
- 15:22and determine and follow up quickly and and and yeah, it just feels like
- 15:28it's it's endless, boundless. You know, do you have a handbook in
- 15:31place at the Bethel to handle that stuff or is that something that you're looking
- 15:35to develop. Maybe you can develop it in terms of like social media interactions
- 15:41and how they can impact what's what's a good coping mechanism or whatever that is.
- 15:46Well, I don't we don't have anything specific for social media, but
- 15:48we do have a number of things that are to your to your point around
- 15:52like uh, autonomy and independence and feeling like, you know, using your
- 16:03voice and feeling secure and safe and stable. You know, all of these
- 16:07things are related when you're going through trauma or when you've had multiple traumas,
- 16:11when you are living in poverty and maybe you have some you know, complicated
- 16:15health complications and family issues and things like that. You know, all of
- 16:19it kind of connects to a person's sense of belonging, you know. What
- 16:22we see and kind of the continuum of folks that we serve at the center.
- 16:26We have folks who, like, you know, maybe they lost their
- 16:30job and they quickly lost their house because of that, and so they're homeless
- 16:33for the first time, but they just they just came out of a twenty
- 16:37year career. And we also have folks that have never been employed and have
- 16:41had many, many years of homelessness. And it's often like everybody almost starts
- 16:47in the same place, but it's just getting further and further marginalized and isolated
- 16:51and outside of normal society kind of quote unquote normal society, to the point
- 16:55where you know that person that you've passed in the street that you know,
- 16:57if we if we or eyes and stigmatize homelessness, we think of that person
- 17:02first. I'll be honest. You know, they're the smallest portion of our
- 17:06population, they're the most marginalized person in our population, and they're the hardest
- 17:10to kind of get back. And the first thing that we have to do
- 17:14is make sure that they're like you know, truly coming back to self like
- 17:17that they have awareness that they feel safe, they have belonging, and they
- 17:21feel like they have value. It's it's called relational poverty. So people have
- 17:26economic poverty, and relational poverty is just the deficits of social systems and that's
- 17:30what people experiencing homelessness also face. Yeah, we talked about that last time
- 17:34you were on. You know that just the stories you don't know, the
- 17:38backgrounds, you don't know of these people, you know. I think I
- 17:42was mentioning how they all were at across from the post office, the little
- 17:47cuby holes and now that's gone, so I don't know where they're you know,
- 17:49going to now. But they actually fenced it in before they demolished it.
- 17:56And then one of the little cuby holes was one of the guys wheelchairs
- 18:00and like it was just there and then one day they demolished it and it
- 18:03went into the rubble. Like I couldn't even get it because the fences were
- 18:07so high, you know. Just like I'm not that they care. I
- 18:10don't think they do. Like you know, the those developers, you got
- 18:14a new one home, good, but you know what I mean, it's
- 18:17just like I walk by it every day and I'm like, you know,
- 18:18we used to give them pizza or whatever. Like I don't know if if
- 18:22sometimes they think we're being condescending doing that, like oh thanks, you know,
- 18:27Like I don't know, yeah, you know. I mean I've had
- 18:30some of them yell at me before because I'm being too loud. I've had
- 18:33you know, I actually I have one that I've wanted to bring on the
- 18:36show and just just tell your story, you know, Like I love to
- 18:40bring somebody on the Yeah, I think that amazing, since it's like having
- 18:42that connection, like the trusted space. But I think what we're trying to
- 18:47do in kind of the next phase of the work is we do direct service.
- 18:51We do a ton of direct service work, like meeting people's basic needs
- 18:53and making sure that they have a pathway to sustainability. But like the other
- 18:59work here, like what are the root causes of all of these issues and
- 19:03so much of that can only be addressed by people telling their story and like
- 19:07tracing that back, you know. So yeah, because everyone has a routine.
- 19:10I walk into work the same way every day and just walk by the
- 19:12same stuff I look at and you know, put put the old horse blinders
- 19:17on and I see my I go there and go on with my work.
- 19:21You know, I think a lot of people, especially the people that get
- 19:22off the train. You know, those guys don't look at stone Bridge when
- 19:26they walk on. Tony's up on the deck with his drinks. Everybody coming
- 19:33to it from the train station field. They look like they just went on
- 19:36a hike. Like they're wearing like boots, they have a backpack on,
- 19:38they've got like hiking poles. I'm like, you're just getting on the train
- 19:41to go to the hide, Like what are you doing? I had that
- 19:42like extra like fast we got Like that is like herd of paddle the train.
- 19:49Anyone's the train person. I'm sorry, but that's what you look like
- 19:52when you get off the train. And they all park behind the library mostly
- 19:56so they all just like walk right by stone bricks and like no one wants
- 19:59a like a post two hour train ride cocktail. They got it on the
- 20:03train. Yeah not anymore, didn't have that back They still do some cars,
- 20:07Yeah, not rain. Maybe they're not drinking anymore, that's true.
- 20:12Tomorrow be wins and w February first, So Jebanuary is over. Everybody,
- 20:19you know, there's a lot of these months ruining your business. October January?
- 20:25What am I doing something? What's February? You like to do events
- 20:29fasting February to get events going, to give people a reason to get out,
- 20:33you know. So yeah, it's fun. I love it. It's
- 20:34fun, Tony. So, how's the Ripe crisis Centerton? We are very
- 20:41busy as always. Yeah. I think last year we saw seven hundred and
- 20:45thirty five clients in our seven towns. We reached over fourteen thousand students in
- 20:52the classroom teaching prevention, which which I think that is so important that every
- 20:59community that we deal with has embraced us into their school systems and we're able
- 21:03to give out that message to those kids and give them those tools that they
- 21:07need to keep them safe. You know, we have cases where even when
- 21:12I was at the police apartment, someone goes on site and the next thing
- 21:18they're texting and sending pictures to somebody in Poland. It's just really it's very
- 21:26difficult, and educating these young people is very very important. Like what are
- 21:32some of the tools to stay ahead of it? Just just pure education,
- 21:34poor education, peer and involvement, teachers, involvement, so when we go
- 21:37into a classroom, that the classroom teacher stays in the classroom so they participate.
- 21:45When they go home, they get a packet of what we talked about
- 21:48in the classroom. So we're hoping that Corey and his wife sit down with
- 21:51their kids and continue that education. And we do thanks to your program.
- 21:55And you know, we have the opportunity for folks to call us and check
- 21:59up, you know, call in and see what exactly we're talking to their
- 22:03kids before we meet with them. And I think almost every single person that
- 22:07calls thanks us for our work and you know what we're doing, you know
- 22:12how we're keeping these kids safe. Do you get like pushback from from parents
- 22:17like I don't need no, my kids are good kids. So I think
- 22:22if we had this conversation when I first started ten years ago at the Great
- 22:26Presser Center, I think there's a lot more of that. I think through
- 22:30the years we've kind of changed and involved and people speak about it more freely
- 22:37now and they're more open to talking about an education And because they see it,
- 22:42they see it every day anytime turn the news on. It's on the
- 22:47news every single day. So I think people are educating themselves, and the
- 22:52biggest thing is really is education because we talk about prevention. We don't talk
- 22:56about anything else but prevention. That's our wheelhouse. And once they realized that's
- 23:02our wheelhouse, you know, we're fully embraced by schools. And then we
- 23:07teach, We go in and we also have a training program for teachers to
- 23:11accept that disclosure from that young person who comes in and says, hey,
- 23:15this is going on in my life. And then there's a protocol of how
- 23:18that goes. And so far we've done every school system in our seven towns,
- 23:22given them that education to reduce the trauma of that child if they choose
- 23:29that teacher to disclose something too. So you're working with administration, so i'd
- 23:33imagine to design these protocols so it's best for the child. And so the
- 23:37program that we rolled out several years ago was put together by the Department of
- 23:42Education DCF, Department Children Families, the alliances of our mothership, and a
- 23:51committee of educators and one of our staff members sat on that committee and they
- 23:56came up with the best practices and kind of prevention program and then we updated
- 24:03every year to go with what's going on in our area. So it's it
- 24:07was well thought out, it's and I think we've seen the reduction in disclosures
- 24:15in the classroom. I think when we first started, we were probably seeing
- 24:18two dozen disclosures out of out of those twelve fourteen thousand kids, where I
- 24:25think last year we had like three or four. So, you know,
- 24:29I think that the education is working for the kids. You know, it's
- 24:33nice when when my staff is walking through the grocery store until little kids come
- 24:37up to them and they recognize them and they talk to them. You know,
- 24:41that's that shows that that programs really work in right and the kids that
- 24:45are in it, they're in it asking questions and that's a really big part
- 24:49of our center right now. Yeah, that's rich. So like, so,
- 24:56what so what's new this year with the barrels for a cause? Oh,
- 25:00the end doesn't have to vogue. Yeah, So last year we did
- 25:03Last year we ended up going up there. I'll explain this a little bit.
- 25:08Our intention was to, I would say, replicate what we did last
- 25:12year in the sense of two different barrels. One was a poor cast last
- 25:18year, remember the wrong cast. So we went up there again and we
- 25:22did they were we did the hard work we did of selecting a barrel.
- 25:26Yes, and you know, we had a great group again this year.
- 25:30I think we had eight people up there total this year picking the barrels with
- 25:33the Lichfield team, and so we do all of our tasting. We went
- 25:37through I want to say six maybe eight different barrels, So we had a
- 25:41tough job. So we sat around the barrel and the barrel and that we're
- 25:44gonna split, We're gonna do this this finish and this other finish, and
- 25:48we're on our way out and one of us, maybe me, I spot
- 25:52this barrel. And I've been around enough rick houses to know that when you
- 25:55see a barrel sitting off to the side in an odd spot, that's a
- 25:59good barrel all to ask about. And sure enough this this this is the
- 26:03case again. So it the barrel that we went with is not a bourbon
- 26:10by definition. It's an American single mooll so it's a multi barley and it's
- 26:15made right here in Connecticut local grains. So we tasted it and we loved
- 26:18it. We thought it was delicious, it was outstanding. This it's got
- 26:22tons of flavor. I don't want to bore you with the tasting notes by
- 26:25a bottle. Join us at the event to get the bottle. We'll get
- 26:29to that. We'll get Yeah, we'll get to that. So, so
- 26:30we tasted this barrel and instead of doing the battle of the barrel where we
- 26:34rank at the event, which barrel you prefer? Who? Well, that's
- 26:41so so, So to finish up this barrel, we we decided that we
- 26:48love this barrel so much that we're going to do one barrel and it's a
- 26:52unit unity barrel. So this is the view and we have it. Yes,
- 27:03we have this this wonderful selection here that has both their organization's beautiful custom
- 27:10logo on there. They really did a great job at the graphics they go
- 27:14to show up with the people on the on the video. Yeah. So
- 27:18to answer your question about what happened last year, it was incredible. Actually,
- 27:22so I'm doing the tasting for the barrels. Last year. The great
- 27:29crisis, I believe was the portcast. You were the rum cast and you
- 27:33were a shary cast. Excuse me, so that they'll have to share it.
- 27:36So everybody voted, I'd say roughly seventy five percent people voted, and
- 27:41there was one vote that made the difference. It was a one vote difference,
- 27:45and everybody tasted these blind, so you couldn't you had no idea what
- 27:51you were tasting to choose your organization that you're there to support. So you
- 27:53know, mister Tony Vedi comes up and he nails it. He picks his
- 27:56own barrel good and comes up. She picks barrel press the center one of
- 28:07the Battle of the Barrel by exactly one vote, and it was the president
- 28:11of the Bethel Shelters vote that you know, so I'm not I make it
- 28:15up. It was incredible. I've never been an organized sports kind of gal
- 28:19and so like when it's like a game time shot like or something like that,
- 28:23like don't come for me, right, Like, I'm like the middle
- 28:27of the pack on this stuff. So the MAAC that I was like the
- 28:30last vote and it was tied, and they came and got me. They're
- 28:33like, oh, Jen hasn't voted yet, and it was tied. So
- 28:37it was a difficult It was a difficult night for for for that one reason
- 28:42for Litchfield, though that's great both they're like right down the line. It
- 28:48was just it wasn't like there was a significant difference between the tastings of ours,
- 28:56and that's why you picked you? You were the rum I was the
- 29:02Yeah. I think it's interesting how I don't have a comeback year, so
- 29:04I feel like we got to make sure that you do at least one more
- 29:07of it. But I think it's your idea for the year. And it
- 29:10wasn't it because you don't want a chance to make I'm was it all like
- 29:17blind voting and it was all no. What I mean for me to know
- 29:22what I mean is like you don't know who voted for what correct until she
- 29:26voted because she went last correct. So I was just the worst. It
- 29:33was incredible. It was incredible, so cool man, so so real quick
- 29:38on this. Uh this this we should have said. I don't want you
- 29:41guys to feel bad. I'll let you guys went. I think I did
- 29:44say something. This is really really neat this year's Yeah. So there's a
- 29:49store of woman named I reading Tan up in Canterbury Liquors in Connecticut. Right,
- 29:56She's an incredible purchaser of which and blender of whiskey. And what happened
- 30:03with this was the reason the barrel was off the side. She had blended
- 30:07her own barrel with Lichfield. So if you go on to their website.
- 30:11On Litchfield's website, you'll see this beautiful write up about an American single malt
- 30:15whiskey, and what she had done is she took two barrels from their inventory,
- 30:22blended them sixty forty percent, and then took that barrel. This was
- 30:30the inverse, the leftover of her custom blend. So on top of this
- 30:34being a special barrel, it truly is one of one. It's something Lichfield
- 30:40will never make again. It's an inverse I like, one of one.
- 30:44It's truly unique. Yeah, So yeah, I just wanted to make sure
- 30:48everybody understands that this is a wonderful representation of what Lichfield can bring to the
- 30:53table. You know, they are a local company. We'd love supporting local.
- 30:56It's a big part of what we do and more. And you know,
- 31:00I just want to get the word out on this whiskey is a custom
- 31:04American single mault whiskey, for the for the whiskey lovers out here to understand
- 31:10that this is a special bottle. It is truly one of one. So
- 31:14on top of taste being great, it's got that unique factor that anybody how
- 31:18many clouds were bottled, it's a two hundred and fourteen bottle yield on that.
- 31:25So each of the organizations are tasked with getting rid of roughly one hundred
- 31:30and change bottles. But we'll see how we're doing this year. I don't
- 31:33know, we haven't checked it on that right, Well, let's get to
- 31:34the bones of it. How do we get one? Is there online?
- 31:37Can we order them? Like last year twenty event? So so another last
- 31:41year, we have our launch event this year it's February eighth, so next
- 31:45Thursday at Staff of Vineyard. Beautiful food done by Bridge House and just a
- 31:52great night. I mean, we have fantastic it's a it's a great atmosphere,
- 31:57it's a great vibe, we have aims. It's you know, you're
- 32:00just busy. Your ticket tickets are one hundred dollars, but your ticket gets
- 32:05to wind sampling from staffa, gets you the whiskey tasting, gets to your
- 32:12own bottle that you're you're going home with the Bridge House food, and you
- 32:16have the opportunity to to participate in the raffle prizes. The Raffle prizes are
- 32:22phenomenal this year really and a couple door prizes. Yeah, so there's just
- 32:29you know and like phenomenal meaning it's like TVs and experiences and tickets to sporting
- 32:34events and stuff like that, but also things like three D printers and like
- 32:37you know, just like wild stuff. So it's it's a really unique experience.
- 32:42And so we would encourage everybody who came last year to come back because
- 32:45I think truly it was like such a great such a great night, and
- 32:50and you know there's always room for more. So and then on the same
- 32:53link the event bright link, people can purchase the bottle. If they're not
- 32:58available for that night, they can just purchased the bottle. We'll make sure
- 33:00that it gets to them. And this year they don't have to choose,
- 33:02and this year they do. There's a lot lessmunity and a shout out to
- 33:09Lichfield. Lichfield brings their entire line all they're different premate cocktail, make cocktails
- 33:16there, expressing our teams outstanding there, gave spirit correct, I mean,
- 33:21and they're just really and you got to taste anything you want and it's all
- 33:24night long and we have a blast. It was the laughter was all night
- 33:30long. Yeah. We just got to get to get the mic out of
- 33:34Tony's hands. I did not This guy sees some microphone I've said seen I've
- 33:40experienced that with Yeah, it was probably the Boston Tournament. It was definitely
- 33:46a Watson tournament. Remember a year it was, and I think I think,
- 33:49I think Dennis was just like enough from ton I love. Yeah,
- 33:54it's gonna be a replay last year, but surely a better version. We've
- 33:59we've we've taken the time to meet as a group. They're extended teams who
- 34:04I mean, shout out to your supports if you want to do it right
- 34:07now. They're incredible. Stephanie, my Victims first director, is on points.
- 34:12He keeps me in the GEN in line. I told Jen before that
- 34:15the Steph has a wish list for Gen to take care of as I do
- 34:21every day when I walk in the office. But the entire staff in my
- 34:23office all chips in every fundraiser we do. My entire staff is on board
- 34:30one hundred percent making flyers, posters, picking up Rapple prizes. So it's
- 34:35and next week we're going to be bagging all the bottles. Yeah, so
- 34:38you know, kudos to staff and everybody that comes, and it's gonna be
- 34:44a fun night. Please come out February eighth, next Thursday, next Thursdays
- 34:50day. Yeah, all right, I'm not drinking, but I could always
- 34:53come and get the bottle. You said off air, I believe that maybe
- 34:57the super Bowl you might break that was that on there? So yeah,
- 35:00yeah, a few days before you can come support. You know, I
- 35:07think I think I think we could say this collectively in the room that like,
- 35:09you know, it's almost like potato chips. Yeah, I might not
- 35:16even drink, you just walk around. Yeah, and teams from dried and
- 35:23damp. So you know, I got it, Like expectations are easier to
- 35:29marriage. And you know when there's twenty nine days in February this year,
- 35:32so maybe yeah, raging bonus day, Yeah, bonus day, which is
- 35:37how it happens. You start like saying, well, maybe yeah beat less
- 35:40February, you get extra day in there. Yeah. How many tickets are
- 35:45for sale? Is it? Is it a limited event? Would say?
- 35:49Hard, right, we will sell the tickets there. We don't have a
- 35:52limit, just well the limited bottles, so well yeah, yeah, two
- 35:57hundred fourteen, We're gonna sell two hundred and fourteen. Yeah, yeah,
- 35:59I mean I think this is a coming again. Yeah, it's like,
- 36:05you know, we want people to feel relaxed. We want people to come
- 36:07when they want to leave what they want, you know, so it's not
- 36:09just like a beginning, middle end structure time kind of times. Are on
- 36:14that event at six o'clock and we're going until whatever. Yeah, last years
- 36:22between nine to ten, Yeah, after after the rapple baskets go. I
- 36:27think they started a poker game after no no, so I think they're telling
- 36:32you tried to pull me that. That's right. Yeah, yeah maybe this
- 36:36year's yeah, so now it's going to be a great night. This is
- 36:39I look, I'm really looking forward to this. When we started this concept,
- 36:43uh we called eighteen months ago, maybe even longer, I was really
- 36:46excited for it to get it going. And I know, selfishly, I'm
- 36:51very proud of the work to be able to help to community organizations like yours.
- 36:57It's you know, I talk about it all the time when I'm talking
- 37:00to people and we're doing stuff and within the community with the business, and
- 37:06you impact directly the people who are left and right both your organizations, you
- 37:09know. And I'm not saying that it makes it better than any other organization
- 37:15that may be bigger and have layers and layers of payroll to be honest when
- 37:20given the choice. You know, we want to help direct and that's what
- 37:23both of these organizations do. So it is an honor really to work beside
- 37:29you on this event and now second year in a row. So we'll just
- 37:31keep it rolling. But just to go on from that, you know Corey's
- 37:36you know, it doesn't like the applause, but this guy, he goes
- 37:39out. It not only takes care of ourt to organization, but I think
- 37:43he helps out a majority of the other twenty four nonprofits in this town.
- 37:45All right, So you know, kudos to your and your staff and all
- 37:49the work that you guys do. I think you guys just gave a rare
- 37:52bottle of was the tequila of Yeah, we did tequila. We do these
- 37:59rare bottle unicor horn bottle raffles where we pick a local charity to be the
- 38:02benefactor and you know that person who buys the bottle makes a direct contribution to
- 38:07that charity. So we did tequila and bourbon. So thirty five hundred went
- 38:12to uh the team over at the Boys and Girls clubs with Megan. So
- 38:17do you say a unicorn bottle A true one of one rare? Yeah?
- 38:21This year is a Pappy van Winkle. No, yeah, Pappy van Winkle
- 38:24twenty year bourbon, and then the tequila was one of the super rare for
- 38:30De Lays. The last time I was at your shop right before Christmas,
- 38:34Eve answered the phone and it was like something like yeah, you guys,
- 38:37got any pappy down there? And you're just like yeah, yeah, no,
- 38:39and then you look at him like like I don't even know this fucking
- 38:42guy. He thinks he's going to get the bottle three. Yeah, it's
- 38:47it's an interesting landscape, the bourbon landscape, because there simply isn't enough with
- 38:52the pay though. Was that real the heist? Yes? Yeah, the
- 38:57legend of that that story, do you believe it? Or was a market
- 39:00well, I mean, like ever since you can't get it. Yeah,
- 39:05So it's just it's just so rare because when when whiskey lays down in the
- 39:09barrel, or any spirit for that reason, for twenty years, you have
- 39:13an angel share and an evaporation rate, right, so you just have such
- 39:15a small amount of liquid left in those barrels after twenty years that it's going
- 39:21to be expensive. So it is truly rare. There's no way to speed
- 39:24up the aging process. Right at times and time. So it's rare and
- 39:30they're delicious. You are they worth thirty five hundred dollars? You know that's
- 39:35for you decide how to spend your money. But you know that's why we
- 39:37find it nice to take those very rare bottles and attach a charity to them
- 39:42so at least we could do some good with them. Yeah, I mean
- 39:44I think that you should. I mean there is a place for everybody to
- 39:46be involved. I mean we talk to people all day every day. They're
- 39:50like, I want to get involved, how do I help? And like
- 39:52there's just a way for everyone to have a space in making their community better.
- 39:59And Corey, I'm so glad you lifted that up because you have been
- 40:00so creative and thinking about how do I use what I do well and what
- 40:05we do well in our platform to help organizations in the community too. And
- 40:08I you know, there's there, it's it's unique and it's special and people
- 40:13should be doing you know, there should be looking to you to say how
- 40:15does the business community support nonprofits and and and in ways that also get back
- 40:22right, Like I don't think you know, you talk about charities in a
- 40:24way that's like respectful truly. I mean in this like, we're working hard,
- 40:29we're doing everything we can to improve the conditions for people who live in
- 40:32our community. And you see that, you see like an investment in our
- 40:37in our in our organizations come back tenfold, right like, And so yeah,
- 40:42just just naming that there's a place for everybody who wants to get involved
- 40:45in making a difference in their community. And usually that starts with understanding the
- 40:50thing that you're good at in your platform and your voice. And we have
- 40:54so many local businesses and and companies that really support many, many many nonprofits
- 41:05and there's really no way for us to do the work that we do with
- 41:09without all the suppers from every single person in our community. I say it
- 41:13all the time, especially with this town. Yes, yes, I don't
- 41:15know. I've had I've probably had twenty different charities or organizations on this podcast
- 41:22and I'm probably not even halfway there. And it's not even registered organizations.
- 41:25Think about what you as Stonebridge just did for our good friend Steve. Yes,
- 41:30that's not a registered five round three, but that was how many thousands?
- 41:35You know, It's an incredible, incredible way. It's just there's something
- 41:38special about this town. You know, especially the restaurant community as a whole.
- 41:44You know, everyone can yeah, you know the go funding pages that
- 41:50go out, There was one who just went out the other day and you
- 41:52know, helping someone in the restaurant business actually, and it's there's many many
- 41:58and many many donations. You know, I wonder quite often, and you
- 42:00two are in different towns. Is this a unique town with that level of
- 42:06engagement to support the profits? I think so yeah, I mean, and
- 42:13so we serve thirteen municipalities at FL. Most of them are along the shoreline
- 42:17kind of east and west of New Haven in the lower Naugatuck Valley area.
- 42:22And the you know, the work around solving homelessness, like Bethel is an
- 42:28organization that has the structure for the services that help to address the need,
- 42:32but the broader thing around this is like homelessness is a housing issue and it
- 42:37requires a community response and so just the willingness to get together to have conversations
- 42:45to say I can bring this to the table, but I need this,
- 42:47this and this, like just that type of collaboration and that spirit. I
- 42:51mean six years ago now, Bethel started an interagency collaborative called Human It's the
- 42:59whole almost unsheltered multi agency network and it basically right. I have no part
- 43:06in that. I think it's a sergeant I think I make get that wrong.
- 43:10But Sergeant Garon DEMONTI, in the middle of the night it was,
- 43:14you know, texted me saying, I think our group should be human.
- 43:15We were the Unsheltered Task Force before that. But you know, the point
- 43:20being that, you know, six years ago we started to meet knowing that
- 43:24we were better together than we were kind of individually separately, and Bethel really
- 43:29wanted to make sure that everybody was taking advantage of our resources. And it's
- 43:31it's every month, still going coming back to the table, even though problems
- 43:36are hard, even though we didn't solve this issue overnight. In other communities,
- 43:39you know, they struggle to even understand what is a what, who
- 43:44has what resources, how to connect pieces together not get frustrated in the process,
- 43:50and so like letting that divide people like you just find that there there's
- 43:54a little bit more distance between people. And yeah, so I do think
- 44:00it's unique, and I think, you know, the beauty about us is
- 44:05like we can say, hey, you know to surrounding towns or other you
- 44:08know who are struggling to say, where do we start, how do we
- 44:10start? We need help. We can look to Milford and say, well,
- 44:14Milford's been doing this for a number of years and then we've been really
- 44:15successful there and I personally need some help from Milford. This was a tragic
- 44:21accident that happened right around Christmas. One of our own at Stonebridge. Corey
- 44:24Wilkerson's her name. She was kind of a once a week, you know
- 44:30person, and she got a new job working as a nurse in Cheshire at
- 44:35the prison and was just coming home from work one night and came upon a
- 44:39three car accident with already medical response teams there, police were there, and
- 44:45she got out of the car to help and got hit by a fourth car.
- 44:50She's still in the hospital. She was induced in a coma for a
- 44:52while. She is awake now, but her road to recovery is going to
- 44:58be insane. She had a great go fundme page that the whole state of
- 45:04Connecticut actually does something called payda park. You may know about this. So
- 45:09if you work for a state, municipality or something, they pick one day
- 45:14and you pay five dollars to park and all that money goes to somebody that
- 45:16suffered a tragedy such as Corey. So she's getting all that and of course
- 45:20you know that stone Bridge and can't be and myself or could be doing something
- 45:24probably in the spring when she's out of the hospital and needs the extra you
- 45:28know, money for rehab and all that stuff. But yeah, if you
- 45:35look at her GoFundMe page, it kind of I don't even want to talk
- 45:37about it, but it describes everything that happened to her injury wise, and
- 45:42it's amazing. She's alive, to be honest with you, and she's young,
- 45:44she's vibrant, a great girl. And I will be obviously announcing in
- 45:49the future when we when we land and doing something down a stone bridge and
- 45:53everyone's looking at the time. No, no me, sir, see here
- 46:00all day and I'll talk all day, could I? Yeah? And thank
- 46:08you for sharing that building. I would love to talk about our new building
- 46:14when we're going to bring up this wonderful project. What's new? I bet
- 46:17that the birth thing I'd like to do is just really think we have in
- 46:22addition to Litchfield Distillery, in addition to to Corey Shop and his team,
- 46:28we also have two phenomenal sponsors at the event, Milford Bank, and Trinity
- 46:34Point Wealth and you know, talking about communities coming together and and then just
- 46:39like figuring out what they can do to help. These are organizations, these
- 46:43are businesses and that support so many agencies, and we're thankful that they're coming
- 46:49onto this project. Both of them were with us last year again and they're
- 46:52back. We see those two businesses everywhere in town donating and no different than
- 46:59a Stonebridge you are, honestly, but Trinity Point and the Milford Bank are
- 47:02just everywhere. They really are very great. It's a tremendous community in Milford
- 47:08and even you know the area of towns, but I've never been in a
- 47:10town like this where it's just everyone gets together and rallies together and businesses without
- 47:16are very generous. And I mean last week that you know, the mayor
- 47:20walked in and sat down and just introduced himself and talked and see how everything
- 47:23was going. I mean, that's just you know, it's yeah, yeah,
- 47:27Tony Gah. I mean the t I personally thanked me for winning.
- 47:35He said, thank you. We're getting about one hundred and fifty thousands an
- 47:39episode now for day drinking with me. Yeah, we're getting up there.
- 47:44That should sway the vote. Yeah, well I don't want to, you
- 47:46know, do that, but uh, all right, well let's talk about
- 47:51our So first of all, web, do you guys have a website?
- 47:54Let's talk that how do we buy a ticket? And if he can't go,
- 47:58how do we get the bottle? Just so everyone knows. So I
- 48:00would direct and we'll make sure that the link for the event is attached to
- 48:05this episode and Instagrams and stuff like that, but all of it is based
- 48:07on the event, right U R L. And so that's that's the main
- 48:13platform for that. And you can also either one of yeah, I search
- 48:17Barrels for a Cause event right just recently and it will show so you can't
- 48:22purchase them right there, or you can go on to Bethel Milford dot org
- 48:27or Great Crisis Center at websites. They're both on there. It's all out
- 48:31on social media Facebook, Instagram. We try to post it at least once
- 48:37a day. Yeah, it's working. I'm just seeing if it pops up
- 48:42on my event, right, Barrels for a Cause? Would it be Barrels
- 48:45for a Cause? If you haven't, we'll just call one of our offices
- 48:50and one of our staff members will help you out Teddy Bear talk support.
- 48:54That's not it that came first competition about I don't know what that is in
- 49:02the power of talking out loud. There it is tho, it's right underneath
- 49:06that. So do not go to Teddy Paris. You're only out a little
- 49:09bit. Oh yeah, So seventy one dollars would be the bottle and one
- 49:16await it would be the ticket for everything. Yeah right, okay, it
- 49:20just one wait is to cover the fees the whole thing, right yeah,
- 49:24So if you feel generous to cover the fees, please do. These are
- 49:28charity organizations we're supporting here. Yeah, spend the extra money. People come
- 49:31on well, and you're getting I mean, you're hitting an event, you
- 49:37know. And so it's it's not just a bottle. It's not just like
- 49:39a you know, sampling or tasting. It's like all of these things combined
- 49:44together. So it's it's really going to be a great night. And Bridgehouses
- 49:46is donating most of the food. They're bringing in many, many different items
- 49:52for everybody to enjoy. So we'll have plenty of food, plenty of drinking.
- 49:59I think being genera to make the desserts, I say, we're getting
- 50:01homemade deserts. I was asking. I was thinking about though. Last year
- 50:05we had homemade dessert from gen Bourbon cheesecake. I did not just to be
- 50:09clear, I did not make that a cheesecake. But I mean, you
- 50:15know what's better with some bourbon than more bourbon? I think, right?
- 50:19Is that? Yeah? But let me talk about the new building. I
- 50:23building. So you know, the center has been in our current location for
- 50:28about thirty five years. I mean we have as as we know. We've
- 50:31talked about it before. So many folks call us the Bethel Shelter, but
- 50:35we provide a continuum of services for people who are experiencing housing instability, food
- 50:40insecurity, hunger, and homelessness. So there's a bigger, a bigger breath.
- 50:45You know. Last year we served three hundred and seventy two households and
- 50:50homeless prevention services alone in the area. So that's preventing folks from needing our
- 50:54shelter services in the first place. We served about five hundred people in our
- 50:59shelter programs, and we served about fifty thousand meals in our community kitchen.
- 51:02And the reality is that we we just need more space. We need more
- 51:07space. We've learned a lot in the past forty years since the organization has
- 51:12been around that of how to address homelessness and how to do it in a
- 51:15way that preserves dignity and respect for the people who are going through that system,
- 51:21and in a way that helps the community as a whole. Because nothing
- 51:23is worse than you know, well I shouldn't say this, but when you
- 51:27when you have these services, like the goal is to have them open,
- 51:30operating and being able to receive anybody at any time. So the new building,
- 51:36our new a new operations center is focused on twenty four hour services.
- 51:39Twenty four hour, twenty four to seven. That's it. That's been my
- 51:45days and a week. I think I get eight days in a week.
- 51:51But and so, you know, basically an open front door for folks who
- 51:54are unhaused, unsheltered in the in the area. That puts a lot of
- 51:59relief on you know, our emergency response services, our police department, our
- 52:02library, and it provides better quality services for specific people that need that.
- 52:08We also have, you know, shelters were built to put as many people
- 52:15in the smallest amount of space as possible, and that does is very poor
- 52:19for the population that we serve now, which is mostly over the age of
- 52:22fifty five who need things like adaptive equipment. So anyway, so we're building
- 52:27space that allows for more individualized beds, prices beds. We call it micro
- 52:32shelter. So think about it like hotel rooms versus like twelve men in a
- 52:37room. You'll be in a room with one person. And we have an
- 52:39incredible supportive housing program. Not many people know about it, but supportive housing
- 52:45is for folks who need long term financial assistance and case management to maintain their
- 52:50housing. And that program has been open for thirteen years. We have a
- 52:54one hundred percent success right, nobody who's gone through that program has returned to
- 52:58homelessness in thirteen years. And the goal of our new building is to provide
- 53:05as much supportive housing as possible. So we're still working. You know,
- 53:07you tweak these things, Tony JS. You guys, when you build a
- 53:10building, you tweak everything until the very very end. So we're still moving
- 53:14parts around. But this was really about thinking forward and knowing that you know,
- 53:21at some point, the crisis response you know, kind of needs to
- 53:24take the prevention needs to take the place of crisis responses. So we're doing
- 53:30so much more by way of prevention now out of necessity. I mean,
- 53:32we have hundreds of people on our wait list. So it's sad. I
- 53:37know, I know it takes about at this point, like two day takes
- 53:40it over thirty days for you to get a shelter bed and so in the
- 53:45Greater Milford area. And so you know, we have staff that are working
- 53:50with people way before they get into that shelter bed, right since the day
- 53:53that we meet each other, because we know it's far more efficient to work
- 53:59on permanent houses than working to get to a shelter. Then you're in the
- 54:01shelter and work to get to housing. It's more efficient, it's more cost
- 54:05effective, all those things. So you have you found a big uptick just
- 54:08with the housing costs now, I mean, is it all like kind of
- 54:14works itself together? Oh yeah, I mean, you know, we're in
- 54:19an interesting place. I mean, so home prices have raised about sixty percent,
- 54:24So those folks who are shopping and that cannot shop in the home purchasing
- 54:30market are shopping in the rental market, so rental increases have raised about forty
- 54:34percent. Because of that, The folks who are experiencing homelessness are people who,
- 54:39because of their health conditions are because of their fixed incomes or whatever the
- 54:44case may be, or sometimes a combination of all those things. Are people
- 54:47that can't compete in the housing market. So housing costs are up sixty percent,
- 54:52rentals are up forty percent, homelessness is up thirteen percent. And so
- 54:54you just see that very clearly. You add inflation and everything cost living.
- 55:00It's I got to stop it. Shot for like three days is eighty dollars.
- 55:08It's real. It's it's definitely. So that's just, you know,
- 55:12further emphasizes the need for everyone that's listening to get out there and buy some
- 55:15tickets. Yeah, and support you get this beautiful bottle bourbon. Yeah,
- 55:20fancy incredible, right, it's incredible that laughs. It really is a fun
- 55:25night. I had a last one of the best best nights of the year
- 55:28last year for me. We got so many compliments from from them, and
- 55:32it's great to hear from people that I'm the support. Is that one gentleman
- 55:37was in the nonprofit business for probably what forty five years? Oh yeah,
- 55:39and he sent us an email saying it was the best one he'd ever met.
- 55:43I mentioned to you. He said the same to me. Yeah,
- 55:46he was ahead of I want to say the United Way. Yes, believe
- 55:51me, I'm on him. David Kennedy, if you're listening, actually I
- 55:52think I don't ticket sales already or yeah, he just committed to fifty tickets.
- 55:57I heard, all right, sorry, and he's a Kennedy, he
- 56:04knows all right. Well, Jennifer, I know you got to run.
- 56:09So we're gonna wrap this up' gonna wrap it up in a little different note.
- 56:13Obviously everything they'd heard so far. You guys are awesome. Everything you
- 56:15guys do. I'm glad to be a part of this every year, for
- 56:19you guys to to put it out there. Thank you, thank you.
- 56:21Uh you know you ever want me to join? And I could pick a
- 56:23bourbon if we want to go back down that road. You can have the
- 56:30shop and tasting and I'll see how your palate is. What did you say?
- 56:35You can have my vote? Tony's figure out how does this work for
- 56:38me? Because every time I looked, your glass was empty. So by
- 56:45the time she went to vote, she did. It's great. This is
- 56:52me. That's very of all the things that you know for me that I
- 56:54do in the in my day that work. You know, Bourbon is what
- 56:58I love. Whiskey is what I love. And this is why this this
- 57:01communal, this laughter, this is real and it happens all the time over
- 57:06whiskey. I just want to share that. It's it's just so wonderful for
- 57:10me because I do you always talk about community. If you're on my email
- 57:14list, it says bourbon equals love and community, which sounds I don't know,
- 57:17but I mean it. And right over your left shoulder up stare.
- 57:21Nope, the little sticker, little copper cat. Is that what that is?
- 57:25Yeah, that's MGP liquid. Yeah, I got a palette. I
- 57:29got a palette. Yeah, it's a nice burnt brown sugar's on there.
- 57:31He's got a little bit. But no, I mean, it's a lot
- 57:34of fun and we're looking forward to having another really really fun night and we're
- 57:38gonna make a ton of money. That's damp in my February, is what
- 57:43it seems like. That's what sounds like. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 57:45it's gonna be a damp. I don't want it to rain. But all
- 57:49right, well it's officially Super Bowl, so I'm just gonna go around the
- 57:52room. I just want some picks, and I guess it picks from everybody
- 57:53else. Uh, Corey, I'll start with you and then we'll wrap this
- 57:58up. First off, and second only. Is the Taylor Swift thing all
- 58:01a big scam or is it actually a true romance? Oh that's such a
- 58:06lot of questions. I haven't Okay, So I have I have an eight
- 58:10year old daughter who is a newly newly I guess reform swifty or she's all
- 58:16in now just recently. So she is a Kansas City fan and shockey because
- 58:23as my Bills lost to the Chiefs, I'm gonna pull for the Chiefs so
- 58:28we keep it in the in the AFC. So I'm gonna go Chiefs thirty
- 58:31one, twenty three, all right, numbers too. No, I just
- 58:37want to say winner. The game is so close, it's only one and
- 58:38a half. Well, I don't get to put predictions out off and then
- 58:42they're meant to So you think. So you think the Kelsey relationship is just
- 58:47they're going to get married and have kids. I think it's not that she's
- 58:52going to demand a portion of the revenue from the Chiefs. Gis That's what
- 58:55I think. Are reported that the NFL has made three hundred million dollars for
- 59:00her being got games, incremental coverage because of her. So it's real.
- 59:04I am experiencing it. Kelsey just got her a ten thousand dollars with my
- 59:08daughters. Swifty, this whole Swift, it's like magical. It turned on
- 59:12like a switch. I thought it was. I don't know what it's like
- 59:15to be her. Whole career is breakup songs, though, so I just
- 59:20feel the end his leader. I don't want to go through it was the
- 59:27last. I just do a lot of Tarrant Swift songs now, and uh,
- 59:32there's some good ones in there. All right. So you got chief
- 59:38said you're a trior Swifty. Now, all right, tell him what do
- 59:40you got? I want to go. I want to say the Lions,
- 59:44but they're staying home again. Yeah, Detroit fan, I wanted. I
- 59:47wanted to see the Lions go. They went to sleep in the second dumb
- 59:52Ass is an interesting choice that coach stayed true to what he did or he
- 59:55did, Yeah, solid didn't. He he wrote did, But like at
- 1:00:00some point you gotta be like, all right, the fucking Super Bowls on
- 1:00:01the line. I might want to tie the game here, I might want
- 1:00:04to kick a field goal enough seven But but but let's say let's say that
- 1:00:07you know it, he did do that and he's still lost. You get
- 1:00:12you'd be banging in for not being consistent with his coaching launch No, not
- 1:00:15me. No, I think there's certain points where you literally need to take
- 1:00:19the points. Yeah, I'm with you if you go ahead, three scores
- 1:00:22any time, have three scores. Yeah, but he did stay consistent to
- 1:00:25what he did all year. But but situation you know, they did the
- 1:00:30analytics, but situationally and you you don't get it, which they didn't like.
- 1:00:36That just motivates the other team more like, Okay, you gave us
- 1:00:38a fucking opening. Yeah, the dumb asses you talked about when it would
- 1:00:42have been a forty seven is shared field goal, Yeah, that would have
- 1:00:45put him up seventeen. Yeah. Now they went down and score, then
- 1:00:46they got the fumble and scored Allsode's tig game. It's fucking It's just crazy
- 1:00:51how quick it happened, you know. Yeah, yeah, all right,
- 1:00:53So to who you got, I'm going Chiefs by nine, Chiefs by nine,
- 1:00:57no score, I like it. That's the And are you a swifty
- 1:01:01now or were you a swifty before? I think I go on with you
- 1:01:07Jim. I think a lot of it's uh yeah, a little made for
- 1:01:09TV TV. Yeah, I'm swifty. I like it. All right,
- 1:01:14Jen, you have the floor. I know you got to go. So
- 1:01:15first of all, who's your team? I think I'm going for the Chiefs
- 1:01:19to kind of just name that. Like, I there's something that happened this
- 1:01:22year that I was like, oh, football, Like this is Swift one.
- 1:01:29No, truly, like even before that, right, Like you can
- 1:01:30ask my wife, She's like, like, why do you care what's happening
- 1:01:34on the television. All of a sudden, I'm like, oh, like
- 1:01:36Sunday, we're watching football, right, So I don't there's something like I
- 1:01:38definitely was not a like I'm not like a sports person, but there's something
- 1:01:43going on that's like interesting for me. You're making my point for me unfortunately,
- 1:01:51right, Yeah, I don't. I don't think it was Taylor Swift.
- 1:01:55What I will say is I am a swiftye. You know, we
- 1:01:59listen the Taylor Switch all the time. I I I just want to leave
- 1:02:02the girl alone. I mean, like she has an amazing platform she has
- 1:02:07like she she she there's nothing that she can do that she could, you
- 1:02:10know, decide that she's going to take a nap and they're like, oh
- 1:02:13my god, what did that nap mean? You know? And it's just
- 1:02:15I just feel like I don't really care that much. I wanted to live
- 1:02:19her life. I'm glad people are making money. I'm glad the conspiracy theorists
- 1:02:22got something to wet their appetite. And I think I just like want a
- 1:02:25good game. And that's what I have to say about that. I cannot
- 1:02:30believe that I have an opinion about football, Like that's the weird thing in
- 1:02:32my life album. I told, yeah, yeah, no, it's it's
- 1:02:44fun, right, it's fun. I'm sad for that. Nobody here wants
- 1:02:46the forty nine ers to win like you did. Okay, tell me,
- 1:02:51okay, because I don't want my home to get another super Bowl because I'm
- 1:02:53a pretty you know guy. Okay. I still don't think if he wins
- 1:02:57this series anywhere close. I mean, it's such a long career that Bratty
- 1:02:59had that it's I don't think I think is a better athlete than Kelsey.
- 1:03:02He has suppressed Gronkin greatness. Yeah not really. He's wide open every fucking
- 1:03:07play and he doesn't block. He sucks excellent So here's my here's my last
- 1:03:14point is they're getting used to He's yet, he's Jeremy's getting ready for a
- 1:03:17good decade to twenty years of sucking again. Everybody else, he's just he's
- 1:03:24into it. I had twenty or eight years. Now it's back to the
- 1:03:28eighties and nineties. Sorry, I had twenty great years. Yeah, yeah,
- 1:03:30I was in my prime those whole years too. It's good. One
- 1:03:34last point in the Swifty stuff, and I'll go through from a media standpoint
- 1:03:38when this first started, right, So, Kelsey, do you know how
- 1:03:42they started dating? He has his own podcast, and he goes, oh,
- 1:03:45I wish I got Swifty's phone number or something like that whatever, and
- 1:03:50all of a sudden it manifests into they go out on a date. She's
- 1:03:53asking for her phone over right now. Swifty. Yeah no, I would
- 1:03:58never step on Kelsey's toest. Come on. So in the beginning, when
- 1:04:02this started happening, the media was kind of like the way I'm acting right
- 1:04:08now, oh blah blah blah bah blah. But then if you watch media
- 1:04:11enough, it starts to turn to where just yesterday, all the media is
- 1:04:15like all you people that don't like Taylor Swift and Kelsey. You've never been
- 1:04:19in a relationship before. You don't know what true? This is what the
- 1:04:23ship they're telling me on Arizona Taylor Swift's problem, and is that Travis Kelcey's
- 1:04:30problem? Right, Like whatever's going on with them is like what's going on
- 1:04:33with them? Like that sounds like to me a way that I would meet
- 1:04:36a person. Right, Somebody says, Oh, they want to meet me
- 1:04:39on a podcast, and I think they're cute, Like hey, like I'm
- 1:04:41going to hit you up, Like that's all I'm saying. That's how you
- 1:04:45met your wife. No, like that actually sounds like right, But like
- 1:04:54what I'm saying is like that kind of sounds like for two famous people,
- 1:04:57like a way that they would kind of naturally like fall into each other's orbit.
- 1:05:00Like there, it's practical, it's like a reasonable explanation. And whatever
- 1:05:04the media does with it. I think that that's like the big problem is
- 1:05:06like this like added layer of like that's what I feel that pocracy comes in.
- 1:05:12When we first started all the all the NFL, you know, media
- 1:05:15people were like, oh, get Swift out of here, and then and
- 1:05:17then and then you know, the President's coming down like, wait a second,
- 1:05:19we have an opportunity here, We have a big opportunity to make money.
- 1:05:24And if, like I said in the beginning of the show, follow
- 1:05:25the fucking money, because that's what's happening. And it just came out,
- 1:05:29three hundred million dollars more of the NFL made, and they're just the cash
- 1:05:30cow. And I could see a whole big wedding in the off season.
- 1:05:33I could see them winning the Super Bowl and proposing to her on the field
- 1:05:36with the glo R. It'd be so happy for everybody. And then three
- 1:05:46years they break up, and tree years they break up, and she comes
- 1:05:49out with the biggest album ever about breaking up with Travis. All right,
- 1:05:56enough that, well, how passionate Jen is about other Swift? I didn't
- 1:06:01know, I did not know. I love it. I went to so
- 1:06:06I know, I got I'm the one that fift So I went to the
- 1:06:15first show at a Lette stadium. Ship he had three days. It was
- 1:06:17three and a half hours of pouring rain, the famous rain, the famous
- 1:06:21range. Yeah, a couple of years ago. It was last year,
- 1:06:25last year, and I have to tell you, it was like the one
- 1:06:29of the highlights of my adult life. So there is like, it's like,
- 1:06:30whatever it is, I don't care. It's making me happy. Right,
- 1:06:34So it's like me and millions of other women in death. I actually
- 1:06:40don't mind. I don't mind her. I just think the parade of in
- 1:06:43the charade of all this is just like, Okay, when the season's over,
- 1:06:47we don't have to see less of it. Oh but if the Chiefs
- 1:06:50win, it's just, oh, you're going be a good month. Yeah,
- 1:06:55at least theyre going to start doing commercials together. You know. For
- 1:06:58what's he doing? Uh? Every commercial state does state. Yeah, he's
- 1:07:01actual whole lunch but everywhere. Yeah, he's ever Yeah, it does all
- 1:07:06sorts of yeah, yeah, he does everything these guys are getting. He
- 1:07:09gets. He makes more money off of that than his actual football contract,
- 1:07:13which is crazy. All right, Jen, I know you gotta go Beryl's
- 1:07:15for a cause, Bethel Center, Rape Crisis Center. Of course, Corey
- 1:07:19from Wins and Moore always go visit him. He gives you, what is
- 1:07:23it, fifty percent off if you mentioned day drinking with dog awesome in the
- 1:07:27books. Thanks so much, guys, Thank you to make the event.
- 1:07:30You're not gonna enjoy it. I'm definitely buying a bottle regardless. Uh.
- 1:07:33And I'll talk to you guys next week.