Latest / Ridiculous History / The Michelin Man was an Unhinged Lunatic

Transcript

The Michelin Man was an Unhinged Lunatic · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Ye
0:26
Speaker 1: welcome back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as
0:29
Speaker 1: always so much for tuning in. Let's give it up
0:33
Speaker 1: for the man, the myth, the legend, the one and only.
0:35
Speaker 1: Mr Max Williams. Uh. Folks, they call me Bed as
0:40
Speaker 1: always with my ride or die. Mr Noel Brown, Yeah,
0:47
Speaker 1: I'm not used to get this. And so we were
0:52
Speaker 1: coming to you a quite an auspicious time this week
0:55
Speaker 1: because we are welcoming on air finely one of our
1:01
Speaker 1: newest research associates, Mr Jeff Bartlett. All Right, y'all, you
1:09
Speaker 1: know what time it is. It's here for Jeff. Jeff Yeah,
1:17
Speaker 1: Jeff is here. Oh yeah, show showy show Jeff Yeah,
1:37
Speaker 1: actor performer, writer here in the Atlanta area and a
1:41
Speaker 1: dear friend of ours. Jeff, welcome to the show. Thank you.
1:45
Speaker 1: I'm happy to be here. I can tell your enthusiasm
1:48
Speaker 1: is infectious. No, I really am. I'm very happy to
1:53
Speaker 1: be here. We're happy to have your So this is
1:57
Speaker 1: no This one was kind of a long time in
1:59
Speaker 1: the make for us. We were peeking behind the ridiculous curtain.
2:03
Speaker 1: We were going to record this a couple of different times,
2:07
Speaker 1: curtain is so absurd. It's just the color scheme is
2:10
Speaker 1: all out of whack. Our priorities when we were doing
2:13
Speaker 1: the original budget for this show kind of came back
2:16
Speaker 1: to haunt us. This is like, I don't know if
2:18
Speaker 1: you guys know this, but podcast curtains are kind of pricey.
2:21
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I gotta have sound absorbed, you know, properties,
2:25
Speaker 1: and then of course you want them to look nice.
2:27
Speaker 1: But somewhere along the way everything got all ridiculous to five,
2:30
Speaker 1: which I guess is on brand. It's ridiculous to fight
2:32
Speaker 1: a word. I'm gonna make it a word. It is now.
2:35
Speaker 1: It's it's American English. Bro. The world is yours. And
2:39
Speaker 1: that's something. Uh, that's something that we thought you would
2:41
Speaker 1: enjoy to Jeff. Now, Jeff, when you're working on research
2:46
Speaker 1: for Ridiculous History, you you started off listening to the show, which,
2:51
Speaker 1: thank you surprise, surprised us. But we asked you if
2:55
Speaker 1: there was something that was close close to your mind,
2:58
Speaker 1: something you really wanted to come on air and explore
3:02
Speaker 1: with us on Ridiculous History, and you had it locked
3:05
Speaker 1: and loaded. Man. We were on a call and you
3:08
Speaker 1: told us michelin Man, how much do you guys know
3:12
Speaker 1: about the michelin Man because it's it's such a strange thing,
3:16
Speaker 1: like this character who has become, you know, a strange
3:22
Speaker 1: version of a mascot. Like he's not a very likable mascot.
3:29
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's the way to put up,
3:31
Speaker 1: but well, he's got a smile on his face. He's
3:33
Speaker 1: got a smile on his face, modern version. He doesn't
3:37
Speaker 1: make much sense. Yeah, it's like presumably he's meant to
3:41
Speaker 1: be stacked up tires because also whites and tires are black,
3:46
Speaker 1: and I guess they are those whitewall tires that come on,
3:49
Speaker 1: what are those ben those uh fancy cars that Butler's
3:52
Speaker 1: drive or I guess first excuse me, Yeah, Duisenberg's Packard's
3:57
Speaker 1: kind of that era of fancy fancy motor coaches. Uh. Yeah,
4:04
Speaker 1: we're gonna find out how the michelin Man started. And
4:09
Speaker 1: you know, for a lot of people who have nostalgic
4:12
Speaker 1: feelings about this mascot, you might be surprised by Jeff's
4:16
Speaker 1: statement that the michelin Man is maybe not a ten
4:19
Speaker 1: ten dude, which, okay, so long story store is our introduction.
4:25
Speaker 1: Michelin Man is the mascot of the Michelin company, which
4:32
Speaker 1: is now maybe equally known for their opinions on restaurants,
4:37
Speaker 1: but originally was just known for making tires for automobiles,
4:42
Speaker 1: right absolutely, which is very strange because it's, uh, it's
4:47
Speaker 1: sort of like Guinness, they make the beer, they also
4:51
Speaker 1: make the world records, and you think it was two
4:55
Speaker 1: different companies. But Mitchellin, Yeah, they do the restaurant rating
4:59
Speaker 1: from their travel guide, which was probably like a exactly
5:02
Speaker 1: you know, marketing stunt that then kind of took on
5:05
Speaker 1: a life of its own and then began to become
5:08
Speaker 1: this very sought after status, you know, the Michelin Stars
5:12
Speaker 1: and all of that. But it all came from I
5:14
Speaker 1: guess it's being kind of first to market with that
5:16
Speaker 1: kind of publication, right Yeah. Definitely their whole thing. They
5:22
Speaker 1: were making tires. That was the only thing they did.
5:25
Speaker 1: But hey, if you're gonna have tires on cars and
5:31
Speaker 1: people are motorists wandering around for restaurants hotels, why not
5:38
Speaker 1: rate them. So they did it at the same time
5:41
Speaker 1: and and now it just seems like two completely different companies,
5:45
Speaker 1: but they're not same guys. Yeah, it would be kind
5:49
Speaker 1: of like I was trying to find analogy. This isn't
5:51
Speaker 1: a perfect comparison, but it would be kind of like
5:54
Speaker 1: your favorite podcast also doing a separate show us rating microphones,
6:02
Speaker 1: you know, and then becoming known for that. Right they've
6:05
Speaker 1: got They've got four out of five ridiculousness is uh
6:10
Speaker 1: the sure microphones? Then don't don't pitch as been off
6:14
Speaker 1: for me to do. I mean, no one, I'll take
6:16
Speaker 1: care of that one right there. It's gonna be more
6:18
Speaker 1: successful in this show has ever been. Well, maybe it'll
6:21
Speaker 1: just be an episode strong words, Yeah, Ben, for all
6:25
Speaker 1: you know, maybe ridiculous history in the timeline will just
6:28
Speaker 1: be the episode. Maybe maybe in the great Timeline of
6:39
Speaker 1: all things Max, our lives are but one episode. Uh So,
6:43
Speaker 1: as you can tell, it's been a weird Monday morning
6:45
Speaker 1: for us. I like the idea of timeline though, what
6:48
Speaker 1: a great segue, because we got to get to the
6:52
Speaker 1: bottom of this origin story. So we've laid this out.
6:55
Speaker 1: The michelinman used to look really weird. But where did
6:58
Speaker 1: he come from? And how how old is he? Oh?
7:02
Speaker 1: Very old? So he's just seen the world change, just
7:07
Speaker 1: as his fellow tire men have died around him. He's
7:11
Speaker 1: he's wandered the earth alone low these many years, claiming
7:14
Speaker 1: victims to stay alive. That's how claiming victims. Yes, so,
7:20
Speaker 1: so the way that we know this story, it goes
7:23
Speaker 1: back to a guy named ed Ord and a guy
7:26
Speaker 1: named Andre and their brothers. They're the Michelin Brothers. Spoiler alert,
7:31
Speaker 1: Uh this, I don't know how solid this story is,
7:36
Speaker 1: but from what we understand, they're at an auto industry
7:41
Speaker 1: show in the home, France in like you said, Jeff,
7:45
Speaker 1: and one of the brothers says to the other one, Hey,
7:49
Speaker 1: look at that pile of tires. Looks sort of like
7:53
Speaker 1: a dude, right, Andre, Right? You see it? Right, Bro,
7:58
Speaker 1: it's like a It's like a dude without arms and legs,
8:01
Speaker 1: but still but still like a dude. I don't know
8:07
Speaker 1: something we could do with this, right, Let's make him
8:09
Speaker 1: into something. They're they're frenchmen, correct, yes, so I don't
8:14
Speaker 1: know why I'm giving them a like a New England
8:17
Speaker 1: Jersey accident, yea or New Jersey. So these guys, it's
8:24
Speaker 1: important to note these guys were already in the tire business.
8:28
Speaker 1: They weren't just two random dudes who wanted to go
8:31
Speaker 1: to an auto show. Can you tell us a little
8:33
Speaker 1: bit about Michelin the company, well, the company itself, they
8:37
Speaker 1: definitely started out just making tires. That was their entire thing,
8:43
Speaker 1: um entire ah, no pun left behind. Yeah, they created
8:52
Speaker 1: the company just to supply tires for the earliest cars,
8:57
Speaker 1: which were all white, which is why land Man every
9:03
Speaker 1: time you see him he looks like the State Puff
9:06
Speaker 1: marshmallow Man or the Pills very dou boy, like a
9:09
Speaker 1: cousin of maybe one of them, because that's how tires
9:13
Speaker 1: were still about a nineteen fift They're all white because
9:19
Speaker 1: I mean rubber, you know, untreated or un you know, uh,
9:23
Speaker 1: filled with some additive or other is white. Yes, indeed,
9:29
Speaker 1: the latex from rubber specifically harvested mostly from the Congo region.
9:37
Speaker 1: Just as an aside lots of rubber trees. There lots
9:41
Speaker 1: of stories there too, but that's for another time. Yeah,
9:44
Speaker 1: let's think about this right now. If you own a car,
9:48
Speaker 1: or you walk by a car at some point during
9:50
Speaker 1: the day, you will see that tires themselves are pretty
9:55
Speaker 1: complex and aside from some novelties or specific indias treets,
10:00
Speaker 1: it's easy for us to look at tires and say, hey,
10:04
Speaker 1: these all kind of look the same. I've seen one tire.
10:07
Speaker 1: I've seen the mall, But we have to realize that
10:11
Speaker 1: back in the day before Michelin got in the game,
10:16
Speaker 1: tires were made of different materials. Would metal or this
10:21
Speaker 1: is a really surprising when leather, especially when you think
10:24
Speaker 1: about how heavy a car can be. Uh that's that's
10:28
Speaker 1: gonna be some pretty pretty strong cow hide. Huh gotta
10:31
Speaker 1: be even would surprise me because uh sure there's horse
10:38
Speaker 1: drawn carriages, you know, in so many different uh historic horrificenses,
10:45
Speaker 1: but would just doesn't seem like it fits with engines
10:50
Speaker 1: to me, Like it doesn't uh seem like a great
10:57
Speaker 1: tire when you're goinging over you know, twenty miles an
11:03
Speaker 1: hour or so. And ultimately we'll find the reason that
11:06
Speaker 1: tires today are black. But as you said, noll rubber
11:12
Speaker 1: in its natural form is white, and you can see
11:16
Speaker 1: this still on some old cars, but they're very fancy,
11:19
Speaker 1: like period accurate cars that you you know, you wouldn't
11:23
Speaker 1: see these parking at your neighborhood quick trip. So it
11:27
Speaker 1: seems like the Michelin man evolves in step with the
11:32
Speaker 1: technology of tires. So what we're scientists doing that turn
11:38
Speaker 1: tires from white to black? Carbon black was a material
11:44
Speaker 1: that um around um or so folks were like, hey,
11:51
Speaker 1: these white tires are kind of degrading way faster than
11:56
Speaker 1: if we add carbon black to them. So even though
12:02
Speaker 1: tires by the nineteen twenties were all black, the michelin
12:08
Speaker 1: Man stayed white. They just never changed him. Even though
12:12
Speaker 1: those were that you only, I don't know, twenty years
12:16
Speaker 1: of tires were white. Traditions are good, you know, I mean, yeah,
12:20
Speaker 1: was it a brand recognition thing? I'm wondering. Well, the
12:24
Speaker 1: carbon black made tires way more resistant to like temperature changes,
12:30
Speaker 1: The rubber wore down more slowly, It made the tires stronger,
12:35
Speaker 1: probably increased traction too, I imagine. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah,
12:39
Speaker 1: And and they even according to Goodyear, the chemical engineers
12:45
Speaker 1: had found that a tire made without carbon black would
12:49
Speaker 1: likely last five thousand miles or less, but the carbon
12:54
Speaker 1: additive gave them ten times more life, and it also
12:58
Speaker 1: made them black. So Jeff, Noel, Max and I a
13:08
Speaker 1: while back we did an episode on McDonald's which was
13:13
Speaker 1: super trippy because we learned a lot about the depth
13:18
Speaker 1: of McDonald land lore. And it was surprising, Uh, I
13:24
Speaker 1: don't know about you know, but surprising to me that
13:26
Speaker 1: michelin Man has its own deep lore, not all of
13:31
Speaker 1: which has aged very well. Absolutely, his name is uh.
13:37
Speaker 1: He's widely known as michelin Man, of course, but um,
13:43
Speaker 1: he literally has the first name, which is be Bendham,
13:47
Speaker 1: which is uh Latin because he was Bendy for to drink,
13:53
Speaker 1: which you know, we don't usually associate drinking and driving
13:56
Speaker 1: as a good thing these days, but it's he was
14:02
Speaker 1: a He was an alcoholic mascot basically for tired business. Okay,
14:11
Speaker 1: this is back in like kind of Madmen rules where
14:13
Speaker 1: it was okay to have a martini, you know, for
14:15
Speaker 1: your morning meeting, saying, I imagine for a nice drive
14:18
Speaker 1: in the country. You know, the early cars probably came
14:21
Speaker 1: with you know, built in bars, I imagine is that true? Now?
14:24
Speaker 1: I'm just but yeah, there were there were so many
14:29
Speaker 1: um adverts that were included his first name, the Bendam,
14:36
Speaker 1: which again is basically translates uh, now is the time
14:41
Speaker 1: to drink to your health. The Mitchell entire drinks down
14:45
Speaker 1: the obstacles probably wouldn't go over well these days. To
14:52
Speaker 1: drink to drive, Let's do it together, yes, yeah, and
15:00
Speaker 1: please drink and drive responsibly. There it is perfect exactly.
15:05
Speaker 1: It's weird too, because for most of us listening to
15:09
Speaker 1: the show today, you were probably not alive in the
15:12
Speaker 1: late eighteen hundreds. I don't want to profile, but I'm
15:15
Speaker 1: just saying statistically, that's my guess. If you are a
15:19
Speaker 1: person who knows the Michelin man from the modern day,
15:23
Speaker 1: you might be surprised learn over time the dude, our
15:27
Speaker 1: boy bib has really mellowed out. Uh, Jeff, you found
15:32
Speaker 1: that back in back in the days of old. In
15:36
Speaker 1: his earlier Hellen years, the Bendam was known for being
15:41
Speaker 1: made of tires, drinking a lot, and smoking like a chimney. Right.
15:45
Speaker 1: He was also a cigar aficionado, loved cigars. Was just
15:50
Speaker 1: every single ad he had martini and a cigar. And
15:55
Speaker 1: even for a while, um he was led as a
15:59
Speaker 1: care They're being known as the road drunkard, which you know,
16:07
Speaker 1: it doesn't really work out so well these days. But
16:11
Speaker 1: can I say, no, no shade on Europeans, But this
16:14
Speaker 1: all sounds intensely European, It does, doesn't it to Drinking
16:18
Speaker 1: and driving was pretty much almost their slogan for a while.
16:26
Speaker 1: Let the michel entire drink down the obstacles and we been.
16:31
Speaker 1: Do you know when it became illegal to drink and drive?
16:34
Speaker 1: It's a great question. As far as we can tell,
16:37
Speaker 1: I'm kind of spitball in here. Uh drunk driving or
16:42
Speaker 1: drink driving as they were called in Europe, has only
16:45
Speaker 1: been illegal for a little over a hundred years in
16:48
Speaker 1: a lot of states in the US, and it actually
16:52
Speaker 1: went state by state. And that's why you can see
16:54
Speaker 1: that some uh d Y or d w I or
16:58
Speaker 1: whatever they're called. Some of those law as me very
17:00
Speaker 1: even today. But as always, don't do it. Don't trust
17:05
Speaker 1: the old Michelin man. He's reformed. The Bendam does not
17:09
Speaker 1: want you to drink and drive. I think he quit
17:11
Speaker 1: smoking too, after a while he did. Yes, he's a
17:15
Speaker 1: lot more happy looking now. Again, as we were saying earlier,
17:20
Speaker 1: you know, he looks like very innocent. He looks like
17:23
Speaker 1: the state buff marshmallow man. He looks like the Pills
17:27
Speaker 1: very dough boy. But back in the day he kind
17:30
Speaker 1: of looked scary. And a lot of those ads you
17:33
Speaker 1: had pince nez is that what they're called. Yes, yeah,
17:37
Speaker 1: he had pince nez umla and the French glasses that
17:45
Speaker 1: are just perched on your nose. They don't really have
17:50
Speaker 1: the backing the stems. Yeah, and I think you would
17:56
Speaker 1: wear a monocle time to time. So also he needs
18:01
Speaker 1: a vision correction apparently. And it was also very they
18:08
Speaker 1: wanted to portray him as a rich man about town
18:14
Speaker 1: because those are the only people who could afford cars.
18:18
Speaker 1: I mean, we can argue that that's true still sometimes,
18:23
Speaker 1: but uh, yeah, he was advertised to the rich, which
18:29
Speaker 1: is one of the reasons that they were like, hey,
18:32
Speaker 1: let's let's make him look fancy, let's give him a drink,
18:37
Speaker 1: and then over time, of course we see him now
18:39
Speaker 1: and he's just he's just a lovable, lovable chubby boy.
18:44
Speaker 1: It reminds me of a really great sketch on Mr.
18:47
Speaker 1: Show Um where some kind of marketing guys come into
18:51
Speaker 1: this company and they invent a what is it, non
18:55
Speaker 1: threatening pan sexual spokes thing named pit Pat pit Pat,
19:00
Speaker 1: and at the end he goes, take it from me,
19:03
Speaker 1: I love you. And I think they probably took some
19:07
Speaker 1: inspiration from the Michelin man because he is genderless and
19:11
Speaker 1: that he's just kind of got This is just a
19:13
Speaker 1: flat area down there. He is presumably nude, and yeah,
19:17
Speaker 1: non threatening pan sexual spokes thing. I like this and this,
19:23
Speaker 1: this takes us to an interesting place because there is
19:26
Speaker 1: this cartoonish quality to the Michelin man who was who
19:29
Speaker 1: was sort of you know what it was. He's the
19:31
Speaker 1: dose eckies guy made out at Tires. That's what they're
19:35
Speaker 1: going for, like the most interesting man. And what I
19:39
Speaker 1: didn't know about this before we launched into prepping for
19:42
Speaker 1: this episode is that there is another creator who deserves,
19:47
Speaker 1: who deserves their flowers, their shout out as ridiculous News
19:51
Speaker 1: would say, a cartoonist named Marius R. Celion. Could you
19:56
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about this guy? Well, I
19:58
Speaker 1: mean he created b Bentam basically in he created this
20:05
Speaker 1: strange character, he wanted to use it for a brewery,
20:09
Speaker 1: which again comes back around to the alcoholism of our
20:14
Speaker 1: Michelin van. And he depicted this man of Tires drinking
20:20
Speaker 1: from a goblet filled with nails and broken glass, which
20:27
Speaker 1: seems so strange, but the whole point was to be
20:31
Speaker 1: indicative of how tough and hardy mitchelland Tires were and
20:36
Speaker 1: that they would not puncture that easily. Okay, so he's
20:40
Speaker 1: coming from a really weird place as an origin story already,
20:45
Speaker 1: you know, I can see why maybe the Michelin Restaurant
20:48
Speaker 1: Guide doesn't have this guy on the cover, you know,
20:52
Speaker 1: shotgutting a glass of nails and uh and chain smoking
20:59
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, black and milds or whatever,
21:01
Speaker 1: which I guess, or technically cigarillos. But if we look
21:07
Speaker 1: at the old Michelin Man and the new Michelin Man,
21:12
Speaker 1: we see uh, we see those apparent changes. Also ditched,
21:17
Speaker 1: the ditched the glasses and now has the big sort
21:21
Speaker 1: of cartoonies. Right. Are they more expressive or was it
21:26
Speaker 1: just to make him look less creepy? Yeah, the earli
21:30
Speaker 1: iterations again, Like we we've said he's smoking cigar wearing
21:36
Speaker 1: glasses looked kind of I would say, like whipped cream,
21:44
Speaker 1: a little bit of a dippity due on the top
21:45
Speaker 1: of his m Yeah, but not like as soft as
21:51
Speaker 1: he looks now. Like it was a it was a
21:55
Speaker 1: a mess. Like he almost looked like a little mess
21:59
Speaker 1: of tires, whereas now he's more stacked. Okay, So from
22:06
Speaker 1: from U tire tire pile to like tire model this guy. So,
22:13
Speaker 1: after hearing all of this in two are fellow ridiculous historians,
22:18
Speaker 1: especially concerned parents with kids about to drive, might be
22:22
Speaker 1: thinking this is literally the worst person to be a
22:26
Speaker 1: mascot for driving. You know, you were telling us earlier, Jeff,
22:30
Speaker 1: that he was actually pretty popular when he came out. Oh,
22:34
Speaker 1: he was very popular. He was beloved. He was Mitchelland
22:39
Speaker 1: again they became almost two separate companies because he the
22:47
Speaker 1: mitchelland man would recommend place to stop, you know, places
22:53
Speaker 1: you know you're driving. You're driving, you're rich, you want
22:56
Speaker 1: to stop at a nice restaurant. Let's give him three
22:59
Speaker 1: Mitcheln st ours. I I actually, you know now, I
23:04
Speaker 1: want to look that up. Is it five? Is five
23:10
Speaker 1: the highest Michelin Star rating or is it I believe
23:14
Speaker 1: it is five, But that's incredibly high, or that's incredibly
23:20
Speaker 1: different there, Getting one is a big deal. I'm wrong
23:27
Speaker 1: three because is such a big deal. Five almost seems
23:32
Speaker 1: like a bridge too far, because even a one Michelin
23:35
Speaker 1: Star restaurant is a pretty pretty big to do, pretty
23:38
Speaker 1: big hubbles out the restaurant instantly. So three Michelin Stars.
23:44
Speaker 1: We don't know yet why they landed on three instead
23:48
Speaker 1: of five, but again we've established they're pretty into traditions.
23:53
Speaker 1: I was surprised to learn that you know this, you
23:56
Speaker 1: know what this reminds me of guys. This reminds me. This,
24:00
Speaker 1: the part we're about to get to, reminds me of
24:03
Speaker 1: how corporate entities have started going on Twitter on social
24:08
Speaker 1: media as their own accounts, you know, and all of
24:11
Speaker 1: a sudden, Burger King and McDonald's are fighting. Wendy's drops
24:15
Speaker 1: a mixtape and if you have not heard it yet,
24:19
Speaker 1: I have to reluctantly give the props that mixtape slaps.
24:23
Speaker 1: It's undeservedly good. It has no right to be as good.
24:28
Speaker 1: It's so good that this isn't even the first time
24:30
Speaker 1: it's been brought up on this show. We've brought this
24:32
Speaker 1: up beforehand. Well, just the fast food social media wars
24:35
Speaker 1: has really become a thing to behold. Uh. And sometimes
24:39
Speaker 1: they'll hire some rogue, you know, gen z social media
24:43
Speaker 1: buff that takes it a little too far. There's one
24:47
Speaker 1: I can think of, and I'm gonna have to beat
24:49
Speaker 1: myself here. It's a Wendy's posted It's like an army
24:52
Speaker 1: sign that says we have a fred Chicken sandwich too,
24:55
Speaker 1: and they'll caption it from Wendy's Days. No one gives
24:58
Speaker 1: a sh wow wow, no holds bart Okay, So yeah,
25:05
Speaker 1: maybe one day, maybe one day far into the future,
25:08
Speaker 1: will be on ridiculous history as very old people saying,
25:12
Speaker 1: you know, back in the day that crazy meme account.
25:15
Speaker 1: Wendy's was a fast food restaurant, and so a meme
25:20
Speaker 1: was a photo something posted online. Also, yeah, exactly. Also,
25:27
Speaker 1: this is back when everybody ate food with their mouths.
25:30
Speaker 1: It will literally be that that image of the young
25:34
Speaker 1: lady pushing her grandma on the wheelchair. It'll be very
25:37
Speaker 1: meta because it'll be, you know, a meme describing what
25:39
Speaker 1: a meme was back in my day. Only now we're
25:42
Speaker 1: the old lady in the wheelchair, which we're already approaching
25:45
Speaker 1: that we've nailed it. Okay, well, at least we know
25:47
Speaker 1: what's coming. Uh. No one could have predicted, however, the
25:52
Speaker 1: uh startling global success of the Bendam as a mascot.
25:58
Speaker 1: I was surprised to learn that Michelin. When they launched
26:01
Speaker 1: this travel magazine in UH nineteen o seven, an Italian
26:06
Speaker 1: travel magazine, I believe they had a regular column from
26:11
Speaker 1: the Bendam just sort of sort of like fast food
26:13
Speaker 1: places have a regular Twitter account now and maybe I
26:19
Speaker 1: don't know. Let's let's chew on this. Do you do
26:22
Speaker 1: you do you think that the the public in general
26:27
Speaker 1: was a little less jaded back then as in comparison
26:30
Speaker 1: to the public today when they hear from corporate mascots.
26:33
Speaker 1: I don't know, certainly was more novel because there's weren't
26:37
Speaker 1: as many, you know, and like now, we're just it's
26:40
Speaker 1: so old hat that I think everyone's just kind of
26:42
Speaker 1: almost bored by it, and that's why advertisers are having
26:45
Speaker 1: to go increasingly weirder and weirder, like the Burger King,
26:49
Speaker 1: you know, serial killer looking King. That's true, they really have.
26:54
Speaker 1: You know, we're recently talking about McDonald's on the series,
26:59
Speaker 1: and it's strange what happened with Ronald. You know, he
27:03
Speaker 1: was such a such a wonderful, cartoonish, wonderful dude, and
27:10
Speaker 1: he's terrifying. So it's weird that Burger King was able
27:16
Speaker 1: to turn their mascot into something terrifying and lovable, and
27:22
Speaker 1: yet McDonald's sort of lost their mascot for being too creepy.
27:28
Speaker 1: Just a bit strange. Well, so the tide has sort
27:32
Speaker 1: of turned against clowns because of obviously things like it
27:37
Speaker 1: and John Wayne Gaycy and stuff like that. So you know,
27:40
Speaker 1: I mean clowns as a profession. Professional clowns have come
27:44
Speaker 1: out against movies like It, saying that it it aligns
27:48
Speaker 1: their profession. And I'm sure to a lesser degree, Ronald
27:52
Speaker 1: McDonald probably didn't help either, because he was just so ubiquitous.
27:55
Speaker 1: And you know, you still will see that creepy Ronald
27:59
Speaker 1: McDonald life size kind of statue with his arm out
28:02
Speaker 1: on a bench for you to like sit with him
28:05
Speaker 1: putting his arm around you. And it's usually at the
28:07
Speaker 1: Ronald McDonald house, which is like a charity for you
28:10
Speaker 1: know kids essentially, So having a creepy clown with his
28:13
Speaker 1: arm around a kid, while you know, used to be
28:17
Speaker 1: the clown was just the you know, the bread and
28:19
Speaker 1: butter of birthday parties, and now because of these associations,
28:23
Speaker 1: has all these connotations that I think we're uh, certainly
28:27
Speaker 1: not intended. Yeah, I like I don't have cool phobia
28:32
Speaker 1: fear of clowns, but it was startling. When I used
28:35
Speaker 1: to live in Central America, there's not the same level
28:39
Speaker 1: of disdain, and it was kind of shocky, you know.
28:43
Speaker 1: It was just I wasn't expecting random clowns and I
28:47
Speaker 1: was trying to be cool with them. But if you're
28:48
Speaker 1: not expecting him. You know, there's some deep, primal psychological
28:53
Speaker 1: triggers for some of this stuff. Uh michelin Man I
28:57
Speaker 1: I would pose it then is definitely a corporate spokes
29:03
Speaker 1: tire pile and is also u fulfilling this kind of
29:08
Speaker 1: jovial clown role. But might be surprised felt ridiculous historians
29:14
Speaker 1: to learn that our boy, but Bendam was in his
29:18
Speaker 1: column not doing basic advertising. There was. It's not like
29:24
Speaker 1: he had a column in every issue where he said,
29:26
Speaker 1: let me give you the latest updates on tires. He
29:31
Speaker 1: in one case talked about attending a grand ball and uh, yeah,
29:38
Speaker 1: he's a bit of a lothario, right, a bit of
29:40
Speaker 1: a bit of a lover's lover. And here's one thing
29:43
Speaker 1: he did that might not age well. He was kind
29:46
Speaker 1: of praising and rating women he saw at this ball.
29:50
Speaker 1: Could you tell us a little more about his columns? Ah,
29:54
Speaker 1: he had several columns um love letters almost to look
29:59
Speaker 1: a a house letters almost. He had a particular fondness
30:05
Speaker 1: for Italy. A quote of his about Italy, Oh you
30:11
Speaker 1: sublime Madonna Rome's destiny, except my homage you whose eyes
30:17
Speaker 1: shine with the splendors of the renaissance. This is a
30:21
Speaker 1: tire man talking. Did he write in character? Did he
30:28
Speaker 1: refer to things that an anthropomorphic pile of tires might
30:32
Speaker 1: be concerned with? And he also he had he had,
30:36
Speaker 1: he had enemies as well. He had a pretty fiery
30:40
Speaker 1: excerpt trumpeting the crushing impact that his social conquests were
30:46
Speaker 1: having on his rivals, calling them ashen faced suitors with
30:51
Speaker 1: fixed smiles, living symbols of a shattered illusion. Again from
30:57
Speaker 1: a man made of tires. He's like a Carl Mark's
31:02
Speaker 1: kind of figure there, you know, he's like leading the revolution.
31:05
Speaker 1: He's coming for the fakers and the haters. Uh so,
31:10
Speaker 1: so I can see how this would be really fun read.
31:12
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously it's satire. Uh satire Cheez Max thrown
31:18
Speaker 1: a boo but or a wamp wamp thank you? No, yeah,
31:21
Speaker 1: go with the drums, Max Williams. Ladies and gentlemen. So this, uh,
31:33
Speaker 1: this is strange, Like everyone knows this is satire, they
31:36
Speaker 1: know it's a corporate brand. They're laughing at it. And
31:40
Speaker 1: now they're also on the Michelin side starting to realize
31:44
Speaker 1: this is an excellent way to communicate with future tire
31:49
Speaker 1: buyers right now, Like that's how that's how you get them.
31:53
Speaker 1: It's fun to read, it's fun to hang out in
31:56
Speaker 1: your mind with the Bendam. Maybe, uh, I don't know,
32:00
Speaker 1: Maybe he'll recommend a brand of cigar to us in
32:03
Speaker 1: the next column. Maybe he'll tell us what beer is
32:07
Speaker 1: most in fashion in Milan. You know, But how do
32:11
Speaker 1: we get to how do we get to this idea
32:15
Speaker 1: of restaurants from here? Oh, it's strangely straightforward. For such
32:29
Speaker 1: a long time, I was like, well, seriously, mitchellin the
32:32
Speaker 1: tire brand can't be associated with Michelin the folks who
32:37
Speaker 1: rate restaurants. But yeah, at the beginning of the the
32:43
Speaker 1: tire boom, uh, you know, they had rich people who
32:47
Speaker 1: could afford cars, and they wanted to, uh say, hey,
32:53
Speaker 1: maybe we can do something a little more here and say, um,
32:57
Speaker 1: these are the restaurants you should go to in your
32:59
Speaker 1: fancy cars that we're providing your tires for. And it
33:05
Speaker 1: seems like a lot of sense at the beginning, but
33:09
Speaker 1: you know, at this point it doesn't seem connected at all.
33:15
Speaker 1: But yeah, he's the guy. He's the guy. The Bendam
33:19
Speaker 1: is the guy recommending these restaurants two uh quote the
33:24
Speaker 1: actual Mitchell and guide to help motorists develop their trips,
33:29
Speaker 1: there by boosting car and tire sales. So of course, hey,
33:35
Speaker 1: let's do something to boost our tire sales. They started
33:39
Speaker 1: producing a small red guide filled with handy information for travelers,
33:44
Speaker 1: such as maps, information on how to change a tire,
33:48
Speaker 1: where to fill up with fuel, and for the traveler
33:51
Speaker 1: in search of respite from the adventures of the day.
33:55
Speaker 1: So they started rating restaurants. I can vibe with that,
33:59
Speaker 1: because I mean and one reason the Guinness comparison is
34:03
Speaker 1: so astute is that the Guinness Beer Company recognized early
34:08
Speaker 1: on that a lot of people like to debate and
34:11
Speaker 1: argue when there are a couple of a couple of
34:14
Speaker 1: a couple of cans, or in their case, a couple
34:16
Speaker 1: of points in So they got to the game early,
34:21
Speaker 1: and they associated themselves with the idea of proving or
34:26
Speaker 1: resolving all sorts of arguments, and then they started to
34:29
Speaker 1: focus on world records. So it's pretty cool that Michelin
34:34
Speaker 1: caught onto this. But from what you're describing here, Jeff,
34:40
Speaker 1: I don't know about you know, it sounds like this
34:43
Speaker 1: was a situation in the beginning where people would buy
34:46
Speaker 1: tires and then they would be given the guide. Is
34:50
Speaker 1: it something like that or was it just sort of
34:52
Speaker 1: all around a city? At first? It just started in Paris.
34:58
Speaker 1: They started giving the guides out with the tires Uh
35:02
Speaker 1: in the nine twenties, including lists of like hotels, restaurants,
35:08
Speaker 1: specific categories like that. And it was a good way
35:11
Speaker 1: to get out of having paid for advertisements and the guide.
35:17
Speaker 1: Restaurants wouldn't have to pay for anything. They could just
35:22
Speaker 1: be listed in the Michelin Guide, and both the restaurants
35:28
Speaker 1: and Michelin would prosper without any of them really having
35:32
Speaker 1: to spend money. Yeah, it does make sense. This is
35:36
Speaker 1: like an advertising coup. It's a win win, as they
35:39
Speaker 1: would say in corporate American parlance. But now we have
35:43
Speaker 1: to talk. I think about a dream job. Can we
35:47
Speaker 1: get like a dream job? Q Max? There it is, there,
36:07
Speaker 1: it is. I don't know about you know, but I
36:10
Speaker 1: I enjoy it. I'm grateful to hang out with our
36:14
Speaker 1: crew on this show. But every so often, I too,
36:19
Speaker 1: have dreamed to beat a mystery Dieter. Do you ever
36:23
Speaker 1: want to do that? It's like a secret shopper kind
36:25
Speaker 1: of right, where you go in and pretend like you're
36:29
Speaker 1: a civilian. But in fact, you're they're infiltrating the restaurants
36:33
Speaker 1: um in order to write a potentially game changing review
36:38
Speaker 1: that could you know, up the profile of this place
36:41
Speaker 1: or absolutely crushed their dreams of restaurants success. And nowadays
36:47
Speaker 1: the sad thing is that everyone is their own mystery
36:49
Speaker 1: diner just by virtue of having a Yelp accounts. Yeah,
36:55
Speaker 1: it's it is true. But but like michelin got involved
36:59
Speaker 1: with this, right they they they weren't sending people dressed
37:03
Speaker 1: as the Michelin Man to restaurants where they how would
37:06
Speaker 1: you do the soup? Right? He's got no fingies? Does
37:09
Speaker 1: he have fingies? He's more of like a glove, like
37:12
Speaker 1: a mitten. Right? Does he? I feel like I can't
37:16
Speaker 1: really picture his digits he's got Yeah, that's actually a
37:21
Speaker 1: good question. He has he has digits. He does have digits. Okay,
37:26
Speaker 1: excuse me, please forgive me from aligning the michelin Man's appendages.
37:35
Speaker 1: My pal has been a lot. I've been through a lot.
37:37
Speaker 1: So the At this point, the reformed alcoholic michelin Man
37:42
Speaker 1: gets a gets a team of human diners who I
37:49
Speaker 1: didn't know the proper term for them until you introduced
37:51
Speaker 1: it to us Jeff Restaurants inspectors. I feel like you
37:55
Speaker 1: should get a badge, you know that you can flash
37:58
Speaker 1: at people at the end of the middle licensed. Yeah,
38:01
Speaker 1: I like that. Yeah. Uh. There should be some qualifications.
38:05
Speaker 1: You can't just have an Instagram accounts. Maybe, but this
38:11
Speaker 1: so also peak again behind the curtain. We paid for
38:15
Speaker 1: this curtain. We're going to use the curtain more. We
38:17
Speaker 1: have a good friend of the show, Christopher Hasiotis, who
38:21
Speaker 1: is a food critic of Note. You knew that, right, no,
38:25
Speaker 1: oh yeah, yeah, very good taste that Christopher Aciots have
38:29
Speaker 1: had the pleasure of dining with them a few times
38:32
Speaker 1: and having him recommend some fabulous restaurants. Yeah. Anytime Christopher
38:39
Speaker 1: Christopher gives you a restaurant recommendation, you listen and if
38:43
Speaker 1: you can get in, and that's where you go. Uh.
38:46
Speaker 1: And we've gotta we've gotta have Chris Christopher on the
38:50
Speaker 1: show again. But what he's doing, what a food critic
38:53
Speaker 1: is doing, is different from what these mystery diners or
38:56
Speaker 1: restaurant inspectors are doing. They're not supposed to be idea divide,
39:00
Speaker 1: They're supposed to be anonymous, right, so they're like gutty
39:05
Speaker 1: a food inspectors or their spy uh spy restaurants people.
39:10
Speaker 1: Uh Are they the ones who give the stars? I
39:13
Speaker 1: believe they are. That's that's the strange thing about it,
39:17
Speaker 1: and I sort of wish it was more like that.
39:21
Speaker 1: It reminds me of um Ratatui, where they're expecting a
39:28
Speaker 1: restaurant review and so they do everything in their power
39:33
Speaker 1: to help make everything perfect. And that's sort of why
39:39
Speaker 1: I I'm not a I'm not a huge fan of
39:41
Speaker 1: the of yelp and such. You know it, it exists,
39:46
Speaker 1: It's great, it can be. I like the idea of
39:50
Speaker 1: these secret reviewers and the Michelin reviewers our secret they today.
39:56
Speaker 1: I believe so. Yes, so it could be any one
39:59
Speaker 1: of us. We could Maybe we're all mitchelndber yours. I
40:05
Speaker 1: am actually the Michelin man. No, I had my suspicions.
40:11
Speaker 1: This is just like John Carpenter's the thing which I
40:14
Speaker 1: was not expecting in this show. All right, we need
40:17
Speaker 1: we need a blood test, max if if you're bleeding,
40:21
Speaker 1: rubber Man, We're still going to have to do the
40:24
Speaker 1: show for contractual reasons. But poke, poke with a poke
40:28
Speaker 1: with any implementency. If there's air leaking out, yes, yes,
40:35
Speaker 1: this is not the turn I was expecting old, but
40:38
Speaker 1: I like where we're going with the one we got though,
40:41
Speaker 1: you know, it's the one we got so uh. So
40:45
Speaker 1: these guides are these mystery diners, these restaurants inspectors. Uh,
40:50
Speaker 1: they're working with the Michelin Guide, and by nineteen twenty six,
40:55
Speaker 1: the guide starts to give its points two restaurants. Uh.
41:03
Speaker 1: Initially they're all fine dining establishments. I mean it's still
41:06
Speaker 1: like always pretty fine dining or very special places. And
41:12
Speaker 1: I was it was fascinating to find that. In the beginning,
41:15
Speaker 1: it was just like they were giving people stars, just
41:18
Speaker 1: like in sing spool you get a gold star. Yeah,
41:21
Speaker 1: single stars. So when did they start adding more stars?
41:27
Speaker 1: In about ninety six they decided on the three star system,
41:33
Speaker 1: which is again something we were talking about before because
41:37
Speaker 1: most places rank things by five stars, but Michelin has
41:41
Speaker 1: always been just one to three. That means that the
41:44
Speaker 1: the individual stars are just way more valuable then in
41:48
Speaker 1: a five star system, you know. And uh, and so
41:50
Speaker 1: one star again, one star, one star review and a
41:54
Speaker 1: five star ranking system is a bad review, but a
41:57
Speaker 1: one Michelin star, you know, is very special. Mm hmm.
42:02
Speaker 1: I think also with the one Michelin star, the implication
42:06
Speaker 1: is keep your eye on this restaurant or keep your
42:08
Speaker 1: eye on the chef they're going. And they don't give
42:11
Speaker 1: stars out willie nilly. It's only they review every restaurant.
42:14
Speaker 1: Every restaurant gets on that spectrum at all. It's like
42:17
Speaker 1: you've really got to be in the top notch, in
42:20
Speaker 1: the top echelon of restaurants to even rank. And that's
42:24
Speaker 1: where it really does differ a lot from things like
42:27
Speaker 1: crowdsourced Yelp or whatever, you know, where anyone can give
42:33
Speaker 1: any star to anything for any reason. Mitchellan will only
42:39
Speaker 1: give you a star or two stars or three stars.
42:44
Speaker 1: And it's also it's a it's a legacy thing. Like
42:46
Speaker 1: I said at the top of the show, it's the
42:48
Speaker 1: fact that they were first to market with this type
42:51
Speaker 1: of you know, guide, that they became the authority um
42:55
Speaker 1: despite its seeming like it doesn't make a whole lot
42:57
Speaker 1: of sense, the fact they were the first one to
43:00
Speaker 1: do it, and then they realized that people were paying
43:02
Speaker 1: a lot of attention to it because they were really
43:03
Speaker 1: kind of the only game in town. UM. And then
43:06
Speaker 1: over time it's just continued to have that impact and
43:09
Speaker 1: to have that kind of cashe um and they've really
43:13
Speaker 1: been good stewards of that because you know, you can
43:16
Speaker 1: pretty reliably know that if a restaurant has a Michelin
43:19
Speaker 1: Star that it's something to be you know, taken seriously.
43:22
Speaker 1: And chefs, you know, the top chefs in the world, uh,
43:25
Speaker 1: feel the same way. And really and you can lose
43:28
Speaker 1: a Michelin star too, by the way they can take
43:30
Speaker 1: it away. M hmm. I have a feel like it's
43:33
Speaker 1: just like the Michelin manager shows up and it's like,
43:34
Speaker 1: I am taking this from me. Just peels it off
43:36
Speaker 1: your restaurant. Yeah, like like in like bugs Buddy cartoons
43:40
Speaker 1: or they like, you know, they're literally dressing down like
43:42
Speaker 1: a millet. Like it generally rips off all the epaulets
43:45
Speaker 1: and the you know, the general the kind of badges
43:48
Speaker 1: and merit badges or whatever. Yeah. This is uh and
43:54
Speaker 1: this is interesting too. This isn't just brilliant advertising for
43:59
Speaker 1: the restaurants. It's also aimed at least it its origin,
44:04
Speaker 1: it's aimed squarely at people who were on the fence
44:07
Speaker 1: about the expense of buying a motor vehicle, right you, Jeff,
44:12
Speaker 1: you told us that nineteen there were fewer than three
44:14
Speaker 1: thousand cars on the roads of France, the country, the
44:18
Speaker 1: entire thing, not Paris. Imagine Paris alone with just three
44:22
Speaker 1: thousand cars. Today people would be dancing in the streets.
44:25
Speaker 1: But they did this to increase demand for tires, to
44:29
Speaker 1: get people on on board with the idea. Right like
44:33
Speaker 1: in Madmen, you're selling an idea. You're selling a dream,
44:36
Speaker 1: the dream of driving on the open road. Uh. And
44:39
Speaker 1: there's no arguing. They met with great success. I was
44:45
Speaker 1: surprised to find that the Michelin guides have become best
44:50
Speaker 1: sellers multiple times. Spoiler you I think you do have
44:55
Speaker 1: to buy them? Now? You do? You do? They were
44:58
Speaker 1: free at first. It was kind of almost sad with
45:03
Speaker 1: Andre Michelin. For two decades, all that information came at
45:08
Speaker 1: no cost until a faithful encounter that that remains a
45:13
Speaker 1: favorite anecdote repeated today when Andre himself arrived at one
45:18
Speaker 1: of his tire shops to see his beloved guides being
45:22
Speaker 1: used to prop up a work bench. Oh no, sort
45:26
Speaker 1: of like those A O. L discs we always just get.
45:28
Speaker 1: Eventually they start to lose their their their value, and
45:32
Speaker 1: you just get them in the mail every week and
45:34
Speaker 1: people started using those for like doorstops. So yeah, after
45:38
Speaker 1: that he started selling them for I think seven francs,
45:46
Speaker 1: and so that became its own business. And that's sort
45:49
Speaker 1: of why again we tend to separate the tires from
45:55
Speaker 1: the restaurant guide because it doesn't seem like they fit together.
46:00
Speaker 1: But um, that's why he started selling them at his
46:06
Speaker 1: tire shops nuts and and there we have it, folks,
46:10
Speaker 1: the relatively little known story of the Bendam, the crazy, smoking,
46:18
Speaker 1: drinking and driving tire mascot who later learned his lesson
46:25
Speaker 1: and reformed UH and became a bit of a food critic,
46:30
Speaker 1: a bit of a gourmand, if you will. Uh, Jeff,
46:34
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on the show with
46:38
Speaker 1: us today. We love, love love introducing UH, introducing the
46:43
Speaker 1: team at large to all our fellow ridiculous historians and
46:48
Speaker 1: uh nol. I guess you know. At this point, we've
46:51
Speaker 1: we've both learned a lot. Um. We've both been to
46:55
Speaker 1: Michelin restaurants in the past, I know, UM, and we
46:58
Speaker 1: have some of our favorites. But uh, I got to
47:02
Speaker 1: tell you, even knowing all we had just learned today,
47:06
Speaker 1: I still think the original Michelin man is super creepy,
47:09
Speaker 1: super duper creepy. Well, you know, we didn't even we
47:11
Speaker 1: describe him a bit, but I just I didn't want
47:13
Speaker 1: to point out that as I was looking through some
47:14
Speaker 1: vintage photos which you can find yourself with a quick
47:18
Speaker 1: cursory goog um, he looks more like a mummy than anything.
47:22
Speaker 1: It's like, it's almost like a weird, square headed mummy
47:26
Speaker 1: where the tire things look more like bandage wraps than
47:30
Speaker 1: they do what they're intended. And back to my question
47:33
Speaker 1: about the fingies in the original costume, they just didn't
47:37
Speaker 1: have a gloved part and so just the human it
47:40
Speaker 1: had human hands, which made it even more strange and creepy. Yeah,
47:48
Speaker 1: sexy and feeling it. And also, as we're ending today's show,
47:53
Speaker 1: since from McDonald came up, I wanted to give a
47:56
Speaker 1: big thanks to everybody. Went to our Facebook page Ridiculous
47:59
Speaker 1: a story ins and posted pictures of the Ronald McDonald
48:04
Speaker 1: vestiges in their own neck of the Global Woods. Just
48:08
Speaker 1: like the early michelin Man. Those things are kind of creepy. Uh.
48:12
Speaker 1: And we are creeping up on Halloween, one of my
48:16
Speaker 1: most favorite times of the year. Uh, So hopefully we
48:19
Speaker 1: can get some some spooky stories of ages past on
48:25
Speaker 1: vintage michelin Man. No, take some regular hands, Yeah, regular hands.
48:34
Speaker 1: I bet we could get one car and speaking a cigar. Ye. Yeah,
48:40
Speaker 1: you're gonna get the cops called if you're walking around
48:43
Speaker 1: that thing, and you probably deserve it as well. You
48:47
Speaker 1: should as well, you should. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants
48:50
Speaker 1: that thing walking around. But we do want to hear
48:53
Speaker 1: from you. We want to hear your stories of mascots
48:57
Speaker 1: of yesteryear. Uh, the ones that you love, the ones
49:00
Speaker 1: that really freak you out, the ones that you think
49:03
Speaker 1: most people may have forgotten. You can find us on Facebook,
49:07
Speaker 1: as we said, ridiculous historians. We're still working on our MySpace,
49:11
Speaker 1: but more news to come. We're probably not gonna get
49:14
Speaker 1: a TikTok. I don't I don't think we I don't
49:16
Speaker 1: think we need TikTok. We're already talking about how old
49:19
Speaker 1: we are in person, about the meetings and TikTok at
49:22
Speaker 1: this point, I mean, it just it would just seems
49:24
Speaker 1: like a like a real like cry for attention. Honestly,
49:29
Speaker 1: carry a pigeon telegraph. Thank you, Samuel with Moss, please
49:34
Speaker 1: please do contact us. I mean, we just basically barely
49:37
Speaker 1: figured out Instagram. I'm not ready for another platform. You know,
49:40
Speaker 1: we've been We've been toying with this Pinterest page for
49:43
Speaker 1: years now, and pictures isn't even hardly a thing anymore.
49:46
Speaker 1: Maybe in another five years time or year old. We're
49:52
Speaker 1: thinking long term. You know, that's our Event Horizon. I'm
49:56
Speaker 1: just saying that because I recently rewatched Event Horizon. It's amazing,
49:59
Speaker 1: dude movie. Because you may remember Ben, when that came out,
50:03
Speaker 1: it was really advertised just speaking of truth and advertising
50:06
Speaker 1: as a sci fi romp, you know, through the reach
50:09
Speaker 1: of the far reaches of space, turns out not really
50:13
Speaker 1: a spoiler alert, more of a cautionary alert. Uh. It
50:16
Speaker 1: is a gore fest existential, dread filled horror nightmare of
50:22
Speaker 1: lovecrafty in proportions, Lovecraft is where we're going. You won't
50:29
Speaker 1: heal Razor in space basically well yeah, uh oh, and
50:34
Speaker 1: we just uh shout out to our pal Dave Bruckner,
50:37
Speaker 1: who uh just directed the newest hull Razor. Good on
50:40
Speaker 1: you man, UM check it out. Let's know what you think, uh,
50:44
Speaker 1: and let us know about these mascots. UM can't wait
50:47
Speaker 1: to hear from you. Thanks as always, to our super producer,
50:50
Speaker 1: Mr Max Williams, thanks to our UH one half of
50:53
Speaker 1: our new research associate team, thanks to Jeff Bartlett, and
50:57
Speaker 1: thanks to Zach Williams no relation. We call him Doctors
51:01
Speaker 1: act now he earned it UH and and thanks of
51:05
Speaker 1: course through our special guest today, Mr Jeff Bartlett NOL.
51:08
Speaker 1: Thanks to you, man. I feel like a road trip.
51:12
Speaker 1: I'm feeling a road trip to a restaurant, like your
51:14
Speaker 1: road trip. You're welcome. And by the way, shot speaking
51:17
Speaker 1: at a restaurants, I don't think they have a Michelin
51:18
Speaker 1: star you. But I checked out a new Atlanta restaurant
51:21
Speaker 1: called De Boca and Boca or in Bocca de Bok
51:25
Speaker 1: I forget. It's like a really nice, upscale kind of
51:28
Speaker 1: Mexican restaurant that does incredible tacos. And they had like
51:33
Speaker 1: Beeria tacos and they do like, you know, tomahawk steak.
51:37
Speaker 1: You know what is it? Carne ASADA's really really amazing.
51:42
Speaker 1: Check it out and do check out those early pictures
51:45
Speaker 1: of the initialivan Nightmare Fuel. We'll see you next time, folks.
51:58
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I
52:00
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
52:03
Speaker 1: your favorite shows,