End of the Week

Today, Doug Pike discusses Wordle, work days, and contaminated water.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplacethe TV remote because you were the TV
remote. Remember when music sounded likethis, Remember when social media was truly
social? Hey John, how's itgoing today? Cool? This show is
all about you. This is fiftyplus with Doug Pike, helpful information on

(00:28):
your finances, good health, andwhat to do for fun. Fifty plus
brought to you by the UT HealthHouston Institute on Aging Informed Decisions for a
healthier, happier life, and byTexas Indoor Air Quality Specialists because clean air
is healthier air. And now fiftyplus with Doug Pike. All right,

(00:52):
Friday edition of the program starts rightnow. Thank you all for listening.
I certainly do appreciate it. Undera significantly signific cloudy sky, not to
be confused with I don't know whatwe're gonna get for the next few days.
It doesn't look all that terrible,but it doesn't look all that great
either if you look through Sunday Monday. I have to God, just right

(01:15):
off the top, I've got tolaugh at the jobs reports I've seen lately
where the White House brags about inthe past couple of years they've done this,
and they've done that because if you, if you learn to look at
these things patiently and wait for thepunchline, it will come. Oh it
will. They just so clearly skewthese things to make us believe everything is

(01:38):
coming up roses. And they dothis in several ways. To first,
about three weeks after we hear ofa favorable, favorable jobs report, there's
gonna be a one line correction ofthat report to let us know it wasn't
you know, it wasn't really threehundred thousand jobs, it was actually seven
And they don't ever you don't eversee that in headlines. It's gonna be

(02:01):
in small print on a back page. If it gets any television coverage at
all, it's gonna be maybe tenseconds. It's a little quick SoundBite.
And they don't ever share how manyof the new jobs are government jobs either,
which means they're mostly not substantive.They're not true value job, more

(02:21):
just kind of fluff for people whowill never be fired and will be paid
with tax dollars, not dollars generatedby a free market economy that is growing,
which this one flat is not.And the other thing they sweep under
the rug is how many of thesejobs are either part time jobs or second

(02:42):
jobs people are having to take justto pay their bills in this gosh awful
economy. Groceries in most everything elsereally up more than forty percent on this
current president's watch. And he keepstelling Americans, and some of them just
keep lapping it up, what agreat job he's doing. Weather in ten

(03:04):
seconds, cloudy without rain today andtomorrow, then increasing chances of rain on
Sunday moving into the workweek. Ifthey're right, there was a little yeah,
they won't be never mind, therewas a little thing in the mid
Atlantic yesterday to a little yellow exand it's gone now. It had a

(03:24):
ten percent chance of being anything inthe next seven days, and the prognosticators,
the forecasters, the meteorologists all mentionedif they couldn't help themselves, oh
there's the first one and it's gone, so thank goodness for that. I'm
kind of worried that we might havea little bit more active storm season this

(03:46):
year because of the way things aregoing and the patterns, the historic patterns
under these types of weather circumstances.But we'll just take them as they come.
Market's all green early, led bythe Nasdaq, which was up almost
two points and oil and gold thanksto Houston Goldexchange dot Com, by the

(04:06):
way, nearly unchanged really up alittle bit both of them. In the
green oil I think got back overto higher than eighty four dollars a barrel,
which is really not good news atall, But hey, it could
that's going to become our motto.It could be worse. Let's get started
with the juicy bits here from theTexas Scorecard a story that about after being

(04:30):
arrested for allegedly sex trafficking three students, bond for a local teacher was lowered
by a Harris County judge from sevenhundred and fifty thousand dollars to four hundred
and fifty thousand dollars, which equatesto a reduction of fifty thousand dollars each
for the six felony charges against thatperson. How is that a good idea?

(04:56):
Why would you make it easier forsomebody who is alleged to have done
some horrible things to kids, andthe victims in this case were in their
early teens. How can you letthat person even have a chance to go
back and potentially do what they're allegedto have done. I just don't get

(05:19):
that, I guess, but Democratsdo somehow. Back to California, the
talk show gift that keeps on givinga Democratic rep there, Barbely. She
was running for Senate a while back, but that fizzled. Owner Barbarly Is
proposed to raise the federal minimum wage, the federal minimum wage to fifty dollars

(05:43):
an hour. Fifty bucks an hour. That would be the minimum wage,
which equates to the kid flipping hamburgers, the person who sweeps the auto shop
floor. Everybody makes a six figureincome. Fifty bucks an hour is two
thousand dollars a week. On aforty hour work week, take two weeks

(06:05):
of vacation, you still make onehundred grand. The term idiotic comes to
mind. I don't know. It'sa guy, a celebrity chef, a
guy named Andrew Gruel, suggested maybethat California be first. You go first,
Let's see what's gonna happen. Whydon't you just raise all of your
state workers' salaries to that minimum fiftybucks an hour and see how that works

(06:29):
for you. I don't know howCalifornia could do that. They're already sixty
something billion dollars in debt. Gruhlesaid that if something like that ever was
to happen every restaurant in California,if they did it there first, every
restaurant would pretty much have to closeovernight either that or charge you, I

(06:51):
don't know, three hundred and fiftydollars for stake, maybe another seventy five
for a side of mash potatoes.It's crazy, It really is crazy.
One minute, will that's all?Okay, let me pop down to something
here real quick. Unlucky charms readyto wear or pourier, unlucky charms,

(07:16):
unlucky charms. Growing up, KatyPerry wasn't allowed to eat lucky charms because
luck in their household, I guesswas linked to the devil. That's some
that's a little out there, isn'tit. Wouldn't you say? It's a
little silly, a little silly,just a little silly. All right.

(07:36):
On the way out, I'll tellyou about UT Health Institute on Aging,
where seniors can go to get anincredible amount of help with things that matter
to them health wise, any discipline, any medical specialty. The UT Health
Institute on Aging has someone, andusually more than one, someone who is

(07:58):
not only trained in that particular airarea of medicine, but also in how
that area of medicine is impacted bythe introduction of a senior rather than just
a patient. They specialize in seniormedicine, every one of them, hundreds
of them around town. And whata fantastic asset that is to all of

(08:18):
us. Ut H dot ed Uslash aging ut H dot ed U slash
aging aged to perfection. This isfifty plus with Dougpike. All right,

(08:52):
welcome back, Doug Flecchi. Well, no, that's tomorrow, actually early
early early tomorrow, after I getback from from Moody Gardens, where I'm
going to tonight host the fly FishingFestival tonight and tomorrow night actually starting around
I think the doors to the theateropen about six point thirty somewhere in there.

(09:15):
I'll be down this afternoon and I'mgoing to MC both nights of the
event and cannot wait. I'll broadcastlive from down there tomorrow morning and possibly
even on Sunday morning, depending onhow proficient I can become in short time
on this broadcast equipment we use.My producer for tomorrow morning assures me that

(09:37):
it's pretty easy and so I mayjust take a swing at it, although
I will tell Adam, my producerfor that show, that I might need
a backup. I might need abest of just in case I can't push
the right button, or if weGod forbid, go off the air somehow.
Moving forward to some quick bites,if you will. In pronoun news,

(09:58):
the Department of Health and Human Serviceshas implemented a new gender pronoun policy
that requires employees to use preferred pronounsor face disciplinary action up to firing,
which detractors say actually could be aviolation of those employees rights, so that

(10:20):
one's gonna something else that's gonna endup in court forever and ever. And
meanwhile, we're letting in how manythousands. I think that the number that
they said was going to be okaywith five thousand a day, which adds
up pretty quickly when there's three hundredand sixty five days in a year.
But the bottom line is that's notworking out. Well, here's something else.

(10:43):
If you were interested in the studentdebt loan Repayment program, the latest
iteration thereof, it turns out whenyou read the fine print that the primary
beneficiaries of this current plan, whichis going to drop another eighty four billion

(11:03):
dollars into the kitty to erase thedebt of students. Well, that's going
to go to households that earn onaverage, on average, about three hundred
and twelve thousand dollars a year.This, by way, is being done
by a president whose earlier student loanrelief program was shot down by the US

(11:26):
Supreme Court, which apparently means nothingto this runaway administration. Very frustrating,
very frustrating. I had a storyyesterday. Let me see if I can
find it very quickly. Oh yeah, the NC DOUBLEA being in receipt now
of letters from athletes and advocacy groups, hundreds of them that says would want

(11:48):
the NC DOUBLEA to allow transgender womenwho were born men and often still carry
all the equipment, want to allowthem to compete against biological women in all
sports. Biden administration actually recently releasednew rules amendments to Title nine, which
is right at what fifty years oldI think, and was put in place

(12:13):
a long time ago to protect everybody. Well, now he wants to amend
Title nine to protect LGBTQ plus peoplefrom exclusion and pretty much erase the original
work and intention of Title nine.Women are no longer going to be able

(12:33):
to have fair and equal competition amongstall of themselves, and that's bothered me.
What I would think would be agood idea before the NCAA makes that
decision would be also to petition andask the opinions of the millions of young

(12:58):
women and girls and their parents ntsand how they feel about being forced to
compete against biological men on the field, how they feel about being forced to
share locker rooms and restrooms and everythingelse that is being pushed in that direction.

(13:22):
Let's hear from those millions of peoplebefore we respond to anybody who thinks
this is fair or in any waybenefits women who've been fighting for equal whites
and athletics forever, just forever.They've had to fight and scratch and claw
to get what they have, andnow a lot of that's going to be
taken away from them. I don'tget that. Up in Austin, by

(13:45):
the way, where protesters early inthe week were well, a lot of
them were arrested up there for variouslevels of protest. I don't know the
individual cases. I do know thatforty six people were arrested on criminal trespass
charges, and Travis County Attorney DelGarza said the court opted to decline every

(14:11):
one of those cases for lack ofprobable cause, just across the board threw
them all out. Sheriff's department saidthere were actually fifty seven people booked into
the jail on Wednesday on protest relatedcharges. No word on whether any of
those arrested are still in jail,but I would suspect not, that'd be
my guess. And hey, it'sjust a protest. But if you're if

(14:35):
you're doing something wrong in the eyesof the law and you get arrested,
just like if you watch cops,you'll hear them say all the time,
hey, I'm not here to thepolice officers will explain, I'm not here
to judge you at all. I'mjust having to arrest you for this charge
or that charge, and then thecourts can sort it out, and that's
what they're doing. So we'll justhave to let that run its course.

(14:58):
Ah, how much time do have? One minute? One minute? Let's
go back to the easy later stufflmnop or back to work or I'm gonna
go to it again, Pourier,back to work. You're dancing all around.
It aren't you're doing that on purpose. Pole l asked how many I

(15:22):
don't know how many people they asked, but how many days should there be
in a standard work week? Whatdo you think? Was the most popular
answer? Will? Four? Nope? Five? Five days? Forty five
percent. Now, as most ofthe people my age fall off the voting
platform on this, it may godown to four because I got a hunch

(15:43):
that your generation would prefer four tofive. But that's just what I grew
up with. Everybody's working for theweekend, So the song goes, Actually,
there were six percent percent pardon me, I got a little hiccup there.
Six percent thought we should work howmany days a week? Will three?
No? Seven? Seven days aweek? We ought to be working

(16:06):
every single day of the week.And then I guess maybe if you did
that, what it sees there's fivetimes fifty two. That's two hundred and
sixty. And if you get thosedays out of the way at seven days
a week, you could probably geta whole lot of weeks off. Just
just quit working for a couple ofmonths, three months, whatever, Make

(16:27):
it like the school year. Youjust work for nine months and then blow
it off for three months. Wecan't do that, can we? You
and I can't anyway, that wouldn'twork out very well at all. All
Right. I mentioned a little whileago that I'm going down to Moody Gardens
in a little while and this eveningI will take the microphone and introduce to
whoever shows up tonight a fantastic flyFishing Film Festival. This is the first

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night, and it's an entirely differentalignment of films as compared to what's going
to be shown tomorrow night. Thislast year, they were the same films
both nights. This year, differentsetup, different lineup each night, and
I am promised by the people who'vedone this that every minute of every film
is gonna be spectacular. You're gonnasee these things if you come down there

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and join us on the largest screenin Texas. And it is a I
think it's a Christy six P orsomething like that. There's some technical name
for the presentation of the images inthis theater. That is the first of
its kind in the world, thefirst of it's kind of the world.
And if it's anything like what Isaw last year, it is crazy good.

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You're gonna have some great food.There's cash bar, a lot of
vendor boosts before and after an afterparty over back in the main lobby of
the hotel. The film festival ticketsare just fifteen bucks. Moody Gardens also
has some one and two night packageswhere you can go down there and stay
and just make a weekend of it, maybe working around to golf, whatever
you want to do. Moodygardens dotOrg is where you need to go to

(18:02):
see the details on this. AndI've actually looked at that website and it's
got some really nice information about thefestival and about the packages. Moodygardens dot
org. What's life without a net? I suggest you go to bed,
sleep it off, just wait untilthe show's over. Sleepy. Back to
Doug Pike as fifty plus continues.Name that tone, I don't think it

(18:32):
has a name. Does it willbump bumpermit by who bumper? I have
no idea. All right, let'sget back to some of the little things
that I wanted to talk about today, and a couple from yesterday that I
didn't get to from Utah. FromUtah came an interesting story and I don't

(18:59):
know that I don't know that KTRHcovered it because It's not political in any
way, shape or form. Ijust found it fascinating. Here you go,
authorities were notified that a home inthe little town of Holiday, Utah,
which is up they're kind of closeto ski country and all that good

(19:21):
stuff, got a bunch of dynamitein it, got a bunch of old,
old, old, very sensitive inits seniority, dynamite. Just it'd
been passed down through several generations,apparently of a family that I guess once

(19:41):
was in the mining industry or something. In any way, shape or form.
The dynamite. It was concluded byexperts in dynomatics. They decided the
best thing they could do with thatwas what will in your wildest dreams as
a little boy, what would youlike them to do with that dynamite?

(20:02):
I would like them to put itsomewhere safely out garbage. You'd like to
see it blow up? Oh?Would I now? And if you'd been
standing in the street a safe distanceaway, I'm sure behind little sawhorses with
police markings on them. And ifyou'd had your phone going in video mode,

(20:23):
you too, like so many otherneighbors, could have captured the nighttime
detonation of all this dynamite. Howmuch was it, I don't know.
It didn't actually give a quantity,but I think one of the words that
was used was substantial amount. It'snot a stick. No, it wasn't

(20:44):
just one stick. It was morelike a couple of cases, I think.
And kaboom. I mean with allthe sparks and all the flash and
all the bang you can possibly imagine, and kaboom. They blew it right
up. This video of it allover the internet. If you want to
check it out, you gonna gocheck it out. No, I didn't

(21:07):
think so. Ah, Okay,back to California, will or maybe right
here in Texas. Right here inTexas. This is a really twisted story.
Did I talk about this kid yesterday? I don't think so. It's
very just it's disturbing. I'll leaveit at that. Nixon, Texas.
This is a little bit east toSan Antonio. A ten year old boy

(21:30):
who was for some reason, Iguess, in a little bit of trouble
or whatever. The bottom line is, this ten year old boy confessed to
killing a man when he was seven. He gave details of what he had
done, and I'm not gonna gointo him here. I won't because it's

(21:52):
already kind of a gruesome and weirdenough story as it is. But he
gave details to authorities that confirmed thatthese were details that only a person who
had been there and done that couldhave known. And he apparently was there
and did that. And the interestingthing is that, because he was still

(22:15):
seven at the time, no chargesare going to be filed against him.
They can't be because in Texas criminalculpable and you would think that, well,
this would never even happen. Incriminal law in Texas, culpability begins
at the age of ten. SoI'm sure the kid's gonna he's got a

(22:41):
long road to ho and he's gotsome serious issues, underlying issues from somewhere
in his brief past. He's onlyten now, and he's gonna have that
to I guess to think about it, at least now that he's confessed it.
Who was the person? It wasa guy? Well, I don't
want to go into too much detail, but it was a guy he didn't

(23:02):
even know. He didn't even knowthe guy. How No, will I'm
not gonna do that. If youwant to know, you can go look
it up. I'm seven years old. He was seven at the time,
Yes, and he got access toa weapon and for reasons unknown, did

(23:22):
what he did. Is he ina psychiatric facility If he's not in one
today, I know he has beenin a couple and and he's got a
lot more therapy and a lot moreconfession to come. I'm sure I feel.
I don't feel nearly as bad forhim as I do for the man

(23:44):
who was killed, But I dofeel for that kid because something in his
life just twisted him off, really, really in a horrible direction. Up
in Oregon, I want to goto that one because this is it's a
it's another concerning but not in anyway, shape or form like the first
one there Home. Oregon is hometo thousands of little family farms, okay,

(24:07):
and those farms are being systematically shutteredand shut down in the name of
environmental protection and water conservation. Thestate of Oregon is calling them CAFOs,
Concentrated Animal feeding operations, and theyare forcing these little single family farms who

(24:32):
provide a lot in that state inboth agriculture and meat products, and while
are farm raised animals, they're they'recosting these people so much in these modifications
they have to do and cut backthis and surrender that. All of this,
these dreadful encroachments on private property rights. The farmers are fighting back,

(24:56):
but that's expensive. They can't affordto even fight the battle to hold onto
their farms all and they're just theirprivate property rights are just being thrown out
the window, as is my timehere. According to will, a late
health is a good place if youhave a reason to believe that you have

(25:18):
an enlarged, non cancerous prostate,a benign enlarge prostate as it were,
you need to know about a latehealth. This is a place you can
go to have that issue dealt withonce and for all. A couple of
hours in the office, they willlocate and isolate the artery that is feeding
oxygenated blood to that thing that's swollenup, painful, despicable symptoms thing in

(25:45):
you, and they will shut itoff. And that little prostate a year,
well, that big prostate of yearsis gonna wither and whither and wither
and die and not be a problemanymore, which is great news for anybody
who's dealing with those symptoms. Theycan do the same for women with their
fibroids. They can do the samefor ugly veins on anybody who's got them

(26:06):
anywhere. They just make this stuffgo away, and without you having to
go to the hospital, which isnot the place you want to be.
If you want a better, quicker, more relaxed recovery and being pampered hand
and over fist by your loving familymembers, They'll be there for you all
the way through. You know theywill. Most of these processes they do,

(26:29):
the procedures they do at a latehealth are covered by Medicare and Medicaid
too seven one, three, five, eight, eight thirty eight eighty eight.
They are also, by the way, and I'm going to do an
interview I believe, with doctor Doein May on this. They also do
regenerative medicine and that is proving incrediblyhelpful for people who have chronic pain.
Nobody should be in chronic pain.A latehealth dot com a l a te

(26:53):
a latehealth dot com yell. Theysure don't make them like they used to.
That's why you're a few months.We wash him, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat ofwax. This is fifty plus with
Doug Pike, all right, welcomeback fifty plus wheels over there, brag

(27:21):
and then you got the wordle puzzlein three tries today, I haven't even
attempted yet, but I will.I had something else I was working on
right before the show started, andI've got that in. I've gotten that
address, which is good. Andat some point I think it's just as
soon as we ring the bell here, I'll do wordle while before he can
even walk out the door. Ifyou got it in three will, I

(27:42):
think I can do it probably inthree as well. Added challenge. I
got it off of two yellows.Okay, okay, that doesn't bother me,
Okay, not at all. I'mnot impressed no green. What you're
worried about no yell Having no greensmeans you've just eliminated a lot of positions

(28:04):
for You've eliminated at least that oneposition for the letter. I don't want
to get into the nitty gritty ofword. I think people love it when
we talk about word. I don'tknow will I think that's kind of passe
now, and I don't even thinkso. I don't think you're lying.
I wonder how many people see ifyou can find out how many people do
the world daily all right? TheNew York Times World the official page and

(28:30):
just see if you can find outhow many where do I go? California,
Colorado, not back to Texas.That was kind of a weird story
that spooks me about that kid,It really does. Here's one that just
could have happened anywhere, and ifit's something to think about if you're if
you are dropping your car off andthe dealership offers you a loaner, why

(28:55):
your car's being worked on. Here'swhat happened, and it, like I
said, it happened in California,but could have happened anywhere. This guy
was just driving down the freeway mininghis own business, and all of a
sudden, the police pull up behindhim and before and pull him over,
and before anything happens, he's justtold to stay in the car, and

(29:15):
then three or four more units showup and then he's ordered out of the
car at gunpoint. He was justdriving a loaner from the dealership while his
car was in their shop, andsomehow some idiot accidentally knocked the paperwork for

(29:38):
that car off of a filing cabinetand behind it where nobody could find it.
And when they didn't have paperwork onit being out, they reported it
stolen, and this poor guy.There's video of this, there's dash cam,
there's officer cam. All these cameraswere rolling when this poor man had

(30:03):
to get out of his car,and he said. The whole time,
he's thinking, oh my god,am I going to see my family again?
I hope I don't stumble over arock or something like that, because
they had him walking backward. Ifyou ever watch cops, you know what
I'm talking about, what patrol livewhatever. And he's walking backward and they've
had him pull his hair or hisshirt, the back of his shirt up

(30:26):
over his head, so it's andhands up, back of the shirt over
the head. It's already pretty awkward. And the whole time he's just praying
that he sees his family again.He'd done absolutely nothing wrong, had no
idea why. Eventually it was allcleared up, but he's got to live

(30:48):
with that for the rest of hislife. And I gotta hunt. You'll
have a He'll have a nightmare ortwo over that will. What do you
got? You got any updates?Shit? Nothing from the New York Times
officially, And to be honest,I I doubt the chart that I'm seeing
because it's only from Steam, whichis a video game. No, that's

(31:11):
nothing. No, we're not doingthat. I think what's happening here is
that we're the only two. Well, the number that they're purporting is low.
It's low. It's low. Wellit's not four, but it's under
one thousand a month, and Ijust I'm a month. Yeah, And
I don't believe that number. Ifit's coming off of just that website of

(31:36):
Steam, of people being able toplay, I guess I could understand it,
But for the entire country that onlynine hundred people are playing wordle No,
I don't. Well, it's over, man, I don't think so.
Just there's no way that young peoplewill have moved on. Young people

(31:57):
have moved on, And here wesit. What are you trying to see?
What I did? See what Idid there? What are you trying
to say? Will you turn twentyseven soon? Twenty seven? Oh,
that's cute? Twenty seven? Wow? So old? Will so worldly?
You are? I am okay.The money our president has sent to Ukraine

(32:24):
so far could have built the entireborder wall. And oh, by the
way, he's also suggested now thathe just might grant amnesty to more than
a million illegal immigrants. Who havemarried US citizens. His campaign slogan,
I don't know, maybe vote forme. Everything's free. Why didn't you

(32:44):
just run on that platform? Exceptfor the rest of us, that's not
going to be so true, becausewe're going to have to continue supporting all
these people in their free programs throughheavier and heavier and heavier and heavier taxation.
How about this, This is reallyrecent. President Biden has proposed the
largest capital gains tax hike in onehundred years forty five percent. You heard

(33:13):
me right. He wants capital gainstax to go to forty five percent.
Even President Carter, throughout that crazinessof interest rates, he peaked out at
forty percent. In twenty twenty,the rate was around twenty five percent.
From twenty ten to twenty fifteen,it was just fifteen percent. You vote

(33:38):
for him, you're voting for tendollars low for bread. You're voting for
fifteen dollars gas that's going to forceyou into an electric car that the grid
won't support. And a rapid transitionto a guy named Larry Cudlow. Larry
Cudlow, former Democrat when he wasyoung and then now he's cured though,

(34:00):
and his take on the strategy thatBiden is about to implement, if he's
given any chance to do it,is going to be spend more, tax
more, and regulate more. Andif you want that, you go ahead
and go that way. If youdon't like the idea of not being able
to afford food, not being ableto afford transportation, and just pretty much

(34:25):
not being able to do much ofanything except what the government tells you,
you go ahead and dive right in. I'm genuinely concerned about this, genuine
concern the tax rate to cover allthis mess that he's got us in,
and all the while, all thisfighting we're having to do, over politics,

(34:45):
over gender, over all of thesethings, the border, all while
other nations are watching us and strategicallytalking amongst themselves about that looks fun,
how we're going to divvy it up. I'm genuinely concerned for this country.
I really am. All right,that's gonna wrap it up for this week.

(35:06):
How much time do I have?Will twenty seconds? Pooier, I'm
telling you about it if I can, Oh, yes, I am.
Perrier had to destroy two million bottlesof water after fecal bacteria was discovered in
one of its wells in southern France. They say safe and Pooh free.
But are you sure? Are youfor imprint? Sure? I will see

(35:28):
you next week. Thanks for listening. Audios