ACHP Cigars and Things On Valentines Day Episode 457

Episode Summary

Episode 457 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is the first of a three-show stretch without Mike Palmer, with Hooten Young's John Carney stepping in as guest host alongside co-host Mike Szczepankiewicz ("Boots") and engineer Phil. The crew opens with the usual off-the-rails banter — shout-outs to commenters, a teased upcoming "review the reviewers" segment where they'll rank the top-ten lists from outlets like Half Wheel, Cigar Coop, Cigar Press and Cigar Dojo — before working through the non-cigar news: escaped bears at Wildwood Trust in Devon raiding a zoo kitchen, Ireland's "Our Living Islands" program offering roughly $90,000 to relocate to remote islands, and Waffle House's annual Valentine's Day candlelit dinner tradition.

The meat of the episode is a detailed discussion of Tennessee Senate Bill 2086, the proposed Tobacco Product Retail Licensing Act introduced by Sen. Shane Reeves. The bill would move tobacco under the Tennessee Alcohol Commission, require a $250 tobacco retail license with a $250 annual renewal, allow fines up to $20,000, authorize underage compliance checks, and — most significantly for consumers — require all tobacco and vape sales to be conducted in person, effectively banning direct-to-consumer cigar shipping into the state. Carney and Boots break the issue into three questions: how it affects out-of-state online retailers shipping in, whether a new licensing regime matters much at $250, and whether Tennessee brick-and-mortar shops ship in-state at all. Their consensus: age verification is the public-facing argument, but tax collection and nexus reporting are the real driver, following a blueprint already used in other states. They note Crowned Heads is based in Tennessee and would be an interesting operator to ask about the bill's impact.

Along the way the conversation detours into industry gossip about Scandinavian Tobacco Group layoffs — including Jack Toraño and Sean Hardiman — and praise for Erik Espinosa and how he treats his people. The show closes with "What's the Score?", the Half Wheel guessing game, using Brooks Whittington's review of the Nestor 75 (a seven-inch, 50-ring-gauge, all-undisclosed release of 750 boxes of 10 from October 2024). Phil guesses 88, Carney guesses 91, and Carney wins with Half Wheel's actual 90. Carney wraps with his appearance schedule: cigar and whiskey events at Batch Gastropub in Fort Lauderdale and in Delray Beach, plus the Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg with Hooten Young, and teases 250th-anniversary-of-America releases and PCA New Orleans planning.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Palmer's Out, Carney's In
   John Carney guest hosts a three-episode stretch without Mike Palmer, with co-host Mike Szczepankiewicz and engineer Phil along for the chaos.
2. 02
   Reviewing the Reviewers
   The crew previews a planned segment ranking the top-ten cigar lists from Half Wheel, Cigar Coop, Cigar Press and Cigar Dojo on a zero-to-five scale.
3. 03
   Bears, Honey and Escaped Zoo Animals
   Misha and Lucy's raid on the Wildwood Trust kitchen in Devon sparks a tangent on bears, honey, allergies and urban coyotes in Orlando.
4. 04
   Ireland Pays You $90K to Move
   The Our Living Islands program prompts a debate on whether 90 grand is enough to uproot your life and start a business — including a cigar shop — on a remote Irish island.
5. 05
   Waffle House Valentine's Day
   Tablecloths, candles and reservations at select Waffle House locations spark a debate over whether hash browns belong on date night.
6. 06
   STG Layoff Talk and Espinosa
   Industry gossip about Scandinavian Tobacco Group firings, Jack Toraño, Sean Hardiman, and why Erik Espinosa has a reputation for treating people straight.
7. 07
   Tennessee SB 2086 Breakdown
   A deep dive into the Tobacco Product Retail Licensing Act, the $250 license, $20,000 fines, the in-person-only sales mandate, and why the hosts think it's really about tax revenue.
8. 08
   What's the Score: Nestor 75
   Phil and Carney guess Brooks Whittington's Half Wheel score for the Nestor 75 — suntan lotion, varnish and cocoa nibs included — with Carney's 91 beating the actual 90.
9. 09
   Carney's February Schedule
   Hooten Young events in Fort Lauderdale and Delray Beach, the Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, PCA New Orleans prep, and 250th-anniversary teasers.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.

Transcript

It's Wednesday, ladies and gentlemen, cigar smokers, podcast listeners, and anyone who hit play on accident or on purpose, here on Wednesday, for the next three episodes of Cigar Smokers. So we've got some things we need to talk about. Talk with the cigar in your mouth? We need to talk about, let's start this one over, this is screwy here.

Go ahead, keep it rolling. I screwed it up. No, I'm going to start over from the beginning. All right, go ahead.

Yeah, one second. All right. I thought that was great. Yeah, yeah.

For the bloopers. We've got a whole show of bloopers. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Wednesday, cigar smokers, podcast listeners, and anyone who hit play, we've got some things that we need to talk about here.

The next three shows, Mike Palmer will not be on the show. Oh, he's gone. That's it. That's the show right there.

That's it. That's it. Yes. The guy that actually makes this show run is gone temporarily, but in podcast terms, this may go down as one of the worst decisions in recorded audio history.

Today, I am John Carney and I will be filling in and by filling in, I mean actively drowning. Expect non-relevant information, unfinished thoughts, and stories that start strong and absolutely go nowhere. This isn't hosting. It is truly survival.

And somehow it's gonna get worse. I'm in for it. You really got me for this one here Palmer. Here we go.

Over the next two episodes, management will attempt to replace Palmer with random subpar cigar personas, a rando, a seat filler, someone with confidence wildly disproportionate to their knowledge, Quick win, gone. Timing, missing. Intelligence, we're very optimistic, but concerned. So do yourself a favor, either skip the next two episodes, we're not doing that, or lean in and don't miss the auto accident like chaos we're about to provide.

Rubbernecking is encouraged. This is not a plan. This is not a rebuild. This is chaos.

And with that, welcome to episode 457 of the Cigar Hustlers podcast. Let's get started. This show over with. Here we go.

So with me is our engineering guy they call, Phil, who has a rubber beer nose on. Rubber beer. There's the reading aspect. Reading recognition challenge already.

I like beer. I get it. I like beer. Yeah, I love beer.

And then as the co-host, a man who doesn't look worried, but who should be worried. We'll be seriously worried by the end of this, of the show, Mr. Susspenkiewicz. Susspenkiewicz.

I try to pronounce the S and the Z and the C and the Z and the E as well as I can, and I get the N pretty well, I think. Yeah, you're not even close. No. No, it's okay.

It's all right. I'm closer than literally everybody else. Probably. It's Szczep Onkiewicz.

Unless you're Polish, because then you look at it like... Cech? It's Polish. It's Cech.

Szczep. Oh. Dude, that makes perfect sense. Right?

After what, like 18 years, I'm finally like, you're telling me it makes sense? You're getting there. Wow. Szczep Onkiewicz.

Szczep Onkiewicz. Szczep Onkiewicz. There you go. Wow.

It's actually easy once you start saying it. Yeah. You were right. Yeah.

So, Mike, tell us a little bit here. How do we get that CHPod gear? com for all our latest swag. You buy one shirt, you get the second one 40% off, and if you spend $100 or more, you're going to get free shipping.

Let's give a couple of shout outs here to people who commented on our last show. We probably have a few more comments here, because Mr. Carney kept us waiting with bated breath. Let's see.

On the wings of love. Nargars, I loved this one when I saw it. It says GTA 6 before Palmer and Phil getting put their beanies. Yes.

Wow. And then Real Smoke Pod also wrote, Hey, Palmer and Boots, how much to get us on the list, Laugh Out Loud? 500. No, they're talking about being on the review list.

Oh. Because we were gonna do the top five. Oh, yeah, yeah. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna review the reviewers.

So, Real Smoke Pod, you're on that list, no problem. So, we're gonna do two different categories. We're gonna do Half Wheel, Coop, I always screw this up. Yeah, you did this the other day.

Cigar Press. Dojo, was that the one? Dojo. Yep.

And then, who am I forgetting? Now I'm forgetting another person. This is what we did yesterday. Yeah, I'm forgetting somebody else.

There was one person. Yeah. And if they're listening, how should they feel about us forgetting who they are? Yeah, pretty bad.

Yeah, yeah. That's a cool idea. You're going to review the reviewers. Yeah.

Are you going to review the cigar or review the review? We're going to take the top ten that they review and we're going to rank them zero through five. Zero means we don't think it belongs on the list. Five is absolutely, and then, you know, one through three.

So the top score that anybody could get would be a perfect 50, which is not going to happen. Right? And we'll see how they score, and then we'll average out our scores, and then we'll rank them within that five. Are we going to smoke the cigars or just rank the cigars?

No, you're just going to rank them. Yeah, rank the reviewer. I'd like to review it. Yeah, you've either already smoked the cigar, or if you haven't, I mean, maybe you didn't smoke the cigar, but you know the brand, and you think, okay, so then maybe give that one a three, you know, something like that.

And you said Coop was on it? I think it's a great idea. Yeah, of course we're going to review Coop. Yeah, Cuban?

Coop. Coop. Coop. Oh, I thought you said Cubans.

No, I said Coop. It's like a modified Coop. You know, I always love Carnie's. It's the French version.

It's the French version of La Cue. Yeah, his reviews are "les good". "les good". I always love Carnie's Energy.

It's super high. It's nice. Three and bigger. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you. So we're going to keep using the word beer for bear here, but beer siblings, Misha and Lucy, became overnight celebrities in March 2025 after escaping their enclosure at Wildwood Trust in Devon, England. I'm pretty sure we might have covered this one.

Zoo staff immediately went into emergency mode, visitors were evacuated, police were contacted, and concerns grew that the beers might have wandered beyond the park's boundaries, But the furry fugitives hadn't gone far at all. Instead of heading into the countryside, Misha and Lucy made their way straight to the zoo's kitchen, which had just received a fresh delivery of fruits and vegetables. According to the staff, timing couldn't have been worse or better, depending on your perspective. I'm supposed to use an English accent here.

Yes, try it. The Queen's English or, you know, main English? Yeah, Queen's English. They didn't panic.

They didn't roam. One staff member said they went straight for the food like they knew exactly where they were going. Right. Once inside, the bears devoured the entire produce shipment and then moved on to dessert.

Consuming a full week's worth of honey after their all-you-can-eat buffet, the excitement quickly fizzled. Keepers later discovered that the pals were fast asleep on the kitchen floor, surrounded by empty containers, sticky surfaces, and unmistakable evidence of a legendary sugar binge. Live in that good life. Yeah.

There's some other quotes here. It was honestly a life. Another. It was honestly, they were full and calm and exactly where we could safely manage the situation.

So the bears never left the facility. After they woke from their comas, Misha and Lucy were safely returned to their cages. It went viral online here. Popular Science picked it up and it was on the Coop Show food segment.

Was it really? Yeah. There's a numerous example here of animal behavior driven by opportunity rather than instinct. That's a good show.

It was instinct for freedom, and in the end, the bears got a feast, the zoo got a cleanup job, and the internet got a story that it won't soon forget. We could leave, but there's all of this food over here. So honey is the unique one. They do go after honey.

So apparently bears love honey? Yes, bears love honey. Bears also love like shit diapers and all kinds of other things. Do you know any random facts about honey?

I do not know random facts about honey. I mean, there's supposedly good things about them, like good health things. I wonder if bears eat honey for allergen reasons, because you know if you eat local honey, they say if you eat local honey, you don't get the same allergies from that area. I wonder if that's part of the reason, not just the flavor, if it's just instinctively driven by them, by being a bear, that that's a way that they avoid having allergens.

I don't know about having allergies, because they have, they breathe heavy, you assume they'd bring in a lot of allergies, they're around pollen all the time, so I wonder if that plays a big role, and I bet it does. Are you recently having some allergy problems? No, but my daughter does, and she calls her, she blames everything on her allergies, she's four, so she'll be like, hey daddy, I'm like, hey sweetheart, it's time to get a bath, and she's like, daddy, daddy, my allergies, okay, I need to take care of my allergies, daddy, and then we can take care of the bath, don't be silly daddy, duh. So she likes honey for her allergies because we told her, I bet bears do that instinctively.

Yeah. Do you have bear problems in your neighborhood at all? No, no, we have urban coyotes in ours. Coyotes?

Yeah, no bear, no bears. Urban coyotes? Is that like an animal or a person? Well, they classify as urban because you can't, it's not open season on them, so you can't remove them by unnatural ways.

That's ridiculous. They're protective. Yeah, they're protected, so you can't kill them. So like, I'm from Maine, so coyotes are open season year round, you can shoot them.

On your own property, whenever you want. Down here, if you have an urban coyote, you can't, you can't shoot it. And I don't think you can trap and kill it either. So that's just the thing, a local thing.

I don't know how far that goes. I'm in the city limits of Orlando. So it's, yeah, it's like, it's urban. So I think that's an urban thing.

So they classify them as urban coyotes, so you can't kill them. Gotcha. Do you have bear issues? No.

Phil? No, I have raccoon. Raccoons don't count. I'm asking about bears.

No, no bears. We have bears in Maine, I mean, we have bears in our backyard in Maine, not an issue, but they, they trap and move them if they're, if they're in local areas, they move them pretty far away to try to get them into more remote, they always come back, dude, they always find their way back. Yeah, I mean, we've got a bear that has visited our house, probably three or four times in the past two months, and motion sensor goes off and I get to go confront the bear, so he doesn't destroy our garbage, because that's what he's going for. You confront him?

Yeah. My favorite bear is bear from El Oso Fumar, and he's not a bear problem. Yeah, he's the best bear. Yeah, he's a good bear.

He's a sweet bear. I wonder if he likes honey. He does. He loves justice, that's for sure.

Yeah. His child and the cigar. Yeah, really. It's not hard to do that.

Both of those things are really nice. Yeah. Can we move on from this one? Because I don't have any random honey facts beyond what we just talked about, but here's something that's unique.

Okay. Imagine getting paid nearly $90,000 just to slow your life down. Okay. No traffic, no packed schedules, no nonstop notifications, just ocean air, quiet mornings, and a tight-knit community that actually knows your name.

How much? 90 grand. A year? Yeah.

Well, let's get into this. That's not a fantasy, it's real life in Ireland. Really? I might have done an Irish accent here, I'm not quite sure.

Okay, let's go. The Irish government has launched a program called Our Living Islands, designed to bring new life back to its remote, underpopulated islands, And they're offering up to 90,000 of people willing to move there and help rebuild these fading communities. These aren't tourist traps, we're talking peaceful, rugged islands where time moves slower and nature runs the show. The money can be used to renovate homes, start small businesses, or create sustainable living projects.

Basically giving people the tools to start fresh in one of the most peaceful environments on earth. Local officials say it isn't just about filling empty houses, it's about saving communities. " That's a terrible accent. Without new residents, many of these communities simply won't survive.

So picture waking up in that environment in the Irish waters in an island and replacing endless screen time with sunsets that look like pulse cards. And for those burned out by Modern Chaos, it could be the ultimate reset button. Is that like 90, they give you 90 annually, or is it a one-time deal? Don't know.

It sounds like it's a one-timer. It sounds like it's a one-time deal, which honestly is not as big of a push as I would want to permanently move my life. Right. I wonder if you have to, it must be you go and stay for a short period of time, start the business, and maybe you can leave after.

I'm sure that there's some requirements. Yeah, right. You know, you have to spend X amount of time in that, in, you know, at, in the island, on the island or whatever. Yeah, it'd be nice if the producer of this here would give us some more information on it to talk about.

I mean, it would. I'm sure he's leaving it out intentionally. Yeah. To make me struggle and be like, "Hey, what?

" Right, I guess that's where it's at. Then I have to talk in a silly accent. Yeah. In an English-Irish accent, 'cause that's what that was.

I guess the good question here is, one, leprechauns. We have leprechauns on these islands. Two, how much money would it take for you to up your whole life, move your family, move everything you're doing, to go live remotely on an island and start a new life there? What would be that number?

And it's Ireland. It's not like it's in the tropics or something. No. I don't know if I'd be down with that.

What if you just use the money, create a business over there, live over there for however the time is? Yeah. Right, the time frame. And then come back.

I mean, what if you were the first cigar shop? That's what I'm thinking. Like, you go over and you don't, you make it your primary residence, but you still live, and you, that, that sounds desirable to me, where I'd have the ability to go back and forth and do whatever I want to do, where it doesn't have to be. That's where I'd want more information.

If you're going to pay me to go start a business somewhere, I would certainly do that. The number's a lot lower. Right. If it's uproot your life and then go live there, that's a very different thing, so.

I got news for you dude, 90k isn't a drop in the bucket for starting a new cigar shop anywhere. Yeah, but I mean how much does it cost to build a building there? 90k doesn't even get to the shelves, you know what I mean? Like you're not even, you don't even have couches at that point.

That's not just cigar business, what business I guess would you start over there? Would you buy, you know, some cattle or cows or sheep? I don't know, what business do you know of that 90 grand gets you 100% off the ground? And with, by the way, there's no, obviously there's no customers there either.

Right. So what's the, what's the, you know, what's the pull and what's the play? And if you start a business, what do you do? Well, I mean, I'm hoping for some customers to be there, but I would do something like a karate studio or a jujitsu place.

Oh, you just got to throw down some mats. You need open space. It has to be something you physically do a service in, and then there would also have to be some benefits licensing wise. Like you'd have to have some, you'd have to get fast tracked on things because you, you can get tied up in, in licensing and I'm sure it's even more challenging over there.

You get tied up with like, if you have a restaurant, you got to buy equipment, you got to meet certain health standards. So what are they trying? Most restaurants fail anyways. Yeah.

So I don't know. I don't like this. I think 90 grand is not enough to do it. It's not.

And, and they expected it from what it said. It seems like they want you to like populate it. Right. So I don't know.

Yeah. I'm out. Would you go for 90 K Bootsy? Phil McGuffin?

To open a business? Not to live. You'd have to live. I mean, I'm okay with like leaving for like a year.

And then being gone? Going back? Yeah, not going back. You could disappear for a year for 90K.

Yeah. Bold. That's bold. You got kids?

Yeah. He doesn't love them, though. Yeah, well, that makes it easier. Yeah.

I got one on the way, so actually that gets me out of six more months. That's what he's like, I'm trying to escape for a year. It's 90K, perfect. Her feet are swollen, she's angry, she's agitated.

Darren Gobra. This is for the greater good. I'm going to go to Ireland for 90k. Yeah, yeah.

I'd be out on it. There'd be more questions to be asked. It seems unique. You know, I'm sure there'd be people that were certainly interested to it and probably position themselves, but I'd want to know more.

And I think part of the reason why we have more challenges is we've got a lot of things going on business-wise. I'm just thinking, could I duplicate things that I'm doing over there or have done? I can't duplicate anything I've done for 90 grand. Look, man, here's the other thing, you know, I know that times are very tumultuous right now, there's a lot of turmoil going on, but the reality is, in my opinion, it's the greatest country in the world, the United States of America, right?

And I'm happy to be here, so I don't know if 90Ks is big enough for me to go somewhere else, not even close. I moved to South Florida for 90K. 90K South Florida? Just cash in my pocket, nothing, no other things.

They don't want you down there. They got too many people down there. Yeah, true. Yeah.

They're like, Hey, we'll give you 90 grand to stay where you're at. But I guess these are already people that already live in Ireland. So I guess if you're a business owner for 90,000, you could just move over there. That's what I said.

I have questions. If this is secondary home, what are the requirements for you to do it? There's a lot of questions asked, but just on the outline, I'm out at 90 K. Phil, Phil Boots, Phil is in at 90 K to escape the birthing of the Yeah, it sounds like Phil will be in for about 20 bucks and we're going to cover your flight.

I'm going to give you a cheeseburger. You go live here. Okay. Well, with that move, he's definitely not going to do well on this one because we're about to talk about Valentine's Day.

Every year on February 14th, select Waffle House locations across the country, transform their normally casual diners into full Valentine's Day date night spots, complete with tablecloths, candles, special menus, and reservations. Reservations? Yep. What started years ago is a The small promotion to a handful of Southern restaurants has grown into a popular annual tradition.

Couples are often greeted by hosts, seated at decorated tables, and served in a more formal dining style, a rear experience for 24 hour breakfast chain, best known for late night hash browns, and coffee refills. The Valentine's Day menu typically features classic Waffle House favorites like steak and eggs, waffles, hash browns again, custom toppings, and special desserts, sometimes with limited editions just for the holiday. Some locations even encourage dressing up, with guests showing up in suits, dresses, and themed outfits. Not all the Waffle Houses participate, but the ones that do often book up very quickly.

Many locations require advanced reservations, almost unheard of for famous walk-in-only restaurant. In some cities, tables are filled weeks in advance by couples who have made it their annual tradition. Employees take part in the fun as well, Wearing festive attire and providing a more personalized dining experience than usual for many guests, a mix of nostalgia, humor, and some genuine romance, turning a fast food diner into an unexpectedly memorable Valentine's experience and celebration of love. Over the years, social media has helped make the event even more popular with photos of candlelit booths, heart-shaped decorations spreading every February across the grill.

Would you spend Valentine's at a Waffle House? My wife doesn't like what it smells like when I cook anything in the house, so I don't know why she'd want to go sit in a restaurant that's got an open kitchen, diner feel, but she could be down for it, but no, absolutely 100%, I'm not going to Waffle House Valentine's Day. Yeah, that was a nice approach. I don't think so.

Yeah. But Boots is down, and so is Phil. Yeah, we like the Waffle House. We like the Waffle House.

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like Palmer's putting a lot of Waffle House news in there. They've been aiming for it.

Do you think that they make like heart-shaped waffles? Oh, 100%. Yeah, probably. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I've seen some of this online, it is a, it is a thing, and it's, I've seen people dressed up, it would be fun, it's just if I was gonna, if I don't go out to a nice dinner, we'll stay home and do a dinner at the house, that's, those are the two options for Valentine's Day, that I, that I personally enjoy, right, it's a, for me, it's a fun, fun day to go out and have a nice dinner and do something special, but there is some unique stuff here, Valentine's diner, dinner has become a modern holiday tradition, that proves, obviously, that romance can happen anywhere, even under neon lights, and over a plate of hash browns. And I think you got a video for us. No, I don't actually, not today. No video.

No video. Okay. You're rolling through it. We are.

We're crushing this. You want to know how I know Carney is really busy? Because he's talking really fast. And as soon as the story ends, he's rolling right into the next one.

Well, I'm not super busy, but I've been high octane all day today from about 7:30 in the morning. Yeah. At my first meeting at 8:00, my second meeting at 9:00, my third meeting at 10:15:00. And then I had another meeting at 1:00 when we started this that I had one of my team members take over on, which has been fine, which coincidentally was canceled one minute into the meeting, we rescheduled that one, so that was interesting.

And so everything I've been doing today has been talking quickly, so that's why I'm moving through stuff fast. And in the middle of it, my daughter had like a mental breakdown today. She didn't want to go to school right off. I get it.

So that was fine. And so yeah, it's been a quick day. But that's why with this Valentine's one, I tried to slow it down a little bit and focus on love and emotion. Right, thank you very much.

Yeah. Are you trying to get a job at STG? Is that what you're doing? 75 meetings in one day, talking fast, moving fast, even if they canceled, you're on to the next one?

Yeah. Yeah, that's what you're doing? Yeah, I guess. You want to give, I think that you, you could replace Justin Andrews, let's be honest.

Justin, I would love to work alongside him, you know, I could do some dominant things. You're about the same height, you know, you're both kind of tall. I'm taller than Justin. You're taller than Justin?

Yeah, I think I'm taller than Justin. So it's an upgrade. Just in physical stature? Yeah.

In height alone. He and I might be close in height now that you think about it. I'm looking at him, I look almost eye-to-eye to him when I look in my head at how we communicate. He did have like the Hennessy truck, I think.

He had a Hennessy truck? Yeah, I think so. Like the Hennessy edition? Yeah.

So he might beat you on the vehicle. Well, he's also, he's been there for 10 years. Yeah. They're paying him well now.

Yeah, and he has a good strategy. What he does is he avoids all the Christmas parties because that's when they fire everybody. Yeah. So he doesn't go to those.

Christmas parties are like their beginning of the year meetings. Yeah, that's when he cuts out. He's like, "Oh, I got a thing," and he just doesn't show up. And then what they do is they forget about it.

If they were going to fire him, they just move on because they don't want to do it come January. They really fire people at their Christmas parties? You fired Jack Taranio. That's the ongoing joke, dude.

Dear God. Yeah. That's supposed to be the time when they're supposed to give back to the employees. That's your choice.

They are giving back. They're giving you back to your family. Yeah. They're giving back to their ROI.

I had heard that Sean Hardiman was let go during his sales meeting with his team. Oh, really? Yeah. That's like being arrested at a press conference.

Yeah. Yeah. That's cold-blooded. It's super cold-blooded.

Wow. Yeah, I heard that. And I had heard that when we had talked about this originally on the show. Yeah.

And I took it another way because Sean's a really good friend of mine. Right. " But Jack would be an expert of getting fired by STG. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, so he would know. Yeah, he knows how to fuel the grill. Yeah, so I didn't realize he had a Christmas party, man, that's brutal. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Has he talked about this publicly with you guys? Oh, yeah. Like, publicly? Oh, yeah, we bring it up all the time.

Did he have, like, any inkling that that was coming up? No. Awful. Nastiness.

And I'm glad he's with Espinosa, man. Espinosa's a good dude. Yeah, Eric takes care of everybody. If he was gonna be done with you, you would know it well before.

Yeah, you'd see it coming. Yeah, and he would be right up in your, he would let you know. He's direct. And man, the show you guys had with him, where he talked about how he treats his people, was epic.

And he truly does do that. Right. And he's a really good guy. And I said, I'm glad Jack's with him, and they got a good group of people over there.

What are you looking for, lighter? No, I was looking for the remote for the show here. Gotcha. But we came up with something good.

Jack Fitz had pretty good. Yeah, Eric's a good guy, man. That was a great show you guys had. Yeah.

And that's genuinely him. 100%. Yeah, because if it wasn't, you would know quick. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. All right, go ahead. Hit the next step.

That's brutal. I don't think I want to go to SDG then. I don't know. It's got a big enough check.

I mean. I guess. I guess. It's not 90K.

Finally, into some cigar news. Okay. A new bill. See, I'm relaxed now.

Yeah, you said it again. This new bill introduced into Tennessee legislature would make it illegal for retailers to ship cigars direct to consumer in the state and add complications to local retailers. Yes. SB 286, 2086, also known as the Tobacco Product Retail Licensing Act, would add new rules for retailers wanting to do business in the state.

The bill would place tobacco products under authority of the Tennessee Alcohol Commission and would require any retailer who wants to sell tobacco vaping products to get a new tobacco product retail license, which include a $250 application fee and an annual $250 renewal fee, penalties for violating rules related to the rules, would start with a civil case and additionally could have fines up to $20,000 in suspension. In addition, the bill would empower the Tennessee Alcohol Commission to conduct underage compliance checks, seized contraband products, and keep its own database of license holders. For consumers, the largest change would be that it would ban the sale of any tobacco and vaping products that are not sold in person. The bill says all sales and products must be conducted in person to the licensed location.

It is unlawful for a licensed product retailer or the retailer's agents or employees to sell, offer, or sale of, or deliver tobacco products to a consumer in the manner other than in person. All right, so there's a bunch more here, but the question is, how does this impact shipping cigars into the state from outside retailers? Right. Second, Tennessee doesn't have tobacco licenses currently.

Correct. And third, do a lot of Tennessee retailers do e-commerce internally in the state, I guess would be the other question that I would ask. So how does it impact, one, the, the, the, the, the cigars being shipped to the state. Yeah, how does it impact the retailers into the state, shipping in, and then how does it impact the retailer's new licensing, and then how does that impact them, and are they actually shipping in and around the state?

Okay, so like the first thing is as an online retailer, do you honor that? Do you honor that law, right? Because maybe your bigger guys will, but maybe some of your smaller guys won't, right? And if they don't, how would you know?

How would you know? Because if you send something through the United States Postal Service, you have to require a warrant in order to open it, right? You can't just open up random packages to verify what's in them and what's not. Well, you can, but it's legal.

Yeah, so how would you do, how would you put anything in court at that point if you obtained that information illegally? Well, if a retailer shipped a package to somebody that was involved in the politics of this whole thing. And says, "Hey, I got a person. I caught one.

" Okay, so now if it's a civil thing, how is it enforced? " I don't see how that's civil. Well, that's what they stated. No, I know.

But that just seems backwards to me. Like, it shouldn't be civil. Yeah. So, step number one is it seems completely obnoxious to me as far as retail going into the state.

Do you want to comment on that? I don't know what their goal is with it because it said shipped within the state. So, is it going to stop people from shipping into the state? I don't know.

Generally, what happens with these things is what they're trying to do is collect more tax. So this is all about, not age verification, they care about that, but they use that as the leading picture, because that's provocative, and the general consensus and stuff is when this happens, the next thing that comes is a tax increase, and collection of taxes, so I'm assuming that's what they're trying to do, and they don't, I said they don't really have license, they have business license, but they don't have strict tobacco licenses, so I would venture shipping into the state, they're not going to have a lot of control over that. I think that's a much more elaborate process to participate in. You have to get the Postal Service on board, UPS, or anybody that's shipping in to the state to do that with you.

Then you've got to get people to cooperate on a distribution level of who's distributing into the state. And then you have to get online retailers to work with you. And if you don't have Nexus in that state, how are they going to determine that? But Nexus is a big deal now, and that's come into play with Amazon, where you now pay taxes on online things.

You know, gone are the days where you don't pay taxes in the states anymore, tobacco tax is the next one coming up, and I would assume Tennessee's probably taking some notes from some other states, because there's products that we ship in some of the businesses I have, that we collect tobacco tax on it now in the state, and remit it every month, so this looks to me like that's what they're trying to do, long term, short term, it's like, we need to age verify, we need to have proper licenses, because we're trying to make sure the business is run as authentically and So we're going to be able to make sure that we age verify and that this doesn't get into the hands of children, right? And then the next step is that, you know, what we talked about. You're kind of hinting into something that we talked about on this upcoming Patreon, which is interesting. But, alright, so what was the second thing?

What was number two? Number two is that there's no licenses in the state currently for tobacco. I think that's a moot point. That's a collection fee on that's like, oh, it's an extra fee.

It's $250 for the license. It's nominal. If your business can't afford a $250 license, you've got some other challenges. So that's a moot point.

So they will collect good business, you know, good money off it, say there's a thousand, you know, a thousand retail outlets that can now have to be licensed, you know, you can collect some revenue, and then out of those, say, out of those thousand, it's probably more, but out of those thousand, you know, now you have an avenue of revenue generation where you can go and catch them. They don't fully understand the regulation now that they're trying to push, even when it comes to the vape, and the reason why I say that is because a lot of kids have already moved on from that. You know, when you're trying to control the consumption of underage anything, right, by the time the regulation and the legislation passes through, they've already moved on. These pouches are taking over.

They're everywhere. Oh, the zins? You have no idea if somebody has it in their mouth or not, and you're not going to be able to control it, right? It's provided that you have to be 21 or older to get it, but yet, I still see kids with it, you know?

So, like, to what end? You know, like, what's the difference? I don't understand the forcing of the regulation when, at the end of the day, it's not going to stop or prevent anything, but it maybe will increase some sort of taxation. That's why I always look at it.

It's always, it's the easiest way to tax is through control, right? So if you can control the entire environment, then you can tax at percentage what you, and there's a portion of the population that doesn't object to that, right or wrong. I object to more taxes on things, anything, period. But they don't object to it, especially in things that don't impact them.

Right. Or they don't see impact them. So it's interesting. It's always hidden as a revenue generating activity because the governments don't have to make, they don't have to break even on the books, right?

They can run at deficits, but so they're trying to maximize the amount of money they can bring in to do new things. So anytime this stuff comes up, it's always about money, because we're educated as consumers. We're educated as a society to, you know, smoking cigarettes is bad for you. People still do it.

If they wanted you to actually stop, they'd just get rid of it. Like fully say, hey, it's illegal. You know, the government come in and shut you down, now they tried, but what do they do? They made the cigarette businesses bigger than they ever were, because now they can control all of them, they're all in on it together, and they maximize the amount of money that they can pull out of it, and the consumer's the one that pays for it.

So any of these things, in my opinion, are always revenue-driven at the end of the day. Whether they say it is or isn't, it's there, because they wouldn't do it if it was a cost-saving measure. They're not in business of saving money. So what was number three?

Number three was shipping, shipping internally in the state, right? Does a retailer actually ship internally in the state that heavily? You know, what's really kind of interesting is I've noticed that through search engine optimization and all these other things that the, all those SEOs will actually organically promote you within your state or kind of locally, even when you have an online site and online presence. So it's very possible that it will affect those even smaller retailers that have figured out how to kind of compete in the smaller landscapes in those smaller areas.

Yeah, I think it's easy for us to talk about that being in Florida, and when we're in one of the top five cigar markets in the United States, arguably number three, behind, we might be number one, if you actually look at consumption, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, just because of distribution networks, California, because of population, New York because of population, just because they're not the number one selling doesn't mean they're not the top consumers of it. Florida is one or two probably in selling and consumption. So if you look at that, Texas, same thing, selling and consumption. By the way, Bear was number five on that top five review.

Oh, gotcha. Tennessee is small. Right. In comparison, population size, it's tiny.

How many retailers are even there? There's a good amount, but it's in relation to these big... You see this type of stuff in California, New York, Illinois. You try to see these efforts in Texas and Florida, but they don't work because they see the business side of it, and they'd rather keep the money in the business's hands and then do smart regulations in all those states.

So I'm not convinced there's a lot of internal shipping in Tennessee. So the play's got to be to stop the products from coming in out of state Because in Florida, if somebody searches for cigars, if I search for cigars in Central Florida, Cigar Hustler pops up, okay, and your website pops up, so it shows you as a store and it shows you as a retailer, so you got SEO coming from different angles if I'm around you, you know, in a certain mileage basis. In Tennessee, if you search cigars on Google, like right now, I bet if we search cigars, cigars shipping Tennessee, it's probably CIJR, Famous, Best Cigar Prices, Cigar Pay, all these places, right? I guarantee you, cigar shipping Tennessee, the top five are not retailers in Tennessee.

So you're not accidentally running into it, in my opinion. So that's an interesting one that's thrown in there, and I don't know how the wording is, but that would venture to see that they want to track things that are coming in. That are getting shipped, and you said civil, you know, so some of these civil cases would be interesting, that makes me think that this is a step towards taxing products coming into the state of Tennessee, and reporting the state, and the way to do it is very simple, the distributors that distribute into the state must register in the state, if you register into the state, and you're a distributor, and then you sell to retailers, or you sell to consumers, and you're already registered, and you get a report, and there you go, and you're paying the taxes, which I don't think necessarily is a bad thing, if a state has a So if it has a tax where it levels the playing field a little bit, the taxes shouldn't be absurd, but you know, that's another argument for another day. Yeah, but we don't have taxes, so you're not leveling the playing fields at all.

Well, there are local taxes, so like say you're a direct consumer retailer here in Florida, you, at a certain threshold, you're supposed to pay sales tax, you have to pay local taxes, so there are in there, so the system's in place to do this, and it's even more advanced. It's a lot more advanced than it used to be because the technology makes it very easy and there's card processing companies now that automatically will take the payments for you and they'll charge you 5% and pay your taxes for you. There's a lot of them out there. So this is, you're going to see a lot more of this and that's what I venture to see what we do.

And I'd be interested, I could jump on my phone and see on the website with Hooten Young if we pay tax into Tennessee already. If we don't, I bet that it's coming. Right. Okay.

Great article. We hope that that bill gets squashed. I wonder if CAA is… Don't get ahead of us. That's a totally different conversation.

Hey, this is about the Cigar Hustler pod, and this is about our views and opinions that we're expressing on the show. Yeah. So, I'm sure they're on top of it, or there's some sort of thing with this. I haven't seen anything.

I haven't been on any cigar media this week yet, but I'm sure there's some info out there on it. Except your podcasts. Yeah, we'll see. I do.

You guys are all up my algorithm now. It's beautiful. Right before I go to bed and when I wake up, I see your beautiful faces. Here we are.

Nice. But it's all about money, man. It's always about the money. It's about other states are already doing this.

Tennessee's getting in the ball game. And this is the same blueprint they use everywhere. So it's monkey see, monkey do, right? That's all we got for stories and news today.

That's it, just the one. That's also the end of the show, according to me, because it's all blank from here on out. Really? Yeah.

There's nothing here. There was just the one thing? Yeah. Wow, Palmer really got out of there as he's going to Ireland.

Wow. Yeah. I can tell you Shane Reeves, a Republican from Murfreesboro, was introduced to this bill, so this is a conservative that's putting this in. He's a pharmacist, track record of calling for tougher state laws on tobacco.

I'm going to call Palmer right now on the show. Yeah, let's get him live, baby. It calls over to Ireland? Yeah, little do we know that Palmer's taking the 90 grand.

That was the show, right there. Right. Hey, you're on the podcast. Oh, hello, podcast.

Hello. So we just had one cigar news thing today? Yeah, you had more news stories. There wasn't any other cigar news.

That is it. Wow. And there's no what's the score? No, you pull your own what's the score.

Oh, I pull my own what's the score. Must be with that video. Uh, no, I, I did the, I did the, I did the, I did it with, I did it with, yeah, Karney would have read it, but now I'm going to do it. Yeah, so it's me versus Karney.

Fine, yeah, fine, I'll just carry this whole thing without you. Yeah. Goodbye. Have fun in Ireland.

No more, no more for you. It's falling apart. Um, he intentionally does this. You know, I did look up the cigar places in Tennessee.

Yeah. And the number two one that pulled up was, um, Crown Heads. Oh, that makes sense. Cigar Shipping in Tennessee.

Yeah, because that's where they're located. Miguel would be an interesting one to ask some questions on this since they're based there to see if they have any insight or if it impacts what they do for business. If it would have an impact on what they're doing for business, it would certainly lead me to think that it's a financial thing, right? Okay, so now...

I'm going to get to participate. You're going to participate. Let's go. So you versus Phil McGrath.

Yes. In a one-run, half-wheels review of: What's the score? All right, so listen. What's the score?

My boy Jeff Grainer at Classic Scars in Tulsa. Our boy. Yes. One of the best.

Yes. Palmer's calling. No, you don't answer. Don't answer.

You already had his shot. Yeah. I was going to read anything he said. He couldn't put anything.

Exactly. You had one shot, one opportunity. I'm really surprised he didn't put anything about, you know, anything of Carney in this whole thing. Alright, so my boy Jeff, he sent me this one, because we were having a good back and forth via text, and hopefully I will read it in this description, I don't want to miss it.

So, it is from January 5th, 2025, The Nestor 75, reviewed by Brooks Whittington. This is a Redux. Is it? Is it Nestor 80 now?

What year did you say? 2025. I don't know, this is off the cuff, buddy, so I'll let you know as we go. Yeah.

Normally it says Redux up top. It does, right? I think Nestor's 80 now. Yeah.

I don't know. Anyway, it was 75. That's the cigar. Sorry.

Okay. So, go ahead with you. Who do you want to go for? No, you're the guest.

No, he went first. You decide if you want to go first or you want to go after. I'm going to go after. All right, Phil, go ahead and pick your number.

Is it Brooks? Yep. Okay. I'm gonna go 87.

Okay. Let's see. Cigar Review, Nestor 75, Country of Origin, Undisclosed, Factory, Undisclosed, Wrapper, Undisclosed, Binder, Undisclosed, Filler, Undisclosed, Length, 7 inches. Perfect.

Gauge, 50. MSRP, not applicable. Release date, October 8th, 2024. It's in 2024, so it's not that old.

Number of cigars released: 750 boxes of 10. And cigars reviewed: 3. How is the price not applicable? I don't know.

He must not have known it or something. Maybe as we read on, maybe we'll find out. Undisclosed everything. Everything's undisclosed.

All right. 86. 87. Okay.

First clue. All three cigars The cigars are extremely attractive, including dark brown wrappers that are silky smooth to the touch and spongy when squeezed. However, each cigar has a small number of protruding veins, and after physical inspections, two of the three cigars have small soft spots located in different spots. One is just under the secondary band, while the other is halfway between the foot and the bands.

Aromas from the wrappers are very similar, with sweet earthiness, leading creamy leather, barnyard, pencil lead, stale bread, baker's spices, and light vanilla bean sweetness. Peanuts dominate the scents coming from the feet of two cigars. My last cigar features more cedar than nuts, followed by dark chocolate, sourdough bread, dry hay, raisin sweetness, and a slight note that reminds me of varnish. That varnished note is quite a bit more evident on the cold draws, albeit not in an unpleasant way, along with sawdust cedar, salted potato chips, herbs, and sweet leather.

Holy shit. We haven't even lit the cigar. Yeah. This is no light, dry draw.

No light, dry draw. My god. E3. You go check it.

He's so excited. There you go. This guy's got to start drinking bottles of Coke with peanuts in the middle of his barn. The varnish smells from the box, for sure, if you smell varnish on a cigar that's from the box of the band, that's what the paint they use in these things smells like, 83.

Okay, sorry, 86, 86, so you're just gonna stay there. 86, 83. See if I can get this to move. All right, let me see this one.

Yes, this is the one I want. I just want to say this one. Do you watch this portion, Garney? Of course.

On each show? Oh, God, yeah. Okay. Best part of the show.

I've guessed one exactly right before. Flavors of anise and black pepper lead off the profiles of the Nestor 75 cigars. But the profile is quickly overtaken by new main flavors of creamy almonds and dry saltine crackers. Secondary notes of cedar, gritty earth, powdery...

Cocoa nibs. Cinnamon and roasted peanuts show up at various points. While the Retro Hail is full of rich molasses, sweetness, and a touch of black pepper. On the finish, the first cigar features a light but noticeable flavor, this is what I've been waiting for, that reminds me of suntan lotion.

Oh, he loves it. Although it is only present for a few puffs before disappearing for good. Flavor hits full, but the body and strength barely hit a solid medium by the end of the first third. I mean, I give these guys, honestly, though, I know we laugh and joke, but I give them props for taking the time to identify flavors like that.

I love this. I absolutely love it. Man, I'm sitting there, have you ever been to their offices? No.

So it's a big office, it's a nice spot, and I'm sitting there just imagining them in that office, like, taking the time, and they do take the time, and they show the smoking time, and these cigars that they've smoked, they're like three hours smoking time, like an hour and five minutes for me, it's because they're really trying to identify it. That's wild. But to drop suntan lotion. Oh, suntan lotion.

Varnish and suntan lotion is wild. That is amazing. Yeah. What a job, huh?

All right. What do you got? You're the best in the business. Well, first of all, he said the word Coco Nibs, so this is going to get a good score.

I'm going to go 88. Oh, he jumps to 88. Yeah. Brooks loves Coco Nibs.

Coco Nibs is a go-to for Brooks. Yeah. Let's say 85. 85.

Oh. Okay. Third clue. Let's see.

The final third features main flavors of peanut butter and creamy hay, along with secondary notes of plain oatmeal, creamy cedar, charred meat, cinnamon, cornbread, and powdery cocoa nibs. There it is again. While the amount of black pepper on the retrohale remains the same compared to the second third, the sweetness on two of the cigars shifts to a honey note, and the last one still features a flavor that reminds me of molasses. Interestingly, those same two cigars, the first and last ones, retain the spiciness on my tongue, but around the time the final third begins, that note has receded in the second cigar.

Flavor ends at full, the body does not budge from a solid medium, and the strength ends at a medium plus, albeit just barely. Thankfully, the construction mirrors the first third instead of the second third, meaning all three cigars continue to give me no issues at all until I am finished with them. Third clue, Phil? 88.

88. Is this my final guess? No, it's third clue. I'm going to read the final thought after that.

Oh, so he hasn't told us about his issues yet. No, sometimes like... He said the taste receded on one. He hinted that there was issues.

Like, I do skip through some paragraphs. So he hinted through that he did mention something about in the second third of the cigar, where there may have been a construction issue, but it was kind of vague. I'm going to go 83. Okay.

Final thought: Creamy, nutty, and complex, the Nestor 75 is one of the better releases I have smoked, and a worthy creation for such an auspicious anniversary. The profile includes a multitude of flavors and plenty of transitions, and other than a couple of minor burn corrections on one cigar in the second third, the construction was excellent across the board. This is not a cigar that needs extra time. It is ready to smoke now, assuming you can actually find them.

88. 91. This is one of the best cigars he's ever smoked. Okay, so I have 88 and I have 91.

Yep. And the overall score from Brooks Whittington of Half Wheel Cigars for the Nestor 75 is 90. Oh, my one. And John Carney is the winner.

Let's go. Let's go. Nicely done, sir. Wow.

We'll have to find one of those. Yeah. Do you have anything else to add? Are you going to be anywhere in the upcoming weeks?

You want to do a shout out? Yeah, man, I got all sorts of crazy stuff going on. Tell us. So, Wednesday, when this airs, I'll be in Fort Lauderdale at a place called Batch Gastropub.

Interesting. Doing some cigar and whiskey events there. And then I'll be in Delray Beach on Thursday doing the same thing with them. And then next week I'm local, which would be nice, a little break to get caught up on the beginning of the year.

Beginning of the year is hectic for me. Right. And then we're going to the Great Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on February 8th through the 15th. Okay.

So we'll be up in Harrisburg at the Great Outdoor Show with Hooten Young Cigars and Whiskey. Is that with BL Luxury or is it just Hooten Young? Just Hooten Young. Yeah.

Yep, just with Hooten Young. So it should be a great time. We have a partnership with the National Rifle Association. Gotcha.

And that's one of their alternative shows that they have throughout the country. It's their second largest besides the annual convention and meetings that they have. So that's what February looks like. That's a big week.

We're all hands on deck for that, so our whole team will be up there for that. So that's really what February looks like. I've got Valentine's Day coming up to the Waffle House. Yep, you've got that going on.

And then I've got my birthday coming February 23rd. Ooh. Yeah, so we've got that. So February's a big month.

How old's he going to be? Forty-two. Forty-two. Yeah, me too.

Yeah. Look at you. Yeah. So, yeah, that's where we're at.

Getting ready for the PCA show is funny. When we walked in, you and your brother were talking about it. Yep. And we're planning for all that.

Really, that's what the first quarter of the year is set up is getting ready for the PCA show, which is one of the reasons why I like having the PCA show in the first part of the year. Yeah. Because it just logically, in my opinion, now that you've seen it, just makes sense that that's how your year should set up. " Well, you've done that for 50 years, so of course you would, but it makes more sense to have an early year.

Yeah, so far, so good. Like, the first year kind of transitioning into it was a little hectic, but now that we're kind of rolling, I agree with you. I like having it in March or April, you know, you know, and I love the fact that it's in New Orleans. I love it too, man.

It's great there. I think they did a great job. Yeah. The show is great.

The city's great. That time of the year, it's a perfect time to be there. Yeah. Yeah.

All roads lead to New Orleans for me for the next two and a half, three months. I mean, we're executing everything now that's going to be seen in April. Right. And those products that we're going to execute in April and see in April are going to be, you know, on the shelves a few weeks after too.

So, great timing, for me personally, it fits perfect with how business cycles work, owning my own businesses now, I really did enjoy the transition, but we've got a lot of exciting things, it's the 250th anniversary of the United States, which is really on brand for Hooten Young, so we've got some exciting stuff for doing that, whiskey-wise and cigars, so yeah, it's real packed with the HY for the next two months. A little teaser, a little teaser, teaser-free zone here. All right, well, I think that this concludes our podcast. Thank you very much for subbing in.

You're a great co-host. I appreciate it, thank you. " And I appreciate you always stepping up. Even if you're an hour and a half late, it's a, you know, it's a… Well, I'm just sorry I couldn't do more this week.

Because once you get into the groove, I can see how Palmer does. He just gets better as he gets into it. So I was, you know, I'm getting better week to week. I'm getting better show to show.

I was really looking forward when we talked to maybe have a couple days this week, but it's not going to work with the schedule, unfortunately. Maybe next week, who knows, maybe Palmer enjoys that Ireland siesta. He's stuck in Ireland, yeah. You know who we have tomorrow?

No. Pete Hernandez. Oh, really? Yes.

Oh, man, he'll do great. He's terrified. Oh, he's terrified. He's terrified.

Oh, man, he's going to do great. He's asking Phil questions, what's going to happen. I'm like, you got to read from the problem. He's like, I can't read.

I'm like, yes, you can. Don't worry. Neither can Terrence Riley, apparently. It's Riley, apparently, so you'll be fine.

Yeah, he told me he was just gonna bring his own stuff to Rio, and no, no, that's not how it works. Yeah, Pete will do a great job, that'll be good, that's a good one. Yeah, I like that, and I still gotta figure out Thursdays for Friday's show. I gotta go, I only saw the shorts from Terrence's, I think I'm gonna go back and watch the whole thing.

Oh, it was awesome, because like, he would not engage in anything. " Yeah, that was pretty good. Oh man, that's great. Yeah, Pete will be fun.

That's awesome. When's Mike back? Well, he's going to come back. He'll be back Friday for recording for Monday's show.

If he comes back rolling around with like new gear, a new vehicle or something, you know he took the 90k for riding it. Yeah, he did just get a new car. He might be on to something, but no, I appreciate you guys having me. I enjoy doing it.

It's a fun time. It breaks up the day for me for sure, and it's something I enjoy being a part of. So I appreciate you guys having me. Yep, thanks for coming on, buddy.

All right, like and subscribe. Bye. - Bye. - Bye.

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Show Notes

On this week show...Celebrity Bears, Waffle House Romance