ACHP Episode 440 Best Dad Ever!

Episode Summary

Mike Palmer, Mikey Rosales and Steven "Boots" Hippelhauser open 2026 with the first Cigar Hustler Podcast of the new year. The first half is the crew's usual news roundup: 2025 follow-ups on the Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa deaths, the cruise-ship father who jumped in after his daughter, the Stefan Diggs assault and strangulation allegations (and Cardi B's response to fans criticizing their separate Christmases), and a long rundown of the restaurant chains closing hundreds of locations in 2025 — Starbucks, Wendy's, Denny's, Hardee's, Papa John's, Outback, Bahama Breeze and more. There's also a detour into a rare triple galaxy merger with three feeding supermassive black holes.

The cigar-industry meat of the episode begins with the crew's response to another podcaster arguing that retailers are shut out of limited editions because they're forced to sell core line product first. Mikey pushes back hard, laying out how a shop actually earns allocation: pick three "horses" — brands you believe in — introduce them to your 30–40 daily transactions, build genuine core-line sales, and the relationship with the manufacturer follows, which is what gets you the LEs. He calls the opposite stance a victim mentality, and notes shops that flip a single box of LEs to one customer who never buys the brand aren't building anything. The conversation names the brands the shop pushes hardest — Powstanie, Sobremesa (Dunbarton), Phosphoro, FQ, RoMa Craft, Espinosa and Room 101 — versus legacy brands like Fuente and Padrón that largely sell themselves.

They also cover the newly filed appeal in Rocky Patel Premium Cigars, Inc. v. Bonta before the Ninth Circuit, with an emergency restraining order requested to stop California's Unflavored Tobacco List from hitting premium cigars as of January 1 — filed alongside Cigar Rights of America and the Premium Cigar Association — and debate whether a state law fight is even winnable without federal help. Year-end accolades get a nod too: Kaplowitz Media ranked Powstanie San Andrés No. 2 Cigar of the Year and Cigar Press had the shop's pick at No. 6.

The show closes with a full round of What's the Score using halfwheel reviews by Brooks Whittington: the HVC Black Friday 10th Anniversary Limited Edition (Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, 6 1/4 x 54, $13) which scored 87, and the 2020 Supreme Leaf Toro from Aganorsa Leaf ($10.50), where late-third jalapeño and black pepper heat dragged the score down. Plus baby-name debate for Boots' fourth child and 2026 plans to bring guest hosts back on the show.

In This Episode

1. 01
   New Year Open and Merch Pricing Snafu
   The crew kicks off 2026 and discovers the podcast's YouTube shop is listing hoodies and shirts at wildly wrong prices in foreign currencies, pointing listeners to chpod.com instead.
2. 02
   2025 Story Updates: Gene Hackman and the Cruise Ship Rescue
   Follow-ups on the hantavirus death of Betsy Arakawa and Gene Hackman's death a week later, plus the released investigation into the father who jumped overboard after his five-year-old daughter.
3. 03
   Stefan Diggs Assault Charges
   A breakdown of the felony strangulation and misdemeanor assault charges filed by a private chef against the Patriots receiver, the NDA offer, and the guys' skepticism about the timeline and evidence.
4. 04
   Restaurant Chains Closing in 2025
   Hooters, Pinstripes, On the Border bankruptcies plus closures at Starbucks, Wendy's, Denny's, Jack in the Box, Hardee's, Papa John's, Bahama Breeze and Outback — and which menu items they'd actually miss.
5. 05
   Triple Galaxy Merger and Cardi B
   A rare three-galaxy merger with three feeding supermassive black holes 1.2 billion light-years away, followed by Cardi B's public response to criticism over spending Christmas apart from Stefan Diggs.
6. 06
   Limited Editions vs. Core Line: How Retailers Earn Allocation
   Mikey's rebuttal to a podcaster claiming LE access is unfair — pick three brands to champion, build real core-line sales with your daily customers, and manufacturer relationships (and LEs) follow.
7. 07
   California UTL Appeal Filed
   Rocky Patel Premium Cigars, Inc. v. Bonta heads to the Ninth Circuit with an emergency restraining order request as California's Unflavored Tobacco List takes effect January 1, 2026.
8. 08
   What's the Score: HVC Black Friday 10th Anniversary & Supreme Leaf Toro
   Guessing halfwheel's Brooks Whittington scores for the HVC Black Friday 10th Anniversary LE (87) and the 2020 Aganorsa Supreme Leaf Toro, with notes on creamy cedar, cocoa nibs, raisin sweetness and late jalapeño heat.

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

I'm like the flash in the back. It's like 50s hair. 50 who? Cent?

50 Cent. 50 Cent, buddy. Oh, like 1950s. 50 Cent.

He's got a white t-shirt with his fucking pack of cigarettes rolled up. Oh, nice. Oh, in the 50s, it was the ducktail. Yeah, the ducktail.

I used to ducktail in the back. Did you? I believe it. When I was in high school.

In the 50s. Driving my parents to Soto to school. All right, we're I'm ready to go. Me and the Fonz.

Have we started? Oh, yeah. I've been recording. Oh, the clock's running and everything.

Yeah. Welcome to 2026, people. I'm Mike Palmer, the host of the podcast. And for the next 60 minutes...

Oh, wait. It starts again. We're going to start here. 60 minutes?

No. Yeah. 60 minutes. Prepare yourself if we're not doing it for 60.

What are we doing? Well, we started. We're going. Oh.

Welcome to 2026, people. I'm Mike Palmer, the host of this podcast. It's a new year. For the next 60 minutes, I'm here with my boys.

I'm here with my boys, DJ Booty, I beat the goalie and put one up in there. Hippelhauser. I beat the goalie. You took my reference and made it your own.

Yes. Yes. Sitting in with the goalie. You pull the goalie.

No, he beat the goalie. He beat the goalie? They didn't pull the goalie. He beat the goalie.

If he beat the goalie, that means that she didn't want to get pregnant. She want to get pregnant? Yeah. Okay, so they pulled the goalie.

I don't know. That didn't sound very sure. No, no, no. Yeah, she wanted one more.

He beat the goalie. Okay, can I continue? Can I go on? I guess you can continue.

He's sitting in the Mission Control booth and then on the ones and twos, my co-host, my brother from another mother, my life mate, and big boss man, Mikey, can't believe Boots is going to have more children than I am. Step on Kevin. He already has more than I do, doesn't he? No, he has three.

No, we have exactly, yeah. I have one more now. He has two girls and one boy, you have two boys and one girl. He's about to have two boys, two girls, and have your feet.

Ethan. Right, and now the new one. And now the new one. Okay.

And he's going to name Mikey. Yeah. But the difference is that he spread his seed across various women. I just had the one.

Doesn't matter. Oh, I'm lucky, I guess. You know, that means you got like a third of your stuff at this point. You've lost financially.

Well, Palmer, you know what I'm talking about, right? I completely understand. I barely have any of my shit left. Welcome to the shows, fellas.

Welcome. Everybody have a good New Year's Eve? Everybody enjoyed themselves? It was outstanding, man.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much for asking. I went to my friend's house and we just kind of hung out, smoked some cigars.

Nice. Oh, so you did go out? Yeah. You said you were staying home?

Yeah, no, I just, we decided to go up the street, it wasn't far. Oh, nice. Good for you. Nice.

Yeah. Folks, that was your party you didn't invite us to? Did you have a good time? It was a blast.

Did you have a good party? Yeah, it was a blast. Okay. I heard Greg had a great time.

Yeah, Greg? You know, I think Greg had a party. Yeah, I think Greg is having a party, but he's dying. Yeah, I had to help him put the chairs in his car the day before New Year's Eve.

Really? Yeah. Oh, man, I forgot the beanbags. He's dying?

He's dying. Oh, yeah, and the cornhole boards with no cornhole bags. I got to bring the beanbags. All right, on today's show, we have a couple of updates from some 2025 stories.

Stefan Diggs apparently did not like his dinner, and he's all choked up about it. Then in a similar story, you can't eat here no more. We have a cosmic first, and we are in a front row seat to see it. We have a celebrity story, y'all ain't gonna believe, and then in a last-ditch effort, we file just one more for the UTL.

Of course. Then, 'cause it's a slow news day, we have a full game of what's the score. Oh. But before we get started, Mikey, how do you get some of that apparently very expensive CH pod sweat?

It's not expensive. And hard to get beanies. It is on YouTube, apparently. I'll have to figure that out on the shop.

I don't know what's wrong with that. What's wrong with that? I was looking at it when I tagged it on the last story, I'm like, this hoodie is $395. It's a $400 hoodie.

Well, there's only one. It's one left. Some of the prices are in foreign currency. I noticed that.

Well, YouTube has to get their cut, so it probably won't upload. That must be what it is, right? I think there's a decimal problem with how they made you enter the thing. 95 hoodie?

I don't remember. Maybe. 99. $400 and something?

Yeah. The shirts are more than the sweatshirt? Yeah, it was weird. I don't know.

Maybe it's in Cordoba. It could be. One of them was pounds, and one of them was DNR. I'm not sure what that current is.

com where the prices are correct, and if you buy one, you get the second one 40% off. Well, we were trying to figure out why nobody's using that page. You're like, fuck, it's more expensive over here. Well, it's got like 57 clicks or something like that on the hats or whatever.

Nothing like crazy. So, I mean, I've got to figure that out. I've never done any of that before. I've done any of that before.

No, no, I understand. I'm just telling you. If somebody knows how to fix that, feel free to reach out because we could use some help. Yeah, like sponsorships.

And like and subscribe. Don't listen to him. And like and subscribe. And sponsorships.

Like and subscribe. Do our sponsorships. Like and subscribe. Maybe a DoorDash sponsorship.

No. You know, I'm going to tell you something. Yeah, wait, wait, wait. Would that be loud because people like DoorDash's food while we're recording?

Would that be acceptable? Would that be acceptable? Yeah, like, you know, a lunch, a lunch in? No.

No. Problem is, we're a day behind on these damn shows, we'll get lunch tomorrow. I'm fine with that. Right.

I'll call you guys, tell you a tear. Right. Please, go ahead. I don't remember what I was going to say now.

Oh, I'm sorry. Yep. I'm sorry. Yep.

Good job. Oh. Shout out to David Morris for always, always highlighting when Boots says something ridiculous. Oh, I did see that this morning.

Yes. All human bats? All human bats in Australia. Oh my goodness.

That was amazing. You know, when he said that, I pictured the rock and roll vampires from that one movie hanging upside down in the old hotel. Right. That's what I was picturing when he said the human-sized bats.

The human-sized bats. Was that Lost Boys? Yes, Lost Boys. Thank you.

Incredible. Incredible stuff. The blonde guy and the guy with the long hair. We're going to eat you.

Oh, God. All right, is that it? Don't go to Australia. No, don't go to Australia.

Human-sized bats, apparently. Human-sized bats. All right, a couple updates to some stories we covered way back in 2025. Gene Hackman and his wife die in their home.

Remember this story? Yeah. All right. When actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy, were found dead in their Santa Fe, New Mexico home during a February 26 welfare check in 2025, the cause of death was not immediately clear, It was clear, which sparked national intrigue.

In March, the investigators announced that Betsy, 65, died from Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, a rare disease transmitted through rodent urine and droppings or saliva. Here's the bad part, though. Hackman, 95, who died of cardiovascular and Alzheimer's disease, was likely home with his deceased wife for one week before he died. Yeah, no idea what was going on.

So, Betsy died around February 12th, he died around February 18th. Yeah. Ugh. Can we pause for one second?

Yeah, he didn't know he was going to. He's walking around the house going, "Betsy, get up. " Right. Yeah.

Betsy, wake up. It's very sad. It is sad. Very sad.

All our old movie stars are dying in sad ways. Is that true? Well, it's getting older. Not all of them some, but like the guy that just died, the director from Harry Met Sally, him and his wife was stabbed to death by his own son in their sleep.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, remember the father that jumped off the cruise ship to save his daughter? Yeah, that guy, that bad motherfucker, yeah. Yeah, that, they just finished the investigation yesterday.

Okay. , local time, a five-year-old girl went overboard, falling 49 feet into the ocean. The girl's father, subsequent, then, jumped in after her. Luckily, both family members were pulled out of the water by rescue crews and returned safely to the vessel.

Now, the investigation results were released yesterday. The mother put the child in the porthole, went to take the picture, the baby fell out, the five-year-old baby fell out. The father wasn't even there. " He runs across the deck of the ship, sees the baby, jumps out the window and saves the baby.

Yeah. That dude's a legend. Are you kidding me? Well, there was talk that maybe he put the baby in the hole or, you know, he was responsible for it or something.

But he wasn't even there, apparently. It doesn't even matter. Like, that's all irrelevant to me. It's, like, she fell out.

No one threw her out, you know? Oh, right. So, it doesn't matter. You're saying, though, but the mother did it.

It's the mother's fault. Yeah, but it doesn't even matter who put her in the tunnel. It was the stupid bitchy wife. No, it wasn't.

They said, well, she put her in a hole and then let her go. She's trying to get a cool picture of her. Some people don't think these things through, man. You should think things through.

I get it, but you know what? We're all not perfect like you. People make mistakes. Perfect.

People make mistakes. No matter what you said on yesterday's show. I don't think he's flipped. Have you been flipping?

No, I'm flipping. What are you doing? They're talking about my meeting at 12, so I'm trying to figure this out. Oh.

All right, moving on. Patriots Stefan Diggs faces strangulation assault charges. Yes. You heard about this?

Briefly, yeah. New England Patriots wide receiver Stefan Diggs is facing serious legal trouble following an alleged incident that occurred on December 2nd. Diggs has been charged with one felony count of strangulation and one misdemeanor count of assault. Really?

A motion hearing was held Tuesday morning in Deadham District Court in Massachusetts. Diggs is scheduled to be arraigned on January 23rd, the Friday before the AFC Championship game. What a clown. According to a police report, a woman told authorities on December 16th that she was working as a private chef on Diggs' residence on the night of the alleged incident.

She claimed that Diggs entered her unlocked bedroom and struck her across the face following a spute over money she said she was owed. The woman told police she attempted to push Diggs away when he allegedly placed his elbow around her neck in an attempt to choke her. She also alleged that Diggs threw her onto a bed and dismissed her claims of non-payment by calling them lies. After the alleged altercation, the woman said she left both her job and the residence, and stayed with a friend.

When she returned on December 9th to retrieve personal belongings, she was reportedly directed to Diggs' assistant, who told her, "We need you to sign this non-disclosure agreement, please. " She declined to sign the NDA. Police said the woman initially did not want to file charges on December 16th, but later chose to do so on December 22nd, when she found out she could make more money. yeah uh okay so he has strongly denied the allegations his attorney david mirror released a statement calling them unsubstantiated and uncorroborated okay go ahead yeah david mirror that's a big name i mean it sounds a bit wild like uh i'm not paying you for cooking and now i'm going to come over there and strike you i don't like how did we get there he could have been liquored up i don't know i don't know the guy do you know i mean this whole thing sounded It's kind of like the movie Blow.

Like as soon as like he put her on the bed is like striked her and give me my money. I owe you no money. I don't know, man. You know, it's look, I hope that that if it's true, I obviously, you know, he needs to suffer the consequences.

Right. It just seems a little far-fetched with the information that's kind of been given to us. I don't know anything with these athletes is possible. Who knows?

Yeah, that's true. I mean, anything with anybody is possible, but... Well, yeah, but you always hear about this stuff with the athletes. They beat up their girlfriend.

They beat up this person. The chef? Wait, I don't know. You didn't like the rice?

What happened? You know what I mean? Yeah, it's not like he was, you know, having sexual relations. She wanted to get paid and he didn't want to pay her.

Who knows what happened right before he came into her room? Maybe she went in and shut the door where they were arguing in the hall. Who knows? About what?

The chicken? She wanted to get paid. Maybe she was bitchy about being paid. It wasn't the quality of the food.

" Definitely the chicken. Maybe she fucked it up. Maybe she did. I mean, we have no idea.

You know. Still, no reason to put hands. He's got so much to lose. We don't know if he did or he didn't.

That's true. That's true until I'll just hear a saying. And that's a lot to lose. You got a lot on the line to lose to strike somebody.

$69 million. That's what I'm saying. I don't, you know. $69 million is his contract?

Yeah. Well, he's also going to get more money if they win the AFC championship. Diggs is wild. Like, Diggs is wild.

Yeah. But, man, I don't know. I don't know about that. I don't think he's that wild.

I've never heard anything in the news of him. Really? You never heard anything about this weird pink powder that was all over his face on a boat with Cardi B and some other bitches? Well, maybe that.

We have a story about Cardi B later. Nothing strikingly. No, nothing assault-based. Right, correct.

Right. That's my point. Right. What drug is pink powder?

I don't know. I have no idea. It's so unhip. It's Peruvian.

It's pink Peruvian. It's pink Peruvian. Oh, Peruvian pink, blah, blah. And then to let somebody do a video of it.

Like, what were you thinking? That was very good. Right, I know. That's the stupid part when they get caught with videos.

And then there was no repercussions, which is even funnier. Yeah, he's like throwing out the P sign at the video. Oh, nothing happened to him with that. Woo-woo, it's fine.

Give me some of that. Yeah, Stefan. Hey, look, look. Hey, throw out the P sign.

Yeah. All right. Hold up that big necklace. But like, you know, the hard part is being an athlete like this is like, you got a bullseye on the back of your head, man.

Oh, always. Yeah. I mean, you know, who you bring into your, to your boys could be ripping you off, you know, I mean, something like a lawyer, like this chef could, this chef could just be trying to get a, you know, a payday, right? Or the chef could have been absolutely assaulted.

Sure. It could go either way. It could go either way, but it doesn't, I don't know. It just doesn't sound likely to me.

It doesn't, doesn't really make. Make a lot of sense, I got 70 million on the line, and I'm not gonna pay you for dinner, like. So what's the charge here? Maybe it was bad.

Strangulation and assault. Where did the strangulation come in the fact? He put his arm, his, he put her in an arm bar thing, not an arm bar, but he put his elbow around her neck and choked her. Was it, so, but there's, this happened December 2nd, she filed charges.

16th. Two weeks later. Yeah. Do you think there's any markings at that point?

So this is all speculatory? Well, I mean, we don't know. She might have taken photos that night when she got to her friend's house. You gotta prove that that was him at that point.

Yeah, this goes nowhere. If something like that were to go down, you would legitimately have to call the police instantly. He hit me. He hit me, you go somewhere safe, and then you make a phone call.

Right. You don't even go somewhere safe. Lock the door, call 911. I'm trapped in this room.

This guy just assaulted me, and I need, I'm in fear of my life, right? Right. Cops come in, arrest him, right? You make it out.

Now you got a case, right? You've got evidence of battery on you. There's, you know, select people in the house. Like, he could still, a good attorney can still figure this out.

But the reality is that none of that happened. Right. None of that happened. Let's read on.

I think what happened. Ooh, let's read on. Wait, hold on, hold on. Let's speculate real quick.

Okay, speculate a little more. I think what happened is he turned her down. I think she made him the chicken. He ate the chicken.

Give me some of that Diggs stuff. He went to the room to go take a nap. " You ever see him on Family Feud? Brian Diggs?

It's amazing. Stefan Diggs. No, Stefan Diggs, whatever his name is. They go, he's doing the final round, and they finish this sentence, leave it, and his response was, in.

Oh, wow. And they got zero points. Well, maybe. And it was hilarious.

He said yes. And then Steve Harvey, Steve Harvey said, and your boys are all saying, and that's your problem, and that's your problem. So, you know. It's just speculatory.

So he's not the brightest light in the shop either is what you're saying. No, no, no, he's just Steven Hippelhauser-ing his way through. Oh, wow. HVC.

Nice. Wow. Wow. Now he's a verb.

Oh my God. What did he do? He's Steven Hippelhauser. Oh Jesus.

He bootsed his way through it, multiple baby mamas. Multiple baby mamas. You know what's funny to me is like, I don't wanna bring this up again, so I'm gonna exclude all names from this portion of this argument here, but like, the outrage that I have received From things that we have said in the previous episodes about how we attack somebody, and I'm like, wait a second, have you not watched a single show over the past seven years? We break everybody's balls.

Especially you guys and me. We attack each other more than we attack anybody else. Certainly. And I'm like, you don't even like, I don't understand, how did you get, how did you draw that conclusion about us?

" Oh my God, it's hilarious. " There he goes, there he goes, Greg, come back, listen to him. There's a retarded brother, Greg. Yeah, and first of all, she should understand, this isn't the first time Greg thinks something's wrong with him.

He's dying every other week. For three days I texted him to tell him who I was. It's Palmer. It's Palmer, Greg.

Did you make it home from work? Are you okay? We thrive on this sort of thing. Right.

Alright, following Tuesday's hearing, Diggs defense team acknowledged it was working toward a possible monetary resolution. Of course. Pay her off. According to the Boston Globe, the Patriots released a brief statement saying they were aware of the situation, support Diggs, and will cooperate with authorities and the NFL.

The league confirmed it's aware of the matter but declined further comment. Diggs, 32, signed New England last year, March, on a three-year, $69 million deal. He currently leads the team with 82 receptions for 970 yards and four touchdowns. The coach says he didn't do it.

Mike Rabel? I don't know how I added that last time. He does that, yeah. See, he knows.

You still think everything I say is real. I just believe everything. Look, I believe that there's large bats in Australia. Yeah.

You know what I mean? I had to Google it and I was like, wait a second, the biggest bat has a three-foot wingspan. Be careful of them. Right.

If he's completely innocent, why are they going to pay her off? Well, I was just telling her to shut her mouth. I mean... Because it's easier that way.

Yeah. Which is why you do it. Well, you got to think, too, that even... It does feel like an admittance of guilt.

Right. That's why I was kind of going to say that. I mean, the problem is, is that even if it's not true, it still hurts his image because he is a celebrity. Now he looks guilty because he paid her.

Well, there's an allegation. Right. Regardless. You know, people are like, oh, remember that one time when he almost, you know, assaulted her?

I don't know. This one seems like it's, as of right now, as we're looking at it, in this current moment in time, it doesn't seem like there's enough evidence where it would really hurt his image midge long-term you know like uh no i don't think it would i don't think it hurts any of these guys long-term and you know unless they've killed somebody yeah it's just the now uh well i'll give you a case in point one of my favorite wide receivers ojo sinko uh yeah he got into a physical altercation with a woman lost his job done you remember that year there was so many of them yeah the one that stands out the most to me though is remember when ray rice first had his allegation and they're like oh he he beat his girlfriend right and everybody's like no he didn't he didn't there's no evidence and then all of a sudden they found the video yeah he's just like dragging her across the floor into the elevator and they're like oh god say it ain't so right hopefully this isn't that type of situation look at this video look at this it's ai it's not real it's ai yeah now you yell it's ai i don't know well you know what dude who is the guy that beat up the girl in the elevator ray rice oh is that the one we're talking i'm not Listen, I'm not condoning any of that sort of thing by any means. That's not okay. However, I'm gonna tell you, like, I would never walk up to a bull and hit it in the head or something like that.

She legitimately spit in his face. What did you think was gonna happen there? I mean, that's, you can't, like, don't, don't, don't do that, you know? Like, come on.

That's not the world we live in. You gotta think things straight. I'm not going to walk up to a police officer and try and take their gun. You know what I mean?

Oh, gotcha. You know what I mean? Mine now. Woohoo!

I saw a video yesterday. I found an Instagram that was showing people trying to stop cars, the barricades and stuff. Cars are running over, cars are running over, and there's one guy yelling in the cop's face. The cop's standing there, perfectly stoic, not moving.

He's yelling, yelling, and then he spits in the cop's face. That's it. Yeah, that's it. You're down, you're on the ground, you have handcuffs on.

You have officially assaulted me. Yeah, what did you think was going to happen when you spit at me? Right, when you, when you, it's a great big Oluge, you could see it in the, in the video. When you assault another human being, be prepared for the assault to come back at you.

Right. Three cops pummeled this guy. Right. What, what city was his in?

Oh, I don't know. They don't know. Seattle. I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding. The guy cooked him dinner prior to that and he didn't like the food. He didn't like the chicken. Didn't like the chicken.

It was a piece of chicken. We keep going back to the chicken joke. That's a joke. We gotta move on for that.

All right. Speaking of chicken, you can't eat here. As restaurants industry endured another difficult year, many chains opted to close underperforming location as they try to turn around their businesses. Inflation weary consumers have pulled back their restaurant spending, choosing to eat at home or chasing deals when they go out for a meal.

People want a coupon. While some restaurants have won over reluctant diners, the industry has largely struggled with the sales slump. Traffic to restaurants open at least a year fell every month in 2025, excluding only July, according to Black Box Intelligence. I've never heard of this, but apparently they track all the restaurants.

In years past, restaurant closures have been more concentrated across casual dining chains, which lost customers to fast casual competitors like Chipotle, the number one health code violation chain in the country. Is it? Yeah, because they always have that food laying everywhere, and it's on the floor. So fresh.

But this year, chains across the industry announced plans to shutter at least hundreds of locations in such a tough environment. Some restaurant companies even filed for bankruptcy protection. Hooters, Pinstripes, and On the Border were some of the notable names that landed in bankruptcy court this year. I never heard of Pinstripes.

Anybody familiar with Pinstripes? Boots, have you ever heard of Pinstripes restaurant? Everybody knows who Hooters is, and I know they're closing doors. You know what I have heard of pinstripes?

Have you? Yeah. You ever been? Is it like a Hooters type thing?

It sounds like it might be, like the girls are wearing little pinstripe soups or something? I think I have been. Yeah. Yeah.

That doesn't surprise me. Yeah, I think it's a baseball team. Is it? Yeah.

Oh, that would make sense, pinstripes. Okay. Here are the chains that announced closures in 2025. Boots, you can no longer get your hot apple cider.

Starbucks is closing 500 locations. Really? Wendy's. Anybody still go to Wendy's?

No. Yeah. Yeah. Hundreds of locations.

Wendy's is closing. Really? Yes. Denny's, the favorite after-drinking spot where you get the Grand Slam breakfast.

Oh, yeah. Moon's over my hammy. Yes. 70 to 90 locations are closing.

That doesn't affect me. I go to Waffle House. Because nobody's drinking as much. Yeah, Waffle House is the move now.

They get old. All the Denny's are getting old. Yeah. You've got to rent all those things.

Jack in the Box. We don't have those out here. That's a West Coast thing. But 100 to 200 locations.

That's a lot because they're only in so many states. Yeah, they're only on the West Coast. Out here, aren't they Hardee's? Isn't it the same company?

I think so. I think it is. I think you're right. No, you're talking about Carl's Jr.

Yeah, Carl's Jr. is the same thing, too, but I thought Hardee's and Carl's Jr. was the same thing, too. No, those are the same thing.

Listen, one thing I'm not going to argue with Boots about is fast food. Yeah, that's true. Thanks, fellas. He's going to be locked in on that.

All right, Bahama Breeze is closing 15 locations. Oh, I hope not the one in Sanford. Well, you know, the food's terrible there. It's very pretty.

The drinks are great, but the food's no good. You know what, dude? I agree. I totally agree.

Brittany loves it. Yeah, Adrian does too. " Because it's so pretty there. It's such a nice-looking place.

And you sit outside under the little Tiki Hut thing or something. It's a nice-looking restaurant. It's a good atmosphere. The food selection's terrible.

Yeah. Well, it's got great drink specials. Yeah, they got good drinks. And you're really always supposed to buy two things when you go there.

What is it? The tostadas and the coconut shrimp. You know, he might be right. You know what, and Brady does love the coconut shrimp.

Yeah, it could be the coconut shrimp. Right. Well, you know, I feel the same way at Miller's Ale House. I can't stand that place.

Really? Oh, yeah, same idea. The food is so bad. Yeah.

There's only one thing I get there. And what is it? The zingers. Yeah, you get the zingers covered with cheese.

Right. What's wrong with that? More chicken and just tons of cheese. There's tons of cheese.

Can't even taste the chicken at that point. Okay. All right. Zingers.

But the 15 locations equals one third of their locations. They don't have many. No, yeah. Yeah, there's not a lot.

Hardee's is closing dozens of locations. Oh, God. Biscuits. You go to Hardee's for the biscuits?

I do like their chicken biscuits. This is amazing. Like the intel that we're getting from what you need to buy, purchase specifically from specific food locations. I mean, I know you're on the road a lot, but I'm on the road a lot too, you know, besides.

I try not to eat fast food on the road. Dude, I eat the same thing every day, it's chicken and rice, it's already cooked, I'm done, I just eat it. I take a bunch of snacks in the car, and then I try to eat a meal at night. Papa John's is closing 173 locations.

Any of those Shacks? Papa John's Shacks? No, Shack owns Papa John's. Oh, Shack owned.

Oh, I thought there was some type of a special Papa John's he was looking for. They started going nuts on their prices. They've gone up. When the magic win, you get half off, and I'm still dropping $65 on pizza, I'm like, what the hell is going on here?

So yeah, of course, you've priced yourself out. Yeah, the problem is Domino's is heavily beating up everybody. 99 carryout. Oh yeah, with the cheap prices.

Oh really? I mean, Little Caesars doesn't even do a $5 hot and ready anymore. That's gone? Yeah, that's gone.

It's like $7 or $8. I like to buy from a local restaurant that makes pizza. Oh, do you? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'd much rather do that. Adrian likes Marcos. I don't like Marcos. No, there's a, there's a place called New York's Best Buy.

Um, Pizza Hut's bringing back the buffet. Oh! Whoa! That is a game-changer, fellas.

Yep, select locations, it is. That's a good deal, Eric. I know, you're from the 1950s, so you know Pizza Hut Buffet. Pizza Hut Buffet with the red cups and the soda?

Yeah, baby. That's fine dining when I was a kid. We're all going to Pizza Hut, kids. Come on.

He's not lying. That was like a thing. Right. That was like, that was the family night out.

Family night out, you go to Pizza Hut. Yep. Get a couple of quarters to play the weird video game over against the wall while you wait down for pizza. What about Sizzler?

They're bringing back Sizzler. Oh, no, they're bringing back Sizzler. I just like Sizzler, too. All right.

Noodle Company, which I'm not familiar with either. They're closing 29 locations. Now, Outback used to go there and have to wait an hour to sit down. If you want to sit down, they're closing 21 locations.

Oh, God. The Bloomin' Onion, the original. Yeah, the deep-fried vegetable. Who doesn't love that?

Dude, you know what, man? Okay, whatever. I don't care, to be honest. The disrespect.

I like some of these more local restaurants that are more mom-and-pop owned. Maybe it's a couple of little franchise-y places, but like, I don't know. I like going to dinner. I think it's awesome.

I love even dealing with the chaos of my kids. We've brought, now we bring two little chess boards and I'll play chess with both two kids at the same time, or we'll integrate it and stuff, but like, I don't care, Outback's gone, you know, there's plenty of other places to go. Well, but these are American Standard type restaurants that are disappearing. Yo, Cowfish is still legit, they're at CityWalk, I love Cowfish.

Well, they're part of Outback, so they're closing. Luke's is amazing in Winter Park. Yeah. I'm into Luke's.

Luke's is awesome. I mean, look, there's plenty of like local restaurants that I love. Yeah. But I mean, these are like certain places that's like, like Outback, like the only reason I'm going to Outback is for the Bloomin' Onion.

And then I'll get a steak, you know, as the entree. The Outback special. But yeah, exactly. I mean, the Bloomin' Onion, man, that is the original deal.

Sirloin and a Bloomin' Onion. You ever had it at Texas Roadhouse? Yes. It's not as good.

good. Not exactly the same thing. Exactly. Yeah.

It's good, but not as good. Right. They could put good bread there, though. Yeah, because you get the honey butter there.

You don't get the honey butter at I'll bank. Right, but you don't get the pumpernickel bread. This is wild. There's a change.

All right, let's get out of this. We got to move on. I'm getting hungry. I'm getting hungry.

We got to move on. All right. Super three super massive black holes were discovered on a collision course in the cosmos and of course in a cosmic first. Sorry.

Oh, stroke. Drink the Red Bull. 2 A half-billion light-years from Earth, a truly extraordinary event is unfolding on a scale almost impossible to imagine. That's really far away.

Mm-hmm. In a distant region of the universe, not two but three massive galaxies are slowly being pulled together in a colossal cosmic collision. The system known as J-1218/1219+1035 represents an exceptionally rare phenomenon. While galaxy mergers are common over cosmic time, a triple merger involving three galaxies at once is extraordinarily unusual.

So these three galaxies are being swallowed by a black hole. Nice. All at the same time. Galactus.

The blackest hole. The blackest hole. Galactus. Oh, Galactus.

Galactus. Oh, thank God it was a deal. What makes this event even more remarkable is what lies at the center of each galaxy. Galactus.

A small little green man with a button. Beep, beep, beep, beep. Oh, Marvin the Martian. Marvin the Martin.

At the heart of all three galaxies sits a supermassive black hole and all three are actively feeding as they consume surrounding gas and dust. The black holes ignite as an active galactic nuclei, or AGN. So each galaxy is being swallowed by a black hole and then all three of those are being swallowed by a bigger black hole. Oh, we're all coming together.

We're all dying. And then where are they all going? In the black hole. Nobody knows.

What happens in there? What did you see the movie of Matthew McConaughey? Where he's like... Mike yelling at himself?

Yeah, they come out the other side, and there's a mountain that turns out to be water and tries to kill everybody on the spaceship. Oh, no, yeah. In the process, they emit intense radiation and launch enormous jets of energy visible in radio wavelengths stretching tens of thousands of light years into space. Space.

Space, the final frontier. S. Naval Research Laboratory systems, systems like this are almost never seen in real time. "Triple active galaxies like this are incredibly rare," she said.

" But despite the drama, all three feeding black holes are powerful jets that emit poses absolute no danger to Earth. We're fine. It's too far away. 2 billion light-years.

How can I even see that far? I don't know. I don't even know why we're covering this, to be honest. Because you wanted...

Because I said science, and you took science as space, and now everything that you cover is space. Well, because that's all the science that they put out is space. I want to know, studies show that, you know, if you do this, you will... " If you wanted a consequence thing.

Yeah, no. It's still not there. He's still not there. Mikey, could you imagine?

We survived World War I. We survived Hitler. We survived. That's World War II.

Yeah. We survived Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor. Okay.

Kind of. This is amazing. We survived Godzilla. Okay.

Oh. But we're going to die. By the giant bats in Australia. From the black hole.

From the giant bats. With the mountain, with the water, and Matthew McConaughey is going to kill us. Could you believe this? Wow.

What a story this is. Let's keep going. Yeah, let's move on. Let's move on.

Let's move on. Even if one of the jets were pointed directly toward Earth, which is not the vast distance, would reduce any impact to nothing more than faint radio signals detected by a telescope. Look, we have to fill time. No, we don't.

Fantastic Four will save us. Move on. What's that guy's name? Pedro, what's the guy's name?

Pedro Gonzalez? No. Wow, that was epic. Who was the guy, who was the guy that was Mandalorian and then he was Mr.

Fantastic? Pedro. I don't know his real name. Pedro something.

Is that what you're asking? Pedro something. Pedro... Pedro Gonzales.

It's not Pedro Gonzales. Pedro Menendez. Fantastic Four. Pedro...

Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Mr. Fantastic. Wow, he's really going Mexican on you.

Maybe he goes to Chipotle. Pedro Pascal. Oh, yeah. Well, that doesn't go together at all.

Yeah, he's definitely not Mexican. I just love the fact that there was a solid 45 seconds there of people yelling at him. yelling, Pascal, into their headphones. All right, in celebrity news.

Thank God. I have to do a little disclaimer first. Okay. I'm going to apologize in advance for the next story.

I did not write or rewrite the story. It has some direct quotes in it from the person's own language. It might appear racist, but at times it's their own way of speaking. When you say persons, is that plural?

Oh, my God. Yes, yes. Oh, I can't wait to hear how kooks about it. He is from E!

Entertainment News and was written by staff reporter Haley Santa Florentina. Is this real? This is real. This is absolutely real.

This is not you screwing around. This is not me screwing around. This is a real story. Okay.

All right, Cardi B speaks out on Stefan Diggs. Oh, this is the same guy that choked the... Correct. Oh, I didn't even put those two and two together when I did the two stories.

Oh, please don't say he choked her too. I actually mentioned him. Yeah, you mentioned Cardi all of a sudden. " She's having a baby.

Stefan Diggs' baby. Oh, she's had it already. Cardi B speaks out on Stéphane Diggs' relationship criticism after separate Christmases. Cardi B fired back after her and her boyfriend Stéphane Diggs' separate Christmas celebrations raised eyebrows among fans.

Cardi B is up, so don't try to bring her down. After the 33-year-old and her boyfriend Stéphane Diggs celebrated Christmases separately, their newborn baby boy spending the holiday with Cardi while the Patriots player celebrated with two young children he has from other relationships, And apparently bad chicken that guy cooked. Okay. Prompted criticism online, Cardi responded to anyone with raised eyebrows.

Y'all need to calm down, she said in a video shared on X on December 29th. Is y'all cool? Y'all been dragging me for three or four days. Y'all become and y'all been a little bit too mean.

I can't change shit. I can't go back in time. I already had a baby. " Then, the UP rapper said she'll need fans to stand by her as she prepares to tour in 2026, explaining that her schedule will be demanding and she'll be away from the kids, including Culture with a K, 7, Wave, 4, and Blossom, 14 months, whom she shares with a strange husband, Offset, is that the man's name?

Okay, I'm already super stressed out, she said. I need my support system, my fans to love me. I want you to come to my tour and enjoy yourself with me. Don't be dragging me, it's enough.

Nevertheless, Cardi still feels love for her fans. I want good for y'all, she concluded. I want health, money, prosperity, happiness for this new year for y'all. Wish me the same thing.

All right, leave me alone, though. " Okay. Cardi's celebrations, meanwhile, were full of presents, multiple Christmas trees, including one covered in footballs, a nod to Stéphane, and a fruitless attempt to capture the perfect holiday photo with her kids seen in the carousel of footballs. She shared with her kids, crying, not looking at the camera, or too engaged with the new toys.

You made Cardi B sound like a 50-year-old man from Texas. Well, it's my voice. It's her words. I'm sorry.

I can't do Cardi's voice. Out of all the stories that were out there yesterday, this is the one you pulled? This is the big one. There were not stories yesterday.

That's what I'm trying to tell you. Like, who cares? Because it was funny. Who cares that they didn't spend Christmas together?

I don't know. It was in E! Entertainment News. We've got other responsibilities.

You're welcome to pull stories for the next show. Why don't we do that? For the next show, you pull stories. I'd much rather criticize yours.

No, no, no, no, no. Are you watching E! Entertainment a lot now? No, but when you go through the internet, you try to find what you can when there's nothing to talk about.

Nothing to talk about. Nothing to talk about. Interesting. I'm just going to tell all the listeners out there, please God, watch the...

People don't like it when we talk about sports, if you're looking up sports stories. I wasn't looking up sports. please God watch the video version of this because when I was flipping through when Palmer was reading the story and Mikey's face was priceless right it's completely priceless are you looking for something to talk about yeah okay we'll wait let's see what I got here Ooh, this is an interesting one. Did you guys know, since Mikey likes science so much, scientists successfully cloned black-footed ferret from 40-year-old frozen cells?

That's amazing. Wow, you just found that? That's incredible. Yeah.

Here, I'll tell you a good one. Potential hidden brain risks from midlife weight loss. That's not interesting. A December 28 study in Giro Science showed that Gero science?

Yeah, G-E-R-O. Okay. Maybe it's Euro. Hero science?

Showed that while weight loss improved metabolism in mid-age obese mice, it temporarily worsened inflammation in the hypothalamus, a brain region controlling appetite and energy. This inflammation, linked to cognitive decline and neurodegeneration, eventually subsided, but raises question about rapid weight loss in middle age, relevant amid popularity of GLP-1 drugs. It's not interesting. That's about mice.

It's referencing Olzempic, which is big right now across the-- There's a new drug out now. So now they're saying that massive weight loss could cause brain cognitive function, which could be a problem. I wonder if Greg's on Olzempic. I don't think Greg's on Olzempic.

Maybe that's why all of a sudden he's retarded. No, Greg's still-- No, he's been retarded, I think, for years. A doctor has just justified it. You're right, and he is bulking.

He's still bulking. Yeah. He's still bulking. He's definitely not losing weight.

I think his brain problems was from the accident. I don't think that that was the case. Well, that's the part that he hit, though. I don't think that that's the case, to be honest.

You would think also that they would have found it then. I'm sure they did an MRI after the accident. You don't think that tank of a jeep saved him? I mean, that thing was built like a...

Well, he hit his head on the roll bar. I don't think that's the case. Yeah. Greg seems the same since the accident.

I did have an article a video that I watched and I wish I could find it but I can't but it's a it's this guy he does his podcast I have never seen this podcast I have seen his shorts and he's always tired which is interesting to me he says that he doesn't sleep eventually he's got to sleep but he was talking about limited edition cigars and how retailers don't have access to these LEs because they have to sell more Coraline and it's not fair to the retailers And they have to sell CoreLine product. And there was a retailer and he was explaining that it's not fair and all these other things. And for me, I was like, well, that's totally wrong. That's totally wrong, sure.

You know, and just to simplify it and kind of break down, very easy math, we can break it down by transaction. If you are a retailer and you're a mid-level retailer and you average 30 to 40 transactions per day, You know, that's 30 or 40 potential customers that you can introduce to a new brand. If a customer likes a particular cigar from Dunbarton or Tatuaje or Aroma Craft or, you know, Foundation, you can find something, hey, you should try this as well, right? You're helping that consumer by broadening their horizon, you're going to give them something that they like, and you'll help establish more core sales from that brand.

So if you're going to go, if you have the mentality of, well, this isn't fair, I consider that a victim mentality, you're not doing anything to help your customer understand what a product is, right? At the end of the day, as a retailer, you need to pick your horses. And it's about three, you need three horses. I say that all the time.

Right. And those three horses are the brands that you want to focus on developing with your customers because you either love the product, you think that they're super reliable, and they're consistent, right? Or you appreciate their price points, whatever the case may be. So when you have those horses, you generate core sales.

Core sales then develops you into a relationship with the manufacturer, brand owner. Brand owner then sells you the LEs. Does that make sense? Sure.

So why am I seeing a post about a guy losing his mind about not... " Like, he asked me for this box of whatever it was, and I sold it to him. " Right. I mean, if you only got the one box, you sold the box outright.

So you just used it as a flip to a guy that wasn't even... He wasn't even purchasing the brand from you off the jump. Like, I wouldn't sell to that guy. Well, a lot of shops aren't run the way we run the one here.

But that's the problem. Right, it is. I mean, not that we have found the secret to being successful because obviously we're, you know, not making money, but it is run different and it's run better than a lot of shops that I go into. I know that we joke about how we don't make any money, but like the reality is that we do pretty well in the retail operation.

Sure. You know, we sustain everybody, everybody gets paid. Right. " Yeah, we're gonna have to cut back payroll this week, sorry.

Can't pay it this week. You're not working. Yeah, you know, we gotta make some pullbacks, right? Even with the dips, the ups and downs all year, you know, we're still finishing pretty damn good.

Right. We press hard to try and continue to grow. We invest with particular brands over and over again. And then like the ones that don't work, like, if I have a brand in the store, right, And it's not going well.

First of all, that's probably on me and the employees, we feel that it's, we just don't like it in comparison to something else, right? So when that guy says, "Hey, I got an LE" and somebody's asking me for that LE, I'm going to tell them I'm probably not getting it. " Yeah, I'm not going to qualify for that, so... It's probably not going to happen, right?

So, uh, sorry, you know. Let me show you something else. Yeah, but I just found that incredible that I'm looking at a retailer and this podcast guy, and I wrote on them, I'm like, I respectfully disagree. He seems like a good guy.

The podcast guy or the shop guy? Both of them. Oh. I had no problems with any of them.

Was it controversial? What's that? Did they write back? No.

No controversy yet, Palmer. But don't you think, don't you think that that makes sense? Sure it does. I mean, that's the way we run our business.

Support CoreLine. And they're like, well, no. Like, okay. Yeah, no, I just want the special.

Okay, cool. Well, you can't just have the special. I mean, I've gone out of my, we've gone out of our way and we've given people LEs that don't support CoreLine. Sure.

Because we try and we invest with them. Like, hey, we believe in you. We think this will work. But I got news for you.

After the second time of me just giving you LEs to try and take care of you, Like, man, I'm kinda done. Like, alright, you've had a span of two years to try and promote and build our brand. You're obviously not doing that. For whatever reason.

And I'm okay with you not doing it. Right, you don't have to. But I'm not gonna give you the LEs. Why would I do that?

We're gonna have to cut ties here at this point. Right. Let me know when you want to revisit it and, you know, and really focus on the brand. Yeah, but a lot of guys don't run a shop anyways.

I mean, like, let's say for instance, Bob up the street. You go into Bob's, there is no like, hey, how are you doing? Right. What do you smoke?

Can I help you? There's none of that. There's no customer service. Yeah, none at all.

And that's a lot of shops. Right. A lot of shops. And that's the problem.

No, yeah. And, but you're never going to completely change that because these guys don't want to run a business. These guys want to have a cigar emporium for themselves. Right.

And other people can come and hang out with them. Which is fine. Right. Don't complain about not getting limited editions.

Oh, yeah. Right? Sure. Yeah, I don't think Bob over there probably gets many.

Right. I don't think Bob cares. Hey, Bob, did you get the mummies, Bob? He's like, what?

What? Leave me alone. The acids are over here. Right.

You want these brick houses? Do you like a Perdomo? Yeah. I mean, dude.

I have a whole wall of that. Right. And that's perfectly acceptable if you want to be that. You just don't complain about not getting these other things.

Right, yeah. Don't sit and complain. Well, you know, I never get to Warbears. Warbears never come here.

Right, yeah. s or Perdomos. s. Oh, and there's that.

Look, Powstanie, Sanizofina, Phosphoro, even FQ, these brands are front and center of our humidor, right? Right, yeah, as soon as you walk in there. These are our guys. These are our people.

We will help them, and we will do everything we can to help them develop and build them, right? Right. And I'm not even talking about our, that's not even our main course. Right.

Roma. Without question. Yeah. Like, I guarantee you, and you could just go, somebody can call Skip, or you could call Rosales, I guarantee you that our numbers with them are consistently the same, probably 5% to 10% growth, maybe a little bit more, every single year.

Every single year. Yeah, and they're in the back right corner. Yeah, because we introduce it to, we love the product, we believe in the brand, we introduce it to everybody. And everybody, hey, if you like this, this is $4 less, and it's better.

You know what's funny, though, is every time I go in there, I always go to the back right corner first. As you should. Yeah. I go over there, I look, see if there's anything new.

I mean, of course, we would know there's something new, but just to double check. Yeah, sometimes some stuff will pop back in stock or whatever that, you know, we were out of for a minute. Yeah, I usually grab like two or three sticks every time I come in, at least, you know, and that's one of them that I'll grab. And then, I like to go to the left side, you know, because then Espinosa's over there, see if there's anything new with those guys, or Room 101, or, yeah, I mean, you, but, but you guys trained me to do that.

I mean, realistically, you just named the three that we support the most. Yeah, yeah. Right? Did you see Booth is in Egypt?

No, that's awesome. Yeah, he's in Egypt right now. Well, you say that, but you do support them the most, but you support everybody pretty highly, you know, like, you know, foundations in there. I mean, everybody, even Fuente.

Like, you guys still support Fuente. They have a huge, huge area. But yeah, but Fuente is more automated, right? It's yeah, it's not like you go, I'm not, did you try this Fuente?

I'm not walking somebody over there. Yeah, right. Yeah. We're not saying, oh, but I mean, support wise, like you guys still give them this.

Of course, they have the opportunity. I mean, look, right. I mean, Padrón, we don't really support. No, like I don't go out of my way and say Padrón.

Now, there's one that I love. Right. Right. 50th Toro Maduro, I think, is outstanding.

But realistically, that brand has grown year over year by itself. I guarantee you, the numbers are staggering. Even with a downturn of a year or a rough year, I guarantee you Padron still grew in our store. Yeah.

But your legacy brand, some of those will be fine by themselves. But if you pick your horses of your brands that you want to grow with and develop with, those guys will have your back. You can kind of tell, though, when you walk into a shop anyways, like, if it's a good shop or a bad shop, right? Just by walking in and the organization, like, you can tell, like, oh, okay, this is going to be rough.

Right. You know, then you'll see, like, there's no customer service. There's, hey, do you have a Mexican Coke? Nope, don't have that.

Hey, do you have a Bud Light? Nope, don't have that. Hey, you know, they don't have anything. All of a sudden, it's like, man, why the fuck did I come to this place?

Wild. Mild. You have those LEs? Yeah, I got those.

Okay. So, go ahead. Moving on, sir. All right.

Appeal filed in California UTL lawsuit. Emergency order requested several major cigar companies have filed an appeal in their ongoing legal fight against California's new unflavored tobacco list, which is set to take effect on January 1st. So, it's already been, as of this episode, it's already out. It's in effect.

On Friday, December 26th, the plaintiffs in Rocky Patel Premium Cigars, Inc. v. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court.

At the same time, they asked the court for an emergency restraining order that would temporarily stop California from enforcing the UTL as it applies to premium cigars. Because the rule goes into effect at the start of the new year, the court is expected to act quickly. The lawsuit was filed by members of the Cigar Rights of America, the Premium Cigar Association, and several family-owned cigar companies. The companies argue that the UTL violates federal law and places an unfair burden on premium cigar manufacturers and retailers.

California created the UTL as part of a 2020 law banning most flavored tobaccos and nicotine products. Under the new system, the state will publish a list of tobacco products that are legal to sell. We already know all this information. They just filed an appeal to the lawsuit that they said, or to the cease and desist, whatever, that they did the other day.

Right. So we have not heard yet what happened. Well, you probably won't. It sounds like you're going to lose, like California.

Yeah, it's like a last ditch effort here. It's the day before it starts throwing another piece of paper at them. It does violate federal law, but it doesn't matter. How does it violate federal law?

Well, I'm just, oh, okay, let me reiterate that. These boots and boots, attorney at law? Tell me. It probably does violate federal law because, first of all, you can't even file anything and it be known like this without there being some type of grasp, right, some type of evidence inside of that that supports it, but it doesn't matter anyway.

The state can make its own fucking law. Right. As long as it's not harming anybody, right? Well, I think that's the thing.

It's restricting what they can sell, I think. And it's hurting small businesses. Right. That's the federal law, I think, that they're applying to.

I mean, I agree. I don't know exactly which law specifically, but it's the one that says we can sell anything we want to sell. You can't tell us what we can sell or something. Right.

It's just the bad thing is that states can make up whatever law they want. But the court has already said, no, I'm sorry, it's going to go ahead. It's going to go ahead. Now they're going, well, let's look at it one more time.

Right. Come on. Give it to us. What are you doing?

C. on their side. That would help. Why?

It's a state law. Yeah. " The only way that that works is cigar smoking becomes more socially acceptable across the board. I mean, it's definitely socially accepted in the Senate, in the House.

I'm sure they all smoke cigars. Well, that's different though. Well, not all of them. Politicians, what politicians do and what the people do are two totally different things.

I mean, you know, I mean, I'm aiming for a Somalian daycare over here, I need to open one of those up. Like, Steve and I were talking about that upstairs, because he didn't know we talked, but he hadn't heard the show that we did yesterday. He has a Somalian daycare? He said some of them, even the word "learning" was spelled wrong in the building.

Leering. Leering Center. That's incredible. Oh my God.

Still have not looked into us getting a grant. We need a grant. And this guy was like this close to becoming the VP of the United States. Oh.

Tim Waltz? He was the... Oh, are these his locations? He's in Minnesota.

He's the governor of Minnesota. Oh. Is it a federal grant they got or a state grant? Oh, I have no idea.

I just find it all hilarious. I didn't know which one to go after. I would think it'd probably be a state. And then he said that, you know, he goes, he said something like white men are criminals or something like that.

I'm like, okay, what does that have to do with anything? Well, that was the, the smoke and mirrors. Like somebody said to him, listen, here's what you need to do. You need to go out here and you just need to blame the white guys for this.

Right. Okay. And he's just like, no problem. No problem.

I blame the white man. Politicians are so disconnected. All of them. I don't care what side you vote for.

It's just wild to me. I don't, I don't understand the concept. It's crazy. Yeah.

So, I'm There was something on the news this morning about Barack Obama's wife has gone like crazy now or something. Oh, no, that's not good. No, not like with her political stance, not like she's actually gone crazy. Man, they've been saying that for years, bro.

They've been attacking her forever. Yeah, what's her political stance? It has something to do with she's for communism now or something, her and Julia Louise Dreyfus. Of course, because he's probably involved, or she's probably involved in something that's getting ready to come up in the news, and they do the smoke and mirror thing, and don't believe her.

This time of year, it's hard to know if it's a repeat episode on the radio, or if it's actually a new show, unless you catch it from the beginning. So, I mean, it could have been a repeat of something that's already happened. Yeah, I'm sure Michelle's fine. You know what I mean?

She's got plenty of money. Don't know. Oh, we know. We know.

Yeah, we know. What kind of chicken does you like? Well, stay away from the chicken jokes. Alright, we got a full episode of What's the Score, or we could just stop, we hit an hour.

No, let's keep going. Alright, What's the Score, this is the first cigar from December 27th, 2025, Brooks Whittington Cigars, HVC Cigars, Limited Edition, Nicaragua, HVC Black Friday, 10th Anniversary, Limited Edition. That's a good cigar. What is it?

The Black Friday, HVC 10th Anniversary. We're doing a show here, are you with us? Black Friday this year? 10th Anniversary.

Yes, just, I'm sorry. It was reviewed on the 25th of December, HVC, limited, 10th anniversary, limited edition, the current one that they're doing now. And then who? Now you're back up to speed.

Who reviewed it? Oh, you didn't even know that part. Brooks. Brooks, Brooks did.

Okay. Brooks. Alright. This will be the last time.

Just for information, in the People's Choice Awards on Half Wheel, we're not even in the running. Really? Yes. Really?

They announced the six cigars from the other day or something. Dunbarton. No, I'm not even sure there was a number. It's all higher end, pepin, all that kind of stuff.

Well, I'm not sending that honey to Charlie. The people wanted, so it's hard to tell. The people? The peoples.

" I voted for us. I mean, you didn't vote for us? I didn't. Was there a QR code for this?

No, you had to answer five questions. By the way, Kaplowitz Media. What? Kaplowitz Media.

Kaplowitz and the Montagues? No. Oh, no. Totally different.

That's a Capulet. But I impressed you caught the reference. Yes. Kapowitz Media gave Postana San Andreas.

Oh, Kapowitz. Yes. Yeah. Number two, Cigar of the Year.

Oh, nice. Yeah. Bang. Yeah.

Cigar Craig showed that to me, which was awesome. Uh, we just got a ninth place from someone else, too, I forget who it was. Um, but we need to properly, uh... You had to watch the whole video, and then it's just a flash through.

We need to properly acknowledge all the people that have given us some love. So... Okay. Um, let's make sure that we do that.

Obviously Cigar Press, number 6, that was a good one. Yes, number 6. And there was another one, Cigar Culture? I don't know, I gotta look.

Somebody said, "Hey, don't forget these guys," they mentioned in the group. " Oh, yeah, there's several reviews people want us to review. Yeah. Some of them I have not heard of.

So, here's what I'm thinking. What we'll do is we'll categorize every single cigar on a five-point scale, zero to four. Zero, one, two, three, or four, right? Right.

So, zero means we don't think it belongs on the list at all. One is, okay, maybe. Two is, it was good. Three is, we can kind of determine, yes, you know, maybe not where it ranked, but we agree with it.

And then four is an absolute, right? And then we'll scale everything and we'll determine who ranks the highest. Okay, that's a lot of work. It is, it's gonna be fun.

All right. All right. All right. Okay, I'll go first.

Brooks Winnington, HVC, 10th Anniversary, Limited Edition. 10th Anniversary, Limited Edition, Black Friday. 87. He just looked it up.

How did I look it up? I have the buttons. I'm switching. And I have a cigar.

A delicious cigar. I had your phone in front of you the whole time. Of course I have. HVC, Black Friday, 10th Anniversary, Limited Edition from Nicaragua.

Factory, Fabrica de Tobacco, HVCSA de Ranier Lorenzo. Oh, he put his name in the name of the factory. Belo. Rapper, Ecuadorian Habano 92, Binder, Nicaraguan Filler, Nicaraguan Length, 6 1/4 by 54, it's a round, it's a $13, and they smoked three cigars.

I'm gonna roll to 88, 'cause of its size. I'll stay 87. 'Cause he already knows. Pretty sure he looked, yeah.

Is that the number? I'm not saying a word. Why would you say that? Because maybe you're close.

The flavor profile is consistently rich and engaging across all three cigars, highlighted by creamy cedar peanut shells, cocoa nibs, again with the nibs, and toasted bread with excellent retro hails, offering red pepper and sweet milk chocolate that add depth and balance. 89. 87. Yeah, he looked.

I didn't look. He looked, he looked. Is that the number? Oh, I don't know, isn't it the number?

Construction shines in terms of draw and smoke production as all three cigars deliver effortlessly draws in thick, satisfying smoke from start to finish, allowing the full flavor to come through clearly. 87. 89. He's trying to move me off of here.

Yeah, he's going to throw it off, try to throw him off a little bit here. Burn consistency is a recurring issue with uneven burn lines throughout the smoke and multiple touch-ups requiring an all three cigars, which detracts from the otherwise enjoyable and well-flavored experience. 87. I love how he's reading it like Lorenzo.

No. Yes. It's Lorenzo's cigar. Yeah.

Hello. Um, 89. Well, I have not smoked every Black Friday release. I have smoked quite a few of them, and I have enjoyed most of them.

The Black Friday 10th Anniversary Limited Edition is no different in that regard, with a base profile that is creamy and slightly sweet. Plenty of flavors and some noticeable but not overwhelming strength below. In fact, the worst part about the cigar was the construction. And while none of the burn corrections were major issues, they were enough to negatively impact the score.

This is a better cigar than the final score will indicate, but if you smoke it, keep your lighter ready. Mmm. Is this the final thought? Yep.

That was the final thought. Dun, dun, dun, dun. I'm going to go 87. Boots, what are you going to say?

87. Oh, wow, it's 87! Whoa! Whoa!

Look at that, he hit it from the very beginning. First time in the entire... I nailed it, baby! So crazy.

First time in the history of what's the score. No, I promise you, I wasn't looking at my phone. I just thought it was funny how Palmer gave in. It wasn't like, you know, like Steve Harvey.

If you say this stuff to Steve Harvey, you're like, is it this? He's like, no, I don't know. Because you never hit it right on the money the very first thing. And then he stuck with it.

He stayed with it. He didn't move around. Well, you know what? I didn't look at my phone.

This is going to be a good day. I'm putting a lot of money on the line tonight on that Miami game. You might not have looked at your phone now. Maybe you already read this.

It was the top of the page. I have never looked at half of those pages. We haven't had any moneymaker picks either. Like the past two weeks.

Oh, that's right. We forgot. I don't even know what Half Wheels page looks like. Yeah.

It looks like half a wheel. Yeah. Does it really? Wild.

Yes. Okay. Anything else? Yeah, we have another one.

Yeah, we were doing too. Oh, okay. Yeah. August 15th, 2020.

No way you can get this one. Yeah, no. I'm going to start looking it up right now. August 15th, 2020.

Brooks Whittington. Agonorsa Leaf Cigars. Nicaraguan Reviews. Supreme Leaf.

Toro. Toro. Toro. Toro.

Supreme. Supreme. Supreme. 90.

I'll go first. He's looking it up right now. No, no. He's got his phone on.

No, I'm sorry, hold on. He's looking it up right now? I don't know how to do this. Chat GPT, what was the review of Supreme Leaf Toro, Toro, Toro, Toro.

It was a Supreme Leaf? Yep. Toro! He's stalling while he types.

A Toro? Do you mean he spells Supreme for you? No, he's got to probably love Toro. Yes, yes, the Toro.

Not one of the other ones you're looking at. Yeah, I'll probably, this will probably be high, 92. Ooh, 92. I was like, I can't say it the right thing for the first time.

Yeah. Here are reviewed Supreme Leaf Toro from Nicaragua from Tabaco Valley de Jalapa, SA, Nicaraguan, binder Nicaraguan, filler Nicaraguan, length 6 inches by 54, same as last one, Michael. Ooh, yes, but it's a different leaf. 50, release date 2020, they smoked 3 cigars.

I'll tap 89 because of the size. Again, I'll go 89. Why don't you like the size? You're at 90.

Yeah, I brought a down one. But Toro is like the most, one of the most common ones. Toro's 6x52, Toro's 6x54, like, it could be too much. It's gotta be, it's, look, it's gotta be, it's not Roma, you know what I mean?

Like, those, they're good. Yeah, but wasn't this like, Year of the Donkey? I mean, everybody likes bigger, Year of the Horse. That's not what I meant.

I understand what you meant, I'm not falling for it. -I'm not falling for it. -I'm sticking 92. -Okay.

-Yeah. -The Supreme Leaf Toro delivers a bold, layered flavor profile led by sweet cedar and dark chocolate, complemented by creamy nuts. -Ooh, creamy nuts. -Creamy nuts.

-Oh, God. -Expresso. -Coco nibs. -And a distinctive raisin sweetness on the retrohale that keeps the cigar engaging from start to finish.

-No cocoa nibs. -No cocoa nibs. -Didn't we do the Supreme Leaf not too long ago? -There's 75 Supreme Leafs.

Two different Supremes. Yeah. This is from 2020. We have not done this one.

90. Yeah, 92. Construction is a strong point with an excellent draw throughout and a burn that improves as the cigar progresses, allowing for consistent smoke output and a satisfying overall smoking experience. Of course, it's going to be consistent.

It's Aga Norse. And it's the same cigar. Just a different size. Just a different size.

It's a 90. Right. A different size. Matt, you're going 90?

I'm still. Well, we do the Supreme Leaf Robusto. 92. Oh, you said 90, he said 92, sorry.

Final thoughts, please. No, no, this is a third clue. Third clue. As the cigar reaches the final third, the increasing black pepper and jalapeno heat become aggressive enough to overpower some of the more nuanced secondary flavors.

Slightly unbalancing the profile at the end. Uh-oh. Jalapeno on a stick. Jose?

Jalapeno. These guys need to stop eating those Flamin' Hot Cheetos while they're smoking cigars. I'm going to roll back 89. They said tequinos.

Really? Because of the jalapenos? Yeah. Because of the jalapenos.

Jalapeno. Jose, jalapeno. But did you say it was overwhelming jalapeno? Yes, yes.

That was the reason he didn't like the jalapeno. Oh, God. Oh, boy. Oh, man.

He's having a stroke. Jesus. I need oxygen. Oxygen, quick.

I'm going to buy him an oxygen tank. The oxygen tank. Well, JW's upstairs if you'd like to use his. I'm not putting that nasty thing in my nose.

Jesus. Have you seen those two little things that stick in his nose? Dude, I love when he used to roll around with the oxygen tank and make everybody nervous. It makes everybody nervous.

Everybody's nervous. I'm like, this is great. He's smoking with the oxygen? He's smoking with the oxygen.

Yeah, it's fine, don't worry. It'll be fine. 92. Unless Pete throws another burning lighter under his chair.

Final thought. I enjoyed the one Supreme Leaf Robusto. Oh. I smoked quite a bit of the Toro shares a number of similarities with its smaller sibling, so it's not surprising that I feel mostly the same way about the new Toro in the same blend.

Having said that, starting around the beginning of the final third, the combination of jalapeno on the finish and black pepper on the retrohale is strong enough to mostly overwhelm not only the one dominant notes of creamy cedar and dark chocolate on the palate, but also the raisin sweetness on the retroil. Overall, the Supreme Leaf Toro is a good cigar now, but I think six months to a year will age plenty of time to bring so much needed balance to the final third, which would make it an overall complete experience. Aha! The end.

Thank you. 89. No, I was going to go there. So go there.

Go there. Yeah, I'll go 88. Ooh. Ooh, nice move, 87.

Yeah, baby, I win today! See, I thought for sure he was going to be above it, so I figured I was fine. I'll bang. I picked two with the same score, because I thought they will never- You know, I got to put a bet in on Hard Rock real quick, guys.

This is a great day. Great day. Have you picked out a name for the baby? Uh, Mike.

We have not finalized a name. Mike would be a good, yeah. Mine was, uh, I want to name the baby Pete Mitchell. Pete Mitchell?

Pete Mitchell. Why? Isn't that the actor? Nope.

That is the character. What is the character? From Top Gun. Oh, my God.

Middle name Maverick? No, no, no. Middle name Mitchell. Pete Mitchell Hippelhauser.

Oh, I guess that makes more sense. Yeah. I thought you were thinking the last name of Mitchell. Yeah.

Okay, that's what you want. What is Tia saying? Yeah, what is Tia saying? She likes Colton Edward.

Colton sounds better. So it's going to be Colton. It's going to be Colton. It's going to be Colton.

Colton sounds better. We never get to, but you never get to say. Pete Mitchell. Yeah.

After Top Gun, yeah. Weak. Weak! We can call him Goose.

No, no, no. Talk to me, Goose. Talk to me. But it's a different character.

I understand it's a different character. I thought you would have went a totally different direction. Yeah, like Mike. Like what?

Mike. A lot of people in your life are named Mike. I can't think of his name because I'm retarded and I have the flu, but... There's a super flu, by the way, now.

I probably have that. I think you have this one. Oh, God. The guy who just passed.

Your family member? The director? Oh, Tony. Tony.

Yeah, I know. I thought you'd maybe... He doesn't like death. He wouldn't name somebody after a dead guy.

Kind of honor his name, you know? Yeah. Well, his real name was John Anthony. Yeah.

And you guys... And we call him Tony. John Anthony sounds good. Yeah.

He don't like naming enough dead people. It'd make him sad. Well, my daughter's named after my dad, so... Well, that's different.

It's your father. It doesn't make you sad. Well, yeah. He doesn't like to talk about death.

He freaks out. Yeah, my Christmas party upstairs. Yeah. With the company one.

Miss Ryan, my sales lady. Yeah. She bought me like one of those pieces of glass that has like the 3D image. Yeah.

Of me and Tony together. Oh, man, that was rough. That was rough. Yeah.

That was very rough. That's good, man. Somebody's, you know, it's like a hologram and it talks and he's putting his arm around. No, it didn't talk.

It would have been even crazier. Crazier. AI it. You push a button and his arm goes around?

Right. And then you guys kiss? I don't know. I just think that's always cool to kind of carry a name on.

Yeah. You know? But Colton's cool. Well, Edward, she likes Edward for the middle name because that was her grandfather's name.

Got it. So yeah, there's some, it's, dude, it's, it's Colton, Edward by a log shot. Just so you know. If it's Colton and the dead grandfather against the favorite character from the airplane movie?

Oh! You didn't want to go Maverick? Well, I did, and she did like that as a first name. Yeah, Gerard's kid's name's Maverick.

Oh, yeah. Mardo? Yeah, I like that as a first name. That's a great name.

Or Julian. Julian was my other first name pick. Julian? Julian?

Julian the Better Gordon? Oh, I didn't even think of that, but, like, I like the name because I love Big Daddy. Ah. Oh.

Yeah. Okay. All right, cool. Well, hey, 72 minutes, buddy.

It takes a few minutes, buddy. To be continued. Who? Oh, we don't know his name, do we?

We should have the guides coming in. Every time there's an event at the shop, we should have that guy sit in and do the hosting. Okay. We can try that.

For 2026. Haven't we been doing that? Make them talk? Get back to that once a month thing that we were trying to do.

Okay, yeah, I mean, like, listen, you know, end of the year is kind of tough. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But we sort of got away from this. But we'll continue to mix it up.

I mean, I love having a Carney on standby, and we could just, we could always incorporate him. Yeah, because the seventh and maybe the eighth, I'm gone. Oh, yeah? He's coming down to Neptune on the 7th, so I will not be here, 'cause it's at like 10 o'clock in the morning.

You think Willie would ever do it? We should totally get Willie. That would be good. Actually, he was in the entertainment business.

Ask him. Okay. Ask him. For the 7th.

January 7th. Yeah. January 7th. It's next week.

Willie Morente. All right, guys. Thank you very much. We can talk about all this off the air.

We appreciate you. 2026 is going to be a big year for us. Boots and I are going to start getting paid. Yes.

Thanks for sending the door, Dash, people. You don't have to. It's fine. We know we understand.

All right, guys. Thank you very much. Episode 494. Ninety-four.

How did we jump over? Oh, wait. 430. Wait.

We just said 439. He's dyslexic. That's the one that went the last live show. We did a repeat yesterday.

Oh, God. So, it's 440? 440? 440.

440. All right, guys. Thanks. Bye.

Bye. This Christmas Cigar Hustler is giving away a massive 85-inch 4K LED Insignia Fire TV. Make $100 in-store purchase and get one raffle ticket. Spend $150 in one visit, get three raffle tickets.

In-store purchases only, the drawing happens after January 1st, and the winner must pick up at the shop. Don't miss your chance at this ultimate holiday upgrade. Welcome to the Cigar Hustler Podcast, the show brought to you commercial-free. But a massive shout out to our amazing patrons on the Patreon.

Thanks to your unwavering support, we're able to do unfiltered, unbiased opinions. All things cigars, personalities in the cigar world. Your backing makes it possible for us to keep it real for our listeners. Cheers to you.

com and search the Cigar Hustler Podcast, that one up.

Show Notes

Couple updates to some 2025 stories , Stephan Diggs apparently did not like his dinner! And is choked up about it!  Then in a silimiar story you can’t eat here no more!  We have a cosmic first and we are in a front row seat to see it! We have a celebrity story ya’ll aint gonna believe and then in a last ditch effort  we file just one more time for the UTL!