Category: Opinion

July 16, 2025 – Made in India?

July 16, 2025 /

This is one of the most serendipitous events that I have ever encountered. My wife recently asked for relish to put on hot dogs. I really don’t care for relish much. Years ago, I made zucchini relish and I thought that was pretty good, but that is long gone. When I went to the store, I deliberately sought out something different that what normally is purchased in a squeeze bottle.

I picked out this Wickles brand in a specialty area of the store. I actually thought that it was pretty good, very close to my zucchini relish. The fourth of July came around and we had a few hotdogs but we also had a ton of buns left over. So, I have been eating a bunch of hotdogs lately that include this relish on it.

Now for the serendipitous part. A few days ago I saw an article on MSN that I had to read. It was something along the lines of ‘The most famous food brand of each state’ I am a sucker for these kinds of articles because I am always interested in what a likely non-resident thinks of my state and other states that I am familiar with such as South Carolina.

Most of the time, I can pretty much guess what the choice is for Oregon. I will get to that in a minute. But, it just so happens that Wickles is the most famous brand in Alabama. Before I purchased this jar, I had never heard of or seen Wickles before let alone ever read the label.

The other night, I was eating a couple hotdogs and thinking about this article. I couldn’t remember the state and so I flipped the jar around to look at the label. Low and behold it said Made in India on it. What? I cannot think about the last time I saw Made in India on it. Even more than that, why relish?

As I went through the the article, I guessed correctly that Oregon’s most famous brand is Tillamook cheese. If you are not familiar with the brand, it is pretty good cheddar cheese. We of course grew up with it but it has gotten pretty big in the last twenty years. I remember seeing it in one grocery store for the first time when we lived in South Carolina, it was a big deal for us. There was a time when my wife’s family sent us a care package. It contained some Tillamook cheese and some wine and a few other things. It was in an insulated box but it was warm outside and I remember the cheese being soft. It was still good though.

Tillamook is a town on the Oregon Coast and the cheese is a farmer owned coop. It was traditionally made in a factory along the coast. But, about 25 years ago, they built a second plant along the Columbia river gorge. It doesn’t even have a visible sign on it. But, it is that plant that produces about 75% of the overall volume. In fact, there was even a lawsuit over this “It claims the creamery’s marketing led consumers to believe its milk is sourced from small, family-owned, lush-green pasture-based dairies in Tillamook County, when in reality, the case alleges, it sources two-thirds of its milk from one of the country’s largest dairies with cement floors and barren feedlots and over 28,000 cows east of the Cascades near Boardman.”

Without that plant, there would have never been Tillamook cheese in South Carolina grocery stores. Now that I am back in Oregon, I could really care less if Tillamook has distribution on the east coast. It is however quite the double edged sword. Are you willing to let your small, hometown favorites compete against the likes of one of the seven large food companies? And if they can’t compete, eventually they become acquired. This happens over and over.

End Your Programming Routine: I know a lot about the food industry, most of which doesn’t impress me very much. I cannot say why relish is made in India. That being said, it probably has to do with product cost and distribution. They are clearly very small, they have 82 followers on LinkedIn. There is a separate LinkedIn page for Wickles that has 125 followers. I mean, I have more than that without too much effort at all.

July 8, 2025 – Visible Evolution

July 8, 2025 /

We are now on our third Ecovac Deebot (see picture below). These things are not cheap but given how much our dog sheds hair, it saves from having to vacuum more frequently. Our model also mops, but after testing the use once we have never actually used the feature. Part of that is because switching between the two requires manual intervention. Given that it adds to the price tag, I am not sure why we keep getting the feature that we don’t use.

Probably about six years or so ago, we bought the first model. It lasted probably two or three years. In fact, we even sent it back to be rebuilt because it lost it’s way around the house. It did work, but shortly we found out that the dog hair was clogging the discharge. Consequently, every day I would manually empty the dust pan. It also had a propensity to lose its map and so every few weeks we would have to remap the house.

When it stopped working the second time, my wife decided to replace it with a newer model. I was very thankful that I no longer had to remember to empty the dust bin. This second generation seemed to remember it’s map so that was also a win. It was also more robust than the first one. I wouldn’t get stuck on carpets as an example. But is was also a brute. There have been several mornings I found it wedged (and stuck) under the toe kick.

So, while the second generation was significantly less likely to be stuck, probably several times a week I would find it stopped in the middle of the room. These things are not without maintenance. The first thing I would do is try to determine if something that wasn’t supposed to be wrapped up in the brushes. After that I would check to see if there was hair wrapped around the main spindle causing heat and friction. Inevitably, the battery would be dead. I never could quite tell if it died in place or kept trying to work which killed the battery.

For some reason, my wife decided to replace unit two. She said that she didn’t think it was working very well. I don’t know, I didn’t notice anything unusual. She installed unit three about two weeks ago. So far so good. This one must have a bigger motor because I feel like it uses the battery much quicker. However, the thing this one does is actually go back to the base station to charge. It will then pickup where it left off.

It hasn’t run long enough to notice any quirks. My wife is a big fan of the Ruggable product which is an area rug that is two pieces. There is a backing and there is the washable rug. These vacuums have a propensity to suck up the top layer. Most of the time it goes right over it, but then there are other times where it actually gets wrapped up in the robot. I am not sure that is the robot’s fault but every morning we have to flip corners back onto the velcro backing.

There must be a lot of feedback that goes back to the manufacturer. I am amazed at how quickly these things have become better in a short period of time. I count 64 models on their website and they are not the only people making such products. I know that I am certainly jaded, that comes from years and years of seeing inferior products continue to be inferior. I couldn’t believe that our second generation actually would empty the dust bin, that seemed like such a win.

End Your Programming Routine: If something happens to my wife, I will more than likely let the Deebot go. In my opinion, it is a maintenance hassle as well as a consumables are costly. You trade your time for the task in troubleshooting and keeping the robot running. It also is not a substitute for a manual sweeping or vacuuming. Things block the robot from doing a complete job. But with pets indoors, it does a pretty good job of knocking most of the hair down and it stays on top of it.

June 11, 2025 – Man, I Love Old Stuff

June 11, 2025 /

Take a look at my almost thirty year old boots. Yeah, I know that I love to flaunt this kind of stuff. I originally bought a different brand of boots and the leather ripped on the first day of wearing them. So, I returned them and purchased these significantly more expensive pair of Danner boots to replace them.

They haven’t got a lot of wear, specifically lately. These are my hunting boots. It was about 2014 that I had worn them on my one and only elk hunting trip that I noticed the sole started to separate from a boot. I took them into a local boot repair and asked them to sew the sole back on which they did. The problem with that is that it cupped the boot tip up and the plastic toe protector would rub my big toe. So much so that it would become raw after a couple of days of wear and so they stayed on the shelf in favor of my low hikers the last couple of hunting seasons.

I thought that I would investigate the Danner recrafting services. Fortunately for me, I live close to the home of Danner and there is a factory store in Portland where they actually do the work. One Saturday I had to do some errands in Portland so I thought that I would inquire.

And inquire I did. The stern looking cobbler looked the boots over and said, I recommend a full rebuild. The plastic heel forms were no longer attached to the boot. He also said that there is no way of knowing whether the previous repair had punctured the Gore-Tex sock that make these boots waterproof. I don’t feel like they are compromised but the package offering below the full rebuild did not address the heel and so I conceded.

The cost to recraft these boots was $280. The step down was $240 so it didn’t make a lot of sense to scrimp. I suppose that if I didn’t need the heel structure repaired, I could have gotten away with just a new sole to remove the cupping. Otherwise, I would say the boots are in fantastic shape.

This was a hard pill to swallow. If it weren’t for the fact that now these boots cost $450 dollars to replace and it was extremely unlikely I would wear them again with my toe rubbing I would have said that the financial cost was not worth it. Based on replacement costs of most of their boots, I would say that there are very few models that are worth recrafting. In other words, I would have been money ahead to buy a new pair of boots, just not these.

My understanding of this process is that the boot is entirely reconstructed. The plastic bits at the toe and the heel are replaced with a new sock. There is a new tread put on and probably a new sole core, although I do not know. They do offer options of tread pattern that the boot originally was not sold with, a bit of customization. The brass lace rivets are replaced because over time the pressure of the laces cause sharp edges to form causing laces to break faster over time.

What exactly remains of the old boot? I think just the leather which has been re-dyed. They include new laces and new insole platforms. With all that, they should look like new because they basically are. If it makes the bitter pill any easier to swallow, there is free shipping to and from, that saves time and mileage expense.

One other thing I was offered was 25% coupon at the factory store. I am definitely thinking about replacing my hikers, I don’t like them so that discount is probably worth $50 if I can find a pair of Danner hikers I like. That is still to be determined.

End Your Programming Routine: One of the reasons I justified this purchase originally was that they were an investment. That being said, how many people actually have their shoes repaired? I was going to give them an inaugural run on the sporting clays course but God thought I needed to stay in bed sick instead. So, I haven’t worn them yet. I may have to just wear them around town just to make sure that this fixed the problem. Let’s assume that is the case, I will report back otherwise.

June 10, 2025 – When It Is Too Good to Be True, It Is

June 10, 2025 /

Sometimes, people that pride themselves into not getting duped, do. That’s me. And, hindsight being 20/20, I should have known better. I am a little angry and I second guess the whole process even if it might be the overall right decision. Let’s get into it.

In 2015, we were going to paint the house. It was at this point that some rot was discovered and ultimately led to us putting Hardie-plank over the existing T-111. It was also at that time that the front window started leaking. It is hard for me to believe but it is true that adding something on the outside caused leaking on the inside.

Over the years I have tried various things. I caulked around the upper window once and that seemed to work for a year. We hired somebody that didn’t know what they were doing and caulked on the inside (that was never going to work and it wasn’t worth pursuing given they clearly didn’t know what they were doing). In 2023, I paid a contractor to completely tear off and re-flash the window. It still leaked.

We batted around the idea of changing that window into a bay window in 2018. It was something I thought about doing during my break from work in 2019-2020 but I ended up getting involved in completely remodeling the apartment instead. Finally, my wife decided that she wanted to replace the front windows.

Have you seen the TV commercials where you buy one and get the second one free? My wife called them. These are triple glazed, argon filled, UV coated and lifetime guaranteed. I knew that it was going to be expensive and any business that advertises on TV was going to be suspect. I knew there was a leak and so I gave an extensive line of questioning. The final answer I got was that they were going to own the leak. I am sold.

Most people, myself included would say that two windows for $10,000 was over priced. I wasn’t just getting new windows, I was solving a problem that I had already spent $7500 on. I was told that any rot repair would be done outside of the window contract but that there would be a per linear foot cost and would be performed as part of the installation process.

I should have known that this was too good to be true. As the installers were tearing out the window, they said that structural damage was beyond the scope of the contract. Any additional rot repair would have to be performed first. They could do the work but were not authorized to start at the point that the window is out of the house and it would be two weeks out.

The installer advised me to get some additional estimates, his was going to be Time and Materials one to three days. Do you have any idea what it would be like to get someone within two weeks time to do the work? The longer this process takes, the longer there will be a hole covered with OSB in my front room. I am not a fool, I knew that there was a risk to more damage, I was already planning on redoing the sheetrock on the south side of the wall anyway due to water damage (after the new window). We could have solved this problem in the ten weeks we were waiting for the window.

I think that it is worth re-iterating, I am not looking for something for nothing. I knew that additional rot damage would be on our dime. I am also not surprised that there was more damage. I guess what is disappointing is that when he said they were going to own the leak, I believe what he really meant was that they were going to make sure that their windows were not the source and take as little responsibility as possible. I don’t honestly believe that they are vested in solving the problem.

All of that linear foot nonsense was about the wood casing itself. Really? In my experience rot is rarely limited to superficial trim. And so I am beat. I got suckered into buying windows that are five times more expensive than the average window all because I believed what I wanted to believe.

End Your Programming Routine: My gut feeling with these outfits is always no and from now on it will be. About two weeks later my wife called in a shower outfit and got a quote for a $20,000 shower. I was smart and said no to that one. The product brands are good and nice and all but they way overcharge and under deliver. I guess you are never too old to learn another lesson. One I should have known before the salesman walked in the door.

June 5, 2025 – The Ethics and the Reality of Hunting

June 5, 2025 /

I enjoy the show Life Below Zero. When I first started watching it, I believe that it was 2019. I remember finishing all the episodes on Netflix in my early days of ‘retirement’. I would take the time to find tasks that I could do with the TV on such as sewing patches on the kid’s Boy Scout uniforms. Then I kind of forgot about it until we were in Montana for Thanksgiving.

Most AirBnBs today have internet and the idea is you will log into your services on the TV. My wife had logged into Hulu and I was up several hours earlier than everybody else. I decided that I would put on some background show while I worked on clean-up and breakfast for the day. I found that Hulu had some seasons of Life Below Zero that I had not seen.

That got me thinking about filling in the gaps. I found out that Disney Plus had all of the seasons and episodes. Low and behold, we pay for that as well so I started catching up where I left of on Netflix. This is one of those shows that has a lot of reality to it. But, I have noticed that it has a lot of not reality as well. For instance, they will play up a character that lives 200 miles from the nearest town and yet they will have a snowmobile or four wheeler that requires a significant amount of fuel in between trips to town.

It feels like characters actually run out of things to do. Not every episode but frequent enough they are building a hot tub in the middle of nowhere. One character built a solar powered boat. I mean, these are people that are supposed to be hustling to make it? Let’s not kid ourselves, they get paid to be on the show and that salary affords them luxuries that non-TV stars don’t have, like fuel drops by airplane.

Hunting has a huge share of the TV time on the show. As such, I have noticed some discrepancies between what I would expect under the American ethos and what happens on TV. For example, it is considered unethical to shoot turkeys from a roosting position. Turkeys fly into the trees at night and come down to the ground in the morning. The ‘proper’ way to hunt turkeys is on the ground. Well, Alaska does not have any turkeys so that is not an issue.

In the show, nearly every single waterfowl is shot on the water. That is supposed to be a no no for bird hunters. With the exception of turkeys and grouse, birds are supposed to be shot in the air according to hunting ethos. Make no mistake, this is not illegal but it is considered non-sporting.

Another thing that I see all the time is bad shooting. It can be caribou quartering away (this means with the butt facing the shooter) or shooting into a herd of animals. A huge part of hunter’s safety is shoot/don’t shoot. If you cannot clearly identify and isolate your target then that should be a don’t shoot. You wouldn’t want to accidently wound a second animal or damage the meat that you are hunting for.

If this were a show like Meat Eater, that kind of film would never make it to the final product. They go out of their way to do everything by the book even to the point of punching their tag if they cannot recover a wounded animal. My guess is that the producers at National Geographic have no idea what the ethics of hunting entails.

Life Below Zero is a dichotomy of should and should not. I am amazed at the number of times there is a nuisance predator that they devise all kinds of schemes to chase the undesirables away rather than just killing it. Much of the reasoning comes from Native American spirituality than from ethics even if it is within the legal purview to eliminate the problem.

There is a lot of talk about the reverence of the animal and the eco-system in general. Animals that I don’t consider food, primarily fur bearers get eaten. Most trappers here would discard a beaver or muskrat once skinned. I am not clear what happens to the rare fox or lynx. I have seen where natives burn the wolverine due to cultural belief. While many of the harvesting methods can be questionable, there is no doubt that killing is serious business to not be taken flippantly.

I think what we are seeing is hunting for survival. The rules of ethics were developed as a result of shooting a million bison from trains just for the hide and tongue. With these modern tools, we should have some limits to make it fair for the animal and to not entirely eliminate the species. When it comes to survival, many of those artificial limits are out the window. It is not self serving to eliminate the species and the number one rule is to actually survive.

End Your Programming Routine: Salary aside, hunting is very important for food procurement. I could name some other things that I have seen on TV to support my discussion today but I would also point out that there are some things that natives can do that non-natives cannot. I would point out that I am not an expert in ethics, Alaska law or a lot of other things related to the show and I don’t think that Nat Geo is intentionally exposing questionable processes. But, I think that they would do better to craft a message to the ethical hunter’s expectations.

June 4, 2025 – What Am I Missing?

June 4, 2025 /

It has has been quite a while since Covid began and a whole new normal. I can’t ever remember a time pre-Covid that I could not buy something that I knew existed and wanted to purchase. I should qualify firearms and ammunition shortages of 2010 an 2014 excluded. We got through toilet paper, electrical boxes, Romex and plywood. Maybe I am reading more into things than I should but I am finding former common items that I have not seen on the store shelves in months.

Eighteen gallon compactor bags, Head and Shoulders Intensive treatment and Theraflu (specifically the night time formula). I have been able to find the bags and shampoo on Amazon but the Theraflu is another story. Just when things are getting crazy, we are all getting sick.

It could be the whims of the market. How many people have trash compactors anyway? Ours is a relic from the days when we had to supply our own garbage can. But, as time goes on, I am sure those installed in the 1990s are slowly giving up the ghost. I have jerry rigged a new handle to accommodate the broken plastic handle and we have to hold the door in to make sure the switch contact is maintained.

This all started happening about a year and a half ago. I keep checking each time at my local stores to see if it is really true and it appears that it is. The same is true with my shampoo. Head and Shoulders Intensive Treatment is the only that works for me and I have tried everything.

One bottle lasts about a year for me. Being a pantry guy, I buy a replacement when I open a bottle. In theory, I have about a year until I truly have to replace it. I did find it at the discount supermarket which means that I don’t know if that means it truly is on it’s way out or that people are not looking for it there yet. This is another one that I can currently buy on Amazon.

As luck would have it, we are sick in this house. I have never found any cold medicine to be effective. But, I will take the night time formula to knock myself out. I find that to be the only therapy that actually helps. I could honestly not give a rip about daytime cold formulas. In fact, when I was trying to research Theraflu, I ran across multiple articles that stated the active decongestant ingredients was called phenyl-ephedrine was recalled in 2013.

Every since the powers that be severely limited pseudoephedrine, they may have moved it behind the counter? I have no idea since we are now down to one pharmacy with bankers hours. But this is one of those things that is not readily available on Amazon. While it can be purchased via the marketplace, it is not an in-stock item.

The last time I went to look for Theraflu, I found that it was out at most stores. I attributed it to it being the sick season (February). As I continuously do my loops for compactor bags, I found it at the grocery store as ‘discontinued’. For this reason, I wasn’t surprised that I haven’t been able to find it in the stores.

I think that is actually abhorrent that we are so dependent on China for critical materials. The fact that we cannot produce our own medicines and defense components is really inexcusable. Only a critically arrogant people would give up sovereignty and self-reliance for cheaper prices.

Or maybe, this isn’t some sort of supply chain fubar but a regulatory whim. I think that RFK really does have our best interest at heart. For way too long the robber barons in the medical industry have been defining health. Maybe (probably) Theraflu is not good for me. I guess I don’t know because my research was inconclusive as to why I cannot find it on the store shelves.

Theraflu is not the only product out there. In fact, we have night time cold medicine pills that also work. It is more for my non-pill taking children that anybody. But, a good hot cup of something also helps relieve some pain as well. I like the variety.

End Your Programming Routine: The new world is a world that possibly whatever you want is no longer available, for whatever reason. It’s too bad because these are the things that work for me. I’m sure we will make due as they are not necessities and maybe they will come back but something is up. I don’t know what it is exactly, but be prepared for more of this.

June 3, 2025 – I Never Would Have Pictured This

June 3, 2025 /

This saga has been going on for several years which I have referenced many times. The college coach (consultant) that we hired in 2023 was supposed to deliver us to the promised land of best schools, best price for my youngest son. He was hired on reference from others that got those kind of results. I am not going to bad talk but I will say that I don’t feel like the price was worth the results.

The only university that my son wanted to go to was Harvard. I knew that the reality was slim but then I found out that we would be on the hook for $80,000 per year and it was time for a new reality. I find this very hard to believe, but according to the consultant, students could not take out loans because they don’t have the credit or the income. Student loan debt is largely the parents these days.

What this really means is that the most debt that they can really incur is the federally backed debt which caps out at something like $7000/year. It also means that the ‘crushing debt’ that we keep hearing about is around $40,000. It is hardly something to snivel at but I have to say that it is less than the cost of the average new car. It is definitely too much for a barista salary but it isn’t that much more than the $25,000 my wife borrowed in the 1990s.

I want to point out the obvious that the education they are getting is not worth the cost that they are paying. Even what I would call a small amount of overall debt is considered ‘crushing’ by today’s graduating standards. The point of all that is that we could not afford Harvard. There were a number of Ivy League schools that my son applied for as well with his second choice being Brown. They all declined him and he was crushed.

This brought about a second round of applications which included a number of ‘safety schools’. Amongst the higher tiers of schools in the second round was Northwestern which did accept him. It didn’t matter now about the handful of other schools that had also accepted him, that is where he was going.

Before I get into the rest of the story, I have to throw into the politics of it all first. I have to say that watching my son apply to all of these schools that are front page news in their very public, political battle is somewhat sickening. Harvard, Columbia and Northwestern have been trying to assert their tax free, first amendment status to house and support radical behavior.

You should know me by now that by all means, fly your freak flag. But, don’t do it on my public money dime. I will continue to support my son, whichever institution that he chooses even if that means I am paying a school that ultimately flaunts their radical leanings. Consider that it allows me no greater position of influence (at this point).

It cannot be discounted that I have also done more for cultural understanding than most Americans. The exchange students that have been under our care have wanted to be here and have grown in caring and nurturing relationships. By all means, it is a privilege to be here just as I have acted legally and respectfully in the countries that I have visited. I do expect reciprocal treatment.

The old saying of “my right to swing my fists ends at your nose” cannot be truer. I do believe that the Bill of Rights are human rights regardless of what country you are from or what country you are in. That being said, just because you have the right to jump off the cliff doesn’t mean that you should do it. Further, if you do jump off a cliff don’t expect a lot of sympathy for the consequences. While I think that Harvard (or Northwestern) should be able to permit whatever the executive board tolerates, I for one am in favor of penalization when the mission of education is subverted into political grandstanding.

I never thought that I would have a sweatshirt that says anything ‘DAD’ on it. Yes, I am fifty and my two kids have graduated from high school. But always the gray man, I feel like the average person interprets that symbol as radical solidarity which cannot be anything farther from the truth. At the very least, it opens the door for that kind of conversation in public. For that reason I have not worn it yet.

End Your Programming Routine: My son has worked very hard as a straight A student throughout all school. He has skipped a grade, learned Mandarin and Spanish, took ten extra college correspondence classes and went a year in Taiwanese high school. He has earned the right to be proud of his achievements. He has also earned the right of his parents to be proud of his achievements even if I don’t agree with all of his choices.

May 21, 2025 – Country V. Country

May 21, 2025 /

Staying with the theme of keeping it light, I am talking about country music today. One thing that turns me off today is the phenomenon that I call ‘Bro Country’. This is the kind of music that splits the country/popular line. If you ask me, the lyrics are kind of deep country but the delivery (and the singers are not).

My theory is that popular music (Top 40) left the main stream. It is now primarily Hip Hop, Rap and R&B. So naturally, something is going to fill the void. That is country has evolved from it’s traditional roots into popular music. Artist such as Shaboozy and Carrie Underwood live on both charts. Former country artists like Taylor Swift and Leanne Rhimes previously were on both sides.

Blake Shelton is one of those that fits into that category. I want to like the guy because the lyrics appeal to my redneck side. But there is something about the guy that I just cannot quite trust. Maybe it was his humiliation of Miranda Lambert into the arms of Gwen Stefani. It is like he literally left country to go pop. If you are not familiar with Shelton’s work, watch below.

I was introduced to Chris LeDoux in my mid teens. It was definitely his shout out and subsequent song with Garth Brooks that brought Chris into the spotlight. Chris was the real deal, 1979 NFR Bare Back champion. When he sung about Rodeo, you knew it from living it. Unfortunately, Chris died in 2003 from the same liver affliction that killed Walter Peyton, basically no warning.

Speaking of Garth Brooks, not every singer has been there and done that. I think that the difference is that they didn’t try to have an image that they had. Don’t get me wrong, I am not necessarily saying that the likes of Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton and Luke Combs are bad in their own right. But it seems like legitimacy is lacking.

Nepotism runs deep in country music. Go all the way back to Hank Williams Jr in the late 1970s. He of course has one of the seminal works of outlaw country, “Country Boy Can Survive”. But, largely his body of work were covers of his dad’s work. While he is still active in music he has largely been semi-retired since the early 1980s. He spends his time in Montana for the purposes of hunting and fishing. I would say that he hasn’t really been there, done that but he sure lives like a country boy.

Chris LeDoux’s son Ned has continued nearly immediately after Chris’s death. I seen both of them in concert and Ned sounds and looks like a spitting image. It looks like Ned is finally breaking out of his father’s shadow. Not that it is a bad one but I hate to see an artist’s entire schtick on the laurels of somebody else.

When I really started getting into country music, Bro Country really had not become a thing. While I love Alan Jackson, I think that he and Kenney Chesney started the transition with their Jimmy Buffet leaning island songs. While I regret that this happened, Chesney has some really good songs too. So we put up with it until it is too late and a new sound and topics had already been accepted. This of course rapidly spun new artists and groups and Bro Country began.

Not all is lost though. I was watching the ACM music awards with my wife the other night and I saw a new artist named Cody Johnson. While I watched him perform, he reminded me so much of Garth Brooks in his body movements. So, I looked him up and low and behold he was also a bull rider. As I was listening to this song while writing this, I was starting to get a little choked up. Music should connect with the soul.

End Your Programming Routine: I guess this is what is good about America. People can choose what they like. I largely stopped listening to the radio because I don’t like most of the music anymore. It’s not that I don’t like all the newer songs but some of them should have some steel guitar in them, thanks Cody Johnson.

May 20, 2025 – King Makers

May 20, 2025 /

This is going to be a light week this week. Tune into next Monday’s podcast to find out more details on why, if you care. I ran across this video a couple of days ago and I don’t know exactly why I watched it, but I did. It was a real eye opener.

Back when I was young, say the 1980s, we could know nearly everything in culture there was to know. If you had cable, listened to the radio and had access to magazines then you were in the know. Being out in the country, nobody had cable until the mid 1980s. But as access was available, some people had cable. That meant MTV and Disney.

I have certainly been aware that Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez came out of Disney programming. The thing that really surprised me was that today’s artists are still coming from Disney. Those would be the very contemporary Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo.

I am fifty now and my kids are in their late teens. It has been ten years since tween oriented shows were playing in my home. As kids do, they would binge watch show after show of some of these titles. I rarely ever paid much attention other than sitting down for 10 minutes to kind of validate that the content was age appropriate. What I am saying is that I pay little attention to what is hot in the grade school demographic.

That being said, I pay little attention to all popular culture other than the headlines I see in the news and what music my kids are streaming on the TV. What got me wondering about all of this is that does Disney just select extraordinary personalities or do those come from spending your youth working on Disney shows? When I think about it, I have to believe it is the latter rather than the former.

I want to say that most people grow out of Disney stars influencing their lives on what is ‘cool’. I want to say that. But, then again I know some adults that are constantly watching Kardashian makeup tips or things of that ilk. What that says to me is that this behavior is programmed from an early age with mechanisms like Disney series.

When we hear the term Oligarchy, I think most of us think drug company execs going into the FDA or at least buying influence. But when I think about it, isn’t this another form of it? Companies taking over brain space to influence future consumer behavior. It is not a conscious behavior but a subconscious one. ‘Experts say do this…’.

Clearly, not every cast member became superstars. Some did but then others didn’t want to go further, some flamed out with personal problems and others just remained in a supporting role. Honestly, I couldn’t think of a better start for an ambitious young person. A highly impressionable and rabid fan base with access to Hollywood’s movers and shakers. Think of the advantage Britney Spears had at the age of 18 compared to the run of the mill high school graduate.

It’s not that those people didn’t have talent. But talent alone doesn’t cut it it requires opportunity. It is the same reason people accel to the position beyond their capabilities. They had the opportunity to advance but not the talent/experience/education to thrive. Similarly, how many people could do the same or better job but are not known (and we never will).

End Your Programming Routine: I think that this kind of programming can be broken. It simply requires becoming conscious of the behavior and draw. I don’t hate Disney nor am I against teen programming. I am not surprised or amazed by their alumni, who else would take command of popular culture but people that have defined it their whole lives. Like all things moderation is the key.