The Adam and Dr. Drew Show - #1719 A Sprig of Parsley

Episode Date: May 15, 2023

Adam and Drew discuss certain words you can/can't say on the radio which leads into a broader discussion. They criticize some arbitrary rules that exist because it's just how things have always been done. Please Support Our Sponsors: Netsuite.com/ADS Angi.com BlindsGalore.com, let them know we sent you!

Recorded live at Corolla One Studios with Adam Corolla and board-certified physician and addiction medicine specialist, Dr. Drew Pinsky. You're listening to The Adam and Dr. Drew Show. Yeah, get it on, got to get on the show. Doctor's first fertilizer. What's going on, Drew? First fertilizer, I tell you. A couple things I was thinking about.

I don't know if you saw or got that email from Giovanni, but it turns out we had Ken Crane's sons in the studio for Loveline. Yeah, I glanced at that email from Superfan Geo, and I do recall that. I don't. Zero. Oh, yeah. I mean, he kind of reminded me

that one became a journalist and one was kind of okay with dad's foibles and the other wasn't. And I do now have that recollection. Can you jar my memory a little bit? Like, did they look like Ken Crane? Were they just kind of young guys? I can't. There were his adult children. Oh, wait, you're saying Ken Crane? Were they just kind of young guys? I can't.

There were his adult children. Oh, wait, you're saying Ken Crane. What did I say? Bob Crane. Bob Crane. Bob Crane. For some reason, I want to call him Ken Crane every fucking time. You know why?

Why? Because I think Ken Crane's was a popular stereo electronics outlet. I remember Crane's. I remember seeing Crane. Yeah, out here. Yeah. Maybe I'm thinking of Kenwood or something. Let me see.

There used to be a lot of places all over the valley. I mean, all over the country, I'm sure, but the valley especially, that would like put a car alarm in. Ken Crane's Home Entertainment Center. And yeah, they do. I guess you'd sell you a big screen TV, and they do. But there are these other places that do car alarms and car stereos. Remember, you'd

buy a car, and then you'd have to bring it somewhere. Oh, yeah. Well, there were places, right? Remember those places you drove in? Didn't I just say that? No, no, no, but I mean, they were places dedicated to, they looked like the muffler repair shop or something. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

I'm sorry. I thought you were saying like a behind a stereo shop or something. No, there are places all over the San Fernando Valley where you just go in, you'd get an alarm, you'd get a stereo. Yes. They do your car up. Yes. You know?

Yes. They do your car up. Yes. You know, and, you know, it's kind of interesting because the way cars worked is they would sell your car. And then if you wanted stuff on the car that was cool or high performance or whatever, you'd get your Mustang or you'd get your whatever. And then you'd go bring it over to Brembo brakes and they put the Brembo brakes on there. And then they put the Recaro seats in there and the Momo steering wheel in there and the cool stereo in there, the Blaupunk stereo. the auto manufacturers was like why don't we put that shit on from the get-go right and then we'll upcharge people for it we'll we'll sell our mustangs with brembo brakes and a momo steering wheel or recaro seats i wonder what the economics and the business aspects of that were why it

didn't happen like quicker because it was a whole there was an industry right in the 70s and i think i think what it was is big you know big business it can be slow to change yeah you know like ford motor company you know what i mean and and so well it was the time also when the japanese cars were taking things over. Remember that? Sure. But this was even beyond that. I mean, past that. It was past that. So they just went, you know, we're Ford Motor Company and we do Ford brakes and Ford stereos and Ford seats. And then at some point they realized, I guess, in a way, sort of like Breyers ice cream with Reese's pieces in it.

You know what I mean? Like, why not put something that people recognize and like on into our product? Why, if people, if performance guys like Brembo brakes, then why don't we putting Brembo brakes on our cars, you know, before they leave the factory. Maybe some of it was just they're so big, you know, they're slow to, you know, like a like a aircraft carrier takes a while to turn it around. Not that maneuverable. But the other part, I think, may have been certain pride like, hey, we do the brakes, you know, but these brakes aren't better than our brakes, you know.

the brakes, you know, but these brakes aren't better than our brakes, you know, but they sort of figured out that if the performance people wanted a good alarm and wanted a good stereo and wanted good brakes, that they would just start doing that. Maybe they figured people wouldn't pay for it or something. Maybe they wouldn't back then. I think they would, you know, now you could buy a Mustang and it has a Roush motor in it and stuff. And they just sort of figured out that people want the good stuff. I'm just thinking, and I really have no opinion whether this is factually true or not,

but it is interesting how so many, maybe it's the advent of brands. So many – maybe it's the advent of brands. Brands have been sort of planting themselves within other brands. I'm thinking about music. People – musicians are having other musicians participate with them. They never used to do that or they would take a snippet of their song and put it in there. A lot of that now and I think all the way down even to food. Everything is fusions. I wonder if that's a thing, a phenomenon.

Yeah. It's kind of interesting, isn't it? Because before it was all very territorial. We're forward America, forward modern. Now all of a sudden it becomes like more collaborative or something. I don't know. I don't know if there's something about business trends generally that it just goes like that. There's other examples of the 19th century or something. I don't know if there's something about business trends generally that it just goes like that.

There's other examples, you know, in the 19th century or something. I don't know. I think businesses used to be very sort of cordoned off. Yeah, territorial. And, you know, you'd say, well, Ford, we're an American car company. We're not going to deal with some Italian brake manufacturer. That goes on a ferrari yeah that's not on a ford yeah and so there was a lot of rules there used to be rules

and broadcasting as you and i know just you couldn't go on a competing you know station you couldn't have this studio you had to be together in studio. You had to be local. You know, I mean, there was just, you know, remember. There was a time. Seems weird now. By the way, I always questioned all these things in real time. I was like, you know, I used to. I remember when I when we would do Loveline. I remember when we would do Loveline, I'd oftentimes on the way to the Loveline studio, stop off in Koreatown and go on KLSX and do Tim Conway Jr. show, you know, and Doug Steckler.

And I'd sit in for 45 minutes. And then at some point I'd go like, all right, I got to get to Loveline, you know, and they'd go, all right, I'll listen to you tonight, you know. And then I would get reprimanded for doing that, you know, why are you going on the competition? Right. And I would say, well, I'm going there and advertising your product on the competition station. Yeah. I would ask. It's like they're forbidding you from doing that.

They're quite gracious, allowing you to promote the hell out of it. Yeah, but my question would be for the program director of KLSX, why are you letting me come on and talk about KROQ and promote my radio show on your station, not the other way around? You know what I mean? But there's just rules. your station, not the other way around. You know what I mean? But there was just rules.

And, you know, it was like, oh, you know, you can say boobs and jugs and honkers and not tits. But you couldn't say tits. And I was like, I don't know. But you could say titties. You know, I was like, really? You could say teats. Yeah. I was like, what are we talking about here?

Let me do it. You know, and they'd go because that's what we do you know i mean this is always i always use this metaphor but every time you ordered breakfast in america for a hundred years you got a sprig of parsley by the side of the plate oh yeah and then for 50, people just looked at that sprig of parsley. And then at some point, like I would... I don't know if people really know what you're talking about. I mean, literally a sprig.

A sprig? It's an exact description. Of parsley. And then I would say, what are we doing with that? They'd go, well, it's... Color. No, no, it's to cleanse your palate or something. Yeah.

Or whatever. Yeah. And then at, and then at a certain point I'd say, well, what is, what is this here? And they'd go,

it's because we do it. You know what I mean? And then I'd go, but why? Nobody, nobody eats it. Nobody wants it. Nobody needs it.

Why are you buying a bushel of parsley once a week to put it by the side of the plate only to be thrown out you know and they'd go because that's what we do and the sprig of parsley on the side of the breakfast plate is the metaphor for many of sort of life's rituals you know they go because that's what we do well but there's even a more interesting level to that which is they make they make up reasons for it the cognitive dissonance is such that they go i don't know we done because it adds color to the place people like it they just come their brain just comes up with an explanation yeah but oftentimes it's sort of like masking up in between bites it's just sort of like they don't even really it's all nonsense no no i i know but they don't even really argue it oh they

just go like i was walking i was literally walking down the street yesterday in my neighborhood and passed like a sort of power station or something, you know, one of those sort of city things with the gate and the thing. And it's a big posted metal sign that said six foot distancing. You know, it was like it was outdoors. It was this place that nobody went to. It was like a locked gate. I've never seen a human being there. But they were required to post a big sign that said social distancing, six foot. I've never seen one person in there, much less two. I don't even it's just a locked off sort of power station. I don't you know,

it's it's got like a transformer and a thing. I've never even seen the gate open or a truck parked in front of it, but socially, and then you go, but who said that? Like, what difference does it make? Is there any proof? And they go, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They don't argue for how effective it is. They just go, look,

partially by the side of the plate. That's it. All right, do your business. Well, let me just say quickly, but the six feet thing, I'll talk about where it came from after this, but I was in a doctor's office that day and there's a big sign on the table

that says six feet saves lives. Right. Just so everyone knows, zero evidence of that. Zero. Zero. Zero. So the six feet thing was made up completely.

I've interviewed people that were in the room in Washington when they were deciding what to do about social distancing, which was also an invented term. It is something that crept into the pandemic literature a few years before that, but they really didn't know what the hell they were talking about. Just sort of people staying away from each other, which always happens automatically in a pandemic. It's been well documented. Six feet. They were trying to decide between three feet and 60 feet, and they had no evidence for anything.

They just picked six feet because they felt like they'd get people to comply with that. Right. And it's better than nothing. We got to do something. We got to do something thing is the worst words uttered by health care professionals that's how they harm patients we got to do something hey i want to go back to the car stereo tell them the story about how you you know we would install these ridiculous stairs i was driving an old ford back in high school installed one of these things these cassette

players under the under the dashboard uh actually i I rigged wires up myself, built boxes for speakers that I put in the back window. People would put home speakers in the back. Yeah. But you did something to deal with the fact that these things were – they were removable because people would rip them off. So you're supposed to take them out and put them in the trunk. But you did something different. No, Drew.

They weren't removable for 20 years, Kufo. No, that's true. That's true. They became removable because they were getting stolen so much that people would pull them out and later pull the face off them, pop the face off them. Which was another thing. And then either put it in the trunk or just put it on them. Go in and watch the movie or go to the restaurant or something. Yeah, well, I won't bore everyone with the story, but I spray painted mine brown and that prevented it from being stolen.

Discouraged it sufficiently that it never got stolen yeah because i don't think people are people don't really distill things you know they they don't move past it's like a chess game where they just make one move and they don't go they don't think to the second or third move you know like they go people are stealing car stereos left and right. Everyone's getting their car broken into. My car was stolen two times. The stereo was left behind because it was painted brown. And then I had the fuel cutoff switch, which saved my car each time.

But I don't think people really kind of break it down. Like, who is stealing car stereos? Why would someone steal a car stereo? What is the act of stealing a car stereo? Well, the act of stealing a car stereo is like showing up in a neighborhood at three in the morning with the car parked on the street, bashing the window out and reaching in and literally ripping out the stereo. Like it's a pretty kind of desperate act. You know, it's not, you know, a diamond heist that's well planned and choreographed. You know, it's kind of a desperate move you know

so and then then who would be involved with this desperate move and it would be people that wanted drugs correct and and and then would also be people that wanted drugs now yes you know in a in a hurry you know and then they would have to fence these things. And so if you made them sort of unfenceable, then what exactly would they do with them? Who would they sell this brown stereo to? And take the time to buy some lacquer thinner and get a bunch of Q-tips or something and like really clean it up even if you could. I don't know how you do that. And so I decided that this is why people stole and this is who stole it. And this is what they did with it. So I would prevent them.

I couldn't prevent them from breaking into the car because the car was parked on the street in Hollywood at night. And I couldn't prevent them from pulling it out of the car, but I could prevent them from wanting to do it. And so that's what I did. And it worked. Well, it worked in that the car stereo was never stolen, and it was a nice

digital Sony stereo. And it worked in that the car was stolen, the truck, a couple of times, and the stereo remained. So I think that's the proof that it was effective. Stolen a couple of times.

How'd you get it back? I told you. I had the fucking fuel cutoff switch. I see. I mean, it was stolen and moved two blocks. And then I would find it because it would run out of gas. because it would run out of gas. That's the other thing, which is frequently cars would put cutoff switches because cars are being stolen left and right.

So lots of cars install these hidden cutoff switches. But my reckoning was if somebody tried to steal my truck and they got in the car and they turned the key, sometimes they would have the master key. But if they busted out the ignition and turned it, that the car would go. Or not at all. Just they turn it and nothing would happen. And then whoever was in the car would look for the cutoff switch. People put the cutoff switch under the seat. They sort of hid it, but they couldn't really hide it under the hood or anything because they wouldn't want to have to get out of the car and pop the hood every time you got out of the car.

to get out of the car and pop the hood every time you got out of the car you know so one could surmise that if you got in the car and broke in and rigged the ignition and turned it and nothing happened then then one would look for the cutoff switch right right right so for me i realized that if I did it like an ignition cutoff switch that they might look for it. So instead, I cut the fuel pump off and cutting off of the fuel pump meant that when I would come in and park it on the street, there would be enough fuel in the float bowl of the carburetor to start the car and drive off. But that it would quickly run out of fuel because it didn't have the fuel pump on. Right. But that no one would look for the switch. Right. Because they would think the car just ran out of gas or just bad luck or just stalled or broke down because it started.

Right. And now they're stealing it. Interesting. Yeah. So that's why I would find it. Two times I found it. So now we're in this era where everything is being stolen, everything is being, you know, people are walking into stores and they're, you know, it's a misdemeanor to walk out with

$900 worth of stuff or even that now. I mean, they don't even get a ticket. Is that an improvement? Maybe are cars being stolen less? Because we certainly have more drug addicts now. Well, cars are just being carjacked. That's how they're being stolen. So a lot that I couldn't do with my – I guess I could be carjacked and cut off,

reach down and shut my fuel switch off. All right. So, so yeah it's different look the the point is is you have to kind of figure out who the criminals are what they're doing what their motive is and and see if you can discourage them yeah you never really yeah you know people would do a lot of like well well, how's painting your stereo? How's that going to stop? It's like it's not going to stop anybody. It's going to get them to move to the next car. Yeah, that's all.

They're going to shine their flashlight in at three in the morning. They're going to see this brown thing on the dash and they'll just go to the next car. That's all I need them to do. It seems like San Francisco has still really got the car stuff going on where people are being broken into their cars constantly. Oh, where they're breaking in and stealing people's backpacks and computers and whatever. Yeah. And that's still drug addict stuff.

I get overwhelmed and sad when I think – and what we're talking about is sort of 80s, 90s stuff, would you say? Was that when that was happening? You had your car story? That was still, to me, left over from the 70s, all the great policies of the 70s. We created a bunch of drug addicts and nothing for them to get better, no place for them to go. And they just start doing what they do.

I mean, what do we expect? I guess we put them in prison eventually, which is stupid. Well, first off, I don't even know how, like, you know, the guy got choked out in the subway. It's like, oh, he was arrested 42 times. Like, 42 times? How do you get arrested? Right. How do you even get arrested 42 times?

Right. Without being kept for a minute. Yeah. Yes. Yes. But no, look, whatever the policies are, they don't work, but they don't work because they can't work. And there's a kind of pie in the sky, a little bit of a chick thing situation here where people sort of I keep telling you it's a reverse engineering problem. Oh, yeah. If people are being arrested too much, then stop arresting people.

Right. And if test scores are too low, then change the criteria for testing or just or stop testing yeah i mean it's all it's all it's all good except for it never never works it just ends up in in more and then also a lot of weird decrees you know what i mean like put a fence up at the border fence Fence never stopped anyone from any. It's like, first off, that's, fences stop people from doing everything all the time. Why do we put them up? Why is there a fence around everything?

Every school has a fence around it to prevent weirdos from getting in and kids from wandering out. I mean, look, when you have a toddler and you have a set of stairs, you baby-proof the set of stairs by putting a fence up. Correct. It's a little folding fence. What do you mean it never stopped anyone from – it starts at age one and a half or two, the fence theory. Let me ask you this.

If a fence never stopped anybody, why is there a regulation that every house built with a swimming pool in it in Los Angeles has to have a fence around it. Yeah. If it never stopped anybody. Right. The people who live in Santa Monica, who would be the number one champion of putting a fence around a pool, are the ones who proclaim a fence never stopped anybody. Yes. So what are we talking about? I've noticed they stop the rhetoric about bridges.

Build bridges, not walls. Remember that? Yeah. Stop that. Thank God. But a fence never stopped anyone. It's just no nukes or meat. Meat is murder.

It's just like you're just saying something. Empty slogans. It doesn't exist. Empty slogans. We've been through a pandemic of empty slogans i was looking a couple of weeks ago like footage from the texas border and they just lined up a bunch of shipping containers end to end with no gap in between and they're like why are they there that's to prevent people from coming in of course wasn't that a fence yeah of course it's a wall.

It's a shipping container that's eight feet, nine feet tall. Interesting workaround. Well done. But you're not calling that a fence. Right. But you're saying it's there to get people to go around. But then that's a de facto fence. Yeah.

Yeah, I just went to a big uh outdoor concert um venue uh stagecoach out in the desert a couple of weeks ago and all it was was fences of course just a whole bunch of fences with with openings and someone's standing there going let's see your wristband i don't know wrong wristband go around that fence through the other fence that's all it was this fence i could could one imagine throwing a huge outdoor event concert and and have no fences well the answer is no it's impossible i'm just thinking that this may be one topic they've been somewhat consistent on in that if you go all the way back to Woodstock, they tore down the fences that the promoters had put up and antics ensued. Right. Didn't work so well when they did that.

But they're tearing down fences then. No walls. Yeah. Okay. Fine. I don't. And also, the funny thing about the fence is most people on the left would just go, I don't like the message it sends. You know what I mean? And it's like, well, the White House has a fence around it.

And so does stagecoach. What message? The message is buy a ticket, wait in line, get a wristband, then you can go through this opening in the fence. If you don't have that, then you can't come through here. Why do we have border crossings in Canada and Mexico? If you don't like the message in that sense, well, they're sending the same message back.

They operate the border crossings with us. I've asked people, like, what if Canada said we're putting up a fence? What would your thoughts be? And the answer would be like, it's their country. Do whatever they want. I don't know. Put a fence up and then go through the crossing. I'm telling you, I've been over there to work in Canada, and they are brutal with their immigration stuff.

Yes. They are not easy. Not at all. I've done it a few times. Been pulled out of line. Been questioned. I mean, been, I would say harassed. They don't fuck around over there at all.

But it's their country and it's their prerogative. And that's the job of the guys you're interacting with. Yes. Protect the border. It's a job. Yes. So weird. Fences never stopped anybody from any it's uh well it seems like i guess we should talk about this next episode but it feels like there really is wholesale now just destroy everything just tear it all down we're not

happy until we destroy everything that's that seems to be trump wanted to build the wall or the fence, so that's the end of that. No, but I think more than just the wall. I mean, that's just another little symptom of a general, like, I really have the sense that that is the goal. Until everything is burning, these types aren't going to be happy. Well, I don't think you have really entered the mindset of those people, but I used to kind of live in that world a little bit, and I understand it pretty well. Those guys, I think, are just wanting to be the cool kids, but they're following people who want

to burn it down. Well, I'll look to my, maybe we'll get more into it in the next episode. Oklahoma City, Brickdown Comedy Club, that'll be this Friday and Saturday, doing four shows over there. And I don't think I'm doing live podcasts there. I think

I'm just doing stand-up, but somebody should check that out. Pretty sure just doing live stand-up. Then off to NYC, Sony Hall, May 26th, 27th. Drew's going to be out there. Karegrove's going to be out there. We'll do all that. Just go to adamcarolla.com for all the live shows.

What do you got, Drew? Drdrew.com for all the pods and drdrew.tv for our streaming shows, which, again, just more and more interesting all the time. All right. So until next time, Adam Carolla for Dr. Drew saying, mahalo.