France Fines Shirtless Men, Buffett Facts & Russian Pickleball Gulag 🌴 | Sunburnt Podcast Ep. 67

**Chip** (00:00:00:01 - 00:00:01:17): The people of Jamaica. I salute you. **Thomas** (00:00:01:18 - 00:00:02:22): Jamaican me. Efficient. **Chip** (00:00:02:22 - 00:00:03:13): This is brilliant. **Thomas** (00:00:03:13 - 00:00:07:07): 4th of July is coming up and Americans be traveling. **Chip** (00:00:07:07 - 00:00:09:10): Chip. That's why the Hawaiian shirt is the perfect shirt. **Thomas** (00:00:09:12 - 00:00:13:10): A hot dog in contest is just kind of a barbecue. That sucks. **Chip** (00:00:13:10 - 00:00:14:18): I have SPF up. **Thomas** (00:00:14:18 - 00:00:24:13): It doesn't make any sense. Fuel costs are through the roof. Inflation is high. Every indicator is that people should slow down the traveling and we just not have. **Chip** (00:00:24:14 - 00:00:27:00): People are still getting out of dodge. They need to. **Thomas** (00:00:27:01 - 00:00:30:13): We may have set the world record for the best podcast ever. **Chip** (00:00:30:14 - 00:00:31:05): Boom. **Thomas** (00:00:31:07 - 00:00:42:11): What up burnt ones. This is the sunburn podcast where we talk about comedy and tropical travel. To my right, as always, you know, I'm from Netflix on the series tires and his amazing stand a special move closer. It's Chip Chantry. **Chip** (00:00:42:11 - 00:00:53:15): And over here to my left is Mr. Thomas O'Brien, Emmy Award winning producer, writer, and my pal. Grab a float, put on your earphones and drift away. Grab them by tie. **Thomas** (00:00:53:15 - 00:00:58:20): Because it's great to be in the tropics with your boys. **Chip** (00:00:58:22 - 00:01:20:12): Well, the dollar is obviously weak, Hef. This crypto stuff is just a scam. And, you know, once the grid goes down, that's all gone. So this is definitely the currency. Okay, man. Like, just so what I'm saying is I got in on the ground floor. You need to start. You have a you have a family. You have a kid I've built up. I've been hoarding them. So I really think you need to start collecting today. **Thomas** (00:01:25:12 - 00:01:36:05): And you really think pine cones are going to be the new currency? Yeah. Okay, Chip, we actually already got started. **Chip** (00:01:36:07 - 00:01:37:23): Oh, hey. **Thomas** (00:01:38:01 - 00:01:49:06): What a burnt ones. This is the sunburnt podcast where we talk about comedy and tropical travel. Chip I'm tingling. This episode is a tropical juicy delight. **Chip** (00:01:49:06 - 00:01:54:02): Yeah, I almost thought I would need some sort of ointment for how much my skin is tingling. **Thomas** (00:01:54:03 - 00:01:59:21): I got to get something for that skin in just a moment. But first, we're going to get into the rundown of the episode. **Chip** (00:01:59:21 - 00:02:00:13): Baby. Yeah, we. **Thomas** (00:02:00:13 - 00:02:11:04): Are too much good stuff. Too much good stuff. And all time record number of Americans will be traveling this Independence Day weekend. And all of them forgot to invite us. Chip. **Chip** (00:02:11:05 - 00:02:13:22): Yeah, we're staying right here. **Thomas** (00:02:14:00 - 00:02:33:01): Exposing your silver dollar nips can now lead to big fines on French Beach Township. We we gotta get charged a lot more than a fine. If you show that the US Virgin Islands government is spending big bucks to convert a beach resort into a Club Med, but Michael Scott is still holding out for a sandals trip. **Chip** (00:02:33:02 - 00:02:36:02): All inclusive. You know what that means? **Thomas** (00:02:36:03 - 00:02:42:06): These travelers ain't loyal. Intra Caribbean island hopping is up 60%. **Chip** (00:02:42:08 - 00:02:43:13): Stepping out. **Thomas** (00:02:43:18 - 00:02:49:01): And it's our resort is giving pickleball players the Gulag treatment. **Chip** (00:02:49:01 - 00:02:50:10): I'm ready for this one. **Thomas** (00:02:50:10 - 00:03:12:17): We spent some time celebrating the man, Jimmy Buffett, with some Buffett facts. We're cracking open the Good Book, the Guinness Book of World Records, and the Trouble in Paradise. Hotline is open, baby. You can call us at (310) 845-6038 and call Colin with your holiday disasters, your vacation disasters. We want to hear. We want to hear the details. **Chip** (00:03:12:18 - 00:03:18:11): The funniest vacation stories, the most embarrassing vacation stories, the most harrowing. We want to hear it. **Thomas** (00:03:18:11 - 00:03:29:16): This podcast is bananas because it's time for an old fashioned slather. That's how we get started here on the sunburnt podcast. Just a sense reminder of what it feels like to be on vacation. **Chip** (00:03:29:16 - 00:03:34:21): Maybe it's just the smell. It unlocks the magic, honestly, of the beach. **Thomas** (00:03:34:22 - 00:03:38:11): It chases the blues away. I mean, this is something we've known for a long time. **Chip** (00:03:38:12 - 00:03:47:06): I am sped up. SPF dob, spf up is a there's a t shirt like it's like ft up, but I'm SPF up. **Thomas** (00:03:47:07 - 00:03:53:22): If only you could just have ideas and they would become t shirts that people would buy. Yeah, I mean, we'd really have a pipeline here, buddy. **Chip** (00:03:53:23 - 00:03:55:02): We 100% would. **Thomas** (00:03:55:02 - 00:04:04:01): This is the sunburn podcast. We talk about comedy and travel. Travel. If you think those two things should go together. Stay tuned. Front desk. **Chip** (00:04:04:01 - 00:04:11:23): Hi, this is Mr. Chantry in room 308. I've been practicing my magic act. Are you familiar with the cut? A lady in half trick? Of course. **Thomas** (00:04:11:23 - 00:04:12:20): Mr. J. **Chip** (00:04:12:22 - 00:04:19:12): Okay, well, I wasn't, so I'm going to need some towels up here. Also, could you come up for a couple of minutes and help me with something? **Thomas** (00:04:19:13 - 00:04:20:16): No. **Chip** (00:04:20:18 - 00:04:23:04): Just come on up. Jeff Thomas. **Thomas** (00:04:23:06 - 00:04:26:22): Episode 67 of the sunburn podcast. **Chip** (00:04:27:03 - 00:04:29:00): Two thirds of the way to 100, baby. **Thomas** (00:04:29:01 - 00:04:33:04): Oh, dude, 100 is going to be big. Yeah? What's that? The centennial? No, that's. **Chip** (00:04:33:09 - 00:04:39:06): Yeah, that's that's the centennial. I mean, that's 100 years, but, you know, every episode feels like a year to me. I think. **Thomas** (00:04:39:07 - 00:04:44:16): To a lot of the listeners to they've been saying we really, really make them feel longer than they are. **Chip** (00:04:44:21 - 00:04:47:02): Yeah. You feel like colonial soldiers. **Thomas** (00:04:47:02 - 00:04:53:16): And we hope it feels like you're lying on a beach somewhere nice, warm, relaxed. **Chip** (00:04:53:21 - 00:04:59:13): Our sultry tones are coming in through those years like a nice breeze off the ocean. **Thomas** (00:04:59:14 - 00:05:02:04): Absolutely. Oh, dude. Breeze off the ocean. **Chip** (00:05:02:04 - 00:05:03:22): Summer breeze makes me feel fine. **Thomas** (00:05:03:22 - 00:05:13:11): We're going to be announcing sooner than later, but inks inks been put to paper. Yeah. The early stages of the next in Paradise comedy tour. **Chip** (00:05:13:16 - 00:05:17:19): There's more to come for the for the In Paradise comedy tour. **Thomas** (00:05:17:20 - 00:05:38:04): We know where we're going to be going. We know where we're going to be inviting you in a couple of weeks. But dude, we talk about it all the time. The not the best part, but one of the best parts of a tropical trip. A vacation focused on relaxation and enjoyment and rejuvenation is looking forward to it. Yes. So like, you know, we've been working it out, but like, we know a couple of dates exactly where we're going to be, exactly what we're going to be doing. And the best part about the in Paradise trips, the way we set them up is we don't just it's not like a normal comedy tour where we roll in the day of the show and roll out the morning after. **Chip** (00:05:58:08 - 00:05:59:18): Yeah, this is not the circus. **Thomas** (00:05:59:19 - 00:06:01:03): It's circus ish. **Chip** (00:06:01:04 - 00:06:02:14): Yes, it's circus adjacent. **Thomas** (00:06:02:14 - 00:06:16:07): But the schedule is not circus ish because we show up days before, you know, we get a podcast or two in. We do a bunch of stuff we like put together, like a vents for the burnt ones. Some hangs. **Chip** (00:06:16:09 - 00:06:18:10): Meet some people, press some flesh. **Thomas** (00:06:18:10 - 00:06:37:17): We do A5K traditionally. Yep. And we don't try and overcrowd it. We get there, we have our burgers. We have our my ties. We settle in, we bring the fan or we're hanging out. It's just the bad. I'm just looking forward to it so much and so much more than if it was just a show and rolling out. We're going for a vacation and we're inviting the bird wants to come with us. It's the best. It's the whole reason we started doing this thing. **Chip** (00:06:43:18 - 00:06:47:08): I'm sorry. I can't wait for you guys to hear the next step. **Thomas** (00:06:47:09 - 00:06:52:05): And that brings us to our first segment. Let's just jump into a buddy. It's sunburnt news. **Chip** (00:06:52:05 - 00:06:56:11): Burnt news. Here we go. Did it did it did did. **Thomas** (00:06:56:13 - 00:07:14:09): Dude, 4th of July is coming up and Americans be traveling. Chip. Yeah, a record breaking 72.2 million Americans are traveling this 4th of July weekend, according to triple A, making it the single most traveled Independence Day in recorded history. **Chip** (00:07:14:09 - 00:07:17:06): And we're staying right here, Thomas. Nobody's. Nobody's taking us anywhere. **Thomas** (00:07:17:07 - 00:07:20:09): Yeah, I'm actually not going anywhere this year for the 4th of July. **Chip** (00:07:20:10 - 00:07:34:22): I don't know if I've ever traveled for the fourth. I'm thinking about it because we're usually pretty. I mean, I'm in. I literally live in the cradle of America, where it all started 250 years ago. Why would I need to go anywhere for this weekend? **Thomas** (00:07:34:22 - 00:07:50:04): Every once in a while we go to Washington, D.C., because that does also seem like an interesting place to spend the 4th of July. Of course. But growing up, dude, if we didn't stay home, which stay at home is awesome. Barbecues, fireworks in the backyard. **Chip** (00:07:50:05 - 00:07:50:23): That's the way to do it. **Thomas** (00:07:51:00 - 00:08:08:00): Put it on your own fireworks show. That's nice. But we also used to go to this little town called Port Orford on the Oregon coast, dude. And it was like a tradition. We did it for 4 or 5 years, but it's just like this quaint little town dude. Like they would have a melodrama in the local little theater. You can show up and watch like the local actors do their thing. They would always have a parade where they had old fire trucks and stuff and they were thrown candy. It was fun. As a little kid, they would have something called a dinghy race. Of course, we're all like the the grown man would get in a dinghy and like have to race out into the ocean, do it. It was like a real community event and we just felt welcomed into it. And we would always camp right there on Cape Blanco, which has some distinction, like I think it's even like the most western point in the lower 48. **Chip** (00:08:42:00 - 00:08:47:13): I could see that. Yeah, if it's a cape, it's jutting out a little bit. You're up there in Oregon. Yeah. **Thomas** (00:08:47:15 - 00:08:52:16): Or it's the windiest or maybe both. The windy point. It's very windy. **Chip** (00:08:52:17 - 00:08:53:07): Nice. **Thomas** (00:08:53:08 - 00:08:54:15): A little Americana. **Chip** (00:08:54:15 - 00:09:17:01): I love it. We had a little Americana growing up. Too much more local outside of the in the suburbs of Philadelphia. There, in our little neighborhood growing up, there was every once in a while, like in the bigger town, there would be like a parade somewhere, maybe for like Memorial Day or for whatever. Right. And it was my little brother and his friend Marcy. The two of them were like, we want to have our own. Like we want to be in a parade, okay, for the 4th of July. So my mom and her mom were just like, all right, we'll have make you a parade. And what they did was they made up little fliers, and it's a lot of like it was a lot of, like, elderly people in my neighborhood. Yeah. So they put fliers in mailboxes and they're like, hey, at 10 a.m. on the 4th of July, we're going to have a little parade. Yeah. The kids just basically like, decorated their bikes with streamers. And then our neighbor, yeah, owned a glass company, like a window company, and he like a sort of a flatbed truck. So we my brother was a drummer, and his friend Marcy played the flute. So literally he just had a snare drum. He played the snare drum, and she just played, you know, like Yankee Doodle on the flute. And we and we, we dressed the truck up like it was a float and rode it around. So it was just like ten kids on bikes. **Thomas** (00:10:11:06 - 00:10:12:00): Unreal. **Chip** (00:10:12:01 - 00:10:34:07): And then just like this little float with them playing that, and then a bunch of, like, elderly people and the younger people that were around to start out at the end of their driveways with little flags and just watched us go around. It was like the funniest, cutest, saddest little parade you've ever seen. Flash forward Thomas to 15 years later. Okay, it's still going strong and just getting bigger and bigger every year. Now. Now it's they don't do it anymore. But like I think it was a a good 15 years, maybe more that we did it where literally like the next year, like this one guy had this like kind of hot rod old car. So like he joined the parade. **Thomas** (00:10:52:19 - 00:10:53:16): Oh yeah. **Chip** (00:10:53:17 - 00:11:27:03): We had connections with the local volunteer fire department. Literally. They sent a classic fire truck to be a part of the parade. And then like, people marched and so, like, it became this big thing and we had to float at least two floats because the glass guy would bring it and like, we would get. And by the time at this time I'm like in college and a little bit after college, like we would just start drinking it like 8 a.m. and just start decorating these floats and just driving around the neighborhood in these floats with, with all these kids ride their bikes music. I mean, it it became this, this big thing in our, in our neighborhood. **Thomas** (00:11:31:18 - 00:11:41:18): And this is the one that eventually ended after the estate of John Philip Sousa sued you. Yeah, for hundreds of thousands of dollars. **Chip** (00:11:41:19 - 00:11:53:05): Thomas. I can't talk about that anymore. Still in litigation. It's been years and years of a just a very difficult court battle between my family and the Sousa family. That's all I can say. **Thomas** (00:11:53:06 - 00:12:00:05): Okay, well, can we talk a little more generally about Sousa? Sure. The man made himself synonymous with a parade. **Chip** (00:12:00:06 - 00:12:03:09): Yeah, with a parade with a whole lot of music. **Thomas** (00:12:03:11 - 00:12:07:16): Nothing really comes close to japes. **Chip** (00:12:07:18 - 00:12:14:02): Like, who is the second guy in marching band music? Parade music? There's not. **Thomas** (00:12:14:03 - 00:12:18:10): Who's that guy in any other vein of music? I mean, like maybe Elvis. **Chip** (00:12:18:11 - 00:12:32:06): Yeah, like Elvis with rock and roll. But you could argue other people jazz. You have a bunch of different types of people. Classical music. You got Beethoven, you got Bock, you have Mozart. You know all those. But Sousa is. Dude. **Thomas** (00:12:32:06 - 00:12:41:05): I just want to know what he got into it for. Did he see an opportunity? Was it because he wanted to wear the crown? Or was he in it for the jewels? You know. Did he see the cash? **Chip** (00:12:41:11 - 00:12:46:05): Yeah, it was a big catcher. I mean, he invented the sousaphone. So I mean, that's like. **Thomas** (00:12:46:06 - 00:12:48:11): Wow, is that. That's like an instrument. **Chip** (00:12:48:12 - 00:13:00:05): The guy knew his way around, isn't it? Sousaphone? I, I think his sousaphone is like the tuba. Like the way. Because, like, a tuba itself is like, it sits on your lap and is like a big horn. **Thomas** (00:13:00:06 - 00:13:01:11): Yeah. Look. Stupid. **Chip** (00:13:01:11 - 00:13:15:15): I think the sousaphone is. He's the one who took it. I could be wrong about this. Yeah, but he took the tube and made it like it is, like in its current standing where it, like, wraps around you and it's up there, like so. You can hold it easily for a marching situation. **Thomas** (00:13:15:16 - 00:13:16:09): Okay. **Chip** (00:13:16:09 - 00:13:22:03): I, I believe that is the sousaphone. So, so I mean, the man who is brass, that's a that's all I'll say. **Thomas** (00:13:22:03 - 00:13:28:12): Thomas Senior was brass, dude. All right, well, back to this. Just delightful story, Chip. **Chip** (00:13:28:12 - 00:13:38:08): Just delightful. Yeah. By the way, the sousaphone, that's what it is. It's where he took that tuba and wrapped it around so it's easier to carry in a marching band situation. **Thomas** (00:13:38:09 - 00:13:44:01): God. So that guy, I mean, he was all in. Maybe he was just in it. For the love of the game. This guy loves a marching band. **Chip** (00:13:44:02 - 00:13:48:03): I think he was the love of the game. I think he was a patriot. He loved that type of music. **Thomas** (00:13:48:04 - 00:13:49:02): Hats off John. **Chip** (00:13:49:02 - 00:13:54:03): You think he had a lot of groupies like Sousa groupies? Susie's. Susie's, as I like to call him. **Thomas** (00:13:54:03 - 00:14:00:21): There's like, not a lot of fame back then. I don't know exactly the era he was working in, but it wasn't the 1970s. **Chip** (00:14:01:01 - 00:14:01:12): No. **Thomas** (00:14:01:13 - 00:14:17:03): It was pretty. And I know his name today, so imagine how many people knew his name then, right? There was no entertainment besides these marching bands rocking through the towns on summer days while you drank a glass of lemonade. And maybe your mom made a cherry pie. **Chip** (00:14:17:06 - 00:14:18:13): Of course. **Thomas** (00:14:18:15 - 00:14:31:04): Yeah. John Philip keeping it real. But back to the story. 72.2 million people I this has to be way more people than were even in America when John Philip. **Chip** (00:14:31:04 - 00:14:31:20): Sousa. **Thomas** (00:14:31:22 - 00:14:45:18): Was inventing horns. Yeah. That, but it's one in every five Americans now, there's 349 million Americans right now. So one out of every five people you know in America is going somewhere. Next weekend. **Chip** (00:14:45:18 - 00:14:47:09): Cheb, you're going to be on the road, baby. **Thomas** (00:14:47:10 - 00:15:07:06): On the road again. And for context, that would be one out of every one French person all going on a trip the same weekend. That's the whole country of France. Get up and going. And France has a steamy through line in this whole sunburnt news segment. **Chip** (00:15:07:07 - 00:15:08:23): Slathered on me. Thomas, let me hear it. **Thomas** (00:15:09:04 - 00:15:20:08): There it. I mean, we'll get some more French stuff in a minute. Okay. This also shatters the previous record for Independence Day travel, which was set pre-pandemic trip. **Chip** (00:15:20:09 - 00:15:21:16): All right, so we're back. **Thomas** (00:15:21:17 - 00:15:29:15): 2019. We're back to moving around the country. And this is also like mystifying economists. **Chip** (00:15:29:18 - 00:15:30:05): Yeah. **Thomas** (00:15:30:06 - 00:15:40:04): It doesn't make any sense. Fuel costs are through the roof. Inflation is high. Every indicator is that people should slow down their traveling and we just not chip. **Chip** (00:15:40:04 - 00:15:42:13): People are still getting out of Dodge. They need to. **Thomas** (00:15:42:14 - 00:15:50:05): We're defying gravity, literally and figuratively. We're defying gravity. We're getting an airplane. We're going places, baby. **Chip** (00:15:50:06 - 00:15:50:15): Yeah. **Thomas** (00:15:50:16 - 00:16:07:14): It's going to be an all time or dude, I think people are getting around. They're ready to have a good time. They're ready to cut loose. We got one more episode before the 4th of July. But if you're not making your 4th of July plants now, what are you doing? It's time to figure that out. Let's get it rocking and rolling, baby. Love it. Happy fourth to everybody in advance. Boom! Next story. This is this one. Blew my mind. Show France is finding shirtless men €150 and calling it a hygiene crisis. **Chip** (00:16:24:08 - 00:16:28:07): But notice they're not finding the shirtless women. **Thomas** (00:16:28:10 - 00:16:35:03): No, no, I don't even know if that's on the books. They don't want to see man nips. Chip. That's the big thing. **Chip** (00:16:35:04 - 00:16:36:03): I don't disagree. **Thomas** (00:16:36:04 - 00:16:44:12): Yeah, I don't disagree either. I was thinking about it. It's the exact opposite business model as a strip club. **Chip** (00:16:44:14 - 00:16:47:12): Yeah. You show those nips, you're paying us money. **Thomas** (00:16:47:17 - 00:17:08:15): Yeah, exactly. This is a reverse feel sexist. Little Matador network is reporting that French beach towns are now issuing fines up to €150. That's about $172. When I checked this morning, US currency. Two men caught walking through town with a shirt off. **Chip** (00:17:08:17 - 00:17:19:20): It goes to show the the level of class and dignity in Europe where they they're always dressed up. You can always tell like a European tourist. Yeah. In Philadelphia. Like you can just tell their. Yeah. **Thomas** (00:17:19:22 - 00:17:20:21): A little more put together. **Chip** (00:17:20:22 - 00:17:31:15): They're a little more put together. I mean, it's not just, you know, Crocs and a tank top. You know, it is nothing wrong with that. But it is. They are they're dressed to the nines. **Thomas** (00:17:31:15 - 00:17:53:01): But this is what I don't understand from the culture, the beach culture that created the literal topless beach. How did we get here, man? You're still allowed to be a man with your shirt off on the beach. But once you cross the street into, like, you know, a a more commercial district or walk into a cafe, but it. **Chip** (00:17:53:01 - 00:17:55:22): All right. Yes. Getting that baguette. **Thomas** (00:17:55:23 - 00:18:00:02): You gotta pop that tarpon in Southern California. That is nonsense, dude. **Chip** (00:18:00:03 - 00:18:07:16): That's why the Hawaiian shirt is the perfect shirt, though, because you just. You throw it on, you give it just a couple of little buttons, and you're good to go. **Thomas** (00:18:07:17 - 00:18:16:03): Hot. Ogo, did you see that hot dog video of the kids singing H.O.T.? Oh, dog. Yes, man. **Chip** (00:18:16:03 - 00:18:19:04): He was. He is excited about his hot dogs. **Thomas** (00:18:19:07 - 00:18:29:20): Yeah. I mean, who would have me? Yeah, there's over 20 French beaches, beach towns that are enforcing these types of laws. And that is double from two years ago. **Chip** (00:18:29:20 - 00:18:31:08): So it's it's spreading. **Thomas** (00:18:31:09 - 00:18:55:14): In 20 2024 there was ten. Now there's 20. And by and large it's not being enforced equally between locals and tourists. Right. And it's also not advertised very well. They're not like posting these. It is a two fold thing. There's kind of like an anti overtourism thing going on. And a lot of these French towns and one it's embarrassing. Yeah. You are literally getting a ticket for being unsanitary. It's listed as a hygiene violation. And then it costs you a bunch of cash. It's like you go into a cafe and they're just like, I'm sorry, sir, your nips are out. That's disgusting. And it's so gross. You're going to pay us $172. Your currency. **Chip** (00:19:14:17 - 00:19:21:15): They're just in there. Like we have a latte for Brett, and then Brett just gets handed a ticket instead. You know? **Thomas** (00:19:21:17 - 00:19:25:06): And there are so many nice French lattes. **Chip** (00:19:25:08 - 00:19:25:16): Yeah. **Thomas** (00:19:25:17 - 00:19:43:20): I was looking at pictures the other day of us being in a, it just had a, a collage that popped up on my iPhone and I saw one of me and my wife in a cafe and Paris called the coffee. Okay. And I just remember this being such a smooth, delicious latte. **Chip** (00:19:43:22 - 00:19:45:02): Smooth roast baby. **Thomas** (00:19:45:02 - 00:19:49:02): I can't imagine it coming with a nice side of shame and a fine. **Chip** (00:19:49:03 - 00:20:02:01): I have seen some French and other European travelers that are over here for the World Cup being interviewed. Some of them not necessarily fans of Dunkin Donuts right now. The Dunkin Donuts coffee. **Thomas** (00:20:02:05 - 00:20:02:20): Oh, yeah. **Chip** (00:20:02:21 - 00:20:12:10): And the donuts themselves think they're a little subpar. That's my little slice of heaven. But I guess everybody has their own their own version of a beautiful. **Thomas** (00:20:12:10 - 00:20:33:17): We've never seen eye to eye. But like when we have worked on shows on the East Coast, yes, we've largely stuck to your backyard. A Dunkin Donuts coffee. I've never been on board with Dunkin Donuts donuts. Yep. Like they just didn't click for me. But the coffee was tolerable at a certain point. But when you come over West Coast. Yep. We largely frequent my Starbucks, the bucks, mostly because there's only one Dunkin Donuts and it's nowhere near anywhere we worked. **Chip** (00:20:42:05 - 00:20:43:22): You go to where they are. That's what I like. **Thomas** (00:20:43:22 - 00:20:56:14): But we've taken little trips to each other's coffee locations, and then when we're in Hawaii, we know what we're doing. We're doing that Hawaiian latte at the Honolulu Coffee Roasters. **Chip** (00:20:56:18 - 00:20:58:22): One of the best cups of coffee. **Thomas** (00:20:59:00 - 00:21:03:04): So, I mean, the environment adds a lot to it. I don't know how it would stack up out here. **Chip** (00:21:03:06 - 00:21:15:00): Right. Like, just like on an average Tuesday, Tuesday workday, it's still got to be good. But it's also, yeah, just taking it out on the beach, sitting on one of those rockers at the Moana, just like watching the ocean. **Thomas** (00:21:15:01 - 00:21:38:20): Yeah, that and a cookie. Come on. Yeah. That's not that's not breakfast anywhere else but Hawaii for me, right? A sugary latte and a cookie. Delicious, delicious. All right, back to this. This this campaign started off in La Grande Motte and was introduced in 2008. The fine was only $38 back then, but it's coming up on two decades of shaming. Taurus. **Chip** (00:21:39:13 - 00:21:41:11): They really want us to put our shirts on. **Thomas** (00:21:41:12 - 00:21:46:13): They really do. What do you think's behind this chip? What? What's the goal? What are. **Chip** (00:21:46:13 - 00:21:48:11): We doing? Have you seen a lot of Americans? **Thomas** (00:21:48:12 - 00:21:49:04): Yeah. **Chip** (00:21:49:09 - 00:21:51:07): Have you seen them with their shirts off? **Thomas** (00:21:51:09 - 00:21:56:11): Big nips, like a frying pan. Do you think it's the the circumference of the Ariela on some of these fellows? **Chip** (00:21:56:11 - 00:22:04:04): I wonder how many Americans are getting this fine versus, like, German tourists, British tourists, Italian tourists? **Thomas** (00:22:04:04 - 00:22:12:19): I would be willing to bet it's American, Italian, German. In that order of high to low. Who is being enforced? **Chip** (00:22:12:20 - 00:22:17:13): They're letting us know. It's like, hey, play by the rules here. When you're when you're in our our home nation. **Thomas** (00:22:17:13 - 00:22:28:02): My wife recently told me maybe this has something to do with it. My wife recently told me that she detests if she can see my armpit hair while she's eating. **Chip** (00:22:28:02 - 00:22:30:20): So no more tank tops for for dinner. **Thomas** (00:22:30:20 - 00:22:44:18): Well, you know, I mean, this is this is my work uniform. Sure. I put on a nice Hawaiian come out and do this lovely podcast, but if you catch me in the wild, I would say 80% of the time, T-Bones, wearing a tank top. **Chip** (00:22:44:19 - 00:22:45:17): Tanking it up. **Thomas** (00:22:45:18 - 00:22:58:13): Yeah, yeah, I love a tank top. That's like probably my natural state most of the time. Yeah, but she's really been encouraging me to throw a Hawaiian on over it at the dinner table. Maybe these French folks are doing something like that. **Chip** (00:22:58:13 - 00:22:59:05): I love it. **Thomas** (00:22:59:06 - 00:23:02:02): It's not like I got a wild bush going on down here. **Chip** (00:23:02:02 - 00:23:02:23): Yeah, but also. **Thomas** (00:23:03:04 - 00:23:03:23): In my defense. **Chip** (00:23:03:23 - 00:23:06:04): Your wife and the French. I think they have a point. **Thomas** (00:23:06:05 - 00:23:07:07): I guess they do. **Chip** (00:23:07:07 - 00:23:11:16): Maybe she'll start finding you. I don't know, I don't know what's going to happen. Thomas. To find. **Thomas** (00:23:11:16 - 00:23:21:12): Out, we did have a formal request. The same week I found out about these shirtless bands from my wife to, Yeah. Just throw throw a button on shirt over the top of that. **Chip** (00:23:21:13 - 00:23:22:23): It's the way to do it. It's the way to. **Thomas** (00:23:22:23 - 00:23:37:20): Do it, really is. It's so maybe that's it. Yeah, maybe that is it. All right, dude. On to economic travel news. We love this, right? We love getting into the numbers, figuring out what's going on around the world when it comes to travel. **Chip** (00:23:37:21 - 00:23:38:09): Yep. **Thomas** (00:23:38:10 - 00:23:48:17): The US Virgin Islands government just dropped $75 million to hand a classic Caribbean resort to Club Med Cheb. This is actually pretty big news. **Chip** (00:23:48:18 - 00:23:49:06): Okay. **Thomas** (00:23:49:06 - 00:23:54:02): Local funds to build up a company to hand it over to French ownership. **Chip** (00:23:54:03 - 00:23:56:07): Interesting. Why do you think they would do that? **Thomas** (00:23:56:09 - 00:24:08:13): There's a couple of different reasons. I think the large part is they think it'll be better for the economy. They're trying to court European travelers who are more accustomed to a Club Med all inclusive type of resort. **Chip** (00:24:08:14 - 00:24:12:18): I see getting them in town, getting them through the door. Half the battle. **Thomas** (00:24:12:20 - 00:24:20:19): This comes at a time when Antigua and Barbuda are actively seeking Spain's help, making Spanish their second official language. **Chip** (00:24:20:19 - 00:24:26:15): I think they're going for those European travelers, Thomas, because they keep their shirts on. **Thomas** (00:24:26:17 - 00:24:52:03): That might be, not according to any of the videos I've seen online. But yeah, they're behaving themselves to the resorts. They just want those dollars. I know there's also a huge influx in South American travelers who primarily speak Spanish, if not Portuguese, which is very Spanish adjacent, but they're just trying to make it a nice, welcoming spot for those folks on the high end. Everybody wants every country, every place in the world has high end travelers. All these travel occasions are fighting for these same travelers from each different country. They're trying to make it as welcoming as possible for people to show up. **Chip** (00:25:04:18 - 00:25:06:06): I see you, Virgin Islands. **Thomas** (00:25:06:07 - 00:25:28:16): This is happening. It's just what was a normal, classic Caribbean resort, okay? People could just kick back and relax and now they're coming in Club Med it, which to a lot of people is synonymous with like, I don't know, forced workout programs getting out there, getting getting people riled up to go play beach volleyball with people they don't know. Okay. But it's all inclusive. Meals and drinks are all together, and this is usually. They haven't announced prices yet. But for something on this scale in this area of the world, usually going to run about 250 to $450 a day per person. Okay. So this is not a budget trip by any means. This is their this is their pitch to get higher end travelers to their locations, spend more money, and benefit the economy more broadly. Overall. **Chip** (00:26:02:04 - 00:26:03:12): They're all angling, I get it. **Thomas** (00:26:03:12 - 00:26:18:07): They're spending 75 million of government funds to try and make that happen. So it's a little bit of a gamble, but people seem to be pretty excited about it, with the exception of maybe the island losing a little bit of its identity. **Chip** (00:26:18:09 - 00:26:22:07): Right. And then yeah, because you you want to keep that local flair, local. **Thomas** (00:26:22:07 - 00:26:43:06): Flair and also like local ownership. Yeah, absolutely. You know it's like that 100% of the money when it's it stays local. It gets recycled through the community. But now we're going to a French company and that's it off. So who knows. There's a balance point. And I'm no economist by any stretch of the imagination. **Chip** (00:26:43:07 - 00:26:44:03): Well I am. **Thomas** (00:26:44:07 - 00:26:46:20): Oh so this is a good idea. You can stamp it. **Chip** (00:26:47:01 - 00:26:49:15): Yeah. Let's just say there's there's pros and cons. **Thomas** (00:26:49:16 - 00:26:52:16): You're telling me you think there's enough pine cones to go around here? **Chip** (00:26:52:17 - 00:27:01:11): I mean, with the interest rates up, you're going to need a lot of pine cones to go to Club Med next year. That's all I'm saying. Okay. **Thomas** (00:27:01:12 - 00:27:16:01): All right. Dude. Keeping at Caribbean. Jamaica has had a long term plan to get more inter-island visitors to come to them, and it is working. Dude. **Chip** (00:27:16:02 - 00:27:18:15): That's interesting because, okay, let's say you. Lived on one island. You're living in Paradise. Yeah. I never thought about this. Like, why would you go to another island? Because you're right there. And now they are okay. I am the people of Jamaica, I salute you. This is. This is brilliant. **Thomas** (00:27:35:00 - 00:27:54:05): Yeah. So if you wanted to go between places, at least commercially, you were going to have to go to a hub, which oftentimes would bypass Jamaica completely. So they're like, we want more people coming. But it's not just more people coming. It's like foods easier to fly in. They've really built out the infrastructure to have more people fly from different places. They are specifically targeting South America as well. They want those Latin country is coming. **Chip** (00:28:01:02 - 00:28:02:13): Argentinian dollars. **Thomas** (00:28:02:14 - 00:28:21:02): Exactly. They want the Brazilian dollars. They want the Paraguayan dollars. They want all that money. The high end people come in there and they need to make it as they need to make it as easy as possible. So they've been building out, building out their infrastructure, building out air routes, but it kind of makes everything work more smoothly. Like if you think about the most expensive places in the world to go visit, it's where it's tough to get food in and out of. It's where it costs a lot of money. So now that there's not two stops between getting something from one island to Jamaica, or from the mainland to Jamaica, there's a lot more things coming in consistently. It's just going to encourage more people to come, but also make things less expensive to transport in. It's kind of genius. And Jamaica's cracking that code. **Chip** (00:28:49:18 - 00:28:50:22): Hubba hubba. Jamaica. **Thomas** (00:28:51:00 - 00:29:14:17): There's a wild story. You'll have to check it out about Jimmy Buffett just flying a bunch of famous people from one place to another and like, actually getting shot at, like, yes, yes. Yeah. But I remember thinking, like, what? That's that's adventure. That's the modern day pirate. That's the modern day travelers. Somebody can hop in their own plane and fly from one island to another island. That is your ability to jump from world to world. **Chip** (00:29:17:21 - 00:29:18:02): World. **Thomas** (00:29:18:02 - 00:29:27:11): To world. And this this brought it into focus for me. Yeah, there's people out there doing that. Yeah. Well, what's cooler than that, though? **Chip** (00:29:27:13 - 00:29:30:18): I can't think of much. **Thomas** (00:29:30:20 - 00:29:37:09): I can think of one thing to do. You know me. I'm a pickle ball boy. **Chip** (00:29:37:11 - 00:29:38:01): Yeah you are. **Thomas** (00:29:38:02 - 00:29:59:01): And this next story is the cross section. It's beautiful resort travel mixed with a little pickleball, which I did myself recently in a much less intense way than this. People are flying to Sardinia or Sardinia and ending up in a Russian coaches pickleball boot camp. **Chip** (00:29:59:02 - 00:30:04:21): That sounds kind of like a mid 2000 horror movie. Like like a hostile situation. **Thomas** (00:30:04:21 - 00:30:05:07): Yeah. **Chip** (00:30:05:08 - 00:30:07:07): Maybe, but it's pickleball instead. **Thomas** (00:30:07:08 - 00:30:23:11): Yeah. Which is a lot more fun to me. Matador network is reporting that Fort Village Resort Sardinia, Italy is offering guests access to professional, professional level sports training, including pickleball lessons with a hard core Russian coach. **Chip** (00:30:23:12 - 00:30:26:15): Wow. That is that is a choice. That is a choice to be made. **Thomas** (00:30:26:16 - 00:30:59:03): Yeah. So it's a place that has like Caribbean level beaches. Like this place is unbelievable island off of Italy and people are it's not enough for some folks. They need something else. So they are pairing these beautiful surroundings, these luxury accommodations with hard core, professional level training. You want to train like you're in the NBA of pickleball. You come here and they have one coach, specifically this Russian hardcore coach that has been described as relentless. **Chip** (00:30:59:03 - 00:31:04:10): Relentless pickleball on vacation. I mean, there's are three. Those are three words that have never been strung together. **Thomas** (00:31:04:11 - 00:31:09:10): But I kind of love it, dude. There's something about it that speaks to my soul. **Chip** (00:31:09:13 - 00:31:34:10): Oh, of course. Although I will say if I'm going to Sardinia. Okay. You want to play pickleball? Great. If you want to be, it's they. You're there for vacation, beautiful beaches. And then this Soviet man comes down and starts screaming at you. And just like, you know, boot camping. It all for good reason. But I almost feel like that's I just want to be on vacation at that point. Yeah. What I'd like to do if I was serious about it. Fly to Moscow. Better yet, fly to Siberia, to some indoor gym in Siberia for two weeks and let this man just transform you. Not as a pickleball player, but as a human being. As an animal. Right? Yeah. And then you emerge from that surrounded by snow and ice so much stronger. It's it's the rocky. It's the Rocky four. Situation like Rocky four was filmed in, you know, it was set in Russia. It wasn't filmed in the Bahamas. It wasn't filmed on in the Mediterranean, on the Adriatic. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, I, I think it should be in some desolate place where you're just focused on that. Because if I'm in Sardinia, I want to do a little sightseeing, see, the shops, lay on the beach. But I still love it. **Thomas** (00:32:27:07 - 00:32:30:18): You want to know what Rocky would have been called on an island? **Chip** (00:32:30:23 - 00:32:31:17): Go ahead. **Thomas** (00:32:31:18 - 00:32:33:13): Sandy. **Chip** (00:32:33:15 - 00:32:34:18): Hey. **Thomas** (00:32:34:20 - 00:32:35:07): Yeah. **Chip** (00:32:35:09 - 00:32:37:03): Boom. **Thomas** (00:32:37:05 - 00:32:44:03): No. And maybe put that on the list. Chef. Potential projects. We're going to write Island. Island based fighting movie. **Chip** (00:32:44:04 - 00:32:49:17): Sandy, I love it. Well, he and he and Apollo Creed ran on the beach in their sneakers. We know that. **Thomas** (00:32:49:18 - 00:33:04:17): No, but I, I agree with you. Get. Get yourself into Siberia. Yes. And let a hard core stranger chip away every part of you that is not a professional pickleball player. **Chip** (00:33:04:21 - 00:33:05:10): Exactly. **Thomas** (00:33:05:11 - 00:33:08:21): And then whatever's left, you deal with that for the rest of. **Chip** (00:33:08:21 - 00:33:18:05): Your life. By the way, my Guinness Book of World Records is tangentially related to this, and I think this gentleman could help with what I'm going to be talking about. **Thomas** (00:33:18:05 - 00:33:18:19): I love. **Chip** (00:33:18:19 - 00:33:20:01): It, dude. Yeah. **Thomas** (00:33:20:03 - 00:33:28:17): This is part of an overall trend that we've been talking about before. It's a sports tourism. It's also luxury, wellness, travel. **Chip** (00:33:28:18 - 00:33:32:20): Not just plumping yourself down on the beach, having a couple of drinks. Nothing wrong with that. **Thomas** (00:33:32:20 - 00:33:33:22): That's perfect. **Chip** (00:33:33:23 - 00:33:36:21): Exactly. But these these people that getting up and around. **Thomas** (00:33:36:22 - 00:33:48:00): There's got to be a certain subset of people who cannot just relax and be. Things can't be too good for certain people. They have to have some adversity or they don't feel comfortable. **Chip** (00:33:48:01 - 00:33:49:06): Yeah, they need to be challenged. **Thomas** (00:33:49:07 - 00:33:59:09): And, you know, they're willing to pay good money to do it. And if you're going to go play pickleball at a resort, it might as well be world class pickleball training, of course. **Chip** (00:33:59:10 - 00:34:03:12): Yeah. So, okay, I'm I'm coming around on it. I'm coming around on it. **Thomas** (00:34:03:13 - 00:34:15:00): The pickle boys all went to tyranny, which is kind of like this resort just south of Los Angeles not too long ago with our families, and did a nice session with a coach. **Chip** (00:34:15:02 - 00:34:15:23): How was that? **Thomas** (00:34:15:23 - 00:34:36:16): It was unbelievable, dude. It was really nice. You can look it up. Tirana, a nice local resort, but we went to the tennis center, which is unbelievable. Dude. It's like not part of the resort. It's up the hill from the resort, right? And you can just see like 180 sweeping ocean views from this pickleball tennis center. **Chip** (00:34:36:21 - 00:34:37:08): Amazing. **Thomas** (00:34:37:14 - 00:34:54:16): And the the clubhouse, it just looks like somebody's literal living room. Like it is. It's got just like tables and a TV and tennis was on, but there's no part of it that looks like a commercial building. This is a 1990s living room. **Chip** (00:34:54:16 - 00:34:55:14): I love it. **Thomas** (00:34:55:14 - 00:35:12:12): There's like a kitchen right there. Like where? The kitchen. I think it was a house. Maybe the kitchen is kind of like where the people set up and take your money and stuff, but you are just in like your if your friend had a house that was built in 1992 growing up, this is exactly what the living room looked like. And it's. **Chip** (00:35:12:23 - 00:35:17:01): Just read in green. Very bold colors. Yeah, I'm seeing it right now. **Thomas** (00:35:17:02 - 00:35:21:04): Oh baby. It was the, you know, the the the high vaulted ceiling. **Chip** (00:35:21:05 - 00:35:22:08): Yep. **Thomas** (00:35:22:10 - 00:35:38:03): It was honestly great. It was a highlight of the trip aside from hanging out with all our families of course. But it was the, the little differentiator. It was the two hours where something was different than just hanging out in a very nice resort. We got a little exercise out. We got a little competition in. **Chip** (00:35:38:04 - 00:35:51:09): You learned something, you got something out of it so you can walk away and then enjoy the beach even more when you're relaxing. Okay. The highs and lows I, I get it. I'm, I'm getting sold on this experiential thing. **Thomas** (00:35:51:11 - 00:35:58:18): You gotta do it a little different sometimes, buddy. All right, chipper, that's it for sunburn news. **Chip** (00:35:58:20 - 00:35:59:06): Boom. **Thomas** (00:35:59:07 - 00:36:00:22): A lot of fun stories this week, man. **Chip** (00:36:00:23 - 00:36:06:00): Yeah, really good ones. Pickleball, Jamaican, Jamaican hubs I. **Thomas** (00:36:06:00 - 00:36:09:00): Mean Jamaican me. Efficient. I've never heard that one. **Chip** (00:36:09:02 - 00:36:11:14): A better pickleball player. **Thomas** (00:36:11:16 - 00:36:14:20): Jamaican me transportation genius. **Chip** (00:36:14:21 - 00:36:17:04): Just shirts on the whole time, guys. Shirt. **Thomas** (00:36:17:05 - 00:36:21:22): Yeah. Keep them shirts on. Let's keep it classy. Let's keep it fine. Free. **Chip** (00:36:22:00 - 00:36:22:12): Yes. **Thomas** (00:36:22:12 - 00:36:37:05): But that's it for sunburn news. Now we're moving on. We're talking about the man, the legend, our hero, Jimmy Buffett. It's time for buffet facts. Buffett facts. Chip. What Buffett fact have you uncovered this week? **Chip** (00:36:37:06 - 00:36:48:12): Frankie said relax, but Jimmy Buffett showed us relax, and that's what's important. **Thomas** (00:36:48:14 - 00:36:51:12): It's the classic principle of show, don't tell. **Chip** (00:36:51:15 - 00:36:52:09): Yes. **Thomas** (00:36:52:11 - 00:36:57:01): He lived it. He walked the walk. Nobody can say he did not walk his own walk. **Chip** (00:36:57:02 - 00:36:57:14): Exactly. **Thomas** (00:36:57:14 - 00:37:06:15): And that's one of the most inspiring things I find about the man himself. This week we do have 4th of July coming up. I started to think what was his fourth like? **Chip** (00:37:06:16 - 00:37:07:07): Sure. **Thomas** (00:37:07:11 - 00:37:23:01): Jimmy Buffett didn't vibe with hot dog eating contests. He never went to a 4th of July BBQ and thought, this thing needs more competition, strict rules, and less cheeseburgers. **Chip** (00:37:23:03 - 00:37:24:14): Not Paradise at all. **Thomas** (00:37:24:15 - 00:37:29:04): Not Paradise at all. It would be Paradise Lost for Mr. Buffett. **Chip** (00:37:29:06 - 00:37:30:01): It would. **Thomas** (00:37:30:03 - 00:37:34:19): I have a hot dog in contest is just kind of a barbecue. That sucks. **Chip** (00:37:34:19 - 00:37:40:03): It really is. It's because it's rules. There's winners and losers who needs winners and losers that are barbecue. **Thomas** (00:37:40:04 - 00:37:41:08): It's not healthy. **Chip** (00:37:41:11 - 00:37:42:08): No, not. **Thomas** (00:37:42:08 - 00:37:48:13): At all. It's not good behavior. No, I don't care about it. No, but it's not good. **Chip** (00:37:48:15 - 00:37:50:12): It's something that doesn't need to happen. Yeah, yeah. **Thomas** (00:37:50:13 - 00:38:07:17): And also it's like there's like, you can play a sporting game and there's a chance you come out feeling okay. Sure. You know you have a great game. Come out of feeling okay. You can run a marathon, come out feeling okay, tired, whatever. Right. There's nobody who wins a hot dog eating contest that feels okay. **Chip** (00:38:07:22 - 00:38:14:21): No winners and losers. They're just sitting there. Just it's it's it is. Body horror is what it is. **Thomas** (00:38:14:22 - 00:38:20:07): It really is I I'll watch him though. Yeah. **Chip** (00:38:20:09 - 00:38:20:21): Yeah. **Thomas** (00:38:20:22 - 00:38:30:21): I'll watch him. How do you how do you like a dog? We talked about the most expensive hot dog a couple of weeks ago. We didn't talk about your preferences. What are you doing? If you got a dog? **Chip** (00:38:30:23 - 00:38:42:23): If. If I'm always so, I will say I'm a very basic boy. I like a like a ballpark dog, you know, like, just boil it up. Just boil this. Fine. Yeah. I mean, there's nothing wrong with a a nice charred. **Thomas** (00:38:43:01 - 00:38:45:04): Yeah. You're not turning down a BBQ dog. **Chip** (00:38:45:04 - 00:39:04:00): No, not at all. But yeah, just a nice, plump, boiled dog I like, I like myself some mustard, some onions and some relish. Oh, okay. There's my favorite. And then there are certain ones. There was a place that I grew up going to near my home called Texas Hot Wieners. **Thomas** (00:39:04:03 - 00:39:06:11): Oh, dubs. **Chip** (00:39:06:13 - 00:39:16:12): Yeah. And they had this, like, this meat sauce on it. That was just I don't even know what it was. I think it was like beef and just I think there was like cinnamon in it. And like. **Thomas** (00:39:16:14 - 00:39:17:06): I said. **Chip** (00:39:17:08 - 00:39:22:22): It was tangy, like it was the I could down like four of those dogs. **Thomas** (00:39:22:22 - 00:39:23:02): Wow. **Chip** (00:39:23:03 - 00:39:28:06): And I know that doesn't sound a lot compared to the Nathan's hot dog eating contest, but yeah, yeah, those are my favorite. How about you? **Thomas** (00:39:28:07 - 00:39:34:23): Yeah, that's pretty serious. So I used to be just a catch up. Only guy. Okay. Loved a dog. **Chip** (00:39:35:00 - 00:39:35:17): Ketchup guy. **Thomas** (00:39:35:19 - 00:39:36:22): Just a catch up guy. **Chip** (00:39:36:23 - 00:39:38:11): That is a choice, Thomas. **Thomas** (00:39:38:12 - 00:39:59:17): As I've grown up, I've evolved a little bit. Number one, if it's a normal hot dog, like a Hebrew Nash. Something like that. I can't beat a chilly dog. Yeah. Put some chili on it, a little cheese, that's why I'm eating that. But mostly now, if I'm grilling, if I'm going to have something, a tube shaped meat, it's going to be an Italian sausage, either mild or spicy. **Chip** (00:39:59:18 - 00:40:02:23): Oh, those are great. Yep. That's a that's a whole different class right. **Thomas** (00:40:02:23 - 00:40:14:20): There it is. Cook those up. Put them on the grill. It's it's part of the basic barbecue protocol. We have burgers on one side. We have the Italian sausages on the other side. Actually been that way for a long time. **Chip** (00:40:14:23 - 00:40:15:08): I like. **Thomas** (00:40:15:08 - 00:40:31:20): It probably coming up on 15 years. You know, you get a little, little tinfoil going. You put some sliced up peppers and onions in there with a little while, you set that on the heating rack. Let that heat up. People can take some of that. Put it on if you want. You can also put a little sugar in there sometimes. Sometimes sweet, sweeter a little sweeter onion situation. But that's the way I'm doing my dogs baby. Love it. Okay, well that's it. That's off. Mr. Buffett, thank you so much for all you've given to the tropical enthusiast community for for really creating it. Yeah. And always being a shining star. But it's time to shift from one star to another star. I'm feeling some splash and I'm feeling some splash. And it's time for sun. 00:40:58:20 – 00:41:01:11 UNRESOLVED – For fish of the week. **Chip** (00:41:01:11 - 00:41:07:03): It's the fish of the week, Thomas. And boy do we have a fish this week. **Thomas** (00:41:07:05 - 00:41:07:19): Okay. Let's talk about it though. **Chip** (00:41:09:14 - 00:41:18:06): So for our listeners last week we had Hector, the state fish of Hawaii, the reef triggerfish. **Thomas** (00:41:18:07 - 00:41:21:07): Yeah we did what an amazing fish. Hector was. **Chip** (00:41:21:07 - 00:41:28:14): Just a specimen, Hector. He was colorful, vibrant, distinguished. He was Hawaii's chosen son. **Thomas** (00:41:28:16 - 00:41:30:22): It really is. Beautiful fish. **Chip** (00:41:31:00 - 00:41:38:14): This week our fish of the week is Xander the black triggerfish, Hector's goth cousin. 00:41:38:18 – 00:41:39:12 UNRESOLVED – Oh. **Thomas** (00:41:39:14 - 00:41:43:05): This sounds like a sad sack. **Chip** (00:41:43:07 - 00:41:54:19): What a sad sack. So, like I said, Hector, the state of Hawaii was bright and colorful. Zander is basically all black because he wants to show you that he's just sad. **Thomas** (00:41:54:21 - 00:41:55:21): Okay. **Chip** (00:41:55:23 - 00:42:19:07): But if you get up close to him, you can actually see what looks black from far away. It's actually blue, green, purple, a bunch of these all little colors all together. It's almost like he's wearing a my Little Pony t shirt under his My Chemical Romance hoodie. Right? Just like the little goth he is. And just like his cousin Hector, if you remember this from last week, the triggerfish. His eyes can rotate independently of each other. Exactly. Right now, Hector used that to be able to survey his surroundings, to watch for prey as well as predators, of course, whereas zander, the black triggerfish, just uses that to roll his eyes at literally everything. **Thomas** (00:42:36:08 - 00:42:37:09): Oh, brother. **Chip** (00:42:37:10 - 00:42:47:14): Now Zander and his black triggerfish friends, they they are omnivorous. They will eat basically anything. Shrimp, plankton, algae. **Thomas** (00:42:47:19 - 00:42:48:06): Yeah. **Chip** (00:42:48:07 - 00:42:57:13): Just like those goth kids who hang out of the food court at the mall. They're just eating any garbage they can get their mouths around. That's all it is. **Thomas** (00:42:57:14 - 00:43:02:14): Yeah. I mean, it sounds like they could make a meal at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool these days. **Chip** (00:43:02:14 - 00:43:13:03): I mean, just put a couple. See, here's the thing. For a lot cheaper, they could just put a couple of dozen reef triggerfish or black triggerfish in there, and that algae would be gobbled up quickly. **Thomas** (00:43:13:04 - 00:43:14:05): See you later. Algae. **Chip** (00:43:14:06 - 00:43:32:21): Zander is called the black triggerfish, just like his cousin, because he's got that dorsal spine that sticks up, looks like a trigger, and then it has that other little spine that locks it into place. That's my favorite one, the other one that keeps it locked in a place so it sticks out like a trigger, but it's got that spine. It's to protect itself from predators. But mostly it's basically just like that kickstand, like I talked about last week, where you just kind of stick yourself into that reef and then you're safe. So yeah, Zander's got that too. **Thomas** (00:43:46:04 - 00:43:49:12): It's like an astronaut that's clipping in a sleeping bag. **Chip** (00:43:49:16 - 00:44:00:00): Exactly. Yeah, but he thinks it's dangerous. So Zander's got this. Just like that goth kid who bought a switchblade from the head shop downtown. **Thomas** (00:44:00:02 - 00:44:00:16): Oh, no. **Chip** (00:44:00:17 - 00:44:07:15): He's he's got a he's got a blade, but he never really uses it. He just wants to have it to look cool. I mean, that's pretty much all it is. 00:44:07:20 – 00:44:08:08 UNRESOLVED – Yeah. So unlike our fish of the week last week, Hector, the state fish of Hawaii, the reef triggerfish. This week we salute his cousin Zander, the black triggerfish, his goth cousin. **Thomas** (00:44:22:16 - 00:44:29:03): Oftentimes Zander does have, like, a fish hook hanging out of his lip. He put that there, right. That's a piercing. **Chip** (00:44:29:03 - 00:44:37:23): He put there that there by himself. Yes. Okay. They did it in the laundry room at his friend's house on a Friday night after they watched Eraserhead. **Thomas** (00:44:38:01 - 00:44:45:17): Zander. Come on, we love you. Zander. You're beautiful. You're a wonderful fish. But I think maybe you could elevate that attitude a little bit. **Chip** (00:44:45:18 - 00:44:46:13): Just a little bit. **Thomas** (00:44:46:15 - 00:44:50:13): I don't want to say this to to Zander. Be a little more like Hector. Zander. **Chip** (00:44:50:14 - 00:44:54:09): Be a little bit more like your cousin. I think you'll get a lot farther in life. **Thomas** (00:44:54:10 - 00:45:03:07): Like your cousin. But regardless, hats off your beautiful fish. We love your trigger mechanism. We just sleep easy and tight. Crevasses. **Chip** (00:45:03:08 - 00:45:06:15): There's a t shirt right there. Sleep easy and tight crevasses. **Thomas** (00:45:06:16 - 00:45:10:16): This is sleep easy in tight crevasses. And we'll see you. 00:45:10:21 – 00:45:13:13 UNRESOLVED – In the ocean. Boom. That's it for fish of. **Chip** (00:45:15:06 - 00:45:15:17): The. **Thomas** (00:45:15:19 - 00:45:21:16): Week, chef. It's time to crack open the good book. Dude. We just keep it moving here. **Chip** (00:45:21:17 - 00:45:27:00): The Guinness book of World records. What do you got Thomas for your record of the week? **Thomas** (00:45:27:03 - 00:45:52:02): My record this week is the biggest living structure on earth. Wow. And I'm going to give you a little more, a little more of a hint than I usually do. Okay. It's sitting in the warm water off the coast of Australia. And just like me and Rodney Dangerfield, it would like to be placed in the sequel to ladybugs. Ladybugs two using AI. **Chip** (00:45:55:01 - 00:45:55:15): Okay. **Thomas** (00:45:55:16 - 00:45:59:02): All right. But it would also like a little respect. **Chip** (00:45:59:03 - 00:46:00:10): Just a little respect. **Thomas** (00:46:00:10 - 00:46:21:05): I'm talking about Finding Nemo, Owen, the Great Barrier Reef, it's the Guinness certified largest coral reef system on the planet. And I need you to guess its length. Chip, how long is the Great Barrier Reef end to end? And I'll give you this little hint. It's in miles, baby. **Chip** (00:46:21:06 - 00:46:22:16): Is it, like, five miles long? **Thomas** (00:46:22:17 - 00:46:28:18): It is so much longer than that ship. It is 1400 miles long. **Chip** (00:46:28:19 - 00:46:31:14): I never realized, okay. Wow. Okay, dude. Jeez. **Thomas** (00:46:31:15 - 00:46:38:10): For context, that's longer than the entire California coastline. And that is a long ass state. **Chip** (00:46:38:11 - 00:46:41:15): Yeah, I've driven it. Wow. **Thomas** (00:46:41:17 - 00:46:49:14): It's so large. It's visible from space. Just like the sunbird podcast. If you have internet and YouTube in space. **Chip** (00:46:49:15 - 00:46:54:03): Yeah, you do. So a thousand miles. **Thomas** (00:46:54:08 - 00:46:56:14): 1400 miles. **Chip** (00:46:56:15 - 00:46:57:13): My God. **Thomas** (00:46:57:13 - 00:47:16:02): 1400. The Great Barrier Reef is off Queensland, Australia. It's the largest coral reef system on Earth, a living structure made up of roughly 2900 individual reefs and 900 islands, covering approximately 133,000mi² of ocean ship. **Chip** (00:47:16:02 - 00:47:17:04): That's incredible. **Thomas** (00:47:17:06 - 00:47:31:09): The Great Barrier Reef contains more biodiversity than all of Europe's forests can bind over 1500 species of fish, 4000 types of mollusk, and roughly 30 species of whale and dolphin. **Chip** (00:47:31:09 - 00:47:33:06): It's like the Club Med of Australia. **Thomas** (00:47:33:07 - 00:47:35:07): Basically a luxury resort buddy. **Chip** (00:47:35:09 - 00:47:36:05): It really is. **Thomas** (00:47:36:06 - 00:47:47:03): The Indigenous Australian communities have maintained a relationship with the reef for over 60,000 years, making it the oldest continuously known ecosystem in human culture history. **Chip** (00:47:47:03 - 00:47:49:08): There's a second record right there. **Thomas** (00:47:49:08 - 00:48:03:07): I know it's pretty wild, and the big news, what everybody's concerned about is the coral bleaching triggered by ocean warming. It's affected over half of the reef since 2016. No bueno. **Chip** (00:48:03:11 - 00:48:06:20): It. So yeah we really need to re to preserve this. **Thomas** (00:48:06:21 - 00:48:14:07): We just need to cool that bad boy down. Because when half of you is bleached, it's. It's no good, man. **Chip** (00:48:14:08 - 00:48:15:14): The other half doesn't look great. **Thomas** (00:48:15:14 - 00:48:22:19): But hats off to the coral reef. Stay long. Stay proud. Just like your human cousin. Longitude. **Chip** (00:48:22:20 - 00:48:24:10): There he is. There he is. **Thomas** (00:48:24:11 - 00:48:32:19): Yeah. Was watching Finding Nemo the other day with my daughter, and I was like, we gotta talk about this reef for a minute. This is incredible. **Chip** (00:48:32:20 - 00:48:34:23): Sit her down, teach her about world records. **Thomas** (00:48:35:03 - 00:48:52:14): She needs to know that we're not shooting for country records. Local local records, school records. Know these are all fun and exciting, but I'm teaching to think worldwide. Locally, just like, the Jamaican information services. **Chip** (00:48:52:15 - 00:48:57:17): Absolutely. Making it a hub. I think we should make the the reef system a hub. **Thomas** (00:48:57:18 - 00:49:05:21): I completely agree, I completely maybe and this is just a tease. Maybe that's where the next in Paradise tour stop is. **Chip** (00:49:05:23 - 00:49:06:08): Just. **Thomas** (00:49:06:09 - 00:49:08:17): On the way. Yeah, just on a reef. **Chip** (00:49:08:19 - 00:49:09:17): I, I like it. **Thomas** (00:49:09:18 - 00:49:28:18): The Great Barrier Reef, the great barrier to entry for the Great Barrier Reef Comedy Show is electricity and not being able to touch anything. Can't do that. All right, Chip, what's your record buddy? I need to. **Chip** (00:49:28:18 - 00:49:50:03): Hear it. I'm just so inspired by this, this Great Barrier Reef. I went a little bit of a different direction today. Okay. Mine is still pretty amazing. And it is Australian. Oh. Good day to start out though. We have to go to England because 4th of July is coming up. But also Wimbledon is coming up. One of my favorite sporting events to watch every year. **Thomas** (00:49:50:04 - 00:49:51:20): Yeah yeah yeah yeah. **Chip** (00:49:52:01 - 00:50:00:04): And hoity toity you know, doing it. So I decided to come up with a, I decided to find a tennis world record. **Thomas** (00:50:00:07 - 00:50:00:19): Beautiful. **Chip** (00:50:00:21 - 00:50:10:15): And what else. What's more intimidating, what's bigger, what's stronger? What's faster than the fastest serve of a tennis ball? **Thomas** (00:50:10:16 - 00:50:13:17): Oh, baby, this is a hot record. **Chip** (00:50:13:18 - 00:50:14:14): Hot, hot record. **Thomas** (00:50:14:15 - 00:50:16:16): They can all serve them super fast. **Chip** (00:50:16:16 - 00:50:39:09): Super fast. So I want you to guess, Thomas and I will tell you this. Yeah, that a baseball MLB baseball generally comes off the bat. So if somebody hits, hits a home run, hits a it's a shot. Yeah. That baseball's coming off the bat at generally about 90 to 100 miles an hour, maybe as high as 115 or so. Okay okay. So but in that vicinity generally when a baseball player hits, hits the ball off the bat 9100 miles an hour roughly, right. What do you think the obviously it's a different ball. It's it's a racket. What do you think the fastest tennis serve is. **Thomas** (00:50:55:18 - 00:51:12:03): So everything's a little bouncier right. It is a bouncier ball. We got a racket that's meant for increasing velocity not just absorbing. So I think I'm going to say 125 125 miles an hour. **Chip** (00:51:12:05 - 00:51:17:06): Nice. Well done. Nice guess. On May 9th, 2012. **Thomas** (00:51:17:08 - 00:51:18:02): Oh, okay. **Chip** (00:51:18:03 - 00:51:30:18): At an ATP challenger event in South Korea, Australian Sam Groth recorded a serve of 163 miles an hour. **Thomas** (00:51:30:20 - 00:51:32:08): What? **Chip** (00:51:32:10 - 00:51:33:19): 163? **Thomas** (00:51:33:21 - 00:51:35:23): 163. **Chip** (00:51:36:01 - 00:51:51:10): 162.4 actually, I believe was the the actual. Yeah, one one 63.4mph came off that racket served an ace, of course. I mean, who's going to return that? Here's something amazing. **Thomas** (00:51:51:11 - 00:51:53:08): That's absurd. Dude. Yeah. **Chip** (00:51:53:10 - 00:52:24:00): Yeah, 160 miles an hour. Here's something amazing. That same match, Groth also hit serves of 157 and 158 miles an hour. So he hit the record 160, but he also hit a 157 and 158. All three of those broke the previous record of 156 miles an hour. So for a while the record was 156 miles an hour. Yeah, and then he hit at least three serves in that one match. That all broke that. **Thomas** (00:52:25:11 - 00:52:31:01): Record, buddy, that is nuts. So is this guy like a big player? I don't know that I've ever heard of him before. **Chip** (00:52:31:02 - 00:52:35:06): Well, well, let's let's let's think about this. Thomas. He had a pretty good day, right? **Thomas** (00:52:35:07 - 00:52:35:20): Yeah. **Chip** (00:52:35:21 - 00:52:41:09): Pretty good day. Still lost the match in straight sets. Six four, six three. **Thomas** (00:52:41:10 - 00:52:44:03): Okay, so he's just a a hammer. **Chip** (00:52:44:09 - 00:53:03:08): The man is just a weapon. Yeah, yeah. Very good tennis. Very good tennis player. But yeah, despite breaking the world record thrice basically he he actually lost in straight sets. But you can't take that away from him. And the reason he lost Thomas. Do you know why? **Thomas** (00:53:03:09 - 00:53:06:03): Probably worse at tennis than the other guy. **Chip** (00:53:06:05 - 00:53:14:02): Yeah. Well, also every time he served that really fast serve, he would just turn to the the people in the crowd be like, hey, did you guys see that? **Thomas** (00:53:14:02 - 00:53:14:17): And then. **Chip** (00:53:14:18 - 00:53:19:01): The guy would hit it back and he would just lose. So it's like, you got to stay focused. Groth. You know. **Thomas** (00:53:19:02 - 00:53:22:20): He's got. Yeah. You can't be a one trick pony. The service just the start. **Chip** (00:53:22:21 - 00:53:24:13): It's just the be just the tip of the iceberg. **Thomas** (00:53:24:14 - 00:53:27:20): Unless it's 160 miles an hour, that's probably pretty tough to return. **Chip** (00:53:27:21 - 00:53:28:14): Absolutely. **Thomas** (00:53:28:15 - 00:53:31:18): Famously, you played tennis in college? **Chip** (00:53:31:18 - 00:53:31:23): I. **Thomas** (00:53:31:23 - 00:53:35:04): Did you ever get a speed gun on your your serve buddy? **Chip** (00:53:35:05 - 00:53:43:08): Never got the radar. I'm assuming I was somewhere in that 100 miles an hour. I'll say that. Maybe 110. That's my guess. **Thomas** (00:53:43:09 - 00:53:47:00): You were battling Nolan Ryan. Just throwing heat with your racket. **Chip** (00:53:47:00 - 00:54:06:08): I was not a hammer, I was, I did have I was sort of tall, skinny. I did, because that's what you want in tennis to a certain match. Because you need that that leverage, you know, sort of that, that motion. It's not like you don't want the strongest guy out there because he doesn't have that whip. You need the whip. **Thomas** (00:54:06:12 - 00:54:07:20): For it. You need that whip. **Chip** (00:54:07:21 - 00:54:24:23): Now, I do want to ask you about this, Thomas. Gotta pay me 163 miles an hour. Yep. I think your next move, Thomas, is to go for the fastest pickleball serve ever. Do you want to take a guess? Because I do a little research. **Thomas** (00:54:24:23 - 00:54:25:08): Do you. **Chip** (00:54:25:14 - 00:54:29:11): Know record for the fastest pickleball serve is. **Thomas** (00:54:29:12 - 00:54:39:21): So here's the thing about pickleball. It has to be underhand chip right hand. So and that is two like so you know it's an angle issue you got really. **Chip** (00:54:40:02 - 00:54:40:06): Yeah. **Thomas** (00:54:40:06 - 00:54:40:20): You got to serve. **Chip** (00:54:40:20 - 00:54:48:18): It underhand. Whip it down. You can't hammer it down I dropped it like so Stefan Edberg did like Goran Ivanisevic used to. Yeah. **Thomas** (00:54:48:20 - 00:54:52:06): So I'm gonna have. **Chip** (00:54:52:08 - 00:54:55:00): Totally different ball. It's that plastic ball. It's just the paddle. **Thomas** (00:54:55:02 - 00:54:59:01): It's just. It's just a little paddle. I'm going to guess 43 miles an hour. **Chip** (00:54:59:03 - 00:55:01:17): Great. Guess, Thomas, 70 miles an hour. **Thomas** (00:55:01:18 - 00:55:04:11): Oh, my God, that's so fast. For a little. **Chip** (00:55:04:11 - 00:55:08:04): Pickleball an hour. Imagine pickleball on that so. **Thomas** (00:55:08:09 - 00:55:12:16): I don't have to. The guy. The pickle boys aren't throwing 70 miles an hour heat. **Chip** (00:55:12:17 - 00:55:23:16): Yeah, I think maybe maybe you work on it. Okay. Go to Sardinia. Yeah. Get that Russian coach and just have him pound it out of you for a week. Come back. **Thomas** (00:55:23:17 - 00:55:24:06): Yeah. **Chip** (00:55:24:08 - 00:55:27:00): Just surprise all those pickle boys. **Thomas** (00:55:27:00 - 00:55:33:02): Yeah, but if you go and get a Russian coach, I think you come back and you're serving in kilometers. So it's not even the same thing. **Chip** (00:55:33:05 - 00:55:34:21): Yeah, there's a little bit different. I will say. **Thomas** (00:55:34:21 - 00:55:39:07): That I start thinking about it like that's a good idea, but it's like I don't have that many pine cones. Chip. **Chip** (00:55:39:09 - 00:55:59:22): You need a lot of pine cones to get over to Sardinia. I mean, it's it's gonna deplete your pine cone stash. But anyway, congrats to Sam Groth for and again, it's been 14 years. Yeah. Usually that I mean people haven't come people broken it. That's that's a that is a long time. So Sam Groth 163 mile per hour. The world's fastest tennis serve. **Thomas** (00:56:02:00 - 00:56:09:21): And Sam nobody would remember if you won that match in the challenger series. Nobody's ever gonna forget that you won this record. **Chip** (00:56:09:22 - 00:56:10:12): Exactly. **Thomas** (00:56:10:13 - 00:56:40:02): That's the big good book forever. Congratulations. A hundred over 160 miles an hour in the serve. What a world record. Guys, we may have set the world record for the best podcast ever. Maybe at least the best tropical travel comedy podcast. You guys can hit us on the Treble and Paradise Highline line at (310) 845-6038. We want your vacation disaster stories. Just leave us a voicemail. We'll put it here on the the program like we have many times before, and have some fun with that. We love vacation stories. We know our viewers do too, especially when they go a little off the rails. This is the suburb podcast. We talk about comedy and tropical travel. Until next time, stay burnt. Front desk. **Chip** (00:57:04:09 - 00:57:11:19): Hi, this is Mr. Chantry in room 308. I've been practicing my magic act. Are you familiar with the cut? A lady in half trick? **Thomas** (00:57:11:21 - 00:57:13:05): Of course, Mr. Chantry. **Chip** (00:57:13:06 - 00:57:19:19): Okay, well, I wasn't, so I'm going to need some towels up here. Also, could you come up for a couple of minutes and help me with something? **Thomas** (00:57:19:21 - 00:57:21:00): No. **Chip** (00:57:21:02 - 00:57:22:17): Just come on up. Boom.