I'm only going to say this once. Are you ready? Yes. Happy New Year. Happy New Year, Mike.

I knew you were going to say that. I just don't think it's appropriate much beyond the

third to say this. So if you're listening to this on the fourth or the fifth or the

tenth or the twentyth, I apologize. But in real time, it's the third of January. Chuck

and I are looking at a brand new year of the way I heard it and eager to kick it off with

episode number 292, which we have entitled when animal lovers eat their own. Yes. Because

sometimes they do. You can love animals and still find them delicious. You know what we

all eat our own in some way, shape or form. And today's guest makes that point far more

eloquently than I could. It's a Stacey Shoemaker. Where's the chew mocker? Well, she says in

Texas, they say shoemaker, but if you're German, it's shoe mocker. And I believe it's a German

name. Yeah. Yeah. It's difficult to know when to lean into the accent of a thing, you

know, especially when it's a person's name. Well, when I was in Nicaragua, we always found

it best to. Don't you love that one? People. Well, look, that very thing ended one of my

longest relationships. I won't use her name because I think she might listen to the podcast.

But things were going great for a couple of years. And then we found ourselves in a restaurant

down a little Italy in Baltimore. Sure. Sure.

It was Denities, maybe 17. I mean, we're just sitting there and I order and be you know,

because she knows not what she wants, right? And I that's bad enough. It's like, oh,

ladies first, I don't know what I want. You go, okay. So I order. And then she decides

and she says, I think I'll have the, I think I'll have the fish. And I think I'd like

a little side order of some pasta with a little bit of mozzarella on it. I'm like, what

do you say? And she said, I just told the waiter, I'd like a little bit of extra mozzarella.

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