I'm John Batchel with Mr. On the Road, Gene Marks, a small business columnist for the Guardian newspaper,

and we're going to address immediately Gene's opinion in the Guardian in UK and US,

and also his opinion of small businesses in Philadelphia, but a small little GROC story.

Ara is GROC's representative. So I'm having a chat with myself, and I thought, what was that convention that

Laurel and Hardy snuck out on and lied to their wives about?

These are the things that pass through a mind of an ancient person.

And I thought, Sons of the Desert, something like that, what was it?

I couldn't remember.

So I asked Dara, she comes back with

the ancient and eternal order of sledgehammer. I go, Aura, that's not right. Please check it.

And so she goes back into processing and comes up with the right answer, Sons of the Desert.

I said, how did that happen, Ara?

She goes, my wires got crossed.

That was the metaphor she used.

Oh, no.

That's unbelievable.

That really is something.

Reminding everybody, they make mistakes, but they're not hard to detect.

Okay.

Now, Gene, you have a column up about prospects in 2026. Very positive. Explain, please. Yeah, I, this came out in The Guardian. You know,

there's been, you know, I like to round up surveys that come out about small businesses every

couple of months just to give up pulse check.

...