C.T.C.S Episode 218 Fuggly Christmas Sweaters Western Union Con Jobs And Eating Bad Food

This time of year, the school calendar really starts to fill up, spring activities, testing

season, and that final push toward the end of the year.

It's a great moment for kids to stay focused and build confidence in what they're learning.

That's where IXL comes in.

IXL is an award-winning online learning platform that helps kids truly understand their

schoolwork, from math and reading to writing and science.

It's designed for pre-K through 12th grade, with personalized interactive content that

adapts to each child's level and pace.

IXL makes it easy to stay on track with instant feedback and clear explanations, skills organized

by grade level and simple progress tracking.

It fits into even the busiest spring schedules.

It's also trusted nationwide.

In fact, IXL is used in 96 of the top 100 school districts in the U.S.

Make an impact on your child's learning.

Get IXL now.

Listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at IXL.com

for its last today.

IXL.com forward slash today to get the most effective learning program out there at the

best price.

Here's something new for you to check out.

It's called aero.net, a-r-r-o-e.net, 20 different podcasts to choose from.

One of them being the daily mess.

How many times have you looked at your life in the mirror and said, God, what a mess.

Well, what would happen if you started locating answers?

Would you keep them to yourself or share them?

The daily mess on aero.net, a-r-r-o-e.net, enjoy your exploration.

There you are.

My name is C.T.

When I'm not busy being aero, the podcaster, I live in the real world.

I mean, everybody has to have a job, right?

Mine just happens to be CS, customer service, solutions, relationships, while keeping your

team motivated and pumped up to keep that constant connection with each and every person

who has chosen to stop into your location.

Episode number 218, fugly Christmas sweaters, Western Union conjobs and the art of eating bad.

This is C-T-C-S.

Transition walk, day number one out of three, have a life performance this Saturday night.

The final live show of this year.

What?

How is it possible?

How did it go by so quickly?

Oh, yeah.

We're busting ass right now.

It's trying to make sure that we're on stages throughout 2026.

So very difficult.

And that's one of the hardest things about being at CS is that I have a life within a life

within a life within a life within a life.

There's so many different circles.

And I mean, just like I'm just coming out of the podcast studio.

If I was not in that studio by 5.30 this morning, there's no way that I would be on this

transition walk right now because of the interviews.

I was with actor Danny Houston and so many other people today.

And it's a blessing.

It's a blessing to share stories.

It has nothing to do with, oh, I talked to it so and so, sharing stories, baby.

That's what it's all about.

And so is CS, customer service, share stories, locate solutions.

Outside of that, put up with the pain that's in your legs and back and get on with it.

Oh, so cute.

The closer we get to the big magical day of December 25th, everybody's all decked out

in their Christmas gear.

I mean, we've got some really fugly sweaters.

People put a lot of pride into their fugly sweaters.

Now, I'm not saying ugly.

There's a difference between an ugly Christmas sweater and a fugly Christmas sweater.

And these are some seriously out of control, fugly sweaters.

Do you go up and talk to them?

I mean, what are you doing in a situation like that?

Do you ever just go up to them and say, oh, hey, whoa, come on now.

That's pretty damn fugly.

I think one of the best sweaters I've seen so far is one that reads most likely to be run

over by Santa Claus's reindeer.

You're familiar with that song, right?

Grandma got run over by a reindeer.

Yeah, well, this teacher said, hey, I'm most likely to get to be that one that gets run

over by a reindeer.

People just want to have fun.

They want to be jolly.

You know, how do you define jolly at a grocery store other than just make someone else laugh?

You don't have to make yourself laugh.

Our store has a bar and it's a beer and wine bar and tonight is the fourth annual Christmas party.

They've got all of the breweries that are coming in and they're going to be giving away

free samples and everything, but it's always fun to see the true community of this location

in the way that when the people who make the beer come here to sit with the people.

Now, to me, I'm an image person.

It's valuable to me when those that make your escape inside this world come in to sit down

with you.

That is powerful.

So it's going to be very fun to see who's going to win all these prizes.

I mean, my God, they've got so much stuff to give away.

I mean golf clubs and different trips and dinners out and all that.

Oh, my God, it's going to be a wild ass party tonight.

We just made a big bust on Western Union.

This guy comes in and the people will get their stuff together big time.

They make it look so professional.

They make, they cross their eyes and doctoratees.

I mean, they do everything and I know I said it wrong because obviously they've done

something wrong because it didn't go through, but the gentleman was sending $2,500 to

himself in all my years at a grocery store associated with Western Union.

I have never been associated with somebody who is sending money to themselves, especially

$2,500 and to have this amazing paperwork right there in front of me, everything signed

in.

Oh, my God.

It looks so, so cool.

I'm thinking this is going to be an easy one.

No sweat.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

Modern day technology with AI and all that.

It found out what this dude was up to.

Obviously, he's been busted before because it shut down and said it ain't happened.

$2,500.

So it makes me wonder all these newbies that come up to see us.

Would they have stopped or would they have continued?

Because there were red flags all the way through it.

Why didn't anybody else see it before me?

Hi, just check in with the Christmas party over there at the beer and wine bar because

you know, you're hearing a lot of sounds.

You're hearing a lot of cheering.

Well, that's because they're giving away a ton of prizes.

But man, I tell you what, anybody who is not associated with this store who has no

idea of the attitude of this particular store, I mean, we do have that kind of a rocky

edge attitude, alternative attitude in the way of just being a free spirit, do what you

want, have a great time, as long as you don't get arrested for it.

And if you do, make sure they spell your name right.

Here's the thing about it is.

It looks like that there's a huge bar party going on right now.

And somehow somewhere in the middle of all of that is a grocery store because you would

never think that this is a grocery store right now because the party is that big.

Please do not move.

There's more CTCS right around the corner coming up next.

Why do you think I smoke pot when I don't?

I'm wearing my real name tag, real name and eating Vietnamese cookies.

Oh God.

Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz.

I'm the host of Big Technology podcast, a long time reporter and an on air contributor

to CMBC.

And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing

the business world and our lives.

So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech

and outsiders trying to influence it, asking where this is all going.

They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon and plenty more.

So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices and meetings with your

colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology podcast wherever you get your

podcasts.

Hey, I'm Josh Spiegel, host of the podcast, Lunatic in the newsroom.

If you enjoy journalism that drifts into my old panic, wild overthinking and a guaranteed

nervous breakdown, Lunatic in the newsroom is for you.

It's news like you've never heard before.

The only newsroom with a panic button, you'll laugh, you'll cry and gasp and horror as

the show spirals completely out of control.

It's not just news, it's emotionally unstable.

Lunatic in the newsroom, listen today.

Hey, thanks for coming back to CTCS.

Up next, I don't smoke pot.

I may have long hair.

I don't smoke it though, wearing my real name on my real name tag.

That's a shocker.

Plus, taking the chance on Vietnamese cookies.

Oh boy.

Transition walk, day number two out of three.

Do not let this nice weather inside this forest fool you today.

Oh, no, no, no.

First of all, yes, we have the sunshine here in Carolina, but man, with that temperature

at 41, I know what's happening in the next couple of days.

And this grocery store is about to get bummed.

We're going down to the mid teens and to a southerner with all this humidity in the

atmosphere.

Oh, man, it's going to feel like there's ice crystals growing out your butt.

So, I expect to see a lot of people in melted minds of madness, because they're going

to try to figure out how to put food on their damn table, be how to pay for the electricity

or the gas running to their house, and see, did I buy a warm enough coat?

I'll see you and see us.

My entire life.

People take notes of your long hair.

And for some reason, right away, they just associate it with, he must smoke pot.

No, I don't.

I really don't.

I never have smoked pot.

But it's very interesting how people who do smoke the weed will approach me here at

the store.

And it's just one of those things where it's like, okay, what on me is telling you that I'm

a pot smoker.

There's nothing wrong with that.

It's just that you're fit into a genre that has nothing to do with the cover of the book

that you're bringing forward.

And so, but that's one of the things, and so it's amazing how many people who physically

smoke pot will come up to me and start talking about things.

I have no idea what they are, and I can't imagine what my facial expressions are when they

start talking about how they burn their pot.

I have no idea, even what I just said.

But it's just really interesting how people associate my long hair with pot smoking.

When if you were to check out my system, it ain't happening.

I tried to pull off another joke today that was based on me wearing my real name on

a name tag because I got a good reply from a guest, and so they tend to reward you about

those things when you come to the store.

But instead of to CT, the reply or the congratulations or the acknowledgement was to

Clarence and Bill writes to me, new guy Bill, and he goes, he says, the fuck is this all

about?

And so I thought, okay, what a great time to wear the Clarence name tag.

So I wear it as a frickin' joke.

And then when I get here, I'm about ready to put CT back on because people are asking me,

what the hell is that name that you got on there?

And everybody's going, well, I like the name CT better, whoa, shit, huh?

And so then what happens is I look for the CT name tag.

I put it in my pocket.

I lost it between home and here.

It's gone.

So my joke has turned into a real knock against the head.

So who's the person who put my name on that evaluation thing and used the other name?

That's not it.

That wasn't an evaluation.

That was the customer survey they did on you.

How would they know if I didn't name it?

Because you fucking had on your Clarence name tag.

Yeah, but take it their day.

It had to be.

Did you work yesterday?

No.

Yeah, I did.

Yeah, but it wasn't a Clarence one.

You sure?

I guarantee it.

Because you had it in your pocket today.

Well, no, because I was wearing it today because I was going to be a real smart guy.

So I'm wearing it to you.

And then you don't even recognize it as a second time.

Well, I don't, I just look to see if there's a white butt piece of plastic on it.

You could say fucking Namier, Julie, and I fucking wouldn't.

No, dude, they probably did it last week.

I get a surveys on you four or five days after you're here.

And I'm like, this motherfucker ain't been here for four days.

And he has the survey turned in.

I'm here like every day.

And I just want my mom.

She's doing it from the grave.

Well, so if I get there are two surveys, I always get with no names on them.

And one says, the gentleman get long hair and it was extremely nice.

And I always know that you.

Oh, God.

And then the other one says middle aged man.

And I know that one's fucking always being.

And then one day someone added balding to it.

No.

And I was like, oh, all right, middle aged balding man.

So that could be 10, 10 people in here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It is what it is.

None of these women?

No.

We wear a fucking name tag.

So they don't.

Yeah.

Well, I wish they would wear name tags.

Yeah.

No, not names.

And you're expected to like, you know, they are.

Yeah, I don't mind talking a little bit,

but I don't want to get to know everybody.

Because if that were the case, no, whatever, get out of this fucking stool.

It would obviously be fine as well.

Yeah.

So it's Vietnamese.

It looks like a dang McDonald's biscuit.

This is Bon Pia Che.

Bua Sao Rying Vegetarian Pia Cake.

Pandan Durian.

But you said that durian smells.

Is this smell?

No.

Not at all.

I'll see if we can do this.

It's going to be difficult because it's weird.

It looks like a biscuit.

It's a weird texture because I just had to move that little piece off of it.

Really?

You going to try it?

It looks heavy.

It's heavier than I thought it was going to be.

Okay.

Try this Vietnamese cake with us.

It does stink.

Yeah, because it smells bad.

It's durian.

Don't smell it.

It's durian.

It's durian fruit.

It smells like a dead body.

But it's just fruit.

I don't know man.

It smells like a fucking...

Why is it just like meat?

I wonder if you're wrong.

Wow, but it does stink.

Oh my gosh.

It smells real sweet.

Really?

The real durian fruit smells like a rotten dead body.

That's what he said.

Oh my god.

Well, this doesn't smell pretty good.

Don't smell it.

Just put it in your mouth.

You're not supposed to smell the fruit.

You're supposed to eat it.

Oh, that's real.

I don't know about that.

It has potential, but it's like...

I can smell it now if it's in my mouth.

Now read the warning on the side.

Yeah, I can't do it.

We need the water.

Throw that away.

Yeah.

Panther and reproductive harm.

Yeah.

Mmm.

Mmm.

And now CT's pet peeve of the week.

Nothing gets underneath my skin quicker than something like this.

We're a co-worker, upper and management.

Looks at another employee and says,

we need to go somewhere and have a conversation.

We're going to talk.

But we've got to go someplace where it's private.

And I'm thinking to myself,

you had to say that in front of me.

You couldn't have just gone up to him.

You couldn't have said, hey, can I just see you?

But you really kind of dig in and said,

oh man, not only is it going to be a conversation,

it's going to be a private conversation.

Because now you're thinking, are you going to be talking about me?

Which is human nature.

That's how humans feel.

You know, when you pull off a stump like that,

you say, oh, we've got to go.

We've got, ooh, big talk, big talk.

I'm not supposed to talk in front of anybody.

Then why'd you bring it that far?

Because now you're creating a mystery.

Now you're creating doubt.

And you're making the people around you feel like crap

because we're not part of that conversation or that meeting.

The downside of working in a grocery store is that

when your department is down, you know what?

If there's two of you, that's all you get.

You get two.

When another department at a grocery store is down,

guess what?

They take from R2.

And now you only have one.

That's what they do.

They put the kind of pressure on you that, hey, look,

the front end hires a lot more people.

Therefore, we're going to take from the front end

so that the rest of the store can get things done.

I get it.

I get it.

But what's not fair is the fact that you're losing team players

up front.

You've got six and seven people in line on a Friday night

with one person.

How is that good business?

What's the imaging issue on that situation?

One of these days, I would like to sit down with a group

of bartenders, food servers, other people who are

smack dab right in the middle of the community.

I just want to sit down with them and I want to talk about one thing.

What is it like to be a professional psychologist or psychiatrist?

They're all going to look at me and they're going to think I'm strange.

And I go, but we are.

We listen.

We activate.

Not only that, but we give people ideas.

They shoot back things at us and we go, wow, that's interesting.

I just had that experience and this is what happened.

See, that's the thing about it is, it's almost like you're a life coach

when you're servicing people, but you don't have the title.

And it's like, okay, so where do I get the title?

Well, you got to go to school for that, right?

Or you get into bartending, you serve food.

Even if you're doing it once or twice a week, you get into customer service.

Or you just go and you do a registered grocery store.

Your life is going to change like nothing on earth.

Sure, you're going to have those days where you feel like shit.

But the thing is though, is that you've got a connection.

Please do not move.

There's more CTCS right around the corner.

Arrow on tour.

Yeah, you're going on the road with me.

And I say something really bad and didn't even know it.

Plus a scandal unveiled.

This is Mike Bolo of Lexicon Valley.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

Are you one of those people who sometimes uses words?

Do you communicate or acquire information with, you know, language?

Hey, us too.

So join us on Lexicon Valley to true over the history, culture, and many mysteries of English.

Plus some ice cracks.

Find us on one of those apps where people listen to podcasts.

Hey, thanks for coming back to CTCS.

Let's get into that conversation.

Arrow on tour.

I said something bad and a scandal has been unveiled.

It's just after 6am, wedding day, the final performance of the entire year.

My God.

It's hard to believe that you can look at a calendar and say, okay, this is exactly what's going to be happening over the next 12 months.

And then you get to that final month and that final performance and it just kind of gets inside your heart going.

Did we really do that?

Yeah, we did.

We really did.

So it's time to load up the music.

We've got a long, long road in front of us today.

And we're way out of town.

So it's going to involve the actual ceremony itself as well as the reception.

So I mean, it's not like we haven't done this before over the past 32 years.

It's just that I think it's associated with the connection, the compassion, the love, the empathy, the celebration,

the everything that goes into a wedding, which I started prepping for on this one.

I mean, physically getting the music and everything ready two weeks ago.

So this doesn't just fucking happen.

It's something that you put your entire life into.

We've actually done weddings in the month of December outside here in the Carolinas because everybody's banking on wealth.

The Carolinas, man, I mean, it's not going to be that cold.

And in reality, although it was like 31 degrees or so this morning, it's going to be 62 63 for the high.

So I mean, it's like, I'm sure I'll be peeling off half these clothes, but you've got to go layered.

You've got to be prepared for it.

We are not outside today.

That's the good news.

We're in a building that was actually constructed back in the mid part of the 1800s.

And so it's going to be very nice.

I love that room.

And the reason why is because it's real wood.

It's real acoustics.

And my god, I love to play off the echo in that room.

That reverb.

It really gives me a sense of, you know, like unique sound is what it does.

We've arrived at the venue three hours ahead of time, which is perfect for me.

Because, you know, three hours, really, it's six hours too late.

That's the way that I run my book.

And so, you know, it's going to be very interesting.

I mean, the temperature is starting to warm up a bit up here.

And I love about this wedding parties.

They're all just dressed up with their jammies right now.

And I thought, damn, we can all wear our pajamas.

I'm going to wear my pajamas then.

I wish I would have known that.

We've had our performances in Uptown, Charlotte before, where they've had taste of Charlotte

and all these other music festivals that are going on.

And we've had to walk in three, four blocks in order to get to the venue to do a performance.

Today, I don't know.

Maybe it was a stroke of luck, but I mean, there's a huge, huge, huge Christmas parade going on right now.

There would have been no way in hell that we could have gotten to this venue at all, even walking.

If we would have gotten here when the parade was going on, because everything is closed down.

This is a shock to me.

And once again, I bitch and moan about having to leave as early as I do.

Well, now you know why.

The bride actually went out into the parade itself.

She walked out in the middle of it, started dancing and just being cheers from everywhere.

Even the fire engine turned on the sideways and stuff.

And the people that were in the audience, what they did was they threw candy at her as a day of celebration.

So it was fun to see the bride get out there in the middle of that parade.

Transition walk.

Day number three at a three.

Press from a live performance.

It is cold as hell in this forest today.

It's very windy.

Temperatures this morning when we woke up at 5.30.

It's 57 degrees out here, which is kind of nice.

Very nice.

We live in the south, so warm weather is our thing.

But throughout the day it's going to drop down to 15 degrees.

15 above zero.

So the temperatures are dramatically following because of these winds.

So I got to take this transition walk because it's still very psychological in the way of learning how to put up with the storms

because solutions are on the opposite side.

So often I blame my radio career on my very dry and I mean dry humor.

And what happens is that with this dry humor, I'll shoot out a line and people will look at me and it's like,

you're being an ass today.

I said, what do you mean?

I was just going for the laugh, you know, the funny.

The thing is going to make you just kind of get away from what you were just thinking about.

And they're going, no, I took that absolutely wrong.

I'm going holy shit.

I said, I swear to God, it's because I'm a radio guy and you say stuff in order to get your partner inside that studio to react to it and people laugh about it.

But God dang it, man.

I mean, I guess real world people don't think like that or do they?

And I'm just hanging out with kind of a team that is not in tune.

There's always a line that's drawn in the sand here in the south when it comes to the winter months.

And that line is this. It's either hot, it's cold, it's freezing, or it's just kind of chilly outside.

And northerners are the ones that say, you guys here in the south, you just can't put up with it.

Which is the reason why they drive like wild monkeys out on the highway when there's a little bit of ice going on.

So that's what the battle is at the store today where the northerners are making sure that they let the southerners know.

Oh, quit it, quit it.

Oh, it's not going to be that cold.

Oh, what's 15?

What's 13 degrees?

Oh, man, when I'm up in New Yorker, I'm in Cincinnati.

Oh, man, this is nothing.

I'm from Montana.

52 below zero is the coldest I've been in.

But I also left Montana because I didn't like 20 degrees above.

And now, CTs, pet peeve all the week.

We have a huge scandal going on in one of our businesses here in town.

And it's one of those through the power of association.

Something has gone wrong.

But because there is an association, then the name of the business and the product from the business has got a huge black eye.

And of course, you know, people are going, oh, man, did you just stop selling the product?

I mean, are you guys going to sell it more?

Or what are you going to do?

Are you supporting what's happening?

And you can't give any answers because you don't want to get pulled into something where they say,

you're not supposed to be talking at all.

You got the scandal going on.

And people are coming in to see if we have the product.

And I always want to look at them and go, were you buying the product before the scandal?

And what would bring you here now to see if we have the product?

And if we had it, would you buy it because the majority of this product, people are selling it all right.

But they're also donating the money to the victims of this particular situation.

What would you do?

That's one of my pet peeves.

Is that you'll come in and look for something if it's a bad, bad world.

But what about when things are great?

Do you support that too?

The power of all lottery is up to $1.1 billion.

Aren't we just here recently from MEGA?

And the last time we were with Powerball being over a billion dollars, holy crap.

You know, it's stuff like this that really gets my attention.

And I wish that, you know, that some journalist somewhere would say,

I think it's time that we investigate this.

Because how is this feasibly possible?

Are we really throwing that much money into it?

Just give me a story. That's all I want.

Because if you can't give me a story as a journalist, what happens?

I assume.

And then I talk like this where it looks like I'm a total buffoon.

Okay, I'll admit to that. I'm a buffoon.

Hey, that's going to do it for another edition of CTCS.

Do me a favor. Create your own podcast.

In the way of creating a conversation that we can all share together.

Because I think sometimes it's such a pissing contest about who's who and what's what and what we're going to do and what happens if this doesn't happen.

That we totally forget that we're all human beings and we all have to have a job.

So, you know, create a podcast and let's not be listening to it.

I would love to know what's going on. Show me the wizard behind your curtain.

I'll see you next week on CTCS.

This is Mike Voilo of Lexicon Valley.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

Are you one of those people who sometimes uses words?

Do you communicate or acquire information with, you know, language?

Hey, us too.

So, join us on Lexicon Valley to true over the history, culture, and many mysteries of English.

Plus, some ice cracks.

Find us on one of those apps where people listen to podcasts.