Hi, she was seven. So I wanted to make a video on a topic that I saw on Facebook today I thought it was pretty funny. So I thought I'd make a really good video Okay, so this video is going to be about work husbands. I saw this meme this morning on Facebook about work husbands and It's like when a woman has a job and she goes to her job There's always this guy there that likes her has a crush on her She kind of likes him. So it's sort of like a work marriage. Like they they hang out They go to lunch together. They talk about all their problems with this guy You know Stuff like that. So, yeah, and you know, they kind of start crushing on each other And this is the this is the guy the woman Dresses up for and looks good for at work every day And this is the girl that motivates the guy to get up and dress and look nice to go to his job They might not ever have a sexual relationship, but they might and You know, they just like like each other, you know And a lot of men don't realize this that when they're their woman it goes to work or has a career or something like that There is some guy there that likes her most of the time Every job that I've had I've had like a guy that worked there with me Who was cool who probably had a crush on me, uh, I might not have had a crush on them and at other times there was Jobs that I used to go to that might have had a crush on the guy And you know, we became friends and stuff like that. So there's always that person there that's at someone's job That could easily slip into, you know An affair a relationship like if they're not married or something like that. So A lot of a lot of guys will you know, say well You know If i'm with a woman, they're gonna have to work They're gonna have to get out and go and get in job and work and work and work Well, if you're spending more time at a job with someone Eight to twelve hours a day with another man You're going to Probably feel closer to that person than your own spouse, you know, because y'all spend so much time together and You know women and men who work in close vicinity together Feel close automatically. So it's not like they're strangers so When I say like a lot of men, um Are okay if their wife stays home and doesn't work a lot of the time is because of that reason They know if they are in the work environment And they're spending more time with other men who are probably getting paid more or Some kind of superior over them that they're going to be getting different, you know treatment more recognition Um compared to this man and all this kind of stuff, you know So a lot of men don't want their woman to go out and work Because of this a lot of men Forget this and say well, you need to go get a job.  She's got it all pulled together. She's got her stuff in order. She's paying her bills She's independent or she's married and paying her bills and it seemed like she has the perfect life blah blah blah blah blah but And she's probably going home looking at her husband like, you know She He doesn't listen to her or she's over him because she has a good job And she looks down on him and she looks up at the other guy because he's In the same field as her and understands her and can talk to her about work and blah blah blah It just it's back and forth. So there are such things as work husbands and work wives So y'all remember that and I don't like I know like a lot of the women in the field that my husband works in They don't look like much so I'm not even worried about that. Um Um But in certain fields, you know, you have to understand that there are going to be some attractive men and some attractive women um And even before I got married I had work husbands. Um, like when I worked in the, uh, Funeral industry Uh And they weren't like romantic work husbands.  So you have to think about those kind of things and Either deal with them know that they exist A lot of men are like blind to this and they can never fathom their woman, you know, being in a work marriage But it's true And uh, like I've had people comment on the meme Especially guys and then like what what the f like like y'all didn't know that women have work husbands Breaking news and this one guy even commented that um He lost his fiance to her work husband and they actually Ended up getting married, but he divorced her later on but yeah, he lost his fiance to her work husband Anyway, if y'all have a work husband Uh, put it in the comments if y'all have a work wife put it in the comments. Tell me If the president if the chance presented itself for you to you know, be involved with your work husband, would you Uh, do you have a crush on your boss? Do you see someone in your office building that you want to get with? Uh, even though if you're attached to somebody already, do you get dressed and go to work And look good for that special cute guy or cute guy at the office or cute girl at the office Do y'all have that type of motivation to go to work? I know I used to I could not like unless there was a cute guy there to look cute for To exchange, you know back and forth with I didn't want to go to work And that's just the truth Um I mean, of course the money. Yes, you need the money But this just makes you want to get it get up early look extra good beyond time It's true. I mean, I think it's true.  Oh, yes I'll go get a job and at such and such funeral home and My husband already knows how a lot of those guys are at the funeral home And he was like, well, uh, you don't have to work once you just stay home and blah blah blah blah blah blah And I was like, no, I could work evenings You know and he was like he wasn't having it because he already knows how many are he already knows that If if I were to go and work at some funeral home One of the owners one of the managers one of the funeral directors would try to like, uh, try to date me And I'm not trying to be conceited, but that's just what how guys are, you know, it's just true um So you never know, uh, I I still have like, uh You know some good looks left after all those years, you know, I still got something But yeah So I'm just trying to tell y'all a lot of guys don't realize that This is one of the things that happens When you send your woman out to work And you know, she sees men who are in better positions than you are She starts comparing you but You know, sometimes it's not all bad You know, sometimes the benefits are better than the risks like the woman might be loyal to her husband and she might just Be nice to her work husband And keep the peace, you know And things like that, you never know, um But yeah, like don't send me to somebody's job Please don't and I'm not saying I'm not a good woman or a good wife or anything But don't send me to someone's job Because I will try to um Like I will try to be nice to everyone. I will do this. I will do that if If I'm presented with a work marriage proposal, I might just accept it and go to lunch with some guy and let him pay Blah blah blah blah because then I'll start to rationalize in my mind. Well if my husband's sending me out to work And he wants me to work and earn money and stuff like this, you know, I think I deserve lunch You know, I'll start to rationalize why I should do this because I don't want to be at work in the first place You know So be careful the kind of women you marry because sometimes If they're not the kind that wants to work and you tell them to go out and get a job They might just resent you for and you know Look for work husbands on purpose. Okay Anyway, I have drank like two glasses of I mean two glasses two cups of coffee and Okay, I got an email from somebody That just got a christmas card from me. Oh, that's so nice. Anyway So, yeah, y'all have to y'all have to realize Before you get married to someone and before you start any type of relationship with someone Know who you're marrying. Know the type of woman that you're marrying. Know the type of me and you are married Know that and discuss it before you get married Like say to your fiance. Look, I don't want to work. I want to be a housewife. Do you have a problem with this? If they say no, if they say yes, then you know where you stand, you know Because and if they ever ask you to go get a job, then they already know You know, you don't want to be there and things might not go as planned And men if you're getting ready to ask a woman to marry you make sure you know where she stands about work Say, are you gonna are you gonna work?  How do you want to do this? What's your plans? How do you see this going if they say I don't want to work I don't want to go back to work after I have kids I'll work up until I have kids when we can say it and stuff But after I have kids I'm not going back to work If you don't agree with that then do not marry that woman because if you send her back to work And she resents you for it. She will take it out on you in some type of way Okay, you might not know about it. You might be clueless to it You might not even suspect it and you might not even remember that she didn't want to work After she had kids But she does and she she'll try to tell you and she'll be like, you know, I'd rather stay home Well, maybe we need we need your income because I can't handle it by myself, you know If If you say that to her and she has to leave her child let other people raise her child while she goes to work Pay the day care comes home. She is going to take it out on you and you're not even gonna realize it. Okay so I'm just saying now if you have a career woman and she's just all about work and she puts you to the side for work And she says, you know what? I gotta get this work done work work work work She's all about her career. Then that's fine. She's going to give you know 100 on her job.  It's not the man It is her job Her main focus is you know, getting up higher getting pays getting raises getting bonuses getting this getting that It's not you. Okay, you're just there to fill the void Uh in her life where she thinks she's supposed to have a man husband and kids Okay, but really she just wants the career and a lot of people say I can balance it and have it all but Somewhere somebody's suffering. Okay, and that's just the truth Somewhere a kid is suffering not getting enough attention somewhere a husband is suffering not getting enough attention Somewhere a wife is suffering because men do this to women all the time They just focus on their career somewhere a wife or child is suffering from not getting enough time for their father I mean, it's true.  They don't even know what toys they play with their favorite cartoon They don't know none of that because they don't have time to sit and talk to them Enough to ask those type of questions. So you have to understand the type of relationship you're getting into And these work relationships As far as you know, work husbands and work wives because this is the real world and we have to be honest with each other And we all know That there are those people that at work that will say, hey, let's go get a motel at at lunch Hey, let's do and and it becomes an affair at work And the wife and the husband will never find out because they're at work, you know, they're not staying out late You know, they're not um Going on Well, they couldn't be going on work trips, you know, business trips and you'll never know, you know It's the easiest place to have an affair So That will make y'all think twice about you know Marriage before you get married Asking the right questions, you know, where do you where do you where does your career? Uh lie, are you a family man? Are you a career man? Are you going to sacrifice your family's time for your career? And you have to be a woman that will understand that like women who are married to doctors They don't get to see their husbands a lot Their husband has to leave in the middle of dinner movies when they have a page on call or whatever So you have to be able to be comfortable with the type of situation Before you get married Don't say while you didn't tell me be honest up front and know these things Okay, and know that if you marry a woman who does not want to work She will acquire a work husband Okay, and I'll see y'all in it. Bye


This is a fish river tree, Christmas tree farm. My name is Steve Mannhardt. A lot of the Christmas tree farms do other operations also in what generally is called the ag retainment business. And Christmas tree farms are a type of ag retainment. Yeah, they're buying a product that they're also buying an experience out on a farm. So it's ag retainment. Tree farming is very different than regular rock rock. The Christmas tree farm is unique because it's a direct marketing kind of operation if you go choosing cut, which means that all of a sudden you go from being a farmer 11 months to having a retail store type operation out in the weather and in outside, which has its own set of complications with the wind and the rain and the storm and all of that. It takes a lot of work and it takes employees.  And in our case, it's 25, maybe 20, as many as 25 employees when we're really busy. And most of it's weekend and part time. But it's a chore and you've got to be ready for it. That all needs to go into the master plan, by the way. The unique thing about growing Christmas trees in Alabama, particularly here on the coast, is how fast they grow. As opposed to a Christmas tree in Michigan. So the difference is in Michigan when they plant, let's say, a fir tree, a balsam fir, they're planting a tree, maybe a foot tall, a transplant, which is also a couple of years old already from seed. At any rate, they'll plant that. And that tree will grow approximately one foot a year. It puts on a flush of growth in April and May. And then in July, they come back and they may, if it's bigger, they may trim it a little bit on the top. Then it sets buds up on top, and the buds sit there until the following spring. So they're getting about a foot of growth a year. Here we're getting three or four feet of growth a year, even on our pine tree. So the result of that is that they have to be trimmed more often. For instance, this tree here was probably trimmed three times this year, not to mention the fact that the top has to be cut back quite a bit to make it fill in this particular species especially. It's hard to get the top filled in, so you have to cut it back. You can see where I cut that back and so forth. Well, that's part of growing them here in the South Alabama as opposed to up north. It's much more intensive. So while they're taking a vacation from January, actually the wholesalers December, December, January, February, March, they'll plant maybe in April. They're not doing anything all winter long. Here, we're planting as soon as we finish selling. And by late February and March, everything's growing already, so we're already fertilizing. We're in a couple of months, we'd be herbicide in the end of March for herbicide. Herbicide and already, the bugs are going already, so we add the pesticide and all the stuff. They don't do that until way into summer. So it's a different field, but producing them faster means you've got to work harder. But there's a benefit to producing them faster. The return on them is faster. So anybody starting in the business, they don't have to wait 10 years to sell their first tree. They can do it in three or four years. That's a big difference. Most of the Christmas tree farms in Alabama and in this area of the South, they have a number of different major parts to it. So for instance, here we have five or six. There's the choosing cut aspect of the farm. So that's one major part of our operation. So the customers come with their families and so forth, and they grab a saw, and they head out, and they cut the tree down, and they bring it, and we shake it out for them, and let them, and help them get it on their vehicle and away they go. That's how most of the farms were started, and it's relatively easy for us, except for growing the trees, of course. The second part of our operation is that we also have fir trees that are shipped in from up north. That adds a major dimension to the operation, but there's so many customers in this county that that's what they want, because that's what they grew up with. You have to unload the trucks. The trees have to be stored. They have to be brought up on a very regular basis. They have to be unwrapped. They have to be basal pruned, butt pruned for the trunk. They have to be shook out. They have to be drilled. They have to be the bottom cut and put in a stand and tagged. So there's seven, eight different operations. This involves a lot of employees doing a lot of stuff. And then here they are all set up here where we set up fir trees in these stands with water in them. And then here come the customers. And then, all right, I'll take that one. Well, then you have to get it out of the stand and take it over and net it, and so forth. So there's a pretty good size of operation involved in selling fir tree. But we sell a lot of them, so it's worth it. And then I don't have to spend forever growing these trees. I just have to manage like many act those two, three weeks where we're selling them. So that's number two. Number three is that this farm is a little bit unique in the fact that we also grow trees in containers. And we started that 15, 20 years ago. We call them living Christmas trees because the customers can take that tree that's grown in that container. And then they can decorate it inside their house. And then right after Christmas, they can take it out and plant them. But that enters the nursery business then, growing trees in containers. Then you're starting almost a separate business. Then you have to decide, OK, if I have any leftover, once the customer, what am I going to do with the, then you're into the nursery wholesale business. And you want to sell to this garden setter or this landscaper. And it becomes complicated. Anyway, we were going to go big into it, and we did. And then we started drawing it down to where it's just our customer. Because I'm getting too old to compete with all these nurseries that grow tree, I don't know. But that is another unique part. So that's number three. Number four is what we call the agritourism part, which involves a lot of time. But you've got to arrange for Santa to be here. You've got to arrange. We have a manger scene with animals in it. You've got to get that all set up. And then we have a little tree train that takes, well, not a little, but a tree train is a pony train. But it looks a little like a train. But anyway, it takes customers around on a tour on the farm. That's the agritainment part. That's number four. And then number five is kind of the concession stand gift shop aspect. We don't do a gift shop, but we do have a concession stand. And that keeps a guy busy. All day long, hot chocolate, and popcorn, and peanuts, and coaks, and water, and you name it. All that has to be planned and worked out, too. So for the Christmas tree farm that you can cut the one, there's those five parts. And you kind of have to have management of each part of it. And so all that falls on me.  And it gets really busy here. That's another part of it. You have to be ready for the busy peaks. And it's kind of like Walmart on Black Friday. And there's a Black Friday here, too. And then during the day, it peaks right in the middle of the day between 10 o'clock and 3 o'clock, unless you have the Alabama Auburn game. It peaks then. And if you're not ready for that peak, if you're not prepared for it, then you're going to fall flat on your face. You're going to run out of hot chocolate. You're going to run out of fir tree.  So it gets kind of a management. It's a management thing. And after three, four weeks of that, I'm ready to go back to farm. Now, when we plant, this is the machine we use. It digs out a pretty good hole. So it's good to have an auger. There's two schools on planting this plant. One school is to just kind of loosen it up a little bit and put it in there like that. When I'm working on this tree, I'm going to stake it. As you can see, it's got a bad curve in it. Two years just pulls out of the ground fairly easily. And you can reuse it year after year after year after year. This is a Christmas tree farmer's product. Nursery, tie tape. So I usually tie this to the tree top. There's a hand machine called a tapener. They can do this a little faster, but I don't like it. They use staples. That was about the second thing. OK. Lastly, the third thing is that I will come at that end of February, early March, and put some slow-release fertilizer around. And I'll do that two months later and two months later and maybe two months later. And then in the summer, I'll put two schools, one on one side and one on the other. And I get my exercise going up and down these rows that way. OK, now, from the one we just planted, some of them get to be this size from March to end of October. So this is already on 5 and 1 half feet tall. Most of them are a little bit shorter. This happened to be pretty good size. All of that is root system stuff. The better that root system gets going, the bigger these things grow. This tree has probably been trimmed once already a little bit. Now, this particular tool is what we used to trim all the trees with all the time. It's called a shearing knife. It's like a little thin machete. And every grower that ever started in a business is what they started with. But most of them have advanced to other tools. The shearing knife, it's windy today, so this isn't a particularly good. The shearing knife works like this. By the way, I should have a shin guard on. Now, what this ends up doing is keeping that shape so it doesn't get too fat. And it helps to fill in whatever holes are there. And then usually you have to trim the top back a little bit. This one really doesn't need it, but you could. That's what I use this for. Now, most growers don't use the shearing knife because they've ruined their shoulders. But on a little tree like this, it's not too bad. When you get a big tree and you're reaching up and you're doing this thousands and thousands of time and you're trying to get through that greenery with this knife, you're going to ruin your shoulder. So I use this one a lot. See, this is lightweight stuff. You can even use this on larger ones, which I do. And a lot of growers use this one for touch-up right before they're ready to sell it, which I've been doing the last two, three weeks. Just a little touch-up, anything sticking way out that you don't like, you just kind of touch it up. Or you prune it off with the hand, with the tools. What did I do with those? There they are. All right, that's the number. That's the second one. The third trimmer, a lot of growers use a hedge trimmer like this. And this generally is for larger trees. It's heavier, but it's for larger trees and it's faster than that rotary head. That is what a Christmas tree farmer does a lot of throughout the year. Yeah, we touched on it. The other major task is that the trees have to be fertilized. That's also two, three, four times a year, depending on the tree. If it's real big tall ones, sometimes twice as climate. If it's little ones, you want to feed them constantly. So Christmas tree farmers, or maybe different than other crops, is a constant feeding. And it's a good idea to soil test once a year all over the farm to find out what you need for fertilizer. That is a major task, fertilizing these trees. The fertilizer is done around the drip line of the tree. I try not to fertilize this grass out here because I don't want it to grow any faster than it's already growing. Generally, if you herbicide here, that fertilizer is going to go right down to those tree roots. And that's why we like to kind of keep them clean right underneath the trees. All of the trees we're going to plant in a month or two from now. We grow all of them, we keep them here. And that's our potting mix. So in February, I get the little bitty ones and we take them and we plant them in here. And then we bring them over here and we take care of them for nine, 10, 11 months. This is a lot of work, but then you get a good product like this tree. Then we take this out in December or late December, January, and we plant it in the ground or we put it in a larger container. Speaking of larger container, for a containerized Christmas tree, we use an expensive injection molded pot. We chose this pot. This used to be the pot for pot and pot. So you'd add the other tree and another 15 gallon pot and it would go inside this pot. And then the whole thing would go into the ground. So we decided to get rid of the second pot because it wasn't necessary. So we plant right in this one. This is a good pot for what the customers did want it as a Christmas tree because it's nice and hard and flat on the bottom. All they have to do is put a saucer or a tub underneath it and then water it regularly, which a lot of them failed to do, but you got to water it regularly. And then when they're ready to take it out of the house and undecorate it and plant it there y'all. It's a chore planting them, but some of them, they come back to repeat customers. Once they get a tree that they had as a Christmas tree growing in their yard, it's a real good repeat that they'll come back and get another one the next year. And we put it over here. And that's, we put them over here for two, three, four months and hold them until we're ready to put them out in the ground. And they've been growing and we stake them, most of them make sure they're straight. And that is a chore getting those from there into the ground. Let's go to where we go into the ground. This is a Murray cypress that's been in this container for a year and a half. So it went from that size to this size and just a year and a half. So now we can just lift this tree right out of the ground and take it up to where we sell them. And this is a little bit different than most nurseries. Most nurseries would grow these real close together. They would jam these trees together and it's hard to get a Christmas tree when you jam them together like that. You got to spread them out so that they fill in. So that's one of the differences. And the other difference would be the pot in the ground deal. We've got four or five different varieties of trees. This is a Murray cypress. We grow Leland cypress. We grow Carolina sapphires, which is an Arizona cypress cultivar. And that's becoming fairly popular, it's blue shaded. We grow some green giant arborvita and we grow a juniper, which is more of a landscape tree because it's narrow or at least when it's young, it's narrow. So we basically have one or two other little varieties that we're experimenting with. So I always try to look for something new and better that'll sell and then fund it grow. But the extension ends up doing, and what's really valuable is when we end up with problems. We can kind of function day to day like we've been doing until all of a sudden, what's this insect eating up my tree? Or why are these seedlings dying? I planted them, I planted them the same way I planted them every year, well, what's happening here? That's when you have to bring in the specialist. And yes, they help us tremendously. And we're always running experiments like Dr. Pickens has got his herbicide experiment over here with all the tags all over the ground. And it was valuable to see the difference between the different herbicides and which ones were more effective than other. And those are the kinds of things that are a great deal of benefit to us.


Hi, welcome to Physiology Open. Sound is the perception of variations in air pressure produced by anything which vibrates. The variations in air pressure are transmitted via external air to the tympanic membrane. Then to middle air which has three ossicles and then to inner air. So the air pressure vibrations basically vibrate the tympanic membrane which then moves the inverse and outwards at the same frequency as that of the air pressure wave. Now these vibrations of tympanic membrane vibrate the middle ear bones that is malleus, incus and steppes. Malleus is attached to tympanic membrane and steppes is attached to the oval window. So when steppes vibrates it causes vibrations in inner ear fluid. See the external ear and middle ear are filled with air while the inner ear is filled with fluid. Inner ear has cells which need to be present in a homeostatic environment so it needs to be fluid filled. But you might be wondering what is the need of this complicated movement of air pressure wave from external ear to middle to inner ear. Why not directly reach the inner ear from the environment? See when sound pressure wave travel from one medium to another denser medium or a high impedance medium these waves tend to be reflected back. This reduces the energy or amplitude of vibrations reaching the high impedance medium. So if sound pressure waves were to directly hit the receptors present in fluid filled inner ear the sound energy will be too less because most of it would have been reflected. So instead there is a mechanism which actually amplifies the signal before it reaches the inner ear. Such that the expected loss of signal which is going to happen due to the impedance is balanced by its amplification. That's why it is known as impedance matching. The loss happening due to impedance is matched with the amplification. So how does it occur? Fundamentally we have to increase the pressure changes in air. Now if you remember pressure is equal to force upon area. So pressure increase can occur either by increasing the force or decreasing the area. So this occurs by three mechanisms. Area advantage, curved membrane and liver action. All of which are happening in this area of the ear which includes the otim panic membrane and the full middle ear. This one works by decreasing the area where air vibration strikes while the other two work by increasing the force with which they strike. Area advantage occurs because of the difference in area of timpanic membrane and steppes. The area of timpanic membrane is 20 times more than the area of the steppes. Hence the vibrations are being concentrated over a smaller area from a very large area. So this will increase the air pressure level 20 times as it reaches inner ear. Now let's see how the other two factors increase the force. The timpanic membrane is curved to from its rim at both ends to its attachment with the malice. When timpanic membrane vibrates this point of ear drum doesn't move as far as these portions. So with the same sound energy hitting the different areas here it is manifested as increased distance of movement while here in the center it is manifested as increased force. So this is the curved membrane effect and finally when timpanic membrane vibrates it causes vibration of the ear ossicles as we have already discussed. But since malice is longer than incus it displaces incus with a greater force. Remember again that displacement distance is lesser but force of displacement is increased just like curved membrane effect. So impedance matching occurs by three mechanisms and all these three mechanisms together increase the pressure output by 46 times. But this amplification may be harmful if it also occurs for very loud sounds. So that means it should not occur for such sounds. Middle ear contains two muscles tensor timpani and steppidius muscle. Very loud sounds initiate a reflex contraction of these muscles and on contraction tensor timpani pulls malice inwards and steppidius pulls steppice outwards making the ossicles rigid and preventing their vibration. So this decreases the transmission of sound energy thus preventing a rear from damaging sounds. But acute loud sounds do damage ears isn't it? Why? Can you think about this question and put your answers in the comment section? We can have a little chat about it then. Anyways contraction of these muscles is also simultaneously activated when we start speaking. That's why our own voice is perceived less loud. So this is how impedance matching is helpful also and is inhibited for loud sounds and for our own voice. So do let me know your feedback and suggestions on the video and if you liked it do like and share the video and don't forget to subscribe to the channel Physiology Open. Thank you.


What's up everybody and welcome to the latest edition of the Falcons final whistle podcast. I'm Scott Bayer alongside Ashton Edmonds and Tori McElaney and we're coming to you a couple days after the formal end of the 2022 NFL season that I mean let's be honest ended with a bang what a Super Bowl high drama good play fun entertaining as heck. You made a Rihanna's concert because yes yeah right that was the highlight that was the highlight of the whole game so yeah I'm all yeah I actually I'm not a big half time show person but I was glued I'm not a big Rihanna person but I was glued she was awesome so was Jalen Hurts so was Patrick Mahomes so was Travis Kelsey and on and on and on that was a fun one and how we're going to falconize this thing. That's a term that I just made up we're going to falconize the concept of the Super Bowl and how the Kansas City Chiefs have built a model for sustained success both with a fantastic quarterback on a rookie deal and now a fantastic quarterback on a $450 billion deal. And then we're going to take a look at how the Philadelphia Eagles have risen to prominence with a young smart innovative offensive minded coach guys are another smart young innovative offense minded coach though that we know of. And how they kind of built it and look this is a copycat league we all say it right yeah but how can the Falcons who really in the NFC south where nobody's got a quarterback at this point. There is an opportunity to go from worst to first here and build this thing fast and accelerate their rise to prominence. What can we take from the Eagles and the Chiefs where are the Falcons as we head into a fascinating offseason that's what what we're going to be discussing on this offseason Falcons final whistle which is coming to you guys what every other week. Every other week yeah that sounds like a thing that we could do. So anyway I'm going to stop talking now I feel like I've been listening to the sound of my own voice way too long ashen please interrupt me. What were your takeaways for from the Super Bowl and in specific like what do you think that the Falcons can kind of glean from how these teams are constructed. Yeah for sure I think the biggest takeaway for me was how the Chiefs offensive line played you look back two years ago when the Chiefs played the Buccaneers and Super Bowl 55 Patrick Mahomes he was sacked three times tackle four times per loss and hit nine times and he threw two interceptions but against the Eagles he wasn't sacked a single time nor did he throw a single interception. And that credit goes to the offensive line for the five starting offensive line players were acquired in 2021 so these offensive linemen had two years to develop and then when you look at the centers where you look at the center Creed Humphrey he was drafted in 2021 just like Drew Dahman so there's there's similar parallels with the Falcons offensive line and with the Chiefs offensive line and neither unit has played more than a year or two together. So I think you know seeing how the Chiefs offensive line developed over you know 2021 and 2022 how they established one of the best offensive lines in the league because the Eagles they had the most sex and the fifth most interceptions in 2022 but the offensive line they eliminated that number and basically they didn't allow a single sec in the game so you know I do think there's a lot of parallels and I think that the Falcons should look at this blueprint that the Chiefs laid out as far as the offensive line. You can re-sign Caleb McGarry, you can re-sign Elijah Wilkinson, Chris Lindstrom he played the best football of his life or of his career thus far and Drew Dahman has made consistent improvement from year one to year two and obviously in his first year as a starting center. So I think if you if the Falcons can retain this offensive court going into 2023 how the Chiefs retain their court from 2021 to 2022 I think you can they can continue to build upon the successes that they had and both units were ranked in the top five per PFF. So I think there's a lot of similarities and parallels when you look at the offensive linemen. Hold on. Did Ashton just mic drop us in the first five minutes of this podcast? Is that what just happened? Are we done? Yeah, sure did. I feel like maybe we're done. Yeah, we're done. I don't even need to say anything. Thanks Ashton. Thanks for coming. The fastest podcast in human history. I love every single one of those points. I can't argue against them. Yeah, that was really good. And I think that that's something that the Falcons do have. I mean, but there's a lot of different ways to build a castle, right? I mean, Tori, like what do you mean when you look at either one of these teams like what do you see that can be taken away there? Yeah, so I first off want to go off of what Ashton said about the offensive line.  I mean, you think about what Patrick Mahomes did and we've been talking about his ankle for what feels like a year and a half at this point, even though I know it's only been probably like four weeks. But still what they did and how they were able to protect him and give him time in the pocket was really something special that I hope people don't overlook. But for me, I'm actually something that I took from this Super Bowl, which is actually something that I think I took more from like the 2022 season. And it was the evolution and the redemption almost of Jalen Hertz. And before I say anything, I want to make it abundantly clear that me say whatever what I'm about to say is not me saying that Desmond Ritter is Jalen Hertz and he's going to play like Jalen Hertz. So don't get it twisted. I am not comparing Jalen Hertz to Desmond Ritter in the next two and a half minutes of which I'm going to speak. Yes, you are. No, I'm not make up a YouTube comment right now. Anyway, continue. So what I was going to say is and this is kind of what I took is that when we went into the 2022 season, I feel like everything that we heard about Jalen Hertz was about how this was kind of it for him and how the Eagles didn't know if he was the long term future at quarterback in Philadelphia and what did Jalen Hertz future in the league really look like? Was he starting quarterback caliber? Like there were so many questions around Jalen Hertz and what he was going to be in 2022. And then he goes out this season and leads the Eagles in a way that is one of the best like full seasons that I think I can really draw upon in recent history of a quarterback, especially a young quarterback. I just I feel really strongly about what Jalen Hertz was able to do in 2022, knowing kind of the target on his back per se of what going into the 2022 season was for him and kind of all the outside noise of is Jalen Hertz the guy. He proved in 2022 that he is the guy and he proved it after a couple of years of just learning and growing and getting to know his head coach and his system. And I say all that to say that the longer the longer that we get into this offseason the more and more and I'll say this and I probably will maybe change my mind into another point in time who knows. But I think when it comes to the Falcons, when it comes to Desmond Ritter, when it comes to the decision at quarterback, I kind of look at what Jalen Hertz was able to do and how his first couple of years in the league, it wasn't great by any means or stretch of the imagination. Even Jalen Hertz himself said at the end of January like I don't think anyone even wanted me drafted to Philadelphia. Like I don't know if they I don't know if they liked that I was drafted here. And now here he is in 2023, leading the team to a Super Bowl and having one of the best performances in a Super Bowl that of a quarterback, not named Patrick Mahomes you know so I really. I really think like the comparison to me is not necessarily like Jalen Hertz to Desmond Ritter but it's like the thought process of Philadelphia allowing Jalen Hertz to grow and develop and cook for the Gen Z people out there. Like let the man cook like let him simmer a little bit let him understand kind of what is out in front of him and build around him and we saw what the connection between Jalen Hertz and AJ Brown was in the Super Bowl. I mean, what kind of connection could Desmond Ritter have with somebody and I think that's where I'm at is I'm sitting here looking at what Philadelphia did with Jalen Hertz and the year that he had and it's like can Desmond Ritter go out and do that if given the reins of the offense. And I'm not talking about doing that in the same way that Jalen Hertz did do it in a way that's good for Atlanta and good for Desmond Ritter play his game. If he can be a fraction of the production that Jalen Hertz had then by all means do that but that's a long winded way of saying like the more and more we get into this offseason the more and more that I'm kind of just leaning towards like I want to see what this offense looks like with Desmond Ritter having the reins of it from the start. I'm going to let everybody behind the scenes of this podcast a little bit we don't script things we have kind of topic bullet points and then we just sort of riff. And I love it when a plan comes together when we didn't script this thing and then we all have different takes on the same subject. Because I did not think the way Ashton thought I did not think the way you thought my thought and maybe this is because I covered the San Francisco 49ers for a while who they are not in the Super Bowl. But here's the comparison right is that the Philadelphia Eagles defensive line comes at you with talent and depth in waves and waves of chaos. That's what they do Fletcher Cox Brandon Graham who's like a hundred and five in Dominic and Sue Jordan Davis. Geron Hargrave I screw up his first name just one after the other after the other right that they create havoc. I saw stat it is not flattering for the Falcons but I think Ashton and I were talking about this the the other day the the Eagles had 70 sacks in this season. The Falcons have not had 70 sacks in the last three seasons true story combined combined. Yeah. So what I'm saying and the reason why I bring up the San Francisco 49ers was for a while there they were only drafting defensive linemen in the first round. Eric Armstead Nick Bosa de Forest Buckner over and over and over again to create waves of chaos. Guess what the New Orleans Saints do. They create pressure with waves and waves of chaos. Who's the cash. I'm blanking who's the name of the Falcons defensive coordinator now. So what I'm trying to say is this is I have a sneaking suspicion even though he won't open his playbook for us which is like totally lame. Ryan. Is that they should go ahead and draft and build depth and quality and use premium assets to create a defensive line that creates the ultimate battle. And I think if I think all of us touched on like a different pillar right. We've seen and Arthur Smith has said the offensive line and the way they play is a foundational part of our identity. That's Ashton's point. OK. My point is the Falcons are not a good pass rush right now. They seem to be committed to changing that attitude even going back to Dean Pease. Dean Pease was adamant about that. We need guys who can win one on one battles. OK. And then to Tori's point is you need a quarterback who is dynamic who is feared. If you can get all three of those things you're going to be a pretty good football team. And I think that again it's fascinating how we all brought up one thing and we've kind of like formed Voltron sort of a thing and then come up with the idea for how to for how the Falcons can get better fast. We are talking about a lot of additions outside of Ashton's offensive line point. I agree that keeping that together is the right move. If you listen to Arthur Blank talking about Desmond Ritter. I mean Arthur Blank doesn't like say things that he doesn't mean. And I mean. You talked to Troy. That was a ringing endorsement in my yeah. Right. I mean when he kind of said from training camp until the end of the season that Desmond Ritter's like leadership was like evident from the time he got into the building until the very end of 2022. And I think that was something that drew this coaching staff to Desmond Ritter in the first place. But when you have the owner sitting there and being like I like our young quarterback. I mean that's what he said. That was his quote is I like our young quarterback. And when I was talking to him gosh this is probably a week ago before the Super Bowl. I mean that's one of the main questions that you ask the owner because of where this organization is. It's like what do you think about the quarterback position and where it goes. And for him to say you know I thought that there was actual like steps and progress made through the four games that we did get to see him. I think that bodes well for how he would grow later on. And so that was essentially what what he was talking about. And I really enjoyed that conversation because it it helped me to see to kind of as the guy who's making the like top decisions like how he views some of these like minute decisions. I say minute but like you know what I mean like these smaller organizational decisions. Yeah now I agree. I mean what Arthur Blink has seen many quarterbacks through his time as an owner. And for him to say that Desmond Ritter's trend line you know from was that week 15 to week 18 was continually going up. Obviously that says a lot about Desmond Ritter his leadership and just who he is as a person. And I do think that we should take that into account potentially. And I think that that just says a lot about who he is and what that made me moving forward. Yeah I always look back at look we don't know if Desmond Ritter is going to be the guy Troy was very calculated saying that. And the missing link here and is these teams have a have greatness all over the place. Andy Reed Hall of Famer right Pat Mahomes. His trend line is going up. Jalen Hurts dynamic individual Fletcher Cox probably a Hall of Famer that there's greatness everywhere. Well you got to go make the right choice. Right. So right now there's so much intrigue and optimism about this offseason because the Falcons have a blank canvas and Terry font now finally gets to paint. Right. Is it going to be a masterpiece or is it going to be something you chuck. Right. And that's why this part is so interesting. And it sounds so easy to say go find some greatness man. Well and then and then be patient. Right. Yeah. Like the chiefs were smart enough and to sit after Mahomes for a year. Yeah. Imagine any other team doing that. And then they loaded up on this isn't my idea. This is Albert Beers column from two weeks ago. So I don't want to take intellectual property of it. But he talked a lot about what the chiefs did when Pat Mahomes was was on a rookie contract and they loaded up on expensive veteran talent to help him. And then when they realized I had to pay him half a billion dollars. Then they had to. Then they started acquiring massive amounts of draft capital to build depth understanding that nobody's going to bet a thousand. But you want as many swings as you can get. So right now I think it's a it's a fascinating place to be because is doesn't it does it doesn't ridder your guy a guy on a rookie contract for the next three years. And what can you spend around him. Or do you forego the rookie contract thing altogether.  These are things that we don't know. These are things that are intriguing. So it's like what comes first the chicken or the egg. Yeah. And I think there have been examples of a team going out and getting the quarterback that they want and then building around him afterwards or the other way around building. Like not necessarily building around the quarterback and then having a guy come along. I think it was interesting. I think someone and I I feel bad because I'm not attributing this accordingly because I don't know where it came from because it's so long ago. But when someone was talking about Justin Herbert and how he is a good quarterback. Like he's a good quarterback. But the reason why he was so good like in his first couple of years was because I think the Chargers did a really good job of already having in place important key positions around him. It helps him. And then I think you look at the example of like the Bengals and how you have Joe Burrow who gets hurt for a year.  And so it's like all of these there are so many different ways to build this thing. And I'm really curious to see what way Terry Fontenot and Arthur Smith and this staff decide to go about it. Yeah. And look we still don't know what they're going to do at the quarterback position. I sort of feel like maybe just because the owner was so effusive with his praise that I was like OK maybe they are going to roll with Desmond here and then build around him. But they can easily flip the script and do the opposite. Right. But I think that that that will tell us so much that things are going to hinge based upon that. But everything that we're talking about offensive line defensive line quarterback. Those are premium expensive as heck positions. Right. So even if you want to get Caleb back that's not going to be cheap. We're talking about Geron Payne or Hargrave from the Eagles or Brandon Graham the Ageless Wonder or whomever. Right. These guys are going to be expensive. Yeah. So how do you allocate the funds. I think that's going to be fascinating. But when you look at the NFC South. Right. I was asked a question in Bear Mail the other day. P.S. submit your questions for Ashton Edmonds who is making his Bear Mail debut. Bear Mail debut. Yeah. His Bear Mail debut. And I just think that they were asking me that the state of the NFC South. I have no idea what the NFC South looks like. Nobody does. Not a clue. Not like not a single clue. There's no established quarterback in the division. And we've got new coaches and I just think it's going to be intriguing to see how this whole thing plays out. Because as one thing Arthur Smith always talks about the reason why he thinks the NFL is the greatest league in the world is because of this salary cap. Right. And that you've got a collection of assets and then you're competing with everyone to use them the best. Right. And I just think that when you look at the NFC South sure there's talent in there and there's some foundational players but there's a lot to be done and said about how everything plays out. So it's I just think it's going to be fascinating. I think we've talking a lot about the Chiefs and the Eagles right but Tori brought up the Bengals. I brought up the 49ers. We could easily bring up Buffalo that there's that that there are a lot of like elite contenders. The AFC is like loaded with them. Yeah. So you know just really what you have to do is you have to get in that class and then go hope for the best in the post season. Right. But yeah I mean any other kind of thoughts or discussion points for the good of the order here. I mean if we wanted to we could talk for five more minutes about Rihanna but I don't know how many people actually want to hear me dissect that half time performance but that can maybe be another podcast. Okay I'm I'm a I'm a man of a certain age. So when you put Dre and Eminem and Kendrick and Snoop on the same stage. I'm in. So that's my new bar. Right. Yeah. So I can appreciate. I watched and was fascinated by Rihanna. I thought she absolutely nailed it. But it's not the next episode and we come on man. I mean what I think was so impressive was that she was lit. She literally sung the whole performance by herself like nobody came out. Right. Of course she had background dancers but and she announced her pregnancy through the. Yeah. He's pregnant. Yeah. It was so funny when we were. It was so funny when we were watching it because we're all like oh like we're because I was watching with like a group of men and women and it was very funny because we're all like. Oh my god. Like no one wanted to say she was pregnant because that was like don't say like if anybody someone said like oh was she pregnant. It's like don't say that you don't know if she's pregnant or not. She looks great. She looks fantastic. And then it comes out that she's pregnant and it's like yeah she is pregnant. Good. Good. That's awesome. Man. Yeah. It was it was a fun event all the way around and I think that there are things that you can look at and look we're not saying that the Falcons are going to be the. If the NFC representative next year we don't know but there's I think the fascinating part is you can look at all these teams and how they're constructed and you can take a little bit from all of them. And the Falcons while I said that they have a blank canvas they have an ability to go spend. They do have like a young foundation of talent there that if they can do the right things and build around them it could be an intriguing season. So that's the moral of our story. Okay. We're not saying the Falcons are going to the Super Bowl. We're just saying what can be learned in a copycat league from all these different teams. I think we had three good areas. Bill the bully up front on both sides of the football and go get us some greatness Terry. That's that's the that's the moral of the story. I feel like I'm just going to talk forever and never end this thing. So maybe I'll just silence myself anyway. Thank you guys so much for downloading and listening. If you subscribe to the Atlanta Falcons podcast network and we will be back with you real real soon with another podcast. See you. I don't know what that means. Another podcast.


I had an experience similar to what most people of my generation had who were looking for information on being gay and not finding anything or certainly not finding anything that was supportive. When I was young there wasn't that much literature out and about and every new book I found was like this treasure. And the one place to go to possibly find something to address our curiosity or just to assure us that in fact we were healthy human beings who deserved a place on planet Earth was the library. To Be Without History has profound impact on a community and we knew we had it. It just wasn't to be found or seen anywhere and so this was an opportunity for us to collect that history and to preserve it as we were making it. Every person in mural had some influence on or some very direct role in the Hormel Center being built. Here we were in the early 90s being challenged once again to present ourselves as citizens who deserved a measure of equality that we were not yet receiving. And what could be a better project than something within a public library that would focus attention on our existence and our productivity and our our presence everywhere in the community. It's a rare opportunity that one would have to be involved in the planning of a great city main library. People looked at the library as a downtown library where poor people in the homeless hung out and there was no real constituency for the library. The state was in a recession and all of the furniture and everything else had to be raised privately. Steve's idea was to create a set of affinity groups who would be engaged primarily because they would have a specific location within the new building. The African-American community and the Asian-American community and the Tino American community and the LGBT community were asked to participate. It wouldn't be right not to have something that highlighted the lives of the gay and lesbian community. The library foundation and its director Martin Paley was concerned that we not set a precedent where the library is carved up on little pieces. And so we came up with the idea that we would raise money for this center and we would also raise a significant amount of money for the library as a whole because the collection would be everywhere within the library. Welcome to At the Public Library. I'm Jim Van Busker director of the Gay and Lesbian Center being planned for the San Francisco Public Library which will schedule is scheduled open in early 1996 in the new main library. And what we have here are materials from the collection. Lots of different materials from the NIAID press collection donated by Barbara Greer and Donna McBride. We have pulp novels and lesbian nuns. We have Randy Schultz manuscript collection. It's going to be a wonderful collection and I'm proud of San Francisco Public Library for being the first public library in the country possibly in the world to create a specific gay and lesbian center for this particular purpose. We got donations from across the country. We had people who were just waiting for some opportunity. It was seen as a way of making visible our heritage, making visible our selves, you know. It was very important to many, many people and some of those people were very comfortably well off and others just just had a few books to give or had $50 to share or whatever. It was across the spectrum. We planned a fundraising dinner that would draw attention and when I walked through the Port Couture at the Hyatt Regency I could see in a window a room that was set for dinner. It probably held three or four hundred people and I thought to myself oh my god this is a failure. I didn't quite figure it out until I was told that was the overflow room. We had people sitting in the foyer of the of the building if so many people wanted to be there. We didn't want to turn anybody or any check away and there was a woman there who had on very expensive shoes and I knew they were. I didn't have them but I knew they were and I looked at her and I said you know if you will just give us the money you paid for those shoes. The dinner raised more than half of the amount that we set as a goal. We also then did a lot of house parties and hopefully we inspired a lot of people at the dinner to take a step further and open their own homes and bring their own friends in so people who weren't at the dinner could become a part of the campaign. And that subsequently a total of I believe it was close to three thousand people contributed to the project. I can remember the press conference we did. You had a who's who in the LGBT community all sitting at the old main library history room and everyone wanted to be there to be part of it. They saw it as something historic. Many of these same fellows were involved in fighting Prop 6 back in 1978 and also were engaged in the formation of the human rights campaign. Many of them are gone now. Many of them are gone lost to the epidemic. There was a lot of concern about fundraising around it and we basically made a decision that we want you to give money but if you can only afford to give a small amount of something give it for the HIV epidemic if you can afford to do more than that then think of us as a second possibility. It's my understanding that this was the very first LGBT participation room component of a municipal building anywhere in the country. So it was a big deal. It was our integration into the greater community. One of the things I now remember is that written into our contract was that the the center would never be closed. That as long as the library was open and standing the Hormel Center would be in it.  You know there was a queer center at the public library. It kind of made sense and definitely affirmed for me that I made a good choice moving to San Francisco.  You know. I guess that when people ask me what have you what is the most important accomplishment in your philanthropy. That is probably number one through ten. It was a dream come true. You know there was a party in the library on the main floor. It was a good party. It was a disco party. It was an opportunity to be formal and flamboyant at the same time. And it was just spectacular. And the whole building was just wild. The library space was ours so we had six floors. There was music, there was dancing. I guess to me it was the first opportunity that the LGBT constituents had to allow themselves a level of enjoyment that had been taken away by AIDS. I guess I was getting a little jaded like okay we've done it. It's open.  I wonder if it's it's not needed. Then because I was the gay and lesbian subject specialists books started appearing on my desk. One copy and it had been cut up. Well that's too bad things get vandalized. Well now there's two copies. Next week there's some more and some more. And finally there were a lot. And so we would take them out of the box and lay them out on tables. And you could feel the hate. They were just radiating energy. And I talked to a couple of artist friends and they said oh well you know we do altered books all the time. We work with books and source material and then we create different kinds of artwork. And the artwork was incredible. There were quilts. There were paper mache. There were sculpture. And as powerful as the artwork it was were the artist statements. And it was so moving and important and the community really responded and really came together. That's one of the Hormel Center's crowning victories I think. The James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center has joined with parents, families, and friends of lesbians and gays to sponsor a free lecture discussion series at San Francisco's main library. The Hormel Center went and goes far beyond the confines of this beautiful room. So I would like you to join with me in welcoming Kevin Jennings. There were just lots and lots of rich opportunities and personally I learned so much and I learned from the people who either proposed programs or participated in programs. I remember one that we did with the New York Times and they said oh well we want to do one on sports. The Charette Auditorium was packed. Standing room only and people were starved for these voices, these people to see them in person. In the sports arena it was really important because it was so closeted and so homophobic. We did a lot of collaborations with community organizations. Moving on now to the third floor of the main library for a look at Sylvester Metamorphosis, chronicling the life of the influential disco diva who epitomized San Francisco gay life in the 70s. Sappho, no ordinary housewife, pays homage to Sappho the Greek poet and is sponsored by the Sappho Project. Gertrude and Alice from the collections of Hans Gallus and the San Francisco public library.  The work that Diana and I did we traveled the United States in two years and did an epic sweep of the country so you get a sense of the spectrum and the variation of lesbian families. Managing an LGBT center and being responsible for programming and exhibition and collections is constantly fascinating and changing and never routine. Everybody loves this room. They love the mural, they love the exhibits and people enjoy the intimate feel of being in here. So I started a meditation group in the Hormel LGBT Center and every Wednesday from 12 to 12 30 I lead a partially guided meditation. The highlights for me really have been programming, meeting fascinating people like the historian Lillian Faderman, writers like Dorothy Allison, poets like C.A. Conrad. I'm the faggot at dinner asking to be alone with the children. It's really about going out of your own space and developing friendships going to their art shows, their historical societies and saying you know I want to know what you're doing. In 2007 the Frameline International LGBT Film Festival gave us all their boxes of stuff which include videos, DVDs. We've had people contact us from all over the world elated to discover that we had perhaps the one existent copy of a film. I would like to be reaching out more to collect more archival collections that we would like to have. For example Ricky Stryker owned some very important lesbian institutions like Maud's and Amelia's. Really important bars which were gathering places. Another one of my favorite collections is the Freedom to Marry collection. In 2015 grassroots activist Mollie McKay brought in 22 scrapbooks. This is a really important collection and in addition to that we have former mayor Gavin Newsom's collection of thousands of letters he received. The Radar Reading Series has been one of our most important programs. It's been a monthly series. It was started by author Michelle T. I began Radar Reading Series in 2003. I had done a lot of events that were mostly like in dive bars or cafes and it was just really nice to get the opportunity to bring it out of those environments. It felt like it was it would be elevated. It would be an elevated queer literary experience and I felt like the community deserved that. Radar has been a sort of intergenerational thing. I really wanted it to be a combination of people who have published works and people who aren't there yet. They're working on their first book or their performance poets so their work isn't necessarily being created for the page but more for performance. The fact that the reading was held at the library and that there was some sort of guaranteed stipend for the reader made all the difference in the world. I remember finding out that Radar was the place for queer cruising. If you wanted to find a date you came to Radar. I mean I think that that's one of the most crucial aspects of the readings in all of our mission statement and what we do is creating queer community. Our community has been displaced. There are not that many spaces for people to hang out especially if you're not a party monster. I feel like this reading series is like our official reading series like people love coming here. In a time where it's hard to feel hopeful about the arts in San Francisco, about like low-income artists in San Francisco, about like queer artists, queer artists of color in San Francisco. We're still sort of like I do feel like the pioneers of like queer writers and that just makes me feel like you know we have a future here. Make it ours again.  As far as the future I would hope that this center would would in real ways not just symbolic or not just honorific ways but in real ways let the new young people come up and know it's okay you know and we're here for you. I see the center continuing to grow continuing to acquire collections either donated or purchased. I think we could probably do even more fundraising on it. I would like to have younger people have more say I would like to do more collaborations with LGBTQ youth. When I meet someone in San Francisco who hasn't been here in shock you know because we have such an amazing opportunity to see our history to see how it changed. I was in the room and I saw this young boy and he seemed to be getting frustrated and I started to go over to help him and he kind of darted out like okay but then he came back and then I was able to approach him and I said can I help you and he said well yeah I'm looking for a book about gay teens like me. We walked over to the teen section and I found a copy of MI Blue and then he stopped for a second he said well if I check this out will my parents find out?  He started to leave and he turned around and he he said I just want you to know I'm really glad that you're here for people like me and that was 20 years ago and I still can't tell that story without crying because that's what we were doing we were building something for those kids and the kids that we used to be. I had an experience similar to what most people of my generation had who were looking for information on being gay and not finding anything or certainly not finding anything that was supportive. When I was young there wasn't that much literature out and about and every new book I found was like this treasure and the one place to go to possibly find something to address our curiosity or just to assure us that in fact we were healthy human beings who deserved a place on planet Earth was the library. To be without history has profound impact on a community and we knew we had it it just wasn't to be found or seen anywhere and so this was an opportunity for us to collect that history and to preserve it as we were making it. Every person in mural had some influence on or some very direct role in the Hormel Center being built. Here we were in the early 90s being challenged once again to present ourselves as citizens who deserved a measure of equality that we were not yet receiving and what could be a better project than something within a public library that would focus attention on our existence and our productivity and our our presence everywhere in the community. It's a rare opportunity that one would have to be involved in the planning of a great city main library. People looked at the library as a downtown library where poor people in the homeless hung out and there was no real constituency for the library. The state was in a recession and all of the furniture and everything else had to be raised privately. Steve's idea was to create a set of affinity groups who would be engaged primarily because they would have a specific location within the new building. The African-American community and the Asian-American community and the Tino American community and the LGBT community were asked to participate. It wouldn't be right not to have something that highlighted the lives of the gay and lesbian community. The library foundation and its director Martin Paley was concerned that we not set a precedent where the library is carved up on little pieces and so we came up with the idea that we would raise money for this center and we would also raise a significant amount of money for the library as a whole because the collection would be everywhere within the library. Welcome to At the Public Library. I'm Jim Van Busker director of the Gay and Lesbian Center being planned for the San Francisco Public Library which will schedule it open in early 1996 in the new main library. And what we have here are materials from the collection, lots of different materials from the NIAD press collection donated by Barbara Greer and Donna McBride. We have pulp novels and lesbian nuns. We have Randy Schultz manuscript collection. It's going to be a wonderful collection and I'm proud of San Francisco Public Library for being the first public library in the country possibly in the world to create a specific gay and lesbian center for this particular purpose. We got donations from across the country. We had people who were just waiting for some opportunity. It was seen as a way of making visible our heritage, making visible ourselves, you know. It was it was very important to many, many people and some of those people were very comfortably well off and others just just had a few books to give or had $50 to share or whatever. It was across the spectrum. We planned a fundraising dinner that would draw attention and and when I walked through the Port Couchere at the Hyatt Regency I could see in a window a room that was set for dinner. It probably held three or four hundred people and I thought to myself oh my God this is a failure. I didn't quite figure it out until I was told that was the overflow room. We had people sitting in the foyer of the of the building if so many people wanted to be there. We didn't want to turn anybody or any check away and there was a woman there who had on very expensive shoes and I knew they were. I didn't have them but I knew they were and I looked at her and I said you know if you will just give us the money you paid for those shoes. The dinner raised more than half of the amount that we set as a goal. We also then did a lot of house parties and hopefully we inspired a lot of people at the dinner to take a step further and open their own homes and bring their own friends in so people who weren't at the dinner could become a part of the campaign. And that subsequently a total of I believe it was close to three thousand people contributed to the project. I can remember the press conference we did. You had a who's who in the LGBT community all sitting at the old main library history room and everyone wanted to be there to be part of it. They saw it as something historic. Many of these same fellows were involved in fighting Prop 6 back in 1978 and also were engaged in the formation of the human rights campaign. Many of them are gone now. Many of them are gone lost to the epidemic. There was a lot of concern about fundraising around it and we basically made a decision that we want you to give money but if you can only afford to give a small amount of something give it for the HIV epidemic if you can afford to do more than that then think of us as a second possibility. It's my understanding that this was the very first LGBT participation room component of a municipal building anywhere in the country so it was a big deal. It was our integration into the greater community. One of the things I now remember is that written into our contract was that the the center would never be closed. That as long as the library was open and standing the Hormel Center would be in it.  It kind of made sense and definitely affirmed for me that I made a good choice moving to San Francisco you know that it was a place where being queer was just integrated into the most common parts of life here like the library you know. I guess that when people ask me what have you what what is the most important accomplishment in your philanthropy that is probably number one through ten. It was a dream come true. Now there was a party in the library on the main floor. It was a good party. It was a disco party. It was an opportunity to be formal and flamboyant at the same time. And it was just spectacular and the whole building was just wild. The library space was ours so we had six floors. There was music, there was dancing. I guess to me it was the first opportunity that the LGBT constituents had to allow themselves a level of enjoyment that had been taken away by AIDS.  I wonder if it's it's not needed.  Well that's too bad things get vandalized. Well now there's two copies. Next week there's some more and some more and finally there were a lot and so we would take them out of the box and lay them out on tables and you could feel the hate. They were just radiating energy and I talked to a couple of artist friends and they said oh well you know we do altered books all the time. We work with books as source material and then we create different kinds of artwork and the artwork was incredible. There were quilts, there were papier-mache, there were sculpture and as powerful as the artwork it was were the artist statements and it was so moving and important and the community really responded and really came together. That's one of the Hormel Center's crowning victories I think. The James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center has joined with parents, families and friends of lesbians and gays to sponsor a free lecture discussion series at San Francisco's main library. The Hormel Center went and goes far beyond the confines of this beautiful room. So I would like you to join with me in welcoming Kevin Jennings. There were just lots and lots of rich opportunities and personally I learned so much and I learned from the people who either proposed programs or participated in programs. I remember one that we did with the New York Times and they said oh well we want to do one on sports. The caret auditorium was at standing room only and people were starved for these voices these people to see them in person. In the sports arena it was really important because it was so closeted and so homophobic. We did a lot of collaborations with community organizations. Moving on now to the third floor of the main library for a look at Sylvester Metamorphosis chronicling the life of the influential disco diva who epitomized San Francisco gay life in the 70s. Sappho no ordinary housewife pays homage to Sappho the Greek poet and is sponsored by the Sappho Project. Gertrude and Alice from the collections of Hans Gallus and the San Francisco Public Library. Tom Klein selected works gay life HIV and AIDS explored in sculpture and assemblages. The work that Diana and I did we traveled the United States in two years and did an epic sweep of the country so you get a sense of the spectrum and the variation of lesbian families. Managing an LGBT center and being responsible for programming and exhibition and collections is constantly fascinating and changing and never routine. Everybody loves this room. They love the mural. They love the exhibits and people enjoy the the intimate feel of being in here. So I started a meditation group in the Hormel LGBT Center and every Wednesday from 12 to 12 30 I lead a partially guided meditation. The highlights for me really have been programming, meeting fascinating people like the historian Lillian Faderman, writers like Dorothy Allison, poets like C.A. Conrad. I'm the faggoted dinner asking to be alone with the children. It's really about going out of your own space and developing friendships going to their art shows their historical societies and saying you know I want to know what you're doing. In 2007 the Frameline International LGBT Film Festival gave us all their boxes of stuff which include videos, DVDs. We've had people contact us from all over the world elated to discover that we had perhaps the one existent copy of a film. I would like to be reaching out more to collect more archival collections that we would like to have. For example Ricky Stryker owned some very important lesbian institutions like Maud's and Amelia's really important bars which were gathering places. Another one of my favorite collections is the Freedom to Marry collection. In 2015 grassroots activist Molly McKay brought in 22 scrapbooks. This is a really important collection and in addition to that we have former mayor Gavin Newsom's collection of thousands of letters he received. The Radar reading series has been one of our most important programs. It's been a monthly series. It was started by author Michelle T. I began Radar reading series in 2003. I had done a lot of events that were mostly like in dive bars or cafes and it was just really nice to get the opportunity to bring it out of those environments. It felt like it was it would be elevated. It would be an elevated queer literary experience and I felt like the community deserved that. Radar has been a sort of intergenerational thing. I really wanted it to be a combination of people who have published works and people who aren't there yet. They're working on their first book or their performance poets. So their work isn't necessarily being created for the page but more for performance. The fact that the reading was held at the library and that there was some sort of guaranteed stipend for the reader made all the difference in the world. I remember finding out that Radar was the place for queer cruising. If you wanted to find a date you came to Radar. I mean I think that that's one of the most crucial aspects of the readings and of our mission statement and what we do is create a queer community. Our community has been displaced. There are not that many spaces for people to hang out especially if you're not a party monster. I feel like this reading series is like our official reading series like people love coming here. In a time where it's hard to feel hopeful about the arts in San Francisco, about like low-income artists in San Francisco, about like queer artists, queer artists of color in San Francisco, we're still sort of like I do feel like the pioneers of like queer writers and that just makes me feel like you know we have a future here. Make it ours again.  As far as the future I would hope that the center would would in real ways not just symbolic or not just honorific ways but in real ways let the new young people come up and know they're it's okay you know and we're here for you. I see the center continuing to grow continuing to acquire collections either donated or purchased. I think we could probably do even more fundraising on it. I would like to have younger people have more say I would like to do more collaborations with LGBTQ youth. When I meet someone in San Francisco who hasn't been here on shot you know because we have such an amazing opportunity to see our history to see how changed. I was in the room and I saw this young boy and he seemed to be getting frustrated and I started to go over to help him and he kind of darted out like okay but then he came back and then I was able to approach him and I said can I help you and he said well yeah I'm looking for a book about gay teens like me. We walked over to the teen section and I found a copy of MI Blue and then he stopped for a second he said well if I check this out will my parents find out? I said no the library records are confidential.  He started to leave and he turned around and he he said I just want you to know I'm really glad that you're here for people like me and that was 20 years ago and I still can't tell that story without crying because that's what we were doing. We were building something for those kids and the kids that we used to be. I had an experience similar to what most people of my generation had who were looking for information on being gay and not finding it or certainly not finding anything that was supportive. When I was young there wasn't that much literature out and about and every new book I found was like this treasure. And the one place to go to possibly find something to address our curiosity or just to assure us that in fact we were healthy human beings who deserved a place on planet earth was the library. To be without history has profound impact on a community and we knew we had it. It just wasn't to be found or seen anywhere and so this was an opportunity for us to collect that history and to preserve it as we were making it. Every person in the mural had some influence on or some very direct role in the Hormel Center being built. Here we were in the early 90s being challenged once again to present ourselves as citizens who deserved a matter of equality that we were not yet receiving. And what could be a better project than something within a public library that would focus attention on our existence and our productivity and our presence everywhere in the community. It's a rare opportunity that one would have to be involved in the planning of a great city main library. People looked at the library as a downtown library where poor people in the homeless hung out and there was no real constituency for the library. The state was in a recession and all of the furniture and everything else had to be raised privately. Steve's idea was to create a set of affinity groups who would be engaged primarily because they would have a specific location within the new building. The African-American community and the Asian-American community and the Tino American community and the LGBT community were asked to participate. It wouldn't be right not to have something that highlighted the lives of the gay and lesbian community. The library foundation and its director Martin Paley was concerned that we not set a precedent where the library is carved up on little pieces. And so we came up with the idea that we would raise money for this center and we would also raise a significant amount of money for the library as a whole because the collection would be everywhere within the library. Welcome to At the Public Library. I'm Jim Van Busker director of the Gay and Lesbian Center being planned for the San Francisco Public Library which will schedule it open in early 1996 in the new main library. And what we have here are materials from the collection, lots of different materials from the NIAID press collection donated by Barbara Greer and Donna McBride. We have pulp novels and lesbian nuns. We have Randy Schultz manuscript collection. It's going to be a wonderful collection and I'm proud of San Francisco Public Library for being the first public library in the country possibly in the world to create a specific gay and lesbian center for this particular purpose. We got donations from across the country. We had people who were just waiting for some opportunity. It was seen as a way of making visible our heritage, making visible ourselves, you know. It was very important to many, many people and some of those people were very comfortably well off and others just just had a few books to give or had $50 to share or whatever. It was across the spectrum. We planned a fundraising dinner that would draw attention and and when I walked through the Port Coutre at the Hyatt Regency I could see in a window a room that was set for dinner. It probably held three or four hundred people and I thought to myself oh my god this is a failure. I didn't quite figure it out until I was told that was the overflow room. We had people sitting in the foyer of the building. So many people wanted to be there. We didn't want to turn anybody or any check away and there was a woman there who had on very expensive shoes and I knew they were. I didn't have them but I knew they were and I looked at her and I said you know if you will just give us the money you paid for those shoes. The dinner raised more than half of the amount that we set as a goal. We also then did a lot of house parties and hopefully we inspired a lot of people at the dinner to take a step further and open their own homes and bring their own friends in so people who weren't at the dinner could become a part of the campaign. And that subsequently a total of I believe it was close to three thousand people contributed to the project. I can remember the press conference we did. You had a who's who in the LGBT community all sitting at the Old Main Library history room and everyone wanted to be there to be part of it. They saw it as something historic. Many of these same fellows were involved in fighting Prop 6 back in 1978 and also were engaged in the formation of the human rights campaign. Many of them are gone now. Many of them are gone lost to the epidemic. There was a lot of concern about fundraising around it and we basically made a decision that we want you to give money but if you can only afford to give a small amount of something give it for the HIV epidemic. If you can afford to do more than that then think of us as a second possibility. It's my understanding that this was the very first LGBT participation room component of a municipal building anywhere in the country. So it was a big deal. It was our integration into the greater community. One of the things I now remember is that written into our contract was that the the center would never be closed. That as long as the library was open and standing the Hormel Center would be in it.  You know there was a queer center at the public library. It kind of made sense and definitely affirmed for me that I made a good choice moving to San Francisco.  I guess that when people ask me what have you what is the most important accomplishment in your philanthropy that is probably number one through ten. It was a dream come true. You know there was a party in the library on the main floor. It was a good party. It was a disco party. It was an opportunity to be formal and flamboyant at the same time. And it was just spectacular and the whole building was just wild. The library space was ours so we had six floors. There was music, there was dancing. I guess to me it was the first opportunity that the LGBT constituents had to allow themselves a level of enjoyment that had been taken away by AIDS.  I wonder if it's it's not needed.  Well that's too bad things get vandalized. Well now there's two copies. Next week there's some more and some more. And finally there were a lot and so we would take them out of the box and lay them out on tables and you could feel the hate. They were just radiating energy. And I talked to a couple of artist friends and they said oh well you know we do altered books all the time. We work with books as source material and then we create different kinds of artwork. And the artwork was incredible. There were quilts. There were paper mache. There were sculpture. And as powerful as the artwork it was was were the artist statements. And it was so moving and important and the community really responded and really came together. That's one of the Hormel Center's crowning victories I think. The James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center has joined with parents families and friends of lesbians and gates to sponsor a free lecture discussion series at San Francisco's main library. The Hormel Center went and goes far beyond the confines of this beautiful room. So I would like you to join with me in welcoming Kevin Jennings. There were just lots and lots of rich opportunities and personally I learned so much and I learned from the people who either proposed programs or participated in programs. I remember one that we did with the New York Times and they said oh well we want to do one on sports. The caret auditorium was packed. Standing room only and people were starved for these voices these people to see them in person. In the sports arena it was really important because it was so closeted and so homophobic. We did a lot of collaborations with community organizations. Moving on now to the third floor of the main library for a look at Sylvester Metamorphosis chronicling the life of the influential disco diva who epitomized San Francisco gay life in the 70s. Sappho no ordinary housewife pays homage to Sappho the Greek poet and is sponsored by the Sappho Project. Gertrude and Alice from the collections of Hans Gallus and the San Francisco public library Tom Klein selected works gay life HIV and AIDS explored in sculpture and assemblages. The work that Diana and I did we traveled the United States in two years and did an epic sweep of the country so you get a sense of the spectrum and the variation of lesbian families. Managing an LGBT center and being responsible for programming and exhibition and collections is constantly fascinating and changing and never routine. Everybody loves this room. They love the mural. They love the exhibits and people enjoy the the intimate feel of being in here. So I started a meditation group in the Hormel LGBT Center and every Wednesday from 12 to 12 30 I lead a partially guided meditation. The highlights for me really have been programming meeting fascinating people like the historian Lillian Faderman writers like Dorothy Allison poets like C.A. Conrad. I'm the faggot at dinner asking to be alone with the children. It's really about going out of your own space and developing friendships going to their art shows their historical societies and saying you know I want to know what you're doing. In 2007 the Frameline International LGBT film festival gave us all their boxes of stuff which include videos DVDs. We've had people contact us from all over the world elated to discover that we had perhaps the one existent copy of a film. I would like to be reaching out more to collect more archival collections that we would like to have. For example Ricky Stryker owned some very important lesbian institutions like mods and amelias really important bars which were gathering places. Another one of my favorite collections is the freedom to marry collection in 2015 grassroots activist Molly McKay brought in 22 scrapbooks. This is a really important collection and in addition to that we have former mayor Gavin Newsom's collection of thousands of letters he received. The radar reading series has been one of our most important programs it's been a monthly series it was started by author Michelle T. I began radar reading series in 2003. I had done a lot of events that were mostly like in dive bars or cafes and it was just really nice to get the opportunity to bring it out of those environments. It felt like it was it would be elevated it would be an elevated queer literary experience and I felt like the community deserved that radar has been a sort of intergenerational thing. I really wanted it to be a combination of people who have published works and people who aren't there yet they're working on their first book or their performance poets so their work isn't necessarily being created for the page but more for performance. The fact that the reading was held at the library and that there was some sort of guaranteed stipend for the reader made all the difference in the world. I remember finding out that radar was the place for queer cruising. If you wanted to find a date you came to radar. I mean I think that that's one of the most crucial aspects of the readings in all of our mission statement and what we do is creating queer community. Our community has been this place they're not that many spaces for people to hang out especially if you're not a party monster. I feel like this reading series is like our official reading series like people love coming here. In a time where it's hard to feel hopeful about the arts in San Francisco, about like low-income artists in San Francisco, about like queer artists, queer artists of color in San Francisco, we're still sort of like I do feel like the pioneers of like queer writers and that just makes me feel like you know we have a future here. Make it ours again.  As far as the future I would hope that the center would would in real ways not just symbolic or not just honorific ways but in real ways let the new young people come up and know they're it's okay and we're here for you. I see the center continuing to grow continuing to acquire collections either donated or purchased. I think we could probably do even more fundraising on it. I would like to have younger people have more say I would like to do more collaborations with LGBTQ youth. When I meet someone in San Francisco who hasn't been here in shock you know because we have such an amazing opportunity to see our history to see how changed. I was in the room and I saw this young boy and he seemed to be getting frustrated and I started to go over to help him and he kind of darted out like okay but then he came back and then I was able to approach him and I said can I help you and he said well yeah I'm looking for a book about gay teens like me. We walked over to the teen section and I found a copy of MI Blue and then he stopped for a second he said well if I check this out will my parents find out?  He started to leave and he turned around and he said I just want you to know I'm really glad that you're here for people like me and that was 20 years ago and I still can't tell that story without crying because that's what we were doing. We were building something for those kids and the kids that we used to be.