There's no better way to start a morning than coffee with Meat and Tater. Apologies to eggheads the world over.
The dynamic duo came over not long after I crawled out of bed at the crack of 9. I was boiling my morning oatmeal.
The steaming pot of brew they carried must have been their second. Meat was rambling a few notches over the speed limit.
That's about 15 words per minute for me first thing. So I just nodded politely as he ranted about the evils of Facebook.
Like many things, Meat's attitude toward social media has reversed since Tater came into his life. You might remember he was on a ten meme a day habit late into the Obama era. When he wasn't posting he was trolling someone else's.
After Tater pointed out half his posts originated in a Russian troll farm, Meat quit posting. When he found how much of his personal stuff was getting out, he declared himself done with the whole thing.
It was the point of "done with the whole thing" in the rant my brain fully awoke. I was able to utter a couple of meaningful words.
"Yeah boy howdy."
Tater's head swiveled in my direction. "Did you just say boy howdy?" Her face was contorted in complete confusion. "What the heck is that?"
Meat laughed in her direction. "You never heard boy howdy?"
She swiveled back to Meat. "Of course. That was on the cover of my favorite rock magazine back in high school. Creem magazine. What'd he mean by that?"
Meat's head rolled back as he exploded with laughter. "What? No, that's what Lee Majors used to say on The Big Valley!"
Tater was not laughing. She gave me a look.
"You're both right," I jumped in. "I meant I concur bigly." Tater smiled broadly.
"Oh, I get it. I never was quite sure what that was about. More coffee?"
Before I could get "please" out she was pouring and Meat was moving on.
"SJ you ever heard that the federal government is like a big insurance company with an army while state and local governments are like a school district with a police force and that's why the governor hates schools?"
I hadn't ever heard that analogy. I looked at Tater for help and she mouthed "Krugman" although I didn't recognize it at the time. I remember when the most radical guy Meat would read was George Will.
"That's kinda deep one cup in Meat. Where'd you get that?"
Tater interjected. "Gave him a Paul Krugman article last night. That's not exactly what it said, but close."
Meat swelled up. "That's what he said. And he said there's never been one time that tax cuts for the top made the economy better. Not one single time."
He pointed at me, but said to Tater. "Me and him have been saying that for years."
Tater smiled again. "He did say that. And since states can't print money they need cash to pay for education. It's either pay the teachers or pay off their bosses, so the trickle down myth lives on."
There's only one thing I could say to that. Boy howdy.