Podcasts about Mego

HOUR 1-  The Celtics pulled off a thrilling comeback win over the Thunder in what Lou calls a “mature win” last night behind big contributions from Payton Pritchard, Marcus Smart and Derrick White. Fauria, Arcand, and Mego think Grant Williams needs to stop his complaining. It is doing the Celtics no favors  Are the Jayson Tatum MVP conversations premature... Is it too early to talk about the NBA MVP period? Is it a 3-man race for NBA MVP?  Mego takes a victory lap as Taylor Heinicke and her Washington Commanders take down the unbeaten Eagles.

HOUR 4- Payton Pritchard and Derrick White played an instrumental role in the Celtics' come from behind win over the Thunder on Monday night. Mego and Lou think Pritchard needs to be applauded for his effort and play while Malcolm Brogdon has been out. Discussing Luke Kornet's unique close out style known as “The Eclipse”. Has the national view on Jayson Tatum changed as he enters the MVP conversation, and are these conversations a little premature, Dan Shaughnessy thinks so. Last Call- Chris Mad Dog Russo loses his mind talking about Jeff Saturday as he hilariously rips Bill Cowher and Joe Thomas.

SEGMENT- Lou, Christian, and Mego react as Nathan Eovaldi rejects the Red Sox qualifying offer.

Hour 1 YOUR New England Patriots have secured themselves a playoff spot by doing quite literally nothing this week. Some are calling it the greatest Bye Week boondoggle of all time, but the gang is calling it the luckiest waltz into a playoff picture in recent memory. Merloni, Fauria, Mego, and newest addition Christian Arcand are talking about the crazy week of football in week 10 of the NFL.  The Miami Dolphins are a surprising juggernaut in the AFC East, the Bills are on fraud watch as Allen ponders going under the knife, and the Jets are... well the Jets. Can the Patriots keep pace with the NFL in a chaotic year, or will they fall victims to their own division down the homestretch of the season?

Enjoying the ad-free show? Please consider supporting it! Patrons get bonus episodes, perks, and entry into quarterly raffles. www.patreon.com/verypinkknits Many thanks to Turtlepurl for supporting the podcast! NEW WEBSITE - www.turtlepurl.com Check out their self-striping sock yarns. Coupon code information November Code: NOV22VP For 10% off all sets of self-striping yarn! Shelter Cove, the sweater that Casey is knitting The Knitter's Dude sweater I realize now that Mego is pronounced “MEE-go”. ? Kolchak: The Night Stalker tv episode Good Tension Between Knit and Purl Stitches Our links - Friend us on Peloton for more high-fives! We're kcknits and VeryPink. On Duolingo, Staci is StaciPerry2. Casey's Instagram Casey's website VeryPink Instagram Verypink.com VeryPink Knits YouTube Channel

Hour 1- Lou, Christian, and Mego discuss why Bill Belichick was so open about the opposing players knowing the Patriots' plays. Is there some ulterior motive? Mego makes fun of Christian's love of Chronicle and Mike Giardi makes a surprise appearance to talk about the Patriots play calling. 

Hour 1 The Patriots just aren't enjoyable proclaims Mego. The offense is to blame for the lackluster product on the field shouts Lou from the rooftops. Nothing is fixable cries Fauria. Your above .500 New England Patriots, fresh off a win over the Colts, have been ruled dead despite what the numbers tell you. After an ugly win that had fans questioning the legitimacy of this team, the gang debates from the bowels of Gillett Stadium whether or not this team is in fact just that. Legitimate. Fauria says the offensive line since day one should've been a dead give away for this results of Mac looking uncomfortable and rushed in the pocket since returning from his injury. Is there anywhere to go for this Patriots team or is the AFC just too tough to salvage a playoff season?

Hour 2 Patrice Bergeron spoke for the city on Saturday when he made it known he opposed the roster addition of Mitchell Miller. Between Bergy highlighting he was made aware of the situation a week ago, and the fact that he was not listened to, Merloni reasons that the Bruins and Don Sweeny were banking on fans not caring as much as they did. Will this blunder be enough to make heads roll? MegO thinks otherwise but wouldn't be shocked to see things fall that way. 

Hour 3 It's a Victory Monday on a Patriots Monday which means we've got Mac jones joining Merloni, Fauria, and Mego. They chat about what the young quarterback saw - and how well he saw it - on downfield looks from the pocket. Despite a Bye week ahead of the team, the Patriots are full steam ahead after a lack luster win against the Colts.

Will Mego's dream become a reality and Dan Snyder sells the Commanders?

Mego is getting heated that the Celtics are just letting Ime Udoka leave to become the Nets head coach for nothing.

Ime Udoka is the front runner to be the Nets next head coach, but should Celtics fans be mad if the Celtics don't get compensation for Ime? Mego takes a page out of Lou's playbook and become Angry Mego

Who comes to mind when you think creepy, mysterious, and spooky? That's right, the Pod Stallions boys! Oh, and The Addams Family, and since we clearly have so much in common, we thought it best to wrap up our October '22 celebrations by praising the Addamses in all their incarnations.  Since our 1st Oct. '22 Ep was The Munsters, and the two have gone hand in hand for decades, we thought it a good pair of bookends. The Coke to Pepsi, Beatles to Stones, and Trek to Wars of monster-themed sitcom comparisons; who comes out the winner is your personal choice. So settle in, snap along and enjoy some quality Family time. All together now...da-da-da-Da (snap-snap), da-da-da-Da..DOWNLOAD THE SHOW HERE Do you miss toy magazines?That's why we created Toy-Ventures magazine, an old-school print publication dedicated to vintage toys from the 1960s to the 1990s. Each issue is packed with never before seen images and information written by some of the top collectors. We've got six issues and climbing; please check our page here or visit our store. Our newest book "Knock-Offs: Totally, Unauthorized Action Figures," is now available. It's 130 pages of bootleg goodness. You can get this new book via the PlaidStallions Shop , On Amazon (Affiliate Link) or on eBay (eBay Link)   Our book Rack Toys, Cheap, Crazed Playthings is now available again! Order through our Affiliate Link Order Rack Toys 2.0 Here through our Affiliate Link►https://amzn.to/3Bkm9z1   FACEBOOK GROUPSROM PLAIDSTALLIONS    Pod Stallions is based on our podcast and is one of the most fun groups on Facebook. Toys, Comics, Movies, TV, it's all up for grabs and remember, you keep the glass! If you like our show, then you have found your tribe.   Mego Knock Off Headquarters- The leading group discussing 70s Dime store knock-offs and bootleg action figures, we talk vintage toys and not others. We know the difference between Astro Apes and Action Apeman.  It's a fun group where we talk about Lincoln International, AHI, Tomland, Bogi, Demo Man, Mortoys, and other generic greats.

Hour 3 The NFL trade deadline is looming on all Hallow's Eve and Dr. GM and Mr. Coach could be in the lab all night calling on teams looking to move anything from O-linemen to WRs with hands not made of tombstones. Fauria, Mego, and Merloni mull over what trades would make sense for the Pats and which should be the highest of priorities for Belichick heading into "undead"line. Which positions should be addressed, or what players need to be moved on from?

Hour 4 After being the topic of the afternoon, Mac jones joins Merloni, Fauria and MegO to talk about Sunday's win over New York and how he's feeling health wise moving forward. Questions of if he's up to the task of cementing his spot as the quarterback of the Patriots are somewhat answered... we think.

Hour 2 Mac Jones has been the focus of this Victory Monday, and it has mostly been his performance on the field that has had Merloni, Fauria, and MegO's attention. But this moment after the game should be revealing of where Mac stands with Head Coach Bill Belichick. Despite having Bill's trust and confidence, has Mac done enough consistently to keep the position going forward after this season?

HOUR 1: Gresh refuses to leave the studio to start the show. Fauria organized a costume contest at the station where Gresh participated and Fauria did not. Lou, Christian and Mego discuss the Patriots-Jets game and what they expect

Hour 1 Merloni, Fauria and Mego broadcast live from Helix E-sports at Patriot Place ahead of Patriots-Bears on Monday Night Football. It sounds like the Patriots are telling local and national media members that Bailey Zappe could see playing time vs Bears. There are radio hosts in Chicago who think the Bears catch a break by facing Mac Jones.  Mac is reported to start but will Zappe Fever remain alive tonight?

Watch here - https://youtu.be/rzBl2ThR7-cThis week the guys sit down with Mego, Hugh, and Jocelyn. Hugh and Jocelyn are the owners of Resolute Ballroom.  Grab a dance partner and waltz to discussions on, dance, bodily functions, elevators, proper word pronunciations, family, friends, and tons more!Get in touch here -  https://www.resoluteballroom.com/https://www.facebook.com/resoluteballroom instagram.com/resoluteballroom/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kirsten Ballew - Sistar Mortgage  NMLS #2293831 Company NMLS #6843407 Mention Discussion Combustion and get $500 off your closing costs -  https://kirstenballew.floify.com/?fbc...*Use PROMO CODE : DCPC for 20% off your Mountain Made CBD orders *@https://Mountainmadecbd.com​​​​​​Listen on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Google podcast, TuneIn, Stitcher, Pandora, and anywhere podcasts are heard

HOUR 3: Seth Wickersham joins us to break down the heated exchange at the NFL Owners Meetings between Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft. Tom Brady bizarrely compared his commitment to war deployment. Plus, Fauria explains his issue with Mego to end the hour

HOUR 1: The Celtics season kicked off last night and we saw Marcus Smart get into it with Joel Embiid. Fauria has a bone to pick with Mego on her Celtics column. Ben Volin is reporting that he got a DM from someone inside Gillette on the bad vibes Mac Jones is giving off. Except a Barstool fan has receipts to show he sent Volin a DM and the Boston Globe reporter allegedly used it as his show. 

Hour 1 Merloni, Fauria, and MegO are live from City Winery - steps away from the Garden - and previewing the Celtics season opener as they tip off tonight against the 76ers. With the coaching fiasco that has occurred late in the offseason, Fauria argues that the issue won't be a giant speedbump for the defending Eastern Conference Champs as they are more than capable of coaching themselves. Lou says otherwise and thinks that the loss of Udoka is eating at this team much more than what people think. Will the Celtics be rudderless or can the crew man the helm collectively?

Merloni, Fauria, and Mego are joined by Bailey Zappe live from Gillette stadium 

Former New England Patriot, and co-host of Merloni, Fauria, & Mego on WEEI, Christian Fauria joins Andy and Fitzy to discuss Patriots' 38-15 win over the Browns To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hour 1-  Last night's Thursday Night Football game was just as bad as most expected as we saw just 2 touchdowns. The broadcast was just was bad as the game. Lou, Christian, and Mego react to the horrible game that was.  How important is Sunday's game when looking at the big picture. Is it a must win? Does the direction of the season depend on this game?  Lou missed the Bill Belichick press conference because his mom called him. 

Hour 4-  Does your opinion on Sunday's game change depending on the quarterback? Christian, Lou, and Mego discuss.  Would it be a smart idea for the Patriots to rush Mac Jones back for Sunday's game?  Fauria has a Chubb problem.  What will be the headline following Sunday's game? 

SEGMENT-  The Patriots have listed quarterback Mac Jones as QUESTIONABLE for Sunday's game in Cleveland. If cleared, should Mac play? Lou, Christian, and Mego discuss. 

 It's that time again, when you curl up with a good horror movie and a bucket of candy and celebrate all that's creepy, which means it must be October and time for Pod Stallions' double dose of chat for the Greatest Holiday Ever Made. To show just how seriously we take it, for Ep 1 we've asked old chum and repeat offender David Weiner (In Search of Darkness I-III AND In Search of Tomorrow) to join in the convo, as we cover funsters The Munsters! From the pilot, to the  reunions and remakes, right up to the current Rob Zombie 're-imagining', it's all here in our latest episode. This one's sure to cause some water cooler moments or at least get us some feisty letters. Drag-U-La yerself along to the new Ep of Pod Stallions!Oh, and be sure to support David's latest Horror Doc, In Search of Darkness 3 at 80shorrordoc.comDOWNLOAD THE SHOW HERE Do you miss toy magazines?That's why we created Toy-Ventures magazine, an old-school print publication dedicated to vintage toys from the 1960s to the 1990s. Each issue is packed with never before seen images and information written by some of the top collectors. We've got six issues and climbing; please check our page here or visit our store. Our newest book "Knock-Offs: Totally, Unauthorized Action Figures," is now available. It's 130 pages of bootleg goodness. You can get this new book via the PlaidStallions Shop , On Amazon (Affiliate Link) or on eBay (eBay Link)   Our book Rack Toys, Cheap, Crazed Playthings is now available again! Order through our Affiliate Link Order Rack Toys 2.0 Here through our Affiliate Link►https://amzn.to/3Bkm9z1   FACEBOOK GROUPSROM PLAIDSTALLIONS    Pod Stallions is based on our podcast and is one of the most fun groups on Facebook. Toys, Comics, Movies, TV, it's all up for grabs and remember, you keep the glass! If you like our show, then you have found your tribe.   Mego Knock Off Headquarters- The leading group discussing 70s Dime store knock-offs and bootleg action figures, we talk vintage toys and not others. We know the difference between Astro Apes and Action Apeman.  It's a fun group where we talk about Lincoln International, AHI, Tomland, Bogi, Demo Man, Mortoys, and other generic greats.

HOUR 2: Mego attended the Celtics Tip Off Gala last night and we react to some of the highlights from the event. In a bombshell story from ESPN, Commanders owner Dan Synder has dirt on multiple NFL owners and commissioner Roger Goodell. Snyder believes he's the most powerful man in the NFL. Plus, is a man named Evan Rothstein the new Ernie Adams?

HOUR 4: Merloni, Fauria and Mego discuss her column on Jaylen Brown's association with Kanye West (Jaylen is signed to Kanye's Donda Sports). Do you care that Jaylen has been silent about the recent troubling comments from Kanye West? What could Donda Sports be providing him to make it worth it?

Segment - Bailey Zappe sits down with Fauria, Hart, and MegO to talk about his first NFL win as a starter.

Hour 1 Fauria, Mego and Andy Hart broadcast from Gillette Stadium where the Patriots shutout the Lions 29-0 on Sunday. Zappe stepped up in his Foxborough debut and now has New England on the pursuit of Zappeness. Do the Patriots have a QB controversy on their hands? Fauria and Hart get into this debate and tempers flare over which direction Belichick should go in.

 Who Watches the Watchmen?? WE do! And we've read it, too! Yes, it's time for a very special heartwarming episode of Pod Stallions, where we cover the apocalypse-straddling, superhero-deconstructing epic classic by A---M---- (name redacted) and Dave Gibbons. We cover its original release, the '09 film, the prequel/sequel comics, merch, HBO series and even the Dr. Manhattan promotional condom! (Never let it be said the PS guys don't go the extra mile). Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out and come along for the Watchmen ride. Be seeing you. (But not if we see you first!).DOWNLOAD THE SHOW HERE Do you miss toy magazines?That's why we created Toy-Ventures magazine, an old-school print publication dedicated to vintage toys from the 1960s to the 1990s. Each issue is packed with never before seen images and information written by some of the top collectors. We've got six issues and climbing; please check our page here or visit our store. Our newest book "Knock-Offs: Totally, Unauthorized Action Figures," is now available. It's 130 pages of bootleg goodness. You can get this new book via the PlaidStallions Shop , On Amazon (Affiliate Link) or on eBay (eBay Link)   Our book Rack Toys, Cheap, Crazed Playthings is now available again! Order through our Affiliate Link Order Rack Toys 2.0 Here through our Affiliate Link►https://amzn.to/3Bkm9z1   FACEBOOK GROUPSROM PLAIDSTALLIONS    Pod Stallions is based on our podcast and is one of the most fun groups on Facebook. Toys, Comics, Movies, TV, it's all up for grabs and remember, you keep the glass! If you like our show, then you have found your tribe.   Mego Knock Off Headquarters- The leading group discussing 70s Dime store knock-offs and bootleg action figures, we talk vintage toys and not others. We know the difference between Astro Apes and Action Apeman.  It's a fun group where we talk about Lincoln International, AHI, Tomland, Bogi, Demo Man, Mortoys, and other generic greats.

Also check out the ALA Policy Corps  as well as the ALA Advocacy website Sara:    Welcome to another episode of Copyright Chat. It's been a hot minute sorry about that everybody but today we have a        very special guest. We have Jim, Neil. Hi, Jim! Jim:     Hi!  How are you? Sara: Great! And Jim is the University library in emeritus at Columbia University. He also served as ALA President, and he received 2 awards from the ALA, the highest award on as an honorary             member in 2022, as well as the L. Ray Patterson copyright award. Congratulations Jim! Jim:     Thanks, Sara. Sara: So, Jim, I just wanted to get started. How did you get involved in copyright, as you're not a lawyer by training. But you've been such an advocate in the copyright field and            I'm just curious how you got involved in in the beginning. Jim:     Well, it it actually goes way back to the early 1970s. I graduated from Columbia School of Library Service at the end of 1972 and began working as a librarian the following year, and you'll recall this is when a lot of the discussion and debate began to revolve around the updating and modification            of the US Copyright Law. And so my early professional career was advanced during this period of time, and I participated in many of the early discussions that led up to the 1976 copyright law. And so I was born in the context of fair use and the context of the exceptions, the limitations that define the ability of libraries to serve their communities. I hung out with copyright in a pretty low level way until the late 1980s, and it was at that time when so much of our work had become automated, and we're beginning to see the early publication of the things that we had historically acquired in print were now becoming available electronically, and of course that would explode in the 1990s. It was also the time that two other things happened. one in the mid-1980s, I'd become very interested in national information policy and my initial plunge into that was in the area of government information: Making sure that the information the Government produced was widely and openly available and accessible. But, in 1990s I also became Dean of University Libraries at Indiana University, and that was at that time that I recognized how important it was for up or major research libraries, and by extension all academic libraries, to play a significant role as new thinking about copyright began to evolve. I worked with the Association of College and Research Libraries. I worked with the Board of ARL, of which I was then a member, to really position us as associations that were part of the national debate around copyright. I also worked with Indiana University to create what I think was the first University library-based copyright advisory office at Indiana University based in Indianapolis and we hired Kenny Crews at that time to run that office. And so I began to meet with groups of librarians around the country, with different boards to develop strategic direction and actions around copyright. And when I made to move from Indiana to Johns Hopkins where we created a similar copyright office. I got a call from Washington asking me if I would be willing to join the US delegation that was going to go off to Geneva to participate      in the World Intellectual Property Organization, a diplomatic conference negotiations on copyright, the basic   objective being to update the international copyright law to reflect the digital and network environment in which we were operating. So I went off for 3 weeks to Geneva, was an advisor to the US delegation. I tried to get exceptions, limitations, and fair use into the discussion and the debate and that ultimately, of course, led to the             adoption of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the United States. So that sort of explains the early involvement in             participation. Sara:    Sounds like it was an adventure beginning with the change to the Copyright Act in 1976 all the way through the Digital             Millienium Copyright Act, which, of course, is still debated today. And the library exceptions which we're still trying to get      at an international level today, so it's still ongoing. This work never ends, Jim, when is it going to end? Jim:     I think it's perpetual. You know we play a lot of defense in the area of copyright not wanting to open up discussions about aspects of the copyright law that really benefit us and enable us to support our communities, but there's been so much effort to strengthen copyright on behalf of the copyright creators, and therefore we've been active in Washington for the last 20 years, trying to prevent unnecessary, inappropriate, and difficult to work with copyright changes coming out of Washington. We've also had to deal with several important initiatives at the State level during that period as well. And I think we generally have been have done okay. We tried to work with the creator community to update section 108 of the copyright law, which is that section which specifically provides the exceptions and limitations for libraries and artists enabling us to do things like inter library loan, and make preservation copies, and copies for users, and so forth. But we did not come out of that 3-year process. I was on the 108 study group. We did not come out of that process with an acceptable plan of action that would enable all interested parties to reopen 108 and make the necessary changes. And so that was an interesting process. and I learned a lot about how copyright works. And who is involved, and what the relationship is between the publishing industry ,the creator industry, and the copyright office in Washington. So we've done, I think, modestly well representing libraries, but there's so much more work to do. Sara: You mentioned the section 108 study, and I do assign that             discussion document from the US Copyright office that came out of that study to my students and often they say to me, Professor Benson, why hasn't this happened? What's going on? There's a model law at the end. Why has this not happened? My perspective, and I wonder what your perspective is, is that potentially opening up section 108 could be problematic. Given what happened with some other portions of the Copyright Act, such as the TEACH Act that went South. I mean the TEACH Act is good in theory. If you're, unfamiliar with the TEACH Act it provides online opportunities for educational uses of certain works it's supposed to mirror the face-to-face teaching exception under Section 110(1). It's in section 110(2) of the Act, but unfortunately it became so cumbersome to apply that most universities, including mine, don't really exercise it. And I wonder what your perspective is about opening up section if we were to do that today? Jim:     I think it would be very difficult and challenging, and we would put our ability to serve our communities at risk. One of the real important debates within the 3 years of the 108 study group was are digital works covered by exceptions and limitations in copyright? And what is the role and purpose of contracts, licenses that libraries sign with publishers and other creator companies. What rules govern the use of those materials? And I think it's clear from litigation and from legislation that there are really two streams of guidance. One is if it's in print, you're probably going to be able to apply the exceptions and limitations in section 108. If it's in digital form, you're probably going to be mandated to use the provisions of the contract, the license agreement that you sign. The public law of copyright versus the private law of contract. And the problems that I have with that are that it means that I put this in the area of social justice. I always have. If you have good lawyers, if you have a lot of money. If you have influence you have good connections, you're probably going to be able to negotiate a better contract, a more favorable contract, then the smaller instructions that don't have good legal counsel don't have a lot of money, and are gonna just defer to the contract that they sign. To me, that is an issue of social justice and it's on that basis that I fought this from the very beginning. I think we don't want to open one way. It could really create a real risk to our ability to serve our communities. We have seen other initiatives coming out of Washington besides the TEACH Act. We recently went through the crazy CASE Act deliberations, and worked very hard in this provision of creating a small claims court capacity for people to get sued for supposed violations of copyright and making sure that libraries and library staff were exempt from those lawsuits. So I think it's going to be a constant battle, and I think, with a new Congress coming on board in the fall—and we're not quite sure what the political makeup will be of the Congress at this point, but we have we have some thinking about that, will there be new initiatives to upset the balance that we've enjoyed in the copyright arena. We're also seeing more what I would call legal court cases around copyright, than historically, we experienced. And I think what we don't want to happen is that judicial decisions begin to define what copyright is in this country, and I think that's going to be a real challenge going forward. Copyright for most of the American population has been one of those “MEGO” topics—my eyes glaze over. People don't really know what it is or care about it, or know that they should care about it, and we've seen over the last decade or so copyright appearing on the front pages of newspapers and hitting the popular press in the areas of music and film, and art. And so people, I think, are a little bit more aware of copyright. But too often, I think they assume that they're protected because they hear the words fair use, and they think if they're not out there trying to make money and copying stuff willy nilly that somehow they're not subject to the provisions and the protections of copyright. So I think I think court cases could become more important going forward. Sara:    Yeah, that's a really good point and one of those court cases was in Maryland recently, with the e-book legislation, where they attempted to impose reasonable terms for libraries on e-book licensing at the state law level, and it was deemed by the court to be in violation of copyright preemption. And I wonder what your views are on that. I mean. You mentioned licensing earlier, and it really is becoming one of these issues, especially for public libraries. It's a place where you know in order to serve their patrons public libraries really need to have access to these e-books, and yet the licensing terms can be quite expensive and limiting. Where do you see this going? Jim:     Well, I think there's a whole series of issues that are bundled up in digital content and copyright, and we've mentioned two of them. The one you reference of which Maryland is probably the most celebrated. I use that word carefully, celebrated case, but it also has progressed in several other States, not successfully. And it's as you educate it's largely a public library issue because they want to provide a maximum access to their to their communities for the books that people want to read and material that people want to listen to. But if they can't, even buy this stuff if they can't even license the stuff under any terms, then I think it's a real problem. And so the first issue is, will libraries be able to license this stuff and can publishers block libraries from getting these materials? The second is the terms under which they license and onerous terms. A single reader at a time. Issues of cost. I could buy the book for $20 but to license, a copy, $80. Those are onerous financial and use terms. So that's one stream of concern. The second stream of concern is that we over many decades under section 108, have learned what we can do to in terms of supporting our community through inter library loan and preservation and copies for users under an analog, print-based environment. But when the contracts begin to limit what we can do. For example, we had, about 15 years ago, a major hassle when these licenses from major scholarly publishers said we could not loan things on inter-library loan internationally: we could only loan them to people or institutions in the United States. That was a shock and a signal that these license terms would continue to deteriorate and close up. And so, we fought that battle and several of the major publishers backed off. So I think we need to always be vigilant and we need to understand that contract is where we're playing ball today. And therefore we have to negotiate effectively and play hardball in order to get the best terms we can because of those uses of digital materials probably will not be covered under the exceptions of limitations and copyright. Sara: So where do you see opportunities? I mean, there is a really amazing law in Singapore, for instance, that says that you cannot contract away your copyright exceptions and limitations. Could we get that in the United States at least for libraries and archives? Jim: Well, that was our hope. About 2 years ago I convened a meeting in Washington at the ALA Washington Office, and this was the subject of our discussion is what is achievable. What are the domestic—t hat is national—opportunities and limitations, and what is happening internationally. And we had a representative there from the international federation of library associations who updated us on the Singapore Bill and the work that was going on in other countries around the world. It's very difficult. This was an issue that came up under 108. We tried to get a provision that said a contract could never undermine copyright. We could not give away the exceptions. of limitations under copyright and the publishers and the other members of the contact community wouldn't even talk about it. And so, therefore it's going to be not only a process challenge but it's going to be a very difficult political challenge, because, many of the leading legislators in Washington one don't understand the issue and two very often get financial support from the large media and publisher companies. So it's it's gonna be a tough battle. Sara: Just to point out a counterpoint to that I would point to the fact that with physical books we've been successfully using interlibrary Loan for years and years and we have not depleted the publishing market, and I understand the concern of publishers there, right, saying,wWell, now, interlibrary loan is baked into every contract. Fair use would be baked in if you're a really good negotiator. You should have in regardless. That gets to the social justice issue you mentioned earlier. But if everyone had it by default through libraries and archives in my opinion, publishers would still be making profits, and the reason is that inter library loan can never substitute for a subscription to an item right, and we do keep track, and we have to by law keep track of our inter library loan agreements and our lending and pay licensing fees. When we have hit a certain mark where, if we had otherwise just purchased the item we would not be able to loan it. So we could have similar things right in place for digital objects that we do for physical objects. And maybe this all could still operate with everyone on a fair level. I think the issue for me personally is that we like libraries are really not a fair level right, especially public libraries, where you have the demand of the public, and you're trying to serve your population who pays the taxes that puts the books in their hands right? And they have this expectation that not only are physical books available, e-books are going to be available, and with the pandemic and mobility issues, we have more and more instances where folks cannot come into the library in person, and we really should be providing those e-books to our communities. And so I I think we're at a real disadvantage. And this is where we're gonna need some strong advocacy right? And I think this is where you, Jim, have been so much at the forefront here, creating the ALA Policy Corps for that purpose. So I wanted to kind of switch gears and talk about you know why. Why did you create the ALA Policy Corps? What are the goals of that group? Jim:  Let me let me make one other statement about digital lending? We I think, from a published perspective it's a slippery slope, I think, by having to negotiate those terms in a contract it does give publishers some leverage in terms of a price. So I think I think, there's a real interest in preserving that control within the publisher community. We saw we had some recent experience with that under control digital lending where we have tried to build some responsible approaches to digital lending interlock very loan and tried to extend that under the impact of Covid and have to hold back already. if you will post Covid. But we have seen the library community through the Internet Archive end up in court of that issue. So I think libraries and universities and communities are fearful of litigation. And are going to probably take a more conservative approach. Not go out there and fight the battle, which I think has to happen and big basically give in to the publishers on this. But I think court cases hopefully will come along that might help us in this area. Policy Corps. As I mentioned, I started my work, and national information policy in the in the area of government information. In the mid 1990s several universities, including the one where I was, Penn State, was experiencing FBI increase about materials being requested by international students who were studying at our universities. This was my introduction to issues around privacy. And then, after 911 of the U.S.A. Patriot Act introduce a set of controls interventions by legal authorities that, we're severely problematic and difficult for libraries, and I became very active on that issue. Advising libraries, giving workshops, going public, with my opposition, and at that same time I became very involved in the work of the freedom to read Foundation, where I've sort of served on that board for many years and have become involved in national intellectual freedom debates. And so all of this experience, including my work, with copyright demonstrated to me how important it is for the library community to have authoritative expert voices at the table. And historically we've had a few individuals who have been willing to keep up on a particular policy issue, who have been willing to get at the table and fight the battle by testifying before committees at the state the national level developing, op-ed pieces, editorial pieces for publication in the press sitting down with partners to develop political strategies, and any of those individuals have been retiring over the last decade, and so I felt we really need to develop an ongoing cohort of individuals are truly committed to working on behalf of the library communities developing information policy areas. And so we agreed to begin it on an experimental basis, and we recruited, I think, 12 individuals that first year on a competitive basis, and they've been working over the last 3 to 4 years developing their knowledge of their policy interest area. But more importantly, developing the skills and understanding to be an effective advocate. And we have now have 4 more cohorts of Policy Corps people. Next year we'll be looking at how we proceed with the fifth cohort. Covid was a challenging time for us with the policy corps because of the inability to bring people together. we're now beginning to do that again. and so I'm hopeful that we can continue to develop a very strong representation for library leaders in the information policy area. The other thing we worked on in parallel was what I call the National Advocacy Network, to try to get a representative, at least one representative for the library community in each of the 435 Congressional districts. So when something came up in Washington, where we really needed advocacy at the local level, so convince our members of Congress Representatives and our Senators that they needed to support our interests in these debates, we would have be on the ground if you will grassroots capacity to influence their thinking. so I'm hoping that over time, and as we break out from Covid, the combination of the policy core and the national advocacy network will provide benefits to the library community it's wonderful program, and I think we've seen quite a bit of movement there. Sara:    Can you talk about some of the successes we've had through the Policy Corps? I'm a member of the third cohort and I've done quite a few webinars and published updates about the CASE Act. What are some of the other things that we've seen come out of the policy core? Jim:     Well, I think many of the members of the policy core have been very active, educating their colleagues at the local and national level, either through, as you said, webinars, writing for the field, and so forth. But as importantly, if not more importantly, some of the policy corps members have been very active with their with their local Congress people. Their representatives and their senators that's very important. A few have been going to Washington to meet with various groups and committees to try to influence funding and influence legislation that we care about. Several of them very active in writing op-ed pieces for their local newspapers. Several have been testified at the State level before State legislatures. Another area that we have seen a real challenge over the last several years, and I think it's gonna get very difficult going forward is the whole area around banning books in libraries. It's perhaps most active in schools, but also is now beginning to play out in public libraries. And I think that's been another area where the policy corps has been very active and trying to influence understanding and to have impact on some of these really egregious actions on the part of local politicians. So overall I think the policy corps has been successful. We've developed our skills. And now that has to translate into real action at the State and Federal level. Sara:    Yeah, it's a great point. We really have to do more than talk about things. We have to take some action and meet with our representatives. What advice do you have for folks listening to this podcast maybe they're not members of the ALA Policy Corps but they want to take action as well, what could they do? Jim:     Well, I think it's very important to become aware of, and to understand the information policy issues that we're dealing with and the ALA office. That website is a great source of information there are lots of webinars. There's this podcast. There are great sources of information to educate oneself. There's literature, books, and articles that's half the story. The other half is being confident. Knowing what type of actions have impact. How do you influence people's understanding and actions and that's very important. I think, at state level of ALA—the American Library Association—and the library community in general is really strengthened by State chapters. There are, I think, 56 regional chapters. Most of them state-based that provide lots of legislative training. Lots of policy updating, and I think that's a great place for people to begin that work to get involved at the State level to join their committees on legislation to go to their State legislative days and hopefully in the future to go to the national legislative days. But to keep, continue to be educated and open to training, which I think is critical to success. Sara: I agree, and also not to feel that some of these calls for action are not for you. The ALA is often saying, you know, respond to this. Talk to your legislators about this issue, and sometimes people think well someone else will do it right. But getting on the phone, and you know calling up your local congressperson's office, and and saying, you know I work at this library. And this matters to me because of this those kinds of those kinds of outreach efforts do make a difference, and the more you do it the more they're going to be familiar with who you are, and you're gonna create those relationships. So, not being afraid to pick up the phone, write an email message. Write a handwritten letter, you know, whatever the whatever it may be, or sign a petition. Jim:     All of those things can really help and add up yeah there's a couple other things that I really think it's important to do. I think each library should know who the staff people are, in these Congressional offices, both the staff person in Washington and the Staff office at the local level. Know those people. They're the ones who influence the actions of their of their Senators at their representatives. So, get to know the staff.  Secondly, invite the Congressperson to the library. Get them there have an event where they can be visible. They can be seen in a very favorable light by the voters in that community, and they can begin to identify with you library. That's really, really critical and I think those are those are steps that most libraries can take pretty easily, and I  would encourage all libraries to leverage staff to do that. Sara:    Those are great points. And actually the point about staff is so crucial. When I went to the ALA day on the hill, we were speaking with a Congressperson's staff member. And one thing we learned when speaking with this delightful young woman was that she worked in a library in college, and immediately it changed the tone of the conversation because she had firsthand knowledge of how important libraries are, how much we do for our community, and what a wonderful place it is to work right. And so she didn't take much convincing when we're asking for this funding. It's so important to kind of get those stories from people because most folks have connections to libraries. It's not a hard sell when you ask them you know what's, your experience with libraries, because they either went to a local library. I can't tell you, how many times, I take my daughter to the library, and we come home with bushels of books because she's such an avid reader, but as a mom that is an important thing for me and so people have those connections either through, you know, working in a library, going to the library, their university library, all of those different things. So getting to know those making those personal connections is so important. Jim:     Yes, we've talked a lot about policy, issues, but when it really comes down to it. the overriding of legislative matter that most libraries deal with both at the local and State and Federal level is funding And so, having a good understanding of what finding bills are being considered. What the history has been of your representatives support for library funding. Have success stories available. How has you Library made a difference in the quality of research in the University? The quality of education in the school people be able to get jobs in the by working with the public library. All those examples and success stories can be very, very influential, because most Representatives and senators care about the economy. And the degree to which people help, at which the library helps people find jobs helps people connect I think, can be really really powerful. so never, never forget success stories, particularly as it impacts funding debates. Sara:    Great point. And I really have enjoyed this conversation with you today. I hope the listeners have enjoyed it well, and we really encourage you to check out the ALA Policy Information and  information about the Policy Corps if you're interested and want to get involved. We are always happy to chat about that some more. But thanks so much for joining me today, Jim it's been a very fun conversation. Jim:     Thanks, Sarah. It's been a great opportunity to talk about things alright see you next time

Merloni, Fauria and Mego discuss another change by ESPN that was unnecessary 

HOUR 4 Merloni, Fauria and Mego discuss the Patriots loss in Green Bay, a game that was there for the taking. Did the Patriots conservative nature cost the team a chance to win? Is it time for the Patriots to bring in a free agent QB or trade for one?

Mike "Mut" Mutnansky joins Merloni, Fauria and Mego in studio to bet Week 4 in the NFL

Hour 4 Mac Jones chats with Merloni, Fauria, and MegO for usual Football Monday conversation but this one had to address the elephant in the room. After sustaining a leg injury that has turned out to be a high ankle sprain in Sunday's matchup against the Ravens, Mac tries to keeps things like his ankle in a cast... under wrap. Additionally, the crew discuss the continued lack of use of Kendrick Bourne and when Patriot fans can expect to see him. Or possibly, what will it take to see him.

Hour 1 Merloni, Fauria and Mego broadcast from Gillette Stadium, the home of a QB with an uncertain future. Mac Jones suffered a severe high ankle sprain and may be headed for surgery that will have him out long term. Fauria shares what he's learned about the Ime Udoka situation and how he got busted by a Ring Doorbell himself. The gang gives their big takeaways after the Patriots loss at home to the Ravens with Lou being the the hopeless optimistic of the bunch. 

HOUR 3: Merloni, Fauria and Mego give your their predictions for Sunday's home opener between the Patriots and Ravens. Former NBA player turned TV analyst Matt Barnes says the Udoka situation is indefensible and “100 times worse” than we expected.

The copyright on Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne officially moved into the public domain this year. What does that actually mean?  How might nonprofit's use public domain characters like this to help tell their story? Tara Jacobson is the owner of MarketingArtfully.com with over 20 years experience in the marketing industry. She helps us break down what is possible and comes up with creative ways nonprofit causes might use the IP.    Resource links A lot of websites were shared on this awesome episode, here are the URLs mentioned. Creative Commons Trademark/Copyright search TESS RedBubble.com https://creativemarket.com/  https://morguefile.com/  https://fiverr.com Canva.com Openai.com Public Domain Story List MarketingArtfully.com https://artsyfartsylife.com/    About Tara Jacobson Tara Jacobson is the owner of MarketingArtfully.com with over 20 years experience in the marketing industry which translates into highly successful marketing systems for her “DIY” and entrepreneur clients. Tara's strong history in Psychology, Entrepreneurship, and Creativity, combined with her 100 miles per hour, “tell it like it is” personality have earned her the title “The Queen of Marketing Ahhh's” from her raving fans. Tara brings a true small and medium sized business perspective to her work. She has talked with over 1,000 small biz owners about their goals, plans and dreams, helping them to grow and make sure that their marketing increases their intended efforts!   Rough Transcript   [00:00:00] George: We have a very interesting guest who is, I'll just say it very brave because she is coming in because I reached out to her completely cold, like completely cold. I'm sitting there looking up information about creative ways of using public domain characters and works and none other than marketing, artfully.com. [00:00:50] And then I reached out to the owner and Tara Jacobson was nice enough as the owner of marketing, fully marketing artfully com. She has over 20 years experience in the marketing industry, but is, I would say coming at this as an outsider to the nonprofit and social impact industry in her work with over thousands of small and mid-size businesses and in this world. [00:01:13] Tara, can you tell us maybe a bit more about your work and what. [00:01:18] Tara: So I started internet marketing and making websites with like dream Weaver and all of that back in the day. Merge two, I was a realtor for a couple of years. That was interesting. And then I owned a marketing company for years and one of the reasons why I got so interested in. [00:01:37] More so trademark and copyright and later on, interested in public domain is because it's I believe it's $600. You get fined as a business. If you use somebody's copyrighted or trademarked work and it's $10,000, if you do it for a client. So I was like, I have always bought every picture I've ever owned. [00:02:04] I've always had. Oh shoot. What it was called, where the domain of where you got your things and yeah. You sourced the information and yeah that to me was super important years ago when I was posting things for people, making social media graphics, things like that. [00:02:23] And I got really interested in it. So we're gonna talk today. I'm gonna give you a little course in all of the D. Terms that are gonna come up. And then I love that we're gonna brainstorm some ways that nonprofits can use 'em the only nonprofit I've ever been involved in was the Colorado house rabbit society. [00:02:49] I do have a blog post on my website about how to get volunteers, cuz they were really bad at it. And so I did I did write them a blog post on how to get volunteers, but I haven't worked tons with nonprofits, but I've worked with all kinds of businesses over the years, small businesses and medium size SSEs and small business. [00:03:13] George: Yeah. And I think that's helpful context too, to say, like what's at stake. Why do I care about this on one end? There's the penalty side, which is frankly, not as much fun as the creative, which we'll get to, but I'll just say from personal experience, we had interns writing content at whole whale. [00:03:32] Seven years ago, I get this email from it's like a take down notice, but also basically we used like a picture of a squirrel with some nuts that somebody just Google. Just Google the image and the content really wasn't used at all. And we got fined. I will say I, I can't officially say, but it is in the thousands of dollars for a picture, an intern put on our website like a decade ago. [00:03:57] Like it's very real what you're talking about and very painful. So I think your note, I'll just put an exclamation point on. It's worth checking because the algorithms that people have for quickly searching and scanning websites have improved for scanning for this type of copyrighted work, all righty onto you. [00:04:17] What, and there's [00:04:18] Tara: so much available for free or a very little money. I'm gonna explain the difference, how you get super free stuff, and then how you get like really tiny money. And to me, tiny money is under $10. Maybe not under $300, I'm talking tiny money. So we're gonna start off by talking about what trademark is. [00:04:47] So trademark gets talked about a lot and trademark is just the words. So you, so Nike's swoosh. The picture of it is copyrighted because it's an image, but the word just do it is trademarked and you can't use those kind of terms. What you're talking about with the creative and the marketing, and maybe pictures for blogs and maybe pictures for things to sell or images for things to sell. [00:05:17] Is called copyright because copyright covers artistic things like pictures poems, books, things like that. And things come out of copyright. I looked it up after 70 years. So things before 1924 are in the public domain right now. And something super exciting came into the public domain this year, which was the original poo bear. [00:05:46] And [00:05:47] George: all the characters, right? So everything from the mil books are public domain. [00:05:53] Tara: Yeah. And there's illustrations of P bear and EOR and the hundred acre words and things like that, that people truly have a heartfelt connection to. So if you're talking about doing something that is going to help a nonprofit, you're not looking for something that's going to. [00:06:16] Be mercenary or something like that. You want something that people can go back to their childhood and think, oh my gosh, it's poo bear. I love poo. And there's a whole list of and you can put a link on it. I have a whole list on my website of stories that are in the public. So Rapunzel, Rapunzel it down. [00:06:47] Your hair is in the public domain. So that is something that people can use. Oh, we have to talk about public domain too. But that is a story that people can use. What they can't use is tangled. Tangled is the dignified version of. Yeah, Rapunzel, let down my hair. So what you wanna do is you wanna make sure that anything you're looking to use, there's a database. [00:07:19] It's the PT, PTO database. It's called test T E S S. If you just search test on. Google, they have a way to search for it. And you put in only look for live ones. So if you look for live and dead ones, then you're gonna get a lot. But we only care about the ones that are live right now. And so you can find out if something is in the public domain is a avail, is copyrighted or not. [00:07:46] Now public domain is way more just than things that have gone on a copyright or that aren't trademarked. There are things called creative commons where an artist or a writer or people like that will take their items and file them as creative commons. Now you want what's called creative commons. Oh zero zero. [00:08:12] And that means they hold no They don't have any license on it. Where if it's just like a plain creative comments, a lot of times they'll exclude a commercial license, even though you're a nonprofit, if you're selling something commercially, that would be violating the terms of that license. And you can find all kinds of things doing that search for pictures, for your website, for things like that. [00:08:38] Now there are places that say they. Creative commons things like morgue file has a lot of pictures on it. It's just one of the places. And, but they don't have a vetting process. They rely on the people, uploading the pictures to do it. So we're gonna talk for just a wee minute about why sometimes it's better to purchase it than not. [00:09:05] Okay. Even if you're using something that's in the public domain. So we're gonna talk about poo. Because I love him and absolutely but you could go, you could grab a book off the shelf. You could download that you could scan that image. You could fix all of the little problems with a graphic. [00:09:29] Program like Photoshop and make sure it's in the proper condition to use on a t-shirt or use on postcards or things like that. Or you can go to a place like creative market where somebody has already done that for you. Like an artist has already done all those steps. And you buy it with a commercial license. [00:09:52] Usually they're about $11, I think, to get like a set of P bear images. Alison Wonderland is in the public domain. So you can use Alison Wonderland. Now they have, somebody has trademarked Allison Wonderland on t-shirts. So you still, even if it's in the public domain, you always wanna go check the trademark database. [00:10:14] It's not, there's no like blanket, these are all safe and these are not all safe. You always wanna go and check. So does, [00:10:22] George: so the trademark database, what does that look like? Is that tests or is that a different that's test? Yeah, no [00:10:27] Tara: that's tests and all you do is you put you put in Alison Wonderland in tests and click live and click search, and then it'll show you what category of things are. [00:10:42] Ex like you have to exclude. So say it says t-shirt clothing. I can't remember what's all in that category, but you could make greeting cards. Nobody's trademarked that for greeting cards. So that's why you wanna check. So even if you think, oh my gosh, Allison wonderlands gone. It doesn't mean it is. [00:11:04] If you're not using it on the thing, they've trademarked it for. And I have such a good example that I looked up for you. So the word elf. Is trademark for lighters, photography, backdrop, and amplifiers three different categories. You can't use it for that. But as of right now, if you wanted to use it on a t-shirt you be, it's not just the, you're gonna put a picture of an L on a t-shirt and you're and for nonprofits, you may be able to avoid some of these problems, because you're functionally selling. to your constituents rather than as much trying to sell internationally. Sometimes you may wanna sell internationally, but if you're doing a fundraiser internally and you're not gonna be advertising it online or in a huge way, then you may be able to get away with it. [00:12:08] If they do send you a cease desist, then you have made commercial money on it though they can claw back that money. So it's worth looking. [00:12:16] George: Yeah this complicates it a bit more because prior to even you saying that, I just assumed if it's in the public domain, I'm looking at a picture of Winnie the poo. [00:12:26] Somebody could have trademarked that on a t-shirt. So I'm like, oh, I can spin up my t-shirts with Winnie the poo on it. [00:12:32] Tara: No, they can't trademark the picture of Winnie the poo they could tra they could, and they can't copyright it because the copyright belongs to AA. So Uhuh, the original artwork is in the public domain. [00:12:49] What they could do is, and it would take 'em a while to do it, cuz they have to show the first time the trademark, the word was used in the public and then they have to pay money to get it. It's about 12, $1,200 to get the trademark and then they have to go through a whole process where it's vet. So you and they won't go backwards. So if you were to sell a Winnie, the POH says, Winnie the poo, it's the poo bear old P bear you're done. And in two years, somebody trademarks Winnie the poo and you had used it. They don't go backwards. Does that [00:13:26] George: help at all? You know what it helps with reminding folks that just because it's on that list, you should double check the database, especially if you're going to put marketing power behind it, putting it on products and as you go to use it, but. [00:13:40] Again, though, is a massive shopping list because there are some edge cases maybe you can't put poo on a lighter, but [00:13:50] Tara: no, you can't put, you can't put an El on a lighter [00:13:53] George: I know let's get your, let's get it straight. Elves, not okay. Poo, like we'll just memorize whole thing. Poo's good. He's good to go on a lighter. [00:14:00] There's that huge the movie's coming out, right? They did a horror movie with Winnie the. Can drop this season because you can do [00:14:12] Tara: that. You can do that now. And so all of these amazing things that people, and it's not even just, so Walt Disney was brilliant. He took over so many fairy tales. [00:14:31] Yeah. And stole them for him. There is a real beauty and the beast story that is an old fable from like, When the black plague was around that he then made specific. Now you can do all kinds of things with beauty and the beast. You just can't do the bell in the yellow there iconography, right? [00:14:58] Yeah. Okay. And then spec. So that's from both the old movie and the new movie, and then you can't do, and then you can, but there's so many things you can do. Like sleeping. Beauty is you can say sleeping beauty. He doesn't own sleeping beauty. He owns Aurora because that wasn't the name of the original sleeping beauty. [00:15:22] It was. Sister. And so he picked that one. So then you wanna really try, I do know a lot about this. You wanna try to make sure that something isn't copyrighted or trademarked before you use it and just BEC and do not go to Etsy, do not go to anywhere and do a search and think, oh, look, this is all over Etsy. [00:15:46] It must be okay. That's not how the world works. [00:15:50] George: Yeah, you're really talking about the original, like name of the character as presented essentially in the trademark language, in the copyright public domain and the images I'm looking through your piece on Allison Wonderland. You may have that image of Allison, a blue dress and the the mad hat, or it is a very different look, frankly, but it's still recognizable as the charact. [00:16:16] but it doesn't necessarily have that immediate brand recognition that essentially that's a Disney version Disney, it Disney it. But right now, for instance there's two movies about pinoc one on, I think Netflix and one on Disney as a rerelease guess what, that's another story similar to, as you just mentioned beauty and the beast that you [00:16:35] Tara: can run with. [00:16:36] Yeah, there are so many things. And oh and they're really mad about this, but I think in the next year it might be next year, Nikki's coming [00:16:45] George: to town. [00:16:47] Tara: Old Mickey, like really old Mickey. Oh, G Mickey. Yeah. OG Mickey is coming out of copyright. And so that's, what's fun about it to me. Like I, I make stuff for now I make artwork. [00:17:03] I'm an artist now. And I make artwork. So I made my own version of the mad hatch actress who does not look like Johnny Depp. It doesn't look like Disney's version. She's a woman in a hat and the original Alison Wonderland had that 10 and 10, six thing in her hat. And so she's very recognizable as Alison Wonderland, as the Matt had her from Allison Wonderland, but she's a feminist version. [00:17:41] George: So now we get into maybe some of that creative elements, unless there's some more guardrails you wanna toss [00:17:45] Tara: out for folks. Nope. I think if you've gotten this far and you have all of the warnings [00:17:51] George: you really made them take their vegetables first, right? Amen. Vegetables and vitamins first. So you can riff on them. [00:18:00] You can take this original concept and riff on it. Can I just maybe up to a thou 3000. Explain to me what are the advantages of using a character that has this recognition [00:18:14] Tara: already? Okay. So the reason why there is copyright and trademark is because it would be so much easier to sell a Alison Wonderland. [00:18:30] Queen of hearts mug. If it looked just like Disney's right, people have already paid money to go to the Disney movie. They've already paid to go to Disney world. Walt Disney has already done the work to make people want to like that. And so it's unfair if you think, oh, I wanna do something with transformers because there's good brand recognition. [00:18:58] The reason why you wanna do it is because there's good brand recognition right now. The reason we now I wanna I'll give you my Madha example. The reason I wanna do a Madris is I can use all the words except for Alice in wonder. So mad Hatter, isn't trademarked tea party. We are all mad here. [00:19:23] All of those things are not trademarked, so I can make a mad Hatter shirt with we're all mad here and I can market it in a way that it will be able to get found by a portion of the population that's interested in the Alice Wonderland story. That's why I wanna make a bad hatch actress, because I know that there are people that already resonate with that character, whether it was the Disney character or whether they read Allison Wonderland in their childhood, or whether they saw Johnny DEP any which way they have a feeling towards that character. [00:20:00] And I can use that to help sell my stuff. [00:20:04] George: Gotcha. So you're shopping for. These characters in part because of this. And I wanna come back to the value that you are essentially borrowing for free. Think about the amount of attention it took to bring that character to millions of people. How much would that have cost for you to do the same? [00:20:24] Now you then, because of that attention, as I understand it, there's recognition. Oh, I see that. I grew up with that. I was read that. And then with recognition, you then can play with the affinity, which by the way, can be positive and negative. There are often villains in here as well, but you then can immediately start on page five instead of page one. [00:20:45] And then it sounds add your flavor of brand message, even advocacy. Does that sound right? [00:20:53] Tara: Yeah. Exactly. So gimme an idea of one of your nonprofits. [00:20:58] George: Oh gosh. We have a lot of animal welfare organizations I'd say interested in preserving and saving and protecting lands. [00:21:07] Tara: Okay. So animal welfare makes me think of the big Wildcat organization when I was in Colorado. [00:21:14] Which makes me think of the cowardly lion and they could use the cowardly lion, the original Frank bomb, cowardly lion, which is in I'm 95. Yeah. It's in the public domain and do something with the cowardly lion that matches their the way their nonprofit is set up and who it's serving animals, right? [00:21:43] Yes. And so if the Wildcat sanctuary already knows their people love big cats, and now they're giving them the cowardly lion with that affinity to not the movie, the book. And that character, but you can still use cowardly lion and all that comes with it. And all the heartstrings that come with it, then all of a sudden you have a target market group. [00:22:10] That's already predisposed to like it and buy it at a higher price because they don't really care. They know the profit's going to. The animal rescue group, they know that this is something that they're gonna love and cherish because it helped their thing, but they also enjoy wearing it. And in wearing it now they're promoting the animal rescue group. [00:22:32] So there's like this amazing circle of wonderfulness. [00:22:37] George: Yeah. I thought you were gonna go with Tigger, but you threw me a curve ball. I maybe have gone with You could ERs and saving Tiggers because he is a character inside of winning the poop. Now [00:22:49] Tara: you there's once you start brains but think about that, you and I went to two totally different things that are both actually big cats that could help an annual animal rescue. [00:23:02] So say you rescue turtles. You wanna find. Maybe I, and don't take, don't quote me on this, but maybe the wind in the willows is in the public domain, the original book, and there's a fun turtle in there. Or those are the kind of things you wanna try to figure out how you can mono, how you can really use their. [00:23:24] Brand recognition to make your customers who are your donors, more willing to buy something and not only buy it because that doesn't help as much. If they're not wearing it and helping spread your message. [00:23:38] George: I wanna pull the thread a bit more because immediately you talk about merchandise. And I imagine if I were to drop you into many sort of after thoughts of we'll call it a Shopify or a Spreadshirt or a very cafe press talking about we put our logo on a shirt, so our. [00:23:55] Audience can go get it. It's an afterthought. It's not the forefront. Can you explain very quickly, like when you look at the opportunity of petsy or putting imagery on a shirt, is there money there? What does that look like in your [00:24:08] Tara: world? Okay. So for a nonprofit, specifically, not in my world, because in my world, I'm an artist now, but for a nonprofit number one, I would suggest they use red bubble. [00:24:21] It is incredibly simple. You do not pay a dime to list any of the products. And as a nonprofit, you make this say, you say, and you don't have the, you don't have anybody on staff with the ability to make what you need. Number one, you can go to creative market right now and they have there's a gal on there that does dark Alice. [00:24:53] There's all kinds like pink, Alice and dark Alice and you can just buy a graphic. That's already ready to drop on a t-shirt for 12 bucks or 20 bucks. So you've bought the right to use that on a t-shirt and then you can put words on the top words on the bottom, wor you know, the name of your charity on the back. [00:25:17] And if your people do not have the ability to do that, you can go to a place like fiber, which is F I V E R r.com. And give them the graphics that you wanna use that you've paid for. Don't rely on them to get the graphics because you want to control the fact that you have purchased commercial rights to use this. [00:25:43] Ask them to make you a t-shirt and they'll make you a t-shirt for 20 bucks. [00:25:50] George: So the, then the creation of it. So how do you set up a shop? What do you point people to set up your shop for red bubble? And you can set up a custom shop with my nonprofit and I get some graphics that just frankly, go beyond here's our logo. [00:26:04] We [00:26:04] Tara: did. Oh, gosh no. You could put your logo graphics on there. You could like that could, and you could even make it cute. Okay. So if I had at least the I, okay. Let's not as cute as the WWF, cuz they have a super cute logo, but say you just have a word logo, right? Yeah. You could take and put a Christmas hat on it for Christmas and then they would have to buy it for Christmas and you could put some Mardi Bo beads hanging on it or put some shamrocks on it. [00:26:38] For I was gonna say the 4th of July, but for St. Patrick's day. And you could do all kinds of things. If you just wanna tart up your logo and then yes, other people in the world could buy it, but primarily you're gonna be driving the people who already like you. To that place so they can buy things. You can buy stickers, you can buy blankets, you can buy. [00:27:03] And all you do is you upload your thing once, and then they put it on all that stuff, if you want. [00:27:09] George: And it's on demand creation and shipping, and it's all handled for you. But I think getting back to our ideation, let me give you another another type of organization, and this is gonna be tough, but you asked for it. [00:27:20] We've got. Cancer related organizations interested in awareness for let's say lung cancer or colorectal cancer. So what types of I see her smile. You can't see, dude. I'll narrate, she's laughing and smiling. She has an idea. All right. What do you well for the call I'm way, ER, than nonprofits, right? [00:27:46] Tara: That's okay. So for the colorectal one, I would go with but why didn't you get your test with somebody's butt and not saying B U T, but B UT, but why did but implying that everything's about a butt, right? Colorectal cancer. It's your butt. I like your job. [00:28:07] That's the kind of thing that you have to get out of your own way and figure out something cute with a marketing hook that is going to to be interesting to people, to buy cards, to buy. [00:28:27] So what, so if you're [00:28:28] George: not, I would've gone wizard of Oz with this one, like a behind the curtain, or like a wizard behind the curtain or a. Maybe a 10 man or something like I have no heart. All right. Like maybe I guess in my mind went there. [00:28:41] Tara: I'm not done with this yet. [00:28:43] George: Oh, hold on. Keep cooking. [00:28:45] Tara: So for the lung cancer I would and you can do this on fiber, or you can ask if anybody's an AR is artistic in your group, get longs and have them painted with. Have them painted with some kind of PA cute pattern. So have some artist make lungs look pretty. And then that's going to be something that people already sorry about the rustling. [00:29:18] People already want to support this, but if there's a beautiful set of lungs and you can put that on something on a card, on a whatever. So if you aren't looking for products, I guess I'm just stuck in the products right now. What were you looking to use public domain stuff. So I can give you better examples [00:29:42] George: then. [00:29:42] Yeah. Moving out of the product land. I would say it's the process I'm imagining is shopping through a, Winnie the poo in all the characters, and then saying what type of graphics could we use in our website, art blog posts, social media, mini campaigns that might be around fundraisers and that type of use where it's just it's the ability to have an immediate, as I mentioned before, a combination of recognition and. [00:30:10] Then telling a nuance of your story, [00:30:16] Tara: I would still buy the cause. You're when you're buying the P bear thing from creative market. You're buying the set. So the entire set of the P air images. So you've got, say you were to do that and we'll let's talk about the Colorectal one, because if I'm going in, I'm going to the hardest one you have Tigar and I'm so happy that my, my friend P got his colorectal screen. [00:30:56] He's bouncing on his tail, right? Yep. so this is something, [00:31:01] George: no, you're right. You can take these characters and have a dialogue. And what does it mean? That happens. It's just it is so much it IBUs it with so much more nuance. Doesn't it? Because then you're not thinking. So colorectal cancer for Mego. [00:31:16] Tara: I go directly to the gal who was on the today show whose husband died. Jay died. Super cute lady. Can't remember her name right the second. And so there's a lot of bad associations, sad associations to that. And there's not this This feeling of hope that if you help donate to my cause we can. [00:31:47] Do so many more things than just mourn people. We can help with research. So maybe you have, what's the one that's always the owl, is the smart one. And so the owl says did you know that your donation helps us research cures and things to help with colorectal cancer? Like now you're saying, oh, it's not just this horrifying thing that everybody's gonna die from. It's that you, as an organization. Present a way for people to be hopeful and to want to donate because, and to want to share socially. Yeah. Do you wanna share a picture of a colon? I have seen a picture of a colon and they are not attractive. [00:32:42] Do you wanna share a picture of a colon or do you wanna share a picture of tiger jumping up and down? With a funny context to it, but here's the game that I'm seeing. You're bringing in characters that have a normal relationship, and then you're adding dialogue. It's a caption contest in some respects of saying, what would this dialogue look like if it were about our cause? [00:33:03] George: All right, I'm gonna throw you another one, unless there's another point here. No, I like. Okay. The news literacy project, and then generally anybody dealing with misinformation online. And so this particular organization works with educators and journalists to give students the skills they need to discern fact from fiction and know what to trust. [00:33:23] Tara: Oh my goodness. I would totally use. Was oh, we just watched this. Oh, you can't use it. I can give you a great example. Can't uses. So you charming was the villain and guy was the villain in in frozen. You could do this on social media. You could absolutely do this without getting in trouble. Yeah. [00:33:55] Prince [00:33:56] George: times. So just yeah. Who like a quiz who was the villain in social media da, everybody knows fake news sometimes or however you put it, that things aren't always what they seem at first glance. Yeah. And so you're talking about the fact that don't forget when you're reading the news things. [00:34:21] Tara: Aren't always what at first glance ever news or Scrooge is in the is in the public domain, that Scrooge store. That's why you have, that's why you have SCR and you have all those movies that are made of it, but you could put something about You can't use Scrooge duck, but you can use Scrooge and you could put something about the fact that Scrooge goes bankrupt. [00:34:52] Loses all his money. and then underneath you could say something like not true. He donated it all to a, to worthy causes after tiny Tim taught him the right way to do it. Make sure to fact check. Yeah, [00:35:07] George: I. All right here. I'm gonna play one into you. See how you would go with the queen of hearts is public domain. [00:35:14] Yeah. And notoriously pretty terrible leader. Did you have the little cards as like defenders or like at least the soldiers, right? No. You could have she has queen of heart soldiers. Yeah. Two soldiers, the queen of hearts talking to each other, being like, I'm not sure red. Paint's so great for flowers, but I'm not gonna look it up. [00:35:35] So painting the roses red, like all of that sort of iconography and you're like check the, so this could be part of an ongoing joke series. Could even be a, could even be a shirt. go, I'll go back to your product. But no, but it could all [00:35:48] Tara: of that's and I just set up a I've had an Etsy shop, but I just, the reason why I suggest red bubble. [00:35:54] Is because it is the easiest thing in 20 years, I have ever done online the way they've made the website and the ease of adding. It just has to be a big enough picture, which is why I suggested a fiber person, cuz they're gonna be able to there's terms like it has to be 4,500 pixels by 5,005. [00:36:17] And nonprofit people are like LA. I can't hear that. but any kind of graphic artist can do that in a heartbeat. That's just not a hard thing. And so if they have an idea that they wanna implement, they could implement it with somebody on five or very easily. Gotcha. All right, [00:36:37] George: you ready for another one? [00:36:38] Sure. Let's keep going. All right. This is one move for hunger, but also hunger organizations in general, food banks, collecting food and in general for move for hunger, they're a national nonprofit, and they have a sustainable way to reduce food waste. Mainly when people move, instead of throwing it away, they have moving companies that have been part of their network that get food that last mile to donated to local food banks. [00:37:01] So anything in the food bank, food insecure. Space. Okay. What [00:37:07] Tara: would you play there? So I go to the mad Hatter's tea party where they're eating right. Right after this, they called the moving company and they came and, or they called moved for hunger and no food. No teacakes were, was. And that's all imagery you ha can go grab and that's all imagery. It's just there. And people already know it. And they know about the, I if I was doing move for hunger, I would do a whole series of it with like cupcakes, like a really cute cupcake. Maybe even not a Alice Wonderland cupcake, but you can use, drink me. [00:37:49] You can U I. Always check. You can use drink meat. You can use eat me and then say [00:37:57] George: no, those little tags that are like so iconic to [00:37:59] Tara: it. Yeah. So eat me on a little cupcake. Cause you can buy those kind images already made. And once you have your little cupcake, then you can say not a Chrome went to waste. [00:38:13] Because the food bank showed up or the Mo food movers or move for hunger showed up. And so you're go, like the big part of whatever you're doing is gonna be the cupcake and the eat me. And then especially on social media, then the underneath of it is the message with a link to your donate page or a link to your about page so people can understand what your thing is. [00:38:39] People want to know how to help, but you have to attract their attention before they know that you're there. I adopted three kids from foster care and so food, poverty is super important to me because my kids came from that situation. But there's no way for me to know. And I work with realtors all the time, cuz of that little two year thing in real estate, I would think that you could contact realtors and have them give everybody who's moving a flyer to put in the homes of the people who are moving. [00:39:16] And you're literally touching so many more people who are moving, but you have to attract that realtor first. [00:39:24] George: Yeah. I had the thought of Winnie the POH and honey, I'm done. I'm all in poo, but Winnie the POH and honey, like he's always looking for honey, always hungry and nothing is Sader than a sad poo and an empty honey. [00:39:35] Tara: Exactly. That's wonderful. I love imagine, right? That is wonderful. There's a whole bunch in SCR. So you, so then at Christmas time, yeah, you do Scrooge and tiny Tim never had enough to eat. This is the. If tiny Tim had been alive now move for hunger. Would've been able to help. So your image is something endearing and heartfelt and that, and then your message is that this is an actual thing that helps people. [00:40:12] And what you, oh, here's another thing. Oh, this is a big one. Let's talk about demographics, right? Who has the most disposable income right now? And I see a lot of people tr okay let's start. Coherently cuz I just got really excited. So people with money are I'm 56, so I have money and people older than me. [00:40:39] So let's say 50 and older have money, disposable income to donate. So you want most of your Donations your hardcore, Hey send like I, I support best friends, which is a dog rescue. It's a giant rescue place, but they had a dog town, TV show and stuff like that. So I donate to them and they send me emails with pictures of dogs and dog stories and sometimes dog t-shirts and things like that. [00:41:11] And I have the disposable income to do it. I also donate to Kiva and which is for entrepreneurs overseas, their micro loads. So you want to take. And figure out what kind of images are going to appeal to people who are older. If you're looking for donations, not to say, to ignore younger people but that's a better target market to to. [00:41:43] To get money, easy money, recurring revenue, whatever you wanna call it, because the disposable income is there. If you are trying to get volunteers, I don't volunteer very often. I'm old and grumpy, and I don't really like to leave the house and. So you are gonna get a lot more volunteers from the younger people. [00:42:08] So you would direct if this is what your what the data from your past marketing campaigns has shown in your nonprofit. If it doesn't show that, then don't do this, but think about it. And if you can get volunteers from younger people, then figure out how you can use those kind of things, more hip and ed. [00:42:33] And mine can go back to tradition and sentimental and things like that. So those are all also things you wanna put in the mix, not just what is the character you're using, cuz you could use Tigger the same way. You said to you, I said, oh, I said to use. No. You said to use 'em for the wild cats, but you could also use him to say, Hey, hop on over and help us with the the drive to end colorectal cancer. [00:43:07] George: Yep. Fairly it's really usable. And I wanna put a finer point on what you're saying with regard to generational targeting because the characters. Are coming into public domain are 70 to a hundred years old. They are perhaps more recognizable, they're recognizable and broad, but specifically higher affinity, higher recognition for let's just be honest, a generation over 45. [00:43:30] Tara: Absolutely. I agree with that a hundred percent now I would say that my daughter, who is 17 recognized the mad hat. Because my artwork is a little cartoony but if you, yeah, your style. Yeah. Yeah. My style is a little bit more cartoony, but if you were to just put and she recognizes old poo, so then you would have to go to the really big ones. [00:43:56] You couldn't go to like owl from poo. You would have to go to poo bear, Tigger, EOR. Piglet and then you want yeah. Piglet, but then you want to to find out like how people are using those characters in common vernacular in the zeitgeist, because are you a Tigger or are you an E or is an actual thing? [00:44:29] I'm an ER, meaning that I tend to be a little. I just had this conversation with one of my friends today that I'm a little bit more grumpy and a little bit more doubting and she's a ticker, she's all everything's great. And everything's fine. And da. And so that's already in the Zeit case. [00:44:50] So you could do a fun quiz on, on your social media and say, are you a ticker or are you a E or. We're gonna have a drawing for a free entry to the, whatever you have coming up for one person from whichever team wins. Yeah, I just throwing other just looking through fictional characters, there's so much more than I realized Robinhood, Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein's monster is a, we've only just scratched the surface of kind of what's possible. [00:45:26] George: I wonder I've been playing around with Dolly two and image creation from AI, and I realized that you can actually take one of these originals and do riffs. I think you'll get more random than you would an artist, but the ability to do variations, even on, on some of these imagery, once you have, as you acknowledge like that style of the original thing that people may recognize, you could actually move those characters around more easily than ever before. [00:45:51] I think especially for a nonprofit on social media, if you're doing no commercial sales and you're just posting on social media. Yeah. And you wanted to take, say the drippy clock from Dolly. And put it on the front of your building and say, Hey, it's time to, it's time to donate times times running out to donate for the September big cat whatever for that. [00:46:24] Tara: There's a general feeling that as long as you have changed, as long as more than 40%. Change, so there's a, I'm really big on the bad things that happened. So do you remember that Obama poster that was really graphic stark graphic? That was, are you saying the Shepherd's ferry one? [00:46:51] I believe so. Yeah. Yeah. He copied that from a picture that he didn't have the commercial rights to use oh, that's. Okay. So he is in trouble for that. He's getting sued by the photographer, or he's been sued by the photographer for that because he didn't change it at all. Short of poster, short of what anybody could have done in illustrator. [00:47:16] He made it exactly. [00:47:18] George: He just dropped it down the middle and changed one shade, changed the other shade, hit it with an outline and he is And bam you're done well, the original photographer could prove it was his. So the thought is that as long as you change about 40%, but there's lots of really recognizable. [00:47:35] Tara: I don't know if CLE. K L I M P T. He made all that gold arch where there's two people on you. Yeah. And there's gold. All of that is in the public domain. His stuff [00:47:48] George: is his is the kiss, right? That's the [00:47:50] Tara: symbolic one. He did the. Yeah. So there's tons of stuff. If you start to, to take a look and then, so you can go to, you can do a search for creative commons which is an actual place. [00:48:08] Creative commons. Yeah. Yeah, of course. And use lots of things there because there are a lot of contemporary artists. There are a lot. Just people who love to make art or who love to take pictures who are willing to have people use their artwork with a commercial license. Cause you still have to have a commercial license. [00:48:30] You are a commercial entity, even as a nonprofit yeah. So you're not using it for personal. [00:48:39] George: Yeah, you have to, especially I think the bright line here I'm taking away as we wrap up is for general social media and your website use there's clearly ways you can use it, but you definitely have to double check, triple check and even consider paying for some access to it. [00:48:54] When the commercial rights of like, all right, I'm putting it on an item to be sold and revenue will be generated albeit even for a non-profit [00:49:02] Tara: a hundred percent. But I also think that there's ways to. Collection like to pay for a commercial license of a large collection for a low amount of money that you then know unilaterally, you have purchased the commercial right to use, right? [00:49:19] So if you have all the poos and you have all the Allison wonderlands and you have a creative intern and you say let's all help you brainstorm things to do. They could be posting on social media or your website for the next year. With all different kinds of fun things. Yeah. [00:49:38] George: All right. Normally I end with rapid fire questions, but I will trim it down a little bit, maybe for you and some final wrap up questions, unless there's any other finer points you wanna put on this overall conversation? [00:49:51] Tara: No, I think this was fun. It was interesting. [00:49:54] George: Little bit different. Alright, so what is one tech challenge you're currently facing right now? [00:50:01] Tara: I just wrote in my newsletter about this, that my first reaction to anything is I can't do that. I'm an EOR, so I think, oh, I can't do that. I don't know how to do that. And one of my friends today, her coach told her she had to do TikTok and she said I don't, she was freaked out, just freaked out. [00:50:27] And she said, I don't know how to do this. And so I talked to her for a little while and at the end of it, she's oh, I absolutely can do this. So I think when my first reaction is I can't do this, number one, I'll phone, a friend. And then number two, I will look on YouTube because everything you need to know about how to do anything is on. [00:50:49] George: All right. What new website or tool have you started using in the past year? That's been a game changer for you, red bubble. [00:50:57] Tara: Red bottles. So fun. Love it. And I have no affiliation. [00:51:01] George: Yeah, no this ad brought to you by red bull com find your new [00:51:07] Tara: hobby. Exactly well, but I think it's because I've used Etsy for so long and I've worked with so many entrepreneurs and it is hard. [00:51:16] Like it's just it's hard to use. It's hard to do things and. So it's distressing to give that as a person who suggests ways to make money or to do marketing or to do things like that. It's distressing to me to recommend something that I know that they're probably gonna spend a lot of time at and may not succeed. [00:51:40] Yeah. Where I was like whoa. All my little people will be able to cause my, my readership for marketing artfully is women who tend to be older, who may not be as technically inclined. And so to have something to recommend them. I'll give you another one though. canva.com. Oh, [00:52:01] George: we're friends of Canada. [00:52:02] Yeah. Okay. [00:52:04] Tara: All right. If you're doing any kind of graphics. They like, so you could totally pull your logo into Canva and they have all kinds of elements in there. And when I said put like a little Santa Claus hat on it, they would have a Santa Claus hat. You could stick onto your to your thing, even for the top of your new, how fun would that be? [00:52:29] The top, the header of your newsletter every month. You stick something on it and then seasonal [00:52:35] George: iconography. [00:52:36] Tara: Yeah. Yeah. And then people get used to looking for that, and that's a way to get them to read your newsletter, which is the point. [00:52:45] George: All righty. What is one piece of advice your parents gave you that you either followed or did not [00:52:50] Tara: follow. [00:52:54] Don't open things with your teeth. I paid a lot for them and I opened things with my teeth all the time. [00:53:04] George: That might be the best answer to that question we've ever had. And we've had many years of this that's I'm not gonna pull all the thread there. I think that was perfect. Final hardball question here. [00:53:13] How do people find you? How do people help you? [00:53:17] Tara: So I I have a, I marketing art fleet is helpful to marketing things. I have another website called artsy Fary life.com and I have a lot of stuff on there. That's artsy Fary art, artistic stuff, and then also a bunch for Alzheimer's. Cause my mother-in-law has Alzheimer's so caregiving for Alzheimer's. [00:53:45] So if anybody has that, then there's a lot of good information. [00:53:49] George: And what might somebody reach out to you personally, to do, to work [00:53:54] Tara: on? I don't work for people anymore. don't [00:53:58] George: I did that. I'm outta the client games. All right. It's lucky, [00:54:01] Tara: but you know what, but you know what? I have an open offer to anybody to email me questions and I get lots of questions. [00:54:10] It's Tara at marketing artfully. And so while I won't do it for you, a lot of times I have either a recommendation. Or I can answer a question really quick, quickly for you. That would maybe be something that would take you a long time to figure out. And I have people email you know how some people don't mind getting texts and a text will Fritz out my day. [00:54:34] I get emails all day long from people, and I've done that for years. For 20 years. My email has been out on the internet and it's in lots of my blog posts that say, feel free to email me if you have any questions. And then if you're more artsy, I have a really cool newsletter on artsy Fary and if you're more marketing, I have a really cool newsletter on marketing artfully. [00:54:56] George: I appreciate you answering my random cold email to you, and it all makes sense. Now. I appreciate you giving generously of your time and thank you. [00:55:05] Tara: It was nice talking to you today.     Podcast picture credit: OpenAI DALLE2 edit of A. A. Milne Winnie the Pooh on a log being interviewed

HOUR 3: Producer Tyler Devitte throws some of the stories coming out of Week 2 at Merloni, Fauria and Mego to discuss. Kyle Shanahan has a problem with reporters questioning his play calling. Plus, Tom Brady is getting a veterans day off each week and Christian Fauria can't believe it's not getting more attention.

Hour 1 Merloni, Fauria and Mego broadcast live from Gillette Stadium, the home of the 1-1 Patriots. Christian, Mego and Lou give their big takeaways from Sunday's win in Pittsburgh. Did unofficial OC Matt Patricia call a good game? Plus, we review our headline predictions for Steelers-Patriots from last week.  Mac helped get the win for the Patriots, but the crew wasn't impressed with what he brought to the field. Is Mac the guy? Or is it still too early to be judging his sophomore season?

Meghan Ottolini from the Meloni, Fauria, and Mego show on WEEI, joins Pat and Matt to discuss the Patriots and what she saw from them last week. They discuss the offense in general, the offensive line, and the Kendrick Bourne situation. They also hit on the defense, and then give a few moments from this week in sports history. Follow us on Twitter Meghan: @Meghan_Ottolini Matt: @mattstdream Pat: @plane_pats Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

HOUR 4: The time is finally here and Fauria and Mego pay up as the latest show bet loser. The two do the 2022 Pacqui One Chip Challenge while trying to discuss some Patriots narratives and if they are overreactions. The audio is hilarious but the video is even better. Check out the WEEI channel on YouTube for the full video

HOUR 1: We start the show discussing the upcoming show bet punishment where Mego and Fauria have to do the One Chip Challenge. Mego reveals her hatred for milk. Mac Jones missed practice today and it should concern Patriots fans. We have a Hardo of the Day and it's Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel who says he used to not shower for Sunday-Wednesday as an assistant.

HOUR 3: Merloni, Fauria and Mego discuss the Patriots declining TV ratings vs 2021. Tom House shares an interesting Tom Brady team. Page Six reports Brady and Gisele rift is “widening” and Gisele may be re-launching career. Plus, ESPN's Dan Graziano says it's not an overreaction to think the Patriots could finish last in the AFC East.

HOUR 1: Merloni, Fauria and Mego discuss the disastrous ending on MNF for the Broncos in Russell Wilson's return to Seattle. Robert Kraft reportedly took notice of Kendrick Bourne's benching and made his opinion known. Plus, we wonder if Trent Brown has already checked out on the 2022 season.

HOUR 1: Merloni, Fauria and Mego broadcast live from Gillette Stadium. We give you our big takeaways from the Patriots season opening loss before diving deeper into the issues from Week 1 in Miami. Belichick says the Patriots-Dolphins game was “pretty even.” Does anyone agree with that? Plus, we get an injury update on Mac Jones.

 Pod Stallions 103: Martin ShortSome things in life are constants: the sun goes up/down, the world turns, Coke & Pepsi will never see eye to eye, and dogs RULE. There's a comfort in that, never better exemplified than by a Man Called Short. Martin Short. Always gives 100%, always 100% funny no matter what, and the laughter and joy he's given the world are incalculable. We're lucky to live in a time where Martin Short lives to bring us joy, because, man, do we need it. Today's Pod Stallions: 'It's a Short, Short, Short, Short World- We're Just Living In It. DOWNLOAD THE SHOW HERECheck out Jason's new series "Plastic Soul" on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL17JkLXp32rik4e6y-wOqCWuplhCB_iKQ Do you miss toy magazines?That's why we created Toy-Ventures magazine, an old-school print publication dedicated to vintage toys from the 1960s to the 1990s. Each issue is packed with never before seen images and information written by some of the top collectors. We've got six issues and climbing; please check our page here or visit our store. Our newest book "Knock-Offs: Totally, Unauthorized Action Figures," is now available. It's 130 pages of bootleg goodness. You can get this new book via the PlaidStallions Shop , On Amazon (Affiliate Link) or on eBay (eBay Link)   Our book Rack Toys, Cheap, Crazed Playthings is now available again! Order through our Affiliate Link Order Rack Toys 2.0 Here through our Affiliate Link►https://amzn.to/3Bkm9z1 FACEBOOK GROUPS FROM PLAIDSTALLIONS Pod Stallions is based on our podcast and is one of the most fun groups on Facebook. Toys, Comics, Movies, TV, it's all up for grabs and remember, you keep the glass! If you like our show, then you have found your tribe. Mego Knock Off Headquarters- The leading group discussing 70s Dime store knock-offs and bootleg action figures, we talk vintage toys and not others. We know the difference between Astro Apes and Action Apeman.  It's a fun group where we talk about Lincoln International, AHI, Tomland, Bogi, Demo Man, Mortoys, and other generic greats.