You gotta dream a little, enjoy life!

In the aftermath of a family tragedy Leonard Raskin joins Nestor to discuss the importance of enjoying life and having your money create some joy and happiness. Time to look at those bucket list items again…

Nestor Aparicio and Leonard Raskin discuss various topics, including the Orioles’ new player Blaze Alexander and the peculiarities of Baltimore. Leonard shares a personal story about a young man who battled leukemia for five and a half years, emphasizing the importance of enjoying life and wealth. They also talk about bucket lists, with Leonard mentioning his desire to see more hockey games and travel to Israel. Nestor shares his experiences attending the Super Bowl, Wimbledon, and the Rolling Stones in Rio. They highlight the significance of living in the present and achieving personal dreams.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Find the photo of the woman wearing the ‘Puck leukemia’ jersey from the outdoor hockey game and post/feature it on your social media so listeners can see it
• [ ] Attend and watch your son graduate from his master’s program in April (plan/travel as needed to be present)

Orioles and Blaze Alexander Discussion

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the segment by mentioning the Orioles’ recent trade for Blaze Alexander and asks Leonard Raskin if he knows about Blaze Star.
• Leonard Raskin confirms his knowledge of Blaze Star and mentions other Blaze-related items like Blaze Saddles.
• Nestor Aparicio humorously suggests that someone is Googling “Blaze Star” due to the Orioles’ new player.
• The conversation shifts to the peculiarities of Baltimore and the new player’s potential experience in the city.

Personal Reflections and Recent Loss

• Nestor Aparicio transitions to a more serious topic, asking Leonard Raskin about his recent personal experiences.
• Leonard Raskin shares the story of a young man he knew who passed away from leukemia, detailing the young man’s battle and the impact on his family.
• The conversation highlights the importance of enjoying life and the unexpected nature of health challenges.
• Leonard Raskin reflects on the significance of living in the present and the importance of spending time with loved ones.

Bucket List and Future Plans

• Nestor Aparicio asks Leonard Raskin about his bucket list and future plans.
• Leonard Raskin mentions watching his son graduate from his master’s program and traveling to see more hockey games.
• The discussion includes Nestor Aparicio’s experience attending an outdoor hockey game in Tampa and the challenges of attending outdoor events in cold weather.
• Leonard Raskin shares his desire to see the Northern Lights and his plans to visit Israel, despite his wife’s concerns about safety.

Travel Experiences and Recommendations

• Nestor Aparicio and Leonard Raskin discuss their travel experiences, including attending the Super Bowl, the World Series, and the Indy 500.
• Leonard Raskin shares his experiences attending NASCAR races and the unique experience of attending a race at the Concord Motor Speedway.
• Nestor Aparicio recounts his experiences attending the Wimbledon tennis tournament and the Rugby World Cup in Baltimore.
• The conversation highlights the importance of seizing opportunities to travel and experience new things.

Romantic and Memorable Travel Moments

• Nestor Aparicio shares a romantic story about taking his wife to the top of the Marriott Marquis in New York City instead of the Empire State Building.
• Leonard Raskin and Nestor Aparicio discuss the significance of making memories and the importance of enjoying the present.
• The conversation touches on the challenges of traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of being flexible and open to new experiences.
• Leonard Raskin emphasizes the importance of living life to the fullest and making the most of every opportunity.

Personal Reflections on Bucket List Items

• Nestor Aparicio reflects on his own bucket list items, including visiting the Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu, and the pyramids.
• Leonard Raskin and Nestor Aparicio discuss the importance of setting goals and working towards them, even if it means taking risks.
• The conversation highlights the importance of balancing practical considerations with personal dreams and aspirations.
• Leonard Raskin encourages listeners to think about their own bucket lists and to take steps towards achieving their goals.

Final Thoughts and Encouragement

• Nestor Aparicio wraps up the segment by encouraging listeners to think about their dreams and to take action towards achieving them.
• Leonard Raskin reiterates the importance of living in the present and making the most of every opportunity.
• The conversation ends on a positive note, with both participants expressing their gratitude for the opportunity to share their experiences and insights.
• Nestor Aparicio thanks Leonard Raskin for his participation and encourages listeners to stay tuned for more positive content.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

bucket list, Baltimore, Orioles, Blaze Alexander, leukemia, travel, Sydney Opera House, Indy 500, NASCAR, Israel, Empire State Building, Wimbledon, rugby, New Zealand, bucket list items

8

SPEAKERS

Leonard Raskin, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W n s t am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, getting us through these winter days until we can have some spring training baseball later on in the week. If there’s any breaking news out of the Ravens or the orals, you get it first on the W n s t tech service. All of that brought to you by coal roofing and Gordian energy. We also have our newest sponsor in farnand, farnander, bringing H back to us and the comfort guys, they’re going to be our sports sponsors for all of Luke’s reporting. And of course, we have sponsors who keep us afloat around here, long term old school, like Leonard Raskin from Raskin global, who joined us last week, and we, you know, last week, we did judging competitions and speed, and I need all my wife, because she’s all olympiced up. And the jumping happens, and it’s it’s scored, but the speed on the skis happens with a finish line. And so we argue back and forth, and we you and I did this last week. This week, I’m going much more esoteric, because the Orioles traded for Blaze Alexander. And I have asked old school Baltimore people who would know, does Blaze Alexander know about Blaze star? Leonard Raskin, I begin this week’s programming with you. And I know that you know who plays star.

Leonard Raskin  01:25

I do indeed who. How could you live here and not right?

Nestor Aparicio  01:29

8

Right, of course, but name me another blaze that you’ve it’s ever blazed their trail into

Leonard Raskin  01:37

your world, more Blazing Saddles about the only thing, okay,

Nestor Aparicio  01:41

that’s even that’s not Blaze as a name, there’s Blaze star. And now there’s this kid that’s gonna play second base for the Orioles, which I think is interesting.

Leonard Raskin  01:52

That’s all. That’s it. Well, another player, I think

8

Nestor Aparicio  01:55

somebody out there right now is Blaze star. They’re Googling it like they’re

Leonard Raskin  01:59

Googling is that? Who was he? Right? And the other people are laughing their heads off, thinking, oh my god, what a name.

Nestor Aparicio  02:06

Wasn’t he married to the governor of Louisiana?

Leonard Raskin  02:13

8

But yeah, Baltimore has its its peculiarities, shall we say? And now we got this guy, so that’s good. He’ll have something to learn about in his new hometown. Excuse me, his new playing town. Certainly if he makes it his new hometown and get to enjoy a little bit it’s close

Nestor Aparicio  02:37

in the world of AI and in the new world for me, when I can explore, trips, vacations, have them planned. Have ideas come to me when I something hits me like Blaze star. I go into the internet to learn about the two o’clock club and her jewelry making at the Carrolltown mall at the end of her life. So you’ve had your own sort of shock waves in your own life. I’m allowing you to talk about it in whatever way that you feel, but I think it has to do what you do for a living and what happened in your real life in the last 10 days that certainly hopefully I provided a little bit of levity to start the segment, but there’s not been a whole lot of laughing and smiling going on your world the last week or two, huh?

Leonard Raskin  03:23

Yeah, you know, it’s a it’s a function of what we do. It’s a function of life. We lost a dear young man who was every bit of a gentleman, a scholar, worked hard, was in fantastic physical shape, and I think it was five years ago, five and a half years ago, was diagnosed after some pain in his back with leukemia, and it’s dreadful. And I think had he not been in as good a physical shape as he was, as mentally strong as he was, and prepared to fight this demon that came over him, it would have gotten him much sooner, and he went with he and his wife, my niece, went through heroic measures over the course of the five plus years. He beat it back four times. He was in remission four times, and this last time in remission was a little over a year, about 17 months, almost a year and a half, they had a precious little baby who is now eight months old, and couple days after they bought brought their baby home from the hospital, he was diagnosed again, bad scans. And I know you know all about scans, and. Uh, anybody that’s ever had or dealt with, anyone who’s had cancer. When the doctors do a scan, you just pray that there’s nothing there. He knew there was something there because he was in pain. He was heroic again, in that he did not share that with his family while the baby was being born, you know, the last week or so. And then after the baby was born, he just couldn’t take the pain. Went and got a scan, and they said, you know, it’s back. And sadly, this time it it got more back and it spread. And a week ago, Tuesday evening, he passed, 34 year old, strong, wonderful young man, and his parents had to bury their son and Ness. You know, we talk about saving for the future. Talk about protecting your wealth, talk about retirement, talking about kids education, but to their credit, through it all, they they struggled, they fought, they traveled, they did what they wanted to do during the time that they had together, knowing that it might not be another day or another week. And we tell people all the time, if you don’t enjoy your wealth with those you care about, whatever that is for you, whether that’s charity, whether that’s travel, whether that’s you know, whatever it is, you decide, nobody else decides. And yeah, you got to save for the future. But if the now isn’t taken care of, and the protection isn’t taken care of, the future doesn’t matter. And in the last you know, Kathy and I were talking just on our way they live in Charlotte. So we were flying down to Charlotte. We were talking on our way that for me, this is the fourth funeral that I’ve been to of people we work with in the last four months now, sadly, all of them were tragic. All of them passed. One was 93 one was 89 one was 92 and now 34 so we did have the the great pleasure of working with families, second and some now third generation, and seeing wealth transfer and seeing great, rich, long lives and retirement and everything we talked about with These people come to fruition before they passed. And then we have this 134, year old, which you just don’t expect to see. And yet you don’t have to look far to see children where this horrible disease gets them, young adults and and people of all ages, and so go to the doctor. You had a colonoscopy done recently. You’ve lived through your life, your your life, your wife’s battles, significant battles, twice, of near death with cancer, and you just have to live. You got to live for now. You got to enjoy it. You got to do the right things for your future. But don’t bury it all in a coffee can in your backyard, hoping someday and someday doesn’t get here sometimes.

Nestor Aparicio  08:38

So what’s next on your bucket list? By the way, what do you got? What do you what do you got to do? So, so bucket list? Because I think, like when this stuff happens, you start to think about, think about what’s what’s

8

Leonard Raskin  08:48

important to do. That’s exactly right. It’s not a bucket list thing. But next trip, we’ll be watching our son graduate from his master’s program in April, and you know, parts of the world I want to see. I still want to travel and see parts of the world. One of the things on the bucket list is I want to see some more hockey games in different places. I love it. So want to travel and see some places.

Nestor Aparicio  09:16

I surprised you, to go down to Tampa, watch it down there, 40 degrees. They ordered the weather.

Leonard Raskin  09:22

They got the weather. The outdoor game was, was lovely.

Nestor Aparicio  09:25

8

Have you you went to the DC outdoor game? Right? You only been to one?

Leonard Raskin  09:29

Did not. I did not. I’ve not been to an outdoor game. I didn’t go to any of them yet. Well, I mean, I’ve had a couple of experiences outdoor DC game was, was, was it didn’t they play at the Naval Academy. They played at the stadium. Yeah, we had a bus driver that went down. There was one at the Naval Academy. By the way, I have a great

Nestor Aparicio  09:49

picture from that day. My wife had just gotten well enough to be able to go. Was one of the first things that she did when she started to get better. Um, it was her transplant was in June, and this was in January, right, January one, right. So she went before the second time she got sick, right? We went to the game, sat out in center field, had a whole thing, you know, it was the outdoor game and all that. And when the game, it was actually turned out to be really nice weather. Day, there was some clouds. The sun was the problem on the ice. That day, they postponed it a couple hours because of the Sun glaring off the ice. Which would have been dangerous with a hockey pub, so which unintended consequences of playing outdoors, right? Like playing in Tampa having to be 40 degrees and not 94 but nonetheless, that day, she ran into someone on the street who had a hockey jersey on, and if I can find it, I will find it, and I will, I will feature it here momentarily out on my social media, because I think I know I can find it, because I probably can find it just on the hashtag alone. But this person had a jersey on that said it had an exploding hockey puck, as I remember it, and it said, Puck leukemia, Puck leukemia. And it was a, it was like a brand, kind of like sort of thing. Somebody had puck leukemia as a hashtag, G, U, C, K, Puck leukemia. And so after losing your family member and my wife battling Luke him, here it is. I found it. I found it right here on my on my social media, I gotta do is look things up and you can find them. Leonard, there you go. That’s right there she is, right there. And that is January 1, 2015 now, 11 years ago now, right there’s my wife with a red sock ear on her capital shirt on. Look at all those capital old school jerseys behind us walking leukemia. So I like it. There’s my great message for you, Leonard, how about that?

Leonard Raskin  11:47

That’s it. That’s it. So you’re right. When things like this happened, you look around

8

Nestor Aparicio  11:53

to an outdoor game, hold on, stop. Been there’s only been what? Two here. They have them. You can get on a plane. Listen, they have them now where it’s not even that. They play the big house, right? They’ve played all of the they play Camp Randall. They played games. They played at the shoe. They played at the shoe. You’re right. So, so here’s what happened with me. We went to the Super Bowl 1012, years, 13 years ago now in New York. So the year after we won, so it’s 14, was the Seattle, Denver, Peyton Manning snap over his head Super Bowl. Right during that week, the NHL paved over Yankee Stadium and the devils, the Rangers, the islanders all hosted games all week. Leonard, I had all of the guys that worked here back in the day with me up in New York, and they were they wanted to go to the game. The problem was like, 18 degrees in New York City on January the 20 whatever. It was chilly, and we had free tickets, like they were going around radio row, like, Hey, who wants to come? There’s 50,000 seats, it’s cold as hell, and everybody to a man in the new Yankee Stadium, chickened out and just said, I ain’t taking no subway up there to watch the devils play the friggin coyotes or whatever the hell it was, you know what I mean. But like so every outdoor hockey sounds like a really good idea, until you go out,

Leonard Raskin  13:23

till it’s freezing, like New Year’s Eve.

Nestor Aparicio  13:25

Let’s go New York, New Year’s Eve. Then you don’t want to pee, and then you’re like, it’s terrible. No, I’m out. Terrible.

Leonard Raskin  13:32

8

Now I have a friend, speaking of I have a friend that did New Year’s Eve at Times Square, but he did it right? He got there a few days before, and he he scratched the doorman of the Marriott up there, okay? And the guy was the elevator, loving him, right? And he said, Look, we’re going to be out here New Year’s, but we don’t want to come out till like 11. And the guy was like, no problem. So they did their whole day around New York, whatever they got into Times Square 11 o’clock, he and his wife, and I don’t know who else was with him, they went out on Times Square and took care of Mr. Doorman, who gave him a spot right there to watch.

Nestor Aparicio  14:20

Every is that on your bucket list? Is that? No, no, no. So like, my wife would really like to do the Macy’s Parade in New York, like on Thanksgiving, like that would be a thing for her, sure. Because the Rose Bowl parade, my wife watching things that she’s associated with that would be more buckety for her than me, sure. But like the New Year’s Eve New York thing, it’s not on my bucket list at in any way at all. But the year that it would happen for me would be when somebody when it’s 55 degrees, you know what I mean? Not when it’s 18, but like on a year when maybe it’s good, you could get there, no problem on that said day that if it’s ever decent. Well, climate change is here. Leonard Raskin is here. Is Raskin global. So, you know, I was thinking through all of this stuff about topicality and bucket list stuff and things that you want to do you still haven’t like given me, what’s the thing you got to do?

Leonard Raskin  15:12

What I, you know, I look, I’ve had a great life. That’s a great question. I’d have to, I have to really dig down and come up with something, some

Nestor Aparicio  15:19

people would say, like a World Series game at Camden Yards would be like, Oh, my

8

Leonard Raskin  15:24

God, right. But I have, I have no control over going to that or doing, look, I’d love to skate to Stanley Cup. You know that? All right, I did. That was cool. The cup that was cool, you know, be on the ice for the cup would be and and to be on the ice for the capitals winning the cup, that would be even better. But I was there when Detroit. Have been

Nestor Aparicio  15:44

like my buddy Freddie trout, wearing a Dale Hunter Jersey pounded on the glass if you wanted to.

Leonard Raskin  15:48

That’s right, that was fun too. Could have been. So I’ve been there. I’ve been to playoff games, I’ve been to Stanley Cup games, I’ve been to World Series.

Nestor Aparicio  15:56

8

Why did you go to Las Vegas that night? You just didn’t I had tickets for the home game.

Leonard Raskin  16:00

I didn’t think there was a chance they’re going to win it there. Going to win it. There I was at the next I had the next game. I was going to be there and they were going

Nestor Aparicio  16:07

to win. That is such a legend. It’s like my dad always told me in 1966 him and his buddy, Mr. Sam Gibson, they were a Stan, Stan stock. You can google my friend, Mr. Stan, Mr. Sam. I should say, Sam, I am Sam. I am Green Eggs and Ham. So they had, in that era, you went to the post office and mailed for the tickets. It had to be postmarked. You can Google all of this. My dad said, Mr. Mr. Sam, got tickets for Mr. Yanuzzi as well for Game six and seven of the 66 World Series. No ticket. No good, no no good on the game sixes and seven, right? I had tickets for Game six and seven and 83 too, but I was at game five in Veterans Stadium in 83 so when it comes to, like, those bucket list moments, or I want to see the ravens, which you’ve done and I’ve done

Leonard Raskin  16:57

I’ve done twice, right? I mean trophy, I’ve held the trophy at the game.

8

Nestor Aparicio  17:03

I don’t know what’s like the World Cups coming to America this year. If that’s your thing, it’s here. If you’re an Olympics person, that that’s coming here, no, no sports things. No sports things. Okay, you’re done. You did Northern Lights last year, right?

Leonard Raskin  17:17

What’s that you did Northern Lights? Did the northern lights that was on the list, that’s checked off Absolutely. I mean, there’s invariably, some things will probably come to me when we’re finished. I’ll let you know what Taj Mahal pyramids match up Israel. A trip to Israel is on the list. You haven’t done that Israel. Have not gone to Israel. Why not? Haven’t found the where, when to go, where to go. The wife’s scared to death. She thinks she’ll be shot over there, killed over there,

Nestor Aparicio  17:46

and so I haven’t tell her, a lot of people go, a lot don’t get killed.

Leonard Raskin  17:49

8

I know it’s a very safe place in a lot of places. It’s not like the old days where they just blew everything up. Thank God. But we’ll get there. That’ll be a place we’ll go. There’s no doubt that’s on the list.

Nestor Aparicio  18:02

See, listen, let me tell you this, Kathy, if you’re listening any letter trend, this has nothing to do with the Democrat in me or the Republican in him. If you’re waiting for the world to get settled, to do

Leonard Raskin  18:17

anything for a week or two, the

Nestor Aparicio  18:19

next covid, the next covid, the next 911 the next disaster, and we can get political as to who’s running the country the day that that guy’s no longer running the country, by election, by insurrection, by prison, the day after that bad, bad shit is going to happen around here. There’s no question about that, forever like so if you’re waiting for Israel to get safer, I would say, you might just want to go. You might just want to go that. You know, that’s why I had my chance to go to Moscow and St Petersburg back in the day. I said to my wife, I’m probably never getting to Baghdad or to Iran. At this point, it’s bad enough that I’m an American and feel bad about going various places now with the passport that we have at this point, because we’re not Beloved. We’re not beloved around the world. But that being said, if you are waiting, if you are waiting, you should go. My buddy sealer just got back from Borneo. I don’t know where no Borneo is. I look it up. I know we’re born.

8

Leonard Raskin  19:13

I’ve done, you know, we’ve done Hawaii, we’ve done Australia, we’ve done New Zealand, we’ve done Italy. We’re going back to italy.

Nestor Aparicio  19:19

Hey, two of my dear friends just got back from the South Island, the Koco’s, Melba and Mark just got back from the South Island. I told them, so Leonard, they went to they went to Queenstown, and I gave them two pieces of advice. You got to take the sunset ride rail over. Queenstown is the most beautiful place on earth. Most Beautiful. So if I’m doing bucket list stuff here Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand, put that at the top. If it’s not one, it’s two or three. And I said them, you got to get a Ferg burger. There’s going to be a line. And they saw the line and they chickened out a Ferg burger. And I’m like, You just missed out on the greatest burger on the planet. It was so great that we stood in line three times. That’s how. Good it was. And right? So they don’t think they got a third burger. So why don’t they want to do for people? Then when I go, when I mean the complete opposite end of the earth, and I tell them, the best burger I ever had was there, and they look at the line and they say, Dude, patience. It’s like you in the stock market, and people’s money, you got to be

Leonard Raskin  20:23

takes time. We did, we did places, a number of places we were referred to as we’ve traveled. And people say, you know, you got to wait in line for this. It’s like you’re out of your mind. And then you get there, it’s an hour wait. It’s like, I’m not waiting an hour for anything, for food. And then you wait, and then get there, and it’s like, wow, that was outstanding. If it’s worth waiting

Nestor Aparicio  20:46

8

for that different than waiting two and a half hours in a 98 degree day for a Kyle Bradish bobblehead. You know what I mean? Like, I put time and waiting in line my wife and I, and this is a free plug. You know about this bakery? We got up in Frederick. I’ve been doing a lot of eating. Do you know about this? I don’t know. Go ahead. Do you like bakeries? Of course. All right. And you like Europe? Do you like European bakeries? Do you chase the difference when you’re in Paris and get a baguette than when you’re in Washington, DC, get a bag at no doubt. Okay, it’s phenomenal. There’s a dude out in Frederick. And this really speaks to what greatness is about, and what you’re willing to endure. Okay, right? This is a place called bakehouse. You can look it up. Dude has been from Baltimore. Where’s an oral hat? I don’t know. Sometimes wear a tiger hat. Last I checked, but he’s, he’s a Baltimore related fellow, wonderful man got a place out in Frederick. His business has grown so much, and you speak of the entrepreneurial spirit in this country, sure that he has to move it around the corner so he can bake more stuff. So I discovered this place couple summers ago. My wife and I love it, but it’s Frederick. So we live in tassel ride. You have to be there between eight and 10 in the morning, and there will be a line, and it will be worth it, whatever the line is, and everything will be six bucks and five bucks and eight bucks, and you’ll buy it, and you’ll spend 30 bucks, and you’ll bring a box home, and your wife will love you for it. So I’ve done this for my wife now twice. We’ve stood in the line. Once we discovered it on the crab cake tour about three, four summers ago, we discovered it. It’s one of the reasons I did the crab cake tour, is discovering all of these unbelievable places close to home, all the Maryland all brought to you by the Maryland lottery and Raskin global people to keep me in business to do this. And so I discovered these things. So couple weeks ago, I went to Pittsburgh with Luke, right, and I meet Luke in Breezewood, right, because he’s coming from York, right, right, right. I realized we’re doing this on a Sunday morning, at eight in the morning, and I’m like, ding, ding, ding. I stopped, got some monkey bread. Got all sticky on the way up the breeze wood. I brought my wife home, crow nuts. I brought home cake. I brought home all of this ish. That was Simon NiFi, so my wife’s like, Hey, let’s go up and get some more before the blizzard. So on the weekend, at a blizzard, before it snowed on Sunday, on Saturday, we got out of bed at seven in the morning, 15 degrees. We drove to Frederick at 720 in the morning. We queued up at 820 we spent 20 minutes in line in the cold, freezing to get inside, to stand in line, 30 minutes inside to get to the counter, to come out and then drive another hour, 56 miles drive Home to have pastries during the play for bread. So I’m not going to tell anybody that it’s unreasonable that whatever you it is that you want to do, which is line up for Kyle Bradish bobbleheads three hours, whatever it is, if you enjoy it, go do it. But I think we all have we all have even Michael Jordan, who won the Daytona five about that. He has the same amount of time in his day as you and me, and he’s closer to your age than mine. So we don’t time is expiring. So if you want to do

Leonard Raskin  24:13

it, go to Israel, or go to Frederick and get paid Absolutely. Go stand in line, or go to here’s one burger, and you say that, you have me thinking, there’s two of them, and I haven’t done it. I have to do it. There’s no question about it. And it’s sooner rather than later, I do want to go to the Indy 500 and have you done that?

Nestor Aparicio  24:34

I have been there and kissed the bricks. Okay? The year that Indianapolis had the Super Bowl, which was the Billy kind of should have been us on that Tuesday night. The NFL used to throw a really gala media part. They don’t do it anymore. The Chiefs, they used to hire hooting to blowfish and do it with John Daly on a golf course in Jacksonville. And every year they would not try to outdo themselves, but they would do really nice job. And. And the city puts the party on. The city is in charge from having the media end. So we were doing it when the Orioles had it 93 it’s when I ran into Getty Lee at the buffet. It was they, they use, absconded the Inner Harbor. They closed the entire inner harbor, and they made the promenade from rusty scupper over to the to the white street pavilion. They made it a that was where the Gala was. The gala was in the Science Center, but shouldered on the Federal Hill, and it was completely cordoned off. You know, you couldn’t get near it, right? Because they were bringing 1800 media people and everybody from Major League Baseball in 1993 George Will and Larry King and Bill Clinton. And you know, everybody else was on Epstein’s Island. Was all maybe Jeffrey was here. Who knows? They were all at the harbor because Baltimore was showing off. So that’s what you know they do in all of these cities when they were doing it. And when they do it in a city like that, that’s kind of how they throw the big shenanigans, hoop kicker, yeah, and that’s where it happened. For me, on a Tuesday night in Indianapolis, they closed down the 500 it’s out in like, it’s out in West Indianapolis. It’s like in a suburb, but it’s gigantic beyond belief, huge. It doesn’t look like a stadium, it looks like a city. And they had the party. It’s like and here’s the cool part, they gave us gloves, and they gave us beer in the in the glass that was made of ice. And I have a picture of me drinking that, kissing the bricks. So you should go do that.

Leonard Raskin  26:43

But yeah, so I said the Indy 500 is one. And I was talking about Charlotte. My in laws live in Concord. I have driven by the Concord motor speedway. If it’s been 200 times that’s, that’s like none you never been so never been in it, never gone to a NASCAR race.

8

Nestor Aparicio  27:07

The Hall of Fame’s down there right in Charlotte, right? Yeah,

Leonard Raskin  27:10

that’s the that’s the home this weekend, this past week, I was in Kannapolis. Dale Earnhardt drive, you know? Dale Earnhardt road. Dale Earnhardt, everything is right there. And I’ve, I’ve never done a Concord.

Nestor Aparicio  27:25

Have you done a NASCAR race? No, I did dover 30 years ago, 9798 I did, well, I was bud sponsored and and Ricky Craven was their driver at the time. Yeah, he did the show and all that I went there was just loud. It was beautiful and fast and slowly colorful, but it’s really loud. And you know, you have to be down.

Leonard Raskin  27:49

8

You don’t realize how loud it is. You watch it on TV. It’s just a thing.

Nestor Aparicio  27:53

I would tell you, in my life, I’ve been to a million airports on a million airplanes. I’ve heard planes take off. I’ve been stayed outside of LA. This is that’s a different kind of

Leonard Raskin  28:04

different thing. That’s right.

Nestor Aparicio  28:06

Oh, and also, I’ve lived in the harbor when the IRL came in and ran around, too,

8

Leonard Raskin  28:10

sure, sure. But those are two things got to do. Got to do a Concord race, got to do an

Leonard Raskin  28:15

indie Did you? Did you do IRL in Baltimore? Or no, I did not. No interest. I mean, I was that wasn’t a thing, neither did anybody else, right? That’s why it was what one and done well. I mean, the whatever

Nestor Aparicio  28:27

it is for you to say Indy 500 means you really should do it. And at one point in my life, I wanted to go to Wimbledon, and I did it’s just not

Leonard Raskin  28:36

8

been there, done you did it. I did it. That was a big one. No, you know, like the US Open is a train ride away, New York. Never done it. No, no, I’ve done it. I thought I did an 86 I did it. Was not a thing. I mean, it’d be great tennis, but Wimbledon was it. Had to see Wimbledon. Had to go there. Did it? Put it on list, checked it off. Did it World Cup game you want to go to you don’t like soccer. I’m impartial soccer. I could take it or leave it because it’s such a big spectacle. Yeah, fine. Oh, here’s another one. We’re talking sports. We’re mentioning sports. I had the opportunity this year. Didn’t take advantage of it just because of schedule. Didn’t work next year or next time, Army, Navy, at M and T, God,

Nestor Aparicio  29:17

I did that one. I did that. I did that in Baltimore 15 years ago, when it

Leonard Raskin  29:21

was Yeah, had the opportunity to do it this year, but scheduling didn’t work. To get there, I had tickets, I had everything lined up, and then something jumped in. Had to took over.

Nestor Aparicio  29:31

So, you know what I should do is one of those internet things as to things that I’ve done that you wouldn’t think that I’ve done, like the NFL is going to open their season in Australia next year. You know that, right? Yeah. So the international part of this, I have, I have cross country skied in Lillehammer, Norway. That’s something I’ve done. I have gone to the bull fights in Madrid. And that was, that was ghastly. I didn’t take it at all. I didn’t like it at all. Um, but the rugby is coming here. The All Blacks are playing in Baltimore. And Steve Elliot, dr, Steve Elliot, chiropractic, life keeps me together. Love you. Steve and Allison, yeah, right. On Joppa road. They as a family. Steve and his boys, they are fired up because they’re a rugby family. So I have never been to a rugby match. I’ve never been to a cricket match. I have never been to Hialeah. As much as I’ve been the I’ve been outside the highlight front on 1000 times. So there’s a bunch of that, you know, I went to the one NASCAR race. That’s enough to make me like I’m good, yeah, I’m good. And I feel like there’s some things that I’m good with that. Maybe I don’t know that I’m good with but right outside of sports, I don’t know what I would want. I don’t think there’s anything sports buckety left for me that

8

Leonard Raskin  30:51

you’ve done it, been there, seen that I feel like I got to do. I’ve seen the Sydney Opera House. That was one. I’ve been there, done that. Go inside. Yes, you absolutely the whole thing, beautiful. Beautiful. Went to New Zealand, as I said, been to Hawaii three, four times.

Nestor Aparicio  31:07

What’s the best thing you’ve ever seen? What’s the thing you can recommend to me that is your best recommendation? What is your What’s number one

Leonard Raskin  31:17

best thing I’ve ever seen? Wow, that’s something Sydney, Opera House was magnificent. Yeah, absolutely magnificent. That’s top five dog. I’ll give you that there’s, there’s no doubt, that was fantastic. You felt like you went somewhere when you were there. Oh, yeah, that was, that was, that was a long plane ride. But, man, I’m here, right? We went to Hawaii first broke it up Attaboy. Yeah, you’re thinking Pearl Harbor.

Nestor Aparicio  31:42

8

See, people give you their money and they save their money. This is the stuff they should be

Leonard Raskin  31:45

doing for me, Pearl Harbor was astonishing in Honolulu. I found it really astonishing when I

Nestor Aparicio  31:53

finally got there and I didn’t pull in and I did walk the walkway, I found it really strange how close it was to the Aloha Stadium same exit, like, literally,

Leonard Raskin  32:03

that was, that was kind of overwhelming, just to think about what, what happened there. And I guess you know another thing that now that you mentioned it

8

Nestor Aparicio  32:13

being Normandy, right? You’ve done that, yeah, okay, all right, okay, stunning, stunning, I haven’t done that,

Leonard Raskin  32:19

being that’s top, top two or three. And again, I was gonna say being where we live makes some of this seem petty and trite. But DC, you do the monument tour in DC, you do the veteran the Vietnam Memorial.

Nestor Aparicio  32:36

We take it for granted, because we went there on our third grade trip too, because we’re because we’re here, yeah,

Leonard Raskin  32:42

8

the White House. I don’t care who’s in it. You do a tour of the White House, the part they let you see just standing there, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument. I mean, seeing these things is so magnificent, massive. But for us, it’s like we gotta drive to DC,

Nestor Aparicio  33:04

or it’s even like going to the top of the Empire State Building, where as an example, I went there with I had a Norwegian girlfriend 30 years ago and and she was traveling and from Norway, and had never been to New York, so it was very romantic for her. She wanted to go to the top of the Empire State Building. I went with her. We took pictures and all of this stuff. Her dad worked for Coca Cola in Norway, so she had a Coca Cola Olympic thing. And she so for her, it was like, not Sleepless in Seattle. Was late, but it was, it was like top of the bucket list, whatever. Whereas my wife, who worked in New York and got cancer there working after 911 when she and I went up, I said, Have you been to the top of the Empire State Building? She’s like, nah. And I’m like, I, you know, I went once with an old girlfriend, but I’m happy to go. We went and where they’re like, how long is the line? Two hours? I don’t think she still has been to the top of the Empire State Building, because it’s like, you know, I don’t need I’ll go next time. I’ll go next time. I’ll go next time.

Leonard Raskin  34:06

Like, Fast Pass, yeah, you go right up to the whatever floor.

Nestor Aparicio  34:10

Then give me the 130 express on the 20 right. Go and

8

Leonard Raskin  34:14

you do it and you’re done. And if it’s, if I’m giving advice on that one, I go in the spring or the summer. Don’t go out there in the winter. It’s freaking ridiculous.

Nestor Aparicio  34:24

You know what I did with my wife, and this would speak to your buddy who greased the doorman. By the way, Leonard Raskin is your Raskin global. He’s gonna tell you about how to save up to be able to do all this fun stuff, even if it’s just like going to an Oriole game this year, if that’s what’s on your bucket list, and having a good night and getting a bobble head knock yourself out. But what I did with my wife when the Times Square or the Empire State thing didn’t work out. I’m like, listen, and this is in the early days when, like, you know, my wife and I were I’m like, I got a better idea. I’ll take you to the top of the Marriott marquee. If it turns we can get a bottle of wine. Time we can get the whole get a little cheese board for $38 whatever we got to do, and we did that instead. And to me, that was better than going to the top of the Empire State Building, even

Leonard Raskin  35:11

though all the people watching, just standing like taking a picture, taking

Nestor Aparicio  35:15

8

the elevator at 435, o’clock, on a sunset, night five to seven o’clock, and overspending by 50 bucks or 100 bucks too much to be at the Marriott market, which is closed, by the way, now, the revolving rooftop restaurant, to me, that was the most romantic thing you could possibly do in New York. For me, there you go. And it didn’t cost, it didn’t break the bank. It was a, you know, it was a nice dinner, but, like, it was something that anyone here could do, because New York’s right there, and Sydney’s not right?

Leonard Raskin  35:43

Saw the Rockettes, saw the big Christmas tree. It’s a big Christmas tree. You know,

Nestor Aparicio  35:48

part of this is and I’ll let you expand about this. But while we’re talking bucket list, and I have been dreaming a trip of my own at this point and wondering why I don’t want to go to Israel right now, or why I shouldn’t go to Venezuela right now, or why I should feel encumbered by my passport or whatever this don’t whatever you’re doing. So, yeah. I mean, I like, there are times when you pull the trigger on something and do it, yeah. I one of the most romantic things in my life is this gigantic mural of Rio de Janeiro of Corcovado and Rio, yeah, sure. It began in my life in the late 1980s in Greek town, in a restaurant called Rio lispo That became sort of the place. I took people on a good date, friends, and I loved the food. It was Brazilian food that was very much like what my family made in Venezuela, right? It’s a very South American. The guy who was the chef there at some point, cooked for the prime minister of Brazil, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. The food was great. It was where the Athenian was. It’s right in the heart of Greek town on Eastern Avenue. He had this giant mural on the wall. And I always loved and dude, I’m a schmuck from Dundalk in 1989 I barely had Encyclopedia Britannica that my parents bought me, I know where the F Brazil even was other than on a Risk Board, right? Like, you know, right? So I saw it, and I didn’t even know it was real or whatever. And then I realized at some point in my life, during like, Maradona and South America and Argentina and Brazil and Pele that like, wow, that’s must be the most beautiful place on earth. So for years, that was in there. And years later, the man Tony, Tony Lotus gifted me that in a very beautiful way. And it’s 15 feet long. It’s literally in my living room. Now it is in its fourth home that it didn’t even fit in the elevators. I had to cut it off the board, roll it up when I moved in and out of harbor court because it didn’t fit in the elevator. Right, right? So I’ve had it stretched, repaired, tasted. It’s still beautiful. It’s still the primary piece. But so this is 1987 or 88 I discovered it, and it became on my butt. Oh no. I went, come on, dude. So in 2005 I learned that the Rolling Stones playing on the beach in Copacabana, which is what that is, and I had seen 60 minutes do a piece on how dodgy six Brio was that, like kids were like, rip taking people’s wallets, jumping ice cream on your feet, like all of the Fox News generation of bad things you could hear about the favelas and the gangs and like all of that about why not to go to Brazil? Right? And I was with my buddy Julio bromeo in San Francisco, and I told him, we kind of want to go to Brazil, but we’re scared. He’s like, I’ll go with you. So we went. So we did that. We did Brazil. We did Buenos Aires. We walked into a riot at a Rolling Stones concert that my wife and I discussed about Buenos Aires a couple of days ago. Matter of fact, one of the most stretch things we’ve ever done. We were talking about the dumbest shit we’ve ever done in our lives that was up there. So and my wife, sugar, crashed. It was a bad night in Buenos Aires at the river Plata, but, but the stones were great, and it rained, and Keith Richards was memorable, but it was like, wouldn’t really sign up to have people throwing bottles at our heads. You know, again, wouldn’t do that. But on that trip, we did it, and it was one of the greatest things we’ve ever done when the when the Olympics were there, my wife was fighting for her life at that time, at 16, but like we saw Rio, Baldi, all these people I know went down to Rio and had a good time. Blame it on Rio, if you remember Michael Caine, so I’m just saying that sat on my bucket list the way the Sydney Opera House, sat on my bucket list, and I promised the guys an air supply that I would get to story, true story. Russell Hitchcock is the one that told me I had to go to Australia. You can seriously. So you learn these things along life’s highway, and then you get to beat a 57 and you’re like, Well, I didn’t do Wimbledon. I’m probably never going to get to the Taj Mahal. But. Because of my stomach’s not going to accept India very well, and so I like, I don’t, I don’t know what my bucket list thing is. I mean, whether it’s the Taj Mahal or Machu Picchu or the pyramids or Israel, I don’t know, but it’s a great time to think about Absolutely. And I’m just challenging everybody to do that. You do that every day, all

Leonard Raskin  40:23

the time. We talk to people about what they want, what their hopes are, what their dreams are, and help them make them come true while they still can.

8

Nestor Aparicio  40:30

Raskin global is easy as enough just to hit you, right? I know you want to talk insurance. You want to talk all sorts of things. Instead, we talked about dreams and living your

Leonard Raskin  40:37

dream. That’s what matters. That’s what matters.

Nestor Aparicio  40:40

Raskin is here. He is there. You can find him out of Baltimore. Positive, more from me. I like talking to you. I like I like thinking about the American dream. Back for more positive. Stay with us.