Faculty Off The Clock - Featuring Todd McNerney

What happens when faculty step away from the classroom and the lab? In this episode of Faculty Off the Clock, we sit down with Professor Todd McNerney to explore the passions, pursuits, and pastimes that shape their life beyond academia. From unexpected hobbies to meaningful side projects, discover a different side of the faculty you thought you knew. 

Follow us: @facultyofftheclock on Instagram and on Facebook

🎙️ Produced by Michael Overholt

📍 Recorded in Podcast Studio #1, Addlestone Library

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:07

We welcome you to this episode of Faculty Off the Clock, a podcast series hosted by the College of Charleston's Office of the Provost that highlights the personal and lighter sides of our campus as professors.

SPEAKER_03 0:19

I'm Mark Del Mastro, and I'm Chris Cowery, Associate Provost, and your host of Faculty Off the Clock. For this episode, we welcome Professor Todd McNurney of the Department of Food and Dance. We're excited to have you here.

SPEAKER_04 1:23

Anyway, I met my how did you get with a Swiss mime? We'll come back to that maybe. Since she asked the first question. I'm very curious. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:31

So I met the woman who I am now married to. And uh she's a native South Carolinian. Uh she went to the college back in the eighties. Anyway, uh shortly after I met her, she decided she needed to move back here to be close to her mother. I was coming off of that contract. I was like, oh I could move to South Carolina. So I came here without any position at all. Um and uh was here for a uh two years, I guess, and then uh I got hired on as an adjunct in the Department of Theater and Dance, and I did that for um three three years? Four four years. Uh and a position in my third year a position came up and I applied for it and they hired me.

SPEAKER_04 2:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 2:29

So here I am three years later.

SPEAKER_04 2:31

Wow, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_05 2:33

So uh so how did I get with the Swiss mind group? Yeah. Uh so um as an undergraduate, uh one of the jobs I had, one of my work study positions was working in um the equivalent our our that the institution's equivalent of the Satili Theater. Um our our department of theater uh shared a space that was also a roadhouse. So um I worked all kinds of different national touring companies and national um artists and uh this uh group, their name is Momenshance. Um they still exist. They do. Um in a crazy way. Uh because the original founders only one of the originals still tours with them and she's uh in her late 70s. Oh wow. Um anyway, uh they came to my home institution to do a two-week residency as they were preparing a second show that they were gonna take to Broadway. Um myself and other people on the crew just got friendly with them. And then a couple years later, when I was living in San Francisco, uh they were doing a show in in the North Bay in in Marin County somewhere. And uh my roommate and I tried to get free tickets and we ended up getting jobs.

SPEAKER_03 4:04

So that's a great story.

SPEAKER_05 4:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:08

So well we're gonna we want to continue a little bit with uh the your history and um and and of course before we get into which everyone's interested in your off-campus interests and hobbies. Um where are you from originally? Where were you born and raised?

SPEAKER_05 4:25

So um I'm from a very small town in southern Minnesota. Uh I wasn't born in that town. I was born in a neighboring town, but I I claim this town is my hometown. It's it's a place called Blue Earth.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

Blue Earth. I've never heard of Blue Earth. Dr. Corey, have you? No, no.

SPEAKER_05 4:45

I'm not terribly surprised. Uh but the the best way to do to define what its location, if you know your U.S. geography, the Minnesota and Iowa border is uh a straight line.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:00

If you put your finger on any map on the midpoint of that line, you will very likely touch where Blue Earth is. It's about nine miles north of the Iowa border, so it's in farm country, Minnesota.

SPEAKER_04 5:14

Population?

SPEAKER_05 5:16

Uh well when as a kid, because there was a sign when you entered town, it was 3600. Uh I think I think it's now 3200 or something. Oh yeah. Decrease. Far farming communities are are shrinking all over our country. Yeah. Um but yeah, so uh I grew up in a a very rural place. Um very flat. It's called Blue Earth because um the French voyageurs were the some of the first Europeans to um explore that part of North America. They came down from Canada, and there's a very famous one, maybe famous, I don't know. A gentleman named Lesour, and uh he discovered this river where the earth, the mud was blue, and and he thought he was gonna make a bunch of money because he thought it was something valuable. Turns out it's just very rich in iron and very good farmland. Okay. Um so the river got named that and then the town got named later.

SPEAKER_04 6:26

Very interesting.

SPEAKER_03 6:27

So growing up in in rural America, did you have particular things you did outside as a little kid?

SPEAKER_05 6:33

Oh, sure. Um I mean uh I uh played all kinds of sports.

SPEAKER_04 6:41

Um You're a baseball enthusiast, aren't you?

SPEAKER_05 6:45

I am. I am very much into baseball.

SPEAKER_04 6:47

Um that go back to your childhood?

SPEAKER_05 6:50

Of course, yeah. Um and then I in high s because I went to a small rural school, I was able to play all those sports. So I played football and baseball. Uh my best sport actually was wrestling.

SPEAKER_04 7:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 7:04

So um what weight uh so I earned my first varsity letter at um a hundred and twelve pounds.

SPEAKER_04 7:14

Okay, yeah, you're a little guy.

SPEAKER_05 7:16

Um and uh by the time I was a senior, I was wrestling at 138.

SPEAKER_04 7:22

Okay. So so you wrestled all four years in high school?

SPEAKER_05 7:26

Uh I earned three letters. Okay. Um I I did wrestle the whole time I was in high school, but I earned three varsity letters. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 7:32

Great. Did you manage to um vacation growing up?

SPEAKER_05 7:36

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:37

Um was your favorite vacation?

SPEAKER_05 7:40

Uh so uh m uh uh Minnesota uh official state nickname is the land of ten thousand lakes. Um so we uh went to a couple of different lakes over the years. Uh southern Minnesota is very flat, um kind of boring uh visually in a way. Uh uh anyway, middle part of the state and further north are where the really big lakes are. So we used to go to a place called Lake Whitefish uh and it's a part of a big chain.

SPEAKER_03 8:15

Um we knew other people and um you could water ski and fish and did you ever canoe and then like bring the bring the boat between that's a way to do that.

SPEAKER_05 8:29

Yeah, so yeah, we you should talk to my sister. Um my sister does that right uh if you go to the very northern part of Minnesota, there's a great um national park, national refuge, I think, um called the boundary waters. Yeah. Um and it is there are parts of the boundary waters that you can only get to via canoe. You're not allowed to use a motorized boat. So she uh uh she and her family regularly do that. Portage across Portage a canoe from one lake to another. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:02

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

So so growing up, um we played sports. Did you have a memorable summer job?

SPEAKER_05 9:09

Uh uh I actually had a lot of jobs. Um maybe it was the ruralness or maybe it was my age. Uh uh so I was growing up in the late 60s and early 70s. Um so I had my first, I guess I think of it as memorable because to me it was kind of an adventure. I was a paperboy, had multiple paper routes. Another paperboy. Um and my my paperboy experiences were uh even more unique, perhaps, because um I started with an afternoon weekly. So I probably had that in maybe fourth grade, fifth grade, um, because it was just once a week, get on my bike, throw around the local paper. And then I graduated up to um a neighboring town, the one where I was born, actually had a daily paper, and that was also afternoon delivery, and I moved up to that. And then um Minneapolis has a big newspaper, uh, the Minneapolis Star and Tribune. Eventually I got one of those.

SPEAKER_04 10:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 10:18

Oh yeah, big time.

SPEAKER_04 10:19

Um so you were really invested in this.

SPEAKER_05 10:22

Well, it was paperboy. It was a way to make my own money. And I liked I liked having my own money.

SPEAKER_04 10:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:27

Uh but also because I grew up rural, uh, and nobody will know what this even means, um, because I don't even know that people still do it. Uh by the time I was probably twelve, thirteen, uh I started working in the fields. Um in southern Minnesota the primary crops are uh soybeans um or corn. And in in cornfields you do something called detasseling, um which is related to the genetics of energy and cross-pollinization and so forth. Um every other row you pull the tassels out so that they can't pollinate. Um but with soybeans you do essentially like working in a garden. It's called walking beans. You basically walk up and down every field row and hoe out every weed because the weeds used to reduce the price per bushel that somebody would earn for their soybeans. So I star that was like a big money job. I was making better than minimum wage for the seven.

SPEAKER_04 11:37

What kind of hours were you putting in a week for that job?

SPEAKER_05 11:39

Well, you usually only worked until noon because it could get really hot. Okay. So it was one of these things get up at six o'clock and be in the field by six thirty or seven and work for five hours and still have half your day.

SPEAKER_04 11:51

Exactly. Yeah. And earn pretty big. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:54

Well, and it was like, you know, I made a lot more money than delivering my pets.

SPEAKER_04 11:58

Yeah, sure. Absolutely. Um Did you have pets growing up?

SPEAKER_05 12:03

We did. Uh we uh we had a couple different dogs. Um uh my first dog was uh a little dog named Boots. Um that's probably the one I remember the most because I was a little really little kid. Was it a mutt or a Yeah, Boots was a mutt of some sort. I don't um I think my father was really good at finding strays. I see. And things just sometimes found their way to our house, and Boots was like that.

SPEAKER_04 12:30

Do you have a dog now?

SPEAKER_05 12:31

We do. We have two dogs. Okay. Uh we have an English Springer Spaniel. Oh yeah, great dog. Oh yeah, she's a sweetheart. Yeah. Um and then uh we have a uh basically a mutt a rescue. She's some kind of shepherd. Um my uh one of my sons and his college roommates, uh, when they got their first apartment, decided they wanted to save a dog, so they went to get a rescue pup. And this one, her name is Millie. Um, Millie had a broken leg. And the they believed they they told these young men, well, you know, we need you to watch her for a little bit. She probably will have to have that leg um taken off. Uh uh and it doesn't look like it'll repair heal itself, repair. But they did something right because she didn't lose her leg. Wow. And uh she runs very well. She's very fast. Yeah, I know. She's a great dog.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Oh, wow. Yeah, look, Mark and I was curious about what kind of games people grew up playing, cards, board games back in the day.

SPEAKER_05 13:35

Oh yeah. Uh so um boy, uh you like games, Todd?

SPEAKER_04 13:40

I mean, okay, that's important because we would be setting you up for memories. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_05 13:46

Uh I grew up with three three siblings. Okay. Uh and in rural Minnesota, not a lot to do again. You'll go outside, ride your bike, whatever. But in the winter, when it's cold, you're gonna play games and of course get competitive about it. So uh you know, I um I don't know if you could name a board game I didn't have or play, uh, but probably my favorite was Clue um or the game of life.

SPEAKER_04 14:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 14:19

We played a lot of that. Yeah.

unknown 14:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:21

Interesting. Well, we're gonna uh I'm not a as no as I'm not gonna do it. I got a little PTSD from the Colonel Mustard, board games from childhood. So yeah, I don't play them. That's a running joke in my family now that if anyone they like my family likes to play games, but uh they know that uh I'm always out if they engage. So anyway, we're gonna we're gonna talk about your uh school years and and start out with uh uh your grammar school years and hope you might have a fun fact you could tell us about yourself from that period of time that you think might amuse our listeners.

SPEAKER_05 14:57

Well boy, I wish I knew what would amuse people, but um You'd be surprised. So um This will probably come about a little bit later, too, but uh I didn't necessarily know I wanted to get into theater, but I do recall the very first uh play I was in, which was in third grade.

SPEAKER_04 15:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 15:23

Um I got to play the lead in our little classroom play that was entitled Finnegan the Pig. So I played Finnegan. The pig? Um yes. Um Finnegan the Pig was a little fable uh about uh a little boy and a girl whose father gave them a pig named Finnegan uh to raise that then they were gonna have to slaughter. But the kids, of course, learned that what, we're gonna have to lose Finnegan, so how do we save Finnegan? Um and they taught Finnegan how to whistle when Irish eyes are smiling. And because he could whistle, dad decided he could make money and he wouldn't have to slaughter him. Anyway, I'm certain I got the part because I was the only kid who could whistle in that class. But um Interesting. Somehow I I got the lead and uh I still cherished that moment. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_04 16:18

So clearly it was a positive experience to set the path for you as a teacher.

SPEAKER_05 16:23

Trevor Burrus, Jr. In some way, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:26

So we're gonna same fun fact question, but applied to high school.

SPEAKER_05 16:32

Uh so high school. Not a theater kid. Uh why? No, I didn't I didn't do anything. Did you take a break or no? I think it was because of those sports. Uh and um and I became a student government person. So uh I ended up being both well, I think uh in those days uh high school um started at 10th grade. So you had junior high school, seventh to nine. And I think in tenth grade I was elected to student council as a representative. As a junior, I became vice president, and as senior, I became the president of the student council. So I became all about you know student government and setting an interview.

SPEAKER_04 17:19

You up for your future role as speaker of the faculty here at the college?

SPEAKER_03 17:23

I guess when you were president, what did you run on? Like new vending machines and actually it was on a salad bar in our cafeteria.

SPEAKER_05 17:31

And we got it. Really?

SPEAKER_04 17:33

Wow. Professor McIntyre delivers. I did, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:38

I earned that vote.

SPEAKER_03 17:40

So I when you went off to college, where'd you go? The lighter side of your college years and how you got into theater, I assume, in the in your college.

SPEAKER_05 17:48

Yeah, it's exactly uh what happened. So um I ended up uh I'm a first-gen college student. Um neither my father had a little bit of college, um, but he failed out. Got a little distracted. Um in any case, uh it it always seemed like a thing I would do because of student government and and how involved I was in school, in high school. And uh but I didn't really know where I was gonna go. And I had a very good high school guidance counselor who suggested that I uh look at this private Catholic university. Um I was like, wow, my family can't afford that, that's not gonna happen. But anyway, that's where I went. I went to uh I I did apply, they accepted me, the financial aid they provided me made it possible. All those paper routes help pay for it. Um anyway, so I went to a place called St. John's University. Uh it's a um all-mail school in the center part of Minnesota that's also a Benedictine monastery.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

So did you hang w are there uh did you hang out with the monks?

SPEAKER_05 19:05

We did hang out with monks. So uh you had um were they fun? Some of them, yeah. Some of them are very fun. Uh so uh yeah, you when you lived on campus in a dorm, you always had a fac they called it a faculty resident uh who was also in. You had student RA residents, but you also had a faculty member who lived somewhere in your dorm building um or on your floor. And uh my freshman um faculty resident uh was a gentleman named Father Renee, and his uh uh dorm room apartment was directly across the hall from mine. So I had to behave pretty pretty weak.

SPEAKER_03 19:49

When I was in Notre Dame, yeah, the rectors were all priests. Uh you'd come back and there were like several of them on each floor. Yeah, walking with the sh from the shower with just a towel on. Hey Father. Yep, hi Father.

SPEAKER_05 20:01

Uh yeah, and I I often joke with students that St. John's is also very rural. The monastery was built sort of in between four lakes, two of them that are pretty significant sized. Um anyway, uh you go down to the big lake, it's called Sagatagon, and um uh certain times of the year in the morning, the steam and the fog is rolling off of the water. Well, there's nothing like going down to walk by that lake and seeing two or three dudes in black robes walking out of the fog. Sort of like, is this a horror movie? What am I what am I in right now? Um But yeah, St. John's was an excellent um liberal arts school. And because of that, uh I did not go there to major in theater. Uh I meant there to major in international business. Um but there was a sign for an audition uh in my freshman dorm, and I was like, oh, that might be fun. So I did.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

That's crazy. Like the just the little paths that we take. Yeah, no, it's insane. So when when you left and you got into more theater training after that, and and what was that like?

SPEAKER_05 21:20

So uh with a broad-based liberal art education um in theater, uh I wasn't I I knew I liked acting. I'd been cast in numerous numerous things, but I'd also discovered I loved pretty much everything about it. Uh and uh so I started as a senior applying to some graduate schools, but I wasn't even certain about which avenue. So I did both a a performance. For for graduate school and performance, uh you have to do an audition. So I did an audition um a a couple of different ways. And then uh I also did uh technical theater portfolio reviews because I was really interested in that. Um and ultimately I got uh I graduated and I didn't know that I was going on to graduate school. Um so I had found a summer job working for the Des Moines Metro Opera as a technician. And while I was there, I followed up on one final lead for graduate school, which was at the University of Iowa. And suddenly at the last minute, they were like, We have a space, you want to come? Oh. And I ended up there.

SPEAKER_04 22:38

Oh fantastic. Hawkeyes.

SPEAKER_05 22:40

Yeah, yeah. I'm a hawke. Well, it's hard to be a hawkeye when you grow up in Minnesota and you're also a gopher. That's right. So so I I kind of have a mixed thing going on. Yes, big ten all the way. So full disclosure to your audience, uh they share the questions with us in advance, or at least some of them. So I don't know what's going to happen later. So I've been thinking about this a little bit, and mostly because I wasn't sure if I wanted to share it, because for the longest time I didn't share it. Uh about four years ago, I took up boxing.

SPEAKER_04 23:42

Oh, wow. You are the second faculty member that we have interviewed on this podcast to date who uh has a boxing pastime. We won't uh disclose the surprise. You have to listen to that episode. But uh you're not alone.

SPEAKER_05 23:56

Okay, well that's that's cool to hear.

SPEAKER_04 23:58

Uh so what prompted boxing?

SPEAKER_05 24:02

My two sons, um under I believe the suggestion of my wife and their mother, um gave me a gift certificate. So it that I started in the spring of twenty-one, so during COVID. Uh I don't really know. She's she thought I was a pretty decent wrestler. Sure. I was gonna say there had to be some connection there. And she she was like, uh well, you know, he might like that. So they gave me this gift certificate for like a week's worth of classes or something. Um and I went and it was awesome.

SPEAKER_04 24:43

Wow. So now do you actually compete in matches? No. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 24:49

I'm I I don't I don't know that that would be a good idea. So uh uh Yeah, technically I just do something called basics and uh Any sparring involved? There's a a little bit of sort of not true sparring. Uh you work with a partner sometimes. Okay. Um you're learning how to defend, how to block a punch, how to throw a punch. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 25:12

Um it's not full-on contact. It's not full on contact.

SPEAKER_05 25:15

Okay. I don't think uh just based on how slow I've gotten in my elder years, uh I don't think that would be very good.

SPEAKER_03 25:25

So where do you where do you train in time?

SPEAKER_05 25:27

Yeah, it's a um a place on James Island called Hurricane Boxing.

SPEAKER_03 25:31

Oh boy. All right. Yeah, a lot of people have to do that. A lot in common with our past. Like a little nucleus of people that train there. Interesting. So then you have a favorite boxing movie? Oh, yeah. Favorite boxing movie.

SPEAKER_05 25:42

That is a great question. Uh well, I guess it sort of depends on Yeah. The answer to that is sort of yes or is yes. So uh I love two movies for two different reasons. I love the original Rocky just because it's quintessential. It's Sylvester Stallone and it's 1970s is just like my childhood. My my childhood and everything. And it's just kind of great pop. Getting strong now.

SPEAKER_03 26:15

I mean, that's timeless. Actually, it's time. Yeah, Meg Son and I watched it and it it holds up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:21

So uh I I do like that, but I think from like a theater guy with supposed to supposedly some sophistication to his tastes, uh I like Raging Bull.

SPEAKER_04 26:33

Oh, I was thinking you might say that. It's a classic.

SPEAKER_05 26:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:37

Yeah. There's something about a boxing movie. Oh yeah. Like it like the sport, like the the way that you can tell a story through that sport, uh, they always tend to be good.

SPEAKER_05 26:47

Yeah, even the even the Rocky remakes, the Creed, the two Creed movies are pretty okay.

SPEAKER_03 26:53

I haven't seen those shows. Those are pretty good. Yeah. Million Dollar Baby was good. Oh, Million Dollar Baby is a great movie. Yeah, I would agree. I've seen that.

SPEAKER_04 27:00

It was real good. Um is there an off-the-clock activity that you haven't tackled yet that you would like to in the future?

SPEAKER_05 27:11

Um maybe real sparring? No, I'm I don't want to really spar. Um I you know, I don't know that I uh there's a lot of different little things that I often dabble in, so I guess in some respects it would be to get better at some of those things. Like uh I juggle, so but I'd only do that to a sort of novice level. It might be fun to explore getting better at it.

SPEAKER_04 27:45

Is that a is that a skill that you have to keep up with, or that you can put down, say, for twelve months and then pick up a couple balls and be right back juggling again?

SPEAKER_05 27:54

No, it's uh so so uh on campus I sometimes use juggling as a way to um teach a lesson about something. The great thing about and it's actually why I like boxing too, to be honest. So boxing has actually no relationship to wrestling at all. In fact, at first I couldn't make my hands and feet do what they were supposed to do because my brain was sort of wired for wrestling. Yeah. Um learning any new physical activity builds new neuropathways in your brain. And it doesn't matter what that activity is. And once the pathway is built, you keep the pathway. So the old colloquialism about um never forgetting how to ride a bike is true. You build a new pathway and you keep it. Uh the same is true with juggling. Once you've learned the pattern, yeah, I can I can pick up almost anything and start to juggle. Now that that doesn't mean I won't drop things, because that happens.

SPEAKER_04 29:02

Now do you do do you juggle with different types of objects or do you stick with it?

SPEAKER_05 29:06

Yeah. So uh chainsaws. Well, so you you know, you we didn't get into all of the other jobs I had had, but I used to I paid my way through college and grad school by um a variety of different trades. So I um I I was a painter uh and not just Todd, the heist the college student has his own painting company. I I worked for a paint a paint company. And I also then also worked for a general contractor, so I did a lot of roofing and interior framing.

SPEAKER_03 29:40

Your future foreman job at the same time. Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 29:43

That's actually why they I irritated them so much because I would ask a lot of questions about things because I kind of knew so but all that circles back to the funniest things I used to juggle were claw hammers. So when I'd get bored, I'd stand up on the roof, you know, in the Iowa sun or the Minnesota sun, and it's everybody else is taking a break, I'd just stand there and juggle hammers.

SPEAKER_03 30:08

Blue sky.

SPEAKER_04 30:09

Never hit yourself in the head?

SPEAKER_05 30:11

No, no, no, no, no, no. All right. Wow, awesome. I used to be younger and quicker. I moved. Yeah, well, sure. I'd let the hammer drop before I'd let it hit me.

SPEAKER_03 30:21

Yeah. It's an idea. So um, you know, our our last question before the lightning round is uh if you weren't a faculty member here, um, what would you be doing?

SPEAKER_05 30:33

Uh that's a terrific question. Um and you know, I don't I don't know if there's a singular uh answer that I could wrap my head around. So um maybe because I had all those jobs as a kid, uh I pretty much have I've had any number of jobs. I've been a bartender, I've been a waiter, I've uh managed a grocery store, uh I I mean all kinds of things. So uh I think what I know would be true is that I would still be doing theater. Uh would that mean I had a position that was paying me enough that that was my sole source of employment? I don't know. Maybe. But I would have I would be finding something. Yeah. I'm not afraid to do almost anything.

SPEAKER_04 31:33

Clearly, yeah. By your history, that's that's that's for sure. Todd, we're gonna enter now the last segment of this interview, which is our lightning round, which we conclude all of our faculty off the clock installments with, where we ask each guest some important standard questions, again, about your life off the clock. And you know, as you mentioned before, this is the portion where we did not provide the questions to you beforehand. So we will probably continue with some surprises. But we also want to clarify that we do know the difference between thunder and lightning. But since this is an audio podcast, we had to settle on the thunder sound effect to cue this portion of the interview. Okay. So to start, we'd like to ask you what's your favorite carb?

SPEAKER_05 32:23

My favorite carb.

SPEAKER_04 32:24

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 32:25

Bread. Any bread.

SPEAKER_04 32:27

Any bread.

SPEAKER_05 32:28

Any bread. Yeah. Uh in high school I went to Germany for the first time and I fell in love with Bruch, and it's a hard roll. Yeah. Um, but honestly, it doesn't matter. I'll eat any bread.

SPEAKER_03 32:40

Okay. So with your carb, what are you putting on your bread, a favorite protein?

SPEAKER_05 32:45

Uh well, love peanut butter. Not probably not the best protein choice there. But if I were gonna if I were gonna make a um a sandwich, it would probably be turkey.

SPEAKER_04 32:59

Okay. Like a processed turkey turkey? Does it matter?

SPEAKER_05 33:03

I I don't want to go too processed, no. Okay. Um boar's head.

unknown 33:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 33:09

Yeah, boar's head is good. Pizza or tacos?

SPEAKER_05 33:13

Pizza. 100%. Or carb. It's good. It's a it's it's tomato sauce on bread.

SPEAKER_04 33:19

That's true. That's true. Yeah, but there's a continuation of the first question. Exactly. Do you have a favorite pizza spot in Charleston?

SPEAKER_05 33:26

Oi. Uh so many. Uh actually, my favorite pizza right now is n is a frozen variety. It's uh Home Run In. It's a Chicago-based company.

SPEAKER_04 33:38

Where do you get this? At the grocery store?

SPEAKER_05 33:40

You can get it at grocery stores or Walmart. And it's your favorite. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I can put it on the list called. It's an amazing frozen pizza.

SPEAKER_04 33:49

Um that's quite an endorsement.

SPEAKER_05 33:51

Uh but if I were gonna go out for pizza on James Island, there's a terrific place called Crust. We go to Crust pretty regularly.

SPEAKER_03 33:59

You're familiar with Crust, Dr. Gorgon. Okay. I'm not. I have to give that a try. Yep. Uh moving to dessert if you like frozen yogurt or ice cream.

SPEAKER_05 34:07

Ice cream. Yeah. Totally.

SPEAKER_03 34:08

Yeah, I guess you had a favorite uh flavor.

SPEAKER_05 34:12

So so this is pr this is probably a leftover from being a wrestler. Uh there's not a sweet that I don't like. Uh and when it comes to ice cream, yeah. Uh I love that James Island has a DQ now because I because I grew up with a Dairy Queen. We would always go get a like a blizzard. Oh, yeah, a blizzard or a peanut butter parfum. They still have those, right? Yeah, yeah. I haven't had one of those in years.

SPEAKER_03 34:39

I'd always like the uh Butterfinger Blizzard or a Heath Bar.

SPEAKER_05 34:44

But uh if I'm getting ice cream at home, it tends to be either Talenti, is that how you say it? Uh it's a kind of gelato version of store store ice cream or uh moose tracks, anybody who makes moose tracks.

SPEAKER_04 35:07

Mustard or ketchup on a hot dog.

SPEAKER_05 35:12

Challenging question. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 35:15

You know, we we're all about the challenging question, too.

SPEAKER_05 35:17

I think this leads to this is this with some of my friends from the University of Iowa, Iowa who were from Chicago, it could create a real problem.

SPEAKER_03 35:27

My wife is from Chicago. I know exactly where you're going.

SPEAKER_05 35:29

But uh I I actually like both. Um at the same time. Oh yeah. So God, you're getting me to share stuff I should So that high school wrestler guy was you asked about 112 uh my weight. In order to make that weight, I had to lose about twenty-eight pounds.

SPEAKER_04 35:51

Oh so you were you were a big cutter in high school.

SPEAKER_05 35:53

Oh, I lost a lot of weight in high school. Wow. So uh there were times when I would mix peanut butter and ketchup and just eat that because of the the f the flavor, the the spiciness of it. And I knew that all I was getting was a minimal amount of calorie and not much uh like substance, weight. Yeah. Anyway, so yeah, I love both of those flavors together in a very strange way. Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. My my wife would say it's it's mustard. Oh yeah, it's 100% mustard. If you even discuss putting ketchup on a hot dog, you just leave the room. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:31

No, I and I I had friends at Iowa who were from Chicago, and I'd they'd see me grab the ketchup and they'd look at me like, what are you doing? You're destroying that.

SPEAKER_03 36:40

That's hilarious. Um, you got your hot dog? You like hush puppies, french fries? With we're going fried food.

SPEAKER_05 36:46

I do like fried food too. Um more often than not, I love hush puppies, but more often than not, I'd probably, if I had to choose between them, pick the french fries.

SPEAKER_04 37:00

Favorite soft drink.

SPEAKER_05 37:04

Uh I don't really drink much of it anymore. Um, but um I would probably say Mountain Dew because it brings back a sort of childhood memory. Understood.

unknown 37:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:17

Totally. Um right now, you know, you talked about boxing. Do you have another favorite off-the-clock thing you like this weekend you might head off and do?

SPEAKER_05 37:27

Uh well, spend a lot of time working in our yard. Um it's not exactly something I think most people would think of as fun, but I actually like mowing.

SPEAKER_04 37:38

Oh, I love mowing.

SPEAKER_05 37:39

Uh and my wife wants to always hire somebody else to do it. And I'm like, no, you know, it's she's like, it's too hot. You shouldn't be out there. I'm like, no, you don't understand. Totally understand. I I get in a place and I just push this thing.

SPEAKER_03 37:51

Now do you like to just line back and forth or circles around? Oh, very simple.

SPEAKER_05 37:56

I have lines, it's just lines, but it's nothing nothing complicated.

SPEAKER_04 38:00

See, that's a really good question, Chris, because it depends on my mood. Because I will tackle the lawn in different ways. Sometimes I'll segment it out and do kind of a circular fashion, or depending upon my mood, I'll just do you know a whole outline of the entire it just depends. There's no like outline and then just work yourself smaller.

SPEAKER_03 38:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:20

I guess you're that is sort of true. I will work different sections in different ways. So there's sometimes I'll work a section in a diagonal pattern just because you can.

SPEAKER_04 38:30

Yeah. Yeah. So may maybe, and I don't know, that answers the next question we had is an off-the-clock activity that you prefer to do alone.

SPEAKER_05 38:38

Would that be it, or do you have another one that' Uh Well, I love games, but I don't necessarily play a lot of board games anymore. So I love video games.

SPEAKER_04 38:51

You have a favorite video game?

SPEAKER_05 38:52

Anything Lego.

SPEAKER_04 38:54

Anything Lego?

SPEAKER_03 38:55

Like Lego Star Wars? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:57

Like I did the entire Lego Star Wars, I've done the entire Lego Indiana Jones, I've done the entire Lego. Harry Potter. Harry Potter.

SPEAKER_03 39:05

Marvel.

SPEAKER_05 39:06

I'm on the what I think is the last one of the Marvels. I I've I'm playing a Marvel II game that came out in like 2018.

SPEAKER_03 39:14

And are you playing on uh like PlayStation, Xbox?

SPEAKER_05 39:17

Uh totally PlayStation.

SPEAKER_03 39:19

So you're PlayStation game, like is there Xbox? You could have an argument about it. Oh yeah, we could definitely. All of this is so foreign to me. Oh yeah. I'm intrigued by those games. Yeah, I used to play those games. Oh so uh growing up, uh 60s and 70s, favorite music band from your youth?

SPEAKER_05 39:39

Uh so I It's a challenge too, because there's e every every song or band puts a different uh memory, I guess, in a way. Yeah, of course. And um so I'm gonna go with this one though. I'm not I mentioned a little bit ago my f uh I went to Germany when I was in high school. So uh and most of anybody who might listen to this might not remember this music playing device, but there used to be something called cassette tapes. Oh no cassette tapes. So so so uh one of my classmates. Did you have one in your car? I did, eventually. Um but in when I did this trip, one of my classmates, we were sophomores in high school, one of my classmates was like, Hey everybody, I'll bring a tape player, you bring tapes, and we'll you know, because we're gonna be busting around Germany and so forth. I was the only person to bring any tapes. I brought three tapes. Steve Miller band's greatest hits. Yeah, good one. Which is the band I'm gonna say sticks in my head the most because we listen to that all the time. And the Eagles the Long Run.

SPEAKER_04 40:57

Okay, another good one.

SPEAKER_05 40:58

And this is how much nobody wanted to listen to the third one. I don't even know if I can remember what the third one was. But we played those two for like twenty straight days on all these hours on these buses. Because even the guy who brought the tape layer didn't bring any tapes. That's funny.

SPEAKER_04 41:19

Preference cold or hot weather.

SPEAKER_05 41:25

Cold.

SPEAKER_04 41:27

Going back to Minnesota.

SPEAKER_05 41:28

Yeah, now uh if my wife were here, she'd tell you all I'm lying. But um But it it is true. I don't know that I want to ever go back and live in that kind of cold, but um I do I the heat just wears me out.

SPEAKER_04 41:45

Yeah, sure. Especially this time of year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:48

When I go back to that kind of cold, it's usually just the first snowfall. Like that the the dampening of the sound and being out there and then after a day, I'm like, that's good.

SPEAKER_05 41:56

Yeah, it's sort of the same for me. I I mean I like the weirdly, I guess I like the desolation feel of snow, sort of. And where I grew up in southern Minnesota. It's it can feel like a sort of wasteland almost. Sure. But um it's really kind of pleasant too because it's quiet and when the snow first comes down, it's very white and very shiny.

SPEAKER_04 42:21

But then it's cold.

SPEAKER_05 42:22

But then it's cold. Then it's cold, and then it's different. It's not good. But you can always put on more clothes.

SPEAKER_03 42:27

Yeah, I don't miss it at all. I don't either. Anyway. Um Southern Barbecue, do you have a favorite sauce? We're very food-centric here.

SPEAKER_05 42:37

I like these food questions. Uh so uh uh I I do I have a few. I am sort of more of a mustard base. Uh I I I don't think I would have answered that question that way if I hadn't moved to South Carolina. Yes. Yeah, that's right. To to be honest, uh I I would have only thought of barbecue as a tomato-based thing. But the first time I had a mustard-based one, I was like, ooh, I like that.

SPEAKER_04 43:04

Yeah, it's good. A good mustard is hard to beat. Plane, train, or automobile?

SPEAKER_05 43:12

There's nothing like taking the train. Um where?

SPEAKER_04 43:17

Well, when you're thinking train, are you thinking more Europe or have you taken the train in the US?

SPEAKER_05 43:21

I've taken the train in the US too. Um there's just something about I don't know, the the mindlessness of it. Sure for a long period of time. Airports sort of uh I don't know. I don't get stressed, but feels like I'm standing, I'm waiting, I'm I'm waiting again, and I'm put me on a train, I don't have to think for a few hours. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:48

Yeah. Train's nice. I agree. All right. This is probably the most important question. Um depends on this. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 44:03

How do I?

SPEAKER_03 44:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:04

What's your method? Dispensing toothpaste from the tube.

SPEAKER_05 44:08

Uh so serious, no laughing. So no, I laugh because like everything I've said so far, I guess it depends. Is it a brand new tube?

SPEAKER_03 44:21

Yeah, you go new.

SPEAKER_05 44:23

Like I just pulled it out of the box. Yeah. Then I'm then I'll then I'll probably squeeze it in the middle.

SPEAKER_04 44:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 44:29

But if it's been out of the if it's if it's been out of the box for a little bit where I could still squeeze it from the middle and get something, but it's probably better to start rolling it up from the bottom. I'm gonna start rolling it.

SPEAKER_04 44:42

So you're flexible. You'll you'll adjust your approach depending upon the contents of that tube.

SPEAKER_03 44:47

I'm I'm squeeze middle all the time.

SPEAKER_05 44:51

I don't know. See, I you know it's funny you should ask this question because again, being older than maybe many. I remember metal toothpaste tubes and that little device you could buy that it went on the bottom of it. Sure. And my mother made us get the last bit of toothpaste out of a tube.

SPEAKER_03 45:12

So maybe that's do you ever cut the top off like Del Master over here and try to get the most as you can out?

SPEAKER_05 45:19

I don't cut the top, but there's a brand there's a brand that has a uh a screw on top that that you close by flipping it down, but you can at a certain point because it's really hard, you can't squeeze anything else out of it. But if you untwist it and it no longer has that on it, you can get the last one. You can get the last board it up.

SPEAKER_04 45:38

That's important. We appreciate that uh resourcefulness. Popcorn, yes or no?

SPEAKER_05 45:42

Popcorn, totally, yes. 100% yes.

SPEAKER_04 45:45

Favorite way to prepare? Do you prepare at the home? Every way, yes. Now when you say every way, what what are the ways that you prepare it at home?

SPEAKER_05 45:51

Well, so and this is probably a uh a thing my father instilled in me. My father ate popcorn practically every night. Um so I have I have had an air popper, I have I don't we uh I have microwave popcorn, but I don't really like it, so I don't microwave popcorn very much um anymore. I've had an air popper, I've had a stovetop hand crank, uh the whirly pop. Yeah, the whirly pop. You have a whirly pop. I have had, I don't have one now.

SPEAKER_04 46:24

Now you you you s speak of the whirly pop as if it was just another mechanism in the long history of different apparatus that you ideal form.

SPEAKER_05 46:37

I think of it as ideal. I have an electric version of it now.

SPEAKER_04 46:41

Oh there's an electric version?

SPEAKER_05 46:43

Like a countertop. So I don't have to put it on my stove. Uh it's like the base heats up and then it's got a little spinning blade inside it. And so a little olive oil. I use olive oil, not uh vegetable oil. A little olive oil, white popcorn, not yellow popcorn. Uh and then I just season it with pepper. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 47:07

No butter.

SPEAKER_05 47:08

No well depends. If I feel like I went to the gym enough this week, I might then I might add a little butter. But otherwise it's just just olive oil and black pepper.

SPEAKER_03 47:18

Uh so our our our last question, and and we can make this now now that we know about your boxing. Um entering the ring, you got a song that you'd you'd come into?

SPEAKER_04 47:29

Yeah, what's your entrance song? I mean, you know, you're pumped up. This is your first your first boxing match in this new phase of your life. And you're gonna take it to them.

SPEAKER_05 47:39

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_04 47:40

Um These entrance songs are very telling. Oh, I know, yeah, they are.

SPEAKER_05 47:47

So you you you brought up that baseball thing. So one of my sons was a baseball player, so their walk-up song was a constant huge debate about what it had to change all the time. Um probably be something by you too. Uh they're probably my favorite band from my college years. So a particular song or two? I mean maybe Sunday Bloody Sunday. Oh, that would be a good one.

SPEAKER_04 48:15

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 48:17

You know, intimidating. Yeah, you know. I picked it up as a hobby, but he's gonna make it a bloody match.

SPEAKER_05 48:26

Yeah, well, you know, if we're gonna do it, we're gonna go all the way.

SPEAKER_04 48:30

Yeah, of course. No, we love it.

SPEAKER_03 48:32

Well, Professor McNurney, thanks so much for sharing today about your time off the clock and giving listeners an alternative glimpse into your life outside the classroom. We really appreciate it. And as a personalized marketing tool, we ask you to display in your office to bring attention to our podcast your own bobblehead to represent the lighter side as you've revealed to us today. Thank you. Stay tuned for next month's installment when we learn about the life off the clock of another College of Charleston professor. Thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_05 49:08

Thank you both for having me. Uh, and really thank you for the bobblehead. Um I'm pretty excited uh because I know if you if you neither of you have actually ever visited my office, but if you did, you'd see I uh some would say collect clutter. I actually think of every little that anybody ever gives me or that I find is just part of the journey. And I like to keep them around. So this will be prominent Prominently this.