Best of DLS: A Very Weird Hour

Today’s a weirder-than-usual mixtape: Ray Lewis fires up a New Year message from 2016, Al Roker gets delightfully odd, Roy drops two Top 10s, we play real tough guy or fake tough guy with Antonio Davis, and we close with Flo Rida and a little pitchman drama.

Resolutions fade; lifestyles stick. Do you, take a hard look in the mirror, and change what you can control.

Mount Rushmore of weathermen—who belongs up there?

Local legends like Sonny Eliot and Dr. George Fischbeck come to mind, and honestly, I’ve felt lucky from day one, like they might figure out I’m just the kid from Queens who talks on TV.

What’s the daily grind like—up when, down when?

I’m up at three fifteen and don’t turn in until my daughter’s down around ten, and plenty of people work just as long for less, so I’m not complaining.

You had gastric bypass and lost over a hundred pounds; was that your hardest stretch, and did you find the root of it?

Hardest were losing my parents and friends on nine eleven; the surgery’s serious—about one in two hundred face complications—but it helped, and the work never stops because you can’t quit food the way you can quit booze or drugs, so I manage an addictive streak, eat small amounts of everything, skip what doesn’t sit well, and remember the old days could look like McDonald’s plus a pint of ice cream in one sitting.

Time for Roy’s Top 10 board games.

Chaos ensues, someone blurts out shuffleboard, backgammon gets butchered, and we careen through Candy Land, Risk, and a triumphant Parcheesi while the studio loses it laughing.

Next list: baseball stars if they had rapper-style names.

Highlights: Jay Zito, Grandmaster Flash Gordon, Doug E. Glanville, Run DMCito Gaston, and the room anoints Two Live Carew as untouchable before landing on J.T. Snow for the top spot.

Let’s play real tough guy or fake tough guy with Antonio Davis.

Metta’s real, Tyler Hansbrough has the intent but not the edge, Udonis Haslem is real, and Rajon Rondo talks tough without the leadership piece; I learned early against Oakley that you hit first, show you won’t fold, and deal with the consequences after.

Billy Mays is here—what’s Pitchmen really about?

It’s the American dream in the trenches—people betting big on their ideas while I quarterback the ones that pass a brutal test and earn a place in my lineup.

Worst pitch you passed on, and would you ever sell what you don’t believe in?

A toilet-seat target light that tried to teach men how to aim was a hard no; I won’t pitch junk, and while OxiClean became a giant, I didn’t expect it to explode like that—also, for the record, the ShamWow guy’s behavior isn’t what this craft stands for.

Flo Rida, they booked you with Pitbull—any beef, and who shaped Miami hip-hop for you?

No beef—much love to the hometown; two live crew set the tone, and we grinded with mixtapes until the hits came.

How’d the name happen, and what did that Idol stage feel like?

I split Florida into flow and rider to match my melodic style and pace, and Idol was wild—millions watching and my phone lighting up nonstop.

People see the physique; any secret sauce, and what’s life like now?

No steroids, just push-ups, runs, and eating how I like; life’s good, I keep the mailbox numbers quiet, and I’ll see you on South Beach popping bottles—keep that on the low.