April 7, 2026

80 Year Old Man redeems "Bring Your Dad for Free Oysters" promotion

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: a Doha-based couple fleeing conflict in the Middle East is praised for navigating complex pet travel rules to evacuate with their dog via Riyadh, Istanbul, and Berlin; Greece organized a special evacuation flight bringing over 100 stranded citizens and their pets home from the Persian Gulf, stressing pets are family, not luggage. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh engineered E. coli to convert PET bottle plastic into L-DOPA for Parkinson’s by breaking it into terephthalic acid, marking a first biological process making a pharmaceutical from plastic waste. In Portsmouth, Virginia, freshman Lindsay co-owns a historic-style general store with her father, Tony. In Alabama, an 80-year-old and his 99-year-old father redeemed a 54-year-old restaurant sign for free oysters, with plans to repeat in 2027.

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Kalaroga Shark Media. Hi there, I'm Johnny mag with five

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good news stories. A couple fleeing the conflict in the

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Middle East. They've been praised for refusing to abandon their dog.

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They had to go through all kinds of hoops to

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get their dog to safety. The couple are based in

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Doha and their flights were canceled, so they traveled by

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road to Riod, then flew to Istanbul and onward to Berlin.

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Along the way, they had to deal with pet travel rules,

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health certificates, vax records, export permits, and special documentation required

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for entry into Saudi Arabia and the EU. They have

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drawn online praise for keeping the dog with them and

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showing that it is possible to evacuate safely without leaving

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pets behind. Meanwhile, the Greek government organized a special evacuation

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flight to bring stranded citizens and their pets home from

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the Persian Gulf. During the conflict, more than one hundred

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passengers and their animals were flown from places like the

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UAE back to Athens after commercial travel became difficult due

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to repeated airspace closures and cancelations. Those officials made the

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point that pets are not luggage. They are part of

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our families. Scientists have developed a breakthrough method that turns

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waste plastic into a key drug used to treat Parkinson's disease.

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Researchers at the University of Edinburgh engineered E. Coli bacteria

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to convert the common plastic used in bottles into a

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frontline medication for Parkinson's. About fifty million metric tons of

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the chemical known as pet are produced each year, making

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it a massive potential resource rather than waste. The process

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works by first breaking the plastic down into teraphylactic acid,

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which the engineered bacteria then transform into L dopa through

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a series of biological reactions. Researchers say it's the first

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time a biological process has been used to create a

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pharmaceutical from plastic waste, offering a more sustainable alternative to

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traditional drug production, which relies heavily on fossil fuels, which

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I think are about to get really expensive. A college

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freshman in Virginia has opened an old fashioned general store.

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Lindsay just graduated from high school and as a freshman

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in Virginia Wesleyan University. Lindsay co owns the marketplace and

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general store in old town Portsmouth with her father Tony.

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The idea came from her childhood, where she spent time

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visiting traditional general stores in the mountains of North Carolina

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fell in love with it. She explained the mission. Portsmouth

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is known for its history, and so we wanted to

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bring back the historical feel, but also the old fashioned

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family place for everyone to come. Her father, who is

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a commercial real estate professional, I'm sure that helped here,

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helped make the idea reality, not just as a business,

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but as a learning opportunity and a way to invest

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back in the community. He said. The store is designed

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to give Lindsay real world experience. Running the shop isn't

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always easy. Foot traffic rises during festivals and holidays and

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drops off at other times. Customers regularly tell the man,

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this reminds me of something I grew up with back home,

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and this is fun. A father and son in Alabama

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cashed in on a restaurant promise. There's been a sign

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hanging for fifty four years. The sign at Windcell's Oyster

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House in Mobile promised unlimited free oysters to any man

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eighty years old who dined with his father well for decades,

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Jim and his son Jimmy wondered if the offer was real.

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Jimmy turned eighty, he showed up with his dad. He

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asked them was the sign for real and they said yes.

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We asked has anybody ever done it? They said no.

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So Jimmy shows up. He's eighty years old, brings Jim Senior,

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who's ninety nine. The restaurant posted on social media. Most

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people read that sign behind the bar and laugh. But

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tonight Jimmy Rush walked in on his eightieth birthday with

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his father, James Rush, ninety nine right beside him, and

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turned one of Winsel's rarest traditions into a real life milestone.

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And yes, the oysters were on the house. Jim Senior

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turns one hundred and July. He said, I have only

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been sick twice in my life, once when I was

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five and once when I was ninety seven. I don't see,

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but I hear fairly well, and that's about it, and

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I don't take any medications at all. But here's the

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really good catch. The deal keeps going. Jim Senior has

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another son who's soon going to be eighty. They might

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do this again in twenty twenty seven, though, So your

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five good news stories for today, have an awesome day,