Greek Festival 2026: Food, Family, and Strengthening Fayetteville's Community Ties

Peter Pappas: What is that? I swear to fucking Christ. I swear to God. What was that? Well everyone, welcome back to the Carolina Cabinet. I'm your host, Peter Pappas in studio with the lovely Laura Mussler Hello, hello. Good evening. And joining us this evening, the equally lovely Lia Hasapis Hi. Welcome, welcome. So Leah's joining us to talk to us all things Greek festival tonight coming up this weekend. But before we get into that, how was your weekend? We had a Labor Day weekend, a little long, so long weekend. Yeah, it was great. I had a peaceful weekend. I cleaned my bathroom, I cleaned my shower, got my hair did. Okay. We we define peace in different ways, obviously. Yeah. I guess the the observation of a clean bathroom is Yeah. Relaxing, I guess. Chaos at home means chaos out in the real world. Okay. So as you have peace when you get up every morning and you make a bed and you come downstairs and there's a nice clean kitchen that makes your world zen. Okay. my friend came over and she started going like this on every piece of furniture in my house. Like what? Like with her finger, like white glove inspection. There's no dust in your house. Why is there no dust in your house? And I'm like, because I dust. You want an extra job? I I might could use you at the house for sure. Okay. Right. I I mean and she'll be like, How do you do that? I guess. I do. I do the things. But everywhere? Yeah, I I showed her my little thing. I just walk around and you know, whatever. Okay. All right, Lia, you're up. Did you actually get out of town this weekend or just too much preparation going on? no, I stayed in town, did absolutely nothing for myself. I did a lot for the Greek festival. I am prepping for that. That's this weekend, Saturday and Sunday. so my Labor Day was spent doing a bunch of Greek festival things. I laboring. So what kind of food do you guys serve at the Greek festival? All things Greek. Spaghetti? No, not spaghetti. Spaghetti's Italian. I know. Made by Greeks. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah. Greek for that Italian food. So busy weekend for you. I I I just saw the look on your face when you came in. I'm like, it it's a week before the festival is then you're like, Yeah, that sure is. But I think you and your coach, Harold, handle everything just fine. Are you bringing your Yes, I am. Yeah, she's coming up and she's bringing her girls with her, so they get never been to the breach up one three. I wasn't to the point I was gonna say what are you doing Saturday, but you know, you should come. Yeah, you should come. Yeah, we're open to Our Inton's Saturday and so you could come Saturday. I think even my mom's coming to work. Actually. Yeah, she's actually gonna work a little bit. You're volunteering, you a free t shirt. I will not be volunteering anymore. What counts as volunteering? Like ten minutes on the no. At least At least four hours. Okay. That's fair. That's fair. Four hours of my labor for a T shirt. Yeah. Are you voluntary? Is that what you're saying? I I I end up helping w I mean, not a lot, but if I go there and they're behind, I jump in there. I mean, they got it. They got it under control. They don't need me. They obviously have a woman very well put together. Yeah. Yeah, they don't they have no use for me. That's it. so Okay. Well let's get into the rapid fire. A little bit. I 'cause we have so many stories we could have spoken about. Before we do the rapid fire, I think there's something more that's what nine eleven. Okay. Well, twenty-fifth anniversary. Okay. All right. You wanna think that that's like a solemn thing and then we start getting light hearted or whatever. Okay. That's fair enough. So twenty five years since nine eleven, people say that it was our Pearl Harbor for our generation. I don't I think it definitely woke us up to the evil that's in the world and people don't like us. but I also think it was a a proof that if you allow crazy to fester, eventually it'll hit you in the home. Yeah. So where were you on nine eleven? Where were you? I so I was just so on September tenth, I had just returned from the national it's NAFAM, National Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers. I had been in Orlando. And with my dad and Miller Cash of all people. So we drove down there, which was great. Me, young guy with the two old dudes, you know. but anyway, we drove down there and I ended up like there the master built booth down there. They had all their display equipment, deli cases and freezer, and I bought it all. Wow. Like I bought the whole booth for like fifteen grand, which was a steal for all that stuff. then we got home September 10th late, and then I when I woke up, the first plane had hit, and my dad and I I was still living at my parents' house after I came back from school. So we drove to work together that day, which was not normal, and it was just silence. And we got to the restaurant on Fort Bragg Road and the TV's the TV was on, C and and you could hear a pin drop in the restaurant. Like nobody knew. what to say or what to do. We didn't know if we were next. We didn't know we didn't know anything. I mean, I I think I went with a friend that night to Methodist University to donate blood for which was a waste of time because there weren't any survivors. Right. We didn't know that at the time. We thought for sure we'd dig somebody out and I think we did like seven or eight, maybe ten days later, somebody did survive, but that was it. I mean we had no idea what was going on. How about you? I hadn't just gotten to work. And I was sitting down and the first plane hit and I was like, What kind of idiot doesn't see a building? Right. I mean, really? I mean con, you know? So I'm of course talking crap like I do. I'm like, how do you fly into a building? You know Especially one that big. Yeah. I'm like, I mean you couldn't swerve. And then lo and behold the second one hit, I was like, I just stopped. I froze. And so did I I was working in a real estate office h in in Everybody froze and we just sat and watched the TV and I started crying and I wanted to go home 'cause I was so sad. Yeah. I I didn't know anybody there, but the idea that somebody could take so many people's lives, especially when they started coming down and and you're like and then you see the people running and then they're covered in soot and it's like can you even imagine? I mean And all the people we lost that day, you know, we made, you know, husbands, wives, fathers, you know, children a you know, s such a loss. and we'll hopefully we'll never forget it. Although sometimes I feel like we now have a Muslim running New York City. So we forgot. We forgot. The New Yorkers forgot. I think the rest of the country is pretty pretty well tuned in then. Really? Because we don't we're we're at at at s h colleges and things like that, you know, you know, they're they're Garbs on it and you know From the river to the sea. Yeah. So have we has the rest of the country really remembered? I think so Lee, I'm not gonna ask how old you are, but where were you on nine eleven? I was in kindergarten. Okay, I was thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah. We we read to you by George Putm. Yeah, right. well I have a friend that's married to a girl that's younger than her and we were all of us were talking about where were you on nine eleven? and she goes, I was in sixth grade. They rolled in the T V, I was in sixth grade and we're like, Sh God. I honestly don't remember that I don't remember that day. Yeah. So I mean it was a regular day, but they I don't think they told us. They told us I think when we went home that something was here in kindergarten so yeah what what's your contacts there? You know six yeah. But I do know my my godfather who was in the watch he was on the SWAT team. Okay. He was he was there at eleven trying to pull people out. So is there an image or anything that you came around in the morning that you remember? For me, I I just keep remembering seeing the second plane hit because that's when we knew that this was not an accident. and that sticks out for me because I was like, okay, somebody's gonna pay for this. Whether we were correct in the weapons of mass destruction pursuit, whether we were justified in going into Afghanistan past the you know, shock and awe thing or whatever. We weren't. Hindsight's twenty twenty. We knew what we knew at that time. And also let's define we. We the citizens knew what we were being told because at up till that time we still had a more general positive trust of our government. Right. Nine eleven proved for a lot of us in the United States, I think, that we're very quick to exchange safety for freedom. Is it really safety or are we just giving up freedom because somebody told us to Perception of I think perception of freedom safety. It's it's not safety. I I've referenced comedian George Carlin before because when I grew up I just loved him. He was one of the few comedians that just cussed all the time and I loved it. But in the nineties, he had a special and he said airport security, like basically it's a joke. It's there to make white people feel safe. That's it. And it's the illusion of safety. And I think after nine eleven, to be safe, we ran ran to the fence to say, here, Patriot Act, here, FISA courts, here, you know, warrantless wiretaps and all this stuff. And we're paying for it now. We you know, we have interference in our elections, we have we have so much stuff that has theories. Please do I don't theories to myself, but You look back at nine eleven, I'd like to know why the building two streets over well. Well, I mean Manhattan's built on a essentially a river bed. But Yeah. Mm-hmm. Well, look, I don't want to argue about this day. It's more I yeah, that's what I said. And when I went like just for example, like we went to the the Vietnam memorial with the wall and it's Humbling. Each you don't realize how big it is. But each one of those little things, little teeny tiny makes a person. Somebody's brother, somebody's sister, somebody's mother, somebody's father, somebody's cousin, whatever. The same thing with that day. Somebody's daughter, son, brother, sister, mother, father, cousin, whatever. That was a person. Yeah. That is no longer here, and that's very it's it it is, I I think. Those that haven't been to our nation's capital, I think when you actually you're able to touch history. Yeah. You know, well maybe not the White House, but you can see it. But I think to connect you to our own country and our own history, I think, seeing these things and I I remember going to the Vietnam Memorial and it was Yeah, I had to I stopped and I broke down and cried there too because like each one is a person's name and system. I haven't gone to the the the nine eleven memorial, but I'm sure they have the people's names where they ring the bell and they read them out and for hours they're on the T V. For hours talking about we have some people here in our town that it affected. They lost somebody. Yeah. It's did they like lost somebody? Did they? Yeah. They go to the event every year. I didn't know that. well so another perspective, let's see. I was at Campbell University and but I was going to Fort Bragg and Pope Extension campuses back then. so I was at school at night school with all the G.I. Joe's and everybody. that made class an SOB to because after nine remember before nine eleven, Fort Bragg was an open base. You could drive wherever the heck you wanted. now all of a sudden it was locked down and I think getting into class took you an extra hour 'cause you had to go through the I mean, again, this is first world problems here, but you know, it definitely changed. Everything changed, you know, on base access change. And luckily I only had like three classes left, so I was able to knock out. but automatically overnight we had scanners for big semis out there, we had all the gates closed down, we had all the barbed wire brought up. Nobody knew. Yeah. so anyway, and the other perspective is my equipment was stuck in Orlando for the next like four months because Pranksters kept calling in bomb threats to the Civic Center. Mm-hmm. So we they couldn't even ship it for like four months. So yeah, it didn't delay me opening. I just we dragged our feet anyway. But you know, it just so little personal stank stank on that. So now we can lighten the mood. Okay. now you want to do rapid fire. Okay. Well I just think that that it's not it's it's not it's not me. Okay, all right. We we all know that you have the emotional intelligence in the room. I never claimed to be the smartest when it comes to that. So rapid fire. Let's see what we got who I'll go first. How about that? Yeah, you can't I'm as local Peter. Well, Cumberland County's six month moratorium on data center permitting expires December fifteenth. the staff is still writing the county's first ever standards while the Prism Group's two hundred and twenty-five megawatt proposal sits pending. six months sounded like a lot of time back in June, but you know, we're past the halfway point and we don't have any standards yet. Nothing. Nothing. I wonder how close they are to getting it. Hopefully they've been working hard. Okay, that's the most watched house rematch. Republican Lori Buckshop challenges repo Representative Don Davis, who is a Democrat, in a rematch. In a district Republicans redrew in twenty twenty five specifically to flip NC delegation from ten R dash four D to eleven three nail since the last binder. Okay, that means it's a R ten. We always say R ten. We we reverse that. It's in the Republicans favor ten and Democrats four. Okay. I guess yeah, that that confused me. So why did so why did the Democrat win if we're R for R ten? Because they redistricted it. to ten or ten. So basically everybody's looking at her through the state like, look, lady, y you should be able to win this. So don't make us look like jackasses. And but then she went and go ahead to your next part, yeah. Yeah. So Felici, the prediction market form, fined Buckhout, two thousand five hundred eighty nine dollars and ninety six cents. And banned her three years after she bought. under a thousand dollars in contracts betting on her own witness. Are you coming? Wait she has We already told her don't embarrass us. What does she do? She's betting on her own she barred any decision maker from waiting on outcomes they influence. Buckout called it a dumb mistake and she worked to make it right. Once flagged and cooperated with investigation. Which is why her penalty is far lighter than George Santos's permanent ban and seventy thousand dollar plus fine for a similar violation. Davis calls it a disqualifying breach of public trust. Of course her opponent's gonna capitalize on that. But realistically is she a decision maker? Isn't it everybody else? She's only one vote. Well, I she's a decision maker on call sheet, the the betting platform. yeah, but I'm if I'm betting on a race that I'm in, but I'm only one vote against thousands, am I really the decision maker? I mean it's pretty clear it says the stakeholders aren't allowed to or decision makers are not she's not a decision maker. That means that anybody that's in her district can't vote. I mean, can't put money on. Because those are the decision makers. Isn't that not correct? Please, if you're running for office, just stop betting. On your own race. Yeah. Anyone. and I I don't see what's wrong with Chetty. I believe in myself. I bet on myself every single day. So That's fair. I mean you can bet on yourself. If you don't bet on yourself, who is? That's exactly what I but that's like I said, she's not a decision maker. She's one of many. So Let's talk about what's actually so have you heard about the mail mail in ballot fights and all this crap going on? Yeah. So this is what I've got. So North Carolina counties began we've already started mailing 2026 general election absentee ballots, a mail in ballots, on September 4th. That's just a few days ago. we're the first state in the country to do so. Now separately, the Trump administration has gone to the Supreme Court for a third time asking to lift a federal judge's injunction blocking a March twenty sixth. exact executive order with three parts. And this is where it gets money. Department of Homeland Security is compiling citizenship verification list of adult US citizens per state sent to the state sixty days before a federal election. The second there's nothing wrong with that. Is there any does anybody agree there's nothing wrong with that part? See, I don't disagree with it with it at all. And I feel like the people that are against it want to continue cheating. Okay. Number two, what's the second part? The second part is Department of Justice directive prioritizing prosecution of officials who issue ballots to ileligible voters. Don't have a promise. So don't give illegals ballots. Okay. Okay. I'm good with that. But here's the again new postal service rules requiring states to submit voter data into a postal service portal plus new ballot envelope design requirements. The administration calls the post office piece quote a modest envelope design and addressee information requirements addressing fraud. Twenty three states plus DC, led by California, so we know that's real that there we go. There we have it. Argue it violates the Constitution's elections clause, which gives states, not the executive branch, the power to set voter eligibility in the times, places, manner of federal elections. So they're being framed as a state's right in separation of powers dispute, not simply Trump's blocking votes. Well, in the constitution is clear that it's just not the investment? Yes, it does. Yeah. Therefore, regardless of whether I agree with or I don't agree, this is a violation of the constitution. Yeah. Of states' rights. I mean we went to war over less. Seems like. But I mean I agree with all of those things and they should be implemented and counters should be back, but it can't be done with an executive order. You can't violate the constitution on an executive order. While I do promote a lot of things that Trump does and I agree with what he's saying, he can't do it. No, that's just something he can't overreach. That's why we have a court system. Yeah. The check to the ballot. So go ahead. Well, a jobs report that complicates your model. Like I needed help, right. The US added one hundred and sixty two thousand jobs in August, nearly triple the fifty three Six thousand expected. Unemployment stayed steady at four point one percent. Markets now price in a higher chance. The Fed holds or raises rates. Boom. So one side stays strong. Job number job numbers show the economy is working. The other says the Fed using this to keep rates high hits regular borrows the hardest. So Well, th there's my angle there. We'll we'll be watching the this week's CPI report, which is the consumer price index. That's what I base all my rent increases and stuff on. So Okay, well okay, as far as rent increases go, mm, I will say this. If you have a tenant that has been somewhere and you haven't raised the rent because the market call calls for more. But this tenant is paid on time. Has maintained your house, isn't calling and having you, you know, the police clogs come unfix it isn't an issue. I don't believe in raising the rent for tenants. If you have a good I would rather get I could be getting nine hundred dollars a month, but I'm only getting seven hundred dollars a month. But I have somebody that keeps my property up, isn't costing me any money, I don't have to talk to, I don't have to call, I don't have to I've gone and inspected the permit. Why raise the rent? Because your house becomes a diminishing return if you don't stay in in pace with inflation. the consumer so the consumer price index measures how much more expensive things have gotten. Mm-hmm. So and usually my lease so in some of my leases it's like we're gonna raise your rent three percent or the CPI, whichever is higher. So if the CPI is six percent, they only get three. So whichever I'm sorry, no, whichever's lower, yeah. My bad. Wrong way. So there's nothing to be in a bid tenant and paying your rent on time and keeping the property. Everything gets more expensive. That's just the way it is. My my insurance goes up, my landscaping guy wants to charge more because He's gotta pay for some more bottles or whatever, you know. Why why if you have not met how you why are you having a landscape on your rental point? Depends how your lease is set up. Well if you're doing all that stuff then hey, it it's costing me a little bit more money, I see that. But if you have a ha single family dwelling where they maintain everything and they never fall and get anything repairs. I've also seen in residential, every year of tenants in the space, it's gonna cost you about one month's rent to turn it over. So if they've been there ten years, you better get ready to spend ten months worth of rent on just repairs. Turn it over. That's a pretty good rule of thumb that I've run into. Yeah. Not a good one, but that's I was gonna say is this it's not very good because I'm renting a house and it ain't gonna cost them I I've actually built retaining walls, I built fire pit, I changed up ice strips of floor. You need to be doing rent to own or something. You need to not be doing that. So let's talk about our own our own Chuck Edwards. so Congressman Edwards, the US House voted roughly four hundred and thirteen to two. So who says Congress can't agree? To censure Representative Chuck Edwards, a Republican from North Carolina, after the Ethics Committee investigation found evidence of inappropriate conduct towards two female staffers. He says, look, it rises Edwards disputes that it rises to sexual harassment, saying the committee found no sexual activity proposition or quid pro quo. I think he he bought them a gun, one of them, like he bought them a pistol, and then the other one, I think he paid for a birthday party or something. It was creepy, but not harassment. Why is he buying somebody? I don't know. It was the snappers. But they're usually young and impressionable people. So why is he buying them a bunny? I mean, was she like Well, I think he's in the he's in that business. Like he gave them he's a gunsmith, I think. Okay, well then that's not weird. Yeah. And you know what? If I've worked for somebody for many, many years and they threw me a birthday party, I wouldn't nowadays everybody's so sensitive unless he was like, Hey, I'll throw you Yeah, there you go. See? Now if he was like jumping out of the Yeah. Yeah. You know what? We we at work we do that once a month, we do a birthday for everybody. Okay. All right. Well we'll throw your birthday, Laura. Yeah. All right. You're does that mean you're throwing me your birthday party? Yes. how crazy. Get out. I'm sorry. Thanks, thanks, Rip. Well, Common County schools are getting better. Money County Schools grade led level proficiency rose from fifty point eight percent to fifty-five point seven percent, and low performing schools dropped from twenty-seven to twenty in the newly released twenty twenty five-26 state data. Conservatives say celebrate the game but hold the line on the forty-four percent skill below grade level. Progressive say it proves investment in teachers' intervention works. It's good news. But we still have a lot of work to do. And I mean, come on, let's look at fifty point eight to fifty five point seven. You've got about a f it it's a marginal like ten percent increase. So I have okay. You have a fifty five point seven percent chance of dying if you walk out that door right now. I'm not gonna walk out door. I think that's a good number. Now if you have a like a a fifty five percent chance of living, but you have a forty seven no Now if you're like at eighty five percent chance, I'm impressed. Okay. Fifty five is not even. So that's a that's a D. Or is it a D or let's let's talk about the context. That's not You can't give any Fs anymore. Whatever. It hurts their self esteem. They can't use red pens either. my my son and I were just having this conversation about accountability. She was like, Mom, you always held me accountable. He says you called me out. When there was something wrong. When I was doing something wrong, you're like, come here, you and you said, You're not gonna do this, you're not gonna do that. This is and he's dealing with something where there's no accountability. They're these making excuses for well, you know, made a mistake and you know, get over it. Why do I have to get over it No? No. Yeah. So this is not this is we need to start holding people accountable. So I want to put it in this context. We've had a new superintendent for about a year. Mm-hmm at this point, I think he's been there about a year. so they change the testing. Let's hope that that's that's a move in the positive direction. I want to know is it the same test? Is it a different test? Is it have they altered the I'm sure it's the same test. How do you know? Because like they did with the murder rates and the violent crime rates, that the crime's getting better. That's because we disqualified these crimes as crimes. We're just gonna stick them over here. See, we have a very healthy distrust of government institutions in this room. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do not trust anything that the government tells us to believe. Yeah I get it. I can get it. Okay. So well let's turn to Ms. Hazopis here. Yeah. I'm gonna be saying Ms. I don't So I don't have just call her Lia, she'll answer. So this weekend the Greek Festival will be held the Saturday and Sunday. Now what are the hours on Saturday? Saturday is from eleven AM to nine PM and then Sunday is going to be twelve to six. Okay. Where is it? Six fourteen Oak Ridge Avenue. Right here in Historic Amount. Yes. wherever the Cape Fair Regional Theater is, straight straight down Oak Ridge. Right down there. I don't know. I know where the theater is. So if you're heading downtown and the theater's on your right, at that intersection where the good frozen yogurt is at Columbo Yeah. Yeah. Right there. See I was a head downtown and like I don't see any festival here at all. Okay. Well just look for dancing Greeks. Yeah. There's gonna be plenty of signs out say Greek festival this section. This one. That way. Depends which way you're coming. Yes, that way. So Lia, as a four as a fellow member of the community, even though I don't show up very often, or at all, so let's just talk about how long has this been going on in the community. This is the thirty-sixth annual Greek festival this year. so we're celebrating thirty-six years of going strong. And this year I'm one of the co chairs along with Spiro Agnosopolis. He is doing all of our kitchen preps. Is that name again? Spiro Anagnostopoulos Missed a syllable. An agnosti. See even even Greeks don't get it. I mean you know like 17 letters in his last name, so it's called Spiro. We we love Spiro. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. So okay, so you and your coach here. Yes. me and Spiro, we have been prepping this since we started early this year. We started back in February. And we've been doing all the preparation up until this week. And we're ready for everybody to enjoy food, wine, dancing. we have a live band coming. We have church tours happening. And then Loukomades, Greek coffee, all the pastries you can imagine. I have a Greek jewelry vendor coming, Greek olive oil, and I have a Greek painter coming this year. And then I'm bringing back the Greek grocery store as well, the Bacalico. Good stuff, good stuff. I'll show you what they get. It's okay. Loukomades is donut. Yeah, donuts of how I like donuts. Yes, we all like donuts. So let's let's talk about because last weekend I think some well two weeks ago we had the Pride Night at the baseball stadium. And then a couple days later the collective Karen's on next door wanted to run their mouths about the Greek national anthem. And now what so how was it the woodpeckers game? We had the American national anthem sung or it was played by Horn. It was played on a trumpet actually by a member not of our community, but he is Roger Holmes. He is a very good friend of my family. He's grown up in the community, was born and raised here in Phantom. So he played the trumpet national he played on the trumpet the national anthem and then Gail Morfesses sang the Greek national anthem. It was Greek. She sung the Greek national anthem and then we had him play the trumpet with the American national anthem. They were both played. but the American went before Greek, right? See, that's what that's what I haven't been able to clear up and I'm not trying to get you in trouble or ha dig up dead bodies. I think the American would have been played. Yeah. And then The Greek national anthem. So first of all they were I mean, it's not a ten minute song. It's not a ten minute song. So one happened for two sec for two minutes and then the other one made why are we singing the Greek Greek national anthem at the at the end? It was Greek night to promote the Greek festival. So they asked us. Which is not a new occurrence. This is the second or third year you've done it. And they've always asked us if we'd like to sing the national anthem in Greek and English. Mm-hmm. And so this year I just opted to have somebody play it. the na on the trumpet this year. So you played the Greek national anthem? The American national anthem was played on the trumpet. And then the Greek national anthem was sung. Yes. So here's where me and the Karen's digressed on next door. Some of these some of these assholes, and I'm just gonna call them that. So I hope you're watching and I hope you see it. I'm gonna share this clip and I'm gonna call you an asshole again. had the nerve to tell certain people go back to your own country. And what what what cracked me up was some of them who said they should go back to their own country. I responded, Well, I don't think you were Native American because they had like something Torres in their name and I'm thinking none of these are like Mr. Drinkwater or something or an Oxendine or you know, and just the ridiculousness that these I'm sorry, but is it's not we're we're open borders. Yeah. I'm not for open borders. No, I'm My father came here legally. I thought the other people were for open borders. So what sh is it? No, it's it was pure xenophobia, but how stupid some of these people can be. We've been in this community as Greeks since what? The turn of the century? I mean, the Fasuls the Potters those guys, they were here a long time. And then we had the other migration that came in the sixties, which is where her papou came and my dad and you know, and to say and That generation of Greeks did everything they could to assimilate. Assimilate. That's exactly right. If you're gonna come to the country and assimilate, that's the point of coming that's what America is. We've got stupids on next door talking about, that's a travesty. you know, my butt's hurt, you know. And it's like, you fing idiot. We've been here and we've been serving our community and we work hard and we don't make we don't make any trouble. We're not the problem. And we are Americans. Mm-hmm. Now. I mean, most even Presvetera Manuel last year, she recited her poem that I recorded in the studio and I put music behind it, that video that was played last year. I did that. And but she when she immigrated here, she wrote that poem like a week or two after she immigrated here. And it was all about how much she admired and looked up to and respected where she was from, this new homeland. Okay. So I don't know why these people were aggro, but they're a bunch of rednecks. And you know, anyway, they blocked me from the chat after I started responding to a few of them. And most of them were not at the game. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I asked one of them, I What, you didn't have money for you just say you didn't couldn't afford the ticket. And then I was told it wasn't xenophobia. So anyway, but just hopefully your Karen's are watching, you know. So anyway. Well, I remember festival we will have both the American National Anthem and the Greek National Anthem played. That's right. Actually gonna both be sung. And everybody is welcome because the American National Anthem will be sung by our new choir we have. nice. and then our Greek national anthem is sung by our Greek school students to share with the Presvetera Manuel Okay really? Okay. You keep you you gotta keep Presvetera Manuel busy, don't you? God bless her. Okay. I I'm sorry about my little side rant, but I was I was extremely incensed because a few of those names I recognized in next door. They've been around Fayble for a while. So calling them a pure redneck is very justified on my part. But we work hard in our community. The Greek Festival has been a part of this community for thirty-six years. Now, what what's the how do you think it fits in the overall scheme of things in Fayetteville How does it kind of fit into the fabric of our community? How do we How does it help the community? So Fayetteville's a melting pot Ever since I've grown up, I've always known about the Greek Festival because it was either go to Greek school or Greek dance. So I Greek dance because I'm a school dropout. but I've always worked in it. Me too. I've always worked in it. And all my friends from school always used to come in and they would love it. so it's it's a very big staple in our community and Fayetteville's a melting Potters to begin with. So there are so many different cultures. that host little festivals throughout the year that I this is my life. I I live my big fat Greek life literally every single day. So I just want to share it with everybody else in the community and we have great food. So we have the best food I think. Good food and you know like hospitality fit is like I will tell you every Greek person that I've met, I love thank you. I mean they've always been She means you not me. No, I mean i I've not met a Greek person who's been rude or disrespectful, but I've I've met a lot of people named Torres that aren't somewhere nice. Well and I th I didn't want to just point out the Torres. I just I saw a lot of Hispanic names and stuff, but I'm like, come on guys, really go back to my c Yeah. You could've replied, Aren't you supposed to be mowing grass right now? No, see I see I didn't do that. That's what I would have I know. But my name is Rodriguez. Yeah, but see you can get away with that. So you 'cause you're but your wife resenting, so you can only take that so far. We've already discussed that. You you're not how do you have time between doing along? Jesus Christ. see and see, you're supposed to not encourage this kind of behavior out of me. You're supposed to Okay, so I've hit fifty eight. Uh-huh. Getting older. Yeah. And I'm of the of of the attitude where I don't really care who I append anymore. Right. I I was getting there anyway because I'm pretty abrupt and up front over it now. I don't care. You know payment pets. Don't care. I can't wait to get older. Actually can't. So yeah, I think one of the Greek words I like to use is Parea you know, have a good time, have good good parea. Parea which is generally like good good company and g you know, you you drink the wine, you dance the dance, you know, you have the food. How do you grow up out of Greek school? Well for me I got I got very confused in elementary school. in regular school I would start writing and speaking in Greek in regular school and answering in Greek. And then in Greek school I would write in English and then answer in English. But I knew what they were saying, but I just got very confused. So it and then after that I started having Greek school with my Papou my grandfather, he would take me out on Wednesdays when Greek school was we would have dinner and learn Greek. Also turned into a little bit of shopping. Imagine that. And it's still around through my college years and we still go back to it and so you speak Greek? A little bit. Okay. Mm-hmm. I can get around. She knows enough to be at like me to get out of trouble. I whined enough, I guess. Okay. Actually no, I'll tell you what happened. God bless her. My dad of you know how your parents say stuff you're not supposed to repeat, especially to other adults. Well, my dad told me that all the bad people come from a certain place in Greece, right? And yeah. So I go and I think Lesbet Emanuel was my teacher, and well, she showed us on the map where places are and she pointed to that one, and I'm like, Baba says all the bad people come from there. And she says, Well, you tell your father I'm from there so he can talk to me. And I'm like, I was maybe six or seven. So yeah, that was me. So I come by this honestly how I am now. Right. You know, I'm just Baba says all the bad people. Yeah, okay. So I got maybe brushed out. I don't know. but my mom was really active in that though. Like she helped with the Greek school. She's helping the church. she is gonna help, but back then, I mean, she made time to help the church and anyway. Ancient history. But okay, so Greek Festival, do we have we taking credit card, cash, credit, cash, euros, whatever you want to pay. Sweet. Everything. Okay, all right, all right. Well, some of the foods we're gonna have. let's run it down. What do we have in the Cafe Neon? Caffeineon is Lucamades and Greek coffee, frappe, freddo, espresso, and then Lucamadas are in the Cafe Neon. And then the Taverna line will have Our euro, our yittles, souvlakya, which is my absolute favorite, and my papou makes the best of it. He's the Suvlaki band. Yes. I don't know what that is. it is a pork kebab marinated in all the Greek spices and olive oil straight from Greece. And that prep begins tomorrow, actually. So highly recommend trying that. That's my absolute spicy. No. No. What about chicken? Chicken pizza. We'll have that chicken euro and then we will also have spana copida, doladas and pasticho. And this year I'm bringing back tiropida. So everybody knows spana copida, the cheese and feta pie. Now we have just cheese pie. Tidopita. So we're bringing that one this yeah. And then we have our village salad hoyotica salata. So it's lettuce. I mean no lettuce. no lettuce. It'll have cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, and fettuccine. See, if you get a Greek salad and it's got lettuce, that's a fake. Yes. Because then the Chorigo, the village, tomato, cucumber, maybe olive and feta, that's it. And of course the Greek the universal Greek seasoning of olive oil. Yes. That's on everything. Yeah, it's just yeah. I I g the guy from Minos called me last week, you know, do you guys need anything? I said, No, I still got oil. I said, I didn't even put it in the cupboard. The can's just on my center in my kitchen. You know, he says, Yeah, we use a light ketchup, everything. Yeah. Okay. So Lia, I wish you a lot of success and luck and I hope our church serves the community well as we always have. And I'll we have the what do we have next? Coming up next in the in the gated portion of our show, which we need to go to our website to like and subscribe and you know, it takes like four seconds, it's free. we've got a gentleman, Mr. Miller, running for school board of Cumberland County. So Please join us in the recorded segment. And thank you for joining us this evening. See you then. Have a good evening.