RUSH: Every now and then, ladies and gentlemen, we have on this program things that are called See, I Told You So’s. Way back when, one of my all-time favorite bunch of near skeletal, nannyish, intrusive liberals created a bogus organization called the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Two people, a man, a woman, if you put ’em side by side, are not nearly as thick as the new iPad is thin. They created a logo, they got a fax man, and they started sending out bogus information on how various foods can harm you and kill you, and they succeeded in having a number of foods banned because they could kill you. And among one of the food products that they succeeded in banning was called coconut oil. They succeeded in having coconut oil banned from the use of popping popcorn, particularly in movie theaters and other places, concession stand areas where popcorn was sold. They said it was high in polyunsaturated fat, stuff would clog you up so bad that coconut oil is what they would scrape out of you during a bypass operation.
Now, coconut oil happened to be the absolute most delicious oil you could use popping popcorn. It’s coconut oil that made a movie theater smell the way it smelled. It made popcorn taste the way it tasted. And instead we had to use canola oil or Wesson or Crisco or whatever. Nothing came close. And of course the concessionaires were a little bit livid because when you’re popping popcorn for large venues like arenas and stadiums you don’t pop the popcorn as needed and as ordered. You can never keep up with it. You have to pop it well in advance. I personally saw this. When I worked for the Kansas City Royals, Volume Services were the concessionaire, and they were located in the bowels of the Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City, beneath parking lot M, which is the lot between Royals Stadium, now Kauffman Stadium, and Arrowhead Stadium. There’s a big tunnel underneath you could walk back and forth between the two stadiums. Volume Services operations were there so they could service both stadiums and it was in there that I watched ’em — first time I’d ever seen it — pop popcorn on a massive scale.
I’d never seen kettles this big. I had never seen anything near this large to pop popcorn. My experience had been microwave, stove tops. One of the first things I did — now, this is long before the Center for Science in the Public Interest. These guys, you know, they’re still eating peanut butter and jelly when this happened. So one of the first things I did after signing on with the Royals was go down there and get to know the concession people and how they worked and get to know them and all that. I had a secret mission, to walk outta there with some coconut oil, to be able to take it home and use to pop popcorn, which they gladly, eagerly gave me some. And me being curious, wanting to know as much as I could, I was always amazed, ‘Why could you not buy this stuff retail?’ In fact, I’ve always been one of these people, I want what we can’t have. For example, I, to this day would love to know, even though I saw it, I didn’t take enough notice, you’re gonna think I’m nuts. I played baseball and football, and try as hard as she could, my mother could never get grass stains out of anything. Bleach, Tide, whatever was, they’re there. Faintly, but they’re there.
Yet professional athletes, football, baseball, whatever, every day those uniforms are brand spanking clean, look brand-new every time they’re put on. Doesn’t matter what kind of junk, garbage, blood, sweat, dirt, doesn’t matter what ends up on ’em during the game. So I said, ‘How does this happen?’ Obviously there is a way to get this stuff spic-and-span clean. Why can’t we do this at home? And, sorry, it’s not OxiClean. I’m not running it down, but it wasn’t OxiClean. Billy Mays, I’m sorry, but it wasn’t OxiClean and it wasn’t dry cleaning so much. I watched those uniforms be delivered by the cleaner every day. They were shipped out and they’d be brought back, and I didn’t think to ask the guy because, frankly, you know, the last thing I’m gonna do is ask, ‘How do you get those uniforms so clean?’ I didn’t figure that would be a question that would stand in good stead with management and the team. ‘Really, you care about laundering uniforms? We got a job open there, you want to go there?’ But I was interested in what they used. And you go to restaurants, how come restaurants can get food service products you can’t get at a grocery store, why is this? I’ve always been curious about that.
And coconut oil was one of those things. Why can’t you buy this at a grocery store? I still don’t know, by the way. I think interestingly enough you can get it at health food stores now. I still don’t know. All I know is I wanted to get some so the concessionaire gave me some and I watched them pop this stuff up and he said for us the only thing that works is coconut oil because it will hold the popcorn for a week. We can pop this stuff, we bag it for a week, all we gotta do is put it under a heat lamp the day we use it and you can’t tell it was popped a week ago. Coconut oil holds the popcorn. So it had not just the taste and smell but it had an applicable economic reason for being used. And then these guys come along and ban it because it’s gonna clog up your arteries, you’re gonna die.
New York Times — and I’ve been railing on these people since the mid-nineties, Center for Science in the Public Interest, I have been railing on them — New York Times: ‘Once a Villain, Coconut Oil Charms the Health Food World.’ Once again, I, El Rushbo, ahead of the curve. This is a long story. There’s a picture of coconut-oil-roasted sweet potatoes. ‘The oil enhances their caramelized flavor.’ It’s detail after detail of desserts, other things, popcorn made with coconut oil and how much better it tastes and how it is one of the healthiest oils out there. And this Center for Science in the Public Interest is like so much of all these special interest groups on the left. They’re just frauds. The stuff they say just isn’t true, and a lot of these people are in government, which is why I pay no attention to any of these special interests. One day it’s oat bran you gotta eat to save your life. The next day coffee is gonna kill you ’cause of caffeine, then it’s not. They keep people in a constant state of fear. You ever stopped to listen to people talk about a meal? People order something at a restaurant and they feel guilty ’cause they think somebody’s gonna get mad at them for ordering the fried chicken, ‘Don’t you know that’s unhealthy?’ All this is going on. The life expectancy is skyrocketing and people are still eating and drinking what they want, still driving SUVs. Giant See, I Told You So here.