Father’s Day is a time to remember good ol’ dad and gran-dad. Make his weekend with a cookout.
Watch the video to see how to grill a perfect beef tenderloin with the Sporting Chef.
And get this grill for dad and he’ll love you for it: Schwank 1500 Degree Portable Infrared Grill.
Alright, America, buckle up! It’s launch day for Made in the USA Today, the podcast and website that’s gonna light a fire under this country’s manufacturing comeback.
I’m here for R. Michael Brown, your host, reporter, and your guide through the wild, patriotic ride that is the “Made in the USA” movement. We’re not here to sugarcoat anything—we’re diving into the good, the bad, and the downright infuriating.
So, let’s get to it!
Picture this: it’s 2025, and America’s waking up. The “Made in the USA” label is back, and it’s hotter than a summer barbecue.
People are fed up with cheap foreign junk, and they’re demanding American-made goods that scream quality, pride, AND JOBS. But, hold the phone—this isn’t some feel-good story. It’s a gritty, complicated fight, and we’re gonna break it down like nobody else.
First up, reshoring. That’s the buzzword, and it’s real. The eggheads at the National Institute of Standards and Technology—dropped a truth bomb in February 2025: the COVID-19 disaster showed us our supply chains were a house of cards.
Remember those empty shelves? Yeah, never again.
So, companies are bringing manufacturing back to the good ol’ U.S.A., and with a new administration turning up the heat, small and medium-sized businesses are going all-in. They’re using cool tech like 3D printing and smart manufacturing to keep up.
Sounds awesome, right? Well, not so fast. This stuff costs a fortune to set up, and you’ve gotta retrain workers to run the new toys. It’s like trying to rebuild a muscle car from scratch—doable, but it’s gonna take time.
Now, let’s talk about you, the American folks. You’re the ones driving this bus.
I’ve been lurking on X, and the vibe is clear: you’re pumped for American-made products that last longer than a TikTok trend. You’re waving the flag, and it’s beautiful.
Take the Dobyns Family’s “America First” T-shirt—100% U.S.-grown cotton, priced at $17.76 cents – because, that’s the most patriotic price ever – 1776. It’s like wrapping yourself in the Declaration of Independence.
But here’s the kicker: the Federal Trade Commission says “Made in USA” means all – or virtually all – of a product’s gotta be American like Dobyns. Sounds simple, but it’s a hot mess.
CarEdge says 117 car models are assembled here in 2025, but they’re still grabbing parts from Canada and Mexico. Are we making cars or playing Legos from around the world?
On the corporate side, it’s a tale of two Americas….
Aggregated by R. Michael Brown, Writer, AI Editor
Lurch was a fictional character created by American cartoonist Charles Addams as a butler to the Addams Family. In the original television series, Lurch was played by Ted Cassidy.
He is a 6 ft. 9 in. tall, shambling, gloomy butler. In the original Addams Family television series, Lurch has a deep and resonant voice. Although fully capable of normal speech, Lurch often communicates via simple inarticulate moans, which, much like the dialogue of Cousin Itt, his employers have no trouble understanding.
Like any butler, Lurch tries to help around the house, but occasionally his great size and strength cause trouble. He clearly takes pride in his work and is willing to do even the most arduous task.
His character often demonstrates signs of frustration towards his employers; however, his continued presence also suggests loyalty. As a result, he appears to be one of the family.
The family summons him with an ever-present bell pull (in the form of a hangman’s noose). When pulled, it produces a loud gong noise that shakes the house, to which Lurch instantly appears and responds, “You… rang?”, even if wide-angle shots reveal that he was clearly nowhere in the vicinity before; on a few occasions Lurch arrives even before the bell pull is tugged.
Much of Lurch’s history, including his first name and the nature of his relationship to any other Addamses, was originally unspecified. “Lurch” was revealed during the original TV series to be a surname, as there was a “Mother Lurch” who appeared in one episode (portrayed by Ellen Corby). She addressed Lurch as “Sonny”, which could either be a parental nickname or his actual first name. As for his father, he was mentioned twice, once in the second animated series, and in an apparent reference to his Frankenstein’s monster-like appearance, Lurch said, smiling, “He put me together.” And another time in the original series where Lurch mentions his father wanted him to be a jockey (typically short and light people) instead of a butler.
It was stated in Addams Family Reunion that Lurch is part Addams. This plays into his being a creation similar to Frankenstein’s monster. The only definite body part that is from an Addams is his heart. Lurch’s mother appears to be a physically normal, elderly woman, although she does not see anything unusual about the Addams family or their home, with the exception of Thing.
A decade before Ted Cassidy played Lurch on The Addams Family (and appeared in Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and other films and series) he was an Ormond Beach lifeguard who earned a double major in Speech and Drama at DeLand’s Stetson University. That’s him, second from left. Handsome fella and, by all accounts, a very nice man.
Theodore Crawford Cassidy (July 31, 1932 – January 16, 1979) was an American actor. He tended to play unusual characters in offbeat or science-fiction works, such as Star Trek and I Dream of Jeannie, and he played Lurch on The Addams Family TV series of the mid-1960s.[1][2] He also narrated the intro sequence for the 1977 live-action The Incredible Hulk TV series and provided the growls and roars for the Hulk for the first two seasons before his death. [Wikipedia]
Book Review by R. Michael Brown, B2B Business Journalist and Copywriter
I really like this book. The most important lesson from Chapter 1 of The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek is this:
Business—and life—are infinite games, and to succeed long-term, leaders must stop playing with a finite mindset.
In this chapter, Sinek contrasts finite games (like football or chess, with clear rules and winners) with infinite games, where the objective is not to win, but to keep playing and evolving.
Business, he argues, is an infinite game—there’s no final victory or endpoint. Yet many leaders mistakenly play it with a finite mindset, focusing on beating competitors, short-term wins, and quarterly results.
Sinek’s key message:
“When we lead with a finite mindset in an infinite game, we set ourselves up for failure. Only infinite-minded leaders create organizations that are resilient, enduring, and inspiring.”
This shift in mindset—from winning to growing, from competing to advancing a Just Cause—is the foundation for sustainable success and purpose-driven leadership.
See More at RMichaelBrown.com
#b2b
#b2bmarketing
#businessleadership
#businessleaders
By R. Michael Brown, Journalist and Copywriter
June 1, 2025
An Australian completed 7,079 pull-ups in 24 hours — nearly doubling the previous female Guinness World Record. Olivia Vinson, 34, told Guinness World Records she was looking for a challenge when her husband and coach suggested she attempt the record.
“I was looking for a bigger challenge and my husband and coach actually suggested 24 hours of pull ups, which I initially, quite literally, laughed at because I thought there was no way,” Vinson said. “I looked up what the current record was, which was 4,081, and again I thought, ‘There’s no way.'”
Vinson said it was only after she crunched the numbers on the previous record, which was set by Polish woman Paula Gorlo in 2021, that she started to reconsider.
“After a little while, I did some maths on it and I thought maybe I could,” she said.
The record for the most pull-ups in 24 hours (male) is 11,707, achieved by Oh Yohan (South Korea) on September 28-29, 2024.
Brownie Bytes 