From Shattered Seats To Showbiz Spats: A Rollercoaster Of Odd News And Honest Reflections

Ever feel that strange drift between Christmas and New Year—the dead week where time slides and everything feels slightly out of focus? We start there, then shift fast: a surprise visit from my sister snaps the mood back into color, and we’re off through a trio of stories that swing from absurd to devastating to delightfully nostalgic.

First, a Florida lawsuit over a shattered toilet in an accessible stall raises serious questions about safety, maintenance, and how much crucial detail gets lost in clicky headlines. Was it the seat ring, the bowl, or a mounting failure? Without specifics, we’re left guessing about risk and responsibility, especially for folks who rely on ADA‑compliant fixtures just to navigate a day without injury. That hunger for detail becomes a theme: if reporting skips facts, the public can’t judge what actually happened.

Then we step into heavier territory: a dental implant procedure that ended in a fatal brain injury tied to anesthesia complications. It’s heartbreaking—made sharper by a smiling pre‑procedure selfie—and it prompts a sober talk about outpatient anesthesia, oxygenation, monitoring, and rapid response. The point isn’t fear; it’s informed consent. Ask who administers the drugs, what monitoring is in place, and how emergencies are handled. Routine care should be routine, but it still deserves rigorous safeguards and transparent answers.

To close, we reach for showbiz history—a new Johnny Carson book revives the infamous Marlon Brando and Zsa Zsa Gabor clash, a live‑TV powder keg that reminds us why late night once felt dangerous in the best way. Less polish, more truth. It’s a dose of cultural nostalgia that pairs with the present tense of this show’s own timeline: only a few dozen episodes remain before we cap things at 1,000 and call it a beautiful run.

We’d love to hear from you: how did your holiday go, what was your favorite moment, and are you doing anything for New Year’s? If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—it helps others find us and join the exchange.

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Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

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Chapters

• 0:29 Dead Week Reflections
• 0:50 Sister’s Surprise Visit
• 1:35 Florida Man Toilet Lawsuit
• 3:37 Missing Details And Media Frustrations
• 5:19 Dental Procedure Tragedy
• 7:50 Johnny Carson Book And Brando Clash
• 10:16 Countdown To 1,000 Episodes
• 10:30 Holiday Check-In And New Year Plans
• 11:16 Sign-Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:15

Well, hello. Good morning. Monday. It's the week. I call it the dead week. After Christmas before New Year's. This is the week that I hate the most. But it's gonna be okay. I have better feelings about it this year than I did last year or previous year. So it's it's gonna be fine. My sister came into town. That cheered me up. She texted me Friday. She said, Hey, what are you doing this weekend? I thought I'd fly down and see you. I'm like, well, alrighty then. Come on. She booked it Friday night, flew down Saturday, and left. She's leaving this morning. She's probably already at the airport. Wow. I mean it was a great trip. Fast, but you know, fantastic. I didn't realize how much I needed my sister until she showed up. Oh yeah. Okay. Um I have some stories for you. We have some tragedy and then we have some levity. I hope you had a great Christmas. We had a good Christmas. I thought so anyway. Uh those five days that we were off went by very fast. Uh let's see. Let me go over to my X-File. Okay, we're gonna start with Florida man suffered a serious bodily injury after toilet seat shattered beneath him at Outback Steakhouse. This is a lawsuit. Now, at first I read toilet seat. I thought, how can you be bodily injured just by the seat exploding? And then I thought, well, maybe the whole toilet tank, you know, that he was sitting on, maybe it caved in or something. Uh, but I I think it's just the seat. I sure surely they would say it was something else. Oh my gosh. Okay, hold on a minute. Oh, I gotta close this out and open it up in a different reading thing because advertisements are popping up everywhere. So hold on one second while I put you on pause. Alright, resuming, let's see, here we go. Florida man filed a lawsuit against Outback Steakhouse, alleging that a handicapped toilet he used at one of the Sunshine State locations suddenly shattered and collapsed while he was using it. Michael Green claimed that he sustained severe bodily injury during an ill-fated trip to the to the latrine at an outbow in the Navy we call it the head uh latrine at an outback steakhouse restaurant along Southwest College Road in Ocala, Florida. We don't need to know all that detail. Come on. In the hefty lawsuit levied against the Aussie American staple, Green said that the toilet seat in the handicap saw suddenly shattered and collapsed while he was using it. Now, what do you mean the seat? To me, the seat is that thing that flips up and down. Not the whole tank that you sit on. But I don't know, maybe that is this I mean it is a seat, you're sitting on it. I don't know. The injuries Green asserts he suffered range from significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function to loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life, court records said. Uh-oh. He accused the restaurant of negligence and failing to ensure the toilet was properly secured to the floor. He also claimed it created an unreasonably dangerous condition to members of the public. Uh I'm hoping for a little bit more detail, but I don't think we're gonna get it. He is seeking$50,000 in damages, and in early November, the Outback Steakhouse abruptly closed 21 of its underperforming units. Oh dear. Units. Come on. This y'all. But it is endeavoring to launch a to launch a comprehensive turnaround strategy. And then it goes on and just talks about a fast food diner Sue Duncan after he alleged a toilet seat at Florida location exploded, drenching him in human feces. Okay, that's lovely for this early in the morning. Uh then it goes on to talk about other crap. So we don't know how much the guy weighed, you know, what was going on. We don't I don't know. They they leave out a lot of details, and I can't stand it when they do that. This is not reporting. I need more details. What do I have to do to make them get more details? Alright, we need to move on to my next story, which let me go over here and find it on my X-file. Um rusty this morning. Uh having not okay, this poor guy. This poor guy and his family. Oh my goodness. This is one of the reasons I don't get unnecessary procedures done. Death. Final photo of Arizona man killed. They call it, they're saying he's k he was killed during a routine dental procedure, resurfaces as family settles wrongful death lawsuit. This poor guy. Oh my gosh, this is horrible. Let's see. Uh, a haunting selfie, and they do share the selfie, taken by an Arizona man hours before he suffered a fatal brain injury during a routine dental implant procedure as has resurfaced as his distraught parents settled his wrongful death lawsuit. Why he wasn't murdered, he wasn't killed. It was a freak accident and died as far as I'm concerned. But let's see what it says. Derek Swanson, who is forty, who was 40 years old, took a picture of himself beaming in a dentist chair on March 3rd, 2023. He captioned the photo yesterday a new car, today implant. Fun never stops. Swanson, an avid gym goer, was eager to receive a long-awaited dental implant. He booked the procedure at Scottsdale Facial and Oral Surgery, but never woke up following complications with the administered anesthesia. He was placed on life support after suffering a brain injury and died March 10th, 2023. He was so excited he had fixed a lot of his teeth and they were looking really nice, his mother said. His poor parents took him there and they waited in the waiting room for him, and they waited. She said they waited and they waited and they waited and they waited for hours. She said they called Derek back and that I won't forget. He turned around and gave me a wink and said, I love you, and he walked back. She said, I just kept waiting and waiting, and Derek wasn't coming out. Brenda and Bill Swanson filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the dentist, Dr. Derek Lamb, and the Scottsdale surgery clinic. The lawsuit was finally settled. The Swanson's lawsuit alleged that the lamb and the clinic made an error during the anesthesia process, which deprived Derek of oxygen and triggered a fatal brain injury. Well, there you go. There you have it. Alright, we need to end on a lighter note. We're going to talk about I want to get this book. I should have asked it for it for Christmas, but I'll get it. Because I'm going to read a lot this year. Maybe I'll I think I want to get this one on audio. We'll see. Uh, that's about the Johnny Carson. Marlon Brando and Jah Gabor's heated tonight show clash revisited in the new Johnny Carson book. Johnny, now I've I didn't see this when it happened. I was too little probably back then to stay up and watch Johnny Carson. Uh uh not too, too little, but you know. Johnny Carson's tenure on NBC's The Tonight Show produced many iconic moments. In the new book, Love Johnny Carson. Carson's super fan Mark Malkoff details some of the most legendary moments on the show, including a blow-up between Hollywood jogger nuts, joggernauts, Ja Jacques Gabor and Marlon Brando. I don't really remember hearing about this. Maybe you do. According to the book, Brando and Gabor appeared on the show alongside one another in May 1963. Well, that was three years before I was born, so no wonder. Um, let's say Brando walked out drunk and sat down next to Johnny's previous guest, social light and actress Ja Ja Gabor, who had been promoting her new face cream. Uh, Malkoff wrote, while the two started off cordial with Brando calling Zahja fascinating and charming, the love between them quickly faded as Gabor began interrupting Brando constantly. Uh-oh. Things continued to spiral downward after Brando took a weak knock knock joke that garnered polite applause, which Gabor pointed out saying only for Marlon Brando would they applaud for that. Josha changed the subject back to her face cream, rehashing the product's incomparable benefits. Are we going to have to sit here all night and listen to your crappy plugs? Brando asked, according to the book. Malcolf continues by saying that the conversation soon turned into an exchange of insults. Uh which Jah got up and stormed off the set while a still drunk Brando offered a sly smile. You can go finish reading that if you'd like. Which, by the way, before I forget, only 33 more episodes, really 32 after this one, and then I'm done. I will have hit a thousand episodes, and then then the podcast is shutting down and will be no more. Alright, stand by. We got the question of the day. Okay, this really isn't a question of the day. Just tell me how your holiday went. What was the what was your favorite moment of the holiday? Uh Christmas. And then also tell me, do you have any New Year's plans? We do not. Now I do have Thursday off, which is the first. Um, but I have to go back to work on Friday. And we never do anything for New Year's Eve ever. We are usually in bed, even though I have it off the next day. We don't, I mean, we just don't do anything. We just we do our normal thing. We may stay up a little extra and maybe watch a movie or something on Wednesday night, since I don't have to go to work on Thursday, but you know, who knows? We'll see. Alright, I gotta go. Thanks for listening. Bye.