ilbert dunker. It's been around since at least World War II. And the idea was that Navy aviators would have a risk of crashing and being underwater in their plane, and the pilots would have to figure out how to get out of their cockpit while they're submerged in the water. And they created something to test it. It was called the Dilbert dunker. And the reason it was a Dilbert dunker is that Dilbert was a cartoon that was done by the military. Somebody in the military, Osborne I think was his name, the author, and he had a little character named Dilbert. And Dilbert did all the wrong things that an aviator should not do, right? So he made all the mistakes and that's how they taught people not to make those mistakes.

Now when my boss suggested the name he did not remember at the time that he had seen it before as a comic. The worst possible situation. I could be it because I had already submitted it. You know, it had been accepted as a syndicated comic. And then only then did he sheepishly come in and tell me he knows where the name came from in his own mind. Because years ago he'd seen in his father's old trunk of things from — you know, his father died in World War II — a trunk of materials from, he saw like the actual Dilbert comic. And he realized he must have seen it before that moment. And I said to myself, oh no, oh no, I'm gonna get sued because I'm using the same name and it's a comic. If it had been the name of a diner like a Dilbert diner that would have been okay, a different business. But it was also a comic. So for years I would worry that somebody was going to come after me because it was too late to change it. But it didn't happen and it never did.

And I finally figured out after 30 years, I figured out why. Do you know why the original cartoonist who created Dilbert or his family — do you know why they never even contacted me ever? Somebody says copyright expired. Somebody said trademark was dead. Yeah, so you got it. It was a government cartoon. I already owned it. So did you if you're an American. You owned that cartoon. Nobody owned it because it was government property basically. So there was nobody. He made it under contract to the military. I already owned it. So did you. So apparently there was no risk at all and I never came back to the market.

But I would like to tell you one more story maybe more from the life of Michael J. Goodwin. Two. I'm gonna give you two stories. Number one, Michael J. Goodwin taught me politics. He taught me the only coherent political opinion I've ever heard because he used to vote even in all the local elections. He voted in all the elections. He was very Republican. And I used to ask him, why do you bother doing that? Like do you even know what the issues are? And he said no. You know, do you read all the ballot initiatives and do you really know the ins and outs of why it's a good idea? He said no. And I said but you vote. He goes yes. They go how the hell do you vote in any rational way without knowing what all of these things do? And then he told me the smartest thing I've ever heard in politics. He said I vote against everything that raises my taxes or costs money because they already have enough money. And I heard that and said well that's ridiculous. That's so crazy. God damn it, that's the best political opinion I've ever heard. I've never heard a better political opinion. And he implemented it. Like he would actually go vote and he would just say all right, raises taxes? No. Doesn't raise taxes? Just a statement? Man, okay, yes. What's that actually? I don't know if he voted for anything. I think he just voted against anything that cost money.

And now you could argue that hey, there's exceptions. There are things you really need money for. To which he would say sure, just use the money you have. I'll bet you got something you could save some money on. Because he thought the government should operate just like you do. If you don't have enough money for the new thin