After a bit of a hiatus, GamerDude is back with Season 8! This week, GamerDude talks about the need for a break after 6+ years of weekly episodes, and what prompted him to fire up the podcast mic for another season.

This week's episode is inspired by an idiom that GamerDude heard on the game show, "The Floor." One young contestant couldn't complete the phrase "Carrying ____ to New Castle." (The answer is "coals," which GamerDude explains in this episode.) That answer got him to thinking about many of the idioms and "old sayings" that we use today, but we may not know where they came from, or what they actually mean. So, GamerDude decided to dig into some of them. He talks about "close but no cigar," "biting the bullet," "facing the music," and coming "straight from the horse's mouth." He also talks about some old phrases that used to be in use but have fallen by the wayside, and he makes the case for bringing them back.

For the first episode of 2024, GamerDude talks about his "brushes with greatness," which is times in his life where he as met, or interacted with, or at least seen, someone who is famous. GamerDude first talks about how he was a very minor celebrity back in his radio DJ days, and how the people he encountered then shaped how he handled encounters with famous people when he got older.

GamerDude's first "brush with greatness" was before his DJ days, when he was a kid at a game at Yankee Stadium. That's where he got Joe Garagiola's autograph when Joe was sitting in the press box. GamerDude then talks about some of the famous people he met while driving limos, from Tony Bennett to Phil Rizzuto. He also talks about some of the famous people he's run into at comic cons, from Nathan Filion to Alan Tudyk.