‘He had to leave the pub early because someone kicked him, but I stayed,’ my wife says
On Saturday morning, shortly after 11, I enter the youngest one’s bedroom. I place my foot on the back of his sleeping form, and press.
“Wake up!” I shout. “It’s haircut day!”
Continue reading...My wife is trying to make me shop. She’s picking young people’s clothes
It is Saturday lunch time, and my wife is lecturing everyone for making too much noise on Friday night.
“All these people shrieking and laughing,” she says to the oldest one. “And the doorbell ringing every five minutes.”
Continue reading...Episode 32 of the podcast features a conversation with Natasia Demetriou who I met a couple of years ago at The Invisible Dot, a comedy venue in King’s Cross (that I’ve just heard is closing apparently). I was MCing the evening and Tash came on stage in a pizza (or possibly nacho) costume. She proceeded to slip in and out of a weird Mexican (?) accent, occasionally singing and doing an amusingly half hearted sexy dance. That may not sound good but it was the funniest thing I’d seen for a while.
She was in a pilot for BBC3 show called People Time with her sometime comedy partner Ellie White, her brother Jamie, Liam Williams, Alistair Roberts, Daran Johnson and Claudia O’Doherty -- some of the funniest people around at the moment for my money. This year they’ve been getting together (minus Claudia) to do a monthly web series called ’2016 Friends’ on Vimeo. It reminds me of some of Tim & Eric’s stuff in parts and is frequently terrific. You’ll find July’s episode (directed by Tash and Tom Kingsley) below.
My conversation with Tash was recorded on 28th June 2016 in London. I had recorded my podcast with Sally Wainwright earlier in the day and this was a nice contrast; an altogether sillier exchange that distracted from the post Brexit gloom.
Thanks to Seamus Murphy Mitchell for production support and Matt Lamont for additional editing.
Thanks as well to Dan Hawkins who kindly offered his services as an on line bass player and ended up providing a bass part for a new jingle on this week’s episode. Dan’s website is HERE.
I hug you for too long.
Adam B
Episode 7: July from 2016: Year Friends on Vimeo.
MICHAEL KIWANUKA -- BLACK MAN IN A WHITE WORLD
DOWNLOAD MP3 FROM SOUNDCLOUD
The answers to today’s puzzles
Earlier today I set you two problems popularised by US writer Martin Gardner:
1. At the hardware store, you are told that 1 will cost you 50p, 12 will cost £1 and the price of 144 is £1.50. What are you buying?
Continue reading...Double trouble from Martin Gardner
UPDATE: Solutions now posted here.
Hello guzzlers,
Martin Gardner, who wrote dozens of books of recreational mathematics, would have been 102 last Friday. In the years since he died, his friends and fans have started a global movement called Celebration of Mind, which encourages people to put on puzzle-themed events on or around the date of his birthday.
Continue reading...After clicking publish last Monday at 3am I decided to check my work email one last time and found a notification that I was to report for flight transport the next morning. Nine of us (including my roommate Amy) lucked into fuel cache duty, which meant flying out to Round Mountain to dig fuel drums out of the snow. After a short weather delay, we caught a van out to Williams Field and boarded the smallest plane I've ever flown on, a Twin Otter.
Over the course of two weeks, our pilots had flown this very aircraft from Alberta, through Central and South America, to the Antarctic Peninsula and South Pole, finally arriving at McMurdo for the Summer season. Our flight was much shorter, only about 35 minutes each way, but it was easily the most beautiful flight I've ever been on. Some of my favorite moments in the last few years have been when I felt the smallest (see here, here, here, here, and here). Flying through the mountains, seeing nothing but more mountains in the distance and knowing that we were less than 100 miles into a continent the size of the lower 48 whose largest settlement we had just left, makes one feel rather small rather quickly.
Before we landed we did a few "low and overs" to check out the landing conditions and Amy and I were sitting in the back of the plane eyeing the vomit bags, but we landed shortly thereafter and spent about 30 minutes at the fuel cache site before a 35 minute return flight.
Podcast 31 features a conversation recorded back in July in Dublin with Irish drag artist and gay rights campaigner Rory O’Neill (aka Panti Bliss). He told me about growing up gay in 1970s Ireland, escaping to Tokyo, the practical challenges of life with HIV and how his 2014 appearance on an Irish TV chat show caused a media storm with some historic consequences (this is admittedly hyperbole, but only a bit).
For more Rory related fun I recommend the documentary about his life, ‘The Queen Of Ireland’ and you can see Panti’s hugely inspiring speech at the Abbey Theatre below. I very much enjoyed meeting Rory and we had a great talk. I hope you enjoy listening.
Oh, and for Jaco Pastorius related links (as mentioned in the podcast outro), see bottom of this post.
Thanks to Seamus Murphy-Mitchell for production support.
Music and jingles by Adam Buxton (I am referring to myself in the third person to make Adam Buxton sound more important and not just a dick like me).
Best of wishes
Abxt
