Shed Dogs

After a long and insistent letter writing campaign from our listening audience (there have been none), the Shed Dogs at last wade into the murky and roiling waters of The Great Marmite Debate. For three years now we’ve avoided this subject (it’s never come up) but at this point we felt we had no choice but to bring the full weight of our journalistic experience (we have none) to helping our faithful listening audience come to grips with the defining question - Marmite: Love it or hate it? We then remain in the Chateau to look briefly at robot lawnmowers (uncomfortably close to a brief segment on grass) and then move on to beautiful old trucks and where to get them repaired. But really this episode is all about the brewing byproduct commonly called Marmite. Clear your palates and plug in because It’s All Marmite All the Time Baby™!Elevator music credits are on our episode page.Links: Shed Dogs; Marmite; the five basic tastes; MSG; the fun Marmite ad we discuss in the episode; 77 minutes of elevator music; Marmite ingredients; Thousand Year Eggs; organ meats; Marmite Gold Rush (cocktail); robot lawnmowers; pot customer service; 3rd Generation International Harvester Travelall (KJ’s truck); Willys.This episode’s elevator music doing the snack preparation was provided by www.bensound.com.Theme music by Voodoo Jazz!

The Dogs are in situ, in the real Shed, rising to the challenge of more Short Snappers from KJ at the same time as we get to read a bunch of listener mail. We also discuss a very cool recording of KJ’s and Shauna Sylvester’s fathers on the day they fired up a paving company. Plus our pithy observations on e-bikes, mercury, minstrel shows, JW predictions, and a short celebration of the state of health care in the West Kootenays ensue as we whisk you through a potpourri of palaver! You can hear the paving interview on this episode’s entry on our site (scroll down a bit).Links: Shed Dogs; E-bikes; reelyouth (organization that interviews LGBTQ2S+ for documentaries); mercury cleanups in school (also see below); minstrel shows, which had an interlocutor in whiteface (!); unfulfilled prophesies of the Jehovah’s Witnesses; detached retina.Theme music by Voodoo Jazz!As mentioned in the show, we occasionally would play with mercury in schools. It’s taken a little more seriously now. From the link above: ““On October 2, 2003, the Washington, D.C.'s Fire Department Hazmat Unit responded to an emergency call unlike any call Ballou High School had ever had to make. What the D.C.'s Hazmat unit found that afternoon proved to be the beginning of a long, exhausting search for, and clean up of, an elemental mercury spill. A student had obtained 250 milliliters of liquid elemental mercury from a science laboratory and had sold some of it to other students. Students had to be dismissed. By the time the D.C. Hazmat Team and the D.C. public health officials arrived, it was too late to contain all the spills; varying amounts of mercury were found in the classrooms, gymnasium, and cafeteria. EPA responded by establishing a mobile command post, measuring mercury air concentrations and noting visual contamination of the science laboratory, cafeteria, gym and administration areas.Contamination did not stop at the school. Students unknowingly carried mercury on contaminated shoes and clothing through the streets, onto city and school buses, and into their homes. Eleven homes and one common area were found to be contaminated and about 16 families were displaced for a month. EPA assisted with screening of residences.As a result of the spill, Ballou High School was closed for 35 days and over 200 homes were tested for mercury contamination. Total cleanup costs were about $1,500,000.”

We’ve been treading a little lightly these last 16 months because we know you’ve been dealing with a lot. But now, we’re flush with vaccines and the gloves are off: it’s time to weigh in on the inflammatory question of what is an ideal banana, how do you go about eating it, and can it really fit in your pocket? We know you can do this. We also have an album review, some questions about whether public indecency has gone up, and an update from the dark recesses of KJ’s sleeping mind. On top of all that, we put Spam musubi out there, and RJ gifts us a delightful label for many of the YouTube channels we love: competence porn. Happy to see you!Links: Shed Dogs; tailings dams; front end loader; one technique for peeling a banana; listen to New Long Leg by Dry Cleaning; Hacks trailer; the Rachmaninoff key change; Rick Beato reviews Joni Mitchell’s Amelia, then has dinner with her; an example of competence porn; spam musubi. Theme music by Voodoo Jazz!

Nancy of New West teams up via Listener Mail with RJ to settle once and for all what a saucepan actually is. That’s just one of several very satisfying emails we get to read here, and the mail leads to an even more satisfying kayaking travelogue shared by Ogre of Nelson. Since all that exercise left us mentally razor sharp, KJ puts the other two Dogs to a stern test and kicks off his new Short Snappers feature. Finally, RJ presents us all with The Best Graphic Explanation of Internal Combustion Engines Ever. Warm and aromatic, yet explosive and powerful, this episode has it all!Links: Shed Dogs; Hypodermic needle sizes; Ogre’s travelogue (a must watch!); Marsh Rat’s channel; spectacular animations (and description) of the internal combustion engine.Theme music by Voodoo Jazz!Fact Check: A Wizard, A True Star clocks in at around 56 minutes, not 48 as RJ suggested.

Normally when we say “greatest idea ever” it’s an ironic setup to a laugh at a silly idea. NOT THIS TIME. KJ has suggested something genuinely exciting, seriously, and here it is: If there’s someone you know whose life story or reminiscences you’d love to capture, we can help. We thought mainly of elderly parents or relatives, but who knows? We’d do a video or audio interview, do a basic edit, and then send it to you. We wouldn’t publish it as an episode unless that was something you (and the subject) wanted. Listen to the episode for more about how we imagine this working. Also listen for great listener mail , RJ’s psychic skepticism, and a rousing walkthrough of “9 to 5”, which none of the Dogs have seen. And get in touch if you would like us to talk to a loved one about their lives.LInks: Shed Dogs; how psychics work; James Randi; Peter Reveen; buy low, sell high; 9 to 5 (the movie).Theme music by Voodoo Jazz!

Friend of the show (and Chief Fact Checker) Leigh of Courtenay joins the Dogs this episode as we take a tour through a truly different Oscars show, provide deep coverage on the difference between pots and pans, and revisit The Crown. Fortified by our success with those topics, we move on to looking at just what are Non Fungible Tokens, and then pretend we understand crypto currencies like BitCoin and Dogecoin. Finally, as a palate cleansing delight, we deal with joy, outrage, and comedy as we go through some terrific listener mail. Real and surreal content is here in a dizzying mix of edification and confusion, so take a pre-emptive Advil and have a listen! Don’t ever funge, man.Links: Shed Dogs; the 2021 Oscars; Youn Yuh-Jung’s speech for Minari; The Crown; the definitive take on pots and pans; how to make salmon bacon (scroll way down for the simple recipe); NFTs and Beeple; the effect of crypto-currency and blockchain on the environment; Keanu Reeves and What We Consider ‘Good Acting’; the Nicest Man Alive.Theme music by Voodoo Jazz!

Most widely known for her 2018 run at becoming Mayor of Vancouver, KJ’s family friend Shauna Sylvester is an award-winning thinker and social analyst. She shares with us her inspiring and insightful thoughts on poverty, the housing crisis, what leadership is and is not, which local leaders are making a difference, and much more. If you’ve ever wanted to clarify your thoughts on what kind of leaders you want or the kinds of things we can do to improve our collective lot, this is your episode. Take some time with it. Watch the video. Talk to your friends and loved ones. It’s worth it.Links: Shed Dogs; the YouTube version of this episode is about 15 minutes longer and includes a bit more about the McNulty / Sylvester family associations; Shauna’s role at SFU; the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue; the Burnaby Mayor’s Task Force on Community Housing; Shauna’s campaign policies in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election; BC’s COVID politicians; the Downtown East Side; Shauna is interviewed about democracy in Canada; Studio 58 at Langara.Theme music by Voodoo Jazz!