Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to our newest episode yet! Sneaky Dragon Episode 309. This week Ian and Dave are doing it again: doing a lot of tangents – from The Great Gatsby to Chilliwack (the town) to Chillieack (the band) to The Collectors to Chilliwack (the band) to Chilliwack (the town) to The Great Gatsby.They have a special correspondent this week for Chick Talk™; Dave’s wife Lezah is called up for some Great Gatsby expertise; suggestions are requested to fill in Dave’s sad neglect of American authors; they celebrate apples again; decide local food is best; have some VIP problems; do some food talk about cauliflower popcorn, raw carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, and Dave has an important hot dog question. A Dollop of Trollope makes a return; a sequel to The Thing is pitched; Ian has a Howard the Duck theory; there is some Duck Talk™; let’s remember that Buck Rogers wasn’t great; Dave wonders where are the new martial artists; Ian will be wandering around Fan Expo; and, finally, Dave is over fifty, and confused.
That disturbing Duck Tales video:
That other disturbing duck video:
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I know Dave said no modern books, but I feel anyone who loves Austen and Trollope should also try Anne Tyler. Breathing Lessons won the Pulitzer, and The Accidental Tourist was the basis of a great movie. Both are excellent. The Amateur Marriage is a more recent one I really enjoyed. She’s a wonderfully intelligent observer of human relationships and, at her best, can switch from comedy to tragedy – and blend the two – in ways that feel totally real and lifelike.
From a discussion in an earlier podcast, I’m guessing you’ve read Dashiell Hammett, but have you tried his short stories, as well as the novels? I’ve been re-reading his tales of the Continental Op, collected in two volumes. I’d recommend The Big Knockover in particular. I’d previously thought of Hammett as a kind of proto-Chandler – the guy who broke new ground as a true original, but lacked his successor’s sophistication and wit. Reading these stories, though, I see I really underestimated him. There’s some beautiful, witty writing here, vivid characterisation and well-crafted plots that all add up to a really satisfying read.
I love writers that describe or invent their own worlds and have that ability to draw you in so you feel you know them too. Both Tyler and Hammett do that for me.
Yes, The Accidental Tourist is a very good book. That is the only Tyler that I have read although Lezah went through a Tyler-phase in her twenties so we have a few on the shelf (including Breathing Lessons).
Yes, I have read all the Hammett there is or was to offer including the Continental Op stories (The Big Knockover is actually my favourite Hammett book – the sequence where he is made to ride a particularly balky pony is a fantastic bit of storytelling). My all-time favourite story was one in a recent collection called Nightmare Alley, I believe. The main character is a rather fey amateur poet who works for his gruff father’s insurance firm as an investigator. I can’t remember the story’s name off the top of my head and I’m too lazy to go into the library and find the book.
Ian, forget Coles Notes! (Or the U.S. equivalent, Cliff Notes) If you want to know what The Great Gatsby is all about, check out THUG NOTES on YouTube. There, in 4-minute videos, “original gangster” Sparky Sweets (PhD) keeps it real as he summarizes and analyzes — in expletive-laced street lingo and with cutaways to helpful charts and diagrams — all the classic and contemporary novels and plays that everyone is assigned to read in English class (and some pop culture genre best-sellers as well). Here’s the link to his take on Gatsby. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VEQRPm_HyA
Dave, as the father of two daughters, the American book I think you should read is Louisa May Alcott’s most famous (and most frequently adapted for film, television and stage) semi-autobiographic coming-of-age novel, Little Women (1868). While initially written for a younger audience, it has similar themes to Austen’s and Trollope’s novels that adult readers will appreciate: family relationships, romantic love, class differences, financial struggles and individual identity. The main character is Josephine (Jo) March who is a strong-willed tomboy and an aspiring writer, growing up in New England with her three sisters while her father is away during the American Civil War. You may recognize in Alcott’s March sisters the joys and heartaches and search for happiness and fulfillment that all girls and women face regardless of the country or era they are raised in.
RE: EVE Online, my BF explains:
“You can buy game time (essentially the subscription fee) with real money OR with in-game money. Since it’s a commodity that straddles two payment methods, there is a market (a legitimate one, endorsed by the game company) for buying and selling game time, which means you can convert dollars into ISK [the in-game currency] and vice versa. So he uses his jackin money to buy up game time, which he then resells for in-game ISK, bypassing a lot of the risk and grind it takes to get the money through gameplay.
Having a lot of in-game money, much like real life, gives you more weight to throw around politically and militarily. You can buy and outfit powerful ships or contract other pilots out to do your bidding for pay.”
As for what you actually do in the game:
“Like the article says, there’s no set goal. You do whatever you want… but some activities are more expensive than others. For example, people who just want to fight things usually get given free ships to do that on behalf of some big alliance”
Favourite season of Buffy, you say? This is a bit of an odd choice, but I have to say season four. The Initiative storyline is pretty weak, but there are some great episodes, the series is (arguably) at its most experimental, and I’m a fan of Spike and Tara. Plus it has “Restless”; what else needs saying?
but it’s probably the mthere are some great episodes, and the series
Ignore that last line, I meant to delete it. Doh!
My favorite American author is John Steinbeck. I love “Tortilla Flats”, “Cannery Row” and “Grapes of Wrath”.
Best Apples:
Honeycrisp
Cosmic Crunch (brand new…like Honeycrisp but HUGE and red)
Empire
Ashmead Kernel
Honeycrisp are great. Right up my apple alley. I have never heard of nor seen a Cosmic Crunch apple, but it sounds pretty great. Empires are pretty good, and I’d really like to try an Ashmead Kernel. Is that a Washington State specialty?
According to Orangepippin.com, Ashmead’s Kernel is a very old (1600’s or 1700’s) English apple. It’s not for everybody. It’s very tart and sweet at the same time. That website describes the flavor as “Pear drop”, whatever that means. I only know about it because a friend of mine grows it. Cosmic Crunch hasn’t even hit the stores yet, I don’t think. It’s brand new. I doubt if it will be as popular as Honeycrisp, as it is almost too big to eat in one sitting.