Hola, Sneakers. This week on Sneaky Dragon, friend of the show and Third Dragon Nina Matsumoto virtually drops by for a visit.
Nina, Ian and Dave talk: a big wave; premature gesticulation; angry Nick Park; British disconnect; I’m not here; mainstream taste; comedy nerds; talky TV; snobby taste; too impersonal; catching up; sourdough tips; pancake mix-up; nervous talker; no money, mo’ problems; okay with it; Otter nominated; lucky lockdown; well-stocked; self-intoxication; dry perogies; we all scream for cream cheese; food substitution; secret menus; house disruption; Nina news; Canadian measurements; remote marriage; father of the sloth; pro-marriage; stabbing area; nerd balance; a parrot’s life for me; wait and hurry up; the getaway; griping abpout sniping; who is that masked man; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; practical audiophile corner; Tom and Jerry and Willy and Me; chocolate avalanche; third times a chore; and, finally, aw shucks.
Thanks for listening.
Question of the Week: Have you ever been apart from someone you love? What did you do about it?
Sub-question: What’s your favourite bread or bun?
Sub-sub-question: Do you like your perogies “dry”?
The Sneaky Dragon Q&A Show is coming!
Don’t miss out on your chance to WIN WIN WIN! That’s right! Our 450th episode is fast approaching and we will be hosting our traditional Listeners’ Questions Episode! Every question gives you a chance in our GRAND PRIZE DRAW. The more questions you ask, the better your chances to win! So get to asking!
Send your list of questions by email to sneakyd@sneakydragon.com. If you’d like, record your questions, send us an audio file, and we’ll play it during the show. Fun, right???
Interested in some Sparks merch? Check out Nina’s fabulous design here.
Thank you, Caanan, for this sweet chocolate haul!
Here is the lovely sketch Caanan drew in Dave’s copy of the book!
Here is the nifty mechanism that lifts the CD out of the Mobile Fidelity CD case!
And, last and most certainly least, a couple of clips from Tom and Jerry and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory:
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I’m glad the box arrived! It only occurred to me after I sent it that you might just throw it all out, but I assure you no-one in our house has the devil bug. I’m about to start chemo so we are very cautious, plus I’ve been tested three times, and come up three times negative. I cannot, however, vouch for Canada Post. Urk!
And Nina, I’m sure you know by now but the Chicos aren’t chocolate covered jelly babies, they’re chocolate flavoured. I hope the guys managed to get you a share of the hoard!
Thanks again! Best to you with your chemo and really looking forward to your new book! Stay healthy!
Hi Dave and Ian,
in answer to your sub-question in episode 439, my favourite bread is bread you can only get in Scotland. Plain bread. I know that sounds boring, but it’s anything but plain. It’s hard to describe. It’s like ordinary white bread, but kind of rougher. It seems like there’s something that they don’t do to it that stops it being ordinary. Maybe they don’t do the final step of the recipe. Anyway, it’s lovely. There’s no better tasting toast, and it’s oblong shape makes it perfect for sandwiches (or pieces as we say in Scotland). There’s nothing better than a piece and square sausage with brown sauce! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_loaf
https://images.app.goo.gl/kzxoDB5Vmib5pGLS9
https://images.app.goo.gl/RCVRVDewsnen6jEXA
And in answer to your sub-sub-question, what’s a Perogie? I don’t know how I prefer them, but they sound delicious!
Stay safe guys.
My favourite buns are cinnamon buns, especially from Grounds For Coffee on Commercial Drive which are big and soft with thick icing. But I also like the ones from Solly’s on Main Street which have thinner chewier layers and a clear glaze. During this self-isolation period, my sister and I made a batch at home. Do to my inexperienced rolling skills, they didn’t look pretty but they were pretty tasty. We also made a batch of soft pretzels sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. They were yummy too.
FYI, bagels are made with yeast. It’s matso bread that is unleavened. When served at Passover, it commemorates when the Israelites had to leave Egypt so fast, they didn’t have time to use yeast in the dough. But let me ask you this: do you prefer New York or Montreal-style bagels? I find the Montreal style too chewy.
I don’t like dry perogies: we eat them smothered with onion and bacon bits in fried in butter with a side of sour cream.
I’m going to count your New York V. Montreal question as one for our 450th all questions show.
Also now I really want cinnamon buns!
I hope that means I get a Sneaky Dragon bumper sticker!
The Harry Potter books have many antecedents – famously the Earthsea novels of Ursula Le Guin. However, I expect the one you were thinking of was Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones, published in 1977 and the first in her ‘Chrestomanci’ series. Jones is probably best known as the writer of Howl’s Moving Castle which was, of course, made into a wonderful anime by Hayao Miyazaki. She was very gracious about the similarities between her work and Rowling’s, saying, ‘Once a book is published, out in the world, it is sort of common property for people to take ideas from and use, and I think this is what happened to my books.’ I first heard about this on the excellent Backlisted podcast, highly recommended for book lovers.
You guys aren’t alone in finding the Twilight Zone gremlin more goofy than scary, but in a weird way I think that’s part of what makes the episode work. It comes across as an animal innocently messing around with machinery it doesn’t understand, which for me is more interesting than the movie version where it’s a demon being evil on purpose. But to each their own. Also, apparently the original idea was to have the gremlin be black with bright dots, to camouflage it against the night sky. Something tells me that would have held up even less well today.
I haven’t seen my kids since the quarantine began, so being apart from someone you love is happening for me right now. I miss them both dearly. My Son Alec was sent home from college where he lives with his Mom, my daughter Erin lives in Lubbock, Texas where she attends college at Texas Tech. I’m happy to report that both are healthy as are those around them, so it’s worth the effort. You just have to put the emotions aside for the betterment of all and hope we’ll be together soon.
I grew up eating seeded rye bread for sandwiches. My Grandmother always had some for making “coldcuts” as she called them. She also had stone ground German mustard, fresh prosciutto and aged Swiss cheese. My Grandmother also canned plenty of pickles, both sweet and sour, (I like both!) which she made from garden grown cucumbers. She sliced them extremely thin so they could also be added to the sandwiches. For the side she had this three bean salad she’d make too. This is probably one of my best childhood memories.
I don’t think I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating a perogie! After looking them up, I’m sure I’d enjoy them and you’d think that having a European background someone would have made them at some point…If I’ve ever had any I do not recall it.
Dave mentioned the “Uncola” glass that 7UP produced. This predates my employment there by a few years…BUT to Nina’s delight, I did work on many, many 7UP “Spot” campaigns. I took over for Spot when he was to be used in print. The print ads would reflect whatever the agency in Chicago, Leo Burnett, was doing for the television ads. The tricky thing was that when the little Spot would pop off a 7UP can in the ads and started playing football or engaged in a sword fight with another Spot, the objects had to be real things in scale with him. So the football was a peanut and the sword was a plastic cocktail sword. When I went home to visit relatives in Chicago, I’d drive downtown to Leo Burnett and hang out with the guys who created Spot and we’d brainstorm something new. Sadly, in 1995, when Cadbury Beverages bought Dr Pepper/7UP, one of the first orders was to kill off Spot entirely. Working on those campaigns for 7UP remains one of the highlights of my 30 year career. I’ll put a few photos up on Facebook of some old Spot art from the past, ancient stuff but still fun.
That Willy Wonka/Tom & Jerry cartoon is something…but I can do you guys one better. In 1992 I worked on a cartoon here in Dallas for Peeler Rose Productions called “Snuffy the Elf Who Saved Christmas.” It was a really low budget animated effort that featured Bobby Goldsboro as the voice talent/singer. I was a cleanup artist and if you go to the end of the YouTube video you can see my name at the 22:05 mark in the credits. I did this for extra money and the guys, Dan Peeler and Charlie Rose, who owned the studio that made it were really nice guys with a passion for animation. Snuffy, an old elf who is kind of clumsy, somehow spills the Sandman’s sand all over the place on Christmas Eve. The entire North Pole is put to sleep and Snuffy has to save Christmas by himself! At least I think that’s the story…I can’t bring myself to watch it and see if I’m right or not. Here’s the whole thing if you’re brave enough to take a look yourself:
https://youtu.be/yy_oyQcmuSk
One more thing, and I offer David as much sympathy as I can, but I also installed a microwave over my range late last year. I understand exactly what you were explaining and how precise all those features of the oven, the bracket and top mounts have to seamlessly go together. It’s not easy, even if all your parts are correct, so I completely sympathize with David and the arduous task of an almost impossible installation! I did this because we installed a double oven across the kitchen which took the place of the microwave, so having a surplus of space over the range provided room to install a much better microwave there.
Hello dear David and dear Ian!
It seems like all of my life I have been apart from people I love. As an elementary age kid, I lived with my Mom, Dad and 2 younger sisters in Brazil, so far from my one living set of grandparents. This was waaaaaaay back in the 60’s, when overseas phone calls were nearly impossible and, I assume, very expensive. We did record messages a couple times a year on reel to reel tapes and send them to the grandfolks; they did the same for us… kind of weird, awkward “conversations”, but at least we could hear each others’ voices. We would also write letters on extremely thin, practically see-through airmail stationary, letters that would take a month to receive.
As a young adult I moved around the US several times. In THOSE days long distance phone calls were pricey, so letters back and forth, were still the main communication.
My son was 11 years living and working in Asia and Skype was the greatest thing! And of course email, unlimited phone calling, and text have made separations like that bearable with my family who are all around this country now. The one thing I especially appreciate about those letter days is that I saved so many of them… letters from friends and family that I still can dig out and read through, if ever I’m inclined.
As for bread, there’s a braided loaf I’ve made for years that is yeasty and delicious, especially right out of the oven. Just pull it apart and slather it with butter! (Not to brag, but I DO have a good amount of yeast I happened to purchase right before the “new now”!)
As to the pirogue question, I’m with Nina: DRY, absolutely!
Always appreciate you , Ian and David!