Hola, Sneakers. Welcome to Episode 435 and we hope you remembered to wash your hands before downloading this episode!
This week: the legal laws of physics; big plans; dangerous church; unnecessary risks; call the doctors; egg hunt; free time; biblical weather; Disney animal distinctions; cartoonerds; obscure ingredients; cherry whatever; Zoom suspicions; let’s break into Disneyland; streamless streaming services; alliterative movie pests; missing movie theatres; completitive; habit buying; cool find; sinking into slobbery; your voice from your past; Top 10 movie trivia; don’t blame my hands; street urinals; chocolate cat fountain; immunity booster; neighbourly dispute; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; evil autobots; and, finally, people like Team Rocket!
Thanks for listening.
Question of the Week: Have you ever had a problem/dispute with a neighbour?
Sub-question (We didn’t get around to asking a sub-question so we’re going to flip last week’s question): Of which fictional force for good in the world would you want to be a member?
I don’t know, I think it would be pretty cool to wander around an empty amusement park like Disneyland:
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I relistened to Ian’s ButtPod appearance, and Bedtime with Brent Butt sounds intriguing, but so far I haven’t been able to find it online. I did however manage to find this clip of him from 1992 which is pretty amusing (almost more for the sheer 90s-ness of it than the stand-up itself). I can definitely see the roots of Corner Gas in there, both in style and subject matter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXWT5OmFdDs
Question of the Week: I guess I’ve been blessed with some pretty good neighbors throughout my life, because I really can’t think of any notable problems or disputes I’ve had with them over the years. The closest thing to a downside my current neighborhood has is that seemingly everyone besides me has either a) three or more small dogs, or b) one extremely (extremely) large dog. This doesn’t bother me 99% of the time, but when I go running it can be a bit of an obstacle course.
Sub-Question: It seems like the opposite of last week’s question would be “which fictional force for good would you *not* want to be a part of?” I guess either way, I’d go with the Hero Association from the manga/anime One-Punch Man. It’s basically a cut-rate version of the Justice League that anyone can join if they pass a basic physical and written test. On the one hand, I’d like to join because in theory it would allow even a non-superpowered person like me to earn money by doing good deeds, even if it’s just minor stuff like stopping people from jaywalking, shoplifting, etc. But on the other hand, I probably wouldn’t really want to join because in practice all the low-ranking heroes always end up getting beaten up or killed by monsters.
Our next door neighbors we had as a kid were a bit weird, it was like they wanted to have a farm-like environment in a suburban neighborhood. First they built a huge compost out of old oil drums next to our fence, turned every foot of their yard, front and back, into a huge garden and installed a wood burning stove inside to cook on. At Halloween they gave out Bible tracts that illustrated how we were all doomed to burn in Hell, which scared a bunch of the little kids. Then they built a chicken coop which I thought was cruel because they didn’t have the room for all this in a suburban neighborhood with the garden and little room for the chickens. Then all the chickens died from something and mice came from the field at the end of our alley to eat on the chickens and then the mice died too. Dave, you’ll most likely be able to tell me why this happened at this point…
After all this, they finally moved away…to a farm in Virginia.
The neighbors who took their place had three kids that grew into the neighborhood drug dealers over time. We had a nice neighborhood too, it wasn’t the kind of place where this kind of thing happened. Everyone knew what they were doing, cars would pull up and the neighbors would lean way in for the drug deal and the cars would slowly drive off without their lights on…it was obvious. Then one night I hear all this noise from next door and helicopters with searchlights. Kids and cops were running all over the place, though our yard and down the streets. It was a drug bust, a huge one. After that everything kind of got better, I think they sent the kids off to some sort of juvenile reform school.
As for being a force for good? You guys know what a huge Star Wars fan I am, so you probably also know I’d join the Rebel Alliance faster than a Tatooine farm boy could kill a womp rat in Beggar’s Canyon. If all that worked out nicely, then maybe I’d join the Jedi Order. I seem to have handled this self isolation thing very well, why not take it one step further and become a Jedi Knight in exile?!
I am curious though about how much an X-Wing costs, is it like buying a car? Or do the Rebels just give one to you? I do hear the lightsabers are free though…
There used to be a rental house next door to us which had a revolving door of colourful tenants: like the pagans who threw loud parties with under-aged drinkers and hung animal bones all around their backyard fence. And the Latino folk dancers who danced with hobnailed boots in a makeshift dance studio they’d installed in the garage. One of the better tenants was the tattooed biker who we later found out had turned the house into a grow-op. At least he was quiet. After the police raided the house and removed all the pot plants, my mom diplomatically told him, “I’m sorry for your situation.”
The force for good I’d belong to is the Sailor Soldiers because I’d be into fighting evil by moonlight and winning love by daylight. I’d be the other one named Sailor Moon.
Sailor Soldiers are a great choice! IIRC, they’re the submarine/steampunk private navy force working for the Jules Verne character Captain Nemo. I’m not down with their cultlike collective self-sacrifice at the end of 20,000 Leagues, but on the whole they’re awesome: Nemo has them do sneak attacks on belligerent warships, and they survive on careful and preservative use of the sea ecosystem. That’s not tapioca they’re serving, but it might be sautee of unborn octopus that has cream whipped from the milk of a giant sperm whale.