5 posts tagged “john hodgman”

Friday the 13th Encore
Listen to Leo explain triskaidekaphobia and try to pronounce paraskavedekatriaphobia, and to Dick's story of Bill Gaines looking for a 13th floor for the Mad Office, as in Episode 590.

Valentine Plans
Dick will still be at the Miami Boat Show for Valentine's Day tomorrow.  Leo is leaving later today with Jennifer for San Francisco to spend a romantic evening away at a boutique hotel, and having breakfast in the morning at Mario's Bohemian Cigar Store.  Leo has got his Valentine present lined up this year - thanks to Cammy Blackstone in Munchcast Episode 58.  Jennifer is getting chocolate-covered caramels topped with sea salt from Fran's Chocolates, which happen to be President Obama's favourite, and Obama happens to be Jennifer's favourite at the moment.  She's using Obama soap (the Obama Bar - "The Audacity of Soap") and an Obama purse!

We Salute You
Tony Devito doesn't think there was a Salute in Laugh-In (Episode 760), but there was one in Hee Haw and Home Improvement.  What Laugh-In did have was the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award.


Listen to Episode 765
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After the Toiletry Sheets (Episode 689), Dick introduces another of Travelon's products, the Luggage Scale with Tape Measure.  The airlines have yet again reduced not only the baggage allowance but also the total linear measurement.  So the tape measure would come in handy, too.  The scale comes with a hook from which to hang the suitcase for weighing.  The scale has a memory lock which locks the indicator at the measured weight for easy reading.  That's why the scale is also called "Stop and Lock".

And don't try Leo's trick of weighing himself with and without the suitcase and subtracting one from the other.  The scale's capacity is only 75 lbs.

Thanksgiving Eve
Dick is going to make his pineapple upside down cake again.  For his recipe, take a look at the classic cookbook Joy Of Cooking and just double up the amount of butter and brown sugar for the topping.

A Tale From the Tunnel
Dick has an old tale to tell about a trailer truck which was too high for the Holland Tunnel and got stuck.  A little boy had a brilliant solution.  Don't saw off the top.  Just let the tyres out!

Air Tickets form 1983
Recently unearthed from Dick's Gadget Warehouse are air tickets from 1983, from New York to Miami, and to Oakland.

That Blinking Idiot
While recording the show, Leo notices a blinking light behind Dick (near the top right corner of the screen), and Dick can't work out what it was.  But the chatroom works it out.  It's the flashing cursor of Leo's mouse on his Skype video screen.

Stromberg Carlson TV Sets
Dick and Leo find out that Stromberg Carlson, apart from the Candlestick telephone that jammerb gave Leo (Episode 696), used to make radio and television sets as well.  Leo also uncovers an advertisement from 1950 on TV History.


Apocalyptic Waste
Software developer Michael O'Connor (Lepton in the Chatroom and the TWiT Army), who has followed Leo since the days of "The Site" (see Episode 187), plays Fallout 3 on the PS3 and finds, among the apocalyptic waste and wreckage in Washington DC, a spork (Episode 182), which he uses on his rocket launcher - which can do serious damage.  Michael has recently developed an iPhone app called AirMote which has found its way to the iTunes App Store.


Listen to Episode 708
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Hobo Names
Alessandro Abate corrects Leo again (after Episode 562), about the number of hobo names in John Hodgman's "The Areas of My Expertise".  There are 700 in the Audible edition (not 300 as Leo said in Episode 567), and 800 in the paperback edition.  It has inspired the site "The 700 Hoboes Project", at e-hobo.com.  Accompanying John Hodgman on the guitar in the Audible edition is Jonathan Coulton.

Rock-Banding with Jonathan Coulton
Most listeners of Leo's podcasts, especially TWiT Episode 133, have heard about the live concert of Jonathan Coulton in which Leo, Merlin Mann and Veronica Belmont joined to play the song "Still Alive", written for the video game Portal.  It's on YouTube.



Listen to Episode 602
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The iSoniCast enables wireless streaming from your iPod to your home stereo or other powered speakers.  Monster Cable calls it a "wireless audio bridge".


Connect the base station to AC power and to your home stereo and to one of the audio inputs of your home stereo (via the mini-jack to RCA cable provided).  Plug the transmitter into the iPod (which draws minimal power from the iPod), start playing and the music will be streamed by 2.4GHz wireless technology (with a bandwidth of 4 Mega-bits per second) to the base station receiver.  The iPod doubles up as a remote control.

Mad Currency
Randal Schwartz, Perl expert, co-host of FLOSS and long-time fan of DGW, came across an entry on Wikipedia about fake denominations of US currency and found that the Mad currency (3-dollar bill) which Dick talked about in the past (see, e.g. Episode 121) has made its way into that entry.  Dick goes on to describe the Alfred E Neuman postage stamps that Mad used to make.

Spork Cartoon
Dick and Leo mention in passing a spork cartoon which listeners have written in about.  Leo says he is going to save it for the Letters Section, but naturally he forgets.  While we wait for Dick and Leo's memory to come round, here's one which is pretty good, by Jakin J Waldock.


Listen to Episode 567
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