In this episode, your hosts Steve (a jaded New Yorker) and Mal hurtle from Point A to Point B while Mal and things seen en route make the case for opening oneself up to life’s stupid, little, and quite possibly wonderful, offerings. Strap in for … The Ride to Redacted — Season 2.
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Show notes:
For more about ancient Roman coins, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_currency
As to the will-o’-the-wisp (known in Ireland as a jack o’ lantern), and even though one can find modern scientific theories positing that it is luminescent swamp gas from decaying plants, here is a more colorful account, purportedly Scottish, that can be found at https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/willowisp.html:
“There is [a story, one of several,] as to the origin of the jack o’ lantern. The haunting spirit is that of a blacksmith, who could get no admittance even into hell. He was very cold, and begged for a single ember to warm himself, and at last one was given him, and he has gone shivering about with it ever since.
“A special interest of this story is that it tells against the common Hebridean tradition of a cold hell, a tradition one soon learns to accept in South Uist, the land of cold mist and sweeping winds, and damp, and drafts, and rain, where even the nether regions with a fire in them have a suggestion of comfort. Hell is therefore discouragingly known as ‘the place of the wind of the cold passages, or the wind of the cold channels.’”
An article mulling over the proposition that “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” can be found at https://www.populismstudies.org/no-one-can-make-you-feel-inferior-without-your-consent-is-eleanor-roosevelt-right/
[edit to add:] The author of this piece makes some interesting points, albeit points he hits you over the head with repeatedly and often couches in the wonkiest language possible. (“Conscientization”? Seriously?) Or, to put it another way as to his writing style, he defaults to the employment of sesquipedalian verbiage jargonizationally to the exclusion of the readily comprehensible.
For a list, not necessarily exhaustive, of the sayings of Bob Ross, visit https://www.calm.com/blog/the-10-greatest-bob-ross-quotes-of-all-time. Those sayings include:
“There are no mistakes, just happy accidents.”
Also: “Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.”
Here are but a few examples of found art created by Mal and their mom Nikki:
Last but not least, there is this notable thread that one stumbled upon as one was drafting these show notes. It concerns all things Coney-Island-Parachute-Jump. https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/ask-mr-coney/coney-island-parachute-jump The posting is mostly a collection of comments and reminiscences about that exotic amusement park ride, and resonates with at least three elements of this episode: “Jump and a parachute will open,” “Say yes to stupid,” and “Intriguing things can be seen at Coney Island.” And even if it didn’t have those aspects, it would be worth reading for passages such as this, a fairly typical example of the contents of the thread:
“Steeple Chase /Coney Island
Permalink Submitted by Sheila Herling … (not verified) on Wed, 08/28/2024 – 17:09
“Steeple Chase Park was closed by the time I got there (I was born in ’38), but we could still go though the doors and the clowns would blow air up ladies’ skirts and also try to zap you with a wooden stick. Yes, the floor would somehow drop down. I loved it. When I was in the 6th grade at PS98, my friend, Barbara Belsky talked me into cutting school and we went on the Parachute twice, the Merry-Go-Round, and caught the gold rings, and I think maybe we went on the roller coaster. That was the only time I cut school. My mom found out. PS 98 called to see why I wasn’t in school.”
