John Walker's Electronic House

Rum Doings Episode 42

by on Aug.26, 2010, under Rum Doings, The Rest

Rum Doings Episode 42 begins with a story. A very special story which you can buy here.

What we’re not discussing this week is: how do we get Britain’s heathen backside heaved back onto a Christian pew? In an attempt to avoid the topic, we drink some Rum & Raisin non-alcoholic sadness.

Naturally we discuss blocked ears, botched nose operations, dancing, the self-consciousness of theatre, and torrenting. We ponder ad-busting, last names, and green visa-waiver forms. And telephone scams! And John’s accident heroics.

Tweet it, Facebook it, do whatever it is that makes the internet work. And writing a review on iTunes makes us happy in our tummies.

If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, sigh, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here!

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/rumdoings_e42.mp3]
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20 Comments for this entry

  • Arthur

    I’m surprised and slightly impressed by people who mouth off to police officers. The police scare me to the point I merge out of lanes if I see one behind me.

  • Colthor

    I had to call 999 in anger once, to report a fire in some garages. I’d just woken up, and when I was greeted with something along the lines of “Mmrgn whhh srrs dyu rkr?” the only response I could come up with was “… Pardon?”.

    When that was sorted out, I went down to make sure the Fire Brigade knew where they were going, which of course they did (despite the directions being “some garages behind the chip shop”). I then spent five minutes trying to get into entirely the wrong block of flats, suggesting that I probably didn’t.

    My father had a run in with the breathaliser, stopped on his way to or from work one evening. “Have you been drinking, sir?”
    “Yes, all day.”
    From the policeman: Muttering, “Blow into this please”, and then profound disappointment when it came up completely clear.
    “Well, tea doesn’t usually show up.”

  • Jambe

    I once waded out into the Gulf of Mexico and felt something brush up against my leg. It was probably a harmless little fish but I imagined a 20-foot tiger shark hell-bent on consuming my legs. I won’t go in the sea beyond ankle deep anymore. I know the odds, but the disparity between my water-efficiency and a shark’s is terrifying. I don’t mind a lake swim but I sometimes hear the Jaws theme in big bodies of water. I have to remind myself, “they’re saltwater fishes, THEY’RE SALTWATER FISHES.”

    I couldn’t be a paramedic. Seeing crimson bits of people strewn across a snow-covered highway was a life-changing experience. A friend of mine is a combat rescue officer with the the Air Force Special Forces Command’s one active-duty S&R wing. They’re fully qualified paramedics who do HALO insertions and Pave Hawk rappelling into active combat zones. Their units can simultaneously engage in firefights, extract wounded personnel and provide emergency medical care. CRAZY.

  • Optimaximal

    I’m disappointed that you didn’t review the other Nick Allen classics, including ‘Father Christmas Needs A Wee’, ‘Where Willy Went’ and ‘Cinderella’s Bum’…

    Unless you were planning on covering them next week, in which case, carry on!

  • Mike McQuaid

    Thanks for the shout out and do ask me about Alpha some time, I’m sure if I can get you a reply.

    Good episode this week, I think an hour still works if you have enough to talk about which it felt like you did.

    Unfortunately your talk of phone scams has also made me paranoid when my bank calls, I now demand to know who they are and won’t give out my information as readily. Are either of you worried about the “identity theft” situation? I’ve always thought that was great twisting by the banks; they give me money to someone who isn’t me by not verifying properly and somehow this is my fault and my responsibility.

  • Simon Toogood

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_turpitude

    Actually, some crimes are not considered to ‘involve moral turpitude’ so it’s not a catch all so there! |=P

  • km

    Listening to you go on about hating Brian’s Guide makes me sad because I enjoyed it. And now I feel dumb. Sniffle.

  • Xercies

    I don’t get what the problem of that books supposed to be. Someone explain. Though I do get that the message is kind of rubbish lol.

    Very entertaining as always, and you know what the police have become a bit more grumpy and hard nosed lately. They used to be a bit friendly but you try and joke with any of them or even do the slightest thing wrong and there up your arse. And don’t even get me started on what they’ve been doing to protesters and the like.

    Hmm I’ve never had my bank or anyone important email or phone me so thats instantly a red flag if they do.

  • mister k

    What distresses me about books like Jesus’ day off is that there do exist christians who eat such stuff up, on the principle of “anything that gets christianity in the public eye”. Try googling evan almighty+christian reviews some time, and find a distressing amount of christian reviewers who love the film despite

    a-the film being awful and
    b-the theology being offensively bad

  • mister k

    indeed, see all the amazon reviews there! I guess the answer here is that people are stupid. For an example, consider my atheist friend who I had a 2 hour argument with trying to convince him that believing that people had a magical connection because sometimes they thought someone had died and were correct, and simultaneously believing that there was no reason to believe in god was an absurd position.

    [incidentally, I am an atheist, and, of course, all my beliefs are consistent and non-absurd.]

  • Mike McQuaid

    It’s unlikely all your beliefs are consistent and absurd is based on your peers and society at large rather than some scientific position.

    I think a lot of Christians are just glad to have films that show what we actually care about in our faith: God’s love and not being a judgemental arsehole. Evan Almighty did have some dodgy theology but I liked it for that reason; it wasn’t holier-than-thou and it sweet.

    Arguably it wasn’t any more Christian than Jewish, I don’t remember Jesus being mentioned once and the flood is in Old Testament and Jewish texts too.

  • Xercies

    Evan Almighty is a horrible film not just because its not funny, but because it paints god in not a very good light. i mean how many people must have died in that city flood yet they treat it like a comedy afterwards. Now Bruce Almighty that was a good spirtual film and christians should be more proud of that then its horrible sequel.

  • mister k

    “Now Bruce Almighty that was a good spirtual film and christians should be more proud of that then its horrible sequel.”

    I… can’t tell if you’re joking or not…. The inherent problems in both Almighty films are obvious to me, and I don’t believe in the big fella in the sky.

  • Xercies

    I’m not. I think Bruce Almighty is a great film about someone losing his faith in the world having the powers of god and realising that actually that doesn’t solve anything clicking your fingers giving everyone what they want and realising you have to sometimes work for your happiness and everyone else’s which sometimes involves sacrifice and hardships.

  • Quinn

    I think Evan Almighty has problems beginning with it’s basic concept, as in “Let’s make a wacky, family-friendly comedy about the time God decided to kill (almost) everyone.”

    It manages to find a way around that in the end, but still.

  • Jambe

    @Mike McQuaid on “consistency”: I think mister k means consistent in the sense that naturalism is more parsimonious with the perceived world than religiousness. Religious notions appear to atheists as veneers on top of reality, ultimately doomed by illogical assumptions (wrt Christianity that’d be belief in Jesus’ resurrection or belief in the myriad paradoxical and/or unfalsifiable notions of godhood).

    A big appeal of irreligion is not dealing with the cognitive dissonance religion produces. Trying to reconcile understanding medical science with belief in resurrection? None of that. Struggling with the problem of evil? Nope! Clearly all humans deal with CD — atheists simply don’t deal with the forever-irresolvable CD which arises from faith. Our CD is at least always surmountable.

    @Xercies: the bible itself often paints God in a poor light. Evan Almighty is simply not as well-written as its predecessor, as Quinn points out. Both films are alright in the sense that all trite spiritual pabulum is alright — it’s fluffy and relatively inoffensive.

    Your objection to Evan Almighty is trifling and I doubt its writers deliberately portrayed God as a wanton murderer. Still, people should make light of superstition because it runs counter to our most valuable qualities (incredulity, skepticism, etc).

  • mister k

    “[incidentally, I am an atheist, and, of course, all my beliefs are consistent and non-absurd.]”

    This… is clearly ironic… I thought.

    On the Almighty films, I feel sad that I have to spell it out, but both have the terrific problem of positing a God who intervenes in an absurd manner to help middle class white American males. In the first film the g-man allows some irreligious moron cause floods to teach him a lesson on responsibility, in the second film he saves some middle class Americans from a flood. A God who intervenes on a random basis is clearly ludicrous.

  • mister k

    by the way, love the podcast.. I feel like I haven’t mentioned that yet…

  • Nick Mailer

    Mike: “and the flood is in Old Testament and Jewish texts too.”

    In both the “Old Testament” *and* Jewish texts as well? Are you sure not just the former?

    ;-)

  • Wiccan Forum

    Merry Meet. I actually think so too=) I have been searching around the internet for a while today, and its kinda hard to find anything good to read on blogs=P Maybe thats because there are too much of them around =) But this website actually keeps catching my attention=P Great stories, and cool design ^__^. Ill be sure to give it more visits now .