Rum Doings Episode 102: We’re Doing The Panda
by John Walker on Apr.13, 2012, under Rum Doings, The Rest
In a somnambulistic, rather long one hundred and second episode of Rum Doings, we don’t discuss whether it’s time to stop not discussing things. Nick and John still find the effort the argue despite the late hour. Beginning with Galloway, things naturally quickly switch to Just A Minute and Indian politics. And then back to British politics, and the current trend for pretending to like Islam.
We enjoy some splendid lemony booze from the lovely Ed Stern, argue over what age people become humans, ponder the last time we listened to a CD, tape cassette or VHS tape. We are old. John discussed the Mountain Goats/Anonymous 4 gig he’d recently seen, we question the possibility of monitoring everyone’s emails, and then things get a little heated as we consider the strip club.
Nick recalls when John was on the receiving end of some sexual attention, discuss Enid Blyton again, and Nick tells us about the evening his stomach went on holiday. Then we get uncharacteristically serious and talk about anorexia and bulimia. Then things return to normal as we talk about the uselessness of pandas.
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[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/102_rumdoings.mp3]
April 13th, 2012 on 10:35
Funnily enough “lashings of ginger beer” comes from Five Go Mad in Dorset, not Blyton herself.
April 13th, 2012 on 15:56
So much for not mentioning my email, even though I asked you to not bring it up ;) I find it funny you’ve read the name Ryan out 3 times during the existence of RD but always forget it’s the same person. Now I’m going to have to skip the part where I’m mentioned on this episode in further listing, lol.
April 13th, 2012 on 16:18
Great episode, guys.
April 13th, 2012 on 22:03
I thought it was pretty amazing that John could declare thousands of people damaged, based only on their profession, and then claim he wasn’t being judgemental.
April 14th, 2012 on 12:34
Yeah, that was quite a thing, I think John basically forgot what he said. If women really want to show off their bodies for money I am fine with that, but obviously strip clubs are problematic for many reasons, and I shan’t be attending them.
Re: the panda. Creatures like the panda evolved in a situation where they had no natural predators and a limited space to live in. With no other check on their population size, they gradually evolved it themselves, by breeding less and only eating specific plants, they were perfectly adapted to their stable, safe environment. Then humans turned up and wrecked it. I don’t think we should necessarily feel bad about that either: while there are species we are hunting to extinction, animals mal-adapted to a competitive environment are bound to die out pretty sharpish.
April 15th, 2012 on 05:14
Here’s an incredibly apropos rant on the subject of sex work at Russell Blackford’s blog just recently. Tangentially, Richard Feynman frequented strip clubs and drew the dancers, but more often the people watching them. There are also stacks of doilies from his favorite strip club filled with equations and quick sketches…
If cream teas prevent pedophilia, what snack prevents necrophilia?
April 15th, 2012 on 05:14
wrt that link: I mean the first comment.
April 16th, 2012 on 04:58
John stated that a woman working in the sex trade had to have been conditioned to somehow to find it acceptable to be doing what she did. This implies that being conditioned is somehow exceptional.
Everyone’s conditioned by the events and people in their lives. Children absorb and imitate the actions the actions of their close family members. They’re buffeted by lessons about gender roles from their parents, then schools and peers, the mass media and eventually the workplace. It’s a huge, complicated pile of variables.
A sex trade worker may have been conditioned differently than someone who doesn’t, but it’s incredibly simplistic, like Nick pointed out, to think that there’s one cause for the one effect of dancing for dollar bills instead of becoming a games journalist.
Also, This American Life is distributed by PRI, the arch nemesis of NPR.
April 17th, 2012 on 05:19
Because I’m not going to step into the minefield of John’s Awful Statements I will go with frivolity:
I think that we ought to try to perpetuate the idea that the link between pencils and audio cassettes is that you needed a pencil to copy your music, and would painstakingly transcribe every note onto the new cassette.
April 17th, 2012 on 06:05
Is sexuality really so far removed from the rest of your personage that it should be treated specially like this? The entire system of jobs and work is based on basically selling a part of yourself for money. Is it objectionable for a writer to “sell” their imagination and language skills? Or for a philosopher to “sell” their most personal and fundamental beliefs?
Of course it is a monstrously complicated issues. There very well may be a connection between abuse and being a stripper. But I would be disappointed in society as a whole if all strippers can only do it because they are emotionally damaged. It would be more of a sad statement on a society that makes a core part of us so taboo that it cannot be expressed in the same ways as the other parts of us.
April 26th, 2012 on 16:47
I trained as a soprano, but more regularly sing in the alto range. I like soul and blues and the Baby Judy Song.
Just for the record.
May 2nd, 2012 on 03:18
Good lord, John.
Also, Nick is right about Ira Glass.