Rum Doings Episode 108: I’m Feeling Like You’re Very Wretched Today
by John Walker on Jun.01, 2012, under Rum Doings, The Rest
Gosh, this nearly didn’t happen. After another week of not being able to travel to meet up, John and Nick once more resorted to crappy old Skype, where John is far too loud, to ensure there’d be an episode before next week’s week off too. So episode 108 is a slightly talking-over-each-other job, in which we don’t discuss whether pasties should be available on the NHS. (It’s only occurred to me now as I write this that pasties in America are something rather different to in the UK, and yet I think it still works.)
We discuss John’s impressive squits, and then on a similar matter move on to talk about Jeremy Hunt and the Leveson enquiry. We wonder what it might be like to have porn stars for parents, and ponder the wisdom of trusting God to stop snakes from biting you to death. Again we celebrate how much money people are willing to pay for the Humble Indie Bundle, and wonder if the Youth Of Today still use instant messenger. There’s discussion of the maddest lady in the world, somehow convincing us to like David Davies, and think about the deaths of languages.
Please leave a review on iTunes. We hate iTunes as much as any other sentient individual, but reviews on there are what get podcasts promoted, and we’d love some promotion. After 100 free episodes, we’d love you to pay us back by writing a quick review.
Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, 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/108_rumdoings.mp3]
June 1st, 2012 on 12:02
What lovely quality, gentlemen, especially John. Still, I applauded you both for putting up with the madness that is Skype rather not recording one at all.
June 1st, 2012 on 14:13
Regarding the tattoo talk a few podcasts ago, here’s the new Penny Arcade TV episode:
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/tattoos
June 2nd, 2012 on 15:27
Having lived in North Wales most of my life I’d just like to confirm what Nick said about the welsh language. It is extremely difficult to get a public sector job without speaking welsh especially in education, as my mother found during the ~5 years she spent looking for one. The fact I was forced to learn it till GCSE level also did little to endear me to it.
June 3rd, 2012 on 14:43
Skype, it makes me sad.
June 3rd, 2012 on 19:27
The good thing about Skype is that the sound quality seems better. I prefer the sound of John’s and Nick’s voices in Skype episodes.
June 3rd, 2012 on 19:34
Btw, Nick, what do you think of the Hebrew resuscitation?
June 3rd, 2012 on 19:36
Sorry, I posted that before listening to the whole episode. I am profoundly ashamed.
June 6th, 2012 on 01:30
Wow, and I was pleased with mine, but now I count it, it’s seven digets: 9611552.
June 6th, 2012 on 11:05
* Anyone who calls a tummy bug food poisoning has not had food poisoning. I have had food poisoning once and that was more than enough times.
* I’m quite interested in learning Scots Gaelic. Not interested enough to actually start doing it, but interested nonetheless. It would be almost like having a private language, but you’d also be able to wow the natives if you go on a trip to the islands.
* I never used ICQ, but I can brag about my five-digit Steam ID.
June 7th, 2012 on 20:32
I’m not surprised Wales has the same kind of mentality when it comes to its language that Quebec has. It’s done a way poorer job at preserving it, though.
Having grown up there as an English-speaker, I can see why the laws and regulations they have are there, even if I don’t agree with them- until the 60s, virtually all executive positions in the province were held by Anglophones. The french schools, run by the Catholic Church, were terrible. The provincial government was vehemently anti-union and plagued with corruption (Maurice Duplessis had a habit of only paving roads and bringing electricity to the ridings that voted for him).
The rejection of the church and the rise of nationalist sentiment was what propelled Quebec into the modern age. The infamous Bill 101 that regulated workplace language and store signage was there to make French the language of business and not just the language of the working class.
Efforts to promote local culture might seem heavy handed, but Quebec musicians and filmmakers are much more successful than their ROC counterparts, where the most-watched and most popular stars tend to be Americans (or Canadians who managed to make it in the US).
Also of note: Nova Scotia’s attempt to be as Scottish as possible is basically a tourism scam dating back to the 1930s.
The premier at the time, Angus MacDonald, didn’t really know much about his Scottish heritage, but he loved the idea of it. Even though Scots only made up about 30% of the population, he spearheaded efforts to Tartanise the place, at the expense of any real history.
He installed a kilt-wearing bagpipe player at a major border crossing, promoted a Gaelic college that didn’t seem to teach much of anything besides sword dancing, and managed to get the province its own official Tartan, which is now used to decorate all sorts of souvenir items. Tragically, because of his own romanticised view of gruff, independent Highland settlers, he failed to put any measures that would promote the actual preservation of the language he loved so much.
June 9th, 2012 on 21:49
A little late, as I was on holiday, but I think you miss why people like facebook. Icq and similar were popular with slightly geekier kids who were experiencing the internet as their thing. Facebook is popular with ordinary people who don’t really interact with the internet in many ways. It recreates useful social interactions online in a manner that is simple for most users to understand, and by being the first to do so (with the ability to choose who you interact with), has the user base, and thus is useful. I like it because everyone I know is on it, and even at the best of times not everyone I knew was on msn/icq.