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You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers. Best jobs, worst failure, who’s funnier, Republican three-legged stools (not a euphemism), and of course, Star Trek.  Thanks for playing, everyone!

Music from this week’s episode:

96 Tears by ? & The Mysterians

The Ricochet Podcast opening theme was composed and produced by James Lileks.

He’s dead, EJHill.

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There are 72 comments.

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  1. Profile Photo Member
    @FrankSoto

    Brilliant EJ.  Brilliant.

    • #1
  2. Profile Photo Member
    @TennesseePatriot

    Can’t Mr. Robinson take off his darn sweater for one minute? We get it! You are Ivy League! :-)

    • #2
  3. Profile Photo Coolidge
    @JosephStanko

    Watch it EJ, you nearly made me spit coffee on my keyboard with the sweater-over-jumpsuit look.

    If I have to replace my keyboard I’m sending you the bill!

    • #3
  4. Profile Photo Inactive
    @DavidClark
    Frank Soto: Brilliant EJ.  Brilliant. · 2 minutes ago

    A triumph.

    And a great episode to boot. Feels like the old days (even classic intro music).

    And Rob, Cheers is well known and beloved by us in the early 30’s crowd, if that helps calibrate your who’s-clued-in-to-what-o-meter.

    • #4
  5. Profile Photo Inactive
    @IsraelP

    Peter, Reagan could not be elected governor of California, but the greater significance is that he would therefore have no platform from which to run for president.

    • #5
  6. Profile Photo Member
    @Iraptus

    Also, hate to break it to Mr. Robinson, but I’m in Northern California too (San Jose, to be exact, very close to Palo Alto).  It is almost always short-sleeves and/or shorts weather.  Only a few months a year is a sweater actually warranted.

    I have immediate data on hand to back this up:  Up until the rainy weather we’ve just been getting starting just yesterday (which warms things up a little), it’s been really cold here lately — meaning lows around 50.  Brrr!  Get those sweaters out (for a month or two)!

    • #6
  7. Profile Photo Inactive
    @Hammurabi

    I hope Rob and James have had a chance to patch up. James seemed a bit peeved at Rob cutting his Star Trek disquisition short, and Rob gave a rather curt and perfunctory answer to James’s question. 

    The kids don’t like it when the parents fight, guys! 

    • #7
  8. Profile Photo Member
    @PaulDougherty

    You guys should stick to politics and having political figures as guests!

    (Sorry, couldn’t resist)

    • #8
  9. Profile Photo Inactive
    @DavidClark
    Hammurabi: James seemed a bit peeved at Rob cutting his Star Trek disquisition short · 15 minutes ago

    I am still on the edge of me seat to hear the rest of James’ take on each series and best episodes. Genuinely, no sarcasm from me.

    • #9
  10. Profile Photo Member
    @BishopWash

    Not sure if this was out before the episode taped, but a great coincidence with Rob’s description of Obama as a freshman college student returning home to explain everything he’s learned in college at the Thanksgiving meal. Great timing.

    • #10
  11. Profile Photo Member
    @Majestyk

    I really want to hear James’ unvarnished opinion about DS9, which was simultaneously irritating and fascinating because of its uneven tone, wavering between the ultra-serious and completely unimportant.  I mean, Sisko’s kid wants to be a JOURNALIST?  His Dad is the Commander of a space station, and that’s so mundane in the future (sort of like being a regional manager for paper product sales) that his kid wants to go back to Earth and write about baseball or something.  It’s almost as bad as being a ship’s counselor…

    I’m also curious about his assessment of Voyager, (Sort of terrible all around) and Enterprise which was just hitting its stride when it was unceremoniously whacked by the guys on the other end of Rob Long’s phone.

    Paul Dougherty: You guys should stick to politics and having political figures as guests!

    (Sorry, couldn’t resist) · 22 minutes ago

    Talk about low-hanging fruit… but, yeah!  I tuned in for red meat!  Where’s my pound of wriggling, quivering flesh, gnawed from the flabby, recently-exposed, fish-white underbelly of liberalism?

    • #11
  12. Profile Photo Inactive
    @Hammurabi

    I think you should do a podcast where everyone swaps roles. Rob will have to come up with tortured segues and make Star Trek references. Peter will have to be the squish with the self-deprecating humor and mildly interesting stories strewn with lots of “you knows” and “sort ofs”. And James can jump in to the middle of everyone else’s questions and dominate the interview with lots of not-sure-where-I’m-going-with-this, long-winded set-ups. It would be a hoot!

    • #12
  13. Profile Photo Coolidge
    @JimGoneWild

    Have Ron Paul on the next Ricochet podcast.

    • #13
  14. Profile Photo Member
    @PaulDougherty
    Majestyk: I really want to hear James’ unvarnished opinion aboutDS9, which was simultaneously irritating and fascinating because of its uneven tone, wavering between the ultra-serious and completely unimportant.  I mean, Sisko’s kid wants to be a JOURNALIST?  His Dad is the Commander of a space station, and that’s so mundane in the future (sort of like being a regional manager for paper product sales) that his kid wants to go back to Earth and write about baseball or something.  It’s almost as bad as being a ship’s counselor…

    I looked forward to this show but for the characters of Garak (Andrew Robinson) and Odo (Rene Auberjonois). I liked how the Tailor is a person they all hate until they need a job done that conflicts with their superior futuristic moral (liberal) code.

    • #14
  15. Profile Photo Inactive
    @CharlesOLeary

    I wanna hear the rest of the Star Trek sociological breakdown!

    • #15
  16. Profile Photo Reagan
    @GLDIII

    Let see here… Red shirt, away team…. Robinson is toast. Sweater or not.

    • #16
  17. Profile Photo Podcaster
    @EJHill

    Sitting on a three hour delay on my trip to SF. Always happy when the art work hits the right note.

    • #17
  18. Profile Photo Inactive
    @EricWallace

    Boo on interrupting Lileks’ Star Trek insight!! Maybe he could make it a post? I’m a Star Wars kid so I’ve always been interested in Star Trek as an outsider looking in.

    • #18
  19. Profile Photo Inactive
    @CrowsNest
    Majestyk: I really want to hear James’ unvarnished opinion aboutDS9, which was simultaneously irritating and fascinating because of its uneven tone, wavering between the ultra-serious and completely unimportant. 

    Indeed.

    DS9 does offer one of the more complex and morally challenging episodes ever written in the Star Trek universe: In the Pale Moonlight.

    • #19
  20. Profile Photo Member
    @PaulDougherty
    Crow’s Nest

    Majestyk: I really want to hear James’ unvarnished opinion aboutDS9, which was simultaneously irritating and fascinating because of its uneven tone, wavering between the ultra-serious and completely unimportant. 

    Indeed.

    DS9 does offer one of the more complex and morally challenging episodes ever written in the Star Trek universe: In the Pale Moonlight. · 19 minutes ago

    Edited 6 minutes ago

    Exactly, if Sisko didn’t want Garak’s help, he shouldn’t have asked.

    • #20
  21. Profile Photo Member
    @

    This was completely my doing. I was nagging them to wrap it up as we were running long. I’m sure James will drop in at some point tonight and finish his thoughts. 

    Hammurabi: I hope Rob and James have had a chance to patch up. James seemed a bit peeved at Rob cutting his Star Trek disquisition short, and Rob gave a rather curt and perfunctory answer to James’s question. 

    The kids don’t like it when the parents fight, guys!  · 2 hours ago

    • #21
  22. Profile Photo Coolidge
    @JosephStanko

    My question about the Ricochet Origin Story got more likes than any other, but James thought it was boring.

    • #22
  23. Profile Photo Member
    @JimmyCarter

    My question wasn’t addressed, but I was mentioned. I guess that’s something….

    • #23
  24. Profile Photo Inactive
    @ParisParamus

    Thanks for The Diner answer, Mr. Lileks.  I only somewhat guessed the answer.  The Diner graphic, theme music and lots of stuff on TheBleat.com suggests the 1930’s or 1940’s.

    • #24
  25. Profile Photo Inactive
    @KCMulville

    You know what’s scary? I took one look at the scenery on EJ’s work, and I can name the episode: Who Mourns for Adonis?

    There was more energy in this episode; I liked that. 

    A Lileks segue is a little like a Joe Frazier left hook … you know it’s coming at the start of the fight; you plan for it, you even prepare for it, but you get mesmerized in the middle of the action, and then all of a sudden you see it coming when you least expect it, and then boom – it lands, lights out.

    • #25
  26. Profile Photo Inactive
    @ParisParamus

    I liked Mr. Robinson’s description of the difference between conservatism in the US and Europe, but I disagree that between MA and TX, the big time political continuum runs as far as it does in Europe (healthcare not withstanding).

    I love Ace of Spades’ thought on the subject: a British conservative is just a guy who wants some fox-hunting along with his socialism.

    • #26
  27. Profile Photo Member
    @Iraptus
    KC Mulville: You know what’s scary? I took one look at the scenery on EJ’s work, and I can name the episode: Who Mourns for Adonis?

    Tut, tut!  The proper title is “Who Mourns for Adonais?” which is a Shelley reference.

    But yeah.  That’s definitely a screenshot from that episode.  And Shelley is boring.

    • #27
  28. Profile Photo Podcaster
    @EJHill

    The title of the Trek episode is irrelevant. It had Kirk, Scotty and Bones in the same picture. The episode might as well be called Three Men and Photoshop Baby.

    • #28
  29. Profile Photo Listener
    @FricosisGuy

    My executive leadership model is Commodore Decker.

    Kirk: Matt, where’s your crew?

    Decker: On the third planet.

    Kirk: There is no third planet.

    Decker: Don’t you think I know that? There was…but not anymore!

    • #29
  30. Profile Photo Inactive
    @ParisParamus

    This episode was really great and dense–will require a few listens to get it all.

    • #30
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