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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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Brilliant EJ. Brilliant.
Can’t Mr. Robinson take off his darn sweater for one minute? We get it! You are Ivy League! :-)
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!
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.
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.
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)!
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!
You guys should stick to politics and having political figures as guests!
(Sorry, couldn’t resist)
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.
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.
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.
(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?
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!
Have Ron Paul on the next Ricochet podcast.
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.
I wanna hear the rest of the Star Trek sociological breakdown!
Let see here… Red shirt, away team…. Robinson is toast. Sweater or not.
Sitting on a three hour delay on my trip to SF. Always happy when the art work hits the right note.
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.
Indeed.
DS9 does offer one of the more complex and morally challenging episodes ever written in the Star Trek universe: In the Pale Moonlight.
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.
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.
The kids don’t like it when the parents fight, guys! ·2 hours ago
My question about the Ricochet Origin Story got more likes than any other, but James thought it was boring.
My question wasn’t addressed, but I was mentioned. I guess that’s something….
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
My executive leadership model is Commodore Decker.
This episode was really great and dense–will require a few listens to get it all.