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There’s only one more show until the big live extravaganza (where there’ll be plenty of swanning, apparently). In this prelude to our big night in Los Angeles, we discuss the blackballing of Mike Huckabee, snow days in Washington D.C. (courtesy of guest Jonah Goldberg), umlauts vs. diaereses, and…puppies. Then, Victor Davis Hanson drops by to opine on Obama, entitlements, and whether he’ll ever run for Governor of California. He didn’t say no!

Music from this week’s episode:

Swan Lake Ballet Suite, Op. 20 by Pyor Ilyich Tchaikovsky

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

Nice codpiece, EJHill

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There are 41 comments.

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  1. Profile Photo Podcaster
    @EJHill

    Mr. Lileks … Are you just happy to see us?

    • #1
  2. Profile Photo Contributor
    @jameslileks

    Apparently I am giving birth to an apple.

    • #2
  3. Profile Photo Inactive
    @Fredosphere

    I hereby join Jonah in denouncing the anti-diaeresis bigotry on display in today’s podcast.

    -Fredösphere

    • #3
  4. Profile Photo Inactive
    @DocJay

    Check out the unit on that guy.  

    James Lileks: Apparently I am giving birth to an apple. · 32 minutes ago

    Coo coo cachoo Mr. Robinson.

    • #4
  5. Profile Photo Inactive
    @CrowsNest

    A package deal, I see.

    • #5
  6. Profile Photo Member
    @

    Meant to post this up top. Better late than never. Here’s Zoë, now hero to the coveted title of America’s Dog.

    • #6
  7. Profile Photo Inactive
    @IsraelP

    Hidden among your mentions of pop culture and literary references that are meaningless to people today, was James’ reference to “Israel is Palestine.” I am pleased that out podcast team knew this and do not take that for granted.

    It is truly unfortunate that it is not known today.

    Back in the 1920s-30s-40s, “Palestinian” meant “Jew.” The local Arabs considered themselves part of the wider Arab nation, or self-referenced according to the places they came here from after the Jews created a viable economy.

    • #7
  8. Profile Photo Inactive
    @StephenDawson

    How funny that one can ‘swan’ around in high society. Back in the mid-1970s when I was briefly a member of the Australian Army Reserve, our infantry tactics (still largely in thrall to the then recent Vietnam War) involved a great deal of walking through possibly ‘enemy’-held bushland. That was uniformly known as ‘swanning through the dongo’.

    • #8
  9. Profile Photo Member
    @Majestyk

    What I learned listening to the Ricochet Podcast today: A group of geese is a “gaggle,” a group of elk is a “gang” – A group of Ricochet contributors (Prager, Sajak, Lileks, Goldberg) is officially an “Embarrassment.”

    • #9
  10. Profile Photo Inactive
    @JoALT

    Gentlemen, I have to say. The ladies of Ricochet are highly impressed by thy ….flexibility. 

    • #10
  11. Profile Photo Podcaster
    @EJHill
    Crow’s Nest: A package deal, I see. · 33 minutes ago

    It could have a lot uglier.

    • #11
  12. Profile Photo Inactive
    @CrowsNest
    EJHill: It could have a lot uglier. · 0 minutes ago

    I was sort of hoping for Lileks in full swan regalia giving a segue whilst riding a segue. 

    But this is excellent as is.

    • #12
  13. Profile Photo Inactive
    @JoALT
    James Lileks: Apparently I am giving birth to an apple. · 2 hours ago

    That’s a long travel from the neck. 

    • #13
  14. Profile Photo Inactive
    @DocJay
    EJHill

    Crow’s Nest: A package deal, I see. · 33 minutes ago

    It could have a lotuglier. · 5 minutes ago

    I remember years ago when you asked me how I got so many girls and I revealed the secret of the apple in the speedos on the beach.   I should have been clearer because of how upset you were when you returned from that beach with the apple in the back.  

    • #14
  15. Profile Photo Podcaster
    @EJHill
    Majestyk: What I learned listening to the Ricochet Podcast today: A group of swans is a “gaggle…”

    And do you know the major difference between swans in America and swans in the UK? (NO GOOGLING!)

    • #15
  16. Profile Photo Member
    @

    Also, here’s Rob’s tribute to legendary Paramount producer A.C. Lyles from Martini Shot, his weekly commentary on KCRW:

    <object width=”212″ height=”134″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/ma/ma131009ac_lyles/embed-audio”></param><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”></param><embed src=”http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/ma/ma131009ac_lyles/embed-audio” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent” width=”424″ height=”268″></embed></object>
    • #16
  17. Profile Photo Member
    @Majestyk
    EJHill

    Majestyk: What I learned listening to the Ricochet Podcast today: A group of swans is a “gaggle…”

    And do you know the major difference between swans in America and swans in the UK? (NO GOOGLING!) · 54 minutes ago

    Swans are the property of the Queen?

    • #17
  18. Profile Photo Inactive
    @WhiskeySam

    Nice touch with Swan Lake at the end.  I still can’t hear that without immediately thinking of the 1930’s Universal horror movies that used it as an opening cue under the title cards.

    • #18
  19. Profile Photo Inactive
    @docmolloy

    Lileks- The larger your vocabulary the richer your cultural database is…

    Ludwig Wittgenstein — ‘The limits of your language are the limits of your world.’

    • #19
  20. Profile Photo Member
    @BasilFawlty

    Finally.  My years of subscribing to Bryan Garner’s listserve have finally paid off.   Diaeresis has the accent on the second syllable.  You must have bedwetting on your minds.

    • #20
  21. Profile Photo Inactive
    @docmolloy

    Well I’m  61 on the 27th and I clearly remember Cagney and his dance style.. I just watched Footlight Parade on DVD and Cagney makes that flick come alive. And I believe it was in Yankee Doodle Dandy where Cagney playing George M Cohan in retirement says to a passing group of kids  the Variety front page he’s reading.. they query what it means and he explains the headline: STICKS NIX HICK PIX 

    But here’s Cagney with Hope inspired by Yankee Doodle.. Michael Jackson stand aside and dare I say it I think this is where he got his moonwalk movement from.

    • #21
  22. Profile Photo Podcaster
    @EJHill
    Majestyk Swans are the property of the Queen? · 34 minutes ago

    Every last one.

    • #22
  23. Profile Photo Member
    @BasilFawlty
    James Lileks: Apparently I am giving birth to an apple. · 4 hours ago

    He’s just auditioning for the remake of Top Secret!

    • #23
  24. Profile Photo Inactive
    @docmolloy

    On the origins of swanning around

    • #24
  25. Profile Photo Inactive
    @CrowsNest

    Between the swans and the giraffes, we have quite the Ricochet menagerie.

    • #25
  26. Profile Photo Inactive
    @NickStuart

    The podcast I would pay to hear is Adam Carolla doing a long form interview with Victor Davis Hanson (90 minutes with VDH, skip the fluff). They have such similar thoughts about the state of the State of California (each expressing those thoughts in their own inimitable fashions).

    Anybody who can hook that up will be doing a mazel for the masses.

    • #26
  27. Profile Photo Inactive
    @ParisParamus

    Palestinians flipping almost instantly from Jew to Arab was the tip of the spear that has brought us global warming = colder.

    • #27
  28. Profile Photo Inactive
    @PettyBoozswha

    Bruckheimer’s Pearl Harbor was the most obvious rip off of Titanic – beyond the point of trying to be it’s sequel.

    • #28
  29. Profile Photo Member
    @HartmannvonAue

    Funny that you guys should bring up the shelf life of popular culture references. Maedel von Aue has become a big fan of the Marx Brothers’ movies, the best of which are now approaching 80 years of age. There are some references she doesn’t get (“..those five kids in Canada”) but by and large she gets all of their jokes. There are, based on my data sample of one six year old and the enduring popularity of these films, of Shakespeare’s comedies (or those of Aristophanes)  elements of the humor that are timeless. Whether my daughter gets the obscure in “Night at the Opera” or understands that the mad doctor in that Bugs Bunny cartoon is visually modeled on Peter Lorre or not is as important. 

    • #29
  30. Profile Photo Coolidge
    @JosephStanko

    Rob, Rob, you Southern Californian, how little you grasp of San Francisco politics.

    You called the Google busses an “unalloyed good” for the city since they encourage wealthy Googlers to live in San Francisco.

    Are you completely unacquainted with the concept of “gentrification?”  Rich people living downtown is bad for the city, don’t you see, because it drives up rents and prices out the natives who have lived in the city for generations.  The tech boom is bad for the city, because it makes living there unaffordable for anyone who doesn’t have a job at a software startup.

    The city would be better off without them.  Then it would be a nice, quiet, affordable place to live — like Detroit.

    • #30
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