Lazy Sunday, and boring public radio

[Dan]

While the rest of you are having a blast in Las Vegas, I'm back here in Cleveland, working on Cyburbia and listening to public radio in the dining room.

Sunday is a mixed bag on the local NPR station. For a while, what is perhaps the most pretentious radio show ever to hit the airwaves is broadcast -- My Word, a BBC quiz show where the host and every guest speak in a posh old-school British upper class accent, answering pretentious questions about pretentious topics as if they were simple trivia questions.

"Now, a few delightful questions about mid-18th century Manx poetry."
"Oh, can't you do us the favor of something more challenging this time, old chap?"

A couple of shows later, it's the Canadian Storyteller Show. I can't think of the real title, but I call it the Canadian Storyteller Show because the host is extremely Canadian, and he's a pretty good storyteller. When I'm listening to it, it has its riveting moments. When it's in the background, it sounds something like ...

blah blah blah NOVA SCOTIA blah blah blah NEWFOUNDLAND blah blah blah ALBERTA blah blah NOVA SCOTIA blah blah blah PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND blah blah blah NOVA SCOTIA

After that, it's the moment of the day I dread. Hours and hours of Eastern European ethnic radio, featuring the music of several countries where accordions and polka music predominate.

[Mud Princess]

So that's why it's so quiet around here! Well, I'm not in Las Vegas either.

Have you tried other NPR stations? We are lucky to have an excellent public radio station, WAMC, and you can listen online.

Happy Sunday.

[JNA]

Here along the Ohio River I can pick up both
Indiana WNIN http://www.wnin.org/radio/radio-schedule.html
and
Kentucky WKPB http://www.wkyufm.org/
You can listen to both on the internet.

I like lazy sunday afternoons.

[kms]

I love lazy Sundays, and most of mine are, by choice!

I used to listen to The Splendid Table on Duquesne U radio Sunday afternoons.

[Veloise]

Dan, I think you're referring to Stuart McLean, host of the Vinyl Cafe. http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/home.php

Suggest you pull up the webcast of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! for an hour's worth of fun. It really deserves more repeats over the weekend (and Car Talk, fewer).

[Fat Cat]

I am not in Las Vegas either
Instead I have been scraping and prepping to paint the house
Would much rather listen to PR
How ever Mrs Katt is a cruel task master and does not tolerate distractions when I am toiling
I considered informing her that it was in the interest of fellow planners that I listen to PR, but I do believe in self preservation

[illinoisplanner]

Oh, no wonder it's so dead around here. I'm too poor to even fly to Vegas, let alone go to a convention, gamble, or anything else.

I spent much of my weekend being sick. Hopefully this will be the last sinus infection/bronchitis for the season.

[Planit]

Not in Vegas either. I spent my rainy Sunday afternoon watching the Braves loose UGH!

[TexanOkie]

What's the deal with PR/NPR? I don't quite understand it's appeal.

I spent my Sunday afternoon trying to fix a washing machine leak. No fun. (Also, no success). I hate normal home maintenance/improvement crap!

That is all...

[otterpop]

This week was Turn Off TV Week at my son's school, so I had an unusually busy weekend - karate test (he is a green belt now), swimming at a hot springs pool, a model railroad train show, endless games of chess (which I hate), checkers, Chinese checkers and cribbage. Bought birdseed, so my son could feed the proprietor's parrot. Walks. A trip to the library. Read a lot of books with him. Time well wasted.

As far as NPR, about the only show I listen to is the Prairie Home Companion. It runs at 4 p.m. on Saturday and is repeated on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. I try to catch at least one airing. Not this week, though.

There is a show that runs Sunday late afternoon that I listen to but have never heard more than about fifteen minutes. I think it is called something like "American Short Stories" and it is actors reading short stories. Usually they pick funny short stories or humorous ones with a little pathos.

[Jen]

Dan, I think you're referring to Stuart McLean, host of the Vinyl Cafe. http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/home.php

Suggest you pull up the webcast of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! for an hour's worth of fun. It really deserves more repeats over the weekend (and Car Talk, fewer).

Once when listening I was convinced that somewhere in a studio someone was censoring the jokes on that show. A guest's humor got the best Cheney and a few other co's and instead of a punchline I heard "dead air" then the explosive laughter as it picked up sound again. It hapened for this entire segment, I blamed a pubbie intern messing with the feed.

[Downtown]

So that's why it's so quiet around here! Well, I'm not in Las Vegas either.

Have you tried other NPR stations? We are lucky to have an excellent public radio station, WAMC, and you can listen online.

Happy Sunday.

On the way home from Oswego on Sunday afternoons, I can catch most of the Prarie Home Companion rebroadcast on WAMC.

And sadly, I can't remember my last Lazy Sunday.

[SGB]

There is a show that runs Sunday late afternoon that I listen to but have never heard more than about fifteen minutes. I think it is called something like "American Short Stories" and it is actors reading short stories. Usually they pick funny short stories or humorous ones with a little pathos.

I think you are thinking of Selected Shorts. I listen to the podscast while walking the dog in the evenings. Great stories written by great authors and read live by great actors. Love this show!

[Mark]

With 4 grizzlies there is no such thing as a lazy Sunday.

Car Talk is great. http://www.cartalk.com/

4 public radio stations to choose from, WDET, WUOM, WEMU, WKAR

Plus CBC Radio 2

But I miss XM with my new car.

[Veloise]

...Car Talk is great. http://www.cartalk.com/

4 public radio stations to choose from, WDET, WUOM, WEMU, WKAR...

And every one of those stations broadcasts it twice! 'UOM might run it 3x.

[missing Stuart McL in the 616]

[Dan]

Dan, I think you're referring to Stuart McLean, host of the Vinyl Cafe.

McLean ... that sounds like a good Canadaian name. Can't imagine someone with a name like "Stuart D'Angelo" hosting it.

FWIW, the local NPR affiliate plays Car Talk exactly once, on Saturday morning. No reruns, which IMHO sucks because I always catch Car Talk in the last ten minutes. Sure, I always catch the really bad episodes of A Prairie Home Companion in their entirety during long drives, but do I catch Car Talk? Nope. I'll take a hundred broken fuel pumps in aging Volvos in suburban Boston over Garrison Keillor singing the Powdermilk Biscuits theme yet again.

Okay, I like A Prairie Home Companion sometimes, but when it's bad, I run the risk of falling asleep at the wheel. Car Talk keeps me awake.