Episode 83: Raised Creamy

Ed is lost and alone in the sub-suburban wilds of Vancouver, and John is slightly less anxious than he used to be in his clean house. They hold forth on the pleasures of summer, fear of foreign travel, the names of babies and old women, sheriffs on horses, and bringing a toddler into a cave and turning out the lights. Follow links to the Catacombe dei Cappuccini, the Wahl Peanut, Nong's Khao Man Gai, F. Scott Fitzgerald's "May Day", the Chateau at the Oregon Caves, Molly Laich's essay for Okey-Panky, and the News-Miner's Public Safety Report.

Episode 82: Can't I Just Die Now, Wilbur?

Ed has moved into the Reflections in the Park apartment complex, and John's AWP cold is gone, so it's time to talk about John's Armenian Pastry Shop dream, Lincoln Michel's misremembered shaggy dog joke, reheating french fries with steam, Nell Carter, repeating yourself, cheese disappointment, and erotic feelings for the waitress on the cover of Supertramp's "Breakfast in America." Follow links to Gimme A Break, Gregory Pardlo's "Written by Himself", The Walrus and the Carpenter, Borough, James Hannaham's first novel, Big City Rhythm and Blues Magazine, Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater, Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory", and Murder by Death.

Episode 81: Nutty Grindz

"John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt": circular silliness, or lynching allegory? Ed and John try to decide in this episode that also features an abortive zoo trip, a missing bacon web page, New York eateries, a movie of a novel, contorted mannequins, and sending grandma's collector spoons to India. Follow links to G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday, Jason Miller's Down Don't Bother Me, James Hannaham's Delicious Foods, Stephen King's war with the governor of Maine, Waffle Town, The Original Hotcake House, Winter in the Blood, Scan Cafe, Russ and Daughters, Carbone, and the Chatterbox.

Episode 80: Treat Your Jojo Like a Lady

It's been a long three weeks of leaky roofs and pinkeye, but Ed and John are back to talk about vaporwave music, makin' a livin', fried chicken, marriage patois, brewpubs, and Ed's dreamlike reading before the Seattle village elders. Follow links to Laurel Lathrop's Billfold essay, Free Design's "Kites Are Fun", vaporwave, "Hologram" by Disconscious, Duck Island Ale House, Willa Mae's, Bandwagon Brewpub on the Ithaca Voice, the Dirty Skoog IPA, Ed's Antonioni talk, and Ed's City Council appearance.

Episode 78: I Miss You Thinking Fondly of Me

John and his friend Skoog 2.0 enjoy a rambling conversation about the dreams of editors, passive-aggressive greeting cards, leftovers, cornbread with buttermilk, herbal tea, and knife lore. Follow links to the Doves Type, Yogi Egyptian Licorice Mint tea, Bar Keepers Friend, the Skoog, the Sleeping Tapes, Lou Beach, Everyday Carry, the Northwoods Indian River Jack, and the 2015 Chewbacchus parade.

Episode 77: Butter Is Too 'Picy

Ed is back from Minnesota and is looking for information about the conclusion of the Super Bowl. John is trying to start a commonplace book and has solved the problem of work meetings. They discuss highly organized murder, Rachel Cusk, midwestern cuisine, quoting writers in conversation, and free ebooks. Follow links to Mickey's Diner, Midwest Menus Dot Com, Abbott Awaits, Outline, the execution at Mankato, the genocide beer tray, Gulliver's Travels, gamesmanship, and John's decontextualized meeting notes.

Episode 76: Dr. Pepper's Less Credentialed Cousin

Ed starts out quietly, but gets gradually louder, in this episode featuring stolen cars, novel revisions, cafe con leche, bowling alley food items versus bowling alley snacks, the four points of view in fiction, and possible locations for the Okey-Panky AWP meetup. Follow links to Lynnwood Bowl and Skate, San Fernando Roasted Chicken, Cafeteria La Mejor (again), The Diagram, Grumpy's, The Chatterbox, and Wide Awake Bakery.

Episode 75: Thanks for Not Poisoning Me Outright

It's early for Ed, as usual, and that puts him at a disadvantage, like the giraffe that doesn't realize he's in a race with Carl Lewis. He and John talk about the death of a fine diner, talking with Martin Amis about Hitler, the blurring line between the real and the imagined, and people who think people are stealing their ideas. Follow links to Snydermind, Little Pete's, Ed's Instagram, and the Okey-Panky teaser post.

Episode 74: The Chilean Mine Disaster Diet

Here's a low-key holiday episode for ya. John forgot to buy his kids Christmas gifts and envies old men's hair; Ed got a migraine and resents Boston stealing Thin Lizzy's riffs. They talk about Christmas eats, chicken and waffles, the US postal service, and lying to Heidi. Follow links to Jess Stoner's "Blues on Wheels", "The Frog and Peach", fingertip ratchet, sticky date pudding, Cajun Foreplay spice rub, honey-glazed tarragon carrots, Bertha the tunnel-boring machine, Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak", and the cocktail called The Okey-Panky.

Episode 73: They Levitate While They Kick You

John has an awkward social situation he needs advice about. Ed's back from Port Townshend, where he taught poetry on a schooner. They discuss the satsuma, veterenarians, the shame of the big and tall store, pornographic video games, and the mechanic's moods. Follow links to Elisa Gabbert's top lit tweets of 2014, S.EXE, Sound Experience, Dixit, Gerald Stern's Stealing History,Judith Moffett, The Lincoln Street Diner, and The Hudson Point Cafe.

Episode 72: I'll Link to That

This week John is joined by LB alum Alice Bolin to discuss making your own pizza, the gender minefield of the restaurant party, adulterated beverages, romantic entaglements with other writers, getting paid, and the new online literary magazine John, Alice, Rhian, and Ed are starting. Follow links to the Fireball FAQ, The Counting Room, Alice's long reading, Okey-Panky, the No Comment! sweatshirt, Durga Polashi's Instagram, Fantagraphics's Nancy reissues, A Nest of Ninnies, Ashbery's "The Skaters" and Alice's essay on it.

Episode 71: Call Me Ishmael, Mind the Head, It's Hitler's

Ed and John have returned after long sojourns to discuss the dude on the airplane tail, pie, Seattle's great Danish bakery, hatchets too nice to use, Thanksgiving, lard, and the irresistibility of drunk poets. Follow links to the old Alaska Airlines logo, the new one, forum discussion of Chester Seevek, John's hotel pics, Kate's Whiskey Maple Pecan Pie recipe, Larsen's Bakery, Mike and Mike's Guitar Bar, Reuben Reuben, A Fine Madness, and poetry by Mark Nowak, Wong May, and Etel Adnan.

Episode 70: Creative Tainting

John's about to head Ed-ward (Edwardward?) on his book tour, and Oscar's about to enjoy his first fully cognizant Halloween, on which he will watch his father eat candy. Ed and John talk about writing habits and whether John's peculiar manuscript is a book, and Ed tells the joke about the hog and reads a Galway Kinnell poem. Follow links to Chess King, John's tour schedule, Merritt Tierce's Love Me Back, Mike and Mike's Guitar Bar, and "Flower Herding on Mount Monadnock".

Episode 69: Rubbing Two Tigers Together Too Fast

John's been to New York City and Ed's been to Port Townshend, and they talk about what they ingested there, including cocktails, liqueurs, cafe con leche, and soup dumplings, aka XLB. Also, Ed won an award and played a song about a hearse, and John does not have Ebola. Follow links to Kung Fu Little Steam Buns Ramen, Cafeteria La Mejor, Sidetrack Distillery’s lemon verbena liqueur, Pegu Club, Xiaolongbao, Chiang's Gourmet, The Boobie Trap, the other Boobie Trap, Peter Bagge, and "Lawn Dart."

Episode 68: Why Not Make the Coffee Pink

Ed has a bee in his bonnet about baby boomers and John doesn't know if the work is better or worse than it seemed while doing it. Also, Ed makes coffee, insults a museum volunteer, and gives John false hopes about a new Pavement record, while John investigates prison Orangina, recommends a coffee maker, and watches a movie inside a movie. Follow links to fermented juice, "Slang in America", the world's saddest website, textile artist Gina Phillips, the Bonavita BV1800, "Rubber Biscuit", and The Shining in Twister.

Episode 67: Sex Carpenter

Ed has returned from bluegrassish festivities in Winfield and John's bete noire has surfaced again. They touch upon the mysteries of eggplant, America's greatest museums, and the proper relationship to the self-soiled child. Follow links to Dr. Mutter's Marvels, "Rainbow Stew", Bill Poss, The Mutter Museum and the MJT again, "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home", The Most Hated Man in Books, and Dick versus Lem.

Episode 66: The Masterful Short Story "Star Wars"

John looks like the Unabomber and Ed's trying to write songs. They talk about extremeist groups, TED talks, the Zima of independent rock, Stephen Crane and Hart Crane, Jane Austen, and the noticing of small things, like, for instance, visibly hungover people in animal costumes. Follow links to Dean Ween on Guitar Moves, the socialist recording studio in the Lawrence Public Library, Skunk, the poems of Eric McHenry, Oaks Park, Tavern Books, and The Common.

Episode 65: Halberds and Chihuahuas

Ed and John have nothing to say in Episode 65, so they talk unceasingly for 75 minutes about John's workday lunch habits, using a pepper mill as a microphone, eating pizza in the street, cheesemaking Mennonites, and several excellent new books. Follow links to the Temple of Zeus soup recipes (again), types of chefs, Pyrex storage bowls, Coppelia, queso Chihuahua, Fast Eddy's in Tok, Alaska, and books by T. R. Johnson, Alfred Starr Hamilton, Ann Leckie, and Ben Lerner.

Episode 64: All Blacked Out for Hitler's Birthday

This week, John talks about his Philadelphia dining experiences and Ed contemplates the aftermath of the Triggering Town Review performance. Also: what are Dutch babies? Why do all high school students have Corvettes? And why don't your parents understand baba ghanoush? Then we abruptly cut off with a little song. Follow links to Underdogs, Vietnam, the Crown Victoria Bar, M. Shanghai, the Dutch baby, Marrakesh, Ed's song "O Fire", and John Pontrello and Pepper Proud singing "Lou's Got the Flu."