Handsome Chair

This picture was taken on this day five years ago, doubtless in Fort Worth, Texas.  I titled it, "Handsome Chair."

What else do you want from me today?

A Couple Of Books About Eggs

(both images from Goodreads)

On this week's show, our favorite librarian Carole came by to talk about two books about eggs.  You can see the images above.  I will tell you what they are:

Egg: Nature's Perfect Package by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page - this book is full of facts & seems like lots of fun.

What Will Hatch? by Jennifer Ward & Susie Ghahremani - this book is for people much, much younger than I am but made me wish books for old people were as interactive.

Carole is a children's librarian but I'm a bit immature so I'm glad she shares books with us no matter how old the audience is supposed to be.  Check them out!  You may find you like them.

Self Help Radio 101221: Eggs

The photo above, of painted easter eggs, was taken by me earlier this year.  The eggs were actual eggs, uncooked, decorated by a neighbor of ours, & his children, when they were young. They're grown up & have kids - the neighbor's children I mean - so the eggs are decades old.  What was in them - they were store bought, so unfertilized - I'm talking about the eggs now - what was in them just seemed to go away without leaving the eggs spoiled.  Perhaps the paint helped.

This week's Self Help Radio is full of some gaudily painted & hopefully well-preserved eggs - well, songs about eggs, anyway - as well as lots of interviews of an eggish nature.  & mostly free range!  Books & movies about eggs, games featuring eggs, the nutritional value of eggs, & even a theater that came from eggs - the show had guests who discussed these things.

You can listen when you'd like (we really do hope it doesn't spoil) at the KBOO website or at the Self Help Radio website.  If you are using the latter link, make sure you know you need a username (try SHR) & a password (selfhelp).  The show is three hours long, so pace yourself.  Everything that happens is listed below.

& yes, I managed to make it through this whole post without a single egg pun.  You might think that makes me a good egg, but I think after all this egg content, I'm a bit shell-shocked.

Self Help Radio Egg Show

"Eggs" Martin Mull _Martin Mull_

"Egg" The Garden _Haha_

"Eggs & Their Shells" Cocteau Twins _Echoes In A Shallow Bay_

introduction & definitions

"Temptation Of Egg" Giant Sand _Chore Of Enchantment_

"The Little Black Egg" The Nightcrawlers _Nuggets (Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968)_

"Chicken Or Egg?" Space Ghost _Yeah, Whatever..._

"The Egg Or The Hen" Hot Lips Page _1946-1950_

"Goose Eggs" Joanna Newsom _Divers_

our librarian friend Carole stops by to talk about eggy books

"Ham & Eggs" Skip Manning _Koko-Mojo Diner Volume 3 Southern Menu_

"Ham & Eggs" A Tribe Called Quest _People's Instinctive Travels & The Paths Of Rhythm_

"Green Eggs & Ham" Marvin Miller _Fox In Socks/Green Eggs & Ham_

"Hash & Eggs" The Blackbyrds _City Life_

"Eggs & Sausage (In A Cadillac With Susan Michelson)" Tom Waits _Nighthawks At The Diner_

interview with Self Help Radio nutritionist Professor Food

"Humpty Dumpty" The Beagles _Here Come The Beagles_

"Humpty Dumpty Heart" Hank Thompson _The History Of Country & Western Music_

"The Death Of Humpty Dumpty" George Carlin _When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops?_

"Bad Egg" UV Race _Racism_

"Rotten Eggs" Bait Bag _Consider This A Warning_

interview with Nathaniel Marm of the Egg Theater Company

"I'm A Poached Egg (Without Toast)" Ella Fitzgerald _Jukebox Ella: The Complete Verve Singles Volume 1_

"Hard Boiled Eggs" Laurel & Hardy _Legends Of The 20th Century_

"Music To Boil An Egg" The Wibbley Brothers _Go Weird_

"Scrambled Eggs" Ed's Redeeming Qualities _At The Fish & Game Club_

"Egg Cream" Lou Reed _Set The Twilight Reeling_

interview with puzzle & game maker Leonard Burly

"I'm Putting All My Eggs In One Basket (with Johnny Green & His Orchestra)" Fred Astaire _The Essential Fred Astaire_

"Egg Money" Johnny Horton _The Early Years_

"Egg Eatin' Dog" Homer & Jethro _The Old Crusty Minstrels_

"The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg" The Parliaments _Testifyin: The Mid 60's Detroit Sessions_

"The Duck Egg Walk" Milford Perkins _The American Song-Poem Anthology: Do You Know The Difference Between Big Wood & Brush?_

"Eggbert, The Easter Egg" Rosemary Clooney _Easter Bunny Hop_

another installment of Chuck's Happily Unsophisticated Cinema Korner featuring Chuck

"Walk Like An Egg" The Dickies _The Incredible Shrinking Dickies_

"Eggs On Plate" Iggy Pop _Party_

"Sperm Meets Egg, So What?" Heavenly _The Decline & Fall Of Heavenly_

"I Live Inside An Egg" James Pants _Seven Seals_

"Use Me For Your Eggs" The Growlers _Hung At Heart_

"Frozen Egg" Lame Drivers _Chosen Era_

conclusion & goodbye

"Walking On Eggs" The Ground Floor People _Trash Box_

"Walkin' On Eggshells" Courtney Barnett _Tell Me How You Really Feel_

"Eggshell World" RVG _A Quality Of Mercy_

"Egg Song" Loch Lomond _Little Me Will Start A Storm_

"Cook A Farm Fresh Egg" Mo Douglas _Society Women Go Slumming_

Whither Eggs?

In case you didn't know, I do another show, on Freeform Portland, called The Dickenbock Report.  It's very much like Self Help Radio, except there are no interviews, but each show is mostly thematic.  Like last week, the show aired on Bathtub Day, so there were songs about bathtubs & bathing.  I bring this up not to plug another show, but because someone who is aware that I do both shows told me that they preferred the Dickenbock Report to Self Help Radio because "it makes more sense."

It was her way of telling me that she understood why I would play, on the radio, on October 7, which is Bathtub Day, a show about bathtubs.  What she couldn't figure out is why on October 12 I would do a show about eggs.  Is it National Egg Day?  It isn't.  So why?

When I explain that at some point I was listening to some songs & it occurred to me that a show about eggs might be fun (it helped that I knew I could find three hours of music about eggs), she said, "See?  That just doesn't make sense."  Then she added, "Why not tell everyone it's National Egg Day?  No one will ever look it up"

Okay.  I'll give it a shot.  To celebrate National Egg Day*, Self Help Radio presents tonight a show about eggs.  That's midnight to 3am on 90.7fm KBOO Portland & simulcast online at kboo.fm.  Not only will there be plenty of songs of great egg-cellence, but I'll also speak to a lot of eggs-perts about egg-related matters.  If that doesn't yolk you in, I don't know what will!

*I looked it up.  Apparently National Egg Day is actually June 3rd.  Maybe the Dickenbock Report will air on that day next year & I can reuse some of the songs!

Preface To Eggs: The Chicken & The Egg

(Image from here.)

The picture is from this article which suggest there's a controversy about that question, which came first, the chicken or the egg?  I confess being a bit puzzled by that many years ago when I was young.  Thinking I didn't have the knowledge or brain power to suss it out, & hearing dumb arguments mostly, I put it out of my mind & would only hear it in passing or in songs (like this one, which I must've heard while very, very young).

Some time later, I happened to see a documentary or an interview on television with a biologist.  I don't remember who it was, whether he was famous or not, but someone posed the question to him.  His response was dismissive.  He said, "Eggs evolved millions of years before chickens did."

But the most I looked into it, the more I discovered that people wanted me nuance & focus.  This article on science.org.au seems to have put it best for me.  It concludes, "At the end of the day, the question is something of a false dichotomy. Eggs certainly came before chickens, but chicken eggs did not - you can't have one without the other. However, if we absolutely had to pick a side, based on the evolutionary evidence, we're on Team Egg."

Me too!  Not such a silly riddle after all.