Self Help Radio 120925: Shovels

This show, it turns out, is shovel-ready.

You were expecting that, sorry.

Here's the show about shovels. I sometimes feel my shows are random but I heard from someone on Bluesky who's in Chicago that they're using their snow shovels a lot. & here in Portland where new builds are going up everywhere I see lots of shoveling. So it's somewhat appropriate. Although if it is, it's entirely by accident.

Please use your entrenching tools while you listen. The show is now at the KBOO website & at the Self Help Radio website. If you use the latter, please remember the username SHR & the password selfhelp. Most everything that happened on the show is below.

As Erica Boone would say: BYOS. Bring your own shovel!

Self Help Radio Shovels Show

"Pick & Shovel Blues" Bull City Red _(1935-1939) Complete Recordings In Chronological Order_

"Nine Foot Shovel" Josh White _Songs For Political Action - Folkmusic, Topical Songs, & The American Left 1926-1953_

"Never Hit Your Grandma With A Shovel" Spike Jones & His City Slickers _Strictly For Music Lovers_

introduction & definitions

"Got A Great Big Shovel" Sammy Davis Jr. _Mr Show-Business_

"The Days Of Sand & Shovels" The Winstons _Color Him Father_

"Dig It (Shovel)" The Intentions _Eccentric Soul: Minibus_

"The Broom, The Shovel, The Poker, & The Tongs" Dame Peggy Ashcroft _Poetry Readings_

"The Pick & The Maltshovel" Roger Watson _The Pick & The Malt Shovel_

interview with American Hart Shovel Company CEO Thaddeus Hart

"Don't Forget Your Shovel" Christy Moore _The Time Has Come_

"The Last Old Shovel" Phyllis Boyens _O Sister! (The Women's Bluegrass Collection)_

"One Woman & A Shovel" Carrie Newcomer _The Geography Of Light_

"At Midnight I Will Kill George Lucas With A Shovel" Patton Oswalt _Werewolves & Lollipops_

"Shovel" Aesop Rock _Labor Days_

interview with activist for Shovels For Peace Erica Boone

"Shovel" John Wesley Coleman III _Microwave Dreams_

"15 Shovels" Darrin Bradbury _Artvertisement_

"Said The Shovel" Osees _Protean Threat_

"Shovel Fighter" Matt Braunger _Shovel Fighter_

"Shovelheads" Shriekback _Why Anything? Why This?_

interview with self-help author Chaz James

"The Sir Tommy Shovell" Robyn Hitchcock _Shufflemania!_

"Shovels" Scarves _Delicate Creatures_

"Shovel" Megan Gailey _My Dad Paid for This_

"Shovel" Deep Sea Diver _Billboard Heart_

"Shovel Into Spade Kit" Lilys _Better Can't Make Your Life Better_

conclusion & goodbye

"Shovel" Feedtime _Shovel_

"The Shovel Of Love" Bless _Gums_

"The Shovel Song" Flax Sifter _Flax Sifter_

"Shovel" Danger Gens _Life Between Cigarettes_

"Hells Shovel" Cutthroat Shamrock _The Wake_

Whither Shovels?

(art by Michael Pederson found here)

Just a quick note: this is the last show of 2025 with a new, unique theme. The next three weeks are shows that have "repeated" themes. You can see what those upcoming theme are on the Self Help Radio website.

There'll be time to consider the year later but it's been a fun year for me (at least when I'm talking about the show). I can't believe I've now spent 23 years on this nonsense, but I also can't imagine what else I would be doing.

A show about shovels. Hm. Why did I think of that? I'm tempted to say it had something to do with a movie or television show I saw recently. I spent a lot of this year watching all six seasons of Downton Abbey & just watched the three movies. Maybe shovels play a part in some subplot? I don't know. Isn't that appropriate at the end of the year after months of different themes to just throw up one's hands & say "I don't know! I'm doing a show about shovels! Who cares why?!? It's a show about shovels!"

Anyway, it airs tonight on KBOO. Midnight to 2am. That's 90.7fm in town, kboo dot fm everywhere.

Please insert your "shoveling manure" joke anywhere into the proceedings, I promise it will be apt.

Preface To Shovels: I Have Shoveled

At first glance at me, one would not have this thought: "That is a person who has shoveled."
For many this might be an insult.
But I have lived more than half a century as a mainly non-athletic type.
One could say I am pretty comfortable with who I am.
This is true:
One time a worker at our house asked my wife if I had an opinion about the work to be done.
She said, "Don't ask him. He's not handy."
The worker - a male - looked ashamed for me. I did not feel the slightest bit of shame.
So should someone stare at me & decide "That is not a person who has ever used a shover," it would not offend me. Indeed, I would understand.
But! I have used a shovel! & many times!
When we lived in Kentucky we had ridiculously long circular driveway.
& we had snows four or five times a year.
& when it snowed, I went out to shovel.
& the picture up there is proof. A snow in 2015.
Though I confess I was not the only one who shoveled that day.
It took quite a while & a couple of hands.
It was below freezing outside & at some point I realized I had become so warm in my winter gear that I had stripped down to a tee shirt.
You may ask, but if you don't care if people don't think you've shoveled, why mention this?
Of course the show this week is about shovels. It's something I think about in relation to shovels.
But also. It's always nice to subvert expectations.
For though one might look as though they cannot shovel, it turns out at least some of them can in fact shovel.