Weekly Firesign Chat Cheese Log

A Firesign Chat
02/20/2025

Archive

||||||||| Catherwood re-enters the Waiting Room and explains "This is the main discussion room which is logged each night."
||||||||| Catherwood announces, "The time is 4:32 AM - I now declare Thursday's chat log for February 20, 2025 officially open!"... and then, he retires back to the vestibule...
||||||||| Catherwood stumbles in at 8:00 PM, dragging Tweeny by one foot and asks "Can anyone vouch for this Firehead?"
||||||||| New notice: '** WE'RE GLAD YOU MADE IT!! **
The Firesign Chat & Show starts at 7pm Eastern/6pm Central/5pm Mountain/4pm Pacific
Tonight: THE TALE OF THE GIANT RAT OF SUMATRA
plus from the XM Radio broadcasts “The Fuse Of Doom”
and part one of a Cat Collage “The 6th Album”
Listen to the 256k stream at: http://listen.ehhh.us:8000/rfd2 or the 16k stream at: http://listen.ehhh.us:8000/rfd1
This show is archived at www.kurtericson.net/firesign | Cat’s collage archive is at www.kurtericson.net/cat'
||||||||| Tweeny departs at 8:00 PM, singing "Toad away, toad away; toad away, toad away! Where do you go when you're toad away?"
||||||||| Catherwood strides in with a trumpet, plays a fanfare, and proclaims "Nine PM on Thursday, February 20, 2025 - I now declare alt.comedy.firesgn-thtre's chat officially open!" -- then he looks around at the empty room, looks at his watch, and mumbles "...am I early?"
||||||||| A time machine materializes at 8:00 PM and Deputy Dang bounds out, carrying a grape from ancient Greece.
||||||||| 8:00 PM: Nancy Kat jumps out of the hall closet saying "I've been listening to all of you talking about me for the past half hour!"
Nancy Kat: *Hides in hamper with warm clothes*
Deputy Dang: Howdy, Nancy!
Nancy Kat: (Hi, Dang!)
||||||||| Catherwood stumbles in and announces "Presenting 'llanwydd', just granted probation at 8:00 PM", then leaves hurriedly.
llanwydd: howdy
Deputy Dang: Howdy, llanwydd!
Nancy Kat: (Hi, IIanwydd!)
||||||||| Catherwood tiptoes into the room, and snorts derisively "Announcing 'Cease', also known as 'Nancy' -- the time is 8:00 PM" -- then he slowly retires back into the sitting room...
Cease: Hi folks
Nancy Kat: (Hi, cease!)
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Let me hear it for me!"
Deputy Dang: Howdy, Cease!
||||||||| Catherwood walks in wearing his pyjamas, yawns, and mumbles "It's midnight here in New York city"...then he falls over and starts snoring loudly..
Cease: Wish I were in that closet with you, Nancy.
||||||||| Catherwood escorts Beet into the room, accepts a jar of pennies as a gratuity, grumbles something about 8:00 PM, then departs.
Beet: Hey, guys.
Deputy Dang: Howdy, Beet!
Cease: Beet
Nancy Kat: (can't BEET that!)
Cease: lol, nancy.
Beet: Hi, Deputy, Cease, Nancy, llan.
Cease: did you beat the eagle off?
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Guaranteed by the Department of Redundancy Dept. and the Natural Guard."
Cease: this sounds a it like the Rebeccas Solnit speech I'm now making intoa collage, from a frew days ago
Deputy Dang: Speaking of beating off... I'm going to make some popcorn in the microwave. brb
Nancy Kat: (Cease-well hamper with warm clothes, but there is a pretty nice shelf here with a comforter)
Cease: my loathing of popcorn is not finite.
Cease: sound comforting
Beet: I like the stuff OK.
Nancy Kat: ("How inscisive!")
Cease: most pepole do. not me. odd as i love corn with butter, but the smell of butter popcorn makes me ill
Nancy Kat: (Cease-because it's usually fake chemical butter?)
Cease: toothfull truth
llanwydd: yeah fresh corn is more digestible than popcorn
Cease: could be, Nancy
Beet: Have you seen the videos of rat-seeking dogs?
Cease: no
Deputy Dang: I have not either.
Beet: They're very efficient.
Cease: an inefficient animal would not last long
Deputy Dang: And it would be called something else.
Cease: love this album.
Cease: it is relentless
Beet: They literally wind up with piles of dead rats. I don't like rats so it's somehow stisfying.
Deputy Dang: rats are very efficient as well
Cease: ossman said this scene is based on undergroung comics that people sent to Firesign.
Cease: i don't dislike any mamals.
Beet: You know, if they don't chew, their teeth grow through heads - or so I've heard.
Nancy Kat: (Beet, same with hamsters...happened to one of mine as a child)
Beet: I love the sound the dog makes when he mistakes the zipper.
Cease: indeed
Cease: Dylan, Beatles refs aboutn in old Firesign
Cease: anyone still here?
Deputy Dang: I'm still here, somewhere.
Cease: what is all this animal imagery? Does it have any meaning? one of my favourite Firesign lines.
Deputy Dang: the crazy monkey is a recurring phrase
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "A stiff idiot is the worst kind."
Beet: The sound is cutting in and out.
Cease: this is fucking up
Deputy Dang: I was just about to comment on the cutouts.
Deputy Dang: Put a quarter on the needle!
Cease: still here, Nancy?
Cease: yeah, that used to work, Dang
Beet: We had this problem many months back. I fear without Tweeny in attendence, there's no getting it fixed.
Deputy Dang: Yeah... it's not getting better on its own.
Nancy Kat: (Mrrrrrrp!?)
Cease: he gave me a phone numberf. i can cal lthe guy tomorrow, if it helps. but that was when I was inj Santa Fe, right, last Oct? we've had a few number of these problems
Cease: How's it going, Nancy? Donh't see you here often.
Deputy Dang: I remember it happened a week you were away, and then again a week or so after you returned.
Cease: My new play was supposed to come out in November,. It'[s about Ukraine, and Llan plays a good role.
Cease: Ukraine may be erased before Doc Tech fnishes producing my new play. Bad timing
Cease: I was gone first week in Oct. Will be done 3rd week in March
Nancy Kat: (Cease...it goes. I'm usually cooking dinner at this hour, but we got some ready meals so, I popped in.)
Cease: Delight4ed to see you here, Nancy
Cease: There are only a few of us
Beet: Well, I think I'm going to hang up the headphones. I hope everybody has a nice evening and a great weekend. I'll see all of you next week. G'Nite.
Nancy Kat: (It's good to take a load off, Cease! And nice to see everyone!)
Nancy Kat: (Meowmeow, Beet!)
Deputy Dang: G'nite Beet!
Cease: by beet
Cease: have you ever been to santa fe, Kat?
Deputy Dang: I think I'm going to hang up, also. :-/ I don't know if I've heard The Fuse of Doom, and know I haven't heard The 6th Album collage. At least I have suggestions for next week's show! ;-)
Cease: please suggest
Deputy Dang: Well, I would recommend "The Fuse of Doom" and "The 6th Album" collage, of course!
Nancy Kat: (Cease, i've barely been out of the state! A few wrestling shows in Wisc. and Indiana, and an 8th grade trip to Washington D.C. I'd love to be able to go to Cali one day for many reasons)
Cease: 6th album is oo lnog for one show, shwo only part one todnight and lhe res next week
Cease: i reccommend Canada, nancy. it works for me!
Deputy Dang: I'm not going to hear it this week. I can't take the drop outs when I'm so tuned it, uh baby!
Cease: i've lived a long time in 3 countries. all have theri advantgages
Deputy Dang: Goodnight all! Cheers, I'm off.
Cease: yeah, it is annoying, dang
||||||||| At 8:00 PM, Deputy Dang vanishes mysteriously -- just as Nino the Mind Boggler predicted!
Nancy Kat: (Cease-LOL...I've always wanted to see that Dinosaur park in Calgary. Aside from Stampede Wrestling)
Cease: Nancy, I think we're the only 2 people left here, and we haven't even got to my collage
Nancy Kat: (I think IIanwydd is somewhere in the ether.)
Cease: it's a big country, Kat. I hitchhiked accross Canada twice, in 71 and 73, Very big
||||||||| Catherwood ushers Elayne in through the front door at 8:00 PM, picks up his cues (only slightly scorched), and heads for the billiard room.
Nancy Kat: (ELAYNE! HIHI!)
Cease: Hey! It's El
Elayne: Evenin' all! Hey Cat! HEY NANCY!!
Cease: HOw wonderful to see you here again
Elayne: Well, it's a rare non-commute Thursday. I stayed indoors because it's too dang cold, which means next week I have to make up for it by coming in three days.
Elayne: By the third day in a row commuting to and from Manhattan I'm usually wiped.
Nancy Kat: (We've been in the freezer as well...they only called Maevens school off once.)
Cease: I am going to Vegas next month. though not sure I would have made the rerservations if knew what was coming
Cease: Canadians are cancelloing theri trips en masse.
Elayne: I don't blame them, Cat. I also know a lot of Canadians refusing to buy US-made products.
Cease: The one good thing Trump may do is prevent the right wing from taking overf Canada in the upcomiming election
Cease: People I know of wildly differnt views are united in being pissed off at the states now.
||||||||| Catherwood accompanies Not Ed inside, makes a note of the time (8:00 PM), then fades off into the distance going on about the waiting room or the sitting room or something.
Cease: Hi NOt
Elayne: Evenin' NotEd!
Not Ed: Waz real Kat, llan, Cease, Beet & E!!
Elayne: I refuse to talk about the orange shitgibbon, he's already taking up more space in my brain than I want him to. Been that way for 40+ years.
Cease: Are you worried for your situation, Elayne?
Elayne: Very, Cat.
Not Ed: Must get soundy worky scuse me
Elayne: I mean, I'm old, I'm female, I'm atheist but culturally Jewish, I hit a lot of right-wing-hated demographics.
Elayne: And I'm told living spaces in Vancouver are pretty expensive.
Nancy Kat: (HiHi, not ed!
Cease: We can do something about that.
Not Ed: ahhh that's better
Not Ed: Best, NK
Elayne: Well Cat, not leaving Mom until the inevitable, she's turning 94 in a month and still hanging in there. They're taking good care of her in the long-term care place, my brother (who lives 10 minutes away and tries to visit daily) sees to that.
||||||||| Catherwood enters the room, strikes a gong, and bellows "THE TIME IN NEW YORK IS 1 O'CLOCK", then silently exits.
||||||||| It's 1:00 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| Beet - dead from the fiddlers
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
Elayne: And I do want to still work until my 70th year, although that might be up in the air with the current political climate.
Not Ed: indeed
Cease: Just saying it's an option, El
Cease: I suspect many Americans may be moving here soon.
Not Ed: it's not easy
Not Ed: I want to watch! lol
Cease: its getting harder, sure
Not Ed: sorry heh
Not Ed: I love America too much to give up on her now
Cease: the whole idea of moving is going to get harder just when it needfs to get easier
Not Ed: !!
Cease: i havce never loved a country. i've lived in 3.
Not Ed: Aww sorry Cat
Elayne: Well, I'm considering it, but I'm in the same holding pattern I've been in for the last few years. I can't reallhy get myself unstuck. But thanks.
Cease: you can live a place, but canada is immense. i hate hitch hiking for days in gthe nmiddle of nowhere.
Not Ed: love fools in space
Cease: idont understand maron, who keeps sayhing he's mlving to vancouverf, but not really
Cease: el, ell, we're too old to move. travel is enough.
Not Ed: there's going to be a lot of pain but there is always pain....
Not Ed: I am still an avowed optimist
Elayne: I just want to be somewhere safe, where they care about citizens' health. So far that's NYS.
Elayne: Oh damn, now I've depressed myself again. This is no good for me. Self care dictates I sign off.
Not Ed: Ahh yes good point E I understand that
||||||||| At 8:00 PM, Elayne dashes out the door saying "Hey, mister ice-cream man, I've got a nickel, wait for meeeee..."
Cease: good for you being there, El
Cease: By El
Not Ed: Whoops there she went
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Deputy Dan has no friends."
Cease: it's amazing she was here at all
Not Ed: ohh nice to see her for a bit glad she stopped by
Not Ed: insert here
Cease: you know she started this chat, eh?
Cease: 30 years ago
Not Ed: yes! but I was later - didn't know til you guys told me
Not Ed: 30... cool
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Why does the porridge bird lay his egg in the air?"
Cease: i was here on day one.
Not Ed: wow
Cease: elayne introduced me to the guys. then they wanted to work with me to do radio plays, and Elahyne was part of a few of them
Not Ed: I was on a couple of BBS's but I didn't know about Firesign online yet
Not Ed: ohhh cool
Cease: 93
Not Ed: 93 wow
Cease: El gave me Proc's address and we corresponded. Firesign did a show in 94 wihch I att4ended.
Cease: Were you there>?
Not Ed: that's really nice
Nancy Kat: (I was a Freshman in Highschool in '93...I do that thing where I hear "10 years ago" and think the 90's...))...
Cease: Jusrt do grass until your musscles come back, relelvant to me now
Not Ed: haha
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Swell pizza!"
Not Ed: sure
Not Ed: haha ouch I'll bet
Cease: i was a freshman in highchool in 1965. also on radio then for the first time
Not Ed: feeling better now?
Nancy Kat: (i would do grass, but i have no papers)
Cease: broken arn is mostly healed, but not totally
Not Ed: So I was in like 7th grade then watching the Beatles and Little richard on Sullivan
Cease: pipes and edibles are yhour friends, Nancy
Not Ed: lol NK
Not Ed: which reminds me -- I quit smoking pot about a week ago
Cease: we're tha same age sort of, Not. I recall the beatles on Sullivan.
Not Ed: switching to edibles
Cease: i will never stop until death stops me
Not Ed: Yea
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "I have proof I've been to ancient Greece, look at this grape!"
Not Ed: I hear you
Not Ed: But I'm having some breathing problems so, you know
Cease: itoxicants have been good to me
Not Ed: lol
Not Ed: me too pretty much
Cease: yeah, you got to respoect your lungs
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "I think we're all Bozos on this bus."
Not Ed: yepsk
Cease: Nancy?
Not Ed: In that respect I already feel much better
Not Ed: NK NK NK
Nancy Kat: (Your generations got The Beatles and Kennedys funeral-we got The Challenger exploding and the Berlin Wall)
Not Ed: zactly! well said
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "My nostrils flared at the smell of his perfume."
Cease: When I travel, edibles are useful, but at home, more smokeing and eating hash than edibles. Hi Nancy
Cease: Nancy, well, that's a riff, but...
Not Ed: In MN in the 80's when it was dry (cannabis) there was always hash
Nancy Kat: (Cease-never had access to edibles. I prefer papers to pipes or bongs. Did 'shrooms once)
Not Ed: 70's and 80's
Cease: I'm 73 for a few more weeks and maybr Not is too. Iknow you'rfe younger, Nancy and I'm glad for you.
Not Ed: Iyeah glad 4 u 2
Not Ed: yeah I'm a little younger but our spans cross
Nancy Kat: (Cease- It just seems every generation has their "seminal/ pivotal" moment. My Grandmother was born a few dyas after the Titanic sunk and passed in Jan of 2001)
Nancy Kat: (I miss my Grams stories of the depression "3 course meals-all beans")
Not Ed: I'll bet
Cease: NK, my dad's dad was born in 1855, long ago
Not Ed: Yeah my relatives were depression kids
Not Ed: wow
Not Ed: my granfather was...I think 1890
Not Ed: on my dad's side
Cease: my new play reconfigures Europe, because HItkler was kept in jail after beer all putched
Not Ed: on my mom's side I've actually forgotten
Not Ed: that sounds good
Cease: a lot o fmyu family histroyr is in my plyas
Not Ed: remember rivers, nellie...
Nancy Kat: My Grandpa was 1908. My Grandmas parents came here from Russia, they met on the boat over.)
Not Ed: i think that's great C
Cease: lol not
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "What's it all about, Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Smith from Anytown, USA?"
Not Ed: wow historically romantic (or romantically historic)
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "I say Live it, or Live With It!"
Cease: i thjikn it's important to save memories, eh?
Cease: we should talk, Nancy
Nancy Kat: I had the idea to document my families stories (many "funny") but when you're young, you think you have forever and people would be there longer. I think my Mom still remembers most of it)
Not Ed: catherwood give everyone groat fritties and a glass of bricks
||||||||| Catherwood gives everyone groat fritties and a glass of bricks.
Cease: Take advantage of what you can, eh?
Nancy Kat: MMM bricks! *slides Catherwood a tenspot*
||||||||| Catherwood strides alongside Nancy Kat and says "Typing my name just to rile me, eh?"
Cease: Nancy do what you can while youstill can.
Not Ed: Y'now what sucks? I can remember my dad's voice, but I can't remember my mom's
Nancy Kat: (Cease-yeah. We found out my uncle passed last February. My cousin didn't contact us. He was 10 years older than my Mom)
Not Ed: I rem that she sang all the time --and sort of catch that way
Not Ed: catch hints of her voice
Cease: What do you feel about that, Nancy?
Not Ed: sympathies Kat
Nancy Kat: (NotEd- I'm sorry. I made some tape recordings of my grandmother, just talking to her, but the tapes got lost in a move.)
Not Ed: I wish I had done that
Not Ed: why are we whispering
Not Ed: that is a great sound effect
Not Ed: the unscrewing or whatever
Cease: My parents made a lot of recordings of themselves 80 years ago, bu trhe technicolgy has disapewared
Nancy Kat: (Cease-Well, conflicted. Due to some family drama afetr my Gran passed, we weren't on the best of terms. I'm more sad for my Cousin though, 'cause now he has to deal with my aunt by himself! (LOL))
Not Ed: ohh yes that's a factor
Cease: Nancyh, I want only good things to have happened to you
Not Ed: only love and kindness
Not Ed: you'll always find that here
Nancy Kat: (Cease and NotEd-Same. Times are unsure, we must cling to whetever happiness we can get.)
Not Ed: yes!
Not Ed: i love this record
Cease: true, Nancy. these adre trtubg tunesm in your country
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Stop torturing me Ethyl!"
Not Ed: So they got give me immortality on bandcamp now which is great
Not Ed: I can point fols to it
Not Ed: folks
Not Ed: https://firesigntheatre.bandcamp.com/album/give-me-immortality-or-give-me-death
Not Ed: Bluesky @indivisualist.bsky.social
Not Ed: I have a new album on bandcamp if interested you can read a little message on the page https://richcarlson.bandcamp.com/album/the-midway-sessions
Not Ed: frank you
Not Ed: I say that all the time
Nancy Kat: (NotEd-I use Fang You.)
Not Ed: hot lava lol
Not Ed: lol NK
Not Ed: great
Cease: HOw wonder4ful you are both active
Not Ed: gotta be
Not Ed: you too man
Nancy Kat: I barely stopped the Cat from getting into the crazy bread...)
Not Ed: these collages are the cat's meow
Not Ed: lol
Cease: i hope I can contintue to crearte all my life
Nancy Kat: (Cease-I'll drink to that!)
Cease: you and me drinkihg, is a wondeful idea, Kat
Cease: i arrived in Japan on Aug 16,1971 abd was required to drink. still do
Nancy Kat: (Cease-Lol, only if it's wine coolers, shots or mixed drinks. For some reason, I can't stomach wine or beer. I'd like to try Sake, just to say I tried)
Cease: it would be interesting to not be an alchoholic. whatever
Not Ed: i hope so too cat
Cease: i ike being alive sometgimes, and sometimes i don't
Not Ed: that you'll continue
Cease: i crewte these collages, and stuff, so that keeps me alive
Not Ed: oh my
Not Ed: end of show!
Not Ed: hey it's great to see you both
Cease: off we flee
Nancy Kat: (Cease-I always find something new in them. Thank you.)
Not Ed: it's very nice to come here and hang ; )
Not Ed: off we do
Not Ed: bbye NancyK
Not Ed: bbye C
Not Ed: poof!
||||||||| Catherwood enters the room, strikes a gong, and bellows "THE TIME IN NEW YORK IS 2 O'CLOCK", then silently exits.
Nancy Kat: (Love you guys. Will try to get stuff done so I can be back next week)
||||||||| It's 2:15 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| Nancy Kat - dead from jaundice
||||||||| Not Ed - dead from Globner's disease
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
||||||||| Catherwood enters the room, strikes a gong, and bellows "THE TIME IN NEW YORK IS 3 O'CLOCK", then silently exits.
||||||||| Catherwood enters the room, strikes a gong, and bellows "THE TIME IN NEW YORK IS 4 O'CLOCK", then silently exits.
||||||||| Catherwood enters, and announces to all and sundry "It's 4:31 AM, time to change the log file and clean out unused rooms; please exit the chat room for a minute or two. Thank you for your patience."

The Evening's Participants:
Beet
Cease
Deputy Dang
Elayne
llanwydd
Nancy Kat
Not Ed

URL References:
http://listen.ehhh.us:8000/rfd1
http://listen.ehhh.us:8000/rfd2
www.kurtericson.net/cat
www.kurtericson.net/firesign
https://firesigntheatre.bandcamp.com/album/give-me-immortality-or-give-me-death
https://richcarlson.bandcamp.com/album/the-midway-sessions