Weekly Firesign Chat Cheese Log

A Firesign Chat
05/22/2025

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 May 22, 2025 officially open!"... and then, he retires back to the vestibule...
||||||||| "8:00 PM? 8:00 PM!!" says Catherwood, "Tweeny should be here by now...oh, THERE you are!" as Tweeny enters and sits at the bar.
||||||||| New notice: '** WE'RE GLAD YOU MADE IT!! **
The Firesign Chat & Show starts at 7pm Eastern/6pm Central/5pm Mountain/4pm Pacific
Tonight: A Replay of May 14th, 2020
From The DUKE OF MADNESS MOTORS Collection
“Don't Open The Door On Reality”
plus a collage from Cat Ishikawa “The 2 Ages Of Man”
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 says "Catherwood, call me a cab." After the obvious joke, Tweeny exits at 8:00 PM.
||||||||| Catherwood strides in with a trumpet, plays a fanfare, and proclaims "Nine PM on Thursday, May 22, 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 BuzzyKrumhunger bounds out, carrying a grape from ancient Greece.
||||||||| Billy T enters at 8:00 PM as Catherwood takes their hat and goat and runs off to the Chapeau Manger.
||||||||| Outside, the 8:00 PM bus from Funfun Town pulls away, leaving Deputy Dang coughing in a cloud of diesel fumes.
Deputy Dang: Howdy, Billy T!
Deputy Dang: Howdy, BuzzyKrumhunger!
||||||||| It's 10:45 PM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| BuzzyKrumhunger - dead from the common cold
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
||||||||| "8:00 PM? 8:00 PM!!" says Catherwood, "Cease should be here by now...oh, THERE you are!" as Cease enters and sits on the divan.
Cease: HI all
Cease: Hi Billy
Cease: You from Billville, Billy T?
Deputy Dang: Hi, Cease!
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "What's all this brou-ha-ha?"
Deputy Dang: BuzzyKrumhunger was here earlier. Neither they, nor Billy T, has been responsive.
Cease: alas
||||||||| Catherwood enters the room, strikes a gong, and bellows "THE TIME IN NEW YORK IS 11 O'CLOCK", then silently exits.
||||||||| It's 11:00 PM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| Billy T - dead from Covid 19
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
Cease: actually that's rather common. i suspect some folks are just passing through.
Deputy Dang: Or passing away...
Cease: I was quite ill earlier this week so couldn't get a show together. Asked Tweeny to replay something from the past.
Cease: Proctor's weekly KPFK show just played some stuff from the very beginnig of Oz, 1966. I'll be playing it soon
Deputy Dang: Ah. I hope you are feeling better.
Cease: mostly. today's the first day i've been relatively functiional this week.
Cease: i could not type on tuesday and only slilghtly yesterday. today, my fingers have returned.
Cease: handfs are still quite shakey
Deputy Dang: doesn't sound fun. most days, typing is the most exercise i get.
Cease: lol
||||||||| Catherwood walks up and snorts derisively "Presenting 'Pedro', just granted probation at 8:00 PM", then leaves hurriedly.
Deputy Dang: Howdy, Pedro!
Cease: Hola, Pedro
Cease: Are you AI or do you exist?
Deputy Dang: I ask myself regularly and still don't know the answer. I haven't even figured out if AI means Artificial Intelligence or Actually Incompetent.
||||||||| It's 11:30 PM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| Pedro - dead from intense demonic possession
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
Cease: pedro is part of an army of these bot-like visitors. but it was like that from the beginning
||||||||| llanwydd bounds in at 8:00 PM carrying an obsidian door knocker.
llanwydd: dont tell me there is only three of us
Cease: Hey Llan
Deputy Dang: We've also had 3 bots/non-speakers.
llanwydd: hi C
Deputy Dang: Howdy, llanwydd!
llanwydd: hi D
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Don't worry about the flies, we won't weigh 'em!"
Cease: i've been here with Tween for a large part of the show.
||||||||| With a theatrical clearing of his throat, Catherwood snorts derisively: "8:00 PM and late as usual, it's JZip, just back from Billville."
llanwydd: wish I had gotten here earlier
Deputy Dang: Howdy, JZip!
Cease: i mean old shows, not this one, although this is an old show. i asked tween for a repeat because i wasn't hesalthy enough to do a news show this week
Cease: Zippy the J
JZip: I am not a bot.
JZip: Hi, folks!
llanwydd: Hey Zip
llanwydd: click here to prove you are human
Cease: i'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a bot replacing me
llanwydd: lol
JZip: I love it--the machines give us tests to prove we're human.
Cease: tom waits once said, "i'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy"
llanwydd: lol
llanwydd: I think Steve Allen said that many years before Tom
llanwydd: but it was free frontal lobotomy compared to free bottle in frontame
Cease: could be, steve was the origin of much. but never thought of steve as a lush. he could never have done that much if he had been as drrunk/strung out as jakc kerouac, or tom, etc.
llanwydd: no it was in a sketch
Cease: protor and ted bonnit told stories of steve allen on their Tuesday show. check it out, on their archive
Cease: steve did a series of interviews with Firesign for NPR in the 90s
llanwydd: NO KIDDING
llanwydd: did not know steve knew fst
Cease: they were friends
llanwydd: cool
Cease: he was very avant guarde.
llanwydd: I remember fst on npr back in the nineties
llanwydd: I was a rabid fan of npr throughout that decade
llanwydd: prairie home companion, wait wait dont tell me, morning edition, bbc world service,etc
llanwydd: for a while it a apr, american public radio
llanwydd: was
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Join the expectant crowd gathering now as we stop here on..."
JZip: APR became PRI.
llanwydd: strange. i dont remember pri
llanwydd: public radio international?
llanwydd: that does seem familiar
||||||||| "8:00 PM? 8:00 PM!!" says Catherwood, "Mutt should be here by now...oh, THERE you are!" as Mutt enters and sits on the divan.
Cease: yeah jzip maybe it wasnt npr. it was called Back From The Shadows, but i definitely reccorded it from my tuner from Seattle NPR station. alnog with john hockenberry's Heat, with proc/berg
Cease: Hi Mutt
llanwydd: welcome, mutt.
Mutt: Evening all!
Deputy Dang: Howdy, Mutt!
Mutt: Hey Deputy, Mr. C and The Welshman
Mutt: And JZip!
Cease: my dad was on george putnam! advertising his ford dealership. a competitoir with ralph
Cease: my dad knew ralph when he was general manager of Lou Ames Ford. Harlan Ellisnon has a hilarious story about Ralph in those days
JZip: The competition was weird back in those days.
Cease: Lou was kidnapped and Ralph went to deliver the ransom, and then beat the shit out of the kidnappers.
Mutt: Wow
Cease: My dad's dealership, Wray Brothers Ford, was taken over by the mafia in 1975.
Mutt: That must’ve been scary
Cease: NO shit. I was living in Tokyo and had just been offered my dream job. A weekly radio show on the national radio station that every student had to listen to.
llanwydd: I used to invest in george putman a shares
Cease: But I had to turn it down to return to Vancouver to make good money to suddenly suppport my suddenly poor parentss, afrer a lifetime of relative allfuence
Mutt: As they say, the mob don’t play
Mutt: That sucks beyond measure
Cease: Turned out for the best. I met my wife a few months later here. We've been marriede for 50 years
Cease: Vic Weiss, the mafioso who took over Wray Bros, was invited in by the Ford Motor Company.
llanwydd: you had a nation-wide audience? that is impressive
Mutt: Good on the both of ye! My inlaws were married for 78 years and then we list both kf them in a span of six months last year.
Cease: He's a sympathetic character in the TV series Wininng Time about the Lakers. He was a friend of the owner.
||||||||| 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: I saw it on the long flight from Frankfurt to Van last year. Was so incensed, I emailed the FBI aboiut it but neverr heard back from them.
Mutt: I just passed the 35-years-legal line myself. 40 if I count the time we lived together before getting hitched.
llanwydd: seventy-eight years is a long marriage. also very impressive
Cease: We do what we can, eh?
Cease: REally bad things happen in everybody's lives. We survive the best we can.
Mutt: My inlaws used to hold hands whilethey walked. People would tell them how cute it was at their ages (90+). The used to respond that they were simply holding each other up to keep from falling
Cease: Having support helps a lot.
Cease: like sex mad fish
Cease: i think my mother's desire for sexd with my dad killed him. he fell off the bed and soon after, died. age 90. probably happy
Mutt: We do, and it does. That’s what friends are for - support, not sex-crazed aquatic vertebrates
Cease: this is my favourite poem
Mutt: My sound isoff. What poem?
Cease: david ossman's poem about the day of his birth. 1936
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Let the air out of your shoes and prepare yourself for a period of simulated relxation."
Mutt: Ah.thanks
Mutt: Of all the poetry I have read the one that sticks the most, especially as I have aged , is Tennyson’s Ulysses. Don’t know why but it just smacks me dead.
llanwydd: I have always wondered how fish mate but have never found it appropriate to ask
Cease: lol
llanwydd: got to read ulysses sometime
Mutt: That’s why WC said he avoided water, “Fish f-ck in it.”
llanwydd: lol
Cease: the firesign did a movie script based on Ulysses.it's now for sale. want to get it.
llanwydd: just occurred to me now that there are three classic works of literature by that title
Cease: mostly when i eat out, i eat fish. it goes best with sauces
llanwydd: had sushi yesterday
Mutt: I was a late-comer to sushi. The years I missed …
llanwydd: me too
Mutt: Truly one of the great regets if my life. That and a few other foods.
llanwydd: cat, ever had fish curry at an indian restaurant?
llanwydd: got to have it at eleven on the heat scale
Cease: yes. i have Figian Indians in my extended famiy, and have had more Indian food than I can remember.
llanwydd: cool.
llanwydd: indian curry is my favorite food
Cease: not a fan of sushi. i first lived in Japan in 71 and liked a few of them, cucumber, egg, cooked shirmp and a wondeful japanese veg without an english bname.
Mutt: Oddly Indian food does little for me. I eat it but don’t crave it.
Cease: then i totallylost the ability to eat rice in 1987. unfortunatley i lived in japan, til 88.
Mutt: Oy
Cease: can't eat rice in japan is a problem
Mutt: Iz mir
llanwydd: I first had indian food in NYC very shortly before I saw FST at Town Hall
Mutt: Can you deal with it, niw?
Mutt: Now?
llanwydd: the place was really dark. I had a chicken kabob that nearly burned my lips off but everything was delicious
Mutt: I imagine NYC has awesome Indian food
llanwydd: it does. so does london. I have had it there too.
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "This is Major Hit in the cockpit of the Enola McLuhan."
Cease: had some great indian food there in 2005 with late chatter Dexter Fong and chat founder Elayne and Doc Tech
Mutt: Cool
llanwydd: yes major
Cease: gresat tomato dish.
Mutt: Dex! I miss him a lot.
Cease: me too. i stayed at his place in manhattan and went to a bunch of restaurants and museums with him
Cease: we were close
Mutt: I only knew him through chat but he was a wonderful wit and soul
llanwydd: I usually like curry mild but sometimes I want to incinerate my throat
Cease: indeed, mutt
llanwydd: but john greenleaf was wittier
Cease: was he a chatter?
llanwydd: thats a pun
Cease: we've had so many in the last 30 years
llanwydd: has it been that long? I joined about twenty years ago
Cease: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Greenleaf_Whittier
llanwydd: thanks for the link
Cease: elayne and her then husband came to van in early 95 and then the chat was started shortly thereafter
Cease: we visited ossman. his ilbrary is awesome
llanwydd: her husband was english wasnt he?
Cease: tnhis is the first time i've heard this in many years. it's really good
Cease: new one is, this guy was her area
llanwydd: I am sure his library is impressive. such a literary genius
Cease: i only learned about firesign usenet group in 93 wihch put me in touch with eleayne and then proc.
Cease: went down to seattle when they performed there in 94. our first meeting since 1969
llanwydd: I saw that usenet group about the turn of the century
Cease: visitied phil and melinda in la in late 95. she told me to write plays. i've taken her advice.
llanwydd: I have met phil. he is a very friendly guy.
Cease: true
Cease: they are profoundly social folks. well, they need an audience, eh?
llanwydd: lol
llanwydd: I met the other phil too. I didnt get to meet dave or pete
Cease: all wonderful guys
Cease: were you in my We're All Doomed project that Ossman asked me to based on his diary?
Cease: Seeral chatters were.
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Everyone knew her as Nancy."
llanwydd: yes, cat. I recorded for that project.
llanwydd: I hope he heard me
Cease: i don't know when doc is going to finish Smetana, but I have to move on. Lots of German charfacters, as it is a play about the Centennila of Weimar
llanwydd: have you heard from doc lately?
Cease: i admire your German accent.
llanwydd: thanks, cat
Cease: The Cerman chancellor is the MC. Tells a story about keeping Hitler in jail which is why Weimar survived. Big sceene with shitler in jail.
||||||||| It's 12:45 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| Mutt - dead from jaundice
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
Cease: by mutt
llanwydd: is tween coming back to sign off?
Cease: this is a repeat from 5 yesars ago
Cease: we wil find out, if his current interatin appears.
llanwydd: aha
Cease: i'm am somewhat privliged to have the capacity to play this wonderful firesign collage
llanwydd: they had chicken and waffles back then?
llanwydd: what is this from, cat?
llanwydd: that was a great monologue there
Cease: tis is from tghier Fools in Space series on Xm in 2001
llanwydd: cool
llanwydd: goshen daily news. ol
llanwydd: l
llanwydd: I saw an authentic photograph of jqa. no kidding
Cease: ?
llanwydd: john quincy adams
Cease: ah
||||||||| 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:
||||||||| Deputy Dang - dead from Globner's disease
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
Cease: was photography invented then?
Cease: by dang
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "A fair for all and no fair to anybody!"
llanwydd: I think it was taken in1848
Cease: ofrf we go. new stuff next week
Cease: by
llanwydd: thanks cat and tweeny. good night everybody
||||||||| It's 1:15 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| JZip - dead from the common cold
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
||||||||| It's 1:30 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| Cease - dead from the fiddlers
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
||||||||| It's 1:45 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| llanwydd - dead from intense demonic possession
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
||||||||| Catherwood ushers BuzzyKrumhunger in through the front door at 8:00 PM, picks up his cues (only slightly scorched), and heads for the billiard room.
||||||||| It's 2:30 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| BuzzyKrumhunger - dead from pneumonia
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
: Dex! I miss him a lot.
||||||||| 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:

Cease
Deputy Dang
JZip
llanwydd
Mutt

URL References:
http://listen.ehhh.us:8000/rfd1
http://listen.ehhh.us:8000/rfd2
www.kurtericson.net/cat
www.kurtericson.net/firesign
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Greenleaf_Whittier