other people's problems
obsessed with NPR and its fascinating personalities

This afternoon I cooked an elaborate brunch for myself (cinnamon raisin french toast, smoky seitan) while enjoying the WHYY pledge drive/Car Talk/Prairie Home mashup. I had a rough couple of days this week and spent a lot of yesterday crying out some frustrations and feeling sorry for myself. As Garrison Keillor wavered sweetly forth, I started cleansing the kitchen of my minimal, and my housemates' maximal, mess.

In the midst of my self-pity and soapsuds, the pledge drive alms-beggars are Mike McGrath (You Bet Your Garden; the most overenthusiastic host on the airwaves) and Maiken Scott, his producer. I know her as the gentle cynic occasionally heard on Voices in the Family, greatest call-in advice show ever. Apparently she produces Mr. Annoying as well. Anyway it seems they don't get along--he kept loudly proclaiming that she was laughing ten times more at the PHC "Pretty Good Jokes Book"* than she ever had on his show. She gently and firmly agreed. They repeated this type of exchange, with varying concealment of nastiness, for two hours.

I figure, if Mike McGrath can have a fairly successful show on a major NPR station, while conducting an amiable siege with his producer, what right have I got to cry over my self-perceived lack of homemaking skills? Just saying.

Ooh! The icy February wind is making my windows shudder and my window-wrap flutter. Letting in the cold, of course. Now is the time to fill my Rubber Ducky hotwaterbottle, Anachronism of the Year, and adjourn to my dear sweetheart's warmer apartment.

*What do you get when you eat onions and beans? Tear gas.