Episode 71: Sally Hawkins, Fossil Follies, and Chinese Thanksgiving
Sally Hawkins/Kevin Winter / Getty Images
Icebreaker: Procol Harum’s Gary Brooker Gary Brooker — founder of prog-rock godfathers Procol Harum and the man behind “A Whiter Shade of Pale” — works blue.
Small Talk: Swarthy Ski Masks, Visual Vending Machines & Turkish Taxis The folks at Marketplace regale us with some news stories you might’ve missed. Like the booming trade in bearded ski-masks.
Radio listeners heard Sean Cole, Marketplace’s reporter in Toronto, tell us why some Canadians are writing love letters to themselves.
A History Lesson With Booze: The Holy Grail of Fossils and “The Piltdown Daisy” In 1912, English fossil collector Charles Dawson claimed to have found evidence of the ‘missing link’ between apes and humans — people called it “Piltdown Man”. This week in 1953, news broke that the only thing “missing” from Dawson’s discovery was even a single grain of truth. Hear the story, then pull a hoax on your mind with this Piltdown-themed cocktail:
“The Piltdown Daisy,” as unearthed by Ryan Chetiyawardanah, bartender at 69 CoIebrook Row in London, longtime home of the fake missing link.
In a shaker over ice, add:
- 60 ml. Pisco
- 10 ml. lime juice
- 15 ml. lemon juice
- 15 ml. sugar syrup
- 6 mint leaves
Shake and pour into a cupette glass. Add a dash of soda and (if you’re feeling highly evolved) a few drops of Angostura bitters. Present it to your tablemates as “the missing drink,” and watch them believe you after downing a few.
Guest of Honor: Sally Hawkins British movie star Sally Hawkins won a Golden Globe award for her lead role in Mike Leigh’s film Happy Go-Lucky, and she’s currently on Broadway in a revival of Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession Her latest star turn is Made In Dagenham, the true story of a group of UK auto-workers who paved the way toward equal pay for women. Sally tells Rico about the inspirational nature of milk (and Milk) and why humankind should fear crows.
Main Course: Chinese Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is coming, and with it the inevitable boring turkey… unless you buy it in Chinatown. Brendan heads over to L.A.’s Chinese quarter — the home of the tasty phenomenon known as Chinese BBQ turkey — to dine at Hop Woo restaurant. How many non-traditional takes on the holiday bird can he sample? A lot.
One For The Road: Girl Talk - “On and On” Ex-DPD Guest of Honor Gregg Gillis (a.k.a. “Girl Talk”) storms back into the limelight with All Day - another mindblowing mashup of pop, hip-hop, classic rock, and all beats in-between. Example: “On and On,” in which the ghost of Biggie Smalls dukes it out with Cream. Best listened to while downloading the whole dang album for free.
Music On This Week’s Show:
Sea & Cake - “The Argument”
The Wedding Present - “Signal”
Link Wray - “Jack The Ripper”
Tipsy - “Liquordelic”
Knuckles O’Toole - “Oh You Beautiful Doll”
Courtney Tidwell - “The Missing Link”
Rob Crow - “Deep Sleep”
David Cosby - “Wild Turkey”
Girl Talk - “On and On”
I am scared to mention that the collective noun for a group of crows is “murder”, as in “a murder of crows stole my cellphone.”