Greetings, beloved Listeners, and happy Spooky October/Gnarly November!

As you may know, Molly has this newsletter called I’ve Got a Feeling, and for some reason she had a feeling that she wanted to interview me! We started out by talking about a hockey game and a Pixies album and ended up talking about how to give yourself permission to grow old and not turn into a jerk. Eddie Vedder wanders in at one point.

We even talk about some Big Ideas. Have you ever noticed that “Big Ideas” sounds like a semi-normal thing to say, but if you said “Large Ideas” you would immediately reveal yourself as a sleeper agent?

Molly has made the full interview available even if you don’t subscribe to the newsletter. Here you go!

The spoooookiest bonus episode

Listener Gina wrote in to request an episode on syrups. “Except cough syrup. Because that’s not a food. (Or is it?)”

It’s not a food, but it’s now a bonus episode! Here’s the official description:

This Halloween we are tasting the scariest flavor of them all—or we would have but Matthew forgot to buy it. Molly struggles against Matthew’s new alter ego as they contend with childhood fears and childproof caps. After some tingling tongues and meta-analysis we realize that the corn friends were inside us all along.

Listen now at magnumbonus.com (password: magnumbonum) or by adding the RSS feed to your podcast player.

We need to talk about about Canada

Recently we had comedian John Gabrus on the show talking Travel Food 2, which as everyone knows means “researching where you’re going to eat and what you’re going to do on a vacation.” As Producer Abby put it in the show description, one thing we talked about was the delights of boring cities.

WOTSL and I just spent ten days in Calgary. You’ll be hearing LOTS more about it on the show. Way too much. To the point where you’re going to want to go to Medicine Hat instead, just to spite me.

Now, look, I’m not going to say Calgary is boring. But here’s the best way to confuse a Calgarian:

Me: “I’m visiting Calgary.”

Calgarian: “Cool, how many days are you spending in Banff?”

Me: “Zero.”

Calgarian: …

Banff is a picturesque Rocky Mountain resort town about two hours from Calgary with skiing and hiking and presumably drinking hot chocolate in a chalet and stuff. We didn’t go there.

Instead, we stayed in Calgary for ten days and mostly just walked around. We ate poutine at a chain called The Big Cheese. We got a cheese plate from Peasant Cheese and ate it at our Airbnb. We even did some non-cheese-related activities: We spent a lot of time walking on pedestrian bridges across the Bow River, which is lovely and runs right through the middle of town. I became obsessed with the Black-Billed Magpie, a beautiful bird with iridescent blue or green pigmentation and a comically long tail. Black-Billed Magpies aren’t a rare sight in Calgary. They’re pests. I love them.

I hiked across Calgary’s largest urban park, Nose Hill Park (this is its real name), and found its most celebrated tourist attraction:

The Old Car of Nose Hill

Nose Hill Park is completely bizarre. When I saw it on the map, I was like, cool, Calgary’s got its own Central/Stanley/Volunteer park. It probably has a hot dog stand and an amphitheater and a Claes Oldenburg sculpture.

It has none of those things. It’s just a hilly, windswept grassland, home to about 200 wildlife species. The best way to enter the park is through one of the pedestrian tunnels along the east side.

A guy with a dog entered the tunnel a minute or so before me, and it’s a good thing they did, because my thought process went like this:

1. That looks like a death tunnel to Hell. I’m not going in there.
2. Hmm, that guy’s going in there. But he’s probably a murderer.
3. That’s a cute dog. A murderer wouldn’t have a cute dog.

We road bikes along the river and visited the fancy new central library. I took the train to the University of Calgary and got a Coffee Crisp Blizzard at the Dairy Queen. At the Canadian National Music Centre, I teared up at an essay by a guy whose roadie friend invited him to watch Rush soundcheck at the Saddledome. We watched half a dozen Hallmark-like romance movies on Netflix, and earned Producer Abby’s scorn for watching Christmas movies before Halloween.

Ten days is a long time—enough that we got to know our neighborhood pretty well, although we’re still not 100% sure whether it’s called Kensington or Sunnyside. So I highly recommend Calgary, but really, if you’re as old and boring as me, I recommend leaning into it, and taking a cheap vacation where you basically do all the same shit you would do at home but with better birds.

What else is new?

Did you know we have a new website? You can now get all the show notes for each episode right on the website where they belong, along with the transcript. And you can search past episodes! Now there’s no need to email me to ask, “Have you done a spaghetti episode?” (We haven’t?!)

Where have we been?

Aside from Travel Food 2, we recently did a Dried Fruit Showdown. I don’t remember who won, but probably prunes. Honestly, looking at this list of recent episodes, what is going on? Hot Lettuce? Corn-Based Cereals? I hope they’re good, because I don’t remember any of this!

Where are we going?

Molly and I both have busy falls ahead, so we’ve banked some episodes. How far ahead? Well, on December 15 I have it on good authority that I’ll be feeding Molly her very first Philly cheesesteak. And the following week (December 22), we’ll be talking about this “oat milk” that all the kids are into.

Last Thursday (October 27), we found ourselves talking Gnocchi, which I guess is our Halloween episode? I guess if you make them right, classic potato gnocchi look like fluffy little ghosts. Boo!

What are we into these days?

Molly: I’m into roasted cauliflower, Levi’s ’80s Mom Jeans, rewatching Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and enjoying it so much more this second time, a whole bunch of albums from 1970. (Editor’s note: Obviously I asked Molly which 1970 albums she meant, and she cited Grateful Dead, American Beauty, and George Harrison, All Things Must Pass. Then I made a joke about an album about cyborgs called Maybe Not All Things Must Pass and she ignored me.)

Abby: I’m into Midnights, rewatching Harry Potter during October, big pots of soup and reading many books. 

Matthew: At the National Music Centre in Calgary I was introduced to an amazing solo artist named Nuela Charles. She’s from Edmonton and writes and sings super-catchy soul-influenced pop songs. Start with her 2022 self-titled album!

Thanks so much to everyone who subscribed during the fall pledge drive, everyone who upgraded, and everyone who’s been with us for years. That adds up to all of you!

Love,

Host Matthew