Lunch Box Podcast

Ed catches a break from his son's impending terrible twos in order to chat with John about hoodies, cabbage rolls, bad salads, what to wear in Seattle, a very good egg sandwich, and writing at the mall food court. Follow links to The Shmenges' "Cabbage Rolls and Coffee", Filson Outerwear, and Inglehoffer wasabi mustard.

Ed had a bad AWP and John has new glasses again. They discuss the problems of attending a conference held in your home town, the horribleness of the United States Postal Service, the radical sexiness of the open kitchen, sauerkraut juice, and edible tableware. Follow links to Lookmatic, the Missoula avalanche, Frank's Kraut, The New York Times's no-knead bread, and Les Murray's The Daylight Moon.

This week Ed is podcasting from the kitchen, just after his final visit to the only lions in Seattle. John is recovering from his horrific visit to a local restaurant, and cowering at home from Ithaca's annual Chili Fest. Together, they discuss frozen chili, the enchiladas of Everett, the invisble man who controls the economy, elephants and orangutans who are strangers to Ed, and changing a stranger child's diaper. Follow links to the New Mexicans Restaurant, Peter Mountford's The Dismal Science, guys selling meat door to door, and the Prison Talk forums.

In their arbitrarily landmarkish fiftieth episode, Ed and John discuss the sentimental conditional (also known as the habitual mood), sentence pajamas, the 2014 AWP Lunch Box Podcast Dining Guide, Ed's secret anxieties, and the world's greatest imaginary poet. Follow links, lots of them, to Philip Seymour Hoffman's Esquire interview, The Complete John Lillison, Chiang's Gourmet, Restaurant Roux, The Seattle Seven, Bluefin Sushi & Seafood, the lyrics to "Ghostbusters", Will Wiles's Care of Wooden Floors, the books of Magnus Mills, and Steve Orlen's This Particular Eternity.

After their longest hiatus to date, Ed and John come back strong with a conversation about unemployment, Scottish bands, lists that John is on, pens, Spider-Man, Moses Lake, WA, and methods of drafting literary works. Ed disses a famous poet and John reads from a poem of Ed's that he forgot about. Follow links to The Hazey Janes, the notable people of Phillipsburg, NJ, Karas Kustoms pens and other metal things, and The Sand Bar.

Ed and John usher in the third calendar year of the podcast by discussing firearm cuisine, the demise of Ithaca's indoor pork food truck and the rise of its Szechuan restaurant, madness, barfing, football, and what is gonna be big in 2014. Follow links to the death of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Belly, Spicy Asian, John's cover of Alice's song, and Larkin's "Church Going" (accompanied by a tiny dancing man).

Ed and John are back with a new conversation about magic tricks, writer movies, television and pain, the looming significance of Santa Claus, and holiday travel. John ends the show with some dramatic readings from twitter. Follow links to A Fine Madness, Architecture for Travelers, The Art Guys, books on sentence diagramming, and Bob Ross.

Thanksgiving is over and Ed's mic broke, so he and John talk about holiday cookin', beds and breakfasts, Ed's penchant for a nice spritz and a ritual heating, and whether or not John should own a van or take in lodgers. Also John reads a Natalie Shapero poem. Follow links to Natalie's "A Moving Poem", Michael Robbins's 2013 poetry not-picks-exactly, Bob Garfield's Times piece on negative book reviewing, some nice pictures of the Oregon High Desert, ground cherries, Red Fang's "Prehistoric Dog", Mapcrunch, and GeoGuessr.

It's November, time for homemade twinkies and Canadian pornography! Ed and John discuss haircuts, eyeglasses, antique ventriloquist's dummies, Ovid on Florence Henderson, and hiding your vices from others. Follow links to "In Too Deep", by Lisan Jutras, The Room trailer, The Disaster Artist, horn-rimmed glasses, Alasdair Gray, David Abrams's "Like a Salmon Swimming Downstream", and the Authentic Twinkie Maker.

It's been a while since Ed and John have recorded a conventional episode of the podcast, and it's good to be back. Not that you'd know it from this overly serious discussion of experimental writing, earbud loss, cannibalism, and failing to get Barry Hannah's signature. Follow links to Seoul Taco, the Siege of Leningrad, Outlier slim dungarees, The Dorothy Project, Sparklehorse's "Little Fat Baby", and Hugo's letter to Simic.