Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch

Michael and Ethan have their first Very Special, a competition in which they try to stump each other with the openings of books. Don’t worry, there are stakes. (But not steaks.)

In this episode:

There are special rules, which Michael and Ethan do manage to break without acknowledging it (4 = 3, apparently)

Some really scintillating discourse about The Lake House starring Keanu Reeves

Believe it or not, and despite jokes made in this episode, the editor DID actually cut out a lot of silences

The article Ethan mentioned, where Gaiman starts off with a signature M&E catchphrase?

The badness of the content at the end is objectively Michael’s fault. That should just be on the record.

Next time Michael and Ethan will begin their discussion of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See.. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Michael and Ethan continue their discussion of I Am A Cat, by Soseki Natsume

In this episode:

A rubber seal of waxy approval

Like real men, instead of feeling our feelings we drink our whiskey

(If the audio seems jumpy in a couple places it’s because Ethan’s software was glitching + Ethan is bad at editing)

The cat is an Every Man

THE REFERENCE IS TO “ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA” OF COURSE

Modern Major General lyrics, for reference.

Next time Michael and Ethan will begin their discussion of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See.. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Michael and Ethan continue their discussion of I Am A Cat, by Soseki Natsume

In this episode:

Ethan maybe loses right away? But Michael didn’t catch it, so…

DECLINE and Fall, duhhh

Some really good info about Prince Arthur of Connaught

Time travel speculation

Michael admits Ethan is right about everything

Also, communication is impossible

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue to discuss I Am a Cat, by Soseki Natsume. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Michael and Ethan begin their discussion of I Am A Cat, by Soseki Natsume

In this episode:

Immediate digression into Irish stouts, sorry

For the record, the line Ethan butchers is “…torment/Of love unsatisfied/The greater torment/Of love satisfied

Soseki wrote Lost in the Cosmos 80 years early?

We are all burglars and detectives

Kids these days

Saw, But You’re Chained to a Bear Trap and the Instructions to get out Are in Cursive

Good homework boy

All narrators are cats

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue to discuss I Am a Cat, by Soseki Natsume. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Michael and Ethan begin their discussion of I Am A Cat, by Soseki Natsume

In this episode:

Politics and current events, obviously

Seduction books vs bonding books

The Sordid Histories of Wives and Books

Violence

Arguing

The Truth of Cats

Mistakes

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue to discuss I Am a Cat, by Soseki Natsume. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

In one of their patented specials, Michael and Ethan discuss informal poetry, or as anyone other than us might call it, Free Verse.

Poems discussed:

“The Leaves,” by Austin Smith

“The Second Coming,” by William Butler Yeats

In this episode:

Protestant Whiskey

Leaves, but not leaves, if you know what I mean

Form, but not form, y’see

A possibly imaginary sonnet

Punctuation

Ethan says “most people” when he means “most people reading poetry in English,” sorry

Either we do Yeats dirty or he does us dirty, or both

We know Ethan’s had enough Bushmills when he goes on a history rant

The next book is Michael and Ethan’s Annual Mondo Book, which we will spend four episodes on. This year’s Mondo Book is I Am a Cat, by Soseki Natsume. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

In one of their patented specials, Michael and Ethan discuss formal poetry—why is it? How is it?

Poems discussed:

“If We Must Die,” by Claude McKay

“Sestina of the Tramp-Royal,” by Rudyard Kipling

“On Claude McKay’s ‘If We Must Die,’” by Tonya Foster

In this episode:

The hosts are ANCIENT

We only do one cool thing on this podcast

Discussion of definitions, speaking of cool

To be clear, Ethan is trying to say he taught the sonnet wrong the first time he did it

Ethan tried for literally dozens of minutes to find the origin of the “One man’s terrorist” phrase, and Google had nothing. If you know it, go ahead and let us know and we will… be really grateful

Michael means “aleph,” which to be fair, seems very close to the Greek letter “alpha”

Sestinas probably make sense to somebody

Some very slight (a lot of) Kipling ambivalence

The next book is Michael and Ethan’s Annual Mondo Book, which we will spend four episodes on. This year’s Mondo Book is I Am a Cat, by Soseki Natsume. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Michael and Ethan continue their discussion of Despair, by Vladimir Nabokov.

In this episode:

A shocklingly concise start

If two people look like each other, they can be mistaken for one another

The triumphant return of Names With Michael

A special guest

An amazing race

Quite frankly, Ethan forgot to take any notes while editing so he probably missed some stuff

The next book is Michael and Ethan’s Annual Mondo Book, which we will spend four episodes on. This year’s Mondo Book is I Am a Cat, by Soseki Natsume. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Michael and Ethan begin their discussion of Despair, by Vladimir Nabokov.

In this episode:

We always pluck the low-hanging fruit, and the high-hanging fruit

Scotch noises

Very interesting pronunciation discussion

Yeah, Ethan voices suspicions about some stuff that is apparently just true

Michael says “maybe” and Ethan says “he never” put on the podcast a theory that Ethan definitely floated, like, 3-4 episodes ago

Shockingly, there is discussion of Tristram Shandy

Nasal passages (thank you)

Michael doesn’t take one for the team

Next episode Michael and Ethan will continue to discuss Despair, by Vladimir Nabokov. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Michael and Ethan continue to discuss Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys.

In this episode:

A third host joins the podcast, but not like THAT

Michael is generous, or is he?

Ethan was definitely trying to think of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”

The discussion goes pretty deep pretty quickly and it’s kind of hard to say sarcastic things about it?

Most of the episode is spent on three pages of the book, sorry

But at least the previous point is acknowledged so you’re not allowed to be mad?

Ethan accuses Jane Eyre of having warts

Michael finally reveals his true motivation for making the entire podcast

This is the “Michael making his high school teachers mad” show (not the same as the previous point)

Next episode Michael and Ethan will discuss Despair, by Vladimir Nabokov. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.