Reconcilable Differences

Things kick off with a cameo and Merlin’s abortive attempt to make a connection.

Next, John reeds Merlin the riot act on his unintentional use of red receipts. Merlin pleads nolo contendere but, as you can imagine, this does not dissuade John from explaining how he broke some cockamamie social contract. The complexities and risks of asynchronous communication are explored.

Merlin makes a case for broader use of procedure words. He also wants to learn how to do those cool hand signals.

In Follow-Up, John shares some encouraging news about his childhood teppanyaki destination. Enthusiasts of life's ephemera are celebrated, and John professes his own enthusiasm for a free grill-cleaning show.

Teppanyaki videos are further discussed, because they are awesome, and it was cool to hear how many of you agree. Competence Porn is enumerated, before the conversation somehow turns back (yes, again) to teppanyaki videos.

As something like a main topic, Merlin offers a sheepish series of recent anecdotes regarding technology and hasty decision-making. He seems not to remember this being his idea (he did that), which he is surprisingly not all that sheepish about. But, let's be honest. Technology can be terrible and very confusing.

With that said, the new Macintoshes are very good. And, finally, Merlin narrowly dodges a bullet with another completely avoidable bonus consumer technology mishap.

(Recorded on Tuesday, December 29, 2020)

Gasho delivers great tastes and transcends the ages as we bring you back to the original hibachi mastery of old.

Procedure words or prowords are words or phrases limited to radio telephone procedure used to facilitate communication by conveying information in a condensed standard verbal format.

For those who've always wanted to know the different SWAT and sniper hand signals, here you go.

Bios and whatnot that I use on twitter dot com (hotdogsladies)

Time Stamp: "There are warnings of gales in Trafalgar."

"I'm just trying to match your ENERGY."

"This restroom is awesome! Rating: 10/10."

"The guy at Lawnware wanted to make the ultimate rental chair, and I'd say he did."

"The elevators are pretty boring but the shopping cart escalator is awesome!"

It's the thrill of watching talented people plan, banter, and work together to solve problems.

"We provide miniature kitchen, and kitchen tools such as kitchen knife, the movies of miniature cooking are very popular on You tube now."

“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever…"

Straight to the point buying recommendations. We purchase our own products and put them under the same test bench, so that you can compare the results easily. No cherry-picked units sent by brands. No ads. Only real tests.

John has questions about Merlin's weird obsession with teppanyaki videos.

Things kick off with (surprise, surprise) some complaints about Skype, alongside ruminations on what might eventually replace it as the podcaster's app of choice. Also, please don't asterisk your first-person swears. It's unseemly.

In some important John-centric Follow-Up, the listener is brought up to speed on the status of his eyeglasses and, regrettably, his deeply problematic toe. John also has a terrible song from a video game to share with the class.

Sometimes, you just want to watch somebody be great at their job.

This leads to a nostalgic amble through the storied event dining of your hosts' youth. Birthday Boy gets to pick the place, but do be sure to warn your siblings when the tabletop inferno is about to pop off. Also, your hosts debate the role and timing of salting meat.

After-times meal planning is proposed.

(Recorded on Tuesday, December 15, 2020)

Sometimes, you just get lucky and find the right show at the right time.

Things kick off with John's dissection of Merlin's bespoke automated filler text. This leads to a fascinating discussion of Lorem Ipsum, type specimens, and lexical anomalies.

Which, of course, leads to a look at Tenet (available in cinemas everywhere now). John has some sports analogies, and Merlin found himself rewinding a lot (in the cinema, of course). Merlin likes specificity, and John sees protons and anti-protons across Nolan's oeuvre.

In further media dissection, your hosts talk about Ted Lasso and The Crown.

Your hosts share wisdom from their kids' schools.

(Recorded on Tuesday, December 1, 2020)

The song is intended to sound to its Italian audience as if it is sung in English spoken with an American accent, vaguely reminiscent of Bob Dylan

In publishing and graphic design, Lorem ipsum is a placeholder text commonly used to demonstrate the visual form of a document or a typeface without relying on meaningful content.

A pangram (Greek: παν γράμμα, pan gramma, "every letter") or holoalphabetic sentence is a sentence using every letter of a given alphabet at least once.

Mike and Sarah are journalists obsessed with the past. Every week they reconsider an event, person or phenomenon that’s been miscast in the public imagination.

("He's a pale fellow…Is this all he does?")

John has questions about Merlin's projects.

Things kick off with some new hardware, an examination of hair hats, and a look back at a self-similar fast food clown.

In the extended members-only episode, John and Merlin talk about making art. Go to https://www.relay.fm/rd to become a member today.

(Recorded on Tuesday, November 17, 2020)

✅🇺🇸

(Recorded on Saturday, November 7, 2020)

His main contribution to theoretical neurobiology is a free-energy principle for action and perception (active inference).

Norman Lear's moving response to the recent presidential election.

Another election. A different result. Let’s talk around it.

Welcome to the post-truth world. You know it's not real. But you accept it as normal. But there is more out there. HyperNormalisation.

He argues that an army of technocrats, complacent radicals and Faustian internet entrepreneurs have conspired to create an unreal world

Our world is strange and often fake and corrupt. But we think it’s normal because we can’t see anything else. HyperNormalisation - the story of how we got here.

Divide and choose (also Cut and choose or I cut, you choose) is a procedure for envy-free cake-cutting between two partners.

(Yelling happened multiple times throughout the movie.)

In an addendum to a previous topic, John talks about what it was like to actually attend the infamous Action Park as a kid.

Things kick off with a discussion of election plans. What a time.

This leads to a discussion of the roller coasters and thrill rides that Merlin adores and young John very much did not.

In the extended members-only episode, John and Merlin listen to music that was personally recommended to them by you, the listeners. Go to https://www.relay.fm/rd to become a member today.

(Recorded on Thursday, October 22, 2020)

History of Kings Island Amusement Park in Mason, Ohio as told by Gary Wachs, the creator of Kings Island, and several influential people that had a hand in birthing the park.

The passenger capsules travel around the perimeter of the boom at 4 revolutions per minute (rpm), not particularly fast, but the "flip" around the end of the oblong frame causes a sudden burst of speed and sends the compartments flipping end over end.

John has questions about the bizarre surveillance state Merlin has installed in his garage..

Things kick off with a post-mortem on the recent song challenge as well as an extension of that challenge that requires input from you, the listener. Hit us up at @RecDiffs with #listen.

John goes a little meta to interrogate how Merlin's brain functions and wonders where a catch phrase actually started. Maybe you know? You do that. Considering phrases we picked up from relatives and/or TV.

John has questions about Merlin's experimental garage panopticon. After providing some context on how and why one might have a box full of disused security cameras, Merlin lays out the details of the bizarre surveillance state he's created to track and analyze the movements of a recent visitor. Things get more than a little Dale Gribble.

The rest of the show concerns news of a popular social media platform announcing their intention to minimize the reach of fringe conspiracy groups and content. No spoilers, but if you're a big fan of Facebook, you might want to skip this one. Because, oh boy, do your hosts ever go off.

(Recorded on Tuesday, October 6, 2020)

The company said an earlier effort to curb the conspiracy movement’s growth didn’t properly address its increasing popularity.

The approximately 450-page document, capping a roughly 16-month investigation by the House’s top antitrust panel, found that the four tech giants relied on dubious, harmful means to solidify their dominance in Web search, smartphones, social networking and shopping — and in the process evaded the very federal regulators whose primary task is to ensure that companies do not grow into such unmatched corporate titans.

As a main topic, your hosts talk about "Dangerous Things We Did as Unattended Kids."

In follow-up, John has extensive clarifications regarding the importance of saucing the pasta in accordance with his instructions. So, of course, he also has some more instructions. Ultimately, John just wants to help you, the listener.

Moving on to kids and eating, your hosts contrast their views on how to manage a constantly moving target. Merlin doesn't want to contribute to an eating disorder, and John has grave concerns about whether his son could survive when confronted with an unopened container.

Inspired by the recent documentary about Action Park, your hosts recall some of the inadvisable things they each did in the absence of adults. No spoilers, but Siracusa easily wins this one. How is this man still alive?

In the extended members-only episode, John and Merlin challenge each other to curate and present some songs that they think their co-host might like. Go to https://www.relay.fm/rd to become a member today.

(Recorded on Tuesday, September 22, 2020)

Here’s my advice, in no particular order.

As a main topic, your hosts talk about those movies. You know the ones. The ones you discovered when you were supposed to be asleep and you weren't allowed to watch anyway? Yeah, those.

John quickly puts the kibosh on Merlin's idea for a special theme episode.

John has Follow-Up on his self-imposed egg homework and invites some friends for a socially-distanced meal. Merlin's kid attends a socially-distance birthday party. What a fun time to be alive, huh?

John's usual method of remembering a song fails him, and Merlin bemoans the weird chronological gaps in what makes it onto YouTube. Fancy restorations of music videos are addressed. John can never remember what he's said in a podcast episode until he listens to it.

A novel musical challenge is posed for the next member episode. Merlin likens John to a passive-aggressive rodent. In a nice way. John saw a movie Merlin loves, but, as usual, Merlin is reluctant to hear what John thought of it.

In what has fast become a regular segment, your hosts complain about where other people keep putting things. Merlin is rethinking his pots and pans strategy, and John introduces a new technology in fancy cookware. John's daughter has a somewhat daring approach to learning how a fire extinguisher works. The most dangerous shoes are the ones that can't move.

Then, there's the movies and trailers that just scared the bejesus out of you. Before the internet, it was very difficult to find almost anything.

Welcome to the highly specialized and deeply opinionated world of cast iron skillets.

John has Follow-Up on the name of an Australian rock, and Merlin learned New Zealand's true name from an old Split Enz song. Doesn't seem all that difficult to call things by the old name, but what do we know?

Merlin did not watch any educational YouTube videos, but John is just asking the question. A glimpse into Merlin's perilous journey into John's pasta sauce recipe is teased. John job-shames Merlin for some reason. Then, Merlin digs up a very old email exchange with John that, in retrospect, set the tone for their entire relationship.

John has some questions about what Merlin was planning to do before he forgot about the recording.

This leads to a riveting tour of Merlin's history with the notoriously finicky kitchen implements, including leaning how to use, maintain, season, and re-season them. It's ultimately less of a tool than a project. Which can be fun if you like that sort of thing.

This, in turn, leads to some strongly held opinions about the broader topics of sound kitchen praxis and, as ever, the Sisyphean role one inhabits as the only person in the house who understands how to do things properly.

John speaks passionately about furniture and floors and the various scratches he apparently just has to live with now. What do you expect when you're a Zentradi?

Finally, Merlin went and got a banker's box, and brother, you really do not want him to go and get a banker's box.

(Recorded on Tuesday, August 25, 2020)

That means you can use either Uluru or Ayers Rock to refer to the rock. However, in the national park we always use the original name: Uluru.

Aotearoa, rugged individual.

Geographical renaming is the changing of the name of a geographical feature or area.