Hola, Sneakers. Welcome to Episode 438 – continuing the countdown to Episode 469! Aw yeah!

This week Ian and Dave talk: ineptitude; cable TV; laserdiscomania; uncomfortable movies; big TV; differences; ban it; the Cluedo question; dumb thing of the day; lazy TV; fixed endings; happy endings; creepy crawlers; monster booster; the honeymoon team question; fantasy theory; SCTV; Frito time; creepy charactere; bad TV: the Fantasy Island deep dive; feeling sorry for your past self; it gets worse; hard to shop these days; back to the old normal; phrases to avoid; pitch resistant; talking with strangers; small town girl; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; shout out to mustard pickles; stinky sanitizer; hot aliens; pulled a Dave; and, finally, shave and a haircut – no luck!

Thanks for listening.

Question of the Week: Have you ever invented something or fixed something up and improved it? In Ian’s words, pulled a Dave.Sub-question: Is there a movie or show that you loved as a kid, but were disappointed by it when you saw it later in life?

Don’t miss out on your chance to WIN WIN WIN

That’s right! Our 450th episode is fast approaching and we will be hosting our traditional Listeners’ Questions Episode! Every question gives you a chance in our GRAND PRIZE DRAW. The more questions you ask, the better your chances to win! So get to asking!

Send your list of questions by email to [email protected]. If you’d like, record your questions, send us an audio file, and we’ll play it during the show. Fun, right???

Interested in some Sparks merch? Check out Nina’s fabulous design here.

Dave says: Here are some sweet pics of the things I purpose-built at work – a cardboard cutter and a spring wrapper. Basically, I only have OSB sheathing and two by fours to work with so I have to get creative (or bring things from home):

I guess this is a rear view of the cardboard cutter. You can see where the cardboard goes in and the adjustable edge depending on the size of the cardboard.

You can see the cardboard coming out and the slice at the 25″ mark for a 24″ section. The three holes allow for cuts at 25″, 22″ and 20″ – 1″ more than our different sized sections.

A pretty simple solution for a fixed blade. I used the table saw to cut a groove in a piece of two by four and jammed a utility knife in it. No glue – just good old friction. You can see how I layered the wood so the main part of the assembly could hold the blade block.

Here is the spring wrapper with a spring conveniently in place being wrapped. As I said, built from OSB sheathing and two by fours. You can see the handle which I made by straightening a spring cut-off and bending it into a handle shape.

A close-up of the wrapper carriage. As you can see, the wrap is supported by the metal tube and then pushed along by the sliding carriage. I probably could have made this more efficiently, but I was making it up as I went!

Another close-up, but it’s hard to see the sliding piece – basically it’s a four by four we had laying around with two grooves cut into it using a table saw, and an opening for the shrink wrap cut with a router I brought from home.