Have you wondered what “ortolan” might be? Have you ever been dissatisfied with the air conditioning in your discount hotel or motel? Perhaps you’ve been looking for a solid gold business investment opportunity and just haven’t landed on the right thing yet. Maybe, even, you want to wear your own dog’s fur. Regardless, do we have an episode for you! All those topics and many, many more besides are waiting to march happily from the Shed to your head, right here, right now. We know you’ll be all happily satisfied after another tasty mental meal, so pull up a chair, grab a napkin, and tuck right in.

About 50 years ago, the Whole Earth Catalogue was published, providing people with all the information and tools they needed to build their own geodesic dome homes and grow gardens and weave clothing. It also had a fun story in a lot of episodes entitled “Divine Right’s Trip”. In this episode we mainly hear about RJ’s recent 31-day sojourn in Europe, his driving experiences, food experiences, phone and translation app experiences, and increasingly hopeless efforts to talk to security guards and people in very long washroom lineups. It has that same sort of good-natured-slightly-chaotic-but-I-wanna-do-this feel as that 50-year-old column. Dig in. Listen. Laugh. Pick up a tip or two. It’s all here.

Way back in Episode 95, Member of BC’s Legislative Assembly (MLA) for North Vancouver – Lower Lonsdale Bowinn Ma made her first appearance here on the podcast via Zoom. Here in Episode 140, she returns for a live in-person visit to the Shed. We spent a great hour or so discussing major transit projects with BC’s Minister of State for Infrastructure, as well as talking about the future of electric vehicles in BC, the relationships between housing and traffic, and the concept of attempting to future proof major infrastructure. Along the way we discover to our surprise that politicians do not get free food at the Legislature cafeteria and that the general public can go eat there, too! Mostly, though, what we get is time with an active, imaginative, constituent-centric representative who wants to accomplish things other than just being elected. As if that all weren’t more than enough, you’ll also get to hear a candid account of how fascinatingly eclectic the Shed experience really is for first time visitors.

Hayley and Ron of Montreal return to experience first-hand the swirling, murky mental landscapes of a session in the Shed featuring KJ’s Short Snappers. We are very fortunately grounded by excellent listener mail, but our connection to Earth gets a little tenuous here…again. Strap in and turn on!

Special guests Hayley (formerly of North Vancouver but now of Montreal) and her partner Ron (grew up in Montreal) step into the Shed to…well, really just to compare notes, pros and cons, of the two cities. Food and weather, culture and history, and of course the big one: language. PJ’s hope for a black or white, right or wrong opinion on which is the better place is once again dashed, but along the way are a few surprising insights from our guests. For instance, who would you think loves the outdoors more? Where can you get a better hot dog? In which city will a perfect stranger shovel out a parking spot for you? You’ll just have to listen. Vive la différence!

RJ returns from Las Vegas bearing at least one gift nobody wants, but still we get a great look at the world of competitive foosball (and a qualified endorsement of discount operation Flair Airlines). PJ is so excited he tries to volunteer to go play in France for Canada’s World Cup foosball team, in spite of an almost total lack of expertise. KJ shares with us some of the fruits of his steadfast attention to US politics, which leads us seamlessly into reflecting on the definitions of the words “psychopath” and “ sociopath”. Finally, we speculate on what the coming summer’s weather may look like, as a way of coping with KJ’s disappointing travel news.

It’s that special, lovely time—the time when we hear about how this year’s Oscars program went down. We build up to it with some talk about a couple of Beatles and Steely Dan specials as well as hearing the latest from KJ on the run up to the Emmys, and on the technical marvel that is the Murphy bed he is building. Finally, RJ and PJ exchange notes on their adventures in language and travel, both today and 30 years ago. There are a lot of twists and turns here, so make sure to be safe while you listen!

“In the spring an old man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of table saws and robotic waiters and new tech deployed in old games like curling”. That’s roughly what the famous poem says, and the proof is right here in this episode as we talk about those very things, as well as about RJ’s date with destiny in Las Vegas and whether 1980 was the best possible year to have been born in. We also have a lot of very fun email from faithful listeners, which goes a long way towards offsetting a bit of PJ’s customary vinegar (this time about the Pope, among other things). So sit in the garden while the bees buzz and the birds sing and have a listen!

Sure, this could be an opus, but really the title refers to RJ’s thorough and affectionate review of the old TV series Magnum, P.I. If you’re less than of a certain age you may wish to look it up. RJ is becoming his parents and this review is one of the many fruits of that growth. We also get to hear of a terrible misunderstanding about how to prepare a turkey, talk about the amazing new refreshment Liquid Death, and provide some helpful—if a little unwelcome—news on changes to recycling rules. All this and more in the time it takes to have lunch - we’ve set the table and now all you have to do is enjoy!

In this riveting episode we discuss KJ’s work on the stage comedy Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer, now playing to live audiences in Vancouver. And an excellent show it is! We also provide perhaps our most enthusiastically harsh movie review ever, in addition to reviewing a lot of very terrific Listener Mail. On top of even all that goodness, we have another instalment of the crowd-pleasing “KJ’s Snappers” to entice and inform listeners worldwide! The Doginators give the thumbs up and middle finger in the same episode: it's a Hobson's choice. So put on your sunglasses and dive in… we are back!

When you were young you played Snakes and Ladders, right? Well, this episode isn’t that. Here we get gritty insights from KJ and RJ on solving rat problems, and have to recover with the palate-cleansing pleasure of reading Listener Mail. Maybe it was all that talk about nasty smelly rodents that led us to it, but we end up talking about the movie “Terminator: Dark Fate” (spoiler alert: just say no) and what makes actors do bad movies. There are no real shockers here, but a lot of good mostly clean fun, so sit down, face off, and listen up!

Here we find reflective, philosophical Shed Dogs pondering the path to great art and good parking spots through visualization at the same time as they provide solid, practical information on important day-to-day challenges, like how to pronounce that fast moving COVID-19 strain name. From these dizzying mental heights we return to mere mortal levels and talk about what’s good on the streaming services these days. You’ll certainly feel embiggened after this 39-minute visit, ready to plunge whole-heartedly into your day, secure in your new knowledge in these important areas. It’s just what we do.

When Kirkland Body Wash is labeled 100% All Natural, think twice. When we tell you we are 100% all natural, take it to the bank. It won’t be worth much to all the newly created billionaires out there, maybe, but to you? Solid gold. In this episode, speaking of the nouveau riche, we discover what the Internet thinks KJ is worth, we hear about a CBC gig he has coming that should increase that yet more, we learn that Chromer of Duncan is very pleased with his new dentures but that KJ is unmoved by beautification efforts involving surgery. Pity. It’s a lemon-scented potpourri of opinion and information, and we invite you to just breathe it allllll in. Now, with jojoba!

Whether this reaches you before, during, or after December 25, and whether you celebrate it or not, the Shed Dogs wish you and yours a very merry Christmas with the promise of a great New Year to come! In this episode RJ pulls back the curtain on the surprisingly opulent lifestyles of certain foosball players, while KJ lets us in on the real highlights of going to a Canucks game. PJ drops some left-handed compliments and we promote some twitter accounts. We even manage to work in some more beloved Listener Mail, so have a listen while the video fire crackles on the screen, and slide right into the season with us.

Some edits may confound, but, hey, it’s waves from the shore baby.

Way back in Episode 113 we blundered our way through a non-explanation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Friend of the show Jesse of Montreal heard the call and sent the best-ever explanation and you get to hear it! Leigh of Courtenay heard us recommending a podcast whose ultimate author may have some credibility problems, and she responds, too. From handling bananas to NFTs to Canadaland to garburators and beyond, our listeners get involved in this episode and it’s great! We also get a nice helping of KJ’s quick snappers and spend some time on a bunch of movies and TV shows and stars, like Ted Lasso and Steve McQueen (and yes, it’s only here that such strange bedfellows make any sense). Have a listen, form your opinions, and keep sending those notes!

Join KJ as he takes a full-glam trip to New York City to join in on a Screen Actors Guild panel for Schmigadoon!, hobnobs with other famous people, sees several Broadway productions, and dazzles his daughter Lucy with the full weight of his fame and personality. He really does go where everybody knows his name, even in der Grosser Apfel! Bonus: dog medical procedures and waterproofing Gore-Tex.

Okay, look, we’ll level with you: sometimes we don’t plan out every minute of our content. Here in Episode 126 we have may actually workshopped some stuff for about a minute. Somehow, we got lost in KJ’s Short Snappers, which ended up covering everything from molecular weight to CB radio codes to strange sport sayings. We did manage to squeeze in useful counsel about credit cards and rewards programs and we ginned up some material on Costco-ing responsibly, but really… there is an abundance, nay, a plethora of odds and ends in here that will hopefully serve you well going forward… We just can’t say where it all came from.

This episode sees the mighty Shed Dogs preparing to break out onto the global stage at last. RJ reveals his quest to make the Canadian Senior Foosball team and represent Canada at the ITSF World Cup next year, while KJ prepares to jet off to the Big Apple on someone else’s dime to help represent Schmigadoon! at the Screen Actors Guild nomination process. We get another round of fun listener mail, and RJ makes a compelling pitch to one-up those Tesla owners by donating to a charity dedicated to reducing global carbon emissions. Meanwhile PJ continues to pitch dubious get rich quick schemes…

This week’s episode opens with some more excellent listener mail before taking a look at the charitable and not-so-charitable aspects of “We”, the organization which has given the Trudeau family and the Liberal Party fits. By fun contrast, we also have KJ’s fabulous Snappers, and as a bonus, Al Franken. We (and by that we mean us, not the Great White Saviors) have some sad tales of changing driving habits in our demographic, which are then redeemed by a story of great detailing services, which we heartily endorse. It’s an emotional rollercoaster with the proverbial happy ending. Okay, maybe not the proverbial one.

Not only do your Dogs spill the beans about “The White Lotus”, but we also have a good look at what happens when mercury is spilled these days—believe us, it’s not like Mr. Fodor’s Chem 11 class any more. We get to hear about RJ’s and Sue of Burnaby’s new Prius Prime, and in case their happy experience there whets your shopping appetite we also touch upon the coming wave of Chinese-made EVs. Warning: if you dislike spoilers and are planning to watch “The White Lotus”, maybe just accept our enthusiastic thumbs up and skip the last half hour or so here. We were very excited about that series…