37-12-03 Rush Needs Money for Christmas Shopping

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Christmas 1937

Rush has made a Christmas list.  He's whittled it down to the bone.  He's got very little cash to work with.

He's going to Plan B; all he has to do is get the dough from good ole' Gov -- well, make that, get past Sade in order to get it from Gov.  It's not an easy task.

SEE SOME DIALOGUE AND SYNOPSIS

___________________

Rush knows Gov has a soft heart.  The trouble remains; Sade also knows Vic has a soft heart.
 
This episode compares in some ways with this one, a rather odd episode where Rush went to Vic's office to ask for Christmas funds.

That particular episode took place in 1941.  Let's look at the difference in lists between the two episodes:

 We can compare Rush's Christmas lists from 2 years

The price of Vic's gift remained the same.  Poor Vic, always getting the shaft.

Trivia:

* In the story about the imaginary 'Rollo K. Wintersquat' at the institution, Vic suggests he be sent some fudge.  That's not the only time someone locked away and fudge being sent to them are mentioned; Dottie Brainfeeble sent fudge to Martin Jordle, the man whose wife signed a paper and then the next thing he knew, he was in prison for 40 years.

* You wonder how good you can "get in" with a man by buying him a stinky, nickel cigar?

* "Bernardine" is once again mentioned in the script as an homage (you'd think) to  Bernardine Flynn. I'm almost certain that "Bernardine" was mentioned another time as well, but I'll be doggone if I can find the reference.

* Sade recalls Steve Kodunk in Dixon, whose father used to drown him with money.  He'd have a nickel or dime to spend every single recess and the kids would buzz around him like flies.

Hmmm.  You wonder how many kids would be swarming young Mr. Kodunk in 2015?  In the age of iPads and XBox, I'm guessing not a whole lot.

click to enlarge

* It's likely that this story line (or something like it) took place nearly every Christmas on the show.  I believe Rhymer eventually took Sade out of the equation because she's generally a major league frump when it comes to spondulix, plus the shows with just Vic and Rush (that we know about) all turned out to be genuine peachy episodes.  Certainly Rhymer knew
this or you'd think someone told him.

* This episode took place on the road, as did apparently, several other episodes during the latter end of 1937.  This episode was live from Kenosha, Wisconsin.  We are most fortunate (thanks to Barbara Schwartz and the Friends of Vic and Sade) to have an article from the local paper there from December 4, 1937.  The interview probably took place the same day this episode was broadcast.  [Dunno about you, but I love neat stuff like that.]

44-02-10 Mr. Donahue's Grudge Against Mr. Gumpox

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND DAVID WHITEHOUSE

Russell explains to Vic and Sade that Mr. Gumpox, the garbage collector, feels that Mr. Donahue doesn't much care for him.

There's a bounty of evidence to back up this theory, including new allegations that the friendly man-next-door throws hot coal into Gumpox's window in the middle of the night, scaring the poor man to death (man, he's got it tough in that crazy hotel!)

SEE THE SCRIPT (part 1) (part 2)

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Sade, not knowing if 'Pa' Donahue is a coal chunker or not, does not accept the accusations.  After all, his wife and she are arms-around-
the-neck chummy.  However, prior incidents of blowing of kisses was misinterpreted and the fact that Donahue's lunch was once eaten by Howard (because of Donahue's own carelessness), can't really be blamed on Gumpox.  By all accounts, Gumpox is a nice, generous, sensitive (albeit somewhat narcissistic) man - that everyone likes - except Mr. Donahue and perhaps, Vic.

Trivia:

+ The family discuss the fellows in town who cry a lot.  Who cries the most?  The Brick Mush man, followed by Messrs Sludge, Gumpox and - a surprise - Erickson, the Gooks' landlord.  This is the first we have heard of Erickson's emotional outbursts.

+ This may be first time Leland Richards has been mentioned since he stayed with the Gooks and became 'homesick' about a year prior to this episode.  He appears to at least be an acquaintance of Russell.

+ Both 40-01-19 Gumpox's Horse Eats Donahue's Lunch and 40-06-24 Mr. Gumpox Blows Kisses were mentioned in this episode.

38-xx-xx Books

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

The episode begins by Rush telling about a Third Lieutenant Stanley book he's reading called, Third Lieutenant Clinton Stanley on the Campus or Winning Laurels for Old Alma Mater. The book is about Third Lieutenant Stanley playing football for both Harvard and Yale - at the same time - because he attends both universities!  He even scores a touchdown for both teams on the same run because:

They line up the two gridirons in a row.  Third Lieutenant Stanley gets the ball an' runs the length of one gridiron an' then keeps right on going an' runs the length of the other gridiron.  Two touchdowns at one an' the same time.

Later, he hazes 15 college freshman singlehanded!

You better watch out, said one big lubberly freshman.  But Third Lieutenant Stanley only smiled.  His hand darted out with the speed of lightning an' a moment later his victim lay writhing on the campus with a broken leg.

Another exciting part of the book involves the Lieutenant landing in his airplane right on a baseball diamond where Yale is playing out in the field.  He times it just right where he makes a catch of a high fly that wins the game for dear ol' Yale.

Other Third Lieutenant Stanley books are mentioned as well: Third Lieutenant Clinton Stanley's Big Love Affair which he had borrowed from Blue Tooth Johnson.  One of the more unusual things that happens in the book is that the Third Lieutenant assassinates a sheik by hitting him in the head with a... camel!  Another is Third Lieutenant Clinton Stanley as President of a South Sea Island Republic.  And yet another volume is called, Third Lieutenant Clinton Stanley in the Tropics or Twenty Years among Savage Cannibals.

A bit in one book (not mentioned which one) had the Lieutenant's mother walking across a tightrope over Niagra Falls.

The plot of this Vic and Sade script though is about the Brick Mush man giving out free books as a premium for buying brick mush (if you buy a whole ton of brick mush, you are entitled to a free bass viol.)

In this episode we find out the real name of the Brick Mush man: Mr. Keefer.  He apparently doesn't like/want people knowing his identity.

His son, Elton, is friendly with Rush. Elton, like his dad, is a very shrewd businessman.

Names of books given away by the Brick Mush man for a premium include:

• Dorothy an' Her Daddy or Romping Among the Buttercups
• A Brief Biography of the Father-in-law of Tyson R. Poppell
• Tricks a One-legged Man Can Perform with a Dead Gorilla
• A Report of the Work of the Sub-Committee on the Boundry-changing Issues of South-Central Illinois
• The Life of U.S. McGraw
• The Romance of the Hinge
• Twinkling Tunes for Tiny Tots
• Sightseeing in Sunny Kansas (Rush found this book on the streetcar tracks and later traded it to Elton for a skate key.)
• Fun and Excitement You Can Have While Polishing Silverware
• The Soul of Bernie Gummerman
• The Great Warm Heart of My Uncle, Oscar Y. Slump
• Famous Indian Fights of South Dakota
• How to Handle Ill-tempered Horses
• Little Princess Piggy and' Her Punkin-headed Pig
• East Duckworth, Oklahoma, Land of Sunset Dreams

Gloria Golden is in a film currently running at the Bijou.  The movie is called, Foreign Legion Farewell.

Uncle Fletcher was kicked in the shin by his horse when he lived in Dixon.

SEE THE SCRIPT

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The book, A Report of the Work of the Sub-Committee on the Boundry-changing Issues of South-Central Illinois, was found 2 years later by Rush (also, oddly enough, on the streetcar tracks) in this episode.  Imagine, a two year-old joke by Paul Rhymer!

40-10-14 E-Z Slippers

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Vic finds out that he's about to become the recipient of many pairs of E-Z slippers for Christmas (just 10 weeks away).

SEE SOME DIALOGUE AND THE SYNOPSIS

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I'll bet you - like me - never realized that E-Z slippers were as popular on the show as all of this.

Perhaps you didn't realize that Mr. Sludge and Vic were 'arms around the neck, chummy.'  Well, they weren't.  But 1940 was a far different world than 2015 and beyond.  Mr. Sludge and Vic were neighbors.  They lived across the alley from each other.  Vic had talked baseball with Mr. Sludge - even though Vic had no interest in talking with him (he referred to him as a slob) {{{HEAR}}}  No, they weren't friends, but Mr. Sludge probably thought pretty highly of Vic, enough to MAKE him a pair of E-Z slippers.  I'll bet Vic didn't make Sludge anything.

Vic wasn't friends with Noah and Beulah either, but they sent him E-Z slippers.  Beulah's father rented to Vic.  That was enough of a connection to draw a homemade Christmas gift in 1940!

That's another thing about this episode - people made gifts for one another.  They took their own personal time to construct the gifts.  They didn't lay out $12 each at Walmart (Yamilton's) and purchase them by the bushel, like we might do today.

Trivia:

+  Miss Hammersweet's E-Z Slippers have little calendars on them.  They fit over the insteps like shoe buckles – small metal frames, and inside the frames are little... (we never find out the rest).

+ Who's Vic getting slippers from?  Miss Hammersweet, Beuhla and Noah, the Brainfeebles, Mr. Sludge, Ike Kneesuffer, Mr. Ruebush, H.K. Fleeber, and Mr. Gumpox.

40-xx-xx Uncle Fletcher, from Dixon, is a House Guest

STARRING: BERNARDINE FLYNN, BILL IDELSON AND CLARENCE HARTZELL

Uncle Fletcher - a guest at the Gook house - has made himself at home.  He's gotten to know the neighbors and yells at them out the window (probably disturbing Mr. Donahue), he's made a very large number sign for the house (only he's painted the wrong address on it) and he's clumsily nailed himself to a chair.  He gets up at 5am and talks to himself.   He's also sent away for his rocking chair so that he can be more comfy.

This distresses Sade.  She is very mindful of Mr. Donahue's sleep and how her house looks.

She tries to get Rush to talk to Uncle Fletcher - to make him understand he needs to chill out.

SEE THE SCRIPT

_______________________

I get the feeling that Rush does not worry about this as much as Sade is does. Rush sounds a bit like Vic here.

All these things that worry Sade, won't hold a candle to all kinds of crazy things he will do the rest of his Vic and Sade life.  After all, he just got to (*the town Vic and Sade live in.*)

And while there are many things about Uncle Fletcher to worry about, the only real thing that will really bother her in the future will be his comings and goings around the railroad and streetcar tracks (although a close second might be the the way  that he emotionally blackmails her at times - but that's for another episode.)

39-03-10 Sade – A Slick Operator

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sneaky Sade finds a way to purchase a Sunbeam Mixmaster, a product being promoted by the show's sponsor, Crisco.

SEE SOME DIALOGUE AND THE SYNOPSIS (part 1) (part 2)

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The Sunbeam Mixmaster and Crisco teamed up on an advertising campaign in March of 1939. I cannot find any of those ads on the internet.  What I
did find though was that the Mixmaster probably did save a lot of time - if you were inclined to do things such as buff your silver. Yes, this mixer had an attachment to buff your silver. It also had an attachment to sharpen your knives and open cans. There were attachments to help you make mixed drinks, grind your own meat, and many other applications.

This is not the earliest date in which we have heard about Third Lieutenant Stanley.  He first showed up in the surviving material in January of 1939.

In case you didn't catch it when reading above, Sade cleverly used a penny and amplified it quietly to the enormous sum she was seeking from Vic.

Trivia:

+  If you haven't already figured it out, this was a special contest script: promoting the advantages of having a Sunbeam Mixmaster to make great food with Crisco.

+ Here's a list of all the kids Rush got a chance to name off before Vic stopped him:  Wendell Scott, Keith Vines, Ross Anderson, Lyle Roll, Lester Nafziger, Charley Neece, Everett Ireland, Harry Bliss, Ed Smoler, Bill Moore, Tom Keefer, Sam Sunkman, Millard White, Emory Jackson, Cecil Koker, Clyde Schnepp, Orval Lesters, Ellis Prossman, Joe Greel, Dwight Montgomery, Edmund Klin, Arch Cunningham, Robert Miller, Osbert Reynolds, Harry Ives, Walter Sneed and Franklin Obee.

45-11-27 Parade of Interruptions

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN, BILL IDELSON AND CLARENCE HARTZELL

Sade complains to Vic that she can't get any work done because visitors keep interrupting her.

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And she aint kidding! Sade is interrupted by a total of nine people, including Vic.

This is a better than the average show, although, it's not one of the better ones.

Trivia:

+ Vic came home early from work because workmen were hammering on the steam pipes.

+ Sade complains to Vic about the visitors simply walking in the house without knocking. This was never a problem before 'Series 2' because there were no real people (save the Brainfeebles and Leland "I Want My Mommy" Richards.) This "problem" was created by Paul Rhymer!

+ Those who had bothered Sade before Vic arrived:

• The Brick Mush man
• Mr. Sprawl (he came to bring embroidery hoops that Mis' Harris had borrowed.)
• Vernon Korkell (not to read the meter but to kiss-off time.)
• Mr. Gumpox (he just noticed the big chip knocked out of the garbage box. That incident occured July 28, 1944, almost a year and a half prior to this incident!)
• Mr. Erickson (wanted to see if the back porch really needed to be fixed.)
  
• Rishigan Fishigan (came by to see if the Gooks needed their windows washed.)
  
• A cosmetics saleman (he had some stuff to smear on your face to make you look pretty.)

Once Vic got to the house, more visitors (all real characters) arrived:

• Orville Wheenie (he came by looking for Vernon Korkell who was long gone)
• Uncle Fletcher
• Mr. Gertner (The City Water Inspector; his first appearance. He seems to know Uncle Fletcher pretty well, since he calls him "Fletch.")
• Jimmy Custard (Still confused, he's lost his glasses and thinks Sade is called, "Mrs. Emerson.")
• Harry Dean (A telephone repairman; his first appearance.)

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44-09-05 Sade's Debtors

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY AND BERNARDINE FLYNN

Sade tries to figure out who owes her money and how much.  She gets Vic to help.

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In another episode, Russell and Vic talk about Sade being tight-fisted. While she's not selfish, she certainly proves in this episode that she keeps track every penny owed to her.

This episode is full of interesting trivia.

Trivia:

spondulicks

+ Mr. Croucher (ie. Croucher's grocery store) is actually a butcher. Croucher's grocery is probably a butcher shop that also sells other items. 

+ The cost of a single brick of mush costs ten cents. The Brick Mush man adds three cents to each brick for "tax," yet the money goes into his pocket. The Brick Mush man is called, "shrewd" by Sade but it's pretty obvious that he's actually a crook.

+ Mis' Call is the kind of person who doesn't want anyone to owe her anything and doesn't want to owe anyone anything.

+ Mis' Donahue likes pecans on her chocolate ice cream.

+ Mis' Otto and her young son Clarence were mentioned for the first time. Clarence is obviously Cracky's younger brother.

+ Sade uses the word 'spondulicks' twice in this episode, making the 5th and 6th times in the surviving series.

+ The owner of Kleeburger's is Mr, Kleeburger and this was the first time he was mentioned by name.

+ Sade and Mis' Heddles made a bet about which side of the street a house was on. The house in question was an odd number address. Sade said she won the bet because odd numbers are always on the right (that's incorrect, they are on the left) - however, they were probably going down the street "the wrong way" meaning everything was backwards. Either way, the bet was only for a penny!

This episode confirms that Mis' Heddles is a member of the Thimble Club.

+ The Greek has a weighing machine outside his confectionery.

+ Russell wears neckties to school.

+ Sade is owed a total of $9.82 by her friends; $9 of which is owed to her by Ruthie Stembottom, who is afraid to pay up because her husband Fred will notice the large amount.

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44-06-09 The Lunges are Coming

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND DAVID WHITEHOUSE

Sade gets a last-minute post card in the mail, Herb and Kissy Lunge are coming - tonight! Though she's never met them, they are friends of friends and wants to clean house and make a nice impression.

Meanwhile, a bewildered and sleepy Vic and Russell (Bijou ticket already bought) are forced into manual domestic labors beyond their comprehension.

SCRIPT (part 1) (part 2)

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A few episodes back, Sade was complaining about entertaining people she didn't know, yet here she is doing the exact same thing.

This is one of the funnier episodes in the second half run of the Vic and Sade series.

Trivia:

+ Sade says since the Lunges are coming by car, there's no way to tell if they will be on time.  She still has no idea that miles per hour indicate that miles per hour a car is driving - in other words, it's easy to figure out when you will be at a certain point.  She also had trouble with this in 37-06-04 Sade's Trip to Dwight.

+ I've come to the conclusion that Art Van Harvey (Vic) is _by far_ the best actor in radio history as far as acting "half asleep." In this episode, we get another earful of Vic: {{{HEAR}}}

+ Herb and Kissy Lunge (from Logansport, Indiana) are making their way to Keokuk, Iowa.

Keokuk is famous for being the birthplace of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and the city has been mentioned (mostly as a "funny place name") in several TV series.

+ Ed and Margaret McFrogth are also mentioned - they too hail from Logansport, Indiana.

+ Herb works for the government. Kissy's real name is Katherine.

+ The Brick Mush man stops by - apparently to ask permission to use the Gook front porch to change his shoelaces.(Writer Paul Rhymer seems to have a humorous fetish with shoelaces.)

+ Vic manages to "accidentally" call Herb and Kissy Lunge, "Boob and Huggy Lunge."  Twice!

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43-11-11 Stingyberry Jam

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN, DAVID WHITEHOUSE AND CLARENCE HARTZELL

(((HEAR)))

B.B. Baugh wants to have Uncle Fletcher peddle his stingyberry jam house-to-house. Sade however, is against the idea.

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Trivia:

+ Uncle Fletcher ran into Ernie Fadler, who had just eaten at the Little Tiny Petite Pheasent Feather Tea Shoppy. He had eaten the following things: fresh bread, mealy potatoes, preserves peaches, olive root, rutabaga shortcake, scalded cucumber and fed grass oxbutter!

+ Uncle Fletcher and Sade both remember Lena Pritchard from Dixon; she was a very smart girl. She could add up the numbers of the boxcars on the train when it went past. But she did it once too often and got hit by a train. Her uncle, Ollie O. McDozer, cried really loud when she got hit.

+ Uncle Flectcher says Ed Winklemanflirch from Dixon could fall asleep 30 to 40 times (presumably in a day.)

+ Sade referred to the stingyberry jam as "horrible" and described it as "green and cloudy and funny."

+ Stingyberry jam contains 46 ingredients.

+ Sam E. Honker (from Belvidere) was a man who married a woman 19 years old and hated well water however he later cultivated a taste for it. He eventually liked well water better than warm lemonade, muskmelon cordial, choke wood fool or any drink.

Vic falls asleep: {{{HEAR}}}

Notice how Russell's "ha ha" sounds like Nelson's "ha ha" on The Simpsons: {{{HEAR}}}

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43-03-05 Vic Entertains Dottie

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND RUTH PERROT

Sade has an obligation to the church bazaar and since Dottie Brainfeeble is visiting, needs Vic to stay home and keep her company for nearly 5 hours.

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Of course like any sensible man would do, Vic leaves Dottie less than a minute after Sade has walked out the door. There's nobody (aside from Sade and Dottie's feeble-brained husband Chuck) that would want to stay around Dottie more than a minute.

Trivia:

+ Hank Gutstop calls and borrows $2 from Vic. Vic says he keeps a tally of how much Hank owes him - but in at least one previous episode, he had no idea how much Hank owed him.

+ Chuck and Dottie are talking about moving next door to the Gooks, meaning that in a missing episode, we lost someone moving away.

+ Dottie is very affectionate. She kisses Vic and gently crushes his cigars in his coat pocket.

+ Dottie is under the impression that Vic sells lumber.

+ It must have been very impressive and in some ways "sexual" (if I can use that term here) for men during this time period (1932-1944) to wear a clean white shirt everyday. Sade has said her sister Bess mentions it and Dottie mentions it in this episode and it's always mentioned in a sensual kind-of way.

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42-08-06 Christmas Cards C.O.D.

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY,  BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sade - always on her toes to deflect Christmas card salesmen (especially during the summer months) is tricked into purchasing a set of cards from her niece, Euncie Helfer, who has deviously(?) mailed the package C.O.D.

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Sade doesn't really know if she was intentionally tricked or not. One might say then that if this really was a trick by Euncie, it worked perfectly.

Don't put it past Euncie to be devious. Recall in an earlier episode she put a nix to the letter-writing that Sade and her mother kept backing her into a corner -- by writing letters at an alarming rate.

Trivia:

+ Despite the fact that a set of the Toldeo, Ohio Christmas cards have always been ten dollars, Sade only had to pay $2.46 for her set from Euncie. Is that just the postage? We'll never know.

+ Sade received all the free gifts that come with a purchase of the Christmas card sets: a coupon entitling your initials to be pasted inside one of your hats, a coupon for one hour's worth of free parking in Toledo, Ohio and a coupon for three free handshakes from anyone you choose out of the telephone book of the St. Paul, Minnesota telephone directory.

+ Since the last episode about the selling of Christmas cards, the following people have taken up the job: Euncie, the Brick Mush man and Beulah Feeple.

+ Sade was wanting to put the Christmas cards away in the bottom buffet bureau drawer. Recall that the drawer has been relegated to a lot of items precious to Sade but also a lot of junk in the past.

+ Before she can put the cards up though, Rush wants to purchase them and give them to his friends.

+ Sade and Rush discuss the fact that "Sade is not a comical person."

+ Vic is away on an inspection tour for Consolidated Kitchenware.

+ The show's original ending has the organist playing Christmas music (this is an August episode.)

Rush and Sade read off some of the new '42 cards (edited): {{{HEAR}}}

CHRISTMAS CARDS

Before the advent of email and animated websites, people used to celebrate important occasions by using the postal service to send each other decorated pieces of sturdy paper, often featuring some sort of encouraging or celebratory verse. These notes were called "greeting cards." Do you remember them? Electronic communication has made them less prevalent, though they can still be purchased if one knows where to shop. They provided the recipient with a token of good wishes more permanent than a telephone call, or an email. Back when Vic and Sade was being produced, greeting cards were a principal way to commemorate important occasions.

Of course, I'm being facetious. Even today, the greeting card industry is far from dead. At one time, though, greeting cards were such an important part of life that they were available, not only in shops, but from enterprising friends and neighbors. A reader could hardly open a magazine without seeing advertisements for sales kits from greeting card companies. On Virginia Avenue, greeting cards – or more specifically, their sales agents – regularly figured in the adventures at the Gook home. Those magazine ads for greeting card salesmen must have been especially effective in that town. At least five of the neighbors compete for Christmas card sales, and at least five surviving episodes describe their attempts to sell cards to Sade. She is a reluctant customer, partly because she doesn't like to be coerced into a purchase, and partly because of the social politics that would be involved (after all, if she buys from one neighbor, she could offend the other ones.) She also objects to the idea of buying Christmas cards in the summer, which is when the sales pitches begin. But, most of all, Sade has no use for the absurd sentiments the cards express. They range from the insipid ("Give me a kiss and make me feel fine / This is Christmas Nineteen Thirty-Nine") to the offensive (". . .The Christmas season's here again / If I had a club, I'd smash your shin.") Even the premiums are no inducement. No one in the family has any use for an hour's worth of free parking in Toledo, Ohio; or has a desire to shake hands with any three inhabitants of St. Paul, Minnesota, listed in the telephone book. Though it's a great strain on Sade, she is able to resist the sales agents' overtures.

That is, until her young niece Euncie pulls a fast one. Maybe it was youthful naïveté, or a calculated ploy to unload her stock, but her method was to send her unsuspecting aunt a package, cash on delivery. When Sade pays the fee, she finds she has bought a box of Christmas cards. Naturally, this selection of cards has the most awful mottoes of any of them, including such warmhearted expressions as "You're ugly and stupid and mean as a fox / I wonder what old Santy will dump in your socks." Sade would never use greeting cards like these.

Now, I've always enjoyed this episode, for the observation Paul Rhymer makes, through the voice of Rush, about how men communicate. Rush points out that, when men want to show affection for each other, they do it through insults. Even Vic and his close friends frequently refer to each other as "horse thieves." The harsh expressions in these cards are, in fact, masculine endearments. To me, this was a revelation! For years, I had been troubled by the nasty things men say to each other. Even upstanding churchmen will jokingly impugn each other's intellect or character. I won't say I entirely approve of such conduct, but at least the reason for it is now clear. It really is a guy thing!. Rush then proves he is on the right path to manhood: he arranged to buy then from Sade, for use with his own circle of friends.

So, thanks to Rush, we learn that cutting cruelty can sometimes be rough kindness. In that spirit, I extend to you, at Christmas and always, this heartfelt wish:

I wouldn't' trust a rattlesnake like you any further than I can throw a rock.

Still and all, however, I hope you find two dollars, or its equivalent, in the toe of your shabby, worn-out sock! 

-  Sarah Cole 

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41-06-04 Grand Old Lodge Lady

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNRADINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Vic never answered a lodge letter - which results in Sade being listed in the newspaper as the "Grand Old Lady of the Drowsy Venus Chapter" of Vic's lodge.

Despite Vic's attempts at hiding this fact, he can't hide it from Sade.

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A funny episode. All the lodge episodes are funny as something is always bound to happen.

Trivia:

+ Vic mounts suspicion on himself when he suggests the whole family go to the Bijou, something he rarely does.

+ Rush said that Vic made "about 40 mistakes" in their card game.

+ After Sade gets suspicious about her name possibly being in the paper, she asks: "Did the Lazy Hours Pool Parlor write another piece about me?" Later she asks if they wrote another piece about her eating nine saucers of cole slaw.

Interesting; can we assume one of the missing episodes includes an episode where Sade is written about, possibly in a Lazy Hours Pool Hall advertisement?

+ Rush and Smelly Clark make a date to go down to the YMCA to watch the fat men play handball.

+ The article in the paper:

The headquarters of the National Brotherhood of the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way, have named Mrs. V.R. Gook of Virginia Avenue as their Grand Old Lady of their local uniter, the Drowsy Venus Chapter.

Ceremonies will be held in the near future, during which tribute will he paid to Mrs. Gook's snow white hair and sweet wrinkled face. [Unitelligible] wisdom of old age will be glorified and Mrs. Gook's feeble, tottered footsteps...

🎙 Hear the Vic and Sadecast 079 – Grand Old Lodge Lady (11/18/17)

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40-12-17 A Bijou Lifetime Pass

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Rush has the opportunity to buy a lifetime pass to the Bijou theater. But will Sade allow him to spend money from his savings account to buy it?

MIS' CROWE SAYS:

Rush has a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity.

What I like about this one is how Rush seems to have absolutely no ambition to move out of his small town or change his lifestyle at all, as he calculates that he will continue to go to the Bijou twice a week for the rest of his adult life. These days, everyone who grows up in a small town generates grand plans for fleeing it at about Rush’s age, so it’s refreshing to encounter someone who means to stay put. Rush also has no way of predicting the rise of television in the next fifty years and the movie theater’s slow slide into obsolescence. Of course, if the Bijou manages to stay in business, the concurrent inflation in the price of movie tickets will make his lifetime pass even more profitable.

The thing is, the uncertainty of the future aside, Rush’s pitch is pretty good! The pass will pay for itself in two years. Surely his theater-going habits won’t change that much in the next two years. Rush could agree to put twenty-five cents in a jar to go back into his bank account every time he goes to the movies and by the end of the two years, he’d have an extra two bucks to go into his college fund. His pitch would have worked on me, is all I’m saying.

Then again, it does sound a little too good to be true. Perhaps Sade suspects Leland Richards of being a snake oil salesman? 

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Intermingled with Rush pleading his case so that he can buy the pass, is talk of baboons - yes, baboons.

Sade isn't very educated but she is by no means dumb. Whenever Vic or Rush are up to something, her instinct tells her something is up. As time goes on through the series, Rush seems to become more and more like Vic. When Sade inquires about whatever they are up to, they both act nearly the same.

Trivia:
+ A D. Hoggell is the custodian of the Zoo.

+ Rush mentions he has a new 3rd Lieutenant Stanley book he got from Russell Duncan but he doesn't give the title, nor does he read from it.

+ Leland Richards' Uncle Hartley gave him the lifetime Bijou pass, as he is an electrician and was doing work for the theater and part of the payment was the pass. This was the first mention of Uncle Hartley.

+ Rush and Sade argue a bit about the $50. Listen carefully and you will hear Sade say, "You have as much chance drawing a big chunk of money out of that bank as you have of sending your underwear to Detroit, Michigan parcel post."

{{{HEAR}}}

Sade's first reaction to Rush spending $50: {{{HEAR}}}

Hear the Vic and Sadecast about this episode


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40-11-19 Brick Mush Man Caught in Revolving Door

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Rush: Well... ay, oh, yick, eee, ur, ih, ur, ih, snort, yeee, urrrr!

Rush comes home with big news. An untied shoestring leads to the Brick Mush Man getting his head caught in Yamilton's revolving door! He is in the hospital three days with a deep scalp wound!

Stuck right in the middle of this exciting story, Sade tries to interest Vic and Rush in a post card from her sister, Bess. {{{HEAR}}}

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
The Brick Mush Man has suffered a freak revolving door injury and is in the hospital.

I always thought that this was one of the most ridiculous episodes of them all, but would you believe that revolving door injuries are actually a serious issue? In fact…

In March of this year (2014), Edinburgh College’s revolving doors came under scrutiny when students declined to use them because they felt unsafe. One student at the college endured broken bones when her face and arm were caught in the manually revolving door.

Someone actually went to work and DID get her face caught in a revolving door! Life imitates art again. I imagine this is why you don’t see so many revolving doors anymore. The things are a menace.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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One of the most interesting episodes and quite funny.  Sade has no chance interesting the boys in Bess' boring post card.

How badly was the Brick Mush man hurt? {{{HEAR}}}

Trivia:

+ The afternoon meat is not done (we can assume this was beef punkles.)

+ Sade refers to her sister in this episode as "Bessie."

+ P. Z. Greech was mentioned for the first time. He's from Davenport, Iowa and an acquaintance of Vic .

+ In the post card from Bess, she asks if Uncle Fletcher is settled and if he likes his new surroundings. It makes sense since Uncle Fletcher just recently moved to the town the Gooks live in.

+ Rush claims that Russell Duncan does a better imitation of a guy getting his head caught in a revolving door than he does. And that of course, sounds like this (edited): {{{HEAR}}}
 
Blue Tooth is crazy! {{{HEAR}}}

+ Rush and Blue Tooth Johnson plan on taking advantage of all the free food the Brick Mush Man will have in the hospital: {{{HEAR}}}

+ Much like head injuries, barbers and cornets, shoe strings seem to show up everywhere in the series. They were the culprit of the accident.

Hear the Vic and Sadecast about this episode

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40-07-22 Mr. Donahue Asks for Demotion

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sade, the bubbling gossiper, has news to share with Vic and Rush. Mr. Donahue has asked for a demotion back to being an "ordinary engineer." 

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Mr. Donahue’s fancy new job as traveling inspector of locomotives isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, it turns out.

Climbing the ladder sounds great, and it’s part of the American dream to rise above your initial station in life, but it’s not always as easy as it sounds to make that change. Paul Rhymer explores that part of American culture that we like to think doesn’t exist — class. Certainly class isn’t as present in American lives as it is in other countries, but it’s there — just in subtle ways. One of Mr. Donahue’s biggest problems with his new job is that he has risen in class — and, as a result, he’s been forcibly separated from his friends.

SADE: Mr. Donahue loses out on jolly fellowship with his friends.
VIC: How so?
SADE: Well, mainly because he’s the boss.
VIC: Mmm.
SADE: Take it when he makes a trip to St. Louis, for instance.
VIC: Uh?
SADE: At the end of the run, the fireman and the engineer go to a restaurant patronized by railroad men.
VIC: Uh-huh.
SADE: Well, Mr. Donahue, of course, goes along. All right. They go inside the eatin’ place, and the other two fellas sit at the counter. But Mr. Donahue ain’t supposed to sit at the counter. He’s travelin’ inspector of locomotives. Dignity, see.
VIC: Mmm.
SADE: He has to take a table. All by himself. Counter is crowded with brakemen and engineers and firemen and flagmen and so on, all laughin’ and talkin’ and havin’ a high old time. All friends of Mr. Donahue, too. He’d love to join ‘em. But he can’t. He has to sit at his table with the white cover on it and watch everybody enjoy theirself.
VIC: Huh.
SADE: Day after day, that business. St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, Joliet, Alton, Peoria…every place.
VIC: Uh.
SADE: Well, Mis’ Donahue told me it almost breaks his heart.

It’s not that he has a higher salary — it’s that he’s an authority figure, and in that kind of job structure, you can’t be equal to everyone else. Class has to rear its ugly head. Mr. Donahue cares about friendship and happiness more than he cares about money or prestige. He’s just not cut out to be a boss. Wonder what Rhymer would have thought of Jon Ronson’s research on sociopathy and CEOs… 

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Perhaps the most serious of the episodes that remain in circulation, there are few if any funny lines in this episode.

This episode however, can boast as being one of the best-sounding ones of the lot.

Trivia:

+ Sade calls one of Rush's friends "What's His Name"; we never do find out who she is talking about.

+ Oakland Avenue is mentioned. From the way Sade was talking, it must be in expensive part of town.

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40-05-29 Nicer the Goader

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON 

Rush and his enemy Nicer Scott are going at it again. The fight occurs over the fact that Nicer makes ridiculous claims and Rush is tired of it.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Prelude to the afternoon of a paste upside the snoot.

I can’t help but feel a weird tinge of pride that thorn-in-Rush’s-side Nicer Scott comes from Burlington, Iowa, which is just a stone’s throw away from my hometown, though I feel the need to clarify that he in no way represents all Southeast Iowans.

Sometimes Nicer Scott makes me think of this story that ran on This American Life, “The Super Always Rings Twice.” It concerns a blustering braggart of a New York building superintendent, who tells all kinds of stories about his lethal power and prestige back in his home country of Brazil, stories which absolutely no one in the building believes. And then it turns out — spoiler alert — that they were all completely 100% true. What if Nicer Scott’s stories are all true, too? Well, the ones that are not factually impossible, anyway. What if he has got 87 pairs of pants in cold storage back in Burlington, Iowa? 

It always strikes me that Rush never actually gets punished in this episode. He gets a good talking-to, but he is actually given a lot of opportunity to talk and to defend his actions to his parents. Although they claim not to sympathize with him, I can’t help but think that by the end of the story, they do!  They can’t seem to think of anything else to tell him besides “You’re a pretty good boy” and “Try not to do it again.” While I would never advocate violence…some people really do just need a paste upside the snoot. Not that it seems to be a deterrent for Nicer.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

________________________

This episode has amazing similarities with 39-11-07 Smelly Makes a Speech.

That being said, the ridiculous claims made by Nicer and Paul Rhymer's art of the preposterous saves the day.

Trivia:

A Mohawk Indian in a cage!

+ In days prior, Mildred Tisdel had teased Rush and made him mad.

+ Leroy Snow has a girlfriend.

+ We find out that Heinie Call lives across the street from the Gooks.

+ Claims made by Nicer that were revealed in this episode:

• claimed to have various blood in him: Cuban (3 gallons), Eskimo (quart and a half), French (pint) and Greek (2 teacups.) 
• claimed to have never looked at himself in the "looking glass"/mirror.
• claimed to have 87 pairs of pants in a cold-storage vault in Burlington, Iowa.
• claimed he can chin himself 35 times.
• claimed to have owned a live Mohawk Indian and kept him in a cage.
• claimed to have slept 26 hours at a stretch.
• claimed that in Burlington, Iowa he could stick out his tongue and touch his ear with it.

+ In the episode 39-04-03 Rush Draws List of Acquaintances, Nicer mentioned relatives and acquaintances to Rush in several parts of the country, but none of them were in Burlington, Iowa (which is mentioned twice in this episode as to where he came from).

+ Rush says the Brick Mush man is nearly bald.

Another point of contention: The number of hairs on Nicer's head... {{{HEAR}}}

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40-05-27 Mis' Scott Getting Too Chummy

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON 

After a night of quiet reading (Vic), homework (Rush) and sewing (Sade), the family sit and have a talk about what's going on in their lives.

Sade talks about Mis' Scott, who has been way too chummy lately, Rush talks about Mr. Sludge and Smelly Clark's Uncle Strap and Vic just yawns, jokes and wants a snack.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Earlier in the year, Sade did considerable soul-searching about her relationship with Mis’ Scott. Her mixed feelings about Mis’ Scott were plain in this earlier episode, and she returns to similar themes in this one. It seems that her feelings on Mis’ Scott have evolved a little in that she’s made a definite decision not to be friends with her. All her faults aside, Sade knows herself and she is a keen intuitive judge of other people’s character. Putting on my educator hat, I’d say her interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences are top-notch. It sounds like she has made the right decision in cutting off the friendship (though she might not do it in such a direct way). Again, the parallels between Mis’ Scott/Sade and Nicer Scott/Rush are striking. “Hollering out something cross” is the polite middle-class lady’s version of the 14-year-old boy’s “paste upside the snoot.”

This episode also has one of my favorite endings and favorite Rush lines in it:

RUSH: I expect us three people are what ya call a contented family. Everybody likes everybody.

Being touching without being saccharine or insincere is one of Rhymer’s great strengths as a comedy writer. I can’t help but smile at this line.

 SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

________________________

You get the feeling that Sade both likes and dislikes Mis' Scott all at the same time? Mis' Scott is often doing nice things (bringing the Gooks a plate of doughnuts for example) but then turns around and does things that are no-no's to Sade (often comes in the Gook house without knocking, etc.)

One of the more odd stories Sade tells about Mis' Harris: {{{HEAR}}}

Rush finally gets to tell an Uncle Strap story (Count 'em: Rush says exactly six words before Vic "interrupts" him): {{{HEAR}}}

Trivia:

+ Mr. Sludge got his feelings hurt at the Five and Ten Cent store (first time that's been mentioned) and was crying, according to Rush. Thinking it was a free sample, Sludge took a cookie and was confronted by one of the workers. He said,"They may as well have called me a thief."

+ Sade says Mr. Sludge is homesick; he misses his mother and sisters in Pontiac (Illinois.) As of this episode, Sludge is 43 years old.

+ Grovelman, South Carolina is mentioned for the 2nd surviving episode in a row! Recall the Kitchenware Quarterly listed Vic as living in Grovelman, South Carolina.

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39-11-07 Smelly Makes a Speech

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON 

Rush tells the story of Smelly Clark getting up in front of the neighborhood boys and giving a superfluous about himself, much to the dismay of the gang.

Rush's story possesses the entire episode as he interrupted time and again. The gist is, Smelly gets his comeuppance.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Smelly makes a brave speech to his friends. It doesn’t end well.

I really like how, based on what I can infer, Rush and his friends are not what you’d call “popular.” Of course, what we think of as school popularity would have looked different back then, I’m sure. But I’m guessing that schools have always had cliques. There have always been groups of higher social status and those of lower social status. There have always been those who know how to fit in and those who do not (or do not feel the need to). Based on what we know about Rush and his friends, they seem like a pretty weird, goofy bunch of teenagers (my kinda kids). Rush himself is rather dramatic, interrupts, goes on and on, and frequently drops $50 vocabulary words into his everyday speech (which was not a habit that got ME into the “in crowd” at that age…). Nicer constantly tells outrageous lies that do not endear him to anyone (but since he always seems to be around when Rush and his friends get together, it seems like they accept him anyway). Bluetooth is sensitive and cries easily. And, as we find out here, Smelly Clark compulsively lets his tongue hang out, to the revulsion of many around him. Not only does this make Rush and his friends more relatable, but it shows that Vic and Sade raised him right — he’s not afraid to be himself, and he accepts his friends for who they are, too.

Which, of course, is not to say that he doesn’t draw the line SOMEWHERE…

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

________________________

There are several Paul Rhymer episodes in which Rush tries to tell a story that will take the entire episode to tell. Generally, those stories are pretty good.

Here's Rush relaying the Smelly speech (edited): {{{HEAR}}}

You kind of know what will happen in this one but it's still a lot of fun.

Trivia:

+ Smelly Clark has a habit of letting his tongue hang out.

+ Ollie Sorgut is mentioned for the first time. He lived in Dixon.  He died because he tipped his hat to his Aunt Lucille and took sick immediately, according to Sade.

+ Ralph Sorgut.  Brother of Ollie.  Married Edna Gilbert (Dixon.)

+ The Butler House Hotel is mentioned for the first time in the surviving audio.

+ Mr. Buller is mentioned for the first time in the surviving audio. According to Sade, he will make a big, enormous speech when people are least expecting it.

+ The Brick Mush man is mentioned for the first time in the surviving audio.

Sade imitates Mr. Buller: {{{HEAR}}}

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