38-07-04 Vic's Toothache

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Vic has a sore tooth and needs to go to the dentist. He obviously doesn't want to go, using a date with pal Ike Kneesuffer and a game of indoor horseshoes as his excuse. Finally, Sade forces him to call the dentist and when does, he finds out his dentist is on vacation.

SEE SOME DIALOGUE AND THE SYNOPSIS

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There's little here to suggest that this was anything but an average episode.

However, the Barbara Schwarz synopsis seems to point out that it was just a few days before this episode that the Smelly Clark's-Uncle Strap-Peoria-fish-dinner story first began. This episode has Rush bring up the story for another go-round.

Something that seems to be missing here is Rush being childishly subversive (either accidentally or on purpose) with the purpose of helping Sade push Vic to go to the dentist. 

TRIVIA:

* This story most likely was broadcast on July 4 - no wonder Doc Keevy was on vacation. But why would his secretary be working on a national holiday?

* Sade says: "Harley Eepers there in Dixon used to love sittin' in the dentist chair." Vic: "Harley Eepers, if you'll recall, was later committed to the insane asylum." Sade: "Sure. Because a horse kicked him in the head." Vic: "He kicked the horse first, didn't he?"

* Miss Kligg is Dr. Keevy's secretary.

* Vic has a date to play indoor horseshoors with Ike Kneesuffer. Usually (but not always), Vic uses indoor horseshoes as an escape from a grumpy or way-too-prodding or critical Sade.

* In an earlier episode (1932) Rush and Vic are both needing to see Dr. Keevy, but he's out of town.  It's possible that this script was a re-hash of that earlier one.

41-12-09 Hank Appointed Lodge's Best-Looking Man

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Vic has news to tell that he knows will bring Sade's scoffing and ridicule: Hank Gutstop has been elected as the lodge's Best-looking Man!

SEE THE SCRIPT (part 1) (part 2)

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There's really not much to this script; it's just an excuse to put down the lodge and Gutstop. Sade doesn't think Hank is good-looking at all, and the ritualistic way in which he was chosen (blonde boy pulls his name out of a hat) is just a reminder of just how silly the lodge can be.

Trivia:

+ Rush mentions that he was reading about counterfeiting parachute jumpers in his Third Lieutenant Stanley book.

+ Gutstop was at the Lazy Hours Pool Hall playing bottle-pool.

+ Rush is bursting with knowledge again about the various idioms his parents are dishing out.  However, they could care less.  Rush seems to know his idiom sources quite well.

+ Instead of borrowing funds from Vic to buy new clothes, this time Hank just wants to borrow Vic's nice clothes (but not his socks).

+ Cuddy Jackson was mentioned. A member of the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way lodge. He stands four feet, eleven inches tall, is bald and has no teeth.

+ This episode aired two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  You wonder what kind of mood the listener may have been in and if this episode made them happy or if they even cared?

42-07-12 Uncle Fletcher Gives Up His Bed

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

• Uncle Fletcher refers to Mis' Gilfop and her married daughter, Fern.  Her brother, Ying-Yang Britcher, fell off a 5-story building and still lived. Her other brother was named Edith!
• Mis' Keller's visitors are taking up room at her house, so Fletcher intends to get a room at the Bright Kentucky, but Sade insists he stay with the Gooks.
• Uncle Fletcher tells the story of Charlie Haverstraw from Belvidere who moved to Terre Haute, Ohio, married a  woman 26 years old, but she ran away.  So, he married a woman 36 years old and she ran away. then he married a woman 46 years old and she ran away, too. Finally, he married a woman 56 years old that lost her leg in a train wreck. She couldn't run away from him. - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason

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We know that Sade doesn't like Uncle Fletcher to go near the Bright Kentucky Hotel at night because she is afraid he'll trip over the tracks and be run over by a "creepin', monstrous locomotive."  Of course, after a while at staying at the Gooks, Sade will be ready to get rid of him, for he will drive them all crazy.

Despite there being little information available about this episode, it's fortunate that these two stories from Uncle Fletcher are preserved.  They fit perfectly into his lore.

Note: If you ever desire to read all of the Uncle Fletcher stories, it's pretty simple to do.  Just click this link (which is easily found on the left-hand side of Vic and Sade Characters) and read each of the entries.  There are dozens of them, many with the audio stories, where available.

42-07-2x Vic's Inspection Tour

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Consolidated Kitchenware has made plans to send Vic on a month-long business tour.  Just days earlier, Vic was given a shower by the Thimble Club ladies (which I'm certain he felt uncomfortable about). And now, they plan to see him off on the train as well and part of the plan is throw sawdust all over him.

Vic has strong reservations about this, since his bosses Misters Buller and Ruebush will be with him and he doesn't want them covered in sawdust!

But it gets even more dicey - "the girls from the office" (including Lolita di Rienzi) are also coming along for the ride!

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Trivia:

+ Rush says people might get the impression Vic has just gotten married (because of the sawdust).

+ The "kids from the office" may be carrying flowers, according to Vic.

+ At the end of the episode, Sade says she isn't mad and does not seem mad, so we assume she is NOT mad.  So why is that Vic is upset, when he mutters, "Dog gone! Dog gone! Dog gone!"?
 
Download the complete commercial-free, sound-improved episode!  

44-05-05 Rish Fish's Short Career

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND RUSSELL MILLER

Almost the very same story as 39-06-21 Hank's Job Royal Throne Barbershop, except Rishigan Fishigan gets the job instead of Hank Gutstop and Russell Miller is in the episode instead of Rush.

SEE THE SCRIPT  (part 1) (part 2)

40-08-12 Sade's House is Not the Way She Left It

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON 

Sade's come home from a trip to Carberry and notices the house is surprisingly clean but things are not exactly where they were when she left.

She comes to find out that (mostly) Blue Tooth Johnson made a mess and Rush had to clean it up.  He gets a few things mixed up but for the most part, Sade seems surprised and pleased.

SEE THE SCRIPT

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Vic broke an olive and pickle plate but Sade wasn't in the least bit upset. Fifteen months later, Sade would be very upset when Rush would break her antique pickle and olive shoe and still seething, would even write a poem about it 11 months later to convey her feelings.

40-11-22 Third Lieutenant Stanley - Bright Kentucky Hotel

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON 

In an episode that will remind you of 42-03-xx Mis' Applerot's Petition, Sade comes home from her Thimble Club meeting upset that Mis' Appelrot hijacked the ladies with a silly petition to knock down the Bright Kentucky Hotel.

SEE THE SCRIPT

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This is actually the earlier of the two scripts and it appears as though the scripts are similar, there was a major re-working done in the other script.

This script does not include Rush saying over and over, "I will not sign!" (the petition) but he does allude to the fact that Uncle Strap and Mr. Gumpox would be out of a job and a place to live, respectively.

This episode is also full of Rush reading from an unnamed Third Lieutenant Stanley novel.  He reads:

Third Lieutenant Stanley gave the villainous crew of counterfeiting smugglers one supercilious glance. Then his eyes softened as he turned and gazed at the oval face of Lady Margaret. The beautiful woman smiled bravely, revealing twin rows of perfect teeth the rich color of old ivory. Her hand trembled slightly as she twirled her dainty pink parasol and her small foot in its fashionable French spat tapped nervously. Third Lieutenant Stanley touched her arm. "Let us share a hug an' kiss before we fight these miserable wretches," he grunted. Nothing loath, the beautiful woman lifted her veil an' thrust her lovely head forward. Jabbering amongst themselves, the counterfeiting smugglers watched the exchange of tender caresses an' there was a burst of rude laughter as Third Lieutenant Stanley began to cry. "Sweetheart," he blubbered, "Five minutes from now I may be dead. But, sweetheart, I want you to know that my love for you transcends everything in...   The handsome young officer faced death valiantly. "You fellows can go jump in the creek, I'm not scared," he growled to the leader of the counterfeiting smugglers. But for Lady Margaret he had a sweet smile an' eyes that twinkled merrily. "Give me one more kiss an' one more hug before I kick the bucket, sweetheart," he gloated. The beautiful woman simpered and coquettishly pretended that the mother-of-pearl buttons on her fashionable French spats had come unbuttoned. Finally, blushing furiously, she lifted her veil an' thrust forward her lovely head. "Just one hug an' one kiss now," she warned an' Third Lieutenant Stanley howled loudly his satisfaction an' approval.

The best part of the book was a part he did not get to read, but instead, gives us the juicy details:

The counterfeiting smugglers try to murder Third Lieutenant Stanley by tying him to a tree an' smearing melted marshmallow all over his clothes an' releasing two grizzly bears from a cage. Grizzly bears are very fond of melted marshmallow so it looks like curtains for Third Lieutenant Stanley.

While in the world of Vic and Sade, ridiculous things happen to all of the characters, the things that happen to them must not break the laws of physics or nature - that is, the world of Vic and Sade is a real world.

The world of books and motion pictures, however, go beyond ridiculous, even in the world of Vic and Sade.  The marshmallows and the grizzly bears are an example of this, as are most Third Lieutenant Stanley novels dealing with animals.

There is a story in this episode about Mr. Gumpox that is well worth pointing out.  Rush explains:

He'll be asleep an' a fast passenger train'll flash by the Bright Kentucky sixty or seventy miles an hour an' by George the building starts to shake from the vibration an' he'll ride all around the room in his doggone bed just like you'd ride around in an automobile. One time he rode right outta the bedroom into the hall-way. Woke up the next morning in the hall by the fire-escape, thirty-five feet from the spot where he'd retired.

In an audio interview conducted in the 1970's, Jean Shepherd relayed this same story, but confused Gumpox with Rishigan Fishigan. [There may have been an episode like this about Fishigan, but consider that we know that Fishigan lived on the penthouse floor and the ground floor would be much closer to the trains than the penthouse.  It is also inferred that Fishigan was the only roomer on the penthouse floor.  So we assume that Shepherd was simply incorrect.]

40-06-21 Hank's Job - Royal Throne Barbershop

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON 

Vic is excited.  He's just gotten off the telephone with his pal, Hank Gutstop, who informs him that he's gotten a new job at the Royal Throne 25 Cent Barbershop.

He procured the job by coming up with ideas to help improve business, plus he knows so many fellows in town that Ed Holvey, the shop owner, decided to give him a job.

But Hank, who has a bad history with holding a job, may not last the whole afternoon...

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Hank has a new job as a publicity manager for the Royal Throne Barbershop. Vic shares some of his ideas.

Hank has stumbled upon yet another job opportunity that will benefit him more than it will benefit his employers (free room and board, free lunch, and free haircuts included), but he can’t even hang onto that for a whole episode. Vic’s unending faith in him, given his employment history, is touching. Hank’s ideas are intriguing, but I’m not sure how well they’d actually work. Free lunch in a barbershop seems a little unsanitary. I’m worried you’d end up with hair clippings in your sandwich.
I’m always struck by this little moment in this episode:

SADE: I had quite a little conversation with Mis’ Eapers today.
VIC: How’s she?
SADE: All right. Little leaner than she was, I thought.
VIC: How’s TJ?
SADE: I never asked after TJ. Kinda afraid to, don’t ya know. After he was in jail those four times a person anymore kinda hates to inquire. Might make it embarrassin’.

"Vic and Sade" is full of little details like this — just passing comments that help add depth to the fictional community. Often they’re humorous or idyllic, but not always. Small towns all have those little things that everybody knows about but are too afraid, embarrassed, or polite to talk about. This moment always feels a little jarring to me because Vic and Sade talk about things like this so seldom. It’s also jarring because of the actors’ line readings — it’s the kind of thing that could have been played for laughs or not, depending on how the actors read it, and it is definitely not a humorous read (because Vic and Sade wouldn’t joke about this kind of thing). Listen to Vic’s voice, low and serious and sounding as if he’s anticipating bad news, when he asks "How’s TJ?", and Sade’s concerned tone as she answers. Notice, also, that she waits until Rush is out of the room before she even brings this subject up. Much like Rhymer’s rare and oblique references to World War II, this reference reminds you that darkness exists in Vic and Sade’s world — it just stays in the background, in other people’s lives. It’s these little details that add verisimilitude to "Vic and Sade" and make it the great portrayal of life that it is.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Trivia:

+ Rush infers that Hank once had a job selling homemade candy.

+ Some of Hank's barbershop ideas include:

• Free lunch - there was no talk of what this may constitute.
• Improving the appearance of the barbershop - no details were given
• Every 50th haircut free - Rush worked it out that it may take three years to get a free haircut.

+ Ed Holvey is always sleeping in the barber chair.  Rush says he lives there - Hank had plans to live there too (also sleeping a barber chair) as part of his payment.

+ Mr. Sludge came home crying again this day.

+ The barbershop is a hot place, according to Rush - no breeze can get in there.

+ Jim Skooner at the Butler House hotel barbershop is Vic's regular barber.

+ Sade called the shop 'dirty' and 'dingy.'

Perhaps it's a joke but a look at Google and "royal throne" brings up as many toilet references as royalty references.

Download the complete commercial-free, sound-improved episode!

41-01-09 Sade Smashes Mis' Applerot's Wrist-Watch

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

• Sade arrives home from Thimble Club all upset.  Vic is busy polishing his sword – she wants to talk. Rush tries to the Uncle Strap story...
• Sade says she smashed Mis' Appelrot's wrist-watch into a million splinters with her "gravel".  She slammed the gavel down without noticing Mis' Appelrot's arm was between the gavel and the table. Mis' Howard muttered over and over: "Oh my heavens, oh my heavens!" Mis' Appelrot's acting like it wasn't an accident.  Sade's chagrined because when it happened, she laughed.  "...glass an' springs an' wheels flyin'".
• Rush tries to help, telling a story of a fella in Texas that let a ton of coal fall on his grandmother's foot and he laughed so hard he had brain-failure and died on the spot.  Vic puts a stop to this helpful story.
• Mis' Appelrot's arm was in the way because she was reaching over to snoop into Sade's record-book, which is none of her business.
• Afterward, Mis' Appelrot's words accepted the accident, "but her eyes were cold and accusing as a horse."
• Sade says she'll never pick up another "gravel" as long as she lives.  Rush asks, "Isn't the word ‘gavel'?"  Sade will not be corrected.  She moves on to organize dinner.
• Vic (chuckling): "Your mother flourishes a mean ‘gravel'."  Rush (chuckles): "Yes, sir."  Vic: "She's a cute girl." - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason 

SEE SOME DIALOGUE AND SYNOPSIS

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This might be the first episode where Sade used the word 'gravel' instead of 'gavel.'  One of the many, many continuous jokes in the show's history.

If there was one character I would like to hear on the show, I think it would be Mis' Appelrot.  She would not be funny but I think she would make Sade mad a lot and I like it when Sade is mad!

41-07-10 Bring Your Figures

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Muddled shopping money?  No big deal.  Stuff happens.

We know to expect this whenever Sade and 'Lady' (Ruthie Stembottom) get together downtown.  So what if the gals can't keep track of the tiny amounts of money that they are allowed?  So what if there's a few dollars missing?  It's not like they are buying anything important.

As a matter of fact, the ladies consume the same kinds of worthless junk every week.  It's money to blow and really, is of no consequence to the bread winners...

That's the way the story is supposed to go, anyway.  Vic, an accountant by trade, is fine with the mixed-up money.  I think he kind of gets a kick out of the way the ladies foul it all up; it's entertainment to him.  But Fred, Ruthie's blue collar husband, has a bad reaction this time around to the unaccounted-for spondulix.

Who's responsible?  No one knows (and no one will ever know) but Fred aims to find out!  He's even bought those stereotypical green visor caps for all four people (it's use is to lessen eyestrain) as he intends to have a pow-wow with the Gooks and go step-by-step through the muddled transactions! By golly, he wants some answers to that missing penny and the other misplaced monies.

But wait; one big 'ole ish and kybosh on that!

SEE THE SCRIPT (part 1) (part 2) (part 3)

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This script is surprisingly good and it reads fresh. I use the word 'surprisingly' because the notes I had previously were terribly short.  It was as if this episode had been overlooked.  Rhymer provides strong voices to each character.  It feels as if he were completely in his prime here.  This script could very well be in the top 50 I have seen. 

Trivia:

+ Mr. & Mrs. Coomer live on Madison Street.

+ Sade bought white thread #50 (she always buys that color/#) and the girls bought gum drops, weighed themselves, had ice cream...

+ The fact that Vic could care less about a few dollars (remember, this was still ''The Great Depression'') might provide circumstantial proof that Vic was better off financially than perhaps we - or Sade - know. 

+ The concept of the green visors is clever and totally Rhymeresque; there is always pleasure reading/hearing the way he took something that was already absurd and made it even more so.  Can you imagine Sade and Ruthie wearing green visors, trying to figure out where they lost seven cents?

+ While he was there and at-the-ready to contribute to the conversation with appropriate anecdotes, Rush gets totally ignored in this episode.  You'd figure an ordinary American citizen...

+ This episode ends with the ''stuff happens'' phrase.

37-09-02 Lodge Convention Trip Story

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

On a very warm September day, Sade tells the story of how Mis' Appelrot stole Ruthie's thunder about a proposed lodge trip to Hawaii. 

SEE THE SCRIPT (part 1) (part 2)

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Rush says Rooster Davis read a book where "some French explorer was traveling through the Sahara Desert in the blistering sun and the natives began missing him... and so went looking for him; all they found was a small pool of liquid. They poured him into a bottle and took the bottle to France and gave it a decent burial."

The above story is one I really wish I could hear.  I think it would be a 'Rush classic'.

By the way, you may not realize that there is a very high probability that Mis' Appelrot and Ruthie are in-laws. Although, I'm not 100% sure of this.

Hot day?  All three characters in this episode comment about the heat.  The "Heat Wave of 1937" was apparently pretty bad, although I don't have the data to prove it.  I did find a newsreel about it though:


Bess had written a letter to Sade about a month before this (actually, August 9, 1937) which Vic had put into his suit and had forgotten about. It was found in late 1940.

The letter gives details about the very hot 1937 Summer they were experiencing in Carberry: Bess says "The thermometer has been in the 90's even in the evening" and tells of a neighbor up the street "Going barefooted these terrible, hot days."

Below is a special note from Barbara Schwarz attached to the script obtained from the University of Wisconsin library:
Perhaps at the time she obtained the script these details were deemed correct; however, we now know of at least two other episodes involving Hawaii and the lodge, both from 1938 (38-01-10 Hawaiian Islands Itinerary and 38-05-11 Sade Refuses Simple Hawaii Research).

45-11-30 Dwight Twentysixler's Scrapbook

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

Uncle Fletcher shows Dwight Twentsixler's personal scrapbook to Mis' Harris while Dwight, Sade and Rush look on.

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Not much to this but Uncle Fletcher does tell one small story.

Uncle Fletcher is trying to start a romance between Dwight and Mis' Harris. For whatever reason, Mis' Harris already seems to be enamored with Dwight, although how she can understand him with the nails in his mouth is beyond me.

Trivia:

+ Rush tries to tell about a recent Four-Fisted Frank Fuddleman and Gloria Golden film only to be drowned out by Uncle Fletcher.

Download the complete commercial-free, sound-improved episode!

45-11-29 Uncle Fletcher Arranges Phone Calls

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

The Gooks entertain elderly Mr. Sprawl while his daughter (Mis' Harris) is out for the evening. But the evening is constantly interrupted by telephone calls as Uncle Fletcher has directed his friends to call him at various locations around town just to make him look important.

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There are 7 phone calls for Fletcher at the Gook house!

Not a funny or interesting show although some trivia is imparted.

Trivia:

+ Mr. Sprawl was born in Boston. Or so he says.

+ Ernie Fadler wears green eye shadow, a cigarette behind his ear and has black dots on his chin due to him accidentally marking on himself with indelible pencil.

+ Uncle Fletcher referred to Vic as his "husband."

+ Pelter Unbleet's imaginary brother was mentioned again by Uncle Fletcher.

+ Uncle Fletcher got phone calls from: Ernie Fadler, B.B. Baugh and Y.I.I.Y Skeeber and there were 3 phones where no message for Uncle Fletcher was taken.

Download the complete commercial-free, sound-improved episode!

42-09-14 Sade and Ruthie Come Out Even

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY,  BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sade excitedly comes home from shopping claiming that for once, she and Ruthie Stembottom came out even with their change.

This seems most improbable when she reveals she bought a bunch of items and still has the same amount of money in her pocket as when she left the house. When Rush brings this point out, Sade begins to realize she was wrong and starts jumping on the men for thinking she is helpless when it comes to keeping track of her change.

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Other than the plot, not much of a subplot - although Vic and Rush are playing Gin Rummy and Vic always taunts Rush when he's ahead in on the scorepad.

Trivia:

+ The episode has no opening and is a bit a short, perhaps missing the first minute or so.

+ In the opening minutes of the show, Sade and Vic pull of a Vic and Sade exaggeration de jour: {{{HEAR}}}

+ Sade used the word, "spondulicks" again; it's the 3rd time she's done so in the surviving series.

Download the complete commercial-free, sound-improved episode!

42-08-09 Thimble Club Plans Visits

STARRING: BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Since Vic is away, the Thimble Club has arranged surprise visits by members and their husbands to Sade's house so that she won't get lonely; this breaks up Rush and Sade going to the Bijou to see a Gloria Golden - Four-Fisted Frank Fuddleman picture.

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Not the funniest episode in the series but with almost flawless sound. This episode might sound better than any to be found, especially after I did some minor work on it.

Trivia:

+ The movie at the Bijou is I Place My Heart in Your Hands, Part-time Freight Agent Lewis.

+ We find out in this episode that Mis' Cheevers, Mis' Trogle and Mis' Feeby are all members of the Thimble Club.

+ Rush states that Smelly Clark's Uncle Strap has more coincidence happen to him than anyone on the face of the earth.

+ Schedule of people who are coming by to visit Sade:

• 7:30 - 8:00 - Mis' Cheevers and her husband, who works at the People Bank.
• 8:15 - 9:00 - Mis' Trogle and her husband, Alvy.
• 9:15 - 10:00 - Mis' Feeby and her husband; they live on the 800 block of West Elm

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42-07-16 A Gross of Gravels

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY,  BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON 

Sade: 144 gravels... Gravels don't wear out!

Sade finds out that Fred Stembottom is making her a gross (144) of gavels for Christmas (to use at the Thimble Club) and wants Vic to talk to Fred about the idiocy of such a thing.

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Sade calls the gavels, "gravels" and no matter how often she is told she has it wrong, she just keeps trudging on and using that word.

The underlying joke is that she calls Fred "obstinate" and "stubborn" when she is acting the same way about the word, "gravel!"

Trivia:

+ Harry McWilliams is mentioned. He owns a wood shop on the west side of town. He is friends with Fred and gave him the scrap wood to make the gavels from.

+ Rush mentions some sort of lodge punishment ritual that can be found in Volume 7 of Vic's lodge library. However, it's impossible to tell if he is joking or not and Vic is no help helping us decide. I'm going to assume Rush was kidding and won't include it (for now) in the lodge section of the blog.

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42-03-xx Mis' Applerot's Petition

{{{HEAR}}} STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY,  BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Mis' Appelrot works up a petition to close down the Bright Kentucky Hotel. Reminding the Thimble Club members that the hotel was condemned years ago, she calls the building "ugly" and a "firetrap."

Mis Appelrot then nominates Sade to take the petition around town - only Sade could care less about the project or the hotel.

Meanwhile, the hotel is the residence of many people who interact in the lives of Rush and Vic and neither - especially Rush - want to see the hotel tampered with.

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Sade insinuates that the Thimble Club should stay out of social matters and politics and stick to sewing and gossiping.

Trivia:

+ The Thimble Club meeting took place at Mis' Trogle's house.

+ While Mis' Appelrot brought up the petition, Sade stated that Mis' Brighton was also in cahoots. This makes the 3rd or 4th time Sade has stated the two together as being troublemaking partners.

+ Ruthie Stembottom quit the Thimble Club in episode 41-01-24 Mr. Ruebush Has to Wait and until this episode it was not known if she had rejoined. There is evidence in this episode that she did indeed rejoin the club.

+ Sade calls her gavel a "gravel" - this will be a major piece of information in a future episode.

+ This episode contains one of the funniest stories in the whole series. Sade tells the story of Martin Jordle and how his wife (Alvira Eggsock-Jordle) signed a document that eventually got him arrested and sent to prison. (The end of the story is the best part!) {{{HEAR}}}

+ The Bright Kentucky Hotel was condemned in 1922!

+ Dottie Brainfeeble (who will become very instrumental in future episodes) was mentioned again. She must have been pretty good friends with Martin Jordle as she sent him fudge while he was in prison.

+ The petition is one that Rush won't sign (edited): {{{HEAR}}}

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42-02-11 Fred Will Budget for Vic

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Ruthie Stembottom calls up Sade and tells her that she and her husband Fred are coming over; not to play "500" - but to show Vic and Sade how to budget their money. Fred is even bringing his blackboard with him.

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Why doesn't Sade protest this? Doesn't she realize Vic is an accountant?

When she finally realizes the foolhardiness of the whole ordeal, she is embarrassed at herself and tries to make up for it by telling Ruthie (who calls back twice) that Vic wants flavors of ice cream that have been previously off-limits due to the fact that it's well-known that Fred hates those flavors.

Meanwhile, Vic is livid. Fred is not his favorite person.  As a matter of fact, Fred is probably the person on the show who Vic likes the least.

Trivia:

+ The avid Vic and Sade listener will find the "What flavor ice cream do you want?" exchange to be very funny in this episode. To make up for hurting Vic's feelings, Sade suggests tutti frutti and butterscotch flavors.  Those flavors are completely out-of-bounds on the normal occasion.  In the normal episode, Sade would say, "Fred hates that flavor" if they were even brought up.  In this episode, however, it is Rush who has to play 'flavor referee' as Sade is trying to placate Vic.  Finally, Sade tells Ruthie that Vic wants caramel flavor, another flavor which Sade knows perfectly well is a flavor that Fred detests.

Little bits of writing like this by Paul Rhymer is one of the reasons this show is so well-loved by so many people. 

+ We find out that the drug store sells peanut butter sandwiches along with milk shakes.

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41-12-xx Uncle Fletcher's Train Trip to Dixon

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

Uncle Fletcher's just gotten back from Dixon and he tells the family about the trip up and back  and about the people he saw in Dixon.

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Though he mixes a few things up, Uncle Fletcher's stories are legendary.

Trivia:

+ Uncle Fletcher has made it a life-long practice to give railroad conductors something to nibble on as it puts them in a good humor.

+ McClellan was Uncle Fletcher's conductor on the train coming back from Dixon. He ate one and a half chocolate cupcakes Fletcher gave him.

+ People that Uncle Fletcher saw while in Dixon: Cooley Miller, Art Sykes, Vern Adams, Cliff Dirtshirt and his brother Charlie Dirtshirt.

+ Cliff Dirtshirt is planning on moving to Baltimore, Delaware. When he gets there, he plans on marrying a girl 31 years old and they will go into the live bait business. As a sideline, he will take on piano pupils as he plays the piano.

+ Reasons for Cliff Dirtshirt taking up the piano:

• Snow storm 

• Complete stranger came up to him on the street and tried to sell him tennis shoes

• His cousin married a girl 16 and a half years old

• He read in the paper where a fellow lived in Philadelphia, Ohio and took an automobile apart with a hairpin

+ Lathe Montgomery used to be a waterboy for the railroad gang in Dixon. He now lives in Des Moines, Kansas. He married a woman 22 years old. He went into the non-removable varnish business. He was working on an an invention to keep lawnmowers getting clogged up with grass in weather.

+ Uncle Fletcher brought back a leather sofa cushion filled with genuine Missouri sand. It was gathered from the banks of the Mississippi River near Hannibal. It weighs close to 60 pounds.

+ He brought back a leather dresser scarf with, "The big catfish are biting in the slews behind LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Uncle Ted" written on it.

+ He also brought back a horsehair watch fob that was made by Cliff Dirthshirt.

+ Uncle Fletcher refers to Sade twice in this episode when it was actually Rush talking to him.

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41-10-14 Vic Declines Cornet Lessons

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Vic gave Alf Musherton 19-20 hours of special tutoring at the Butler House Hotel as Musherton is a candidate for initiation in the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way.

Musherton is so pleased and grateful to Vic that he cries and insists on giving Vic or any Vic's relatives or acquaintances 20 free cornet lessons. Vic doesn't want the lessons and neither does Rush. The rest of the episode is spent trying to come up for candidates to take the free lessons.

Eventually he decides to give Hank Gutstop a quarter if he'll take the first lesson.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:

This is a classic episode: absurd Rhymerian concept, colorful side characters, and Vic, Sade, and Rush fulfilling their favored roles (Vic thoughtful, Sade skeptical and scoffing, and Rush sitting back and delighting in the absurdity of it all). It’s also yet another episode in which men who cry are prominently featured – Vic’s friend Alf Musherton is a cryer, and Rush suggests that he might feel a kinship with Mr. Sludge because of it.

This episode presents an interesting commentary on the act of gift-giving. While we think of a gift giving as a one-way transaction, in which the giver altruistically gives something to the recipient and the recipient can choose to do what he will with it. However, the act of giving a gift isn’t a totally altruistic one, especially when it’s a gift given as reciprocity like Alf’s here. The gift giver gets the relief of a lifted obligation, the knowledge that he has reciprocated the past kindness of the recipient. This aspect of gift-giving places certain obligations on the recipient of the gift: it’s churlish to turn the gift down, because then you’re not allowing the person to feel that lifted obligation. Alf’s gift therefore becomes a bit of a white elephant as Vic has to put time and energy into coming up with a way to use it. A little ironic, since the gift was meant to thank Vic for his time and energy in tutoring Alf in the first place!

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GARRY MOTTER SAYS:
This was the first Vic & Sade episode I ever heard.  I had heard of  the show, so when it came on the radio I gave it a listen.  It starts out slowly as they often do, and I feared the worst.  But by the time it was over I was enchanted.  I think it was the discussion of Mr. Sludge and Alf alternately yipping and sobbing that hooked me.  I "yipped" on the cornet myself at Rush's age, so this gave me a laugh. 

This is not one of the laugh-out-loud hilarious episodes, but is amusing in a surreal sort of way that appeals to me.  Still, one can't help bust out at Rush's anecdote about Mr. Richards having to call the plumber. 

Sade seems to think it ridiculous that a garbage man might want to play the cornet, yet the teacher himself is a sewage disposal worker.  One thing that stands out is that Vic is seen here as sensible and calm in a bizarre situation.  He deals with it thoughtfully and decisively, while Sade is panicked at the idea of a cornet in the house.  Too often he is humiliated by the end, but here he is in firm command.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Garry Motter)

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I think you will find that this episode is one of the most rewarding of the lot. If you haven't heard this one before, you should be extremely happy with the ending.

Trivia:

+ Rush wants to read aloud from a Third Lieutenant Stanley book that deals with coat and hat thieves in the Sahara Desert, but no one wants to hear it.

+ In a previous episode, Vic was to fake playing the cornet in a band concert. A year and a half later, you wonder why he would turn down the free lessons?

+ Some people who Vic, Rush and Sade suggested may want to learn the cornet: Mr. Gumpox, Uncle Fletcher and Mr. Sludge.

+ Sade refers to playing the cornet as "yipping." According to the Etymological Dictionary, "yip" means to "chirp like a bird."

+ Rush tells an Uncle Fletcher-type story about Mr. Richards, who used to play the cornet: {{{HEAR}}}

+ Hank Gutstop is known to hang around the Lazy Hours Pool Hall until closing time.

+ Rush knows the telephone number of the Lazy Hours Pool Hall (#8764-J.) However, in an earlier episode, Rush said, "[I] don’t know any pool hall telephone numbers. Mom’d throw me over the people’s bank building".

+ When Vic calls Hank, he's told that Hank Gutstop is playing bottle pool.

+ This is the first episode where the term, "stuff happens" is used.  Wikipedia credits this variant of the term "sh*t happens" to writer Paul Rhymer and Vic and Sade.  (((HEAR)))

+ The last few episodes have all been more than 10 minutes long; a sign that less commercial time was going into the program and probably a sign of the popularity of Vic and Sade.

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