Roderick On The Line

Ep. 24: “The Wrong Mustache” - Roderick on the Line - Merlin Mann on Huffduffer The Problems: Our great nation’s vein of Juggalos; out-of-period (OOP) vermin; small-cask Canadian hooker bacon; adventures in intellectual LARP-ing; underwhelming donut memorials (and their equally disappointing water features); preferred ladies footwear for dramatic airport escapes; John’s nationally-televised bass premiere; and the quiet release of some handy tail-losing techniques.

Ep. 23: “Flange of the Angel Curve” - Roderick on the Line - Merlin Mann on Huffduffer The Problems: John really feels his capillaries, Göring designs a flag, and Merlin cops to (generally) Grievous Daughterly Harm. Also: how warm milk and a patient pencil can tease the scolex of a freeloading, Carter-administration parasite from the back of your Magic Hammer Pants. One tip? Stockpile crudités.

Ep. 22: “My Own Dungeon Master” - Roderick on the Line - Merlin Mann on Huffduffer The Problems: This new chickenshit Navy, high school steel-folders, late-night Casals lesson, and John’s curious imperviousness to est®.

Ep. 21: “Dead Rubber Girl in My Closet” - Roderick on the Line - Merlin Mann on Huffduffer The Problem: Oates, Alfalfa, and some numerous options for love. Episode Transcription by Max

Ep. 20: “We Can All Agree on Cheese” - Roderick on the Line - Merlin Mann on Huffduffer The Problem: Lot of people can’t enjoy a lady steak. Sophistic Phallusies | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Ep. 19: “Finger Camping Trip” - Roderick on the Line - Merlin Mann on Huffduffer The Problem: Addressing John’s Vitamin D Deficiency. “Didn’t that used to be a urology clinic?” | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Ep. 18: “Main Pastrami Incisor” - Roderick on the Line - Merlin Mann on Huffduffer The Problem: Where’s John’s parade?

Roderick on the Line - Ep. 17: “Antisocially Promoted” on Huffduffer The Problem: Sometimes, the system works a little too well. From Last In His Class to First In Her Heart by Ted

The Problems: some Tommies in rock; the ad mominem attack; a Shirley Jackson “The Lottery”-type situation; passing diabetes to the tater tots; John’s quest for a worthy Smart Hate Sink; fighting to stay grandfathered into free nights, weekends, and friends; always with the ping-pong; and, why it might finally be time for John to whip out his long, pastoral paean.

The Problems: little things and Erma Bombeck syndrome; relaxing with a couple meatball subs; the high line’s cyrogenic prolongation; still no luck dialing down the ping-pong; Merlin suffers a moist or missing Times; enjoying Michigan’s passing sandwiches; why marijuana sometimes makes sense; extra meat for a dollar; speculation on the genesis of bathrooms; skirting the waiting period for goats; four twenty, amirite?; adding value with Xfinity, Fahrvergnügen and/or Hospitaliano!; freeing the dragons of causality; raging boners from a black and blue sheep; an impromptu delta Skype jam; Welcome to McIntosh; the disappointing corduroy of underwater sex; rugby balls at the Double Musky; our generation’s inexorable menarche of music; California’s inexcusable Mucinex crackdown; the waitron’s worst nightmare; some tertiary problems of pre–27 greatness; remembering the rust belt’s two or three great rivers; why Mussolini dared illness in the rain; karaoke as busma

Roderick on the Line - Ep. 14: “Big City Apology” on Huffduffer The Problems: all things golden, antiqued, chocolatey, and considered; public radio murmuring; tales of fraud and malfeasance in Adam Ant wallet licensing; thwarted love in a 6-story wooden bookcase; tea taxonomies; The Dustin Hoffman Scenario; hats off to the Confident Delivery Guy; the scotty that nails 3-pointers; Blackie chases Blackie; still working on dialing down the ping-pong talk; getting one’s hands around The Ladder of Enlightenment; John’s Aerostar residency; taking Clydesdales to the Prom; long con involving a sailboat; shtupping the honey bear; pony keg of Axe; JFK’s struggle with Hodgman’s Disease; Busch v. Anheuser feud; the box in Geneva holding a Glock and 7 passports; disputes in international band nomenclature; the old money of Canadia; Bob’s Dad was such an asshole; the thing about the Village People; a thread on the Buckaroos (not the pipe guys); the jailer’s keychain surrogacy; anxious B

The Problems: John’s commercial opportunities; Dio’s “Oh, Holy (Diver) Night”; the steer’s troubled path from dandelion field to doily thingee; ★★★★ men, kneeling to be all they can-can be; dialing down the ping-pong talk; harmonica convergence with Blind “Melon” Jefferson; directing John towards the third hole; Spokane’s Amityville Horror; Clapton and Beck concerns; a natural assumption of Englishness; bad judgement re: Merlin’s sailor suit; band-to-drug preferences; many metal memories; finding consolation in an orange flight suit; benefitting from Scorpions’ hop to Asia; John bist rocken mit Matthias Jabs; again with The Cold War; speculation on J. Edgar Hoover’s head games; Locke v. Hobbes and kayfabe v. omertà; what goes unsaid in the South; backronymous Arby’s and their liquid meats (yes, sir!); John’s complex relationship with BMs and BMI; return of The Simple Butcher; the exponential problems o

Roderick on the Line - Ep. 12: “Cold-Calling the Jewess” on HuffdufferThe Problems: Merlin’s sniffly allergies (sorry); directions for the connoisseur of keyboard-oriented music; your hosts’s chronic and irreconcilable Sloan disconnect; that time when Tiny Tim wheeled over to The Magazine Shoppe with John’s Radiohead; the dynamics of recording in a rented castle; almost getting ASCAP’d for a Little Grass Shack; favoring amongst the four R.E.M.s; how Carl Newman’s maybe a little like a cat; overdue credit for Hetfield’s pointing; getting Telecasters into the trunk; almost getting to Merlin’s rules; skipping hard over “Electioneering”; relocating John’s candles to the piano; some follow-up on “The Jeez”; tucking a beard in a belt; goin’ deep catalog on Jerry Lewis; sniffing at the indestructible SM57; high-profile christening of Hotel Motherfucker; going to see the doctor of divinity; suspending the D; Tom Wolfe scoffs that it lacks a “persuasive theory”; and how one mysterious visitor very nearly filled Merlin

Roderick on the Line, Ep. 11: “Everybody Knew What Mr. Finnell Did” on Huffduffer The Problems: the status of Napoleon’s hat; historically significant panties on the auction block; major issues in corporal punishment; Liza’s mostly lifelike Naugahyde partner; recovering our Oprah memories; John’s investigative broom closet journalism; the IMAX technology that was wasted on the Gunther Gebel Williams clan; conspiracy theories around Pee-wee’s Sarasota jam-up; why Seattle’s goin’ hungry in the lemon yellow sun; Mr. Finnell’s copy is goldenrod; Donovan’s probably fake smile; tackling our usual authenticity issues; some “e”-zy diaeresis häcks; why John’s just not a fan; the salient différence; Merlin’s glass-lined taxi driver problems; how the sunshine bores the daylights out of the one Rolling Stones lick Merlin knows; knowing how or whether to marry the other one from Wham! (U.K.); an opium-dulled death by a thous

[Show notes forthcoming] Happy Thanksgiving, friends. Ep. 10: “They Usually Come in the Mornings” - Roderick on the Line - Merlin Mann on Huffduffer

Ep. 09: “He Was Apparently a Talented Baker” - Roderick on the Line - Merlin Mann on Huffduffer The Problems: the dolory of John’s wet and unrakeable leaves; some nuanced aspects around fulfilling The Belgian Promise; Kim Gordon’s sassy and industry-ruining boas; solving an Argentinian heiress’s mystery on the pampas; new ways to make iced tea while your kids are in rehab; the passing of Maurice; the challenge of becoming a truly memorable serial killer when saddled with just two names; one stinky Nigerian Prince and the weltanschauung he brings to organizing a Goodwill; mothballs, mildew, and dreams deferred; the timeless advice Merlin shared with his infant daughter; how Merlin helps by taxonomizing his toddler daughter’s toys; how John will eventually help by explaining this process to Merlin’s teenage daughter; why St. Paul was definitely a Taurus and probably a komodo dragon; scouring every molecule of the Duritz from Jennifer Aniston’s bath tub; choosing John Roderick to block; marching orders for