Episodes

Episode 82: John Lithgow, Undying Birds, and Lost H-Bombs

John Lithgow/Nigel Parry

This week: Actor John Lithgow gives Brendan a killer look… An H-Bomb goes MIA… And we visit a city whose birds never sleep. Plus, a dulcet tune from Fleet Foxes and a wooden joke from Motorhead frontman Lemmy.

Icebreaker: Lemmy
Heavy metal legend Lemmy tells us about a family reunion in Heaven. (A new documentary about the Motorhead frontman called Lemmy: 49% Motherf—ker, 51% Son of a Bitch is now in theaters.)

Small Talk: The Not-so-Silent Treatment
MarketWatch reporter John Letzing sings about a mayor with a birdbrained scheme.

A History Lesson With Booze: Dropping the Ball and the “Tybee Bomb”
This week in 1958, the U.S. military lost an H-bomb. It’s still lost… possibly somewhere off the coast of Tybee Island, Georgia. Hear how it happened, then calm your nerves with a custom drink that gives new meaning to the term “cherry bomb”:

“Tybee Bomb,” courtesy of Sabina Cushing, mixologist at the Olde Pink House in Savannah GA, right up the river from Tybee Island:

In the vein of the classic southern drink the “Ramos Fizz”:

  • 2 oz. Aviation gin
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 oz. fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur
  • splash of grenadine
  • maraschino cherry, steeped in moonshine for 2 days

Shake everything (except the cherry) with ice. Strain into a martini glass (no ice). Drop the deadly maraschino into the drink’s silty depths. Chomp down ‘til you’re glowing.

Guest of Honor: John Lithgow
First of all, it’s pronounced Lith-GO. Like “rainbow.” (Brendan wrote it out phonetically on his hand so he wouldn’t forget.) To many he’s Dr. Dick Solomon, the alien patriarch from the hit TV sitcom “Third Rock from the Sun.” But he’s also a Tony and Emmy winner, an Academy Award nominee, oh — and an author. Currently he’s performing in his own one-man stage show, Stories by Heart. John talks about getting decorated and reading bedtime stories to his parents, then gives Brendan a killer look.

(Stories By Heart is in the final week of it’s L.A. run – closing Sunday Feb. 13th. More info and tix here*)

One For The Road: Fleet Foxes – “Helplessness Blues”
The bearded boys from Seattle are back, this time injecting some Simon & Garfunkel into their soaring Beach-Boys-meet-Appalachia harmonies. “Helplessness Blues” is the title track from their upcoming May release, and it’s perfect for picking up the pieces when you come to a shattering conclusion.

Music On This Week’s Show:

Sea & Cake – “The Argument”

Aphex Twin – “Boy/Girl Song”

Tipsy – “Liquordelic”

Working for a Nuclear Free City – “Forever”

Stereolab – “Op Hop Detonation”

Mates of State – “For the Actor”

Fleet Foxes – “Helplessness Blues”