Reading chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10 of By Motor to the Golden Gate by Emily Post. Power outage edition! In which Mrs. Price-Post compares all things to the Statler Hotel in Cleveland and finds much of it wanting. However, Chicago loves itself, and that is valid! We also learn about Proto-Puffs and various things that either are or are not in fact Swedish. And finally, we encounter some of these dire roads that we've been teased with since the Prologue. Wait, was it called a Prologue? Who even remembers. CW: bridges, intentional weight loss

Chapters 4, 5, and 6 of "By Motor to the Golden Gate" bring travel through Pennsylvania & Ohio, and woes re: luggage and chicken.

Chapters 2 and 3.  Annnnnd we're back! In this appetizer-sized episode, we're reading Chapters 2 and 3 of By Motor to the Golden Gate by Emily Post. One of these chapters is titled A BREAKDOWN. Spoilers, Emily, GOD. Buckle up for Mispronunciation Theatre and the history of pinball! Also, we'll learn some bastardized popular dances and call them all the tango.

Kicking off Series 2 with By Motor to the Golden Gate by Emily Post. This week we're reading the preface and Chapter 1: "It Can't Be Done; And Yet, It Is Perfectly Simple" Emily breezes past the doubt, worry, and outright disbelief of New York society to pack her bags and drive away; also, she's sorry (kind of) for not liking your town as much as you do. Music this week: "The Chicken Walk" by Irving Berlin.

In this out-of-canon minisode, explore the to-reads not readened, listen to 25% of the usual cat sounds to which your host is typically subjected, enjoy a teaser of our Series 2 upcoming book, and play with audio editing buttons instead of interstitial music. If you only listen to one episode of the To-Read Pile, I have no idea if this should be it. Timestamps: 5:00 Anne Brontë, Preface to 2nd edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 14:20 and 21:35 Emily Carr, The Book of Small 26:45 Sir James Vanbrugh, The Provoked Wife 30:35 Elizabeth Inchbald, I'll Tell You What 36:05 Emily Post, excerpt from By Motor to the Golden Gate 37:55 Cat Noises

Tasia Alexopoulos, charming and hliarious academic and horror afficionado, reveals her super-failproof plan to foil monsters, ghosts, and other terrors who plan to murder her! We sat down to talk about The Haunting of Hill House and REAL horror, namely, the normative institution of the nuclear family and gendered expectations! Turns out the real ghost was the terrible husbands we met along the way.  Also on deck: MOTHERS, why we love horror, the importance of getting Luke to shut up, the Netflix version, and sooooo much more. CW: Suicide, emotional abuse. A few timestamps for your interest: We start with the ending of the book (see content warnings) 37:30 Tasia's expertise on mothers in horror! 48:45 pondering the ending of the Netflix show and its questionable message! 55:45 more about that ending, and mothers! 57:00 some last queerness/aesthetics commentary! 59:50 Tasia's top secret anti-scare tactics for horror lovers and would-be horror lovers! 65:45 Saying goodbye, and how to find Tasia's work!

Reading Chapter 9, the conclusion of The Haunting of Hill house. Eleanor and the House spend a day and night together. Everyone goes home. The end. CW: suicide

Reaching Chapter 8. This podcast is no longer on team Nelladora. Mrs. M and Arthur are being themselves, Luke is being himself, Theo is, sadly, being herself, and the doctor and Mrs. Dudley are doing their best. Eleanor is... maybe part of the house now? Between three and five entities go for a walk to the brook. Tom Bombadil pops in. This episode is a lot. CWs: mucus; songs about child murder  Further reading on the Grattan Murders ballad: http://www.planetslade.com/2013.html http://wrattenmurders.bravepages.com/ https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=75500&threadid=75500  

Reading Chapter 7 of The Haunting of Hill House. The much-anticipated introduction of Mrs. Dr. Montague... and... Arthur? ("Are they saying 'Boo' or 'Boo-urns?'") We receive another visit from the friendly neighbourhood knocking ghost. Hill House may, or may not, suffer some structural integrity issues. CW: alcohol Buzz marketed in this episode: Ovaltine; Hasbro; Jordan, Jesse, Go!; My Brother, My Brother, and Me; House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewsk; Mira Grant, author of the highly recommended Newsflesh, Parasitology, and Rolling in the Deep serieseses. Please send your corrections to @andrewscheer.

Reading Chapter 6 of The Haunting of Hill House. You guys, Luke never had a mother! Other people had mothers, but not Luke. He does have a vintage dirty book for kids, though, so he's got that going for him. Dr. Montague has a liquid lunch. Nell and Theo bare their souls, agonizingly, and finally get to go on that picnic they've been fantasizing about. Next up, they'll sue their imaginations for false adverstizing. CW: alcohol.