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Me at the Mike

Here is a Sup—I mean repository of the texts of my wireless essays together with some readings of them.

The essays were broadcast by WXXI 91.5 Classical of Rochester, NY on Salmagundy each Saturday at 9:35am Eastern Time, from the beginning of time (1985) till May 2009 when Entropa (evil Goddess of Change-for-the-Worse-or-Possibly-the-Worst) troubled the minds of the WXXIites and they retired Simon and Salmagundy, and Rochester went into a terminal decline---for ever.

I continued on that brilliant bastion of all that's good and kultured, WCLV's syndicated Weekend Radio on many (mainly NPRish) stations traditionally on the first and third weekends of the month, though weekendage varied, till the horror crept ever onward and that too was devoured (in August 2023, a date which will live in infamy or at lease mild irritation)... and only I remain, defiant though wimpering.
    Richard Howland-Bolton

There are pop-up pics and links all over the place here. In text they are indicated by a double underline like this:
    
           mouse-overing brings the pop-up up and clicking (usually) goes to the link

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Literature: 🎅 Christmas Letter to America #1: A Visit from Inclement Verse On:2022-10-30 05:52:48
My Dear Americans,
    Now that the month of Christmas has got well under way (after spending the last couple of weeks rudely trying to elbow it’s way into becoming the six-weeks-of-Christmas-and-then-some and we all gave a great sigh of thanks for Thanksgiving Day for standing up to the nasty great bully) it must surely be time for some seasonal poetry [Clears throat]:
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Literature: Letter to America: The Pitcher of Dorian Grey On:2022-10-11 03:00:51
My Dear Americans,
    The fridge was filled with the rich odours of, well just the sort of things you would expect to smell in the fridge of a young man of extraordinary personal beauty.
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Literature: À La Recherche De Haricots Blancs Cuits Au Four À La Sauce Tomate Perdues On:2021-03-10 11:15:45
For a long time I used to go to bed early1, but now, Yay, wake up call!
The British Emporium2 finally opened a shop down in Richardson (six miles closer to Dallas than us and right next to the equally ethnic 'Fish and Fizz' fish and chip shop), so Georgia and I went to check it out after, of course, enjoying their neighbour's genuine, traditional British "cod and six-penn'orth o' chips" (allowing, that is, for the rate of exchange, inflation and the absence of British newspaper wrappings), and then, joy of joys, I got myself a genuine can of genuine Heinz baked beans just like Mum used to buy back in genuine old England— genuinely!
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Literature: Dragon On:2020-09-27 13:57:35
First1, at least as far as we know, there was the Old English poem which we now call Beowulf. This told the story of three great fights between its eponymous and indeed onomastic hero: in hall, mere and slot; against monster, mum and dragon (and quite a few rather meh! fights between mere humans) and tells it largely from a Beowulfian perspective, then later, much later, there came Martin Gardener's great novel Grendel which, surprisingly considering its name, told Grendel's story.

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Literature: Hairimeraku Trek III: The Wrath of Camus On:2014-05-18 13:04:00
There was so little violent public outcry last time I wheeled out the notorious Moshemoshe Dareno-otakudesuka’s1 famous Hairimeraku , that I say “Damn the protest marchers and lets’s do it again!”

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Literature: Of Nice Orrmin On:2009-08-27 17:10:40
Oh dear! I always seem to be putting out this sort of 'intellectual thing', you know, I'm always spouting about music and history and keep on reciting poetry, so that by now people are constantly asking me who is my favourite writer, and even though it's obviously my own fault I am beginning to get just a little peeved by the repetition. So to crush this bug in the bud, as it were, I will tell all of you, and hope that you will tell everyone else.
My absolute most favourite-ist writer in the whole wide world is Orrm .
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Literature: Big Beo Daddy Does Gangstawulf On:2009-04-17 04:15:59
There is a frantic fascination now-a-days with translations of that great Old English poem Beowulf, from the poetical transmogrification into the Oirish of Heaneywulf by Seamus Heaney, through to more ; even more ; and to absolutely totally ; weird translations to film.

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Literature: Beeb-Brained On:2008-09-10 17:31:29
I've got to stop reading the Beeb site---you know the enormous site that the BBC has on the web. You see I have been checking it every single day now for absolute years, just to see if that old patriotic song There'll Always be an England has remained true for a given value of "Always" including, but not limited to, today. Anyway I really must stop, not so much because I've finally accepted England's eternity, nor because I've finally decided that I don't care, but rather because the buggers at the Beeb are really messing with my mind.

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Literature: Hairimeraku Two On:2008-03-13 17:45:36
Some years ago I introduced to the non-hiberno-nipponic world the hairimeraku of the great master Moshemoshe Dareno-otakudesuka and now, due to a lack of popular requests not to, I’ve decided that it’s about time I brought you some more of his gems.

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Literature: Beo Wolfing it Down On:2007-10-18 17:29:57
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times---at least it was and, it appears, still is for those of us who love Old English poetry in general and its most important surviving example Beowulf in particular.

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