Shed Dogs

As they shelter in the Shed from unexpectedly wintry winter conditions, your Shed Dogs wander along and talk about some old stuff (like Star Trek and California Dreaming), some pseudo old stuff (like Mad Men) as well as some more contemporary themes: revelations from IOS 16, some thoughts on the business of weather, and of course dogs—specifically the easiest way to train them...

Long time listeners will know that we Dogs occasionally enjoy a K-drama. Like, you know, all the time. If you weren’t aware of that, this episode should bring you up to speed as we discuss, praise, and generally swoon over “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” on Netflix. We liked it a lot . We also take quick looks at RJ’s recent trip to Seattle and experience at a dinner club, and talk about the remixed...

On a blustery cold November day, your Dogs warmed their old erudite hearts reading emails from resolute listeners… and then reverted to propense form by prattling on about KJ’s Snappers and genteelly discoursing on why Apple has appellations and numbers for operating systems, what canine Buddy has been up to, impedimenta PJ is spending money on, and RJ’s and Sue’s Halloween. In other words, and pr...

Checking in at a small but busy hotel can be tricky business, as RJ explains to us here in a little segment we call Down in the Bayeux. Attentive listeners will pick up a small yet vital tidbit that could avert all kinds of problems, and globe-trotting sophisticates like our audience will do well to lean in and listen. To complement that information, we also get highly entertaining and informative...

A little over 5 months ago, we spoke of a few interesting things, as we do. Here at last, we share it with you: some good phone-related travel tips (hint: avoid roaming charges!), some great listener mail (thanks!), and as always some reflection on how we are dealing with things like using the tap with debit cards, what music RJ is listening to, and in this case the novel venue he was listening to...

The Shed Dogs fall back into Daylight Losing Time with a look at all the fun things Apple’s new operating system brings to your phone: good tips, highs and lows, and favourite features. When we’re done with that, we need a change of pace and so bring you, under RJ’s tutelage, a thorough background on baguettes, followed by a rigorous taste test of three different local baguettes so that...

Have you wondered what “ortolan” might be? Have you ever been dissatisfied with the air conditioning in your discount hotel or motel? Perhaps you’ve been looking for a solid gold business investment opportunity and just haven’t landed on the right thing yet. Maybe, even, you want to wear your own dog’s fur. Regardless, do we have an episode for you! All those topics and many, many more b...

About 50 years ago, the Whole Earth Catalogue was published, providing people with all the information and tools they needed to build their own geodesic dome homes and grow gardens and weave clothing. It also had a fun story in a lot of episodes entitled “Divine Right’s Trip”. In this episode we mainly hear about RJ’s recent 31-day sojourn in Europe, his driving experiences, food experiences, phon...

Way back in Episode 95, Member of BC’s Legislative Assembly (MLA) for North Vancouver – Lower Lonsdale Bowinn Ma made her first appearance here on the podcast via Zoom. Here in Episode 140, she returns for a live in-person visit to the Shed. We spent a great hour or so discussing major transit projects with BC’s Minister of State for Infrastructure, as well as talking about the futu...

Hayley and Ron of Montreal return to experience first-hand the swirling, murky mental landscapes of a session in the Shed featuring KJ’s Short Snappers. We are very fortunately grounded by excellent listener mail, but our connection to Earth gets a little tenuous here…again. Strap in and turn on! Links : Shed Dogs ; gruesome video of flesh being cut by a circular saw , as promised by Ron; Susinn o...

Special guests Hayley (formerly of North Vancouver but now of Montreal) and her partner Ron (grew up in Montreal) step into the Shed to…well, really just to compare notes, pros and cons, of the two cities. Food and weather, culture and history, and of course the big one: language. PJ’s hope for a black or white, right or wrong opinion on which is the better place is once again dashed, but along th...

RJ returns from Las Vegas bearing at least one gift nobody wanted, but still we get a great look at the world of competitive foosball (and a qualified endorsement of discount operation Flair Airlines). PJ is so excited he tries to volunteer to go play in France for Canada’s World Cup foosball team, in spite of an almost total lack of expertise. KJ shares with us some of the fruits of his steadfast...

It’s that special, lovely time—the time when we hear about how this year’s Oscars program went down. We build up to it with some talk about a couple of Beatles and Steely Dan specials as well as hearing the latest from KJ on the run up to the Emmys, and on the technical marvel that is the Murphy bed he is building. Finally, RJ and PJ exchange notes on their adventures in language and travel, both...

“In the spring an old man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of table saws and robotic waiters and new tech deployed in old games like curling”. That’s roughly what the famous poem says, and the proof is right here in this episode as we talk about those very things, as well as about RJ’s date with destiny in Las Vegas and whether 1980 was the best possible year to have been born in. We also have a...

Sure, this could be an opus, but really the title refers to RJ’s thorough and affectionate review of the old TV series Magnum, P.I. If you’re less than of a certain age you may wish to look it up. RJ is becoming his parents and this review is one of the many fruits of that growth. We also get to hear of a terrible misunderstanding about how to prepare a turkey, talk about the amazing new refreshme...

Links : The Fraser Canyon War ; Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer , and review of the same; Nlaka'pamux First Nation ; the Delgamuukw Case ; Nemiah: The Unconquered Country ; Hobson’s choice ; Thomas Hobbes ; Leviathan by Hobbes ; Calvin and Hobbes ; John Calvin ; out of the rabbit hole and onto the lawn: the Squirrel and the Bird Feeder (thanks Sandra); contraband cigarettes ; TCM Podcast: The Pl...

When you were young you played Snakes and Ladders, right? Well, this episode isn’t that. Here we get gritty insights from KJ and RJ on solving rat problems, and have to recover with the palate-cleansing pleasure of reading Listener Mail. Maybe it was all that talk about nasty smelly rodents that led us to it, but we end up talking about the movie “Terminator: Dark Fate” (spoiler alert: j...

Here we find reflective, philosophical Shed Dogs pondering the path to great art and good parking spots through visualization at the same time as they provide solid, practical information on important day-to-day challenges, like how to pronounce that fast moving COVID-19 strain name. From these dizzying mental heights we return to mere mortal levels and talk about what’s good on the streaming...

When Kirkland Body Wash is labeled 100% All Natural, think twice. When we tell you we are 100% all natural, take it to the bank. It won’t be worth much to all the newly created billionaires out there, maybe, but to you? Solid gold. In this episode, speaking of the nouveau riche, we discover what the Internet thinks KJ is worth, we hear about a CBC gig he has coming that should increase that yet mo...

Whether this reaches you before, during, or after December 25, and whether you celebrate it or not, the Shed Dogs wish you and yours a very merry Christmas with the promise of a great New Year to come! In this episode RJ pulls back the curtain on the surprisingly opulent lifestyles of certain foosball players, while KJ lets us in on the real highlights of going to a Canucks game. PJ drops some lef...

Way back in Episode 113 we blundered our way through a non-explanation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Friend of the show Jesse of Montreal heard the call and sent the best-ever explanation and you get to hear it! Leigh of Courtenay heard us recommending a podcast whose ultimate author may have some credibility problems, and she responds, too. From handling bananas to NFTs to Canadaland to garburat...

Join KJ as he takes a full-glam trip to New York City to join in on a Screen Actors Guild panel for Schmigadoon!, hobnobs with other famous people, sees several Broadway productions, and dazzles his daughter Lucy with the full weight of his fame and personality. He really does go where everybody knows his name, even in der Grosser Apfel! Bonus: dog medical procedures and waterproofing Gore-Tex. Li...

Okay, look, we’ll level with you: sometimes we don’t plan out every minute of our content. Here in Episode 126 we have may actually workshopped some stuff for about a minute. Somehow, we got lost in KJ’s Short Snappers, which ended up covering everything from molecular weight to CB radio codes to strange sport sayings. We did manage to squeeze in useful counsel about credit cards and rewards progr...

This episode sees the mighty Shed Dogs preparing to break out onto the global stage at last. RJ reveals his quest to make the Canadian Senior Foosball team and represent Canada at the ITSF World Cup next year, while KJ prepares to jet off to the Big Apple on someone else’s dime to help represent Schmigadoon! at the Screen Actors Guild nomination process. We get another round of fun listener mail,...

This week’s episode opens with some more excellent listener mail before taking a look at the charitable and not-so-charitable aspects of “We”, the organization which has given the Trudeau family and the Liberal Party fits. By fun contrast, we also have KJ’s fabulous Snappers, and as a bonus, Al Franken. We (and by that we mean us, not the Great White Saviors) have some sad tales of changing drivin...