In episode 17 we hit the jackpot by dumpster diving, get ourselves one helluva fancy box, and then attend not one, but 3 barbecues, one of which is guaranteed to give us all goose bumps

Part 1 [08:24] - In which we find that the gingerbread in our story is not only missing a key ingredient: Selbstwertgefühl, it had a weird, bitter substitute baked into it: Selbstverliebtheit

Part 2 [17:12] - In which somebody roasts the most famous goose in history and the story goes viral

Part 3 [36:31] - In which we get invited to a bris - with a barbecue celebration to follow — but we have to drive through a busy construction zone in order to get there

Music and Sound Credits


🤖 [Brace yourselves!] 🤖

[the following presentation is intended only for immature audiences]

[a disgusted “ugh! well then...!”]

😇 🎶 heavenly choir 🎶 😇

["And God said 'Let there be F-Bombs' — And they were good — And they multiplied — Right here, in this podcast…"]

🧨 🧨 🧨 [nuclear blast] 💥︎ 💥︎ 💥︎

🎶 Anachronist 🎶

Hi and welcome back to the Hansel and Gretel Code — this is episode 17

[oh, you back again?]

um, yeah

[I hope this is worth it]

for better or for worse, our last episode ended in blasphemy

[crowd gasp]

I just had to ask whether the nagging and scheming Signora Holzhacker might actually represent the archetypal angel of good conscience as opposed to the devil of nagging doubt.

[crowd oooh]

Just remember she WAS the one doing all the nagging — busting her wishy washy husband’s balls until he finally agreed to the unconscionable act of abandoning his 2 children in the forest.

[group-shocked]

so, judging her according to the mores and morals of our own Zeitgeist

[the question is moot!]

Of course she’s a DEVIL!

there’s no way in hell, her character could be a metaphor for the angel of conscience...

am I right? — or am I right?

[yes you are right]

[oh boy]

not only is her plan selfish and evil — she herself seems to be MISSING a conscience.

[oh boy, that’s not good]

the illegality of her suggestion aside, a good conscience would never allow her to live with herself — not after abandoning her children.

[I am what I am, du bist was du bist]

[oh dear, that’s rather alarming]

the thing is though, that’s OUR conscience we’re judging her by.

short of mind reading, we can never know for certain what anybody else’s conscience is telling them, especially if their actions and decisions are out of synch with ours.

in fact, to show how subjective a conscience really is, it’s time to get a little academic...

[3 women scream]

oh boy, well just bear with me, okay — I promise, this isn’t gonna hurt...

according to John Boswell’s authoritative book, The Kindness of Strangers, European mores and morals from late Antiquity to the Renaissance not only allowed for child abandonment — which is not the same thing as infanticide — but can almost be said to have encouraged it.

[what?]

Yeah, for over a thousand years, the European mind did not consider child abandonment heinous, immoral, or illegal — and the culture did nothing to discourage it.

***

(The Kindness of Strangers, p. 429)

At no point did European society as a whole entertain serious sanctions against the practice. Most ethical systems, in fact, either tolerated or regulated it.

***

On the contrary, unwanted children could, in all good conscience, be sold, given away or simply abandoned...

[auf wiedersehen]

[goodbye]

and on top of that, FINDING an abandoned child — well that was like winning the lottery.

[hooray!]

A foundling was the equivalent of free livestock or a free slave, and the whole process of anonymous abandonment and adoption was morally akin to dumpster diving.

***

(The Kindness of Strangers, p. 429)

Most abandoned children were rescued and brought up either as adopted members of another household or as laborers of some sort. Whether they were exposed anonymously (in which case the aim was usually to attract attention), sold, donated, substituted, or “fostered,” abandoned infants probably died at a rate only slightly higher than the normal infant mortality rate at the time.

***

[they’re free]

[you have been found]

hey, remember in Episode 6

[no!]

well, we already mentioned that child abandonment was something that directly supported the growth of the Catholic clergy via the pious practice known as oblation.

[what’s that you say?]

As the medieval version of Catholic Charities, (if not the Salvation Army) oblation allowed families to um, donate, unwanted children to the Church, and these children were, in turn, pledged to become clergy.

[say your prayers, dear]

and check this out: According to Professor Boswell, up until the origination of state sanctioned foundling homes or orphanages — which spread across Europe in the 14th Century — the mortality rates of abandoned children were no greater than those of other children — and apparently their lives were not necessarily harsher.

Ironically, foundling homes, which by the start of the 15th century had become the preferred method of child abandonment, were essentially death traps...

[what?]

that’s because, in societies with very little awareness of hygiene and almost no real medicine, infectious diseases have — and probably always will — spread like wildfire whenever and wherever people are gathered together in groups...

[lots of phlegmy coughing / sneezing and sniffling]

[be advised the symptoms to watch for are aggression, foaming from the mouth, deterioration of motor skills, and an unbelievable hunger]

[ahem]

***

(The Kindness of Strangers, p. 431)

...the fact of abandonment remained largely unchanged from Roman antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages. The great disjunction in its history was occasioned by the rise of foundling homes sometime in the early thirteenth century. Behind their walls, paid officials dealt with society's loose ends, and neither the parents who abandoned them nor their fellow citizens had to devote any further thought or care to the children. Even the foundling homes did not have to care for them for long. A majority of the children died within a few years of admission ... in some times and places the mortality rate exceeded ninety percent.

(The Kindness of Strangers, p. 423)

The primary culprit was certainly communicable disease, endemic and deadly, following the children into the hospital, sweeping through its wards, and pursuing its victims out into their nursing homes. Society’s efforts to minimize the possibly tragic consequences of anonymous abandonment produced, with bitter irony, a system that guaranteed the deaths of a majority of exposed children by magnifying their communal vulnerability to ordinary disease.

***

as far as Frau Holzhacker is concerned, consider this quote from prof. Boswell:

The overwhelming belief in the ancient world was that abandoned children were picked up and reared by someone else. It was, indeed, because they were so certain this would be the fate of abandoned children that some fathers preferred infanticide....

(The Kindness of Strangers, p. 423)

***

(The Kindness of Strangers, p. 423) 

Society relied on the kindness of strangers to protect its extra children, a kindness much admired and prominent in the public consciousness. Even a wild animal could be expected to feel tenderness toward exposed children: Romans looked up to see, in the center of their city, the statue of a wolf who had suckled two abandoned children and in so doing helped to found their empire. Kindness to abandoned children, their culture subtly insisted, redounds to everyone’s glory; the child you expose — or take in — may rise to the very top of human society.

***

[interesting]

And so we find, somewhat surprisingly, that a good medieval conscience — one perfectly in tune with the prevailing culture — would be quite reasonably untroubled by this woman's proposal.

[the sun is shining down on me]

so there it is...

and yet, given the pathos of our fairytale — not to mention the fact that she seems to be deliberately donating her children to the gingerbread witch — do we really have enough evidence to re-think her identity as the devil of doubt?

[I don’t want to tell you]

*🎶*🎶*

PART 1 [02:00]

Teil eins: in which we find that the gingerbread in our story is not only missing a key ingredient: Selbstwertgefühl, it had a weird, bitter substitute baked into it: Selbstverliebtheit

[tastes like poop]

So, as we’ve just seen (or heard) it turns out that deciding whether or not Frau Holzhacker LACKS a conscience isn’t our call...

[why the fuck not?]

it’s actually a question best left to the practice of philology and philologists...

[wait, wait, wait, wait]

[what did you say that was called?]

well, philology was a very popular, um, college major in the Grimms Zeitgeist — and a lot of it involves trying to understand a text from the point of view of the age and culture in which it was written.

an interesting corollary to that is being able to work backwards and figure out in what age and in what cultural context a given text was written...

[fascinating]

and that’s something we’re actually doing with Hansel and Gretel — because, as you remember from allllll the way back in Episode 1

[no!]

well, I said that in finding the Truth within this fairytale, we’re going to find the Truth ABOUT this fairytale — that Truth including the name of its author...

[that is excellent]

okay, well getting back to what I was saying: bringing in the findings of Professor Boswell and his fascinating book about child abandonment and adoption throughout the history of Western Europe, it should be abundantly clear that whether or not Frau Holzhacker has a GOOD conscience, a BAD conscience or NO conscience at all, what she’s really lacking is

[spaghetti]

um, that too — but what I really meant was: empathy.

[that’s correct]

Now I could be wrong,

[yes sir!]

yeah, well I see empathy as something that transcends the question of historical age or Zeitgeist — at least in the context of Western Europe...

Just know that empathy and conscience are the basic human elements said to be lacking in sociopaths.

😈 [(evil snicker) you might want to change your toothbrush] 😈

[yikes!]

while the gingerbread witch of our story is a true, sociopathic Hannibal Lecter, this woman is apparently not — that’s because we now know that her solution to the problem of famine doesn’t fall outside the bounds of a normal medieval conscience.

[(another little snicker) don’t judge me please]

looked at from a slightly different, historico-political angle, she becomes an amusingly accurate caricature of Thomas Malthus, the British professor of political economy we mentioned back in Episode 11, remember?

[no!]

yeah, I thought not...

Well, his widely known and coldly logical theories held that disasters such as famine and war were perfectly natural and acceptable solutions to the problems of overpopulation.

[(couple of people) Boo!]

and back in Episode 11 we also mentioned that Ebenezer Scrooge was said to be a caricature of Professor Malthus and his cold-blooded, un-empathic principles.

[oh yeah, very nice]

So let me give you another factoid of philologic significance...

[please, don’t do that]

well, it's one that will give us indirect evidence for the date of authorship of Hansel and Gretel...

[(a slightly exasperated) Oh boy]

Dickens introduced Scrooge to the world in 1843 — long after the Grimms first published our story — and a good 45 years after Malthus published (albeit anonymously) the first edition of his "Essay on the Principle of Population."

[yeah, so what?]

so here’s the thing: it’s our intuition that sees Professor Malthus in the character of Frau Holzhacker — and that’s obviously because we ourselves already know about Malthus and his theories...

but it’s just possible that our fairytale author ALSO knew about Malthus — and so, just like Dickens, our author could have been lampooning the un-empathic professor in the character of the equally un-empathic Frau Holzhacker...

[no way]

and if that were actually the case, it would mean that our story couldn’t have been written before 1798 — when Malthus first published his essay...!!!

[now that sounds like grade A bullshit]

okay, so I admit, right now the evidence for this is ridiculously slim, and yet, as intuitives, we shouldn’t dismiss the idea out of hand, so let’s just keep it in a handy little box marked: intuitively conjecturo-speculative hermeneutics requiring supplementary historico-philologic corroboration...

[it’s locked]

[ew, well isn’t it just Mr. fancy words]

before we move on, there’s one other point that’s worth mentioning:

whether or not our fairytale author was aware of Professor Malthus, she or he was definitely clued into the concept of empathy and what it means for someone not to have any — and that’s a human problem endemic to all ages if not all cultures...

we of today have, at least at some point, called it

[argidurgadurg]

[ahem]

narcissism

anyway, that’s what I call it...

[let’s hope you make the most of it my boy]

and while there’s been an awful lot of equivocating and discussion over what the word narcissism actually means, especially in our Zeitgeist and in Western culture — it’s that very lack of empathy, coupled with bullying behavior, that this fairytale seems focused on...

[let’s find out if they’re friend or foe? and if they’re foe, let’s take care of those son of a bitches]

[argidurgadurg]

I doubt that our fairytale author would have chosen to call it narcissism or even Selbstverliebtheit...

[ja, ja, it’s okay]

but that’s the thing about Intuition — sometimes you just have no words to name what you perceive and know to be the Truth...

sometimes all you have is a story...

[so, what’s the story Ritchie?]

this story sure has plenty of narcissistic behavior baked right into it...

[factory baked goodness in every little bite]

*🎶*🎶*

PART 2 [07:17]

Teil Zwei: In which somebody roasts the most famous goose in history and the story goes viral...

[well, that’s no surprise at all]

However we choose to label a lack of empathy, it’s seems pretty clear that this lady doesn’t have an ounce of the stuff...

so I repeat my blasphemous question: based on her ruthless behavior, and as much as our culture might prefer to label her the devil of illegitimate doubt, couldn’t she just as easily be the personification of a smug, if not terribly misguided conscience?

[no way!]

Byron wrote:

A quiet conscience makes one so serene!
Christians have burnt each other, quite persuaded
That all the Apostles would have done as they did.

Don Juan. Canto I. St. 83. (1819-1824)

[ha, ha, ha]

He was referring, of course, not just to the infamous fires of the Inquisition, but to the story of the most famous goose roast in European history...

[oh really]

all right... not exactly... the goose in question was actually Jan Hus, a Czech / Bohemian Catholic priest, who was burned at the stake for heresy in 1415, and whose ashes were then dumped into the Rhine.

[sound of shoveling]

[hurry up]

[Schneller! Beeilt euch!]

[sound of a bucket dump]

Hus, whose name means goose in Czechoslovakian, was quoted as saying something to the effect of: “Now you roast a goose, but in 100 years a swan shall come after me over whom the fire shall have no power.”

this prophetic quote — while totally apocryphal (if not genuine fake news) — stuck in the minds of Europeans for centuries...

[why?]

because Hus is loosely considered one the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation, and the swan in question was Martin Luther — the Catholic priest who changed the course of European history almost exactly 100 years later

[yes, I know]

so, the sudden appearance of Jan Hus in this moment of our tale is no gratuitous coincidence, because his divergence from authorized Vatican viewpoints mirrors our current, heretical and blasphemous misgivings about conscience.

[how?]

well, here’s how and why:

Hus was given numerous chances to retract his heretical views and save his own skin — even up to the last minute — and while he steadfastly refused, it was always on the grounds that his CONSCIENCE wouldn’t let him...

[ooh]

of course, as far as the Vatican was concerned, it wasn’t the angel of conscience he’d been listening to — and obeying... it was that other guy — the one always sitting on the opposite shoulder...

[unquestionably]

ironically, there was no such thing as a clear, and conscientious Vatican viewpoint...

[why, why, why?]

because at the time, there were 3 separate, rival popes...!

one living in Rome, one living in Pisa, and one living in Avignon,

[ooh la la]

with each one accusing the other two of heresy — and with all three of them on the hot seat, they were busy playing a crazy game of musical, um shoulders, that none of them won...

so who and how are we to judge...?

how do we sort out the Truth here...?

[i don't know (giggling)]

now I gotta tell you, I could spend a whole bunch episodes trying to explain what Jan Hus was all about and where he was coming from... what his views were, what all the heretical hubbub was about, not to mention all the facts and factoids regarding why and how he ended up being burned alive at the stake...

[must we?]

the genuine facts are fascinating, but then kinda like those 3 bickering antipopes, philosophical, theological and historical academia has been hashing over the ideas, the attitudes and the motivations of all the various players involved, and they’ve been at it for centuries with no end in sight...

[oh boy, oh boy, oh boy]

never mind the fact that on December 18, 1999 John Paul II officially said regarding that famous goose roast: oops, sorry about that...

[oops]

[sorry]

all we need to do here and now is to understand how Jan Hus — along with the considerable baggage of all those facts, factoids, and academic interpretations — how he fits so perfectly in between the lines of our fairytale...

[what are you talking about?]

Jan Hus isn’t just one of Hansel and Gretel’s famous poverty loving ancestors

***

(and a guy who won the Hansel and Gretel triple merit badge of having a papal bull written to excommunicate him, being declared a heretic, and finally, getting himself on the menu at a Vatican approved barbecue)

***

he is, indeed, another one of those guys who felt the clergy should return to that old time religion and be as poor and as pure as the apostles...

it turns out though, there’s a direct, historically and culturally significant connection between Jan Hus and the author of our fairytale — a connection you could almost call genetic...

[you’re scaring me]

and it is my firm belief that this fairytale author WANTED us to delve into all of the historical, theological, philosophical and philological facts regarding Jan Hus

[you’re kidding, right?]

I kid you not... and the reasons for that will become clear in future episodes of the podcast, as we progress through the fairytale...

for now, all we need to know can be summed up in 2 simple words:

[long silence]

[what are they?]

“Sancta simplicitas!”

[what the fuck is that?]

well, the collective European memory took all of those facts, factoids and opinions, and summed them up in those 2 simple words that literally mean: holy simplicity

[huh?]

in other words: sancta simplicitas is quite simply, a meme...

[(a confused) what?]

that’s right... it’s a meme... and one that’s every bit as potent as any and all of the 10 second cat videos and 2 second GIFs ever made...

[are you kidding me?]

I’m not going to get us too deep into the concept of a meme, except to say that a meme is like a virus passing itself on from person to person... and in the case of the most powerful memes, like sancta simplicitas, it’s something that’s so easy to remember, it gets enthusiastically passed on from generation to generation to generation... just like a gene...

the weird thing thing is that ideas can be easily spread and passed on as a meme without anyone knowing exactly what they mean: what the deepest and truest meaning encoded within that idea virus or meme actually is — in other words how memes influence individuals and what their full significance is for the Culture...

[I am confused]

I mean, take cat videos for example... it may not seem like they have any meaning at all, at least not beyond the obvious, which can only amount to a tiny hit of dopamine and temporary relief of boredom from the endless tedium of a work day...

[I like that!]

they do indeed have a deeper layer of serious meaning though: a purpose and significance known mostly to those uber-wealthy entrepreneurs whose algorithms drive the exchange of dollars for eyeballs...

believe it or not, the very same idea applies to fairytales...

[are you crazy?]

the most potent ones get told and retold — in other words, they’re transmitted not just from from person to person to person, but from generation to generation — pretty much without anyone bothering to consider what deeper information might be encoded within them and how that information affects and informs our attitudes and our actions...

[bollocks, just bollocks]

yeah well this is no conspiracy theory... it’s simply the nature of human communication...

in this case, Byron’s 3 lines of poetry never made it to meme status... although he, himself, practically did

Byron — an apparently wild and crazy guy — was super well-known in his lifetime and beyond as: “mad, bad and dangerous to know,”

[ooh, I like that!]

***

check out these links:

https://mikedashhistory.com/2010/10/16/erotic-secrets-of-lord-byrons-tomb/

https://picturenottingham.co.uk/image-library/image-details/poster/ntgm009338/posterid/ntgm009338.html

https://flashbak.com/they-dug-up-lord-byrons-body-in-1938-and-were-shocked-by-the-size-of-his-dick-417510/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/articles/2009/05/12/notts_treasures_bones_byron_feature.shtml

***

and in the poem I quoted, he was (in part) referring to sancta simplicitas because those 2 words — which encapsulated the entire story of Jan Hus — were as well known a European meme as the story of Canossa that we talked about in Episode 12... remember...?

[no!]

Byron, to his credit, was explaining poetically what the truth within the meme of sancta simplicitas actually is...

in other words, he was conveying the ugly, ironic truth that conscience itself can be responsible for unconscionable acts...

[noooo!]

Now I have to admit, I’ve never read all the way through Don Juan, the poem I took the quote about conscience from...

[uhh, excuse you]

the whole thing is actually 16,000 lines long, and it’s hilarious...

***

here are some links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Juan_(poem)

https://archive.org/details/byrondonjuanothe0000beat/mode/2up

https://ia800201.us.archive.org/9/items/theworksoflordby18762gut/18762-h/18762-h.htm

***

but when I came across it, I immediately knew that Jan Hus was implied in that stanza because I remembered that crazy famous quote: “Sancta simplicitas!”

what’s crazier though, is that I only came across the quote in my reading of Jung, and he only mentioned it in one single sentence that he wrote in 1958...

what’s crazier still, is that I only read that sentence once around 25 years or so ago — and like all powerful memes, it made such a serious impression I never forgot it...

***

here's that sentence:

 ...the primitive form of conscience is paradoxical: to burn a heretic is on the one hand a pious and meritorious act— as John Hus himself ironically recognized when, bound to the stake, he espied an old woman hobbling towards him with a bundle of faggots, and exclaimed, ‘O sancta simplicitas!’—and on the other hand a brutal manifestation of ruthless and savage lust for revenge.

(paragraph 845 / page 448 of Civilization in Transition)

***

[so what’s the story, Joan?]

so, if you’ve never heard it before: the deeply etched story goes that Hus was trussed up at the stake, with, um, no particular place to go...

of course one group of onlookers thought he was headed um, South, while the other, more sympathetic group figured he was headed, uh, North...

Hus himself, who had no doubt about his destination, couldn’t help but utter this droll bit of 2 word commentary on the blessed, un-empathic ignorance of some old woman as he watched some little old lady come forward to piously add her widow’s mite of wood to the already huge pile reaching practically up to his nose...

[and much more and much more and much more and much more, I wish you all that. Bye bye my friend]

***(come to think about it, this could have been Frau Holzhacker herself...)***

given the context, this lady was presumably following the dictates of her sincere but severely un-empathic conscience, and over the centuries, the quote became a sort of shorthand witticism for people to use when commenting on what they judge to be the emphatic cluelessness of someone else...

[oh, and I suppose you think that’s funny, huh?]

funny enough, in unpacking all the facts regarding Jan Hus — which amounts to fully decoding the meme — the quote itself turns out to be a variant of a fictional variant of a very different factoid taken out of context and put into the mouth of Jan Hus as a deliberate act of hagiography...

[hmm, what’s that?]

well that just means it was a story concocted to embellish the legend of and memory of Hus as a saint... it was, to quote Professor Frances E. Dolan of U.C. Davis:

...a tall tale that...existed only in the telling.

[I’m not sayin’ nuthin’]

well, if you really wanna know the truth here

[no sir!]

um, here are the facts:

the quote itself originally came from a famous letter written by St. Jerome (who died in the year 420) — a thousand years before Jan Hus had his goose cooked...

***

if you're interested, see paragraph 12 of: St. Jerome: Letter LVII. To Pammachius on the Best Method of Translating

VENERATIONI mihi semper fuit non verbosa rusticitas, sed sancta simplicitas.

 I have always held in esteem a holy simplicity but not a wordy rudeness.

***

according to 19th century historians it wasn’t even spoken by Jan Hus, but by a certain Jerome of Prague — a follower of Jan Hus— who was himself burned at the stake on the very same spot as Hus, and not quite one year after the execution of Hus...

[oh dear God!]

according to 15th century eye-witness accounts, it seems obvious that neither one of those guys, Jan Hus or Jerome of Prague, actually said this...

[hey Jerry, what’s the story?]

somehow or other, Martin Luther, having discovered the extensive letters of Jan Hus, and being gobsmacked by how much in tune he was with the guy, began translating and publishing those letters, always adding the apocryphal “Sancta simplicitas” business to his introduction... and by putting it in the mouth of Jan Hus...

Beholding a peasant bringing some wood to feed the flames, he again smiled with mildness, and uttered these words of St Jerome — "holy simplicity!"

(from: PREFACE OF DR MARTIN LUTHER, TO THE LETTERS OP JOHN HUSS, PUBLISHED BY HIM IN THE YEAR 1537.)

while it seems likely that Luther wasn’t the author of the meme, he was still something of a patient zero, because as a super-star celebrity, he was certainly a super-spreader of ideas, and his mentioning the meme was the likely reason it went viral...

[johnny, is this true?]

the rest is history... the collective memory of Jan Hus became that of someone who dared to imply that a Vatican approved conscience was anything but a blessing...

[that’s the story! oh no!]

***

as another aside to the podcast: if you're interested in knowing just one of the fascinating ideas involved in the story of Jan Hus, look up the "heretical" concept of Donatism.

Donatism is a good word for the current controversy in the art world regarding the situation of an awful person who makes excellent art. In other words, should we give a stone narcissist artist the courtesy of paying attention to his art if it seems amazingly good? A donatist would say: "absolutely NOT!" Hus was condemned as a heretic, in part, because he was inclined to support the Donatist idea in theological matters. You see, he pretty much considered those 3 antipopes to be narcissists and unworthy to condemn him, and he refused to lie to them (and himself) — even to save his own skin — for fear of becoming unworthy himself.

***

No matter what our faith is, the child-like serenity Byron wrote about, and the simplicitas implied in the meme, can only be available to someone living blissfully free of doubts, or having, as Jung often remarked, a somewhat dull, medieval mind.

[they say a wall is medieval. Well, so is a wheel. A wheel is older than a wall.]

[argidurgadurg]

(“simplicitas” in the quote also implies simple-mindedness)

That is to say, one incapable of handling uncertainty, complexity, or doubts of any kind — heretical or otherwise — especially those regarding conscience.

[God bless me - every Sunday]

For the rest of us, such holy simplicity is rarely an option; our conscience is far too complex and troubled by multiple, conflicting influences, concerns and loyalties.

[it’s really terrible]

These days, instead of a clear and consistent, universal, humanist code, conscience is more often a paradoxical pastiche of individual, localized mores, customs and priorities all swimming within a vast stew of other mixed, sometimes conflicting, and more collectively held, values.

[it’s all complicated]

Some of those loyalties are clearly for our own good, and yet some are strictly for the benefit of the collective they represent. A collective that is only too willing to burn us at the stake for daring to argue with it.

[you are hormonally confused]

*🎶*🎶*

PART 3 [07:]

Teil Drei: In which we get invited to a bris - with a barbecue celebration to follow — but we have to drive through a busy construction zone in order to get there...

[that’s uh, not funny]

[whatever]

Obviously, finding ourselves in perfect agreement with others on any singular matter of conscience is hardly a given. More to the point though, finding agreement within ourselves is often a process that resembles this typically domestic scene of nagging behavior between Hansel and Gretel’s parents.

[how many times have we been over this?]

With depressing regularity, something like this fairy tale mother willfully demands that we ignore our doubts (legitimate and otherwise) and listen to it — or else.

[shut up and do it!]

But if this imperious and un-empathic thing is actually our conscience, how did it overcome its naturally complex, conflicted origins and become a kind of white picket fence demarcating right from wrong?

[shut up]

How did it ever become an unequivocal, dogmatic code for leading us onto the straight and narrow path away from whatever it considers evil?

[you tell me]

In other words, how did it lead that little old lady to want to make sure that Jan Hus was burned to a crisp?

[shut up!!]

Hannah Arendt the 20th century philosopher tells us:

…and this conscience is also supposed to tell us what to do and what to repent; before it became the lumen naturale or Kant's practical reason, it was the voice of God.

(The Life of the Mind. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York. 1978. p. 190.)

[clever]

***

and, as another synchronistic aside, she also mentions a maxim Kant put forth in his Critique of Judgement:

Jederzeit mit sich selbst einstimmig denken.

Always think consistently — in agreement with yourself.

***

She was referring, of course, to Isaiah 40: 3-5, where the great man of god calls conscience The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

[lots of construction sounds]

[that’s not funny]

Judeo-christian culture may hold that conscience is what comes out of the mouth of the lord — the voice of the Authority of all authorities — but for all the various feats of civil engineering this voice demands, it might as well just be known as the Great Homogenizer.

It sounds so much more concerned with getting us all headed in the same direction rather than the right direction...

[move!]

and while we’re on a biblical roll: in Genesis 17 the covenant between Abraham and Yahweh is also a strict matter of this very same Conscience. And because circumcision is the outer sign of this covenant, circumcision is one of its unconditional demands.

[uh oh]

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.'

[wait a second!]

[did somebody do it?]

and of course, you remember from our last episode

[No!]

we brought up the similarity between the doings of our story and Genesis 21. In Genesis 21, when Abe’s wife, Sarah, wants him to abandon his son, Ishmael, and the kid’s mother, Abe’s goomah, Hagar, the Bond Girl,

[Ooh!]

er, bondwoman, this too, is sanctioned by that very same Conscience:

Genesis 21: 9-12

And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing. Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.” And the matter was very displeasing in Abraham’s sight because of his

[Bond Girl]

[ahem]

er, because of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to HER voice;

[some of us have standards]

And finally, in Genesis 22, Conscience famously demands that Abraham get rid of Isaac as a sign of blind obedience to the voice.

[it’s for the better]

At the last minute, of course, something else tells Abraham to ignore the order of that man behind the curtain... and I gotta tell you, I think that other thing was something unrelated to the Great Homogenizer guy with the bulldozer mentality...

[i don’t think so]

And because the bible calls this something else an angel of the lord, we all assume and trust that this angel was, indeed, the mouthpiece of Conscience.

[got THAT right]

in our Judeo-Christian tradition, changing the dinner menu from young boy to mutton is interpreted as an empathic act of mercy on the part of Conscience. But to my utter moral consternation and ethical discomfort, I gotta tell you: I have my doubts about that there orthodox interpretation.

[that is so typical]

There’s something so imperious and un-empathic about this oddly gratuitous test of loyalty to Conscience that I think Abraham may have, in all actuality, flunked it!

[you’re completely out of your mind]

I can’t help seeing how Abraham’s story mirrors what happens to us when something within can’t quite get itself to un-empathically ZIG — especially when some conflicting, but clearly empathic, inner voice is urging us to ZAG

[for the love of everything sacred and holy, would you please shut your yapper!]

The bible assures us that there was no such misdirection in the matter of Abraham and Isaac — but it does so by using its heavy, authoritative hand to muffle our doubts and expunge any evidence of confusion from the record.

[nonsense!]

Still, this dramatic episode ends in such a clumsily, contrived case of deus ex machina that it couldn’t possibly have gone down so unequivocally.

[maybe]

Outside of the bible and Homer — with gods and goddesses always showing up in person — nobody ever hears the voice of the lord with such literal and empiric clarity; not unless they’re off their meds.

[Ooh!]

Maybe Abraham was, indeed, just following the orders of his Conscience start to finish, but it stands to reason that he could not have been any less conflicted than our Holzhacker — otherwise he would have been just like that little old lady of the Jan Hus story: all too happy to squirt extra lighter fluid on the grill before barbecuing his son.

[dad joke groans]

Maybe I’m the one who’s hearing voices, but some dangerously contrary and heretical voice within tells me that whatever this redemptive angel represented, THAT wasn’t Conscience.

[not good]

Instead, out of the corner of an innocent, intuitive eye, I sense some theologic sleight of hand tricking us into believing that there’s a link between this angel and Conscience.

And so, I’m forced to ask myself: what if it’s all a hoax?

[no, it’s not]

What if the real voice crying out in the wilderness — the real voice of empathy — has nothing at all to do with Conscience and the Great Homogenizer, but instead, has been gratuitously co-opted?

[oh my god, oh my god]

***

(something like Salieri bringing Mozart his take from the Magic Flute and pretending it’s payment for the Requiem he promised to write.)

***

Could it possibly be that this kind angel who saved Issac represents the character that normally sits on the shoulder opposite Conscience?

[holy shit!]

That, of course, is an enormous can of worms that’s best left unopened.

[roger that]

But what if, instead of being the messenger of Conscience, this angel represents something completely separate?

For now, let’s just call that separate something, empathy.

[alright, if you insist]

It’s certainly true that conscience is sometimes paired with empathy, and that’s what we tend to call compassion. So, was it compassion that spared Isaac’s life, or was it something else that arose to override the fanatically strict rules of an authoritarian Conscience demanding his death?

[honestly, I have no clue]

Before we can answer that, let’s remember that our fairy tale woman is nagging her husband to do something wrong. That much is clear.

What is also clear is that we have never let ourselves consciously understand that her lack of empathy doesn’t make her the devil of doubt. Then again, leaving the safety and comfort of scriptural certainty behind means daring to see her as a true personification of Conscience: the dogmatic authority we’ve all been taught to trust, obey and internalize, and that occasionally forces us to do something tragically self-destructive,

[oh no]

something that leads us, as Henry Miller put it, to “slaughter our finest impulses.”

[oh crap!]

Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty.

(Sexus - Vol. 1 of Henry Miller's Trilogy: The Rosy Crucifixion)

[we’re gettin slaughtered down here]

🎶 Meanwhile in Bavaria 🎶

In our next episode: we take in a carnival sideshow where we see the bearded lady, hear a little Shakespeare, and end up listening to crickets...

[the sound of crickets]

no, no, no... I meant just uh, one cricket... you know... that singing cricket guy... the one that Walt Disney made famous...

yeah, him.

although speaking of crickets, at least now there seem to be more than just the original 2 or three of you guys out there listening in on the podcast...

[oh my god]

and while I’d love to hear from you, all I ask is would you please, please, puhleeeeze keep spreading the word... that’ll make like what, 8 or 9 of us now who like the show...

[all we need to do is to make sure we keep talking]

yeah, well, don’t forget you can find full transcripts including all the voice and music credits for each episode on the website:

[visit the website at wwwwwwwwwwwww dot]

betweenthelines.xyz

you’ll also find extra links within the transcripts giving you more information related to the European history mentioned in each episode...

[oh my]

alrighty then... ciao a voi, uh, cinque...???

[this recording will self destruct in 5 seconds]

[sound of ticking timer]

[ciao, ciao]

[toaster oven bell]


got a question, or just want to say hi...?

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


*Chapter Titles read by Anna Jacobsen*

*🎶*🎶* Bleeping Demo by Kevin MacLeod of filmmusic.io

🎶 "Anachronist" by Kevin MacLeod and licensed under filmmusic.io/standard-license

🎶 "Meanwhile in Bavaria" by Kevin MacLeod and licensed under filmmusic.io/standard-license


kristo's awesome Peanut Gallery

(most, courtesy of freesound.org)

@00:00 "brace yourselves!" courtesy of unfa and freesound.org
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@00:02 “immature audiences...” courtesy of cognito perceptu and freesound.org
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@00:06 "well then!" courtesy of Reitanna Seishin and freesound.org
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@00:10 🎶 heavenly choir 🎶 courtesy of liezen3 and freesound.org
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@00:16 F-Bombs um, warning: (special) thanks to Ame Sanders of stateofinclusion.com

@00:29 “nuclear F-Bomb blast" courtesy of CGEffex and freesound.org
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@00:50 "oh, you back again?" courtesy of pyro13djt and freesound.org
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@00:55 “I hope this is worth it” courtesy of AmeAngelofSin and freesound.org
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@01:21 "crowd gasp" courtesy of deleted_user_2104797 and freesound.org
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@01:38 "crowd oooh" courtesy of deleted_user_2104797 and freesound.org
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@02:00group-shocked!" courtesy of thanvannispen and freesound.org
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@02:09 "the question is moot!" - SNL

@02:25 “yes you are right" courtesy of Puniho and freesound.org
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@02:26 / 13:05 / 22:56 “an exasperated, “oh boy... oh boy...” courtesy of AmeAngelofSin and freesound.org
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@02:36 "oh boy, that's not good" courtesy of bectec and freesound.org
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@02:49 "I am what I am..." courtesy of Roses1401 and freesound.org
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@02:58 "oh dear..." courtesy of pyro13djt and freesound.org
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@03:28 3 women scream  courtesy of thanvannispen and freesound.org
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@04:03 “what?” courtesy of ballOOnhead and freesound.org
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@04:30 “Auf Wiedersehen” courtesy of ballOOnhead and freesound.org
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@04:32 “goodbye” courtesy of bectec and freesound.org
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@04:41 “hooray!” courtesy of javapimp and freesound.org
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@04:57 “they're free” courtesy of owly-bee and freesound.org
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@04:58 "you've been found” courtesy of Roses1401 and freesound.org
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@05:04 / 10:00 “No!” courtesy of theuncertainman and freesound.org
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@05:19 “what’s that, you say?” courtesy of Stewartcolbourn and freesound.org
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@05:40 “say your prayers...” courtesy of Tim Kahn and Amy Gedgaudas and freesound.org
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@06:24 "what?!?" courtesy of Reitanna Seishin and freesound.org
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***

@06:27 - 06:47 lotsa sneezing, coughing, and sniffling

lotsa sneezing” courtesy of SNEEZYGIRL6 and freesound.org
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sneeze” courtesy of Vanalosswen and freesound.org
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coughing” courtesy of Eelke and freesound.org
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***

@06:46 “be advised...” courtesy of Tim Kahn and Amy Gedgaudas and freesound.org
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@07:03 / 15:44 / 41:59 "ahem" courtesy of Alivvie and freesound.org
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@07:35 "interesting..." courtesy of Reitanna Seishin and freesound.org
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@07:53 "the sun is shining...” courtesy of Roses1401 and freesound.org
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@08:17 "I don't want to tell you” courtesy of Roses1401 and freesound.org
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PART 1 / Teil Eins

@08:47 “tastes like poop” courtesy of cognito perceptu and freesound.org
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@09:06 “why the fuck not?” courtesy of cheesepuff and freesound.org
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@09:16 "wait, wait, wait..." courtesy of nuncaconci and freesound.org
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@09:17 “what did you say that was called?” courtesy of itinerantmonk108 and freesound.org
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@09:49 "fascinating!" - Mr. Spock

@10:14 "that is excellent” courtesy of MatteusNova and freesound.org
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@10:45 "spaghetti" courtesy of Nighteller and freesound.org
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@10:55 "that's correct" courtesy of bogenseeberg and freesound.org
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@11:00 “yes sir!” courtesy of theuncertainman and freesound.org
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@11:21 "...change your toothbrush" courtesy of annadnewby and freesound.org
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@11:28 "Yikes!" courtesy of jorickhoofd and freesound.org
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@11:49 "don't judge me...” courtesy of MatteusNova and freesound.org
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@12:13 / 28:47 / 41:00 “No!” courtesy of theuncertainman and freesound.org
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@12:34 "boo! (couple of people)" courtesy of jayfrosting and freesound.org
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@12:49 "oh yeah..." - Tom Hagen

@12:57 "please, don’t do that" courtesy of girlhurl and freesound.org
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@13:30 “yeah, so what?” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
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@14:08 “no way (guy)" courtesy of kathid and freesound.org
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@12:34 "...Grade A bullshit" courtesy of cookies+policy and freesound.org
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@14:54 "it’s locked" courtesy of Thegamemakerqueen and freesound.org
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@15:03 "...mr. fancy words" courtesy of cognito perceptu and freesound.org
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@15:42 / 16:23 “argidurgadurg” courtesy of qubodup and freesound.org
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@15:52 “...the most of it...” courtesy of SCICOFILMS.com and freesound.org
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@16:15 "are they friend or foe..." - 45

@16:51 “so, what's the story...?” - Frank Vecchio

@17:02 "factory baked goodness..." courtesy of cognito perceptu and freesound.org
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PART 2 / Teil Zwei

@18:08 "what the hell?!" courtesy of owly-bee and freesound.org
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@18:27 "hahaha...” courtesy of Roses1401 and freesound.org
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@18:42 "oh, really?" courtesy of xyahka and freesound.org
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@19:00 "sound of shoveling" courtesy of monotraum and freesound.org
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@19:04 “hurry up!” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
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@19:08 “schneller!...” courtesy of ballOOnhead and freesound.org
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@19:14 “sound of bucket dump” courtesy of kyles and freesound.org
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@19:51 / 21:24 "why" courtesy of Reitanna Seishin and freesound.org
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@20:12 "yes, I know” courtesy of Roses1401 and freesound.org
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@20:35 “How?” courtesy of simons7er and freesound.org
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@20:59 "ooh" courtesy of brunchik and freesound.org
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@21:15 “unquestionably” courtesy of bectec and freesound.org
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@21:42 “ooh la la” courtesy of Tim Kahn and Amy Gedgaudas and freesound.org
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@22:06 "(giggle) I don't know" courtesy of nfrae and freesound.org
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@22:30 "must we?" courtesy of Anna Jacobsen

@23:03 “oops” courtesy of javapimp and freesound.org
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@23:14 “sorry” courtesy of bectec and freesound.org
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@23:33 “what are you talking about?” courtesy of laelizondo and freesound.org
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@24:13 “you’re scaring me” courtesy of vanceparley and freesound.org
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@24:29 "you're kidding, right?" courtesy of max_cristos and freesound.org
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@24:51 "what are they?" courtesy of AmeAngelofSin and freesound.org
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@24:56 “what the fuck is that?” courtesy of cheesepuff and freesound.org
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@25:12 “huh???” courtesy of a13389 and freesound.org
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@25:22 “what...?? (girl)" courtesy of Alivvie and freesound.org
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@25:39 "are you kidding me!?" courtesy of LittleRainySeasons and freesound.org
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@26:36 “what the fuck is this?” courtesy of cheesepuff and freesound.org
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@26:55 “I like that!” courtesy of FreqMan and freesound.org
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@27:20 "are you crazy?" courtesy of AmeAngelofSin and freesound.org
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@27:48 “bollocks...” courtesy of RoivasUGO and freesound.org
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@28:21 ooh... I like that courtesy of nuncaconci and freesound.org
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@29:10 noooooo...! courtesy of se2001 and freesound.org
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@29:20 “uhh, excuse you..." courtesy of Alivvie and freesound.org
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@30:15 “so, what's the story...?” - Frank Vecchio

@31:06 "and much more...” courtesy of Roses1401 and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial License

@31:39 "oh, and I suppose you think that’s funny, huh..." courtesy of shawshank73 and freesound.org
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@32:07 “hmmm, what's that?" courtesy of pyro13djt and freesound.org
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@32:29 I'm not sayin' nuthin' courtesy of Anzbot and freesound.org
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@33:12 "oh dear God!” courtesy of metrostock99 and freesound.org
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@34:11 “Johnny, is this true?” courtesy of Tim Kahn and Amy Gedgaudas and freesound.org
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@34:26 "that's the story!" - JGE

@34:52 "a wall is..." - 45

@35:15 "God bless me” courtesy of Roses1401 and freesound.org
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@35:17 "every Sunday” courtesy of Roses1401 and freesound.org
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@35:34 “it’s really terrible” courtesy of clivew and freesound.org
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@36:00 "it's all complicated” courtesy of Roses1401 and freesound.org
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@36:23 “...hormonally confused” courtesy of SCICOFILMS.com and freesound.org
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PART 3 / Teil Drei

@36:48 "...not funny" courtesy of cognito perceptu and freesound.org
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@36:51 "whatever" courtesy of pörnill and freesound.org
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@37:18 “how many times...?” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
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@37:35 “shut up and do it!” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
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@37:55 “shut up” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
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@38:07 “you tell me!” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
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@38:17 “shut up!!” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
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@38:43 “clever” courtesy of Tim Kahn and Amy Gedgaudas and freesound.org
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@39:00 - 39:32 *** construction sounds mashup ***

"construction sounds" courtesy of craigsmith and freesound.org
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jackhammering” courtesy of JuanFG and freesound.org
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"backing up beeps" courtesy of C-V and freesound.org
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sound of truck and banging” courtesy of fmaudio and freesound.org
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***

@39:32 “that's not funny” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
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@40:02 “move!” courtesy of theuncertainman and freesound.org
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@40:27 “uh oh (guy)” courtesy of DWOBoyle and freesound.org
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@40:50 “wait a second...” courtesy of Krystal Flores and freesound.org
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@41:20 "ooooh...!!" - SNL

@42:19 “some of us have standards” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
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@42:35 "it's for the better" courtesy of Beetlemuse and freesound.org
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@42:56 “I don't think so (girl)” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
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@43:10 “got THAT right...” - Tony Soprano

@43:37 “...so typical” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
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@43:55 “you're out of your mind!” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
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@44:15 “...shut your yapper!“ courtesy of Airborne80 and freesound.org
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@44:38 “nonsense!” courtesy of afterguard and freesound.org
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@44:54 “maybe” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
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@45:11 "ooooh...!!" - SNL

@45:35 dad joke groans" courtesy of TeamMasaka and freesound.org
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@45:56 "not good" courtesy of nooc and freesound.org
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@46:17 “no, it's not” courtesy of ballOOnhead and freesound.org
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@46:34 “oh my God...!” courtesy of Krystal Flores and freesound.org
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@46:48 “holy shit!” courtesy of AlienXXX and freesound.org
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@46:58 "roger that!" courtesy of Legnalegna55 and freesound.org
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@46:58 “I have no clue” courtesy of Krystal Flores and freesound.org
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@47:13 "...if you insist" courtesy of bogenseeberg and freesound.org
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@48:26 “oh, no...!” courtesy of AmeAngelofSin and freesound.org
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@48:35 “oh, crap...!” courtesy of AmeAngelofSin and freesound.org
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@49:06 “we're gettin' slaughtered...!” courtesy of JPolito and freesound.org
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@49:23 “crickets chirping” courtesy of Lisa Redfern and soundbible.com
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@49:52 “oh my God” courtesy of deleted_user_1390811 and freesound.org
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@50:10 “all we need to do...” courtesy of Borys_Kozielski and freesound.org
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@50:23 “WWWs...” courtesy of WillFitch1 and freesound.org
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@50:41 “oh my” courtesy of Dakotagrvtt50 and freesound.org
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@50:49 “this recording will self-destruct...” courtesy of Richard Frohlich / FreqMan and freesound.org
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@50:53 sound of timer ticking courtesy of jaythurber and freesound.org
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@50:55 "ciao, ciao" courtesy of Nighteller and freesound.org
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@50:58 toaster oven bell courtesy of sethlind and freesound.org
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License


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Episode 16 - Taco Bell or Wendy's??? / Episode 18 - I Gotta Lot on My Conscience