December 5, 2019





Well Spotify just named AMT one of the top podcasts of the decade, so let’s conclude the 2010s as we began them: by answering your questions! Answer Me This! Episode 380 features a feast of such festive treats as:
candy canes
boarding school pranks
turkey trends
Christmas Day in London
artificial Christmas trees vs toilet brushes
Thanksgiving dinner vs Christmas dinner
Pirates of the Caribbean vs squid
getting drunk on brandy sauce
the Snow Buddies puppy tragedy
Mister Ed’s mouth
podcaster baubles
the Serpentine Christmas Day swimming race
fake wine
and
the SPAM Museum.
In this month’s Bonus Bit of Crap on the App – available for iPadPhones, Android and Windows – we belatedly celebrate Martinmas! Which has more to do with geese and vintners than echoey-voiced Sound Men, but he’ll take it nonetheless.
How about some more AMT festive-related material? In AMT329, we have a Santa truther child, and the Catalan tradition of the Shitting Log; in AMT357 there’s the filming secrets of Home Alone 2, what happened to the three wise men’s gifts, and what the “new old-fashioned way” is that people are dancing in ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’; in AMT364 we talk about how cranberries are farmed; and in AMT368 we learn about Saint Nicholas’s sidekicks, department store Santas, Jesus and Mary’s relationship, and gift snobbery.
And of course, there’s a whole hour of festive AMT funtertainment in the AMT Christmas album, available at answermethisstore.com for a tiny price. Also there are AMTs 1-200; if you’re looking for a place to start, episodes 160 and 200 sit nicely at this time of year.
Hear our other work!
This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Visit squarespace.com/answer and get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain with the discount code ‘answer‘.
We’ll be back with more AMT in 2020 – the podcast turns 13 (!!) in January, and as our birthday gift we want your QUESTIONS: send them, in writing or as voice recordings, to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com.
Be our interfriend at twitter.com/HelenAndOlly and facebook.com/answermethis.
We’ll be back with AMT381 on 9 January 2020, and there’ll be a Retro AMT episode in your feeds on 18 December.
Helen & Olly
••• AMT380 Child-Friendly Rating: 78%. Some Santa Truth business. Discussion of puppy death. Couple of swears.
•••

Tags:advent calendars, Airbud, alcohol, American Humane Association, animal actors, animal cruelty, animals, animals in film, armed forces, artificial Christmas trees, Babe, belief, Ben-Hur, BFPO, Bob McCormack, Body Worlds, booze, brandy, brandy butter, brandy sauce, bullshit, candy, candy canes, CGI, children, chipmunks, Christmas, Christmas films, Christmas food, Christmas gifts, Christmas movies, Christmas trees, credulity, cruelty, dogs, drink, drunkenness, dry ice, Edward VII, Evergreen, factories, Failure to Launch, families, family, Father Christmas, Father Gregory Keller, festive, festivities, films, flavor, flavourings, food, gag gifts, gifts, handmade, Henry VIII, homemade, homemade gifts, inebriation, inventions, japes, Jesus, jokes, Keller machine, kids, kings, Leave Right Now, London, London 2012, mail, Martinmas, Matthew Perry, merchant navy, mint, Mister Ed, monarchs, movies, Mr Ed, offspring, parks, peppermint, Pirates of the Caribbean, post, poultry, pranks, presemts, puppies, religious symbolism, rock, royal assent, sailors, Santa, Santa Buddies, Santa Claus, Santa spoilers, Serpentine, SFX, ships, Snow Buddies, solitude, special effects, squid, sugar, sweets, symbolism, talking animals, talking dogs, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving dinner, the administrative process of Christmas, toilet brush factory, toilet brushes, turkey, umble pie, VFX, widowhood, Will Young, Winterval, Xmas
Posted in PODCASTS | Leave a Comment »
December 10, 2015


In Answer Me This! Episode 329, one questioneer wrestles with the ethics of breeding Christmas-truther children who ruin everything for the other kiddos; another introduces us to the Catalan Christmas tradition we now desperately need to appropriate. Listen to find out about those, and also these:
free coffee
safety curtains
Caffe Nero loyalty
the internet on disc
caganer
dehumanising apps
phosphor burning
Elf: The Musical
festive NORAD
and
the shitting uncle.
Plus: Olly rode the carousel we all dream of riding; at primary school, Helen reined in her Junior Richard Dawkins; and Martin the Sound Man manages to ruin Oral-B for everyone, thanks Martin.
In today’s Bonus Bit of Crap on the App, the talk of free coffee fraud turns to a far graver offence: Toys R Us fraud. To hear, fire up the app on your iThings, Android and Windows devices.
Thanks very much to today’s sponsor Squarespace.com, who’ll give you 10% off their website-building and -hosting services for a year if you invoke the code ANSWER.
Thanks also to everyone who has supported the show by buying the Answer Me This! Christmas album. If you haven’t yet, this is really the time of year to do so. April, not so much. It’s available at answermethisstore.com, as well as some of the online retail behemoths – links and further details of the contents are available at answermethispodcast.com/christmas.
We are now collecting your questions for AMT in 2016! Leave voicemails on the Question Line – call 0208 123 5877 or Skype ID answermethis – and send emails to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com. Befriend us online at facebook.com/answermethis and twitter.com/HelenAndOlly.
We’ll return with the Best of AMT 2015 on 24th December 2015.
Helen & Olly
••• AMT329 Child-Friendly Rating: 5%. Some swears; some bawdy references; and the greatest peril of all: THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESS OF CHRISTMAS GIFTS IF YOU KNOW WHAT WE MEAN AND WE THINK YOU DO. So, beware! Also, Olly encourages your children to break the airport rules, which will probably get them tasered. •••
Tags:African fabric, air travel, airports, apps, Babar, baggage, baggage carousel, baggage handling, baristas, belief, bodily functions, brand loyalty, cafes, Caffe Nero, caga tio, caganer, Catalan, Catalonia, Catalunya, chain coffee shops, childhood, China, Christmas, Christmas gifts, Christmas traditions, coffee, coffee shops, computation, computers, conveyor belts, CRT, curtains, customs, deceit, dental, dental hygiene, devices, early days of the internet, electric toothbrushes, Elf, Elf The Musical, faith, families, family, Father Christmas, fibs, fire safety, freebies, gifts, good luck, honesty, internet, inventions, Jar Jar Binks, JJ Abrams, lies, life spoilers, logs, loyalty cards, luggage, lying, lying to children, mistletoe, musical theatre, musicals, nativity, news, NORAD, nostalgia, old technology, oral hygiene, Oral-B, parenting, parents, phosphorescence, planes, prawn, presents, Pret a Manger, religion, ringtones, safety, safety curtains, Santa Claus, screens, screensavers, shitting, shitting uncle, Spain, Spanish, Starbucks, teeth, the administrative process of Christmas, theater, theatre, tio de Nadal, toothbrushes, uncles, Xmas
Posted in PODCASTS | 2 Comments »