Posts Tagged ‘parents’
November 18, 2010
In honour of the Answer Me This! book being officially (well, close) declared ‘one of the greatest pieces of toilet literature of all time
‘, we’ve got an accidental toilet-reading theme running through Answer Me This! Episode 157. What does Jack Bauer read on the bog? Is Timmy Mallett’s How to be Utterly Brilliant or Kenny Everett’s Ultimate Loo Book the biggest star in the loobrary firmament? Why does Martin the Sound Man dream sweet dreams of lavatories? Find out all:
This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p at the Answer Me This! Store, through a secure server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)
This week, we amuse ourselves with:
the Mann Booker prize
Nightmare on Hygiene Street
The Piano: The Musical
Gibson vs. Fender
T3 vs. 3T
tarts vs. tarts
salesmanship vs. psoriasis
The Guardian Bedside Reader
martini-making machines
Autoglym
David McAlmont and Michael Nyman
the Nissan of the guitar world
the Captain Corelli’s Mandolin-branded backgammon set
hairy oil spills
No More Nails
bezoar
nut hamper
the Alcor Life Extension Foundation
parallel parking
and
the Strawberry Strumpet.
Plus: Olly has some dodgy plans for death row prisoners; Helen revolutionises bridal traditions with the help of Stilton; and Martin the Sound Man sold off his glorious ponytail for far less than its current market value. This week’s bonus bit on the app is a question from Jack, the 21-year-old undertaker in Uckfield, who feels uncomfortable with atheism in front of mourners and wanking in front of his cat. What a shy soul!
As ever, we have a hankering for YOUR QUESTIONS, so sate us by leaving a message on the Question Line 0208 123 5877, Skype-ing answermethis, or emailing answermethispodcast@googlemail.com.
Now, if you’ve got time this evening (that is, Thursday 18th November), please do pop along to see us read bits from our book at Waterstone’s Gower Street. We kick off at 6pm sharp, but if you can’t make that, how about a rerun at noon on 26th November at Rough Trade East, huh? Come and have a little pre-lunch fun with us. There are some excellent bagel-shops a mere gherkin’s throw away.
Helen and Olly
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Tags:Ancient Rome, Anna Paquin, bezoar, blue, boobs, books, brides, candy, Charlie Brooker, cheese, chocolate, competitions, confectionery, corpses, cryonics, death, death penalty, deceit, dreadlocks, dreams, driving, Empire Magazine, film, food, Freddy Krueger, friendship, gallstones, genetics, guitars, Gunther von Hagens, hair, hairdressers, Halloween, Harvey Keitel, Hello! magazine, Holly Hunter, horror, hygiene, instruments, junk mail, lavatory, mail, movies, musicals, Nicolas Cage, parental disobedience, parents, poison, post, prison, prisoners, prizes, prostitution, reading, reanimation, Romans, salons, Screenburn, Stilton, sweets, theft, This American Life, toilet reading, tradition, True Blood, Twitter, Victorians, Virgin Mary, waste, weddings, wigs, Word Magazine
Posted in PODCASTS | 4 Comments »
October 21, 2010
Greetings!
To follow the mood of this week, we must announce that we’ve decided to cut Answer Me This! Episode 153 by eight per cent. However we reassure you that we will be freezing the length of this episode at 27 minutes 37 seconds for the next two years, or until the apocalypse, whichever is sooner. Here you go:
This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p at the Answer Me This! Store, through a secure server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)
Today’s time-of-austerity topics include:
non-alcoholic beer
Jim Henson’s fake rats
shadduck
Michael Apted
Lidl
Johnny Depp vs. Danny Dyer
Center Stage
Olly’s favourite condoms (surprisingly not these ones)
The Witches
Stephen Jones, milliner
isopropanol
Rowan Atkinson’s ‘early’ work
Bonnie Prince Billy’s hometown
Nicolas Roeg
identical twins
Michael Palin in drag
and
losing your virginity to a chair.
Plus: Olly has been repelled from his favourite snack by Gok Wan; Helen suggests a high school Joseph Mengele; and Martin the Sound Man plays off Gene Wilder and Spike Milligan against each other. WHO WILL WIN? We will, alas, never know.
What we do know is that next week is the last episode in which we’ll be handing out free books to questioneers, so send us your most brilliant QUESTIONS right now! Leave a voicemail on the Question Line 0208 123 5877 or Skype ID answermethis, or email them to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, to which you should send your postal address if you are one of this week’s featured questioneers and want to claim your freebie.
If you want to claim your not-quite-free-but-really-not-too-pricey copy of Answer Me This!: Collected Juvenilia, then investigate answermethispodcast.com/book, whereat you will find not only links to a few online bookshops, but also some sample pages to induce you to preorder itmake you decide to order Booky Wook 2 instead.
Helen and Olly
PS Forgot to mention: this week’s bonus bit on the app is Olly’s account of his recent debut trip to a branch of Hooters. It was all in the name of post-feminist irony, alright?
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Tags:7-Up, Activia, adoption, Anjelica Huston, bananas, beef, Bette Davis, Bitty McLean, booze, branding, car crash, cereal, chairs, Cher, Cilla daiquiri, citrus, clowns, comedy, condoms, contraceptives, Elliott Smith, embarrassment, family, film adaptations, fluids, food, fruit, furniture, gay, Gok Wan, grapefruit, grapes, homosexuality, hygiene, hymens, inebriation, josie long, marketing, melon, Miami Seaquarium, mice, movies, Nicholas Hytner, orange, Oxo, parents, pink, pratfalls, rats, Roald Dahl, selling out, sex, sexism, shame, siblings, slapstick, Snackajacks, soft drinks, Special K, telly, Tim Burton, twins, virginity, yoghurt, yuk
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August 5, 2010
Dear friends,
If, like Olly, you are delightfully innocent and pure-minded, listen with care to Answer Me This! Episode 144; for, like him, you will probably be SHOCKED TO THE VERY CORE to understand what the heck that mucky broad Britney Spears was on about in her ‘If You Seek Amy’ ditty. We don’t know which was more shocking: the blatant sauce of the double meaning, or the topsy-turvy grammar of the single meaning.
This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p at the Answer Me This! Store, through a secure server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)
Delicious Miss Dahl’s dirty martinis
skate’s dirty parts
Sea Pebbles
citric acid
‘Scotland the Brave’ vs. ‘Greensleeves’
the MTV Cribs diet
carbonated champagne
matzo meal
Clamato
kosher fish
those child-hating bastards Cybercandy
strawberries
the spoon trick
Hatch End
fizzy cola bottle inequity
and
modern marginalia.
Plus: Olly compares his pioneeringderanged snacking habits to Heston Blumenthal; Helen ruins Olly’s favourite delicacy, tipple, and high school sing-song tv series; and Martin the Sound Man does a rap, gives insight into the dairy consumption of tramps, and otherwise disgraces himself.
We also peer beneath the frilly underskirts of Great British Questions Episode 3: Romance, exposing some mild disappointment in the world’s biggest coloured pencil, and wondering whether the Cerne Abbas giant has been slacking on his fatherly duties thus far. Meanwhile, over on the fair shores of the AMT app, we speak of marginal things we like. Nothing pervy, unless you are aroused by the shoes of elderly Jews.
Now it’s time to give us your QUESTIONS; please bestow them upon is in the form of a voice message on 0208 123 5877 or Skype ID answermethis or an email to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com. How thrilled we shall be to receive them!
See you next Thursday for Episode 145, and on the preceding Tuesday for Episode Four of Great British Questions, in which we glug down sufficient tea to rehydrate the Kalahari.
Helen and Olly
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Tags:allergies, bagpipes, books, booze, brine, Britney Spears, champagne, China, Clamato, cocktails, corks, defacement, defying parental authority, desperation, El Bulli, Ferran Adria, filth, fish, fishermen, folly, food, frozen pizza, fruit, genitalia, Glee, Helena Bonham Carter, illicit sexual partners, infidelity, innuendo, libraries, Mad Men, marginalia, marine life, martinis, meat, mistresses, music, musicals, naps, nuts, olives, parents, party, pencils, pesciality, pie, rappers, record breakers, Scotland, sex, sexism, skate, snoozing, Sophie Dahl, squirrels, stationery, strawberries, Sweeney Todd, teenage, titles, Wuthering Heights, Yorkshire, yuk
Posted in PODCASTS | 5 Comments »
June 17, 2010
Here it is folks, the final Answer Me This! of the second quarter – Episode 140:
This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p at the Answer Me This! Store, through a secure server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)
As we clear out our desks for the break, we give the following topics an airing:
Wills’n’Harry
eggnog
Anjou
the new Mentos + Coke
Duncan Goodhew vs. Dizzy Gillespie
Leonard Cohen vs. Magnetic Fields
Siberian husky dogs vs. Paula Radcliffe
wedding pyromania
hotel breakfast buffets
goat dowry
Freecycle surprise party
revolving restaurants
and
Narnia in Canada.
Plus: it turns out Olly can multitask after all, but only in hotel bathrooms; Helen manages to make prunes even more boring than you already thought they were; and Martin the Sound Man gives a line reading of The Human Centipede, which is as close as we ever want to get to actually seeing that film.
We hereby bid you adieu for a month, but we’ll be popping back here every week to post up some choice words – and to display the results of the Berocca Challenge that we set you this episode, should any of you choose to rise to it! You can also keep in touch with us via Twitter and Facebook, but more importantly by sending us your QUESTIONS – call 0208 123 5877, Skype answermethis or email answermethispodcast@googlemail.com.
Parting is such sweet sorrow. We’ll be back on 15th July. Have a smashing month!
Helen and Olly
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Tags:Alaska, Alicia Keys, bathrooms, birth, birthday, body lotion, brains, brass instruments, BT Tower, Canada, cars, dogs, eggs, etymology, exercise, food, fruit, Germany, government, headmaster, hiphop, hotels, hygiene, japes, Jay Z, KY Jelly, lavatories, mariachi, marmalade, Miliband, movies, New York, nicknames, Official Secrets Act, Olly's shoulder, parents, party, Pet Shop Boys, pets, pranks, prunes, raisins, rap, relationships, royalty, schadenfreude, school, sex, Simon and Garfunkel, surgery, surprise, swimmers, swimming, Tarantino, teachers, telephones, the Queen, The Strokes, turkey, twins, vandalism, yuk
Posted in PODCASTS | 1 Comment »
May 20, 2010
Hello there listeners,
For reasons outlined therein, we’re yawning and stretching during Answer Me This! Episode 136; but we sincerely hope you don’t:
This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p at the Answer Me This! Store, through a secure server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)
On today’s call sheet are topics including:
iron ore
Hereford Cathedral’s record-breaking library
abseiling
Jo Whiley’s washing tips
fishy Ashton Kutcher
chopsticks vs. cutlery
stripey horses vs. horned horses
communion wafers vs. transubstantiated flesh
Mel Gibson vs. Bob Dylan’s Planet Waves
pox vs. coma
weather houses
whitebait
Martika
grey hair
and
blue movies.
Furthermore: Olly only publicly relieves himself the classiest way; Helen shuns bridesmaids; and Martin the Sound Man is a silver fox, although hopefully not the same one that pissed in Olly’s trainers, or fisticuffs will ensue.
We also contemplate what makes us feel aged; proceed to the comments on this post to share your own. Although if you are only half our age, don’t. You are mere saplings, so enjoy that while we wheeze and wobble along the path of physical and mental decline.
Old or young, you are all very welcome to send us a QUESTION, so please do that by leaving a voice message on 0208 123 5877 or Skype ID answermethis or by sending an email to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com.
See you next Thursday!
Helen and Olly
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Tags:1990s, Asia, awkward, Backstreet Boys, bad friends, best man, birthsongs, boarding school, breakdown, brides, bridesmaids, bridezillas, calories, China, Christianity, cutlery, David Cameron, diets, digital rights management, dim sum, eating, etiquette, etymology, films, fish, fish fingers, food, Forever Young, foxes, France, Grosse Point Blank, Heinz, Hereford Cathedral, insomnia, international cuisine, Jamiroquai, Jesus, kitsch, La Roux, Lizzie Roper, marine life, Martika, Martin White, matrimony, Mini, motoring, movies, myth, mythical beasts, Olly's car, Olly's mum, ornaments, parents, personal challenges, phobias, pornography, prawn, rally, record breakers, religion, Rupert Murdoch, school, sheep, sleep, Tom Price, unicorns, weddings, wildlife, world's biggest, youth, yuk, zebras
Posted in PODCASTS | 13 Comments »
February 26, 2010
** Click here for our Jingle Challenge **
Two doses in one day of parents making kids feel uncomfortable? Why the hell not! Here’s a distress call from Heather from Manchester:
My mum’s boyfriend says things to me like “Do you want me to come and rub your back for you in the shower?” and “Do you want to play strip poker with me?” I find this to be really inappropriate and pervy. My mum doesn’t seem to think there is anything wrong in what he says so answer me this: is he a perv or am I being unreasonable in thinking this? Also how can I stop him saying these sorts of things to me?
By the way I am 15 and he is in his late 50s.
Of course tone is important, but written down he does look a bit pervy to us; so readers, if you have any ideas to help Heather to get him to stop, please outline them in a comment below. Better yet, if you work in Social Services, pack your bags – we’ve got a little job for you in Manchester…
Seeing as we’re on this uncomfortable subject, let’s also address this question from Oliver from Cambridge:
I was listening to the Stereophonics album Language. Sex. Violence. Other? and there’s a great song on there called “Lolita”.
After wikipedia-ing the song, I found out that Kelly Jones, the lead singer, actually named his daughter Lolita – that’s right, after the sexually promiscuous 12-year-old girl in the Vladimir Nabokov novel and associated films. This struck me as a spectacularly awful name to call your daughter.
So answer me this: what children’s names have you heard that you think are terrible?
A couple of years ago, Olly met a little boy who appeared to have been named ‘Cunty’. That’s right! If you can beat that, write a comment below, and if we get enough, we’ll charter a coach to take all the unfortunates to the deed poll office.
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Tags:Lolita, parents, sex offenders, Stereophonics, stupid stupid stupid, yuk
Posted in extracurricular questions, User-generated answers | 20 Comments »
February 26, 2010
** Click here for our Jingle Challenge **
Cover your eyes, clutch your pearls, and have a big cringe along with Sean from Kings Lynn:
A couple of weeks ago my parents presented me with a plastic box, while they stood there I opened it to reveal they had given me 200+ condoms, amongst them there was pineapple flavour!
So, Answer Me This:
What’s The Weirdest Thing Your Parents Have Given To You As A Present? (Olly Excluding The Thong!)
Well, if you’re excluding the thong, Sean (Episode 89 if you need a refresher, people!), then Olly is going to have to stand down this round. But between you lot, you must have memories of some time when your parents celebrated your birthday or Christmas with a big beribboned box of Wrong, in comparison to which Sean’s parents merely look like health campaigners urging Sean to remember to practice safe sex and eat his Five A Day. Am I right? Then please share in the comments!
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Tags:contraception, parents, pineapple, presents, sex, shame
Posted in extracurricular questions, User-generated answers | 5 Comments »
January 28, 2010
Yaaaaaaaaawwwnn!!!
Forgive us, but we’re all tired out at the end of this series of Answer Me This! – it’s been our longest one so far! And while we’re off on our anecdote-gathering trips in February, we want you to do a little something for us. Something fun and exciting. Find out what in Episode 124:
This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p at the Answer Me This! Store, through a secure server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)
On the agenda today are:
the cockblocking face of Gareth Gates
True Blood
SOHCAHTOA
Fatal Attraction
cuddling vs. cortisol
Mitchell’n’Webb
nudie pics
mad actors
The Reader
the sexy Saw ride
and
Aslan.
Plus: Olly takes umbrage with ancient Canadian traditions; Helen totally fails the 1990s Culture module at the University of Life; and Martin the Sound Man doesn’t want to see any of those nasty films with boffing in them, OK? So stop sending him copies of Nine Songs in the post!
Now, it’s with great solemnity that we bid adieu to you until 4th March – but make sure we come back with a bang by supplying us with YOUR QUESTIONS, via answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, Skype ID answermethis or the question line 0208 123 5877. We look forward to hearing from you, and hopefully you will look forward to hearing from us. You might also be looking forward to hearing a free Audible audiobook, which you can get HERE. That should obliterate a few hours of silence while we’re off air, no?
Please treat yourselves nicely during February, and we’ll see you right back here before you know it!
Helen and Olly
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Tags:adoption, bigamy, celebrity, dentistry, dilemmas, embarrassment, etiquette, hugs, hygiene, Julia Roberts, love, marriage, mental health, money, movies, names, Olly's cat, opera, parents, prawn, psychos, relationships, restaurants, Richard Gere, romance, royalty, sex, teeth, True Blood, Up, USA
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November 12, 2009
Hail, fellows,
At the time of writing, two urban foxes are noisily copulating outside AMT Towers. It really is the most unheavenly sound. Hopefully Answer Me This! Episode 117 is rather kinder to the ear:
This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p, through iTunes or a secure PayPal server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)
Today we talk of:
the Ban The Bang campaign
book tokens
war memorials
Subway flouting ancient Jewish food laws
bananas
The Shadow Of The Wind
FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL
Sir Walter Scott
coloured bow ties
poor nervy birds
and
pineapples up the arse.
Plus: Olly offends Andrew Lincoln but stands up for the meerkats; Helen exposes her brother’s audacious present-recycling tricks; and Martin the Sound Man tries out his common touch, but fails to convince. C-, Martin!
As ever, we want YOUR QUESTIONS via answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, Skype ID answermethis or the question line 0208 123 5877; and this week we would also like you to comment upon this post with your top tips for godparents (are you one? Do you have one? And aside from the obligatory birthday tenner, have you ever actually been deployed in active godparental service?). Alternatively, you can share stories of the worst present you have ever given, in an attempt to amuse us whilst assuaging the guilt that will NEVER LEAVE YOU. Win-win.
See you next week!
Helen and Olly
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Tags:etymology, fireworks, food, hair, holidays, injury, jews, pain, parents, perversion, prawn, presents, racist phrases, religion, sartoria, sex, sport
Posted in PODCASTS | 13 Comments »
July 16, 2009
Fanfares please, readers! For against all odds (given that we expected to be fully estranged WAY before completing the century), Answer Me This! has hit 100. Right in the face. Wallop!
Of course we couldn’t let such a landmark pass in normal fashion; so instead of kicking about in our home studio in Crystal Palace, we trotted across town to the historic Roundhouse in Camden, and recorded the episode in front of an audience of fans and Olly’s extended family as part of the iTunes Live Festival. Technically we were La Roux’s support act, although she was probably cheerfully unaware of this.
To get a fuller sense of the occasion, conjure up a few of the following images to accompany the audio experience:
1. circular room in the bowels of the Roundhouse, that was rather like the innards of a compass
2. balloon animals
3. party bags, including sweeties, cheap plastic toys, sudoku and VERY LOUD party whistles
4. Kanye specs and foil hats.
This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p, through iTunes or a secure PayPal server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)
From the folds of our sparkly centenary cloaks we whipped out such topics as:
i-mutation
dislocated hips
sweaty necks
Dodie Smith
filofaxes
Fortnum’n’Mason
chimichangas
Neo’s address
palindromes
George Orwell
Olly’s Mum
and
a fake egg.
Plus: how the podcast began! What’s really going on with Martin the Sound Man! The practicality of coming out on a podcast! And the future of AMT! Joining us for this cavalcade of fun were Josie Long, Alex Thomas, Tommy Herbert, Matthew Crosby; and joining Martin the Sound Man on bass, uke and drums was Richard Acton of the band Limn. We must also thank Alicky Ashby and Julie Wang for the photos, because I doubt we will make another such visually arresting podcast for quite some time.
We hope you enjoy the festivities; but next week the show is back to normal, so we will of course be requiring YOUR QUESTIONS: please email them to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, phone 0208 123 5877 or Skype answermethis (Skype seems to have been playing up a bit lately so make sure you elocute to the max).
See you next week, for palindromic prime episode 101!
Helen and Olly
Tags:Arizona, coming out, cookery, dogs, eggs, gay, parents, romance, surgery, work
Posted in PODCASTS | 10 Comments »
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