Nutcracker and Mouse-King - Part 2

And the Calvary Cavalry is a formation of crucified Jesuses on horseback.

Brian J

Like Alex, I saved up some episodes for this holiday season. Sitting beneath my kotatsu with good folks, good food, and good cheer all 'round, I'm happy to hear the delight in your voices. Best wishes to all!

I'm really enjoying this story, having saved all four episodes up to binge over the Christmas holiday. Just one tiny piece of pedantry Chris: Calvary is where Jesus was crucified, *cavalry* is soldiers on horseback. Hope you both had a great Christmas and thanks for all the entertainment and enlightenment you've brought us this year.

Clearly, no one in the royal kitchen had read the classic children's story "If You Give a Mouse Some Sausage Fat..."

Peter Larsen

At the same moment I said out loud "what are they riding"

Erik Gordon

My pet theory is that this being the 19th century the doctor just gave Maria a bunch of laudanum and possible also some cocaine to deal with the ghosts in her blood and this is the inevitable result

Stewart Huntsman

A version of the Nutcracker that includes Princess Pearlapat is The Hard Nut. It’s not family friendly but it’s fun. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hard_Nut

I am astounded and delighted that you pronounced my name correctly. It is a rare occurrence. Frohe Weihnachten!

Nope, can’t contradict you. Sorry! That’s what 8-year-old me, who had mice as pets, also took from it.

Michelle Elbert

I finally caught up! After listening to the podcast from episode 1 years ago, then subscribing to Patreon and starting all over again at the beginning of lockdown, this episode marked me being totally up to date and told myself I would finally post a comment once I got here. Been a pleasure, thanks for making these last few years a lot better. I think this means I've listened to all the 1st stage of the show (all the Lovecraft stuff) at least three times now. Also: Kros Krostifferson made me howl.

Dion Lay

Oh, yeah - seconded!

Dion Lay

Chad! The joke you missed is “it was a Knick knack paddy whack!”

Another fun episode. The story gets crazier and crazier. If what Maria witnessed really happened, then is Drosselmeyer not relating the true history that led to the conflict? Perhaps he is eliding his own participation in the events, badly, by dressing it up as a "story"? The way he examines the princess and her own role as an ancestor of the Nutcracker suggests a kingdom of clockwork people. Of course if Maria hallucinated the whole thing, it could be nonsense.

Loving the coverage of this story so far! I wish I knew a better venue to bring this up in, but have you two ever considered covering the novel “Roadside Picnic” on the show? It seems like a great example of weird sci-fi that’s had a huge cultural impact and influence. It seems like something you fellas could make some really interesting episodes on! Plus both authors are deceased, so no issues on that front Love the show, keep up the great work!

Chad and Chris were uncertain about what the the mice were firing back, in the face of the toys' candy barrage. The St. Simon translation has: " . . . Fred's hussars were battered by the enemy's artillery, with odious, offensive balls, which made dreadful spots in their red jackets. . . ." Maybe it comes of having dealt with mice infestations, but all I could think of was mouse poops. I would be very happy to be convinced otherwise.

Joe Beck

Now that I know it's a true recollection, if only I could remember what the adaptation was.

Jeremy Impson

Thank you so much for covering this story. As a kid in the 80s I must have been exposed to some adaptation that was fairly true to the original. I don't remember what it was, but I've lived my entire life with a recollection that the there was more to the story, in a disconcerting manner, than most adaptations revealed.

Jeremy Impson

The mouse cavalry is surely a bunch of mice with inanimate toy soldiers strapped to their backs.

Jeremy Impson

It's a knick-knack paddy-whack! Also Calvary? That's not the same as cavalry.

Steve

…was Andrew going to charge you extra to read the “watchmaker’s song”?

Michelle Elbert

Regarding Kyra Sedgwick’s shark teeth: I’m not saying Kyra Sedgwick is a Deep One, but I am saying the Sedgwicks (including Kyra and the famous 60s model Edie) are a very old New England family, like the Cabots and the Lodges and the Lowells, and that the Sedgwick family cemetery in Stockbridge, Massachusetts has graves arranged in concentric circles around the patriarch at the center. The legend is that this is so that at the Second Coming, all the Sedgwicks will rise facing their first American ancestor, but there may be something more loathsome and eldritch to it. Kyra Sedgwick is married, as we all know, to Kevin Bacon, and I can’t help but wonder if the Kevin Bacon game, with its goal of linking us all together in a grand web, may be less innocent than first appears.

I’m sure he’s been on both ends of these interactions many times.

Leman really does nail what it feels like to listen to a crazy person on public transportation.

Pelyco