Episode 551 - Outside the House - Part 1

My impression of the term is very similar to what they discussed. "Extra fancy" is dressing up an otherwise mundane activity, while "fancy" is a legit elegant experience. So when Chick-fil-a puts tablecloths down for xmas that's "extra fancy", while putting on a blazer and tie for dining at Morton's is "fancy".

Chris's comment about a general lack of civic spirit and doing volunteer work among the present upper classes I feel is sadly right. There has been at least one exception, though. During the pandemic last year a member of the Swedish Royal Family, Princess Sofia, volunteered as an assistant nurse. As she had no nursing education she was mainly assigned cleaning duties. She was also heavily pregnant while doing this. Both she and her husband contacted Covid-19, luckily both recovered.

Lars Backstrom

I don’t think the use of ‘mater’ as a word for mother was showing off his latin, it was a common term in England at that time. I first noticed it in The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie, set during the First World War. The stepmother in that story is referred to by her stepsons as ‘the mater’. Ok, pointless pedantic comment over, thank you for your time.

Chad: “A half banana doesn’t last overnight!” Chris: “No...” *voice of experience This is why I subscribe.

I’m sure, as science officer, Chris has spent many an evening talking to his kids about and explaining the lengthening and shortening of the British day, the cycle and majesty of the heavens, and the crawling chaos that waits to devour us all. Okay, maybe just the first two parts. The third can wait until they’re older.

Chad, I know you missed the part about the shrapnel, but it’s right at the top: “…before the bit of shell met me.” You should listen to your own podcast sometime, it’s really great! Also we could have had a fun Morrissey/goth moment with the call-out to “Blighty”. This may have been a bad story (for Chad) but it was a really fun episode of the ‘cast. Also Chad— we’re in the middle of “Mare of Easttown”, and can we have a discussion about how deeply awful EVERYONE in that town (& by extension, America) is?!?!

My ex from the Spanish part of Harlem in NYC always thought Ranch Dressing was Fancy Mayonnaise until I revealed the truth and made the world a little less magical lol

HP Podcraft is my extra fancy ketchup. I slather that sh*t on everything. Doing dishes? Add a little HPL, now that's extra fancy dishes. Driving to work? Squirt a little of it on my commute sandwich. *Chefs Kiss* Honestly love the podcast have been listening for years. It's become a bit of dependable company through life events from happy to sad. Hope you are both doing well and I look forward to many years of adding this good good show to my favorite situations

When I was a kid the difference between fancy and extra fancy was brand name or store-chain based. The one I remember best was being able to go to a Kroger instead of Piggly Wiggly was absolutely a special trip to extra fancy land, probably mostly to do with the air conditioning. The drawback being we had to put on shoes (extra fancy!)

Reba McEntire would do costume changes during concerts, making Fancy extra-fancy.

Chad's discussion of the difference between fancy and extra fancy in the final moments of the episode will almost certainly change the way I see self-care in the future. A quartered sandwich is good, but I'm requesting more extra fancy upgrades to my life from Chad and Chris and the patrons. Truly a strange study, albeit tangentially related to a strange story--keep it up!

Matthew Bizzell

Out of curiosity at the cliffhanger I went and read this story. I agree that it is missing _something_ to bring the mix of ingredients together. We have a fun cast of characters, who each do nothing connected at all to the main tale. We have a mysterious past that shows up as a postscript rather than shadow over events. No string of past victims to warn our hero not to proceed. So many missed possibilities. As a film, you could show ‘early’ photos of the house and how the low lawn is slowly growing larger, deeper. You could have the coal mining aspect shown in photos and set dressing. Even in a game played by the kids and overheard. The growing danger wasn’t really shown. It went from a pantomime of walking through mud -when we could have had his boots torn and ripped- to otherworldly to a press of thousands told on a hospital bed. Jumping without building the groundwork. I am unsure if it’s just modern audiences are more expectant of all the threads being woven into a single image instead of just hanging out or just I am growing tired of so many older tales screaming out to me to have a heartless editor force tighter, cleaner story telling result. Of course I don’t read the free books on amazon so perhaps my kindle could be filled with modern examples as equally crying out for an editor worth their salt.

John Ross

Having never heard about it before, I am now committed to the concept of extra fancy.

Side note, “Fungi From Barbie” comes up when you Google Lovecraft’s sonnets. Stay safe in all your doll-playing adventures, friends. God only knows what she’s given Ken at this point.

Devin Trim

Hey guys, just wanted to drop a quick suggestion. I was reading through “Fungi From Yuggoth” again, and think it would be awesome if you did an episode or two on it. I know there was a live one a while back, but it might be cool to cover a few poems in the context of a normal episode too. Thanks for the great content!

Devin Trim

This sounds like a perfectly reasonable period piece, a bit of humour and some creepy goings on. Clearly it's no EF Benson's How Fear departed from the Long Gallery, but then very few stories attain that peak. I didn't even mind Chris's mangling of Mater. And I think he deserves this treat, Robert Lloyd Parry's near perfect* reading of the above story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-rcTRt6_c4 *I've seen him do it live and it's a true delight.

Steve

The main character is a war hero. The "purple and white" ribbon the kid ribbed him about shows him to be a holder of the Military Cross, third in line of honours below the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross... and the Victoria Cross.

"Fancy work" (from the Oxford English Dictionary): Ornamental, as opposed to plain, work, esp. in needlework, crochet, knitting, or the like As 21st-Century American men, you can be excused for not knowing this. Fancy work was a common pastime for women of leisure in those days; even royalty did it. They gave it up to do utilitarian work for the war effort, and for disabled veterans after the war.

(If you fry up a grilled cheese, instead of butter or oil try spreading a thin layer of mayo onto the outside of the bread as your cooking fat. That bit of extra fancy is free.)

Mandy Reznor (She_It)

This episode really made me realize I need more extra fancy things in my life.

I'm pretty sure that one of the most basic rules of hospitality is to give fair warning of anything that might harm - even alarm - your guests. It is one thing to be circumspect around finances, intimate relations, and how one treats those in one's employ - manners be mannering, as they say - it is quite another to feel it might be too forward to mention the shotgun is loaded, the shotgun wielding stranger is loaded, or the garden is loaded with spooky.

I've been looking forward to this. The guys are usually a bit hard on conventional English ghost stories but this is bizarre enough (more in the social milieu than the actual ghosts) to perhaps interest them. At the very least they can scream at our boneheaded protagonist. I look forward to listening. A free e-text of her collection "From Out of the Silence" is available here: https://gothictexts.wordpress.com/2013/10/09/from-out-of-the-silence-1920-by-bessie-kyffin-taylor/