We’re podcasting this weekend.
How’s that for a sentence that you wouldn’t have heard two years ago, unless you happened to be friends with some oddball interesting person for whom the weekend of May 5th and 6th meant the yearly celebration of an obscure northern European fertility ritual that involved throwing seedpods into the air? (This weekend, Olga will be casting an armful of pods into the air, while the sun glints on the wreath of dandelions that lies lightly on her forehead, soaking up the slight sweat she breaks into every time she podcasts.) But there you have it. The BlogLily boys and I are doing another podcast.
This one is entitled “Ask PodLily.” The idea is that you will ask for advice, and we will give it to you. None of us is licensed to dispense advice of any kind, and that naturally makes us all the more eager to roll up our sleeves and get on with it.
Here’s where you come in. There must be something you’ve been dying to get some advice about. Or maybe you just want to know what happens if you walk barefoot across a wet, snail-covered lawn, carrying a plastic water gun. Rest assured, we will come up with an answer. We have a lot of experience with a lot of things here in the BlogLily household. We also like to tell other people what to do.
You can leave your question here in the comments section, or if you are feeling a little shy, you can email it to us at bloglily(at)yahoo(dot)com. We’ll smoke it out in time to get it on the podcast.
And if nobody has any questions, you know what we’ll do? We’ll make some up and attribute them to random BlogLily readers (beginning with my brother Tom), and they will be, without question, such highly embarrassing and revealing questions that you’d basically be better off just asking the thing that’s really on your mind. Looking forward to hearing your questions and, of course, to giving you valuable counsel and guidance.
Lillian Hamrick 
The perfect martini is made with
a) vodka?
b) gin?
c) other?
And is
a)shaken?
b) stirred?
I long for your guidance, BlogLily Household!!
Just the kind of question we like, Ms. Make Tea. We love martinis.
I’d like for the Bloglily boys and their mother to answer this: What is your favorite time of day?
very nice question, Cam. Thank you. We’re gearing up….
What… is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
1. Do you and the boys think it is important for everyone to clean up their rooms occasionally? (Occasionally, being like the French taking baths during the Renaissance.) If so, how do you actually get the boys to clean up their rooms?
2. If you had the choice between an afternoon on a wild beach or a quiet forest stream which would you choose? And why.
3. How can you beat a bully without becoming a bully yourself?
4. (For the boys) If you were going to surprise you parents with breakfast in bed, what would you make for them?
5. My niece bought a new house pet (a rat) and kept it hidden in her room for three weeks before telling her mother and sister. She also lied that she had been given the pet, when she actually had bought it. Do you think that she should be allowed to keep the pet? (Note: The family lives in a small city apartment and, unfortunately, even though rats are very smart and interesting, they pee a lot (!!!!) and so his cage stinks terribly.)
6. What are the best parts about the place you live, where you go to school, and things you can do near home?
1) A woman in my neighbourhood is American, and I just want to know whether all Americans talk so loud? Could be it´s just her. And maybe she isn´t even American, come to think of it she could be Canadian or something.
2) Does people cycle a lot where you live? I mean to and from school, to sports, for shopping etc.?
Probably have a lot more questions, but can´t think of them just now.
If 42 is the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything, what was the question?
Doug
By the way – am I the oddball from the northern European country with the obscure festival…not that I celebrate that particular festival but today friday the 4th is a national holiday in this northern country.
Oh no Jane, indeed you are not an oddball — that was an entirely fictional oddball, although one of whom I am fond, because of the abandon with which the seed pods are cast into the air, and the commitment to participating in one’s national rituals, strange as they may look to outsiders.
Sputnki — Hey Doug, how nice to see you! Thank you for your truly interesting question. We’re thinking……
Lilalia — What a wonderful mix of ethical/moral/behavior/petcare/biographical questions. Our podcast will be terribly enriched by having so many to choose from.
Ah Mandarine, A SCIENCE question. Thank you!
Good day, PodLily.
My question is this: will you allow me to mooch your copy of Encore Provence by Peter Mayle? I don’t think I can live without reading his sarcastic rant against Ruth Reichl.
Many thanks.
Christine
P.S. You can find my address on BookMooch.
As the mother of two girls and one small boy I would like to ask the BlogLily boys directly: why do boys like things that go? And which are best: planes, trains or automobiles?
What is your favorite musical?
And will we hear any singing?
Is a true coffee lover the person who only will drink coffee made from organic, shade grown, arabica beans cultivated and harvested by a pesant woman’s collective in Guatemala and distributed through a fair-trade non-profit organization; or is a true coffee lover someone who is content to drink stale, watery coffee made in a machine that seldom gets cleaned and purchased at a truck stop outside of Buttonwillow on I-5 and sipped through the rough opening of a plastic top on a styrofoam cup?
Ben
Lily & Boys –
What kind of anime would a very bright 12 year old boy like that wouldn’t completely freak his smothering mother out re: sex & violence? I’m not the mom, I’m the weird friend of the mom who likes (some) anime. I’m not really good at gaging what’s good for 12 year olds, not having any kids myself. And being 12 now isn’t the same as being 12, oh, 25 -30 years ago. Or is it? (There’s another question for you).
~Tib
What is the strangest question that the boys ever asked you and how did you answer?
Dear Podlily & Little Podkins:
1) Is Scotland near Poland? And how come geography is so hard?
2) Where does port come from, Portland or Portugal?
3) Which came first, the kidney bean or the kidney-shaped swimming pool?
I have some questions:
1. How do you say ‘no’ to something you really don’t want to do, but know you don’t want to do, and so every excuse sounds like an excuse to your own ears?
2. To the boys: why is jumping on furniture so much fun?
Can’t wait to hear this podcast!!
I have one for the little Podkins, perhaps for the eldest of the little Podkins: In the 7th Harry Potter book, will Harry Potter vanquish Voldemort and become a greatest wizard ever, or will he lose his magic and become a Muggle?
A question over which we argue all the time in my house: is it better to read a book or to watch a movie just before going to bed if one wants to guarantee a good night’s sleep?
Caution: it is halfway between a science and a cinema question.
Dear wonderful PodQuestioners, Our thinking caps are on, our martini glasses are in hand, we are warming up. We will record tomorrow and go live Monday or Tuesday. (I have forgotten how to use the little headset thing-y, so it might be a day or two while we fiddle around with that.)
Why does time seem to go so much faster when you’re having fun?
xxoo
Podlily and Pods:
What are your earliest memories?
I almost automatically answered one of those, being a kind of auto-pilot answering machine, even for questions I have no idea about. However, I do have one of my own.
It’s a very important question.
Who is going to win Eurovision on Saturday?
The exam results are soon going to be out, and I have still one exam left. and I’m really scared, cuz this is a defining period for me. Should I be scared?? I think I did well, but its all confusing..a little advice might help..please..
Thank You,
Worried Student
Sounds interesting. Being a part sadist, I am being allured by my mind to ask something I think you mayn’t have an answer for 😉
So let’s see…
OK.
>> Give me advice as to how should I change my wrist-vibrato into an arm-vibrato on my violin? (!)
OK. Now for some I really expect you to answer;
>> Enumerate points I should take care about; in order to interest my readers and improve my writing, whilst attracting more readers.
>> Having been sitting at home for about 4 months, and unable to go for a vacation, what should I do to have a bit of change?
we want podcast! we want podcast! or at least a witty explanation of why no cast…unless of course you’re writing on your novel, and then all is forgiven…
–op
I am beginning to worry. I hope everything is alright in BlogLilyLand.
I haven’t yet figured out what a podcast is, exactly.
My question: Can I just wait out the podcast era and try to catch the next technological wave? Or is it here for good, like ATMs?
Calm down everyone! Podlily said ‘this weekend’: she did not specify which ‘this weekend’. Remember that impatience is the zeroth deadly sin…
And for Kristin: a podcast is exactly a radio show that’s available for download on the internet as an audio file. And the podcast era is probably here for good — I believe the volume of professional quality ‘radio’ shows that are available from the internet now exceeds that which is conventionally distributed by way of radiowaves.
for the pod-ka-teers: why is it that kids want to hurry and grow up, while moms and dads often sigh and warn they will wish they were kids again?
Hey Mandarine, is that an African or European swallow? 😉
Doug