Mixed blessings

Friday felt like the first real day here in London. I’d woken early and headed out for breakfast at a cafe on Marchmont Street. The area the hotel is in is quite close to the British Museum, so the plan was to have breakfast, see a few things, wait for the traveling companions to arise, and then experience London.

Because jet lag is a cruel mistress, G didn’t emerge till 11am and E till nearly 1pm. We ended up having lunch at a nearby pub (fairly appalling fish and chips), then strolled over to the BM for a long look at their Greek, Egyptian, and European collections, which were fairly breathtaking. We spent hours there, tried and failed to find stuff we needed to buy in the Museum Shop, and then headed off in search of a pub. We found one and the next hours disappeared in a series of pints, some terrific conversation, and then back to the hotel.

Today: Trafalgar Square, DN, and maybe Forbidden Planet.

Episode 165: Questions from the audience

While our intrepid podcasters brave the wilds of London, a new episode for you (hopefully)! With no specific topic in mind, and having sent a greeting to Sleepless in Wagga, Gary and Jonathan answer questions:

  • from Guy in Toronto about single malt whisky;
  • from Fred in New Jersey on:
    • Clifford Simak. Cordwainer Smith. Fritz Leiber. Are they forgotten?;
    • Agents of SHIELD; and
    • making a pitch for a Greg Egan retrospective short story collection; and
  • from Michael about how crowd-funding has changed the anthology market.
All in all, thanks to the friends of the podcast, it made for an interesting and entertaining episode. We hope you enjoy it. We’ll be back soon!


Download the episode here.