Podcast Edition 3

In this edition please find the usual offerings including local history with Hilary Geisler. Local Lives features Roger Prunchkin telling us about the very special new visitors to his garden - a family of natter jack toads!

Facts

 * Roger Prunchkin is the only person to be featured in Local Lives more than once.
 * The show notes put an erroneous space in the word "natterjack".
 * Malcolm mentions the former St Elwick's Neighborhood Newsletter cartoonist, but refers to him as "Robert" despite previously naming him as Gary Van Sned.
 * Jess told Malcolm that someone downloaded the last episode in New Zeland. Malcolm admonishes them for this.
 * Phil Mulner asked Hilary to not come around to his place anymore.
 * Hilary mentions that Paul and Jess both reacted badly to the news that moussaka was for dinner.

Plot

 * Malcom attempts to teache Hilary how to properly use a microphone.
 * There's a sweepstakes being run on the outcome of the Mark Canning case.
 * Malcolm has opened the package mentioned in Podcast Edition 2.
 * Inside was brown parcel paper and a 10 inch Curved Air LP.
 * Malcolm offers the LP to anyone who wants it as he has no way to play an LP.

Local Lives

 * Roger Prunchkin does a phone interview for the Local Lives segment about the Natterjack Toads that now live in his house.
 * At various points the toads can be heard croaking in the background of his call.
 * A construction accident led to his father forgetting information he'd learned about the Suez Crisis from various documentaries.
 * Construction workers (from "Las Vegas Builders") flooded Roger's basement after he refused to pay them.
 * They also sealed him in the house with scaffolding.
 * His family, visiting from Calgary, are stuck in the house with him.

Local History

 * Malcolm talks about George Cudmore.
 * George Cudmore poisoned his wife in 1829 with arsenic. He was then hanged, and postmortem his skin was flayed off and used in the binding of a copy of "The Poetical Works of John Milton".
 * This process is known as “anthropodermic bibliopegy”.
 * This turns out to be the exact bit of history Hilary had planned for the segment, leaving him with nothing else to share.
 * He tries to mention the fact that "Terry found a wasps nest" but Malcolm dismisses that as it's too recent to be real history.

Crime Figures

 * All of the chard from the Rivermead Allotments has been stolen last Tuesday or early as Wednesday.
 * Ken Flecker of Listur Way was burgled.
 * PC Routledge heavily implies a convicted pedophile moved to St Elwick’s. Hilary confirms to have met him.
 * The Mark Canning case has been upgraded from a missing person to a full murder inquiry.

Parish Notices

 * Malcolm starts the notices by listing names of people who have died.
 * For a full list of names, see those marked as "dead" in this episode's Minor Characters.
 * The primary school is running a "Scrabble Charity Auction".
 * This is replacing the previous format of “Charity Slave Auction” since “any sort of profit from slavery is no longer woke”.
 * Malcolm is skeptical the Scrabble format will be as successful.
 * He details the 2010 auction where "a bunch of dads" came together and “bought” Ms. Haliday for 500 pounds. Malcolm notes that while he’s sure all they did was “good, clean, fun”, Ms. Haliday transferred to Cullompton shortly after this event.

Postbag

 * Greg and Stephanie Molot of 45 Marlboro Terrace wrote to the residents of 57 Marlboro Terrace asking their child to stop practicing trombone until they sell their house.
 * Malcolm reminds the listeners that Postbag is not meant to be a public message board, but reads the letter anyways.

Spoilers
This part of the page includes plot points from later episodes.

"'So if she's still alive well and listening, I would say that the man on the toilet, on the St Elwick's road side of the garden isn't watching you, I'm a happily married man. It just so happens that your fat balls have attracted a long-tailed tit, and I haven't seen one for years.'"