Author Topic: EP115: Conversations With and About My Electric Toothbrush  (Read 50248 times)

Homr Zodyssey

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Reply #50 on: August 01, 2007, 01:56:35 PM
I've been listening to EP for several months now, but never visited the forums.  I liked this story so much that I felt the need to come here and say so. 

I know its already been said, but I felt the narration was the best part.  The annoyingly chipper little voice used for the toothbrush greatly enhanced the humor of the story.

A few weeks ago, I made the mistake of introducing a friend to EP by playing the most recent story (EP 113: Ishmael in Love) for him.  He was far from impressed and we actually turned it off before the story was over. 

Episodes like EP115 are the ones that I really enjoy sharing with friends, and I may even be able to change his mind about EP.  Keep bringing entertaining stuff like this, and I'll keep trying to spread the gospel about you.




goatkeeper

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Reply #51 on: August 01, 2007, 02:20:41 PM
Ishmail in Love is the kindof story that would have had me hooked me on Escapepod



ClintMemo

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Reply #52 on: August 01, 2007, 03:51:17 PM
115 was the first story I've been able to get my wife to listen to.  She really liked it.

Life is a multiple choice test. Unfortunately, the answers are not provided.  You have to go and find them before picking the best one.


Russell Nash

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Reply #53 on: August 03, 2007, 08:01:28 PM
Hmmm... not very Sci-Fi.
I mean, if you replaced the tooth brush with an angsty teenager, made the young man into the teen's father, changed the toothbrush's desire to become a milk frother in to the teen's desire for gender reassignment, had the young man-turned father get romantically interested in someone he meets through his child, and instead of locking down the house network he changes all the house's locks, it's really just your typical saturday afternoon special. *yawn*

::Reaches into jacket and removes his Colt .45 1911 Zombie Killer Special.  Places it to Thauris' head and says "bang"::

Haha just kidding.



Leon Kensington

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Reply #54 on: August 04, 2007, 03:49:58 AM
*raises Dufflebag of Doom and Destruction*

You wanna try that again Nash, or should I call out the Sandworms?



Thaurismunths

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Reply #55 on: August 04, 2007, 11:27:56 AM
Hmmm... not very Sci-Fi.
I mean, if you replaced the tooth brush with an angsty teenager, made the young man into the teen's father, changed the toothbrush's desire to become a milk frother in to the teen's desire for gender reassignment, had the young man-turned father get romantically interested in someone he meets through his child, and instead of locking down the house network he changes all the house's locks, it's really just your typical saturday afternoon special. *yawn*
::Reaches into jacket and removes his Colt .45 1911 Zombie Killer Special.  Places it to Thauris' head and says "bang"::
Hey, don't get snippy just because your opinion of SF is wrong.
Maybe if you learned to make emphatic statements based purely on someone else's un-founded opinion and Fox News (but I repeat myself) you'd be a little more discriminating and wouldn't get so upset when someone whose opinion is more right than yours tells you that 'self-aware appliances, does not SF make.' (to paraphrase The Bard)
: )

How do you fight a bully that can un-make history?


Russell Nash

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Reply #56 on: August 04, 2007, 04:14:13 PM
Hmmm... not very Sci-Fi.
I mean, if you replaced the tooth brush with an angsty teenager, made the young man into the teen's father, changed the toothbrush's desire to become a milk frother in to the teen's desire for gender reassignment, had the young man-turned father get romantically interested in someone he meets through his child, and instead of locking down the house network he changes all the house's locks, it's really just your typical saturday afternoon special. *yawn*
::Reaches into jacket and removes his Colt .45 1911 Zombie Killer Special.  Places it to Thauris' head and says "bang"::
Hey, don't get snippy just because your opinion of SF is wrong.
Maybe if you learned to make emphatic statements based purely on someone else's un-founded opinion and Fox News (but I repeat myself) you'd be a little more discriminating and wouldn't get so upset when someone whose opinion is more right than yours tells you that 'self-aware appliances, does not SF make.' (to paraphrase The Bard)
: )

::Pulls Trigger::



Thaurismunths

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Reply #57 on: August 05, 2007, 04:58:53 AM
::Pulls Trigger::

::Goes directly to Zombie. Does not pass GO. Does not collect BRAAAIIINS!::

How do you fight a bully that can un-make history?


Russell Nash

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Reply #58 on: August 05, 2007, 01:40:49 PM
::Pulls Trigger::

::Goes directly to Zombie. Does not pass GO. Does not collect BRAAAIIINS!::

Damnit!!

::Ejects Zombie jacket bullet clip.  Replaces with hollow tip bullet clip.::

Of course if that had been Robot seeking bullets instead of Zombie bullets, this whole thread deviation would have been SF.



Thaurismunths

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Reply #59 on: August 05, 2007, 07:25:22 PM
::Pulls Trigger::
::Goes directly to Zombie. Does not pass GO. Does not collect BRAAAIIINS!::
Damnit!!
::Ejects Zombie jacket bullet clip.  Replaces with hollow tip bullet clip.::
Of course if that had been Robot seeking bullets instead of Zombie bullets, this whole thread deviation would have been SF.
You'll want to think long and hard about your next move. Do you really want to make another mess for Bdoomed to mop up? uh..er, I meant: BRAAAAAAAIIINS!!!

How do you fight a bully that can un-make history?


Russell Nash

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Reply #60 on: August 05, 2007, 07:57:21 PM
::Pulls Trigger::
::Goes directly to Zombie. Does not pass GO. Does not collect BRAAAIIINS!::
Damnit!!
::Ejects Zombie jacket bullet clip.  Replaces with hollow tip bullet clip.::
Of course if that had been Robot seeking bullets instead of Zombie bullets, this whole thread deviation would have been SF.
You'll want to think long and hard about your next move. Do you really want to make another mess for Bdoomed to mop up? uh..er, I meant: BRAAAAAAAIIINS!!!

::Reaches for lighter fluid and matches.::

Bdoomed, get the broom and dustpan.
« Last Edit: August 05, 2007, 08:26:41 PM by Russell Nash »



wakela

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Reply #61 on: August 05, 2007, 11:06:24 PM
::Pulls Trigger::

::Goes directly to Zombie. Does not pass GO. Does not collect BRAAAIIINS!::

Damnit!!

::Ejects Zombie jacket bullet clip.  Replaces with hollow tip bullet clip.::

Of course if that had been Robot seeking bullets instead of Zombie bullets, this whole thread deviation would have been SF.

C'mon Russell, they wouldn't have to be robot bullets.  Based on your definition of SF, all they would need is a smiley face painted on them and a little voice done by Gilbert Gottfried.  ;-)

::runs, dives behind bulletproof shielding by ZedProtect(tm): keeping the dead alive since year zero of the new era::



Russell Nash

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Reply #62 on: August 06, 2007, 06:51:54 AM
::Pulls Trigger::

::Goes directly to Zombie. Does not pass GO. Does not collect BRAAAIIINS!::

Damnit!!

::Ejects Zombie jacket bullet clip.  Replaces with hollow tip bullet clip.::

Of course if that had been Robot seeking bullets instead of Zombie bullets, this whole thread deviation would have been SF.

C'mon Russell, they wouldn't have to be robot bullets.  Based on your definition of SF, all they would need is a smiley face painted on them and a little voice done by Gilbert Gottfried.  ;-)

::runs, dives behind bulletproof shielding by ZedProtect(tm): keeping the dead alive since year zero of the new era::

If I had a gun full of those bullets, I'd shoot myself in the head.  That way I wouldn't have to listen to them.



Leon Kensington

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Reply #63 on: August 06, 2007, 04:26:40 PM
::Pulls Trigger::

::Goes directly to Zombie. Does not pass GO. Does not collect BRAAAIIINS!::

Damnit!!

::Ejects Zombie jacket bullet clip.  Replaces with hollow tip bullet clip.::

Of course if that had been Robot seeking bullets instead of Zombie bullets, this whole thread deviation would have been SF.

C'mon Russell, they wouldn't have to be robot bullets.  Based on your definition of SF, all they would need is a smiley face painted on them and a little voice done by Gilbert Gottfried.  ;-)

::runs, dives behind bulletproof shielding by ZedProtect(tm): keeping the dead alive since year zero of the new era::

If I had a gun full of those bullets, I'd shoot myself in the head.  That way I wouldn't have to listen to them.

Dammit, why do I always have to clean up your messes?!?

*opens the BoDaD (Bag of Doom and Destruction) and releases 3 sandworms on the zombies*

Problem solved.



Thaurismunths

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Reply #64 on: August 06, 2007, 05:14:21 PM
If I had a gun full of those bullets, I'd shoot myself in the head.  That way I wouldn't have to listen to them.
Dammit, why do I always have to clean up your messes?!?
*opens the BoDaD (Bag of Doom and Destruction) and releases 3 sandworms on the zombies*
Problem solved.
::Zombie Thaurismunths bites sandworms::
::3 Zombie Sandworms level Tokyo::

(losttopicsayswhat?)

How do you fight a bully that can un-make history?


Russell Nash

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Reply #65 on: August 06, 2007, 07:51:13 PM

(losttopicsayswhat?)

There was a topic?? 

.45 now only has hollow points.  Where was I?



Leon Kensington

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Reply #66 on: August 06, 2007, 10:17:59 PM
Zombie Sandworms in Tokyo.  Sounds like a new EP story.



stephanieb

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Reply #67 on: August 08, 2007, 12:46:14 AM
Okay...I'm going to comment about the actual story, if that's okay with the rest of you guys. Don't mind me, it's just my first time in the forums.

I read the title of this story and was excited, because I totally loved "How Lonesome a Life Without Nerve Gas." However, I didn't really like this story as much. I think it's because I sympathized with the narrator and not the toothbrush. Like the narrator, I don't drink cappuccinos or lattes or anything with frothed milk, and I found the the brush annoying, like a younger sibling who wants to be with you at all times, but he wants to play his games, not yours. I can appreciate the brush's desire to be used for something else besides toothbrushing, but I found his obsession with milk frothing, well, weird. I thought perhaps they could have compromised and found some other functionality that the brush wanted to be AND that the owner would want and use. But, even though I didn't like the brush's personality, I must admit that the characters were well developed, the story was well written, and there were some parts that made me laugh.



Planish

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Reply #68 on: August 18, 2007, 12:21:22 PM
I had my doubts from reading the title, but it was an entertaining enough Pinocchio story.

Steve was right, Escape Pod can't froth milk:
Hook it up to an externally-powered subwoofer. We'll see then. ;D

I feed The Pod.
("planish" rhymes with "vanish")


robertmarkbram

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Reply #69 on: August 28, 2007, 12:36:52 PM
I listened to this story with my step-daughter while driving to her choir practice.

My first reaction was to marvel at how geeky Jared Axelrod's voice is. My second reaction was to marvel at the tooth brush reaching levels of geekiness Jared Axelrod could only dream of. He must have given himself a whopping big wedgie to get his voice that squeaky!

Personally I am disappointed at the number of people not logging in as Doctor West or Sonicare and relating tales of their own transmogrification, moment of tooth, brush with fame; the story behind the inscription on that shiny plaque, a telling of their crowning achievement, passing down the family's legacy of oral history, all the way back to the time of the Tartars. Maybe they could relate the story of how they survived a lifetime of indentured service and won out in the end, not through the violence of a gum but by cleaning and filling the cavity in men's hearts through an amalgam of love and floss.

This is right up their with Squonk for making my step daughter and I laugh so joyously! Thank you Derek Zumsteg and Jared Axelrod. :)
« Last Edit: August 28, 2007, 01:30:30 PM by robertmarkbram »



Chodon

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Reply #70 on: August 28, 2007, 04:02:34 PM
Personally I am disappointed at the number of people not logging in as Doctor West or Sonicare and relating tales of their own transmogrification, moment of tooth, brush with fame; the story behind the inscription on that shiny plaque, a telling of their crowning achievement, passing down the family's legacy of oral history, all the way back to the time of the Tartars. Maybe they could relate the story of how they survived a lifetime of indentured service and won out in the end, not through the violence of a gum but by cleaning and filling the cavity in men's hearts through an amalgam of love and floss.

You just broke my pun-o-meter.  Crap.

(Hilarious though)

Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither.


Peter Tupper

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Reply #71 on: September 09, 2007, 05:15:14 AM
A lovely story. This may be the most sympathetic and inspirational piece of dental equipment ever written.



Russell Nash

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Reply #72 on: October 01, 2007, 07:13:19 AM
An item this week from News of the Weird:

News That Sounds Like a Joke

Oral-B's Triumph SmartGuide toothbrush, available in the United Kingdom for the equivalent of about $280, uses navigation technology to transmit the exact location of the toothbrush to a base unit so that the user can see which areas in his mouth the brush might have missed. The wireless LCD mouth display can be mounted on a mirror or held in the free hand. [Daily Telegraph (London), 8-31-07]

A small step on the way to making SF real.



oddpod

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Reply #73 on: October 01, 2007, 08:08:30 AM

card carying dislexic and  gramatical revolushonery


VBurn

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Reply #74 on: October 01, 2007, 12:42:56 PM
life turely does imitate art.