Jean Shepherd Tonight: Part 2 of "Ham Radio." PLUS: A proper posting of "The Great Ice Cream War of Hammond"

In case anyone thinks that Eduard Strauss, younger brother of the Waltz King, Johann Strauss II, didn't write anything other than the Jean Shepherd standby Bahn frei!, here's another Eduard Strauss polka, Mit Vergnügung (With Pleasure). It's performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel, from the 1996 Vienna New Year's Concert.




BEFORE WE PROCEED TO THE CONCLUSION
OF "HAM RADIO" . . .

For those who missed it in last night's comments section, responding to the post of part 1 of "Ham Radio" reader Barry Brenesal raised a valuable point, writing in part: "Though I found Shepherd ultimately repetitive, I loved listening to him in small bursts over WOR, back in the late 1960s, when he was on around 10 PM. Had great personality, and was a fantastic writer."

I replied:

You raise an interesting point, Barry, about the repetitiveness. Shep was, after all, filling an hour of radio time five nights a week for the run of his show(s), and of course while he had listeners who had been with him through many campaigns, he also had the right to assume that most of his listeners hadn't heard all of his talk. And of course even in the repetitions there were infinite variations -- I think of the comedy equivalent of the oral traditions of the ancient bards.

Next week we're going to take a look at Shep on the printed page. As I mentioned already, his tale-telling seems to have translated surprisingly well to print, and I think it's because he had been telling versions of these stories for so long that they had already taken on a fair amount of structure.

NOW HERE IS THE CONCLUSION OF "HAM RADIO"

You'll find part 1 here.




MAKEUP POST: OOPS! HERE IS "THE GREAT ICE
CREAM WAR OF HAMMOND" (SORRY ABOUT THAT!)

I've only just discovered, thanks to a commenter, that on Tuesday, instead of the promised "Great Ice Cream War of Hammond," I repeated "The Attic." Sorry! I've corrected it there, and here again is the correct clip:




SUNDAY in JEAN SHEPHERD TONIGHT: As noted above, we go to the books: Shep on the printed page. (I haven't figured out exactly what yet. Tune in Sunday night.)


THURBER TONIGHT (including BENCHLEY, WILL CUPPY, WOLCOTT GIBBS, RING LARDNER, BOB AND RAY, E. B. WHITE, and JEAN SHEPHERD TONIGHT): Check out the series to date

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