Thursday, November 15, 2007

Warm Weather Blues

At first, I was happy that the mid-November weather here is in the 60s because I can comfortably walk to work. I was completely prepared with sneakers, a light jacket, and my ipod with episodes of This American Life and Radio Lab ready to go. I walked out the door and flipped to the podcasts section of my little nano and was excited to find that one episode I had missed of This American Life was called In Dog We Trust.

There are few things I like to do more than wallow in my desire to have a dog, especially after a conversation with Alan last night that went a little something like this:

Alan: I know what I'm going to get you for Christmas. A dog!
Me: (Speechless and overly excited, even while knowing I can't get a dog right now.)
Alan: A Wii dog!
Me: A what?
Alan: It's a dog for the Wii. You can pet it. (Pantomimes moving Wii controller to pet the dog.) And if you throw the controller it comes right back to you.
Me: (laughing) No.

So, fastforward to this morning. I automatically turn on the podcast, anticipating happy stories of dogs and doglovers. The walk to work was the perfect length of time for me to hear the saddest story ever about a man, his brother, and their pet armadillo. I cried twice between stopping at the bagel store and arriving at my classroom.

Then, just to top things off, I heard something I have never heard before on This American Life: Ira Glass' voice saying "This is a work of fiction." While I was glad to hear that no armadillos had been hurt in the making of the story, I also felt tricked. I love the podcast, but going through such an unexpectedly emotional story believing every bit of it is true, then finding it to be fiction was little too James Frey for me. I'm not going to get all Oprah on Ira Glass, but in the future can't he just warn me ahead of time?

1 comment:

Me said...

Oh I had a similar reaction to In Dog We Trust. But, it was a good story.