bluefacedpixie

As you acclimatize to American life, most liberal-weenies/once-had-BBC-listeners such as myself gravitate towards free American radio. This is NPR (National Public Radio) that supports itself with donation drives and “attributes” (that are not adverts somehow) rather than advertising. Our local station is KUOW (from the UW) although there is a lot of syndication so all the big shows are really nationwide.

This means you will be regularly exposed to Garrison Keeler’s omnipresence (Prairie Home Companion, Writer’s Almanac, but not the subject of this post) and a strange show called This American Life. Normally three vignettes in an hour about a subject about living in America from Americans. It comes on the radio at 11am on Saturday (in Seattle) so you run across it often driving about, cleaning the house etc. Sometimes it can be dull, sometimes annoying, sometimes riveting. I’ve taken to subscribing to their podcast and listening occasionally under my own control. Today I did this and ran across a new episode Super which was quite riveting.

Here is the description of the first of the three main acts:

Act One. The Super Always Rings Twice.

Reporter Jack Hitt tells the story of how he helped organize tenants and threaten a rent strike in a New York City building back in the 1980s. Before long, Bob, the building super, became his enemy. The situation got pretty ugly. Mobster ugly. Bob began to brag about how important he was in his native Brazil, how he could kill a person and be immune from prosecution. It was only many years later that Jack found out how dangerous Bob really was.

If you want to learn about the variety of American life, This American Life is as good a place to start as any.