The Colin McEnroe Show

We’ve been doing these shows a couple times a month where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing. This hour, the conversation winds around to the old Hartford music venue Lloyd’s; the village of Bentonsport, Iowa, current population 44; the town of Provincetown, Massachusetts, current population 3,644; our impending, delayed, ongoing rebrand; and our world famous, award winning, but currently mothballed, Factoids segments. Anything. (Seemingly) everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Colin McEnroe, Eugene Amatruda, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose is one hell of a steep climb outta there. Top Gun: Maverick is a sequel 36 years in the making. It’s also the No. 1 movie of the year, both worldwide and domestically. It’s the highest-grossing film of Tom Cruise’s long career. And it’s the highest-grossing domestic release in the history of Paramount Pictures. Top Gun: Maverick starts its fourth month in theaters this weekend, and it’s now available for sale on digital platforms. And: Val is a 2021 documentary written and photographed, from thousands of hours of videotapes and film reels documenting his life and career, by Val Kilmer, who plays Iceman in both Top Gun films. Val is, according to Kilmer in the movie, “A story about my life that is also not my life.” Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Leon Vitali, ‘Barry Lyndon’ Actor and Personal Assistant to Stanley Kubrick, Dies at 74 The 102 Best Movie Sequels of All Time Whether they come after, before, or between their predecessors, these films have their own indelible legacies. Thrones v. Rings: The Biggest Battle in TV History Is Here House of the Dragon [premiered] on HBO Max [last] weekend, The Rings of Power on Amazon two weeks later. The winner will set the course for fantasy—and streaming. The HGTV-ification of America You can’t escape gray floors. Yellowstone’s Brand of White Grievance Is Free-Range and Organic Live Performance Is Back. But Audiences Have Been Slow to Return. Attendance lagged in the comeback season, as the challenges posed by the coronavirus persisted. Presenters hope it was just a blip. Vince Gilligan Wants to Write a Good Guy After fourteen years of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” the showrunner talks about how TV has changed, the sins of auteur theory, and the appeal of an old-fashioned hero. Why Rick And Morty Creator Justin Roiland Likes Mocking Their Own Jokes Within The Show Itself Research says that your 40s are your unhappiest age. It’s worse for millennials I was already glum about soon turning 40. Then I learned that happiness is U-shaped — it bottoms out in your 40s, then starts to inch its way up again in your 50s I realised I would never be an actor — now I’m a big advocate of giving up on dreams To succeed you need self-belief and drive. But life forces us to give up all the time, and being able to let things go is also a skill You Know Holden Caulfield Isn’t Real, Right? The Commodore 64 at 40: back to the future of video games The bestselling computer made home gaming accessible for millions as it launched the industry toward the mainstream with classic titles such as Dropzone and The Sentinel An inside look at how the Girl Scouts chose their next cookie flavor, Raspberry Rally MoviePass Is Relaunching Next Month After Failing in 2019 The company was driven out of business three years ago after offering customers a too-good-to-be-true subscription model. GUESTS: James Hanley: Co-founder of Cinestudio at Trinity College Carolyn Paine: An actress, comedian, and dancer, and she is founder, director, and choreographer of CONNetic Dance Pedro Soto: President and CEO of Hygrade Precision Technologies The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Catie Talarski contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chances are you have used online reviews to try new restaurants, dry cleaners, hotels or even movies. But what makes us trust the opinions of strangers on the internet? This hour, a look at the art and the etiquette of online reviews. GUESTS:  Camilla Vásquez: Author of The Discourse of Online Consumer Reviews Chef Tyler Anderson: Owner of Tanda Hospitality Lauren Dragan: Senior staff writer at Wirecutter Xandy Schiefer: Co-host of the podcast Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet  Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Colin McEnroe, Eugene Amatruda, and Jonathan McNicol contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In his new book, From Hollywood with Love, critic Scott Meslow lays out two ways to tell if a given movie is a rom-com. First, his own definition: “A romantic comedy is a movie where (1) the central plot is focused on at least one romantic love story; and (2) the goal is to make you laugh at least as much as the goal is to make you cry.” And then, The Donald Petrie Test, named for the director of some rom-coms, like Mystic Pizza and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but also some edge cases, like Miss Congeniality and Grumpy Old Men: “If you removed the love story from this [comedy], would you still have a movie? If the answer is no, it’s a romantic comedy. […] If the answer is yes, it’s a comedy with a romantic subplot.” So those are the litmus tests. Now, does that make Broadcast News a rom-com, or no? What about Annie Hall? Or something like Grosse Pointe Blank? How about His Girl Friday? Or even, actually, Love Actually? This hour, a deconstruction — and celebration — of the romantic comedy. Some favorite rom-coms from some of the people on this show: Illeana DouglasTheodora Goes Wild (1936)Bringing Up Baby (1938)Ninotchka (1939)Too Many Husbands (1940)The More the Merrier (1943)Christmas in Connecticut (1945)Cluny Brown (1946)Pillow Talk (1959)The Apartment (1960)What’s Up, Doc? (1972)Foul Play (1978)Arthur (1981) David EdelsteinTrouble in Paradise (1932)The Awful Truth (1937)Ninotchka (1939)Midnight (1939)The Lady Eve (1941)His Girl Friday (1940)The Philadelphia Story (1940)The Shop Around the Corner (1940)Cluny Brown (1946) Scott Meslow’s five recommended under-seen rom-coms from the past decade Populaire (2012)A zippy, ultra-stylish French rom-com about the romance between a dapper boss and his secretary, set amid the long-forgotten craze for competitive speed typing. Sleeping with Other People (2015)Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis are at the peak of their charms in this witty rom-com about two friends who reunite years after losing their virginities to each other — the rare rom-com to get the balance of raunchy and sweet just right. Man Up (2015)Ignore the lame title — this rom-com, in which Lake Bell plays an unlucky-in-love woman who pretends to be a man’s blind date, is pure, fizzy fun (and is also the only rom-com I’ve seen to borrow a plot point from The Silence of the Lambs). Destination Wedding (2018)Other critics weren’t as high on this extremely stripped down rom-com, in which Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves snark their way through a wedding they’d both prefer not to be attending — but in a genre in which so many characters have “negative” qualities that are actually just adorable, I appreciated this movie’s deliberately sour tone. Plus One (2019)A delightfully unapologetic throwback to the genre’s ’90s heyday, but with a modern touch, as two platonic friends (Jack Quaid and Maya Erskine) agree to be each other’s plus-ones for a packed wedding season before realizing they may actually have a spark after all. Colin’s 5 (or 6) favorite rom-coms Heaven Can Wait (1978)I realize this is assailable on the basis of Julie Christie not being an especially memorable character and getting less screen time than, say, Jack Warden. Warren Beatty is so vain, he probably thinks this movie is about him, and he’s sort of right. But it is very nearly perfect and enriched by an amazing ensemble of supporting players. Silver Linings Playbook (2012)I surprised myself by ranking SLP this high, but I love the frank and funny handling of mental illness and its indistinguishability from being an Eagles fan. I’ve seen it quite a few times, and I invariably cry at the end. I love what J-Law does with her part, and Chris Tucker and John Ortiz are standouts among the fine supporting cast. Shout out to Kevin Lowry for his work as dolly grip on the “A” camera. The Lady Eve (1941) / Intolerable Cruelty (2003)These are both “rom-cons” involving grifts by a femme fatale who is usually a few steps ahead of the male lead. Barbara Stanwyck actually generates more sexual heat than the smoldering Catherine Zeta-Jones. She was still doing that 42 years later, hitting on a rain-streaked, bare-chested priest played by Richard Chamberlain in The Thorn Birds. But I do love Intolerable Cruelty. I think it’s the only Coen brothers rom-com and definitely an homage to the ’30s and ’40s. Say Anything (1989)I loved John Cusack during this period. A few years later, I was seeing a psychotherapist who looked exactly like him. It was distracting. I’ve learned that Cusack didn’t really see himself as a romcom person and even pushed back against the iconic boombox scene. That has something to do with why this movie works so well. Bringing Up Baby (1938)Grant. Hepburn. Two leopards. Thirty pounds of sirloin. What’s not to love? GUESTS: Illeana Douglas: A movie and television star David Edelstein: America’s Greatest Living Film Critic Scott Meslow: The author of From Hollywood with Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bears, bobcats, coyotes, and deer are repopulating Connecticut, despite being hunted to near extinction by early settlers. Is the mountain lion among those returning? The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection thinks it’s unlikely. They investigate hundreds of mountain lion sightings every year without finding physical evidence of their presence. The sightings increased in 2011, after a driver hit and killed a mountain lion who was trying to cross the Merritt Parkway in Milford. But the mountain lion’s DNA was traced to South Dakota. Mountain lions in Connecticut are a lot like Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster: elusive and spectacular creatures that are widely spotted but leave no trace. This hour, we talk about wildlife in Connecticut, including the Greenwich mountain lion and Buddy the beefalo. GUESTS:  Jason Hawley: A wildlife biologist for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection William Stolzenburg: A screenwriter and journalist and the author of Heart of Lion: a Lone Cat’s Walk Across America Ed Benecchi: Retired police officer The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Megan Fitzgerald, Jonathan McNicol, Cat Pastor, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show. Special thanks to Jennifer Ahrens, Julia Gill, Peter Herrmann, and Anna Huether for contributing stories.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nobody ever died of a broken heart, right? Not true. A condition known as broken heart syndrome can be brought on by a sudden shock, such as grief from the death of a loved one or a divorce. You may not die of a broken heart, but it can alter your biology in ways that can increase your risk for disease. The good news is that it can be reversed if you can begin to mend your heart. Also this hour: We talk about how our language changes in the months leading up to a breakup — before either partner consciously realizes what’s happening — and why we’re so drawn to sad songs, particularly torch songs, when our hearts are breaking. GUESTS: Noah Baerman: A jazz pianist, composer, and educator Kate Blackburn: A data analyst at TikTok Sarah Seraj: Chief technology officer at A Better Force Florence Williams: A science writer and the author of Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired February 24, 2022.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose is sittin’ here, moping, pigeon feeding. It’s the generational divide that’s been tearing the nation asunder for as long as we can remember: Should you use a top sheet or not? [Ed. note: You obviously should not. What is this, the 19th century?] And: The Sandman is a Netflix series adaptation of the DC/Vertigo comic book written by Neil Gaiman. Ten episodes dropped on August 5 and racked up 127.5 million hours of viewing in their first week of release, making The Sandman the most-watched show on Netflix. A surprise 11th episode was released early this morning. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Wolfgang Petersen, ‘Air Force One,’ ‘Das Boot’ Director, Dies at 81 That’s It. You’re Dead to Me. Suddenly everyone is “toxic.” You Do Not Want to Be on Brad Pitt’s “Shit List” According to his Bullet Train costar Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the Oscar winner has a “shit list” of actors he won’t work with. The 15 Best Episodes Of NewsRadio, Ranked The 100 Best Movies of the ’90s ’90s Week: From “Close-Up” to “Clueless,” and from “The Thin Red Line” to “Perfect Blue,” these timeless movies prove that the ’90s never went away. The most-regretted baby names, and more! Seth Meyers Finally Got the Top Late-Night Emmy Nomination—Only After Breaking All the Rules of the Format The host of NBC’s Late Night looks back at how the pandemic changed his show, from turning the writing staff into recurring characters to ditching the suit forever. HBO/HBO Max Laying Off 70 Staffers as It Shuts Down Streamer’s Reality Unit and Restructures Other Departments Top 50 Ben Affleck Moments Congrats on the big 5–0, Benny! Academy Awards apologises to Sacheen Littlefeather for Oscars speech moment Nearly 50 years after speech on behalf of Marlon Brando about depiction of Native Americans, Academy apologises for ‘unwarranted’ abuse she endured An Essay About Watching Brad Pitt Eat That Is Really About My Own Shit The 15 Best Laura Dern Movies, Ranked Lee Pace’s Body of Work The Bodies Bodies Bodies star has become the object of the Internet’s affection. He’d rather be working on his house. Willie Nelson’s Long Encore As he approaches 90, even brushes with death can’t keep him off the road — or dim a late-life creative burst. Addison Rae’s Dad Wants To Box The 26-Year-Old Rapper Hitting On Her Mom, And Honestly, I Can’t “You’ve got one of the most successful daughters in the world and you decide to act half her age to try to get some attention.” The Door Opened by “Gangnam Style” The global hit primed Western audiences for films and shows about South Korea as a dystopia. Why Serena Williams Has the Greatest Career in Sports History The 37-time Grand Slam champion’s accomplishments dwarf those of Tom Brady and LeBron James because of what she had to overcome. The Psychology of Cringe Comedy: Why We Love to Watch What Hurts Us From ‘Da Ali G Show’ to viral TikTok videos, cringe comedy persists within pop culture. And oftentimes, the genre’s appeal is as much about the way we perceive ourselves as the comics we watch performing it. The Powerful, Unlikely Force Shaping Modern TV In a Hollywood-worthy plot twist, television writers are embracing fan theorists who try to “solve” their shows. Desus & Mero Brought the Block to Late-Night TV The show’s cancellation is a loss not only for the duo’s avid fans but for television as a whole. All 13 Marx Brothers Comedies in the Order You Should Watch Them N.B.A. Won’t Play on Election Day, in Hopes of Encouraging Voting Do spiders sleep? Study suggests they may snooze like humans GUESTS: Helder Mira: Multimedia producer at Trinity College and co-host of the So Pretentious podcast Cat Pastor: Assistant radio operations manager at Connecticut Public Tracy Wu Fastenberg: Development officer at Connecticut Children’s Bill Yousman: Professor of Media Studies at Sacred Heart University The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a recent Quinnipiac poll, people were asked the most urgent issue facing the country. COVID-19 came in dead last among 13 options. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just relaxed its guidelines. Again. But more than 400 Americans are dying each day, and the long Omicron surge continues. There’s still a pandemic going on. This hour, we look at what’s going on with the pandemic. GUESTS: Rachel Gutman-Wei: Senior associate editor at The Atlantic Jonathan McNicol: The producer of this very episode of this very show Saad Omer: Professor of medicine and the epidemiology of microbial diseases at Yale and director of the Yale Institute for Global Health Julia Pistell: A freelance producer on The Colin McEnroe Show, among a number of other things Catie Talarski: Senior director of storytelling and radio programming at Connecticut Public Ulysses Wu: System director of infectious diseases and chief epidemiologist at Hartford HealthCare The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Cat Pastor, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chances are you’ve used an index at the back of a book. But how much thought have you given to their creation, their function, their history? This hour: more than you ever thought to wonder about the role of indexes in our world. Plus, we get mixed up in the world of cookbook indexes. GUESTS: Paula Clarke Bain: Professional indexer Dennis Duncan: Author of Index, A History of The: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age Elizabeth Parson: Professional indexer The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Eugene Amatruda, and Jonathan McNicol contributed to this show, which originally aired March 2, 2022.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been doing these shows a couple times a month where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing. This hour, the conversation winds around to mountain lions, punctuation and pronunciation and grammar, the death of David McCullough, the big (“big”) digital vs. analog controversy swirling around Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, and Homo sapiens and their dogs. Anything. (Seemingly) everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.