Episode 18.0: Robert McCammon's Swan Song

Join the Two Mikes as they spend the holidays in the wasteland, nearly 1000 pages of wasteland. We'll start the new year with a discussion of Robert McCammon's epic postapocalyptic tale Swan Song. We'll touch on scabs, melty jewelry, and overstuffed symbolism. Then we'll make jello.


It's Cocktail Time!









Sister Creep's Crown

3 packages of Blue Jello
2 1/2 cups Everclear
3 1/3 cups water
1/2 cup red Maraschino cherries
1/4 cup green Maraschino cherries
1/4 cup blue Maraschino cherries

Bring the water to a boil and remove from heat. Slowly stir in the Jello until dissolved. Wait 3 minutes, then stir in the Everclear.

Prepare Jello Ring ( see Jello Tips)
Pour into a prepared Jello ring-mold and refrigerate.

When the Jello is very thick but not set, add the fruits. Refrigerate again until firmly set. Un-mold when you are ready. (You can ask your mom how to do it. Have her join you in the boozy fun or bring it to a church luncheon.)

Then, after you had some, look through the center of the ring and see into the future.

Episode 17.0 Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol in Prose

Click to listen.

In the spirit of the season, The Two Mikes from Doppletown Are gonna try to find the cold heart of horror in Dickens's heartwarming classic. It is a ghost story after all . . .

And then we're gonna drink our Christmas Cocktail:


Bloody Smoking Bishop

First, resolve to mend your miserly ways. Then wash and roast 6 unpeeled blood oranges (or 4 regular oranges and a grapefruit) in oven until brownish. Stick each piece of fruit with 6–8 cloves and place in warmed earthenware bowl. Add 1/4 pound of sugar and two bottles of red wine. Cover and leave in a warm place for 24 hours. Squeeze fruit into wine, then strain mixture into pot. Add 1 bottle port and heat: DO NOT BOIL (in this one case you are allowed to be stingey with the coals). Ladle into heated mugs and serve.


Music: The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

Episode 16.0 Michael Bishop's Who Made Stevie Crye?

click to listen...

The Two Mikes declaim and mumble about Michael Bishop's metafictional, metahorror novel, Who Made Stevie Crye? (1984). It can be hard to find, but we recommend that, like us, you strive to touch the monkey. If you can't find it, pull out your old Olivetti Lettera 22 and type a nightmare of your own.

It is Cocktail Time!!!

Monkey's Paw Job

In a Collins Glass
Crush 1/4 cup pecans and to it add 1 tablespoon sugar
Wet the glass rim, and rim with pecan mixture ( like salting a margarita).

In a cocktail shaker, add crushed ice
2 shots of vanilla vodka
1 shot banana liquor or schnapps
1 shot of heavy cream

Shake vigorously and pour mixture (booze and ice) into the glass.

Garnish with a banana slice.

Incidental music: Steven Bishop's- On and On from the album The Best of Bish.

Episode 15.0: Barbara Hambley's Renfield: Slave of Dracula

Download 5

In this episode the guys wander around the mind of Barbara Hanbley's R. M. Renfield, the bug-eating asylum inmate and Dracula's lickspittle. We laud the attempt to inject life into Bram Stoker's enigmatic character and lament that it only goes so far.

We do, however, create a most vivifying cocktail:

Sparrows and Flies

1 part ale (something hoppy and not too sweet, like Anchor Steam)
1 part Coca-Cola (Coke adds life)
1/2 part gin
a dash of bitters
orange or lemon peel

Serve over ice.

It may not seem palatable, but once you take the first taste, you'll see: it adds life.


End music: Wagner's Ride of The Valkryies