For those who have asked (he, he…and for those who haven’t), Annie’s doing fine after her surgery. Tumor’s gone, and she has the finest of tubes sticking out of her leg into which they will be, bright and early tomorrow morning, sticking in radioactive seeds to with luck kill off any residual cells. She’s a little loopy this evening (”better living through chemistry!”), but came through the surgery with no complications whatsoever.

Thanks, Bill. Again.

An episode of this series, discussed on the Internet OTR Digest, titled “The Female Ogre” from April 7, 1940. For amazingly complete information on the series, see the Digest…on a personal note, I was a little surprised at the…roughness of the production. While not a terrible series, it did seem a little…er…slapdash around the edges.

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (Juice, iTunes, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

 Nick Harris, Detective - The Female Ogre [13:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

As if things weren’t interesting enough around here, now I’m sick, with a “childhood illness” called Fifth Disease. While it sounds really impressive (”the whole way up to five?”), it’s basically a flu-like thing caused by a parvovirus. I’m a little surprised I got it, since that implies I’ve never had it before (remember, I’m from the generation where measles, mumps, and chicken pox were considered a normal part of childhood, not deadly diseases to be avoided by delivering partial immunity and pharmaceutical company profits), but it couldn’t have come at a worse time, what with Annie’s upcoming surgery and all.

It has slowed me down pretty well (the migrating joint pain is really uncomfortable, particularly in the evenings, and last night it hit my hands so hard I couldn’t type), so expect me to take a bit more time handling questions or problems. This of course comes on top of the expected slowdown with Annie’s upcoming stay in hospital (I cannot tell you how embarrassing it is to need help getting out of bed from someone who actually has a serious illness), so accept my apologies ahead of time, and thanks for your understanding.

As recently discussed on the Internet OTR Digest, here is one of the nine surviving episodes of Empire Builders, sponsored by the Great Northern Railroad and according to Elizabeth McLeod’s Documenting Early Radio page, discovered in the mid-1980s in their corporate archives. This episode, “James J. Hill,” aired February 2, 1931.

Our thanks to both Ken Stockinger and Jim Widner for providing the copies of these historical programs for the podcast!

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (Juice, iTunes, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

 Empire Builders - James J. Hill [29:36m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

After listening to Bob Edwards interview Bob Elliott this morning on The Bob Edwards Show on XM Satellite Radio, I was going to post an article talking about the great team of Bob and Ray. But I realized I don’t have to; for those who love Old-Time Radio, Bob and Ray are no strangers, and for those who want to learn more, Bob Edwards has already written a fine article which can serve as an introduction for those few poor enough to never have laughed at this pair.

To hear the interview, hit XM OnLine and sign up for a free sample account and tune to XM channel 133, any time until tomorrow morning at 8:00am eastern, and all weekend long every fifth hour.