Mister Ron's Basement Podcasts

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Daily oddities and humorous goodies from the public domain Primary Format : Comedy Language : English Also Listed as: Comedy City : Woodbridge State/Province : VA Country : USA Region : NA User Tags: User Votes: RSS Feed Website People found this Podcast Searching for: Comedy | View this Podcast on a Google Map. Podcast iTunes Link Text Only listing of Mister Ron's Basement Podcasts Methings.com listings of Mister Ron's Basement Podcasts If you like this podcast, you might also like:

Mister Ron's Basement #1400 This is the 1400th Episode of Mister Ron's Basement! This has been an amazing journey of exploration of the world of (mostly) forgotten American humor from long ago! Above all, the letters of encouragement I have received from listeners have made this labor of love (there sure isn't any money in it) worthwhile! After this week, the Basement goes on hiatus while we prepare for the monster move to a new server host. Details are forthcoming! Thanks! Here today, then, is the second pa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1399 NOTICE: This week's Four-Part story will be our last one until we have finished moving our entire archive of stories to our new server host! We will post our new address here when it is available, and visitors to this web site will be re-directed for a while to come. Meanwhile, we are presenting a masterpiece of satire by Max Adeler, from 1882, over the next four days. It features quirky mechanical limbs, political corruption, horrendous artwork, byzantine bureaucracy, complicated romanc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1398 From 1873, we present a Max Adeler story concerning a man's hat with holes in it and what was done to it by 'One of Those Stupid Servant Girls.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1397 Max Adeler relates the tale of an intrepid neighbor ascending into the unknown reaches of the atmosphere via balloon, in the 1874 story, 'The Ozone Belt.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1396 Today's Max Adeler story from 1872 is a true flight of fancy, yet makes perfect sense -- sort of. It's called 'Adam and That Umbrella.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1395 We begin a THIRD week in a row of Max Adeler stories with an investigation of an educator's strange teaching methods in the 1876 story, 'A Teacher's Trials.' Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1394 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapters 43 - 'The Battle of the Sand-Belt', 44 - 'A Postscript by Clarence', and 'A Final P.S. by M.T.' This concludes our presentation of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,' which has taken us almost fourteen months to read! The complete index of the book's chapters can be found at http://ronevry.com/Connecticut.html. For the time being, while we are preparing The Basement for the Big Move to a NEW Server in August. Between now and then, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1393 SUNDAY SALAD features ONE Stanley Huntley story today -- it's a short one from 1882 about a little man on the Fulton Ferry Boat, called 'Didn't Care to Make Trouble.' Time: approx three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subs ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1392 When Mark Twain was accused of plagiarizing Max Adeler's 'The Fortunate Island' for his novel 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' he responded by saying that he read Adeler's story, liked it, and thought there was no resemblance. However, the Adeler story he compared to his own that appeared in the 1882 "Fortunate Island' book was a different one -- 'An Old Fogy' -- one of the first Time Travel stories ever written. For tonight's Saturday Night Special story we present 'An Old ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1391 Max Adeler loved to write stories about impossibly persistent salesmen. Today's 1873 story is one of his first, and one of his funniest. It's called 'The Persecution of Jones.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1390 It's that time of year again when we go out in the great outdoors and go on picnics! Max Adeler waxes rhapsodically about one of these events in his 1873 tale, 'The Pleasures of the Picnic.' Don't miss this one! Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-fr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1389 Ever hear about people playing gags using ventriloquism? Here's an 1873 Max Adeler tale about a young fellow who tried to do just that, and the consequences. It's called 'Brown's Boy.' Time: approx three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTun ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1388 From 1873, we present a tale of swashbuckling derring-do and skilled marksmanship in 'Max Adeler's Duel.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1387 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Forty-Two (Part Two of Two) of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- where Clarence and the Boss make their plans for --'War!' We would like to dedicate this Episode to a true Mark Twain fan, whom we met recently -- Phil Yeh, who has been raising literacy awareness for almost twenty-five years with his remarkable 'Cartoonists Across America and the World' project. Time: approx seventeen minutes Please scroll down to the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1386 Today's 1873 Max Adeler story is a quick piece on an important element of the human diet that is 'Terrible to Contemplate.' Time: approx three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1385 Today's short but fun Max Adeler story is from 1873. It concerns a Mr. Henry Bull, and his strange medical condition, and is entitled 'Mercury in the System.' Time: approx three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' bu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1384 Here's an extremely short Max Adeler story from 1874 that spotlights his oblique sense of humor. It is entitled 'It Didn't Grow.' Time: approx three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1383 We have uncovered a slew of Max Adeler stories! Today's tale, from 1873, concerns an 'elevating' item of women's clothing. It's called 'An Adventure With a Pannier.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1382 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Forty-Two (Part One of Two) of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- where Clarence fills in the Boss on how Camelot fell apart --'War!' Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1381 SUNDAY SALAD offers just ONE short but funny Stanley Huntley story from 1882 -- it's called 'The Folding Liar.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1380 Mister Ron is back after struggling with a sore throat this week! Our Saturday Night Special is a short, but remarkably prescient poem from 1885 by Robert J. Burdette. It is called 'The True Patriot's Regret,' and you will never regret hearing it! Time: approx three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1379 Our Saturday Night Special story was originally presented in Basement Episode #933 a couple of years ago (you can find it here). In it Mortimer Thomson made fun of Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, one of the most influential men in America in the years leading up to the Civil War. Apparently, the version we presented then was heavily edited by the Utah newspaper we originally found it in. Today we are re-reading the story in its complete form, as was printed in a Georgia Newspaper in 1856. I ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1378 This week, we have dug up some extremely hard-to-find pieces by Mortimer Thomson, better known as 'Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B.' In today's very short tale from 1864, Doesticks tells of a truly unforgettable rain deluge -- 'In A Storm' Time: approx two and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/200 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1377 This week, we have dug up some relatively obscure, yet hilarious pieces by Mortimer Thomson, better known as'Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B.'From November of 1856, we learn how crazy people get when wagering on elections -- in'Doesticks Bets on Pennsylvania.'Time: approx eleven and a half minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...A Vital Message from Mister Ron!Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU!http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/20 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1376 This week, we have dug up some odd and funny pieces by Mortimer Thomson, better known as'Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B.'Today's 1857 piece could easily be written today (except maybe the descriptions of horse-drawn drays). It is called'Doesticks on Boston.'Time: approx seven and a half minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...A Vital Message from Mister Ron!Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU!http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1375 This week, we have dug up some pretty funny pieces by Mortimer Thomson, better known as Philander Doesticks. Today we have a rare example of Thomson's Police Beat reporting from 1855 --it's called 'Doesticks Reporting for the Tribune.' Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/ ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1374 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Forty-One of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- where The Boss returns to England and finds the place almost empty in -- 'The Interdict.' Time: approx ten minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html Wh ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1373 SUNDAY SALAD offers yet another spoof of a Jules Verne story by Stanley Huntley! Published in 1882, 'The Field of Ice by J. Verne' makes fun of the 1875 Verne tale with the same name. Time: approx seven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1372 Our Saturday Night Special story is by Robert J. Burdette. From 1879, 'Rules for Poultry Novices.' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1371 While traveling by plane can be a real pain these days, going by train wasn't much better (at least in the U. S.) in 1907, when Charles Battell Loomis wrote about it in 'Our Way and the British.' Time: approx eleven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1370 From Charles Battell Loomis's 1907 book 'A Bath in an English Tub,' we explore the English tradition of 'Tea Time.' Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basemen ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1369 Sometimes, the way people say certain phrases can drive you nuts, as we shall see in today's Charles Battell Loomis story from his 1907 book 'A Bath in an English Tub.' It is called 'Thank You.' Time: approx six minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTune ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1368 From Charles Battell Loomis's 1907 book 'A Bath in an English Tub' comes the opening story, with the same name. And of course, that's 'bawrth' not 'bath.' Time: approx seven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscrib ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1367 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Forty of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- in which a new day dawns for Merrie Olde England -- 'Three Years Later.' Time: approx seventeen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, plea ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1366 SUNDAY SALAD features just ONE Stanley Huntley story today, from 1883 -- where we hear about the most remarkable weather of all time --'A Heavy Storm.' Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1365 Our Saturday Night Special story is by James M. Bailey, the Danbury News Man. From 1873 we learn 'How a Married Man Sews on a Button.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1364 Max Adeler discusses which phrase is more proper to use -- 'is being done' or 'is doing' -- in the 1874 story 'A Question.' Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1363 Max Adeler leans over his garden fence and hears about the musical tastes of bags of fertilizer in 'Judge Pitman's Musical Feat' from 1874 Time: approx six minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Tha ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1362 From 1874 comes Max Adeler's fun story of getting locked out of the house in a nightshirt. It's called 'A Very Disgreeable Predicament.' Time: approx six minutes A. B. Frost Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1361 Max Adeler's 1874 book 'Out of the Hurly Burly' was one of the first to focus on the lighter side of suburban living in America. Today's story concerns a rare plant that grows a half inch every twenty years and blooms once a century -- 'Our Century Plant.' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.co ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website MIster Ron's Basement #1360 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Thirty-Nine of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- a terrific bit of Twain's writing, and it could stand alone -- 'The Yankee's Fight with the Knights.' Time: approx twenty-four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron- ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1359 SUNDAY SALAD features TWO looney Stanley Huntley stories from 1880! First, we get a truly skewed view of history in 'White House Gallery - Anecdote of Andrew Johnson' and then we hear a tale of a loan to a shoeshine boy that is repaid years later in 'The Religious Bootblack.' Time: approx seven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http:/ ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1358 Our Saturday Night Special story is told through two separate tales by Leon Mead. They both deal with the photograph we featured in Episode #1343 and is reproduced on this web page again, below. The first tale is taken from Mead's 1899 book, 'The Bow Legged Ghost and Other Stories' and it tells how the photograph came about. It also includes one of the very few truly sad stories Bill Nye ever wrote. It is called 'Eugene Field and Bill Nye.' The second piece concerns the finding of the lost ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1357 Chauncey Tubbs really ought to consult with his wife a bit more, as we find out in Leon Mead's 1899 story, 'Mrs. Tubbs Maoeuvres.' Time: approx fifteen and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred ep ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1356 Leon Mead stretches a yarn beyond belief with his 1899 tale of a young woman's mania for a certain color. It's called 'The Woman in Yellow.' Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! T ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1355 Stories of creating and succeeding with a hit show on Broadway are extremely common, but today's tale is, well, different. From 1899, we present Leon Mead's crazy show-biz story, 'Revels of the Muses.' Time: approx twelve minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html Wh ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1354 Leon Mead was a good friend of humorist Bill Nye, and apparently some of Nye's style rubbed off on him. Today's 1899 story deals with a man who can't help winking at women on the street whose hobby gets him in a jam. It's called 'An Assumed Weakness.' Time: approx twelve minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1353 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Thirty-Eight of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- which we have been waiting for -- 'Sir Launcelot and Knights to the Rescue.' Time: approx seven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1352 SUNDAY SALAD features just ONE Stanley Huntley story today -- this appeared in the Brooklyn Eagle a month or so after the death of Jesse James in 1882 -- it's called 'He Was One of the Band.' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.html When in iTun ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1351 George Horatio Derby's nutty dentist, Dr. Tushmaker, whom we first encountered in Episode #596, is back again for our Saturday Night Special story. in an excerpt from 'Phoenix at Benecia' from 1855. The story is undeniably grisly, and totally loony! Time: approx seven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1350 Wrapping up our week of Homer Croy stories, we look at a unique tale from the earliest days of the Movies -- an excerpt from his 1918 book 'How Motion Pictures Are Made,' taken from the chapter 'When Eight Soldiers Were an Army.' Time: approx seven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - Mister Ron needs a single dollar from YOU! http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-m ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1349 Homer Croy wrote for every sort of publication that existed in the early twentieth century. Today's story appeared in 'The Boys' and Girls' Fifth Reader' back in 1919. The tale concerns a boy and his chicken. It's called 'Cleopatra and the Candidate.' Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A Vital Message from Mister Ron! Please read this - - http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2009/04/vital-message-from-ron-evry.h ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1348 Even today, people enjoy bragging about a new car purchase, but back in 1912 it was almost like bragging about owning a new spaceship! Homer Croy makes some suggestions on politely bringing up the subject in the 1912 piece 'How to Lead Up to It.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1347 Homer Croy was one of the many early twentieth century writers who cranked out anything he could sell to magazines and newspapers. He developed a reputation as a humorist, wrote some novels, then had an immensely successful career as a screenwriter for both silent and sound movies. It is extremely difficult to find his short humorous pieces these days, but we will try. Today's tale, from 1922, is quite clever. It's called 'Bathing in a Borrowed Suit.' Time: approx seven and a half mi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1346 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Thirty-Seven of'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'from 1889 -- where the Boss gets captured, talks his way out, and then...he's in'An Awful Predicament.'Time: approx fifteen minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodesof Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web page, and in the main iTunes menu.NOW!!!! ALL of the Episodes on Mister Ron's ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1345 SUNDAY SALAD offers TWO Stanley Huntley tales of Hard Times from back in 1882. First, a Montana man complains how civilization is killing the frontier in'Business Was Bad'and a bum gives a druggist a bad luck story in'The Force of Circumstances.'Time: approx ten and a half minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...When in iTunes, please click on'Subscribe'button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1344 Our Saturday Night Special story is written by the young man pictured on the right in the photo illustrating the Bill Nye story in Episode #1343 (on the web page). From 1899, we present Leon Mead's'The Bow-Legged Ghost.'Time: approx thirteen and a half minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...When in iTunes, please click on'Subscribe'button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1343 We started the week with a fun story by Henry Faxon, then followed that up with TWO storiesaboutFaxon written by Wm. Lightfoot Visscher.Today, we follow all that up with a violently funny story aboutVisscherwritten by Bill Nye back in 1891 -- The tale is called'A Peaceable Man.'Time: approx seven and a half minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...Nye, Visscher, and a couple of other literary friendsWhen in iTunes, please click on'Subscribe'button. It's Free! Than ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1342 We are continuing a reminiscence of the amazing Henry W. Faxon by Wm. Lightfoot Visscher, from his 1908 book 'Ten Wise Men and Some More.' Today we hear the inside scoop of the Great Silver Lake Snake, a fabulous hoax of the 1850s. Time: approx six minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web page, and in the main iTunes menu. N ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1341 Yesterday's hilarious story by Henry W. Faxon is the only piece we can dig up with his name on it. Any listeners with access to the Buffalo Republic newspaper of the late 1850s, please contact Mister Ron! Meanwhile we are presenting a reminiscence of the remarkable Mr. Faxon by Wm. Lightfoot Visscher, from his 1908 book 'Ten Wise Men and Some More.' We will feature some more of it tomorrow. Time: approx seven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1340 Today we offer one of the whackiest stories ever written! From 1853, we present 'The Tremendous Adventures and the Mighty Deeds, Rise, Downfall, Life and Death of A. Jacks' most likely written by Henry William Faxon. From the title alone, you know you have to listen to this! We will be presenting more on this forgotten but highly influential funny man this week. Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, pl ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1339 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Thirty-Six of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- where the Boss picks a lock and gets free...or does he? It's called 'An Encounter in the Dark.' Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1338 SUNDAY SALAD offers two odd Stanley Huntley stories today. First, we hear one man easily topping another's tall tale -- it's called 'In the Arctic Regions' and is one of the last pieces Huntley wrote for the Brooklyn Eagle back in 1884. Then a Dakota man regales his listeners with a story of 'A Frontier Funeral' from 1881. Time: approx ten and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1337 Our Saturday Night Special story involves two dozen bottles of beer, a poker game, and a visiting strict Bishop. From 1900, we present Thomas L. Masson's 'A Distressing Situation.' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1336 Last week we ran pieces from a 'scissors and paste' book from 1881 -- this week we have dug out a similar project from waaay back in 1830. The book is called 'The Gleaner, or Selections in Prose and Poetry from the Periodical Press.' Some of the stories are quite funny, but the language is highly formal and stilted. Nevertheless, we have dug out some gems. Today we hear about a prospective husband's three conditions to his fiancee. It's simply called 'Anecdote.' Time: approx three mi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1335 Last week we ran pieces from a 'scissors and paste' book from 1881 -- this week we have dug out a similar project from waaay back in 1830. The book is called 'The Gleaner, or Selections in Prose and Poetry from the Periodical Press.' Some of the stories are quite funny, but the language is highly formal and stilted. Nevertheless, we have dug out some gems. Today's little piece may take a moment or two to get, but it is cute. The story is called 'The Astonished Fiddler.' Time: approx ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1334 Last week we ran pieces from a 'scissors and paste' book from 1881 -- this week we have dug out a similar project from waaay back in 1830. The book is called 'The Gleaner, or Selections in Prose and Poetry from the Periodical Press.' Some of the stories are quite funny, but the language is highly formal and stilted. Nevertheless, we have dug out some gems. Today, a card sharp attempts to play a trick on a New England skipper in a tale called 'Diamond Cut Diamond.' Time: approx four m ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1333 Last week we ran pieces from a 'scissors and paste' book from 1881 -- this week we have dug out a similar project from waaay back in 1830. The book is called 'The Gleaner, or Selections in Prose and Poetry from the Periodical Press.' Some of the stories are quite funny, but the language is highly formal and stilted. Nevertheless, we have dug out some gems. Today's piece concerns two men discussing a duel with each other. It's entitled 'Fair Play.' Time: approx three minutes Please ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1332 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Thirty-Five of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- this chapter isn't even close to funny, but it is part of the book -- prepare yourself for a real tear-jerker -- 'A Pitiful Incident.' Time: approx sixteen and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1331 We are celebrating FOUR YEARS of Mister Ron's Basement today! Your emails and birthday cakes are more than welcome. We hope to find even more of the funniest stories from the public domain in the upcoming years... Our SUNDAY SALAD features TWO Stanley Huntley stories that (we think) are extremely funny! They are both from 1881 -- 'The Cautious Reporter's Version' and 'How He Became Wealthy.' Time: approx six and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1330 Our Saturday Night Special story is by an author we have not featured in the Basement yet. Robert Barr was, for many years, the Detroit Free Press's other humorist, in addition to C. B. Lewis (M. Quad). For many years he wrote under the pen name of Luke Sharp, but gradually shifted to his real name. When the Detroit Free Press published a London edition, Barr was sent there to contribute to it. We will feature more of Barr's stories in the future, but today we will offer an 1897 charming ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1329 This week we have dug out an 1881 book called"Ha! Ha!! Ha!!!'It is composed of humorous pieces clipped from various newspapers. The authors are listed asScissors and Paste.The authors of the pieces are not credited, but some of the newspapers are. From this we can usually figure out who the writers are. Today's story, really a truly old joke, perhaps first appeared in this form. It's called'Bread and Gravy'by Alexander Sweet and John Armoy . Well, old jokes had to be new at some point, righ ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1328 This week we have dug out an 1881 book called"Ha! Ha!! Ha!!!'It is composed of humorous pieces clipped from various newspapers. The authors are listed asScissors and Paste.The authors of the pieces are not credited, but some of the newspapers are. From this we can attempt to determine who the writers are. We're just guessing here, but today's clever piece from the South Bend Tribune was most likely an effort of that newspaper's editor, Richard H. Lyon. It is called'A Typographical Injury to ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1327 This week we have dug out an 1881 book called"Ha! Ha!! Ha!!!'It is composed of humorous pieces clipped from various newspapers. The authors are listed asScissors and Paste.The authors of the pieces are not credited but some of the newspapers are. From this we can determine some of the authors. Today's story was most likely written by C. B. Lewis, who usually used the pen name of M. Quad. Of course neither name was used here...The tale is called'The Man with the Umbrella.'Time: approx four m ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1326 This week we have dug out an 1881 book called"Ha! Ha!! Ha!!!'It is composed of humorous pieces clipped from various newspapers. The authors are listed asScissors and Paste.The authors of the pieces are not credited but some of the newspapers are. From this we can determine some of the authors. Today's piece,'Exchanging Dusters,'is probably by Robert J. Burdette, and is extremely funny.Time: approx eight minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...When in iTunes, plea ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1325 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Thirty-Four (Part Two of Two) of'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'from 1889 -- where the Boss and the King go from the frying pan into the fire...or is it the other way around? --'The Yankee and the King Sold as Slaves.'Time: approx twelve minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...When in iTunes, please click on'Subscribe'button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1324 SUNDAY SALAD offers just ONE Stanley Huntley piece today -- it's a fun piece from 1882 called 'The Coney Island Waiter.' Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web page, and in the main iTunes menu. NOW!!!! ALL of the Episodes on Mister Ron's Basement are CATALOGUED! You'll find them at - http ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1323 Our Saturday Night Special story comes from page one of the Brooklyn Eagle from May 30, 1880. The story is unsigned, and credited to the San Francisco Post, but we strongly suspect the hand of Stanley Huntley (who was a huge Edgar Allan Poe fan) is involved here. In any event, even though the report features a well-known San Francisco judge of the time, the tale is so ludicrous as to obviously be a work of fiction. Anyway, listen and judge for yourself. It may be one of the funniest pieces ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1322 We are celebrating WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH with fun stories by 19th Century Women Authors (well, this time around, 20th Century...). May Isabel Fisk is about as forgotten as a once-popular writer can be, which is a shame, because she was extremely funny. Today's piece first appeared in 1903, and it really is a classic! It's called 'A Woman in a Shoe-shop.' Time: approx ten and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, ple ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1321 We are celebrating WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH with fun stories by 19th Century Women Authors. One of the most imaginative writers of the 19th century, Lucretia Peabody Hale wrote stories for kids that always had a sly wink and a nod for the grown-ups. Today's piece from 1886 deals with a young man with a unique talent looking for a calling in life. It's called 'A Place for Oscar.' Time: approx twelve minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1320 We are celebrating WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH with fun stories by 19th Century Women Authors. Mary Andrews Denison is almost totally forgotten today, but she was one of the most popular authors of the mid-nineteenth century. Today we hear about an unexpected dinner guest in the first chapter of 'That Husband of Mine' from 1877. Time: approx fifteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Fr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1319 We are celebrating WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH with fun stories by 19th Century Women Authors. Sarah Orne Jewett was an extremely popular writer of the late 19th Century, and her work is experiencing a resurgence today. Excerpted from a chapter from her 1877 book 'Deephaven,' we present 'The Circus at Denby.' Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1318 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Thirty-Four (Part One of Two) of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- in which the King opens his big mouth and gets him and the Boss in Hot Water -- 'The Yankee and the King Sold as Slaves.' Time: approx thirteen and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1317 SUNDAY SALAD offers TWO 1880 Stanley Huntley pieces about dangerous characters from the wild west -- first a brash young man fresh from the frontier visits a Brooklyn Bar in 'A Party from Deadwood' and then we offer a bit of poetry about a desperado on the run in 'The Snake from Glendive Creek.' Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1316 Our Saturday Night Special is Part Three of a Three Part tale by Mark Twain -- one of his funniest stories ever -- 'The Stolen White Elephant' from 1882! Don't miss this, but don't even think of listening to it until you have heard Parts One and Two, which you can get by clicking here and here. Time: approx fifteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1315 We are celebrating WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH with fun stories by 19th Century Women Authors. Kate M. Cleary sharply points out the double standard applied to women writers in her 1895 piece 'The New Man.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1314 We are celebrating WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH with fun stories by 19th Century Women Authors. One of Kate M. Cleary's funniest pieces appeared in Puck Magazine in 1892 -- wherein we learn a bit about farm economics -- it's called 'A Trip Postponed.' Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1313 We are celebrating WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH with fun stories by 19th Century Women Authors. For our lucky Episode Number 1313, we are offering another Kate M. Cleary story that originally appeared in 1890 -- in it, beautiful Sylvia has an encounter with a bashful beaux in 'A Mutual Misunderstanding.' Time: approx twelve and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1312 We are celebrating WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH with fun stories by 19th Century Women Authors. This week, we are spotlighting the writing of Kate M. Cleary. Cleary was a truly professional writer, who helped support her family with a prodigious output of short stories, poems and novels. Many of them centered on pioneer life in Nebraska, which she experienced first-hand for many years. Her work was a major influence on Willa Cather's writing. Today we offer a short, romantic story from 1904 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1311 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Thirty-Three of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- where we discuss purchasing power, wages, and the pillory - 'Sixth Century Political Economy.' Time: approx twenty-four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1310 SUNDAY SALAD offers THREE truly funny Stanley Huntley stories today! The first two originally appeared in the scarce-as-hen's-teeth Drake's Traveller's Magazine -- First, an old man has an incredible personal story to tell in 'What He Had Never Seen' from 1884, then we observe an encounter between a strange man and a Dakota woman on a train in 'Her Little Joke' from 1883. Finally, we wrap it all up with an 1880 Huntley story from the Brooklyn Eagle about a rescued, drunken near-suicide ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1309 Our Saturday Night Special is Part Two of a Three Part tale by Mark Twain -- one of his funniest stories ever -- 'The Stolen White Elephant' from 1882! Don't miss this, but don't even think of listening to it until you have heard Part One, which you can get by clicking here. Time: approx seventeen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1308 We are celebrating WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH with fun stories by 19th Century Women Authors. From Fanny Fern's 1857 book 'Fresh Leaves' comes a tale of a few different women writers, and their point of view of Fanny Fern herself -- it's called 'Come On, MacDuff.' Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1307 We are celebrating WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH with fun stories by 19th Century Women Authors. Back in 1857, women physicians were rare and sensational -- during that year, Fanny Fern published 'Lady Doctors' in her book 'Fresh Leaves.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web page, and in the main iTun ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1306 We are celebrating WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH with fun stories by 19th Century Women Authors. Here's another Fanny Fern piece from her 1868 book, 'Folly as it Flies.' Fanny discusses, sloppy, slatternly women, and their opposite numbers in an excerpt from 'Some Varieties of Women.' Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1305 We are celebrating WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH with fun stories by 19th Century Women Authors. This week Fanny Fern stories fill the Basement! Today we offer a piece concerning women who attempt to do too much with an excerpt from the chapter 'Women and Their Discontents' out of the 1868 book 'Folly as it Flies.' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1304 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Thirty-Two of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- with some bragging about wealth - "Dowley's Humiliation.' Time: approx sixteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1303 SUNDAY SALAD offers TWO funny Stanley Huntley stories from 1881 today -- The first one concerns a bum who manages to squeeze a coin out of a victim with a compelling story -- it's called 'His Conscience Smote Him' -- if you really want to get the joke, listen to episode #1302, Mark Twain's 'The Stolen White Elephant' part one before you hear this. Our second story concerns some very slight exaggeration from 'A Mighty Hunter.' Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1302 Our Saturday Night Special is Part One of a Three Part tale by Mark Twain -- one of his funniest stories ever -- 'The Stolen White Elephant.' Don't miss this! Time: approx eighteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1301 Robert J. Burdette was enamored of gentle, humorous observations of life. This week, we have been reading from his 1879 collection, 'Innach Garden.' Today's tale has our narrator visiting barbers in different cities to get shaves, and winding up 'Getting My Hair Trimmed.' It's a truly fun story. Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... NOW!!!! ALL of the Episodes on Mister Ron's Basement are CATALOGUED! You'll find t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1300 Welcome to the 1300th Episode of Mister Ron's Basement! We've been doing these nearly every day for nearly four years now, and we have lots more fun stuff planned for you in the future! Meanwhile, to celebrate this milestone Episode, we are presenting one of the funniest stories ever. It's by Robert J. Burdette, and it comes from his 1912 book 'Old Time, Young Tom.' This tale simply builds and builds -- it is entitled 'The Relief of the Slamrack.' Your comments are, as always, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1299 Robert J. Burdette was enamored of gentle, humorous observations of life. This week, we are reading from his 1879 collection, 'Innach Garden.' How can you tell when Good Times have returned? Find out today in 'Fiat Money.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web page, and in the main iTunes ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1298 Robert J. Burdette was enamored of gentle, humorous observations of life. This week, we will be reading from his 1879 collection, 'Innach Garden.' Today we hear about a comic newspaper writer and his typesetter -- It is called 'The Compositor Fiend,' and it is very funny when you listen carefully... Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1297 SUNDAY SALAD offers only ONE Stanley Huntley this week, as Mister Ron attempts to heal a sore throat (expect more pops and snaps than usual as the mic gain had to be turned WAY up). From 1881, we offer a tale of members of the Medical Profession offering a variety of opinions in 'A Question of Tests.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Base ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1296 Today's SPECIAL story belatedly celebrates Charles Darwin's 200th Birthday from earlier this month, with an 1877 tale of natural selection by W. L. Alden, called'A New Point for Darwinians.'Time: approx eight minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodesof Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web page, and in the main iTunes menu.NOW!!!! ALL of the Episodes on Mister Ron's Basement are CAT ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1295 In 1908, Grenville Kleiser edited a wonderful collection called'Humorous Hits - And - How to Hold an Audience'featuring fun pieces by assorted authors. This week we have been reading some of them.Today's Anonymously written tale skirts the borders of good taste -- but we're reading it anyway, because it is sort of clever -- it's called'The Crooked Mouth Family.'Time: approx five minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...When in iTunes, please click on'Subscribe'but ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1294 In 1908, Grenville Kleiser edited a wonderful collection called'Humorous Hits - And - How to Hold an Audience'featuring fun pieces by assorted authors. This week we are reading some of them.Today's tale is by an anonymous author -- it concerns a misinformed minister and a bereaved housewife --'A Big Mistake.'Time: approx five minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...When in iTunes, please click on'Subscribe'button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1293 In 1908, Grenville Kleiser edited a wonderful collection called'Humorous Hits - And - How to Hold an Audience'featuring fun pieces by assorted authors. This week we are reading some of them.Morris Wade was a popular turn-of-the-century poet and writer. In today's piece, we visit some highly cultured ladies'At Five O'Clock Tea.'Time: approx five and a half minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...When in iTunes, please click on'Subscribe'button. It's Free! Thank yo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1292 In 1908, Grenville Kleiser edited a wonderful collection called'Humorous Hits - And - How to Hold an Audience'featuring fun pieces by assorted authors. This week we will be reading some of them.Today's short story from Robert J. Burdette is an absolute scream -- it is called'A Twilight Idyl.'It originally appeared in Burdette's'Innach Garden, and Other Comic Sketches'published in 1879.Time: approx six and a half minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...When in iTu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1291 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Thirty-One of'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'from 1889 -- where the Boss spends money all over town --'Marco.'Time: approx sixteen minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...When in iTunes, please click on'Subscribe'button. It's Free! Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1290 SUNDAY SALAD features TWO Stanley Huntley pieces from 1882. First, a show producer comes up with a a truly novel idea in 'An Original Attraction.' Next, the managing editor fills in for the 'answer man' with some ladies clothing style advice in 'A Discussion on the Fashions.' Time: approx ten minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1289 In celebration of Valentine's Day, we are offering a very special Valentine poem by Ellis Parker Butler from 1896. It's called 'Maude's Valentine' (we strongly suggest listening to this first before you cleverly play it as a last minute Valentine for your beloved). Time: approx two and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1288 Douglas Malloch wrote outdoor adventures and poetry, and was an editor of American Lumberman Magazine. In 1911 American Lumberman published his fun book, 'Resawed Fables.' This week we have been reading stories from that book. Today's looney fable concerns an ancient philosopher who provided inspiration for a modern lumber man. It's called 'Of Socrates and the Man from Wisconsin.' Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1287 Douglas Malloch wrote outdoor adventures and poetry, and was an editor of American Lumberman Magazine. In 1911 American Lumberman published his fun book, 'Resawed Fables.' This week we are reading stories from that book. You know this guy -- working seven days a week is never enough -- here's his story -- 'Of Taking a Few Days Off.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1286 Douglas Malloch wrote outdoor adventures and poetry, and was an editor of American Lumberman Magazine. In 1911 American Lumberman published his fun book, 'Resawed Fables.' This week we are reading stories from that book. Today's tale concerns the doings of the tenderest of the tender among Tenderfeet in the wild west -- it's called 'Of the Straw that Dislocated the Camel's Vertebrae.' Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this stor ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1285 Douglas Malloch wrote outdoor adventures and poetry, and was an editor of American Lumberman Magazine. In 1911 American Lumberman published his fun book, 'Resawed Fables.' This week we are reading stories from that book. Today's story concerns three very different sons -- it's called 'Of Yielding to Temptation.' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1284 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Thirty (Part Two of Two) of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- where we learn a bit about duty -- 'The Tragedy of the Manor House.' Time: approx twelve minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website MIster Ron's Basement #1283 SUNDAY SALAD offers TWO Stanley Huntley pieces from 1883 (no Spoopendyke stories yet -- sorry, we're still looking). First, a tramp tries to put one over on a bartender with a dead cat and a dead sparrow in 'Mistaken in Something.' The next story involves a once-popular holiday called 'Evacuation Day.' Time: approx ten and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron' ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1282 We have a surprise Saturday BONUS episode of the Basement today! We are adding on an extra special story from Frederic Thomas Somerby's 'Hits and Dashes; or A Medley of Sketches and Scraps, Touching People and Things,' from 1852. It is called 'Uncle Ephraim's Husking,' and is a delightful description of the events that occurred at a traditional husking bee, where a community would gather to husk a farmer's corn crop and have a party in the process. So settle back, relax, and journey b ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1281 Frederic Thomas Somerby, who reported on the folks of Newburyport, Massachusetts and the general area (including parts of Maine and New Hampshire) for the Boston Post in the 1850s under the pen name of 'Cymon,' published a collection called 'Hits and Dashes; or A Medley of Sketches and Scraps, Touching People and Things' back in 1852. When someone attempts to tell you how wonderful something is, take it with a grain of salt, as we shall see in 'Interesting Associations.' Time: approx ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1280 Frederic Thomas Somerby, who reported on the doings in Newburyport, Massachusetts and the general neighborhood (including parts of Maine and New Hampshire) for the Boston Post in the 1850s under the pen name of 'Cymon,' published a collection called 'Hits and Dashes; or A Medley of Sketches and Scraps, Touching People and Things' back in 1852. In today's tale two cold and weary travelers spend the night at the home of a farmer's who has a beautiful daughter -- no it's not what you think ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1279 Frederic Thomas Somerby, who wrote pieces about Newburyport, Massachusetts and the general neighborhood (including parts of Maine and New Hampshire) for the Boston Post in the 1850s under the pen name of 'Cymon,' published a collection called 'Hits and Dashes; or A Medley of Sketches and Scraps, Touching People and Things' back in 1852. Today, we hear of a fiercely funny clash of armies in 'The Battle of Quamphegan.' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' but ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1278 Frederic Thomas Somerby, who wrote pieces about Newburyport, Massachusetts for the Boston Post in the 1850s under the pen name of 'Cymon,' left behind a collection called 'Hits and Dashes; or A Medley of Sketches and Scraps, Touching People and Things.' From that book, we present a story of an encounter with a breathtakingly beautiful maiden in the wilds of New Hampshire entitled 'The Gem of Moose Mountain.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' bu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1277 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Thirty (Part One of Two) of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- where we see a lot of people hanging around -- 'The Tragedy of the Manor House.' Time: approx eleven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... At last, we have indexed the Chapters presented so far of Mark Twain's 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' - You'll find them here - http://ronevry.com/Connecticut.html. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1276 SUNDAY SALAD offers TWO strange Stanley Huntley pieces from 1883 (sorry, no Spoopendyke stories today). First, two old biddies offer each other some esoteric advice in 'An Exchange of Remedies.' Next, we offer a fantasy tale from Huntley where he takes the phrase Total Depravity of Inanimate Things quite literally in 'New Light Upon An Old Question.' Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... ***Here is a page full of links to ever ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1275 January 31st is, as everyone should know, 'National Gorilla Suit Day,' and in celebration, we are presenting our THIRD annual Gorilla Suit story (The first two can be found by clicking here and here). It was written by one of our favorite authors, W. L. Alden, and originally appeared in 1893. It is called 'Gorilla Romance.' Time: approx seventeen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1274 Honesty is often considered to be its own reward, but this is not the case in Bill Nye's super-short piece from 1881, 'He Rewarded Her.' Time: approx two minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1273 From 1881, Bill Nye offers us a short fun, but sad tale, 'Sic Semper Gloria Houseplant.' Time: approx three and a half minutes When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1272 We are continuing to explore the woolly western humor of Bill Nye, with a tale of a tonsorial parlor visit gone awry in 'A Hairsbreadth Escape' from 1881. Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web page, and in the main iTunes menu. NOW!!!! ALL of the Episodes on Mister Ron's Basement are CATALOGU ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1271 Edgar Wilson ('Bill') Nye was one the funniest people ever to put pen to paper. An excellent example of this is his 1881 story about tobacco-chewing in Church, 'Fine-Cut As a Means of Grace'.' Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web page, and in the main iTunes menu. NOW!!!! ALL of the Episodes on Mister ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1270 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Twenty-Nine of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- where the Boss and the King visit 'The Smallpox Hut.' This chapter is not even close to being funny! It is one of the saddest things we've ever read... Time: approx sixteen and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... At last, we have indexed the Chapters presented so far of Mark Twain's 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Cou ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1269 PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web page, and in the main iTunes menu. Be assured that the entire 1269 episodes are indeed available, and we are just about finished with our COMPLETE INDEX. Yes, O Yes! Once this catalog is complete, we will be able to offer you individual indexes of every author in the Basement! Until then, you can find some older stories on the individual author indexes below. Plea ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1268 We have presented around one hundred and twenty of C. B. Lewis's Mr. Bowser stories for the last couple of years. While Lewis wrote these every week for almost forty years, we are not going to try to read all, or even most of them. So this week's episode is the LAST Bowser story we will read (for the time being). We have catalogued ALL the Mr. Bowser stories presented here at http://ronevry.com/mrbowser.html. Have fun! In today's tale, Mr. Bowser finally gets his due as 'The Mother-In ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1267 Eugene Field had the kind of popularity in the 19th century that newspaper humorists rarely experienced in later years. He wrote fun prose and poetry, sometimes thinly disguised political satire, sometimes witty observations of life in the United States of his time. Today's poem is fun for youngsters and oldsters. From 1893, we present 'Extinct Monsters.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1266 PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web page, and in the main iTunes menu. Be assured that the entire 1266 episodes are indeed available, and we will be finishing our COMPLETE INDEX by this weekend. Yes! Once this catalog is complete, we will be able to offer you individual indexes of each author in the Basement! Until then, you can find some older stories on the individual author indexes below. Please ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1265 Eugene Field had the kind of popularity in the 19th century that newspaper humorists rarely experienced in later years. He wrote fun prose and poetry, sometimes thinly disguised political satire, sometimes witty observations of life in the United States of his time. Today, Field compares a couple of, well, interesting poems in 'Sir Galahad and Sir Sullivan' from 1887. Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Wh ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1264 Eugene Field had the kind of popularity in the 19th century that newspaper humorists rarely experienced in later years. He wrote fun prose and poetry, sometimes thinly disguised political satire, sometimes witty observations of life in the United States of his time. This week, we will begin exploring some of his sharp pieces, beginning with a poem from 1886 concerning 'An Overworked Word.' Time: approx two and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1263 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Twenty-Eight of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- where the Boss tries his best to teach Arthur how to act like a Peasant in 'Drilling the King.' Time: approx ten and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1262 PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web page, and in the main iTunes menu. Be assured that the entire 1262 episodes are indeed available, and we will be finishing our COMPLETE INDEX within the next few days. Really! Once this catalog is complete, we will be able to offer you individual indexes of each author in the Basement! Until then, you can find some older stories on the individual author indexes below. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1261 Our favorite Old Crank takes up the study of a science and lets everyone know about it in 'Mr. Bowser Takes Up Botany,' by C. B. Lewis, from 1902. Time: approx ten minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1260 We are wrapping up our week-long celebration of funny writing by Edgar Allan Poe (his 200th Birthday is on January 19, 2009) with a lengthy, but fascinating, and at times quite funny story from 1845 called 'Some Words with A Mummy.' This is most likely the very first popular story ever written concerning a Mummy brought back to life. Today there are Mummy movies and television programs everywhere. But in 1845, this tale hit the reading public with a bang! Time: approx FORTY-ONE minut ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website MiSter Ron's Basement #1259 PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web page, and in the main iTunes menu. Be assured that the entire 1259 episodes are indeed available, and we will be finishing our COMPLETE INDEX within the next few days. Once this catalog is complete, we will be able to offer you individual indexes of each author in the Basement! Until then, you can find some older stories on the individual author indexes below. In fact ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1258 In celebration of Edgar Allen Poe's Bicentennial this month, we are delivering some of Poe's funniest stories. Today, we learn some of the tricks of the con man, who, back in the 1840s, was called a 'Diddler.' From 1843 comes 'Diddling Considered as One of the Exact Sciences.' Time: approx twenty-four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website MiSter Ron's Basement #1257 This month we are celebrating Edgar Allen Poe's 200th Birthday on January 19th! In honor of the Poe Bicentennial, we will be reading some of his funniest stories! 'Wait a minute!' you might be saying -- 'Poe? Funny stories?!!' Yes indeed, throughout his career, Poe often wrote what he considered humor, although some readers might find it a bit warped and ghastly, to say the least. Still, Poe's funny tales have a distinct voice, and are well worth listening to. Today we discover a b ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website MISter Ron's Basement #1256 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Twenty-Seven of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- where the Boss and the King pretend to be peasants on a stroll in 'The Yankee and the King Travel Incognito.' Time: approx seventeen and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1255 PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web page, and in the main iTunes menu. Be assured that the entire 1255 episodes are indeed available, and we will be posting our COMPLETE INDEX within the next few days. Until then, you can find some older stories on the individual author indexes below, and if you hit the 'subscribe' button in iTunes, the entire library becomes available as well. Please hang on! Addend ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1254 PLEASE NOTE! You may notice that only the last one hundred episodes of Mister Ron's Basement are currently listed on the web page, and in the main iTunes menu. Be assured that the entire 1254 episodes are indeed available, and we will be posting our COMPLETE INDEX within the next few days. Until then, you can find some older stories on the individual author indexes below, and if you hit the 'subscribe' button in iTunes, the entire library becomes available as well. Please hang on! Mister R ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1253 C. B. Lewis wrote weekly columns of humor for newspapers for over fifty years! Long time Basement listeners are very familiar with his stories of Mr. Bowser, which we have been presenting for a long time. His earliest work might be considered his funniest. This week, we are presenting some hilarious gems from his 1875 collection, 'Quad's Odds.' Let's take a steamboat journey with a man who absolutely can't stand insects in the story, 'There Were Bugs There.' Time: approx six minutes ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1252 C. B. Lewis wrote weekly columns of humor for newspapers for over fifty years! Long time Basement listeners are very familiar with his stories of Mr. Bowser, which we have been presenting for a long time. His earliest work might be considered his funniest. This week, we are presenting some hilarious gems from his 1875 collection, 'Quad's Odds.' Today we will visit a few historical sites, where a number of Revolutionary War heroes fell. It's called 'Depressions.' Time: approx eight min ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1251 C. B. Lewis wrote weekly columns of humor for newspapers for over fifty years! Long time Basement listeners are very familiar with his stories of Mr. Bowser, which we have been presenting for a long time. His earliest work might be considered his funniest. This week, we are presenting some hilarious gems from his 1875 collection, 'Quad's Odds.' Today we pay a visit to an enterprising Nevada newspaperman named 'Primrose.' Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1250 C. B. Lewis, wrote weekly columns of humor for newspapers for over fifty years! Long time Basement listeners are very familiar with his stories of Mr. Bowser, which we have been presenting for a long time. His earliest work might be considered his funniest. This week, we are presenting some hilarious gems from his 1875 collection,'Quad's Odds.'Today we hear about a grocer who learned a painful lesson in'The Awful Fate of the Man Who Advertised.'Time: approx five and a half minutesPlease scr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1249 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Twenty-Six of'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'from 1889 -- Where the Boss learns of King's-Evil and it's miraculous cure and examines'The First Newspaper.'Time: approx twenty-one minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...When in iTunes, please click on'Subscribe'button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1248 SUNDAY SALAD explores the joys of performing in the theater! Stanley Huntley's characters trod the boards in THREE fun tales today.First, a'swell'theatrical impresario talks up his productions with the Eagle editor in'Getting A Notice'from 1882. Then the Breezy family has it out concerning Mrs. Breezy's desire to play romantic roles in'Asserting His Position,'also from 1882. Finally, we have a truly rare Spoopendyke story from 1884 --'Mrs. Spoopendyke Possessed with a Sudden Desire to go on ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1247 The next few Saturdays will find us reading the last few stories from C. B. Lewis's 1902 collection,'The Life and Troubles of Mr. Bowser.'Today, Mr. Bowser is honored with a request to sit for a portrait in'Mr. Bowser's Picture.'Time: approx eight and a half minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...The amazing folks atSFFAudiohave been steering listeners to great Audio Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Crime fiction for a long time. Now you can hear an extended unedit ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1246 Our special Christmas Episode features the original 1921 F. Scott Fitzgerald story 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.' A wonderful motion picture adaption of this story starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett is being released to movie theaters right now. It is a great movie. But the original Fitzgerald story is a work of genius, and the movie differs from it dramatically. We had considered serializing it across the span of a week, but instead offer the lengthy tale in its entirety. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1245 SUNDAY SALAD offers up a special Spoopendyke Christmas story from 1880 that was apparently done especially for the Washington Post at the time (yes, we know that we thought there were no more of these, but we stumbled into this one). Stanley Huntley had previously been the Post's first City Editor back in 1877-78, and was good friends with the paper's founder, Stilson Hutchins. Today's story also sheds some light on who Huntley modeled Mrs. Spoopendyke after. Enjoy then, 'Mrs. Spoope ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1244 We are wrapping up a short week (technical difficulties) of stories from George Fitch's 1916 collection, 'Vest Pocket Essays' with a fascinating, fun view of 'Cigarettes.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1243 We are continuing with a second week of stories from George Fitch's 1916 collection, 'Vest Pocket Essays.' Today we get the scoop on a friend of humanity -- 'The Dollar.' Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1242 We are continuing with a second week of stories from George Fitch's 1916 collection, 'Vest Pocket Essays.' Feeling lucky? Then don't miss today's essay, 'Luck.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... The amazing folks at SFFAudio have been steering listeners to great Audio Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Crime fiction for a long time. Now you can hear an extended unedited interview with Mister Ron himself on the SFFAud ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1241 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Twenty-Five of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- Where the Boss learns exactly what qualifications a candidate must have to become a military officer in 'A Competitive Examination.' Time: approx twenty-six minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1240 SUNDAY SALAD offers a truly intriguing, if somewhat lengthy piece by Stanley Huntley from 1882, relating his experiences aboard a Pilot Boat, one of many that brought big ships in to New York's harbor from the High Seas back then. This colorful tale showcases Huntley's unique talents as a newspaper feature writer, and may be one of the best stories we have ever read in the Basement. It's called 'Life On A Pilot Boat; the Men who go Down to the Sea After Ships.' Time: approx thirty mi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1239 'Mr. Bowser Does the Wash' by C. B. Lewis, from 1890. What else needs to be said? Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1238 George Helgesen Fitch wrote a popular syndicated newspaper column in the early twentieth century called 'Vest Pocket Essays.' He collected the best of these in a 1916 book of the same name, which we have been reading from this week. Today we offer a treat for the bugs -- 'Picnics.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1237 George Helgesen Fitch wrote a popular syndicated newspaper column in the early twentieth century called 'Vest Pocket Essays.' He collected the best of these in a 1916 book of the same name, which we are reading from this week. Today, we take a whiff of a tasty treat -- 'Cabbages.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... The amazing folks at SFFAudio have been steering listeners to great Audio Science Fiction, Fantasy, and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1236 George Helgesen Fitch wrote a popular syndicated newspaper column in the early twentieth century called 'Vest Pocket Essays.' He collected the best of these in a 1916 book of the same name, which we are reading from this week. Today, we explore the great American way of not doing business -- 'Committees.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1235 George Helgesen Fitch wrote a popular syndicated newspaper column in the early twentieth century called 'Vest Pocket Essays.' He collected the best of these in a 1916 book of the same name, which we will read from this week. Today's essay gives us the straight scoop on 'Menus.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1234 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Twenty-Four of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- 'A Rival Magician'' -- in which the Boss faces some unexpected competition... Time: approx twenty-two minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website MISter Ron's Basement #1233 SUNDAY SALAD offers up TWO Stanley Huntley pieces today. Sorry, neither one features the Spoopendykes. We may never find another Spoopendyke story again (but we will keep looking). Both stories are from 1881 -- the first is a grim tale of a tragic journey on the Fulton Ferry in Brooklyn entitled 'The Unfortunate Cruise of the Union.' Then the Father of the Bride offers a news story to the Eagle editor in 'After A Notice.' Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1232 Our favorite old crank slaps up some wallpaper in C. B. Lewis's 1908 story, 'Bowser the Artist.' Time: approx ten minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1231 In 1893, James Barr edited a collection called 'The Humor of America' for British readers. Today's tale explores a terrible feud started by a washtub, in 'Tempest in a Tub' by James M. Bailey. Time: approx six minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1230 In 1893, James Barr edited a collection called 'The Humor of America' for British readers. L. Gaylord Clark, the long-time editor of the Knickerbocker Magazine (often publishing Washington Irving's tales), had pincluded his story for today in an 1852 collection himself. It's called 'A Railroad Recussant.' Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... The amazing folks at SFFAudio have been steering listeners to great Audio Science Fiction ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1229 In 1893, James Barr edited a collection called 'The Humor of America' for British readers. W. L. Alden was an American who was immensely popular in England in the 1890s. Today we hear of his great solution for noisy felines, entitled 'Cat-Fishing.' It's quite funny. Time: approx eight and a half minutes When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1228 In 1893, James Barr edited a collection called 'The Humor of America' for British readers. Today's piece from that book is called 'Baked Beans and Culture' by Eugene Field. Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website MIster Ron's Basement #1227 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Twenty-Three of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- 'Restoration of the Fountain' -- where the Boss treats the multitude to a spectacular fireworks show! Time: approx eighteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1226 SUNDAY SALAD offers THREE Stanley Huntley pieces today (sorry, no Spoopendyke stories available this week) -- First, a minister gets an earful of newspaper slang in 'Only Technical Terms' from 1881, then a stranger to Brooklyn gets some directions in the street in 'After Information' from 1882. Finally, a cowboy enthusiastically describes a grand performance in 'A Plea for the Opera' from 1881. Time: approx eleven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story.. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website MIster Ron's Basement #1225 Our favorite old crank has another get-rich-quick scheme up his sleeve involving raising trees for paper-mills, in C. B. Lewis's 1918 tale, 'Bowser's Little Plan.' Time: approx eight and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1224 The terrible news about the Stock Market in free fall is nothing new -- this week we have been reading from Gideon Wurdz 1905 book 'Foolish Finance.' Our last piece is full of practical advice -- it's called 'Tips.' Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1223 The terrible news about the Stock Market in free fall is nothing new -- this week we are reading from Gideon Wurdz 1905 book 'Foolish Finance.' Today we get the inside scoop on exactly how the Financial System works in 'The System as Promoter And Pickpocket.' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1222 The terrible news about the Stock Market in free fall is nothing new -- this week we will read from Gideon Wurdz 1905 book 'Foolish Finance.' Today we learn about who is available to part you with your money -- 'The Broker.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1221 The terrible news about the Stock Market in free fall is nothing new -- this week we will read from Gideon Wurdz 1905 book 'Foolish Finance.' Today we discover some great tips on 'Speculation.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website MIster Ron's Basement #1220 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Twenty-Two (Part Two of Two) of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- 'The Holy Fountain' -- where the Boss examines a dry well, and puzzles Sandy with modern slang. Time: approx fifteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1219 SUNDAY SALAD has THREE truly funny Stanley Huntley tales, all from 1881, including a newly discovered (at least by Mister Ron) Spoopendyke story! In the first piece, a woman argues with a street car passenger in a piece worthy of Abbott & Costello in 'A Trying Situation.' Then a rough and tumble visitor from Deadwood gets into a strange discussion with a precious young Brooklyn girl in 'Too Awfully Utter.' Finally Mr. Spoopendyke expresses his disgust with his Doctor's advice in 'He Was ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1218 Mr. Bowser gets a made-to-order package from his tailor that seems to be all wrong, in C. B. Lewis's 1893 tale, 'Bowser's Trousers.' Time: approx seven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1217 Bill Nye (Edgar Wilson Nye) is one of our favorite humorists. This week, we are featuring stories from his 1881 collection, 'Bill Nye and Boomerang.' Today, Nye reports on a desperado's wedding ceremony in 'The Nupitals of Dangerous Davis.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1216 Bill Nye (Edgar Wilson Nye) is one of our favorite humorists. This week, we are featuring stories from his 1881 collection, 'Bill Nye and Boomerang.' Today's story is a bit hard to follow, but is extremely funny nevertheless. Nye discusses 'The Buckness Wherewith the Buck Beer Bucketh.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1215 Bill Nye (Edgar Wilson Nye) is one of our favorite humorists. This week, we are featuring stories from his 1881 collection, 'Bill Nye and Boomerang.' Today we learn a truly unique use for a washtub in Nye's tale of 'Dirty Murphy.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... This time of year, many visitors to this Podcast come to find our version of Washington Irving's 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow.' It is available by clicking here. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1214 Bill Nye (Edgar Wilson Nye) is one of our favorite humorists. This week, we are featuring stories from his 1881 collection, 'Bill Nye and Boomerang.' Today's piece concerns the many reported deaths of Frank and Jesse James and their gang -- it is called 'Killing Off the James Boys.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1213 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Twenty-Two (Part One of Two) of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- 'The Holy Fountain' -- where we learn about professional courtesy among magicians. Time: approx eleven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1212 SUNDAY SALAD offers Stanley Huntley's clever 1880 spoof of Jules Verne's 'Around the World in Eighty Days.' It's called 'A Journey to the Sun by Jules Verne, Jr.' Sorry -- there are no unread Spoopendyke stories available this week. We will keep searching. Time: approx eleven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1211 Mr. Bowser has 'the event of his life' in C. B. Lewis's 1899 tale 'Fishing for Tautog.' Time: approx ten minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1210 We continue to read assorted stories from 'Mrs. Partington's Carpet-Bag of Fun,' compiled by Samuel Putnam Avery back in 1854. In the early 19th Century, communities would board school teachers at the homes of parents -- here's the sad tale of 'A Schoolmaster 'Boarding Hound.'' Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1209 We continue to read assorted stories from 'Mrs. Partington's Carpet-Bag of Fun,' compiled by Samuel Putnam Avery back in 1854. Yep, today's piece is more an old, old joke than a story, but it is pretty funny nevertheless. It's a story about a traveller 'Getting Up an Examination' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1208 We continue to read assorted stories from 'Mrs. Partington's Carpet-Bag of Fun,' compiled by Samuel Putnam Avery back in 1854. When Amelia Bloomer invented her namesake pantsuit for women back in the early 1850s, many writers made fun of them, as in this short piece, 'A Rhyme for the Bloomers.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... This time of year, many visitors to this Podcast come to find our version of Washi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1207 We continue to read assorted stories from 'Mrs. Partington's Carpet-Bag of Fun,' compiled by Samuel Putnam Avery back in 1854. Today we visit a lonely man trying to catch a snooze in the cold in 'A Bachelor's Woes.' Time: approx three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... This time of year, many visitors to this Podcast come to find our version of Washington Irving's 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow.' It is available by clicking here. We are working ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1206 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Twenty-One (Part Two of Two) of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- 'The Pilgrims' -- where Sandy and The Boss join a group of Pilgrims heading for Holy Waters, when they meet a top-hatted knight coming the other way. Time: approx nineteen and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1205 Spoopendyke is BACK! For this episode of SUNDAY SALAD we have dug up a so far undiscovered story of Mr. and Mrs. Spoopendyke from 1880 -- it's called 'A Little Large in the Neck.' Also from 1880, we are including a tale of a man purchasing an obituary notice in 'A Perplexing Situation' and another story of woman with a flair for Shakespearean dialogue finding her Romeo at a Coney Island hotel in 'A Peculiar Boarder.' Time: approx fifteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1204 Our favorite old crank sets out to win a contest and prove himself the most well-liked man in town in C. B. Lewis's 1899 story 'Mr. Bowser's Popularity.' Time: approx eight and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1203 Famed illustrator and art collector Samuel Putnam Avery edited a collection of humor in 1854 called 'Mrs. Partington's Carpet-Bag of Fun.' We are wrapping up a week of very short, fun stories about kissing from that book, with FIVE pieces - - 'A Kiss in the Dark' 'Barking Up the Wrong Tree' 'An Ecstatic Lover' 'A Smacking Article' and 'Improved Cookery.' Time: approx six and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1202 Famed illustrator and art collector Samuel Putnam Avery edited a collection of humor in 1854 called 'Mrs. Partington's Carpet-Bag of Fun.' This week, we will be reading very short, fun stories about kissing from that book. Today's piece is more interesting than funny, but is worth a listen. It's called 'Kissing Philosophy.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' butto ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1201 Famed illustrator and art collector Samuel Putnam Avery edited a collection of humor in 1854 called 'Mrs. Partington's Carpet-Bag of Fun.' This week, we will be reading very short, fun stories about kissing from that book. Today we explore the mechanics of a proper smooch in 'How to Enjoy A Kiss.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1200 This is Mister Ron's Basement Episode #1200!! Famed illustrator and art collector Samuel Putnam Avery edited a collection of humor in 1854 called 'Mrs. Partington's Carpet-Bag of Fun.' This week, we will be reading very short, fun stories about kissing from that book. Today's is called 'A Chapter on Kissing.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. Thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1199 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Twenty-One (Part One of Two) of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- 'The Pilgrims' -- where Sandy and The Boss have Breakfast with the Pigs... Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1198 SUNDAY SALAD features TWO Stanley Huntley stories concerning sadness and grief. Of course, they are both hysterically funny! The two tales appeared in 1883 -- 'Profound Grief' and 'A Delicate Mission.' Sadly, we have yet to dig up any undiscovered Spoopendyke stories yet, and may never do so. But we will keep searching! Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... This time of year, many visitors to this Podcast come to find our vers ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1197 Mr. Bowser encounters an incredible turning point in his relationship with Mrs. Bowser in C. B. Lewis's 1892 tale, 'There Are Occasions When the Worm Will Turn.' Time: approx eight and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1196 Perhaps not among his funniest stories, we present Charles Battell Loomis's charming 1909 tale, 'Politeness As An Asset.' Time: approx six minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1195 We are featuring another truly odd story from Charles Battell Loomis written in 1906 -- it's not exactly Science Fiction -- but in it we get a report from someplace not of this Earth -- about 'The Poets' Strike.' Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1194 Here's another quirky (but very short) 1902 story from Charles Battell Loomis -- it's called 'Five Hundred Dollars.' You can draw your own conclusions to this enjoyable tale. Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1193 Charles Battell Loomis wrote an astonishing array of short stories. This week we will explore some of them. Today we have a 1900 tale of a boy with a unique talent entitled 'The Boy Who Turned Books Into Food.' Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1192 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Twenty of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- 'The Ogre's Castle' -- where Sandy and The Boss reach the goal of their quest -- sort of... Time: approx sixteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1191 SUNDAY SALAD offers TWO Stanley Huntley stories from 1882 -- neither of which features the Spoopendykes! Yes, it has finally happened! Unless something so far undiscovered turns up, we have, sadly, run out of Spoopendyke stories. Nevertheless, we will keep looking, and in the meantime we have two tales -- in the first, a reporter tries to write up a Church Picnic in Medieval style in 'Early English' and a family adopts a unique pet in 'Taming an Alligator.' Time: approx ten and a half m ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1190 Our favorite old crank comes up with a few ideas to eliminate poisonous gasses and bacteria in his home in C. B. Lewis's 1889 tale, 'Mr. Bowser Has Theories.' Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1189 Fans of the movie 'Ghostbusters' may find some intriguing resemblances to that film in Gellet Burgess's 1905 story, 'The Ghost-Extinguisher.' Your comments on this amazing (and fun) find are more than welcome! Send them to revry@panix.com. Time: approx twenty-five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1188 Today we offer the sad tale of a ghost of a man who is still alive! It also features romance, and some serious miscommunication, in Frank R. Stockton's 1884 story, 'The Transferred Ghost.' Time: approx twenty-five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1187 With Halloween approaching, we are reading some spooky (and fun) ghost stories this week! Today's 1903 tale by Rose O'Neill concerns a strange spirit and a forgetful lady. It's called 'The Lady and the Ghost.' Time: approx eleven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... This time of year, many visitors to this Podcast come to find our version of Washington Irving's 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow.' It is available by clicking here. We are work ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1186 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Nineteen of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- 'Knight-Errantry as a Trade' -- where Sandy gives The Boss an Earful. Time: approx eight and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1185 SUNDAY SALAD reveals the depth and range of Stanley Huntley's humorous writing with THREE pieces! First, a tough cowboy faces town a truly mean gambler in Bismarck, Dakota in the 1882 story 'A Piece of Carelessness.' Then an all-too-familiar poem is rewritten as it would be by four classic writers in 'Mary's Little Lamb - Verses Culled from the Different Authors,' also from 1882, and finally, what may be our last Spoopendyke story, our favorite couple visit 'The Legislature' from 1883. T ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1184 'Mr. Bowser Tries to Show His Wife How to Clean A House,' written by C. B. Lewis, from 1889. What else needs to be said? Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... This time of year, many visitors to this Podcast come to find our version of Washington Irving's 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow.' It is available by clicking here. We are working diligently to create a complete index of every episode of the Basement! Meanwhile, here are some l ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1183 George Ade takes a look at a young married couple who separate for the first time in the 1902 tale 'The Fable of the Reckless Wife who had no One to Watch Her.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1182 When you get right down to it, some people don't appreciate a good joke, as happens in George Ade's 1900 tale, 'The Fable of the Inveterate Joker Who Remained in Montana.' Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1181 A century or so ago, Phrenologists, who would read fortunes and character from the bumps in peoples' heads, were quite popular. Today's George Ade story, from 1899, deals with just that. It's called 'The Fable of the Visitor Who Got A Lot for Three Dollars.' Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1180 It's been awhile since we offered any of George Ade's Fables, so let's do some this week! We'll start with an 1899 tale of a conundrum with a terrific moral -- 'The Fable of the Caddy Who Hurt His Head While Thinking.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1179 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Eighteen of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- 'In the Queen's Dungeons' -- where The Boss sets a lot of prisoners Free. Time: approx twenty-three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1178 SUNDAY SALAD offers TWO of the BEST Stanley Huntley stories we've ever presented! First, from 1880, comes a classic tale of old Bismarck, Dakota -- 'The Gentleman from the Bad Lands.' Then Mr. and Mrs. Spoopendyke examine a rarely worn coat in 'Preparing for the New Years' from 1882. Not to be missed! Time: approx twenty minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1177 From 1889, C. B Lewis, writing as M. Quad, brings us a lesson in commerce in 'Bowser Speaks Slightingly of His Wife's Business Methods, But --' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1176 In today's 1875 story, Eli Perkins considers the effect of a glut of jewels on the market in 'Solitaire Diamonds.' Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1175 The wild west was full of rough, lawless characters, but no matter how wild they were, they had to pay their fares on the railroad, as we see in Eli Perkins' 1875 story, 'A Frontiersman.' Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1174 Today we join Eli Perkins and a law student vying for the attention of a lady at a dance in the 1875 story 'The Legal-Minded Man.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1173 We'll be hearing some more fun stories from Eli Perkins' 1875 book 'Eli Perkins (At Large) this week. Today we find out the results of naming someone as the 'most beautiful girl' in print in 'Eli Perkins in Hot Water.' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1172 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Seventeen (Part Two) of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- 'A Royal Banquet' -- where The Boss gets an uncomfortable taste of medieval justice. Time: approx fourteen and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1171 SUNDAY SALAD offers up TWO Stanley Huntley pieces this week -- first we get an inside scoop on the pharmacy business in 'A Dismal Druggist' from 1882, and Mr. Spoopendyke gets out in the garden in 'The Mild Mannered Man Tries His Hand at Transplanting' from 1883. Time: approx eleven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1170 Mr. Bowser gives his house a once over in C. B. Lewis's 1889 story, 'How the Man of the House Had It Painted and What It Cost.' Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1169 There are mean men, and meaner men, but Eli Perkins' wrote a story in 1875 about 'The Meanest Man Yet'. Time: approx three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1168 Eli Perkins relates an 1875 story about a sad old miner, observing the young miners come into the bank, cashing in their gold dust. It's called 'A Lonesome Man.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1167 With all the tragic news coming out of Wall Street these days, we may want to take a look at Eli Perkins' 1875 tale of a disconsolate broker. It's called 'A Sad Man.' Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1166 Melville D. Landon wrote under the pen name of Eli Perkins, and was probably more well known as a compiler of American Humor collections. Nevertheless, he was capable of writing extremely funny stories of his own. Today, we'll hear an 1875 Eli Perkins tale about Jesse and Frank James, a daring robbery, an admiring newspaper editor, and an act of gratitude in 'A Grateful Man.' Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1165 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Seventeen (Part One) of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- 'A Royal Banquet' -- featuring food, music, bawdy jokes, prayers, and a hanging. Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1164 SUNDAY SALAD offers TWO Stanley Huntley stories today -- From 1883, a Temperance crusader attempts to bring the Brooklyn Eagle's editors into the Prohibition campaign in 'Wanted the Paper's Influence' and Mr. Spoopendyke is hailed by one and all as the next Mayor of the city in 'The Reconciliation Candidate' from 1881. Time: approx eighteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1163 Mr. Bowser displays his carpentry prowess in C. B. Lewis's 1890 tale, 'The Head of the Family Tries to Put Up Some Screen Doors.' Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1162 Here's a nifty 1876 Max Adeler story about a judicial blunder and a bald man's hat called 'Justice, and a Little Injustice.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1161 Max Adeler often wrote pretty funny poetry. Today we feature a humorous verse from Adeler's 1874 collection, 'Out of the Hurly Burly,' It's called 'Tim Keyser's Nose.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A. B. Frost Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1160 Our Max Adeler Marathon continues with an extremely short story concerning a horse, a saddle, and a friendly bit of advice in 'The Saddle Was On Wrong' from 1873. Time: approx two and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1159 In what is turning into a Max Adeler Marathon, we present a third week in a row of Adeler short stories. Today we hear about a coroner, an Egyptian Mummy, and Noah's Ark in the 1875 tale, 'Sorry He Wasn't There.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1158 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Sixteen of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- 'Morgan Le Fay' -- where we hear of Knights selling soap and a truly nasty Queen. Time: approx fifteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1157 SUNDAY SALAD offers FOUR pieces today -- two very funny stories are definitely by Stanley Huntley -- 'The Editor and the Tracts' from 1881 and 'Sanctum Fables,' also from 1881. Another 1882 piece from an Oregon newspaper called 'Spoopendyke at the Telephone' was obviously not authentic, even to readers of the day, and 'Spoopendyke Starts a Fire,' also from 1882, from a North Carolina newspaper, and claiming to be from the Brooklyn Eagle, may be a counterfeit -- it seems a little odd - ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1156 Mr. Bowser is up to his usual antics in C. B. Lewis's 1890 story, 'The Head of the Family Tries Sleeping in a Hammock.' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1155 Despite his happy name, a hunter achieves incredible levels of anger and frustration in Max Adeler's 1875 tale, 'Mr. Smiley's Gun.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1154 Short but funny! Max Adeler's 'A Story of a Hot Brick' from 1875. Don't miss it! Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1153 Max Adeler had a keen eye for clever inventions. Today's incredibly funny story from 1873 concerns a new-fangled sewing machine. It's called 'Kipp's Inventive Experiment.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1152 MORE Max Adeler stories this week! Ever been "stuck" on someone romantically? Here's a tale of a young man who definitely was stuck, in 'Glue and the Emotions' from 1879. Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1151 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Fifteen of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 --'Sandy's Tale' -- where The Boss gets a real earful! Time: approx eighteen and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1150 SUNDAY SALAD offers TWO Stanley Huntley stories today. First, a man hires a couple of (not so) sharp lawyers to rid himself of a pest in 'A Curious Client' from 1881, and Mrs. Spoopendyke asks her husband to help her find some medicine in 'Mr. Spoopendyke's Search' from 1882. Time: approx ten and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1149 From 1891, Mr. Bowser hides things and seeks things in 'It's Always Mrs. Bowser's Fault' by C. B. Lewis. Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1148 Max Adeler takes an oblique look at the greatest figures of history in the 1875 tale 'The Unwritten Side of Great Men.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1147 Max Adeler tells of a persistent Insurance Salesman who meets with failure in the 1874 story, 'A Disheartened Agent.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1146 Max Adeler relates a fascinating short piece about an interesting bequest with unexpected consequences. It's called 'One Inconsiderate Action' from 1872. Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1145 Let's read some Max Adeler stories this week! We'll start with a short piece about a cat, a balloon, a thermometer and a cyclone, from his 1876 book "Elbow Room - A Novel Without A Plot' -- we call it 'Mr. Fogg's Exaggerations.' Time: approx six and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1144 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Fourteen of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 --'Defend Thee, Lord' -- where The Boss has a bit of Breakfast and a Smoke, and petrifies everybody! Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1143 SUNDAY SALAD offers TWO Stanley Huntley stories -- first, a tough character insists on buying drinks for everyone in 'He Was From the West' from 1883, and the Spoopendykes dig a coat out a moth-infested closet in 'Preparing for New Years' from 1882. Time: approx twelve minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1142 Our favorite old crank has problems with his shirt and socks in 'Some Domestic Incidents that Make the Bowser Family Wheel Go Round' from 1891. Time: approx seven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1141 Ellis Parker Butler talks to the spirits of the departed in the new, modern way, in the 1919 piece, 'A Message from Mr. Barr Leecorn.' Time: approx eight and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1140 Ever get confused about dates? Try to imagine the real confusion these two historical characters dealt with in Ellis Parker Butler's 1912 tale, 'Washington and Egypt's First King.' Time: approx six and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1139 Ellis Parker Butler gives the scoop on the motion picture situation in the 1920 tale, 'Movies is Movies.' Time: approx fifteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1138 Ellis Parker Butler is one of Mister Ron's favorite humorists, so let's read some of his stuff this week! We'll start with a 1911 piece about how calm modern children are when reacting to disappointment over Christmas presents, in 'Something for the Kid.' Time: approx eight and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1137 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Part Two of Two of Chapter Thirteen of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 --'Freemen' -- where the Boss joins some free men for breakfast and makes a recruit for his factory. Time: approx fourteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1136 SUNDAY SALAD offers a triple collection of Stanley Huntley pieces -- first, we have an 1880 poem about how the Bismarck, Dakota, Board of Education makes decisions in 'A Grave Question.' Then we offer what appears to be Huntley's first use of the name Mrs. Spoopendyke in a short tale from 1879 called 'His New Year's Views.' This character doesn't seem to be related to the Spoopendykes we all know and love. Finally we offer a lengthy account of Mr. and and Mrs. Spoopendyke buying a farm in ' ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1135 Mr. Bowser achieves supreme military rank a couple of years before the US entered World War One, in C. B. Lewis's 1915 tale, 'It Was General Bowser.' Time: approx eight and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1134 FANNY FERN discusses a little known aspect of the nation's First First Lady in the 1872 story 'Mrs. Washington's Eternal Knitting.' Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1133 Here's another bittersweet piece from Fanny Fern's 1872 collection, Caper Sauce. It's called 'Rainy-Day Pleasures.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1132 Fanny Fern wrote her weekly column right up until the day she died in 1872. Just months before that day, she published a collection of her writing called Caper Sauce. This week, we feature stories from that book. Today's is an exercise in frustration called 'How I Read the Morning Papers.' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1131 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Part One of Two of Chapter Thirteen of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 --'Freemen' -- where The Boss learns to share his armor with all sorts of bugs! Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1130 SUNDAY SALAD features TWO fun Stanley Huntley stories -- first, a ghoulish customer tries to get a free notice at the Brooklyn Eagle office in the 1882 story, 'He Wished to Do the Square Thing' and Mr. and Mrs. Spoopendyke have a nice picnic while traveling in 'A Railroad Lunch,' originally run in Drake's Traveller's Magazine in 1883. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Office of the 1800s Yes, we will soon run out of Spoopendyke stories! Listeners who have a clue to the whereabouts of any w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1129 Our favorite old crank shows how to deal with the butcher properly in C. B. Lewis's 1891 story, 'Mr. Bowser Tries to do the Family Marketing.' Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1128 We are wrapping up a week of James M. Bailey stories from 1873 with a true slapstick tale involving a ladder and a can of paint, called 'Street Life in Danbury.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1127 Here's a short but intriguing look at a quandary for a new homeowner by James M. Bailey from 1873. It's called 'First Sunday in a New House.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1126 James Montgomery Bailey left a wonderful legacy of unique humor concerning life in the booming Connecticut suburbs of the post-Civil War era. His 'Danbury News' had a huge mail subscriber base from across the US, from people hungry for his funny stories. Tastes changed though, and by the late 1870s his popularity fizzled out. This week, we will be presenting very short stories from his 1873 collection, 'Life in Danbury.' Today we hear about an inherited gun -- loaded, of course! -- in th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1125 James Montgomery Bailey left a wonderful legacy of unique humor concerning life in the booming Connecticut suburbs of the post-Civil War era. His 'Danbury News' had a huge mail subscriber base from across the US, from people hungry for his funny stories. Tastes changed though, and by the late 1870s his popularity fizzled out. This week, we will be presenting very short stories from his 1873 collection, 'Life in Danbury.' Today we hear about a unique cure for a cold in the tale, 'A Remark ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1124 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Twelve of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 --'Slow Torture' -- wherein the Boss gets an itch that he can't scratch! Time: approx eleven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1123 SUNDAY SALAD offers a fascinating look at how the global popularity of the Spoopendykes led to newspapers in other countries 'localizing' their stories for their readers. We start by replaying 'Misled By A Pattern,' which appeared in the Brooklyn Eagle in 1881, then reading the same story as it appeared in a New Zealand newspaper three years later, with major changes for the kiwi folk. The newer version is called 'Mrs. Spoopendyke Misunderstands.' Time: approx eleven minutes Please sc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1122 Mrs. Bowser has to visit her husband -- in jail(!) -- in the 1923 M. Quad story, 'Mr. Bowser's Adventure.' Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1121 We are wrapping up a week of short whacky stories with a piece by Bill Nye from 1886 -- 'Nye Answers a Correspondent - How Celluloid is Made' and if anything is whacky, this is it! Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1120 Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B. (actually Mortimer Thomson) covered the Civil War in his strangely oblique manner, which is represented here by the 1861 story of being a Zouave, 'Doesticks on 'Shoddy.'' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1119 This week, we are presenting assorted whacky stories from different writers -- today we hear about the man with the numbers at his fingertips in Charles Battell Loomis's 1899 tale, 'A Calculating Bore.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1118 We are back! After a month-long hiatus, Mister Ron has returned with NEW classic humor from long ago! (Yes, technically speaking, 100-150 year old stories can never be called NEW, but if you haven't heard them...). Our technical difficulties are not quite over, but we are frantically working on a complete index of the Basement, and it will be up in dribs and drabs over the upcoming weeks. We already have the Spoopendyke index available for your listening pleasure, and you can download th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1117 Please note -- as a temporary fix for some technical problems, only the most recent 100 episodes will appear on this web page for a while. See solution to this conundrum below in RED. ***Meanwhile, we have put together a page full of links to every Spoopendyke and Stanley Huntley story we have ever done at http://ronevry.com/Spoopendyke_Stories.html *Also, the George Ade and Fortunate Island indexes do still work. We will hold off on posting new episodes after this for just a whil ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1116 George W. Peck's 1883 sequel to 'Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa' was called 'The Grocery Man and Peck's Bad Boy.' In this book, the Bad Boy is a bit older -- probably a teenager, but still full of nasty (but hilarious) tricks. Today, we feature one of the Bad Boy's most notorious tricks -- 'The Variegated Dogs.' Time: approx eight and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1115 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Eleven of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- this chapter is called 'The Yankee in Search of Adventures,' where the boss gets an earful from a talkative maiden and sets off on a journey. Time: approx eighteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1114 SUNDAY SALAD still has a Spoopendyke story or two left to tell, before we run out completely! Today's is called 'Crabbing as a Fine Art' from 1882. Also a truly funny newspaper office story by Stanley Huntley from 1883, entitled 'Helping a Friend' is on tap. Time: approx thirteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1113 Ever have a really terrible toothache? Mr. Bowser demonstrates how to ignore the jumping pain in 'Bowser's Will-Force' by C. B. Lewis, from 1920. Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1112 From 1883, a really explosive episode -- 'Peck's Bad Boy's Fourth of July.' Time: approx six minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1111 The kid plays a particularly nasty joke on his old man in "Peck's Bad Boy's Ma Comes Home' from George W. Peck's 1883 book 'Peck's Bad Boy and his Pa.' Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1110 Here comes another hilariously nasty story from George W. Peck's 1883 book 'Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa.' The boy really gets after his old man to 'try his faith' in 'His Pa Got Religion.' Time: approx eight and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1109 As often as we've read George W. Peck's stories, we have rarely featured his most famous creation, 'Peck's Bad Boy.' We will be rectifying that this week with stories from the 1883 book 'Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa.' Today's bit of mirthful nastiness is called 'Peck's Bad Boy in Love' Time: approx eight and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1108 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Ten of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- this chapter is called 'Beginnings of Civilization,' where the boss sets to work bringing nineteenth century technology to the sixth. Time: approx eleven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1107 SUNDAY SALAD SURPRISE! We have discovered two or three so far unread SPOOPENDYKE stories! No doubt we will really run out of them soon. But in the meantime, we offer a very short Stanley Huntley story about a woman placing an obituary advertisement called 'One Item of Expense,' then Mr. Spoopendyke dishes out the grisly details about dueling to his wife in 'The Code Fully Explained.' Both stories are from 1882. Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1106 Our favorite crank has a 'happy evening at home' in C. B. Lewis's 1908 story, 'Bowser Has Grouch.' Time: approx ten minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We are covering some utterly fascinating topics in the Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Be sure to check out our collection of incredible resources for Public Domain research! Dig through and read about how we solved a 150 year old mystery, and offer fascinating insights on the authors we read. Do chec ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1105 We are presenting some really, really early stories by Stephen Leacock, that originally appeared in Truth Magazine in the 1890s. They're brilliantly funny. Ever have trouble telling the difference between a bicycle and a horse? We all do. So here is an instructive piece from 1895 called 'Reflections on Riding.' Time: approx six minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1104 We are presenting some really, really early stories by Stephen Leacock, that originally appeared in Truth Magazine in the 1890s. They're brilliantly funny. Do you get impatient with people doing card tricks? Here's some tips for you in the 1895 story, 'A Model Dialogue.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1103 We are presenting some really, really early stories by Stephen Leacock, that originally appeared in Truth Magazine in the 1890s. They're brilliantly funny. Here's a truly sad and hilarious story from 1896 about someone who simply couldn't walk out on anyone -- 'The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones.' Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1102 We are presenting some really, really early stories by Stephen Leacock, that originally appeared in Truth Magazine in the 1890s. They're brilliantly funny. Today's tale in circular logic is called 'On the Old Homestead.' It was also published with the title 'Uncle Oatcake Explains.' Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1101 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Nine of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- this chapter is called 'The Tournament,' where we find out what knights do for entertainment. Time: approx fourteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1100 SUNDAY SALAD, sadly, presents what may be our final Spoopendyke story -- an 1880 tale of the infamous 'Morey Letter' that almost cost James Garfield the Presidential Election -- 'Not Altogether Satisfactory.' We also include another story about the letter by Stanley Huntley from the same edition of the newspaper -- it's called 'A Business Proposition.' If any of our listeners know of any Spoopendyke stories we have missed, please drop us a line! Time: approx thirteen minutes Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1099 In last week's Mr. Bowser episode, our favorite old crank went on a boat excursion with the 'Gay Old Boys Club' -- today we learn about his investiture in that organization in 'Initiation of Bowser' from 1907. Time: approx ten and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1098 We're presenting some extremely short but fun recipes (of a sort) from the 1922 collection 'The Stag Cook Book -- Written for Men by Men.' We wrap up with a couple of recipes from Booth Tarkington (whom we have yet to feature in the Basement, but will eventually) -- the first is called 'Corn Flakes.' Time: approx three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1097 We're presenting some extremely short but fun recipes (of a sort) from the 1922 collection 'The Stag Cook Book -- Written for Men by Men.' Today's tasty dish comes to us from the witty pen of George Ade -- as we learn some secrets of 'Scolloped Oysters.' Time: approx three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1096 We're presenting some extremely short but fun recipes (of a sort) from the 1922 collection 'The Stag Cook Book -- Written for Men by Men.' Today's recipe by cartoonist Rube Goldberg is pretty funny -- please don't try this at home -- 'Hash.' Time: approx three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1095 We're presenting some extremely short but fun recipes (of a sort) from the 1922 collection 'The Stag Cook Book -- Written for Men by Men.' Today we feature a recipe by Ellis Parker Butler called 'Bouillabaise Joe Tilden.' Time: approx two and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1094 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Eight of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- this chapter is called 'The Boss,' where we learn exactly why our hero chooses that title over any other rank. Time: approx fourteen and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1093 SUNDAY SALAD offers some fun Stanley Huntley pieces today -- First, an accused drunkard literally takes over a courtroom in 'Wanted to Help the Judge' from 1880. Then from the 1883 book, 'The Spoopendyke Papers,' comes the Preface of that book and the only Spoopendyke story in it that we haven't presented yet -- it's called 'The News of the Day.' Time: approx twelve and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1092 Here's a later Mr. Bowser story, written by C. B. Lewis back in 1910 -- Bowser takes a boat excursion with a club called 'The Gay Old Boys' and drinks his fill of (ahem) ginger ale in 'Bowser's Day Off.' Time: approx ten and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1091 In 1921, The Authors' League of America published of book of 'the Personal Confessions of Well-known American Authors as to their Literary Beginnings' entitled 'My Maiden Effort.' Some of these included authors have been featured at times in the Basement, and we are reading their contributions to the collection this week. Irvin S. Cobb explains how he achieved his first success as a fiction writer due to a bet, and as a bonus, we include his 'recipe' for 'Hog Jowl and Turnip Greens' f ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1090 In 1921, The Authors' League of America published of book of 'the Personal Confessions of Well-known American Authors as to their Literary Beginnings' entitled 'My Maiden Effort.' Some of these included authors have been featured at times in the Basement, and we are reading their contributions to the collection this week. Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon has been a favorite of Mister Ron's for a long time. Here we include one of her earliest published efforts, from McClure's Magazine of D ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1089 In 1921, The Authors' League of America published of book of 'the Personal Confessions of Well-known American Authors as to their Literary Beginnings' entitled 'My Maiden Effort.' Some of these included authors have been featured at times in the Basement, and we are reading their contributions to the collection this week. Today we discover George Ade's earliest published work from 1881, called 'A Basket of Potatoes.' Time: approx seven and a half minutes Please scroll down to th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1088 In 1921, The Authors' League of America published of book of 'the Personal Confessions of Well-known American Authors as to their Literary Beginnings' entitled 'My Maiden Effort.' Some of these included authors have been featured at times in the Basement, and we will be reading their contributions to the collection this week. Today we offer Ellis Parker Butler's piece, and as a bonus, we also read that Maiden Effort, an 1896 story called 'My Cyclone-Proof House.' Time: approx ten m ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1087 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Seven of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- this chapter is called 'Merlin's Tower,' where things go Boom! Time: approx fourteen and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1086 SUNDAY SALAD has TWO Stanley Huntley stories today -- first an early Salad story from 1879, where a down-on-his-luck fellow is 'Looking for Work' and then an incredibly rare and funny Spoopendyke story from an 1885 edition of Drake's Traveller's Magazine called 'Spoopendyke's Pie.' Once again, we are quickly running out of Spoopendyke stories. Suggestions are welcome for future Sunday episodes when they are all gone. Please write, or post on the blog. Time: approx fifteen minutes ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1085 From 1887, we offer what might be one of the earliest of C. B. Lewis's Mr. Bowser stories to deal with the old grouch's reaction to illness. We call it 'Taking Care of Bowser.' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1084 We wrap up our second week of stories from Bill Nye's 1884 book, 'Forty Liars and Other Lies,' with the title story, 'The Forty Liars.' There are all kinds of inside jokes that most modern listeners won't get, but it is ultimately quite funny anyway. Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1083 Bill Nye sends his regards to a fellow newspaper editor in 'Our Compliments' from 1884. Short, but sweet. Time: approx two and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1082 Bill Nye takes a westerner's view of an old legend in 'The True Tale of William Tell' from 1884. Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1081 We can't resist, so here comes another week of wild western stories from Bill Nye's 1884 book, 'Forty Liars and Other Lies.' Today we offer a tragic cautionary tale of the fate of a true desperado, 'The Death of Big Nose George.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1080 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Six of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- this chapter is called 'The Eclipse,' in which our hero performs a miracle... Time: approx fourteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1079 SUNDAY SALAD features a pair of weather-related stories by Stanley Huntley -- first, a grizzled old-timer explains why he is freezing during a Brooklyn heat wave in 'Warm Weather' from 1883, and we learn how predictions are made in 'The Spoopendykes on Weather Forecasts' (date unknown). Time: approx eleven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1078 Mr. Bowser demonstrates his unique Fatherly Skills in 'Bowser Brings Up Baby' from 1887. Time: approx seven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1077 Bill Nye's 1884 collection 'Forty Liars and Other Lies' is full of wild and wooly western humor -- Today's may be the wildest and wooliest story ever written -- it's called 'They Let Him Stay.' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1076 Bill Nye's 1884 collection 'Forty Liars and Other Lies' is full of wild and wooly western humor -- today we hear about a boy that grew up putting his best foot forward in 'Strive to Excel.' Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1075 Bill Nye's 1884 collection 'Forty Liars and Other Lies' is full of wild and wooly western humor -- today's short tale concerns a young lad who decides to get a drink of water in a rude way in 'The Eccentric Squirt.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1074 Bill Nye's 1884 collection 'Forty Liars and Other Lies' is full of wild and wooly western humor -- today we get the point of view of the very first pick of the season in 'Soliloquy of the Watermelon.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1073 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Five of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- this chapter is called 'An Inspiration' -- in which our hero gets the goods on Merlin. Time: approx twelve minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1072 SUNDAY SALAD presents two possible 1885 Stanley Huntley pieces from Drake's Traveller's Magazine -- 'A Discouraged Journalist and 'Kill or Cure.' Finally, Mr. Spoopendyke prepares for an off-season duck hunt in 'A Hunting Excursion' from 1883. Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We are covering some utterly fascinating topics in the Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Just added to the blog is a collection of incredible resources for ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1071 Here's another Mr. Bowser story from the first few months of the character's existence. By this time, author C. B. Lewis had pretty much gotten old Bowser down pat, and his characteristics would amuse readers for almost forty years afterward. From 1887 comes 'A Picnic.' Time: approx seven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1070 'Sketches from Texas Siftings' from 1882, by Alexander E. Sweet and John Armoy, is wrapping up for its second week with a tale of how the bigger out-of-town newspapers get the scoop on local ones in 'A News Factory.' Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1069 'Sketches from Texas Siftings' from 1882, by Alexander E. Sweet and John Armoy, is back again this week. Today we get the straight scoop on the unique weather in the Lone Star State in 'The Texas Climate.' Time: approx six minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We are covering some utterly fascinating topics in the Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Just added to the blog is a collection of incredible resources for Public Domain research! Recently, we so ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1068 'Sketches from Texas Siftings' from 1882, by Alexander E. Sweet and John Armoy, is back again this week. Today we learn the secret of acquiring a train ticket for almost nothing in 'A Foiled Book Agent.' Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1067 'Sketches from Texas Siftings' from 1882, by Alexander E. Sweet and John Armoy, is back again this week. Today's piece describes 'That Typical Texan' and why you won't actually find him anywhere in Texas... Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1066 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Four of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- this chapter is called 'Sir Dinadan the Humorist' -- where our hero is subjected to some truly dated, perhaps petrified humor, along with a death sentence! Time: approx eight and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Also, if you've been thinking of starting your own podcast, do check out http://slapcast.com -- they make podcasting a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1065 SUNDAY SALAD features TWO Stanley Huntley stories this week -- the generation gap in politics is hammered out in the 1882 piece, 'Convincing the Governor' and a complicated issue is made even more puzzling in 'Mrs. Spoopendyke on the Tariff' from 1884. We are definitely running out of Spoopendyke stories, but there's lots more Stanley Huntley humor available. Are you interested in continuing Sunday Salad without the Spoopendykes, or should we move on to something else? Please drop us a l ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1064 From 1887, we feature a Letter to the Editor of the Detroit Free Press complaining about Mrs. Bowser, and a fun tale we call 'Mr. Bowser Fixes Up the House.' Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We are covering some utterly fascinating topics in the Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Just added to the blog is a collection of incredible resources for Public Domain research! Recently, we solved a 150 year old mystery and ra ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1063 Ever wonder how newspapers made money back in the old west? Get a taste in the 1882 tale, 'He Wanted A Notice' from 'Sketches from Texas Siftings' by Alexander E. Sweet and John Armoy Knox. Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement # #1062 Another short but funny piece from 'Sketches from Texas Siftings' by Alexander E. Sweet and John Armoy Knox, published in 1882, reveals what brings folks to the Lone Star State in 'Why He Came to Texas.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1061 Here's a great story from 'Sketches from Texas Siftings' by Alexander E. Sweet and John Armoy Knox, published in 1882 -- It's called 'The Texas Desperado.' Time: approx six and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... W. H. Caskie We are covering some utterly fascinating topics in the Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Just added to the blog is a collection of incredible resources for Public Domain research! Recently, we solved a 150 year old mys ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1060 TEXAS SIFTINGS was an enormously popular weekly newspaper created by Alexander E. Sweet and John Armoy Knox in 1881. In 1882, they published a book collecting some their best material, which we will be reading from starting this week. Today we feature the book's Preface and a look at the man who runs the trains -- 'The Conductor.' Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... W. H. Caskie Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1059 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Three of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- this chapter is called 'Knights of the Table Round' where our hero gets to hear the knights and Merlin the Magician spreading tall tales from 'the exaggeration mill.' Mister Ron's voice seems to have returned to him, at least enough to start reading stories again! Time: approx fifteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1058 SUNDAY SALAD features another rare Spoopendyke story by Stanley Huntley that originally appeared in Drake's Traveller's Magazine in 1883. It's called 'Hunt for a Nocturnal Garment in a Sleeper' and is pretty funny. However, be warned -- Mister Ron has almost completely lost his voice from a nasty virus, and this is pretty difficult to listen to. Sorry. We will probably have to take a few days off until the frog leaves Mister Ron's throat... Time: approx eight and a half minutes Pl ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1057 From 1886, we hear, perhaps for the first time, a theme that C. B. Lewis used quite often in Mr. Bowser stories over the next 38 years. Lacking a title for this story, we'll call it 'Colonel Bowser.' Time: approx seven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1056 We're wrapping up a second week in a row of double-barreled Bill Nye stories! Nye explores the science of telling one's fortune via the bumps in the head in 'Bill Nye on Phrenology' from 1884. 'Table Etiquette' from 1881 explains the proper manners one should have at a dinner in the inimitable Bill Nye manner. Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1055 We're back with a second week in a row of Bill Nye stories, and we'll be presenting two each day! Bill Nye often made fun of his extremely bald head. Here's a couple of hilarious pieces dealing with his lack of fuzziness -- 'The Science of Baldness' from 1886 and 'The Stage Bald-Head' from 1882. Time: approx ten minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1054 We're back with a second week in a row of Bill Nye stories, and we'll be presenting two each day! Today we explore the stuff you put in your mouth -- food! -- with two stories from 1888 -- 'Health Food' and 'Joking and Eating.' Note -- this episode and the last few offered way too many exploding consonants due to technical difficulties -- bear with us and this problem will be solved! Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this s ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1053 We're back with a second week in a row of Bill Nye stories, and we'll be presenting two each day! First, from 1888, we offer Nye's commentary on Washington, DC, 'Bill Nye on the Washington Fly' then we examine the terrible combination of flies and bald-headed men in 'The Fly' from 1881. Time: approx six minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1052 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter Two of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' from 1889 -- this chapter is actually called 'King Arthur's Court' -- and in it, our hero comes to the realization that he is not in a lunatic asylum, but actually thirteen hundred years in the past! Time: approx thirteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1051 SUNDAY SALAD features THREE Stanley Huntley stories concerning shaving today -- first, an early effort from 1879 reveals 'Why Barbers Are Talkative.' Then, from 1881, a terrified customer at a barber shop gets 'A Shave.' Finally, Mr. Spoopendyke is thrown into a tizzy as he gouges his face while shaving in 'A Desperate Situation' from 1882. Time: approx ten minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1050 Mr. Bowser makes sure everyone around him gets his own brand of medical treatment -- whether they need it or not! -- in C. B. Lewis's 1886 tale, 'Dr. Bowser.' Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1049 We have dug up some fascinating and funny short newspaper stories by Edgar Wilson Nye, whom we all know better as Bill Nye, the 19th Century Guy! Bill Nye digs up a significant historical document, that reads more like one of George Ade's Turn-Of-Of-The-Century Fables in Slang, but honest-to-gosh, was written in 1881. It's called 'A Relic of Pocahontas.' Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1048 We have dug up some fascinating and funny short newspaper stories by Edgar Wilson Nye, whom we all know better as Bill Nye, the 19th Century Guy! Today we get a 19th Century lesson on birds, and singing, and bugs, and other stuff in 'Discoveries in Ornithology' from 1880. Time: approx six minutes Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1047 We have dug up some fascinating and funny short newspaper stories by Edgar Wilson Nye, whom we all know better as Bill Nye, the 19th Century Guy! From 1884, Nye gives a scientific-ish analysis of the mental process called 'The Thinkist and His Think.' Time: approx six minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1046 We have dug up some fascinating and funny short newspaper stories by Edgar Wilson Nye, whom we all know better asBill Nye,the 19th Century Guy!Today we feature TWO Nye pieces -- first we hear all about theinformation agein the 1884 tale,'Gen. Sheridan's Horse.'Then we get some terrific suggestions for putting one's life in order in the 1881 piece,'Advice to Young Men.'Time: approx seven minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...We are covering some utterly fascinat ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1045 For Mark Twain Monday, we present Chapter One of'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'from 1889 -- yes, there is an episodebeforethis one, so go back and get it -- This one is called'Camelot.'Time: approx six and a half minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1044 SUNDAY SALAD offers THREE funny Stanley Huntley stories today! First, a wild westerner visits a Brooklyn Bar looking for a taste of the real stuff in'Couldn't Feel at Home'from 1881. Next,another,evenwilderwesterner visits a different Brooklyn Bar andgetsa taste of the real stuff in'A Mistake Somewhere'from 1883, and finally, Mr. Spoopendyke tries on a pair of gloves to wear at a funeral in an 1884 tale, probably from Drake's Traveller's Magazine called'Rather Small for Him.'Time: approx se ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1043 'Mr. Bowser Raises Chickens'from 1886, by C. B. Lewis. What more needs to be said?Time: approx eight minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1042 Presenting the concluding fifth part of an 1880spoofof Jules Verne's 19th Century Science Fiction stories from Stanley Huntley, written as Verne was at the height of his career. It was serialized for three weeks in the Brooklyn Eagle.Perhaps the funniest part of this story, our heroes are stranded on a melting iceberg in the tropics, in'Book Five -- The Deliverance, by Jules Verne, Jr.'Time: approx eight minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1041 Presenting the third and fourth parts of an 1880spoofof Jules Verne's 19th Century Science Fiction stories from Stanley Huntley, written as Verne was at the height of his career. It was serialized for three weeks in the Brooklyn Eagle.The four travelers on ice manage to acquire food, housing, and deal with wild creatures in'Book Three -- How to Sustain Life'and'Book Four -- An Invasion, by Jules Verne, Jr.'Time: approx nine and a half minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1040 Presenting the second part of an 1880spoofof Jules Verne's 19th Century Science Fiction stories from Stanley Huntley, written as Verne was at the height of his career. It was serialized for three weeks in the Brooklyn Eagle.Today, the four adventurers reach the Pole and must deal with the six-month long darkness in'A Trip to the South Pole; Book Two -- The Pole'by'Jules Verne, Jr.'Time: approx five and a half minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1039 Presenting an 1880 spoof of Jules Verne's 19th Century Science Fiction stories from Stanley Huntley, written as Verne was at the height of his career. It was serialized for three weeks in the Brooklyn Eagle. We will offer it over the course of four Episodes. Here then, is 'A Trip to the South Pole; Book One' by 'Jules Verne, Jr.' Time: approx seven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We are covering some utterly fascinating topics in ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1038 Today we begin a NEW Monday Book Serialization with a true classic -- Mark Twain's 1889 novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.' We start with the 'Preface' and 'A Word of Explanation.' This is a long book -- expect it to take about a year reading a chapter every week. So take your time and enjoy! Time: approx seventeen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1037 SUNDAY SALAD has us laying our cards on the table with TWO Stanley Huntley stories from 1883 -- first a champion poker player from Dakota fleeces a pale and innocent Brooklyn man in 'Another Ranger' then 'The Spoopendykes Play Poker' in a rare funny tale from Drake's Traveller's Magazine. Time: approx eleven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We are covering some utterly fascinating topics in the Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Recently, we featur ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1036 Mr. Bowser displays his stubborn brand of idiocy in a theme that would be repeated quite a few times by author C. B. Lewis (writing as M. Quad) over the next 38 years. Bowser shows his wife that 'business is business,' even when buying ladies wear in a story we call 'Making A Dress' from 1886. This was the third Mr. Bowser story ever published. Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1035 Just for the fun of it, we're presenting a Max Adeler story from 1873 that has nothing to do with his feud with Mark Twain, but is a nifty little tale of a liar, in the spirit of the Abner Byng stories. It's called 'The Persecution of Jones' and originally appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1034 The two Abner Byng stories we read in the last two episodes may have been warm-ups for today's tale, where Max Adeler attacks Mark Twain (who was known to use the pen name Carl Byng) as a phenomenal liar. Originally introduced in 'Beeton's Christmas Annual' in England back in 1878, it was finalized and included in Adeler's book 'Random Shots' in 1879. Here then, is 'The Adventures of Abner Byng; With Some Reflections Concerning Certain Moral Idiots.' Time: approx twenty-two minutes Pl ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1033 Today we offer another Max Adeler story about the world's greatest liar, by the name of Abner Byng. Adeler had engaged in a long feud with Mark Twain, who once used the pen name of 'Carl Byng.' Were these 'Byng' stories digs at Twain? Probably. Today we offer a story from 1879 called 'The Most Marvelous Shooting on Record.' We previously read this tale a few years ago in Episode #211, under another title, but it does take on new meaning knowing what we know of the Twain-Adeler feud. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1032 Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and Max Adeler (Charles Heber Clark) engaged in a long-running feud, with each accusing the other of plagiarism more than once. Oddly enough, the two of them attacked each other indirectly in print, using names and circumstances that would be recognized by their targets. In our first piece from 1870, Twain attacks Adeler in the Galaxy Magazine in 1870 without mentioning him by name in 'A Literary Old Offender in Court with Suspicious Property in His Possession ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1031 Our Monday book serialization features Hugh McHugh's 1901 title, 'John Henry.' This was the first book in what became an eminently successful series. Today we present the last chapter of the book, 'John Henry Plays Progressive Euchre.' Reuploaded with slight correction Next Monday we will begin serializing one of the greatest funny books of all time! Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1031 Our Monday book serialization features Hugh McHugh's 1901 title, 'John Henry.' This was the first book in what became an eminently successful series. Today we present the last chapter of the book, 'John Henry Plays Progressive Euchre.' Next Monday we will begin serializing one of the greatest funny books of all time! Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We are covering some utterly fascinating topics in the Mister Ron's Ba ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1030 SUNDAY SALAD gives you TWO Stanley Huntley stories today. In the first tale from 1882, a professor and a medium attempt to convince a farmer of their ability to contact the spirit world in 'A Doubter.' Then, in an 1881 story, we get to meet 'Mr. Spoopendyke's Dog.' Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1029 Two weeks after introducing the character, C. B. Lewis, writing as M. Quad, brought back Mr. Bowser, coming much closer to his eventual development. Today we present the second Bowser story from 1886, which we call 'The System.' Time: approx six and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1028 Meat or Meteors? From 1868, we present 'Brick Pomeroy's Account of the Great Meteoric Hail Storm.' Time: approx eleven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1027 Here's a list of, well, somewhat useful tips for having safe fun on the ice by Brick Pomeroy from 1868, called 'Hints to Skaters.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1026 Here's a very short, and extremely funny 1870 piece by Brick Pomeroy about the strange customs of Chicago called 'Speaking of Divorces.' Time: approx four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1025 Marcus Mills ('Brick') Pomeroy wrote some truly wacky stories when he set his mind to it. From 1869, we hear about a fabulous invention, the 'Wonderful Hair-Reproducer.' Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1024 Our Monday book serialization features Hugh McHugh's 1901 title, 'John Henry.' This was the first book in what became an eminently successful series. Our hero's actor friend wants to be in a play in a bad way -- and that's exactly how he would play it. John secures his friend a nine-act play for eighty cents in 'John Henry on Would-Be Actors.' Time: approx six and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We are covering some utterly fasci ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1023 SUNDAY SALAD brings you TWO funny Stanley Huntley stories from 1882 today. First we offer another episode of the 'Eagle Sunday School Library' featuring Susie Snydersklop, the devoted daughter of a missionary to the cannibals, and the Spoopendykes attempt to raise chickens in 'Building A Hen Coop.' Time: approx ten and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1022 Celebrating THREE YEARS of Mister Ron's Basement with a unique and significant find! From 1886, comes the very FIRST Mr. Bowser story, by C. B. Lewis ("M. Quad"), 'Election Day and Night.' We'll be focusing on the earliest Bowser stories in the upcoming weeks, and see how the character developed into the familiar old crank we have grown to laugh at and love... Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1021 Concluding Women's History Month with the second half of a two-part story by Rose Terry Cooke from 1881, about a woman who seemingly loves animals more than people and is stuck with a French dancing-master in her home, called 'Miss Lucinda' (Part Two of Two). Time: approx thirty-three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1020 Celebrating Women's History Month with another week's worth of stories by 19th Century women authors. Today's story is a bit lengthy, so we have split it into two parts. Rose Terry Cooke tells a charming tale of a woman who seems to love animals more than people in 'Miss Lucinda' (Part One of Two) from 1881. Time: approx thirty-eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1019 Celebrating Women's History Month with another week's worth of stories by 19th Century women authors. Today we offer what can only be described as an (ahem) odd piece from 1864 by Katherine Kent Child Walker called 'The Total Depravity of Inanimate Things.' Time: approx twelve and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1018 Celebrating Women's History Month with another week's worth of stories by 19th Century women authors. Today we hear about a peddler and some worn out apparel in 'The Colonel's Clothes' by Caroline Howard Gilman from 1867. Time: approx twelve minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We are covering some utterly fascinating topics in the Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Do check it out and post your comments about the Basement. We intend to make it a discu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1017 Our Monday book serialization features Hugh McHugh's 1901 title, 'John Henry.' This was the first book in what became an eminently successful series. Some of the humor in today's chapter may shoot past most people, but there still are some good laughs in 'John Henry Plays Pool.' Time: approx five and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1016 SUNDAY SALAD features TWO Stanley Huntley stories especially for Easter. First, we hear a tale of a Pastor engaged in a crucial card game with an errant Deacon in 'A New Element in Poker' from 1881, and Mr. Spoopendyke vainly attempts to haul a dozen potted plants to church in 'Easter Decorations' from 1883. Time: approx twelve minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1015 Our favorite old crank becomes a benefactor to humanity by measuring the humidity in the sky in C. B. Lewis's 1899 story 'Mr. Bowser Making Experiments in Kites.' Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1014 March is Women's History Month! This week, we will be reading fun stories from 19th century women authors.Lurana W. Sheldon dropped out of medical school to become a successful writer and lecturer. Today's charming story,'Sam Stebbins'Courtship,'originally appeared in'Penny Magazine'in 1897.Time: approx ten minutesPlease scroll down to the'Listen'button to hear this story...We are covering some utterly fascinating topics in the Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Do check it out and post your comme ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1013 March is Women's History Month! This week, we will be reading fun stories from 19th century women authors. Harriet Beecher Stowe is, of course, most famous for writing 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' the best selling book of the 19th Century, which was so influential that when Abraham Lincoln met her, he remarked, 'So this is the little lady that started this war!' But for years before writing that, she was a popular author who wrote charming, light stories. One of her funniest came from her 184 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1012 March is Women's History Month! This week, we will be reading fun stories from 19th century women authors. Even as a young student, Fanny Fern displayed a flair for humor. Here's a piece from her school days (circa 1820s) called 'Suggestions on Arithmetic after Cramming for an Examination.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1011 March is Women's History Month! This week, we will be reading fun stories from 19th century women authors. Metta Victoria Victor was one of the most popular authors of her time, writing literally hundreds of dime novels under an assortment of male and female pen names. Today, we read a selection from her 1884 book, 'A Good Boy's Diary' called 'A Cat in the Dumb Waiter.' It's an amusing tale of a mischievous boy who gets into heaps of trouble! Time: approx sixteen minutes Please sc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1010 Our Monday book serialization features Hugh McHugh's 1901 title, 'John Henry.' This was the first book in what became an eminently successful series. Today, our hero takes a challenge from a literate friend and pounds out a novel in 'John Henry's Literature.' Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1009 SUNDAY SALAD presents TWO Stanley Huntley stories -- In the first one from 1880, two old codgers swap ferocious winter stories in 'Early Cold Snaps' and the second piece is a rarer than rare find -- an 1883 Spoopendyke tale that apparently first saw print in Bill Nye's Laramie (Wyoming) Boomerang, called 'Spoopendyke and the Fiddle.' Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Why is this Frederic Opper cover here? Listen and find out! ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1008 From 1900, 'Mr. Bowser Goes into Private Theatricals - and Out Again' by C. B. Lewis. Also, we have an intriguing announcement for Mr. Bowser fans! Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1007 Our final Max Adeler story for the week concerns a disguised cistern, a deathly case of mistaken identity, and a phony telegram in 'Mr. Toombs, the Undertaker' from the 1879 book 'Random Shots.' Time: approx sixteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A. B. Frost We are covering some utterly fascinating topics in the Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Do check it out and post your comments about the Basement. We intend to make it a discussion place ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1006 Max Adeler (George Heber Clark) was a master of building up a story -- his tales would start off somewhat amusing, then get funnier and funnier as they rolled along. 'Jerome Pinnickson's Mother-In-Law' from 1879 is a classic example of this, building to a jaw-dropping conclusion that will leave you in stitches. Time: approx twenty-four and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A. B. Frost Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1005 Max Adeler had a sharp insight into the hilarity that ensued among the living when dealing with the death of a loved one, or two, or three, as we see in 'Mr. Fisher's Bereavement' from 'Random Shots,' published in 1879. Time: approx fourteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... A. B. Frost Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1004 Max Adeler's 1879 book 'Random Shots' offered some of the funniest stories ever written. Here's a delightful tale that starts off silly and builds to extreme hilarity . It's called 'How Jack Forbes Was Avenged.' Time: approx twenty-nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... This beautifully drawn funny picture by A. B. Frost is even funnier after you've heard the story! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1003 Our Monday book serialization features Hugh McHugh's 1901 title, 'John Henry.' This was the first book in what became an eminently successful series. In today's chapter, our hero brings the Love of His Life to a high-class beanery in 'John Henry on Butting In.' Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We are covering some utterly fascinating topics in the Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Do check it out and post your comments about the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1002 SUNDAY SALAD presents two extremely funny Stanley Huntley stories -- first, a Brooklyn policeman sorts out an argument on a snowy street in 'As to the Right of Way' from 1881. Next we offer one of Mister Ron's favorite Huntley pieces, 'Spoopendyke at the Falls' which originally appeared in Drake's Travellers' Magazine in 1884. Time: approx fifteen minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1001 Mr. Bowser tells some extremely tall tales, to the consternation of Mrs. Bowser in C. B. Lewis's 1915 story, 'Why Bowser Exaggerates' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1000 (Part Three) EPISODE #1000 -- 'The Stanley Huntley Story' is so BIG that we have to present it in THREE PARTS! Today, we offer Part Three, featuring a detailed look at Huntley's humorous writing for the Brooklyn Eagle, the invention of 'Spoopendyke' and a array of funny stories. We also are presenting Huntley's 1880 Brooklyn Eagle interview with Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, a truly fascinating newspaper piece. The episode wraps up with a look at Florence Huntley's life and writing after Stanley's dea ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1000 (Part Two) EPISODE #1000 -- 'The Stanley Huntley Story' is so BIG that we have to present it in THREE PARTS! Today we present Part Two, Stanley Huntley's legendary 1879 interview with Sitting Bull in the Canadian wilderness for the Chicago Tribune, and the fascinating aftermath. Part Three will concentrate on Huntley's brief tenure as the humorist for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, where he created the immortal Mr. and Mrs. Spoopendyke, and will also include the twists and turns of fate that sent hi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #1000 (Part One) EPISODE #1000 -- 'The Stanley Huntley Story' is so BIG that we have to present it in THREE PARTS! Today, we offer Part One -- concerning Huntley's early years as a remarkable reporter in New York, St. Louis, Washington, DC, and as the owner-editor of the Bismarck Tribune in 1878-79 -- the wildest newspaper ever published! Part Two will feature Huntley's legendary interview with Sitting Bull, and the aftermath, and Part Three will concentrate on his brief tenure as the humorist for the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #999 Our Monday book serialization features Hugh McHugh's 1901 title, 'John Henry.' This was the first book in what became an eminently successful series. In today's chapter, our hero is stuck being surrounded by chattering ladies in 'John Henry in a Street Car.' Time: approx seven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We have finally begun a Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Do check it out and post your comments about the Basement. We intend to make it a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #998 SUNDAY SALAD features TWO Stanley Huntley pieces -- first, in an 1883 story, a Montana man attempts 'Tapering Off' and in a story of which we have been unable to ascertain the original publication date, we offer 'Spoopendyke Contemplating His Last Moments.' Time: approx eleven minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #997 Our favorite old crank rounds up 'wavering' voters to avert the 'downfall of America' in C. B. Lewis's hilarious 1900 romp we call 'Mr. Bowser Saves the Country.' Time: approx ten minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #996 A last bit of sunny skies for the week, as this piece from George W. Peck's 1882 book 'Peck's Sunshine' warns of the catastrophe awaiting raw oyster eaters in 'A Trying Situation.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We have finally begun a Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Do check it out and post your comments about the Basement. We intend to make it a discussion place for folks who are interested in this sort of thing, and we will ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #995 The sun is shining here in the Basement! From George W. Peck's 1882 collection, 'Peck's Sunshine,' we get a lesson on 'The Uses of A Paper Bag.' Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #994 Peck's Sunshine is brightening our days again this week! From the 1882 book by George W. Peck, we present an inside look at the utter scandal regarding counterfeit meat in 'Spurious Tripe.' Time: approx three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #993 We're spreading a bit more of Peck's Sunshine again this week! From George W. Peck's 1882 collection, we offer a story concerning the kind of tasty treat that you can only get at a Railroad Station, in the tale, 'All About A Sandwich.' Time: approx six minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We have finally begun a Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Do check it out and post your comments about the Basement. We intend to make it a discussion place for fo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #992 Our newest Monday book serialization is Hugh McHugh's 1901 title, 'John Henry.' We've read from other McHugh books featuring the character before, but this time around we will be offering the entire first book in the series. In today's chapter, John Henry plunks down more than he can afford to take his sweetheart to a play in a language he can't understand in 'John Henry at the Theater.' Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this sto ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #991 SUNDAY SALAD features TWO great Stanley Huntley stories involving opening and shutting windows in railroad and street cars today -- first, a truly obnoxious woman drives a streetcar conductor nuts in 'An Uneasy Fare' from 1882. Then Mr. Spoopendyke tries to oblige his wife on board a railroad car in 'He Works at a Car Window', originally printed in the hard-to-find Drake's Traveller's Magazine in 1884. Time: approx nine minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this st ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #990 Mr. Bowser demonstrates his superior memory powers to Mrs. Bowser in 'Matching Memories' from 1895. Time: approx eight minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #989 We are featuring insanely funny short pieces by George W. Peck this week, all from his 1882 collection, 'Peck's Sunshine.' This extremely short story may be among the funniest we've ever presented. They sure don't write 'em like 'The Queerest Name' any more. Time: approx four minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #988 We are featuring ludicrously funny short pieces by George W. Peck this week, all from his 1882 collection, 'Peck's Sunshine.' Today's tale concerns a group of newspapermen anxious to help the police in a story called 'Police Searching Women.' Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We have finally begun a Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Do check it out and post your comments about the Basement. We intend to make it a discu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #987 We are featuring silly but funny short pieces by George W. Peck this week, all from his 1882 collection, 'Peck's Sunshine.' There are many wonderful places for travelers to stay while on a journey. 'An Iowa Hotel' is not one of them. Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We have finally begun a Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Do check it out and post your comments about the Basement. We intend to make it a discussion pl ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #986 We are featuring wonderfully funny short pieces by George W. Peck this week, all from his 1882 collection, 'Peck's Sunshine.' We get things rolling with a cautionary tale called 'A Female Knight of Pythias.' Time: approx two and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #985 Our Monday book serialization is George Ade's 1903 collection, 'In Babel -- Stories of Chicago.' The stories in this book range from the hysterically funny to the pathetically sad. Altogether, they paint a fascinating portrait of turn-of-the-last-century Chicago. Today we offer the very last chapter of the book -- a charming tale of a seventeen minute 'L' Train trip called 'When Father Meets Father.' Time: approx twelve and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #984 SUNDAY SALAD features TWO Stanley Huntley stories today -- in the first, an inventor attempts to get publicity for an invention that allows people to leap over tall buildings in a single bound in 'A Benefactor of his Race' from 1882, and Mr. Spoopendyke brings home a nifty contraption in 'Spoopendyke Buys A Printing Press.' Time: approx twelve and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We have finally begun a Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Do ch ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #983 Mr. Bowser spends a weekday off work, sitting in his yard and dealing with assorted nuisances who come by in 'Bowser's One Day,' written in 1903 by C. B. Lewis. Time: approx nine and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #982 M. Quad (C. B. Lewis) wrote a variety of humorous stories over his lengthy career. This week, we are featuring some of his short American Fables from the 1884 collection, 'Sawed-Off Sketches.' Today's fable is short but quite funny. It's called 'The Cat Died.' Time: approx three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We have finally begun a Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Do check it out and post your comments about the Basement. We intend to make i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #981 M. Quad (C. B. Lewis) wrote a variety of humorous stories over his lengthy career. This week, we are featuring some of his short American Fables from the 1884 collection, 'Sawed-Off Sketches.' A dying father bequeaths his sons appropriate legacies in 'The Wise Peasant.' Time: approx three and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #980 M. Quad (C. B. Lewis) wrote a variety of humorous stories over his lengthy career. This week, we are featuring some of his short American Fables from the 1884 collection, 'Sawed-Off Sketches.' Today we hear a new twist on an old legend in 'The Boy and the Wolf.' Time: approx two and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... We have finally begun a Mister Ron's Basement Blog. Do check it out and post your comments about the Basement. We inten ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #979 M. Quad (C. B. Lewis) wrote a variety of humorous stories over his lengthy career. This week, we are featuring some of his short American Fables from the 1884 collection, 'Sawed-Off Sketches.' Today, a fellow gets stuck in the mud and asks for help from Hercules in 'Didn't Care for the Gods.' Time: approx three minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #978 Our Monday book serialization is George Ade's 1903 collection, 'In Babel -- Stories of Chicago.' The stories in this book range from the hysterically funny to the pathetically sad. Altogether, they paint a fascinating portrait of turn-of-the-last-century Chicago. A shady hansom cab driver encounters a truly trusting babe in the woods at a train station in 'No Clarence.' Time: approx eleven and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #977 SUNDAY SALAD offers something special today! For Stanley Huntley's entire run at the Brooklyn Eagle in the 1880s, he produced a column of one or two liner short jokes called 'Folly Shots.' Some of these jokes featured regular characters -- the Marrowfat family -- and here we present a collection of them from 1881 to 1884. Additionally, we offer an hilarious story about a newfangled invention from 1883 -- 'Mr. Spoopendyke's Call by Telephone Upon a Business Friend.' Time: approx sixte ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #976 Here's a slightly different story by C. B. Lewis from 1915 -- 'Mr. Bowser Laughs.' Time: approx eleven minutes Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #975 We are wrapping up a week of stories about animals with an 1886 Fish Story by George W. Peck called 'A Plea for the Bullhead.' Time: approx eight minutes Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #974 January 31st is 'National Gorilla Suit Day,' and in celebration, we present our second annual Gorilla Suit story -- 'Mr. Columbus Coriander's Gorilla' by Noah Brooks (sometimes wrongly credited to Max Adeler) from 1869. This is a great story -- a true American Classic! Time: approx twenty-nine minutes Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #973 We continue with stories concerning Animals this week! O Henry tells a tale of a con man who takes up with a hog thief in 'The Ethics of Pig' from 1906. Time: approx twenty-one and a half minutes Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #972 Stories about Animals lurk in the Basement this week! Today we feature an 1868 tale about the nastiest canine ever in 'The Dog-Gondest Dog' by Marcus Mills ('Brick') Pomeroy. Time: approx ten and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE -- Our older episodes are BACK! To all the listeners who were unable to grab titles they wanted, please try again, and thanks so much for your patience! As Mister Ron's Basement approaches it ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #971 Our Monday book serialization is George Ade's 1903 collection, 'In Babel -- Stories of Chicago.' The stories in this book range from the hysterically funny to the pathetically sad. Altogether, they paint a fascinating portrait of turn-of-the-last-century Chicago. Today's tale deals with a bored sailor, tired of working on a grain steamer up and down the river in 'Opening of Navigation.' Time: approx ten minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLE ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #970 SUNDAY SALAD features an ANNOUNCEMENT about our special episode number ONE THOUSAND coming in about a month, and also two great Stanley Huntley stories -- first we have a tale of a failed politician with a plan in 'Broken Up' from 1882 and the Spoopendykes struggle with a train schedule in 'Studying the Time-Table' from 1883. Time: approx twelve and a half minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE -- Our older episodes are BACK! To all the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #969 Mr. Bowser comes up with a cure for a cholera epidemic -- not that anyone is looking for one -- in C. B. Lewis's 1904 story, 'Bowser's O.K. Remedy.' Time: approx ten minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE -- Our older episodes are BACK! To all the listeners who were unable to grab titles they wanted, please try again, and thanks so much for your patience! As Mister Ron's Basement approaches its One Thousandth episode, it might be w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #968 Our final Bill Nye story for the week taken from the rare 1885 edition of 'The St. Jacobs Oil Family Calendar and Book of Health and Humor,' involves a futile attempt to get some sleep while camping out -- it is called 'A November Picnic.' Time: approx five and a half minutes Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #967 In another extremely rare story from the 1885 edition of 'The St. Jacobs Oil Family Calendar and Book of Health and Humor,' Bill Nye points his devastatingly sharp pen on the traditional Fourth of July Barbeque. Fun stuff! Time: approx five minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE -- Our older episodes are BACK! To all the listeners who were unable to grab titles they wanted, please try again, and thanks so much for your patience! ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #966 Here comes another of the rare stories by Bill Nye from the 1885 edition of 'The St. Jacobs Oil Family Calendar and Book of Health and Humor.' From the month of May we offer a piece about a -- well -- a piece of pie, that maybe ought not be pie in the story 'The Rhubarb Pie.' A recipe is included! Time: approx six minutes Please scroll down to the 'Listen' button to hear this story... PLEASE NOTE -- Our older episodes are BACK! To all the listeners who were unable to grab titles ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mister Ron's Basement #965 This week we offer some truly scarce stories by Bill Nye from the 1885 edition of 'The St. Jacobs Oil Family Calendar and Book of Health and Humor.' From the March calendar page comes