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The AIH Transcript for April 27th, 2022

HELEN MANN: Hello, I'm Helen Mann.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Good evening, I'm Chris Howden. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

Prologue

CH: Tonight

HM: As the slogan goes, "it's in you to give". And for years, our guest gave his all in the fight to get Canadian Blood Services to accept donations from LGBTQ donors -- a fight advocates like him have finally won.

CH: Keep off the grass. With water reservoirs depleted and warmer weather coming, California institutes stricter-than-ever policies on outdoor water use -- including lawn maintenance -- for nearly six million residents in the state.

HM: Fuel to the fire. After Russia cuts off his country's gas supplies, Poland's undersecretary of state tells us it's time for the rest of Europe to end its dependency on a trade that's financing the war in Ukraine.

CH: Postage unpaid. In 1970, the heir to a family fortune promised 25 million dollars in giveaways to pretty much anyone who asked. But the tens of thousands of letters he received went largely unopened -- until now.

HM: Talk radio. A lecturer in Leeds, England tells us about her team's efforts to compile a new database of dialects -- which includes such gems as "bishy barnabee" and "flittermouse".

CH: And… selling like not cakes. A Michigan man is in a serious funk, after excitedly buying Red Hot Chili Peppers tickets -- only to discover he was going to see a tribute band called the Red Not Chili Peppers.

CH: As It Happens, the Thursday edition. Radio that knows, where that band is concerned, there's always a risk of losing your shirt.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Blood Donations, Poland Bulgaria Gas, Dialect Recordings

Blood Donations

Guest: Glenndl Miguel

CH: The statement from Canadian Blood Services only takes a couple of minutes to read. But it took a very long time for the new policy to become a reality. Today, the organization announced that Health Canada had approved its request to change its screening process for blood and plasma donors. Previously, men who have sex with men, and some other members of the LGBTQ community, were banned from donating for three months after being sexually active. But starting later this year, Canadian Blood Services will use new criteria that focus on any high-risk sexual behaviour by everyone -- regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Glenndl Miguel is a paramedic in Calgary. That's where we reached him.

HM: Glenndl, you Posted Canadian Blood Services announcement on your social media today and wrote, "We did it". How are you reacting to this news today?

GLENNDL MIGUEL: I'm feeling very allayed after seeing the news this morning. It was something that has been a long time coming and something that many of us in the community have been really hoping for to come to fruition a lot sooner rather than later.

HM: And you've been doing more than hoping. You've been working on a local advisory committee in Calgary on this issue. Do you feel that your work has contributed to today's change?

GM: I believe so. There's many of us from the local advisory group who have been a part of this project for a lot longer than our own participation in the group itself. And seeing the comments and the feedback that we have brought get understood and forwarded to Health Canada and actioned upon in this way is a really good feeling for many of us in there. But I've been a proponent for the changes in the blood donation policy for as long as I can remember since I've been able to donate when I turn 17 or 18.

HM: So, what will today's announcement mean for you when it is implemented later this year?

GM: The biggest means I'm taking away from this is that Health Canada and Clean Blood Services are finally recognizing us for the people who we are, rather than just the sexual identity that we go by.

HM: Canadian Blood Services says the new criteria will ask donors if they have had new or multiple sexual partners in the last three months. If they answer yes, they will be asked if they have had anal sex. And if they have, they'll then be required to wait three months to donate. What do you make of that?

GM: I believe that's an appropriate switch to the current questions that we have right now. These new questions that they have put forward are concerned about high-risk sexual behaviour rather than just sexual orientation. So, though they might not be perfect for everyone who wants to donate in the system, they are a lot more equitable to everyone involved. And the fact that these questions are being asked to everyone rather than just to men or to gay men specifically, I feel like that's a great step forward.

HM: For years, the current policy has been called discriminatory. Back as far as 2015, Justin Trudeau vowed to scrap it. What do you think of the fact that it has taken until 2022 for this to happen?

GM: There was a great deal of disappointment in many people that I have spoken to about this, in the fact that this was a political promise so many years ago, and it was never actioned upon. It had to take the work of people who are working inside and outside from the ground and within the organization to make the change rather than politicians. So, I take pride in the fact that this was a change that was initiated by people who wanted to make this happen as a political piece of commentary.

HM: What has it felt like to be singled out in this way and been denied the ability to help other people by donating blood?

GM: It's always been disappointing to be singled out in this way. And as a gay person, it's already a challenge for many people like myself to come out of the closet in our lives. And by having a stigma exist in a country which, for so many years, we've present ourselves as being ahead of the curve when it comes to gay and lesbian and trans rights. It's disappointing that we still have these limitations that exist in the system, never being kind of officially moved upon as the years progressed.

HM: What obstacles did you face? How difficult has it been to convince the people that had to make this decision that it is indeed safe for men who have sex with men to donate blood?

GM: The biggest challenge for me, in particular at a local advisory level, has been trying to get the ear of individuals who could make the change, who… who could do it. There are people who are involved with us who are able to… to action upon it. And we have individuals who are on our side within CBS and whatnot. But at the end of the day, the biggest challenge has always been the back and forth between Canadian Blood Services and Health Canada. Health Canada would say that they need CBS to submit an application, and CBS would respond with they need Health Canada for approval. And it took a step from one of those organizations to finally make a difference. And unfortunately, it took a long time. But at least we're here now.

HM: You have already been participating in a plasma donation pilot project in Calgary. How does it make you feel when you donate?

GM: It feels great. It feels great coming into the donation centre and being treated just like any other person there without any kind of pomp or circumstance or being singled out because I am gay. The staff there are very supportive. The staff there all wear symbols to show support, even if they don't verbally say it. And it creates a comfortable environment. So, with the positive experience I've had in Calgary, and I know some of the experiences that others have had in London, Ontario with it, I can only hope that this positive experience continues when across the country we're able to donate blood itself.

HM: Beyond the announcement today, changing the screening process, what work do you want to see done to address the harm and the hurt that so many people affected by this have faced?

GM: The biggest work that I'd like to get done is to see CBS be quite public about their recognition and understanding of the harm that was caused with these policies in the past. There have been many smaller groups amongst community members and with some CBS staff where this discussion has taken place. But we haven't seen a major release across the country to the world and even representation in terms of social media, of embracing people like myself, who are affected by this policy. Of course, this is not going to change it for everyone across the country. There are people who still won't donate, and that's understandable. But I just want to see a bigger move from CBS to acknowledge the past while moving ahead into the future of a new policy.

HM: We should point out that you are a paramedic. From that perspective, what does this announcement mean?

GM: I have a pretty firm understanding of the importance of blood, blood products, and plasma and plasma products across the health-care system. We constantly hear of our shortage of blood. We don't hear often about the incredible shortage of plasma. But knowing that even a single person, a new donor, can make a new difference. I think it's a great piece of news hearing this today that there may be more people who are able to make a difference in other people's lives.

HM: Well, it's great to talk to you today. Glenndl, thank you so much.

GM: Great. Thank you, Helen.

HM: Okay. Bye-bye.

GM: Bye-bye.

CH: That was paramedic Glenndl Miguel in Calgary.

[Music: Spanish guitar]

Poland Bulgaria Gas

Guest: Adam Guibourgé-Czetwertyński

CH: Vladimir Putin has begun closing the taps on Ukraine's European allies. Yesterday, the Russian energy giant Gazprom said that it would be cutting off natural gas to Bulgaria and Poland. It said the two countries had failed to comply with the Kremlin's demand that they pay their bills in rubles, which helps shield the Russian currency from sanction stress. But Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, said the move was "yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail". And that Poland and Bulgaria weren't the only targets. Adam Guibourgé-Czetwertyński is Poland's Undersecretary of State for the Environment. We reached him in Warsaw.

HM: Mr. Guibourgé-Czetwertyński, Ursula von der Leyen is accusing Russia of blackmail. How would you characterize Gazprom's decision to cut off your natural gas supplies?

ADAM GUIBOURGÉ-CZETWERTYŃSKI: Is it blackmail? Is it revenge for our stance helping Ukraine? I don't know. And I don't want to get into the mind of Russian decision-makers. I think if it is doing anything, this is just showing how right we are to support Ukraine in its fight, and how our support is being received in Moscow as a… as a challenge for the achievement of their… of their… of their goals. And which is just another encouragement to continue to strongly support Ukraine.

HM: I know you say you can't get into the minds of the Russian officials making these decisions, but your country has moved to end Russian imports within the year. Is it possible in your mind that this is retaliation for that?

AGC: It could be retaliation for that and for many other actions we are taking to end our dependency from Russia, to… to eliminate the possibility for Russia to use gas as a… as a weapon to achieve its political goals. And… and this will, in the long run, definitely limit the power Russia can exercise over Europe and over its neighbours in particular, and the threat it can represent for the continent. And… and certainly, Russia doesn't like the idea.

HM: What impact will ending these exports to Poland have on your country, your economy, and your people?

AGC: Well, it is a situation that we have been preparing for… for years already. We've been building and LNG terminal in Świnoujście, which we have increased in capacity earlier this year, just when the war started. We are actually working to increase this capacity further. We are building connections with our neighbours, with Ukraine next month, with Slovakia, in order to be better prepared for further disruptions. So, we are certainly in a much better position than many of our neighbours. We have our gas storage that is filled to unprecedented levels at this time of the year. And that's why I think we can go through this… this… this crisis safely, and we don't foresee the need for restrictions. We will be able to deliver gas to… to all Polish homes through the year.

HM: You speak of… of countries in the region that are much more dependent than you are on this Russian gas. And most notably, I guess, is Germany. The country that relies so much more heavily on Russian gas. The German energy giant Uniper said today that it is prepared to continue buying Russian natural gas and to pay for it in rubles, which is the demand made by Vladimir Putin. What do you say to that?

AGC: Well, I would only refer to what the commission has said. The commission has clearly said that paying in rubles would be breaching European sanctions. So, I think it would certainly have consequences for companies that would… that would decide to take this step.

HM: And what about Germany, for allowing this to happen?

AGC: Well, Germany is certainly in a much more difficult situation than we are in Poland. I know they are trying to… to work on alternative routes. And I understand this is… this is not an easy… an easy situation. Certainly, for them, they believe that having so much connections with Russia and through the Nord Stream would give them a reliable supply of gas. We've been warning against this… this fake safety that this pipeline was providing and pointing at the danger of becoming too dependent on Russia. And giving, actually, Russia the tools to manipulate the gas market and to deliberately limit deliveries to selected trade partners. And we see that this is what is happening now. So, I think Germany has come to realize that, and they are working now to find… to find new solutions to the current situation.

HM: If, as… as you suggest, and as Ursula von der Leyen has said, any company in Germany that would pay in rubles is effectively breaching sanctions. Is that perhaps what Vladimir Putin is trying to do here to create further divisions and rifts?

AGC: Well, this has been our reading of the Russian decree from the very beginning. We saw this decree as introducing many possibilities for Moscow to arbitrarily decide who is paying on the right account, the right amount, with so many steps and procedures to be able to selectively decide we will end deliveries to this company to that company, to this country or that country, and… and be able to… to divide Europe. And I think this is exactly the aim of Russia with this… this instrument. And that's why, as Europe, we should show unity and… and send a stronge, a strong common message in this… in this matter.

HM: There's the question of Russia breaching contracts by making this decision. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said yesterday that Russia remains a reliable business partner. What do you say to Mr. Peskov?

AGC: I… [chuckle] I'm not sure. Maybe that was irony from his side. I think everybody listening to such a statement and of the current situation is certainly very skeptical.

HM: All right. Well, I very much appreciate your time, Mr. Guibourgé-Czetwertyński. Thank you for talking to us.

AGC: Thank you very much for the discussion.

CH: Adam Guibourgé-Czetwertyński is Poland's Undersecretary of State for the Environment. He's in Warsaw.

[Music: Electronic]

Dialect Recordings

Guest: Fiona Douglas

[sc]

STEVE MARTIN: Let me give you a warning. If you're going over there, here's an example,

chapeau means hat. Ouf means egg. It's like those French have a different word for everything.

[Sound: Laughter]

[/sc]

CH: You know, Steve Martin is right. But the thing is, the English have different words for lots of things too -- depending on where they live. Or at least they used to, a few generations ago. Instead of simply being hungry, someone might be clammish, clemmed, leary, or clempt. Researchers gathered odd bits of dialect in the 1950s and '60s. And now, the University of Leeds has released recordings online for the public. Here's one now:

[sc]

MAN: When I started, I started with a milliground, you know? And I used to sell it on sale at first. And then I got started with a retail round. Well, I used to be pushed up at 4 every morning. I used to milk about 14 cows before I got me breakfast.

WOMAN: Hand-milked.

MAN: Hand-milked. It wasn’t machine-milking. And I used to have a little clock still could table you know. You know for me milk cows. And I used to say milk me that clock. If I was 5 minutes late [what even is this?]

[/sc]

CH: One of many audio recordings recently released by the University of Leeds. It might not be completely clear to modern ears -- especially to ears in Canada. But don't worry. Fiona Douglas is the head of the university's Dialect and Heritage Project. She’s in Leeds, England.

HM: Professor Douglas, who did we just hear speaking in that recording?

FIONA DOUGLAS: So that was Charles. And Charles was based in Stokesley, in Northeast Yorkshire, Charles Armstrong.

HM: And he was talking about milk. I got that, and how he would milk his cows. What local dialect was that?

FD: So, it's North East Yorkshire, and probably quite typical, I think, of its time and its location.

HM: What makes it so unique to his area?

FD: Well, there are some key things in the accents that are sort of typical of that area. So, if you listened really carefully, sometimes I find I have to play it back twice. You can hear that instead of saying “the”, the actually becomes “ta”. So a thing we call definite article reduction. So it was stuck on ta table. And he also drops his H's in wholesale and hand-milk. And the other thing that he does, he says he got me breakfast, not got my breakfast.

HM:I find it encouraging that you, even as a dialect expert, has to play it back to hear some of it. Because, you know, some of it gets buried for us.

FD: Yeah. And I think… I mean, that's one of the things that makes the collection that we have so, so interesting. I mean, there are just so many varied voices. Most of these recordings were done in the 1950s, and they were interviewing people who were at least 65. Some of them were in their 80s or 90s. And so, their language goes right back. You know, some of these people were born in the 1880s. And people who are from these locations, in a sense, they're able to listen to these recordings and perhaps hear how, you know, people like their grandparents or great grandparents, depending on how old you are, how they spoke.

HM: Yeah, for a lot of people, I guess it will bring back some pretty poignant memories of previous generations. What about your favourite bits of dialect that were unearthed as part of the project? What things stand out to you?

FD: There are some really lovely words for insects and animals. They just sound so fantastic. Let me share some of those. In East Anglia, there's a word for a ladybird, which is a bushy barnaby, which is quite nice. I like that one. We've also got bumble bee in the Southwest can be a dumbledore, so I don't know quite how that relates to Harry Potter. And perhaps one of my sort of biggest favourites. Are you allowed to have a biggest favourite?

HM: Yes! [chuckling]

FD: Is a word for a bat in the Southeast, which is a flitter mouse. And if you think about it, I mean, bats do look a bit like mice with wings, so.

HM: They do. And they do flitter.

FD: And they do flitter. So, it's a really evocative word. It takes you to places and to people and to stories that just give you this fantastic window on the past.

HM: Um-hmm. So what's your purpose in putting this out into the world?

FD: Well, I think it's really important that we put this stuff back into the communities that it came from, so that people have that chance to connect. But the other thing that we are doing through our website, so www.dialectandheritage.org.uk, we're giving people access to the recordings. There are also stories. There are some fantastic photographs that were taken at the time. But we're also asking people to share their dialect with us, their present day dialect with us. So we've got a mini dialect survey running. And one of the things that makes it so interesting is that, of course, we all move around the country much more nowadays than we did. And I suspect that we probably adopt some dialect words as we go. I'm a Scot, but living in Yorkshire now. And I know that I have adopted a few Yorkshire words since I came here. In Yorkshire, there’s a kind of an old-fashioned Yorkshire word “off Camden”. And an off Camden is basically what I am in Yorkshire. It's a newcomer. And so, I quite like that one because that describes kind of who I am.

HM: In Newfoundland, they call people… you’re come from away.

FD: Yeah, it's the same kind of thing, isn't it? And you know, in Scotland we have a word that's kind of similar meaning, but we tend to use it to apply to people in the far north of Scotland, and perhaps more from the countryside, a teuchter. So we all seem to have ways of talking about people from elsewhere. And that's one of the things that that dialect does, isn't it? You know, it gives you that strong sense of belonging. And in a sense, who's your tribe and who's not.

HM: What are you expecting to discover from the newest mini survey, as you call it?

FD: Well, I'm hoping that we will be able to make a bit of a comparison with dialect as it was back in the fifties, and dialect, as it is nowadays. We’ll be able to compare different dialects from around the country. Whether they… I don't know whether you have this in Canada? That'll be an interesting one. When you put the tea bag or the tea leaves in the water and put it in the teapot. What do you say that you're doing?

HM: Steeping.

FD: Steeping! That's really interesting. So steeping we have in some parts here, but we also have, brew, mash, mask, soak, scold, stew, wet, and droll. So, you know, there's one that's still productive.

HM: Some people here will say I'm wrong and they will say brew. But most of those other terms I doubt very many people here would use.

FD: Yes.

HM: What do you think you're going to find in terms of what has disappeared from dialect that was recorded back in the fifties and sixties? Because I wonder, given social media, mass media, there's so much interchange now. Do you think it's flattened out or are these things going to still exist as unique dialects?

FD: Well, I think you lose the words that you don't have a use for anymore. So, you know, some of the stuff we have in the collection relates to traditional farming practices. So I imagine, you know, some of those words to do with some of the implements probably have largely been lost. But I often ask my... my students what they call the thing that they change the channel with on the television. And I get lots of answers back, remote, which is probably what I would call it, zapper, differ, clicker, flicker, gizmo thingamajig, and various others.

HM: It's just fascinating. And I love words, so it's a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you so much.

FD: Thank you.

HM: Bye-bye.

FD: Bye-bye.

CH: Fiona Douglas is head of the Dialect and Heritage Project at the University of Leeds in England. Do you have any bits of dialect you'd like to share? Talkback is always listening -- 416-205-5687.

[Music: Showtune]

Red Not Chili Peppers

CH: Do you want to make a living paying tribute to the world's pre-eminent funk-rock band? Can you tolerate the sound of slap bass? Can your singer comfortable with lyrics like "Doo doo doo doo dingle zing a dong bone / Ba-di ba-da ba-zumba crunga cong gone bad"? Do you hate wearing a shirt? If the answer to all those questions is yes, you're ready to form a Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute band. There's just one last hurdle: the name. It has to say that you play Red Hot Chili Peppers songs, but you're not the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And it has to say that clearly -- or people will get mad at you. People like Aaron -- last name withheld. This month, he stumbled on what he thought would be the concert experience of a lifetime: a Red Hot Chili Peppers show at a small club in Ferndale, Michigan. He bought four tickets for less than 20 bucks each. But despite all those red flags, he didn't realize his mistake until he got the confirmation email. He wasn't going to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He was going to see the Red Not Chili Peppers. That's what the tribute band is called. Which is fairly clever. But Aaron thought it was unfairly clever. Now, he claimed he was "not tripping about it," but it's pretty clear he was, to some degree, tripping because he contacted the media. Anyway, he's not anymore: after the story blew up, a local radio station offered Aaron free tickets to the real Red Hot Chili Peppers show, in Detroit, in August. Now, I guess he was right to go public. Because if you've made a legitimate mistake, it's important to leave a Pepper trail.

[Music: Funk]

Part 2: California Water Restrictions, Millionaire Letters

California Water Restrictions

Guest: Demetri Polyzos

CH: It's that time of year again. People are tuning up their lawnmowers and preparing for that perennial battle for greenest lawn on the block. But in Southern California, they've already thrown in the towel. Green lawns are a wasteful luxury the state can no longer afford. This week, officials announced new water conservation measures, ordering millions of households to use outdoor water no more than once a week. The new rules are the harshest ever imposed as the Golden State tries to save its dwindling water supply after years of extreme drought. Demetri Polyzos is the resource planning manager for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. We reached him in Los Angeles.

HM: Dimitri, in your opinion, how bad is the water shortage in Southern California right now?

DEMETRI POLYZOS: Well, in portions of our service area, metropolitan service area, it's as bad as it's ever been. Our water supply and conditions have been challenged over the last few years with the ongoing drought and our unprecedented low allocations from our state water projects supplies. So we're in uncharted territories. It's, as we're describing it, a crises for portions of our service area.

HM: How has it come to this? I mean, you talk about the lack of rainfall. How did it get so bad?

DP: It's year after year of these unprecedented dry and hot conditions. We're just not seeing the runoff that we typically expect from the snowpack that we did receive the last few years. That's evident from the reduction in those runoff forecasts as the year progressed. The typical amount of runoff that we would expect to see just never materialized. So our water allocations from the state water project have dipped down to levels that have never been contemplated before, have never… have been planned before because of how low they've been. So, for example, the last year five per cent allocation that was followed by this current year, calendar year, with another five per cent allocation. So that's record low year after year water supplies. And that has taken its toll on our available storage supplies. We've been able to manage through the last few years with these low supplies that we're getting from the state. We've reached that point where we're facing the possibility of running out of supplies unless we take some drastic action and measures.

HM: So… so can you walk us through the measures, the specifics of these new restrictions? And who will they affect?

DP: Sure. So we are asking our member agencies in those areas that are affected to significantly reduce their water use. And we're targeting outdoor water use as we feel like as we go into the summer months, that is where you'll get the most bang for your buck. And so, we're asking folks to limit their outdoor watering to one day a week. That is one way for those agencies to comply. We have other options for agencies if they want to go by water volumetric limit limits. But at the end of the day, what we're looking for is a reduction in water use.

HM: Um-hmm.

DP: And a reduction in water need from those limited supplies that we have remaining. We want to stretch what we have as much as we can.

HM: And you're talking, as I understand it, of people reducing water usage by 35 per cent, is that right?

DP: Yeah, I believe that is where… what we're looking for. Thirty-five per cent will certainly help stretch out the supplies that we have and get us through this year. We're also thinking about next year. If we have a dry year, we're going to need to do as much as we can, as we have been doing leading up to this calendar year. But because things have continued to be dry, we need to do even more to get us through this year and also into a potential dry next year.

HM: The area you're talking about is… is highly populated. You're talking about Los Angeles itself. And given the scale of these new rules, how are they going to be enforced and tracked?

DP: Sure. Yeah, it is a large area. It is not the entire county of Los Angeles, but it does encompass roughly six, six and a half million people or so. And again, that's about a third of our… the population of our service area. We're leaving enforcement up to our member agencies. They know best what works for their water districts and their… their agencies that they supply water to. We are requiring that the agencies provide us a plan on how they're going to enforce it. And we're… and we will be tracking that and… and watching how performance is and how much the water is being reduced.

HM: What happens if the agencies don't comply or don't meet their goals?

DP: So there are penalties involved. We're trying to avoid going to penalties. Typically, what we've seen here in Southern California, people do step up. But if… if agencies do not comply, there are penalties.

HM: Like what? What kind of… what kind of penalties are we talking about?

DP: We will be putting a $2,000 per acre-foot penalty to an agency that is not in compliance.

HM: And is it up to the agencies to punish individuals or levy fines against individuals who may not be complying within those areas?

DP: Correct. It would be up to the agency to then translate that penalty that we provide to our member agency, to their then retail agency. And it would be left to them how they would penalize their water users.

HM: Right. Their individual users included, right, consumers?

DP: Correct.

HM: So, some people are saying, you know, if you look at the amount you're talking about, there's a lot of questions about whether watering lawns and gardens will actually make a difference. What do you say?

DP: Well, what we've seen that is the highest water usage right now is outdoor watering. So we believe we will see a significant reduction on the demand on Metropolitan if the one day a week is complied with. We… we are definitely going to be monitoring that. If we see… if we see that that is not working, the action that we recently took with our board, and our board approved, would allow the general manager to go to even more restrictive… to a zero-day. So a ban on outdoor water use altogether. We fully expect that one day will work. But as a safeguard, we will be tracking. And if we need to do something more severe, we will. We will… we will need to because we simply will run out of water otherwise.

HM: All right. Dimitri, thank you very much for… for telling us about it. Appreciate it.

DP: Absolutely.

HM: Okay. Bye-bye.

DP: Bye-bye.

Speaker 3: Tonight.

CH: Demetri Polyzos is the resource planning manager for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. He was in Los Angeles.

[Music: Ambient]

AB Whiskey For Sale

CH: A whiskey that was distilled when Winston Churchill was in power is now on sale in Calgary. And it costs about as much as a sports car. For $140,000, a bottle of "Gordon and MacPhail Generations 80-year-old" can be yours. And Andrew Ferguson is betting that at least two people in Calgary want it enough to cough up the cash. Mr. Ferguson is selling two of the 250 bottles available at his store, the Kensington Wine Market. And this week, he explained why you should take out a loan to buy one or both of those bottles.

[sc]

ANDREW FERGUSON: The thing is, that's not the most expensive bottle ever sold. I believe some bottles have gone at auction for very close to, if not over, a million dollars US. Well, and relatively speaking, this whiskey is older and probably more rare than those bottles were. There's a lot that goes into it. But ultimately, the market for single malts, and that's what this is. It's an 80-year-old single malt scotch. That market really only started to grow dramatically in the 2000s. And very few companies ever thought there'd be a market for 40, let alone 50 or even 80-year-old whiskeys. So, there's very few out there of that age. In fact, there's only been about a dozen whiskeys bottled above the 70-year mark ever. It's incredibly rare. And when it's done well, I mean, it can also be incredibly special. I think you're… you're paying for rarity and exclusivity. And ultimately, when you get into bottles like this... like, I'm a… I'm a single malt drinker. I love the whiskey. I collect as well on the side. This is definitely above my… my range. But there's people out there that are looking for things like this. And believe it or not, a high proportion of these will get opened and drank. Others will be collected much in the same way people collect artwork or cars. It's, you know, a very rare, precious commodity. And it's extremely limited. And relative to some of the other old whiskeys we've seen come out in the last few years, it's relatively good value. And I'm lucky. I've had the chance to try this. I had the chance to try a sister bottling of it about a decade ago. And you get these incredibly delicate, layered tropical fruit tones, oak tones, chocolate. You know, you can get great whiskeys that have profiles similar to that at a fraction of the price. But when you get to things like this, you can just smell it's old the second it hits the glass. You can… you can smell and taste its antiquity. And they are incredibly special. They're… they're things that relatively few people will have a chance to try. But when they try them, they're… if they're good, as this one is, they can be, you know, incredible.

[/sc]

CH: That was Andrew Ferguson, owner of the Kensington Wine Market in Calgary, speaking to our colleague David Gray.

[Music: Mafia music?]

Millionaire Letters

Guest: Melissa Robyn Glassman

CH: These days, it's not that common to get a letter. And it's exceptionally rare to get 30,000 letters. That is the size of the collection Columbia University has just received. Those 30,000 letters were sent to Michael Brody Jr. in January 1970, after the 21-year-old heir announced that he would give away 25 million dollars. Decades later, these letters, which are mostly unopened, have been donated to the university -- and are the subject of a new film that was launched today on Discovery Plus. Melissa Robyn Glassman found the letters and is the producer of Dear Mr. Brody. We reached her in New York.

HM: Melissa, what did you first think when you stumbled across these boxes of letters in a storage locker?

MELISSA ROBYN GLASSMAN: Well, I have to tell you, it was kind of an eerie feeling because it was just opening up one of the boxes. And you just saw… I saw, you know, piles and piles of these letters that were all sent to the same person. And without really knowing the story, I was immediately curious. And when I started to read them, and the more I read them, I just had this ghostlike feeling that I was unleashing these voices that were, you know, kind of stuck in 1970. And all their wishes and their hopes and dreams were finally being recognized.

HM: All these letters were addressed to someone named Michael Brody. Give us a bit of background about how this came about.

MRG: Sure. Well, at the time when I found them, I found them in the storage unit of my then boss, Ed Pressman, who is a legendary independent producer. He's done films like Reversal of Fortune and American Psycho, and The Crow. And in the 1970s, he had acquired the letters as part of a project about this young man, Michael Brody, who, in 1970, he had just turned 21. And he inherited at the time what he claimed to be a $25 million fortune from his grandfather, who was the oleomargarine king. And he had met his wife and married this woman… young woman, Renee. And they had fallen in love. And he just wanted everyone to feel what he felt. And so he said, I'm going to give away my money to anyone who asks. So here's my phone number, here's my address. And it kind of spiralled into this ten-day craziness.

HM: Yeah, well, and in fact, the craziness went beyond the letters. I mean, he started to get this kind of celebrity status. He ends up on television. It just seems to snowball.

MRG: Yes, he was on The Ed Sullivan Show, and he's this young hippie millionaire. And he comes on the stage with his wife and guitar, and he sings this Bob Dylan cover. And papers around the world were covering the story. So the letters came from all around the world.

HM: And this is a deluge of letters coming really quickly. This is in a less than two week period that this whole thing starts to happen.

MRG: Yes.

HM: Of the ones you've opened and read, there must be some incredibly poignant stories.

MRG: Sure. The ones that I think affected me the most were the letters of people who were writing, not asking for money for themselves. So I remember a woman wrote and said, my neighbour's house burned down. They're a lovely family. They have young children. They lost everything. Can you please send them money? And there's so many of those letters where it's just people not asking for themselves. They're asking for their neighbour, their family, strangers. And that, to me, is the most inspiring. And then, also the letters that say thank you for letting me acknowledge what I'm going through. And it's made me sit down and think about what matters to me. People just say, I just wanted someone to listen. So, thank you for listening to me.

HM: There are also some people in pretty dire situations. I mean, they need money really to get them out of some difficulty.

MRG: Yeah.

HM: Can you… can share some of that.

MRG: Yeah. I mean, the core group of our filmmaking team, we would have what we would call these letter reading parties, and we would all kind of sit around and read letters together because there were so many that were very heavy. And kind of having the support of each other really helped us get through the sadness. I mean, the majority of them are people who are destitute and desperate. And, you know, these letters weren't open. So, all we could do is hope that, in some way, they made it through. And we just don't know. I mean, there are some people, you know, that we connected with. And those people did seem to make it through. I mean, they didn't become rich with money, but they're rich with love. And I think that's one of the messages of the film that we'd like to get out there is the love that was spread, the kindness that we think Brody inspired within these, you know, these people who reach out to him.

HM: I think it's amazing that you were able to contact some of the people who wrote these letters so long ago. What was it like to reunite them and the letters?

MRG: Oh, it's so special, particularly the ones that are reuniting children with their parents who are deceased. During the filming of the movie, I lost my father. And if someone had come to me, you know, 50 years from now with a letter that I didn't even know he wrote, I know that it would have been so special for me. And so, finding those folks who were just so open and wanting to know about their family members was really special.

HM: Did you mull over privacy issues here, given that they were written from someone to… to Michael Brody and not… not to you?

MRG: Yeah. Yeah, sure. I mean, we did… there… in any letter that someone says, please do not share my name and please do not share this letter. We did not. The only exception to that was a woman who is in the film. And the reason why we made the decision to reach out to her was because we found a letter that her mother had written as well. And so, we thought that that was worth it. But we did consult on the legality of opening letters that weren't ours. But I think in the end, you know, we felt that these people had taken the time to reach out to Michael Brody. And maybe, you know, yes, they wanted him to read it and acknowledge it. But I think at the heart of it is they just wanted someone to acknowledge them, and to acknowledge what they were going through, and to know that they weren't alone. And so for us, you know, that was part of our journey, was to make sure that we acknowledge those people.

HM: In the end, hardly any of these people got any money. Why? What happened?

MRG: So we do know that there were cases of people who did get money. From our understanding, Michael would just walk around New York City and hand out cash. Bunny Jones, who is in our film, she did receive money from him as well to help start a recording studio. But our understanding is that he never had the amount of money he claimed to have had. From our research, it was in a trust. And a trust is given out in increments. So, he was only given a certain amount of money at a time. So, not only did he not have as much as he said he did, he didn't have access to all of it. So that really kind of ended his giving, among other things. The pressure of the press, his mental health, etc.

HM: Michael Brody's story has a sad ending that includes money troubles, mental illness and suicide. The letters, though, will live on in Columbia's archives at Columbia University. These were not your letters, but they… they have been part of your story for years.

MRG: Yes.

HM: Was it hard for you to hand them over to Columbia?

MRG: Yeah, it was, in a sense. I have reserved… [chuckling] I kept a few, just a few, that I have not opened yet, and I hope to at some point. Because I really wanted to open up every single one of them. But it really wasn't possible for me. I had to kind of move on with my life. And I do feel connected to them in a special kind of way. So it is hard, but you know, I'm very happy that they're going to continue to have a life at Columbia. And so, they're living on, and that's really great.

HM: It's a fascinating story about a moment in time. Thank you so much for telling it to us.

MRG: Thank you for sharing it.

HM: Bye-bye.

MRG: Bye.

CH: Melissa Robyn Glassman is the producer of Dear Mr. Brody, a documentary that was launched today on Discovery Plus. We reached her in New York.

[Music: Dissonant piano and violin]

FOA: Ruby Slippers

CH: Next month, an extremely rare dress will go up for auction -- a dress that Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz. Millions of people have seen it over the past 80-some-odd years. But no one had seen it firsthand for decades, before it was re-dress-covered at the Catholic University. Where it was found in a shoebox. Now, meanwhile, a couple of things that are supposed to be in a shoebox also went missing at one point. More than a decade ago, someone stole a pair of Dorothy's sequined heels from the Judy Garland Museum in Minnesota. For years, there were no leads. But in 2018, someone must have clicked those heels together -- because the FBI recovered them, and returned them home. Jon Miner is the founder of the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Here's his interview with Helen in 2018.

[sc]

JON MINER: I said the most exciting thing we ever had happen in our museum, which is 30 years old, was the day the slippers were stolen. It is only exceeded by the last week. It is only exceeded by the last week.

HM: Right, so the most exciting thing. Was it also one of the most horrifying things?

JM: I know it was funny… it’s funny because we were renting them from a movie person in Los Angeles and it was about a week before we were returning them and somebody broke in the museum, and broke the case the slippers were in.

HM: How are you feeling today now that they're back?

JM: We're feeling really good. There's no place like home. And, you know, there are only four pairs of ruby slippers in the world and one of them is at the Institute in Washington --

HM: The Smithsonian.

JM: At the Smithsonian, and one is owned by a private party, and one is owned by the new museum in Los Angeles that is owned by DiCaprio and Spielberg. And the other, we were… we were loaning, we were using. So it's — we're excited. The whole town is excited. And we're getting a lot of phone calls. It's kind of exciting. It's all anybody is talking about and I’ve even said we're overriding Trump right now, we're getting more business than he is.

HM: But it does seem like even law enforcement made kind of a big deal of this. You had an official from the FBI along with your local police forces chief.

JM: Do you know what the ruby slippers are worth? They're estimating that pair of ruby slippers is worth?

HM: uh-uh.

JM: Six million dollars.

HM: That's insane. When will they be on display again?

JM: We'll find out probably in a week or two. We're not going to do anything except keep them in the vault for now. And then we'll find out in the next couple of weeks and we'll take it a couple weeks by couple of weeks.

HM: Still more unanswered questions obviously.

JM: Oh boy, lots of them yet. But the biggest one is answered. We've got them. We can touch them. We know they're real. We were worried because some of the reasons that were yielded to us were they were burned. That the people that did it… I mean, burned them. But it's truly that's not the case.

[/sc]

CH: That was Jon Miner, founder of the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He spoke with Helen in 2018 about the return of a pair of Dorothy's ruby red slippers to his museum.

[Music: Pink Panther music]

Part 3: Western Comic Book Collector, Reading: Short Story Prize, Half Loaf Bread

Western Comic Book Collector

Guest: Matthew Fluter

CH: For kids and completists alike, it's a dream come true: comic books, stretching as far as the eye can see. Yours to be rifled through. But first, librarians at the University of Western Ontario will have to rifle through them. Seventy thousand comic books have been donated to the school. And not only do the librarians need to figure out how to sort them, they also have to decide how to make the collection as useful and accessible as possible. Matthew Fluter is the coordinator of storage services at the library. We reached him in London, Ontario.

HM: Matthew, what does it feel like to crack open a new box of comic books as part of your workday?

MATTHEW FLUTER: It's actually quite exciting because it harkens back to childhood memories of collecting comic books myself. It's a surprise, too, to find what we do have in our collection here at University of Western Ontario.

HM: Do you ever kind of shake your head and say, I can't believe this is my job?

MF: I do. Yes, I do. Absolutely. Because it's a sheer joy to see… to see the titles that I remember as a child and then also new titles. And, you know, also characters, you know, going back to when I knew them in the eighties, but going back to… to like the 1950s, like Batman and Superman. Yes, some of the things that we do have in our collection.

HM: Wow! So what was inside the last box of comic books you looked through?

MF: Well, interesting. It was on Tuesday. I was going through a box of Mad magazines, and it was quite funny because we had them going back to the sixties as one of our donors provided or donated them to us. And they're really funny because they really do talk about what was happening in… you know, what was happening during the sixties and seventies. And often parodying what was going on. Like, you know, they had a... a Star Wars musical, you know, there. [HM chuckles] And it was just… it's just sheer amusement, you know?

HM: But with the current lens, too, I have to say, when you look back, there must be things that are… would be uncomfortable. Some people might use the term politically incorrect but uncomfortable with our current lens, right?

MF: There is because we do have some… some comic books, like, there that deal with like the old the westerns. And they deal with a lot of like, you know, the cowboys and quote/unquote Indians. And the depictions, you know, negative depictions of what back then was… was… was… was acceptable. But now today, we have to look at that with a… with a critical eye and really question what was being… what that said about society back in, say, the fifties or sixties?

HM: Mm-hmm. Now, the collection, as I understand it, starts back in the 1940s with something called the Canadian Whites. What are those?

MF: Um, the Canadian Whites is a series of comics which are considered like the Canadian golden age of comics. They were produced as a result of the War Exchange Conservation Act. And this act was basically an embargo for any imports from the States because of the war. And that included, you know, anything like literature, you know, and periodicals. As a result, what happened was that there's a number of Canadian artists who said, okay, let's… well, let's… let's create our own stories. So what happened was is that a lot of them would have… they would create their own characters. And we get Canadian characters that are created. And we get characters like Nelvana, who is like, you know, of the… of the of the North, and of the Northern Lights. And people like Johnny Canuck, you know? And they really talk about, you know, what was happening in around the war and, you know, what's happening at that time during the forties.

HM: As I understand it, Nelvana is either Inuit or part Inuit. It sounds fascinating.

MF: Well, yeah, we're not quite sure, but there's kind of like she's from the North, you know, and she's, you know, born of a mortal. But then, you know, a god of the Norse. So there's, you know, this is something that could be really explored, you know, as being an Innuit, you know, person. And, you know, have some areas of studying that.

HM: Sure. So now, this collection comes from several donors. When you look through it, what kind of sense do you get of who these collectors are or were?

MF: Oh, you get to see what their passions are. You really do. Because when… when collectors start collecting, they really go full force and they try to collect a lot of… a lot of complete runs. People that are collecting like, you know, your standard, you know, Batman and, you know, Superman, but you also have people that are collecting more alternative publications or small press publications.

HM: Mm-hmm. Is it unique for a university library to have such an extensive collection of comic books?

MF: It's… it's changing. The landscape of… of… of research is changing. And to have comic books, it is. But we do have other universities in, you know, in Ontario or in, sorry, Canada that are collecting. And part of the working group that I'm on is we are doing a landscape, and we're talking with other universities who are collecting. And how were they dealing with… with… with their collection of comic books? How are they cataloguing them? What are the research, you know, needs and what is the outreach that they have there? So, it's quite exciting as this is, you know, we're focusing a lens on… on our collection and really making sense of what we have, and how we're going to use it, and what recommendations we need to proceed in making this available to… to… to our community.

HM: What are the thoughts you have on… on what happens to the collection once the cataloguing is done?

MF: Ah, that's a good question. There's still a lot of work to be done, and we're just kind of breaking… like, just breaking the surface to understand what we do have. And we also have a survey out that we're asking not only our researchers but we're asking the community and also other stakeholders what is their interest in comic books, and how would they use them as well?

HM: How many boxes do you have to go through?

MF: [laughing] Oh, geez! Um, we estimate probably about 500.

HM: And how many comics are in each box?

MF: Um, maybe about, you know, 50 to 70 in a box, depending.

HM: It sounds both fun and daunting. Do you think you're ever going to get tired of it?

MF: No, absolutely not. [HM chuckles] The only problem will be not being distracted [chuckling] when you open up a box and start listing the materials that you don't get distracted and start reading them.

HM: You know, nowadays, with the popularity of graphic novels and, of course, how elevated comic books have become, they're really considered a higher art form. Do you think these comic book writers and the artists would have ever imagined that they would reach this level?

MF: That I don't know. Because it has really elevated, I think they would be excited by what… what is happening today and seeing the changes that are happening.

HM: Well, it… as I said, it sounds like a lot of fun. And also, you know, obviously a good historical record. So thank you so much for talking to us about it.

MF: Yes! No problems! My pleasure. [chuckling]

HM: All right. Bye-bye.

MF: Bye.

CH: Matthew Fluter is the coordinator of storage services at the University of Western Ontario Library. We reached him in London. Ontario.

[Music: Sad xylophone]

NL Tesla Self-Driving

CH: These days, Joshua Green is a passenger in his own car. Thanks to his spotless driving record, Mr. Green was chosen to road-test Tesla's full self-driving software in Canada. And he's giving that software a workout by having it drive him around St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador -- a city of sharp turns and a centuries-old street layout. Joshua Green spoke to our colleagues at CBC Newfoundland from his autopiloted car, of course.

[sc]

JOSHUA GREEN: Yeah. So all we got to do here is on the map, is pick a destination that we want to go to, and then the car will drive us there. So, [delightful beep-bop] now we're in autopilot mode. And so, I'm going to keep my hands close to the wheel, and my foot is kind of next to the brake in case I need to take over. But the car is fully self-driving itself right now. I'm just… just supervising. So, this is beta software. And the whole point is getting this out in the real world for testing.

[Sound: The whirring of wiper blades]

JG: It actually cleans the wiper automatically. So there's a camera up here, and the camera always needs to be clean. So the car will automatically just wipe and clean the windshield when it needs to for visibility. So, this is a situation where there's a biker coming up, and he's actually displayed here right on the screen. So if you notice, it's slowed down and gave… it yielded to the bicycle. It's super cautious and conservative around pedestrians and bicycles. So, the way that the software works is I can immediately press the brake and the self-driving software is over. Or I can take control of the steering wheel, so I'm in full control all the time. So, every time where I take control, it's using that as saying, hey, the car did something that it shouldn't have, and it learns from all of that user input. This self-driving, full self-driving software, has been in the United States now for about six months, but just recently, it came to Canada. So there's about a thousand testers now in Canada of this software.

[/sc]

CH: Joshua Green in St. John's speaking to our colleague Zach Goudie at CBC Newfoundland.

[Music: Sad ambient]

Reading: Short Story Prize

CH: When Chanel M. Sutherland moved from St. Vincent and the Grenadines to Canada at 10 years old, she was leaving familiarity behind. But she was reuniting with family: her mother, who had made the move years before. It was a time of upheaval in both of their lives. And after winning the CBC Nonfiction Prize last year, Ms. Sutherland started having more conversations with her mother about that chapter, and how it had felt to be in Canada without her daughter. The result is a new short story called Beneath the Softness of Snow. And the result of that story -- if you can believe it -- is a second CBC Literary Prize for its author. Chanel M. Sutherland's victory earns her $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and a writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. According to the Prize jurors, it celebrates a story written with "a quiet intimacy, where the reader is made complicit in the reality of how privilege works." Here's the author now, with an excerpt.

Reading:

CHANEL M. SUTHERLAND: The room is filled with a foreign softness; it makes you uncomfortable. A menagerie of plush toys lines the inside of the crib. A shaggy carpet captures your footprints as you move across it. Even the lamp emanates a light so soft it barely makes shadows.

CMS: "It helps their eyes adjust," the woman tells you, and you try not to picture the single bulb hanging over the mattress back home. The night you left for Montreal, the bulb had swayed slightly, its oscillating beam casting strips of light on the little girls sleeping beneath it, revealing too many details to remember.

CMS: "You have two of your own, right?" she asks, and all you can do is nod. For a moment, you become suddenly conscious of where you are, standing on a carpet softer than the mattress you used to sleep on.

CMS: Beyond the window, the sky is a bruised violet. The trees are like dark skeletons stripped down to their bones. You are still not used to this change; you think of the Cock n' Pull tree in the yard back home, its large seed pods like maracas in the wind. It does not shed its leaves to survive the seasons.

CMS: "You must miss them, terribly," the woman says, and you watch as her lips form the word terribly. The brief pout of sympathy as she continues to lead you around the nursery, calling out things that are obvious – the changing table, the rocking chair, the mobile. You want to tell her that you have such things in your country, but it will not be entirely true. Before moving to Montreal, these things did not exist for you. They were like shapes drawn in crayons. They were details you read about in letters or heard through the static of long-distance phone calls from your sister Paula. Juliette, you should see the baby's room. It's bigger than our whole house.

CMS: Paula bragged about the belongings of her employers like they were her own. She would use up an entire calling card describing the fur coats she tried on when no one was around; the name-brand perfumes her employers gifted her for Christmas. Among mink and Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds, she'd finally ask about her son. "Does he ask for me? Does he miss his mommy?" You always lied and said yes, even though the boy had stopped asking for her and started calling his grandmother mama.

CMS: The night you left home, you begged your mother not to let your daughters forget. "Tell them about me," you said. "Make sure they know how much I love them." The woman turns to face you, and there's a look of apprehension in her eyes. You realize that you have not said enough, and force a smile.

CMS: "When are you due?" you ask, jutting your chin at the stretched fabric of her shirt. "Not for another few weeks." She rubs her stomach in slow circles and the gesture reminds you of a story you heard in your childhood about a magic lamp. "We'll need someone immediately. Three nights a week and the occasional weekend."

CMS: You know there is more you should say but cannot bring yourself to find the words. Instead, you stare at the decal adorning the beige wall — a rainbow arching up into white clouds then falling behind the crib. "Look, do you even want this job?" she asks, not cruelly but sincerely. "Because I get the sense that you don't." "No," you tell her. "I mean, I do. I want the job."

CMS: "Then tell me something about yourself, anything. Why should I let you take care of my child?" You watch her, this soon-to-be-mother. There are things she wants you to say, things she wants you to surrender to her that are so fragile you fear that once you give them up, they will shatter. She laces her fingers across her bump, and her eyes light up. "Why don't you tell me about your girls?" she says.

CMS: Something unfurls inside of you, sore and crusted as an infected wound. You let your mind take you to a place you only go when you're alone, and the tears flow like hurricane rain and taste like seawater. The words come and you let them surge their way onto your lips. You hear yourself say, "Nadine and Elena. Lena." This is the first time you've said their names to anyone since arriving in Canada. You never speak about your girls, not to the seven other white women who had asked you questions about them, questions meant to expose some flaw that made you unfit to care for their children. Not to the women your sister entertains every Friday, a circle of mothers who bonded over their misery after leaving their children behind. Most have not seen their sons and daughters for years. Some have become attached to the children they are paid to watch.

CMS: "How old are they?" the woman asks, and you press your heels into the carpet to keep from running away. "Four and three," you say, then, "No, five and three. Nadine just turned five. Lena will be four in April." You can already feel the cracks.

CMS: The woman shakes her head and looks out the window. "I can't imagine doing what you did," she says. "Leaving my children behind like that." Your breath comes out as a silent cry that pushes its way through your lips and sinks into the carpet under your feet. Outside, night crawls toward the room, but the snow makes everything look bright.

CH: Chanel M. Sutherland, reading from her CBC Short Story Prize-winning piece, Beneath the Softness of Snow. To read the full story, visit: www.cbcbooks.ca.

[Music: Ambient]

Half Loaf Bread

Guest: Prashant Baid

CH: The website "half-loaf-near-me" looks a lot like Google. But you can't search the whole Internet using it. It has one purpose only: to help Indian urbanites find half-loaves of bread for sale in supermarkets near them. The website was created by software developer Prashant Baid. He lives in Bangalore, but we reached him today in London.

HM: PRASHANT BAID: Why can't you finish a whole loaf of bread before it goes stale?

PRASHANT BAID: [chuckling] So, it's like the bread has a shelf life of three days, and I can’t eat 20 slices in three days. So, I end up, like, throwing away the bread most of the time. So it makes more sense to just buy half-loaves of bread.

HM: Have you had this problem for a long time?

PB: Yes. So I live alone in a big city. And usually don't… in the grocery stores, you don't have half-loaves of bread. So yeah, it is a problem for me. And then I thought, yeah, why not just build a search engine? Yeah, so it's just a quirky side project for me. But yeah, I thought, why not?

HM: I have to say, I freeze half a loaf of bread. Why not just do that?

PB: It doesn't taste as well. I mean, I don't know. I don't like the frozen bread, the way it tastes. So, I usually end up throwing it and buying you fresh, warm bread. So yeah, it’s just personal preference. And I think it has resonated with a lot of people as well who actually do the same.

HM: Right. So… so, this website came about out of necessity. But also, as you suggest, kind of a fun project for you?

PB: Yeah, yeah. It's just… just a silly project. It's not really… I mean, it's not a business idea or anything. But I was surprised to see that it received so much attention. Because usually, when I build any side project, it's… it's not… it doesn't get any attention at all. But this one, surprisingly, a lot of people have commented on it or have searched for it, even though it is only available in India. But I received so many, like, visitors from all across the world.

HM: Well, how does the website actually work?

PB: So it searches for grocery stores nearby, and it searches for a half-loaf of bread. So, [clears throat] there's all sorts. And there's a search filter that I’ve put in that… so it is for only half-loaves of bread in the grocery stores nearby in big cities here.

HM: What about having people just share loaves of bread? Is there an option for that as well? Where I could find someone who lived in my neighbourhood would be willing to split a loaf?

PB: So at the moment on the website, you cannot do that. But yeah, I mean, it's a possibility. But this was majorly I built this for myself because I live alone in the city and I love bread. So, yeah.

HM: So you've gotten a lot of interest, as you say, both in India and around the world. What kind of reaction? I mean, what are people saying? Are they actually wanting to use it or they just kind of find it quirky?

PB: So most of the people, they also face the same problem. They've been talking about that they've also been searching for half-loaves of bread in grocery stores, and they are not able to find it. And grocery stores should keep them more. That it should be available more easily. So these are the kind of comments I've been receiving from them. It feels like a lot of people want to buy half-loafs of bread and don't want to waste food. So, yeah.

HM: Are people actually using it? I mean, are they actually going to get those half-loaves of bread?

PB: So I've… I've received… like, on the first day I launched, I received 16,000 searches on the website itself. So yeah, people are searching for it, and hopefully buying it.

HM: That's great. Now, as you say, it's only usable in India right now. But with these expressions from other places, what parts of the world seem most interested?

PB: Oh, I think the comments that I received the most was from America, USA. Like, a lot of people commented on it that they don't get any… like, in India, you still can get half-loafs of bread. But a lot of places in the U.S., you can't get it. That is what, like, I heard from the comments. And yeah, most of the attention has actually come from US or, like, North America, yeah.

HM: And a lot of people in North America go to bulk stores and buy things in large quantities that is more than they can use too. So, that's… that's an interesting use potentially there.

PB: Yeah. Yeah, you're right.

HM: How are people who live alone in India regarded?

PB: Actually, a lot of people live here because they… like, either they are students or they're young professionals. They’re moved out of their hometowns and living in cities. So, there’s no… I mean, the way it is in the West, it’s not like that in India. But there's a huge… like, the urban middle-class population, there’s a big population that lives alone in cities, working the gig culture. So, yeah, a lot of people are there.

HM: But do you think that the stores are missing out on a potential sales audience there? I mean, could they be targeting you guys?

PB: I think so. I think so. I mean, it's better to not waste food, and… yeah, I mean, I have received so many comments from so many people. And, yeah, they should probably… probably sell food items that have a shorter shelf life in smaller quantities, like half-loaves of bread or even eggs. Like, instead of one dozen eggs or a half-dozen eggs, they could sell like a pair of eggs. So, yeah.

HM: How much do you think this is driven by an awareness of… of environmentalism?

PB: So… so, I ended up wasting a lot of my bread, and I didn't want to do that. So, that was one of the reasons why I wanted to buy a half-loaves of bread, and I wasn't able to find it. And then, hence I built this search engine.

HM: So, it's not just about saving money and feeling that you're wasting. It's also, though, about, you know, how sad it is to throw out food other people could eat?

PB: Absolutely. I do feel very guilty about just throwing away perfectly good bread. And then, only if it was available like half-loaf, I didn't have to, like, waste so much food. So, yeah.

HM: Hmm. Was it difficult to build the website?

PB: Not really. It was just a weekend project, honestly, for me. And I did not expect to get too much attention as well. So yeah, it's quite surprising.

HM: What about other foods that maybe people wish were sold in smaller quantities? Could you do a follow-up?

PB: [chuckling] Probably I could. I… so, I don't… like, someone commented, like, it could be good if it's something like this could be for chicken or eggs. But I don't eat chicken or eggs. So, yeah.

HM: Oh, well maybe you can like sort of farm out the idea to other people then?

PB: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it could easily be done. Yeah.

HM: Okay. Well, Prashant, thank you very much. I hope you find the half-loaves you're looking for.

PB: [chuckling] Thank you so much, Helen. Thank you.

HM: It's nice to talk to you. Bye.

PB: Thank you. Bye.

CH: That was software developer Prashant Baid. We reached him in London.

[Music: Folk]

Klaus Schulze Obit

CH: If it wasn't for the tell-tale keyboards, you might mistake Klaus Schulze's music studio for the cockpit of a spaceship. Wires everywhere. Knobs pulsing with light. Dials dancing back and forth. And at the heart of it all, his first synthesizer. Here's a clip of Mr. Schulze describing the instrument to the BBC.

[sc]

KLAUS SCHULZE: My first synthesizer, now called EMS, and I like that. I’ve Had that since the beginning of the seventies, and I still have it today on stage. For me, it's the kind of the atmosphere I create, you Know? It makes it… and no other synthesizer in the world can do this thing, you know? And I liked it very much. I’ll give you an example.

[Music: A synthesizer line that sounds like a spaceship starting up]

KS: And as far… they are all connected to each other. Every knob you move, something is happening, you know? So… but don't ask me. I have this now more than 30 years. I could never create tomorrow exactly the same sound.

[/sc]

CH: It's hard to categorize the music of Klaus Schulze. As you just heard in that clip, part of what drew him to his first synth is that even if he tried -- he could never coax the same sound out of the instrument twice. And over the course of his long career, with a prolific output of more than 60 albums, he held fast to that idea -- reinventing his sound at every turn. The pioneering German electronic musician died on Tuesday. He was 74. Klaus Schulze played with bands like Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, and Cosmic Jokers. His solo work spans generations and genres. Whether you call it Krautrock, psychedelic, techno, or ambient -- the throughline of Mr. Schulze's music is experimentation. As he once said, "I did my music when electronics, synthesizers, computers, trance and techno were not around in music, not fashionable. At last, my music is now accepted and fulfilled by a new generation who does not have the prejudice of their parents."

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April 27, 2022 Episode Transcript

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