March 1st 2014: Code Yellow

I found Stuart's opening to this episode very interesting and informative, as it delved into the history and importance of the Rideau canal. It seems that the storytelling of the Vinyl Cafe loves to concern itself with hidden nuggets of Canadian history. A few months ago we were given the lowdown on Kingston's historical and cultural significance, and two weeks ago we learned about the great hockey game that's been all but forgotten except by those who witnessed it. This week's history lesson is a bit more solemn, because it praises the achievements of the construction of the canal (one of the largest in North America) and it failures (never used for its intended purpose, neglected for much of the early 20th century, and more tragically its construction resulted in over one hundred deaths caused by malaria). It's another well-written piece delivered passionately by Stuart, and if you have even a passing interest in Canadian History I can see how the Vinyl Cafe might appeal to you.

Dave returns from his hiatus a fortnight ago in another humorous  adventure, this time set in a hospital. Dave wants to cheer up a friend of his who recently suffered a stroke, and doesn't want to embarrass him by wheeling him around for a walk, so he disguises himself as a patient to make his friend feel less self-conscious. Like many (all?) of Dave's schemes, this one ends as poorly as possible, with Dave mistaken as an actual patient, strapped to a gurney flipped upside-down, inching his way towards a door to escape from an unnecessary endoscopy. When Stuart got to this part I found myself thinking: "Why oh why does Murphy let him out of the house unsupervised?"

This led me think more pertinent questions about Dave's essential nature. He screws up like this constantly, so why does Murphy put up with him? Why do I, or any Vinyl Cafe listener, put up with him? It's because Dave isn't some generic, bumbling sitcom dad: he doesn't into messes out of stupidity, or greed, or pettiness, or for the sake of poetic justice due to some wrongdoing: Dave almost always hatches these hair-brained schemes because he's trying to help someone.

Remember the first episode I reviewed? He crashes through the grocery store in his cart because he wanted to help Murphy with chores. He walked across Northern Ontario for a day because he wanted to quit smoking for Murphy. Almost every story is like this: Rode a toboggan in the middle of the night? He was trying to cheer up his neighbour! Wore a rabbit costume to a Bar-Mitzvah? He thought someone asked him to! Dave's always trying to cheer up the people around him, and even though his attempts occasionally end in bodily harm, he's usually succeeds, and it's both his intentions and his success that make him like-able instead of annoying.