The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds

Episode 138 – The Past Times with Andy Beckerman
Date: August 16, 2025
Main Theme:
Comedians Dave and Gareth, joined by guest Andy Beckerman, explore the quirky minutiae and social oddities of a small-town Oklahoma newspaper from April 3, 1908. With their signature irreverence, they riff on everything from bootlegging scandals to sausage-based marriage contests, spinning genuine historical weirdness into gut-busting modern commentary.

Episode Overview

The trio revisits a newspaper from Alex, Oklahoma, in 1908 to uncover the strangeness of everyday news a century ago—peppered with tangents about contemporary life, darkly comedic takes on societal change, and blistering improvisational humor.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Opening Banter & Emotional Check-In

• Andy humorously describes his pandemic-era neuroses, e.g. obsessing over a possible splinter and digging at his finger.
  • “If that lets you know emotionally where I am…” – Andy (01:13)
• They joke about podcast distribution through flash drives and the CIA attempting to kill Andy with a poison cigar.
  • “Hey, the CIA tried to kill me with a poison cigar too. So you know what? Me and Cuba, we’re in the same bucket.” – Andy (02:20)
• Discussion about Andy's background, his podcasts (Couples Therapy, Beginnings), and growing up in Reading, Pennsylvania.

2. Guessing the Year

• Andy guesses 1980, Gareth guesses 1875, but the paper is from 1908.
  • “Well then you’re wrong because it’s 1908. Andy wins and he wins fair and square.” – Dave (06:06)

3. Exploring the Newspaper: Alex Tribune, April 3, 1908

a. Bootlegging, Suspicion, and Prop Comedy

• Story about “Please Lindsay,” who brings a mysterious trunk to a hotel; the trunk is stolen, leading to accusations and his arrest for bootlegging.
  • The group riffs that he might be a prop comic, and speculate wildly about the trunk’s contents.
    • “He went out to make arrangements about the lease…his trunk had mysteriously disappeared.” – (12:44)
  • “Cats. What was in the pockets?” – Gareth, leading into improv about live or dead cats (14:13)
• Andy suggests Lindsay may have been framed, and they riff on how easily reputations could be destroyed in small town papers.

b. Eight-Man Football and Small-Town Life

• The high school only fields eight-man football, with Gareth introducing the concept of all-time quarterback to confusion.
  • “One guy’s the QB the whole time.” – Gareth (07:31)

c. Food Prices & Cost of Living

• Eggs cost 9 cents per egg, corn is 45–49 cents (quantity unclear).
  • “What, is Trump in the White House?” – Andy, shocked by the prices (19:47)

d. Local Color: Minor Events & Characters

• J.G. McAllister, suffering from rheumatism, carries the mail for the first time in weeks—a mundane story met with sarcastic applause.
• The town’s Embroidery Club merits a full article simply for meeting, which the hosts mock as evidence of boredom or news scarcity.
  • “There is nothing going on.” – Andy (30:40)

e. “Musicale” and Small-Town Entertainment

• A concert (musicale) by students is described as a major social highlight, prompting disdain from the hosts for such lackluster entertainment.
  • “I would much rather go see a wagon event.” – Dave (29:45)

f. Cave Company Speculation

• Brief segment on the mysterious incorporation of the Mystic Cave Company, with Andy jokingly lamenting investing $80,000 in now-defunct stocks.
  • “Still investing. It’ll come back. That’s what everyone tells me about the stock market.” – Andy (38:04)

g. Bizarre Local News

• A lawsuit over a child’s curls being cut and bathed in a children’s home.
  • “Every curl was worth a thousand dollars to me…bathed him, too, against my wishes.” – Quoting the newspaper (40:34)
• The group parodies the neglectful mother and fantasizes about a child composed of bugs, employing increasingly absurd and gross-out humor.

4. Absurd Social Commentary

• Quote from the paper: “Many wrinkles are smoothed away by the soft fingers of little children,” prompt the group’s most sustained, uncomfortable riffing, likening it to child labor scandals and Epstein references.
  • “Come on down to Creepy Spa.” – Dave (45:48)
  • “This is the worst thing we’ve ever read on this.” – Dave (47:04)
• The group reflects satirically on the moralizing tone of old newspapers, comparing it to today’s news;

5. Monster Catfish and Rural Boasting

• James Henderson catches a 64-pound catfish, supposedly feeding numerous families, and the newspaper editorializes about bigger fish yet uncaught.
  • “There are fish in there that are hundreds of years old that deserve to be dead.” – Gareth (52:37)
• Riffing leads to the idea of a restaurant serving “monster meat.”
  • “We serve monster. There’s a monster on the menu tonight.” – Dave (52:57)

6. Sausage Eating Contest for Marriage

• Story of two German rivals eating 47 frankfurters each for Mary’s affections; the one who failed (from illness) became the best man at the winner’s wedding.
  • “This is how America pictured Germans.” – Dave (55:32)
  • “Whoever can eat some of sausages…that’s how we always do it.” – Dave (56:36)

7. Women’s Secrets and Domestic Advice

• Article claims every woman has a secret—about bread or jelly making, coffee, or applying powder—that she keeps from neighbors.
  • “How do you guys test your jelly?” – Andy, launching a riff (59:32)
• The hosts mock the reduction of women to “shitty Barbie dolls” defined by kitchen skills.

8. Reflections on Moralizing and Media Evolution

• Andy asks when newspapers stopped moralizing. Dave and Gareth suggest the shift happened in the 1970s, as newspapers professionalized.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Andy (01:13):
  “If that lets you know emotionally where I am. No splinter. There’s no evidence of a splinter. I just assumed that there had to have been a splinter.”

• Dave (06:06):
  “Well then you’re wrong because it’s 1908. Andy wins and he wins fair and square.”

• Andy (02:20):
  “The CIA has tried to kill me with a poison cigar too. So you know what? Me and Cuba, we’re in the same bucket.”

• Gareth (19:47):
  “What, is Trump in the White House?” (on 9-cent eggs in 1908)

• Dave (29:45):
  “Please, sir, I would much rather go see a wagon event, sit in someone’s living room, be like, oh, cool. Mother, daughter.”

• Andy (38:04):
  “Still investing. It’ll come back. That’s what everyone tells me about the stock market.”

• Dave (47:06):
  “This is the worst thing we’ve ever read on this.” (after the child labor/flute voices passage)

• Dave (52:57):
  “We serve monster. There’s a monster on the menu tonight. We just killed a fresh monster…”

• Gareth (56:36):
  “Whoever can eat some of sausages…that’s how we always do it.” (on sausage-based marriage contests)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–03:30 – Introductions, Andy’s State of Mind, Podcast Plugs
• 06:06 – Year Revealed: 1908
• 09:00–17:00 – "Please Lindsay" Bootlegger Story & Prop Comic Riff
• 19:03 – Food Prices (Eggs & Corn)
• 22:00 – J.G. McAllister’s Rheumatism and Local Color
• 27:11 – “Musicale” Described
• 29:45 – Embroidery Club & Social Boredom
• 36:02–39:00 – Mystic Cave Company, Stock Market Satire
• 40:34 – Lawsuit Over Child’s Curls
• 45:25–47:06 – Disturbing Passage on “Little Children” and Satirical Reaction
• 51:09 – James Henderson’s 64-pound Catfish
• 54:19–57:01 – Sausage Eating Contest for Marriage
• 59:13 – Women’s Secret Article and Kitchen Skill Riffs
• 61:03–62:42 – End of Moralizing Newspaper Tone Discussion / Wrap-up

Tone & Style

• Irreverent, fast-paced, heavily improvisational and satirical.
• Heavy use of callbacks and in-jokes (FBI/CIA, podcasting life, “cats” and “skinks,” the “monster meat” riff, and Andy’s “investment” in defunct companies).
• The hosts maintain the podcast's core identity: explaining bizarre history with affection and relentless mockery, both of the past and the present.

For new listeners:
This episode is a quintessential Past Times/Dollop journey—exploring forgotten stories and everyday peculiarities of early-1900s America, skewering the pettiness and paranoia of small towns, and riffing endlessly in anarchic, often dark, but always hilarious ways. The mix of historical confusion, improv, and pop culture references delivers both laughs and odd insight into how much (and how little) daily concerns have changed over the century.