A few bits and bobs.

First, we are nearing the end of our fiscal year, a time for reflection, for expense filings, for reckonings with UVT (Unallocated Vacation Time), and, most of all, a time for love.

Actually, love is probably less important than the vacation thing. Many of us have failed to take a lot of vacation this year and will lose days if we don’t use them.

This is especially true of technical producer Dylan “The Maestro” Reyes. Remind me to explain below in what sense Dylan is an octopus.

But others of us have similar surpluses. So I’m apologizing a little if you begin to notice a few reruns. We actually have a big catalogue, but some of the episodes — “Is George III Really So Bad?” comes to mind — have not aged well.

We now rest, so that we may serve you better in the days to come.

Second, one of our longest running features is our song of the summer show. I don’t actually know when we started (2012?)¹, but I believe 2014 was an epochal year.

¹ Editor’s note: I’m fairly certain that Colin says things like this just to bait me into setting the record straight. We have at least been doing the song of the summer show since 2011. And there is evidence from 2012 that our first song of the summer show was in 2010 (though the 2010 show does not survive, as far as we know). 2012 is actually the one year since we started doing an SOTS show that we did not do one. All that to say: This year’s song of the summer show will be our 15th. Unless it isn’t.

The song of the summer that year was “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea. A lot of folks did not like that song, which brought up the question: “How can a song we don’t like be the song of the summer?”

I got in the habit that year of reading from The Book of Amanda (14:7) in which it is written:

There is no such thing as a “personal” song of summer. We do not anoint multiple songs of summer. There can only be one; the Song of Summer, by its very definition, is a consensus choice. It is the song that wrecks wedding dance floors. It is the song that you and your mother begrudgingly agree on… It does not necessarily have to hit No. 1 on the charts, but it should probably be on the charts, because it must be widely played. It must bring people together.

Thus saith Amanda (Dobbins), a culture opinionator who subsequently had kids and went to work for The Ringer and lost all interest in the SOTS and lost even more interest in coming on our show to talk about her own gospel teachings.

But it’s still the most lucid explanation ever of the SOTS, even if this video by Commissioner of the Song of the Summer Brendan Sullivan is the most entertaining. (The Diddy joke is even funnier now.)

(Do I have to warn you that there’s about one second of Emily Ratajkowski in the altogether there? Where are we at with that kind of thing?)

This year we’ve got all kinds of new worries. For example, if Andrew Cuomo gets elected mayor of New York, he might not reappoint Brendan as Commissioner. He and Brendan have never seen eye-to-eye. Some kind of beef over Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle” in 1999.

Plus, there’s some jabroni in his entourage who wants the gig.

Also, comedian and SOTS panelist Cassie Willson broke up with us, despite (or possibly because of) the way we kept saying, “You complete us.”

We were fortunate to get superstar Xandra Ellin to step in, so our panel on June 12 will be regulars Sam Hadelman and The Commissioner, plus Xandra. They will probably make fun of me. I’m still smarting about the way I was treated regarding “Bam Bam” by Camila Cabello in 2022. And we all know that became a timeless classic.

Also, remember that it’s often not good to be the SOTS artist. Consider Iggy Azalea, who was last spotted launching her own meme coin and some kind of non-contract telecommunications venture, after announcing she no longer felt passionate about music several years after music stopped feeling passionate about her.

Thirdly, I’m too tired to explain the way in which Dylan Reyes is an octopus. You and he will have to wait.

Fourthly, if you buy the Iggy Azalea meme coin, you deserve the ensuing penury.

Have you ever read Middlemarch? It’s considered a classic, George Eliot’s masterpiece. But it’s also considered a difficult book to read. And for some reason, it’s having a bit of a resurgence.

We’re reading Middlemarch for an upcoming show about the book and the experience of reading it.

Have you already read it? Have you always meant to? Do you want to read along with us?

Email [email protected], or leave us a voicemail at 860-275-7214.

Help us protect public media¹, and get yourself a pretty cool hat (if we do say so ourselves) in the process.

For your continuing contribution of just $10 per month, this stylish new washed navy dad hat emblazoned with our beloved² tagline, WE DIGRESS, and with THE COLIN McENROE SHOW embroidered over the ponytail hole is our thank you gift to you.

Bonus: Our fancy Colin McEnroe Show coffee mug is also still available!

¹ In case you missed it, there was more bad news in this area this week.

A number of movies that the show or The Noseletter has recently covered have even more recently become easier to see at home. As you run into these things on your streaming services and such, if you find yourself aching to hear or read some discussion of them, we’ve got you covered:

• The Brutalist from our show on brutalism
  Now streaming on Max.
• I’m Still Here from The Nose in March, 2025
  Now streaming on Netflix.
• Mickey 17 from our show on continuity of self
  Now streaming on Max.
• Saturday Night from our most recent show on SNL and endorsed in Noseletter No. 39
  Now streaming on Netflix.
• September 5 endorsed in Noseletter No. 39
  Now streaming on Paramount+.
• Sing Sing from The Nose in February, 2025
  Now streaming on Max.
• Sinners from The Nose in May, 2025
  Now available for digital rental.

Saturday at noon: For many of us, handbags are an essential part of our lives. They allow us to leave the house with everything we need, and they also can be another place to show off our status or style. This hour, the evolution of the handbag. We look at famous “it” bags, how handbags contributed to human development, and the impact of the Walmart “Birkin.”

Monday at 1 pm and 9 pm: We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls, calls about anything, everything. And we’re doing another one. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EDT hour. 888-720-9677. And! Now you can watch our calls shows on Connecticut Public’s YouTube. Come say (nice) things to us in the comments!

Tuesday at 1 pm and 9 pm: This hour, we take stock of what it’s like to read as an adult and discuss why some Americans, including college students, are reading fewer books. We talk about how technology has impacted how we read and celebrate the practice of reading.

Wednesday at 1 pm and 9 pm: Robert Macfarlane is the author of a number of books about the natural world, from the joy of walking to the underground to mountains to the words that are disappearing from our lives. This hour he joins us to discuss his new book, Is a River Alive?, and how we think about, treat, and interact with the natural world around us.

Thursday at 1 pm: The long tradition of songs of the summer includes classics like “Party Rock Anthem,” “Call Me Maybe,” “Despacito,” and “Blurred Lines.” This hour, we try to figure out what song everybody will eventually agree this summer’s song of the summer was. And if we’re wrong, well, it really just won’t matter at all.

Friday at 1 pm and 9 pm: Wes Anderson has written and directed 12 feature films. The Nose has covered at least four of them plus his set of Roald Dahl shorts. But a thing we’ve never done is a full-show examination of the larger Anderson œuvre. So this hour, and on the occasion of the wide theatrical release of Wes Anderson’s latest, The Phoenician Scheme, a look at all of his work in all of its twee, symmetrical, pastel, typewriter- and hatbox-filled glory.