A round of late winter El Ni\u00f1o rains slowed traffic on the Bay Bridge, giving me time to think about the evening ahead and how I might eventually recount it here. My story would have to begin with the line I\u2019ve waited years to use: \u201cIt was a dark and stormy night.\u201d\u00a0In the driving rain, our windshield wipers seemed to be timed to match my pulse. What had we agreed to?<\/p>\n
According to Google Maps, we\u00a0would reach 350 Townsend in about 23 minutes. That left plenty of time for me to run through my checklist of anxieties. Would my nerves get the better of me and render every sentence a series of ums and uhhs? Had I prepared well enough to talk about the evening\u2019s topics? Is my speaking voice better suited to print than broadcast? My internal voice was telling me,\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019ll be fine. It\u2019ll be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nancy and I had been invited to join SK Morton<\/a><\/strong> as guests on his Lousy San Francisco Podcast and talk about San Francisco chocolate and CBTB. A week earlier it had sounded like a fun idea and another chance to spread the word about the local chocolate scene. Listening to a couple of episodes of the podcast, we learned\u00a0that the format is built\u00a0loosely around\u00a0a weekly theme\u00a0and\u00a0leaps\u00a0humorously\u00a0from topic to tangent as the show progresses.<\/p>\n The\u00a0world of SK Morton\u2019s Lousy San Francisco Podcast<\/a> is populated by\u00a0characters with names like Coco Bear and Squidge, who I imagine are real people. Show regulars include Pete & Lizzie, Suzy L, Michelle Thomas, SK’s wife, Babette, and a small but enthusiastic studio audience known as the Throng. In the context of the podcast, nothing seems out of place from the Muppet Show and Bullwinkle sound clips to the casual plugs for SK Morton\u2019s Lousy San Francisco Tours<\/a>, Bridal Fitness or The Amazon button (visit skmorton.com<\/a>, click the button on the home page, and shop Amazon as you usually would.\u00a0For each purchase you make, Amazon will give a little bit\u00a0to help keep the podcast going). The episodes we listened to sounded like friends and guests hanging out in the living room for an hour (or two). Nothing too formal, we told ourselves. It\u00a0should be fine. It\u00a0should\u00a0be fun.<\/p>\n When we arrived at our destination, the rain was falling harder. We called up to let our host know we\u2019d made it and watched as another car pulled into a parking spot\u00a0in front of the building. A woman got out of the car; we commented on the weather as she waited\u00a0with\u00a0us at the door. Seconds later, SK appeared. A natural host\u00a0with a resonant voice, an affable manner and an air of mischief, he welcomed us, and we followed him inside through a maze of corridors. He introduced us to Suzy L, the woman who\u2019d joined us at the front gate.<\/p>\n In one hallway, a golf bag and a well-loved love seat marked\u00a0the way to the Bomb Shelter, the small studio\/office where the Lousy SF Podcast happens. There was a rounded L-shaped desk with four microphones positioned around it, a sound mixing board, computer monitor, chairs, bookshelves, a full-sized drafting table and a random collection of papers, photographs and objects that echoed\u00a0the format of the podcast.<\/p>\n Mesmerizing patterns bounced around\u00a0the\u00a0computer screen while\u00a0an eclectic music playlist (Rogers and Hammerstein, Elton John, and music from Disneyland rides…) helped fill the short interval as we settled in and the Throng arrived\u00a0for the start of the podcast.<\/p>\n A rectangular basket was\u00a0conspicuously turned face-down\u00a0on the desk. \u201cI\u2019ve got a surprise for later,\u201d SK explained. \u201cWe\u2019re going to do a blind taste test.\u201d He shifted the basket toward the middle of the table, and I caught a sharp whiff\u00a0of milk chocolate. I\u00a0announced that I smelled a Hershey\u2019s bar. A subtle change in his expression told me\u00a0I had just spoiled\u00a0at least part of the surprise. I hoped I hadn\u2019t ruined the evening.<\/p>\n The scheduled fill-in co-host, Michelle called to say that her \u00dcber ride was running late, so SK asked Suzy if she would mind doing the intro. Suzy took a seat at the microphone, held the script in front of her, and SK played the intro theme. We were OFF\u00a0(… or ON. I\u2019m not sure which describes it better). She delivered a lively intro that promised guests Robert DeNiro, David Bowie, George Lucas and Robin Thicke. From that point, the details of the evening begin to blur in my memory. I recall that Nancy and I were introduced as chocolate experts. SK kept us laughing and on our toes. I remember that Michelle did arrive and take over as co-host, steering the discussion to chocolate, sharing some questions from listeners and showing a pretty impressive knowledge of chocolate to boot. I remember that there was a lot of laughing. I remember that Nancy was sharp and funny\u00a0as\u00a0we chatted for about an hour and a half. Did I mention the laughing? I even vaguely remember being invited back to talk chocolate again\u00a0at a later date.<\/p>\n If you’re curious about the details, head over to skmorton.com\/lousypodcast<\/a> (you don\u2019t have to type the www). Look for Episode 35: Chunks of things.<\/a> The show description begins, \u201cIt was a dark and stormy night.\u201d (Yeah, he beat me to it.) You might want to settle into your comfy chair because it\u2019s an 80-minute show. And be sure to have a bit of your favorite local chocolate with you because it takes a while to get around to the chocolate portion of the podcast. (and don\u2019t forget to look for the Amazon button on the Home page<\/a>).<\/p>\n Back outside, the rain hadn\u2019t eased. As we drove home across the bridge that evening, we tried to assess how the whole thing had gone. Had we actually said anything useful? Was it entertaining? We told ourselves that with some editing, it\u2019d fine. It had been fun.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll end here in the tradition of the Bullwinkle and Rocky Show with two alternative titles for the episode: \u201cI lost my point in San Francisco,\u201d or \u201cAre you sure there\u2019s chocolate in this?\u201d Thank you, SK Morton and crew, for a very entertaining evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chocolate, chocolate everywhere, and not a bite we’ll eat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[90,74,94,270,829,195,97,297,73,1116,840,794,783,324,841],"class_list":["post-8188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chocolatebythebay","tag-bittersweet-cafe","tag-charles-chocolates","tag-chocolate-salon","tag-dandelion-chocolate","tag-diy-tours","tag-hersheys","tag-jade-chocolates","tag-mast-brothers","tag-michael-mischer","tag-nuubia-chocolates","tag-podcast","tag-r-j-toffees","tag-scharffen-berger","tag-sees-candies","tag-sk-morton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28192,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8188\/revisions\/28192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Take cover<\/h2>\n
Places, everyone!<\/h2>\n
Is this thing on?<\/h2>\n
And that\u2019s our show<\/h2>\n