K5ND's Short Story Podcasts Jim Wilson – K5ND

My usual short story recordings are pulled from P.G. Wodehouse’s treasure of humorous short stories. This one takes a sharp detour into a more serious genre.

It’s from Arthur C. Clarke. It was first published in July 1949 in Startling Stories and later in several books of collected stories, where I found it.

There are three segments and it ends on a very poignant note.

I hope you enjoy it.

This short story authored by James Thurber was first published in The New Yorker in 1939.

While I knew the story and premise of Walter Mitty, I came across the original story in a book titled “A Treasury of American Humor” published by Westvaco Corporation in 1996.

The book is one of an annual series published for over 50 years with editions presented to their customers over the holidays. I have seven editions in my collection, covering the years we used Westvaco paper for the cover of Boys’ Life Magazine.

I find it a delightful story, a quick read, and I hope you enjoy it as well.

Bertie Wooster and Jeeves — the perfect pair for a P.G. Wodehouse short story.

Here’s the pair in yet another adventure. This one documents the beginning of their partnership and starts with Bertie:

Now, touching this business of old Jeeves — my man, you know — how do we stand? Lots of people think I’m much too dependent on him. My Aunt Agatha, in fact, has even gone so far as to call him my keeper. Well, what I say is: Why not? The man’s a genius. From the collar upward he stands alone. I gave up trying to run my own affairs within a week of his coming to me. That was about half a dozen years ago, directly after the rather rummy business of Florence Craye, my Uncle Willoughby’s book, and Edwin, the Boy Scout.

Listen to the rest of the story for quite a few chuckles.

This is another of the delightful line of P.G. Wodehouse short stories. This one is selected from his stories told by “The Oldest Member” of the golf club. It starts with:

On a fine day in the spring, summer, or early autumn, there are few spots more delightful than the terrace in front of our Golf Club. It is a vantage-point peculiarly fitted to the man of philosophic mind: for from it may be seen that varied, never-ending pageant, which men call Golf, in a number of its aspects.

To your right, on the first tee, stand the cheery optimists who are about to make their opening drive, happily conscious that even a topped shot will trickle a measurable distance down the steep hill. Away in the valley, directly in front of you, is the lake hole, where these same optimists will be converted to pessimism by the wet splash of a new ball. At your side is the ninth green, with its sinuous undulations which have so often wrecked the returning traveller in sight of home. And at various points within your line of vision are the third tee, the sixth tee, and the sinister bunkers about the eighth green–none of them lacking in food for the reflective mind.

For the rest of the story, listen to the recording.

One of the legendary characters from P.G. Wodehouse’s stories is Mister Mulliner. In this one, set in the bar parlor of the Angler’s Rest, he tells all about his nephew George. It begins with:

My nephew George (said Mr. Mulliner) was as nice a young fellow as you would ever wish to meet, but from childhood up he had been cursed with a terrible stammer. If he had had to earn his living, he would undoubtedly have found this affliction a great handicap, but fortunately his father had left him a comfortable income, and George spent a not uncomfortable life residing in the village where he had been born and passing his days in the usual country sports and his evenings in doing crossword puzzles.

By the time he was thirty he knew more about Eli, the prophet, Ra, the Sun God, and the bird Emu than anybody else in the county except Susan Blake, the vicar’s daughter, who had also taken up the solving of crossword puzzles and was the first girl in Worcestershire to find out the meaning of “stearine” and “crepuscular.”

It was his association with Miss Blake that first turned George’s thoughts to a serious endeavor to cure himself of his stammer. Naturally, with this hobby in common, the young people saw a great deal of one another, for George was always looking in at the vicarage to ask her if she knew a word of seven letters meaning “appertaining to the profession of plumbing,” and Susan was just as constant a caller at George’s cozy little cottage—being frequently stumped, as girls will be, by words of eight letters signifying “largely used in the manufacture of poppet valves.” The consequence was that one evening, just after she had helped him out of a tight place with the word “disestablishmentarianism,” the boy suddenly awoke to the truth and realized that she was all the world to him—or, as he put it to himself from force of habit, precious, beloved, darling, much-loved, highly esteemed or valued.

And yet, every time he tried to tell her so, he could get no farther than a sibilant gurgle which was no more practical use than a hiccup.

Listen to the rest of this delightful story below:

It’s been way too long since I last recorded an audio podcast story. This story isn’t newly recorded, but it’s a good one and I thought I’d bring it to your attention.

P.G. Wodehouse’s Mr. Mulliner character is a favorite of mine, among so many simply delightful characters in his long list of stories. This one starts out simply enough with a letter from Aunt Angela to Augustine Mulliner:

My dear Augustine (wrote Angela Mulliner),

I have been thinking so much about you lately, and I cannot forget that, when I saw you last, you seemed very fragile and deficient in vitamins. I do hope you take care of yourself.

I have been feeling for some time that you ought to take a tonic, and by a lucky chance Wilfred has just invented one which he tells me is the finest thing he has ever done. It is called Buck-U-Uppo, and acts directly on the red corpuscles. It is not yet on the market, but I have managed to smuggle a sample bottle from Wilfred’s laboratory, and I want you to try it at once. I am sure it is just what you need.

Your affectionate aunt,

Angela Mulliner

P.S.-You take a tablespoonful before going to bed, and another just before breakfast.

And, this tonic turns Augustine from a sheep into a lion. Listen to the rest of the story to hear how it all turns out. I’m confident you’ll enjoy every single minute and laugh out loud a few times.

Why not download the audio file and listen to it while your driving to that rare grid activation?

Whether you’re driving or sitting at home with a toddy, enjoy.

BTW — You can find my other narrated short stories on this website under the Podcasts menu item. You can also find them and subscribe via Apple iTunes at K5ND’s Short Story Podcasts.