Scott thought somebody had stolen his gym shoes
Scott arrived at work slightly late after a gym panic.
Years earlier, somebody had genuinely stolen the clean underwear he had left outside a shower.
This time, he put his things into a locker but left his shoes nearby.
After showering, the shoes appeared to be gone.
For a few moments Scott pictured himself walking barefoot through Broadcasting House.
The problem was not only being shoeless.
Everyone would assume it was a deliberate fashion choice.
He imagined colleagues thinking he had finally turned into Richard Branson or Simon Cowell.
Then Scott realised he had simply been looking near the wrong lockers.
The shoes had been there all along.
Italy v Spain became an excuse to annoy Franco
Italy were playing Spain that evening.
Scott and Chris knew exactly one person they considered sufficiently Italian to represent the national passion properly.
Franco, from one of their favourite Italian restaurants in Sheffield.
They decided to call him and casually suggest things they knew would violate his food rules.
Listeners sent in ammunition.
Sweetcorn on pizza.
Cream in carbonara.
Parmesan on seafood.
Mushrooms in bolognese.
Cold red wine.
Boxed pizza.
Pineapple.
Scott and Chris wanted to know which suggestion would finally make Franco nibble.
The cold red wine immediately sounded wrong
Scott opened by saying he and Chris were preparing an Italian feast for the football and had put a nice bottle of red wine in the fridge.
Franco was already uneasy.
Then came the carbonara.
Could they put cream in?
Could they take shortcuts?
Franco patiently tried to explain the proper method.
The more Scott and Chris intentionally misunderstood, the more animated he became.
Parmesan and seafood crossed the line
The pair kept going.
Could they put Parmesan on a fish pasta?
Franco’s answer was emphatic.
No.
What about mushrooms in bolognese?
Again, no.
Then the conversation reached the phrase which became the podcast title.
A sausage in the pasta.
Scott and Chris had successfully turned a straightforward call about Italian cooking into a stress test for one restaurateur’s national pride.
Blow Your Own Trumpet celebrated a job interview
Listener Jordan had just completed an interview for a family-liaison-officer role at a high school.
He had not yet got the job.
Scott still considered completing the interview worthy of the trumpet.
The feature was deliberately about celebrating progress rather than waiting for a final result.
Whistled songs completed Don’t Look It Up
The day’s quiz turned pop songs into whistled versions.
Removing the voice and production left only a melody listeners thought they knew.
Scott and Chris discovered, again, that even extremely familiar songs become difficult when the identifying details are stripped away.
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