Shownotes
I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper
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Season 3 Episode 7Cooper is back from the attack of the hideous POLLEN ALLERGY! Thank you to Tabatha for filling in!
Thank you for downloading this episode.
👉The story begins at 02:01 and the tiny lessons begin at 14:30
👉You can find the transcript after the Credits!
👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/
A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland.
All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me.
Copyright 2024 Edward Cooper Howland
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.
First of all, I’m very sorry about last week. This year is the worst pollen allergy in ten years in Japan, and I had it really, really badly. Believe me, you did NOT want to hear my voice in your headphones last week. But today I’m doing a lot better and I have a new story for you. It’s about…well, do you know who Marie Kondo is? She’s a Japanese cleaning and organizing expert who’s super famous in the US, but not at all famous in Japan. Kinda funny how that works. Anyway, I love her method, but I also recognize that there are some issues with it. So, I decided to write a story about it. I hope you enjoy.
Sentimental Items
1.
“No,” said Jean. “We throw everything away. Everything that doesn’t make us happy. That’s what the book says, and that’s what we’re gonna do. And when we get done with it, we’ll just be surrounded by things that make us happy, and then we can be happy all the time.”
Her children looked at each other, sighed, and walked to their rooms. Jean called after them. “Think about it, do we really need your third grade report cards, Kevin?”
She put her hands on her hips and looked around. It was time to clean out the attic.
She pulled box after box after box out into the hall, opened the lids, and started dumping their contents onto the ground.
“Don’t forget to throw away by category,” she yelled down the steps. “Start with clothes, then books, then papers.” Following her own advice, she collected every single piece of clothing into a pile. Then she stood over it.
Most of it was easy.
Winter coats from elementary school? Send them to Good Will.
Tiny mittens, their fuzzy lining stolen long ago by mice? Garbage.
Her maternity dresses? Horrible garbage.
A photo album.
“Mandy,” she called, “Come look at this.”
Amanda appeared in the doorway. “Mom, I’m right in the middle of doing my clothes. What do you need?”
“Look at this album. It’s from Pawtucket back in the eighties. Here’s me and your Aunt Dottie on the pier. We must be….eight years old. Here’s your grandpa Frank cooking lobsters. Every year he would go down to Marten’s seafood and buy a dozen of the biggest lobsters you’ve ever seen. ”
“Mom, the book to save sentimental items for last. Don’t get distracted by that stuff. Just put it in a pile and deal with it later.”
“You’re right, we gotta follow the system. We can look at all these later.” Jean put the album aside, reached into the pile, and pulled out a pair of low-rise boot-cut jeans from her college days.
“Oh my god,” she said. “Why in the world did we think that this was a good look?”
——
2.
By the end of the month, only sentimental items were left. The three of them stood in front of a table in the dining room, looking down. Postcards, gifts, drawings from elementary school art class, all piled on top of each other, all incredibly important for one reason or another.
“I don’t even know where to start,” said Kevin. “I don’t want to throw away any of it. Can’t we just, like, keep it all?”
“The book says we don’t think about what we are throwing away, we think about what we want to keep,” said Jean. “So, what’s important to you to keep?”
“Frosty,” replied Kevin. “I wanna keep Frosty’s ashes in my room.”
“….where is Frosty?” said Mandy.
They searched the pile, slowly at first, then faster and faster.
“It’s a little stone box,” said Kevin. “It looks like something precious.”
“We know what it looks like,” said Jean. “It’s gotta be here somewhere.”
Old birthday cards and finger paintings fell to the ground as Kevin searched the table.
“Why would you throw him away? You threw away my cat’s ashes!”
“No, honey I’m sure he’s around here somewhere. We’re just gonna keep searching and we’ll find him.”
“No, we searched already! And everything else in the house is cleaned, just like in your stupid book! Are you happy? Everything is organized, the cat’s ashes are gone, and we’re supposed to be happy. But I’m not feeling real happy right now, Mom!” He stormed out of the house, slamming the door on his way out.
Jean felt her knees go weak. She leaned on the table as Mandy grabbed a chair for
her to sit in. She sat down heavily. She wasn’t breathing correctly. Too short and fast. Close to another attack.
Slowly. In through the nose for four seconds. Hold for four seconds. Out through the nose for four seconds. Hold for four seconds.
Box breathing.
Just like the quarterback for the Patriots.
When she opened her eyes, Mandy was in front of her, the photo album in her hands.
“We’ll find Frosty.” She was smiling a little. “Tell me about these photos.”
---
3.
Jean was waiting for Kevin when he came home after eleven pm. She heard him open the kitchen door quietly and slowly, just a few inches at a time. He was sneaking past the dining room door when she said, “Kevin?” She heard him swear quietly.
“Did you find him?”
“No, we didn’t. I’m sorry, Kevin. Your sister and I searched every box and bag of trash and bookcase in the house, and we didn’t find Frosty’s ashes.”
Kevin swore again, and Jean didn’t say anything. Instead, she handed him a slender book with a photo of a cat glued to its front.
“Your sister and I worked all evening on this. She went through all the photo albums in the house and looked for pictures of him. ”
She watched him sit in a chair and open the book. He smiled. He turned the book around to show her a picture of himself, six years old, holding up his new kitten like the beginning of the Lion King. He went through all the pages, occasionally stopping at a picture of Frosty wearing a little hat for Halloween, or elderly Frosty napping in the sun.
“He was a good cat,” said Kevin.
“Yes, he was,” answered Jean. “And I’m sorry that I lost his ashes. I shouldn’t have pushed so hard to throw everything away. I just want to live in a nice house, and the book says that if we get rid of everything that doesn’t make us happy, then we’ll be happy all the time. Don’t you want to be happy all the time?”
Whooooo that was kind of emotional for me. How are you doing?
Like I said, I love Marie Kondo, and I really want to live in a clean house. And I really want to be happy. Who doesn’t? But like, I think that it’s really important to be careful when you are throwing stuff away. And we already know that Jean, she’s not exactly a stable person. So, like a lot of things, cleaning and organizing is good, but if you go too far, or do it for the wrong reasons, you can get into trouble.
I’m doing a lot of throwing away garbage now, because, well, I’m moving.
Yup. I’m moving to Chiba, which is basically a suburb of Tokyo. I got a new job, and I gotta go. So, it’s possible that I may miss an episode or two in the next couple weeks. I’m gonna try my best not to, but….my whole studio has to get broken down and moved across the country. So, we shall see.
Let’s do some tiny lessons
Our big picture is kinda sad.
What happened to Frosty? Well, he got old and died, like pets do. And he was cremated, which means, to burn a dead body. But then, some time, somebody lost the box with his ashes. It’s not clear who, and I think that’s most realistic. You never know HOW something gets lost. You just know that it’s lost.
How about the dictionary disco?
The first one is - garbage. Garbage is trash. Stuff that you throw away. Stuff that you don’t want any more. Like your maternity dresses, when your kids are already in their teens and twenties!
The second one is - sentimental. Sentimental means related to your emotions or your memories. So sentimental items might be old love letters, or photos of your dead cat.
And a good old melody moment.
In this story, at different points I say “gonna,” “gotta,” “kinda,” and “wanna.” We talked about these kinds of words a while ago, but I am very happy to repeat myself, since these are super common. These are contractions, kind of smashing words together. So “going to” becomes “gonna.” “Got to” is “gotta,” “Kind of” is “kinda” and “want to” is “wanna.” Right, so all these words, the smaller word gets smashed into the bigger one, and then reduced. TO? No, “tuh.” OF? Nope. “uh” These are schwas, and we do it because it’s easier! Go back to season one if you want to hear ALL about schwas!
Let’s do the credits.
Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 7 of A Little English.
Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Hiroshima, Japan. For now, anyway.
If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.
This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.
Again, thank you so much for listening.
For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.
Transcripts
Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.
First of all, I’m very sorry about last week. This year is the worst pollen allergy in ten years in Japan, and I had it really really badly. Believe me, you did NOT want to hear my voice in your headphones last week. But today I’m doing a lot better and I have a new story for you. It’s about…well, do you know who Marie Kondo is? She’s a Japanese cleaning and organizing expert who’s super famous in the US, but not at all famous in Japan. Kinda funny how that works. Anyway, I love her method, but I also recognize that there are some issues with it. So, I decided to write a story about it. I hope you enjoy.
Sentimental Items
1.
“No,” said Jean. “We throw everything away. Everything that doesn’t make us happy. That’s what the book says, and that’s what we’re gonna do. And when we get done with it, we’ll just be surrounded by things that make us happy, and then we can be happy all the time.”
Her children looked at each other, sighed, and walked to their rooms. Jean called after them. “Think about it, do we really need your third grade report cards, Kevin?”
She put her hands on her hips and looked around. It was time to clean out the attic.
She pulled box after box after box out into the hall, opened the lids, and started dumping their contents onto the ground.
“Don’t forget to throw away by category,” she yelled down the steps. “Start with clothes, then books, then papers.” Following her own advice, she collected every single piece of clothing into a pile. Then she stood over it.
Most of it was easy.
Winter coats from elementary school? Send them to Good Will.
Tiny mittens, their fuzzy lining stolen long ago by mice? Garbage.
Her maternity dresses? Horrible garbage.
A photo album.
“Mandy,” she called, “Come look at this.”
Amanda appeared in the doorway. “Mom, I’m right in the middle of doing my clothes. What do you need?”
“Look at this album. It’s from Pawtucket back in the eighties. Here’s me and your Aunt Dottie on the pier. We must be….eight years old. Here’s your grandpa Frank cooking lobsters. Every year he would go down to Marten’s seafood and buy a dozen of the biggest lobsters you’ve ever seen. ”
“Mom, the book to save sentimental items for last. Don’t get distracted by that stuff. Just put it in a pile and deal with it later.”
“You’re right, we gotta follow the system. We can look at all these later.” Jean put the album aside, reached into the pile, and pulled out a pair of low-rise boot-cut jeans from her college days.
“Oh my god,” she said. “Why in the world did we think that this was a good look?”
——
2.
By the end of the month, only sentimental items were left. The three of them stood in front of a table in the dining room, looking down. Postcards, gifts, drawings from elementary school art class, all piled on top of each other, all incredibly important for one reason or another.
“I don’t even know where to start,” said Kevin. “I don’t want to throw away any of it. Can’t we just, like, keep it all?”
“The book says we don’t think about what we are throwing away, we think about what we want to keep,” said Jean. “So, what’s important to you to keep?”
“Frosty,” replied Kevin. “I wanna keep Frosty’s ashes in my room.”
“….where is Frosty?” said Mandy.
They searched the pile, slowly at first, then faster and faster.
“It’s a little stone box,” said Kevin. “It looks like something precious.”
“We know what it looks like,” said Jean. “It’s gotta be here somewhere.”
Old birthday cards and finger paintings fell to the ground as Kevin searched the table.
“Why would you throw him away? You threw away my cat’s ashes!”
“No, honey I’m sure he’s around here somewhere. We’re just gonna keep searching and we’ll find him.”
“No, we searched already! And everything else in the house is cleaned, just like in your stupid book! Are you happy? Everything is organized, the cat’s ashes are gone, and we’re supposed to be happy. But I’m not feeling real happy right now, Mom!” He stormed out of the house, slamming the door on his way out.
Jean felt her knees go weak. She leaned on the table as Mandy grabbed a chair for
her to sit in. She sat down heavily. She wasn’t breathing correctly. Too short and fast. Close to another attack.
Slowly. In through the nose for four seconds. Hold for four seconds. Out through the nose for four seconds. Hold for four seconds.
Box breathing.
Just like the quarterback for the Patriots.
When she opened her eyes, Mandy was in front of her, the photo album in her hands.
“We’ll find Frosty.” She was smiling a little. “Tell me about these photos.”
---
3.
Jean was waiting for Kevin when he came home after eleven pm. She heard him open the kitchen door quietly and slowly, just a few inches at a time. He was sneaking past the dining room door when she said, “Kevin?” She heard him swear quietly.
“Did you find him?”
“No, we didn’t. I’m sorry, Kevin. Your sister and I searched every box and bag of trash and bookcase in the house, and we didn’t find Frosty’s ashes.”
Kevin swore again, and Jean didn’t say anything. Instead, she handed him a slender book with a photo of a cat glued to its front.
“Your sister and I worked all evening on this. She went through all the photo albums in the house and looked for pictures of him. ”
She watched him sit in a chair and open the book. He smiled. He turned the book around to show her a picture of himself, six years old, holding up his new kitten like the beginning of the Lion King. He went through all the pages, occasionally stopping at a picture of Frosty wearing a little hat for Halloween, or elderly Frosty napping in the sun.
“He was a good cat,” said Kevin.
“Yes, he was,” answered Jean. “And I’m sorry that I lost his ashes. I shouldn’t have pushed so hard to throw everything away. I just want to live in a nice house, and the book says that if we get rid of everything that doesn’t make us happy, then we’ll be happy all the time. Don’t you want to be happy all the time?”
Whooooo that was kind of emotional for me. How are you doing?
Like I said, I love Marie Kondo, and I really want to live in a clean house. And I really want to be happy. Who doesn’t? But like, I think that it’s really important to be careful when you are throwing stuff away. And we already know that Jean, she’s not exactly a stable person. So, like a lot of things, cleaning and organizing is good, but if you go too far, or do it for the wrong reasons, you can get into trouble.
I’m doing a lot of throwing away garbage now, because, well, I’m moving.
Yup. I’m moving to Chiba, which is basically a suburb of Tokyo. I got a new job, and I gotta go. So, it’s possible that I may miss an episode or two in the next couple weeks. I’m gonna try my best not to, but….my whole studio has to get broken down and moved across the country. So, we shall see.
Let’s do some tiny lessons
Our big picture is kinda sad.
What happened to Frosty? Well, he got old and died, like pets do. And he was cremated, which means, to burn a dead body. But then, some time, somebody lost the box with his ashes. It’s not clear who, and I think that’s most realistic. You never know HOW something gets lost. You just know that it’s lost.
How about the dictionary disco?
The first one is - garbage. Garbage is trash. Stuff that you throw away. Stuff that you don’t want any more. Like your maternity dresses, when your kids are already in their teens and twenties!
The second one is - sentimental. Sentimental means related to your emotions or your memories. So sentimental items might be old love letters, or photos of your dead cat.
And a good old melody moment.
In this story, at different points I say “gonna,” “gotta,” “kinda,” and “wanna.” We talked about these kinds of words a while ago, but I am very happy to repeat myself, since these are super common. These are contractions, kind of smashing words together. So “going to” becomes “gonna.” “Got to” is “gotta,” “Kind of” is “kinda” and “want to” is “wanna.” Right, so all these words, the smaller word gets smashed into the bigger one, and then reduced. TO? No, “tuh.” OF? Nope. “uh” These are schwas, and we do it because it’s easier! Go back to season one if you want to hear ALL about schwas!
Let’s do the credits.
Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 7 of A Little English.
Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Hiroshima, Japan. For now, anyway.
If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.
This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.
Again, thank you so much for listening.
For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.
