John Maynard

It’s springtime and thoughts are turning to…infidelity!

With countless celebrity role models, cheating is more popular than ever--up to 60% of married men cheat in America. The rest cheat in Europe.

Men can’t help it. Most men think monogamy is something you make tables out of.

Here’s what other people are saying…

This week’s show takes us from Gomer Pyle to Puffed Wheat cereal in the space of 3 minutes, and it’s a twisted road between the two. In between we hear from The Andrews Sisters,  Enrico Caruso and General George Patton.
Here are some interesting tidbits we found: 

“Stairway to Heaven” or  “Highway to Hell”. Take your pick. Yep, this Saturday you may be going somewhere.

Bugs are so cute and lovable except when they’re crawling on you. Or in your food. Or the bathtub. Come to think of it the only time bugs are okay is in song, and this week’s Record Bin Roulette celebrates some of our most beloved chitinous arthropods in melody.

Is the active street life in places such as Tokyo and Barcelona due, in part, to the fact that many people there live in very small apartments? When your living quarters are about the size of a jail cell (90 to 100 square feet, including the bathroom), then perhaps it's nicer to be outside sitting on a park bench, or spending time in cafes.  Maybe Seattle's street life will perk up with the micro-apartment trend that's happening here.

If you’ve ever danced around a Maypole, you’re taking part in a ritual that goes back 1000’s of years, before the invention of the nuclear family but after the invention of alcohol and sex.

Pop stars and Nuns. They don’t usually go together, with some notable exceptions.

But in 1973 Sister Janet Mead, a Roman Catholic nun from Australia had an international smash hit on her hands with her single “The Lord’s Prayer”. Selling over two million copies, Sister Janet donated all the sales proceeds to charity and continues to record to this day.

But she wasn’t the first nun to strike pop gold...

What do we sing about when we sing about the body?

The folks at Fleshmap have analyzed 1000’s of songs in 11 genres and found which parts of the body show up most often. It’s not what you’re thinking…at least it’s not what we at Record Bin Roulette were thinking.

Truth be told, we at Record Bin Roulette can barely tie our shoes, let alone a taut-line hitch, so we never became Webelos, although we have toasted a few marshmallows…

It's that time of year again when KPLU's John Maynard and real estate appraiser Richard Hagar look at the least expensive and the most expensive homes on the market. This time around, they're zeroing in on King County.

A recent Princeton University study found that “happiness” peaks when a person’s income is about $75,000. But you have to make a whole lot more to actually feel “rich”.

Another study found that 42% of millionaires don’t feel wealthy. It turns out, you have to have about $7.5 million before you can feel both happy and rich.

Just once, we would like the chance to prove that money can’t make us happy.

Herewith, some of our favorite sayings about money and happiness…

The world’s most widely consumed alcoholic beverage, and the third most popular drink overall.

The invention of beer is argued to be responsible for humanity's ability to develop technology and build civilization. Think about that for a moment the next time you crack open a cold one. Those early Neolithic humans were tipsy.

A startling number of influential musicians have died at the age of 27, including Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin. Strangely, they all knew each other, and their deaths happened within a 10 month period. The list goes on…Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones, Robert Johnson, Mia Zapata…all members of The 27 Club…

Sometimes it seems most of life’s problems can be solved with proper application of high velocity projectiles.

Take the “Chicken Gun”, operated by the US Air Force. It solved the problem of testing bird impacts on airplanes. It was too hard to fly around looking for a flock of birds to fly into, so they invented a cannon to fire freshly killed chickens at expensive airplanes. And in a pinch, it can be used as a weapon. While it might not create smoking craters, it would totally gross out the enemy.

Flight has always inspired humans, from the days when Icarus flew his wax and feather contraption too close to the sun. An accident like his could never happen today. We have learned too much about the mechanics of flight, and Strategic Air Command would have vaporized him once he left controlled airspace.

Icarus could never have imagined that his dream of flight would be an inspiration to anyone who has ever tied 75 helium balloons to a lawn chair.