• Est. 2015 in Grand Rapids, MI, USA
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The Cheesy Clip Show, The Brackish Tang, and 100 Episodes of Antiquity (Ad Navseam Ep. 100)

Meta Description: Join Dr. David Noe and Dr. Jeff Winkle in Ad Navseam Episode 100 for the ultimate “Cheesy Clip Show.” From the origin of the “Brackish Tang” and terrible Brando impressions to eighth-grade trauma and the best mispronunciations! Celebrate a century of classical podcasting with the best moments from the Vomitorium.

Introduction: Resting on Our Laurels

Welcome back, classical gourmands, to a very special milestone: Episode 100 of the Ad Navseam Podcast! We are broadcasting from the Vomitorium on a damp, rainy, “weather-changey” October evening in Michigan, which is exactly what you should expect from the fall season.

To celebrate reaching the century mark, the episode opens with some brand-new, rocking intro music featuring the blazing arpeggios of Scott Van Zen and a bluesy guitar solo from Ken Tamplin. But despite the high-energy intro, your hosts, Dr. David C. Noe and Dr. Jeffrey T. Winkle, have decided that it is officially time to “rest on our laurels” and phone it in.

That’s right, folks—it is time for a Cheesy Clip Show. Why write a new script and check footnotes when you can just replay the greatest hits? The episode kicks off with a shoutout to the “avaricious” super-fan Buster, who sent in a hilarious Spinal Tap clip about David St. Hubbins wanting to quit guitar after seeing Yngwie Malmsteen play. It has absolutely nothing to do with the classics, but it sets the perfect tone for an episode of reflection, self-deprecation, and laughter.

The Early Days: Bad Audio and Worse Impressions

The clip show naturally begins with a trip back to Episode 1, where the hosts first explained the title of the podcast. Ad navseam literally means “to the point of vomiting,” which reflects the idea of taking in all the Greco-Roman history you can until you simply can’t keep it down anymore. Furthermore, using a Latin language title instantly gives the endeavor an aura of grandiloquent importance.

However, Dr. Winkle admits that listening to the early audio makes him sound like an “over-caffeinated squirrel,” while Dr. Winkle cringes at the memory of their lost “proto-first episode”. That initial recording attempt took place in Dr. Winkle’s living room, huddled under a fort of comforters and bedspreads to manipulate the acoustics, resulting in a disastrous audio file that sounded like they were recording from the “bottom of a giant urinal”. Dr. Winkle rightfully burned that tape in the yard.

The early episodes were also rife with terrible impressions. We revisit Episode 4, where Dr. Winkle unleashes his “C-minus Brando” impression as Don Corleone. This sparks a confession that as a child, Dr. Noe used to entertain his family at the dinner table with impressions of Ronald Reagan (“Mom, tear down these mashed potatoes”) and John Wayne.

The Art of Mispronunciation

Also pulled from the vault of Episode 1 is Dr. Noe’s famous anecdote about teaching in grad school. He described a passage of literature as macabre (muh-cob), only to have a student confidently correct him, insisting the ‘r’ in the word is silent. Dr. Noe admits another phonetic peccadillo, revealing that for a long time, he thought facade (the fake front of a building) and fa-kade (a word he invented by ignoring the French cedilla) were two entirely different concepts. The hosts note that this is a common hazard for avid readers—you encounter thousands of words on the page that you never hear spoken aloud, leading to a phonetic butchering of the English language.

Chaos, Spaghetti, and Book Covers

In a clip from Episode 12, the hosts debate the visual definition of “chaos.” While Dr. Winkle suggests the traditional Greek definition of a “yawning gap” or an unformed lump of clay, Dr. Noe counters that chaos looks more like a messy dorm room or a “bowl of spaghetti”.

This unlocks a brutally awkward memory for Dr. Noe. While contributing an essay to a book titled Practically Human (co-edited by former podcast guest Gary Schmidt and physics professor Matt Walhout), Dr. Noe attended a publication party. When asked his opinion on the abstract cover art, Dr. Noe foolishly said it looked like “a bowl of spaghetti looking at you”. Matt Walhout calmly replied, “The original of that painting is hanging on my wall at home”. Dr. Noe still cringes at unintentionally insulting the editor’s personal taste in art.

The Origin of the “Brackish Tang”

If you have listened to the Ad Navseam sponsor reads, you have undoubtedly heard the phrase “brackish tang.” But where did this running gag come from? During the ad reads, the hosts peel back the curtain. The phrase originally appeared in Peter Green’s masterwork, The Greco-Persian Wars. Green was beautifully setting the mise-en-scène for the Battle of Thermopylae, describing Leonidas marching along the coast where the wind rustled the trees and your nostrils filled with the “brackish tang of the nearby sea”. It was a brilliant, evocative piece of historical writing that the hosts promptly stole and reduced to a ridiculous, continuous gag about what bad hotel coffee tastes like.

Twerp Week and Lexitrichia

We get a heavy dose of childhood trauma with a clip from Episode 23. While Dr. Noe reminisces about viewing eighth-grade upperclassmen as protective “Mentors” to his “Telemachus,” Dr. Winkle shares a purely embarrassing, non-classical memory.

In his middle school, they hosted “Twerp Week” (an acronym for “The Woman Is Required To Pay,” similar to a Sadie Hawkins dance). A sweet girl named Michelle asked him out. On the day where couples were supposed to dress like each other (matching sweatshirts, etc.), the young, terrified Jeff Winkle took the instructions entirely too literally. Believing he was being asked to physically cross-dress in Michelle’s actual clothing style, he panicked, ignored her completely, and never spoke to her again for the rest of high school.

In a much more successful display of linguistic prowess, the hosts review a clip from Episode 24 about the goddess Calypso. Homer gives her the epithet Euplochamos (fair-haired or “with goodly locks”). This leads to a massive, derailed joke about Calypso stocking her island bathroom with Garnier oat milk and Fructis hair products. Dr. Noe then highlights a former student’s brilliant invention. Taking the Greek word for bed (lexus) and hair (trichos), the student coined the perfect neologism for bedhead: Lexitrichia.

Scylla’s Anatomy and the “Drama Queen”

The episode also highlights the weird and wonderful. From Episode 32, we hear the hosts baffled by the biology of the sea-monster Scylla, who is an anthropomorphic woman from the waist up, but a swirling “pack of dogs” from the waist down. As Dr. Noe tells his students, trying to figure out how those bodies connect is a “biology question” you simply shouldn’t ask.

We also revisit Episode 28, featuring an interview with Susan Wise Bauer, where the audience got to hear a sample of Dr. Winkle’s original song, “Drama Queen”. Dr. Winkle explains that the song was inspired by a documentary about Janis Joplin. Joplin returned to her conservative hometown of Port Arthur, Texas, expecting a hero’s welcome, only to be entirely rejected by the locals, leaving her feeling like a lost schoolgirl all over again. Dr. Winkle wrote the song from the harsh perspective of those local townies.

The Top 10 Most Downloaded Episodes

As they look forward to the next hundred episodes, the hosts run down the top ten most downloaded episodes in the history of the podcast:

  1. Episode 1: Classics as a Way of Life (The requisite, slightly embarrassing “demo tape” of the podcast).
  2. Episode 2: Homer’s Iliad, Part One.
  3. Episode 14: The Jung and the Restless (Joseph Campbell and the Hero’s Journey).
  4. Episode 28: Susan Wise Bauer.
  5. Episode 47: What’s the Best Latin Textbook? (Featuring the intense, “heated vomitorium” debate with Patrick Owens).
  6. Episode 63: How to Be a Latin Guru.
  7. Episode 57: A Conversation with Heather Mac Donald.
  8. Episode 48: What’s the Best Latin Textbook, Part Two.
  9. Episode 10: History and the Trojan War.
  10. Episode 11: The Whole Enchilada (Epicureanism and Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura) . Dr. Noe theorizes this episode gets hits entirely from people Googling Taco Bell late at night and accidentally stumbling into Roman philosophy.

Sponsors: Fuel for the Next Century

To ensure the podcast makes it to Episode 200, support the sponsors who make the show possible:

The Gustatory Parting Shot

Usually, Dave or Jeff brings a quote about food to close out the show. But for Episode 100, they are delegating the task . We invite the audience to come up with their own gustatory parting shot. And if you don’t have one?

“Just go eat a sandwich”. Valete! (And thanks for 100 episodes).

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