13. The Secret Ingredient - Irving's Walk

            Ink and inkwash on paper 

Ira Glass
"And as they're telling stories about Irving, Irving this, Irving that, a light bulb goes off. In the fancy new modern plant, there was no Irving. Irving didn't want to commute to the north side. There was no maze of hallways. There was no half hour trip where the sausage would get warmed before they would cook it. In the new plant, they just stuffed the sausages in a cold room and cook them in a smoke house in the room next door to it. Irving's trip was the secret ingredient that made the hot dogs red. So secret even the guys who ran the plant didn't know about it."

Jim Bodman
"So we said, oh my god, that is of course the reason. Why didn't we know that? That's the dumbest thing in the world to not realize it's right there. How do we fix it? And the solution to the problem was the room that we're standing in right now. And this was a new addition put on at the plant about two years after we built the facility."

Ira Glass
"So you had to build this room?"

Jim Bodman
"This whole room. The outside bearing wall is that wall right there. We put this whole room on and in this room, we emulate the old area of the old plant."

Ira Glass
"And so this room essentially is to simulate Irving?"

Jim Bodman
"That's exactly right. We should have called it Irving, Irving's corner."

Ira Glass
"It's warm in Irviing's corner. And it smells nice too, smoky, like hickory smoke and spices. Since I first heard this story years ago from a tour of this very plant, I've found myself telling it now and then. I think that what I love about it is the fact that these guys at the factory had done everything right, finally built their dream factory with the best equipment and expertise that money could buy. But you can't think of everything. Sometimes, you have no idea why you were a success in the first place."


I loved this short story that I heard on the radio program: This American Life from July 2003. The title of the episode is 
"Call in Colonel Mustard For Questioning." It reminds me of a character I have created, except this guy is the real thing, so I felt I had to draw this story. I once thought sending it to TAL as a completed pamphlet but alas it has sat in my file drawer so here it is. Text is transcripts from TAL's website. 
   

Taken on: January 21, 2023

Tags:

This American Life

Ira Glass

Call in Colonel Mustard For Questioning

NPR

National Public Radio

Chicago

WBEZ

TAL

Radio Show

story

comic

illustration

ink

Pen and ink

inkwash

india ink

paper

art

artwork

WBEZ Chicago

Vuenna Meats

hot dogs

sausages

corned beef

pastrami

drawing

doodle

color

secret ingredient

Funny

humor

industrial

original artwork

Hand drawn

sausage factory

Chicago Illinois

illinois

radio drama « less

Sets appears in: • ART PORTFOLIO: PERMISSION REQUIRED FOR ANY USE • Arts & Crafts more » • Call in Colonel Mustard For Questioning 2014 « less

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