The following podcast contains explicit language.

I'm Stephen Metcath, and this is this late Culture Gap Fest, Tinker Tailor Soldier Fry edition.

It's Wednesday, December 21st, 2011.

On today's program, the new adaptation of John LaCare's Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy, Vocal Fry, the new Upspeak, and the loss of Christopher Hitchens with Slate's own Jacob Weisberg.

Joining me today are Slate's deputy editor, Julia Turner. Hello, Julia. Hi, Stephen. Did I hear tell that you're wearing a durndle today?

I think Dana called my skirt a durnal. Insofar as a durnal is a sort of full, round, folksy-looking skirt, I think you are. Yes. I'm planning to spew out heaps of folksy wisdom today. And she's going to yodel at some point. Own it, sister. Get stoked. And we're joined by Slate's film critic Dana Stevens. Hey, Dana.

Hey, Steve.

Is that a durnal on your head? A purple durnal? A purtel? What are you wearing? Why would you wear headphones over it? It's very simple. Can I explain why? This is my winter problem. You guys are going to have to get used to it. Once I put a knit cap on my head, I can't take it off because my hair is crushed to my skull in a totally flat sheet and it's too shaming. So if I have a knit cap on, it's on for the rest of the day. Hold on. I'm going to take a picture of the headphones over half phenomenon for the Facebook page. Ready?

Super cute. All right.

This is pure hathead vanity that I'm confronted with. Yeah, but my head head is really extreme.

It's like a medical condition.

Oh, my God.

Merck is actually coming out with some that's in trials.

All right now.

All right, let's move on.

Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy was a spy novel from the 70s by John LaCare.

It didn't actually introduce the character of George Smiley, who LaCaree had been toying with for the better part of a decade, I think more than a decade.

But it finally made Smiley a kind of frumpy, middle-aged, anonymous-looking spy, the central character in La Cáres,

many people reckon that book, more than a genre masterpiece, almost a literary

masterpiece, maybe even a literary masterpiece.

It was first adapted to the screen in the late 70s, starring for the BBC as a mini-series

starring Alec Guinness. It's now come to the big in the late 70s starring for the BBC as a mini-series starring Alec Guinness. It's now

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