If the Constitution had put in an amendment about the right to fly through a windshield, we likely wouldn't have gotten a seatbelt law. Of course, this administration and their MAGA cult are totally ready to disregard any part of that same Constitution that doesn't suit them, but by God, the Second Amendment is sacrosanct and must have no restrictions put on it unlike that stupid First one about press freedom and freedom of speech.
I didn't grow up near a huge river but there was a pond filled with wildlife - including snapping turtles - where one could catch catfish and frogs and toads galore. And nearby was a creek clean enough to wade in the shallows and swim in the deep end where minnows and sun fish darted under the water and water strider skimmed on top. There is a famous story of my mom babysitting not only all four of us, but six neighbor kids including David, an only child. We were all told NOT to go near the pond unless she was with us. As she took the laundry out of the washer and carried it outside to hang on the line, my brother ran up yelling, "David fell in the pond!" Mom said she didn't know she could move that fast. David didn't drown and we all continued to visit the pond regularly. Sometimes I wonder how kids make it through childhood at all.
Is the smartphone a good thing? When I go to the Doctor's office, everyone in the waiting room is hiding behind a smartphone. No one speaks to anyone; they are just busy taping on their phones.
Who are they communicating with and for what? To tell the truth, there are not that many people that I want to talk to on a moment-by-moment basis. When we go to Costco, I see all of these people walking around talking on their phones. When I go to Costco, I go because we have a list of things to buy. I don't go up there to talk on the phone.
We are in the age of great communication. It must be easier to communicate one with another than ever before. But do we have anything worth communicating? Is it a coincidence that the age of great communication coincides with the age of Donald? People could be so busy communicating that they don't have time to think about for whom they are voting.
America is going down the tubes, but we have great communication.
Anyway, thanks again to Garrison for a fine column.
OUR GROWING AGES EVENTUALLY TAKE US ALL.....BUT SOME, LIKE GARRISON, MAKES ME AND GARRISON, MARVEL AT HOW LONG WE DO WHAT WE CAN DO, AND NOT DO.
"HANG IN THERE" THE PUNDITS URGE US AND GARRISON ALSO TELLS US STORIES LIKE MY AUNT BRIDGET FROM SASKATCHEWEN. EACHTOLD AND SUNG US STORIES....WHAT A BLESSING THEY ARE.....AMEN
Making me smile by bringing back fond memories of my childhood. Shame on you Garrison.
The riverfront questions are very real. And now that I know the answers (at least I think I do), I would give no clues to a curious adolescent that might ask me. Finding the answers to those questions is a journey all unto itself.
Watch out for that snapping turtle. Those little heads move quickly and can snip off a finger before you know it!!!
Take care Garrison and have a wonderful weekend!!!
No one intercuts between the headlines and warm, quiet moments like you, Garrison. Thanks for the turtle at the end. Always a tiny miracle to find one.
Last evening, my husband and I attended a neighborhood meeting, orchestrated by our daughter, to review the recommendations for evacuating in the event of a wildfire. No phones involved. All information could have been handled via text or email; instead, the neighbors were invited to come and meet each other over dessert. The turnout was wonderful! Everyone visited, held the babies, listened politely as old fashioned paperwork was handed out, including bright orange signs with the word ‘HELP’ on one side and ‘OK’ on the other, to be placed in the window for the firefighters.
It seems we are not just hungry for peach cobbler; we are also hungry for each other.
Technology may be convenient, but it is not our friend. Eye contact, human touch, real conversation are essential to humanity. My observation is empathy for another is becoming a casualty to this new approach to connection.
Perhaps the solution is as simple as pie with your neighbors every now and then.
I remember those seat belt wars. They seemed so seriously divisive back then, but compared to mask mandates and gender- neutral bathrooms and pronouns….take me back!
On my day off from being a camp counselor in the Catskills, me and a lovely 16 year old CIT were driving down the winding country road in my 1963 Peugeot with a hand crank sun roof. It wasn’t easy avoiding all the salamanders and turtles in the road (where have they gone???) when lovely Maddy took off her shirt and stood up in the open sun roof so the world could all feel young.
You make a valid point about our president’s adolescent personality. But just once I’d like to hear you carp about the generation of democrats who allowed us to sink into this morass of 30+ trillions in debt, while wiping out the Social Security trust fund and blindly waving 10 million + unvetted aliens through the border, many with serious criminal records and from unfriendly countries.
Trying to parse which political party is responsible for the things you mention is a fools errand as is your statement about "unvetted aliens". You've drunk too much MAGA coolaid.
Time to understand what is really the truth by doing some of your own study and thinking. Only then can you trust any info that is out there about the "morass". Keep singing, though.
If you did some homework, you would find that we last had a balanced budget in 2001 with Bill Clinton. It was George Bush and his tax cuts which began unraveling that aspect of the economy. Reagan and his trickle down economics gave us the ridiculous inflation of 1980. Obama inherited the mess of the mortgage crisis from Bush and brought the economy back from the brink. Both Obama and Biden handed Trump economies that were thriving. If you are a Republican, never mind MAGA, make sure your slate is clean before you start throwing stones.
Nice work, Heidi, on filling in the blanks for Mr. Etnoyer. He sounds (no pun intended) like a nice guy choral singer but, unfortunately for all the Maga crowd your correct research is the truth - none of which ever escapes the mind and mouth of the band of Trump clowns.
Right now, Trump is trying to add $3 trillion to our national debt with his big tax cut for billionaires. Republican administrations have consistently raised the national debt and Democratic administrations have reduced it. It's a great strategy if people let you get away with it: blow up the deficit when you're in power and then claim that that's what the Democrats do.
The problem with the border has been building for decades. Don't you remember when it was common knowledge that we were turning a blind eye to it because we needed the workers? Now it's been politicized to pit us against each other and drum up hate. And Trump squashed the bipartisan border bill during the Biden administration because he didn't want to risk losing any of the rage over "immigration."
As Dave Miller points out, you've drunk too much MAGA Kool-Aid.
I suppose next you'll start talking about the lamestream media. Well, there's no media spin in any of the following:
"They're eating the dogs! They're eating the cats!"
LOVELY morning here in rural Iowa too!! NYTIMES on the smart phone - but your observations and the snapping turtle make it easy to ignore DC drama (would’be) kings for sunshine and honoring my farm girl heritage - daughter of WWII, wife and sister of Vietnam and proud Greene County Democrat! We march in remembrance and gratitude at 10.
AR-15’s, or whatever version folks buy, are ‘Gun Porn.’
I and my friends ran around our yards killing each as we played ‘war’, in 1960’s war was not that far off, and we had neighbors with bomb shelters. So we when ping, ping, and shot each other. Of course lemonade cured our ills and we were not angry, unless you didn’t stay dead for a count of ten. And after we turned 9 or 10 most quit! Some didn’t and so they still play army…or actually joined up.
Donny-John and his Sewer Circus are evil, ever more blatantly corrupt each day. They are angry at so much that is good about our great country! Love, fealty to good and community, taking our oaths seriously, going to church to learn how to be kind and honest. Science and healthcare.
That we bring students (musky boy and his PayPal was ones) from other countries to learn in a science-based liberal education, infused 100,000’s of people with democratic American ideals. These supported ideas back home. The surprise for me is that China knows they get a better education.
And we need immigrants too! 99% work hard, pay their taxes, become Americans, infuse our country with their ideals and ideas. Not that some of them, the PayPals, might turn into evil powers.
So now ‘The Gnome’ and Hegsdeath are in charge and they are led by Stephen Miller’s brain.
Many people buy ARs to protect their beloved families. Unlike many hand guns, the bullets are less likely to go through walls to kill people sleeping next door. Also, aiming is less important. True, most people have no reason to worry that a homicidal maniac will break into their homes, and any actuary will tell you that the real risks far outweigh the ridiculously small likelihood of any possible benefit. But some of us do.
I don't own any guns and know little about them. But I would have thought that an AR-15 would be much more powerful than the typical handgun. I am told that an AR-15 is designed to fire very rapidly and powerfully for longer distances than the usual handgun. You don't need to aim carefully; you just blast away with bullets flying in rapid succession.
It seems to be the weapon of choice for mass-murder. What else it might be good for, I don't know. I don't think that they are typically used for hunting.
It was a Bushmaster AR 15 used to kill 20 at Sandy Hook Elementary School-purchased legally by the shooter’s mother and also used to kill her.
It is a weapon of war. I’m not sure who would win in a scenario where an intruder carrying an AR 15 breaks into a home being defended with an AR 15. Perhaps Bushmaster?
My father used to smoke, and so did my husband. Personally, I never took it up because I wasn't sure I could give it up if I had to. So when Garrison says, "I quit in 1982 by the simple method of not doing it anymore," I have witnessed it that very thing. Both my father and my husband went "cold turkey" and it seems to be the most effective way of doing it. No messing around. Just, nope, not for me. They were both glad that they did it, but I don't imagine it was much fun at the time.
Thank you
If the Constitution had put in an amendment about the right to fly through a windshield, we likely wouldn't have gotten a seatbelt law. Of course, this administration and their MAGA cult are totally ready to disregard any part of that same Constitution that doesn't suit them, but by God, the Second Amendment is sacrosanct and must have no restrictions put on it unlike that stupid First one about press freedom and freedom of speech.
I didn't grow up near a huge river but there was a pond filled with wildlife - including snapping turtles - where one could catch catfish and frogs and toads galore. And nearby was a creek clean enough to wade in the shallows and swim in the deep end where minnows and sun fish darted under the water and water strider skimmed on top. There is a famous story of my mom babysitting not only all four of us, but six neighbor kids including David, an only child. We were all told NOT to go near the pond unless she was with us. As she took the laundry out of the washer and carried it outside to hang on the line, my brother ran up yelling, "David fell in the pond!" Mom said she didn't know she could move that fast. David didn't drown and we all continued to visit the pond regularly. Sometimes I wonder how kids make it through childhood at all.
This made me recall so many childhood adventures of my own. I too wonder how we survived. It was a different world 58 yrs ago.
Don't let go until you have to...and when you do (as I was forced to do) hang on to those beautiful memories...
Enjoyed these comments.
Is the smartphone a good thing? When I go to the Doctor's office, everyone in the waiting room is hiding behind a smartphone. No one speaks to anyone; they are just busy taping on their phones.
Who are they communicating with and for what? To tell the truth, there are not that many people that I want to talk to on a moment-by-moment basis. When we go to Costco, I see all of these people walking around talking on their phones. When I go to Costco, I go because we have a list of things to buy. I don't go up there to talk on the phone.
We are in the age of great communication. It must be easier to communicate one with another than ever before. But do we have anything worth communicating? Is it a coincidence that the age of great communication coincides with the age of Donald? People could be so busy communicating that they don't have time to think about for whom they are voting.
America is going down the tubes, but we have great communication.
Anyway, thanks again to Garrison for a fine column.
Best wishes to one and all.
OUR GROWING AGES EVENTUALLY TAKE US ALL.....BUT SOME, LIKE GARRISON, MAKES ME AND GARRISON, MARVEL AT HOW LONG WE DO WHAT WE CAN DO, AND NOT DO.
"HANG IN THERE" THE PUNDITS URGE US AND GARRISON ALSO TELLS US STORIES LIKE MY AUNT BRIDGET FROM SASKATCHEWEN. EACHTOLD AND SUNG US STORIES....WHAT A BLESSING THEY ARE.....AMEN
Thank you, Mr Keillor, for a lovely start to June 6th. Enjoy your time in CT with your beloved.
Making me smile by bringing back fond memories of my childhood. Shame on you Garrison.
The riverfront questions are very real. And now that I know the answers (at least I think I do), I would give no clues to a curious adolescent that might ask me. Finding the answers to those questions is a journey all unto itself.
Watch out for that snapping turtle. Those little heads move quickly and can snip off a finger before you know it!!!
Take care Garrison and have a wonderful weekend!!!
No one intercuts between the headlines and warm, quiet moments like you, Garrison. Thanks for the turtle at the end. Always a tiny miracle to find one.
Beautiful.
Last evening, my husband and I attended a neighborhood meeting, orchestrated by our daughter, to review the recommendations for evacuating in the event of a wildfire. No phones involved. All information could have been handled via text or email; instead, the neighbors were invited to come and meet each other over dessert. The turnout was wonderful! Everyone visited, held the babies, listened politely as old fashioned paperwork was handed out, including bright orange signs with the word ‘HELP’ on one side and ‘OK’ on the other, to be placed in the window for the firefighters.
It seems we are not just hungry for peach cobbler; we are also hungry for each other.
Technology may be convenient, but it is not our friend. Eye contact, human touch, real conversation are essential to humanity. My observation is empathy for another is becoming a casualty to this new approach to connection.
Perhaps the solution is as simple as pie with your neighbors every now and then.
I remember those seat belt wars. They seemed so seriously divisive back then, but compared to mask mandates and gender- neutral bathrooms and pronouns….take me back!
On my day off from being a camp counselor in the Catskills, me and a lovely 16 year old CIT were driving down the winding country road in my 1963 Peugeot with a hand crank sun roof. It wasn’t easy avoiding all the salamanders and turtles in the road (where have they gone???) when lovely Maddy took off her shirt and stood up in the open sun roof so the world could all feel young.
Would that memory exist with seatbelt laws?
Lovely. Enjoy your time without the Times, which is mostly the same old garbage every day, recycled. Please enjoy.
You make a valid point about our president’s adolescent personality. But just once I’d like to hear you carp about the generation of democrats who allowed us to sink into this morass of 30+ trillions in debt, while wiping out the Social Security trust fund and blindly waving 10 million + unvetted aliens through the border, many with serious criminal records and from unfriendly countries.
Trying to parse which political party is responsible for the things you mention is a fools errand as is your statement about "unvetted aliens". You've drunk too much MAGA coolaid.
Time to understand what is really the truth by doing some of your own study and thinking. Only then can you trust any info that is out there about the "morass". Keep singing, though.
Thanks for your stories. They make me smile most of the time and give me a break from the Times or times.
If you did some homework, you would find that we last had a balanced budget in 2001 with Bill Clinton. It was George Bush and his tax cuts which began unraveling that aspect of the economy. Reagan and his trickle down economics gave us the ridiculous inflation of 1980. Obama inherited the mess of the mortgage crisis from Bush and brought the economy back from the brink. Both Obama and Biden handed Trump economies that were thriving. If you are a Republican, never mind MAGA, make sure your slate is clean before you start throwing stones.
Nice work, Heidi, on filling in the blanks for Mr. Etnoyer. He sounds (no pun intended) like a nice guy choral singer but, unfortunately for all the Maga crowd your correct research is the truth - none of which ever escapes the mind and mouth of the band of Trump clowns.
Thank you, Heidi!
Right now, Trump is trying to add $3 trillion to our national debt with his big tax cut for billionaires. Republican administrations have consistently raised the national debt and Democratic administrations have reduced it. It's a great strategy if people let you get away with it: blow up the deficit when you're in power and then claim that that's what the Democrats do.
The problem with the border has been building for decades. Don't you remember when it was common knowledge that we were turning a blind eye to it because we needed the workers? Now it's been politicized to pit us against each other and drum up hate. And Trump squashed the bipartisan border bill during the Biden administration because he didn't want to risk losing any of the rage over "immigration."
As Dave Miller points out, you've drunk too much MAGA Kool-Aid.
I suppose next you'll start talking about the lamestream media. Well, there's no media spin in any of the following:
"They're eating the dogs! They're eating the cats!"
"Stand back Proud Boys. Stand back and stand by!"
"When you're a star, they let you do anything."
"She had blood coming out of her wherever."
LOVELY morning here in rural Iowa too!! NYTIMES on the smart phone - but your observations and the snapping turtle make it easy to ignore DC drama (would’be) kings for sunshine and honoring my farm girl heritage - daughter of WWII, wife and sister of Vietnam and proud Greene County Democrat! We march in remembrance and gratitude at 10.
AR-15’s, or whatever version folks buy, are ‘Gun Porn.’
I and my friends ran around our yards killing each as we played ‘war’, in 1960’s war was not that far off, and we had neighbors with bomb shelters. So we when ping, ping, and shot each other. Of course lemonade cured our ills and we were not angry, unless you didn’t stay dead for a count of ten. And after we turned 9 or 10 most quit! Some didn’t and so they still play army…or actually joined up.
Donny-John and his Sewer Circus are evil, ever more blatantly corrupt each day. They are angry at so much that is good about our great country! Love, fealty to good and community, taking our oaths seriously, going to church to learn how to be kind and honest. Science and healthcare.
That we bring students (musky boy and his PayPal was ones) from other countries to learn in a science-based liberal education, infused 100,000’s of people with democratic American ideals. These supported ideas back home. The surprise for me is that China knows they get a better education.
And we need immigrants too! 99% work hard, pay their taxes, become Americans, infuse our country with their ideals and ideas. Not that some of them, the PayPals, might turn into evil powers.
So now ‘The Gnome’ and Hegsdeath are in charge and they are led by Stephen Miller’s brain.
Time to stop fiddling…
Many people buy ARs to protect their beloved families. Unlike many hand guns, the bullets are less likely to go through walls to kill people sleeping next door. Also, aiming is less important. True, most people have no reason to worry that a homicidal maniac will break into their homes, and any actuary will tell you that the real risks far outweigh the ridiculously small likelihood of any possible benefit. But some of us do.
I don't own any guns and know little about them. But I would have thought that an AR-15 would be much more powerful than the typical handgun. I am told that an AR-15 is designed to fire very rapidly and powerfully for longer distances than the usual handgun. You don't need to aim carefully; you just blast away with bullets flying in rapid succession.
It seems to be the weapon of choice for mass-murder. What else it might be good for, I don't know. I don't think that they are typically used for hunting.
It was a Bushmaster AR 15 used to kill 20 at Sandy Hook Elementary School-purchased legally by the shooter’s mother and also used to kill her.
It is a weapon of war. I’m not sure who would win in a scenario where an intruder carrying an AR 15 breaks into a home being defended with an AR 15. Perhaps Bushmaster?
My father used to smoke, and so did my husband. Personally, I never took it up because I wasn't sure I could give it up if I had to. So when Garrison says, "I quit in 1982 by the simple method of not doing it anymore," I have witnessed it that very thing. Both my father and my husband went "cold turkey" and it seems to be the most effective way of doing it. No messing around. Just, nope, not for me. They were both glad that they did it, but I don't imagine it was much fun at the time.