I read your work multiple times. The first read is to feel it. The second is to feel it again, the third is to start to analyze your writing. By the time I’m reading for the fourth time, I’m beginning to understand how you do what you do so well. Your writing launches a drone with a video camera on it and it continues to play in my head long after I’ve stopped reading. As many have commented, you are a treasure.
thanks for you comment. I also try to analyze the writing (pretending that I, too, write like this in my own Substack!) and you nailed it with the comment about the video camera drone. Now I get it! Next, how to do that...
Spending my summer on Chautauqua Lake in Western New York, not so far away. Pretty much the same parameters, though instead of mocking birds it’s blue jays, mourning doves, woodpeckers and an alarming number ospreys circling to pounce.
My husband and I have spent many summers there, staying with my family in the house on the corner of Roberts and Miller, sitting on the front porch watching people pass by and the kids riding down that steep hill on their bikes! A wonderful place with so much culture and entertainment and beauty!
I love walking with you through Manhattan. We lived there for 20 years. I miss it. I appreciate the balance you bring to a lovely walk with your beloved— the sights, the food, the joy, and mixed in is the preposterous behavior of this administration, the darkness of the campaign against education, thinking, kindness, common grace— so uncommon now. To completely ignore it isn’t real. To see it, walk with it, and still declare Life is Good is straight from God’s heart. Thank you.
It was a beautiful day on Humboldt Bay as well. The coconut prawns at Jack's Seafood were perfection as we dissected our latest protest experience. The fact we could do this is not lost on me. White male privilege should be enjoyed (and leveraged) while it lasts.
Yes GK you are a treasure. When you post your wonderful prose that is why I still read you all these years. It is your outrageous, if not out-of-control tiresome TDS asides & rants that ruin it for me at times.
But I stick with you since occasionally I find you words so enchanting & enlightening & helpful in this divisive world we live in.
My dear partner/companion has the raging TDS like you sir, and I listen without responding to her to let her vent and quietly try to understand her hysteria and rage. And to let her calm down.
I've come to respect her passion and ACCEPT that I will not understand where the deep hatred stems from, and the why of it.
My point of this comment to you is to provide you some context as to why -as a long-time fascinated fan- I wish your posts would be devoid of any politics. I have a folder of printouts of your columns from years ago that are wonderful and have no politics.
Artists - I would include all those who practice in the visual, written, spoken, dance, performative, musical, and graphic mediums - feed off of the beauty in life. Most ordinary people don’t know how to communicate their own feelings and emotions to reflect the joy and wonder they experience, so we turn to artists who can. You, Jim, “stick” with GK for the same reason… you find him “enchanting & enlightening” and I assume his work enriches your life. You claim to respect his work, but you want it tailored to reflect a false reality that you find comforting, and that isn’t what an artist does. To ask him to omit politics is a bit like a self-proclaimed animal lover shooting an elephant and then using its leg as an ashtray in his study. He admires the majesty of the animal so much that he wants a piece of it in his daily life. That’s the definition of derangement, not TDS.
Dear Jim J - Nice to read that you are more of a human being and less of a MAGA caricature. With the exception of you and a couple of other regulars, most of GK's posters are appalled by the politics going down these days - it's cruel, it's sinful, it's goddamn un-American. Every time you employ the TDS expression you are offending a lot of people. It's a simplistic phrase and has no basis in reality. We are kind, we are generous, we do not kick people when they're down. We are not hysterical. We are the Americans across the aisle, not deranged vermin. Kindly cut it out.
There are other places for the stuff of ones like you. Lots of sites celebrating the Nazi and current felon. If you knew anything about history, you would understand Garrison’s concern for our country.
It's you who have some kind of syndrome, not your partner. If you respect her, stop pretending not to comprehend contempt for a liar who publicly accuses Haitian migrants of eating our dogs and cats. An adjudicated rapist whose affection for and complicity with Jeffrey Epstein is now being exposed. A "leader" who only wants to divide us. Speaking out about his sick behavior has nothing to do with politics.
Feigning incomprehension and calling Garrison Keillor a treasure--while attempting to silence him--doesn't mitigate your complicity in the ongoing destruction of our country. Since you've publicly dismissed your partner's rejection of authoritarian kleptocracy as a sign of some "raging syndrome," she should leave you. That's what it's come to in this country. If you're still pretending not to "get it" after all these years, she should move on.
American patriots should refuse to accept what people like you are doing. What more Germans should have done to stop Hitler was take a powerful stand against people like you. So far in present-day America, nothing else has worked.
Yes! We need a loud, funny, vulgar fighter! There are a couple…I like the guy from Illinois. But how do we get the attention of the WWF (not to be confused with WTF) crowd who believe shit to be true that isn’t true but makes them feel better…yes Obama was so smart, funny, but born in Kenya!
Joe was, and still is, a great President, in the Carter tradition, and yet he didn’t have a true pugnacious public fighter’s zeal to hurt and maim we need. I don’t know, maybe Gretchen? We certainly have opened to door for women’s voices but they don’t meet the “If it smells it sells,” rules for the new provocateurs crowd. The NY Times crowd.
Of course the Maggots ‘will eat their own’ but we can’t wait that long, children are at risk!
So what to do, what to do?
Perhaps the warrior Jesus will come down; but ICE would bust him.
He’d look like an immigrant.
Like Superman, who is also an undocumented immigrant.
The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is a sacred place, and although it's unlikely that the Forest Service cuts are fully responsible for the current tragedy, I can't help but think that the administration's budget cuts, policy changes, and general indifference to nature are significant contributors. It is complicit in the desecration of holy ground.
Well said, Garrison! And the First Felon has truly crossed the line against freedom of speech when he made CBS cancel Late Night with Stephen Colbert!
He who has NO sense of humor, is a joke as President & our country & her people are suffering because of it.
Colbert is one of the great late-night comedians, whom Pope Francis applauded this year for the ways they combat stress & depression with their talented gift of humor. And he’s too good to not shine again in a new way!
Orange Man is the Lex Luthor of the real world…..& our “Super Man” is coming!
Mr. Keillor wrote"The Florida Flat gained prominence by claiming Obama was born in Kenya," when everyone, including Obama and his late mother, knows he was born in Hawaii. Here's where things get muddled, as one would expect from Major General Monster Muddled Mind:
Recently what used to be known as "our government" but is now Police State #1 ("We're #1!! We're #1!!") deployed its Deportation Deployment Detail to "round up" some of the "worst of the worst" out of the strawberry fields, construction crews, and hotel housekeeping closets and deport them to.....HAWAII!! So, now it all becomes clear. Muddled no more: Thump thinks Hawaii is a foreign country and thus thinks Obama was born in a foreign country, i.e. Hawaii!
Two things can be considered from this insight: #1 - what planet are thump and the evil band of MAGAts from? And #2 - if Gnome and (In-)Homan are doing the bidding of The Modern Major Generalissimo and really want to find "the worst of the worst" they might find easy pickings at Mar-A-Lego. Can't get much more "worst" than hang out there, or that fly in and out of there, like bats. Out of hell.
When the Orange Menace was elected the first time, a friend said she didn't know how she could be happy again. I said, "No! Do not let them steal your joy!" And I've said it to many friends after this second unbelievable election and the horror it has brought. But one cannot also hide one's head in the sand and ignore all that is happening. This piece strikes that balance beautifully. It also reminds me of the fact that I too live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and should not let such lovely days slip by without getting out and enjoying them.
You are a treasure.
I read your work multiple times. The first read is to feel it. The second is to feel it again, the third is to start to analyze your writing. By the time I’m reading for the fourth time, I’m beginning to understand how you do what you do so well. Your writing launches a drone with a video camera on it and it continues to play in my head long after I’ve stopped reading. As many have commented, you are a treasure.
thanks for you comment. I also try to analyze the writing (pretending that I, too, write like this in my own Substack!) and you nailed it with the comment about the video camera drone. Now I get it! Next, how to do that...
A perfect way to outline the kick of writing and fixing it! Oops. better get back to all that after screen-shooting this for my ‘thought wall!’
Spending my summer on Chautauqua Lake in Western New York, not so far away. Pretty much the same parameters, though instead of mocking birds it’s blue jays, mourning doves, woodpeckers and an alarming number ospreys circling to pounce.
My husband and I have spent many summers there, staying with my family in the house on the corner of Roberts and Miller, sitting on the front porch watching people pass by and the kids riding down that steep hill on their bikes! A wonderful place with so much culture and entertainment and beauty!
I love walking with you through Manhattan. We lived there for 20 years. I miss it. I appreciate the balance you bring to a lovely walk with your beloved— the sights, the food, the joy, and mixed in is the preposterous behavior of this administration, the darkness of the campaign against education, thinking, kindness, common grace— so uncommon now. To completely ignore it isn’t real. To see it, walk with it, and still declare Life is Good is straight from God’s heart. Thank you.
Such astute observations! Thank you!
NYC is community. We connect. Thank you for illustrating this so vitally.
It was a beautiful day on Humboldt Bay as well. The coconut prawns at Jack's Seafood were perfection as we dissected our latest protest experience. The fact we could do this is not lost on me. White male privilege should be enjoyed (and leveraged) while it lasts.
Yes GK you are a treasure. When you post your wonderful prose that is why I still read you all these years. It is your outrageous, if not out-of-control tiresome TDS asides & rants that ruin it for me at times.
But I stick with you since occasionally I find you words so enchanting & enlightening & helpful in this divisive world we live in.
My dear partner/companion has the raging TDS like you sir, and I listen without responding to her to let her vent and quietly try to understand her hysteria and rage. And to let her calm down.
I've come to respect her passion and ACCEPT that I will not understand where the deep hatred stems from, and the why of it.
My point of this comment to you is to provide you some context as to why -as a long-time fascinated fan- I wish your posts would be devoid of any politics. I have a folder of printouts of your columns from years ago that are wonderful and have no politics.
We have other places for that stuff.
Artists - I would include all those who practice in the visual, written, spoken, dance, performative, musical, and graphic mediums - feed off of the beauty in life. Most ordinary people don’t know how to communicate their own feelings and emotions to reflect the joy and wonder they experience, so we turn to artists who can. You, Jim, “stick” with GK for the same reason… you find him “enchanting & enlightening” and I assume his work enriches your life. You claim to respect his work, but you want it tailored to reflect a false reality that you find comforting, and that isn’t what an artist does. To ask him to omit politics is a bit like a self-proclaimed animal lover shooting an elephant and then using its leg as an ashtray in his study. He admires the majesty of the animal so much that he wants a piece of it in his daily life. That’s the definition of derangement, not TDS.
Dear Jim J - Nice to read that you are more of a human being and less of a MAGA caricature. With the exception of you and a couple of other regulars, most of GK's posters are appalled by the politics going down these days - it's cruel, it's sinful, it's goddamn un-American. Every time you employ the TDS expression you are offending a lot of people. It's a simplistic phrase and has no basis in reality. We are kind, we are generous, we do not kick people when they're down. We are not hysterical. We are the Americans across the aisle, not deranged vermin. Kindly cut it out.
This is very well said. I urge my friends not to call it politics, though. Fascism and kleptocracy shouldn't be called politics.
Well said !
There are other places for the stuff of ones like you. Lots of sites celebrating the Nazi and current felon. If you knew anything about history, you would understand Garrison’s concern for our country.
It's you who have some kind of syndrome, not your partner. If you respect her, stop pretending not to comprehend contempt for a liar who publicly accuses Haitian migrants of eating our dogs and cats. An adjudicated rapist whose affection for and complicity with Jeffrey Epstein is now being exposed. A "leader" who only wants to divide us. Speaking out about his sick behavior has nothing to do with politics.
Feigning incomprehension and calling Garrison Keillor a treasure--while attempting to silence him--doesn't mitigate your complicity in the ongoing destruction of our country. Since you've publicly dismissed your partner's rejection of authoritarian kleptocracy as a sign of some "raging syndrome," she should leave you. That's what it's come to in this country. If you're still pretending not to "get it" after all these years, she should move on.
American patriots should refuse to accept what people like you are doing. What more Germans should have done to stop Hitler was take a powerful stand against people like you. So far in present-day America, nothing else has worked.
You are insulting my intelligence, sir, and please stop. You are also destroying this country. It's not him, it's you.
The individual who sows “deep hatred,” is DJT, who is consumed by vengeance, who has a persecution complex, and whose cruelty knows no limits.
Yes! We need a loud, funny, vulgar fighter! There are a couple…I like the guy from Illinois. But how do we get the attention of the WWF (not to be confused with WTF) crowd who believe shit to be true that isn’t true but makes them feel better…yes Obama was so smart, funny, but born in Kenya!
Joe was, and still is, a great President, in the Carter tradition, and yet he didn’t have a true pugnacious public fighter’s zeal to hurt and maim we need. I don’t know, maybe Gretchen? We certainly have opened to door for women’s voices but they don’t meet the “If it smells it sells,” rules for the new provocateurs crowd. The NY Times crowd.
Of course the Maggots ‘will eat their own’ but we can’t wait that long, children are at risk!
So what to do, what to do?
Perhaps the warrior Jesus will come down; but ICE would bust him.
He’d look like an immigrant.
Like Superman, who is also an undocumented immigrant.
Life is both magnificent and terrifying.
Hard not to be overwhelmed by the days beauty but underwhelmed by the Orange Guy. Yin Yang? Hmmm?
Great last line about 'not getting in. the way.' Thanks Garrison, for that nice dose of calm and gorgeous summer NY day, and your devotion to love
The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is a sacred place, and although it's unlikely that the Forest Service cuts are fully responsible for the current tragedy, I can't help but think that the administration's budget cuts, policy changes, and general indifference to nature are significant contributors. It is complicit in the desecration of holy ground.
Well said, Garrison! And the First Felon has truly crossed the line against freedom of speech when he made CBS cancel Late Night with Stephen Colbert!
He who has NO sense of humor, is a joke as President & our country & her people are suffering because of it.
Colbert is one of the great late-night comedians, whom Pope Francis applauded this year for the ways they combat stress & depression with their talented gift of humor. And he’s too good to not shine again in a new way!
Orange Man is the Lex Luthor of the real world…..& our “Super Man” is coming!
Mr. Keillor wrote"The Florida Flat gained prominence by claiming Obama was born in Kenya," when everyone, including Obama and his late mother, knows he was born in Hawaii. Here's where things get muddled, as one would expect from Major General Monster Muddled Mind:
Recently what used to be known as "our government" but is now Police State #1 ("We're #1!! We're #1!!") deployed its Deportation Deployment Detail to "round up" some of the "worst of the worst" out of the strawberry fields, construction crews, and hotel housekeeping closets and deport them to.....HAWAII!! So, now it all becomes clear. Muddled no more: Thump thinks Hawaii is a foreign country and thus thinks Obama was born in a foreign country, i.e. Hawaii!
Two things can be considered from this insight: #1 - what planet are thump and the evil band of MAGAts from? And #2 - if Gnome and (In-)Homan are doing the bidding of The Modern Major Generalissimo and really want to find "the worst of the worst" they might find easy pickings at Mar-A-Lego. Can't get much more "worst" than hang out there, or that fly in and out of there, like bats. Out of hell.
When the Orange Menace was elected the first time, a friend said she didn't know how she could be happy again. I said, "No! Do not let them steal your joy!" And I've said it to many friends after this second unbelievable election and the horror it has brought. But one cannot also hide one's head in the sand and ignore all that is happening. This piece strikes that balance beautifully. It also reminds me of the fact that I too live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and should not let such lovely days slip by without getting out and enjoying them.