First of all, thanks for that link. That was wonderful. Second, don't regret so fast. Nothing is going to be the same. It might be far better, it might be far worse, but that man is making people (on both sides of the aisle!) seriously re-think their ossified verities.
This is not a question of "might be." "It," as you say, is definitely going to be far worse, unless more of us snap out of our delusions. Are you not paying attention to what those clowns are doing? This is how decades-long dictatorships get started. It's not reform or efficiency. You don't fix things by handing power to someone who for decades has been known to be a lying, cheating fraud and then eliminating all checks and balances on him. This is extremely obvious.
You have a habit of apologizing on these pages. I have to say, this latest apology of yours is downright ridiculous and your vote is something to be ashamed of. You said before that you would make your decision and keep it to yourself, but I guess you just had to come back and confess. I tried to tell you the obvious, that what you should have done was not to refrain from voting but rather to vote for the one possible alternative to this godawful mess. You know better and you knew better. Humanity arguably has always been going to hell in a handbasket. It's never been otherwise. But you had a very clear choice to make--an important choice--and you utterly blew it. Your comment here shows that you haven't changed. You would do the same thing again. You're just like the people who were appalled by January 6th but later decided that it was no big deal. You probably are one of those people. It's ridiculous and downright shameful and people should not pretend otherwise out of politeness or not wanting to hurt your feelings. Think about it, "sister." I suggest that at the very least, if you really feel apologetic about your vote, stop talking about how you could never have voted for the other side. Could you manage to do that, so that you are no longer spreading hate about the other side, the side that would have been so much better than what you've helped bring us? Could you just shut up about how intolerable to you the only alternative would have been? Not for my sake, but for the country's?
Do you ever laugh or smile, Dana? Have you ever made a mistake? I'm sorry that I called you "sister" once. I thought that you were a woman by your name, but I guess I was wrong about that, and since this mistake lingers in your memory, please accept my apology once and for all. As I think that I said at the time, I truly meant no offense. But I don’t remember ever reading any of your lengthy and often angry comments that make me think that you ever laugh or smile or make mistakes. Does it really rile you when Garrison writes humor or does stand-up comedy and sing-a-longs that people of all kinds and persuasions enjoy in a moment of brief community? Please don’t answer, because I think I already know. I deleted my comments above because your vitriol is so unkind and unforgiving, and I don't come to "Garrison Keillor and Friends" for that, although it seems that you do. I forgive you, Dana. I wish that we could go to a bar and drink a beer together and discover in one another a common albeit fallible humanity, but I don't really think that you would do that with me. God bless you, Dana. You've more than made your point. Like Garrison once said to me about his posts, "I'm just an old man talking to himself." So please leave me be, Dana. Thank you.
Majik, I do laugh and smile. A lot. But some things utterly disgust me. Some examples are fascism, liars, felons, insurrectionists, dictators, rapists. It isn't a laughing matter to me when Americans vote for such things. Especially when they do so for idiotic reasons, when they know better. As Garrison Keillor has pointed out, the central illness of our country is people's willingness to believe what they know to be false so that they can feel superior to others. I agree with this 100%, and I think it's way past time that American patriots started being much more frank about calling this illness out, and much more resolute in their rejection of authoritarianism. I was not offended when you called me sister, sister! I am quite forgiving, and I forgive you. But I won't stop responding to comments like yours in these pages, unless Garrison Keillor bans me. I certainly don't have his tact or delicacy, or Joe Biden's, when I discuss these things—and I'm just fine with that. Please, reflect on the silliness of your "apology" regarding your vote. In other words, you know all the stuff that's happening now? The stuff that made you apologize for your vote? It's everything that the "Republicans" promised us. It's Project 2025, and you voted for it. Your saying that you could never have voted for the other side made your apology totally insincere.
C'est fini? Majik, a headline in France today reads "The America that practiced the rule of law and invented the liberal international order is no more." We don't need French newspapers to tell us that, but for me it really hits home to see how the outside world is perceiving our national crisis, or maybe I should say post-crisis at this point. "L'Amérique qui pratiquait l'Etat de droit et avait inventé l'ordre libéral international, c'est fini." C'est fini. If you want tact, you'll have to get it from someone other than me. Maybe Joe Biden, if he still believes that nonsense about questioning people's judgment but not their motives. By the way, you don't have to make another big production out of this; you could simply block me.
I often watch those wheelchair pushers and think of the many miles they put in each day... not to mention their joy in the face of passengers who are tense, in pain, or even surly. I'm so happy that you and ZsaZsa met. The gifts of joy that you exchanged will go on giving.... thanks for including me and those to whom I forward your missive.
Looks like you forgot to tell the credit card company that you lost your card traveling and need one with a new number to avoid fraudulent charges. You can assure them you'll be contacting all the providers you need to.
I don’t know if that will work. I recently lost the credit card I use almost exclusively for reoccurring charges and when I received the replacement card, I sat down at my computer to go through my list to update the card number for all of the automated payments I am signed up for. Much to my surprise, many had already been updated to the new number without any action on my part. I’m assuming that the credit card companies now automatically update reoccurring payments if a new card is ordered for the “convenience” of the card user.
Oh, man! That strikes a chord or two with me. Airports and chatbot voice menus. Whew!
Listen - contact the NY State AG's consumer complaint bureau re: the credit card BS. They can fix that for you. Here's the link: https://ag.ny.gov/file-complaint/consumer
I was in a pretty dark place after reading WH Auden's Funeral Blues after going down a Writers Almanac rabbit hole. Only to be lifted back up with your piece today!!! Thanks for sharing your positive ZsaZsa experience with us!!
I’m with Zsa Zsa. When you come across another person, any person, give them a big smile. Then say something nice. Doesn’t matter how mundane it is. As long as it makes them feel good. If only for an instant. My dog Sam, the sweetest Boston Terrier the world has ever known, taught me that lesson years ago.
Just a side note, however problematic it may be to sort out your credit card problems you should still press ahead and clear them up as soon as possible.
In particular, earlier this week Elon Musk bragged of having successfully(?) gutted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency of the government responsible for dealing with (and protecting consumers against) exactly this sort of commercial and credit fraud.
(And, surely the fact that Musk is in midst of firing up his X-Cash system —as a replacement for credit cards and as a mechanical for managing on-line financial transactions— is surely just a coincidence, right?)
So, again, find yourself a 20 year old to help you, and get it done while you still can.
First of all, thanks for that link. That was wonderful. Second, don't regret so fast. Nothing is going to be the same. It might be far better, it might be far worse, but that man is making people (on both sides of the aisle!) seriously re-think their ossified verities.
There’s a forest out there, not just trees.
This is not a question of "might be." "It," as you say, is definitely going to be far worse, unless more of us snap out of our delusions. Are you not paying attention to what those clowns are doing? This is how decades-long dictatorships get started. It's not reform or efficiency. You don't fix things by handing power to someone who for decades has been known to be a lying, cheating fraud and then eliminating all checks and balances on him. This is extremely obvious.
You have a habit of apologizing on these pages. I have to say, this latest apology of yours is downright ridiculous and your vote is something to be ashamed of. You said before that you would make your decision and keep it to yourself, but I guess you just had to come back and confess. I tried to tell you the obvious, that what you should have done was not to refrain from voting but rather to vote for the one possible alternative to this godawful mess. You know better and you knew better. Humanity arguably has always been going to hell in a handbasket. It's never been otherwise. But you had a very clear choice to make--an important choice--and you utterly blew it. Your comment here shows that you haven't changed. You would do the same thing again. You're just like the people who were appalled by January 6th but later decided that it was no big deal. You probably are one of those people. It's ridiculous and downright shameful and people should not pretend otherwise out of politeness or not wanting to hurt your feelings. Think about it, "sister." I suggest that at the very least, if you really feel apologetic about your vote, stop talking about how you could never have voted for the other side. Could you manage to do that, so that you are no longer spreading hate about the other side, the side that would have been so much better than what you've helped bring us? Could you just shut up about how intolerable to you the only alternative would have been? Not for my sake, but for the country's?
Do you ever laugh or smile, Dana? Have you ever made a mistake? I'm sorry that I called you "sister" once. I thought that you were a woman by your name, but I guess I was wrong about that, and since this mistake lingers in your memory, please accept my apology once and for all. As I think that I said at the time, I truly meant no offense. But I don’t remember ever reading any of your lengthy and often angry comments that make me think that you ever laugh or smile or make mistakes. Does it really rile you when Garrison writes humor or does stand-up comedy and sing-a-longs that people of all kinds and persuasions enjoy in a moment of brief community? Please don’t answer, because I think I already know. I deleted my comments above because your vitriol is so unkind and unforgiving, and I don't come to "Garrison Keillor and Friends" for that, although it seems that you do. I forgive you, Dana. I wish that we could go to a bar and drink a beer together and discover in one another a common albeit fallible humanity, but I don't really think that you would do that with me. God bless you, Dana. You've more than made your point. Like Garrison once said to me about his posts, "I'm just an old man talking to himself." So please leave me be, Dana. Thank you.
Majik, I do laugh and smile. A lot. But some things utterly disgust me. Some examples are fascism, liars, felons, insurrectionists, dictators, rapists. It isn't a laughing matter to me when Americans vote for such things. Especially when they do so for idiotic reasons, when they know better. As Garrison Keillor has pointed out, the central illness of our country is people's willingness to believe what they know to be false so that they can feel superior to others. I agree with this 100%, and I think it's way past time that American patriots started being much more frank about calling this illness out, and much more resolute in their rejection of authoritarianism. I was not offended when you called me sister, sister! I am quite forgiving, and I forgive you. But I won't stop responding to comments like yours in these pages, unless Garrison Keillor bans me. I certainly don't have his tact or delicacy, or Joe Biden's, when I discuss these things—and I'm just fine with that. Please, reflect on the silliness of your "apology" regarding your vote. In other words, you know all the stuff that's happening now? The stuff that made you apologize for your vote? It's everything that the "Republicans" promised us. It's Project 2025, and you voted for it. Your saying that you could never have voted for the other side made your apology totally insincere.
Congratulations, Dana. You win.
You ARE my better. I’m leaving GK&F for good this time because of you.
I won’t miss your tactless commentary. Have a nice life. https://youtu.be/6WMNxvntdQ8?feature=shared
C'est fini? Majik, a headline in France today reads "The America that practiced the rule of law and invented the liberal international order is no more." We don't need French newspapers to tell us that, but for me it really hits home to see how the outside world is perceiving our national crisis, or maybe I should say post-crisis at this point. "L'Amérique qui pratiquait l'Etat de droit et avait inventé l'ordre libéral international, c'est fini." C'est fini. If you want tact, you'll have to get it from someone other than me. Maybe Joe Biden, if he still believes that nonsense about questioning people's judgment but not their motives. By the way, you don't have to make another big production out of this; you could simply block me.
I tried to get Zsa Zsa's colleagues at Atlanta to stage wheelchair races for high stakes. They wouldn't play.
Marvelous, we all need a ZsaZsa.
I often watch those wheelchair pushers and think of the many miles they put in each day... not to mention their joy in the face of passengers who are tense, in pain, or even surly. I'm so happy that you and ZsaZsa met. The gifts of joy that you exchanged will go on giving.... thanks for including me and those to whom I forward your missive.
Looks like you forgot to tell the credit card company that you lost your card traveling and need one with a new number to avoid fraudulent charges. You can assure them you'll be contacting all the providers you need to.
I don’t know if that will work. I recently lost the credit card I use almost exclusively for reoccurring charges and when I received the replacement card, I sat down at my computer to go through my list to update the card number for all of the automated payments I am signed up for. Much to my surprise, many had already been updated to the new number without any action on my part. I’m assuming that the credit card companies now automatically update reoccurring payments if a new card is ordered for the “convenience” of the card user.
Oh, man! That strikes a chord or two with me. Airports and chatbot voice menus. Whew!
Listen - contact the NY State AG's consumer complaint bureau re: the credit card BS. They can fix that for you. Here's the link: https://ag.ny.gov/file-complaint/consumer
Amen
Just refuse to pay those bogus charges and ask the CC company to look into them. I've never been asked to "contact the provider."
Mr. Keillor,
You can call your bank and put a stop payment on the card. That is the way it worked ten years ago, when I retired! Be well and thank you.
My late husband would it his belt, wallet, keys in a carry on bag which had his meds and radio.
I was in a pretty dark place after reading WH Auden's Funeral Blues after going down a Writers Almanac rabbit hole. Only to be lifted back up with your piece today!!! Thanks for sharing your positive ZsaZsa experience with us!!
The world needs more Zsa Zsas.
I’m with Zsa Zsa. When you come across another person, any person, give them a big smile. Then say something nice. Doesn’t matter how mundane it is. As long as it makes them feel good. If only for an instant. My dog Sam, the sweetest Boston Terrier the world has ever known, taught me that lesson years ago.
Beautifully said! A cup of water from Zsa Zsa…
Good Morning Garrison
Just a side note, however problematic it may be to sort out your credit card problems you should still press ahead and clear them up as soon as possible.
In particular, earlier this week Elon Musk bragged of having successfully(?) gutted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency of the government responsible for dealing with (and protecting consumers against) exactly this sort of commercial and credit fraud.
(And, surely the fact that Musk is in midst of firing up his X-Cash system —as a replacement for credit cards and as a mechanical for managing on-line financial transactions— is surely just a coincidence, right?)
So, again, find yourself a 20 year old to help you, and get it done while you still can.
[P.S. All Hail Zsa-Zsa!]
Good advice.
Garrison, Ruth and I (older than you) now always need wheel chairs. What a positive
and interesting experiences we have. Almost all of the people are fr. another country,
and when we talk w. them, Ruth and I have interesting conversations. And because we
have both lived in various countries, connect sometimes we can talk about where they are from.