Podcast 76 - But in the midst of my vagueness, I have a clear memory of the novel I’m writing, a novel that thrice in the early morning hours, I’ve awakened with clear ideas about...
Garrison, Your trip to the ER, because it ended well for you, also brought back my own memories as an Air Force medic in an ER. After that, my civilian EMTA time in a hospital when not on ambulance runs. All those years ago I still remember taking the time to comfort patients who suddenly find themselves in strange surroundings and circumstances. It seemed a most natural thing to do.
Glad you are OK. I enjoyed this. As a retired nurse, I like hearing praise for healthcare professionals. I was in the hospital myself last week, getting a stent placement for a brain aneurysm. I have nothing but praise for the nurses who cared for me in the ICU!
Don't fret, Garrison. I took the mental acuity test at my checkup and flunked counting back from 100 by 7! We're losing some parts but hanging in...keep writing that novel.
What a wonderful tribute to humor and emergency rooms and human kindness. Thank you, Sir, and congratulations on your good health and amazing cognition. With love from an admirer, age 82.
Good gracious, that was exceptionally funny while being much more than jocular. If your writing and speaking were to be transformed into another artistic medium it would be equally engaging and a joy to experience. This was delightful, thank you very much!
I won't mind if you lose your mind again in one of your future columns. It's quite entertaining...On a more serious note, I suspect almost all of us over 60 have our "senior moments", just not so dramatically...
I wish criteria for subscribing to your writing included the option of "pay what you feel is fair," rather than you still seemingly wanting to stay rich as you can. Apologies if I am widely off the mark. Your rebuttal will/would likely be sharper and stinging than mine to you . Maybe you have lots of debts. What do I know. I just feel some of us ought to try the economics of care, without dollar signs. What think you? A decades long fan, Linda L. in Eau Claire
Linda, these columns and podcasts don’t just spring from a writer’s mind into the internet! There are several staff members who are involved with the technological and other aspects of putting it out there. I would re-think the snarky remark, “stay as rich as you can,” as you can’t know what goes into putting out a product which you clearly enjoy. There’s a universe of writers out there (including here at Substack), blogging away for the love of it, whose work you can read for free…but you like THIS writer, and if the product has a cost, you have the choice of paying for the full experience or just enjoying the free version.
Should every creative person whose output you like donate their services to the world? How would they support themselves on that? They’d need money-making employment of some kind, that that would eat into their ability to produce the product you like! Not only that, it would cut down on their ability to get even better at what you appreciate about their output.
Many exasperated artists have used this example, but there’s a reason it comes up in each discussion of this ilk: “You’re a dermatologist/cardiologist/psychiatrist, and I’d like a diagnosis of my rash/shortness of breath/depression, but don’t want to pay for it! Can’t you just take a look at it and tell me if it’s serious? And maybe call in a prescription?”
Radio was never a big buck rodeo, especially after the #metoo! foot stomping.
GK remains a tent pole for a lot of people’s livelihood, in addition to his own. I saw the percentage of paid vs. unpaid readers once: pitiful. I’ve also seen the state of his sneakers, and the thought “now there’s a filthy-rich money-grubbing oligarch” never crossed my mind.
However, my point did get lost. I did not contend that GK was a money-grubbing oligarch. Rather that some of us can gather that our current capitalist economic system is horribly, morally inexcusably unjust. And an aging, yet still prolific author who might be compared to Twain in brilliance and output, could experiment. Does creativity vanish without significant monetary reward? How much is enough? And my point was how about people like me, considered ‘low income.
How about if we were able to pay what was deemed reasonable based upon our income; a sliding scale…There are some internet contributors who are playing with system options like this. My snark also sprang from literally a couple of thousand requests, pleading, and throwing every 1960s era cheesy advertising lure in the book to request campaign donations. BTAIM,
I suppose I was mulling the idea of that someone so talented might experiment with disassociating his writing gift from strict monetary remuneration. Such an unexpected move might result in being even more widely read and appreciated—a pilot project,so to speak.
We, some of us, ardently seek alternatives to extreme forms of ruthless capitalism so firmly ensconced in American culture since the very beginning.
And there is the fact that many of Earth’s ecosystems are ravaged and pillaged, many beyond hope of restitution because of. this system.
Mostly true, especially your annoyance at the post-election pleas to give money to, “keep fighting.”
GK platforms have options for donations? Or, merch is available? Free subscribers are the vast majority, so maybe there’s a path there for you to combine purchase and free to contribute at a level that works for you?
I’m just not ready to say, in this moment, that a comedian raconteur—particularly one I view as of a victim of #Overreach—should be asked to ameliorate the capitalist system. A life-effectiveness group I know with a great product nearly foundered trying the model you suggest: artsy-fartsy folk (such as me) always have something better do with money than pay, if that’s an option.
There’s overhead with a traveling show, even without the sequins. So many APHC employees were SOL because democrats were so pure that APM cancelled GK’s show upon accusation. Even after the limitations of the accusations became clear, we remained too “pure” to tolerate APHC—oh those days of the week panty jokes!!!!—but we elected Trump, so decorous treatment of women can’t matter much.
Maybe you should pick an entertainer who didn’t have their income steam eviscerated for years already, as did GK? If we get a free market economy where everything is free to everyone, then good idea.
Isn’t it lovely to have a back-and-forth exchange and stay civil? Thank you, Linda, for engaging.
Garrison, Your trip to the ER, because it ended well for you, also brought back my own memories as an Air Force medic in an ER. After that, my civilian EMTA time in a hospital when not on ambulance runs. All those years ago I still remember taking the time to comfort patients who suddenly find themselves in strange surroundings and circumstances. It seemed a most natural thing to do.
Glad you are OK. I enjoyed this. As a retired nurse, I like hearing praise for healthcare professionals. I was in the hospital myself last week, getting a stent placement for a brain aneurysm. I have nothing but praise for the nurses who cared for me in the ICU!
Don't fret, Garrison. I took the mental acuity test at my checkup and flunked counting back from 100 by 7! We're losing some parts but hanging in...keep writing that novel.
What a wonderful tribute to humor and emergency rooms and human kindness. Thank you, Sir, and congratulations on your good health and amazing cognition. With love from an admirer, age 82.
Good gracious, that was exceptionally funny while being much more than jocular. If your writing and speaking were to be transformed into another artistic medium it would be equally engaging and a joy to experience. This was delightful, thank you very much!
Thanks, I laughed out loud. I needed that today.
I won't mind if you lose your mind again in one of your future columns. It's quite entertaining...On a more serious note, I suspect almost all of us over 60 have our "senior moments", just not so dramatically...
I too am a low church episcopalian! You no doubt have heard the joke...
"Episcopalians are just Catholics without the guilt*
😄
I wish criteria for subscribing to your writing included the option of "pay what you feel is fair," rather than you still seemingly wanting to stay rich as you can. Apologies if I am widely off the mark. Your rebuttal will/would likely be sharper and stinging than mine to you . Maybe you have lots of debts. What do I know. I just feel some of us ought to try the economics of care, without dollar signs. What think you? A decades long fan, Linda L. in Eau Claire
Linda, these columns and podcasts don’t just spring from a writer’s mind into the internet! There are several staff members who are involved with the technological and other aspects of putting it out there. I would re-think the snarky remark, “stay as rich as you can,” as you can’t know what goes into putting out a product which you clearly enjoy. There’s a universe of writers out there (including here at Substack), blogging away for the love of it, whose work you can read for free…but you like THIS writer, and if the product has a cost, you have the choice of paying for the full experience or just enjoying the free version.
Should every creative person whose output you like donate their services to the world? How would they support themselves on that? They’d need money-making employment of some kind, that that would eat into their ability to produce the product you like! Not only that, it would cut down on their ability to get even better at what you appreciate about their output.
Many exasperated artists have used this example, but there’s a reason it comes up in each discussion of this ilk: “You’re a dermatologist/cardiologist/psychiatrist, and I’d like a diagnosis of my rash/shortness of breath/depression, but don’t want to pay for it! Can’t you just take a look at it and tell me if it’s serious? And maybe call in a prescription?”
Leftists never care what it cost to make anything. They are entitled to it for free. Forget arguing facts or reality.
Really? Must everything be political?
Radio was never a big buck rodeo, especially after the #metoo! foot stomping.
GK remains a tent pole for a lot of people’s livelihood, in addition to his own. I saw the percentage of paid vs. unpaid readers once: pitiful. I’ve also seen the state of his sneakers, and the thought “now there’s a filthy-rich money-grubbing oligarch” never crossed my mind.
Point taken.
However, my point did get lost. I did not contend that GK was a money-grubbing oligarch. Rather that some of us can gather that our current capitalist economic system is horribly, morally inexcusably unjust. And an aging, yet still prolific author who might be compared to Twain in brilliance and output, could experiment. Does creativity vanish without significant monetary reward? How much is enough? And my point was how about people like me, considered ‘low income.
How about if we were able to pay what was deemed reasonable based upon our income; a sliding scale…There are some internet contributors who are playing with system options like this. My snark also sprang from literally a couple of thousand requests, pleading, and throwing every 1960s era cheesy advertising lure in the book to request campaign donations. BTAIM,
I suppose I was mulling the idea of that someone so talented might experiment with disassociating his writing gift from strict monetary remuneration. Such an unexpected move might result in being even more widely read and appreciated—a pilot project,so to speak.
We, some of us, ardently seek alternatives to extreme forms of ruthless capitalism so firmly ensconced in American culture since the very beginning.
And there is the fact that many of Earth’s ecosystems are ravaged and pillaged, many beyond hope of restitution because of. this system.
We all still have things to learn.
Mostly true, especially your annoyance at the post-election pleas to give money to, “keep fighting.”
GK platforms have options for donations? Or, merch is available? Free subscribers are the vast majority, so maybe there’s a path there for you to combine purchase and free to contribute at a level that works for you?
I’m just not ready to say, in this moment, that a comedian raconteur—particularly one I view as of a victim of #Overreach—should be asked to ameliorate the capitalist system. A life-effectiveness group I know with a great product nearly foundered trying the model you suggest: artsy-fartsy folk (such as me) always have something better do with money than pay, if that’s an option.
There’s overhead with a traveling show, even without the sequins. So many APHC employees were SOL because democrats were so pure that APM cancelled GK’s show upon accusation. Even after the limitations of the accusations became clear, we remained too “pure” to tolerate APHC—oh those days of the week panty jokes!!!!—but we elected Trump, so decorous treatment of women can’t matter much.
Maybe you should pick an entertainer who didn’t have their income steam eviscerated for years already, as did GK? If we get a free market economy where everything is free to everyone, then good idea.
Isn’t it lovely to have a back-and-forth exchange and stay civil? Thank you, Linda, for engaging.
Love and prayers. Hang in there, dear friend.
Garrison, please take care of yourself. We need you out here, old buddy.