You are truly an excellent writer . Sorry you are holed up and amazed you churned out this touching piece. No covid novels! Love is good. Love is everything . Eliza
OMG... You are feeling better! If you have been Covid isolated, the housekeeping staff is likely not even allowed in for cleaning. You need to get out! Moby Dick is a magnificent masterpiece, but I suppose that I must give Typee a try.... someday. You are spot on about the lists of best books.
We are headed for NYC next week. Assuming that you have recovered from Covid (and that I don’t get it while traveling) and you are back there, I keep imagining that I will run into you either on one of your walks, or in an airport. If so, would you prefer a friendly hello, just a faint nod in your direction or being completely ignored as if you were totally unrecognized or unseen?
Sorry to hear that you have Covid, Garrison. The wife and I had it back in June and I was surprised at how little it affected us. Of course, we both have had the shots and boosters. I felt the effects of Covid for about three days -- scratchy throat and high temperature -- but my temperature never went above 100. something. I only know for sure that I had it because I tested positive for about a week.
I am a believer in science and medicine and take all of the shots that are available -- flu, pneumonia, shingles, covid, etc. That helped a lot when we did get covid.
Your mention of American Classics, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Moby Dick, called to mind my work as a Librarian. I liked my work and interacting with the people who came to the library. But I also know that there are large libraries full of Classics that nobody reads. Or few people read.
Young people don't realize it but life is very transitory. When you are young you feel like you have all the time in the world and can do anthing that you want to do. Then one day you get up and realize that you are 70 and will probably only live another 20 years at the most. You don't have time to do many things. And when you die few people will notice. But that is not just me. Most people do not know who Emerson and Melville were and they wrote classics.
Most of the people that I knew growing up are already dead. So we need to make the most of the time that is left and, and as much as possible, do the things that we enjoy doing.
Get well soon, Garrison. Your audience is waiting and I hope that your shows are great successes.
Garrison, you are lucky in that you are doing things which you like to do and also things which other people like. You have been doing your shows for what, about forty years. And the crowds keep coming back. I don't think that many people could do that.
For now you need comfort, not bitter cold, sleepiness, not alertness. You'll have plenty of time to come back north to do squats in the freezing cold once your body completes the eviction of Mr. Covid. I'm almost done with it and my father-in-law is still miraculously symptom-free - 80-something year old guys must be made of stern stuff! Unfortunately, my poor hubby has been laid up in bed for the past 72 hours now, but he's on the mend, too. This, too, will pass, Get well soon, Mr. Keillor.
All the Best Of's dreary? "Lessons in Chemistry" is on various lists. It has virulent misogyny and discrimination but also a scientist named Zott and a dog named Six Thirty. The comic novel "Less" won a Pulitzer four years ago. It's about a semi-famous writer who accepts a series of overseas invitations to avoid attending his ex's wedding. He spends a lot of time in hotel rooms pondering his life choices. Pick it up. Might resonate.
Forty years ago I read all Melville's novels in a Melville seminar taught by a New Englander English prof at a little southern liberal arts college. I was the only non-English major. I flirted with the idea of studying literature but ended up a scientist. I try to make new vaccines.
I hope that your Covid infection is completely Paxlovid and vaccine-mediated and you don't experience a bad Covid rebound like my Uncle Ron did on our attempt to pedal across the country last Summer, stranding us for a week in a prefab cabin at the Double B RV park in Stanford, Montana, Population 403. You get to know a goodly portion of the populace of a town that size if you hang out for a week with nothing much to do: Jeanne the head librarian, her husband Steve the bronze sculptor, retired ranchers Bob and Bobbi (Double B), Dr. Pederson, retired Bay Area race horse veterinarian, and pretty much everyone at the two bar-restaurants and one lunch cafe. Ron probably disagrees but for me it was a highlight of the trip.
Feel better soon. I got Covid in October when I was in Amsterdam. I'd had all 5 shots too. Anyway, thank god it wasn't life-threatening but it was very unpleasant. Coincidently we flew into FFL last week and will be in FL for a few weeks. I can relate to missing the cold being from Wisconsin and all. But we are on the Ocean and sit on the beach all day under an umbrella and read! Grateful. Oh, and if you autograph anything, don't have your people using autopen! (nod to Bob)
Moby-Dick marathon at New Bedford (Massachusetts) Whaling Museum (whalingmuseum.org) - a “read aloud” of the novel by many different people - YOU could be one! - over a winter weekend; and again in Portuguese 🐳
Get well
I would challenge your comment that better writers are only in cold climates. Um, Eudora Welty, Harper Lee, &--oh, my goodness--Ferrol Sams.
And Flannery O'Conner! Certainly Eudora Welty...
...all of whom had more than enough internal bleakness to make up for the balmy weather. Unlike our host.
🙌
William Faulkner, Mark Twain, Wendell Berry!
Just for starters, and 20th century alone, Harriett Simpson Arnow
Harry Caudill
Bobbie Ann Mason
Robert K. Massie
Allen Tate
Robert Penn Warren
Larry McMurtry
Pat Conroy
Carson McCullers
Harper Lee
William Faulkner
Wendell Berry
You are truly an excellent writer . Sorry you are holed up and amazed you churned out this touching piece. No covid novels! Love is good. Love is everything . Eliza
🔥🔥
“The effect of comfort is to make you sleepy; bitter cold promotes alertness. Make note of it.” Truer words...
OMG... You are feeling better! If you have been Covid isolated, the housekeeping staff is likely not even allowed in for cleaning. You need to get out! Moby Dick is a magnificent masterpiece, but I suppose that I must give Typee a try.... someday. You are spot on about the lists of best books.
❣️
We are headed for NYC next week. Assuming that you have recovered from Covid (and that I don’t get it while traveling) and you are back there, I keep imagining that I will run into you either on one of your walks, or in an airport. If so, would you prefer a friendly hello, just a faint nod in your direction or being completely ignored as if you were totally unrecognized or unseen?
Sorry to hear that you have Covid, Garrison. The wife and I had it back in June and I was surprised at how little it affected us. Of course, we both have had the shots and boosters. I felt the effects of Covid for about three days -- scratchy throat and high temperature -- but my temperature never went above 100. something. I only know for sure that I had it because I tested positive for about a week.
I am a believer in science and medicine and take all of the shots that are available -- flu, pneumonia, shingles, covid, etc. That helped a lot when we did get covid.
Your mention of American Classics, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Moby Dick, called to mind my work as a Librarian. I liked my work and interacting with the people who came to the library. But I also know that there are large libraries full of Classics that nobody reads. Or few people read.
Young people don't realize it but life is very transitory. When you are young you feel like you have all the time in the world and can do anthing that you want to do. Then one day you get up and realize that you are 70 and will probably only live another 20 years at the most. You don't have time to do many things. And when you die few people will notice. But that is not just me. Most people do not know who Emerson and Melville were and they wrote classics.
Most of the people that I knew growing up are already dead. So we need to make the most of the time that is left and, and as much as possible, do the things that we enjoy doing.
Get well soon, Garrison. Your audience is waiting and I hope that your shows are great successes.
Garrison, you are lucky in that you are doing things which you like to do and also things which other people like. You have been doing your shows for what, about forty years. And the crowds keep coming back. I don't think that many people could do that.
Almost 50 years now.
Thanks for that information.
🔥🔥🫰❤️
For now you need comfort, not bitter cold, sleepiness, not alertness. You'll have plenty of time to come back north to do squats in the freezing cold once your body completes the eviction of Mr. Covid. I'm almost done with it and my father-in-law is still miraculously symptom-free - 80-something year old guys must be made of stern stuff! Unfortunately, my poor hubby has been laid up in bed for the past 72 hours now, but he's on the mend, too. This, too, will pass, Get well soon, Mr. Keillor.
Judging from Mr K's writings, when he returns to his love he will get well doon, indeed.
Unfortunately, the poor man will have to test negative before he can fly back to his love.... soon, I hope!!!
All the Best Of's dreary? "Lessons in Chemistry" is on various lists. It has virulent misogyny and discrimination but also a scientist named Zott and a dog named Six Thirty. The comic novel "Less" won a Pulitzer four years ago. It's about a semi-famous writer who accepts a series of overseas invitations to avoid attending his ex's wedding. He spends a lot of time in hotel rooms pondering his life choices. Pick it up. Might resonate.
Forty years ago I read all Melville's novels in a Melville seminar taught by a New Englander English prof at a little southern liberal arts college. I was the only non-English major. I flirted with the idea of studying literature but ended up a scientist. I try to make new vaccines.
I hope that your Covid infection is completely Paxlovid and vaccine-mediated and you don't experience a bad Covid rebound like my Uncle Ron did on our attempt to pedal across the country last Summer, stranding us for a week in a prefab cabin at the Double B RV park in Stanford, Montana, Population 403. You get to know a goodly portion of the populace of a town that size if you hang out for a week with nothing much to do: Jeanne the head librarian, her husband Steve the bronze sculptor, retired ranchers Bob and Bobbi (Double B), Dr. Pederson, retired Bay Area race horse veterinarian, and pretty much everyone at the two bar-restaurants and one lunch cafe. Ron probably disagrees but for me it was a highlight of the trip.
Get well soon.
James Rozzelle
San Francisco, CA
Your inadvertent stay in Stanford sounds like the stuff of an interesting book. :)
Feel better soon. I got Covid in October when I was in Amsterdam. I'd had all 5 shots too. Anyway, thank god it wasn't life-threatening but it was very unpleasant. Coincidently we flew into FFL last week and will be in FL for a few weeks. I can relate to missing the cold being from Wisconsin and all. But we are on the Ocean and sit on the beach all day under an umbrella and read! Grateful. Oh, and if you autograph anything, don't have your people using autopen! (nod to Bob)
Sir, you are in rare form today!
Moby-Dick marathon at New Bedford (Massachusetts) Whaling Museum (whalingmuseum.org) - a “read aloud” of the novel by many different people - YOU could be one! - over a winter weekend; and again in Portuguese 🐳
Be well soon ❤️🩹💝
Dear Mr. Keillor,
A little ambiguity for the final scene: the in-laws are gathered round a table eating crow and washing it down with Old Crow.
You are a tough old bird.
dawn
How do we get a refund for your canceled show in Ft Lauderdale on December 4, 2022?
That blunt comment reminds me of the movie title "Daddy's Dying, Who's Got The Will?"