22 Comments

Well...That was fun!

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In your memoir you wrote that you reconnected with the woman who became your second wife in August 1985, the week of your TIME cover story. However, your TIME cover was the issue of November 4, which hit the newsstands on October 28th. I remember because I’m the dude in the hat beside you in the photo on p. 70.

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Just read the exchange in this morning’s Posts to the Host, about backstage belly laughs and wanted to share a joke that got a belly laugh out of me this week.

Q: What’s the hardest thing about being Vegan?

A: Keeping it to yourself.

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It's amazing to me that old flatuents like us, now carressing the 80's, and you can still write so voluminously to your readers, along with a response to so many of your responders. I do picture you from your youth with your typewriter warm and papers all over the floor, filed in circuitous order. You are indeed a Pied Typer who contunues to lead us all with another tale .Whew!!! How do you do this!!!!

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Garrison, I have always enjoyed your writing, but am mystified by your registered trademark of the phrase that encourages us to remain healthy, do our jobs well, and to keep you posted. I paraphrase out of concern that a direct quote would result in a cease and desist letter from your legal team. Was this necessary? Has the registration of such a simple phrase resulted in immense profits? Oh, well, It Is What It Is®. All’s Well That Ends Well®. Write If You Get Work®.

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With regard to going into New York City.

A few years back I was planning a trip down into The City (from my haven here in southern Vermont).

The most useful piece of advice I got was from a friend who warned “Be sure to stay away from the pomegranate seeds.”

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GK, Streaming cable???!!!!!! YES PLEASE!!

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GK,

Your joke about the penguins and the tuxedo always makes me laugh. This is my son Josh's favorite joke:

A duck walks into a drug store and says, "Got any duck food?"

"Nope," the druggist says. "This is a drug store; we don't carry duck food."

The next day the duck walks in again. "Got any duck food?"

"No!" says the druggist. "I told you, this is a drug store. We don't carry duck food!"

The next day the duck walks in again. "Got any duck food?"

"No!" screams the druggist. "And if you ask me that again I'm going to nail your webbed feet to the floor!"

A few days pass and the duck walks in and says, "Got any nails?"

"No," sighs the druggist. "It's a drug store. We don't carry nails."

"Good," says the duck. "Got any duck food?"

We lost Josh 15 years ago. Nobody can tell it like he could.

Best regards,

Phil Yearout

Andover, Kansas

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I have been enjoying the comments about the phenomenon of "honning." I experience it most often in doctors' and dentists' offices. The receptionists, nurses, technicians and other non-MD employees do it. I wonder if they do it to people around their own ages, or only to old people like me.

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I feel that “Are you okay?” is a caring response to almost anything! You wished for a better line, but of course you might have done much worse, as well (not likely, but I am pathologically realistic).

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Re the post about playing War as a kid. Growing up in the 1950's, we constantly played "Army," "War," and "Cowboys and Indians." I haven't reflected on whether or not that made me a belligerent or a compassionate person. It was just kids playing on our own. Once when I ran out of "bullets" I threw my useless gun at Jimmy B. which resulted in forehead stitches. His mother was not happy. Also, Johnny H. down the street was my best soldier comrade in arms when playing War. His mother disapproved, because, sadly, his Dad was killed in the Korean War.

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The Penguin joke? Is that the one about how a couple of Penguins were standing on an ice floe and looking out to sea, and the one Penguin says to the other, "Hmm. I just noticed you look like you are wearing a tuxedo..." and the other Penguin replies, "How do you know that I'm not?"

I love that joke, too.

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How odd that one chance encounter on the street, when who knows what was going on in anyone's life, can turn a fan into someone who carries a grudge for decades. The burdens of being a [reluctant] celebrity.

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founding

I just got your memoir "That Time of Year." I'm about 1/3 of the way in and it's already inspired a limerick.

An awkward young Brethren from Anoka

Snuck a stub from a tray to smoke, a

Butt to make him feel swell

On the highway to Hell

Then he danced a lascivious polka.

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