Post to the Host

Comments from the week of 09.01.23

I am a psychologist and since childhood, I have been told that I “can’t sing.” In choir at age 9, I was told, “You sing alto.” It did not sound complimentary. And I love to sing; I grew up Methodist, I know many hymns by heart, but I often feel “off-key.” Until I read your article. And realized I too am a bass; always have been and am even more so at age 68. Now I feel I am again “part of the song.”

Sally Sexton

Always glad to help a psychologist and I welcome you to the bass section. We fill out the sound of hymns, sort of like cornstarch. GK

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Dear Garrison,

My wife of 36 years and I were thrilled to join you in song last night at the California Center for Fine Arts in Escondido and we will treasure the evening in memories to come.

We’ve been struggling with a 26-year-old son who has mental health issues, and your positive attitude and jokes really help our damaged psyches. At 70 and 60, respectively, we were hoping to enjoy retirement, but so far, we’ve had nothing but drama and even violence, interspersed with periods of stable weirdness.

Both of us were born and raised in Minnesota, and we so enjoy your writing and old shows. I can hear the loons on a northern Minnesota lake, recall ice skating on a frozen pond, and hear the crunch of frozen snow under my boots whenever I listen to you or read your wonderful essays and novels.

Thank you, you are our hero!
Glenn

It was a splendid evening, two hours with a singing intermission, and I was moved by the singing of the crowd, which knew “America” and “The Battle Hymn” and “How Great Thou Art” by heart and also “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and “I Saw Her Standing There” and much more. There’s an enormous body of song that our generation has in common. I have friends who work with choirs organized especially for seniors with memory issues and who talk about the beautiful effect group singing has with some Alzheimer’s folks whose speech skills are terribly damaged but who take delight in singing. One of my dear colleagues from radio days, Marilyn Heltzer, took great pleasure in that in her last diminished years. I hope your son finds his way to a safe place and that this dreadful burden is lifted from you; most of all, I hope you are safe. GK

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Dear GK,

I don’t think you should cavalierly say “an anti-Semitic pope” (referring to Pius XII) as if that matter were settled. There’s an ongoing scholarly argument about whether he was or he wasn’t. 

I haven’t read the entire ocean of ink on the topic, but I do know that he formally repeated these words of his predecessor Pius XI: 

Mark well that in the Catholic Mass, Abraham is our Patriarch and forefather. Anti-Semitism is incompatible with the lofty thought which that fact expresses. It is a movement with which we Christians can have nothing to do. No, no, I say to you it is impossible for a Christian to take part in anti-Semitism. It is inadmissible. Through Christ and in Christ we are the spiritual progeny of Abraham. Spiritually, we are all Semites.

I also know his Summi Pontificatus endorsed Catholic resistance to the Nazis and condemned the invasion of Poland.

Yes, he was “silent” for much of the war, and I hope that if I’d been pope, I would have protested with all my might and in the process gotten shot dead or sent to Auschwitz myself.

But can any of us be certain we would have? We’re sure silent about a lot of things today.

Maria in DeKalb Illinois 

Thank you for giving us those texts and I respect your point of view. I do think that the silence of the spiritual leader of millions in the face of such horrors as the Holocaust, which was no secret, was sinful, and that it doesn’t mitigate it to say “each of us is guilty.” I would also add that I’m an old Prot and quite ignorant of the history of Catholicism and in this case was indirectly quoting from the Times, the paper my wife was reading to me from. GK

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Greetings, Garrison.

I am a Minnesotan and have seen your show many times, including your show at the Dakota and I said hi to you afterward. I for one would love to see you do a show in Minnesota! Or close to the Twin Cities. We Minnesotans don’t want to lose you.

Regards, 

Nathaniel Pearson 

I spent last week in St. Paul and I miss Minnesota and we’re scouting for a place to do an anniversary Prairie Home next year. It’s fifty years since the first shows at Walker Art Center under the great Suzanne Weil’s sponsorship and the first live broadcast, which was at Macalester College. The show lived for many years at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul but my former employer, Minnesota Public Radio, sold the theater with the provision that I not be allowed to perform there so we’re homeless but where there’s a will there’s a way and I promise we shall and we will. GK

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Good morning. Based on today’s newsletter, Mr. Keillor might enjoy this Key and Peele sketch about airplane boarding announcements:

Regards,

Greg Connors

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Time for a new penguin joke for you:
What did the penguin wear to his prom?
Nothing.

Richard Hingst

This is not a bad joke but I’d change the punchline to “His birthday suit.” Or “what does a bisexual penguin wear? A tuxedo.” GK

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Dear Mr. K.,

From the third row in the Crest Theatre, last night in Sacramento, thank you. I needed a bit of verse and a bit of gumption. I can’t say I’ll be on my feet performing for two hours when I’m 81, but my people don’t retire, so I won’t either. Thanks for the reminder.

And thanks for the reference to the Canterbury Tales. Oh, and the singing.

Yours
Stephanie

Not retiring is a good idea in theory but of course other people may have other ideas. My wife, for example, is a loyal supporter but she also notices that I seem a little teetery, slightly off-balance, and I am very very cautious on stairs. I used to take them two at a time and now it’s one-half at a time. So this month I’m going to try to get out and walk for half an hour daily and improve my balance. I am loath to exercise because I hated phy-ed through high school, especially the floor exercises. I preferred study hall and now I’ve made a semi-lifelong career out of study hall. But I don’t want the dear woman to worry about me. She has enough to worry about, being a faithful reader of the Times. I gave up the newspaper a year ago and feel much better for it. Feel like doing another show at the Crest, as a matter of fact. What a handsome house it is. GK

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Is there any way you can put your current tour on radio? This does not have to be concurrent with show, as broadcast could lessen event ticket sales. I especially would like to hear your 50th anniversary show from New York!

Thank you!

Tim

I got kicked out of public radio unceremoniously, Tim. I was there for decades and then an anonymous accusation got me pitched into the street. So be it. I’m not so fond of radio anymore. How about streaming video? We’ll consider it. It’s a good show with Heather Masse, Ellie Dehn, Christine DiGiallonardo, and Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks. The ladies are looking forward to singing with a big band with a strong pulse propelled by Vince’s bass sax. Ellie, an opera soprano, plans to sing “The Toreador Song” and the ladies and I intend to sing the Grateful Dead’s “Attics of My Life.” Tickets are all sold out. I’d love for you to see it. GK

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Garrison, I’m grateful that you continue to send out back issues of The Writer’s Almanac. During the warm months, I post poems on a stand in the front yard — most of them from TWA. Passersby often stop to chat about them.

I miss your Minnesota State Fair shows. Twelve years ago, I went to one of them with someone I had met a couple of weeks earlier. We enjoyed the show, the Fair’s lights at twilight, and singing along with you and everyone else. We kissed during the fireworks at the end of the show. He followed me home and never left, eventually turning into my beloved husband.

All best,

Melissa Anderson

I’m glad to hear that the pleasure of being in a thousand-voice choir (did we sing “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You”?) moved the gentleman to kiss you. As for the Fair, I’d love to do another grandstand show. They turned us down this year but they did have Brandi Carlile do a show and she sang on PHC back in her scrappy struggling days so maybe if we get her to guest on our show, we can sneak in that way. I’m not above asking for favors. GK

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Must be a lot of poets in India.

There once was a girl from Madras
who had a magnificent ass.
Not rounded and pink
as you probably think.
It was grey, had long ears and ate grass

Tim TerMeer

I’d make the third line “Not soft, round and pink,” but otherwise it’s fine. GK

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So, what do you have against California? Hope to see you out here in the land of fruits and nuts.

George Galamba

Been there, George. A week ago. Sacramento, Cerritos, Escondido, and San Juan Capistrano. Had a big time. Sorry you missed it. I’ve got nothing against California except it’s too sunny, I get tired of stucco and red tile, I don’t like the background music in lobbies, and some of the people have been out in the sun too long. GK

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Hello,

As a Garrison Keillor fan who has read all of his books, any chance your show would ever come to Canada? … say Toronto? We are mostly pretty friendly up here and would be a great fit for your show I am sure.

Best regards,

Danny

I hadn’t thought of it until you mentioned it, Danny. My grandfather emigrated from New Brunswick and my ancestor Thomas Keillor sailed from England to Nova Scotia in 1774, so I have some roots there, but I can’t imagine Canadians would be interested in a small American town full of Lutherans and Catholics who make a big deal of the Fourth of July and consider meatloaf and gravy a great delicacy. I think I need to take a research trip to Canada and see what those people are up to. GK

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Hi, Garrison.

Reading the quote from Anne Frank about looking up into the heavens, I was reminded of my favorite parts in her diary — when she was up in the top room where she could see the sky and hear the church bell ring. I always identified with that, how being able to see the sky would help me cope if ever I found myself confined. Fifty-two years after I read the book, I stood at the foot of the steep stairway leading to that room (unfortunately that uppermost level is no longer accessible to tourists) and looked up at the skylight and the sky beyond. What a moment … Thank God that brave girl had at least a precious little bit of sky to gaze into.

Best,
Pat McCormack

I hope young people are still reading her diary. There is such a thing as evil in the world and her beautiful faith makes that evil more real. We live in a time when evil is strutting around, boasting, lying, threatening, and we desperately need young people to see this: the cynics have all gone over to the dark side. GK

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Dear Garrison,

I just read your latest column and since I am a Dead fan, collector and archiver of their live shows, I thought I would find that show you mentioned where you saw the Dead “back in 1970 or so” at a hockey rink.

Well, I am 67 and we know about memory, don’t we? It was a bit later. They did play two hockey rinks actually in Minnesota — once at the St. Paul Auditorium on February 17, 1973 (which was at the time a multi-purpose arena):
https://archive.org/details/gd1973-02-17.150300.sbd.miller.flac1648

and the other one in the fall of 1973 — this one is coming up on its 50-year reunion, which may be why you thought of it.

https://archive.org/details/gd1973-10-23.sbd.miller.92792.sbeok.flac16

This one was at the Metro Sports Center. And they DID play “Brokedown Palace,” just as you remember. They did NOT play that song at the concert on February 17.

So there you go. You can click on the link and listen to the whole show in all its glory.

Enjoy and keep doing what you do so wonderfully,
Michael Thurman

I’m glad the Dead has a dedicated archivist like you. I’m not the fan you are but I do love that American Beauty album and I was interested to read somewhere that they never sang “Brokedown” or “Attics” in live concerts because they couldn’t get those delicate harmonies quite right. I hope you’re working on a Dead history. GK

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Hi,

I so enjoy reading Mr. Keillor’s articles. But I’m a little confused be a reference he made recently stating, “For me, a transformational moment, to be united with people I keenly disagree with, who are pledged to the Orange Lunabomber.”

What is Mr. Keillor referring to? I must be one of those ignorant octogenarians.

Please advise.

Thank you,

Frances Pennacchia

Referring to DJT, Frances. GK

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I understand those millennials in California who won’t sing along. People who don’t pray don’t sing hymns even if they’re spiced up with some rock classics. For many of us, “Brown-Eyed Girl” doesn’t mix with “Amazing Grace.” There’s a special category of music called Christian Rock or some such reserved for true believers, but don’t expect to hear many hymns at rock concerts. 

I can appreciate your good intentions trying to create a communal experience and I know you usually succeed. But for many people, doing good works is where it’s at, but singing about goodness isn’t. As for me, doing the right thing is a lifelong constant, but my last prayer was in 3rd (?) grade. As a compromise, try singing some Gordon Lightfoot. 

Clay Blasdel

Buffalo. Go Bills.

OK. Thanks for weighing in. GK

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How do we book you in Sitka, Alaska??? And how much does it cost???

Harvey Brandt

I know nothing about booking, Harvey. The agent Kevin Daly manages that and I’ve told him to keep me in the dark. GK

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Mr. Keillor,

As a former paramedic, I can (unfortunately) tell you that there are plenty out there that hate EMS as much as the others listed. It’s mostly those who either abuse the system or have a ridiculous sense of entitlement.

Irony is you mentioning U.S. Grant quotes in the same sentence as Samuel Clemens, considering who wrote and assisted with U.S. Grant’s biography/memoirs.

Side note, you and Mark Twain are my favorite American writers of all time. I even went to his Junior High in Brooklyn since they said I was gifted and talented (mathematics; I still love solving algebra problems for fun).

Maybe one day my daughter will go to a school named after you. Not anytime soon though.

Charles Herbert
Bangor, Pennsylvania (by way of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn)

Bensonhoist, eh? Good to hear from you. I suppose there are people who complain about angels of mercy, but I’d rather not think about it. Sam Clemens lost money on the Grant memoirs, I believe, and also on the Paige typesetting machine, which never worked, which forced him to go out on the road and lecture and thus become the great-grandfather of stand-up comics. I’m honored to be trudging along in his footsteps. GK

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