Post to the Host

Comments from the week of Jan 2, 2022

I always enjoy the Almanac, but today’s poem by Hilda Morley, “New York Subway” makes me wonder why did she have to “colorize” the two women in her poem who were women of color? Should we, the reader, assume that the other women were white? Or invisible? Or see-through? Or just ghosts?

Very curious observation that I make as a physician: when patients are being presented to me by med students, residents, and fellows, more often than not, a person of color is identified as such, but a non-melanized person is not (e.g., “This 66-year-old Black woman presents with a chief complaint of …” But if white, “This 66-year-woman with a chief complaint of…”). What do you think that says about the perception of melanized people in the minds of non-melanized people (assuming Hilda Morley is non-melanized, which from photographs, seems to be)?

Regards,

Herman C. Sullivan, MD

It didn’t strike me as odd for the poet to see a person’s color and surely she didn’t “colorize” that person, but I do agree it’s maybe odd for a physician. (I’ve never heard the term “melanized” before and it strikes me as weird but I’m an English major.) It’s an interesting point. I notice color and my daughter, who is 24 and has grown up with persons of color, tends not to. If I ask her to describe her roommate Rachel, for example, color doesn’t come to her mind though to me Rachel, a lovely person, is very very Black. I went to a high school with one non-white student, and he was proud of his Blackness and it seems odd not to notice it. I was odd, a fundamentalist kid and got teased about it, and that seems harmless to me.

How’s that for a see-through non-answer?

GK

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Dear Garrison,

I live in Davis, California, a retired attorney, and I am anticipating a road trip to Las Vegas in January to see your show there on the 21st. It’s about a 700-mile drive each way. I love to drive and take the back roads. I will be driving my Tesla Model Y electric car, which I bought in July.

Would you be interested in riding back to California with me before you head home? I don’t have any firm plans, but I’m thinking of heading west through Death Valley to Bakersfield, sampling the cuisine at one of that city’s Basque restaurants, spending the night at the historic Padre Hotel, and then heading north through the San Joaquin Valley to Sacramento. It would be a two-day trip. You could fly home from there.

Open to other itineraries, of course. Such as heading north in Nevada on Hwy. 395 on the east face of the Sierra Nevada and crossing into California at Carson City or Reno. Plenty of Basque restaurants along the way. Or even going all the way west and taking the Pacific Coast Highway north through San Francisco, across the Golden Gate Bridge, and then home via the Napa Valley.

No matter what, I’ll be in seat A-106 at Reynolds Hall.

See you soon,
Raoul Renaud, Davis, California

This is a wonderful offer, and I am tempted, those are places I’ve never seen and it’s been a long time since I’ve done a car trip for fun. I don’t know anybody else who does that sort of thing except my friend John Thavis who has tired of Minnesota winter and is heading out for the southwest in his van. I’m not sure what my wife would think of my taking you up on this, but the real reason I decline is that I’m in the midst of a fervid period of writing, working on a collection of essays and another collection of ballad parodies, and at the age of 79 I simply have no extra time, I work every day from sunup until I lose inspiration. But dang it, I’m going to remember your generosity. Nobody ever made such an offer to me before. I am touched. God bless you.

GK

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Dear Garrison,

I read the most recent “Post to the Host” today, where you stated, “I’d love if there was a Sirius channel devoted to Gospel quartets.” Well, there is one, channel 65 entitled Enlighten. Primarily southern quartets. Enjoy.

Dan L. Danielson

Now I just have to figure out how to hook up with Sirius. I’m sure my daughter can figure it out though I doubt she’s listening to gospel quartets.

GK

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Dear Mr. Keillor,

I live in Florida and in traveling this fall, I stopped in Brunswick, Maine, and went to the museum at Bowdoin College and between the parking lot and the museum I dropped my pinkish Prairie Home Companion hat. It fit me perfectly, but I thought I shouldn’t wear it in a museum. It was my favorite.

Would you ask if anyone found my hat?

Catherine Smith-DuGay

I’ll bet that someone did, Catherine, but finders/keepers is the rule in Maine and so I suggest you reconcile yourself to the loss. It’s only a hat. What’s under the hat is what’s important.

Catherine was visiting Maine
And lost her hat, what a pain,
But then she felt free
To live wildly
And not mind the sun and the rain.

GK

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Hello, GK.

I’m not sure if this email gets to you, but greetings from the very cold and snowy hinterlands of British Columbia. If you like winters, you’d like it here right now. I had occasion to visit the Bemidji area on work a few years back, and it’s a lot like here: trees and lakes and lakes and trees. And these days I can see ice fishermen in their tents on the lake a few hundred yards away.

I’ve been reading you forever, loved the PHC movie, saw the PHC show in Washington state in 2011 (the ticket stub is on my bulletin board) and just finished The Lake Wobegon Virus. It was good to meet up with the old gang again.

I come by appreciating your humor honestly: my fraternal grandfather was a Lutheran minister, and my maternal grandfather was a German Lutheran farmer. I left the flock as a rebellious teenager, but I too could listen to gospel quartets till the cows come home.

You get some pretty interesting comments in these Posts to the Host. That one the other day from Kay Sather just about had me choking up.

All the very best as you carry on,

Paul Luft

B.C., Canada

Good to hear from western Canada, Paul. I’ve been wintering in New York, except for a miserable four days in Florida, and I miss snow, which is an occasional thing in New York and usually turns to slush in a couple days, but at 79 I am becoming leery of snow and ice because I need to get out and walk every day and I dread the thought of falling and breaking something and having to go to an ER that’s already crowded with COVID people. Or worse, banging my head and knocking the marbles loose. My principal pleasure these days is sitting and writing, for which marbles are crucial. So I’m here in the city where, most of the time, the sidewalks are bare and dry, and a man can put in the steps he needs to remain mobile. Two of my brothers slipped and fell and I intend to be the exception.

GK

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GK,

I read the Christmastime post from the Aussie who found a copy of your Book of Guys for a buck and a half somewhere out in Western Australia. Who would have ever thought one of your books could end up in a desolate place like that? We don’t get many used copies of your books here in West Texas and most folks wouldn’t get all the stuff you write about with Lutherans and lutefisk anyway. Just so you know what a real bargain is, I found a copy of that very book on Amazon for 25 cents. Snooty people don’t like buying books from Amazon, but book stores and libraries are hard to find in this part of the world and we happen to like real bargains. I would have bought the 25-cent copy of your old book, but they want $5 to ship it and charge 43 cents for the tax. Maybe one of your fans will want to indulge themselves in such extravagance and buy this copy on Amazon, even though you seemed to give it a negative review now.

Chester Fields

Dumas, Texas

I like Book of Guys, Chester. I glanced at it the other day and found several stories I like a lot, such as “Lonesome Shorty” and “Earl Grey” and I’m sure there are others. But I’ll bet you can find some of those stories online. If not, we can work out a fair trade. Put up a “Biden 2024” sign in your front yard and we’ll send you The Book of Guys. Put a similar bumper sticker on your car and I’ll autograph it.

GK

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Hello:

I just want to say that you are right to write that in 1605 the Spanish translation of the Don Quixote part 1 was published, but the real writer was not Miguel de Cervantes, he had sold his name to survive. The designer of the DQ was Francis Bacon and he had the role of Don Quixote, Ben Jonson played and wrote Sancho Panza, the poems were written by John Donne. The loose stories were written by “the two friends,” Francis Beaumont & John Fletcher …

Jettie h.van den Boom

My Wikipedia hasn’t gotten the news about Francis Bacon and Ben Jonson and still gives Miguel de Cervantes the credit, so you should work this out with them. I’m out of the game.

GK

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Dear Mr. Keillor,

Re your reply to Sammy Jo of Wink, Texas, PTTH 12/27/21 and changing the name of Lake Calhoun.

Bde Maka Ska is the name of the lake in Dakota language spoken by the Dakota people who lived there.

You say the name change does nothing for Indian children living in poverty on reservations that don’t have casinos or oil wells. Restoring the name of the lake puts their language on the white people’s map and into the neighborhood. I think the name change is an opportunity for current and future residents to learn to value the cultural wealth and humanity of our indigenous neighbors past and present.

Gina Bliss

Santa Cruz, CA

You may be right but a name that goes unused is not useful and Midwesterners are afraid of mispronouncing a name and so they tend to avoid this one. I hear people use it apologetically, hesitantly, unlike “Calhoun,” which is simply a name, no extra importance. Maybe the problem is in the “Bde,” which is a combination of consonants not seen in English. Some Indian names like “Minnetonka” are easier for us, or “Bemidji” or “Anoka,” but I don’t know that those names make residents of those towns more appreciative of the culture of indigenous people. The absurd name is “Minneapolis,” a ridiculous combination of indigenous and Greek. Meanwhile, we have St. Paul, a name that imposes Catholicism on unbelievers. Your problem, however, and not mine.

GK

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GK,

2022 — January New Mexico

So much has happened and I still find it hard to read the paper, but I have my garden and the woodpile (for our wood burner stove) and have discovered you online. Purchased the Virus book CD so my husband and I can listen together in the evenings. We are still alive (me 76 and my husband almost 85). Hear you on the radio — Writer’s Almanac. I get your messages in email, which often bring on a laugh first thing in the morning. A great way to start the day.

Wasted time: an interesting topic. Most of my wasted time is trying to talk to some company like the telephone or electric … usually gives me a headache. Unwasted time is watching the Raven pair (they mate for life) that come to our rural yard. I am trying to teach them to mimic me saying “Hey, Boy.” They already have me mimicking their various guttural sounds. So who is the smart one?

Dorothy

You trying to communicate with ravens (or get them to talk to you) — now there is a project I wish I had the patience for. I know of people who’ve spent their lives studying social relations among animal species, whales, foxes, herons, etc., and I hope they find it rewarding but I’m afraid I don’t. We’re steadily destroying the planet and there isn’t much that other species can do to stop us.

GK

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Dear Garrison, 

I understand why you don’t want to bring more attention to the man with the hair. Allow me two points.

   1)   Ignoring him will not stop him from carrying out his plan to destroy democracy and become a dictator like his hero, Adolf. Many state laws have been changed allowing state legislatures to declare the winner of elections, bypassing local election boards. This kind of threat has never happened in the history of America. We all need to speak out, vociferously. The Germans stayed silent too.

    2)  His former lawyer Cohen is convinced that he won’t run, but if he admits it, the fundraising that is putting millions into his pockets will end.

Clay Blasdel

Buffalo

The man with the hair is the responsibility of Republicans at this point. There are plenty of good Republicans and I admire the bravery of those like Liz Cheney who are putting themselves on the line. I have other better things to do.

GK

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Garrison,

In today’s column, you offered several comments regarding “smugness.” It brought to my mind the quote attributed to Golda Meir: “Don’t be humble — you’re not that great.” An instant cure for hubris!

Best wishes for a better year in 2022 for all of us. Be well.

Coleman Hood

Dear GK,

I just read today’s post. I, too, was looking at a squirrel while waiting for my tea kettle to boil. However, mine happens to be a flying squirrel and is inside the house, where he shouldn’t be. The cat makes a show of chasing it but doesn’t actually catch it as he probably wouldn’t know what to do with it. While desperately waiting for the wildlife specialist to arrive, I’m disposing of a microwave, which sparked and smoked just before it stopped working.

The six minutes I spent reading your post was decidedly not wasted. It was more beneficial than you might imagine. It gave me a much-needed distraction from my household calamities and offered less troublesome lines of thought to pursue.

My brothers and I attended, and very much enjoyed, your show at the City Winery in Boston last year. Many thanks, too, for The Writer’s Almanac, which elevates my thoughts beyond maintaining life.

Wishing you a creative and satisfying year ahead. 

Monica Herwald

Mansfield, MA

I’m assuming your wildlife people rescued that flying squirrel. The combination of it and the sparking microwave would make a good start for a News from Lake Wobegon and probably I’d have the squirrel chase the cat and the fire department come with a hose and two of them would be your brothers and the squirrel would go up the chimney and a cloud of soot would come out of the fireplace and the fire hose would accidentally shoot water around and the upshot would be that you decide to renew your church membership. The News needed more action stories like that; there was too much contemplative meandering.

GK

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Dear Garrison,

A note of thanks for gracing my life with thoughtful stories, anecdotes, insights on what it is to be human, great poetry, writing, and music. Your most recent book: Serenity at 70, Gaiety at 80 was one I had contemplated writing myself, but you beat me to it and accomplished a work much better than I might have done. Not to forget the touches of mercy that run through your opus, a necessary element for an enduring legacy.

With appreciation,

Viktoria Vidali

Thanks, Viktoria. You can still write your book; I don’t own the rights to aging. And I think mine would’ve been a better book if my names ended in vowels.

GK

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