Tim Sandin: I, too, played Authors and it has been a great help in doing crossword puzzles and answering on Jeopardy! I wish I could get a new edition for my grandchildren.
Wanted to thank you for the so many years of enjoyment you have given us over these years. We are the same age and I'm a Lutheran from Wisconsin who has lived in the East now since 1976, primarily in CT. Have been fortunate to see many of your shows around here and had tickets to the CT performance you cancelled when being "thrown under the bus" by MPR. Have most of your books and many CD's which have been read & listened to often. Your inclusion of the video of "He Wipes the Tear from Every Eye" today was especially very encouraging to me as my wife passed away this time a year ago. Ironically YouTube followed your piece with an uplifting Easter organ recital from the Salisbury Cathedral. Keep up your great work and hope you'll be performing soon again in CT or NYC area. I don't think you realize how much of an impact you make in so many of our Iives over the years! Glenn Heckendorf
I love that song too, though I find that church is the only place where I shed tears. It's become emotional for me, hearing certain hymns, psalms, sometimes the prayers touch me. It's intense, being almost 80, and I'm grateful for it. No more attempts to be cool, just watch and absorb and let your heart open. GK
I remember my well-read father, a milkman, once said to me, "You're in a class by yourself." I guess that, in some sense, we are all unique or darn close when it comes to DNA. Even identical twins aren't perfectly identical. I was never sure whether my father's quip was meant to be a compliment. It did get me going. But when it comes to you and you doings, your writings, two-part singings and folksy habits, you, sirrah, clearly are in a class by yourself. Keep it up!
Hi Garrison, years ago I saw you and your group at the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove NJ. It was a fabulous show. Just wondering if you have any plans to return there. I’m sure it would be a sellout.
Ocean Grove turned down the idea of a return, but that's okay. I remember that show. Bruce Springsteen came and stood with the crowd and we all sang "How Great Thou Art." It was magnificent.
I really like the idea of a post humorous story! As a retired funeral director in the biz for over 50 Years …I’ve often imagined “the ‘rest’ of the story”? Write and print it pre-mortem. (Just imagine what Will Rogers or Sam Clemens would say.) Respectfully, sM. Pigeon MI
Many years ago I fell in love with poetry, and The Writer’s Almanac became for me a goldmine of beautiful poems written by amazing poets, mostly new to me. When I read a poem I really liked, I cut and pasted it into a digital collection of my favorite poems. When I noticed that I had saved multiple poems from a particular poet, I created a special file to hold them. Then I would purchase a book by that poet. Over the years, my digital and paper libraries expanded.
Today I am the rector of an Episcopal parish in the High Rockies. We were out of our church for 2+ years due to the twin challenges of the pandemic quarantine and a major renovation of our 1892 building. During our exile, to help hold us together, the weekly online eNews became a daily eBlast. And every single day - amongst the news and photos, prayers and articles - I included at least one poem from my vast digital collection. Those poems delighted, encouraged, startled, and sometimes annoyed a lot of people. All this is to say thank you.
Sidebar 1: On Palm Sunday, we returned to our church for Holy Week and Easter even as we continue to whittle away at the punch list with our contractor. Alleluia!
Sidebar 2: Sometime between 2001 and 2003, you attended the 8:00 a.m. service at the Church of the Redeemer in Cincinnati. Bishop Martin Townsend, our interim rector, leaned over to me and whispered, “Garrison Keillor is in the congregation.” (He had invited you as you signed his book at Joseph Beth Booksellers.) I reflexively exclaimed, “You’re shitting me!” You were wearing jeans, a plaid shirt, and sandals, and sat alone on the far side of the nave. After worship, you quietly slipped away down the side aisle and made your way down the sidewalk. Of course.
I don't think that was me. I wouldn't have gone to church dressed like that and I gave up sandals back in the Eighties. But it was sweet of him to imagine it. GK
I respectfully beg to differ. It was a hot summer morning. And you had signed the good bishop's book the day before when he invited you to church. And, for what it's worth, those were nice Birks on your feet! In any case, thanks again for all the good poetry over the years.
I saw you in the last few years up here in Breckenridge. Enjoyed the show immensely. Lots of folk are looking forward to seeing you at Red Rocks.
I want to thank you for your PHC habit of reading messages from the audience, or in our case from our kids (Amber, Marshall, Ashlea & Autumn Noel) who wrote to you. We had left them in care of grandma when we went to the show and they were thrilled to hear their names on the radio. PHC made a lot of people happy, and we are grateful for your work.
"I'm starting to think about writing another..." Now, that's the best news in a long time! You talk about dreams! Here's one for you! Once, within a year or two of my becoming a regular APHC listener, I was sitting on a slope that ran down to a railroad track near Lancaster, CA. It was toward sunset, and the day's show was echoing pleasantly in my head.
Suddenly, I seemed to see some sort of super long, high speed "bullet" train go past. I knew, symbolically, that I had jumped forward , perhaps several centuries, into the future. And the "Hot Topic" of those folks on the future train was a rediscovery of a Garrison Keillor book! As someone who "rediscovered" Victor Hugo through "The Hunchback of Notredame" - I knew immediately what that meant. You have, or will have, Dear Gifted Writer, authored some work that will be so timeless that it will be even more meaningful to those a century or two ahead of us, than those of us who read your works today!
It's possible, the theme will come to you in a dream, or a vision! Keep Dreaming! Keep Imagining! The Future is Relying On YOU!
Tim Sandin: I, too, played Authors and it has been a great help in doing crossword puzzles and answering on Jeopardy! I wish I could get a new edition for my grandchildren.
Wanted to thank you for the so many years of enjoyment you have given us over these years. We are the same age and I'm a Lutheran from Wisconsin who has lived in the East now since 1976, primarily in CT. Have been fortunate to see many of your shows around here and had tickets to the CT performance you cancelled when being "thrown under the bus" by MPR. Have most of your books and many CD's which have been read & listened to often. Your inclusion of the video of "He Wipes the Tear from Every Eye" today was especially very encouraging to me as my wife passed away this time a year ago. Ironically YouTube followed your piece with an uplifting Easter organ recital from the Salisbury Cathedral. Keep up your great work and hope you'll be performing soon again in CT or NYC area. I don't think you realize how much of an impact you make in so many of our Iives over the years! Glenn Heckendorf
I love that song too, though I find that church is the only place where I shed tears. It's become emotional for me, hearing certain hymns, psalms, sometimes the prayers touch me. It's intense, being almost 80, and I'm grateful for it. No more attempts to be cool, just watch and absorb and let your heart open. GK
I remember my well-read father, a milkman, once said to me, "You're in a class by yourself." I guess that, in some sense, we are all unique or darn close when it comes to DNA. Even identical twins aren't perfectly identical. I was never sure whether my father's quip was meant to be a compliment. It did get me going. But when it comes to you and you doings, your writings, two-part singings and folksy habits, you, sirrah, clearly are in a class by yourself. Keep it up!
A other wonderful “Post” host!
But what’s this about Writer’s Almanac going away? I dearly hope not.
Since NPR cancelled it in 2016, there's simply no way to keep it going.
Whoops! But I read it every day!
Hi Garrison, years ago I saw you and your group at the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove NJ. It was a fabulous show. Just wondering if you have any plans to return there. I’m sure it would be a sellout.
Ocean Grove turned down the idea of a return, but that's okay. I remember that show. Bruce Springsteen came and stood with the crowd and we all sang "How Great Thou Art." It was magnificent.
I really like the idea of a post humorous story! As a retired funeral director in the biz for over 50 Years …I’ve often imagined “the ‘rest’ of the story”? Write and print it pre-mortem. (Just imagine what Will Rogers or Sam Clemens would say.) Respectfully, sM. Pigeon MI
I've written some post-humorous stories, too many, in fact, but I believe you're referring to a posthumous story and I don't know how to do that.
Dear Garrison,
Many years ago I fell in love with poetry, and The Writer’s Almanac became for me a goldmine of beautiful poems written by amazing poets, mostly new to me. When I read a poem I really liked, I cut and pasted it into a digital collection of my favorite poems. When I noticed that I had saved multiple poems from a particular poet, I created a special file to hold them. Then I would purchase a book by that poet. Over the years, my digital and paper libraries expanded.
Today I am the rector of an Episcopal parish in the High Rockies. We were out of our church for 2+ years due to the twin challenges of the pandemic quarantine and a major renovation of our 1892 building. During our exile, to help hold us together, the weekly online eNews became a daily eBlast. And every single day - amongst the news and photos, prayers and articles - I included at least one poem from my vast digital collection. Those poems delighted, encouraged, startled, and sometimes annoyed a lot of people. All this is to say thank you.
Sidebar 1: On Palm Sunday, we returned to our church for Holy Week and Easter even as we continue to whittle away at the punch list with our contractor. Alleluia!
Sidebar 2: Sometime between 2001 and 2003, you attended the 8:00 a.m. service at the Church of the Redeemer in Cincinnati. Bishop Martin Townsend, our interim rector, leaned over to me and whispered, “Garrison Keillor is in the congregation.” (He had invited you as you signed his book at Joseph Beth Booksellers.) I reflexively exclaimed, “You’re shitting me!” You were wearing jeans, a plaid shirt, and sandals, and sat alone on the far side of the nave. After worship, you quietly slipped away down the side aisle and made your way down the sidewalk. Of course.
Charlie Brumbaugh
Summit County, CO
I don't think that was me. I wouldn't have gone to church dressed like that and I gave up sandals back in the Eighties. But it was sweet of him to imagine it. GK
I respectfully beg to differ. It was a hot summer morning. And you had signed the good bishop's book the day before when he invited you to church. And, for what it's worth, those were nice Birks on your feet! In any case, thanks again for all the good poetry over the years.
I saw you in the last few years up here in Breckenridge. Enjoyed the show immensely. Lots of folk are looking forward to seeing you at Red Rocks.
I want to thank you for your PHC habit of reading messages from the audience, or in our case from our kids (Amber, Marshall, Ashlea & Autumn Noel) who wrote to you. We had left them in care of grandma when we went to the show and they were thrilled to hear their names on the radio. PHC made a lot of people happy, and we are grateful for your work.
What a great thing for your kids to do for you. I'm touched.
"I'm starting to think about writing another..." Now, that's the best news in a long time! You talk about dreams! Here's one for you! Once, within a year or two of my becoming a regular APHC listener, I was sitting on a slope that ran down to a railroad track near Lancaster, CA. It was toward sunset, and the day's show was echoing pleasantly in my head.
Suddenly, I seemed to see some sort of super long, high speed "bullet" train go past. I knew, symbolically, that I had jumped forward , perhaps several centuries, into the future. And the "Hot Topic" of those folks on the future train was a rediscovery of a Garrison Keillor book! As someone who "rediscovered" Victor Hugo through "The Hunchback of Notredame" - I knew immediately what that meant. You have, or will have, Dear Gifted Writer, authored some work that will be so timeless that it will be even more meaningful to those a century or two ahead of us, than those of us who read your works today!
It's possible, the theme will come to you in a dream, or a vision! Keep Dreaming! Keep Imagining! The Future is Relying On YOU!
Yes, a glorious moment. I’m sad to know you will not be filling that Great Auditorium once again.