Post to the Host

Comments from the Week of 01.01.23

Garrison,

When I was twelve, I cut the end of my finger off and spent all summer soaking that end with hydrogen peroxide. Now I learn all that it does is slow down healing and it’s never recommended. 

Fortunately, it was my middle finger, and my friends had a riot pointing out what I was doing to my teacher, etc. 

Ron in Fergus Falls

Sorry that hydrogen peroxide didn’t work for you. My doctor told me to shower twice a day, pour HP on the wound, then apply an antiseptic ointment. I haven’t looked closely at the diplomas on his wall but he looks and talks like a doctor. GK

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Hi, Garrison.

I am sure the New York Historical Society would love to acquire your archives. I understand that Robert Caro made a mutually beneficial deal with them, and your stuff would be in good company and well preserved, respected and presented. Plus, convenient for us Westsiders!

Ethan

I don’t see myself as being part of New York history and with Caro’s archive going there, I doubt there’d be room for anything else. Caro has truckloads of stuff on Robert Moses and LBJ and goodness knows what else. GK

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Hi, Garrison.

This is the third or fourth time I have written to you in recent years. So far you have not found time to respond, which is OK. You’re busy, although I don’t mind telling you that I once wrote to FAAFL Michelle Obama and she promptly replied with a two-page, hand-written letter.

Conversely, I sent Mike Pence a 13-pager soon after he was sworn in as vice president. I assumed, as many did, that he would be president in a matter of days or weeks, given what we already knew about his running mate. No reply. Nada.

I am writing today because we had that same plaque about the “silent listener to every conversation” in my childhood home. Except ours was in the dining room, where we ate only on special occasions. So most days it wasn’t a problem.

Happy New Year and keep up the good work!

Bill T.

I’m not surprised that Mrs. Obama wrote to you. I met her once and she is a very gracious person. I may have not responded to your letters because they were complimentary. I tend to prefer the accusatory and admonishing. GK

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Dear Mr. Keillor,

In a recent column you lamented the lack of humorous books published this year. I have on my current reading pile, two hilarious books by Randall Munroe: What If? and What If? 2, sub-titled: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (e.g., “What would happen if the solar system was filled with soup out to Jupiter?”) but the answers are a lovely blend of serious science (“Filling the Solar System with soup would take about 2 x 1039 liters of soup. If the soup is tomato, that works out to about 1042 calories’ worth, more energy than the Sun has put out over its entire lifetime.”)

John McEwen

Alberta, Canada

This is humor aimed at people who did better in science than I did. I didn’t get beyond plants; planets are way beyond me. GK

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GK,

Since reading the 12/30 piece, Working my way toward a philosophy, I’m still trying to figure out what was meant in the line about “a mystic named Sister Melissa who uses crystals and whispers solipsisms.”

My understanding of “solipsism” is that it refers to “an extreme form of subjective idealism that denies that the human mind has any valid ground for believing in the existence of anything but itself.” (britannica.com)

While I enjoyed the rest of the column, I’m puzzled as to what that was supposed to mean.

Best wishes for 2023 and beyond.

Marv S.
Decorah, Iowa

You Lutherans in Decorah tend to be literal and you need to pay more attention to décor. “Solipsisms,” like other idealisms, surely can be whispered by mystics, but I chose the word for the whispery sound of it, not the sense. A marvelous New Year to you. GK

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Mr. Keillor, I just finished your reflection “A Hike to Times Square and Back,” printed in my New Hampshire paper on Wednesday, January 4th. Thank you for the encouragement. There was a piece in the New York Times about a journal written by a Vermont man during the Great Depression. The writer expected many entries about the trials and tribulations of life during poverty, but what she read were the brief reflections about the life her grandfather was living — how many eggs the hens produced if it had rained.

BTW, I also married way over my head, which has been wonderful. And you spoke at my wife’s college graduation at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, around 1989. It’s a small world.

Mark

I remember that day at Kutztown but I can’t remember what I said. Something encouraging, I hope. I was a very poor student in college and stayed too long, in order to avoid the draft, and I’m glad that nobody asks me to speak at graduations anymore. I spoke to Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard once and the professor sitting next to me on the platform said, “Your shoes are untied.” “I know,” I said, and went up and gave my talk, walking back and forth on stage. The Kappans watched my every step, hoping I’d step on the laces, and I did not. GK

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Hi, Garrison.

A question I’ve wanted to ask you for years: Your writing — does it come easily to you? How much hard slogging goes into it? Do you have to make yourself sit at the desk/computer, or do you just live to get there every morning? Do you have to pull this out — or does it just appear? For my part, I like having written but the writing process itself is tense. So if you could share your approach, I’d love it.

Your columns make my day on Wednesday and Friday. I’m your age and appreciate learning your take on getting along in this new world.

Seeing your show livestreamed from St. Louis was a highlight of my 2022! I’ve been tuned in to PHC from the start, and there you were on stage with a show that was better than ever. As they say, ya still got it! So much to laugh at, feel the truth of, and just delight in. What a fabulous cast too.

So glad you’ve weathered your setbacks — and keep getting up after every trip. May you go on and on. My deepest gratitude to you.

Elinor Donahue

I find writing fairly easy since I quit drinking twenty years ago. I wake up with a clear head and I sit down and write and then I rewrite. Then maybe let it sit for a day and go back and rewrite it again. I enjoy this. It helps to stay within one’s own competence and not weigh in on matters that only show my ignorance. So I write about the ordinary wonders around us. I let other writers compete to be alarming and I write from a position of gratitude. And I’m so glad you liked that St. Louis show. GK

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2023 - Handwrite a notecard. A good resolution

SET 1 (horizontal format: approximately 5" x 7") $15 - CLICK HERE
Four different poems paired with four different photographs
2 cards of each, 8 envelopes
Themes: Lost Glasses; Good Workers; Secret of a Good Life; Chairs

SET 2 (vertical format: approximately 7" x 5") $15 - CLICK HERE
Four different poems paired with four different photographs
2 cards of each, 8 envelopes
Themes: Walking; Summer’s Bounty; Quietude; Friends — the most valuable acquisition