Post to the Host

Comments from the Week of 12.25.22

Garrison,

I don’t know how your passion for rhubarb began, but mine started innocently with just a single plant nearly thirty years ago. Over the decades, that plant and its children have been split and split again until now the lawn has been replaced by more than twenty plants; mowing has been replaced by harvesting.

I have also made it my mission to distribute rhubarb plants far and wide, not only in dozens of yards all over Pittsburgh, but indeed the entire country. My rhubarb plants are now growing in Portland, OR; Port Townsend, WA; San Diego, CA; Westport, CA; Cambridge, MD; Minneapolis, MN; Acton, MA; and Boise, ID.

For me, rhubarb is an ideal plant — it is a perennial that arises early in the spring and lasts well into the fall, is free of insect pests and diseases, and you can eat it. What’s not to like? Some have told me that they prefer not to cook rhubarb because it requires so much sugar, but I have found that adding between one-half and one teaspoon of baking soda to a recipe reduces the amount of sugar needed by at least one-half and does not affect the taste at all. And my favorite question in a discussion of rhubarb is this — is it a fruit or vegetable? Knowledgeable people have told me that it is neither, but rather is a grass related to buckwheat.

My freezer now contains nine bags of chopped rhubarb.

Hope the work on your ticker goes well.

Seth

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Thank you for the homage to this neglected plant and especially the information about baking soda. I will look around New York in the spring and see if there isn’t a greenmarket that sells fresh rhubarb. It’s on my To-Do list. GK

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Hi, Mr. Keillor and Company.

I am inquiring about the Prairie Home Companion Revival Tour. It just came across my radar!

Is it over? If so, how would one find the recordings?
If not, how would one find out the next stops?

Wishing you all a Happy New Year,
Chase Schweitzer
Portland, Oregon

We’ve done five shows, Denver, Nashville, Washington, DC, New York and St. Louis. And there is talk of more but no dates set as yet. I’d love to do Wolf Trap, Ravinia, Tanglewood, this summer. Time will tell. GK

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Hi, Mr. Keillor.

My friend and I will be visiting NYC for the first time in March. I know I could Google this, but from your viewpoint, what are some things that a first-time visitor should see or do? We’ll be staying near Times Square and will be there for four days. Also, I’m a little afraid to ride the subway. Is it safe? In other words, what’s the best way to get around once we’re there?

Christina

Bismarck, North Dakota

Times Square can be challenging so take a walk up Sixth Avenue to Central Park and enjoy looking at the people. There are great museums along Fifth between 59th and 96th. Take the Broadway subway down to catch the Staten Island Ferry and see the harbor. Get a guidebook to Greenwich Village and walk around and admire the house fronts. Broadway shows are ridiculously expensive and if you’re only here for four days, I think you could skip that and simply walk around town. It’s safe to be in a crowd so ride the subway during the day when it’s crowded, and be wary at night. Consider taking in the Metropolitan Opera: the sound is best way up in the high balcony in the cheap seats. Stick to Manhattan, eat in cheap ethnic cafés, don’t waste your money on souvenirs. Don’t take pedicabs. It’s a great city. Enjoy it. GK

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Dear Garrison,

Here’s a joke for you:

FROM THE WEATHER PAGE

SEVERE WINTER STORM WARNING.

SNOW ACCUMULATIONS, ICY ROADS, BLOWING AND DRIFTING, HIGH WINDS.

DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HOME UNLESS IT IS AN EMERGENCY.

FOLKS FROM CHICAGO: WEAR YOUR BIG COAT.

Good one, no? I suppose you could substitute MINNEAPOLIS for CHICAGO?

Happy New Year,

Maria in DeKalb, Illinois (70 miles west of downtown Chicago)

It was no joke in Buffalo, kiddo. People died and many of them were volunteer rescuers who set out on snowmobiles and four-wheelers and pickups with the intention of helping the snowbound, and they got stuck and nobody could rescue them. A lot of people took strangers into their homes who needed shelter. There were Samaritans all over town. GK

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Dear Garrison,

I came upon a rare version of “Silent Night” by Mr. Peabo Bryson that will knock your socks off: you can find it with Google Drive. If you have a Gmail account, or know someone who does, I would like to share it with you. It’s incredibly slow. And it has a chorus of gospel singers too. This would be one of the pieces to have played on one’s deathbed.

Jon Obester, violinist extraordinaire

The only “Silent Night” I need is the one sung a cappella surrounded by a crowd of people in December. Lutherans and Mennonites do it beautifully and we Anglicans aren’t bad. GK

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Hi, Garrison.

When I read: “I love you so much” (to me),” I had just taken a spoonful of soup.

And almost choked laughing.

Merry Christmas to you and yours,
Ann

Thank you for not choking. My wife was looking at our Christmas tree when she said it and I wanted to be clear that I, not the tree, was the object of her affection. She is not a tree-hugger, at least not when it comes to conifers, to the best of my knowledge. GK

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Mr. K.,

After broadcasting forty years of A Prairie Home Companion, you must have some amazing memories. Who are some of the most memorable performers you had on the show?

And have you ever considered starting a weekly podcast of your columns or The News from Lake Wobegon? Though I love reading your newsletters, I think hearing them in your voice would make them even better. I bet people would listen. I know I would!

Wendy Stangl

I was knocked out by Odetta who sang on the show in her mid-70s and who just got better and better and in private was very funny, which was interesting, coming from such a soulful artist. She was a saint. The 12-string guitarists like John Koerner and Leo Kottke were heroes, the instrument being a devil to play but the music so compelling. I did the show so long and got to see sweet young things like Emmylou Harris become wise veterans and their art get richer and deeper. I heard her do “Boulder to Birmingham” many times and it always sounded fresh and urgent.

I’ve been thinking of doing a podcast for years but now I have the distinction of being one of the only Americans who doesn’t have a podcast and so I’m not sure I want to cross that line. GK

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Dear Garrison,

Please come back and play in Madison again. We miss you here in God’s country. You can do a benefit for students in your late brother’s department or field, or another good cause (like Bayview Foundation, of which I am on the board.

https://wisconsinstatejournal-wi.newsmemory.com/?publink=17e199c80_13486eb

I’m told he was very well respected and, I hope, loved living here, as we do.

Among others, saw you at a show here after his passing, and it was lovely. (I think it was solo.) I also remember you strolling through the audience before your show at Breese Stevens Field (an old high school baseball field) and singing. It was beautiful.

All the best,

Ken Axe

I’ve gotten lazy in my old age, Ken, and I’m very fond of my wife who doesn’t like flying and so a trip to Madison means three days away from her, which is a high price to pay. And the two shows you mention were so good that I’m leery of doing a third that would disappoint people. Madison is a college town and I don’t think college students are interested in what a guy of 80 thinks, nor should they be. But I’ll think about it. GK

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Dear Garrison,

I tried Swedish meatballs for the first time on Christmas Eve. I’d love an authentic, time-tested recipe. Would your lovely wife be willing to share her version?

Bonnie
Hood River, Oregon

She was improvising on her 2022 meatballs and left out the pork and now she thinks she should leave out the veal and just make beef meatballs, but I tell her that would be Italian, not Swedish. She is competing against her childhood memory of her grandma’s meatballs, and the memory becomes more and more beautiful and the actual meatballs don’t. There’s the problem. Google “Swedish meatballs” and you’ll get several thousand recipes. Look for one by a Svendson or Nilsson. GK

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Dear Garrison,

Thanks for your weekly columns. I’ve been most interested in what you have to say about cheerfulness. As someone who has struggled with bouts of severe depression and anxiety, I feel defeated when others say, “Just choose to be happy” or “You’ve got so much to be thankful for!” Thankfully, with therapy and medication, I am doing okay, but we can’t just “get over it.” I hope you know this and can be sensitive to the millions of people who struggle.

Mark

You’re right, of course, and when I say that cheerfulness is a choice, I’m not talking about depression, the real thing, which is serious and deadly and cries out for professional help. I’ve had several friends who died from it and it’s a darkness that I myself have never experienced. I’m talking about ordinary disappointment, gloom, sadness, which I believe a person needs to dismiss by an act of will. Grief is real, life can be brutal, but a person can waste a lot of time on ordinary garden-variety kvetching and imagining worst-case scenarios. Put yesterday behind you and make the most of today. GK

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Hi, Garrison.

Seeing that you were at Amsterdam and 90th, I have a tip in case by chance you hadn’t already heard about this place. I was a big fan of Tony Bourdain, and when he raved on one of his shows about a deli called Barney Greengrass, I sought it out while in NYC on a bus trip. I had what Tony recommended (scrambled eggs, with the lox mixed in). It was positively unctuous. The deli is very close to where you were, on Amsterdam between 86th and 87th.

Happy New Year!
Pat McC.

Amsterdam and 90th was where I tripped on a crack in the street and instead of breaking my mother’s back, I gashed my knee, which still hurts and I am bathing it daily and dousing it with hydrogen peroxide and dressing it with a bandage and meanwhile feeling stiff and sore and looking for sympathy. And you’re offering me a deli recommendation? I don’t intend to go down that street again. I’ll go over to Broadway and buy lox at Zabar’s and mix it in my scrambled eggs and see if I like it. GK

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Hello, Garrison.

To get rid of that table, may I suggest the Facebook group Buy Nothing?

It’s a nationwide organization with local chapters where people who have things they no longer want freely give them away. Givers take photos of things with which they’re willing to part and post them. Interested parties reply. If more than one person has interest, the giver can choose the recipient. Then, it’s up to that person to carefully remove the table from your home. No money is exchanged.

Take care,
Beth

This sounds lovely. Thank you. I will forward the suggestion to management and see what she thinks. Then, after we dispose of the table, I need to give away a thousand books or so and also dispose of a 50-year literary and radio archive. GK

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GK,

Do you have any New Year’s resolutions? Or perhaps you don’t believe in them.

Suzanne

Fridley, Minnesota

I resolve to get out of my chair twice a day and take a walk around the block or farther. GK

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Hi, Garrison.

I enjoy reading your books and columns. I recently finished Boom Town. Are you working on a new book now? If so, when will it be published and what is it about? Whatever it is, I’m looking forward to it.

Chris Clauson

I’m working on a book called Cheerfulness and I expect it to come out this spring. I was thinking of calling it “The Home Stretch,” but it’s about cheerfulness as a practical choice in everyday life and why not say so? GK