Keep 'em flyin'! Mr. G! Tell it like it is to you. No one has to agree, nor respond. It's just a reminder "We and our Friends Include You!" And there would be no salt of tongue or tale without you. Press on, "Octo-Lad!" I'm one too. Carry on! Dr. Tom.
When we moved to St. Paul in the early 70s, we loved hearing your mellifluous voice on our car radio as we drove through shockingly cold winter mornings. But when we heard you were taking A Prairie Home Companion national, I told my husband, “Won’t work. His humor is too Minnesotan.” Ha. One Saturday evening in the early 80s, after you successfully went national, we took English houseguests to the World Theater in St. Paul, hoping to give them a truly American experience. You did not disappoint. As we all sat transfixed in the first row, you stood on stage in your white suit, eyes closed, and carried us away to Memorial Day in Lake Wobegon. This fall you’re coming to our newly adopted state, North Carolina, and we’re taking a bunch of octogenerian friends over to Greensboro to see you. In other words, you and we have grown old together. Couldn’t be better company.
Looking forward to North Carolina since I have some long-lost relatives down there whom I'd like to see so I can figure out if they carry our family traits or if the South has freed them from the genetics. It's a different world down there from the prairies of the North. I still believe that, contrary to what we hear, this is still one country, indivisible. I mean, where would you draw the line?
I invite you to bring your 50th Anniversary show to Crooner's in Fridley, Minnesota. You have lots of followers here so paying a visit now and then would only be fair. Thank-you for continuing to write. I really enjoy Posts to the Host.
PHC is too big for that small stage but if Prudence Johnson wants to sing with me at Crooner's I'd do that in a minute. But the show got banned in Minnesota so it'd feel weird to do it there.
St. Paul is a small town at heart and I lived in a bigger house than what I deserved and there was gossip. A Macalester student who worked at my bookstore accused me of writing a suggestive limerick about her. Not true but I erased it from the board anyway and people boycotted the store and I had to sell it which broke my heart. Then things got worse. I'm fine now, living in New York, but have no desire to go back.
I read about that at the time! It's a shame that innuendo and poor-spirited folks can upset applecarts filled with DELICIOUS Apples! It was the kind of behavior that you've been chronicling on APHC vignettes! We humans can be very "small-minded" sometimes, can't we? Welcome to the Real World!
I really enjoyed your response to the woman who didn’t like the fact that she thinks you are a Democrat. However, don’t you think that “Mein Kampf” was going a little too far?
Why would that be going too far? It has been often reported that the infamous Roy Cohn, and tRump mentor, gave a copy of "Mein Kampf" to tRump years ago and that it was the only book that tRump kept on his bedside table. Those who are supporters of the con-artist in chief are the ones who have gone too far. Those who bring their totalitarian mentality to the music, story-telling and citizen camaraderie HERE have gone too far. And by the way, I don't see Garrison Keillor as a Democrat or Republican, but as one who still remembers what being American means. If anything, I think he expresses a too gentle and too forgiving attitude to the inmates who are trying to run the asylum!
I hope he just keeps us singing together, helping us touch base with some aspects of us human beans that is better than the Orange Menace's efforts to remake the country into his own CHEERLESS image, a depraved, debauched, deranged visage. I hope it won't be long before we can hear the guards say to tRump, "Hum a few bars..." THROUGH the bars.
I am 83 and I only voted for a Republican once in my life. That being said 75 million people voted for him. They did so for a variety of reasons. I think there are a hell of a lot more racists than Nazis among them.
Hi Garrison, What to do, What to do!? One writer apologizes for being a free rider, but effusively compliments. Another chews your ass out for your political sentiments. My concern here: is Ms. Bethel a free speech advocate, or did she pay to say those mean things?? I trust your son is screening these comments so you can weigh your replies. I paid for my free speech here. YOU are worth it!! Roger Krenkler- Loving L.A. ( Not Homeless )
John Richard Roberts - It's true, you could have Hillary Hahn out busking, and many would just smile and applaud, and I think that's fine. My experience was that Mr. Keillor's daily TWA became such a pleasure that I eventually decided that applause was just not enough.
Ohmygoodness, I love your reply to "Patti Bethel." It is always so fascinating to me how the members of the various "freedom caucuses", the "libertarians," the "don't tread on me" crowd are slobbering at any opportunity to impose THEIR taste, will, beliefs, reading (or none) habits, etc. They should call themselves what they are, members of the "Freedom For Me But Not For Thee" pseudo-church.
I love the brevity and simplicity of your humor, and I love it when I'm laughing at a joke before I even realize I've heard one. A good example is the joke you shared with me a couple of years ago in this platform: "A man walks into his home with both hands full of dog poop and says 'Look what I almost stepped in." Simple and to the point. Still makes me chuckle.
I've written what I believe is an original joke, and I need your opinion:
Two drunks leave a bar and are stumbling through the streets when one says to the other, "I'm never going to make it home without taking a leak."
The other says, "You took the thought right out of my head. Let's duck into this alley."
As they stood there in the moonlight taking care of business, the first drunk says, "Just look at us. Two chaps pissing in the night."
So, GK, did it register on the laughometer at all? A chuckle? A smile?
Comments to Post to the Host Comments week of July 30 8/7/23
WanderingSioux Aug 10 In your reply to Thomas Swenson, you implied that your “blundering middle years” decreased your sagacity somewhat. I beg to differ with that! We really do learn from experience – our own, or what others have shared with us. For me, when I “have wheels”, I pick up hitchhikers. Some people may freak out and say “Oh, No! How Dangerous!!” But the fact of the matter is, I come from a well off, well-educated middle class family. If I’d never been able to rub shoulders with a “random sampling of Americans (and others)”, I think I’d be a lot more judgmental about a wide variety of folks than I am today. I think that’s the same thing for you, our “Well-Balanced” host! I understand that your father sorted mail on trains when you were a boy. That’s not the sort of parental occupation that would ordinarily get “Sonny Boy” into Harvard. But, as a regular listener, and sometimes audience member of APHC, I’ve been constantly impressed by the even-handedness with which you interview laundrymen in Nashville with a dream of cutting a record, and representatives in our highest political offices with official business on their minds! To me, this is a mark of the ongoing popularity of your show! It gives those of us in the listening audience the impression, that if we had been walking in Central Park, and we were waiting at a corner at a light with you standing there, that you’d most likely be “approachable,” and even delighted to have a chance meeting with fans. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the experiences you had in those “blundering middle years” were part of what has fueled your WISDOM today! The only difference between you and the rest of us, is that most of us haven’t had our activities recorded, in detail, for the better part of our adult lives! Talk to anyone whose elders were into making home movies, and they’ll probably say they’re ashamed of some of the records from their own distant past! BUT! You’re here today, thanks to yesterday, so, HALLALUJAH! (PS: I second your reply to Patti Bethel! She calls herself part of your loyal audience – but if she’s been that loyal for years, it’s really strange that she hasn’t picked up on your political leanings before now!)
In your reply to Janice of the Mega-Church ( MAGA-Church??), you referred to the con man we all know and love. In his latest book “The Art of the Lie”, he explained that his fundamental
(pun intended) campaign strategy was :
1. To the Great American Firearm Fanatics: A chicken in every pot and a gun in every room of the house. Open carry and target drill in all schools.
2. To the Great American Community of Religious Fanatics: Prayer In all schools; a picture of Jesus in every classroom, preferably the one where he looks very Goyish; Bible studies as regular curriculum; Total outlawing of abortion. Abolish any separation of Church and State….lean heavily toward Theocracy.
3. To the Great American Community of Oligarchs: Outlaw any climate science/global warming research; dial back oil drilling permit constraints, heavily tax electric vehicles; promote all forms of petro power development; dial back emissions restrictions; etc., etc.
4. To the Great American Community of White Supremacists : Develop comprehensive book-burning lists; create federal oversight of curriculum to assure favorable history of our great Southern Planter legacy and the job-training value of slavery; dial back gerrymandering restrictions to allow appropriate voter segregation and disempowerment; dial back ultraliberal voter rights legislation.
5. To the Great American Community of Minimalist Government: Drain the swamp…...on and on and on…….ad infinitum…..
The main point is to promise everyone everything, whether actually delivering it or not….but sell, sell, sell and convince them that you are their man!
Keep 'em flyin'! Mr. G! Tell it like it is to you. No one has to agree, nor respond. It's just a reminder "We and our Friends Include You!" And there would be no salt of tongue or tale without you. Press on, "Octo-Lad!" I'm one too. Carry on! Dr. Tom.
Comments from the week of Aug....
Dear Garrison,
When we moved to St. Paul in the early 70s, we loved hearing your mellifluous voice on our car radio as we drove through shockingly cold winter mornings. But when we heard you were taking A Prairie Home Companion national, I told my husband, “Won’t work. His humor is too Minnesotan.” Ha. One Saturday evening in the early 80s, after you successfully went national, we took English houseguests to the World Theater in St. Paul, hoping to give them a truly American experience. You did not disappoint. As we all sat transfixed in the first row, you stood on stage in your white suit, eyes closed, and carried us away to Memorial Day in Lake Wobegon. This fall you’re coming to our newly adopted state, North Carolina, and we’re taking a bunch of octogenerian friends over to Greensboro to see you. In other words, you and we have grown old together. Couldn’t be better company.
Nancy Johnston Hall
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Looking forward to North Carolina since I have some long-lost relatives down there whom I'd like to see so I can figure out if they carry our family traits or if the South has freed them from the genetics. It's a different world down there from the prairies of the North. I still believe that, contrary to what we hear, this is still one country, indivisible. I mean, where would you draw the line?
I invite you to bring your 50th Anniversary show to Crooner's in Fridley, Minnesota. You have lots of followers here so paying a visit now and then would only be fair. Thank-you for continuing to write. I really enjoy Posts to the Host.
PHC is too big for that small stage but if Prudence Johnson wants to sing with me at Crooner's I'd do that in a minute. But the show got banned in Minnesota so it'd feel weird to do it there.
I could put a request in the suggestion box for you and Prudence Johnson to come to Crooner's. Why did the show get banned?
See above
St. Paul is a small town at heart and I lived in a bigger house than what I deserved and there was gossip. A Macalester student who worked at my bookstore accused me of writing a suggestive limerick about her. Not true but I erased it from the board anyway and people boycotted the store and I had to sell it which broke my heart. Then things got worse. I'm fine now, living in New York, but have no desire to go back.
I read about that at the time! It's a shame that innuendo and poor-spirited folks can upset applecarts filled with DELICIOUS Apples! It was the kind of behavior that you've been chronicling on APHC vignettes! We humans can be very "small-minded" sometimes, can't we? Welcome to the Real World!
I really enjoyed your response to the woman who didn’t like the fact that she thinks you are a Democrat. However, don’t you think that “Mein Kampf” was going a little too far?
Was needed for the stark contrast, I think. Some individuals have a harder time with clarity.
Why would that be going too far? It has been often reported that the infamous Roy Cohn, and tRump mentor, gave a copy of "Mein Kampf" to tRump years ago and that it was the only book that tRump kept on his bedside table. Those who are supporters of the con-artist in chief are the ones who have gone too far. Those who bring their totalitarian mentality to the music, story-telling and citizen camaraderie HERE have gone too far. And by the way, I don't see Garrison Keillor as a Democrat or Republican, but as one who still remembers what being American means. If anything, I think he expresses a too gentle and too forgiving attitude to the inmates who are trying to run the asylum!
I hope he just keeps us singing together, helping us touch base with some aspects of us human beans that is better than the Orange Menace's efforts to remake the country into his own CHEERLESS image, a depraved, debauched, deranged visage. I hope it won't be long before we can hear the guards say to tRump, "Hum a few bars..." THROUGH the bars.
I am 83 and I only voted for a Republican once in my life. That being said 75 million people voted for him. They did so for a variety of reasons. I think there are a hell of a lot more racists than Nazis among them.
But racists are Nazis in training.
The Grand Canyon is the most beautiful place on earth!
And your political humor is spot on!
I hope neither ever changes. 😉
Hi Garrison, What to do, What to do!? One writer apologizes for being a free rider, but effusively compliments. Another chews your ass out for your political sentiments. My concern here: is Ms. Bethel a free speech advocate, or did she pay to say those mean things?? I trust your son is screening these comments so you can weigh your replies. I paid for my free speech here. YOU are worth it!! Roger Krenkler- Loving L.A. ( Not Homeless )
John Richard Roberts - It's true, you could have Hillary Hahn out busking, and many would just smile and applaud, and I think that's fine. My experience was that Mr. Keillor's daily TWA became such a pleasure that I eventually decided that applause was just not enough.
Ohmygoodness, I love your reply to "Patti Bethel." It is always so fascinating to me how the members of the various "freedom caucuses", the "libertarians," the "don't tread on me" crowd are slobbering at any opportunity to impose THEIR taste, will, beliefs, reading (or none) habits, etc. They should call themselves what they are, members of the "Freedom For Me But Not For Thee" pseudo-church.
"STOP SHOVING DEMOCRACY DOWN YOUR LOYAL FACSIST READERS' THROATS!"
Happy Birthday, Mr. Keillor, and thanks so much for all you have taught me through so many years. I try to be worthy.
GK,
I love the brevity and simplicity of your humor, and I love it when I'm laughing at a joke before I even realize I've heard one. A good example is the joke you shared with me a couple of years ago in this platform: "A man walks into his home with both hands full of dog poop and says 'Look what I almost stepped in." Simple and to the point. Still makes me chuckle.
I've written what I believe is an original joke, and I need your opinion:
Two drunks leave a bar and are stumbling through the streets when one says to the other, "I'm never going to make it home without taking a leak."
The other says, "You took the thought right out of my head. Let's duck into this alley."
As they stood there in the moonlight taking care of business, the first drunk says, "Just look at us. Two chaps pissing in the night."
So, GK, did it register on the laughometer at all? A chuckle? A smile?
-Kent Bernhardt, Salisbury, NC
Comments to Post to the Host Comments week of July 30 8/7/23
WanderingSioux Aug 10 In your reply to Thomas Swenson, you implied that your “blundering middle years” decreased your sagacity somewhat. I beg to differ with that! We really do learn from experience – our own, or what others have shared with us. For me, when I “have wheels”, I pick up hitchhikers. Some people may freak out and say “Oh, No! How Dangerous!!” But the fact of the matter is, I come from a well off, well-educated middle class family. If I’d never been able to rub shoulders with a “random sampling of Americans (and others)”, I think I’d be a lot more judgmental about a wide variety of folks than I am today. I think that’s the same thing for you, our “Well-Balanced” host! I understand that your father sorted mail on trains when you were a boy. That’s not the sort of parental occupation that would ordinarily get “Sonny Boy” into Harvard. But, as a regular listener, and sometimes audience member of APHC, I’ve been constantly impressed by the even-handedness with which you interview laundrymen in Nashville with a dream of cutting a record, and representatives in our highest political offices with official business on their minds! To me, this is a mark of the ongoing popularity of your show! It gives those of us in the listening audience the impression, that if we had been walking in Central Park, and we were waiting at a corner at a light with you standing there, that you’d most likely be “approachable,” and even delighted to have a chance meeting with fans. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the experiences you had in those “blundering middle years” were part of what has fueled your WISDOM today! The only difference between you and the rest of us, is that most of us haven’t had our activities recorded, in detail, for the better part of our adult lives! Talk to anyone whose elders were into making home movies, and they’ll probably say they’re ashamed of some of the records from their own distant past! BUT! You’re here today, thanks to yesterday, so, HALLALUJAH! (PS: I second your reply to Patti Bethel! She calls herself part of your loyal audience – but if she’s been that loyal for years, it’s really strange that she hasn’t picked up on your political leanings before now!)
Garrison - read this poem that seemed to capture the beauty of your life.
Today we lose the words
yours and mine and find
in their absence a song
that can only be sung together.
How did we ever think
we could attempt
this humanness alone?
To the table of love,
we bring soup, bring cherries,
bring the bread of our own
sweet communion.
We bring scissors to cut away
the tresses of the past,
bring dark wine to toast
the courage of showing up exposed.
And when we forget
the words to the song,
well, there is always laughter.
And when we forget to laugh,
well, there is always
the union of tears—
the way many rivers
become one river,
the way many voices
become one music.
~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, from her stunning collection All the Honey
Hi GK,
In your reply to Janice of the Mega-Church ( MAGA-Church??), you referred to the con man we all know and love. In his latest book “The Art of the Lie”, he explained that his fundamental
(pun intended) campaign strategy was :
1. To the Great American Firearm Fanatics: A chicken in every pot and a gun in every room of the house. Open carry and target drill in all schools.
2. To the Great American Community of Religious Fanatics: Prayer In all schools; a picture of Jesus in every classroom, preferably the one where he looks very Goyish; Bible studies as regular curriculum; Total outlawing of abortion. Abolish any separation of Church and State….lean heavily toward Theocracy.
3. To the Great American Community of Oligarchs: Outlaw any climate science/global warming research; dial back oil drilling permit constraints, heavily tax electric vehicles; promote all forms of petro power development; dial back emissions restrictions; etc., etc.
4. To the Great American Community of White Supremacists : Develop comprehensive book-burning lists; create federal oversight of curriculum to assure favorable history of our great Southern Planter legacy and the job-training value of slavery; dial back gerrymandering restrictions to allow appropriate voter segregation and disempowerment; dial back ultraliberal voter rights legislation.
5. To the Great American Community of Minimalist Government: Drain the swamp…...on and on and on…….ad infinitum…..
The main point is to promise everyone everything, whether actually delivering it or not….but sell, sell, sell and convince them that you are their man!
https://open.substack.com/pub/garrisonkeillor/p/post-to-the-host-8d7?r=1ii47j&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I worked real hard to make this in limerick form, but I just couldn’t pull it off.
Relaxin Rog - L.A.