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Me. Keillor, your life is a light I am so thankful for. I hope my writing will finally come around to the place it loves and stay there…

the telling a story and having a great time doing it place.

If I reach that goal, I will have reached my version of peace. Bliss, really.

Stories are everything.

I love yours even more than I do mine.

That, sir, is my best praise.

Long life, Garrison, is my prayer and my hope for you. Long-lived and long-loved and long-laughed life.

Lilli Ann

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Since the ending of PHC radio show, do you ever miss singing with all those talented artists you use to have on your show? I would imagine you would. Do you sing for your wife or family on occasion?

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Planning to head over to Wisconsin in a couple weeks and sing with Prudence Johnson and she and I are going to sing down South with Robin and Linda Williams as a reformed Hopeful Gospel Quartet. I'm still game.

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What a lucky fellow you are. I was not familiar with your quartet but after sampling some of its offerings I find them and you are delightful. Sing on.

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Good morning, Mr. Keillor. On the subject of the exploding email inbox: like you, I've lopped off a good number of the subscriptions to one-time causes for which my passion has waned. (The waning of passions seems an important feature of my new septuagenarianism.) I still cling to a few which do a good job of summarizing information from other sources, though; one of these, called simply The Conversation, is a newsletter which rounds up recent academic research on a variety of topics, and repackages it in terms laymen find meaningful and relevant.

The issue of today came to me with one of the happiest email subjects I've read in a long time: "Mama bats baby-talk to their babbling pups."

(The corresponding full -- excellent -- article, by one Ahana Aurora Fernandez, described as "Postdoctoral Researcher in Behavioral Ecology and Bioacoustics, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin," is headed "Bat pups babble and bat moms use baby talk, hinting at the evolution of human language.")

Actually, now that I've relayed all that, I find myself thrilled not only by the email subject, but by learning there's a field of study called "bioacoustics." There's almost too much INTERESTING stuff out there for me to be unhappy for long.

Thank you for your recent enthusiastic transition to the online world. I do look forward to all the bits and bobs!

John

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Mama bats baby-talking to their pups gives us a whole new view of the bat world and it's good someone is studying it but I think I'm going to stick with my hoop-stitching. Thanks.

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founding

What a post! I got to the part in which you plan to "clean out the unnecessaries, including piles of rough drafts..." and I "Freaked Out!" I'm of the opinion that in a century, you will be at least as respected as Victor Hugo, one of my favorite authors. If some enterprising soul found a closet full of Hugo's old rough drafts, I'd bet a million dollars that they could do something with it and be declared "Saints" for discovering this precious other side of Victor!

Have you thought of papyrus in clay vessels? Or, what method do they use on Moon- or Mars- landing vehicles to let the locals know "Earthlings Sent This?' Gold, isn't it? Some sort of pictographs - and phonograph records of the sounds of Earthling Voices!

If you can't think of anything else to do with those "unnecessaries", at least, think of donating them to the Library of Congress or some other library that might be interested. I know the Newberry Library in Chicago has boxes and boxes of donations from the Pullman company, including lots of semi-personal stuff. It gives a wholly different dimension to this 19th Century entrepreneur.

Thou Art an American Icon! There have been great discoveries in dusty old attics that opened fantastic windows to understanding the bygone days! One that comes to my mind is Robert Manson Myers discovery of generations of letters that had been written prior to, during, and after the Civil war by the family of the Reverend Charles Colcock Jones - "Children of Pride." Sone of the sons had been to university in Yankee Land, so there's that perspective. At home, "Mother" worried during the blockade about getting "slave cloth" from British mills to make the annual new set of clothing for each dependent member of their plantation family. The daughter ended up in Atlanta, so there are wrenching letters about Sheridan's approach.

Those real life letters were the best description of life in the ante-Bellum South that I've ever seen. I'm not alone in that judgement, either. When I took a two-week vacation in the South, whenever I visited some historical site, I merely had to mention the "Children of Pride" and the hostesses would immediately shift gear! No longer was I a "Damn Yankee", damned by my accent, but a "Soul Sister!" "You 'all understand us, then, don't you?"

Think of it! It could be that there are gems in those "unnecessities" of yours that will be seen from entirely different eyes, a century from now! Give future generations the privilege of having a window into this generation's world, and forming their own conclusions about the value of your "Works!" You don't have to chip them in stone like ancient Egyptians. If you go digital, be sure to include some technology that will enable future generations to access it. But, even if you have to write on the walls - what you have to say is Important! Significant! Unique! Scintillating!

DO NOT DISCARD! Please! I'm pleading for the generations that follow, for HISTORY ITSELF!

SAVE! SAVE! SAVE!

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Jesus Saves. I sort and dispose.

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I had no idea Prairie Home Companion had returned with you as the host. Is this the show people are talking about here? I've always wanted to go to a live show. But i gave up and stopped listening when the hulabulah nonsense happened. Hope all is well.

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