You didn't go to a Trump Rally in New Jersey last week, you had COVID and were quarantined. You must be feeling better because you're making rants about the "guy with the bad haircut". He is a hilarious fellow. He has hit the nail on the head with his hateful rhetoric, there is a lot of division and bad feelings among our fellow Americans that isn't getting resolved in a peaceful way. God bless the peacemakers.
A little boy was listening to a Bible reading by the great New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright. When he was done a little boy said, “Well that’s not a very nice story.” And Wright replied, “You’re right. It’s not.”
Sort of like Minnesota when you were growing up. When the land of Trump did not exist, I traversed this country by thumb several times when America showed me it’s good side. It was a good story, and I recall it fondly.
<sigh>. Have loved you for years Gary (if I may call you Gary), and still do.....but why ya gotta insult your fellow countrymen? “You people are dumber than stumps. I may be a mad hatter but you have the brains of a box of hammers.”
Really?
Is there no room to allow that Trump supporters are good (and intelligent) people who love America and are gravely concerned with the direction things are going? Are comments like that peaceful, constructive and loving?
Will continue to attend your events and buy your books, because they make me happy, but reading these comments this morning just made me sad.
Of course I read and understood that it was Trump saying those things, that is obvious. The implied suggestion is that the supporters are in fact those things if they subject themselves to that kind of treatment and are not smart enough to see thru his supposed lies. I must not be smart enough to grasp the satire either, forgive me.
And truly, is the path to peace and understanding this constant barrage of insults?
Where is the reasoned debate on the actual issues?
Well, I’ll make one final comment and leave you to your head-smacking.
What I find most problematic here is this insistence that after being faced with the years of repeated lying; with cheating; with despicable, openly criminal, openly anti-democratic behavior, if someone attempts to call that behavior out, and label it for what it clearly is, then we are asked to believe that it is they who are acting in a “rude” or “impolite” way for doing so.
[shrug] I just guess I just must have been brought up with a different understanding of what it means to be “impolite”.
Well, just to be precise, if you read the article you’ll note that it is not GK who applies these insults to fellow Americans, but, in the context of the story, Donald Trump. The point here, if I may, is that this is quite a realistic --if satiric-- portrayal of how he treats his supporters. He can insult their intelligence by telling the most obvious and blatant of lies, by betraying everything they claim to stand, and by acting in the most outrageous (and, yes, in the most unamerican) way --and yet, after all this time, they continue to cheer him all the louder for this.
Can we believe that his supporter sincerely want the best for the country? OK. But it is also reasonable to point out the irony of expecting that that best will come from the actions of this conman.
In short, the best, most sincere advice I can give the most rabid supporters of Donald Trump is that if they don’t want to be told that they are acting dumb is not to act that way.
Can you at least acknowledge that what G. Keillor was satirizing is fact: that *rump can - and does - say anything, anything at all, no matter how deceptive, dishonest, obscene, ugly and treasonous, and his followers (cult members to a deranged con-man, more precisely) believe him, cheer him and do his bidding?
Please recall that your favorite Richie Rich stated with total self-confidence that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose one vote.
American goobers didn't even know that that point would be extended to his/the cult's plots to overthrow the government, followed by the shock that at least some of us feel that that statement might have been the ONLY thing he has ever said that is proving to be true.
I wish we could pinpoint the moment in time when the planet shifted and sanity was upended and the old adage came true, that the inmates are actually running the asylum.
And to your point about "being gravely concerned about the way things are going," how has a crime syndicate masquerading as government made anything better? When did embracing an "American" version of the Third Reich become a "normalized" response to our country's, or the world's, problems?
And as one actually somewhat shy person of the sort G. Keillor used to acknowledge in his material, I don't really need to hear about his intimate relations with his wife or even his constant reminders of his feelings for her. Tell her, not us.
We were down below freezing the other night, after Mother Nature teased us with a few days in the 80's. I (barely) managed to ignore the siren song (thanks to my hubby and his common sense), but this morning at the feed store I overheard a couple of fellow garden-nuts lamenting the loss of their eggplant and tomato seedings... alas, alack, spring will REALLY be here soon! 🌞
It's all there, Mr. Keillor, left by Bogart's memories to Bergman's that we will always have our "Paris," the City of Lovers, but now have to remedy another War of Nonsense of someone with No Sense. Find someone you can trust besides your wife, like Rick's bonding with Commander Renault. Find a "beautiful friendship." Woody Allen found it in Paris, too. Never give up! Oh yeah, that was Churchhill. Now, "Play it again!"
The "Nonetheslesses" are good and keep me going in my aging years. I still think you need to spend more time in the South, G.K.! Nonetheless, stay well and keep doing god work up and there where you are!
I just shake my head and I voted for President Orange. Both parties should be ashamed of each other. No one is perfect. There is too much segregation and division here in the good ol' US of A. We blame it on systematic history. There is more debate and less conversation. People ought to relearn how to tolerate our differences. I think Garrison would be a wonderful seat at the table. Let's try to unravel it.
Race relations has mired us for too long. I'd like to get a consensus how social media has corrupted the American dream. I know that growing up in an Irish Catholic home that we were not supposed to talk about politics, religion, race, and gender. It was a private affair. I feel like what we believe has deterred us from mutual harmony. It's time for true healing.
The thing is, "President Orange" announces in advance that any election he loses will have been fraudulent. We now know that he will stand by this after losing, and he even wants to pardon the convicted criminals who broke into and desecrated the U.S. Capitol as they threatened to kill those seen as blocking his hold on power. I think it's vitally important that all Americans talk about this, not just label it a political matter that is somehow off limits in polite conversation. Similarly, making religion, race and gender "private" topics that we must not discuss sounds like a strategy for locking in advantages for some and a world of uncertainty (to put it mildly) for others.
Spring! All those lovely, joyous things - the birds, the bees, the flowers - and the weeds in the grass!
On top of Mt. Marcy
All covered with rock
A bee found Rowena
There could have been shock
While I was out in the yard weeding just now, a yellow-jacket took interest in me. As I sat there, perfectly still, and tried not to give off “frightened” scents, suddenly I was transported in memory to the Adirondack mountains. I had been a first-year counselor, and this was my first time as a solo guide on a long uphill climb. One of the campers in my care was Rowena Reed. We were actually in the same, multi-age Girl Scout Troop, and we instinctively gravitated toward each other because of our “explorer instincts.”
There we were, on top of a rocky mountain top, a two-three hour hike from the nearest road. There was this bee, “Big deal!” Except, not long before, Rowena had been nearby when a bee’s nest had been disturbed. She had been bitten several times. She was rushed to the nearest hospital and given intervenous antihistamines and cortisone to improve her breathing. For this hiking trip, as the solo counselor, the camp nurse had taken me aside and taught me how to use a hypodermic needle, by practicing on an orange. I didn’t feel “competent” with that minor practice. However, being isolated on the tallest mountain in New York State ad several hours away from help – that syringe and antidote in my pack might be Rowena’s sole protectioin from probable death if she did get stung. I tried not to think too much about bee stings. “How many times have I seen bees on the rocky tops of Adirondack mountains?” I asked myself. Never.
But! There was the bee, honing in specifically on Rowena! We had been advised that the best approach was to be perfectly still. Trying to shoo away the bee might lead it to “fight or flight” behavior,” with stinging Rowena being the “fight” option. How long did that bee scare the heck out of Rowena and me? It might have been 2 or 3 minutes, but it seemed like a century to me! Rowena was a model of quietude. Perhaps she’d been coached to “Think of yourself in a peaceful place – beside a beautiful stream.” For all six of our hiking patrol, it seemed as if time stood still. I stood there and thought “Could I really do it? Could I inject the antidote correctly? And would Rowena be able to hike all the way back – at least 4 hours, while her system was waging war against that bee’s artillery?”
Fortunately, Rowena’s stolid patience paid off. The bee eventually landed on a PB&J – peanut butter and jelly sandwich which one of us had left on a distant rock. Let’ hear it for strawberry jelly! As soon as the coast was clear, we high-tailed out of that “Bee-utiful” place, hardly aware of the gorgeous scenery we were leaving behind.
Before then, my impression of Rowena had been that she was a “quiet, retiring” girl. But, seeing her sense of self-control under pressure, my sense of appreciation for her grew enormously! And, I think, having “lived through that danger” together, for Rowena, I wasn’t just “our scout leader’s daughter” any more – I was someone with whom danger had bonded together. Despite our difference in age, after that we were best friends.
I realise that Trump was wrong for America and his supporters. He is quite savvy in his business deals. I'm not advocating for Biden either. America is not the land of the free, home of the brave.
People like to debate things that occurred in the past like the January insurrection. We all must focus on the present. You just cannot dismiss the border crisis or how certain racial groups are treated. I don't know how to feel about these sensitive areas. I just know that whoever acquires these vocal issues will have to at least be impartial, constructive and sensible.
"Wild Bears wandering down Main Street in Minneapolis..." Possibly, you're a little south for that thrill! Once, in Manitoba, I had stayed at a motel on Main Street while I was driving out west to see my inlaws. When I was going out to supper at a local diner, I saw a sign on the glass front door: Polar Bear Alert! No pedestrian traffic. Drive out of the parking lot, and avoid Main Street. Well - some of you folks out there know what it's like, to put a sign like that in front of a "Lookie Lou!" I went out, jumped in my car, and circled down Main Street until I had a nice spot to go Polar Bear Looking!
In actuality, I take it it was a rather "elderly" polar bear. the fur had a yellowish tinge. and, far from "Going Fishin'" for meals, this bear had decided that garbage cans were much more enticing!
Apparently, this happened rather frequently here. To me, this seems like one possible difference, "North", versus "South of the Border!" Stateside, if my experience in the Adirondacks of New York state is any guideline, a "Bear Downtown" siting would call for the Dept. of Wildlife folks. A well-placed shot with a tranquillizing gun, then a lift into a truck and a trip into the wilds, and "Catch and Release" procedures would be complete. In Canada, it seems, the wildlife have preference!
As usual I could identify with your observations regarding Trump. Humor has always soothed my soul. As soon as I heard Trump announce his candidacy against Clinton I said, he woke up one morning and decided to be king. It reminded me of "The Emperor's New Clothes." I have listened to you for years.
You didn't go to a Trump Rally in New Jersey last week, you had COVID and were quarantined. You must be feeling better because you're making rants about the "guy with the bad haircut". He is a hilarious fellow. He has hit the nail on the head with his hateful rhetoric, there is a lot of division and bad feelings among our fellow Americans that isn't getting resolved in a peaceful way. God bless the peacemakers.
Thank you, Gary. I knew that my rebound depression was coming after putting on my cheery early Spring face for weeks and then WHAM! it hit me.
You got that right!
“…(You) Saved a part of a day I rued”.
A little boy was listening to a Bible reading by the great New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright. When he was done a little boy said, “Well that’s not a very nice story.” And Wright replied, “You’re right. It’s not.”
Sort of like Minnesota when you were growing up. When the land of Trump did not exist, I traversed this country by thumb several times when America showed me it’s good side. It was a good story, and I recall it fondly.
I think you found Trump's new campaign slogan - "Mad as a Hatter!"
It would look good on those hats (already colored red for the revolution)
and probably Lewis Carroll approved. Happy Friday everyone.
I saw an analysis of one of tRump's speeches and there were strong parallels with speeches by Mussolini.
So true and scary.
<sigh>. Have loved you for years Gary (if I may call you Gary), and still do.....but why ya gotta insult your fellow countrymen? “You people are dumber than stumps. I may be a mad hatter but you have the brains of a box of hammers.”
Really?
Is there no room to allow that Trump supporters are good (and intelligent) people who love America and are gravely concerned with the direction things are going? Are comments like that peaceful, constructive and loving?
Will continue to attend your events and buy your books, because they make me happy, but reading these comments this morning just made me sad.
Hope you’re reunited with your Sweetheart soon!
Of course I read and understood that it was Trump saying those things, that is obvious. The implied suggestion is that the supporters are in fact those things if they subject themselves to that kind of treatment and are not smart enough to see thru his supposed lies. I must not be smart enough to grasp the satire either, forgive me.
And truly, is the path to peace and understanding this constant barrage of insults?
Where is the reasoned debate on the actual issues?
Are insults, criminal behavior, and a lack of reasoned debate the best way way to a achieve peace and understanding? Probably not.
But as the sad history of Donald Trump has repeatedly shown, they are certainly the path to a kind of success, at least among some people.
Waitaminnit......Side A tells Side B they are as dumb as a stump, while also accusing Side B of insults. SMH
Well, I’ll make one final comment and leave you to your head-smacking.
What I find most problematic here is this insistence that after being faced with the years of repeated lying; with cheating; with despicable, openly criminal, openly anti-democratic behavior, if someone attempts to call that behavior out, and label it for what it clearly is, then we are asked to believe that it is they who are acting in a “rude” or “impolite” way for doing so.
[shrug] I just guess I just must have been brought up with a different understanding of what it means to be “impolite”.
Yes, and you just can’t resist having the last word.
For a barrage of insults, your guy is way ahead of the rest of us.
Well, just to be precise, if you read the article you’ll note that it is not GK who applies these insults to fellow Americans, but, in the context of the story, Donald Trump. The point here, if I may, is that this is quite a realistic --if satiric-- portrayal of how he treats his supporters. He can insult their intelligence by telling the most obvious and blatant of lies, by betraying everything they claim to stand, and by acting in the most outrageous (and, yes, in the most unamerican) way --and yet, after all this time, they continue to cheer him all the louder for this.
Can we believe that his supporter sincerely want the best for the country? OK. But it is also reasonable to point out the irony of expecting that that best will come from the actions of this conman.
In short, the best, most sincere advice I can give the most rabid supporters of Donald Trump is that if they don’t want to be told that they are acting dumb is not to act that way.
He wasn’t talking to you.
I didn't say it. He did.
No, he didn’t.
Can you at least acknowledge that what G. Keillor was satirizing is fact: that *rump can - and does - say anything, anything at all, no matter how deceptive, dishonest, obscene, ugly and treasonous, and his followers (cult members to a deranged con-man, more precisely) believe him, cheer him and do his bidding?
Please recall that your favorite Richie Rich stated with total self-confidence that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose one vote.
American goobers didn't even know that that point would be extended to his/the cult's plots to overthrow the government, followed by the shock that at least some of us feel that that statement might have been the ONLY thing he has ever said that is proving to be true.
I wish we could pinpoint the moment in time when the planet shifted and sanity was upended and the old adage came true, that the inmates are actually running the asylum.
And to your point about "being gravely concerned about the way things are going," how has a crime syndicate masquerading as government made anything better? When did embracing an "American" version of the Third Reich become a "normalized" response to our country's, or the world's, problems?
And as one actually somewhat shy person of the sort G. Keillor used to acknowledge in his material, I don't really need to hear about his intimate relations with his wife or even his constant reminders of his feelings for her. Tell her, not us.
Hello Annie Cross !
We were down below freezing the other night, after Mother Nature teased us with a few days in the 80's. I (barely) managed to ignore the siren song (thanks to my hubby and his common sense), but this morning at the feed store I overheard a couple of fellow garden-nuts lamenting the loss of their eggplant and tomato seedings... alas, alack, spring will REALLY be here soon! 🌞
It's all there, Mr. Keillor, left by Bogart's memories to Bergman's that we will always have our "Paris," the City of Lovers, but now have to remedy another War of Nonsense of someone with No Sense. Find someone you can trust besides your wife, like Rick's bonding with Commander Renault. Find a "beautiful friendship." Woody Allen found it in Paris, too. Never give up! Oh yeah, that was Churchhill. Now, "Play it again!"
Silver Alert: Can You Spell “World” Backwards?
You don’t want my advice
You’ve made that very clear
But I’m going to tell you
A few things I hold dear
I’m turning 80 today
And know a thing or two
I’m in God’s waiting room
And have some tips for you
You thought that old age
Meant simply slowing down
And going on a cruise or two
But your ship has run aground
Your grandkid’s not the prodigy
You once thought he was
In fact you’re not exactly sure
What it is he does
Everything takes more effort
Like moving from a chair
Oh no, woe is me
I think I see a stair
Some days you are cranky
Other days you’re grumpy too
But no feeling is final
That’s my point of view
The title of this poem you say
Makes no sense at best
But spelling “world” backwards
Is an elder’s memory test
If you are mindful
And in the present be
Joy can be found with
Gerotranscendent glee
For God created old age
Therefore it must be good
He will sustain you through it
Till you reach His neighborhood
I hear Someone calling me
By my given name
It could be my turn
To leave this domain.
Before I head for home
And end my time of wait
There are two more verses
For you to contemplate
You matter as a human
You matter as a soul
God offers you His presence
To listen and console
So practice spelling backwards
Know your letters from Z to A
Treat everyone with kindness
And may blessings fill your day. Pat Timpanaro
The "Nonetheslesses" are good and keep me going in my aging years. I still think you need to spend more time in the South, G.K.! Nonetheless, stay well and keep doing god work up and there where you are!
I just shake my head and I voted for President Orange. Both parties should be ashamed of each other. No one is perfect. There is too much segregation and division here in the good ol' US of A. We blame it on systematic history. There is more debate and less conversation. People ought to relearn how to tolerate our differences. I think Garrison would be a wonderful seat at the table. Let's try to unravel it.
Race relations has mired us for too long. I'd like to get a consensus how social media has corrupted the American dream. I know that growing up in an Irish Catholic home that we were not supposed to talk about politics, religion, race, and gender. It was a private affair. I feel like what we believe has deterred us from mutual harmony. It's time for true healing.
The thing is, "President Orange" announces in advance that any election he loses will have been fraudulent. We now know that he will stand by this after losing, and he even wants to pardon the convicted criminals who broke into and desecrated the U.S. Capitol as they threatened to kill those seen as blocking his hold on power. I think it's vitally important that all Americans talk about this, not just label it a political matter that is somehow off limits in polite conversation. Similarly, making religion, race and gender "private" topics that we must not discuss sounds like a strategy for locking in advantages for some and a world of uncertainty (to put it mildly) for others.
Spring! All those lovely, joyous things - the birds, the bees, the flowers - and the weeds in the grass!
On top of Mt. Marcy
All covered with rock
A bee found Rowena
There could have been shock
While I was out in the yard weeding just now, a yellow-jacket took interest in me. As I sat there, perfectly still, and tried not to give off “frightened” scents, suddenly I was transported in memory to the Adirondack mountains. I had been a first-year counselor, and this was my first time as a solo guide on a long uphill climb. One of the campers in my care was Rowena Reed. We were actually in the same, multi-age Girl Scout Troop, and we instinctively gravitated toward each other because of our “explorer instincts.”
There we were, on top of a rocky mountain top, a two-three hour hike from the nearest road. There was this bee, “Big deal!” Except, not long before, Rowena had been nearby when a bee’s nest had been disturbed. She had been bitten several times. She was rushed to the nearest hospital and given intervenous antihistamines and cortisone to improve her breathing. For this hiking trip, as the solo counselor, the camp nurse had taken me aside and taught me how to use a hypodermic needle, by practicing on an orange. I didn’t feel “competent” with that minor practice. However, being isolated on the tallest mountain in New York State ad several hours away from help – that syringe and antidote in my pack might be Rowena’s sole protectioin from probable death if she did get stung. I tried not to think too much about bee stings. “How many times have I seen bees on the rocky tops of Adirondack mountains?” I asked myself. Never.
But! There was the bee, honing in specifically on Rowena! We had been advised that the best approach was to be perfectly still. Trying to shoo away the bee might lead it to “fight or flight” behavior,” with stinging Rowena being the “fight” option. How long did that bee scare the heck out of Rowena and me? It might have been 2 or 3 minutes, but it seemed like a century to me! Rowena was a model of quietude. Perhaps she’d been coached to “Think of yourself in a peaceful place – beside a beautiful stream.” For all six of our hiking patrol, it seemed as if time stood still. I stood there and thought “Could I really do it? Could I inject the antidote correctly? And would Rowena be able to hike all the way back – at least 4 hours, while her system was waging war against that bee’s artillery?”
Fortunately, Rowena’s stolid patience paid off. The bee eventually landed on a PB&J – peanut butter and jelly sandwich which one of us had left on a distant rock. Let’ hear it for strawberry jelly! As soon as the coast was clear, we high-tailed out of that “Bee-utiful” place, hardly aware of the gorgeous scenery we were leaving behind.
Before then, my impression of Rowena had been that she was a “quiet, retiring” girl. But, seeing her sense of self-control under pressure, my sense of appreciation for her grew enormously! And, I think, having “lived through that danger” together, for Rowena, I wasn’t just “our scout leader’s daughter” any more – I was someone with whom danger had bonded together. Despite our difference in age, after that we were best friends.
I realise that Trump was wrong for America and his supporters. He is quite savvy in his business deals. I'm not advocating for Biden either. America is not the land of the free, home of the brave.
People like to debate things that occurred in the past like the January insurrection. We all must focus on the present. You just cannot dismiss the border crisis or how certain racial groups are treated. I don't know how to feel about these sensitive areas. I just know that whoever acquires these vocal issues will have to at least be impartial, constructive and sensible.
"Wild Bears wandering down Main Street in Minneapolis..." Possibly, you're a little south for that thrill! Once, in Manitoba, I had stayed at a motel on Main Street while I was driving out west to see my inlaws. When I was going out to supper at a local diner, I saw a sign on the glass front door: Polar Bear Alert! No pedestrian traffic. Drive out of the parking lot, and avoid Main Street. Well - some of you folks out there know what it's like, to put a sign like that in front of a "Lookie Lou!" I went out, jumped in my car, and circled down Main Street until I had a nice spot to go Polar Bear Looking!
In actuality, I take it it was a rather "elderly" polar bear. the fur had a yellowish tinge. and, far from "Going Fishin'" for meals, this bear had decided that garbage cans were much more enticing!
Apparently, this happened rather frequently here. To me, this seems like one possible difference, "North", versus "South of the Border!" Stateside, if my experience in the Adirondacks of New York state is any guideline, a "Bear Downtown" siting would call for the Dept. of Wildlife folks. A well-placed shot with a tranquillizing gun, then a lift into a truck and a trip into the wilds, and "Catch and Release" procedures would be complete. In Canada, it seems, the wildlife have preference!
As usual I could identify with your observations regarding Trump. Humor has always soothed my soul. As soon as I heard Trump announce his candidacy against Clinton I said, he woke up one morning and decided to be king. It reminded me of "The Emperor's New Clothes." I have listened to you for years.