And YOU are a blessing to US, Mr. Keillor. Waking up in the morning and reading your lovely words makes us feel gratitude and wanting to “go forth and multiply” your kindness. That’s what that biblical phrase really means. Thank you.
If I am not mistaken, Hedy Lamarr pioneered the technology that would one day form the basis for WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth. The Defense Dept rejected it because she was a woman.
You're correct. Here's the paragraph on that from the Wikipedia article om Hdy Lamar:
At the beginning of World War II, she and composer George Antheil developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers.[8] Although the US Navy did not adopt the technology until the 1960s,[9] the principles of their work are incorporated into Bluetooth and GPS technology and are similar to methods used in legacy versions of CDMA and Wi-Fi.[10][11][12] This work led to their induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.[8][13]
As a going-on-88-year-old writer I LOVED your letter. It is my permission slip to bliss out with that staggering pile on my desk for however long the Muse moves me, then spend the rest of my day dreaming or musing or watching the leaves move, or not, as the wind dictates, and at its end, know that I have achieved something of value, whether I have several or no pages to show for it. I have always admired you, Mr. Keillor, for great good sense while being funny about it. That also is an experience of bliss, and I thank you for those.
Can’t wait until we see you at the Ryman on Sunday! Thanks for continuing your writing. I just finished “Serenity at 70 and Gaiety at 80”! As a “Grace believer” I do appreciate your upbringing! Grace is more than amazing!! I love “free” gifts!!! Romans 6:23
Looking forward to it. Just finished a script in which I have Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett singing, "Stop In The Name of Love."
In hindsight, thank you for writing this letter. I didn’t know I needed to read these words today. But, as it turns out, I really did. Helpful hint: there’s a little pill called Beano. If you swallow it before you eat a burger, you won’t need Alka Seltzer the next morning.
Beanos help with actual beans, as well - as a vegetarian with IBS, I can attest to the expeditious efficacy of those tiny pills... assuming, of course that one remembers to take them BEFORE indulging in gaseous offerings. For the aftereffects of indulging without Beano, I recommend simethicone, a safe OTC medication that works by breaking up the gas bubbles in your digestive track, so they can easily move up - or down - and out without causing your gut to curl up into the fetal position. I have to take the things three times a day for the IBS, whether I indulge or not, and they really get the job done. :)
Thank you for this column in particular, you've given me reassurance and hope that as a writer someday I will go through all those pieces of paper and turn them into something. Meanwhile I will always have something to keep me busy and that's a blessing. I've Been in your audience in one form or another for many decades, and now I have decided to pay to subscribe, as soon as I get the new debit card to replace the one that is lost somewhere in all those piles of paper. Any day now. Seriously.
Imagine a Federal Writers's Project in 2022... Thousands of disaffected Brooklyn hipsters, boatloads of refugees from Iowa Writers Workshop, hundreds of thousands of walking wounded from innumerable other workshops, the myriad millions of lost souls that shelled out a lifetime of monthly payments to receive a diploma from jerry rigged university/vocational centers pumping out bumwads for the economy that doesn't exist anymore and that really only thought about being a writer because they couldn't think of anything else they wanted to do and only wanted to be heard and acknowledged...and I don't think it would work a second time. I'm not as certain the FWP is something to be emulated. It was a desperate move that's been enshrined as something wonderful, when maybe it wasn't.
It's possibly another example of my Grandparents generation finagling a way to drag money out of the youngsters that were too dumb to know what was happening, and too inexperienced to project these ideas into future consequences. It's kinda like a Federal program for unemployed folks that wanted to be in show business. Maybe it's better to let those folks endlessly audition until such time as they came to their good senses and realized maybe they'd be better off doing something else.
Or, maybe require anyone trying to enter a FWP derivative to submit their stuff to the NY'er until the stream of rejections finally gets the message through that being a rodeo clown might not be so bad after all.
....someone hitting cynical bottom regarding Fed programs to stimulate creative ouput...oh, and I really like your writing. It always gets me thinking.
I wonder, Kurtocracy, if you've ever immersed yourself in any of these volumes that you seem to despise.
In the Virginia volume, I discovered that Thomas Jefferson lost the 1796 presidential election because he showed off his knowledge too much! In describing Virginia to French readers, he had mentioned that there were ancient fossils in the Appalachian mountians, similar to those found in the Andes mountains in Peru. He surmised that this data contradicted the Biblical interpretation of the Great Flood - that sea shells couldn't be found at such high altitudes. Jefferson lost to John Adams in that election - partially because "faithful" voters faulted him for his lack of Biblical belief.
Reading precises like that in these books - composed almost a century ago - was mind-boggling for me! It's those little, "personal" vignettes that provided the thread, the warp and the woof of weaving history for the general public and made them something way beyond "dry, useless history."
How each generation "sees" history varies through the emotional lens they're going through : War or Peace, "Good Times" or Depression, Draconian or Laissez Faire, Looking backward or looking forward, etc. The FWP captured views of Americana that existed then. They give wonderful insight to the way that "History" is viewed through the eyes of the Beholders.
It could be that you've never experienced their magic! I was lucky enough to find the series on the shelves of the Central Library in Los Angeles, California. "Look Before You Leap," Kurtocracy. The state guides are not on every library's shelves. You may have to request them through Interlibrary Loan. I know that once I found their particular nesting place, I would read the guides from cover to cover before I went visiting unexplored states on my upcoming AMTRAK vacation trips. They magnified my appreciation, for example, of passing over the Hughie P. Long railway bridge as it spanned the Mississippi River in Louisiana. Having an appreciation of the amazing forethoght and effort that went into such a monumental work, helped me treasure it, far more that just a six minute or so rocking motion of my sleeper car!
In a way, isn't that what "writing" is about, anyway? It's "Seeing the world through the eyes of others" - getting beyond yourself. With the world so big, we, as individuals, can only personally know a small chunk of it. Reading allows us to expand our horizons, to experience other viewpoints than our own limited one. And, yes. I cannot quote to you, Kurtocracy, every detail that I read in every FWP book that I read. We glean from our experience what touches us most. As you can see from my gleaning - I tend toward geology - rocks in the Andes, landfill in Louisiana.
Just for the challenge, Kurtocracy - would you dare to pick a state, read the FWP book on it and see if some one portion of it doens't capture your imagination, too? It seems to me, there's something in there for everyone, given the almost unlimited scope of the project!
Does my questioning FWP imply I don't read? Don't answer....the Use By date for a comments section is very short; things go stale quickly, and I'm already elsewhere...
Well, you know I’m your fan, Mr. Keillor! I especially love your message of hope conveyed to your younger self. I believe those lines of communication and healing are there and open for all of us to use, praise be to the circularity of time and the simple miracle of being alive.
Hey Garrison, Ren Weschler here and just wanted to write (but don't have your private line) to tell you how much I've been enjoying these Letters and the Posts to the Host and the whole garbanzo. Funny, I've got a substack fortnightly of my own going (The Wondercabinet) and wanted to send you my latest but don't have a direct line to you, so will just direct you to https://lawrenceweschler.substack.com/p/july-7-2022-issue-20
and you can see for yourself: funny, I say, because I too was in a retrospective mood, thinking of back on originary family dynamics, and on baseball, too.
It's so good to hear you so well and sane and capacious as ever. Ren W (weschlers@gmail.com)
Thanks - this reminds me of why I'm still a liberal FDR Democrat. My Dad and Mom's families were, he being a Great Depression migrant and later, my Mom who went on to flourish in California. I can't believe how ill-willed and vicious politics has become among the general public. I expect it from politicians, but now their diseased view of America pretty much makes many of our finest childhood experiences unrepeatable, impossible to hand down.
And YOU are a blessing to US, Mr. Keillor. Waking up in the morning and reading your lovely words makes us feel gratitude and wanting to “go forth and multiply” your kindness. That’s what that biblical phrase really means. Thank you.
If I am not mistaken, Hedy Lamarr pioneered the technology that would one day form the basis for WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth. The Defense Dept rejected it because she was a woman.
More information, please.
There is a PBS documentary (American Masters) about Hedy Lamarr's life. I think you have to log into your PBS account to see it.
She did get a couple of patents for naval navgation, check out in Wikipedia
You're correct. Here's the paragraph on that from the Wikipedia article om Hdy Lamar:
At the beginning of World War II, she and composer George Antheil developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers.[8] Although the US Navy did not adopt the technology until the 1960s,[9] the principles of their work are incorporated into Bluetooth and GPS technology and are similar to methods used in legacy versions of CDMA and Wi-Fi.[10][11][12] This work led to their induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.[8][13]
I am happy to be corrected.
I'm an 86 yo retired widower and just "found" you.
God's good!
Thank you, Mr Keillor. Carry on.
As a going-on-88-year-old writer I LOVED your letter. It is my permission slip to bliss out with that staggering pile on my desk for however long the Muse moves me, then spend the rest of my day dreaming or musing or watching the leaves move, or not, as the wind dictates, and at its end, know that I have achieved something of value, whether I have several or no pages to show for it. I have always admired you, Mr. Keillor, for great good sense while being funny about it. That also is an experience of bliss, and I thank you for those.
Judith Bruder
Northampton MA
Amen. Ditto.
I'm told that Northampton is a national capital of wokeness, which may be a dangerous place for a writer. Just saying.
Can’t wait until we see you at the Ryman on Sunday! Thanks for continuing your writing. I just finished “Serenity at 70 and Gaiety at 80”! As a “Grace believer” I do appreciate your upbringing! Grace is more than amazing!! I love “free” gifts!!! Romans 6:23
Looking forward to it. Just finished a script in which I have Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett singing, "Stop In The Name of Love."
In hindsight, thank you for writing this letter. I didn’t know I needed to read these words today. But, as it turns out, I really did. Helpful hint: there’s a little pill called Beano. If you swallow it before you eat a burger, you won’t need Alka Seltzer the next morning.
Beanos help with actual beans, as well - as a vegetarian with IBS, I can attest to the expeditious efficacy of those tiny pills... assuming, of course that one remembers to take them BEFORE indulging in gaseous offerings. For the aftereffects of indulging without Beano, I recommend simethicone, a safe OTC medication that works by breaking up the gas bubbles in your digestive track, so they can easily move up - or down - and out without causing your gut to curl up into the fetal position. I have to take the things three times a day for the IBS, whether I indulge or not, and they really get the job done. :)
Good to know. Thanks! Because I don’t always remember the “before” part either. :)
Thank you for this column in particular, you've given me reassurance and hope that as a writer someday I will go through all those pieces of paper and turn them into something. Meanwhile I will always have something to keep me busy and that's a blessing. I've Been in your audience in one form or another for many decades, and now I have decided to pay to subscribe, as soon as I get the new debit card to replace the one that is lost somewhere in all those piles of paper. Any day now. Seriously.
Don't sweat it, I don't.
👏‼️👏
Love your stuff, my friend!!
Imagine a Federal Writers's Project in 2022... Thousands of disaffected Brooklyn hipsters, boatloads of refugees from Iowa Writers Workshop, hundreds of thousands of walking wounded from innumerable other workshops, the myriad millions of lost souls that shelled out a lifetime of monthly payments to receive a diploma from jerry rigged university/vocational centers pumping out bumwads for the economy that doesn't exist anymore and that really only thought about being a writer because they couldn't think of anything else they wanted to do and only wanted to be heard and acknowledged...and I don't think it would work a second time. I'm not as certain the FWP is something to be emulated. It was a desperate move that's been enshrined as something wonderful, when maybe it wasn't.
It's possibly another example of my Grandparents generation finagling a way to drag money out of the youngsters that were too dumb to know what was happening, and too inexperienced to project these ideas into future consequences. It's kinda like a Federal program for unemployed folks that wanted to be in show business. Maybe it's better to let those folks endlessly audition until such time as they came to their good senses and realized maybe they'd be better off doing something else.
Or, maybe require anyone trying to enter a FWP derivative to submit their stuff to the NY'er until the stream of rejections finally gets the message through that being a rodeo clown might not be so bad after all.
....someone hitting cynical bottom regarding Fed programs to stimulate creative ouput...oh, and I really like your writing. It always gets me thinking.
The state guides of the FWP were wonderful and though they're out of date, still worth reading. I stand by that.
Amazing amounts of stuff that is wonderful, out of date, and still worth reading…does not necessarily make them good ideas.
I wonder, Kurtocracy, if you've ever immersed yourself in any of these volumes that you seem to despise.
In the Virginia volume, I discovered that Thomas Jefferson lost the 1796 presidential election because he showed off his knowledge too much! In describing Virginia to French readers, he had mentioned that there were ancient fossils in the Appalachian mountians, similar to those found in the Andes mountains in Peru. He surmised that this data contradicted the Biblical interpretation of the Great Flood - that sea shells couldn't be found at such high altitudes. Jefferson lost to John Adams in that election - partially because "faithful" voters faulted him for his lack of Biblical belief.
Reading precises like that in these books - composed almost a century ago - was mind-boggling for me! It's those little, "personal" vignettes that provided the thread, the warp and the woof of weaving history for the general public and made them something way beyond "dry, useless history."
How each generation "sees" history varies through the emotional lens they're going through : War or Peace, "Good Times" or Depression, Draconian or Laissez Faire, Looking backward or looking forward, etc. The FWP captured views of Americana that existed then. They give wonderful insight to the way that "History" is viewed through the eyes of the Beholders.
It could be that you've never experienced their magic! I was lucky enough to find the series on the shelves of the Central Library in Los Angeles, California. "Look Before You Leap," Kurtocracy. The state guides are not on every library's shelves. You may have to request them through Interlibrary Loan. I know that once I found their particular nesting place, I would read the guides from cover to cover before I went visiting unexplored states on my upcoming AMTRAK vacation trips. They magnified my appreciation, for example, of passing over the Hughie P. Long railway bridge as it spanned the Mississippi River in Louisiana. Having an appreciation of the amazing forethoght and effort that went into such a monumental work, helped me treasure it, far more that just a six minute or so rocking motion of my sleeper car!
In a way, isn't that what "writing" is about, anyway? It's "Seeing the world through the eyes of others" - getting beyond yourself. With the world so big, we, as individuals, can only personally know a small chunk of it. Reading allows us to expand our horizons, to experience other viewpoints than our own limited one. And, yes. I cannot quote to you, Kurtocracy, every detail that I read in every FWP book that I read. We glean from our experience what touches us most. As you can see from my gleaning - I tend toward geology - rocks in the Andes, landfill in Louisiana.
Just for the challenge, Kurtocracy - would you dare to pick a state, read the FWP book on it and see if some one portion of it doens't capture your imagination, too? It seems to me, there's something in there for everyone, given the almost unlimited scope of the project!
Does my questioning FWP imply I don't read? Don't answer....the Use By date for a comments section is very short; things go stale quickly, and I'm already elsewhere...
Well, you know I’m your fan, Mr. Keillor! I especially love your message of hope conveyed to your younger self. I believe those lines of communication and healing are there and open for all of us to use, praise be to the circularity of time and the simple miracle of being alive.
Hey Garrison, Ren Weschler here and just wanted to write (but don't have your private line) to tell you how much I've been enjoying these Letters and the Posts to the Host and the whole garbanzo. Funny, I've got a substack fortnightly of my own going (The Wondercabinet) and wanted to send you my latest but don't have a direct line to you, so will just direct you to https://lawrenceweschler.substack.com/p/july-7-2022-issue-20
and you can see for yourself: funny, I say, because I too was in a retrospective mood, thinking of back on originary family dynamics, and on baseball, too.
It's so good to hear you so well and sane and capacious as ever. Ren W (weschlers@gmail.com)
Good to know that another refugee from Westt 43rd made it through the plague. Hope you've got a book underway.
did, and do....
A road trip with dad to get mom her first washing machine, no more tub and washboard, -
You just took me back to those miles from 75 years ago -
A genuine THANK YOU for that
Love you, Garrison, you bring light to our days.
Thanks - this reminds me of why I'm still a liberal FDR Democrat. My Dad and Mom's families were, he being a Great Depression migrant and later, my Mom who went on to flourish in California. I can't believe how ill-willed and vicious politics has become among the general public. I expect it from politicians, but now their diseased view of America pretty much makes many of our finest childhood experiences unrepeatable, impossible to hand down.
It’s a good thing you don’t have stage fright.
Harrd to explain but I don't. Probably the result of ignorance, or low standards.
Dear Mr. Keillor,
You’re welcome.
Love,
Dawn