Oh, GK, ain’t love grande?! I’m celebrating 30 years with my Better Half and he still gives me butterflies. We used to see you at La Mirabelle with your Wife and it was clear you were a Man in love. Dig it! Thank you for another wonderful post to start the day. A toast to You, Love & Danielle at La Mirabelle for her love songs and sunflower paintings.
GK, the last line of the 3.18 column is straight out of song called "Yours for the Asking" by Peter Isaacson, a folksinger from Wichita, Kansas, much loved locally but probably not known beyond that. The Chorus:
But if you want her she's your for the asking;
No strings - she wants it that way.
She's got answers to questions you ain't even thought of...
Harry Brown, a CBC national host, once said that he (also) had "...a face made for radio".
Mr. Keillor is entirely correct about laughing more as you age, but he leaves out the crying part, too. Seems to me as we age the world seems more and more polar: you either laugh or you cry. The Greeks, methinks, had it right with their laughing/crying masks. Anyway, let's hope there are more laughs than tears. All the best to you all, and perhaps save a thought today for the brave Ukrainians. I know I am.
I was at the hospital the other day getting tested for Covid as a requirement to an upcoming knee replacement surgery. The nurse was a short rotund black woman who was an easy laugh. In my usual silly way, I asked that while she was up there massaging my pituitary gland if she could scrape the ton of pollen out of my sinuses and dislodge the booger that has been irritating my left eye. I also explained that since I rode my motorcycle the 13 miles to get here, I had inhaled significantly more pollen than the average driver who sits in an airconditioned cocoon breathing in filtered air and farts. The nursed laughed out loud uncontrollably and then said I must keep my wife very entertained. I do.
I told her there was no sense in being serious all the time, or at all. I told her that Humans are the most ridiculous living and breathing knuckleheads on the planet, ever last one of us. Being serious is a waste of time and obviously accomplishes absolutely nothing. If it did, the world wouldn't be in the state that it is.
I admittedly find myself to be the more inept of the two of us. My wife, always the sensible and financially savvy, gets to tolerate my stupidity, my questionable decisions and cockamamie ideas with her only reward being a laugh at my expense, something I may have said or done. I know I'm not the brightest bulb in the pantry, sharpest knife in the utensil drawer or the freshest apple in the bowl. I admit to being the most fallible person I know and I embrace my faults with gusto. As a result, I resort to humor, sarcasm and afterthought wit to get me through the day and to prevent my wife from putting a pillow over my face while eating my dinner.
I find humor in everything, mostly people. I laugh at how we react to everything, how we all act like children if we don't get our way, how we stomp our feet and throw a tantrum and then have to go home and take out the trash and clean the litter box. At some point I hope that every human on this planet will look in the mirror and realize just how ridiculous they are. That people will learn to laugh at themselves and be okay with others laughing at them at their expense. I wish for the day when we can tell jokes about about some nationality, religion or skin color and laugh at ourselves like we should. When and why did we become so serious?
What did one penguin say to the other? "What I wouldn't give to just wear a pair of jeans a t-shirt once in a while".
Go forth and be silly, publicly, all the time. It's what the world needs.
ah perhaps the answer to the question i still had about why that penguin routine is funny in mr. keillor's head. thank you!! the other stuff made sense too, except that farts don't leave a residue and are preferable to the pollen problem you described.
In 2015 I was crossing a city street, caught my toe on a metal plate and went airborne and slammed my head and both arms into the opposing curb. Both arms were fractured in multiple places, requiring 2 surgeries the first day. When my mother showed up the second day she said "Yesterday I thought you were dying. You didn't think anything was funny!" I have always coped by looking for the humor in any situation. As a mental health professional I frequently recommend people do the same.
so what's funny about a penguin who doesn't think the other one is wearing a tuxedo when the other one thinks that he is? sorry if i didn't get the point of the joke right here!
Laughter IS the best medicine!! After surgery at a major Cancer Center my nickname on the nurses' whiteboard was "Comic". Fifteen years later I'm still laughing a lot with the husband, the cats, and anybody who just drops by!
We'll be married 53 years on March 28. If one cannot pass "natural gas" in front of one's mate & laugh about it, the relationship is doomed. Usually when it occurs, my husband and I would laugh and blame our 13 pound Shih Tzu. Alas, Little Buster died a few weeks ago, so now the fingers shall be aimed at one another, but I will be glancing at B's tin urn on my bookshelf as I do it.
This is lovely. A sense of humor. Absent a sense of humor, the world collapses. I'm not capable of putting into words such simple and wonderful things, so I collect quotes from those that are...and this is one of my favorites...
"I distrust all dead and mechanical formulas for expressing anything connected with human affairs and human personalities. Putting human affairs in exact formulas shows in itself a lack of a sense of humor and therefore a lack of wisdom." ....Lin Yutang
Thhis is a lovely, sunny column - and it could be a bit of an antidote to the sorrow I've been suffering these last few minutes. I homed in on an old St. Patrick's Day show which ended with an audience sing along of Danny Boy. I thought it was one of my favorites - In my mind, you're my sacred "Danny Boy!" But then, there was a second verse, one I don't ever recall hearing before. To put things in context, I've been reading a biography of Robert and Elizabeth Browning - "Dared and Done". I just finished reading about Robert's last time with Elizabeth as she died. OMG! It was just "That's how the story endes" as I read it. But just now, as I heard that second verse of Danny Boy, I recalled haw many "Grave" poems there have been in TWA these days. "What if my "Danny Boy" is speaking for himself there? SAYIt ISN'T SO!!!!!!!!"
I realize, you've written before that writers tend to look toward the tragic as a way to get an emotional response from readers. But Pleas, Please, Please, Danny Boy, reassure us that the WILL TO LIVE is as strong as Ever, there in your hide-away in New York!
If ever there was a man's whose life is worth living, it's YOURS!
Oh, GK, ain’t love grande?! I’m celebrating 30 years with my Better Half and he still gives me butterflies. We used to see you at La Mirabelle with your Wife and it was clear you were a Man in love. Dig it! Thank you for another wonderful post to start the day. A toast to You, Love & Danielle at La Mirabelle for her love songs and sunflower paintings.
What a delight. How did I make it to my seventh decade not knowing the true meaning of natural gas?
My education is hereby complete.
GK, the last line of the 3.18 column is straight out of song called "Yours for the Asking" by Peter Isaacson, a folksinger from Wichita, Kansas, much loved locally but probably not known beyond that. The Chorus:
But if you want her she's your for the asking;
No strings - she wants it that way.
She's got answers to questions you ain't even thought of...
She always knows what to say.
Phil Yearout
Andover, Kansas
I had no idea. Thanks for the info.
I’d have had no idea, either! It’s true of many wives and lovers, I’m told. I’ve been graced with only one.
yes / lovely / i will endeavor to be funnier
Harry Brown, a CBC national host, once said that he (also) had "...a face made for radio".
Mr. Keillor is entirely correct about laughing more as you age, but he leaves out the crying part, too. Seems to me as we age the world seems more and more polar: you either laugh or you cry. The Greeks, methinks, had it right with their laughing/crying masks. Anyway, let's hope there are more laughs than tears. All the best to you all, and perhaps save a thought today for the brave Ukrainians. I know I am.
I was at the hospital the other day getting tested for Covid as a requirement to an upcoming knee replacement surgery. The nurse was a short rotund black woman who was an easy laugh. In my usual silly way, I asked that while she was up there massaging my pituitary gland if she could scrape the ton of pollen out of my sinuses and dislodge the booger that has been irritating my left eye. I also explained that since I rode my motorcycle the 13 miles to get here, I had inhaled significantly more pollen than the average driver who sits in an airconditioned cocoon breathing in filtered air and farts. The nursed laughed out loud uncontrollably and then said I must keep my wife very entertained. I do.
I told her there was no sense in being serious all the time, or at all. I told her that Humans are the most ridiculous living and breathing knuckleheads on the planet, ever last one of us. Being serious is a waste of time and obviously accomplishes absolutely nothing. If it did, the world wouldn't be in the state that it is.
I admittedly find myself to be the more inept of the two of us. My wife, always the sensible and financially savvy, gets to tolerate my stupidity, my questionable decisions and cockamamie ideas with her only reward being a laugh at my expense, something I may have said or done. I know I'm not the brightest bulb in the pantry, sharpest knife in the utensil drawer or the freshest apple in the bowl. I admit to being the most fallible person I know and I embrace my faults with gusto. As a result, I resort to humor, sarcasm and afterthought wit to get me through the day and to prevent my wife from putting a pillow over my face while eating my dinner.
I find humor in everything, mostly people. I laugh at how we react to everything, how we all act like children if we don't get our way, how we stomp our feet and throw a tantrum and then have to go home and take out the trash and clean the litter box. At some point I hope that every human on this planet will look in the mirror and realize just how ridiculous they are. That people will learn to laugh at themselves and be okay with others laughing at them at their expense. I wish for the day when we can tell jokes about about some nationality, religion or skin color and laugh at ourselves like we should. When and why did we become so serious?
What did one penguin say to the other? "What I wouldn't give to just wear a pair of jeans a t-shirt once in a while".
Go forth and be silly, publicly, all the time. It's what the world needs.
ah perhaps the answer to the question i still had about why that penguin routine is funny in mr. keillor's head. thank you!! the other stuff made sense too, except that farts don't leave a residue and are preferable to the pollen problem you described.
Your fourth paragraph should be required reading for every elected official. Especially the part about stomping your feet.
In 2015 I was crossing a city street, caught my toe on a metal plate and went airborne and slammed my head and both arms into the opposing curb. Both arms were fractured in multiple places, requiring 2 surgeries the first day. When my mother showed up the second day she said "Yesterday I thought you were dying. You didn't think anything was funny!" I have always coped by looking for the humor in any situation. As a mental health professional I frequently recommend people do the same.
so what's funny about a penguin who doesn't think the other one is wearing a tuxedo when the other one thinks that he is? sorry if i didn't get the point of the joke right here!
The other penguin doesn't claim to be wearing a tuxedo, he simply holds out the possibility that he could.
Mr. Keillor,
It is endearing that you make these love letters to your wife public. Do you write private ones, too? Does she hang them on the refrigerator?
I don't write but I do text and of course we talk. Our fridge has a glass door and we don't post anything on it.
Hand written, beautiful stationery, for her eyes only. Just a suggestion. The cobbler’s children can do without shoes, but the writer’s wife?
Laughter IS the best medicine!! After surgery at a major Cancer Center my nickname on the nurses' whiteboard was "Comic". Fifteen years later I'm still laughing a lot with the husband, the cats, and anybody who just drops by!
We'll be married 53 years on March 28. If one cannot pass "natural gas" in front of one's mate & laugh about it, the relationship is doomed. Usually when it occurs, my husband and I would laugh and blame our 13 pound Shih Tzu. Alas, Little Buster died a few weeks ago, so now the fingers shall be aimed at one another, but I will be glancing at B's tin urn on my bookshelf as I do it.
Excellent advice! Even my ulcer feels better after a couple of snot-snapping giggles. Thanks another bunch señor.
This is lovely. A sense of humor. Absent a sense of humor, the world collapses. I'm not capable of putting into words such simple and wonderful things, so I collect quotes from those that are...and this is one of my favorites...
"I distrust all dead and mechanical formulas for expressing anything connected with human affairs and human personalities. Putting human affairs in exact formulas shows in itself a lack of a sense of humor and therefore a lack of wisdom." ....Lin Yutang
Hey, stranger.
Hey. Do I know you from someplace else?
GK on Substack. It’s a magical time to be alive.
Thhis is a lovely, sunny column - and it could be a bit of an antidote to the sorrow I've been suffering these last few minutes. I homed in on an old St. Patrick's Day show which ended with an audience sing along of Danny Boy. I thought it was one of my favorites - In my mind, you're my sacred "Danny Boy!" But then, there was a second verse, one I don't ever recall hearing before. To put things in context, I've been reading a biography of Robert and Elizabeth Browning - "Dared and Done". I just finished reading about Robert's last time with Elizabeth as she died. OMG! It was just "That's how the story endes" as I read it. But just now, as I heard that second verse of Danny Boy, I recalled haw many "Grave" poems there have been in TWA these days. "What if my "Danny Boy" is speaking for himself there? SAYIt ISN'T SO!!!!!!!!"
I realize, you've written before that writers tend to look toward the tragic as a way to get an emotional response from readers. But Pleas, Please, Please, Danny Boy, reassure us that the WILL TO LIVE is as strong as Ever, there in your hide-away in New York!
If ever there was a man's whose life is worth living, it's YOURS!
Missed opportunity: “but don’t take my wife—please.” Badumpbump
That is, speaking of comedy
Despite the natural gas, this was beautiful. Made my day.