May 25, 2004
People love to be
angry at somebody.
&
Peace and quiet is a beautiful thing.
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Near the end of my
four mile walk this morning, I encountered this beautiful Eastern
Box Turtle. Box turtles live their life on dry land.
They have a hinged lower shell that allows the shell to close
completely and tightly if threatened. They commonly live 30 to
40 years.
I almost stepped on
this 17-Year Periodical Cicada. IU biologist Keith Clay said
that Southern Indiana will especially see the insects - about 1.5
million per acre! The scratching-screeching-buzzing sounds are
really loud, but easier on the ears than chainsaw noise. Visit
the following URL to learn more about the 17-Year Cicada:
http://www.indiana.edu/~preserve/cicada/cicada/index.html
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Mr. Keillor -
As long-time fans (more than 20 years), my husband and I have become
so disillusioned with your political
satire that we stopped listening to the
broadcast. A little bit of political
satire, evenly spread, is fine.
A lot, flowing in pretty much one direction, however, became
tiresome. We love everything
else about the show and hope to become
regular listeners again.
Marcia
(Conservative Republican)
Richmond, VA.
Dear Marcia,
The show is what it is and it's not to everyone's taste.
I am a strong
proponent of turning shows off that one finds offensive.
I've made a
lifetime practice of it. Peace and
quiet is a beautiful thing. Richmond
is a beautiful city, full of delightful places, and nobody who
lives there is in need of entertainment.
As for political satire, it is
usually directed at the party in power, which would seem to be the
Republicans right now. Satire
doesn't particularly interest me at the
moment, though: I fear for my country and don't find our situation
humorous. The torture of
Iraqi prisoners by decent young American
soldiers ---- what can one say about this?
Unspeakable. Simply
unspeakable. So I stick to
what I know, which is this show, and Lake
Wobegon, Guy Noir, the cowboys, and so forth.
Every week, without fail, we get
bitter letters from Republican listeners complaining about our
liberal bias and "Bush-bashing".
It doesn't matter if the show has zero
political content. People
love to be angry at somebody. That's
fine. But I recommend the peaceful
life. I'm quite content
without ever having seen "Friends"
or "American Idol" or "The Sopranos" or "Sex And
The City" or practically any other big TV hits of the past
twenty years. I recommend you give
up our show and try reading Dickens. "David
Copperfield". Magnificent
book.
Garrison
Garrison Keillor - from one of his May 2004 "Post to the Host"
replies. You can read more at the
following URL:
http://www.publicradio.org/columns/prairiehome/posthost/
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