Garrison Keillor nails it in one paragraph

[dragonlady]

As someone who grew up near Lake Wobegon, I always enjoy hearing from Garrison Keillor. Very often, he finds the exact way to express what we all know. This paragraph stood out like a little gem in an otherwise pleasant essay, and I'd just like to share it with you all.

The French have a new president, the British will soon have a new PM, and we envy them as we endure the endless wait for this small, dim man to go back to Texas and resume his life. His party is coming to see that it must figure out how to tell the truth about him if it is to compete in 2008, but so far nobody has stepped forward and wound up to throw the pie. Their clock is stuck in the fall of 2001. They are sleepwalking toward the precipice.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/17/1254/

[grasswire]

1. thank you

Garrison Keillor. American treasure.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. "sleepwalking toward the precipice"

uh-huh.

[pansypoo53219]

7. relemmingcans

i ain't jumping.

[orleans]

17. yeah, too bad someone doesn't give them all a good shove! n/t

[malaise]

28. Lovely phrase

Great read.

[annabanana]

32. Perfect expression of the denial that they are all inhabiting...

"sleepwalking toward the precipice"
just beautiful

[Webster Green]

3. Yep!

In-deedy!

[NJCher]

34. re your photo

Could we add "sleepwalking and pouting toward the precipice"?

That is the perfect illustration for this story.




Cher

[kath]

4. Great column - thanks.

Dumb question (I don't listen to radio, other than occasional NPR) - who is "the Big Honk"? Limbaugh?

[Elwood P Dowd]

5. Garrison had a nice fishing story about Lake Wobegon today.

Also a very informative interview with George Bush and Alan Greenspan. They are regular visitors to the lake and enjoy the local cuisine of Powder Milk Biscuits and Rhubarb Pie.

;-)

[dragonlady]

13. Thanks for mentioning that

I'll be sure to listen to the repeat this morning.

[Elwood P Dowd]

14. Bush was at the end of the show.

Too bad they didn't have more time.

[badgerpup]

33. Don't knock rhubarb pie till you've tried it...

It's quite tasty.

[live love laugh]

44. Sorry gotta disagree on the rhubarb--YUK. It was everywhere in VA

and I tried to like it growing up because my friends did but there's something about it, an aftertaste (undertaste? :shrug:) that is totally repulsive. I can't get with rhubarb.

[ananda]

rhubarb

yuk and double yuk

[Seabiscuit]

63. rhu- -

ba--aaa---aaaa-----aaaaaarbbb!
:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:

[mzmolly]

52. I think the key is to add strawberries?

"Strawberry Rhubarb Pie alamode" :9 with a nice black coffee on the side o'course. ;)

[kestrel91316]

67. You can send me any rhubarb you run across that you don't want.

But hurry up - I've got some strawberries and am getting ready to make some strawberry-rhubarb jam.

[PurpleChez]

49. Yes! A friend makes great rhubarb pie.

I still recall walking through markets with this then-20-something pal, and having grandma-types stopping him to ask what the heck he was carrying (fresh rhubarb). I absolutely cannot stand A Prairie Home Companion (except for the musical guests), but I still appreciate Keillor's wit, and this piece was incredible.

[xxqqqzme]

61. wow - do you know my mother?

She 'doesn't get' Prairie Home Companion. I tried to explain it to her after his first book - which I gave her - all she could say was 'I don't get it'. ?!?!?

[PurpleChez]

66. I love the music, and I generally like the monologues,

which leads me to think that I would probably enjoy his books. I just don't get the skits...a little too twee for me. There have been times where I tuned in fairly often and they just never "grew" on me.

[Matariki]

6. you grew up near a fictitious town? wow.

[dragonlady]

12. Lake Wobegon is more real than you know n/t

[Matariki]

16. Intriguing.

are there dragons? ;-)

I like Garrison Keillor. Thanks for the post.

[Elwood P Dowd]

18. Dusty and Lefty murdered them years ago

and then fled to North Dakota. Guy Noir is hot on their trail.

[Divernan]

41. My former in-laws are from the Lake Wobegon area - all very nice people!

The accents are remarkably similar to the ones heard in the film "Fargo".

[dragonlady]

47. Yah, you got that right n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Beautiful! K&R! nt

[K8-EEE]

9. Beautiful writing!

He always strikes me as such a gifted writer. Perfect phrasing, very economical style, not a word gone to waste...GOD I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE SMALL DIM MAN TO GO HOME!!

[jean]

43. Well, he IS an English major, after all.

[WiseButAngrySara]

10. Love Keillor! This is great. Laughed out loud ("we envy them

as we endure the endless wait for this small, dim man to go back to Texas") and had goosebumps the next moment. ("Their clock is stuck in the fall of 2001. They are sleepwalking toward the precipice.")

[ananda]

48. lemmings

"They are sleepwalking toward the precipice"

with millions and billions right behind them.

[WiseButAngrySara]

11. KNR! ....n/t

[Swamp Rat]

15. Let's jump-start the repukes... pass the lemon meringue.

:D

[poverlay]

19. I reserve the whole stack of cow -pies. Really. Just let me limber up the 'ol arm here. Naaa,

I'll throw right now and chance the strained shoulder...

Can we order some takeout? I'm really planning on being here for awhile...

:freak:

[Swamp Rat]

22. "Let the eagle soarrrrrrr....."

[malaise]

29. You owe me a keyboard

:rofl:

[malaise]

30. dupe

[omega minimo]

20. How bout a warm steamin' COW PIE with a side of

TURDBLOSSOM!!!!!!!




:yoiks: :hi:

[Swamp Rat]

21. Here ya go:

:D :hi:

[omega minimo]

23. LOL

[Swamp Rat]

24. For the record: I never claimed it's art.

:D

[rodeodance]

25. whow. whow!

[rodeodance]

26. .......we endure the endless wait for this small, dim man .....How true!!!

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

31. That one phrase sums Chuclenuts up perfectly.

Mr. Wonderful and myself are going to attend a "cousin's party" today. My cousin that is hosting it is a born-again, fundie preacher.

If he starts going on about how wonderful Chucklenuts is, I'm going to use Mr. Keillor's phrase to try and make the point.

"this small, dim man" indeed. :applause: :applause:

[Solly Mack]

27. to tell the truth about Bush is to tell the truth about themselves as well

if you point a finger at a thug you enabled (supported, caved to , and even cheered), you don't come out looking any better

[NJCher]

35. new acronym for bush

SDM = Small dim man.




Cher

[G_j]

36. "a man who lends new richness to the word “malfeasance”"

yes

[snappyturtle]

37. Love Garrison Keillor! K&R

Last december I left northern MN for the Hill Country of Texas. This post makes me a bit homesick, not for rhubarb pie,but for hearing Garrison say it. His voice embellishes simple words. Thanks for posting this.

[liberalitch]

38. I loved the last paragraph too....

"Everyday reality of life in America, and neither the Big Honk nor the Current Occupant seem clued in to it. They both serve the same dwindling clientele of angry, privileged white people; meantime the trees are in bloom and the beloved country looks at the calendar and waits for leadership that is worthy of it."

[Raksha]

64. That's the paragraph I quoted on another forum

after someone posted a link to the essay. The whole thing is beautifully written, but that last paragraph is amazing.

Who is the Big Honk, though?

[DesertRat]

39. Thanks for this

I emailed it to several people. :thumbsup:

[SalmonChantedEvening]

40. "this small, dim man"

'bout sums it up for me.

Bravo Garrison! :yourock:

[Worst Username Ever]

42. Grew up near Lake Wobegon?

It's a made up town ;-) unless you are refering to his home town of Anoka, which is the town upon which it is based. LOVE the article, thanks!

[Pacifist Patriot]

45. I've heard the expression used to mean....

any small rural town in the upper Midwest. A kinder, gentler way of how we say it in the south. I grew up in East Bum Fu..... ;)

[moodforaday]

46. Don't envy the French

The French just got themselves a corporate feudalist rightwinger president, and as for the British, they don't get to vote for a while yet. Gordon Brown is as much as Bushie as Bliar was, except he doesn't have the latter's PR skills.

[vssmith]

50. He is so "Minnesota nice"

[mzmolly]

51. As a fellow Minnesota, I agree fully.

:hi:

[vssmith]

65. I grew up in Minnesota but have

been transplanted to Michigan. I am trying to spread the "niceness" here.

[mzmolly]

53. Very well said.

Thanks for the post. :hi:

[swimmernsecretsea]

54. It made me go and listen to Lake Wobegon today.

I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed his broadcast. His essay was one of the most moving I've read recently. My heart aches for the family of the young man who is being sent to Iraq after being raised in a family that prized peace. I wish somehow I could save his heart from being damaged by what happens and what he sees, and above all else, save his life from the harm that lurks around the corners there.

[Iris]

55. Ah! I love seeing the response to this here! His work is treated brutally at Salon.

They don't deserve him!

[liberal N proud]

56. Garrison Keillor always nails it

[BrklynLiberal]

57. I listen to Garrison Keillor every weekend. He is terrific. This weekend was no exception.

"Homegrown Democrat" is a great read.

From Publishers Weekly
His Minnesota boyhood and the putative values of his state allow novelist and NPR favorite Keillor to conjure up a heartwarming case for liberalism, if not necessarily the Democratic Party platform. "he social compact is still intact here," he writes of life in St. Paul, summing up attacks on that compact in a Menckenesque rant: "hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists...." Liberalism, Keillor declares, "is the politics of kindness," and he traces his own ideology to his kindly aunts and his access to good public education, including a land-grant university. Though he criticizes Democrats for losing touch with their principles, as when they support the drug war, he catalogues "What Do-Gooder Democrats Have Done for You," from civil rights to clean air, though he acknowledges, "The great hole in the compact is health care." "The good democrat," he declares, distrusts privilege and power, believes in equality, supports unions, and is individualist—"identity politics is Pundit Speak," he notes, which might get him in trouble with some interest groups. "Democrats are thought to be weak on foreign policy... but what we fear is arrogance," he writes, in a chapter notably short on prescription. Near the end, he offers another potent monologue, if not a rant, about September 11 and Bush's "Achtung Department" (aka Homeland Security). It doesn't all hang together—heck, Keillor's so loosy-goosey, he begins most chapters with a limerick—but call this Prairie Home Companion meets Air America.

[mzmolly]

59. Indeed it's a great read and it's on tape at my local library.

Loved every minute, and being from Saint Paul makes it all the more special. ;)

[xxqqqzme]

62. 'Homegrown Democrat' is one of my

favorite books as well as A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut.

[graywarrior]

58. I'm printing that and putting it on my office wall.

[senseandsensibility]

60. You should post more often.

I really enjoyed that!:hi: Hoping to hear more from you, dragonlady.