Mr. Keillor-
I note with pleasure your equating the Upper West Side to a small village. I work for the MTA, and am involved, modestly, in the ongoing plans to reconstruct the 96th St IRT station, there on B'way. We're going to enlarge the median to include a park with planting, seating and a itty-bitty cafe, and install a building allowing access to the platforns. Any suggestions? Statuary? Topiary?

Peter H.
NYC

The 96th Street station is familiar to the Keillor family, the place where we must face the age-old dilemma: whether to take the local that's rolling in right now or wait for the express that may come soon or may not. My first suggestion is to install signboards such as you see in the London Underground, that say, "Train arriving in one minute twenty seconds." As for statuary, I nominate George Gershwin who spent his boyhood up in that neighborhood. Or Isaac Bashevis Singer, who lived down on 86th. Or maybe Duke Ellington, another neighborhood figure.

Garrison,
Love the movie trailer; can't wait to enjoy the movie and Robert Altman's take on your wonderful radio show. However, I've never seen a PG-13 rated movie that warns parents of Risque Humor? Are you the first and if so, aren't you thrilled with such a rating distinction?

Cathy F.
Hudson, OH


Hudson, Ohio, is the home of Ian Frazier, unless I'm mistaken. A great American humorist. Is there a statue of him in front of the courthouse? Perhaps a small one?

As for the PG-13 rating, Mr. Altman was angling for that. I suppose he felt that his fans wouldn't go to a G-rated movie. So I believe he arranged for Woody Harrelson to tell a couple of risque jokes and thus require parents to accompany the kiddoes to the movie and explain the jokes to them. I myself know nothing about ratings, and can't comment.

Mr Keillor,
I'm curious what goes into venue selection and ticket pricing for A Prairie Home Companion.

I bring it up because I was excited to hear the announcement that you would be bringing the show to Austin TX (perhaps in response to the reception "APHC: The Movie" got at the SXSW Film Festival?). I may be able to attend the show, but might not enjoy it as much as I'd like because I'm suffering from a moderate case of sticker shock.

The people who can easily afford $50 cheap seats might leave your show disappointed because they assumed the price meant they were buying tickets to Cirque du Soleil, while some of your true fans are getting priced out.

Chris G.
Austin, TX

I agree that $50 is too much to pay, Chris. Certainly too much for a "cheap" ticket. I had thought that our tickets started around $25, but obviously I haven't been buying tickets lately and am in the dark about this. I hate to think of pricing true fans out of the show. I suppose we could go to a freewill offering. Pass the hat and see what happens. I am just completely out of touch with economics. I am of an age that regards 35 cents as the right price for a cup of coffee and $35,000 the right price for a nice house with a yard. I will ponder this problem.

Garrison;
My wife and I have been listening to you since the early 80's and remain devoted fans. We have no issues as Red State Republicans when you poke fun at us with your Blue State Democratic homilies. We recognize in our quiet moments that we do sometimes appear as Pharisees (or is it Sadducees?). However, we are conflicted with your choice of sponsors. I am an advocate of the Ketchup Advisory Board and often need and appreciate the mellowing agents in a bottle of fine ketchup. However, my wife feels slighted that you have no sponsorship from the Mustard Advisory Board. She often feels the same way in many restaurants who prominently display ketchup bottles with nary a sign of mustard. Our meals are often delayed while the waiters search for a simple plain yellow mustard packet. This is no doubt influenced by your show. Being raised among the Sactified Brethren, you must be aware that Jesus never once mentioned a ketchup seed. Can you be more "fair and balanced" in your choice of sponsors?

Jimmy E.
Marietta, GA

Jimmy, the influence of A Prairie Home Companion on the cafes of Georgia is smaller than a mustard seed, so you can't hold us responsible for that, nor for our sponsorship by the Ketchup Board. We were chosen by them, not vice-versa. I am aware of no mustard promotional organization, probably because the consumers of mustard tend to be left-wing hotheads. Anytime I speak at a feminist One-World luncheon or anti-prayer breakfast, I see Dijon all over the place. You maybe need to talk with your wife about what she really thinks about things. In some parts of Georgia, they make barbecue sauce with mustard as a base instead of ketchup and that tells you something about people's true loyalties. As for Jesus using the mustard seed metaphor, Bible scholars feel that this may be an error by ancient scribes, which jolts us old Brethren whose entire world view is based on the inerrancy of Scripture, but there you are. There's trouble all over.

Hi Garrison--
My wife and I were at the Newton Symphony Orchestra benefit last Saturday, and much enjoyed the performance, even though the sound system was not the best. I was hoping to see you in person for a minute because I wanted you to verify to my skeptical wife that there is indeed a section of Minneapolis called "Dinkytown". She thinks I'm kidding her, but I remember it fondly from the semester I spent at the University of Minnesota grad school in 1959. I think she'd settle for seeing it in a posting.

Thanks,
Steve D.
Wellesley, MA

There was and is a little section of southeast Minneapolis called Dinkytown, as you and I know, Steve. It's at Fourth Street and 15th Avenue SE and consists of the four blocks that meet at that intersection. The name, I believe, comes from a little trolley called the Dinky that ran from the Minneapolis campus to the St. Paul campus. When you and I were students (I arrived in the fall of 1960), Perrine's Bookstore overlooked the train tracks and Bridgeman's ice cream shop was on the corner with Melvin McCosh's bookstore behind it. There was a beautiful old hardware store (I guess college students don't need hardware anymore) and a grocery called Virg 'N Don's, run by two guys named Virgil and Don, a name with an unconscious pun that college kids back then liked to think they were the first to hear. Heddan's Used Books was down 15th, past the Ten O'Clock Scholar coffeehouse where Bob Dylan started out, and Valli Pizza with a basement grotto where Connie Hechter played jazz piano. The Podium was across the street, which sold guitars and pipe tobacco. The Varsity theater was on 4th, next to the Dinkytown Hotel. None of those remain, nor Al Johnson Clothiers, but Gray's Drug is still on the corner, and House of Hanson grocery, and The Tub laundromat, and Vescio's. I like to take my daughter in to Vescio's now and then for a pizza, which is the same fine pizza it was in 1960, back when pizza was just coming on the scene.

Dear Mr. Keillor,
I'm a junior in high school. My English teacher assigned our class to write a poem using a set metaphor and I wrote this one about Lake Wobegon as an homage to my parents.

Lake Wobegon
A name of a place of solace for me,
comfort, fun, and pain.
LIFE
Lake Wobegon
A place that is common to the uncommon eye.

A place that is utterly common,
but not findable on a map
because of some human error.
Lake Wobegone

Everyone that ends up there is either lost and stumbles upon it in good fortune,
or they go there to see someone purposely.
You don't know that you're looking for it, but you are born searching.
And when you find it,
It fills a void
that you may have pushed away before.

I grew up in this place.
One day, early on
my mother and father opened a book
and there it was.
One day, early on
my mother and father opened their arms
and there it was.

Lake Wobegon
They are always there, my parents.
They could be
Sitting in the Chatterbox Café,
Buying tomatoes at Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery, knowing that this is a good place to raise their children.
A place where all the children are above average.
They will always be there, my parents.

Lake Wobegon
A place that does not give into vanity.
A place that is forever honest.
A place that only I
(and a few very lucky people) know about.

Victoria F.
Stamford, CT

Victoria, you make me almost weep for your sweet idealism. I'm glad that you took the chance to pay tribute to your parents. As for Lake Wobegon, it is awfully common, and as we say, there is a lot of human nature in everybody. Vanity, small-mindedness, utter stubborn stupidity, astonishing carelessness ---- you'll find them all there in my little town. But it's spring (almost) and the first tomatoes are sprouting under the Gro-lites and kids are throwing baseballs around and the biology classes are walking around looking for warblers and so the old truths still obtain. I hope you have a delicious summer and I'll think of you the next time I ride Amtrak and the conductor says, "Stamford next."

Re: "Prairie Home Companion" the movie.

Why on earth did you allow the pregnant character to down, in one gulp no less, a glass of champagne? At best, this action makes the cast and crew of PHC look illiterate since no heed was paid to reading the Surgeon General's warning on the bottle. Even aside from the really lousy message this sends re the fact that the health and well-being of another potential human being is being gambled away, I suspect many people in the audience felt the discomfort I did in watching this scene unfold. Most PHC listeners and viewers are probably well-informed and for good reason gave up drinking for nine months while pregnant. Why mar the movie with this needlessly disturbing scene that really doesn't have much point anyway?

Jeannette F.
Brookline, MA

You're right of course. If you're asking why I allowed it, the honest answer is that I didn't. It was an improvised moment, with no screenwriter present, and I didn't see it until months later. I suppose they kept it in because the scene of which it's part is so funny, the telephone joke, Kevin falling over the bar, the firing of the champagne cork.

Mr. Keillor,
Enjoy your show, mostly, for the small-town ambience and the clean humor, as well some great music hard to find elsewhere. Reading some of your writings here, however, I notice references to reading the New Yorker and writing for New York Review of Books. I also seem to recall your living in New York at one time. Maybe I'm just slow, but the 2 worlds of New York and small-town Minnesota seem to have precious little overlap, other than a common fondness for the Democratic ticket. Do you experience some sort of cognitive dissonance or something, see-sawing between New York and, say, Anoka?

Steve S.
New Braunfels, TX

Nope. In my limited experience, New York is a city of interconnected villages, and I mostly spend time around 90th and Broadway. I walk to the dry cleaner's on 88th, shop at the grocery on 89th, go to the bookstore at 93rd, go to church at 99th, catch the subway at 96th. My daughter likes to play in Riverside park, around 91st. On a warm day I like to sit at the Firemen's Memorial on 100th. It's a small world and one keeps running into acquaintances. No freeways, no enormous mall, just little shops like Murray's delicatessen and H&H Bagels and Altman's hardware. There's a newsstand on Broadway and you can walk down there late and pick up the Times and the Daily News. That's living, in my book. And it's closer to the Anoka I remember than, say, the suburbs of today are. Much closer.

Mr. Keillor, My wife and I have been long time listeners to APHC and recently moved out to the country. It is a much nicer place to enjoy the show. We have noticed with growing concern how much more religious the show has gotten. We enjoy the occasional gospel music but, since neither of us is religious, we are slightly affronted by the overtly Christian tone the show has taken on of late. Are we hearing things, or has the show had many more gospel musicians than before?

Brian and Cynthia L.
Brighton, CO

With radio, you're always hearing things, I guess, but I honestly don't know the answer to your question. Last week there were three sacred songs, one by Ricky Skaggs, and one by Ricky and Jearlyn Steele and me ("I Love To Tell The Story") and also "This Little Light of Mine." The week before, I don't believe there were any. Next Saturday, the Ensemble Singers will be on and I suppose they'll do a Mozart sacred piece and maybe another. We have the Hopeful Gospel Quartet on often, but much of their material is secular. I don't think we have any gospel singers as such on the show—the gospel songs you hear are mostly done by bluegrass bands. I'm not aware of how much gospel music we have on the show or what would be a reasonable quota—it's some of my favorite music, that's all, and that's why it's there. Our Shoe band is mostly Jewish and I don't want to make them uncomfortable. On the other hand, Rich Dworsky is the best gospel piano player around. It's soulful music. You get into "Tramp on the Street" or "Nearer My God to Thee" or "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior" and you feel uplifted by it, in ways that you wouldn't be by, say, "The Shoop Shoop Song" or "Do The Hokey-Pokey."

Post to the Host:
Regarding your March 4, 2006 show from Grand Forks, N.D.: As a teacher of American literature, and a fellow U of Minnesota English major, I was shocked and disappointed that your tribute to notable North Dakotans only mentioned Chippewa writer Louise Erdrich—author of nine novels (at least two classics of 20th century U.S. fiction), two poetry collections, children's fiction, and nonfiction—by reference to her having written an introduction for a book by a white man! And then you "humorously" repeated the name of the U of ND sportsteams, with no acknowledgment of how offensive it is, to many Indians and others. Manifest Destiny marches on?

Robin R. F.
Boston, MA.

You are rather easily shocked, Ms. R.F. I admire your readiness to be disappointed, horrified, morally offended, but if you are shocked and disappointed by these little things, you must have a coronary seizure everytime you pick up a newspaper. I worry for your health. I consider Louise Erdrich a Minnesotan. That's where she lives. The book she wrote an introduction to is a good book that needs a mention. As for the Fighting Sioux, all of us Minnesota Gopher fans would be tickled pink if they changed their names back to the Fighting Flickertails. I don't think they will. If you want to fight that battle, go ahead. I'm too old.

Dear Garrison,
I just got your readings of "The Gospel of Jesus." and it is the very best thing I have ever heard. I have been a Baptist Pastor for nearly 40 years and nothing has ever touched me like these recordings. They make the Gospel come alive and with such warmth and credibility. Thank you.

John A.
Crawfordville, GA.

It was a family project, Pastor John. My cousin Dan worked up the manuscript, harmonizing the four gospels into one, and my son Jason did the recording and editing. I hadn't read Scripture to him in his early years so this was a way to fulfil my parental duty. The original idea came from the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, but then they declined to do it because I have the wrong opinions on some issues they feel strongly about, so we went ahead on our own. The next time you feel you are stuck for a sermon, sir, simply listen to one of the stories there and then stand up in the pulpit and tell it in your own words. As the old hymn says, "I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story for those who know it best are hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest."