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Post to the Host Send your own post to the host. Post to the Host: On the Dec. 15 show, in introducing the Boys Of The Lough, Garrison talked about how he'd like to take a big boat loaded with friends and cruise (my word, not his) all the places the boys are from, reveling in the great music, following them on hikes through the countryside and visiting such cities as Dublin and Belfast. As a two-time cruise alumni, i couldn't help but think: could that be the next PHC cruise???? Peggy C. Farmington, MI It's a nice thought, Peggy, and I've been thinking it for awhile. A cruise around the British Isles that visits Scotland, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and maybe the Shetlands or Orkneys, with musicians and storytellers from the region. We can't do it in 2008 but maybe 2009. Stay tuned. Permalink | Comments (5) Dear Mr. Keillor, Listening each week to your show, I hear a faint echo of one of my very early heroes; Stan Freberg. Especially during performances of your radio players, I can almost imagine the voices of Daws Butler and June Foray. I was wondering if the two of you have ever met, collaborated, or discussed satirical comedy. Tom I. Falls Church VA I never met Mr. Freberg but I admired his hornrim glasses and saw him once at a distance, receiving an award at some big dinner or other. I liked his stuff okay but thought he was not nearly so subtle and subversive and wonderful as Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding. Bob & Ray were radio guys and my impression of Stan Freberg was that he was an advertising guy who was moonlighting. And he had some big hit records and maybe success dulled some of his stuff. He made some albums with big orchestras, actors, etc. Bob and Ray worked in small studios with crummy recorded music and sound-effects and played all the parts themselves. They never suffered from too much success although they did have a Broadway show, "The Two and Only," that did pretty well. For some reason, I warmed to them more, maybe because they had started out where I did, as DJs doing a regular daily on-air shift. And they pretty much avoided jokes, which set them apart back then. I don't know that anything we do on PHC would remind anybody of Bob & Ray though I do think they would've liked "Crispy the Rescue Dog" and the sound-effects stuff. And a few weeks ago we stole outright their "Slow Talker" routine for a Guy Noir episode about walleye. Permalink | Comments (2) Post to the Host: Did you start Ketchup Advisory Board sponsorship due to Ronald Reagan's statement that it was a vegetable for school children? Or what is the origin of the Ketchup Advisory Board? Mary Wickline San Diego We wanted to promote the commonest food we could think of and thought that ketchup (or catchup, or catsup) qualified. It was either going to be ketchup or saltines. Or cottage cheese. We settled on ketchup. And then of course it turned into the saga of Jim and Barb and their dysfunctional family. Had nothing to do with Mr. Reagan. Permalink | Comments (1) Post to the Host: Mr. Keillor, How do you choose what you "smell" in the opening theme song — "I smell the _________, I look around for you"? My mother loves that part. Catherine When "Tishomingo Blues" became our theme song, the line was "I smell the onions, I look around for you" but some listeners felt that if the next line, "My sweet old someone, coming through the door" referred to the listener, then it was insulting to say they smelled like onions. So now when I come to that line, I toss in something that seems appropriate, like pine trees or lilacs or dogwood if we're in the south or pretzels if we're in New York. Anything your mother wants me to smell, let me know. Permalink | Comments (0) Post to the Host: I'm wondering about the live Friday night not-broadcast performances, are they dress rehearsals with the same cast and guests? Any big differences from the Saturday broadcast performances? Also, when will the guests for the Jan 18 & 25 2008 performances be posted? Thanks! Sue D. The Friday night Prairie Home show got launched as a dress rehearsal, a way to sharpen up the Saturday broadcast, cut dead stuff, try out songs, be able to rewrite. We don't do the Friday nights on the road, usually, since the crew only sets up on Friday and it would make for an awfully long day, but we do them at the Fitzgerald and in New York at The Town Hall, and they turn out to be a lot of fun. We include the Saturday guests if they're available. Usually the News from Lake Wobegon is different on Friday night and sometimes we'll pull out a favorite old chestnut from the repertoire but usually the Friday night is pretty close to Saturday's. Permalink | Comments (0) Hello, I am wondering why a contest — and a chance to perform on Prarie Home Companion — for only people in their 20's? We are a trio who has been performing together for a little over 20 years — that should count for something. So, will there ever be a contest for those performing groups in their 50's-ish? I think Mr. Keillor will agree that "life experience" is very desirable — even if we aren't Lutherans. Sue Jones The Nightingales We had several Talent from Towns Under Two Thousand contests, Sue, and as I recall, the youngest contestants always won. Always. Some wonderful 50ish band would come out and do a terrific rendition of an old Charlie Poole or Gid Tanner tune, and then a young woman with long blonde hair would come out and sing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and all the parents and grandparents in the audience would melt and so she won, hands-down. It was embarrassing. I hate to see people in their 50s be shown up by younger people. So we came up with the People In Their Twenties contest. We'll do another one this winter and then think of something else. Maybe we should have a Late Bloomers talent contest. People over 50 who have never ever performed in public before. How about that? Permalink | Comments (2) Post to the Host: Warren Larry was a recluse who lived under the Fitzgerald stage at the bottom of a dimly lit staircase and the sketches always started with me flicking the light switch and saying, "Darn, the bulb is burned out." He lived in the dark and liked to go online where he found a whole community of basement recluses. He had a cat and he had a big heap of resentments of me. It's hard to figure out how to develop a reclusive misanthrope but perhaps the light bulb will come on. As for Maurice at the Cafe Boeuf, the joke was about me trying to speak French and my simple phrasebook French being mistaken for English words. It was a small joke, not worth sustaining, but I suppose one could go back and repeat it someday. Permalink | Comments (5)Dear Mr. Keillor: As I watch the food commercials for the holidays, I see Ham, Turkey and all sorts of left-over Pilgrimic Northeast debris. The rest of the year it's chicken, pizza and burritos. I am an unabashed Lutefisk enthusiast. What can we do to bring the beloved cod National as well as the other fine fare in its orbit, lefsa, rumegrot, krumkakas and the great beverages that put the morning after experiences of other brews to shame. I want to see franchises for Norske cuisine as ubiquitous in strip malls and on the air as sandwich joints. It's clear we'll get no support from the in-laws. David G. Tucson My advice is to start small, David. Fix up some lutefisk and other fine fare and set up a card table in the parking lot outside a strip mall there in Tucson and draw up a sign, "World's Greatest Lutefisk" and "You Can't Beat It" and "Guaranteed Natural," and other things of that ilk, and hire a tall beautiful woman with long blonde hair to serve the stuff. This will tell you a lot. Don't start selling franchises until you see a long line at the card table. Permalink | Comments (3) Post to the Host: Would you share it with me? "Craving only causes frustration, intense desire makes the object recede. If the game is really important, you're going to lose. If you're wildly in love, you're going to lose and you know it. The trick is to keep it from being that important. Be cool. Don't want it that much. Want it less. When you get to where you don't want it at all, then you're more likely to get it. And if you don't get it, you don't care so much." Ouch. That one hurts, it's so true. The Zen of the Midwest. Post to the Host: I can't help but notice that you frequently refer to a Scandinavian/Lutheran heritage. I am half Norwegian and 100% Lutheran. What are some common staples for your family dinner around Christmas time? My family enjoys Lutefisk and Lefse. My dad and his siblings think that I am weird for not salting or buttering my lutefisk, since I like to enjoy it plain. Joel H. Cedar Rapids, IA It's your heritage, Joel, and I am only a friendly observer. I come from Scots-English folk who were hardshell Sanctified Brethren and looked on Lutherans as a social club with religious trappings. I thought I had been clear on the fact that I am not one of you, but sometimes in the heat of a story I may have used the first-person plural for Norwegian Lutherans, which may be due to a Brethren boy's hunger for acceptance. A weakness on my part. Enjoy the lutefisk your way and do not bend to fashion, Joel. The Norwegian half of you insists on that. Permalink | Comments (1) Post to the Host: What happened to the Whippets this year? Thank you. Sarah F. St. Paul, MN It was a rebuilding year, Sarah. The team played well and while their overall record was disappointing to us all, there were many bright spots as well. On his good days Ernie's knuckleball was still working pretty well and Ronnie made some outstanding catches in centerfield. Many of the games were a good deal closer than the scores would suggest. Wayne Tommerdahl hit some long balls that came very close to being extra-base hits. With a few breaks here and there, things would've been quite different. Spirit was good. With another good starting pitcher and some improvements on defense, this team can be a contender in 2008, especially if the offense is more productive. The outlook remains positive. We are not going to dwell on the past — we are going to look confidently to the future. Thank you for your interest. Permalink | Comments (3) Dear Garrison, Each week I look forward to your show. This past week I realized many of your skits are "orifice oriented." Being a pre-school teacher working with three year olds, I sure know lots about every human orifice — more than I want oftentimes. What is it about bodily functions that is so hilarious? Best, Sandy G. San Clemente, CA Excellent question, Sandy. I guess you're referring to the song "Sound of Sickness" which was about the flu and which was accompanied by vivid sound effects and which pretty much convulsed the audience at The Town Hall. I don't pretend to understand why. I suppose it has to do with our inability to control certain aspects of our bodies, such as sneezing for example, and the affront to dignity that this presents. I don't think that PHC relies heavily on orifice humor — the Guy Noir sketch did not, nor did the News from Lake Wobegon, nor Crispy the Rescue Dog, nor the Ketchup Advisory Board commercial — but darn it, whenever we go there, people seem to laugh. I guess there's a three-year-old inside each one of us. And maybe we should be grateful for that. Permalink | Comments (6) Post to the Host: Dear Garrison: As I listened to one of your Christmas CD's yesterday, it made me wonder, what ever happened to Walter Bobby? His "Polish Christmas" and Scrooge were the best. Thank You Judith S. Lincoln NE I saw Walter last summer and we sat around and ate supper and talked about theater. Walter is a busy director in New York and all over, famous for the musical "Chicago" which now has about sixteen companies working all over the world and also "White Christmas," and "Sweet Charity" and "High Fidelity" recently on Broadway. His performance of the Polish carols of his boyhood was a permanent high point of our show, and I can still hear those carols in my head though I couldn't sing them aloud. And of course he got his teeth into Scrooge and made him good and scary as Scrooge should be. What happened to Walter is that he got successful and happy, but if he wants to come back and sing or play Scrooge again, we'd be thrilled. Maybe an old Polish Scrooge...... Permalink | Comments (1) | | | |
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