Post to the Host
GK responds to queries on topics from childbearing to potato salad, with a little bookstore fetish in between.

Send your own post to the host.
Here's your chance to ask GK your most pressing questions—about the writing life, the radio life, Lake Wobegon, Guy Noir, whatever you like. Also, feel free to send feedback about the show. Honest comments and criticism are always welcome!

Dear Garrison,
It's that delightful time of year again when this English teacher pulls out The Great Gatsby and attempts to weave a glimmering web of dreams for high school juniors. I wonder what you think about Nick's observation that they were "all Westerners, and ... possessed some deficiency in common which made [them] subtly unadaptable to Eastern life." As a Mid-westerner who has taken up residence in the decadent city of New York, do you agree with this statement? What keeps you from the slippery slope of carelessness that seems to characterize Fitzgerald's transplants to the East?

Elizabeth F.
Sebasopol, CA

I seem to recall that Nick is feeling morally superior to the East and so his observation is an ironic one — "unadaptable" in the sense of possessing some romantic spirit that could not survive in the East. I lived in the decadent city for ten years and may have fallen down a slippery slope — I don't know — but I'm back in Minnesota now. In any case, true decadence is now available to one and all via the Internet, and New York seems rather staid. Times Square, once a decadent destination, is now a big neon circus, a sort of metropolitan theme park. The slippery slope that Fitzgerald found there was not fame or fortune but simply alcohol, which he could've found back in St. Paul. You might have your students also take a look at some of "The Crack-Up" for a first-hand look at that.

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Mr Keillor:
How did you come up with the name "Wobegon"? I ask because it just came to my attention that "wobbegong" is Aussie slang for "excellent" (see Partridge's Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English.) Lake Excellent, where all the children are above average? OK, likely just a slightly interesting coincidence.

Pete V.B.
Colorado Springs

It was just one of those lucky moments at the keyboard, Pete. "Wobegon" sounded Indian to me and Minnesota is full of Indian names. They mask the ethnic heritage of the town, which I wanted to do, since it was half Norwegian, half German. And it recalls the word "woebegone" which means what it means. Never heard of that Australian word until now.

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Dear Mr. Keillor,
I am a double-dipped English major (B.A. and M.A.) who has worked as an adjunct college instructor and private school English teacher for the past 17 years. I now find myself 44, unable to find full-time employment, with an 18 year old philosophy major/music minor daughter in college, a 16 year old who is looking to go in 2 years, and 5 and 6 year old boys. They are all very fond of eating. I have always been a great supporter of the liberal arts, and encouraged my students to follow their bliss. Having followed mine, I am a bit jealous of my peers who did not follow the road less traveled, and who enjoy the benefits of a steady income. In today's economy, I am afraid private school tuition is one of the first expenses to be cut. It is likely to get worse before it gets better, and the number of interviews I've gone on where I've been told "We love you! But we are having to cut staff" is very disspiriting. I actually would like to try my hand at something other than education, but with two daughters looking to me for support in their educations I do not have the means to go to law school, or train for a medical field. I do not expect you to be able to offer concrete career advice (although I do have a background in drama — if you ever have an opening in the Royal Academy of Radio Acting ... ), but I would welcome some encouragement in this, the winter of MY discontent. Should I have sold my soul and become a business major? Have I doomed my daughter to a life of financial hardship by telling her the important thing was to get a good education and be able to think?

Christine B.
Katy, TX

No, you did the right things, Christine. Don't look back and chew yourself to pieces over what you might've done instead. That gets you nowhere but deep in the blues. Four of the things you did right are those children and now you are focused on what you can do for them in this discouraging economy, given your wherewithal. You're right, I can't give you concrete career advice that would make sense, not knowing you or what's going on in Texas, but I do believe that a teacher with 17 years experience is a deeply competent person and that, if you feel discouraged about private education now, your deep competence is a basic fact about you and gives you traction in other fields. Think of the thousands thrown out of work in banks and insurance companies whose experience has been so specialized — a man who knows everything about credit default swaps is at a steep disadvantage compared to you. In your situation, you should look to family and friends for help and you should consider picking up and moving elsewhere. Somewhere somebody is looking for someone just like you and it may not be in your town. But it's important to keep your morale strong, for your kids' sake. Discouraged people tend to make bad decisions. So you should do some soul-searching — what is the heart of your competence, aside from your knowledge of literature and language? What is your heart's desire now, at 44? What might you do for money that would give you great pleasure? Law school? Health care? You shouldn't dive into a field just because it seems like the practical thing to do. You need to make yourself happy, too. For the children's sake, if for no other reason.

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Post to the Host:
Are you and Dusty riding together on one horse? I only hear one set of horse hoof beats!

John L.

You must have an old monophonic radio, John. You are only hearing the front ends of the two horses. With today's expansive new SurroundSound, you would hear the back ends as well. Try it out at your local radio dealer's.

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Post to the Host:
My mother, a born-again Christian and member of the Nazarene Church married my father, a Christian and a Lutheran. They agreed to raise their children in the Lutheran Church and then attend the Nazarene Church after their children left the nest. As their off-spring, my sister and I inherited a rich diverse background in Christianity. I know you were raised as a Sanctified Brethren. But as an adult, have you attended the Lutheran Church? I believe you must have spent some years in the Lutheran church, because you know what is funny about being Lutheran. My sister thinks you have never been a Lutheran. She's says you're a good observer and that's how you know them. So who is correct? Thanks for your wonderful show! It's one of the highlights of my weekend!

Mary V.
Tempe, AZ

Your sister is closer to the mark, Mary V. I grew up among Lutherans in Minnesota but didn't go to a Lutheran church until I moved to New York in 1988 when I attended Holy Trinity on Central Park West at 65th pretty regularly. It was a lovely old German Lutheran church with an ambitious Bach program and I went there because when I sat down inside I felt I was back home. Lots of exiled midwesterners attended there. I was on the membership rolls for a few years and then met my wife who took me by the hand and led me to the Episcopal church. St. Michael's, on 99th and Amsterdam, where we still go when we're in New York. I don't know about being a good observer. I should be a better one. The man who knows from Lutherans is John Updike who grew up in it and who writes about the Lutherans of eastern Pennsylvania with real elegance and feeling. He's the man.

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I've listened to your show since I was a kid. If it hadn't been for a friend canceling on a trip to see your show, I would have never met my husband and thus had my daughter. Speaking of whom — do you offer internships in sound effects? She is eighteen months old and does a pretty good fish, and a mean chicken. I'd like to develop her talents further.

Kale

I've heard all sorts of ploys to get free babysitting and yours is rather original. But no. The little girl needs to work with shapes and colors and numbers before she goes any further in the field of sound, and when she does sound, she needs to work on vowels and consonants, not clucks. The radio sound effects field is a small one: there are about two professionals out there and both of them work for us. Raise your sights and aim the little girl toward math. The country is going to need smart people someday and she can always do her sound effects on weekends, at mathematicians' parties.

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Dear Mr. K.,
I have been a fan of your show for quite some time. I had the opportunity to view the documentary made about you at the RI Film Festival a few weeks ago. Apparently it was the East coast premiere... what a great movie! The theatre was filled with other fans...I haven't seen so many dorky white folks in one place in a long time! (me included....) I have not been able to attend a live show --- it's tough to leave the beautiful "Ocean State" in the summer, but even tougher to head for St. Paul in winter! I'm going to work on it, though...

Laura B.
West Kingston, R.I.

Glad you liked the Peter Rosen documentary. I haven't seen it. But I imagine it's good because THE MAN CERTAINLY TOOK A LOT OF FILM IN SHOOTING IT. He was in my house, in my car, backstage at the theater, and like all photographers or videographers, he wanted more, more, more. A truckload of videotape. Me tying my shoes. Me putting yoghurt on my bran flakes. Me blowing my nose. I think he learned about video documentary from Andy Warhol. And of course after he had invested weeks and weeks and weeks in shooting the thing, I couldn't very well tell him to stop, so on and on it went. (I believe he started filming in the summer of 1969.) Endless. And each time I got divorced and started a new family, HE HAD TO GO BACK AND SHOOT EVERYTHING AGAIN. It drove me almost out of my mind and my mental health was precarious to start with. The lawsuit, I am confident, will be settled out of court. I struck Peter, but very lightly, just a slap in the face and a kick in the shins, and why he is asking three-point-six million for mental anguish, I don't know, but if we go to trial, I will have plenty to say about mental anguish. The man took years out of my life.

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Post to the Host:
I loved your Rhubarb Tour show at the Iowa State Fair show. You started the show, and I assume the others, with a song pleading to God for nothing else than to please exist. What was this title? Know of any places I might be able to find it? I'd love to have it as my Facebook "religious views".

Thanks,
Paul

The song is a sonnet entitled "Prayer" that is the first in a collection of about 70 sonnets that I am publishing this fall. More about that soon.

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