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Post to the Host: Jerri and Lindsey -- The risks of child-rearing are the same in Minnesota as in California, and any Minnesota parent will tell you so. I used to think winter made people more patient and kind but I don't think so anymore. I've met children raised in southern California who were beautiful children, outgoing, mannerly, warm-hearted, funny, thoughtful, and are growing up to become good people. What new parents don't understand, whether in Minnesota or California, is how time-consuming parenthood is. Kids need a lot of attention. Latchkey kids are at risk. Children of people who are happily absorbed in their own lives have a problem. It's hard to divide parenting equally between the two and usually one person carries a greater share of the load. But it takes an enormous commitment and I say that as a not very good parent. One advantage about Minnesota is that there's a large supply of uncles, aunts, and cousins. And we are a sort of cultural backwater, which maybe spares children the torture of trying to be cool. It's not really possible here so a kid may as well do the homework, shoot baskets, make the bed, wash the dishes, honor the parents, and save coolness for later. Permalink» | Comments (13) »
Mr. Noir: People keep telling me to not be upset, that it's just a matter of getting used to these same papers in cyberspace. You can't litter your office with cyberspace; you need stale newspapers to create the right atmosphere. In 1968, the Editor of the Rocky showed up roaring drunk at our Statewide High School Press Day and still managed to write brilliantly — at that moment, I decided I wanted to be a newspaper man. Best Regards, -- The New York Times landed on my doorstep at about 7 this morning and in it, on the first page of the business section, was a good column by David Carr on this very subject, so you could go down to your bookstore or coffeeshop and buy a copy of the Times and see what he thinks. I read the paper while standing at the counter drinking coffee and then sitting next to my daughter eating her breakfast and now and then I'd pick up the paper, fold it in half and walk over to the window and look at it there. Time for the Times to start charging for its online edition, I think. But as Mr. Carr points out, newspaper moguls are a timid lot, not given to change. We have two dailies left in the Twin Cities, one of which surely will fold. This actually might improve local journalism which — don't shoot me for saying this — seems to have improved in the past few years as staffs have shrunk. I look at the papers more often now and find more that I want to read. In the old flush days, the paper seemed to go more for high-minded term papers about positive things happening in our community, but what I want to read is a clear account of what the police say happened when that man allegedly assaulted the woman walking down the avenue four blocks from my house. It doesn't take a team of eight journalists to come up with that. I also want the paper to send reporters to the meetings of legislative committees and the city council. I don't read political blogs and broadsides and the withering crossfire of partisans. Not interesting. Government is interesting. The difficult choices facing President Obama these days, some of which seem to point away from the positions he took as a candidate: all interesting. But it takes dedicated talented journalists to make it so, and if you put out a newspaper that they write, people will buy it. Permalink» | Comments (15) »
Mr. Keillor, Julie L. -- I'm glad to know that Eagle scouts have a staunch defender in Helena, Julie, and you're right about the Scout program. I myself was a big failure at Scouting, never even advancing to Second Class, but it was a terrific program back there in the ancient times and it has maintained itself against some powerful cultural tides and for that I have great admiration. Every week or so, people ask me to write a letter of congratulations to a young man who's attained Eaglehood and I sit down and do it, always careful to note that I myself am not an Eagle nor even a Raven or a Bluejay. More like a Magpie. Anyway — I'd only say that I don't think Earl Sanderson is the one being made fun of in that sketch. Okay, he's sort of a cardboard hero, lantern jaw and all, but I'd maintain that I, Carson Wyler, the man who keeps falling into holes and gets impatient with his rescuers, is the butt of the joke if anyone is. I keep getting Earl Sanderson, Eagle Scout mixed up with Crispy The Rescue Dog, but whatever — it's an occasional thing and the next time I attempt to do Earl, if there is a next time, I will remember your letter. Thanks for writing it. Permalink» | Comments (9) »
Post to the Host: The results are amazing! They turn out in droves, they boost the economy of St. Paul restaurants, and I end up with fabulous photos of kids with their arms around FSF (or kissing him in the case of some girls), holding up the book, and acting as if they are having a wonderful time. By the way, they are sort of digging the book this round. Vickie S. -- The statue of Fitzgerald by Michael Price has stood there in Rice Park in downtown St. Paul since the fall of 1996 when his centenary was celebrated in town and Robert Bly, Michael Dorris, Donald Hall, Patricia Hampl, Joseph Heller, Bill Holm, Bobbie Ann Mason, Jane Smiley, Tobias Wolff, and other writers gathered, along with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Fitzgerald's former secretary Frances Kroll Ring and his granddaughter Eleanor Lanahan, and the statue was unveiled. He stands, coat on his arm, on ground level so you can walk right up to him and say hello, and people do. Every spring, the park is thronged with Promgoers heading for the old federal courthouse now used for big public receptions and you can see young women in ball gowns going over to him which would have thrilled him of course, and sometimes there are wedding parties. The St. Paul Hotel is across the street, which is always bustling, and the library is a stone's throw away, so it's the right place for him to stand. Permalink» | Comments (6) » | | | |
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