You make me happy when skies are gray I’m happy to wear a COVID mask, having gone through life with a grim mug due to my childhood spent listening to sermons about the End Times, and the mask lets people imagine I’m smiling, and so everyone is friendlier. I’ve tried to smile into a mirror and it looks like the leer on a landlord’s face as he throws the penniless tenant out into the snow. My mother hoped I’d be a teacher but I would’ve terrified the children so I went into radio. A good move.
I went to the dentist’s office last week and was astonished by the photos of smiling faces on the wall — how do people manage to do this? A grin that shows upper teeth, even gums! So the mask makes me normal. I may get a flesh-colored one with a smiling mouth on it and wear it after COVID is history... Go to Garrison Keillor and Friends on Substack to read the rest of THE COLUMN >>> Become a member of THE BACK ROOM on our Substack page for exclusive access to News from Lake Wobegon stories, archived goodies, excerpts from unpublished works, previews of other works, a second weekly column, and on occasion, a full-length video stream of a show from 2015 to 2016. Also, if you shop in the store, THE BACK ROOM subscribers receive 20% discounts. (Subscription to The Back Room: $6 per months or $65 annually.) |
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This week on "A Prairie Home Companion" The old show closed out Y2K with a big bang! This week, we travel back to the year 2000 for a show loaded with special guests and performances, classic sketches and songs — all leading to a fast-paced two hours that will leave a nice smile on your face plus a hopeful outlook for the new century. Join us Saturday for a listen via our Facebook page at 5 p.m. CT (or click the link below).
Highlights include Vern Sutton singing “There in Your Smile,” Bill Hinkley and Judy Larson duetting on “Yellow Rose Waltz,” Tom Keith’s New Year’s Eve, Maria Jette and Mozart, “Puckett’s Farewell” from Peter Ostroushko, plus a host of others. Listen to the Show >>>
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More about this week’s featured guests
Butch Thompson first became interested in jazz as a child in Marine-on-St. Croix, Minnesota, where he discovered the piano at age three. He joined the Hall Brothers New Orleans Jazz Band in 1962 and became one of the few non-Orleanians to guest occasionally at Preservation Hall. “St. Croix Thaw” >>>
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Singer-songwriter-storyteller-author Ann Reed grew up in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and as a kid taught herself to play guitar. Later, she started playing at coffeehouses and cafés in the Twin Cities area, and has since performed throughout the country, winning many local and national awards — not to mention, legions of fans — along the way. “Heroes” >>>
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A superlative mandolinist, fiddler, composer, arranger, Peter Ostroushko grew up listening to tunes played at family get-togethers northeast Minneapolis. He had a remarkable career, from his uncredited mandolin set on Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” to his many recordings to his compositions that underscored Ken Burns films and Twin Cities Public Television’s “Minnesota: A History of the Land,” for which Peter won an Emmy. A compilation >>>
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Born in Athens, Georgia, Leo Kottke taught himself to play the guitar after learning theory and harmony from trombone lessons. In 1969, he released 6- and 12-String Guitar (Takoma Records; reissued on Rhino Records) and began touring extensively. Since then, Kottke’s fingerpicking style has become legendary and his compositions have become standards in their own right. A medley >>>
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A Twin Cities resident, soprano Maria Jette has performed with such varied groups as The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Wratislava Cantans Festival in Poland, and the New York City Chamber Symphony. Her wide-ranging roles include Handel’s Galatea, Monteverdi’s Poppea, Britten’s Fido, and the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro. For this performance, Maria is joined by pianist Sonja Thompson. A compilation >>>
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New Year's history from The Writer's Almanac Today is New Year’s Eve, in which the old year is ushered out, and the new one welcomed in, with parties, socializing, and alcohol — often champagne. In the United States, we have a tradition of dropping, or raising, a large object exactly at midnight. The custom of dropping a ball arose out of the time signals given to ships at harbor starting in 1859. A large ball was dropped exactly at one p.m. every day (noon in the United States), so sailors could check their ship chronometers. The Times Square celebration dates back to 1904, when The New York Times opened its headquarters on Longacre Square. The newspaper convinced the city to rename the area “Times Square,” and they hosted a big party, complete with fireworks, on New Year’s Eve. Two hundred thousand people attended, but the paper’s owner, Adolph Ochs, wanted the next celebration to be even splashier. In 1907, the paper’s head electrician constructed a giant lighted ball that was lowered from the building’s flagpole. The first Times Square Ball was made of wood and iron, weighed 700 pounds, and was lit by a hundred 25-watt bulbs. Now, it’s made of Waterford crystal, weighs almost six tons, and is lit by more than 32,000 LED lights. The party in Times Square is attended by up to a million people every year. Other cities have developed their own ball-dropping traditions. Atlanta, Georgia, drops a giant peach. Eastport, Maine, drops a sardine. Ocean City, Maryland, drops a beach ball, and Mobile, Alabama, drops a 600-pound electric Moon Pie. In Tempe, Arizona, a giant tortilla chip descends into a massive bowl of salsa. Brasstown, North Carolina, drops a Plexiglas pyramid containing a live possum; and Key West, Florida, drops an enormous ruby slipper with a drag queen inside it.In Scotland, New Year’s Eve marks the first day of Hogmanay, a name derived from an Old French word for a gift given at the New Year. There’s a tradition at Hogmanay known as “first-footing”: If the first person to cross your threshold after midnight is a dark-haired man, you will have good luck in the coming year. Other customs vary by region within Scotland, but most involve singing and whiskey. Craig Ferguson said Hogmanay “is a time when people who can inspire awe in the Irish for the amount of alcohol that they drink decide to ramp it up a notch.”
A New Year's Song from A Prairie Home Companion May we still love our loved ones
on good days and bad.
May our fights be no worse
than the ones we have had.
May the house not burn down
(at least not when we’re here)
and I wish you a happy new year. Garrison Keillor and The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band perform a “New Year’s Song” during the January 4, 2014 broadcast. Watch the performance >>> |
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The Lake Wobegon Virus Softcover |
Now in paperback. Bestselling author and humorist Garrison Keillor returns to one of America’s most beloved mythical towns — a town beset by a contagion of alarming candor.
A mysterious virus has infiltrated the good people of Lake Wobegon, transmitted via unpasteurized cheese made by a Norwegian bachelor farmer, the effect of which is episodic loss of social inhibition. Mayor Alice, Father Wilmer, Pastor Liz, the Bunsens and Krebsbachs, formerly taciturn elders, burst into political rants, inappropriate confessions, and rhapsodic proclamations, while their teenagers watch in amazement. Meanwhile, a wealthy outsider is buying up farmland for a Keep America Truckin’ motorway and amusement park, estimated to draw 2.2 million visitors a year. Clint Bunsen and Elena the hometown epidemiologist to the rescue, with a Fourth of July Living Flag and sweet corn feast for a finale. |
Get the BOOK >>> |
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| From the Archives: The Best of 1982 (newest CD release) |
Mr. Keillor’s tales of the fictional Lake Wobegon, Minn., its people, and the businesses that “sponsor” the show are the ties that bind the show together. Listeners share in the ups and (mostly) downs of the Lake Wobegon Whippets baseball team, study the menu of Dorothy’s Chatterbox Cafe, wonder how Lake Wobegon’s favorite daughter, Barbara Ann Bunsen, is doing at the University of Minnesota, cheer the attributes of Powdermilk Biscuits (made from whole wheat grown in the rich bottomlands of the Lake Wobegon valley by Norwegian bachelor farmers).
From the Archives is a deep dive into the PHC archive, unearthing stories season by season. And here is the collection featuring the stories from 1982. Lake Wobegon experiences extreme cold and shuts people in their homes to feuds, frustrations, plumbing issues, and other crazy antics. There are memories of romance with Donna Bunsen at the laundromat and the Diener boy’s first drag on a cigarette, landing his car in the pond. In fall, we hear about the demise of Irene Anderson’s 20 oz. tomato and the avalanche of squash from the attic. Christmas is nearly perfect with the exception of Einer’s reading of the Gospel. 3 CDs. Get the CD>>> |
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| LAKE LIFE Shirt We are who we are and we know it! Now you can proclaim yourself a resident of “the little town that time forgot and decades could not improve,” knowing with a wink that you are “above average,” like the rest of us. 100% cotton shirt is available in sizes S–XXL. Get the Shirt >>> |
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