Letters to the Editor
-
God, I miss it....
I'm a transplanted Minnesotan - I live in sunny Southern California now - and I owe a hearty mid-Western thank you to GK for making me feel all warm and nostaligic. God, I miss Minnesota at this time of year, and God, is it hard to explain to people who didn't grow up there what it is to be a Minnesotan. Yes, we expect the worst, but no one is happier when things turn our for the best. You can take the girl out of the heartland......
Merry and Happy to you Garrison! Thanks for the dose of my snowy home!
-
The Golden Rule
I don't read Keillor every week. But every once in a while he has a headline that seem inocuous and I think "He has so many fans there must be something there . . . ." Once a year or so there is.
I wouldn't begrudge Keillor his lament about (maybe) not having a white Christmas if he hadn't just last month told all non-Christians to suck it up and shut up about not liking the deluge of Christmas decorations, songs, etc. I spent a big chunk of my childhood in the midwest but I guess that is not where I learned the rule "Do unto to others as you would have them do unto you." If Keillor wants his trivial complaints to be treated with respect, then he should be willing to treat the trivial complaints of others with respect. But it turns out that the Golden Rule isn't part of his midwestern values. That's too bad, it's extremely useful for keeping human interactions pleasant.
And why not, in the spirit of the pure midwestern Christmas, give Giuliani, a devout, twice-divorced Catholic a break? I don't know how much all of you get around, but I have lived in enough different parts of this country to know that the chance of a man who has lived all of his life in or very near to New York City being elected President are exactly zero. (That's what made all those years of talk about Mario Cuomo so silly.)
Finally, please write all the odes to midwestern winters that you want. I am very glad that you enjoy them.
-
Mr. Keillor, don't diss Canada
Dear Mr. Keillor,
I religiously read your column every week and have not yet been compelled to write in. However, now I want to defend Canada! As an American who has lived in Quebec for the past 8 years, I love this country, and I think you would too if you knew more. Canadians are laid back, unpretentious, and forever in the shadow of the United States. They pay high taxes but are rightly proud of their social programs which they value more than having a bigger house, a newer car, and more stuff than their neighbors. I think Canadians resemble, more than other Americans, the humble, unassuming, and practical Minnesotans that you praise weekly in your column. And French Canadians in particular are a strong and persevering group. Think of it - they have maintained their language and culture for 400 years under British rule, incredible prejudice, and the dominance of English in North America. I admit politics can get tiring here, but if you consider the full history of Quebec's political, linguistic and cultural struggles, you can empathize with Quebecers' feelings of "otherness". You may not support a separation from Canada (I don't), but you will at least understand why they feel that way. Quebecers have good values that I know you admire - love of family, the beautiful and sometimes harsh landscape, and their language and culture. So, I invite you to come up and visit. I'd be happy to show you around. Everyone here is hoping for a white Christmas too. Do you speak much French?
-
Nice!
I normally loathe all the Keillor does, aside from the Writer's Almanac on NPR, but this was a pleasure. Of course, anything that makes fun of Canadians is a pleasure.
At least our national anthem has a distinguishable TUNE. We might not be able to hit half the notes, but dagammit, there's a pattern to it.
God save the Queen and Merry Christmukkah.
-
The time for miracles, as Mr. Keillor states so well.
Yes, the Old Scout is correct again. Who better than a Minnesotan knows, for have we not seen right here in historic Saint Paul the resurrection of that old war criminal Fritz Mondale as some "elder statesman"? There is also the truly ghastly red-baiter, Hubert Humphrey, so frequently touted by the Old Scout.
Yes, dream on Keillor. Believe in miracles, for they surely happen...but you may want to be advised: history judges harshly in the long run. Merry Christmas.
-
"Do you speak much French?"
Obviously not...
"...the publisher's skinny wife asked me, "Where are you from?" and I said, "Je suis a Minnesota" and she said, "So this cold weather must be nothing to you."
C'est tres certainement, madame."
I do like what he said about the murmury CBC...I know so many people who love it, but for the most part, it just puts me to sleep, with the notable exception of "The Vinyl Café", which can be roaringly funny at times.
Come to the Maritimes, GK. You'll find easygoing, friendly people, great food, great scenery, and some fantastic parties! No snow yet, though. You'll have to go to B.C. for that.
-
Jefferson's frozen assets
As a lifelong resident of the state of Louisiana, I must point out that we have a long and glorious tradition of electing, and re-electing, crooks. As far as political scandals go, a few thousand bucks in a freezer barely even registers as corruption.
Maybe we just take for granted that they're all crooked. And especially in New Orleans, maybe there's some comfort in figuring you might as well hang on to the crook you know, rather than take your chances on a new one.
Otherwise, yeah. It's been kind of a weird year. Re-electing Jefferson, however, is pretty much business as usual.
-
don't think us daft
we reelected the crooked governor edwin edwards when his opponent was former KKK grandwizard david duke. we reelected jefferson, who had $90k stashed in his freezer, but his opponent was nothing nice. ms. carter essentially caused the resignation of an effective superintendant of schools because he hired an accounting firm from NYC to look into the new orleans school system's fucked up books. the reason she was so pissed? she has an accounting firm in her family. perhaps we reelected the crook we know. perhaps we were astute enough to know that when jefferson gets indicted, there will be another election and perhaps that one won't pit one evil against a lesser evil as this one did. the nation guffawed when we reelected nagin, but the nation reelected bush. i wonder who is the lesser of those two evils.