...that the eternal pastime of old people beating up on young people, which has literally been going on since ancient Greece at least, hasn't fallen out of fashion.

Some points:

*Of course the older fellow in Keillor's office tale is more worried about his career than the callow youths in the cubes. He almost certainly has more economic responsiblities (kids, looming retirement) and higher expectations about his living environment (i.e. he probably wouldn't be blase about crashing on a buddy's couch or eating ramen if that job falls through).

*He probably also has a sense of responsibility to his employers inherited from the days when employers actually cared about their employers. The kids know instinctively that anyone who expects that their employment with Northern Grommets is anything other than an economic transaction -- one in which Northern Grommets holds an upper hand -- is a sucker. They are not treated with respect by their bosses, so why should they treat their bosses with respect?

*Keillor notes his father's instinctive sold conservatism. Of course, Keillor didn't know his father when his father was the age of those Gen Y twerps in the cubes. Maybe his dad wanted to have a wacky career in, say, public radio or something, but decided that hard work was the way to go when little Garrison needed feeding and care.

But thanks for suggesting that everyone should abandon any aspirations of creativity in lieu of good hard work at the age of 18. A quick glance at Keillor's Wikipedia bio indicates that he got his start in radio at the age of 27 and sold his first story to the New Yorker at the age 28. I'm assuming he did something for money during his 20s. Thank God his creative career sprung forth magically in 1969; I'd hate to thing he might have been nursing dreams while working at that job.

Sorry, I don't usually get into writerly psychoanalysis, and I usually like Keillor's columns, but this one left a really bad taste in my mouth.

A lot of my contemporaries are still in the work force. I've been retired for several years and look forward to collecting my first social security check in a few years. As an early boomer, I'll probably get to collect at least a few years of benefits before the s* hits the fan. In the meantime, I'm living off interest and dividends and I'm enjoying a retirement that my father never got to experience. He died way too young.

Yes, the mortgage market seems to be unraveling. But it also seemed to be unraveling nearly 35 years ago, when mortgage REITS were going out of business on an almost daily basis. Then it was commercial mortgages, as I recall. Now it's residential. The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.

So how bad are things? Well they couldn't be all that bad. One of my bank stocks recently announced a 14% increase in its quarterly dividend rate. In fact, all of my bank stocks have announced dividend increases in the past year. Ditto for my oil stocks and almost all of my other stocks as well. My bonds are all paying their interest like clockwork. No collateralized debt or mortgage obligations for me! I'll leave those for the hedge funds.

I didn't vote for George Bush (but I did vote), but if I do say so myself, his policies have benefited me financially, so far anyway. It's nice to know that my dividends this year will again be taxed at a maximum rate of 15% Federal. Now if I could only figure out a way to get one of those farm subsidy payments being distributed by the Democrats in Congress this year!

I like Keillor's columns. One thing I have noticed about his writing is that you have to figure out what he is saying. He prefers to imply rather than state directly. I suppose it goes along with the whole Midwestern modesty/politeness aspect of his persona.

If someone were to ask me to sum up what Keillor said in this column in one sentenece, I would say, "These young people are dreamers that don't appreciate the value and wisdom of simple, persistent hard work." I think that pretty well sums it up.

I am 31, on the cusp of generations X and Y as defined in the media (and here is Keillor's column.) I have 2 statements to make.

1. I highly regard the value of persistent hard work. I am a persistent hard worker.

2. I highly regard the value of a creative job, a good life, a life spent working at something you love.

In other words, it doesn't have to be either/or. You can value both. You can do both depending on your situation and oppurtunity. And I don't think Keillor's tired generational stereotypes are entirely correct. One thing I would agree with is that most of the young-ish people I know are not anxiously scanning the markets and getting very anxious.

Anxiousness is a lack of faith, but that's another topic. Maybe Keillor remembers that from his Christian upbringing.

Remember, Mr Keillor?

Mr. Keillor,

I am SO glad you didn't make the same mistake that my generation has made: namely, stiving for a creative and fulfilling career. Thank GOODNESS you didn't dream of being a writer, or an entertainer, and stuck to doing the good ol' work like your dad, the Mexican pool cleaner. Or Christian Minnesotan immigrants something-or-other.

I think that I'm going to shelve my dreams of being a writer and voiceover actor now. If someone like Garrison Keillor can be happy with a lifetime of menial labor, then I can, too.

Thanks, Mr. Keillor!

It was sweet, and a little sad.

My father and grandpa are a little like Garrison's dad: as cattle ranchers, they are quietly conservative and hard working. I can't speak for them, but I think that they, too, find little in common with the current style of conservatism as represented by the Republican party of today. And they, too, have expressed some sympathy for and commonality with the lives of immigrant workers from Mexico: although they understand that there are economic and social ramifications to the current diaspora, they feel that the immigrants deserve the benefit of the doubt, and are generally "good people". Even though I'm quite a ways to the left of them on some issues, I can't find much fault with their positions on immigration.

The remark about all young people wanting to grow up to become writers was stinging, at first, because it comes off as though he is saying it is wrong for us to want writing jobs when we should want to accomplish more tangible things through labor or blue-collar work. But maybe, if the numbers Mr. Keillor provided were correct, all he was trying to say was that if 96% of young people want a creative job, most of us are bound for disappointment, and will find ourselves doing work which requires less of the skills that make good creatives, and more of the skills and stoic mindset that make us better heavy equipment operators, or laborers, or whatever.

If that's what is being said, then I would argue that it's fine to dream, as long as the plan for realizing the dream includes lots of hard work. That way, if for some reason Spielberg doesn't call, you can at least work hard--and stay off of YouTube--during your "day job" at Northern Grommets, and perhaps find a little unexpected success there.