It was (again) a quiet week, as this monologue comes from June, 1994. If you only listen to the News from Lake Wobegon monologue only every once in a while, this is a special one to put on that this. It's a rarity, because Garrison Keillor talks more about himself in the real world, without fictional exaggeration, going into the history of A Prairie Home Companion and what led him to it.
What some people know (though most probably not) is that the show came about because Keillor was writing an article for The New Yorker about the last performance of The Grand Ol' Opry radio show at the Ryman Auditorium (before it moved location), and that's what spurred his idea to do a Midwestern-style show. And this monologue takes place at that very same Ryman Auditorium, 20 years after his 1974 visit. Which gets him to reminisce about the occasion and what his life was like that pushed him in that direction. It's a lovely and extremely funny monologue, getting into tales about what the town was like in his early days and what made it special to him. (Noting, for example, that Lake Wobegon has no turn signals because everyone knows which way you're going.) There's even a brief mention of Buster the Fishing Dog, who is the subject of two of my favorite monologues. But perhaps best of all is when he talks about people in Lake Wobegon understanding that "good enough" is...good enough, and that knowing that is the foundation to being happy. And it all ends with a lovely sentence about happiness.
0 Comments
As we head into the middle of summer, no doubt there will come a day when you're sitting around, sweltering, and decide that what would hit the spot at the moment would be an icey cold one. What the "one" is, that's up to you -- a can of soft drink, a beer, whatever. (Though there's not much left for the "whatever.") You head to the refrigerator, only to discover to your distress that you forgot to put any new cans in there. And all that's left is that six-pack sitting on the floor, lukewarm. Your heart sinks, as the temperature rises. Not to worry! What we have here is a tip from the Lifehacker folks about how you can cool down that beverage in...are you ready?...just two minutes. Really. And it's very easy to do. All it takes is water, ice cubes, and table salt. A bit of knowledge about the second law of thermondynamics helps, but it's not necessary because that's built in. Bottoms up... This is a pretty funny sketch I came across from the British version of Comic Relief in 2007. It features Catherine Tate, who's best known to American audiences for the U.S. version of The Office, playing regional manager Nellie Bertram for the show's final two years. And also making an unannounced surprise appearance is David Tennant, who at the time was starring in Dr. Who for several seasons. Interestingly, the year after this sketch, Tate herself joined Dr. Who for a season. I will admit to not catching all the jokes, but the live audience there seems to love them. And overall, it's a wonderful done piece where, as good as Tennant is, Tate just chews up the scenery. For a film project I'm working on, I was tracking down British directors and was going through literally hundreds of names. One who I came across is a young woman, Amanda Boyle. She hasn't done anything that Americans would know of -- and her career is still pretty much near the start in England, as well -- but she has several short films that are extremely well-done. A bit off-beat, that often deal somewhat with alienation. One of the things she's done in the U.K. was what we here would call a Public Service Announcement. Since there wasn't a whole lot of footage of hers to go on, I figured that I'd check it out. But also I was taken by the title -- The $#*! Kids Say. It starts out very funny, but then takes a slow, subtle, fascinating and unexpected turn. (Though in English, there are subtitles. Whether that was done in the original film, since the kids are a bit difficult to understand, or added by whoever posted it on YouTube, I don't know.) This is a gem. A couple days ago, while browsing the Xfinity "news" portal (a term I now use advisedly ever since they are apparently linking to my articles here), I saw a headline listed about travel -- I was a curious to read it, since I have a bunch of trips planned in the coming months and I've been researching the cost of airline tickets. I have bought tickets for a couple of the trips, and did notice that the prices were notably higher than in the past (by a couple hundred dollars, in one instance) though I was pretty sure it's because I was traveling during the summer. Still, I was interested to find out if there were any other reasons, or perhaps other fare increases coming, for one of my later trips. So, I clicked to read the story.
It turns out that the cost of the TSA payment is increasing. Here's the appropriate passage from the article -- "The current fee is $2.50 for a non-stop flight or $5 for a connecting flight. The new fee will be $5.60 for all flights, with any connection longer than four hours counting as a separate flight." Yes, you got it right. The big airfare increase that this headline story was about was -- for non-stop flights -- a whopping $3.10. But if you're on a connecting flight, the increase will be...hold on to your seat... a grand total of 60 cents!! No, that's not a typo. That's a headline story, important enough enough to be set off and highlighted in boldface so that it will stand out. Complete with a picture of folded up money being thrown away into the wind. Given that the cost of any airline flight sometimes may fluctuate $50-100 throughout the course of the day, I am going to wager big cash money (and by "big cash money," I mean 60 cents) that most people are not -- are never -- going to notice that "the cost of airfare just went up." In fact, depending on when you check, it's possible that many people might think that the cost of airfare actually went down. Indeed, it's hard to imagine that a couple of bucks (at most) are going to have even the slightest, barest, most minuscule impact on price enough for people to simply notice, let alone care. If the price of a hot dog went up 60 cents, you might not notice. If the cost of your monthly Comcast bill went up $3.10, you might not even care. Ebenezer Scrooge probably wouldn't care. Indeed, considering that airlines charge you $25 to check a basic suitcase, most people would probably be thrilled and relieved that that the price of an airline ticket merely went up between just 60 cents and $3.10, By the way, you'll notice that the next story is "7 Habits That Waste Your Money." Given that they establish their concern for you 60 cents, I am shocked that they were able able limit the number of habits down to just seven. Yesterday, we had the first part of Pat Tomasulo's two-part series in his effort to turn the tables on video bombers, those people who show up in the background of TV reports and do anything to be able to say they were on TV. Tomasulo does a feature for WGN-TV in Chicago called "The Pat-Down." What he did here was pretend to be doing a live report from a local mall, and when someone would videobomb him, call them over and say, "As long as you want to be on TV, how about come on my live broadcast" -- and then involve them in an awkward interview. This is the second of his two-part series, though he ended up doing others, posting some online, though others made it to air. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
Archives
May 2024
Categories
All
|
© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2024
|