September 8, 2007
This week on A Prairie Home Companion: As we prepare the hay bales, the outdoor stage, and the mountains of meatloaf for next week's season opener and street dance at the Fitzgerald Theater, we bring you a special back-to-school rebroadcast compilation. With fight songs, pep bands, and Latin
lessons, we cheer the return to academic life. Bob Dorough sings "3 is a Magic Number," Kate
MacKenzie sings the old Carter Family song "Schoolhouse on the Hill," and at Lake Wobegon High School, Ms. Lewis retires from teaching English after 55 years. It's all about school this week, so please remember your number two pencils and spiral bound notebooks. There will be a quiz.
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If you would like to see A Prairie Home Companion live, here is your chance! Ticket info has been posted for our entire fall season.
And there's also an opportunity to catch Garrison this fall as he starts on his fall book tour supporting Pontoon, his new Lake Wobegon novel.
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Post to the Host:
Garrison, On one of your recent previews to a show, you mentioned the Scandinavian principle of "good enough." I have been trying since to find it on your web site and read more about it. Alas, the closest the PHC search can find is the "godt nok. Good enough." line at the end of the July issue
of The Ballast! Google is no better. It seems that this is an elusive principle at best. Can you point me in the right direction? That would be good enough.
Thanks,
Ed
The Good Enough principle is so common that Google can't find it, I guess, but basically it is a belief in mediocrity and an antidote to envy. Nobody is better than anybody else, superiority is mostly an illusion, so don't think you're a big shot because you're not. We're all about the same when
you come right down to it. Don't look back with regret — your life was good enough. Your parents were good enough, so was your school, so is your job. So quit belly-aching. Don't sweat it. Good Enough may seem like faint praise, but some things really are good enough. Don't make a big deal
over it. Don't try to make it the best that ever was or could be. It's good enough. And that's good enough.
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A lawyer pushes a BMW into a gas station and tells the mechanic it died. After he works on it for a few minutes, it is idling smoothly.
"What's the story?" asks the car owner.
"Just crap in the carburetor," replies the mechanic.
The owner asks, "How often do I have to do that?"
This joke was sent in by Stephen N. of Roberts, WI. Thanks Stephen!
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Listen to The News from Lake Wobegon wherever and whenever you want. We're pleased to announce GK's signature monologue is now available as a free podcast, updated every Monday.
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Listener-submitted short stories or poems about their homes or lives or whatever they fancy. Here are the latest:
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September 4, 2007
Listened to the show Saturday and it was not bad. First show of the season, and at the state fair to boot. I was so happy I said to heck with cooking and ran out to the deli for some roast beef sandwiches and potato salad and coleslaw and got it all on plates and handed out just in time for Mr.
Keillor singing that little opening tune about his sweet, sweet old someone comin' through that door, the one I usually miss because I'm trying to get the laundry put away or Mr. Sundberg is hollering from the basement, "Show's on!" and I holler back, "I know, I'm in the kitchen with the radio on!"
and he hollers up, "What was that?" and I holler, "I know it's on!" and he hollers, "That's what I was tryin' to tell ya!"
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Program Sponsors
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Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon |
 In Lake Wobegon lives a good Lutheran lady who is quite prepared
to die and wishes to be cremated and her ashes placed inside a bowling ball and dropped into the lake, no prayers, no hymns, thank you very much. Meanwhile, the Detmer girl returns from California where she has made a killing in veterinary aromatherapy to marry her boyfriend Brent aboard Wally's
pontoon boat, presided over by her minister, Misty Naylor of the Sisterhood of the Sacred Spirit. Brent arrives on Thursday. On Saturday, a delegation of renegade Lutheran pastors from Denmark come to town on their tour of America, their punishment for having denied the divinity of Jesus. And
Barbara Peterson, whose mother, Evelyn, left the startling note about cremation and the bowling ball, is in love with a lovely fat man who slips around town in the dim light and reconnoiters with her at the Romeo Motel.
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Never Better: Stories from Lake Wobegon |
 Fans of A Prairie Home Companion eagerly await each new
collection of Garrison Keillor's "News from Lake Wobegon" monologues. Recorded during live radio broadcasts, Never Better features characters we know and love, a meditation on Christmas, migrating turtles, flying Elvises, and more warm, witty, poignant, often hilarious tales from America's favorite
storyteller. As they say in Lake Wobegon, "It could be worse." But what they think is: It's never been better. About 2 hours.
Order now! >> |
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A Prairie Home Companion: the DVD |
 Legendary director Robert Altman's take on Garrison Keillor's show
boasts a dream cast, terrific music, and a story that tugs at the heartstrings. Keillor, Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan, Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Kevin Kline, Virginia Madsen, and Tommy Lee Jones star in a film about the final broadcast of America's most celebrated radio show.
(Don't worry; it's only a movie.)
"What a lovely film this is, so gentle and whimsical, so simple and profound" —Roger Ebert. "A great gang of stars having a great time, brilliantly directed by Robert Altman" —Larry King. 1 hour 45 min.
Order now! >> |
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When I Get Home: Songs |
Prairie Home Companion listeners are frequently treated to a song. Sometimes to a familiar tune, sometimes to original music—with words by Garrison Keillor. In them, he sings of home, love, friendship, family, faith, or just plain fun. These sixteen songs, specially recorded for this
collection, are some of his best.
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A Prairie Home DVD Collection |
 This 3 DVD set features classic A Prairie Home Companion broadcasts includes
special guests Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Leo Kottke, Doc Watson, Bobby McFerrin, The Everly Brothers, Taj Mahal, and Robin and Linda Williams. Music abounds, as do jokes, skits, and "The News from Lake Wobegon."
Order now! >> |
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