Lee's post about Garrison Keillor reminded me of a terrific Keillor quote I heard several months back, while listening to Prairie Home Companion. Keillor was telling a story about an aging baseball player, and he said something along the lines of, "You can't run your body on memories of grace."
That's pure Keillor; he describes a fairly complex thought in the most elegant and deceivingly simple sentence (using almost entirely monosyllabic words!). Most writers--including myself--would have made that sentence far more complicated and far less descriptive.
I don't know how he does it...
Norwegian parsimony and catsup,
ReplyDelete... and maybe a healthy dose of Powdermilk Biscuits!
ReplyDeleteLong ago we hosted a young girl from France for a year. We made her listen to PHC every Saturday night under the guise that GK was "America's storyteller." Some would contend that Ira Glass (This American Life) now holds that title.
ReplyDeleteOf course, we also took the aforementioned young girl from France to the family ranch in Texas, put her in boots and Stetson, slung a set of six shooters around her hips and put rifle in her hands for a posed picture to send back home. Ironically, the girl is now lawyer serving on several E.U. and U.N. disarmament committees.
She forgives us.
But I'm still keepin' the picture in case she ever gets elected President of France!
Cheers,
Lee
Many people are surprised to learn that Garrison has a sharp-edged side he lets loose in other forums: For example, his scathing critique of Bernard-Henri Lévy's AMERICAN VERTIGO: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/books/review/29keillor.html
I have tickets to a PHC NY show this Dec. and am hoping to fly from Paris to Boston via NY to catch the show and then attend the last week of classes and/or finals.
Must... check... schedule... soon...
Cheers,
Lee