The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
Front-Ranger:
Maybe we should try our hands at writing a S&M. Then we might appreciate how hard it is. Here are some ideas for topics and I invite you to contribute others:
A.I.
The Chinese "spy" balloon
Dancing with DeSantis
Gayentine's Day
The Arctic Blast
Bad Technology Day
S&M
The Latest Food Craze
Wordle's Banned Words List
Toxic Bird Pits
She loves pickleball; he loves curling
serious crayons:
I was sorting through old New Yorkers and read this one. Can't remember if I read it when it was published, but it's really good. Perfectly, perfectly captures Tucker Carlson in both the regular words and the italicized descriptions. Goes slightly off the rails a few times but never gets any crazier than its subject actually does.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on February 10, 2023, 11:58:12 am ---Back on the "What's funny" topic, this from Garrison Keillor on A.I. is pretty funny although I didn't LOL:
https://garrisonkeillor.substack.com/p/a-column-written-by-a-man-pen-on?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
I know Keillor wrote for the New Yorker a lot. I think he's funny as a fellow Midwesterner, but I know there are people who revile him.
--- End quote ---
As a fellow Midwesterner -- even a fellow Minnesotan! -- count me in the revile him camp. I don't like his personality and I think the points he makes in writing are often obvious or trite. That said, I'll admit he is an excellent prose stylist.
Front-Ranger:
I don't know much about his irl personality. I just know about the personna he has created in his books and monologues.
The first house I ever owned had three giant English Walnut trees in the back yard. So I spent every Sunday afternoon cracking nuts and listening to A Prairie Home Companion. This was in Central California and I missed the Midwest. I loved the stories about the inhabitants of a small town, the coming-of-age stories, the wacky things that Lutherans do. One anecdote in particular that I loved was about a schoolboy who stepped out the front door of his house and sped down the street, how "impressive to see someone get out of the gate" with so much energy. I also loved the stories of the young women who were determined to get away from the town and break the cycle of poverty and repression. And the stories about ice fishing...I could go on and on.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on February 10, 2023, 06:26:14 pm ---I don't know much about his irl personality. I just know about the personna he has created in his books and monologues.
--- End quote ---
For me it's both, partly because he's so close-up here and people tend to form opinions of their local celebrities, and partly because my state is plenty steeped in that quaint Minnesota culture. So things that take it in new directions are more interesting to me. Fargo, for example, captures the culture (despite the mostly ridiculous accents) but gives it a novel twist.
However, I did have a next-door neighbor for a while who was being considered to replace Keillor when he retired (before the scandal) and would have been good. He's a storyteller who performs onstage all over the country and in Europe, presents one-man shows at the Guthrie Theater, has told a lot of stories on NPR, has published books and put out CDs. Anyway, his material is very recognizably Minnesotan too -- he even uses somewhat of a Fargo accent -- and the suburb he grew up in is only closer to Minneapolis than the suburb Garrison Keillor grew up in. Kevin's take is more original, to me.
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