E Pluribus Unum

Garrison Keillor:

You might not have always liked Republicans, but you could count on them to manage the bank. They might be lousy tippers, act snooty, talk through their noses, wear spats and splash mud on you as they race their Pierce-Arrows through the village, but you knew they could do the math.

To see them produce a ninny and then follow him loyally into the swamp for five years is disconcerting, like seeing the Rolling Stones take up lite jazz.

So here we are at an uneasy point in our history, mired in a costly war and getting nowhere, a supine Congress granting absolute power to a president who seems to get smaller and dimmer, and the best the Republicans can offer is San Franciscophobia? This is beyond pitiful. This is violently stupid.

It is painful to look at your father and realize the old man should not be allowed to manage his own money anymore. This is the discovery the country has made about the party in power. They are inept. The checkbook needs to be taken away. They will rant, they will screech, they will wave their canes at you and call you all sorts of names, but you have to do what you have to do.

Full disclosure: she is a faithful fan of the radio show, going out of her way to listen every weekend; I also listen and enjoy everything except the Lutheran choirs and the Norwegian bell-ringers (she doesn't care for them either). Furthermore, she thought a recent PBS special broadcast of the show had everything in it that the movie did, without the literary framing that GK put into the screenplay. She is also, I think it safe to say, not a Robert Altman fan, which I am.

I enjoyed seeing the radio show cast. I also enjoyed the performances of Woody Harreleson and John Reilly as Dusty and Lefty; I also enjoyed Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin. Kevin Kline was fun as Guy Noir.

My favorite sequence was the very beginning when GK and the others are chattering on about the old days of radio, pulling on their pants one leg at a time in the dressing room, then being gently chased and nagged upstairs to appear onstage. Verrrrrry Altman-esque. In the middle of their conversation, the curtain goes up and GK, not blinking an eye, segues effortlessly into the familiar "Hear that old piano..." Very sweet.