Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

23 Nov 2003, 19:17 p.m.

It Was Election Day

Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2003 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.

A year late, I got around to typing up my hands-wrung-over introduction to a Garrison Keillor event.

Good evening to you, ladies, gentlemen.
We welcome you to this evening's event.
Thank you for coming, since some of you want
To check tonight if your vote made a dent.

Instead, you're here, and, thanks to Cody's Books,
Tonight I have the honor to present
Garrison Keillor, master of the pen
And one-man radio establishment.

But first, a few administrative notes.
Please silence cell phones......yes, NOW, go ahead.
The bathrooms are behind you, on the right.
Sure, go, but don't make noise to raise the dead.

After his reading, he'll take Q & A
And then he'll do a signing, row by row.
I'd like to thank the church for our venue
And Cody's Books for putting on the show.

You may know Mr. Keillor from his show,
"A Prairie Home Companion," which is great.
Or maybe you have read some of his books,
like "Lake Wobegon Summer 1958."  Er, six.

He also does "A Writer's Almanac,"
where every day he reads one poem, no more.
And he's compiled them in his brand-new book,
"Good Poems."  (You can buy it at the door.)

I've listened to his show since I was twelve --
But you didn't come here to hear 'bout me.
So I thank Mr. Keillor, and I say,
I give to you the man you came to see:

Garrison Keillor.