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Speaker 1: Like most pre boomers, I was brought up not to

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talk about myself, but to ask other people about themselves.

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But not large probing questions what church do you belong to?

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Where did you go to college? What drugs are you

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currently on? But pleasant queries, how's your day going so far?

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I like your shoes, where did you get them? Beautiful day?

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Where are you heading? And that last one, where are

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you heading? Is a great question because I travel all

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the time because of the nature of my work, which

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is stand up comedy. I am only just so funny,

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and if I stayed in one place, people would get

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sick of me very quickly. So I need to stay

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on the move. LGA, MSP AT, l l A, X

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dfwor D SAA DTW. Big cities packed with people, airports,

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long concourses where you get your day's exercise, switching flights,

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endless cafes, shops. You could probably find a proctologist in

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an airport, a psychoanalyst, maybe a yoga instructor. And once

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you get past tsa security, you're in middle class America.

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No homeless, no panhandlers, no drug addicts, just a lot

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of very nice people who apparently are doing well. Flying

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is not cheap. And I sit and wait by my

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gay and if someone looks at me and smiles, I

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like to ask where you headed to day. Once at

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pH L I met a man from Lancaster, PA who

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was heading for O r D to see his son.

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Lancaster is Mennonite Amish country, and he told me Mennonites

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have zippers Amish yu's buttons, so just checked their pants.

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He worked at the county prison, a big stone castle,

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the only prison he knew of that gets reviews by inmates,

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just like a hotel. Some inmates, he said, like it.

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Some say the food is bad. At b O S

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I met a woman heading for Burlington, Vermont. She said,

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it's the city where it's still the sixties. Bernie Sanders

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was mayor, the socialist you know. He thought he could

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be elected president, and maybe he could have in Denmark,

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but there was a language problem. Standing in LGA, heading

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for M s P, A man asked me what I

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do and I told him I do a radio show

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of folk music and bad jokes that cities bring in

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who are worried about becoming too hip. And we do

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a show and soon the rents start to fall and

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the line at Starbucks gets shorter. I love airports. I

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know too many liberals and writers and artsy people and

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waiting in airports. I've met Republicans, engineers, managers. The Saudis

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who crashed four passenger jets back in two thousand could

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have put a permanent crimp in jet travel. But the

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government created t SA so that your son or daughter

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can wear a uniform and yell at people to take

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off their belts, and so the right to travel has

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been preserved. I don't talk to many young people. So

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many of them wear headphones or earbuds, and they look

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stressed out. I'm guessing the music there listening to is

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narcissist pop about me, myself and I, my need for

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more me time, my exorbitant rent, my boring jaw, bad boss,

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crowded bike paths, long wait times and climbing walls, and

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the fear of arterial plaque caused by foods containing G

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M I and D MU. And if I smile at

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these people, they'll take me for a privileged white male

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and give me the middle finger. My generation was romantic

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about the open road and the dream of finding something

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better in a far away place. Our kids the boomers

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and millennials picked that up, and now we old timers

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have to get on a plain to see our loved ones.

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So far as I know, miss Swift, Taylor Swift doesn't

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sing about hoboes jumping on a westbound freight to get

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out of Deadwood. She sings about self awareness, trumping, romantic disappointment.

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I'm privileged. I love my country, the West, the Midwest,

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the Northeast.

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Speaker 2: More.

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Speaker 1: I love American history and American music as it was

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back when people stood around at parties and we sang

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pop songs. In school, we stood by our desks and

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we sang My country tis of these sweet land of Liberty,

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a song that has been banished in favor of all

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people who on Earth do dwell. Each has a story

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they can tell. Each story is of equal worth to

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all inhabitants of Earth. Okay, but I can't wait to

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get on the road again by jet plain or midnight

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train to see the sights, the city lights rolling down

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the river, or Route sixty six down the river to

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the Mississippi Delta, and Graceland shining like a national guitar.

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I do believe we shall be received out Griceland.

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Speaker 2: Brisk Verse Garrison Keiller's new book of poems. Some whimsical,

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some funny, may be mischievous, may be thought provoking. In

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any case, an irresistible read and a great gift brisk Verse.

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Check it out at Garrison Keiller dot com. If you

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enjoy Garrison's writings, you'll find a bonanza in his newsletter,

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Garrison Keeler and Friends. There's humor, advice, thoughts on ordinary life,

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and lots more. Subscribe at Garrison Keiller dot substack dot

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com