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2025 Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood

By Dave Read, June 21, 2025 performance – An unrepentant Garrison Keillor returned to the hallowed ground of Tanglewood, where he fairly begged a pretty small audience to forgive the behavior that got him #MeToo’d out of the national audience that used to gather around the radio every Saturday at 6 p.m. to hear the news from Lake Wobegone.

Garrison Keillor with Heather Masse, Christine DiGallonardo, and Ellie Dehn; Hilary Scott photo.
Garrison Keillor with Heather Masse, Christine DiGallonardo, and Ellie Dehn; Hilary Scott photo.

Woe begone is he who is too deaf to hear NPR’s quasi-judicial verdict: “Hands off, old man!” When fellow Minnesota funny guy Al Franken got caught with his hands in the cookie jar, he was man enough to quit the Senate, even if we wish he hadn’t. Not so man-boy Keillor, whose tarnished brand lets him sell enough tickets to hire a band, radio actors, a sound-effects wizard, plus women to sing beside and with him.

We view the summary judgment of hashtags in the same light as we view the summary deportations of ICE. Keillor, however, proved the validity of accusations made against him when he devoted much of this show’s opening to joking about them. No innocent jokes either, he had the gall to assert that men only do what women make them do. He trotted out the Cupid defense, so full of himself that he can’t see how stupid that makes him look.

We started listening to the show early during the sleepwalk of Reagan’s presidency. In the mid-1990s, when Bertha’s Kitty Boutique, “For persons who care for cats,” was the program’s chief fake sponsor, we invented an aerosol spray called Air of the Dog, “for our friends who don’t care for cats.” One spray and cats ignore the insensitive (or allergic) friends and relatives who visit cat lovers.

I mailed my gag to the show and got a polite response along the lines of “Mr. Keillor likes your idea, but we write all material in-house.” Tonight, my idea finally made it’s way onto the show, such as it is. The freshest thing I heard was a promo for a fake product called Sandy’s Aerosol Sneakers, which emit an aroma designed to hide the smell of farts.

The host will claim the gag is based on real products in real stores, and maybe it is, but there’s no masking the odor emitted by some old farts. You’re welcome to the gag – here’s Pastor Ingqvist, he’ll see you home.

2000-2016 A Prairie Home at Tanglewood

Links to reviews of A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood between 2000-2016.

Cheshire Lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024

By Dave Read, Lenox, MA, Sept. 22, 2024 outing – With friends Kelley and Eddie, I splashed and paddled around lower Cheshire Lake, the section between Berkshire village and the causeway that runs between Rt. 8 and Cheshire/Lanesborough Rd. It was somewhat of a trip down cinder-strewn memory alley, since I lived next to the lake for a few wild and crazy years of the first Raygun Admin.!

It was the first day of fall, and even though our annual leaf-borne extravaganza of color remains to be seen, what came into view from the vantage point of a canoe was as subtly beautiful as what soon will explode all around us. (click an image to slide through them all)

Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.
Cheshire lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024; Dave Read photo.

Hancock Shaker Village, Sept. 2024

By Dave Read, Lenox, MA, Sept. 5, 2024 visit – Hancock Shaker Village stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Tanglewood in the first rank of places that must be visited on a rare trip to the Berkshires, and no less than annually if you live within a couple hour’s drive. Here’s hoping these casual phonesnaps pique your curiosity enough to make a visit.

There are docents and curators who blend right in; ask a question of two and you will learn marvelous things about the Shakers and their mode of living. A few years ago, the place hosted a fiddler’s convention – a perfect fit.

(click any images to scroll through them all)

Hancock Shaker Village, Sept. 2024; Caitlin Falls photo.
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