Thursday, September 15, 2005

Area humorist throws blogger to sharks

I'm a fan of very few celebrities. Or writers. Or both. Mostly both, I guess. John McPhee I've told you about. George Lakoff too. Hal Crowther. I'm also fond of Stephanie Brush, Fran Liebowitz, William F. Buckley, Cynthia Heimel, Hunter S. Thompson, Mark Twain, Howard Stern, John Updike, Tony Pierce, Chris Locke, David Weinberger and Saul Bellow, even though it's hard to connect their dots — except that they all make me laugh. (Not always in some cases, but sometimes in all cases.)

Garrison Keillor too, of course. He's a humorist with few equals, one of the greatest story-tellers of all time, and not a bad singer. His radio shows have kept a number of musical traditions alive, along with the careers of many performers. He's also the best PR department Minnesota has ever had — while doing the same for Good Radio, Small Town America and other threatened institutions.

Among the most encouraging words I've ever read are the ones he wrote for me inside the cover of one of his books.

So it comes as a huge disappointment for me to read Trial Of The Century: Keillor V. MNspeak.com, wherein Garrison not only fails to take a joke, but sends lawyers to stop it.

If you're reading this, Garrison, here's one small gift in return for the many you've given the rest of us over so many years: Legal threats are the first resort of the humorless. My advice: Call off the sharks and have some fun with the whole thing.

Creepy

A slow seismic slip event is underway in the Northwest. The movement is slower than a traditional earthquake but more rapid than the normal creep associated with the fault.

Podcasting a story of tech survival

The ultimate DIY IT story, and our first IT Garage podcast gives some background to Surviving Katrina with DirectNIC, a talk I had last week with 'Sig' Solares, whose crew kept DirectNIC going thoughout Hurricane Katrina and its horrendous aftermath — deep in the heart of New Orleans, where approximately nothing else was working.

Big thanks to Doug Kaye and IT Conversations for stepping up, recording and producing the 'cast. Looking forward to more in the series this one inaugurates.

And thanks as well to Michael Barnett and his blog Interdictor, which provided a lifeline of news, tech support and much more, through the whole prolonged event.