May 1st, 2009 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
What a great day to be alive! I won one of the door prizes this morning at Chamber Connection. There were about 130 folks at ING Direct Café, so the odds were tough.
I have few regrets in life, but I regret that I never met Barby’s Uncle Bobby. He was an English Bachelor Rancher, not a Norwegian Bachelor Farmer, but he was a very unique fellow. He always said that if he ever found a woman like his sister Bea, (Barby’s mother) he would marry her. He never did. He sold the ranch in the late sixties and moved to town. He took up horse racing. One of the news clippings at the funeral showed Uncle Bobby with a foal whose lineage was from Secretariat and Bold Ruler. I don’t know a lot about horse racing, but even I recognize those names. Uncle Bobby was like a grandfather to the kids who lived next door to him in Highmore and many of them spoke at his “Life Celebration” at the funeral home. We did bring back a picture of him in the winners circle with a horse named Bee Well. Great stuff.
We had no time for listening to audio books. Going back to Barby’s hometown provided a lot of memories which let to a lot of stories. Life is short, get on with your bucket list. Visiting a long lost relative might be a good thing to put on your list. If you would like a pdf of a Bucket List document, let me know. I will send one to you.
The show this week is live from the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee with special guests, the bad birds of Bluegrass, The Sam Bush Band and chart topping country singer-songwriter Brad Paisley. Andra Suchy and The Royal Academy of Radio Actors will fill out the bill.
Thank you very much to Fred Bursch, of Bursch Travel for renewing his online sponsorship of Radio Heartland. Add some Bose speakers to your computer and crank it up. www.radioheartland.org
“Greatness is a two-faced coin – and its reverse is humility. “ Marguerite Steen
April 23rd, 2009 by admin
Good afternoon from Collegeville,
This is going out early because Barby and I are driving to Highmore, South Dakota in the morning. Her Uncle Bobby died this week. Uncle Bobby was a bachelor farmer, but not a Norwegian bachelor farmer. He retired from farming early so that he could spend more time racing horses. He and Barby’s mother were brother and sister. It is a long drive and not on the freeway system. In fact we will not ever be on the freeway system. Nothing to do but check out an audio book at the library. I have never owned a library card, but it is never too late. There was no library in Upsala when I was growing up and so I never got the habit. Members of The Black Knight Car Club would not have been allowed in a library even if there had been one. There is a library in Upsala now and it is quite busy.
The show this week is live from The Palace Theater in Waterbury, Connecticut. Special guests include another hero of mine, Arlo Guthrie and the Lost World Tour and the Burns Sisters, along with Lara Herscovitch and the Royal Academy of Radio Actors. If we miss it in Highmore, we can pick it up online from the archive tab next week.
“Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.” Tryon Edwards
Additional PS. Stop in and see Jan at The Wild Bird Center on Division Street in Waite Park. She is going to sponsor Morning Edition on KNSR 88.9 in Central Minnesota. Thank you Jan.
April 17th, 2009 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
Yesterday we buried Brother Willie. Last June we celebrated his 92nd birthday in his room in the retirement center here at Saint John’s Abbey. I brought him a choice of a cold bottle of O’Doul’s or a cold bottle of Budweiser. He chose the Budweiser.
About eight years ago I noticed an old man kind of shuffling towards Wimmer Hall. I stopped and introduced myself. I asked him what he did and he responded in a gruff voice, “My name is Brother Willie and I work in the woodshop. I make a table and chair set, haven’t you seen them? They are for little ones.” Since I had a six year old granddaughter, I asked him if he would make a set for me. “Oh, I don’t know, there are many orders ahead of you, I don’t know if I will live long enough to make a set for you.” I responded, “No problem, I will pray for you every day and I am sure that you will live long enough to make them.” I visited Br. Willie in the woodshop many times, I always left him one of my calling cards and reminded him of my order. Over the years I took delivery on two children’s table and chair sets plus 8 of the small wagons filled with blocks of many shapes and sizes. About five years ago, Br. Willie had to stop working in the woodshop but he still would make his rounds going thru the garbage searching for pop cans. He donated the money from the cans to the poor.
Brother Willie is best known for his role as night watchman on campus. The pub in Sexton Commons is named after him and George Maurer wrote a song named “The Brother Willie Shuffle”. He was a great man and he will be missed.
The show this week is live from The Town Hall in New York City. Guests include legendary English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello and guitarist-songwriter Tom Rush plus Heather Masse, the usual cast of characters and the news from Lake Wobegon. If you miss the show, it is very easy to catch an old show online at www.prairiehome.org simply click on April 11, 2009 under The Archive.
“Success has nothing to do with what you gain for yourself. Success is what you do for others.” Brother Willie (William Jerome Borgerding, OSB)
April 13th, 2009 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
It is a beautiful sunny day in Collegeville! The Chamber Connection was held at the YMCA this morning. Well over 100 folks got up early to enjoy coffee and rolls plus do a little networking. If you have not yet attended one, check it out at www.stcloudareachamber.com
60 Minutes did a story about the county hospital in Las Vegas having to close due to a previous budget shortfall of $51 million coupled with a recently announced additional cut by the State of Nevada of another $21 million dollars. The CEO told the reporter that they had to cut some programs and one of those cut was the cancer out-patient treatment program. Four patients were interviewed for the story. All of them had been laid off and they all had lost their health insurance. They were not poor enough to get any free help, but they had no insurance. All of a sudden their treatment was stopped or in one case, a woman was not able to start the treatment that she needed for the obvious tumor on her neck. It was an awful story. At the break after the story segment, CBS news announced that the box office blockbuster movie for the weekend was “Fast and Furious” which raked in $72 million, the same number of dollars needed to fund one hospital at full service for a whole year.
What are the odds? Our health service delivery program needs to be fixed.
The show this week is live from Town Hall in New York City. The Great American Duet Sing-Off is top billing. Six pairs of finalists will be singing their hearts out for your vote. The grand prize is a silver water tower trophy plus the title of “Wobegon Idol”. The usual cast of characters will be on stage with Garrison. Enjoy the show.
“Clear definition of goals is the keynote of success.” Edison Montgomery
April 3rd, 2009 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
I may have to hire Dennis to plow the snow off of the garden plot in Upsala if I want to get the Yukon Gold seed potatoes in the ground by Good Friday, which is one week from today. Crazy! This has been a very long cold winter and yet they keep talking about global warming. The drive in on Interstate 94 on both Tuesday and Wednesday was hairy and I hope that this is the end of it.
My office is located on the third floor of Wimmer Hall overlooking Saint Francis House on the campus of St. John’s University. It was here that MPR launched KSJR on January 22, 1967. This week I had visitors from MPR HQ in St. Paul. One of the visitors, Jon McTaggart, used to manage this station and he currently serves as COO of American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio. We owe a huge debt to St. John’s University and The College of Saint Benedict for their support as Institutional Sponsors. “The mission of Minnesota Public Radio is to enrich the mind and nourish the spirit, thereby enhancing the lives and expanding the perspectives of our audiences, and assisting them in strengthening their communities.”
Thank you also to our sponsors and underwriters including Crostini Grille in Monticello. Go to their website www.crostinigrille.com and join the VIP E Mail club. You will get a very special surprise on your birthday. Barby and I used her gift coupon last Sunday evening. The food is awesome and the atmosphere is wonderful.
The show this week is live from The Town Hall in New York City. Special guests include jazz great Wynton Marsalis and his Quintet plus singer Heather Masse. It was great to have Tim Russell back last week. You will not want to miss this one. We were at Orchestra Hall when Wynton performed with his big band.
“Laughter is wine for the soul – laugh soft, or loud and deep, tinged through with seriousness. Comedy and tragedy step through life together, arm in arm… Once we laugh we can live.” Sean O’Casey
March 30th, 2009 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
Cool weather is back with us once again. I may leave the straw on the tulips for another week. The sun is shining bright and the birds are doing their best to make us think spring. Our thoughts are with all those folks in the Red River Valley. The river that flows north to Canada is going to crest at a new record this weekend. The inconvenience of a little cool weather seems like a small thing.
Barby is on spring break this week so we drove to Sioux Falls and she spent a few days with her good friend Gwen and I made some calls on clients and prospects. Sioux Falls is a wonderful city with a beautiful downtown area. (Check out “The Book Shop” on Phillips Avenue) We always stay at the Holiday Inn downtown. Tom, the innkeeper, is kind enough to provide a very special hospitality package. The food in the hotel restaurant is great also. If you should go there, try the salmon entrée and be sure to have the cheesecake for dessert. You may want to split one.
On the drive to Marshall we noticed a business in an older building with a bright large sign announcing the name of the establishment, “Felony Tattoos”. We figured the owner had learned his or her trade on the “inside”. Barby came up with an idea for a new business in Monticello, “Miss Demeanor Tattoos”.
The show this week is live from the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in Appleton, Wisconsin. The featured acts will be all local talent, including Cory Chisel, Greg Waters, Dance Billy Dance, American Fiction, Jonathan Eddy and Helen Exner. Tim Russell will be back after an extended absence. Enjoy the show.
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his or her life by altering the attitude of the mind.” William James
March 20th, 2009 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
Happy First Day of Spring 2009!! It is not really very spring like out there, but still hope springs eternal. I took the lining out of my leather jacket. I called Tom at Wood’s Nursery to check on Yukon Gold seed potatoes and asked him when I should remove the straw from the tulip beds. He suggested waiting another week.
Last Saturday I picked up the St. Cloud Times and read that my friend Glenn Imholte was killed in a car accident caused by the sleet and snow. I had heard about the accident but I did not know that it was Glenn. The funeral service was held at the Cathedral High School gymnasium. About 1,000 people gathered to celebrate Glenn’s life. Glenn was a gentle bear of a guy with a great sense of humor. He was the Chair of Chamber Connection and he taught us all how to sing the “Happy Birthday Song” by flipping our finger over our lips so that it sounded like we were singing under water. I miss that. The last time I saw Glenn was the Friday before he died at The Chamber Connection meeting held at Falcon National Bank. Whenever I met Glenn, I would say his name loud and grab him in a bear hug. Glenn Imholte will always be remembered. May his family feel the warmth of the community.
The show this week is live from the State Theater in Minneapolis. Guests include Rory Block, Peter Ostroushko, Maria Jette and Andra Suchy. There will also be a tribute to J.S. Bach on his birthday with a Harpsichord, Cello and Violin playing some of the master’s lost works. Enjoy the show.
“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” Leonard Cohen
March 13th, 2009 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
On Thursday we set a record for a low temperature in St. Cloud. 15 degrees below zero. This weekend’s forecast calls for a high of 40 something with an outside chance for 50. The first day that it hits 50 is always a red letter day for me. Ice out is another big deal. My brother is on Lake of the Woods ice fishing this week end. I hope the walleye are biting for him. Spring cannot come soon enough for me.
Today is the second Friday the 13th of the year. There will be another one in November. Three of them in one year must be unusual. In 2008 there was only one and in 2010 there will be only one.
“The superstition that Friday is unlucky has been around for hundreds of years. By the 1800s there was a whole lot of things that were unlucky to do on a Friday, including needle working, writing letters, beginning a sea voyage, moving, getting married, and going to the doctor. As for 13, its status as an unlucky number probably comes from the Bible – Judas Iscariot was said to be the 13th guest to sit at the table at the Last Supper. At some point, these two superstitions were combined into a fear of Friday the 13th” source: The Writers Almanac produced by Prairie Home Productions www.writersalmanac.org
The show this week is a joke show compilation with the now legendary “Buzz Off” competition between sound-effects men Tom Keith and Fred Newman, Andy Stein’s latest Knock-Knock song and a slew of blonde jokes, lawyer jokes, Unitarian jokes, puns, groaners and one really good parrot joke (no penguins this time). Roy Blount Jr. will share some of his southern-fried humor. Enjoy the show.
“If your cat has its kittens in the oven, do you call them muffins?” Kaye Gibbons
March 6th, 2009 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
William Harley Osberg was born Tuesday evening at 9:47. He weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and he was 19 ½ inches long. He is a beautiful boy with lots of dark hair. His mother Jena and my son Erik are doing great as are his sister’s Anna and Leah. My dad’s name was William Emmanuel and I have a brother William Arthur. Jena’s grandfather is Harley Boettcher. Harley and his wife Martha own a farm on a river near Stewartville, MN, so the first gift that I presented to Willie was a John Deere tractor. Perhaps he will be helping to feed the nation.
The show this week is another compilation of two shows from last year’s late winter run at the Fitzgerald Theater. Minnesota’s first Poet Laureate, Robert Bly reads four poems. Other guests include Suzy Bogguss, Sam Bush, plus the Wailin’ Jennys and The Boys of the Lough. The Boy of the Lough will appear live at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls on Thursday March 19th. Tickets online at www.washingtonpavilion.org
APHC will be in Appleton, Wisconsin on March 28th and they need talent. Go to www.prairiehome.org to submit your tunes.
“Trust is not a matter of technique, but of character. We are trusted because of our way of being, not because of our polished exteriors or out expertly crafted communications.” Martha Sinetar
March 3rd, 2009 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
We got dumped on again. Not the nine inches that some forecasters predicted, but almost five inches along with a strong wind. On days like this, when I was a teenager in Upsala, we would look forward to the opportunity to pile into Bob’s old 52 Chevy and head into the Burtrum Hills to test ourselves. We had shovels in the trunk and lots of muscle with the only goal to try and get through the drifts and race around knowing full well that the Sheriff would not likely be out there. Maybe we did have a 12 pack, maybe we didn’t.
I am not sure who thought of it, but I remember tying the hood of an old car to the bumper of another and “riding the snow surf” in the ditches. How we escaped injury or death is a miracle. We were the original “Dumb and Dumber” gang. Now we simply try to keep from slipping on the ice and breaking a hip or a wrist. Remember, if you are a guy over 50, hire someone else to shovel this “widow maker” white stuff. Also, you should be taking a baby aspirin everyday.
The show this week is a rebroadcast of a couple of small town winter time shows that I was able to attend. From the beautiful dance floor of the Lakeside Ballroom in Glenwood in 2006, we’ll hear Bill Hinckley and Judy Larson sing “The Barnyard Dance”. My guest that evening was Auntie who dared to ask Garrison to join us at our table for the wonderful post show meatball supper. He did not, but many of the cast did sit with us. The other show was from the University of Minnesota Morris’s P.E. Center (aka The Gym). In both cases, Garrison stayed on stage after we went off the air and gave us a lot of bang for the buck. Enjoy the broadcast.
If you want to see Garrison in a very special setting, he will be in Hibbing on Tuesday March 10th. Simply go to www.ticketworks.com for ticket information. It is a benefit for the Hibbing Foundation.
“Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.” Joyce Brothers
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