Wm Buckley on selling his boat!

[George Ray]

Aweigh
Consequential decisions can be triggered by inconsequential causes. She leaned over, picked up the phone—and I knew then that I'd be filing for divorce. But later, introspective curiosity sets in. And the search for self-justification. So we poke around dormant gray matter trying to bring out a plausible teleological narrative. All this has been happening to me since I decided to sell my boat.
......................

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200407/buckley

[prestonbriggs]

Aweigh
Consequential decisions can be triggered by inconsequential causes. She leaned over, picked up the phone—and I knew then that I'd be filing for divorce. But later, introspective curiosity sets in. And the search for self-justification. So we poke around dormant gray matter trying to bring out a plausible teleological narrative. All this has been happening to me since I decided to sell my boat.
......................

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200407/buckley

Perhaps his estate will; he died yesterday.
I don't care much about his politics,
but I did enjoy his books.

Preston

[Uncle Duke]

Thanks very much, George.....
A very, very nicely written piece (though I wouldn't expect less) covering a great history of sailing. Full life-cycle, as it were.

[Bob Triggs]

He really had a way with the art of words and ideas.

[Vince Brennan]

There are few writers whose spoken voice and written words so elegantly co-incide. Buckley was one of those.

A pleasure.

[Tom Hunter]

Thanks for finding that and posting the link, poignant ending.

[MiddleAgesMan]

I especially liked McGeorge Bundy's review of Buckley's "God and Man at Yale." (linked within the link)

"Airborne" was a very good read but his son Christopher's stuff is at least as good.

WFB possessed a rare wit and mind but for the life of me I don't understand how someone of his obvious intellect could have failed to grasp the flaws in his religious beliefs, inherited though they may be.

[mcdenny]

I'll echo my thanks for posting the link - timely as it was.

His story of ageing making the effort of sailing greater and the fun less really got to me because I went through a similar analysis regarding motorcycles and finally sold the bike last summer after riding in the rain one time too many.

[Yeadon]

Gotta admit, I'm 35 and Buckley wasn't anybody who I have ever paid any attention to. He was basically on the wrong side of the aisle for me. But I enjoyed that essay, and am now interested in taking a look at his sea passage books.

[GoldDogs]

Some show I watched the other day(Charlie Rose? McLaughlin Group?) mentioned how WFB sailed his boat to the middle of the Atlantic so he could try smoking Marijuana....legally. I wonder if it caught on?

[C. Ross]

Unless it was grown hydroponically in international waters and harvested there <grin> some illegality was involved.

As I heard the story, he followed the tradition of a drink before dinner, so by the time the marijuana was passed all hands fell asleep promptly without experiencing anything from it.

Fair winds to Mr. Buckley.

[elf]

Gotta admit, I'm 35 and Buckley wasn't anybody who I have ever paid any attention to. He was basically on the wrong side of the aisle for me. But I enjoyed that essay, and am now interested in taking a look at his sea passage books.

The insouciance of the rich often attracts the voyeur in the less well appointed. Sort of the way romance novels attract dumpy middle-aged women with too many children and husbands who spend their evenings in the pub.

[C. Ross]

elf-
Quite poetic for first thing in the morning! Nice.
Buckley seemed like a character from an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. Fitzgerald's writing was often about longing to be someone different, better, richer, more glamorous.
I live in the neighborhood where Fitzgerald grew up. The mix of rich and middle class is still here, the longing for wealth and social status the same but expressed a little differently. (Ironically Garrison Keillor now lives in one of the mansions that Fitzgerald might have aspired to.)

[elf]

elf-
Quite poetic for first thing in the morning! Nice.Thanks! Been up since 6am so not really 1st thing in the morning.

Buckley seemed like a character from an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. Fitzgerald's writing was often about longing to be someone different, better, richer, more glamorous.Amazing that Buckley would long for more. Such relaxed hubris!

I live in the neighborhood where Fitzgerald grew up. The mix of rich and middle class is still here, the longing for wealth and social status the same but expressed a little differently. (Ironically Garrison Keillor now lives in one of the mansions that Fitzgerald might have aspired to.)Makes me wonder whether Gary does slouch towards that longing. He's apparently made some very wise business decisions, and worked his ass of along the way to being able to do so. I wonder whether one needs that combination of Wobegonian conservatism and bleeding heart liberalism to rise to that point from where he started.

What was Anoka like 60 years ago, Cris?

[C. Ross]

Amazing that Buckley would long for more. Such relaxed hubris!

I'm thinking more that Buckley is the kind of guy that a Fitzgerald character from the midwest would adore and emulate. A Yale man doncha' know.

Mr. Keillor, on the other hand, loves to skewer guys like Mr. Buckley


Makes me wonder whether Gary does slouch towards that longing. He's apparently made some very wise business decisions, and worked his ass of along the way to being able to do so. I wonder whether one needs that combination of Wobegonian conservatism and bleeding heart liberalism to rise to that point from where he started.

What was Anoka like 60 years ago, Cris?

Golly, you know the backstory well. Anoka was a farm town on the edge of the streetcar and bus lines. Far enough away from the city to make the bright lights seductive. Today it is a second or third-ring suburb.

I don't know Keillor but St. Paul is a small town of 275,000 in a metro area of 3 million. It's not hard to find someone who does know him. I know one writer (a wooden boater!) who has been friends with him for maybe 30 years and she says he is as he appears and has always been the same.

Keillor certainly lives well, but not as a "big shot". A nice house and beautiful young wife and daughter, but in a neighborhood filled with old money liberals who host house meetings for Paul Wellstone or Al Franken (who is quite likely to be the Democrat's nominee for Senate this year).

You are right that he works hard on The Franchise. Until very recently he wrote every single scrap of the Prairie Home Companion show. They sometimes sell seats to the show on-stage, and you can watch the backstage craziness. He really will re-write scripts on the fly.

[barryhill]

MPR reports this morning that Garrison's house is on the market. $1.5 M.

Bob

[elf]

Golly, you know the backstory well. Anoka was a farm town on the edge of the streetcar and bus lines. Far enough away from the city to make the bright lights seductive. Today it is a second or third-ring suburb. I've was a PHC fan from 1983 until the first time he stopped it, so yes I'm acquainted with the public mythology.


You are right that he works hard on The Franchise. Until very recently he wrote every single scrap of the Prairie Home Companion show. They sometimes sell seats to the show on-stage, and you can watch the backstage craziness. He really will re-write scripts on the fly.
I'm not sure he did all that writing. Listening to Greg Brown tell it Gary had brainstorming sessions for each week's show and let the threads emerge from them, but somehow I doubt he improvised the entire thing on that basis. It's too much, even considering that for a few years there it was nearly the only thing he was doing, so he could do it full time. Once things came apart with Margaret Moos the entire production really changed. My hunch is he quickly became overwhelmed and was struggling with a waning interest, to boot - lady love in Denmark, teen aged kids, job at the New Yorker in the offing.

The improvisatory nature of the verbal part of the show always interested me. It's not just verbal improv that attracts me, I shoot the same way and a big part of my musical live is improvisatory as well, although it's not jazz.

But the show has really lost its improv at this point.

[barryhill]

[quote=elf;1781257]I've was a PHC fan from 1983 until the first time he stopped it, so yes I'm acquainted with the public mythology.

You're not alone. Still listen but not the fan I once was. Grew up in small Minnesota towns and heard a reading Garrison gave at college before we could get public radio. A story of smalltown baseball I recall. In the late '70's caught the last of the early morning shows he did with Jim Ed Poole. A hoot at 6 AM. The luster was off a bit by the time PHC went national. Still the first thing anybody from any distance asks about. Must be them liberal public radio types I hang out with.:)

Live in a small "destination" town on the Mississipi now. Lot of city folks come out expecting Woebegone and we're just not good enough actors!

Bob

[C. Ross]

Elf-
Heck, find some reason to come out to Minnesota. We'll go to a PHC, or better yet go to Garrison's bookstore where he sometimes shows up. We'll dial up barryhill down in Pepin, gather together the other MN forumites...

Bob-
Keillor and Jim Ed Poole/Tom Keith were terrific in the morning, weren't they? Now THAT was a totally improvised show.

BTW, I love your "destination" town. Definitely not Lake Wobegone, but y'all are pretty colorful. And the Harbor View most definitely is not the Chatterbox Cafe...I expect we'll be tieing up down your way sometime in July.

[elf]

I've been - the Beausoleil show. Unfortunately it was too early that year for Winter Festival. Gotta come out and do that some day.

I think the next time I come out there I want to sit down somewhere in the first 10-12 rows.

I even have an "I saved the World" button!

I've also seen the show in Boston - in the most beautiful hall we have - Jordan Hall in the New England Conservatory. Gary came out and looked up at the gilding, the chandlier and organ pipes and the solid chestnut wood panelling and said "Wow".

"Well, hello, love!"