Tuning in

I'm actually very excited to see the Prairie Home Companion movie. I'm a big Robert Altman fan and -- I proudly admit it -- a big Garrison Keillor fan. That's the weirdest movie collaboration since Ken Russell and Pete Townshend made Tommy.

Or maybe since Altman, Jules Feiffer, Harry Nilsson and Robin Williams made Popeye.

Good word

"For a generation, A Prairie Home has been the soundtrack of being stuck in the car with your parents."

-- Michael Agger

Duh

As everyone who knows a dummy knows, being a dummy is a serious hindrance. That is why a series of books gives hope to all dummies. Any body of knowledge, it turns out, is comprehensible to even the most insensate clods, as long as it is presented in the manner of an eighth-grade textbook. (And as long as they can read.)

But what about the smarties? We've all met people who are simply too intelligent for their own good, whose powers of reasoning get in the way of performing even the simplest tasks. My brilliant boyfriend Ereck was pointing this out last night, and thereby conceived of a new series of books. So what do you think? I present to you his inaugural title: Container Gardening for the Overanalytical.

Whew

Last night I dreamed that Wisconsin State Journal page-two columnist (and former Isthmus staffer) Melanie Conklin ran an item saying I had been spotted in possession of marijuana. Not smoking marijuana, just in possession of it. In the dream, I entered a panicked frenzy.

Then I was relieved to awaken not in dreamland Madison but in real-life Madison, where it's considered surreal not to be in possession of marijuana.

For the record, I'm not in possession of marijuana.