I picked this up as I ran out of the Library on the way to holiday with the vicar, his charming family, and C. It proved very apposite - not least as the central character and JT are great impresarios. Meanwhile, the book was full of wonderful mid-western sentences, and my head read the sentences mostly with Keillor's droll and slightly gloomy tones as the voice (otherwise known as that Honda advert). I also picked up some words, such as Whomping, which is what you do to run up some potato salad. I will have to confirm with Libgyrl.
Keillor is a humorist and a humanist, with a very bleak undertow, and the reflections of a man turning sixty added a touch of existential reflection to the break. Perhaps a good thing, and certainly made one think about the midpoint of one's life.
(picture from
kuer90.1)
For what it is worth, I have never "Whomp"ed for anything, certainly not potato salad. Maybe it is a northern MN (home of Lake Woe-be-gone) or a St. Paul thing (Keillor lives on *that* side of the Twin Cities). I'll ask around though to see if others know of this "whomping."
ReplyDelete-libgyrl, midwestern lexographer
Many thanks for this clarification. I hope I am not misremembering.
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