Thoughts on a Thursday between Christmas and New Year's

by Leigh Pomeroy

President Ford's death is on everyone's mind today — if they're in the news media that is. That's the big story. A 93-year-old guy who just happened to serve three years as President of the United States and didn't f**k up! Perhaps that's because three years is too short a time to make any big mistakes.

Let's see, Clinton had been in the White House just over four years when his affair with Monica allegedly started. And Bush Jr. had been in the White House just a little over two years when he ordered the launch of his war to rid the world of Saddam Hussein.

Yep, I guess three years is enough time for a President to mess up in. So the fact that Mr. Ford has survived relatively ungrazed by the events that occurred during his tenure does say something positive about the man.

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Closer to home, I forgot to put out the garbage last night. Perhaps that's because I was enjoying a bottle of Tulocay Pinot Noir a little too much. But then I'm used to seeing holidays arrive on Thursdays, thereby delaying our garbage pickup a day and our recycling pickup a whole week, that I guess my failure to do my household duty is somewhat understandable.

One of the ironies about garbage collection is that holidays are the times when garbage containers and recycling bins are the fullest, yet those are the same times when pickup days are missed, either by the garbage companies because of the holidays or because of the homeowner due to — ahem — over-partying.

I did hear the garbage truck go by at 7:00 this morning, which cued me at least to get the recycling out — three bins worth — so all is not lost.

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Garrison Keillor, as usual, contributed a sterling piece this week. Most poignant to me were these two paragraphs:

In Washington, the new Congress is charged with finding a way out of the wreckage of the old and into some recognition of reality after years of ideological benders. You hope that with sobriety might come civility. It's been hard for Democrats to be civil since their opinion of the Current Occupant is somewhere between pity and loathing, but they owe it to the country to try.

Civility doesn't mean acquiescence. It simply means trying to observe the standards of face-to-face conduct. People whale away at each other in the media and launch juggernauts of invective who never look each other in the eye. E-mail is a dangerous thing, and anonymous e-mail is toxic. Bloggers fight fire with fire, conspiracies are imagined, evil intent is assumed, or craven corruption or utter stupidity, but in the end serious people have to be willing to sit down and look each other in the eye and say what we think. Politics is not transacted between cartoons.

I learned long ago that saying something about someone publicly that you couldn't say to their face privately can come back to bite you. It is a lesson that has stuck with me for 40 years, and whenever I write about a politician, for instance, I inevitably ask myself, "Would I tell them this to their face?"

Several times during this past campaign season I faced this dilemma, especially when the mudballs were flying fast and furious among the campaigns and candidates and special interests. At one time I wrote a piece calling an incumbent congressman a liar and suggested he go see his confessor. Could I look him in the eye, as Garrison writes, and say this to his face? It would be difficult, but the answer was "Yes."

By the by, if you're the kind of person who's done his or her share of partying on New Year's Eve over the years and longs for something a bit quieter and — God help us — more cerebral, Garrison is doing a PBS Great Performances special aptly entitled "Garrison Keillor's New Year's from Nashville."

I'm not as big a Garrison fan as I used to be when he was young and hip and somewhat counterculture and funny. Now he's gotten sort of doughty in his senior years and, quite frankly, has gone a little too old-timey and country for my taste. Plus, he's not as funny anymore. I'm afraid cleverness and the ability to see something in a new and different way and the curious quality of juxtaposing two or more seemingly unrelated things to create comedy fades as one's years progress.

Yet still I credit tapes of Garrison's "greatest hit" radio bits playing during long car trips to Colorado and California when my boys were small as a strong influence on (1) their having a good sense of humor and (2) their going away to college and not coming back yet (thank God).

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Anyone with any knowledge of the Minnesota music scene over the last several decades will recognize the name City Mouse. On Saturday, Dec. 30, the Mankato-based band will celebrate its 35th anniversary at T.J. Finnegan's Pub in downtown Mankato starting at 8:00 p.m.

Actually, only one of the original band members remains, Minnesota Music Hall of Famer Billy Steiner, but at least 30 musicians have gone through the band, including notables like Mary Jane Alm, Lonnie Knight and drummer Steve "Tilly" Thielges, who has since done gigs with the Temptations and Gene Pitney. Many of the former members will be playing with the band Saturday night.

City Mouse is one of those groups that could've been famous had it been able to score attention outside its own backyard. In fact, Steiner and company flirted briefly with the L.A. scene, but the record label that showed the most interest ended up signing Pure Prairie League instead.

If you want to hear a great, national-quality folk/country/rock band at 1970s prices — the cover is only $3 — check out City Mouse's 35th anniversary celebration on Saturday.