Huh? I don't follow any of that, I'm sorry. I get a vague impression you thought I was trying to argue with you, or make some sort of put-down. Not at all. I just don't happen to agree.

The only thing I could try to argue with is how people go straight to personality, personhood, and biography. Not that there's anything wrong with being interested in all that, but people take so little trouble to talk about qualities and style, particularly, and those are interesting things to hear people's thoughts about. I mean, lately I'm liking Vaclav Havel's plays a lot--doesn't mean I want to smell his socks.

    I'm not from Minnesota, and while I can appreciate that people who are might be disgusted by popular association with stuff they don't like... ...as Mel Brooks explained it--tragedy is when I cut my finger, comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die. It's not a put-down that I think this thread is very funny, It's not an argument that you are wrong in your views about Keillor or anything, it's just that I don't really care how much you hate him, so it's funny to me that you do. Fred