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Garrison Keillor (born '''Gary Edward Keillor''' on August 7 , 1942 ) is an American author, Humorist , Columnist , musician, Satirist , and radio personality. He is best known as founder and host of the American Public Media show '' A Prairie Home Companion '' (also known as '' Garrison Keillor's Radio Show '' on BBC 7 and in Ireland). Keillor's trademark storyline is the weekly '' News From Lake Wobegon ,'' a Monologue about a Fictional Town (based on Anoka, Minnesota , Garrison's hometown or possibly Freeport, Minnesota , near the center of the state where Keillor lived for a short period of time), "where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the children are above average." Keillor has also written many articles for '' The New Yorker '' and '' The Atlantic Monthly ''. Keillor is the host of '' The Writer's Almanac '', a five-minute program which is broadcast daily on some public radio stations in the United States. BIOGRAPHY Keillor was born in ; he often uses his religious roots in his material. He graduated from the University Of Minnesota with a Bachelor's Degree in English in 1966 . While there, he began his broadcasting career on the student-operated radio station, known today as Radio K . Keillor is married to violinist Jenny Lind Nilsson ; they have a daughter, Maia. His first wife was Mary Guntzel , with whom he had a son, Jason. His second wife was Ulla Skaerved . MR. BLUE He also authored an Advice Column on '' Salon.com '', titled "Mr. Blue". Following a heart operation, he resigned on September 4 , 2001 in an article entitled "Every dog has his day" : :Illness offers the chance to think long thoughts about the future (praying that we yet have one, dear God), and so I have, and so this is the last column of Mr. Blue, under my authorship, for Salon. :Over the years, Mr. Blue's strongest advice has come down on the side of freedom in our personal lives, freedom from crushing obligation and overwork and family expectations and the freedom to walk our own walk and be who we are. And some of the best letters have been addressed to younger readers trapped in jobs like steel suits, advising them to bust loose and go off and have an adventure. Some of the advisees have written back to inform Mr. Blue that the advice was taken and that the adventure changed their lives. This was gratifying. :So now I am simply taking my own advice. Cut back on obligations: Promote a certain elegant looseness in life. Simple as that. Winter and spring, I almost capsized from work, and in the summer I had a week in St. Mary's Hospital to sit and think, and that's the result. Every dog has his day and I've had mine and given whatever advice was mine to give (and a little more). It was exhilarating to get the chance to be useful, which is always an issue for a writer (What good does fiction do?), and Mr. Blue was a way to be useful. Nothing human is beneath a writer's attention; the basic questions about how to attract a lover and what to do with one once you get one and how to deal with disappointment in marriage are the stuff that fiction is made from, so why not try to speak directly? And so I did. And now it's time to move on. In June 2005, Mr. Keillor started a syndicated newspaper column, which Salon.com runs. KEILLOR IN POPULAR CULTURE Garrison Keillor did the voiceover for the 2003 Honda Accord commercial entitled " Cog ". The two minute television ad features a complex system of car parts that react with each other to create a chain reaction similar to a Rube Goldberg cartoon. The commercial ends with Keillor asking, "Isn't it nice when things just work?" {Link without Title} Keillor also sang the voiceover in the 2004 Honda Diesel commercial entitled "Grrr". His laid back style is often the subject of criticism and parody. '' The Simpsons '' parodies Keillor in an episode where Keillor is shown reading his monologue and the studio audience laughing wildly, with Homer wondering, "What the hell's so funny?" In practice, Keillor rarely reads his monologue directly from the script, but the monotonous intonation and style of dress caricature Keillor successfully. One Boston radio critic likens Keillor and his "down comforter voice" to "a hypnotist intoning, 'You are getting sleepy now', while noting that Keillor does play to listeners' intelligence. [http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/07/17/air_waves_bostons_public_radio_scene_gets_interesting?mode=PF In the UK, his commercials have been parodied especially his song (for Honda): "Hate something, Change something, Make something better" (clip available below). BIBLIOGRAPHY Keillor's work includes:
QUOTES BY GARRISON KEILLOR
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