The Thing We're Not Doing
Posted at 6:10 AM on February 19, 2010
by Dale Connelly
(32 Comments)
Radio Heartland has tickets to give away to a concert by the Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile at the Cedar Cultural Center on Monday, March 1st at 7:30 p.m.
This is a one-day giveway, meaning we close off entries at 1 pm TODAY.
Enter the drawing.
Obey the rules.
Good luck!
Welcome to Friday.
Today represents a bit of a break in our typical mid-to-late February public radio programming, but I dare not say more, because it's awkward to boast about something that you've stopped doing. There is a twisted-around-ness to it that might best be suited to the sing song Seussian rhyming scheme that helped shape my brain so many years ago.
The most interesting thing that we're doing today
Is the thing we're not doing. The thing gone away.
I could tell you in detail why, today, we're eschewing it,
But to speak of it outright is the same thing as doing it.I can't say what isn't or there'll be a complaint.
But I think I can say what the isn't thing ain't.
It is not a report or a contest or show.
Not a press conference, concert or live blow by blow.
It's a thing you have heard and you'll hear it again.
But we've dropped it for now, until next week and then
Its conspicuous absence will quickly reverse
And you'll say - "Oh, that's back. Well it could have been worse."
Thank you sustaining members!
Comments (32)
hey i came up with a great moneymaking idea for mpr. when the sustaining member has the automatic withdrawl set up on a monthly basis and there is an overdraft, charge them an additional 35 dollars just like the banks do. i understand this is where the banks are making all their money these days.
Well, let me take a wild guess.
Does it start with a "p"?
About eight letters in all?
That's an excellent, witty little poem, Dale!
ahh the paradoxes of thsi world. i'm NOT listening to That Which Must Be Passed Over In Silence today, and i'm Not Listening to it, to this thing which will not be said today, NOT in Minnesota. Thanks to the wondrous array of technology with which RH has equipped itself, I am listening from my Cleveland hotel room. While typing to you. Thanks to this fancy hotel wireless connection and this eeensy teeeensy computer, the reception is a lot more, um, continuous than it is at home in Minnesota, on the Edge Of Coverage, where the HD radio antennae may need readjusting in mid-song. Am I complaining? Nope.
great, Dale! nice to be a part of something you are not doing today. becoming a sustainable member is easy - i imagine lots of you are already.
speaking of sustainable -
Jim, if you are out there - best wishes for a great Sustainable Farming Assoc. annual conference. i hope you see lots of folks from the Lake Superior SFA. sounds like a good day. i'm glad you are representing RH (and our goats :-)
if anyone is interested in checking it out - take a peek at the sfa website
That poem is adorable!
I can't wait until Monday. I enjoy hearing people grovel.
Have a great weekend, kids!
Morning Heartlanders. Nice way to put it Barb... being part of something that's not being done today. I'm off to work early today but hope everybody had a GREAT weekend!
The list of things I am not doing today is actually pretty long.
This morning I am not skydiving while drinking champagne from a leather bota and waving the state of Minnesota flag in my free hand. And I'm not sure that is even the most interesting thing I'm not doing.
On the other hand, what we are all doing is listening to RH. That counts for a lot. It is good to commune with good people.
Good morning, all! Happy Friday, and a good weekend to everyone.
Greetings! I'm with Donna -- I enjoy hearing people grovel as well. The creativity to find a 1000 different ways to ask the same thing -- That Which is Not To Be Named -- and they do it so courteously as well. They don't call the un-givers bums or slackers or anything like that.
When my kids were younger, they would often inquire at end of groveling if MPR reached their goal. Now they just turn the station -- except for PHC. They know that's non-negotiable and actually enjoy sitting and listening with me at times.
At times, I have to refrain from calling/sending in more money, as the on-air talent is so persuasive in their well-turned arguments for membership.
"Eschewing it ... doing it" -- Brilliant rhyme. Sir William S. Gilbert would be proud.
In honor of the day of not doing That Which Shall Not Be Named, I will not do many things - like Steve. I will, however, proudly carry my canvas MPR bag from a prior period of That Which Shall Not Be Named when I go to Daughter's school to volunteer today.
Oh thank you Dale and Mike
For a day full of music we like
And thank you JASPER as well
It all makes my day start out swell
Happy weekend all!
This discussion puts me in mind of 'Rumpole of the Bailey.' His wife, always referred to as "She Who Must Be Obeyed," parallels That Which Shall Not Be Named.
Like lisa the sustainer from st. peter, I am typing from a motel room in Georgia, and the person at the next computer glances over as I snort while reading Dale's Seussism. I really can think of nothing to add, just don't want you all to forget me.
Off Topic: Have had a lovely time here playing cards with a boy who calls it the "Ace of Clovers". :)
Clyde, unfortuntely we just passed BY Chattanooga and Atlanta, no Civil War museums. On to Florida today, hoping for some temps above 50, which is the best we've had so far!
Have a lovely weekend there, Heartlanders.
buy gas in georgia before you go across to florida. its 20 cents more expensive for the first hundred miles of florida
Yay for sustainers of MPR!
They are a trend-setting bunch.
They make the listening easier by far,
And the numbers nicer to crunch.
Yay for Radio Heartland, too!
The music, the blog and the 'peeps'.
With help from listeners who are true blue,
RH will be playing for keeps.
Have to work this weekend, but will be streaming RH.
Happy weekend to everyone!
My 9th grade daughter always says she's doing the thing she's not doing-cleaning her room and picking up after herself.
Hooray for sustainers indeed…..
It’s my way of saying thank you to Dale & Mike for making this amazing mix of music happen 24/7!
I get a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that I contribute to something that is SO important to so many people.
And I love the community feeling we share being a part of the blog even though I am one who mostly enjoys reading but not posting as much.
That’s funny because I will confess that I made a (quickly broken) new years resolution to blog every day even if it was just to say HI.
So much for the NYR…….
I started a poem and then forgot what it was about.
Some good thought must have driven me to write.
But I will let words just keep pouring out,
Because when looking at paper I do not like to see white.
I do not think it was about the birth of a Dream’s kid.
About snorting in motels? Sustainable farming?
Of this empty thought I would like to be rid.
About something, something, not Carlos, disarming.
Is it about she who must be obeyed?
My brain is like an empty pail.
Not about resolutions soon aside laid.
I think it was caused by a poem by Dale.
He must watch much too much Seinfeld
He wants us to blog back about ________________
He hopes our thoughts about him will be kind held.
When his opening gambit avoids saying _____________
Now I want to fill my verses with @#*&$%#
Before and hence this makes no ¢ ¢
Those traveling miles do not give me : ) : )
It’s upsetting my peace; it’s upsetting my :
I will not holler at those not sending their $
That guy in the hat—I wonder where he’s @
My brain has been rent, the full 100%
Please do not tisk when I say I have only one *
So I will end this & hope back in sanity I land.
I know it dates me (a member for 30+ years) but I remember when the MPR on-air grovelling was even more entertaining: skits, poems, songs by local singers and a well known choral group. I suppose the writers are too high-priced now.
Oh, ________ That was fun!
Lu, I been around awhile too...I remember going to my local MPR station to answer phones... and the groveling was more localized and not necessarily more entertaining!
What I remember when I was at the station was Mindy Ratner actually came to our local station and was on the air with the station manager.
I think more skits, poems and songs would help that which we're not talking about today.
... I just love this whole concept of not talking about what we're talking about! Didn't Abbot and Costello do this already??
She who must be obeyed.
He who must not be named.
The man in the iron mask.
The girl in the swing.
The dog in the manger.
That guy in the hat.
They, them, those; not me.
The thing we are not doing.
To be or not to be.
Why is there air? (To blow up basketballs.)
How long before we get there?
Who's on first?
I don't know. THIRD BASE!!
Who is that masked man in Mankato?
Hi, Ho, Caravan, and away.
It's so fun to listen to my favorite songs again during the rebroadcast -- loving "Easter Island" and Brave Combo's fun piece. Let's Dance!
I agree Joanne, not about the dancing part, but the songs repeated. I bike ride for awhile in the morning listening to Dale live. Then I note when there are songs I want to hear again so that I time my noon bike ride around those times. (I listen to LOTR during my noon and after work rides.)
Good wekend to all, even you lurkers, some of whom are coming out of the wallpaper, thankfully.
Being a lurker, I'll come out of the wallpaper when no one is looking. I love being a sustainer and love all the bloggers and music on RH. I am constantly bursting out with laughter at what gets put out on TB.
great to hear from you Barb in Starbuck! please, more!
Yes, we are under-Barbed here AND that quadrant of the state needs representation.
So goaty barb, are you busy with goats? Hey, a goat name for you--Starbuck, as in the Rainmaker.
Barb in Starbuck -- there's always someone looking at the blog -- even the day after! Welcome!
Barb in Blackhoof -- aren't those kids due soon?
for all of you expectant goat-kid enjoyers:
Alba is due March 23
Dodger, March 24 but she is always two days later (just because she is Dodger)
after last year's terrible experience with both of Alba's kids dying, we're doing everything we can to ensure healthy, strong kids for her this year. 31 days
Clyde, i like the name Starbuck, especially for a buck! but we will keep only one buck kid intact this year - Dodger's - even though he isn't born yet, he is already sold and he will be named Mischief, Chief for short. the other boys will need less macho names (because they will be neutered) and they will be sold as companion animals (to horses, other goats, etc.) or pets. but always always in twos or to a home that already has other animals. a single goat is a sad (and often disruptive) critter.
I was checking out who Dale had on his Saturday show and saw some additonal blogs here. I will have to watch it, I almost did a poem for Clyde, never thinking he would see it. Couldn't hold a candle to one of his. I will check back the next day after this to read everything. I was glad to learn more about goats, today.
Come on Barb in Starbuck do the poem, please: here or on the weekend blog or Monday's, please.
barb in blackhoof--I have two goat stories from my days working at the dairy barn on the farm campus, a building now sadly torn down. The hay loft in that building was a wonderful series of open wooden beams and trusses weathered over decades to buttery tans, browns, umbers, and yellows. The story: behind the daily barn was the bull barn, 13 stalls, a collection area, and heavy steal pipes and posts to keep the handlers safe. It was my fourth or fifth job each early morning to go clean the bull barn and feed grain and hay to the bulls. One morning I walked into that barn to large chaos, muck and hay kicked and thrown everywhere, the bulls all bellering and wild-eyed (have you ever seen a bull wild-eyed, mush less 11 at once?). One had worked his neck chain lose and gotten half through the chains at the back of the stalls. I had to get help from several people to get him back in and calm them all down. The cause of all of this was one male goat left in an empty stall by the vet school in the early afternoon the day before. Apparently, it was just the smell of him that had set them all off.
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