Garrison Keillor suffers brain seizure

[Ichingcarpenter]

Garrison Keillor suffered a nocturnal brain seizure over the weekend. The "Prairie Home Companion" host revealed the incident on his Facebook page Thursday afternoon.

According to his publicist, David O'Neill, Keillor was treated in Washington D.C. before doing shows this past Friday and Saturday. He is doing fine, O'Neill said, and was planning on boarding a plane late Thursday to Atlanta where he will doing "PHC" on Saturday. He had no further comment.

In his posting, Keillor said he flew to the Mayo Clinic for further testing.

"Saw an MRI image of my skull with a black hole where a previous stroke struck close to the language center of the brain, so I came away feeling vastly fortunate," he wrote.

Keillor said he is on a anti-convulsant that makes him feel lethargic, but "I intend to fight this."

"I have five more shows and want them to be terrific," said Keillor who will depart the show he created in early July. "Plenty of time for lethargy in August."

http://www.startribune.com/garrison-keillor-suffers-brain-seizure/381685921/

[kentuck]

1. A national treasure.

I hope he pulls through this.

[raccoon]

2. +100. nt

[teamster633]

6. A true liberal and proud of it.

Who says English majors can't make good.

[840high]

23. .+1

[Festivito]

8. We are vastly fortunate for each show he does for us.

Be well good soul. Pleasant to hear that voice in the text of a polite post.

[FSogol]

3. He just needs more ketchup.

Get well soon Garrison.

[zentrum]

5. Excellent advice.

Love the way he skewers Republicans.

[pangaia]

11. And Powdermilk Biscuits

[yourpaljoey]

14. Good for the whole fam-i-lie!

[cwydro]

17. Some rhubarb pie!

Hope he recovers.

[warrprayer]

4. Will mis him

Hope he is o.k..

[dorkzilla]

7. Wow, poor Garrison

I'm glad I had the opportunity to see him live many times over the years, both with PHC and American Radio Company. Just saw him in April when he came back to NYC.

Get well soon, Garrison! I intend to see you at the end of this month at Tanglewood!

ION- Chris Thile is taking over as host this fall!

http://prairiehome.org/about/press/a-prairie-home-companion-with-chris-thile/

[RoccoR5955]

9. I hope that he gets well soon.

I listen to Prairie Home Companion every weekend, and love it.
I know that Garrison will fight this with all he can. I hope he wins!

[Mendocino]

10. Get well Guy Noir.

He is the closest we have today to Mark Twain or Will Rogers. I've seen him live twice and listened to PHC many hundreds of times.

[dembotoz]

12. i want him to have a long enjoyable retirement at lake wobegone or where ever he desires

get well sir

[Odin2005]

13. Oh shit! I hope he's going to be OK!

[Harriety]

15. Mr. Keillor IS the Prairie Home companion.

No one can take his place. He is an inspiration to all who have listened to him. He was at the Minnesota State Fair last year and so many of us not only enjoyed his wonderful show but during intermission, instead of every getting up and leaving, we had a fun filled sing along with him.

His stories, his voice his gift for improvisation, will be sadly missed once he retires.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

16. We love you, Mr. Keillor

and we're all pulling for you.

[betsuni]

18. I love Garrison Keillor. He understands shy persons.

I've read "Leaving Home" so often that if I had a halfway decent memory I'd be able to recite every perfect sentence.

"When I was little I didn't think of grownups as having bare skin; grownups were made of wool clothing, only kids were bare-naked; now I'm older than they were when I was little and I lie naked under a quilt made of their clothes when they were children. I don't know what makes me think I'm smarter than them. ... Everything they went through: the loneliness. the sadness, the grief, and the tears -- it will all come to us, just as it came to them when we were little and had to reach up to get hold of their hand, we knew them by the shape of their legs. ... We're not so smart we can figure out how to avoid pain, and we cannot walk away from the death that we owe."

[SusanCalvin]

24. I see I need to get that book.

I'm wondering if he understands that "shy" does NOT necessarily mean "unable to interact in controlled situations." Bet he does.

[betsuni]

27. It's his best work.

Very funny but makes you weep. This hits too close to home:

"Arlene picked up her sister Irene and they drove up to the cemetery and sat in the car. June 10 is the anniversary of their mother's death. Lutherans don't ordinarily observe such days but the girls do because it would have pleased their mother, Mrs. Holm, so much. She was impossible to please when she was alive ... . The rain patted on the roof and ran down the windshield. Irene held a bunch of yellow and blue irises. 'Do you know that I still hear her sometimes -- I'm washing dishes or ironing, something simple, and I hear her say, 'Oh Irene you're doing that all wrong, here let me,' and my hands tighten on the dishcloth, I grab the iron. The simplest things. Putting toast in the toaster. Boiling an egg. 'Oh Irene, that's not how to do that, here I'll show you.' I still hear it. Never when I'm trying to do needlepoint, or make a souffle -- always when I'm pulling a weed, hanging a picture. 'Oh that's not straight, Irene, here. What's the matter with you? Oh you don't put on a pillowcase like that.' She began to sniffle. ... She cried and Arlene cried and they held hands, the rain streaming down the glass. And then Irene bounded out of the car and ran up on the grass and heaved the bouquet as far as she could toward their mother's grave. It hit the tree and fell apart in a shower of wet irises and dropped on the grass."

[SusanCalvin]

28. Oh wow. Thank you. nt

[Octafish]

19. Get well soon, Garrison!

Guy's the nicest fighter around.

[Elwood P Dowd]

20. Hard to imagine PHC without him.

[yellowcanine]

21. Yeah, supposedly he is leaving soon.

In 2015, Keillor announced that he expected to stop hosting the program during the 2016-17 season, to be replaced by Chris Thile.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Prairie_Home_Companion

[grasswire]

22. Be well, Garrison.

I've seen him at Wolf Trap in Virginia several times, and laughed myself silly.

He always manages to make me cry a bit.

[Hekate]

25. He has brought so much joy to so many people. Good health and a long retirement...

...to Garrison Keillor.

[betsuni]

26. "Homegrown Democrat" is wonderful.

"I am a Democrat, which was nothing I decided for myself but simply the way I was brought up, starting with the idea of 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,' which is the basis of the simple social compact by which we live and also 'You are not so different from other people so don't give yourself airs,' which was drummed into us children back in the old days when everyone went to public schools. Don't be conceited."