I also receive Keillor’s missives, but hadn’t read this one, so went to look
for it (my mail program not misbehaving at the moment). I enjoyed his take on
Ikea (never having set foot in one but having heard comments about the dizzying
displays and the endless aisles (and then, of course, about the horse meat in
the Swedish meatballs). Another pleasure was his nod to Mary Oliver, long a
favourite. So, thanks, Lawrence, for the prod.
On Sep 8, 2021, at 10:06 AM, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Yesterday I spent an afternoon and evening as we all periodically do when our
computers misbehave, or we think they do. Yesterday I wasn't able to access
wi-fi; which is usually the fault of my router. After rebooting several
times, I thought perhaps my router had failed; so I got a new one from my
closet and went through the aggravating trial and error one must go through
to set one up, unless one is a techie who does this all the time.
After getting my new router to work, I discovered that I had access to the
internet through Mozilla Firefox, but I still didn't have access to my email
through Mozilla Thunderbird. I then recalled a few times in the past when I
had access to the internet but not my email; so I hoped that my email would
be back this morning, and it was.
However I still couldn't access the photographic forums and the ongoing
discussions I was in. I could no longer type my password in the space
provided for it. Perhaps I have been banned I finally wondered. Moderators
can do that for all sorts of reasons, and they don't need to explain
themselves to the real or imagined offenders.
After checking to make sure my new router was functioning properly, I checked
my email system and found they were once again coming into my in-basked
without hesitation. The first one I read was the following from Garrison
Keillor:
"I am thinking about moving to Texas so that I can be in open disagreement
with the powers that be and express this freely, instead of living in
colonies of liberal progressives where I must put tape over my mouth except
when among close personal friends. Freedom of speech is watched closely where
I live and we all know it. “What exactly is it you want to say that you
can’t?” you wonder. It is something that, were I to say it, I’d be kicked out
of the Democratic Party and my library card would be confiscated and I’d be
barred from Amazon and Starbucks and the Episcopal church would make me sit
in the Penitents’ Corner. So I’ll keep it to myself. . . ."
The moderators would make short work of Keillor if he voiced such an opinion
on one of the photographic forums. I myself occasionally think of moving to
Idaho, but then I don't talk or write as much as I used to, so it's probably
okay to stay here.
Lawrence
