Keillor's final 'A Prairie Home Companion' is Sat.

Garrison Keillor (Associated Press photo)

Garrison Keillor's last original episode of "A Prairie Home Companion" will air Saturday. The show, which began in 1974, has a weekly audience of 3 million. Chris Thile will step in for Keillor in October. 

"The overall form of the show, an olio of songs, stories, skits and ads for invented products—invented because public radio carried no commercials—was inspired by Keillor’s reporting, for a 1974 New Yorker piece, on the last broadcast of 'The Grand Ole Opry' from Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, built in 1892, before its move to plush new digs at Opryland," Robert Lloyd reports for the Los Angeles Times. Keillor wrote, "You listen to the Opry and pretty soon you have a place in mind … and eventually you have got to go and be there too. Closing my eyes, I could see the stage just as clearly as when I was a kid lying in front of our giant Zenith console."

"Populated with characters not from Keillor's own small-town youth but from the world of his parents, their siblings and their friends, Lake Wobegon—the fictional subject of Keillor’s weekly monologue—is on the face of it old-fashioned: a needlepoint sampler created in the year of 'Chinatown,' 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' Kraftwerk's 'Autobahn,' and the Ramones' first public appearance," Lloyd writes.

The show "has been a sort of ark between the old world and the new, the analog and the digital," Lloyd writes. "It kept audio comedy alive into an age of video – I bow down here to the flexible brilliance of company members Sue Scott and Tom Russell and to the sound-effects artistry of Fred Newman and Tom Keith, given a pride of place unmatched elsewhere."

It's probably not the last fans will hear of the 73-year-old Keillor. In 2013 he published a book of poetry, O, What a Luxury, and in 2012 a work of fiction, Guy Noir and the Straight Skinny. He has also been writing about the political landscape, most recently for The Washington Post.

As he waits for Jon Stewart's successor, Washington Post TV writer likes 'Rural Evening News' on RFD-TV

While many wait for Trevor Noah to succeed Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," where will they get their "alternative take on the news?" asks Marc Silver, television writer for The Washington Post. He writes, from an urban journalist's point of view:

I’d suggest tuning into the “Rural Evening News” (RFD-TV, weeknights at 7:30 p.m.), which describes itself as “the number one cable network for ranchers and farmers.” Like “The Daily Show,” it broadens our perspective on the news—hey, there’s a whole world out there beyond the Beltway!
The show is a traditional newscast: anchors at the desk, reporters in the field, lots of graphics (typically involving wheat). Much time is spent on the weather for the obvious agricultural reasons.
Here are a few of the things I’ve learned.
Corn prices have fallen by about 20 percent. Good news for shoppers, bad news for farmers.
Ninety-seven percent of rural counties have a shortage of primary health-care professionals, and 9 percent have no physicians at all.
The U.S. will spend $191 million to pay chicken and turkey farmers for birds lost to avian flu. But don’t worry about Thanksgiving—turkey farms will be ready to restock by the end of August.
There’s an actual sport called barrel racing in which horses literally careen around barrels. Definitely more action than your typical Nats game.
Factoids like these will no doubt make you the hit of the cocktail party.
The best thing about the “Rural Evening News” is the smooth pronunciation of the hard-to-pronounce word “rural,” which fans of “30 Rock” may remember caused all kinds of trouble when Jenna Maroney starred in a movie called “The Rural Juror.” Hats off to the “Rural Evening News” staff for their excellent diction.

Brothers turn parody videos into pitch for farming

A series of agricultural-themed song parody videos that three Kansas brothers put online became a sensation and are enabling the brothers to use their celebrity status to promote positive stereotypes about farming, especially through social media, Caitlin Ellingson reports for Iowa Farmer Today. Greg, Nathan and Kendal Peterson of Saline County, Kansas, first uploaded the videos in 2012. Three years later they have become spokesmen for an industry that sometimes is not seen in a positive light outside rural areas.

Greg told Ellingson, "Our message is to help correct the stereotypes about farmers. We believe that farmers use the best technology available, do the most they can with the resources they have. They’re trying to make the best decisions to use their land and take care of their livestock. ... Some people don’t seem to understand that. So I think our most important message is to thank farmers for what they do and just try to understand them a little bit better instead of making snap judgments.”

The Peterson brothers host tours at their farm near Assaria, Kan., to teach people "about agriculture and see the work that goes into running a farm," Ellingson writes. Greg spoke at 100 events last year and is expected to do the same this year. He told Ellingson, "We give a presentation where we just kind of tell our story—how it all went down and what we learned from that experience. When we’re talking to younger kids, it’s more of an inspirational presentation, and for older farmers it’s more informational.”

The Petersons are not alone in using social media to promote agriculture. Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, government relations manager for the Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, "says many farmers have jumped at the chance to speak for the industry on social media," Ellingson writes. Burns-Thompson told her, “Farmers today, even the more senior ones, are becoming incredibly tech savvy, and they are surprisingly some of our most active social media users." (YouTube video)

Agriculture secretary gives Stephen Colbert farm facts, official opinion and a cheese head

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," sparred with faux-conservative host Stephen Colbert (right) about farm programs, nutrition and cheese. Questioned about subsidies, Vilsack said, "The reality is we do have to have a safety net for our farmers because it’s a tough business. You have no control over weather, you have no control over markets. You need to know probably 90 percent of America’s farmers are just barely making it. Ten percent are doing pretty well. But there are a lot of farmers out there who struggle, so it is important to have a strong safety net." At the end of their conversation, Vilsack presented Colbert with a 25-pound bust of Colbert's head carved from organic cheese. Colbert told Vilsack that he liked his likeness: "It may be cheddar, but I have to say, I look Gouda." (Read more from Philip Brasher of The Des Moines Register; view the video)

Colbert reports on mountaintop mines, 'hillbillies'

Mountaintop-removal mining, and the scientist who led the recent study of it, made it to "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central yesterday, giving the issue a higher national profile. Stephen Colbert's three-minute repartee with Margaret Palmer of the University of Maryland revealed only a few basics of the issue, such as stream damage, but the comedian suggested an underlying factor that may have limited attention and action on the issue: its location.

"Most of the stream poisioning happens in Appalachia," Colbert said, pronouncing it "Apple-ate-cha." Next to a map of the region, he continued, "And the only people it affects are the one remaining group that everybody still feels comfortable making fun of: hillbillies." Following a segment of a hillbilly cartoon, as a frame of it remained on the screen, Colbert laughed and said, "Hillbillies are poor," and his studio audience laughed and applauded. "Though if we keep taking away the mountains, we're going to have to start calling them just 'billies'." (View video)

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Coal Comfort - Margaret Palmer
http://www.colbertnation.com/
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Letterman's 'Small Town News' sites not so small

David Letterman calls it "Small Town News," but often the newspapers that provide grist for his occasional feature on The Late Show aren't so small. Tonight, four of the seven were metropolitan dailies. Perhaps Dave should stick to the truly small towns, since the big ones get plenty of attention already. Or maybe including the big ones helps avoid rural stereotypes.

Now that we've sucked our thumbs on that issue, we're obliged to pass along the funny papers, so to speak. Here they are in the order Dave gave them; at least he started with the rural papers. The Lassen County Times of Susanville, Calif., advertised a yard sale with "free rabies." The Biddeford-Saco-Old Orchard Beach Courier in Maine reported that a shoplifter put "pork chops down her pants." The Challis Courier of Idaho ran an ad offering to trade an old clothes dryer for two unopened packages of Oreo Double Stuf cookies.

In non-rural news, the Lincoln Journal Star in Nebraska reported that a Rapid City, S.D., man charged with robbery listed his occupation as "robbery." In the Toledo Blade, a bar advertised "free toothpick with ad." The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that a man in a nursing home "drove scooter too fast in dining room ... in a hurry to get to the sweet rolls." And a police item in The Washington Post said a woman had reported that a dog was going without food or water, but the canine turned out to be "a statue of a beagle."