On the Air

Tyler and I, along with our neighbor, Sherry, and her colleague, Stephanie, went to Blossom Music Festival tonight to see the live broadcast of Prairie Home Companion. We had a great time!

Rain was forecast and, boy, did it rain. It thundered, it lightninged, it sheeted rain. Fortunately, those events occurred after we were safely and fairly dryly settled in our seats. Tyler and I glanced at each other and smiled while watching the rain. After spending so many years in the desert, we're very partial to rain.

This trip to PHC was my birthday treat to myself, and Tyler rose to the occasion. If you're a PHC fan, you know Garrison Keillor accepts notes from the audience which he then reads on air. As the intermission began, Tyler slipped out of his seat. I thought nothing of it, but went on chatting with Sherry and Stephanie. But then, as GK began reading the notes, I wondered if that's where Tyler had gone.

Sure enough, I heard GK say "Happy Birthday to Jan . . ." and then heard lots of laughter from the audience. I asked Tyler to repeat it to me several times. Here's what he wrote and what was read on NPR tonight:

Happy Birthday to Jan from Tyler; a devoted mom and grandma whose remarkable diversity of careers is matched only by her remarkable diversity of husbands.

I consider Tyler to be brilliant on several counts: 1) to write something so clever that it would get past the "sorter" and make it into the broadcast; and 2) to know how incredibly special a birthday present that note was.

Thanks Ty. You made my day!

If you live in an area with a Sunday rebroadcast of the Saturday night broadcast, you can probably hear the show tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. The notes segment begins about one hour into the show. Or check the PHC website in a week or two to read the transcript.

Correction: Tyler tells me the rebroadcast is noon EDT. I believe it's still 10:00 a.m. in Arizona.