Chamblee54

PG was spending a slack morning. He was editing pictures from the GSU Library. This occupies the fingers and the eyes, which leaves the ears looking for amusement. To satisfy the aural urges, an author interview from Wired For Books was imported. Meanwhile, the brain wonders when the next dose of coffee would arrive.
Wired For Books is a treasure of the digital age. Don Swaim had a radio show for the CBS network. He would interview authors selling a new book. The interview tapes were empeethreed, and put on a website facilitated by Ohio University. PG began at the top of the list, and is working his way through the alphabet. He made it to the M section.
In the interview with Toni Morrison, Mr. Swaim mentioned having a chat with Garrison Keillor. It seems as though Mr. Keillor was not fun to interview. The reflex action for PG was to download the files.
PG has never been on the bus for Garrison Keillor. His formula is a bit too NPR precious for PG. Maybe Mr. Keillor secretly agrees, but continues to do it for the money. “Keillor also talks about his writing. He writes about his radio program mainly as a way to defend himself. Many reporters have described his show, A Prairie Home Companion, as down-home, whimsical and nostalgic, all adjectives that Keillor would never use to describe his own program. He wanted to write what it really was about.”
The radio show was interrupted to write the first four paragraphs of this post. The remaining thirteen minutes did not have many good quotes. Mr. Keillor talked about his Minnesotality, or maybe that is Minestrone. Like people from the rest of the world, Minnesotites come to Georgia.
The next show at Wired for Books is a repeat of the Richard Nixon interview. For those of a certain age, it is a visit to another age. Mr. Nixon has the deep rolling voice, and can drag you under his spell, until you wake up and realize that everything he says is a lie.
While looking for the link to the interview above, a conversation between Mr. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, and H. R. Haldeman came up. The tape was made May 13, 1971.
NIXON: … CBS … glorifying homosexuality.
EHRLICHMAN: A panel show?
H. R. HALDEMAN: No, it’s a regular show. It’s on every week. It’s usually just done in the guy’s home. It’s usually just that guy, who’s a hard hat.
NIXON: That’s right; he’s a hard hat.
EHRLICHMAN: He always looks like a slob.
NIXON: Looks like Jackie Gleason.
HALDEMAN: He has this hippie son-in-law, and usually the general trend is to downgrade him and upgrade the son-in-law–make the square hard hat out to be bad. But a few weeks ago, they had one in which the guy, the son-in-law, wrote a letter to you, President Nixon, to raise hell about something. And the guy said, “You will not write that letter from my home!” Then said, “I’m going to write President Nixon,” took off all those sloppy clothes, shaved, and went to his desk and got ready to write his letter to President Nixon. And apparently it was a good episode.
EHRLICHMAN: What’s it called?
NIXON: “Archie’s Guys.” Archie is sitting here with his hippie son-in-law, married to the screwball daughter. The son-in-law apparently goes both ways. This guy. He’s obviously queer–wears an ascot–but not offensively so. Very clever. Uses nice language. Shows pictures of his parents. And so Arch goes down to the bar. Sees his best friend, who used to play professional football. Virile, strong, this and that. Then the fairy comes into the bar. I don’t mind the homosexuality. I understand it. Nevertheless, goddamn, I don’t think you glorify it on public television, homosexuality, even more than you glorify whores. We all know we have weaknesses. But, goddammit, what do you think that does to kids? You know what happened to the Greeks! Homosexuality destroyed them. Sure, Aristotle was a homo. We all know that. So was Socrates.
EHRLICHMAN: But he never had the influence television had.
NIXON: You know what happened to the Romans? The last six Roman emperors were fags. Neither in a public way. You know what happened to the popes? They were layin’ the nuns; that’s been goin’ on for years, centuries. But the Catholic Church went to hell three or four centuries ago. It was homosexual, and it had to be cleaned out. That’s what’s happened to Britain. It happened earlier to France. Let’s look at the strong societies. The Russians. Goddamn, they root ’em out. They don’t let ’em around at all. I don’t know what they do with them. Look at this country. You think the Russians allow dope? Homosexuality, dope, immorality, are the enemies of strong societies. That’s why the Communists and left-wingers are clinging to one another. They’re trying to destroy us. I know Moynihan will disagree with this, Mitchell will, and Garment will. But, goddamn, we have to stand up to this.
EHRLICHMAN: It’s fatal liberality.
NIXON: Huh?
EHRLICHMAN: It’s fatal liberality. And with its use on television, it has such leverage.
NIXON: You know what’s happened [in northern California]?
EHRLICHMAN: San Francisco has just gone clear over.
NIXON: But it’s not just the ratty part of town. The upper class in San Francisco is that way. The Bohemian Grove, which I attend from time to time–it is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine, with that San Francisco crowd. I can’t shake hands with anybody from San Francisco. … Decorators. They got to do something. But we don’t have to glorify it. You know one of the reasons fashions have made women look so terrible is because the goddamned designers hate women. Designers taking it out on the women. Now they’re trying to get some more sexy things coming on again.
EHRLICHMAN: Hot pants.
NIXON: Jesus Christ.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.