yeah, you know?

Two more weeks in St. Louis! In some ways, it's sad to be leaving, but I'm looking forward to spending time at home. Also, right now, I really need a vacation. Yes, a chance to validate the accents immortalized in the movie "Fargo" by visiting relatives in North Dakota and northern Minnesota! No joke. I'm really excited. The long "o" or "a" sound and the use of "d" in lieu of a "t" brings back so many wonderful memories. I've lost some of the accent, partly due to my frustration at my freshman hall for laughing and imitating the accent (when I couldn't hear a difference). Clip and soften the "a" in "bag" and wow, people now understand what word you are saying.

Other news. I found the transcript for Garrison's Keillor's "A Lutheran's Guide to the Orchestra." For all the little earnest Lutheran Minnesotan clarinetists.

Clarinet

Many Lutherans start out playing clarinets in marching band and think of it as a pretty good instrument and kind of sociable. You pick up a clarinet, and you feel like getting together with other people and forming an "M." But the symphonic clarinet is different: clever, sarcastic, kind of snooty. It's a nice small town instrument that went to college and after that you can't get a simple answer out of them. It is a French instrument, you know. Ever wonder why there are no French Lutherans? Probably the wine wasn't good enough for them. The oboe is the sensualist of the woodwind section, and if there is one wind Lutherans should avoid, it's probably this one. In movie soundtracks, you tend to hear the oboe when the woman is taking her clothes off. Also a little later when she asks the man for a cigarette. You start playing the oboe, you're going to have babies, take my word for it.