The Plowboy Interview GARRISON KEILLOR

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But cats are kind of a rare item—at least the kind they sell at Bertha's. And she's devoted to cats, devoted to cats entirely. In fact, even her cemetery, the Eternal Lap Cemetery just outside of St. Paul here, is strictly for cats: no dogs, no gerbils, no snakes, no turtles, no lower forms of pet life. Just cats.

PLOWBOY: Do you think you're a good role model for the youngsters of Lake Wobegon?

KEILLOR I'm not sure I could answer that. I'll turn to a couple of younger people here and ask them if I have been a good role model for them. Lynne Cruise, our chief engineer, and Margaret Moos, our producer, are both younger than I am. What would you two say? You can say anything you want to.

MOOS: Well, I would say that you inspire one to work hard. In fact, demand it, right?

KEILLOR But I'm very nice about it. Wouldn't you say that I'm very considerate and nice about inspiring people to work hard?

CRUISE: Very insistent.

KEILLOR But insistent in a nice way, Lynne?

CRUISE: Consistently insistent.

KEILLOR But not in a demanding sort of insistent way?

CRUISE: In a shy way,

MOOS: In a shy yet demanding way.

PLOWBOY: Garrison, you often talk about shyness. You even proclaimed the beginning of the shy liberation movement in your essay "Shy Rights: Why Not Pretty Soon?" [EDITOR'S NOTE: Most of that essay is reprinted in this issue's Last Laugh column on page 160.] Has there been any progress in the shy liberation movement?

KEILLOR Well, the shy liberation movement is about where it's always been: in a state of waiting quietly back in the shadows for someone to step forward and take charge of it, which probably isn't going to be any one of us. So if you are volunteering to be maybe a national executive director or something like that—someone who would be willing to give out his phone number and be contacted by press people on behalf of shy persons—then you should speak up and say so right now.

PLOWBOY: You always claim to be shy, but you have the nerve to get up and sing in public. You wear what might be described as outlandish clothes. You come into homes all over America on Saturday nights. Some people just might question your credentials as a shy person.

KEILLOR Well, the show may come into people's homes across the country (it really doesn't reach all that many homes), but I don't go into the homes myself. It's much easier to stand up on a stage in St. Paul and sing or whatever than it would be to walk up to somebody's house and knock on the door and ask to come in. I couldn't do that if my life depended on it.

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