GARRISON KEILLOR: 'VIVA FERLINGHETTI'

The Prairie Home Companion's man from Lake Wobegone met the famous poet a couple of years ago for the first time, after admiring him for four decades. They sat and talked in a cafe in San Francisco's North Beach, and Keillor wrote: "Here is an 83-year-old artist whose eyes are bright and who, while furious at the Administration, rides his bicycle through the city he loves and enjoys its courtesies and graces and has fallen down at the sight of beautiful women." Ferlinghetti was 86 in March. He still rides his bicycle and loves the beauty of women, still writes, paints more than ever, and still opposes King Georgie Boy's regime, while continuing as the proprietor-publisher of City Lights Books with co-publisher Nancy Peters. Long may he wave.

Postscript: Nancy writes: "Keillor also did a wonderful SF Arts & Lectures event, an hour & a half interview with Lawrence, at the Herbst Theater the year after his news story. Lawrence is, in fact, slowing down some these days -- but he still rides that bicycle and does more than some people half his age." Since that interview is not online, here's a recent conversation from the San Francisco Reader, worth reading for Ferlinghetti's typically outspoken assessment of "Skyscraper America." His latest book? "Americus I," published last year.