Garrison Keillor writes for Salon:

“The problem, dear hearts, is a common one here in the American heartland: an inability to express personal preference in simple declarative sentences, no modifiers.

E.g., ‘I vish to be alone.’

Is this a terrible thing to vish for? I think not.”

OK, I don’t want Garrison Keillor to leave me alone. I’m just playing blog post title games. We’ve never met, except through his writing and his radio shows. I listen to Writers’ Almanac almost daily on my iPod. And I’ve loved The News From Lake Wobegon for years. So I wish I could be his buddy, go hang out in his kitchen (I’ll bring good coffee) and talk about writing.

I think he knows more than I do about writing clean, clear, unencumbered prose; not belabored, for example, by words like unencumbered. Also, he speaks the truth here about solitude. We all want it, and those of us who want to create stuff crave, require, and dread it.

Knowing this is true about Keillor too, I wouldn’t overstay my welcome. Just a chat from time to time, and I’ll be off to pester JK Rowling or Steven King. And I’d repay the favor with some free proofreading, since we’re pals. I wouldn’t let the word vish get past me, instead of wish, that’s for sure.