Twenty-four hours of un-wedded abyss came to an end at 4:34 p.m. Monday for Garrison Keillor.
A surprise notation on his Facebook page, "Garrison Keillor is no longer listed as married," was fun while it lasted. Monday morning I got a tip about this Facebook change for the millionaire author. Unreturned phone calls were made to the St. Paul home of Keillor and his wife, the very private violinist Jenny Lind Nilsson. And then late in the day Keillor's Facebook status changed again: "Garrison Keillor is now married."
At 5:31 p.m., Keillor posted an explanation, sly in its wit. "Sorry about the confusion. I was editing quickly. We are still married," Keillor wrote on the website.
Get it? "We Are Still Married." Add a colon and the words "Stories and Letters," and you have the name of one of his famous books.
To that, someone named "Linda" from Facebook Nation wrote: "I'm sure your wife is glad to hear it, too."
Facebook Nation was also wry about what looked like bad news from the Keillor household until he cleared things up. "Garrison, are you going through relationships really quickly? I could have sworn that earlier you said you were 'not in a relationship'!!" read a post from "Linda" (again). "Alexander" quipped, "Where are you, Las Vegas?" while "Katy" wrote, "I've been so worried for the last 24 hours."
I've been worried only about eight hours, sitting here feeling sorry for Nilsson when it looked like Keillor had possibly made a hurtful disclosure so close to Valentine's Day. As a believer in making the commitment to stay married the first time you get married, I'm pulling for Keillor do an until-death-us-do-part exit with one of his wives. How about this one!
Fawning over Couric Fox 9 entertainment reporter Jason Matheson is waking up with CBS' Katie Couric.